“Bhutan has mined over $1 billion worth of bitcoin using its previously stranded hydropower resources”
We are so early
Wait until every authority on earth realizes they can transform waste into unstoppable, unseizable money
That will be the true gradually then suddenly moment
🇧🇹
I mean. They can be, but don’t have to be
There are already ways to cryptographically verify that the mint is not cheating and these will improve
Plus fractional reserve banks used fiat credits and don’t speak Lightning
And all require ID
Why the Bitcoin <> Nostr <> Ecash stack is a whitepill moment, in 14 minutes
It can be a depressing world, but with these tools we can quite literally grow superpowers
The opportunities we have today to empower others are beyond our own imaginations
Onwards!
https://m.primal.net/LhGP.mp4
Not interested in dollar based ecash only bitcoin based
And sure you can KYC users but you don’t know what they are doing with your ecash which is the point
Whenever I see statists like the ECB get upset about Bitcoin, or when I see more brazen regimes try and actually implement an all-out ban or crazy tax scheme, I turn to my favorite bit of writing anywhere on Bitcoin and remind myself that a ban is the Berlin Wall and that “fragments of any ban will one day become souvenirs of the folly”
Bitcoin is Ariadne by @allen
“Bitcoin is often framed as “competing” with fiat currency. This is true in a sense but I fear there is a rhetorical danger of invoking the wrong kind of “competition”. It is not a fight, for example. There is no conflict. Bitcoin is not trying to damage or sabotage its opponents, because it isn’t trying anything and it knows no opponents. It has no awareness whatsoever of who might oppose it or why. It is simply an alternative; an exit valve; an opt-out. It is competing only insofar as it is proving to be a far superior alternative. It is not a sword for Theseus to fight the Minotaur, but a thread to follow to exit the labyrinth. Bitcoin is Ariadne.
There will be tremendous value in normalizing this rhetoric amidst the likely growing chorus of opposition desperate to smear Bitcoin as inherently nefarious, or hostile, even. Opponents must be forced to explain what is wrong with people interacting freely, and why true goodness can only follow from coercion, in their understanding. Should those who have found a way out of the unbearable labyrinth of capital strip mining not take it? What do they owe the Minotaur?
Does anybody really believe that, having fully understood the choice they face, any individual would choose to save in a self-referentially mispriced toxic loan rather than a provably sound digital bearer asset? Or, more simply still, that they will think it makes less sense to hold money that is a pure asset than money that is literally defined as a liability? Why not opt into a financial system that is built on trustless verifiability rather than unverifiable trust?
… It is worth working through the optics of any decision to engage with Bitcoin in a truly hostile manner, because it is certainly coming. McNeill reminds us that, even some seven-hundred-or-so years ago, “the breakdown of established patterns of conduct always appears deplorable to a majority of those who witness it.” By no means do I have a utopian outlook on this subject — rather, it is something of an intellectual rite of passage to accept the nonzero utility of dystopian paranoia. Bitcoin will be banned, many times, in many places. But a ban is an open admission of practical and moral failure and is arguably the best advertisement of all. A ban is the Berlin Wall; fragments of any ban will one day become souvenirs of the folly and cruelty of repression. Bitcoin doesn’t force anybody to stay. They come, and then they stay, because they want to — because it is both practically and morally superior.”
This isn’t at all the case
The reality is that the debt trap has never been deeper
The IMF and its loan book have never been larger
The austerity imposed on people today from Egypt to Kenya to Pakistan hasn’t caused this much suffering since the third world debt crisis in the 80s
I wish it were not so
Israelis could protest and force Bibi out (unlike Gazans who would get killed for protesting). A brave minority have protested. But the majority have not. And the destruction of Gaza is popular among Israelis in polls
“The only way to minimize the misery of the Palestinians in Gaza is to call for Hamas to surrender and disarm, on every opportunity”
This is delusional
Yes of course that would be awesome. Palestine will not be free until it has democratic leadership
But the MAIN urgent way right not to minimize the misery of the Palestinians is to stop bombing them to smithereens. Obviously
Palestinians have protested inside Gaza against Hamas, consistently ever since they seized power nearly 20 years ago
Enclosed you will find some Israeli media coverage of this from last year
Note that they risk their lives by doing this
"the ratio of civilians to combatants casualities is low compared" -- total nonsense, entire towns and communities and cities have been completely annihilated to kill a handful of people.
This would NEVER happen in Tel Aviv or in NYC. If a terrorist kidnapped 20 people inside a hospital or school, bombing the entire school would never be an option. And it should never ever be an option.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/protests-against-hamas-reemerge-in-the-streets-of-gaza-but-will-they-persist/
Why assume the payer has internet access?
Idea is similar to when you buy something with a credit card in person: you may not have a phone with you and may be otherwise totally offline, but it works
One amazing thing I learned about (out of many) at the ecash conference
A router for sharing internet
Someone from India, living in a place with a lot of internet access problems, built a set-up where people can buy internet without having any internet in the first place. 1 sat per minute
He built a captive portal that you log into and the page says — I take ecash from this one mint, get ecash from there and paste it into this text box — you paste it in, hit enter, and you’re online
You’ve made an offline payment and voila, you're now online
There are many exciting Bitcoin developments happening but it's becoming more clear that ecash is a wholly different, complementary technology that does different things, including many things that Bitcoin can't do no matter how many upgrades it gets
“Though we do not wholly believe it yet, the interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have a tangible effect on the world”
As I reflect on spending three days with some of the world’s most innovative, persistent, and creative Bitcoiners, this quote from James Baldwin really resonates
Through a mix of code and action people are quite literally (to borrow a term from @Jeff Booth) **bending** the world in a new direction
There is a lot of darkness, but let’s not loose track of the light. It’s there, and it’s real
Onwards! 🫡
10 months ago, HRF launched its Bitcoin Bounty Challenge, based on features at-risk activists and dissidents wanted to see in Bitcoin, based on months of surveys and research
We didn’t know what to expect but the results have really blown us away
We have by this point awarded full or partial bounties in *7 of 11* categories
Completed or partially completed?
-Open-sourcing the design guide
-Serverless Payjoin
-E2E Encrypted Nostr Group Chats
-Silent Payments
-Self-custodial mobile LN addresses
-Mobile Border Wallets
-Cashu
Still up for grabs?
-Human Readable Bolt12 Offers
-Easy Mobile Multisig
-Frost Multisig Wallet
-BIP47 Expansion
224 days left!
hrfbounties.org
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