art is pebbles on the beach
imagine there is a sparkling shore and you have an open day to spend there. just you and the water washing up at intervals beside you. blue sky above, blue water at your feet and beyond the horizon. it fills your senses and makes you understand what infinity means. it’s a pulse. here you are, and you have to do something, although all you want to do is stare out at infinity and listen to it roar. but you have to do something, and naturally your eyes begin to search the ground for treasures. eventually you’re crouching at the edge of the pulse that echoes forever, picking up any small specimen that catches your attention. you lift it to your face, turn it over. finger its crevaces. maybe you smell it, taste it. until it feels like part of you, like the attention you gave it leaves a certain energy with it. you judge that it is good and place it in your pouch. at the end of this day, you spread all the pieces out and organize your collection.

https://stacker.news/items/395051/r/halalmoney
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/1715aac79c6b14f1adfb5320bd8e143ee22af4564301a14012210796b9de3f70.webp


As our political institutions have become ineffectual (the current Congress is setting records for inaction), billionaires are filling the void, bypassing the middleman. In the 1990s major consumer brands were frustrated with poor execution and tired strategy in the retail channel, so they went direct to consumer and built their own stores, catalogs, and e-commerce sites. Ackman represents the same trend in policymaking: taking his campaign public, demanding resignations or policy changes, and now asking independent media to bend the knee.

Scott Galloway


Artist: William Kentridge
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/c0f0f2a8b6fd9dc95ad3b56c58a0822a3d1c90f0781863f03f98a2627bc3eb1f.webp


Artist: Loie Hollowell
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/74b19953d377b1d95349bd1096bc7a9954040bba1afbc3bead0e6c3ee6a9e0e3.webp


Artist: Loie Hollowell
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/467c805cf707ed12d133e6d46cd3bb2d339add4908465c6cf06007693a6e030b.webp


Artist: Loie Hollowell
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/3cea274944881a35e0efbaf57fd5170a69a4882e525ac913017371d0c66543c9.webp


Artist: Loie Hollowell
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/1715aac79c6b14f1adfb5320bd8e143ee22af4564301a14012210796b9de3f70.webp


Artist: Loie Hollowell
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/0a33670b8147e20f0f378d94e1f909951a0dd806e27ee29ef2779f0e60b021f8.webp


Amazing engineering.

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/the-engineering-behind-nuclear-grade-steel-as-used-at-hinkley-point-c-19-01-2024/


I wonder if team Biden-Harris are truly ignorant of Bitcoin culture or there’s one of us on the inside.🤔


I like being part of the Monetary Independence Complex more than I do being part of the Military Industrial Complex.


why risk the hardest money in history just because a nerd has their opinions about financial tools?
nostr:note1epwsaut5n5vgq87q5w009rfr5k62878akvevv64n75n3zrjlqjxsc0m33g


Much to its surprise, the seahorse awoke to find it had grown wings overnight.


Thanks for sharing.

Interesting parallel you draw between, essentially, the economics of the British Crown's rule over the American colonies and the economics of Ordinals and similar non-currency layers grafted onto Bitcoin.

The Crown had high and essentially fixed costs that made it brittle in the face of an imperfect economic boycott.

I don't know much about the market for Ordinals, but I doubt it is remotely as vulnerable from a cost point of view.

Boycotts of Ordinals would drive up their costs only minimally as long as a small but meaningful percentage of hashing power does not participate in the boycott.

A boycott might more easily add considerable uncertainty to their settlement time, however, since it is essentially impossible to predict when a (presumably minority) Ordinal-friendly pool will find the next block.


Is Bitcoin really trustless for us grug brains?

https://image.nostr.build/f3b89e328536b2dddc455af041d2e98868036044e2dabfb9c00443a3cc6103e0.jpg#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=489x629&blurhash=_5Amo6.801ZhD%25T0xu%7Eq%7EqWB9FM%7Boft700-%3B%25gxZofD%25e.%24%259FS%24_3V%40D%25RP009ERPtRRjt7WC00NGE1Mx-pX8xu.8D%25V%40of%25Mt7a%7DMy00a%7B%3FvogoLRj4TRjtR%25MxuWCWB&x=02f46fdf9e532b13b3e9b5ac950c099172e330ec10cf2c696e38df82d4d75c6f


Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.


Super Imperialism by Michael Hudson has this banger of a quote while discussing the euphemistic “decoupling of the U.S. dollar from gold” 👇

Economic imperialism has produced some weird and almost incomprehensible results in its history, but never before has a bankrupt nation dared insist that its bankruptcy become the foundation of world economic policy. But U.S. officials now insisted that because of their nation’s bankruptcy on international account, all other nations must warp their economies toward transferring its bankruptcy to themselves, stultifying their industries and paying tribute to the beggar.

https://stacker.news/items/394384/r/halalmoney


Welcome!


What date is it?

Well, we dont exactly know. Because in Bitcoin land we dont follow fiat time.

🤣
nostr:note1zawkq8f5dskau95femtszjssfruhwhduf9mr5szd4edcafrkrnvspej3ac


Only memes can save us.

#einundzwanzig 🧡
nostr:npub1qv02xpsc3lhxxx5x7xswf88w3u7kykft9ea7t78tz7ywxf7mxs9qrxujnc #bitcoin https://video.nostr.build/02bc39087485a63b2de88a62a70aa4e6af665277a7777946bc915e9a6277da37.mp4


Great. The most reassuring comment I’ve seen is this one on Stacker News. The massive pullbacks in Bitcoin’s Fiat price may actually be a defence mechanism against capture🤯.

https://stacker.news/items/393948/r/halalmoney?commentId=394116


Personally, I think when you remove the ability to print money, everything changes.

And we have no way of knowing exactly what that will look like.

I believe it will be much better for everyone.

Because even though they might not be getting richer, like those with a significant amount of bitcoin… they won’t be getting poorer.


#Bitcoin doesn't fix everything; instead, it establishes an ethical foundation for human flourishing and trade. This allows humanity to address all other issues without being robbed by endless money printing that is causing everything to break in the first place.


Enuts received. Test successful!


Never forget the main objective of #bitcoin

R E P L A C E • C E N T R A L • B A N K S

Everything else is a bonus.

nostr:npub1az9xj85cmxv8e9j9y80lvqp97crsqdu2fpu3srwthd99qfu9qsgstam8y8 + nostr:npub1s5yq6wadwrxde4lhfs56gn64hwzuhnfa6r9mj476r5s4hkunzgzqrs6q7z

https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/bitcoin-fundamentals/bitcoins-2024-technical-overview-nvk/


How are people affording life now?

v.nostr.build/4l2W.mp4


Part of the genius of Bitcoin is that it was designed with a failure as a possibility. To take the failure mode away fundamentally changes the game theory.
What happens today? The locus of economic nodes has shifted drastically away from raspberry pi hobbyists and towards large financial institutions who are doing Bitcoin for Wall Street. When retail consumers, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, etc., are buying shares in the fixed supply currency through traditional finance channels, they are cementing a demand for share in this ledger that doesn’t depend on its decentralized maintenance. If the ETF invites an influx of such investment, any cartel of corporations who would attempt a takeover can now safely ignore the threats of Bitcoin purists; these early adopters can no longer claim the be the crucial pillars propping up the system. If there is another game of chicken, Wall Street can stay the course. Would Michael Saylor sabotage his investment by dumping his stash because he doesn’t like a miner-backed OFAC enforcement? Wall Street is smart to call the bluff.

https://stacker.news/items/393948/r/halalmoney


Most of the hyperbitcoinization scenarios assume that major institutions are willing to pay high fees to etch transactions into the blockchain.
At the same time, you can take advantage of the high-fee regime to build a side-chain network or other alternative means of Bitcoin accounting. All you really need to do this is put together a network with critical economic mass, backed by small amount of trust, but mostly backed by Delaware’s Court of Chancery. For example, a cartel of corporations can create a multisig UTXOs on the mainchain, and then create their own blockchain. This could be something as simple as Fedimint or Liquid, or mildly decentralized and creative like Ark, based on fancy things like timeout trees. You can create an entire permission-mined blockchain downstream of these UTXOs with 3 second blocktimes and 32 MB blocks. As long as nobody thinks the corporate block validators are going to rugpull (and get sued in a meatspace court), people can treat this like actual Bitcoin UTXOs.

https://achimwarner.medium.com/bitcoin-is-dead-long-live-ibit-e420b99eb32e


nostr:npub1h8nk2346qezka5cpm8jjh3yl5j88pf4ly2ptu7s6uu55wcfqy0wq36rpev

Is this on your radar?

https://achimwarner.medium.com/bitcoin-is-dead-long-live-ibit-e420b99eb32e


“To put it simply, there are now corporations with billions of dollars of investment in not just the asset, but the ecosystem. Mining is a huge economic drain on the system, and all it accomplishes is censorship resistance. If censorship resistance isn’t worth tens or hundred of billions or dollar per year to the corporations; they will find a way to end it. When they do try to end it, they can point to the ETFs enduring appeal and ignore any constitutional brinkmanship from OG Bitcoiners who threaten to reject the new rules or sell their stacks.”

https://achimwarner.medium.com/bitcoin-is-dead-long-live-ibit-e420b99eb32e


A tripod shot taken on Beacon Hill just south of downtown Seattle. I think it was like a 15 second shutter? Cant recall. Pretty City 🏙 https://image.nostr.build/0cb7198e04fc2f5a5bd6f6f23ba69568fbd4269264be123a99ef658289cf2fa3.jpg


We don’t have to eat what they feed us, basically.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/fargo-season-5-finale-explained-noah-hawley-1235789647/


“If we had more consultations with epidemiologists, if we had climate change scientists to help us with what’s coming up, if we were consulting a bit better with geologists, for instance, to properly appreciate what rare earths and resources are out there, I think we would be in a better position to actually understand these developments, project better, and be better economists.”

https://www.euractiv.com/section/economy-jobs/news/a-tribal-clique-lagarde-denounces-economists-at-davos/


#Bitcoin is akin to a bootstrapping system that brings new energy sources online and helps civilization thrive.

