Another good write up in the same context.
nostr:nevent1qqsxeefjpcr0pdcgttnmqnx7a3t3ju73qdh876lyhnqfrep09pxwwngpz3mhxw309ucnydewxqhrqt338g6rsd3e9upzp5c99j3784frk8kgqec7kxa6q5t69afzux2h0rwg8hgr4rvy59cwqvzqqqqqqyfk3nty
Neat.
nostr:nprofile1qqsqt94cze77fkfxhgt9s2rfxmht6gjn96n8asf2jrq8szkkdhclexgprfmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuumgd96xvmmjvdjjummwv5hszxnhwden5te0wfjkccte9emk2mrvdaexgetj9ehx2ap0qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uvturtf were front and center for tons of fraud waste and abuse over the past couple of decades. Look forward to seeing some good articles on the topic.
Another Swan L.
nostr:nevent1qqsfkgda52g65t88ua454suxqfs44ruhnszk335e09umutj5gmzwwlgpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsygpxax4h7tyd9tphjqa0jzlz5xh0du4vh45e7ne9nj4v0tfn6gqqcypsgqqqqqqswgcsjt
Bruh. PrimeTrust. And They laid off 60% (some of their best too) after their mining "business" blew up and now this. Canceled their conference/celebrity meet and greet.
Not a great track record.
nostr:nprofile1qqst2yn6pr8nxctzwjqq5su83qdflx8qfwwrwytwjt09y5zfsc6uggspypmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0v3jhyatwdejhyuewdejhgam0wf4j7qgmwaehxw309ahx7um5wgh8xct5dphkzunyv4ezucm0d5hszymhwden5te0danxvcmgv95kutnsw43z7f2mgdy
Will you start using the nostr based git now?
CC: nostr:nprofile1qqs99d9qw67th0wr5xh05de4s9k0wjvnkxudkgptq8yg83vtulad30gpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezumrpdejqz9thwden5te0dp5hxapwdehhxarj9ekxzmnyqyv8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnwdaehw6r9wfjjucm0d5eechmk
Another Swan L.
nostr:nevent1qqsfkgda52g65t88ua454suxqfs44ruhnszk335e09umutj5gmzwwlgpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsygpxax4h7tyd9tphjqa0jzlz5xh0du4vh45e7ne9nj4v0tfn6gqqcypsgqqqqqqswgcsjt
"The juxtipositiin of the modernity of the staples and the whimsicality of the sparkle ribbon seamlessly blends functionality and fantasy. Also, there is a flower on the back." -wife
nostr:naddr1qqjrxdmrxc6rxwrp956kveph956rwd3595ukgc3595unzwrrxa3njdtyvsenxq3q60t5zfxalddaccdc7xx30sentwa5lrr3rq4rtm38x99ynf8t0vwsxpqqqpmvyhamj4g
The "Bitcoin community" should start it's own non-profit to pay devs. Especially if there are very qualified members. OpenSats is an organization. Organizations are not decentralized. They are centrally controlled. If you don't like Open Sats because you don't like 11.1111% of the board, I would consider donating to a different non-profit.
I understand your concern but your recommendation sounds entitled and irrational.
Please name the conflicts and total the % of the board that share the same or similar conflicts.
I bought a grip of cold cards as a reseller. They're my slowest moving product and I should bought Bitcoin instead. I've also receive Open Sats funding for Q4 2023.
Not sure how that plays into a bias here. I think NVK shouldn't sue OSS devs. I also think he's fine to stay on Open Sats board.
RE: obfuscation
Have you seen the Operation Orchestra video?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3jQoAYRKqhg
If funding is affected then board seats will be more likely to change. My guess is the outraged individuals are not primary funding sources and will have little impact on the org.
Let's say nostr:nprofile1qqsw3znfr6vdnxrujezjrhlkqqjlvpcqx79ys7gcph9mkjjsy7zsgygpr9mhxue69uhhqatjv9mxjerp9ehx7um5wghxcctwvsq3samnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwdehhxarjd93kztnrdaksz9thwden5te0wfjkccte9ekk7um5wgh8qatz7tvu4p is hostile to anyone opposing his business moat when they apply to nostr:nprofile1qqs8suecw4luyht9ekff89x4uacneapk8r5dyk0gmn6uwwurf6u9ruspzpmhxue69uhkumewwd68ytnrwghszxthwden5te0wfjkccte9eekummjwsh8xmmrd9skctcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhs2juazd.
Which 4 other board members share the same interest that enables this bias?
