Good morning


To be fair, Bobby will talk to anyone.


This boy SAVED the INTERNET… but couldn't save himself.

10 years ago, he was persecuted by his government, and ultimately paid with his life.

Aaron Swartz is a modern hero that most people DO NOT KNOW.

But they should.

https://image.nostr.build/a5163a2d322330e5853e14ddf87d1613eecbdff0e23451d9f3059d3c1e0cd723.jpg

Aaron was creative, focused, and brilliant.

At 14, he invented RSS; He dropped out of Stanford; At 19, he was in the first Y Combinator class; He co-founded Reddit.

Most likely, if he were alive today, he would be involved with #Bitcoin.

But that’s not EVEN 1% of what he did for us 🙏

Let’s take a look 👇

https://image.nostr.build/37c7dd4a0ddbad0ae5a98babc66adc4916cc4a03b13d63d0fced0e6c3e0541fd.jpg

From a young age, Aaron believed in an OPEN INTERNET. In computers as a tool for LIBERATION.

"But wait, wasn’t the internet always open?"

No.

Believe it or not, there was a time when they wanted you to REGISTER your ID before you could browse or send an email.

https://image.nostr.build/77deabc6b94e160f43a3dd1522c5dac30061ac5423e6b2e3df10162a25e8e612.png

https://image.nostr.build/960a2e8b7b518cd7f34af6d791518cdabf7b7cdc22366decc16c667cad1f727f.jpg

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He believed that PUBLIC LEGAL RECORDS and SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH should be accessible to everyone.

But in the U.S.,

• 98% of scientific articles are behind paywalls; and
• ~80% of legal records are too.

Imagine being sued and still having to pay to view the documents?

https://video.nostr.build/2af872c7a7d1b74ce0fb8d42369a87df45a7ee2d23df006d287b58ac60fcfe26.mp4

Aaron's war had 3 major battles.

The first was against PACER.

A legal records database.

PACER is PAID... but it was "free" in 17 public libraries.

With friends, Aaron wrote a script on a USB drive, plugged it into a USB port, downloaded 2.7 million documents... and SET THEM FREE.

https://video.nostr.build/21b565dd1742bc950748be2ac0e0ce2868f4b94c54d1da9321a198c49fe85d1e.mp4

No charges were made against the group.

But the FBI began to take notice.

That had only been the beginning. That boy would still challenge the system.

The following year, Aaron would enter the biggest fight of his life — and the greatest battle in internet history against censorship ✊

https://image.nostr.build/ab43c6a3d189953bfee2fdc26760e819bc9e637dce97d0c8362a36192487b0aa.png

"SOPA/PIPA" 👉 if you're over 20, you probably still remember these acronyms.

A bill to "combat piracy"... which was just an excuse for the government to shut down ANY SITE, without warning.

Some companies loved the idea.

But those who loved the internet fought back.

https://image.nostr.build/605d066f5a7cc73cf8efe620725ac19f3fa9e85b760acd9e66b6f637b6837681.jpg

And then, something wonderful happened.

We still knew how to fight against online censorship.

In a coordinated response, the biggest websites on the internet "went on STRIKE."

Wikipedia and Reddit went offline. Google turned black.

Protests also erupted in the STREETS.

But...

https://image.nostr.build/605d066f5a7cc73cf8efe620725ac19f3fa9e85b760acd9e66b6f637b6837681.jpg

https://image.nostr.build/12adaed7c7a5ce9e8ce3c0944111c45e0e311b02c14319ef31910ea3ee5c60aa.jpg

https://image.nostr.build/7a23543a1a8be95067289d830c766a4af93a321402ba1e2f53b268d660cba2fa.jpg

https://image.nostr.build/0f934d461a5491c39928a1a1bdbfbefe16cb4f70abd6e8bb54c9ee2e6621b438.jpg

... but people have short memories.

This battle was won.

However, the NEXT one would be the LAST for young Aaron.

This MIT security camera was the final straw that ruined his life 👇📹

https://image.nostr.build/e48beb62bce1cdc7554d8e602786a29969a687202f7c7e6971f9f203de3160e6.png

JSTOR was Swartz's final target: the largest database of academic papers in the world.

Aaron wrote a script to download MILLIONS of papers, over the course of months, using his MIT access, in a small room.

MIT has a rebellious culture.

But the FBI could no longer tolerate the boy's defiance.

https://image.nostr.build/0f98f712709cacd788a841186630069f9b8877bbea34374f83c529e0b29d1385.jpg

With the video evidence, the U.S. prosecution charged Aaron with 13 crimes. Up to 50 years in prison.

In January 2011, he was arrested by undercover agents near the Harvard campus.

From then on, he was legally tortured.

