@ 0463223a:3b14d673

Here we go, it’s Mooooonnnndddddaaaaaaaayyyyyyy! It’s safe to say I enjoy Monday. Much as I appreciate the downtime over the weekend (if I’m not working) I appreciate the routine of Mondays. Firstly I have my stream to look forward to and whilst I’m not at my best first thing on a Monday, having a little structure goes a long way. Even the fear of looking at the emails I’ve been ignoring from the previous week is possible. So maybe I’m starting to get an angle of why I’m writing this. It’s a memoir of being a mental I think. I’ve mentioned a number of times this has been a problem most my life but I write this as I’ve halved my Venlafaxine does by ½ once again. This means I’m now on 1/12th of my original dose and I’m maybe a month away from being completely free of RRSIs for the first time in, I guess at least 10 years. To be honest I cant remember when I was first prescribed them. It’s been quite a journey... 3 things have been pivotal. 1; finding my now wife. She’s brilliant and I love her dearly, I think most people know deep down how crushing loneliness can be. I’m very grateful to her for putting up with my bullshit, supporting me and just being there. Gold star for her! 2; would be music, it’s a funny one to put in, it’s also been part of the problem, especially in my wilder days. There’s something quite seductive about the sex, drugs and Rock n Roll meme, although musically it was more Hip Hop, Reggae, Bleeps and Jazz, also I didn’t sleep around much at all but I certainly don’t think I would’ve messed with crack, heroin and all the other drugs otherwise. It’s worth noting 2 of my friends from that era, who didn’t have music in their lives are dead. I’m very lucky. There’s over 100 years of recorded music to enjoy plus I’m almost happy with some of my own bits at last! 3; I have some security, I no longer pay rent or have a landlord. This is also due to number 1 but also because I found some funny internet money. I’m still to write about my process with that, other than to say it was direct response to the banks. That’s a story in it’s own right, it’s pretty dark and hmm… not sure. Plus I don’t think there’s any need to go there right now. I have the world’s most expensive shed and I know I can survive a few months should the worst happen. That’s a LOT. Whilst a little risk taking is healthy, life shouldn’t free stress free, uncertainty about having a roof over your head when you can’t afford it can really take it’s toll. A degree of security is most welcome at this time in life. A lot of people aren’t so lucky, Tom, Ricky, Dave, Slam, Joel. I’m name checking you specifically. You’re in my thoughts often, especially as I play music every morning… and Slam, if I ever see you again, I want my records back!!! Haha, thieving little cunt but it’s still not hate here. Your life was fucked up before you even had a chance. I hope you’ve found peace with yourself. At least you’re alive! (I think, he might be dead too, who knows…) So yeah, it’s Monday and it’s gonna be a good day right? I mean it might not but I will at least give it the best start possible and work from there. It takes a degree of effort to retrain the brain. Actually maybe there’s a 4th thing to mention. No Facebacon, Instagran, X or LinkedIn. None of that bullshit where you’re forced into some fake world generated in order to increase shareholder value. These platforms are akin to being a lab rat. I picture Zuckerberg like Ming The Merciless at the start of Flash Gordon sending hot hail etc. That guy made a decision to mess with peoples’ psyche to drive profits. That’s fucking evil man. Jeez, what a cunt! It’s Monday, I’m wishing you strength in whatever you have ahead of you today. I’m lucky to be where I am right now and if you’re reading this and your world is plagued by darkness, it can get better. Remember that. Hold onto that as best you can. DON’T FUCKING KILL YOURSELF. That’s the single worst thing you can do. The pain you’ll leave behind isn’t worth it. I hope some cosmic vibrations happen in your favour. There’s no easy solution. I can’t tell you the answer but I wish you well. Good luck out there!

@ fd78c37f:a0ec0833

In this edition, we invited Kelvin from Bitcoin Chama to share how his community is leveraging Bitcoin to build a self-sustaining ecosystem in rural areas. **YakiHonne**: Kelvin, thanks for joining us. Before we dive in, I'd like to take a moment to introduce YakiHonne and share a bit about what we do. 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 diving into your community. So, let’s start—tell us a bit about yourself and what you do？ **Kelvin**：I'm Kelvin, the founder of Bitcoin Chama, a rule-based Bitcoin community with a mission to build a self-reliant Bitcoin circular ecosystem. How do we achieve this? We empower young people and our community economically by introducing accessible, low-resource projects that require minimal time and space to implement. We then encourage them to save their earnings in Bitcoin, promoting financial independence and long-term sustainability. **YakiHonne**: Given Bitcoin’s increasing value, it’s almost like owning property, but in the form of a digital asset. That’s an incredible concept and a really great initiative!Now, let’s dive into today’s questions. What initially sparked your interest in Bitcoin, and what motivated you to build a community around it? **Kelvin**：Initially, I didn’t know much about Bitcoin. But I had a friend who worked at Boda Boda. He was trying to save up his earnings to buy iron sheets and build a better house for his family. Since he didn't get enough money from Boda Boda, he saved whatever little he could in a bank, a savings group. Over the course of two years, when he finally went to withdraw his money, he realized that the price of iron sheets had increased by almost 100% Originally, he had planned to buy 30 iron sheets, but by the time he withdrew his savings, his money could no longer afford that many. For someone who works so hard to earn a living, this was a major setback. **Kelvin**：That’s when I started thinking—how can we solve this problem? At the time, I didn’t know much about Bitcoin or how money really works. But seeing my friend struggle, I realized that the real issue wasn’t just rising prices, but the financial system itself. **Kelvin**：Then, later that year, I was introduced to Bitcoin, and it suddenly clicked! If my friend had saved in Bitcoin instead of fiat, his purchasing power wouldn’t have been eroded. In fact, he might have even been able to afford nails, labor costs, or additional materials. That realization led me to create Bitcoin Chama—a community to help people save in Bitcoin and protect their hard earned money. **YakiHonne**: It sounds like you were inspired by how Bitcoin’s value appreciates over time, much like an investment in land that continues to grow in value. That’s a truly powerful concept behind Bitcoin.Now, could you share how your community first got started and what strategies you used to attract members in the beginning? **Kelvin**：Building a community from scratch—especially a Bitcoin community—isn’t easy, particularly in a rural area of Kenya where many people lack internet access and don’t even use smartphones. At first, my focus was purely on Bitcoin education. I would go out, meet people, and teach them about Bitcoin. But I soon realized that while knowledge is valuable, most people didn’t have the means to earn and save in Bitcoin. **Kelvin**：That’s when I came up with a different approach. Instead of just educating people, I decided to create small projects that could generate income, sponsor these projects, and help them grow. Over time, as people started earning from these projects, they could begin saving their income in Bitcoin. **Kelvin**：We’ve now been running Bitcoin Chama for almost a year—since May last year. The impact isn’t massive yet, but for a community just getting started, it’s been a significant step forward. Every small step matters, and while growth takes time, I believe these small beginnings will eventually lead to something big in the future.  **YakiHonne**: It's a wonderful start，So far, what challenges have you faced while building and growing the Bitcoin Chama community? **Kelvin**：I don't have many challenges—just two main ones.The first challenge is poverty. Whenever you introduce someone to Bitcoin, you often have to explain its history. Imagine telling someone that in 2010, Bitcoin was worth about $1, and by 2013, its value had increased significantly. Fast forward to 2025, 15 years later, and Bitcoin is now worth around 13 million Kenyan shillings (about $100,000). When people hear this, they see it as a great opportunity to escape poverty. The problem is, they often perceive Bitcoin as free money, rather than understanding it as a long-term investment or financial tool. The second challenge is scamming. Many people think Bitcoin might be a scam. This is a common issue in many communities. **YakiHonne**: Yes, especially the second challenge—people thinking Bitcoin is a scam. This is very common in many emerging communities. A lot of people feel that since they can't see Bitcoin physically, it’s not real, which leads them to doubt its authenticity.Finding a way to convince people of Bitcoin’s legitimacy is crucial. So, what principles guide your community? And how do you maintain trust and reliability in your discussions? **Kelvin**：So, in our community, I’ve discovered something—I’ve found saccos. Right now, I have two saccos(Chama) , and I intend to grow them over time. Within these two circles, we use the Machangura app. The app has an option for creating a clan, so we organize people into two saccos, forming two clans. We then add all members from each sacco into their respective clan. This setup ensures a trustless system. For example, if someone wants to withdraw money from their shared account or sell Bitcoin, the system notifies all members. This way, everyone stays informed, and people don’t have to feel insecure about the funds they have saved. **YakiHonne**: So at least that’s how you maintain integrity, transparency, and trust within the community. So How does your community educate its members and keep them updated on Bitcoin developments? **Kelvin**：I am the founder of Bitcoin Chama, and right now, I’m mostly focused on community activities. We usually hold meetups oftenly, but I wouldn’t say we focus entirely on Bitcoin only. Instead, our discussions are more about how to improve what we do, grow more, and build new projects. That’s the main focus for me at the moment. That said, I am planning to start physical Bitcoin lessons. Since Bitcoin Chama is located in my community, I know that a lot of people visit the area—many come here to shop and buy things. So, I plan to post a notice at the location, inviting new members who are interested in learning about Bitcoin. We’ll create a timetable so that people can come at specific times to attend lessons. Additionally, we’ll leverage our existing clients and brainstorm ways to make this work for a wider audience. **YakiHonne**: It's still part of the education process，maybe not fully in-depth, but it’s still valuable. So, that’s actually a good thing. You guys are doing something very meaningful, which is great.The meetups also serve as a way to educate people about Bitcoin, making them an important part of the process. It’s definitely a solid approach. **YakiHonne**: So, Kelvin, how does your community collaborate with the broader Bitcoin ecosystem? And what partnerships have you formed so far that have had the biggest impact on BitcoinTerminal? **Kelvin**：We haven’t had any major collaborations yet. So far, we’ve been riding solo. We’ve had some support from friends and well-wishers, but we haven’t partnered with any major organizations yet. **YakiHonne**: That’s okay! You guys will get there very soon, I’m sure of it. So far, in the process of building your community, what initiatives have you taken to promote the adoption of Bitcoin in your local environment? **Kelvin**：Well, besides our existing clients, we have about three shops that currently accept Bitcoin payments. I’m still working on overcoming the major challenges we face while also trying to find ways to encourage people to use Bitcoin in their daily lives. **Kelvin**：First, I need to support the people who are already part of our community, making sure they have the resources and knowledge they need. I don’t know if I’m fully answering the question, but this is what I’m working on. I’m not solely focused on growing a large community right now. Instead, I’m focused on quality growth—on educating people who truly understand Bitcoin, know how to use it, and grasp what it really means. My approach is to start small and expand gradually, ensuring that at each stage, people gain a deeper understanding of Bitcoin and how it can impact their lives. **YakiHonne**: I’m sure you guys will succeed. You don’t necessarily have to start big, but I believe you’ll grow much faster than you expect. With the effort and passion you’re putting in, I have no doubt that Bitcoin Chama will expand significantly. So,moving on to my last question,what are your community’s goals for the next 6 to 12 months? And how do you see it evolving with Bitcoin’s development? **Kelvin**：My goal for the next year is to continue the projects I’ve been working on. We have a community team that serves as a gathering point where people can come together, coordinate meeting times, and discuss Bitcoin and our future plans. **Kelvin**：so far for example, we built and distributed 15 beehives to different young people in our community. They harvest honey, sell it, and save the earnings in Bitcoin. We piped free clean water which can be accessed by any member in our community, significantly improving daily convenience.  **Kelvin**：We are planning to build two chicken coops and provide chickens to two groups of five people each. They will raise chickens, sell eggs, and save their earnings in Bitcoin. Over time, we aim for each member to have their own chicken coop with a sustainable flock by the end of the year.  **Kelvin**：We plan to lease a piece of land for the women in our community to grow vegetables and sell them at the local market. Their earnings will also be saved in Bitcoin. If the project is profitable, we will reinvest in more land to expand vegetable farming.Additionally, we plan to lease 2-3 acres of land specifically for commercial maize farming. The maize will be sold for Bitcoin, and if we generate profits, we will expand the farmland. **Kelvin**：Our long-term goal is to build a self-sufficient community, enabling it to operate independently and achieve sustainable development. This is also our core objective. **YakiHonne**: I truly love all the ideas behind this. I admire the fact that you are giving back to the community and that people are experiencing real benefits from the Bitcoin ecosystem. This way, they have something positive and meaningful to say about Bitcoin. **YakiHonne**: Thank you so much, Kelvin, for joining us today. We’ve reached the end of our interview, and I’m really happy to have had this conversation with you. We look forward to seeing Bitcoin Chama grow!