#GridlessCompute #Africa https://video.nostr.build/72f084dd8ec32df60b3c37c5070df0574ff0dcca74fcf81c72f2d7243e680b0c.mp4


"Combining those New York Fed projections with the latest data on net income, we estimate that the Fed will carry this deferred asset until mid-2027, after which it will resume transfers to the Treasury."...🤔 https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2023/nov/fed-remittances-treasury-explaining-deferred-asset


"The hospitals are overwhelmed!!" was a world ending concern during the covid nothing of 2020, but now i guess its no big deal?


growth at all costs is dead because of bitcoin. bitcoin is the opportunity cost now, so the equation has changed


Understanding bitcoin takes humility, time, and effort.  It's really easy to dismiss if you're not genuinely curious and wanting to learn.

https://stacker.news/items/393627/r/halalmoney


Two black baby rhinos are facing off. While the viewer is facing off with the bushy-browed blue fish. #inkblotart


Mood: #Bitcoin https://image.nostr.build/8a60e73aed98e7c068c2c444a3d8c16bc1752b4766c7cb01f22c09ade8134341.jpg


It’s 2025 and people call you lucky again
 #Bitcoin https://image.nostr.build/2ca4f9269227367306ad89b294799f8cca1677c8868a76edbc18ca60ed80b87a.jpg


Answer from a LLM:

I apologize if my previous answer felt unclear or ambiguous. You’re right, it could be considered a ‘word salad’….


On the differences between Fedimint and Cashu from my perspective.

Fedimint is federated (meaning the ecash mechanics and the on-chain multisig), Cashu is always a single mint operator with Lightning abilities. Both are custodial in that sense. However, the rugpull risk is reduced in the federated model but it's also (often a lot) harder to implement as a programmer (it's a truly great achievement!).

Cashu is more about the ecash protocol itself. We're writing libraries in different programming languages and we have Python, Golang, JavaScript and Typescript so far. The goal is to design a simple ecash protocol that everyone can easily implement into their custodial Bitcoin application and benefit from the ecash protocol (near-perfect privacy and other benefits).

The first few examples so far are
* running a mint in LNbits
* A Python wallet and mint https://github.com/cashubtc/cashu
* A Go wallet and mint https://github.com/cashubtc/cashu-feni
* A JS wallet https://cashu.me
* A TS wallet https://nutstash.app
* A swap service https://redeem.cashu.me
* A faucet  https://www.gandlaf.com/faucet/anarchy
* and soon more

More info at https://cashu.space and at https://github.com/cashubtc


I notice an interesting pattern:
- when we are going closer to difficulty adjustment, the fees are going down, usually under 100 sats/vB
- right after the difficulty adjustment, fees are spiking again over 100 sats/vB
https://m.primal.net/HYQx.jpg


⚡ $boost

https://image.nostr.build/112e9d53b541c417fb93f7d91376ffeadaa3c898b7d19d9a2f06d5607b9a9c71.jpg #plebchain


On this day 8 YEARS ago...

"R.I.P., Bitcoin. It’s time to move on."

Bitcoin price: $382.00 💫

#Bitcoin https://image.nostr.build/7b3e54231c616c46ec35e127de72be62034c6d918bd09cdd15cb9ccc2fc2a239.jpg


Legacy social networks empower the worst in people.

Nostr empowers the best in people.

It really is that simple.

As we move from the “Twitter Clone” mentality of the Nostr Newcomer we begin to unravel the “Other Stuff” and what an interoperable protocol truly means.

Taking this newfound human network and culture of encouragement, building, and hope….  That is where Nostr truly becomes invincible… we will prevail, inevitably.

Nostr is Natural


Bitcoin is a revolution in human consciousness disguised as a get rich quick scheme.

A sly roundabout way to raise our collective frequency.

#few


Bitcoin is the most important experiment in the world.


Expecting #bitcoin to solve all of the world’s problems today is short-sighted. At 15 years, it’s not old enough to drive. It’s not old enough to vote. It’s not old enough to drink.

Just wait for 21 year-old bitcoin.


Do the surveillance maxis own your data, anon? https://image.nostr.build/65815cbefa0e7e119169ae6955a4a59e229d419a2c64a03072f49de4d7eb395c.png


Lmao 🤣
https://m.primal.net/HYQs.jpg


Perfect. Check out nutband. It is a working hack to use cashu over long range radio and other mesh networks using reticulum and LXMF.

Might be interesting to some participants. I'll soon write / post more about it.

Unfortunately I can't join this one, but these events are definitely fun!

https://github.com/jooray/nutband

nostr:nevent1qqsta0aulqg4h3edjqcl36p5ll02w4csp5xd064lwc67js2fml2036sppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qgs9pk20ctv9srrg9vr354p03v0rrgsqkpggh2u45va77zz4mu5p6ccrqsqqqqqpeyu930


In the future, I think today's models around central banking are going to look silly. Tech makes things cheaper year after year but the mandate of central banks is to gradually make things more expensive.

It all fell into place gradually piece by piece, but if you didn't have the concept today and just proposed it "as is", it would sound extremely silly.

https://m.primal.net/HYOh.png


Reminder that this was a real tweet by the WEF and has since been deleted. https://image.nostr.build/79dd489919169abc8827b564442a34591c335daca59691265f5f71adce61d9b2.jpg


It will be cool when zapping becomes so mainstream that it is a new form of etiquette.

Zapping is the polite thing to do.

"Can you believe, he didn't even zap it after using my meme."

"She jumps in the comments and asks all those questions and didn't even zap when she got answers."

Time to get our manners game on.

https://stacker.news/items/392549/r/halalmoney


Explaining zaps
———//_____

It's like saying thank you to a random citizen, or to be polite on the road to fellow drivers. Something that at first glance costs nothing however it gives some pleasure to people who get it.

https://stacker.news/items/392313/r/halalmoney


Zaps: Instead of transferring your energy, your time, and your attention to a platform  seeking to improve their advertising algorithms, you transfer energy directly to the author of the content you are reading at that moment. This reward and appreciation system has a positive effect on all participants. Zapping redistributes energy from the platform maintainers to the content creators and their readers and commenters.

https://stacker.news/items/392365/r/halalmoney


To vote for good content and show appreciation for creators.
Not gonna lie, it takes TIME to write good and original content! and the fact of just zapping few sats and getting to read a great piece of content instead of needing to deal with all the paywalls and subscriptions like in the fiat world is like a steal, but creators definitely need some support!

https://stacker.news/items/392551/r/halalmoney


Bitcoin's revolution extends beyond finance, transforming consciousness. It empowers individuals with financial sovereignty, fostering trust in decentralized systems. This shift challenges societal norms, encouraging a reevaluation of centralized authority. The ethos of transparency and autonomy embedded in Bitcoin permeates societal consciousness, fostering a paradigm where individuals embrace decentralized values.


I reckon he got in very early to Bitcoin and just turns up to the factory purely for OpSec reasons.


the true way to change things isn't to reform existing systems. The way to fix the world is to build something new. Something better. Something that will unseat the status quo. The good news is we already have that thing. Its bitcoin. Its open source. Not tricks. No hidden elites calling the shots. Just those that join the network and run their nodes. Deciding which set of rules to accept. It is a revolution that hasn't been recognized.

https://stacker.news/items/392251/r/halalmoney


Bitcoin challenges the WEFs centralized financial control. With its resistance to central authorities and censorship-resistant nature, Bitcoin poses a formidable alternative, empowering individuals and challenges the WEF by advocating for a more inclusive and decentralized economic landscape.
https://image.nostr.build/fae9fc235444301555da0e7fc59a40cd2dbdb518698f10e4080e9c01a6c53f48.jpg#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=1140x758&blurhash=rBFhF79d05%25K0j%3FD%3D%5EM%7D%24%7E05-l%3D%40M%7D%3FED%2CobtPIrk8EO%250xD-S%2509wWCoJ%7EQ%250N2baIrWCoJodox05Iq%3D%5DX7NIaf%24%7EM%7Es.%7E8xsWERRowoyIs%24%7EM%7D&x=f353ec0e311d8166eedf053535134bc06a294410b8191ed0c536cfd4f6c8fddc RESIST
#Bitcoin


Don't just copy Big Tech.
Prisons can afford bad UX.

Nostr + Bitcoin = An entirely new design space.
A space where users can co-inhabit stories with their peers.
A space that is compelling for them like no generalized, lowest-common-denominator, Big Tech app ever could be.
A space that is built on Win-wins.
#SovEng


 Bitcoin. Beautiful to behold from afar, fascinating under the hood.

https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/e2cc20d21c770e63aae3c32b984d3e030aa717232c670041fa3fefd91a069d64.webp


"Humanity has an inherent addiction to what they want and not what they need."

Yes, but that is sexual selection. Women won't reproduce with men who don't make the cut. They'd rather stay childless. Which leads to the next generation of men being more-likely to make the cut.

We're just taking notice of this dynamic now because the environment has changed so dramatically, that about a quarter to a third of men won't make the next cut. That's brutal. Evolutionary pressure on par with the Bubonic Plague.


She is brilliant. Love it. Absolutely loved how she recognizes the limits of knowledge for example.

And I totally agree. Even as long as we are mostly earth-based, we can still support immense numbers with much increased technology and some humility in consumption, as opposed to what we have now. Just imagine the carrying capacity of earth and the effect on poverty if people could be as economically productive as FAANG management and live on a budget only a few times higher than poverty. I mean AI makes that thought moot but still.

nostr:note1qhtnmfy9s40zw3m7c9rlfdr4j7vdj4e57mrxqz0va3h5cr8ppy4qamz64e


It can absolutely support us. But too many people have been convinced that they deserve, in excess, more than their current necessities. Humanity has an inherent addiction to what they want and not what they need. Consequently, far too large a portion of the global population seemingly adapt to this type of mentality without any consideration of the cost in terms of resources.

"To me, the human move to take responsibility for the living Earth is laughable - the rhetoric of the powerless. The planet takes care of us, not we of it. Our self-inflated moral imperative to guide a wayward Earth, or heal our sick planet, is evidence of our immense capacity for self delusion. Rather, we need to protect ourselves from ourselves."  -Lynn Margulis

https://youtu.be/KlhW12dGfFk?feature=shared


Sauce: https://stacker.news/items/392273/r/halalmoney
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/e2cc20d21c770e63aae3c32b984d3e030aa717232c670041fa3fefd91a069d64.webp


Running lightning nodes is too complicated for 99% of people

To do non-custodial lightning on your phone it needs to be online when you receive the payment and requires an initial onchain tx to receive.

This is terrible ux, so you are forced to use custodial solutions like wallet of satoshi, and privacy is terrible.

fedimint is a third option: the mint can provide a lightning address for receiving and sending out zaps even when you’re offline. This is private, temporary custody.

When the phone comes online it can choose to sweep fedimint funds into its non-custodial phone wallet (a future non-custodial ⚡ wallet in damus as an example). In the UI this would be simplified as your custodied and non-custodied balanced summed to your total balance.

Damus’ fedimint would be federated with other guardians such as mutiny, so I can’t unilaterally rug the custodied balance. This is implemented as a multisig bitcoin wallet behind the scenes.

The use case is killing non-private lightning custodians who can unilaterally rug you. nostr:note12yd075f9un56nlmmh6dk6ehxnatjg5kf35wcevx8rwa8kstzt5rqkv8n9m


How hard would it be for him to ask the best and brightest within his company for a detailed and balanced memo about Bitcoin?


