Being able to opt-out with #Bitcoin is so under appreciated.


Does Bitcoin perform well during crisis? Yes.

Once again, Bitcoin was available when nothing else was. Bitcoin is the only 24/7 free market we have left.

What's the "intrinsic value" of that? Ask those it saved that Sunday night 🙂

Ignore noise. Stay humble and stack 🫡
https://m.primal.net/JyiK.mov


Here's my profile for Reason on Nostr and why it could very well change the world

Pasting a few paragraphs here, you can find the rest at the link

Feel free to spread far and wide 😉

*************

Can Nostr Make Twitter's Dreams Come True?

Twitter's founder says Nostr is “100 percent what we wanted”—an open, ownerless network

Alex Gladstein | 8.13.2024

Virtually everyone agrees that social media is broken. On Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok, people fear out-of-control algorithms, fake news, state actor censorship, and propaganda. Google and Meta collect vast troves of personal information on their users and receive hundreds of thousands of requests every year from governments around the world to access that data. YouTube has become arguably "the most powerful media platform in the history of humanity," yet its algorithm is an ever-changing black box to the creators that populate the platform with videos. During the pandemic, federal officials were in contact with every major social media platform, coercing them to remove content.

The problem is centralized control. We can't trust companies to run our primary communications infrastructure. Government regulation only makes matters worse because it creates new legal barriers to entering the industry, which protects incumbent players and stifles innovation.

What if there were an alternative, not owned by Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, or the Chinese Communist Party? What if there were a way to control your own data to prevent companies from harvesting and monetizing it? What if you had granular control over what you see in your feed, with the freedom to choose your own algorithms? What if you owned your identity, which could be accessed seamlessly across different clients? That way, if you disapprove of the changes that Elon Musk brought to X, instead of closing your account you could take your handle and followers elsewhere.

That alternative exists. It's called "Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays"—or Nostr.

The Decentralized Solution

Invented by a pseudonymous programmer and overwhelmingly funded by grants from non-profit foundations, this decentralized, free, and open-source protocol has been quietly evolving for the past three years. Like bitcoin, Nostr is a community-run digital network highly resistant to censorship and corruption. It has 40,000 weekly active users and a growing ecosystem of clients and applications ranging from social media to long-form publishing to payments.

Nostr is only necessary because our existing internet is so broken.

Fifteen years ago, social media seemed destined to decentralize the world and give power back to the people. In 2009, we watched as Arab Spring activists used Twitter and Facebook to organize, coordinate, and help topple several long-standing dictatorships. The promise was that these new social platforms, designed by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, could help liberate the masses.

It was intoxicating—but turned out to be a mirage. The Arab revolutions stalled out when brutal military regimes cracked down. These platforms became tools for spying and censoring their users. X and Facebook have helped journalists and human rights activists reach bigger audiences, but they haven't fulfilled their revolutionary promise.

Jack Dorsey's Shift from Bluesky to Nostr

This was a major theme at the 2024 Oslo Freedom Forum, which is put on annually by the Human Rights Foundation, where I serve as chief strategy officer. At this conference for democracy and human rights, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey told the audience that the problem was, actually, guys like him: The very fact that Twitter, now X, has a CEO makes it a single point of failure. Governments routinely pressured Dorsey to censor content; once the company's offices in India were raided. Dorsey says that under the new Musk regime X complies with whatever governments want.

The X network is proprietary. Known as a "silo," this construct traps a user's identity, followers, and data. X also has the power to evict anyone from the platform and delete what they've written. Several years ago, when he was still running the company, Dorsey became convinced that Twitter should become an application instead, where users could post content to an open, ownerless network. This would make it similar to how bitcoin works, where you use an application called a wallet to interact with the network, but the network itself is neutral and open.

Building a non-proprietary architecture was Dorsey's original vision for Twitter, but over time the need to maximize revenue to build a business and serve shareholders undermined that goal.

Nevertheless, in 2021, Dorsey encouraged the creation of Bluesky—an initiative bootstrapped in-house to create that open neutral base layer. But after Musk bought the company, the managers of Bluesky were afraid they would run out of money and started raising funds from venture capitalists, which undermined the vision of building an open platform. Dorsey grew disenchanted and left the Bluesky board.

At the conference in Oslo, Dorsey explained what happened next:

I asked a question: What open source initiatives should I be funding that would be helpful to the public internet? And people kept tweeting at me that I should be looking at Nostr. I found the GitHub that described it and it was 100 percent what we wanted from Bluesky, but it wasn't developed from a company. It was completely independent. Its paper diagnosed every single problem we saw and had. But did it in a grassroots and dead simple way, that felt like the early Twitter where any developer could get on and really feel it.

Escaping the 'Golden Prisons'

Nostr was created in 2020 by the pseudonymous Brazilian programmer fiatjaf, who describes it as "the simplest open protocol that is able to create a censorship-resistant global 'social' network once and for all."

Though nobody is in charge, Nostr works as promised and is thriving. "It is the solution we've all been looking for," says Miljan Braticevic, founder of Primal, one of the two dozen plus clients now available for the Nostr protocol. "Nostr is not a Twitter competitor or a Mastodon competitor. This is the biggest misconception at the moment. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Nostr is nothing less than the foundation for the new internet. Meaning almost every conceivable app we have today will be built on Nostr."

Braticevic's prediction is echoed by at least a dozen other prominent developers. Martti Malmi, the first coder to work on bitcoin alongside Satoshi Nakamoto, is now a Nostr developer. In a recent talk, he said he had started to work on similar ideas around decentralized identity in 2019, only to come close to giving up. But then he found fiatjaf's invention, which he called a "godsend."

"Bitcoin is freedom of money, and Nostr is freedom of everything else," Malmi said. "I was there" in the earliest days of bitcoin, "and Nostr is even more intense."

For something that could be world-changing, Nostr is quite simple. To join, you sign up with a mobile or desktop client, which helps you to create a public and private key pair. The public key (or "npub") is used as your identifier, and you share it with clients and other users so that people can find your posts or pay you for your content. The private key ("nsec") is hidden by the user, stored safely (just like a bitcoin seed phrase), and is your way to log in to different services. Unlike platforms like X or Facebook, no other information is required to set up and use Nostr.

This gives users a powerful range of sovereignty. You can use a client, for example, that has strong hate speech controls. Or you can choose one that doesn't have any at all. You can use a client with aggressive algorithms, just like the ones X uses today. Or you can use one without any algorithm at all. Today, when you log in to an app like Primal, you can sort your feed by what's the latest, by what's most popular, by what's most zapped, or by customized keywords. It's up to you.