@ dbe0605a:f8fd5b2c

Originally posted on Nostr: https://highlighter.com/a/naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzpklqvpdfcuch9wkh2gary7erd4275jmrf6qw0z5sz0dhj8u06kevqyvhwumn8ghj7urjv4kkjatd9ec8y6tdv9kzumn9wshszxrhwden5te0ve5kcar9wghxummnw3ezuamfdejj7qgwwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkctcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhszythwden5te0dehhxarj9emkjmn99uqzqjn0d9hz6argv5k57ur9dck5y6t5vdhkjm3df4shqtt5xduxz6tsrdmw7l  I care deeply about bitcoin adoption and ability to use bitcoin with all features of money — saving, spending, earning. We're entering an age where more and more people realise "hodl never spend" meme is hindering bitcoin adoption. More and more of use want to use bitcoin in everyday life, because we're living on it and because it's superior in every aspect. It's also incredibly fun to use it for payments. For money to thrive, it needs to circulate. Spending bitcoin orangepills merchants, their families and people around them — with each bitcoiner coming to a shop and paying with bitcoin, it's a point of contact that can trigger a train of though that later may fruit into action — "_Why are they so interested in bitcoin, what's actually so special about it?_" "_Hmm, maybe this time I will not exchange it for fiat immediately?_" Global merchant adoption grows, every day new business around the world decide to start accepting bitcoin payments. Circular economies are blooming on all continents, where people live in a new, experimental, orange coin paradigm. Companies and projects like Blink, Bitcoin Jungle, Plan B, Orange Pill App do an amazing job in facilitating this — providing great wallets, tools & services for merchants, and finally onboarding merchants themself. They also often support circular economies financially or in other ways. This is very valuable and makes the road to hyperbitcoinization a tad shorter. But there is one thing those companies are doing wrong — they're using their own, proprietary maps that display only merchants using their own wallets or POS software. I'd like to now list a few reasons why those great projects should migrate their maps into an open source, bitcoin map that is BTC Map. ## Open source, stupid [BTCmap](https://btcmap.org/) is open source, built on OpenStreetMaps, open to both developers contributions but also for map taggers (called [shadowy supertaggers](https://www.openstreetmap.org/)). Anyone can contribute, even If you don't code. Anyone can verify merchants or add new merchants to the map. BTC Map team developed [a neat system of verifications](https://btcmap.org/verify-location) that just works better than anything before or any alternative maps today.  ## Many apps, one map BTC Map is integrated inside a dozen of wallets and apps, to name a few: Wallet of Satoshi, Coinos, Bitlocal, Fedi or Aqua. It's a public good that any bitcoin product can use and grow it's network effect.  ## Uniting mappers' work BTC Map does not discriminate bitcoin merchants, that means all the merchants from proprietary maps are being mapped by taggers to BTC Map. By mapping on a closed source, proprietary map, the same merchant is mapped two times, usually by two different people — it's duplicating the same work without any bringing any benefit to both projects. Using BTC Map also brings you way more people verifying If those merchants actually still accept bitcoin, making it easier to have an up-to-date database of actual adoption. ## More bitcoin spent at your merchants When you have a business focused on spending bitcoin and onboarding merchants, you want as much bitcoin spent there as possible. If a bitcoiner coming to the area does not use your own map but some other map, they can be completely unaware that they can let their sats flow to your merchants. If we all use one merchants database, this problem disappears and more sats will flow. Why wouldn't you want your merchants displayed in dozens of other apps, completely for free? ## OpenStreetMap map is just better  Take a look at the image above: It's [La Pirraya](https://btcmap.org/community/bitcoin-la-pirraya), a small sleepy island town in El Salvador with a circular economy being facilitated by Bitcoin Beach. Even though Blink has many more merchants compared to BTC Map, when I visited it a few months ago I could find them. Not because they do not exist, but because the map does not show any roads and it was very hard to locate them in a dense network of narrow streets of La Pirraya. BTC Map allows you to turn multiple versions of satellite maps views, making it way easier to find your point of interest. Pins also indicate what kind of business it is, where in Blink all the pins are the same and you need to click each to find out what it is. Even then not always it's clear, since Blink only displays names, while BTC Map tells you type of the merchant, and very often shows you working hours, phone numbers, website, social links, etc. ## Excellent community tools BTC Map is focusing providing tools for communities to maintain their merchants map. [Each community has it's own page](https://btcmap.org/communities) with own links to community website or socials, displays a list of all the merchants, shows community stats, displays merchants that were not verified for a long time, and more. It even allows to "boost" merchants to make them more visible on the map and on the list. It's perfect tooling both for communities and businesses onboarding merchants to their software.  ## Easy integration & configuration Integrating BTC Map on your website or app is easy. It's just [a few lines of code of iframe](https://arc.net/l/quote/vrdudfnn) to embed the map, but you can also use [BTC Map API](https://arc.net/l/quote/sybkpvcu) for more custom integration. Do you to display, eg. you can display only merchants from your community? No problem, you can do that. Since it's all open source, you can configure it in many ways that will suit your needs. ## Kudos I'd like to thank projects that understood all above and integrated BTC Map already. Those are Coinos, Wallet of Satoshi, Pouch, Bolt Card, BitLocal, Fedi, Decouvre Bitcoin, Osmo, Bitcoin Rocks!, Lipa, Spirit of Satoshi, Blockstream, Satlantis, Aqua Wallet and Adopting Bitcoin ## Encouragement & an offer I'll end that with encouragement to projects that use their own maps, but haven't embraced BTC Map yet. Those are Blink, Bitcoin Jungle, Plan B, Osmo, Athena, Orange Pill App, Inbitcoin (I probably missed some, tag them!). You are doing great work, but let's join forces and paint the world orange together! From here I would like to offer help in tagging your merchants on BTC Map. Just reach me out, and me and other supertaggers will do the work. Let the sats flow! originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/888088