Two years later, he would be found dead at home.

https://image.nostr.build/0e6b2b6d4ac93cc031267d6a3ae4fdd1afbaf7154c3d1b28db144e703325eff3.png

https://image.nostr.build/94285f292eb025a91ba591bb14ac0c8739607d428a956f73eb01a7b5c2f1f360.png

"Aaron would be 38 years old today.

He was accused of 'pirating' scientific papers funded with public money.

Facing up to 50 years in prison, he took his own life.

Those he inspired continue to democratize access to science.

Let us remember him."

*These are the words of Susan, his mother.

https://image.nostr.build/cb82dfbd1b0675e53a6a24ba2b6c6c50be08b60dc315f9a3cfbf3de4ded0a191.jpg

After his death, the charges were dropped by the government.

Aaron never considered entering a 'plea deal'. He would have faced millions of dollars in legal costs.

The father of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, published a short poem at the time that says it all:

“The world was a little worse for his passing,
But a lot better for his being.”

https://image.nostr.build/110bd2ce6b535252ecff250b6609cc6f301b906f6681c2459d375c09af2a9548.png

Aaron wasn’t a unanimous figure. You may disagree with his methods.

But he was faithful to his ideal.

He was genuine. Firm in what he believed.

He was a person who used his prodigious skills not to enrich himself, but to make the internet fairer, and the world a better place.

https://image.nostr.build/570b43a6887dfa430be76e33a416c7bbc65d05e9acf0404ae46ad1a522bf9abc.jpg

Aaron had worked with Virgil Griffith (former Ethereum, now imprisoned for "teaching about crypto" to North Koreans).

He knew Elizabeth Stark (from Lightning).

He was friends with Zooko.

And he wrote about #Bitcoin — on the DAY he was arrested (1/6/11)! 😢

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/squarezooko

https://image.nostr.build/5809cf5fa01059fd6333df5a3010a49fbb17642f447d33674ea4388640fb9703.png

https://image.nostr.build/e7fe674ce2598619319edeae7a342da44e8d35baf99aac31df07924c446b8e56.png

https://image.nostr.build/a5ccd76d96ed40ca7a6337050c427d0caee576d1221858aef7e841e32fb9b00c.png

Curious? To learn more about the story, start with this documentary (on YouTube) 👇

[https://youtu.be/9vz06QO3UkQ](https://youtu.be/9vz06QO3UkQ)

We’ll finish with an excerpt from the "Manifesto for Free Access," by Aaron himself:

"Information is power. But, like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come to the light, and, in the tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to the private theft of public culture.

We must take information, wherever it is, make our copies, and share them with the world."

RIP, Aaron ✊

https://image.nostr.build/18af509a01336df22725822ce2acc3b3008e433dcd83b4c617ad6b877501e34e.png

https://image.nostr.build/a1bf70d3e884b2ff36f35576fc914d42cb71663440d512d89b3c93bc1af5902f.png

https://image.nostr.build/7aa7111a401e98bc3a02ff2ab2321839c79e89f9845bbdaa654f3d468f79b3b0.png


Obligatory visit in El Salvador, el futuro está aquí.

https://m.primal.net/LyFN.jpg


Camus?


I'll hold you to that


"[Bitcoin] is not a sword for Theseus to fight the Minotaur, but a thread to follow to exit the labyrinth." —Allen Farrington


Looking good!


Sid crosby type snipe
https://m.primal.net/IDPM.jpg


His cover of Rage against the machine is amazing. Dude got some lungs on him.


This is really, really good and worth the read. nostr:npub1sg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q0uf63m discusses his exit from Bluesky, the mistakes that Bluesky made, censorship with Twitter, why he's bullish on Nostr's future, and more. Thanks for all of your support, Jack. You're a legend. https://www.piratewires.com/p/interview-with-jack-dorsey-mike-solana


I wanted to make a shareable overview video that people can point their family and friends to about money, banking, and bitcoin.

“Read this 500 page book” doesn’t always go over well, but “watch this half hour video” is more approachable.

So, hopefully it’s helpful:

https://youtu.be/jk_HWmmwiAs?si=-8Okyee-gqeaPdvm


it's still such a cool thought even now


I impromptu interviewed a social engineering hacker. https://m.soundcloud.com/junsethsworld/interview-with-a-social-engineering


Thanks everyone, much love to all the mother's out there.


They've said enough


on avg about an hour, especially when i haven't trained in a while so i dont burn myself out. Consistency  is easier to maintain that way for me.


Thanks for the tip, I assume that the same goes for splicing as well?


Fees are low. Do your Bitcoin things now. Open channels, consolidate UTXOs (🥹) etc. https://m.primal.net/IEwE.png


privacy pls lol


Hello


Okay so how?


