@ bc6ccd13:f53098e4

I’ve been thinking about the topic of this article for a while, but what really motivated me to sit down and write was a comment Matt Odell made on the Citadel Dispatch podcast recently. He said, > To me, that’s the cool part about Bitcoin, is that it’s this interoperable, permissionless, global network. And it’s almost like a shared equity, right? If you own Bitcoin the asset, it’s like we all share equity in this almost like a startup equity. And anything we do, and a lot of times it’s out of greed too. It’s not out of benevolence. You don’t have to be like a charitable person. But you know, if Strike benefits from something or Unchained Capital benefits from something, then Manchankura in Africa benefits from it as well at the same time, which is like a crazy concept. I feel like people just don’t really appreciate that. When you start going down the “what is money?” rabbit hole, debt quickly comes into focus. You try to understand what it is, how it works, and why the world has so much of it and seemingly more by the second. Eventually you’ll discover that the “money” we use today is mostly just debt, created by banks when they make loans, and treated the same as the cash in your wallet. Until too many people try to withdraw their “money” from the bank, and the bank doesn’t have nearly enough cash to meet the withdrawals and collapses into insolvency. Which it always was, only no one realized who was swimming naked until the tide went out. Equity is a related financial concept that doesn’t typically come up when studying money. The definition of the word as it’s used financially is something like “a risk interest or ownership right in property.” In simple terms, equity refers to ownership of something. For example, if you have a house that’s worth $500,000 and you have no mortgage or loans against the house, you have equity in the house of 100% of its value, or $500,000. If you have a mortgage of $250,000, you currently have 50% equity in the house, or you “own” half the value of the house. It’s also often used to refer to shares issued by publicly traded companies. The shares represent a partial ownership of, or equity in, the company. If a company has issued 1,000 shares of stock and you own 10 shares, you have a 1% ownership of that company. That ownership give you certain privileges, such as dividends paid out from profits the company makes and potentially ownership of an increasingly valuable company, if it continues to be successful. ### Money: Debt or Equity? The current fractionally reserved fiat banking system primarily uses debt as money. There’s a small amount of base money, which consists of physical cash and a digital equivalent of cash called bank reserves, which are held in a ledger in banks’ accounts at the Federal Reserve and are used to settle transactions between banks. But this base money only makes up a small percentage of the total money supply. The bulk of the “money” consists of bank deposits, which are essentially IOUs created by banks when they issue loans under the fractional reserve system. When a bank makes a loan, they don’t actually give the borrower base money, for example a stack of physical cash, in most cases. Instead what they give is an liability entry in the bank’s balance sheet ledger that says “the bank owes the borrower this amount of dollars.” At the same time, on the asset side of the balance sheet they create another entry that says “the borrower owes the bank this amount of dollars” with details on how and when the loan must be repaid. Then through the magic of banking, the borrower can transfer the numbers representing the amount the bank owes them to someone else, and now the bank owes that other person a certain number of dollars. And so on down the line. This can continue indefinitely, with people exchanging bank IOUs with each other in perpetuity, and no actual base money dollars needing to be exchanged. With help from a deliberate effort by banks to conceal the real nature of their activities, these credit/debt ledger entries function as, and for all practical purposes become, money. The only thing that can upset the apple cart is too many people trying to effectively exit the banking system at once, by trying to withdraw the money in their account. At that point reality sets in. The fact that the numbers in their account didn’t actually represent base money but rather just debt that the bank owes the depositor becomes obvious when the bank run reveals that the bank doesn’t have enough actual base money to settle its debt. This system has a lot of serious problems, besides the fact that it’s fundamentally based on a lie. For one, all the bank deposits are created by making loans, which means they’re all debt, which means they all have to be paid back with interest. That’s a problem for two reasons. One, paying back the debt destroys money, which artificially disrupts the economy by distorting prices as the amount of money in the economy rises and falls arbitrarily depending on new loan issuance versus debt repayment. Two, when the loan is made, only the amount of the principle is created in bank deposits. The interest isn’t. That means new loans have to be made to pay the interest on the existing loans. That basically guarantees that the amount of debt in the economy will continue to rise indefinitely, because the only way it could go down is for the banking system as it currently exists to collapse, or to be “bailed out” with massive injections of newly created base money to offset loans that can’t be paid back. That, coincidentally, is what Quantitative Easing is; an injection of newly created base money to provide liquidity to pay back debt without having to issue new debt to do it. Now let’s think for a minute about equity and how it might compare and contrast with the current system in relation to money. To begin with, I understand money as a ledger of deferred consumption. If you haven’t heard that concept before, it would probably be helpful to familiarize yourself with my thought process laid out here. naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzp0rve5f6xtu56djkfkkg7ktr5rtfckpun95rgxaa7futy86npx8yqq247t2dvet9q4tsg4qng36lxe6kc4nftayyy89kua2 Deferred consumption is what makes capital formation and civilization possible. People work to create things that they don’t immediately consume, and those new tools and processes make it easier to create more things in the future with less effort, which raises the productivity of the economy (getting more output for less input) and makes society as a whole wealthier. Those new tools and processes can then be used to more efficiently create other tools and processes, which increases productivity even further, and the whole thing compounds on itself in an exponential curve of increasing productivity and increasing wealth. But it all starts with and relies on someone somewhere putting in effort now, to create something they won’t benefit from until later. Planting a seed is a perfect example. When you have a bushel of wheat, you have two choices. You can consume it now. That’s immediately satisfying and keeps you fed for say a month. Or you can plant it. That’s hard work, and you also have to defer consumption of the wheat. You can’t eat it now, you have to satisfy your hunger some other way. It also takes work throughout the year to cultivate and care for the wheat crop, time you could have spent doing something more fun, if you had just consumed the wheat directly instead of planting it. The flip side is, at harvest time, you might harvest 50 bushels of wheat from the 1 bushel you didn’t eat 6 months ago. That 50 bushels could now feed you for 4 years, and you can sell 30 bushels, keep 12 for your own use over the next year, and plant 8 for harvest next year. Then in a year you might harvest 400 bushels, etc. You can see how a little bit of deferred consumption today can lead to a lot of reward in the future. There’s even a term for being short-sighted and sacrificing future rewards for present gratification, “eating the seed corn,” which comes directly from this farming wisdom. The same principle applies to business equity. When you start a business, you invest in some way into building something that isn’t immediately rewarding, but that you expect will yield more production in the future than your initial investment. You might invest your own time and effort, resources that you’ve gathered, money, or any number of other forms of value. The same applies to a public company that issues equity as shares of stock. Anyone can invest in the company by purchasing shares, which gives them a partial ownership of the company and its future growth and production. All those forms of investment, to acquire equity, are different forms of deferred consumption. You have to give up something you could have now, for something you hope to have in the future. You could spend the time now curled up in bed binge-watching Netflix. You could spend your effort strolling down the boardwalk eating an ice cream cone. You could spend your money on that pricey designer bag that all your girlfriends will be jealous of. All those things would be immediately gratifying. But they all have a long-term cost. What happens when you defer consumption instead, and acquire equity? If things go the way you hoped and planned, and the company you founded or invested in is successful, it will eventually produce more than the initial consumption that you deferred. Your equity will become more valuable with time. Why? Because like we pointed out, deferred consumption and capital formation increases efficiency, which leads to compounding returns in productivity and value. If the company is extremely successful and you defer your consumption long enough, those returns can be very large. For example, if you had invested $1,000 in Amazon in 2007, that equity today, 17 years later, would have returned over $80,000. The first iPhone was released in 2007 for $500. So you could have bought two iPhones instead of making that initial investment in Amazon. But if you deferred that consumption instead, even though the price of the iPhone has doubled by 2024, you could still buy eighty new iPhones with the equity from that initial investment instead of two, or a 40x return in “iPhone inflation adjusted” terms. Now let’s make a mental leap and compare equity in a business with money. We’ve defined money as a ledger of deferred consumption. You could define business equity as a ledger of consumption deferred to establish ownership of a business instead. You have the stock, the equity in the company, to represent that you invested your time, effort, resources or money into building a business rather than consuming it on something for your immediate gratification. These definitions seem very similar, almost synonymous. We could also consider the economy as a whole to be very similar to a business. As consumption is deferred, more capital is created in the economy, it becomes more efficient and productive, more outputs are created with fewer inputs, and the economy as a whole grows in value. Business equity represents ownership in a company, both in the current value of that company, and in its future productivity and value. Why? Because the future productivity and value wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the deferred consumption of the initial investment. If Jeff Bezos hadn’t started Amazon, and investors hadn’t provided the money by buying shares to enable the company to grow the way it did, all the productivity and value of Amazon today wouldn’t exist. That’s why it’s fair for the person who only invested $1,000 in 2007 to gain a return of 40x that investment today. So if business equity represents ownership of a company earned by deferred consumption, what does the deferred consumption of money itself grant ownership of? Well, money can be exchanged for any good or service available on the market, throughout the entire economy. In my opinion, money should represent ownership of the future productivity and value of the economy as a whole. **Money should be equity in civilization itself.** The future productivity and value of the economy depends on the deferred consumption of today, just like the future productivity and value of a company depends on the deferred consumption of its initial founders and investors. ### Slices of Pie There’s an issue that needs to be addressed here, one that the savvy investor will have noticed already. Equity in a growing and successful company becomes more valuable over time. Yet even though the economy as a whole is becoming more productive and more valuable, money as we know it today becomes less valuable over time. The $1,000 Amazon equity went from being worth two iPhones, to being worth eighty iPhones. Over the same time period, the $1,000 itself went from being worth two iPhones to being worth one iPhone. What gives? To understand, we have to look at the differences between how equity is created and how money is created. The most simple example is a company that’s owned by a single individual. They hold 100% of the equity. You could call that one share. Think of the company like a pie, but the pie hasn’t been cut, so there’s only one “slice.” Over time, if the company is successful, the company “pie” grows larger. But as it grows, it doesn’t get cut into more slices, the one “slice” just gets bigger and bigger. So the one “share” of equity the owner holds is still one share, it’s just a bigger and more valuable share. Public companies generally function similarly. They start out “going public” by issuing shares. Each share is like a small slice of the company “pie.” Say the company issues 1,000 shares, each share represents a slice of pie 1/1,000th the size of the whole company pie. If the company grows, it won’t commonly issue more shares, although that can happen in certain situations. Instead, the shares will continue to represent 1/1,000th of the company, it will just be 1/1,000 of a bigger and bigger “pie” as time goes on. If the company doubles in productivity and value, each share will be twice as valuable, while still only being one share. That doesn’t have to be the case. The company can, and sometimes does, issue more shares of stock. The reason this isn’t commonly done, though, is that it’s usually bad for the holders of the stock. If the company issues another 1,000 shares, there are now 2,000 pieces of ownership of the company. The company is no bigger, it’s just divided into more pieces. It’s like cutting each slice of pie in half. You don’t have more pie, you just have more pieces of pie. And as someone who already had a piece of pie, your piece suddenly got cut in half. Of course you probably won’t be too happy about that situation. In effect, the value of the deferred consumption of your initial investment is being taken away from you and given to someone who didn’t defer consumption and therefore didn’t contribute to the success the company has already experienced. Contrast that to how money is created. If you compare the chart of money supply below with the chart of GDP, you'll see they both go up over time. <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/6d9b90a40b1b215749b7df39145cd85a274aa457cbcb6566793dad7d306e1879.png"> <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/1439498c472180f695295959b1991d0b9e9c7f2d6d72aabb15511141e10a921b.jpg"> GDP is an (admittedly flawed) measure of the goods and services produced by an economy each year. It's similar to a company's revenue. As a company or economy grows and becomes more productive and valuable, the revenue or GDP rises. The thing about the economy though, is that money, the “shares” of an economy representing the deferred consumption that enables it to grow, is constantly being created by banks making new loans. So as the economy grows, the number of “slices” of the economy grows even faster. When the number of “slices” of an economy grow faster than the economy itself, the “size” or value of each slice falls over time. This is what we call inflation. It takes more “slices” of the economy to buy something than it did in the past, even though the economy is more efficient at producing that good or service than it was in the past. You can imagine how it might look if a company managed its equity the way the banks manage our money. Each year, as the company grew, the board of directors would issue enough new shares of stock to make sure the value of each share fell that year. They could take the approach the US banking system takes and “target 2% inflation,” in other words try to make the share value fall 2% every year. So if the productivity and value of the company increased by 10%, the board would issue 12% more shares to dilute the existing shareholders by the full amount of the increased value of the company, plus an additional 2%. This would help ensure the share price fell 2% every year. The new shares would be distributed to existing shareholders arbitrarily by decision of the board, with a big chunk going to the board members themselves. This would be highly profitable for the board, leaving them with a larger slice of company equity every year, while being very damaging to all the other shareholders. In fact, one might wonder why an investor would ever hold equity in a company, when the company's stated policy was to reduce the value of that equity by 2% every year. The answer is, nobody would. It would be idiotic. Then one might wonder why anyone would hold money, “shares” of an economy, when the stated policy of the banks managing the issuance of that money is to reduce the value of each dollar by 2% every year. The answer to that is just as simple: they have to. Nobody has to buy stock issued by a particular company in order to survive day to day. But it’s impossible to survive day to day in the modern US economy without using the money issued by the US banking system. You get paid in dollars for your work, and get charged in dollars for every item you buy. You need at least a certain amount of dollars just to live day to day. Of course those who understand the financial system make every effort to hold as few dollars as possible, and to invest the excess as soon as possible into some asset that will hold its value over time. Of course that doesn’t actually get rid of the dollar, just transfers it to someone else. Then the new holder of the dollar has to quickly exchange it with someone else for a better asset, and so on in an endless repeating loop. No matter how many people invest in assets, the full quantity of dollars in existence is always held by someone, and those people are continually being diluted by the issuance of new dollars by banks creating bank deposits when they make loans. ### Implications If what I’m proposing is correct, there would be massive implications in changing the way money works in the economy from the current credit/debt issuance controlled by banks, to a system that functions more like equity issued by a responsible and profitable company. Getting into the details of those implications in various specific areas will take many more articles, but I just want to mention a few to get your mind running, then circle all the way back to where we started. Imagine if the money every person earned went up in value as the economy grew. It would be like owning equity in the broadest possible index of businesses, better even than owning an S&P 500 ETF or mutual fund. And it would take no effort. There would be no need to open a brokerage account, decide what companies or funds to invest in, and pay commissions and fees to the brokerage for the privilege. There would be no need for a 401k. All that would be needed is to work at the job you’re best at, consume less than you produce, and save the difference. The economic growth created by increased productivity would automatically accrue equally across the population to those who were best at being productive and deferring consumption. Working hard, being frugal, and saving for the future would automatically be rewarded. All the incentives would be realigned to benefit those who contribute most to capital formation and future economic prosperity. It would be much easier for those with low income to get ahead financially. Any amount they manage to save, no matter how small, would increase in value over time. Contrast that with the current system where a small amount of savings continually becomes worth less over time, encouraging people to consume more than they need in the moment since their small savings will shrink to insignificance quickly. You can easily think of lots of other changes that would happen as a result of using money that functions more like equity than our current system does. But to tie all this back to the quote at the beginning, I think what Matt is seeing and feeling is the beginnings of a more equity-like monetary system. I think the properties of Bitcoin, specifically its predictable and limited supply issuance, make it behave like equity in a well-managed, productive company. That “company” just happens to be the global and permissionless group of every person who chooses to save and transact in Bitcoin instead of the current credit/debt money. And the fact that even self-serving actions toward productive goals end up benefitting every member of the network is exactly what we’d expect in a truly capitalist economic system. Whenever someone works to grow the “pie” in order to make their slice bigger, the fact that the pie is growing means everyone else’s slice is growing as well. And that’s a beautiful thing. I’m excited to see how this theory plays out over time, because from my point of view, the potential of moving to a more equity-like monetary system is both massive and extremely optimistic.

@ bc6ccd13:f53098e4

As if money weren’t a confusing enough topic to begin with, the financial world is full of jargon. Some of it is incomprehensible to the average person. But to my mind the more insidious category included terms and phrases that seem to be straightforward, but actually give a completely misleading or wrong impression of what’s happening. It might seem insignificant, but in my opinion a lot of the really destructive wrong ideas about economics and money rely heavily on some misleading jargon that keeps people from understanding the fundamental concepts well enough to spot bad ideas. The term I want to explain today is the idea that money “flows into” an asset or asset class. If you read any financial news or headlines, you’ve probably seen some variation of this one a million times. “Money Flowing Into Bonds As Investors Seek Safety.” “Bitcoin ETFs See Large Inflows Today.” You’ve seen it. On the surface, this seems logical. It seems like a fair way to describe the action of a lot of people buying something. The problem comes because of the implications of the term. When money “flows into” something, that means people are more eager to buy than to sell. That means prices go up. It’s easy to conclude that prices go up because more money is “in” the asset, kind of like dropping quarters in a coffee mug. If you think about it for a second you’ll realize it doesn’t work that way, but not nearly enough people take that pause to think. That causes them to have a wrong view of how prices change, and therefore how markets work. That by extension leaves them susceptible to claims from bad actors who want to restrict economic freedom and centrally plan and control trade in the market. ### How Does Money Actually Flow? Money flows, but not “into” assets. It flows from person to person. You can almost think of money like financial matter, it can’t be created or destroyed except is specific circumstances. Any time something is sold, the money flows from the buyer to the seller. Seems obvious, but it’s important to keep it in mind. The money is still there, in the account or wallet of the seller. The amount of money in the economy doesn’t change, only the location of the money. It isn’t destroyed, it isn’t somehow lodged in the house or stock or loaf of bread that was sold, it just flowed from one person to another. ### “Cash on the Sidelines” This is another term you might have heard, not the same but a related misunderstanding. Financial commentators will say something like “we expect the market to rise as soon as investor sentiment improves, because there is still a lot of cash on the sidelines waiting to be deployed.” This implies that investors are holding a lot of money, and that they can “put that money into” an asset class and reduce the amount of money “on the sidelines.” The problem is, we understand that if they do buy stocks or bonds or whatever, that money will just flow into the seller’s bank account, and the amount of cash “on the sidelines” won’t change one cent. ### Prices This leads to the question of what causes prices to rise, and a fundamental understanding of how a market works. Price is a tricky thing to understand. The price of something is the intersection between the highest amount a buyer is willing to offer, and the lowest amount a seller is willing to accept. If there is no overlap between those points, no price can be established. If there are 10 houses on a street, and one goes up for sale, the selling price of that house will be used to “value” the other 9 houses. Say the seller isn’t too desperate to sell, and is willing to wait for a buyer who agrees to pay his asking price of $500,000. If every other house on the street is very similar in size and quality, we would conclude that the value of each of the 10 houses is $500,000. But let’s say another buyer decided $500,000 is a good deal and he’d also like to buy a house on that street. He might go to every owner and offer $500,000, but there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to make a deal. Maybe everyone else is happy with their house, and nobody wants to sell for the price their house is “worth”. So there’s no price, because there’s no intersection between buyer and seller. Maybe the buyer decides he really wants a house, and offers everyone $700,000. Maybe the guy who bought a house for $500,000 last week decides “hey I can make $200,000 in a week for doing nothing, why not?” and sells the house again for $700,000. Look at what happened to the value of houses. At the first sale, the 10 houses had a combined “value” of $500,000 times 10, or $5 million. Now after the second sale, they have a combined “value” of $7 million, or an increase of $2 million. Headlines would describe that as $700,000 “flowing into” the housing market, but the overall value of those houses, what would be called the “market cap” if we were talking about a company, increased by almost 3x that amount. How does that work? It shows the misleading aspect of “money flowing into” terminology. If money “flowed into” an asset like putting quarters in a piggy bank, it would give the impression that market cap should rise $1 for every dollar of inflow. Obviously that’s not correct, and the reason is that prices don’t work like that. Money inflows are only one factor that can influence prices, and they do so in a much less direct and obvious way than the terminology indicates. ### Market Cap For one, there’s a fundamental problem with the way “market cap” is calculated to begin with. It’s supposed to express the value of a group of identical things, typically shares of stock in a company of something similar. But let’s go back to our previous example, the 10 similar houses on a street. The “market cap” of those 10 houses would be given as $5 million dollars after one of them sold for $500,000. But remember, only one house sold, not all ten. A price requires an intersection in agreed value between a buyer and a seller, and that hasn’t occurred with 90% of the houses in this “market”. Suppose one of the houses is owned by a retired couple who intend to spend the rest of their life in that house, and have no need for the money they could get by selling it. Suppose they were offered $2 million dollars, but still weren’t interested in selling. How is that reflected in the market cap calculation? Obviously it isn’t, and just looking at the market cap number by itself would give you the impression that you could buy all ten houses for $5 million. But that might be completely incorrect. It could also be incorrect in the other direction. Suppose 5 of the owners on the street suddenly experienced a job loss and had to sell their houses quickly. Could all 5 get $500,000 for their house? Maybe not. After all, the first buyer was the one willing to pay the most for a house there, and there’s no guarantee anyone else will be equally willing to do so. Maybe there are 3 buyers willing to pay $450,000, 1 buyer willing to pay $400,000, and 1 buyer willing to pay $350,000. In that case all 5 houses could be sold, but the last one would have to sell for $350,000 instead of the $500,000 the owners expected to get. If we then do the market cap calculation again, it’s now dropped to $3.5 million. That’s in spite of one house having sold for $500,000, 3 for $450,000, 1 for $400,000, 1 for $350,000, one couple not willing to sell for $2 million, and 3 houses that we know absolutely nothing about yet. To look at a $3.5 million “market cap” tells you none of this very relevant information, while giving you the impression that you know everything you need to know about this market. When you stop and think about it, it’s easy to see that prices can change for all kinds of reasons without any sales occurring at all. Imagine word gets out that a huge corporation is interested in buying all the houses in that neighborhood to make room for a future business expansion. Given the expectation of a highly motivated buyer, all the owners on the street might decide not to sell for less than a million dollars. Did the market cap suddenly rise to $10 million? No houses have been sold yet, so technically it hasn’t. As soon as the first house sells for a million dollars though, it does go to $10 million. So again you gain $5 million in market cap for $1 million in “inflows”. This is also relevant when looking at wealth held in stocks and financial assets. For example, Elon Musk holds over 700 million shares of Tesla stock currently “worth” around $135 billion. That amounts to around 20% of all Tesla stock. Now the “value” of that stock is calculated by multiply the number of shares by the last price someone paid for a share. Keeping in mind that price is an intersection between the buyer who’s willing to pay most and the seller who’s willing to accept least, how relevant is this number actually? Say Elon decided to sell all his shares tomorrow, how much is his “wealth” actually worth? How many buyers are willing to pay the last settled price for a share of Tesla stock? Enough to buy 700 million shares? Almost certainly not. So as he started to sell, he’d soon run out of buyers at that level and would have to lower his asking price to get more interest. Of course as soon as he sold a share at a price one dollar lower, the “market cap” of Tesla would fall by about $3.5 billion dollars. And the fact that the company’s largest shareholder is dumping his shares would likely cause a lot of other people to sell as well, which would drive the price they would need to accept even lower. It’s easy to imagine the price falling by double digit percentages, maybe even 80 or 90 percent, if Elon tried to sell in one day. He could easily end up with $50 billion or less for his $135 billion in wealth. ### Why Does It Matter? This concept might seem trivial, but there are some features of our economic system that make this money flow principle very important. You should already understand that banks create money by making loans as I explain here, naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzp0rve5f6xtu56djkfkkg7ktr5rtfckpun95rgxaa7futy86npx8yqq247t2dvet9q4tsg4qng36lxe6kc4nftayyy89kua2 and that money doesn’t “flow into” assets, but rather a small amount of buying, or even just the expectation of future buying, can cause prices and market cap to rise all out of proportion to the amount of buying that occurred. Then consider that banks will lend against collateral, which can be assets like real estate or stocks which may have this inflated perceived value created by a very small amount of relative buying pressure. And that the “money” they create with those loans can be used to buy more of the asset, which can cause prices and market cap to again rise disproportionately, which can make it easier to get more loans to buy more assets, which can make prices go up again… ad infinitum. And remember that money doesn’t actually “flow into” assets, and therefore it doesn’t need to “flow out of” assets in order for prices to drop. All it takes is a lack of people willing to buy at a certain level, for any reason at all, and the price will fall to the level someone is willing to pay as soon as a motivated seller attempts to exit their investment. Understand and think about the implications of that, and you’re closer to understanding the bubble/collapse cycle of asset markets than most economists and their “money flows” can ever hope to be.

@ 623ed218:fa549249

It's been a week or so since I wrote this piece and put it up on my website, but I realized I hadn't shared it here yet. Hoping it's informative! Strike Bill Pay: A Deep Dive ============================  ### Start With the Foundation: Bitcoin is Savings Technology If you've spent any time in this space, you've probably heard the phrase: *Bitcoin is savings technology.* That's because Bitcoin solves a very specific problem---the inability of fiat to hold value over time. Here's the reality: - Every dollar you hold in a bank account is being debased, slowly (or sometimes rapidly) losing its purchasing power. - Inflation might be "only" 3-4% a year right now (if you believe the official numbers), but that adds up. Over a decade, that $10,000 in savings doesn't just stagnate---it sublimates. Bitcoin fixes this. - Bitcoin is scarce, decentralized, and deflationary. - It's not controlled by governments or central banks, and its supply is capped at 21 million. No one can "print" more Bitcoin. If you're holding fiat in a savings account, you're playing a game you can't win. Bitcoin is the better tool for preserving value over time. ### Why Savings First? Before looking at how you spend, it's worth considering where you're storing your wealth. If your savings are sitting in fiat, they're slowly losing purchasing power over time---that's just how the system works. Bitcoin offers an alternative: a way to protect your wealth in something scarce and reliable. Once you've addressed that piece---and your savings are no longer being held in melting fiat---you might start asking: *What about the money in my checking account?* That's where Strike Bill Pay comes in. It's a simple, practical tool that connects your Bitcoin savings to the everyday expenses you still need to handle in fiat, removing the need to hold fiat to pay fiat bills. ### The Spending Problem: Why a Bridge is Necessary Here's where things get practical. Even if you're saving in Bitcoin, you still live in a world where bills---rent, mortgages, utilities, credit cards---are denominated in fiat. What do you do? - You could hold some fiat in your bank to cover bills, but now you're back to the problem of fiat exposure. - You could convert Bitcoin to fiat every time you need to pay something, but trust me when I say that manual process is tedious and time consuming. This creates a gap: Bitcoin is where you want to save your wealth. Fiat is where you still need to *spend* your wealth. You need a bridge. Strike Bill Pay is that bridge. It lets you hold your value in Bitcoin while seamlessly paying fiat-denominated bills. No headaches, no extra steps, and no need to rely on a traditional bank account. ### How Strike Bill Pay Works (It's Simpler Than You Think) Here's the beauty of Strike: it integrates directly into the traditional system *without requiring you to deal with it.* *Here's how it works:* Strike Provides a Standard Bank Account - When you open a Strike account, you get a routing number and an account number tied to Cross River Bank. It works exactly like a regular checking account. You Set Up Bill Payments - For any bill that allows automatic payments, simply enter the Cross River Bank routing/account number Strike gives you. Your mortgage, utilities, subscriptions---these can all pull funds automatically from Strike. - For bills you pay manually (like credit cards), add the Strike-provided account as an external payment source. When you go to make a payment, simply select that account as the funding source. Strike Converts Bitcoin to Fiat on the Backend - You don't have to worry about manually selling Bitcoin for fiat. When the bill gets paid, Strike automatically sells the exact amount of Bitcoin needed to cover the payment. It's seamless. You save in Bitcoin and Strike handles the fiat side when you need it. ### Start Small: Test the Waters, Then Scale Now, I get it---this might sound like a big leap if you're new to the idea of using Bitcoin. You don't need to move all your bills over to Strike at once. Start small. - Pick one bill---something low-stakes, like a utility payment or a monthly subscription. - Add your Strike-provided account as the payment source. - Let it run. What happens? - Your bill gets paid. - You experience how smooth the process is. - You start seeing the benefit of holding Bitcoin without having to juggle fiat for bills. Why Start Small?\ This isn't about forcing you to flip a switch overnight. It's about building comfort with tools that let you take control of your money. When you see how simple it is, you may find you'll want to scale up. ### Strike's Fee Tiers: Low Costs That Get Even Lower One of the practical benefits of using Strike is its straightforward fee structure. Strike charges a standard 0.99% fee when converting Bitcoin to fiat and vice-versa. But here's where it gets interesting: the more you use the service, the lower your fees become. Strike's fee tiers are designed to reward activity: - The more you deposit and spend through Strike, the closer you get to a lower fee tier. - Regular bill payments, purchases, and deposits all contribute toward lowering your fee rate. Why It Matters: When you're living on Bitcoin---covering bills, expenses, and purchases---those fees can add up. Strike incentivizes regular usage by giving you a clear path to reducing costs. The result? Your bill-paying process becomes not only seamless but also more efficient and cost-effective over time. If you're managing everything---mortgage, utilities, credit cards---through Strike, it's likely you'll hit lower tiers quickly, making the service even more competitive. ### For Bitcoiners: Completing the Savings-to-Spending Loop If you're already holding Bitcoin as savings, Strike Bill Pay is the final piece. It lets you operate entirely in Bitcoin while still managing your fiat-denominated obligations. Here's why it matters: - Opting Out: If the majority of your wealth is in Bitcoin, why leave even a small amount in a checking account? Strike eliminates the need for that fiat buffer. - Automation and Ease: Bills that pull automatically? Easy. Manual payments? Just as simple. - Seamless Spending: No awkward conversions, no multiple steps. Strike lets you "spend Bitcoin" without all the extra steps. It's the bridge that completes the Bitcoin-first financial strategy. ### Flexibility: Adjust Your Strategy as Conditions Change One of the best parts about Strike is that it's flexible. If you feel the need to keep some fiat on the side, it's as simple as pressing a few buttons. - Bull Market Strategy: Hold Bitcoin all month, let it appreciate, and let Strike convert as bills are due. - Bear Market Strategy: If you're cautious, hold fiat in Strike temporarily and stack sats with what's left at the end of the month. Strike gives you the tools to adapt your strategy---no friction, no complexity. ### Taxes: How Strike Simplifies Year-End Reporting When using Bitcoin to pay bills, it's important to understand the tax implications. In the United States, Bitcoin is considered property by the IRS. This means that any time Bitcoin is converted to fiat (like when Strike pays a bill for you), it's a taxable event. Here's how it works: - If the value of your Bitcoin has increased since you acquired it, you owe capital gains taxes on the difference (the "gain") when it's converted to fiat to pay a bill. - If there's no appreciation---or if you're converting at a loss---there's no capital gain to tax. Example: - You bought $500 worth of Bitcoin. - When it's time to pay a bill, that Bitcoin is now worth $600. - If you use Strike to pay the bill, you'll only owe capital gains taxes on the $100 gain. Conversely: - If you bought $500 worth of Bitcoin, and by the time you use it to pay a bill, it's worth $450, you can report a capital loss instead. How Strike Helps: Strike simplifies this entire process by providing: - Year-End Tax Documents: Strike generates clear reports showing each transaction. - Easy Access: These tax documents can be downloaded directly from the Strike app, making it easy to share them with your accountant or upload them to tax software. Why This Matters: Keeping track of Bitcoin transactions manually can feel overwhelming. With Strike, all the reporting is done for you, so you can stay compliant without stress. Whether you're dealing with gains, losses, or flat conversions, Strike helps you navigate taxes with transparency and simplicity. ### Bringing It All Together Bitcoin is savings tech. It fixes the root problem---where you store your wealth. Strike Bill Pay is the tool that lets you: - Save in Bitcoin without compromise. - Pay fiat bills seamlessly without relying on a traditional bank. - Start small, test the waters, and scale at your own pace. ### Final Thought: Build the Future, One Bill at a Time Here's my challenge to you: - Pick one bill. - Add your Strike-provided account as the payment source. - Run it for a month and see how it feels. You don't need to jump in all at once. But as you experience the benefits--- no friction, and no headaches---you might find yourself wondering: *Why don't I use this for all my fiat needs?* Strike Bill Pay isn't about forcing change. It's about offering you tools that work better. Save in Bitcoin, spend seamlessly, and start building a future where your money works for you---not against you. Block 875215 - MSK 943 Digging Deeper: =============== ### Hey there, I hope you enjoyed this read! If you did, and would like to read more of my barks, follow the links below! - Curious how I found Bitcoin? Read ["Paw Prints to the Timechain"](https://bitcoinbarks.com/Barks/paw-prints-to-the-timechain/#wbb1 "https://bitcoinbarks.com/Barks/paw-prints-to-the-timechain/#wbb1") - Bitcoin meets psychology? I touch on this in ["Maslow's Apex"](https://bitcoinbarks.com/Barks/maslows-apex/#wbb1 "https://bitcoinbarks.com/Barks/maslows-apex/#wbb1") - Want to understand the basics of Bitcoin? Read ["Bitcoin Best Practice"](https://bitcoinbarks.com/Barks/bitcoin-best-practice/#wbb1 "https://bitcoinbarks.com/Barks/bitcoin-best-practice/#wbb1") - If you like seeing bad media takes unpacked, check out ["Pup's Double-Takes"](https://bitcoinbarks.com/Barks/Pups-Double-Takes/#wbb1 "https://bitcoinbarks.com/Barks/Pups-Double-Takes/#wbb1") ### External Resources: - Want to earn rewards on your mortgage? [Use my referral to earn 20,000 free sats at sign up!](https://use.foldapp.com/r/7KYTK4CP "https://use.foldapp.com/r/7KYTK4CP") - Do you like sharing Bitcoin content and earning sats for doing so? [Join me at Stacker.news!](https://stacker.news/r/bitcoin_pup "https://stacker.news/r/bitcoin_pup") ...Woof! ======== [](https://primal.net/p/npub1vgldyxx7syc30qm9v7padnnfpdfp4zwymsyl9ztzuklaf7j5jfyspk36wu) originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/828031

@ 7e6f9018:a6bbbce5

Violence is a tool, and as such, it functions effectively in many contexts. Therefore, we should all acknowledge its role and prepare to use it when necessary, both as individuals and as a society. The monopoly on violence is the cornerstone of the political state. Proper use of this monopoly can transform an impoverished society into a productive and prosperous environment. Conversely, misuse can lead to a stagnant society that benefits only a select few. Wars and violence remain present in our world, but recent times appear to have been more peaceful than the historical average. Some argue that this relative peace is more than a temporary phenomenon and represents a consistent decline in violence. If so, why? I believe the reason is simple: abusing violence has become counterproductive in the long term. While violence is a powerful tool, it is also inherently dangerous. It is crucial not to trivialize it, as doing so risks undermining the progress and achievements of our society. In combat sports, it is common to see fighters exchanging gestures of respect after a match. This is more than a mere formality, it symbolizes the refusal to trivialize the violence applied. Such gestures place violence within a controlled and healthy framework, celebrating the sport while distancing it from the dangerous allure of abusing others, which could have harmful ripple effects. Since the monopoly on violence lies with the state rather than individuals, the responsibility for its proper use rests primarily with governments. How states wield this power significantly shapes their relationship with societies. To illustrate this, let’s consider a hypothetical scenario involving two societies: society (A) and society (B). Where each society is capable of producing a certain amount of goods in a year. Society (A) produces 6 squares, and society (B) produces 6 circles. | **Initial situation** | | | ---------- | ------------------------------------------ | | _Society A_ = 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 | _Society B_ = 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 | The relationship between the two societies can primarily take one of two forms: 1. A positive relationship (_win-win_), characterized by mutual respect and a focus on product trade. | **Win - Win** 💱 | | | ---------- | ------------------------------------------ | | _Society A_ = 🟩🟩🟩🔵🔵🔵 | _Society B_ = 🔵🔵🔵🟩🟩🟩 | If there is a positive relationship, the two societies will exchange their products throughout the year. As a result, both societies will retain their original 6 products but enjoy an improved quality of life due to greater product diversity—each will have both squares and circles. 2. A negative relationship (_win-lose_), characterized by confrontation and a focus on conflict. | **Win - Lose** 💥 | | | ---------- | ------------------------------------------ | | _Society A_ = 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 | _Society B_ = ❌ → lack of food| If a negative relationship prevails, the society that most effectively wields the resource of violence will dominate. In this case, society (A) would prevail, keeping both its own production, the 6 squares, and the production of the defeated society (B), the 6 circles. As a result, society (A) would enjoy a high quality of life due to its increased wealth, comprising 6 squares and 6 circles, while society (B) would be left in a state of absolute poverty. The _win-lose_ scenario may seem advantageous for the winning party. However, it is ultimately a short-term strategy that incurs in significant long-term costs, which any advanced society would seek to avoid. Let’s examine why. If society (A) excessively and repeatedly exploits society (B), there will eventually come a point where the entire population of society (B) starves to death. The result? Society (A)’s quality of life reverts to its initial state, producing only 6 squares, because society (B) has perished, taking with it its technical know-how and resources. In hindsight, a win-win scenario would have been the smarter choice. | **Win - Lose** 💥 | | | ---------- | ------------------------------------------ | | _Society A_ = 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 | _Society B_ = ❌→ lack of food, hunger → ☠️ | If society (A) is somewhat wise, it will recognize that it cannot completely destroy society (B) but must subject it to measured exploitation without annihilating it. By doing so, society (A) sacrifices some short-term profits; instead of gaining 12 units per year, it gains 10, allowing society (B) to retain 2 units to survive. While this arrangement benefits society (A) more than a win-win scenario, it creates a precarious and unsustainable situation for society (B). | **Measured abuse** 📐 | | | ---------- | ------------------------------------------ | | _Society A_ = 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🔵🔵🔵🔵 | _Society B_ = 🔵🔵→ precariousness | History has shown us that society (B), sooner or later, will confront the abuse inflicted by society (A) through one of two possible scenarios: 1. Fight 2. Flight If society (B) decides to fight, it will keep all the production if it wins, and if it loses, society (A) will take control. An important consequence is that, in the short term, production will decrease due to the effort involved in the war. And in the long term, one of the two societies will disappear, and we will return to a situation of excessive exploitation. | **Fight** ⚔️ | | | ---------- | ------------------------------------------ | | _Society A_ = 🟩🟩🟩🟩🔵🔵🔵 | _Society B_ = 🔵→ (1) fight or (2) flight | If, instead of fighting, society (B) decides to abandon its territory, society (A) will also return to its initial situation. This is because, if society (B) leaves, it takes with it its production, human resources, and technical know-how. | **Flight** 🧳 | | | ---------- | ------------------------------------------ | | _Society A_ = 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 | _Society B_ = 🛩| **Conclusion**: If, instead of entering an unproductive vicious circle, the two societies had realized from the beginning that the wisest approach is to establish a positive relationship, they would have saved a lot of wasted energy and pain. This could be the reason for the reduction in violence: societies may be starting to figure out this game. **Note**: Please note that this mental framework is an oversimplification; the reality may involve many other variables not considered here.

@ 30ceb64e:7f08bdf5

I've been listening to this small playlist over and over again this week. Ivy keeps getting me. I'm having fun making these things https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=yNPfvgFEXuk&si=HjUdZxXKkGfqabk8 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=LyRJfs-Qn70&si=2ugksRTltXATqHVo https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=XkpAE8ZZ6bU&si=WwWopN-YMLGguFiB https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=VIcQreSskyM&si=Ewza3W6SOkRDWF1E https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=5xm8Q-1cOpU&si=GeQv3Kum_TV9H6KD https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=xYM-aZG9QbE&si=fwfzIFLAyVumnTs4 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=r7JWHuGFUeI&si=MqoFBqvb0iI7pAAY https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=GjnjUHY8MiM&si=F_Aepjxc_g2SH7UG https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=sgjTb7UQe2A&si=04wik3m5LefpbGMV https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=SMOund_uFTk&si=v7sa3XxchH607d0Y https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmYfnnK_Qs5jpv5hKuBKFOEvMnPFl3vto&si=Dkudss84jFszdGmj Thanks Anon, Hustle originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/827883

@ 30ceb64e:7f08bdf5

A recent conversation with fellow Bitcoiners prompted me to share this overview of Nostr tools. While you don't need to use everything, understanding the ecosystem helps paint a picture of where we're heading. I often hear people say "I'm posting to the void" or "My feed is boring" or "I'm not earning any bitcoin" or "It's too complicated." Let me address these concerns with a comprehensive overview. ### Core Clients and Features Primal and Amethyst are currently the best daily drivers. Theyre both valid twitter replacements with primal focusing on user friendliness and amethyst focusing on being more feature rich. Both apps feature an algorithm marketplace (we call them DVMs) where you can choose from various feed styles. Soon, anyone will be able to create and share their own algorithms. For additional feed customization, Listr.lol lets you curate lists of npubs to further refine your experience. ### Content and Rewards Stacker News (SN) integrates beautifully with Nostr. Cross-post your SN content to appear as longform notes on platforms like Highlighter, Yakihonne, and Habla.news. SN's rewards system pays out satoshis for quality content, bridging their closed platform with Nostr's open network. ### Payments and Zaps For zaps, I recommend CoinOS, or AlbyHub for a more sovereign alternative. CoinOS is non kyc and gives you a lightning address and NWC connection string to throw into your nostr clients. CoinOS supports e-cash and Bolt 12, Liquid, and can auto-withdraw earnings to cold storage. You can use coinOs as a PWA or input the connection string into Alby Go for a more minimal wallet alternative. ### Security and App Management Android users should use zap.store for downloading Nostr apps. It verifies app authenticity and implements Web of Trust features, showing which trusted npubs use each app. For managing multiple apps, Pokey provides a unified notification dashboard. Amber (Android) offers secure client login without exposing your nsec, while Citrine lets you run a relay on your phone for data backup. ### Creator Tools - Wavlake: Spotify alternative with open music graph - Fountain: Podcast app with Nostr integration - Zap.stream: Live streaming - Nostr.build: Media hosting - Cypher.space: Website creation with integrated marketplace - Olas: Instagram alternative - Gifbuddy.lol: Gif creation - memeamigo.lol: Meme creation - Zappadd: Promotional tools ### Making the Most of Nostr The key to Nostr is understanding that nothing is force-fed. You're responsible for: - Creating your desired feed - Choosing your client - Selecting your relays - Managing your wallet - Curating who you follow For best results, go all in: 1. Leave traditional social media 2. Use Primal and or Amethyst as your main client 3. Follow 1000 npubs 4. Set up CoinOS for payments 5. Engage daily with the community ### Future Outlook Some ask if Nostr is truly decentralized, censorship-resistant, or profitable. My response: the user experience will become so good that most internet users will naturally gravitate here. The only barrier will be ideological resistance. Nostr represents a new internet paradigm where users outpower platforms, identity persists across apps, and Bitcoin is the standard. We've practically already won. ### Crazy Ideas I'm thinking the age of of the super nostr app will come to a close. We're probably going to enter an era of a thousand micro apps and client templates, which allow users to build their own client in 30 seconds. Some templates will be impermanent, one time use clients, others will be more robust for building a daily driver. You'll be able to share your completed piece on nostr for other people to use, and they'll zap you for building it. A marketplace of user created apps supported by thousands of micro apps and relays and templates, probably a user experience holy grail, made possible by nostr's open social graph, smooth monetization processes from bitcoin. ### Growth Predictions Daily Active Users doubling yearly: 2024: 20k → 2029: 640k The beauty of Nostr isn't just in its decentralized nature or bitcoin integration – it's in the user experience that puts you in control. While traditional social media platforms force-feed you content through black-box algorithms, Nostr hands you the keys to your own digital kingdom. You choose your feed, your apps, your connections, and your level of engagement. Yes, there's a learning curve, but that's the price of digital sovereignty. Think of where Twitter was in 2006 or Bitcoin in 2013. Those who saw the potential and jumped in early didn't just benefit financially – they helped shape the future. Nostr is at that same inflection point. The tools are here, the infrastructure is growing, and the community is building. Whether you're a creator, developer, bitcoiner, or just someone tired of traditional social media, Nostr offers a glimpse of what the internet should have been all along. The question isn't if Nostr will win, but when. And when it does, you'll want to be able to say you were here when it all began. Thanks, Hustle originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/827860

@ ebdee929:513adbad

Blue light is not inherently bad, just bad in the wrong context. Blue light provides wakefulness, stimulation, and sets our internal body clock (circadian rhythm). When we go outside in the sun, we get bathed in blue lightblue light is not inherently bad, just bad in the wrong context. [Blue light sets the human rhythm.](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7065627/) However, sunlight never gives us blue light without the rest of the visible rainbow + infrared. Light from screens & LED bulbs do not contain any infrared, and has a unnaturally high proportion of blue light. LEDs = unbalanced & blue light dominant <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/1e1e1eeb73e25798e74263e65bf41d24f70ef09cd02f1268c432cd7e57045c24.jpg"> Light from artificial sources is especially disruptive at night time, where the high blue light component can interfere with melatonin production and sleep quality at a greater rate than lower energy colors of light. [Blue Light has a Dark Side](https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side) This doesn't mean that red light is completely innocent of disrupting sleep either It is both the spectrum of light AND the intensity of light that contributes to sleep disruption. [See this tweet from Huberman](https://x.com/hubermanlab/status/1846995497824714807). <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/dd8227d6ad0b3f0fd0de371e117b8fff688744584fc6191d0c86b780889eb685.jpg"> We took all of this into account when building the DC-1 to be the world's first blue light free computer. The DC-1 has a reflective screen that: • emits ZERO light during the day • can be used easily outside in direct sunlight <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/492bd01872e10a53ebfaa9ed4d4c72d7a835943af347a9b7fa3173b9eae536c4.jpg"> & a backlight that: • can be 100% blue light free • has a broad spectrum of light • can be seen at very low brightness <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/783eb85af21270d412957bd7ea81297edbfaca444e3fcb21eb9d2bde6465a88b.jpg"> Our Live Paper™ display technology feels like a magic piece of paper During the day, that piece of paper is illuminated by sunlight. At night, that piece of paper is illuminated by *candle* light. (backlight is converging with a candle light spectrum) <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/e153f8e937438a31c8a1cc7e4db63d937f52c3c1667557a7e7a1459bb7464a7c.jpg"> The two sources of natural light are sunlight & fire. We are trying to reproduce this experience for the most enjoyable, healthy, and least invasive technology experience for humanity. Root cause problem solving by emulating nature. "But can't I just put a red light screen filter on my MacBook?" Absolutely you can, and we advocate for it Software screen filters are great, but anyone who has changed their screen to full “red mode” to get rid of the blue light knows the downsides to this… <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/3cb41edfa65978e8badb8555eb4448909328ce189efe270eddfd50f2eba6c40e.jpg"> You can barely see anything and you end up having to crank up the brightness in order to see any contrast. This is because of the highly isolated nature of LED emissive screens, you can only isolate a very narrow band of colors. Going full red is not something your eyes have ever been used to seeing. You need a broad spectrum light solution, and that is what we have in our **amber backlight** while still being blue light free. This means you can have a better visual experience, turn down the brightness, and get minimal sleep/circadian disruption. **What about FLICKER?** Nearly all LEDs flicker. Especially when changing in brightness due to Pulsed Width Modulation (PWM) LED driver control Our LED backlight uses DC dimming & is expert verified flicker-free. This can only be achieved through hardware changes, not software screen filters. <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/cb756be06d8b154babecd10dece422076410f67adb904b658fce2cc271e4ba2f.jpg"> **& Blue Light Blocking Glasses?** They need to be tinted orange/red to block all of the blue light. Thus the same issues as screen filters (bad visual experience, not solving flicker) + average joe would never wear them. We still love blue blockers, they just aren't a **root cause** solution. We made a computer that is healthier and less stimulating, with a low barrier to entry Whether you are a staunch circadian health advocate or just like the warm vibes of amber mode and being outside...the DC-1 just feels good because it doesn't make you feel bad :) Learn more [here](https://daylightcomputer.com) and thanks for reading.