Last month, the macroeconomist Lyn Alden, author of one of the best books on bitcoin, published a long essay about Nostr's potential:

[Nostr] is a simple set of foundational building blocks that, if widely adopted, could gradually reshape "the Web" as we know it. Instead of a separate set of siloed social ecosystems, we could gravitate toward a more interoperable set of ecosystems, with more of the power dispersed to the content creators and to the audience, and away from the middlemen corporations.

The Nostr network is constructed like a spider web that can morph and regenerate, making it almost impossible to censor. When you set up a client on Nostr (perhaps, Primal or Damus on iOS; Amethyst on Android; or Coracle on the web), you choose from a variety of relays to connect to. This architecture ensures no single point of failure: If you are connected to seven or eight relays, and half of them choose to censor posts, your feed remains censorship-free, as your app will display the net sum of everything broadcast from each relay. If the Chinese government decides to attack your relays—as it did in 2023 when Damus launched on the Hong Kong and mainland app store—then more can be spun up. "The enemy," said Damus creator Will Casarin, "is too numerous."

Prominent bitcoin developer and educator Gigi—who switched to Nostr and deleted his X account—says that what helped it become so resilient is that it has zero exit cost. If the Chinese Communist Party bans YouTube, its domestic users lose everything. There's no way to get back their profiles and followers. The same is true if a user voluntarily closes an account.

Gigi calls these corporate silos "golden prisons" with no escape. Nostr's spider-like architecture makes escaping easy. If one client goes down, or you fail to connect to one relay, you just find another client or connect to another relay. You keep your posts, photos, preferences, contacts, and even algorithms of choice. If you use X, you are an X creator. But if you use Primal, you aren't a Primal creator, you are a Nostr creator.

https://reason.com/2024/08/13/can-nostr-make-twitters-dreams-come-true/


New EU Vaccine Passport Raises Concerns Over Data Privacy and Control https://image.nostr.build/03b281d17fbdba9507eee454f2226db649a4d0125ddf3b4b95ac7a91f0b1ba88.jpg
Starting September 1, 2024, Germany will launch a pilot for the new EU Vaccine Passport as part of a broader initiative called "European Vaccination Beyond Covid-19" (Euvabeco). This initiative, set to roll out across the European Union by 2026, will not only document vaccinations but also integrate personal health data, effectively placing citizens' private information at the fingertips of state and institutional powers.

The EU claims this project will empower citizens, but the reality suggests otherwise. Under the guise of public health, the European Union is trampling on individual freedoms, further tightening its grip on the personal lives of its citizens. This move, aligned with the World Economic Forum's broader agenda, leaves little room for dissent. Any semblance of opposition is muted, as most political forces either comply or turn a blind eye, leaving the path wide open for a future of total surveillance and control.

Despite this radical shift toward centralized authority, public consultation was minimal and controlled, highlighting the EU’s disregard for genuine democratic engagement. The quiet rollout of this program signals a disturbing trend—one where personal freedom is sacrificed on the altar of "public good" with little to no resistance.

As Europe heads down this path of digital health tyranny, the erosion of privacy and autonomy becomes inevitable. The window to resist this overreach is closing fast, and without a significant pushback, the infrastructure of total control will soon be fully operational.

#EU #VaccinePassport #PrivacyInCrisis #TotalControl #DavosAgenda


One aspect of #Nostr and #Bitcoin I find very compelling in the long run is that it allows you to relax and live life in your very own natural rhythm.

You wanna take a break in nature, let the experience sink in before you share? Good, no central algorithm punishes you for inactivity on Nostr. You are right back where you left off.

You wanna relax, earnings are enough and there's no need to grow your business right now? Family is more important or you wanna focus on your spiritual development. Great, if you run on Bitcoin you are not forced to outrun inflation and make regular investment maintenance decisions.

Chill. Your energy is yours. You are free to do you. This is invaluable 🙏

https://image.nostr.build/943535d56911d13493c469b585e53980178c3644a9d67f9a1da243f57ac7b4c3.jpg


Kids growing up now will regard the pre-internet era as some kind of
unimaginable dark age
	-earlyamerican, Mar 2015


People are waking up. https://image.nostr.build/a4cb2243cb52d517c04ce17017b0247a8b96ad9418c9b00af4ab16feb706a3ea.jpg


Is Nostr dependent on bitcoin?

nope. it's a totally independent idea to support free speech. though it does tickle some similar instincts in people

If you drop by Nostr even casually, it can often feel like you’re crashing a bitcoiner dinner party. The memes, the FOSS devs, the topics of conversation often seem to overlap with bitcoin culture. Is this just a case of “birds-of-a-feather” or is there more to it?

Nostr is an open protocol. It’s independent of the use or existence of any cryptocurrency. It uses cryptography, but nothing super fancy there. It’s actually kinda basic, tbh.

So why did so many bitcoiners show up? A simple explanation might be that fiatjaf, the creator of Nostr, was a bitcoiner and brought like-minded people along. But I think there’s more to it than just the initial seed.

The critical feature which Nostr gets right is that you can create an account just by doing math on your own. Of course, you can use a little program on your own computer to help do this math (i.e., creating public-private key pairs). This is cryptography at its best — a tool that empowers the individual.

You don’t have to go to a 3rd-party-issuer to create an account for you. You don’t have to subscribe to a particular cryptocurrency or political ideology. You could identify as a libertarian, anarchist, democrat, republican, labor party, or you may not accept any political labels at all.

On Nostr, you’re welcome to even dislike the concept of bitcoin/cryptocurrencies altogether. As long as you have a curiosity about, or interest in freedom of speech you may find Nostr to be a good place for you to share your thoughts. On Nostr, your ideas and your words are published without being subject to anyone’s permission. The separation of power between clients and data stores is what enforces your rights. It’s baked into the architecture. Not promised and granted to you by a demagogue. That’s the whole idea. https://image.nostr.build/5d23e5dcec75918ff08a8a382bb380c580c65b7511fc3df35e7f404b4f6b716e.jpg


In crises, markets sell what they can, not what they want.

#Bitcoin is down because it was the only market open to sell on Sunday night, not because the only fixed supply money we have is now less valuable.

#Bitcoin isn't hedging the broken financial system, it's replacing it.
https://m.primal.net/JpQY.mov


YOU EITHER STAY HUMBLE OR GET HUMBLED.

