CEOs of the world should be very concerned with the arrest of Pavel Durov.
If Durov can be snatched off of his private jet, all CEOs are at risk of arbitrary arrest when they travel.
It should be clear, even to the democracy loving sycophant CEOs, that the current situation is intolerable, and that something must be done.
There isn't a precise, universally agreed-upon number of CEOs worldwide, as this can vary based on how "CEO" is defined and the types of organizations considered (public companies, private companies, non-profits, etc.). However, some estimates can be made based on the number of businesses globally.
According to the World Bank and other sources, there are over 300 million companies globally. While not all of these companies will have a traditional CEO (especially very small businesses), it gives a rough idea of the scale. Many medium to large enterprises will have a CEO or equivalent position.
Therefore, it is reasonable to estimate that there are tens of millions of individuals holding the title of CEO or an equivalent leadership role across the world. The exact number would be difficult to pinpoint due to the wide variety of organizations and titles used in different regions and industries.
The arrest of Pavel Durov is a direct threat to every CEO on earth.
It is obvious that there are more CEOs than there are government ministers, and since these CEOs control all industries on earth, they have the actual power, not the State.
It is clear that a world-wide strike and withholding of services from all governments as a warning to stop the rise of totalitarianism is the minimum that should be launched in response to the arrest of Pavel Durov. Perhaps if this is done once, what I propose next may not be needed.
Governments can do nothing without the CEOs facilitating their measures. The ID Cards, websites and every other service the State provides are actually done by companies under contract, each with CEOs, not by governments themselves.
If all CEOs decide as one that enough is enough, it’s over for the totalitarians, because they can’t even make a phone call without a CEO facilitating it.
A new "Chief Executives Alliance for Global Equity and Stability" (CEASE) made up of the CEOs of the world should, as its first act, work to outlaw arbitrary arrest of any citizen, so that another Durov outrage cannot happen.
CEASE will have no legislative power, but that doesn’t matter; what matters is that they can withhold services to entire nations to ensure democratically elected leaders do not violate the rights of citizens, starting with CEOs.
Does this sound like WEF 2.0? Sadly, it does, but CEASE, working in the open to protect the rights of people would be quite different to the sinister and secretive WEF. Its aims are explicitly for freedom; freedom of speech, freedom to travel legally without fear of arbitrary arrest, and the freedom to trade with others in goods and services on the basis of voluntarism.
Julian Assange would not have suffered as he did had CEASE existed when he leaked the secret criminal shenanigans of the State.
CEASE, having no legislative power, has only one means of action at its disposal; withdrawal of services. This might not seem like much, but it is in fact an extremely powerful sanction.
Imagine if the CEOs of Facebook, X, Google and Apple all decided to go dark until Durov is released. Billions of people would be affected. No government on earth has ever had that much power.
Arresting a CEO for running their business where people can speak freely could never result in an arrest in a world where CEASE existed. The price to the State would be too high; and of course, in this case, it would be France that is shut down and crippled as the very fabric of their modern world is rug pulled from under them. They would rightly calculate that it’s just not worth it.
Arresting a CEO would only be done when it is actually justified like cases of; murder, theft, and other such crimes where there is a clear victim.
Obviously this is a sketch outline of a very big idea, and if the part of your brain that powers your imagination is working and exercised, it should make you go, “hmmmmmmm!”.
One thing is for sure; sitting by watching people be hauled off to the camps should not be tolerable for anyone, CEO or not.
And lest you believe that something like this would end up creating a “Rollerball” style dystopia, remember, the consumer is more powerful as a constituency than all the CEOs and their companies combined. Ask Harley Davidson, or the owners of Bud Light, Ratner’s, and others…
1. Lehman Brothers (financial crisis and public backlash)
2. Barings Bank (collapsed after a rogue trader scandal, followed by public loss of confidence)
3. Ratners Group (renamed to Signet Group after the CEO's derogatory comments about its products led to a massive boycott)
4. Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) (decline due to a combination of factors including boycotts after the Lockerbie bombing)
5. Arthur Andersen (collapsed after the Enron scandal, leading to a boycott and loss of clients)
One of the problems this idea faces that immediately comes to mind is the diversity of CEOs. Some of them are not liberty minded. This is where boycotts by the public may help exert some measure of balance.
Either way, Durov being arrested is unacceptable, intolerable and unjustifiable, and unless you want to have your own “oh how we burned in the camps”moment, you had better consider this idea very carefully.
https://m.primal.net/KLOm.jpg
The founder of Telegram has been kidnapped.
Why don't they (the EU States) in this case, arrest the CEO of Apple and Samsung or Google, for people using browsers and phones in the commission of crimes? Or ISPs or anyone else transmitting data? No one can answer this, because Ambulance Chasers are Computer Illiterates.
This question touches Bitcoin of course, and will have profound effects if the people who make these bad decisions are not re-educated and their ignorance neutralized.
The CEOs of Bitcoin companies must assert the truth of how things work at all times to defend not only their businesses but their hundreds of millions of users.
https://m.primal.net/KLOm.jpg
The great and the good are waking up.
I’ve had it admitted to me today in private that, “The Laser Eye movement is a dead end.”
This is significant.
It has always been true that the death of the Bitcoin Cult was inevitable.
The Cult was like a, “Universal Basic Income of software”; unsustainable, uneconomic, irrational, hyperbolic and infantile.
This doesn’t mean that Bitcoin is dead, obviously; the contrary is the case.
Bitcoin is about to experience a multi front boom of the kind very few people have the capacity to conceive of.
Wallet download numbers are going to explode.
Ubiquitous non Exchange retail Bitcoin delivery is about to appear.
The “Consumer Bitcoin” era is upon you.
It’s going to be…EMOTIONAL.
https://m.primal.net/KKCL.jpg
An entire generation of potentially capable people have been brainwashed into accepting feelings as a substitute for substance.
These people can’t solve problems and are “Great Masturbators”, that can’t solve problems, interact with consumers or measure their own performance.
These people are breaking off into a parallel society where people don’t measure their the value of their workers or themselves.
Open source and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) have roots going back several decades, although the concepts evolved over time. Here's a brief timeline of their development:
1. Early Foundations (1950s-1970s):
- In the early days of computing, during the 1950s and 1960s, software was often shared freely among researchers and developers. Software came bundled with hardware, and source code was openly distributed.
- The sharing of software was common in academic and research settings, particularly within the ARPANET community (the precursor to the internet).
- In 1969, the creation of UNIX at AT&T's Bell Labs became significant because, although initially proprietary, its widespread academic use led to the development of a collaborative culture in software development.
2. GNU Project and Free Software Foundation (1983-1985):
- In 1983, Richard Stallman announced the GNU Project, aiming to create a free Unix-like operating system. This project laid the foundation for the Free Software Movement.
- In 1985, Stallman founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to support the movement and promote the idea that software should be free to use, modify, and distribute.
3. The Term "Open Source" (1998):
- Although the practices of open sharing and collaboration were already in place, the term "open source" was coined in 1998 by Christine Peterson as part of an effort to rebrand free software to make it more appealing to businesses.
- The Open Source Initiative (OSI) was founded the same year by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond to promote the use of the term "open source" and to certify open-source licenses.
4. Rise of Popular Open Source Projects (Late 1990s-Present):
- Throughout the late 1990s and into the 2000s, major open-source projects like Linux, Apache HTTP Server, and Mozilla gained traction, showcasing the success of the open-source model.
- The development of platforms like GitHub (founded in 2008) further accelerated the open-source movement by providing a collaborative environment for developers to share and contribute to projects.
In summary:
- The principles underlying open source and FOSS have existed since the early days of computing in the 1950s and 1960s.
- The formalization of the Free Software Movement began with the GNU Project in 1983.
- The term "open source" was coined in 1998 to promote and standardize the practices of collaborative software development.
So, open source and FOSS have been in existence, in various forms, for around 70 years, with more formalized movements and terms emerging in the last 40 years.
