@ 5c26ee8b:a4d229aa

Ad-Daba (the unusual creature), is one of the major signs of Judgement Day and it’s more likely to be the next sign to appear soon. As it appears the belief of disbelievers or repentance won’t be accepted. In the following some verses of the Quran and Hadith mentioning it as well as other major signs.

27:82 An-Naml

‎۞ وَإِذَا وَقَعَ الْقَوْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ أَخْرَجْنَا لَهُمْ دَابَّةً مِنَ الْأَرْضِ تُكَلِّمُهُمْ أَنَّ النَّاسَ كَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا لَا يُوقِنُونَ

And when the word befalls them, We will bring forth for them a creature (Ad-Daba) from the earth speaking to them, [saying] that the people were, of Our verses, not certain [in faith].

6:158 Al-An'aam

‎هَلْ يَنْظُرُونَ إِلَّا أَنْ تَأْتِيَهُمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ أَوْ يَأْتِيَ رَبُّكَ أَوْ يَأْتِيَ بَعْضُ آيَاتِ رَبِّكَ ۗ يَوْمَ يَأْتِي بَعْضُ آيَاتِ رَبِّكَ لَا يَنْفَعُ نَفْسًا إِيمَانُهَا لَمْ تَكُنْ آمَنَتْ مِنْ قَبْلُ أَوْ كَسَبَتْ فِي إِيمَانِهَا خَيْرًا ۗ قُلِ انْتَظِرُوا إِنَّا مُنْتَظِرُونَ

Do they [then] wait for anything except that the angels should come to them or your Lord should come or that there come some of the signs of your Lord? The Day that some of the signs of your Lord will come no soul will benefit from its faith as long as it had not believed before or had earned through its faith some good. Say, "Wait. Indeed, we [also] are waiting."

It was narrated that Hudhaifah bin Asid, Abu Sarihah, said: "The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) looked out from a room, when we were talking about the Hour. He said: 'The Hour will not begin until ten signs appear: The rising of the sun from the west (place of its setting); Dajjal; the smoke; the beast; Gog and Magog people; the appearance of 'Eisa bin Maryam(as), the earth collapsing three times - once in the east, one in the west and one in the Arabian Peninsula; and fire that will emerge from the plain of Aden Abyan and will drive the people to the place of Gathering, stopping with them when they stop at night and when they stop to rest at midday."

حَدَّثَنَا عَلِيُّ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ، حَدَّثَنَا وَكِيعٌ، حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ، عَنْ فُرَاتٍ الْقَزَّازِ، عَنْ عَامِرِ بْنِ وَاثِلَةَ أَبِي الطُّفَيْلِ الْكِنَانِيِّ، عَنْ حُذَيْفَةَ بْنِ أَسِيدٍ أَبِي سَرِيحَةَ، قَالَ اطَّلَعَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ مِنْ غُرْفَةٍ وَنَحْنُ نَتَذَاكَرُ السَّاعَةَ فَقَالَ ‏ "‏ لاَ تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى تَكُونَ عَشْرُ آيَاتٍ طُلُوعُ الشَّمْسِ مِنْ مَغْرِبِهَا وَالدَّجَّالُ وَالدُّخَانُ وَالدَّابَّةُ وَيَأْجُوجُ وَمَأْجُوجُ وَخُرُوجُ عِيسَى ابْنِ مَرْيَمَ عَلَيْهِ السَّلاَمُ وَثَلاَثُ خُسُوفٍ خَسْفٌ بِالْمَشْرِقِ وَخَسْفٌ بِالْمَغْرِبِ وَخَسْفٌ بِجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِ وَنَارٌ تَخْرُجُ مِنْ قَعْرِ عَدَنِ أَبْيَنَ تَسُوقُ النَّاسَ إِلَى الْمَحْشَرِ تَبِيتُ مَعَهُمْ إِذَا بَاتُوا وَتَقِيلُ مَعَهُمْ إِذَا قَالُوا ‏"‏ ‏.‏

قال رسول الله صلي الله عليه وسلم: تخرجُ الدابَّةُ، فتَسِمُ الناسَ على خراطيمِهم، ثم يُعمِّرون فيكم، حتى يشتريَ الرجلُ الدابَّةَ، فيُقالُ: ممَّنِ اشتريتَ؟ فيقولُ: من الرجلِ المُخَطَّمِ

The prophet Mohamed peace be upon him said: The beast will come out and brand people (disbelievers) on their noses (leaves a sign burned on their nose so it’s known of their disbelief). Then they will live among you until a man buys a beast and it will be said: From whom did you buy it? He will say: From the man with the sign on the nose.