THIS GAME IS ONE OF SURVIVAL. PERSEVERANCE. RELENTLESS ENDURANCE.

MANDIBLES THEN BITCOIN STANDARD. WITH CHAOS COMES OPPORTUNITY.

STAY HUMBLE AND STACK SATS. LEARN HOW TO USE BITCOIN AND HOLD IT SECURELY YOURSELF. SIMPLE YET HARD.

ONWARD. FOREVER. 🫡


Learn #bitcoin here 🧡 https://video.nostr.build/05dac44454d59d2c427191679b7f81a23773af8a769d83c805dbc24b02c78a93.mp4  nostr:note1sg0660z2mjky8xa3434ay76zn8zpffgaj2j8afmps0n652qn698sjj5hna


Fucking perfect 😂👌
nostr:nevent1qqsw7vwfqy39u7ztkrcdp2uv47v2tysgymc66hwc035c3l6943857wgpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgtczyprljl2wpfjqez5k85l6w8vlpf42m9v2lfg9lm77m4k498h5zgh0xqcyqqqqqqg4vu0f0


That's how it works.
#Bitcoin is a one-way street.
nostr:nevent1qqsv4vf6k3w0mhz36xamw7a6x8jqt7dd50c5tlfm2vs9th8udx6amfqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsygzxdu3ejt0kue4w4s6mnn7rv668erqg3h6xwffa60qkp3p73prcjypsgqqqqqqsfc3n6y


Good afternoon.

I published a new long-form article on Nostr on my homepage, to help inform people about all the cool things people are building here.

I'm going to go over it a few more times before I promote it on my other socials and email lists in the coming days (Nostr first!), so if anyone has any feedback, I can still potentially incorporate it.

Enjoy.

https://www.lynalden.com/the-power-of-nostr/


it's easy to be cynical, hard to be optimistic


Some people have grown cynical with democracy (and various types of representative government broadly, e.g. including constitutional democratic republics that enshrine certain rights to protect liberty against the masses), viewing this method as promoting short-term leadership with bad incentives.

I have a different take.

Prior to the printing press and then the telegraph and radio, running a democratic society over long distances wasn’t even feasible. The concept of having people democratically participate in their government relies on people being relatively connected information-wise so that they can use their access to information to know what’s happening and to then select between different options, which you couldn’t do across the entirety of a country before people were literate and election materials or other publications could be mass produced. In the pre-press age of handwritten books, making written documents was expensive, and so literacy was a niche skill.

So, that era was ruled by kings and queens, council oligopolies, and so forth. Representative government, to the extent that it existed, only applied to small city states where people could literally gather in a town square, or to “elites” in a capital. There was literally no way to run an election over very broad distances on a regular basis. The printing press helped change that, and then the telegraph, radio, and other tech further reinforced it.

But ironically, as I discuss in Broken Money, those technologies also started to break our money. The printing press and telegraph allowed the transaction layer (the movement of IOUs between individuals and entities) to grow exponentially more efficient both domestically and globally, while our settlement layer (gold) remained basically unchanged. This broadening gap between fast transactions and slow settlements was increasingly bridged with centralization and credit, and the gap eventually became so wide that every nation dropped the settlement layer of gold almost entirely, except as a reserve asset.

So the same technologies that enabled widespread representative government also enabled the proliferation of softer money. Prior to these technologies, broad democracy wasn’t possible. And after these technologies, sound money was too slow to keep up. Oof.

But over a long enough timeframe, our technology became good enough that we finally figured out how to do fast settlements as well. Bitcoin. People can send value to each other quickly over long distances, in ways that no central entity can prevent or reverse, and with a unit that no central entity can debase. The first sound money of the Information Age.

If Bitcoin is successful over the coming decades and becomes a much larger and less volatile money, than it is now, fully entrenched in society, then that would be the first era where technology is at such a state where broad democracy and fast sound money can coexist. Or put more universally, it will be the first era where information spreads quickly without breaking the money, and thus both fast information and good money could coexist.

I, for one, would be curious to see how that develops.


How many people buy bitcoin and never understand the full power of what they own?

Imagine holding the philosopher’s stone in your hand and thinking it’s just a rock.


The best way to stumble upon the right idea is to build whatever shitty idea you have

You either build too much or you build nothing. If you're waiting for the right idea to strike, ACT. Act on whatever stupid idea you have.

Movement begets movement so much we have a word for it:

Momentum.

nostr:nevent1qgsxu35yyt0mwjjh8pcz4zprhxegz69t4wr9t74vk6zne58wzh0waycpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzvuhsqgq9yrcfu2s9ffk7hy3gh37q696hqetn8afl63r8vs77gpkttvtylcqrulpx


People really don't realize how utterly dependent modern surveillance is on the idea that everybody is carrying a phone — which is always tracked. Their car has a cellular modem in it — which is always tracked. 99% of investigation is one guy and a search box. If you're not low-hanging fruit, you aren't gonna merit the Eye of Sauron of manual, well-resourced, focused team attention—and if you did, you probably planned ahead for it, right? Because it's not a mystery what would get you on Santa's Naughty List.

Anyway, the point is that even in a big city, the phoneless guy in a "covid" mask is going to be invisible to anything less than that exhaustive manual investigation — at least for a few more years. That may go away once they start networking all the cameras and having AI start trying to match up clothing sets moving from camera to camera, butthat capability is hard to hide, so it'll be in the news. And it won't work that well in places with less camera density and, perhaps, for people who wear the most-common outfits (the visual equivalent of a "shared fingerprint").

Remember: Phones are useful, but dangerous. And the people who will still wear covid masks to the beach are helping to normalize facial obscurity—regardless of their intention. Don't be mean to them. Encourage them to wear them everywhere. For passport photos. In police booking photos. At the customs desk. Family portraits! The sky is the limit—let them push the boundaries so that you don't have to.

nostr:note1dufu3sutqcu4er2pj9k7zmxdf7k23qxn3eskwdr8tp3ffvg7g9qqsv4lrc


MTGOX is finally going to return funds to customers over a DECADE after declaring bankruptcy.

That means a non-negligible number of people have literally died while waiting to get their bitcoin back.

Think twice before leaving your coins in someone else's hands...


The broad crypto industry rallied hard soon after the White House threatened to veto the bill that would let banks custody digital assets. And now it’s making a big difference, with Congress voting strongly for it, the White House pulling their veto threat, etc.