@ dbe0605a:f8fd5b2c

<img src="https://blossom.primal.net/8c7ed1e00dc0b41fda7894c7c91f1f8de6d89abc8a988fd989ced9470c0f056d.png"> \ I care deeply about bitcoin adoption and ability to use bitcoin with all features of money — saving, spending, earning. We're entering an age where more and more people realise "hodl never spend" meme is hindering bitcoin adoption. More and more of use want to use bitcoin in everyday life, because we're living on it and because it's superior in every aspect. It's also incredibly fun to use it for payments. For money to thrive, it needs to circulate. Spending bitcoin orangepills merchants, their families and people around them — with each bitcoiner coming to a shop and paying with bitcoin, it's a point of contact that can trigger a train of though that later may fruit into action — "*Why are they so interested in bitcoin, what's actually so special about it?*" "*Hmm, maybe this time I will not exchange it for fiat immediately?*" Global merchant adoption grows, every day new business around the world decide to start accepting bitcoin payments. Circular economies are blooming on all continents, where people live in a new, experimental, orange coin paradigm. Companies and projects like Blink, Bitcoin Jungle, Plan B, Orange Pill App do an amazing job in facilitating this — providing great wallets, tools & services for merchants, and finally onboarding merchants themself. They also often support circular economies financially or in other ways. This is very valuable and makes the road to hyperbitcoinization a tad shorter. But there is one thing those companies are doing wrong — they're using their own, proprietary maps that display only merchants using their own wallets or POS software. I'd like to now list a few reasons why those great projects should migrate their maps into an open source, bitcoin map that is BTC Map. ## Open source, stupid [BTCmap](https://btcmap.org/) is open source, built on OpenStreetMaps, open to both developers contributions but also for map taggers (called [shadowy supertaggers](https://www.openstreetmap.org/)). Anyone can contribute, even If you don't code. Anyone can verify merchants or add new merchants to the map. BTC Map team developed[ a neat system of verifications](https://btcmap.org/verify-location) that just works better than anything before or any alternative maps today. <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/2cb0fda0b5b07f4f2ea79589060ada3bc0cec4db4db8634f52843083d8cdfd36.png"> ## Many apps, one map BTC Map is integrated inside a dozen of wallets and apps, to name a few: Wallet of Satoshi, Coinos, Bitlocal, Fedi or Aqua. It's a public good that any bitcoin product can use and grow it's network effect. <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/47359543b383d8add9ac641daac03e7d55ab1606255d7f7f6a8acc98b7972b1c.png"> ## Uniting mappers' work BTC Map does not discriminate bitcoin merchants, that means all the merchants from proprietary maps are being mapped by taggers to BTC Map. By mapping on a closed source, proprietary map, the same merchant is mapped two times, usually by two different people — it's duplicating the same work without any bringing any benefit to both projects. Using BTC Map also brings you way more people verifying If those merchants actually still accept bitcoin, making it easier to have an up-to-date database of actual adoption. ## More bitcoin spent at your merchants When you have a business focused on spending bitcoin and onboarding merchants, you want as much bitcoin spent there as possible. If a bitcoiner coming to the area does not use your own map but some other map, they can be completely unaware that they can let their sats flow to your merchants. If we all use one merchants database, this problem disappears and more sats will flow. Why wouldn't you want your merchants displayed in dozens of other apps, completely for free? ## OpenStreetMap map is just better <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/01f40413cbde2b9355105467a91294d6d2a9489f4803a423de07a2c9366ed72d.png"> \ Take a look at the image above: It's [La Pirraya](https://btcmap.org/community/bitcoin-la-pirraya), a small sleepy island town in El Salvador with a circular economy being facilitated by Bitcoin Beach. Even though Blink has many more merchants compared to BTC Map, when I visited it a few months ago I could find them. Not because they do not exist, but because the map does not show any roads and it was very hard to locate them in a dense network of narrow streets of La Pirraya. BTC Map allows you to turn multiple versions of satellite maps views, making it way easier to find your point of interest. Pins also indicate what kind of business it is, where in Blink all the pins are the same and you need to click each to find out what it is. Even then not always it's clear, since Blink only displays names, while BTC Map tells you type of the merchant, and very often shows you working hours, phone numbers, website, social links, etc. ## Excellent community tools BTC Map is focusing providing tools for communities to maintain their merchants map. [Each community has it's own page](https://btcmap.org/communities) with own links to community website or socials, displays a list of all the merchants, shows community stats, displays merchants that were not verified for a long time, and more. It even allows to "boost" merchants to make them more visible on the map and on the list. It's perfect tooling both for communities and businesses onboarding merchants to their software. <img src="https://blossom.primal.net/530ee89593784c7b7ce51afc72b1ae0e2e1e07515ce35f5834b2fd7bab129f5b.png"> ## Easy integration & configuration Integrating BTC Map on your website or app is easy. It's [just a few lines of code of iframe to embed the map](https://wiki.btcmap.org/general/embedding), but you can also use [BTC Map API](https://wiki.btcmap.org/api/introduction) for more custom integration. Do you to display, eg. you can display only merchants from your community? No problem, you can do that. Since it's all open source, you can configure it in many ways that will suit your needs. ## Kudos I'd like to thank projects that understood all above and integrated BTC Map already. Those are Coinos, Wallet of Satoshi, Pouch, Bolt Card, BitLocal, Fedi, Decouvre Bitcoin, Osmo, Bitcoin Rocks!, Lipa, Spirit of Satoshi, Blockstream, Satlantis, Aqua Wallet and Adopting Bitcoin. ## Encouragement & an offer I'll end that with encouragement to projects that use their own maps, but haven't embraced BTC Map yet. Those are Blink, Bitcoin Jungle, Plan B, Osmo, Athena, Orange Pill App, Inbitcoin (I probably missed some, tag them!). You are doing great work, but let's join forces and paint the world orange together! From here I would like to offer help in tagging your merchants on BTC Map. Just reach me out, and me and other supertaggers will do the work. Let the sats flow!

@ da0b9bc3:4e30a4a9

Hello Stackers! Welcome on into the ~Music Corner of the Saloon! A place where we Talk Music. Share Tracks. Zap Sats. So stay a while and listen. 🚨Don't forget to check out the pinned items in the territory homepage! You can always find the latest weeklies there!🚨 🚨Subscribe to the territory to ensure you never miss a post! 🚨 originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/888083

@ c4b5369a:b812dbd6

As promised in my last article: nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzp394x6dfmvn69cduj7e9l2jgvtvle7n5w5rtrunjlr6tx6up9k7kqq2k6ernff9hw3tyd3y453rdtph5uvm6942kzuw08y0 In this one we will dive into how exactly an unidirectional payments channel powered ecash mint system would be implemented, using the tech available today! So if you haven't read that article yet, give it a read! I first intended to write a longwinded article, explaining each part of the system. But then I realized that I would need some visualization to get the message across in a more digestable way. This lead me to create a slide deck, and as I started to design the slides it became more and more clear that the information is easier shown with visualizations, than written down. I will try to give a summary as best as I can in this article, but I urge you, to please go visit the slide deck too, for the best experience: ----------- ### [TAKE ME TO THE SLIDE DECK!](https://uni-chan.gandlaf.com/) ----------- ### Intro In this article we will go over how we can build unidirectional payment channels on Bitcoin. Then we will take a look into how Cashu ecash mints work, and how we can use unidirectional payment channels to change the dynamics between ecash users and the mint. Before we start, let me also give credits to nostr:npub1htnhsay5dmq3r72tukdw72pduzfdcja0yylcajuvnc2uklkhxp8qnz3qac for comming up with the idea, to nostr:npub148jz5r9xujcjpqygk69yl4jqwjqmzgrqly26plktfjy8g4t7xaysj9xhgp for providing an idea for non-expiring unidirectional channels, and nostr:npub1yrnuj56rnen08zp2h9h7p74ghgjx6ma39spmpj6w9hzxywutevsst7k5cx unconference for hosting an event where these ideas could be discussed and flourish. ### Building unidirectional payment channels If you've read the previous article, you already know what unidirectional payment channels are. There are actually a coupple different ways to implement them, but they all do have a few things in common: 1. The `sender` can only send 2. The `Receiver` can only receive 3. They are VERY simple Way simpler than the duplex channels like we are using in the lightning network today, at least. Of course, duplex channels are being deployed on LN for a reason. They are very versatile and don't have these annoying limitations that the unidirectional payment channels have. They do however have a few drawbacks: 1. Peers have liveness requirements (or they might forfeit their funds) 2. Peers must backup their state after each transaction (if they don't they might forfeit their funds) 3. It is a pretty complex system This article is not meant to discredit duplex channels. I think they are great. I just also think that in some use-cases, their requirements are too high and the system too complex. But anyway, let's see what kind of channels we can build! #### Spillman/CLTV-Channel The Spillman channel idea has been around for a long time. It's even explained in Tadge Dryjas [Presentation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzv9WuqIzA0&t=1969s) on Payment channels and the lightning network from back in the day. I compiled a list of some of the most important propperties of them in the slide below:  Great! Now that we know their properties, let's take a look at how we can create such a channel ([Slides](https://uni-chan.gandlaf.com/#/11)):  We start out by the `sender` creating a `funding TX`. The `sender` doesn't broadcast the transaction though. If he does, he might get locked into a multisig with the `receiver` without an unilateral exit path. Instead the `sender` also creates a `refund TX` spending the outputs of the yet unsigned `funding TX`. The `refund TX` is timelocked, and can only be broadcast after 1 month. Both `sender` and `receiver` can sign this `refund TX` without any risks. Once `sender` receives the signed `refund TX`, he can broadcast the `funding TX` and open the channel. The `sender` can now update the channel state, by pre-signing update transactions and sending them over to the `receiver`. Being a one-way channel, this can be done in a single message. It is very simple. There is no need for invalidating old states, since the `sender` does not hold any signed `update TXs` it is impossible for the `sender` to broadcast an old state. The `receiver` only cares about the latest state anyways, since that is the state where he gets the most money. He can basically delete any old states. The only thing the `receiver` needs to make sure of, is broadcasting the latest `update TX` before the `refund TX's` timelock expires. Otherwise, the `sender` might take the whole channel balance back to himself. This seems to be already a pretty useful construct, due to its simplicity. But we can make it even more simple!  This setup works basically the same way as the previous one, but instead of having a refund transaction, we build the `timelock` spend path directly into the `funding TX` This allows the `sender` to have an unilateral exit right from the start, and he can broadcast the `funding TX` without communicating with the `receiver`. In the worst case, the receiver rejects the channel, and the sender can get his money back after the timelock on the output has expired. Everything else basically works in the same way as in the example above. The beauty about this channel construct is in its simplicity. The drawbacks are obvious, but they do offer some nice properties that might be useful in certain cases.  One of the major drawbacks of the `Spillman-style channels` (apart from being unidirectional) is that they expire. This expiry comes with the neat property that neither of the party has to watch the chain for channel closures, and the `sender` can operate the channel with zero additional state, apart from his private keys. But they do expire. And this can make them quite inflexible. It might work in some contexts, but not so much in others, where time needs to be more flexible. This is where `Roose-Childs triggered channels` come into play. #### Roose-Childs triggered channel (I gave it that name, named after nostr:npub148jz5r9xujcjpqygk69yl4jqwjqmzgrqly26plktfjy8g4t7xaysj9xhgp and nostr:npub1htnhsay5dmq3r72tukdw72pduzfdcja0yylcajuvnc2uklkhxp8qnz3qac . If someone knows if this idea has been around before under a different name, please let us know!) `Roose-Childs triggered channels` were an idea developed by Steven and Luke at the nostr:npub1yrnuj56rnen08zp2h9h7p74ghgjx6ma39spmpj6w9hzxywutevsst7k5cx unconference. They essentially remove the channel expiry limitation in return for introducing the need for the `sender` to create a channel backup at the time of channel creation, and for the `receiver` the need to watch the chain for trigger transactions closing the channel.  They also allow for splicing funds, which can be important for a channel without expiry, allowing the `sender` to top-up liquidity once it runs out, or for the `receiver` taking out liquidity from the channel to deploy the funds elsewhere. Now, let's see how we can build them!  The `funding TX` actually looks the same as in the first example, and similarly it gets created, but not signed by the `sender`. Then, sender and receiver both sign the `trigger TX`. The `trigger TX` is at the heart of this scheme. It allows both `sender` and `receiver` to unilaterally exit the channel by broadcasting it (more on that in a bit). Once the `trigger TX` is signed and returned to the `sender`, the sender can confidently sign and boradcast the `funding TX` and open the channel. The `trigger TX` remains off-chain though. Now, to update the channel, the `sender` can pre-sign transactions in similar fashion to the examples above, but this time, spending the outputs of the unbroadcasted `trigger TX`. This way, both parties can exit the channel at any time. If the `receiver` wants to exit, he simply boradcasts the `trigger TX` and immediately spends its outputs using the latest `update TX`. If the `sender` wants to exit he will broadcast the `trigger TX` and basically force the `receivers` hand. Either, the `receiver` will broadcast the latest `update TX`, or the `sender` will be able to claim the entire channel balance after the timelock expired.  We can also simplify the `receiver's` exit path, by the `sender` pre-signing an additional transaction `R exit TX` for each update. this way, the `receiver` only needs to broadcast one transaction instead of two.  As we've mentioned before, there are some different trade-offs for `Roose-Childs triggered channels`. We introduce some minimal state and liveness requirements, but gain more flexibility.  #### Ecash to fill in the gaps (I will assume that the reader knows how ecash mints work. If not, please go check the [slides](https://uni-chan.gandlaf.com/#/43) where I go through an explanation) Essentially, we are trying to get a lightning like experience, without all the lightning complexities and requirements. One big issue with ecash, is that it is fully custodial. If we can offset that risk by holding most of the funds in a self custodial channel, we can have a reasonable trade-off between usability and self custody.  In a system like that, we would essentially turn the banking model onto its head. Where in a traditional bank, the majority of the funds are held in the banks custody, and the user only withdraws into his custody what he needs to transact, in our model the user would hold most funds in his own custody.  If you ask me, this approach makes way more sense. Instead of a custodian, we have turned the "bank" into a service provider. Let's take a look at how it would work in a more practical sense:  The `ecash user` would open an unidirectional payment channel to the `mint`, using one of his on-chain UTXOs. This allows him then to commit incrementally funds into the mints custody, only the amounts for his transactional needs. The mint offers connectivity to the lightning network an handles state and liveness as a service provider. The `ecash user`, can remain offline at all times, and his channel funds will always be safe. The mint can only ever claim the balance in the channel via the `update TXs`. The `mint` can of course still decide to no longer redeem any ecash, at which point they would have basically stolen the `ecash user's` transactional balance. At that point, it would probably be best for the `ecash user` to close his channel, and no longer interact or trust this `mint`. Here are some of the most important points of this system summarized:  And that is basically it! I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of Unidirectional payment channel enabled Ecash mints! If you did, consider leaving me a zap. Also do let me know if this type of breakdown helps you understand a new topic well. I am considering doing similar breakdowns on other systems, such as ARK, Lightning or Statechains, if there is a lot of interest, and it helps people, I'll do it! Pleas also let me know what you think about the `unidirectional channel - ecash mint` idea in the comments. It's kind of a new idea, an it probably has flaws, or things that we haven't thought about yet. I'd love to discuss it with you! I'll leave you with this final slide:  Cheers, Gandlaf