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

**Table Of Content** - The Nikkei 225: A Comprehensive Overview - Bitcoin's Meteoric Rise: A Journey of Peaks and Valleys - Drawing Parallels: Bitcoin and Nikkei's Path of Resilience - Conclusions - FAQ The financial world is vast and diverse, with assets ranging from traditional stocks to the more recent phenomenon of cryptocurrencies. Among these, Bitcoin stands out as the pioneering digital currency, often drawing comparisons with various stock indices. One such intriguing comparison is with Japan's Nikkei 225. **The Nikkei 225: A Comprehensive Overview** The Nikkei 225, commonly known as the Nikkei, stands as one of the primary stock market indices representing the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Established in 1950, it comprises 225 of the most prominent companies listed on the exchange, making it a significant barometer of the Japanese economy's overall health. Over the decades, the Nikkei has witnessed various economic cycles, from booms to recessions. Its performance often mirrors the broader economic and business trends in Japan. The recent achievement in June, where the Nikkei touched a 33-year high, is not just a numerical milestone. It symbolizes the enduring nature of the Japanese market, its ability to recover from setbacks, and the confidence of investors in the country's economic prospects. **Bitcoin's Meteoric Rise: A Journey of Peaks and Valleys** Bitcoin, introduced in 2009 by an anonymous entity known as Satoshi Nakamoto, revolutionized the concept of currency. As the world's first decentralized digital currency, Bitcoin operates without a central authority, making it inherently resistant to government interference or manipulation. Over the years, Bitcoin's journey has been nothing short of a roller coaster. From being an obscure digital asset to becoming a household name, its value has seen dramatic surges and equally sharp declines. This volatility often becomes a hotbed for speculations, predictions, and intense debates among financial experts. A recent statement by an analyst, suggesting that Bitcoin's trajectory might align with that of the Nikkei, has added fuel to these discussions. The implication here is that Bitcoin, despite its volatile nature, has the potential to reach unprecedented highs, much like the Nikkei did after its long journey. **Drawing Parallels: Bitcoin and Nikkei's Path of Resilience** At an initial glance, comparing a traditional stock market index like the Nikkei to a modern digital asset like Bitcoin might seem like comparing apples to oranges. However, when delving deeper, certain similarities emerge. Both Bitcoin and the Nikkei have demonstrated remarkable resilience. The Nikkei, representing Japan's economic might, has bounced back from economic crises, natural disasters, and global downturns. Similarly, Bitcoin, despite facing regulatory challenges, technological hurdles, and market skepticism, has managed to not only survive but thrive. The adaptability of both these assets is noteworthy. While the Nikkei reflects the evolving nature of the Japanese economy and its industries, Bitcoin showcases the world's shifting attitude towards decentralized finance and digital assets. The recent prediction by the analyst, suggesting a potential parallel growth pattern, underscores the idea that both traditional and modern financial instruments can coexist, learn from each other, and potentially follow similar trajectories of success. **Conclusion** A Convergence of Old and New The financial landscape is ever-evolving, with traditional and modern assets often intersecting in unexpected ways. The comparison between Bitcoin and the Nikkei 225 serves as a testament to this. As Bitcoin continues its journey in the financial realm, only time will tell if it truly follows the path of the Nikkei to new record highs. **FAQ** **What is the Nikkei 225?** The Nikkei 225 is a primary stock market index representing the Tokyo Stock Exchange, showcasing the health of the Japanese economy. **How is Bitcoin related to the Nikkei 225?** An analyst recently predicted that Bitcoin's growth trajectory might align with that of the Nikkei, hinting at potential record highs for the cryptocurrency. **Has the Nikkei 225 reached any significant milestones recently?** Yes, in June, the Nikkei achieved a 33-year high, reflecting the resilience of the Japanese market. **Why is Bitcoin's growth compared to the Nikkei's?** Both Bitcoin and the Nikkei have shown adaptability and resilience in changing market dynamics, leading to speculations of similar growth patterns. **Is Bitcoin expected to reach new highs?** While predictions vary, some analysts believe Bitcoin might emulate the Nikkei's success and reach new record highs. **That's all for today** **If you want more, be sure to follow us on:** **NOSTR: croxroad@getalby.com** **X: [@croxroadnews](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.*

@ 0a821ca3:e0efcce3

Central banks, in particular the ECB, are pushing hard to force a CBDC on their citizens - these citizens are not interested in a CBDC that invades their privacy. ## Chaumian e-cash In 1982, David Chaum published [“Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payments”](https://chaum.com/ecash/). e-Cash - Ensures privacy - Is permissionless - Can be minted / issued by banks - Can be developed completely in open source code - Can be supported by a multitude of (open source) wallets - each bank can enable it in their bank app e-Cash - Does not enable a holding limit - that is not necessary, as it is not competing with bank accounts - on the contrary: bank client convert a small part of their deposit to ecash, which is non interest bearing - Does not require KYC - which some may consider a problem - this being said, it is issued only by banks that have performed KYC on their clients David Chaum worked with the SNB to descibe on [How to issue a central bank digital currency](https://www.snb.ch/en/publications/research/working-papers/2021/working_paper_2021_03) . Central banks should consider e-Cash if they want to successfully enable digital payments for their citizens. The digital p2p value transfer protocol, bitcoin, already has an extensive e-Cash ecosystem. [Cashu](https://cashu.space/) and the [OpenCash Association](https://opencash.dev/) lead this development, which has so far resulted in a broad range of wallets and mints, that mint "satoshi" tokens and even "euro" tokens. That open source software can perfectly serve as blueprint for a reasonable digital euro.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

As mentioned in my [inaugural post](https://stacker.news/items/826658/r/Undisciplined), I'm going to be searching for the optimal posting fee for ~econ. My suspicion is that we were above the optimum, so I'm beginning with a halving. If this brings in more revenue than last month (48k), then I'll continue with another reduction to 54. Otherwise, I'll increase to the midway point of 161. @cryotosensei told me that 108 has special significance, so let's see if it gives us a special month. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/826704

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Guess who's in charge of the ~econ territory? This guy (*Undisciplined points at him/her/itself as you read this*). The founder of this great territory, @jeff, has too many irl commitments to invest the time he would like to into ~econ, so he offered to let me take over indefinitely. If you are interested in the conditions agreed to in this transfer of power, see [here](https://stacker.news/items/89179/r/Undisciplined?commentId=826287) (*that link should probably have been a Rick Roll*). Even though we initially discussed this possibility a few months ago, I never really gave much thought to what I would do with the territory. I love the regular contributions we've been getting, lately, and I'll seek to make sure those continue. My first order of business will be to search out the optimal posting fee, which is a process @jeff began. Expect a fee reduction in the near future, once I settle on a search method. I have a very expansive view of what constitutes ~econ content (as one of my advisors said, "If it's about people making choices, then it's econ."), so I hope people will choose ~econ for their posts involving anything related to human action (the subject or the book). Expect more updates as I come up to speed on running a territory and let me know what you'd like to see from this territory going forward. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/826658

@ a42048d7:26886c32

DIY Multisig is complex and 100x more likely to fail than you think if you do it yourself: A few years ago as an experiment I put what was then $2,000 worth Bitcoin into a 2 of 3 DIY multisig with two close family members holding two keys on Tapsigners and myself holding the last key on a Coldcard. My thought was to try and preview how they might deal with self custodied multisig Bitcoin if I died prematurely. After over a year I revisited and asked them to try and do a transaction without me. Just send that single Utxo to a new address in the same wallet, no time limit. It could not possibly have failed harder and shook my belief in multisig. To summarize an extremely painful day, there was a literally 0% chance they would figure this out without help. If this had been for real all our BTC may have been lost forever. Maybe eventually a family friend could’ve helped, but I hadn’t thought of that and hadn’t recommended a trusted BTC knowledge/help source. I had preached self sovereignty and doing it alone and my family tried to respect that. I should’ve given them the contact info of local high integrity bitcoiners I trust implicitly. Regardless of setup type, I highly recommend having a trusted Bitcoiner and online resources your family knows they can turn to to trouble shoot. Bookmark the corresponding BTCSessions video to your BTC self custody setup. Multisig is complicated as hell and hard to understand. Complexity is the enemy when it comes to making sure your BTC isn’t lost and actually gets to your heirs. Many Bitcoiners use a similar setup to this one that failed so badly, and I’m telling you unless you’re married to or gave birth to a seriously hardcore maxi who is extremely tech savvy, the risk your Bitcoin is lost upon your death is unacceptably high. My family is extremely smart but when the pressure of now many thousands of dollars was on the line, the complexity of multisig torpedoed them. Don’t run to an ETF! There are answers: singlesig is awesome. From observing my family I’m confident they would’ve been okay in a singlesig setup. It was the process of signing on separate devices with separate signers, and moving a PSBT around that stymied them. If it had been singlesig they would’ve been okay as one signature on its own was accomplished. Do not besmirch singlesig, it’s incredibly powerful and incredibly resilient. Resilience and simplicity are vastly underrated! In my opinion multisig may increase your theoretical security against attacks that are far less likely to actually happen, e.g. an Oceans Eleven style hack/heist. More likely your heirs will be fighting panic, grief, and stress and forget something you taught them a few years back. If they face an attack it will most likely be social engineering/phishing. They are unlikely to face an elaborate heist that would make a fun movie. While I still maintain it was a mistake for Bitkey to not have a separate screen to verify addresses and other info, overall I believe it’s probably the best normie option for small BTC holdings(yes I do know Bitkey is actually multisig, but the UX is basically a single sig). This incident scared me into realizing the importance of simplicity. Complexity and confusion of heirs/family may be the most under-considered aspects of BTC security. If you’ve made a DIY multisig and your heirs can’t explain why they need all three public keys and what a descriptor is and where it’s backed up, you might as well just go have that boating accident now and get it over with. Once you get past small amounts of BTC, any reputable hardware wallet in singlesig is amazing security I would encourage folks to consider. In a singlesig setup - For $5 wrench attack concerns, just don’t have your hardware signer or steel backup at your home. You can just have a hot wallet on your phone with a small amount for spending. If you get a really big stack collaborative multisig is a potentially reasonable middle ground. Just be very thoughtful and brutally honest about your heirs and their BTC and general tech knowledge. Singlesig is still great and you don’t have to move past it, but I get that you also need to sleep at night. If you have truly life changing wealth and are just too uncomfortable with singlesig, maybe consider either 1) Anchorwatch to get the potential benefits of multisig security with the safety net of traditional insurance or 2) Liana wallet where you can use miniscript to effectively have a time locked singlesig spending path to a key held by a third party to help your family recover your funds if they can’t figure it out before that timelock hits, 3) Bitcoin Keeper with their automatic inheritance docs and mini script enabled inheritance key. The automatic inheritance docs are a best in class feature no one else has done yet. Unchained charges $200 for inheritance docs on top of your $250 annual subscription, which imho is beyond ridiculous. 4) Swan vault, I’ve generally soured on most traditional 2 of 3 collaborative multisig because I’ve always found holes either in security (Unchained signed a transaction in only a few hours and has no defined time delay, and still doesn’t support Segwit, seriously guys, wtf?), only support signers that are harder to use and thus tough for noobs, or the overall setups are just too complex. Swan Vault’s focus on keeping it as simple as possible really stands out against competitors that tack on unneeded confusion complexity. TLDR: For small amounts of BTC use Bitkey. For medium to large amounts use singlesig with a reputable hardware wallet and steel backup. For life changing wealth where you just can no longer stomach sinsglesig maybe also consider Anchorwatch, Bitcoin Keeper, Sean Vault, or Liana. Don’t forget your steel backups! Be safe out there! Do your own research and don’t take my word for it. Just use this as inspiration to consider an alternative point of view. If you’re a family of software engineers, feel free to tell me to go fuck myself.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Howdy, Stackers We've got some territory updates to cover this week: - The first round of the [College Football Contest](https://stacker.news/items/820618/r/Undisciplined) is in the books - Cricket contests: [CricZap](https://stacker.news/items/821369/r/Undisciplined) and [BBL Survivor Pool](https://stacker.news/items/819076/r/Undisciplined) are rolling forward (perhaps without @grayruby) - We have a winner of the impromptu [USA vs the World](https://stacker.news/items/822695/r/Undisciplined) contest - Apparently, some stackers started a [fantasy football league](https://stacker.news/items/824623/r/Undisciplined), but I don't recall hearing about it before Then onto some sports topics - The NFL and NBA are competing over Christmas Day supremacy: https://stacker.news/items/824953/r/Undisciplined - What are our favorite sports to watch live vs on tv? https://stacker.news/items/825580/r/Undisciplined - The NFL MVP race is tightening up. - Is Embiid still the Biggest Loser? Plus, some early trade conversations. - Canadians are fascinated by children beating each other up with sticks and razor blades on national television: https://stacker.news/items/825050/r/Undisciplined What's on your sports radar this week? originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/826204

@ b2caa9b3:9eab0fb5

 The past few weeks have been uneventful for me, spent mostly shuttling between the hospital and the hostel. Every other day, I made my way to the hospital for a foot dressing change — the only time I ventured outside. It was a routine walk, one that led me along a single road to the hospital and back. Despite the limited movement, I captured a few photos along the way, which I’d like to share with you today.  During this time, I kept myself busy at the hostel, sorting through old travel data. As I sifted through my memories and photos, it struck me: I’ve been living a nomadic life for nearly 8 years now. It all started back in 2016 when I was sitting in the small town of Korb in Germany, pondering what to do with my life. It was a tough time, and I don’t want to go into the details, but by the end of that year, I decided to take the plunge and start traveling. Initially, I planned to visit a friend in March 2017, but that fell through. I quickly reworked my plan and decided to visit my grandparents farm, or rather, where it once stood. The only hitch was that I had no money for the trip. So, I hitchhiked, took buses, and walked there, which ended up being a life-changing adventure. Later, a journalist mentioned this journey in an article on migration. And that’s how it all began — the start of my nomadic lifestyle.  Fast forward almost 8 years, and here I am, sitting at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro with a healing foot that still needs some care. It’s almost better, though it remains sensitive due to the thin skin, and it needs to strengthen before it’s fully healed. I hope I’ve learned from this and that such an injury won’t happen again. I’ve extended my stay in Moshi until December 30th, and I might stay until the start of the new year. As for where I’ll go next, I’m still unsure. I’ve thought about taking a bus east and then coming back by train, or perhaps heading west and making a loop south to east, ultimately returning to where I am now.  *The image above is called a Christmas tree because it reveals its full beauty only during the Christmas season.* Last night, I thought about attending a BBQ festival, now that my foot is almost healed. But when I arrived, the police officer didn’t understand English and called a man for clarification. He told me I couldn’t enter Uhuru Park because there was a meeting happening. I didn’t want to argue with them, so I turned back. It was a small loss — the entrance fee was 10k TZS, which included two free beers, and the BBQ meat was 20k TZS. But instead, I wandered around the area, discovering beautiful cafes, bars, and artist shops. It was a peaceful stroll, and I plan to return during the day to explore more. Currently, I’m sitting in the hostel bar, downloading some travel videos from my cloud. The internet here isn’t the most stable, so the process takes longer than I’d like. Once downloaded, I’ll upload them to another cloud service where I can access and work on them. This is the reality of my work as a traveler — sometimes progress feels slow, especially when the internet connection is unreliable. But as always, I remain hopeful that I’ll find a place with better connectivity soon.  *The image above shows a banana transport. The area around Moshi is known for its extensive banana farming.* Lately, I’ve been trying to fix my fedora so I can edit videos offline, but I’ve run into some technical issues. The drivers for HD/4K and MP4 aren’t working as expected. If anyone knows what I need to install on my ThinkPad T470s to fix this, I’d appreciate the advice! I also considered learning LaTeX to write my blog posts and convert them into Markdown, but I’m still a novice when it comes to LaTeX. In the past, I used Kile, but I’ve since moved away from KDE, though I still use Digikam and Kdenlive for photo and video editing. Kdenlive, however, doesn’t seem to handle MP4 files properly, which is another challenge I’m trying to figure out. On top of everything, I’ve been thinking a lot about ways to earn some extra money. The last few months have been financially challenging — I’ve had medical bills to cover, including paying for a child’s hospital expenses in Kenya. It has made me rethink how I manage my money. As a minimalist, I try to keep my costs low, but sometimes things come up that are beyond my control. I’m working on finding new ways to supplement my income, and hopefully, I’ll come up with some ideas soon. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a few photos from Moshi, a town at the base of Kilimanjaro. It has a pleasant climate and offers a relaxed vibe, even though there’s not much to do. I hope you enjoy these images, and I’ll share more updates soon as my journey continues. Stay tuned for more adventures!  *Image above: He thought he needed to show off his strength when he saw me and lifted the TukTuk.*      *The image above features a mosque with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background. I took this photo yesterday during my visit to Uhuru Park.*  ## Support *Feel free to support me by sending some sats via the lightning network to rubenstorm@sats.mobi*

@ acbcec47:dd305bec

## Prepare starter - 1 part starter (~30g) - 2 parts wholemeal rye flour (~60g) - 2 parts warm water (~60g) Stir well, then leave to stand warm and covered until the volume has almost doubled.  Once the starter has doubled in volume and a light cap has formed, it can be used for the dough.  ## Ingredients - Flour (2/3 550/1100 wheat flour, 1/3 997 rye flour) = 600g - Water: 60% of the flour quantity = 360g warm water - Starter: 20% of the flour quantity = 120g starter - Salt: 3% of the flour = 18g  Put the rest of the starter (about 30g) back in the fridge for the next batch. Knead everything well for 5 minutes, then leave to stand warm and covered.  ## Fermenting First fermenting phase in one piece until the volume has almost doubled.  Then divide into portions ...   Shape and leave to rise on the baking tray for 1-2 hours.   ## Baking - Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F) - Just before baking, cut in the top of the rolls with a razor blade, so that they can extend  - Bake for 20 min with steam/cover at 210°C (410°F) - Then remove the steam/cover and bake another 15-20 min at 180°C (360°F)  Enjoy ...  

@ 6bae33c8:607272e8

The NFL is becoming like the NBA — there are games almost every day, it seems, and not many of them are good. Don’t get me wrong, I like having games on in the background during holidays as much as the next guy, but there’s a big difference from being in the background and meriting your focused attention. I caught a little of Chiefs-Steelers. It’s obvious there are only three, maybe four, teams that can possibly make the Super Bowl in the AFC. The Texans, Steelers, Broncos (and probably the Chargers) are drawing dead. I don’t just mean they’re underdogs, I mean there’s no point in even playing the games. I caught more of Texans-Ravens, and it was even worse. The Texans offense has nothing, and their defense can’t stop real teams like the Ravens or Bills. C.J. Stroud was so promising as a rookie, but he’s in a dead-end environment right now with that offensive line and coaching. Mercifully I caught none of the Seahawks 6-3 win over the Bears. I had the Bears +3.5 in my home picking pool, so that was good. Also, I should have used the Ravens in Circa (easiest money of all time), but I didn’t have time to get the Christmas Day games in before submitting. - Seems like players are dropping like flies now. I had to drop CeeDee Lamb for KaVontae Turpin in the Steak League, and half the league including Malik Nabers, Jalen Hurts, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, A.J. Brown, Davante Adams, Tee Higgins, etc. are missing practices and/or questionable to play. Just a war of attrition at this point. - Maybe Mike Tomlin had to switch to Russell Wilson after Justin Fields’ substandard play, but it would have been better for the Steelers to have developed Fields and found out. Wilson gives them no upside whatsoever. - Isiah Pacheco is hurt again. It was only a matter of time before he fell apart, given his insanely hard running style. Marion The Barbarian 2.0. - Xavier Worthy has come on of late. I wanted Brian Thomas in my Dynasty League, but he went one pick before me, so I settled on Worthy who might yet be worthy. - Travis Kelce was wide open on at least four throws, like the Steelers didn’t bother covering him. Very odd. - The Chiefs have locked up the No. 1 seed at 15-1 after a Wednesday game. Which means they have 11 days off until a rest-your-starters game in Week 18, and two weeks off after that due to the bye. This team is like the 1972 Dolphins in that no one thinks it’s the greatest of all-time despite the record. If the Chiefs tried in Week 18, which they won’t, they could go 16-1 and become the only team besides the 2007 Patriots to win 16 regular season games. - The Ravens win and Steelers loss also is perfect for the Chiefs because now the Ravens will almost certainly play the Bills in the Divisional Round. The Chiefs get a bye, then an easy home game and only have to beat the winner of the Bills-Ravens war in Arrowhead to get to yet another Super Bowl. - Josh Allen makes heroic plays every game, but Lamar Jackson makes it look easy. I like the Ravens to make it to Arrowhead for the AFC Title game, even though the game will be in Buffalo. - Derrick Henry now has 1,783 yards with one game to go and is averaging 5.8 YPC on the year, a career high. No doubt Hall of Famer.

@ c230edd3:8ad4a712

Love's worshippers alone can know The thousand mysteries that are his; His blazing torch, his twanging bow, His blooming age are mysteries. A charming science—but the day Were all too short to con it o'er; So take of me this little lay, A sample of its boundless lore. As once, beneath the fragrant shade Of myrtles breathing heaven's own air, The children, Love and Folly, played— A quarrel rose betwixt the pair. Love said the gods should do him right— But Folly vowed to do it then, And struck him, o'er the orbs of sight, So hard, he never saw again. His lovely mother's grief was deep, She called for vengeance on the deed; A beauty does not vainly weep, Nor coldly does a mother plead. A shade came o'er the eternal bliss That fills the dwellers of the skies; Even stony-hearted Nemesis, And Rhadamanthus, wiped their eyes. "Behold," she said, "this lovely boy," While streamed afresh her graceful tears, "Immortal, yet shut out from joy And sunshine, all his future years. The child can never take, you see, A single step without a staff— The harshest punishment would be Too lenient for the crime by half." All said that Love had suffered wrong, And well that wrong should be repaid; Then weighed the public interest long, And long the party's interest weighed. And thus decreed the court above— "Since Love is blind from Folly's blow, Let Folly be the guide of Love, Where'er the boy may choose to go."

@ a4a6b584:1e05b95b

### **Step 1: Secure Your Device** 1. **Install an Antivirus Program** Download and install a trusted antivirus program to scan files for potential malware. - For Linux: [Calm Antivirus](https://www.clamav.net/) - For Windows: [CalmWin Antivirus](https://clamwin.com/) 2. **Install a VPN** A VPN is essential for maintaining privacy and security. It will encrypt your internet traffic and hide your IP address. - Recommended: [Mullvad VPN](https://mullvad.net/), which accepts Bitcoin for anonymous payment. 3. **Install a Torrent Program** You’ll need a torrent client to download files. - Recommended: [Deluge](https://deluge-torrent.org/) 4. **Install the Tor Browser** To access The Pirate Bay or its proxies, you’ll need the privacy-focused [Tor Browser](https://www.torproject.org/). --- ### **Step 2: Prepare Your Setup** - Ensure your **VPN is running and connected**. - Open the **Tor Browser**. - Launch **Deluge** to have your torrent client ready. --- ### **Step 3: Using Tor Go to The Pirate Bay via Onion Service or Find a Trusted Pirate Bay Proxy** Accessing The Pirate Bay directly can be challenging due to restrictions in some regions. Proxy sites often fill the gap. - The Pirate Bay Onion service: http://piratebayo3klnzokct3wt5yyxb2vpebbuyjl7m623iaxmqhsd52coid.onion - Or find a trusted proxy: Use a site like [Pirateproxy](https://github.com/proxyninja/Pirateproxy) or a reliable Tor directory for updated lists. --- ### **Step 4: Search for Linux Distros** 1. On The Pirate Bay, navigate to the **"OtherOS"** category under the **Applications** section. 2. Enter your desired Linux distro in the search bar (e.g., "Ubuntu," "Arch Linux"). --- ### **Step 5: Select a Torrent** 1. **Filter the Results**: - Look for torrents with the **highest seeders (SE)** and the **fewest leechers (LE)**. - Trusted users are marked with a green skull icon—these are usually safe uploads. 2. **Copy the Magnet Link**: - Right-click on the magnet icon next to the trusted torrent and select "Copy Link." --- ### **Step 6: Start the Download** 1. In **Deluge**, paste the copied magnet link into the “Add Torrent” box. 2. Click **OK** to start the download. 3. Monitor the progress until the download completes. --- ### **Step 7: Scan the Downloaded File** Once the file is downloaded: 1. **Scan for viruses**: Right-click the file and use Calm or CalmWin to verify its integrity. 2. If the file passes the scan, it’s ready for use. --- ### **Step 8: Manage Your File** - **Seed or Remove**: - To help the torrent community, keep seeding the file by leaving it in your torrent client. - To stop seeding, right-click the file in Deluge and remove it. - **Move for Long-Term Storage**: Transfer the file to a secure directory for regular use. --- ### **Notes on Safety and Ethics** - **Verify Legitimacy**: Ensure the torrent you are downloading is for an official Linux distribution. Torrents with unusual names or details should be avoided. - **Support the Developers**: Consider visiting the official websites of Linux distros ([Ubuntu](https://ubuntu.com/), [Arch Linux](https://archlinux.org/)) to support their work directly. --- By following these steps, you can safely and privately download Linux distributions while contributing to the open-source community.

@ f1989a96:bcaaf2c1

Good morning, readers! In Russia, the State Duma passed sweeping amendments granting officials the ability to equate “funding extremist activities” with “financing terrorism.” These changes allow officials to label anyone accused of spreading “fake news” or “discrediting” the military and authorities as “terrorists and extremists.” This development threatens activists and civil society organizations with intensified financial repression, including frozen accounts, restricted access to funds, and strict withdrawal limits.   Meanwhile, North Korea’s currency crisis continues to worsen, pushing citizens to abandon the North Korean won in favor of barter. As exchange rates for foreign currencies soar, merchants and money changers increasingly demand tangible goods like rice and fuel and no longer accept North Korean won for imported goods and foreign currencies.  In technology news, Tando, a Bitcoin payment app in Kenya, received significant attention at the 2024 Africa Bitcoin Conference for integrating the Bitcoin Lightning Network with M-PESA, Kenya’s mobile money system. This allows people to use Bitcoin to buy things across the country while merchants receive Kenyan shillings, bridging the gap between the local financial system and Bitcoin. \ \ Finally, we feature the latest episode of the Dissidents and Dictators podcast, featuring Togolese human rights activist Farida Nabourema sharing her first-hand experience growing up under the Gnassingbé dictatorship. She believes Bitcoin can enable greater transparency and offer a financial lifeline for citizens in Togo and across Africa. **Now, let’s dive right in!** ### [**Subscribe Here**](https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/financial-freedom-newsletter?mc_cid=bf652c0a5a) ## **GLOBAL NEWS** #### **Russia | Sweeping Amendments Expand Financial Repression Against Dissidents** Russia’s State Duma made sweeping [amendments](https://meduza.io/en/cards/russia-just-expanded-its-definition-of-money-laundering-crimes-to-enable-far-broader-political-repressions-against-terrorists-and-extremists) to 48 federal laws, granting officials the power to equate “funding extremist activities” with “financing terrorism.” This move allows the regime to directly target individuals, activists, and nonprofit organizations suspected of spreading “fake news” or “discrediting” the military and regime. Once designated as a “terrorist” or “extremist,” a person or organization [faces](https://meduza.io/en/cards/russia-just-expanded-its-definition-of-money-laundering-crimes-to-enable-far-broader-political-repressions-against-terrorists-and-extremists) frozen bank accounts, restricted access to funds, and a withdrawal cap of just [10,000 rubles](https://meduza.io/en/cards/russia-just-expanded-its-definition-of-money-laundering-crimes-to-enable-far-broader-political-repressions-against-terrorists-and-extremists) ($95) per month — a limit that extends to each dependent in their family. Compounding these hardships, employers often refuse to hire individuals on these government lists. #### **North Korea | Failing Currency Forces Return to Barter** North Korea’s [currency crisis](https://www.dailynk.com/english/n-koreas-currency-crisis-forces-return-to-barter-economy/) is forcing citizens to abandon the depreciating won currency in favor of barter. As exchange rates for foreign currencies like the US dollar and Chinese yuan hit [record highs](https://www.dailynk.com/english/n-koreas-currency-crisis-forces-return-to-barter-economy/), merchants and money changers now demand commodities (such as rice and fuel) for foreign currencies and imported goods. One such example is trading around [2 kilograms](https://www.dailynk.com/english/n-koreas-currency-crisis-forces-return-to-barter-economy/) of rice for a single dollar. This collapse leaves those without access to foreign currency in increasingly precarious financial positions and struggling to secure food and basic necessities. Even farmers, once [partially compensated](https://www.dailynk.com/english/n-koreas-currency-crisis-forces-return-to-barter-economy/) with valuable goods, now increasingly receive devalued cash, worsening nationwide food insecurity. #### **Nicaragua | Human Rights Abuses and Financial Repression Exposed** Under Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian rule, Nicaragua [exemplifies](https://havanatimes.org/features/nicaragua-the-ortega-regimes-hideous-human-rights-record/) the devastating intersection of financial repression and human rights abuses. New reports [detail](https://havanatimes.org/features/nicaragua-the-ortega-regimes-hideous-human-rights-record/) how the regime has confiscated over [$250 million](https://havanatimes.org/features/nicaragua-the-ortega-regimes-hideous-human-rights-record/) in assets, dissolved more than [5,200 NGOs](https://havanatimes.org/features/nicaragua-the-ortega-regimes-hideous-human-rights-record/), canceled pensions, and frozen bank accounts, leaving citizens financially vulnerable and silenced. Since Ortega’s return to power in 2007, and especially after the 2018 protests, his government has dismantled civil society, crushed political opposition, and eradicated independent media. Hundreds have been killed and exiled, and in 2023 and 2024 alone, [452 political opponents](https://havanatimes.org/features/nicaragua-the-ortega-regimes-hideous-human-rights-record/) were stripped of their citizenship. #### **El Salvador | Bitcoin Adoption Limited as Government Comes to Terms With IMF** El Salvador [finalized](https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2024/12/18/pr-24485-el-salvador-imf-reaches-staff-level-agreement-on-an-eff-arrangement) a $1.4 billion agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support the government’s economic reform agenda at the cost of scaling back some of its Bitcoin policies. The deal will make accepting Bitcoin in the private sector voluntary, require all taxes to be paid in US dollars (as opposed to making it possible to pay in BTC), and see Chivo, the government-supported Bitcoin wallet, gradually unwound. In addition, the government will enhance “transparency, regulation, and supervision of digital assets” and establish a stronger Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financial Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework. #### **Malaysia | Parliament Passes Repressive Media Bills Amidst Financial Struggles** Earlier this year, Malaysia’s ringgit currency plunged to a [26-year low](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna-insider/ringgit-decline-rise-malaysia-currency-low-brain-drain-government-4343531), [driving up](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna-insider/ringgit-decline-rise-malaysia-currency-low-brain-drain-government-4343531) prices nationwide. As families struggled with a higher cost of living, officials passed an [amendment](https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/11/18/cops-can-now-freeze-seize-mule-bank-accounts-to-prevent-scam-victims-money-from-being-withdrawn/157236) granting law enforcement the power to freeze bank accounts suspected of fraud. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s parliament is [passing](https://globalvoices.org/2024/12/16/online-safety-or-censorship-malaysias-parliament-passes-two-contentious-media-bills/) two more bills to regulate media and online spaces, allowing officials to censor content and request user data from service providers without approval. Critics warn the vague language in these laws will likely be exploited to silence dissent and stifle public discourse. As financial hardships mount, Malaysia’s online spaces become increasingly controlled, eroding freedom of expression and financial autonomy. ## BITCOIN NEWS #### **Tando | Bridging Bitcoin and Everyday Payments in Kenya** [Tando](https://tando.me), a new bitcoin payments app and HRF grantee, [makes it easy to spend bitcoin](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/takes/tando-was-all-the-rage-at-this-years-africa-bitcoin-conference?new) anywhere in Kenya by integrating with M-PESA, Kenya’s mobile money system. Users simply download the Tando app, enter the merchant’s M-PESA number, and input the amount owed in Kenyan shillings. The app calculates the required amount of bitcoin and generates a Lightning invoice, which users pay through their own Bitcoin wallet. Tando then converts the sats to shillings and completes the transaction instantly ([you can watch this one-minute live demo here](https://x.com/AnitaPosch/status/1863916169209520432)). For Kenyans excluded from M-PESA due to Know-Your-Customer regulations, Tando provides a practical solution that bridges Bitcoin and local financial systems to make everyday transactions easier. #### **Yakihonne | Adds Support for Improved Encrypted Direct Messaging** [YakiHonne](https://yakihonne.com/), a Nostr client, champions free speech and facilitates Bitcoin payments across 170 countries. Recent updates have made the platform more user-friendly and secure. The updated text editor now supports multiple languages, including right-to-left scripts, enhancing accessibility for a global audience. Messaging capabilities have been upgraded to allow longer texts, and users can now activate Secure DMs ([NIP 44](https://github.com/paulmillr/nip44)) for encrypted messaging on Nostr. These improvements make YakiHonne an appealing communication platform for pro-democracy and human rights activists, offering secure messaging and the ability to receive payments in Bitcoin in countries ruled by authoritarian regimes. #### **Mostro | Making Bitcoin More Accessible and Private** [Mostro](https://mostro.network/), a private and peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin exchange built on Nostr, made significant strides this year toward empowering human rights defenders and nonprofits with accessible, private, and censorship-resistant financial tools. Created by Venezuelan developer [Francisco Calderon](https://x.com/negrunch), the platform implemented advanced key management which allows users to rotate the keys used for every bitcoin trade. This adds a layer of privacy critical for those operating under authoritarian regimes. Additionally, Mostro adopted [NIP-69](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/69.md), standardizing all peer-to-peer orders on Nostr, creating a larger liquidity pool, and making trades more accessible for users. Finally, Mostro will soon launch a mobile app (currently in the testing phase), helping democratize Bitcoin access by providing individuals with a user-friendly mobile interface. #### **Foundation | Introduces Personal Security Platform**   [Foundation](https://foundation.xyz), a Bitcoin hardware wallet company, [introduced Passport Prime](https://foundation.xyz/2024/12/introducing-passport-prime/), which they call “the world’s first Personal Security Platform.” Designed to protect users’ bitcoin and digital lives, Passport Prime offers a Bitcoin wallet, multi-factor authentication, secure file storage, and a Seed Vault to organize seed phrases. It does not require usernames, passwords, or email addresses, making it an interesting option for privacy-conscious users, particularly pro-democracy and human rights activists operating under authoritarian regimes. You can learn more about Passport Prime [here](https://foundation.xyz/2024/12/introducing-passport-prime/). #### **BTrust Builders | Applications for 2024 ₿OSS Cohort Close Tomorrow** Applications for the [2025 ₿OSS Cohort](https://bitcoinke.io/2024/12/the-btrust-builders-2025-cohort/), hosted by [Btrust Builders](https://www.btrust.tech/builders) in partnership with Chaincode Labs, close tomorrow, Dec. 27, 2024. This part-time, three-month, fully remote program is tailored to African developers seeking to contribute to Bitcoin open-source software (₿OSS), in order to increase the potential for use cases in a region where three-quarters of the governments are authoritarian regimes. The program is open to developers of all experience levels, and it provides hands-on technical training, career-building opportunities, and mentorship. If you’re a developer interested in this program, you can apply [here](https://bitcoinke.io/2024/12/the-btrust-builders-2025-cohort/). ## RECOMMENDED CONTENT #### **Is Bitcoin a Lifeline for Africa with Farida Nabourema** In this episode of [Dissidents and Dictators](https://www.youtube.com/@DissidentsandDictators), an HRF podcast, Togolese human rights activist Farida Nabourema reveals her experience growing up under the Gnassingbé dictatorship—a single-family autocracy that has ruled Togo for over 50 years. Nabourema shares insights into the corruption and lack of trust that permeates Togo’s financial system and discusses how Bitcoin can enable greater transparency and offer a lifeline for citizens in Togo and across Africa, where authoritarian regimes stifle financial freedom. Watch the full episode [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeRFW8XsAno). *If this article was forwarded to you and you enjoyed reading it, please consider subscribing to the Financial Freedom Report [here](https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/financial-freedom-newsletter?mc_cid=bf652c0a5a).* *Support the newsletter by donating bitcoin to HRF’s Financial Freedom program [via BTCPay](https://hrf.org/btc).*\ *Want to contribute to the newsletter? Submit tips, stories, news, and ideas by emailing us at ffreport @ [hrf.org](http://hrf.org/)* *The Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF) is accepting grant proposals on an ongoing basis. The Bitcoin Development Fund is looking to support Bitcoin developers, community builders, and educators. Submit proposals [here](https://forms.monday.com/forms/57019f8829449d9e729d9e3545a237ea?r=use1)*. [**Subscribe to newsletter**](http://financialfreedomreport.org/)\ [**Apply for a grant**](https://forms.monday.com/forms/57019f8829449d9e729d9e3545a237ea?r=use1&mc_cid=39c1c9b7e8&mc_eid=778e9876e3)\ [**Support our work**](https://hrf.org/btc?mc_cid=39c1c9b7e8&mc_eid=778e9876e3)\ [**Visit our website**](https://hrf.org/programs/financial-freedom/)

@ ab216c04:c00fe2d7

Good morning. I’m writing my first public read with nostr as a way to introduce what I work on when people visit my profile. I studied computer science with a keen interest in education technology because I felt that the promise of the internet fell short when it came to its potential to transform education. I don’t believe it failed outright, but like our approach to identity, media and money, education seemed to have embarked in the wrong direction. I think the role of educational technology is not to configure how students and teachers communicate, but to support an environment that encourages the most natural form of education. Teachers should teach and students should learn, but there are economic constraints that make that challenging in too many ways to highlight. To keep things short, I believe there can be new ways to financialize internet properties to support schools economically in a way that isn’t mostly dependent on the value of housing properties or state & federal taxation policies. To spark imagination, I say that you can “create scholarships with learning” but the idea at scale essentially means the ability to redefine the infamous red line. Many people in 2024 now see Bitcoin as a sort of treasury system, and most recognize Bitcoin as a store value. Likewise, people now view decentralized identity as a mechanism to better represent an individual’s durable interactions with technology. If you pause to think about it, one can appreciate how all of these concepts also play a crucial role in the educational process. For example, how much economic value is lost when a 4th year engineering student drops out of college or transfers schools? The centralization of our transcripts and educational resources fails to precisely define our academic progress. This is a failure of education technology. And what if schools, well-funded by expensive properties and high incomes, can realistically and pragmatically connect with schools that are far more dependent on state and federal distributions? What if we could expand the scope, the circumstances and conditions of education finance beyond physical borders? So that’s what I work on, and my participation in nostr has been an incredible leap toward materializing these ideas, which you can experience on platforms like: - Learn coding with AI: <https://robotsbuildingeducation.com> - Track scholarships and draft essays with AI: <https://girlsoncampus.org> - Study citizenship civics with with AI: <https://civico.app> \ And above all else, you are welcome to build and design education technology in the same direction with open software: <https://github.com/RobotsBuildingEducation?tab=repositories>

@ 84b0c46a:417782f5

- [lumilumi](https://lumilumi.app/) The Nostr Web Client. Lightweight modes are available, such as not displaying icon images, not loading images automatically, etc. - [nostr-share-component](https://github.com/TsukemonoGit/nostr-share-component) [Demo](https://tsukemonogit.github.io/nostr-share-component/) - [Nostr Follow Organizer](https://tsukemonogit.github.io/NFO/) Follow List ( kind3 ) organization tool. - [NAKE](https://github.com/TsukemonoGit/nake) NIP-19, NIP-49 Encode/Decode Tool - [chrome extension](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/nake/pckmdjknadbfalfohabbccmffoohlamk) - [firefox add-on](https://addons.mozilla.org/ja/firefox/addon/nake/) - [nostviewstr](https://nostviewstr.vercel.app/) Addressable or Replaceable Event Editor ( いろんなリストエディター ) - [luminostr](https://tsukemonogit.github.io/luminostr/) Addressable or Replaceable Event Recovery tool ( いろいろリカバリーツール ) - [Nostr Bookmark Recovery Tool](https://nostr-bookmark-recovery-tool.vercel.app/) Bookmark event ( kind:10003,30001,30003 ) recovery tool ( ぶくま復活させたいやつ ) - [Profile Editor](https://nos-profile-arekore.vercel.app/) プロフィールを編集するやつ - [nostr-bookmark-viewer](https://nostr-bookmark-viewer3.vercel.app/) Bookmark event ( kind:10003,30001,30003 ) Editor ( ぶっくまーくをみるやつ ) - [Nostr Note Duplicater](https://dupstr.vercel.app/) Broadcast an event from relay to relay ( イベントをブロードキャストするやつ ) - [もの画像サイト](https://tsukemonogit.github.io/nostr-monoGazo-bot/) - [いろいろbotサイト](https://tsukemonogit.github.io/iroirotest/)

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

I just read this, and found it enlightening. > Jung... notes that intelligence can be seen as problem solving at an everyday level..., whereas creativity may represent problem solving for less common issues > Other studies have used metaphor creation as a creativity measure instead of divergent thinking and a spectrum of CHC components instead of just g and have found much higher relationships between creativity and intelligence than past studies https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/3/3/59 I'm unusually intelligent (Who isn't?), but I'm much more creative, than intelligent, and I think that confuses people. The ability to apply intelligence, to solve completely novel problems, on the fly, is something IQ tests don't even claim to measure. They just claim a correlation. Creativity requires taking wild, mental leaps out into nothingness; simply trusting that your brain will land you safely. And this is why I've been at the forefront of massive innovation, over and over, but never got rich off of it. *I'm a starving autist.* Zaps are the first time I've ever made money directly, for solving novel problems. Companies don't do this because there is a span of time between providing a solution and the solution being implemented, and the person building the implementation (or their boss) receives all the credit for the existence of the solution. At best, you can hope to get pawned off with a small bonus. Nobody can remember who came up with the solution, originally, and that person might not even be there, anymore, and probably never filed a patent, and may have no idea that their idea has even been built. They just run across it, later, in a tech magazine or museum, and say, "Well, will you look at that! Someone actually went and built it! Isn't that nice!" Universities at least had the idea of cementing novel solutions in academic papers, but that: 1) only works if you're an academic, and at a university, 2) is an incredibly slow process, not appropriate for a truly innovative field, 3) leads to manifestations of perverse incentives and biased research frameworks, coming from 'publish or perish' policies. But I think long-form notes and zaps solve for this problem. #Alexandria, especially, is being built to cater to this long-suffering class of chronic underachievers. It leaves a written, public, time-stamped record of *Clever Ideas We Have Had*. Because they are clever, the ideas. And we have had them.

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

**Table Of Content** - Backdrop of the Appeal - The Potential Impact of a Bitcoin ETF - Challenges on the Horizon - The Broader Implications - Conclusions - FAQ Amidst the rapidly evolving landscape of cryptocurrency regulations and financial instruments, Grayscale Investments, a prominent crypto asset manager, has taken a bold step forward. The firm is ardently urging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to green-light its proposed exchange-traded fund (ETF) that aims to track Bitcoin, the world's leading cryptocurrency. **Backdrop of the Appeal** The driving force behind Grayscale's proactive appeal to the SEC can be traced back to a landmark court victory they secured against the regulatory body itself. This victory wasn't just a win in legal terms; it symbolized a potential shift in the dynamics between cryptocurrency enterprises and regulatory authorities. Grayscale's triumph in the courtroom not only fortified its standing in the industry but also established a legal precedent. This precedent, while specific to Grayscale's case, has the potential to influence the SEC's perspective and decisions regarding other cryptocurrency-based financial products that may come up for review in the foreseeable future. **The Potential Impact of a Bitcoin ETF** Envision a scenario where a Bitcoin ETF is introduced into the mainstream financial market. Such a development would serve as a transformative bridge, seamlessly connecting the well-established realm of traditional finance with the innovative and ever-evolving domain of cryptocurrencies. The significance of a Bitcoin ETF goes beyond its novelty. It offers investors—both seasoned and novices—a unique opportunity. Instead of navigating the complexities of acquiring and managing Bitcoin directly, they can invest in this ETF, effectively gaining exposure to the cryptocurrency's price fluctuations. This method simplifies the investment process, eliminating the technical intricacies associated with cryptocurrency management. Moreover, the ETF structure brings with it the benefits of regulatory oversight, ensuring that the investment is not only secure but also compliant with established financial norms. This combination of ease, security, and compliance makes a Bitcoin ETF an enticing proposition for a wide spectrum of investors, from individuals to large institutional entities. **Challenges on the Horizon** Grayscale's journey, even after its commendable legal victory, is far from smooth. The path to obtaining the coveted SEC approval for their Bitcoin ETF is strewn with challenges, many of which are deeply rooted in the SEC's historical apprehensions. Over the years, the SEC has consistently showcased a cautious approach when it comes to cryptocurrency-based ETFs. Their hesitance is not without reason. The regulatory body's primary concerns encompass potential market manipulations that could distort the true value of assets, the notorious volatility associated with cryptocurrencies, and the imperative of safeguarding investors from unforeseen risks. These concerns, while valid, are being addressed head-on by Grayscale. The firm remains steadfast in its belief that its proposed Bitcoin ETF not only acknowledges these concerns but also presents solutions to mitigate them. Grayscale's proposal, in their view, lays the groundwork for a Bitcoin ETF that is both secure and operates within the bounds of regulatory standards. **The Broader Implications** The ongoing dialogue between crypto enterprises and regulatory bodies like the SEC is emblematic of the broader challenges and opportunities presented by the integration of cryptocurrencies into mainstream finance. Should the SEC grant its approval to Grayscale's Bitcoin ETF, it could signal a pivotal moment in the crypto industry's journey, heralding greater acceptance and integration of digital assets in global financial markets. **Conclusion** The interplay between Grayscale and the SEC is more than just a singular event; it's indicative of the broader evolution of the financial world in the face of digital disruption. As the crypto industry continues to mature and present structured, secure investment avenues, it's only a matter of time before regulatory bodies, recognizing the potential benefits, become more accommodating. The eventual decision on Grayscale's Bitcoin ETF will undoubtedly have far-reaching implications, not just for the company but for the entire crypto ecosystem. **FAQ** **What is Grayscale Investments?** Grayscale Investments is a leading crypto asset manager. **What has Grayscale recently proposed to the SEC?** Grayscale is urging the SEC to approve its Bitcoin ETF. **Why is Grayscale's recent court victory significant?** The court win strengthens Grayscale's position and could influence future cryptocurrency-based financial products. **What benefits does a Bitcoin ETF offer?** A Bitcoin ETF allows investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without directly holding the cryptocurrency, providing a streamlined and secure investment experience. **Has the SEC approved any Bitcoin ETFs in the past?** Historically, the SEC has been cautious about approving cryptocurrency-based ETFs due to concerns over market manipulation and investor protection. **That's all for today** **If you want more, be sure to follow us on:** **NOSTR: croxroad@getalby.com** **X: [@croxroadnews](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.*

@ 6bae33c8:607272e8

Had a nice Christmas lunch at a fancy NY restaurant, by far the most money I’ve ever spent on a single meal. It was good though, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, so it was worth it. (Heather saw the check, was aghast, vowed never to do it again.) Last week I went 5-0 to run my season-long record to 42-37-1. Too little too late, but would love to keep the run going, just for the hell of it. **Chargers -4 at Patriots** — The Patriots played the Bills tough last week, but that felt like a trap game. The Chargers are solid and should handle a lesser team like the Pats. **Saints +1 vs Raiders** — I’m buying low on the Saints after the total no-show Monday night. Plus, there’s even a small chance Derek Carr returns. **Bills -11 vs Jets** — The Jets are dysfunctional, and I expect the Bills to take this more seriously after the near-loss to the Pats, though they are more or less locked into the No. 2 seed. **Cowboys +9.5 at Eagles** — The Cowboys are playing better of late, and the Eagles could be without Jalen Hurts. This seems like a lot of points if there’s even a 25 percent chance that’s the case. Morever, the Eagles are locked into the No. 2 seed if the Killer Redskins lose either of their last two, or the Eagles beat the Cowboys OR the Giants in Week 18, i.e., they don’t need to rush Hurts back. **Browns +6.5 vs Dolphins** — If DTR is the QB, all bets are off, but he’s hurt, so Jameis Winston or Bailey Zappe could get the nod. I just don’t like Tua on the road in cold weather, so I’m taking the points.

@ c230edd3:8ad4a712

Stand here by my side and turn, I pray, On the lake below, thy gentle eyes; The clouds hang over it, heavy and gray, And dark and silent the water lies; And out of that frozen mist the snow In wavering flakes begins to flow; Flake after flake They sink in the dark and silent lake. See how in a living swarm they come From the chambers beyond that misty veil; Some hover awhile in air, and some Rush prone from the sky like summer hail. All, dropping swiftly or settling slow, Meet, and are still in the depths below; Flake after flake Dissolved in the dark and silent lake. Here delicate snow-stars, out of the cloud, Come floating downward in airy play, Like spangles dropped from the glistening crowd That whiten by night the milky way; There broader and burlier masses fall; The sullen water buries them all– Flake after flake– All drowned in the dark and silent lake. And some, as on tender wings they glide From their chilly birth-cloud, dim and gray, Are joined in their fall, and, side by side, Come clinging along their unsteady way; As friend with friend, or husband with wife, Makes hand in hand the passage of life; Each mated flake Soon sinks in the dark and silent lake. Lo! while we are gazing, in swifter haste Stream down the snows, till the air is white, As, myriads by myriads madly chased, They fling themselves from their shadowy height. The fair, frail creatures of middle sky, What speed they make, with their grave so nigh; Flake after flake, To lie in the dark and silent lake! I see in thy gentle eyes a tear; They turn to me in sorrowful thought; Thou thinkest of friends, the good and dear, Who were for a time, and now are not; Like these fair children of cloud and frost, That glisten a moment and then are lost, Flake after flake– All lost in the dark and silent lake. Yet look again, for the clouds divide; A gleam of blue on the water lies; And far away, on the mountain-side, A sunbeam falls from the opening skies, But the hurrying host that flew between The cloud and the water, no more is seen; Flake after flake, At rest in the dark and silent lake.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

The kid's sick this morning and we're awaiting our visiting relatives, so this is an unusually quiet and contemplative Christmas morning. I've been reflecting on how I've changed since finding Stacker News and becoming a bitcoiner (in that order). The change really struck me as I was looking through my podcast subscriptions for something to listen to. None of the current-events-focused establishment-critiquing pods appealed to me. I'm kind of over it. Bitcoin has given me the ability to focus on the positive. We're on the building side. We're on the winning side. We're on the side that's saving the world from all the bad things being described in my podcast feed. Stacker News has given me direct access to people who are every bit as interesting as those podcast hosts. Now, I can talk to interesting people, rather than just receiving their wisdoms. I have every confidence that this trend will persist next year and I hope to see you all there. *Stay humble. Stack sats.* *Tick-tock. Next block.* originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/823889

@ 20986fb8:cdac21b3

Taryn Christiansen @ DoraHacks Special 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.4 But 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation#:~:text=The%20Reformation%20in%20Germanic%20countries,others%2C%20both%20heretic%20and%20orthodox.) 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.”8 But 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](https://dcc.newberry.org/?p=14405) 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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYKyP0Az87I) 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.”12 Clearly, 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.”14 The 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. 17 Dante’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.25 The 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.27 Social 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 bullsh*t comes from the American philosopher Harry Frankfurt and his essay Bullsh*t. 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 bullsh*ts, on the other hand, has no regard for truth. It provides no reason for consideration on its own, independent of the bullsh*tter’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 bullsh*t. The bullsh*ter’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.”26 The classic archetype of a bullsh*tter 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 bullsh*tter is asserting something they themselves believe. There are few constraints on what a bullsh*tter 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 bullsh*tter 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 bullsh*tter in incentivizing and rewarding behavior that employs bullsh*t. 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 bullsh*t 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 bullsh*t. 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 bullsh*t 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 bullsh*t, 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. 1. For an elaboration on free speech justifications, see Greenawalt, K. (2007). Free Speech Justifications. Colombia Law Review. 2. For a history of Free speech, see Jacob Mchangama’s book Free Speech: Socrates to Social Media. 3. Kant, I. (1784). What is Enlightenment? (p. 1). Hacket Publishing. 4. 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. 5. Simpson, R. M. (2024). The Connected City of Ideas. Daedalus. 6. Harari, N. Y. (2024). Nexus. Random House. 7. Eisenstein, E. L. (1979). The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (p. 45). Cambridge University Press. 8. Melchert, N. (2007). The Great Conversation (p. 304). Oxford University Press. 9. Melchert, N. (2007). The Great Conversation. Oxford University Press. 10. Wagner, C. (2012). Scientia Moralitas (Moral Autonomy and Responsibility - The Reformation’s Legacy in Today’s Society). Scientia Moralitas Research Institute. 11. Fromm, E. (1941). Escape From Freedom (p. 54). Discus. 12. James, W. (1902). The Varieties of Religious Experience (p. 54). Penguin Classics. 13. Dreyfus, H., & Kelly, S. D. (2011). All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (p. 122). Free Press. 14. Dreyfus, H., & Kelly, S. D. (2011). All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (p. 122). Free Press. 15. Aristotle, A. (1953). Ethics (p. 122). Penguin Classics. 16. Schumacher, E. (1977). A Guide For the Perplexed. Harper Colophon Books. 17. 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. 18. Fromm, E. (1941). Escape From Freedom. Discus. 19. Chalmers, A. (1974). What is this thing called Science? Hacket Publishing. 20. Descartes, R. (2010). Meditations on First Philosophy. Oxford World's Classics. 21. 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. 22. Locke, J. Two Treatises on Government. 23. Justice Holmes made the Marketplace metaphor popular in Abrams v United States (1919), and has become a central precedent in free speech cases. 24. For a similar argument, see Nevin Chellappah’s “Is John Stuart Mill’s Account of Free Speech Sustainable In the Age of Social Media?” 25. Ryle, G. (1949). The Concept of Mind. Penguin. 26. Frankfurt, H. (1986). Bullshit. Princeton University Press. 27. 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.