Let's be specific and name names. They are all publicly listed. The easiest is nostr:nprofile1qqsqfjg4mth7uwp307nng3z2em3ep2pxnljczzezg8j7dhf58ha7ejgpz4mhxue69uhkummnw3ex2mrfw3jhxtn0wfnszynhwden5te0wahhgtn4w3ux7tn0dejszxthwden5te0wdjkuerfwshxummnvekxzun99e3k7mgrcp7e2 since he's invested in CoinKite.
Who are the other 3 and why would they be biased?
"I can't justify my position so I'll just assume it's hero worship"
Circle back to the original argument and make the case for it. You assert NVK on the board is bad but could only find one instance of potential malfeasance that was put in check by another board member. Highlighting how robust a 9 person board is at keep things clean. Then you ignore a very clear track record of technical understanding (probably good for a board member to have) and call it hero worship.
So again. Go fuck yourself.
You confuse simping with disagreeing. To be clear, NVK is a douchebag for suing an open source dev. However, that doesn't mean he's a bad board member for OpenSats (which is an unpaid position).
Please address the following or fuck off. I'm tired of repeating myself.
nostr:nevent1qqsqq5g0z9ynsf4jlvun7wm5dlhvlc75d8gz8qhqa84uyqmspvakuqgpz3mhxw309ucnydewxqhrqt338g6rsd3e9upzp57hgyjdm76mm3sm3uvdzlpnxkamf7x8zxp2xhhzwv22fxjwk7caqvzqqqqqqy0wz0uy
nostr:nevent1qqsvaktv2a8d3ek4hx2tmjphg46hy5qhng4ecwsx0avrnnpm7mfkn4spz3mhxw309ucnydewxqhrqt338g6rsd3e9upzp57hgyjdm76mm3sm3uvdzlpnxkamf7x8zxp2xhhzwv22fxjwk7caqvzqqqqqqyjkevwx
If you get a #meshtastic in my next batch, this might be your case.
nostr:nevent1qqsv557h5kmuncprm6te8xk4xmh4yqafwheg30lzj7kdadnnq9whs7qpremhxue69uhkummnw3ez6ur4vgh8wetvd3hhyer9wghxuet59upzp7myrda4lwufty8wrj8ucjefqgyjnmhjxzpp7hfyx0eyfpxw4h5yqvzqqqqqqyxvw5dy
From jamesob (not on nostr so sats to nostr:nprofile1qqs8suecw4luyht9ekff89x4uacneapk8r5dyk0gmn6uwwurf6u9ruspzpmhxue69uhkumewwd68ytnrwghszxthwden5te0wfjkccte9eekummjwsh8xmmrd9skctcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhs2juazd)
THE CONSENSUS CONUNDRUM
Bitcoin faces a one-of-a-kind leadership problem
—
A lot of consensus-change proposals for bitcoin are on the table at the moment. All of them have good motivations, whether it's scaling UTXO ownership or making self-custody more tractable. I won’t rehash them here, you’re probably already familiar. Some have been actively developed for years.
The past two such changes that have been made to bitcoin successfully, Segwit and Taproot, were massive engine-lift-style deployments fraught with drama. There have been smaller changes in bitcoin’s past, like the introduction of locktimes, but for some reason the last two have been kitchen sink affairs.
The reality not often talked about by many bitcoin engineers is that up until Taproot, bitcoin’s consensus development was more or less operating under a benevolent dictatorship model. Project leadership went from Satoshi to Gavin to… well, I’ll stop naming names.
Core developers will likely quibble with this characterization, but we all know deep down that to a first order approximation that it’s basically true. The “final say” and big ideas were implicitly signed off on by one guy, or maybe a small oligarchy of wizened autists.
In many ways there’s really nothing wrong with this - most (all?) major opensource projects operate similarly with pretty clear leadership structures. Oftentimes they have benevolent dictators who just “make the call” in times of high-dimensional ambiguity. Everyone knows Guido and Linus and the based Christian sqlite guy.
Bitcoin is aesthetically loathe to this but the reality, whether we like it or not, is that this is how it worked up until about 2021.
Given that, there are three factors that create the CONSENSUS CONUNDRUM facing bitcoin right now:
(1) The old benevolent dictators (or high-caste oligarchy) have abdicated their power, leaving a vacuum that shifts the project from “conventional mode of operation” to “novel, never-before-tried” mode: an attempt at some kind of supposedly meritocratic leaderlessness.
This change is coupled with the fact that
(2) the possible design space for improvements and things to care about in bitcoin is wide open at this point. Do you want vaults? Or more L2s? What about rollups? Or how about a generic computational tool like CAT? Or should we bundle the generic things with applications (CTV + VAULT) to make sure they really work?