Markets are the ultimate voting mechanism and capital the way in which votes are most effectively cast.

If fiat distortions were gone, digital sound money would broadcast pure economic signal. This is where we’re headed… #Bitcoin


I became interested in bitcoin because it automatically makes its way to the high Innovation Density businesses. It does not need to be explained, it simply happens through capitalism, something no one alive has ever witnessed, and few both imagining it. Even bitcoiners often do not wish to imagine it for what it says about their lives, but I digress...

At the end of the day, bitcoin is a bit like sweeping the floors, it just needs to get done.

Dirac Delta

https://heaviside.substack.com/p/technological-advancement-from-a?utm_campaign=post


The problem with Eltoo is that removing punishment has serious risks in untrusted environments. Your counterparty can steal a lot of money if they manage to get a revoked state mined, up to almost the entire balance of the channel.

With Eltoo, the only disincentive to attempting a theft is transaction fees. Which, if you want to close a channel anyway, isn't necessarily much of a disincentive. The attempt might not succeed. But even a 5% chance of stealing a lot of money can make it worth it if there is no downside to trying.

Eltoo is probably ok for more trusted environments, eg between parties that know each other, where an attempt at theft can be discouraged with out of band punishment. But the fact that it has this massive potential problem in the quite common case of untrusted channels has discouraged interest into it.

https://stacker.news/items/391659/r/halalmoney


Compressed Bitcoin Transactions

The main applications for this schema are for steganography, satellite/radio broadcast, and other low bandwidth channels with a high CPU availability on decompression. We assume users have some ability to shape their transactions to improve their compressibility, and therefore give special treatment to certain transaction forms.

https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2024-January/022274.html


...the problem custodians bring is that they can/will be pressured by state actors to censor transactions. Custodians can and will be tempted to spy on users and use captured data for their advantage at expense of user.
eCash solves this since it becomes (a) impossible for Custodian to know what is being transferred AND (b) because its bearer-based, its impossible for Custodian to know even know assets are trading hands (ie. you could literally download "ecash.json" file and send via WhatsApp and its like sending physical cash over chat network).

https://stacker.news/items/391528/r/halalmoney


Do your homework! Don’t be indoctrinated!
—
He also argued that the focus on the risk to the Swiss taxpayer fails to take into account the scale of the bank’s own tax contributions, urging the public to “look at the risks but also the benefits.”

“In that sense, our role is to help the people who are not convinced, that want to listen to arguments, to inform them so that they come to an opinion that is informed, hopefully the right one. I respect people having other opinions, but I do expect them to do their homework,” he added.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/17/ubs-ceo-says-swiss-public-indoctrinated-to-worry-about-banks-balance-sheet.html


Ideal candidate requirement: willingness to take the BlackRock pill after having ingested the Orange Pill.


Maybe Hamish is asserting that it’s too difficult to absorb all the information and then buy and sell to maximise gains and minimise losses. Basically, hodl stocks and bonds. Sounds familiar to Bitcoiners methodology!


Interesting interpretation.

Beautiful and bizarre are sort of the same thing to me.

Sometimes, the Madness of Crowds build the Wall of Worry.


Concepts manifest in the world in sometimes beautiful and sometimes bizarre ways.

You have presented in your note a Wall of Worry.

Perhaps reality will counter-present the Madness of Crowds.

It’s not much of a stretch to predict that the Madness of Crowds will climb the Wall of Worry!

I love how inanimate Bitcoin is generating animated thoughts, conversations, hopes and fears.


Excellent points. Thanks for this.


...the more value that can be extracted through analyzing the chain, the stronger the incentive becomes for research teams equipped with bots to do this work. Over time, this disparity in miner's profit-making ability creates a trend toward centralization within the network.

Kiara Bickers, Bitcoin Magazine


In light of the last market cycle, with not even a 4x appreciation from the prior all time high, the degree to which price appreciation will cushion miners from the effects of the halving is an assumption that might not consistently hold true. This coming halving, the inflation rate of bitcoin will drop for the first time below 1%. If the next market cycle plays out similarly to the previous one, with much lower upwards movement than seen historically, this halving could have a materially negative impact on existing miners.

Shinobi, Bitcoin Magazine


https://image.nostr.build/ca24e8d1c03fa28bbf4acf68580e829ec7f0124f672c7c5c28904ffa67e6bd70.jpg
The idea of advancing Bitcoin’s smart contract functionality is undeniably promising and exciting. But it’s important to acknowledge that each new proposal carries some degree of MEV risk—albeit likely not to the extent that we see on other chains. As we think about bringing more programmable money to #Bitcoin, there are questions we have to ask:

- Can we build a protocol with zero MEV risk, or is this an unattainable ideal?
- Given the inherent risks of MEV in many proposals, what level of MEV risk is acceptable?
-  And finally, what represents the simplest proposal that offers the greatest degree of expressivity?

Read more about the intersection of MEV and programmable money in our latest in nostr:nprofile1qy28wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hsz9mhwden5te0wfjkccte9e3h2unjv4h8gtnx095sz8rhwden5te0dehhxarj9ekh2arfdeuhwctvd3jhgtnrdaksqgzel0h8x6wlwufah0afh0ds3ykx96af9y3jv9wxlunc0k3cfjmhpuljs95k :

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/miner-extractable-value-mev-and-programmable-money-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly


I just finished this 🧡🫂✨🤘 ...

https://image.nostr.build/fed4a42f2ee36c8da51992fe1273d5fc69e16de7d6993f95a588882ca9b6dec2.jpg

#Bitcoin #Nostr #Plebs


Why not both?


Trust us but don’t debate us! So sad.


Norges Bank, the Norwegian central bank, don't wan't to debate me and my #Fraudcoinbook.

The economics students' union at Nord Universitetet (one of our universities) tried to organize a conference.

After repeated requests to NB they finally said NO to them.

This is not the first time something like this happens.

Following my book "Kvikkleire" (Quick clay, which one professor in geology has said should be mandatory reading for geology and geotechnical engineering students) ESRA Norway (European Safety and Reliability Association) tried to set up a conference with me and the stakeholders from the "expert" community, the regulator and others.

When the authorities and consultancies heard that I was invited, they became reluctant to attend.

In the span of more than half a year, from November 2021 to May 2022, ESRA proposed four different dates.

I said yes to each of them.

But ESRA couldn't get the stakeholders to commit people to participate in the conference.

It's evident that many don't want the truth to come out about how "experts" justifiy inflation of the

- money supply, and
- the supply of land that is safe to be developed.

Nice world you live in, don't you think?
https://image.nostr.build/00586ed600aa65c2ba2686946e806a29ef2427290b67ea7967346e172370395d.jpg#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=400x580&blurhash=%5E.LqeAWBofayofay%7Eqofj%5Bj%5Bj%5Bj%5BRjjtaya%7Cj%5BayM%7BaeWBa%7CWBj%5B%25MfQWBj%5BWBj%5B%252j%5BWBayayj%5BRjj%5Bj%5BayayfQM%7Bayofj%5BoLayfRayofj%5Bj%5BfQ&x=6cfd80dabe0de8e5ca19bbe45685666e16de7e95e4758b2076c440fd30b01ec4
https://image.nostr.build/00586ed600aa65c2ba2686946e806a29ef2427290b67ea7967346e172370395d.jpg#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=400x580&blurhash=%5E.LqeAWBofayofay%7Eqofj%5Bj%5Bj%5Bj%5BRjjtaya%7Cj%5BayM%7BaeWBa%7CWBj%5B%25MfQWBj%5BWBj%5B%252j%5BWBayayj%5BRjj%5Bj%5BayayfQM%7Bayofj%5BoLayfRayofj%5Bj%5BfQ&x=6cfd80dabe0de8e5ca19bbe45685666e16de7e95e4758b2076c440fd30b01ec4


…when someone tells you that supply disruptions were the main reason for the large general increase in prices, ask them why the general level of prices didn’t drop after the supply disruptions went away. And why are we now getting more price increases on top of the price increases of the past?

https://tsi-blog.com/blog/blog-default/


They incentivise getting the electricity and the internet back on - good money & good communication.


The world doesn’t really need financial gurus. It needs good money.


They incentivise getting the electricity back on - good money & good communication.


I hope you are right. I hope that the ETFs (and other establishment moves) don’t end up capturing/ weakening Bitcoin’s potential.


2024 is an election year.

It's super important that you vote by taking Bitcoin into self-custody.


https://stacker.news/items/390459/r/halalmoney
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/15b49436df5646c42c611cb27cf2ea8acb63ebf27f90c1725c229e39e9162ae2.webp


“…the spammers want to send their emails and we want to stop them, but it's not censorship because there's no built-in system to regulate the cost. Essentially it's figuring out how to deal with a DDOS.”

https://www.thrillerbitcoin.com/spam-cant-cause-high-fees/


We degrade the word "money" when we attach it to the word fiat. "Money" stores value. Fiat does not store value. (a negative 2% per year target is not storing value).  "Fiat Money" is an oxymoron.

I guess most people think of them as fiat currencies.  Fiat currencies are optimized for medium of exchange & unit of account. But fiat currencies ignore the critical store of value function of Money. So there is no such thing as Fiat Money - only fiat currencies.

Many critics attack bitcoin for poor medium of exchange & unit of account performance. Those functions are more important for currencies but are less important for Money. Store of value is the foundation for Money.

I'm hopeful #bitcoin will improve on medium of exchange/unit of account so it can fully become Money.


Fuel for heating.


If censorship can happen, censorship will happen. nostr:note10p2q7efyumacv4q3kluwmk6h6anf6680sc9lgdrkxs7wwk6xthws52ad3n


the bitcoin memers and the bitcoin shitpoasters - the legacy system can't compete with them.

legacy is an army of hired guns that will drop their weapons when the payments stop


It’s heartbreaking to think how much needless human suffering has been caused by our broken monetary system.


This was a very good conversation, one that my family discussed prior to listening. When the medium of exchange no longer serves as a store of value, humans seek that property of money in what is available to them. Real Estate has fulfilled that role. With the arrival of bitcoin, we are set for a monetary premium drain from Real Estate, which brings prices back down to the utility value. nostr:note1wujrmfgtu7umxhkurq6q6ff0pe4y25w67nyvay3wwnez4xg70rmqap2cfd


The Grinch is shocked as the two Venus fly traps wilt in front of him. #inkblotart


Too much war on the news. I try to stay positive about the future and it is not easy. I'm exhausted but let's keep going.

https://stacker.news/items/389933/r/halalmoney


What is not taken from them through budgetary adjustment will be taken from them via inflation in the quasi-currency.

https://stacker.news/items/389896/r/halalmoney


If the money gets changed to Bitcoin then the matter of moving too fast will also change. Things move fast because FIAT CURRENCY devalues so quickly. I've seen it in construction where I would get blue prints that were incomplete, stamped wrong, blank pages and specs that were cut and pasted. I'm talking billion dollar projects where no one knew exactly where the real plans were.

https://stacker.news/items/389598/r/halalmoney


Hello everybody! My name is Scott. Foxfire Mushrooms is my gourmet mushroom and mycological supply company in Longmont, Colorado. I am looking to network with other small business owners and bitcoiners.

