@ bf47c19e:c3d2573b

###### [PREUZMITE ODLOMAK](https://www.knjizare-vulkan.rs/files/files/pdf/317878.pdf) ###### [KUPITE ELEKTRONSKO IZDANJE KNJIGE](https://delfi.rs/eknjiga/120661_delfi_knjizare.html?priceDisplayType=eBook) ###### Autor: Natanijel Poper ###### Prevodilac: Nevena Andrić --- Kako funkcioniše novac, ko iz njega izvlači korist i kako bi sve to moglo izgledati ubuduće. Bitkoin, revolucionarna digitalna valuta i finansijska tehnologija, predstavlja začetak jednog globalnog društvenog pokreta utopijskih stremljenja. Ideja nove valute, koju održavaju personalni računari širom sveta, bila je predmet brojnih šala, ali to je nije sprečilo da preraste u tehnologiju vrednu više milijardi dolara, tehnologiju s mnoštvom sledbenika, koji je smatraju najvažnijim novim izumom još od stvaranja interneta. Poklonici bitkoina, od Pekinga do Buenos Ajresa, u njemu vide mogućnost postojanja finansijskog sistema bez uticaja vlade ili banaka, novu globalnu valutu digitalne ere. Digitalno zlato je neobična priča o jednom grupnom izumu, pripovest o ličnostima koje su stvorile bitkoin, uključujući i jednog finskog studenta, argentinskog milionera, kineskog preduzetnika, Tajlera i Kamerona Vinklvosa, tajanstvenog tvorca bitkoina Satošija Nakamota, kao i Rosa Ulbrihta, osnivača Silk rouda, tržišta narkotika na internetu. „Sjajna priča. Bitkoin će preobraziti i finansijski svet i našu upotrebu interneta, a ova izuzetno zanimljiva knjiga predstavlja hroniku njegovog neverovatnog nastanka. Poperova priča se ne ispušta iz ruke, puna je živopisnih izumitelja, i predstavlja ključno štivo za svakoga ko želi da razume budućnost.“ Volter Ajzakson, autor knjige Stiv Džobs „Bitkoin je možda tekovina informatičkih nauka, ali priča o njemu je priča o ljudima. Ovaj nadasve zabavan istorijat podseća nas da istina može biti čudnija od književnosti, i ponekad je spektar stvarnih ličnosti još neobičniji i zanimljiviji od književnih.“ Lari Samers, bivši ministar finansija SAD [Trejler za knjigu "Digitalno zlato" Natanijela Popera](https://youtu.be/_W2ITkRY9mY)

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

This isn't a fully crystalized post, but I want to see what people think about egregiously bad officiating in an era of widespread sports betting. It seems so obvious that Chiefs games, for instance, are rigged. I don't think that's specifically done for gambling reasons. My gut says it has more to do with marketing and league revenue. Might the sportsbooks be a check on this corruption of the sport, since honest matches (or at least the perception of such) are in their interest? People don't like betting on rigged events, after all. In other cases, though, atrocious calls can no longer live in a vacuum. We, as spectators, are now always wondering if officials are putting their thumbs on the scales for their own enrichment. If people keep watching and buying up all the merch, though, is there any incentive for the league to address it? If the leagues were to attempt to address it, what's the best way to impose accountability? originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/860390

@ bf47c19e:c3d2573b

Originalni tekst na [dvadesetjedan.com](https://dvadesetjedan.com/blog/btc-scenarij-uspijeha) ###### Autor: Vijay Boyapati / Prevod na hrvatski: [Matija](t.me/matijap9) --- Sa zadnjim cijenama koje je bitcoin dosegao 2017., optimističan scenarij za ulagače se možda čini toliko očitim da ga nije potrebno niti spominjati. Alternativno, možda se nekome čini glupo ulagati u digitalnu vrijednost koja ne počiva na nijednom fizičkom dobru ili vladi i čiji porast cijene su neki usporedili sa manijom tulipana ili dot-com balonom. Nijedno nije točno; optimističan scenarij za Bitcoin je uvjerljiv, ali ne i očit. Postoje značajni rizici kod ulaganja u Bitcoin, no, kao što planiram pokazati, postoji i ogromna prilika. #### Geneza Nikad u povijesti svijeta nije bilo moguće napraviti transfer vrijednosti među fizički udaljenim ljudima bez posrednika, poput banke ili vlade. 2008. godine, anonimni Satoshi Nakamoto je objavio [8 stranica rješenja](https://bitcoin.org/files/bitcoin-paper/bitcoin_hr.pdf) na dugo nerješivi računalski problem poznat kao “Problem Bizantskog Generala.” Njegovo rješenje i sustav koji je izgradio - Bitcoin - dozvolio je, prvi put ikad, da se vrijednost prenosi brzo i daleko, bez ikakvih posrednika ili povjerenja. Implikacije kreacije Bitcoina su toliko duboke, ekonomski i računalski, da bi Nakamoto trebao biti prva osoba nominirana za Nobelovu nagradu za ekonomiju i Turingovu nagradu. Za ulagače, važna činjenica izuma Bitcoina (mreže i protokola) je stvaranje novog oskudnog digitalnog dobra - bitcoina (monetarne jedinice). Bitcoini su prenosivi digitalni “novčići” (tokeni), proizvedeni na Bitcoin mreži kroz proces nazvan “rudarenje” (mining). Rudarenje Bitcoina je ugrubo usporedivo sa rudarenjem zlata, uz bitnu razliku da proizvodnja bitcoina prati unaprijed osmišljeni i predvidivi raspored. Samo 21 milijun bitcoina će ikad postojati, i većina (2017., kada je ovaj tekst napisan) su već izrudareni. Svake četiri godine, količina rudarenih bitcoina se prepolovi. Produkcija novih bitcoina će potpuno prestati 2140. godine.  *Stopa inflacije —— Monetarna baza* Bitcoine ne podržava nikakva roba ili dobra, niti ih garantira ikakva vlada ili firma, što postavlja očito pitanje za svakog novog bitcoin ulagača: zašto imaju uopće ikakvu vrijednost? Za razliku od dionica, obveznica, nekretnina ili robe poput nafte i žita, bitcoine nije moguće vrednovati koristeći standardne ekonomske analize ili korisnost u proizvodnji drugih dobara. Bitcoini pripadaju sasvim drugoj kategoriji dobara - monetarnih dobara, čija se vrijednost definira kroz tzv. teoriju igara; svaki sudionik na tržištu vrednuje neko dobro, onoliko koliko procjenjuje da će ga drugi sudionici vrednovati. Kako bismo bolje razumjeli ovo svojstvo monetarnih dobara, trebamo istražiti podrijetlo novca. #### Podrijetlo novca U prvim ljudskim društvima, trgovina među grupama se vršila kroz robnu razmjenu. Velika neefikasnost prisutna u robnoj razmjeni je drastično ograničavala količinu i geografski prostor na kojem je bila moguća. Jedan od najvećih problema sa robnom razmjenom je problem dvostruke podudarnosti potražnje. Uzgajivač jabuka možda želi trgovati sa ribarom, ali ako ribar ne želi jabuke u istom trenutku, razmjena se neće dogoditi. Kroz vrijeme, ljudi su razvili želju za čuvanjem određenih predmeta zbog njihove rijetkosti i simbolične vrijednosti (npr. školjke, životinjski zube, kremen). Zaista, kako i Nick Szabo govori u svojem izvrsnom [eseju o podrijetlu novca](https://nakamotoinstitute.org/shelling-out/), ljudska želja za sakupljanjem predmeta pružila je izraženu evolucijsku prednost ranom čovjeku nad njegovim najbližim biološkim rivalom, neandertalcem - Homo neanderthalensis. > "Primarna i najbitnija evolucijska funkcija sakupljanja bila je osigurati medij za čuvanje i prenošenje vrijednosti". Predmeti koje su ljudi sakupljali služili su kao svojevrsni “proto-novac,” tako što su omogućavale trgovinu među antagonističkim plemenima i dozvoljavale bogatsvu da se prenosi na sljedeću generaciju. Trgovina i transfer takvih predmeta bile su rijetke u paleolitskim društvima, te su oni služili više kao “spremište vrijednosti” (store of value) nego kao “medij razmjene” (medium of exchange), što je uloga koju danas igra moderni novac. Szabo objašnjava: > "U usporedbi sa modernim novcem, primitivan novac je imao jako malo “brzinu” - mogao je promijeniti ruke samo nekoliko puta u životu prosječnog čovjeka. Svejedno, trajni i čvrsti sakupljački predmet, što bismo danas nazvali “nasljeđe,” mogao je opstati mnogo generacija, dodajući znatnu vrijednost pri svakom transferu - i zapravo omogućiti transfer uopće". Rani čovjek suočio se sa bitnom dilemom u teoriji igara, kada je odlučivao koje predmete sakupljati: koje od njih će drugi ljudi željeti? Onaj koji bi to točno predvidio imao bi ogromnu prednost u mogućnosti trgovine i akvizicije bogatsva. Neka američka indijanska plemena, npr. Naraganseti, specijalizirala su se u proizvodnji sakupljačkih dobara koja nisu imala drugu svrhu osim trgovine. Valja spomenuti da što je ranije predviđanje da će neko dobro imati takvu vrijednost, veća je prednost koju će imati onaj koji je posjeduje, zato što ju je moguće nabaviti jeftinije, prije nego postane vrlo tražena roba i njezona vrijednost naraste zajedno sa populacijom. Nadalje, nabava nekog dobra u nadi da će u budućnosti biti korišteno kao spremište vrijednosti, ubrzava upravo tu primjenu. Ova cirkularnost je zapravo povratna veza (feedback loop) koja potiče društva da se rapidno slože oko jednog spremišta vrijednosti. U terminima teorije igara, ovo je znano kao “[Nashov ekvilibrij](https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashov_ekvilibrijum).” Postizanje Nashovog ekvilibrija za neko spremište vrijednosti je veliko postignuće za društvo, pošto ono znatno olakšava trgovinu i podjelu rada, i time omogućava napredak civilizacije.  Tisućljećima, kako su ljudska društva rasla i otvarala trgovinske puteve, različite aplikacije spremišta vrijednosti u individualnim društvima počele su se natjecati međusobno. Trgovci su imali izbor: čuvati svoju zaradu u spremištu vrijednosti vlastite kulture, ili one kulture sa kojom su trgovali, ili mješavini oboje. Benefit štednje u stranom spremištu vrijednosti bila je uvećana sposobnost trgovanja u povezanom stranom društvu. Trgovci koji su štedili u stranom spremištu vrijednosti su također imali dobrih razloga da potiču svoje društvo da ga prihvati, jer bi tako uvećali vrijednost vlastite ušteđevine. Prednosti “uvezene” tehnologije spremanja vrijednosti bile su prisutne ne samo za trgovce, nego i za sama društva. Kada bi se dvije grupe konvergirale u jedinstvenom spremištu vrijednosti, to bi značajno smanjilo cijenu troškova trgovine jednog s drugim, i samim time povećanje bogatstva kroz trgovinu. I zaista, 19. stoljeće bilo je prvi put da je najveći dio svijeta prihvatio jedinstveno spremište vrijednosti - zlato - i u tom periodu vidio najveću eksploziju trgovine u povijesti svijeta. O ovom mirnom periodu, pisao je John Maynard Keynes: > "Kakva nevjerojatna epizoda u ekonomskom napretku čovjeka… za svakog čovjeka iole iznadprosječnog, iz srednje ili više klase, život je nudio obilje, ugodu i mogućnosti, po niskoj cijeni i bez puno problema, više nego monarsima iz prethodnih perioda. Stanovnik Londona mogao je, ispijajući jutarnji čaj iz kreveta, telefonski naručiti razne proizvode iz cijele Zemlje, u količinama koje je želio, i sa dobrim razlogom očekivati njihovu dostavu na svoj kućni prag." #### Svojstva dobrog spremišta vrijednosti Kada se spremišta vrijednosti natječu jedno s drugim, specifična svojstva rade razliku koja daje jednom prednost nad drugim. Premda su mnoga dobra u prošlosti korištena kao spremišta vrijednosti ili kao “proto-novac,” određena svojstva su se pokazala kao posebno važna, i omogućila dobrima sa njima da pobijede. Idealno spremište vrijednosti biti će: * **Trajno**: dobro ne smije biti kvarljivo ili lako uništeno. Tako naprimjer, žito nije idealno spremište vrijednosti. * **Prenosivo**: dobro mora biti lako transportirati i čuvati, što omogućuje osiguranje protiv gubitka ili krađe i dopušta trgovinu na velike udaljenosti. Tako, krava je lošije spremište vrijednosti od zlatne narukvice. * **Zamjenjivo**: jedna jedinica dobra treba biti zamjenjiva sa drugom. Bez zamjenjivosti, problem podudarnosti želja ostaje nerješiv. Time, zlato je bolje od dijamanata, jer su oni nepravilni u obliku i kvaliteti. * **Provjerljivo**: dobro mora biti lako i brzo identificirano i testirano za autentičnost. Laka provjera povećava povjerenje u trgovini i vjerojatnost da će razmjena biti dovršena. * **Djeljivo**: dobro mora biti lako djeljivo na manje dijelove. Premda je ovo svojstvo bilo manje važno u ranim društvima gdje je trgovina bila rijetka, postalo je važnije sa procvatom trgovine. Količine koje su se mijenjale postale su manje i preciznije. * **Oskudno**: Monetarno dobro mora imati “cijenu nemoguću za lažirati,” kao što je rekao Nick Szabo. Drugim riječima, dobro ne smije biti obilno ili lako dostupno kroz proizvodnju. Oskudnost je možda i najvažnije svojstvo spremišta vrijednosti, pošto se izravno vezuje na ljudsku želju da sakupljamo ono što je rijetko. Ona je izvor vrijednosti u spremištu vrijednosti. * **Duge povijesti**: što je dulje neko dobro vrijedno za društvo, veća je vjerojatnost da će biti prihvaćeno kao spremište vrijednosti. Dugo postojeće spremište vrijednosti biti će jako teško uklonjeno od strane došljaka, osim u slučaju sile (ratno osvajanje) ili ako je nova tehnologija znatno bolja u ostalim svojstvima. * **Otporno na cenzuru**: novije svojstvo, sve više važno u modernom digitalnom svijetu sa sveprisutnim nadzorom, je otpornost na cenzuru. Drugim riječima, koliko je teško da vanjski agent, kao korporacija ili država, spriječi vlasnika dobra da ga čuva i koristi. Dobra koja su otporna na cenzuru su idealna za ljude koji žive u režimima koji prisilno nadziru kapital ili čine neke oblike mirne trgovine protuzakonitima. Ova tablica ocjenjuje Bitcoin, zlato (gold) i fiat novac (kao što je euro ili dolar) po svojstvima izlistanim gore. Objašnjenje svake ocjene slijedi nakon tablice.  ###### Trajnost: Zlato je neosporeni kralj trajnosti. Velika većina zlata pronađenog kroz povijest, uključujući ono egipatskih faraona, opstaje i danas i vjerojatno će postojati i za tisuću godina. Zlatnici korišteni u antičko doba imaju značajnu vrijednost i danas. Fiat valute i bitcoini su digitalni zapisi koji ponekad imaju fizički oblik (npr. novčanice). Dakle, njihovu trajnost ne određuju njihova fizička svojstva (moguće je zamijeniti staru i oštećenu novčanicu za novu), nego institucije koje stoje iza njih. U slučaju fiat valuta, mnoge države su nastale i nestale kroz stoljeća, i valute su nestale s njima. Marke iz Weimarske republike danas nemaju vrijednost zato što institucija koja ih je izdavala više ne postoji. Ako je povijest ikakav pokazatelj, ne bi bilo mudro smatrati fiat valute trajnima dugoročno; američki dolar i britanska funta su relativne anomalije u ovom pogledu. Bitcoini, zato što nemaju instituciju koja ih održava, mogu se smatrati trajnima dok god mreža koja ih osigurava postoji. Obzirom da je Bitcoin još uvijek mlada valuta, prerano je za čvrste zaključke o njegovoj trajnosti. No, postoje ohrabrujući znakovi - prominente države su ga pokušavale regulirati, hakeri ga napadali - usprkos tome, mreža nastavlja funkcionirati, pokazujući visok stupanj antifragilnosti. ###### Prenosivost: Bitcoini su najprenosivije spremište vrijednosti ikad. Privatni ključevi koji predstavljaju stotine milijuna dolara mogu se spremiti na USB drive i lako ponijeti bilo gdje. Nadalje, jednako velike sume mogu se poslati na drugi kraj svijeta skoro instantno. Fiat valute, zbog svojeg temeljno digitalnog oblika, su također lako prenosive. Ali, regulacije i kontrola kapitala od strane države mogu ugroziti velike prijenose vrijednosti, ili ih usporiti danima. Gotovina se može koristiti kako bi se izbjegle kontrole kapitala, ali onda rastu rizik čuvanja i cijena transporta. Zlato, zbog svojeg fizičkog oblika i velike gustoće, je najmanje prenosivo. Nije čudo da većina zlatnika i poluga nikad ne napuste sefove. Kada se radi prijenos zlata između prodavača i kupca, uglavnom se prenosi samo ugovor o vlasništvu, ne samo fizičko zlato. Prijenos fizičkog zlata na velike udaljenosti je skupo, riskantno i sporo. ###### Zamjenjivost: Zlato nam daje standard za zamjenjivost. Kada je rastopljeno, gram zlata je praktički nemoguće razlikovati od bilo kojeg drugog grama, i zlato je oduvijek bilo takvo. S druge strane, fiat valute, su zamjenjive samo onoliko koliko njihova institucija želi da budu. Iako je uglavnom slučaj da je novčanica zamjenjiva za drugu istog iznosa, postoje situacije u kojima su velike novčanice tretirane drukčije od malih. Naprimjer, vlada Indije je, u pokušaju da uništi neoporezivo sivo tržište, potpuno oduzela vrijednost novčanicama od 500 i 1000 rupija. To je uzrokovalo da ljudi manje vrednuju te novčanice u trgovini, što je značilo da više nisu bile zaista zamjenjive za manje novčanice. Bitcoini su zamjenjivi na razini mreže; svaki bitcoin je pri prijenosu tretiran kao svaki drugi. No, zato što je moguće pratiti individualne bitcoine na blockchainu, određeni bitcoin može, u teoriji, postati “prljav” zbog korštenja u ilegalnoj trgovini, te ga trgovci ili mjenjačnice možda neće htjeti prihvatiti. Bez dodatnih poboljšanja oko privatnosti i anonimnosti na razini mrežnog protokola, bitcoine ne možemo smatrati jednako zamjenjivim kao zlato. ###### Mogućnost provjere: Praktično gledajući, autentičnost fiat valuta i zlata je prilično lako provjeriti. Svejedno, i usprkos pokušajima da spriječe krivotvorenje novčanica, i dalje postoji potencijal prevare za vlade i njihove građane. Zlato također nije imuno na krivotvorenje. Sofisticirani kriminalci su koristili [pozlaćeni tungsten](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/fake-gold-wafer-rbc-canadian-mint-1.4368801) kako bi prevarili kupce zlata. Bitcoine je moguće provjeriti sa matematičkom sigurnošću. Korištenjem kriptografskih potpisa, vlasnik bitcoina može javno demonstrirati da posjeduje bitcoine koje tvrdi da posjeduje. ###### Djeljivost: Bitcoine je moguće podijeliti u stotinu milijuna manjih jedinica (zvanih satoshi), i prenositi takve (no, valja uzeti u obzir ekonomičnost prijenosa malih iznosa, zbog cijene osiguravanja mreže - “network fee”). Fiat valute su tipično dovoljno djeljive na jedinice sa vrlo niskom kupovnom moći. Zlato, iako fizički i teoretski djeljivo, postaje teško za korištenje kada se podijeli na dovoljno male količine da bi se moglo koristiti u svakodnevnoj trgovini. ###### Oskudnost: Svojstvo koje najjasnije razlikuje Bitcoin od fiat valuta i zlata je njegova unaprijed definirana oskudnost. Od početka, konačna količina bitcoina nikad neće biti veća od 21 milijun. To daje vlasnicima bitcoina jasan i znan uvid u postotak ukupnog vlasništva. Naprimjer, vlasnik 10 bitcoina bi znao da najviše 2,1 milijuna ljudi (manje od 0.03% populacije) može ikad imati isto bitcoina kao i on. Premda je kroz povijest uvijek bilo oskudno, zlato nije imuno na povećanje ukupne količine. Ako se ikad izumi nova, ekonomičnija metoda rudarenja ili proizvodnje zlata, ukupna količina zlata bi se mogla dramatično povećati (npr. [rudarenje morskog dna](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/deep-sea-mining-five-facts/) ili [asteroida](http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2016/finalwebsite/solutions/asteroids.html)). Na kraju, fiat valute, relativno nov izum u povijesti, pokazale su se sklonima konstantnim povećanjima u količini. Države su pokazale stalnu sklonost inflaciji monetarne kvantitete kako bi rješavale kratkoročne političke probleme. Inflacijske tendencije vlada diljem svijeta čine fiat valute gotovo sigurnim da će gubiti vrijednost kroz vrijeme. ###### Etablirana povijest: Nijedno monetarno dobro nema povijest kao zlato, koje je imalo vrijednost za cijelog trajanja ljudske civilizacije. Kovanice izrađene u antičko doba i [danas imaju značajnu vrijednost](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoxne_Hoard). Ne može se isto reći za fiat valute, koje su same relativno nova povijesna anomalija. Od njihovog početka, fiat valute su imale gotovo univerzalni smjer prema bezvrijednosti. Korištenje inflacije kao podmuklog načina za nevidljivo oporezivanje građana je vječita kušnja kojoj se skoro nijedna država u povijesti nije mogla oduprijeti. Ako je 20. stoljeće, u kojem je fiat novac dominirao globalni monetarni poredak, demonstriralo neku ekonomsku istinu, to je onda bila ta da ne možemo računati na fiat novac da održi vrijednost u dužem ili srednjem vremenskom periodu. Bitcoin, usprkos svojoj novosti, je preživio dovoljno testova tržišta da postoji velika vjerojatnost da neće nestati kao vrijedno dobro. Nadalje, [Lindy efekt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect) govori da što duže Bitcoin bude korišten, to će veća biti vjera u njega i njegovu sposobnost da nastavi postojati dugo u budućnost. Drugim riječima, društvena vjera u monetarno dobro je asimptotička, kao u grafu ispod:  Ako Bitcoin preživi prvih 20 godina, imat će gotovo sveopće povjerenje da će trajati zauvijek, kao što ljudi vjeruju da je internet trajna stvar u modernom svijetu. ###### Otpor na cenzuru Jedan od najbitnijih izvora za ranu potražnju bitcoina bila je njegova upotreba u ilegalnoj kupovini i prodaji droge. Mnogi su zato pogrešno zaključili da je primarna potražnja za bitcoinima utemeljena u njihovoj prividnoj anonimnosti. Međutim, Bitcoin nije anonimna valuta; svaka transakcija na mreži je zauvijek zapisana na javnom blockchainu. Povijesni zapis transakcija dozvoljava forenzičkoj analizi da identificira izvore i tijek sredstava. [Takva analiza](http://blog.wizsec.jp/2017/07/breaking-open-mtgox-1.html) dovela je do uhićenja počinitelja zloglasne MtGox pljačke. Premda je istina da dovoljno oprezna i pedantna osoba može sakriti svoj identitet koristeći Bitcoin, to nije razlog zašto je Bitcoin bio toliko popularan u trgovini drogom. Ključno svojstvo koje čini Bitcoin najboljim za takve aktivnosti je njegova agnostičnost i nepotrebnost za dozvolom (“premissionlessness”) na mrežnoj razini. Kada se bitcoini prenose na Bitcoin mreži, ne postoji nitko tko dopušta transakcije. Bitcoin je distribuirana peer-to-peer (korisnik-korisniku) mreža, i samim time dizajnirana da bude otporna na cenzuru. Ovo je u velikom kontrastu sa fiat bankarskim sustavom, u kojem države reguliraju banke i ostale institucije prijenosa novca, kako bi one prijavljivale i sprječavale protuzakonito korištenje monetarnih dobara. Klasičan primjer regulacije novca su kontrole kapitala. Npr., bogati milijunaš će vrlo teško prenijeti svoje bogatstvo u novu zemlju, kada bježi iz opresivnog režima. Premda zlato nije izdano i proizvedeno od države, njegova fizička priroda ga čini teško prenosivim kroz prostor, i samim time ga je daleko lakše regulirati nego Bitcoin. Indijski [Akt kontrole zlata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gold_(Control)_Act,_1968) je primjer takve regulacije. Bitcoin je odličan u većini gore navedenih svojstava, što mu omogućava da bude marginalno bolji od modernih i drevnih monetarnih dobara, te da pruži poticaje za svoje rastuće društveno usvajanje. Specifično, moćna kombinacija otpornosti na cenzuru i apsolutne oskudnosti bila je velika motivacija za bogate ulagače koji su uložili dio svojeg bogatstva u Bitcoin. #### Evolucija novca U modernoj monetarnoj ekonomiji postoji opsesija sa ulogom novca kao medija razmjene. U 20. stoljeću, države su monopolizirale izdavanje i kontrolu novca i kontinuirano potkopavale njegovo svojstvo spremišta vrijednosti, stvarajući lažno uvjerenje da je primarna svrha novca biti medij razmjene. Mnogi su kritizirali Bitcoin, govoreći da je neprikladan da bude novac zato što mu je cijena bila previše volatilna za medij razmjene. No, novac je uvijek evoluirao kroz etape; uloga spremišta vrijednosti je dolazila prije medija razmjene. Jedan od očeva marginalističke ekonomije, William Stanley Jevons, objašnjava: > "Povijesno govoreći… čini se da je zlato prvo služilo kao luksuzni metal za ukras; drugo, kao sačuvana vrijednost; treće, kao medij razmjene; i konačno, kao mjerilo vrijednosti." U modernoj terminologiji, novac uvijek evoluira kroz četiri stadija: 1. **Kolekcionarstvo**: U prvoj fazi svoje evolucije, novac je tražen samo zbog svojih posebnih svojstava, uglavnom zbog želja onog koji ga posjeduje. Školjke, perlice i zlato su bili sakupljani prije nego su poprimili poznatije uloge novca. 2. **Spremište vrijednosti**: Jednom kada je novac tražen od dovoljnog broja ljudi, biti će prepoznat kao način za čuvanje i spremanje vrijednosti kroz vrijeme. Kada neko dobro postane široko korišteno kao spremište vrijednosti, njegova kupovna moć raste sa povećanom potražnjom za tu svrhu. Kupovna moć spremišta vrijednosti će u jednom trenutku doći do vrhunca, kada je dovolno rašireno i broj novih ljudi koji ga potražuju splasne. 3. **Sredstvo razmjene**: Kada je novac potpuno etabliran kao spremište vrijednosti, njegova kupovna moć se stabilizira. Nakon toga, postane prikladno sredstvo razmjene zbog stabilnosti svoje cijene. U najranijim danima Bitcoina, mnogi ljudi nisu shvaćali koju buduću cijenu plaćaju koristeći bitcoine kao sredstvo razmjene, umjesto kao novonastalo spremište vrijednosti. Poznata priča o čovjeku koji je za 10,000 bitcoina (vrijednih oko 94 milijuna dolara kada je ovaj članak napisan) za dvije pizze ilustrira ovaj problem. 4. **Jedinica računanja vrijednosti**: Jednom kada je novac široko korišten kao sredstvo razmjene, dobra će biti vrednovana u njemu, tj. većina cijena će biti izražena u njemu. Uobičajena zabluda je da je većinu dobara moguće zamijeniti za bitcoine danas. Npr., premda je možda moguće kupiti šalicu kave za bitcoine, izlistana cijena nije prava bitcoin cijena; zapravo se radi o cijeni u državnoj valuti koju želi trgovac, preračunatu u bitcoin po trenutnoj tržišnoj cijeni. Kad bi cijena bitcoina pala u odnosu na valutu, vrijednost šalice izražena u bitcoinima bi se povećala. Od trenutka kada trgovci budu voljni prihvaćani bitcoine kao platežno sredstvo, bez obraćanja pažnje na vrijednost bitcoina u državnoj fiat valuti, moći ćemo reći da je Bitcoin zaista postao jedinica računanja vrijednosti. Monetarna dobra koja još nisu jedinice računanja vrijednosti možemo smatrati “djelomično monetiziranima.” Danas zlato ima takvu ulogu, jer je spremište vrijednosti, ali su mu uloge sredstva razmjene i računanja vrijednosti oduzete intervencijama država. Moguće je također da se jedno dobro koristi kao sredstvo razmjene, dok druga ispunjavaju ostale uloge. To je tipično u zemljama gdje je država disfunkcionalna, npr. Argentina ili Zimbabwe. U svojoj knjizi, Digitalno zlato, Nathaniel Popper piše: > "U Americi, dolar služi trima funkcijama novca: nudi sredstvo razmjene, jedinicu za mjerenje vrijednosti dobara, i mjesto gdje se može čuvati vrijednosti. S druge strane, argentinski peso je korišten kao sredstvo razmjene (za svakodnevne potrebe), ali ga nitko nije koristio kao spremište vrijednosti. Štednja u pesosima bila je ekvivalent bacanja novca. Zato su ljudi svu svoju štednju imali u dolarima, jer je dolar bolje čuvao vrijednost. Zbog volatilnosti pesosa, ljudi su računali cijene u dolarima, što im je pružalo pouzdaniju jedinicu mjerenja kroz vrijeme." Bitcoin je trenutno u fazi tranzicije iz prvog stadija monetizacije u drugi. Vjerojatno će proći nekoliko godina prije nego Bitcoin pređe iz začetaka spremišta vrijednosti u istinski medij razmjene, i put do tog trenutka je još uvijek pun rizika i nesigurnosti. Važno je napomenuti da je ista tranzicija trajala mnogo stoljeća za zlato. Nitko danas živ nije doživio monetizaciju dobra u realnom vremenu (kroz koju Bitcoin prolazi), tako da nemamo puno iskustva govoriti o putu i načinu na koji će se monetizacija dogoditi. #### Put monetizacije Kroz proces monetizacije, monetarno dobro će naglo porasti u kupovnoj moći. Mnogi su tako komentirali da je uvećanje kupovne moći Bitcoina izgledalo kao “balon” (bubble). Premda je ovaj termin često korišten kako bi ukazao na pretjeranu vrijednosti Bitcoina, sasvim slučajno je prikladan. Svojstvo koje je uobičajeno za sva monetarna dobra jest da je njihova kupovna moć viša nego što se može opravdati samo kroz njihovu uporabnu vrijednost. Zaista, mnogi povijesni novci nisu imali uporabnu vrijednost. Razliku između kupovne moći i vrijednosti razmjene koju bi novac mogao imati za svoju inherentnu korisnost, možemo razmatrati kao “monetarnu premiju.” Kako monetarno dobro prolazi kroz stadije monetizacije (navedene gore), monetarna premija raste. No, ta premija ne raste u ravnoj i predvidivoj liniji. Dobro X, koje je bilo u procesu monetizacije, može izgubiti u usporedbi sa dobrom Y koje ima više svojstava novca, te monetarna premija dobra X drastično padne ili potpuno nestane. Monetarna premija srebra je skoro potpuno nestala u kasnom 19. stoljeću, kada su ga vlade diljem svijeta zamijenile zlatom kao novcem.  Čak i u odsustvu vanjskih faktora, kao što su intervencije vlade ili druga monetarna dobra, monetarna premija novog novca neće ići predvidivim putem. Ekonomist [Larry White](http://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/misestmc) primijetio je: > "problem sa pričom “balona,” naravno, je da je ona konzistentna sa svakim putem cijene, i time ne daje ikakvo objašnjenje za specifičan put cijene" Proces monetizacije opisuje teorija igara; svaki akter na tržištu pokušava predvidjeti agregiranu potražnju ostalih aktera, i time buduću monetarnu premiju. Zato što je monetarna premija nevezana za inherentnu korisnost, tržišni akteri se uglavnom vode za prošlim cijenama da bi odredili je li neko dobro jeftino ili skupo, i žele li ga kupiti ili prodati. Veza trenutne potražnje sa prošlim cijenama naziva se “ovisnost o putu” (path dependence); ona je možda najveći izvor konfuzije u shvaćanju kretanja cijena monetarnih dobara. Kada kupovna moć monetarnog dobra naraste zbog većeg i šireg korištenja, očekivanja tržišta o definicijama “jeftinog” i “skupog” se mijenjaju u skladu s time. Slično tome, kada cijena monetarnog dobra padne, očekivanja tržišta mogu se promijeniti u opće vjerovanje da su prethodne cijene bile “iracionalne” ili prenapuhane. Ovisnost o putu novca ilustrirana je [riječima ](http://thereformedbroker.com/2017/09/11/you-can-practically-smell-it-in-the-air/) poznatog upravitelja fondova s Wall Streeta, Josha Browna: > "Kupio sam bitcoine kada su koštali $2300, i to mi se udvostručilo gotovo odmah. Onda sam počeo govoriti kako “ne mogu kupiti još” dok im je cijena rasla, premda sam znao da je to razmišljanje bazirano samo na cijenu po kojoj sam ih kupio. Kasnije, kada je cijena pala zbog kineske regulacije mjenjačnica, počeo sam si govoriti, “Odlično, nadam se da će još pasti da mogu kupiti još.”" Istina leži u tome da su ideje “jeftinog” i “skupog” zapravo besmislene kada govorimo o monetarnim dobrima. Cijena monetarnog dobra ne reflektira njegovu stopu rasprostanjenosti ili korisnosti, nego mjeru koliko je ono široko prihvaćeno da ispuni razne uloge novca. Dodatna komplikacija u ovom aspektu novca je činjenica da tržišni akteri ne djeluju samo kao nepristrani promatrači koji pokušavaju kupiti i prodati u iščekivanju budućih kretanja monetarne premije, nego i kao aktivni proponenti. Pošto ne postoji objektivno “točna” monetarna premija, širiti dobar glas o superiornijim svojstvima nekog monetarnog dobra je efektivnije nego za obična dobra, čija vrijednost je u konačnici vezana na njegovu osnovnu korisnost. Religiozni zanos sudionika na Bitcoin tržištu vidljiv je na raznim internetskim forumima, gdje Bitcoineri aktivno promoviraju benefine Bitcoina i bogatstvo koje je moguće ostvariti investiranjem u njega. Promatrajući Bitcoin tržište, [Leigh Drogen komentira](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/19/josh-brown-goes-down-the-bitcoin-rabbit-hole-commentary.html): > "To je prepoznatljivo svima kao religija - priča koju si pričamo i oko koje se slažemo. Religija je krivulja na grafu prihvaćanja o kojoj trebamo razmišljati. Sustav je gotovo savršen - onog trenutka kada netko pristupi krugu Bitcoinera, to će reći svima i nastaviti širiti riječ. Onda njihovi prijatelji pristupe i nastave širiti riječ." Premda usporedba sa religijom može staviti Bitcoin u iracionalno svjetlo, potpuno je racionalno za individualnog vlasnika da širi dobru vijest o superiornom monetarnom dobru, i za šire društvo da se standardizira oko njega. Novac djeluje kao temelj za svu trgovinu i štednju; tako da prihvaćanje superiornog oblika novca ima ogromne multiplicirajuće benefite za stvaranje bogatstva za sve članove društva. #### Oblik monetizacije  U članku o [Spekulativnom prihvaćanju Bitcoina / teorije cijene](https://medium.com/@mcasey0827/speculative-bitcoin-adoption-price-theory-2eed48ecf7da), Michael Casey postulira da rastući Gartner hype ciklusi predstavljaju faze standardne S-krivulje prihvaćanja novih tehnologija, koje su bile prisutne kod mnogih transformacijskih tehnologija dok su postajale uobičajene u društvu.  Svaki Gartner hype ciklus počinje sa eksplozijom entuzijazma za novom tehnologijom, a cijenu podižu oni sudionici na tržištvu koji su “dostupni” u toj fazi. Najraniji kupci u Gartner hype ciklusu obično imaju jaku vjeru o transformacijskoj prirodi tehnologije u koju ulažu. S vremenom, tržište dosegne vrhunac entuzijazma kako se količina novih kupaca iscrpljuje, te kupovinom počnu dominirati spekulatori koji su više zainteresirani u brze profite nego u samu tehnologiju. Nakon vrha hype ciklusa, cijene rapidno padaju dok spekulativno ludilo ustupa mjesto očajavanju, javnoj poruzi i osjećaju da tehnologija nije uopće bila transformacijska. S vremenom, cijena dosegne dno i formira plato na kojem se originalnim ulagačima, koji su imali snažno uvjerenje, pridružuju nove grupe ljudi koji su izdržali bol kraha cijena i koji cijene važnost same tehnologije. Plato traje neko vrijeme i formira, kako Casey kaže, “stabilnu, dosadnu dolinu.” Za ovo vrijeme, javni interes za tehnologiju opada, no nastaviti će se razvijati i snažna zajednica uvjerenja će polako rasti. Tada, postavlja se nova baza za sljedeću iteraciju hype ciklusa, dok vanjski promatrači prepoznaju da tehnologija i dalje postoji i da ulaganje u nju možda nije onoliko rizično kao što se činilo za vrijeme pada cijene. Sljedeća iteracija hype ciklusa donosi mnogo veći broj novih ljudi, pa je i ciklus daleko veći u svojoj magnitudi. Jako mali broj ljudi koji sudjeluju u Gartner hype ciklusu će točno predvidjeti koliko će visoko cijena porasti za vrijeme ciklusa. Cijene često dosegnu razine koje bi se činile apsurdnima većini ulagača u raniji stadijima ciklusa. Kada ciklus završi, mediji tipično atribuiraju pad cijene nekoj od aktualnih drušvenih tema. Premda takva tema može biti okidač pada, ona nikad nije temeljni razlog zašto ciklus završava. Gartner hype ciklusi završavaju kada je količina dostupnih novih sudionika na tržištu iscrpljena. Zanimljivo je da je i zlato nacrtalo klasičan graf Gartner hype ciklusa od kasnih 1970-ih do ranih 2000-ih. Moguće je spekulirati da je hype ciklus osnovna socijalna dinamika oko procesa monetizacije. #### Gartner kohorte Od početka trgovanja Bitcoina na mjenjačnicama 2010. godine, Bitcoin tržište je svjedočilo četirima velikim Gartner hype ciklusima. U retrospektivi, možemo vrlo precizno identificirati grupe cijena prethodnih hype ciklusa Bitcoin tržišta. Također, možemo kvalitativno odrediti kohorte ulagača koje su povezane sa svakom iteracijom prethodnih ciklusa. **$0–$1** (2009. – 3. mjesec 2011.): Prvi hype ciklus u Bitcoin tržištu dominirali su kriptografi, računalni znanstvenici i cypherpunkovi koji su od početka bili spremni razumijeti važnost nevjerojatnog izuma Satoshija Nakamotoa, i koji su bili pioniri u potvrđivanju da Bitcoin protokol nema tehničkih mana. **$1–$30** (3. mjesec 2011. – 7. mjesec. 2011.): Drugi ciklus privukao je rane entuzijaste oko novih tehnologija kao i stabilan pritok ideološki motiviranih ulagača koji su bili oduševljeni idejom novca odvojenog od države. Libertarijanci poput Rogera Vera došli su u Bitcoin zbog aktivnog anti-institucionalnog stava, i mogućnosti koju je nova tehnologija obećavala. Wences Casares, briljantni i dobro povezani serijski poduzetnik, bio je također dio drugog Bitcoin hype ciklusa te je širio riječ o Bitcoinu među najprominentnijim tehnolozima i ulagačima u Silicijskoj Dolini. **$250–$1100** (4. mjesec 2013. – 12. mjesec 2013.): Treći hype ciklus doživio je ulazak ranih generalnih i institucionalnih ulagača koji su bili voljni uložiti trud i riskirati kroz užasno komplicirane kanale likvidnosti kako bi kupili bitcoine. Primaran izvor likvidnosti na tržištu za vrijeme ovog perioda bio je MtGox, mjenjačnica bazirana u Japanu, koju je vodio notorno nesposobni i beskrupulozni Mark Karpeles, koji je kasnije završio i u zatvoru zbog svoje uloge u kolapsu MtGoxa. Valja primijetiti da je rast Bitcoinove cijene za vrijeme spomenuti hype ciklusa većinom povezano sa povećanjem likvidnosti i lakoćom sa kojom su ulagači mogli kupiti bitcoine. Za vrijeme prvog hype ciklusa, nisu postojale mjenjačnice; akvizicija bitcoina se odvijala primarno kroz rudarenje (mining) ili kroz izravnu razmjenu sa onima koju su već izrudarili bitcoine. Za vrijeme drugog hype ciklusa, pojavile su se rudimentarne mjenjačnice, no nabavljanje i osiguravanje bitcoina na ovim mjenjačnicama bilo je previše kompleksno za sve osim tehnološki najsposobnijih ulagača. Čak i za vrijeme trećeg hype ciklusa, ulagači koju su slali novac na MtGox kako bi kupili bitcoine su morali raditi kroz značajne prepreke. Banke nisu bile voljne imati posla sa mjenjačnicom, a oni posrednici koji su nudili usluge transfera bili su često nesposobni, kriminalni, ili oboje. Nadalje, mnogi koji su uspjeli poslati novac MtGoxu, u konačnici su morali prihvatiti gubitak svojih sredstava kada je mjenjačnica hakirana i kasnije zatvorena. Tek nakon kolapsa MtGox mjenjačnice i dvogodišnje pauze u tržišnoj cijeni Bitcoina, razvili su se zreli i duboki izvori likvidnosti; primjeri poput reguliranih mjenjačnica kao što su GDAX i OTC brokeri kao Cumberland mining. Dok je četvrti hype ciklus započeo 2016. godine, bilo je relativno lako običnim ulagačima kupiti i osigurati bitcoine. ###### $1100–$19600? (2014. –?): U trenutku pisanja ovog teksta, tržište Bitcoina je prolazilo svoj četvrti veliki hype ciklus. Sudjelovanje u ovom hype ciklusu dominirala je ona skupina koju je Michael Casey opisao kao “rana većina” običnih i institucionalnih ulagača.  Kako su se izvori likvidnosti produbljivali i sazrijevali, veliki institucionalni ulagači sada imaju priliku sudjelovati kroz regulirana “futures” tržišta. Dostupnosti takvih tržišta stvara put ka kreaciji Bitcoin ETF-a (exchange traded fund) (fond na slobodnom tržištu), koji će onda pokrenuti “kasnu većinu” i “najsporije” u sljedećim hype ciklusima. Premda je nemoguće predvidjeti točan efekt budućih hype ciklusa, razumno je očekivati da će najviša točka biti između $20,000 i $50,000 (2021. zenit je bio preko $69,000). Znatno više od ovog raspona, i Bitcoin bi imao znatan postotak ukupne vijednosti zlata (zlato i Bitcoin bi imali jednaku tržišnu kapitalizaciju kada bi bitcoini vrijedili oko $380,000 u trenutku pisanja ovog teksta). Značajan postotak vrijednosti zlata dolazi od potražnje centralnih banaka, te je malo vjerojatno da će centralne banke ili suverene države sudjelovati u trenutnom hype ciklusu. #### Ulazak suverenih država u Bitcoin Bitcoinov zadnji Gartner hype ciklus će započeti kada ga suverene države počnu akumulirati kao dio svojih rezervi stranih valuta. Tržišna kapitalizacija Bitcoina je trenutno premala da bismo ga smatrali značajnim dodatkom rezervama većini zemalja. No, kako se interes u privatnom sektoru povećava i kapitalizacija Bitcoina se približi trilijunu dolara, postat će dovoljno likvidan za većinu država. Prva država koja službeno doda bitcoine u svoje rezerve će vjerojatno potaknuti stampedo ostalih da učine isto. Države koje su među prvima u usvajanju Bitcoina imat će najviše benefita u svojim knjigama ako Bitcoin u konačnici postane globalna valuta (global reserve currency). Nažalost, vjerojatno će države sa najjačom izvršnom vlasti - diktature poput Sjeverne Koreje - biti najbrže u akumulaciji bitcoina. Neodobravanje prema takvim državama i slaba izvršna tijela zapadnjačkih demokracija uzrokovat će sporost i kašnjenje u akumulaciji bitcoina za njihove vlastite rezerve. Velika je ironija u tome što je SAD trenutno jedna od regulatorno najotvorenijih nacija prema Bitcoinu, dok su Kina i Rusija najzatvorenije. SAD riskira najviše, geopolitički, ako bi Bitcoin zamijenio dolar kao svjetska rezervna valuta. U 1960-ima, Charles de Gaulle je kritizirao “pretjeranu privilegiju” (“exorbitant privilege”) koju su SAD imale u međunarodnom monetarnom poretku, postavljenom kroz Bretton Woods dogovor 1944. godine. Ruska i kineska vlada još ne shvaćaju geo-strateške benefite Bitcoina kao rezervne valute, te se trenutno brinu o efektima koje bi mogao imati na njihova unutarnja tržišta. Kao de Gaulle u 1960-ima, koji je prijetio SAD-u povratkom na klasični standard zlata, Kinezi i Rusi će s vremenom uvidjeti korist u velikoj poziciji u Bitcoinu - spremištu vrijednosti bez pokrića ijedne vlade. Sa najvećom koncentracijom rudara Bitcoina u Kini (2017.), kineska vlada već ima znatnu potencijalnu prednost u stavljanju bitcoina u svoje rezerve. SAD se ponosi svojim statusom nacije inovatora, sa Silicijskom dolinom kao krunom svoje ekonomije. Dosad, Silicijska dolina je dominirala konverzacijom usmjerenom prema regulaciji, i poziciji koju bi ona treba zauzeti prema Bitcoinu. No, bankovna industrija i federalna rezerva SAD-a (US Federal Reserve, Fed) napokon počinju uviđati egzistencijalnu prijetnju koju Bitcoin predstavlja za američku monetarnu politiku, postankom globalne rezervne valute. Wall Street Journal, jedan od medijskih glasova federalne reserve, izdao je [komentar ](https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-it-time-to-regulate-bitcoin-1512409004) o Bitcoinu kao prijetnji monetarnoj politici SAD-a: > "Postoji još jedna opasnost, možda i ozbiljnija iz perspektive centralnih banaka i regulatora: bitcoin možda ne propadne. Ako je spekulativni žar u kriptovalutu samo prvi pokazatelj njezinog šireg korištenja kao alternative dolaru, Bitcoin će svakako ugroziti monopol centralnih banaka nad novcem." U narednim godinama, možemo očekivati veliku borbu između poduzetnika i inovatora u Silicijskoj dolini, koji će pokušavati čuvati Bitcoin od državne kontrole s jedne strane, i bankovne industrije i centralnih banaka koje će učiniti sve što mogu da bi regulirale Bitcoin kako bi spriječile znatne promjene u svojoj industriji i moći izdavanja novca, s druge. #### Prijelaz na medij razmjene Monetarno dobro ne može postati opće prihvaćen medij razmjene (standardna ekonomska definicija za “novac”) prije nego je vrednovano od širokog spektra ljudi; jednostavno, dobro koje nije vrednovano neće biti prihvaćeno u razmjeni. Kroz proces generalnog rasta vrijednosti, i time postanka spremišta vrijednosti, monetarno dobro će brzo narasti u kupovnoj moći, i time stvoriti cijenu za korištenje u razmjeni. Samo kada ta cijena rizika mijenjanja spremišta vrijednosti padne dovoljno nisko, može dobro postati opće prihvaćen medij razmjene. Preciznije, monetarno dobro će biti prikladno kao medij razmjene samo kada je suma cijene rizika i transakcijske cijene u razmjeni manja nego u trgovini bez tog dobra. U društvu koje vrši robnu razmjenu, prijelaz spremišta vrijednosti u medij razmjene može se dogoditi čak i onda kada monetarno dobro raste u kupovnoj moći, zato što su transakcijski troškovi robne razmjene iznimno visoki. U razvijenoj ekonomiji, u kojoj su troškovi razmjene niski, moguće je za mladu i rapidno rastućnu tehnologiju spremišta vrijednosti, poput Bitcoina, da se koristi kao medij razmjene, doduše na ograničen način. Jedan primjer je ilegalno tržište droge, gdje su kupci voljni žrtvovati oportunu cijenu čuvanja bitcoina kako bi umanjili znatan rizik kupovine droge koristeći fiat novac. Postoje međutim velike institucionalne barijere da novonastalo spremište vrijednosti postane sveopće prihvaćen medij razmjene u razvijenom društvu. Države koriste oporezivanje kao moćnu metodu zaštite svojeg suverenog novca protiv rivalskih monetarnih dobara. Ne samo da suvereni novac ima prednost konstantnog izvora potražnje, zato što je porez moguće platiti jedino u njemu, nego su i rivalska monetarna dobra oporezana pri svakoj razmjeni za vrijeme rastuće cijene. Ova metoda oporezivanja stvara znatan otpor korištenju spremišta vrijednosti kao medija razmjene. Ovakvo sabotiranje tržišnih monetarnih dobara nije nepremostiva barijera za njihovo prihvaćanje kao općeg medija razmjene. Ako ljudi izgube vjeru u suvereni novac, njegova vrijednost može rapidno propasti kroz proces zvan hiperinflacija. Kada suvereni novac prolazi kroz hiperinflaciju, njegova vrijednost propadne prvo u usporedbi sa najlikvidnijim dobrima u društvu, kao što je zlato ili stabilna strana valuta (američki dolar npr.), ako su ona dostupna. Kada nema likvidnih dobara ili ih ima premalo, novac u hiperinflaciji kolabira u usporedbi sa stvarnim dobrima, kao što su nekretnine ili upotrebljiva roba. Arhetipska slika hiperinflacije je trgovina sa praznim policama - potrošači brzo bježe iz propadajuće vrijednosti novca svoje nacije.  Nakon dovoljno vremena, kada je vjera potpuno uništena za vrijeme hiperinflacije, suvereni novac više nitko ne prihvaća, te se društvo može vratiti na robnu razmjenu, ili će doživjeti potpunu zamjenu monetarne jedinice za sredstvo razmjene. Primjer ovog procesa bila je zamjena zimbabveanskog dolara za američki dolar. Takva promjena suverenog novca za stranu valutu je dodatno otežana relativnom oskudnošću strane valute i odsustvom stranih bankarskih institucija koje pružaju likvidnost tržištu. Sposobnost lakog prenošenja bitcoina preko granica i odsustvo potrebe za bankarskim sustavom čine Bitcoin idealnim monetarnim dobrom za one ljude koji pate pod hiperinflacijom. U nadolazećim godinama, kako fiat valute nastave svoj povijesni trend ka bezvrijednosti, Bitcoin će postati sve popularniji izbor za ušteđevine ljudi diljem svijeta. Kada je novac nacije napušten i zamijenjen Bitcoinom, Bitcoin će napraviti tranziciju iz spremišta vrijednosti u tom društvu u opće prihvaćeno sredstvo razmjene. Daniel Krawicz stvorio je termin “[hiperbitcoinizacija](http://nakamotoinstitute.org/mempool/hyperbitcoinization/#selection-43.159-46.0)” da bi opisao ovaj proces. #### Učestala pogrešna shvaćanja Većina ovog članka usredotočila se na monetarnu prirodu Bitcoina. Sa tim temeljima možemo adresirati neke od najčešćih nerazumijevanja u Bitcoinu. ##### Bitcoin je balon (bubble) Bitcoin, kao sva tržišna monetarna dobra, posjeduje monetarnu premiju. Ona često rezultira uobičajenom kritikom da je Bitcoin samo “balon.” No, sva monetarna dobra imaju monetarnu premiju. Naprotiv, ta monetarna premija (cijena viša od one koju diktira potražnja za dobrom kao korisnim) je upravo karakteristična za sve oblike novca. Drugim riječima, novac je uvijek i svuda balon. Paradoksalno, monetarno dobro je istovremeno balon i ispod vrijednosti ukoliko je u ranijim stadijima općeg prihvaćanja kao novac. ##### Bitcoin je previše volatilan Volatilnost cijene Bitcoina je funkcija njegovog nedavnog nastanka. U prvih nekoliko godina svojeg postojanja, Bitcoin se ponašao kao mala dionica, i svaki veliki kupac - kao npr. braća Winklevoss - mogao je uzrokovati veliki skok u njegovoj cijeni. No, kako su se prihvaćenost i likvidnost povećavali kroz godine, volatilnost Bitcoina je srazmjerno smanjila. Kada Bitcoin postigne tržišnu kapitalizaciju (vrijednost) zlata, imat će sličnu volatilnost kao i zlato. Kako Bitcoin nastavi rasti, njegova volatilnost će se smanjiti do razine koja ga čini prikladnim za široko korištenje kao medij razmjene. Kao što je prethodno rečeno, monetizacija Bitcoina se odvija u seriji Gartner hype ciklusa. Volatilnost je najniža za vrijeme vrhunaca i dolina unutar ciklusa. Svaki hype ciklus ima nižu volatilnost od prethodnih, zato što je likvidnost tržišta veća. ##### Cijene transakcija su previsoke Novija kritika Bitcoin mreže je ta da ju je povećanje cijena prijenosa bitcoina učinilo neprikladnom za sustav plaćanja. No, rast u cijenama transakcija je zdrav i očekivan. One su nužne za plaćanje bitcoin minera (rudara), koji osiguravaju mrežu validacijom transakcija. Rudare se plaća kroz cijene transakcija ili kroz blok-nagrade, koje su inflacijska subvencija od trane trenutnih vlasnika bitcoina. S obzirom na Bitcoinovu fiksnu proizvodnju (monetarna politika koja ga čini idealnim za spremanje vrijednosti), blok-nagrade će s vremenom nestati i mrežu će se u konačnici morati osiguravati kroz cijene transakcija. Mreža sa “niskim” cijenama transakcija je mreža sa slabom sigurnosti i osjetljiva na vanjsku intervenciju i cenzuru. Oni koji hvale niske cijene Bitcoinovih alternative zapravo niti ne znajući opisuju slabosti tih takozvanih “alt-coina.” Površan temelj kritika Bitcoinovih “visokih” cijena transakcija je uvjerenje da bi Bitcoin trebao biti prvo sustav plaćanja, i drugo spremište vrijednosti. Kao što smo vidjeli kroz povijest novca, ovo uvjerenje je naopako. Samo onda kada Bitcoin postane duboko ukorijenjeno spremište novca može biti prikladan kao sredstvo razmjene. Nadalje, kada oportunitetni trošak razmjene bitcoina dođe na razinu koja ga čini prikladnim sredstvom razmjene, većina trgovine neće se odvijati na samoj Bitcoin mreži, nego na mrežama “drugog sloja” (second layer) koje će imati niže cijene transakcija. Takve mreže, poput Lightning mreže, služe kao moderna verzija zadužnica koje su korištene za prijenos vlasničkih papira zlata u 19. stoljeću. Banke su koristile zadužnice zato što je prijenos samog metala bio daleko skuplji. Za razliku od takvih zadužnica, Lightning mreža će omogućavati nisku cijenu prijenosa bitcoina bez potrebe za povjerenjem prema trećoj strani, poput banaka. Razvoj Lightning mreže je tehnološka inovacija od izuzetne važnosti u povijesti Bitcoina, i njezina vrijednost će postati očita u narednim godinama, kako je sve više ljudi bude razvijalo i koristilo. ##### Konkurencija Pošto je Bitcoin softverski protokol otvorenog tipa (open-source), oduvijek je bilo moguće kopirati softver i imitirati mrežu. Kroz godine nastajali su mnogi imitatori, od identičnih kopija, kao Litecoin, do kompleksnijih varijanti kao što je Ethereum, koje obećavaju arbitrarno kompleksne ugovorne mehanizme koristeći decentralizirani računalni sustav. Česta kritika Bitcoinu od strane ulagača je ta da on ne može zadržati svoju vrijednost kada je vrlo lako stvoriti konkurente koji mogu lako i brzo u sebi imati najnovije inovacije i softverske funkcionalnosti.  Greška u ovom argumentu leži u manju takozvanog “mrežnog efekta” (network effect), koji postoji u prvoj i dominantnoj tehnologiji u nekom području. Mrežni efekt - velika vrijednost korištenja Bitcoina samo zato što je već dominantan - je važno svojstvo samo po sebi. Za svaku tehnologiju koja posjeduje mrežni efekt, to je daleko najvažnije svojstvo koje može imati. Za Bitcoin, mrežni efekt uključuje likvidnost njegovog tržišta, broj ljudi koji ga posjeduju, i zajednicu programera koji održavaju i unaprjeđuju njegov softver i svjesnost u javnosti. Veliki ulagači, uključujući države, će uvijek prvo tražiti najlikvidnije tržište, kako bi mogli ući i izaći iz tržišta brzo, i bez utjecanja na cijenu. Programeri će se pridružiti dominantnoj programerskoj zajednici sa najboljim talentom, i time pojačati samu zajednicu. Svjesnost o brendu sama sebe pojačava, pošto se nadobudni konkurenti Bitcoina uvijek spominju u kontekstu Bitcoina kao takvog. ##### Raskrižje na putu (fork) Trend koji je postao popularan 2017. godine nije bio samo imitacija Bitcoinovog softvera, nego kopiranje potpune povijesti njegovih prošlih transakcija (cijeli blockchain). Kopiranjem Bitcoinovog blockchaina do određene točke/bloka i odvajanjem sljedećih blokova ka novoj mreži, u procesu znanom kao “forking” (odvajanje), Bitcoinovi konkurenti su uspjeli riješiti problem distribuiranja svojeg tokena velikom broju korisnika.  Najznačajniji takav fork dogodio se 1. 8. 2017. godine, kada je nova mreža nazvana Bitcoin Cash (Bcash) stvorena. Vlasnik N količine bitcoina prije 1.8.2017. bi onda posjedovao N bitcoina i N BCash tokena. Mala, ali vrlo glasna zajednica Bcash proponenata je neumorno pokušavala prisvojiti Bitcoinov brend i ime, imenujući svoju novu mrežu Bitcoin Cast i pokušavajući uvjeriti nove pridošlice u Bitcoin da je Bcash “pravi” Bitcoin. Ti pokušaji su većinom propali, i taj neuspjeh se vidi u tržišnim kapitalizacijama dviju mreža. No, za nove ulagače, i dalje postoji rizik da bi konkurent mogao kopirati Bitcoin i njegov blockchain i tako uspjeti u preuzimanju tržišne kapitalizacije, te postati de facto Bitcoin. Moguće je uočiti važno pravilo gledajući velike forkove u prošlosti Bitcoin i Ethereum mreža. Većina tržišne kapitalizacije odvijat će se na mreži koja zadrži najviši stupanj talenta i aktivnosti u zajednici programera. Premda se na Bitcoin može gledati kao na nov i mlad novac, on je također računalna mreža koja počiva na softveru, kojeg se pak treba održavati i poboljšavati. Kupovina tokena na mreži koja ima malo neiskusnih programera bilo bi kao kupovati kopiju Microsoft Windowsa na kojoj rade lošiji programeri. Jasno je vidljivo iz povijesti forkova koji su se odvili 2017. godine da su najbolji računalni i kriptografski stručnjaci posvećeni razvoju originalnog Bitcoina, a ne nekoj od rastućeg broja imitacija koje su se izrodile iz njega. #### Stvarni rizici Premda su uobičajene kritike upućene Bitconu od strane medija i ekonomske profesije krive i bazirane na netočnom shvaćanju novca, postoje pravi i značajni rizici kod ulaganja u Bitcoin. Bilo bi mudro za novog Bitcoin ulagača da shvati ove rizike prije potencijalnog ulaganja. ##### Rizik protokola Bitcoin protokol i kriptografski sastavni dijelovi na kojima je sagrađen potencijalno imaju dosad nepronađenu grešku u svom dizajnu, ili mogu postati nesigurni razvojem kvantnih računala. Ako se pronađe greška u protokolu, ili neka nova metoda računarstva učini mogućim probijanje kriptografskih temelja Bitcoina, vjera u Bitcoin biti će znatno narušena. Rizik protokola bio je najviši u ranim godinama razvoja Bitcoina, kada je još uvijek bilo nejasno, čak i iskusnim kriptografima, je li Satoshi Nakamoto zaista riješio problem bizantskih generala (Byzantine Generals’ Problem). Brige oko ozbiljnih grešaka u Bitcoin protokolu nestale su kroz godine, no uzevši u obzir njegovu tehnološku prirodu, rizik protokola će uvijek ostati u Bitcoinu, makar i kao izuzetak. ##### Propadanje mjenjačnica Time što je decentraliziran, Bitcoin je pokazao značajnu otpornost, suočen sa brojnim pokušajima raznih vlada da ga reguliraju ili unište. No, mjenjačnice koje trguju bitcoinima za fiat valute su centralizirani entiteti i podložne regulacijama i zatvaranju. Bez mjenjačnica i volje bankara da s njima posluju, proces monetizacije Bitcoina bio bi ozbiljno usporen, ako ne i potpuno zaustavljen. Iako postoje alternativni izvori likvidnosti za Bitcoin, poput “over-the-counter” brokera i decentraliziranih tržišta za kupovinu i prodaju bitcoina, kritičan proces otkrivanja i definiranja cijene se odvija na najlikvidnijim mjenjačnicama, koje su sve centralizirane. Jedan od načina za umanjivanje rizika gašenja mjenjačnica je geografska arbitraža. Binance, jedna od velikih mjenjačnica iz Kine, preselila se u Japan nakon što joj je kineska vlada zabranila operiranje u Kini. Vlade su također oprezne kako ne bi ugušile novu industriju koja je potencijalno značajna kao i internet, i time predale nevjerojatnu konkurentnu vrijednost drugim nacijama. Samo kroz koordinirano globalno ukidanje Bitcoin mjenjačnica bi proces monetizacije mogao biti zaustavljen. Trenutno smo u utrci; Bitcoin raste i postaje sve rašireniji, i doći će do trenutka kada bi potpuno ukidanje mjenjačnica postalo politički neizvedivo - kao i gašenje interneta. Mogućnost takvog ukidanja je još uvijek realna, i valja je uzeti u obzir pri ulaganju u Bitcoin. Kao što je gore objašnjeno, suverene vlade se polako bude i uviđaju prijetnju koju predstavlja neovisna digitalna valuta otporna na cenzuru, za njihovu monetarnu politiku. Otvoreno je pitanje hoće li išta poduzeti da odgovore ovoj prijetnji prije nego Bitcoin postane toliko utvrđen i raširen da politička akcija postane nemoćna i ne-efektivna. ##### Zamjenjivost Otvorena i transparentna priroda Bitcoin blockchaina omogućava državama da proglase specifične bitcoine “okaljanima” zbog njihovog korištenja u određenim aktivnostima. Premda Bitcoin, na protokolarnoj razini, ne diskriminira transakcije na ikoji način, “okaljani” bitcoini bi mogli postati bezvrijedni ako bi ih regulacije proglasile ilegalnima i neprihvatljivima za mjenjačnice ili trgovce. Bitcoin bi tada izgubio jedno od kritičnih svojstava monetarnog dobra: zamjenjivost. Da bi se ovaj problem riješio i umanjio, biti će potrebna poboljšanja na razini protokola kako bi se poboljšala privatnost transakcija. Premda postoji napredak u ovom smjeru, prvi put primjenjen u digitalnim valutama kao što su Monero i Zcash, potrebno je napraviti značajne tehnološke kompromise između efikasnosti i kompleksnosti Bitcoina i njegove privatnosti. Pitanje ostaje otvoreno je li moguće dodati nova svojstva privatnosti na Bitcoin, na način koji neće kompromitirati njegovu korisnost kao novca. #### Zaključak Bitcoin je novonastali novac koji je u procesu transformacije iz sakupljačkog dobra u spremište vrijednosti. Kao neovisno monetarno dobro, moguće je da će u budućnosti postati globalan novac, slično kao zlato za vrijeme 19. stoljeća. Prihvaćanje Bitcoina kao globalnog novca je upravo taj optimističan scenarij za Bitcoin, kojeg je artikulirao Satoshi Nakamoto još 2010. godine u [email razmjeni](https://pastebin.com/Na5FwkQ4) sa Mikeom Hearnom: > "Ako zamisliš da se koristi u nekom dijelu svjetske trgovine, i da će postojati samo 21 milijun bitcoina za cijeli svijet, vrijednost po jedinici će biti znatno veća". Ovaj scenarij je još snažnije definirao briljantni kriptograf Hal Finney, koji je ujedno primio i prve bitcoine od Nakamotoa, ubrzo nakon [najave prvog funkcionalnog Bitcoin softvera](https://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/msg10152.html): > "Zamislimo da Bitcoin bude uspješan i postane dominantan sustav plaćanja diljem svijeta. U tom slučaju će ukupna vrijednost valute biti jednaka ukupnoj vrijednosti svog bogatstva svijeta. Današnje procjene ukupnog svjetskog bogatska kućanstava koje sam pronašao borave negdje između 100 i 300 trilijuna dolara. Sa 20 milijuna bitcoina, svaki bi onda vrijedio oko 10 milijuna dolara." Čak i da Bitcoin ne postane u cijelost globalan novac, nego da se samo natječe sa zlatom kao neovisno spremište vrijednosti, i dalje je masivno podcijenjen. Mapiranje tržišne kapitalizacije postojeće količine izrudarenog zlata (oko 8 trilijuna dolara) na maksimalnu dostupnost Bitcoina od 21 milijun, daje vrijednost od otprilike 380,000 dolara po bitcoinu. Kao što smo vidjeli u prethodnom tekstu, svojstva koja omogućavaju monetarnom dobru da bude prikladno spremište vrijednosti, čine Bitcoin superiornijim zlatu u svakom pogledu osim trajanja povijesti. No, kako vrijeme prolazi i Lindy efekt postane jači, dosadašnja povijest će prestati biti prednost zlata. Samim time, nije nerazumno očekivati da će Bitcoin narasti do, a možda i preko, ukupne cijene zlata na tržištvu do 2030. Opaska ovoj tezi je činjenica da veliki postotak vrijednosti zlata dolazi od toga što ga centralne banke čuvaju kao spremište vrijednosti. Da bi Bitcoin došao do te razine, određena količina suverenih država će trebati sudjelovati. Hoće li zapadnjačke demokracije sudjelovati u vlasništvu Bitcoina je nepoznato. Vjerojatnije je, nažalost, da će prve nacije u Bitcoin tržištu biti sitne diktature i kleptokracije. Ako niti jedna država ne bude sudjelovala u Bitcoin tržištu, optimistična teza i dalje postoji. Kao nevisno spremište vrijednosti u rukama individualnih i institucionalnih ulagača, Bitcoin je i dalje vrlo rano u svojoj “krivulji prihvaćenosti” (adoption curve); tzv. “rana većina” ulaze na tržište sada, dok će ostali ući tek nekoliko godina kasnije. Sa širim sudjelovanjem individualnih i institucionalnih ulagača, cijena po bitcoinu između 100,000 i 200,000 dolara je sasvim moguća. Posjedovanje bitcoina je jedna od malobrojnih asimetričnih novčanih strategija dostupnih svakome na svijetu. Poput “call” opcija, negativan rizik ulagača je ograničen na 1x, dok potencijalna dobit i dalje iznosi 100x ili više. Bitcoin je prvi istinski globalan balon čija je veličina ograničena samo potražnjom i željom građana svijeta da zaštite svoju ušteđevinu od raznovrsnih ekonomskih malverzacija vlade. Bitcoin je ustao kao feniks iz pepela globalne financijske krize 2008. godine - katastrofe kojoj su prethodile odluke centralnih banaka poput američke Federalne rezerve (Federal Reserve). Onkraj samo financijske teze za Bitcoin, njegov rast i uspjeh kao neovisno spremište vrijednosti imat će duboke geopolitičke posljedice. Globalna, ne-inflacijska valuta će prisiliti suverene države da promjene svoje primarne mehanizme financiranja od inflacije u izravno oporezivanje; koje je daleko manje politički popularno. Države će se smanjivati proporcionalno političkoj boli koju im nanese oporezivanje kao jedini način financiranja. Nadalje, globalna trgovina vršiti će se na način koji zadovoljava aspiraciju Charlesa de Gaullea, da nijedna nacija ne bi smjela imati privilegiju nad ikojom drugom: > "Smatramo da je potrebno da se uspostavi međunarodna trgovina, kao što je bio slučaj prije velikih nesreća koje su zadesile svijet, na neosporivoj monetarnoj bazi, koja ne nosi na sebi oznaku ijedne države." Za 50 godina, ta monetarna baza biti će Bitcoin.

@ 2e8970de:63345c7a

So, I'm surprised there isn't a discussion about the Stargate project here already. It got posted twice: https://stacker.news/items/858961 https://stacker.news/items/859422 but to me the big elephant in the room is ... that 500b is a big f*cking number?  https://xcancel.com/elonmusk/status/1881923570458304780 https://www.wsj.com/tech/musk-pours-cold-water-on-trump-backed-stargate-ai-project-53428d16?mod=WSJ_home_mediumtopper_pos_1 Other things that don't make sense - Why Oracle? OpenAIs long term partner is Microsoft and there is no reason to think Microsoft would have worse access to chips and scaling energy than Oracle - Trump backed? And Elon seems to hate it? What gives? - 100b immediately? From where? OpenAIs private valuation is like 100b or 150b so? originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/860325

@ 4506e04e:8c16ba04

If you are a researcher in the field of medicine, you are most likely very familiar with PubMed – where you get citations for the articles and studies that drive your work forward. PubMed Central (PMC), the full-text repository of life sciences journal literature managed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), was established in 2000. Its creation marked a significant milestone in providing open access to biomedical research. Since 2005, PMC has served as the designated repository for papers submitted under the NIH Public Access Policy, reflecting the growing emphasis on transparency and accessibility in scientific research. Over the years, PMC has expanded its scope, becoming a repository for papers aligned with public and open access policies from various research funding organizations, both within and beyond biomedical sciences. ## Funding and Partnerships NLM’s operations, including PubMed and PMC, are supported by a combination of government funding and contributions from influential entities such as The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation receives significant donations from pharmaceutical companies, as well as other organizations and individuals. The exact amount of money donated by each company can vary from year to year, but here are some examples of the amounts donated by the pharmaceutical companies: **GSK (GlaxoSmithKline):** - In 2020, GSK donated $100 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of new vaccines and treatments for diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. - In 2019, GSK donated $50 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of a new malaria vaccine. **Pfizer:** - In 2020, Pfizer donated $50 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of new vaccines and treatments for diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. - In 2019, Pfizer donated $25 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of a new malaria vaccine. **Merck & Co.:** - In 2020, Merck donated $50 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of new vaccines and treatments for diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. - In 2019, Merck donated $25 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of a new malaria vaccine. **Novartis:** - In 2020, Novartis donated $20 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of new treatments for diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. - In 2019, Novartis donated $10 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of a new malaria vaccine. **Johnson & Johnson:** - In 2020, Johnson & Johnson donated $50 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of new vaccines and treatments for diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. - In 2019, Johnson & Johnson donated $25 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of a new malaria vaccine. **Sanofi:** - In 2020, Sanofi donated $20 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of new vaccines and treatments for diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. - In 2019, Sanofi donated $10 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of a new malaria vaccine. **AstraZeneca:** - In 2020, AstraZeneca donated $20 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of new vaccines and treatments for diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. - In 2019, AstraZeneca donated $10 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of a new malaria vaccine. **Eli Lilly and Company:** - In 2020, Eli Lilly donated $10 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of new treatments for diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. - In 2019, Eli Lilly donated $5 million to the Gates Foundation to support the development of a new malaria vaccine. Additionally, NLM website [https://cdn.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/cms/files/PMCFunderDepositList.xlsx] (list over 200)(!) organisations that are founding it. What could go wrong one might ask?! ## The Centralization Challenge While PubMed and PMC have played a pivotal role in democratizing access to scientific literature, their centralized nature presents vulnerabilities. Over the past century healthcare has grown to become one of the most profitable industries and to believe that the healthcare system we have today is the best we can do is far from understatement. PubMed's reliance on centralized funding and decision-making processes makes it susceptible to external influences, including lobbying by powerful entities. Moreover, the centralized infrastructure allows for content to be published and removed with relative ease, often without leaving a trace. This raises concerns about the integrity and permanence of the scientific record, particularly in contentious or politically sensitive areas of research. The ability to alter or erase information from PubMed undermines trust in the system’s objectivity and neutrality. Researchers and the public alike depend on these repositories for reliable and impartial access to scientific knowledge. Any perceived or actual manipulation of content can erode confidence in the platform and compromise its foundational mission. ## The Case for Decentralization To address these challenges, a decentralized alternative built on emerging technologies, such as the Nostr protocol, could offer significant advantages. A decentralized platform would: - **Enhance Resilience:** By distributing data across a network of relays, a decentralized system would eliminate single points of failure, ensuring the scientific record remains intact and always accessible even in the face of technical or political disruptions. - **Increase Transparency:** Decentralized systems inherently log changes, making it nearly impossible to alter or remove content without leaving an auditable trail. This transparency would bolster trust in the integrity of the research. - **Reduce Susceptibility to Lobbying:** Without centralized control, the influence of external entities on the platform’s content would be significantly diminished, preserving the objectivity of the scientific record. - **Foster Open Collaboration:** A decentralized approach aligns with the principles of open science, encouraging global collaboration without the constraints of centralized oversight or bias introduced by big pharma lobby. ## Conclusion While PubMed and PMC have been instrumental in advancing access to scientific literature, their centralized nature leaves them vulnerable to manipulation and external pressures. A shift toward a decentralized, censorship-resistant platform would address these vulnerabilities and provide a more robust and trustless repository for scientific knowledge. Groundbreaking research that dares to challenge the pharmaceutical industry's status quo could be published anonymously, following in the footsteps of the Bitcoin whitepaper's pseudonymous author, Satoshi Nakamoto. Leveraging technologies like the Nostr protocol, the research community can build a system that ensures the permanence, integrity, and impartiality of the scientific record for generations to come.