For 40 years FOSS people have not cared about design; in fact, they’ve been openly hostile to it.
Desktop system authors used to refuse to produce screenshots for users, insisting that they compile and run the code if they want to see anything running.
That’s the mentality you’re dealing with.
And simply calling for something won’t make it happen; this is the magical thinking rife in communities who don’t know how to solve problems or deal with real people.
And when the scant few try to work with designers and get quotes for work, they scoff at the cost, saying “anyone could do this”. They’re pig ignorant, philistines, stubborn and un cultured.
They will never win!
https://youtu.be/9sJUDx7iEJw?si=MEXIQAwrSknSJnIz
FOSS stands for **Free and Open Source Software**. It refers to software that is both free to use (as in freedom) and whose source code is openly available for anyone to inspect, modify, and distribute. Here’s what each term means:
1. Free Software:
- "Free" in this context refers to freedom, not necessarily price. Free software grants users the freedom to run, modify, and share the software. The key principles of free software are often summarized by the Four Freedoms:
- Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
- Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works and change it to make it do what you wish (access to the source code is a precondition for this).
- Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others.
- Freedom 3: The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this, you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes.
2. Open Source Software:
- Open source software is similar to free software, but the focus is more on the collaborative benefits of making the source code available. The term "open source" emphasizes that the source code is open and accessible to anyone. Users can modify the software and distribute their modified versions.
- Open source projects often involve collaboration among developers from all over the world, contributing to the software's development, bug fixes, and new features.
Examples of FOSS:
- Linux: An open-source operating system kernel that is the basis for many operating systems (e.g., Ubuntu, Debian).
- Apache: An open-source web server software.
- Firefox: A free and open-source web browser.
- LibreOffice: A free and open-source office suite.
- GIMP: A free and open-source image editor.
Benefits of FOSS:
- Transparency: Anyone can inspect the source code to verify what the software does.
- Control: Users have control over the software and can modify it to suit their needs.
- Community b: FOSS projects often have large communities that contribute to and support the software.
- Cost: Most FOSS is available at no cost, making it accessible to a broader audience.
FOSS plays a crucial role in the software ecosystem, empowering users and developers to create, share, and improve software freely.
For founders, CTOs, and developers of Bitcoin companies however, whether your code is FOSS, or not has nothing to do with asking for your users trust. Your code being free is irrelevant, and being a Bitcoin company has nothing to do with the license your software runs under.
The vast majority of users who run FOSS never read the licenses or Source Code of the tools they use; they are normal people who simply want to get things done.
Gimp, Apache, Linux, Firefox are all fine tools that the license they're offered under has no bearing on the user's experience.
People use Gimp because they could not afford Photoshop, not because the source code was available. Today, they run it because Photoshop has not been ported to any GNU+Linux operating system with the Gnome interface. If Adobe ported Photoshop to Ubuntu, everyone would abandon Gimp for PS overnight.
ColdCard is secure not because people can copy the code; it is secure because it is properly and carefully written. The license code is written under cannot affect the execution or quality of software. This is the fundamental mistake Open Source fanatics make; they think virtue signaling to people who can't write "Hello World" in PHP matters; PROTIP, it DOESN'T MATTER and NO ONE CARES.
Open Source can kill companies. If you release your source code, you are inviting people to copy your ideas and compete with you, with no advantage to yourself.
The license you use to release your source doesn't matter either when it comes to the business risk; people can read your source and then re-implement it without using your code, and then BANG you've got a clone of your service trying to knock you out of the market.
If the people who are cloning you are better funded, more clever, able to look people in the eye when being spoken to, and are affable, then you've got a real problem.
And where are all the Bitcoin Cult checklist ticking followers when your magic dust is being "stolen" or "Ripped Off"? They will be nowhere...or buying the tools and service of your competitor because you believed some cult gibberish about MUH OPEN SAUCE.
Sharing source code and licenses that compel disclosure are useful things in narrow circumstances, like tools that underpin everything; SSL, GPG, HTTPS, POP3, SMPTE, C, C++, Linux, Bitcoin and so many other tools used to build tools or build businesses. The number of developers working on these tools is astonishing and everyone benefits. This is beyond argument.
But.
Just because other Open Source tools have big developer bases, it does not follow that every tool must be open source, and that the act of disclosing your source code under the GPL will attract an army of developers commiting changes.
You will have seen this with projects breathlessly announced at conferences that failed to attract developers to do the work for free to build them, the assumption being that developers are a magic and infinite resource with infinite time to work for free on an infinite amount of projects, the sole method of recruiting them being to chant "ACK" after posting your just about running source sketches on GitLab.
This is the fact that is left out when cheerleaders for Open Source make irrational claims about Open Source being the foundation of user trust. They're not seeing the big picture, are fatally unrealistic and in fact, don't see the picture at all.
It's a safe bet that they are not using Ubuntu, Mint or any GNU+Linux operating system for their daily work either, but are in fact hypocrites using *CHOKE* MiCro$oft Winblows and Micro$oft Visual Studio Code or MacOS as their development platform. They will never tell you this of course, while they type out their pro Open Source screeds on Google Chrome or M$ Word. We all know this.
In the final (and financial) analysis, all the virtue signalling in the world will not make people use your tool. Only a small number of fanatics care about the license your work is released under, and those people will not move the needle when it comes to changing the world, and the ones that will change the world will copy your weak sauce and turn it into hot sauce.
Bitcoin changing the world does not require Open Sourced tools; it requires what google did with Chrome; blasting the competition (Internet Exploder) to smithereens with a browser that beat every other browser by being better for the consumer. Failing to understand this is in 2024 a fundamental error.
Thankfully, there are serious people coming to Bitcoin who do not care about any of this, and who are focussed on doing a narrow range of things right. Google's Chrome is focussed on browsing the internet securely and quickly in a standards based way, providing password management and a few other things along the way. A very small number of things.
They're not interested in the latest fad, and do not have a model where they keep adding new services to their offering to be cool and hip; they do one thing and do it right.
Bitcoin companies are coming that do one thing and do it right. They are extremely focussed (not laser focussed) and they know that bitcoin is for other people, not for developers. By understanding this, they will be the people who change everything.
And again when it comes to the license your tool is released under, as far as the public is concerned...
IT DOESN'T MATTER and NO ONE CARES.
https://m.primal.net/KGEp.png
It’s hangman time. Winner gets an ZAP from ME. You get one clue, “NOT SINGULAR”.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
This contest lasts 24 hours. The judges decision is final!
REPLY WITH YOUR GUESS RITE NAO. ↴
https://m.primal.net/Jmln.jpg
Another sad story of Nostr.
You win, but can’t collect.
You post but it can’t be seen.
“Early days” for eternity.
Hall of shame/mirrors effect.
Living the dream as living in a dream.
Giving up on courage.
“Communism”.
“LOL”.
https://m.primal.net/JoYg.jpg
Crypto Doublethink is widespread.
On the one hand, people say that USD backed by Bitcoin, "can't work", but out of the other side of their mouths they uncritically support Tether.
This is 100% irrational Crypto Doublethink.
Stablesats Think accepts the premise, inevitability and legitimacy of fiat as its starting point; that the measure used to value Bitcoin is and should be fiat.
This is clearly wrong, and anti-Bitcoin.
If it were not the case that fiat is the ruler used to measure the value of fiat, no one would think "Stablesats" were required, because Sats are Money.
Fiatistas never accepted and still do not accept the fundamental thinking behind the creation of Bitcoin. They are US American Dollar addicted delusionalistas and fiatistas.
And you must remember; none of the people advocating Stablesats are actual Bitcoiners; they came to the ideas that underpin Bitcoin after it was released, not before. They are not philosophically aligned with the ideas that were the spur to create Bitcoin (many of them are die hard collectivists and Socialists), and so of course, they are predisposed to accepting lies as the truth, like measuring value in US Dollars.