#introductions #bitcoin #mushrooms #localbusiness


Many believe that if we could just expose the evils of the world that would be enough. It isn't sadly. The masses do not have the attention span nor the desire to question their programming…

The state has much of its power due to its ability to print money. Taking that power from them alone will not affect the change we want but it is a huge start. It would limit the ability to wage these wars that kill so many people. It would limit their reckless spending and force them to steal in more obvious ways… So bitcoin is hopeful.

https://stacker.news/items/389258/r/halalmoney


#memes #nostrmemes
https://m.primal.net/HXuW.jpg


In order to stop people from building SeedSigners a state would need to ban off the shelf electronic parts.

https://stacker.news/items/384892/r/halalmoney


scarce assets + privacy = chef’s kiss


When I listened to this episode of Joe Rogan with Andreas Antonopolous in 2016 it made sense because I was new to #Bitcoin

But now in 2024 we all can see that Andreas was 100% right. This is exactly what's happening in our society right now.

https://m.primal.net/HXtk.mp4


Speaking of rogue money, this quote from the show Andor is pretty awesome. I was reminded of it yesterday.

"There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this: Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrections are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this: The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this: Try."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-asb8zTiuZ4&ab_channel=StarWars


🤡

Analysis of Home Office figures shows that 33 asylum applications have been lodged in the UK on behalf of 51 people from Rwanda since the deal was first announced in April 2022.

This is despite plans by the UK Government to send asylum seekers to the country as part of a £240m agreement.

It means more asylum seekers have arrived in Britain from Rwanda than vice versa since the agreement was signed. No asylum seekers in the UK have yet been sent to Rwanda.

(Cabinet minister says he's not aware of 'specifics of cases' after i reveals six refugees were accepted)


🤔----LET'S HOPE THEY (WEF) TELL US HOW----🤡

“What could rescue us relatively painlessly is if we have huge productivity improvements without job losses,” Rajan, now a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, told CNN, suggesting that artificial intelligence could hold the key.

Indeed, many experts think an AI-powered productivity boom could transform the global economy’s fortunes.

Let’s hope that over the next few days in Switzerland they tell us how.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/14/business/davos-debt-global-economy/index.html


Rogue money https://image.nostr.build/a9bee6b078c848b58332e358a3e357f49d6a609ec1e044bad6703874e94b6881.png


The demon has kindly bent his horns so that they fit in the frame of today’s #inkblotart. He is not amused but the little white ghost in the middle finds this funny.


There is no historical precedent for cheaper, faster, more secure, and open technology losing to more expensive, slower, less secure, and closed technology.

While many don’t understand this yet, this time is no different.

#Bitcoin
#Nostr


Robin Williams was right. https://image.nostr.build/c69946d1a73b8a0302e68513a266f80127f829c7452014e1173e35671db5dece.jpg


You are attempting to protect yourself using a weapon they are in full control of, instead of using one they can never control.
nostr:note1ct2yefjrp38e078hynfxzn93jlgrns3v9c8f8r47aze38lmxcjgqmtwr3c


Freedom can be terrifying, because you never know what will come next. But that's a thrilling way to live, compared to the alternative of a steady march towards serfdom.
nostr:note1lsv695388v7ufdevyzjhhr0l9yet6094fsjxzypulw0nthemqsyqyfgecp


Decentralized Instances. "The new version brings the power of decentralization to RoboSats. By spawning new instances, we increase the robustness of the platform. In order to fully stop the p2p market of RoboSats, every single instance must be stopped."

https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/robosats-v0-6-0-pre-release/


I wish you luck trying to margin call the FIAT royalty, Jeff.

I remember how the GME “squeeze” was handled, and everyone should study that.

They can make or break any rule at any time. You cannot win against them in the FIAT realm.

The war for a better money will have to be fought in cyberspace AND in real space, where the people BUILDING the things civilization wants will need to understand they have to use Bitcoin instead of FIAT.

Good luck.


https://twitter.com/SamanthaLaDuc/status/1746363515022049555

Here’s my attempt to summarize key disagreements btwn #tradfi & #bitcoin-ers

There is no premium in scarcity, just because it’s limited, but THIS is the major claim that has been offered up by #bitcoin-ers in both the respectful+ disrespectful rebuttals in my very busy feed past 24 hrs.

#TradFi gets that value is not assigned just because something is scarce. We assign even less value in bitcoin given all the concentration risk of ownership, corrupt actors (Russia, China), charlatans,  crime and confiscations.

But here’s where #tradfi folks really align:

BITCOIN IS NOT MONEY

Beyond the core “monetary, commodity, circulation” attributes of money, actual money has to be measured in relation to... a demanded "in kind" commodity or currency or asset.

AND it has to be “forced” on us by the Govt (eg. taxes in local FX).

So why would #TradFi folks (en masse) trade “in-kind” real assets for Bitcoin - other than with disposable money because of bitcoin’s speculative properties?!?

Bitcoin IS a “convertible currency with an equivalent value in REAL CURRENCY”.

THE STATE does not force/enforce bitcoin as a real currency, so it IS NOT money.

So we can trade it! Transact with it where we can!

But it is too much risk for the reward for those who HAVE money. For those who need it, I agree it is a powerful, effective payment system.

Does that sound elitist or just realist?

Speaking from a #TradFi perspective, Bitcoin is a great little alt investment, to diversify returns from equities or otherwise, real estate, real commodities, even cash that earns interest, etc.

But the main reason most #TradFi types have no interest in it is because they don’t need or trust get-rich schemes.

And they KNOW those with real power and money know how to take yours away!

Sadly, if I was a betting woman, I would say THIS is now THEIR tool to use against you. #BitcoinETFs

I’m sorry. Its not fair. They suck. I’m not being facetious.

Maybe you will change the game by changing the players or the pieces but until then…

Bitcoin does not meet the definition of MONEY - regardless if the bitcoin gospel writers have changed the definition of money or intrinsic value or ascribe bitcoin with the characteristics of money, value, trust, scarcity, whatever.

Bitcoin is ROGUE MONEY, which is on the opposite spectrum to sound money.

Rogue money has a purpose, but not transformational power - unless you change  the STATE and get it to literally force it upon US.

In the meantime, #bitcoin-ers, feel free to treat crypto-assets as a cause within a religion, but don’t disrespect those who don’t share your beliefs. #TradFi

We can survive and thrive together. It’s not all or nothing!!

But do study the strengths and weaknesses of your new weapon of change.

For example, I can call USD “monopoly money,” because  it can be printed, devalued, debased, dedollarized … but it is still THE TOOL that enables all other tools.

I hope Bitcoin sticks around and grows more popular, but in its current form to most in #TradFi it is the opposite of SOUND MONEY, especially if it takes cult-like behavior to make it grow.

It needs the STATE to force its use on everyone. That is what makes it MONEY.

And what are Vegas odds for that?

Especially since you disdain the STATE and the STATE disdains your rogueness!?

Final Word:
There are many here in #TradFi who don’t dismiss you, but that doesn’t mean we will ever convert to your gospel of #Bitcoin.

Or worship terms most of you don’t understand.

Like “Debasement”!

Seriously, how many of you ever knew this term existed before jumping on the bitcoin train?

Warning: this one term has become the calling card for enabling this cult-like separateness. Your “rogueness” is cool, but wishing/promoting bad things on your STATE is a really bad investment framework!

To do so, you just separate yourselves even farther away from the people and policies that will continue to label you and your “money” as rogue.


Indeed the main message I take from these past weeks is that you cannot get your timing right with bonds, just as you can't with equities. Every now and again there is a period when markets have clearly over-reacted. The plunge in the Footsie from 7,400 ahead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to below 5,200 four weeks later was an example of that. But most of the time there is a reasonable balance between optimists and pessimists and the bumps we are seeing now in the bond markets are the new normal.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12959217/HAMISH-MCRAE-bumpy-path-cheap-money.html


Star Wars Rogue One is arguably the best Star Wars movie. Similarly, Bitcoin is arguably the best money. So, there is decent etymology to describe it as Rogue Money.

Let’s wait 10 years to see how LaDuc’s analysis stands the test of time.


A comprehensive enquiry into justice must involve an analysis of the prevailing monetary system.

A comprehensive analysis of the prevailing monetary system must include a comparison with promising alternative systems.

Bitcoin is a promising alternative system to the prevailing monetary system.

Ergo, there is a strong link between justice and #Bitcoin.

https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/58daddd3907b9e37735df5fceb5f3f6dfaf22e63bf8170aeadba72be7a4b6669.webp


I absolutely think the fiat empire is attacking us from multiple fronts.

Legally, they're targeting mixers and self-custody,

They are acquiring controlling interests in mining companies.

They are pushing for a paper Bitcoin ETF, likely to reduce it to a mere ornament, a shiny harmless gold rock.

Maybe I'm being overly paranoid, but I don't accept that all these events occurring at once are mere coincidences.

I believe the fiat empire is attacking us in a very strategic manner, and we cannot let them prevail.


Bottom: a snake which has two tarantulas emerging from its body.

Middle: a sleeping rabbit under a yellow tiger.

Background: a massive fish.

#inkblotart


Bitcoin is the answer to the question: “what happens when an unstoppable force (demand) hits an immovable object (absolute scarcity)?”
nostr:note1cfyp4xcf252tn6qlkuu0tq49slu5jl40zcrksf50upvgzwygfhyqt3cqun


Money has become a monopoly because of the games that have been able to be played with others assets due to the centralization and control of those assets.
nostr:note10mv6jtj6ey4vfufr6qm9yahvtqx955kj2nsvmapqejg9grps229qj4cd5z


providing instant settlement of borderless bearer value is a unique and unprecedented phenomenon with derivative implications for every industry, and it will inexorably pull businesses that currently have nothing to do with bitcoin into bitcoin’s orbit.

https://ten31.vc/insights/tam


bitcoin is superior monetary technology, and as knowledge of it distributes over time, there is no self-interested economic actor in the world that will be able to ignore it.

https://ten31.vc/insights/tam


Just as software and the internet dematerialized information and communication, bitcoin has dematerialized the most fundamental primitive of economic interaction – money itself – and consequently opened up step-function improvements and entirely new applications across industries. And since money is half of every transaction and commerce at virtually every scale is dependent on and downstream from it, bitcoin’s addressable user base will ultimately extend, like the internet before it, to every person on the planet.

https://ten31.vc/insights/tam


Cashu Mints can offer a better and more sovereign custodial Lightning experience. However because eCash tokens are stored by the users themselves, offline receiving can be challenging. This proposal introduces a LNURL service that generates tokens on received payments and holds on to them for a user, until they come back online.

https://github.com/lightning-digital-entertainment/cashu-address


The black bat with giant wings is being refuelled in the air by the yellow owl. (This doesn’t make sense but it’s what I see!) #inkblotart


If the end result is not #SATS  in self-custody, you did not make a "purchase", you made a "donation"
nostr:note1vjt4zxft4achj7yqnp8qeww8u894w0d9mhzm2fg6askrccsn5u5qk4rtm8


This is where Bitcoin's advantage comes into its own again.