@ e1d968f7:5d90f764

When I first started escorting, I didn’t fully grasp the importance of planning for the future. At first, it was all about meeting clients, handling inquiries, and navigating the emotional challenges. But as time passed, I realised this wasn’t just a job—it was a stepping stone for building a secure and fulfilling life. --- ### **The Meaning of Investment** Investing in myself doesn’t only mean financial planning (though that’s a big part of it). It also means dedicating time and energy to personal growth, self-care, and education. This job has taught me that my body, mind, and skills are my most valuable assets, and I need to nurture them. - **Financial Security:** The unpredictability of this work makes financial planning essential. I’ve set up savings goals, started learning about investments, and ensured I have a safety net. My future self will thank me for every penny I’ve saved. - **Skill Development:** Escorting offers a unique skill set—communication, emotional intelligence, and business acumen. I’ve looked into courses and certifications to expand these skills further, knowing they’ll benefit me long after I leave the industry. --- ### **Self-Care as an Investment** Taking care of myself is more than a necessity; it’s a form of self-investment. When I prioritise my health, happiness, and well-being, I can show up as my best self for my clients and for my personal goals. - **Health First:** Regular check-ups, a healthy diet, and fitness routines are non-negotiable. This isn’t just about looking good but feeling good and staying strong in the long run. - **Mental Wellness:** Therapy and mindfulness practices help me process the emotional ups and downs of the job. Protecting my mental health ensures I stay resilient and focused. --- ### **The Bigger Picture** I’ve started to think long-term. What do I want my life to look like in five, ten, or even twenty years? Escorting is a chapter, not the whole story. I’m exploring passions, hobbies, and potential career paths that align with who I am and who I want to become. - **Diversifying Income:** Beyond savings, I’m exploring other revenue streams, like investments or side projects. It’s empowering to know that my financial stability doesn’t depend on just one source. - **Future Aspirations:** Whether it’s furthering my education, starting a business, or simply achieving a sense of independence, having goals keeps me motivated. --- ### **Empowerment Through Planning** Investing in myself has transformed how I view my work and my life. This isn’t just about surviving today; it’s about thriving tomorrow. Every hour I put into improving myself, every pound I save, and every skill I hone is a step toward a brighter, more secure future. --- ### **Conclusion** The escorting world can be unpredictable, but by investing in myself and my future, I’ve found a sense of stability and purpose. It’s not just about what I do today but about setting myself up for the life I want tomorrow. Each day is an opportunity to grow, build, and prepare for the next chapter. Rebecca x

@ 000002de:c05780a7

Anyone else noticing their LN address not working with Minibits? originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/860143

@ 93eeb56c:9469e39a

## 💀 Introducing No Good Kid --- <br> After 15 years of working as a graphic designer, marketer, and brand therapist, I recently started to feel the urgency to start a project of my own. I feel out of tune with the state of mainstream marketing today—sterile aesthetics, overstated presentations, and endless battle for attention on centralized social media. So, I’m introducing No Good Kid. And as you can guess from the title, No Good Kid targets both creators and audiences who don’t exactly fit the status quo. No Good Kid is the creative’s alter ego. It’s an identity that can be shared and serves as a label under which we can collaborate to create cool projects. <br><br> ## 🪩 What is it? --- <br> I think of it as an identity—the creative’s alter ego, if you will—that can be shared among creators and serve as a label under which we can collaborate and create. And the result can be anything, from a marketing campaign to original music production. There are no borders. If the party is right, anything can happen. In the spirit of gamma personalities, there will be no agency, leader, or hierarchy. My hope is that the projects will reflect values such as freedom and solidarity. But it’s entirely up to the creators. Feel free to use the No Good Kid identity, share your project, or reach out if I can help. <br><br> ## 🔥 Projects released so far --- <br> <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/9eba693703b32501b8923dd7681cc741a611f4a37d62c8daf119604e358e1ccc.jpg"> ### whistleblower10 In 2024, I crafted a campaign for Amnesty International CZ which led to Amnesty accepting Bitcoin donations for a limited time. [whistleblower10 website→](https://whistleblower10.xyz/)\ [project design→](https://dribbble.com/shots/25151791-whistleblower10-Amnesty-International-CZ)<br> <br><br> <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/aa5a200a87d8558a0b3bc05d67886e76674de6b54c3e54a3d98fe12f203443a5.jpg"> ### The Nocoiner Syndrome By the end of last year, The Nocoiner Syndrome was published by Institute of Cryptoanarchy—a research paper written by Peter Horváth that rebutted the ECB’s statement about Bitcoin being on “the road to irrelevance.” [Institute of Cryptoanarchy website→](https://cryptoanarchy.institute/)\ [project design→](https://dribbble.com/shots/25151801-The-Nocoiner-Syndrome-Institute-of-Cryptoanarchy) <br><br> ## ☮️ Vision --- <br> There is no need to place a label on this project. I want No Good Kid to be a tool to connect beliefs and hopes with skills in the name of freedom. Let me know what you think of the idea, or if you have a project in mind. Be well, and stay no good. dworis 💀 <br><br> #### 🥁 Follow No Good Kid: https://nogoodkid.com/ npub1j0ht2m9jgs6mccyvkffd2dlnfusmqfx9mjlwg6fsmfwxm9rfuwdq40w6rf npub1uwglfjet0m2regqhmgeygc2tc75ngezl8fhftgzhaqas9rjeny8sdztml4 <br><br> --- --- ## 🔥 Thanks for reading Enjoyed this article? **⚡️ Zap some sats**<br> literalpersian75(at)walletofsatoshi.com **💀 No Good Kid projects & portfolio**<br> <https://nogoodkid.com/> **👥 Let’s connect on Nostr**<br> npub1j0ht2m9jgs6mccyvkffd2dlnfusmqfx9mjlwg6fsmfwxm9rfuwdq40w6rf

@ b17fccdf:b7211155

### **What's changed** ----------- - [New bonus guide dedicated to install/upgrade/uninstall PostgreSQL](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/postgresql) - [Modified the LND guide to use PostgreSQL instead of bbolt](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning/lightning-client) - [Modified the Nostr relay guide to use PostgreSQL instead of SQLite (experimental)](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/nostr/nostr-relay) - [Modified the BTCPay Server bonus guide according to these changes](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/bitcoin/btcpay-server) - Used the [lndinit MiniBolt organization fork](https://github.com/minibolt-guide/lndinit), to add an [extra section to migrate an existing LND bbolt database to PostgreSQL](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning/lightning-client#migrate-an-existing-bbolt-database-to-postgresql) (🚨⚠️[Experimental](https://github.com/lightninglabs/lndinit/pull/21) - use it behind your responsibility⚠️🚨) - [New Golang bonus guide](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/go) as a common language for the [lndinit compilation](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning/lightning-client#install-lndinit) - [Updated LND to v0.18](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning/lightning-client#download-binaries) - [New Bitcoin Core extra section to renovate Tor & I2P addresses](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bitcoin/bitcoin/bitcoin-client#renovate-your-bitcoin-core-tor-and-i2p-addresses) - [New Bitcoin Core extra section to generate a full `bitcoin.conf` file](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bitcoin/bitcoin/bitcoin-client#generate-a-full-bitcoin.conf-example-file) - [Rebuilt some homepage sections and general structure](https://minibolt.minibolt.info//) - Deleted the `$` symbol of the commands to easy copy-paste to the terminal - [Deleted the initial incoming and the outgoing rules configuration of UFW, due to it being by default](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/system/system/security) --- 🪧 PD: If you want to use the old database backend of the LND or Nostr relay, follow the next extra sections: - [Use the default bbolt database backend for the LND](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning/lightning-client#use-the-default-bbolt-database-backend) - [Use the default SQLite database backend for the Nostr relay](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/bitcoin/nostr-relay#use-the-default-sqlite-database-backend) ⚠️**Attention**⚠️: [The migration process](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning/lightning-client#migrate-an-existing-bbolt-database-to-postgresql) was tested on testnet mode from an existing bbolt database backend to a new PostgreSQL database using lndinit and the results were successful. However, It wasn't tested on mainnet, [according to the developer](https://github.com/lightninglabs/lndinit/pull/21), it is in experimental status which could damage your existing LND database.🚨 Use it behind your responsibility 🧼 --- **🔧 PR related**: https://github.com/minibolt-guide/minibolt/pull/93 ----------- #### ♻️ Migrate the PostgreSQL database location > **Attention!!** These instructions are invalid since the latest changes applied to the [PostgreSQL bonus guide](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/postgresql). See more information on the recent associated post by clicking ~ > [HERE](https://habla.news/u/twofaktor@twofaktor.github.io/1735902560910) < ~ If you installed [NBXplorer + BTCPay Server](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/bitcoin/btcpay-server) **before 05/06/2024**, it is probably you have the database of the PostgreSQL cluster on the default path (`/var/lib/postgresql/16/main/`), follow the next instructions to migrate it to the new dedicated location on `/data/postgresdb` folder: * With user `admin` create the dedicated PostgreSQL data folder ``` sudo mkdir /data/postgresdb ``` * Assign as the owner to the `postgres` user ``` sudo chown postgres:postgres /data/postgresdb ``` * Assign permissions of the data folder only to the `postgres` user ``` sudo chmod -R 700 /data/postgresdb ``` * Stop NBXplorer and BTCPay Server ``` sudo systemctl stop nbxplorer && sudo systemctl stop btcpayserver ``` * Stop PostgreSQL ``` sudo systemctl stop postgresql ``` * Use the rsync command to copy all files from the existing database on (`/var/lib/postgresql/16/main`) to the new destination directory (`/data/postgresdb`) ``` sudo rsync -av /var/lib/postgresql/16/main/ /data/postgresdb/ ``` Expected output: ``` sending incremental file list ./ PG_VERSION postgresql.auto.conf postmaster.opts postmaster.pid base/ base/1/ base/1/112 base/1/113 base/1/1247 base/1/1247_fsm base/1/1247_vm base/1/1249 base/1/1249_fsm base/1/1249_vm [...] pg_wal/000000010000000000000009 pg_wal/archive_status/ pg_xact/ pg_xact/0000 sent 164,483,875 bytes received 42,341 bytes 36,561,381.33 bytes/sec total size is 164,311,368 speedup is 1.00 ``` * Edit the PostgreSQL data directory on configuration, to redirect the store to the new location ``` sudo nano /etc/postgresql/16/main/postgresql.conf --linenumbers ``` * Replace the line 42 to this. Save and exit ``` data_directory = '/data/postgresdb' ``` * Start PostgreSQL to apply changes and monitor the correct status of the main instance and sub-instance monitoring sessions before ``` sudo systemctl start postgresql ``` * You can monitor the PostgreSQL main instance by the systemd journal and check the log output to ensure all is correct. You can exit the monitoring at any time with Ctrl-C ``` journalctl -fu postgresql ``` Example of the expected output: ``` Nov 08 11:51:10 minibolt systemd[1]: Stopped PostgreSQL RDBMS. Nov 08 11:51:10 minibolt systemd[1]: Stopping PostgreSQL RDBMS... Nov 08 11:51:13 minibolt systemd[1]: Starting PostgreSQL RDBMS... Nov 08 11:51:13 minibolt systemd[1]: Finished PostgreSQL RDBMS. ``` * You can monitor the PostgreSQL sub-instance by the systemd journal and check log output to ensure all is correct. You can exit monitoring at any time with Ctrl-C ``` journalctl -fu postgresql@16-main ``` Example of the expected output: ``` Nov 08 11:51:10 minibolt systemd[1]: Stopping PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main... Nov 08 11:51:11 minibolt systemd[1]: postgresql@16-main.service: Succeeded. Nov 08 11:51:11 minibolt systemd[1]: Stopped PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main. Nov 08 11:51:11 minibolt systemd[1]: postgresql@16-main.service: Consumed 1h 10min 8.677s CPU time. Nov 08 11:51:11 minibolt systemd[1]: Starting PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main... Nov 08 11:51:13 minibolt systemd[1]: Started PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main. ``` * Start NBXplorer and BTCPay Server again ``` sudo systemctl start nbxplorer && sudo systemctl start btcpayserver ``` * Monitor to make sure everything is as you left it. You can exit monitoring at any time by pressing Ctrl+C ``` journalctl -fu nbxplorer ``` --- ``` journalctl -fu btcpayserver ``` --- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

@ eee391ee:8d0b97c2

## Amber 3.1.9 - Add missing logs for relay errors - Change listen for new connections button text and icons Download it with [zap.store]( https://zapstore.dev/download), [Obtainium]( https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium), [f-droid]( https://f-droid.org/packages/com.greenart7c3.nostrsigner) or download it directly in the [releases page]( https://github.com/greenart7c3/Amber/releases/tag/v3.1.9) If you like my work consider making a [donation]( https://greenart7c3.com) ## Verifying the release In order to verify the release, you'll need to have `gpg` or `gpg2` installed on your system. Once you've obtained a copy (and hopefully verified that as well), you'll first need to import the keys that have signed this release if you haven't done so already: ``` bash gpg --keyserver hkps://keys.openpgp.org --recv-keys 44F0AAEB77F373747E3D5444885822EED3A26A6D ``` Once you have his PGP key you can verify the release (assuming `manifest-v3.1.9.txt` and `manifest-v3.1.9.txt.sig` are in the current directory) with: ``` bash gpg --verify manifest-v3.1.9.txt.sig manifest-v3.1.9.txt ``` You should see the following if the verification was successful: ``` bash gpg: Signature made Fri 13 Sep 2024 08:06:52 AM -03 gpg: using RSA key 44F0AAEB77F373747E3D5444885822EED3A26A6D gpg: Good signature from "greenart7c3 <greenart7c3@proton.me>" ``` That will verify the signature on the main manifest page which ensures integrity and authenticity of the binaries you've downloaded locally. Next, depending on your operating system you should then re-calculate the sha256 sum of the binary, and compare that with the following hashes: ``` bash cat manifest-v3.1.9.txt ``` One can use the `shasum -a 256 <file name here>` tool in order to re-compute the `sha256` hash of the target binary for your operating system. The produced hash should be compared with the hashes listed above and they should match exactly.

@ 00eba731:09746909

Managing risks is crucial for business success, as it helps protect operations and ensure stability in uncertain situations. This infographic provides an overview of effective [risk management strategies](https://www.asialinkfinance.com.ph/articles/blog/business-risk-management/), including identifying potential risks, assessing their impact, and implementing measures to mitigate them, helping businesses stay resilient and prepared. [Infographic](https://www.asialinkfinance.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AsiaLink-info10-p2.png)

@ 6be5cc06:5259daf0

A seguir, veja como instalar e configurar o **Privoxy** no **Pop!_OS**. --- ### **1. Instalar o Tor e o Privoxy** Abra o terminal e execute: ```bash sudo apt update sudo apt install tor privoxy ``` **Explicação:** - **Tor:** Roteia o tráfego pela rede Tor. - **Privoxy:** Proxy avançado que intermedia a conexão entre aplicativos e o Tor. --- ### **2. Configurar o Privoxy** Abra o arquivo de configuração do Privoxy: ```bash sudo nano /etc/privoxy/config ``` Navegue até a última linha (atalho: **`Ctrl`** + **`/`** depois **`Ctrl`** + **`V`** para navegar diretamente até a última linha) e insira: ```bash forward-socks5 / 127.0.0.1:9050 . ``` Isso faz com que o **Privoxy** envie todo o tráfego para o **Tor** através da porta **9050**. Salve (**`CTRL`** + **`O`** e **`Enter`**) e feche (**`CTRL`** + **`X`**) o arquivo. --- ### **3. Iniciar o Tor e o Privoxy** Agora, inicie e habilite os serviços: ```bash sudo systemctl start tor sudo systemctl start privoxy sudo systemctl enable tor sudo systemctl enable privoxy ``` **Explicação:** - **start:** Inicia os serviços. - **enable:** Faz com que iniciem automaticamente ao ligar o PC. --- ### **4. Configurar o Navegador Firefox** Para usar a rede **Tor** com o Firefox: 1. Abra o Firefox. 2. Acesse **Configurações** → **Configurar conexão**. 3. Selecione **Configuração manual de proxy**. 4. Configure assim: - **Proxy HTTP:** `127.0.0.1` - **Porta:** `8118` (porta padrão do **Privoxy**) - **Domínio SOCKS (v5):** `127.0.0.1` - **Porta:** `9050` 5. Marque a opção **"Usar este proxy também em HTTPS"**. 6. Clique em **OK**. --- ### **5. Verificar a Conexão com o Tor** Abra o navegador e acesse: ```text https://check.torproject.org/ ``` Se aparecer a mensagem **"Congratulations. This browser is configured to use Tor."**, a configuração está correta. --- ### **Dicas Extras** - **Privoxy** pode ser ajustado para bloquear anúncios e rastreadores. - Outros aplicativos também podem ser configurados para usar o **Privoxy**.

@ 16d11430:61640947

In a world drowning in Monopoly money, where people celebrate government-mandated inflation as "economic growth," it takes a special kind of clarity—nay, cynicism—to rise above the fiat circus. This is your guide to shedding your fiat f**ks and embracing the serene chaos of sound money, all while laughing at the absurdity of a world gone fiat-mad. --- 1. Don’t Feed the Clowns You know the clowns I’m talking about: central bankers in their tailored suits and smug smirks, wielding "tools" like interest rates and quantitative easing. Their tools are as real as a magician's wand, conjuring trillions of dollars out of thin air to keep their Ponzi economy afloat. Rule #1: Don’t engage. If a clown offers you a hot take about the "strength of the dollar," smile, nod, and silently wonder how many cups of coffee their paycheck buys this month. Spoiler: fewer than last month. --- 2. Turn Off the Fiat News Do you really need another breathless headline about the next trillion-dollar deficit? Or the latest clickbait on why you should care about the stock market's emotional rollercoaster? Mainstream media exists to distract you, to keep you tethered to their illusion of importance. Turn it off. Replace it with something sound, like the Bitcoin whitepaper. Or Nietzsche. At least Nietzsche knew we were doomed. --- 3. Mock Their Inflationary Gospel Fiat apologists will tell you that inflation is "necessary" and that 2% a year is a "healthy target." Sure, because a little robbery every year keeps society functioning, right? Ask them this: "If 2% is healthy, why not 20%? Why not 200%? Why not Venezuela?" Fiat logic is like a bad acid trip: entertaining at first, but it quickly spirals into existential horror. --- 4. Celebrate the Fiat Freakshow Sometimes, the best way to resist the fiat clown show is to revel in its absurdity. Watch politicians print money like teenagers running up a credit card bill at Hot Topic, then watch the economists applaud it as "stimulus." It’s performance art, really. Andy Warhol could never. --- 5. Build in the Chaos While the fiat world burns, Bitcoiners build. This is the ultimate "not giving a fiat f**k" move: creating a parallel economy, one satoshi at a time. Run your Lightning node, stack sats, and laugh as the fiat circus consumes itself in a flaming pile of its own debt. Let them argue about who gets to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. You’re busy designing lifeboats. --- 6. Adopt a Fiat-Free Lifestyle Fiat-free living means minimizing your entanglement with their clown currency. Buy meat, not ETFs. Trade skills, not IOUs. Tip your barber in Bitcoin and ask if your landlord accepts Lightning. If they say no, chuckle and say, “You’ll learn soon enough.” Every satoshi spent in the real economy is a slap in the face to the fiat overlords. --- 7. Find the Humor in Collapse Here’s the thing: the fiat system is unsustainable. You know it, I know it, even the clowns know it. The whole charade is destined to collapse under its own weight. When it does, find solace in the absurdity of it all. Imagine the central bankers explaining hyperinflation to the public: "Turns out we can't print infinity after all." Pure comedy gold. --- 8. Stay Ruthlessly Optimistic Despite the doom and gloom, there’s hope. Bitcoin is hope. It’s the lifeboat for humanity, the cheat code to escape the fiat matrix. Cynicism doesn’t mean nihilism; it means seeing the rot for what it is and choosing to build something better. So, don’t just reject the fiat clown show—replace it. Create a world where money is sound, transactions are sovereign, and wealth is measured in energy, not debt. --- Final Thought: Burn the Tent Down Aldous Huxley once envisioned a dystopia where people are so distracted by their own hedonistic consumption that they don’t realize they’re enslaved. Sound familiar? The fiat clown show is Brave New World on steroids, a spectacle designed to keep you pacified while your wealth evaporates. But here’s the punchline: they can only enslave you if you care. By rejecting their system, you strip them of their power. So let them juggle their debts, inflate their bubbles, and print their trillions. You’ve got Bitcoin, and Bitcoin doesn’t give a fiat f**k. Welcome to the satirical resistance. Now go stack some sats.

@ 5adb967d:ac1f7d04

In this information age, radio communication has penetrated into every aspect of life. Whether it is government affairs, military, business, or personal privacy, may be subject to eavesdropping and radio wave harassment. In the face of this grim reality, how to build an impenetrable line of defense for the key confidential communications, has become an extremely urgent issue. Communication shielding, is to effectively block eavesdropping interference, to ensure absolute communication security of the magic weapon. Communication shielding protection principle, is the use of masking performance of electromagnetic [rf jammer](https://www.thejammerblocker.com/uhf-vhf-lojack-rf-jammer/) materials, in the device around the formation of a “static area”. Into this special space, any radio wave signals will be completely blocked out, can not penetrate them. Whether it is the most advanced passive eavesdropping equipment, or intentional harassment of active electromagnetic interference, in this invulnerable “static area” in front of, all will be completely off, out of action. In fact, electromagnetic shielding technology has long been popular in the military field. The core components of countless advanced weapons and equipment, are closely protected by this material to ensure that the key system from the outside world interference. Some special places also widely used fixed shielding facilities, to create an absolutely reliable quiet environment. However, today, mobile offices and field operations are becoming more and more common, and the traditional fixed shielding facilities are difficult to meet the flexible deployment requirements. Therefore, portable communication shielding has emerged as the best on-site confidentiality protection tool. Simply press the power button, most portable shielding can be immediately effective. Their powerful electromagnetic [recording jammer](https://www.thejammerblocker.com/audio-recorder-jammers/) ability, enough to form a “static area radius” within a few meters to dozens of meters in the surrounding area. As long as you enter, no matter what kind of unauthorized eavesdropping equipment, radio interference sources, all will be hard “static zone barrier” intercepted. Users in this safe space, you can carry out all kinds of confidential calls, video conferencing or secret work, absolutely foolproof, free from any prying eyes and harassment. At the same time, another great use of the shield is to prevent the leakage of radio signals and loss of confidentiality. That is to say, the important content basically will not be from the “static area” out of half a signal, fundamentally blocked the worries. This “two-way shielding” role, making the communication shield has become the key confidential communication field of choice. Whether it is a government agency's classified meeting, or business company's trade secrets, or even personal privacy, as long as the absolute security of the “quiet zone”, everything will be easy. Moreover, the latest generation of communication [drone jammers](https://www.thejammerblocker.com/drone-uavs-jammers-blockers/) can also be based on demand, the specific 2G/3G/4G/5G/WIFI and other frequency bands to implement precise selective shielding. This allows the user to take into account both communication protection and ease of use, really make the best use of things, twice the result with half the effort. In the current complex environment with many hidden dangers, communication [network blocker](https://www.thejammerblocker.com/) is undoubtedly an indispensable “last line of defense” for important confidential communications. With it, no matter what kind of radio wave torture, any eavesdropping interference soul will have no place to hide. It can be said that this small and exquisite “secrecy magic weapon”, will draw a quiet and safe for the important affairs of the absolute territory. 3. [https://open.substack.com/pub/thejammerblocker/p/admiralty-protection-shielding-for?r=4tc4gn&utm\_campaign=post&utm\_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true](https://open.substack.com/pub/thejammerblocker/p/admiralty-protection-shielding-for?r=4tc4gn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true) 4. [https://thejammerblockershop.writestellar.com/dui2gfo](https://thejammerblockershop.writestellar.com/dui2gfo)

@ b83e6f82:73c27758

## Citrine 0.7.1 - Add the restore follows button back - Show notification when backing up database - Listen for pokey broadcasts Download it with [zap.store]( https://zap.store/download), [Obtainium]( https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium), [f-droid]( https://f-droid.org/packages/com.greenart7c3.citrine) or download it directly in the [releases page ]( https://github.com/greenart7c3/Citrine/releases/tag/v0.7.1) If you like my work consider making a [donation]( https://greenart7c3.com) ## Verifying the release In order to verify the release, you'll need to have `gpg` or `gpg2` installed on your system. Once you've obtained a copy (and hopefully verified that as well), you'll first need to import the keys that have signed this release if you haven't done so already: ``` bash gpg --keyserver hkps://keys.openpgp.org --recv-keys 44F0AAEB77F373747E3D5444885822EED3A26A6D ``` Once you have his PGP key you can verify the release (assuming `manifest-v0.7.1.txt` and `manifest-v0.7.1.txt.sig` are in the current directory) with: ``` bash gpg --verify manifest-v0.7.1.txt.sig manifest-v0.7.1.txt ``` You should see the following if the verification was successful: ``` bash gpg: Signature made Fri 13 Sep 2024 08:06:52 AM -03 gpg: using RSA key 44F0AAEB77F373747E3D5444885822EED3A26A6D gpg: Good signature from "greenart7c3 <greenart7c3@proton.me>" ``` That will verify the signature on the main manifest page which ensures integrity and authenticity of the binaries you've downloaded locally. Next, depending on your operating system you should then re-calculate the sha256 sum of the binary, and compare that with the following hashes: ``` bash cat manifest-v0.7.1.txt ``` One can use the `shasum -a 256 <file name here>` tool in order to re-compute the `sha256` hash of the target binary for your operating system. The produced hash should be compared with the hashes listed above and they should match exactly.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

I just completed my 5th steps challenge on Workit (only available on iOS, sorry). This challenge was 10k steps every day for two weeks. Of course, these were the coldest two weeks of the year, so many of those steps were indoors. The buy-in/stake was 25k sats and the payout was 28,608, which was a little less than I expected. I don't think the winners of the bonus rewards have been announced yet, so there may still be another 40k coming my way (but, probably not). So far, I've netted over 50k on these challenges. What a great way to stay healthy, while stacking sats. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/860122

@ a853296a:209e695f

🎙️ Howdy cowboys, stackers and podcast enthusiasts! 🤠 Last week we released [**Pull That Up Jamie**](https://pullthatupjamie.ai/?searchMode=podcast-search). 🚀 Today we're thrilled to announce an upgrade to **The Fastest Podcast Search in the West** 🤠 with significant UX improvements! Check out the full details in the [(announcement post)](https://stacker.news/items/852635). 📰 --- ### **🔥 Fast Jamie Rundown**: - 🛠️ **18 high-signal Bitcoin and lifestyle podcasts** for lightning-fast insights ⚡ - 🔗 **Share podcast clips** with exact timestamps and a dedicated landing page - 📱 **Listen and explore** from mobile or desktop browser — smooth and seamless! - 🚀 **Enhanced hybrid keyword and embeddings search** for lightning-fast performance & spot-on results --- ### **🏆 Highlights**  🎧 _Learning about **P2P rights legal work** on Samourai and Tornado Cash with Zach Shapiro on Citadel Dispatch @ODELL [(deeplink)](https://pullthatupjamie.ai/share?clip=df8da274-7920-4b6b-b1fc-a715076e89a8_p40)_  🎧 _@nicktee highlighted this **Bitcoin Optech** gem on BOLT12 blinded paths [(clip deeplink)](https://pullthatupjamie.ai/share?clip=d061904c-4317-4a58-9da9-76c2faa39e08_p142)_  🎧 _@futurepaul's chat with @TheGuySwann on Mutiny's pivot to **Open Secret** [(clip deeplink)](https://pullthatupjamie.ai/share?clip=https___permalink_castos_com_podcast_59707_episode_1931494_p119)_ --- ### **🚀 Future Development**: - 🎙️ **Expanding podcast feeds**: From sports and health to AI and theology! - 🌐 **Integrating with Jamie Web Search** for a unified search experience - 🤖 **More automation** for seamless use - 🚨 **More [REDACTED]**... stay tuned for epic updates! 😉 --- 🤠 Giddy-up, and happy listening, y’all! Let us know your thoughts in the comments! 🗣️ originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/860053

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

When I read this verse, I saw something I had never seen before. > A servant who acts wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully,\ > And will share in the inheritance among brothers. (Proverbs 17:2) I had taken this by its plain meaning about a servant and a son and how they will be treated based on their actions, but I think there is more to this. In the *Old Testament*, the Bible hints at God’s plan for mankind which would include more than just God’s chosen people, Israel. > since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? (Genesis 18:18) In the *New Testament*, this prediction is expanded upon: > The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you .” (Galatians 3:8) All nations will be blessed through Abraham and Jacob, especially through Israel. What does the Bible say about the relationship between Jews, gentiles, and salvation? > I say then, they \[Jews/Israel\] did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But **by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles**, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too. > > But **if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches**; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? (Romans 11:11-24) The Jews are God’s chosen people, but many have rejected their God and Savior. Because of this, God cut off their branch from the root and grafted in chosen gentiles. The new vine is made up of both Jew and gentile. Now let’s look back at the verse I started with: > A servant who acts wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully,\ > And will share in the inheritance among brothers. (Proverbs 17:2) Could God be warning the Israelites, that if they act shamefully, they will have to share their inheritance with the gentiles who will partake of the blessings of God towards His chosen people? Obviously God had a plan. He knew every choice every person would make and is able to control any decision He wishes. Still, I think this was a warning to Israel. Just as I never saw it when reading this verse many times, the Jews didn’t see the warning because they thought their position was secure despite their actions. Those who are truly chosen and are truly children of God, will choose to serve and obey God. They will not reject Him. They may make mistakes, but they will always turn back to Him and seek to serve and please Him. I pray that you will be or are grafted into the true vine, Jesus Christ our Savior. Trust Jesus.

@ 6b57533f:eaa341f5

Erik Prince · 30 April 2024 How the MIC and the Neocons Keep America Losing It is painfully apparent to anyone of sound mind and judgment that there’s something gravely wrong with America’s current military capacity and our ability to project power in the world. The WWII-era fighting force composed of fourteen million GIs with a muscular industrial base backing them up is almost unimaginable today. In the last three years, five different US embassies have been hastily evacuated: Sudan, Afghanistan, Belarus, Ukraine, and Niger. Americans are held hostage in Gaza; commercial shipping traffic is blockaded and our ground and naval forces are shot at daily with impunity. How did America go from winning the Cold War and becoming the sole global superpower in the 90s to the state of disarray that we find ourselves in now? One reason is financial. All warfare has an underlying economic basis and a nation’s military power reflects its economic structure. Today in America the “exorbitant privilege” of the US dollar and the unlimited printing press of fiat currency it enables means current US defense spending is essentially covered by debt: indeed at least 30% of the current national debt consists of military overspend from the so-called Global War on Terror. This reality has created an absence of strategic discipline, and a military policy that prioritizes a tiny guild of contractors feeding an obese top-heavy structure rather than winning wars. The roots of the current situation reach back to the election of Reagan in 1980. Reagan started a pivot from 35 years of containment to a more aggressive approach, covered by deficits. Channeled economically, politically, culturally, socially, and through covert action these measures helped to bring an end to the Soviet Union, but at a critical strategic cost. Partly as a consequence of the central economic role that the USSR had come to play for the US defense industry, the opportunity to positively engage with Russia after 1991 was rejected by the dominant neoconservative faction and their military-industrial complex allies in Washington. Originally Trotskyites, the Neocons had taken root in the corporatist wing of the Republican Party and gradually increased in influence, to eventually become dominant in the Washington Beltway foreign policy and emblematic of its mentality of continuous warfare funded by an unlimited fiat printing press. The so-called “Peace Dividend” that followed the end of the Cold War was redirected into expanding NATO instead of ending it. The goal was to enrich the military-industrial complex by creating more clients to buy US weapons, at the expense of the opportunity to partner with Russia. Promises of not expanding NATO eastward into former Warsaw Pact countries were broken and NATO troops were deployed on Russia’s border. The priorities of Neocon Washington were also projected into US policy in Africa. After Liberian warlord Charles Taylor sponsored the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone in the late ’90s, the RUF quickly captured most of the country, particularly the diamond-rich areas of the north. In the process they committed atrocious acts of savagery against Sierra Leone’s civilian population. Into this maelstrom entered Executive Outcomes (EO), a South African PMC. EO initially deployed 60 ex-South African Special Forces personnel fresh from ending a civil war that had raged for years in Angola, and eventually expanded to around 200 well-trained personnel. Using mostly equipment abandoned by Sierra Leone’s disintegrated army, within 6 months they’d retaken the country and restored peace and order to the extent that free and fair elections could be held 3 months later. Executive Outcomes was sponsored by an association of diamond miners who wanted their mines back. This group was willing to sponsor an ongoing 30-man EO presence to retrain a new Sierra Leone armed forces while providing a backstop in case the rebels returned. Susan Rice, then Bill Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, vetoed this proposal: “We don’t want any white mercenaries in Africa,” she declared. The result? Within months the RUF and a new group called the West Side Boys had returned, killing, looting, and pillaging the country. 11,000 UN Peacekeepers at a cost of $1B+ per year in 1990s US dollars were now deployed. But they didn’t solve the problem, and not until the British SAS killed hundreds of rebels during a large hostage rescue mission of Irish Peacekeepers did the country start to stabilize. This debacle in West Africa occurred on the heels of an even greater catastrophe further East. In the spring of 1994, after decades of simmering ethnic hatred in Rwanda, the Hutus launched a program of manual genocide. Over a four-month period they killed almost 1,000,000 of their Tutsi neighbors, a murder rate exceeding 8,000 per day, mainly using machetes and farm tools. Here as well EO made a formal proposal to the UN and the US government to intervene and prevent further slaughter. The proposal was also rejected by Rice in Washington. EO stayed out and the carnage continued unabated until Paul Kagame’s exiled Rwandan Patriotic Front invaded from Uganda and retook the country. *** By the late 90s, with Washington engaged in combat in the former Yugoslavia, a new kind of enemy was emerging: jihadist Islam. In 1993 a poorly conceived and badly executed nation-building exercise in Somalia had already supplied a foretaste when the Battle of Mogadishu resulted in the death of 18 US Special Operations personnel and 73 wounded after repeated requests for air support were rejected by an indecisive Clinton administration. By 1999, unanswered attacks in Nairobi, Dar As Salaam, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and New York had claimed hundreds of lives and mauled a US Destroyer, USS Cole. Finally, on Sept 11th, 2001, this series of body blows reached its spectacular culmination. In the aftermath of 9/11, President Bush met with his War Cabinet to plan a response to the costliest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. As the Pentagon smoldered, the Department of Defense recommended a bombing campaign and a Ranger raid against an Al Qaeda-linked farm, but wanted to wait at least six months before beginning combat operations in order to avoid the Afghan winter. The CIA, for their part, recommended an Unconventional Warfare campaign. They wanted to supercharge the Northern Alliance, who’d been fighting the Taliban for a decade, with US airpower directed by SOF advisors. The CIA plan was adopted. The Taliban and their guests Al-Qaeda were routed in weeks by a highly aggressive SOF targeting cycle which gave them no quarter. The US response to 9/11 should have resembled a Scipio Africanus-style Roman punitive raid, killing all Taliban and Al-Qaeda remnants within reach, including those sheltering in the tribal areas of Pakistan, and then withdrawing. Instead, the Neocons saw a lucrative opportunity to ‘nation build’. Because the Pentagon runs on the bureaucratic principle of budget cycles and the internal war for promotion rather than the principle of victory, a vastly inflated occupational army ultimately comprising 120,000 soldiers was deployed to the country. This force represented a repetition of the failed Soviet plan of the 80s, to the extent of occupying the same bases. Ignoring every historical lesson of successful counter-insurgencies, experienced soldiers were rotated on 6-12 month intervals with fresh units, losing all continuity and local intelligence. The top commander spot rotated 18 times in 20 years. Concerned as per usual with marketing for their defense contractor clients, the Neocons dragged dozens of largely unwilling NATO members to Afghanistan, producing a dysfunctional chaos of individual national mandates. Many nations wouldn’t patrol at night or engage in offensive combat missions. When the German army arrived in Kabul in the spring of 2002, among their concerns was finding appropriate housing for all the gay couples deployed in the Bundeswehr. The Neocon plan for Afghanistan, or at least the story, was to impose a centralized Jeffersonian democracy on a largely illiterate, semi-feudal tribal nation by throwing infinite money at a paper-thin civil society. The result, unsurprisingly, was corruption, not infrastructure. Meanwhile, the military operation remained chaos incarnate. Not only was there never a truly empowered supreme commander, but authorities were split between the US Ambassador, CIA Station chief, the current 4-star US General, the CENTCOM Commander and their staff residing in Qatar or Tampa, and various representatives from NATO. This committee from Hell produced predictable results. In the 1980s the US provided lethal aid to the Mujahedeen fighting the Soviets running to $1B a year including state-of-the-art Stinger missiles, which knocked down an average of one Soviet aircraft per day. Nobody provided this kind of aid to the Taliban: not one NATO/Coalition aircraft was lost to a guided missile. But air supremacy wasn’t enough. The Taliban were a self-funded insurgency composed of mostly illiterate fighters using weapons designed more than 70 years earlier. Although they lacked the techno-wizardry of the Pentagon forces, their budget grew to approximately $600mm per year from tolling narcotics and the import of fuel used to feed a thirsty Pentagon presence. Fuel logistics alone cost the Pentagon tens of billions per year, despite the fact that a vast reserve of crude – Amu-Darya Field in Balkh Province Afghanistan – had been drilled, proven and properly cemented by Soviet forces before they left in 1989. But what could have supplied the entire Afghanistan operation with low-cost, reliable hydrocarbon energy was ignored in favor of paying, by the time the fuel reached the vehicles, an operational cost of $250 per gallon. President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (1987) / President George H.W. Bush talks to reporters about US military operations in Iraq, flanked by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Chair of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell (1991) / George Bush with Dick Cheney and senior staff in the President’s Emergency Operations Center in Washington in the hours following the 9/11 attacks (2001) It’s fair to compare the longevity of the Soviet-built Afghan forces, holding on for years after the Soviets left, versus the Pentagon-built Afghan forces collapsing only weeks after the American withdrawal. Today of course the Taliban rule Afghanistan with an iron sandal. The trillions of dollars and thousands of lives expended by America’s youth were completely wasted – and nobody has ever been held to account. The Taliban have not become more moderate – they are exactly the same group as before and hosting more terror groups than ever. Al Qaeda is resident once again in Kabul, and now known to be gathering means to enrich uranium in Afghanistan. Afghanistan wasn’t even the worst US military failure over the last twenty years. Almost exactly the same Neocon fever dream also played out in Iraq. Here again the fantasy of deposing a dictator in the name of installing democracy in a country with a culture with no history of representative democracy followed its inevitable course. After an initial phase of 24/7 war porn of the US invasion, broadcast by the network media through “embedded journalists,” the Pentagon was quickly dragged into an urban counter-insurgency quagmire involving a Sunni faction rebranded as Al Qaeda in Iraq, Saddam regime holdovers, and Shia insurgents, armed, trained and sometimes led by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. This development was not inevitable. I still recall a sliding door moment early in the conflict when the Director of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service came to see me with his CIA liaison officer in early 2004. He described the scale of the efforts by the IRGC Quds Forces to infiltrate Iraqi society and establish a proxy capability similar to Hezbollah in Lebanon and requested that we develop a joint program to locate and eradicate the Iranian presence. Unfortunately, the program was blocked by then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, on the grounds that Iran was not our enemy and that the US must support the political process in Iraq. In the event, this political process spun into a vicious civil war, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. Meanwhile, our ‘non-enemy’ Iran flooded the country with thousands of lethal EFP roadside bombs, to shred armored vehicles with American soldiers inside. Today Iraq is subjugated by Iran with Tehran making key decisions and approving all key ministry appointments, including who becomes Prime Minister. Their power is backed by the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) or Hashd al Shabi – an Iranian-controlled proxy mirroring Hezbollah in Lebanon. The PMUs are paid for by the Iraqi Government, armed in most cases with American weapons, and led either by Iranian-appointed commanders or by serving IRGC officers directly. Source: The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2021 America continues to wage futile forever wars of convenience because Washington believes we are immune to reality and evolved beyond history. The grand strategy of the so-called Global War on Terror was conceived on a false premise promoted by Neocon think tanks and the Military-Industrial Complex that American drone technology could revolutionize counter-insurgency warfare through surgical strikes targeting only the leadership of terror organizations. This delusion produced sclerosis in the military by stripping authority away from field commanders concerning when to shoot and when to hold fire. A fixation on large orbiting cameras likewise devolved into high-tech voyeurism with lawyers, not commanders making battlefield decisions even when friendly troops were in peril and requiring urgent air support. Ultimately, the paradigm flies in the face of the realities of war. Leaders are replaceable. There’s always another ambitious jihadi looking to wear the crown of command. What actually ends wars is destroying enemy manpower, finance, logistics, and ability to resupply. Every relevant historical example tells the same story, from the wars of ancient Greece to continental European and Napoleonic wars to the American Civil War and the world wars of the 20th Century. In the course of losing WWII Germany lost 5.3 of 17.7 million men aged 15-44 years old, or 30% of their male population. This brutality is the reality of winning wars – as the recent US track record of failure shows. The “measured and proportional response” crowd wants a war without war. It’s a fantasy that only seems plausible to people who have never experienced war and are insulated from its consequences; their first-born children should be drafted into frontline combat units to relieve them of this problem. After the Roman Empire lost a crushing defeat at the Battle of Cannae, the Roman Senate immediately became 40% undermanned, because the Roman leaders actually served in the defense of their Republic and risked their lives in battle for it. Today, America’s elites instead spend their time on Wall Street or in think tanks gathering degrees and attending conferences. The old concept of noblesse oblige has gone missing from our national culture and so has the concept of accountability. Despite the failures of Iraq and Afghanistan, there have been zero lessons learned or course corrections made. Consequently, the failures keep coming. When Hamas unleashed thousands of rockets, missiles, paragliders, and ground assaults across 30 breach points into Israel on October 7 of last year, they showed how dangerous complacency can be. Clearly Hamas had plotted their operation for years. Their network of 300 miles of tunnels spanning all of Gaza was built with one goal in mind: to suck the IDF into an urban quagmire in order to maximize carnage and casualties, of both Palestinian civilian and Israeli soldiers. But why not flood the tunnels with seawater using Texas precision drilling technology? The tactic would have obviated the need to bomb urban areas containing civilians and the terrible suffering that this tactic entails. Flooding the tunnels would have destroyed all underground weapons storage, prevented maneuver, and would have forced Hamas to move or lose their hostage human shields. In fact, an entire package of drilling/pumping and technical support for precisely this tactic was offered by donors to the IDF. Yet the IDF – under pressure from the Pentagon diktats – instead chose bombing. The result has seen a wave of global sympathy generated for the Palestinian cause and left Hamas in charge of uncleared southern Gaza: a double nightmare scenario far from being resolved. Source: The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2021 *** In 2011, Hillary Clinton, chief Neocon of the Obama Administration, proudly declared of Libya’s US-sponsored revolution: “We came. We saw. He died.” Colonel Qaddafi may not have been perfect but Libya under him was politically stable. Now? For 13 years the country has been wracked by civil war and chaos. Rife with Russian and Turkish PMCs fighting for regional hegemony, the country is now a major exporter of weapons and one of the biggest channels to Europe for drugs and human trafficking. Further east, Iran, with Hamas, Hezbollah, Hashd al shaabi (Iraq), and the Houthis in Yemen, have built a powerful network of regional proxy forces, now extending even into South America through the Lebanese diaspora in the narcotics and weapons trade. In Yemen, the Houthis have developed into effective pirates, shutting off Red Sea shipping traffic with long-range anti-ship weapons hidden in Yemen’s rugged terrain. As a result, an already economically struggling Egypt – a key American ally – has suffered a 40% blow to their GDP from lost Suez transit fees of $800mm/month and everyone else has seen punishing supply chains inflation from dislocated transit routes and runaway insurance premiums. Why are Iranian surrogates in Iraq and Yemen being permitted to fire hundreds of precision drones, cruise and ballistic missiles at US forces on land and sea, largely without meaningful response from Washington? What response there has been has mainly consisted of announcing a coalition named ‘Prosperity Guardian’ to protect shipping which collapsed almost immediately after multiple vessels were struck and destroyed. Why are US policymakers and the Pentagon unable to innovate effective military solutions? It doesn’t have to be this way. In the 1960s, Egypt, then a Soviet client, seized half of Yemen and deposed the Yemeni monarch. In response, Britain and Saudi Arabia hired SAS founder David Stirling’s PMC Watchguard International. Within months they had sufficiently amplified the Yemeni Tribesman fighting capabilities to force Egypt to withdraw. Stirling actually received a medal from the IDF for engaging so many Egyptian troops that it assisted the IDF victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Fast forward to 2017, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were trying to battle Iranian surrogate Houthis who seized control over half of Yemen. They request PMC support to replicate the successful Stirling model from the 1960s, and once again they are blocked, this time by Neocon Secretary of Defense Matthis serving under President Trump. The Houthis remained unchecked and ascendant, and eventually strong enough to shut off one of the world’s major trade routes. Meanwhile this same approach is still failing in Africa. There have been a staggering nine coup d’etats across Africa in the last 4 years, mainly in ex-colonial French regions, where decades-long insurgencies have exploded following the destruction of Libya. The looting of massive Libyan state arsenals following the overthrow of Qaddafi flooded the region with weapons. Long insufficient COIN operations by France and their USG partners reached the end of the road; local militaries ousted their Paris-sponsored leadership. The current US humiliation in Niger and Chad where US forces are being forced to vacate new multi-billion dollar facilities built to support drone operations across Africa is the result. Compare this to Russia. Having embraced PMC capabilities, Russia is currently running a successful playbook in Africa against ineffective Western-friendly governments by showing a firmer hand against jihadists. This cycle will continue unabated so long as the State Department and the CIA restrict their thinking to coming up with PR strategies while America’s rivals implement military solutions. The Central African Republic, rich in buried mineral wealth, suffered a descent into civil war in 2014 and the empowerment of criminal gangs; the Seleca and Anti Balaka. In 2017, the CAR government requested Western PMC assistance to build a robust mining police force in order to choke out the gangs. Contracts were even signed and funding-ready. But once again this solution was blocked by the NeoCons at the State Dept and their pet, the UN, refusing to waive their sanctions against CAR for the purchasing of small arms to equip police. But Russia had no such issues and sent 400 Wagner personnel immediately. Now multiple Wagner units run mines that net the Russian PMC billions of dollars per year, funding many of their other operations across Africa. Somalia has been a geopolitical problem since the early 90s, sucking up tens of billions in ineffective foreign aid, killing hundreds of thousands, exporting terrorism, sheltering pirates, and flooding America with hundreds of thousands of migrants. In the spring of 2020, Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta reached out for private sector assistance to finally tourniquet this endless bleeding. Every terror attack in Kenya costs Kenya more than $1B in tourist revenue. The PMC offer was made, and Kenyatta asked President Trump for financial assistance to run this private sector solution. Trump agreed and funding was passed into law by Congress. But Team Biden took over before the already-appropriated funds were released. As a result, they were used instead on the same failed approach – the surgical decapitation strategy which has repeatedly failed globally for 20+ years. Today, Somalia still bleeds and still drains funds, while America is stuck with culturally incompatible migrants that we “cannot deport” because Somalia remains a failed state. When does Western incompetence end? Barack Obama, center, participates in a meeting in the White House Situation Room (2011) The Syrian Civil War saw Neocons funding a radical Sunni insurgency to depose Bashar Al Assad. This force quickly morphed into ISIS and promptly conquered half of Iraq by appealing to a Sunni population repressed by Iranian Shia proxies. The point is worth repeating. ISIS emerged directly from Neocon meddling in the Syrian Civil War. Today, in the aftermath, US forces occupy eastern Syria as some sort of ill-defined buffer between various Kurdish factions, Turkey, and the Syrian government, at a cost of billions per year and for no tangible benefit to American citizens. Cui Bono? Who benefits? And who is benefiting from the ongoing tragedy of the war in Ukraine? Since historical perspective in conflicts is always useful, I invite readers to consider the staggering costs in manpower borne by the USSR to defeat the Wehrmacht: over 22 million lives lost compared to US losses of 250,000 troops. While the US was invading North Africa in a warm-up to the invasion of Europe, the Soviets were killing 1.2 million Axis soldiers at Stalingrad, while losing almost twice that number themselves. That loss is genetically imprinted on surviving generations, and strategically imprinted in the thinking of the Russian state. The effect of the eastward expansion of NATO culminating in a proposal to include Ukraine despite clear red-line language expressed by the Kremlin was highly predictable. Yet the Neocons kept pressing the issue, even after assisting in the overthrow of a pro-Russian President. One should take note of how upset the US Government was when the USSR began emplacing missiles in Cuba during the early 1960s. At the outbreak of WWII, in Britain’s greatest hour of danger, America sent them 50 surplus Navy destroyers, combat aircraft, and weaponry. Meanwhile, in the Chinese theater, combat aircraft were purchased by a Nationalist government which needed American Volunteer Group Contractor support to stop the Japanese from bombing Chinese cities. Similarly, as tensions rose in Ukraine in late 2021 and a Russian invasion looked imminent, a combination of Lend Lease and the Flying Tigers was offered to the White House. For fiscal year 2022, 200+ fully functional combat aircraft including 50 F-16s, 50 F-15s and 42 A-10s explicitly designed for destroying Soviet tanks were set to be retired, flown to the desert, and parked forever. These are not state-of-the-art aircraft but entirely adequate when flown by well-trained contract pilots filling the gap for 18 months while Ukrainian crews could be readied. Team Biden could have made a grand announcement before the invasion stating Ukraine would never join NATO but would have the means to defend itself. This airwing deployment with weapons crews and fuel would have cost less than $800mm compared to the hundreds of billions and incalculable deaths on both sides. Announcing no NATO expansion and instant deployment of a robust air wing could have prevented the largest war in Europe in eighty years. Or did the Neocons want a war? Which brings us to Taiwan. Taiwan, and China’s claim on it, remains the flashpoint in the ultimate cold war in the final stages of warming. Clever deterrence measures have been offered and rejected. The Pentagon wants to fight by our own playbook, but as always in war, the enemy gets a vote. A hot war between China and the USA would see US cities annihilated and a death toll in the tens of millions, at minimum. This apocalyptic carnage can only be averted by looking back through history at what has worked and what hasn’t worked in the conveyor belt of failed Washington foreign policy approaches which have dominated the last thirty years. We owe it to our children to get this right but course changes must be made immediately, before it is too late. *** What we should do? The current policy model of US security assistance is broken and counterproductive. The US military is the most expensive organization in 3,000 years of human history and has degenerated into an instrument for selling or grifting overpriced military hardware to countries that struggle to use it, let alone maintain it. The US military mows the lawn with Lamborghinis, when Kubota tractors is what our allies need. The dozens of developing countries that suffer from narco crime, gangsterism and chaos urgently need real help. When troops are sent for advisory missions too many are sent and they don’t stay long enough to provide real assistance; while they are there they are hamstrung by lawyers into ineffectiveness. Building lasting capability in countries takes time. Doing a three-week exercise while delivering new gifted equipment is a waste of energy and money every time. Send experienced advisors to dwell long term – for years, not months. Give advisors a path to really learn a region and culture. The Russians are not ignorant of history and the Wagner group has stepped into the void created by US incompetence. In the Sahel and other parts of West Africa they’ve quickly become the power behind the throne. The best way to beat Wagner is to outcompete them. The same principle also applies to reforming Washington more generally. Policymakers must allow competition to flourish. The military does not need to be so inherently governmental. If, in 1969, during the summer of Woodstock and Apollo 11, someone said that in 50 years the only way the USG would be able to get people into space would be on a SpaceX rocket, you’d be laughed out of Johnson Space Center. Before the creation of FedEx, a politician would have proclaimed government as the only entity robust enough to deliver packages overnight globally, yet today “FedEx” is a verb. It hasn’t totally replaced the US Postal Service, but it has made it run more efficiently. The same logic can be applied to the military. The American taxpayer is paying far too much for much too little. The cozy cartel of defense contractors must be broken up, and the military made competitive again. Anti-trust enforcement and competitive tenders will stop the corruption of the thousands of lobbyists in Washington milking congress like a cow while delivering overpriced and ineffective products. The current status is unacceptable. The more consolidated the defense base, the more it behaves like the Pentagon bureaucracy: exactly what America cannot afford. Our Founding Father’s instincts for empowering market capacities in military power are explicitly articulated in the Constitution. Before discussing “Congress shall raise a Navy” in Art 1 Sec 8 it directs Congress to mandate the private sector with a letter of Marque and Reprisal – effectively a hunting license for private contractors to interdict enemy shipping. The litany of failures listed above supplies ample evidence that the current military status quo is ineffective. A “government-only” approach abroad is calamitous and undermines US credibility and deterrence. The foreign policy of the United States should be that our friends love us, our rivals respect us, and our enemies fear us. Instead, our friends fear our self-immolation while our rivals consume us and our enemies fire upon us without consequence. --- America’s private sector has always outperformed government in solving problems. It is time to unleash America’s entrepreneurs in foreign policy to cut costs and restore American credibility. Erik D. Prince is a former Navy SEAL officer and the founder of private military company Blackwater. Among his current projects is the Unplugged phone, a privacy-focused smartphone. He can be followed @realErikDPrince.

@ fe02e8ec:f07fbe0b

##### **Zum ersten Mal** in der Geschichte der Menschheit … **… wissen so viele Menschen Bescheid über Propaganda**. Seit ihren Anfängen etwa um 1900 bis 1920 (LeBons „[Psychologie der Massen](https://unternehmerkanal.de/buecher-2/psychologie/die-psychologie-der-massen-zusammenfassung/)“, Bernays „[Propaganda](https://www.buch7.de/produkt/propaganda-edward-bernays/1021149974?ean=9783936086355)“, Lippmanns [„Die öffentliche Meinung“](https://www.westendverlag.de/buch/die-oeffentliche-meinung-2/)) haben sich weltweit Tausende von Psychologen damit beschäftigt, wie Menschen beeinflusst werden können. Es existieren unzählige Websites und Bücher, in welchen die Methoden, Techniken und Tricks beschrieben werden. Jeder, der es wissen möchte, kann es wissen. Und jetzt kommt das Beste: *Propaganda funktioniert nur, wenn sie nicht bemerkt wird!* Nur so lange Menschen der Meinung sind, sie erhalten echte Information schenken sie ihr Glauben. Sobald sie bemerkt haben, dass verborgene Absichten dahinterstecken, sind Zweifel und Misstrauen wesentlich stärker als das Restvertrauen, das oft nur noch aus jahrelanger Gewohnheit besteht. Aber: ist Vertrauen erst verspielt lässt es sich äußerst schwer zurückgewinnen. Die Propaganda versagt. Heute (2023) glauben in Deutschland noch ca. 50% den großen Medien, in den USA sind es weniger als 20%. Propaganda verliert ihre Wirkung. *Die Erzeugung einer mehrheitlich geglaubten Scheinrealität bricht zusammen.* \*\* \*\* ##### **Zum ersten Mal** in der Geschichte der Menschheit … **… können sich die Menschen selbstbestimmt informieren.** Dank Internet, freien Medien und rührigen Einzelpersonen haben die großen Medien ihre Gatekeeper-Funktion weitgehend verloren. Während früher eine Handvoll Medienkonzerne entscheiden konnte, welche Informationen an die Menschen geliefert werden und welche nicht, ist das heute nicht mehr möglich. Jeder, der dies möchte, kann sich selbstbestimmt informieren. Damit ist die *Durchsetzung einer einzig gültigen Wirklichkeitswahrnehmung* seitens Politik und Medien unmöglich. Aus diesem Grund ist in den letzten Jahren der größte Zensurkomplex der Welt entstanden. Der Amerikaner Michael Shellenberger, Mitgründer von Greenpeace (mittlerweile ausgetreten) nennt es den „[Censorship Industrial Complex](https://censorshipindustrialcomplex.org/")“. Spätestens seit „Corona“ ist bekannt, wie extrem die Zensur zuschlägt, um die staatlich verordnete „Realität“ durchzusetzen. Doch je wilder die Zensur, desto offensichtlicher die Angst und Hilflosigkeit der „Narrativ Reiniger“. Doch es ist vorbei. Ist das Vertrauen verspielt so kehrt es nicht mehr zurück. Sie wissen es. Und sie wissen, dass wir es wissen. Doch sie machen weiter, denn ein Zurück ist für sie unvorstellbar. Kauft Popcorn.   ##### **Zum ersten Mal** in der Geschichte der Menschheit … **… erkennen viele die Macht-Motive hinter den Weltkrisen.** Der „Wertewesten“, die „regelbasierte internationale Ordnung“, Kriege, um „Demokratie und Freiheit“ zu bringen, die USA mit über [800 ausländischen Militärbasen (Russland: 9, China: 1](https://www.friedenskooperative.de/friedensforum/artikel/die-strategische-bedeutung-von-militaerbasen)), nie existierende Massenvernichtungswaffen, die einen Krieg rechtfertigen mussten und so weiter. Es ließe sich noch lange fortsetzen. Unzählige Historiker, aufrechte Journalisten und mutige Whistleblower haben der Welt gezeigt, worum es wirklich geht: Macht, Geostrategie, Rohstoffe, Kontrolle, Geld. Menschen, die sich unabhängig informieren, lassen sich mit den seit Jahrzehnten bekannten Phrasen nicht mehr manipulieren. Der Rückhalt für diese Politik nimmt ab, mit medialem Dauerfeuer (Ukraine, Russland, demnächst Niger?) wird versucht, gegenzusteuern. Doch weder die [USA](https://www.zerohedge.com/political/falling-military-recruitment-another-sign-waning-faith-regime) noch die [Bundeswehr](https://www.merkur.de/politik/wenig-bock-auf-bundeswehr-karriere-pistorius-gehen-die-rekruten-aus-92413203.html) finden genug Rekruten für die Verteidigung der „westlichen Werte“. Ob es daran liegt, dass diese „Werte“ am Ende aussehen wie syrische Ölquellen, irakische Raffinerien oder Milliardengewinne für Rüstungskonzerne? Immer mehr der 99% erkennen, dass die 1% ohne sie zu absolut nichts Kriegerischem in der Lage wären. Und es werden monatlich mehr, die dies bemerken. \*\* \*\* ##### **Zum ersten Mal** in der Geschichte der Menschheit … **… werden die großen Pläne so frühzeitig aufgedeckt.** Die Bilderberger Konferenz existiert seit 1954, in der Öffentlichkeit war sie praktisch unbekannt. Obwohl dort die Creme de la Creme aus Politik, Hochfinanz, Militär, Medien, Adel und CEOs zusammenkamen, Jahr für Jahr. Doch investigative Journalisten zwangen sie dazu, eine [eigene Website mit Teilnehmerlisten](https://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/) zu veröffentlichen. Die „Davos Clique“, das [Word Economic Forum](https://www.weforum.org/) um Kissinger- und CIA-Zögling Klaus Schwab ist spätestens seit der „Pandemie“ in aller Munde. Und so weiter. All die Elite Organisationen, Think Tanks, NGOs und internationalen Institutionen stehen heute viel genauer unter Beobachtung, als dies noch vor zehn Jahren der Fall war. In den unabhängigen Medien wird frühzeitig über die Pläne berichtet, so etwa der monströse Plan der WHO, im Falle einer (gänzlich undefinierten) „Pandemiesituation“ alle Regierungen der Welt überstimmen zu können. Freie Journalisten deckten frühzeitig die (teils extremen) Unstimmigkeiten in der Corona-/ Impf-Berichterstattung auf und ermöglichten es Millionen von Menschen, selbstbestimmte Entscheidungen zu treffen. Das Beste: immer mehr Menschen sind wachsam! \*\* \*\* ##### **Zum ersten Mal** in der Geschichte der Menschheit … **… können sich Millionen von Menschen frei vernetzen.** Whatsapp, telegram, Signal: mehr als drei Milliarden Menschen auf der ganzen Welt können sich heute miteinander verbinden, kommunizieren, Informationen austauschen. Vielleicht ist dies sogar die größte Neuerung von allen, denn damit sind Dinge möglich, die früher undenkbar waren. Videos, die innerhalb eines Tages millionenfach gesehen werden und üble Machenschaften aufdecken. Gruppen, die auf mehrere 100.000 Mitglieder anwachsen und sich verabreden können. Podcaster wie [Joe Rogan](https://open.spotify.com/show/4rOoJ6Egrf8K2IrywzwOMk) oder [Tucker Carlson](https://tuckercarlson.com/), von denen jeder mehr Zuhörer erreicht als alle Hauptnachrichtensender der USA zusammen! Deshalb ja auch die massiven Versuche von Regierungen und Geheimdiensten, die Verschlüsselungen der Plattformen zu brechen. Es ist dasselbe wie mit der Zensur: Angst und Hilflosigkeit lassen sie über alle Stränge schlagen. Wir werden sehen, wie weit sie bereit sind zu gehen. \*\* \*\* ##### **Zum ersten Mal** in der Geschichte der Menschheit … **… ist die Bewusstseinsentwicklung so weit fortgeschritten**. Mit der „68er-Generation“ begann mehr als nur Flower Power, Rock und psychedelische Drogen. Es begann eine Generation sich mit ihrer eigenen Innenseite zu beschäftigen. Für die östlichen Religionen nichts Neues, im Gegenteil, es ist deren Schwerpunkt. Doch in den Ländern des ungebremsten Wirtschaftswachstums war das bewusste Erleben der eigenen Innenwelt etwas ziemlich Neues. Meditation, bewusstseinserweiternde Substanzen (Entheogene), Psychologie im Alltag und eine Reihe spiritueller und esoterischer Ansätze eröffneten eine vollkommen neue Welt. Heute können wir offen über Traumatisierungen, Meditations-Erfahrungen, Non-duale Zustände, epigenetische Weitergabe generationaler Themen, systemische Erfahrungen und mehr reden. Themen, die der Generation der vor 1950 Geborenen nur in sehr ausgewählten Kreisen zugänglich waren. Wir können Meta-Perspektiven einnehmen, uns selbst beobachten, uns als Teil des Ganzen begreifen und noch viel mehr. *Denn das ist erst der Anfang!*   ##### **Zum ersten Mal** in der Geschichte der Menschheit … **… werden Verstand, Herz und GEIST integral gesehen**. Entgegen der derzeit weit verbreiteten Ansicht, dass die KIs und der Transhumanismus uns alle zu unnützen Essern reduzieren werden steht die Auffassung, dass wir weit mehr sind als rein materielle Gebilde. Auch wenn dies heute (noch) nicht unwiderlegbar zu beweisen ist, so zeigen doch Millionen von Erfahrungsberichten, dass Bewusstsein eine komplett andere Dimension darstellt als die Atome, aus denen unser Gehirn besteht. Unser Verstand ist das Werkzeug, mit dem wir den Alltag bewältigen. Unser Herz – im übertragenen Sinne – ist unser emotionales und Bindungszentrum. Unser GEIST ist das, was über uns hinausweist. Und möglicherweise schon vor diesem materiellen Körper existiert hat – und weiterexistieren wird. Klar handelt es sich hier um sehr persönliche Fragen, doch zumindest leben wir in einer Zeit, in der all dies einen Platz hat und erlebt, gespürt und diskutiert werden kann. Und das unterscheidet diese Zeit fundamental von den letzten 2000 Jahren. Danke dafür. \*\* \*\* ##### **Zum ersten Mal** in der Geschichte der Menschheit … **… braucht es keinen großen Führer, um Großes zu erreichen.** Das ist Spekulation. Denn auch wenn alles hier Beschriebene richtig wäre, so lässt sich diese Aussage nicht beweisen. Im Gegenteil, es sieht eher danach aus, dass die Masse noch immer nicht in der Lage ist, sich selbst zu organisieren. Nicht einmal in kleinen Gruppen von 20, 50 oder 100 Personen. Eine Vielzahl gescheiterter Projekte spricht Bände. Zugleich sind auch einige der engagierten Personen aus der freiheitlichen Bewegung nicht frei von Narzissmus und verhindern teilweise eine übergreifende Zusammenarbeit. Dennoch: auch wenn sich der Weg erst schemenhaft zeigt, die Richtung ist klar: vernetzte Zellen mit hoher Autonomie. Es wird viele Modelle geben, viele Versuche, manches wird scheitern und anderes wird gelingen. Denn eines ist sicher: auf den „Großen Anführer“ wird hier keiner mehr warten! \*\* \*\* ##### **Zum ersten Mal** in der Geschichte der Menschheit … **… nimmt uns keiner die Verantwortung ab**. Das kann man positiv oder negativ sehen. Denn es bedeutet zweifellos, dass noch viel mehr Menschen erst ihre [persönliche Heldenreise](https://www.raymond-unger.de/publikationen/heldenreise-des-buergers/) auf dem Weg des Erwachsenwerdens, der Selbstverantwortung, durchlaufen und durchleiden müssen. There is no free lunch. Wer auf den paternalistischen Staat, Grundeinkommen oder ewige Versorgung setzt, der hat nicht verstanden, wohin die Reise geht. Macht nichts, denn immer ist es eine Minderheit, die vorangeht. Die Pioniere, Abenteurer, Entdecker, die heute keine neuen Kontinente mehr bereisen, sondern neue Formen des Zusammenlebens und -arbeitens entdecken. Dahin fährt der Zug, ein paar sitzen ganz klar vorne, ein paar sorgen für Treibstoff und die Versorgung und viele fahren neugierig mit. Und das ist auch gut so. Denn weiter sind wir in unserer Evolution noch nicht. Aber wir haben ja noch ein paar Tausend Jahre vor uns. Was wir heute üben und kultivieren dürfen, das ist persönlicher Mut, der es uns immer öfter gestattet, aus Konformität und Autoritätshörigkeit auszubrechen! \*\* \*\* ##### **Zum ersten Mal** leben wir in dieser Zeit!   Erstveröffentlichung bei ["Der Sandwirt"](https://www.dersandwirt.de/zum-ersten-mal/)

@ 7ed5bd1c:4caa7587

# เครือข่ายที่เติบโต: ทำไมเครือข่าย Bitcoin ถึงมีคุณค่ามากขึ้นเรื่อย ๆ? ในโลกของเทคโนโลยีและเครือข่าย Bitcoin การเติบโตของจำนวนผู้ใช้งานไม่เพียงแค่ส่งผลต่อการใช้งาน แต่ยังเพิ่มมูลค่าให้กับเครือข่ายเองด้วย หลักการนี้สามารถอธิบายได้ผ่าน "Metcalfe’s Law" ที่กล่าวว่า มูลค่าของเครือข่ายหนึ่ง ๆ เพิ่มขึ้นตามกำลังสองของจำนวนผู้ใช้งาน ## Metcalfe’s Law และ Bitcoin Metcalfe’s Law เป็นกุญแจสำคัญในการอธิบายว่าทำไมเครือข่าย Bitcoin ถึงมีมูลค่าเพิ่มขึ้นตามจำนวนผู้ใช้งาน โดยกฎนี้กล่าวว่า: > มูลค่าของเครือข่าย = จำนวนผู้ใช้งาน^2 นั่นหมายความว่า หากจำนวนผู้ใช้งาน Bitcoin เพิ่มขึ้นเพียง 2 เท่า มูลค่าของเครือข่ายอาจเพิ่มขึ้นถึง 4 เท่า ## การเติบโตของเครือข่าย Bitcoin 1. ผู้ใช้งานเพิ่มขึ้นอย่างต่อเนื่อง: ปัจจุบัน Bitcoin มีผู้ใช้งานหลายล้านคนทั่วโลก และยังคงมีแนวโน้มเติบโตเมื่อคนหันมาให้ความสนใจเกี่ยวกับการเก็บมูลค่าและการปกป้องทรัพย์สิน 2. การยอมรับที่กว้างขึ้น: บริษัทและธุรกิจจำนวนมากเริ่มยอมรับ Bitcoin เป็นวิธีการชำระเงิน เช่น Tesla, PayPal และบริษัทใหญ่ ๆ ทั่วโลก 3. การสนับสนุนจากสถาบันการเงิน: นักลงทุนสถาบันและธนาคารบางแห่งเริ่มเข้ามามีส่วนร่วมกับ Bitcoin มากขึ้น ซึ่งช่วยเสริมสร้างความน่าเชื่อถือและความต้องการในตลาด ## ผลกระทบต่อมูลค่าเครือข่าย - สภาพคล่องที่เพิ่มขึ้น: เมื่อมีผู้ใช้งานมากขึ้น การซื้อขาย Bitcoin ก็เพิ่มขึ้น ส่งผลให้ตลาดมีสภาพคล่องสูงขึ้นและการเคลื่อนไหวของราคามีเสถียรภาพ - มูลค่าที่มั่นคงในระยะยาว: การเติบโตของเครือข่ายช่วยเสริมความเชื่อมั่นและลดความเสี่ยงที่ Bitcoin จะกลายเป็นเทคโนโลยีล้มเหลว - การกระจายอำนาจที่ดียิ่งขึ้น: จำนวนผู้ใช้งานที่เพิ่มขึ้นทำให้ Bitcoin เป็นเครือข่ายที่ยากต่อการควบคุมจากศูนย์กลาง ## Bitcoin กับการเติบโตอย่างยั่งยืน การเติบโตของเครือข่าย Bitcoin ไม่ได้เป็นเพียงแค่การเพิ่มจำนวนผู้ใช้งาน แต่ยังสะท้อนถึงการยอมรับที่เพิ่มขึ้นในฐานะทรัพย์สินดิจิทัลที่มีคุณค่าและศักยภาพในการปฏิวัติระบบการเงินดั้งเดิม แล้วคุณล่ะ เห็นการเติบโตของ Bitcoin เป็นโอกาสหรือความท้าทาย? แสดงความคิดเห็นของคุณด้านล่าง!

@ 4cebd4f5:0ac3ed15

Injective và công ty đầu tư mạo hiểm nổi tiếng a16z đã công bố việc đồng tổ chức cuộc thi Hackathon Injective AI Agent trên nền tảng phong trào lập trình viên toàn cầu DoraHacks. Được biết, đây là lần đầu tiên hệ điều hành Eliza OS tham gia tổ chức một cuộc thi hackathon quy mô lớn về trí tuệ nhân tạo (AI) trong lĩnh vực tài chính phi tập trung (DeFi). Các thí sinh sẽ sử dụng Eliza để xây dựng AI Agent và triển khai chúng trên blockchain Injective.  Cổng nộp dự án BUIDL sẽ được mở sau 13 ngày nữa, người dùng DoraHacks hiện đã có thể đăng ký cá nhân để tham gia sự kiện công nghệ này.

@ fbf0e434:e1be6a39

# **Hackathon 概要** 台北区块链周的年度黑客松 [Taipei Blockchain Week 2024 - Hackathon](https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/tbw2024) 圆满结束，共收到223个项目提交，吸引了475名开发者参与。活动历时一个多月，于2024年12月12日至14日通过线上和线下报名结合的方式进行。活动的主题“Onboard”聚焦于推进Web3技术的采用，突出Solana、Ethereum和Bitcoin等生态系统中的创新。 参与者参与了各种活动，包括workshops和demo day，展示他们的项目并与行业专家、创始人和风险投资家互动。这种混合形式旨在提升项目质量和提供更多的社交机会。 组织者报告称，有500位精选的开发者参与其中，通过Discord和Telegram访问详细的赏金和社区连结。Hackathon 强调其在将台湾建立为区块链创新中心方面的作用，这与Taipei Blockchain Week的总体目标一致。它还突出了台湾的战略重要性、文化多样性和技术能力，同时强调了其安全和良好的国际会议环境。 # **Hackathon 获奖者** ### **Avalanche 奖项获奖者** - [Avax Blinks](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20729) - 通过可共享链接简化Avalanche上的链上交易，用于支付和NFT购买。项目使用Next.js构建，强调移动优先的设计并增强社交媒体上的DeFi互动。 - [Ava the Portfolio Managing Agent](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20749) - 使用AI进行策略优化，管理Avalanche上的DeFi组合。该解决方案利用Next.js、TypeScript和Avalanche区块链进行全面管理。 ### **0G 奖项获奖者** - [echoX](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20733) - 去中心化的AI驱动交易聚合器，利用0G的Service Marketplace简化加密资产管理，专注于透明性和流动性聚合。 - [DeCentraChat](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20714) - 提供带有安全区块链存储的去中心化AI模型推理，使用Solidity和像Wagmi、Next.js这样的框架开发，提供强大的平台交互。 ### **SOON 奖项获奖者** - [Memecoooins](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20737) - 通过包含meme coins的神秘钱包简化加密投资，集成了SvelteKit、Solana和Raydium用于安全管理和交易。 - [BasketFi](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20738) - 管理Solana上的代币篮子，支持无缝的交换和性能跟踪，并通过Jupiter和Solana的扩展功能进行集成。 ### **Zero Computing 奖项获奖者** - [Ikkyu](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20756) - 通过Solana上的游戏化互动转变meme coins，利用ZKWASM和社区参与通过移动活动推广文化运动。 - [Yaminogemu](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20302) - 使用BONK代币进行Solana上的GameFi和DeFi互动，通过无服务器架构提供安全的竞争和收入机会。 ### **BNB Chain 奖项获奖者** - [BNB-Voice](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20736) - 在BNB Chain上提供基于区块链的开票，集成了Request Network以增强透明度，便于安全开票和分析。 - [Income Trust](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20797) - 一个去中心化的信托基金，在Binance Smart Chain上进行收益管理，集成DeFi以及通过OpenZeppelin保证安全和灵活提款。 ### **Delphinus Labs 奖项获奖者** - [zkGuess](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20758) - 在数字猜谜游戏中使用ZKWasm技术，强调Web3集成和区块链环境中的直观用户互动。 ### **Genopets 奖项获奖者** - [SolGame](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/8462) - 在Solana上实施赚取模式的地牢游戏，利用Metaplex NFT Marketplace Protocol进行去中心化的游戏奖励。 欲了解有关所有项目的更多详情，请访问[DoraHacks](https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/tbw2024/buidl)。 # **关于组织者** ### **台北区块链周 Taipei Blockchain Week** TBW是亚洲区块链领域的重要活动组织者。继上届活动成功活动吸引了超过2,000名与会者后，组织方将于12月11日至16日举办Taipei Blockchain Week 2023，预计将吸引超过5,000名参与者。活动旨在构建、连接和扩大区块链社群，重申促进行业增长和合作的承诺。凭借在区块链环境中的强大影响力，Taipei Blockchain Week 继续推广增强技术发展和采用的倡议和项目。

@ da0b9bc3:4e30a4a9

Hello Stackers! Welcome on into the ~Music Corner of the Saloon! A place where we Talk Music. Share Tracks. Zap Sats. So stay a while and listen. 🚨Don't forget to check out the pinned items in the territory homepage! You can always find the latest weeklies there!🚨 🚨Subscribe to the territory to ensure you never miss a post! 🚨 originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/859749

@ ed84ce10:cccf4c2a

# **Hackathon Summary** The [Taipei Blockchain Week 2024 - Hackathon](https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/tbw2024) concluded successfully, featuring 223 project submissions and participation from 475 developers. The event ran for over a month, culminating in both virtual and in-person sessions held from December 12 to 14, 2024. The central theme, "Onboard," emphasized advancing Web3 technology adoption, highlighting innovations within ecosystems such as Solana, Ethereum, and Bitcoin. Participants engaged in various activities, including workshops and a demo day, which enabled them to showcase their projects and interact with industry experts, founders, and venture capitalists. The hybrid format intended to enhance project quality and networking opportunities. Organizers reported that 500 selected builders participated, accessing detailed bounties and community connections via Discord and Telegram. The hackathon emphasized its role in establishing Taiwan as a hub for blockchain innovation, aligning with the broader objectives of Taipei Blockchain Week. It also underscored Taiwan's strategic importance, cultural diversity, and technological capacity, while highlighting its secure and well-connected environment for conferences and international collaboration. # **Hackathon Winners** ### **Avalanche Prize Winners** - [Avax Blinks](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20729) - Simplifies on-chain transactions on Avalanche through shareable links for payments and NFT purchases. Built with Next.js, the project emphasizes mobile-first design and enhances DeFi interactions on social media. - [Ava the Portfolio Managing Agent](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20749) - Manages DeFi portfolios on Avalanche using AI for strategy optimization. The solution utilizes Next.js, TypeScript, and the Avalanche blockchain for comprehensive management. ### **0G Prize Winners** - [echoX](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20733) - A decentralized AI-driven trading aggregator that streamlines crypto management using 0G’s Service Marketplace, focusing on transparency and liquidity aggregation. - [DeCentraChat](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20714) - Provides decentralized AI model inferences with secure blockchain storage, developed using Solidity and frameworks such as Wagmi and Next.js for robust platform interaction. ### **SOON Prize Winners** - [Memecoooins](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20737) - Simplifies crypto investments through mystery wallets containing meme coins, integrating SvelteKit, Solana, and Raydium for secure management and transactions. - [BasketFi](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20738) - Manages token baskets on Solana, allowing seamless swaps and performance tracking, with integration from Jupiter and Solana's scalability features. ### **Zero Computing Prize Winners** - [Ikkyu](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20756) - Transforms meme coins through gamified interactions on Solana, employing ZKWASM and community engagement to promote cultural movements via mobile activities. - [Yaminogemu](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20302) - Uses BONK tokens for GameFi and DeFi engagements on Solana, providing secure competition and income opportunities through a serverless architecture. ### **BNB Chain Prize Winners** - [BNB-Voice](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20736) - Offers blockchain-based invoicing on the BNB Chain, facilitating secure invoicing and analytics with Request Network integration for enhanced transparency. - [Income Trust](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20797) - A decentralized trust fund on Binance Smart Chain, integrating DeFi for yield management with OpenZeppelin for security and flexible withdrawals. ### **Delphinus Labs Prize Winners** - [zkGuess](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/20758) - Utilizes ZKWasm technology in a number-guessing game that emphasizes Web3 integration and intuitive user engagement within blockchain environments. ### **Genopets Prize Winners** - [SolGame](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/8462) - A dungeon game on Solana implementing Play-to-Earn models, leveraging the Metaplex NFT Marketplace Protocol for decentralized gaming rewards. For more details on all projects, visit [DoraHacks](https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/tbw2024/buidl). # **About the Organizer** ### **Taipei Blockchain Week** Taipei Blockchain Week is a significant event organizer in the blockchain sector. Following a previous successful event, which attracted over 2,000 attendees, the organization is hosting Taipei Blockchain Week 2023 from December 11-16, expecting more than 5,000 participants. The event aims to build, connect, and scale within the blockchain community, underscoring a commitment to fostering growth and collaboration in the industry. With a strong presence in the blockchain environment, Taipei Blockchain Week continues to promote initiatives and projects that enhance technological development and adoption.

@ 16d11430:61640947

Programming, once considered a niche skill, is now integral to the infrastructure of modern economies. However, as the pace of technological advancement accelerates, programmers face a unique and precarious psychosocial environment. Their profession is not only defined by its intellectual demands but also by its vulnerability to rapid obsolescence, economic shifts, and increasingly volatile employment trends. This article explores how Bitcoin and blockchain technology provide a critical safety net for programmers in this environment, while examining the trends that are shaping their lives and livelihoods. --- The Fragility of the Programming Skillset Programming is an inherently ephemeral skill. Languages, frameworks, and tools evolve rapidly, demanding continuous learning. This perpetual race can result in high levels of stress and burnout, especially when coupled with: 1. Job Insecurity: Policy changes, corporate restructuring, and global economic downturns can lead to sudden layoffs. For programmers, a brief hiatus from work can lead to skills becoming outdated. 2. Time Scarcity: The intense focus required in programming often leaves little room for socialization and personal development, compounding feelings of isolation. 3. Hyper-competitiveness: The global talent pool means programmers are not only competing locally but also against peers from lower-cost regions. --- The Role of Bitcoin and Blockchain in Programmer Resilience Blockchain technology, particularly Bitcoin, addresses several of the systemic vulnerabilities faced by programmers: 1. Direct Payments Without Intermediaries Platforms like the Lightning Network enable programmers to receive instant, borderless payments for freelance or contract work. This eliminates reliance on centralized payment processors, which can block funds or impose high fees. 2. Immutable Portfolios Blockchain technology can serve as a tamper-proof ledger for showcasing work and contributions. For example, Gitcoin uses blockchain to validate open-source contributions, providing a secure and transparent record of a programmer's expertise. 3. Decentralized Infrastructure With tools like smart contracts, programmers can set up automated agreements, ensuring they are paid for milestones reached. This reduces the risks of non-payment or contract disputes. --- Emerging Trends and Supporting Evidence 1. Layoffs and Economic Downturns In 2023, mass layoffs at major tech firms, including Meta, Amazon, and Google, highlighted the fragility of even the most skilled workers in traditional employment models. Layoff Tracker provides real-time data on these layoffs. 2. The Rise of Freelance Platforms Freelance platforms such as Upwork and Toptal report a growing trend in programmers seeking gig work instead of full-time employment. Freelancer Study 2023 highlights that more professionals are choosing freelancing for autonomy and diversification. 3. Blockchain Adoption in Payments The rise of platforms like OpenBazaar and Stacks demonstrates an increasing number of professionals using blockchain for direct payments and decentralized marketplaces. Bitcoin Usage Trends showcases how micropayments are growing in popularity for digital work. 4. Mental Health Challenges Reports from the World Health Organization indicate that tech professionals experience higher rates of anxiety and burnout than other professions. WHO Study on Burnout underscores the urgent need for systemic change. --- The Path Forward To mitigate the psychosocial challenges programmers face, the following steps are essential: 1. Adopt Blockchain for Payments and Portfolios By integrating blockchain into their professional lives, programmers can ensure transparency, security, and autonomy. 2. Foster Community and Collaboration Decentralized networks like Stack Overflow and GitHub are critical for collaboration and peer support. 3. Upskilling and Adaptability Lifelong learning must be embraced, but organizations should also invest in reskilling programs to retain talent. 4. Advocate for Policy Changes Governments and industry bodies must address the precarity of tech work through better labor protections and decentralized economic models. --- Conclusion As technology continues to reshape industries, programmers find themselves at the epicenter of change—but not without challenges. The ephemerality of their skills, coupled with the demands of their work, places them in a uniquely vulnerable position. However, the rise of Bitcoin and blockchain technology offers a lifeline by enabling autonomy, security, and resilience in an otherwise unstable environment. By embracing decentralized infrastructure, programmers can not only weather the current challenges but also help build a more equitable and sustainable future.