Thankfully, Bitcoin does not and cannot care about any of this, and the true Bitcoin entrepreneurs building Bitcoin companies on its sound foundation are the ones that are changing the world, not people at the periphery promoting the US Dollar, wrapped dollars, Stablecoins and other junk, who scream about other dollarization ideas, "Not that way, but the way I want them!"
https://medium.com/@beautyon_/bitcoin-is-the-c-of-money-dce63ce8e37a
If people who ran the platforms in the west did what they knew was right there would be no problem.
The actual problem is the people who own platforms do what is wrong, even when they know it is wrong.
“Multipolarity” will not solve the problem of western men who shy away from boldness or taking direct correct decisions for their users and companies.
Asking for other people to do the job you should be doing is the same as pushing the problem into the technical sphere through “decentralisation”; it’s failing to live up to your responsibilities.
Leaders of properly run companies are exactly that; LEADERS. They don’t do things by consensus, or defer to every opinion or allow themselves to be distracted or diverted. They have strict hierarchy where the CEO has final, absolute say on everything important.
And history shows this is correct, from Trump, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, to Steve Jobs; companies led by LEADERS succeed in serving the public through strength.
And this is all about serving the public. If you fail to do that, you’ve failed. Thankfully in Free Market Capitalism, Natural Law is the rule, not theory: LAW.
And make no mistake; all cultures at every scale are not equal. Some work better than others. Failing to accept this is suicidal.
But “You do you”!
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is a perfect encapsulation of....something.
Nostr is actually about what people think they represent; "Freedom, self sovereignty, Bitcoin".
It doesn't have to solve a real problem; all it has to do is make people feel good about themselves, so that they can, "identify" with it.
Meanwhile, in the real world that they're hiding from, access to Bitcoin is being made harder and harder by the EU (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32023R1114&pk_keyword=Crypto%20assets&pk_content=Regulation) while they Virtue Signal and spray around tiny amounts of "Sats", the origin of which is never accounted for.
Nostr is an easy place to be and hide; you don't have to take responsibility for what you're doing (or failing to do) in the real world, and you can openly Virtue Signal in several areas simultaneously. It's crack for Virtue Signallers.
Of course, none of this has anything to do with the idea behind Nostr, which is just software. This is a "people problem", a problem of the character of some users, and obviously, this brush cannot be used to paint all Nostr users.
It's endlessly fascinating!
https://m.primal.net/Jlvc.jpg
In the end, if Bitcoin is the money everyone is using, the State will have to start accepting it for the payment of taxes.
This will have many advantages for the state, as they can "Micro Tax" activities; something that is beyond the ability of the Geriatrics to conceive.
There will be an interim stage however, where the State demands that you pay it in its money, meaning you have to convert Bitcoin to fraudulent fiat. They will see, as they need to change the exchange rate twice per day, that the situation is untenable, and this will spur them on to switching to Bitcoin.
Bear in mind that once they have collected their own money as taxes, no one in the real economy will accept their money for goods and services, requiring them to buy Bitcoin just to pay salaries and live.
There is another scenario however, that indicates that the life of coerced money forms can persist indefinetly if properly managed:
THE TALLY STICK.
The Tally Stick was literally a piece of wood sawed along its length with a random zig zag that the British Crown would accept as a payment method for settling tax bills.
The power to enforce payment methods backed by violence is how this worked so well:
https://youtu.be/WVJHCiD_Ukg?si=GN9BUsKyz_q1I4Jc
It's hard to describe the great depth of genius behind the concept of the Tally Stick. By doing this, the crown managed to create money out of nothing, and build a sound economy on it, whilst remaining at its centre as the essential manager.
Bitcoin with its jagged edged keys made of text is very much like a Tally Stick, but without an issuer or the need for saws or supervision. All of this is missed by the vast majority of Bitcoiners because they're ignorant.
Nevertheless, it is possible to build different kinds of economies on Bitcoin, and if used by the replacement central banks, can be the fundamental base layer like the Tally Stick.
FASCINATING!
https://m.primal.net/JkLW.jpg
You can’t “Stack Sats”, to use the Bitcoin Cult lingo, without there being a means to distribute Sats to Stackers, and no, not everyone is an US American with a bank account, genius.
Also, the entire rest of the world switching to Bitcoin, and not just Americans, will cause a sea change in the dynamics of many problems. Think GSM vs CDMA. America can lose international standards wars. That’s proven.
The fundamental layers of Bitcoin are powerful enough to make the dream of hyperbitcoinization come true, if the people who maintain the tools and businesses eschew infantilism like Ordinals and “Assets on the Blockchain” and “Stablecoins”; perhaps the most egregious affront to Bitcoiner sensibilities and ethics.
The inventor of Ordinals has now “moved on to other things” having left behind a literally indelible legacy of shame, with his acolytes continuing to pollute and burden maintainers of the public record. He’s the personification of one of the great remaining problems facing Bitcoin: Infantilism.
"Dollars on Bitcoin” is the direct result of slave mentality and infantilism. The Austrians understand the dynamics of the problem of the Federal Reserve, but amongst them Saifedean is almost unique in correctly applying Austrianism to Bitcoin.
The Bitcoin Cult on the other hand have proven not up to the challenge with their distractions, infantile absurdities and nonsense. They refuse to accept the basic argument implied by Bitcoin; the Federal Reserve Dollar is a corrupt criminal enterprise that is irredeemable.
Thankfully many other countries are waking up to how they’ve been enslaved by Keynesian thinking and turned into Cargo Cults with their Central Bank funny money printed abroad and delivered in Security Theatre stocking rituals. These countries now have the means to free themselves from fiat prostitution, and it’s now highly probable that they’ll do it, thanks to the constant streams of provocations and humiliations doled out by Uncle Sam.
Victory for America means allowing Bitcoin to be used as money and accepting it for the payment of taxes, not geriatric gibberish like “Strategic Reserves”, which as Saifedean correctly asserts, will not be permitted by the owners of the Federal Reserve System, who are the actual owners of America.
https://x.com/saifedean/status/1818274910772306297
FASCINATING!
https://m.primal.net/JgSB.png
The price of Bitcoin doesn’t matter.
Bitcoin is not a person; it can’t feel anything.
Math is not honourable or dishonourable.
Satoshi isn’t a deity.
Satoshi vanished precisely to avoid this sort of mawkish drivel.
You can’t be for Ordinals AND Bitcoin.
No, it’s not funny.
…but it is historic. Full marks for that!
https://m.primal.net/JiDh.jpg
People swooning over RFK's pledge to make the US Government horde Bitcoin are completely wrong to think it is a clever move. It isn't.
What it does is prove that RFK has been brainwashed into the Bitcoin Cult "Hodl" mindset, which is an unfortunate, but short term aberration.
What the correct policy is is that Uncle Sam should begin to take Bitcoin as a method of payment for all US Taxes.
By doing this, Uncle Sam will begin to build up a Fort Knox level hoard of Bitcoin, collected through the normal process of government, which everyone must accept.
The people saying that the US Government should have a strategic Bitcoin Reserve are making the claim that Uncle Sam should make a bet against the Federal Reserve. That's crazy.
Niy of course, Bitcoiners know that the Federal Reserve isn't Federal at all, and is a private consortium created to steal from the American people. But we're not talking about that today.
The correct strategy is to allow Americans to pay taxes in Bitcoin. To incentivise this, a 1% discount should be offered to all taxpayers paying in Bitcoin.
If this were the policy, Uncle Sam would very quickly develop a large hoard of Bitcoin, through the normal process of government.
*************
I WANT
YOUR BITCOIN! *************
https://m.primal.net/JgSB.png
Bitcoin was not designed to give the world access to the Nation State's fiat currencies. It was designed to replace those currencies completely.
Fiat currencies and their natures are not changed by “Bitcoinising” them, which is not even possible. The Central Banks and Federal Reserve still have control over the money supply which is the fundamental problem witih them and the reason why Bitcoin has a fixed supply.