With the Fed, you have to guess. With the Fed, you're at the mercy of a few unrepresentative people making arbitrary decisions.

You wonder when the Fed will act. You wonder what the Fed will decide and how that will drive the market next.
With Bitcoin, you already know everything. You know that Halving will take place no matter what, every 210,000 blocks. You know that the issuance of new units will be halved no matter what.

You practically already know the date.
Bitcoin is also superior in that the rules of the game are known to everyone in advance, allowing you to plan how to protect the fruits of your labor effectively.

https://stacker.news/items/386515/r/halalmoney


…the entire thesis for Bitcoin is that an exclusively credit-based financial system has been an unmitigated disaster! We are moving (back) to a system rooted in equity; in tangible value; in real money rather than fiduciary media.

Allen Farrington

https://stacker.news/items/386066/r/halalmoney


...the reason the fiat system is so potent in its deception is not exclusively a result of the accountants and politicians engaged in the fraud. The real strength of the fiat leviathan is a function of global propaganda efforts to maintain the perpetual delusion.

Source Node, Bitcoin Magazine


Most bitcoin wallets are Hierarchical Deterministic wallet that use a big integer seed to generate a root private key. Then the "Hierarchical" portion comes in by using the root private key to generate a child private key based on a specified index, and so on from that child key.

If the same seed and same index are used, then it will generate the same child private key. This is the "Deterministic" portion.

The derivation path defines the indexes to use for getting the child private key of your account.

A legacy bitcoin HD wallet should have the derivation path of m/44’/0’/0’/0/0. The m/ is the root, then 44' is the next child index and so on. Never mind the difference between the tic and no tic (') for now.

Newer bitcoin HD wallets might be using SegWit or Taproot addresses, which those will respectively have the derivation paths of m/84’/0’/0’/0/0 and m/86’/0’/0’/0/0. Note that they have a different index for the first child.

You can figure out which derivation path the wallet app is using by looking at an address created fresh from that wallet app. A legacy BTC address starts with a "1". SegWit starts with "bc1q". Taproot starts with "bc1p". Compare with your primary address.

Hope this helps!


To exchange unlimited responsibility for limited responsibility is to exchange freedom for slavery.

https://stacker.news/items/386252/r/halalmoney


Me too!

Try this:

https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/derivation-paths


The wallet you are using needs to have the same derivation path as the one you used when your seed phrase was created.


I suggest an app which is as good as Stacker News but runs on Nostr rails. Each post costs 2 sats, one of which goes to the app. The other sat goes into a pool which is then randomly distributed to users of the app.

Suggested name: MY2SATS.


A green horse spewing black fluid from its mouth and nostrils. The skulls of two giraffes at the top. #inkblotart


Block trades typically involve large numbers of shares of a company’s stock in privately arranged transactions executed outside public markets.

The SEC said that the bank generated more than $100 million in illicit profits as a result of misconduct by Pawan Passi, the former head of the bank’s U.S equity syndicate desk.

Passi, 40, has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors, subject to approval by a judge. If Passi complies with the terms of that deal and demonstrates good behavior, he will not be prosecuted, prosecutors said.

🤡NBC

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/12/morgan-stanley-will-pay-millions-settle-sec-block-trade-probe.html


Bitcoin aims to separate Money and the State.

Do not forget it.

Mass adoption will start when the general public understands that these financial products are just a lure used by the powerful at the head of the current system to try to distract them from the real purpose of the Bitcoin revolution.

https://stacker.news/items/385448/r/halalmoney


Watching Hacker News completely miss Bitcoin has been a fairly interesting experience over the last 12 or so years.

In part I think their anger is related to the collapsing returns within tech industry itself. "Silicon Valley Life" was the former gold rush that is now sunsetting....the industry has metastasized into a handful of kingdoms and growth is falling into traditional late-stage growth curves.
They should have seen it coming - and they know that. The internet developing its own native currency that displaces traditional system was an obvious tech development, but somehow they missed it.

But there is another - deeper change - that has happen. The "tech industry" itself has moved from being a very libertarian place in late 80s / 90s - to now a deeply state worshiping place. It’s quite ironic (and they seem completely blind to it) that 99% of the tech they worship, was developed out of a mistrust of central authorities.

https://stacker.news/items/384479/r/halalmoney


Owning Bitcoin via ETFs is like watching a star in the night sky through a telescope – you can marvel at its brilliance, but the distant lens separates you from the hard and brutal thermodynamic reality of the legitimate thing.

https://stacker.news/items/384569/r/halalmoney


REBEL MOON

There are no heroes, only Bitcoiners.

Director: Zap Snyder


A bitcoin ETF feels like an old technology wrapped around a new one.
Reminds me of eFax service: Receive your email via fax! That way, you don't have to learn about this whole new complicated Internet thing.

https://stacker.news/items/384242/r/halalmoney


ETF or no ETF, Bitcoin is still incredibly cheap if it can go on to fulfil its potential. I think the weakest link is the social element not the technical.


I see it the opposite way to Balaji. I think it's the set up for a 6102. They create this paper and say "see, you can hold it here. It's regulatory sound, tax efficient, and no need to mess about with complex nerdy stuff". Then they turn around and say, "well no need for self hosted wallets now. What are you, some kind of terrorist!?". And then they outlaw self custody and demand all coins are handed to exchanges in exchange for paper claims. Eventually there will be a "national emergency", and the paper claims will not be honored. I.e. exactly what happened with gold. History is not going backwards, imo, it's repeating itself.

https://stacker.news/items/384318/r/halalmoney


Just coz you're in tech doesn't make you smart in fields outside of tech, and Bitcoin is not primarily solving a technological problem but rather a social and political one. Combine that with bitcoins association with libertarianism, which in America is coded right wing while the vast majority of tech workers are brainwashed lefties, it's easy to see why tech bros hate it. On the other hand, it does mean that we are still early

https://stacker.news/items/384208/r/halalmoney


Waiting for 6 confirmations….


Definitely the wrong kind of immutable monetary policy!


Interesting 🤔

“Unfortunately, we all grew up in an era where most of the world just accepts central banking and money printing as a given. A world that does not really offer too many legal ways to circumvent this. And as a temporary hack around a draconian financial system, Bitcoin has so far been a resounding success. But it doesn’t really fix the problem at the root. At best it just gets people thinking about the problem, functions as a catalyst for societal transformation, and buys us a little extra time to figure out what to do next…once the central banks collapse. And so far, nobody really seems to have a clue.”


…kokedama is the Japanese technique of wrapping the roots of bulbs or small plants in moss.


ln-symmetry started with a simple idea: Someone should take the eltoo idea and take it as far as possible to prove out the concept, without requiring community consensus required actions like softforks before proving it out.

https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/ln-symmetry-project-recap/359


Many are excited about a bitcoin ETF, which tracks the price of the cryptocurrency and allows market participants to invest in bitcoin without actually owning the crypto.🤡

CNBC


“Higher interest rates are bad for non-yielding assets like bitcoin or gold,” he told me. “If you get 5% on cash, that’s tough competition.”

CNBC (🤡 News Broadcasting Corporation)


Either Mr Market perceives something which Bitcoiners have completely missed or Bitcoin is massively undervalued.


A warrior ant (in Bitcoin colours, of course); it has an angry looking creature on its nose attempting tricep dips. #inkblotart


Bitcoin teaches us that the key is keeping the rulebook out of the hands of any one rule keeper.

https://stacker.news/items/382698/r/halalmoney


As economic incentives push Bitcoin mining to saturate the energy sector, a convergence is occurring. Energy producers are monetizing surplus and stranded energy through Bitcoin mining, while miners are vertically integrating to enhance competitiveness. In the foreseeable future the most efficient miners could become energy producers themselves, potentially inverting the traditional power grid model.

Kudzai Kutukwa, Bitcoin Magazine


VAGUE TIMELINE

ETF Approved

NY Banking Cartel start heavy accumulation

Waves of new experts enter the scene, spewing fud, they are here to "fix' bitcoin.

US Government raises more flags about the threat of Bitcoin to US sovereignty

NY Banking Cartel accumulation increases as interest soars (Streisand Effect)

US Government issues 6102 Bitcoin

US Government launches peg of a CBDC aka Stablecoin variant pegged to newly confiscated BTC

Criminalization of ethical Bitcoin (KYC-free)
Fork war of statecoin and Bitcoin

US Government learns the hard way about how Bitcoin the network defends itself

Joe Rodgers, Bitcoin Magazine


Developers do not work for us. Full stop. They are not our employees. We do not pay their bills, we do not fund their work, they do not have any contractual or legal obligations to us whatsoever. We are not product managers, we do not provide them with a project roadmap and dictate what pieces they work on, how they work on them, in what order, or what those pieces should even be or how they should function.

Shinobi, Bitcoin Magazine


Bitcoin is a self regulating system. Bad tools produced by developers will not be adopted. Users demanding incoherent or damaging things cannot make developers build that for them, but they can step up and build it themselves if they really want that thing. No one works for anyone else here in this dynamic, it is a completely voluntary process regulated by market forces. So either step up and actually try to be persuasive, do it yourself, or cry harder. You are not going to succeed in trying to force anyone to do something they don’t want to do.

Shinobi, Bitcoin Magazine


#Bitcoin is the biggest change to human organization since the dawn of agriculture.


#Bitcoin is a legitimate paradigm shift for human incentives.


“This country is not suited to renters at all, we’re really penalised. We are trapped in a perpetual cycle, someone else always holds the cards. Your home and livelihood can instantly be turned upside down.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-rental-crisis-landlord-tenant-b2466506.html


Humanity is impacted by its social constructs.

There are good social constructs: marriage.

There are bad social constructs: money which ‘only’ loses value at a rate of 2% every year.

Imagine a world where the dominant form of money is vastly superior to what we have now.