While it’s right to pass that bill and let banks custody them if they want, it’s sad to see that the crypto industry response to that was like 100x bigger than the response to all of the anti-privacy stuff that has been happening.

The desire of people in the industry for banks to help pump their bags is way bigger than their desire to pave a way for freedom tech in general.

Much love to all those building and supporting real freedom tech.


Many bitcoiners think establishment powers are now in the "and then they join you" phase of the struggle.

I don't. I think they're more entering the earlier "and then they fight you" phase.

Or more specifically, they are happy to join in on the price exposure side (i.e. ETFs), but they are fighting against privacy (especially) and self-custody (to some extent). The struggle for financial privacy, custody, and overall self-autonomy is just heating up.

The gradual shift of critics from "bitcoin is a useless speculative asset with no intrinsic value" to "bitcoin is so powerful that direct usage of it must be curtailed" can be dangerous.

https://m.primal.net/HXks.png


Keep calm and HODL #Bitcoin.

Everyone seems to be overreacting to the Samourai arrests, the FBI PSA, and Phoenix leaving the US. Here's my attempt to break it down.

Samourai

You have to unpack all of the different elements. Could this be a state attack on self-custody and privacy? Maybe. Probably not.

There are a few components here that need to be evaluated on their own.

1⃣ Samourai was a self-custodial wallet
2⃣ Samourai was a mixer
3⃣ Samourai was providing normal people with privacy
4⃣ Samourai were knowingly marketing the service to criminals and flaunting that fact

Reading the charges, it seems like #4 is pretty cut and dry for this case. Their getting arrested for #4, doesn't automatically mean #1, #2, #3 are under siege as well. If Samourai was a taco stand laundering money and bragging about it, I'm sure they would be taken down too.

They may be accused of running a money transmitter now, but that may or may not stick. We'll find out in the trial.

All that said, we should always be vigilant to attempts to erode privacy and the ability to self-custody. It just does not seem that this fight is *that* fight.

FBI PSA

Seems pretty normal that the FBI would advise people to use compliant services, and the entire announcement seems to revolve around potential disruptions due to Samourai being taken down, and potentially others in the future. Given they took action, they have to post some bulletin about it.

Remember that when people lose funds or have funds stolen from them, they do go to the FBI for help. From their point of view, the best thing for people to do is use compliant services where they can potentially help.

The announcement concludes saying that services that purposely break the law will be investigated - so again we go back to #4 above. This is nothing new, and self-custody is not being criminalized.

Phoenix Leaving

As nostr:npub1sg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q0uf63m said, it's feels completely unnecessary. Phoenix obviously is not a MSB and they are not doing anything illegal. In my view, their exit from the US app stores is a complete overreaction.

Keep Calm

Could "they" come after wallets, developers, mixers, nodes, LSPs, sidechains, eCash, VPNs, encryption, etc? It's totally possible. But if you're not breaking the law, you have nothing to worry about.

To my knowledge, there is still rule of law in the US, property rights are still protected, and privacy is enshrined in the Bill of Rights (nostr:npub1trr5r2nrpsk6xkjk5a7p6pfcryyt6yzsflwjmz6r7uj7lfkjxxtq78hdpu).

It would be very difficult to change the law or stretch it to incriminate these things because it's all just information and software, which is speech. Some will try. But as they are trying, #Bitcoin is becoming more and more mainstream and integral to the world's financial system.

#Bitcoin is freedom technology and it will continue on.

Go outside this weekend and think about why you're here.


RHR AT 1800 UTC TOMORROW.

https://rhr.tv

---

Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn't want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is something one doesn't want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.

If two parties have some sort of dealings, then each has a memory of their interaction. Each party can speak about their own memory of this; how could anyone prevent it? One could pass laws against it, but the freedom of speech, even more than privacy, is fundamental to an open society; we seek not to restrict any speech at all. If many parties speak together in the same forum, each can speak to all the others and aggregate together knowledge about individuals and other parties. The power of electronic communications has enabled such group speech, and it will not go away merely because we might want it to.

Since we desire privacy, we must ensure that each party to a transaction have knowledge only of that which is directly necessary for that transaction. Since any information can be spoken of, we must ensure that we reveal as little as possible. In most cases personal identity is not salient. When I purchase a magazine at a store and hand cash to the clerk, there is no need to know who I am. When I ask my electronic mail provider to send and receive messages, my provider need not know to whom I am speaking or what I am saying or what others are saying to me; my provider only need know how to get the message there and how much I owe them in fees. When my identity is revealed by the underlying mechanism of the transaction, I have no privacy. I cannot here selectively reveal myself; I must always reveal myself.

Therefore, privacy in an open society requires anonymous transaction systems. Until now, cash has been the primary such system. An anonymous transaction system is not a secret transaction system. An anonymous system empowers individuals to reveal their identity when desired and only when desired; this is the essence of privacy.

Privacy in an open society also requires cryptography. If I say something, I want it heard only by those for whom I intend it. If the content of my speech is available to the world, I have no privacy. To encrypt is to indicate the desire for privacy, and to encrypt with weak cryptography is to indicate not too much desire for privacy. Furthermore, to reveal one's identity with assurance when the default is anonymity requires the cryptographic signature.

We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence. It is to their advantage to speak of us, and we should expect that they will speak. To try to prevent their speech is to fight against the realities of information. Information does not just want to be free, it longs to be free. Information expands to fill the available storage space. Information is Rumor's younger, stronger cousin; Information is fleeter of foot, has more eyes, knows more, and understands less than Rumor.

We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do.

We the Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous systems. We are defending our privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail forwarding systems, with digital signatures, and with electronic money.

Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and since we can't get privacy unless we all do, we're going to write it. We publish our code so that our fellow Cypherpunks may practice and play with it. Our code is free for all to use, worldwide. We don't much care if you don't approve of the software we write. We know that software can't be destroyed and that a widely dispersed system can't be shut down.

Cypherpunks deplore regulations on cryptography, for encryption is fundamentally a private act. The act of encryption, in fact, removes information from the public realm. Even laws against cryptography reach only so far as a nation's border and the arm of its violence. Cryptography will ineluctably spread over the whole globe, and with it the anonymous transactions systems that it makes possible.

For privacy to be widespread it must be part of a social contract. People must come and together deploy these systems for the common good. Privacy only extends so far as the cooperation of one's fellows in society. We the Cypherpunks seek your questions and your concerns and hope we may engage you so that we do not deceive ourselves. We will not, however, be moved out of our course because some may disagree with our goals.

