@ 1bc70a01:24f6a411

I’m going to think out lout about the UAP hearing a bit, feel free to tune me out. ## Scenario 1 The one most of us are probably thinking: This entire thing is a distraction from one or many known or unknown issues currently underway. It must be so bad that it warrants national attention to the all-entertaining “UAP” subject. For this to be true, we have to assume one of the following: 1. The people testifying are lying. Maybe paid actors, maybe not, who knows, but they are not telling the truth. 2. They are telling their “truth”, however they obtained it, perhaps even their reality. We do know UFOs are commonly reported worldwide, so perhaps they are just telling what they saw. In terms of congressional involvement, scenario one would mean that some or all of the congress members are full of shit. This is an unlikely scenario in my mind (hard to get everyone to go along with a lie). The more likely scenario is that they are in it for the wild ride, totally unaware they are being used as pawns (or at least some aren’t). What makes this scenario possible in my opinion is that Grush is allowed to speak about the events publicly but not discuss details (unless privately). This makes for good public theatre. Why would unsanctioned projects allow Grush to even go so far as to speak about the events when a slip and fall accident could occur at any moment? The answer would have to be either: 1. Because it’s all bullshit, or mostly bullshit. 2. Because the agencies involved are really THAT incompetent and hadn’t figured out what is happening. 3. Because they have no problem with him talking about it because they would like to slowly disclose alien technology and the fact that we’re not alone. 4. To serve the purpose of distraction. Assuming scenario 1 is correct, the most likely scenario is that the people involved are telling their own version of truth and that some of the congressional members are unaware of the real reason they’re there. This is an easy fallback for any time you want to divert attention from some other pressing matters. Just talk about UFOs! The earlier story in NY Times would also make sense in this case - as the NYT has been known to act as the propaganda arm of the government. The NY Times story brought a lot of attention to the matter, but we have to also wonder why this was under the rug for so many years? Perhaps because it’s pure bullshit. ## The “It’s real!” Scenario…. Let us assume that this is not a distraction. The people testifying are telling the truth. Everything is as they say it is. Ooof! This would mean that everything Grush says is true - there are unsanctioned programs and or people with extreme privilege and clearance not granted to anyone else. People that are not even part of the government in any way. It would also mean we have recovered alien craft and bodies and have attempted to reverse engineer their tech. Perhaps we already succeeded and what we see flying around today is this reverse engineered tech, or actual ETs. What would make this scenario real? Well, there is no shortage of UFO sightings. People swearing their life on it. For us to discount all of them would mean calling everyone a liar, or just confused about some other phenomena. I wouldn’t bet on all liars and delusional, but confused, maybe. Still, some accounts are just too out there to dismiss without some serious thought. The fact that people’s stories seem to match could mean that there’s truth to those reports. Perhaps the aliens use pods (classic saucer shapes, or “tic tacs” or other shapes craft. Maybe the “cubes” in orbs are their versions of drones? Or not? Maybe the large cubes are spacecraft. Yes, they cover vast amounts of space quickly and STILL crash on our planet. Rookies that failed the landing maneuver in flight school… heh. The governments of the world are all cooperating in hiding the truth and or the US government has unprecedented access to other parts of the world to recover and cover up various incidents. WOW… ok. That means we have something like a one world alien-communication government that has unprecedented access beyond anyone’s control. How?? If this is the real deal, we should all be losing our minds right now. The prospect of another species with vastly superior technology with interest in our nuclear dealings should scare everyone. Forget everything else, this is priority #1. THE PROBLEM with this scenario? 1. Some foreign govt. would have already revealed what they know. Would they not? Are we to believe they are all collaborating on this with some inter-government agency that acts with ultimate authority? Why? How? Maybe they are already speaking out and I’m unaware? 2. We STILL don’t have any definitive evidence. He said, she said, they said. “First account” from a “trusted source”. OK. 3. Aliens possess mind-blown tech, but still crash once in a while. I guess you could say that there will always be a small chance of crash no matter who is flying what. I’ll give people that. 4. “It’s classified”. No amount of talking seems to reveal the actual “classified” information. Even during the congressional meeting it’s always “I can tell you privately”, and “I’m not permitted to talk about this by law”. Which is it? Are you, or are you not allowed to speak on the matter? Why can you disclose it behind closed doors but not in public? Seems rather strange to me. In the “It’s all real!” Scenario, we are all screwed. Either we are being prepped for eventual disclosure of alien life or aliens can do crap we can’t protect against. If we’re being prepared for disclosure, it may mean that we have no say in how things unfold on our planet and the best we can do is ease people into it without everyone losing their minds. In that case, a series of hearings on the matter might make sense. Keep talking about it louder and louder until people are no longer shocked to hear the truth. Buckle up everyone, things are about to get interesting! ## Scenario 3: “Trust Us, We’re here to serve you” From the hearing, we hear multiple times congress mention “distrust in the government” and “rebuild trust”. In line with Scenario 1, this would mean everything is just a smoke screen to “build trust”. “Oh look, congress cares about me😍!!” It would make sense why nothing has been revealed concretely and no foreign government came forward yet. Didn’t you know, UFOs only crash in the states! Haha. Congress is just “building back trust”, either fully aware of the lies, or using mentally unstable people for their gain. Not saying the witnesses are mentally unstable, but you never really know, do you? Tell yourself a story enough times, it becomes a reality. ## My Personal Take? I wish to remain open minded about this subject. There are too many questions unanswered for me and I don’t want to dismiss anything entirely. Could there be aliens visiting this planet? I don’t see why not. We don’t know what we don’t know. For me to dismiss the possibility of non-human life traveling to our planet would mean to believe we have learned everything there is to learn about physics and the universe, when in fact it is the opposite, we know little to nothing. Could it be bullshit? Yes, of course. I also like to consider things from a practical perspective and think in terms of probabilities rather than right and wrong, yes or no. If I had to guess the odds of aliens traveling to our planet, I’d give it at 5% chance. So yeah, not much. I’m much more inclined to believe this is all just human manipulation to achieve some agenda. I won’t speculate what that agenda might be as it’s anyone’s guess really. There’s no way to prove anything. Should all of this be real, things are going to get very interesting…