#Bitcoin


Other professional groups, entrepreneurs, bakers, butchers, hauliers and boatmen have long since joined the farmers' protests in Germany. Where does the anger come from? The years of bleeding the German middle class dry by a green-socialist disaster policy, the destruction of the energy sector, the attack on the core of German industry, the automotive industry, the chemical industry, the construction sector through stupid eco-regulation, general over-regulation from Berlin and Brussels, the highest tax rates in the OECD, uncontrolled mass migration into the social systems, which are completely over-indebted, all this has led to the resentment of the Germans now giving vent to themselves for the first time. At this point in time, it is difficult to know how things will develop, but in my opinion, the intellectually overburdened disaster government made up of the green stupid communists, so-called social democrats and liberal socialists cannot survive this crisis.

https://stacker.news/items/381328/r/halalmoney


An ant in an assembly plant sitting on the head of a mechanical cockroach which is being assembled. Its legs are hoisted in the air and is the next major piece to be slotted into place. #inkblotart


TIL:  duplication is basically the bedrock of decentralization but that also kills “efficiency of liquidity”
nostr:note1zkcpkf2uqlcqa3xp0t7s6665k0lwhyj27lspwag3fks87ny0mxlsln8nwh


…a great way to encourage abuse in the future is to do nothing in response to present abuse. …all press is good press, and complaining about spam filtration and idealogical maxis just makes more people learn about the difference between mempool policy and consensus validity, and indeed whether Bitcoin should have a purpose at all.

https://medium.com/@southern_hands/a-brief-response-to-rodarmors-inscriptions-a-guide-for-the-ideological-maxi-2d8d657548b0


100%.   Money is a layered concept in the modern world, meshed together, and complex.  Not fully a complex ADAPTIVE system (yet) but once we fully take the shackles off with a commonly used core ledger it might be.

Either way, we don't need 100% adoption of every use case to be the best money we've ever had.


A genius baboon. Multi-coloured. Deep in thought.

#inkblotart


The pleasing burden of striving for a better world is better than the cognitive dissonance that accompanies comfort within the status quo.


The pleasing burden of striving for better world is better than the cognitive dissonance that accompanies comfort within the status quo.


The future is not bleak however, even without covenants we can still scale bitcoin for the world, just not in the ideal way. At Mutiny, we are full steam ahead on implementing fedimint into the wallet, in my opinion (and the rest of the team's) it looks like the best current scaling solution for bitcoin. Fedimints give us the ability to dynamically share ownership over a group of utxos and is able to interop with lightning through gateways. It is the pinnacle of the scaling dream for bitcoin with current technology and I can't wait to help make it reality while we can.

https://stacker.news/items/379225/r/halalmoney


Unlike unlimited fiat, we can't just generate or capture more Bitcoin without significant energetic cost, either by mining it directly or exchanging goods and services for it, which also cost energy.

Bitcoin adoption seems like a step in the direction of a monetary system more closely linked to the laws of physics and biology. A system where market forces could send more accurate price signals, and could make more rational and sane decisions about what's worth what, and how much "what" is actually available.

https://stacker.news/items/378188/r/halalmoney


Are the #Bitcoin ETFs eking forward or getting ready to shake out the market again? Only time will tell. I’ll patiently wait in my solvency to find out.

One catalyst that is not up for debate: the halving event. It’s inevitable that we will see it in 2024.

Mainstream acceptance is upon us, the masses won’t be directly buying #Bitcoin, but they will be stimulating demand for it, they will start to see the value behind #BTC and realize they could self custody to eliminate counter-party risks.

The biggest advantage #Bitcoin has over every other asset is its ease to self custody and maintain, it seems difficult because it’s new, but Facebook was new once too, now everyone and their grandma can use Facebook. #BTC is not far behind. https://image.nostr.build/99bc0820a2eb2df72df92c6dfc06a9ca3fa4e5167b905a76b14c82b0481eb6b0.jpg


Scott Galloway:

Geopolitics: U.S.-China Relations Thaw

Expect China to dial down the brinkmanship in an attempt to stanch the bleeding of foreign capital. The Chinese economy is the sickest it’s been in generations, and the only treatment with proven efficacy is foreign investment flowing through local manufacturing. Eventually, China will have to figure out how to build housing and luxury cars for its own market without incurring massive debt. The West has an inflation problem; China a growth problem. Feels as if the two largest economies need to kiss and make up. They will.


Ultimately lightning will probably become the glue between different ways of “sharing” UTXOs, if all these different options can speak lightning they become interoperable allowing for instance payments with minimal on-chain fees. Just like the base layer isn’t for coffee payments, eventually neither will lightning. The fees associated with opening and closing channels becomes economically when the amount of transaction across those channels goes up a ton. If these channels are connecting lots of “shared” UTXOs solutions, they make a lot of sense. Right now it’s hard to see this as we’re still in the process of building out and deciding the best way to do “shared” UTXOs, cheapest way is just have an sql db and be a custodian (but is of course not ideal for all the reasons). fedimint is a step in the right direction which doesn’t require a base layer chain and gives added privacy and reduces rug pull risk vs having a single custodian, but there are still issues with that solution. There are other options in the pipeline that might be possible on the base layer, however, any changes to the base layer take time (which is a good thing). At the end of the day, the question becomes “are the fees I’m paying for opening + closing a channel worth the economic benefits I get from having it” which is a pretty reasonable incentive. Early days, lightning is still a child, at ~5 years old, compared to many of the tools we use in tech today.

https://stacker.news/items/378003/r/halalmoney


Three years of bullish fiat price action followed by one bearish year.

In other news, 1 sat = 1 sat.


I predict that in the near future you will be able to create an online presence (with Nostr working under the hood) with an integrated wallet/payment facility.

https://primal.net/e/note1s9t6xm7agwf3w302t7r59rcj53dqysc97vu3wfjz66g4nsr05dnqmlhyrd


“I totally recognize that there are people who are finding it very difficult to start the process. They will have to save more. But that is, I think, inherent in the change in the financial system as a result of the mistakes that were made in the last global financial crisis, and we have to accept we’re still living with that,” Davies said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/05/natwest-chair-criticised-for-saying-not-that-difficult-to-buy-a-home.html


Two lions squaring off. “Did you steal my beard?”

Moths in attendance to watch the brawl.

#inkblotart


Drainage of the Fed's reverse repo facility pushes liquidity back into the financial system.

Equity prices affect economic performance. Changes in liquidity impact equity prices. Ergo, liquidity leads the economy.

US tax receipts tend to be highly correlated with stock performance.

Fiscal policy > monetary policy. This fiscal dominance is likely to continue due to ongoing government budget deficits aka structural deficits.

Source: Lyn Alden, Jan 2024 newsletter


“After ETFs you won’t be trying to convince your family members that #Bitcoin isn’t a scam; you will be trying to convince them to buy real #BTC over the ETF.”
nostr:note17tv20u5sd3cc2eyhcv3dhlfvdz009a0zhwemww793rytwnncaglsvrdgxd


Bitcoiners: Bitcoin lowers your time preference.

Also Bitcoiners: wen Bitcoin ETF?


I like to think, at some distant point in the future, when humanity escapes inflation’s grasp, historians will categorise today’s people into two groups:

1. Those who coped with the symptoms of inflation - the majority

2. Those who focused on the root cause of inflation - the minority.


Misinformation being produced isn't exclusive to AI and everyone should have been an order of magnitude more suspicious of everything you read online prior to the advancements in AI. We have been living in this reality much longer than AI has been around.
AI can accelerate the spreading of information, good or bad. So like the internet we really need to consider if society is actually prepared to handle the inflow of information. On that front, along with many others concerning AI we are not at all prepared….

https://stacker.news/items/376845/r/halalmoney


"There's only going to be two options for prime minister after the next election, it's either going to be me or Keir Starmer. A vote for anyone who is not a Conservative is a vote for Keir Starmer in power."

Actually, there is another option called Bitcoin!

https://news.sky.com/story/rishi-sunak-indicates-he-will-call-election-in-second-half-of-year-13042082


For such people, real estate and stocks are an obvious way to hedge against inflation - despite the wider negative societal impact.

If only there was something better than real estate and stocks….


I have stored most of my money in Bitcoin since last year; not only did it help me be more mindful about my spending, but to my surprise, this decision changed me from a consumer to a maker; if I want to have anything new, either I figure out how to do it or find the right person to make it together. Generally, I want to be more involved in everything I own, I need to make sure all my sats are well spent.
Honestly, It made me feel guilty whenever I needed to exchange Bitcoin for fiat, so I started pilling the shops I always go and only paying for the things I really need to minimize the GUILT.

https://stacker.news/items/376570/r/halalmoney


[John] Nash regarded [Keynesianism] a Machiavellian scheme of continual inflation and currency devaluation.

…

The majority of coins are mined relatively early in the Bitcoin lifecycle (loosely following the Pareto 80/20 power law).

Jon Gulson, Bitcoin Magazine


The adoption of instant split payments in the logistics industry will significantly alter the incentives for all delivery workers. A key transformation is the shift from receiving compensation solely for time - to being actively engaged in each payment related to their deliveries.

Ivan Makedonski, Bitcoin Magazine


The term bikeshedding comes from Cyril Northcote Parkinson, a British naval historian most famous for Parkinson’s law, which posits that work expands to fill the time allocated to it. For instance, if you allocate an hour to a task that actually only takes 30 minutes, the task will still end up acquiring the complexity of an hour-long task.3

After putting forward Parkinson’s law in 1955, Parkinson discovered a lesser-known phenomenon called the law of triviality, describing how organizations tend to focus on trivial issues and put aside more complex matters.

In particular, Parkinson’s law of triviality states that the amount of time spent discussing an issue in an organization is inversely proportional to its actual importance in the grand scheme of things. In other words, the less important an issue is, the more time is spent on it.

https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/bikeshedding


It's a new paradigm. Until now, the focus has been on building social media clients and side-modules for them, like zap splits.
So, the focus has been getting "lots of people" and "famous people" to come use a Twitter or Reddit clone because otherwise, what is the point of Nostr?

But you can also use Nostr to build larger, more complex things. Like GoogleDocs or Sharepoint or GitHub, Google Maps, patient management systems, home security or automation systems, enterprise search engines, app stores, industrial machine configuration software, and etc.
Things that don't require the end user to know or care about Nostr and that don't have to convince people to "join Nostr" because they automatically join by using the products.

1) Build a better mousetrap.
2) Build it with Nostr underneath.
3) Require keys for login.
4) Winning.


A sunset coloured broccoli with dog and elephant shaped black blotches.

#inkblotart


Hmm. Climate change as a pretext for mass migration.