The Cypherpunks are actively engaged in making the networks safer for privacy. Let us proceed together apace.

Onward.

Eric Hughes

9 March 1993


💥 EXCLUSIVE NOSTR EARLY RELEASE 💥

I got 15 of the biggest psychopaths in Bitcoin (& NOSTR) to tell the entire history of our favorite orange coin.

Viewer discretion is advised.

https://v.nostr.build/lLRzM.mp4

**All zaps will be split evenly among all 15+ creators in this video. **

Starring (in order of collab submission):

Paco De La India - nostr:npub1v67clmf4jrezn8hsz28434nc0y5fu65e5esws04djnl2kasxl5tskjmjjk
Max DeMarco - nostr:npub1lelkh3hhxw9hdwlcpk6q9t0xt9f7yze0y0nxazvzqjmre3p98x3sthkvyz
BTC Sessions - nostr:npub1rxysxnjkhrmqd3ey73dp9n5y5yvyzcs64acc9g0k2epcpwwyya4spvhnp8
Reelrichard - nostr:npub1e2wk36e9vg8uw40phrrkkhc4tax8a9ken3fjcyy63vmdyz9aee2sk9el27
Laura & Rikki - nostr:npub1qy2tkywa36ufh76qv62snv4953eayufxufav4evz2le06lxe2amqpxavna
Isabella Santos  - nostr:npub1aftmyhm62lrp6lwsha3yzyjy5kqdvuy7g23qg28a8q0cnmudv0ds0sdcke
Julian Figueroa - nostr:npub1h882a66p0zj5n69s2u8nfzev4f97lzfnlcej84z78p6uqxge5tpqlupz20
Huck the Sock - nostr:npub154wwrhvqpyvj3yntu90zeggc2ccz43ee4t5w5z45xuyc524cph7qmne6d5
Joe Nakamoto - nostr:npub1lr2zzf989mvf393y0tv39ara6a4vddkd6y87z784up9vl6ks6j3qtudl6a
Bit intelligence - nostr:npub1qwtvplce8tzlrydqtlq777sgnq46l9tnns42nts7ak3mlpmrw9lsnf76ur
Robbie P / Bitcoin Slang
Cole / Southern Bitcoiner
Nico Moran - nostr:npub1gu47n7fxfm4py48jktmu6tdqcvva4e87fntynuzzf62zxnw2e7tsc6907g
Ben Cote
Carla & Walker - nostr:npub1hu3hdctm5nkzd8gslnyedfr5ddz3z547jqcl5j88g4fame2jd08qh6h8nh nostr:npub1cj8znuztfqkvq89pl8hceph0svvvqk0qay6nydgk9uyq7fhpfsgsqwrz4u
Adam O'Brien - nostr:npub1k763esjjzm2vzz7gtt38q4wf49zlua72l4rreu3myzghuwwwdqtq2mcg5x


My husband recently observed to me how important conditioning is for people to accept things as normal.

He said that when he first began reading my articles, he was like “Okay but I mean, fiat currency censorship isn’t really *that bad* as you describe”. But then in the years that followed, he was like “oh shit, it actually is. The fact that we have to ask permission to access significant amounts of our own money at banks and say what we will do with it is fucking insane. Why is this normal now?”

In Europe especially but also elsewhere, it’s increasingly common to make cash transactions illegal above a certain threshold value. Above that value, you have to go through centralized, surveilled, corporate/government systems, or you’re doing an illegal transaction.

That seems absolutely insane if introduced out of nowhere, but instead it has been introduced gradually through conditioning and so people are like, “well I don’t use cash anyway so that’s okay I guess, in fact I don’t even know that’s a law now”.

The same is generally true for social media. Filtering communications through centralized pipes is actually a radical position but it’s increasingly the new normal. In fact, the centralization of banking and communications in the hands of the state were two of their ten steps proposed in the Communist Manifesto. https://image.nostr.build/50bd5a957af0e91062c8a68c0848242fdf10e0c7207215b37d5845ff67843152.jpg


my two sats #bitcoin
https://m.primal.net/HtUy.mov


The blocksize war wasn't so much about the blocksize (or, even, scaling Bitcoin). It was really about who controls the consensus rules and how we upgrade the protocol.

For context, a bunch of startups raised tons of money between 2013 and 2016 based on ridiculous user sign-up projections and then we had a long and painful bear market and they were looking for scapegoats (the developpers that were "throttling the network") to justify the lack of growth. I am thinking here specifically of Coinbase, Bitpay and Blockchain.info.

The vibe I got is that they thought of Bitcoin itself as a corporation, that they were the equivalent of Bitcoin's board of directors because they represented the interest of VC investors, and thus they were entitled to decision making power over the network.

I don't doubt that a few people were genuine about scaling p2p e-cash (e.g. Roger Ver) but I suspect what really motivated them is that they believed control of the Bitcoin network would be an asset to their business interests, and lack of control was being used as an excuse to why their interests weren't being satisfied.

There was also a bunch of developers that I believe may have been afraid of losing their relevance (Gavin and Garzik specifically). Regardless of their intentions or psychology, it seemed clear to me that the consortium of vc-backed startups (particularly Bitpay, Coinbase, blockchain(.)info and Roger) had picked a team of developers they thought they could control and wanted to appoint them as a technical management team whicn would execute their strategy, and these guys were willing to step up for that role.

I was physically in the room when the CEO of Blockchain.info (with the very obvious support of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong) announced that Bitcoin Core devs were being fired and would be replaced. This was after a couple days of failed discussions with other industry people. This was the moment when I realized what was really going on.

And finally, you had a Bitcoin mining giant (Bitmain) controlling both asic production and mining pools with a vested interest in promoting the idea that Bitcoin was a democracy and the way to vote was to buy hashing power. The main ideology being pushed here was that a formal governance mechanism of the protocol needed to be established and that hashrate was the only objective measure of who makes decisions.

The underlying big blocker ideology was that the chaos of spontaneous consensus of nodes is unpredictable, flimsy, bad for business. The absence of a formal governance process was seen as the root cause of the issue.

These companies really believed they could control the protocol, and controlling development of the protocol was seen as a very valuable asset to your company. I imagine they thought of themselves as the founders of a new consortium that would solidify itself into a permanent institution. The business interests would pay developers and set the goals, and the mining interests would ratify their decisions with hash power voting. That was their plan.

This became blatantly obvious when Bitmain used its refusal to activate segwit as leverage to get what it wanted (a blocksize increase and recognition of its hashpower as a vote mecanism) even though Bitmain iself acknowledged it was not really opposed segwit.