@ c8adf82a:7265ee75

I have Asperger’s I see life like a game I am super competitive I min max my life I am curious I am hardworking I am both scientist and engineer I rank global in most strategy games I was a pure atheist I had a thought to kill God I have been fat and fit I have been set up to jail I have been rich and poor and wealthy I am recovering from nerve damage I have everything that I want I felt most things a human can feel I don’t want recognition I can’t force you to listen I am purely doing this for the world I want you all to know I tried to prove the Bible wrong I am humbled beyond belief I am now a servant of Christ

@ ae6ce958:d0f02c7d

The digital transformation landscape has witnessed groundbreaking shifts with the adoption of blockchain technologies. Among these, DamageBDD stands out as a pioneering tool for behavior-driven development (BDD) enhanced by blockchain integration. By leveraging the Aeternity Name Service (AENS), DamageBDD.chain offers a decentralized and user-friendly way to access DamageBDD services, ensuring unprecedented decentralization and liquidity availability. As part of our vision, DamageBDD is preparing to integrate with the decentralized app (dApp) ecosystem, extending its functionality and enabling developers to build directly on top of DamageBDD’s blockchain-based verification tools. What is Aeternity AENS? The Aeternity Name Service (AENS) is a naming system that allows for the creation of human-readable, blockchain-secured addresses. Similar to how DNS simplifies access to websites, AENS maps complex blockchain addresses or smart contracts to easy-to-remember names, such as DamageBDD.chain. This service not only enhances user experience but also aligns with the ethos of decentralization by removing centralized gatekeepers. Why DamageBDD.chain? 1. Decentralized Access By hosting DamageBDD services under the DamageBDD.chain AENS domain, users bypass centralized intermediaries. All interactions, from accessing documentation to executing verification and payment processes, occur directly on the blockchain. 2. Seamless User Experience Remembering complex wallet or contract addresses can be cumbersome. With DamageBDD.chain, users can easily navigate and utilize the platform using a straightforward name, ensuring accessibility even for non-technical stakeholders. 3. Enhanced Liquidity Through DamageBDD’s integration with Aeternity's blockchain and AENS, liquidity is always available. This is because the system leverages Aeternity’s native AE tokens and compatible decentralized exchanges, ensuring a smooth flow of resources for project funding and payouts. 4. Immutable Verification DamageBDD is built on the premise of immutable verification of behavior-driven development tests. By anchoring this on Aeternity and accessing it via DamageBDD.chain, every test, milestone, and payout is transparently recorded and verifiable on-chain. Expanding into the dApp Ecosystem To further enhance its utility, DamageBDD is actively developing plans to integrate with the broader decentralized app (dApp) ecosystem. This evolution will allow developers to build and deploy dApps that leverage DamageBDD’s blockchain-based verification capabilities. Key benefits include: 1. Programmable Verification: Developers will be able to programmatically trigger BDD test verifications within their own dApps, creating a seamless workflow for quality assurance. 2. Custom dApp Integrations: Businesses can integrate DamageBDD into their decentralized applications for domain-specific use cases, such as supply chain validation, financial reporting, or compliance tracking. 3. On-Chain API Services: DamageBDD will expose on-chain APIs accessible via DamageBDD.chain, enabling dApps to interact directly with the platform for verification and payout processes. 4. Tokenized Incentives for Testing: With integration into dApps, organizations can incentivize contributors by offering tokenized rewards for successfully passing test cases and milestones. How It Works 1. Registration on AENS The DamageBDD.chain domain was registered using Aeternity's AENS protocol. This domain is tied to the DamageBDD smart contracts and associated services. 2. Accessing the Platform Users input DamageBDD.chain in their Aeternity-compatible wallets or applications (e.g., Superhero.com) to interact with the platform. The AENS resolves the human-readable name to the corresponding smart contract address. 3. Executing Transactions Developers can perform BDD-related actions such as verifying test cases, executing payouts, or accessing analytics directly through blockchain interactions tied to the DamageBDD smart contracts. 4. dApp Integration Once integrated into the dApp ecosystem, DamageBDD will allow decentralized applications to call its services via DamageBDD.chain, automating testing and verification for diverse workflows. 5. Ensuring Liquidity The platform uses AE tokens for operations, enabling instant liquidity through decentralized exchanges. Users can also integrate Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network for added flexibility. Implications for the Future The integration of DamageBDD with the Aeternity AENS system is more than a technical enhancement; it’s a paradigm shift in how blockchain-based BDD solutions are accessed and utilized. With plans to expand into the dApp ecosystem, DamageBDD will become an indispensable tool for decentralized projects, offering seamless, secure, and programmable BDD services. Imagine a future where dApps across industries—from healthcare to finance—can automate behavior-driven testing, ensure compliance, and transparently reward contributors, all anchored to the immutable blockchain. Conclusion DamageBDD’s integration with the Aeternity AENS system underscores its commitment to decentralization and usability. By leveraging DamageBDD.chain, developers, testers, and enterprises gain secure, transparent, and decentralized access to a cutting-edge BDD platform. Coupled with instant liquidity availability, future dApp integrations, and immutable blockchain records, this approach positions DamageBDD as a leader in decentralized behavior-driven development. To experience the next evolution of BDD and decentralized application integration, look no further than DamageBDD.chain—where decentralization meets development excellence.

@ 16d11430:61640947

Banking has long been an essential pillar of modern life, serving as the gatekeeper for our financial transactions. Yet, when we step back and analyze the processes and systems that underpin our interactions with banks, a recurring theme emerges—deflection and subterfuge. This is especially apparent in cross-border transactions, where complexity and fear of non-compliance often overshadow the simplicity of what should be a straightforward process. A Personal Story of Complexity Imagine needing to transfer money from an account in one country to another. You are told that the funds are in your NRO (Non-Resident Ordinary) account, which has specific tax implications for outward remittances. Suddenly, the bank introduces additional requirements: a tax clearance certificate, a digital signature, and consultation with a Chartered Accountant (CA). These demands, often presented piecemeal, turn what should be a simple transfer into a bureaucratic maze. In this scenario, the bank is not denying your ability to transfer funds outright but instead uses a series of layered requirements to delay the process. Along the way, it fosters anxiety with warnings about penalties for non-compliance and risks to data security. For instance, suggesting that digital signatures “may not be safe” subtly undermines confidence in what should be a straightforward solution. The Tools of Deflection Banks employ several techniques to maintain control over financial transactions: 1. Partial Disclosure Often, the full scope of requirements is not revealed upfront. You may only learn of additional steps—such as tax forms (Form 15CA and 15CB)—after you’ve started the process. This approach creates dependency on the bank’s guidance and slows down the process. 2. Fear-Mongering Phrases like “tax implications,” “compliance issues,” and “serious complications” are used to emphasize potential risks, placing the emotional burden on the customer. Even when the risks are manageable, the language makes the process seem daunting and urgent. 3. Complexity by Design Repatriating funds from an NRO account requires a tax clearance certificate, which in turn involves engaging a CA and obtaining a digital signature. Each step adds cost, time, and friction, discouraging customers from completing their transactions. 4. Shifting Responsibility While the bank positions itself as a neutral enforcer of regulations, it shifts the burden of compliance entirely onto the customer. In the case of NRO accounts, this includes not only navigating complex tax laws but also securing external services to meet the bank’s requirements. The Broader Implications This dynamic is not just about one transaction—it reflects a broader systemic issue in how banks and financial institutions operate. By creating and maintaining complexity, banks ensure their centrality in financial systems. Every added layer of compliance generates revenue for intermediaries, from CAs to agencies offering digital signature services. At its core, this approach consolidates control, discouraging people from questioning the system while creating dependency on institutions to navigate it. A Stark Contrast: Decentralized Alternatives Contrast this with decentralized systems like Bitcoin, where transactions are transparent, direct, and free from intermediaries. In decentralized finance, complexity is replaced with clarity: the rules are encoded, and the system operates without fear-mongering or hidden requirements. While decentralized systems are not without their challenges, they highlight how much of the friction in traditional banking is artificial, designed to maintain control rather than provide true utility. Moving Forward: Empowering the Individual To navigate these challenges, customers must take an active role in understanding their rights and responsibilities: 1. Seek Clarity: Always insist on full, written disclosure of requirements upfront. 2. Be Informed: Familiarize yourself with relevant regulations, such as the RBI guidelines for repatriation of funds from NRO accounts. 3. Streamline Processes: Explore authorized solutions for digital signatures and tax compliance independently, avoiding unnecessary intermediaries. 4. Escalate When Necessary: If a bank creates undue delays or friction, consider escalating the issue to regulatory bodies like the RBI Ombudsman. Conclusion Banks operate within a system that thrives on opacity and control, using deflection and subterfuge to create dependency. However, by understanding the tools they use and asserting your rights, you can navigate these systems more effectively. The ultimate goal should be financial systems that are transparent, straightforward, and customer-centric—whether that’s through reforming traditional banks or embracing decentralized alternatives. Until then, it’s essential to recognize and address the subtle dynamics that keep customers in the dark.

@ 16d11430:61640947

Payment systems are the backbone of global commerce, enabling trillions of dollars in transactions annually. Traditional fiat-based payment processors, like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal, dominate the landscape with widespread adoption and established infrastructures. However, Bitcoin and the Lightning Network have emerged as robust alternatives, offering unique advantages in resilience, efficiency, and decentralization. This article explores why Bitcoin Lightning infrastructure is more resilient than traditional payment systems, providing a nuanced comparison of their strengths and limitations. --- 1. Decentralization vs. Centralization Traditional Payment Systems Traditional systems are centralized, meaning they rely on intermediaries like banks, payment processors, and settlement networks. While centralization enables ease of management and compliance, it introduces critical single points of failure. Outages, regulatory interference, or cyberattacks targeting these centralized entities can disrupt the entire network. Bitcoin Lightning Network Bitcoin, by design, is a decentralized network where no single entity has control. The Lightning Network, built on top of Bitcoin, inherits this resilience. By distributing transaction processing across a peer-to-peer network, the Lightning Network minimizes risks of downtime or targeted attacks. Nodes operate independently, creating a system that is fault-tolerant and robust under various adverse conditions. --- 2. Resilience to Outages Traditional Payment Systems Centralized payment processors are vulnerable to outages caused by technical glitches, infrastructure failures, or cyberattacks. For example, payment processing services like Visa have experienced hours-long outages, causing significant disruptions for businesses and consumers. These outages highlight the fragility of relying on centralized servers. Bitcoin Lightning Network The Lightning Network operates on a globally distributed network of nodes. If one node goes offline, the network continues to function seamlessly. This redundancy ensures that the system remains operational even in the face of localized failures or attacks. Moreover, since the Lightning Network operates over Bitcoin, the underlying blockchain serves as a fallback mechanism for final settlement. --- 3. Transparency and Trust Traditional Payment Systems Fiat payment systems are opaque, requiring users to trust intermediaries. Chargebacks, fraud, and disputes are resolved through centralized authorities, often leading to delays and inconsistent outcomes. Trust is placed in banks and financial institutions to safeguard funds and execute transactions. Bitcoin Lightning Network Bitcoin’s public ledger ensures complete transparency, with every transaction recorded immutably on the blockchain. The Lightning Network leverages cryptographic proofs for secure and trustless transactions. Users retain full control over their funds, and the system eliminates the need for intermediaries, reducing risks of fraud and chargeback abuse. --- 4. Cost and Efficiency Traditional Payment Systems Intermediaries in fiat payment systems charge fees for processing transactions, often passing these costs to consumers and merchants. Cross-border payments are particularly expensive due to currency conversion fees and delays in settlement times. These inefficiencies make fiat systems costly and slow for international commerce. Bitcoin Lightning Network The Lightning Network significantly reduces transaction costs by enabling near-instant payments without intermediaries. Microtransactions, which are often impractical in traditional systems, become feasible on the Lightning Network due to its low fees. Additionally, cross-border payments are seamless, eliminating currency conversion delays and fees. --- 5. Security and Fraud Prevention Traditional Payment Systems Centralized payment systems are frequent targets for cyberattacks, including data breaches and fraud. Stolen credit card information can lead to significant financial and reputational damages. The reliance on personal identification information (PII) further exposes users to identity theft. Bitcoin Lightning Network The Lightning Network utilizes cryptographic protocols to secure transactions. Private keys and digital signatures ensure that only the rightful owner can authorize a transaction. Since the network operates on pseudonymous identities, the risk of identity theft is minimized. Additionally, by removing intermediaries, the Lightning Network reduces the attack surface for cybercriminals. --- 6. Accessibility and Financial Inclusion Traditional Payment Systems Fiat payment systems require users to have access to bank accounts and credit facilities. This dependency excludes millions of people in developing regions who lack access to formal banking infrastructure. Moreover, stringent KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) requirements create barriers for the unbanked population. Bitcoin Lightning Network Bitcoin is inherently inclusive, requiring only an internet connection and a wallet to participate. The Lightning Network enhances this inclusivity by enabling faster and cheaper transactions, making it accessible to individuals in underserved regions. By removing the need for traditional banking intermediaries, Bitcoin promotes financial sovereignty for the unbanked. --- 7. Global Reach and Interoperability Traditional Payment Systems Cross-border interoperability in fiat systems is limited by regulatory barriers, currency differences, and the need for correspondent banking relationships. International transactions often involve multiple intermediaries, resulting in delays and inefficiencies. Bitcoin Lightning Network The Lightning Network operates on a global scale, unrestricted by borders or currencies. Its interoperability allows users to transact with anyone, anywhere, without requiring additional infrastructure. This global accessibility positions Bitcoin as a truly universal payment system. --- 8. Resilience Against Censorship Traditional Payment Systems Centralized payment systems are susceptible to censorship by governments, financial institutions, or corporations. Accounts can be frozen, and transactions blocked, often without transparency or recourse. Bitcoin Lightning Network Bitcoin’s decentralized nature makes it highly resistant to censorship. The Lightning Network inherits this property, ensuring that no central authority can unilaterally block transactions. This resilience is particularly valuable in regions facing economic instability or authoritarian regimes. --- Conclusion While traditional payment systems have provided the foundation for global commerce, their centralized nature introduces vulnerabilities that Bitcoin and the Lightning Network address effectively. By leveraging decentralization, transparency, and cryptographic security, Bitcoin Lightning offers a more resilient and efficient alternative for the digital age. It empowers individuals with financial sovereignty, reduces costs, and fosters inclusivity, making it a compelling choice for the future of payments. However, the Lightning Network is not without challenges. Adoption remains limited compared to fiat systems, and the user experience can be complex for non-technical users. Overcoming these hurdles will be essential for Bitcoin to achieve mainstream acceptance. In the end, the resilience of Bitcoin and the Lightning Network lies in their ability to operate without reliance on centralized entities, ensuring that financial systems remain robust, accessible, and censorship-resistant in a rapidly evolving world.

@ 47259076:570c98c4

Did I choose the family I was born? Or was it random? Where do I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? Perhaps more important than trying to answer those questions, is to know if they are answerable at all, because if it's impossible to know the answer, then attempting to would be a waste of time. What is wasting time anyways? Perhaps the intention to do something, even if that something is impossible, is a good thing. Perhaps the value is not in receiving expansive gifts, but in someone making the effort to reward you with anything, even if it's just a piece of paper with a nice message written by hand. No existential crisis is required, it's all genuine questions. Is the search for truth infinite? What is love? Are people born brave? Or they become brave? Where my desire to understand myself and the universe comes from? Are stars watching us? What stars think of us? Why born in this planet? Why some people have pleasure in doing evil acts? At what point should I attempt to control things or just let it go? One may plan too far in the future and die tomorrow One may never plan for the future and live until 110 years old, being a homeless What is energy? Where does it come from? Can we convert thought into energy? We have day and night, why not have a third element? Something non binary, something different Perhaps we already have the third element but our limited perception doesn't allow us to see Can we increase our perception? Why good music is harmonic? Why non human entities are so interested in humanity? What is the root of all problems? What is a problem? What is the price to pay to reach our full potential? Why?

@ fdb8c828:84c16368

I'm not really sure how to tell you about what you're about to read, other than it's an idea that I tried to express using words. I'm a literature girl, so think of this as a literature thing. That's why there's no capital letters. >art is pebbles on the beach imagine there is a sparkling shore and you have an open day to spend there. just you and the water washing up at intervals beside you. blue sky above, blue water at your feet and beyond the horizon. it fills your senses and makes you understand what infinity means. it’s a pulse. here you are, and you have to do something, although all you want to do is stare out at infinity and listen to it roar. but you have to do something, and naturally your eyes begin to search the ground for treasures. eventually you’re crouching at the edge of the pulse that echoes forever, picking up any small specimen that catches your attention. you lift it to your face, turn it over. finger its crevaces. maybe you smell it, taste it. until it feels like part of you, like the attention you gave it leaves a certain energy with it. you judge that it is good and place it in your pouch. at the end of this day, you spread all the pieces out and organize your collection. you wonder if the best one might sell at the gift shop. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/395051

@ fdb8c828:84c16368

Hello, I'm happy you are here. It has been a while since I have made a post about my work of the past few years; however, you may have taken notice that I will occasionally pop into The Saloon with a few fresh lines. Today, I want to tell you about a poem I penned in 2016. Here is *asleep on a bench* in it's virgin form, the first draft:  I want to tell you a bit about what's going on here. I reference T.S. Eliot because I had just begun studying him in college, and his work was changing my chemistry. The opening lines, a kind of inscription device that Eliot himself used, are taken from [_The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock_](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock), a poem that continues to change me, a poem I love dearly like a close friend. And in addition to the explosion of literature in my brain, I had traveled to England in the summer before beginning college classes, and there I walked the same places that many of the poets who changed my life had walked. I saw the gravesite of William Wordsworth, who famously [wandered lonely as a cloud](https://poets.org/poem/i-wandered-lonely-cloud), and I agreed with most everyone there in that town that his words were worth quite a lot, upon browsing their souvenir shelves. Going away to the England I dreamed of, returning to the ordinary place I grew up, then burying myself in books which opened up worlds that resonated with the deepest parts of me -- all of this came together at one moment and became this poem. I think it is the moment I was born. Here is *asleep on a bench* after a few rounds of polish:  Now, I do not believe this poem accomplishes what I feel a poem must. It is not universal. Too much possession of feeling obstructing a truth that you and I could share if I let it go. Still, each time I give it a read, each time I return to it with fresh eyes, I find the same rush of energy, the birth rush. This is one of two poems of mine that have been included in a literary magazine. It appears in a library's collection of works published 2018, but it doesn't match either of the versions you have just read. I continue to strive for excellence as a poet without taking any paved routes. Frankly, I don't know what I'm doing, and so much the better: I get to be free. Thanks for reading! originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/852487

@ 3efdaebb:3e0d2681

Hey Nostr! It’s App Store release day for Damus. Thanks again to our loyal Purple subscribers for helping us continue to improve the UX and pointing out important changes and fixes. Highlights of Version 1.12: ### Added - Render Gif and video files while composing posts (Swift Coder) - Add profile info text in stretchable banner with follow button (Swift Coder) - Paste Gif image similar to jpeg and png files (Swift Coder) ### Changed - Improved UX around the label for searching words (Daniel D’Aquino) - Improved accessibility support on some elements (Daniel D’Aquino) ### Fixed - Fixed issue where the "next" button would appear hidden and hard to click on the create account view (Daniel D’Aquino) - Fix non scrollable wallet screen (Swift Coder) - Fixed suggested users category titles to be localizable (Terry Yiu) - Fixed GradientFollowButton to have consistent width and autoscale text limited to 1 line (Terry Yiu) - Fixed right-to-left localization issues (Terry Yiu) - Fixed AddMuteItemView to trim leading and trailing whitespaces from mute text and disallow adding text with only whitespaces (Terry Yiu) - Fixed SideMenuView text to autoscale and limit to 1 line (Terry Yiu) - Fixed an issue where a profile would need to be input twice in the search to be found (Daniel D’Aquino) - Fixed non-breaking spaces in localized strings (Terry Yiu) - Fixed localization issue on Add mute item button (Terry Yiu) - Replace non-breaking spaces with regular spaces as Apple's NSLocalizedString macro does not seem to work with it (Terry Yiu) - Fixed localization issues in RelayConfigView (Terry Yiu) - Fix duplicate uploads (Swift Coder) - Remove duplicate pubkey from Follow Suggestion list (Swift Coder) - Fix Page control indicator (Swift Coder) - Fix damus sharing issues (Swift Coder) - Fixed issue where banner edit button is unclickable (Daniel D’Aquino) - Handle empty notification pages by displaying suitable text (Swift Coder)

@ 6be5cc06:5259daf0

A seguir, veja como instalar e configurar o **Privoxy** no **Pop!_OS**. --- ### **1. Instalar o Tor e o Privoxy** Abra o terminal e execute: ```bash sudo apt update sudo apt install tor privoxy ``` **Explicação:** - **Tor:** Roteia o tráfego pela rede Tor. - **Privoxy:** Proxy avançado que intermedia a conexão entre aplicativos e o Tor. --- ### **2. Configurar o Privoxy** Abra o arquivo de configuração do Privoxy: ```bash sudo nano /etc/privoxy/config ``` Navegue até a última linha (atalho: **`Ctrl`** + **`/`** depois **`Ctrl`** + **`V`** para navegar diretamente até a última linha) e insira: ```bash forward-socks5 / 127.0.0.1:9050 . ``` Isso faz com que o **Privoxy** envie todo o tráfego para o **Tor** através da porta **9050**. Salve (**`CTRL`** + **`O`** e **`Enter`**) e feche (**`CTRL`** + **`X`**) o arquivo. --- ### **3. Iniciar o Tor e o Privoxy** Agora, inicie e habilite os serviços: ```bash sudo systemctl start tor sudo systemctl start privoxy sudo systemctl enable tor sudo systemctl enable privoxy ``` **Explicação:** - **start:** Inicia os serviços. - **enable:** Faz com que iniciem automaticamente ao ligar o PC. --- ### **4. Configurar o Navegador Firefox** Para usar a rede **Tor** com o Firefox: 1. Abra o Firefox. 2. Acesse **Configurações** → **Configurar conexão**. 3. Selecione **Configuração manual de proxy**. 4. Configure assim: - **Proxy HTTP:** `127.0.0.1` - **Porta:** `8118` (porta padrão do **Privoxy**) - **Domínio SOCKS (v5):** `127.0.0.1` - **Porta:** `9050` 5. Marque a opção **"Usar este proxy também em HTTPS"**. 6. Clique em **OK**. --- ### **5. Verificar a Conexão com o Tor** Abra o navegador e acesse: ```text https://check.torproject.org/ ``` Se aparecer a mensagem **"Congratulations. This browser is configured to use Tor."**, a configuração está correta. --- ### **Dicas Extras** - **Privoxy** pode ser ajustado para bloquear anúncios e rastreadores. - Outros aplicativos também podem ser configurados para usar o **Privoxy**.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

 originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/859339

@ e7968f56:c44b35f3

The Death of Qualitative Thought This started off as a message to some friends. I was trying to convince them why it was important that we read Hannah Ardent’s “The Human Condition”. As the message continued to spiral I had to choose another medium to share it with them. _“I'd ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much.” - Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting_ We are on the precipice of a torrent of political and economic change. The global economy is struggling; France can't balance its budget and ousted the prime minister in response, Germany has bungled their energy policy resulting in VW shutting down factories for the first time in its history, contributing to the Chancellor losing a non confidence vote. Both countries have far right parties poised to take leadership, and both these far right parties have advocated for stepping out of the EU. If such an event were to take place it could be the end of the Euro, the second most powerful currency in the world will have been created and destroyed in under 30 years. The UK is in the process of exacerbating their energy woes whilst dealing with a stagnant economy. Likewise, Canada's economy is struggling and the economic minister quit in dramatic fashion due, in part, to terrible budget management. This led to the Canadian prime minister resigning shortly after. China is in a similar economic position and is still trying to stimulate its economy while tensions with the US mount. The US itself is economically resilient and the coming administration’s aggressive approach to economic growth has further bolstered enthusiasm in their economy. This strategy coupled with tariffs will cause inflation to reappear internationally and batter struggling families further. Trump is known to follow an aggressive form of Reganomics that can be understood better as "number go up"; doing whatever it takes to push the economy higher, assuming this will solve society’s woes. Behind Trump stands J.D. Vance and the "Counter Elite", led by Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Although Musk takes all the attention, it is really Thiel who has the foresight and political cunning to make changes happen. Thiel has been vocal about his opinion on the global economic situation and America’s place in it for quite a while. He has been sounding alarms about economic stagnation, through over regulation, for years. The motto of his venture fund echoes these concerns: "We were promised flying cars, instead we got 140 characters". His main concern being if we constrict growth - increased violence is inevitable. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will be the "counter elites" first step in reducing government involvement in all facets of society.  This new technocracy will display a plethora of metrics to justify their decisions, being STEM oriented individuals. It is important to keep in mind that although these numbers are intended to reflect something from reality, divergences between the metric and what it is intended to measure frequently occur (Campbell’s law). The use of market indices, for example, as a measure of quality of life, is something we frequently see that deviates from most people’s experience. It loses sight of the underlying human issues we are trying to solve. The tech elite frequently display this lack of qualitative understanding; the Cyber Truck or Meta's venture into VR worlds gives a stark display of this. The explanation for the lack of qualitative understanding could be as simple as the inherent societal bias we have between what San Francisco residents would call "Shape Rotators" vs "Wordcels". These terms reflect a general societal view that the humanities carry little to no value, and all decisions should only be made through explicit cause and effect relations. We have been looking at the world through this narrow lens since the 80s, earlier if you ask Hannah Arendt, and the "number go up" approach is only doubling down on this perspective. This world view might be what is the cause of our predicament in the first place. We may have reached a local maximum in terms of moving forward as a society with this strategy, a point of diminishing returns, yet we don't consider others. Our view of the world is only becoming more myopic and our tactics to approach it is becoming more aggressive. Since Ronald Regan and Milton Freidman pushed "trickle down economics", with their compatriot Margaret Thatcher in the UK, every leader has skewed more to the right. Bill Clinton was far more pro business than democratic presidents prior to him. This trend has only continued. Every President and CEO uses the market as arbiter of success, which employs Friedman's idea that the shareholders are the primary concern (campaign contributors are essentially shareholders) and everything else is secondary. Donald Trump is only refining and pushing these strategies further. He has already signalled tax cuts for the richest people in the country and that he will drop the corporate tax rate to 15%. The market’s exuberance is used to justify these decisions. He has no view of his own of where the country should go, only parroting Regan's campaign slogan, which in itself has no vision of the future. Trump has been recruited by the tech billionaires since their economic perspectives are aligned. The tech elite have applied the "number go up strategy" to their companies for decades, “hockey stick” growth curves are the only true indicator of success in the industry. Politically they were very liberal, accepting, and sometimes advocating for higher taxes to help state programs. This optimistic hands off approach obviously hasn't worked as San Francisco has become infested with social and political strife, far exceeding issues that comparably sized cities have. Unsurprisingly this has triggered a complete reversal of the tech elites previous views on governance. Now as the tech billionaires enter the political game, they are keen to apply their successful approach in tech to government. Their first application of this strategy will be with the "Department of Government Efficiency", meant to help reduce regulations that are hindering business development. Silicon Valley has been an ideal case of the benefits of deregulation. The digital world provided a permissionless environment for anyone to build and distribute products. With successes like Google, venture capital funds threw enormous resources behind youthful intelligent founders, and reaped enormous rewards. Building a startup became a common phrase, and achieving the “hockey stick” growth curve became a common dream.Other areas of the world began trying to imitate this model seeing the prosperity it brought to the region. More and more talented youths entered into Computer Science or Computer engineering hoping to join a large software company with generous compensation packages, or founding their own company. Other more regulated industries provided fewer and fewer opportunities as lucrative as tech. This reinforced the perception that tech was the only path to social mobility, and more so, that any field outside STEM is not a valuable investment. The humanities were seen as antithetical to tech, believed to provide zero economic value. This bias is prevalent throughout our society, it is particularly prevalent in San Francisco where the term “wordcel” is used to describe those who prefer to pursue knowledge in the humanities.  What we lost in this was the benefits of qualitative thinking which is more pronounced in the humanities. This is where people learn to analyze things that don’t have clear numerical solutions, to see problems from a multitude of perspectives, to understand that some issues have no clean resolutions, to contemplate what it means to exist and be conscious of your own existence. Humanities are where we learn what the human condition is and how we can improve it. Qualitative thinking allows us to actually consider what we are doing and where we are going. Sean Monahan in his essay “[The counter elite won the meme wa](https://www.8ball.report/p/the-counter-elite-won-the-meme-war)r” captures the lack of qualitative understanding at the core of the tech elite: “the homes of tech billionaires and hundred millionaires I’ve seen (online and otherwise) aren’t much better: generically white and minimal, rectilinear shapes in monochromatic fabrics. You get the sense you are in a third-world luxury hotel that didn’t know you were supposed to hire an interior designer”. Living by the “Number go up” strategy leaves one devoid of taste and depth. It comes painfully obvious, as Sean says of the tech elite: “On a basic level, both their fantasies and realities fail to inspire.” We can plainly see this in the everyday functioning of the companies found in San Francisco over time, as more companies provided high economic output but lower societal value. This single minded approach to politics and economics has left us bereft of any vigour. San Francisco is overrun with Will Huntings who chose the corporate path. Every aspect of our life has become a cold calculation, even dating has become a numbers game, setting filters and preserving likes. We are left longing for depth and a purpose to pursue that no amount of rigorous number manipulations will provide a substitute for. Leopold Aschenbrenner, part of the super alignment team at OpenAI, mentioned on podcast that he won't spend any money on consumption till he can buy literal galaxies. This comment made me think of Zaphod Beeblebrox, from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, when he awakes on a planet of gold and is overcome with awe, but only a short while earlier he travelled the galaxy on a machine that made the impossible probable and could only think to use it to gain more wealth. What value is a planet of gold when we can’t appreciate the wonders around us? Even Peter Thiel, the undercover Wordcel who constantly ridicules many fields because they aren't shape rotatory enough, states in his essay "Straussian moment" that the assumption of each individual being a rational economic actor was upended on September 11th. A foundational shift in our society is required to account for this change in our understanding, yet we continue to pursue economics and politics in the same manner, only more aggressively, as if this will produce different results. _What I propose, therefore, is very simple: it is nothing more than to think what we are doing. — Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition._ FIN

@ 000002de:c05780a7

> The Bellamy salute is a palm-out salute created by James B. Upham as the gesture that was to accompany the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America, whose text had been written by Francis Bellamy. It was also known as the "flag salute" during the period when it was used with the Pledge of Allegiance. Bellamy promoted the salute and it came to be associated with his name. Both the Pledge and its salute originated in 1892. It was also known as the "flag salute" during the period when it was used with the Pledge of Allegiance. Bellamy promoted the salute and it came to be associated with his name. Both the Pledge and its salute originated in 1892. Later, during the 1920s and 1930s, Italian fascists and Nazi Germans adopted a salute which was very similar, attributed to the Roman salute, a gesture that was popularly believed to have been used in ancient Rome.[1] This resulted in controversy over the use of the Bellamy salute in the United States. It was officially replaced by the hand-over-heart salute when Congress amended the Flag Code on December 22, 1942. ~ [Bellamy salute - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute) originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/859191

@ 812cff5a:5c40aeeb

## ما هو أولاس (Olas) **أولاس تطبيق نوستر محاكي للانستغرام**  أولاس [OLAS](https://olas.app) هو أول تطبيق نوستر يتم تطويرة بشكل جدي لتقديم تجربة شبيهة بالانستغرام على نوستر. يركز التطبيق على عرض الصور والڤيديو على الصفحة الرئيسية مع قدرة على فلترة الصفحة. التطبيق مصمم أيضا ليعرض الڤيديو بشكل شبيه بالانستغرام رييلز. لكن بسبب بعض الامور التقنية الميزة لا تعمل بشكل جيد الان. ## ما الذي يميز تطبيق أولاس **أولاس يتبع نيپ-٨٦ (NIP-68) لعرض الصور والميديا** يتميز تطبيق أولاس بأنه يعتمد على منشورات نوستر من نوع ٢٠ (Kind-20) وهو نوع مخصص للصور والڤيديو يتبع تطوير [NIP-68](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/68.md). مما يعني ان المنشورات تظهر فقط على تطبيقات قادرة علة عرض هذه النوع.  وكون هذه هي الطريقة التي تم تصميم فيها التطبيق، أولاس لا يعرض المنشورات المتعارف عليها مثل تويتر أو من نوع ١ (kind-1) ليقدم للمستخدم تجربة جميلة فريدة من نوعها (حتى الأن). ## ضرورة تطوير تطبيقات متخصصة **التطبيقات المخصصة هي باب لجذب مستخدمين جدد** من الضروري تطوير تطبيقات شبهة بأولاس من حيث التصميم. أي ان التطبيق موجه لفئة محددة وواضحة. هذا النوع من التطبيقات يجذب مستخدمين غير مهتمين بالاخبار او المنشورات المكتوبة وكل اهتمامهم هو نشر ومشاركة الصور والڤيديو. ## كيف يمكنك دعم المشروع؟ **شارك في مبادرة السنة #olas365** أولاس حاليا متوفر كتطبيق تجريبي على iOS والويب. يمكنكم الإنضمام وتجربة التطبيق. لكن نود التنبيه ان التطبيق في مراحلة الأولى ويتم تطويره وتحديثه بشكل دوري. هذا الرابط لتحميل التطبيق: [Olas Testflight Link](https://testflight.apple.com/join/2FMVX2yM) مطور التطبيق: nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft

@ 3c7dc2c5:805642a8

## 🧠Quote(s) of the week: 'For the love of God, Bitcoin is not a 'scam', and it is not 'going away'. Do yourself some good by honestly and thoroughly researching it, away from mainstream media nonsense. You can thank me and thousands of others on here later.' 'Do you actually understand what it means when the whole world tries to squeeze into a fixed supply digital asset that never gets diluted, is audited every 10 minutes, and trades 24/7 as the most liquid asset on earth? If you do, you’re holding on for dear life.' -Bitcoin For Freedom ## 🧡Bitcoin news🧡 After a short break from the recap, I am back. I got a new place and I had to focus on that project. Now before I start with this week's Weekly Recap I want to remind all the political larpers (Trump voters etc) of one thing: THE PROMISE 1. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve 2. Free Ross day one THE REALITY 1. 47M Wrapped BTC 2. Maybe free Ross later 3. 4.7M tron 4. 47M Ethereum 5. 4.7 M litecoin 6. Pardoned J6 participants Oh, and he launched the biggest meme/shitcoin, and rug pulled the shit out of it. On the 12th of January: ➡️Eighth consecutive positive adjustment on the horizon. We saw nine in 2021 and 17 in 2018. This is insane. ➡️A Santander Bank report highlights El Salvador’s booming tourism industry, fueled by Bitcoin adoption. The country announced 3.9M tourists in 2024—a 22% YoY increase and nearly double the levels seen between 2013-2016. ➡️Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 0.6101% today. The network has programmatically adjusted to a new difficulty level of 110,451,907,374,649 hashes, ensuring the target block time remains stable as global computing power on the network fluctuates. ➡️We now have 7 states, and counting, pushing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill: - New Hampshire - Alabama - Florida - Pennsylvania - Texas - Ohio - North Dakota On the 13th of January: ➡️Italy's largest bank Intesa Sanpaolo has started buying Bitcoin, according to leaked internal emails which celebrate the "first transaction" of €1m for 11 Bitcoin. ➡️The number of Bitcoin addresses holding over 100 BTC has surged by 8.6% since Trump’s election in November. ➡️Ming Shing Group from Hong Kong just acquired 500 Bitcoin for $47M. ➡️Semler Scientific has acquired 237 BTC for ~$23.3 million at ~$98,267 per Bitcoin and has generated a BTC Yield of 99.3% since adopting our BTC treasury strategy in May 2024. As of 1/10/2025, we held 2,321  Bitcoin acquired for ~$191.9 million at ~$82,687 per Bitcoin. ➡️$11.5 trillion BlackRock says that Bitcoin adoption is outpacing the internet and mobile phones. On the 14th of January: ➡️The Bitcoin network has 610,929x more hashing computational power than the combined total of the world’s top 500 supercomputers. On the 16th of January: ➡️'Someone just moved 11,000 Bitcoin worth $1.1 BILLION around the world for ONLY $1.50 The world's most efficient monetary network.' - Pete Rizzo ➡️XRP is down 80% from its bitcoin all-time high in 2017. Just don't do shitcoins, it's that simple. On the 17th of January: ➡️'They did it again! Bindseil and Schaaf published the article, 'Arguments Against a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve'. It is a wild ride, reaching peak FUD. Maybe even so wild that they had to publish it in a newspaper and not as an ECB blog post. This is ultra bullish' - Dr. Jan Wüstenfeld ➡️Metaplanet's market cap closes above $1 billion for the first time since adopting a Bitcoin Standard. ➡️Jeroen Blokland: ‘Nearly one-fifth of all U.S. states are formally weighing whether to have public funds invest in Bitcoin.’ I am afraid and convinced at the same time that soon, the EU will be the only region still aiming to introduce a central bank digital currency. As a result, it will trigger more polarization, and Europe will lose the Bitcoin battle, just as it hopelessly lost the technology and AI battle. ➡️'ETH was supposed to become deflationary after the "merge" But now the supply is almost back to where it was BEFORE the merge If you're still falling for this shit, you deserve to get scammed.' -Rajat Soni To make it even worse: 'The ETHBTC ratio is now lower than the day when Coinbase listed it in 2016. You would have been buying ETH at ~$13, but funny enough if you would have just bought and held Bitcoin, you would have actually outperformed it.' -Pledditor. ➡️ First union in Idaho bought Bitcoin. ➡️ California state officials embraced Bitcoin. ➡️Wyoming filed for Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill. ➡️Massachusetts filed for Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill. Up to 10% of the $9 Billion Commonwealth Stabilization Fund can be invested in Bitcoin On the 18th of January: ➡️ Swiss Bitcoin advocates are pushing for the Swiss National Bank to add Bitcoin to the national reserves - Bloomberg They need 100,000 signatures to put it to a national vote. ➡️3.47M Bitcoin addresses hold more than 0.1 BTC. If you own one of them you’re set for life. ➡️Donald Trump dropped a meme coin instead of stacking Bitcoin for a Strategic Reserve. If the president of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA can launch and promote a memecoin, then essentially it's OK (and not shamed) for anyone/anywhere to do so.  The grift to come is going to be unreal, even by CrApTo standards. A memecoin/shitcoin is a zero-sum* lottery. There is no wealth creation. Every buy order is simply matched by a sell order. After an initial spike, the price eventually crashes and the last buyers lose everything. That's the only thing I am going to share on the subject. [](https://i.ibb.co/jRctP3r/Ghpx9-BNWUAA2-Nxg.jpg) ➡️Arizona Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill introduced The State can invest up to 10% from: 1) State general fund - $28B 2) State retirement funds - $50B ➡️ Bitwise bought +$200 MILLION Bitcoin for its ETF today. The biggest single-day inflow since launching last year. On the 19th of January: ➡️ Bitcoin Network System Explained in a Chart: [](https://i.ibb.co/RBrC5tw/Ghn8-Bv-BW8-AAi-Xu-X.jpg) On the 20th of January: ➡️Bitcoin mining difficulty hits a NEW ALL-TIME HIGH. ➡️YouTube rival Rumble started buying Bitcoin for its balance sheet on Friday - CEO ➡️Bitcoin went up 20x in Trump's first term as President. 10x this time? ## 💸Traditional Finance / Macro: 👉🏽no news ## 🏦Banks:  👉🏽Global central banks now hold more Gold than at any point in the past 45 years. Something is brewing. ## 🌎Macro/Geopolitics: On the 12th of January: 👉🏽Treasuries are entering their 6th year of the third great bond bear market of the last 240 years! On the 16th of January: 👉🏽EU Commission allows Thierry Breton to take up a new job at Bank of America despite a rule that requires a two-year waiting period before starting lobbying jobs. There are no rules for these corrupt EU (you fill in the blank). The rules apply only to citizens, not to the Brussels elite, and certainly not if you belong to the French political elite. In December I shared some news on the EU crusade against X. Let me explain this to you in simple terms. Breton, a man preaching about the ‘rule of law’ and X, while breaching the rules he signed up to himself: ‘Code of Conduct EU Commissioners’. Now read that again. Bitcoin only. Defund politicians. 👉🏽'The Congressional Budget Office just lowered the US population forecast by 11 million, to 372 million in 2054. This implies 6.3% growth over the next 30 years instead of the 10.5% previously expected. The agency also expects deaths to exceed births starting in 2033, 7 years earlier than in the 2024 estimates. Lower fertility rates and lower net immigration expectations were behind the outlook changes. Are we heading into a demographic crisis?' - TKL On the 17th of January: 👉🏽 Germany had 17 nuclear power plants. It shut them all down. Germany spent $1 Trillion for its energy revamp with the following results: - It is now totally dependent on Russian gas, French nuclear power electricity, and coal (the most polluting fossil fuel) - Its citizens pay the highest electricity price in Europe - It causes several times more CO2 per kWh than France Go woke, go broke. $1T for ruining both its economy and environment. Wunderbar! Just some data: In 2025, Europe is buying Russian gas at an unprecedented pace and spending billions of dollars on it, reports Politico. In the first 15 days of the year, the EU countries imported 837.3 thousand tons of Russian liquified natural gas (LNG). Just to show you how fucked up things are in the EU. EU companies are backstabbed by their own policymakers. 'Europe's carmakers risk hefty bill for carbon credit from Chinese rivals.' source: https://www.ft.com/content/677190d1-7d34-4506-a037-418baab67237 I read the article. It’mind-blowingng. It's like shooting a two-barrelled shotgun in your own nuts. On this point, EU regulators are destroying an entire part of the economy (Car manufacturing + subcontractors) and are giving the keys to Chinese companies. Go woke, go broke. China is making new coal plants at a rate that cancels German / EU efforts 10X or maybe 100x over. Now from an economic perspective: 'European equities are more or less where they were at the beginning of the century. Overregulation and bureaucracy throttling innovation, and belief in left redistribution nonsense instead of hard work and entrepreneurship have their price.' -Michael A. Arouet [](https://i.ibb.co/DWCV5pV/Ght-HId-Wc-AINW2x.jpg) 👉🏽Treasuries have experienced their worst rolling 10-year return in 90 YEARS, now at -0.5%. People out here still stacking U.S. gov bonds instead of Bitcoin. Data: U.S. Treasury bonds: -42% - Bitcoin: +809% 'The “smart money” is buying 30-year treasury bonds with a nominal yield of 1.20% on the whim that another investor (or central bank) will buy it from them at a higher price.' -Dylan Leclair On the 18th of January: 👉🏽Argentina has officially reached its first budget surplus in 14 years. Vamos! Under Milei’s leadership, Argentina turned a $7.94B trade deficit in 2023 into a record-smashing $18-19B surplus in 2024, surpassing the previous high of $16.89B in 2009. His push to boost energy exports from the Vaca Muerta shale reserves and ramp up grain sales is paying off, making Argentina a global exporting powerhouse again. With inflation already down from nearly 300% to 117.8%, Milei’s economic reforms are proving their worth. Argentinian President Javier Milei announces "Zero deficit is a reality...promises are fulfilled." Let me refrain from the above: ➡️Less state ➡️Less government expenses ➡️Capitalism ➡️Free market 👉🏽Wealth exodus accelerated by 157% in 2024: One millionaire leaves Britain every 45 minutes under Labour — Telegraph 157% increase in the outflow of millionaires since Labour came to power - including losing over 10,000 millionaires & 12 billionaires. All these people created wealth in the U.K. through living and spending. On the 19th of January: 👉🏽U.S. Housing Market 16.2% of Home Purchase Deals were canceled last month, the highest cancellation rate in history If for some reason people still believe Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme, well that's their fault. Let me share with you the real Ponzi scheme. The following chart summarizes the impact of demographics on European pension systems really well: [](https://i.ibb.co/r7QkYsv/Gh-J7j41-Wg-AEah31.jpg) A ticking time bomb! The regulatory burdens suffered by citizens are imposed by unelectable bureaucrats! Study Bitcoin. ## 🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift: Some fountain of Lyn Alden's wisdom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZlcrLZkNA8 Lyn Alden is a macro analyst, investment strategist, and the author of Broken Money. In this episode of What Bitcoin Did, they discuss the impact of fiscal policy on inflation, the Federal Reserve's constraints under fiscal dominance, and the role of tariffs in shaping the economic landscape. They also get into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and what Donald Trump’s Administration will mean for Bitcoin. Credit: I have used multiple sources! The complete Weekly Recap will be accessible on my Bitcoin Friday page on Habla. Enriched with detailed charts, illustrative images, and comprehensive macroeconomic news to provide context and clarity. My savings account: Bitcoin The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: PocketBitcoin especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly. Use the code BITCOINFRIDAY Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges. Save them on a hardware wallet, run your own node...be your own bank. Not your keys, not your coins. It's that simple.⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Do you think this post is helpful to you? If so, please share it and support my work with a zap. ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃ ⭐ Many thanks⭐ Felipe - Bitcoin Friday! ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

@ f3b691eb:aa9a5c31

I know there are a ton of people working on onboarding resources for new users. Informational sites, user guides, wallet info etc. Where do you send new users? originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/859149

@ 9e69e420:d12360c2

Oregano oil is a potent natural compound that offers numerous scientifically-supported health benefits. ## Active Compounds The oil's therapeutic properties stem from its key bioactive components: - Carvacrol and thymol (primary active compounds) - Polyphenols and other antioxidant ## Antimicrobial Properties **Bacterial Protection** The oil demonstrates powerful antibacterial effects, even against antibiotic-resistant strains like MRSA and other harmful bacteria. Studies show it effectively inactivates various pathogenic bacteria without developing resistance. **Antifungal Effects** It effectively combats fungal infections, particularly Candida-related conditions like oral thrush, athlete's foot, and nail infections. ## Digestive Health Benefits Oregano oil supports digestive wellness by: - Promoting gastric juice secretion and enzyme production - Helping treat Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) - Managing digestive discomfort, bloating, and IBS symptoms ## Anti-inflammatory and Antioxidant Effects The oil provides significant protective benefits through: - Powerful antioxidant activity that fights free radicals - Reduction of inflammatory markers in the body - Protection against oxidative stress-related conditions ## Respiratory Support It aids respiratory health by: - Loosening mucus and phlegm - Suppressing coughs and throat irritation - Supporting overall respiratory tract function ## Additional Benefits **Skin Health** - Improves conditions like psoriasis, acne, and eczema - Supports wound healing through antibacterial action - Provides anti-aging benefits through antioxidant properties **Cardiovascular Health** Studies show oregano oil may help: - Reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol levels - Support overall heart health **Pain Management** The oil demonstrates effectiveness in: - Reducing inflammation-related pain - Managing muscle discomfort - Providing topical pain relief ## Safety Note While oregano oil is generally safe, it's highly concentrated and should be properly diluted before use Consult a healthcare provider before starting supplementation, especially if taking other medications.

@ 62a6a41e:b12acb43

Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism (also known as Zen or Zen meditation), meditated for nine years, simply looking at a wall. Nine years staring at a wall. Good things take time. Don’t be afraid to take your time. Forget what Western society has taught us—here, we are slaves to time and productivity. I believe one of the reasons the Western world is in decline is precisely because we lack the philosophical and religious structures that enable true freedom and focus on understanding. Christianity is beautiful in its own way, but it simply isn’t as clear or rational as Eastern philosophy. As a result, it hasn’t managed to foster an environment for genuine seekers or free thinkers in the same way. We need to take the time to think. The West doesn’t understand that. Take your time. You are free to take your time. It's **your** time. Take as much time as you want, until you understand what you needed to understand.

@ 6e15bf3d:0548a961

As we approach 2025, [website design continues to evolve at a rapid pace](https://heytradie.com.au/top-17-website-design-trends-in-2025-a-free-guide/), driven by innovations in technology, shifts in user behavior, and an increasing focus on providing personalized experiences. Web design is not just about creating visually appealing layouts anymore; it is now about creating functional, intuitive, and immersive experiences that make users feel connected with the brand. As businesses and content creators recognize the importance of digital presence, staying on top of the latest trends will be crucial for success in the upcoming year. In this article, we will explore the top website design trends for 2025, including technological advancements, aesthetic shifts, and user experience (UX) enhancements that will shape the future of the web. **2. 1. AI-Powered Personalization ** Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made a profound impact on website design, enabling businesses to offer highly personalized experiences. AI-powered tools will continue to transform websites by analyzing user behavior and preferences to deliver tailored content, recommendations, and interfaces. These personalized features enhance user engagement, increase conversion rates, and improve overall customer satisfaction. In 2025, we can expect to see more websites integrating AI technologies that adjust content, layout, and even color schemes based on individual user profiles. Personalized experiences help create a sense of relevance and connection, making users feel as though the website was designed specifically for them. **3. 2. Immersive Experiences with VR/AR ** Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies are no longer just futuristic concepts; they are becoming increasingly accessible and practical in web design. In 2025, expect websites to offer immersive experiences using AR and VR. This could mean users experiencing products in a 3D environment, virtually trying on clothes, or even exploring a property from the comfort of their home. With the advancement of 5G technology, websites can incorporate these technologies more smoothly, providing a seamless and engaging experience. Retailers, real estate agencies, and travel companies, in particular, will benefit from offering interactive experiences that allow users to interact with their products and services in new and exciting ways. For example, an e-commerce site might allow you to place a piece of furniture in your room via AR to see how it fits. For the real estate sector, virtual tours of homes or apartments can be offered with VR, helping users feel more confident in their decisions before visiting in person. **4. 3. Mobile-First Design ** As mobile device usage continues to dominate the internet landscape, mobile-first design is expected to be a leading trend in 2025. In fact, more than 54% of global web traffic now comes from mobile devices (source: Statista), a statistic that reflects the increasing importance of responsive web design that prioritizes mobile experiences. A mobile-first approach means designing websites primarily for smaller screens, ensuring that the content is easily accessible, readable, and navigable on smartphones and tablets. Designers will focus on optimizing touch interactions, speed, and performance on mobile devices to meet user expectations. **5. 4. Minimalistic and Clean Aesthetics ** While overly complex and cluttered web designs were once the norm, the trend has been shifting towards minimalism. Clean and simple designs, with plenty of white space, allow for better navigation, faster load times, and a more focused user experience. In 2025, this trend will continue as users demand simplicity and speed when interacting with websites. Minimalist design involves reducing elements to the essentials, eliminating distractions, and using whitespace strategically to highlight key content. Bold typography, crisp images, and well-organized layouts will allow the content to speak for itself without overwhelming the user. The minimalist approach also tends to work well with responsive design, ensuring that websites are easy to navigate regardless of the device or screen size. Furthermore, this trend aligns with sustainability efforts, as minimalist designs often reduce the need for heavy graphic elements, leading to faster loading times and reduced energy consumption. **6. 5. Dark Mode and Customizable Themes ** Dark mode has become a popular feature in web design, and it is set to stay in 2025. Offering users the ability to toggle between light and dark modes not only enhances accessibility but also reduces eye strain, especially in low-light conditions. In addition, dark mode can give websites a modern and sleek aesthetic that appeals to users. Many websites will implement customizable themes, allowing users to choose their preferred visual experience. Whether it’s adjusting colors, fonts, or background styles, offering theme customization can make users feel more in control of their experience, making it more likely that they’ll engage with the content for longer periods. **7. 6. Microinteractions and Animations ** Microinteractions are small, interactive animations or design elements that help users navigate and engage with a website. These subtle animations provide feedback, guide users through processes, and add a sense of interactivity to the experience. For example, hover effects, button animations, and loading animations are all types of microinteractions. In 2025, websites will incorporate even more sophisticated microinteractions, making websites feel more dynamic and engaging. These small details enhance the user experience by making interactions feel more intuitive and enjoyable. However, it’s crucial that designers balance animations and microinteractions with site performance, as excessive animations can slow down load times. **8. 7. Voice Search and Voice User Interface (VUI) ** As voice search technology becomes more advanced, websites will need to adapt to this growing trend. Voice search allows users to interact with a website using spoken commands, and it is especially useful for mobile and smart device users who prefer hands-free experiences. By 2025, voice search will become more integrated into website design, as businesses will optimize their content for voice queries. Websites will also implement voice user interfaces (VUI) that allow users to navigate and interact with websites through voice commands. This trend is particularly important as voice-activated assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa continue to gain popularity. **9. 8. Typography as a Design Element ** Typography has always been an essential part of web design, but in 2025, it will become even more central to the overall design aesthetic. Bold, experimental typography is taking center stage as designers use fonts to convey personality, emotion, and style. From oversized text to custom fonts, typography is no longer just a functional element; it is a visual statement that enhances the identity of a brand. In addition to bold typography, variable fonts that allow for greater flexibility in font weight, size, and style will become more popular, enabling websites to create more dynamic and personalized typographic experiences. **10. 9. Sustainability in Design ** As environmental consciousness grows, sustainability will become a driving factor in website design. In 2025, expect to see more brands and web developers embracing eco-friendly design practices. This includes designing websites that minimize their environmental impact by reducing energy consumption and optimizing site speed. Sustainable design could involve using lighter graphic elements, optimizing images and videos for faster loading, and choosing energy-efficient hosting options. Reducing the carbon footprint of websites is an essential part of future web design, especially as consumers become more aware of the environmental impact of digital technologies. **11. 10. Inclusive and Accessible Design **Web accessibility continues to be a priority for designers, and in 2025, we will see further advancements in this area. Websites will become even more inclusive, with features such as adjustable text sizes, color contrast settings, and screen reader compatibility. Designers will also implement accessibility guidelines and best practices to ensure that all users, including those with disabilities, can access and navigate websites easily. This includes creating more intuitive navigation systems, providing alternative text for images, and ensuring that content is accessible for people with visual, auditory, or motor impairments. Web accessibility is not just a legal requirement in some regions but also a moral responsibility. By making websites accessible to everyone, businesses can ensure a more inclusive online experience for all users. **Conclusion ** As we move towards 2025, website design will continue to innovate, with new technologies and aesthetic shifts leading the way. From AI-powered personalization and immersive AR/VR experiences to minimalistic aesthetics and mobile-first design, the future of web design is focused on user-centric experiences that are visually striking, easy to navigate, and accessible to all. To stay ahead in this ever-evolving landscape, businesses and website developers must embrace these trends and ensure that their websites are both functional and forward-thinking. By doing so, they will not only enhance the user experience but also build stronger connections with their audience, ultimately leading to greater success in the digital world. The future of website design is bright, and 2025 promises to bring about exciting changes that will redefine how we interact with the web.