@ 89ccea93:df4e00b7

To whom it may concern, I'm beginning to realize that the monero users I interact with on #nostr are NOT on stacker news. Okay, fair enough. So I'm putting out the call for any monero technical users to write in ~monero territory on stacker news. Currently the cost to post is 100 sats. I as the owner of the territory will zap new posts 1000 sats as a thank you for joining stacker news to contribute to my nascent territory. This aligns with SN' interests of growth, and my interests as a territory owner so I'm not forced to archive it at the end of the month due to inactivity. Cheers! Expatriotic (almost signed off with my real name lol, NICE TRY FEDS!) originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/888012

@ 6e0ea5d6:0327f353

Ascolta bene, sì? In the game of business, as in chess or the streets of Palermo, there are times to advance like a ruthless king and times to wait like a wolf stalking its prey. Those who fail to grasp this distinction are doomed to be taken down before they even see the sun rise. Prudence is the sharp blade that separates the wise man from the fool who rushes headlong into the enemy’s spear. Those who act without weighing the consequences end up as the corpses rotting on the sidewalks of unbridled ambition. But understand this well—prudence is not cowardice. The coward hesitates out of fear; the prudent man waits because he knows the right moment to strike. The difference? One crawls, the other conquers. Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat—fortune favors the bold. But boldness without calculation is like a man crossing a minefield blindfolded. Greed blinds, destroys, and devours the reckless like a raging sea dragging bodies to the depths. You see it every day—entrepreneurs who rise too fast and crumble at the first crisis, young men who burn through their earnings chasing illusions of instant wealth, fools who trust too much in friends already hiding the dagger up their sleeve. There’s a reason why great men endure while mere opportunists vanish like smoke in the wind. They understand that every battle has its time, every strike must have precision. Trade the cleaver for the scalpel—the butcher wounds without thought, the surgeon cuts with precision and saves his own skin. Dimmi, quale vuoi essere? The fool who charges into war without a shield, or the strategist who, in the end, sits at the banquet of victory? The answer is not in what you say, but in what you do while others waste their opportunities. Thank you for reading, my friend! If this message resonated with you, consider leaving your "🥃" as a token of appreciation. A toast to our family!

@ 6e0ea5d6:0327f353

Ascolta! When you allow the flame of ambition to fade within your chest, you inevitably drift toward petty and foolish concerns unworthy of an adult. In other words, the moment you abandon your dedication to grand objectives—precisely due to idleness—you will end up entangled in trivial matters, thus weakening your masculinity. Lacking the responsibilities inherent to a grown man, you will inevitably behave like a boy in all aspects of life, including relationships. He who is truly determined to win in life has neither the time nor the energy to engage in matters of neediness, jealousy, or fear of abandonment. Love, as it is often romanticized, is a dangerous illusion that leads us to reckless and self-destructive behaviors. The romantic ideal, propagated by poets and dreamers, makes us vulnerable to manipulation and disappointment. A man who is aware of his value remains focused on what truly matters, and because he understands the weight of his priorities, that alone is enough. Weakness does not inspire confidence. In a world where strength and determination are essential for survival and success, showing weakness is signing your own sentence of irrelevance. A man must be the foundation upon which the relationship stands. He must be the unshakable rock amid life’s storms. Life is a game of power and influence, and those who fail to understand this are doomed to failure. Take care of yourself. Strengthen your body, your mind, and your spirit. Be an example of determination and courage. The woman by your side must see in you a leader, a visionary, someone destined for great achievements. Only then will you earn not only her respect and admiration but also full control over your own destiny. Thank you for reading, my friend! If this message resonated with you, consider leaving your "🥃" as a token of appreciation. A toast to our family!

@ c0a57a12:8b230f7a

Ever notice how we’ve all turned into a bunch of regulation junkies? Not just the kids—us, too. The parents. The supposed adults in the room. We sit around shaking our heads at this new generation, wondering why they can’t make a move without a permission slip, but let’s be honest: we made them that way. We were trained for it. We just passed the neurosis down like a bad heirloom. Used to be, kids ran wild, made their own fun, learned how things worked by getting their hands dirty and screwing up a few times. You fell out of a tree? Tough. That’s how you figured out gravity was real. Now, a kid gets a splinter and half the neighborhood has to be briefed. But let’s not act like it started with them. We didn’t grow up in the Wild West. Our parents—the ones who were handed a country built by men who cleared forests and carved railroads and settled frontiers—they took one look at all that, clutched their pearls, and decided the real enemy was *risk.* They started slapping safety labels on everything, turned common sense into a government-subsidized industry, and set about making sure we never had to experience a single moment of danger, discomfort, or—God help us—independence. And we ate it up. Grew up afraid of the sun, the air, the drinking water. If you touched a stranger, you’d get kidnapped. If you ate the wrong snack, you’d drop dead from an allergy you didn’t even have. If you rode a bike without strapping on enough gear to survive re-entry from orbit, you might as well be suicidal. Then, just to really hammer it in, we were given rules for *everything.* How to sit, how to talk, how to play, how to think. And because we’d been softened up, we listened. We obeyed. We internalized the great lesson of modern civilization: *only do what is approved.* And when it came time for us to raise kids? Oh, we ran with it. Helicopter parenting? That was us. Participation trophies? Us. Baby-proofing the entire godforsaken planet so that Junior never had to encounter anything sharper than a cotton ball? Us again. Every bit of micromanaged, soul-sucking, over-regulated nonsense we complain about today? We enforced it. So now we’ve got a generation that doesn’t *know* how to function without checking the rulebook first. They hesitate before every decision because we taught them hesitation. They sit around waiting for a green light because that’s all we ever told them to do. And you know what? We’re no better. When’s the last time *you* did something without checking if it was "allowed"? When’s the last time you ignored a ridiculous rule instead of just sighing and complying? When’s the last time you acted like a *free man* instead of a well-behaved tax mule hoping the system doesn’t notice you? We’ve swallowed a lie, and we keep regurgitating it—that compliance is morality, that following orders is a virtue, that a safe, predictable, well-regulated life is a *good* one. It’s not. It’s never been. You don’t get freedom by waiting for permission to use it. You don’t get courage by asking if it’s okay. You don’t build a worthwhile life by making sure you never color outside the lines. And yet, here we are, acting surprised. Acting like we don’t know how we got here. Acting like we didn’t *choose* this. Like we didn’t let it happen. So what now? We could stop. We could teach our kids to take risks, to get their hands dirty, to act instead of waiting for permission. We could start ignoring stupid rules, start trusting our own judgment, start living like we weren’t raised in a padded cell. Or we could do nothing. Keep following orders. Keep playing it safe. Keep watching the world shrink into a flavorless, permission-based, committee-approved version of itself. Your call. But either way, don’t pretend to be surprised.