The doublethink going on with Stablecoins is breathtaking. On the one hand, advocates of stablecoins (mostly U.S. Americans) claim to want a Bitcoinized world, but on the other hand, they want the poorest in the world to have easy access to the heroin of fiat US Dollars. Why?
Imagine going to a witch doctor who told you that in order solve a problem in his country you had to cut off your right foot and nose. You would never do that, because you know that’s insane.
Why then would you listen to a person who is completely ignorant about The US Dollar Problem when it comes to designing any solution, and uncritically give them exactly what they ask for?
Of course, you would not do this, any more than you would give a toddler a loaded hair trigger pistol. And you would not suggest that someone who is a drug addict should be given Heroin just because he says it's what he wants.
There are arguments for giving people what they want, in order to not be a “Colonialist” imposing Bitcoin and sound money on others but these arguments don’t apply here. It is entirely the fault of the west that the fiat US Dollar has infected, exsanguinated and wrecked foreign countries, and so to remedy this, asking these people if they want stronger Heroin is just nuts.
Never forget while we're at it, that in a free market, people are at liberty to develop whatever tools and services they want and then launch them to see if the market will accept them. You can’t be for the free market and then say people should not produce whatever they want and try to serve people in ways they think are correct. That includes toxic Stablecoins and phantasmic fiat assets on the Blockchain.
Nevertheless, in the world you are living in where the fiat US Dollar is ruining everything, it is hard to unpack the thinking that makes the claim that spreading poison to the weak is beneficial to mankind. Spreading the US Dollar poison will extend the life of fiat for sure should it take off, and that cannot be a good thing.
Saying that this is an interim stage to hyperbitcoinization is just a rationalization, and cannot cover the unethical nature of what it being offered.
And consider competition. Companies who want to get ahead of this sad fad and choke it off will go the traditional rails route by offering near friction free US Dollar account apps to anyone who wants them without the “Blockchain” smoke and mirrors.
Offering US Dollars on MySQL is indistinguishable from offering them on “Blockchains” as far as the user is concerned and very much less difficult and risky technically for companies to implement. You're not relying on a single vendor that can make mistakes and that treats the ecosystem as a massive game.
Something like this, MySQL Dollars could spread virally and more easily than apps that have “Blockchain” fairy dust mixed in with them, and so that moat does not exist in any real way.
And please don't intone, "But it would not be decentralized!" No one who these services are designed for knows or cares about "decentralization" or the other sacraments of The Bitcoin Cult. They only care about the effect that shows up in their app, not the underlying network architecture.
On the one hand, these people vaunt decentralization, but on the other, think centralized fiat is what people want and need, and don't seem to accept that if the user's needs come first, then if you're going to abandon Bitcoin, why not abandon decentralization and offer US Dollars over MySQL? They're totally illogical from the root up.
And then there is the problem of The State. "If you are offering 'assets' you are regulable", will be the SEC narrative. It is hard to imagine how this is not the case. I imagine we will soon see.
If this is the case, then not only will the “asset” issuance part of any platform be impacted, but the software tentacles that reach back in to the pure Bitcoin part of any system used to issue those “assets” will also be impacted, if the two systems are inextricably interwoven and not modular.
If the fiat US Dollar problem is real, and the death of the US Dollar inevitable, then everything built on US Dollars is also doomed to die a catastrophic death with it.companies offering easy access to US D ollars on MySQL without “Blockchain” magic will be left unimpacted to thrive and dominate, because they did not play word and architecture games and served people directly with what they needed without tricks.
In the future, where will Bitcoin be in all of this?
If the fiat US Dollar problem is real, and the death of the US Dollar inevitable, then everything built on US Dollars is also doomed to die a catastrophic death with it.
What might be left behind is an Aerogel financial network where Bitcoin touches everything, all US Dollars having been evaporated by the solvent of the market, the value stored in Stablecoins being inherently worthless and evil. True Bitcoiners know this.
Putting US Dollars on Bitcoin is not a step forward, it is a step backward. It is a step for evil. It promotes evil and spreads evil. It entrenches the strength of the US Dollar, and doubletalk about using Bitcoin’s liquidity as a transport layer is smoke and mirrors, techno babble, and jargonism, as is “Bitcoinizing the US Dollar” which is pure Bitcoin Cult nonsense on its face.
I have no doubt that the people who seek to spread the US Dollar are not ill willed and are simply gravely mistaken. They are not the first to be mistaken about the US Dollar and it's nature, and they certainly will not be the last while the US Dollar continues to exist.
The market will determine their fate, that and the violence of the State.
https://m.primal.net/Jbmg.png
The Bitcoin cultists think that Nostr could prevent Biden's handlers from making statements on his behalf. They're totally delusional, obviously.
Let's say that Biden needed to use a fingerprint to Tweet. All someone would need to do is take his finger, whether attached to him or not, to make a Tweet "as Biden". And all the delusional drones who think, "signing proves identity." are just that; completely delusional and unaware of how anything actually works:
https://medium.com/@beautyon_/beach-boy-bitcoin-64f62bed4c7e
Noster can't fix everything, and neither can Bitcoin; and there is a class of Bitcoiner that has shifted this narrative from "Bitcoin fixes this" to "Nostr Fixes this". It's the same Bitcoin Cult under a different name.
People who think software services like X, Bitcoin and Nostr are "technologies" betray their complete lack of understanding of what a technology is. Services are not technologies; they are made out of technologies.
And if you think a "signing key" will protect the launch procedure from being hijacked, you really don't understand how signing keys work, probably never used GPG, and are ignorant of the history of Cryptography.
Which is fine. No one can be expected to know everything.
These things are being said because it is important for people who prefer not to be ignorant hear them to reign in the drooling fanboyism that masquerades for insight. They throw around words like "Open Source" and "Centralized" not knowing what these things mean or whether or not practical use can be made of them. They also don't like it when "Open Source" is used against them as intended, when their work is forked and someone makes a copy of it for profit.
Publishers of books are the worst offenders in this, breathlessly talking about "Open Source" whilst protecting their books with copyright.
One of the rare exceptions is Boldrin and Levine's "Against Intellectual Monopoly" that you can download for free AND buy on Amazon. Not so clever people think they're being smart by finger pointing Boldrin and Levine for selling their books thinking they're not available for free, only to be silenced by pointing to the URL where they are. How pathetic.
http://dklevine.com/general/intellectual/against.htm
Thankfully, Bitcoin can't suffer from the delusions of these people, who are toxic and retarding of the expansion of Bitcoin's use. Once again, if Bitcoiners can't overcome the voices of these people then it was always doomed to fail.
So far. It is THEM that are failing, not YOU.
You're conflating the effect of a tool with the nature of a tool. This logic is what leads people to think, "Guns are dangerous" and even more absurd, that AR-15s are more dangerous than any other type of rifle. It's emotionalism and illogic.
Using words like "tech" as shorthand is not useful and often misleading, so I would not do that when trying to have a precise discussion.
Technology can be used to provide a service. Software can be used to provide a service also. Tools do not "acquire definitions" they are defined by what they are; people develop analogies and superimpose them on tools and services. This is a mistake, and Bitcoiners have suffered from it gravely.
“As long as their nsec has not been compromised of course”
Of course.
This is Cult Nonsense and it shows that you don’t understand how anything works. Signatures breaking doesn’t indicate it isn’t the owners message; it simply means the signature is broken. Nothing else can be implied other than that.
Anyone can poast as a Nostr user by simply getting their phone. The keys offer no verification whatsoever of who is making a poast, only that a poast was made with a unique key.
This has nothing to do with proving a particular individual did anything; this is Cult mythology, not reality, and conflating Nostr with Bitcoin is ridiculous. Signature in Bitcoin are used to write to the ledger so that others can rely on them. In Nostr, signatures only tell you a key was used; the arbitrary messages have no meaning in any context, even in their own context. It’s indistinguishable from white noise. The idea behind Nostr is that no one can stop you poasting; it’s not about authentication, which is an inconvenient means to an end.