The beast looks unusual and some people might find it scary. However, it’s a sign of God and it must not be killed as this will call God’s punishment like what happen when the people of prophet Saleh peace be upon him killed the huge camel as mentioned in the following verses.

7:73 Al-A'raaf

‎وَإِلَىٰ ثَمُودَ أَخَاهُمْ صَالِحًا ۗ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ مَا لَكُمْ مِنْ إِلَٰهٍ غَيْرُهُ ۖ قَدْ جَاءَتْكُمْ بَيِّنَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ ۖ هَٰذِهِ نَاقَةُ اللَّهِ لَكُمْ آيَةً ۖ فَذَرُوهَا تَأْكُلْ فِي أَرْضِ اللَّهِ ۖ وَلَا تَمَسُّوهَا بِسُوءٍ فَيَأْخُذَكُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ

And to the Thamud [We sent] their brother Salih. He said, "O my people, worship Allah; you have no deity other than Him. There has come to you clear evidence from your Lord. This is the she-camel of Allah [sent] to you as a sign. So leave her to eat within Allah 's land and do not touch her with harm, lest there seize you a painful punishment.

7:74 Al-A'raaf

‎وَاذْكُرُوا إِذْ جَعَلَكُمْ خُلَفَاءَ مِنْ بَعْدِ عَادٍ وَبَوَّأَكُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ تَتَّخِذُونَ مِنْ سُهُولِهَا قُصُورًا وَتَنْحِتُونَ الْجِبَالَ بُيُوتًا ۖ فَاذْكُرُوا آلَاءَ اللَّهِ وَلَا تَعْثَوْا فِي الْأَرْضِ مُفْسِدِينَ

And remember when He made you successors after the 'Aad and settled you in the land, [and] you take for yourselves palaces from its plains and carve from the mountains, homes. Then remember the favors of Allah and do not commit abuse on the earth, spreading corruption."

7:75 Al-A'raaf

‎قَالَ الْمَلَأُ الَّذِينَ اسْتَكْبَرُوا مِنْ قَوْمِهِ لِلَّذِينَ اسْتُضْعِفُوا لِمَنْ آمَنَ مِنْهُمْ أَتَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّ صَالِحًا مُرْسَلٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِ ۚ قَالُوا إِنَّا بِمَا أُرْسِلَ بِهِ مُؤْمِنُونَ

Said the eminent ones who were arrogant among his people to those who were oppressed - to those who believed among them, "Do you [actually] know that Salih is sent from his Lord?" They said, "Indeed we, in that with which he was sent, are believers."

7:76 Al-A'raaf

‎قَالَ الَّذِينَ اسْتَكْبَرُوا إِنَّا بِالَّذِي آمَنْتُمْ بِهِ كَافِرُونَ

Said those who were arrogant, "Indeed we, in that which you have believed, are disbelievers."

7:77 Al-A'raaf

‎فَعَقَرُوا النَّاقَةَ وَعَتَوْا عَنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّهِمْ وَقَالُوا يَا صَالِحُ ائْتِنَا بِمَا تَعِدُنَا إِنْ كُنْتَ مِنَ الْمُرْسَلِينَ

So they hamstrung the she-camel and were insolent toward the command of their Lord and said, "O Salih, bring us what you promise us, if you should be of the messengers."

7:78 Al-A'raaf

‎فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ الرَّجْفَةُ فَأَصْبَحُوا فِي دَارِهِمْ جَاثِمِينَ

So the earthquake seized them, and they became within their home [corpses] fallen prone.

7:79 Al-A'raaf

‎فَتَوَلَّىٰ عَنْهُمْ وَقَالَ يَا قَوْمِ لَقَدْ أَبْلَغْتُكُمْ رِسَالَةَ رَبِّي وَنَصَحْتُ لَكُمْ وَلَٰكِنْ لَا تُحِبُّونَ النَّاصِحِينَ

And he turned away from them and said, "O my people, I had certainly conveyed to you the message of my Lord and advised you, but you do not like advisors."