It was classic traditional politics: I'll give you segwit if you give me something in return.

This is the language the VC suits, investors and tech startup people understand and they were very happy to "negotiate" and find "consensus".

This eventually materialized into the New York Agreement, negotiated literally as a backroom deal during theConsensuss shitcoin conference. I was there and I refused to attend.

This (private) meeting consecrated the alliance of startups/investors and bitcoin mining interests in their appointment of a technical management committee. If you think this sounds like Jekyll Island, you're not alone.

They packaged segwit with a blocksize increase (Segwit2x) and decided to force a hard fork as a condition to "allow" us to have Segwit.

We know the rest of the story: we ended up activating anyway via UASF (or more precisely, the miners activated Segwit after they New York Agreement signatories became scared UASF would lead to a chain split which they were going to lose). And the blocksize increase was also abandoned shortly after when they realized their hard fork would cause a chain split and that they would not be able to claim that their new shitcoin is the real bitcoin.

All these people were subsequently were very pissed off they couldn't control the network, which they thought they were entitled to. Some ragequit, others created a bunch of shitcoins out of spite, Roger went on to spearhead BCH as the real Bitcoin, all these fools realized they might as well make some money off of it, everyone went all-in on the shitcoin casinos after that. The "small blockers" eventually went on to evolve into the Bitcoin Maximalists and cypherpunks that today tell you to run your own node and own your own keys.


#Bitcoin  is fuck-you money because you can go wherever and whenever the fuck you want.

Just remember, 12/24 words and you're gone. That freedom alone is worth at least $1 million, especially in the dystopian future we're heading towards.


THE XZ UTILS BACKDOOR IS A STARK REMINDER THAT IF YOU RELY ON BITCOIN IT IS IMPERATIVE TO SUPPORT THE OPEN SOURCE CONTRIBUTORS THAT MAKE THIS MOVEMENT POSSIBLE.

GOOD MORNING.

https://www.wired.com/story/jia-tan-xz-backdoor/


Bitcoin is demonetizing real estate. A lot of “invoosters” chomping at the bit to “buy the dip” in real estate are going to get burnt badly. It’s for the most part essentially a shitcoin, just one that’s slightly less shitty than the dollar.


What makes explaining #bitcoin and #nostr so hard is the fact that they exist outside the worldview most people live their lives within. Asking someone to adopt them is like asking someone to stand where there's no ground or breathe where there's no air. Fiat has warped how people see everything and people take the new view as normal. Nothing lines up with that reality when you explain the problems Bitcoin and Nostr solve, so you're automatically dismissed. Telling someone their worldview is corrupted makes people fearful and closes them off to reason.

I don't know a better way to explain Bitcoin than by letting people feel enough pain from fiat to start questioning why things are so messed up at a fundamental level, and then introducing them to Bitcoin. Otherwise, there's no motivation to learn.


50 years ago.
https://m.primal.net/HlbT.mp4


Finally back to normal, if there even is such a thing. The last couple of weeks were a whirlwind, as is to be expected if a lot of bitcoiners are at the same place at the same time.

Bitcoin Atlantis was a fantastic event, as many others have mentioned before me. It was so good to see everyone. New friends, old friends, brothers and sisters, even classmates and family. Yes, family.

To me, the gathering that happened on this strange island in the middle of the Atlantic felt more like an extended family gathering than a conference, which is what made it so beautiful. Exhausting? Yes. Strange? Definitely. But also full of love, tears of joy, and a deep sense of "togetherness" that only families can provide. Strange uncles and all.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: cherish these times. We're still in the early days, and as bitcoin marches on and grows, and as bitcoinization proceeds, what is strange and extraordinary now will soon be normal and ordinary.

The internet is magic, as are mobile phones. Yet we don't have any "internet people" anymore, not in the "bitcoiner" sense, to bridge the analogy. In certain places and for certain people bitcoin is already normalized, and what used to be mind-blowing just 12 months ago simply isn't anymore. We get used to things too quickly, even magic. We adjust, we get bored, and we fail to appreciate how far we have come.

I'm writing this as a sip my morning coffee, a coffee that I will pay in sats outright, with zaps I've received on nostr. Isn't that magical? Yet it's very normal to me. I have to pinch myself every day to make sure it is real.

It's hard to comprehend how much sweat, blood, tears, and pain were necessary to make all of this work. Bitcoin. Lightning. Nostr. The myriad of tools, libraries, capital, and infrastructure required so that you can zap me and I can pay for this coffee. Instantly. Global. Without anyone's permission. We say that Bitcoin is magic internet money for a reason, so please take a step back and appreciate the magic. Appreciate how far we've come.

It's easy to get lost in the thick of it all when you're close to the grindstone. I know there's people out there that question themselves, wondering why they keep working on all this stuff, asking themselves if they make a difference. I know because I'm one of these people sometimes. I know because some of my friends are struggling, and have been struggling for a while. I see you, and if I could I'd give you a hug twice a day.

But most days we're not in the same place at the same time, so let me say the following instead: You matter. Your contributions matter. You just being around matters.

That's why physical events are so important. It's borderline impossible to feel stuff through a computer screen. But once you meet people in person—your people, the people that, for one reason or another, are perfectly aligned with you—you can FEEL it. You can really feel it. You can feel that it matters, that the tide is shifting, that the freedom tech we are working on changes the very real lives of very real people.

It was wonderful to meet all of you. Peace & Love, and please take care of each other. 🙏🧡


GM Gigi


Old man's tip.

You don't buy Bitcoin to get rich, you buy Bitcoin for dignity.

When you understand and practice this way of life, the price is secondary, you realize it because nocoiners or bitcoiners of little faith do not understand you.

Questions like, why don't you sell at the top? why do you buy at these prices? you will sell someday, won't you? are meaningless.

Make Bitcoin your bank, make Bitcoin your philosophy of life, let Bitcoin rule your life and a new world will open up before your eyes.


"It's a great business to be in, Central Banking, where you print money and people believe it" - Adrian Orr, Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand

#BBTG https://v.nostr.build/M92v.mp4


Taking control and 21M go hand-in-hand. If nobody takes control the 21M falls easily.


The Carnival of Venice is occurring now.

Venetian masks are sometimes used to symbolize decadence. But historically, there was a lot more to them than that.