If I have your car keys I could drive your car away; keys can’t be used to authenticate the signer is who they claim to be, they’re not magic. Any locked door that belongs to you whose keys are accessible to me can be opened by me. This is true on Nostr, which cannot solve this problem.
Nostr isn’t interesting for the reasons you think it is, and the world you’re imagining cannot be built on it. It’s nothing more than Cult Nonsense.
Here is a list of some of the most famous cults:
1. Peoples Temple
2. Branch Davidians
3. Heaven's Gate
4. The Manson Family
5. The Order of the Solar Temple
6. Aum Shinrikyo
7. Children of God (Family International)
8. The Moonies (Unification Church)
9. Rajneeshpuram (followers of Osho)
10. Scientology
11. NXIVM
12. Falun Gong
13. The Church of the Lamb of God
14. Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
15. The Church of the Last Testament
16. Bitcoin (Cryptocurrency)
And the idea that people constantly being identified is only desired by totalitarian Communists and maniacs. Free people want to transact and communicate privately and anonymously. It is not a good thing that an identity layer is placed over everything. This is why the Ethical people in Bitcoin are so eager to anonymise its use, not wantonly attach identity to everything.
The privacy preservers are going to win this by the way. They’re going to win because they know how things work, know how they should work, have the means to make them work, and are releasing these means into the market.
They don’t wave their hands around, gush at every new toy put in front of them. They take things seriously…because they’re important matters, and not a game.
And thank YOU for replying!
"Huxley" by Ben Mauro is a graphic novel series set in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi universe. The story follows two scavengers who discover an ancient robot named Huxley and embark on an adventure that could alter the fate of the galaxy.
The series is known for its richly detailed artwork and complex world-building, reflecting Mauro's extensive experience as a senior concept designer and art director for major gaming franchises like "Halo" and "Call of Duty," as well as films like "The Hobbit" and "Elysium".
In addition to the graphic novels, the Huxley universe spans various media, including NFTs, games, and a planned feature film. The narrative explores themes of survival and discovery in a world devastated by a nuclear holocaust, with surviving humans building flying cities and adapting to harsh conditions on the ground.
The game "Huxley: The Dystopia," a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS), was developed by H-Studio, a division of the South Korean company Webzen Inc..
If Webzen, the company that wrote this game decided to use a shared MySQL database with Ubisoft Montreal, the owners of Rainbow 6 Seige, the players of HUXLEY: The Dystopia would be able to enter their Rainbow 6 Seige login details to use the in game money “Renown” in HUXLEY: The Dystopia. Instead they decided to use the options below, both of which allow access to users of other databases.
Coinbase uses its own MySQL database to keep track of who has bought what Bitcoin or Etherium; why are their databases different to the databases running at Ubisoft?
They’re not different. THEY’RE EXACTLY THE SAME.
Therefore the question is this, “why are databases in Coinbase treated differently to databases at Ubisoft or Webzen or…Nintendo?”
And in case you didn’t know, genius, Bitcoin is just another database. It is not money at all, any more than Renown is.
No one has managed to provide an explanation for this different treatment of identical databases. It’s perplexing.
And I can tell you right now, that when people pretending to understand Bitcoin who are tasked with making legal judgements about it are asked this question, they have no answer. They are silent.
These legally trained non field experts are in fact imposters who don’t understand anything about Bitcoin, video games, databases, webhooks, webviews, iframes, software or anything about the contexts, realities, facts and common practices that are now decades old.
It’s also incredible that so many people “in Bitcoin” are also impostors; claiming that Bitcoin is money, that it is fundamentally different to MySQL and that it should be treated differently in law to any other database.
These people explanation for these deceived “Bitcoiners” is that they’re in a cult.
What is your excuse?
https://medium.com/swlh/why-america-cant-regulate-bitcoin-8c77cee8d794https://m.primal.net/JXek.jpg
Nostr: “A web with authenticity where every note is signed.”
This is not true, and whoever wrote this doesn't understand what a Digital Signauture is.
Digital Signatures are made with unique text files called "Private Keys". They are not biometric keys and do not require a human to put them in a computer process.
A machine can make a digitally signed message and post it to Nostr; it is trivially easy to do because keys (which are merely strings of text [https://medium.com/swlh/why-america-cant-regulate-bitcoin-8c77cee8d794]) can be assigned as variables in any programming language.
The undercurrent thinking here is the Statist obsession with everyone on earth being uniquely identifiable by an ID Card of some sort, "To stop the Trolls and Spammers". Sorry; Nostr does not fix spam.
Nostr: "A web that's machine payable by default."
This line shows that the person who wrote it doesn't understand Public Key Encryption or how Bitcoin works.
If a machiine can pay money with Bitcoin (sign a message with a Private Key) automatically, why can't a machine make an unlimited number of spam posta (yes, "Posta") on Nostr using a Private key to sign and post a message?
The answer is there is nothing stopping machines from posting on Nostr. It also costs nothing to post on Nostr (but costs something for people to run nodes for other people who don't pay; a fundamental impediment to built in anti-Spam). Oh dear.
There is a lot of breathless talk about Nostr, and thoughtful enthusiasm in general is good, because without enthusiasm, developers (who as Will just said are not being paid) will not work on it.
The direction of travel is essentially correct on a very high level, but direction of travel and wishful thinking is not a destination, and without rational thinking taking what things actually are, and economics into account at the most basic level (that machines can sign messages, and authenticity doesn't come from clearsigning text with a Private Key [https://medium.com/@beautyon_/beach-boy-bitcoin-64f62bed4c7e] and that it costs money to run nodes and scale and a great many other things...) it is not possible for the fantasies of Nostr fanatics to come true.
Primal may be on to something with its integrated Bitcoin wallet. That's the single thing that makes me post "here". It remains to be seen what comes next, and I'm certainly paying attention to the software that gets released. Less impressive is the gushing nonsense of fanboys I'm afraid.
Nostr doesn't suck. It's an idea in progress and it is very inspiring how it has been taken up and is being worked on.
Anyone who expects these things to come out of the box fully formed is not thinking straight. Unfortunately, in a world where censorship is a very big and real problem, people (including me) sometimes have little patience for the breathless nonsens masquerading as thinking.
Nostr should exist, just like Mastedon. BBses, Napster, Gnutella, BitTorrent were all steps in a progressoin towards an unstoppable and super efficient network (BitTorrent) that solved a very big problem leading to the ultimate question:
"What are Your Latest \/\/ 4 |^ 3 z"
I can't say where on the BBS to BitTorrent scale Nostr is, or even what its final destination is. What I can say is claiming that it can stop spam "Becuz digital signat00z" is ridiculous and very silly.
There is nothing more strange than people cosplaying as nonconformists who are in fact ultra conformists, taking on every trend, sacrament and lunacy of the State and putting it on as a badge of honor.
What utter nutcases!
They think that by doing this, by accepting everything, they're being "Open Minded" but in fact, what they're demonstrating is they've been brainwashed to be MKULTRA level "Blank Slated".
They will accept literally anything that comes out of the TV, embrace it, reflect it and promote it on command. Even their petty, wafer thin arguments and insults are taken from the playbook of the State.
That's why they use CIA created terms like "Conspiracy Theorist", thinking that using that term is completely destructive of any argument put to them.
These "men" are the "Useful Idiots", and as I've said before, there are many Useful Idiots in the Bitcoin Cult.
If these people really understood the effects that Bitcoin as money, the only money, on their beloved "Society", they would turn on it and fight to the death to destroy it.
They delude themselves that Bitcoin is "A Community" and other feel good nonsense as a psychological self protection denial strategy to excuse themselves from participating and promoting an idea that is 100% corrosive to their ideologies...which are, of course, not their ideologies at all, but that are in fact, ideologies trained into their disorderly Blank Slate minds by the State.