@ bcea2b98:7ccef3c9

It has been a fun year of learning and entertainment with you all. Merry Christmas! originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/823433

@ 32310997:0c1e64cc

※このポエムは[Nostr Advent Calendar 2024]( https://adventar.org/calendars/10004)の25日目の記事です。24日目は[tansaibow]( https://nostter.app/tansaibow@tansaibow.com)さんのご担当です。 ----------- **この鍵ひとつあれば**<br> **僕はどこにだってゆける**<br> **なんだってできる**<br> <br> **さぁ進もう**<br> **この曠野を**<br>  （※画像はイメージです。本文とはたいして関係がありません）

@ a6ca4c68:a6731409

*Turning and turning in the widening gyre; The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world; The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.* - W.B. Yeats, The Second Birth *A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.* - Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart The year is 1990. For the past four years, you have been gradually familiarizing yourself with the infrastructure and tools that make up a still nascent global technology which is being referred to as the Internet. You and some of the peers in your network are now using a personal computer for word processing and a few other functions. However, you are the only one in your peer network accessing this Internet. For you, it all started four years ago. A seed was planted when you listened to a radio interview with an engineer who had worked on something called #ARPANET, a precursor to this new Internet, developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. The engineer described how this emerging Internet would eventually become the public version of ARPANET. The interview piqued your interest and you began sifting through available information to learn more. Four years later, you are now part of a local Internet users group which meets once per week to discuss your respective experiences and prognostications. You are collectively referred to by friends in your non-Internet peer network as that “talking computers group”. Over time, this group has come to occupy an increasingly important role in your life. You now awkwardly straddle two peer groups, continually searching for ways to find overlap and to integrate these two dimensions of your social life. It isn’t easy, and you leap back and forth between hope and despair. You have begun to see more clearly into a future, just over the horizon, where life will be irretrievably transformed by this Internet. You see both opportunities and threats, and you have come to believe that we all need to become invested in this discussion in order to guard against threats and to achieve the greatest good for society. You make the case with your non-Internet peer network, but it is difficult to gain traction. They get the excitement regarding personal computers, but computers talking to each other? Digital communication replacing the postman, the video store, the newspaper, making its way into the workplace and other such predictions? It all seems a bit far fetched. They grow weary of your persistent “wait until you see how the Internet is going to change this” interventions. Eventually, you elect to just keep mostly quiet on this topic when with them. Your local Internet users peer group provides you with much needed community. Still, you lament that you live in a sort of limbo. You imagine what the Internet portends for daily life five, ten, or forty years into the future and how radically transformative it is going to be. However, there is little nourishment from that today. You’re in a period of prolonged waiting. You long for tomorrow, today. You long to be in the imagined world of the ubiquitous Internet, where networked technology and communications will be placed in service of the greater good and an acceleration toward the marvels of human potential. This longing and the awkwardness of straddling divergent peer groups persists for what feels like an eternity. Then, as if out of nowhere, a buzz circulates through your “talking computers group” and other similar groups. It turns out that there are some forward-thinking communities around the world, possibly three or four, that have begun to pull forward the future into the present. They have connected the majority of people in their local community to the Internet and it has begun to permeate many dimensions of daily life throughout their region. You decide that you need to see it for yourself. You book a Pan Am flight and hit the friendly skies to visit one of these communities. After being greeted at the airport by a contact with whom you had corresponded via a clunky chat room, you make the short drive back to the community. En route, you marvel at the small portable phone your contact has nestled beside him, a Motorola. It’s the new “flip phone” you’ve heard about. He tells you that a few homes and businesses in the community just got them, but most are still using older Siemens or Nokia portable phones. “Older?,” you think to yourself, and "wait, these people are all using cellular phones?” The next week spent in the community is filled with more discoveries and revelations... The local postal service has been significantly reduced over the past year. Locals instead resort to electronic mail for most of their routine communications. They're calling it e-mail. Agonizing waits for services and long lines for day-to-day activities have been reduced. Forms and information exchange have mostly gone “online”. There are several major businesses in town which are now processing orders for goods entirely online, with delivery right to your doorstep. More are planning to follow suit. There’s even rumour that within the next couple of years you will be able to pay online for goods purchased online; no need to pay the delivery person at the door by cash or cheque. After a week of living in the digital future, you return home to your life, to your two local peer networks, and your state of limbo. The difference now, is that you have experienced a taste of the future. It is no longer simply imagined. You know it is possible, and what it feels and sounds like. You share tales of the future with both of your peer groups. Your Internet users peer group activates. Many plan to also book that Pan Am flight, so they can see and feel it for themselves. Your other peer group finds it somewhat fascinating, but they mostly nestle back into their daily, analog lives. Fast forward. The year is 2023. For the past four years you have gradually been learning about the global #Bitcoin network and software. You exchange portions of your local “fiat” currency for the commodity money which goes by the same name, Bitcoin or BTC. You are sampling a new digital future. It feels like déjà vu (all over again). In 2023, you again find yourself part of two divergent peer networks. You again make a pilgrimage to visit communities that are pulling forward the future into the present, using Bitcoin. You again feel as though you are living in a state of limbo back at home, enduring a period of prolonged waiting. In 2023, however, it feels as though your appeal to peers, hoping they will take an interest in your newfound passion, has a different quality to it. The stakes feel much higher, the consequences more grave. It’s hard to put your finger on it, but somehow it feels as though this is a game for all the marbles. You and other so-called Bitcoiners around the world have amassed enough intelligence on a range of interconnected topics revolving around Bitcoin to sense that a battle is being waged. You envision a future where many more facets of life will be mediated digitally, much through artificial intelligence. It doesn’t take much to convince your non Bitcoiner peers of this. However, it's a challenge to keep their attention for a discussion of what's at stake and why Bitcoin matters, both for and in this future. You have shared with your non Bitcoiner peers how money, something that permeates nearly every facet of our lives, is not actually what we thought it was. More aptly put, we have ceased to think at all about what money is, other than the extent to which we possess or lack it. You have made the case that this collective amnesia has very serious consequences. You have invited your peers to consider the history of money and the story of how, over time, humans have chosen to store and exchange value. Your hope is that, like you, they will come to appreciate the harmful impact of our most recent monetary experiment: fiat money. You have shared resources about the insidious nature of inflation, enabled by fiat currencies, and its many downstream social effects. You have highlighted the imperatives of perpetual growth and conspicuous consumption that are required by our global financial systems, propelled by consistently manipulated fiat money. You have described the mechanics of global debt, resource extraction, neocolonialism and how small portions of the world remain relatively affluent at the expense of others which are correspondingly impoverished. You have attempted to connect the dots, tracing the line of fiat money which runs between them. Sadly, this is a dish for which you struggle to find ready bellies; a pregnant discussion for which you struggle to find ready minds. You want your non Bitcoiner peers to see that it is our broken money and the toxic incentives which it aids and abets on a global scale that are at the heart of so much strife, division and inequity in the world. You want them to grasp that it is our diseased fiat money lifeblood which preys upon humanity’s organs. You want them to consider what happens if we carry forward this fiat monetary system fully into the digital realm. You want them to see that this will very likely be a world of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and social credit scores, mass surveillance, censorship, behaviour-control, and state-sanctioned violence; a world whose dystopian cocktail carries a potentially fatal hangover. You want them to grasp that, right now, today, one of the single best strategies we have to prevent such a dystopia is to replace our fiat currencies through mass adoption of Bitcoin. As you did in 1990, however, you mostly keep quiet with your non Bitcoiner peers. You carefully select your moments and your opportunities to plant seeds. You water. You hope that one day soon a garden will blossom. You know that there are milestones on this learning journey, aha moments, and it takes time. You know that there is profound depth and nuance to these matters, and that the learning journey requires not only an intellectual curiosity but a willingness to interrogate conventional wisdom. This is all the more challenging amidst the incessant noise of attention-grabbing media, politically-motivated narratives, and tribalized civic spaces. You learn patience. You find community among other Bitcoiners and you build as a community, globally. You embrace self-deprecating humour, knowing that to many who are close to you and have not embraced this learning journey you appear unhinged at times. Nevertheless, friendships are occasionally strained. Such is the life of one who possesses knowledge while uncomfortably straddling epochs. Yes, things fall apart. Still, maybe, hopefully, through sheer persistence and by the grace of those greater daemons which elevate our humanity, we shall eventually hold the centre.

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

When we think of Jesus sacrificing all to save us from our sins and to make us have a right relationship with God, we usually think of Him being arrested, mocked, beaten, and hung on the cross. All of this was the perfect sacrifice and the greatest horror. None of us would chose this willingly, but Jesus sacrificed so much more. We just have trouble seeing it because we have trouble comprehending our infinite, awesome God. Stop and think about who Jesus was before He came to earth to live as a man. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5) Jesus spoke into existence time & space, matter & energy, and all life. He was not limited by space or time or any other limitation other than His own nature — His holiness. Our all powerful God came down to earth to live as a man, which was limiting Himself in a way we can’t comprehend. If I came down to earth as an amoeba, I would not be limiting myself anywhere near how He limited Himself, but He did so much more. He didn’t start as a man, “for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20b) He became incarnate as a one-celled human. The creator of the universe grew in a teen girl’s womb and was born a helpless baby. Can you imagine what it must have been like to go from speaking the universe into existence, to not being able to sit up, feed yourself, or control your own excrement? Our creator limited Himself so much that everything He needed had to be provided by His young mother. I sometimes think that this was actually the greater sacrifice. Although Jesus suffered humiliation, separation from God, and death on the cross on what we now call Easter, He knew that He would soon conquer the grave and death, rescue humanity, and join the Father in heaven. We can usually survive terrible suffering when we know it will only be brief. When Jesus was conceived and then born on Christmas day, He limited Himself for 30 something years even to the point of making Himself completely dependent on His creation for His every need. This gives a whole new perspective on the Christmas story. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:6-7) The next time you look at a baby, read the Christmas story, see a manger scene, or celebrate Christmas, remember how much Jesus, the Son of God, gave up because He loved you and wanted to reconcile you to Himself and the Father. Trust Jesus.When we think of Jesus sacrificing all to save us from our sins and to make us have a right relationship with God, we usually think of Him being arrested, mocked, beaten, and hung on the cross. All of this was the perfect sacrifice and the greatest horror. None of us would chose this willingly, but Jesus sacrificed so much more. We just have trouble seeing it because we have trouble comprehending our infinite, awesome God. Stop and think about who Jesus was before He came to earth to live as a man. > In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5) Jesus spoke into existence time & space, matter & energy, and all life. He was not limited by space or time or any other limitation other than His own nature — His holiness. Our all powerful God came down to earth to live as a man, which was limiting Himself in a way we can’t comprehend. If I came down to earth as an amoeba, I would not be limiting myself anywhere near how He limited Himself, but He did so much more. He didn’t start as a man, “for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20b) He became incarnate as a one-celled human. The creator of the universe grew in a teen girl’s womb and was born a helpless baby. Can you imagine what it must have been like to go from speaking the universe into existence, to not being able to sit up, feed yourself, or control your own excrement? Our creator limited Himself so much that everything He needed had to be provided by His young mother. I sometimes think that this was actually the greater sacrifice. Although Jesus suffered humiliation, separation from God, and death on the cross on what we now call Easter, He knew that He would soon conquer the grave and death, rescue humanity, and join the Father in heaven. We can usually survive terrible suffering when we know it will only be brief. When Jesus was conceived and then born on Christmas day, He limited Himself for 30 something years even to the point of making Himself completely dependent on His creation for His every need. This gives a whole new perspective on the Christmas story. > While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:6-7) The next time you look at a baby, read the Christmas story, see a manger scene, or celebrate Christmas, remember how much Jesus, the Son of God, gave up because He loved you and wanted to reconcile you to Himself and the Father. Trust Jesus & Merry Christmas

@ 3c7dc2c5:805642a8

🧠Quote(s) of the week: 'Bitcoin is hyper volatile because its a $450T+ asset trading for less than $2T.' - Joe Burnett 'I love the energy in Bitcoin right now. Long-time HODLers are optimistic, focused, and ambitious. People new to Bitcoin are curious to get involved and grateful for any support. Communities are thriving! What a time to be alive.' - Tuur Demeester ## 🧡Bitcoin news🧡 On the 16th of December: ➡️'In 13 days, EU Bitcoin exchanges are forced to store your personal Bitcoin address and your home address. In sum: they become lethal honey pots, making HODLers vulnerable to hacks, home invasions, and future aggressive taxation. In time, countries could exit the EU over this.' -Tuur Demeester [](https://i.ibb.co/0DMYppX/Ge-m-D2q-XEAA3pb1.jpg) The best response to this overreach is to sell all your KYC'ed Bitcoin, and repurchase what you need through peer-to-peer platforms that are KYC-free, such as Bisq, Robosats, Peach, and Hodlhodl. For more information, please visit: https://kycnot.me I can personally attest to the seriousness of this issue, having had my name, home address, and phone number leaked in the Ledger hack. ➡️In other news, Bitcoin wallet developer Exodus is going public on the New York Stock Exchange this Wednesday, backed by a reserve of 1,900 Bitcoin. They also pay all salaries in Bitcoin. On the 17th of December: ➡️'Overton Window shifting rapidly Only in 2023, EU media was still gaslighting Bitcoin. Now - No negative environmental coverage in mainstream EU media publications for over a year - many media outlets (Including The Independent, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Street, The Hill, and Forbes) have started documenting Bitcoin mining's numerous environmental benefits (well documented in 13 peer-reviewed studies) - Germany's largest Telco is using Bitcoin mining to monetize its stranded energy - Finland's pioneering work obviating fossil-fuel heating by capturing the heat from Bitcoin mining rigs is being covered - 6 sustainability periodicals covering Bitcoin's environmental benefits - 3 media outlets including Forbes in the last 2 days have recognized that Bitcoin mining is an integral part of solving not just EU's Net Zero Emission Targets, but EU's energy crisis.' - Daniel Batten ➡️BlackRock has officially recommended a 2% allocation to Bitcoin. With global assets totaling $900 trillion, a 2% allocation would imply a Bitcoin valuation of $18 trillion, equating to approximately $900,000 per Bitcoin. ➡️Bitcoin Reserve bill for Ohio State put forward by Rep. Derek Merrin. Merrin: Today, I filed HB 703 to create the Ohio Bitcoin Reserve within the state treasury! Provides state treasurer authority & flexibility to invest in Bitcoin. This legislation creates the framework for Ohio’s state government to harness the power of Bitcoin to strengthen our state finances. As the US dollar undergoes devaluation, Bitcoin provides a vehicle to supplement our state's portfolio and preserve public funds from losing value.' ➡️Bitcoin-exposed convertible bonds comprise 6% of the total convertible universe and have produced 20% of the YTD Returns: Barclays Looks like Bitcoin slowly eating into the debt market. Bonds were dying until Bitcoin bonds were introduced! ➡️European MP Sarah Knafo has called on the EU to reject the digital euro and establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, warning against “totalitarian temptations” from the European Central Bank. Are you paying attention? The world is waking up. ➡️A first draft of an Executive Order for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has been published. [](https://i.ibb.co/Q84XGbd/Gf-Bgr8k-Wc-AAh-Xs-Y.jpg) https://x.com/DavidFBailey/status/1869098934754570305 ➡️'The total assets in the spot Bitcoin ETFs are now 55% of the value of known gold ETF holdings. • Bitcoin ETF AUM: $120.69 billion • Gold ETF AUM: $218.81 billion Out with the old, in with the new - Joe Consorti ➡️'If you're not saving in Bitcoin, you're not saving at all.' AnilSaidSo [](https://i.ibb.co/nzQsbGD/Gf-BHOLLb0-AEx-Fg-P.jpg) On the 18th of December: ➡️Chinese car company Cango emerges as the third largest public miner. China? Mining? What about the ban? Guess the 100x banning did nothing. ➡️Fellow Noderunner Bram Kanstein: Open letter to the Dutch government regarding the establishment of a National Bitcoin reserve: 'Geachte @Minister_FIN @eelcoheinen @KlaasKnot @DNB_NL Met deze brief wil ik uw aandacht vestigen op een urgente en strategisch kwestie: het opbouwen van een nationale Bitcoin reserve. https://t.co/Wjdzf8xpDA In English (to also copy and use in your own country): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qCIbrGqYQeQNyiXRFMBJVZyRcePHWtdnWz__67NVuRo/edit?usp=sharing ➡️FED CHAIR J. POWELL: Fed is "not allowed to own Bitcoin". They weren't allowed to own Corporate Bonds before Covid either. Rules change... ➡️$11.5 trillion BlackRock said, "Bitcoin is no longer seen as the radical idea as it was 15 years ago." "Bitcoin is an emerging global monetary alternative." ➡️Rumor goes that the UAE has potentially already accumulated ~300K Bitcoin. If true, America is behind and needs to catch up quickly. Funny isn't it? 'We’ve gone from: Being concerned about the government killing Bitcoin in a 51% attack to Being concerned about the government buying tons of it.' - Alex Gladstein ➡️IMF and El Salvador finally reached an agreement....and at first, it's big yikes. El Salvador secured a $3.5 billion IMF financing package after agreeing to make accepting Bitcoin voluntary and unwinding the Chivo wallet. Not only are they eliminating Article 7 as previously reported, but they are also removing the ability for citizens to pay taxes in Bitcoin. [](https://i.ibb.co/GJ3ysDn/Gf-HCc-9-XQAAW1xu.png) Meanwhile, President Bukele says: "The IMF, World Bank, FED, and mainstream media hate that we adopted Bitcoin." Wait for it (have a look at the 20th of December) On the 19th of December: ➡️Bitcoin dipped. While some of you were scared, MARA bought $166 MILLION worth of Bitcoin. They have bought $3.2 BILLION Bitcoin in just 6 weeks! ➡️Hut 8 today announced the purchase of approximately 990 Bitcoin for approximately $100 million, or an average of approximately $101,710 per Bitcoin. Combined with the Bitcoin held before this purchase, Hut 8’s strategic Bitcoin reserve now totals more than 10,000 Bitcoins with a market value of more than $1 billion as of December 18, 2024. ➡️15 consecutive days of inflows for U.S. Bitcoin ETFs. $ in millions. [](https://i.ibb.co/BVrc9CW/Gf-KPc-J-WAAAZBTN.jpg) Spot Bitcoin ETFs purchased about 2,750 BTC yesterday while miners only mined 450 BTC. Absolute. Scarcity. On the 20th of December: ➡️Metaplanet has issued ¥5.0 billion ($31m) in bonds to accelerate Bitcoin purchases originally slated for 2025. Issued against the 12th Series moving strike warrants, the bonds will be redeemed with the warrant exercise proceeds. ➡️'Just one day after the IMF agreed to a $3.3b loan in return for making Bitcoin acceptance voluntary, El Salvador buys $1m Bitcoin, more than 10x their usual 1 Bitcoin per day purchase. I guess the IMF won...' -Bitcoin Archive Bukele: ''Thanks for the free money, lets 10x our Bitcoin buys, and create a strategic digital asset partnership with Argentina & 25 other nations.'' Luke Mikic Have a look at what they did on the 22nd of December. ➡️'Guys, this drawdown peak to trough was only 14.98%. It's that tiny little red stalactite on the right that you can't even see. Chill out.' -Joe Consort [](https://i.ibb.co/Qm71jRC/Gf-Q6-ZWg-Xw-AATz-VC.jpg) ➡️Brian Brooks, former Acting Comptroller of the Currency under the Trump administration, has joined the MicroStrategy Board of Directors. As Comptroller, he oversaw the federal banking system. Here's why this is a game-changing move for the company: https://x.com/btcspaceman/status/1870402056516952421 ➡️$1.3 BILLION leveraged crypto positions WIPED OUT in just 24 hours. 1. don't do leverage 2. don't do shitcoins CrYpTo. ➡️$108 billion VanEck subsidiary Market Vector accepts #bitcoin as payment for the first time. ➡️Swiss company Relai purchases 13 Bitcoin for $1.2 million for their balance sheet. Relai now holds 30 BTC. ➡️Michael Saylor publishes the Bitcoin framework so the "United States can lead the global digital economy. "A strategic digital asset policy can strengthen the US dollar, neutralize the national debt, and position America as the global leader in the 21st-century digital economy—empowering millions of businesses, driving growth, and creating trillions in value.' https://www.michael.com/digital-assets-framework ➡️'France's 5th largest bank, the €863 billion BPCE Group, to launch Bitcoin purchases for its 35 million customers in 2025.' -Bitcoin News On the 21st of December: ➡️'MARA's announcement that recycling heat from Bitcoin mining rigs to heat the homes of almost 80,000 residents (1.4% of Finland's population) is the largest application yet for heat recycling. Here's why it's significant.' -Daniel Batten Read the whole thread/post here: https://x.com/DSBatten/status/1870250495895302177 ➡️Someone just mined a whole Bitcoin block by himself, claiming $311,000 in reward. ➡️Spot Bitcoin ETFs took in 4,349.7 BTC worth $423.6 MILLION this week despite the price of bitcoin falling. Miners only mined 2,250 BTC this week. On the 22nd of December: ➡️El Salvador makes another purchase of 11 Bitcoin, pushing towards the recently announced goal of 20,000 BTC. Classic! They now have bought 25 Bitcoin worth over $2.4 million since securing its loan from the IMF. Bukele wasn't joking around! [](https://i.ibb.co/MSR62sG/Gf-Xq3-N1-WMAAk-Wu3.jpg) ➡️'When there's not enough Bitcoin for sale, billionaires will offer ANYTHING to own some. You'll be able to get: - Houses for 0.01 BTC - Cars for 0.001 BTC - A month of groceries for 0.00001 BTC They will give you everything you need... Because YOU have what THEY want.' -Rajatsonifnance [](https://i.ibb.co/zhYxKLt/Gfbmtyr-XIAEWz-IZ.jpg) Regarding that a month of groceries for 0.00001 BTC,' everything is falling (price) against Bitcoin. What about fiat? [](https://i.ibb.co/YktLqz7/Gfda-W7xb-IAAm-XJr.jpg) This is the single best long-run measure of food inflation. And it’s gone vertical. Now you do the math and ask yourself, go long Bitcoin or go long fiat? You know what I will give you one more example, 'houses for 0.01 BTC' [](https://i.ibb.co/PGGVPx3/Gfe-HAf2-W0-AAl2rl.jpg) Are you paying attention? ➡️Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim: Bitcoin is the top-performing asset of the past 16 years. It’s better than gold. It can’t be captured by a military force. It can put Vancouver on the map as a world leader in Bitcoin innovation. On the 23rd of December: ➡️MicroStrategy has acquired 5,262 BTC for ~$561 million at ~$106,662 per Bitcoin and has achieved a Bitcoin Yield of 47.4% QTD and 73.7% YTD. As of 12/22/2024, they hodl 444,262 Bitcoin acquired for ~$27.7 billion at ~$62,257 per Bitcoin. ➡️Japanese public company Metaplanet buys 619.7 Bitcoin for ¥9.5 billion. As of December 23, Metaplanet holds 1,761.98 BTC acquired for ~¥20.87 billion. ➡️Publicly traded La Rosa Holdings Corp. now accepts Bitcoin as a payment option for its real estate agents. ➡️Bitcoin is the best-performing asset in 11 of the last 14 years. Jesse Myers: 'The only speculation about Bitcoin is how long until the mainstream realizes: -Bitcoin is the invention of absolute scarcity -Absolute scarcity is a once-in-a-species event (irreproducible) -Absolute scarcity is a black hole on the world's balance sheet, eating all SoV' ## 💸Traditional Finance / Macro: On the 16th of December: 👉🏽'11 consecutive days of more decliners than advancers in the S&P500. First time since Sept 11, 2001.' - ZeroHedge On the 18th of December: 👉🏽The S&P 500 falls over 3% in its largest post-Fed drop since March 2020. ## 🏦Banks:  👉🏽'This is the first time in the history of the data that over 40% of banks were tightening credit standards, and then went back to not tightening, without a recession having occurred.' - Lyn Alden One word: "Fiscal dominance" https://www.lynalden.com/september-2024-newsletter/ ## 🌎Macro/Geopolitics: On the 17th of December: BowTiedMara: 'Last 8 months of Massa (WITH PRICE CONTROLS): 6.6% 5.8% 6.3% 15.6% 14.3% 7.7% 15.7% 29.7% Last 8 months of Milei (WITHOUT PRICE CONTROLS): 6% 4.8% 3% 3.2% 3.6% 2.3% 1.2% 0.9%' What do we learn from this? Socialists want you dependent on them and price controls never work. On the 18th of December: 👉🏽'SUMMARY OF FED CHAIR POWELL'S STATEMENT (12/18/24): 1. Inflation is "much closer" to 2% Fed target 2. Activity in the housing market has been weak 3. Wage growth in the United States has eased 4. The labor market is not a source of inflation pressures 5. The Fed can be more cautious in reducing interest rates 6. Inflation expectations remain "well anchored" The "Fed pivot" is taking another pause.' -TKL 👉🏽'The S&P 500 falls sharply after the Fed cuts rates by 25 basis points, but raises inflation forecast. The Fed reduced its outlook from 3 to 2 rate cuts in 2025 and raised inflation expectations from 2.1% to 2.5%. Inflation is back.' _TKL 👉🏽ZeroHedge: POWELL: ECONOMY GREW FASTER THAN EXPECTED IN SECOND HALF OF '24'. Maybe this had something to do with it? [](https://i.ibb.co/MpCK7HL/Gf-Gw-Og-EX0-AAMUbz.jpg) 👉🏽'Very rare: the Fed just lowered the overnight reverse repo rate (RRP) by 30 basis points, not 25 bps (the norm) So RRP rate is now at the floor of Fed Funds (no longer 5 bps above). This could ease money market rates & accelerate money flowing out of the Fed's RRP facility.' - Jack Farley In other words: Another liquidity injection. On the 20th of December: 👉🏽'November PCE inflation, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, RISES to 2.4%, below expectations of 2.5%. Core PCE inflation was 2.8%, below expectations of 2.9%. However, this means CPI, PPI, and PCE inflation are all back on the rise.' -TKL 👉🏽'The new government funding bill would allow for ~$1.565 trillion in new borrowing before the debt ceiling binds again next March. +$1.5 trillion to the national debt... IN 3 MONTHS. If the government were a business, nobody would give them a dime. They'd be bankrupt tomorrow.' -Joe Consorti [](https://i.ibb.co/m4CtTF2/Gf-Q-k-M2-Xs-AALuw-I.jpg) On the 22nd of December: 👉🏽The global Fed pivot continues: 74% of world central banks have cut rates this year, the biggest share since 2021. The Bank of Canada has cut rates 5 times by 175 basis points, marking the most aggressive rate cut cycle among major central banks. The European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank have lowered rates 4 times by 100 and 125 basis points, respectively. The Bank of England has cut twice by 50 basis points. As inflation rebounds, the pivot is at risk.' -TKL ## 🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift: Some fountain of Lyn Aldens wisdom: https://www.lynalden.com/december-2024-newsletter/ Credit: I have used multiple sources! 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 sats. ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃ ⭐ Many thanks⭐ Felipe -Bitcoin Friday! ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

@ ee11a5df:b76c4e49

# China ## I might be wrong, but this is how I see it This is a post within a series I am going to call "I might be wrong, but this is how I see it" I have repeatedly found that my understanding of China is quite different from that of many libertarian-minded Americans. And so I make this post to explain how I see it. Maybe you will learn something. Maybe I will learn something. It seems to me that many American's see America as a shining beacon of freedom with a few small problems, and China is an evil communist country spreading communism everywhere. From my perspective, America *was* a shining beacon of freedom that has fallen to being typical in most ways, and which is now acting as a falling empire, and China *was* communist for about a decade, but turned and ran away from that as fast as they could (while not admitting it) and the result is that the US and China are not much different anymore when it comes to free markets. Except they are very different in some other respects. ## China has a big problem China has a big problem. But it is not the communism problem that most Westerners diagnose. I argue that China is no longer communist, it is only communist in name. And that while it is not a beacon of free market principles, it is nearly as free market now as Western nations like Germany and New Zealand are (being somewhat socialist themselves). No, China's real problem is authoritarian one-party rule. And that core problem causes all of the other problems, including its human rights abuses. ## Communism and Socialism Communism and Socialism are bad ideas. I don't want to argue it right here, but most readers will already understand this. The last thing I intend to do with this post is to bolster or defend those bad ideas. If you dear reader hold a candle for socialism, let me know and I can help you extinguish it with a future "I might be wrong, but this is how I see it" installment. Communism is the idea of structuring a society around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and the idea of allocating goods and services based on need. It eliminates the concept of private property, of social classes, ultimately of money and finally of the state itself. Back under Mao in 1958-1962 (The Great Leap Forward), China tried this (in part). Some 50+ million people died. It was an abject failure. But due to China's real problem (authoritarianism, even worship of their leaders), the leading classes never admitted this. And even today they continue to use the word "Communist" for things that aren't communist at all, as a way to save face, and also in opposition to the United States of America and Europe. Authorities are not eager to admit their faults. But this is not just a Chinese fault, it is a fault in human nature that affects all countries. The USA still refuses to admit they assassinated their own president JFK. They do not admit they bombed the Nord Stream pipeline. China defines "socialism with Chinese characteristics" to mean "the leadership of the Communist Party of China". So they still keep the words socialism and communism, but they long ago dropped the meanings of those words. I'm not sure if this is a political ploy against us in the West or not. ### China's Marketplace Today Today China exhibits very few of the properties of communism. They have some common ownership and state enterprises, but not much differently than Western countries (New Zealand owns Air New Zealand and Kiwibank and Kiwirail, etc). And there are private enterprises all over China. They compete and some succeed and some fail. You might hear about a real-estate bank collapsing. China has private property. They have mostly free markets. They have money, and the most definitely have social classes and a very strong state. None of that is inline with what communist thinkers want. Communist thinkers in China moan that China has turned away from communism. Deng Xiaoping who succeeded Mao and attempted to correct the massive mistake, did much when he said "to get rich is glorious." China achieved staggering rates of economic growth. 10% annually on average since 1977. Chinese economic reform started in 1979 and has continued through successive administrations (Deng, Jiang, Hu and now Xi). China is now the world's largest economy (by GDP in PPP terms) since 2016. I was first made aware of China's economic growth by Jim Rogers, an American commodities expert who travelled through China (and the rest of the world from 1990-1992) and in 2007 moved to Singapore where he ensured his daughters learned to speak Mandarin, because Jim knew where the economic growth was going to happen. Jim always spoke positively of China's economic prospects, and his view was so different from the "China is a nasty communist place" view that I had grown up with that my mind opened. How can anybody believe they are still a communist country? In what world does it make sense that communism can produce such a massively booming economy? It doesn't make sense because it is simply wrong. What *does* happen is that the CPC interferes. It lets the market do what markets do, but it interferes where it thinks oversight and regulation would produce a better result. Western nations interfere with their markets too. They have oversight and regulation. In fact some of China's planned reforms had to be put on hold by Xi due to Donald Trump's trade war with China. That's right, they were trying to be even more free market than America, but America's protectionism prodded Xi to keep control so he could fight back efficiently. Government oversight and regulation IMHO is mostly bad because it gets out of control, and there are no market forces to correct this. This gets even more extreme in a one-party system, so I can judge that China's oversight and regulation problems are very likely worse than those in Western nations (but I have no first hand experience or evidence). ## Why do you keep saying CPC? The Communist Party of China (CPC) is the ruling party in China. That is their official name. To call them the CCP is to concede to the idea that the British and Americans get to name everybody. I'm not sure who is right, since CPC or CCP is their "English" name (in Chinese it is 中国共产党 and Westernized it is Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng). Nonetheless, I'll call them CPC because that is their wish. ## Social Credit System China moved from a planned economy to a market economy in stages. They didn't want any more sudden changes (can you blame them?). In the process, many institutions that have existed in the West for a long time didn't exist in China and they had to arise somehow. IMHO market forces would have brought these about in the private sector, but the one-party CP of China instead decided to create these. One of those institutions was a credit score system. In the West we have TransUnion and Equifax that maintain credit ratings on people, and we have S&P, Moody's and Fitch that maintain credit ratings on companies. The domain of these ratings is their financial credit-worthiness. So the People's Bank of China developed a credit information database for it's own needs. The government picked up on the idea and started moving towards a National Credit Management System. In 2004 it became an official goal to establish a credit system compatible with a modern market system. By 2006 banks were required to report on consumer creditworthiness. But unchecked one-party governmental power will often take a good idea (credit worthiness data shared among private parties) and systematize it and apply it top-down, creating a solution and a new problem at the same time. Nonetheless, originally it was about credit worthiness and also criminal convictions. That is no big scary thing that some right-wing American commentators will lead you to believe. In the US for example criminal records are public, so China's Social Credit System started out being no more over-reaching in scope than what Americans have lived under their entire lives, its only fault (a severe one) being centrally planned. And that remained the case up until about 2016 (in my estimation). But of course there is always scope creep. As it exists today, I have reason to believe that CPC officials and even A.I. use judgement calls to score someone on how moral that person has been! Of course that is not a good idea, and IMHO the problem stems from one-party rule, and authoritarian administration of ideas that should instead be handled by the private sector. ## Environmental, Social, and Governance ESG is a system that came out of a couple basic ideas. The first is that many two-party transactions actually have externalities. They don't just affect the two parties, they also affect everybody else. When you fly in an airplane, you increase the CO2 in the atmosphere that everybody has to pay for (eventually). You may dispute that example, but that is no doubt one of the motivations of ESG. But of course the recognition of this basic issue didn't lead all people towards market solutions (well it did, but those have been mostly messed up by others), but instead led many people towards ESG, which is a social credit scoring system which applies scores based on environmental and social side-effects of market transactions. This is not at all the same as China's social credit system, which I described above. I hope you can see the difference. In fact, China imported ESG from the West. Chinese companies, of their free will, in an attempt to court Western capital, achieve ESG goals for those Western investors. They have been playing this ESG game for 20 years just like the entire world has, because the West has imposed this faux-morality upon them. It isn't something China exported to us, it is something we exported to them. ## I think China has avoided Woke-ism My understanding of Chinese people, based on what I've heard many Chinese people say, is that China isn't affected by the Western woke-ism epidemic. They deride Western white woke people with the term "Baizuo". They have never sent an incompetent break dancer to the Olympics because of wok-ism. Competence is highly respected as is the competition to be the most competent, which (when augmented by a one-child policy which is no longer) has produced child prodigies like no other country has. ## What about predatory loans of the Belt and Road initiative? Predatory is an odd name for loans to people in need. The World Bank makes loans to people in need. China does too. China stands in opposition to Western Empire, and in that regard they produce their own alternative BRICS institutions. This is one of them. There is AFAIK nothing more predatory about them. It is just that in some cases the borrowers have trouble paying them back and they get foreclosed upon. I don't think this is worthy of much discussion, except that the term "predatory" seems to me to be a propaganda device. ## What about foreign influence from China? China wants to influence the world, especially its own trading partners and potential trading partners. Doing that above board is fine by me. But some of it is undoubtedly covert. Sometimes Chinese-born people run for public office in Western countries. In New Zealand we stood down some when it became clear they were being influenced too much by the CPC while being charged with representing their local town (dual loyalty issues). If only the USA would do the same thing to their dually-loyal politicians. And all large nations run influence operations. The USA has the CIA, for example, and claims this "soft power" is actually the better alternative to what would otherwise be military intervention (but IMHO shouldn't be either). I'm not defending such operations (I despise them), I'm just explaining how China's position of exerting influence is not only no big deal and totally expected, it pales in comparison to the United States' influence operations which often become military excursions (something China rarely ever does). ## What about the Great Firewall? Yeah, that sucks. Again, single-party authoritarian control gone to extremes. ## What about Human Rights Abuses? What about the Uyghur Genocide? I don't like them. To the extent they are occurring (and I lean towards the belief that they are occurring), I condemn them. China has anti-terrorism and anti-extremism policies that go too far. They end up oppressing and/or criminalizing cultures that aren't Chinese enough. But especially, China punishes dissent. Disagreement with the CPC is the high crime. It is the one-party rule that causes this problem. Anybody who speaks out against the CPC or goes against the state in any way is harshly punished. This happens to Uyghurs, to Falun Gong, to Tibetans, and to any religion that is seen as subversive. Amnesty International and the UN OHCHR have documented issues around the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, Tibet, LGBT rights, death penalty, workers rights, and the Hong Kong special administrative region. I am not about to pretend I know better than they do, but to some extent they go too far. Amnesty International says this about the USA: Discrimination and violence against LGBTI people were widespread and anti-LGBTI legislation increased. Bills were introduced to address reparations regarding slavery and its legacies. Multiple states implemented total bans on abortion or severely limited access to it. Gender-based violence disproportionately affected Indigenous women. Access to the USA for asylum seekers and migrants was still fraught with obstacles, but some nationalities continued to enjoy Temporary Protected Status. Moves were made to restrict the freedom to protest in a number of states. Black people were disproportionately affected by the use of lethal force by police. No progress was made in the abolition of the death penalty, apart from in Washington. Arbitrary and indefinite detention in the US naval base Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, continued. Despite extensive gun violence, no further firearm reform policies were considered, but President Biden did announce the creation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The USA continued to use lethal force in countries around the world. Black people, other racialized groups and low-income people bore the brunt of the health impacts of the petrochemical industry, and the use of fossil fuels continued unabated. Amnesty international didn't even point out that the US government quashes free speech via pressure on social media corporations (because Amnesty International is far too lefty). So who is worse, China or the US? I'm not going to make that judgement call, but suffice it to say that in my mind, China is not obviously worse. China violates freedom of expression, association, and assembly of all people. This is bad, and a consequence mainly of one-party rule (again, what I think is the root cause of most of their ills). They arrest, detain, potentially kill anybody who publicly disagrees openly with their government. Clearly this is an excess of authoritarianism, a cancer that is very advanced in China. As to organ harvesting of Uyghur Muslims, I think this is a myth. China has dealt harshly with Muslim extremism. They don't offer freedom of religion to ISIS. And Amnesty International complains about that. But practically speaking you probably shouldn't respect the extremist religion of people who want to force everybody into a global caliphate through threat of violence. As you are well aware, some extremist Muslims (<1% of Islam) believe in using violence to bring about a global caliphate. Those extremists pop up in every country and are usually dealt with harshly. China has had to deal with them too. I have watched two different Western YouTubers travel to Xinjiang province trying to find the oppressed Uyghurs and interview them. They can't find them. What they find instead are Uyghur Muslims doing their prayers five times a day at the local mosque. And also stories that the CPC pitched in some money to help them renovate the mosque. Maybe they were afraid it was a CPC trap and so they wouldn't speak freely. Amnesty International and the UN OHCHR say more than a million are "arbitrarily detained" and I'm not going to argue otherwise. But I'd be more convinced if there were a stream of pictures and news like there is out of Gaza, and it is suspicious that there isn't. ## Conclusion China is more like a Western nation that Westerners realize. Economically, militarily, socially. It still has a very serious obstacle to overcome: one-party rule. I don't think the one-party is going to voluntarily give up power. So most probably at some point in the future there will be a revolution. But in my opinion it won't happen anytime soon. For the most part Chinese people are living high on the hog, getting rich, enjoying the good life, in positive spirits about life, and are getting along with their government quite well at present.

@ 6bae33c8:607272e8

I went 5-0 last week when it didn’t matter. It’s always good to know you can step up in clutch. **Chiefs at Steelers** — If the Chiefs win this, they can rest everyone for a few weeks. The Steelers are a tough matchup though because they play defense, will also run the ball and are fine with an ugly, low-scoring close game too. I’ll say Chiefs -2 and stay away. **Ravens at Texans** — The Ravens are the best team in the AFC IMO, and the Texans are a fraud. Ravens -3.5 and probably lay the wood. **Seahawks at Bears** — I’ll make it Seahawks -1.5 and stay away. If anything I’d take the Bears. **Chargers at Patriots** — The Pats played the Bills tough, but I expect the Chargers to rough them up. I’ll say Chargers -3.5 and probably lay the wood. **Broncos at Bengals** — Good defense, bad offense against bad defense, good offense. Let’s say Broncos +3 and lean Bengals. **Cardinals at Rams** — The Cardinals looked good for a minute midseason, then fell apart. I’ll say Cardinals +4 and stay away. **Colts at Giants** — The Giants are the 32nd best team in the league. I’ll say Colts -6.5 and probably lean Colts. **Jets at Bills** — The Bills had a letdown last week against the Pats, but they’ll probably annihilate the Jets who are so dysfunctional. I’ll say Jets +13 and lean Bills. **Titans at Jaguars** — This is a bum fight. Titans +2.5 and lean Jaguars, but stay away. **Raiders at Saints** — Another bum fight unless Derek Carr plays. I’ll say Raiders +2.5 and lean Saints. **Panthers at Buccaneers** — The Bucs might have blown their season, losing to the Cowboys. I’d expect a bounce-back, but the Panthers usually show up. I’ll say Panthers +6.5 and stay away. **Cowboys at Eagles** — If Jalen Hurts doesn’t play, Cowboys +2.5. If Hurts plays, Cowboys +8.5. Stay away. **Dolphins at Browns** — If DTR is still the starter, Dolphins -4.5, though Tua in freezing weather is not ideal. If Bailey Zappe plays, I’ll say Dolphins -2.5. I’m leaning Browns if it’s not DTR. **Packers at Vikings** — These are equal teams. Let’s make it Packers +2.5. I’ll lean Packers, but probably stay away. **Falcons at Killer Redskins** — I didn’t get a good look at Penix, and the KRs are probably spent after the huge comeback over their rival. Falcons +4.5 and lean Falcons. **Lions at 49ers** — It’s always odd trying to handicap injuries. The 49ers have so many, and the Lions have lost their entire defense. Lions -6.5 and probably stay away.