@ 6b7c438e:fc81aab3

Taryn Christiansen @ DoraHacksSpecial thanks to Eric Zhang for in-depth discussions.A mirror post on Dora Research Blog is available: https://research.dorahacks.io/2024/12/24/free-speech-foundation Intro:This article will argue that truth-based justifications for free speech are inappropriate within the social media context.1 Flooding the market with more information doesn’t necessarily force truth to emerge and bob at the surface. No matter how much information is pumped into a space filled with falsehoods and deception, if the right mechanisms aren’t in place, the area will only grow more chaotic and overcrowded, and therefore all the more easier to get lost in it. As an instrument to obtain knowledge of the truth, free speech has to be properly used, and people need to know how to use it.That isn’t to say that the tap should be shut off and that free speech should be curtailed; other justifications are perfectly reasonable, as will be seen below. But the idea that what we’re up to on social media is seeking out the truth only produces more confusion about what we collectively take to be sources of trustworthy information that is accurate and sincere. We would be better off if social media were viewed as an information network that is distinct from other spaces that are generally considered places where we obtain reliably true beliefs.But other spaces have the potential to be a more appropriate target for truth-based justifications for free speech, one of which is Nostr. Because of Nostr’s fully decentralized and open nature, which allows for innovation at all levels of its protocol, people have more opportunity to create valuable content that will only be distributed across the network because it is in fact valuable. The algorithms on social media force content to be valuable because there are standards that aim at maximizing user engagement in cheap and overstimulating ways. It doesn’t matter to these mechanisms whether something is true or not. What matters first is whether something promotes the ends of the social media companies, which are primarily driven by maximizing profits through ads and attention. Achieving this goal means reducing users' autonomy in picking and choosing what content to consume. Nostr aims to give the users their autonomy back by freeing developers to build both relays and clients. If users can make decisions that aren’t influenced by social media’s algorithmic decision-making, then it can be discerned whether truth is naturally relevant to people in these kinds of information networks, as well as whether people really desire to care for the truth.Section 1:It should be assumed at this point in history2, especially in liberal democracies, that the freedom to express one’s mind is inseparable from a basic conception of human dignity. If one is prohibited from freely discussing and challenging prevailing beliefs or forced to conform to a point of view that was not arrived at by using one’s own rational and reflective faculties, then human dignity suffers. There’s a reason Socrates went around the Athenian marketplace and tirelessly questioned the people he encountered there. He wasn’t interested in forcing people to submit to specific beliefs. Socrates wanted people to realize and reflect on whether what they believed was true or not, and therefore if it was something worth believing in. But integral to this project is the idea that people have to think through the questions themselves and not rely on an authority. Authority may be right; it may hold true beliefs and assert rational demands, but it doesn’t mean anything unless people themselves know the way to them. This requires the individual to be willing to develop what’s necessary for this.John Milton was right when he wrote in his 1644 pamphlet Areopagatica, which was directed against the English Parlament’s order for licensing books, that “A man may be a heretic in the truth… If he believes things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reasons, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.” People must be free to reason for themselves, to arrive at truths through the use of their own faculties, to develop their individual conscience, which, by its nature, must be exercised by the individual’s will and not by an externally imposed authority. Immanuel Kant’s call to the Enlightenment, Sapere aude! - “Have courage to use your own reason!”3 - is a call to actualize human dignity through the use of one’s reason. These faculties cannot be cultivated unless the individual can express him or herself freely.Woke culture is an illustrative example of how there is a connection between free speech and human dignity. It shows that when the strategy is to problematize and silence people, no matter how noble or virtuous the goal is believed to be, it only perpetuates a cycle of frustration and anger. The problem with woke culture isn’t necessarily their ideals. We all would agree, or should at least, that people should respect the basic dignity of others, treat everyone as persons, empathize with those with a different experience, and learn and grow from one another’s unique perspective. These are all good things; they’re profoundly valuable. The issue is how woke culture formulated and implemented their interpretations of what these notions amount to, what they call for, and what moral duties they demand. One of its principal goals has been to discern how historical oppressors should atone for previous wrongdoings. Many have come to understand this as meaning that those who come from those lineages are, in some sense, problematic and that, therefore, proponents of wokism have the duty to silence them, to condemn them, to act as if they are a net negative to the social good, and to impose a punishment of silence to atone for the past. This has been a grave mistake. Instead of engaging in a dialogue to reach the other person’s conscience, those who bore this duty have tended to sermonize in a sanctimonious, demeaning way, which only shuts people down and turns off the parts of the brain that promote learning and development, and turns on what generates combative and defensive behavior. The typical approach in woke culture has been enormously undemocratic in spirit due to its preference to force people to adopt reasons rather than opening people up to consider them in their proper light, namely, as claims about morality that make demands on the conscience of the person, which can only be properly understood and felt through the use of his or her own faculties. Woke culture, which offers some genuine insight into the world's contemporary moral situation, failed to respect the dignity of those they wished to persuade by using coercive measures instead of appealing to their conscience. Free speech is absolutely necessary in an endeavor like this because only by upholding such a social practice will everyone’s basic dignity be respected, which is integral to people being open to changing their minds. Moral debates within society should never devolve into a contest of wills. This only undermines the foundation of a democratic community, the basic pillar being human dignity.4But although free speech bears a necessary connection to human dignity, it does not bear the same relation to truth. For free speech to bear a proper relation to truth, one where free speech produces a high probability of tracking it, those seeking out truth must have the right psychological orientation toward it; otherwise, the two easily come apart. In his recent book Nexus, Yoel Noah Harari presents a clear way of seeing this. Harari criticizes what he calls the ‘naive view of information,’ which “argues that by gathering and processing much more information than individuals can, big networks achieve a better understanding of medicine, physics, economics, and numerous other fields, which makes the network not only powerful but wise.” The notion of wisdom is key. While it’s theoretically possible that an information network can be wise (especially with the development of better AI), it will be useless unless human beings have some idea about what wisdom is. If they don’t, then they’ll have to just assume that the information being presented was properly arrived at, i.e., with the wisdom necessary for obtaining truth, which will, in effect, create a servility to the information network and not to the human faculties necessary for discerning and knowing the truth. To use a distinction made by Plato, they will have an opinion about the truth, not knowledge. To know means to understand the reasons why something is the case, not just that it is the case.Harari’s book is important because the naive view of information he presents is prevalent and is most often expressed in the marketplace of ideas metaphor. In essence, the metaphor suggests that free speech operates like a free market because, by allowing individuals to pursue and satisfy their preferences freely, the truth will somehow outcompete falsehoods. Either because people’s preferences are more deeply satisfied by truth, and/or because the beliefs people hold will only have any real value (or utility) when they are true, when they accurately represent reality. But in a marketplace, “people don’t reliably ‘buy’ truths. People buy the ideas they like. And people don’t reliably like truths better than falsehoods. What the invisible hand does, all going well, is efficiently allocate goods to people based on what they want.”5 For truth to reliably outcompete falsehoods, consumers must have a particular orientation around truth. Unless we think ideas are true based solely on their utility, which is itself not a very useful notion, more has to be said as to why consumers would desire the truth over anything else in a marketplace of ideas. Everyone has opinions they cherish and hold to be, in some way, fundamental to themselves and their identities. It is perfectly conceivable that someone will reject any truth that conflicts with these deeply valued sentiments. For a free competition of ideas to track and produce true information, consumers have to want truth to win out, and this desire should motivate the consumer’s decision-making. In other words, one must bear a special psychological orientation toward truth for the marketplace metaphor to be an appropriate model for understanding free speech as being justified for the sake of truth. Again, free speech is important for other reasons, such as human dignity. But whether free speech is justified for the sake of truth is a separate question, and until the proper stance is taken toward truth, truth-based justifications are inapplicable.The fact that the distribution of more and more information doesn’t bear a necessary connection to truth can also be gleaned from historical examples. When a technology revolutionizes human information networks, which allows for information to be shared more efficiently and in larger quantities than ever before, the society that implements it does not therefore obtain a higher fidelity to truth. The opposite is equally plausible. This is the problem facing social media. If truth-based justifications are an appropriate way to justify free speech practices on such platforms, social media must create an environment that promotes the proper psychological orientation toward truth. What matters is whether they can care for the truth rather than adopt a stance that promotes what the philosopher Harry Frankfurt called bullsh*t, which means to be indifferent toward truth. Before explaining this further, let’s look at a historical example that demonstrates the following: First, as new technology arrives and transforms information networks, the information that is consequently distributed can equally promote both what is true and what is not; and second, and more philosophically, the technology can also reorient a society’s relationship to truth, which in turn affects how the society arrives at knowledge.Section 2:Take the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in 1440. Before its inception, the Catholic Church made Western Europe effectively an echo chamber. They dominated the information networks by controlling what could be printed, distributed, and accredited as knowledge. The vast majority of the population couldn’t read, and only a select few could read the Holy writings, which contained information that was considered the highest truth attainable by human beings. Only a select few were blessed enough to be able to handle this sort of information. Because all other information flowed from this central institution, everyone else depended on the Church for what to believe. The reality of that situation, and what it must have felt like to be in such a dependent position, can begin to be imagined by considering the following: “In the thirteenth century the library of Oxford University consisted of a few books kept in a chest under St. Mary’s Church. In 1424 the library of Cambridge University boasted a grand total of only 122 books. An Oxford University decree from 1409 stipulated that ‘all recent texts’ studied at the university must be unanimously approved ‘by a panel of twelve theologians appointed by the archbishop.’”6 When the quantity of information is this low, and in the context of the Catholic Church, is also greatly limited in diversity, it’s difficult even to imagine anything outside the worldview that is being imposed.Now, alongside the Church’s control of information networks, the production efficiency of copyists and scribes who had to manufacture the books was dismally low. It exponentially grew when the printing press automated the work. The historian Sir John Harold Clapham wrote, “A man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which about eight million books had been printed, more perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in A.D. 330.”7 The restriction on information and people’s inability to consider anything outside of the prevailing tradition, as well as the technological and productive inefficiency of the time, left most people in darkness, with no way out other than by following the dim, consoling light cast by the Church. The printing press changed all of this. “It revolutionized the world,” as the philosopher Francis Bacon said.The printing press gave people the autonomy to print and distribute ideas that the Church didn’t authorize and thereby provided the platform necessary for the Reformation to take hold, which started with Martin Luther in the early sixteenth century. There were previous attempts at reform, but the printing press made a momentous difference. The concurrence of the printing press and the Reformation revealed the corrosive corruption within the Catholic Church. People were finely able to learn about the degenerate tendencies within the institution, which the Church was previously able to stifle because it controlled the information networks. The buying and selling of Church positions and indulgences that allowed people to pay their way out of purgatory, political intrigue, nepotism, bribery, and immoral consolidation of wealth through taxes was disclosed as a consequence of the printing press. The notion that the Church was the medium by which people moved toward God’s grace collapsed, and people saw that “it had become a means of securing worldly prestige, power, and wealth for those who were clever and ruthless enough to bend it to their will.”8But this historical occurrence also unleashed a flurry of misinformation. The religious wars that followed the Reformation were devastating, and millions of people died, an exceptional case being the Thirty Years War (1618-48). The dissemination of Luther’s 95 theses regarding the corruption of the Church spread like wildfire across Europe after he posted them in 1516 on the Church Castle in Wittenberg, Germany, which the printing press made possible. It would only make sense, then, that the Church would follow suit and take advantage of the technology to combat what it held to be heresy and to reinstate its power as the dominant influence in the West (for an amalgam of reasons, of course.) All sides involved in these religious disputes didn’t merely use the printing press to disseminate accurate information. They used it to spread misinformation to satisfy their political interests, intensifying the ensuing wars and battles between the various emerging religious sects and the rising monarchies.This demonstrates the first point: the printing press, which was a revolution in human information networks, produced both true and false information. There was no causal, historical determinacy one way or the other. While it disclosed truths about Church corruption, it was also used as a means to spread political propaganda that fueled the religious wars.Now, as for the second, more philosophical point, the Reformation also reoriented people’s relation to truth by democratizing matters of faith. Whether one believes the Reformation was, in this respect, an overall good or not, from a liberal democratic point of view, it has to be considered good. The Reformation placed faith into the hands of the individual conscience, rendering considerations about one’s standing in relation to God to have a personal, rather than institutional, significance. Before, “the Church was the keeper and protector of Christian truths and the harbor of salvation for those at sea in sin.”9 Luther rejected this picture of salvation and believed one could be saved through faith and scripture alone, without an intermediary. Luther thought that one’s spiritual significance did not depend on authority. He didn’t see the Church as some emanation from God or a reflection of a Divine order that the individual participated in and was guided by to reach salvation. Individuals are solely responsible for their spiritual significance and capacity to reach a higher truth in God. In one of his more heroic acts, he translated the bible into vernacular German from the traditional Latin (which was considered the holy language, the only one appropriate for capturing religious truths). He gave common people access to what was previously sealed off from them. The individual, free from external imposition and constraint, can privately attain truth on his or her own.Luther formulated a radical inner freedom that broke with some of the Church’s fundamental precepts. There was, of course, an inner freedom already present in Catholicism, but Luther placed it at the center of things rather than as revolving around an institution. Before Luther, St. Augustine went to great lengths to demonstrate the spiritual significance of an inner life, and Luther was an Augustinian monk. But Luther went much further than him. In one of his lectures on YouTube, the philosopher Michael Sugrue observes that this amounted to a kind of Copernican Revolution in religion. That is to say that, rather than the Church being the axis by which things revolve around and where one finds his or her salvation, rather than identifying with an institution by which one finds freedom within a corporate body in which lies their place amongst others in a perfectly ordered, hierarchical, and harmonious cosmos, the individual became the center axis of spiritual and religious matters. It’s easy to see, then, how this theological idea possesses the potential to develop into the idea of individual rights and liberties. Luther provided a kind of autonomy10 for the individual, where whether one is saved is bound up with one’s inner conscience and not with external works or good deeds that the Church facilitates. The individual is an irreducible unit of value that is not subsumed by any other worldly object. And the individual's value rests in their conscience and capacity to receive God’s grace. This idea has sparks of the modern sense of human dignity, and it will create a conflagration throughout Europe as it develops. If there is no Church or institution to settle one’s moral, spiritual, and intellectual significance, one is left to use one’s faculties for guidance. And because it is one’s faculties that attain truth and spiritual salvation, they are the center of value in human life, which bears a natural right for protection.At the Diet of Worms in 1521, where Luther had to answer to charges of heresy because of his theological work, the Church demanded that he recant. He refused. But the reasons for his refusal are the most important. He demanded that the Church show him through scripture and reason alone that he was wrong and not through the dictates of authority. His protest demonstrated that the individual can reach the truth through his or her own means. The Church’s decline began far before this historical moment, but Luther made the decisive blow that the printing press made possible. The Church fragmented as a consequence, which, to Catholics, meant truth itself was fragmented and resulted in a proliferation of denominations scattered across Europe.Section 3:What was so subversive about Luther in this respect is that he divorced sanctification, the process by which one lives in the image of Christ, i.e., a life of virtue, from self-transformation. Although Luther carved out the individual as an irreducible unit of value, this also severed the individual from a stable and definite path that assuaged one’s existential suffering: “The Church… assured the individual of her unconditional love to all her children and offered a way to acquire the conviction of being forgiven and loved by God. The relationship to God was more one of confidence and love than of doubt and fear.”11 Luther believed that one was saved through faith alone and by no other means. He thought that because human beings are all sinners, their wills cannot do anything to reach salvation and spiritual peace. How, then, can one tell if they have been saved? There is no longer an authority to adjudicate this. The individual can discover the truth for themself and so must determine what this means on their own. Several centuries later, Kant gave voice to the duty he believed to arise from this new freedom:Thus, it is difficult for any individual man to work himself out of the immaturity that has all but become his nature. He has even become fond of this state and for the time being is actually incapable of using his own understanding, for no one has ever allowed him to attempt it. Rules and formulas, those mechanical aids to the rational use, or rather misuse, of his natural gifts, are the shackles of a permanent immaturity. Whoever threw them off would still make only an uncertain leap over the smallest ditch, since he is unaccustomed to this kind of free movement. Consequently, only a few have succeeded, by cultivating their own minds, in freeing themselves from immaturity and pursuing a secure course.So, while much was gained during the Reformation, the reorientation around truth also had consequences. Self-transformation, the effort of will, the idea of having an inner and outer journey that culminates into something larger and more significant, took on radically different meanings under Luther and the future Protestant countries. To see this, we can turn to Dante’s Divine Comedy, which demonstrates part of what was lost under Luther.Section 4:In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the culmination of the Medieval worldview before Luther, Dante embarks on a Christian pilgrimage that ends in his being saved. Just as with the above, it’s crucial to understand that the point here will not be exclusively religious but universal in the sense that religion, as manifested across all cultures, didn’t create this experience but was the medium by which it has been expressed and made sense of; it provides it a voice. This goes back to William James and his book The Varieties of Religious Experience. There is the private aspect of religious experience, and then there is the institutional component within which the private side takes shape. Buddhists practice meditation and strive to contemplate Nirvana; the Christian prays and goes to mass; the Stoics distance themselves from their inaccurate emotional representations and contemplate what is rational and in his or her control; and so forth. As James points out, what is fundamental to all religious experience, in the private sense, are two aspects: there is an uneasiness, which, “reduced to its simplest terms, is a sense that there is something wrong about us as we naturally stand;” and two, a solution, which “is a sense that we are saved from the wrongness by making proper connection with the higher powers (508).” The first aspect means the self is in conflict, is divided, and desires unification. In religious language, the self seeks salvation and an experience of being saved from their situation, which is characterized by suffering due to inner division and conflict. This can take on an existential mode, as with Leo Tolstoy in his book Confessions, or it can be highly moral. In Tolstoy’s book Confessions, he relates a story of a traveler being chased by a beast that imaginatively captures the relevant phenomena:Seeking to save himself from the fierce animal, the traveler jumps into a well with no water in it; but at the bottom of this well he sees a dragon waiting with open mouth to devour him. And the unhappy man, not daring to go out lest he should be the prey of the beast, not daring to jump to the bottom lest he should be devoured by the dragon, clings to the branches of a wild bush which grows out of one of the cracks of the well. His hands weaken, and he feels that he must soon give way to certain fate; but still he clings, and sees two mice, one white, the other black, evenly moving round the bush to which he hangs, and gnawing off its roots. The traveler sees this and knows that he must inevitably perish; but while thus hanging he looks about him and finds on the leaves of the bush some drops of honey. These he reaches with his tongue and licks them off with rapture. Thus I hang upon the boughs of life, knowing that the inevitable dragon of death is waiting ready to tear me, and I cannot comprehend why I am thus made a martyr. I try to suck the honey which formerly consoled me; but the honey pleases me no longer, and day and night the white mouse and the black mouse gnaw the branch to which I cling. I can see but one thing: the inevitable dragon and the mice—I cannot turn my gaze away from them.”12Clearly, Tolstoy is suffering from a serious existential episode in which he can’t find a purpose or meaning in life that will clear away his anxiety, which is represented in the dragon, which time, represented in the mice, slowly draws him near. This is his “uneasiness.” He must find a solution, then, because his situation is unlivable.Religion has historically addressed this need. In the Middle Ages, the Church was the institution through which people expressed this experience and resolved their inner conflicts, tensions, and divisions. Let’s turn to Dante’s Divine Comedy to see how the private aspect of this experience is made sense of through Christain’s notion of the pilgrimage.The poem begins with Dante suddenly becoming aware of himself, “Midway upon life’s journey,” as he says, and terrified by the fact that he’s lost in a dark world, having “gone astray,” and is in despair because he has begun to lose all hope for himself. “We know nothing of how Dante has gone astray, only that he has, and that he must undertake a journey, therefore, to save his soul.”13 He is, like Tolstoy, experiencing an “uneasiness” (though in more of a moral rather than existential sense; God is always present for Dante.) So, he has discovered that he has been living wrongly, that he’d strayed from the right path, from the way, and despite his attempts to free himself of his sins and burdens, he’s unable to do it alone. Although it’s unclear why Dante has lost his way, “the journey itself is clearer. It will take him through the entire Christian spiritual universe.”14The Roman poet Virgil is sent to initiate and lead him on this path forward. Virgil represents all of Classical learning, from the Greeks to the Romans. Though they were pagans, they represent the highest one can do as a non-Christian, which is to reach, as Aristotle said, the contemplative life15, where one can reflect on the Whole, on the cosmos. But because they didn’t have faith, they could never experience a fullness of being or completeness that produces the solution to the uneasiness that James discussed. According to Christian doctrine, only Christians may experience this. Thus, they had to remain in Hell.Now, for Dante to move down through Hell, climb up Purgatory, and then transcend into Heaven, he must engage with the Classical world by wrestling with the questions they set out to answer, which is an immensely difficult aim to take on; one that will transform the self as it moves through an activity and process of the soul, intellect, mind, or whatever it is that is the center in which human development toward the Good, as Plato would say, takes place. What’s fascinating about this ascent is that, in the Medieval worldview, it wasn’t merely an internal endeavor; it also bore a deep and profound relationship to the external world. By embarking on the Christian pilgrimage, one was, in a sense, becoming closer and closer to reality, to truth, to what is most real, which corresponded with a transformation of the self that is accompanied by an experience of fulfillment. As one ascends, one climbs what was called the Great Chain of Being, a metaphysical (ontological) thesis that was first articulated by Aristotle, which was adopted by, and adapted to, Christian thought in the thirteenth century.The Chain of Being introduces a vertical aspect to reality rather than merely a horizontal one. At the top is the highest Truth, and the lowest is the least real, i.e., the lowest level of being, which consists of matter and material objects, whereas the highest consists of what is immaterial, like consciousness or mind. And so everything and everyone grows increasingly heavier as Dante moves downward through Hell due to being weighed down by an attachment to the material, earthly substance, which produces a growing despair and lack of fulfillment. As Dante moves upward from Purgatory to Heaven, things become lighter and immaterial in proportion to how much something embodies the spiritual, divine substance, which is achieved through directing one’s desire toward the right objects, toward what is more real and true. In Plato’s allegory of the cave, as one breaks free from the chains and shadows at the bottom and climbs toward the exit where the sun can be seen, one also gains more and more insight into reality as things are illuminated more clearly through the light. Like Purgatory, the ascent up the cave is profound and challenging. But the initial insight of seeing into reality, which reveals that what was previously experienced was illusory, produces the desire to see even further into what now appears absolute and true. This desire pulls and aims Dante upward as he climbs higher toward reality and up the Great Chain of Being. The economist and philosopher E.F. Schumacher16 put the significance of this view as follows:The ability to see the Great Truth of the hierarchic structure of the world, which makes it possible to distinguish between higher and lower Levels of Being, is one of the indispensable conditions of understanding. Without it, it is not possible to find out where everything has its proper and legitimate place. Everything, everywhere, can be understood only when its Level of Being is fully taken into account. Many things are true at a low Level of Being and become absurd at a higher level, and of course vice versa.Dante’s pilgrimage, then, aims toward attaining a higher level of being than when he found himself lost in the forest. By turning inward, by engaging in a contemplative mode of being that engages the self in pursuit of an inner harmony that resonates with an external, hierarchic order, Dante is striving to attain a kind of freedom that is somewhat alien to us today. We can think of the notion of freedom in a negative and a positive sense. In the negative sense, freedom is understood as freedom from something; from external constraint, for example. The First Amendment is typically interpreted along these lines. Everyone is free to speak their minds because the state should not be allowed to interfere with our freedom to do so. All are free to do as they please as long as they do not infringe on another person’s right to do so.The positive sense is much different. It is a freedom for something. In Dante’s Hell, everyone found themselves there because they (at minimum) acted free purely in the negative sense. They lived their lives as they saw fit, without regard to any higher form of life. They didn’t act for the sake of a virtuous purpose (although that’s not quite right regarding the virtuous pagans and a few others.) To be free in the positive sense means to act according to a higher aim. When Socrates refused to renounce the philosophical life and was put to death, he made that decision based on a principle grounded in his inner conscience, which he took to express something sacred and higher, which always spoke to him when he was about to do wrong. He accepted the death penalty because the unexamined life wasn’t worth living; it had no purpose toward a higher aim17. 17Dante’s Divine Comedy provides a narrative by which the uneasiness one experiences in life, as articulated by James, can reach a solution and resolve the inner conflict and division by providing a framework by which the individual moves closer to reality, to what is most real, and up the Chain of Being.Section 5:Now, the pilgrimage captured in Dante’s poem was not something anyone could take up, at least not in its full dramatic content; it was obviously something only a select few could embark on, and this depended on the situation one was born into, like whether one was wealthy enough to receive an education. One’s salvation in the social order was rarely epic or heroic in nature; it typically meant following the structure imposed upon the individual by the Church. Just as how the cosmos was hierarchically ordered, so was society. The reasons for the social order were Divinely decreed. The social structure was immovable in a way because shifting the social order and rearranging it would violate scripture and God’s Word. Hence people were, as we would judge today, unfree and restricted. However, as psychologist Erick Fromm writes, “although a person was not free in the modem sense, neither was he alone and isolated. In having a distinct, unchangeable, and unquestionable place in the social world from the moment of birth, man was rooted in a structuralized whole, and thus life had a meaning which left no place, and no need, for doubt. A person was identical with his role in society; he was a peasant, an artisan, a knight, and not an individual who happened to have this or that occupation. The social order was conceived as a natural order, and being a definite part of it gave a feeling of security and of belonging.”18 Luther’s devastating blow against the Church in the Reformation rejected the social order and the Chain of Being and set in motion the release of the individual from the bondage they were restrained in. But by freeing the individual, he also eliminated the necessary self-transformation that played a substantial role in the Medieval worldview. Luther democratized salvation, spirituality, and questions about meaning in one’s life.This Copernican revolution in religious matters allowed for a radical reorientation toward truth, which relied on the printing press's efficiency in producing and distributing information.There were, of course, other factors that contributed to the Catholic Church's decline. The literal Copernican revolution and the rise of science being an obvious example. But what became increasingly less present in the scientific worldview that was emerging then is the idea that, as one gains knowledge of the world, one also goes through a transformative experience like Dante’s. The notion that knowledge of truth and reality converges with a meaningful and spiritual ethical development has mostly fallen off. Science’s aim is pure objectivity. For much of history, what is ‘objective’ is also intrinsically beneficial to the subject coming into contact with it. Values in scientific judgment and knowledge are a transgression, a violation of scientific precept, and are opposed to the whole epistemic enterprise (meaning a method by which knowledge is gained.) Science does not care about how one feels, what one desires in life, or what meaning one may find in it and simply presents facts as a body of indifferent and empirically verified knowledge.This is, of course, a caricature, as Thomas Kuhn19 argued in the twentieth century. Scientists certainly value their theories and are not merely attempting to refute them through experimentation. Theories allow scientists to have a grip on the world and a language of concepts that can be used to describe it accurately. This conceptual framework gives the world a theoretically intelligible and discernible order. And so once the anomalies and unsolved problems in a scientific paradigm grow serious enough, those working within it enter into a crisis until a new paradigm emerges (as is what happened when moving from Newtonian mechanics to Eistenin’s relativity.) Still, moving from one paradigm to the next isn’t believed to be an ethical progression. It’s a movement from one framework to the next. Unlike the Medieval worldview, it is generally held that science says nothing about human values and how one ought to live. Being a scientist does not suggest that someone is wise like a Socrates or Plato.Unlike the Church in the Middle Ages, which, in terms of knowledge, played a similar role to science today, science is not an institution that is in the business of handing out ethical and moral guidance. A scientist would likely balk (or should balk) at the idea of being viewed as someone who has gone through an ethical self-transformation to gain the knowledge that he or she has solely because of becoming a scientist. Being one of course requires an enormous amount of discipline, effort, and intelligence, which is, in a way, transformative, but in a different sense than what Dante embarked on. Today, knowledge of truth and reality does not necessarily correspond with an ethical progression.This idea of not requiring ethical self-transformation to gain the highest forms of knowledge is most noticeable in Rene Descartes’ philosophy in the seventeenth century. Descartes set out to rebuild a foundation through which knowledge could be rebuilt from the ruins left by the Church’s decline.20 The Church had lost its viability as something that could be believed to provide reliable knowledge for the social body. It was no longer psychologically obvious that the Church was the principal source and authority of appeal when dealing with matters of truth. Referring to scripture, for instance, could no longer be done by relying on what the Papacy had interpreted it as meaning. Luther (and others) undermined this immediacy for many. The United States faces a similar situation today. There is a diminishing trust in the democratic institutions that have historically served as distributors of trustworthy knowledge. Descartes attempted to deal with a similar crisis by discovering foundations immune from doubt. And he believed himself to have discovered such a foundation through his Cogito: I think, therefore I am. I can doubt all of my mental representations of the world, such as those of tables and chairs and coffee mugs, as well as my particular thoughts and feelings, and even the existence of my own body and sense experience. For all I know, I may be dreaming or being deceived by an evil demon into believing all kinds of imaginary and false representations of things. I can’t affirm or deny this with any certainty. But I cannot doubt that I am doubting; that much is certain. And since doubting is a property of thinking, I can’t doubt that I am thinking.Therefore, I am a thinking thing, an immaterial substance that is distinct from the physical bodies liable to doubt21. This is the most fundamental truth that not even reason could call into question. It’s radically different from truth as understood on the Chain of Being model. There is no ethical transformation involved in realizing this indubitable proposition. It’s self-evident to anyone rational and clear-minded (or so Descartes thinks.) And this is certainly how many people today think of knowledge. And in some cases, quite rightly. Take human rights as an example. John Locke22, a momentous figure who shaped the language of rights and how modernity thinks about them, argued that human rights are self-evident in the same sense as a geometric axiom. It just appears before the mind as something incapable of being doubted (to a clear, rational mind, of course, who has done the proper thinking, like someone who has rightly apprehended a geometric axiom.) The US’s founding document memorializes Locke’s claim: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” The deepest, most profound truths about humanity are ‘obvious’ to any rational mind. This is, of course, a good thing. It is good that people intuitively find one another intrinsically and irreducibly valuable. But when this notion is taken for granted, when, as we’ll soon see with John Stuart Mill, an idea grows ossified, fixed, and dogmatic, it loses its potency and desired effect. But if one arrives at the idea of human rights through a transformative process, where one realizes the concept through a process of development and growth that culminates in seeing the profound value within a conscious human being, the notion of rights is animating and action-producing; it stirs and moves the motivation of those who go through this process. In other words, it produces a particular psychological orientation around what is believed to be true.Section 6:So, information technologies do not merely distribute previously unavailable information that is then propagated across a network. Nor does the production of such information bear a natural, necessary connection to truth. They can do both, but much more is at play. The printing press allowed for the conditions necessary for the Reformation to occur, and its occurrence produced a radical shift in the Medieval worldview. Truth was hierarchically organized, and those at the top had exclusive access. The Reformation leveled this structure and diffused the notion that all Christians are equal regarding Divine knowledge. There was no need for an authoritative intermediary to facilitate people’s relation to God. People could do it themselves through faith and scripture alone. But this also meant that all the social practices instituted for the purposes of coming into contact with truth, all the rituals and rites used to reinforce the beliefs of when and how truth manifests itself, slowly went with it. Therefore, people’s orientation around truth, how they conceived of it, where it resided, and how one knew it, was disrupted. People weren’t merely given previously unavailable information; the entire information landscape was turned upside down. This can reveal new terrain within the landscape that can lead to deep and valuable truths, such as human rights and liberties, and it can also conceal older, previously established truths, like the notion of transformative experiences being necessary for coming into closer contact with reality.Similarly to the printing press, social media poses a historical parallel. We can see this by looking at the most famous defense of free speech for the sake of truth, namely, John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty. We’ll see that, like how the printing press reoriented people’s relation to truth, social media is doing so by increasingly shifting how we conceive of, participate in, and come to know the truth. As a social practice, it’s shifting the culture toward different ways of arriving at truth. It's difficult to say whether it is categorically good or bad. But the focus here will be on what would certainly be a momentous loss in our social practices regarding truth, namely, a departure from Enlightenment values.There is a developing tendency to determine the truth through sheer will rather than discussion and a dwindling desire to correct this error. People seem to care less about deliberation, compromise, tolerance, and the general agreement that the goal is to come to an inclusive decision that is in the best interests of people who share a basic respect for each other’s dignity. All political orientations have growing factions that believe the content of other’s beliefs determines how they should be viewed and treated. Rather than work toward building a community that is able to cooperate with one another and agree on a uniting set of values, the cultural attitude is moving toward a competition between wills for power. But it’s not only behaviorally motivated by power; there is also the belief that all effort by a group toward an ideal is entirely reducible to power. That very well may be true. But if it is, democracy is in a precarious position. So, if we value democracy, we should steer back toward the proper path. For Mill’s account to work, which is crucial if we wish to justify free speech for the sake of truth in Enlightenment, democratic terms23, social media should not be viewed as a truth-seeking information network24. Mill believed free speech is necessary for human flourishing in a democratic society. If it’s the people who are going to be involved in the deliberative processes of society and be the ones choosing what is best, then the people must be able to discuss and exchange ideas, opinions, and beliefs freely. However, just like how the Medieval view operated within a certain orientation around truth, which provided a framework through which truth could be arrived at, so it is with democracy. And like the printing press, social media has placed enormous tension on our democratic orientation. So, if we desire to maintain democratic values derived from the Enlightenment, then we have to take a certain stance toward social media, one that eschews the expectation that truth is situated within its environments, where we expect to discuss, debate, hash things out, and arrive at truth.Now, On Liberty offers two sets of reasons supporting free speech, the first being epistemic, meaning that the benefits have to do with knowledge, while the other set is psychologically beneficial. The first set argues that free speech is an overall good for society because if what someone says is true or partially true, both possibilities benefit a democracy. If what is said is true, it will benefit because it professes a truth that will add to the preexisting stock of knowledge. If partially true, this also contributes to preexisting knowledge; “and since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.” The second psychological set of benefits is primarily derived from the utterance of false beliefs, which have no direct epistemic benefit because they do not contribute any knowledge to form beliefs around. If what is said is wholly false, the opportunity to defend and contest it will also be an overall good because it will demand that the bearers of that knowledge account for the reasons for its truth. Mill expresses this well: “Unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds.” This then produces a further psychological benefit. By remaining a prejudice and not as something rationally grasped, “the meaning of the doctrine itself will be in danger of being lost or enfeebled, and deprived of its vital effect on the character and conduct; the dogma becoming a mere formal profession, inefficacious for good, but cumbering the ground and preventing the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction from reason or personal experience.” Therefore, contesting what is true will keep beliefs from devolving into prejudice or dogma.Section 7:The first thing to observe about Mill’s reasons for free speech is that the first set of epistemic reasons really depends on the second set (the psychological ones). But it’s peculiar to speak of the latter as ‘benefits’ because of this. It’s more accurate to say that a certain psychological orientation must give rise to them. We can think of this as a kind of feedback loop that produces the benefits Mill is speaking of. One must have the proper psychological orientation toward truth to break into this loop. That is to say that the members within a society must hold a psychological orientation toward truth that allows for the free expression of true, partially true, and false beliefs to be a net good, i.e., to bring about the best possible consequences within a democratic community. With the psychological reasons offered for free speech, notice that the benefit is derived from the speakers and listeners within the community being open to receiving true, partially true, or false utterances. The beliefs they hold must be perpetually open to revision because they may or may not be in possession of the actual true ones; they understand that their knowledge is an ongoing process, something that is constantly unfolding, and so hold a particular stance toward the free expression of beliefs.They would understand that, even in the best instances of human knowledge, the most stable kind (like knowledge of physics), it is still susceptible to be overturned by future evidence, as was the case with Newtonian mechanics and Einsteinian relativity. That is not to say truth is therefore unattainable, but only that there should be a fair degree of epistemic humility within a democratic, truth-seeking community, given that our best knowledge often falls far short of absolute certainty. As the psychological reasons specify, if the people within the community hold their beliefs as prejudices or dogmas that are fixed and unchangeable, they will be unreceptive to being challenged. So whatever anyone utters, whether true, false, or in between, it won’t provide the benefits Mill intended. There must be a certain psychological orientation toward truth for Mill’s argument to succeed.Let’s now specify what this orientation should look like and see how it’s vital in upholding free speech arguments for the sake of truth. There are three components to this orientation: (i) certain beliefs, (ii) certain desires, and (iii) certain attitudes born out of (i) and (ii). (i) consists of two beliefs. The first belief is that truth exists, and the second is that it is, in principle, knowable. (ii) consists of two desires as well. The first desire is to attain human flourishing, and the second is that truth is constitutive of this aim. Given that there is truth, one must also have the desire to attain it. But this is also a special kind of desire; it’s a desire that fulfills what must be viewed as a higher need, one that is constitutive of human flourishing or happiness. We can call this a fulfillment need. This means that we desire truth because it occupies a natural place in the space of human good. We will lack something fundamental to our flourishing if we don’t have contact with truth; we therefore both desire it and have a powerful motivation to attain it because we desire to flourish. Fulfillment needs should be understood as part of what constitutes this principal end in life that characterizes human excellence.For those who know Greek philosophy, this will sound familiar. As Aristotle says in his Ethics, all things aim at some final good. Achieving this good means for something to actualize its potential and attain excellence. The final aim of human beings is to flourish, or, in Greek, to attain eudaimonia, and to attain this means to achieve human excellence. Excellence, says Aristotle, means to fulfill the particular function assigned to a thing's nature. An eye’s function is to see, a car’s function is to drive, while the seed’s function is to grow into a plant. Human beings’ nature is to be rational, to optimize their cognition, to reduce error, and to reach the truth. Again, since the ultimate aim is to flourish, and because seeking truth is constitutive of that goal, we desire to know the truth as a fulfillment need, which helps satisfy the principal good in human life. Now, while Aristotle’s claim about human nature is of course disputable, if Mill’s argument for free speech is to work, and it’s important that it does, Aristotle’s account of human beings, or something resembling it, must be held within a democratic community.That being said, there’s a deep plausibility to the notion that humans have a fundamental need to be in contact with the truth, and presuming rationality is necessary for this, Aristotle may very well be right. In his lecture series Awakening From The Meaning Crisis, John Vervaeke offers a powerful example to illustrate this. Imagine your parents one day asking you to follow them into a hidden room you had never seen before inside your house on your eighteenth birthday. When you enter, you see a wall of monitors showing old footage of you throughout your life. Your parents then turn to you and say that your entire life has been an FBI experiment; everything has been manufactured. The love you thought to be sincere and nourishing, all the support you’ve received throughout the years, the holidays you have come to cherish, and the memories and feelings you’ve come to have are, in the most profound sense, fake. None of it was real. Your parents then tell you that you have two options. You can either act as if this incident had never happened and move on as usual, or you can move out and move on with your life. What’s the desirable option? Most of us would choose the latter. Why? Because none of what was thought to be real turned out to be true. It was all fabricated, illusory, and bore no substantive relation to reality. For the majority of us (although hopefully everyone), there is no going back to the way things previously were. The truth makes a fundamental difference in the decision-making between the two options. By discovering that our life is untrue, we feel a deep absence, a lack of fulfillment, an incompleteness on account of what we’ve learned about ourselves. An essential aspect of the decision to move on, then, is a deep motivation to discover what is in fact true. It’s like Dante when he discovers himself lost in the dark forest. We’ve been led astray, and now we desire to find the right path, which is the one that converges with truth, with what is most real. This is what happens to Jim Carrey in The Truman Show when he decides to leave that disturbing, manufactured simulation dome he was raised in. He could have stayed, but he was psychologically unable to. By obtaining this new self-knowledge, he would have never achieved eudaimonia. He would have remained stuck in life because he would have been bullsh*tting himself (again, I mean this in a technical sense and not simply as an explicative, which will be explained below.)This brings us to (iii), which is to bear a particular attitude toward truth provided (i) and (ii). The proper attitude toward truth is one of care. To care for the truth means to know how to reliably arrive at it, which means utilizing the relevant cognitive processes in forming true beliefs. Recall the quote at the beginning of the article from John Milton, which expressed that it is a heresy to arrive at a belief in the wrong way, namely, by not properly using one’s own reason. It matters, then, how we form our beliefs, and what matters is which cognitive processes are used to get there. For ease of presentation, we can use the psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s formulation of these cognitive processes from his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Kahneman lays out two cognitive systems, System 1 and System 2. “System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.” Whereas “System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration (p. 21).” To see the difference, take the two following examples of arithmetic: “2 + 2 = ?” We have an immediate cognitive reflex to such an equation, and little to no effort is required. Filling in the answer resulted from System 1. “17 x 24 =?” Now this equation typically demands more effort. A reasoning process is engaged to determine the answer that requires concentrated effort and isn’t reflexively provided. Such a process is supplied by System 2. For another example, say someone is hiking and spots a tree in the distance. If such a person cares nothing for botany, then the object will have a great deal of transparency, and the person will carry on about their day. Such a process would be within System 1. But if the person is a trained botanist and has never seen this kind of tree before (say they’re in a foreign country), they may begin to observe it, inspect it, and direct their effort toward retrieving the relevant information that may help identify the tree. That person has engaged System 2.Caring for the truth means knowing how to optimize these two systems so that System 1 and System 2 are in a recurring dialogue with one another, with the aim to arrive at the truth. Now, there are at least two aspects to this idea of care. The first can be classed as having to do with general skills in critical thinking, which primarily consists of analysis. Examples are things like working out one’s cognitive biases and reducing error. In essence, being successful in this regard means being able to reason well and work through problems rationally. Take a case of confirmation bias, for example. Imagine a republican voter who believes certain conspiracy theories about the democratic party and who is watching a presidential debate and hears the Republican candidate make an assertion attributing misconduct to the Democratic candidate. Because the assertion confirms the prior beliefs of the voter who is watching, it will be easy for that person to immediately agree with what was said. Engaging System 2 is effortful and costly in mental energy, and so it is easier, as well as cognitively more pleasurable, to passively (probably unconsciously) consent to System 1’s impulse, which presents the Republican candidate’s statement as attractive and belief-worthy. If this person cares for the truth, however, he or she would engage System 2 upon receiving what System 1 has provided with the aim of verifying whether the assertion accurately represents or corresponds to reality. Perhaps the person reasons through the assertion. If the candidate said something like, "Inflation has skyrocketed due to the current administration, which she’s a part of,” the voter watching may reason that, while it’s true inflation has risen, her position in the administration bears little to no significance on that outcome; therefore, the assertion is misinformed. Or perhaps the voter doesn’t understand government structure very well and does research, visits several sources, and concludes based on the information that the assertion is misinformed and implies an invalid conclusion. Whatever the route taken, the voter is presented with the potential to make a cognitive error through System 1, and because he or she cares for the truth, System 2 is utilized to solve the task presented.Competence in this aspect of care, which means to be a competent critical thinker, consists of knowing how to obtain propositional knowledge, which is knowledge that accurately represents reality. One has the tools and skills to work through assertions, analyze arguments, and appropriately form beliefs according to the evidence. One can situationally respond by engaging System 2 when one detects that System 1 is presented with information expressing propositions about the world. Someone who has mastered these skills has developed dispositions that engage the relevant cognitive behavior under the relevant conditions. In other words, such a person knows how to instinctively and properly respond to the appropriate cognitive stimuli.25The second aspect of caring for truth is deeper than this and, like Dante’s journey, more transformative. Caring for truth in this sense means optimizing System 1 and System 2 by using them to shape one’s conception of the good. What reason, for example, would this argument, rather than another one, be more relevant to someone competent in critical thinking? Why care about what this person has to say rather than that one? Answers to these questions will suggest the underlying conception of the good that is assumed when one finds one set of information more salient. In other words, the second aspect of caring for truth means understanding one’s conception of eudaimonia, or flourishing, which is one’s final aim and idea of human excellence. Critical thinking in the propositional sense is a highly valuable set of skills that is fundamental to the whole project of pursuing truth. But what it consists of does not provide a final criteria to judge what one should believe about human flourishing and what it amounts to. It plays a vital role in articulating and grasping this goal but won’t deliver it. In other words, critical thinking is a powerful tool in reaching one’s goals, but it itself cannot bestow the goals themselves. This requires the second aspect of caring for truth, which means optimizing System 1 and System 2 to become aware of what final end is guiding their operation. Regardless of how much one engages in critical thinking, irrespective of one’s mastery of logic and reasoning, if one never utilizes these skills toward understanding what provides the salience of one set of information over another, they may never satisfy their fulfillment need for truth.Tolstoy’s book, The Death of Ivan Illych, illustrates this. In the story the Russian protagonist, Ivan Illych, lives his life in pursuit of what is pleasant. He shuns the annoyances and discomforts that arise in life and views them, in a way, as unnatural, as occurrences that disrupt how life should be. His goal in life is to maximize pleasure and avoid pain and suffering. He’s not, however, a Don Quixote or an extreme hedonist; he’s not trying to experience all the possible pleasures one may have. He wants to live a successful and acceptable life that commands the esteem of his colleagues, makes his family happy, comfortable, and at ease, and allows him to pass through life with as few disturbances as possible. He holds a very familiar and common conception of the good.And Ivan does in fact find this success. He rises to be a great and respectable judge in Russia. He’s highly competent, makes a substantial living, and can buy and provide his family with whatever he pleases. Yet he finds himself running into the disturbances he’s always tried to avoid. He’s constantly fighting with his wife:There remained only rare periods of amorousness that came over the spouses, but they did not last long. These were islands that they would land on temporarily, but then they would put out again to the sea of concealed enmity that expressed itself in estrangement from each other. This estrangement might have upset Ivan Ilyich, if he had considered that it ought not to be so, but by now he took this situation not only as normal, but as the goal of his activity in the family. His goal consisted in freeing himself more and more from these unpleasantnesses and in giving them a character of harmlessness and decency; and he achieved it by spending less and less time with his family, and when he was forced to do so, he tried to secure his position by the presence of outsiders.He’s experiencing the “uneasiness” formulated by William James above. His solution is not to reflect on his final end in life, his conception of the good, his idea of human flourishing and excellence, but to find other means to attain it, which is to turn away from what he’s representing as unnatural and frustrating. He’s not deficient in critical thinking; he’s a highly competent and successful judge. He lacks the wisdom and self-knowledge necessary for reflecting on and evaluating what makes some things and not others salient for him, which is his goal in life to live pleasantly. There’s a reason why he finds spending less time with his family a more obvious solution than trying to get at the root of why it is he feels so frustrated and annoyed at the fact that he’s not feeling fulfilled despite his success; and he’s not utilizing System 1 and System 2 to investigate that reason, i.e., he’s not caring for truth in the second sense. It’s only until he is faced with a random, coincidental death that he realizes he hadn’t been searching for a solution to his “uneasiness” that converged with truth. Not truth in the propositional sense, but truth regarding human flourishing and excellence. Insofar as he was unable or unwilling to direct his cognition toward what was guiding it, he remained incapable of progressing and transforming toward an aim that would afford him self-awareness, self-knowledge, and, ultimately, eudaimonia.Both aspects of caring for truth matter if Mill’s benefits are to be obtained. It matters propositionally (the first aspect of care) because critical thinking and analysis are necessary for seeing information clearly and discerning whether something maps onto the world. But caring for the first aspect alone will only clear the fog, so to speak, and allow one to see the landscape with more specificity and definition. It will provide knowledge about the causal regularities that govern the territory and the predictable patterns that follow from them. It will not, however, indicate what to do with that knowledge or inform one of what it means. For free speech to be justified for the sake of truth, which means free speech plays a substantial, instrumental role in sorting out the true information from the false, people must care for the truth. They have to find it salient in the right ways. If people don’t care and don’t share the proper desire to pursue it, then no amount of discussion will necessarily bring the community any closer to the truth. They may easily settle for something else.Section 8:The claim, then, is that social media does not warrant truth-based justifications for free speech. Because social media platforms don’t promote or incentivize the psychological orientation necessary for truth-seeking but reward the opposite behaviors, the idea that one is seeking truth within such a context is false. The view that social media as a public space is best characterized as a social practice that aims toward truth has generated an insidious confusion within the culture, and we would be better off by evaluating it differently. Social media is certainly an information network, but it’s wrong to presume all information networks are oriented toward truth production.To see this, think of a university. The principal purpose of this institution is to generate knowledge (there are other purposes, of course, but put those aside.) Now, there are many parts to the structure of a university, but let’s zoom in on the classroom environment. Within it, there’s a hierarchy in place. The teacher’s purpose is to guide the students through a curriculum, get them to think critically about the information, debate and discuss it, foster their abilities to engage with it, cultivate the necessary faculties for this, and to ensure that they learn something specific about the given information, as well as something general about learning, something they can use in all cases. To achieve this, the teacher must orient the students around truth-seeking, i.e., he or she must teach the students to care for the truth, as explained above. The teacher must challenge the students’ cognitive biases. Logical errors, bad reasoning, and lack of critical thinking have to be checked, corrected, and reinforced by the teacher.Ideally, the teacher will also help the students think critically about their conceptions of the good. In the ideal scenario, the teacher not only challenges their cognition but also fosters their ability to question what human flourishing and excellence looks like. It’s ideal because claiming that this is absolutely necessary for an information network to warrant being evaluated as a truth-seeking social practice is, perhaps, too high. But it is what one should aim for. However, it’s important to bear this in mind because it will be shown that, even if the threshold is lowered in this sense, social media still fails at what any information network that is correlated with truth should provide, which is to promote the proper analytical skills in getting clearer about reality.Now, an important reason universities are trusted as truth-seeking information networks is partly because of the teacher's role in distributing that information. It’s trusted as an institution because those who go through it are supposed to have been guided by experts who demonstrate how to pursue knowledge. Students who leave the institution are expected to have participated in a social practice that taught them to be competent in their field (and hopefully to be a good human being as well, whatever that means precisely) and who can now further distribute and utilize their knowledge by applying it to other domains within society. The teacher’s function within the institution is essential to this goal and fundamental to the trust granted to the institution itself. Let’s call this function a Socratic function.27Social media doesn’t have a Socratic function, and any information network trusted as a distributor of knowledge should have something resembling it. Worse than this, however, is that social media actually promotes cognitive behavior that is opposed to the whole project of pursuing truth. As an overarching, general pattern, social media reinforces and incentivizes things like cognitive bias (the immediate and intuitive presentations of System 1.) The whole business model is aimed at maximizing attention. People easily become addicted to these platforms and binge content endlessly. The only way to achieve this is by easing the user’s cognitive effort as much as possible and stimulating them with dopamine responses, allowing the user to enter a semi-hypnotic state. Of course, not everyone is affected like this; most people can assert moderation when using social media. But in an ideal world, one where social media is optimally thriving, everyone would be glued to their screens. Practical circumstances of course make this impossible, and therefore it wouldn’t truly be in social media’s interests because no one would show up for work, but if we turn the dial on the business goals of these platforms to the max, then this would be the logical consequence; it would maximize profits.Social media serves many purposes, though, and the claim is certainly not that it is, for these reasons, entirely bad. It’s only the contexts, circumstances, and situations in which it is reflexively represented as a competent and trusted information network that deals in matters of knowledge and truth that it creates an overall deficit. This is because of the intellectual and ethical confusion it produces, which is caused by its lack of a Socratic function that incentivizes and reinforces the proper psychological orientation around truth-seeking. Again, it has the opposite aim, which is to ease the effort of System 2 as much as it can and allow System 1, with all its cognitive vulnerabilities, to be at the helm. Because of this aim, social media has a Sophistic function, which contrasts the Socratic one, whose defining characteristic is to be a bullsh*tter. As mentioned above, this notion is a technical one and needs to be properly explained.The notion of bullsht comes from the American philosopher Harry Frankfurt and his essay Bullsht. Sam Harris uses this term often, especially regarding social media. First, let’s clarify what it means to lie. Lying involves an intent to deceive on the part of the person lying, who wishes to get the other to believe something contrary to the truth. The seventeen-year-old who sneaks out, gets caught, and tells their parents that they forgot their phone at their friend’s house and went to get it in the middle of the night is lying because they’re trying to deceive their parents into believing something false about reality. But reality is still salient to their aim. Although attempting to distort it, they still have reality in their conscious field of intentions, motives, and desires, i.e., they care about truth rather than caring for it. Someone who bullshts, on the other hand, has no regard for truth. It provides no reason for consideration on its own, independent of the bullshtter’s aim. Whereas the truth matters for the liar, it’s of no concern whether what one says is true or false in the case of bullsht. The bullshter’s enterprise is characteristically different than the lier in this regard. The liar “is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false… The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor to conceal it.”26The classic archetype of a bullshtter is the salesman. The truth about whether the product sold is efficient, useful, or whatever else is indifferent to the salesman. What matters, and what distinguishes one who is good from one who is not (in the sense of achieving their goal to sell the product, pure and simple,) is whether they can deceive the consumer into believing that the bullshtter is asserting something they themselves believe. There are few constraints on what a bullshtter may say to achieve their aim. Whatever helps satisfy their goal is fair play. The liar is unable to be creative like this. They must strategically and purposefully contend with the truth by believing they know it. If the liar doesn’t in fact know the truth, this will likely spoil their plans. They will be unable to grasp the situation and will likely misunderstand what the circumstances call for. A bullshtter doesn’t need to know the truth at all. They just need to make the other person think that they do. The truth conditions of their beliefs and assertions are, by itself, irrelevant.Social media is a bullshtter in incentivizing and rewarding behavior that employs bullsht. It therefore has a Sophistic function. The chief culprit for this is, of course, the algorithms. The algorithm's aim is to curate content that maximizes user engagement and attention. Whether what it presents a user with is true or false is a matter of indifference. It can matter in a sense, but only if the user is disposed toward viewing content that is oriented around truth, which is of no concern to the algorithms. The function is to bullsht the user by minimizing cognitive effort and maximizing the incentives that will keep their attention, e.g., by triggering dopamine responses through a constant succession of content patterned according to the user’s preferences. If the user desires content that aims at truthfully representing reality, he or she has to maneuver through a minefield of bullsht. There is no Socratic function that guides them through it, as there would be in any other social practice that is considered an information network whose purpose is to distribute knowledge. The proper psychological orientation that warrants discussions about how free speech is necessary for pursuing truth within a given context is entirely absent within the social media model.Hence Mill’s influential argument for the utility of free speech for the sake of truth doesn’t apply to social media. Let’s reflect on what Mill said after this long discussion. Recall the epistemic benefits he argued for. He said that letting everyone freely express their minds produces the best outcomes within a democratic community, regardless of whether what one says is true, partially true, or false. If the truth doesn’t move people, and if the general tendency to find truth salient is absent, then letting everyone say what they think is self-undermining. Why would truth matter if everyone free to speak their mind disregards it? Seeing truth as a reason for a social practice means truth is fundamental to the aims that characterize the institution, and this means being properly oriented around it, which means caring for it.Section 9:I want to end now with a discussion about how this all relates to Nostr and how it has the potential to be an information network that performs much better than social media as a context concerned with knowledge and truth. The principal reason that will be considered here is Nostr’s pursuit of a fully decentralized model that aims at user autonomy. Autonomy makes a crucial difference between an information network that more reliably tracks truth and one that is indifferent to it.Social media reduces users' autonomy by trying to use them as a means toward further ends, namely, their attention, engagement, and data. The algorithm's job is to sort through users’ information and curate it in ways that maximize profit. This generally results in the spread of bullsht because what determines information as worth spreading does not depend on that information’s truth value. However, when users can curate their own content by judging for themselves what information they wish to retrieve from relays; when it’s left to each user to decide what content is valuable and what isn’t; when users themselves can determine what is worth censuring and not be subject to the interests of a centralized server, the aim is clearly to place autonomy back into their hands. What’s important, though, is that autonomy has a certain purpose in the Nostr context: to allow people to create at all protocol levels. Part of what a centralized server does is create a fixed infrastructure that greatly restricts what users may do on the platform (the chief restriction being to yield as much profit as possible for shareholders.) Creators especially are affected by this because the value they contribute to the platforms is filtered through what will necessarily constrain it. Nostr, however, is different. What largely motivates the value of autonomy is the desire to let creators create content freely and without outside constraints, which, of course, is to provide them freedom of expression. By users having the freedom to build and the autonomy to curate and choose what content is personally valuable to a user, truth becomes highly relevant within the context. Now, if Mill is right when he says that only true beliefs have any utility (and false beliefs necessarily lead one astray in some sense,) users who produce content will be highly incentivized to track the truth, to have an accurate representation of it, because to fail at this will result in unappealing content due to its lack of value. No centralized authority is supposed to be able to force something to appear valuable; it’s up to the users to determine this. And if something will endure and not fade once the reasons why it may have trended disappear, it needs to track the truth. If it doesn’t, if it only matters to people because it is sensational or cheap, if it’s bullsht, it will always lose in the long run.Since people on Nostr have the autonomy to build and curate their own content, unlike social media, there is less at play that can ossify the network. There must be a great deal of motion because, in principle, no user or client can monopolize the space. This built-in fluidity captures an important aspect of truth-seeking, which John Milton expressed when saying, “Knowledge thrives by exercise… Truth is compared in scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition.” Everyone has to earn their success on Nostr, so the principal way to do this is to create something valuable. Again, if Mill is right, the value must largely be derived from the truth that the content represents, creating an incentive to care for the truth. Bullsh*t can’t be forcefully distributed because it maximizes some desired metric. Information is chiefly distributed by individual users valuing it.Nostr provides a way to see if Mill was right in thinking only true beliefs have any real value. Since the intention is to move away from social media’s business model, there is an opportunity to determine whether people will naturally choose the truth through their own autonomous decision-making. If there are no algorithms that aim to seize and maximize user attention, people are free to choose what content they wish to consume. It is a choice whether truth prevails over its opposite in the Nostr context because individuals are incentivized to contribute what they want to see. And if things go astray, people can fix it by creating something better.Notes:For a similar but far more elaborate, comprehensive, and complex argument of this kind, see John Vervaeke’s Awakening From the Meaning Crisis on YouTube.For an elaboration on free speech justifications, see Greenawalt, K. (2007). Free Speech Justifications. Colombia Law Review.For a history of Free speech, see Jacob Mchangama’s book Free Speech: Socrates to Social Media.Kant, I. (1784). What is Enlightenment? (p. 1). Hacket Publishing.This is not to suggest wokism is the sole culprit of this cultural trend. It’s one example amongst others on all parts of the political spectrum. But it’s an important example because wokism aims to be virtuous and moral. Therefore, it’s a good example because it is important to question whether their moral claims are correct. Furthermore, a plausible reply on the part of one who may subscribe to something like wokism (whatever that means precisely) is that it isn’t the duty of those who have been oppressed to teach those they consider to be oppressors. The duty falls on the latter. This is a challenging question to settle, and it makes up the potentially unbridgable gulf between wokism and its opponents. But if empathy is a virtue (or a vital moral response), it’s central that everyone exercises it, not just those who are held to be guilty of something.Simpson, R. M. (2024). The Connected City of Ideas. Daedalus.Harari, N. Y. (2024). Nexus. Random House.Eisenstein, E. L. (1979). The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (p. 45). Cambridge University Press.Melchert, N. (2007). The Great Conversation (p. 304). Oxford University Press.Melchert, N. (2007). The Great Conversation. Oxford University Press.Wagner, C. (2012). Scientia Moralitas (Moral Autonomy and Responsibility - The Reformation’s Legacy in Today’s Society). Scientia Moralitas Research Institute.Fromm, E. (1941). Escape From Freedom (p. 54). Discus.James, W. (1902). The Varieties of Religious Experience (p. 54). Penguin Classics.Dreyfus, H., & Kelly, S. D. (2011). All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (p. 122). Free Press.Dreyfus, H., & Kelly, S. D. (2011). All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (p. 122). Free Press.Aristotle, A. (1953). Ethics (p. 122). Penguin Classics.Schumacher, E. (1977). A Guide For the Perplexed. Harper Colophon Books.As Isaiah Berlin makes clear in his essay Two Concepts of Liberty, it is easy to see how positive freedom may easily lead to foolish and immoral action due to its purposeful nature. It is quite challenging to dissuade someone that what they believe to be their purpose in life, their ultimate meaning, relies on false premises.Fromm, E. (1941). Escape From Freedom. Discus.Chalmers, A. (1974). What is this thing called Science? Hacket Publishing.Descartes, R. (2010). Meditations on First Philosophy. Oxford World's Classics.See Bertrand Russel’s The History of Western Philosophy for how Descartes's argument is logically invalid. He can’t doubt that some process of thinking is occurring, but whether something is doing the thinking isn’t obvious.Locke, J. Two Treatises on Government.Justice Holmes made the Marketplace metaphor popular in Abrams v United States (1919), and has become a central precedent in free speech cases.For a similar argument, see Nevin Chellappah’s “Is John Stuart Mill’s Account of Free Speech Sustainable In the Age of Social Media?”Ryle, G. (1949). The Concept of Mind. Penguin.Frankfurt, H. (1986). Bullshit. Princeton University Press.To see the Socratic function in real time, watch The Joe Rogan Experience episode #2171. Eric Weinstein demonstrates what it means for an expert to engage with someone outside their respective field who claims to have knowledge that overturns the discipline but with no professional training to back it up. His attitude demonstrates a care for truth. @yakihonne

@ 6b7c438e:fc81aab3

Taryn Christiansen @ DoraHacksSpecial thanks to Eric Zhang for in-depth discussions.A mirror post on Dora Research Blog is available: https://research.dorahacks.io/2024/12/24/free-speech-foundation Intro:This article will argue that truth-based justifications for free speech are inappropriate within the social media context.1 Flooding the market with more information doesn’t necessarily force truth to emerge and bob at the surface. No matter how much information is pumped into a space filled with falsehoods and deception, if the right mechanisms aren’t in place, the area will only grow more chaotic and overcrowded, and therefore all the more easier to get lost in it. As an instrument to obtain knowledge of the truth, free speech has to be properly used, and people need to know how to use it.That isn’t to say that the tap should be shut off and that free speech should be curtailed; other justifications are perfectly reasonable, as will be seen below. But the idea that what we’re up to on social media is seeking out the truth only produces more confusion about what we collectively take to be sources of trustworthy information that is accurate and sincere. We would be better off if social media were viewed as an information network that is distinct from other spaces that are generally considered places where we obtain reliably true beliefs.But other spaces have the potential to be a more appropriate target for truth-based justifications for free speech, one of which is Nostr. Because of Nostr’s fully decentralized and open nature, which allows for innovation at all levels of its protocol, people have more opportunity to create valuable content that will only be distributed across the network because it is in fact valuable. The algorithms on social media force content to be valuable because there are standards that aim at maximizing user engagement in cheap and overstimulating ways. It doesn’t matter to these mechanisms whether something is true or not. What matters first is whether something promotes the ends of the social media companies, which are primarily driven by maximizing profits through ads and attention. Achieving this goal means reducing users' autonomy in picking and choosing what content to consume. Nostr aims to give the users their autonomy back by freeing developers to build both relays and clients. If users can make decisions that aren’t influenced by social media’s algorithmic decision-making, then it can be discerned whether truth is naturally relevant to people in these kinds of information networks, as well as whether people really desire to care for the truth.Section 1:It should be assumed at this point in history2, especially in liberal democracies, that the freedom to express one’s mind is inseparable from a basic conception of human dignity. If one is prohibited from freely discussing and challenging prevailing beliefs or forced to conform to a point of view that was not arrived at by using one’s own rational and reflective faculties, then human dignity suffers. There’s a reason Socrates went around the Athenian marketplace and tirelessly questioned the people he encountered there. He wasn’t interested in forcing people to submit to specific beliefs. Socrates wanted people to realize and reflect on whether what they believed was true or not, and therefore if it was something worth believing in. But integral to this project is the idea that people have to think through the questions themselves and not rely on an authority. Authority may be right; it may hold true beliefs and assert rational demands, but it doesn’t mean anything unless people themselves know the way to them. This requires the individual to be willing to develop what’s necessary for this.John Milton was right when he wrote in his 1644 pamphlet Areopagatica, which was directed against the English Parlament’s order for licensing books, that “A man may be a heretic in the truth… If he believes things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reasons, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.” People must be free to reason for themselves, to arrive at truths through the use of their own faculties, to develop their individual conscience, which, by its nature, must be exercised by the individual’s will and not by an externally imposed authority. Immanuel Kant’s call to the Enlightenment, Sapere aude! - “Have courage to use your own reason!”3 - is a call to actualize human dignity through the use of one’s reason. These faculties cannot be cultivated unless the individual can express him or herself freely.Woke culture is an illustrative example of how there is a connection between free speech and human dignity. It shows that when the strategy is to problematize and silence people, no matter how noble or virtuous the goal is believed to be, it only perpetuates a cycle of frustration and anger. The problem with woke culture isn’t necessarily their ideals. We all would agree, or should at least, that people should respect the basic dignity of others, treat everyone as persons, empathize with those with a different experience, and learn and grow from one another’s unique perspective. These are all good things; they’re profoundly valuable. The issue is how woke culture formulated and implemented their interpretations of what these notions amount to, what they call for, and what moral duties they demand. One of its principal goals has been to discern how historical oppressors should atone for previous wrongdoings. Many have come to understand this as meaning that those who come from those lineages are, in some sense, problematic and that, therefore, proponents of wokism have the duty to silence them, to condemn them, to act as if they are a net negative to the social good, and to impose a punishment of silence to atone for the past. This has been a grave mistake. Instead of engaging in a dialogue to reach the other person’s conscience, those who bore this duty have tended to sermonize in a sanctimonious, demeaning way, which only shuts people down and turns off the parts of the brain that promote learning and development, and turns on what generates combative and defensive behavior. The typical approach in woke culture has been enormously undemocratic in spirit due to its preference to force people to adopt reasons rather than opening people up to consider them in their proper light, namely, as claims about morality that make demands on the conscience of the person, which can only be properly understood and felt through the use of his or her own faculties. Woke culture, which offers some genuine insight into the world's contemporary moral situation, failed to respect the dignity of those they wished to persuade by using coercive measures instead of appealing to their conscience. Free speech is absolutely necessary in an endeavor like this because only by upholding such a social practice will everyone’s basic dignity be respected, which is integral to people being open to changing their minds. Moral debates within society should never devolve into a contest of wills. This only undermines the foundation of a democratic community, the basic pillar being human dignity.4But although free speech bears a necessary connection to human dignity, it does not bear the same relation to truth. For free speech to bear a proper relation to truth, one where free speech produces a high probability of tracking it, those seeking out truth must have the right psychological orientation toward it; otherwise, the two easily come apart. In his recent book Nexus, Yoel Noah Harari presents a clear way of seeing this. Harari criticizes what he calls the ‘naive view of information,’ which “argues that by gathering and processing much more information than individuals can, big networks achieve a better understanding of medicine, physics, economics, and numerous other fields, which makes the network not only powerful but wise.” The notion of wisdom is key. While it’s theoretically possible that an information network can be wise (especially with the development of better AI), it will be useless unless human beings have some idea about what wisdom is. If they don’t, then they’ll have to just assume that the information being presented was properly arrived at, i.e., with the wisdom necessary for obtaining truth, which will, in effect, create a servility to the information network and not to the human faculties necessary for discerning and knowing the truth. To use a distinction made by Plato, they will have an opinion about the truth, not knowledge. To know means to understand the reasons why something is the case, not just that it is the case.Harari’s book is important because the naive view of information he presents is prevalent and is most often expressed in the marketplace of ideas metaphor. In essence, the metaphor suggests that free speech operates like a free market because, by allowing individuals to pursue and satisfy their preferences freely, the truth will somehow outcompete falsehoods. Either because people’s preferences are more deeply satisfied by truth, and/or because the beliefs people hold will only have any real value (or utility) when they are true, when they accurately represent reality. But in a marketplace, “people don’t reliably ‘buy’ truths. People buy the ideas they like. And people don’t reliably like truths better than falsehoods. What the invisible hand does, all going well, is efficiently allocate goods to people based on what they want.”5 For truth to reliably outcompete falsehoods, consumers must have a particular orientation around truth. Unless we think ideas are true based solely on their utility, which is itself not a very useful notion, more has to be said as to why consumers would desire the truth over anything else in a marketplace of ideas. Everyone has opinions they cherish and hold to be, in some way, fundamental to themselves and their identities. It is perfectly conceivable that someone will reject any truth that conflicts with these deeply valued sentiments. For a free competition of ideas to track and produce true information, consumers have to want truth to win out, and this desire should motivate the consumer’s decision-making. In other words, one must bear a special psychological orientation toward truth for the marketplace metaphor to be an appropriate model for understanding free speech as being justified for the sake of truth. Again, free speech is important for other reasons, such as human dignity. But whether free speech is justified for the sake of truth is a separate question, and until the proper stance is taken toward truth, truth-based justifications are inapplicable.The fact that the distribution of more and more information doesn’t bear a necessary connection to truth can also be gleaned from historical examples. When a technology revolutionizes human information networks, which allows for information to be shared more efficiently and in larger quantities than ever before, the society that implements it does not therefore obtain a higher fidelity to truth. The opposite is equally plausible. This is the problem facing social media. If truth-based justifications are an appropriate way to justify free speech practices on such platforms, social media must create an environment that promotes the proper psychological orientation toward truth. What matters is whether they can care for the truth rather than adopt a stance that promotes what the philosopher Harry Frankfurt called bullsh*t, which means to be indifferent toward truth. Before explaining this further, let’s look at a historical example that demonstrates the following: First, as new technology arrives and transforms information networks, the information that is consequently distributed can equally promote both what is true and what is not; and second, and more philosophically, the technology can also reorient a society’s relationship to truth, which in turn affects how the society arrives at knowledge.Section 2:Take the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in 1440. Before its inception, the Catholic Church made Western Europe effectively an echo chamber. They dominated the information networks by controlling what could be printed, distributed, and accredited as knowledge. The vast majority of the population couldn’t read, and only a select few could read the Holy writings, which contained information that was considered the highest truth attainable by human beings. Only a select few were blessed enough to be able to handle this sort of information. Because all other information flowed from this central institution, everyone else depended on the Church for what to believe. The reality of that situation, and what it must have felt like to be in such a dependent position, can begin to be imagined by considering the following: “In the thirteenth century the library of Oxford University consisted of a few books kept in a chest under St. Mary’s Church. In 1424 the library of Cambridge University boasted a grand total of only 122 books. An Oxford University decree from 1409 stipulated that ‘all recent texts’ studied at the university must be unanimously approved ‘by a panel of twelve theologians appointed by the archbishop.’”6 When the quantity of information is this low, and in the context of the Catholic Church, is also greatly limited in diversity, it’s difficult even to imagine anything outside the worldview that is being imposed.Now, alongside the Church’s control of information networks, the production efficiency of copyists and scribes who had to manufacture the books was dismally low. It exponentially grew when the printing press automated the work. The historian Sir John Harold Clapham wrote, “A man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which about eight million books had been printed, more perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in A.D. 330.”7 The restriction on information and people’s inability to consider anything outside of the prevailing tradition, as well as the technological and productive inefficiency of the time, left most people in darkness, with no way out other than by following the dim, consoling light cast by the Church. The printing press changed all of this. “It revolutionized the world,” as the philosopher Francis Bacon said.The printing press gave people the autonomy to print and distribute ideas that the Church didn’t authorize and thereby provided the platform necessary for the Reformation to take hold, which started with Martin Luther in the early sixteenth century. There were previous attempts at reform, but the printing press made a momentous difference. The concurrence of the printing press and the Reformation revealed the corrosive corruption within the Catholic Church. People were finely able to learn about the degenerate tendencies within the institution, which the Church was previously able to stifle because it controlled the information networks. The buying and selling of Church positions and indulgences that allowed people to pay their way out of purgatory, political intrigue, nepotism, bribery, and immoral consolidation of wealth through taxes was disclosed as a consequence of the printing press. The notion that the Church was the medium by which people moved toward God’s grace collapsed, and people saw that “it had become a means of securing worldly prestige, power, and wealth for those who were clever and ruthless enough to bend it to their will.”8But this historical occurrence also unleashed a flurry of misinformation. The religious wars that followed the Reformation were devastating, and millions of people died, an exceptional case being the Thirty Years War (1618-48). The dissemination of Luther’s 95 theses regarding the corruption of the Church spread like wildfire across Europe after he posted them in 1516 on the Church Castle in Wittenberg, Germany, which the printing press made possible. It would only make sense, then, that the Church would follow suit and take advantage of the technology to combat what it held to be heresy and to reinstate its power as the dominant influence in the West (for an amalgam of reasons, of course.) All sides involved in these religious disputes didn’t merely use the printing press to disseminate accurate information. They used it to spread misinformation to satisfy their political interests, intensifying the ensuing wars and battles between the various emerging religious sects and the rising monarchies.This demonstrates the first point: the printing press, which was a revolution in human information networks, produced both true and false information. There was no causal, historical determinacy one way or the other. While it disclosed truths about Church corruption, it was also used as a means to spread political propaganda that fueled the religious wars.Now, as for the second, more philosophical point, the Reformation also reoriented people’s relation to truth by democratizing matters of faith. Whether one believes the Reformation was, in this respect, an overall good or not, from a liberal democratic point of view, it has to be considered good. The Reformation placed faith into the hands of the individual conscience, rendering considerations about one’s standing in relation to God to have a personal, rather than institutional, significance. Before, “the Church was the keeper and protector of Christian truths and the harbor of salvation for those at sea in sin.”9 Luther rejected this picture of salvation and believed one could be saved through faith and scripture alone, without an intermediary. Luther thought that one’s spiritual significance did not depend on authority. He didn’t see the Church as some emanation from God or a reflection of a Divine order that the individual participated in and was guided by to reach salvation. Individuals are solely responsible for their spiritual significance and capacity to reach a higher truth in God. In one of his more heroic acts, he translated the bible into vernacular German from the traditional Latin (which was considered the holy language, the only one appropriate for capturing religious truths). He gave common people access to what was previously sealed off from them. The individual, free from external imposition and constraint, can privately attain truth on his or her own.Luther formulated a radical inner freedom that broke with some of the Church’s fundamental precepts. There was, of course, an inner freedom already present in Catholicism, but Luther placed it at the center of things rather than as revolving around an institution. Before Luther, St. Augustine went to great lengths to demonstrate the spiritual significance of an inner life, and Luther was an Augustinian monk. But Luther went much further than him. In one of his lectures on YouTube, the philosopher Michael Sugrue observes that this amounted to a kind of Copernican Revolution in religion. That is to say that, rather than the Church being the axis by which things revolve around and where one finds his or her salvation, rather than identifying with an institution by which one finds freedom within a corporate body in which lies their place amongst others in a perfectly ordered, hierarchical, and harmonious cosmos, the individual became the center axis of spiritual and religious matters. It’s easy to see, then, how this theological idea possesses the potential to develop into the idea of individual rights and liberties. Luther provided a kind of autonomy10 for the individual, where whether one is saved is bound up with one’s inner conscience and not with external works or good deeds that the Church facilitates. The individual is an irreducible unit of value that is not subsumed by any other worldly object. And the individual's value rests in their conscience and capacity to receive God’s grace. This idea has sparks of the modern sense of human dignity, and it will create a conflagration throughout Europe as it develops. If there is no Church or institution to settle one’s moral, spiritual, and intellectual significance, one is left to use one’s faculties for guidance. And because it is one’s faculties that attain truth and spiritual salvation, they are the center of value in human life, which bears a natural right for protection.At the Diet of Worms in 1521, where Luther had to answer to charges of heresy because of his theological work, the Church demanded that he recant. He refused. But the reasons for his refusal are the most important. He demanded that the Church show him through scripture and reason alone that he was wrong and not through the dictates of authority. His protest demonstrated that the individual can reach the truth through his or her own means. The Church’s decline began far before this historical moment, but Luther made the decisive blow that the printing press made possible. The Church fragmented as a consequence, which, to Catholics, meant truth itself was fragmented and resulted in a proliferation of denominations scattered across Europe.Section 3:What was so subversive about Luther in this respect is that he divorced sanctification, the process by which one lives in the image of Christ, i.e., a life of virtue, from self-transformation. Although Luther carved out the individual as an irreducible unit of value, this also severed the individual from a stable and definite path that assuaged one’s existential suffering: “The Church… assured the individual of her unconditional love to all her children and offered a way to acquire the conviction of being forgiven and loved by God. The relationship to God was more one of confidence and love than of doubt and fear.”11 Luther believed that one was saved through faith alone and by no other means. He thought that because human beings are all sinners, their wills cannot do anything to reach salvation and spiritual peace. How, then, can one tell if they have been saved? There is no longer an authority to adjudicate this. The individual can discover the truth for themself and so must determine what this means on their own. Several centuries later, Kant gave voice to the duty he believed to arise from this new freedom:Thus, it is difficult for any individual man to work himself out of the immaturity that has all but become his nature. He has even become fond of this state and for the time being is actually incapable of using his own understanding, for no one has ever allowed him to attempt it. Rules and formulas, those mechanical aids to the rational use, or rather misuse, of his natural gifts, are the shackles of a permanent immaturity. Whoever threw them off would still make only an uncertain leap over the smallest ditch, since he is unaccustomed to this kind of free movement. Consequently, only a few have succeeded, by cultivating their own minds, in freeing themselves from immaturity and pursuing a secure course.So, while much was gained during the Reformation, the reorientation around truth also had consequences. Self-transformation, the effort of will, the idea of having an inner and outer journey that culminates into something larger and more significant, took on radically different meanings under Luther and the future Protestant countries. To see this, we can turn to Dante’s Divine Comedy, which demonstrates part of what was lost under Luther.Section 4:In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the culmination of the Medieval worldview before Luther, Dante embarks on a Christian pilgrimage that ends in his being saved. Just as with the above, it’s crucial to understand that the point here will not be exclusively religious but universal in the sense that religion, as manifested across all cultures, didn’t create this experience but was the medium by which it has been expressed and made sense of; it provides it a voice. This goes back to William James and his book The Varieties of Religious Experience. There is the private aspect of religious experience, and then there is the institutional component within which the private side takes shape. Buddhists practice meditation and strive to contemplate Nirvana; the Christian prays and goes to mass; the Stoics distance themselves from their inaccurate emotional representations and contemplate what is rational and in his or her control; and so forth. As James points out, what is fundamental to all religious experience, in the private sense, are two aspects: there is an uneasiness, which, “reduced to its simplest terms, is a sense that there is something wrong about us as we naturally stand;” and two, a solution, which “is a sense that we are saved from the wrongness by making proper connection with the higher powers (508).” The first aspect means the self is in conflict, is divided, and desires unification. In religious language, the self seeks salvation and an experience of being saved from their situation, which is characterized by suffering due to inner division and conflict. This can take on an existential mode, as with Leo Tolstoy in his book Confessions, or it can be highly moral. In Tolstoy’s book Confessions, he relates a story of a traveler being chased by a beast that imaginatively captures the relevant phenomena:Seeking to save himself from the fierce animal, the traveler jumps into a well with no water in it; but at the bottom of this well he sees a dragon waiting with open mouth to devour him. And the unhappy man, not daring to go out lest he should be the prey of the beast, not daring to jump to the bottom lest he should be devoured by the dragon, clings to the branches of a wild bush which grows out of one of the cracks of the well. His hands weaken, and he feels that he must soon give way to certain fate; but still he clings, and sees two mice, one white, the other black, evenly moving round the bush to which he hangs, and gnawing off its roots. The traveler sees this and knows that he must inevitably perish; but while thus hanging he looks about him and finds on the leaves of the bush some drops of honey. These he reaches with his tongue and licks them off with rapture. Thus I hang upon the boughs of life, knowing that the inevitable dragon of death is waiting ready to tear me, and I cannot comprehend why I am thus made a martyr. I try to suck the honey which formerly consoled me; but the honey pleases me no longer, and day and night the white mouse and the black mouse gnaw the branch to which I cling. I can see but one thing: the inevitable dragon and the mice—I cannot turn my gaze away from them.”12Clearly, Tolstoy is suffering from a serious existential episode in which he can’t find a purpose or meaning in life that will clear away his anxiety, which is represented in the dragon, which time, represented in the mice, slowly draws him near. This is his “uneasiness.” He must find a solution, then, because his situation is unlivable.Religion has historically addressed this need. In the Middle Ages, the Church was the institution through which people expressed this experience and resolved their inner conflicts, tensions, and divisions. Let’s turn to Dante’s Divine Comedy to see how the private aspect of this experience is made sense of through Christain’s notion of the pilgrimage.The poem begins with Dante suddenly becoming aware of himself, “Midway upon life’s journey,” as he says, and terrified by the fact that he’s lost in a dark world, having “gone astray,” and is in despair because he has begun to lose all hope for himself. “We know nothing of how Dante has gone astray, only that he has, and that he must undertake a journey, therefore, to save his soul.”13 He is, like Tolstoy, experiencing an “uneasiness” (though in more of a moral rather than existential sense; God is always present for Dante.) So, he has discovered that he has been living wrongly, that he’d strayed from the right path, from the way, and despite his attempts to free himself of his sins and burdens, he’s unable to do it alone. Although it’s unclear why Dante has lost his way, “the journey itself is clearer. It will take him through the entire Christian spiritual universe.”14The Roman poet Virgil is sent to initiate and lead him on this path forward. Virgil represents all of Classical learning, from the Greeks to the Romans. Though they were pagans, they represent the highest one can do as a non-Christian, which is to reach, as Aristotle said, the contemplative life15, where one can reflect on the Whole, on the cosmos. But because they didn’t have faith, they could never experience a fullness of being or completeness that produces the solution to the uneasiness that James discussed. According to Christian doctrine, only Christians may experience this. Thus, they had to remain in Hell.Now, for Dante to move down through Hell, climb up Purgatory, and then transcend into Heaven, he must engage with the Classical world by wrestling with the questions they set out to answer, which is an immensely difficult aim to take on; one that will transform the self as it moves through an activity and process of the soul, intellect, mind, or whatever it is that is the center in which human development toward the Good, as Plato would say, takes place. What’s fascinating about this ascent is that, in the Medieval worldview, it wasn’t merely an internal endeavor; it also bore a deep and profound relationship to the external world. By embarking on the Christian pilgrimage, one was, in a sense, becoming closer and closer to reality, to truth, to what is most real, which corresponded with a transformation of the self that is accompanied by an experience of fulfillment. As one ascends, one climbs what was called the Great Chain of Being, a metaphysical (ontological) thesis that was first articulated by Aristotle, which was adopted by, and adapted to, Christian thought in the thirteenth century.The Chain of Being introduces a vertical aspect to reality rather than merely a horizontal one. At the top is the highest Truth, and the lowest is the least real, i.e., the lowest level of being, which consists of matter and material objects, whereas the highest consists of what is immaterial, like consciousness or mind. And so everything and everyone grows increasingly heavier as Dante moves downward through Hell due to being weighed down by an attachment to the material, earthly substance, which produces a growing despair and lack of fulfillment. As Dante moves upward from Purgatory to Heaven, things become lighter and immaterial in proportion to how much something embodies the spiritual, divine substance, which is achieved through directing one’s desire toward the right objects, toward what is more real and true. In Plato’s allegory of the cave, as one breaks free from the chains and shadows at the bottom and climbs toward the exit where the sun can be seen, one also gains more and more insight into reality as things are illuminated more clearly through the light. Like Purgatory, the ascent up the cave is profound and challenging. But the initial insight of seeing into reality, which reveals that what was previously experienced was illusory, produces the desire to see even further into what now appears absolute and true. This desire pulls and aims Dante upward as he climbs higher toward reality and up the Great Chain of Being. The economist and philosopher E.F. Schumacher16 put the significance of this view as follows:The ability to see the Great Truth of the hierarchic structure of the world, which makes it possible to distinguish between higher and lower Levels of Being, is one of the indispensable conditions of understanding. Without it, it is not possible to find out where everything has its proper and legitimate place. Everything, everywhere, can be understood only when its Level of Being is fully taken into account. Many things are true at a low Level of Being and become absurd at a higher level, and of course vice versa.Dante’s pilgrimage, then, aims toward attaining a higher level of being than when he found himself lost in the forest. By turning inward, by engaging in a contemplative mode of being that engages the self in pursuit of an inner harmony that resonates with an external, hierarchic order, Dante is striving to attain a kind of freedom that is somewhat alien to us today. We can think of the notion of freedom in a negative and a positive sense. In the negative sense, freedom is understood as freedom from something; from external constraint, for example. The First Amendment is typically interpreted along these lines. Everyone is free to speak their minds because the state should not be allowed to interfere with our freedom to do so. All are free to do as they please as long as they do not infringe on another person’s right to do so.The positive sense is much different. It is a freedom for something. In Dante’s Hell, everyone found themselves there because they (at minimum) acted free purely in the negative sense. They lived their lives as they saw fit, without regard to any higher form of life. They didn’t act for the sake of a virtuous purpose (although that’s not quite right regarding the virtuous pagans and a few others.) To be free in the positive sense means to act according to a higher aim. When Socrates refused to renounce the philosophical life and was put to death, he made that decision based on a principle grounded in his inner conscience, which he took to express something sacred and higher, which always spoke to him when he was about to do wrong. He accepted the death penalty because the unexamined life wasn’t worth living; it had no purpose toward a higher aim17. 17Dante’s Divine Comedy provides a narrative by which the uneasiness one experiences in life, as articulated by James, can reach a solution and resolve the inner conflict and division by providing a framework by which the individual moves closer to reality, to what is most real, and up the Chain of Being.Section 5:Now, the pilgrimage captured in Dante’s poem was not something anyone could take up, at least not in its full dramatic content; it was obviously something only a select few could embark on, and this depended on the situation one was born into, like whether one was wealthy enough to receive an education. One’s salvation in the social order was rarely epic or heroic in nature; it typically meant following the structure imposed upon the individual by the Church. Just as how the cosmos was hierarchically ordered, so was society. The reasons for the social order were Divinely decreed. The social structure was immovable in a way because shifting the social order and rearranging it would violate scripture and God’s Word. Hence people were, as we would judge today, unfree and restricted. However, as psychologist Erick Fromm writes, “although a person was not free in the modem sense, neither was he alone and isolated. In having a distinct, unchangeable, and unquestionable place in the social world from the moment of birth, man was rooted in a structuralized whole, and thus life had a meaning which left no place, and no need, for doubt. A person was identical with his role in society; he was a peasant, an artisan, a knight, and not an individual who happened to have this or that occupation. The social order was conceived as a natural order, and being a definite part of it gave a feeling of security and of belonging.”18 Luther’s devastating blow against the Church in the Reformation rejected the social order and the Chain of Being and set in motion the release of the individual from the bondage they were restrained in. But by freeing the individual, he also eliminated the necessary self-transformation that played a substantial role in the Medieval worldview. Luther democratized salvation, spirituality, and questions about meaning in one’s life.This Copernican revolution in religious matters allowed for a radical reorientation toward truth, which relied on the printing press's efficiency in producing and distributing information.There were, of course, other factors that contributed to the Catholic Church's decline. The literal Copernican revolution and the rise of science being an obvious example. But what became increasingly less present in the scientific worldview that was emerging then is the idea that, as one gains knowledge of the world, one also goes through a transformative experience like Dante’s. The notion that knowledge of truth and reality converges with a meaningful and spiritual ethical development has mostly fallen off. Science’s aim is pure objectivity. For much of history, what is ‘objective’ is also intrinsically beneficial to the subject coming into contact with it. Values in scientific judgment and knowledge are a transgression, a violation of scientific precept, and are opposed to the whole epistemic enterprise (meaning a method by which knowledge is gained.) Science does not care about how one feels, what one desires in life, or what meaning one may find in it and simply presents facts as a body of indifferent and empirically verified knowledge.This is, of course, a caricature, as Thomas Kuhn19 argued in the twentieth century. Scientists certainly value their theories and are not merely attempting to refute them through experimentation. Theories allow scientists to have a grip on the world and a language of concepts that can be used to describe it accurately. This conceptual framework gives the world a theoretically intelligible and discernible order. And so once the anomalies and unsolved problems in a scientific paradigm grow serious enough, those working within it enter into a crisis until a new paradigm emerges (as is what happened when moving from Newtonian mechanics to Eistenin’s relativity.) Still, moving from one paradigm to the next isn’t believed to be an ethical progression. It’s a movement from one framework to the next. Unlike the Medieval worldview, it is generally held that science says nothing about human values and how one ought to live. Being a scientist does not suggest that someone is wise like a Socrates or Plato.Unlike the Church in the Middle Ages, which, in terms of knowledge, played a similar role to science today, science is not an institution that is in the business of handing out ethical and moral guidance. A scientist would likely balk (or should balk) at the idea of being viewed as someone who has gone through an ethical self-transformation to gain the knowledge that he or she has solely because of becoming a scientist. Being one of course requires an enormous amount of discipline, effort, and intelligence, which is, in a way, transformative, but in a different sense than what Dante embarked on. Today, knowledge of truth and reality does not necessarily correspond with an ethical progression.This idea of not requiring ethical self-transformation to gain the highest forms of knowledge is most noticeable in Rene Descartes’ philosophy in the seventeenth century. Descartes set out to rebuild a foundation through which knowledge could be rebuilt from the ruins left by the Church’s decline.20 The Church had lost its viability as something that could be believed to provide reliable knowledge for the social body. It was no longer psychologically obvious that the Church was the principal source and authority of appeal when dealing with matters of truth. Referring to scripture, for instance, could no longer be done by relying on what the Papacy had interpreted it as meaning. Luther (and others) undermined this immediacy for many. The United States faces a similar situation today. There is a diminishing trust in the democratic institutions that have historically served as distributors of trustworthy knowledge. Descartes attempted to deal with a similar crisis by discovering foundations immune from doubt. And he believed himself to have discovered such a foundation through his Cogito: I think, therefore I am. I can doubt all of my mental representations of the world, such as those of tables and chairs and coffee mugs, as well as my particular thoughts and feelings, and even the existence of my own body and sense experience. For all I know, I may be dreaming or being deceived by an evil demon into believing all kinds of imaginary and false representations of things. I can’t affirm or deny this with any certainty. But I cannot doubt that I am doubting; that much is certain. And since doubting is a property of thinking, I can’t doubt that I am thinking.Therefore, I am a thinking thing, an immaterial substance that is distinct from the physical bodies liable to doubt21. This is the most fundamental truth that not even reason could call into question. It’s radically different from truth as understood on the Chain of Being model. There is no ethical transformation involved in realizing this indubitable proposition. It’s self-evident to anyone rational and clear-minded (or so Descartes thinks.) And this is certainly how many people today think of knowledge. And in some cases, quite rightly. Take human rights as an example. John Locke22, a momentous figure who shaped the language of rights and how modernity thinks about them, argued that human rights are self-evident in the same sense as a geometric axiom. It just appears before the mind as something incapable of being doubted (to a clear, rational mind, of course, who has done the proper thinking, like someone who has rightly apprehended a geometric axiom.) The US’s founding document memorializes Locke’s claim: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” The deepest, most profound truths about humanity are ‘obvious’ to any rational mind. This is, of course, a good thing. It is good that people intuitively find one another intrinsically and irreducibly valuable. But when this notion is taken for granted, when, as we’ll soon see with John Stuart Mill, an idea grows ossified, fixed, and dogmatic, it loses its potency and desired effect. But if one arrives at the idea of human rights through a transformative process, where one realizes the concept through a process of development and growth that culminates in seeing the profound value within a conscious human being, the notion of rights is animating and action-producing; it stirs and moves the motivation of those who go through this process. In other words, it produces a particular psychological orientation around what is believed to be true.Section 6:So, information technologies do not merely distribute previously unavailable information that is then propagated across a network. Nor does the production of such information bear a natural, necessary connection to truth. They can do both, but much more is at play. The printing press allowed for the conditions necessary for the Reformation to occur, and its occurrence produced a radical shift in the Medieval worldview. Truth was hierarchically organized, and those at the top had exclusive access. The Reformation leveled this structure and diffused the notion that all Christians are equal regarding Divine knowledge. There was no need for an authoritative intermediary to facilitate people’s relation to God. People could do it themselves through faith and scripture alone. But this also meant that all the social practices instituted for the purposes of coming into contact with truth, all the rituals and rites used to reinforce the beliefs of when and how truth manifests itself, slowly went with it. Therefore, people’s orientation around truth, how they conceived of it, where it resided, and how one knew it, was disrupted. People weren’t merely given previously unavailable information; the entire information landscape was turned upside down. This can reveal new terrain within the landscape that can lead to deep and valuable truths, such as human rights and liberties, and it can also conceal older, previously established truths, like the notion of transformative experiences being necessary for coming into closer contact with reality.Similarly to the printing press, social media poses a historical parallel. We can see this by looking at the most famous defense of free speech for the sake of truth, namely, John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty. We’ll see that, like how the printing press reoriented people’s relation to truth, social media is doing so by increasingly shifting how we conceive of, participate in, and come to know the truth. As a social practice, it’s shifting the culture toward different ways of arriving at truth. It's difficult to say whether it is categorically good or bad. But the focus here will be on what would certainly be a momentous loss in our social practices regarding truth, namely, a departure from Enlightenment values.There is a developing tendency to determine the truth through sheer will rather than discussion and a dwindling desire to correct this error. People seem to care less about deliberation, compromise, tolerance, and the general agreement that the goal is to come to an inclusive decision that is in the best interests of people who share a basic respect for each other’s dignity. All political orientations have growing factions that believe the content of other’s beliefs determines how they should be viewed and treated. Rather than work toward building a community that is able to cooperate with one another and agree on a uniting set of values, the cultural attitude is moving toward a competition between wills for power. But it’s not only behaviorally motivated by power; there is also the belief that all effort by a group toward an ideal is entirely reducible to power. That very well may be true. But if it is, democracy is in a precarious position. So, if we value democracy, we should steer back toward the proper path. For Mill’s account to work, which is crucial if we wish to justify free speech for the sake of truth in Enlightenment, democratic terms23, social media should not be viewed as a truth-seeking information network24. Mill believed free speech is necessary for human flourishing in a democratic society. If it’s the people who are going to be involved in the deliberative processes of society and be the ones choosing what is best, then the people must be able to discuss and exchange ideas, opinions, and beliefs freely. However, just like how the Medieval view operated within a certain orientation around truth, which provided a framework through which truth could be arrived at, so it is with democracy. And like the printing press, social media has placed enormous tension on our democratic orientation. So, if we desire to maintain democratic values derived from the Enlightenment, then we have to take a certain stance toward social media, one that eschews the expectation that truth is situated within its environments, where we expect to discuss, debate, hash things out, and arrive at truth.Now, On Liberty offers two sets of reasons supporting free speech, the first being epistemic, meaning that the benefits have to do with knowledge, while the other set is psychologically beneficial. The first set argues that free speech is an overall good for society because if what someone says is true or partially true, both possibilities benefit a democracy. If what is said is true, it will benefit because it professes a truth that will add to the preexisting stock of knowledge. If partially true, this also contributes to preexisting knowledge; “and since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.” The second psychological set of benefits is primarily derived from the utterance of false beliefs, which have no direct epistemic benefit because they do not contribute any knowledge to form beliefs around. If what is said is wholly false, the opportunity to defend and contest it will also be an overall good because it will demand that the bearers of that knowledge account for the reasons for its truth. Mill expresses this well: “Unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds.” This then produces a further psychological benefit. By remaining a prejudice and not as something rationally grasped, “the meaning of the doctrine itself will be in danger of being lost or enfeebled, and deprived of its vital effect on the character and conduct; the dogma becoming a mere formal profession, inefficacious for good, but cumbering the ground and preventing the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction from reason or personal experience.” Therefore, contesting what is true will keep beliefs from devolving into prejudice or dogma.Section 7:The first thing to observe about Mill’s reasons for free speech is that the first set of epistemic reasons really depends on the second set (the psychological ones). But it’s peculiar to speak of the latter as ‘benefits’ because of this. It’s more accurate to say that a certain psychological orientation must give rise to them. We can think of this as a kind of feedback loop that produces the benefits Mill is speaking of. One must have the proper psychological orientation toward truth to break into this loop. That is to say that the members within a society must hold a psychological orientation toward truth that allows for the free expression of true, partially true, and false beliefs to be a net good, i.e., to bring about the best possible consequences within a democratic community. With the psychological reasons offered for free speech, notice that the benefit is derived from the speakers and listeners within the community being open to receiving true, partially true, or false utterances. The beliefs they hold must be perpetually open to revision because they may or may not be in possession of the actual true ones; they understand that their knowledge is an ongoing process, something that is constantly unfolding, and so hold a particular stance toward the free expression of beliefs.They would understand that, even in the best instances of human knowledge, the most stable kind (like knowledge of physics), it is still susceptible to be overturned by future evidence, as was the case with Newtonian mechanics and Einsteinian relativity. That is not to say truth is therefore unattainable, but only that there should be a fair degree of epistemic humility within a democratic, truth-seeking community, given that our best knowledge often falls far short of absolute certainty. As the psychological reasons specify, if the people within the community hold their beliefs as prejudices or dogmas that are fixed and unchangeable, they will be unreceptive to being challenged. So whatever anyone utters, whether true, false, or in between, it won’t provide the benefits Mill intended. There must be a certain psychological orientation toward truth for Mill’s argument to succeed.Let’s now specify what this orientation should look like and see how it’s vital in upholding free speech arguments for the sake of truth. There are three components to this orientation: (i) certain beliefs, (ii) certain desires, and (iii) certain attitudes born out of (i) and (ii). (i) consists of two beliefs. The first belief is that truth exists, and the second is that it is, in principle, knowable. (ii) consists of two desires as well. The first desire is to attain human flourishing, and the second is that truth is constitutive of this aim. Given that there is truth, one must also have the desire to attain it. But this is also a special kind of desire; it’s a desire that fulfills what must be viewed as a higher need, one that is constitutive of human flourishing or happiness. We can call this a fulfillment need. This means that we desire truth because it occupies a natural place in the space of human good. We will lack something fundamental to our flourishing if we don’t have contact with truth; we therefore both desire it and have a powerful motivation to attain it because we desire to flourish. Fulfillment needs should be understood as part of what constitutes this principal end in life that characterizes human excellence.For those who know Greek philosophy, this will sound familiar. As Aristotle says in his Ethics, all things aim at some final good. Achieving this good means for something to actualize its potential and attain excellence. The final aim of human beings is to flourish, or, in Greek, to attain eudaimonia, and to attain this means to achieve human excellence. Excellence, says Aristotle, means to fulfill the particular function assigned to a thing's nature. An eye’s function is to see, a car’s function is to drive, while the seed’s function is to grow into a plant. Human beings’ nature is to be rational, to optimize their cognition, to reduce error, and to reach the truth. Again, since the ultimate aim is to flourish, and because seeking truth is constitutive of that goal, we desire to know the truth as a fulfillment need, which helps satisfy the principal good in human life. Now, while Aristotle’s claim about human nature is of course disputable, if Mill’s argument for free speech is to work, and it’s important that it does, Aristotle’s account of human beings, or something resembling it, must be held within a democratic community.That being said, there’s a deep plausibility to the notion that humans have a fundamental need to be in contact with the truth, and presuming rationality is necessary for this, Aristotle may very well be right. In his lecture series Awakening From The Meaning Crisis, John Vervaeke offers a powerful example to illustrate this. Imagine your parents one day asking you to follow them into a hidden room you had never seen before inside your house on your eighteenth birthday. When you enter, you see a wall of monitors showing old footage of you throughout your life. Your parents then turn to you and say that your entire life has been an FBI experiment; everything has been manufactured. The love you thought to be sincere and nourishing, all the support you’ve received throughout the years, the holidays you have come to cherish, and the memories and feelings you’ve come to have are, in the most profound sense, fake. None of it was real. Your parents then tell you that you have two options. You can either act as if this incident had never happened and move on as usual, or you can move out and move on with your life. What’s the desirable option? Most of us would choose the latter. Why? Because none of what was thought to be real turned out to be true. It was all fabricated, illusory, and bore no substantive relation to reality. For the majority of us (although hopefully everyone), there is no going back to the way things previously were. The truth makes a fundamental difference in the decision-making between the two options. By discovering that our life is untrue, we feel a deep absence, a lack of fulfillment, an incompleteness on account of what we’ve learned about ourselves. An essential aspect of the decision to move on, then, is a deep motivation to discover what is in fact true. It’s like Dante when he discovers himself lost in the dark forest. We’ve been led astray, and now we desire to find the right path, which is the one that converges with truth, with what is most real. This is what happens to Jim Carrey in The Truman Show when he decides to leave that disturbing, manufactured simulation dome he was raised in. He could have stayed, but he was psychologically unable to. By obtaining this new self-knowledge, he would have never achieved eudaimonia. He would have remained stuck in life because he would have been bullsh*tting himself (again, I mean this in a technical sense and not simply as an explicative, which will be explained below.)This brings us to (iii), which is to bear a particular attitude toward truth provided (i) and (ii). The proper attitude toward truth is one of care. To care for the truth means to know how to reliably arrive at it, which means utilizing the relevant cognitive processes in forming true beliefs. Recall the quote at the beginning of the article from John Milton, which expressed that it is a heresy to arrive at a belief in the wrong way, namely, by not properly using one’s own reason. It matters, then, how we form our beliefs, and what matters is which cognitive processes are used to get there. For ease of presentation, we can use the psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s formulation of these cognitive processes from his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Kahneman lays out two cognitive systems, System 1 and System 2. “System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.” Whereas “System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration (p. 21).” To see the difference, take the two following examples of arithmetic: “2 + 2 = ?” We have an immediate cognitive reflex to such an equation, and little to no effort is required. Filling in the answer resulted from System 1. “17 x 24 =?” Now this equation typically demands more effort. A reasoning process is engaged to determine the answer that requires concentrated effort and isn’t reflexively provided. Such a process is supplied by System 2. For another example, say someone is hiking and spots a tree in the distance. If such a person cares nothing for botany, then the object will have a great deal of transparency, and the person will carry on about their day. Such a process would be within System 1. But if the person is a trained botanist and has never seen this kind of tree before (say they’re in a foreign country), they may begin to observe it, inspect it, and direct their effort toward retrieving the relevant information that may help identify the tree. That person has engaged System 2.Caring for the truth means knowing how to optimize these two systems so that System 1 and System 2 are in a recurring dialogue with one another, with the aim to arrive at the truth. Now, there are at least two aspects to this idea of care. The first can be classed as having to do with general skills in critical thinking, which primarily consists of analysis. Examples are things like working out one’s cognitive biases and reducing error. In essence, being successful in this regard means being able to reason well and work through problems rationally. Take a case of confirmation bias, for example. Imagine a republican voter who believes certain conspiracy theories about the democratic party and who is watching a presidential debate and hears the Republican candidate make an assertion attributing misconduct to the Democratic candidate. Because the assertion confirms the prior beliefs of the voter who is watching, it will be easy for that person to immediately agree with what was said. Engaging System 2 is effortful and costly in mental energy, and so it is easier, as well as cognitively more pleasurable, to passively (probably unconsciously) consent to System 1’s impulse, which presents the Republican candidate’s statement as attractive and belief-worthy. If this person cares for the truth, however, he or she would engage System 2 upon receiving what System 1 has provided with the aim of verifying whether the assertion accurately represents or corresponds to reality. Perhaps the person reasons through the assertion. If the candidate said something like, "Inflation has skyrocketed due to the current administration, which she’s a part of,” the voter watching may reason that, while it’s true inflation has risen, her position in the administration bears little to no significance on that outcome; therefore, the assertion is misinformed. Or perhaps the voter doesn’t understand government structure very well and does research, visits several sources, and concludes based on the information that the assertion is misinformed and implies an invalid conclusion. Whatever the route taken, the voter is presented with the potential to make a cognitive error through System 1, and because he or she cares for the truth, System 2 is utilized to solve the task presented.Competence in this aspect of care, which means to be a competent critical thinker, consists of knowing how to obtain propositional knowledge, which is knowledge that accurately represents reality. One has the tools and skills to work through assertions, analyze arguments, and appropriately form beliefs according to the evidence. One can situationally respond by engaging System 2 when one detects that System 1 is presented with information expressing propositions about the world. Someone who has mastered these skills has developed dispositions that engage the relevant cognitive behavior under the relevant conditions. In other words, such a person knows how to instinctively and properly respond to the appropriate cognitive stimuli.25The second aspect of caring for truth is deeper than this and, like Dante’s journey, more transformative. Caring for truth in this sense means optimizing System 1 and System 2 by using them to shape one’s conception of the good. What reason, for example, would this argument, rather than another one, be more relevant to someone competent in critical thinking? Why care about what this person has to say rather than that one? Answers to these questions will suggest the underlying conception of the good that is assumed when one finds one set of information more salient. In other words, the second aspect of caring for truth means understanding one’s conception of eudaimonia, or flourishing, which is one’s final aim and idea of human excellence. Critical thinking in the propositional sense is a highly valuable set of skills that is fundamental to the whole project of pursuing truth. But what it consists of does not provide a final criteria to judge what one should believe about human flourishing and what it amounts to. It plays a vital role in articulating and grasping this goal but won’t deliver it. In other words, critical thinking is a powerful tool in reaching one’s goals, but it itself cannot bestow the goals themselves. This requires the second aspect of caring for truth, which means optimizing System 1 and System 2 to become aware of what final end is guiding their operation. Regardless of how much one engages in critical thinking, irrespective of one’s mastery of logic and reasoning, if one never utilizes these skills toward understanding what provides the salience of one set of information over another, they may never satisfy their fulfillment need for truth.Tolstoy’s book, The Death of Ivan Illych, illustrates this. In the story the Russian protagonist, Ivan Illych, lives his life in pursuit of what is pleasant. He shuns the annoyances and discomforts that arise in life and views them, in a way, as unnatural, as occurrences that disrupt how life should be. His goal in life is to maximize pleasure and avoid pain and suffering. He’s not, however, a Don Quixote or an extreme hedonist; he’s not trying to experience all the possible pleasures one may have. He wants to live a successful and acceptable life that commands the esteem of his colleagues, makes his family happy, comfortable, and at ease, and allows him to pass through life with as few disturbances as possible. He holds a very familiar and common conception of the good.And Ivan does in fact find this success. He rises to be a great and respectable judge in Russia. He’s highly competent, makes a substantial living, and can buy and provide his family with whatever he pleases. Yet he finds himself running into the disturbances he’s always tried to avoid. He’s constantly fighting with his wife:There remained only rare periods of amorousness that came over the spouses, but they did not last long. These were islands that they would land on temporarily, but then they would put out again to the sea of concealed enmity that expressed itself in estrangement from each other. This estrangement might have upset Ivan Ilyich, if he had considered that it ought not to be so, but by now he took this situation not only as normal, but as the goal of his activity in the family. His goal consisted in freeing himself more and more from these unpleasantnesses and in giving them a character of harmlessness and decency; and he achieved it by spending less and less time with his family, and when he was forced to do so, he tried to secure his position by the presence of outsiders.He’s experiencing the “uneasiness” formulated by William James above. His solution is not to reflect on his final end in life, his conception of the good, his idea of human flourishing and excellence, but to find other means to attain it, which is to turn away from what he’s representing as unnatural and frustrating. He’s not deficient in critical thinking; he’s a highly competent and successful judge. He lacks the wisdom and self-knowledge necessary for reflecting on and evaluating what makes some things and not others salient for him, which is his goal in life to live pleasantly. There’s a reason why he finds spending less time with his family a more obvious solution than trying to get at the root of why it is he feels so frustrated and annoyed at the fact that he’s not feeling fulfilled despite his success; and he’s not utilizing System 1 and System 2 to investigate that reason, i.e., he’s not caring for truth in the second sense. It’s only until he is faced with a random, coincidental death that he realizes he hadn’t been searching for a solution to his “uneasiness” that converged with truth. Not truth in the propositional sense, but truth regarding human flourishing and excellence. Insofar as he was unable or unwilling to direct his cognition toward what was guiding it, he remained incapable of progressing and transforming toward an aim that would afford him self-awareness, self-knowledge, and, ultimately, eudaimonia.Both aspects of caring for truth matter if Mill’s benefits are to be obtained. It matters propositionally (the first aspect of care) because critical thinking and analysis are necessary for seeing information clearly and discerning whether something maps onto the world. But caring for the first aspect alone will only clear the fog, so to speak, and allow one to see the landscape with more specificity and definition. It will provide knowledge about the causal regularities that govern the territory and the predictable patterns that follow from them. It will not, however, indicate what to do with that knowledge or inform one of what it means. For free speech to be justified for the sake of truth, which means free speech plays a substantial, instrumental role in sorting out the true information from the false, people must care for the truth. They have to find it salient in the right ways. If people don’t care and don’t share the proper desire to pursue it, then no amount of discussion will necessarily bring the community any closer to the truth. They may easily settle for something else.Section 8:The claim, then, is that social media does not warrant truth-based justifications for free speech. Because social media platforms don’t promote or incentivize the psychological orientation necessary for truth-seeking but reward the opposite behaviors, the idea that one is seeking truth within such a context is false. The view that social media as a public space is best characterized as a social practice that aims toward truth has generated an insidious confusion within the culture, and we would be better off by evaluating it differently. Social media is certainly an information network, but it’s wrong to presume all information networks are oriented toward truth production.To see this, think of a university. The principal purpose of this institution is to generate knowledge (there are other purposes, of course, but put those aside.) Now, there are many parts to the structure of a university, but let’s zoom in on the classroom environment. Within it, there’s a hierarchy in place. The teacher’s purpose is to guide the students through a curriculum, get them to think critically about the information, debate and discuss it, foster their abilities to engage with it, cultivate the necessary faculties for this, and to ensure that they learn something specific about the given information, as well as something general about learning, something they can use in all cases. To achieve this, the teacher must orient the students around truth-seeking, i.e., he or she must teach the students to care for the truth, as explained above. The teacher must challenge the students’ cognitive biases. Logical errors, bad reasoning, and lack of critical thinking have to be checked, corrected, and reinforced by the teacher.Ideally, the teacher will also help the students think critically about their conceptions of the good. In the ideal scenario, the teacher not only challenges their cognition but also fosters their ability to question what human flourishing and excellence looks like. It’s ideal because claiming that this is absolutely necessary for an information network to warrant being evaluated as a truth-seeking social practice is, perhaps, too high. But it is what one should aim for. However, it’s important to bear this in mind because it will be shown that, even if the threshold is lowered in this sense, social media still fails at what any information network that is correlated with truth should provide, which is to promote the proper analytical skills in getting clearer about reality.Now, an important reason universities are trusted as truth-seeking information networks is partly because of the teacher's role in distributing that information. It’s trusted as an institution because those who go through it are supposed to have been guided by experts who demonstrate how to pursue knowledge. Students who leave the institution are expected to have participated in a social practice that taught them to be competent in their field (and hopefully to be a good human being as well, whatever that means precisely) and who can now further distribute and utilize their knowledge by applying it to other domains within society. The teacher’s function within the institution is essential to this goal and fundamental to the trust granted to the institution itself. Let’s call this function a Socratic function.27Social media doesn’t have a Socratic function, and any information network trusted as a distributor of knowledge should have something resembling it. Worse than this, however, is that social media actually promotes cognitive behavior that is opposed to the whole project of pursuing truth. As an overarching, general pattern, social media reinforces and incentivizes things like cognitive bias (the immediate and intuitive presentations of System 1.) The whole business model is aimed at maximizing attention. People easily become addicted to these platforms and binge content endlessly. The only way to achieve this is by easing the user’s cognitive effort as much as possible and stimulating them with dopamine responses, allowing the user to enter a semi-hypnotic state. Of course, not everyone is affected like this; most people can assert moderation when using social media. But in an ideal world, one where social media is optimally thriving, everyone would be glued to their screens. Practical circumstances of course make this impossible, and therefore it wouldn’t truly be in social media’s interests because no one would show up for work, but if we turn the dial on the business goals of these platforms to the max, then this would be the logical consequence; it would maximize profits.Social media serves many purposes, though, and the claim is certainly not that it is, for these reasons, entirely bad. It’s only the contexts, circumstances, and situations in which it is reflexively represented as a competent and trusted information network that deals in matters of knowledge and truth that it creates an overall deficit. This is because of the intellectual and ethical confusion it produces, which is caused by its lack of a Socratic function that incentivizes and reinforces the proper psychological orientation around truth-seeking. Again, it has the opposite aim, which is to ease the effort of System 2 as much as it can and allow System 1, with all its cognitive vulnerabilities, to be at the helm. Because of this aim, social media has a Sophistic function, which contrasts the Socratic one, whose defining characteristic is to be a bullsh*tter. As mentioned above, this notion is a technical one and needs to be properly explained.The notion of bullsht comes from the American philosopher Harry Frankfurt and his essay Bullsht. Sam Harris uses this term often, especially regarding social media. First, let’s clarify what it means to lie. Lying involves an intent to deceive on the part of the person lying, who wishes to get the other to believe something contrary to the truth. The seventeen-year-old who sneaks out, gets caught, and tells their parents that they forgot their phone at their friend’s house and went to get it in the middle of the night is lying because they’re trying to deceive their parents into believing something false about reality. But reality is still salient to their aim. Although attempting to distort it, they still have reality in their conscious field of intentions, motives, and desires, i.e., they care about truth rather than caring for it. Someone who bullshts, on the other hand, has no regard for truth. It provides no reason for consideration on its own, independent of the bullshtter’s aim. Whereas the truth matters for the liar, it’s of no concern whether what one says is true or false in the case of bullsht. The bullshter’s enterprise is characteristically different than the lier in this regard. The liar “is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false… The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor to conceal it.”26The classic archetype of a bullshtter is the salesman. The truth about whether the product sold is efficient, useful, or whatever else is indifferent to the salesman. What matters, and what distinguishes one who is good from one who is not (in the sense of achieving their goal to sell the product, pure and simple,) is whether they can deceive the consumer into believing that the bullshtter is asserting something they themselves believe. There are few constraints on what a bullshtter may say to achieve their aim. Whatever helps satisfy their goal is fair play. The liar is unable to be creative like this. They must strategically and purposefully contend with the truth by believing they know it. If the liar doesn’t in fact know the truth, this will likely spoil their plans. They will be unable to grasp the situation and will likely misunderstand what the circumstances call for. A bullshtter doesn’t need to know the truth at all. They just need to make the other person think that they do. The truth conditions of their beliefs and assertions are, by itself, irrelevant.Social media is a bullshtter in incentivizing and rewarding behavior that employs bullsht. It therefore has a Sophistic function. The chief culprit for this is, of course, the algorithms. The algorithm's aim is to curate content that maximizes user engagement and attention. Whether what it presents a user with is true or false is a matter of indifference. It can matter in a sense, but only if the user is disposed toward viewing content that is oriented around truth, which is of no concern to the algorithms. The function is to bullsht the user by minimizing cognitive effort and maximizing the incentives that will keep their attention, e.g., by triggering dopamine responses through a constant succession of content patterned according to the user’s preferences. If the user desires content that aims at truthfully representing reality, he or she has to maneuver through a minefield of bullsht. There is no Socratic function that guides them through it, as there would be in any other social practice that is considered an information network whose purpose is to distribute knowledge. The proper psychological orientation that warrants discussions about how free speech is necessary for pursuing truth within a given context is entirely absent within the social media model.Hence Mill’s influential argument for the utility of free speech for the sake of truth doesn’t apply to social media. Let’s reflect on what Mill said after this long discussion. Recall the epistemic benefits he argued for. He said that letting everyone freely express their minds produces the best outcomes within a democratic community, regardless of whether what one says is true, partially true, or false. If the truth doesn’t move people, and if the general tendency to find truth salient is absent, then letting everyone say what they think is self-undermining. Why would truth matter if everyone free to speak their mind disregards it? Seeing truth as a reason for a social practice means truth is fundamental to the aims that characterize the institution, and this means being properly oriented around it, which means caring for it.Section 9:I want to end now with a discussion about how this all relates to Nostr and how it has the potential to be an information network that performs much better than social media as a context concerned with knowledge and truth. The principal reason that will be considered here is Nostr’s pursuit of a fully decentralized model that aims at user autonomy. Autonomy makes a crucial difference between an information network that more reliably tracks truth and one that is indifferent to it.Social media reduces users' autonomy by trying to use them as a means toward further ends, namely, their attention, engagement, and data. The algorithm's job is to sort through users’ information and curate it in ways that maximize profit. This generally results in the spread of bullsht because what determines information as worth spreading does not depend on that information’s truth value. However, when users can curate their own content by judging for themselves what information they wish to retrieve from relays; when it’s left to each user to decide what content is valuable and what isn’t; when users themselves can determine what is worth censuring and not be subject to the interests of a centralized server, the aim is clearly to place autonomy back into their hands. What’s important, though, is that autonomy has a certain purpose in the Nostr context: to allow people to create at all protocol levels. Part of what a centralized server does is create a fixed infrastructure that greatly restricts what users may do on the platform (the chief restriction being to yield as much profit as possible for shareholders.) Creators especially are affected by this because the value they contribute to the platforms is filtered through what will necessarily constrain it. Nostr, however, is different. What largely motivates the value of autonomy is the desire to let creators create content freely and without outside constraints, which, of course, is to provide them freedom of expression. By users having the freedom to build and the autonomy to curate and choose what content is personally valuable to a user, truth becomes highly relevant within the context. Now, if Mill is right when he says that only true beliefs have any utility (and false beliefs necessarily lead one astray in some sense,) users who produce content will be highly incentivized to track the truth, to have an accurate representation of it, because to fail at this will result in unappealing content due to its lack of value. No centralized authority is supposed to be able to force something to appear valuable; it’s up to the users to determine this. And if something will endure and not fade once the reasons why it may have trended disappear, it needs to track the truth. If it doesn’t, if it only matters to people because it is sensational or cheap, if it’s bullsht, it will always lose in the long run.Since people on Nostr have the autonomy to build and curate their own content, unlike social media, there is less at play that can ossify the network. There must be a great deal of motion because, in principle, no user or client can monopolize the space. This built-in fluidity captures an important aspect of truth-seeking, which John Milton expressed when saying, “Knowledge thrives by exercise… Truth is compared in scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition.” Everyone has to earn their success on Nostr, so the principal way to do this is to create something valuable. Again, if Mill is right, the value must largely be derived from the truth that the content represents, creating an incentive to care for the truth. Bullsh*t can’t be forcefully distributed because it maximizes some desired metric. Information is chiefly distributed by individual users valuing it.Nostr provides a way to see if Mill was right in thinking only true beliefs have any real value. Since the intention is to move away from social media’s business model, there is an opportunity to determine whether people will naturally choose the truth through their own autonomous decision-making. If there are no algorithms that aim to seize and maximize user attention, people are free to choose what content they wish to consume. It is a choice whether truth prevails over its opposite in the Nostr context because individuals are incentivized to contribute what they want to see. And if things go astray, people can fix it by creating something better.Notes:For a similar but far more elaborate, comprehensive, and complex argument of this kind, see John Vervaeke’s Awakening From the Meaning Crisis on YouTube.For an elaboration on free speech justifications, see Greenawalt, K. (2007). Free Speech Justifications. Colombia Law Review.For a history of Free speech, see Jacob Mchangama’s book Free Speech: Socrates to Social Media.Kant, I. (1784). What is Enlightenment? (p. 1). Hacket Publishing.This is not to suggest wokism is the sole culprit of this cultural trend. It’s one example amongst others on all parts of the political spectrum. But it’s an important example because wokism aims to be virtuous and moral. Therefore, it’s a good example because it is important to question whether their moral claims are correct. Furthermore, a plausible reply on the part of one who may subscribe to something like wokism (whatever that means precisely) is that it isn’t the duty of those who have been oppressed to teach those they consider to be oppressors. The duty falls on the latter. This is a challenging question to settle, and it makes up the potentially unbridgable gulf between wokism and its opponents. But if empathy is a virtue (or a vital moral response), it’s central that everyone exercises it, not just those who are held to be guilty of something.Simpson, R. M. (2024). The Connected City of Ideas. Daedalus.Harari, N. Y. (2024). Nexus. Random House.Eisenstein, E. L. (1979). The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (p. 45). Cambridge University Press.Melchert, N. (2007). The Great Conversation (p. 304). Oxford University Press.Melchert, N. (2007). The Great Conversation. Oxford University Press.Wagner, C. (2012). Scientia Moralitas (Moral Autonomy and Responsibility - The Reformation’s Legacy in Today’s Society). Scientia Moralitas Research Institute.Fromm, E. (1941). Escape From Freedom (p. 54). Discus.James, W. (1902). The Varieties of Religious Experience (p. 54). Penguin Classics.Dreyfus, H., & Kelly, S. D. (2011). All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (p. 122). Free Press.Dreyfus, H., & Kelly, S. D. (2011). All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (p. 122). Free Press.Aristotle, A. (1953). Ethics (p. 122). Penguin Classics.Schumacher, E. (1977). A Guide For the Perplexed. Harper Colophon Books.As Isaiah Berlin makes clear in his essay Two Concepts of Liberty, it is easy to see how positive freedom may easily lead to foolish and immoral action due to its purposeful nature. It is quite challenging to dissuade someone that what they believe to be their purpose in life, their ultimate meaning, relies on false premises.Fromm, E. (1941). Escape From Freedom. Discus.Chalmers, A. (1974). What is this thing called Science? Hacket Publishing.Descartes, R. (2010). Meditations on First Philosophy. Oxford World's Classics.See Bertrand Russel’s The History of Western Philosophy for how Descartes's argument is logically invalid. He can’t doubt that some process of thinking is occurring, but whether something is doing the thinking isn’t obvious.Locke, J. Two Treatises on Government.Justice Holmes made the Marketplace metaphor popular in Abrams v United States (1919), and has become a central precedent in free speech cases.For a similar argument, see Nevin Chellappah’s “Is John Stuart Mill’s Account of Free Speech Sustainable In the Age of Social Media?”Ryle, G. (1949). The Concept of Mind. Penguin.Frankfurt, H. (1986). Bullshit. Princeton University Press.To see the Socratic function in real time, watch The Joe Rogan Experience episode #2171. Eric Weinstein demonstrates what it means for an expert to engage with someone outside their respective field who claims to have knowledge that overturns the discipline but with no professional training to back it up. His attitude demonstrates a care for truth. @yakihonne