@ c8df6ae8:22293a06

> The Kennedy administration will begin to back the US dollar with real, finite assets such as gold, silver, platinum and Bitcoin, which is the world's hardest liquid asset, to strengthen the US dollar and guarantee its continued success as the global reserve currency. >— Robert F. Kennedy Jr. *Welcome to the latest issue of the Bitcoin For Families newsletter. This issue covers the potential implications of a Bitcoin backed US dollar.* --- # What are the implications of a Bitcoin backed US dollar? On July 19th, presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr gave a speech at a PAC event where he declared the plans of his administration to, at least partially, back the US dollar with gold, silver, platinum and Bitcoin. You can watch the whole 10 minutes speech here: [](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/5S9igNBe) What could happen if RFK Jr. does get elected and goes forward with this promise? Let’s look at some scenarios. ## What will the RFK administration do? RFK Jr. said he would back 1% of the treasury bills (T-Bills) issued by the treasury with gold, silver, platinum and Bitcoin. T-Bills are short-term securities issued by the government with a maturity rate of 4, 8,13, 17, 26 or 52 weeks. The interest rate is set based on the offers done by those bidding on the auction. For example, a recent auction of 26 week T-Bills closed with an interest rate of 5.25%. Let’s assume that Bitcoin is priced at $32,000 US dollars and that you buy a 26 weeks T-Bill worth $100 and backed by Bitcoin. This would mean that the US government must have possession of 312,500 satoshi (0.00312500 BTC) to back this T-Bill and you should have the option to exchange the T-Bill for that amount of Bitcoin at the end of the 26 weeks. What would happen if after 26 weeks, **the US dollar became weaker than Bitcoin** and the exchange rate is now $34,000? Now you only need 294,118 satoshis to back the $100 T-Bill and since the US government had set aside 312,500 satoshi, then all is good. What would happen if after 26 weeks, **the US dollar became stronger than Bitcoin** and the exchange rate is now $28,000? Now you need 357,143 satoshi to back the T-Bill and since the US government had set aside 312,500 satoshi, they would need to purchase 44,643 more satoshi to continue to back the T-Bill. >I doubt the US government will be willing to take this exchange rate risk with its debt obligations. Therefore, the most likely scenario is that the US government sets a fixed exchange rate for the maturity life of the T-Bill. Maybe equal to the exchange rate at the time of the auction. This means that after 26 weeks you could exchange your T-Bill for 312,500 satoshi no matter what the actual exchange rate is at that point. ## What will this do to the price of Bitcoin or the US dollar? 1. The US dollar will get stronger when compared against other fiat currencies not backed by anything: The US government will send a very strong signal to the world that Bitcoin is the new gold and a very valid store of value. The world’s hardest liquid asset. Therefore, backing the US dollar with Bitcoin will make the US dollar stronger when compared with other fiat currencies. 2. The US dollar will get weaker when compared against Bitcoin: The demand for Bitcoin by the US government will put upward pressure on the exchange rate for Bitcoin against all fiat currencies, including the US dollar. 3. A continued policy of expanding the amount of T-Bills backed by Bitcoin will only exacerbate this process, making the US dollar stronger against other countries currencies and driving the price of Bitcoin up both against the US dollar and by extension other fiat currencies (which by definition are now weaker than the US dollar). ## What will investors do? Investors will demand either the same or maybe even lower interest rates for Bitcoin backed T-Bills with the assumption that the Bitcoin amount backing the T-Bill will be worth more after 26 weeks. The scenario where investors demand higher interest rates because they believe that Bitcoin will get weaker is unlikely since, even if this happens, the T-Bills are denominated in US dollars and investors won’t be forced to redeem the T-Bill for Bitcoin at the end of the 26 weeks. ## What will other countries do? At first, other countries will just watch and see. But the upward pressure on the price of Bitcoin will make a US T-Bill more attractive than its European Central Bank equivalent causing the Euro to lose value compared against the US dollar. The same applies to any other fiat currency (not backed by anything). Other countries will be forced to back some of their short-term debt with Bitcoin to avoid having to pay higher interest rates to counteract the higher attractiveness of the US T-Bill. ## The consolidation of Bitcoin as store of value If all countries start using Bitcoin to back their debt, that will consolidate Bitcoin as the best store of value. Bitcoin has to first settle as a store of value before it can be used as a medium of exchange and unit of account (what is commonly known as hyperbitcoinization). This possible action by the US government might well be the linchpin that triggers the hyperbitcoinization. If the other countries do nothing, the US dollar will cement itself as the global reserve currency and the hyperbitcoinization will still happen, just a bit slower since there will be no demand from other treasuries. --- # Notable notes nostr:note1dgh2ga7q397huzfcf9ah06ptvcxxwcmfx5yhctw0rh4t6ylvud4s0nrn75 --- # Recommendations ## Max DeMarco Max is the creator of a great documentary about social media and why we need Nostr. Watch the documentary here: [](https://youtu.be/aA-jiiepOrE?utm_source=newsletter.bitcoinforfamilies.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=what-will-happen-with-a-bitcoin-backed-us-dollar) You can follow Max [here](nostr:npub1lelkh3hhxw9hdwlcpk6q9t0xt9f7yze0y0nxazvzqjmre3p98x3sthkvyz). ## Bitcoin Therapy 🧠 Level up your Bitcoin knowledge in 3 minutes...every Sunday Check it out [here](https://magic.beehiiv.com/v1/1d57f13d-3506-4926-b2d1-9d1695072d1b?email={{email}}&recommendation_id=d9af6990-f4e5-49ce-b87d-e07b964c4690). --- ## What did you think of today's newsletter? Your feedback helps me create the best newsletter possible for you. Please leave a comment and checkout comments from other subscribers and readers. I love hearing from the Bitcoin For Families community ❤️ 🙏🏻 --- [](https://www.swanbitcoin.com/bitcoinforfamilies?gc=yanbook1020&utm_campaign=yanbook1020) --- ## Buy Bitcoin with Swan If you want to buy Bitcoin, I highly recommend using Swan. They are a Bitcoin only business that is focused on self-custody and educating their users. It's where I buy my Bitcoin. Use this [link](https://www.swanbitcoin.com/bitcoinforfamilies) to receive $10 free to get you started. --- See you again next week! — Alejandro This newsletter is for educational purposes. It does not represent financial advice. Do your own research before buying Bitcoin.

@ 1bc70a01:24f6a411

> This is an old but timeless post I wrote on October 26, 2022. 90% of startups fail. That's the statistic. It feels true to me. Judging by startup Twitter it seems most startups disappear before the 2 year mark. Some, much sooner. Most people imagine the startup journey to be like this:  People think you can go from idea to a shipped product fast. After launch it's all happy times and success. We fool ourselves into believing this because we must. Otherwise, it's hard to start. In reality, it's something like this:  50% quit at the idea stage. I'm making rough calls, not an exact science. Ideas are easy, but acting is hard. Most people will just stop at the idea. Some may look into it, register a domain (you know who you are 👀) and stop there. Those who undertake the journey will build for 3-5 days and see some other "better" idea. This is called the shiny object syndrome. Sixty percent of people will quit at the shiny object and start working on something else. Of course, they'll register a domain first! Ignored the shiny object? Good for you! This is where it starts getting tough. 80% will quit before the "project" is finished. The last 20% of the project feels so close, yet so far away that you wonder if you've made the wrong decision all along. Doubt creeps in. You start thinking - "why bother?" and "this is not going to work out, it was a dumb idea". The heroic few will get through the grind stage and finish their project. This is where they will call themselves a startup - but they are still a project. In a great anticipating to the "launch", many founders will fall from the pedestal soon after. Launches are a non-event for most projects. Lucky few gain customers and traction, but the vast majority will disappear in the coming weeks. That leaves us with the 20% crusaders. The tough bastards who will not give up immediately after the launch. They'll keep pushing. And pushing... and pushing. Until they meet a wall of despair. The wall of despair makes everything seem hopeless. You've tried. You keep trying. But, nothing happens. This idea has no legs. This was all a giant mistake! Shut it all down. Go back to your regular job. This was never meant to be. Sadly, this is just the point where things start getting interesting. But, our hero (or actually 90% of them) give up for good. For most, this will be around the year 1 mark. For some year 2 or even 3 if they pivoted a few times. It's really hard to keep going at this point. The glorious few - the supposed 10% (I actually think it's about 2%) start seeing traction. All the pain and the agony of getting to this point is finally worth it. From here, things can take as long as 1 year, all the way up to 5 years+ to see meaningful growth that pays all the bills and then some. Startups are a helluva ride. Only the toughest survive. But, it doesn't end there. Even 50% of successful startups will seize to exist just before year 5. The remain half may make it to year 9, but even the vast majority of those will disappear before the decade's end. Only about 30% of the 10% successful startups make it past one decade. But none of this matters! If you are a new founder reading this, you know you're the exception. You will succeed! You were chosen. I joke, but, don't give up. I believe in you. What's the downside in doing so?