You know it feels like im having a revelation right now?


So long story short, I got seriously ill last year and as result couldn't go on a trip to Peru that I had planned. Now because of that I received a refund for a new airline ticket, and after some thought decided not to go to Peru at the and of the year- but to El Salvador.

I've been an avid Bitcoiner for some years now, and I want to see with my own eyes what changes Bukele and a bitcoin standard mean. Also, it's been a rough year for me so I could use the break from daily life and polishing up my Spanish is also something that I look forward to.

Just felt like sharing this, and I welcome any  recommendations/advice for when I visit the country, even if this is just a post into the void called Nostr.

Deep fucking cheers.


This week is a reminder why Kendrick Lamar is one of the best to ever do it.


Hermano, qué coño haces otra vez? hahaha


Onward. https://opensats.org/blog/opensats-receives-additional-funding-of-dollar21m-from-startsmall


Lending attention to negativity only strengthens it.

Love is the answer.

I 💜 U. GM #Plebchain nostr:note1cqtkdr0f7unxxpsfy6vg9k9aptuc8f5hdmstgsufk8zng9ql3l8qwn6cce


don’t depend on corporations to grant you rights.
defend them yourself using freedom technology.

(you’re on one)


It's  just like that line in The Big Short.

They create these terms so as to make you think that what they do is really difficult and only they can do it - and better yet, for you to leave them the fuck alone.


this is what we need


Nostr moved user identity from the application layer into the protocol layer.

I wonder how many people grasp the profundity of this.


Dream flow: buy new phone, enter 12 words, done.

Everything's set up, including my config, apps, contacts, etc. The 12 words are my nsec in this case ofc.


"There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs."

~ Thomas Sowell


BREAKING: zkSNACKs to Suspend Its Coinjoin Coordination Service on June 1st

zkSNACKs, the company pioneering the development of Wasabi Wallet, is shutting down its coinjoin coordination service, effective from June 1st, 2024. Wasabi Wallet will continue to function as a regular bitcoin wallet.

https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/zksnacks-to-suspend-its-coinjoin-coordination-service-on-june-1st/


David Hume would have disagreed

https://m.primal.net/ICVQ.gif


A couple of things here to clarify the importance of full nodes:

First
----------------------------------
The concept and purpose of running a node is very much like the idea that everyone should be able to own a gun to defend liberty.
- It doesn't mean everyone will.
- It doesn't mean individuals can "fight off the government goons" with a handgun.
- It doesn't mean the state isn't more powerful than one person with their gun.
- It DOES mean that to conquer an entire nation of determined, gun owning people who want their liberty requires *active* and *direct* attack, because collectively enough people are armed that popular resistance actually stands a chance against tyrannical governments (who are naturally cowards)

The logic for anyone and everyone running a node who is capable is shockingly similar here.

Second:
----------------------------------
"Have we ever retroactively fixed a 5 year old "error" in the chain? No. Will we ever, no. Do you ever think, I wonder if that transaction from 2016 is still valid, I had better check?"

It isn't really about knowing that every transaction that other people are conducting is valid, it's about ensuring that *the #bitcoin you own* are REAL bitcoin. Bitcoins are created, are defined, and exist entirely and *solely* by a set of rules being followed for how they are created and how they are validly transferred. HALF of the supply of bitcoins was created prior to 2013. If you aren't confirming that the blocks that mined your coins into existence followed the rules, then you don't know if you are following an honest network.
--- The prime example here is Bitcoin Dark, which forked off and created 300K extra coins in the "privacy pool balance," then waited almost a year and a half to withdraw the from the privacy pool and since almost no one ran a full node, it went unnoticed except for a bitcoiner who actually ran full nodes for tons of forks out of curiosity and publicly posted when his node saw the bizarre transaction.
--- You could easily argue that no one needed to care about what happened 15 months ago on the chain... and every one of them was getting scammed specifically because they didn't.

IF we don't have the chain & valid link that traces all the way back to when your coins are created, you have abandoned the triple entry accounting breakthrough.

Third
----------------------------------
It isn't about simply making sure people can keep up with the chain when it comes to cost. It's also about ensuring *real* consensus is maintained (again requiring proof that the bitcoins being transferred are also real) across all borders, against any and all attackers, through any firewalls, on public and private networks, AND can recover after a disaster or massive failure on the network or in the software. Even if cheap SDDs are 50TB, if it takes 6 months to sync the chain, and there is either a direct attack, or a major bug that corrupts the data and forces a reset and sync-from-beginning on 60% of the nodes, that threatens the security and decentralization of the entire global monetary foundation for half a year *at best,* while what may be more likely is that having only 40% of the nodes, just becomes the new normal, and we never go back to the security we once had.