Centuries ago, Venice was a highly stratified society, meaning big gaps between the wealthy nobles and the commoners, and between men and women. But the Venetian carnival, and any parties where the masks were worn, were opportunities for the nobles and commoners to mingle as equals without knowing or caring someone's social station.

The masks removed identity, and along with it, removed many consequences of interaction. People could speak their mind and interact more thoroughly without the heavy restrictions of the social stratification. And they could be critical of the current social structure without it necessarily being tied back to their identity. If society is open, then perhaps anonymity is rarely needed. But if society is closed or repressive, then anonymity is a tool to change minds while minimizing the consequences to the individual.

And Venetian masks were all different and beautiful, coming in all manner of styles and colors. The wearer could express themselves without revealing themselves, similar to how we might think of a social media avatar today, but in the real world.

Authoritarian/fascist governments on multiple occasions banned the carnival and criminalized the wearing of the masks, because anonymity and social equality were perceived as threatening to them. But as those governments fell, the carnival and tradition returned.

Anyway, good morning Nostr.

https://m.primal.net/HaYG.png


𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆

It’s well-known that Bitcoin runs on an open ledger called the timechain, though commonly known as the blockchain.

While this ledger is visible to anyone, 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴. It is sometimes possible, however, to deduce who sent bitcoin to whom, based on a few clues that centralized exchanges will know, due to “Know Your Customer” (KYC) laws.

𝗡𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁, but here are some things you can do to use bitcoin more privately.👇

https://m.primal.net/HZqw.png

To enhance your anonymity in the realm of Bitcoin, it's crucial to 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘳. By ensuring each address is used only once, users significantly bolster their on-chain privacy.

Another effective method is the utilization of 𝗖𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘀. Protocols like JoinMarket and PayJoins, and platforms like Wasabi and Samourai offer the ability to mix coins (UTXOs) and their histories from multiple users. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘹𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴, making it difficult to trace transactions to a particular individual.

It's also important to 𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀, wherever possible. These platforms often require extensive Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures, creating a significant privacy risk. Decentralized exchanges like Bisq and RoboSats are preferable alternatives, as 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

𝗥𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗼𝗱𝗲 is another step towards privacy. By doing so, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘥-𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴, which can link transactions to your IP address. Operating a full node ensures that your transactions are verified independently, keeping your online activity within your control.

Implementing 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶-𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘀 adds an additional layer of security and privacy. These wallets require multiple keys to authorize a transaction, 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘳, while also adding another security layer to your holdings.

Using tools like 𝗧𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗩𝗣𝗡𝘀 to mask your IP address while transacting adds an extra layer of privacy. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘐𝘗 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, thereby safeguarding your online identity.

Finally, 𝗯𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮. Often overlooked, the information revealed by checking mempool.space or posting transaction info in an online discussion 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. Caution in this area is essential to maintain complete privacy in your bitcoin transactions.

When these practices are diligently followed, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳-𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘰𝘪𝘯. Each step plays a crucial role in safeguarding your identity and financial autonomy in the digital age.

https://m.primal.net/HZqx.png

Give this a 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲🤙 and a 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲🔄, and 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸🔖 this for when you need it.

What other privacy methods are there?
Share them in the 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀⬇


“Two ways to express power: voice and exit. When voice is no longer sufficient, you have one option: exit.

For the first time in human history, we have an alternative financial system fixed in supply, accessible to all, and controlled by no one.

Exit fiat. Long live #Bitcoin “- Jack Mallers https://video.nostr.build/c61625fe596863fdd9efdb875b488698ea13572b4a40a1db5bac6be433d9cc31.mp4


Value of all #bitcoin at the price they last moved. $BTC
https://m.primal.net/HYXL.mov


sounds familiar 👀
https://video.nostr.build/ad74da3815a6f1962a0c5d4139ac2003cadd2c6a3279e1772b72142ff1050f71.mp4


When I listened to this episode of Joe Rogan with Andreas Antonopolous in 2016 it made sense because I was new to #Bitcoin

But now in 2024 we all can see that Andreas was 100% right. This is exactly what's happening in our society right now.

https://m.primal.net/HXtk.mp4


If it was possible to vote your way out of slavery we wouldn't need Bitcoin.

Freedom is taken not given.


There’s a certain irony in Brian Armstrong trying so hard to change Bitcoin, promoting every fork, pushing Ethereum as a better Bitcoin, and listing so many shitcoins, but now his only job is providing custody to ETFs of the original #Bitcoin, the one which he saw as deficient.


Ok almost everyone is already in 2024, lets continuing defunding the state... I exit 💪
https://video.nostr.build/9d0b69715f6074e875154252d02e370777d728b47101d1574142ea38d6c12247.mp4


The steps to run the network are as follows:

1. New transactions are broadcast to all nodes.
2. Each node collects new transactions into a block.
3. Each node works on finding a difficult proof-of-work for its block.
4. When a node finds a proof-of-work, it broadcasts the block to all nodes.
5. Nodes accept the block only if all transactions in it are valid and not already spent.
6. Nodes express their acceptance of the block by working on creating the next block in the chain, using the hash of the accepted block as the previous hash.


Money = Who Owns What
Credit = Who Owes What To Whom

They are similar, but not the same. One requires identity, the other doesn't. One requires trust, the other doesn't. Both arise naturally. Both are important. Only one of them can be sound. Only one of them extinguishes the other.

In 1971 we have killed money proper, and we've acted like they are the same ever since.


FUCK EASY

I'm fed up with easy.
You don't want easy.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and one of said intentions is making things too easy.

Easy is staying on the couch.
Easy is not putting on your running shoes.
Easy is watching the porn, eating the junk food, binging the fucking stupid series.

Easy is not sticking out.
Easy is shutting up when you should be speaking out.
Easy is compliance.
Easy is saying the same thing, thinking the same thing, and liking the same thing as everyone else.

Easy is kicking the can down the road.
Easy is short-term gain for long-term losses.
Easy is starting up the money printer.
Easy is "papering over" failures.

Easy is "This is too hard. This is not for me. Someone else should take care of it."
Easy is not educating yourself.
Easy is not taking responsibility.
Easy is trusting a third party.
Easy is not holding your own keys.

Easy is comfortable.
Easy is not having to think.
Easy is not having to understand.
Easy is the coddling of the mind.

Doing things right is hard. Understanding things right is hard too. As is changing the status quo. But there's no improvement without change, no change without pain.

Fuck easy.


If you are reading this message, you are the Resistance.