@ 5a261a61:2ebd4480

As I grow older, I find myself often discovering things that I haven't understood before, or just see completely differently. Like with this fable of the toad and scorpion. You know, the classic where scorpion needs to get across the river, and asks the toad for help, promising not to sting. The toad refuses at first, pointing out that scorpion's sting would kill them both. But scorpion argues that would be illogical - why would it sting if that meant its own death? The toad, convinced by this logic, agrees to help. Halfway across, scorpion stings anyway, and as they both sink, toad asks "why?" Scorpion simply answers "It's my nature." That leads me to my scorpion sighting. I have somewhat stronger libido and given the circumstances, I usually situate myself in the submissive position in both married and online life. When I am not ventilating or getting these things out in some way, it usually leads to my growing frustration that seriously hinders my usual life. And in those trying times I usually tell myself, "screw that, I don't like this, I don't like how that makes me feel, it sucks, why does it have to hurt so much" (well, I don't think 'hurt' as I have been indoctrinated by the society that men don't process feelings this way, but I think if I had a therapist, they would want me to spell it like that). Let's not go to the subspace again, it's silly space. Sometimes it gets really dark...but then comes the climax, like literally, and suddenly everything is forgiven and (almost) forgotten. And all is well. Let's just not go there next time, avoid being burned again, I keep saying to myself. And these days submissive scorpion in my head just silently waits for my monologuing toad to finish defending ourselves. It knows that it needs only one chance so I cave in, while toad needs to defend my sanity every day. So one day, I will bring scorpion to cross the river with me again. And it will again promise that this time it will be ok. And we will both pretend like we believe that, so the play can go on. And it will eventually sting me, because we both yearn for unreachable things. And next day I will again see scorpion on the river, not wooing me, no, we are beyond that, it knows it just needs to wait before I come back for the poison I need.As I grow older, I find myself often discovering things that I haven't understood before, or just see completely differently. Like with this fable of the toad and scorpion. You know, the classic where scorpion needs to get across the river, and asks the toad for help, promising not to sting. The toad refuses at first, pointing out that scorpion's sting would kill them both. But scorpion argues that would be illogical - why would it sting if that meant its own death? The toad, convinced by this logic, agrees to help. Halfway across, scorpion stings anyway, and as they both sink, toad asks "why?" Scorpion simply answers "It's my nature." That leads me to my scorpion sighting. I have somewhat stronger libido and given the circumstances, I usually situate myself in the submissive position in both married and online life. When I am not ventilating or getting these things out in some way, it usually leads to my growing frustration that seriously hinders my usual life. And in those trying times I usually tell myself, "screw that, I don't like this, I don't like how that makes me feel, it sucks, why does it have to hurt so much" (well, I don't think 'hurt' as I have been indoctrinated by the society that men don't process feelings this way, but I think if I had a therapist, they would want me to spell it like that). Let's not go to the subspace again, it's silly space. Sometimes it gets really dark...but then comes the climax, like literally, and suddenly everything is forgiven and (almost) forgotten. And all is well. Let's just not go there next time, avoid being burned again, I keep saying to myself. And these days submissive scorpion in my head just silently waits for my monologuing toad to finish defending ourselves. It knows that it needs only one chance so I cave in, while toad needs to defend my sanity every day. So one day, I will bring scorpion to cross the river with me again. And it will again promise that this time it will be ok. And we will both pretend like we believe that, so the play can go on. And it will eventually sting me, because we both yearn for unreachable things. And next day I will again see scorpion on the river, not wooing me, no, we are beyond that, it knows it just needs to wait before I come back for the poison I need.

@ e7bc35f8:3ed2a7cf

In the grand chessboard of geopolitics, Iran has long been a target for covert Western intervention. The 2009 Iranian presidential election provided yet another example of a well-worn playbook—one designed to undermine sovereign nations under the guise of democracy. But this was far from a spontaneous people's movement. Instead, it bore all the hallmarks of a carefully orchestrated operation, leveraging the power of mass media, intelligence agencies, and globalist financial interests. ### 2009: A Manufactured Uprising In June 2009, before Iran's election results were even finalized, opposition leader Mir-Houssein Mousavi [prematurely declared victory]( https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/5519567/Iran-elections-Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-and-Hossein-Mousavi-both-claim-victory.html). This calculated move set the stage for immediate allegations of fraud, ensuring that any outcome favoring incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be delegitimized. The Western media wasted no time in amplifying the chaos, competing to push the most dramatic narratives. The **BBC** took the lead, [publishing outright fabrications]( https://web.archive.org/web/20090621065048/https://www.infowars.com/bbc-caught-in-mass-public-deception-with-iran-propaganda/) about mass uprisings—falsehoods they were later [forced to retract]( https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/06/what_really_happened.html). Then came the Twitter storm. On June 13, a sudden [flood of **30,000 tweets**]( https://web.archive.org/web/20090619154321/https://chartingstocks.net/2009/06/proof-israeli-effort-to-destabilize-iran-via-twitter/), many in English, began pouring in from Iran. The accounts responsible? Newly created profiles, often using identical photos, a hallmark of an information warfare campaign. The **[Jerusalem Post]( https://web.archive.org/web/20090714235359/https://chartingstocks.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/jpost.jpg)** quickly picked up on the phenomenon, covering it within hours. This was no organic grassroots movement; it was a digital psy-op, mirroring past regime-change operations. ### The Blueprint: Iran 1953—The CIA’s Original Coup This wasn’t Iran’s first encounter with a foreign-backed destabilization campaign. In 1953, Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister **Mohammed Mossadegh** made the fatal mistake of challenging Western oil interests. He sought to nationalize Iran’s petroleum industry, then controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later BP). The response was swift and brutal: the **CIA launched Operation Ajax**, an [insidious regime-change operation]( https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html) that became the prototype for future coups. The CIA’s strategy was as ruthless as it was effective: * Staged bombings blamed on Mossadegh’s government * Islamist agitation funded and nurtured to turn public sentiment * Propaganda campaigns demonizing Mossadegh as a secular threat * Bribery of officials and military leaders to ensure betrayal The result? The overthrow of Mossadegh and the installation of the pro-Western **Shah**, whose reign saw brutal repression under the secret police **SAVAK**—trained by the CIA and Mossad. The template was established. From **Guatemala (1954) to Afghanistan (1980s) to Serbia (1990s)**, the same playbook was deployed. But with each coup, Western fingerprints became harder to conceal. ### A New Strategy: Economic Warfare and the NGO Takeover With direct coups becoming too risky, a subtler method emerged: **economic strangulation**. Enter the **International Monetary Fund (IMF)**. The play was simple: 1. **A corrupt dictator takes out massive loans** for projects the country cannot afford. 2. **The country inevitably defaults**, giving the IMF the power to restructure its economy. 3. **Western corporations move in**, plundering national resources under the guise of “recovery.” This scheme was exposed in **2001** when former World Bank chief economist **Joseph Stiglitz** [blew the whistle]( https://www.gregpalast.com/the-globalizer-who-came-in-from-the-cold/) on these manufactured debt traps. Further details emerged in 2004 with **John Perkins' “[Confessions of an Economic Hitman]( https://a.co/d/2oLfrTD)”**, which revealed how Western front companies and intelligence-backed corporations systematically dismantled economies for geopolitical gain. But even this strategy had its limits. As exposure grew, the need for an even more sophisticated approach became apparent—one cloaked in the language of democracy and human rights. ### Color Revolutions: The Soros Connection Enter the age of the **NGO-driven color revolutions**, where regime change is disguised as a people’s uprising. Organizations like the **Open Society Institute (George Soros), Freedom House, and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)** became the new weapons of choice. These NGOs: * **Fund and train opposition groups** * **Coordinate mass protests during elections** * **Provide media support** to delegitimize governments The results? A series of destabilizations across the world: **Ukraine (2004 - Orange Revolution)** **Lebanon (2005 - Cedar Revolution)** **Georgia (2003 - Rose Revolution)** **Kyrgyzstan (2005 - Tulip Revolution)** Each followed the same pattern—Western-backed NGOs funneled money and resources into opposition movements, ensuring their success. Unsurprisingly, these uprisings all bore the **fingerprints of Soros**, the billionaire financier with a long history of manipulating global politics to serve elite financial interests. However, this strategy has started to backfire. Georgia witnessed a major [anti-Soros backlash]( https://halldor2.blogspot.com/2005/10/anti-soros-movement-in-georgia.html?m=1), and attempts to replicate these revolutions elsewhere—such as the failed Moldovan "[Grape Revolution]( https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/04/10/moldovas-twitter-revolution-is-not-a-myth/)"—have faltered as people wake up to the deception. ### Iran 2009: An Operation in Plain Sight While no one denies that Ahmadinejad’s regime had its flaws, the coordinated media hysteria and backing of **Mir-Houssein "[Butcher of Beirut]( https://web.archive.org/web/20090626060145/http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/2009/06/mousavi-celebrated-in-iranian.html)" Mousavi** raises serious questions. Why was the Western establishment so eager to install a leader with a brutal history? The answer lies in the same playbook used time and again: 1. **Foment unrest** through digital manipulation and street protests. 2. **Control the narrative** via Western media outlets. 3. **Install a leader** more compliant with Western economic and geopolitical interests. Iran 2009 was not an isolated event. It was part of a much larger pattern—a centuries-old strategy of covert intervention, economic sabotage, and media manipulation to secure Western control over sovereign nations. As history has shown, the real fight isn’t between the people and their governments—it’s between sovereign nations and the global power structures that seek to enslave them. And until people recognize the hidden hands behind these so-called revolutions, the cycle of deception will continue.