Once again, this is why it is so important to get the people who actually control things on side with Bitcoin, because it is those people who are brainwashing the members of The Bitcoin Cult, in addition to being in control of the major rails.
Once the Blackrocks, Banks, Rail Operators and different Nation States have all adopted Bitcoin, then they will brainwash their millions of hapless minions to accept it too, on whatever terms they're told to accept it. And they will accept, and promote and protect it, as if it was theirs and the idea came from them.
It is already proven that even "Hard Core" Bitcoiners can be switched from "Bitcoin Only" to "synthetic dollars too" as a completely acceptable idea, so it is abundantly clear that no real thinking or philosophical positioning or ethics are at work with them.
And don't even start on the purely anti-Bitcoin Ordinals debacle. These people are as leaves in the wind, followers of fashion; "Brown is the new Black", grasping at every fad, distraction and nonsense. They can be told that night is day and they will truly believe it, and repeat it, without torture (https://youtube.com/watch?v=EoDOazaijYY&ab_channel=HigherQualityUploads).
This is "Blank Slate" thinking, which in many ways, is worse than The Bitcoin Cult, because at least with the Cult, education is taking place with people who can be caused to join through careful persuasion. The "Blank Slaters" (https://youtube.com/watch?v=gAYOHh0B-4k&ab_channel=VadaVada) just accept anything they're told no matter how crazy or counterintuitive or anti-Bitcoin it is. No thinking or discernment is going on of any kind. YIKES!
Despite all of these problems, it is clear that Bitcoin is on a trajectory to do what it was designed to do, and the cosplaying, reality denying, wind blown, upside down circus clown, joiner, brainwashed, "Vassal of the State", shallow, uninspiring Useful Idiot class are already diminishing in influence.
Is it their own fault? I don't believe it is.
Brainwashees are victims of the State. They have been poisoned and systematically erased by vicious liars who have horribly mistreated and permanently damaged them. It's not their fault.
In the parallel universe one planck length away from this one, these people are virtuous, discerning, un gullible and very useful. They are not altcoiners, time wasters, Ordinal fans, threadbare hangers on or infantilized. They are problem solvers, not problem shirkers. They don't shrink from a challenge. They are strong, resilient, brave and patient; they're careful and powerful.
They are not objectionable. They have intellect with discipline; they use power for constructive purpose.
They are logical.
And lest anyone be in doubt, they're a riot to be with.
But that's the parallel universe. You are inhabiting this universe. And...that's...interesting...isn't it?!
https://m.primal.net/JVDY.jpg
"You can't print missiles"
Fuentes is very very close to the true reason why Bitcoin was written and its super power.
If you can't print money, you can't print missiles.
IF it is true that the stockpiles are running low all over the west (it is) then this means that they have to selectively use the weapons remaining to achieve short term goals. IF they wait to attack Iran, this gives Iran time to arm and become a threat.
This is the calculation they're making.
Russia has won, and cannot be defeated or even realistically challenged. So the calculus is to retreat from confrontation with Russia, saving face if possible, and then using the last of the weaponry on Iran, before a restocking exercise worth hundreds of billions in contracts is agreed.
All of this goes away if Bitcoin suddenly becomes the money of the entire world.
It will mean all inter State competition on Earth will be for Bitcoin and the people who can understand how it works under the hood.
There can no longer be steal taxes of inflation, and lying about what inflation is will not help; fiat is dead.
All of this is within grasp, and more and more people are waking up to it.
Iran, if it wanted to be really clever would totally abandon all nuclear development and wait for the dollar system to collapse. In fact, they should contribute to its collapse by adopting Bitcoin.
Now that would be REALLY clever.
Thankfully under President Trump, America is turning pro Bitcoin and will pinch off any possibility of other countries dominating in it.
All he has to do is allow the Constitution to do its work
https://medium.com/swlh/why-america-cant-regulate-bitcoin-8c77cee8d794
And then America's enemies will fall because the dollar system has collapsed and they will have no means of exchange other than with Bitcoin...which they don't have and can't generate in the short term.
SUPER INTERESTING!
https://x.com/SamParkerSenate/status/1813078436577178053
Craig "Faketoshi" Wright, compelled to admit he is a liar and fraudster https://craigwright.net
And this is not the end of the end of Faketoshi, because he perjured himself, and has to be brought to justice for that.
Now that the very real and serious threat of Faketoshi has been destroyed, the difficult business of untangling other lies about Bitcoin can commence, and the biggest and most deeply entrenched lie is that Bitcoin is money.
Judge Mellor in his judgement on page 41 says, "Although Dr Wright has gone quiet...he clearly has a number of disciples who will not accept that he is not Satoshi."
The same thinking that compels idiots to believe Craig Wright is Satoshi is also at work in the many people who think Bitcoin is money and who compel KYC/AML on its use.
To destroy this dangerous and stupid idea, a concerted effort will need to be made by people with the correct narratives and contexts to finally free Bitcoiners from this last impediment to it going viral.
To do this, someone with the means and the software is going to have to release and combine tools and services that utterly destroy any idea that Bitcoin is money simply by those tools being used.
Those tools may or may not exist, but when they do, you can expect them to not only "Free the Bitcoin" but to also become the default way people interact with it, because by freeing the Bitcoin from the distorted, perverted, anti-human and base thinking of Ambulance Chasers, they will flash into the market in an unprecedented viral event faster than the spread of Hotmail in its early days.
The only question is how long is this going to take, and who is going to do it.
Unfortunately the first generation of Bitcoiners cannot make this argument. In their enthusiast's mindset, desperate to wake people up to the power of Bitcoin, they used convenient analogies to persuade and explain what Bitcoin is. Many of them were not technical or computer literate, and so the field was salted and poisoned.
These dangerous analogies have now been taken as fact, in fact, they're almost held as sacraments of the Bitcoin Cult. Thankfully it is not them that need to be the target of the recontextualizing and cleansing of the narrative.
And it will most probably be a years long cleansing rain and plowing under of the soil that's required, so that crops of new Bitcoiners can grow who are free from the poison Bitcoin Cult.
When this happens, it will be worth it for all the people who opted to tell the truth and not lie about Bitcoin. And worth it means gaining hundreds of millions of users and transacting many many Bitcoin.
There is also the humanitarian element to consider.
Anyone mischaracterizing Bitcoin is participating in the restricting of Bitcoin to western hands. Without going hyperbolic about the true nature of this thinking and its results, let's just say there is a bad word that describes these people and their thinking.
There are literally billions of people who have a strong need of Bitcoin, and they can only be reached by treating Bitcoin by its nature, just as Skype and WhatsApp reached billions by not categorising their services as telephony.
Bear in mind also; all the employees making decisions about not serving people all come from the demographic that is served by default.
They have an inbuilt bias against the people who cannot be served by reason of their twisted, parochial and false assumptions, many of which are completely provably irrational.
In conclusion, make no mistake. Paradigm shifting events are coming that will change the face of Bitcoin. The mask must come off it is to succeed, and dedicated, logical and fearless people are ripping that mask off.
https://m.primal.net/JTEL.jpg
There is no such thing as “Positive Crypto Regulation”. This chart, from an Irish perspective, is done from the point of view that has 0 understanding of what software is or how Bitcoin actually works.
All true Bitcoiners are working furiously in what is now the reopened Battlefront of Bitcoin: PERCEPTION.
The Luddistic, poisonous, Statist false narratives about Bitcoin that have temporarily poisoned the ecosystem and sent it into a raging fever, must be sweated out. This work has started.
When the frictionless flow of millions of dollars per hour are is at stake, tolerance for ignorance and anti-Bitcoin narratives will suddenly vanish up and down the ecosystem.
The plebs will not tolerate the abuse that is a natural consequence of the thinking that produced this map, and business leaders will fight against it. And they’ll win.