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~ > Available at: [https://minibolt.info](https://minibolt.info) --- ~> It builds on a personal computer with **x86/amd64** architecture processors. ~> It is based on the popular [RaspiBolt v3](https://raspibolt.org) guide. --- **Those are some of the most relevant changes:** * Changed OS from Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bits) to ***Ubuntu Server LTS*** (Long term support) 64-bit PC (AMD64). * Changed binaries and signatures of the programs to adapt them to ***x86/amd64 architecture***. * Deleted unnecessary tools and steps, and added others according to this case of use. * Some useful authentication logs and monitoring commands were added in the security section. * Added some interesting parameters in the settings of some services to activate and take advantage of new features. * Changed I2P, Fulcrum, and ThunderHub guides, to be part of the core guide. * Added exclusive optimization section of services for slow devices. --- ~ > Complete release notes of the MiniBolt v1: [https://github.com/twofaktor/minibolt/releases/tag/1.0](https://github.com/twofaktor/minibolt/releases/tag/1.0). ~ > Feel free to contribute to the [source code on GitHub](https://github.com/minibolt-guide/minibolt) by opening [issues](https://github.com/minibolt-guide/minibolt/issues), [pull requests](https://github.com/minibolt-guide/minibolt/pulls) or [discussions](https://github.com/orgs/minibolt-guide/discussions). --- Created by [⚡2 FakTor⚡](nostr:npub1k9luehc8hg3c0upckdzzvusv66x3zt0eyw7290kclrpsndepz92sfcpp63)

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😱 Did you recently find this signature verification error when you tried to update your MiniBolt repositories with -> `sudo apt update`? 💥🚨👇  🔧 Don't worry, that's because Tor renewed its signing key since it expired last 07/15, just renew your keyring by following the next steps to solve this problem: ~ > [CLICK HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/system/system/privacy#tor-signature-verification-error) < ~ --- Enjoy it MiniBolter!💙

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**Link to the bonus guide** ~ > [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/bitcoin/minibolt-on-testnet) <~ --- Some notes: ℹ️ For the moment, this guide will touch only the case of an **only testnet mode** situation, in the future, we will study adding the case of configuration to enable the parallel/simultaneous mode (mainnet+testnet in the same device) in an extra section in this guide. ℹ️ The services mentioned in this guide are those that have been tested using testnet configuration and these worked fine. Later, in the next versions of this guide, we will go to adding other processes to adapt other services to the testnet mode. --- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

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Available at: [https://minibolt.info](https://minibolt.info) --- **Main changes to** the version 1: * The complete guide has been migrated to the new design visual builder web tool platform [gitbook.com](https://www.gitbook.com/) * New modern UI (responsive, full width, and better visual items) * New menu structure for a better user experience * New visual items to improve the navigation through the web page * New switch to enable light/dark theme * Enabled Cloudflare Proxy for maximum protection against attacks and better management of the domain --- **Other changes:** * New [MiniBolt Linktr](https://linktr.minibolt.info/) forked of the alternative [FOSS project](https://github.com/gzuuus/linktr) proposed by [Gzuuus](https://twitter.com/gzuuus) * Changed MiniBolt from a personal project to an [organization](https://github.com/minibolt-guide) so that the project has its own identity * New email contact address [hello@minibolt.info](mailto:hello@minibolt.info) to receive proposals and give support * New [resources](https://github.com/minibolt-guide/minibolt/tree/main/resources) folder with the current MiniBolt roadmap, network map diagrams, and others --- ℹ️ **More info:** * The new version is available with the known domain: [minibolt.info](https://minibolt.info/) but from now on links associated with the new v2 version were shared using the [v2.minibolt.info](https://v2.minibolt.info/) subdomain due to a GitBook limitation * The old and deprecated v1 will be still available at a time in the subdomain [v1.minibolt.info](https://v1.minibolt.info/), but is in the roadmap delete it definitely in the future, take note ASAP of all that you need of that version before this happens * Contributors and collaborators will be able to continue doing PR through code programming or using the design block builder [gitbook.com](https://www.gitbook.com/) --- [GitHub release](https://github.com/minibolt-guide/minibolt/releases/tag/2.0) --- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

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The **router reserves the IP address** of the device **for a time after going out**, but if the device goes out some time, the next time that the device starts, the router could assign a different IP and you could lose access to your node. To avoid this, you need to **set a static IP to your MiniBolt**. ~ > In addition, you can **customize your DNS servers to improve your privacy**, normally your ISP, gives you the router with its own DNS servers set by default, and this does that you expose all of your navigation trackings to your ISP, affecting seriously your privacy. ~ > This bonus guide includes all of the necessary steps to get this and is available ~ > [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/static-ip-and-custom-dns-servers) < ~ ---  --- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

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Link to the bonus guide ~ > [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/ssh-keys) < ~ --- Some sections of the guide: * Generate SSH keys * Import SSH pubkey * Connect to the MiniBolt node using SSH keys * Disable password login * Disable admin password request --- Some shortcuts to the Extra sections: * Disable password login: click ~ > [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/ssh-keys#disable-password-login) < ~ * Disable admin password request: click ~ > [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/ssh-keys#disable-admin-password-request-caution) < ~ --- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

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**Link to the bonus guide** ~ > [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/bitcoin/ordisrespector) < ~ --- ⏰ Recently added an update that includes a new section **[How to detect Ordinals transactions](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/bitcoin/ordisrespector#how-to-detect-ordinals-transactions) and [verify Ordisrespector filter works](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/bitcoin/ordisrespector#check-the-ordisrespector-filter-working-on-your-mempool)** to verify that Ordispector is **filtering and burning Ordinals** correctly 🔥 --- Fuck Ordinals🤡🔫 and enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

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Some sections inside of the guide: * Set up Dynamic DNS * Wireguard VPN server & client side configurations * Install & configure the WireGuard VPN Client on a mobile phone * Configure additional servers & clients * Use your router’s DDNS preconfigured provider * Port forwarding on NAT/PAT router --- Link to the bonus guide [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/wireguard-vpn) --- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

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Do you want to use a different disk to store data (blockchain and other databases) independently of the disk of the system? A step-by-step guide using a secondary disk to store the data (blockchain and other databases) independently of the disk of the system and using the Ubuntu Server guided installation. --- ### **What's changed** * Rebuilt the [Ubuntu Server installation guide](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/system/system/operating-system#ubuntu-server-installation) based on this bonus guide added. * Added GIFs to improve the illustration of the steps to follow. * [Case 1](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/static-ip-and-custom-dns-servers#option-1-at-the-beginning-during-the-ubuntu-server-installation-gui): during the Ubuntu server guided installation. * [Case 2](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/static-ip-and-custom-dns-servers#option-2-after-ubuntu-server-installation-by-command-line): build it after system installation (by command line). --- ~ > Link to the bonus guide [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/store-data-secondary-disk) --- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

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**Link to the bonus guide** ~> [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/bitcoin/btcpay-server) < ~ --- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

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Taryn Christiansen @ DoraHacksSpecial thanks to Eric Zhang for in-depth discussions.A mirror post on Dora Research Blog is available: https://research.dorahacks.io/2024/12/24/free-speech-foundation Intro:This article will argue that truth-based justifications for free speech are inappropriate within the social media context.1 Flooding the market with more information doesn’t necessarily force truth to emerge and bob at the surface. No matter how much information is pumped into a space filled with falsehoods and deception, if the right mechanisms aren’t in place, the area will only grow more chaotic and overcrowded, and therefore all the more easier to get lost in it. As an instrument to obtain knowledge of the truth, free speech has to be properly used, and people need to know how to use it.That isn’t to say that the tap should be shut off and that free speech should be curtailed; other justifications are perfectly reasonable, as will be seen below. But the idea that what we’re up to on social media is seeking out the truth only produces more confusion about what we collectively take to be sources of trustworthy information that is accurate and sincere. We would be better off if social media were viewed as an information network that is distinct from other spaces that are generally considered places where we obtain reliably true beliefs.But other spaces have the potential to be a more appropriate target for truth-based justifications for free speech, one of which is Nostr. Because of Nostr’s fully decentralized and open nature, which allows for innovation at all levels of its protocol, people have more opportunity to create valuable content that will only be distributed across the network because it is in fact valuable. The algorithms on social media force content to be valuable because there are standards that aim at maximizing user engagement in cheap and overstimulating ways. It doesn’t matter to these mechanisms whether something is true or not. What matters first is whether something promotes the ends of the social media companies, which are primarily driven by maximizing profits through ads and attention. Achieving this goal means reducing users' autonomy in picking and choosing what content to consume. Nostr aims to give the users their autonomy back by freeing developers to build both relays and clients. If users can make decisions that aren’t influenced by social media’s algorithmic decision-making, then it can be discerned whether truth is naturally relevant to people in these kinds of information networks, as well as whether people really desire to care for the truth.Section 1:It should be assumed at this point in history2, especially in liberal democracies, that the freedom to express one’s mind is inseparable from a basic conception of human dignity. If one is prohibited from freely discussing and challenging prevailing beliefs or forced to conform to a point of view that was not arrived at by using one’s own rational and reflective faculties, then human dignity suffers. There’s a reason Socrates went around the Athenian marketplace and tirelessly questioned the people he encountered there. He wasn’t interested in forcing people to submit to specific beliefs. Socrates wanted people to realize and reflect on whether what they believed was true or not, and therefore if it was something worth believing in. But integral to this project is the idea that people have to think through the questions themselves and not rely on an authority. Authority may be right; it may hold true beliefs and assert rational demands, but it doesn’t mean anything unless people themselves know the way to them. This requires the individual to be willing to develop what’s necessary for this.John Milton was right when he wrote in his 1644 pamphlet Areopagatica, which was directed against the English Parlament’s order for licensing books, that “A man may be a heretic in the truth… If he believes things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reasons, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.” People must be free to reason for themselves, to arrive at truths through the use of their own faculties, to develop their individual conscience, which, by its nature, must be exercised by the individual’s will and not by an externally imposed authority. Immanuel Kant’s call to the Enlightenment, Sapere aude! - “Have courage to use your own reason!”3 - is a call to actualize human dignity through the use of one’s reason. These faculties cannot be cultivated unless the individual can express him or herself freely.Woke culture is an illustrative example of how there is a connection between free speech and human dignity. It shows that when the strategy is to problematize and silence people, no matter how noble or virtuous the goal is believed to be, it only perpetuates a cycle of frustration and anger. The problem with woke culture isn’t necessarily their ideals. We all would agree, or should at least, that people should respect the basic dignity of others, treat everyone as persons, empathize with those with a different experience, and learn and grow from one another’s unique perspective. These are all good things; they’re profoundly valuable. The issue is how woke culture formulated and implemented their interpretations of what these notions amount to, what they call for, and what moral duties they demand. One of its principal goals has been to discern how historical oppressors should atone for previous wrongdoings. Many have come to understand this as meaning that those who come from those lineages are, in some sense, problematic and that, therefore, proponents of wokism have the duty to silence them, to condemn them, to act as if they are a net negative to the social good, and to impose a punishment of silence to atone for the past. This has been a grave mistake. Instead of engaging in a dialogue to reach the other person’s conscience, those who bore this duty have tended to sermonize in a sanctimonious, demeaning way, which only shuts people down and turns off the parts of the brain that promote learning and development, and turns on what generates combative and defensive behavior. The typical approach in woke culture has been enormously undemocratic in spirit due to its preference to force people to adopt reasons rather than opening people up to consider them in their proper light, namely, as claims about morality that make demands on the conscience of the person, which can only be properly understood and felt through the use of his or her own faculties. Woke culture, which offers some genuine insight into the world's contemporary moral situation, failed to respect the dignity of those they wished to persuade by using coercive measures instead of appealing to their conscience. Free speech is absolutely necessary in an endeavor like this because only by upholding such a social practice will everyone’s basic dignity be respected, which is integral to people being open to changing their minds. Moral debates within society should never devolve into a contest of wills. This only undermines the foundation of a democratic community, the basic pillar being human dignity.4But although free speech bears a necessary connection to human dignity, it does not bear the same relation to truth. For free speech to bear a proper relation to truth, one where free speech produces a high probability of tracking it, those seeking out truth must have the right psychological orientation toward it; otherwise, the two easily come apart. In his recent book Nexus, Yoel Noah Harari presents a clear way of seeing this. Harari criticizes what he calls the ‘naive view of information,’ which “argues that by gathering and processing much more information than individuals can, big networks achieve a better understanding of medicine, physics, economics, and numerous other fields, which makes the network not only powerful but wise.” The notion of wisdom is key. While it’s theoretically possible that an information network can be wise (especially with the development of better AI), it will be useless unless human beings have some idea about what wisdom is. If they don’t, then they’ll have to just assume that the information being presented was properly arrived at, i.e., with the wisdom necessary for obtaining truth, which will, in effect, create a servility to the information network and not to the human faculties necessary for discerning and knowing the truth. To use a distinction made by Plato, they will have an opinion about the truth, not knowledge. To know means to understand the reasons why something is the case, not just that it is the case.Harari’s book is important because the naive view of information he presents is prevalent and is most often expressed in the marketplace of ideas metaphor. In essence, the metaphor suggests that free speech operates like a free market because, by allowing individuals to pursue and satisfy their preferences freely, the truth will somehow outcompete falsehoods. Either because people’s preferences are more deeply satisfied by truth, and/or because the beliefs people hold will only have any real value (or utility) when they are true, when they accurately represent reality. But in a marketplace, “people don’t reliably ‘buy’ truths. People buy the ideas they like. And people don’t reliably like truths better than falsehoods. What the invisible hand does, all going well, is efficiently allocate goods to people based on what they want.”5 For truth to reliably outcompete falsehoods, consumers must have a particular orientation around truth. Unless we think ideas are true based solely on their utility, which is itself not a very useful notion, more has to be said as to why consumers would desire the truth over anything else in a marketplace of ideas. Everyone has opinions they cherish and hold to be, in some way, fundamental to themselves and their identities. It is perfectly conceivable that someone will reject any truth that conflicts with these deeply valued sentiments. For a free competition of ideas to track and produce true information, consumers have to want truth to win out, and this desire should motivate the consumer’s decision-making. In other words, one must bear a special psychological orientation toward truth for the marketplace metaphor to be an appropriate model for understanding free speech as being justified for the sake of truth. Again, free speech is important for other reasons, such as human dignity. But whether free speech is justified for the sake of truth is a separate question, and until the proper stance is taken toward truth, truth-based justifications are inapplicable.The fact that the distribution of more and more information doesn’t bear a necessary connection to truth can also be gleaned from historical examples. When a technology revolutionizes human information networks, which allows for information to be shared more efficiently and in larger quantities than ever before, the society that implements it does not therefore obtain a higher fidelity to truth. The opposite is equally plausible. This is the problem facing social media. If truth-based justifications are an appropriate way to justify free speech practices on such platforms, social media must create an environment that promotes the proper psychological orientation toward truth. What matters is whether they can care for the truth rather than adopt a stance that promotes what the philosopher Harry Frankfurt called bullsh*t, which means to be indifferent toward truth. Before explaining this further, let’s look at a historical example that demonstrates the following: First, as new technology arrives and transforms information networks, the information that is consequently distributed can equally promote both what is true and what is not; and second, and more philosophically, the technology can also reorient a society’s relationship to truth, which in turn affects how the society arrives at knowledge.Section 2:Take the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in 1440. Before its inception, the Catholic Church made Western Europe effectively an echo chamber. They dominated the information networks by controlling what could be printed, distributed, and accredited as knowledge. The vast majority of the population couldn’t read, and only a select few could read the Holy writings, which contained information that was considered the highest truth attainable by human beings. Only a select few were blessed enough to be able to handle this sort of information. Because all other information flowed from this central institution, everyone else depended on the Church for what to believe. The reality of that situation, and what it must have felt like to be in such a dependent position, can begin to be imagined by considering the following: “In the thirteenth century the library of Oxford University consisted of a few books kept in a chest under St. Mary’s Church. In 1424 the library of Cambridge University boasted a grand total of only 122 books. An Oxford University decree from 1409 stipulated that ‘all recent texts’ studied at the university must be unanimously approved ‘by a panel of twelve theologians appointed by the archbishop.’”6 When the quantity of information is this low, and in the context of the Catholic Church, is also greatly limited in diversity, it’s difficult even to imagine anything outside the worldview that is being imposed.Now, alongside the Church’s control of information networks, the production efficiency of copyists and scribes who had to manufacture the books was dismally low. It exponentially grew when the printing press automated the work. The historian Sir John Harold Clapham wrote, “A man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which about eight million books had been printed, more perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in A.D. 330.”7 The restriction on information and people’s inability to consider anything outside of the prevailing tradition, as well as the technological and productive inefficiency of the time, left most people in darkness, with no way out other than by following the dim, consoling light cast by the Church. The printing press changed all of this. “It revolutionized the world,” as the philosopher Francis Bacon said.The printing press gave people the autonomy to print and distribute ideas that the Church didn’t authorize and thereby provided the platform necessary for the Reformation to take hold, which started with Martin Luther in the early sixteenth century. There were previous attempts at reform, but the printing press made a momentous difference. The concurrence of the printing press and the Reformation revealed the corrosive corruption within the Catholic Church. People were finely able to learn about the degenerate tendencies within the institution, which the Church was previously able to stifle because it controlled the information networks. The buying and selling of Church positions and indulgences that allowed people to pay their way out of purgatory, political intrigue, nepotism, bribery, and immoral consolidation of wealth through taxes was disclosed as a consequence of the printing press. The notion that the Church was the medium by which people moved toward God’s grace collapsed, and people saw that “it had become a means of securing worldly prestige, power, and wealth for those who were clever and ruthless enough to bend it to their will.”8But this historical occurrence also unleashed a flurry of misinformation. The religious wars that followed the Reformation were devastating, and millions of people died, an exceptional case being the Thirty Years War (1618-48). The dissemination of Luther’s 95 theses regarding the corruption of the Church spread like wildfire across Europe after he posted them in 1516 on the Church Castle in Wittenberg, Germany, which the printing press made possible. It would only make sense, then, that the Church would follow suit and take advantage of the technology to combat what it held to be heresy and to reinstate its power as the dominant influence in the West (for an amalgam of reasons, of course.) All sides involved in these religious disputes didn’t merely use the printing press to disseminate accurate information. They used it to spread misinformation to satisfy their political interests, intensifying the ensuing wars and battles between the various emerging religious sects and the rising monarchies.This demonstrates the first point: the printing press, which was a revolution in human information networks, produced both true and false information. There was no causal, historical determinacy one way or the other. While it disclosed truths about Church corruption, it was also used as a means to spread political propaganda that fueled the religious wars.Now, as for the second, more philosophical point, the Reformation also reoriented people’s relation to truth by democratizing matters of faith. Whether one believes the Reformation was, in this respect, an overall good or not, from a liberal democratic point of view, it has to be considered good. The Reformation placed faith into the hands of the individual conscience, rendering considerations about one’s standing in relation to God to have a personal, rather than institutional, significance. Before, “the Church was the keeper and protector of Christian truths and the harbor of salvation for those at sea in sin.”9 Luther rejected this picture of salvation and believed one could be saved through faith and scripture alone, without an intermediary. Luther thought that one’s spiritual significance did not depend on authority. He didn’t see the Church as some emanation from God or a reflection of a Divine order that the individual participated in and was guided by to reach salvation. Individuals are solely responsible for their spiritual significance and capacity to reach a higher truth in God. In one of his more heroic acts, he translated the bible into vernacular German from the traditional Latin (which was considered the holy language, the only one appropriate for capturing religious truths). He gave common people access to what was previously sealed off from them. The individual, free from external imposition and constraint, can privately attain truth on his or her own.Luther formulated a radical inner freedom that broke with some of the Church’s fundamental precepts. There was, of course, an inner freedom already present in Catholicism, but Luther placed it at the center of things rather than as revolving around an institution. Before Luther, St. Augustine went to great lengths to demonstrate the spiritual significance of an inner life, and Luther was an Augustinian monk. But Luther went much further than him. In one of his lectures on YouTube, the philosopher Michael Sugrue observes that this amounted to a kind of Copernican Revolution in religion. That is to say that, rather than the Church being the axis by which things revolve around and where one finds his or her salvation, rather than identifying with an institution by which one finds freedom within a corporate body in which lies their place amongst others in a perfectly ordered, hierarchical, and harmonious cosmos, the individual became the center axis of spiritual and religious matters. It’s easy to see, then, how this theological idea possesses the potential to develop into the idea of individual rights and liberties. Luther provided a kind of autonomy10 for the individual, where whether one is saved is bound up with one’s inner conscience and not with external works or good deeds that the Church facilitates. The individual is an irreducible unit of value that is not subsumed by any other worldly object. And the individual's value rests in their conscience and capacity to receive God’s grace. This idea has sparks of the modern sense of human dignity, and it will create a conflagration throughout Europe as it develops. If there is no Church or institution to settle one’s moral, spiritual, and intellectual significance, one is left to use one’s faculties for guidance. And because it is one’s faculties that attain truth and spiritual salvation, they are the center of value in human life, which bears a natural right for protection.At the Diet of Worms in 1521, where Luther had to answer to charges of heresy because of his theological work, the Church demanded that he recant. He refused. But the reasons for his refusal are the most important. He demanded that the Church show him through scripture and reason alone that he was wrong and not through the dictates of authority. His protest demonstrated that the individual can reach the truth through his or her own means. The Church’s decline began far before this historical moment, but Luther made the decisive blow that the printing press made possible. The Church fragmented as a consequence, which, to Catholics, meant truth itself was fragmented and resulted in a proliferation of denominations scattered across Europe.Section 3:What was so subversive about Luther in this respect is that he divorced sanctification, the process by which one lives in the image of Christ, i.e., a life of virtue, from self-transformation. Although Luther carved out the individual as an irreducible unit of value, this also severed the individual from a stable and definite path that assuaged one’s existential suffering: “The Church… assured the individual of her unconditional love to all her children and offered a way to acquire the conviction of being forgiven and loved by God. The relationship to God was more one of confidence and love than of doubt and fear.”11 Luther believed that one was saved through faith alone and by no other means. He thought that because human beings are all sinners, their wills cannot do anything to reach salvation and spiritual peace. How, then, can one tell if they have been saved? There is no longer an authority to adjudicate this. The individual can discover the truth for themself and so must determine what this means on their own. Several centuries later, Kant gave voice to the duty he believed to arise from this new freedom:Thus, it is difficult for any individual man to work himself out of the immaturity that has all but become his nature. He has even become fond of this state and for the time being is actually incapable of using his own understanding, for no one has ever allowed him to attempt it. Rules and formulas, those mechanical aids to the rational use, or rather misuse, of his natural gifts, are the shackles of a permanent immaturity. Whoever threw them off would still make only an uncertain leap over the smallest ditch, since he is unaccustomed to this kind of free movement. Consequently, only a few have succeeded, by cultivating their own minds, in freeing themselves from immaturity and pursuing a secure course.So, while much was gained during the Reformation, the reorientation around truth also had consequences. Self-transformation, the effort of will, the idea of having an inner and outer journey that culminates into something larger and more significant, took on radically different meanings under Luther and the future Protestant countries. To see this, we can turn to Dante’s Divine Comedy, which demonstrates part of what was lost under Luther.Section 4:In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the culmination of the Medieval worldview before Luther, Dante embarks on a Christian pilgrimage that ends in his being saved. Just as with the above, it’s crucial to understand that the point here will not be exclusively religious but universal in the sense that religion, as manifested across all cultures, didn’t create this experience but was the medium by which it has been expressed and made sense of; it provides it a voice. This goes back to William James and his book The Varieties of Religious Experience. There is the private aspect of religious experience, and then there is the institutional component within which the private side takes shape. Buddhists practice meditation and strive to contemplate Nirvana; the Christian prays and goes to mass; the Stoics distance themselves from their inaccurate emotional representations and contemplate what is rational and in his or her control; and so forth. As James points out, what is fundamental to all religious experience, in the private sense, are two aspects: there is an uneasiness, which, “reduced to its simplest terms, is a sense that there is something wrong about us as we naturally stand;” and two, a solution, which “is a sense that we are saved from the wrongness by making proper connection with the higher powers (508).” The first aspect means the self is in conflict, is divided, and desires unification. In religious language, the self seeks salvation and an experience of being saved from their situation, which is characterized by suffering due to inner division and conflict. This can take on an existential mode, as with Leo Tolstoy in his book Confessions, or it can be highly moral. In Tolstoy’s book Confessions, he relates a story of a traveler being chased by a beast that imaginatively captures the relevant phenomena:Seeking to save himself from the fierce animal, the traveler jumps into a well with no water in it; but at the bottom of this well he sees a dragon waiting with open mouth to devour him. And the unhappy man, not daring to go out lest he should be the prey of the beast, not daring to jump to the bottom lest he should be devoured by the dragon, clings to the branches of a wild bush which grows out of one of the cracks of the well. His hands weaken, and he feels that he must soon give way to certain fate; but still he clings, and sees two mice, one white, the other black, evenly moving round the bush to which he hangs, and gnawing off its roots. The traveler sees this and knows that he must inevitably perish; but while thus hanging he looks about him and finds on the leaves of the bush some drops of honey. These he reaches with his tongue and licks them off with rapture. Thus I hang upon the boughs of life, knowing that the inevitable dragon of death is waiting ready to tear me, and I cannot comprehend why I am thus made a martyr. I try to suck the honey which formerly consoled me; but the honey pleases me no longer, and day and night the white mouse and the black mouse gnaw the branch to which I cling. I can see but one thing: the inevitable dragon and the mice—I cannot turn my gaze away from them.”12Clearly, Tolstoy is suffering from a serious existential episode in which he can’t find a purpose or meaning in life that will clear away his anxiety, which is represented in the dragon, which time, represented in the mice, slowly draws him near. This is his “uneasiness.” He must find a solution, then, because his situation is unlivable.Religion has historically addressed this need. In the Middle Ages, the Church was the institution through which people expressed this experience and resolved their inner conflicts, tensions, and divisions. Let’s turn to Dante’s Divine Comedy to see how the private aspect of this experience is made sense of through Christain’s notion of the pilgrimage.The poem begins with Dante suddenly becoming aware of himself, “Midway upon life’s journey,” as he says, and terrified by the fact that he’s lost in a dark world, having “gone astray,” and is in despair because he has begun to lose all hope for himself. “We know nothing of how Dante has gone astray, only that he has, and that he must undertake a journey, therefore, to save his soul.”13 He is, like Tolstoy, experiencing an “uneasiness” (though in more of a moral rather than existential sense; God is always present for Dante.) So, he has discovered that he has been living wrongly, that he’d strayed from the right path, from the way, and despite his attempts to free himself of his sins and burdens, he’s unable to do it alone. Although it’s unclear why Dante has lost his way, “the journey itself is clearer. It will take him through the entire Christian spiritual universe.”14The Roman poet Virgil is sent to initiate and lead him on this path forward. Virgil represents all of Classical learning, from the Greeks to the Romans. Though they were pagans, they represent the highest one can do as a non-Christian, which is to reach, as Aristotle said, the contemplative life15, where one can reflect on the Whole, on the cosmos. But because they didn’t have faith, they could never experience a fullness of being or completeness that produces the solution to the uneasiness that James discussed. According to Christian doctrine, only Christians may experience this. Thus, they had to remain in Hell.Now, for Dante to move down through Hell, climb up Purgatory, and then transcend into Heaven, he must engage with the Classical world by wrestling with the questions they set out to answer, which is an immensely difficult aim to take on; one that will transform the self as it moves through an activity and process of the soul, intellect, mind, or whatever it is that is the center in which human development toward the Good, as Plato would say, takes place. What’s fascinating about this ascent is that, in the Medieval worldview, it wasn’t merely an internal endeavor; it also bore a deep and profound relationship to the external world. By embarking on the Christian pilgrimage, one was, in a sense, becoming closer and closer to reality, to truth, to what is most real, which corresponded with a transformation of the self that is accompanied by an experience of fulfillment. As one ascends, one climbs what was called the Great Chain of Being, a metaphysical (ontological) thesis that was first articulated by Aristotle, which was adopted by, and adapted to, Christian thought in the thirteenth century.The Chain of Being introduces a vertical aspect to reality rather than merely a horizontal one. At the top is the highest Truth, and the lowest is the least real, i.e., the lowest level of being, which consists of matter and material objects, whereas the highest consists of what is immaterial, like consciousness or mind. And so everything and everyone grows increasingly heavier as Dante moves downward through Hell due to being weighed down by an attachment to the material, earthly substance, which produces a growing despair and lack of fulfillment. As Dante moves upward from Purgatory to Heaven, things become lighter and immaterial in proportion to how much something embodies the spiritual, divine substance, which is achieved through directing one’s desire toward the right objects, toward what is more real and true. In Plato’s allegory of the cave, as one breaks free from the chains and shadows at the bottom and climbs toward the exit where the sun can be seen, one also gains more and more insight into reality as things are illuminated more clearly through the light. Like Purgatory, the ascent up the cave is profound and challenging. But the initial insight of seeing into reality, which reveals that what was previously experienced was illusory, produces the desire to see even further into what now appears absolute and true. This desire pulls and aims Dante upward as he climbs higher toward reality and up the Great Chain of Being. The economist and philosopher E.F. Schumacher16 put the significance of this view as follows:The ability to see the Great Truth of the hierarchic structure of the world, which makes it possible to distinguish between higher and lower Levels of Being, is one of the indispensable conditions of understanding. Without it, it is not possible to find out where everything has its proper and legitimate place. Everything, everywhere, can be understood only when its Level of Being is fully taken into account. Many things are true at a low Level of Being and become absurd at a higher level, and of course vice versa.Dante’s pilgrimage, then, aims toward attaining a higher level of being than when he found himself lost in the forest. By turning inward, by engaging in a contemplative mode of being that engages the self in pursuit of an inner harmony that resonates with an external, hierarchic order, Dante is striving to attain a kind of freedom that is somewhat alien to us today. We can think of the notion of freedom in a negative and a positive sense. In the negative sense, freedom is understood as freedom from something; from external constraint, for example. The First Amendment is typically interpreted along these lines. Everyone is free to speak their minds because the state should not be allowed to interfere with our freedom to do so. All are free to do as they please as long as they do not infringe on another person’s right to do so.The positive sense is much different. It is a freedom for something. In Dante’s Hell, everyone found themselves there because they (at minimum) acted free purely in the negative sense. They lived their lives as they saw fit, without regard to any higher form of life. They didn’t act for the sake of a virtuous purpose (although that’s not quite right regarding the virtuous pagans and a few others.) To be free in the positive sense means to act according to a higher aim. When Socrates refused to renounce the philosophical life and was put to death, he made that decision based on a principle grounded in his inner conscience, which he took to express something sacred and higher, which always spoke to him when he was about to do wrong. He accepted the death penalty because the unexamined life wasn’t worth living; it had no purpose toward a higher aim17. 17Dante’s Divine Comedy provides a narrative by which the uneasiness one experiences in life, as articulated by James, can reach a solution and resolve the inner conflict and division by providing a framework by which the individual moves closer to reality, to what is most real, and up the Chain of Being.Section 5:Now, the pilgrimage captured in Dante’s poem was not something anyone could take up, at least not in its full dramatic content; it was obviously something only a select few could embark on, and this depended on the situation one was born into, like whether one was wealthy enough to receive an education. One’s salvation in the social order was rarely epic or heroic in nature; it typically meant following the structure imposed upon the individual by the Church. Just as how the cosmos was hierarchically ordered, so was society. The reasons for the social order were Divinely decreed. The social structure was immovable in a way because shifting the social order and rearranging it would violate scripture and God’s Word. Hence people were, as we would judge today, unfree and restricted. However, as psychologist Erick Fromm writes, “although a person was not free in the modem sense, neither was he alone and isolated. In having a distinct, unchangeable, and unquestionable place in the social world from the moment of birth, man was rooted in a structuralized whole, and thus life had a meaning which left no place, and no need, for doubt. A person was identical with his role in society; he was a peasant, an artisan, a knight, and not an individual who happened to have this or that occupation. The social order was conceived as a natural order, and being a definite part of it gave a feeling of security and of belonging.”18 Luther’s devastating blow against the Church in the Reformation rejected the social order and the Chain of Being and set in motion the release of the individual from the bondage they were restrained in. But by freeing the individual, he also eliminated the necessary self-transformation that played a substantial role in the Medieval worldview. Luther democratized salvation, spirituality, and questions about meaning in one’s life.This Copernican revolution in religious matters allowed for a radical reorientation toward truth, which relied on the printing press's efficiency in producing and distributing information.There were, of course, other factors that contributed to the Catholic Church's decline. The literal Copernican revolution and the rise of science being an obvious example. But what became increasingly less present in the scientific worldview that was emerging then is the idea that, as one gains knowledge of the world, one also goes through a transformative experience like Dante’s. The notion that knowledge of truth and reality converges with a meaningful and spiritual ethical development has mostly fallen off. Science’s aim is pure objectivity. For much of history, what is ‘objective’ is also intrinsically beneficial to the subject coming into contact with it. Values in scientific judgment and knowledge are a transgression, a violation of scientific precept, and are opposed to the whole epistemic enterprise (meaning a method by which knowledge is gained.) Science does not care about how one feels, what one desires in life, or what meaning one may find in it and simply presents facts as a body of indifferent and empirically verified knowledge.This is, of course, a caricature, as Thomas Kuhn19 argued in the twentieth century. Scientists certainly value their theories and are not merely attempting to refute them through experimentation. Theories allow scientists to have a grip on the world and a language of concepts that can be used to describe it accurately. This conceptual framework gives the world a theoretically intelligible and discernible order. And so once the anomalies and unsolved problems in a scientific paradigm grow serious enough, those working within it enter into a crisis until a new paradigm emerges (as is what happened when moving from Newtonian mechanics to Eistenin’s relativity.) Still, moving from one paradigm to the next isn’t believed to be an ethical progression. It’s a movement from one framework to the next. Unlike the Medieval worldview, it is generally held that science says nothing about human values and how one ought to live. Being a scientist does not suggest that someone is wise like a Socrates or Plato.Unlike the Church in the Middle Ages, which, in terms of knowledge, played a similar role to science today, science is not an institution that is in the business of handing out ethical and moral guidance. A scientist would likely balk (or should balk) at the idea of being viewed as someone who has gone through an ethical self-transformation to gain the knowledge that he or she has solely because of becoming a scientist. Being one of course requires an enormous amount of discipline, effort, and intelligence, which is, in a way, transformative, but in a different sense than what Dante embarked on. Today, knowledge of truth and reality does not necessarily correspond with an ethical progression.This idea of not requiring ethical self-transformation to gain the highest forms of knowledge is most noticeable in Rene Descartes’ philosophy in the seventeenth century. Descartes set out to rebuild a foundation through which knowledge could be rebuilt from the ruins left by the Church’s decline.20 The Church had lost its viability as something that could be believed to provide reliable knowledge for the social body. It was no longer psychologically obvious that the Church was the principal source and authority of appeal when dealing with matters of truth. Referring to scripture, for instance, could no longer be done by relying on what the Papacy had interpreted it as meaning. Luther (and others) undermined this immediacy for many. The United States faces a similar situation today. There is a diminishing trust in the democratic institutions that have historically served as distributors of trustworthy knowledge. Descartes attempted to deal with a similar crisis by discovering foundations immune from doubt. And he believed himself to have discovered such a foundation through his Cogito: I think, therefore I am. I can doubt all of my mental representations of the world, such as those of tables and chairs and coffee mugs, as well as my particular thoughts and feelings, and even the existence of my own body and sense experience. For all I know, I may be dreaming or being deceived by an evil demon into believing all kinds of imaginary and false representations of things. I can’t affirm or deny this with any certainty. But I cannot doubt that I am doubting; that much is certain. And since doubting is a property of thinking, I can’t doubt that I am thinking.Therefore, I am a thinking thing, an immaterial substance that is distinct from the physical bodies liable to doubt21. This is the most fundamental truth that not even reason could call into question. It’s radically different from truth as understood on the Chain of Being model. There is no ethical transformation involved in realizing this indubitable proposition. It’s self-evident to anyone rational and clear-minded (or so Descartes thinks.) And this is certainly how many people today think of knowledge. And in some cases, quite rightly. Take human rights as an example. John Locke22, a momentous figure who shaped the language of rights and how modernity thinks about them, argued that human rights are self-evident in the same sense as a geometric axiom. It just appears before the mind as something incapable of being doubted (to a clear, rational mind, of course, who has done the proper thinking, like someone who has rightly apprehended a geometric axiom.) The US’s founding document memorializes Locke’s claim: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” The deepest, most profound truths about humanity are ‘obvious’ to any rational mind. This is, of course, a good thing. It is good that people intuitively find one another intrinsically and irreducibly valuable. But when this notion is taken for granted, when, as we’ll soon see with John Stuart Mill, an idea grows ossified, fixed, and dogmatic, it loses its potency and desired effect. But if one arrives at the idea of human rights through a transformative process, where one realizes the concept through a process of development and growth that culminates in seeing the profound value within a conscious human being, the notion of rights is animating and action-producing; it stirs and moves the motivation of those who go through this process. In other words, it produces a particular psychological orientation around what is believed to be true.Section 6:So, information technologies do not merely distribute previously unavailable information that is then propagated across a network. Nor does the production of such information bear a natural, necessary connection to truth. They can do both, but much more is at play. The printing press allowed for the conditions necessary for the Reformation to occur, and its occurrence produced a radical shift in the Medieval worldview. Truth was hierarchically organized, and those at the top had exclusive access. The Reformation leveled this structure and diffused the notion that all Christians are equal regarding Divine knowledge. There was no need for an authoritative intermediary to facilitate people’s relation to God. People could do it themselves through faith and scripture alone. But this also meant that all the social practices instituted for the purposes of coming into contact with truth, all the rituals and rites used to reinforce the beliefs of when and how truth manifests itself, slowly went with it. Therefore, people’s orientation around truth, how they conceived of it, where it resided, and how one knew it, was disrupted. People weren’t merely given previously unavailable information; the entire information landscape was turned upside down. This can reveal new terrain within the landscape that can lead to deep and valuable truths, such as human rights and liberties, and it can also conceal older, previously established truths, like the notion of transformative experiences being necessary for coming into closer contact with reality.Similarly to the printing press, social media poses a historical parallel. We can see this by looking at the most famous defense of free speech for the sake of truth, namely, John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty. We’ll see that, like how the printing press reoriented people’s relation to truth, social media is doing so by increasingly shifting how we conceive of, participate in, and come to know the truth. As a social practice, it’s shifting the culture toward different ways of arriving at truth. It's difficult to say whether it is categorically good or bad. But the focus here will be on what would certainly be a momentous loss in our social practices regarding truth, namely, a departure from Enlightenment values.There is a developing tendency to determine the truth through sheer will rather than discussion and a dwindling desire to correct this error. People seem to care less about deliberation, compromise, tolerance, and the general agreement that the goal is to come to an inclusive decision that is in the best interests of people who share a basic respect for each other’s dignity. All political orientations have growing factions that believe the content of other’s beliefs determines how they should be viewed and treated. Rather than work toward building a community that is able to cooperate with one another and agree on a uniting set of values, the cultural attitude is moving toward a competition between wills for power. But it’s not only behaviorally motivated by power; there is also the belief that all effort by a group toward an ideal is entirely reducible to power. That very well may be true. But if it is, democracy is in a precarious position. So, if we value democracy, we should steer back toward the proper path. For Mill’s account to work, which is crucial if we wish to justify free speech for the sake of truth in Enlightenment, democratic terms23, social media should not be viewed as a truth-seeking information network24. Mill believed free speech is necessary for human flourishing in a democratic society. If it’s the people who are going to be involved in the deliberative processes of society and be the ones choosing what is best, then the people must be able to discuss and exchange ideas, opinions, and beliefs freely. However, just like how the Medieval view operated within a certain orientation around truth, which provided a framework through which truth could be arrived at, so it is with democracy. And like the printing press, social media has placed enormous tension on our democratic orientation. So, if we desire to maintain democratic values derived from the Enlightenment, then we have to take a certain stance toward social media, one that eschews the expectation that truth is situated within its environments, where we expect to discuss, debate, hash things out, and arrive at truth.Now, On Liberty offers two sets of reasons supporting free speech, the first being epistemic, meaning that the benefits have to do with knowledge, while the other set is psychologically beneficial. The first set argues that free speech is an overall good for society because if what someone says is true or partially true, both possibilities benefit a democracy. If what is said is true, it will benefit because it professes a truth that will add to the preexisting stock of knowledge. If partially true, this also contributes to preexisting knowledge; “and since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.” The second psychological set of benefits is primarily derived from the utterance of false beliefs, which have no direct epistemic benefit because they do not contribute any knowledge to form beliefs around. If what is said is wholly false, the opportunity to defend and contest it will also be an overall good because it will demand that the bearers of that knowledge account for the reasons for its truth. Mill expresses this well: “Unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds.” This then produces a further psychological benefit. By remaining a prejudice and not as something rationally grasped, “the meaning of the doctrine itself will be in danger of being lost or enfeebled, and deprived of its vital effect on the character and conduct; the dogma becoming a mere formal profession, inefficacious for good, but cumbering the ground and preventing the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction from reason or personal experience.” Therefore, contesting what is true will keep beliefs from devolving into prejudice or dogma.Section 7:The first thing to observe about Mill’s reasons for free speech is that the first set of epistemic reasons really depends on the second set (the psychological ones). But it’s peculiar to speak of the latter as ‘benefits’ because of this. It’s more accurate to say that a certain psychological orientation must give rise to them. We can think of this as a kind of feedback loop that produces the benefits Mill is speaking of. One must have the proper psychological orientation toward truth to break into this loop. That is to say that the members within a society must hold a psychological orientation toward truth that allows for the free expression of true, partially true, and false beliefs to be a net good, i.e., to bring about the best possible consequences within a democratic community. With the psychological reasons offered for free speech, notice that the benefit is derived from the speakers and listeners within the community being open to receiving true, partially true, or false utterances. The beliefs they hold must be perpetually open to revision because they may or may not be in possession of the actual true ones; they understand that their knowledge is an ongoing process, something that is constantly unfolding, and so hold a particular stance toward the free expression of beliefs.They would understand that, even in the best instances of human knowledge, the most stable kind (like knowledge of physics), it is still susceptible to be overturned by future evidence, as was the case with Newtonian mechanics and Einsteinian relativity. That is not to say truth is therefore unattainable, but only that there should be a fair degree of epistemic humility within a democratic, truth-seeking community, given that our best knowledge often falls far short of absolute certainty. As the psychological reasons specify, if the people within the community hold their beliefs as prejudices or dogmas that are fixed and unchangeable, they will be unreceptive to being challenged. So whatever anyone utters, whether true, false, or in between, it won’t provide the benefits Mill intended. There must be a certain psychological orientation toward truth for Mill’s argument to succeed.Let’s now specify what this orientation should look like and see how it’s vital in upholding free speech arguments for the sake of truth. There are three components to this orientation: (i) certain beliefs, (ii) certain desires, and (iii) certain attitudes born out of (i) and (ii). (i) consists of two beliefs. The first belief is that truth exists, and the second is that it is, in principle, knowable. (ii) consists of two desires as well. The first desire is to attain human flourishing, and the second is that truth is constitutive of this aim. Given that there is truth, one must also have the desire to attain it. But this is also a special kind of desire; it’s a desire that fulfills what must be viewed as a higher need, one that is constitutive of human flourishing or happiness. We can call this a fulfillment need. This means that we desire truth because it occupies a natural place in the space of human good. We will lack something fundamental to our flourishing if we don’t have contact with truth; we therefore both desire it and have a powerful motivation to attain it because we desire to flourish. Fulfillment needs should be understood as part of what constitutes this principal end in life that characterizes human excellence.For those who know Greek philosophy, this will sound familiar. As Aristotle says in his Ethics, all things aim at some final good. Achieving this good means for something to actualize its potential and attain excellence. The final aim of human beings is to flourish, or, in Greek, to attain eudaimonia, and to attain this means to achieve human excellence. Excellence, says Aristotle, means to fulfill the particular function assigned to a thing's nature. An eye’s function is to see, a car’s function is to drive, while the seed’s function is to grow into a plant. Human beings’ nature is to be rational, to optimize their cognition, to reduce error, and to reach the truth. Again, since the ultimate aim is to flourish, and because seeking truth is constitutive of that goal, we desire to know the truth as a fulfillment need, which helps satisfy the principal good in human life. Now, while Aristotle’s claim about human nature is of course disputable, if Mill’s argument for free speech is to work, and it’s important that it does, Aristotle’s account of human beings, or something resembling it, must be held within a democratic community.That being said, there’s a deep plausibility to the notion that humans have a fundamental need to be in contact with the truth, and presuming rationality is necessary for this, Aristotle may very well be right. In his lecture series Awakening From The Meaning Crisis, John Vervaeke offers a powerful example to illustrate this. Imagine your parents one day asking you to follow them into a hidden room you had never seen before inside your house on your eighteenth birthday. When you enter, you see a wall of monitors showing old footage of you throughout your life. Your parents then turn to you and say that your entire life has been an FBI experiment; everything has been manufactured. The love you thought to be sincere and nourishing, all the support you’ve received throughout the years, the holidays you have come to cherish, and the memories and feelings you’ve come to have are, in the most profound sense, fake. None of it was real. Your parents then tell you that you have two options. You can either act as if this incident had never happened and move on as usual, or you can move out and move on with your life. What’s the desirable option? Most of us would choose the latter. Why? Because none of what was thought to be real turned out to be true. It was all fabricated, illusory, and bore no substantive relation to reality. For the majority of us (although hopefully everyone), there is no going back to the way things previously were. The truth makes a fundamental difference in the decision-making between the two options. By discovering that our life is untrue, we feel a deep absence, a lack of fulfillment, an incompleteness on account of what we’ve learned about ourselves. An essential aspect of the decision to move on, then, is a deep motivation to discover what is in fact true. It’s like Dante when he discovers himself lost in the dark forest. We’ve been led astray, and now we desire to find the right path, which is the one that converges with truth, with what is most real. This is what happens to Jim Carrey in The Truman Show when he decides to leave that disturbing, manufactured simulation dome he was raised in. He could have stayed, but he was psychologically unable to. By obtaining this new self-knowledge, he would have never achieved eudaimonia. He would have remained stuck in life because he would have been bullsh*tting himself (again, I mean this in a technical sense and not simply as an explicative, which will be explained below.)This brings us to (iii), which is to bear a particular attitude toward truth provided (i) and (ii). The proper attitude toward truth is one of care. To care for the truth means to know how to reliably arrive at it, which means utilizing the relevant cognitive processes in forming true beliefs. Recall the quote at the beginning of the article from John Milton, which expressed that it is a heresy to arrive at a belief in the wrong way, namely, by not properly using one’s own reason. It matters, then, how we form our beliefs, and what matters is which cognitive processes are used to get there. For ease of presentation, we can use the psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s formulation of these cognitive processes from his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Kahneman lays out two cognitive systems, System 1 and System 2. “System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.” Whereas “System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration (p. 21).” To see the difference, take the two following examples of arithmetic: “2 + 2 = ?” We have an immediate cognitive reflex to such an equation, and little to no effort is required. Filling in the answer resulted from System 1. “17 x 24 =?” Now this equation typically demands more effort. A reasoning process is engaged to determine the answer that requires concentrated effort and isn’t reflexively provided. Such a process is supplied by System 2. For another example, say someone is hiking and spots a tree in the distance. If such a person cares nothing for botany, then the object will have a great deal of transparency, and the person will carry on about their day. Such a process would be within System 1. But if the person is a trained botanist and has never seen this kind of tree before (say they’re in a foreign country), they may begin to observe it, inspect it, and direct their effort toward retrieving the relevant information that may help identify the tree. That person has engaged System 2.Caring for the truth means knowing how to optimize these two systems so that System 1 and System 2 are in a recurring dialogue with one another, with the aim to arrive at the truth. Now, there are at least two aspects to this idea of care. The first can be classed as having to do with general skills in critical thinking, which primarily consists of analysis. Examples are things like working out one’s cognitive biases and reducing error. In essence, being successful in this regard means being able to reason well and work through problems rationally. Take a case of confirmation bias, for example. Imagine a republican voter who believes certain conspiracy theories about the democratic party and who is watching a presidential debate and hears the Republican candidate make an assertion attributing misconduct to the Democratic candidate. Because the assertion confirms the prior beliefs of the voter who is watching, it will be easy for that person to immediately agree with what was said. Engaging System 2 is effortful and costly in mental energy, and so it is easier, as well as cognitively more pleasurable, to passively (probably unconsciously) consent to System 1’s impulse, which presents the Republican candidate’s statement as attractive and belief-worthy. If this person cares for the truth, however, he or she would engage System 2 upon receiving what System 1 has provided with the aim of verifying whether the assertion accurately represents or corresponds to reality. Perhaps the person reasons through the assertion. If the candidate said something like, "Inflation has skyrocketed due to the current administration, which she’s a part of,” the voter watching may reason that, while it’s true inflation has risen, her position in the administration bears little to no significance on that outcome; therefore, the assertion is misinformed. Or perhaps the voter doesn’t understand government structure very well and does research, visits several sources, and concludes based on the information that the assertion is misinformed and implies an invalid conclusion. Whatever the route taken, the voter is presented with the potential to make a cognitive error through System 1, and because he or she cares for the truth, System 2 is utilized to solve the task presented.Competence in this aspect of care, which means to be a competent critical thinker, consists of knowing how to obtain propositional knowledge, which is knowledge that accurately represents reality. One has the tools and skills to work through assertions, analyze arguments, and appropriately form beliefs according to the evidence. One can situationally respond by engaging System 2 when one detects that System 1 is presented with information expressing propositions about the world. Someone who has mastered these skills has developed dispositions that engage the relevant cognitive behavior under the relevant conditions. In other words, such a person knows how to instinctively and properly respond to the appropriate cognitive stimuli.25The second aspect of caring for truth is deeper than this and, like Dante’s journey, more transformative. Caring for truth in this sense means optimizing System 1 and System 2 by using them to shape one’s conception of the good. What reason, for example, would this argument, rather than another one, be more relevant to someone competent in critical thinking? Why care about what this person has to say rather than that one? Answers to these questions will suggest the underlying conception of the good that is assumed when one finds one set of information more salient. In other words, the second aspect of caring for truth means understanding one’s conception of eudaimonia, or flourishing, which is one’s final aim and idea of human excellence. Critical thinking in the propositional sense is a highly valuable set of skills that is fundamental to the whole project of pursuing truth. But what it consists of does not provide a final criteria to judge what one should believe about human flourishing and what it amounts to. It plays a vital role in articulating and grasping this goal but won’t deliver it. In other words, critical thinking is a powerful tool in reaching one’s goals, but it itself cannot bestow the goals themselves. This requires the second aspect of caring for truth, which means optimizing System 1 and System 2 to become aware of what final end is guiding their operation. Regardless of how much one engages in critical thinking, irrespective of one’s mastery of logic and reasoning, if one never utilizes these skills toward understanding what provides the salience of one set of information over another, they may never satisfy their fulfillment need for truth.Tolstoy’s book, The Death of Ivan Illych, illustrates this. In the story the Russian protagonist, Ivan Illych, lives his life in pursuit of what is pleasant. He shuns the annoyances and discomforts that arise in life and views them, in a way, as unnatural, as occurrences that disrupt how life should be. His goal in life is to maximize pleasure and avoid pain and suffering. He’s not, however, a Don Quixote or an extreme hedonist; he’s not trying to experience all the possible pleasures one may have. He wants to live a successful and acceptable life that commands the esteem of his colleagues, makes his family happy, comfortable, and at ease, and allows him to pass through life with as few disturbances as possible. He holds a very familiar and common conception of the good.And Ivan does in fact find this success. He rises to be a great and respectable judge in Russia. He’s highly competent, makes a substantial living, and can buy and provide his family with whatever he pleases. Yet he finds himself running into the disturbances he’s always tried to avoid. He’s constantly fighting with his wife:There remained only rare periods of amorousness that came over the spouses, but they did not last long. These were islands that they would land on temporarily, but then they would put out again to the sea of concealed enmity that expressed itself in estrangement from each other. This estrangement might have upset Ivan Ilyich, if he had considered that it ought not to be so, but by now he took this situation not only as normal, but as the goal of his activity in the family. His goal consisted in freeing himself more and more from these unpleasantnesses and in giving them a character of harmlessness and decency; and he achieved it by spending less and less time with his family, and when he was forced to do so, he tried to secure his position by the presence of outsiders.He’s experiencing the “uneasiness” formulated by William James above. His solution is not to reflect on his final end in life, his conception of the good, his idea of human flourishing and excellence, but to find other means to attain it, which is to turn away from what he’s representing as unnatural and frustrating. He’s not deficient in critical thinking; he’s a highly competent and successful judge. He lacks the wisdom and self-knowledge necessary for reflecting on and evaluating what makes some things and not others salient for him, which is his goal in life to live pleasantly. There’s a reason why he finds spending less time with his family a more obvious solution than trying to get at the root of why it is he feels so frustrated and annoyed at the fact that he’s not feeling fulfilled despite his success; and he’s not utilizing System 1 and System 2 to investigate that reason, i.e., he’s not caring for truth in the second sense. It’s only until he is faced with a random, coincidental death that he realizes he hadn’t been searching for a solution to his “uneasiness” that converged with truth. Not truth in the propositional sense, but truth regarding human flourishing and excellence. Insofar as he was unable or unwilling to direct his cognition toward what was guiding it, he remained incapable of progressing and transforming toward an aim that would afford him self-awareness, self-knowledge, and, ultimately, eudaimonia.Both aspects of caring for truth matter if Mill’s benefits are to be obtained. It matters propositionally (the first aspect of care) because critical thinking and analysis are necessary for seeing information clearly and discerning whether something maps onto the world. But caring for the first aspect alone will only clear the fog, so to speak, and allow one to see the landscape with more specificity and definition. It will provide knowledge about the causal regularities that govern the territory and the predictable patterns that follow from them. It will not, however, indicate what to do with that knowledge or inform one of what it means. For free speech to be justified for the sake of truth, which means free speech plays a substantial, instrumental role in sorting out the true information from the false, people must care for the truth. They have to find it salient in the right ways. If people don’t care and don’t share the proper desire to pursue it, then no amount of discussion will necessarily bring the community any closer to the truth. They may easily settle for something else.Section 8:The claim, then, is that social media does not warrant truth-based justifications for free speech. Because social media platforms don’t promote or incentivize the psychological orientation necessary for truth-seeking but reward the opposite behaviors, the idea that one is seeking truth within such a context is false. The view that social media as a public space is best characterized as a social practice that aims toward truth has generated an insidious confusion within the culture, and we would be better off by evaluating it differently. Social media is certainly an information network, but it’s wrong to presume all information networks are oriented toward truth production.To see this, think of a university. The principal purpose of this institution is to generate knowledge (there are other purposes, of course, but put those aside.) Now, there are many parts to the structure of a university, but let’s zoom in on the classroom environment. Within it, there’s a hierarchy in place. The teacher’s purpose is to guide the students through a curriculum, get them to think critically about the information, debate and discuss it, foster their abilities to engage with it, cultivate the necessary faculties for this, and to ensure that they learn something specific about the given information, as well as something general about learning, something they can use in all cases. To achieve this, the teacher must orient the students around truth-seeking, i.e., he or she must teach the students to care for the truth, as explained above. The teacher must challenge the students’ cognitive biases. Logical errors, bad reasoning, and lack of critical thinking have to be checked, corrected, and reinforced by the teacher.Ideally, the teacher will also help the students think critically about their conceptions of the good. In the ideal scenario, the teacher not only challenges their cognition but also fosters their ability to question what human flourishing and excellence looks like. It’s ideal because claiming that this is absolutely necessary for an information network to warrant being evaluated as a truth-seeking social practice is, perhaps, too high. But it is what one should aim for. However, it’s important to bear this in mind because it will be shown that, even if the threshold is lowered in this sense, social media still fails at what any information network that is correlated with truth should provide, which is to promote the proper analytical skills in getting clearer about reality.Now, an important reason universities are trusted as truth-seeking information networks is partly because of the teacher's role in distributing that information. It’s trusted as an institution because those who go through it are supposed to have been guided by experts who demonstrate how to pursue knowledge. Students who leave the institution are expected to have participated in a social practice that taught them to be competent in their field (and hopefully to be a good human being as well, whatever that means precisely) and who can now further distribute and utilize their knowledge by applying it to other domains within society. The teacher’s function within the institution is essential to this goal and fundamental to the trust granted to the institution itself. Let’s call this function a Socratic function.27Social media doesn’t have a Socratic function, and any information network trusted as a distributor of knowledge should have something resembling it. Worse than this, however, is that social media actually promotes cognitive behavior that is opposed to the whole project of pursuing truth. As an overarching, general pattern, social media reinforces and incentivizes things like cognitive bias (the immediate and intuitive presentations of System 1.) The whole business model is aimed at maximizing attention. People easily become addicted to these platforms and binge content endlessly. The only way to achieve this is by easing the user’s cognitive effort as much as possible and stimulating them with dopamine responses, allowing the user to enter a semi-hypnotic state. Of course, not everyone is affected like this; most people can assert moderation when using social media. But in an ideal world, one where social media is optimally thriving, everyone would be glued to their screens. Practical circumstances of course make this impossible, and therefore it wouldn’t truly be in social media’s interests because no one would show up for work, but if we turn the dial on the business goals of these platforms to the max, then this would be the logical consequence; it would maximize profits.Social media serves many purposes, though, and the claim is certainly not that it is, for these reasons, entirely bad. It’s only the contexts, circumstances, and situations in which it is reflexively represented as a competent and trusted information network that deals in matters of knowledge and truth that it creates an overall deficit. This is because of the intellectual and ethical confusion it produces, which is caused by its lack of a Socratic function that incentivizes and reinforces the proper psychological orientation around truth-seeking. Again, it has the opposite aim, which is to ease the effort of System 2 as much as it can and allow System 1, with all its cognitive vulnerabilities, to be at the helm. Because of this aim, social media has a Sophistic function, which contrasts the Socratic one, whose defining characteristic is to be a bullsh*tter. As mentioned above, this notion is a technical one and needs to be properly explained.The notion of bullsht comes from the American philosopher Harry Frankfurt and his essay Bullsht. Sam Harris uses this term often, especially regarding social media. First, let’s clarify what it means to lie. Lying involves an intent to deceive on the part of the person lying, who wishes to get the other to believe something contrary to the truth. The seventeen-year-old who sneaks out, gets caught, and tells their parents that they forgot their phone at their friend’s house and went to get it in the middle of the night is lying because they’re trying to deceive their parents into believing something false about reality. But reality is still salient to their aim. Although attempting to distort it, they still have reality in their conscious field of intentions, motives, and desires, i.e., they care about truth rather than caring for it. Someone who bullshts, on the other hand, has no regard for truth. It provides no reason for consideration on its own, independent of the bullshtter’s aim. Whereas the truth matters for the liar, it’s of no concern whether what one says is true or false in the case of bullsht. The bullshter’s enterprise is characteristically different than the lier in this regard. The liar “is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false… The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor to conceal it.”26The classic archetype of a bullshtter is the salesman. The truth about whether the product sold is efficient, useful, or whatever else is indifferent to the salesman. What matters, and what distinguishes one who is good from one who is not (in the sense of achieving their goal to sell the product, pure and simple,) is whether they can deceive the consumer into believing that the bullshtter is asserting something they themselves believe. There are few constraints on what a bullshtter may say to achieve their aim. Whatever helps satisfy their goal is fair play. The liar is unable to be creative like this. They must strategically and purposefully contend with the truth by believing they know it. If the liar doesn’t in fact know the truth, this will likely spoil their plans. They will be unable to grasp the situation and will likely misunderstand what the circumstances call for. A bullshtter doesn’t need to know the truth at all. They just need to make the other person think that they do. The truth conditions of their beliefs and assertions are, by itself, irrelevant.Social media is a bullshtter in incentivizing and rewarding behavior that employs bullsht. It therefore has a Sophistic function. The chief culprit for this is, of course, the algorithms. The algorithm's aim is to curate content that maximizes user engagement and attention. Whether what it presents a user with is true or false is a matter of indifference. It can matter in a sense, but only if the user is disposed toward viewing content that is oriented around truth, which is of no concern to the algorithms. The function is to bullsht the user by minimizing cognitive effort and maximizing the incentives that will keep their attention, e.g., by triggering dopamine responses through a constant succession of content patterned according to the user’s preferences. If the user desires content that aims at truthfully representing reality, he or she has to maneuver through a minefield of bullsht. There is no Socratic function that guides them through it, as there would be in any other social practice that is considered an information network whose purpose is to distribute knowledge. The proper psychological orientation that warrants discussions about how free speech is necessary for pursuing truth within a given context is entirely absent within the social media model.Hence Mill’s influential argument for the utility of free speech for the sake of truth doesn’t apply to social media. Let’s reflect on what Mill said after this long discussion. Recall the epistemic benefits he argued for. He said that letting everyone freely express their minds produces the best outcomes within a democratic community, regardless of whether what one says is true, partially true, or false. If the truth doesn’t move people, and if the general tendency to find truth salient is absent, then letting everyone say what they think is self-undermining. Why would truth matter if everyone free to speak their mind disregards it? Seeing truth as a reason for a social practice means truth is fundamental to the aims that characterize the institution, and this means being properly oriented around it, which means caring for it.Section 9:I want to end now with a discussion about how this all relates to Nostr and how it has the potential to be an information network that performs much better than social media as a context concerned with knowledge and truth. The principal reason that will be considered here is Nostr’s pursuit of a fully decentralized model that aims at user autonomy. Autonomy makes a crucial difference between an information network that more reliably tracks truth and one that is indifferent to it.Social media reduces users' autonomy by trying to use them as a means toward further ends, namely, their attention, engagement, and data. The algorithm's job is to sort through users’ information and curate it in ways that maximize profit. This generally results in the spread of bullsht because what determines information as worth spreading does not depend on that information’s truth value. However, when users can curate their own content by judging for themselves what information they wish to retrieve from relays; when it’s left to each user to decide what content is valuable and what isn’t; when users themselves can determine what is worth censuring and not be subject to the interests of a centralized server, the aim is clearly to place autonomy back into their hands. What’s important, though, is that autonomy has a certain purpose in the Nostr context: to allow people to create at all protocol levels. Part of what a centralized server does is create a fixed infrastructure that greatly restricts what users may do on the platform (the chief restriction being to yield as much profit as possible for shareholders.) Creators especially are affected by this because the value they contribute to the platforms is filtered through what will necessarily constrain it. Nostr, however, is different. What largely motivates the value of autonomy is the desire to let creators create content freely and without outside constraints, which, of course, is to provide them freedom of expression. By users having the freedom to build and the autonomy to curate and choose what content is personally valuable to a user, truth becomes highly relevant within the context. Now, if Mill is right when he says that only true beliefs have any utility (and false beliefs necessarily lead one astray in some sense,) users who produce content will be highly incentivized to track the truth, to have an accurate representation of it, because to fail at this will result in unappealing content due to its lack of value. No centralized authority is supposed to be able to force something to appear valuable; it’s up to the users to determine this. And if something will endure and not fade once the reasons why it may have trended disappear, it needs to track the truth. If it doesn’t, if it only matters to people because it is sensational or cheap, if it’s bullsht, it will always lose in the long run.Since people on Nostr have the autonomy to build and curate their own content, unlike social media, there is less at play that can ossify the network. There must be a great deal of motion because, in principle, no user or client can monopolize the space. This built-in fluidity captures an important aspect of truth-seeking, which John Milton expressed when saying, “Knowledge thrives by exercise… Truth is compared in scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition.” Everyone has to earn their success on Nostr, so the principal way to do this is to create something valuable. Again, if Mill is right, the value must largely be derived from the truth that the content represents, creating an incentive to care for the truth. Bullsh*t can’t be forcefully distributed because it maximizes some desired metric. Information is chiefly distributed by individual users valuing it.Nostr provides a way to see if Mill was right in thinking only true beliefs have any real value. Since the intention is to move away from social media’s business model, there is an opportunity to determine whether people will naturally choose the truth through their own autonomous decision-making. If there are no algorithms that aim to seize and maximize user attention, people are free to choose what content they wish to consume. It is a choice whether truth prevails over its opposite in the Nostr context because individuals are incentivized to contribute what they want to see. And if things go astray, people can fix it by creating something better.Notes:For a similar but far more elaborate, comprehensive, and complex argument of this kind, see John Vervaeke’s Awakening From the Meaning Crisis on YouTube.For an elaboration on free speech justifications, see Greenawalt, K. (2007). Free Speech Justifications. Colombia Law Review.For a history of Free speech, see Jacob Mchangama’s book Free Speech: Socrates to Social Media.Kant, I. (1784). What is Enlightenment? (p. 1). Hacket Publishing.This is not to suggest wokism is the sole culprit of this cultural trend. It’s one example amongst others on all parts of the political spectrum. But it’s an important example because wokism aims to be virtuous and moral. Therefore, it’s a good example because it is important to question whether their moral claims are correct. Furthermore, a plausible reply on the part of one who may subscribe to something like wokism (whatever that means precisely) is that it isn’t the duty of those who have been oppressed to teach those they consider to be oppressors. The duty falls on the latter. This is a challenging question to settle, and it makes up the potentially unbridgable gulf between wokism and its opponents. But if empathy is a virtue (or a vital moral response), it’s central that everyone exercises it, not just those who are held to be guilty of something.Simpson, R. M. (2024). The Connected City of Ideas. Daedalus.Harari, N. Y. (2024). Nexus. Random House.Eisenstein, E. L. (1979). The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (p. 45). Cambridge University Press.Melchert, N. (2007). The Great Conversation (p. 304). Oxford University Press.Melchert, N. (2007). The Great Conversation. Oxford University Press.Wagner, C. (2012). Scientia Moralitas (Moral Autonomy and Responsibility - The Reformation’s Legacy in Today’s Society). Scientia Moralitas Research Institute.Fromm, E. (1941). Escape From Freedom (p. 54). Discus.James, W. (1902). The Varieties of Religious Experience (p. 54). Penguin Classics.Dreyfus, H., & Kelly, S. D. (2011). All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (p. 122). Free Press.Dreyfus, H., & Kelly, S. D. (2011). All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (p. 122). Free Press.Aristotle, A. (1953). Ethics (p. 122). Penguin Classics.Schumacher, E. (1977). A Guide For the Perplexed. Harper Colophon Books.As Isaiah Berlin makes clear in his essay Two Concepts of Liberty, it is easy to see how positive freedom may easily lead to foolish and immoral action due to its purposeful nature. It is quite challenging to dissuade someone that what they believe to be their purpose in life, their ultimate meaning, relies on false premises.Fromm, E. (1941). Escape From Freedom. Discus.Chalmers, A. (1974). What is this thing called Science? Hacket Publishing.Descartes, R. (2010). Meditations on First Philosophy. Oxford World's Classics.See Bertrand Russel’s The History of Western Philosophy for how Descartes's argument is logically invalid. He can’t doubt that some process of thinking is occurring, but whether something is doing the thinking isn’t obvious.Locke, J. Two Treatises on Government.Justice Holmes made the Marketplace metaphor popular in Abrams v United States (1919), and has become a central precedent in free speech cases.For a similar argument, see Nevin Chellappah’s “Is John Stuart Mill’s Account of Free Speech Sustainable In the Age of Social Media?”Ryle, G. (1949). The Concept of Mind. Penguin.Frankfurt, H. (1986). Bullshit. Princeton University Press.To see the Socratic function in real time, watch The Joe Rogan Experience episode #2171. Eric Weinstein demonstrates what it means for an expert to engage with someone outside their respective field who claims to have knowledge that overturns the discipline but with no professional training to back it up. His attitude demonstrates a care for truth. @yakihonne