The problem is that all of these are valid opinions. They all have merit, both in terms of what to focus on and how to get to the end goal. There really isn’t a clear “correct” design pattern.
(3) A final factor that makes this situation poisonous is that faithfully pursuing, fleshing out, building, “doing the work” of presenting a proposal IS REALLY REALLY TIME CONSUMPTIVE AND MIND MELTING.
Getting the demos, specs, implementation, and "marketing" material together is a long grind that takes years of experience with Core to even approach.
I was well paid to do this fulltime for years, and the process left me with disgusted with the dysfunction and having very little desire to continue contribution. I think this is a common feeling.
A related myth is that businesses will do something analogous to aid the process. The idea that businesses will build on prospective forks is pretty laughable. Most bitcoin companies have a ton on their backlog, are fighting for survival, and have basically no one dedicated to R&D. The have a hard enough time integrating features that actually make it in.
Many of the ones who do have the budget for R&D are shitcoin factories that don’t care about bitcoin-specific upgrades.
I’ve worked for some of the rare companies that care about bitcoin and do have the money for this kind of R&D, and even then the resources are not sufficient to build a serious product demo on top of 1 of N speculative softforks that may never happen.
---
This kind of situation is why human systems evolve leadership hierarchies. In general, to progress in a situation like this someone needs to be in a position to say “alright, after due consideration we’re doing X.”
Of course what makes this seem intractable is that the Bitcoin mythology dictates (rightly) that clear leadership hierarchies are how you wind up, in the limit, with the Fed.
Sure, bitcoin can just never change again in any meaningful way ("ossify"). But at this point that almost certainly resigns it to yet another financial product that can only be accessed with the benefit of a large institution.
If you grant that bitcoin should probably keep tightening its rules for more and better functionality, but that we should go "slow and steady," I think there are issues with that too.
Because another factor that isn’t talked about is that as bitcoin rises in price, and as nation-states start buying in size, the rules will be harder to change. So inaction — not deciding — is actually a very consequential decision.
I do not know how this resolves.
—
There’s another uncomfortable subject I want to touch on: where the power actually lies.
The current mechanism for changing bitcoin hinges on what Core developers will merge. This of course isn’t official policy, but it’s the unintended reality.
Other less technically savvy actors (like miners and exchanges) have to pick some indicator to pay attention to that tells them what changes are safe and when they are coming. They have little ability or interest to size these things up for themselves, or do the development necessary to figure them out.
My Core colleagues will bristle at this characterization. They’ll say “we’re just janitors! we just merge what has consensus!” And they’re not being disingenuous in saying that. But they’re also not acknowledging that historically, that is how consensus changes have operated.
This is something that everyone knows semi-consciously but doesn’t really want to own.
Core devs saying “yes” and clicking merge has been a necessary precursor every time. And right now none of the Core devs are paying attention to the soft fork conversations - sort of understandable, there’s a bunch to do in bitcoin.
But let’s be honest here, a lot of the work happening in Core has been sort of secondary to bitcoin’s realization.
Mempool work is interesting, but the whole model is more or less upside down anyway because it’s based on altruism. For-profit darkpools and accelerators seem inevitable to me, although that could be argued. Much of the mempool work is rooted in support for Lightning, which is pretty obviously not going to solve the scaling problem.
Sure, encrypted P2P connections are great, but what’s even the point if we can’t get on-chain ownership to a level beyond essentially requiring the use of an exchange, ecash mint, sidechain, or some other trusted third party?
My main complaint is that Core has developed an ivory tower mindset that more or less sneers at people piatching long-run consensus stuff instead of trying to actually engage with the hard problems.
And that could have bitcoin fall short of its potential.
—
I don’t know what the solution to any of this is. I do know that self-custody is totally nervewracking and basically out of the question for casual users, and I do know that bitcoin in its current form will not scale to twice-monthly volume for even 10% of the US, let alone most of the world.
The people who don’t acknowledge this, and who want to spend critical time and energy wallowing in the mire of proposing the perfect remix of CTV, are making a fateful choice.
Most of the longstanding, fully specified fork proposals active today are totally fine, and conceptually they’d be great additions to bitcoin.
Hell, probably a higher block size is safe given features like compactblocks and assumeutxo and eventually utreexo. But that’s another post for another day.
---
I've gone back and forth about writing a post like this, because I don't have any concrete prescriptions or recommendations. I guess I can only hope that bringing up these uncomfortable observations is some distant precursor to making progress on scaling self-custody.
All of these opinions have probably been expressed by @JeremyRubin years ago in his blog. I’m just tired of biting my tongue.
