Why are you using dollars? 

 RIP Chris 

 This can be alleviated to some degree by the fact that not everyone needs the entire history of the network. You can get by with only copying your peers' most recent notes. 

 In my mind, there is one big functional improvement for relays to ensure a truly decentralized system

Essentially, every client should also be a relay, but it only connects to a handful of other client/relays (perhaps the closest geographically, but this can be part of an algorithm).

The key is that each cluster of connections must not be isolated from other clusters. So, say you connect to 10 peers. Those peers must have one or more of their own peers be from outside of your set of peers.

Events must also broadcast to all peers. Since each cluster is not isolated from other clusters, each broadcast would eventually propagate the entire network.

Within these constraints, there can be a number of optimization techniques, such as when connecting to a set of peers, only download the last, say, 24 hour's worth of notes unless more is requested (such as while scrolling through one's feed). Notes themselves typically aren't that big, so getting up to speed would likely be fairly easy.

Granted, the trade-off is that your posts don't immediately make it to everyone, but that's just the trade-off. Such a network, which is clearly similar to the Bitcoin network, would certainly be resistant to shutdown. Frankly, the fact that you have to know particular relays in order for you to communicate with the broader network is a big problem. People don't want to deal with that. That stuff needs to be extracted away unless you know what you're doing.

nostr:nevent1qqsxvrrvyzq8dllhrunky3tsqyvfxpvr9lw2653jwtclapqfy3uws4cprpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuendwsh8w6t69e3xj730qgsyvrp9u6p0mfur9dfdru3d853tx9mdjuhkphxuxgfwmryja7zsvhqrqsqqqqqp03af9g 

 Is Bitcoin top dog? Can I go to my corner deli and buy a ham sandwich with it? 

 Is it obvious? Because that payment option doesn't typically show up on the kiosk. I can convert some Bitcoin to dollars, maybe, but until then they don't typically give me the ham sandwich. 

 You're going to be sarcastic about reading an unoriginal post in the context of crypto culture? 

 Well, if you offered one, that'd be a good start. 

 That better be what it's about, otherwise y'all are playing a very expensive game. 

 This is not what happens and even if it were, it would not "come from money." 

 The rich don't get richer and the poor don't get poorer. In economies that prioritize private property and free enterprise, the poor get richer, the rich get richer. In states with redistributive welfare policies (like almost all western nations), inequality doesn't really go up either.

I should add that I do not believe that material inequality is a bad thing. If these redistributive policies were phased out, I wouldn't care insofar as it means people have more material inequality. What matters is poverty and inequality does not cause poverty.

Regardless of all of this, it has never been the case that money per se is the cause of any of these issues. Money is a general medium of exchange. It doesn't force anyone to do anything. 

 Idk, I think the fundamental promise of Bitcoin as an alternative money to fiat is somewhat complicated by its inability to be a full replacement for fiat. 

 Monetary manipulation cannot be subverted by Bitcoin if people do not use Bitcoin as money. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be useful in this regard. I'm saying that a prerequisite for it to *actually be useful* in this regard would be that it be a general medium of exchange.

The problem of Bitcoin's lack of privacy is a significant obstacle to it's acceptance as a general medium of exchange. 

 People will want Bitcoin if they expect to be able to exchange it for goods and services. You don't need a society of people raised to believe in sound money for this process to take effect. 

 Then why'd you reply? 

 The only reason people demand money is to buy stuff with it. Literally, that is it's sole function. 

 I mean, right now, the most private and least controlled means for people to buy things is with #fiat: cash.

I know, it's value is manipulated by the central bank, but that is a product of the banking system. If everyone held cash, then the Fed would be impotent. Cash itself is fundamentally decentralized in the sense that it doesn't rely on a central authority to handle organizing exchange; you don't have to wait for the check to clear when you pay cash. Moreover, whatever you buy is between you and the seller; it's not visible to anyone else.

Until a crypto technology can replicate that kind of privacy, then the state will always have an upper hand on controlling people through money. Hell, they can effectively steal your money by blacklisting it when they know you have it! That's an extremely effective means of control, let alone knowing what you're buying and selling.

From what I understand, #Monero is the closest at trying to solve this problem, but it certainly isn't the most popular.

In my opinion, this is the single most important issue that #Bitcoin has left to resolve. Until then, I hate to say it, but #Bitcoin is just a game.

nostr:nevent1qqsf8nx5at9zc6wz638pnf68xglgkne9a9y3he308pzkrlq5p29xqvcppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qgs0rfzq89fjjkyfeuf4ju80u8gj6egll52wcp8rtsknqk26hpl5e5srqsqqqqqpadsf7s 

 Well, probably because construction is real life. 

 The only real solution is to be your own ISP. Using wireless technology. On a nuclear-powered submarine. Named Red October. With Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. 

 Or the VPN CEO never goes to that particular country. Proton, to take an example, is headquartered in Switzerland. 

 Well, it is a different country than Brazil. 

 I know how it works. Perhaps I'm trying to play along by offering a short, uninteresting fleeting thought for the global feed. 

 See my bio. 

 Seriously, either y'all have way too much #Bitcoin that you'll waste it on rewarding these crypto platitude posts, or this is some kind of money laundering. Either way, my main feed being blasted with a bunch of empty atta-boy posts really makes the experience on here feel like a waste of time.

nostr:nevent1qqsgav93jsa6pftntf7kde57j572yhjh4klmv0gpzg7qd35swn4eflspzemhxue69uhhqatjwpkx2un9d3shjtnrdakj7q3q7xjyqw2n99vgnncnt9cwlcw394j3llg5aszwxhpdxpv44wrlfnfqxpqqqqqqzfux7s0 

 Why are people sending money to people for these banal posts? 