@ 7e6f9018:a6bbbce5

Over the last decade, birth rates in Spain have dropped by 30%, from 486,000 births in 2010 to 339,000 in 2020, a decline only comparable to that seen in Japan and the Four Asian Tigers. The main cause seems to stem from two major factors: (1) the widespread use of contraceptive methods, which allow for pregnancy control without reducing sexual activity, and (2) women's entry into the labor market, leading to a significant shift away from traditional maternal roles. In this regard, there is a phenomenon of demographic inertia that I believe could become significant. When a society ages and the population pyramid inverts, the burden this places on the non-dependent population could further contribute to a deeper decline in birth rates.  The more resources (time and money) non-dependent individuals have to dedicate to the elderly (dependents), the less they can allocate to producing new births (also dependents): - An only child who has to care for both parents will bear a burden of 2 (2 ÷ 1). - Three siblings who share the responsibility of caring for their parents will bear a burden of 0.6 (2 ÷ 3). This burden on only children could, in many cases, be significant enough to prevent them from having children of their own. In Spain, the generation of only children reached reproductive age in 2019(*), this means that right now the majority of people in reproductive age in Spain are only child (or getting very close to it). If this assumption is correct, and aging feeds on itself, then, given that Spain has one of the worst demographic imbalances in the world, this phenomenon is likely to manifest through worsening birth rates. Spain’s current birth rate of 1.1 may not yet have reached its lowest point. (*)_Birth rate table and the year in which each generation reaches 32 years of age, Spain._ | **Year of birth** | **Birth rate** | **Year in which the generation turns 32** | | ------------------ | -------------- | ----------------------------------------- | | 1971 | 2.88 | 2003 | | 1972 | 2.85 | 2004 | | 1973 | 2.82 | 2005 | | 1974 | 2.81 | 2006 | | 1975 | 2.77 | 2007 | | 1976 | 2.77 | 2008 | | 1977 | 2.65 | 2009 | | 1978 | 2.54 | 2010 | | 1979 | 2.37 | 2011 | | 1980 | 2.21 | 2012 | | 1981 | 2.04 | 2013 | | 1982 | 1.94 | 2014 | | 1983 | 1.80 | 2015 | | 1984 | 1.72 | 2016 | | 1985 | 1.64 | 2017 | | 1986 | 1.55 | 2018 | | 1987 | 1.49 | 2019 | | 1988 | 1.45 | 2020 | | 1989 | 1.40 | 2021 | | 1990 | 1.36 | 2022 | | 1991 | 1.33 | 2023 | | 1992 | 1.31 | 2024 | | 1993 | 1.26 | 2025 | | 1994 | 1.19 | 2026 | | 1995 | 1.16 | 2027 | | 1996 | 1.14 | 2028 | | 1997 | 1.15 | 2029 | | 1998 | 1.13 | 2030 | | 1999 | 1.16 | 2031 | | 2000 | 1.21 | 2032 | | 2001 | 1.24 | 2033 | | 2002 | 1.25 | 2034 | | 2003 | 1.30 | 2035 | | 2004 | 1.32 | 2036 | | 2005 | 1.33 | 2037 | | 2006 | 1.36 | 2038 | | 2007 | 1.38 | 2039 | | 2008 | 1.44 | 2040 | | 2009 | 1.38 | 2041 | | 2010 | 1.37 | 2042 | | 2011 | 1.34 | 2043 | | 2012 | 1.32 | 2044 | | 2013 | 1.27 | 2045 | | 2014 | 1.32 | 2046 | | 2015 | 1.33 | 2047 | | 2016 | 1.34 | 2048 | | 2017 | 1.31 | 2049 | | 2018 | 1.26 | 2050 | | 2019 | 1.24 | 2051 | | 2020 | 1.19 | 2052 |

@ 20986fb8:cdac21b3

In this edition, we are pleased to speak with Luthando nostr:npub10vudmjqhr8kn2kv2pxhezt2h5t5c9zauwq8qr56nhdn64yacsqyqf08djm leader of the Bitcoin Ekasi community, about how they are using Bitcoin to transform payment systems, savings habits, and cross-border remittances in a South African township, while fostering digital currency education and boosting local economic trust. --- **YakiHonne:** Luthando. We really appreciate you coming in. YakiHonne is a decentralized media client built on the Nostr protocol that enables freedom of speech through technology. It empowers creators to create their own voice, assets, and features. It also allows features like smart widgets, verified notes, and focuses on long-form articles. today. we'll be exploring more about your community.Can you tell us a bit about yourself? What do you do, and what’s your role in your community? **Luthando**：I’m Luthando, a project community leader at Bitcoin Ekasi. My role includes onboarding township shops to help them adopt Bitcoin as a payment method. I also manage staff records, tracking workdays and paid leave for team members involved in the project. Additionally, I conduct interviews and collaborate with a supervisor to share insights and experiences about Bitcoin. This work is part of my efforts with Bitcoin Ekasi.  **YakiHonne**: You're really doing a lot of work in the Bitcoin ecosystem，what sparked your interest in Bitcoin? And what motivated you to create a community around it? **Luthando**：When I was working as a safety coach at Safeacase, Herman introduced me to Bitcoin. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Safeacase, which relied on donations, faced severe financial challenges. This led to the launch of the Bitcoin Ekasi Project, where I helped township shops adopt Bitcoin as a payment method. With limited funds, I transitioned from receiving a fiat salary to earning in Bitcoin. Bitcoin transformed my mindset, making me realize it is the future of money. This realization inspired me to travel the world and explore new countries. **YakiHonne**: Great. I really admire the enthusiasm you have for Bitcoin.Can you share a brief history of how you built your community and attracted members? What methods or advertisements did you use to onboard them? **Luthando**：We host monthly Bitcoin movie nights to engage the community, running from February to December starting next year. We promote the events with posters in town, shops, and clinics, inviting residents to join. During the movie nights, participants use Bitcoin we provide to purchase popcorn and drinks, gaining hands-on experience with the technology. **Luthando**：And our Bitcoin center features a thrift shop and a small Bitcoin ATM. Community members can exchange fiat for Bitcoin using the ATM and use it to purchase clothing from the shop. We also offer Bitcoin courses with 14 students attending classes five days a week. To encourage attendance, students are rewarded with Bitcoin for consistent participation. Similarly, in the “Safer Kids” program, children who maintain a 70% attendance rate or higher also receive Bitcoin rewards. **Luthando**：To further promote Bitcoin adoption in the community, we painted Bitcoin-themed logos on 34 shops and paid the owners in Bitcoin, which they can use in local shops. This initiative not only spreads awareness but also provides the community with practical opportunities to use Bitcoin.  **YakiHonne**: Yeah, we are pushing Bitcoin adoption so hard this time. It's really great.What principles guide your community, and how do you ensure trust and reliability in your discussions? **Luthando**：I was born in eastern South Africa, and my parents moved here around 1996. The community knows me well and trusts that I wouldn’t introduce anything fraudulent. Since 2010, we’ve been working in this township, especially helping children, building over a decade of trust. I explain to the community that we aim to bring value through Bitcoin, encouraging them to save in Bitcoin instead of fiat. As a result, the community has great trust in our Bitcoin Ekasi team. **YakiHonne**: How do you educate your members and keep them updated on Bitcoin developments? You mentioned having five weekly meetups to onboard members, but what other methods do you use to educate them and keep them informed about the Bitcoin ecosystem? **Luthando**：We use the Felly app to communicate with community members and keep them updated. At the Ekasi Center, we host quizzes to encourage participation. For example, the first attendees can earn 5,000 sats, motivating them to regularly engage with the Felly app. Although we initially tried a few other methods that didn't really involve them getting Sats, its impact was limited as many people in the township seek quick financial returns and often don’t return after their first visit. To address this, we host movie nights as a more engaging way to promote Bitcoin education. During these events, we screen Bitcoin-related films, allowing community members to learn about Bitcoin in a fun and relaxed setting.  **YakiHonne**: It's truly captivating and highly insightful.How does your community collaborate with the global Bitcoin ecosystem? Specifically, how does it engage with the broader worldwide Bitcoin community, and which partnership has been of more significant impact on Bitcoin Ekasi? **Luthando**：We have established a strong partnership with Bitcoin Beach, which provided crucial support in the creation of the Bitcoin Ekasi project. Currently, we are planning to build a community center in the township, earning the trust and support of both Bitcoin Beach and the local government of Mossel Bay. The community center will serve as a multifunctional space for events like weddings and more. As one of the earliest Bitcoin adoption projects in Africa, Bitcoin Ekasi has inspired other countries to follow suit, viewing us as a model for building sustainable Bitcoin communities. **YakiHonne**: How do you collaborate with Bitcoin communities and organizations outside South Africa? What partnerships or interactions do you have with other global Bitcoin communities? **Luthando**: We collaborate with other Bitcoin projects through community initiatives. For example, we paint logos on local community shops and pay the owners 7000Sats per week. This approach has helped us build connections with projects outside South Africa. One notable example is our assistance to the Bitcoin Dua project in Africa, helping them establish a Bitcoin circular economy. We also supported the Bitcoin Loxin project in Cape Town, South Africa, in launching their Bitcoin circular economy. Through these collaborations, we have developed strong relationships with other Bitcoin communities.  **YakiHonne**: We’d like to understand the challenges you faced when starting the community, as well as the challenges the community has encountered？ **Luthando**: One of the main challenges is convincing members that Bitcoin is not a scam. Many people are skeptical about Bitcoin, fearing they might lose their money. Additionally, saving is not a common habit within the community, even with fiat currency. I often explain the importance of saving in Bitcoin, emphasizing how it can safeguard their financial security. However, changing deeply ingrained mindsets has proven to be quite difficult. Another challenge is the limited level of education in the community. Even those who own smartphones often struggle to use them effectively. This lack of familiarity extends to using Bitcoin wallets, with many people finding it challenging to navigate wallet usage, especially in shops. Lastly, I feel like I’m working around the clock. Even outside of work hours, people come to my house seeking assistance, such as exchanging Bitcoin for fiat. While I’m happy to help, the constant demands can feel overwhelming at times, making it seem as though I’m working every day, including weekends. **YakiHonne**: and how you managed to overcome them？ **Luthando**: Overcoming these challenges is not easy. I can't say that I've fully managed to resolve them, but I do my best to address them. Fortunately, I have a colleague who assists me, although he’s currently out of town. He helps manage some of the workload, especially in dealing with local community members and providing them with the support they need. **YakiHonne**: I'm really interested in the issue of people thinking Bitcoin is a scam. Could you elaborate on that? What specific steps have you taken to demonstrate that Bitcoin is reliable and not a scam? **Luthando**: Many shop owners initially believe Bitcoin is a scam and refuse to accept it. To address their doubts, I demonstrate Bitcoin's legitimacy through practical examples. First, I help them download a Bitcoin wallet and post about it on X, receiving small tips from Bitcoin enthusiasts worldwide. I then use these tips to showcase Bitcoin's real-world applications. For instance, I use Bitrefill to purchase mobile airtime or fuel vouchers for them, highlighting Bitcoin's utility in daily life. I also mention South African restaurants like Steers that accept Bitcoin and even place food orders using Bitcoin to show its usability. Additionally, I demonstrate withdrawing cash from a crypto ATM using Bitcoin, further proving that it is a reliable financial tool and not a scam. **YakiHonne**: You've done a lot of work in South Africa. I can imagine the effort, the pain and the stress.What initiatives has the community taken to promote Bitcoin adoption, and what results have these efforts achieved? **Luthando**: At first, I never imagined we would reach this point. Now, many people frequently come to my home to ask how to buy Bitcoin. For example, this week, a man from Nigeria wanted to purchase Bitcoin worth 5,000 units. I explained the process to him and recommended using a hardware wallet for securely storing large amounts of Bitcoin. He used to struggle with sending money back home, but now he has realized the convenience of Bitcoin. In October last year, I helped two stores owned by Nigerians adopt Bitcoin payments. Since then, this practice has spread within the community, and more people, especially shop owners, have developed an interest in Bitcoin. They ask about its low transaction fees and have recognized it as an efficient solution for cross-border remittances. Initially, some shop owners were skeptical about Bitcoin, but they eventually started saving with it. Today, many of them have accumulated significant Bitcoin savings for their families and children, and they often express their gratitude for introducing Bitcoin to the community. Overall, the Bitcoin adoption project has had a profound impact here. We have educated the community about Bitcoin’s long-term savings value, and many people are now satisfied with this initiative and optimistic about the future.  **YakiHonne**: It’s clear you’ve achieved tangible results from your efforts. Looking ahead, what are your community's goals for the next 6 to 12 months? How do you plan to achieve them? **Luthando**: For Bitcoin Ekasi, one of our main goals is to establish a dedicated Bitcoin Ekasi Center. This center would serve as a hub to educate people about Bitcoin on a frequent basis. We have already started working with a local school in the township, recruiting students and introducing teachers to Bitcoin. Our vision is to integrate Bitcoin education into the school’s curriculum, similar to what has been done in El Salvador. By incorporating Bitcoin as part of their regular subjects, students can gain foundational knowledge about Bitcoin and its potential uses. Ultimately, we aim for teachers to become advocates who can confidently teach children about Bitcoin, empowering the next generation with essential financial literacy skills. **YakiHonne**: Thank you so much! I think most of my questions have been answered. I’m really glad to see Bitcoin enthusiasts with a clear focus on Bitcoin. As you said, Bitcoin is the future, and I truly appreciate your enthusiasm for it. **Luthando**: Bitcoin is truly the future. We want to see this township transformed into something more modern, rather than its current state. I hope to see more parents saving some Bitcoin for their children. In our community, most kids receive a monthly government allowance of $50 starting from the age of one. I often suggest to parents that they set aside half of that allowance to buy Bitcoin for their child. If they save consistently from age one to 18, the value could grow significantly as Bitcoin appreciates. I’m already doing this for my own child so that he will have savings as he grows up. **YakiHonne**: Bitcoin is the future. Its value continues to grow steadily over time. Thank you so much for today’s conversation; we are truly honored. Your sharing of such rich experiences has been incredibly insightful for us. I’ve learned that using movie events to engage more people is an excellent idea, and we plan to start trying it out soon. Once again, thank you for your time and for sharing with us!

@ a367f9eb:0633efea

Through my work as a consumer advocate, both as the deputy director of the **Consumer Choice Center** and a Fellow at the **Bitcoin Policy Institute**, I’ve contributed to various model policies that can be enacted at a state-level in the United States to help advance Bitcoin. Working with state lawmakers, policy organizations, and fellow passionate bitcoiners, these are some of the model policies we offer open-source to anyone who would like to pass something similar in their state. An active list can be found on [GitHub](https://github.com/yaeloss/Bitcoin-Model-Policies).\ \ [*Smart Cryptocurrency Rules Act*](https://github.com/yaeloss/Bitcoin-Model-Policies/tree/main/Smart-Cryptocurrency-Rules-Act)\ \ –This model policy was adopted by the American Legislative Exchange Council on [July 29, 2022](https://alec.org/model-policy/the-smart-cryptocurrency-rules-act/).\ \ [*Reject CBDCs and Protect Financial Privacy Act*](https://github.com/yaeloss/Bitcoin-Model-Policies/tree/main/Reject-CBDCs-and-Protect-Financial-Privacy-Act)\ \ –This model policy was adopted by the American Legislative Exchange Council on [August 28, 2023](https://alec.org/model-policy/reject-cbdcs-and-protect-financial-privacy-act/). –This model policy was SIGNED into law in the state of SOUTH DAKOTA on February 27, 2024 as [HB1161](https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/24958). –This model policy was SIGNED into law in the state of INDIANA on March 11, 2024 as [SB180](https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2024/bills/senate/180/details). –This model policy was SIGNED into law by the state of UTAH on March 13, 2024 as [HB164](https://le.utah.gov/~2024/bills/static/HB0164.html). –This model policy was SIGNED into law in the state of LOUISIANA on June 19, 2024 as [HB488](https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/BillInfo.aspx?i=246246). –This model policy was SIGNED into law by the state of GEORGIA on July 1, 2024 as [HB1053](https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/HB1053/2023). –This model policy was SIGNED into law by the NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY overriding a gubernatorial veto on September 9, 2024 as [H690](https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookup/2023/H690). –This model policy was PASSED by the MISSOURI STATE HOUSE on March 5, 2024 as [HB1676](https://legiscan.com/MO/bill/HB1676/2024). –This model policy was INTRODUCED into the MISSOURI STATE SENATE on December 1, 2023 as [SB826](https://legiscan.com/MO/bill/SB826/2024). –The model policy was INTRODUCED into the IOWA LEGISLATURE on February 7, 2024 as [HF2358](https://legiscan.com/IA/bill/HF2358/2023). \*\*\ **PURPOSE**\ \ The purpose of the [GitHub page](https://github.com/yaeloss/Bitcoin-Model-Policies) is to provide state and local legislators with a template of consumer-friendly policies on Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized finance.\ \ As model policies, these serve the purpose of providing general guidelines or goals to achieve in state legislation, and will therefore require various amendments, customizations, and accommodations with existing laws and regulations.\ \ State lawmakers and their staff are encouraged to take parts, or the whole, of these model policies to help usher in consumer-friendly policies on cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance in their jurisdiction.\ \ Members of the public are encouraged to suggest their own edits.\ \ **GITHUB MODIFICATIONS AND COMMITS**\ \ This GitHub repository will serve as the living model for these model policies.\ \ Edits, modifications, and additions are welcome by all. Doing so helps better crowdsource the most appropriate and beneficial rules on digital assets such as Bitcoin and its crypto-offspring, as well as any industries, projects, or protocols that may support them.\ \ Considering the complex nature of digital assets and decentralized blockchain technology, there are inevitably concerns that are not addressed by these model policies. However, this repository should serve as collection of templates for future action and language, while remaining loyal to the consumer-friendly principles of open and decentralized blockchains and related industries.\ \ Updates can be found on GitHub here: <https://github.com/yaeloss/Bitcoin-Model-Policies>

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

On this Victory Monday, the triumphant Raiders are picking 6th. That win was pretty costly, but I'll never root for a loss. What can we do with the 6th pick? **Mock Draft** 6th Pick: QB Cam Ward 37th Pick: WR Emeka Egbuka 68th Pick: OT Emery Jones Jr. 73rd Pick: CB Denzel Burke 104th Pick: RB Ollie Gordon II 139th Pick: OG Charles Grant 181st Pick: LB Jay Higgins 212th Pick: DE Tyler Baron 216th Pick: DT Ty Hamilton 221st Pick: TE Terrance Ferguson Fortunately, we can still get one of the top 2 QB's. The next biggest needs are a WR1 and a tackle to replace Kolton Miller (who sucks now). Corner depth is the biggest issue on the defense. We have three solid starting caliber CB's, but no true CB1. That means they'll have to take a committee approach, until someone emerges. The running game was a disaster this season, so taking another swing on RB is a must. Improving the interior of the line is also a step in that direction. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/821703

@ 7776c32d:45558888

A Bitcoin or doggie coin name service can compete with DNS without any changes to the network. A Monero fork can probably compete with estate planning services. These undertakings would be disastrous for the American military industrial complex and its associated global deep state. ## Taking on DNS The BTC / doge name service could be based on a burn address, or maybe the wallet address of a charity selected by the community. This is probably not a new idea. It feels like either I've read about it before, or at least someone else would have thought of it before. You would register a name by encrypting the name registration data, converting it into a numeric format, making a throwaway wallet with the total plus transaction fees, and sending the data as transactions to the designated address, followed by doing the same with the private key to prevent duplication bots. For example, if the format ends up being `"name=URI"` then you could encrypt the string `"fiatjaf=nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6"` using a throwaway wallet's key, and convert the encrypted binary to a number sequence, then send a series of transactions in amounts matching the encrypted number sequence, in order to link fiatjaf's name to his npub. You would have to send the private key in the next block(s) after the encrypted data is confirmed, so that nobody can intentionally generate conflicting claims by copying data from mempools before it can reach a block, but everyone can decrypt the data once it's confirmed, to see the name registry. Using the throwaway wallet's own key also helps ensure the use of throwaway wallets is standardized, so we don't promote address reuse outside of these temporary wallets. Finding an npub by its name would require scanning all the transactions sent to the designated address and finding the first instance of that name being registered. Reject duplicates: first-come first-serve, like DNS-backed username selection systems. If there are two attempts to register a name in the same block, reject both, with no refunds. Anyone who keeps fighting for a contested name will keep losing money until they either give up, or have the luck and determination to win. If a name is constantly fought over by many people, it might never actually become available - so be it. The standard could optionally also include a way for an npub to sign a transfer of its name to another npub. Leaving this out would discourage hoarding names to sell later. Note: I'm pretty sure using Bitcoin (instead of doggie coin) would also just make name registry insanely expensive. By my understanding, this name service should not use Monero because it doesn't need privacy, and would only undermine the Monero network's privacy mechanisms. ### Why this matters It doesn't have to be this design, we just need a way to allow decentralized registry of non-conflicting names with character lengths dependent on how many names are already taken, on a first-come first-serve basis. This is important because so many users prefer that kind of system over a long randomly-generated address, and in some contexts, like QR codes, a longer address has a direct disadvantage over a shorter string. Meanwhile, this method still relies on decentralized, randomized address spaces with character count determined by the needed address space size (npubs / wallet addresses). ## Securing your estate The more tricky thing to approach is the estate. If Monero works, inheritance could be made permissionless and decentralized using scheduled transactions, or transaction timers. You would enter a wallet address, and a time; until then, you can still cancel the transaction, if you have the key. Certainly not a new idea - very simple. For it to work at all, Monero's privacy tech is needed to prevent the global deep state from simply cutting off lines of succession before funds can be transferred. Unfortunately, Monero and its community might each have fatal flaws - it's unclear. ### The possible problem with Monero itself If Monero has an inflation exploit that can't be mitigated, then it would fail when this is revealed. It remains to be seen whether this flaw exists at all, but if so, unfixable inflation would be a fatal flaw. The more years go by without such a bug being identified, the less likely it seems that one exists. I say it's already worth a try with how long we've made it so far. ### The possible problem with the community Many Monero proponents pretend it already offers immediate privacy, and this fantasy undermines Monero's ability to help provide actual privacy in the future. We know the percentage of Monero's anonymity set that can be de-anonymized by deep state surveillance tech is far above 0, but we don't know if it is or will ever be below 100. If Monero never lives up to its promise of providing privacy, it can fail because it can be stopped by force. It remains to be seen whether false hype will be a fatal flaw or not. This is the universe testing whether Monero is a sufficiently strong idea to undermine today's brainwashing. If Monero helps people realize they can and should shut down the global deep state surveillance network and start mass-producing electronics without backdoors, people probably can and will do that, and then transactions could really have some assured anonymity. ### Why this matters Most people are cowards, easily driven to work themselves to death by how dangerous it is to stand against the global deep state. As crude oil continues to run out, anyone with any wealth is increasingly faced with 4 choices: 1. Work for the global deep state until they discard you so they'll let you use banking and stuff until then. 2. Work against the global deep state, but manage your own money alone so if they can't take it for themselves, at least you're the only person they have to kill to get rid of it. 3. Work against the global deep state, but entrust close associates to help you manage your money so they'll be targeted too. 4. Work against the global deep state, but entrust the banking system with your money so they can just take it with or without killing you. I live under option 2, and it's one of the reasons I live with a highly elevated risk of being murdered. If I am murdered, my loved ones get very little, because most of my wealth is in wallets they can't recover. My mom's chance at retirement would be pretty much gone with me. But at least, since she can't recover the wallets, she's not another target to go after over the money, as it grows in value. Likewise, I perhaps get some tiny bit of security from the possibility that it might be more useful to have me alive to get money from later, than to kill me with wallets maybe nobody can recover after I'm dead. It's not very effective. The global deep state can just print money freely, as long as people like me don't make it too far in waking up people who are brainwashed enough to use freely-printed money. I tell people they should raise their kids not to file taxes. The deep state wouldn't really care if they can't get my money because I'm dead - they might just do whatever it takes to get rid of me, and make sure my money stops being in the hands of anyone who would use it the way I do. It sucks that I don't have a better choice for my personal security than this. The more wealth you have, the scarier it is to stand against the deep state. The wealthier I get, the scarier it gets. You remember when Warren Buffett called Bitcoin "rat poison" - you know, back when 1 Bitcoin traded for around 150 Uncle Sam Dinobux, up about 150,000% from past lows of 10 cents? You think maybe he's retarded? You think maybe he's a demonic lizard person who just wants you to be poor? He had reason to be upset. The poor old man's brain doesn't want to admit even with all his money, he's a slave. He doesn't quite understand the problem, but he knows Bitcoin promises to solve it for him, and fails. That's instinct. It's dangerous to think it through. It's dangerous to follow that instinct. He could be killed if he follows that instinct. The rat that leaves at the "it's rat poison" instinct lives longer than the rat that investigates further. We Bitcoiners are simply tougher rats. That's not a mockery of Warren Buffett's statement - it's a true extension of what he was saying. Now do you understand him? How much of your money would you have put in Bitcoin at that time if you were Warren Buffett? None? Just a secret little bit, so maybe if the secret gets out there will be huge news headlines and Berkshire Hathaway shareholders arguing about whether it's legal or ethical for you to secretly own this stuff? Just a publicly-announced little bit, announced before buying, so you get worse prices? Or announced after buying, so you're accused of price manipulation, especially if you sell at the higher prices you create, and that effectively means the money is locked? How much actually though? Pick a number. If you picked 10 cents worth of Bitcoin, congratulations. You've just triggered a massive wave of news headlines about the Oracle of Omaha investing in Bitcoin. This will accelerate Bitcoin awareness, and thus accelerate the collapse of the financial empire most of your wealth is in - but you're way ahead of the game because you already have 10 cents worth of Bitcoin. Soon, that 10 cents worth of Bitcoin will be worth more than all the other wealth you have. Not very soon though, if ever, actually, come to think of it. So do you want more? You could go with a whole Bitcoin. That's about $150 - not far from 10 cents for someone as rich as you, but the growth will be significant far sooner. You can still have your friends in the media spin it as a joke, just as easily as you could with a 10 cent purchase, to suppress the Bitcoin-awareness-boosting effect. Is it worth it? Just a bit faster collapse of your multibillion dollar empire, so you can be early with your 1 Bitcoin? Probably not worth it. How about more? 10 Bitcoin? Now it's getting difficult to spin as a joke, but still probably not worth it. 100 Bitcoin? Definitely not a joke. Now you're guaranteeing this is going to be the biggest story on CNBC that day. Did you remember to bribe all 3 branches a big enough amount to convince them to let you collapse their whole system? Too bad, they're laughing at you for thinking you actually had enough money for your bribes to have such a big impact. Some guy is probably on TV talking about how the SEC is investigating you now. They are big mad you didn't give them time to run various crypto scams and think about how to handle various court decisions before triggering an unexpected change in the public narrative. But at least you have 100 Bitcoin. Soon, that will be worth more than all the other wealth you're collapsing to get it this early. Still want more? Want to start filing the paperwork you need to file to resign from Berkshire Hathaway as soon as possible and liquidate every stock you can liquidate for Bitcoin while moving to a country unfriendly with the US military industrial complex? Want to skip the paperwork and just film a Vine saying you're going renegade, then withdraw what you can from bank accounts until they get frozen? Vine is big at this time. That would be epic, but Dairy Queen would still be selling ice cream for dollars in the US, and Charlie Munger would be writing you letters like "why have you foresaken everything we built together, Warren? Remember how we used to roll around in piles of money? What happened to that?" Would it have been better to stay at Berkshire Hathaway, taking the company and its shareholders to war against the central banking cartel? OK. Great. That's what I'd have done, too. We are tougher rats. Don't forget to buy Predator drones while you're buying Bitcoin, because the feds have them, so your army of shareholders will need them. Consider nuclear deterrents as well - maybe that's what it will take, in order to be a serious contender. How does a nuclear deterrent actually work though? It doesn't. If you're going to bring the war criminals running the American military industrial complex to justice, they might as well do a nuclear apocalypse. They don't give a fuck. So what actual deterrent can you rely on against people who have almost enough firepower (and more than enough retardation) to glass the planet? We went over that earlier. You can manage the money yourself, so the deep state can either kill you to get rid of any wallets that can't be recovered without you, or keep you alive and negotiate with you based on your wealth. You can involve others, spreading the pool of possible targets. If you don't have a network of trusted people in very strong positions to resist deep state targeting, that's not a very strong play either. In the bigger picture, they're the ones with the network of trusted people in very strong positions. That's the problem. That's what the global deep state is. So maybe it's just a suicide mission. Maybe, if you're with the wimpy rats who have nukes, you can't just betray them and bring your forces to join the "tougher rats." Maybe the transition isn't going to happen without a better strategy. So it might seem like Bitcoin is just designed to make poor people label themselves as targets for the deep state, in a fake and hopeless conflict over liberty, while wealthy elites are smart enough to instinctively avoid the so-called "rat poison." Instead of buying Bitcoin, maybe Warren Buffett should have started working on analyzing the design and making improvements that would increase Bitcoin's potential usefulness for wealthy people like him. Maybe he should have found a way Bitcoin could have a better chance at defeating the deep state. But you don't have to be Warren Buffett to do that. For example, you could be Nicolas van Saberhagen, thinking about ways a private version of Bitcoin might work someday - Monero. You could be someone like me, a proponent of the simple idea of scheduled Monero transactions, or transaction timers. When Monero becomes private, this would enable someone like Warren Buffett to hold cryptocurrency with self-sovereignty, using the ancient traditional deterrent of the line of succession. The concept is simple: kill me to get rid of my wealth and you clearly have no idea what you're doing, because the wealth is just going to someone else who thinks like me. With a private blockchain, there will sometimes be no way of knowing who. Even without the assurance of privacy, there's already another deterrent: if you kill me and use secret surveillance tools to identify every heir for further targeting, you run the risk of being noticed and inspiring the development of more privacy tech, especially backdoor-free open-source hardware, which could drastically increase the number of Monero users you are unable to de-anonymize in the future. Paragraph crossed out, see comment section for explanation: ~~Ideally, timed or scheduled transactions could be added to a whole new fork launched after some publicity, with no pre-mine (obviously), with a user-friendly Android mining app available on day one. This would serve partly to help drive decentralization, and partly to help enable significant holdings for low-income late adopters of other cryptocurrencies, making the space less discouraging for late adopters to join in overall, and thus potentially eating away much faster at deep state dollar dominance.~~

@ 6bae33c8:607272e8

I flew to New York from Lisbon yesterday, landing in Newark just as the early wave of games were kicking off. I caught five minutes of the Giants game which was on the airport TV in the immigration line and maybe 40 minutes of the red zone channel for the late games at Heather’s aunt’s house. Basically, I didn’t see very much of the live action, though I was tracking scores and stats from my phone. In fact, the reason I have time to write this is I’m jetlagged, woke up at 4:30 (which is 9:30 Lisbon time), and now that it’s six and I can’t get back to sleep, Figured I might as well take advantage of it. Of course, I went 5-0 ATS in Circa now that I’m mathematically drawing dead. I picked five home favorites, giving zero Fs, and the Chargers, Chiefs, Ravens, Bengals and Colts all covered. I’d like to bottle that mindset and open it next season. My playoff NFFC team scored 180 points, thanks to the Falcons defense and Eagles kicker, but it’s not enough given the meager Week 16 showing. My Steak League team has 128 points with Xavier McKinney going tonight, so I’m still on pace (narrowly) to be an eater, but I can’t fall asleep at the switch the last two weeks. - I didn’t watch the Saturday games, either, but why were the Chiefs only 3.5-point home favorites over the Texans? I assumed the line was that low only because Patrick Mahomes was iffy, but that wasn’t the case because it never moved even after they said he’d play. - With Xavier Worthy getting 11 targets, and Hollywood Brown eight, it’s going to be hard to decide who among those two, DeAndre Hopkins and Travis Kelce is likely to produce in any given week. Same with Kareem Hunt/Isiah Pacheco. - Tank Dell had a good game before dislocating his kneecap, but he’d been one of the bigger busts this year. I know small receivers have thrived in the NFL of late but 165 pounds is probably below the minimum threshold. - The Steelers just don’t have enough juice to matchup with the AFC’s top teams. The Ravens are the best team in the AFC IMO, but they’ll likely have to win in Buffalo and Kansas City to prove it. - “12-inch” had modest numbers against the Giants, but when your defense scores two TDs, you mostly just hand the ball off. I didn’t get to see the Falcons on offense, so I have no “eye test” on 12-inch (thankfully), but he’ll get a real audition next week at Washington in what’s actually an important game with the Falcons in first place now (they have the tie-break over the Bucs.) Should they beat the Killer Redskins they’ll be favored to win the division as they draw the Panthers in Week 18. - The Gians keep losing and now have the inside track for the No. 1 pick after the Raiders beat the Jaguars. I’m nervous about the QBs at the top of the board. I assume they’ll take one of them, but I’d rather they trade down for a bunch of picks if they have a taker. - The Lions got closer to securing the No. 1 seed after the Eagles lost, but they have a tough last two games (@SF, MIN) while the Eagles get the Cowboys and Giants at home. The Lions have the better conference record, and Jalen Hurts is concussed, so they’re probably in the clear against them. Of course, the Vikings are also 13-2, and they play in Detroit Week 18. But that game would be moot if the Vikings don’t beat the Packers next week. - Keenan Allen has been big the last five games. Wonder where he gets drafted next year at age 33. - Dorian Thompson-Robinson was a surrender move by the Browns. - I love that the Bengals got Ja’Marr Chase that gratuitous late TD. Seems like Joe Burrow is trying to pad his stats in what might be a season (and contract) for the ages. - The Colts found the formula — unleash Jonathan Taylor, let Anthony Richardson make plays with his legs and attempt only 11 passes. Of course, you don’t get the Titans every week. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Colts commit to Richardson as their starter this offseaon. - I heard there was some drama with Aaron Rodgers and the Jets yesterday, but I’m too lazy to track it down. He won’t be there next year, and the Jets are a cursed franchise anyway. - The Rams are in first place in the West, a crazy turn of events given where they were when they lost Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua. This is good for the league because they’re the only team in that division with a puncher’s chance against the Lions, Vikings, Eagles and Packers. - Kupp had another dreadful fantasy game. He was the worst pick in the draft this year because not only did he miss time with injuries, he virtually ensured you could not advance to the finals in the playoffs. - The Killer Redskins made a great comeback against the Eagles behind a monster game from Jayden Daniels, but it was the Kenny Pickett Eagles. The Eagles might not rush Hurts back as they’re probably the No. 2 seed now regardless, and they get the Giants in Week 18. - Saquon Barkley now has 1,838 yards with two games to go. Two 100-yard games put him at fifth all time on the single-season list, while two 140-yard games give him the all-time record, albeit in 17 games. He draws the Cowboys and Giants. - The Panthers and Cardinals had a 36-30 overtime shootout with no special teams or defensive TDs where the leading receiver in the game was a running back who had 49 yards. - Sam Darnold was always athletic and could make the throws, but he’s really cleaned up the mistakes this year and is playing with a top-10 all-time receiver. If the Vikings were to beat the Packers next week and the Lions in Detroit, and Darnold were to have two more monster games, he'd deserve MVP consideration as the QB of the 15-2 top seed. Funny if that happened the year Barkley broke the all-time rushing record, given the Barkley-Darnold debate around the No.2 pick in 2018. And the other two MVP candidates were QBs drafted that year (Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.) - The Pats really hung with the Bills even though they gifted Buffalo a TD on a botched lateral to Rhamondre Stevenson. Probably just a letdown game after the Bills big win in Detroit. - The Raiders bothered to win and knock themselves out of the top pick. Could be a blessing in disguise though as the Jets did that five years ago and dodged the Trevor Lawrence bullet. (They are a cursed franchise though so they took the Zach Wilson one anyway.) - I know nothing about college football, but it’s amazing to me the Jayden Daniels, Brian Thomas, Malik Nabers LSU team last year didn’t even come close to winning the National Championship, that there were college defenses that apparently stopped them. - The Dolphins finally fixed the running game, but not Tyreek Hill. - The Cooper Rush Cowboys might have just spoiled the Buccaneers season. They might be saving Mike McCarthy’s job too, something they may come to regret. - Rico Dowdle had been beating up on bad run defenses but got stopped in his tracks by a stout one. - Bucky Irving could be a top-five back next year. I know the GigaRachaad is there, but Irving is a far better runner and also a capable pass catcher. - You think you’ll lose interest in the NFL when most of your teams and pools are dead, but there’s always something drawing you back. In fact sometimes it’s more enjoyable when you don’t care as much.

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

A couple of months ago, one of our guys was at the office talking about his amazing experience in Latvia 15 years ago and, surprise, surprise, thanks to the “magic” of targeting on the internet, we discovered that there was going to be a Bitcoin conference in Riga so… Why not go? We became super excited on that, because this trip was going to represent the return of long haul travelling after the COVID Pan(Scam)demic, plus a huge opportunity of going deeper into the rabbit hole and keep learning about the only real money and meeting like minded people of the community to keep improving our knowledge. So without any doubt, we bought the conference and plane tickets, we booked an airbnb place in the centre of Riga (BTW amazing host), and we started the journey to a couple of days of intense learning. **Table Of Content** - Day1: Spanish meetup at Basement bar - Day2: Layer 2 Day, in a warehouse! - Day3: Conference first session plus afterparty! - Day4: Conference second session and Nostr party! - Day5: Drinking coffee at the airport next to… - Conclusions - FAQ **Day1: Spanish meetup at Basement bar** After arriving in Riga coming from different destinations, we had a bitter sweet sensation: one of our guy’s luggage had been lost by Air Baltic. This didn’t stop our plans, so after making the claim, we jumped into a Bolt (Latvian version of Uber/Grab/Didi) and we headed to our airbnb. The first day had already started with “Noob Day” -basically explaining the basics of Bitcoin- but we weren’t able to make it, so we had a little rest and went to the Spanish Meetup at Basement Bar. Some of our guys speak the language of the FIFA World Champions (Men & Women), so there was a nice opportunity to interact with the Spanish speaking bitcoin community. We thought that was gonna be only drinks and chat but no: one of the organisers “Luna” proposed something interesting: he picked up 4 chairs, but only 3 people were allowed to be seated. The people on the chairs started discussing some topic, and if someone in the audience thought that they had some authority to talk about it, he/she could sit in the empty chair and one of the previous ones would have to stand up. This activity led to some interesting talks, like current situation of bitcoin in spanish speaking region (specially in Argentina where the most likely to be next president Javier Milei seems to be a pro bitcoin political -we will discuss more in other article-), what is going to trigger the massive adoption, and how bitcoin has helped us to understand the world and cope with uncertainty times like the COVID19 lockdowns and restrictions. Of course, during the talk, you were able to buy amazing drinks and local beers…. Using the power of lightning network and paying with SATS! **Day2: Layer 2 Day, in a warehouse!** When we arrived at the venue of the Day 2, we thought we were wrong: from the outside, it was a warehouse that was fully dedicated to collecting donations for Ukraine. But inside the magic was there: a stage, chairs and a projection screen ready to show us how deep the rabbit hole is. The exhibitors were showing multiple applications built for bitcoin layer 2: mostly wallets, and other ones that we barely understood. Even though we understand the tech basis of bitcoin, the exhibitors were at another level of knowledge and we had to do a super huge effort in order to understand a bit of what they were exposing. We really felt like noobs, but this motivated us to learn more: in the upcoming weeks we will be doing more research to understand what they were talking about. In the venue you were able to buy coffee and food… using SATS, and we met the one and only “Bitcoineta”: a van that travels around europe with two argentinians on board, on the quest of educating people about bitcoin. Inside of the ban they have a wall with autographs of the OGs (Michael Saylor signature is there) and also with another sector dedicated to the “Plebs”. The van is fully plotted with bitcoin artwork made by an amazing artist and has slogans like “Bitcoin is Hope”. We learned that this van is a project that started in Argentina, and besides Argentinean and European ones there is another “Bitcoineta” in South Africa. The guys are super friendly and let everyone take pictures of the van. We hope we can release an article about this in the future. We had to leave the meeting early because the luggage of our friend was going to be delivered, plus, that was going to be the only day dedicated to walking around the city, before the real conference started. **Day3: Conference first session plus afterparty!** So finally the “official” conference started on saturday. The venue was amazing. There were 3 stages - **Main stage:** where mainstream topics were presented, with live streaming for all over the world. - **POW stage:** also streamed. On this stage there were live demos of developments like wallets and nostr apps. - **Cypherpunk stage:** here was the place where the most controversial topics were spoken. For that reason this one was not streamed and you were warned not to take photos or videos to respect privacy. If you were caught doing this, you would be escorted out of the venue and banned from Baltic Honeybadger FOREVER! Outside the conference you could find nice food trucks where to buy delicious meals and pay with SATS! All the exhibitions were amazing, but the best ones where: - “The Problem of Bitcoin Midwits”, by Giacomo Zucco, very funny, full of memes to start the day. - “The Financialization of Bitcoin: The Good, the Bad, the Inevitable”, by Dylan Leclair, exposing with analytics the problem of US debt and how Bitcoin is here to change the game - “When 100K?”, a panel with Tuur Deemester, Dylan Leclair, Adam Back, Rahim Taghizadegan. In this panel, Adam Back said that Bitcoin will reach 100k before halving! Also there were amazing chats in the Cypherpunk stage, but respecting the privacy we will not disclose. After the day 1, an amazing afterparty was held in the venue, with open bar, where you can pick up drinks and do networking with other “honeybadgers” **Day4: Conference second session and Nostr party!** Second “official” conference day was another blast. We were also able to explore the venue and to check the exhibitors. Even though there were not too many stands, all of the ones were interesting. Our favourite was the mempool one. Talking about the talks we attend, our favourites of the day were: - ” Bitcoin Empowers Africa and Africans Empower Bitcoin”, by Anita Posch, a super inspiring speech about how Bitcoin is giving hope to unbanked African communities, and how teaching people about Bitcoin can lead to a better world. - ”Building on Nostr”, by Jeff Gardner, literally building a web app to ask questions using Nostr. Really entertaining, because we asked our own questions through the platform. - ”The Hidden Hamster Wheel in your mind”, by Rob Brinded, even though the final was not too clear, showed us interesting things about how our mind sometimes plays against ourselves. - ”The fiat crisis”, by Balaji (remotely), a deep dive into history and how we have arrived at the current crisis. Unfortunately, we were tired and our flight the following morning was too early, so we couldn’t go to the Nostr party **Day5: Drinking coffee at the airport next to…** On the way back home, we were having a coffee at the airport next to the gate before boarding when we saw that next to us had just sat the one and only Adam Back. Incredible how this man (Satoshi Nakamoto maybe?), that probably without other people changed the world and was involved in the genesis of Bitcoin, was walking around with total humbleness and not being recognized by anyone. This is the philosophy of bitcoin: stay humble, stack sats. **Conclusions** Baltic Honeybadger 2023 was a blast, it exceeded our expectations about the conference. The quality of the speakers, the deep topics discussed plus the beauty of Riga made it unique and amazing, and worth the time and money invested. We learned a lot about Bitcoin from the real OGs of the space, knowledge that we will be putting for our readers in our newsletter in the upcoming sessions. If you want to learn about Bitcoin, you need to study and educate yourself, because no school is going to teach about a tool that makes you really free, so the best way is to invest time and money and attend the conferences where the people who know the most about a topic speak! **FAQ** **Is the Baltic Honeybadger hosted every year?** Yes, this conference started a couple of years ago, was stopped because of COVID restrictions and returned in 2022. And we can’t wait to be there again in 2024. **What are the upcoming Bitcoin Conferences?** The biggest Bitcoin events in the upcoming months will be: Bitcoin Indonesia in October (our team is going), Nostrasia in Tokyo and Hong Kong during November (will be mostly about Nostr) and next year in March will be the Bitcoin Conference in Madeira, Portugal (Where CR7 was born, we don’t know if he will attend, but as Messi plays in a team which promotes a shitcoin, he should:p) **Do they talk about other coins?** No way! As it’s stated on their website “Not promoting crypto, various so-called altcoins, tokens and other blockchain-based "snake oil"”. So only and pure bitcoin content by OGs. At the end of the day, there is no second beest. **That's all for today** **If you want more, be sure to follow us on:** **NOSTR: croxroad@getalby.com** **X: [@croxroadnews](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.*

@ 7776c32d:45558888

I am submitting another Monero dev bounty on bounties.monero.social for a much more ambitious project than my last one (which is still in progress, for nostr wallet bot setup tooling). It all started with the Nintedo 64. It's a 64-bit desktop computer that can run modern-day 64-bit Linux, but most owners do not have a keyboard and mouse for it - only a controller. On the bright side, it has no ethernet port or wireless card to introduce internet-connected backdoors. There are also other, older systems with no internet connectivity; the 64 is just special for its Linux compatibility. Importantly, many old game systems like this have been mass-produced, sold worldwide, and maintained by collectors, ensuring continued availability will outlast today's empires. Despite the difficulty of inputting text using gamepad controls, this category of system is ideal for air-gapped wallets; however, this bounty is starting smaller and more general-purpose than that. The point is to generate seed phrases and associated public and private keys, while providing good safety advice, and helping people learn. # The development bounty Link to the bounty page at bounties.monero.social - https://bounties.monero.social/posts/168/gamepad-controlled-cryptographic-multitool-with-offline-wallet-address-generator Since this project is nostr-related, I am also making this thread on nostr, so that nostr users can have their input included. Here are the details of the bounty, which can also be viewed at the link I've provided. # Bounty details ## Native platform requirements * The app must be tested to work on a common vintage game system (mainline Nintendo or equivalent popularity), using its standard controller or handheld controls (this makes this bounty stupidly difficult, I'm sorry) * The newest consoles you can target are "5th generation" (N64 or equivalent) or, if you want to do a handheld, GBA or lesser is fine (the point is equivalence of capabilities, not actual release year) * Optionally, the app can work with any keyboard attachment available for the selected system, but it still has to also be usable with the standard controls * The app must also be tested to work on Linux or Android (either one is fine) * If your solution does not run natively on Linux or Android, then it just needs to work in at least one open source Nintendo emulator for Linux or Android (either one is fine) * If your solution involves running Linux on a Nintendo 64, you do have to confirm it works on typical Linux or Android devices without the emulator (again, either one is fine) I do not want to lend indirect support to a specific corporate brand, and I strongly respect that others in this community might be suspicious that looks like what I'm doing by mentioning Nintendo products. Thus, non-Nintendo systems with similar limitations, anywhere from a Commodore 64 to a PlayStation, could be accepted as alternatives. However, I am not mentioning Nintendo to support Nintendo - their systems simply seem to be the only ones that have all of the following benefits: * Competed significantly with the sales numbers for a mainline Nintendo system in the US and worldwide * Complicated wording because it's a very particular thing: these systems were sold at a time when the US surveillance state might have accepted a more limited level of invasiveness for the backdoor vulnerabilities required in electronic products marketed to American consumers, if the products were understood by Americans to be toys for running games, and not used by adults to run code for serious purposes * These products were indeed understood by Americans to be toys for running games, and not used by adults to run code for serious purposes * Ostensibly no built-in networking, wireless functionality, cameras, microphones, speakers * Continuing to be sold and bought very actively by a large number of gamers, for gaming purposes; this makes it somewhat ineffficient to target the entire market with [random shipment interceptions, to plant backdoors blindly](https://web.archive.org/web/20240529000526/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/12/glenn-greenwald-nsa-tampers-us-internet-routers-snowden), hoping to catch things other than gameplay * Already wide support for loading unlicensed games; even if a mod chip or custom loadable cartridge is needed, gamers buy these things to run games, so it can't be assumed that these mod chips or custom cartridges are being used for cryptography purposes every time they're purchased * Last but not least, these systems have open-source emulators readily available for all major platforms (or, in the case of N64 Linux, a convenient way to bypass any emulator for cross-compatibility) Many systems meet parts of these criteria, and would be useful even if they don't hit every point on the list. The examples I gave before - a Commodore 64 and a PlayStation - miss many of these points, yet they would still be awesome. Nonetheless, these criteria seem to make a Nintendo 64 or similar ideal to start with, before extending the functionality onto other systems, to increase overall availability even further. On the other hand, some of these factors are vital criteria, such as the lack of built-in surveillance equipment (even speakers are just inverse microphones). I've provided this information to help an informed choice be made, so I'll leave the final selection in the community's hands. Just keep it equivalent to these old systems, or ideally, pick one of them. Additional note: I'm also not sure mentioning Nintendo here actually benefits them as a corporation. The brand should benefit, in that it becomes a more useful name and logo for a stronger corporation to potentially own; but that doesn't mean the current corporation benefits from so-called ownership of a name and logo they might not even be allowed to trade for a few Monero, let alone fully utilize. ## Simplified list of functions * Promote the development of knowledge and experience for users working with cryptographic tools (including but not limited to Monero and other cryptocurrency) * Mine for "vanity keys" (wallet addresses and nostr pubkeys matching given text strings) * Handle UTF-8 text input somehow, probably an on-screen keyboard navigated using the controller * Guide users through generating more well-randomized seed phrases by hand * Convert text to and from binary using text encoding schemes such as Unicode (might seem like a silly toy thing to include, but this helps familiarize people with the general concept of converting chunks of digital data between different formats) * Convert data to QR codes (inverse not required because most old Nintendos do not have cameras) * Convert text and binary from plain to encrypted form, and vice versa, in accordance with well-regarded encryption algorithms * Convert random input to seed phrase * Convert seed phrases to nostr keypairs and BIP-39 wallet addresses * Configure these conversions as preset settings, editable by the user to configure custom wallet address derivation paths, seed phrase standards, encryption algorithms, etc * Include presets for generating wallet addresses for at least the following cryptocurrencies: Monero (XMR), doggie coin (DOGE), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC) * Include UTF-8 and ASCII as presets for binary text encoding ## Detailed information All of the information listed in this section must be provided to users where specified, but you can rephrase it or expand on it as long as your changes strengthen the informational value. Copying and pasting from me, or asking me to revise or expand what I've written for your use, is also fine. ### Main menu splash At the main menu, display a random security tip from a list of tips like "did you compile this from the source code yourself?" and "have you considered using an off-grid power source to make sure you're disconnected from any grid-based backdoors?" Actually make sure those 2 are in the list. Other than that, you can use some existing list of tips you find online, or make a list yourself, or ask me or others for help, or whatever you want. This is kind of like Minecraft's main menu splash text, which also gets randomly selected from a list of possible strings. ### Encrypting and decrypting text When encrypting and decrypting text, convey to the user that the term "end to end encryption" has become a marketing term widely used to gaslight the public in the age of security theatre, and what the user is doing only counts as "end to end encryption" if they have good reason to be sure their game system has no leakpoints/backdoors, and neither does the device of anyone the user is exchanging messages with. ### Keygen Points to convey at the beginning of the process of generating a key: * When a process requires some randomized data, that piece of data is called a "seed;" * for example, a "seed phrase" is a sequence of words that translate to a random binary sequence, often used to calculate wallet addresses; * random number generation is hard for computers or humans alone, so the most secure software generates random numbers by mixing user input with electronic algorithms, which means a wallet's final seed is generated from a precursor seed of user input * the precursor seed is often invisible to the user, collected from something like mouse movements which they might not notice, but more transparently involving the user can help teach them more about security and user safety * old-fashioned random number generators, such as dice, can be far more reliable and secure than contemporary electronic mechanisms, so it's also a good idea for secure software to allow users to turn to these outside sources of randomness When generating a key, offer these 3 options, where the tradeoffs are made clear to the user: * the user can ignore security to automatically mine for a "vanity seed" matching a special wallet address and/or npub; * middle ground, the user can use their device to manually generate user input for a random seed; * maximum user control, the user can be guided through the process of generating their seed phrase using an antique technology such as dice When manually generating a key using dice or similar, the user can enter a binary sequence to have it converted to a seed phrase. At this stage, convey these points: * the user can instead print out a list of seed words and keep this step independent if they want; * although there are many entries in the list of seed words, it takes surprisingly little paper to print a list with that many single-word entries at a readable font size; * the checksum would be the hardest part without electronics When a seed phrase is generated, don't offer the user any option for what to do with it except delete it and return to the main menu. Make these points available for the user to read about: * the user should save the seed using a non-electronic method such as paper; * if the seed is or might become essential to avoid losing, backing it up would be ideal; * backing it up might be too risky for individuals facing unusually high levels of surveillance or unusual risk of theft; * this risk might be addressed using miltisig, or simply split-up segments of a seed, or memorizing a seed phrase without keeping it written down; * random word sequences this long are much harder to remember than actual sentences, and relying on memory has a very high rate of failure; * when using memory to store crypto wallet keys, it's called a "brain wallet," and it's known for being very dangerous and a bad idea in most cases; * only long seed phrases can be partly exposed and still have enough randomness remaining for protection, it's probably not a good idea to split up a 12-word seed into multiple segments for security; * your keys are yours to protect - users should look for more information beyond what any app explains, and take time to think about how they personally want to secure any important seed When manually adding derivation paths for wallet addresses, stress to the user that it's dangerous af and they better get it exactly right and actually just still not even use it because it's too risky to be worth it. When generating wallet addresses, convey to the user that this app does not yet have actual wallet functionality and cannot connect to the blockchain to verify a test transaction, so if the user is planning to just blindly deposit large amounts to wallet addresses generated here without any testing, that's so metal and hardcore af ### QR codes When generating QR codes for any purpose, wallet address or otherwise, always convey to the user that pointing one device's camera at another device's screen, or even the light cast by it, could allow hidden backdoors to transfer data beyond what the user intends to transfer. For example, a screen could encode data in microscopic changes of brightness, detectable by a camera, but not noticeable to the human eye. Thus, for the most high-security level of air-gapping, one should consider using pen and paper (copied multiple times and triple-checked) for data transfer, while keeping sensitive electronics as isolated as possible from camera phones, or ideally as isolated as possible from other electronics in general. ## Text encoding support requirements * Confirm all ASCII characters convert to and from binary successfully (UTF-8 would probably be impossible to hit 100% on) * Confirm UTF-8 braille characters render successfully (because these characters are inadvertently functional as an image encoding method) ⣴⡿⠶⠀⠀⠀⣦⣀⣴⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⣿⡄⠀⠀⣠⣾⠛⣿⠛⣷⠀⠿⣦ ⠙⣷⣦⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⠀⣴⣿ ⠀⣸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣾⠿⠋⠁ ⠀⣿⣿⣿⠿⡿⣿⣿⡿⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⢸⣿⡋⠀⠀⠀⢹⣿⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⣿⡟⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠸⠇ When using the text encoding functionality, which converts text between encoding standards like ASCII and UTF-8, it would also be good to include a reminder that the user's keyboard and other system components are encoded in UTF-8. ## A suggestion This isn't a firm requirement, but if possible, please allow the user's choice from at least the following 2 color schemes: black background with green text, and pale yellow background with black/gray text. For some idea of what "pale yellow" means, something like HTML color code feffb2 would be good. ## Roadmap of future plans to avoid for now Devs on bounties.monero.social sometimes go above and beyond what's requested in a bounty. That's truly awesome, but in this case, the limits of this project are intentional; please do not skip past the scope of the bounty too widely. You can go beyond the scope if you wish, but along the way, it would still be ideal to do a minimalist release to suit this bounty's requirements specifically. I hope this bounty is more than challenging enough to begin with - as a non-coder, it seems to me like it should already be extremely difficult. I intend to do (smaller) future bounties for expansion of this project. Ideally these expansions should take the form of patches, all compatible with each other, and the minimalist original version. Thus, different versions of the app, with different capabilities, could be configured - and their security analyzed separately. Here are some specific bounties and ideas I would want to see added later, but not in the minimalist version, to save on lines of code in the minimalist security analysis. * Bounty for a patch that adds air-gapped wallet functionality, where the app can actually interface with the blockchain to do transactions, by using pen and paper to transfer data between the Nintendo and a different machine with an internet connection * Bounty for a patch that adds air-gapped nostr functionality, where the app can generate signed nostr events and encrypt/decrypt direct messages, and a "sister app" handles the exchange of data on an internet-connected system * Bounty for a patch to enhance text handling by adding clipboard functions (highlight/cut/copy/paste) * Include a clipboard history view (clearly warning the user that the Nintendo has no storage, and this is only a temporary history, lasting until the system is reset) * Bounty for a patch that expands data transfer methods by adding support for some kind of peripheral data interface such as a memory card slot * Allow encryption and decryption of heavier data formats than text, such as images, if some kind of peripheral provides a better data interface than pen-and-paper / on-screen keyboard * If the selected device ever had a camera attachment available, a bounty for a patch that adds support for the camera (QR code scanning, image capturing, maybe converting images to Unicode braille art) * Bounty for a patch that hides this entire app inside of whatever game had the most copies produced for the selected Nintendo system (not against copyright to release as a patch) * Bounties for identical functionality on other systems In addition to all these goals, it would also be good to have a large number of native cartridges produced someday, containing this software, after some time for the open-source community to review and revise first.