@ 6b7c438e:fc81aab3

Taryn Christiansen @ DoraHacksSpecial thanks to Eric Zhang for in-depth discussions.A mirror post on Dora Research Blog is available: https://research.dorahacks.io/2024/12/24/free-speech-foundation Intro:This article will argue that truth-based justifications for free speech are inappropriate within the social media context.1 Flooding the market with more information doesn’t necessarily force truth to emerge and bob at the surface. No matter how much information is pumped into a space filled with falsehoods and deception, if the right mechanisms aren’t in place, the area will only grow more chaotic and overcrowded, and therefore all the more easier to get lost in it. As an instrument to obtain knowledge of the truth, free speech has to be properly used, and people need to know how to use it.That isn’t to say that the tap should be shut off and that free speech should be curtailed; other justifications are perfectly reasonable, as will be seen below. But the idea that what we’re up to on social media is seeking out the truth only produces more confusion about what we collectively take to be sources of trustworthy information that is accurate and sincere. We would be better off if social media were viewed as an information network that is distinct from other spaces that are generally considered places where we obtain reliably true beliefs.But other spaces have the potential to be a more appropriate target for truth-based justifications for free speech, one of which is Nostr. Because of Nostr’s fully decentralized and open nature, which allows for innovation at all levels of its protocol, people have more opportunity to create valuable content that will only be distributed across the network because it is in fact valuable. The algorithms on social media force content to be valuable because there are standards that aim at maximizing user engagement in cheap and overstimulating ways. It doesn’t matter to these mechanisms whether something is true or not. What matters first is whether something promotes the ends of the social media companies, which are primarily driven by maximizing profits through ads and attention. Achieving this goal means reducing users' autonomy in picking and choosing what content to consume. Nostr aims to give the users their autonomy back by freeing developers to build both relays and clients. If users can make decisions that aren’t influenced by social media’s algorithmic decision-making, then it can be discerned whether truth is naturally relevant to people in these kinds of information networks, as well as whether people really desire to care for the truth.Section 1:It should be assumed at this point in history2, especially in liberal democracies, that the freedom to express one’s mind is inseparable from a basic conception of human dignity. If one is prohibited from freely discussing and challenging prevailing beliefs or forced to conform to a point of view that was not arrived at by using one’s own rational and reflective faculties, then human dignity suffers. There’s a reason Socrates went around the Athenian marketplace and tirelessly questioned the people he encountered there. He wasn’t interested in forcing people to submit to specific beliefs. Socrates wanted people to realize and reflect on whether what they believed was true or not, and therefore if it was something worth believing in. But integral to this project is the idea that people have to think through the questions themselves and not rely on an authority. Authority may be right; it may hold true beliefs and assert rational demands, but it doesn’t mean anything unless people themselves know the way to them. This requires the individual to be willing to develop what’s necessary for this.John Milton was right when he wrote in his 1644 pamphlet Areopagatica, which was directed against the English Parlament’s order for licensing books, that “A man may be a heretic in the truth… If he believes things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reasons, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.” People must be free to reason for themselves, to arrive at truths through the use of their own faculties, to develop their individual conscience, which, by its nature, must be exercised by the individual’s will and not by an externally imposed authority. Immanuel Kant’s call to the Enlightenment, Sapere aude! - “Have courage to use your own reason!”3 - is a call to actualize human dignity through the use of one’s reason. These faculties cannot be cultivated unless the individual can express him or herself freely.Woke culture is an illustrative example of how there is a connection between free speech and human dignity. It shows that when the strategy is to problematize and silence people, no matter how noble or virtuous the goal is believed to be, it only perpetuates a cycle of frustration and anger. The problem with woke culture isn’t necessarily their ideals. We all would agree, or should at least, that people should respect the basic dignity of others, treat everyone as persons, empathize with those with a different experience, and learn and grow from one another’s unique perspective. These are all good things; they’re profoundly valuable. The issue is how woke culture formulated and implemented their interpretations of what these notions amount to, what they call for, and what moral duties they demand. One of its principal goals has been to discern how historical oppressors should atone for previous wrongdoings. Many have come to understand this as meaning that those who come from those lineages are, in some sense, problematic and that, therefore, proponents of wokism have the duty to silence them, to condemn them, to act as if they are a net negative to the social good, and to impose a punishment of silence to atone for the past. This has been a grave mistake. Instead of engaging in a dialogue to reach the other person’s conscience, those who bore this duty have tended to sermonize in a sanctimonious, demeaning way, which only shuts people down and turns off the parts of the brain that promote learning and development, and turns on what generates combative and defensive behavior. The typical approach in woke culture has been enormously undemocratic in spirit due to its preference to force people to adopt reasons rather than opening people up to consider them in their proper light, namely, as claims about morality that make demands on the conscience of the person, which can only be properly understood and felt through the use of his or her own faculties. Woke culture, which offers some genuine insight into the world's contemporary moral situation, failed to respect the dignity of those they wished to persuade by using coercive measures instead of appealing to their conscience. Free speech is absolutely necessary in an endeavor like this because only by upholding such a social practice will everyone’s basic dignity be respected, which is integral to people being open to changing their minds. Moral debates within society should never devolve into a contest of wills. This only undermines the foundation of a democratic community, the basic pillar being human dignity.4But although free speech bears a necessary connection to human dignity, it does not bear the same relation to truth. For free speech to bear a proper relation to truth, one where free speech produces a high probability of tracking it, those seeking out truth must have the right psychological orientation toward it; otherwise, the two easily come apart. In his recent book Nexus, Yoel Noah Harari presents a clear way of seeing this. Harari criticizes what he calls the ‘naive view of information,’ which “argues that by gathering and processing much more information than individuals can, big networks achieve a better understanding of medicine, physics, economics, and numerous other fields, which makes the network not only powerful but wise.” The notion of wisdom is key. While it’s theoretically possible that an information network can be wise (especially with the development of better AI), it will be useless unless human beings have some idea about what wisdom is. If they don’t, then they’ll have to just assume that the information being presented was properly arrived at, i.e., with the wisdom necessary for obtaining truth, which will, in effect, create a servility to the information network and not to the human faculties necessary for discerning and knowing the truth. To use a distinction made by Plato, they will have an opinion about the truth, not knowledge. To know means to understand the reasons why something is the case, not just that it is the case.Harari’s book is important because the naive view of information he presents is prevalent and is most often expressed in the marketplace of ideas metaphor. In essence, the metaphor suggests that free speech operates like a free market because, by allowing individuals to pursue and satisfy their preferences freely, the truth will somehow outcompete falsehoods. Either because people’s preferences are more deeply satisfied by truth, and/or because the beliefs people hold will only have any real value (or utility) when they are true, when they accurately represent reality. But in a marketplace, “people don’t reliably ‘buy’ truths. People buy the ideas they like. And people don’t reliably like truths better than falsehoods. What the invisible hand does, all going well, is efficiently allocate goods to people based on what they want.”5 For truth to reliably outcompete falsehoods, consumers must have a particular orientation around truth. Unless we think ideas are true based solely on their utility, which is itself not a very useful notion, more has to be said as to why consumers would desire the truth over anything else in a marketplace of ideas. Everyone has opinions they cherish and hold to be, in some way, fundamental to themselves and their identities. It is perfectly conceivable that someone will reject any truth that conflicts with these deeply valued sentiments. For a free competition of ideas to track and produce true information, consumers have to want truth to win out, and this desire should motivate the consumer’s decision-making. In other words, one must bear a special psychological orientation toward truth for the marketplace metaphor to be an appropriate model for understanding free speech as being justified for the sake of truth. Again, free speech is important for other reasons, such as human dignity. But whether free speech is justified for the sake of truth is a separate question, and until the proper stance is taken toward truth, truth-based justifications are inapplicable.The fact that the distribution of more and more information doesn’t bear a necessary connection to truth can also be gleaned from historical examples. When a technology revolutionizes human information networks, which allows for information to be shared more efficiently and in larger quantities than ever before, the society that implements it does not therefore obtain a higher fidelity to truth. The opposite is equally plausible. This is the problem facing social media. If truth-based justifications are an appropriate way to justify free speech practices on such platforms, social media must create an environment that promotes the proper psychological orientation toward truth. What matters is whether they can care for the truth rather than adopt a stance that promotes what the philosopher Harry Frankfurt called bullsh*t, which means to be indifferent toward truth. Before explaining this further, let’s look at a historical example that demonstrates the following: First, as new technology arrives and transforms information networks, the information that is consequently distributed can equally promote both what is true and what is not; and second, and more philosophically, the technology can also reorient a society’s relationship to truth, which in turn affects how the society arrives at knowledge.Section 2:Take the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in 1440. Before its inception, the Catholic Church made Western Europe effectively an echo chamber. They dominated the information networks by controlling what could be printed, distributed, and accredited as knowledge. The vast majority of the population couldn’t read, and only a select few could read the Holy writings, which contained information that was considered the highest truth attainable by human beings. Only a select few were blessed enough to be able to handle this sort of information. Because all other information flowed from this central institution, everyone else depended on the Church for what to believe. The reality of that situation, and what it must have felt like to be in such a dependent position, can begin to be imagined by considering the following: “In the thirteenth century the library of Oxford University consisted of a few books kept in a chest under St. Mary’s Church. In 1424 the library of Cambridge University boasted a grand total of only 122 books. An Oxford University decree from 1409 stipulated that ‘all recent texts’ studied at the university must be unanimously approved ‘by a panel of twelve theologians appointed by the archbishop.’”6 When the quantity of information is this low, and in the context of the Catholic Church, is also greatly limited in diversity, it’s difficult even to imagine anything outside the worldview that is being imposed.Now, alongside the Church’s control of information networks, the production efficiency of copyists and scribes who had to manufacture the books was dismally low. It exponentially grew when the printing press automated the work. The historian Sir John Harold Clapham wrote, “A man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which about eight million books had been printed, more perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in A.D. 330.”7 The restriction on information and people’s inability to consider anything outside of the prevailing tradition, as well as the technological and productive inefficiency of the time, left most people in darkness, with no way out other than by following the dim, consoling light cast by the Church. The printing press changed all of this. “It revolutionized the world,” as the philosopher Francis Bacon said.The printing press gave people the autonomy to print and distribute ideas that the Church didn’t authorize and thereby provided the platform necessary for the Reformation to take hold, which started with Martin Luther in the early sixteenth century. There were previous attempts at reform, but the printing press made a momentous difference. The concurrence of the printing press and the Reformation revealed the corrosive corruption within the Catholic Church. People were finely able to learn about the degenerate tendencies within the institution, which the Church was previously able to stifle because it controlled the information networks. The buying and selling of Church positions and indulgences that allowed people to pay their way out of purgatory, political intrigue, nepotism, bribery, and immoral consolidation of wealth through taxes was disclosed as a consequence of the printing press. The notion that the Church was the medium by which people moved toward God’s grace collapsed, and people saw that “it had become a means of securing worldly prestige, power, and wealth for those who were clever and ruthless enough to bend it to their will.”8But this historical occurrence also unleashed a flurry of misinformation. The religious wars that followed the Reformation were devastating, and millions of people died, an exceptional case being the Thirty Years War (1618-48). The dissemination of Luther’s 95 theses regarding the corruption of the Church spread like wildfire across Europe after he posted them in 1516 on the Church Castle in Wittenberg, Germany, which the printing press made possible. It would only make sense, then, that the Church would follow suit and take advantage of the technology to combat what it held to be heresy and to reinstate its power as the dominant influence in the West (for an amalgam of reasons, of course.) All sides involved in these religious disputes didn’t merely use the printing press to disseminate accurate information. They used it to spread misinformation to satisfy their political interests, intensifying the ensuing wars and battles between the various emerging religious sects and the rising monarchies.This demonstrates the first point: the printing press, which was a revolution in human information networks, produced both true and false information. There was no causal, historical determinacy one way or the other. While it disclosed truths about Church corruption, it was also used as a means to spread political propaganda that fueled the religious wars.Now, as for the second, more philosophical point, the Reformation also reoriented people’s relation to truth by democratizing matters of faith. Whether one believes the Reformation was, in this respect, an overall good or not, from a liberal democratic point of view, it has to be considered good. The Reformation placed faith into the hands of the individual conscience, rendering considerations about one’s standing in relation to God to have a personal, rather than institutional, significance. Before, “the Church was the keeper and protector of Christian truths and the harbor of salvation for those at sea in sin.”9 Luther rejected this picture of salvation and believed one could be saved through faith and scripture alone, without an intermediary. Luther thought that one’s spiritual significance did not depend on authority. He didn’t see the Church as some emanation from God or a reflection of a Divine order that the individual participated in and was guided by to reach salvation. Individuals are solely responsible for their spiritual significance and capacity to reach a higher truth in God. In one of his more heroic acts, he translated the bible into vernacular German from the traditional Latin (which was considered the holy language, the only one appropriate for capturing religious truths). He gave common people access to what was previously sealed off from them. The individual, free from external imposition and constraint, can privately attain truth on his or her own.Luther formulated a radical inner freedom that broke with some of the Church’s fundamental precepts. There was, of course, an inner freedom already present in Catholicism, but Luther placed it at the center of things rather than as revolving around an institution. Before Luther, St. Augustine went to great lengths to demonstrate the spiritual significance of an inner life, and Luther was an Augustinian monk. But Luther went much further than him. In one of his lectures on YouTube, the philosopher Michael Sugrue observes that this amounted to a kind of Copernican Revolution in religion. That is to say that, rather than the Church being the axis by which things revolve around and where one finds his or her salvation, rather than identifying with an institution by which one finds freedom within a corporate body in which lies their place amongst others in a perfectly ordered, hierarchical, and harmonious cosmos, the individual became the center axis of spiritual and religious matters. It’s easy to see, then, how this theological idea possesses the potential to develop into the idea of individual rights and liberties. Luther provided a kind of autonomy10 for the individual, where whether one is saved is bound up with one’s inner conscience and not with external works or good deeds that the Church facilitates. The individual is an irreducible unit of value that is not subsumed by any other worldly object. And the individual's value rests in their conscience and capacity to receive God’s grace. This idea has sparks of the modern sense of human dignity, and it will create a conflagration throughout Europe as it develops. If there is no Church or institution to settle one’s moral, spiritual, and intellectual significance, one is left to use one’s faculties for guidance. And because it is one’s faculties that attain truth and spiritual salvation, they are the center of value in human life, which bears a natural right for protection.At the Diet of Worms in 1521, where Luther had to answer to charges of heresy because of his theological work, the Church demanded that he recant. He refused. But the reasons for his refusal are the most important. He demanded that the Church show him through scripture and reason alone that he was wrong and not through the dictates of authority. His protest demonstrated that the individual can reach the truth through his or her own means. The Church’s decline began far before this historical moment, but Luther made the decisive blow that the printing press made possible. The Church fragmented as a consequence, which, to Catholics, meant truth itself was fragmented and resulted in a proliferation of denominations scattered across Europe.Section 3:What was so subversive about Luther in this respect is that he divorced sanctification, the process by which one lives in the image of Christ, i.e., a life of virtue, from self-transformation. Although Luther carved out the individual as an irreducible unit of value, this also severed the individual from a stable and definite path that assuaged one’s existential suffering: “The Church… assured the individual of her unconditional love to all her children and offered a way to acquire the conviction of being forgiven and loved by God. The relationship to God was more one of confidence and love than of doubt and fear.”11 Luther believed that one was saved through faith alone and by no other means. He thought that because human beings are all sinners, their wills cannot do anything to reach salvation and spiritual peace. How, then, can one tell if they have been saved? There is no longer an authority to adjudicate this. The individual can discover the truth for themself and so must determine what this means on their own. Several centuries later, Kant gave voice to the duty he believed to arise from this new freedom:Thus, it is difficult for any individual man to work himself out of the immaturity that has all but become his nature. He has even become fond of this state and for the time being is actually incapable of using his own understanding, for no one has ever allowed him to attempt it. Rules and formulas, those mechanical aids to the rational use, or rather misuse, of his natural gifts, are the shackles of a permanent immaturity. Whoever threw them off would still make only an uncertain leap over the smallest ditch, since he is unaccustomed to this kind of free movement. Consequently, only a few have succeeded, by cultivating their own minds, in freeing themselves from immaturity and pursuing a secure course.So, while much was gained during the Reformation, the reorientation around truth also had consequences. Self-transformation, the effort of will, the idea of having an inner and outer journey that culminates into something larger and more significant, took on radically different meanings under Luther and the future Protestant countries. To see this, we can turn to Dante’s Divine Comedy, which demonstrates part of what was lost under Luther.Section 4:In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the culmination of the Medieval worldview before Luther, Dante embarks on a Christian pilgrimage that ends in his being saved. Just as with the above, it’s crucial to understand that the point here will not be exclusively religious but universal in the sense that religion, as manifested across all cultures, didn’t create this experience but was the medium by which it has been expressed and made sense of; it provides it a voice. This goes back to William James and his book The Varieties of Religious Experience. There is the private aspect of religious experience, and then there is the institutional component within which the private side takes shape. Buddhists practice meditation and strive to contemplate Nirvana; the Christian prays and goes to mass; the Stoics distance themselves from their inaccurate emotional representations and contemplate what is rational and in his or her control; and so forth. As James points out, what is fundamental to all religious experience, in the private sense, are two aspects: there is an uneasiness, which, “reduced to its simplest terms, is a sense that there is something wrong about us as we naturally stand;” and two, a solution, which “is a sense that we are saved from the wrongness by making proper connection with the higher powers (508).” The first aspect means the self is in conflict, is divided, and desires unification. In religious language, the self seeks salvation and an experience of being saved from their situation, which is characterized by suffering due to inner division and conflict. This can take on an existential mode, as with Leo Tolstoy in his book Confessions, or it can be highly moral. In Tolstoy’s book Confessions, he relates a story of a traveler being chased by a beast that imaginatively captures the relevant phenomena:Seeking to save himself from the fierce animal, the traveler jumps into a well with no water in it; but at the bottom of this well he sees a dragon waiting with open mouth to devour him. And the unhappy man, not daring to go out lest he should be the prey of the beast, not daring to jump to the bottom lest he should be devoured by the dragon, clings to the branches of a wild bush which grows out of one of the cracks of the well. His hands weaken, and he feels that he must soon give way to certain fate; but still he clings, and sees two mice, one white, the other black, evenly moving round the bush to which he hangs, and gnawing off its roots. The traveler sees this and knows that he must inevitably perish; but while thus hanging he looks about him and finds on the leaves of the bush some drops of honey. These he reaches with his tongue and licks them off with rapture. Thus I hang upon the boughs of life, knowing that the inevitable dragon of death is waiting ready to tear me, and I cannot comprehend why I am thus made a martyr. I try to suck the honey which formerly consoled me; but the honey pleases me no longer, and day and night the white mouse and the black mouse gnaw the branch to which I cling. I can see but one thing: the inevitable dragon and the mice—I cannot turn my gaze away from them.”12Clearly, Tolstoy is suffering from a serious existential episode in which he can’t find a purpose or meaning in life that will clear away his anxiety, which is represented in the dragon, which time, represented in the mice, slowly draws him near. This is his “uneasiness.” He must find a solution, then, because his situation is unlivable.Religion has historically addressed this need. In the Middle Ages, the Church was the institution through which people expressed this experience and resolved their inner conflicts, tensions, and divisions. Let’s turn to Dante’s Divine Comedy to see how the private aspect of this experience is made sense of through Christain’s notion of the pilgrimage.The poem begins with Dante suddenly becoming aware of himself, “Midway upon life’s journey,” as he says, and terrified by the fact that he’s lost in a dark world, having “gone astray,” and is in despair because he has begun to lose all hope for himself. “We know nothing of how Dante has gone astray, only that he has, and that he must undertake a journey, therefore, to save his soul.”13 He is, like Tolstoy, experiencing an “uneasiness” (though in more of a moral rather than existential sense; God is always present for Dante.) So, he has discovered that he has been living wrongly, that he’d strayed from the right path, from the way, and despite his attempts to free himself of his sins and burdens, he’s unable to do it alone. Although it’s unclear why Dante has lost his way, “the journey itself is clearer. It will take him through the entire Christian spiritual universe.”14The Roman poet Virgil is sent to initiate and lead him on this path forward. Virgil represents all of Classical learning, from the Greeks to the Romans. Though they were pagans, they represent the highest one can do as a non-Christian, which is to reach, as Aristotle said, the contemplative life15, where one can reflect on the Whole, on the cosmos. But because they didn’t have faith, they could never experience a fullness of being or completeness that produces the solution to the uneasiness that James discussed. According to Christian doctrine, only Christians may experience this. Thus, they had to remain in Hell.Now, for Dante to move down through Hell, climb up Purgatory, and then transcend into Heaven, he must engage with the Classical world by wrestling with the questions they set out to answer, which is an immensely difficult aim to take on; one that will transform the self as it moves through an activity and process of the soul, intellect, mind, or whatever it is that is the center in which human development toward the Good, as Plato would say, takes place. What’s fascinating about this ascent is that, in the Medieval worldview, it wasn’t merely an internal endeavor; it also bore a deep and profound relationship to the external world. By embarking on the Christian pilgrimage, one was, in a sense, becoming closer and closer to reality, to truth, to what is most real, which corresponded with a transformation of the self that is accompanied by an experience of fulfillment. As one ascends, one climbs what was called the Great Chain of Being, a metaphysical (ontological) thesis that was first articulated by Aristotle, which was adopted by, and adapted to, Christian thought in the thirteenth century.The Chain of Being introduces a vertical aspect to reality rather than merely a horizontal one. At the top is the highest Truth, and the lowest is the least real, i.e., the lowest level of being, which consists of matter and material objects, whereas the highest consists of what is immaterial, like consciousness or mind. And so everything and everyone grows increasingly heavier as Dante moves downward through Hell due to being weighed down by an attachment to the material, earthly substance, which produces a growing despair and lack of fulfillment. As Dante moves upward from Purgatory to Heaven, things become lighter and immaterial in proportion to how much something embodies the spiritual, divine substance, which is achieved through directing one’s desire toward the right objects, toward what is more real and true. In Plato’s allegory of the cave, as one breaks free from the chains and shadows at the bottom and climbs toward the exit where the sun can be seen, one also gains more and more insight into reality as things are illuminated more clearly through the light. Like Purgatory, the ascent up the cave is profound and challenging. But the initial insight of seeing into reality, which reveals that what was previously experienced was illusory, produces the desire to see even further into what now appears absolute and true. This desire pulls and aims Dante upward as he climbs higher toward reality and up the Great Chain of Being. The economist and philosopher E.F. Schumacher16 put the significance of this view as follows:The ability to see the Great Truth of the hierarchic structure of the world, which makes it possible to distinguish between higher and lower Levels of Being, is one of the indispensable conditions of understanding. Without it, it is not possible to find out where everything has its proper and legitimate place. Everything, everywhere, can be understood only when its Level of Being is fully taken into account. Many things are true at a low Level of Being and become absurd at a higher level, and of course vice versa.Dante’s pilgrimage, then, aims toward attaining a higher level of being than when he found himself lost in the forest. By turning inward, by engaging in a contemplative mode of being that engages the self in pursuit of an inner harmony that resonates with an external, hierarchic order, Dante is striving to attain a kind of freedom that is somewhat alien to us today. We can think of the notion of freedom in a negative and a positive sense. In the negative sense, freedom is understood as freedom from something; from external constraint, for example. The First Amendment is typically interpreted along these lines. Everyone is free to speak their minds because the state should not be allowed to interfere with our freedom to do so. All are free to do as they please as long as they do not infringe on another person’s right to do so.The positive sense is much different. It is a freedom for something. In Dante’s Hell, everyone found themselves there because they (at minimum) acted free purely in the negative sense. They lived their lives as they saw fit, without regard to any higher form of life. They didn’t act for the sake of a virtuous purpose (although that’s not quite right regarding the virtuous pagans and a few others.) To be free in the positive sense means to act according to a higher aim. When Socrates refused to renounce the philosophical life and was put to death, he made that decision based on a principle grounded in his inner conscience, which he took to express something sacred and higher, which always spoke to him when he was about to do wrong. He accepted the death penalty because the unexamined life wasn’t worth living; it had no purpose toward a higher aim17. 17Dante’s Divine Comedy provides a narrative by which the uneasiness one experiences in life, as articulated by James, can reach a solution and resolve the inner conflict and division by providing a framework by which the individual moves closer to reality, to what is most real, and up the Chain of Being.Section 5:Now, the pilgrimage captured in Dante’s poem was not something anyone could take up, at least not in its full dramatic content; it was obviously something only a select few could embark on, and this depended on the situation one was born into, like whether one was wealthy enough to receive an education. One’s salvation in the social order was rarely epic or heroic in nature; it typically meant following the structure imposed upon the individual by the Church. Just as how the cosmos was hierarchically ordered, so was society. The reasons for the social order were Divinely decreed. The social structure was immovable in a way because shifting the social order and rearranging it would violate scripture and God’s Word. Hence people were, as we would judge today, unfree and restricted. However, as psychologist Erick Fromm writes, “although a person was not free in the modem sense, neither was he alone and isolated. In having a distinct, unchangeable, and unquestionable place in the social world from the moment of birth, man was rooted in a structuralized whole, and thus life had a meaning which left no place, and no need, for doubt. A person was identical with his role in society; he was a peasant, an artisan, a knight, and not an individual who happened to have this or that occupation. The social order was conceived as a natural order, and being a definite part of it gave a feeling of security and of belonging.”18 Luther’s devastating blow against the Church in the Reformation rejected the social order and the Chain of Being and set in motion the release of the individual from the bondage they were restrained in. But by freeing the individual, he also eliminated the necessary self-transformation that played a substantial role in the Medieval worldview. Luther democratized salvation, spirituality, and questions about meaning in one’s life.This Copernican revolution in religious matters allowed for a radical reorientation toward truth, which relied on the printing press's efficiency in producing and distributing information.There were, of course, other factors that contributed to the Catholic Church's decline. The literal Copernican revolution and the rise of science being an obvious example. But what became increasingly less present in the scientific worldview that was emerging then is the idea that, as one gains knowledge of the world, one also goes through a transformative experience like Dante’s. The notion that knowledge of truth and reality converges with a meaningful and spiritual ethical development has mostly fallen off. Science’s aim is pure objectivity. For much of history, what is ‘objective’ is also intrinsically beneficial to the subject coming into contact with it. Values in scientific judgment and knowledge are a transgression, a violation of scientific precept, and are opposed to the whole epistemic enterprise (meaning a method by which knowledge is gained.) Science does not care about how one feels, what one desires in life, or what meaning one may find in it and simply presents facts as a body of indifferent and empirically verified knowledge.This is, of course, a caricature, as Thomas Kuhn19 argued in the twentieth century. Scientists certainly value their theories and are not merely attempting to refute them through experimentation. Theories allow scientists to have a grip on the world and a language of concepts that can be used to describe it accurately. This conceptual framework gives the world a theoretically intelligible and discernible order. And so once the anomalies and unsolved problems in a scientific paradigm grow serious enough, those working within it enter into a crisis until a new paradigm emerges (as is what happened when moving from Newtonian mechanics to Eistenin’s relativity.) Still, moving from one paradigm to the next isn’t believed to be an ethical progression. It’s a movement from one framework to the next. Unlike the Medieval worldview, it is generally held that science says nothing about human values and how one ought to live. Being a scientist does not suggest that someone is wise like a Socrates or Plato.Unlike the Church in the Middle Ages, which, in terms of knowledge, played a similar role to science today, science is not an institution that is in the business of handing out ethical and moral guidance. A scientist would likely balk (or should balk) at the idea of being viewed as someone who has gone through an ethical self-transformation to gain the knowledge that he or she has solely because of becoming a scientist. Being one of course requires an enormous amount of discipline, effort, and intelligence, which is, in a way, transformative, but in a different sense than what Dante embarked on. Today, knowledge of truth and reality does not necessarily correspond with an ethical progression.This idea of not requiring ethical self-transformation to gain the highest forms of knowledge is most noticeable in Rene Descartes’ philosophy in the seventeenth century. Descartes set out to rebuild a foundation through which knowledge could be rebuilt from the ruins left by the Church’s decline.20 The Church had lost its viability as something that could be believed to provide reliable knowledge for the social body. It was no longer psychologically obvious that the Church was the principal source and authority of appeal when dealing with matters of truth. Referring to scripture, for instance, could no longer be done by relying on what the Papacy had interpreted it as meaning. Luther (and others) undermined this immediacy for many. The United States faces a similar situation today. There is a diminishing trust in the democratic institutions that have historically served as distributors of trustworthy knowledge. Descartes attempted to deal with a similar crisis by discovering foundations immune from doubt. And he believed himself to have discovered such a foundation through his Cogito: I think, therefore I am. I can doubt all of my mental representations of the world, such as those of tables and chairs and coffee mugs, as well as my particular thoughts and feelings, and even the existence of my own body and sense experience. For all I know, I may be dreaming or being deceived by an evil demon into believing all kinds of imaginary and false representations of things. I can’t affirm or deny this with any certainty. But I cannot doubt that I am doubting; that much is certain. And since doubting is a property of thinking, I can’t doubt that I am thinking.Therefore, I am a thinking thing, an immaterial substance that is distinct from the physical bodies liable to doubt21. This is the most fundamental truth that not even reason could call into question. It’s radically different from truth as understood on the Chain of Being model. There is no ethical transformation involved in realizing this indubitable proposition. It’s self-evident to anyone rational and clear-minded (or so Descartes thinks.) And this is certainly how many people today think of knowledge. And in some cases, quite rightly. Take human rights as an example. John Locke22, a momentous figure who shaped the language of rights and how modernity thinks about them, argued that human rights are self-evident in the same sense as a geometric axiom. It just appears before the mind as something incapable of being doubted (to a clear, rational mind, of course, who has done the proper thinking, like someone who has rightly apprehended a geometric axiom.) The US’s founding document memorializes Locke’s claim: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” The deepest, most profound truths about humanity are ‘obvious’ to any rational mind. This is, of course, a good thing. It is good that people intuitively find one another intrinsically and irreducibly valuable. But when this notion is taken for granted, when, as we’ll soon see with John Stuart Mill, an idea grows ossified, fixed, and dogmatic, it loses its potency and desired effect. But if one arrives at the idea of human rights through a transformative process, where one realizes the concept through a process of development and growth that culminates in seeing the profound value within a conscious human being, the notion of rights is animating and action-producing; it stirs and moves the motivation of those who go through this process. In other words, it produces a particular psychological orientation around what is believed to be true.Section 6:So, information technologies do not merely distribute previously unavailable information that is then propagated across a network. Nor does the production of such information bear a natural, necessary connection to truth. They can do both, but much more is at play. The printing press allowed for the conditions necessary for the Reformation to occur, and its occurrence produced a radical shift in the Medieval worldview. Truth was hierarchically organized, and those at the top had exclusive access. The Reformation leveled this structure and diffused the notion that all Christians are equal regarding Divine knowledge. There was no need for an authoritative intermediary to facilitate people’s relation to God. People could do it themselves through faith and scripture alone. But this also meant that all the social practices instituted for the purposes of coming into contact with truth, all the rituals and rites used to reinforce the beliefs of when and how truth manifests itself, slowly went with it. Therefore, people’s orientation around truth, how they conceived of it, where it resided, and how one knew it, was disrupted. People weren’t merely given previously unavailable information; the entire information landscape was turned upside down. This can reveal new terrain within the landscape that can lead to deep and valuable truths, such as human rights and liberties, and it can also conceal older, previously established truths, like the notion of transformative experiences being necessary for coming into closer contact with reality.Similarly to the printing press, social media poses a historical parallel. We can see this by looking at the most famous defense of free speech for the sake of truth, namely, John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty. We’ll see that, like how the printing press reoriented people’s relation to truth, social media is doing so by increasingly shifting how we conceive of, participate in, and come to know the truth. As a social practice, it’s shifting the culture toward different ways of arriving at truth. It's difficult to say whether it is categorically good or bad. But the focus here will be on what would certainly be a momentous loss in our social practices regarding truth, namely, a departure from Enlightenment values.There is a developing tendency to determine the truth through sheer will rather than discussion and a dwindling desire to correct this error. People seem to care less about deliberation, compromise, tolerance, and the general agreement that the goal is to come to an inclusive decision that is in the best interests of people who share a basic respect for each other’s dignity. All political orientations have growing factions that believe the content of other’s beliefs determines how they should be viewed and treated. Rather than work toward building a community that is able to cooperate with one another and agree on a uniting set of values, the cultural attitude is moving toward a competition between wills for power. But it’s not only behaviorally motivated by power; there is also the belief that all effort by a group toward an ideal is entirely reducible to power. That very well may be true. But if it is, democracy is in a precarious position. So, if we value democracy, we should steer back toward the proper path. For Mill’s account to work, which is crucial if we wish to justify free speech for the sake of truth in Enlightenment, democratic terms23, social media should not be viewed as a truth-seeking information network24. Mill believed free speech is necessary for human flourishing in a democratic society. If it’s the people who are going to be involved in the deliberative processes of society and be the ones choosing what is best, then the people must be able to discuss and exchange ideas, opinions, and beliefs freely. However, just like how the Medieval view operated within a certain orientation around truth, which provided a framework through which truth could be arrived at, so it is with democracy. And like the printing press, social media has placed enormous tension on our democratic orientation. So, if we desire to maintain democratic values derived from the Enlightenment, then we have to take a certain stance toward social media, one that eschews the expectation that truth is situated within its environments, where we expect to discuss, debate, hash things out, and arrive at truth.Now, On Liberty offers two sets of reasons supporting free speech, the first being epistemic, meaning that the benefits have to do with knowledge, while the other set is psychologically beneficial. The first set argues that free speech is an overall good for society because if what someone says is true or partially true, both possibilities benefit a democracy. If what is said is true, it will benefit because it professes a truth that will add to the preexisting stock of knowledge. If partially true, this also contributes to preexisting knowledge; “and since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.” The second psychological set of benefits is primarily derived from the utterance of false beliefs, which have no direct epistemic benefit because they do not contribute any knowledge to form beliefs around. If what is said is wholly false, the opportunity to defend and contest it will also be an overall good because it will demand that the bearers of that knowledge account for the reasons for its truth. Mill expresses this well: “Unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds.” This then produces a further psychological benefit. By remaining a prejudice and not as something rationally grasped, “the meaning of the doctrine itself will be in danger of being lost or enfeebled, and deprived of its vital effect on the character and conduct; the dogma becoming a mere formal profession, inefficacious for good, but cumbering the ground and preventing the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction from reason or personal experience.” Therefore, contesting what is true will keep beliefs from devolving into prejudice or dogma.Section 7:The first thing to observe about Mill’s reasons for free speech is that the first set of epistemic reasons really depends on the second set (the psychological ones). But it’s peculiar to speak of the latter as ‘benefits’ because of this. It’s more accurate to say that a certain psychological orientation must give rise to them. We can think of this as a kind of feedback loop that produces the benefits Mill is speaking of. One must have the proper psychological orientation toward truth to break into this loop. That is to say that the members within a society must hold a psychological orientation toward truth that allows for the free expression of true, partially true, and false beliefs to be a net good, i.e., to bring about the best possible consequences within a democratic community. With the psychological reasons offered for free speech, notice that the benefit is derived from the speakers and listeners within the community being open to receiving true, partially true, or false utterances. The beliefs they hold must be perpetually open to revision because they may or may not be in possession of the actual true ones; they understand that their knowledge is an ongoing process, something that is constantly unfolding, and so hold a particular stance toward the free expression of beliefs.They would understand that, even in the best instances of human knowledge, the most stable kind (like knowledge of physics), it is still susceptible to be overturned by future evidence, as was the case with Newtonian mechanics and Einsteinian relativity. That is not to say truth is therefore unattainable, but only that there should be a fair degree of epistemic humility within a democratic, truth-seeking community, given that our best knowledge often falls far short of absolute certainty. As the psychological reasons specify, if the people within the community hold their beliefs as prejudices or dogmas that are fixed and unchangeable, they will be unreceptive to being challenged. So whatever anyone utters, whether true, false, or in between, it won’t provide the benefits Mill intended. There must be a certain psychological orientation toward truth for Mill’s argument to succeed.Let’s now specify what this orientation should look like and see how it’s vital in upholding free speech arguments for the sake of truth. There are three components to this orientation: (i) certain beliefs, (ii) certain desires, and (iii) certain attitudes born out of (i) and (ii). (i) consists of two beliefs. The first belief is that truth exists, and the second is that it is, in principle, knowable. (ii) consists of two desires as well. The first desire is to attain human flourishing, and the second is that truth is constitutive of this aim. Given that there is truth, one must also have the desire to attain it. But this is also a special kind of desire; it’s a desire that fulfills what must be viewed as a higher need, one that is constitutive of human flourishing or happiness. We can call this a fulfillment need. This means that we desire truth because it occupies a natural place in the space of human good. We will lack something fundamental to our flourishing if we don’t have contact with truth; we therefore both desire it and have a powerful motivation to attain it because we desire to flourish. Fulfillment needs should be understood as part of what constitutes this principal end in life that characterizes human excellence.For those who know Greek philosophy, this will sound familiar. As Aristotle says in his Ethics, all things aim at some final good. Achieving this good means for something to actualize its potential and attain excellence. The final aim of human beings is to flourish, or, in Greek, to attain eudaimonia, and to attain this means to achieve human excellence. Excellence, says Aristotle, means to fulfill the particular function assigned to a thing's nature. An eye’s function is to see, a car’s function is to drive, while the seed’s function is to grow into a plant. Human beings’ nature is to be rational, to optimize their cognition, to reduce error, and to reach the truth. Again, since the ultimate aim is to flourish, and because seeking truth is constitutive of that goal, we desire to know the truth as a fulfillment need, which helps satisfy the principal good in human life. Now, while Aristotle’s claim about human nature is of course disputable, if Mill’s argument for free speech is to work, and it’s important that it does, Aristotle’s account of human beings, or something resembling it, must be held within a democratic community.That being said, there’s a deep plausibility to the notion that humans have a fundamental need to be in contact with the truth, and presuming rationality is necessary for this, Aristotle may very well be right. In his lecture series Awakening From The Meaning Crisis, John Vervaeke offers a powerful example to illustrate this. Imagine your parents one day asking you to follow them into a hidden room you had never seen before inside your house on your eighteenth birthday. When you enter, you see a wall of monitors showing old footage of you throughout your life. Your parents then turn to you and say that your entire life has been an FBI experiment; everything has been manufactured. The love you thought to be sincere and nourishing, all the support you’ve received throughout the years, the holidays you have come to cherish, and the memories and feelings you’ve come to have are, in the most profound sense, fake. None of it was real. Your parents then tell you that you have two options. You can either act as if this incident had never happened and move on as usual, or you can move out and move on with your life. What’s the desirable option? Most of us would choose the latter. Why? Because none of what was thought to be real turned out to be true. It was all fabricated, illusory, and bore no substantive relation to reality. For the majority of us (although hopefully everyone), there is no going back to the way things previously were. The truth makes a fundamental difference in the decision-making between the two options. By discovering that our life is untrue, we feel a deep absence, a lack of fulfillment, an incompleteness on account of what we’ve learned about ourselves. An essential aspect of the decision to move on, then, is a deep motivation to discover what is in fact true. It’s like Dante when he discovers himself lost in the dark forest. We’ve been led astray, and now we desire to find the right path, which is the one that converges with truth, with what is most real. This is what happens to Jim Carrey in The Truman Show when he decides to leave that disturbing, manufactured simulation dome he was raised in. He could have stayed, but he was psychologically unable to. By obtaining this new self-knowledge, he would have never achieved eudaimonia. He would have remained stuck in life because he would have been bullsh*tting himself (again, I mean this in a technical sense and not simply as an explicative, which will be explained below.)This brings us to (iii), which is to bear a particular attitude toward truth provided (i) and (ii). The proper attitude toward truth is one of care. To care for the truth means to know how to reliably arrive at it, which means utilizing the relevant cognitive processes in forming true beliefs. Recall the quote at the beginning of the article from John Milton, which expressed that it is a heresy to arrive at a belief in the wrong way, namely, by not properly using one’s own reason. It matters, then, how we form our beliefs, and what matters is which cognitive processes are used to get there. For ease of presentation, we can use the psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s formulation of these cognitive processes from his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Kahneman lays out two cognitive systems, System 1 and System 2. “System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.” Whereas “System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration (p. 21).” To see the difference, take the two following examples of arithmetic: “2 + 2 = ?” We have an immediate cognitive reflex to such an equation, and little to no effort is required. Filling in the answer resulted from System 1. “17 x 24 =?” Now this equation typically demands more effort. A reasoning process is engaged to determine the answer that requires concentrated effort and isn’t reflexively provided. Such a process is supplied by System 2. For another example, say someone is hiking and spots a tree in the distance. If such a person cares nothing for botany, then the object will have a great deal of transparency, and the person will carry on about their day. Such a process would be within System 1. But if the person is a trained botanist and has never seen this kind of tree before (say they’re in a foreign country), they may begin to observe it, inspect it, and direct their effort toward retrieving the relevant information that may help identify the tree. That person has engaged System 2.Caring for the truth means knowing how to optimize these two systems so that System 1 and System 2 are in a recurring dialogue with one another, with the aim to arrive at the truth. Now, there are at least two aspects to this idea of care. The first can be classed as having to do with general skills in critical thinking, which primarily consists of analysis. Examples are things like working out one’s cognitive biases and reducing error. In essence, being successful in this regard means being able to reason well and work through problems rationally. Take a case of confirmation bias, for example. Imagine a republican voter who believes certain conspiracy theories about the democratic party and who is watching a presidential debate and hears the Republican candidate make an assertion attributing misconduct to the Democratic candidate. Because the assertion confirms the prior beliefs of the voter who is watching, it will be easy for that person to immediately agree with what was said. Engaging System 2 is effortful and costly in mental energy, and so it is easier, as well as cognitively more pleasurable, to passively (probably unconsciously) consent to System 1’s impulse, which presents the Republican candidate’s statement as attractive and belief-worthy. If this person cares for the truth, however, he or she would engage System 2 upon receiving what System 1 has provided with the aim of verifying whether the assertion accurately represents or corresponds to reality. Perhaps the person reasons through the assertion. If the candidate said something like, "Inflation has skyrocketed due to the current administration, which she’s a part of,” the voter watching may reason that, while it’s true inflation has risen, her position in the administration bears little to no significance on that outcome; therefore, the assertion is misinformed. Or perhaps the voter doesn’t understand government structure very well and does research, visits several sources, and concludes based on the information that the assertion is misinformed and implies an invalid conclusion. Whatever the route taken, the voter is presented with the potential to make a cognitive error through System 1, and because he or she cares for the truth, System 2 is utilized to solve the task presented.Competence in this aspect of care, which means to be a competent critical thinker, consists of knowing how to obtain propositional knowledge, which is knowledge that accurately represents reality. One has the tools and skills to work through assertions, analyze arguments, and appropriately form beliefs according to the evidence. One can situationally respond by engaging System 2 when one detects that System 1 is presented with information expressing propositions about the world. Someone who has mastered these skills has developed dispositions that engage the relevant cognitive behavior under the relevant conditions. In other words, such a person knows how to instinctively and properly respond to the appropriate cognitive stimuli.25The second aspect of caring for truth is deeper than this and, like Dante’s journey, more transformative. Caring for truth in this sense means optimizing System 1 and System 2 by using them to shape one’s conception of the good. What reason, for example, would this argument, rather than another one, be more relevant to someone competent in critical thinking? Why care about what this person has to say rather than that one? Answers to these questions will suggest the underlying conception of the good that is assumed when one finds one set of information more salient. In other words, the second aspect of caring for truth means understanding one’s conception of eudaimonia, or flourishing, which is one’s final aim and idea of human excellence. Critical thinking in the propositional sense is a highly valuable set of skills that is fundamental to the whole project of pursuing truth. But what it consists of does not provide a final criteria to judge what one should believe about human flourishing and what it amounts to. It plays a vital role in articulating and grasping this goal but won’t deliver it. In other words, critical thinking is a powerful tool in reaching one’s goals, but it itself cannot bestow the goals themselves. This requires the second aspect of caring for truth, which means optimizing System 1 and System 2 to become aware of what final end is guiding their operation. Regardless of how much one engages in critical thinking, irrespective of one’s mastery of logic and reasoning, if one never utilizes these skills toward understanding what provides the salience of one set of information over another, they may never satisfy their fulfillment need for truth.Tolstoy’s book, The Death of Ivan Illych, illustrates this. In the story the Russian protagonist, Ivan Illych, lives his life in pursuit of what is pleasant. He shuns the annoyances and discomforts that arise in life and views them, in a way, as unnatural, as occurrences that disrupt how life should be. His goal in life is to maximize pleasure and avoid pain and suffering. He’s not, however, a Don Quixote or an extreme hedonist; he’s not trying to experience all the possible pleasures one may have. He wants to live a successful and acceptable life that commands the esteem of his colleagues, makes his family happy, comfortable, and at ease, and allows him to pass through life with as few disturbances as possible. He holds a very familiar and common conception of the good.And Ivan does in fact find this success. He rises to be a great and respectable judge in Russia. He’s highly competent, makes a substantial living, and can buy and provide his family with whatever he pleases. Yet he finds himself running into the disturbances he’s always tried to avoid. He’s constantly fighting with his wife:There remained only rare periods of amorousness that came over the spouses, but they did not last long. These were islands that they would land on temporarily, but then they would put out again to the sea of concealed enmity that expressed itself in estrangement from each other. This estrangement might have upset Ivan Ilyich, if he had considered that it ought not to be so, but by now he took this situation not only as normal, but as the goal of his activity in the family. His goal consisted in freeing himself more and more from these unpleasantnesses and in giving them a character of harmlessness and decency; and he achieved it by spending less and less time with his family, and when he was forced to do so, he tried to secure his position by the presence of outsiders.He’s experiencing the “uneasiness” formulated by William James above. His solution is not to reflect on his final end in life, his conception of the good, his idea of human flourishing and excellence, but to find other means to attain it, which is to turn away from what he’s representing as unnatural and frustrating. He’s not deficient in critical thinking; he’s a highly competent and successful judge. He lacks the wisdom and self-knowledge necessary for reflecting on and evaluating what makes some things and not others salient for him, which is his goal in life to live pleasantly. There’s a reason why he finds spending less time with his family a more obvious solution than trying to get at the root of why it is he feels so frustrated and annoyed at the fact that he’s not feeling fulfilled despite his success; and he’s not utilizing System 1 and System 2 to investigate that reason, i.e., he’s not caring for truth in the second sense. It’s only until he is faced with a random, coincidental death that he realizes he hadn’t been searching for a solution to his “uneasiness” that converged with truth. Not truth in the propositional sense, but truth regarding human flourishing and excellence. Insofar as he was unable or unwilling to direct his cognition toward what was guiding it, he remained incapable of progressing and transforming toward an aim that would afford him self-awareness, self-knowledge, and, ultimately, eudaimonia.Both aspects of caring for truth matter if Mill’s benefits are to be obtained. It matters propositionally (the first aspect of care) because critical thinking and analysis are necessary for seeing information clearly and discerning whether something maps onto the world. But caring for the first aspect alone will only clear the fog, so to speak, and allow one to see the landscape with more specificity and definition. It will provide knowledge about the causal regularities that govern the territory and the predictable patterns that follow from them. It will not, however, indicate what to do with that knowledge or inform one of what it means. For free speech to be justified for the sake of truth, which means free speech plays a substantial, instrumental role in sorting out the true information from the false, people must care for the truth. They have to find it salient in the right ways. If people don’t care and don’t share the proper desire to pursue it, then no amount of discussion will necessarily bring the community any closer to the truth. They may easily settle for something else.Section 8:The claim, then, is that social media does not warrant truth-based justifications for free speech. Because social media platforms don’t promote or incentivize the psychological orientation necessary for truth-seeking but reward the opposite behaviors, the idea that one is seeking truth within such a context is false. The view that social media as a public space is best characterized as a social practice that aims toward truth has generated an insidious confusion within the culture, and we would be better off by evaluating it differently. Social media is certainly an information network, but it’s wrong to presume all information networks are oriented toward truth production.To see this, think of a university. The principal purpose of this institution is to generate knowledge (there are other purposes, of course, but put those aside.) Now, there are many parts to the structure of a university, but let’s zoom in on the classroom environment. Within it, there’s a hierarchy in place. The teacher’s purpose is to guide the students through a curriculum, get them to think critically about the information, debate and discuss it, foster their abilities to engage with it, cultivate the necessary faculties for this, and to ensure that they learn something specific about the given information, as well as something general about learning, something they can use in all cases. To achieve this, the teacher must orient the students around truth-seeking, i.e., he or she must teach the students to care for the truth, as explained above. The teacher must challenge the students’ cognitive biases. Logical errors, bad reasoning, and lack of critical thinking have to be checked, corrected, and reinforced by the teacher.Ideally, the teacher will also help the students think critically about their conceptions of the good. In the ideal scenario, the teacher not only challenges their cognition but also fosters their ability to question what human flourishing and excellence looks like. It’s ideal because claiming that this is absolutely necessary for an information network to warrant being evaluated as a truth-seeking social practice is, perhaps, too high. But it is what one should aim for. However, it’s important to bear this in mind because it will be shown that, even if the threshold is lowered in this sense, social media still fails at what any information network that is correlated with truth should provide, which is to promote the proper analytical skills in getting clearer about reality.Now, an important reason universities are trusted as truth-seeking information networks is partly because of the teacher's role in distributing that information. It’s trusted as an institution because those who go through it are supposed to have been guided by experts who demonstrate how to pursue knowledge. Students who leave the institution are expected to have participated in a social practice that taught them to be competent in their field (and hopefully to be a good human being as well, whatever that means precisely) and who can now further distribute and utilize their knowledge by applying it to other domains within society. The teacher’s function within the institution is essential to this goal and fundamental to the trust granted to the institution itself. Let’s call this function a Socratic function.27Social media doesn’t have a Socratic function, and any information network trusted as a distributor of knowledge should have something resembling it. Worse than this, however, is that social media actually promotes cognitive behavior that is opposed to the whole project of pursuing truth. As an overarching, general pattern, social media reinforces and incentivizes things like cognitive bias (the immediate and intuitive presentations of System 1.) The whole business model is aimed at maximizing attention. People easily become addicted to these platforms and binge content endlessly. The only way to achieve this is by easing the user’s cognitive effort as much as possible and stimulating them with dopamine responses, allowing the user to enter a semi-hypnotic state. Of course, not everyone is affected like this; most people can assert moderation when using social media. But in an ideal world, one where social media is optimally thriving, everyone would be glued to their screens. Practical circumstances of course make this impossible, and therefore it wouldn’t truly be in social media’s interests because no one would show up for work, but if we turn the dial on the business goals of these platforms to the max, then this would be the logical consequence; it would maximize profits.Social media serves many purposes, though, and the claim is certainly not that it is, for these reasons, entirely bad. It’s only the contexts, circumstances, and situations in which it is reflexively represented as a competent and trusted information network that deals in matters of knowledge and truth that it creates an overall deficit. This is because of the intellectual and ethical confusion it produces, which is caused by its lack of a Socratic function that incentivizes and reinforces the proper psychological orientation around truth-seeking. Again, it has the opposite aim, which is to ease the effort of System 2 as much as it can and allow System 1, with all its cognitive vulnerabilities, to be at the helm. Because of this aim, social media has a Sophistic function, which contrasts the Socratic one, whose defining characteristic is to be a bullsh*tter. As mentioned above, this notion is a technical one and needs to be properly explained.The notion of bullsht comes from the American philosopher Harry Frankfurt and his essay Bullsht. Sam Harris uses this term often, especially regarding social media. First, let’s clarify what it means to lie. Lying involves an intent to deceive on the part of the person lying, who wishes to get the other to believe something contrary to the truth. The seventeen-year-old who sneaks out, gets caught, and tells their parents that they forgot their phone at their friend’s house and went to get it in the middle of the night is lying because they’re trying to deceive their parents into believing something false about reality. But reality is still salient to their aim. Although attempting to distort it, they still have reality in their conscious field of intentions, motives, and desires, i.e., they care about truth rather than caring for it. Someone who bullshts, on the other hand, has no regard for truth. It provides no reason for consideration on its own, independent of the bullshtter’s aim. Whereas the truth matters for the liar, it’s of no concern whether what one says is true or false in the case of bullsht. The bullshter’s enterprise is characteristically different than the lier in this regard. The liar “is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false… The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor to conceal it.”26The classic archetype of a bullshtter is the salesman. The truth about whether the product sold is efficient, useful, or whatever else is indifferent to the salesman. What matters, and what distinguishes one who is good from one who is not (in the sense of achieving their goal to sell the product, pure and simple,) is whether they can deceive the consumer into believing that the bullshtter is asserting something they themselves believe. There are few constraints on what a bullshtter may say to achieve their aim. Whatever helps satisfy their goal is fair play. The liar is unable to be creative like this. They must strategically and purposefully contend with the truth by believing they know it. If the liar doesn’t in fact know the truth, this will likely spoil their plans. They will be unable to grasp the situation and will likely misunderstand what the circumstances call for. A bullshtter doesn’t need to know the truth at all. They just need to make the other person think that they do. The truth conditions of their beliefs and assertions are, by itself, irrelevant.Social media is a bullshtter in incentivizing and rewarding behavior that employs bullsht. It therefore has a Sophistic function. The chief culprit for this is, of course, the algorithms. The algorithm's aim is to curate content that maximizes user engagement and attention. Whether what it presents a user with is true or false is a matter of indifference. It can matter in a sense, but only if the user is disposed toward viewing content that is oriented around truth, which is of no concern to the algorithms. The function is to bullsht the user by minimizing cognitive effort and maximizing the incentives that will keep their attention, e.g., by triggering dopamine responses through a constant succession of content patterned according to the user’s preferences. If the user desires content that aims at truthfully representing reality, he or she has to maneuver through a minefield of bullsht. There is no Socratic function that guides them through it, as there would be in any other social practice that is considered an information network whose purpose is to distribute knowledge. The proper psychological orientation that warrants discussions about how free speech is necessary for pursuing truth within a given context is entirely absent within the social media model.Hence Mill’s influential argument for the utility of free speech for the sake of truth doesn’t apply to social media. Let’s reflect on what Mill said after this long discussion. Recall the epistemic benefits he argued for. He said that letting everyone freely express their minds produces the best outcomes within a democratic community, regardless of whether what one says is true, partially true, or false. If the truth doesn’t move people, and if the general tendency to find truth salient is absent, then letting everyone say what they think is self-undermining. Why would truth matter if everyone free to speak their mind disregards it? Seeing truth as a reason for a social practice means truth is fundamental to the aims that characterize the institution, and this means being properly oriented around it, which means caring for it.Section 9:I want to end now with a discussion about how this all relates to Nostr and how it has the potential to be an information network that performs much better than social media as a context concerned with knowledge and truth. The principal reason that will be considered here is Nostr’s pursuit of a fully decentralized model that aims at user autonomy. Autonomy makes a crucial difference between an information network that more reliably tracks truth and one that is indifferent to it.Social media reduces users' autonomy by trying to use them as a means toward further ends, namely, their attention, engagement, and data. The algorithm's job is to sort through users’ information and curate it in ways that maximize profit. This generally results in the spread of bullsht because what determines information as worth spreading does not depend on that information’s truth value. However, when users can curate their own content by judging for themselves what information they wish to retrieve from relays; when it’s left to each user to decide what content is valuable and what isn’t; when users themselves can determine what is worth censuring and not be subject to the interests of a centralized server, the aim is clearly to place autonomy back into their hands. What’s important, though, is that autonomy has a certain purpose in the Nostr context: to allow people to create at all protocol levels. Part of what a centralized server does is create a fixed infrastructure that greatly restricts what users may do on the platform (the chief restriction being to yield as much profit as possible for shareholders.) Creators especially are affected by this because the value they contribute to the platforms is filtered through what will necessarily constrain it. Nostr, however, is different. What largely motivates the value of autonomy is the desire to let creators create content freely and without outside constraints, which, of course, is to provide them freedom of expression. By users having the freedom to build and the autonomy to curate and choose what content is personally valuable to a user, truth becomes highly relevant within the context. Now, if Mill is right when he says that only true beliefs have any utility (and false beliefs necessarily lead one astray in some sense,) users who produce content will be highly incentivized to track the truth, to have an accurate representation of it, because to fail at this will result in unappealing content due to its lack of value. No centralized authority is supposed to be able to force something to appear valuable; it’s up to the users to determine this. And if something will endure and not fade once the reasons why it may have trended disappear, it needs to track the truth. If it doesn’t, if it only matters to people because it is sensational or cheap, if it’s bullsht, it will always lose in the long run.Since people on Nostr have the autonomy to build and curate their own content, unlike social media, there is less at play that can ossify the network. There must be a great deal of motion because, in principle, no user or client can monopolize the space. This built-in fluidity captures an important aspect of truth-seeking, which John Milton expressed when saying, “Knowledge thrives by exercise… Truth is compared in scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition.” Everyone has to earn their success on Nostr, so the principal way to do this is to create something valuable. Again, if Mill is right, the value must largely be derived from the truth that the content represents, creating an incentive to care for the truth. Bullsh*t can’t be forcefully distributed because it maximizes some desired metric. Information is chiefly distributed by individual users valuing it.Nostr provides a way to see if Mill was right in thinking only true beliefs have any real value. Since the intention is to move away from social media’s business model, there is an opportunity to determine whether people will naturally choose the truth through their own autonomous decision-making. If there are no algorithms that aim to seize and maximize user attention, people are free to choose what content they wish to consume. It is a choice whether truth prevails over its opposite in the Nostr context because individuals are incentivized to contribute what they want to see. And if things go astray, people can fix it by creating something better.Notes:For a similar but far more elaborate, comprehensive, and complex argument of this kind, see John Vervaeke’s Awakening From the Meaning Crisis on YouTube.For an elaboration on free speech justifications, see Greenawalt, K. (2007). Free Speech Justifications. Colombia Law Review.For a history of Free speech, see Jacob Mchangama’s book Free Speech: Socrates to Social Media.Kant, I. (1784). What is Enlightenment? (p. 1). Hacket Publishing.This is not to suggest wokism is the sole culprit of this cultural trend. It’s one example amongst others on all parts of the political spectrum. But it’s an important example because wokism aims to be virtuous and moral. Therefore, it’s a good example because it is important to question whether their moral claims are correct. Furthermore, a plausible reply on the part of one who may subscribe to something like wokism (whatever that means precisely) is that it isn’t the duty of those who have been oppressed to teach those they consider to be oppressors. The duty falls on the latter. This is a challenging question to settle, and it makes up the potentially unbridgable gulf between wokism and its opponents. But if empathy is a virtue (or a vital moral response), it’s central that everyone exercises it, not just those who are held to be guilty of something.Simpson, R. M. (2024). The Connected City of Ideas. Daedalus.Harari, N. Y. (2024). Nexus. Random House.Eisenstein, E. L. (1979). The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (p. 45). Cambridge University Press.Melchert, N. (2007). The Great Conversation (p. 304). Oxford University Press.Melchert, N. (2007). The Great Conversation. Oxford University Press.Wagner, C. (2012). Scientia Moralitas (Moral Autonomy and Responsibility - The Reformation’s Legacy in Today’s Society). Scientia Moralitas Research Institute.Fromm, E. (1941). Escape From Freedom (p. 54). Discus.James, W. (1902). The Varieties of Religious Experience (p. 54). Penguin Classics.Dreyfus, H., & Kelly, S. D. (2011). All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (p. 122). Free Press.Dreyfus, H., & Kelly, S. D. (2011). All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (p. 122). Free Press.Aristotle, A. (1953). Ethics (p. 122). Penguin Classics.Schumacher, E. (1977). A Guide For the Perplexed. Harper Colophon Books.As Isaiah Berlin makes clear in his essay Two Concepts of Liberty, it is easy to see how positive freedom may easily lead to foolish and immoral action due to its purposeful nature. It is quite challenging to dissuade someone that what they believe to be their purpose in life, their ultimate meaning, relies on false premises.Fromm, E. (1941). Escape From Freedom. Discus.Chalmers, A. (1974). What is this thing called Science? Hacket Publishing.Descartes, R. (2010). Meditations on First Philosophy. Oxford World's Classics.See Bertrand Russel’s The History of Western Philosophy for how Descartes's argument is logically invalid. He can’t doubt that some process of thinking is occurring, but whether something is doing the thinking isn’t obvious.Locke, J. Two Treatises on Government.Justice Holmes made the Marketplace metaphor popular in Abrams v United States (1919), and has become a central precedent in free speech cases.For a similar argument, see Nevin Chellappah’s “Is John Stuart Mill’s Account of Free Speech Sustainable In the Age of Social Media?”Ryle, G. (1949). The Concept of Mind. Penguin.Frankfurt, H. (1986). Bullshit. Princeton University Press.To see the Socratic function in real time, watch The Joe Rogan Experience episode #2171. Eric Weinstein demonstrates what it means for an expert to engage with someone outside their respective field who claims to have knowledge that overturns the discipline but with no professional training to back it up. His attitude demonstrates a care for truth. @yakihonne

@ cff1720e:15c7e2b2

**Introduction** The aim of ELI5 (explain me like I'm 5) is to explain difficult things simply. This is urgently needed in our high-tech world, because only by understanding the technologies can we use them properly and develop them further. &#x20; I'm starting my series with Nostr, a relatively new internet protocol. What the hell is an Internet protocol? In formal terms, it is an international standard that has ensured that the Internet has been working pretty well for over 30 years. It is the language in which computers communicate with each other and which you also use every day, probably without realizing it. http(s) transports your request to a server (e.g. Amazon), and html ensures that a nice page is created on your screen from the data supplied. A mail is sent to the mail server with smtp and retrieved from it with imap, and since everyone uses the standard, this works with every app on every operating system and with every mail provider. And with an e-mail address like <roland@pareto.space>, you can even move at any time, no matter where. Cool, that's state of the art! But why doesn't this work with chat, for example, is there no protocol? Yes, it's called IRC (Internet Relay Chat → remember the name), but it's hardly ever used. The reasons for this are not technical, but rather apps such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, TikTok and others have deliberately created incompatibilities and user dependencies in order to maximize profits.  Since the standard protocol is not used, each app has its own, and we need a handful of apps to exchange information with everyone we know. A mobile phone number is a prerequisite for every account, allowing app manufacturers to track users comprehensively and earn up to USD 30 per account per month by selling the information. The user is no longer the customer, he is the product! Advertising SPAM is the least of the problems with this business model. Servers with millions of user data are a “honey pot”, so they are often hacked and the access data sold. In 2024, the Twitter account of then President Joe Biden was also hacked and no one knew who had written the messages (nor did they before), meaning that the authenticity of the content is not guaranteed with any of these providers. In the same year, the founder of Telegram was taken into custody in France because he refused to build backdoors into his software. Now, to protect “our democracy”, practically anyone can read what information they exchange with whom, e.g. which shampoo certain politicians use.  **Why Nostr?** And anyone who actually believes they can practice freedom of expression on social media will quickly find themselves in the situation of Donald Trump (who was president at the time), whose Twitter account was shut down in 2021 (cancel culture). The user data, i.e. their profile, contacts, documents, images, videos and audio files - no longer belong to them anyway but are the property of the platform operator; read the terms and conditions. But no, not a good idea, there are hundreds of pages and they are constantly being changed. So everyone uses apps whose technology they don't understand, whose rules they don't know, where they have no rights and which steal the results of their actions. What would the five-year-old say if his older sister offered to “manage” all his toys and then hand them over if he was good? “You must be crazy”, and with that the toddler proves he has more sense than the majority of adults. **Conclusion: no standards, no data, no rights = no future!**  **How does Nostr work?** The developers of Nostr realized that the server-client concept had turned into a master-slave concept. The master is synonymous with centralization and becomes the “single point of failure”, which inevitably makes systems dysfunctional. In a distributed peer2peer system, there are no longer any masters but only equal nodes (relays) on which the information is stored. By storing information redundantly on several relays, the system is more resilient in every respect. It is not only nature that has successfully used this principle for millions of years, the Internet was also designed in this way (the ARPAnet was developed by the US military for use in war situations with massive disruptions). All nostr data is stored on relays and the user can choose between public (usually free) and private relays, e.g. for closed groups or for the purpose of data archiving. As documents are stored on several relays, unique document names (URIs = identifiers) are used instead of URLs (locators), making broken links a thing of the past, as are deletions / losses. &#x20; Each document (called an event) is signed by the owner, making it authentic and tamper-proof and can only be deleted by the creator. A key pair consisting of a private (nsec) and public key (npub) is used for this, as known from mail encryption (PGP). This represents a Nostr identity that can be supplemented with a picture, name, bio and a readable Nostr address (e.g. <roland@pareto.space> ), which is all that is needed to use all the resources of the Nostr ecosystem. And this now consists of over a hundred apps with different focuses, e.g. for personal encrypted messages (DM → OxChat), short messages (Damus, Primal), blog posts (Pareto), meetups (Joinstr), groups (Groups), images (Olas), videos (Amethyst), audio chat (Nostr Nests), audio streams (Tunestr), video streams (Zap.Stream), marketplaces (Shopstr) and much more. Registration is done with a single click (single sign-on) and ALL user data is available to the apps (profile, data, contacts, social graph → followers, bookmarks, comments, etc.), in contrast to the fragmented data silos of the present. **Summary: one open standard, all data, all rights = great future!**  **Why is Nostr the future of the internet?** “Don't build your house on someone else's property” also applies to the Internet - for all app developers, artists, journalists and users, because their data is also valuable. Nostr guarantees ownership of the data and overcomes its fragmentation. Neither use nor creative freedom is restricted by excessive license and usage conditions. Passive users become active participants through interaction, co-creators in a sharing economy (**Value4Value**). Open source finally restores trust in software and its providers. Open standards enable developers to cooperate more and develop faster, while guaranteeing freedom of choice for users. Which brings us back to our five-year-old for the last time. Children love Lego more than anything, especially the maxi box “Classic”, because it allows them to live out their imagination to the full in terms of combinations. Adults then give them the far too expensive theme packs, with which you can only build one solution according to the instructions. “What's wrong with my parents, when did they take a wrong turn?” the children rightly ask themselves. But the image can be polished up again if they show their children Nostr, because even five-year-olds understand the advantages. **The new Internet is decentralized. The new Internet is self-determined. Nostr is the new Internet.**  \ More infos: <https://nostr.net/>\ Quick start: <https://start.njump.me/>

@ 47f5dcf7:b16eadfa

The loss of sight is a grim tragedy. Are there words capable of describing the sorrow of once having been able to witness this world and all that it contains, bathed in it's wonderful colours, complimented by the symphony that the contrasts between them orchestrate; of having seen expressions on people's faces that sometimes amplify and sometimes betray the emotions of their person; of having had the agency of finding meaning in the beauty and forms of objects around you by virtue of the concepts you had read? If there are any words whose meaning can bear the burden, I am incapable of stringing them together. Tennyson believed that "**'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all**". I reframe this line to ask you not about the experience of love, but the experience of sight; "**Is it better to have sight and lost it, than to never have seen at all?**" Whatever choice one prefers, the conclusion is still tragic. I ask this question not for the sake of literary flair, but because I do believe this is the predicament most of us find ourselves in without even being minutely aware of it. Allah, in His infinite wisdom, has endowed His creation with senses on par with their purpose. The sunflower has no eyes, yet it tracks the sun, seeking the sunlight that will fuel it's photosynthesis, fulfilling it's purpose of growth. The animals possess eyes that are fine-tuned for their purpose of survival with predators having better depth perception and prey having a better field of vision. Humans also have eyes, but humans are not animals. While sharing the same basic requirements of the body, we have an intrinsic realisation that we were made for something more. If we were made for more, shouldn't our ability to see be greater than an animal's? Allah has made our eyes capable of seeing realities deeper than the soul and greater than the expanse of the universe. Our eyes do not just serve to capture the sun-rays reflected from a towering snow-capped peak to create the image of a mountain in our brains. Rather, the eyes of the body and the eyes of the soul are meant to work in conjunction to generate an overwhelming sense of awe in our hearts that compels us to reflect on the magnificence of the One Who is capable of creating multitudes of these colossal mountains. That is true "sight". *Bani Adam's* purpose is to recognise, know, and submit to Allah willingly and we have been given eyes that serve that purpose. If our eyes cannot yet acknowledge Him in the objects and events around us, then our example is of those *"...hearts they do not understand with, eyes they do not see with, and ears they do not hear with. They are like cattle. In fact, they are even less guided! Such ˹people˺ are ˹entirely˺ heedless."* ***(7:179)*** In conclusion, all I can do is ask myself, *"Can I see? Was I ever able to see? Or is it that I have lost the ability to see?*" Allahu A'lam

@ 0f061fe4:944cdb2b

There are too many ways to build and test a project with CMake. On the other hand, there is too little knowledge out there about those ways. As a consequence, people wrap the CMake invocation in custom scripts written in Bash, Python, Typescript etc. Just look at the Jenkins configuration in your company. Look at different implementations of GitHub actions/workflows for CMake. I bet what you will find is a complete framework with custom abstractions of core utilities, version control systems, the CMake command line, the actual build system, and more. Looking at the commands that actually perform the steps for configuring, building, and testing, it is very likely that you see those: ```sh mkdir -p $build_dir cd $build_dir cmake -G Ninja $source_dir ninja ninja test ``` I assume you know that CMake can create the build directory and provides an abstraction for invoking the actual build system. You should also know that the `test` target essentially just runs `ctest`. So you could simplify and generalize the above commands to this: ```sh cmake -G Ninja -S $source_dir -B $build_dir cmake --build $build_dir ctest --test-dir $build_dir ``` But did you know that CTest already provides a command line abstraction to execute the three steps? ```sh ctest --build-and-test $source_dir $build_dir \ --build-generator Ninja --test-command ctest ``` Don't ask me why the above command stops after the build step when `--test-command ctest` is omitted. After all, this mode is called "build **and test**", so just executing `ctest` would be a sane default when no test command is explicitly set by the user. Anyway, there is more. CTest also provides abstractions for the version control system, coverage analysis, and memory ckecking. But here be dragons. There are, believe it or not, four different ways to configure CTest as a dashboard client: 1. [CTest Command-Line](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.30/manual/ctest.1.html#dashboard-client-via-ctest-command-line) 2. Declarative CTest Script (undocumented) 3. [CTest Module](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.30/module/CTest.html) 4. [CTest Script](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.30/manual/ctest.1.html#dashboard-client-via-ctest-script) In the first approach, the command-line flag `-D` or a combination of `-M` and `-T` is used to control *which* steps to execute. The actual logic that is executed for those steps is controlled through a configuration file called `DartConfiguration.tcl` which is read from the current working directory. Note that the documentation claims that this approach works in an already-generated build tree. This is not true in all cases. What is definitely needed, is that the source repository is already checked out. While the source directory can be updated, it cannot be initialized with this approach. We will get back to those details later. For now, copy the following content into a file called `DartConfiguration.tcl`: ```tcl SourceDirectory: Example BuildDirectory: Example-build UpdateCommand: git ConfigureCommand: cmake -G Ninja -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS_INIT=--coverage .. CoverageCommand:gcov MemoryCheckCommand: valgrind ``` Make sure that `Example` is a directory next to the `DartConfiguration.tcl` file and contains a local clone of a git repository. Then execute the following: ```sh ctest -M Experimental \ -T Start \ -T Update \ -T Configure \ -T Build \ -T Test \ -T Coverage \ -T MemCheck ``` Observe in the output that ctest updates the repository to the latest revision, configures the project, builds it, runs the tests, analyzes the coverage, and finds some memory leaks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the second approach, the `DartConfiguration.tcl` file is replaced with a file written in the CMake syntax: ```cmake set(CTEST_SOURCE_DIRECTORY "/home/dpfeifer/Example") set(CTEST_BINARY_DIRECTORY "/home/dpfeifer/Example-build") set(CTEST_COMMAND "ctest") set(CTEST_CMAKE_COMMAND "cmake") set(CTEST_CVS_CHECKOUT "gh repo clone Example") ``` The name of the file does not really matter. I use the name `CTestScript.cmake` and invoke ctest like this: ```sh ctest --script CTestScript.cmake --verbose ``` Remember that, with the previous approach, it was impossible to initialize the source directory? With this approach, it is possible via the `CTEST_CVS_CHECKOUT` variable. Despite the name, this variable can be used to checkout a repository with any version control system, as shown in the example. However, updating probably only works with CVS. What is worse, is that this approach basically just handles the `update`, `configure`, and `test` steps. Yes, the project is not even built before running the tests. I wonder if anyone finds this useful. Why am I even mentioning this approach when it is so barely useful? Because it can get in the way when you don't expect it. I will get back to that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The third approach also allows setting variables in the CMake syntax. Not in a separate file, but in the top level project's `CMakeLists.txt` file, right before `include(CTest)`. This module internally calls `configure_file` to place `DartConfiguration.tcl` into the build tree. Now, it becomes clear why the documentation claims that `ctest` may be invoked with command-line flags `-D`, `-M`, and `-T` in an already-generated build tree: Because the CTest module places `DartConfiguration.tcl` there. It also becomes clear under which circumstance it does *not* work as advertized: When the project does not `include(CTest)`! But when a project does `include(CTest)`, it will get several custom targets like `ExperimentalCoverage` that will execute `ctest -D ExperimentalCoverage`. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The last approach uses the same file and command-line as the second one. The difference is that the build-and-test logic is scripted with CTest commands: ```cmake cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14) set(CTEST_SOURCE_DIRECTORY "/home/dpfeifer/Example") set(CTEST_BINARY_DIRECTORY "/home/dpfeifer/Example-build") set(CTEST_CMAKE_GENERATOR "Ninja") find_program(CTEST_GIT_COMMAND "git") find_program(CTEST_COVERAGE_COMMAND "gcov") find_program(CTEST_MEMORYCHECK_COMMAND "valgrind") cmake_host_system_information(RESULT NPROC QUERY NUMBER_OF_LOGICAL_CORES) if(NOT EXISTS ${CTEST_SOURCE_DIRECTORY}) set(CTEST_CHECKOUT_COMMAND "gh repo clone Example") endif() ctest_start("Experimental") ctest_update() ctest_configure(OPTIONS -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS_INIT=--coverage) ctest_build(PARALLEL_LEVEL ${NPROC}) ctest_test(PARALLEL_LEVEL ${NPROC}) ctest_coverage() ctest_memcheck(PARALLEL_LEVEL ${NPROC}) ``` This is the only approach that can both initialize *and* update the source directory. It is also the only approach that allows you to execute the same step more than once. Imagine you want to use a multi-config generator and then run `ctest_build` for each configuration. It gives full control over the logic what steps to run under what conditions. Imagine you want to run the expensive memory checking only when the build finishes without warnings, as the warnings may already indicate memory issues. The possibilities are endless. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How does `ctest --script` distinguish between "CTest Script" mode and the dreaded "Declarative CTest Script" mode? At the beginning of the script, CTest implicitly sets the variable [`CTEST_RUN_CURRENT_SCRIPT`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.30/variable/CTEST_RUN_CURRENT_SCRIPT.html) to 1. Each of the `ctest_*` functions sets the variable to 0. When this variable is still 1 at the end of the script, CTest assumes that none of the `ctest_*` functions have been called. However, when the `ctest_*` functions are called from inside a scoped block, there may be cases when the variable is unchanged. In such cases, it is necessary to explicitly `set(CTEST_RUN_CURRENT_SCRIPT 0)`. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My recommendation to everyone who wants to setup a CI system for CMake projects is to use a CTest Script. For an example GitHub action built using a CTest script have a look at [purpleKarrot/cmake-action](https://github.com/purpleKarrot/cmake-action). The fact that there are so many different approaches to the same use case is an issue in my optionion. Also, the user experience of the CTest scripts needs to be improved. I have some ideas how those issues can be addressed. I will write about them in a follow up.