 Oh, I see, you wanted me to stop complaining about your lack of meaningful content.

Here, I'll give you something banal, since that's what y'all seem to be rewarding right now.

GOOD MORNING NOSTR. ✊💪 

 You can do this anywhere. Hell, if this was all people were doing on social media, then nostr would probably not exist because there wouldn't be anything for the big companies or governments to censor. 

 Even if you have it in cold storage and you hide this from the state, they can still blacklist your coins. The public nature of the blockchain is a significant problem for undermining state control over money. The only true crypto cash would have to be something like Monero. 

 Right? Not every fleeting thought deserves broadcasting. Self control y'all 

 This is not true. The Democratic party has become the party of the ultra-wealthy. Except for Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, how many tech billionaires are Republicans?

Besides, many of these Harris voters do have assets, but they think they're safe because the threshold for this tax would be $100 million. They think their 401k is safe. They're wrong. No tax ever begins by falling on everyone, but eventually, everyone will pay it.

Their stance on this issue (and "tax the rich" more generally) is that they're fundamentallu incapable of conceptualizing second-order effects for any decision. 

 It isn't difficult to enforce with a public blockchain and businesses who don't want to run afoul of the law. 

 It can be used to protect your property and still be a tax on unrealized gains.

Taxing unrealized gains means assessing the hypothetical sale price of some asset and demanding a payment in money as a percentage of that assessed value. This is exactly what happens with property taxes.

Property taxes are an example of a tax on unrealized gains. 

 Idk what this means. The wealthy, by a wide margin, pay the most taxes in America. This unrealized gains tax idea would exclusively target that top 1%.

It is certainly possible that these billionaire Harris voters expect some loophole to be introduced that they can use, but as of right now, no such loophole has been proposed (at least publicly).

Your original statement that Harris voters don't have assets to worry about being taxed is just false. The Democrat party is not the same party as it was for the second half of the 20th century. 

 I'll concede that the purchase price of your assets affects the calculation of an unrealized gain, but in my mind this makes the unrealized gain tax less intrusive than a normal property tax. It's essentially a property tax with a write-off.

At any rate, the justification of a property tax that you're using is fun philosophizing, but the revenue that property taxes generate go into the same pot as any other tax. The state isn't demarcating police or firefighting services and saying "property taxes pay for this, income tax for everything else".

You can believe in a land value tax or something as a justifiable tax, but that isn't exactly what a property tax is, since improvements you make to your property increase your tax liability. If you're justifying a property tax by pointing to government services that you consider legitimate, that's fine, but this works for any tax, so it's really a non sequitur to talk about property taxes like this. 

 "epic short"

Come on guys 

 The subtlety here is that the purchasing power change of money (as a result of inflating it's supply) does not happen uniformly. The first recipients have access to dollars at a purchasing power before those dollars have permeated the market, devaluing all of the dollars. This means that real resources are pulled from later-recipients to these earlier-recipients.

In other words, inflation is an honest-to-goodness wealth transfer. Moreover, since every inflationary institution is part of the state in some respect, this amounts to taxation without appropriate legislation authorizing it. In the United States, all taxation must come from legislation originating in the House of Representatives.

I wonder, has the Fed or member banks ever asked the House of Representatives before is made a loan?

nostr:nevent1qqs98sef4g8hclnaxrjzmk36lkpm0r47539vh6r5z0evdnlclnzkl5gpz9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejj7q3qsk7mtp67zy7uex2f3dr5vdjynzpwu9dpc7q4f2c8cpjmguee6eeqxpqqqqqqzem3d3x 

 Not just Macron, but plenty of European citizens more broadly fully endorse censorship of themselves and others. Macron is, if anything, representing his constuents. 

 We could also have someone create an account for Donald Trump and tell him to post here, then you'll definitely get more eyeballs lol. 

 No. Finding crypto culture tacky and annoying doesn't mean I support fiat money. It means my personality isn't tied up in this one thing to such a degree that it's the only thing I know how to talk about. Like, literally, go outside of your house to some public place, grab some random person, and ask them what they like to talk about. How many of them do you honestly think will be like "HODL ALL DAY BRUH." 

 Dude you need to get out more if you think even 1% of people you run into on the street will consider Bitcoin their favorite conversation topic. 

 Crypto, whatever. I'm saying that it is extremely niche, even if maxis aren't the only ones messing with it anymore. By "public" I'm not just talking about guys at the gym or friends of friends at Sunday brunch, but everyone.

Even if we imagine that crypto becomes ubiquitous, it still wouldn't be what people want to talk about all of the time. How many people on Twitter or Facebook spend all of their time talking about the US mint or fractional reserve banking despite dollars being what everyone uses in their daily lives?

Anyway, my whole point is that people like me understand the value of crypto, but it just isn't so exciting that it's the only thing I ever want to talk about. 

 I didn't say it was the global feed. I said the accounts with the most followers, and therefore the most conversation, all talk about crypto all day. 

 Why not have everyone hold a copy of some arbitrarily old section of the history of posts (in their client, as a separate program on their device, whatever) with a choice to hold the entire history.

Then, you connect to some peers, add a post by communicating it with them, and they communicate with others and so on, adding it to their local copy, until everyone has the message? Essentially, everyone is a relay. 

 You could broadcast to some sunset of your peers and then wait for another subset to show the post to ensure that your message proliferated the network. 

 Obviously, this is extremely similar to how it works with cryptocurrencies, but the fact that there isn't a requirement that everyone must agree on what the chain looks like should make this process much simpler. You can just sort posts by timestamp and if some people don't have it, then so what. That's the trade-off for true decentralization.