Last
----------------------------------
This is about securing the *trend* of decentralization indefinitely into the future.
It will require constant and deliberate attention and work to ensure it. We will have constant and recurring layers and degrees of centralization in the market, in the technology and hardware around it, in service provision, in some layer on top of Bitcoin that we become overly dependent on, AND on the base layer as costs rise and incentives to run nodes are low. But when an attack arises, when this centralization threatens the censorship resistance, or permission-less nature of the network, we will suddenly and aggressively remember how important it is to run nodes - and it will always be a part of any attempt at defending and repairing those critical re-centralization trends to run a full node, verify everything, and ensure the broadcast layer cannot be squeezed out of existence. That it can be reached to any and all participants no matter where they are in the world.

So the real question is:
Will this get *easier* to secure and protect in 5 years, or will it be *harder*? Because if it is harder, we have a problem, because how much security and decentralization do we lose exactly? 10%? 20%? What happens when we compound that every 5 years for another 50? If we have set it up to become more centralized in an irreparable way, slowly and incrementally, then that's the surest way to guarantee we end up on a system that only a handful of people run and who can dictate or defraud the whole world as to what is a "real" bitcoin and what isn't.

----------------------------------

There are a number of other nuances here because running (and communicating) a full node history isn't merely a problem of hard drive space, in fact, that's the least of the problems and the one that scales the best... while it is still a problem despite. The bigger problems are the computation, the RAM requirements, the speed of data indexing/recall/verification, the bandwidth to download and broadcast the information that is coming to-and-from the base layer, AND of course to then do all of the computation and verification of the *numerous* layers on top of it that we will have to use. Remember that layers themselves are just another trade off, and it's not as if they cost nothing to run. It is merely that they cost *less* to run than scaling on the base layer.

So in short,
you can't really make this short, so read the whole thing.

------------------------------------
Also, I actually kind of like your final argument and position on the "you don't even vote in your own republic" is pretty good, but I think it works *in support* of the full node argument, it doesn't replace it.

nostr:note1v6gsv74asffdtv027m7gxhrtq8c8dfta0xff2ypgz7t0zdjqrg3qw6fzta


it's wild how fast shit goes in the space, that's hard in itself.


Come check out nostr:npub1qny3tkh0acurzla8x3zy4nhrjz5zd8l9sy9jys09umwng00manysew95gx stream on zap.stream! https://zap.stream/naddr1qqjrxd3jxqenzdmx95ckgvp4956xgcny95ungwf595ckvvnyxfjnjwpnxc6kzqgewaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8xmn0wf6zuum0vd5kzmp0qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq3zamnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wwa5kuef0qgsv73dxhgfk8tt76gf6q788zrfyz9dwwgwfk3aar6l5gk82a76v9fgrqsqqqan8w7dxnt


Shout out to that one retard that couldn't find the zapstream link (me)


Thanks for the info Matt, any idea what this means for Samourai going forward?


What did I miss?


Sparrow v1.8.3 released with:

PGP download file verifier
Coldcard Q1 support
Trezor Safe 3 support
Improved QR reading

And more: https://github.com/sparrowwallet/sparrow/releases/tag/1.8.3

https://sparrowwallet.com/download/ https://image.nostr.build/dd9ad8e9ad16b81e4b1638d76cad23e7c094d6314e9773605188297a375f524f.png


Hughes, Eric (1993)
“A Cypherpunk's Manifesto”

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

https://nakamotoinstitute.org/library/cypherpunk-manifesto


You just shrug that shit off, take whatever lessons to can from it, and then you just start over again.


Bullish af but yes; wen europe?


Test


GM


If you are healthy today (I am), you literally are wealthy.  You can do anything.   Be grateful.

Health is not valued enough by anyone until true sickness comes knocking.

I truly hope that all on here are blessed with great health today & in the future.


What comes to mind

https://m.primal.net/HddE.jpg


Being a coal miner is a tough job, I respect the grind.


https://video.nostr.build/b789c06a24006eed67067afb14106e524154529c9941a156eb6c9d7576eff900.mp4
#meme #memes #memestr


There is always more to learn,  I think that Fedimint will be an interesting protocol, but it's always about trade-offs. Here's Adam Gibson aka waxwing on Chaumian eCash in Bitcoin - Cashu & Fedimint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwMzNE1D3so


Thanks for everything that you do for the space Matt.

One step at a time.


Alarms are only the bane of my existence. I'll try to reach out more, thanks for the advice.


I'm currently using Primal.

On desktop it seems okay but on android I often have issues with connecting to relays, but overall UX is way better than last year.


It's about time


Genial!


Good morning, rise and shine folks, today is going to be a good day!


Retrying Nostr after almost a year