@ 2e8970de:63345c7a

Hi there, wanted to share some inspiration For a few months now I have been following Tyron Shi. He makes absolutely gorgeous moody photography    Also really cinematic video  It has been a huge inspiration for me since normally I'm not that much of a street photographer and don't deviate my color grading too much from natural. Next time I'm on vacation to a bigger city I will try my hand at an album inspired by this. So, if you like it, give this genius a follow: https://tyronshi.com/ https://x.com/tyron_shi originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/887632

@ 9a4acdeb:1489913b

## Chef's notes Original recipe, a favorite of family and friends, and the easiest and fastest prep time meal I make. Like all really good pork recipes, it does take time in the cooker, but it's set-and-forget and requires no attention between starting and serving. Using fresh herbs and peppers does enhance the meal (especially fresh cilantro if it doesn't taste like soap to you), but this is optional, and it is excellent with dry ingredients. Excluding the beans and/or tomato makes this meal extra-low carb for those carnivores amongst us, or those sensitive to beans. Frying the shredded cheese in a slick pan is a good way to It will take up to 15min to come up to pressure, so it may be helpful to pay attention to it to be sure it pressurizes until you become familiar with how this meal acts in your particular pressure cooker. The Instant Pot pressure cookers make this easy. ## Details - ⏲️ Prep time: 20min - 🍳 Cook time: 2hrs - 🍽️ Servings: 6 ## Ingredients - 4lbs Pork loin - 1-2 Yellow onion, roughly chopped - 3-5 Jalapeños or 1x 4oz canned - 6-8 Green chilis or 1x 4oz canned - 2oz canned sliced Black olives (may use half a 4oz can) - 2-3tsp minced garlic, or 1-2 tsp garlic powder - A small bunch of cilantro, chopped, or 1-2 tsb dried cilantro (optional) - 1tbsp Oregano, chopped fresh or dried - 2-3tsb Chili powder; Ancho, Chipotle, or a blend of the two is best - 2-3tsb ground Cumin - 3-4tsp salt - 2-tsp black pepper - 1 large or 4oz canned tomato (optional) - Mexican mix shredded cheese (topping) - 4oz Black beans (optional) - Tortillas (optional) - Avocado (optional toping) - 6 Limes and/or 3oz lime juice ## Directions 1. Mix dry seasonings 2. Chop and mix fresh herbs and veggies, canned or otherwise 3. Add chopped onion to bottom of pressure cooker 4. Add pork loin atop the onion; chopping into steaks may make the texture better 5. Add veggies to the top, shaking to settle into the pressure cooker 6. Add lime juice 7. Start on high pressure for 2hrs. 8. (Optional) Drain the broth into a saucepan, cook down, and add back into the mix to make it extra flavorful. Otherwise, can be served as a soup or poured over rice. 9. Serve with cheese as a topping, over rice, in a tortilla as tacos or burritos, or in a number of other fashions you may fancy. Those who prefer a little more lime may squeeze fresh or splash some more on their meal. 10. (Optional) For presentation, garnish with cilantro and lime slices, maybe a dollop of shredded cheese, sour cream, or cream cheese.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Here are today's picks (there are a ton of them today) using my proprietary betting strategy at [Freebitcoin](https://freebitco.in/?r=51325722). For details about what Risk Balanced Odds Arbitrage is and why it works see https://stacker.news/items/342765/r/Undisciplined. For a hypothetical 1k-ish wager on each match, distribute your sats as follows: | Outcome 1 | Outcome 2 | Outcome 3 | Bet 1 | Bet 2 | Bet 3 | |--------------|-------------|--------------|-------|-------|-------| | Torino| AC Milan| Draw | 269| 476| 278| | Inter Milan| Genoa| Draw | 765| 71| 156| | Como| Napoli| Draw | 256| 464| 294| | Cagliari| Juventus| Draw | 213| 556| 267| | Balogna| AC Milan| Draw | 348| 407| 303| | Valencia| Atletico Madrid| Draw | 208| 550| 270| | Sevilla| Real Mallorca| Draw | 464| 253| 313| | Real Sociedad| Leganes| Draw | 636| 133| 267| | Real Madrid| Girona| Draw | 760| 105| 167| | Las Palmas| Barcelona| Draw | 105| 750| 164| | RB Leipzig| Heidenheim| Draw | 688| 143| 196| | FC Bayern| Eintracht Frankfurt| Draw | 786| 91| 133| | Dortmund| Union Berlin| Draw | 621| 182| 231| | Arsenal| West Ham| Draw | 763| 77| 167| | Aston Villa| Chelsea| Draw | 364| 392| 266| | Chelsea| Southampton| Draw | 818| 67| 143| | Everton| Man United| Draw | 333| 381| 303| | Ipswich| Tottenham| Draw | 286| 476| 256| | Liverpool| Newcastle| Draw | 652| 161| 217| | Man City| Liverpool| Draw | 348| 421| 256| | Man United| Ipswich| Draw | 636| 167| 227| | Newcastle| Nottingham Forest| Draw | 541| 235| 250| | Tottenham| Man City| Draw | 222| 594| 222| | Nottingham Forest| Arsenal| Draw | 200| 579| 244| I'll be curious to see how @Coinsreporter does with his modified RBOA. On the most recently completed set of RBOA, I made 6k sats on 43k wagered, so it was a nice bounce back. I still haven't precisely identified where the threshold is, but it might be worth skipping any of these with a "time weight multiplier" lower than 90. ---------- A note of caution about Freebitcoin: they recorded the wrong outcome for last week's Bills vs Ravens game and as of yet have not corrected it. I recall one other instance of something similar happening, so proceed with caution. This RBOA strategy is largely immune from that problem, but be aware of it when just betting on one outcome. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/887548