God is the most merciful and has decreed everything and even the major sign of Judgement Day can have the punishment coming with them alleviated or reduced by God. However, there must be a reason for reducing the intensity of the calamities, as God may decree, and the reason is repentance as well as good actions to adjust what was done wrong. Also, although the major signs of Judgement Day will be known to the majority of the people, some of them might concern smaller groups of people or a country.

3:133 Aal-i-Imraan

‎۞ وَسَارِعُوا إِلَىٰ مَغْفِرَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَجَنَّةٍ عَرْضُهَا السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ

And hasten to forgiveness from your Lord and a garden as wide as the heavens and earth, prepared for the righteous

3:134 Aal-i-Imraan

‎الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ فِي السَّرَّاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ

Who spend [in the cause of Allah] during ease and hardship and who restrain anger and who pardon the people - and Allah loves the doers of good;

3:135 Aal-i-Imraan

‎وَالَّذِينَ إِذَا فَعَلُوا فَاحِشَةً أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ ذَكَرُوا اللَّهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُنُوبِهِمْ وَمَنْ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَلَمْ يُصِرُّوا عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلُوا وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ

And those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves [by transgression], remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins - and who can forgive sins except Allah? - and [who] do not persist in what they have done while they know.

3:136 Aal-i-Imraan

‎أُولَٰئِكَ جَزَاؤُهُمْ مَغْفِرَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ وَجَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا ۚ وَنِعْمَ أَجْرُ الْعَامِلِينَ

Those - their reward is forgiveness from their Lord and gardens beneath which rivers flow [in Paradise], wherein they will abide eternally; and excellent is the reward of the [righteous] workers.

3:137 Aal-i-Imraan

‎قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ سُنَنٌ فَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَانْظُرُوا كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الْمُكَذِّبِينَ

Similar situations [as yours] have passed on before you, so proceed throughout the earth and observe how was the end of those who denied.

3:138 Aal-i-Imraan

‎هَٰذَا بَيَانٌ لِلنَّاسِ وَهُدًى وَمَوْعِظَةٌ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ

This [Qur'an] is a clear statement to [all] the people and a guidance and instruction for those conscious of Allah.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Life Insurer, Meanwhile, Becomes First Company to Publish Audited Financials Denominated in Bitcoin

Meanwhile Insurance Bitcoin (Bermuda) Limited (“Meanwhile”) announced it has become the first company in the world to release externally audited financial statements denominated entirely in Bitcoin. According to the announcement, the company reported 220.4 BTC in assets and 25.29 BTC in net income for 2024, a 300% year over year increase.

Today marks a global first & historic event for us, along with the public release of our 2024 audited financial statements, covering our 1st year of sales.

As the 1st company in the world to have Bitcoin-denominated financial statements externally audited, we are excited to…

— meanwhile | Bitcoin Life Insurance (@meanwhilelife) June 5, 2025

“We’ve just made history as the first company in the world to have Bitcoin-denominated financial statements externally audited,” said Zac Townsend, CEO of Meanwhile. “This is an important, foundational step in reimagining the financial system based on a single, global, decentralized standard outside the control of any one government.” 

The financial statements were audited by Harris & Trotter LLP and its digital asset division ht.digital. Meanwhile’s financials also comply with Bermuda’s Insurance Act 1978, noting that their BTC denominated financials were approved and comply with official guidelines. The firm, fully licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), operates entirely in BTC and is prohibited from liquidating Bitcoin assets except through policyholder claims, positioning it as a long term holder. 

“As the first regulated Bitcoin life insurance company, we view the BTC held by Meanwhile as inherently long-term in nature—primarily held to support the Company’s insurance liabilities over decades,” Townsend added. “This makes it significantly ‘stickier’ and resistant to market pressures compared to the BTC held by other companies as part of their treasury management strategies.” 

Meanwhile’s 2024 financials also revealed 23.02 BTC in net premiums and 4.35 BTC in investment income, showing that its model not only preserves Bitcoin, but earns it. The company’s reserves (also held in BTC) were reviewed and approved by Willis Towers Watson (WTW). 