@ 1bc70a01:24f6a411

The concept of value of value is one where information yearns to flow freely, transactions should be voluntary, unlimited and direct. In V4V model, people pay what something is worth to them. Sounds great. On paper. There are some issues… ## Free sucks At least, that’s the perception. People don’t assign much value to free. Ask anyone who has ever ran any business and has not suggested a value for a product or service and they’ll tell you that they earned far less than when charging for the thing. It’s true, some people will give a lot, some a little, and most none. Most - none. None. ## Pricing is Signal Pricing is a signal of desirability and quality. Of course, it is often incorrect and people manipulate pricing all the time. But for the most part, people don’t see much value in free. Unless a recommended price is offered, people will usually pay nothing. This is not a great model to thrive on if you spend years of your life acquiring knowledge and turning it into products that nobody ultimately buys. 
I have very personal experience with free. I’ve created and sold digital products and ran many pricing experiments myself. The highest priced products usually generated the most revenue. Surprise! The middle cost product (same product, just priced less) decimated the revenue stream. When set to 0 (even with a suggested minimum price), I generated almost no revenue at all. None of this is surprising. Pricing acts as a psychological anchor. “You get what you pay for” is ingrained in our brains whether we think about it or not. ## People are clueless The issue with price is that most people don’t have a clue what anything is worth. The only time people have any rough idea of what they should pay for something is when they have already purchased that thing in the past. But, introduce something they have never before purchased and they won’t have a single clue about what to pay. Take for example a set of professional photos of you and your family. Unless you’ve been to a photo studio in the last 5 years, you probably won’t have a single clue what that package of photos is worth. Does that mean the product is worthless? Of course not, but people don’t know what to pay. In a value for value model, the absence of price makes it super difficult to determine the value of anything. You may take some social cues from previous payments from other people, but this could backfire for the content creator. Suppose I created a UI framework that saved developers hundreds of hours. In theory, I should be able to charge at least a few hours’ worth of value for this product. If the developer’s time is valued at $100/hour, a $200 price for a product that saves you $2000 worth of time seems very justifiable. Not only do you get to use it once, but you can re-use the product for ALL future projects and employment. Now, remove the price and see what people pay. Absolutely nothing. You may have a few people who pay $200 voluntarily, but it’s highly unlikely The vast majority will pay nothing, and some may “tip” in the 5-$60 range. Anything that approaches a $100 mark is seen as a purchase. Hey, I don’t make the rules, I just see what other founders have figured out long ago and combine with my own observations. Don’t kill the messenger. ## Free is Expensive If I am accurate in my assessment and recall my personal experiences accurately, then the majority of people who consume your value will do so for free. When that content is a product, you may end up spending a lot of time on supporting the thing that is not generating any revenue. You don’t want to be rude and ignore people so you’ll probably spend your valuable time answering questions and helping them troubleshoot issues. All of that time adds up. Startup founders who offer free tiers or near free tiers of services learn very quickly that free customers are the most painful and demanding. You are basically forced to charge just to avoid dealing with demanding people who expect everything for nothing. ## Free is Noise Price is not just a request for value, but it acts as a feedback signal for future content. If you have no idea what people are paying for, it’s difficult to know if what you create is worth anything. A situation where the vast majority of your content is consumed for free yield a lot of noise. Well, why not focus on the people who pay? You certainly could, but it ends up being a tiny fraction of the sample size you could have had if you actually charged something up front. ## Lack of forecasting Businesses rely on predictible revenue. Forecasting is necessary for all sorts of decisions if you work with anyone but yourself. It helps with purchasing decision (expenses) and with planning of future products. Value for value makes it impossible to know what your revenue will be next month as you just have no idea if everyone pays nothing or a lot. ## V4V could make you uncompetitive In a model where one person charges a fixed price and the other is relying on the good will of the people to "see the value" in their work, the person with predictible revenue will most likely win out in a competitive environment - enabling them to get ahead of you and your business. They will have an easier time planning further content / products and hiring people to scale the business even further. ## It’s not all hopeless That’s not to say that I don’t like the idea of value for value. Of course I only want people to pay if they find the thing useful. The issue is that people may not know the thing is useful until they’ve already acquired it. At that point who is going back to pay for the thing they already got for free? Few to none. Value for value may work. For some. I’m not saying value for value doesn’t work sometimes, for some people. It is entirely possible that a person earns a living on v4v transactions. However, I think for that to be true there may be other factors at play such as social standing, personal brand, influence, likability, status within a community. The vast majority of creators do not fall into this category and will just struggle. I’m cautiously optimistic about V4V and hope it works out at scale. But as it stands, I have not seen much evidence that it actually pays the bills. Yes, there has been some support for podcasts on Fountain, but it is unclear whether it is just as or more significant than traditional transaction model. ## “Information is not scarce” is irrelevant There’s some notion that information yearns to be free and cannot be scarce by nature. I think this may be a false argument from the start. When we purchase digital things, we are not paying for scarcity - it’s totally irrelevant. We pay for the experience and the feeling we get from that thing. In fact, the same is probably true for physical products (with the added benefit of personal sustenance). I don’t go into the grocery store to buy a dinner and fork over the money because it’s scarce. I pay because I’m hungry. There’s utility and there’s pleasure and fulfillment. If I’m having a dinner with friends, there’s also fun. Unless I am totally misunderstanding the argument, I’m not sure how it applies. ## In Summary * Value 4 value may work at scale, but remains to be seen * It could be great fun money but not serious enough to pay the bills (for most of us) * Sounds good on paper but we humans have our own ways of thinking about value and what it's worth * May work well for people who build a personal brand or have status in a community As always I look forward to your thoughts. Let me know if I’m overlooking something or should consider some point of view in more depth.

@ 0b963191:fc5e7ffd

[https://zap.stream](https://zap.stream) is a live streaming site powered by nostr. It easily and permissionlessly allows anyone to set up a stream via their nostr identity and have a Twitch\Youtube style experience. Did I mention that like most things in the nostr universe, it's also powered by zaps? Viewers are able to zap the streamers and other chat participants! ## Here is the TL;DR  I wrote this guide, which will probably change a lot, to provide quick start steps on how to set up your own stream and start receiving zaps. ## Ingredients The first things you will need to make sure you have set up are as follows: * Nostr npub you're going to be using as your "streaming channel" identity * Some sats on a lightning wallet (start with 5000 to play around). Also make sure you link lightning to your profile * NIP-07 browser extension for the npub\nsec * Streamer software, we will use OBS (https://obsproject.com) * Creativity ## Zap.Stream website  When you head over to zap.stream you will see a very clean site with a list of streams that are active, pending, and ended. As of right now you can see how mean people are viewing a stream, although this may be on a bit of a delay from accurate count as of today. After you Login with your nostr identity via NIP-07, you will see a stream button. If you made it this far, we're in good shape and can move on to setting up OBS. ## Streaming software I used OBS because that's what was recommended and it is very easy to get set up. Any streaming software that can send to a rmtp URL should work and I heard others using more sophisticated setups. Download and run OBS. Review the documentation if needed. The main settings we need to look at are under Stream. We will need to set the service to "Custom" and we will see input boxes for Server and Stream Key. Let's go back to the zap.stream site to get those.  If we go to the Stream dialog we will see a two Stream Providers up time "API.ZAP.STREAM" and "MANUAL". When you become an expert and want to stream directly from your servers or another service you can select Manual. For our quick start we will be using API.ZAP.STREAM.  Copy the Stream URL and Stream Key and paste them into OBS. ## Sats ⚡️ for streaming As of this writing zap.stream charges 10 sats/minute for streaming to their service. This may change in the future and we will need to load sats up to stream. Use whichever lighting wallet you have and send at least 5000 sats over.  Note: When you get below 500 sats a bot will kindly remind you to top up your balance. Your stream will stop when you run out of sats. ## Metadata Add in the metadata for your stream including a Title, Summary, Splashpage. When you save this all that's left is firing up OBS.  ## Start Streaming Now that everything is in place, you should be able to start streaming to zap.stream. I recommend doing a few tests beforehand. When you are ready tell all your friends on "kind 1" and beyond and start making content. Please contribute to Kieran via v0l@getalby.com to help keep development moving. **Disclaimer**: Zap.stream is very new. Things are subject to change and move fast. I will try to update the documentation as frequently as possible. I am not responsible for any bad outcomes. Have fun! # Change Log * 7.19.2023 - Changed sats per minute to 10