@ 1cb14ab3:95d52462

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@ a367f9eb:0633efea

I’ll admit that I was wrong about Bitcoin. Perhaps in 2013. Definitely 2017. Probably in 2018-2019. And maybe even today. Being wrong about Bitcoin is part of finally understanding it. It will test you, make you question everything, and in the words of BTC educator and privacy advocate [Matt Odell](https://twitter.com/ODELL), “Bitcoin will humble you”. I’ve had my own stumbles on the way. In a very public fashion in 2017, after years of using Bitcoin, trying to start a company with it, using it as my primary exchange vehicle between currencies, and generally being annoying about it at parties, I let out the bear. In an article published in my own literary magazine *Devolution Review* in September 2017, I had a breaking point. The article was titled “[Going Bearish on Bitcoin: Cryptocurrencies are the tulip mania of the 21st century](https://www.devolutionreview.com/bearish-on-bitcoin/)”. It was later republished in *Huffington Post* and across dozens of financial and crypto blogs at the time with another, more appropriate title: “[Bitcoin Has Become About The Payday, Not Its Potential](https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/bitcoin-has-become-about-the-payday-not-its-potential_ca_5cd5025de4b07bc72973ec2d)”. As I laid out, my newfound bearishness had little to do with the technology itself or the promise of Bitcoin, and more to do with the cynical industry forming around it: > In the beginning, Bitcoin was something of a revolution to me. The digital currency represented everything from my rebellious youth. > > It was a decentralized, denationalized, and digital currency operating outside the traditional banking and governmental system. It used tools of cryptography and connected buyers and sellers across national borders at minimal transaction costs. > > … > > The 21st-century version (of Tulip mania) has welcomed a plethora of slick consultants, hazy schemes dressed up as investor possibilities, and too much wishy-washy language for anything to really make sense to anyone who wants to use a digital currency to make purchases. While I called out Bitcoin by name at the time, on reflection, I was really talking about the ICO craze, the wishy-washy consultants, and the altcoin ponzis. What I was articulating — without knowing it — was the frame of NgU, or “numbers go up”. Rather than advocating for Bitcoin because of its uncensorability, proof-of-work, or immutability, the common mentality among newbies and the dollar-obsessed was that Bitcoin mattered because its price was a rocket ship. And because Bitcoin was gaining in price, affinity tokens and projects that were imperfect forks of Bitcoin took off as well. The price alone — rather than its qualities — were the reasons why you’d hear Uber drivers, finance bros, or your gym buddy mention Bitcoin. As someone who came to Bitcoin for philosophical reasons, that just sat wrong with me. Maybe I had too many projects thrown in my face, or maybe I was too frustrated with the UX of Bitcoin apps and sites at the time. No matter what, I’ve since learned something. **I was at least somewhat wrong.** My own journey began in early 2011. One of my favorite radio programs, Free Talk Live, began interviewing guests and having discussions on the potential of Bitcoin. They tied it directly to a libertarian vision of the world: free markets, free people, and free banking. That was me, and I was in. Bitcoin was at about $5 back then (NgU). I followed every article I could, talked about it with guests [on my college radio show](https://libertyinexile.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/osamobama_on_the_tubes/), and became a devoted redditor on r/Bitcoin. At that time, at least to my knowledge, there was no possible way to buy Bitcoin where I was living. Very weak. **I was probably wrong. And very wrong for not trying to acquire by mining or otherwise.** The next year, after moving to Florida, Bitcoin was a heavy topic with a friend of mine who shared the same vision (and still does, according to the Celsius bankruptcy documents). We talked about it with passionate leftists at **Occupy Tampa** in 2012, all the while trying to explain the ills of Keynesian central banking, and figuring out how to use Coinbase. I began writing more about Bitcoin in 2013, writing a guide on “[How to Avoid Bank Fees Using Bitcoin](http://thestatelessman.com/2013/06/03/using-bitcoin/),” discussing its [potential legalization in Germany](https://yael.ca/2013/10/01/lagefi-alternative-monetaire-et-legislation-de/), and interviewing Jeremy Hansen, [one of the first political candidates in the U.S. to accept Bitcoin donations](https://yael.ca/2013/12/09/bitcoin-politician-wants-to-upgrade-democracy-in/). Even up until that point, I thought Bitcoin was an interesting protocol for sending and receiving money quickly, and converting it into fiat. The global connectedness of it, plus this cypherpunk mentality divorced from government control was both useful and attractive. I thought it was the perfect go-between. **But I was wrong.** When I gave my [first public speech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtVypq2f0G4) on Bitcoin in Vienna, Austria in December 2013, I had grown obsessed with Bitcoin’s adoption on dark net markets like Silk Road. My theory, at the time, was the number and price were irrelevant. The tech was interesting, and a novel attempt. It was unlike anything before. But what was happening on the dark net markets, which I viewed as the true free market powered by Bitcoin, was even more interesting. I thought these markets would grow exponentially and anonymous commerce via BTC would become the norm. While the price was irrelevant, it was all about buying and selling goods without permission or license. **Now I understand I was wrong.** Just because Bitcoin was this revolutionary technology that embraced pseudonymity did not mean that all commerce would decentralize as well. It did not mean that anonymous markets were intended to be the most powerful layer in the Bitcoin stack. What I did not even anticipate is something articulated very well by noted Bitcoin OG [Pierre Rochard](https://twitter.com/BitcoinPierre): [Bitcoin as a *savings technology*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BavRqEoaxjI)*.* The ability to maintain long-term savings, practice self-discipline while stacking stats, and embrace a low-time preference was just not something on the mind of the Bitcoiners I knew at the time. Perhaps I was reading into the hype while outwardly opposing it. Or perhaps I wasn’t humble enough to understand the true value proposition that many of us have learned years later. In the years that followed, I bought and sold more times than I can count, and I did everything to integrate it into passion projects. I tried to set up a company using Bitcoin while at my university in Prague. My business model depended on university students being technologically advanced enough to have a mobile wallet, own their keys, and be able to make transactions on a consistent basis. Even though I was surrounded by philosophically aligned people, those who would advance that to actually put Bitcoin into practice were sparse. This is what led me to proclaim that “[Technological Literacy is Doomed](https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/technological-literacy-is-doomed_b_12669440)” in 2016. **And I was wrong again.** Indeed, since that time, the UX of Bitcoin-only applications, wallets, and supporting tech has vastly improved and onboarded millions more people than anyone thought possible. The entrepreneurship, coding excellence, and vision offered by Bitcoiners of all stripes have renewed a sense in me that this project is something built for us all — friends and enemies alike. While many of us were likely distracted by flashy and pumpy altcoins over the years (me too, champs), most of us have returned to the Bitcoin stable. Fast forward to today, there are entire ecosystems of creators, activists, and developers who are wholly reliant on the magic of Bitcoin’s protocol for their life and livelihood. The options are endless. The FUD is still present, but real proof of work stands powerfully against those forces. In addition, there are now [dozens of ways to use Bitcoin privately](https://fixthemoney.substack.com/p/not-your-keys-not-your-coins-claiming) — still without custodians or intermediaries — that make it one of the most important assets for global humanity, especially in dictatorships. This is all toward a positive arc of innovation, freedom, and pure independence. Did I see that coming? Absolutely not. Of course, there are probably other shots you’ve missed on Bitcoin. Price predictions (ouch), the short-term inflation hedge, or the amount of institutional investment. While all of these may be erroneous predictions in the short term, we have to realize that Bitcoin is a long arc. It will outlive all of us on the planet, and it will continue in its present form for the next generation. **Being wrong about the evolution of Bitcoin is no fault, and is indeed part of the learning curve to finally understanding it all.** When your family or friends ask you about Bitcoin after your endless sessions explaining market dynamics, nodes, how mining works, and the genius of cryptographic signatures, try to accept that there is still so much we have to learn about this decentralized digital cash. There are still some things you’ve gotten wrong about Bitcoin, and plenty more you’ll underestimate or get wrong in the future. That’s what makes it a beautiful journey. It’s a long road, but one that remains worth it.

@ c69b71dc:426ba763

# **Christ** Consciousness This text invites you to explore the deeper meaning of the winter season and the birth of Christ Consciousness—beyond religion and dogma. It is about inner reflection, spiritual insight, and the connection of body, mind, and soul, inspired by the ancient symbols of light, energy, and consciousness. Here, I highlight how the symbolism that religions and biblical texts often convey in a material sense actually holds a much deeper meaning—one that can help us awaken our life energy and unlock our full potential. Christmas is far more significant than gifts, family, food, and Christmas trees. ## **Winter** Solstice The winter solstice marks a turning point in the annual cycle. On December 21st, the sun reaches its southernmost point, and we experience the longest night of the year. While our physical body feels the need to rest and turn inward, our psychic and astral energies unfold. Especially between December 21st and 25th, everything seems to enter a standby mode, creating space for profound reflection and spiritual renewal. During this darkest time of the year, a kind of inner birth occurs—a birth of the spirit, conceived in the deep silence of the night. It is a moment of introspection, contemplation, and realignment.  ## **The** Twelve Holy Nights: A Time for Retreat and Reflection With the winter solstice, the Twelve Holy Nights (Rauhnächte) begin—a mystical time between the years. These days invite us to turn inward, rest, and connect with our soul. It is a time when physical relaxation and spiritual growth go hand in hand. Advent sets the stage for this phase—each lit candle symbolically represents a chakra, starting with the lower energy centers. By the fourth Advent, the light reaches our heart chakra, a place of love, peace, and connection. ## **Symbolism** Across Different Traditions This energy is also reflected in Judaism: the festival of Hanukkah lasts for eight days, during which a new candle is lit each day. This practice can be seen as a symbolic journey through the chakras, gradually activating and harmonizing them. Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, stands for the liberation from material and spiritual blockages, the strengthening and activation of energy centers, and the connection to the divine. We learn that there are no separations because we are the divine. ## **The** Sacred Flow of Life: The Claustrum and Inner Alchemy The term "Claustrum," referring to an occult area in the brain, holds deep symbolic and physical significance. The Claustrum is located between the pineal gland and the pituitary gland and secretes a special fluid known as "Christos." This fluid flows through the spinal cord down to the sacrum. The sacrum, derived from the Latin word "sacrum," meaning "sacred," represents this "sacred oil" flow. It symbolizes an inner alchemical process: nourishing the body and soul, enhancing consciousness, and bridging the physical and spiritual realms. `Interestingly, this process is depicted in ancient myths: Santa Claus, or Saint Nicholas, descending the chimney to deliver gifts, can be interpreted as a metaphor for the Claustrum and the flow of sacred essence. The gifts represent the awakened consciousness born from this process.`  ## **The** Journey of Christ Consciousness Christ Consciousness, often symbolized by the birth of Jesus, is understood in spiritual teachings as an internal process. The fluid from the Claustrum reaches the sacrum and then ascends to activate the pineal and pituitary glands, spreading out from there. During this process, it passes through the 33 vertebrae of the spine—a reference to the age of 33 when Jesus was crucified. During the "crucifixion" of this sacred oil, it becomes "suspended" in the region of the thalamus for two to three days before illuminating the pineal and pituitary glands. This process leads to profound spiritual renewal and heightened consciousness, often referred to as the awakening of Kundalini energy. ## Nutrition and Spirituality Our diet has a direct influence on this process. Heavy, fatty, or animal-based foods can energetically dull us and block the flow of the "sacred essence." A light, plant-based diet rich in fresh juices, sprouts, and raw foods supports energy flow and spiritual growth. Animal products, drugs, and excessive fats disrupt the process. Similarly, sexual activity with orgasm during the ascent of the sacred oil interrupts the cycle, causing the sacred energy to be lost. The pineal and pituitary glands, often referred to as the seat of the soul, are associated with the production of "manna" in spiritual traditions—a substance symbolizing milk and honey. This is also linked to Joseph and Mary or the masculine and feminine. The pineal gland secretes a honey-like substance, while the pituitary gland secretes a milk-like substance. The "land flowing with milk and honey" lies within us. We are that land. The process happens within us; there is nothing to seek outside.  ## **The** Birth of Light Within Us In the deepest darkness lies the greatest potential for new life. Through conscious reflection, mindful nutrition, and connection with our body and mind, we can celebrate the birth of light within ourselves—a gift that helps us recognize and live our true potential. ### **Final** Thought I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read this piece. My wish is to inspire and encourage you—even amidst the calls of tradition—to carve out time to look inward, just as the natural cycle of life teaches us. It is an invitation to embark on the path of self-discovery, to grow, awaken, and let our inner light shine, ultimately leading to enlightenment. Step by step, day by day, month by month, and year by year, we allow ourselves to be guided by the wisdom of the cycle, unfolding in wondrous ways. I always welcome your feedback, thoughts, and reflections on this topic. Your input is invaluable to me and enriches the process of shared growth. May your cycle be illuminated and filled with love 💛

@ ec42c765:328c0600

この記事は前回の内容を把握している人向けに書いています（特にNostrエクステンション（NIP-07）導入） 前回：[Nostrのカスタム絵文字の使い方](https://yakihonne.com/article/_@lokuyow.github.io/xVMTZxHcV_NWKuTbDBUYs) # 手順 1. 登録する画像を用意する 2. 画像をweb上にアップロードする 3. 絵文字セットに登録する ## 1. 登録する画像を用意する 以下のような方法で用意してください。 * 画像編集ソフト等を使って自分で作成する * 絵文字作成サイトを使う（[絵文字ジェネレーター](https://emoji-gen.ninja/)、[MEGAMOJI](https://zk-phi.github.io/MEGAMOJI/) など） * フリー画像を使う（[いらすとや](https://www.irasutoya.com/) など） ### データ量削減 Nostrでは画像をそのまま表示するクライアントが多いので、データ量が大きな画像をそのまま使うとモバイル通信時などに負担がかかります。 データ量を増やさないためにサイズやファイル形式を変更することをおすすめします。 以下は私のおすすめです。 * サイズ：正方形 128×128 ピクセル、長方形 任意の横幅×128 ピクセル * ファイル形式：webp形式（webp変換おすすめサイト [toimg](https://toimg.kakechimaru.com/to-webp)） * 単色、単純な画像の場合：png形式（webpにするとむしろサイズが大きくなる） ### その他 * 背景透過画像 * ダークモード、ライトモード両方で見やすい色 がおすすめです。 ## 2. 画像をweb上にアップロードする よく分からなければ [emojito](https://emojito.meme/) からのアップロードで問題ないです。 普段使っている画像アップロード先があるならそれでも構いません。 気になる方はアップロード先を適宜選んでください。 既に投稿されたカスタム絵文字の画像に対して - 削除も差し替えもできない → [emojito](https://emojito.meme/) など - 削除できるが差し替えはできない → [Gyazo](https://gyazo.com/)、[nostrcheck.me](https://nostrcheck.me/)など - 削除も差し替えもできる → [GitHub](https://github.com/) 、セルフホスティングなど これらは既にNostr上に投稿されたカスタム絵文字の画像を後から変更できるかどうかを指します。 どの方法でも新しく使われるカスタム絵文字を変更することは可能です。 同一のカスタム絵文字セットに同一のショートコードで別の画像を登録する形で対応できます。 ## 3. 絵文字セットに登録する [emojito](https://emojito.meme/) から登録します。 右上の**アイコン** → **+ New emoji set** から新規の絵文字セットを作成できます。   #### ① 絵文字セット名を入力 基本的にカスタム絵文字はカスタム絵文字セットを作り、ひとまとまりにして登録します。 一度作った絵文字セットに後から絵文字を追加することもできます。 #### ② 画像をアップロードまたは画像URLを入力 emojitoから画像をアップロードする場合、ファイル名に日本語などの2バイト文字が含まれているとアップロードがエラーになるようです。 その場合はファイル名を適当な英数字などに変更してください。 #### ③ 絵文字のショートコードを入力 ショートコードは絵文字を呼び出す時に使用する場合があります。 他のカスタム絵文字と被っても問題ありませんが選択時に複数表示されて支障が出る可能性があります。 他と被りにくく長くなりすぎないショートコードが良いかもしれません。 ショートコードに使えるのは半角の英数字とアンダーバーのみです。 #### ④ 追加 **Add** を押してもまだ作成完了にはなりません。  一度に絵文字を複数登録できます。 最後に右上の **Save** を押すと作成完了です。  画面が切り替わるので、右側の **Options** から **Bookmark** を選択するとそのカスタム絵文字セットを自分で使えるようになります。 既存の絵文字セットを編集するには **Options** から **Edit** を選択します。 以上です。 ----------- # 仕様 [NIP-30 Custom Emoji](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/30.md) [NIP-30 カスタム絵文字（和訳）](https://github.com/nostr-jp/nips-ja/blob/main/30.md)

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

We are in the season of Christmas and busy fulfilling all of our Christmas traditions. We put up Christmas decorations, sing Christmas songs, buy Christmas presents, and plan big Christmas meals, but we are supposed to be celebrating the birth of Christ. We are supposed to be celebrating God made flesh — our Creator becoming His creation to reconcile them to Himself. If you care about your relationship with Jesus, you may wonder, “Are all of these Christmas traditions good or bad?” In most cases, I think the answer is “It depends.” Are you using Christmas traditions to celebrate Jesus and point yourself and others to Him or have the traditions themselves become the focus? Let’s look at some Christmas traditions and see how we might use them to point us to Jesus instead of distracting us from Him. ## Christmas Music > 1And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, > > “Glory to God in the highest,\ > And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2:13-14) There is a lot of Christmas music to choose from, but some is more honoring to God than others. Do you spend your time listening to songs like “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer,” “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” or “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” or do you spend your time listening to songs like “O Holy Night,” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” “Little Town of Bethlehem,” or “Mary Did You Know?” There isn’t anything inherently wrong with the first type, but the second type is much more honoring to Jesus and will focus our minds on what Jesus did for us. By listening to Christmas music that points us to Jesus, we honor Him, refocus our own lives, and point others to Him. When we listen to Christmas music that focuses on Santa, Frosty, Rudolph, or just the season of winter, we distract people from the true meaning of Christmas. Listening to Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” isn’t a problem (and I enjoy it very much), but focus on the Christmas Carols that point us to Jesus. You won’t regret it. ## Christmas Decorations (Lights) > Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12) I love Christmas decorations and especially Christmas lights. I’ll admit it. This year we even decided we are going to leave the lights up through January because the lights are so cheerful during the dark part of the year when we spend so much time in darkness. The question we should ask ourselves is “Are we just focused on the decorations and lights or are we focused on Jesus?” Jesus is the Light of the World. He is the light in the darkness. It is appropriate to use lights to celebrate Jesus, but do we focus on the lights or are the lights focusing our thoughts on Jesus? My new Christmas resolution is to remember to thank Jesus for being the light of the world every time I look at the Christmas lights. > Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16) Are your Christmas decorations things that point to Jesus or things that point to human tradition like Santa, reindeer, Frosty, etc.? We should aim to have more of our decorations point to Jesus. Another thing I’ve noticed is that many of our Christian decorations can even be based on tradition rather than actual Biblical inerrancy. Most nativity sets have 3 wise men. Although this error isn’t something to get legalistic about, it is something to be aware of. > Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, (Matthew 2:1) Traditionally the magi have been called wise men, but nobody knows 100% who the magi were. They also assume there were 3 of them because of the 3 gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Based on the uproar that they caused in Jerusalem, it was probably a huge caravan. You’ll also notice that they arrived in Jerusalem “*after Jesus was born in Bethlehem.*” They then consulted King Herod. King Herod consulted the Jewish leaders to figure out that the Messiah was expected to be born in Bethlehem, and then they traveled to Bethlehem to find Jesus. It isn’t clear how long after Jesus’s birth the Magi showed up, but they definitely weren’t there that first Christmas morning. Because of this, my husband sets up our main nativity set (that his parents got in Israel) in our living room and sets up the 3 wise men and the camel in our guest bedroom (on the East side of the house). It is his way of supporting the true Christmas story and not just the traditions of men. Our Christmas tree isn’t just stuff relating to Jesus and the Christmas story. Most of our tree decorations are things for which we are thankful to Jesus. We have ornaments with family pictures. We have handmade ornaments made by the women of our church that were given to us when our house burnt down. We have ornaments from most of the trips we have gone on. We have a few sentimental family ornaments that were given to us when my husband’s mom died. Every time I look at my tree, I am grateful for all of these things. They aren’t just generic decorations. They are memories. I also have an ornament with a picture of my son’s teacher’s autistic son who snuck away and was killed in a blizzard. Every time I see the ornament, I pray for his family who misses him so much. I’d like to think that this tree of blessings is honoring to my God and my Savior. ## Christmas Dinner > For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and **when He had given thanks**, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; **do this in remembrance of Me.**” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; **do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me**.” For a**s often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.** (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) {emphasis mine} This passage is about the Passover celebration and Jesus’s command to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Him. I think it is likewise appropriate to celebrate His birth with a meal. As in most things, what makes it honoring to Jesus is how we do Christmas dinner rather than whether we do it or not. The below passage is about celebrating the Lord’s supper in an inappropriate way, but I will try to apply it to Christmas dinner. > Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you. (1 Corinthians 11:20-22) Is Christmas dinner just about stuffing ourselves with good food or is it about more? Is it about fellowship with friends and family? Is it about gratefulness for what Jesus did for us? Is it about benefitting others? For most of our marriage, we have alternated celebrating Christmas at my parent’s house and my husband’s parents house, but a couple of times recently, due to different circumstances, we have celebrated Christmas in our own home, and we will be doing it again this year. We’ll celebrate with my family after Christmas, and we celebrated with my husband’s family at Thanksgiving. Our new tradition is to invite some people over to join us for Christmas dinner if we are celebrating at our home. We invite people from our church that are an older couple with no family nearby, a widow, or a single that is not near family. We invite people who would not have much of a celebration on their own. It has been such a blessing being able to bless others who don’t have family, are in financial hardship, or have physical trouble cooking a big meal. Whether you are fellowshipping with family or ministering to those who have less than you, Christmas dinner can definitely be a God honoring part of your Christmas traditions. ## Christmas Presents > Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also **overflowing through many thanksgivings to God**. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. **Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!** (2 Corinthians 9:10-15) {emphasis mine} Too often we can get so obsessed with the buying and receiving of gifts that we forget the greatest gift of all — the gift of our Savior Jesus. My 17 year old son has Down Syndrome. He really likes gifts, especially electronics, like tablets, radios, and phones. Unfortunately, he also isn’t very gentle with them and usually has broken or lost most of them by the time Christmas comes along. This often leads to him obsessing about the gifts that he thinks he deserves. When we celebrated Christmas with my husband’s family at Thanksgiving, he got a nice keyboard that he had requested. He did not, however, get the radio or tablet he wanted. As we were driving home he demanded, “Where is my radio? Where is my tablet? Where is it?” Instead of being grateful for his very generous gift, a gift that he requested, he was upset that he hadn’t gotten everything he wanted. He focused on stuff and not people. He focused on receiving and not giving. He focused on earthly things instead of Jesus. Too often we all do. > But the **free gift** is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and **the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many**. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand **the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification**. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:15-17) {emphasis mine} Just as Jesus gave His life for us, it is good for us to give to others, but we always need to have the gift giving process be focused on Jesus and not the stuff. We always need to be thankful for what we have and receive and not what we don’t have and haven’t received. On Christmas morning, before opening gifts, we always read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and the story of the magi from Matthew 2. We then sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus, to remind us all of the purpose of Christmas and of the greatest gift we have received. I’m also wanting to start a new tradition at Christmas: Before each person opens a gift, they must thank Jesus for one blessing in their life. I think this will change the focus from greed and getting to gratefulness for what we have already received. > For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the **gift of God**; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, **created in Christ Jesus for good works**, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. For by grace you have been **saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, *it is* the gift of God**; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, **created in Christ Jesus for good works**, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-9) {emphasis mine} Jesus gave us His all. We also need to consider what we can give to those who can’t give back, just as we can’t ever repay Jesus for what He did for us. Is there a family you know that is having a rough year financially or health wise that you could bless with a meal or gifts or help with bills? Is there a charity that will share the gospel and meet the physical needs of those who are alone, broke, and addicted that you can donate to? Maybe your kids have lots of toys and are about to get more and you can donate some that are in good condition to a Christian charity that can get those toys to kids who won’t receive any. Maybe money is tight, but you could volunteer at a soup kitchen or do some yard chores for a widow. I don’t know your personal circumstances or the circumstances of where you are and those around you, but think about finding some way to bless someone less fortunate than you. > Above all, **keep fervent in your love for one another**, because love covers a multitude of sins. **Be hospitable to one another** without complaint. **As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another** as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. **Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God**; **whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies**; **so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ**, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:8-11) {emphasis mine} There are lots of movies, songs, and TV shows that talk about the spirit of Christmas and the love of Christmas. Let’s make sure we show love and share Jesus with the people around us. They tend to be much more open to Jesus during Christmas. Let’s make sure we make the most of Christmas. To God be the Glory! Trust Jesus. *FYI, Because everyone is busy at Christmas, I will be posting my short Wednesday post (Christmas) on Tuesday evening (Christmas Eve) so that people can have time to read the post before Christmas and it will hopefully help you to have the right mindset on Christmas.* #### FYI, to learn more about my books “*Why I Need Jesus*” (available in paperback and ebook) and “*Joy in the Storm*” (in editing and hopefully out in a month or two.) see my [books page](https://trustjesus.substack.com/p/books).

@ 04222fa1:634e9de5

In a room of 100 people 99% are Bitcoiners How many Bitcoiners need to leave the room, to bring that percentage down to 98%? originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/820455

@ 5af07946:98fca8c4

On the surface, it appears the contest is between the `old guard` and the `new innovation`. Old seeks to maintain a status quo to ensure a safe passage of their knowledge (wealth) to the new. And the new knows the old as a dependable trustee. The shift, however, must happen, and it needs a trigger - something unwarranted - a mishap to break the umbilical cord. Bigger the ensuing shift, bigger the mishap. In a way, the mishap marks the beginning of the transition - start of a new time. It is a gun shot to initialize the race. The battle begins at this moment amongst many variants of "new". In fact, many new possibilities crop up to capitalize the opportunity. Having recognized the inevitable, they all stake their claim to being righteous and thus the earnest representation of truth. This happens over and over again as in "history repeats itself". There are many examples[^history] in our recent past though a keen observers may see them in their own backyard. They occur for the consciousness must evolve to understand the nature of unity[^unit] - the smallest common factor. A mishap is thus a mere setback before the hitherto slow breeding innovations sling into top gear. Such triggers, driven by imperceptible evolution of consciousness are said to be caused by `Prarbdha`. > `Prarbdha`, a `Sanskrit` word, means something that had already begun. It ties together the past, present and the future - the continuum `Bramh`. In that it also means "fate", because the fate had commenced before the material event physically occurred. [^history]: Battles between old and new in recent history: - IBM was the old. Microsoft and Apple battled for superiority in computing as contenders for new leadership title. For an observes in late 80s it appeared as if big blue is fighting Apple (and later Microsoft) but that was just a trigger. The real battle was between Apple and Microsoft. - Laptop was old, the newcomers iOS and Android are battling for superiority in mobile computing. For quite some time it felt like mobile devices were the PC killers, but the truth is battle is never between the old and the new. It is always among many new contenders. - It appears as big oil is at odds with the EVs or the hydrogen fuel cells. Though the truth is fossil fuel industry will be the biggest investors in sustainable future - because they know first hand about the shift. Sustainable energy is the opportunity for refiners because someone needs to do the work, and they are best positioned to take advantage of this massive opportunity. The real battle is among Solar, Wind , Nuclear and Hydrogen. - Gold is old. It appears that bitcoin is trying to replace Gold. But that is not true. The real battle is with in Cryptos - BTC vs Ether vs Sol vs so many other possibilities. When the dust settles, we will see Gold has its own role to play just like laptop has its own role to play in the increasingly mobile world. [^unit]: A unit is an immutable part of any measurement. Easy examples - a meter is an immutable unit of length. A kilo is an immutable unit of weight. A unit is part of every measurement - it lends meaning to what is being measured - it is implicit in what is being measured. It is a multiplication that outputs exactly what is being measured. - Little harder example - Number “1” is the unit of multiplication itself. It is there inbuilt into every number (even zero) . It never changes the number when multiplied -> a unit when multiplied with what is being measured , must stay inert - never change the measurement ! But you can't measure anything without a unit … no number exists without "1" - Hard question - What is the unit of consciousness ? By definition, it must be 1) immutable 2) part of every conscious being. 3) must stay inert. - In `Vaidik` science , `Atma` is defined as the unit of consciousness. It is immutable, inert and essential. For humans, understanding `Atma` is as hard as understanding number 1 for say number 8.

@ 04222fa1:634e9de5

 originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/820247

@ 03742c20:2df9aa5d

วันนี้เราจะลองมาติดตั้ง Lnbits โดยใช้ funding source เป็น Albyhub ผ่าน NWC > ในบทนี้จะใช้งาน Docker เป็นหลักแต่ก็สามารถทำตามได้ง่าย ๆ ## Lnbits [Lnbits]( https://github.com/lnbits/lnbits) คืออะไร open-source lightning wallet ที่มีฟังก์ชั่นมากมายเหมาะสำหรับสายนักพัฒนา ฟิวเจอร์ที่โดดเด่นอย่างระบบ POS ที่ช่วยอำนวยความสะดวกให้กับร้านค้าหรือว่าจะเป็น API ที่นำไปต่อยอดในตู้หยอดเหรียญต่าง ๆ ## วิธีติดตั้ง ### เราต้องติดตั้ง Albyhub ก่อน สร้างโฟลเดอร์ Albyhub ``` mkdir alby-hub ``` เข้าไปในโฟลเดอร์ alby-hub ``` cd alby-hub ``` สร้าง docker-compose.yml ไฟล์ ``` nano docker-compose.yml ``` ``` services: albyhub: platform: linux/amd64 container_name: albyhub image: ghcr.io/getalby/hub:latest volumes: - ./albyhub-data:/data ports: - "8080:8080" environment: - WORK_DIR=/data/albyhub - LOG_EVENTS=true ``` สั่งรัน Albyhub ``` sudo docker compose up -d ``` ``` sudo ufw allow 8080/tcp comment 'Allow alby hub’ ``` แค่นี้เราได้ Albyhub ใช้งานแล้ว เข้า http://localhost:8080 set-up ให้เรียบร้อย > ซื้อ LSP 2m sat ผมแนะนำของ LNserver ราคาประมาณ 13xxx sat ### มาติดตั้ง Lnbits กันต่อ สร้างโฟลเดอร์ Lnbits ``` mkdir lnbits ``` เข้าไปในโฟลเดอร์ Lnbits ``` cd lnbits ``` ดาวน์โหลดไฟล์ .env ``` wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lnbits/lnbits/main/.env.example -O .env ``` สร้างโฟลเดอร์เก็บข้อมูล ``` mkdir data ``` ดาวน์โหลด image lnbits ``` docker pull lnbits/lnbits ``` สั่งรัน Lnbits ``` docker run --detach --publish 5000:5000 --name lnbits --volume ${PWD}/.env:/app/.env --volume ${PWD}/data/:/app/data lnbits/lnbits ``` ``` sudo ufw allow 5000/tcp comment 'Allow lnbits’ ``` แค่นี้ได้ Lnbits ใช้งานแล้ว เข้า http://localhost:5000 set-up ให้เรียบร้อย ตั้งค่า funding source ของ Lnbits server > funding > funding source > เลือก Nostr wallet connect  เปิด Albyhub จากนั้นไปที่ App Store เลือก Friends & Family  ตั้งชื่อและกดสร้าง Subaccount  ไปที่ Other NWC applications คลิก Copy  กลับมาที่ Lnbits วาง URL NWC  คลิก SAVE และ RESTART SERVER แค่นี้ทุกอย่างพร้อมใช้งานแล้ว อ่านข้อมูลเพิ่มเติมได้ที่ Lnbits: https://github.com/lnbits/lnbits Albyhub: https://github.com/getAlby/hub > หวังว่าบทความจะเป็นแนวทางในการติดตั้งที่ง่ายสำหรับทุกคนหากผิดพลาดประการใดคอมเม้นท์พูดคุยแนะนำได้ครับ ขอบคุณทุกคนที่แวะมาอ่าน ไว้เจอกันไหม่ #Siamstr

@ 7776c32d:45558888

I am still more censored than I was when Aaron Swartz was alive. For nostr to resist censorship, it would need a way for intellectuals to find each other and not be drowned out by anti-intellectual screeching. Nostr is currently so anti-intellectual that this propagandist gets multiple likes, probably enough to be in trending feeds, for a post (she's reposted herself) pretending the word "car" is the best example she can think of for media bias today.  Meanwhile, I get no engagement for bringing a valuable infographic about media bias over from X.  The same incoherent propagandist gets multiple likes on a post lying about Hawk Tuah token. She doesn't quote post my prior post about the same topic to give credit to me as a faster news reporter, because she knows I am not a fake news reporter, meaning I will correct her misinformation, and indeed my post already contradicts some of it (the part about Haliey herself being sued).  Notice the lack of likes on my replies calling out her misinformation; and also none on my earlier, more accurate post about the same topic. The dishonest propaganda gets all the likes while the actual reporting on the same topic, faster, gets none. When I've called out this retard's lies on the same topic in the past, getting almost no engagement has been the norm, but it's been negative engagement overall. Here's her and some reply guy gaslighting me and, as always, she did not follow up to actually address my points, apologize, or hold any attempt at genuine, good-faith discussion in general.  It's not like I'm cherry picking. Let's look at the statistics.  According to nostr.band this anti-intellectual dickhead has reposted 33 events (from 8 other npubs), and her posts have been reposted 666 times. I have reposted 367 events (from 214 other npubs), and mine have been reposted 108 times. But enough about her. The #pandemic hashtag has gone from being full of pandemic deniers to having more people talking about the next pandemic - bird flu - while still nobody on that hashtag is using nostr to talk about COVID, the ongoing pandemic we still have. nostr:nevent1qqs9gvuhvphwvxm96zl58ygxdp3w8jjpyl2hqhg0j2xhxfms73qls8sw7yhx3 I have stood for well over a year as the only person in the group of *English speakers smart enough to understand the importance of both the pandemic and decentralized digital networks*. That's so fucking depressing, enraging, and terrifying to me. This shit makes me bloodthirsty. Luckily I can get away with killing people sometimes; and more often, inconveniencing them, by stealing essential parts from the boxes of products they'll buy, or cutting them off in traffic, or other things like that, to vent my disdain for my fellow humans. People lie so much, the main comfort for me has been the brief time when Digit considered me a friend; she who seemed to also kinda see through all the lies. You know what's stopping me from hurting anyone right now? The hope that Digit is still alive, and I keep thinking about this thread, where she was mentioned.  Someone showed curiosity about her, and someone else said "thank you (and Digit) so much." That "thank you and Digit" has been keeping me going on less toxic energy for those few days.

@ fcb65172:87f3c4ed

*Cities on return are often strange\ Yeah, and now\ Every time you blink, you feel it change\ And it's been\ A long, a long, a long, a long, long-long\ You've been my\ Favourite for a while* So sings Grian Chatten, lead singer of the Irish punk band Fontaines D.C (look them up and thank me later), in the fourth verse of their song Favourite– my favourite track released in 2024. As a world traveller who has called quite a few places home during the past 10 years I can relate to these lyrics on so many levels. It just so happens that I recently came back to La Paz, Bolivia– a city I used to call home. But so many things about the city has changed. Most notably with old friends of mine. Some old friends have turned out to reveal themselves as crooks, and you guessed it, some of the people who had been painted, in my mind, as crooks– well it just so turns out that they have revealed themselves as the good guys. I’m reminded of Warren Buffet’s line: Only when the **tide goes out do you** discover who's been **swimming naked**. The time away from La Paz has given me time to reflect on my two and a half years living here. The time component acts as the tide in Buffet’s great quote– Allowing me to filter through all the noise and focus on what is real. Or should I say who of my old friends were the real friends and who were the crooks– swimming naked all the time. ## My Story with La Paz I first arrived in La Paz in 2018 as a 22 year old boy looking for a place in South America to live. La Paz was where I met my wife. La Paz is where I bought my first business– a pub in the tourist area. La Paz is where I learned to deal with corrupt city council workers. La Paz is in many ways where I grew from a boy to a man. A Young 22 Year old naive version of me in La Paz Fast forward to December 2024 as I’m back in the city for the first time in two years. Walking the colourful and chaotic streets of La Paz, brings back all the memories. The street corner where a young naive Sebastian bought his first gram of pure Bolivian Marching Powder– That shit will pick you right up by the bootstraps, but do to proceed with care, I don’t have enough available fingers to count the amount of people who I’ve seen lose their lives to the Marching Powder of Bolivia. If you aren’t careful it will become the only thing you live for. I jump on a cable car– La Paz’s metro system which flies across the city, up and down the mountains, connecting all neighbourhoods with the city centre. I head to what used to be my local park and viewpoint. This is where I would always come to read a book or listen to podcasts whilst enjoying the stunning view of Illimani– the mountain guarding La Paz. Most importantly this is the park where I made my first move to kiss my wife. The view of Illimani Mountain from the Pub I used to own ## The former community leader who vanished The main thing I think about as I re-explore my old neighbourhoods is; what happened to my old friends and acquaintances? Together with the other restaurants in the tourist area we used to have a football team organised by a true community leader, let’s call him George in this story, the team was called Chocos Locos– The Crazy Blondes, we were a mix of European expats, exchanges students, NGO employees and some local Bolivian friends of ours. George was the guy who tied us all together. He knew everyone– their birthday, what football team they supported, what drink they preferred etc. George would look out for everyone, he would make sure to organize birthday parties, even for the quiet ones in our group. George had his values set in the right place, he demanded a high standard from everyone on and off the pitch. In exchange we would look out for each other, cover for one another if we were in trouble. You know like the Marines, we would leave no man behind. As I’m now back in La Paz most of my former friends and teammates are no longer around, George included. Their restaurants are closed and new ones have emerged. Some have left due to the recent years of political instability in Bolivia, others have mysteriously disappeared. What happened to them? In May 2024 I received a message from George saying our friend and teammate, let’s call him Juan, was in intensive care in a hospital in La Paz, after suffering a near death accident. Juan’s family needed help to cover the treatment costs. Like the true community leader George is, he took it upon himself to reach out to all present and former teammates and friends of Juan, asking us all to pitch in, with whatever we could to support Juan’s treatment. I didn’t think much else of it and sent across €100 to support Juan. As I later came to learn, the story was something else. The real story revealed George’s true identity. This is the story of a real captain, a true community leader, who turned out to be a scammer. But how did George turn into a scammer who used the near death accident of a friend and teammate, to scam just about everyone who had ever met Juan into donating money to help Juan’s family pay for the intensive care in hospital, only to run off with all the money donated– approximately $4000 USD? Perhaps the answer was there in front of our faces all along? I recently listened to a podcast with Andrew Bustamente (a former CIA spy, known as Everyday Spy on YouTube) in the podcast Andrew mentioned that most people who come off as highly empathetic, people like George, aren’t actually as highly empathetic as they seem, in fact such people despise almost everybody else. I now ask myself did George actually use the community and our football team the whole time. Were we funding his life in La Paz all the time? George told us he was working online as an English teacher. Now I ask myself who George really was. ## See you all in 2025 It’s mind blowing to me, how time removed from a former favourite city helps us see our time living in said city with such clarity… What really happened? Who were the good guys? Who were the bad guys? As I look to settle into a new hometown in 2025 (more on that in future newsletters) I will keep in mind my lessons learned from revisiting La Paz. I will be able to spot who are the charlatan’s and who are the genuine good guys– or at least so I hope. As I warm up to a Holiday season with family from both Denmark and Bolivia I wish you all a great Holidays, remember to be grateful for your family and those who are your real friends. Show them love. Cherish your time with them. Let me leave you with the lyrics to the final verse of the fantastic Fontaines D.C song Favourite: *Ah, makes sense when you understand\ The misery made me another marked man\ And I'm always looking over my shoulder\ And each new day\ - I get another year older\ Shoulder bound to the frame of a door\ Tuned into shape like a stone on the shore\ But if there was lightning in me\ Then you know who it was for* *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UG31mpUnOg* I will see you all in 2025. God bless you all. Sebastian

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Last month @grayruby finally gave up on his silly Pacers pick. Considering how many of our international stackers copied that pick, it may have been a brilliant bit of 4-D chess, especially with him telling me that he wanted to bail on the pick mere minutes before the end of the month, as we recorded our podcast. We also had @gnilma bail on Brunson and Wemby for All NBA 1st Team. Remember, older correct predictions are worth more than younger ones, so don't wait too long to get off your bad predictions. Here's the current state of the competition with your max possible score next to your nym: | Contestant | MVP | Champ | All NBA | | | | | |--------------|------|---------|----------|-|-|-|-| | @Undisciplined 69 | Luka | OKC | Jokic | Giannis | Luka | Ant | SGA | | @grayruby 65| Giannis| Pacers| Jokic | Giannis | Luka | Mitchell| Brunson| | @gnilma 62| SGA| OKC| Jokic | Giannis| Tatum | Luka | SGA| | @BitcoinAbhi 70 | Luka| Denver| Jokic | Giannis | Luka | Ant| SGA| | @Bell_curve 70 | Luka| Celtics| Jokic | Giannis | Luka | Ant| SGA| | @0xbitcoiner 70 | Jokic| Pacers| Jokic | Giannis | Luka | Ant| Brunson| | @Coinsreporter 49| Giannis| Pacers| Jokic | Giannis | Luka | Ant| Brunson| | @TheMorningStar 49| Luka| Celtics| Jokic | Giannis | Luka | Ant| SGA| | @onthedeklein 49| Luka| T-Wolves| Jokic | Giannis | Luka | Wemby| SGA| | @Carresan 49| Luka| Mavs| Jokic | Giannis | Luka | Wemby| SGA| | @BTC_Bellzer 49| Luka| Celtics| Embiid| Giannis | Luka | Tatum| SGA| | @realBitcoinDog 49| Luka| Lakers| Jokic | Giannis | Luka | Ant| SGA| | @SimpleStacker 42| SGA| Celtics| Jokic| Tatum| Luka | Brunson| SGA| | @BlokchainB 42| SGA| Knicks| AD| Giannis | Ant| Brunson| SGA| I'm still not quite ready to move on from Luka for MVP, but those Giannis picks are looking pretty good right now, as is that Jokic pick. **Prize** The pot should be around 5k after this post. If you want to join this contest, just leave your predictions for MVP, Champion, and All-NBA 1st team in the comments. See the [June post](https://stacker.news/items/585231/r/Undisciplined) for more details. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/819573

@ 6e468422:15deee93

We didn't hear them land on earth, nor did we see them. The spores were not visible to the naked eye. Like dust particles, they softly fell, unhindered, through our atmosphere, covering the earth. It took us a while to realize that something extraordinary was happening on our planet. In most places, the mushrooms didn't grow at all. The conditions weren't right. In some places—mostly rocky places—they grew large enough to be noticeable. People all over the world posted pictures online. "White eggs," they called them. It took a bit until botanists and mycologists took note. Most didn't realize that we were dealing with a species unknown to us. We aren't sure who sent them. We aren't even sure if there is a "who" behind the spores. But once the first portals opened up, we learned that these mushrooms aren't just a quirk of biology. The portals were small at first—minuscule, even. Like a pinhole camera, we were able to glimpse through, but we couldn't make out much. We were only able to see colors and textures if the conditions were right. We weren't sure what we were looking at. We still don't understand why some mushrooms open up, and some don't. Most don't. What we do know is that they like colder climates and high elevations. What we also know is that the portals don't stay open for long. Like all mushrooms, the flush only lasts for a week or two. When a portal opens, it looks like the mushroom is eating a hole into itself at first. But the hole grows, and what starts as a shimmer behind a grey film turns into a clear picture as the egg ripens. When conditions are right, portals will remain stable for up to three days. Once the fruit withers, the portal closes, and the mushroom decays. The eggs grew bigger year over year. And with it, the portals. Soon enough, the portals were big enough to stick your finger through. And that's when things started to get weird...