Anyone who has an actual financial stake in how Bitcoin is used in practice is against miss-classification of it; that’s how you can detect allies of Bitcoin as distinct from people who believe Bitcoin is a toy or a means to do something unrelated to directly serving others.
Note too how Nigeria is the number two country on earth for Bitcoin adoption but number one for hostility from the State.
Fascinating.
This should tell you that the regulationistas are on a hiding to nothing and that the broken philosophies will not be tolerated, will be rejected by the people, and eventually by the courts, as you’ve seen with the ETF judgement in the USA.
Regulationistas are on the wrong side of history. This is already proven time and time again in cases touching software, and so this is a matter of reeducation and law-fare.
COPA and the SEC ETF victory, as well as historic wins (Bernstein etc https://medium.com/swlh/why-america-cant-regulate-bitcoin-8c77cee8d794) show this clearly.
Properly run countries are going to reap the rewards of the new global financial system. Countries that are badly led or misled will not. And Bitcoin always wins. It’s as simple as that.
https://youtu.be/dLyQ-LIAQIs?si=DEhSnq8KYwH19_pUhttps://m.primal.net/JHMz.jpg
This is a photograph of fake tempura made from wax.
You can't eat it. It doesn't smell like tempura. It is used for show, for display. It isn't real.
In a world full of hungry people (the world you live in) a factory that makes this cannot feed a single person.
And yet, the world is full of food. You can use your prodigious skill to set up a factory that manufactures real tempura that feeds real people...who are real.
This is the difference between talking about Bitcoin and doing something about Bitcoin that puts Bitcoin into people's hands so they can use it.
Tempura can't make itself. It requires people who know what tempura is, how to prepare all the different parts that make it up, and if you want to be special, how to serve and present it.
1. Prepare Ingredients:
• Clean and cut vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
• Devein and clean shrimp, leaving tails on for easier handling.
2. Make the Batter:
• In a bowl, beat the egg, then add the ice-cold water and mix lightly.
• Gradually add the sifted flour, mixing with chopsticks or a fork to avoid overmixing. The batter should be slightly lumpy.
3. Heat Oil:
• Heat vegetable oil in a deep fryer or large pot to 340-360°F (170-180°C).
4. Coat and Fry:
• Dip the prepared ingredients into the batter, allowing any excess to drip off.
• Fry in batches, ensuring not to overcrowd the pot, until golden and crispy (about 2-3 minutes).
• Remove and drain on a wire rack or paper towels.
5. Serve:
• Serve immediately with a dipping sauce such as tentsuyu (a mix of dashi, soy sauce, and mirin).
That's quite the ingredients list and procedure, isn't it?
Bear in mind you need access to ice, vegetable oil, eggs, clean water, flour, vegetables and fire before you even begin to use the knowledge of what tempura is and that it is even possible or desirable as a dish.
Also to note, the idea of tempura and ever other dish can be conveyed from one person to another through a book. Books are useful, in fact essential to the spreading of ideas across time and generations. Man needs books and books are a good thing and books on Bitcoin are a good thing too.
But...
In order for anything to change, for justice to be done, for things to be fixed, for people to be protected, for Bitcoin to spread into the world, Bitcoin needs doers and not talkers.
Without people who are willing to risk their own money, time and lives, Bitcoin cannot do what it was designed to and is capable of doing. In fact, Bitcoin can't do anything at all by itself, because it is not a person.
You are a person, and only people like you can do something, do anything about Bitcoin or with it.
Julian Assange took great risks with his life to expose the vile, vicious crimes of the State and expose them to everyone. The world is a slightly better place because the information Wikileaks had access to was released.
Bitcoin is different however. It is more important.
With the information that Bitcoin is, by using information, the entire world can be changed. It can be moved off of unsound slave-money to sound money that doesn't cheat anyone.
When Bitcoin is the world's money (the money everyone on earth uses) then outrages like "Collateral Murder" can no longer happen, because there's no money for it.
If you support the need for sound money and dislike the arbitrary killing of innocent people, and you are a fan of Wikileaks, then getting Bitcoin to the position of the world's only money should be one of your biggest goals.
Your highest priority should be to help Bitcoin in some way. No amount of talking can make Bitcoin globally ubiquitous. Very specific and risky acts need to be executed to make this happen, and of course, even if you spend your life under a baseball cap for OPSEC, eventually, if you help Bitcoin become normal, no one will think you are odd for using it, and you will have no reason to cover your face, fear anyone knowing that you use Bitcoin or in any way treat yourself as special or odd because you use Bitcoin.
That's what winning looks like.
Winning does not look like going to a restaurant, ordering and then being served plastic tempura.
Winning is not reading Le Guide Culinaire and being served 10th rate Johnny Carson talk show LARPing in place of a divine Chocolate Soufflé. Nothing can replace doing something that is real, or participating meaningfully in something that is real.
Winning is not possible if people are not willing to participate in real ways that sometimes involve risk. The world requires it, and Bitcoin becoming the global default requires it also.
Julian Assange, Phillip R. Zimmerman, Ron Rivest, Richard M. Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Sean Parker, Shawn Fanning, Bram Cohen, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, Arthur Rock and not so many others all did their part to change the world profoundly, at great risk to themselves. They won, and because they won, everyone on Earth benefitted as a consequence.
These people are the elites. The best of the bunch. Unique.
You don't have to be as great as them to be great or to contribute. All that is required of you is to face reality as best you can.
And perhaps you can't. Perhaps all you can do is hid under your hat "for OPSEC" and let the world unfold as it may, with other people taking all the risk.
That's OK.
What is needed, what is coming, what is inevitable, are people who will take the risks, change everything and by dint of this, benefit the entire world. You are not needed to make this happen.
This is about the choice you can make; the choice that is available to you to stop LARPINg and to start HELPING.
Apparently, if you choose the latter, you'll find you feel good about yourself. And that would be a nice thing.
Right?
https://m.primal.net/JAKj.png
Note how Apple releases these things without asking permission.
This is how all companies should behave by default. Don’t ask permission. Release the code.
“Don't ask for permission, ask for for forgiveness later”
PGP, BitTorrent and so many other world changing tools were released in this way.
This is why I like Apple. They are leaders, and actually care about their users to the extent that they will take risks for them on a global scale.
Wait till they incorporate Bitcoin.
nostr:note1zvpc40kwa86tulfsn78w3wstw3tn8x457hvv5uczk67k5a6cacmq0tycz4
This is correct in sentiment, but it doesn't actually mean anything in practice.
What does "defending" mean? It means nothing when it comes to how people get Bitcoin.
The only way you can preserve the power to buy Bitcoin in ways that you want is to either
A: Set up a business that does it
B: Promote businesses that do it
If you are unwilling or unable to set up a business yourself, you're left with promoting and supporting businesses that provide access to Bitcoin in ways you know are correct.
If you fall short of doing this, the obvious question is "why"?
Why would you fail to promote businesses that are taking the multivariate risks to provide Bitcoin in the way that you want?
How is it that people believe that business can exist without people using them, and that failing to promote and support businesses doing things right is essentially suicidal?
How is it that in 2024, there are people who don't understand this, and that particularly in "Bitcoin" the profit motive is frowned upon?
If they think that "Non KYC" Bitcoin can spread without businesses being the spreader, why do they not ever offer that alternative, even in outline?
Not only do they fail to mention the name of any Bitcoin delivery service, they consistently fail to mention any wallet that does not require personally identifying information (Samourai, Green, Wallet of Satoshi, BlueWallet, Muun, Satoshi, Phoenix and Breez for examples).
It's baffling.
And of course, Azteco (azte.co) offers access to Bitcoin in the way it should be delivered; exactly the same as email accounts, SIM cards and bags of potatoes.
The man in the street who knows nothing about Bitcoin but who encounters it through Azteco first, will never accept any service that asks him for his personal details, not through any philosophical objection, but because he doesn't want his precious time wasted.
That will be enough to make "non KYC Bitcoin" the global default, and that's a good thing, because it is a good thing that people have privacy, promote privacy and the people who offer it as a feature.