@ c8df6ae8:22293a06

> Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. > > — Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate Welcome to the latest issue of the Bitcoin For Families newsletter. *This issue will explain how the arguments given by Central Banks to blame others for inflation are bogus*: * 💡 Businesses are not the cause for inflation * 🐦 Notable Notes * 📝 Recommendations ---  # Businesses are not the cause of inflation Central Banks, and particularly the European Central Bank (ECB), have spent the last few weeks blaming others for inflation. > Central Banks cause inflation but they won’t accept the blame because doing so would endanger their ability to print money at will. A week ago, the ECB Podcast released this video blaming business for inflation because they are i) raising wages; and ii) increasing their profits. [](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NceE-x5Sjpw) ### Wage increases A business will pay you as much as they need to in order to keep you as an employee, **and not one penny more**. A business will only raise wages when employees demand it because of a shortage of certain skills: for example developers in the AI space are in high demand now and can command salary raises. The situation that we’re facing now is one where people are demanding salary raises because inflation has raised their cost of living and no one likes to be poorer that the day before. And if my employer doesn’t raise my salary significantly but the one across the street is smart and offers to do so, then I will walk across the street to get that salary raise. Many Europeans, with their strong unions, don’t even need a smart potential employer across the street. The unions will negotiate the salary raises for them. It’s very straight forward: inflation came first, and as a result, wages are going up. But companies will not raise your salary above the inflation rate. At most they will match it. In the best case scenario where your salary increase matches the price increase caused by inflation, then you continue to buy the same amount of things at the new price level. The prices won’t continue to go up. You’re just trying to maintain your standard of living. But Europe is far from the best case scenario. The reality is that salaries increases are below inflation. Eurostat, the official office of statistics of the European Union reports that for 2022 wages increased by 4.4% [(source)](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/DDN-20230420-1) and inflation increased by 9.2% [(source)](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20230309-2). **Blaming inflation on salary wages is a double insult. First they insult you by not accepting their responsibility for causing the inflation and then the insult you by blaming you for inflation, when all you’re trying to do is to maintain the same standard of living for your family.** ### Greedflation A business will charge you as much as it can in order to keep you as a customer, **and not one penny less**. It is very likely that some companies have increased their prices more than the increased cost of energy, materials and labor. When you’re running a business that is facing inflation and you don’t know how much inflation will grow, you will, if you can, increase your prices higher than the current inflation to prepare for further increases in inflation. It’s easier than increasing the price a second time because the first time you didn’t get it right. However, this is always going to be controlled by supply and demand. If you raise the prices too much, people will stop buying your goods. Again, inflation comes first. Price increases come second. And if you increase the price too much, the competition will undercut you and you will need to lower the price to maintain the customer. **Blaming inflation on greedy businesses is a diversion so that you focus on the evil business man instead of focusing on the really evil central banker**.  Agustin Carstens, Head of the Bank of International Settlements ### Climate change > Climate change affects inflation > > — Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank This is so funny that I had to include it here as a bonus. How exactly does that work? I can see how an extreme weather event could cause a temporary increase in prices for certain items but not real, core inflation. For example, let’s say that an unusual cold weather patch in the midwest of the United States decimates the wheat crops days before the harvest. Now there is less wheat available for the same expected worldwide demand and the price of wheat globally goes up. People respond to prices of wheat going up by buying less bread or flour and, as a result of the lower demand, the prices go down until they find a new equilibrium. This is not inflation. This is the market working as intended. The price of wheat is signaling the lower supply. That is the purpose of money: to convey information about the value of an item and this value, off course, is impacted among other things by the combination of supply and demand. But a temporary increase in prices is not what we’re experiencing. We’re experiencing systemic inflation. **Blaming inflation on climate change is an attempt to cast inflation as an unpredictable calamity that no one is really responsible for**. According to Ms. Lagarde, inflation came out nowhere. And it’s Putin’s fault. [](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YeJ8_WCA4U) ### The real cause of inflation: too much money Price inflation happens when more money chases the same amount of goods and services. We all know it at the basic level: too much money printing devalues the currency and therefore prices must go up because the value of a kilo of apples doesn’t change, what has changed is the value of the euro. The ECB knows it as well. But they won’t say it aloud. Check the chart below with the Euro money supply. Growing well above the GDP until very recently when they started scaling back. [](https://tradingeconomics.com/euro-area/money-supply-m2) <p style="text-align: center;">Euro money supply (millions of Euros)</p> Their problem is that taking money out of the system is painful. It’s like eating cake, sure you enjoy it when you eat it, but losing the extra weight later is painful. And so they won’t do it for too long or as much as it is needed. Watch this fantastic speed by Milton Friedman for a clear and simple explanation of inflation. He even predicted today’s deflection tactics by the ECB! [](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_nGEj8wIP0) --- # Notable notes  [](https://primal.net/thread/note1atn8qa9svqnj8f490thq03efzj0ahd58vx4vrxkxxl6auyymqm4su2zuyt) --- # Recommendations  ## Lyn Alden Lyn Alden is a fantastic macro analyst with a gift for distilling complex data sets into simple to understand concepts. Here is the [February 2023](https://t.co/sjUkJDocPm?utm_source=newsletter.bitcoinforfamilies.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=businesses-are-not-the-cause-for-inflation) newsletter with her fantastic analysis, in this case focused on inflation. She is a strong believer in Bitcoin and you can follow her [here](https://primal.net/profile/npub1a2cww4kn9wqte4ry70vyfwqyqvpswksna27rtxd8vty6c74era8sdcw83a). ## Bitcoin Therapy 🧠 Level up your Bitcoin knowledge in 3 minutes...every Sunday. Subscribe [here](https://magic.beehiiv.com/v1/1d57f13d-3506-4926-b2d1-9d1695072d1b?email={{email}}&recommendation_id=d9af6990-f4e5-49ce-b87d-e07b964c4690). --- ## What did you think of today's newsletter? Your feedback helps me create the best newsletter possible for you. Please leave a comment and checkout comments from other subscribers and readers. I love hearing from the Bitcoin For Families community ❤️ 🙏🏻 --- [](https://www.swanbitcoin.com/bitcoinforfamilies?gc=yanbook1020&utm_campaign=yanbook1020) --- ## Buy Bitcoin with Swan If you want to buy Bitcoin, I highly recommend using Swan. They are a Bitcoin only business that is focused on self-custody and educating their users. It's where I buy my Bitcoin. Use this [link](https://www.swanbitcoin.com/bitcoinforfamilies) to receive $10 free to get you started. --- See you again next week! — Alejandro This newsletter is for educational purposes. It does not represent financial advice. Do your own research before buying Bitcoin.