@ 30ceb64e:7f08bdf5

I'm prompted to write this after seeing that my part time job offers tuition reimbursement to full time workers, and that I could become a full time worker and get essentially get a full ride to complete my bachelors through flexible and remote courses. Shoutout to the advice I got from a few Stackers > Just know that degrees dont mean as much as they did in the past. If you invest this time in to school, will it pay off later? It depends on what degree you will be getting, and how quickly you can complete the coursework. @Satosora >I was in a similar grind a full-time gig and a side hustle while chasing my degree. Ended up specializing in cybersecurity and the degree definitely opened doors I hadn’t even considered. My tip structure is key. Treat your study time like a third job, and don’t skimp on self care. You’ve already got that hustle mindset, so you’re halfway there. Go for it, but keep the balance in check! Good luck! @Imyourfed >This is how I ended up becoming an economist. I had a couple of jobs, one of which offered tuition benefits, and I took a couple of classes a semester until I finished an econ degree. Then, off to grad school. I say you should do it, as long as you're confident you can handle the workload. @Undisciplined Among many others. Shoutout to the advice I got from a few Nostritches https://primal.net/e/note166vyza03rwqjq49dez2xktv7vfmq98s8hjf5kjxlcdjg85ffs2mq02243r https://primal.net/e/note1x93cuy2n90k2y4kms8hn5qwsffcapluw7elxty03jntau75m6rfq094f47 https://primal.net/e/note15z0xfzwm8llqqsgm5aq5j9t0955kt5htzkafhxas93gfd7yn5x2q37dapn The Nostr freaks were overall against it, while SN freaks were overall for it. I've reached a dilemma. The dilemma is "why am I doing this?" Are my intentions pure and honorable, or is this fiat credentialism rearing its ugly head. Is this me wanting to better myself and contribute value to the world or is this not staying humble Am I risking something that I cant see at the moment, should my energy be spent doing other things; starting a business, Freelancing harder, Contributing to open source harder, Spending more time with the wife and kid on the way. Over the past few years I've become grumbly shouting at friends and family about evil fiat and perfect perfect bitcoin. At what point do I pull a satoshi, and move on to other things. At what point do I take my own advice, realize that I probably have enough bitcoin, and enjoy life. I'll try to articulate my thoughts the best I can.......although this is a ramble I want to get a bachelors degree and potentially become a lawyer for the reasons below 1. Stick it to the haters. I naively jumped around telling a few family members what I would do with my life and thought becoming a lawyer wasn't too far fetched. They did, and thought I was crazy and couldn't do it. Fuck em. 2. I have 30 college credits to go towards a bachelors, a lot of time to complete classes, approaching 6 years of experience working at an IP law firm, a rinky dink paralegal certificate, and the possibility to have it all paid for without spending any sats. So the goal seems oddly obtainable. 3. LLM's are great at homework 4. It would make my wife and unborn child more proud of me, which I believe is good. 5. I want to excel in my career and have good job opportunities moving forward. With a bachelors I'd be able to obtain higher paying jobs and have a formidable resume to take advantage of more opportunities as they come by. 6. I have a growing interest in learning this stuff. I think about the samurai wallet boys and keep a side eye on the trial. I'm a sovereign individual thesis guy, and want to see the how the laws will bend to support a new technological paradigm. 7. I read "come and take it" by Cody Wilson and followed a bit of his journey and thought his fight and thoughts on the courts were pretty cool. In Conclusion, I'm typing these rambling thoughts while working on my part time job, which may become a 2nd full time, because I might head back to school to finish my bachelors, while recognizing that college degrees are mostly scams for suckers. Kids come out of highschool and are sold the lie that, this is the only path forward. That if you dont go to fancy university than your life is shit. Society looks down upon you with a mocking and judgmental glare. Your parents arent proud of you, and you need to give a very good explanation on why you're throwing your life away. So instead of facing a tidal wave of scrutiny, most kids who can end up going to college and getting into a crazy amount of debt, or dropping out essentially wasting their time while postulating like they were trying to "find themselves". The idea of school in fiat is a rough one anyway, the campuses are communist lgbtq government obediance propaganda training grounds siphoning first principle thinking from its victims with a spooky efficiency. Ah, wait that was supposed to be a conclusion. Let me try again. In Conclusion, College degrees are mostly scams for suckers, but maybe armed with better knowledge of what i'm getting into, a bit more focus and more realistic expectations; I can appropriately navigate through the treacherous marshes of keynsian brainwashing into the orange light of sticking it to the man. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/819302

@ 2efaa715:3d987331

More than you wanted to know about a little-understood but important aspect of diet and health, explained in a nontechnical manner, with oversimplifications abound. Your cells need some kind of fuel to function. this fuel can only come (ultimately) from the outside world as food. AKA "diet". your blood carries the fuel to the cells so they can do their work. on most diets, the main fuel for cells is glucose, which the body derives from sugar or carbohydrates (which are basically sugar + some complexity). on other diets, the main fuel for cells is fat. on these diets, fat/lipid particles are carried on little blood ferries called lipoproteins (the final "L" in LDL and HDL). LDL carries lipids _to_ your cells so they can use it, HDL carries unused lipids _away_ from your cells (to the liver) so they can be disposed of. (on both very high carb and very low carb diets, your cells will still use some amount of both glucose and fat for energy, but the ratio will change dramatically). Naturally, if you have a lot of these ferries in your blood (because you are using fat as cell-fuel), your LDL and HDL counts ("total cholesterol") will be high on basic blood tests. LDL - the ferries that carry fats to your cells to burn - come in two varieties: - small + dense - large + fluffy both carry fuel to your cells, but the small/dense ones have an unfortunate side-effect of slamming into artery walls, penetrating them, and accidentally depositing their lipids there. This is the "plaque" of cardiovascular disease fame. The large, fluffy particles do not penetrate the arterial walls as readily - they bounce off and keep going on to their destinations. their effect on arterial plaque is not zero, but far less impactful than small, dense particles. In either case, the HDL particles are always good: they remove excess lipids from the body. this is why HDL is "the good cholesterol". There are advanced blood tests available which measure particle size (so, like, an _acutally useful_ test), but odds are your doctor will refuse to order this test. Strange! We didn't mention Triglycerides yet. Suffice it to say that more triglycerides = smaller, denser LDL particles = more arterial wall penetration = more cardiovascular risk. To finish off our triglycerides sidebar, the dietary patterns that increase triglycerides (bad!) are: excess calories from carbohydrates, added sugars and refined carbohydrates, low fiber intake, low omega-3 intake (especially in combination with excess seed oil intake), high trans fats consumption (more on trans fat in a moment). Back to finish up cholesterol: this is why a diet that is high in _good fats_ (again, more in a moment) will increase "total cholesterol" - you have more fat boats fueling your cells - but doesn't indicate greater cardiovascular risk: because the large, fluffy particles are not damaging your arteries and the large number of HDL particles are protective! Furthermore, if you reconsider the sidebar on triglycerides you'll notice that avoiding refined carbohydrates and sugars has the added effect of lowering triglycerides, which keeps the LDL particles even healthier. You'll often see the simple recommendation to keep the HDL/Triglycerides ratio high. this is why. HDL good, triglycerides bad. We didn't even get into insulin sensitivity - one of the most important factors in metabolic health... another time. A last word on dietary fat types: Not all fats are created equally. You can look into monounsaturated and polyunsaturated on your own, but I want to mention two others here: Trans fat and Saturated fat. Trans fats mostly come from _artificial sources_, like processed vegetable or seed oils. most often found in ultra-processed, packaged foods. yuck. trans fat **lowers HDL, increases inflammation and increases proportion of small, dense LDL particles**. These are all the bad things we discussed above. Saturated fat is mainly found in meat, dairy and coconut oil. It **increases LDL particle size and raises HDL**. These are the good things we discussed above. So, yes, while someone's _total cholesterol_ may go up when eating saturated fats, it doesn't necessarily mean their cardiovascular risk has increased. Now that you understand how cholesterol works, compare moderate saturated fat intake to eating a diet full of refined carbohydrates, sugars, processed vegetable/seed oils, and all the other items we explained above... Ok really now, the **last** last word: the "cholesterol" you see on a food label has less impact on blood cholesterol than you thought. the details are too squirrely to go into here, but the takeway is: the fat content discussed above is the lion's share of the impact, with the number you see next to "cholesterol" on your food label having a negligible effect. #diet #paleo #keto #health #healthstr #foodstr #carnivore #cholesterol

@ 04222fa1:634e9de5

Spouse Mother-in-law Child $20m Dog originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/818843

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

**Table Of Content** - The Mysterious Unidentified Miners - F2pool: A Titan in the Mining Arena - Other Notable Players - The Evolution of Bitcoin Mining - Conclusion - FAQ Since the dawn of Bitcoin, introduced to the world by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, the decentralized digital currency has been a topic of intrigue and speculation. At the heart of this cryptocurrency lies the process of mining, a complex computational task that validates transactions and adds them to the blockchain. Over the years, various mining pools have emerged, each contributing to the network's security and growth. Among these, two entities stand out: the unidentified miners and the dominant F2pool. This article delves into the enigmatic world of these miners and F2pool's significant role in Bitcoin's mining history. **The Mysterious Unidentified Miners** The Bitcoin blockchain, a transparent ledger of all transactions, has processed over 800,000 blocks since its inception. Interestingly, data from the last 14 years, encompassing 99 different mining pools, reveals that unidentified miners have discovered a staggering 28.37% of the network's total blocks. These miners, shrouded in mystery, include early participants like Satoshi and others who mined Bitcoin during its nascent stages. While the identity of these miners remains unknown, their contribution to the network is undeniable. They've unearthed a cumulative 227,800 blocks, a testament to their early belief in the potential of Bitcoin and their commitment to its growth. **F2pool: A Titan in the Mining Arena** Close on the heels of these unidentified miners is F2pool, a behemoth in the Bitcoin mining world. Since 2009, F2pool has discovered 80,364 blocks, accounting for approximately 10.01% of the total. This impressive feat places F2pool as the leading identified mining pool in Bitcoin's history. Established in 2013, F2pool, also known as DiscusFish, is based in China and has consistently been among the top mining pools in terms of hash rate. Their dominance is not just limited to Bitcoin; they have a significant presence in the mining of other cryptocurrencies like Litecoin, Ethereum, and Zcash. The success of F2pool can be attributed to several factors: - **Infrastructure & Technology:** F2pool has invested heavily in state-of-the-art mining equipment and infrastructure, ensuring optimal performance and minimal downtime. - **Transparency:** Unlike some other mining pools, F2pool offers a transparent fee structure and provides regular updates to its members. - **Community Engagement:** F2pool has fostered a strong community of miners, offering support, educational resources, and fostering a sense of camaraderie among its members. **Other Notable Players** While the unidentified miners and F2pool have been dominant forces, other mining pools have also made significant contributions. Antpool, for instance, ranks third overall, having mined 75,829 blocks or 9.44% of the total. Following them are Btc.com’s mining pool, Braiins Pool, and Viabtc, each with their unique contributions to the network. It's also worth noting the contributions of now-inactive mining pools. Btc Guild, for instance, mined 32,935 blocks before shutting down in 2015. Similarly, Ghash.io, which began its operations in 2013, ceased its activities in 2016 but not before mining 23,083 blocks. **The Evolution of Bitcoin Mining** The world of Bitcoin mining has seen exponential growth. In the early days, the Bitcoin network's hashrate was a mere 948 kilohash per second (KH/s). Fast forward to today, and miners are committing an astounding 387.62 exahash per second (EH/s) to the network. This astronomical increase, amounting to over 40 trillion percent since Bitcoin's inception, underscores the rapid technological advancements and the growing interest in cryptocurrency mining. **Conclusion** The history of Bitcoin mining is a tapestry woven with tales of innovation, determination, and a belief in the transformative power of decentralized digital currencies. The contributions of the enigmatic unidentified miners and the dominance of F2pool stand as testaments to the collective efforts that have fortified the Bitcoin network over the years. As we look to the future, it's essential to acknowledge and appreciate the pioneers and leaders of the past. Their efforts have laid the foundation for a decentralized financial future, and their legacy will undoubtedly influence the generations of miners to come. **FAQ** **Who are the unidentified miners in Bitcoin's history?** They are early participants in the Bitcoin network, including Satoshi Nakamoto, whose identities remain unknown. They've mined approximately 28.37% of all blocks. **What is F2pool's contribution to Bitcoin mining?** F2pool has discovered 80,364 blocks since 2009, making it the leading identified mining pool in Bitcoin's history. **When was F2pool established?** F2pool was established in 2013 and is based in China. **Which mining pool ranks third in Bitcoin's mining history?** Antpool ranks third, having mined 75,829 blocks or 9.44% of the total. **How has the Bitcoin network's hashrate evolved over time?** From an initial hashrate of 948 KH/s, it has grown to a staggering 387.62 EH/s, marking an increase of over 40 trillion percent since its inception. **That's all for today** **If you want more, be sure to follow us on:** **NOSTR: croxroad@getalby.com** **X: [@croxroadnews](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.*

@ 472f440f:5669301e

There was a bit of a rally in stock markets today, but this was a relief rally after taking a beating throughout the week. All eyes were on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as he took the stage on Wednesday to announce the decisions made at the most recent FOMC meeting. The market reacted negatively to another 0.25% cut from the Federal Reserve that many considered a "hawkish cut" due to the fact that Chairman Powell articulated that it is likely that there will be less rate cuts in 2025 than were previously expected. This is likely driven by the fact that inflation, as reported by the terribly inaccurate CPI, has been coming in higher than expectations. Signaling that the Fed does not, in fact, have inflation under control. Who could have seen that coming? Here's how the US 10Y Treasury yield reacted to the announcement: "Not great Bob!" The US 10Y Treasury yield is something that everyone should be paying attention to over the course of the next year. Since the Fed started cutting rates in September of this year, the 10Y yield has been acting anomalously compared to how it has acted historically after Fed interest rate decisions. Since September, the market has been calling the Fed's bluff on inflation and rates have been moving in the opposite direction compared to what would be expected if the Fed had things under control. The "hawkish cut" made on Wednesday is not a great sign. The Fed is being forced to recognize that it cut "too much too fast" before actually getting inflation under control. One has to wonder why they made such aggressive moves in September. Why the need for a much more dovish stance as quickly as they moved? Do they see something behind the scenes of the banking system that makes them believe that another liquidity crisis was on the horizon and they needed to act to prevent yet another banking crisis? Now that it is clear that inflation isn't under control and if there really was a liquidity crisis on the horizon, what are the first two quarters of 2025 going to look like? Could we find ourselves in a situation where inflation is beginning to accelerate again, there is a liquidity crisis, and the Fed is forced to rush back ZIRP and QE only to further exacerbate inflation? Couple this potential scenario with the proposed economic policy from the incoming Trump administration and it isn't hard to see that we could be in for a period of economic pain. One can only hope that the Fed and the incoming administration have the intestinal fortitude to let the market correct appropriately, reprice, clear out the bad assets and credit that exists in the system and let the cleanse happen relatively unperturbed. That has what has been desperately needed since 2008, arguably longer. On that note, bitcoin is going through a bull market correction this week as well. Likely incited and/or exacerbated by the turmoil in traditional markets. Many are proclaiming that the end of this bull market is here. Don't listen to those who have been hate tweeting bitcoin all the way up this year. They've been looking for a correction to bask in schadenfreude and confirm their biases. These types of corrections are to be expected when bitcoin runs by checks notes 100% over the course of less than three months. We're approaching the end of the year, which means that people are selling to prepare for taxes (which may be happening in the stock market as well). Add to this fact that long-term holders of bitcoin have taken the most profit they have since 2018 and it probably explains the recent pull back. Can't blame the long-term holders for seeing six-figure bitcoin and deciding to bolster their cash balances. I couldn't be more bullish on bitcoin than I am right now. The fundamentals surrounding the market couldn't be more perfect. Despite what the Trump administration may have in store for us in terms of economic policy (I agree with most of the policies he has presented), I find it hard to believe that even he and the talented team of people he has surrounded himself with can overcome the momentum of the problems that have been building up in the system for the last 16-years. The "find safety in sats" trade is going mainstream as the market becomes more familiar with bitcoin, its properties, and the fact that it is very unlikely that it is going to die. The fervor around bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset for nation states is only picking up. And if it catches on, we will enter territory for bitcoin that was considered utterly insane only a year ago. On that note, Nic Carter made some buzz today with a piece he wrote for Bitcoin Magazine explaining why he believes a strategic bitcoin reserve is a bad idea for the US government. https://bitcoinmagazine.com/politics/i-dont-support-a-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-and-neither-should-you While I agree that the signal the US government could send by acquiring a bitcoin strategic reserve could be bad for the US treasuries market, I think it comes down to strategy. The Trump administration will have to think strategically about how they acquire their Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. If they ape in, it could send the wrong message and cause everyone to dump their treasuries, which are the most popular form of collateral in the global financial system. However, there are ways to acquire bitcoin slowly but surely from here into the future that ensure that the United States gets proper exposure to the asset to protect itself from the out-of-control debt problem while also providing itself with a way out of the problem. Many of these potential strategies were discussed in two recent episodes I recorded. One with Matthew Pines from the Bitcoin Policy Institute and another with Matthew Mežinskis from Porkopolis Economics. I highly recommend you all check those out (linked below). https://youtu.be/xyyeEqFVjBY https://youtu.be/6vgesP9LIXk .--- Final thought... I am the most locked in from a focus perspective while on flights. Even with two kids under 5. Merry Christmas, Freaks!

@ 00000000:3acedba7

Since more than a year we've been tirelessly working on Mostro, here is a summary. ### Keys management We have a lot of improvements and probably one of the most important is the final design of **keys management**, we started to discuss this idea in the previous quarter and we commented it in the last report, keys management is a way clients rotate keys for every trade adding another privacy layer to gift wrap previous implementation, more detailed info [here](https://mostro.network/protocol/key_management.html). Today we've `merged` our main [PR](https://github.com/MostroP2P/mostro/pull/398) for implementing it on mostrod, we also implemented it on [mostro-core](https://github.com/MostroP2P/mostro-core/pull/67/files) and [mostro-cli](https://github.com/MostroP2P/mostro-cli/pull/89) ### New Nostr NIP merged We also had our first official NIP merged, [NIP-69](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/69.md), with this we aim to standarize all orders from peer-to-peer platform on Nostr to have a big liquidity pool easily filterable. ### B4OS Mostro was one of the projects participating in the [b4os residency](https://b4os.dev), which took place in Buenos Aires right after this year’s [LABITCONF](https://www.labitconf.com/). I participated as a mentor, going there daily for the whole program, helping developers get started on Mostro. Mostro received a lot of attention and had the largest number of contributors working on it (8 in total). We had two very productive weeks where we refined how Mostro will handle privacy and reputation at the same time. This will required some changes to **mostrod** and improvements to the [protocol documentation](https://mostro.network/protocol), for which we (fingers crossed) now have a final version. During the b4os residency, we received [contributions](https://github.com/MostroP2P/mostro-regtest/pull/2) that improved our Docker Mostro containers—amazing work that you can see [here](https://github.com/MostroP2P/mostro-regtest). ### Mostro foundation We also made progress on establishing the Mostro Foundation, which will serve as a legal entity to handle donations and direct them to developers who want to contribute. Another [contributor](https://github.com/MostroP2P/mostro-foundation-website) created the [Mostro Foundation website](https://mostro.foundation/). ### Mostro-tools We already have contributors working on [mostro-tools](https://github.com/MostroP2P/mostro-tools), a TypeScript library implementing the [Mostro protocol](https://mostro.network/protocol/). ### Mobile app Our past attempt of building the mobile app failed, the developer quit, so we found another dev, `third time's the charm`. Now we’re moving forward with the mobile app, which is being developed by developer called `Biz`. Working on Mostro is a bit complex because we focus on privacy and censorship-resistance, and our main goal is to deliver these privacy features in an easy-to-use application. I want this app to be very intuitive, suitable even for non-technical users. Biz, delivered a first functional mobile app we can see all the work [here](https://github.com/MostroP2P/mobile/pull/31) and [here](https://github.com/MostroP2P/mobile/pull/33), we tested it and it works :D ### Mostrui Finally we started another client, a Terminal User Interface (TUI) which is helping us to implement and understand problems that client developers can find on the process of building a client, this client is called [Mostrui](https://github.com/MostroP2P/mostrui) All this couldn't be possible without the support of [HRF](HRF) and [Opensats](https://opensats.org/) and all collaborators <3

@ deba271e:36005655

### Red Bull - Max Verstappen (Contract until end of 2028 season) - Liam Lawson (Contract for 2025) ### Mercedes - George Russell (Contract until end of 2025 season) - Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Contract covering at least 2025 season) ### Ferrari - Charles Leclerc (Contract for ‘several more seasons’ beyond 2025) - Lewis Hamilton (Contract is “multi-year”) ### Aston Martin - Lance Stroll (Contract for ‘2025 and beyond’) - Fernando Alonso (“Multi-year contract” until at least end of 2026) ### McLaren - Lando Norris (Contract for ‘multi-year extension’ beyond 2025) - Oscar Piastri (Contract until end of 2026) ### Alpine - Pierre Gasly (Contracted until at least end of 2026) - Jack Doohan (Contract for 2025) ### Williams - Alex Albon (Contracted until at least end of 2026) - Carlos Sainz (Contracted until at least end of 2026) ### Haas - Oliver Bearman (“Multi-year” contract until at least end of 2026) - Esteban Ocon (“Multi-year” contract until at least end of 2026) ### Stake F1 Team - Nico Hulkenberg (“Multi-year” contract until at least end of 2026) - Gabriel Bortoleto (“Multi-year” contract starting from 2025) ### Visa Cash App Racing Bulls - Yuki Tsunoda (Contract until end of 2025) - Isack Hadjar (Contract until end of 2025) #formula1 #f1 Source: https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-2025-driver-line-up-confirmed-grid

@ ac8bb9b0:70278acc

## Details - ⏲️ Prep time: 5 - 🍳 Cook time: 10 - 🍽️ Servings: 4 ## Ingredients - 1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined - 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil - 3 cloves garlic, chopped - 1/4 cup white wine, dry - 14 oz can petite diced tomatoes, drained - 1/2 cup half and half - 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano - kosher salt and fresh black pepper, to taste - 1 teaspoon lemon juice - 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped - 8 ounces angel hair pasta, whole wheat, gluten-free or high fiber ## Directions 1. Boil water with salt in a large pot for the pasta. Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. 2. Meanwhile, season shrimp with 1/4 teaspoon salt, black pepper and oregano. 3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the oil, when warm add the shrimp and garlic and cook about 2 minutes on each side. 4. Add tomatoes, wine, salt and pepper and cook an additional minute. 5. Remove from heat and stir in half and half. Add lemon juice and parsley and serve over pasta. 6. Divide equally in 4 plates or shallow bowls.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

This week, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming. - We're going to recap the NBA Emirates Cup and our corresponding survivor pool (Congrats to @Carresan). - We also have updated NBA power rankings to argue about, plus early trade speculation and the new All Star Game format - We'll give our thoughts on the NFL playoff picture, plus why we're each hopeful about our loser teams. - Several ~Stacker_Sports contests are ongoing and upcoming: UEFA, Cricket, College Football, NFL Pick 'ems and fantasy playoffs - Something about Inside the NHL being renewed. I assume that's a show. - And, of course, updating everyone on our recent sports betting adventures in Degenerate Corner Share your thoughts about those or any other sports topics and we'll try to fit them into the conversation. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/817666

@ 1bc70a01:24f6a411

<h3 class="(attributes)=>{ const level = attributes.level; const baseClasses = 'font-bold'; switch(level){ case 1: return `${baseClasses} text-3xl mt-6 mb-4`; case 2: return `${baseClasses} text-2xl mt-5 mb-3`; case 3: return `${baseClasses} text-xl mt-4 mb-2`; default: return baseClasses; } }">It works! or does it? H2 </h3><ul class="list-disc list-outside ml-4 my-4 space-y-1"><li class="pl-1"><p>Item</p></li><li class="pl-1"><p>Item</p></li></ul><p>Paragraph</p><p><strong>Bold</strong></p><p><em>Italic</em></p><p><s>Strikethrough</s></p><ol class="list-decimal list-outside ml-4 my-4 space-y-1"><li class="pl-1"><p>Numbered 1</p></li><li class="pl-1"><p>Numbered 2</p></li></ol><blockquote class="border-l-4 border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 pl-4 my-4"><p>Fancy blockquote</p></blockquote><pre class="rounded-md bg-muted/50 p-4 font-mono text-sm my-4"><code>Codeblock? </code></pre><p>Wow. I'm impressed!</p>

@ acc925af:db9fb0bb

https://x.com/everythingsats/status/1870092803226652867 In a "what-part-of-this-cycle-are-we-in" episode, we are literally witnessing a glitch in the matrix, cos this would leave a massive dent. I am here for all of it🍿🍿🤣🤣 originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/817580

@ 1bc70a01:24f6a411

<p><strong>Super cool</strong></p><p></p><ul><li><p>Written entirely with AI, zero lines of code</p></li><li><p>Even comes with a neat editor that barely works atm!</p></li><li><p>Should we add AI tools as well? Might as well...</p></li><li><p>2025 is going to be epic! </p></li></ul><p></p><p>Can you see me?</p>

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

**Table Of Content** - Bitcoin's Journey: From Obscurity to Global Spotlight - Blockchain: The Backbone of Bitcoin's Success - The Paradox of Bitcoin's Ascendancy - The Intricacies of Secure Bitcoin Storage - The Final Word: Entrusting the Right Guardian - Conclusion - FAQ In the digital age, where innovation is often synonymous with intangibility, Bitcoin stands as a testament to the power of decentralized finance. Born from the vision of a cashless society and the promise of financial autonomy, Bitcoin has rapidly transitioned from a theoretical concept to a tangible asset with profound global implications. However, as with any valuable asset, the question of its safekeeping becomes paramount. As Bitcoin's value skyrockets and its adoption spreads, the challenges associated with securely storing it come to the forefront. This article delves into Bitcoin's journey, the technology underpinning its success, the challenges of its storage, and the importance of entrusting its safety to the right hands. Join us as we crack the code of trust in the world of Bitcoin. **Bitcoin's Journey: From Obscurity to Global Spotlight** Bitcoin has charted an unparalleled trajectory, moving from being a fringe digital experiment to a global financial powerhouse. Its allure isn't just in its monetary value, but in the revolutionary potential it brings to the world of finance. While the market's inherent volatility can be jarring, especially during significant industry events, it's essential to recognize that such fluctuations are typical for pioneering technologies. The dot-com bubble's burst is a testament to this: groundbreaking technologies, despite initial hiccups, have historically showcased enduring value and resilience. **Blockchain: The Backbone of Bitcoin's Success** Bitcoin's rise isn't merely a result of market speculation. At its core, the underlying benefits of blockchain technology have been instrumental. Blockchain's decentralized ledger system offers transparency and security, driving an undeniable upward trend in Bitcoin's value and establishing a foundation for its long-term viability. As Bitcoin's value and global interest surge, the emphasis on its safekeeping becomes increasingly paramount. **The Paradox of Bitcoin's Ascendancy** As Bitcoin continues its meteoric rise, capturing the imagination and investment of people worldwide, its very success presents a paradox. This digital currency, once a niche concept known only to a select few, now finds itself in the global spotlight, and with this heightened attention comes a slew of challenges. The popularity and widespread adoption of Bitcoin have inadvertently made it a prime target for cyber threats and potential malfeasance. As more individuals and institutions flock to the Bitcoin ecosystem, the complexities of ensuring its safety become increasingly intricate. While there are numerous challenges that the Bitcoin community must grapple with, the issue of secure storage stands out. It's not just about protecting one's investment; it's about safeguarding the very integrity and trust that Bitcoin has built over the years. The question then arises: in an age where digital assets are becoming as valuable as physical ones, how do we ensure that Bitcoin remains both accessible and secure? **The Intricacies of Secure Bitcoin Storage** Many individuals are drawn to the Bitcoin realm with trading aspirations, aiming for significant returns. This trend is especially pronounced in developed economies. However, in emerging markets, the allure of a decentralized store of value is tangible. As a result, exchanges have become the primary gateway for many to enter the Bitcoin world. While these platforms are equipped with various security measures and are designed for trading, they often house vast amounts of Bitcoin. The challenge? These platforms, despite their security measures, aren't inherently designed for the long-term, secure storage of Bitcoin. A cursory online search about "Bitcoin exchange hacks" reveals numerous incidents, highlighting the risks of relying solely on exchanges for safeguarding one's Bitcoin assets. **The Final Word: Entrusting the Right Guardian** The essence of the Bitcoin storage dilemma revolves around trust. As the ecosystem continues to evolve, both individuals and institutions must critically assess where and how they store their Bitcoin. The goal is to find a balance between trading accessibility and the security required for long-term holding. In this dynamic landscape, understanding the intricacies of Bitcoin storage and placing trust in the right guardians will be pivotal in ensuring the safety and appreciation of one's Bitcoin investments. **Conclusion** As we stand on the cusp of a financial revolution, Bitcoin's prominence in the global financial landscape is undeniable. Its meteoric rise, underpinned by the robustness of blockchain technology, has reshaped our understanding of value, trust, and decentralization. However, with great value comes the pressing responsibility of protection. The challenges of securely storing Bitcoin are not mere technical hurdles but pivotal concerns that will define its future adoption and integration. As enthusiasts, investors, and guardians of this digital gold, our collective responsibility is to ensure its safekeeping. By understanding the nuances of storage, being vigilant of potential risks, and placing our trust in reliable custodians, we can ensure that Bitcoin's promise is not just preserved but flourishes in the years to come. The journey of Bitcoin is as much about innovation as it is about trust, and as we move forward, it's this trust that will shape its legacy. **FAQ** **Why is secure storage important for Bitcoin?** Given its high value and digital nature, Bitcoin is a target for cyber theft. Secure storage ensures the safety of one's assets against hacks and unauthorized access. **Are exchanges safe for storing Bitcoin?** While exchanges have security measures, they are primarily designed for trading. For long-term storage, dedicated Bitcoin wallets or cold storage solutions are recommended. **What is blockchain in relation to Bitcoin?** Blockchain is the underlying technology of Bitcoin. It's a decentralized ledger system that records all Bitcoin transactions in a transparent and secure manner. **How can I ensure the safety of my Bitcoin investments?** By understanding storage nuances, using secure wallets, regularly updating security protocols, and staying informed about potential risks. **That's all for today** **If you want more, be sure to follow us on:** **NOSTR: croxroad@getalby.com** **X: [@croxroadnews](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.*

@ 31312140:2471509b

## The Underpinnings of Germ Theory: A History Lesson The Germ Theory took root in the fertile ground of 19th-century scientific exploration. Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch emerged as the poster children of this doctrine, selling the world on the notion that microorganisms are the main perpetrators of disease. Pasteur's dramatic demonstrations and Koch's postulates captured the imagination of the medical community, turning Germ Theory into dogma. ## The Fault Lines ### Pasteur’s Dubious Methods In the annals of scientific history, Louis Pasteur’s name often emerges as a heroic figure who championed Germ Theory. However, beneath the accolades lies a more complex and contentious legacy fraught with unscientific methods and unnecessary cruelty. Pasteur’s experiments, lauded in their time, provide little to no scientific basis for the legitimacy of Germ Theory today. Let’s separate myth from reality. #### Pasteur’s Experimentation: A Glance Behind the Curtain Louis Pasteur, best known for his work on vaccinations and microbial fermentation, was not quite the rigorous scientist history books often paint him to be. His methods were as much about showmanship and drama as they were about scientific inquiry, raising several red flags. 🧑‍🔬 **Lack of Scientific Rigor:** Pasteur’s experiments rarely adhered to the modern standards of scientific rigor. He often neglected proper scientific controls and failed to consistently repeat his experiments under the same conditions to eliminate alternative explanations. This lack of methodological rigor casts shadows over the reliability of his findings. 📉 **Cruelty in the Name of Science:** Pasteur’s experiments often involved injecting substances into animals, notably into their brains, to observe disease progression. Such actions were needlessly cruel and failed to replicate natural disease transmission. When animals tragically died from these brutal interventions, Pasteur attributed the cause to germs or viruses, neglecting the stress and trauma of his invasive procedures as potential factors. 😿 #### Dissecting the Evidence—or Lack Thereof The cornerstone of Pasteur’s claims that germs were directly responsible for disease hinged on such brutal methods. However, no comprehensive and reproducible scientific evidence emerged to definitively prove Germ Theory. His experiments often overlooked variables that today would disqualify his conclusions as scientifically robust. **Absence of Isolation:** Pasteur claimed to identify and isolate specific pathogens as disease culprits. However, without modern techniques and an oversight of standard isolation methods, his assertions were tenuous at best. Pathogens were forced into environments and reactions completely unnatural to their normal behavior. **Control Fallacies:** Pasteur's lack of proper controls and failure to observe naturally-occurring conditions resulted in experiments that simulated rather than illuminated the natural world. His conclusions often relied on directed outcomes rather than unbiased observations. **Reputation Over Rigor:** Emphasizing his results more than the methodology, Pasteur successfully marketed Germ Theory without addressing plausible alternative explanations for disease, such as environmental and host factors now recognized as contributing significantly to health outcomes. 🎭 ### Koch’s Postulates: The Perfect Logic In the annals of medical history, few frameworks were as crystal-clear and logical as Koch's Postulates. Developed by Robert Koch in the 19th century, these postulates were designed to establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between a microorganism and a disease. Their clarity and rigor make you wonder why, then, no virus has ever fully satisfied these criteria. Spoiler alert: it's not the postulates that are flawed. Let's unpack this enigma. 🕵️‍♂️ #### The Unquestioned Logic of Koch's Postulates Koch’s Postulates laid out a straightforward and logical framework: 1. Presence in Diseased Organisms: The microorganism must be found in abundance in all organisms suffering from the disease, but not in healthy organisms. 2. Isolation: The microorganism must be isolated from a diseased organism. 3. Reproduction of Disease: The isolated microorganism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy organism. 4. Re-Isolation: The microorganism must be re-isolated from the inoculated, diseased experimental host and identified as being identical to the original specific causative agent. At first glance—and in thorough scientific scrutiny—these steps are both logical and sound. They seek to establish undeniable causality between a germ and a disease. The problem? Not a single virus satisfies these foundational criteria. #### The Virus Dilemma: A Case Against Germ Theory Viruses have never clearly demonstrated an ability to fulfill Koch’s Postulates. Here’s why this matters: **Presence and Absence:** Viruses are often found in healthy individuals, completely violating the first postulate. If presence alone were cause for disease, we'd all be perpetually ill. **Causation and Introduction:** Reproducing disease symptoms reliably by introducing a virus into a healthy host? Good luck. This rarely results in consistent illness, highlighting the shaky premise upon which viral causation rests. **Re-Isolation Challenges:** Even when a virus appears to be re-isolated, it's never perfectly identical to the original. Which makes complete sense when one understands that supposed viruses are just random cellular debris. Failure to meet these criteria suggests that the existence of viruses as direct causes of disease is anything but a settled science. In fact, it reinforces the idea that Germ Theory doesn’t hold water, particularly when we consider the consistency and rigor required by Koch's original framework. #### Virology: The Shaky Foundations Faced with the inability to satisfy Koch's Postulates, the scientific community has adapted and modified them endlessly. Here's how they've diluted and diverted: **Molecular Koch's Postulates:** Focus on genes rather than organisms, diverting attention from the failure of isolated viruses to credibly cause disease. **Epidemiological Excuses:** Correlations in population studies often stand in for causation, even though this violates the logical rigor originally intended. **DNA and RNA Techniques:** PCR and molecular methods detect genetic material but do not prove viral causation, circumventing the postulates by identifying sequences rather than demonstrating direct effects. By moving the goalposts, virology attempts to shield itself from the logical scrutiny that should dismantle it—a clear indication that the field struggles under traditional scientific methods. #### The Bigger Picture: Questioning the Narrative Koch's Postulates were crafted in a time when scientific integrity and logic were paramount. That no virus has satisfied these postulates essentially points a finger right back at Germ Theory and the entire premise upon which modern virology stands; it appears far more unscientific if it can't pass the basic tests of causation and effect laid out over a century ago. While the world buys into Germ Theory as a self-evident truth, the unsinkable logic of Koch’s Postulates serves as a reminder that scientific inquiry is never settled simply by bending rules to fit narratives. ### Viruses and Virology’s Dance of Deception In the realm of virology, the term "isolation" is thrown around with surprising frequency. For most of us, isolation evokes a clear, dictionary-defined image: separating something completely from everything else. However, in virology, "isolation" means something entirely different from this straightforward definition. So, let's take a closer look at what this word really implies in the virology playbook and why it might just be the lynchpin in a grand scientific illusion. 🧬 #### The Dictionary Definition vs. Virology's Reality According to standard dictionaries, "isolation" refers to the act of setting something apart, free from connections or interactions with other objects or environments. Think quarantine, a separated specimen, or a single variable under a microscope. Isolation should mean purity and singularity. In virology, however, "isolation" involves an intricate process that seems to contradict these fundamental principles: **The Viral "Isolation" Process:** In virology practices, so-called "isolation" involves taking samples believed to contain the virus and adding them to a mixture of other genetic materials and nutrients within cell cultures. This environment is rarely isolated by the traditional definition—it's an elaborate cocktail rather than a singular entity. **The Outcome and Ambiguity:** When cell cultures deteriorate or exhibit changes, virologists claim the presence of a virus, naming these alterations as proof of viral activity. However, changes might result from a myriad collection of factors, from environmental stressors to the very chemicals added to the culture themselves.🦠 #### The Concept of "Isolation" Under Scrutiny Given virology's integration-based "isolation" process, here are some valid points for questioning: **Scientific Ambiguity:** The blending of viruses with cellular systems complicates the interpretation of observed effects. When anomalies arise, distinguishing specific viral influences from the noise of external variables becomes nearly impossible. **Misinterpretation and Misleading Perceptions:** The misuse of "isolation" generates misleading perceptions that viruses are identified and targeted with precision in lab-based scenarios. This dilution and deviation from the traditional concept cast doubt on purported viral behavior and pathogenicity. **Where is the Purity?:** Without the ability to fully isolate and analyze viruses independently, claims of their direct actions and pathogenic roles remain speculative at best, opening a Pandora’s box of uncertainties. ### The Terrain Theory: A Harbinger of Hope? Antoine Béchamp emerges as a contender to Pasteur's legacy with Terrain Theory. Contrary to Germ Theory, Terrain Theory insists that diseases arise due to imbalances or vulnerabilities of individual internal environments—the "terrain." This perspective suggests that focusing solely on germs misses the broader health picture. 🖼️ Béchamp’s notion aligns more closely with what many modern-day holistic health approaches tout—strengthening the "terrain" over simply destroying the "invaders." According to Béchamp, microorganisms could change form based on the environment, suggesting that germs are not the primary cause of disease but rather a symptom of an unhealthy internal "terrain." This theory emphasized that maintaining the body's internal balance and health was key to preventing disease, challenging the singular blame on specific pathogens and highlighting the dynamic nature of microorganisms within the body. In recent times, the study of exosomes has added another layer of complexity to our understanding of disease. Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles involved in cellular communication and transport of genetic material. Some researchers argue that exosomes have been misidentified as pathogenic viruses due to their similar appearance and behavior. This misrepresentation could lead to erroneous conclusions about the nature and cause of certain diseases, suggesting that what might be labeled as a viral infection could, in fact, be the body's response to stress or other environmental factors. This emerging perspective challenges the long-standing assumptions of Germ Theory, calling for a deeper exploration of the body's intricate biological mechanisms ### The Spanish Flu and Its Intriguing Parallel to COVID-19 The Spanish Flu of 1918 stands as one of the deadliest pandemics in history (at least as we are being told to believe), claiming millions of lives worldwide. Interestingly, multiple attempts to experimentally transmit the influenza virus from sick individuals to healthy ones during this period yielded unexpected results. Various experiments involved transferring fluids from the infected to healthy volunteers, yet these attempts consistently failed to induce illness. This failure to recreate infection under controlled conditions has prompted some to question the fundamental understanding of virus transmission. The recent global COVID-19 pandemic took Germ Theory for a high-speed test drive, with mixed returns. Governments worldwide invoked this theory to justify masks, lockdowns, and testing regimes like PCR, originally intended for DNA analysis, not diagnostics. As people folded squarely into the narrative, questions about the veracity and motives behind this became more poignant. 🧬 Drawing parallels to the COVID-19 pandemic, similar debates have surfaced regarding the virus's transmissibility and pathogenicity. While COVID-19 has inspired unprecedented global health measures, questions about virus isolation, testing accuracy, and the true nature of virus spread echo those inquiries raised during the Spanish Flu era. Both cases challenge the simplicity with which Germ Theory attributes disease to direct microbial causation, inviting a broader examination of environmental, genetic, and lifestyle factors in understanding pandemics. This reflection compels continued exploration into the complexity of infectious diseases beyond a single-cause framework, encouraging more holistic approaches to public health. ### The Pharmaceutical Profiteers No discussion on Germ Theory is complete without examining Big Pharma—an industry thriving on the fear of germs. Thanks to the narratives built around germ-caused diseases, this sector grows ever richer, pumping out vaccines and medications aimed at thwarting these so-called invisible villains. Blanche at your own peril; this is a money-making machine. 💊 ### Path Forward: Empower and Enlighten * Question the Status Quo: Encourage skepticism towards germ causation claims without ironclad scientific proof. * Focus on Overall Health: Your ‘terrain’ or environment is key. Elevate health through balanced diet, exercise, and stress management. * Demand Transparent Science: Push for rigorous, ethical trials that clearly demonstrate causation, not just correlation. * Educate and Explore: Dive into the works of critics like Béchamp and modern contrarians who offer alternative views on health and disease. ### Essential Readings * "Béchamp or Pasteur? A Lost Chapter in the History of Biology" by Ethel D. Hume * "The Contagion Myth: Why Viruses (including 'Coronavirus') Are Not the Cause of Disease" by Thomas S. Cowan and Sally Fallon Morell * "Virus Mania: How the Medical Industry Continually Invents Epidemics, Making Billion-Dollar Profits at Our Expense" by Torsten Engelbrecht and Claus Köhnlein * "What Really Makes You Ill? Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Disease Is Wrong" by Dawn Lester and David Parker * "The Dream & Lie of Louis Pasteur: A Philosophy" by R. B. Pearson * "Extracellular Vesicles in Health and Disease" by Paul Harrison So the next time you're confronted by claims of germ villains, remember the cracked foundations upon which these claims stand. Look into it, my friend, stay inquisitive, and always question the narrative. 🌟🔍

@ 6bae33c8:607272e8

That game went pretty well. I made two last-second decisions, one to start Gus Edwards in the .5 PPR Steak League over Elijah Moore, and he got me two TDs, so that was good. The other was to bench Wil Lutz (who I have everywhere) for Jake Elliott in the probably drawing dead playoff NFFC league. Lutz had 12.6 points, thanks to that last 55-yard field goal, so that was probably a mistake. I also nearly swapped in Javonte Williams for Rhamondre Stevenson, but changed my mind at the last second. Williams had 12.3 points (on 11 targets!), but that was the right move because though Stevenson could get less, I need 200-point weeks back to back, so I’d rather have the guy who hasn’t played yet than anything under 15-20. (I did have Ladd McConkey going, and he got 14.7 which is a little light too.) I took the Chargers -2.5 in Circa, and that came through, though I idiotically forgot to enter the Thursday night pick in my home picking pool. Imagine, I was agonizing over all these decisions for drawing dead teams, yet forgot to make a pick in the pool where I can still win some money if I have the best week. I was almost rooting against the Chargers to undo that mistake. FWIW I only watched the highlights of the game, couldn’t bring myself to do the 40-minute version of what I expected to be a dull, smashmouth Thursday night game. - The Broncos seem like all scheming, no consistency. Like they’ll break a big play, or misdirect, or some random guy like Marvin Mims will make a play, but you have no sense of who they are or what they’re doing, drive in and drive out, or game in and game out. Javonte Williams got 11 targets, and they threw to 10 different receivers. - The Chargers just don’t throw to their backs now. Maybe it’s because those backs can’t catch (Edwards) or pass protect (Vidal?). Justin Herbert used to throw to Austin Ekeler more than anyone. - Edwards is a poor man’s Derrick Henry, and I’m glad I timed him right this week for the Steak League where I’m still an eater, but only narrowly. - All three Chargers receivers got exactly six targets. McConkey managed 87 yards, Josh Palmer 41 and Quentin Johnston 18. The Broncos are a tough defense for the passing game though. - Neither team is going anywhere in the playoffs. The Chargers need one more playmaker on offense, while the Broncos need two. - Damn, just realized I started Jonathan Cooper in the Steak League as my IDP DL player, and he got zero. WTF?

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

This event has been deleted; your client is ignoring the delete request.

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

# When the shit just don't work Most open-source software is now so badly written and sloppily-maintained, that it's malware. That's why the governments are getting involved. They try using OS, to save money and improve quality (and to market themselves as "hip"), and then it blows up their system or opens them up to hackers. Now, they're pissed and want support (but the dev with the handle SucksToBeYou has disappeared) or someone to sue, but most OS projects have no identifiable entity behind them. Even well-known anon devs are often groups of anons or accounts that change hands. # The software cracks have moved on There is simply no evidence that OS alone produces higher-quality software. The reason it seemed that way, at the beginning, was because of the caliber of the developers working on the projects, and the limited number of projects. This resulted in experienced people actively reviewing each others' code. OS used to be something the elite engaged in, but it's mostly beginners practicing in public, now. That's why there are now millions of OS projects, happily offered for free, but almost all of them are garbage. The people now building OS usually aren't capable of reviewing other people's code, and they're producing worse products than ChatGPT could. Their software has no customers because it has no market value. # If everything is OS, then nothing is. Another paradigm-changer is that all software is de facto OS, now that we can quickly reverse-engineer code with AI. That means the focus is no longer on OS/not-OS, but on the accountability and reputation of the builders. It is, once again, a question of trust. We have come full-circle.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Here are the box score averages of two 6'6" NBA guards. Which one is Jordan and who is the other? | Player | eFG% | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | |--------|--------|-------|-------------|--------|--------|---------| | 1 | 0.561 | 30.3 | 5.5 | 6.3 | 1.9 | 1.0 | | 2 | 0.547 | 31.5 | 6.0 | 5.5 | 2.7 | 1.0 | What's the significance of this comparison? originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/817115

@ 1cb14ab3:95d52462

                            --- ### More from Hes: [Art](https://hes.npub.pro/tag/art/) [Store](https://plebeian.market/p/517d6542a081d61ecd8900ad9e2640290e2cf06f516c5e5f3edadfbde446bff4/stall/1db0cdfe0e39c4bd81b903902eeda74e6aa0f0b56e30851f327e6d0c292c5c06) [Travel Guides](https://hes.npub.pro/tag/travel/) [Photography](https://hes.npub.pro/tag/photography)

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

After being on vacation with my parents, I have to wonder how people live like that. My parents are both great people and even better grandparents, but so much uninterrupted time together becomes immensely tedious. Maybe, over even more time together, you develop habits and patterns that smooth off some of the edges. We've been thinking about moving and part of that calculation is whether we should be preparing for the inevitability of having one of my parents move in with us, when that time comes. Hopefully, that day is far off in the future because 1. I love them and want them around for a long time, 2. I want my daughter to have a great relationship with them for a long time, and 3. I'd be annoyed out of my mind if I had to live with one of them. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/816929

@ ca20c953:b744e1b1

The song "Warm Fuzzy Feeling" is about 1 minute and 56 seconds of pure, unadulterated joy. Just a good, quick rock song. Give a listen to the whole All the Pain Money Can Buy album. Thank me later.

@ 6bae33c8:607272e8

I went ahead and YOLO’d in this week with the Thursday game because I’m drawing dead anyway — why agonize over it? I like the Chargers in this spot too. **Chargers -2.5 vs Broncos** — The Chargers are the worst good team, while the Broncos are the best bad one. I like taking LA at home off the short week too. **Chiefs -3.5 vs Texans** — Mahomes is playing so why isn’t this line 6.5? The Texans defense isn’t bad, but the Chiefs defense is better, and so is their offensive line. **Ravens -6 vs Steelers** — The Ravens had some bad bounces in the first game, but there is no comparison between Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson at this point. Ravens roll. **Bengals -7.5 vs Browns** — DTR is bad, and the Bengals will get their usual 30-ish points. Lay the wood. **Colts -3.5 vs Titans** — I said this was a stay away in my Guess The Lines because I thought it would be seven. The Colts were even with the Broncos but for two disastrous plays (lateral pick six thrown by a WR and Jonathan Taylor losing a TD because he dropped the ball one second too soon.) They’re good for this spread against the Titans. I realize these are all home favorites, but that’s not my problem.

@ 9711d1ab:863ebd81

One of the best parts about running Breez is the diverse range of people I get to meet and work with. We have partners from [Jamaica](https://medium.com/breez-technology/building-on-lightning-flash-is-reinventing-caribbean-money-with-the-breez-sdk-d26ef8b81fb8), the [USA](https://medium.com/breez-technology/the-breez-sdk-is-helping-crowdhealth-help-bitcoiners-help-each-other-9dd0e19e2c58), [Switzerland](https://medium.com/breez-technology/its-a-relai-not-a-sprint-swiss-bitcoin-only-broker-opts-for-the-breez-sdk-9d05b7906715), [Germany](https://medium.com/breez-technology/building-on-lightning-how-satimoto-is-beating-fiat-with-the-breez-sdk-88aa8252a994), [Canada](https://blockstream.com/), [Estonia](https://medium.com/breez-technology/bringin-bitcoin-to-retail-banking-with-the-breez-sdk-e4d5822dca5c), and who knows where else. We have users in [Finland](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-in-the-wild-a-budding-ecosystem-in-finland-8b0f971ebe4f), [Wales](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-in-the-wild-3-a-creative-family-innovates-with-breez-732368a01d7d), [Namibia](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-in-the-wild-fromthejump-podcast-fd90164b2146), [India](https://medium.com/breez-technology/the-breez-release-candidate-getting-lightning-ready-for-the-global-takeover-b5d1f9756229), and almost everywhere else. The people behind Breez are split across three continents and come from a broad range of national and ethnic backgrounds. Agreeing on a communication platform (Telegram? Slack? Zoom? Discord?) sometimes takes a bit of coordination. What never needs coordination, though, is the *language* we use to communicate. It’s always automatically English. For many of us, English is our second (or third, or fourth) language, and parts of it are baffling, but it doesn’t matter. Every initial contact is in English, all channels are automatically in English, and all public communication (like this blog) is in English. There’s not even a contender for second place. And there’s basically no way to change this convention. Nobody could simply decree that we’re all going to start speaking Mandarin or Esperanto or Inuktitut. Whether because of convenience, actual utility, historical imposition, or sheer numbers, English is locked in. But it works, so why mess with it? This example demonstrates a few points. First, the interface between individual nodes in a network — whether people, nations, or communities — has the form of a language. Second, there needs to be a common language. In fact, the limits of the language are the limits of the network. In other words, the distribution of the language *defines the network*. Finally, common languages are very sticky. Once everyone has adapted to a common language, it’s basically locked in. Now for a fact about the present that will irrevocably shape the future: Lightning is emerging as the common language of the bitcoin economy. *Lightning is bitcoin’s Tower of Babel, but nobody wants to tear it down. (Image: Wikimedia)* # **A Common Language among Subnetworks** [We’ve talked before](https://medium.com/breez-technology/liquidity-on-lightning-moving-from-ux-to-economix-6e597d9e1abd) about various last-mile technologies. They’re like the local secondary roads that connect users to the higher-throughput Lightning Network and, ultimately, the Bitcoin mainnet. They all basically work by bundling users and their transactions into subnetworks. For example, [Ark](https://arkdev.info/) and [Liquid](https://docs.liquid.net/docs/welcome-to-liquid-developer-documentation-portal) convert incoming bitcoin into their own mechanisms ([VTXOs](https://arkdev.info/docs/learn/nomenclature) and [L-BTC](https://docs.liquid.net/docs/technical-overview), respectively) that users can then send to each other according to their respective protocols without needing further on-chain transactions. Alternatively, [Fedimint](https://fedimint.org/docs/GettingStarted/What-is-a-Fedimint) members effectively pool their bitcoin and trade IOUs among themselves, with transactions and the financial state of affairs overseen by a federation of trusted guardians. With [Cashu](https://cashu.space/), people exchange e-cash tokens and trust the issuing body. Each kind of subnetwork can use its own language. How the nodes communicate among themselves in these subnetworks is their business. What’s interesting is that these subnetworks *communicate with each other over Lightning*, even if we’re just talking about, say, two different Cashu mints or when a Fedi interacts with an Ark. Lightning is the common language of all the emergent and thriving subnetworks based on bitcoin. Returning to the analogy of English, it doesn’t matter to me what language you speak at home or at the supermarket. You can speak whatever obscure dialect you want with others who understand it. But if you want to talk to me or virtually anyone else on Telegram or Slack, English is really the only option. Nobody could change that even if they wanted to, and nobody seems to want to. Just like Lightning. Lightning is the common language of the emerging subnetworks. It’s the language of bitcoin. # **Why Lightning Is the Optimal Language for Bitcoin** A *common* language is not necessarily an *optimal* language. It just has to work and be broadly accepted. Just like the Bitcoin mainchain has certain advantages (e.g. immutability, openness, borderlessness, etc.) that recommend it for certain uses, Lightning is the best choice for a common language between subnetworks for at least three reasons. *Layered networks interacting via a common language. (Image: Adobe Firefly)* ## **Lightning Is Bitcoin, and Bitcoin Is the Trustless Bearer Asset** The first and probably most important reason why Lightning is the best common language is that [it uses bitcoin](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-btc-iou-62e3a712c913). Simply, the subnetworks might not trust each other, and they have no reason to. But since Bitcoin and, by extension, [Lightning eschew trust](https://medium.com/breez-technology/the-only-thing-better-than-minimal-trust-is-none-at-all-34456f650332), the subnetworks can interact without trust. Bitcoin is the only viable bearer asset, and Lightning is the language of Bitcoin, so Lightning is the best common language for the subnetworks to interact with each other. Further, Lightning, like Bitcoin, also eschews leverage. The whole business model of fractional-reserve banks is based on a hole in their balance sheets. By contrast, every sat on Lightning is accounted for at every moment. A balance sheet displaying all the positions on the network would be perpetually *balanced*. No gap, no overlap. Lightning resists imbalances due to hubris, incompetence, and villainy, which is a necessary feature in a trustless environment. ## **Lightning Is Inherently Transactional and Interoperable** Second, Lightning is a transactional protocol designed to facilitate flow. For normal payments, there’s no mempool and no delay until the next block is mined. [Payments take seconds](https://x.com/Breez_Tech/status/1632387594486009859), if that. And transactions — money in motion — are what make Lightning valuable. [Literally](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-is-a-liquidity-network-550896ca27ea). Static sats on the network don’t earn any return. In order for liquidity on Lightning to grow, it has to flow. A common language won’t be used much if it rewards silence. It must promote communication, which is exactly what Lightning does. Further, the Lightning technology detailed [in the catalog of bolt specs](https://github.com/lightning/bolts) is inherently interoperable. It was designed to enable multiple implementations of Lightning nodes with different designs, trade-offs, and programming languages. All these nodes can, however, interact over a common network because they all support the same bolts. Being interoperable by design makes it easy for other technologies to add Lightning as another interface. ## **Lightning Has Critical Mass** Finally, a common language needs a sizeable community of speakers. Try saying “[skibidi rizz](https://youtu.be/q85IlAx95wA)” in a nursing home or, even better, a nursing home in Cambodia. Perhaps the biggest advantage of English is simply its popularity: [more people speak English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers) than any other language on the planet. And while only a quarter of the inhabitants of many countries speak English, you can still find an English speaker at the next table at virtually every bar and restaurant on the planet. Try that with Catalan. Lightning has already achieved a critical mass. It’s already obvious how a Cashu subnetwork and Fedimint subnetworks will communicate with each other: Lightning. That’s how they were designed, so switching the common language between networks would require rebuilding most of their parts. Like English, whatever language subnetworks use internally, Lightning is the language they use to speak to each other, and it’s already locked in. # **The Permanence of Lightning** Actual lightning — the kind from storm clouds — is a notoriously brief phenomenon. Flashing momentarily and vanishing is its whole thing. But the Lightning Network — the interface between any number of nodes, subnetworks, and the Bitcoin mainchain — is not going anywhere. Common languages tend to [hold that status for centuries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca#Historical_lingua_francas). Bitcoin is the world’s best currency. Lightning is the common language of the bitcoin world, and it’s here to stay. For those of us already established in Lightning, this is very good news. That Lightning is locked in means our first-mover advantage is going to be very valuable indeed. But it’s also good news for those just entering Lightning now or considering it. It eliminates uncertainty about which technology to support and invest in. Lightning is going nowhere but up, so it’s never the wrong time to get started. [Better yesterday than today](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/12/29/plant-tree/), better today than tomorrow, but tomorrow is good too. [The best time to get into Lightning is now](https://breez.technology/sdk/). Always has been. Originally published by Roy Sheinfeld on Breez's [Medium](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-is-the-common-language-of-the-bitcoin-economy-eb8515341c11).