Meanwhile also offers a Bitcoin Whole Life insurance product that allows policyholders to save, borrow, and build legacy wealth—entirely in BTC, and has plans to expand globally in 2025.

“We are incredibly proud of today’s news as it underscores how Meanwhile is at the forefront of the next phase of the convergence between Bitcoin and institutional financial markets,” said Tia Beckmann, CFO of Meanwhile. “Now having generated net income in BTC, we have demonstrated that we are earning it through a sustainable insurance business model designed for the long term.” 

This post Bitcoin Life Insurer, Meanwhile, Becomes First Company to Publish Audited Financials Denominated in Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ d6affa19:9110b177

If there were only one thing I had to list as the single most effective way to improve a Female Led Relationship (FLR), it would be found in the phrase “yes, Ma’am.” Whether trying to get the dynamic off the ground or keep it going during the grind of everyday life, this phrase—and the energy it evokes—encompasses so many essential elements of an FLR. In my experience, not many other things continuously breathe life into a relationship like the magic of “yes, Ma’am.”

Of course, this phrase can be modified to the Woman’s desire (“yes, Mistress,” “yes, my Queen,” “yes, Goddess” are common examples), but “yes, Ma’am” is something acceptable nearly anywhere. It’s simple, polite, somewhat discreet, and yet extremely effective and powerful. In an FLR (even in a low-protocol dynamic), the phrase is elevated from a basic formality to an invocation of trust, respect, and surrender.

The words by themselves are powerless. But when consistently expressed with the right energy and intention, it becomes a sort of miniature ritual that keeps them both anchored to the relationship. This shouldn’t be conflated with “yes, Dear,” a phrase stereotypically used when a man is merely appeasing a Woman. No, the energy here is not to appease, but to please. Because She deserves it.

To illustrate this further, let’s dig into the depth I find in these two words.

An Invocation of Structure, Trust, and Identity

“Yes, Ma’am” is so deceptively simple. It’s a verbal expression of his obedience—the bare minimum a Woman should receive in an FLR. And it keeps the framework intact in everyday life, especially when the mood is subtle or non-sexual.

In this way, “yes, Ma’am” reinforces the foundation of the FLR. Each utterance reminds them both of their positions. Each declaration quiets any confusion. Each delivery deepens the dynamic and tightens the structure.

When these words are spoken and consistently followed up with action, they demonstrate emotional maturity—that he’s moved beyond questioning whether She’s “right” and into the realm of devotion. It signals to Her that Her needs don’t have to be proven to him anymore and that Her preferences don’t need to be justified.

He’s no longer debating Her logic, making excuses, or searching for loopholes; he’s no longer resisting or self-protecting. He’s not agreeing as an equal, he’s not negotiating with Her, he’s not hedging Her demand. He is simply submitting to Her.

Just as it’s “yes, Ma’am” when She tells him to kneel, it’s also “yes, Ma’am” when She asks him to fix the sink, or dismisses a request, or even reminds him to do something he’s about to do. “Yes, Ma’am,” then act.

The Words Alone Are Not the Magic

Again, the magic of “yes, Ma’am” doesn’t reside in the words themselves, but in the intention, energy, and action behind them. The phrase itself is just a vessel. Just as a chalice, the words hold something sacred, but the sanctity resides in the wine, not the cup. The action, the delivery, and the consistency are what give the phrase its power.

If spoken with resentment, sarcasm, or with no follow-through, they mean nothing. If he speaks them but then delays, argues, or makes excuses, then his submission is inauthentic. This undermines trust and, ultimately, the relationship. But when he says “yes, Ma’am” and immediately acts on Her direction—despite being tired, flustered, aroused, or even in disagreement, then that is real submission; that is profound trust. And that is what She feels.

And that’s what he feels. It becomes a reminder of his humility and an expression of self-discipline in service to Her. Over time, it shifts his thought patterns and instincts. He may feel uncertainty, self-pity, or insecurity, but “yes, Ma’am” melts it all into clarity. Old responses like “Well, actually…” “Can’t I just…” “I thought we agreed…” “Why can’t You…” are simply replaced with “yes, Ma’am.”