Thanks to nostr:nprofile1qqsdnpcgf3yrjz3fpawj5drq8tny74gn0kd54l7wmrqw4cpsav3z5fgpz4mhxue69uhk2er9dchxummnw3ezumrpdejqz9rhwden5te0wfjkccte9ejxzmt4wvhxjmcprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuumwdae8gtnnda3kjctvl3x2lg and @MsHodl for feedback on drafts of this.
On one hand, respect nostr:nprofile1qqsw3znfr6vdnxrujezjrhlkqqjlvpcqx79ys7gcph9mkjjsy7zsgygpr9mhxue69uhhqatjv9mxjerp9ehx7um5wghxcctwvsq3samnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwdehhxarjd93kztnrdaksz9thwden5te0wfjkccte9ekk7um5wgh8qatz7tvu4p a lot for technicals and business savvy.
On the other hand, does Coinkite rely so heavily on blockclock revenue that it warrants legal action against OSS devs?
Just seems unwarranted and over the top.
I respect various approaches he's taken to engaging with the community, namely Bitcoin.Review.
I've said it before, he's my favorite infllooensor. Because I recognize the game that he's playing and he plays it well.
So I guess the latter.
PS This reminds me I need to print some secp256k1 curve t-shirts.
Saw you mention nostr here. In that context, have you seen nostr:nprofile1qqs8sxs4yuz47axp7uprpugrs3sfkdz5379tdg9xe2n5qfvz070a4egprdmhxue69uhkwmr9v9ek7mnpw3hhytnyv4mz7un9d3shjqg4waehxw309aex2mrp0yhx6mmnw3ezuur4vgzaq60d from nostr:nprofile1qqs8nsk2uy2w529fs8n4tx60u7z553e4yx5dy2nxhw4elgjgawpqlaspz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qz9thwden5te0v35hgar09ec82c30wfjkccte6rx8wx?
Oddbean new post about login | logout
Notes by AVERAGE_GARY | export
From jamesob (not on nostr so sats to nostr:nprofile1qqs8suecw4luyht9ekff89x4uacneapk8r5dyk0gmn6uwwurf6u9ruspzpmhxue69uhkumewwd68ytnrwghszxthwden5te0wfjkccte9eekummjwsh8xmmrd9skctcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhs2juazd) THE CONSENSUS CONUNDRUM Bitcoin faces a one-of-a-kind leadership problem — A lot of consensus-change proposals for bitcoin are on the table at the moment. All of them have good motivations, whether it's scaling UTXO ownership or making self-custody more tractable. I won’t rehash them here, you’re probably already familiar. Some have been actively developed for years. The past two such changes that have been made to bitcoin successfully, Segwit and Taproot, were massive engine-lift-style deployments fraught with drama. There have been smaller changes in bitcoin’s past, like the introduction of locktimes, but for some reason the last two have been kitchen sink affairs. The reality not often talked about by many bitcoin engineers is that up until Taproot, bitcoin’s consensus development was more or less operating under a benevolent dictatorship model. Project leadership went from Satoshi to Gavin to… well, I’ll stop naming names. Core developers will likely quibble with this characterization, but we all know deep down that to a first order approximation that it’s basically true. The “final say” and big ideas were implicitly signed off on by one guy, or maybe a small oligarchy of wizened autists. In many ways there’s really nothing wrong with this - most (all?) major opensource projects operate similarly with pretty clear leadership structures. Oftentimes they have benevolent dictators who just “make the call” in times of high-dimensional ambiguity. Everyone knows Guido and Linus and the based Christian sqlite guy. Bitcoin is aesthetically loathe to this but the reality, whether we like it or not, is that this is how it worked up until about 2021. Given that, there are three factors that create the CONSENSUS CONUNDRUM facing bitcoin right now: (1) The old benevolent dictators (or high-caste oligarchy) have abdicated their power, leaving a vacuum that shifts the project from “conventional mode of operation” to “novel, never-before-tried” mode: an attempt at some kind of supposedly meritocratic leaderlessness. This change is coupled with the fact that (2) the possible design space for improvements and things to care about in bitcoin is wide open at this point. Do you want vaults? Or more L2s? What about rollups? Or how about a generic computational tool like CAT? Or should we bundle the generic things with applications (CTV + VAULT) to make sure they really work? The problem is that all of these are valid opinions. They all have merit, both in terms of what to focus on and how to get to the end goal. There really isn’t a clear “correct” design pattern. (3) A final factor that makes this situation poisonous is that faithfully pursuing, fleshing out, building, “doing the work” of presenting a proposal IS REALLY REALLY TIME CONSUMPTIVE AND MIND MELTING. Getting the demos, specs, implementation, and "marketing" material together is a long grind that takes years of experience with Core to even approach. I was well paid to do this fulltime for years, and the process left me with disgusted with the dysfunction and having very little desire to continue contribution. I think this is a common feeling. A related myth is that businesses will do something analogous to aid the process. The idea that businesses will build on prospective forks is pretty laughable. Most bitcoin companies have a ton on their backlog, are