@ 2ce0697b:1ee3d3fc

### Excerpt Special Jurisdictions, Free Cities and Bitcoin Citadels are the sly roundabout way that is removing the market of living together from the hands of the government, without violence and in a way that they can´t stop it. With Bitcoin as the backbone of a new societal order, we are beginning to disrupt the old paradigm. ----------- > “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ― Henry David Thoreau, [Walden](https://archive.org/details/henry-david-) ----------- ### The problem: lack of freedom in the physical realm Freedom is essential to human life. Being free is what matters. That´s our target, always. No matter the time or space. We pursue freedom because we know its the right thing to do. Freedom is the right to question and change the stablished way of doing things. Where can we find some freedom? Certainly in the cyberspace. The cyberspace is a free space. Humanity has been blessed by the magic of cryptography, a technology that gave us all the necessary tools to operate in that environment without intervention of undesired third parties. In cyberspace cryptography performs the function of an impenetrable cyberwall. So, whatever we build in cyberspace can be perfectly protected. Thank to this cybernetic walls we can be sure that the gardens we build and nurture will be protected and cannot be trampled. When we build our digital gardens we have the keys to open the doors to let in whoever we want and most important to leave out whoever we don´t want. In the digital world we can already perfectly interact with one and another in a peer to peer way, without intervention of undesired third parties. In cyberspace we have Bitcoin for freedom of money and [Nostr,](https://nostr.com/) torrent and Tor for freedom of information and speech. These open-source protocols are designed to fully realize and expand the promise of freedom, and they certainly deliver what they promise.  So, thanks to the magic of asymmetric cryptography, we´ve already achieved sufficiently descentralization and the possibility of any level of desired digital privacy. [Cryptoanarchists](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTtbkguROdk) and [cypherpunks](https://cdn.nakamotoinstitute.org/docs/cyphernomicon.txt) have set their conquering flag in cyberspace and there´s no force on Earth than can remove it. The digital world cannot escape the rules of cryptography. This is great but it only works in the digital realm, meanwhile in the physical realm we are overrun by centralized attackers due to the impossibility of the creation of impenetrable walls such as the ones we have online. Humans have the upper hand in creating impenetrable walled gardens in cyberspace, but in the physical space authoritarians have the upper hand in bullying physical persons. The physical world is also naturally free. According to natural law each person is free to do whatever he wants as long as it doesn´t hurt other people. However due to unnatural -artificial and inhuman- centralization of power, the natural freedom of the physical world has been completely undermined. Mostly by Governments, the entities that centralize violence and law. ## Bitcoin as a bridge between both realms  Let´s take a look at one connection between both realms, the physical and the digital world. Bitcoin layer one is made essentially of software plus hardware. It consists of any software that produces the same output as the reference implementation - Bitcoin core- and the hardware needed to run that software. Layer two, three or any other layer above, is made essentially of other software and other hardware that interacts with layer one in some way. All these layers, one, two and subsequent, are completely protected by cryptography and a set of game theories that have been successfully tested. Each new block added to the timechain is a testimony of the unstoppable force of freedom and meritocracy. Before layer one we have Bitcoin layer zero, which is essentially the sum of all actions and inactions done by bitcoiners regarding to or because of bitcoin. In other words, layer zero is composed by flesh and bone people interacting in some way with layer one of the bitcoin network. Hence, an attack on a bitcoiner - on his way of life- is an attack on bitcoin, the network itself. First because it is an attack on a layer zero node, the physical person, the bitcoiner under duress or coercion. And second because is also an attack on the store-of-value-aspect of bitcoin. Nowaday, the most common attack against bitcoiners is the entirety of compliance regulations. This is the sum of all coercive regulations,such as laws, threats of more laws, imprisonment, threats of more imprisonment, taxation, threats of more taxation, requirements to prove the origin of funds, coercive removal of privacy such as the travel rule, unnecessary bureaucracy such as the need to obtain a money transmitting license and many others rules, in a never stopping inflationary coercive legislation.  If a physical attack is preventing any bitcoiner to exchange the value he created for bitcoin due to any kind of artificial obstacles -such as any kind of compliance- that specific attack is successful in the sense that even though the whole network keeps operating, the attack itself diminishes the value of all the bitcoins. So, even if layer-zero cannot be taken down, every interference on this layer is an attack on the bitcoin network. Attacks on layer one, two or any other layer that exists in the cyberspace can interfere with the network but they may hardly subtract any value from it. For example we have already been through plenty of times where hashing power was diminished due to government intervention and the bitcoin network remain completely unaffected. On the other hand successful attacks on layer zero subtract potential, but real and demonstrable value. This value is equal to the amount of value the frustrated user would have added to the network if he would have been able to use it freely, that means if he would have sold his product without the cost of compliance. I´ll demonstrate this in the next chapter. ## The cost of compliance Alice is a merchant specialized in a specific area and topic. She studied the market, her business, her suppliers, consumers, the logistics involved, marketing, design, and everything necessary to become a successful entrepreneur. After investing a considerable amount of resources, she developed a perfect product. Or at least she considers it perfect, that is, the best in its class. While developing everything necessary to create her product, she met Bob, who became her main lead and stereotype of a buyer persona. She knows what Bob wants and she wants to sell it to him. According to Alice's calculations, for her business to be viable, she must sell the product at ten satoshis per unit, and fortunately, Bob is willing to pay that price for it. Alice's product is finished, ready to hit the market, but just before sending it to production, Alice decides to take a pause to analyze her reality. Before taking the public action of making her product available in the open market, Alice analyzes her material, political, and legal reality. In doing so, she realizes that she lives under the jurisdiction of a State. She learns that the Government prescribes through its regulations how she must behave. She analyzes that in order to sell her product legally, in compliance, she must make a series of modifications to it. The product before hitting the shelves must first be modified both in the way it is presented to the market and also regarding certain technical characteristics that it possesses. She must also modify the way it produces her product by changing the contractual relationship with its suppliers, distribution channels, and all other types of logistics involved. She must make all these changes even if they bring about significant and insurmountable inefficiencies. Likewise, Alice also sees that she not only has to modify the product but also has to meet tax obligations. In addition to paying an accountant since the tax obligations by some irrational reason are not calculated by the creditor. Additionally, she must hire other professionals to assist her in studying the current regulations and how they should be applied in all stages of production, distribution, and sale of her product. Alice, being a rational person, wishes to avoid having to make these modifications since they increase her costs while also decreasing the quality of her product. But when studying compliance, that is, the entirety of applicable regulations, she also examines the consequences of not being in compliance. Alice realizes that if she does not comply with the regulations, she risks having all her assets legally confiscated, going to prison, being killed while they try to capture her to imprison her, and, if she goes to prison, being tortured in jail by other inmates or by State officials in charge of holding her in that place. So, since Alice does not want to suffer these negative consequences, she decides to modify the product and be in compliance. So, Alice makes the necessary changes and puts her new version of the product on the market. Then she has the following dialogue with Bob, her lead, the interested party in acquiring the product. Bob: *- Hey Alice, nice meeting you here in this market. I came to buy the product you were developing and told me about. However, this product I´m seein now is not what you promised me. This is clearly inferior.* Alice: *- Yeah, I know. I'm sorry Bob, but I prefer to sell this inferior product rather than risk having all my assets confiscated, going to prison, being killed while they try to capture me, and if they don´t kill but managed to put me in jail I could be tortured there.* Bob: *- Ok, no problem. Thats quite understandable. I don´t believe anyone would prefer those kind of experiences. But given the quality of the product, I no longer intend to pay you ten satoshis; I only offer you eight. Shall we close the deal?* Alice: *- I'm sorry Bob, but I can't sell it to you for eight sats. Due to government intervention and its requirements, now I can't even sell it for less than thirteen satoshis.* Bob: *- Ok. Considering this I prefer not to purchase it. I will keep looking for alternatives. Bye*  Some time later, Charlie arrives at the market, who is also interested in the product and, despite it not being like the original version, decides to purchase it by paying the thirteen satoshis demanded by the seller Alice. Meanwhile, in the same universe, we have Daniel, the last character in this example. Daniel is a merchant competing with Alice. Daniel has a product that is very similar, practically identical to the one originally designed by Alice. Like Alice, Daniel initially also wants to sell it for ten satoshis. Just like Alice, before heading to the market, Daniel analyzes the reality in which he lives. And it turns out that he also lives under the jurisdiction of a State. Daniel too then analyzes the entirety of the applicable regulations and also comes to the conclusion that to comply with them, he would also need to modify the product and cover all the additional expenses artificially generated to be in compliance. However, Daniel's ethics are different from Alice's. Daniel understands that his product is indeed perfect (the best in its class) and that therefore modifying it would go against its essence. Daniel understands that changing the product would be a betrayal of his creation and therefore a betrayal of his own self and the essence of his being. Daniel conducts an ethical analysis of his actions and the moral implications of putting the product on the market. Daniel sees that the product not only does not harm anyone but is also made to be freely acquired by adults who give their consent for its purchase and subsequent use. Daniel also understands that paying taxes only serves to promote the slavery system driven by fiat and that whenever he can avoid collaborating with the immoral fiat system, it is his ethical obligation to do so. Likewise, Daniel highlights the hypocrisy and inefficiencies of anti-money laundering regulations, as well as the futility of requiring licenses for naturally free acts that do not harm others. For all these reasons, Daniel decides to sell the product in its current state irregardles of compliance regulations. However, before going to market, Daniel also studies the possible consequences of neglecting compliance. By doing so, Daniel sees that if he does not comply with the regulations, he risks having all his assets legally confiscated, going to prison, being killed while they attempt to capture him to imprison him, and, in the event of going to prison, being tortured in jail by other inmates or by State officials responsible for holding him in that place. So, since Daniel is a rational person who does not want to suffer these negative consequences but also does not want to betray his product and himself, he decides to take the risk of not being in compliance. After making this decision, Daniel puts the product on the market and there he meets Bob. In doing so, they converse in the following terms: Bob: *- Hey Daniel, this product is exactly what I was looking for. A product like the one promised by Alice but never delivered. I love it! I offer you ten satoshis for it.* Daniel: *- Thank you for your feedback Bob and for the offer! However I am currently selling it for eleven satoshis. Ten satoshis seems like a good price to me, and it was indeed my original intention to sell it for that amount because at that price I achieve competitiveness and a sustainable business model.* Bob: - *So why are you asking me for eleven satoshis?* Interrupts Bob Daniel: *- Because that price is calculated before assessing compliance and the risks associated with non-compliance. By not complying with the regulation, I managed to maintain the quality of the product and avoided a large amount of unnecessary expenses, but there is no way to avoid the risk of facing penalties for non-compliance. To bring this product to market, I had to incur several expenses in order to minimize the risk of non-compliance as much as possible. While I am taking all reasonable actions to prevent all of my assets from being legally confiscated, from going to prison, from being killed while they try to capture me, and in case of going to prison, from being tortured, the reality is that I still run the risk of all that, or part of all that, happening to me, my family, or any of my company's employees. The remaining risk balance is transferred to the price along with the costs of mitigating those risks. The total of those costs and the remaining risk I estimate them at one satoshi per unit of product. Therefore, I can't sell you the product for ten satoshis, but I can sell it to you for eleven.* To which Bob, lacking a better option in the market, ends up buying the product for eleven satoshis. **In summary:** two products were made by two different merchants whose business model allowed them, in both cases, to put the product on the market at a rate of ten satoshis per unit. However, in one case, a lower quality product was sold for thirteen satoshis, and in the other case, a higher quality product was sold for eleven satoshis. That is to say, in the first case there was an overprice or inefficiency objectively measured at three satoshis, while in the second case there was an overprice or inefficiency of one satoshi. So, we are facing a total loss of value equivalent to four satoshis. The value represented by these four satoshis was absorbed by the inefficiency programmed and ruled by the State. The example shows us that whether one chooses the compliance route, as Alice did, or the free market route, as Daniel did, in both cases the existence of regulations generates an additional cost to the market. In this example the state attack on layer zero was successful and extracted from the Bitcoin network a value of four satoshis. ## Bitcoin is money Bitcoin is many things but essentially is money. And money sole purpose is to store value in order to facilitate future exchanges of products and services with other people. Without the products and services to be exchanged for the money, money itself would be useless and worthless. We only use money because we may require favors, benefits, services, products from other people in the future. And we don´t know which services and products we´ll need nor exactly when we are goint to need them.  The total value of bitcoin equals to infinity divided twenty one millions. This is because the total worth of the network mirrors the total worth of accumulated capital by the entirety of mankind throughout its entire history. That is clearly a lot of value. But if the if the dividend equals zero then the divisor is also zero and if the dividend growth is obstructed through artificial means -such as compliance- then the divisor growth is also obstructed. Bitcoin layer zero, the bitcoiners and the services and products we create, are what give value to the twenty one million units of bitcoin. Freedom is without a doubt the best context for value creation. So, the more and better games we can create that allow humankind to find a way to exercise freedom, then the most value we can add to all the layers of the network. This is why the most important layer of the whole bitcoin phenomenon is layer zero, the bitcoiners. Hence the problem to be solved is not how to prevent bitcoin - layer one upwards- from successful attacks. The problem to solve is how to prevent attacks on layer zero. Or in other words, the problem to be solved is how to get bitcoiners in the physical world to practice the same level of freedom that bitcoin achieves in the cyberspace. Summary of the first part of this article: freedom in cyberspace has already been conquered and each further development in the digital realm contributes to further developments but only in the same realm. Meanwhile in the physical space, the layer zero of bitcoin is under constant attacks that successfully extract value from it. ## Exercising freedom in a sly roundabout way  In 1984 the [Austrian economist](https://mises.org/) Friedrich Hayek predicted that we couldn´t take money with violence out of the hands of government. He stated that we needed to do it in a [sly roundabout way.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lV5P7aPZic) Twenty five years later Satoshi Nakamoto discovered the sly roundabout way actually introducing something that the government couldn´t stop. Thus fulfilling Hayek´s prophecy. Bitcoin is a sly roundabout way that removed money without violence from the hands of the government in a way that they can´t stop it. Cryptography in general and protocols such as Tor and Tails are a sly roundabout way that removed confidential information from the hands of the government without violence in a way that they can´t stop it. Nostr is a sly roundabout way that removed social media and public information from the hands of the government without violence in a way that they can´t stop it. **Special Jurisdictions, Free Cities and Bitcoin Citadels are the sly roundabout way that is removing the market of living together from the hands of the government without violence in a way that they can´t stop it.**  So, what are [Special Jurisdictions, ](https://journalofspecialjurisdictions.com/index.php/jsj/article/view/51)[Free Cities ](https://free-cities.org/)and [Bitcoin Citadels?](https://citadelium.com/the-seven-levels-of-citadels/) To understand what they are we can take a look at the current mainstream market of living together, at how the physical space is organized. Essentially the entire planet Earth and its surroundings are run by a conglomerate of Governments. They create all the rules, regarding every aspect of life, of all the individuals, and enforce every rule through coercive means. In the mainstream market of living together individuals have several alternatives to pick from. We can choose to live in a natural city or a pre design city, in a public neighborhood or private neighborhood or even in an intentional community with common interest amongst the users. But irregardless of the choice, every product offered in the mainstream market has the sames rules which are established by the host state to the entirety of organizations in his territory. In the mainstream market, even the most different products abide by the same high level rules such as criminal law, civil law, taxation laws, customs, enviromental laws, money laundering regulations and many others. To abide to the sum of all the laws and regulations is to be in compliance. The centralization of regulations makes extremely difficult to experiment in market of living together. The less experimentation is allowed, the more human progress is hindered. So what is the sly roundabout that fixes this? What are Special Jurisdictions, Free Cities and Bitcoin Citadels? I´m using the term Special Jurisdictions as an umbrella term that includes the entire spectrum of iterations of products that aim to modify the mainstream rules of the market of living together. This term includes all the different models such as Charter Cities, Free Cities, Special Economic Zones, microstates, micropolis, start up societies, government as a service, self governing jurisdictions, autonomous intentional communities, network states and Bitcoin Citadels. The array of possible iterations is huge and permanently expanding. What they all have in common is that each of these experiments aims to create a functional game theory that replaces the lack of unbreakable walls in the physical space. Let´s take a look of a couple of examples. Special Economic Zones are bounded areas of countries that have their own rules and regulations. Worldwide, there are more than five thousands special economic zones located in more than hundred countries. One of them is the special economic zone of Shenzhen in China. The Chinese government allowed Shenzhen the freedom to experiment with certain practices that were prohibited in the rest of the country at the time. This included allowing foreign companies to make direct investments in China, allowing people to buy and sell land, allowing Chinese people to set up their own private businesses and relaxation of the system that limited internal migration within China for Chinese citizens. It served as a place where China could experiment with market reforms. The experiment was such a huge economic success that it was replicated in many other areas of the country. Another place that has made extensive use of special economic zones is Dubai. The monarchic Government has more than 30 SEZs. In this case one of the many obstacles removed by the host state its the monopoly of the legal system. Dubai Government allowed the special economic zone to have its own independent legal system thus conceding a modification of the mainstream rules in that area. This kind of projects, such as Dubai or Shenzhen, are a top-to-down product. Fully created by the Governments thus compliant with their own regulations.  On the other side of the spectrum we have Citadels and several other archetypes of not so compliant projects . For example the [Free Commune of Penadexo](https://free-communities.org/project/penadexo/) it´s a grassroots project building a freedom-oriented community in one of Spain’s abandoned villages.  It´s model is based on building a peer to peer society avoiding government intervention as much as possible. They stablished themselves in an abandoned historic village and the started to track down the owners to purchase as much property as possible. Meanwhile, they are living there and expanding their users base while also reconstructing buildings. This is an example of a completely different way of dealing with the Government. While Special Economic Zones are fully compliant and created top to down, this model on the other hand is bottom-up and aims to add value to the users relying in factual freedom which is exercised by stablishing the commune away from heavily populated centers where Government grip is tighter. Under this model the interaction with the Government is kept as low as possible. Their strategy relies in ignoring the Government as much as possible and being a good neighbor. With this simple and effective tactic some Citadels enjoy the benefits of liberty in their lifetime without needing to spend huge resources in governmental lobby. There are countless models or archetypes of Bitcoin Citadels trying to solve the obstacles in different ways, trying to restart the system. And one of the challenges of the Bitcoin Citadels is how to connect the different projects to boost and help each other. This is where [The Meshtadel](https://www.citadel21.com/meshtadel) comes into play. The Meshtadel is a system where decentralized tactics are used to help and defend citadels connected in a global network. With real life connections with fellow bitcoiners. Its an organization equivalent to the hanseatic league built under a [starfish model](https://youtu.be/-2Fyd5VjuUw). If you cut off a spider’s head, it dies, but if you cut off a starfish’s arm, it can regenerate and even grow into a new starfish. The Meshtadel its a network of peer relationships, with ambiguous leadership roles, trust among participants, a shared ideology and vision based on the Bitcoin ethos, and an open system where new nodes - bitcoin citadel builders - can participate.  The long term goal of the Bitcoin Meshtadel is to help Bitcoin Citadels to gain the support of a critical mass of the total population. If enough people see that Bitcoin is as peaceful as it gets, in the long run, some nations could become friendly and supportive enough to legally tolerate the Bitcoin Citadel inside its territory in the form of a Bitcoin safe haven. In the Meshtadel we are fighting from the moral high ground using memes, Nostr notes and zapping our way into freedom creating an online and offline circular economy. ## TO CONCLUDE: Special Jurisdictions, Free Cities and Bitcoin Citadels are the sly roundabout way that is removing the market of living together from the hands of the government, without violence and in a way that they can´t stop it. Nation states, abusing the myth of authority, have halted development on the market of living together for so long that a blooming freer market is eating its lunch. The sovereign individual thesis is live and continuously expanding. The network state is forming and intentional communities are flourishing all around the world reshaping globally the relationship between individuals and the governments. With global internet connections, uncensorable means of communication and Bitcoin as the backbone of a new societal order, we are beginning to disrupt the old paradigm. The fashion of the present world is passing away, let’s help it to move forward along by building Special Jurisdictions, Free Cities and Bitcoin Citadels. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ------ by[Camilo](https://camilojdl.com/)at 875.341 timechain. If you find this content helpful, zap it to support more content of the sort and to boost the [V4V model.](https://dergigi.com/2021/12/30/the-freedom-of-value/#accept-the-nature-of-information)

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

The NBA All Star Game is no more. After last year's humiliation, Adam Silver has decided to shake things up. # Format Similar to the NHL, they are going to replace the All Star Game with a tournament. There will be five teams involved: three made up of the All Stars and two made up of the Rising Stars. The 24 All Stars will be drafted into three teams by the TNT crew, while the winner of the Rising Stars challenge will advance to the final four. There will then be a semifinals match, with the winners moving on to the championship round. The games are pickup style games to 30 points. # Thoughts I'm glad they're switching it up, but I don't know why the players would be expected to try any harder in this new format. The Rising Stars will be going all out, which might make whichever All Star team they face play a little harder. Eight players is too many for pickup. They should have split the All Stars into four teams of six and just play to 21 like normal. What do you all think about this new format? originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/816168

@ b8851a06:9b120ba1

The Federal Reserve's explicit prohibition from holding Bitcoin isn't just bureaucratic red tape - it's an unintentional safeguard for financial sovereignty *(The Federal Reserve is explicitly prohibited from holding Bitcoin under current legislation, specifically through restrictions outlined in the Federal Reserve Act. This legal framework strictly defines the types of assets the central bank can maintain on its balance sheet)*. Here's why Bitcoin holders should celebrate this restriction. ## **The Power of Separation** The Fed's inability to hold Bitcoin creates a crucial firewall between state monetary control and genuine financial freedom. When Fed Chairman Powell confirms they cannot hold Bitcoin and aren't seeking changes to this restriction, it maintains Bitcoin's position as the only truly independent monetary asset. ## **Strategic Implications** **Control Vectors**\ Consider the alternative scenario: If the Fed could hold Bitcoin, it would gain multiple control mechanisms: - The ability to manipulate Bitcoin markets through large-scale buying and selling - The power to implement additional taxation schemes - The capacity to create a "balanced budget trap" affecting holders **Regulatory Capture**\ A Federal Reserve Bitcoin holding would subject the asset to: - Stricter banking regulations and supervision - Integration into traditional monetary policy tools - Potential restrictions on peer-to-peer transactions ## **Economic Reality** Let's be crystal clear: Bitcoin's protocol ensures its fixed supply of 21 million coins is immutable - no central bank, including the Federal Reserve, can ever change this fundamental characteristic. However, if allowed to hold Bitcoin, the Fed could attempt to: - Influence market sentiment through strategic accumulation or selling - Create paper derivatives to dilute Bitcoin's scarcity premium - Implement policies that could affect Bitcoin's market accessibility ## **The Freedom Advantage** The inability of the Fed to hold Bitcoin ensures: - Continued decentralization of holdings - Protection from central bank monetary experiments - Preservation of Bitcoin's role as a hedge against federal monetary policy This legal barrier isn't a limitation - it's a feature that protects Bitcoin's fundamental value proposition as a truly independent financial system.

@ f1989a96:bcaaf2c1

Good morning, readers! After 53 years of tyranny, the Syrian regime has been overthrown. Rebels captured Damascus, forcing Bashar al-Assad and his family to flee to Moscow, Russia. Assad’s rule was defined by severe human rights abuses and widespread financial repression. Hundreds of thousands were jailed or killed, millions fled, and more than 90% of the country was plunged into poverty amid currency collapse. With Assad gone, Syrians may have a chance to rebuild their country and work toward a freer, more democratic future. In Tunisia, President Kais Saied continues to dismantle civil society and due process. The regime is escalating the repression of journalists through arrests, incarceration, and judicial harassment to silence critical voices. By doing so, Saied shifts focus away from the country’s economic struggles and worsening hardships. In technology news, Klever Wallet, a KYC-free digital asset wallet widely used in regions like Nigeria and the Philippines, integrated the Lightning Network via the Breez SDK, enabling fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions for its significant global user base. In addition, the Bitcoin Design Foundation announced a South American Bitcoin UX Bootcamp, offering 10 skilled UX designers across South America a chance to refine their design expertise within the Bitcoin ecosystem and attend the 2025 bitcoin++ developer conference in Florianopolis, Brazil. We end with a live stream of the 2024 Africa Bitcoin Conference, an inspiring event HRF supported and participated in. The conference brought together leaders and innovators across the African continent to advance Bitcoin for financial freedom and to push back against growing authoritarianism. If you were unable to attend in person, be sure to catch the recordings below. **Now, let’s dive right in!** ### [**Subscribe Here**](https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/financial-freedom-newsletter?mc_cid=bf652c0a5a) ## **GLOBAL NEWS** #### **Syria | Assad Regime Overthrown** The Assad regime, infamous for its [financial repression](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/networked-authoritarianism-and-economic-resilience-in-syria/) and brutal authoritarianism, has been [overthrown](https://hrf.org/latest/assad-regime-overthrown-after-53-years-of-repression-and-brutality-pivotal-opportunity-to-establish-rule-of-law-and-individual-rights/) following the rebel capture of Damascus, forcing Bashar al-Assad and his family to flee to Moscow. For 24 years under Assad — and 53 years of Assad family rule — the regime manipulated the economy to maintain its grip on power. Policies such as enforcing artificial currency exchange rates, restricting bank withdrawals, and imposing strict controls on the flow of goods and money plunged over [90%](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/networked-authoritarianism-and-economic-resilience-in-syria/) of Syrians into poverty. This economic stranglehold, combined with systemic human rights abuses, defined his reign. With the regime’s collapse, Syrians now face a pivotal moment to rebuild their country and pursue a future of more financial freedom. #### **China | Youth Bear the Brunt of Economic Slowdown** China’s slowing economy is forcing younger generations into increasingly [precarious financial positions](https://www.voachinese.com/a/chinas-lifeless-millennials-struggling-with-rising-cost-of-living-20241205/7888849.html). Youth unemployment has soared past [17%](https://www.voachinese.com/a/chinas-lifeless-millennials-struggling-with-rising-cost-of-living-20241205/7888849.html), and even those who find work face stagnant wages and unmet income expectations. To survive, many young people are embracing extreme frugality — capping food expenses at just [500 yuan ($70)](https://www.voachinese.com/a/chinas-lifeless-millennials-struggling-with-rising-cost-of-living-20241205/7888849.html), eating in the dark to save electricity, and avoiding dining out entirely. The middle class, weighed down by debt and a bleak economic outlook, is also adopting similar [austerity measures](https://www.voachinese.com/a/chinas-lifeless-millennials-struggling-with-rising-cost-of-living-20241205/7888849.html). This growing financial strain offers a stark snapshot of China’s economic challenges and raises deep concerns about the long-term prosperity and opportunities for the nation’s youth. #### **Tunisia | Growing Repression of Journalists Amidst Worsening Economic Crisis** Tunisia is grappling with a worsening economic crisis, as citizens face soaring unemployment, a collapsing currency, and the devastating impacts of financial mismanagement. Amid this economic turmoil, President Kais Saied is intensifying his [crackdown](https://www.newarab.com/opinion/tunisian-journalists-are-being-imprisoned-doing-their-job) on dissent, imprisoning journalists in overcrowded cells, denying them medical care, and subjecting them to psychological torture — blatant evidence of the state’s disregard for human rights. Saied’s regime has also weaponized vague morality laws to target activists, influencers, and musicians, ensuring no opposition voice goes unpunished. By silencing dissent, Saied seeks to deflect attention from the regime’s economic failures, positioning the state as a moral authority while deepening the suffering of journalists and the broader public. #### **Pakistan | Testing Internet Firewall to Increase Financial Surveillance** Pakistan’s government is [testing](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/26/pakistan-tests-china-like-digital-firewall-to-tighten-online-surveillance) a nationwide Internet firewall, a tool designed to monitor, censor, and control online content by filtering internet traffic at the state level. By leveraging technology sourced from China, officials can block websites, restrict apps, and track individual online activity. This firewall poses a severe threat to financial freedom, as the military regime could use it to restrict access to tools like Bitcoin, cutting off alternative financial systems that offer privacy and independence. Civil society, including activists, journalists, and political dissidents, faces heightened surveillance, repression, and limited access to information — further curtailing their capacity to organize or express dissent. #### **India | Central Bank Governor Shares CBDC Vision** Outgoing Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Gov.Shaktikanta Das reaffirmed his [vision](https://cointelegraph.com/news/shaktikanta-das-vision-india-digital-rupee-cbdc) for India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital rupee, as the nation’s currency continues to reach a [record low](https://x.com/spectatorindex/status/1866372506212610273) against the US dollar. While hailed as the “future of currency” and [praised ](https://cointelegraph.com/news/shaktikanta-das-vision-india-digital-rupee-cbdc)for its potential economic benefits, the CBDC raises serious concerns. It grants the state unprecedented power to surveil transactions, freeze funds, and block payments in real-time — an alarming reality in a country already known for [freezing opposition bank accounts](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-21/congress-says-it-s-being-crippled-by-modi-s-party-before-polls) and imposing rigid [KYC requirements](https://www.moneylife.in/article/kyc-nightmare-how-banks-are-asking-for-rekycs-illegally-and-in-the-process-collecting-additional-data-from-customers/75585.html). Das’s [hopes](https://cointelegraph.com/news/shaktikanta-das-vision-india-digital-rupee-cbdc) of a CBDC to “underpin the payment systems of the future” prioritizes state control at the expense of individual freedoms. #### **Georgia | Internet Shutdowns Amid Energy Crisis** In the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazian, Russian-backed officials are using an energy crisis as a [pretext](https://meduza.io/en/news/2024/12/09/breakaway-georgian-region-of-abkhazia-suspends-school-and-plans-internet-shutdown-amid-energy-crisis) to tighten Internet controls. Blaming illegal Bitcoin mining for electricity shortages, officials imposed nightly Internet shutdowns from midnight to 7:00 a.m., [starting](https://meduza.io/en/news/2024/12/09/breakaway-georgian-region-of-abkhazia-suspends-school-and-plans-internet-shutdown-amid-energy-crisis) Dec. 10. These restrictions, coupled with power rationing and school closures, exacerbate hardships for residents as the region grapples with [reduced energy](https://meduza.io/en/news/2024/12/09/breakaway-georgian-region-of-abkhazia-suspends-school-and-plans-internet-shutdown-amid-energy-crisis) from Russia and the Enguri hydroelectric plant. By painting Bitcoin as the villain, officials divert attention from broader governance failures while consolidating their grip over online communication and suppressing access to alternative financial tools. ## LATEST IN BITCOIN NEWS, DEVELOPMENT, AND COMMUNITY #### **Klever Wallet | Integrates Lightning Network** [Klever Wallet](https://klever.io/), a KYC-free digital asset wallet popular in underbanked countries like Nigeria, Brazil, India, and the Philippines, [integrated](https://medium.com/breez-technology/klever-wallet-bringing-lightning-to-crypto-with-the-breez-sdk-25b2be2a5e7b) the Lightning Network through the [Breez SDK](https://breez.technology/sdk/). This integration will empower its 100,000 active monthly users with fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions directly from the wallet. By using the Breez SDK, Klever eliminates the complexities of Lightning channel management for users while maintaining a self-custodial design. This integration enhances financial freedom for its global user base — particularly in regions where traditional systems fall short. #### **Fedi | Adds Cashu Melting and Portable Nostr Keys** [Fedi](https://www.fedi.xyz/), a company leveraging Bitcoin and ecash technology to support communities, especially under authoritarian regimes, [announced](https://x.com/fedibtc/status/1867689651743731719) the integration of Cashu melting to enable users to receive [Cashu ecash](https://cashu.space/) directly within the Fedi app. Built on the Chaumian ecash protocol, Cashu allows users to transact ecash tokens with strong privacy guarantees, minimal costs, and instant settlements, though with a custodial tradeoff. Additionally, Fedi now supports[ portable Nostr keys](https://x.com/fedibtc/status/1867689651743731719), allowing users to interact with external Nostr clients like Primal and Amethyst. Together, these updates enhance financial privacy and accessibility, offering users more control over their transactions and a portable digital identity, advancing financial freedom in underserved regions. #### **Core Lightning | Releases Latest Version with BOLT 12 by Default**  [Core Lightning](https://corelightning.org/), an implementation of the Lightning Network, [introduced](https://blog.blockstream.com/core-lightning-v24-11-the-lightning-dev-mailing-list/) improvements to privacy and functionality with its latest [v24.11 release](https://blog.blockstream.com/core-lightning-v24-11-the-lightning-dev-mailing-list/). The update enables [BOLT 12](http://bolt12.org) offers by default when sending and receiving Bitcoin payments. BOLT 12 is an important update to the Lightning Network that brings increased receiver privacy, greater censorship resistance, and reusable payment requests for recurring payments. The update also includes [xpay](https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning/releases/tag/v24.11), an experimental payment plugin for advanced routing of payments on the Lightning Network. With these features, users of wallets and applications built with Core Lightning can maintain greater privacy and experience more optimized payments. #### **Proton Wallet | Implements Replace-by-Fee for Bitcoin Transactions** [Proton](https://proton.me/), the company behind privacy tools like [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail?mc_cid=63d1be0829&mc_eid=UNIQID) and [Proton VPN](https://protonvpn.com/), [added](https://proton.me/support/speed-up-bitcoin-transactions) support for [Replace-by-Fee](https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/replace-by-fee/) (RBF) transactions in Proton Wallet, its self-custodial and privacy-centric Bitcoin wallet. RBF allows users to increase the fee on stuck transactions to expedite confirmation and allow the payment to settle faster. The wallet also uses strong encryption and offers accessible recovery methods, ensuring users — like activists in hostile environments — maintain financial autonomy. [Watch this tutorial](https://hrf.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5e3037cd362a8e29147b750c&id=55e2ead732&e=5c5878c08e) by Bitcoin educator [BTC Sessions](https://www.youtube.com/c/btcsessions) to learn how to use Proton Wallet. #### **Bitcoin Design Community | South American Bitcoin UX Bootcamp** [The Bitcoin Design Community](https://bitcoin.design/), with support from HRF, will be [hosting](https://x.com/bitcoin_design/status/1866798670579937501) a [South American UX Bitcoin Bootcamp](https://www.bitcoinuxbootcamp.xyz/). This program will support ten skilled UX designers across South America to develop and refine their design expertise within the Bitcoin ecosystem. Participants will also have the opportunity to attend the [2025 bitcoin++](https://btcplusplus.dev/conf/floripa) developer conference in Florianopolis, Brazil, where they will receive specialized UX training and engage in hands-on learning with Bitcoin-related technologies. UX designers with an interest in Bitcoin are encouraged to apply [here](https://www.bitcoinuxbootcamp.xyz/). #### **OpenSats | Announces Ninth Wave of Nostr Grants** [OpenSats](http://opensats.org), a public nonprofit funding free and open-source software and projects, [announced](https://opensats.org/blog/9th-wave-of-nostr-grants) its ninth wave of grants supporting projects built on the decentralized Nostr protocol. Among the grantees is [Pokey](https://github.com/KoalaSat/pokey), an Android app enhancing Nostr and communications in restrictive environments through offline Bluetooth mesh networking and multi-account support. These features are particularly valuable for anyone facing Internet blackouts or state censorship. Another recipient, [Persian NIPs](https://github.com/kehiy/persian-nostr-book), is breaking language barriers by localizing Nostr resources for Persian/Farsi speakers. The project will translate key protocols, user guides, and developer documentation, bringing decentralized and uncensorable technology to millions of people. ## RECOMMENDED CONTENT #### **Africa Bitcoin Conference Livestream** Held from Dec. 9-11, 2024, in Nairobi, Kenya, the [Africa Bitcoin Conference](https://afrobitcoin.org/) brought together human rights defenders, educators, and developers from across the continent to learn, collaborate, and innovate on freedom technologies. Supported by HRF, the event offered an inspiring mix of keynotes, workshops, panel discussions, and hackathons, all dedicated to advancing open-source solutions to fight authoritarianism and financial repression. This vibrant gathering highlighted innovative ideas and practical tools to empower communities worldwide. If you missed it, you can still catch the conversations and breakthroughs by watching the [livestream here](https://www.youtube.com/@africabitcoinconference/streams). Highlight talks include those from Farida Nabourema, Femi Longe, Jack Dorsey, and more.

@ 7c765d40:bd121d84

This was written on Monday morning. Haha it's been a busy week. ------------------------------------------------------------------- It's hard to know if the banks, corporations, and countries have realized that they cannot stop bitcoin - or if this was the plan all along. But 2024 has definitely been the year of corporate adoption. We are in the middle of this transition from "analog" to "digital" and even though banks can't hold bitcoin yet, they are buying the closest thing to it - MicroStrategy shares. Why can't they hold bitcoin? Well it's only 15 years old and we all know how long it takes for big banks and corporations to move. They have certain rules and regulations around what kind of investments they can hold. Magic internet money hasn't made it onto their approved list yet. But MicroStrategy has - since it's a publicly traded stock. And that's why we've seen a 150% gain in MSTR shares this year alone. I stumbled across an article recently with the title "NATIONAL BANK OF CANADA FI RAISES STOCK POSITION IN MICROSTRATEGY." Interesting. To the average person who has never heard of MicroStrategy, this would be completely irrelevant. Most people have no idea what MicroStrategy is - or that it's been the best performing stock since adopting the bitcoin strategy in 2020. If it said "NATIONAL BANK OF CANADA FI BUYS MORE BITCOIN," that might catch a few eyes. But the big boys don't want it catching any eyes. They are building their positions in bitcoin without anyone knowing. They understand the scarcity aspect of bitcoin and want as much as possible before the average person shows up. Let's look at some numbers here. These are mindblowing. - National Bank of Canada FI - now hold approx. 39,000 MSTR shares (up 746% from last quarter) - UBS Asset Management - now own approx. 640,000 MSTR shares (up 971% from last quarter) - Charles Schwab Investment Management - now own approx. 664,000 MSTR shares (up 587% from last quarter) - Swiss National Bank - now own approx. 468,000 MSTR shares (up 904% from last quarter) - Sumitomo Mitsui Trust - now own approx. 343,000 MSTR shares (up 1,071% from last quarter) - International Assets Investment Management LLC - now own approx. 239,000 MSTR shares (up 224,965% from last quarter) That is not a typo. They are no longer "dipping their toes" into bitcoin. MicroStrategy was added to the QQQ Index (top 100 companies on the market) which should create even more demand and attention from these big banks and funds. They have certainly got the memo. We are at an inflection point here in bitcoin. The bitcoin holders with .10 bitcoin - 10 bitcoin are the ones who get to decide where this thing goes. Individuals currently hold approx. 75% of the bitcoin while the big boys are desperately trying to play catch up. Since 95% of the bitcoin has been mined to date (with pretty much 100% mined by year 2064), this bitcoin has to come from somewhere. I did a segment discussing this on the show yesterday. It's worth a watch. You can find the show here. It talked about this transition and what the holdings could look like in 20 years if we aren't careful. Bitcoiners still hold the majority of bitcoin. And the only way that can change is if they get hacked, seized, or tempted to sell. The next 20 years in bitcoin will set the stage for the next 200. Moral of the story: They are coming for your bitcoin. The longer you wait, the more they will pay. Moral2 of the story: Never ever EVER sell your bitcoin. Lend against it instead. Think of it and use it like digital capital. Moral3 of the story: MAKE THESE FUCKERS PAY. --- PROJECT POTENTIAL - You can now find the expanded audio versions of these on the new podcast - Project Potential! I will be sharing the video versions here for the LITF members but you can also find it for free on Spotify and of course Fountain! Here is the link to Episode 008 on Fountain: https://www.fountain.fm/episode/nQb5z3PolahVwsPbYX4r --- Have a great day everyone! And remember, the only thing more scarce than bitcoin is time! Jor 875001

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

**Table Of Content** - Who is Michael Burry? - Burry's Recent Move and its Implications - Bitcoin's Recent Performance and Future Prospects - The Broader Economic Context - Conclusion - FAQ In the ever-evolving world of cryptocurrencies, the name Michael Burry might not be the first that comes to mind. However, recent developments have thrust him into the spotlight, making many in the crypto community sit up and take notice. So, what's all the fuss about Michael Burry's stance on Bitcoin's price? **Who is Michael Burry?** For those unfamiliar, Michael Burry is an American investor renowned for his prediction of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, which led to a global recession. His foresight and investment strategies during that period were so notable that they were depicted in the movie "The Big Short." **Burry's Recent Move and its Implications** Recently, a filing with the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) revealed that Scion Asset Management, a firm associated with Burry, has taken a significant bearish position on the US stock markets. Specifically, the firm has placed bets predicting a decline in major stock indices, including the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500. The numbers are staggering: $740 million worth of Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 puts and $900 million worth of S&P 500 puts. These bets constitute about 93% of Burry's total portfolio value. Now, you might wonder, what does this have to do with Bitcoin? The connection lies in the potential ripple effects of these bets. If the US stock market does experience a decline, as Burry seems to anticipate, it could lead to a bullish run for Bitcoin. The reasoning behind this is that traders might view Bitcoin as a high-risk, high-reward investment alternative to traditional stocks. **Bitcoin's Recent Performance and Future Prospects** Bitcoin has been experiencing a prolonged sideways movement, testing the patience of many traders. Historically, such sideways movements in the crypto market have sometimes been followed by a significant jump in value. Additionally, there's growing optimism about the potential approval of a Bitcoin ETF in the coming months, which could further boost its price. **The Broader Economic Context** In understanding Burry's moves and their potential impact on Bitcoin, it's essential to consider the broader economic landscape. The U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, is currently in a position where they might not increase the interest rate in the upcoming September FOMC meeting, as gauged by the CME FedWatch Tool. Historically, low-interest rates have often led to increased investment in riskier assets, as investors search for higher returns. This environment could further bolster the appeal of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, especially if traditional stock markets become more volatile or start to decline. Furthermore, other global events, such as the US regional bank crisis that erupted earlier in 2023, have shown that Bitcoin can sometimes act as a hedge or alternative investment during times of traditional market stress. As such, the broader economic context, combined with Burry's predictions, paints a fascinating picture for Bitcoin's potential trajectory in the near future. **Conclusion** While Michael Burry's recent moves primarily concern the US stock market, the potential implications for the crypto market, and Bitcoin in particular, are significant. If Burry's predictions come to fruition, and the US stock market sees a decline, it could be a pivotal moment for Bitcoin and its investors. As always, the world of investments is unpredictable, but with big names like Burry making such moves, it's an exciting time for observers and participants alike. **FAQ** **Who is Michael Burry?** Michael Burry is an American investor known for predicting the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. He was prominently featured in the movie "The Big Short." **What has Burry recently predicted about the US stock market?** Burry's firm, Scion Asset Management, has placed significant bets predicting a decline in major US stock indices, including the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500. **How might Burry's predictions affect Bitcoin's price?** If the US stock market declines as Burry anticipates, it could lead to a bullish run for Bitcoin, with traders viewing it as a high-risk, high-reward alternative to stocks. **What is the broader economic context influencing Bitcoin?** The Federal Reserve's potential decision not to increase interest rates, combined with global events like the US regional bank crisis, could influence Bitcoin's appeal as an alternative investment. **That's all for today** **If you want more, be sure to follow us on:** **NOSTR: croxroad@getalby.com** **X: [@croxroadnews](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.*

@ 6bae33c8:607272e8

I went 2-3 last week, am drawing dead in the Circa Millions and have run my record down to .500 at 37-37-1. Best case, I can salvage a respectable record, but that $1000 is gone for good. **Broncos at Chargers** — I feel a buy-low on the Chargers here after a couple losses. Let’s say Broncos +4, and I’m laying the wood. **Texans at Chiefs** — Obviously this one depends on whether Patrick Mahomes plays. He practiced in full, so assuming he plays, I’d say Texans plus 6.5 and lean KC. **Steelers at Ravens** — The Steelers won the first matchup, but the Ravens are far better. I’d say Steelers plus 6.5 and take the Ravens. **Giants at Falcons** — The Falcons are whipping out 12-inch, and he probably won’t be worse than Cousins. I’ll say Giants plus 7.5 and stay away. **Lions at Bears** — A get well game for the Lions, and I think they bounce back a bit. Let’s make it Lions -5.5 and stay away. **Browns at Bengals** — Jameis Winston is benched, and I don’t know that Dorian Thompson-Robinson has shown anything to get excited about. I’ll make it Browns +10 and lay the wood. **Titans at Colts** — The Titans are giving up by switching to veteran Mason Rudolph, even if it’s better in the short term. I’ll say Titans +7 and probably stay away. **Rams at Jets** — The Jets offense has come to life of late, but the defense has been poor. I’ll say Rams -2.5 and stay away. **Eagles at Killer Redskins** — The Eagles are rolling, and the KRs are treading water. I’ll make it Eagles -3 and stay away. **Cardinals at Panthers** — The Cardinals are average, the Panthers below average but tend to show up. I’ll say Cardinals -3 and stay away. **Vikings at Seahawks** — Assuming Geno Smith plays, I’ll make it Vikings -2.5 and probably stay away, though if anything I’d lay the wood. **Patriots at Bills** — This is a trap game off the Bills big win. I’ll say Patriots +15.5 and stay away. **Jaguars at Raiders** — This is a bum fight. I’ll make it a pick ‘em and steer clear. **49ers at Dolphins** — Both teams are done after last week. I’ll say 49ers +2.5 and lean 49ers. **Buccaneers at Cowboys** — The Bucs are playing well, but so are the Cowboys. I’ll say Buccaneers -2.5 and stay away. **Saints at Packers** — With Derek Carr likely done, I’ll make it Saints +10.5 and lay the wood.

@ ac8bb9b0:70278acc

## Details - ⏲️ Prep time: 10 - 🍳 Cook time: 20 - 🍽️ Servings: 5 ## Ingredients - 8 ounces uncooked linguine - 1 pound chicken breast, cut into strips - 1-2 tsp Cajun seasoning, or more to taste - 1 tsp garlic powder - 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil - 1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced - 1 medium yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced - 8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced - 1/2 red onion, sliced - 3 cloves garlic, minced - 2 tomatoes, diced - 1 cup low sodium chicken broth - 1/3 cup skim milk - 1 tbsp flour - 3 tbsp light cream cheese - fresh cracked pepper - 2 scallions, chopped - kosher salt to taste - avocado oil spray ## Directions 1. Prep all your vegetables. 2. In a small blender make a slurry by combining milk, flour and cream cheese. Set aside. 3. Season chicken generously with Cajun seasoning, garlic powder and salt. 4. Prepare pasta in salted water according to package directions. 5. Heat a large heavy nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; spray with oil and add half of the chicken. 6. Sauté 5 to 6 minutes or until done, set aside on a plate and repeat with the remaining chicken. Set aside. 7. Add olive oil to the skillet and reduce to medium; add bell peppers, onions, and garlic to skillet, sauté 3-4 minutes. 8. Add mushrooms and tomatoes and sauté 3-4 more minutes or until vegetables are tender. 9. Season with 1/4 tsp salt, garlic powder and fresh cracked pepper to taste. 10. Reduce heat to medium-low; add chicken broth and pour in slurry stirring about 2 minutes. 11. Return chicken to skillet; adjust salt and Cajun seasoning to taste, cook another minute or two until hot, then add linguine; toss well to coat. 12. Top with chopped scallions and enjoy!