@ b17fccdf:b7211155

Some guides on MiniBolt / RaMiX have suffered some modifications and need additional instructions to migrate. Here is a summary: 🔘 New installation/update instructions of [BTC RPC Explorer](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bitcoin/bitcoin/blockchain-explorer) to avoid [this issue](https://github.com/janoside/btc-rpc-explorer/issues/668). 🔘 New installation/update method of [Node + NPM](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/nodejs-npm). 🔘 New installation/update method of [PostgreSQL](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/postgresql) ~ > **Attention!** If you installed PostgreSQL **after 30/09/2024**, you do not need to follow these steps related to PostgreSQL. --- ## Update Nodejs + NPM to the latest LTS version (using the new method) > Guide related: [Node + NPM](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/nodejs-npm) > **Context:** The installation/upgrade section of this guide has suffered some modifications, so to upgrade to the latest LTS released version using the new installation method, you need to follow the next steps: * Stop the Nodejs + NPM dependencies: ``` sudo systemctl stop thunderhub btcrpcexplorer ``` * With user **admin**, update the packages and upgrade to keep up to date with the OS, press "y" and ENTER when needed or ENTER directly: ``` sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade ``` * Change to a temporary directory which is cleared on reboot: ``` cd /tmp ``` * Set the environment variable of the version: ``` VERSION=22 ``` * We will use the new NodeSource Node.js Binary Distributions repository [instructions](https://github.com/nodesource/distributions?tab=readme-ov-file#using-ubuntu-nodejs-22). Download the setup script: ``` curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_$VERSION.x -o nodesource_setup.sh ``` * Run the setup script: ``` sudo -E bash nodesource_setup.sh ``` * Update the package manager and update Node.js + NPM to the latest LTS version: ``` sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade ``` * Check the correct update of NodeJS: ``` node -v ``` **Example** of expected output: ``` v22.12.0 ``` * Check the correct installation of NPM: ``` npm -v ``` **Example** of expected output: ``` 10.9.0 ``` * **(Optional)** Delete the setup script: ``` rm nodesource_setup.sh ``` * Start again the Nodejs + NPM dependencies: ``` sudo systemctl start thunderhub btcrpcexplorer ``` ----------- ## Update BTC RPC Explorer to the latest version > Guide related: [2.3 Blockchain explorer: BTC RPC Explorer](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bitcoin/bitcoin/blockchain-explorer) > **Context:** After [this notice](https://t.me/minibolt_news/37), if you deleted the `deprecatedrpc=warnings` flag because it is no longer necessary, it is probably that the ["**Node Details**"](https://explorer.minibolt.info/node-details) section of the BTC RPC Explorer got you [this error](https://github.com/janoside/btc-rpc-explorer/issues/668), this is because after the Bitcoin Core v28 update, just like LND, Electrs and other services, they have needed an update to remain compatible. BTC RPC Explorer was updated on this [commit](https://github.com/janoside/btc-rpc-explorer/commit/01585b7825afe0eb3e8f6cf39e9e135a20c8c2dd), but an official version that includes this correction has not been officially released yet. To fix this, it is necessary to **point to the current source code** and not the one related to the last released version (3.4.0). **~ >** Get instructions to get this by following these steps and fix the issue ~ > [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bitcoin/bitcoin/blockchain-explorer#upgrade) < ~ ----------- ## Update PostgreSQL (server instance migration & others) > Guide related: [PostgreSQL](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/postgresql) > **Attention!!** If you installed PostgreSQL **after 30/09/2024**, **you don't need to do anything**, and the next steps don't apply to your case. > **Context:** With each major version jump of PostgreSQL, the update creates a new and dedicated cluster and folder with the number of each version. Also, the changes made between versions cause the need to migrate the database, that is, from one cluster to another, with a specific tool. This was unknown at the beginning, before creating the MiniBolt PostgreSQL installation guide, so a specific folder for the versions was not created. The [installation section](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/postgresql#installation) was changed past **30/09/2024** to use this new method, but people who followed the PostgreSQL installation before that, need to do things to be in line with the MiniBolt guide. Following the next steps, we are going to do the necessary migrations, the summary is the next: **1.** Migrate the PostgreSQL database to a new location (*a dedicated folder for each version*). **2.** Migrate from PostgreSQL server version 16 to 17. --- **Verification** If you are not sure whether you installed PostgreSQL before or after the mentioned date (**30/09/2024**), you can check as follows: * With user `admin` list the existing clusters: ``` pg_lsclusters ``` Expected output if you installed PostgreSQL **after 30/09/2024**, **(you don't need do anything)**: ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 17 main 5432 online postgres /data/postgresdb/17 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log ``` Expected output if you installed PostgreSQL **before 30/09/2024**, and performed a full upgrade of the MiniBolt with **`sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade`**, **(you need to follow the next steps)**: ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5432 online postgres /data/postgresdb /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log 17 main 5433 down postgres /var/lib/postgresql/17/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log ``` Expected output **if you have not** performed a full upgrade of the MiniBolt with `sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade` **since 26/09/2024 (the PostgreSQL v17 release)** (unlikely case) **(you need to follow the next steps)**: ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5432 online postgres /data/postgresdb /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log ``` --- ### **Migrate the PostgreSQL database to the new location** > (Only if you installed PostgreSQL following the MiniBolt guide **before 30/09/2024**) * Show the existing clusters to show the current path of the database: ``` pg_lsclusters ``` **~ >** Expected output **if you have not** performed a full upgrade of the MiniBolt with `sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade` **since 26/09/2024 (PostgreSQL v17 release)** (unlikely): ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5432 online postgres /data/postgresdb /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log ``` **~ >** Expected output **if you have** performed a full upgrade of the MiniBolt with `sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade` **since 26/09/2024 (PostgreSQL v17 release)** (most likely): ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5432 online postgres /data/postgresdb /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log 17 main 5433 down postgres /var/lib/postgresql/17/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log ``` ~ > Check the current "Data directory" column value of the cluster 16 **(/data/postgresdb)** for the future, we have changed this to a dedicated folder for each version (`/data/postgresdb/16`, `/data/postgresdb/17`, `/data/postgresdb/18`, etc.) * Stop the PostgreSQL dependencies and the PostgreSQL version 16 cluster: ``` sudo systemctl stop thunderhub scbackup btcpay lnd nbxplorer nostrelay cloudflared postgresql@16-main ``` ~ > Ensure all services are successfully stopped by monitoring the logs of each service, especially **lnd** ~ > `journalctl -fu lnd`. * Monitor the logs of the PostgreSQL version 16 cluster to ensure that it has been stopped gracefully: ``` journalctl -fu postgresql@16-main ``` Expected output: ``` minibolt systemd[1]: Stopping PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main... minibolt systemd[1]: postgresql@16-main.service: Deactivated successfully. minibolt systemd[1]: Stopped PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main. ``` ~ > Press `Ctrl + C` to continue. * Create a temporary directory in a place out of the `/data/postgresdb` to move the data securely: ``` sudo mkdir /tmp/postgresdb-temp ``` * Sync the existing data of the current directory `/data/postgresdb` to this temporary directory: ``` sudo rsync -av /data/postgresdb/ /tmp/postgresdb-temp/ ``` Example of expected output: ``` [...] pg_xact/ pg_xact/0000 [...] sent 40,397,103 bytes received 18,619 bytes 80,831,444.00 bytes/sec total size is 40,330,914 speedup is 1.00 ``` ~ > Wait until the prompt shows up again. * Change to the user `root` temporary: ``` sudo su ``` * Delete the content of the folder that hosted the original database: ``` sudo rm -rf /data/postgresdb/* ``` * Come back to the `admin` user: ``` exit ``` * Create a new specific and dedicated folder to the version number and to be in line with the [new and current storage method](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/postgresql#create-data-folder) of the current guide: ``` sudo mkdir /data/postgresdb/16 ``` * Assign as the owner to the user `postgres`: ``` sudo chown postgres:postgres /data/postgresdb/16 ``` * Assign the correct permissions to the folder: ``` sudo chmod 700 /data/postgresdb/16 ``` * Now you can sync the data from the temporary directory to `/data/postgresdb/16` in a secure way since this directory is not inside the source directory: ``` sudo rsync -av /tmp/postgresdb-temp/ /data/postgresdb/16/ ``` Example of expected output: ``` [...] pg_xact/ pg_xact/0000 [...] sent 40,397,103 bytes received 18,619 bytes 80,831,444.00 bytes/sec total size is 40,330,914 speedup is 1.00 ``` ~ > Wait until the prompt shows up again. * Modify the configuration file (`postgresql.conf`) of the PostgreSQL to point to the new directory folder created: ``` sudo nano +42 /etc/postgresql/16/main/postgresql.conf ``` * Replace the data directory location to match with the new path: ``` data_directory = '/data/postgresdb/16' ``` * Start again the PostgreSQL service instance: ``` sudo systemctl start postgresql@16-main ``` * Monitor the logs of the PostgreSQL version 16 cluster to ensure that it works fine: ``` journalctl -fu postgresql@16-main ``` Expected output: ``` minibolt systemd[1]: Starting PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main... minibolt systemd[1]: Started PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main. ``` ~ > Press `Ctrl + C` to continue. * Check the new database location with: ``` pg_lsclusters ``` ~ > Expected output **if you have not** performed a full upgrade of the MiniBolt with `sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade` **since 26/09/2024** (unlikely): ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5432 online postgres /data/postgresdb/16 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log ``` ~ > Expected output **if you have** performed a full upgrade of the MiniBolt with `sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade` **since 26/09/2024** (most likely): ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5432 online postgres /data/postgresdb/16 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log 17 main 5433 down postgres /var/lib/postgresql/17/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log ``` ~ > Check the new path on the "Data directory" column value of the cluster version 16, now **(/data/postgresdb/16)**. * Start again the PostgreSQL dependencies services: ``` sudo systemctl start lnd nbxplorer btcpay thunderhub scb-backup nostr-relay cloudflared ``` ~ > Check all work fine with the logs of each service, especially **lnd** ~ > `journalctl -fu lnd`. * Stop again the PostgreSQL dependencies services, to continue working: ``` sudo systemctl stop thunderhub scbackup btcpay lnd nbxplorer nostrelay cloudflared ``` ~ > Ensure all services are successfully stopped by monitoring the logs of each service, especially **lnd** ~ > `journalctl -fu lnd`. ### **Migrate from PostgreSQL server version 16 to 17** > (Only if you installed PostgreSQL following the MiniBolt guide **before 30/09/2024**) > **Context:** If you fully updated your OS after **26/09/2024** (the PostgreSQL v17 launched), using `sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade`, and **you installed PostgreSQL before that date** following [the PostgreSQL MiniBolt guide](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/postgresql), it is likely that you now are using the old version (v16) of the PostgreSQL server instance. To confirm that, follow the next steps: **Check the PostgreSQL server version in use** * With the user `admin`, enter the psql (PostgreSQL CLI): ``` sudo -u postgres psql ``` * Enter the next command to get the server version: ``` SELECT version(); ``` Expected output: ``` version ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PostgreSQL 16.6 (Ubuntu 16.6-1.pgdg22.04+1) on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Ubuntu 11.4.0-1ubuntu1~22.04) 11.4.0, 64-bit (1 row) ``` ~ > Check the previous version is "PostgreSQL 16.6" (an outdated version of the PostgreSQL server), the latest version is PostgreSQL 17.2. 🔧✅ We are going to fix this in the next steps. * Come back to the `admin` user bash prompt: ``` \q ``` * List the cluster to show the state of the both PostgreSQL server instances: ``` pg_lsclusters ``` ~ > Expected output **if you have not** performed a full upgrade of the MiniBolt with `sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade` **since 26/09/2024** (unlikely): ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5432 online postgres /data/postgresdb/16 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log ``` ~ > Expected output **if you have** performed a full upgrade of the MiniBolt with `sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade` **since 26/09/2024** (most likely): ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5432 online postgres /data/postgresdb/16 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log 17 main 5433 down postgres /var/lib/postgresql/17/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log ``` **Update PostgreSQL** If you haven't done so before, make sure to update the OS (PostgreSQL included to the latest version 17): * With user `admin`, fully update the OS with the package manager: ``` sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade ``` ~ > Press "y" and enter or directly enter when the prompt asks you. ----------- #### **PostgreSQL server migration** * Stop all existing clusters: ``` sudo systemctl stop postgresql@16-main postgresql@17-main ``` * Create a new database destination folder for the v17 cluster ready for migration from v16: ``` sudo mkdir /data/postgresdb/17 ``` * Assign the owner as the postgres user: ``` sudo chown postgres:postgres /data/postgresdb/17 ``` * Assign the correct permissions: ``` sudo chmod 700 /data/postgresdb/17 ``` * Delete the cluster created by default for v17: ``` sudo -u postgres pg_dropcluster 17 main ``` * Update the systemd: ``` sudo systemctl daemon-reload ``` * Start the migration with the PostgreSQL migration tool: ``` sudo -u postgres pg_upgradecluster 16 main /data/postgresdb/17 ``` **~ >** ⌛ This may take a lot of time depending on the existing database size (the nostr relay database especially) and your machine's performance; it is recommended to use [tmux](https://github.com/tmux/tmux). Wait until the prompt shows up again. Example of expected output: ``` Restarting old cluster with restricted connections... Notice: extra pg_ctl/postgres options given, bypassing systemctl for start operation Creating new PostgreSQL cluster 17/main ... /usr/lib/postgresql/17/bin/initdb -D /data/postgresdb/17 --auth-local peer --auth-host scram-sha-256 --no-instructions --encoding UTF8 --lc-collate en_US.UTF-8 --lc-ctype en_US.UTF-8 --locale-provider libc The files belonging to this database system will be owned by user "postgres". This user must also own the server process. The database cluster will be initialized with locale "en_US.UTF-8". The default text search configuration will be set to "english". Data page checksums are disabled. fixing permissions on existing directory /data/postgresdb/17 ... ok creating subdirectories ... ok selecting dynamic shared memory implementation ... posix selecting default "max_connections" ... 100 selecting default "shared_buffers" ... 128MB selecting default time zone ... Etc/UTC creating configuration files ... ok running bootstrap script ... ok performing post-bootstrap initialization ... ok syncing data to disk ... ok Warning: systemd does not know about the new cluster yet. Operations like "service postgresql start" will not handle it. To fix, run: sudo systemctl daemon-reload Copying old configuration files... Copying old start.conf... Copying old pg_ctl.conf... Starting new cluster... Notice: extra pg_ctl/postgres options given, bypassing systemctl for start operation Running init phase upgrade hook scripts ... Roles, databases, schemas, ACLs... set_config ------------ (1 row) set_config ------------ (1 row) Fixing hardcoded library paths for stored procedures... Upgrading database postgres... Fixing hardcoded library paths for stored procedures... Upgrading database template1... Stopping target cluster... Stopping old cluster... Disabling automatic startup of old cluster... Starting upgraded cluster on port 5432... Warning: the cluster will not be running as a systemd service. Consider using systemctl: sudo systemctl start postgresql@17-main Running finish phase upgrade hook scripts ... vacuumdb: processing database "postgres": Generating minimal optimizer statistics (1 target) vacuumdb: processing database "template1": Generating minimal optimizer statistics (1 target) vacuumdb: processing database "postgres": Generating medium optimizer statistics (10 targets) vacuumdb: processing database "template1": Generating medium optimizer statistics (10 targets) vacuumdb: processing database "postgres": Generating default (full) optimizer statistics vacuumdb: processing database "template1": Generating default (full) optimizer statistics Success. Please check that the upgraded cluster works. If it does, you can remove the old cluster with pg_dropcluster 16 main Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5433 down postgres /data/postgresdb/16 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 17 main 5432 online postgres /data/postgresdb/17 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log ``` * Reload the systemd again: ``` sudo systemctl daemon-reload ``` * List the clusters to show the state: ``` pg_lsclusters ``` Expected output: ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5433 down <unknown> /data/postgresdb/16 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log 17 main 5432 online <unknown> /data/postgresdb/17 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log ``` ~> **Notes:** * Don't worry about the <unknown> output of the "Owner" column. * Note how the old 16 cluster has automatically gone into status "down" after the migration. --- * Stop the version 17 cluster using the `pg_ctlcluster` tool, to then be able to run it and manage it with `systemd`: ``` sudo pg_ctlcluster 17 main stop ``` * List the clusters again to show the state: ``` pg_lsclusters ``` Expected output: ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5433 down <unknown> /data/postgresdb/16 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log 17 main 5432 down <unknown> /data/postgresdb/17 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log ``` **~>** Note how the version 17 cluster has gone into status "down". * Start the version 17 cluster with systemd: ``` sudo systemctl start postgresql@17-main ``` * Monitor the logs of the PostgreSQL version 17 cluster to ensure that it working fine with `systemd`: ``` journalctl -fu postgresql@17-main ``` Expected output: ``` minibolt systemd[1]: Starting PostgreSQL Cluster 17-main... minibolt systemd[1]: Started PostgreSQL Cluster 17-main. ``` ~ > Press `Ctrl + C` to continue. * List the clusters again to show the state: ``` pg_lsclusters ``` Expected output: ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 16 main 5433 down <unknown> /data/postgresdb/16 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log 17 main 5432 online <unknown> /data/postgresdb/17 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log ``` **~>** Note how the version 17 cluster has come back into the status "online". * Delete the version 16 (old and disused) cluster: ``` sudo pg_dropcluster 16 main ``` * List again the clusters to check the correct deletion: ``` pg_lsclusters ``` Expected output: ``` Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file 17 main 5432 online <unknown> /data/postgresdb/17 /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log ``` **~>** Note how it no longer appears version 16 (old and disused) cluster. **Check the PostgreSQL server version in use** * With the user `admin`, enter the psql (PostgreSQL CLI): ``` sudo -u postgres psql ``` * Enter the next command to get the server version: ``` SELECT version(); ``` Example of expected output: ``` version ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PostgreSQL 17.2 (Ubuntu 17.2-1.pgdg22.04+1) on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Ubuntu 11.4.0-1ubuntu1~22.04) 11.4.0, 64-bit (1 row) ``` **~ >** Check the previous version in use is now PostgreSQL 17.2 (the latest and current version of the PostgreSQL server at this moment). * Come back to the `admin` user bash prompt: ``` \q ``` * Start again the PostgreSQL dependencies services: ``` sudo systemctl start lnd nbxplorer btcpay thunderhub scb-backup nostr-relay cloudflared ``` ~ > Check all works fine with the logs of each service, especially **lnd** ~ > `journalctl -fu lnd`. * **(Optional)** Once you have verified that everything is working correctly, you can delete the created PostgreSQL backup and temporary directory: ``` sudo rm -rf /tmp/postgresdb-temp ``` * Delete unnecessary packages: ``` sudo apt autoremove ``` ~ > Press "y" and ENTER when needed or ENTER directly when the prompts ask you. --- ✅ That's it! If you have any questions or issues, you can go to any RRSS available for the MiniBolt project ~ > [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/#community) < ~ --- Only for MiniBolters! Enjoy it! 💙

@ b17fccdf:b7211155

~ > **Check out the steps to get this** ~ > [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/static-ip-and-custom-dns-servers#dot-doh--dnssec) < ~ **Note:** for different reasons, it is recommended choosing [Option 1: DoT & DNSSEC using systemd-resolved](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/static-ip-and-custom-dns-servers#option-1-use-dot-and-dnssec-validation-with-systemd-resolved), but you could want to use [Option 2](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/static-ip-and-custom-dns-servers#option-2-use-doh-with-cloudflared-proxy-dns), choose behind your criteria, both are valid to achieve the same objective. ----------- Some more changes were released recently in other places of the MiniBolt guide, check the full release notes: #### **Full release notes** ~ > [Static IP & custom DNS servers](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/static-ip-and-custom-dns-servers) bonus guide: - Adds custom DNS server suggestions. - Adds different steps to check the changes after configurations. - Deleted some unnecessary steps. - Fix some nits. --- ~ > Modifications on [Configuration](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bitcoin/bitcoin/bitcoin-client#configuration) (`bitcoin.conf`) of [Bitcoin Core](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bitcoin/bitcoin/bitcoin-client): - Replace proxy value parameter to use UNIX domain socket (`proxy=unix:/run/tor/socks`) | (recently [enabled](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/27375) on Bitcoin Core v28). - Replace `startupnotify=chmod g+r /home/bitcoin/.bitcoin/.cookie` to `rpccookieperms=group` [Bitcoin Core PR](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/28167). - Adds another special bind address to listen to incoming connections from Tor (`bind=127.0.0.1=onion`) | (recently [changed](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/release-notes/release-notes-28.0.md#p2p-and-network-changes) on Bitcoin Core v28). - Modified [systemd service](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bitcoin/bitcoin/bitcoin-client#create-systemd-service) to improve the startup and shutdown process. **Note:** remember to restart Bitcoin Core and reload the systemd with `sudo systemctl daemon-reload` to apply changes. --- ~ > Delete unnecessary parameters of the [systemd service](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning/lightning-client#create-systemd-service) of [Lightning client](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning/lightning-client). **Note:** remember to reload the systemd with `sudo systemctl daemon-reload` to apply changes. --- ~ > **Others:** - New [i2pd webconsole](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/system/system/privacy#access-to-the-i2pd-webconsole) section. - Adds a new ["Validation"](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bitcoin/bitcoin/bitcoin-client#validation) subsection to the guides to clarify when checks begin. - New "[Use the Tor proxy from another device](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/system/system/privacy#use-the-tor-proxy-from-another-device)" section. - Adds Electrs [compatible with Testnet4](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/bitcoin/minibolt-on-testnet#bitcoin-electrs) on Testnet bonus guide. - Adds how to build a [Guard/Middle relay](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/tor-services#guard-middle-relay) section on "Tor services: bridges & relays" bonus guide. - Adds [Extras (optional)](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/tor-services#extras-optional) section to "Tor services: bridges & relays" bonus guide with different utilities like install Nyx, how to "Limit bandwidth" and others. - Changed [Electrs](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/bitcoin/electrs) ports to enable simultaneous mode with Fulcrum. - [Updated aliases](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/aliases#upgrades) list to include news additions in line with updates. - Updated the [Networkmap](https://bit.ly/minibolt-ramix_netmap) resource to include news additions in line with updates and migrate to a dynamic visual mode. - Reorganized some menu items and sections to improve the UX and make more sense in the face of the future. - Restructure and rename the "Tor obfs4 bridge" bonus guide to ["Tor services: bridges & relays"](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/tor-services) and modify it to run the obfs4bridge, relays, and the master, in separate instances. - Hidden [NYM mixnet](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/nym-mixnet) and [Sparrow server](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/bitcoin/sparrow-server) bonus guides from the menus due to disuse or poor performance. **Note:** it will continue to be maintained later if the situation changes due to the development of the associated software. - Bump version of various services. --- ~ > **Coming soon...** - Enable DNSSEC for your domain using Cloudflare + Namecheap. - Enable DoH on: - Desktop/Android browser (Windows/Linux). - OS: Windows 11 // Linux ([Completed](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/static-ip-and-custom-dns-servers#option-2-use-doh-with-cloudflared-proxy-dns) ✅) - Router. - Enable DoT on: - Android OS. - OS: Windows 11 // Linux ([Completed](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/static-ip-and-custom-dns-servers#option-1-use-dot-and-dnssec-validation-with-systemd-resolved) ✅) with DNSSEC verification included. - Router. --- Enjoy it MiniBolter!💙

@ b17fccdf:b7211155

--- **CHECK OUT at** ~ > **[ramix.minibolt.info](https://ramix.minibolt.info)** < ~ --- **Main changes:** * **Adapted to Raspberry Pi 5**, with the possibility of using internal storage: a PCIe to M.2 adapter + SSD NVMe: > *Connect directly to the board, **remove the instability issues** with the USB connection, and unlock the ability to enjoy **higher transfer speeds*** * **Based on Debian 12** (Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm - 64-bit). * **Updated all services** that have been tested until now, to the latest version. * Same as the MiniBolt guide, changed I2P, Fulcrum, and ThunderHub guides, to be **part of the core guide**. * **All UI & UX improvements in the MiniBolt guide** are included. * Fix some links and wrong command issues. * Some existing guides have been improved to **clarify the following steps**. --- **Important notes:** * The RRSS will be the same as the MiniBolt original project (for now) | More info -> [HERE](https://ramix.minibolt.info/#community) <- * The common resources like the [Roadmap](https://github.com/orgs/minibolt-guide/projects/1) or [Networkmap](https://bit.ly/minibolt-ramix_netmap) have been merged and will be used together | Check -> [HERE](https://ramix.minibolt.info/#resources) <- * The attempt to upgrade from Bullseye to Bookworm (RaspiBolt to RaMiX migration) has failed due to **several difficult-to-resolve dependency conflicts**, so unfortunately, there will be no dedicated migration guide and **only the possibility to start from scratch** ☹️ ⚠️ **Attention**‼️-> This guide is in the WIP (work in progress) state and hasn't been completely tested yet. Many steps may be incorrect. Pay special attention to the "**Status: Not tested on RaMiX**" tag at the beginning of the guides. Be careful and act behind your responsibility. --- For Raspberry Pi lovers!❤️🍓 Enjoy it RaMiXer!! 💜 --- By [⚡2FakTor⚡](nostr:npub1k9luehc8hg3c0upckdzzvusv66x3zt0eyw7290kclrpsndepz92sfcpp63) for the plebs with love ❤️🫂

@ b17fccdf:b7211155

The past 26 August, Tor [introduced officially](https://blog.torproject.org/introducing-proof-of-work-defense-for-onion-services/) a proof-of-work (PoW) defense for onion services designed to prioritize verified network traffic as a deterrent against denial of service (DoS) attacks. ~ > This feature at the moment, is [deactivate by default](https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor/-/blob/main/doc/man/tor.1.txt#L3117), so you need to follow these steps to activate this on a MiniBolt node: * Make sure you have the latest version of Tor installed, at the time of writing this post, which is v0.4.8.6. Check your current version by typing ``` tor --version ``` **Example** of expected output: ``` Tor version 0.4.8.6. This build of Tor is covered by the GNU General Public License (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html) Tor is running on Linux with Libevent 2.1.12-stable, OpenSSL 3.0.9, Zlib 1.2.13, Liblzma 5.4.1, Libzstd N/A and Glibc 2.36 as libc. Tor compiled with GCC version 12.2.0 ``` ~ > If you have v0.4.8.X, you are **OK**, if not, type `sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade` and confirm to update. * Basic PoW support can be checked by running this command: ``` tor --list-modules ``` Expected output: ``` relay: yes dirauth: yes dircache: yes pow: **yes** ``` ~ > If you have `pow: yes`, you are **OK** * Now go to the torrc file of your MiniBolt and add the parameter to enable PoW for each hidden service added ``` sudo nano /etc/tor/torrc ``` Example: ``` # Hidden Service BTC RPC Explorer HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service_btcrpcexplorer/ HiddenServiceVersion 3 HiddenServicePoWDefensesEnabled 1 HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:3002 ``` ~ > Bitcoin Core and LND use the Tor control port to automatically create the hidden service, requiring no action from the user. We have submitted a feature request in the official GitHub repositories to explore the need for the integration of Tor's PoW defense into the automatic creation process of the hidden service. You can follow them at the following links: * Bitcoin Core: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/issues/8002 * LND: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/28499 --- More info: * https://blog.torproject.org/introducing-proof-of-work-defense-for-onion-services/ * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/onion-services/onion-support/-/wikis/Documentation/PoW-FAQ --- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

@ b17fccdf:b7211155

It turns out that Ubuntu Linux installations of Ubuntu 23.04, 22.04.3 LTS, and installs done since April 2023 that accepted the Snap version update haven't been following Ubuntu's own recommended security best practices for their security pocket configuration for packages. A new Subiquity release [was issued](https://github.com/canonical/subiquity/releases/tag/23.09.1) to fix this problem while those on affected Ubuntu systems already installed are recommended to manually edit their `/etc/apt/sources.list` file. If you didn't install MiniBolt recently, **you are affected by this bug**, and we need to fix that manually if not we want to install all since cero. Anyway, if you installed Minibolt recently, we recommend you review that. Follow these easy steps to review and fix this: * Edit the `sources-list` file: ``` sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list ``` * Search now for every line that includes '-security' (without quotes) (normally at the end of the file) and change the URL to --> http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu ~ > For example, from http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu (or the extension corresponding to your country) to --> http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu ~> Real case, Spain location, **before fix**: ``` deb http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security main restricted # deb-src http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security main restricted deb http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security universe # deb-src http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security universe deb http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security multiverse # deb-src http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security multiverse ``` **After fix:** ``` deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security main restricted # deb-src http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security main restricted deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security universe # deb-src http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security universe deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security multiverse # deb-src http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security multiverse ``` **Save and exit** **Note:** If you have already these lines changed, you are not affected by this bug, and is not necessary to do anything. Simply exit the editor by doing Ctrl-X * Finally, type the next command to refresh the repository pointers: ``` sudo apt update ``` * And optionally take the opportunity to update the system by doing: ``` sudo apt full-upgrade ``` More context: * https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/FAQ#What_repositories_and_pockets_should_I_use_to_make_sure_my_systems_are_up_to_date.3F * https://bugs.launchpad.net/subiquity/+bug/2033977 * https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-Security-Pocket-Issue

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### **What's changed** * New method for Bitcoin Core signature check, click ~ >[HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bitcoin/bitcoin/bitcoin-client#signature-check)< ~ * GitHub repo of Bitcoin Core release attestations (Guix), click ~ >[HERE](https://github.com/bitcoin-core/guix.sigs)< ~ --- **History:** ~ > PR that caused the broken and obsolescence of the old signature verification process, click ~ >[HERE](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/26598)< ~ ~ > New GitHub folder of Bitcoin Core repo that stores the signatures, click ~ >[HERE](https://github.com/bitcoin-core/guix.sigs/tree/main/builder-keys)< ~ --- Thanks to nostr:npub1gzuushllat7pet0ccv9yuhygvc8ldeyhrgxuwg744dn5khnpk3gs3ea5ds for building the command that made magic possible 🧙‍♂️🧡 --- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

@ b17fccdf:b7211155

### **Important notice to MiniBolt node runners:** ~ > It turns out that the I2P devs have opened an issue on the Bitcoin Core GitHub repo commenting that because they gave the option to enable the `notransit=true` parameter in the official documentation: > [...] If you prefer not to relay any public I2P traffic and only allow I2P traffic from programs connecting through the SAM proxy, e.g. Bitcoin Core, you can set the no transit option to true [...] are having a heavy load on the I2P network since last December 19. Also comment that it is advisable to share as much bandwidth and transit tunnels as we can, to increase anonymity with coverage traffic, by contributing more to the I2p network than we consume. So they ask that we deactivate that option that you use activated. With all this, he already updated the "Privacy" section by removing that setting. The steps to delete this configuration once we have already configured it, are the following: * With the "admin" user, stop i2pd: ``` sudo systemctl stop i2pd ``` * Comment line 93 with "#" at the beginning of it (notransit = true), save and exit ``` sudo nano /var/lib/i2pd/i2pd.conf --line numbers ``` * Start i2pd again: ``` sudo systemctl start i2pd ``` * And that's it, you could take a look at Bitcoin Core to see that it has detected i2pd running again after the reboot with: ``` tail --lines 500 -f /home/bitcoin/.bitcoin/debug.log ``` ~ > If you don't see that I2P is up in Bitcoin Core after the restart, `sudo systemctl restart bitcoind` and look again at the logs of the same. --- More info in the rollback commit, see ~> [HERE](https://github.com/twofaktor/minibolt/commit/99cae67a5150bb5b7deae3674cc958eb31c74a75) < ~

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> Your MiniBolt is on a home local network, you want to expose it on the public Internet (clearnet) without exposing your public IP, without Firewall rules, without NAT port forwarding, without risk, easy and cheap? --- Go to the bonus guide by clicking ~ >[HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/cloudflare-tunnel) <~ --- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

@ b17fccdf:b7211155

> Build your nostr relay step by step on your MiniBolt node! (**easily adaptable to other environment**) No need to trust anyone else! Be sovereign! ~> Go to the bonus guide by clicking ~> [HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/nostr/nostr-relay)< ~ ~> This guide includes a complete [extra section](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/nostr/nostr-relay#extras-optional) to cover the different processes for using nostr **as a user and relay operator**. --- PS: The MiniBolt project has its FREE relay, be free to connect by adding to your favorite client the next address: `wss://relay.minibolt.info` ~> Let a review on [noStrudel](https://nostrudel.ninja/#/r/wss%3A%2F%2Frelay.minibolt.info) or [Coracle](https://coracle.social/relays/relay.minibolt.info) of your experience using it. --- Remember, Nostr is freedom! Stay resilient! 💜 🛡️💪

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### What's changed A bonus guide to get a quick overview of the system status with the most relevant data about the services on the main guide. ----------- #### ➕Additional extra sections (optional) to: * [Show on login](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/system-overview#show-on-login-optional) * [Get the channel.db size of an old LND bbolt database backend](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/system-overview#get-the-channel.db-size-of-an-old-lnd-bbolt-database-backend) * [Use MobaXterm compatibility version](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/system-overview#use-the-mobaxterm-compatibility-version) 🔧 **GitHub PR related**: https://github.com/minibolt-guide/minibolt/pull/97 Σ **Dedicated GitHub repository**: https://github.com/minibolt-guide/system_overview ----------- #### 🫂Acknowledgments This is a fork of the [minibolt_info repository](https://github.com/rmnscb/minibolt_info), the main developer of this project is [rmnscb](https://github.com/rmnscb), a member of the MiniBolt community, all the merits go to him. Thank you for your contribution 🧡🫂 ----------- -> [CLICK HERE](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/system-overview) <- to go to the bonus guide ----------- Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

@ 6be5cc06:5259daf0

## Bitcoin: Um sistema de dinheiro eletrônico direto entre pessoas. Satoshi Nakamoto satoshin@gmx.com www.bitcoin.org --- ### Resumo O Bitcoin é uma forma de dinheiro digital que permite pagamentos diretos entre pessoas, sem a necessidade de um banco ou instituição financeira. Ele resolve um problema chamado **gasto duplo**, que ocorre quando alguém tenta gastar o mesmo dinheiro duas vezes. Para evitar isso, o Bitcoin usa uma rede descentralizada onde todos trabalham juntos para verificar e registrar as transações. As transações são registradas em um livro público chamado **blockchain**, protegido por uma técnica chamada **Prova de Trabalho**. Essa técnica cria uma cadeia de registros que não pode ser alterada sem refazer todo o trabalho já feito. Essa cadeia é mantida pelos computadores que participam da rede, e a mais longa é considerada a verdadeira. Enquanto a maior parte do poder computacional da rede for controlada por participantes honestos, o sistema continuará funcionando de forma segura. A rede é flexível, permitindo que qualquer pessoa entre ou saia a qualquer momento, sempre confiando na cadeia mais longa como prova do que aconteceu. --- ### 1. Introdução Hoje, quase todos os pagamentos feitos pela internet dependem de bancos ou empresas como processadores de pagamento (cartões de crédito, por exemplo) para funcionar. Embora esse sistema seja útil, ele tem problemas importantes porque é baseado em **confiança**. Primeiro, essas empresas podem reverter pagamentos, o que é útil em caso de erros, mas cria custos e incertezas. Isso faz com que pequenas transações, como pagar centavos por um serviço, se tornem inviáveis. Além disso, os comerciantes são obrigados a desconfiar dos clientes, pedindo informações extras e aceitando fraudes como algo inevitável. Esses problemas não existem no dinheiro físico, como o papel-moeda, onde o pagamento é final e direto entre as partes. No entanto, não temos como enviar dinheiro físico pela internet sem depender de um intermediário confiável. O que precisamos é de um **sistema de pagamento eletrônico baseado em provas matemáticas**, não em confiança. Esse sistema permitiria que qualquer pessoa enviasse dinheiro diretamente para outra, sem depender de bancos ou processadores de pagamento. Além disso, as transações seriam irreversíveis, protegendo vendedores contra fraudes, mas mantendo a possibilidade de soluções para disputas legítimas. Neste documento, apresentamos o **Bitcoin**, que resolve o problema do gasto duplo usando uma rede descentralizada. Essa rede cria um registro público e protegido por cálculos matemáticos, que garante a ordem das transações. Enquanto a maior parte da rede for controlada por pessoas honestas, o sistema será seguro contra ataques. --- ### 2. Transações Para entender como funciona o Bitcoin, é importante saber como as transações são realizadas. Imagine que você quer transferir uma "moeda digital" para outra pessoa. No sistema do Bitcoin, essa "moeda" é representada por uma sequência de registros que mostram quem é o atual dono. Para transferi-la, você adiciona um novo registro comprovando que agora ela pertence ao próximo dono. Esse registro é protegido por um tipo especial de assinatura digital. #### O que é uma assinatura digital? Uma assinatura digital é como uma senha secreta, mas muito mais segura. No Bitcoin, cada usuário tem duas chaves: uma "chave privada", que é secreta e serve para criar a assinatura, e uma "chave pública", que pode ser compartilhada com todos e é usada para verificar se a assinatura é válida. Quando você transfere uma moeda, usa sua chave privada para assinar a transação, provando que você é o dono. A próxima pessoa pode usar sua chave pública para confirmar isso. #### Como funciona na prática? Cada "moeda" no Bitcoin é, na verdade, uma cadeia de assinaturas digitais. Vamos imaginar o seguinte cenário: 1. A moeda está com o Dono 0 (você). Para transferi-la ao Dono 1, você assina digitalmente a transação com sua chave privada. Essa assinatura inclui o código da transação anterior (chamado de "hash") e a chave pública do Dono 1. 2. Quando o Dono 1 quiser transferir a moeda ao Dono 2, ele assinará a transação seguinte com sua própria chave privada, incluindo também o hash da transação anterior e a chave pública do Dono 2. 3. Esse processo continua, formando uma "cadeia" de transações. Qualquer pessoa pode verificar essa cadeia para confirmar quem é o atual dono da moeda. #### Resolvendo o problema do gasto duplo Um grande desafio com moedas digitais é o "gasto duplo", que é quando uma mesma moeda é usada em mais de uma transação. Para evitar isso, muitos sistemas antigos dependiam de uma entidade central confiável, como uma casa da moeda, que verificava todas as transações. No entanto, isso criava um ponto único de falha e centralizava o controle do dinheiro. O Bitcoin resolve esse problema de forma inovadora: ele usa uma rede descentralizada onde todos os participantes (os "nós") têm acesso a um registro completo de todas as transações. Cada nó verifica se as transações são válidas e se a moeda não foi gasta duas vezes. Quando a maioria dos nós concorda com a validade de uma transação, ela é registrada permanentemente na blockchain. #### Por que isso é importante? Essa solução elimina a necessidade de confiar em uma única entidade para gerenciar o dinheiro, permitindo que qualquer pessoa no mundo use o Bitcoin sem precisar de permissão de terceiros. Além disso, ela garante que o sistema seja seguro e resistente a fraudes. --- ### 3. Servidor Timestamp Para assegurar que as transações sejam realizadas de forma segura e transparente, o sistema Bitcoin utiliza algo chamado de "servidor de registro de tempo" (timestamp). Esse servidor funciona como um registro público que organiza as transações em uma ordem específica. Ele faz isso agrupando várias transações em blocos e criando um código único chamado "hash". Esse hash é como uma impressão digital que representa todo o conteúdo do bloco. O hash de cada bloco é amplamente divulgado, como se fosse publicado em um jornal ou em um fórum público. Esse processo garante que cada bloco de transações tenha um registro de quando foi criado e que ele existia naquele momento. Além disso, cada novo bloco criado contém o hash do bloco anterior, formando uma cadeia contínua de blocos conectados — conhecida como blockchain. Com isso, se alguém tentar alterar qualquer informação em um bloco anterior, o hash desse bloco mudará e não corresponderá ao hash armazenado no bloco seguinte. Essa característica torna a cadeia muito segura, pois qualquer tentativa de fraude seria imediatamente detectada. O sistema de timestamps é essencial para provar a ordem cronológica das transações e garantir que cada uma delas seja única e autêntica. Dessa forma, ele reforça a segurança e a confiança na rede Bitcoin. --- ### 4. Prova-de-Trabalho Para implementar o registro de tempo distribuído no sistema Bitcoin, utilizamos um mecanismo chamado prova-de-trabalho. Esse sistema é semelhante ao Hashcash, desenvolvido por Adam Back, e baseia-se na criação de um código único, o "hash", por meio de um processo computacionalmente exigente. A prova-de-trabalho envolve encontrar um valor especial que, quando processado junto com as informações do bloco, gere um hash que comece com uma quantidade específica de zeros. Esse valor especial é chamado de "nonce". Encontrar o nonce correto exige um esforço significativo do computador, porque envolve tentativas repetidas até que a condição seja satisfeita. Esse processo é importante porque torna extremamente difícil alterar qualquer informação registrada em um bloco. Se alguém tentar mudar algo em um bloco, seria necessário refazer o trabalho de computação não apenas para aquele bloco, mas também para todos os blocos que vêm depois dele. Isso garante a segurança e a imutabilidade da blockchain. A prova-de-trabalho também resolve o problema de decidir qual cadeia de blocos é a válida quando há múltiplas cadeias competindo. A decisão é feita pela cadeia mais longa, pois ela representa o maior esforço computacional já realizado. Isso impede que qualquer indivíduo ou grupo controle a rede, desde que a maioria do poder de processamento seja mantida por participantes honestos. Para garantir que o sistema permaneça eficiente e equilibrado, a dificuldade da prova-de-trabalho é ajustada automaticamente ao longo do tempo. Se novos blocos estiverem sendo gerados rapidamente, a dificuldade aumenta; se estiverem sendo gerados muito lentamente, a dificuldade diminui. Esse ajuste assegura que novos blocos sejam criados aproximadamente a cada 10 minutos, mantendo o sistema estável e funcional. --- ### 5. Rede A rede Bitcoin é o coração do sistema e funciona de maneira distribuída, conectando vários participantes (ou nós) para garantir o registro e a validação das transações. Os passos para operar essa rede são: 1. **Transmissão de Transações**: Quando alguém realiza uma nova transação, ela é enviada para todos os nós da rede. Isso é feito para garantir que todos estejam cientes da operação e possam validá-la. 2. **Coleta de Transações em Blocos**: Cada nó agrupa as novas transações recebidas em um "bloco". Este bloco será preparado para ser adicionado à cadeia de blocos (a blockchain). 3. **Prova-de-Trabalho**: Os nós competem para resolver a prova-de-trabalho do bloco, utilizando poder computacional para encontrar um hash válido. Esse processo é como resolver um quebra-cabeça matemático difícil. 4. **Envio do Bloco Resolvido**: Quando um nó encontra a solução para o bloco (a prova-de-trabalho), ele compartilha esse bloco com todos os outros nós na rede. 5. **Validação do Bloco**: Cada nó verifica o bloco recebido para garantir que todas as transações nele contidas sejam válidas e que nenhuma moeda tenha sido gasta duas vezes. Apenas blocos válidos são aceitos. 6. **Construção do Próximo Bloco**: Os nós que aceitaram o bloco começam a trabalhar na criação do próximo bloco, utilizando o hash do bloco aceito como base (hash anterior). Isso mantém a continuidade da cadeia. #### Resolução de Conflitos e Escolha da Cadeia Mais Longa Os nós sempre priorizam a cadeia mais longa, pois ela representa o maior esforço computacional já realizado, garantindo maior segurança. Se dois blocos diferentes forem compartilhados simultaneamente, os nós trabalharão no primeiro bloco recebido, mas guardarão o outro como uma alternativa. Caso o segundo bloco eventualmente forme uma cadeia mais longa (ou seja, tenha mais blocos subsequentes), os nós mudarão para essa nova cadeia. #### Tolerância a Falhas A rede é robusta e pode lidar com mensagens que não chegam a todos os nós. Uma transação não precisa alcançar todos os nós de imediato; basta que chegue a um número suficiente deles para ser incluída em um bloco. Da mesma forma, se um nó não receber um bloco em tempo hábil, ele pode solicitá-lo ao perceber que está faltando quando o próximo bloco é recebido. Esse mecanismo descentralizado permite que a rede Bitcoin funcione de maneira segura, confiável e resiliente, sem depender de uma autoridade central. --- ### 6. Incentivo O incentivo é um dos pilares fundamentais que sustenta o funcionamento da rede Bitcoin, garantindo que os participantes (nós) continuem operando de forma honesta e contribuindo com recursos computacionais. Ele é estruturado em duas partes principais: a recompensa por mineração e as taxas de transação. #### Recompensa por Mineração Por convenção, o primeiro registro em cada bloco é uma transação especial que cria novas moedas e as atribui ao criador do bloco. Essa recompensa incentiva os mineradores a dedicarem poder computacional para apoiar a rede. Como não há uma autoridade central para emitir moedas, essa é a maneira pela qual novas moedas entram em circulação. Esse processo pode ser comparado ao trabalho de garimpeiros, que utilizam recursos para colocar mais ouro em circulação. No caso do Bitcoin, o "recurso" consiste no tempo de CPU e na energia elétrica consumida para resolver a prova-de-trabalho. #### Taxas de Transação Além da recompensa por mineração, os mineradores também podem ser incentivados pelas taxas de transação. Se uma transação utiliza menos valor de saída do que o valor de entrada, a diferença é tratada como uma taxa, que é adicionada à recompensa do bloco contendo essa transação. Com o passar do tempo e à medida que o número de moedas em circulação atinge o limite predeterminado, essas taxas de transação se tornam a principal fonte de incentivo, substituindo gradualmente a emissão de novas moedas. Isso permite que o sistema opere sem inflação, uma vez que o número total de moedas permanece fixo. #### Incentivo à Honestidade O design do incentivo também busca garantir que os participantes da rede mantenham um comportamento honesto. Para um atacante que consiga reunir mais poder computacional do que o restante da rede, ele enfrentaria duas escolhas: 1. Usar esse poder para fraudar o sistema, como reverter transações e roubar pagamentos. 2. Seguir as regras do sistema, criando novos blocos e recebendo recompensas legítimas. A lógica econômica favorece a segunda opção, pois um comportamento desonesto prejudicaria a confiança no sistema, diminuindo o valor de todas as moedas, incluindo aquelas que o próprio atacante possui. Jogar dentro das regras não apenas maximiza o retorno financeiro, mas também preserva a validade e a integridade do sistema. Esse mecanismo garante que os incentivos econômicos estejam alinhados com o objetivo de manter a rede segura, descentralizada e funcional ao longo do tempo. --- ### 7. Recuperação do Espaço em Disco Depois que uma moeda passa a estar protegida por muitos blocos na cadeia, as informações sobre as transações antigas que a geraram podem ser descartadas para economizar espaço em disco. Para que isso seja possível sem comprometer a segurança, as transações são organizadas em uma estrutura chamada "árvore de Merkle". Essa árvore funciona como um resumo das transações: em vez de armazenar todas elas, guarda apenas um "hash raiz", que é como uma assinatura compacta que representa todo o grupo de transações. Os blocos antigos podem, então, ser simplificados, removendo as partes desnecessárias dessa árvore. Apenas a raiz do hash precisa ser mantida no cabeçalho do bloco, garantindo que a integridade dos dados seja preservada, mesmo que detalhes específicos sejam descartados. Para exemplificar: imagine que você tenha vários recibos de compra. Em vez de guardar todos os recibos, você cria um documento e lista apenas o valor total de cada um. Mesmo que os recibos originais sejam descartados, ainda é possível verificar a soma com base nos valores armazenados. Além disso, o espaço ocupado pelos blocos em si é muito pequeno. Cada bloco sem transações ocupa apenas cerca de 80 bytes. Isso significa que, mesmo com blocos sendo gerados a cada 10 minutos, o crescimento anual em espaço necessário é insignificante: apenas 4,2 MB por ano. Com a capacidade de armazenamento dos computadores crescendo a cada ano, esse espaço continuará sendo trivial, garantindo que a rede possa operar de forma eficiente sem problemas de armazenamento, mesmo a longo prazo. --- ### 8. Verificação de Pagamento Simplificada É possível confirmar pagamentos sem a necessidade de operar um nó completo da rede. Para isso, o usuário precisa apenas de uma cópia dos cabeçalhos dos blocos da cadeia mais longa (ou seja, a cadeia com maior esforço de trabalho acumulado). Ele pode verificar a validade de uma transação ao consultar os nós da rede até obter a confirmação de que tem a cadeia mais longa. Para isso, utiliza-se o ramo Merkle, que conecta a transação ao bloco em que ela foi registrada. Entretanto, o método simplificado possui limitações: ele não pode confirmar uma transação isoladamente, mas sim assegurar que ela ocupa um lugar específico na cadeia mais longa. Dessa forma, se um nó da rede aprova a transação, os blocos subsequentes reforçam essa aceitação. A verificação simplificada é confiável enquanto a maioria dos nós da rede for honesta. Contudo, ela se torna vulnerável caso a rede seja dominada por um invasor. Nesse cenário, um atacante poderia fabricar transações fraudulentas que enganariam o usuário temporariamente até que o invasor obtivesse controle completo da rede. Uma estratégia para mitigar esse risco é configurar alertas nos softwares de nós completos. Esses alertas identificam blocos inválidos, sugerindo ao usuário baixar o bloco completo para confirmar qualquer inconsistência. Para maior segurança, empresas que realizam pagamentos frequentes podem preferir operar seus próprios nós, reduzindo riscos e permitindo uma verificação mais direta e confiável. --- ### 9. Combinando e Dividindo Valor No sistema Bitcoin, cada unidade de valor é tratada como uma "moeda" individual, mas gerenciar cada centavo como uma transação separada seria impraticável. Para resolver isso, o Bitcoin permite que valores sejam combinados ou divididos em transações, facilitando pagamentos de qualquer valor. #### Entradas e Saídas Cada transação no Bitcoin é composta por: - **Entradas**: Representam os valores recebidos em transações anteriores. - **Saídas**: Correspondem aos valores enviados, divididos entre os destinatários e, eventualmente, o troco para o remetente. Normalmente, uma transação contém: - Uma única entrada com valor suficiente para cobrir o pagamento. - Ou várias entradas combinadas para atingir o valor necessário. O valor total das saídas nunca excede o das entradas, e a diferença (se houver) pode ser retornada ao remetente como **troco**. #### Exemplo Prático Imagine que você tem duas entradas: 1. 0,03 BTC 2. 0,07 BTC Se deseja enviar 0,08 BTC para alguém, a transação terá: - **Entrada**: As duas entradas combinadas (0,03 + 0,07 BTC = 0,10 BTC). - **Saídas**: Uma para o destinatário (0,08 BTC) e outra como troco para você (0,02 BTC). Essa flexibilidade permite que o sistema funcione sem precisar manipular cada unidade mínima individualmente. #### Difusão e Simplificação A difusão de transações, onde uma depende de várias anteriores e assim por diante, não representa um problema. Não é necessário armazenar ou verificar o histórico completo de uma transação para utilizá-la, já que o registro na blockchain garante sua integridade. --- ### 10. Privacidade O modelo bancário tradicional oferece um certo nível de privacidade, limitando o acesso às informações financeiras apenas às partes envolvidas e a um terceiro confiável (como bancos ou instituições financeiras). No entanto, o Bitcoin opera de forma diferente, pois todas as transações são publicamente registradas na blockchain. Apesar disso, a privacidade pode ser mantida utilizando **chaves públicas anônimas**, que desvinculam diretamente as transações das identidades das partes envolvidas. #### Fluxo de Informação - No **modelo tradicional**, as transações passam por um terceiro confiável que conhece tanto o remetente quanto o destinatário. - No **Bitcoin**, as transações são anunciadas publicamente, mas sem revelar diretamente as identidades das partes. Isso é comparável a dados divulgados por bolsas de valores, onde informações como o tempo e o tamanho das negociações (a "fita") são públicas, mas as identidades das partes não. #### Protegendo a Privacidade Para aumentar a privacidade no Bitcoin, são adotadas as seguintes práticas: 1. **Chaves Públicas Anônimas**: Cada transação utiliza um par de chaves diferentes, dificultando a associação com um proprietário único. 2. **Prevenção de Ligação**: Ao usar chaves novas para cada transação, reduz-se a possibilidade de links evidentes entre múltiplas transações realizadas pelo mesmo usuário. #### Riscos de Ligação Embora a privacidade seja fortalecida, alguns riscos permanecem: - Transações **multi-entrada** podem revelar que todas as entradas pertencem ao mesmo proprietário, caso sejam necessárias para somar o valor total. - O proprietário da chave pode ser identificado indiretamente por transações anteriores que estejam conectadas. --- ### 11. Cálculos Imagine que temos um sistema onde as pessoas (ou computadores) competem para adicionar informações novas (blocos) a um grande registro público (a cadeia de blocos ou blockchain). Este registro é como um livro contábil compartilhado, onde todos podem verificar o que está escrito. Agora, vamos pensar em um cenário: um atacante quer enganar o sistema. Ele quer mudar informações já registradas para beneficiar a si mesmo, por exemplo, desfazendo um pagamento que já fez. Para isso, ele precisa criar uma versão alternativa do livro contábil (a cadeia de blocos dele) e convencer todos os outros participantes de que essa versão é a verdadeira. Mas isso é extremamente difícil. #### Como o Ataque Funciona Quando um novo bloco é adicionado à cadeia, ele depende de cálculos complexos que levam tempo e esforço. Esses cálculos são como um grande quebra-cabeça que precisa ser resolvido. - Os “bons jogadores” (nós honestos) estão sempre trabalhando juntos para resolver esses quebra-cabeças e adicionar novos blocos à cadeia verdadeira. - O atacante, por outro lado, precisa resolver quebra-cabeças sozinho, tentando “alcançar” a cadeia honesta para que sua versão alternativa pareça válida. Se a cadeia honesta já está vários blocos à frente, o atacante começa em desvantagem, e o sistema está projetado para que a dificuldade de alcançá-los aumente rapidamente. #### A Corrida Entre Cadeias Você pode imaginar isso como uma corrida. A cada bloco novo que os jogadores honestos adicionam à cadeia verdadeira, eles se distanciam mais do atacante. Para vencer, o atacante teria que resolver os quebra-cabeças mais rápido que todos os outros jogadores honestos juntos. Suponha que: - A rede honesta tem **80% do poder computacional** (ou seja, resolve 8 de cada 10 quebra-cabeças). - O atacante tem **20% do poder computacional** (ou seja, resolve 2 de cada 10 quebra-cabeças). Cada vez que a rede honesta adiciona um bloco, o atacante tem que "correr atrás" e resolver mais quebra-cabeças para alcançar. #### Por Que o Ataque Fica Cada Vez Mais Improvável? Vamos usar uma fórmula simples para mostrar como as chances de sucesso do atacante diminuem conforme ele precisa "alcançar" mais blocos: P = (q/p)^z - **q** é o poder computacional do atacante (20%, ou 0,2). - **p** é o poder computacional da rede honesta (80%, ou 0,8). - **z** é a diferença de blocos entre a cadeia honesta e a cadeia do atacante. Se o atacante está 5 blocos atrás (z = 5): P = (0,2 / 0,8)^5 = (0,25)^5 = 0,00098, (ou, 0,098%) Isso significa que o atacante tem menos de 0,1% de chance de sucesso — ou seja, é muito improvável. Se ele estiver 10 blocos atrás (z = 10): P = (0,2 / 0,8)^10 = (0,25)^10 = 0,000000095, (ou, 0,0000095%). Neste caso, as chances de sucesso são praticamente **nulas**. #### Um Exemplo Simples Se você jogar uma moeda, a chance de cair “cara” é de 50%. Mas se precisar de 10 caras seguidas, sua chance já é bem menor. Se precisar de 20 caras seguidas, é quase impossível. No caso do Bitcoin, o atacante precisa de muito mais do que 20 caras seguidas. Ele precisa resolver quebra-cabeças extremamente difíceis e alcançar os jogadores honestos que estão sempre à frente. Isso faz com que o ataque seja inviável na prática. #### Por Que Tudo Isso é Seguro? - **A probabilidade de sucesso do atacante diminui exponencialmente.** Isso significa que, quanto mais tempo passa, menor é a chance de ele conseguir enganar o sistema. - **A cadeia verdadeira (honesta) está protegida pela força da rede.** Cada novo bloco que os jogadores honestos adicionam à cadeia torna mais difícil para o atacante alcançar. #### E Se o Atacante Tentar Continuar? O atacante poderia continuar tentando indefinidamente, mas ele estaria gastando muito tempo e energia sem conseguir nada. Enquanto isso, os jogadores honestos estão sempre adicionando novos blocos, tornando o trabalho do atacante ainda mais inútil. Assim, o sistema garante que a cadeia verdadeira seja extremamente segura e que ataques sejam, na prática, impossíveis de ter sucesso. --- ### 12. Conclusão Propusemos um sistema de transações eletrônicas que elimina a necessidade de confiança, baseando-se em assinaturas digitais e em uma rede peer-to-peer que utiliza prova de trabalho. Isso resolve o problema do gasto duplo, criando um histórico público de transações imutável, desde que a maioria do poder computacional permaneça sob controle dos participantes honestos. A rede funciona de forma simples e descentralizada, com nós independentes que não precisam de identificação ou coordenação direta. Eles entram e saem livremente, aceitando a cadeia de prova de trabalho como registro do que ocorreu durante sua ausência. As decisões são tomadas por meio do poder de CPU, validando blocos legítimos, estendendo a cadeia e rejeitando os inválidos. Com este mecanismo de consenso, todas as regras e incentivos necessários para o funcionamento seguro e eficiente do sistema são garantidos. --- Faça o download do whitepaper original em português: https://bitcoin.org/files/bitcoin-paper/bitcoin_pt_br.pdf

@ 50809a53:e091f164

For starters, anyone who is interested in curating and managing "notes, lists, bookmarks, kind-1 events, or other stuff" should watch this video: https://youtu.be/XRpHIa-2XCE Now, assuming you have watched it, I will proceed assuming you are aware of many of the applications that exist for a very similar purpose. I'll break them down further, following a similar trajectory in order of how I came across them, and a bit about my own path on this journey. We'll start way back in the early 2000s, before Bitcoin existed. We had https://zim-wiki.org/ It is tried and true, and to this day stands to present an option for people looking for a very simple solution to a potentially complex problem. Zim-Wiki works. But it is limited. Let's step into the realm of proprietary. Obsidian, Joplin, and LogSeq. The first two are entirely cloud-operative applications, with more of a focus on the true benefit of being a paid service. I will assume anyone reading this is capable of exploring the marketing of these applications, or trying their freemium product, to get a feeling for what they are capable of. I bring up Obsidian because it is very crucial to understand the market placement of publication. We know social media handles the 'hosting' problem of publishing notes "and other stuff" by harvesting data and making deals with advertisers. But- what Obsidian has evolved to offer is a full service known as 'publish'. This means users can stay in the proprietary pipeline, "from thought to web." all for $8/mo. See: https://obsidian.md/publish THIS IS NOSTR'S PRIMARY COMPETITION. WE ARE HERE TO DISRUPT THIS MARKET, WITH NOTES AND OTHER STUFF. WITH RELAYS. WITH THE PROTOCOL. Now, on to Joplin. I have never used this, because I opted to study the FOSS market and stayed free of any reliance on a paid solution. Many people like Joplin, and I gather the reason is because it has allowed itself to be flexible and good options that integrate with Joplin seems to provide good solutions for users who need that functionality. I see Nostr users recommending Joplin, so I felt it was worthwhile to mention as a case-study option. I myself need to investigate it more, but have found comfort in other solutions. LogSeq - This is my "other solutions." It seems to be trapped in its proprietary web of funding and constraint. I use it because it turns my desktop into a power-house of note archival. But by using it- I AM TRAPPED TOO. This means LogSeq is by no means a working solution for Nostr users who want a long-term archival option. But the trap is not a cage. It's merely a box. My notes can be exported to other applications with graphing and node-based information structure. Specifically, I can export these notes to: - Text - OPML - HTML - and, PNG, for whatever that is worth. Let's try out the PNG option, just for fun. Here's an exported PNG of my "Games on Nostr" list, which has long been abandoned. I once decided to poll some CornyChat users to see what games they enjoyed- and I documented them in a LogSeq page for my own future reference. You can see it here: https://i.postimg.cc/qMBPDTwr/image.png This is a very simple example of how a single "page" or "list" in LogSeq can be multipurpose. It is a small list, with multiple "features" or variables at play. First, I have listed out a variety of complex games that might make sense with "multiplayer" identification that relies on our npubs or nip-05 addresses to aggregate user data. We can ALL imagine playing games like Tetris, Snake, or Catan together with our Nostr identities. But of course we are a long way from breaking into the video game market. On a mostly irrelevant sidenote- you might notice in my example list, that I seem to be excited about a game called Dot.Hack. I discovered this small game on Itch.io and reached out to the developer on Twitter, in an attempt to purple-pill him, but moreso to inquire about his game. Unfortunately there was no response, even without mention of Nostr. Nonetheless, we pioneer on. You can try the game here: https://propuke.itch.io/planethack So instead let's focus on the structure of "one working list." The middle section of this list is where I polled users, and simply listed out their suggestions. Of course we discussed these before I documented, so it is note a direct result of a poll, but actually a working interaction of poll results! This is crucial because it separates my list from the aggregated data, and implies its relevance/importance. The final section of this ONE list- is the beginnings of where I conceptually connect nostr with video game functionality. You can look at this as the beginning of a new graph, which would be "Video Game Operability With Nostr". These three sections make up one concept within my brain. It exists in other users' brains too- but of course they are not as committed to the concept as myself- the one managing the communal discussion. With LogSeq- I can grow and expand these lists. These lists can become graphs. Those graphs can become entire catalogues of information than can be shared across the web. I can replicate this system with bookmarks, ideas, application design, shopping lists, LLM prompting, video/music playlists, friend lists, RELAY lists, the LIST goes ON forever! So where does that lead us? I think it leads us to kind-1 events. We don't have much in the way of "kind-1 event managers" because most developers would agree that "storing kind-1 events locally" is.. at the very least, not so important. But it could be! If only a superapp existed that could interface seamlessly with nostr, yada yada.. we've heard it all before. We aren't getting a superapp before we have microapps. Basically this means frameworking the protocol before worrying about the all-in-one solution. So this article will step away from the deep desire for a Nostr-enabled, Rust-built, FOSS, non-commercialized FREEDOM APP, that will exist one day, we hope. Instead, we will focus on simple attempts of the past. I encourage others to chime in with their experience. Zim-Wiki is foundational. The user constructs pages, and can then develop them into books. LogSeq has the right idea- but is constrained in too many ways to prove to be a working solution at this time. However, it is very much worth experimenting with, and investigating, and modelling ourselves after. https://workflowy.com/ is next on our list. This is great for users who think LogSeq is too complex. They "just want simple notes." Get a taste with WorkFlowy. You will understand why LogSeq is powerful if you see value in WF. I am writing this article in favor of a redesign of LogSeq to be compatible with Nostr. I have been drafting the idea since before Nostr existed- and with Nostr I truly believe it will be possible. So, I will stop to thank everyone who has made Nostr what it is today. I wouldn't be publishing this without you! One app I need to investigate more is Zettlr. I will mention it here for others to either discuss or investigate, as it is also mentioned some in the video I opened with. https://www.zettlr.com/ On my path to finding Nostr, before its inception, was a service called Deta.Space. This was an interesting project, not entirely unique or original, but completely fresh and very beginner-friendly. DETA WAS AN AWESOME CLOUD OS. And we could still design a form of Nostr ecosystem that is managed in this way. But, what we have now is excellent, and going forward I only see "additional" or supplemental. Along the timeline, Deta sunsetted their Space service and launched https://deta.surf/ You might notice they advertise that "This is the future of bookmarks." I have to wonder if perhaps I got through to them that bookmarking was what their ecosystem could empower. While I have not tried Surf, it looks interested, but does not seem to address what I found most valuable about Deta.Space: https://webcrate.app/ WebCrate was an early bookmarking client for Deta.Space which was likely their most popular application. What was amazing about WebCrate was that it delivered "simple bookmarking." At one point I decided to migrate my bookmarks from other apps, like Pocket and WorkFlowy, into WebCrate. This ended up being an awful decision, because WebCrate is no longer being developed. However, to much credit of Deta.Space, my WebCrate instance is still running and completely functional. I have since migrated what I deem important into a local LogSeq graph, so my bookmarks are safe. But, the development of WebCrate is note. WebCrate did not provide a working directory of crates. All creates were contained within a single-level directory. Essentially there were no layers. Just collections of links. This isn't enough for any user to effectively manage their catalogue of notes. With some pressure, I did encourage the German developer to flesh out a form of tagging, which did alleviate the problem to some extent. But as we see with Surf, they have pioneered in another direction. That brings us back to Nostr. Where can we look for the best solution? There simply isn't one yet. But, we can look at some other options for inspiration. HedgeDoc: https://hedgedoc.org/ I am eager for someone to fork HedgeDoc and employ Nostr sign-in. This is a small step toward managing information together within the Nostr ecosystem. I will attempt this myself eventually, if no one else does, but I am prioritizing my development in this way: 1. A nostr client that allows the cataloguing and management of relays locally. 2. A LogSeq alternative with Nostr interoperability. 3. HedgeDoc + Nostr is #3 on my list, despite being the easiest option. Check out HedgeDoc 2.0 if you have any interest in a cooperative Markdown experience on Nostr: https://docs.hedgedoc.dev/ Now, this article should catch up all of my dearest followers, and idols, to where I stand with "bookmarking, note-taking, list-making, kind-1 event management, frameworking, and so on..." Where it leads us to, is what's possible. Let's take a look at what's possible, once we forego ALL OF THE PROPRIETARY WEB'S BEST OPTIONS: https://denizaydemir.org/ https://denizaydemir.org/graph/how-logseq-should-build-a-world-knowledge-graph/ https://subconscious.network/ Nostr is even inspired by much of the history that has gone into information management systems. nostr:npub1jlrs53pkdfjnts29kveljul2sm0actt6n8dxrrzqcersttvcuv3qdjynqn I know looks up to Gordon Brander, just as I do. You can read his articles here: https://substack.com/@gordonbrander and they are very much worth reading! Also, I could note that the original version of Highlighter by nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft was also inspired partially by WorkFlowy. About a year ago, I was mesmerized coming across SubText and thinking I had finally found the answer Nostr might even be looking for. But, for now I will just suggest that others read the Readme.md on the SubText Gtihub, as well as articles by Brander. Good luck everyone. I am here to work with ANYONE who is interested in these type of solution on Nostr. My first order of business in this space is to spearhead a community of npubs who share this goal. Everyone who is interested in note-taking or list-making or bookmarking is welcome to join. I have created an INVITE-ONLY relay for this very purpose, and anyone is welcome to reach out if they wish to be added to the whitelist. It should be freely readable in the near future, if it is not already, but for now will remain a closed-to-post community to preemptively mitigate attack or spam. Please reach out to me if you wish to join the relay. https://logstr.mycelium.social/ With this article, I hope people will investigate and explore the options available. We have lots of ground to cover, but all of the right resources and manpower to do so. Godspeed, Nostr. #Nostr #Notes #OtherStuff #LogSec #Joplin #Obsidian

@ 21ac2956:09d1e2df

## [kakoi](https://github.com/betonetojp/kakoi) の仕様についてのメモ ### キーボード操作 * 左手での操作に最適化 | キー | 動作 | |:-|:-| | ESC | 設定画面 | | F1 / F12 | ポストバーの表示と非表示 | | F2 | 時間の表示と非表示 | | F3 | ユーザーアイコンの表示と非表示 | | F4 | 名前の表示と非表示 | | F5 | Geminiによるタイムラインまとめ画面を表示 | | F9 / Z | コンテンツの折り返し表示の切り替え （余白ダブルクリックでも動作） | | F10 | ユーザーリストとキーワード通知の設定画面 （余白右クリックでも動作） | | F11 | メイン画面の表示と非表示 （ポストバー表示） | | Shift + W | イベント最上行へ移動 | | W / ↑| イベント選択上移動 | | S / ↓ | イベント選択下移動 | | Shift + S | イベント最下行へ移動 | | A / ← | Webビューを開く （イベントを右クリックでも動作） | | F / → | リアクションを送信 （イベントをダブルクリックでも動作） | | 1 ～ 0 | リアクションを選択 | | R | 返信 | | B | リポスト | | Q | 引用 | | C | Webビューを閉じる | | Ctrl + Shift + A | メイン画面をアクティブにする | ### タイムライン * kind:1, 6, 7, 16を取得して表示する * フォロイーの名前の前には * が付く ### フォローリスト（kind:3） * 参照のみで更新はしない * F10 で開くユーザーリストでユーザーを選択し petname セルをクリックすることで未フォローユーザーにもペットネームを設定可能（ローカル保存） ### プロフィール（kind:0） * F10 で開くユーザーリストでユーザーを選択し picture セルをクリックすることでユーザーのアイコン表示を変更可能（ローカル保存） ### 返信（[NIP-10](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/10.md) kind:1） * kakoi のタイムラインに流れるすべてのイベント種に返信可能とする * スレッドを考慮せず、単一イベントへの単発返信とする * e タグは marker と返信先 pubkey は設定していない。 relay-url には空文字を設定 ```json ["e", "返信先 event-id", ""] ``` * p タグは 返信先 pubkey ひとつだけを指定 ### リポスト（[NIP-18](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/18.md) kind:6 , 16） * kakoi のタイムラインに流れるすべてのイベント種をリポスト可能 * kind:1はkind:6。その他はkind:16でリポストする * e タグは relay-url に空文字を設定 ```json ["e", "リポスト元 event-id", ""] ``` ### 引用（[NIP-18](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/18.md) kind:1） * q タグは relay-url に空文字を設定 ```json ["q", "引用元 event-id", ""] ```

@ 129f5189:3a441803

Many believe that to buy #Bitcoin, they need to purchase 1 whole #Bitcoin, which may seem unaffordable for most people today. This belief is rooted in a misunderstanding of how #Bitcoin works. #Bitcoin is divisible up to eight decimal places, and the smallest unit is called a satoshi. 1 #Bitcoin equals 100 million satoshis. https://image.nostr.build/4c25abae971d2d817d2e9c38cac0ae7ea6a439e39bc7e2db46a610cc91a58e4b.jpg This means that anyone can start by purchasing a fraction of #Bitcoin, like 0.0001 #BTC (10,000 satoshis), for a much smaller amount than the price of 1 whole #Bitcoin. The mistake lies in comparing the value of 1 #Bitcoin to the price of 1 unit of traditional currency, such as the dollar or the real. This comparison ignores #Bitcoin’s divisibility and fungibility. Imagine if someone said they couldn’t buy gold because they couldn’t afford a whole gold bar. Does that make sense? Of course not. Just as gold can be bought in grams, #Bitcoin can be purchased in fractions. Another important point is understanding that the value of a satoshi is proportional to the value of #Bitcoin as a whole. If #Bitcoin reaches a price of $1 million, for example, 1 satoshi will be worth $0.01. What ultimately matters is the relative appreciation of the asset, not the number of units you own. Therefore, the unit bias is merely a psychological barrier. Instead of focusing on the price of 1 whole #Bitcoin, think about the opportunity to accumulate satoshis, which are just as valuable as any fraction of #Bitcoin. After all, every satoshi is part of the largest computational network in the world—scarce and decentralized—that is poised to transform the global financial system. Buying #Bitcoin isn’t about how much you can buy today, but about understanding the value it represents in the long term. Don’t let the unit bias stop you from being part of this monetary revolution.