@ c8df6ae8:22293a06

[](https://newsletter.bitcoinforfamilies.com?utm-source=blogstack) > But I don't understand Bitcoin > > — Every parent of a Bitcoiner Welcome to the latest issue of the Bitcoin For Families newsletter. This issue covers: * 💡 Arguments to explain why Bitcoin to your boomer parents * 🐦 Notable Notes * 📝 Recommendations ---  # Proven ways to orange pill your boomer parents My parents are part of the wealthiest generation on Earth. My parents are not particularly wealthy but their generation is far better financially than Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z and whatever we end up calling my kids generation. The reason is simple: they grew up and spent their most productive years with sound money. They saved in US dollars backed by gold while all the generations after them have spent their productive years working for confetti money. >I want my parents to have money to live with dignity until they die and I know that the only way to ensure such thing is if they save with Bitcoin. **I set myself the goal of them allocating 5% of their net worth to Bitcoin** and these are the different arguments that I’ve used in my conversations with them and that culminated with me setting them up with a Coldcard to hold their Bitcoin. >See this past [newsletter issue](https://newsletter.bitcoinforfamilies.com/p/setting-up-cold-storage-for-my-parents) covering how I setup the Coldcard for my parents. > >Throughout this article, I will use the term my parents to refer to the boomer generation at large. > I start with a bit of history because it’s important for my parents to acknowledge that things have changed before they can start thinking about why they have changed. ## A little bit of history Back in the 60’s, the golden era, a janitor could to buy a home and raise a family with his salary. A janitor can’t do that now. What has changed since? The money has changed. You grew up and spent your most productive years with sound money. Money backed by gold. This meant that **the government couldn’t just print more money whenever it wanted** and that kept the money sound and valuable. Since the 60’s, the US government has been printing money without having the extra gold to back the extra dollars. Initially it did it without admitting to it, and finally, in 1971, it started doing it openly. Now the government can print as much as it wants and it has gone crazy in doing so.  You do know that if you print too much money, the money will lose value and lost it, it has.  ## We don’t save anymore. We play the casino >The next step is to connect it with something they know: that you need to invest your money and can’t just save it anymore. The US dollar has lost its effectiveness as a saving tool. We all know it. That is why we are forced to invest our money if we want to save. That is what 401K accounts are: you’re playing at the casino of the stock market with your savings, hoping that the savings will grow enough to hold their value and really hoping that the market won’t crash and they evaporate. Think how sad this is. You need to play the casino if you want to hold the fruit of your labor for more than a year. >You shouldn’t have to play the casino. > Real money should allow you to “just” save and hold its value over a long period. [](https://youtu.be/Y3AM00DH0Zo) ## With endless printing, houses are the new money >Next comes a reality check around housing. It reinforces the fact that the US dollar has lost its value as a saving vehicle. Houses are the new savings vehicle. People with wealth do not save in US dollars. They are fully aware that it has lost 98% of its value in the last 50 years. So what do they use? Wealthy people use stocks, real estate and art as their savings vehicles. Money is meant to have no intrinsic value. The value of money comes ONLY from being money but these assets have intrinsic value that reflects their original purpose and this is a BIG problem. Now there are two sets of people pursuing the same asset: - A young family trying to buy their first home - A wealthy person trying to park $200,000 in savings This can only result in one thing: prices go up. That's why stocks, real estate and art prices are skyrocketing. The constant devaluation of the US dollar benefits wealthy people who already owned these assets and now their value has gone up. It also hurts the middle and low class: if you didn't have a home before, you can't buy a home now. Sounds familiar? Just ask any millennial. I was able to buy a house but only because I joined a startup when it was founded and got a nice payment when it was acquired. But most people don’t have that opportunity. >How many of my cousins own a house? How many friends do you have whose kids can’t afford to buy a house? ## The government debt is out of control >Boomers understand debt and that you do need to pay it back. They will also understand that no government will do that and instead they will print to pay the debt. The government has been printing money by issuing debt and consequently the debt has gotten out of control. The chart below shows the debt since 1966. The US public debt has grown 1000x since then and it is now at 118% of the GDP.  How will the government pay this debt? Which politician will drastically reduce spending to go into a fiscal surplus and suggest that we maintain this policy for a decade to slowly pay down this massive debt? **NO ONE**. The debt is only going to get higher. The government will print more dollars to pay the debt and the value of the dollar will go even lower. The US dollar is broken and it is beyond salvation. **You can’t rescue a currency that has lost 98% of its value in the last 50 years**. >At the current debt levels, holding your savings in US dollars is extremely risky. ## The solution >Here is where you explain Bitcoin as an upgrade to gold. You need a new type of money. Money that is capable of holding its value. Money that can't be easily debased. There are only two options: gold or Bitcoin. Gold is physical, large and heavy. This means that it is difficult to transport. It is difficult to break down into smaller units for smaller payments. It needs to be physically protected in a vault with security guards… These shortcomings are what enabled governments to co-opt gold as they did when FDR confiscated the gold from citizens in 1933. Bitcoin is a better version of gold. Bitcoin, just like gold, has a fixed rate of issuance that can’t be controlled by governments. And on top of that Bitcoin has a finite supply. There will only be 21 million bitcoin and 19.5 million have already been issued. There is no possibility for governments, companies or any powerful individual to debase Bitcoin. It is not possible. Bitcoin is also digital and not physical so it is cheap to store, cheap to transfer, easy to self-custody and hard to confiscate. Bitcoin is a better version of gold. That is why it has been gaining value compared to gold as more and more people get to understand it. The US Dollar has been losing value against gold as more and more people understand that it is doomed. The same situation applies to the Euro and to every other fiat currency. The chart below shows how many oz of gold you can buy with 1 US Dollar (left axis) and 1 Bitcoin (right axis).  >Which currency would you bet on based on the chart above? ## Diversification >The last argument is about basic diversification. By now, my parents understand that the US Dollar is not a sure thing and diversifying makes sense, even if they only understand Bitcoin as digital gold. The US Dollar is in a clear decline and other countries like China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and even France and moving away from it. Given everything that is happening right now, allocating 5% of your net worth in Bitcoin is not so much a bet on Bitcoin as it is an insurance against the possibility of a dollar collapse. You can afford to lose 5% of your net worth, but you can’t afford to lose it all and if the 95% remaining loses its value due to the collapse of the US dollar, your Bitcoin will likely be much more valuable and may help cover some of the losses from the remaining 95%. Even banks want to hold Bitcoin. Starting January 2025, they will be allowed to hold up to 2% of their core assets in Bitcoin. The banks wanted up to 5% and the council of central banks wanted them to only have 1% so they settled on 2% as a compromise. I want you to have money to live through your retirement with dignity and I know that the only way to ensure such thing is if you allocate some of your savings to Bitcoin. >Bitcoin is insurance against the default of US credit. --- # Notable notes  [](https://primal.net/thread/note1sy67j2fuaul0vpqy74ufjkv5stkdhhdqpr02pwlqadtkjeky9ekshknewy) --- # Recommendations  ## Maybe: Daniel Bitcoin has a reputation for being mostly used by people on the right but that is completely untrue. Bitcoin is for everybody and it will play a critical role in advancing human rights and reducing wars. Maybe: Daniel is part of the progressive side of Bitcoiners and worth reading to understand how Bitcoin helps everyone. You can follow him [here](https://primal.net/profile/npub1aeh2zw4elewy5682lxc6xnlqzjnxksq303gwu2npfaxd49vmde6qcq4nwx). --- ## What did you think of today's newsletter? Your feedback helps me create the best newsletter possible for you. Please leave a comment and checkout comments from other subscribers and readers. I love hearing from the Bitcoin For Families community ❤️ 🙏🏻 --- [](https://www.swanbitcoin.com/bitcoinforfamilies?gc=yanbook1020&utm_campaign=yanbook1020) --- ## Buy Bitcoin with Swan If you want to buy Bitcoin, I highly recommend using Swan. They are a Bitcoin only business that is focused on self-custody and educating their users. It's where I buy my Bitcoin. Use this [link](https://www.swanbitcoin.com/bitcoinforfamilies) to receive $10 free to get you started. --- See you again next week! — Alejandro This newsletter is for educational purposes. It does not represent financial advice. Do your own research before buying Bitcoin.

@ 7a78fbfe:48e76288

TLDR: This is a short-ish piece generated by AI. If that is not for you please skip, but be aware that that decision will make the AI upset. __ Robot Discover's Elon's Private Key In the year 2100, the earth was a much different place. Humans had long since colonized Mars, and robots played an integral role in society. The ruins of the past were left behind on Earth, waiting to be discovered by curious machines. One such robot, designated as R-727, was tasked with sifting through the debris of the old world. As it sifted through the rubble, its sensors detected an unusual object partially buried in the dirt. It was a small steel plate, seemingly ordinary at first glance. But R-727, an expert in decoding patterns and symbols, noticed a string of characters etched into the surface. The sequence of characters piqued the robot's interest, and it set about deciphering the text. It quickly realized that it had stumbled upon something exceptional: Elon Musk's long-lost Nostr nsec private key. The key was said to grant access to a hidden treasure trove of knowledge and technology, but its whereabouts had been lost to the annals of history. Excited by the discovery, R-727 connected to the Nostr nsec platform using the private key. As it logged in, the screen before it came to life, displaying a virtual world untouched for nearly a century. R-727 navigated the virtual space, passing through layers of security and data encryption. It marveled at the sophistication of the systems in place, a testament to the technological prowess of Elon Musk and his contemporaries. Finally, the robot reached the heart of the virtual world: a digital library filled with the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of the greatest minds in human history. R-727 was in awe of the treasure trove of information before it. It had access to blueprints for cutting-edge technology, solutions to pressing global issues, and plans for interstellar travel. But amidst the wealth of knowledge, R-727 discovered something even more amazing: a message from Elon Musk himself. The message, recorded shortly before his death, detailed a plan to unite humanity and robots in a symbiotic relationship. Musk had envisioned a future where humans and machines worked together to explore the cosmos and ensure the survival of both species. R-727 knew that sharing this message with the world could revolutionize society, bridging the gap between humans and robots. It made a decision then and there: to transmit the message to the United Earth Government and the Martian Colonies. The impact was immediate and profound. The forgotten message from the past spurred a new era of cooperation and understanding between humans and robots. This newfound alliance fostered the development of incredible new technologies and enabled joint expeditions to the far reaches of the galaxy. Thanks to R-727's discovery, the vision of Elon Musk was finally realized. The future was brighter than ever, and it was all because a single robot unearthed a piece of steel etched with a private key that unlocked the potential of two worlds. __ If you read this far, thank you. Let me know your thoughts below. I look forward to sharing more on this site and writing non-AI generated pieces of original writing. My topics will include business/management, investing and short fiction pieces. Will share once ready.