“Wood suggested that other countries, like the Global North or industrialized countries that have contributed more to climate change, should also step up. She said that could come in the form of providing migration pathways and work opportunities, as well as funding to help other countries adapt and manage the issue.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/04/climate-change-has-displaced-millions-in-pakistan-china-and-india.html


A decentralized protocol means that all development is decentralized and all quality controls are also decentralized.

You could even have a quality relay that just analyzes all of the notes for conforming to a minimum standard (defined by the relay, by referencing particular commits of NIPs) and use that to objectively rate the products in an app marketplace.

That would actually help decentralize development by allowing new or small projects to get certified.
As it is, you basically have to stick to the big ones, unless you have a large appetite for risk, like I do.


A key part of Bitcoin’s value proposition is its p2p nature. Bitcoin ETFs take this element away.

#StatingTheObvious


A request to all pseudo-environmentalists: replace your Malthusian worldview with the abundance through scarcity paradox.

https://graduallythensuddenly.xyz/abundance-through-scarcity-paradox/


...Bitcoin is secured by networked energy, not capital. One leads to centralization, the other doesn’t.

Shane Neagle, Bitcoin Magazine


Scarcity of money creates an abundance in resources. It does so by better aligning the incentives to coordinate trade–the principal and direct activity money helps to facilitate. Scarce money incentivizes more trade (not less). As more trade occurs, more resources are utilized that would otherwise go to waste–simply by not being utilized. On an absolute basis, more of the world’s otherwise abundant resources are put into play. That is what creates wealth.


…a finitely scarce form of money becomes the tool through which those with an abundance mindset are empowered. It is the mechanism through which greater abundance is actually achieved–abundance through scarcity.


If money is scarce, there will always be enough (for everyone). If money can be printed, there will never be enough (for anyone).

Scarcity in money creates abundance in resources.


For any individual, time is finitely scarce. Energy can either be devoted to producing greater abundance or extracting wealth from those who do. Any time spent with a scarcity mindset inevitably detracts from one’s ability to contribute to an endeavor creating greater abundance. Accept that all mutually beneficial value originates from those with an abundance mindset–even when taking into account the valuable function of charity or the forced redistribution of wealth by those who operate with a scarcity mindset. Value must first exist–resources must first be refined into some greater utility–for there to be anything to then be distributed or redistributed.

https://graduallythensuddenly.xyz/abundance-through-scarcity-paradox/


Looking forward every cheap phone capable of having the whole #Bitcoin blockchain loaded in.


Fiat: unethical
Bitcoin: ethical

Fiat: unattractive from a CAGR perspective
Bitcoin: attractive from a CAGR perspective

Fiat: a foundation for a hopeless future
Bitcoin: a foundation for a hopeful future

Fiat: aligns with a Malthusian worldview
Bitcoin: aligns with a Promethean worldview


A tiny angry hippo sitting on the nose of a cross-eyed goldfish. #inkblotart


What we see when we see the #BTC  price chart https://image.nostr.build/e65a0c000a7826cd751b92fb7ad597b867b475f9b49cadd83cad67699e758197.jpg


John Carvalho:

Analysis of Lightning Covenants
Reference: https://github.com/JohnLaw2/ln-scaling-covenants

Trade-offs:

1. Complexity vs. Scalability:

While timeout-trees offer increased scalability by accommodating multiple users' Lightning channels within a single on-chain transaction, this comes at the cost of making the system more intricate.
Passive rollovers, which help in situations where casual users are unavailable, further complicate the channel management process.

Example:
Consider a situation where a user tries to troubleshoot a failed transaction. With a traditional single channel, it's relatively straightforward. But with timeout-trees and passive rollovers, diagnosing the issue might require navigating through a series of interlinked transactions and channels, which could be challenging for non-expert users.

2. Capital Utilization:

Dedicated users are required to lock capital in multiple timeout-trees, which might be suboptimal if not all trees are utilized simultaneously.

Example:
If a dedicated user has capital spread across ten timeout-trees, but only five are actively used, the capital in the remaining five trees is underutilized, potentially leading to lost revenue opportunities.

3. User Availability:

The system assumes casual users will not always be available. While passive rollovers address this to some extent, there's still a dependency on user actions for optimal functioning.

Example:
Suppose a casual user needs to approve a particular action but is unavailable. Even if passive rollovers can handle some scenarios, specific actions might be delayed or fail due to this unavailability.

4. Fees:

While the system aims to reduce fees for casual users, the fee penalty system can act as a disincentive for putting timeout-tree leaves on-chain. This might discourage certain on-chain activities, even if they're legitimate.

Example:
A user might need to perform an on-chain action urgently, but the high penalty fees might deter them, leading to financial or operational consequences.

Oversights & Attack Vectors:

1. Dependency on Dedicated Users:

Oversight:
The system heavily relies on dedicated users. Their unavailability or malicious behavior can disrupt operations.

Attack Vector:
A malicious dedicated user could pretend to be unavailable, forcing casual users into undesired actions, or manipulating passive rollovers for their benefit.

2. Security Concerns:

Oversight:
Introducing new mechanisms might also introduce new vulnerabilities.

Attack Vector:
A hacker might exploit the hierarchical channels' structure, potentially diverting funds or causing disruptions in the channels under a specific timeout-tree.

3. Economic Implications:

Oversight:
The penalty system, while well-intentioned, might have unforeseen economic consequences.

Attack Vector:
Economic manipulation: Bad actors might intentionally trigger penalties to manipulate the market or to discredit the system.

4. Dust Limit:
Oversight:
The paper assumes potential changes to the dust limit protocol. Depending on such changes might be impractical.

Attack Vector:
Spamming: If zero or very low-value outputs are allowed, attackers might flood the network with numerous dust transactions, causing network congestion.

Risks & Trade-offs for Non-Users:

1. Network Congestion:
Risk:
Even if only a fraction of users put timeout-tree leaves on-chain, this could cause congestion in the Bitcoin network, leading to increased transaction fees and delays for all users, not just those using timeout-trees.

2. Economic Impact:
Risk:
The introduction of new fee structures and penalties might impact the broader Bitcoin economy, potentially affecting exchange rates and transaction fees for all users.

3. Isolation from Benefits:
Trade-off:
Non-users won't benefit from the enhanced scalability and reduced fees offered by timeout-trees. They might end up paying higher fees compared to those using the new protocol.

4. Potential Protocol Changes:
Trade-off:
If Bitcoin were to undergo protocol changes to accommodate the proposed solutions (like modifying the dust limit), non-users might have to adapt to these changes even if they don't directly benefit from them.

In conclusion, while the proposed solutions offer promising scalability enhancements, they come with their set of challenges and potential vulnerabilities. It's essential to strike a balance between innovation and security, ensuring that new solutions don't compromise the integrity and reliability of the broader network.


You will be hobbled by your oppressor if you only see the world from his perspective. Dare to envision a freer world for yourself and others.

Your oppressor wants you to think that resistance is futile; he wants you to not even test the strength of the chains by which you are shackled.

Freedoms are taken by the free-spirited not granted by the tyrants.


"Ze world will not know true peace until the cypherpunks are weeded out."

https://www.thebitcoinbugle.com/claus-sch/


A key lesson I took from working in HM Treasury during the global financial crisis is that a credible resolution regime for banks is a cornerstone of financial stability and essential to protect the public purse. Without resolution, there were only two choices in that crisis: let banks enter insolvency and cause huge disruption, or bail them out with taxpayers’ money. The UK chose the second option, safeguarding financial stability in the process, but at a cost of £137 billion.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2023/december/dave-ramsden-speech-at-deloitte-academy-on-the-banks-resolution-regime


Yes.

Wealth within real estate is a sitting duck if there’s a big enough crisis (feigned or otherwise) and the main political parties unite on a need for a “one-off” tax to tackle the climate change / cyber attack / a similar pretext for a tax raid.


Substack as a company is HIGHLY dependent upon big tech and legacy social media for new user acquisition. It does not control it's own growth engine, or it's own destiny.

https://stacker.news/items/373739/r/halalmoney


Crypto is just fiat principles pasted onto Bitcoin like software.

It’s analogous to record labels creating a closed internet platform and still selling entire CDs as one unit for the same price as physical disks, while #Bitcoin is the suite of protocols for file sharing.

The software may look similar, but they are nothing alike.


“The United States is just set to structurally run these massive fiscal deficits…that’s called fiscal dominance, it’s where the central bank does not have full control…because the amount of public debt and the amount of public deficits are too big and forcing them to assist it.”

WBD


If we cap the number of UTXOs then we cap the amount of people that can have their own private key in bitcoin.
OP_CTV actually allows for the ability to share UTXOs, scaling the amount of people that can hold their private keys several orders of magnitude.
As far as Ordinals goes, when fees reach a threshold deemed too high for the market it will calm down. The market clearly has decided fees aren't too high yet, patience.
Personally I spend my time researching tech that will allow more people to use bitcoin rather than worrying about short term flee fluctuations.

https://stacker.news/items/373337/r/halalmoney


Accuracy is the degree of closeness to true value. Precision is the degree to which an instrument or process will repeat the same value. In other words, accuracy is the degree of veracity while precision is the degree of reproducibility.

https://stacker.news/items/373218/r/halalmoney


Flamingos, seahorses, a pensive looking dog and a black and white tiger about to pounce. #inkblotart


Find Someone

If 2023 was an underwhelming year for you then consider the following for 2024.

Find yourself a mentor who is wiser than you and sits outside your inner circle and isn’t within your echo chamber.

Find someone who will ask the questions which will make you uncomfortable but which will reveal answers which will make you move forward in life.

Don’t wait for things to happen.

Be the driver not the spectator of your life.


Cheap, reliable energy is life.

Don’t let the climate scammers put you and your family in a hazardous to life situation in the name of the so-called “climate emergency”.

#climatescam https://image.nostr.build/38599f099d0165a467d42437c9b8d39df5da2b675752b02e587b6241542021d5.jpg https://image.nostr.build/4136a2134ef7720ef405099ec21ac19405c9ba755d5ca6a6f6b3390069985dc3.jpg


Anchor Outputs Are a Danger to Mining Decentralization

Since Anchor Outputs are so much less efficient than RBF — about 2x the cost — they pose a significant danger to mining decentralization because of out-of-band fee payment. The problem is that if you have an anchor-using transaction that you need to get mined, it costs twice as much blockspace to get the transaction mined via the intended mechanism — the anchor output — as it does by getting a miner to include the transaction without the anchor output spend.

Some large miners are already accepting out-of-band payments for transactions, allowing you to pay them directly to get your transaction mined; only large miners can reasonably offer this service, as only large miners find blocks sufficiently frequently to make out-of-band fee payments worthwhile. Decentralized mining pools such as P2Pool and Braidpool have absolutely no hope of being able to offer out-of-band fee payments at all.