@ df478568:2a951e67

I asked a pleb to answer a few questions about selling stuff for sats, and he asked me, "What made you want to do a story/article on this?" The short answer: Because I like seeing people make their own bitcoin jobs, but the question made me think about the why. When I tried to be an English teacher, one of my professors said, "The difference between a job and a career is that a career is something you think about all day." I didn't become an English teacher, because I already had something I think about all day: bitcoin. I didn't fit the teacher ethos, for whatever reason, so undecided, I wanted to work in bitcoin sometime around block 525,000.  That's about the time I began writing on [yalls.org](https:..yalls.org). I fell in love with the idea of writing for sats. It was too early. Very few people used lightning back then, but the idea of earning sats to write was invigorating. I had no illusions of earning enough to earn a living, but yalls had a paywall. I spent a fair amount of time experimenting with these paywalls. Part of my articles were available for free, but to finish the article required a payment of 210 sats when that was about two cents. I was fascinated with this concept because it meant I could write for sats. Readers could send p2p electronic cash to me—sats short for satoshis. Each bitcoin can be divided into 100,000,000 sats. The lightning network allowed people to send you micropayments. ## Yalls  This was not possible with credit cards because of the fees they charge. The lightning network can be used to circumvent fees imposed on credit card merchants and the sats can now be instantly converted to fiat. This is not financial advice. Earning bitcoin is 21 million times more interesting than trading bitcoin. Investors talk about green dildos, red dildos, and some other sex toy called a bollinger band. If you're into that kind of kinky stuff, I don't judge, but I stay vanilla and stack sats. I experimented with shitcoin play in younger years, but it was just a phase. I finally realized alts are an attempt to break the solution to the double-spending problem sometime around block 630,000. That's when I declared myself a bitcoin maxi on yalls.org. Adam Back retweeted it. It didn't go viral, but that was amazing. I'm just an anonymous user who couldn't get an English teaching job, but Adam Back...You know..The guy Satoshi cited in the white paper—That guy retweeted my article. I started a couple of anonymous blogs and earned a small amount of sats in the early days of nostr. ### How I Made 1,000,000 Volunteering At Pacific Bitcoin  I volunteered for Pacific Bitcoin 2022. I volunteered to save some sats on a ticket. I stayed in a hostel. I did not expect to get paid, but it earned me a million sats after I sold the pack of collectible cards that came in a swag bag at the conference. What if I can one day retire on the millions of sats I earned over the last few years? I'm not sure that will happen, but it might be enough for my grandchildren to retire. *If bitcoin goes up "forever Laura..." you're never too late to earn bitcoin on the side. The sats you earn go up in value forever. Maybe the ROI on your college degree didn't pay off like you thought it would. You read Walden and Civil Disobedience and A Letter From a Birmingham Jail...thought...these are great ideas. They prepared me to read Early Retirement Extreme. I also listened to Choose FI and decoded Mr. Money Mustache. Dave Ramsey says you should get a second job to pay off debt in a country where many people working two jobs are still getting into more debt. Maybe they should use that extra job to stack sats. Earning bitcoin feels different than buying bitcoin. It means earning money on the Internet without needing a trusted third party. PayPal and Patreon have been around for years. They are nothing new, digital middlemen. Although the less technical often use bitcoin non-custodially, it's getting easier to take self-custody and use bitcoin as it was intended, p2p electronic cash. Why use eBay when you can have a garage sale on nostr? Even Dave Ramsey can sell stuff on nostr. He's been telling people to avoid bitcoin since it was $400. What if you sell your fancy clothes made in Bangladesh on nostr while instantaneously converting it to USD on Strike? You can send 1,000 fiat bucks to your checking account faster than a speeding Superman. You can get the garage sale money deposited to your bank account within a half-hour. I can't even drive to an ATM that fast! Transfer the money to a savings account that pays 0.01% interest. Baby Step 1 complete! You can take the instant fiat from your next nostr garage sell and pay your debt straight from the Strike App! This is NOT financial advice. I could earn fiat on Poker Stars until the government took away my permission. I could earn fiat on Full Tilt, but they spent players' fiat and barely kept a fraction in reserve. The same is true of platforms. You can earn fiat on Twitter if you pay for the monthly Twitter lottery. American's can currently earn fiat on TikTok...but do see where this is going? That's why I like supporting people who have some sort of bitcoin side hustle. I may have found bitcoin in 2014, but I didn't have a full-time job. I was unemployed for a couple of years before that. This one time, I got into an argument with my wife because, some months, we could only scrape up $50 to "buy bitcoin." I was an asshole. I kinda feel bad about that, but I'm a lucky guy with a beautiful wife who forgave me for being an asshole and dashing doors to stack bitcoin without telling her about it. She was pretty pissed. That Fifty bucks we argued over is now worth...  The misses is not so *pisses* anymore.😁 - I've picked up extra jobs to stack sats. - I used BTCPayServer to stack sats. - I stacked sats with lnbits - I originally set up a lightning node so I could stack sats on yalls.org. - It took me six months to get a lightning node up and running on a raspberry pi. #### Few Very few people used the [lightning network](https://lightning.network/) back then. Any bitcoiner has the ability to make their own job. I started a blog and set up a BTCPayServer so people would pay me for my prose. Some actually did. It wasn't much money. I might have broken even, but the possibilities still intrigue me. You can use [Alby Hub on the cloud](https://albyhub.com/), [Zaprite](https://zaprite.com/), or run it on a [Start9](https://store.start9.com/collections/servers/products/server-one). You can pay GetAlby for a lightning node in the cloud. If you're a fiat-spending maximalist, you can [convert all your bitcoin to fiat with Strike](https://invite.strike.me/NGQDMT).\* ##### Bitcoin Is For Everybody, Even Nocoiners Maybe you don't want bitcoin, but need some extra cash and can make candles. Fiat won't hedge against eggflation, but that's not what this is about. That's not the point. Bitcoin is for anybody, even no-coiners. You don't even need to make a website anymore. You can just use Shopstr, Plebian Market, Coinos, Cashu.me, Buzz Pay, and more.I just bought some soap from someone I saw on nostr. I decided to try something new this month. I paid with fiat, but the soap miner received bitcoin on the other end. Anyone with the Strike App can pay dollars to people who want bitcoin and vice-versa. Some people proudly proclaim they never...ever...spend bitcoin. Those who hodl never sell. In Everyone's A Scammer, [Michael Bitstein](https://primal.net/bitstein) says: `"Merchants are scammers because they lead you to believe that your bitcoins are only worth the price of their retail good in order to allow themselves (or those to whom they sell the bitcoins, if they so choose), rather than you, to benefit from future Bitcoin price increases. …And That’s a Good Thing This is not to say merchant adoption is bad. In fact, from the hoarder's perspective, merchant adoption is great. First, merchant adoption means that there is more demand for Bitcoin, that the Bitcoin network is growing, and that Bitcoin is thus more valuable than it was yesterday. Second, merchant adoption means there are more places to spend bitcoins. This does not mean a hoarder will actually want to spend bitcoins. More importantly, he can spend bitcoins.` If you like this quote, [please zap this note. 100% of these zaps go to [Bitstien](nostr:note1eaf0us6zlvlp3wt4gnjjlj6e3pk3fpdkqzfd6wpxfydp6rqgq9vq0ar8dm) Saylor says **bitcoin is hope**, but you know what gives me hope? Not the billionaire buying bitcoin, but the pleb selling stuff for sats. - Maybe there's a homeless person selling a few used books for a meal. - Maybe an artist stacks $500 per month selling art on nostr. - Maybe a recently X government employee can sell DEI training on the free and open market on nostr. Or...Maybe they can sell culturally appropriate tamales on nostr for actual sats instead. Those are the stories I want to find. Bitcoin is for everybody, even people with college degrees that the job market does not value much. Saylor's not wrong. Bitcoin is hope. Saylor said he wants to make education free. That's why he founded Saylor Academy. They have a course called Bitcoin Is For Everybody. Bitcoin is for everybody, even no-coiners, even for people who went to college even though it didn't lead to a high-paying job. Bitcoin is hope for those people, people just like me. nostr:npub1marc26z8nh3xkj5rcx7ufkatvx6ueqhp5vfw9v5teq26z254renshtf3g0 [884054](https://mempool.marc26z.com/block/00000000000000000000a9305d5f83abfc86da27c9524a7ad181b7a75f0827a9) [Debt Clock](https://www.usdebtclock.org/)  [Subscribe on Substack](https://substack.com/@marc26z) [Merch](https://marc26z.com/merch) \* Strike is an affiliate and I earn a small commision if you pay for the service. I use it to pay my credit card bills.

@ df478568:2a951e67

I asked a pleb to answer a few questions about selling stuff for sats and he asked me, "What made you want to do a story/article on this?"" When I tried to be an English teacher, one of my professors said, "The difference between a job and a career is that a career is something you think about all day." I didn't become an English teacher, because I already had something I think about all day, bitcoin. I didn't fit the teacher ethos, for whatever reason, so Indecided I want to work in bitcoin sometime around block That's about the time I began writing on yalls.org. I fell in love with the idea of writing for sats on yalls.org. It was an idea, but it was too early. It was very early days. Very few people used lightning back then, but the idea of earning sats to write was invigorating. I had no illusions of earning enough to earn a living, but yalls had a paywall. I spent a fair amount of time experimenting with these paywalls. Part of my articles were available for free, but to finish the article required a payment of 210 sats when that was about 2¢. I was as facinated with this concept because it meant I could write for sats. Readers could send p2p electronic cash to me-sats short for satoshis. Each bitcoin can be divided into 100,000,000 sats. The lightning network allowed people to send you micropayments. This was not possible with credit cards because of the fees they charge. The lightning network can be used to circumvent fees imposed on credit card merchants and the sats can now be instantly converted to fiat. This is not financial advice. Earning bitcoin is 21 million times more interesting than trading bitcoin. Investors talk about green dildos, red dildos, and some other sex toy called a bollinger band. If you're into that kind of kinky stuff, I don't judge, but I stay vanilla and stack sats. I experimented with shitcoin play in younger years, but it was just a phase. I finally realized alts are an attempt to break the solution to the double spending problem sometime around block 630,000. That's when I declared myself a bitcoin maxi on yalls.org. Adam Back retweeted it. It didn't go viral, but that was amazing. I'm just an anon who couldn't get an English teaching job, but Adam Back...You know..The guy Satoshi cited in the white paper--That guy retweeted my article. I started a couple anon blogs and earned a small anount of sats in the early days of nostr. I volunteered for Pacific Bitcoin 2022. I volunteered to save some sats on a ticket. I stayed in a hostel. I did not expect to get paid, but it earned me a million sats after I sold the pack of collectible cards that came in a swag bag at t he conference. What if I can one day retire on the millions of sats I earned over the last few years? I'm not sure that will happen, but it it might be enough for my grandchildren to retire. \*If bitcoin goes up "forever Laura..." you're never too late to earn bitcoin on the side. The sats you earn go up in value forever. Maybe the ROI on you're college degree didn't pay off like you thought it would. You read Walden and Cilvil Disobedience and A Letter From A Birmhingham Jail...thought...these are great ideas. They prepared me to read Early Retirement Extreme. I also listened to Choose FI and decoured Mr. Money Mustache. \[Dave Ramsey\](Resources to Tackle Debt - Ramsey) says you should get a second job to pay off debt in a country where many people working two jobs are still getting into more debt. Maybe they should use that extra job to stack sats. Earning bitcoin feels different than buying bitcoin. It means earning money on the Internet without needing a trusted third party. Paypal and Patreon have been around for years. They are nothing new, digital middlemen. Although the less technical often use bitcoin non-custodially, it's getting easier to take self custody and use bitcoin as it was intended, p2p electronic cash. Why use eBay when you can have a garage sale on nostr? Even Dave Ramsey can sell stuff on nostr. He's been telling people to avoid bitcoin since it was $400.00. What if you sell your fancy clothes made in Bangladesh on nostr while instantaniously converting it to USD on Strike? You can send 1,000 fiat bucks to your checking account faster than a speeding Superman. You can get the garage sale money deposited to your bank account within a half hour. I can't even drive to an ATM that fast! Transfer the money to a savings account that pays 0.01% interest. Baby Step 1 complete! You can take the insta-fiat from your next nostr garage sell and pay your debt straight from the Strike App! This is NOT financial advice. I could earn fiat on Poker Stars until the government took away my permission. I could earn fiat on Full Tilt, but they spent players fiat and barely kept a fraction in reserve. The same is true of platforms. You can earn fiat on Twitter if you pay for the monthly Twitter lottery. American's can can currently earn fiat on TikTok..but do see where this is going? That's why I like supporting people who have some sort of bitcoin side hustle. I may have found bitcoin in 2014, but I didn't have a full time job. I was unemployed for a couple years before that. This one time, I got into an argument with my wife because, some months, we could only scrape up $50 to "buy bitcoin." I was an asshole. I kinda feel bad about that, but I'm a lucky guy with a beautiful wife who forgave me for being an asshole and dashing doors to stack bitcoin without telling her about it. She was pretty pissed. That Fifty bucks we argued over is now worth... The misses is not so pissed anymore.😁 I've picked up extra jobs to stack sats. I used BTCpayServer to stack sats. I originally set up a lightning node so stack sats on yalls.org. Very few people used the lightning network back then. Any bitcoiner has the ability to make their own job. I started a blog and set up a BTCpayServer so people would pay me for my prose. Some actually did. It wasn't much money. I might have broke even, but the possibilities still intrigue me. You can buy a Start9 and use Alby Hub. You can pay GetAlby for a lightning node in the cloud. If you're a fiat spending maxi, you can convert all your bitcoin to fiat with Strike. Maybe you don't want bitcoin, but need some extra cash and can make candles. Fiat won't hedge against eggflation, but that's not what this is about. That's not the point. Bitcoin is for anybody, even nocoiners. buYou don't even need to make a website anymore. You can just use Shopstr, Plebian Market, Coinos, Cashu.me, \[Buzz Pay\](https://pos.albylabs.com/#?nwc=bm9zdHIrd2FsbGV0Y29ubmVjdDovLzY5ZWZmZTdiNDlhNmRkNWNmNTI1YmQwOTA1OTE3YTUwMDVmZmU0ODBiNThlZWI4ZTg2MTQxOGNmM2FlNzYwZDk/cmVsYXk9d3NzOi8vcmVsYXkuZ2V0YWxieS5jb20vdjEmcHVia2V5PTVkNzVjZDQ5OTFkNGFhOTViMDllMWJkZTg1YmRkODllMTg2YjUxZmE3MDYwOTEyOTE5MGYxZWIwYjcyYzk0MWUmc2VjcmV0PWFiZDM5NDU3ODQ4NmI0OWJlMzMwNzk1ZWE2YTU2OGIwYWI2MWJjMjMzN2JkMTE5NzU1YTNiM2ZmZTBhZDEwMmQ=&name=Support my work using the Value 4 Value model), and more.I just bought some soap from someone I saw on nostr. I decided to try something new this month. I paid with fiat, but soap miner recieved bitcoin on the other end. Anyone with the Strike App can pay dollars to people who want bitcoin and vice-versa. Some people proudly proclaim they never...ever...ever spend bitcoin. Those who hodl never sodl can spend fiat at bitcoin shops using Strike. Buying stuff with bitcoin increases the stack of a fellow HODLer. In Everyone's A Scammer, Michael Goldstein says, "Merchants are scammers because they lead you to believe that your bitcoins are only worth the price of their retail good in order to allow themselves (or those to whom they sell the bitcoins, if they so choose), rather than you, to benefit from future Bitcoin price increases. …And That’s a Good Thing This is not to say merchant adoption is bad. In fact, from the hoarder’s perspective, merchant adoption is great. First, merchant adoption means that there is more demand for Bitcoin, that the Bitcoin network is growing, and that Bitcoin is thus more valuable than it was yesterday. Second, merchant adoption means there are more places to spend bitcoins. This does not mean a hoarder will actually want to spend bitcoins. More importantly, he can spend bitcoins. Demand for cash exists because there is uncertainty of future needs, and the holder of cash believes he will come across currently unknown opportunities in the future that can better satisfy his needs than any current opportunities." Saylor says bitcoin is hope, but you know what gives me hope? Not the billionaire buying bitcoin, but the pleb selling stuff for sats. Maybe there's a homeless person selling a few used books for a meal. Maybe an artist stacks $500 per month selling art on nostr. Those are the stories I want to find. Bitcoin is for everybody, even people with college degrees that the job market does not value much. Saylor's not wrong. Bitcoin is hope. Saylor said he wants to make education free. That's why he founded Saylor Academy. They have a course called \[Bitcoin Is For Everybody\](Bitcoin is for everybody\](https://learn.saylor.org/course/view.php?id=468)). Bitcoin is for everybody, even no-coiners, even for people who went to college even though it didn't lead to a high paying job. Bitcoin is hope for those people, people just like me. npub1marc26z8nh3xkj5rcx7ufkatvx6ueqhp5vfw9v5teq26z254renshtf3g0 \[884,054(https://mempool.marc26z.com/block/00000000000000000000a9305d5f83abfc86da27c9524a7ad181b7a75f0827a9) [Subscribe on Substack](https://substack.com/@marc26z)[Merch](https://marc26z.com/merch)