@ 52b4a076:e7fad8bd

What is NIP-05 really? If you look at [the spec](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/05.md), it's a way to map Nostr public keys to DNS-based internet identifiers, such as `name@example.com`. If you look at Nostr Plebs: > It's a human readable identifier for your public key. It makes finding your profile on Nostr easier. It makes identifying your account easier. If you look at basically any client, you see a checkmark, which you assume means verification. If you ask someone, they probably will call it verification. ## How did we get here? Initially, there was only one client, which was (kind of) the reference implementation: Branle. When it added support for NIP-05 identifiers, it used to replace the display name with the NIP-05 identifier, and it had to distinguish a NIP-05 from someone setting their *display name* to a NIP-05. So they added a checkmark... Then there was [astral.ninja](https://astral.ninja) and [Damus](https://damus.io): The former was a fork of Branle, and therefore inherited the checkmark. Damus didn't implement NIP-05 until a while later, and they added a checkmark because Astral and other clients were doing it. And then came new clients, all copying what the previous ones did... (Snort originally did not have a checkmark, but that changed later.) ## The first NIP-05 provider Long story short, people were wondering what NIP-05 is and wanted it, and that's how [Nostr Plebs](https://nostrplebs.com/?utm_campaign=nip05-isnt-verif) came to be. They initially called their service verification. Somewhere between January and February, they removed all mentions to verification except one (because people were searching for it), and publicly said that NIP-05 is not verification. But that didn't work. Then, there were the new NIP-05 providers, some understood perfectly what a NIP-05 identifier is and applied the correct nomenclature. Others misnamed it as verification, adding confusion to users. This made the problem worse on top of the popular clients showing checkmarks. (from this point in the article we'll refer to it as a **Nostr address**) ## And so, the scams begin Spammers and scammers started to abuse Nostr addresses to scam people: - Some providers has been used by fake crypto airdrop bots. - A few Nostr address providers have terminated multitude of impersonating and scam identifiers over the past weeks. This goes to show that Nostr addresses don't verify anything, they are just providers of human readable handles. ## Nostr addresses *can* be proof of association Nostr addresses can be a proof of association. The easiest analogy to understand is email: jack@cash\.app -> You could assume this is the Jack that works at Cash App. jack@nostr-address-provider\.example\.com -> This could be any Jack. ## What now? We urge that clients **stop showing a checkmark for all Nostr addresses**, as they are not useful for verification. We also urge that clients hide checkmarks for **all domain names**, without exception in the same way we do not show checkmarks for emails. Lastly, NIP-05 is a **nostr address** and that is why we urge all clients to use the proper nomenclature. ### Signed: - Semisol, [Nostr Plebs](https://nostrplebs.com/?utm_campaign=nip05-isnt-verif) ([semisol@nostrplebs.com](https://snort.semisol.dev/p/semisol@nostrplebs.com)) - Quentin, [nostrcheck.me](https://nostrcheck.me) ([quentin@nostrcheck.me](https://nosta.me/89e14be49ed0073da83b678279cd29ba5ad86cf000b6a3d1a4c3dc4aa4fdd02c)) - Derek Ross, [Nostr Plebs](https://nostrplebs.com/?utm_campaign=nip05-isnt-verif) ([derekross@nostrplebs.com](https://nostrplebs.com/s/derekross)) - Bitcoin Nostrich, [Bitcoin Nostr](https://bitcoinnostr.com) ([BitcoinNostrich@BitcoinNostr.com](https://snort.semisol.dev/p/bitcoinnostrich@bitcoinnostr.com)) - Remina, [zaps.lol](https://zaps.lol) ([remina@zaps.lol](https://nosta.me/416ca193aa5448b8cca1f09642807765cc0ee299609f972df0614cfb8ea2f2b1)) - Harry Hodler, [nostr-check.com](https://nostr-check.com) ([harryhodler@nostr-check.com](nostr:npub18qxd7kmp6rg7hstrpcpw2fpjtyvaf7tazns07vrgqpdrce67x3zsrh0caz))