Since a typical anchor-output using Lightning channel takes 2x more block space, a large miner could easily offer out-of-band fee payments at, say, a 25% discount, giving them a substantial 25% premium over their smaller competitors. Given that mining pool fees are highly competitive, on the order of 1% or 2%, being able to earn a 25% premium over your competitors is an enormous advantage. With Lightning, offering this as a service in an automated, convenient, way would be quite easy to implement.

We must not build protocols that put decentralized mining at a disadvantage. On this basis alone, there is a good argument that V3 transactions and ephemeral anchor outputs should not be implemented.

https://petertodd.org/2023/v3-transactions-review


Thoughts on reducing spam on Nostr:

A charge of 2 sats to post.

1 sat goes to the app, the other is randomly allocated to a user of the app who is also on the same relay of the post.


“Man does not put silence to the test; silence puts man to the test.”

Max Picard


A giant black pigeon with a bright blue kitten on its head trying to get the pigeon’s attention. #inkblotart


I have friends who think they can outrun inflation by acquiring more dollars and taking on more counterparty risk by chasing yield and extracting value out of others with rent. The incumbent system pats people on the head for this, making them think they're smart. Pretty insidious. One of them even said to me that "the key to freedom is laying low beneath the system" 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

I may have to ditch them one day


Interesting.

Maybe a good conversation opener would be: If the lion is the king of the jungle, what should be the king of money?


I love your optimism. May your expectations be exceeded!


“Banks tend to slow down activity to bolster their balance sheets for compliance purposes ahead of the new year. This, in itself, is nothing to be worried about - unless it persists through January,”

Reuters


When I hear criticism of federated custodial solutions, I think people fail to realize that most will not be able to use Bitcoin in a non custodial way. The good news is, unlike current systems, a custodial user will always be able to work their way into financial sovereignty and can permissionlessly move away from custodians when they can afford to. It will be in the federations best interest to do good by thier users because the competition will be great. Bitcoin is a force for decentralization of all things after all isn't it...


Mechanised warrior ant. #inkblotart


As the political content of a monetary system grows:

- the primacy of the individual diminishes

- zero sum interactions prevail over positive sum interactions.

Apolitical money facilitates greater individuality and better incentives.


Re: NOSTR FUNDING..

In my humble opinion, people should seek profit.

We do have a lot of funding available from OpenSats (new grants approved every week), HRF, Angels and VCs. But they won't make you "rich". PHILANTHROPY and/or VC, are great means to get boosted but are not sustainable long term. (aside from protocol and research work, which is basically academic work and take the academic philanthropy route)

Profit is freedom, profitable ppl don't need to ask for permission.

SUSTAINABLE and ETHICAL revenue positive businesses last generations. And very satisfying if you don't mind me saying.

Timing is EVERYTHING! We are ultra-early in nostr, almost too early. Almost everything you see around you won’t be here in the same shape/form in a year or two. Find ways to cockroach the early days, survive another day. Build expertise, build value, build IP, build relationships. All this fun and pain of the early days can have very good returns for those who survive.

I'm here (and many others), If you need help, advice or just a capitalist to scream at.

😘


https://stacker.news/items/370574/r/halalmoney

I've been thinking a lot about this. It is too risky to open channels with a potential force close being so large. Here are some some tools I think we could build to make it less risky for us node runners. What do you think?
Implement dynamic fee adjustment algorithms in your node to respond to network fee fluctuations more efficiently. These algorithms automatically adjust the fees based on current network conditions, potentially reducing costs in periods of lower demand.
Integrate fee prediction services into your node's operation to provide more accurate estimates of future fee trends, aiding in better decision-making. These services analyze past and current fee data to forecast future trends, allowing you to make informed decisions about when to open or close channels.
Employ Multi-Path Payments (MPP) to reduce the need for large channels and potentially lower the costs associated with closing these channels. MPP allows a single payment to be split across multiple channels, facilitating efficient use of your channel capacity and reducing the frequency of channel closures.
Participate in payment channels that use anchor outputs, if available, to allow for more flexibility with fee structures and reduce closure costs. Anchor outputs offer a mechanism to adjust fees after transactions have been made, providing more control over closure costs.
Engage in channel lease strategies, where you rent out liquidity to others, to provide a revenue stream that might offset high closure fees. By leasing channel capacity to others, you earn fees that can help balance the costs incurred from your own channel operations.
Explore off-chain solutions or layer 3 protocols to provide alternative ways to transact without incurring high on-chain fees. These solutions allow transactions to be settled off the main blockchain, potentially reducing the need for costly on-chain transactions.
Build a network with other node operators for mutual support and sharing strategies to gain insights into effective practices for managing fees and channels. Networking with peers lets you learn from their experiences and share successful strategies, benefiting the optimization of your own node's operations.


The best thing you can do, at the socio-economic level, is to help separate money from governmental control.
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/fa449b730344744352807fb68812dcd1f2537d4cf52bfded91ee7040fb955b23.webp


Hello!


My notes:

Be a cockroach, not a unicorn.

Back your supporters.

Delight your donors.

Focus on your reputation, not compensation; doors will eventually open.

Prepare for the bear (market); treasury management is critical.

FOSS is a pillar of freedom tech.


An unexpected 1% increase in interest rates can reduce gross domestic product by 5% for 12 years, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

CNBC


Test


Two red eyed creatures stuck on a cactus.#inkblotart


I have a lot of sympathy for people suffering from behavioral addictions and general lack of impulse control—I struggle with this still myself. In fact I believe addiction is the dominant challenge of our current era, co-created by the fiat system which drastically reduces the rewards people can earn from deferral of gratification and a virtuous life in general.

https://stacker.news/items/367648
https://image.nostr.build/f874ef96ae4bb1ec8cf4ff97a5aabf94aea250ccf350ae69ed0b597e9e244687.jpg#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=311x360&blurhash=%7BTRfLLs*ads%3ATgRoo%7Eo%7Ek%40nhV%3FbceSW%3Do%23jYrpRjflaeg5ozjYWC.TSikDWAVqslaJWAb_oNkDWXRPocV%3FjYDitRogoKozRjWBozNHt7jYfkaeRjbIofxVRjaxj%5BWrofkDWBbcR*axaeoes.j%40WA&x=771796c15cb2095f409c2ad846bff2b0c9294f2041082b5e73b0e3141359725b


Thanks for this video, Source Creator.👏👏👏

Here are my notes:

Money affects everyone.

Be responsibly all in on Bitcoin. Your ‘all in’ position isn’t just judged from a financial lens but an ethical one too.

Don’t let high fees stop you from participating in building a better monetary system and storing your wealth within it.

Most people use the current and inferior ‘money’; move to where the puck’s going to be.


Complicity with a broken system is the strongest link to break within the chain of oppression.
https://image.nostr.build/8cef3fcd3ee7f6202ad1ef71012dbff968e1cb6c0fc923ee9b69f34624d1daa1.jpg#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=636x392&blurhash=rKF%24U%7CxaK4WEIUspM%7CR*RP.mWWELbbM%7BofbbR*kC_4RjVEs%3AV%40ayWBs%3AR*MebHt6s%3AS%7ENHR*j%5BfkWBofSgR*R%2BbHr%3FkBsoIoayjZR*w%5Es%3At7aeWo&x=9b0cea0fe8c10fefd86943e6730f1a6bc00da1230f57da53a47f54945ae4f2c6


A bug being eaten by a masked banana. The banana is being eaten by two yellow sock-puppets. Feasts all round! #inkblotart


It's evident that across the globe, in economies facing financial challenges, bitcoin stands as a stabilizing force. This trend extends beyond emerging and developing nations to include developed Western countries. Despite the perceived stability of traditional currencies in these developed regions, they are not immune to gradual devaluation.

Forbes


In 2023, bitcoin has gained increasing prominence in emerging and developing economies, especially in areas where traditional financial systems are inadequate or inaccessible. This trend highlights bitcoin's utility beyond its common perception as an investment tool; it is becoming a practical financial alternative in these regions.
In such economies, bitcoin is being adopted not for its investment potential but as a viable solution to financial challenges. It is increasingly seen as a workable alternative to unstable local currencies, offering a potential hedge against inflation and currency depreciation. This is particularly relevant in countries with high inflation rates, where bitcoin's limited supply and decentralized nature provide an attractive alternative to fiat currencies.

Forbes


The massive rally in bonds is excellent news for the housing market and the enormous US debt pile, according to Nobel laureate Paul Krugman.

Markets Insider


Two mean My Little Ponies stepping on two small black animals. #inkblotart


If Netflix took the Orange Pill:

1. Accumulate Bitcoin.
2. Stream sats to users as they watch.
3. Give users the option to use their streamed sats in multiple ways:
a: access exclusive content within Netflix
b: send sats to the company which made a particular film/series to fund the next production
c: send sats to another wallet.

nostr:npub1zach44xjpc4yyhx6pgse2cj2pf98838kja03dv2e8ly8lfr094vqvm5dy5


Proof of work ain't just a river in Bitcoin.

https://stacker.news/items/362337


The plan the creators of the [Braidpool] protocol have for attempting to bootstrap the pool initially is very simple: push the risk of mining with a Braidpool away from the actual miners and on to financial market makers. The fact that an output in the off-chain transactions that distribute funds amongst the miners can be assigned to any address opens the door to people buying the right to have such a mining reward output committed to their address. This gives the ability to construct futures, options, or other financial contracts on top of the act of mining. Such instruments give miners participating in Braidpool a way to mitigate the variance risk associated with bootstrapping a new pool.

Shinobi, Bitcoin Magazine


Bitcoin Must Be Earned
To obtain Bitcoin in future you will need to be part of the very network, either by mining, contributing to development OR exchanging goods and services for Bitcoin. This scenario mirrors the characteristics of a white hole, by being unable to enter inside without being part of its expansion into the universe.
We should all be diversifying our income streams for this eventuality. If not, we should at least stop and consider the implications of this eventuality.
No longer will you be able to exchange fiat for Bitcoin in a CBDC future.


The attempts of his two cats to cheer up the demon were of no avail. #inkblotart


Bitcoin’s rise to become a genuine asset class mostly took place under a laissez-faire environment as regulation still struggles to keep up with its developments.

Raùl Velásquez, Bitcoin Magazine


A cash redemption structure requires fewer steps and partners for issuers during the redemption lifecycle, which is likely why the SEC prefers it over in-kind. In-cash redemptions also keep more users within traditional finance's confines and reduce the number of individuals who take custody of their Bitcoin. The SEC may prefer this structure to prevent value from exiting the traditional financial system, which aligns with their role in overseeing conventional markets.

David Waugh, Bitcoin Magazine


#Bitcoin and #Nostr are undervalued because most people haven’t understood the importance of keeping wealth and communications beyond the reach of actual and potential oppressors.