@ e3168078:10f13b2c

ノス！ 最近Umbrel上のn8nを使ってstacker newsの記事を要約するNostr botを作ってみました。 その際にFirecrawlというスクレイピングのSaaSを使っていたんですがセルフホストできるようなので試してみました。 Firecrawlは動的なページも読めたりマークダウンへの変換をしてくれますが無料プランだと1ヶ月500ページの制限があり、セルフホストすれば気兼ねなく使えます！ 今回はUmbrel上のPortainerというアプリを使ってFirecrawlを動かせたのでその記録です。 ## 手順 まずはUmbrelにPortainerアプリをインストールします。 Poratinerは今回初めて使ったんですが独自のDockerコンテナをUmbrelで動かす際に推奨されているアプリのようです。  アプリを開いてパスワードの初期設定などを済ませるとダッシュボードが表示されるかと思います。 ここでStackという機能を使ってFirecrawlのDocker composeを一括で取り込むことができます。 新しいStackを作成する画面で以下を入力します。 Repository URL: https://github.com/mendableai/firecrawl Repository reference: refs/heads/main Compose path: docker-compose.**yaml** (デフォルトがymlになっててハマりました…）  上記に加えてenv varを設定する必要があるんですがPortainerでは上記の画像下部にあるように "Load Variables from .env file" からenvファイルを選択できます。 [Firecrawlのgithub](https://github.com/mendableai/firecrawl/blob/main/SELF_HOST.md)にあるように apps/api/.env.example をダウンロードし以下の内容を更新しPortainerに取り込ませます。 ``` USE_DB_AUTHENTICATION=false TEST_API_KEY=fc-test-key ``` あとはDeploy the stackを押して少し待つとfirecrawlのセットアップ完了です。 ## 確認 動作テストにはUmbrelの設定からAdvanced Settings -> Terminal -> Umbrel OSを開き以下のコマンドを実行ししマークダウンが返って来れば成功です。 ``` $ curl -X POST http://localhost:3002/v1/scrape -H 'Authorization: Bearer fc-test-key' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{ "url": "https://example.com", "formats": ["markdown"] }' {"success":true,"data":{"markdown":"Example Domain\n==============\n\nThis domain is for use in illustrative examples in documents. You may use this domain in literature without prior coordination or asking for permission.\n\n[More information...](https://www.iana.org/domains/example)","metadata":{"title":"Example Domain","ogLocaleAlternate":[],"scrapeId":"7c196348-6561-4ebb-bb8a-9121a29c64b5","viewport":"width=device-width, initial-scale=1","sourceURL":"https://example.com","url":"https://example.com/","statusCode":200}}} ``` またn8n等のUmbrelの他のアプリ（コンテナ）から利用する場合はlocalhostがコンテナ自身になってしまうので別のIP等（172.17.0.1）を使う必要があるのでご注意ください。 （[参考](https://community.n8n.io/t/the-service-refused-the-connection-perhaps-it-is-offline-n8n-and-nocodb/33587?utm_source=chatgpt.com)) 以上でUmbrel上でのFirecrawlセルフホストができるようになりn8nからも制限なく使えるようになりました。

@ 18e3af1e:1d42e5df

Las comunidades son creadas mediante el esfuerzo de no solo un individuo, sino al trabajo de docenas; cientos o miles de personas. Mediante la especialización, como especie, logramos entender que: el saber hacer una sola cosa no significa morir de hambre, o no estar bien preparado para un ataque; por lo contrario, el dominio o maestría de una sola cosa... Puede crear una civilización entera. Permitirnos un enfoque certero para aprender, dominar y amaestrar nuestras actividades en un periodo de tiempo finito, permitió nuestro avance hacia nuevos campos, de hecho, movió nuestra meta en magnitud tal, que al imaginar el pasado (para muchos) parece mas bien una película cómica y sombría. Hoy en día, en un mundo regido por individualismo en el reino físico, la manifestación de constructores de comunidades sigue presente en el (reino) digital. ### La evolución de la construcción A lo largo de la historia de la humanidad, la construcción ha evolucionado desde simples refugios hasta monumentos arquitectónicos y estructuras vanguardistas. Los primeros humanos crearon refugios rudimentarios con materiales naturales. Con la civilización, surgieron las primeras estructuras permanentes, como pirámides y templos, reflejando la organización social y creencias religiosas. La antigua Roma introdujo la innovación en la ingeniería con acueductos y arcos. La Edad Media vio fortificaciones y catedrales góticas que fusionaban espiritualidad y técnica. El Renacimiento abrazó la proporción y la simetría en palacios y edificios renombrados. La Revolución Industrial marcó un cambio radical con el acero y el hormigón, permitiendo rascacielos y puentes icónicos. El siglo XX trajo consigo la era de los rascacielos y la arquitectura modernista, desafiando límites estructurales y estéticos. La sostenibilidad ganó importancia en el siglo XXI, impulsando la incorporación de tecnologías avanzadas, como la impresión 3D y la construcción modular. La historia de la construcción es un testimonio de la creatividad y la adaptabilidad humanas, reflejando no solo avances técnicos, sino también valores culturales y aspiraciones. En el día hoy, los desarrolladores de software y tecnología podrían considerarse como los constructores del próximo siglo. Al igual que los constructores en otras épocas históricas, los desarrolladores de software son responsables de crear estructuras digitales que moldean la forma en que interactuamos, comunicamos y vivimos en el mundo moderno. A medida que la tecnología continúa avanzando y la sociedad se vuelve cada vez más digital, el papel de los desarrolladores de software se vuelve crucial en la construcción de soluciones tecnológicas que abordan una amplia gama de desafíos. Así como los arquitectos y constructores antiguos debían entender la física, la estética y las necesidades humanas para diseñar y construir edificios funcionales y atractivos, los desarrolladores de software deben comprender la lógica de programación, la experiencia del usuario, la seguridad cibernética y la innovación tecnológica para crear aplicaciones, sistemas y plataformas que sean útiles y efectivos. ### Individuos que inspiran La inspiración individual es un poderoso motor de cambio que puede tener un impacto significativo en la mente colectiva de una comunidad o sociedad. Cuando una persona demuestra pasión, determinación y una visión positiva, puede influir en otros a nivel emocional y cognitivo. Aquí hay algunas formas en que la inspiración individual afecta a la mente colectiva: La gente puede verse reflejada en las luchas y logros de alguien más, lo que crea un sentido de unidad y comunidad. Esto puede generar un mayor apoyo y solidaridad en torno a ciertas causas o valores. Además, la inspiración individual puede llevar a la acción. Cuando las personas son testigos de un individuo que supera obstáculos o logra metas desafiantes, esto puede motivar a otros a enfrentar sus propios desafíos y trabajar hacia sus objetivos. El ejemplo de una sola persona puede encender la chispa de la acción en muchas más. La inspiración individual puede tener un efecto multiplicador. Cuando una persona inspirada comparte su historia o experiencia, puede inspirar a otros, creando una cadena de influencia que se extiende a través de redes sociales, comunidades y sociedades enteras. Esto puede tener un impacto a gran escala en la mente colectiva. El individuo inspirador tiene el potencial de influir profundamente en la mente colectiva al cambiar percepciones, motivar la acción y crear una sensación de comunidad y unidad. ### Comunidades: origen, inicios y progreso. Las comunidades han sido una parte fundamental de la experiencia humana a lo largo de la historia. Desde los primeros tiempos hasta la era moderna, las comunidades han evolucionado y cambiado en respuesta a las necesidades, avances tecnológicos y contextos culturales. Desde los primeros días de la humanidad, nuestros antepasados se agruparon en pequeñas comunidades para sobrevivir. Estas comunidades eran grupos familiares o tribus que compartían recursos y conocimientos para cazar, recolectar alimentos y protegerse de los peligros. La cooperación y la solidaridad eran esenciales para la supervivencia. Con el desarrollo de la agricultura, las comunidades evolucionaron hacia asentamientos más permanentes. La capacidad de cultivar alimentos permitió la formación de aldeas y pueblos, donde la gente podía establecerse y construir relaciones más complejas. Esto llevó al surgimiento de una división del trabajo más especializada y al desarrollo de habilidades artesanales. Las civilizaciones antiguas, como la sumeria, egipcia, griega y romana, dieron paso a la formación de ciudades y sociedades más organizadas. Las comunidades se convirtieron en centros de comercio, gobierno y cultura. Se construyeron estructuras monumentales, como templos y palacios, que unificaron a las personas en torno a creencias religiosas y sistemas políticos. Durante la Edad Media, las comunidades se organizaron en torno a sistemas feudales. Los señores feudales gobernaban sobre las tierras y las personas locales. Las aldeas y feudos eran autónomos en gran medida y se centraban en la agricultura y la autosuficiencia. La Revolución Industrial marcó un cambio importante en la estructura de las comunidades. La industrialización dio lugar a la urbanización, con muchas personas dejando las zonas rurales para trabajar en fábricas en las ciudades. En la era moderna, las comunidades han continuado evolucionando con avances tecnológicos y la globalización. Las redes sociales y las comunicaciones digitales han conectado a personas de todo el mundo, creando comunidades virtuales en línea. ### Bitcoin | Nostr y la chispa del constructor Como ya vimos, un solo individuo puede inspirar a muchos otros, teniendo un efecto multiplicador. Esto no solo se traduce al mundo físico, por el contrario, esta directamente ligado a nuestra psicología, incluso podemos decir que va aun mas allá, adentrándonos en el terreno ideológico y espiritual. Hasta hace no mucho, estábamos a merced de las grandes corporaciones que construían todo por nosotros, mientras esperábamos con ansias las nuevas actualizaciones de cada iteración de sus productos. Cada vez mas y mas nos hacíamos dependientes de dichas corporaciones sin quizás notarlo, poco a poco se fueron apoderando de nuestro tiempo y muy insidiosamente de nuestra personalidad e identidad. Gracias a las alternativas presentadas hoy en día y a los individuos que inspiran a otros, existe la posibilidad de construir algo que va mas allá de las grandes corporaciones, porque transciende no solo el nivel físico y digital, sino que también transciende a los individuos que aportan a la comunidad. Estoy hablando por supuesto de Nostr, y como los incentivos están alineados gracias a Bitcoin. Pongamos como ejemplo un par de nombres para ilustrar como individuos que inspirar pueden crear una chispa que se extiende a cada persona dentro de la comunidad. Personajes como nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft nostr:npub1utx00neqgqln72j22kej3ux7803c2k986henvvha4thuwfkper4s7r50e8 nostr:npub1v0lxxxxutpvrelsksy8cdhgfux9l6a42hsj2qzquu2zk7vc9qnkszrqj49 nostr:npub107jk7htfv243u0x5ynn43scq9wrxtaasmrwwa8lfu2ydwag6cx2quqncxg (entre muchos otros que podría mencionar pero todo el articulo seria una lista de nombres) han inspirado a otros desarrolladores, creadores de contenido (y todas las otras especializaciones que te puedas imaginar…) A construir sobre este protocolo. Incluso, personas como el caso mas reciente de nostr:npub1m64hnkh6rs47fd9x6wk2zdtmdj4qkazt734d22d94ery9zzhne5qw9uaks han encontrado inspiración para aprender a programar sobre estos mismos rieles. > nostr:nevent1qqs8fe938k7j5sxcprrv89ezpu09m9pzm90f0sq24hnwlwu0rmn09qcpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzv9hxg5vtygh La chispa del constructor en palabras mas concisas es: **Inspiración multiplicadora en pos de la productividad y por ende, del crecimiento de una comunidad.** Sin Bitcoin y Lightning Network, esto seria posible, pero mucho menos efectivo debido a que las personas detrás de toda labor que este enfocada en creación de contenido, desarrollo, etc. Tienen que comer. ### Conclusión La chispa del constructor radica en la inspiración individual que impulsa a la acción colectiva. Desde la evolución de la construcción hasta las comunidades digitales, **el poder de un individuo inspirado puede moldear el presente y el futuro de las comunidades en todo el mundo.**

@ 604e96e0:20279eb2

notacomment allows you to zap nostr notes when you comment on them. In order to use notacomment, you have to run a script yourself either on your own computer or in the cloud somewhere. To get started open https://github.com/SamSamskies/notacomment in a browser tab. At this point, I'm sure a lot of you are feeling like this:  Let's breakdown the instructions from the README. ## Prerequisites Node.js and npm - I suggest installing the latest Node.js LTS version from https://nodejs.org. That should also install npm. Once installation is complete, open your terminal. On a Mac you can press cmd + spacebar and type in `terminal` to open the terminal. On other platforms, you'll have to ask ChatGPT 😂 . To verify installation of Node.js type `node -v`. To verify installation type `npm -v`. It should look something like this:  Leave the terminal open. ## Downloading the code to your computer The easiest way to download the code is to download the zip file from the GitHub repo. Remember that first link I told you to open? That's the GitHub repo. Click the green button that says `Code` on it and click `Download ZIP` from the menu.  Now unzip the file and then navigate to the folder in the terminal. To navigate to the folder use the `cd` command. If you unzipped the folder in the `Downloads` folder, you can navigate to the folder by typing `cd ~/Downloads/notacomment-main/`. ## Usage With Strike 1. Create an account with Strike if you don't already have one https://strike.me/download/ 1. Get a Strike API key with all the payment scopes from https://dashboard.strike.me/ 1. Create a .env file and provide NOSTR_NSEC and STRIKE_API_KEY values (see .env.example) 1. Install the dependencies using npm or yarn or whatever your heart desires 1. Make sure you have money in your Strike account 1. Run the script `npm start` Keep in mind that Strike pays the invoices from your cash balance. This means the payment rounds up to the nearest cent when paying an invoice, so if you set the zap amount to 1 sat, you'll be sending more money to Strike than the person you are zapping with every zap. ## Usage With LNbits I recommend making a separate wallet from your main LNbits wallet for usage with notacomment in case you accidentally leak the admin key. 1. Create a .env file and provide NOSTR_NSEC, LNBITS_ADMIN_KEY, and LNBITS_URL values (see .env.example) 1. Install the dependencies using npm or yarn or whatever your heart desires 1. Make sure you have sats in your LNbits wallet 1. Run the script `npm start` ## Usage With Nostr Wallet Connect 1. Create a NWC connection string using something like https://nwc.getalby.com/ 1. Create a .env file and provide NOSTR_NSEC and NWC_CONNECTION_STRING values (see .env.example) 1. Install the dependencies using npm or yarn or whatever your heart desires 1. Make sure you have sats in your wallet that you generated the NWC connection string with 1. Run the script `npm start` <br /> <br /> Screenshot of terminal with commands to install dependencies, create .env file, open .env file, and start the script: 

@ 58937958:545e6994

I made croquettes inspired by Spiral's character "Bitcoin (Puppet)."  The method is the same as making regular croquettes. I also tried making a version (right) with the arms and legs attached while shaping the filling, but they fell off before I could coat them in flour.  The face is made with seaweed and sliced cheese. The arms and legs are made with fish cake (hanpen). I brushed soy sauce on the legs and lightly toasted them in a toaster, which gave them a brown color.  The arms and legs are attached using thin spaghetti. When I searched for character-themed bentos (kyaraben), I came across the idea of using dried pasta, which made sense. I used fried spaghetti sticks for attachment. Here’s Bitcoin Croquette squished into a bento box:  Halving  Notes - I tried freezing the filling to help it hold its shape, but it backfired. It stuck to the plate and the cooking paper, and once partially thawed, it became way too watery. Freezing might work with better preparation. - The filling was quite dry when shaping, so it might be better to add a binder (this time, I only used potatoes and sautéed onions). The shape of Bitcoin Puppet was really easy and fun to make, so I’d love to try creating something else next time! nostr:nevent1qqsxgpjvf9g9suhzx5asqhvnlvnarl43kuhas8v5g2ryjr9yjjp0z5ctkh5pt

@ 58937958:545e6994

Spiralのキャラクター「ビットコイン（パペット）」のコロッケを作りました  作り方は一般的なコロッケです 試しにタネの状態で手足をくっつけたバージョン（右）も作りましたが 粉をつける前に手足がもげました  顔はのりとスライスチーズ 手足ははんぺんです 足は醤油をつけてトースターで軽く焼いたら茶色になりました  手足はサラスパでくっつけてます 細いスパゲッティ キャラ弁でググったらサラスパが出てきてなるほどな～と思いました 自分は揚げパスタにして刺しました 弁当箱に押し込まれてるコロッケくん  半減期  メモ - タネを作った時に形を保たせるために冷凍してみたんですけど逆効果だった（皿とクッキングペーパーにくっついて取れなくなった＆半解凍したら水分がすごいことになった）ので冷凍するなら対策が必要そう - 形作るときにかなりパサパサだったので、つなぎがあった方がいいのかも（今回はじゃがいも＆炒めタマネギだけ） ビットコインくんの形はすごく作りやすくて面白いのでまた何か作りたいなぁと思いました nostr:nevent1qqsxgpjvf9g9suhzx5asqhvnlvnarl43kuhas8v5g2ryjr9yjjp0z5ctkh5pt

@ 2f4550b0:95f20096

In the realm of leadership, whether in business, politics, or any organizational context, one of the most critical skills a leader can possess is the ability to make and keep promises. This skill not only builds trust and credibility, but also sets the tone for an organization's culture and operational ethos. A recent example of this leadership attribute can be observed in the actions of President Donald Trump on the first day of his second presidency, where he used executive orders to fulfill several campaign promises. ### The Importance of Promises in Leadership Leadership is fundamentally about influence, and one of the most effective ways to influence is through the power of your word. When leaders make promises, they are essentially laying down expectations for what stakeholders, customers, and employees can anticipate. These promises shape perceptions, motivate teams, and guide organizational strategy. However, the true test of leadership comes not in the making of these promises, but in their fulfillment. ### Translating Promises into Action On January 20, 2025, President Trump exemplified this principle by signing a flurry of executive orders that directly addressed several key campaign promises. These actions highlighted his approach to leadership. For instance, Trump signed executive actions on immigration, reversing many policies of his predecessor and reinstating his first-term policies like the "Remain in Mexico" initiative. This move was a direct fulfillment of his promise to tighten border control, demonstrating to his supporters and critics alike that his commitments were not merely rhetorical (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/guaranteeing-the-states-protection-against-invasion/). ### The Impact on Stakeholders For stakeholders, the fulfillment of promises builds a reputation for reliability and decisiveness, essential for maintaining trust and support. From a leadership perspective, Trump's example underscores the importance of clarity in communication and the readiness to act on stated objectives. ### Lessons for Leaders Here are some key takeaways for leaders across sectors: - **Transparency:** Be clear about what you promise. Ambiguity can lead to misunderstanding and disillusionment. - **Accountability:** Hold yourself accountable. Demonstrate accountability to your promises. - **Action:** Follow through with action. Leaders must not only talk the talk but walk the walk. - **Consistency:** Maintain consistency between what you say and what you do. This builds a reliable brand or leadership image, whether in politics or business. In conclusion, the skill of making and keeping promises is central to effective leadership. Promises are not just words; they are commitments that, when fulfilled, can define a leader's legacy and influence.

@ 04c195f1:3329a1da

Dear Readers, I’ve written about the AI Act before—[you can read my full critique here](https://english.daneriksson.com/p/europes-ai-future-trapped-in-the)—but now, parts of this bureaucratic monstrosity are about to become reality. Starting February 2, it will be illegal to use AI tools at work in the EU unless you can prove you have something called “AI competence.” Let’s break this down. ## What Does ‘AI Competence’ Mean? No one knows. The EU has issued no practical guidance on how to define, evaluate, or measure this so-called competence. Yet, if you or your employees fail to meet this vague requirement, Brussels will be ready with the fines: up to €7 million or 1.5% of your company’s global revenue. This is classic EU policymaking. Sweeping, unclear rules that businesses are left scrambling to interpret, while bureaucrats pat themselves on the back for ‘leading the way’ in AI regulation. ## Who Does This Hurt Most? Small and medium-sized businesses, naturally. These are the companies least equipped to deal with vague mandates or pay for the training programs that might, possibly, meet the requirements. Meanwhile, big corporations will either move operations outside the EU or use their armies of lawyers to sidestep the rules entirely. The EU talks about fairness, but its policies always end up crushing the little guy while big players get a pass. ## The Bigger Picture AI is supposed to be the future. But while the US and China are racing ahead, the EU is busy tying businesses in regulatory knots. Is it any wonder that Europe is falling behind in innovation? This isn’t just bad for business; it’s a direct assault on sovereignty and national economies. Instead of letting countries tailor AI policies to their needs, the EU insists on centralizing everything. The result? Fewer startups, fewer breakthroughs, and a Europe that’s increasingly irrelevant in global tech. ## The Fight Ahead February 2 is just the start. The full AI Act rolls out in stages, with more draconian measures to come. If we don’t push back now, this regulatory nightmare will only get worse. National governments must reclaim control over AI policy before it’s too late. Europe’s future shouldn’t be dictated by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. ## What Do You Think? How will these new rules impact Europe’s businesses and innovation? Reply to this read or shoot me a private message on Nostr. Together, we can shine a light on the EU’s overreach and fight for a Europe that values sovereignty and innovation over red tape. Stay informed, \ Dan Eriksson

@ 3ac03011:41ecd1bb

You've got to hand it to Trump. For centuries, politicians have hidden their corruption behind polite words like 'lobbying' and 'campaign donations.' But what happens when one leader decides to skip the facade entirely? Enter $TRUMP: the grandaddy of all shitcoins—so brazen, so unapologetically self-serving, it's almost poetic. Why bother with the elaborate charade of influence-peddling when you can just mint a digital token and say, "Buy this if you want something from me"? Need a policy changed? Pump $TRUMP. Want a ban lifted? You know the drill. Forget the subtle dance of lobbying—just load your wallet and fund your favour directly. It's simple. Efficient. And honestly, kind of genius if you have no morals. The game has been the same: politicians selling out the people while posing as their saviours. They make soaring speeches, they shake hands, they kiss babies—and then they hand over the real power to the highest bidder. But at least they had the decency to keep up the illusion of caring. Trump? He's stripped away the illusion entirely. Sure, it's a scam. But it's the most honest scam we've ever seen. No pretense. No empty promises about "making America great again." Just cold, hard transparency: "I'm for sale and now there's a token to prove it." And really, isn't this just the logical endpoint of politics? Lobbying has always been bribery in a nice suit. Campaign donations? Legal pay-to-play. Trump just cut through the pageantry and put it on a blockchain. Some will call it dystopian. But isn't it refreshing to see the grift so out in the open? The man is cutting out the middleman and embracing the essence of what leadership has become. Forget the speeches. Forget the empty promises. With $TRUMP, you don't need to wonder who he's working for—the market decides. So here's to $TRUMP: the most honest scam in modern history. Maybe it's time for every politician to mint their own token—at least then we'd know exactly what they stand for. The audacity alone deserves respect. [Image by Eric Fischl]

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

In the annals of treasure hunting, tales of sunken galleons and buried chests have given way to a new narrative—one that unfolds in the digital realm. The U.S. Government, traditionally associated with the physical might of gold reserves in Fort Knox, has inadvertently entered the arena of cryptocurrency by amassing a staggering $5 billion in Bitcoin. This digital fortune, however, was not amassed through investment or mining efforts but rather through the seizure of assets from the darker corners of the internet. As we stand at the crossroads of finance and technology, this cache of Bitcoin opens up a Pandora's box of possibilities and challenges that could redefine the economic landscape of tomorrow. **Table Of Content** - A Digital Fort Knox - The Origins of the Cache - The Dilemma of Liquidation - Potential Paths Forward - The Impact on the Future of Currency - Conclusion - FAQs **A Digital Fort Knox** Imagine a vault, not of steel and stone, but of complex cryptographic algorithms, housing a vast sum of Bitcoin equivalent to the wealth of small nations. This digital Fort Knox does not require armed guards or thick walls but instead relies on the impenetrable nature of blockchain technology. The U.S. Government's acquisition of such a significant amount of Bitcoin is a testament to the changing nature of value and wealth in the 21st century. Each Bitcoin in this modern trove was once part of illicit transactions, flowing through the veins of the internet until it was intercepted by the vigilant efforts of federal agencies. The narrative of each coin is a digital ledger, chronicling a journey from the shadowy fringes of the web to the secure wallets of the government. **The Origins of the Cache** The backstory of the government's Bitcoin collection is not one of serendipity but of strategic cyber sleuthing and legal might. It is a modern saga of law enforcement adapting to the challenges posed by the digital age. Federal agencies, armed with court orders and cutting-edge technology, have traced the movement of these digital assets through the blockchain, unraveling complex webs of transactions that lead to the criminal enterprises operating in the darknet markets. Each seizure represents a battle won in the ongoing war against cybercrime, with the confiscated Bitcoin serving as both evidence of victory and the spoils of war. **The Dilemma of Liquidation** The government's Bitcoin cache presents a unique conundrum: to liquidate or not to liquidate? This decision is fraught with economic implications, akin to a game of high-stakes poker where the government's hand could influence the entire table. A sudden influx of $5 billion worth of Bitcoin into the market could trigger a tidal wave of volatility, potentially devaluing the currency and destabilizing the fragile ecosystem of digital assets. The government must navigate these waters with a blend of economic savvy and strategic foresight, ensuring that any decision made is in the best interest of not just the immediate financial landscape but also the long-term viability of cryptocurrencies. **Potential Paths Forward** The government stands at the helm, charting a course through uncharted waters with its Bitcoin bounty. The options are as varied as they are complex. Holding onto the Bitcoin could be seen as an endorsement of its value, a digital reserve akin to the gold of yesteryear. Alternatively, a measured approach to selling the Bitcoin could be employed, releasing it into the market in a controlled manner to mitigate any negative impacts. There's also the innovative possibility of integrating Bitcoin into the government's financial transactions, embracing the very currency that was once shunned by the establishment. **The Impact on the Future of Currency** The U.S. Government's handling of this Bitcoin cache is not merely a financial decision; it is a statement on the future of currency itself. As the line between digital and fiat currencies blurs, the actions taken with this Bitcoin hoard could send ripples across the global economy. It could influence how governments around the world perceive and interact with digital assets, potentially ushering in a new era where cryptocurrency becomes a staple of economic policy and international trade. **Conclusion** The U.S. Government's Bitcoin cache is more than a collection of digital assets; it is a symbol of a new era in governance and economic strategy. The decisions made regarding this treasure will likely resonate through the annals of financial history, setting precedents for how nations interact with the burgeoning realm of digital currencies. As we delve deeper into this narrative, we realize that this treasure is not hidden but in plain sight, waiting to unlock a future where digital assets are as commonplace and as valuable as the gold once stored in the vaults of old. **FAQs** **How did the U.S. Government acquire $5 billion in Bitcoin?** The U.S. Government seized this Bitcoin from various cybercriminal operations and darknet markets through legal and technological efforts by federal agencies. **What is the significance of the government holding such a large amount of Bitcoin?** This significant holding of Bitcoin by the government underscores the changing landscape of value and wealth, highlighting the increasing relevance of digital currencies in today's economy. **What challenges does the government face with this Bitcoin cache?** The government faces the challenge of deciding how to manage and potentially liquidate the Bitcoin without causing market disruption due to the currency's volatility. **What are the potential strategies for the U.S. Government's Bitcoin cache?** Strategies include holding the Bitcoin as a reserve asset, selling it off gradually to minimize market impact, or using it for government transactions and policy-making. **How could the government's handling of the Bitcoin cache affect the future of currency?** The government's approach to managing the Bitcoin cache could set a precedent for how digital assets are treated by national entities, potentially influencing the integration of cryptocurrencies into mainstream finance. **That's all for today** **If you want more, be sure to follow us on:** **NOSTR: croxroad@getalby.com** **X: [@croxroadnews.co](https://x.com/croxroadnewsco)** **Instagram: [@croxroadnews.co](https://www.instagram.com/croxroadnews.co/)** **Youtube: [@croxroadnews](https://www.youtube.com/@croxroadnews)** **Store: https://croxroad.store** **Subscribe to CROX ROAD Bitcoin Only Daily Newsletter** **https://www.croxroad.co/subscribe** *DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.*

@ 6e75f797:a8eee74e

Last night I started a nostr community multiplayer instance for No Man's Sky [on ZapStream](https://zap.stream/) and before we knew it, we had 4 Nostrichs arriving on the genesis planet to join the fun.  NSM is an deterministic, procedurally generated open universe where players can explore, quest, build, combat and have fun together. Every new system discovered is generated when the first Traveller enters the system making the game a unique experience for any open world gaming fan. If you fancy joining us in the Nostrverse let me know and I'll friend you in #NMS and on Steam or Epic. If you just want to watch the fun, participate in naming systems, planets, fauna and flora come and hang out in my stream or the stream of [Oceanbee](nostr:npub1wqxxe0cjaxnvmrv4lkvx8d5dlft7ewswyn09w5v7fg7642fgzm7srucxws), [HolgerHatGarKeineNode](nostr:npub1pt0kw36ue3w2g4haxq3wgm6a2fhtptmzsjlc2j2vphtcgle72qesgpjyc6) or [taette](npub1yh0dl6pazf55025qvp860lstpscuy0kj2a5lfhxlk400m968vgpql5vsnd).  ### If you already own NMS, feel free to add me! My NMS friend code is: EMAZ-KMHT-ZPFXP See you in space Traveller! - TheGrinder

@ 16d11430:61640947

Hark, yon travellers, and gather round, for I shall tell thee a tale most grievous and yet queer, of the Black Knights of Sydney and their wretched deeds. In the land where the sun doth ever blaze and the sand kisseth the seas at Manly and Bondi alike, there rose a brood of shadowy lords, clad not in chain nor plate, but in ill-gotten power and tongues oiled with guile. These knights, though mighty in posture, were naught but fraudsters, lording o’er their glass castles with tools of torment and tormentors loyal yet weary. The Black Knights and Their Tools of Torture In their domains of steel and enchantment, the Black Knights kept the lower folk—Outsiders and plebs alike—beneath their boots, using tools most cruel. Chief amongst these instruments was the Rack of Review, a devilish device to which all Outsiders were summoned come every quarter moon. Here, the Knights would scry their scrolls of "metrics" and "outputs," their eyes narrowing as they spoke vile proclamations: > "Thy deliverables are tardy, thy productivity meagre, and thy enthusiasm fit for the dunghill!" Strapped metaphorically to the Rack, the poor sods would be stretched—not in limb but in labour, their hours extended without mercy, until naught but a husk remained. The Gantt Wheel of Doom Lo, there was also the Gantt Wheel, a terrible, spinning contraption upon which the timelines of the kingdom were writ. The Wheel turned ever faster as the Knights demanded projects be completed "on the morrow" or "ere the next new moon." The Outsiders, desperate to keep pace, toiled day and night, only to find their efforts scoffed at and their souls ground into dust beneath the Wheel’s ceaseless spin. The Slack Shackles But even in their rare moments of respite, the Outsiders were bound by the Slack Shackles, cursed chains that buzzed and hummed without end. Messages did flow through these infernal devices, demanding updates, meetings, and “quick chats” at all hours. Ne’er a dawn nor dusk passed without the Shackles tightening their grip, leaving their victims weary and witless. The Documentation Dungeon When a fresh Outsider entered the kingdom, they were hurled into the dreaded Documentation Dungeon, a chaotic cavern where ancient scrolls lay piled high, each more incomprehensible than the last. “Figure it out!” barked the Trusty Squires, those harried managers who served the Knights with reluctant fervour. And so the Outsiders wandered the Dungeon’s depths, driven mad by its riddles, while the Squires hurried off to tend to their younglings or steal a quiet moment of peace. --- The Outsiders’ Plight Amongst the many Outsiders was one of particular ambition, newly arrived from lands far beyond the kingdom. Full of ideas and burning with determination, this Outsider sought not merely survival, but to reshape the very kingdom itself. Yet their brilliance was met with scorn, their ideas brushed aside by the Squires, whose refrain was always the same: > "Aye, 'tis a good idea, but I’ve no time for thee." The Black Knights, meanwhile, saw in the Outsider not potential, but peril. "This one dares to shine too brightly," they muttered. "We must see them humbled." --- The Reckoning It came to pass that the Outsider, weary of the endless grind, began to see the cracks in the Knights’ armour. They discovered that the Rack’s metrics were flawed, the Gantt Wheel’s spin could be slowed, and the Slack Shackles could be hacked. Sharing their findings with their fellow Outsiders, they sowed the seeds of rebellion. The Trusty Squires, long burdened by their double lives as enforcers and reluctant parents, began to waver. "Perhaps," they whispered, "the Outsiders speak true." And so, one by one, the Squires laid down their scrolls and joined the cause. When the day of reckoning came, the Outsiders and their allies turned the Knights’ tools against them. The Rack, once a symbol of shame, now displayed the Knights’ own failings for all to see. The Gantt Wheel ground to a halt, and the Slack Shackles shattered into silence. The Knights, their power undone, fled to their glass castles, clutching at their dwindling authority. The Outsiders, meanwhile, seized the kingdom, dismantling the tools of oppression and forging a new order where all could thrive. --- A New Order And so it was that the land of Sydney was reborn, no longer ruled by the Black Knights, but by a council of equals. The Rack was transformed into a table of collaboration, the Gantt Wheel into a tool of fairness, and the Shackles into oaths of trust. The Documentation Dungeon was cleared and made into a grand library, where knowledge was shared freely. As for the Black Knights, their names faded from memory, their castles left to crumble. And the Outsiders, once strangers in a strange land, became the stewards of a kingdom built not on fear, but on hope. And lo, the folk of Sydney lived happily, though ever wary of the shadows where new knights might rise. For they had learned a hard truth: that tyranny doth thrive where ambition goes unguarded, and freedom must ever be defended, even on the golden shores of Manly.

@ 89b108e3:e30c3ad3

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@ 84b0c46a:417782f5

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Hello Stackers! Welcome on into the ~Music Corner of the Saloon! A place where we Talk Music. Share Tracks. Zap Sats. So stay a while and listen. 🚨Don't forget to check out the pinned items in the territory homepage! You can always find the latest weeklies there!🚨 🚨Subscribe to the territory to ensure you never miss a post! 🚨 originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/858364

@ 16d11430:61640947

In the modern world, human existence often feels like a series of transactions. Our labor, emotions, and even our identities are bought, sold, and traded in systems that shape how we live and think. From the workplace to the digital economy, commodification—the transformation of people and their qualities into marketable goods—is a driving force. To explore this, we can draw a provocative yet insightful parallel between corporations, brothels, and the psychological toll of commodifying the self. The Nature of Commodification Commodification begins when something intrinsic, like human labor, creativity, or even intimacy, is turned into a product to be exchanged. This process is not inherently negative; it has enabled trade, specialization, and economies of scale. However, when commodification extends to the very essence of human life, it can distort how we view ourselves and others. In corporations, employees are reduced to "human resources," evaluated for their productivity and cost-effectiveness. In brothels, intimacy—a deeply personal and emotional act—is transformed into a service exchanged for money. Both systems, while different in form and function, rely on similar transactional mechanics that highlight the tension between value creation and value extraction. --- The Psychological Impact of Transactional Systems When humans are commodified, a subtle but profound psychological shift occurs. The person begins to see themselves and others as products or tools, rather than as complex, multifaceted beings. This can lead to: 1. Alienation from the Self In corporations, workers may feel disconnected from the fruits of their labor, performing tasks that serve abstract goals (like shareholder profits) rather than personal or communal fulfillment. In brothels, commodifying intimacy can create a dissonance between personal emotions and professional detachment. 2. Reductionism in Identity Both systems reduce individuals to specific roles: the "employee" or the "service provider." This narrow definition can strip away the richer dimensions of identity, leading to feelings of inadequacy or loss of purpose. The language used—whether "key performance indicators" in corporations or "clients and services" in brothels—reinforces this reductionism. 3. Emotional Transactionalism When human relationships are repeatedly framed in transactional terms, individuals may struggle to form connections based on trust and reciprocity. Instead, they might view all interactions as exchanges of value, weakening the bonds of empathy and community. --- Corporations and Brothels: Ethical and Unethical Dimensions To fully understand the parallels, it’s important to acknowledge the spectrum of ethical possibilities within these systems. Both corporations and brothels can operate in ways that empower or exploit, depending on their structure, governance, and priorities. Exploitation: When Systems Extract Value In corporations, employees may feel like cogs in a machine, with minimal control over their work or compensation. Performance metrics, layoffs, and rigid hierarchies often amplify feelings of disposability. In brothels, particularly those in unregulated or exploitative settings, workers may experience coercion, unsafe conditions, and a lack of autonomy over their lives. Empowerment: When Systems Create Value Ethical corporations foster creativity, collaboration, and meaningful contributions, treating employees as partners in a shared mission rather than mere labor inputs. Progressive brothels, when regulated and consensual, can provide safe spaces for individuals to exercise autonomy, set boundaries, and earn a livelihood on their terms. The key distinction lies in the balance between value creation and extraction, agency and coercion, empowerment and exploitation. --- The Bitcoin Perspective: A Model for Fair Systems Bitcoin offers a lens through which to critique commodification and envision systems that respect human agency and dignity. Unlike traditional corporations or centralized institutions, Bitcoin operates as a decentralized, transparent network where value is exchanged without middlemen or coercion. Its principles of proof of work, immutability, and voluntary participation provide a counterpoint to the exploitative tendencies of fiat systems. 1. Transparency and Accountability In Bitcoin, every transaction is recorded on a public ledger, ensuring that no entity can obscure or manipulate value flows. Similarly, corporations and brothels could adopt transparent governance models, where stakeholders—whether workers, customers, or clients—can verify fairness and accountability. 2. Agency and Sovereignty Bitcoin restores financial control to individuals, allowing them to participate in the economy on their terms. Ethical corporations and brothels should likewise empower individuals with choices and the ability to set their terms of participation. 3. Value Without Exploitation Bitcoin’s decentralized system eliminates the need for exploitative intermediaries. Applying this principle, organizations could prioritize equitable value exchange, ensuring that no one is reduced to a disposable asset. --- Healing the Psychological Impact To move beyond the psychological toll of commodification, societies must reimagine systems of work and exchange. This involves: 1. Redefining Value Value should extend beyond monetary metrics to include well-being, relationships, and personal growth. Organizations must recognize that human worth cannot be quantified. 2. Restoring Meaning Work and services, whether in corporations or brothels, should align with personal values and societal benefits. This creates a sense of purpose and connection. 3. Fostering Empathy Recognizing the humanity of everyone involved in a system—whether coworkers, clients, or customers—helps rebuild trust and compassion. --- Conclusion: A New Paradigm for Transactional Systems The metaphor of corporations as brothels is not about judgment but about understanding how transactional systems shape our psychology and relationships. By examining these parallels, we can challenge the commodification of the self and advocate for systems that prioritize human dignity, agency, and fairness. Bitcoin, as a decentralized, transparent alternative, offers a glimpse of what such systems could look like. It challenges us to move beyond extraction and exploitation, toward value exchange that respects the complexity of human life. In doing so, it invites us to create a world where transactions do not diminish us but empower us to live fully and authentically.

@ dbb19ae0:c3f22d5a

Warning: *Use this at your own risk Backup your files before using them in the software Backup often, test your backup. Verify and dry test your files before doing a production run* I had to write this program because rmdir was claiming not to have enough authorization context nostr:note1l0u4pw5xp73eultr9nf5tgmlsgnv9q05wdqha4t6grd4699v74zssshm40 ```perl use strict; use warnings; use File::Path qw(remove_tree); # Specify the directory to be deleted my $directory = 'c:\\Users\\mydirectory\\mysubdirectory\\'; # Remove the directory remove_tree($directory, {error => \my $err}); # Check for errors if (@$err) { foreach my $diag (@$err) { my ($file, $message) = %$diag; if ($file eq '') { print "General error: $message\n"; } else { print "Problem unlinking $file: $message\n"; } } } else { print "Directory successfully deleted.\n"; } ```

@ 16d11430:61640947

Corporate infidelity—the betrayal of principles, trust, or ethics for personal or organizational gain—breeds a toxic "cheat culture" that often promotes cheaters to the highest ranks. This phenomenon undermines meritocracy, rewards unethical behavior, and creates a cycle where deception becomes normalized. Here's an exploration of how this happens, supported by evidence and psychoanalysis of the relationship between cheaters and corporate leadership. --- 1. How Corporate Infidelity Breeds a Cheat Culture Corporate infidelity sets a precedent that unethical behavior is acceptable if it delivers results. Over time, this shapes an organizational culture where: 1. Cheating Becomes a Norm: When employees see unethical practices rewarded or ignored, they learn that integrity is secondary to success. 2. Survival of the Craftiest: In such cultures, those who can manipulate systems, cut corners, or deceive stakeholders often rise faster than those adhering to principles. 3. Erosion of Accountability: A lack of accountability fosters a permissive environment, where leaders themselves engage in and benefit from unethical practices. --- 2. Evidence of Cheat Culture in Leadership Several high-profile scandals illustrate how cheating has propelled individuals to leadership positions: Wells Fargo Fake Accounts Scandal What Happened: Thousands of employees, pressured by unrealistic sales targets, created millions of unauthorized customer accounts. Leadership's Role: Senior executives not only incentivized this behavior but ignored warnings from whistleblowers. Outcome: The culture of cheating started at the top, as leaders prioritized growth over ethics, and they faced only minimal accountability initially. Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes What Happened: Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, misrepresented the capabilities of her company’s blood-testing technology to investors and regulators. Leadership Dynamics: Holmes created a culture where employees were pressured to meet impossible expectations, even if it meant falsifying results. Outcome: Holmes’s rise was fueled by her charisma and ability to sell a dream, despite the underlying fraud. Enron and Skilling’s Leadership What Happened: Enron executives engaged in widespread accounting fraud to inflate profits and conceal debt. Leadership’s Role: CEO Jeffrey Skilling cultivated a high-pressure environment that rewarded financial manipulation and punished transparency. Outcome: Enron’s collapse highlighted how cheat culture at the top devastates entire organizations. --- 3. Psychoanalysis: The Relationship Between Cheaters and Corporate Leadership The relationship between cheaters and corporate leadership is symbiotic, driven by psychological and organizational factors: A. Psychological Traits of Cheaters in Leadership 1. Narcissism: Many corporate cheaters possess narcissistic traits, including an inflated sense of self-importance and a lack of empathy. They manipulate others to maintain their power and image. Example: Elizabeth Holmes’s portrayal as a visionary leader allowed her to deflect scrutiny for years. 2. Risk-Taking Behavior: Cheaters often thrive in environments where calculated risk-taking is rewarded, pushing boundaries until ethical lines are crossed. Example: Enron executives’ risky financial strategies were initially celebrated as innovative. 3. Machiavellianism: A tendency to prioritize personal gain over principles enables cheaters to navigate corporate politics and manipulate others. Example: Executives at Volkswagen during the Dieselgate scandal prioritized market dominance over compliance. --- B. Why Organizations Promote Cheaters 1. Results-Oriented Metrics: Companies often measure success by short-term outcomes (e.g., profits, growth) rather than long-term sustainability. Cheaters excel at delivering impressive metrics, even if through unethical means. 2. Fear and Obedience: Cheaters in leadership roles cultivate a culture of fear, discouraging dissent and ensuring compliance with their unethical practices. 3. Halo Effect: Charismatic cheaters, like Elizabeth Holmes or Jeffrey Skilling, use their charm and vision to distract from ethical shortcomings, earning trust from boards and investors. 4. Cultural Blind Spots: Organizations with weak ethical frameworks or poor governance fail to detect or address unethical behavior until it’s too late. --- 4. The Long-Term Impact of Cheat Culture The systemic promotion of cheaters to leadership has far-reaching consequences: 1. Erosion of Trust: Employees, investors, and customers lose faith in organizations when scandals come to light. 2. Demoralization of Ethical Employees: High-performing, ethical employees are often overlooked or pushed out, leading to talent attrition. 3. Reinforced Cycle of Corruption: When cheaters rise to power, they perpetuate a culture that rewards unethical behavior, creating a self-sustaining system. --- 5. Breaking the Cycle: Preventing Cheat Culture 1. Transparent Governance: Implementing decentralized systems like blockchain can provide immutable records of decisions and transactions, reducing opportunities for manipulation. 2. Ethical Leadership Training: Developing leaders with strong ethical foundations ensures accountability at the top. 3. Whistleblower Protections: Encouraging employees to report unethical practices without fear of retaliation can help identify and address issues early. 4. Focus on Long-Term Metrics: Shifting from short-term profits to long-term value creation reduces pressure to cheat. 5. Adopting Bitcoin Principles: Bitcoin’s trustless, decentralized nature eliminates reliance on charismatic but untrustworthy individuals, promoting accountability. --- Conclusion Corporate infidelity fosters a cheat culture where unethical behavior is rewarded and cheaters rise to the top. This dynamic is fueled by psychological traits like narcissism and organizational flaws such as results-oriented metrics and weak governance. High-profile scandals, from Theranos to Enron, illustrate the dangers of such cultures. However, with transparent systems, ethical leadership, and decentralized accountability mechanisms like Bitcoin, organizations can break this cycle and rebuild trust, integrity, and fairness in corporate leadership.

@ 16d11430:61640947

Corporate infidelity—marked by ethical breaches, dishonesty, and the prioritization of profits over principles—has plagued modern society. From environmental scandals to financial fraud, these betrayals erode trust, destabilize economies, and perpetuate inequality. However, the emergence of Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology presents a transformative solution. With its emphasis on transparency, decentralization, and immutability, Bitcoin offers a path to ending corporate infidelity and its widespread societal effects. --- The Roots of Corporate Infidelity Corporate infidelity thrives in centralized systems that lack accountability and incentivize short-term gains. Whether it's manipulating emissions data, exploiting customer trust, or undermining environmental stewardship, these actions are enabled by opaque structures, fiat-based incentives, and unchecked power. Key Factors Enabling Corporate Infidelity: 1. Opaque Financial Systems: Fiat-based systems rely on centralized control, allowing manipulation, fraud, and mismanagement to go unchecked. 2. Short-Termism: Quarterly earnings reports and profit-driven motives often override long-term ethical commitments. 3. Lack of Transparency: Traditional corporate governance operates behind closed doors, making it difficult to identify and address misconduct. 4. Centralized Power: Concentrated authority within organizations enables unethical behavior to persist unchecked. --- How Bitcoin and Blockchain Combat Corporate Infidelity Bitcoin, as a decentralized, transparent, and immutable financial system, addresses the structural weaknesses that enable corporate infidelity. Here’s how: 1. Immutable Transparency Bitcoin’s blockchain is a public ledger where all transactions are permanently recorded and verifiable. This transparency makes it nearly impossible to manipulate financial data or hide unethical practices. Impact on Corporate Governance: By integrating blockchain technology, companies can create verifiable records of financial transactions, supply chains, and decision-making processes, reducing opportunities for fraud and corruption. 2. Decentralized Accountability Bitcoin operates without central authority, redistributing power to a global network of participants. This decentralization reduces the risks of concentrated decision-making that often lead to unethical behavior. Impact on Corporations: Decentralized systems empower stakeholders—employees, customers, and investors—to hold corporations accountable. Transparent decision-making eliminates the "black box" of traditional corporate governance. 3. Alignment of Incentives Bitcoin’s protocol incentivizes long-term participation and trust. Its deflationary nature discourages reckless monetary expansion, aligning with sustainable practices over speculative short-term gains. Impact on Society: Corporations operating on Bitcoin-based systems are encouraged to prioritize stability and value creation, reducing the focus on quarterly profits at the expense of ethics. 4. Smart Contracts and Automation Blockchain-enabled smart contracts enforce agreements automatically without intermediaries. These contracts can ensure compliance with ethical and operational standards, removing the possibility of infidelity. Example Use Case: Companies can automate ethical practices, such as verifying supply chain sustainability or ensuring fair wages, through immutable smart contracts. 5. Trustless Systems Bitcoin eliminates the need for trust in third parties by relying on cryptographic proof. This trustless design reduces opportunities for betrayal and infidelity within corporate structures. Impact on Employees and Customers: With verifiable systems in place, stakeholders no longer need to rely on promises—they can verify outcomes independently. --- Real-World Applications: Bitcoin in Action 1. Supply Chain Transparency Blockchain-based systems allow for end-to-end tracking of goods, ensuring ethical sourcing and eliminating fraud. Companies like IBM are already leveraging blockchain for supply chain transparency. 2. Financial Integrity Bitcoin eliminates the need for centralized banks and financial intermediaries, reducing risks of financial mismanagement. Companies can integrate Bitcoin payments to promote transparency in financial transactions. 3. Decentralized Audits Blockchain-based auditing ensures that financial reports are accurate and tamper-proof, making it harder for corporations to engage in fraudulent activities. --- Transforming Society Through Bitcoin The societal benefits of Bitcoin extend beyond the corporate world. By addressing corporate infidelity, Bitcoin can help create a more equitable, sustainable, and trustworthy society: 1. Restoring Trust in Institutions Bitcoin’s emphasis on transparency and accountability can rebuild public trust in corporations, governments, and financial systems. 2. Promoting Ethical Leadership Leaders operating in Bitcoin-based systems are incentivized to act ethically, as their actions are subject to public scrutiny. 3. Reducing Inequality By decentralizing power and removing intermediaries, Bitcoin empowers individuals and small businesses, reducing wealth concentration and systemic inequality. 4. Accelerating Justice Immutable records on the blockchain can expedite legal and regulatory processes, ensuring swift accountability for unethical behavior. --- Challenges and the Road Ahead While Bitcoin offers a powerful tool for combating corporate infidelity, its adoption faces challenges, including regulatory resistance, technical literacy gaps, and cultural inertia. To fully realize its potential: 1. Education and Advocacy: Stakeholders must understand Bitcoin’s capabilities and embrace its principles. 2. Policy Integration: Governments and organizations need to develop frameworks that encourage blockchain adoption. 3. Cultural Shift: A commitment to transparency, accountability, and decentralization must become a societal norm. --- Conclusion Corporate infidelity has long undermined trust, stability, and equality in society. Bitcoin offers a revolutionary alternative, providing the means and methods to end unethical practices through transparency, decentralization, and accountability. By embracing Bitcoin’s principles, corporations and societies can foster a future built on trust, integrity, and sustainable value creation—a future where betrayal of principles is no longer an option.

@ 75869cfa:76819987

**GM, Nostriches!** The Nostr Review is a biweekly newsletter focused on Nostr statistics, protocol updates, exciting programs, the long-form content ecosystem, and key events happening in the Nostr-verse. If you’re interested, join me in covering updates from the Nostr ecosystem! **Quick review:** In the past two weeks, Nostr statistics indicate over 234,000 daily trusted pubkey events.The number of new users has seen a significant increase. Profiles with contact list amount is five times the amount from the same period. Public writing events have reflected a 200% increase. More than 10 million events have been published, with posts leading in volume at around 1.9 million, representing a significant 42% decrease. Total Zap activity stands at approximately 6 million, marking a 44% decline. Additionally, 19 pull requests were submitted to the Nostr protocol, with 7 merged. A total of 45 Nostr projects were tracked, with 15 releasing product updates, and over 450 long-form articles were published, 32% focusing on Bitcoin and Nostr. During this period, 1 notable event took place, and 1 significant event is upcoming. **Nostr Statistics** --- Based on user activity, the total daily trusted pubkeys writing events is about 234,000, representing a slight 4.3% increase compared to the previous period. Daily activity peaked at 18862 events, with a low of approximately 17329. The number of new users has seen a significant increase. Profiles with contact list amount to approximately 16,898, which is five times the amount from the same period. Pubkeys writing events total around 276,000, reflecting a 200% increase compared to the same period. Regarding event publishing, the total number of note events published is about 10 million, marking an increase of above 10%. Posts remain the most dominant in terms of volume, totaling approximately 1.9 million, reflecting a notable increase of 42%. Reposts stand at around 344,000, showing an increase of approximately 5.1%, while reactions have experienced a slight 3.2% decline. For zap activity, the total zap amount is about 6 million, showing a decrease of over 44% compared to the previous period. In terms of relay usage, the top five relays by user count are: wss://feeds.nostr.band/, wss://relay..nostr.band/, wss://bostr.bitcointxoko.com/, wss://relay.lumina.rocks/, wss://unostr.site/ Data source: https://stats.nostr.band/ **NIPs** --- **[Adds Open Graph “iMeta” tags](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1674)** nostr:npub1gcxzte5zlkncx26j68ez60fzkvtkm9e0vrwdcvsjakxf9mu9qewqlfnj5z is proposing that media attachments (images, videos, and other files) may be added to events by including a URL in the event content, along with a matching imeta tag.imeta ("inline metadata") tags add information about media URLs in the event's content. Each imeta tag SHOULD match a URL in the event content. Clients may replace imeta URLs with rich previews. The imeta tag is variadic, and each entry is a space-delimited key/value pair. Each imeta tag MUST have a url, and at least one other field. imeta may include any field specified by [NIP 94](https://github.com/vitorpamplona/nips/blob/iopengraph/94.md). There SHOULD be only one imeta tag per URL. **[NIP 404 - Ghost Events](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1676)** [gu1p](https://github.com/gu1p) introduces Ghost Events—a protocol for creating events that are plausibly deniable with an ephemeral nature, providing a weak binding to the author's identity. It leverages ring signatures, elliptic curve point-hashing, and a distance-based proof-of-work that references Bitcoin block hashes for chronological anchoring. **[NIP-88: DLC oracle announcement/attestation event kinds](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1681)** nostr:npub1l6uy9chxyn943cmylrmukd3uqdq8h623nt2gxfh4rruhdv64zpvsx6zvtg is proposing that this is meant to be a scope-reduced version of #919 to allow Discrete Log Contract (DLC) oracle announcements and attestations to be published over Nostr，omitted the DLC offer/accept/encrypted messages that are in #919 and instead focusing only on oracle gossip messages, so that oracles can start using Nostr as an interoperable publishing medium for attestation data. There is upstream work still going on and he don't think they should standardize some of the messages in #919 because the current DLC specs imply the use of ECDSA signatures, without aggregation. The oracle messages though are about as efficient as they can expect them to be, and as oracles form the foundation of a DLC ecosystem they should be prioritized. **[Add nip for delegated aggregate signature verification](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1682)** nostr:npub1jlrs53pkdfjnts29kveljul2sm0actt6n8dxrrzqcersttvcuv3qdjynqn introduces a new verb which can be used to provide a proof via zk-SNARKs to clients that event signatures are valid, without providing the signatures. This allows for some level of deniability, and prevents protected events from being replicated across the network, without requiring users to blindly trust relays. **[add restricted to standardized machine-readable prefixes](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1685)** [ZigBalthazar](https://github.com/ZigBalthazar) is proposing that the restricted prefix is useful in situations where an individual is not whitelisted to write on a relay or has been banned from it. For example, Immortal ([websocket/event_handler.go#L125](https://github.com/dezh-tech/immortal/blob/f0829316f3ea8af478e34cd04ed6c550bdd93559/delivery/websocket/event_handler.go#L125)) uses a restricted prefix to send a message when someone who is not whitelisted tries to write on the relay, provided that the whitelist feature is enabled in the configurations. **[Zapraisers](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1688)** nostr:npub1gcxzte5zlkncx26j68ez60fzkvtkm9e0vrwdcvsjakxf9mu9qewqlfnj5z is proposing that adds a tag to be used in any event as a goal for the amount of zaps to be raised by that event.This has been out on Amethyst for 1.5 years now. The field complements NIP-75 fundraisers used by fundraising sites. **[NIP-60: clarify privkey is optional](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1695)** nostr:npub1gujeqakgt7fyp6zjggxhyy7ft623qtcaay5lkc8n8gkry4cvnrzqd3f67z is proposing that redeeming or spending a Cashu with a spending condition requires a corresponding private key to sign the proof. In the context of Nostr, this private key can be the user's own Nostr private key or another private key, not related to the user's Nostr private key. if the client is using the user's own Nostr private key, then the privkey tag wouldn't be needed. **[nostr over reticulum initial draft](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1696)** nostr:npub1gmm2ehusvs35zgh6pq84m8hkj4ea0ygy3c9j2e3slzhjjce3kmns5tdaz2 defines how to implement Nostr relay connections over the Reticulum Network Stack, allowing nostr clients and relays to communicate over Reticulum networks instead of traditional WebSocket connections. Nostr over Reticulum (NoR) enables nostr clients and relays to operate over Reticulum's encrypted mesh networking stack while maintaining full compatibility with existing nostr protocols and NIPs. **Notable Projects** --- **[Damus](https://yakihonne.com/article/naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzq3qcntalp5jhzm0x4aunm3suzylv74skvjqezt8pfss99kmz7wtvqqpzutsp6rexg)** nostr:npub1gsvf47ls6ft3dhn277faccwpz0k02ctxfqv39ns5cgzjmd3089kqmza4pt * Add t tags for hashtags * Use HashSet, lowercase, and add emoji tests * Add test and format * Fix emoji hashtags * Handle punctuation better * Show pointer cursor on grip * Adjust context menu/grip circle sizes * Fix double frame border * Extract timing from AppSizeHandler to TimedSerializer * Use TimedSerializer in AppSizeHandler * Introduce ZoomHandler * And more **[Primal for Android build 2.0.36](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqsqamjd0v5gttmldpndkex73m2ctdr4wgndux06kkhmksltmuaf0fczyqfr47h86xrm5dkkmhxe0kl54nze4ml7yslhsfvjl78jtm2hnhesvqcyqqqqqqg7mrnj9)** nostr:npub12vkcxr0luzwp8e673v29eqjhrr7p9vqq8asav85swaepclllj09sylpugg The latest version of our Android app, v2.0.36, is now available on the Google Play Store and GitHub. Bug Fix: Addressed an issue where some users were unable to zap certain accounts using the built-in wallet. **[0xchat App v1.4.6](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qgs9ajjs5p904ml92evlkayppdpx2n3zdrq6ejnw2wqphxrzmd62swsqypf9auejksl23zwwklygpscc96sngfw9jfv9n4dp3w02t6mku0vvyjrdqsa)** nostr:npub1tm99pgz2lth724jeld6gzz6zv48zy6xp4n9xu5uqrwvx9km54qaqkkxn72 * Added reactions and mention notification button to chats. Clicking the button will navigate to the specific chat message. * Long press the "Like" button on moments to select an emoji. * Fixed an issue where sending voice messages in Secret Chat failed. * Resolved incorrect time display for e cash transactions. * Addressed a bug with video message reactions. * Fixed an occasional issue where moments could not subscribe to updates. * Resolved rendering issues for certain notes. * Fixed a problem where clicking on custom emoji reactions didn’t send the reaction properly. * Fixed some typos. **[Yakihonne](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqsp0zn70fpfx8hjglr78nvau84jzn7yfgcqlwls33lpltpqvch6zeczyqsfsmac8em4m9k33r99e803pnndvylqadl9w69q7zcjkd7d4ssmxqcyqqqqqqgk6pw8g)** nostr:npub1yzvxlwp7wawed5vgefwfmugvumtp8c8t0etk3g8sky4n0ndvyxesnxrf8q **Web v4.2.3:** * Added support for uploading multiple images or videos in notes, comments, and messages. * Refined the search mechanism for better accuracy and performance. * General bug fixes and improvements. **[Nostur v1.17.0](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqszysrzd432g3epdmv2f8t60nrxlzevrjppnrj6k2n88kwjtrsgmuczyzd7p0s0cpu4fq3nyvtpfe8palyl9zcdkwvqz8h7anc9letsuhwnxqcyqqqqqqgp5lcdm)** nostr:npub1n0stur7q092gyverzc2wfc00e8egkrdnnqq3alhv7p072u89m5es5mk6h0 * Sync already seen/read across multiple devices * New 😂-feed * Support new Olas/picture format (viewing) * Support Frost/multi-sig login * Support for .heic image format in posts * Show extra autopilot relays used on Post Preview (default off) * Login with nip05 (read-only) * Undelete button for deleted posts * Optimized local database performance * Many other bug fixes and performance improvements **[nos.social](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqsq0azuq4gu0327h9lvy3z5xftkgdd7dl8wjsmjpkjtdpuu07xl7kszyq8j9srw4sgqy6zwlnrg7459gr5rgtgkp82s30x5xykq8rnpjnutvqcyqqqqqqgpxm29x)** nostr:npub1pu3vqm4vzqpxsnhuc684dp2qaq6z69sf65yte4p39spcucv5lzmqswtfch Here’s the full set of changes in this version: * Added lists to the app so you can see feeds from specific accounts you've added to the list. You can create your lists with listr and view their feeds from the Nos app. * Nos now publishes the hashtags it finds in your note when you post. This means it works the way you’ve always expected it to work. * Updated the default relays that are added when you create an account. * Fixed display of Mastodon usernames * Fixed crash related to tracking delete events. **[DEG mods](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqs0vx08kmyd3patpwxc7kyp9zhk3wze7z4cpzt0zkjelz0j9sfwf9gzyr6t78a4h297sw0hp3enzue7xz0hszpzkvglv0spl8wg4wa59rud2qcyqqqqqqg6s7zh4)** nostr:npub17jl3ldd6305rnacvwvchx03snauqsg4nz8mruq0emj9thdpglr2sst825x * Local caching of field data in mod and blog submission * Source view & Difference view modes in the rich text editor * Hidden posts, by either admin or user, now show a note about it when visiting the post * Mod downloads will show a notice note if the download link isn't a file / if it directs the user to another page * Mod posts without a malware scan report link will show a note informing the user of it (even if it's there, the user should still need to be cautious) * Report button now only appears if the user is logged in (to be further enhanced later down the line) * Old mod posts can be editable again without issue, with an error shown if something is wrong for the user to fix * If a mod post (later blog post) gets stuck while publishing, a timer kicks in that'll lead to a 'try again' option that usually publishes the post correctly * Tip/Zap buttons will only appear if the author has an LN address in their profile (shouldn't have been visible) * Posts marked as 'repost' will have that tag shown in the mod card in the landing page's "Latest Mods" section (it didn't appear before) **[Amber 3.1.0](https://yakihonne.com/article/naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzpmhrj8hvx4g76gaevyp8mc34ts8jmzdf9wh5nrvmwjrrw7xsh97zqqgxvenzxuurvc3cvv6xxvfjxcmkgz4mwea)** nostr:npub1am3ermkr250dywukzqnaug64cred3x5jht6f3kdhfp3h0rgtjlpqecxrv7 * Fix bunker requests showing up again after accepting * Move bunker and nostr connect to its own files * Fix a infinite loop when receiving bunker requests * Show relays after the app is connected * Recover service when app crashes * Update quartz dependency * Fix ui contrast when using dark theme **[AlbyHub 1.13](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqs9vgnkjz3u9t9yjspndvj5ykxw5j737kk75pph3k9r7eydzq9rt8czypr90hlgjed73xq2jvrjhna4ukdx2yjyqmdslqvjzhh83wj8jd9nuqcyqqqqqqgvgylzn)** nostr:npub1getal6ykt05fsz5nqu4uld09nfj3y3qxmv8crys4aeut53unfvlqr80nfm * Auto-unlock for self-hosted hubs * Provide closing channel tx details * NEW APP: Zapplanner * NEW APP: Simple Boost * NEW APP: Clams.tech * various improvements and fixes! **[WasabiWallet 2.4.0](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqsq4m323pxn33y36l8lhm9pmc46a0x5vm6f0zex2cqzjpskmnc6ktczyzfm6rr08n96u3ec3vq6cm8qktqpxy2defxq34hzwyk5lac5qk3uxqcyqqqqqqguwva6e)** nostr:npub1jw7scmeuewhywwytqxkxec9jcqf3znw2fsyddcn3948lw9q950ps9y35fg * Send to Silent Payment addresses * Donation Button * Switch to TestNet 4 * Release Notes in the client **[Zapstore 0.2.0](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqsvxyjp03x43t4ry6xvx2mn3x2whqgyjlnft7gqfnsu88qyvsc4kegzypuvuma2wgny8pegfej8hf5n3x2hxhkgcl2utfjhxlj4zv8sycc86qcyqqqqqqge9rlts)** nostr:npub10r8xl2njyepcw2zwv3a6dyufj4e4ajx86hz6v4ehu4gnpupxxp7stjt2p8 0.2.0 is out with support for signing in with Amber (NIP-55) and zaps via Nostr Wallet Connect. **[Narr release v0.3.2](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqsqqq9h24wylffrf9f5n0rzaz790m5d05unhdkegkze4ja4vvdjxsqzyqalp33lewf5vdq847t6te0wvnags0gs0mu72kz8938tn24wlfze6qcyqqqqqqgmh8m8k)** nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6 New Narr release v0.3.2 fixes all the problems with articles updating, insufficiently-rendered Markdown, Nostr usernames not loading, and makes everything better. It supports all sorts of RSS feed discovery from HTTP URLs and renders them beautifully in a simple straightforward interface, you can also paste nostr:... URIs, including nip05, npub and nprofile codes (they should also work without the nostr: prefix). **[ZEUS v0.9.5](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqsdckxpg09kkk423mkuderrp33uenlleswct6nu7lxrt83l3ygp64gzyqkesuajt0edmfs5z6zdgn27ka40t8ckw7y2tr3k82ckw8l0a6rlyqcyqqqqqqgyjme39)** nostr:npub1xnf02f60r9v0e5kty33a404dm79zr7z2eepyrk5gsq3m7pwvsz2sazlpr5 * Embedded LND: Seed: allow export of ypriv/zpriv (export to external wallets like Sparrow) * CLNRest: add ability to use all funds for channel open * Improve lurker mode * Improve display of memos and keysend messages * Allow return key for password login * Automatically include routing hints if node has only unannounced channels * Wallets list: better highlighting of active mode * Enhance on-chain receive workflow and address type selection * Migration to new storage system * Layout improvements * Bug fixes **[Citrine 0.7.0](https://yakihonne.com/article/naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzpwp7d7pfaxe7pulc3hphc2fflkf3fv4l0gaug0f9u63q8feuya6cqqgxxcty8qurwdnzvycxzwt9xcenqqg6k78)** nostr:npub1hqlxlq57nvlq70ugmsmu9y5lmyc5k2lh5w7y85j7dgsr5u7zwavq5agspw * Update quartz dependency * Check if events are deleted * Recover service after crash * Add back button in the events screen * Fix delete old events * Fix backup dialog showing up again **[Nstart](https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqsqqqp70h0sxn3mlradqmzv585t9ape055wyj2uutqqs6q42zzdggczypaaaaa7ytwcuk05vq8qgj498gw0jadfm37j0h6cxw780kmcffvq2qcyqqqqqqgdr0962)** nostr:npub10000003zmk89narqpczy4ff6rnuht2wu05na7kpnh3mak7z2tqzsv8vwqk * Easy local backup of your nsec or ncryptsec * Email yourself your ncryptsec, as additional backup location * Create a multi-signer bunker URL for Nostr Connect (more info below) * Auto follow the contacts list of some old and trusted Nostr users * Customize of contact suggestions, useful for onboarding friends & family **Long-Form Content Eco** --- In the past two weeks, more than 450 long-form articles have been published, including over 119 articles on Bitcoin and more than 25 related to Nostr, accounting for 32% of the total content. These articles about Nostr mainly explore the transformative potential of the decentralized protocol, emphasizing its role in reshaping communication and finance, particularly in the context of Bitcoin adoption. They cover technical aspects, like setting up Nostr servers on platforms such as RaspiBlitz using TOR, and discuss its cultural and social impact, such as the evolution of echo chambers and comparisons with other decentralized platforms like Mastodon. The articles reflect on the opportunities and challenges Nostr presents, including privacy concerns, censorship resistance, and its potential to disrupt traditional social media. They also highlight Nostr's growing importance in the gig economy and its potential as a key alternative as users seek decentralized platforms. Furthermore, the articles underscore the dynamic nature of the ecosystem, with communities, relays, and services like Notedeck unlocking new possibilities for collaboration and innovation. The Bitcoin articles discuss a wide range of topics related to Bitcoin's role in the financial world, its technological advancements, and its impact on society. They explore the implications of Bitcoin halving, the mysteries surrounding Satoshi Nakamoto and his wallets, and the evolving dynamics of Bitcoin's relationship with fiat currencies. Key themes include the decentralization of financial systems, Bitcoin's potential as a safe haven against economic instability, and its transformative power in the face of traditional banking. The articles also delve into Bitcoin's growing institutional adoption, its use in privacy preservation, and the rise of Bitcoin in global markets such as Dubai and China. Additionally, they touch on the philosophical and ethical considerations of Bitcoin, exploring its potential to bring about a financial revolution while challenging the status quo of centralized systems. Through varied perspectives, the articles highlight Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom, privacy, and a revolutionary shift in global economic power. Thankyou, nostr:npub1qspus6smkn8mcdxg5jflh50s69vdgtwsd5p74gmjpzp2qekn5duqfv5afj nostr:npub1g5rwqnjtwpuuuplr36v82eu2sxkn8fzkc6tdwz8036dzmrqkhgzqm6qq0t nostr:npub1zsw6mhf4rapy9rfxpsrf9hza96jdkl74zsvhvr6qfxfpx80cpgls4q6wsn nostr:npub1864jglrrhv6alguwql9pqtmd5296nww5dpcewapmmcazk8vq4mks0tt2tq nostr:npub18ams6ewn5aj2n3wt2qawzglx9mr4nzksxhvrdc4gzrecw7n5tvjqctp424 nostr:npub1da7m2ksdj24995hm8afv88pjpvzt6t9vh70mg8t52yjwtxza3vjszyar58 nostr:npub1g8ag22auywa5c5de6w9ujenpyhrrp9qq8sjzram02xldttmmwurqfd0hqk nostr:npub1harur8s4wmwzgrugwdmrd9gcv6zzfkzfmp36xu4tel0ces7j2uas3gcqdy nostr:npub1mqcwu7muxz3kfvfyfdme47a579t8x0lm3jrjx5yxuf4sknnpe43q7rnz85 nostr:npub1zmg3gvpasgp3zkgceg62yg8fyhqz9sy3dqt45kkwt60nkctyp9rs9wyppc nostr:npub1marc26z8nh3xkj5rcx7ufkatvx6ueqhp5vfw9v5teq26z254renshtf3g0 nostr:npub1l8qw5av3039qhefprytlm7fg8kyyc0luy8yk2prk2l8wc38gf86qzw7nnm and others, for your work. Enriching Nostr’s long-form content ecosystem is crucial. Nostriches Global Meet Ups --- Recently, several Nostr events have been hosted in different countries. * **[The 32nd Round Rock Bitcoiners meetup](https://www.meetup.com/round-rock-bitcoin-node-runners/events/305266210/?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=announceModal_savedevents_share_modal&utm_source=link)** successfully took place on January 10, 2025, at the Allen R. Baca Center, featuring the second Base58 Bitcoin Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) event. Participants delved into the mechanisms of sending and receiving Bitcoin transactions, mining, and node validation. Following the session, attendees headed to the historic downtown Round Rock for a Bitcoin Happy Hour and engaged in peer-to-peer Satoshi Square economic exchanges. nostr:npub17ysayggwumkpkpgsq75axd7ed9guw03wz9jldz5d0zrkgz0cja2qd09tzu Here are the upcoming Nostr events that you might want to check out. * **[The Austin Bitcoin Design Club event]([https:/](https://www.meetup.com/austin-bitcoin-design-club/events/304967482/?eventOrigin=group_similar_events)/)** will be held on January 30, 2025, hosted at Bitcoin Commons. The event aims to enhance Bitcoin design through education, participation, and a positive atmosphere, encouraging attendees to bring laptops for design critiques. The event is hosted by nostr:npub1p4kg8zxukpym3h20erfa3samj00rm2gt4q5wfuyu3tg0x3jg3gesvncxf8 Additionally, We warmly invite event organizers who have held recent activities to reach out to us so we can work together to promote the prosperity and development of the Nostr ecosystem. Thanks for reading! If there’s anything I missed, feel free to reach out and help improve the completeness and accuracy of my coverage.

@ ed84ce10:cccf4c2a

# Hackathon Summary The [HackSecret 4](https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/hacksecret4) hackathon brought together 130 developers to focus on developing decentralized confidential computing applications using the Secret Network. The event involved 48 projects, each utilizing Secret's Confidential Computing Layer and interfacing with blockchains such as Cosmos, EVM, and Solana. The hackathon was divided into two main tracks: Cross-Chain dApps and Native Secret dApps, both highlighting Secret's privacy features. Structured support was provided through workshops on deploying dApps and confidential computing for environments such as EVM, IBC, and Solana. Developer resources supported participants in learning about Secret contracts, especially for newcomers. The prize pool totaled $12,000 USD, awarded in SCRT and SEI tokens. Some notable projects included confidential voting systems, sealed-bid auctions, and private voting mechanisms. The hackathon emphasized technical innovation and practical problem-solving within the ecosystem of decentralized applications. Through active participation and creative submissions, the event contributed to expanding the Secret Network's ecosystem and promoted confidential computing advancements in Web3 technologies. # Hackathon Winners ### 7,000 SCRT Prize Winners - [Private Acknowledge Receipt](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/16855): A blockchain system designed for confidential information sharing using NFTs with encrypted private data, ensuring secure data access and notifications on-chain. - [Great Walk NFT Experience](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17522): Connects hiking trails with NFTs that evolve as users progress, utilizing Secret Network for privacy and featuring a user-friendly frontend. ### 5,000 SCRT Prize Winners - [On-Chain 2FA](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17028): Integrates two-factor authentication via Google Authenticator for improved security in smart contracts and accounts on Secret Network. - [SecretHacks](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17661): A decentralized platform using vote encryption to ensure unbiased project evaluations for community funding and hackathons. ### 3,500 SCRT Prize Winners - [Straw Hat Builds](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17573): Supports developers moving from tutorial learning to real projects using blockchain and Rust, with an emphasis on practical application. - [KittyMix](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17646): A cat collecting game that encourages community-driven NFT remixing, leveraging Secret Network for hosting pixel-art NFTs with unique attributes. ### 2,000 SCRT Prize Winners - [Saffron - Escrow](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17662): Provides secure digital asset escrow services in the CosmWasm ecosystem, enhanced by Secret Network's privacy features for token and NFT trades. - [Secret Password Manager](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17668): A decentralized credential management system using Secret Network's confidential computing, offering a secure smart contract and web interface for credentials. For a comprehensive overview of all projects, visit [HackSecret 4 on DoraHacks](https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/hacksecret4/buidl). # About the Organizer ### Secret Network Secret Network is a blockchain platform that emphasizes data privacy and secure computation, distinguishing itself with privacy-preserving technologies. It enables encrypted smart contracts, offering enhanced data confidentiality compared to conventional blockchain systems. Initiatives include privacy-preserving DeFi applications and partnerships to expand privacy utilities within the blockchain ecosystem. The current mission of Secret Network is to advance privacy protections, build a more secure and decentralized web infrastructure, and empower developers and users with versatile privacy features.

@ fbf0e434:e1be6a39

# **Hackathon 回顾** [HackSecret 4](https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/hacksecret4) Hackathon汇集了130位开发者，集中开发使用Secret Network的去中心化机密计算应用。活动涉及48个项目，每个项目都使用了Secret的机密计算层，并与诸如Cosmos、EVM和Solana等区块链进行交互。Hackathon分为两个主要赛道：跨链dApps和本地Secret dApps，两者都突出了Secret的隐私特性。 通过针对EVM、IBC和Solana等环境的dApps部署和机密计算的研讨会提供了结构化支持。开发者资源支持参与者学习Secret合约，特别是针对新手。奖池总额为12,000美元，以SCRT和SEI代币发放。一些值得注意的项目包括机密投票系统、密封投标拍卖和私人投票机制。 Hackathon强调了去中心化应用生态系统中的技术创新和实际问题解决能力。通过积极参与和创造性提交，活动为Secret Network生态系统扩展作出贡献，并促进了Web3技术中机密计算的进步。 # **Hackathon Winners** ### **7,000 SCRT Prize Winners** - [Private Acknowledge Receipt](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/16855): 一个区块链系统，设计用于使用带有加密私密数据的NFT进行机密信息共享，确保在链上安全数据访问和通知。 - [Great Walk NFT Experience](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17522): 将远足小径与随用户进展而演变的NFT连接起来，使用Secret Network实现隐私，并具有用户友好的前端界面。 ### **5,000 SCRT Prize Winners** - [On-Chain 2FA](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17028): 集成Google Authenticator的双因素认证，以提高Secret Network上智能合约和账户的安全性。 - [SecretHacks](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17661): 一个去中心化平台，使用投票加密以确保社区资金和Hackathon项目评估时的不偏见。 ### **3,500 SCRT Prize Winners** - [Straw Hat Builds](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17573): 支持开发者从教程学习转向真实项目的开发，使用区块链和Rust，强调实际应用。 - [KittyMix](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17646): 一个鼓励社区驱动型NFT重混的猫咪收集游戏，利用Secret Network托管具有独特属性的像素艺术NFT。 ### **2,000 SCRT Prize Winners** - [Saffron - Escrow](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17662): 提供CosmWasm生态系统中的安全数字资产托管服务，通过Secret Network的隐私特性增强代币和NFT交易。 - [Secret Password Manager](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/17668): 使用Secret Network的机密计算的去中心化凭证管理系统，提供安全的智能合约和凭证的网页界面。 欲了解所有项目的全面概述，请访问[DoraHacks上的HackSecret 4](https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/hacksecret4/buidl)。 # **关于组织者** ### **Secret Network** Secret Network是一个专注于数据隐私和安全计算的区块链平台，以隐私保护技术为特点。它能够加密智能合约，提供比传统区块链系统更高的数据机密性。其举措包括隐私保护的DeFi应用，以及在区块链生态系统中扩展隐私功能的合作伙伴关系。Secret Network的当前使命是推进隐私保护，构建更安全和去中心化的网络基础设施，并通过多功能隐私功能赋能开发者和用户。

@ 04ed2b8f:75be6756

A warrior does not fear chaos—he thrives in it. Life is a battlefield, and disorder is the forge in which strength, strategy, and resilience are tempered. Whether in the pursuit of victory in business, relationships, or personal conquest, chaos is an inevitable adversary. But within every storm lies an opportunity—an opening to strike, to evolve, and to dominate where others falter. Only those who embrace the struggle with unwavering resolve can turn uncertainty into their greatest weapon. ### **Understanding Chaos** Chaos is not the enemy; it is the proving ground. It manifests as upheaval, setbacks, and unexpected challenges, forcing warriors to sharpen their minds and steel their resolve. - **Disruption Breeds Innovation:** In the heat of battle, new tactics emerge. When the known paths are obliterated, new strategies take form. - **Mindset Is Your Strongest Weapon:** Chaos can either crush you or forge you into something stronger. The choice lies within your perception. - **Growth Is Forged in Adversity:** The greatest warriors are those who embrace discomfort, wielding it to forge endurance and ingenuity. ### **Seizing Opportunity Amidst Chaos** 1. **Adaptability Is Strength** - The warrior who can shift tactics swiftly gains the upper hand. Flexibility and awareness allow for swift and decisive action where others hesitate. 2. **Chaos Fuels Creativity** - In the heat of turmoil, the boldest ideas are born. Warriors do not cling to old ways; they adapt, overcome, and conquer. 3. **Endings Are Just New Battles** - What seems like defeat is often a call to arms for greater conquests. Every setback is a chance to regroup and strike back with renewed vigor. ### **Harnessing Chaos for Victory** 1. **Remain Steady Amid the Storm:** Fear clouds judgment; clarity is power. Observe, assess, and act with precision. Opportunities reveal themselves to those who master control over their emotions. 2. **Strike First, Strike Hard:** Do not merely react to chaos—command it. Take decisive actions that position you ahead of the pack. 3. **Exploit Weaknesses:** Where others see insurmountable problems, a warrior sees openings and opportunities to advance. ### **Lessons from the Battlefields of History** Legends are not born in times of peace but in the crucible of chaos. From generals who turned the tide of war in moments of despair to entrepreneurs who built empires from ruin, history is a testament to those who harnessed disorder and emerged victorious. ### **Conclusion: Chaos Is the Warrior's Ally** Chaos is not to be feared but embraced. It is the ultimate test of will and strategy. A true warrior sees beyond the disorder, crafting victory from the wreckage. In every crisis lies the seed of triumph; in every conflict, the chance to rise. When chaos surrounds you, stand firm, sharpen your sword, and remember—opportunity belongs to those with the courage to seize it.

@ 16d11430:61640947

Part Two Of Series on Mastering the Musca Building on the foundational physical conditioning required to catch a Musca domestica mid-flight, the second pillar of mastery lies in the cultivation of patience, refined visual tracking, and the perception of time. The process transcends physical agility, diving into cognitive and perceptual skills that are as much about mental discipline as they are about muscle memory. The Science of Patience and Observation Patience is the cornerstone of fly-catching excellence. Research in attentional control emphasizes that prolonged focus on erratic and unpredictable targets trains the brain's ability to maintain sustained attention. The ability to remain calm and observant under pressure—waiting for the opportune moment to act—relies on the prefrontal cortex, which governs impulse control and decision-making. This form of patience, often described in meditative practices, lowers cortisol levels and enhances neuroplasticity, allowing individuals to adapt to the seemingly chaotic flight patterns of flies. Athletes in this discipline develop an intuitive understanding of when to strike, a skill honed through repetitive practice and exposure to unpredictable stimuli. Visual Tracking: Decoding the Fly’s Erratic Patterns Flies exhibit highly unpredictable movements, characterized by abrupt shifts in speed and direction. This erratic trajectory, driven by their compound eyes and rapid wing beats, challenges the human visual system. Successful fly-catching requires the athlete to excel in smooth-pursuit eye movements and saccades, which are rapid eye movements that recalibrate focus on moving targets. Studies in visual-motor integration highlight that tracking small, fast-moving objects enhances neural efficiency in the occipital and parietal lobes. These regions process spatial information and coordinate motor responses. High-level performers develop an acute ability to anticipate trajectories by identifying subtle cues in the fly’s movement, such as wing positioning or changes in velocity. Predictive Timing and the Illusion of "Slowing Down Time" One of the most remarkable phenomena in fly-catching is the perception of slowed time during critical moments. This effect, documented in high-performance sports and combat scenarios, is attributed to the brain's increased processing of sensory input during periods of heightened arousal. By compressing time through rapid neural computations, the brain allows individuals to act with extraordinary precision. Predictive timing, governed by the cerebellum, is essential for this process. The cerebellum calculates the fly’s likely trajectory, enabling the hand to intercept the target even as it changes direction. Repeated practice strengthens the cerebellar circuits, creating a feedback loop that enhances accuracy and reaction speed. Refining the Craft Through Research Prominent studies in neuroscience and sports science provide insights into training methods for aspiring fly-catching athletes: 1. Dynamic Visual Acuity Training: Exercises such as tracking moving dots on a screen can improve the ability to focus on fast-moving objects. 2. Anticipatory Drills: Practicing with simulated erratic targets, such as drones or programmable devices, hones the predictive capabilities of the brain. 3. Mindfulness and Reaction Time: Meditation and mindfulness training have been shown to reduce reaction times by calming the nervous system and improving attentional focus. 4. Eye-Hand Coordination Tools: Devices like stroboscopic glasses create controlled visual disruptions, forcing the brain to adapt to incomplete information. The Path to Mastery The art of fly-catching merges the physical, cognitive, and perceptual domains into a singular skill set. Through rigorous training, practitioners learn to read the chaotic dance of the fly, anticipate its movements, and act with surgical precision. The process demands patience, discipline, and a commitment to understanding the intricate connection between body and mind. As Australia continues to explore this unique and challenging sport, its athletes embody a profound lesson: true mastery is not merely about speed or strength but the harmony of mind and body in the face of chaos.