A world without privacy would be a bad place, and silence in the face of evil is evil itself.
You defend privacy by openly advocating for it, explaining it, and spreading information about the companies and services ("Ethical Bitcoin") that offer it. This is what you should be doing if you are interested in Bitcoin.
No excuses are acceptable in 2024!
https://m.primal.net/IuPN.png
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FOSS stands for **Free and Open Source Software**. It refers to software that is both free to use (as in freedom) and whose source code is openly available for anyone to inspect, modify, and distribute. Here’s what each term means: 1. Free Software: - "Free" in this context refers to freedom, not necessarily price. Free software grants users the freedom to run, modify, and share the software. The key principles of free software are often summarized by the Four Freedoms: - Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose. - Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works and change it to make it do what you wish (access to the source code is a precondition for this). - Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others. - Freedom 3: The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this, you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. 2. Open Source Software: - Open source software is similar to free software, but the focus is more on the collaborative benefits of making the source code available. The term "open source" emphasizes that the source code is open and accessible to anyone. Users can modify the software and distribute their modified versions. - Open source projects often involve collaboration among developers from all over the world, contributing to the software's development, bug fixes, and new features. Examples of FOSS: - Linux: An open-source operating system kernel that is the basis for many operating systems (e.g., Ubuntu, Debian). - Apache: An open-source web server software. - Firefox: A free and open-source web browser. - LibreOffice: A free and open-source office suite. - GIMP: A free and open-source image editor. Benefits of FOSS: - Transparency: Anyone can inspect the source code to verify what the software does. - Control: Users have control over the software and can modify it to suit their needs. - Community b: FOSS projects often have large communities that contribute to and support the software. - Cost: Most FOSS is available at no cost, making it accessible to a broader audience. FOSS plays a crucial role in the software ecosystem, empowering users and developers to create, share, and improve software freely. For founders, CTOs, and developers of Bitcoin companies however, whether your code is FOSS, or not has nothing to do with asking for your users trust. Your code being free is irrelevant, and being a Bitcoin company has nothing to do with the license your software runs under. The vast majority of users who run FOSS never read the licenses or Source Code of the tools they use; they are normal people who simply want to get things done. Gimp, Apache, Linux, Firefox are all fine tools that the license they're offered under has no bearing on the user's experience. People use Gimp because they could not afford Photoshop, not because the source code was available. Today, they run it because Photoshop has not been ported to any GNU+Linux operating system with the Gnome interface. If Adobe ported Photoshop to Ubuntu, everyone would abandon Gimp for PS overnight. ColdCard is secure not because people can copy the code; it is secure because it is properly and carefully written. The license code is written under cannot affect the execution or quality of software. This is the fundamental mistake Open Source fanatics make; they think virtue signaling to people who can't write "Hello World" in PHP matters; PROTIP, it DOESN'T MATTER and NO ONE CARES. Open Source can kill companies. If you release your source code, you are inviting people to copy your ideas and compete with you, with no advantage to yourself. The license you use to release your source doesn't matter either when it comes to the business risk; people can read your source and then re-implement it without using your code, and then BANG you've got a clone of your service trying to knock you out of the market. If the people who are cloning you are better funded, more clever, able to look people in the eye when being spoken to, and are affable, then you've got a real problem. And where are all the Bitcoin Cult checklist ticking followers when your magic dust is being "stolen" or "Ripped Off"? They will be nowhere...or buying the tools and service of your competitor because you believed some cult gibberish about MUH OPEN SAUCE. Sharing source code and licenses that compel disclosure are useful things in narrow circumstances, like tools that underpin everything; SSL, GPG, HTTPS, POP3, SMPTE, C, C++, Linux, Bitcoin and so many other tools used to build tools or build businesses. The number of developers working on these tools is astonishing and everyone benefits. This is beyond argument. But. Just because other Open Source tools have big developer bases, it does not follow that every tool must be open source, and that the act of disclosing your source code under the GPL will attract an army of developers commiting changes. You will have seen this with projects breathlessly announced at conferences that failed to attract developers to do the work for free to build them, the assumption being that developers are a magic and infinite resource with infinite time to work for free on an infinite amount of projects, the sole method of recruiting them being to chant "ACK" after posting your just about running source sketches on GitLab. This is the fact that is left out when cheerleaders for Open Source make irrational claims about Open Source being the foundation of user trust. They're not seeing the big picture, are fatally unrealistic and in fact, don't see the picture at all. It's a safe bet that they are not using Ubuntu, Mint or any GNU+Linux operating system for their daily work either, but are in fact hypocrites using *CHOKE* MiCro$oft Winblows and Micro$oft Visual Studio Code or MacOS as their development platform. They will never tell you this of course, while they type out their pro Open Source screeds on Google Chrome or M$ Word. We all know this. In the final (and financial) analysis, all the virtue signalling in the world will not make people use your tool. Only a small number of fanatics care about the license your work is released under, and those people will not move the needle when it comes to changing the world, and the ones that will change the world will copy your weak sauce and turn it into hot sauce. Bitcoin changing the world does not require Open Sourced tools; it requires what google did with Chrome; blasting the competition (Internet Exploder) to smithereens with a browser that beat every other browser by being better for the consumer. Failing to understand this is in 2024 a fundamental error. Thankfully, there are serious people coming to Bitcoin who do not care about any of this, and who are focussed on doing a narrow range of things right. Google's Chrome is focussed on browsing the internet securely and quickly in a standards based way, providing password management and a few other things along the way. A very small number of things. They're not interested in the latest fad, and do not have a model where they keep adding new services to their offering to be cool and hip; they do one thing and do it right. Bitcoin companies are coming that do one thing and do it right. They are extremely focussed (not laser focussed) and they know that bitcoin is for other people, not for developers. By understanding this, they will be the people who change everything. And again when it comes to the license your tool is released under, as far as the public is concerned... IT DOESN'T MATTER and NO ONE CARES. https://m.primal.net/KGEp.pngThis is correct in sentiment, but it doesn't actually mean anything in practice. What does "defending" mean? It means nothing when it comes to how people get Bitcoin. The only way you can preserve the power to buy Bitcoin in ways that you want is to either A: Set up a business that does it B: Promote businesses that do it If you are unwilling or unable to set up a business yourself, you're left with promoting and supporting businesses that provide access to Bitcoin in ways you know are correct. If you fall short of doing this, the obvious question is "why"? Why would you fail to promote businesses that are taking the multivariate risks to provide Bitcoin in the way that you want? How is it that people believe that business can exist without people using them, and that failing to promote and support businesses doing things right is essentially suicidal? How is it that in 2024, there are people who don't understand this, and that particularly in "Bitcoin" the profit motive is frowned upon? If they think that "Non KYC" Bitcoin can spread without businesses being the spreader, why do they not ever offer that alternative, even in outline? Not only do they fail to mention the name of any Bitcoin delivery service, they consistently fail to mention any wallet that does not require personally identifying information (Samourai, Green, Wallet of Satoshi, BlueWallet, Muun, Satoshi, Phoenix and Breez for examples). It's baffling. And of course, Azteco (azte.co) offers access to Bitcoin in the way it should be delivered; exactly the same as email accounts, SIM cards and bags of potatoes. The man in the street who knows nothing about Bitcoin but who encounters it through Azteco first, will never accept any service that asks him for his personal details, not through any philosophical objection, but because he doesn't want his precious time wasted. That will be enough to make "non KYC Bitcoin" the global default, and that's a good thing, because it is a good thing that people have privacy, promote privacy and the people who offer it as a feature. A world without privacy would be a bad place, and silence in the face of evil is evil itself. You defend privacy by openly advocating for it, explaining it, and spreading information about the companies and services ("Ethical Bitcoin") that offer it. This is what you should be doing if you are interested in Bitcoin. No excuses are acceptable in 2024! https://m.primal.net/IuPN.png