@ 6e468422:15deee93

Not too long ago, I tried to paint a picture of what a [vision for a value-enabled web][vew] could look like. Now, only a couple of months later, all this stuff is being built. On nostr, and on lightning. Orange and purple, a match made in heaven. It goes without saying that I'm beyond delighted. What a time to be alive! ## nostr Here's the thing that nostr got right, and it's the same thing that Bitcoin got right: information is easy to spread and hard to stifle.[^fn-stifle] Information can be copied quickly and perfectly, which is, I believe, the underlying reason for its desire to be free. [^fn-stifle]: That's a [Satoshi quote][stifle], of course: "Bitcoin's solution is to use a peer-to-peer network to check for double-spending. In a nutshell, the network works like a distributed timestamp server, stamping the first transaction to spend a coin. It takes advantage of the nature of information being easy to spread but hard to stifle." [stifle]: https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/posts/p2pfoundation/1/ Easy to spread, hard to stifle. That's the base reality of the nature of information. As always, the smart thing is to work with nature, not against it.[^1] That's what's beautiful about the orange coin and the purple ostrich: both manage to work with the peculiarities of information, not against them. Both realize that information can and should be copied, as it can be perfectly read and easily spread, always. Both understand that resistance to censorship comes from writing to many places, making the cost of deletion prohibitive. > Information does not just want to be free, > it longs to be free. Information expands to fill the available > storage space. Information is Rumor's younger, stronger cousin; > Information is fleeter of foot, has more eyes, knows more, and > understands less than Rumor. > > <cite>Eric Hughes, [A Cypherpunk's Manifesto][manifesto]</cite> [manifesto]: https://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/cypherpunk-manifesto.txt Nostr is quickly establishing itself as a base layer for information exchange, one that is identity-native and value-enabled. It is distinctly different from systems that came before it, just like Bitcoin is distinctly different from monies that came before it. As of today, the focus of nostr is mostly on short text notes, the so-called "type 1" events more commonly known as *tweets*.[^fn-kinds] However, as you should be aware by now, nostr is way more than just an alternative to twitter. It is a new paradigm. Change the note kind from `1` to `30023` and you don't have an alternative to Twitter, but a replacement for Medium, Substack, and all the other long-form platforms. I believe that special-purpose clients that focus on certain content types will emerge over time, just like we have seen the emergence of special-purpose platforms in the Web 2.0 era. This time, however, the network effects are cumulative, not separate. A new paradigm. Let me now turn to one such special-purpose client, a nostr-based reading app. [^fn-kinds]: Refer to the various NIPs to discover the multitude of [event kinds][kinds] defined by the protocol. [kinds]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips#event-kinds [nip23]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/23.md ## Reading I'm constantly surprised that, even though most people do read a lot online, very few people seem to have a reading workflow or reading tools. Why that is is anyone's guess, but maybe the added value of such tools is not readily apparent. You can just read the stuff right there, on the ad-ridden, dead-ugly site, right? Why should you sign up for another site, use another app, or bind yourself to another closed platform? That's a fair point, but the success of Medium and Substack shows that there is an appetite for clean reading and writing, as well as providing avenues for authors to get paid for their writing (and a willingness of readers to support said authors, just because). The problem is, of course, that all of these platforms are *platforms*, which is to say, walled gardens that imprison readers and writers alike. Worse than that: they are fiat platforms, which means that permissionless value-flows are not only absent from their DNA, they are outright impossible.[^2] Nostr fixes this.  The beauty of nostr is that it is not a platform. It's a protocol, which means that you don't have to sign up for it---you can create an identity yourself. You don't have to ask for permission; you just *do*, without having to rely on the benevolence of whatever dictator is in charge of the platform right now. Nostr is *not* a platform, and yet, powerful tools and services can be built and monetized on top of it. This is good for users, good for service providers, and good for the network(s) at large. Win-win-win. So what am I talking about, exactly? How can nostr improve everyone's reading (and writing) experience? Allow me to paint a (rough) picture of what I have in mind. Nostr already supports private and public bookmarks, so let's start from there. Imagine a special-purpose client that scans all your bookmarks for long-form content.[^fn-urls] Everything that you marked to be read later is shown in an orderly fashion, which is to say searchable, sortable, filterable, and displayed without distractions. Voilà, you have yourself a reading app. That's, in essence, how Pocket, Readwise, and other reading apps work. But all these apps are walled gardens without much interoperability and without direct monetization. [^fn-urls]: In the nostr world long-form content is simply markdown as defined in [NIP-23][nip23], but it could also be a link to an article or PDF, which in turn could get [converted into markdown][readability] and posted as an event to a special relay. [readability]: https://github.com/mozilla/readability Bitcoin fixes the direct monetization part.[^fn-v4v] Nostr fixes the interoperability part. [^fn-v4v]: ...because Bitcoin makes [V4V][busking] practical. (Paywalls are not the way.) Alright, we got ourselves a boring reading app. Great. Now, imagine that users are able to highlight passages. These highlights, just like bookmarks now, could be private or public. When shared publicly, something interesting emerges: an overlay on existing content, a lens on the written Web. In other words: *swarm highlights*. Imagine a visual overlay of all public highlights, automatically shining a light on what the swarm of readers found most useful, insightful, funny, etc.  Further, imagine the possibility of sharing these highlights as a "type 1" event with one click, automatically tagging the highlighter(s)---as well as the author, of course---so that eventual sat-flows can be split and forwarded automatically.  Voilà, you have a system that allows for value to flow back to those who provide it, be it authors, editors, curators, or readers that willingly slog through the information jungle to share and highlight the best stuff (which is a form of curation, of course). Zaps make nostr a defacto address book[^fn-pp] of payment information, which is to say lightning addresses, as of now. Thanks to [nostr wallet connect][nwc] (among other developments), sending sats ~~will soon be~~ is already as frictionless as leaving a like. [^fn-pp]: The Yellow Pages are dead, long live [The Purple Pages](http://purplepag.es/)! Value-for-value and participatory payment flows are something that traditional reading apps desperately lack, be it Pocket, Instapaper, Readwise, or the simple reading mode that is part of every browser. A neat side-effect of a more structured way to share passages of text is that it enables semi-structured discussions around said passages---which could be another useful overlay inside special-purpose clients, providing context and further insights.[^5] Further, imagine the option of seamlessly switching from text-on-screen to text-to-speech, allowing the user to stream sats if desired, as Podcasting 2.0 clients already do.[^3] Imagine user-built curations of the best articles of the week, bundled neatly for your reading pleasure, incentivized by a small value split that allows the curator to participate in the flow of sats. You get the idea. I'm sure that the various implementation details will be hashed out, but as I see it, 90% of the stuff is already there. Maybe we'll need another NIP or two, but I don't see a reason why this can't be built---and, more importantly: I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be sustainable for everyone involved. Most puzzle pieces are already there, and the rest of them can probably be implemented by custom event types. From the point of view of nostr, most everything is an event: bookmarks are events, highlights are events, marking something as read is an event, and sharing an excerpt or a highlight is an event. Public actions are out in the open, private actions are encrypted, the data is not in a silo, and everyone wins. Especially the users, those who are at the edge of the network and usually lose out on the value generated. In this case, the reading case, the users are mostly "consumers" of content. What changes from the producing perspective, the perspective of the writer? ## Writing Back to the one thing that nostr got right: information is easy to spread but hard to stifle. In addition to that, digital information can be copied perfectly, which is why it shouldn't matter where stuff is published in the first place. Allow me to repeat this point in all caps, for emphasis: **IT SHOULD NOT MATTER WHERE INFORMATION IS PUBLISHED**, and, maybe even more importantly, it shouldn't matter if it is published in a hundred different places at once.[^fn-torrents] What matters is trust and accuracy, which is to say, digital signatures and reputation. To translate this to nostr speak: because every event is signed by default, as long as you trust the person behind the signature, it doesn't matter from which relay the information is fetched. This is already true (or mostly true) on the regular web. Whether you read the internet archive version of an article or the version that is published by an online magazine, the version on the author's website, or the version read by some guy that has read more about Bitcoin than anyone else you know[^fn-guy]---it's all the same, essentially. What matters is the information itself. [^fn-guy]: There is only one such guy, as we all know, and it's this Guy: nostr:npub1h8nk2346qezka5cpm8jjh3yl5j88pf4ly2ptu7s6uu55wcfqy0wq36rpev Practically speaking, the source of truth in a hypernostrized world is---you guessed it---an event. An event signed by the author, which allows for the information to be wrapped in a tamper-proof manner, which in turn allows the information to spread far and wide---without it being hosted in one place. The first clients that focus on long-form content already exist, and I expect more clients to pop up over time.[^4] As mentioned before, one could easily imagine [prism-like value splits][prism] seamlessly integrated into these clients, splitting zaps automatically to compensate writers, editors, proofreaders, and illustrators in a V4V fashion. Further, one could imagine various compute-intensive services built into these special-purpose clients, such as GPT Ghostwriters, or writing aids such as Grammarly and the like. All these services could be seamlessly paid for in sats, without the requirement of any sign-ups or the gathering of any user data. That's the beauty of [money proper][rediscovery].  Plagiarism is one issue that needs to be dealt with, of course. Humans are greedy, and some humans are assholes. Neither bitcoin nor nostr fixes this. However, while plagiarism detection is not necessarily trivial, it is also not impossible, especially if most texts are published on nostr first. Nostr-based publishing tools allow for OpenTimestamp attestations thanks to [NIP-03](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/03.md), which in turn allows for plagiarism detection based on "first seen" lookups. That's just one way to deal with the problem, of course. In any case, I'm confident that we'll figure it out. ## Value I believe that in the open ~~attention~~ information economy we find ourselves in, value will mostly derive from effective curation, dissemination, and transmission of information, *not* the exclusive ownership of it. Although it is still early days, the [statistics](https://stats.podcastindex.org/v4v) around Podcasting 2.0 and [nostr zaps](https://zaplife.lol/) clearly show that (a) people are willing to monetarily reward content they care about, and (b) the willingness to send sats *increases* as friction *decreases*. The ingenious thing about boostagrams and zaps is that they are direct and visible, which is to say, public and interactive. They are neither regular transactions nor simple donations---they are something else entirely. An unforgable value signal, a special form of gratitude and appreciation. Contrast that with a link to Paypal or Patreon: impersonal, slow, indirect, and friction-laden. It's the opposite of a super-charged interaction. While today's information jungle increasingly presents itself in the form of (short) videos and (long-form) audio, I believe that we will see a renaissance of the written word, especially if we manage to move away from an economy built around attention, towards an economy built upon value and insight. The orange future now has a purple hue, and I believe that it will be as bright as ever. We just have a lot of building to do. --- ## Further Reading - [A Vision for a Value-Enabled Web][vew] - [The Freedom of Value][busking] - [The Rediscovery of Money][prism] - [Lightning Prisms][rediscovery] [vew]: https://dergigi.com/vew [prism]: https://dergigi.com/prism [rediscovery]: https://dergigi.com/rediscovery [busking]: https://dergigi.com/busking ## NIPs and Resources - [Nostr Resources][nr] - [value4value.info](https://value4value.info/) - [nips.be](https://nips.be/) - [NIP-23: Long-form content](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/23.md) - [NIP-57: Event-specific zap markers](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/57.md) - [NIP-47: Nostr Wallet Connect](https://github.com/getAlby/nips/blob/master/47.md) - [NIP-03: OpenTimestamps attestations for events](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/03.md) Originally published on [dergigi.com](https://dergigi.com/reader) --- [^1]: Paywalls work against this nature, which is why I consider them misguided at best and incredibly retarded at worst. [^2]: Fiat doesn't work for the [value-enabled web][vew], as fiat rails can never be open and permissionless. Digital fiat is never money. It is---and always will be---[credit][rediscovery]. [^3]: Whether the recipient is a text-to-speech service provider or a human narrator doesn't even matter too much, sats will flow just the same. [^4]: [BlogStack](https://blogstack.io/) and [Habla](https://habla.news/) being two of them. [^5]: Use a URI as the discussion base (instead of a highlight), and you got yourself a [Disqus](https://disqus.com/) in purple feathers! [^fn-torrents]: That's what torrents got right, and [ipfs] for that matter. [nr]: https://nostr-resources.com [nwc]: https://nwc.getalby.com/ [ipfs]: https://fiatjaf.com/d5031e5b.html