@ 41fa852b:af7b7706

> "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." --Martin Luther King, Jr * * * **If Bitcoin's price action is putting you to sleep, maybe it's time to get out and add some spice to your life.** It's a big week with 12 meetups--check out the list below and see if there's one near you. Most meetups are drop-in friendly--just head to the venue and keep an eye out for a few shady-looking characters in Bitcoin merch. If you'd prefer some certainty, you can find contact details for every meetup at [bitcoinevents.uk](https://bitcoinevents.uk/). Just scroll down to find your meetup group, and you'll see how to get in touch. Let's dive in… * * * [](https://bitcoinevents.uk/donate/) * * * _This week's sponsor is…_ [](https://www.orangepillapp.com/?utm_source=BEUK&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BEUK) * * * ### **Upcoming Bitcoin Meetups** Happening this week… 1. [**Newcastle Bitcoin Meetup**](https://www.meetup.com/newcastlebitcoinmeetup/): A relaxed gathering for anyone interested in Bitcoin. No prior experience or ownership of Bitcoin is required, just curiosity and an interest. Conversations are Bitcoin-only focused. Happening this month on Tuesday, February 18th, at 18:30. Find them at Kabin @ Kabannas, NE1 6UQ. 🍻 2. [**Bitcoin 101**](https://meetu.ps/e/NRYv6/v822r/i): Nodes at Cyphermunk House - Participants are invited to a hands-on, peer-led class to set up their own Bitcoin node. Those wishing to build a node during the session should bring an old laptop, computer, or mini PC, along with a 2TB SSD and a USB drive with at least 4GB of storage. Attendees are also welcome to join without building a node to learn from the process. Tickets cost £9 in sats or £10 in cash, with pre-booking available at [cyphermunkhouse.com/events.](http://cyphermunkhouse.com/events). 👨🏼‍🎓 3. [**Bitcoin Glasgow**](https://www.meetup.com/bitcoin-glasgow-buy-sell-learn/): Bitcoin Glasgow meet every 3rd Wednesday of the month and this month will be at The Maltman, 59--61 Renfield Street at 18:00 to 20:00. This month on Wednesday the 19th. 🍺 4. [**Bitcoin Wales**](https://www.meetup.com/all-about-bitcoin-meetup-group-wales/events/): Back in action with the first meetup of 2025, and looking to grow their membership. The gathering at Zerodegrees, 27 Westgate St, Cardiff CF10 1DD invites both seasoned Bitcoiners and newcomers to connect, share ideas, and shape the future of Bitcoin in Wales. 18:00 - 21:00 on Wednesday 19th February. 🍻 5. [**OPA London Bitcoin Meetup**](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/opa-london-bitcoin-meetup-tickets-1238140223739): The first OPA London Bitcoin Meetup takes place on Wednesday 19th at 18:30 - 21:30 at the [Century Club](https://centuryclub.co.uk/) (Bitcoin accepted), 61--63 Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 6LQ. 🍺🍷🍸 6. [**Shropshire Bitcoin**](https://x.com/shropsbitcoin): On the 19th, the Shropshire crew will be meeting at the Admiral Benbow in Shrewsbury. 🍻 7. [**Brum Bitcoin & Beer**](https://x.com/brumbitcoin): If you're in the Birmingham area head along to meet some fellow bitcoiners on Thursday 20th at 19:00. You'll find them this month at The Wellington, Bennett's Hill, B2 5SN. 🍺 8. [**Bitcoin Bristol**](https://evento.so/p/evt_iQcbZqEyZ36Bujfr): Meeting at The Left Handed Giant, BS1 6EU, at 18:15 on the 21st. Everyone is welcome, the aim is to encourage grassroots bitcoin adoption in Bristol. 🍻 9. [**2140 Collective**](https://evento.so/p/evt_tEzCj5UWYCkB9h35): Tools of freedom - GrapheneOS workshop. Learn about GrapheneOS the privacy-focused mobile operating system. Friday 21st February, 18:00 - 21:40 at Cyphermunk House. 👨🏼‍🎓📱 10. [**Bitcoin Walk - Edinburgh**](https://bitcoinwalk.org/): Every Saturday they walk around Arthur's Seat in this historic city. Join them at 12 pm to chat about all things Bitcoin and keep fit. 🚶🏽‍♂️🚶🏼‍♀️🚶🏻 11. [**Plymouth Bitcoiners**](https://x.com/plbitcoiners): The Plymouth meetup is on the 22nd this month. Find them at Steel Brew, PL1 3GD at 14:00. 🍻 12. [**Bitcoin East**](https://x.com/bitcoineastuk): Join Bitcoin East in Bury St. Edmunds on Sunday 23rd, 10:00 at [Procopio's Pantry](https://www.ourburystedmunds.com/business/procopios-pantry/) and then on to Vespers Bar at 12:00. All welcome, Bitcoiners and anyone else curious about Bitcoin. 🍻☕️ * * * **Get Involved** - **Volunteer Opportunities**: [Bridge2Bitcoin](https://bridge2bitcoin.com/) is actively seeking volunteers who share our passion for merchant adoption. We'd be delighted to connect if you're eager to contribute. Reach out to us on [Twitter](https://x.com/bridge2bitcoin) or through our [website](https://bridge2bitcoin.com/). - **Start Your Own Meetup**: Interested in launching a Bitcoin meetup? We're here to support you every step of the way. We've assisted numerous UK Bitcoin meetups in getting started. Get in touch via [Twitter](https://x.com/bitcoineventsuk). - **[Contribute to BTCMaps](https://wiki.btcmap.org/general/tagging-instructions.html)**: BTCMaps is a vital part of the Bitcoin ecosystem. It's a perfect project to get involved with if you're not a coder or even that technical. A great way to give back to the community. Maintain an area of the UK and keep it up-to-date. - **Telegram users**: You might find our [Telegram Channel](https://t.me/BitcoinEventsUKHub) another useful way to keep up-to-date with UK meetups. - **Feedback and Suggestions**: We value your input! Share your ideas on how we can enhance this newsletter. * * * _This week's sponsors are…_ [](https://orangecoinstore.com/) [](https://bitcoinretreat.co.uk/) * * * Get out and support the meetups where you can, visit [Bitcoin Events UK](https://bitcoinevents.uk/) for more info on each meetup and to find your closest on the interactive map. Stay tuned for more updates next week! Simon. [](https://bitcoinevents.uk/donate/)