“Bitcoin is our peaceful weapon of choice against central bank driven time theft.” — Ross Stevens

https://video.nostr.build/3c7c4c82a0b12b2ee528babde6f0c72a144c1bb9ffa41bf800a82cd61ec85267.mov


The thing that really bothers me about gold is it’s betting on a regression for humanity. Gold fixes nothing in a world today that deals in commerce across space. At the end of the day golds best hope is we regress back to a trust model of “gold backed” fiat because gold is completely impractical for commerce as we know in the 21st digital century. It’s like begging to make the same mistakes we’ve already learned from and I personally find it incredibly depressing to think we go back to a standard where we have to trust an asset already paper traded 200-250:1 isn’t going to end up in catastrophe again. Bitcoin is truly our only hope.


Talk of ETF approval misses the forest for the trees. It's not just about immediate reactions or flows

It's about the recognition of $BTC as an institutional asset. Pensions, endowments, insurance investment portfolios, etc., will soon be entering the arena with passive buy-side flows for the long term.

In December 2020, Mass Mutual invested $100m into bitcoin. https://t.co/xdMyT7Dxxi

MASSIVE.... except not really. Mass Mutual manage $235b in assets, with long-dated fiat liabilities. https://tinyurl.com/yz3b4hpn

$100m of $BTC is a ~0.05% allocation...

Large institutional investors don't purchase something to flip it the next month. They are constructing portfolios for multiple decades.

A 0.05% allocation is just the start. There are many more many more Mass Mutuals out there, and all of these allocators are staring at their bond portfolio which is -50% from ATHs, questioning previous assumptions they held.

The endorsement by the likes of Larry Fink isn't a sign that Larry is suddenly a bitcoin bull, it's a sign that clients are knocking on BlackRock's door, asking for a vehicle to gain exposure.

The narrative violations are strong. Passive accumulation starting from the $69k ATH has you +45% right now on your bitcoin position. The same passive allocation into long bonds has you -12%.

"But the volatility!" Again, it's a misunderstanding of time horizon. A ~1% allocation to an asset that they don't plan to liquidate for years/decades, with an extremely strong sharpe ratio, is within their risk profile. If you want proof, just look at the rest of their portfolio...

- No, the orange coin is not going away.
- No, it did not die when FTX collapsed.
- Yes, supply is more tightly held than ever before.
- Yes, perpetual credit expansion of the fiat monetary system is an ongoing reality.
- No, there is no sense of fiscal austerity present ANYWHERE.
- Yes, this illiquidity means marginal flows into the market sends the price higher, which is why all of these institutions will start with a tiny ~0.05% stake, while continuing to passively allocate steadily for the long-term.

Reinforcing this all is the shift in narrative and negative bias around 'energy usage' and mining, evidenced by new academic papers on mining as a tool for balancing the grid and monetizing waste energy:

- Bitcoin could support renewable energy development, Cornell Engineering, https://t.co/EZopJJAM2i

- Leveraging Bitcoin Miners as Flexible Load Resources for Power System Stability and Efficiency, Co-authored by former ERCOT CEO, https://t.co/PEpGE65la1

- From Mining to Mitigation: How Bitcoin Can Support Renewable Energy Development and Climate Action, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, https://www.resistance.money/research/mining_to_mitigation.pdf

The landscape and profile of the asset has shifted. It's not about the ETF, it's about the reason WHY the ETF is coming. Institutional exposure has been given a green light. It won't happen all at once, but understand the shift that is underway.

Bitcoin has been passively accumulated by individuals and retail for sometime now, while institutions mostly watched the madness from the sideline. This is changing.

Welcome.
https://m.primal.net/HRqB.jpg
https://m.primal.net/HRqC.jpg
https://m.primal.net/HRqD.jpg


Beetcoin is hope
https://video.nostr.build/39c76f02e72b5889d241c2c9f39378ed73d595bcece4f2afce95efbb1cb8f8a4.mp4


The whole point of nostr is that it can't be stopped simply by taking an app off the app store.

If the CCP or Charlie Munger want it banned you're probably doing something right.


On Nov 14 the Human Rights Foundation will launch its CBDC Tracker at the National Press Club in Washington, DC

The Tracker will go online for the first time, providing the public with a resource to examine the progress and risks of CBDC implementation worldwide

Like paper dollars or euros, CBDCs are liabilities of central banks

Unlike paper dollars or euros, CBDCs do not offer the privacy protections, neutrality, or finality of cash

Virtually all money today is already digital, but it is typically issued and controlled by private banks and fintech companies, even in dictatorships like China

When consumers use a credit card, spending is at the discretion of the corporation that issued the card

When consumers deposit money into their bank accounts, their funds are liabilities of the bank

CBDCs are an effort to:

1) Replace paper cash with government-issued, government controlled digital credits

2) Reduce the power of private banks

3) Expand state control over the economy

Paper cash doesn’t require identification, can be used by anyone with no discrimination, and cannot be easily tracked

As such, cash is a daily tool of human rights activists, dissidents, and civil society, especially under authoritarian regimes

CBDCs stand to potentially phase out this tool for human rights defenders, making them entirely reliant on currency that is surveilled and easily frozen and censored

Unlike cash, CBDCs can require ID, have expiration dates, be remotely
frozen, and abide by blacklists

HRF believes CBDCs pose a significant threat to human rights work worldwide, especially for people living under tyranny

More than 100 countries are researching CBDCs, while more than 20 have pilots, and a handful of governments have already launched some kind of retail product

Russia, India, the EU, the US, Brazil, and other major governments
have all signaled intent to pursue CBDC projects

HRF considers it important to track these activities and document what risk they pose to human rights

We are pleased to be working with the Bitcoin Policy Institute to launch the CBDC Tracker at the National Press Club in Washington at 10:00am ET on November 14th

We are excited to share the work of the project authors: Nick Anthony, Janine Roem, and Matthew Mezinskis

If you would like to learn more about the project or RSVP to the launch event, please contact nostr:npub1cf3zeytdnwgwzz5pk2ax0vvmmlzad03xcft4d50ejrfhsh8pxcdsefx7gk

We look forward to sharing the resource with all of you on Nov 14

https://cbdchumanrights.org/ https://image.nostr.build/5dcb01114749a54fb356f344bd20d936351cd18d12b3e7ab15c1a0fdcfd9a605.jpg


"I am convinced that any attempt to restore harmony in the world can only rest on the renewal of personal responsibility" - Andrei Tarkovsky

Own hard money. Own your sovereignty.

Own the outcomes of your life.

#Bitcoin https://v.nostr.build/zgkZ.mov