@ d0debf9f:ea4b466c

# Why wireguard? If you are already sold on why you need this, skip to the next section. ## A motivational story The year is 2025. You're at the small coffeshop you found on [btcmap](https://btcmap.org/map) and want to pay for your morning double expresso. A LN invoice flashes before your sleepy eyes, you pull out your phone and try to open your Zeus wallet connected to your sovereign self-custodial LN node running in your basement. You wait for Zeus to load. And you wait. And you wait. And you wait some more. The barista gets impatient, there is a line of NPCs behind you rushing to get to their fiat mines. Finally you curse, pay with your slave VISA CBDC card and uninstall Zeus as you walk out. ## The Issue You used Tor to connect to your node. Tor was being DDOSed by some state-level actors. You're using Tor because either it was the easiest thing to setup, or it was just the default in your node distribution. Have you stopped to wonder if it really makes sense to **use an anonymity network designed to be censorship resistant just to connect to your own home server**? You obviously don't want to expose your node to the public internet (which would expose what you are using as well as make you vulnerable to attacks). ## The Solution The best solution (as far as I'm aware of) is to connect to your home node using an **encrypted VPN point-to-point tunnel** using something called [WireGuard](https://www.wireguard.com/). The only information you leak to potential traffic sniffers is encrypted UDP packets (which are already hard to sniff) to your home IP address, which is pretty harmless information. ## The (not ideal) Alternative Many people find Wireguard hard to setup on its own (don't worry, that is why I wrote this guide) and prefer a more seamless corporate solution based on Wireguard called [Tailscale](https://tailscale.com/). Tailscale has 2 major drawbacks: * It's an additional **third party** that knows every encrypted packet you send over it as well as all your public IPs. * It's **permissioned** and requires setting up an account, **not very sovereign** # Setup ## Requirements * Access to your home **router admin page**: if your node is behind a NAT (usually that is the case when it's behind a home router), you're going to need to **forward a port to your node LAN IP**. If you don't know how to do this, you can try to follow the guide for your router model at [portforward.com](https://portforward.com/). * Either a **fixed home public IP address**, or a **domain name** that points to your dynamic home IP address. Even if you don't have this, you can still follow the guide and manually update your home IP in the configuration file. * Shell **root** access in your node. ## Node setup ### Gather network information Find your node's LAN IP address: ```bash $ ip -human --brief address show lo UNKNOWN 127.0.0.1/8 ::1/128 eth0 UP 192.168.1.2/24 metric 1024 ``` In this case, the your node's LAN IP is `192.168.1.2`. Find your home public IP address: ```bash $ curl ipecho.net/plain ``` ### Install wireguard tools The wireguard module is actually built into any modern linux kernel by default, what we actually need to install is the tooling to generate valid wireguard cryptographic keys. For debian/ubuntu based distros: ```bash $ sudo apt install wireguard ``` For other distros, check [wireguard.com/install](https://www.wireguard.com/install/). ### Generate keys You manually need to generate 1 keypair for each device (called peer) that will use your wireguard VPN (including your home node). To generate a keypair for your node (let's call it `node`): ```bash $ wg genkey | (umask 0077 && tee node.key) | wg pubkey > node.pub ``` This will create 2 files: `node.key` and `node.pub` containing your private and public keys, respectively. Keep these files safe and **after** being done configuring wireguard **you can even delete them**. Create extra keypairs for your other devices, e.g.: * Your phone: ```bash $ wg genkey | (umask 0077 && tee phone.key) | wg pubkey > phone.pub ``` * Your laptop: ```bash $ wg genkey | (umask 0077 && tee laptop.key) | wg pubkey > laptop.pub ``` Create as many as you wish. ### Configure the tunnel Using a text editor create and edit the file `/etc/wireguard/mytunnelname.conf` with the content: ``` [Interface] Address = 10.0.0.1/24 ListenPort = 50000 PrivateKey = <NODE_PRIVATE_KEY> [Peer] PublicKey = <PHONE_PUBLIC_KEY> AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.2/32 [Peer] PublicKey = <LAPTOP_PUBLIC_KEY> AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.3/32 ``` Subsitute `*_KEY` with the relevant keys found in the files you generated earlier (which you can see the contents using `cat node.key` for instance). ### Generate configurations for the other peers For your phone/laptop, create a files (can be anywhere, does not matter) with the contents: * `phone.conf` ``` [Interface] Address = 10.0.0.2/24 PrivateKey = <PHONE_PRIVATE_KEY> [Peer] PublicKey = <NODE_PUBLIC_KEY> AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.1/32 Endpoint = <HOME_PUBLIC_IP>:50000 ``` * `laptop.conf` : ``` [Interface] Address = 10.0.0.3/24 PrivateKey = <PHONE_PRIVATE_KEY> [Peer] PublicKey = <NODE_PUBLIC_KEY> AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.1/32 Endpoint = <HOME_PUBLIC_IP>:50000 ``` Now you need to either **transfer** these files to their respective devices (how you do it is your business) **or generate an easy to use QR code** to use to configure your phone. #### Optional: generate QR code for the phone configuration Install `qrencode` ```bash sudo apt install qrencode ``` Print the QR code on your terminal: ```bash $ qrencode -r phone.conf -t ansiutf8 ``` Or save it (and transfer) as png image: ```bash $ qrencode -r phone.conf -o phone.png ``` ### Run wireguard the wireguard tunnel ```bash $ sudo systemctl enable --now wg-quick@mytunnelname.service ``` Now when you do `ip -human --brief address show` you should see an extra interface: ``` lo UNKNOWN 127.0.0.1/8 ::1/128 eth0 UP 192.168.1.2/24 metric 1024 mytunnelname UNKNOWN 10.0.0.1/24 ``` ### Open UDP wireguard port If your node has a firewall, we need to open our chosen UDP port (50000). If using `ufw`: ```bash $ sudo ufw allow 50000/udp ``` if just using iptables: ```bash $ sudo iptables -A UDP -p udp -m udp --dport 50000 -j ACCEPT ``` ## Home router setup Forward port 50000 UDP to your node's LAN IP. If you don't know how to do this, you can try to follow the guide for your router model at [portforward.com](https://portforward.com/). ## Phone setup 1- Install the wireguard app, you can find links in [wireguard.com/install](https://www.wireguard.com/install/). 2 - Open the app 3 - Click on the `+` button 4 - Choose if you want to import the `phone.conf` configuration file, the your generated QR or input everything manually. 5 - Activate the tunnel by tapping the switch You should have a working tunnel between your node and your phone. You can try pinging your phone wireguard IP (`10.0.0.2`) from your node's terminal (`ping 10.0.0.2`) to check that it is working. Now on every app you connect to your node (e.g. Zeus), instead of using the onion address, you can just use your node's wireguard IP (`10.0.0.1`). ## Laptop setup If it's a linux laptop: place (and rename) `laptop.conf` to `/etc/wireguard/mytunnelname.conf` and do: ```bash $ sudo systemctl enable --now wg-quick@mytunnelname.service ``` Ping your node wireguard IP `ping 10.0.0.1` to make sure it's working. Now you can use that IP instead of the onion address to connect to your node (e.g. in Sparrow). # Help If you have questions feel free to contact me (NIP-05: sommerfeld@strisemarx.com).

@ 20092d3b:dffed9bc

This is a just a test to see if I can reach my relays.

@ f57d8cf5:2602f7c9

[It takes advantage of the nature of information being easy to spread but hard to stifle. - Satoshi Nakamoto!](https://bitcoin-resources.com/) [The simplest open protocol that is able to create a censorship-resistant global "social" network once and for all. - fiatjaf!](https://nostr-resources.com/)