fighting for survival, and have basically no one dedicated to R&D. The have a hard enough time integrating features that actually make it in. Many of the ones who do have the budget for R&D are shitcoin factories that don’t care about bitcoin-specific upgrades. I’ve worked for some of the rare companies that care about bitcoin and do have the money for this kind of R&D, and even then the resources are not sufficient to build a serious product demo on top of 1 of N speculative softforks that may never happen. --- This kind of situation is why human systems evolve leadership hierarchies. In general, to progress in a situation like this someone needs to be in a position to say “alright, after due consideration we’re doing X.” Of course what makes this seem intractable is that the Bitcoin mythology dictates (rightly) that clear leadership hierarchies are how you wind up, in the limit, with the Fed. Sure, bitcoin can just never change again in any meaningful way ("ossify"). But at this point that almost certainly resigns it to yet another financial product that can only be accessed with the benefit of a large institution. If you grant that bitcoin should probably keep tightening its rules for more and better functionality, but that we should go "slow and steady," I think there are issues with that too. Because another factor that isn’t talked about is that as bitcoin rises in price, and as nation-states start buying in size, the rules will be harder to change. So inaction — not deciding — is actually a very consequential decision. I do not know how this resolves. — There’s another uncomfortable subject I want to touch on: where the power actually lies. The current mechanism for changing bitcoin hinges on what Core developers will merge. This of course isn’t official policy, but it’s the unintended reality. Other less technically savvy actors (like miners and exchanges) have to pick some indicator to pay attention to that tells them what changes are safe and when they are coming. They have little ability or interest to size these things up for themselves, or do the development necessary to figure them out. My Core colleagues will bristle at this characterization. They’ll say “we’re just janitors! we just merge what has consensus!” And they’re not being disingenuous in saying that. But they’re also not acknowledging that historically, that is how consensus changes have operated. This is something that everyone knows semi-consciously but doesn’t really want to own. Core devs saying “yes” and clicking merge has been a necessary precursor every time. And right now none of the Core devs are paying attention to the soft fork conversations - sort of understandable, there’s a bunch to do in bitcoin. But let’s be honest here, a lot of the work happening in Core has been sort of secondary to bitcoin’s realization. Mempool work is interesting, but the whole model is more or less upside down anyway because it’s based on altruism. For-profit darkpools and accelerators seem inevitable to me, although that could be argued. Much of the mempool work is rooted in support for Lightning, which is pretty obviously not going to solve the scaling problem. Sure, encrypted P2P connections are great, but what’s even the point if we can’t get on-chain ownership to a level beyond essentially requiring the use of an exchange, ecash mint, sidechain, or some other trusted third party? My main complaint is that Core has developed an ivory tower mindset that more or less sneers at people piatching long-run consensus stuff instead of trying to actually engage with the hard problems. And that could have bitcoin fall short of its potential. — I don’t know what the solution to any of this is. I do know that self-custody is totally nervewracking and basically out of the question for casual users, and I do know that bitcoin in its current form will not scale to twice-monthly volume for even 10% of the US, let alone most of the world. The people who don’t acknowledge this, and who want to spend critical time and energy wallowing in the mire of proposing the perfect remix of CTV, are making a fateful choice. Most of the longstanding, fully specified fork proposals active today are totally fine, and conceptually they’d be great additions to bitcoin. Hell, probably a higher block size is safe given features like compactblocks and assumeutxo and eventually utreexo. But that’s another post for another day. --- I've gone back and forth about writing a post like this, because I don't have any concrete prescriptions or recommendations. I guess I can only hope that bringing up these uncomfortable observations is some distant precursor to making progress on scaling self-custody. All of these opinions have probably been expressed by @JeremyRubin years ago in his blog. I’m just tired of biting my tongue. Thanks to nostr:nprofile1qqsdnpcgf3yrjz3fpawj5drq8tny74gn0kd54l7wmrqw4cpsav3z5fgpz4mhxue69uhk2er9dchxummnw3ezumrpdejqz9rhwden5te0wfjkccte9ejxzmt4wvhxjmcprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuumwdae8gtnnda3kjctvl3x2lg and @MsHodl for feedback on drafts of this.