Oddbean

Im just gonna make a quick statement here about cashu and nutsacks (I know very little, I just read some hype bullets). I came here to empower speech. Many of you came here to empower money. I think both goals are laudable, but I am trying to avoid the liability of that second one. Governments have crazy complex and onerous regulations around money. Any technology that touches money needs a legal team, or needs to be developed by anonymous developers (of which I am not). Gossip client has zaps because there is no money transfer involved when creating an invoice, or in reading and displaying a receipt. And your private key does not unlock or lock any monetary balance. I'm not sure what cashu/nutsack technology does, but based on the hype bullet points I don't think gossip can implement it. If the government pervertedly and twistedly (as they do) begins to view nostr private keys as financial instruments or technology facilitating money transfer, then I will be forced to cease nostr development. Also if nostr nsecs start to control money, then fiatjaf is wrong about subkeys not being necessary.

If there was a paid formal legal opinion from a respected US law firm about what a nostr client could safely do while clearly avoiding any of the financial regulations, I would trust that. So if anybody thinks this stuff isn't over any kind of line, and if someone wanted to fund such a legal opinion, that is a way you could convince me to code it.

i am with you Mike. we shouldn't expose ourselves to legal action carelessly. i spent all of yesterday locked up in a Psychiatric Ward for example because of a joke i made in an Emergency Room ... this shit is all fun and games until it's not. luckily the next day a screener cleared me and i could go home but some of you will rot in prison for life LOL

one of Robert Greene's laws of power is "always say less than necessary" and the example used to explain this law in the book is a guy who is getting hanged and the rope snaps, so he makes a joke about it ... his original death sentence is pardoned because the rope snapping is considered a miracle ... and then he is executed for the joke he made ... literally EXACTLY the same thing happened to me - i dodged death in the ER, made a joke about it - and was sent to Psych Ward for it. Robert Greene's books are worth their weight in gold.

It's my opinion that people are trying to make Nostr do way too many things. Zaps are as far as I will ever care to go on the money front. I really do not want or need my nsecs to control money. I don't want or need my wallet to be social either. I can use money focused apps for that. Money transmission laws are absurd, but here we are.

Courts look favorably upon people who all along were taking steps to be within the law. So even if the speculation in it was wrong, it would likely have a big impact on any legal outcome. I don't think nostr can be successfully construed as a money transfer system. I won't code for this thing and then hopefully I'll be just as liable as the company that made the disk drive that hosted the piece of data but had zero intention of facilitating money transfer... that is, not liable.

A judge's first loyalty is to her social life; her second to her family's prosperity. The law after that, if she's the idealistic type. A top-tier law firm's senior partner's advice won't be contradicted if it can be reasonably avoided - that WILL harm a judge's social life. I can't afford that sort of legal advice on a political hot-button topic like this. I'm not even sure Jack could. Don't code this thing anywhere near your real name and assets. If nostriches get mad, tell them to start a legal fund.