@ d61f3bc5:0da6ef4a

January 2025 will mark two years since we started building Primal. Our goal was to create the best possible user experience for Nostr and make it accessible to everyone. We reached a big milestone towards realizing that vision with the recent Primal 2.0 release. It’s still early days, a lot more work lies ahead, but we thought the timing was right to introduce the Premium tier. Let’s explore what it is, why we built it, what’s included, and how it will evolve moving forward. ## What Primal Premium Is The idea behind Primal Premium is simple: integrate all tools and services required for the best Nostr experience into a single package. For $7 per month, Premium users get a *Primal Name* and *Nostr Tools* built by Primal. We’ll cover those in more detail below, but first we should make a crucial point: by signing up for Premium, you are in no way locked in to Primal. Quite the contrary, you can pick and choose which Premium features you wish to enable and use within other Nostr products. Openness is Nostr’s killer feature. Any product that wishes to truly empower the user needs to interoperate with Nostr’s budding ecosystem. The feed marketplace is a great example. External feeds are first-class citizens within all Primal apps. Primal feeds are available in other Nostr clients. We are working on Premium feeds, which our users will be able to enjoy within Primal or other Nostr apps. Media hosting is another example. Our upcoming support for the Blossom protocol will make Primal Premium media hosting interoperable with other Nostr apps and media hosting services. The common theme here is user choice. Nostr offers the highest level of user agency, and the compounding effect of interoperable products and services is bound to make Nostr immensely powerful. ## Why We Built Premium and Why Now What is unfolding on Nostr right now is unique and special. The first truly self-sovereign network is being bootstrapped by this early cohort of users and builders. People are literally holding the keys to their online presence. Network infrastructure – relays, indexers, media hosting services, etc. – is being stood up organically and without any central planning or coordination. Hundreds of independent projects are adding new capabilities to Nostr without needing permission. The whole thing is truly a sight to behold. In addition to fixing the fundamentals of the network, it is equally important that we fix the broken incentives that plague the legacy Web. The status quo of monetization via advertising, which turns users into products to be farmed, has overstayed its welcome. At Primal, we don’t monetize user data. Our users are our customers. We only make money when the user decides that we are providing a valuable service – and pays for it. That means that our users’ interests are aligned with ours. It allows us to wake up every morning and work all day to make the product better for our users. Some might say that it is too early to try to monetize a Nostr product. We definitely need to be thoughtful about paywalling important features while the network is so young. For example, advanced search is a Primal Premium feature, but we enable it for all users up to 20 search results. That makes it quite usable for anyone on Nostr, but power users get the ability to save these searches and create powerful specialized feeds. It is crucial to have commercially successful projects on Nostr that have their incentives aligned with those of their users. We are working on new features and monetization methods that follow this philosophy. The more we experiment on Nostr, the faster we will learn what works and unlock the full potential of this network. I have a feeling that a lot remains to be discovered, and Primal Premium is just the first step. Now, let’s take a closer look at what is included in Premium: *Primal Name* and *Nostr Tools*. ## Primal Name  A Primal Name is a unique name on the primal.net domain that offers three features: 1. **Verified Nostr address (NIP-05)**. This signals to the Nostr network that your account (npub) has been verified by Primal. Note that we don’t perform identity verification; we are simply signaling that this is a Primal Premium user. Users can pay with sats, preserving their privacy while signaling to the network that this verified account is not a bot. 2. **Friendly Bitcoin Lightning address**. Primal’s built-in hosted wallet creates a randomly generated lightning address for every user. They look like this: bluedog25@primal.net. Premium users get to pick their name, so their lightning address is more personalized (e.g. preston@primal.net). 3. **VIP profile on primal.net**. This is simply a friendly URL to your profile on primal.net. We are working on adding profile customization features for Premium users; stay tuned! In summary, a Primal Name makes you easier to find on Nostr. You are free to use any of these three Primal Name elements as you see fit. If you wish to use your Primal Nostr address and/or Lightning address, simply update your Nostr profile with those entries. ## Nostr Tools  Nostr Tools is a collection of features that we think would be useful to any Nostr power user. We are continuously working on expanding these capabilities, but the initial set of features includes: - **Media management**. Primal Premium comes with 10GB of media storage (compared to 1GB for free accounts). We implemented a slick interface for managing all media you have on Primal. - **Contact list backup**. Many Nostr users have experienced the loss of their contact list (i.e., their follow list) when using different clients. We store the history of the contact list for Primal Premium users and make it easy to recover. - **Content backup**. Nostr users post their content to a collection of public relays. These relays typically don’t offer guarantees that they will store the content for any amount of time. We back up all content posted by Primal Premium users and make it easy to rebroadcast it to the specified relays at any time. ## Primal Legends  The idea for the Primal Legend tier was suggested to me by Gigi a couple of months prior to the launch of Primal 2.0. His argument was simple: “There are users on Nostr who really appreciate Primal and are willing to pay way more than $7 / month to support the project. You should *let them* pay and *recognize them* for doing so.” I am really glad that Gigi convinced me to introduce the Legend tier. Nostr is truly a special place. The early users are extremely passionate and mission driven. They care about growing and improving Nostr as much as the builders do. At first, I thought of the term “Legend” as a bit tongue in cheek, but then I met and chatted with some of these people. Man, they are incredible. They just wish to support the network and the builders of open source software in any way they can. So now I think the term is appropriate. We are humbled by the support we received. Our first Legend supporter was none other than Jack. He found this option in the product and paid for the Legend tier literally an hour after Primal 2.0 was released. Thank you, sir, and thank you to all the other Legends out there! 💜🫂 ## What Comes Next? We are delighted and encouraged by the market response to Primal Premium. It is already clear to us that we are on the right path. We will lean into it even harder from here. There will be MOAR Premium features, while at the same time we will make sure that the free product remains excellent. Since you, the user, are the customer, tell us what you would like to see added to Primal Premium. Pura Vida 🤙

@ b8851a06:9b120ba1

Bitcoin Core 28.0 introduces **smarter transaction handling** to prevent stuck payments, reduce fees, and improve flexibility for wallets. Here’s a breakdown of the most important updates: --- ### 1. **One Parent One Child (1P1C) Transactions** - **The problem**: If a transaction’s fee is too low for the current network conditions, it might never get confirmed. - **The fix**: The new **1P1C relay** lets you attach a “child” transaction with higher fees to "push" the original "parent" transaction through. Think of it as giving the parent a boost by letting the child pay for both. **Why it’s useful**: If your wallet creates a transaction with a low fee, you can now add another transaction to ensure it gets confirmed without waiting forever. --- ### 2. **TRUC Transactions (Version 3 Transactions)** - **What they are**: TRUC stands for **Topologically Restricted Until Confirmation**. These transactions follow stricter rules that make them easier to replace (RBF) if needed. - **Key features**: - Always replaceable: TRUC transactions can always be fee-bumped or replaced, even without extra setup. - Safe fee bumps: Even in complex setups like CoinJoins or Lightning Channels, you can adjust fees as needed. **Why it’s useful**: Wallets using TRUC transactions can guarantee that you can always adjust fees to match changing network conditions. --- ### 3. **Pay to Anchor (P2A) Outputs** - **What they are**: A tiny, specialized output added to transactions purely for fee adjustments. Think of it like a "placeholder" designed to let anyone pay for the transaction’s fees later. - **How it works**: P2A outputs are super small and cheap to include, but they’re powerful because they let you boost transaction fees without needing access to private keys. **Why it’s useful**: Helps ensure your transaction doesn’t get stuck, even if the person creating the transaction can’t afford higher fees upfront. --- ### 4. **Better Fee Replacement (Package RBF)** - **The problem**: Previously, if you wanted to replace a stuck transaction, you had to calculate fees perfectly. - **The fix**: With Package RBF, you can replace an entire group of transactions (parent and child) instead of just one, making it easier to adjust fees without mistakes. **Why it’s useful**: Ensures transactions get through even in complex situations like Lightning or CoinJoins. --- ### 5. **What Does This Mean for Wallet Users?** - **Simple Payments**: Wallets can make payments more predictable and reliable by using TRUC and P2A features. - **Lightning Network**: Lightning transactions become more secure because stuck channel transactions can be easily bumped. - **CoinJoins**: Privacy-focused transactions can now handle fee bumps without breaking the chain of anonymity. --- ### Summary These updates give wallets and users more tools to handle tricky transaction scenarios, especially when network fees are unpredictable or when payments involve complex setups. Bitcoin Core 28.0 makes stuck payments a thing of the past and ensures smoother transaction processing. Remember, these upgrades focus on **Bitcoin’s core principles: efficiency, reliability, and user empowerment**. *READ the full OpTech info about it [here](https://bitcoinops.org/en/bitcoin-core-28-wallet-integration-guide/)*

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

Most people who have been around the church or the Bible have heard Jesus’s parable of the sower who sowed seed on various types of ground. Just as there is some disagreement on which soil corresponds to a true Christian, so also there is disagreement on who is a true Christian today. I’m going to investigate what the Bible says on the subject. > And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds **fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up**. Others **fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil**; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. Others **fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.** And others **fell on the good soil and yielded a crop**, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matthew 13:3-8) > > “Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” (Matthew 13:18-23) {emphasis mine} Nearly everyone agrees that the seeds that *“fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up*” refers to those who heard the word of God, but didn’t not believe and are not Christians. These people neither believe they are saved, nor pretend to be. Everyone agrees that the seed that “*fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty*” refers to those who heard the word of God, believed, and were saved. There is a little more confusion and disagreement on the seed that “*fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil*” and the seed that “*fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out*.” My interpretation is that the seed that fell on rocky places represents those who heard the Gospel and liked the sound of it, but they never truly repented and were never actually saved, whereas the seed that fell among the thorns and was choked out are those who truly repented and were saved, but who got so distracted by the world that they failed to live faithful lives. In the same way, there are many people confessing to be Christians, but who don’t truly believe what the Bible says and who don’t live lives honoring to Jesus. We can’t know for certain who are real Christians and who are not. Only God knows, but there are definite signs pointing to one or the other. This article is my investigation of what it means to be a true, born-again Christian versus those who claim to be Christians, but are not considered children of God by Jesus. In today’s culture, this sounds very judgmental and divisive, but it is what Jesus said about His followers. > **“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,** but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23) {emphasis mine} I think those of us who think we are Christians would like to make sure that we are actual Children of God and not pretenders. I also think, when we are looking for people to help us to follow Jesus, we would like to make sure we are following and/or learning from those who actually know Jesus and not a pretender. Whether the pretender knows they are lying or believes they know Jesus, but don’t, doesn’t really matter.[1](https://trustjesus.substack.com/p/the-wheat-and-the-tares#footnote-1-152031962) Similarly to the categories in the above parable, there are many people that are so anti-God, it is obvious they are not a real Christians. There are a small number of people who live such Christ-like lives that there can be little doubt that they are real Christians. There are many people who call themselves Christians, but who may or may not have a relationship with Jesus. It is hard to tell if they are true Christians, are just good at faking it, or believe they are saved while not having a true relationship with Jesus. Immediately following the initial parable of the sower, Jesus gives another related parable: > Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘**No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest**; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ” (Matthew 13:24-30) {emphasis mine} For those that don’t know about plants, a tare is a plant that looks a lot like wheat, but doesn’t produce the grain heads that we eat and is therefore unprofitable. Just as the slaves say about the tares, “*Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up*?” and he replies, “*No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest*,” in the same way we don’t want to go around judging people and deciding for ourselves who is the bona fide Christian because we “*may uproot the wheat with them.*” Only Jesus knows for certain who is real and who is not. At the same time, we Christians should be closest to those who show the [fruit of the Spirit](https://trustjesus.substack.com/p/fruits-of-the-spirit-6fc) and live a life that imitates and honors Jesus. We need to be careful who we follow and who we chose as teachers. > “**Beware of the false prophets**, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. **You will know them by their fruits**. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. **A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit**. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:15-19) {emphasis mine} Ultimately we are not to be judges of who is a real Christian and who is not, but we are warned to be aware that there are false prophets and false Christians in our midst. Anyone who produces bad fruit (an ungodly lifestyle, hate, disinterest in things of God, etc.) is likely not a true Christian, even if they proclaim to be and never miss a Sunday service. Anyone who produces good fruit (a godly lifestyle, love, and a yearning for the things of God) is likely a true Christian. It is not which denomination or church a person is associated with that matters. It is a change in the life of the individual that matters. It is a relationship with Jesus that matters. It is love for God, God’s word, and fellow people that matters. There can be a true Christian that is a member of a dead church. There can be a vibrant, godly church that has unbelievers that have crept in as members. I was recently having a conversation with a fellow Christian and a friend made a comment that it was so hard to witness to a person who thought they were a Christian, but were not. I’d argue that those who believe they are Christians, but are not, and family members, especially parents, are the hardest to witness to, but we are still called to do so. We may just need to be extra delicate in how we do it. > “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16) In addition to witnessing to the unsaved who believe they are saved, we also need to beware of those who pretend to be Christians or believe they are Christians, but don’t believe the Bible. They can easily lead us astray. Talking to another friend who also has a college aged son, we were discussing how sometimes a believing student might be better off going to a secular university, where they expect to be taught falsehood and are staying aware, than to attend a liberal Christian university that might teach the same falsehood, but not be noticed because it is couched in Christian sounding language and because the students don’t have their guard up like they would at a secular university. On the other hand, if your kids are going to attend college, a Bible believing college (like Liberty University or Grand Canyon University) is a good choice. We need to intentionally teach our kids truth, so they will recognize the lies they will be told and taught. > And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in **real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent**, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11) {emphasis mine} How do we have “*real knowledge and all discernment*?” We must be reading our Bible daily. We can’t know God and know what He wants for us if we don’t know His commands and His word. We can’t judge teachers and preachers to know if they are teaching the truth if we don’t know the Bible. We need to be like the Bereans: > Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11) As true Christians, we should have a hunger for God’s word and God’s presence. We should be interested in what God is interested in. We should care about others as God cares about others. As Christians we should long for conversation with God (prayer) and include Him in our lives. When things are going well, it is hard to tell the wheat from the tares, or the real Christians from the pretenders. When hard times come, especially persecution of believers, it becomes much easier to differentiate between the two. > “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. **At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.** Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:9-14) {emphasis mine} Only the true believers will stay true to Jesus during persecution. Those who were faking it for earthly reward will turn against the persecuted believers. Those who don’t have a true relationship with Jesus will drift away to avoid persecution because they don’t have saving faith. No true believer will permanently leave Christ, but there will be some (many?) who wander away because their faith was not real. A simple prayer, without true repentance and without true faith, does not magically make a person a Christian. The Bible does give believers a litmus test on who and what to trust: > Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1-6) The Bible also gives a test to see if we are true believers: > Test yourselves *to see* if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5) As Jesus said, > “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. ” (Matthew 10:16) I pray that God will give you wisdom to rightly judge people, teachings, and truth and that you would fully trust in Jesus through all circumstances and become conformed more and more to His likeness. Trust Jesus.

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

**Table Of Content** - A New Dawn in Energy and Digital Asset Collaboration - The DEC: A Nexus for Constructive Dialogue - Support from the Corridors of Power - Harnessing the Power of Innovation for a Sustainable Future - Conclusion - FAQ In today's rapidly evolving digital age, the synergy between energy and digital asset mining, especially Bitcoin, is becoming increasingly significant. Enter the Digital Energy Council (DEC), a pioneering organization that has taken the bold step to bridge this gap. **A New Dawn in Energy and Digital Asset Collaboration** The DEC has made its grand entrance as the first member association with a laser focus on the crossroads of energy security and digital asset mining. Their mission? To lead the charge in crafting policies that not only promote responsible energy practices but also bolster the resilience of our energy grids. This is all with the aim of ensuring the United States remains at the forefront of this revolution, safeguarding national security. Tom Mapes, the Founder and President of the Digital Energy Council, highlighted a crucial point. While most discussions around digital assets have revolved around financial services, the potential collaboration between digital asset mining and the energy sector has been somewhat overshadowed. Yet, this collaboration is vital, especially at this crucial juncture of energy transformation. **The DEC: A Nexus for Constructive Dialogue** Envisioning itself as a central hub, the DEC aims to foster meaningful conversations among its members, policymakers, and regulators. One of its primary goals is to clear the air on various misconceptions surrounding digital asset mining, U.S. energy security, and the modernization of our energy grids. Moreover, the DEC is not just about discussions and policies. They're action-oriented. Their initiatives are geared towards spurring economic growth in often-neglected communities, including those in rural areas. How? By creating lucrative job opportunities in markets that haven't traditionally been associated with such roles. **Support from the Corridors of Power** The DEC's efforts haven't gone unnoticed. U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, who led the first-ever hearing on the implications of digital asset mining for energy supply back in 2018, is among the first to join hands with the DEC. She emphasized how this burgeoning industry has expanded its footprint across the U.S. over the past five years, bringing fresh opportunities to states like Alaska. Echoing her sentiments, U.S. Senator from Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis, stated that crypto asset mining is poised to play a pivotal role in the financial future of the next generation of Americans. She believes that innovative mining technologies can tap into underutilized energy sources, creating jobs in rural America and generating wealth. **Harnessing the Power of Innovation for a Sustainable Future** The fusion of energy and digital asset mining is not just about economic growth or technological advancement. At its core, it's about sustainability. As the world grapples with the challenges of climate change and energy conservation, the role of organizations like the Digital Energy Council becomes even more paramount. The DEC recognizes the potential of digital asset mining, especially in the realm of Bitcoin, to revolutionize the way we think about energy consumption. By tapping into innovative mining technologies, we can harness underutilized energy sources, reduce wastage, and pave the way for a more sustainable future. Furthermore, the emphasis on rural America is not just about job creation. It's about ensuring that every corner of the nation benefits from this synergy, ensuring a balanced and inclusive growth trajectory. As we move forward, the collaboration between sectors, as championed by the DEC, will be instrumental in shaping a future that's not only prosperous but also sustainable. **Conclusion** The Digital Energy Council is more than just an organization. It's a movement. A movement that seeks to harmonize responsible energy practices with the world of digital asset mining. As we stand on the cusp of a new era, the DEC's efforts promise a brighter future, one where the nation's growth, security, and prosperity are at the heart of every initiative. **FAQs** **What is the Digital Energy Council (DEC)?** The DEC is the first member association focused on the intersection of energy security and digital asset mining. **What is the primary mission of the DEC?** The DEC aims to spearhead policies that promote responsible energy practices, enhance grid resilience, and ensure the competitive edge and national security of the United States. **Why is the synergy between energy and digital asset mining important?** This synergy is crucial for fostering responsible energy practices, bolstering energy infrastructure, and supporting energy sustainability and efficiency. **How does the DEC plan to dispel misconceptions around digital asset mining?** The DEC envisions itself as a hub for facilitating productive discourse among its members, policymakers, and regulators, focusing on themes like U.S. energy security, sustainability, and grid modernization. **That's all for today** **If you want more, be sure to follow us on:** **NOSTR: croxroad@getalby.com** **X: [@croxroadnews](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.*

@ 20986fb8:cdac21b3

### **ไทย** #### แนะนำ YakiHonne: เขียนได้ไม่มีขีดจำกัด YakiHonne คือโปรแกรมแก้ไขข้อความที่ดีที่สุดที่ออกแบบมาเพื่อช่วยให้คุณแสดงออกอย่างสร้างสรรค์ไม่ว่าจะใช้ภาษาใดก็ตาม **ฟีเจอร์ที่คุณจะหลงรัก:** - 🌟 **ฟอร์แมตที่หลากหลาย**: เพิ่มหัวข้อ, ตัวหนา, ตัวเอียง และอื่นๆ - 🌏 **รองรับหลายภาษา**: เขียนได้อย่างราบรื่นทั้งภาษาอังกฤษ, จีน, อาหรับ และญี่ปุ่น - 🔗 **ลิงก์ที่สามารถโต้ตอบได้**: [เรียนรู้เพิ่มเติมเกี่ยวกับ YakiHonne](https://yakihonne.com) **ข้อดี:** 1. ใช้งานง่าย 2. เพิ่มความสามารถในการอ่านด้วยสไตล์ที่ปรับแต่งได้ 3. รองรับฟอร์แมตที่ซับซ้อนหลายประเภท รวมถึง LateX > "YakiHonne คือการเปลี่ยนแปลงที่สำคัญสำหรับผู้สร้างเนื้อหา"

@ 20986fb8:cdac21b3

### **العربية** #### مقدمة YakiHonne: الكتابة بلا حدود YakiHonne هو محرر النصوص النهائي المصمم لمساعدتك على التعبير عن إبداعك، بغض النظر عن اللغة التي تستخدمها. **المميزات التي ستعجبك:** - 🌟 **تنسيق غني**: أضف العناوين، النصوص العريضة، المائلة، وأكثر. - 🌏 **دعم متعدد اللغات**: اكتب بسهولة بالإنجليزية، الصينية، العربية، واليابانية. - 🔗 **روابط تفاعلية**: [تعرف على المزيد حول YakiHonne](https://yakihonne.com). **الفوائد:** 1. سهل الاستخدام. 2. تحسين قابلية القراءة من خلال أنماط قابلة للتخصيص. 3. يدعم التنسيقات المعقدة مثل LateX. > "YakiHonne هو تغيير كبير لصانعي المحتوى."

@ 20986fb8:cdac21b3

### **日本語** #### YakiHonne：制限のない創造力を YakiHonne は、どんな言語でもクリエイティブな表現をサポートする究極のテキストエディターです。 **魅力的な機能：** - 🌟 **リッチなフォーマット**：見出し、太字、斜体などを追加可能。 - 🌏 **多言語対応**：英語、中国語、アラビア語、日本語のシームレスな編集。 - 🔗 **インタラクティブリンク**：[YakiHonne の詳細はこちら](https://yakihonne.com)。 **メリット：** 1. 簡単に使用可能。 2. カスタマイズ可能なスタイルで読みやすさを向上。 3. LateX を含む複雑なフォーマットに対応。 > 「YakiHonne は、コンテンツ制作者にとって革命的なツールです。」

@ 20986fb8:cdac21b3

### **中文** #### 介绍 YakiHonne：创作无极限 YakiHonne 是一款终极文本编辑器，旨在帮助您无论使用何种语言都能创意表达。 **您会喜欢的功能：** - 🌟 **丰富的格式**：支持添加标题、加粗、斜体等多种格式。 - 🌏 **多语言支持**：轻松书写英文、中文、阿拉伯语和日语内容。 - 🔗 **互动链接**：[了解更多关于 YakiHonne](https://yakihonne.com)。 **优势：** 1. 易于使用。 2. 可定制样式以增强可读性。 3. 支持多种复杂格式，包括 LateX。 > “YakiHonne 为内容创作者带来了颠覆性的改变。”

@ 20986fb8:cdac21b3

### **English** #### Introducing YakiHonne: Write Without Limits YakiHonne is the ultimate text editor designed to help you express yourself creatively, no matter the language. **Features you'll love:** - 🌟 **Rich Formatting**: Add headings, bold, italics, and more. - 🌏 **Multilingual Support**: Seamlessly write in English, Chinese, Arabic, and Japanese. - 🔗 **Interactive Links**: [Learn more about YakiHonne](https://yakihonne.com). **Benefits:** 1. Easy to use. 2. Enhance readability with customizable styles. 3. Supports various complex formats including LateX. > "YakiHonne is a game-changer for content creators."

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

It's here! Who's going to walk away with the highly coveted Emirates Cup? I'm pretty sure the Thunder will prevail, but that's why they play the games. You can also live bet the game at [Predyx](https://beta.predyx.com/market/nba-cup-winner). Finally, a hearty congratulations to @Carresan, who won 60k in our survivor pool. (let me know if you got the payment) originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/813752

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

I wanted to share real quick something my daughter did that we were very impressed by. We were at an interactive kids' event. Our daughter was one of the younger kids at it, but there were a couple of younger ones. Towards the end of the event, she won some extra prizes. They were just a bunch of cheap little trinkets, but it was obvious that the other kids were jealous. I don't think she even noticed, and we certainly didn't say anything, but she immediately wanted to share her winnings with all the other kids. She walked all over the space looking for everyone, even kids who didn't know she had gotten the extra prizes, and gave a little bit to everyone. That certainly didn't come from either of her parents. Her instinctive generosity is all her. Are there any virtues you've observed in your kids that didn't obviously come from either parent? originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/813744

@ 3c7dc2c5:805642a8

# 🧠Quote(s) of the week: "When you’re in the ivory tower, you think the term 'ivory tower' is a silly misrepresentation of your very normal life; when you’re no longer in the ivory tower, you realize how willfully out of touch you were with the world." -Jesse Myers ## 🧡Bitcoin news🧡 On the 9th of December: ➡️Jetking Infotrain, a 77-year-old Indian company with a $5M mkt cap & $2M in annual sales, has become the first pubco in India to adopt the Bitcoin Treasury Strategy. The microcap says that BTC will be the Primary Treasury Reserve Asset. ➡️Last week we had much discussion on Bitcoin Encryption vs. Google Willow Quantum. One of the best breakdowns on this topic are the following tweets: https://x.com/itsolelehmann/status/1868007913899598205 https://x.com/bensig/status/1866235429982523705 Satoshi’s thoughts on handling a “massive breakthrough attack,” such as quantum computing rendering SHA-256 encryption ineffective in protecting the Bitcoin network. [](https://image.nostr.build/47882c0c958d2055ef7cdeefce93e730bc7b0e411f5d546e3be2240978e7a89d.jpg) Quantum computing BTC FUD goes back almost as far as Bitcoin itself. ➡️'MicroStrategy has acquired 21,550 BTC for ~$2.1 billion at ~$98,783 per Bitcoin and has achieved a BTC Yield of 43.2% QTD and 68.7% YTD. As of 12/8/2024, we hodl 423,650 Bitcoin acquired for ~$25.6 billion at ~$60,324 per Bitcoin.' - MicroStrategy On the 10th of December: ➡️'Microsoft shareholders reject the proposal for a strategic Bitcoin reserve. In 5 years, they’ll understand. Everyone buys Bitcoin at the price they deserve. Bitcoin doesn’t wait. It simply transfers wealth to those who see.' -Saylor Only 0.55% of shareholders voted in favor of Microsoft's Bitcoin investment proposal. Stupid ➡️Ray Dalio finally gets Bitcoin. It was inevitable. 'Today in Abu Dhabi he said: "I want to steer away from debt assets like bonds and debt, and have some hard money like gold and bitcoin." He used to encourage people to buy gold more than BTC. But six-figure Bitcoin changes everything. Five-figure Bitcoin happened when BTC was still a plaything for tech folks, libertarians, and high-risk investors. It still seemed like an experiment. But six-figure Bitcoin has the support of BlackRock and literal nation-states. $100K Bitcoin represents a phase shift. Bitcoin is vastly more investible for big money today. It's gone from embarrassing to own to aspirational to own. And if you don't own some before it hits 7 figures, you're a laggard.' - Stack Hodler [Source](https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3290169/bridgwaters-ray-dalio-invest-gold-and-bitcoin-rather-debt-assets) ➡️Bloomberg Intelligence shows MicroStrategy will be announced as a new member of the Nasdaq 100 this Friday. On the 11th of December: ➡️Vancouver City Council considered today: "Preserving of the City's Purchasing Power Through Diversification of Financial Reserves - Becoming A Bitcoin Friendly City." ➡️'This is our first cycle where institutions are providing the Bitcoin market with a bid in the hundreds of millions daily. Simply a matter of time before things get explosive.' -Bitcoin News [](https://image.nostr.build/9a89f7415814217b87aa39dc98e58f60f6d1359b8d0b554760639c767636d0ec.jpg) ➡️Billionaire founder of Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy, says people should allocate "2% to 3% of their net worth into Bitcoin. On the 12th of December: ➡️BlackRock says that Bitcoin at $2 TRILLION market cap offers a similar risk profile to the Magnificent 7 (Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Nvidia, Meta, Google, MSFT) BlackRock says a 2% allocation to Bitcoin is "reasonable". If the average portfolio soon contains 2% Bitcoin and total global wealth is ~$900T, then Bitcoin will soon become an $18T (2%) asset worth $857,000 per coin. And remember that is only at a 2% allocation. [](https://image.nostr.build/50226ebd3a06091a80bf1ea68d943601df81180bcb87a49f4006f059e5f5835d.jpg) ➡️Long-term Bitcoin holders have started selling, except for those who have held for more than seven years, reducing their overall holding from over 60% to around 50%. ➡️'ETFs have been buying 4,500 BTC per day in the last weeks, and Microstrategy has been buying around 3,000 BTC per day. Only 450 new BTC are being mined per day. Weak hands will run out of BTC. What do you think will happen then?' -Bitcoin For Freedom ➡️State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione officially files for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for the state of Texas. The 8th largest economy in the world, Texas, now has a live bill to build a ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’. 'Many do not realize that 4 states in the USA count for 4 of the 15 largest economies in the world. Russia's economy is smaller than California and Texas and is barely bigger than New York & Florida. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve' at the state level in the USA would be huge!' - Dennis Porter ➡️Australian Pension fund giant, AMP, buys $27m Bitcoin to become nation's first major pension fund to buy the asset - Australian Financial Review ➡️The amount of Bitcoin on exchanges has fallen from 2.72M in January to 2.2M today. ➡️Chinese company Nano Labs just bought $36 MILLION worth of Bitcoin. This is corporate game theory in action. The funny part is that the Chinese government forbids its citizens to buy Bitcoin. On the 13th of December: ➡️SAYLOR'S Bitcoin playbook is catching on: - Mara Holdings: +$1.7b Bitcoin in the last month - Riot Platforms: $510m Bitcoin today - Hut8: raising $500m (using some to buy - Semler Scientific: $147.1m Bitcoin since May More than $2b in Bitcoin was acquired in the last 5 weeks using fiat arbitrage.' -Bitcoin Archive ➡️We are all competing for $45m in Bitcoin mined daily. Now look at the U.S. Bitcoin ETF inflows by day in $ millions: (see the daily bid picture above.) Bitcoin for Freedom: '1.09M BTCs are left to be mined over the next 116 years. The Spot ETFs have already bought 1.3M BTCs. $898T of global wealth is still not in Bitcoin. This is the most asymmetric upside in history. People will say you were lucky, but you understood money before everyone else.' Go figure. ➡️You can't make this up. Japan is considering a strategic Bitcoin reserve. The person who proposed it is named SATOSHI! haha Japanese MP Satoshi Hamada urges the Japanese government to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve ➡️Daniel Batten: 'In the last 7 weeks, a German Telco, A Japanese Utility, now an HK Autotrader - all independently realized that Bitcoin mining is the solution to wasted renewable energy that threatens to hold back the energy transition' ➡️47% of hedge funds now invest in digital assets like Bitcoin and shitcoins, up from 21% in 2021 - PwC survey ➡️Bitcoin to hit $1 MILLION and surpass gold’s $19 trillion market cap by 2029 - Bitwise Why 2029? It aligns with the next cycle peak—and Bitcoin’s 20th anniversary. ➡️The Bitcoin network processed $2.2 trillion worth of BTC transactions in November 2024. [](https://image.nostr.build/52938ba9cb8da8830c83378de8d82d3f7561c2c72bb2768184594780c55c3403.jpg) ➡️'Addresses holding 100-1000 BTC, which have been the main accumulators of Bitcoin since late 2020 and whose buying and selling activity is highly correlated with BTC price movements, have distributed ~11K BTC in the last week.' -Bitcoin News On the 14th of December: ➡️Vanguard says Bitcoin has “no appropriate role” in pension funds because it is "risky and lacks intrinsic value". Why Vanguard is wrong about Bitcoin: https://x.com/DSBatten/status/1868044284164755673 And oh by the way: 'Vanguard missed the most successful ETF launch in HISTORY by not joining the Bitcoin revolution. Spot Bitcoin ETFs have +$112 BILLION AUM in less than 1 year.' -Bitcoin Archive But no worry! 'The Vanguard Group owns 11.3% of MicroStrategy, the 3rd largest of all holders. Somehow they find issues with Bitcoin. What this tells you is worse than Vanguard not liking Bitcoin. It tells you that they are either liars, charlatans who haven't done their research, or both.' -Gabor Gurbacs Tales are as old as time... FUD and BUY. ➡️Fidelity's Bitcoin ETF is about to overtake Grayscale's GBTC for total assets. ➡️MicroStrategy is joining the Nasdaq 100 $QQQ. ➡️Miner Reserves dropped to the lowest level in Bitcoin history. (foto) ➡️Trump Confirms Bitcoin Reserve Plans…$15 Trillion Price Boom Predicted - Forbes Rumors are circulating that Donald Trump may be planning on implementing a strategic Bitcoin reserve as soon as his first day in office citing the Dollar Stabilization Act as a means to protect the US Dollar as the reserve currency of the world. ➡️Not only the price is going nuts, but look at Bitcoin hashrate. [](https://image.nostr.build/bb7f713b798fdb434dc8ca512cfc2dcca9e326ea5757bda5a9438276fd4398b8.jpg) On the 15th of December: ➡️The age of Bitcoin treasuries has begun. FASB! As of today the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) now allows companies to value Bitcoin at current market prices. The rule, fully effective in 2025, aims to improve transparency and could drive more businesses to adopt Bitcoin as a reserve asset. Previously, companies could only value BTC at the price they bought, NOT the gains. The corporate adoption wave is coming! ➡️Mara acquired 11,774 Bitcoin for $1.1B, increasing its total to 40,435 Bitcoin (~$3.92B), and became the first public miner to surpass a 50 EH/s hashrate. Conviction & ruthless! On the 16th of December: ➡️President Bukele shares a screenshot highlighting El Salvador’s $362 million in unrealized Bitcoin profits. ➡️'Assume the US Treasury starts buying 1M Bitcoin over 5 years at a starting price of $250k. Assume US debt grows at 5% (vs. last 10 years 8% CAGR) & BTC price compounds at 25%. In such a scenario, the US Strategic BTC Reserve would hold assets equivalent to 44% of debt by 2050.' -Matthew Sigel [](https://image.nostr.build/6ec8105e1b6806c49fb2860e5d16467deb8f1fc298942a0e5186602c18734e12.jpg) ➡️Semler Scientific has acquired 211 BTC for ~$21.5 million at ~$101,890 per Bitcoin and has generated a BTC Yield of 67.0% QTD and 92.8% since adopting our BTC treasury strategy in May.  As of 12/15/24, we held 2,084 Bitcoins acquired for ~$168.6 million at ~$80,916 per Bitcoin. ➡️The last 30 days have seen more than 3 BILLION DOLLARS per day entering the Bitcoin network. ➡️MicroStrategy has acquired 15,350 BTC for ~$1.5 billion at ~$100,386 per Bitcoin and has achieved a BTC Yield of 46.4% QTD and 72.4% YTD. As of 12/15/2024, we hodl 439,000 Bitcoin acquired for ~$27.1 billion at ~$61,725 per bitcoin. ➡️Bitcoin mining is helping Europe's energy transition, according to Forbes.  Mining helps stabilize the continent's grids by using excess energy and, by integrating with renewable energy, is becoming a key player in the energy landscape. The narrative is changing. ## 💸Traditional Finance / Macro: On the 13th of December: 👉🏽The S&P 500 is now equal to the 2021 bubble peak on a price-to-sales ratio, making it officially the most expensive market of the modern era. On the 16th of December: 👉🏽Buffett’s cash allocation is at 30% of Berkshire Hathaway’s total assets. Such an elevated cash position has NEVER been seen since 1990. 🏦Banks:  👉🏽 'European banks are insolvent and a new liquidity crisis could arrive at any time. This press strategy, from the Dutch Banking Federation and Defense Minister, sounds like a move to "prebunk" criticism of the banks and replace it with a story with an outside scapegoat.' - Tuur Demeester [](https://image.nostr.build/cfb8f8152b773a104bfdcf855004a27805c72152e17b2007ff3f9e3cc60b0cb7.jpg) ## 🌎Macro/Geopolitics: On the 11th of December: 👉🏽Electricity prices in Germany, Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands are insanely high (850-936 €/MWh). Good luck trying to have any energy-intensive production with such prices! Unless something is done about this energy-intensive production will relocate. Which is the reason for the de-industrialization of Germany. 'Even during the energy crisis of 2022, day-ahead prices have never been so high. The difference with France, Poland, and the Nordics is striking.' Julien Jomaux 👉🏽MILEI: ARGENTINA ENDS DEFICIT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 123 YEARS "The deficit was the root of all our evils—without it, there’s no debt, no emission, no inflation. Today, we have a sustained fiscal surplus, free of default, for the first time in 123 years. This historic achievement came from the greatest adjustment in history and reducing monetary emissions to zero. A year ago, a degenerate printed 13% of GDP to win an election, fueling inflation. Today, monetary emission is a thing of the past." "Argentina is poised to become a global hub for artificial intelligence, attracting major investments from the world’s top companies. AI’s energy demands will drive a global resurgence in nuclear energy, and Argentina won’t be left behind. We’ll launch a nuclear plan focused on new reactors and research into modular technologies, maintaining top safety and efficiency standards. Dr. Reidel will present this plan soon, positioning Argentina at the forefront of AI and nuclear innovation." It's amazing what a country can do when they cut all their waste and get out of debt. All the world needed was a couple of examples - El Salvador, and Argentina - to show how national dysfunction can be fixed. It just requires courage to break from the sleepwalking, virtue-signaling world. Who is next!? On the 12th of December: 👉🏽'November PPI inflation RISES to 3.0%, above expectations of 2.6%. Core PPI inflation RISES to 3.4%, above expectations of 3.2%. Both PPI and CPI inflation are now rising with Core inflation clearly above 3.0%. The Fed's job is still far from done here.' -TKL But sure... cut rates... what could go wrong!? Meanwhile, China is panicking: 👉🏽'Today, China announced that a WIDESPREAD economic stimulus is coming in 2025, including raising their deficit. Currently, parts of China's real estate sector are down -80% from their high and at 2008 levels. Is China entering a recession?' -TKL China has been in recession, its property markets are in depression. China forbids its citizens from holding Bitcoin. I wonder why? 👉🏽Germany spent $1 Trillion for its energy revamp with the following results: 1. It cannot assure constant energy supply to its industry and needs to import electricity 2. It causes several times more CO2 per kWh than France $1T for ruining both its economy and environment. Legends' -Michael A Arouet [](https://image.nostr.build/afc4636db506da496d8a79c94572a3322fc8dbb1c1b9181e7786044555897991.jpg) On the 13th of December: 👉🏽'US Federal government spending hit a whopping $669 BILLION in November. As a result, the 6-month average of government expenditures rose to ~$600 billion, near the highest since 2020-2021 when the most aggressive economic stimulus in history was conducted. At the same time, government receipts have dropped to ~$380 billion, materially widening the budget gap. Government spending has now exceeded government revenues for 17 straight years. Over this period, the total US debt has skyrocketed by $27.0 trillion, to a record $36.2 trillion. Fiscal spending is out of control.' -TKL Unfuckingsustainable!!!! To make it even worse: 'The US budget deficit spiked by a massive $367 billion in November 2024. This was $14 billion above the median expectation of $353 billion. For the first 2 months of the Fiscal Year 2025, the total deficit now stands at $624 BILLION, the highest on record. This is up a staggering 64% from the $380 billion seen last year and above 2020 pandemic levels. To put this into perspective, the budget gap was 3 TIMES lower on average during the 2013-2017 period. At this pace, the US deficit could reach $3.5 TRILLION for the first time in history. To put this into perspective, during pandemic-era stimulus, the deficit hit $3.1 trillion. The government is running deficits as if a major crisis has arrived. The debt crisis is worsening.' -TKL We have the highest budget deficit on record—way higher than during the pandemic. This is why we have inflation, everyone. It is not because of corporate greed, price gouging, or whatever. Simply put… the government spends way more than it has, then devalues your dollar by printing more. And the strong and roaring US economy has been government-funded. Stocks are climbing a spectral staircase. 👉🏽1. Stocks: all-time highs 2. Home Prices: all-time highs 3. Bitcoin: all-time highs 4. National Debt: all-time highs 5. Core CPI Inflation: >3% for 43 straight months, the longest run of high inflation since the early 1990s 6. Fed: cutting rates again next week I want to end this week's Weekly Recap with a mindblowing piece by Philipp Heimberger: “In the years since 1982, developing countries have transferred an estimated $4200 billion in interest payments to their creditors in Europe and North America, far outstripping the official-sector development aid these countries received during the same period.“ 'Why Not  Default? Political Economy of Sovereign Debt' - Put that on your Christmas booklist. Countries that we call “developing countries” today have always been either colonies of the West or they have always been debtors of the West and these two have been the most prominent reasons behind their economic mess. US dollar-denominated debt, it's almost as if it was designed to be insurmountable. A mass default by the global south would be an epic milestone signaling the demise of colonialist relations. Our international financial system can be described as a "Marshall Plan in reverse," in which the poorest countries finance the richest. And you wonder why Bitcoin is financial inclusion & financial empowerment! ## 🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift: Some fountain of Jeff Booth's wisdom: Repricing the World in Bitcoin TLDR: Jeff Booth cheat sheet in case no one has the time: 1) Prices fall to the marginal cost of production. 2) The world is being repriced in Bitcoin. 3) Bitcoin only needs to remain decentralized and secure to eat everything. 4) People in the fiat system find it very hard to conceive of the scale & effects of the new system (that is, they measure Bitcoin in fiat terms and typically sell their BTC when it goes up a bit). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR2R4dX-Kqw Credit: I have used multiple sources! 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 sats. ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃ ⭐ Many thanks⭐ Felipe -Bitcoin Friday! ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

@ 266815e0:6cd408a5

Finally another version of noStrudel. I keep telling myself I'm going to do more frequent releases but then time keeps getting away from me This release comes with a bunch of news features and most importantly a lot of cleanup ## Features ### Olas media posts You can now view a simple feed of media posts made on https://olas.app/ in the app and comment on them using NIP-22 comments  ### Simple gif picker This was mostly a test, but there is now a simple gif picker (and barely functional search) that is based on `k:1063` events If you want a better search and to help populate the nostr gif library you can use https://gifbuddy.lol created by nostr:npub1hee433872q2gen90cqh2ypwcq9z7y5ugn23etrd2l2rrwpruss8qwmrsv6  ### New support view The *(tiny)* support button at the bottom of the side menu now hides a zap leader board that shows top supporters and any custom messages they leave  ### Favorite DVM feeds You can now favorite DVM feeds in the discover view  ### Tools under notes There is now a simpler tools menu under notes and threads  ### Searching local cache relay If your using [nostr-relay-tray](https://github.com/CodyTseng/nostr-relay-tray) the search view will now use it by default for searching. which should make it a little faster and more reliable  ### Small features - Add "Proactively authenticate to relays" option to privacy settings, defaults to off - Add option for debug API - Add option to hide noStrudel logo in nav bar - Show unknown notifications in notification view - Add templates to event publisher ## Bug fixes - Show nostr mentions in markdown content - Fix delete events not getting published to outbox - Fix page changing from RTL when viewing some profiles - Refresh relay info on relay page - Fix bug with removing "about" in profile editor - Fix automatically disconnecting from authenticated relays ## Applesauce Over the past few months I've been doing tons of cleanup on the core of noStrudel *(677 changed files with 19,683 additions and 17,889 deletions)* and extracting it out into a friendly nostr SDK called [applesauce](https://hzrd149.github.io/applesauce/) Its very much a work-in-progress but the idea with these libraries is to help myself (and maybe others) build the UI layer of nostr apps and eventually make noStrudel just another app that is built with applesauce If your a developer and another nostr SDK sounds interesting to you. you can check out the [Getting Started](https://hzrd149.github.io/applesauce/introduction/getting-started.html) docs

@ 1cb14ab3:95d52462

*Originally written in October 2022 (Block: 757258 / USD: $20.1k / SatsDollar: 4961). Refined with slight edits for publishing on Nostr in December 2024 (Block: 875189 / USD: $106k / SatsDollar: 938 ). Banner image property of Hes. My journey down the rabbit hole has only intensified since the time of writing. Enjoy.* --- The Bitcoin time perspective is wild. Reflecting on it has been profoundly eye-opening, and once it has been seen— there is no returning to our prior ways. Ever since venturing down the rabbit hole that we call Bitcoin, I’ve started making significant life decisions and forming nuanced opinions on polarizing topics based on the implications of multi-generational timeframes. Before Bitcoin, I spent money recklessly, leading a fast-paced and impulsive lifestyle. Even in my early days of learning about Bitcoin, I hadn’t fully seen the light. I would still blow the occasional $500 bar tab or buy some flashy gadget I didn’t need. Living in the moment has its merits, but so does considering the time beyond our own lives. Now, I pause before purchases and decisions, always reflecting on how they might impact the future. When your money isn’t constantly being devalued before your eyes, you start seeing the world differently. You begin saving for the future with confidence, knowing that no central authority can endlessly print away your hard-earned time and energy. Inflation doesn’t just erode purchasing power; it steals time. It destroys the hours, days, and years of effort represented by a lifetime of savings. When governments print money to prop up failing banks or fund inefficient ventures, the impact ripples through generations. Those at the bottom of the ladder are hit the hardest, their ability to save and plan for the future undermined by forces beyond their control. Decisions become focused on surviving today instead of thriving tomorrow, leaving little room to consider the long-term implications of our choices. This system creates a mindset where we are incentivized to spend now, instead of save for later—an unnatural phenomenon that most of us have accepted as normal. For individuals who simply want to put away money for a rainy day, inflation is a relentless adversary. A dollar in 1900 has lost over 96% of its value. The countless hours of labor behind those savings have been stolen. Not only did the expansion of money destroy what they could buy, it stole our time and energy. Years of our lives—blood, sweat, and tears—washed away. This isn’t just a historical problem—it’s a recurring one that occurs every decade or so and is accelerating. At an average inflation rate of 3%, the value of cash halves roughly every 23 years. This means that even modest inflation rates gradually diminish purchasing power over time, forcing individuals to chase speculative assets like stocks, real estate, and gold—not because they want to, but because they have no choice. Personal inflation rates differ depending on consumer habits, but a glance at rising prices reveals they often outpace the 2% annual rate reported by the government, which poses a significant problem for individua;s, as highlighted in the table below: <aside> **Inflation Rate (%)** | **Purchasing Power Halving (Years)** - 2% | 35-40 years - 3% | 20-25 years - 4% | 15-20 years - 5% | 10-15 years - 6% | 7-12 years - 7% | 5-10 years - 8% | 4-8 years - 9% | 3-6 years - 10% | 2-5 years </aside> Corporations like McDonald’s understand this. Sitting on a prime corner lot in every major city is far smarter than stacking a pile of cash losing value. Even if the franchise is losing money, the building it operates in is guaranteed to “rise” in value over time. This mindset trickles down to everyday people. To protect themselves, they’re compelled to invest in assets—with real estate being the pinnacle savings instrument of our time. The financial system we’ve accepted as normal turns shelter into an investment vehicle and savings into a gamble. But here’s the irony: real estate is a lousy store of value—which is what we are all truly seeking. Properties require constant maintenance. Without care, assets deteriorate. We’ve all seen abandoned theme parks and overgrown cities. We’ve all dealt with broken pipes and creaky floorboards. Why should saving our hard-earned wealth require us to become housing market experts, landlords, or property managers? Why should we pay financial advisors to manage stock portfolios full of companies whose values or practices we might not even believe in, just to beat inflation? A flawed monetary system inflates bubbles in real estate and stocks, redirecting resources into speculative markets instead of productive investments. Imagine a world where people don’t have to read quarterly earnings reports after a long day of work to ensure their cash retains value. If the incentives driving these bubbles were removed, the financial landscape would dramatically shift. Inflation wouldn’t push people into markets like real estate or zombie companies; instead, they could focus on building or supporting businesses they genuinely care about. They could plan for the long term and make well-thought-out, rational decisions about their future. Bitcoin takes this entire dynamic and flips it on its head. It isn’t a tool for speculation as often misunderstood. It is the best form of saving humanity has ever seen. Unlike fiat currencies, Bitcoin’s fixed supply ensures scarcity, making it a refuge from the erosion of wealth caused by inflation. As weak currencies flow into stronger ones (a concept known as Gresham’s Law), Bitcoin’s role as a store of value becomes clearer. It’s not that Bitcoin has “gone up 19,000%”—it’s that people are exchanging weaker money for stronger money. The implications of a world on a Bitcoin standard extend far beyond monetary policy. It offers something unprecedented: a tool for transferring the value of labor and energy across time and space. Unlike fiat, Bitcoin allows time to be preserved across generations. It isn’t just a hedge against inflation—it reintroduces the idea of saving with confidence, of being able to store wealth in a form of money that cannot be manipulated or devalued. By saving in Bitcoin, individuals are no longer tethered to the uncertainties of fiat systems. The Bitcoin time perspective is about aligning our actions today with the future we want to build tomorrow. It’s about prioritizing long-term impact over short-term gains. When you embrace Bitcoin, you embrace a mindset that values time, energy, and the well-being of future generations. It’s not just a currency; it’s a revolution in thinking that will change you forever. The past, present, and future converge in this new paradigm, offering hope in an otherwise uncertain world. Bitcoin isn’t a bubble; it’s a beacon. --- ### More from Hes: [Art](https://hes.npub.pro/tag/art/) [Store](https://plebeian.market/p/517d6542a081d61ecd8900ad9e2640290e2cf06f516c5e5f3edadfbde446bff4/stall/1db0cdfe0e39c4bd81b903902eeda74e6aa0f0b56e30851f327e6d0c292c5c06) [Travel Guides](https://hes.npub.pro/tag/travel/) [Photography](https://hes.npub.pro/tag/photography)