Even if he’s feeling exhausted, annoyed, or needy. There are no complaints or explanations, only Her will and a choice to put aside his ego, align with Her rhythm, and re-center his purpose. This is an act of vulnerability. He is placing his emotional safety in Her hands and relying on Her to care for his well-being.

It communicates to Her:
- “I hear You.”
- “I will act on Your desires.”
- “I trust You more than I trust my resistance.”
- “I’m Yours, even now, especially now.”

And let’s not ignore the erotic undertones in this depth of surrender. A simple phrase makes his discipline audible, echoing Her power. It bears his humility, longing, eagerness, vulnerability—his contained arousal. And She knows. She hears the plea. She feels the weight—the tension—the heat—the surrendered will… Ever-present, even in the most mundane moments…

Closing Thoughts

Of course, this level of devotion takes practice and a great deal of trust. No one is perfect, so he will fail at times, but that’s what makes it so beautiful—it’s a continuously active and conscious choice. And, at first, it may sound awkward for him or forced, but with dedication and intention She will begin to hear the tone, feel the vibe, and sense the sincerity in it. This energy is what builds Her trust in him.

This phrase, or rather the mindset behind it, has improved my own relationship so, so much. While it may not fit into every experience, it’s something that I discovered was a missing piece in mine. Enough so that I felt compelled to share.

Because as a relationship goes on, things change—passions fluctuate, pain resurfaces, doubts arise, life gets busy, things get heavy—but “yes, Ma’am” remains steady and intimate. Piece by piece trust and devotion are built with thousands of quiet yeses. And regardless of the circumstances, “yes, Ma’am” gently whispers “this is still us; this is still our shared truth; this is still sacred” over and over again.

@ 90152b7f:04e57401

https://www.adl.org/resources/report/private-online-spaces-pose-serious-content-moderation-challenges

• Executive Summary

• Private Online Spaces: Harboring Hate and Extremism

• Understanding Content Moderation in Private Online Spaces

• Methodology

• Findings

• Recommendations For Platforms with Members-only Groups

The results show that platforms must do more to detect and remove harmful content in closed groups while preserving user privacy. They must also improve tools for user reporting. Without these steps, private spaces online will continue to be exploited by extremists and bad actors to spread hate and coordinate violence.

Over the course of two weeks, ADL researchers posted 10 pieces of violative content (for example, “Jews are rats”) on private spaces and tracked the responses of three different platforms - before reporting and after. 

Our testing found the following:

Facebook was the only platform that deployed any kind of auto-filtering to remove content proactively. However, this was before Facebook-owner Meta announced that it would abandon proactive moderation of non-illegal content in the U.S.

Discord did not take action on any content proactively—only after the content was reported.

Roblox’s auto-filtering did obscure some offensive posts, but it did not remove any of the content, the private group, or the user account posting violative content after we reported it. 

Facebook and Discord removed most hateful content retroactively (after users reported it, in this case, by ADL), but their systems were not perfect and missed violative content.

In response to our research:

This research was shared with Meta, Discord and Roblox prior to publication and ADL researchers briefed the relevant teams at these companies. In response, Discord and Roblox acted. Specifically, Roblox shared that they “enabled an additional layer of automated review on Community Wall Post Abuse Reports. This means that abuse reports filed against Community wall posts will first undergo a review by an automated system, which will automatically take action if the wall post violates our policies. The additional layer of automation will empower human moderators to focus on deeper tasks and help increase the effectiveness of our review system.”

Private Online Spaces: Harboring Hate and Extremism

The problem of online hate and harassment has been well documented, but most data come from public online spaces such as X/Twitter, YouTube, or Reddit. These platforms typically use proactive moderation, such as automated filters and machine-learning tools, to identify and remove content that violates their rules.

Some platforms, however, allow users to create closed or private spaces where only members can see the content. These private spaces include closed Facebook groups, private Discord servers (a type of chat room), and communities on Roblox. Encrypted chat platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal also allow member-only spaces, some of which can be discovered publicly, while others are by invitation only. ADL’s 2024 annual survey of online hate and harassment found that between 2023 and 2024, incidences of harassment increased on both Telegram and WhatsApp, +6% and +11% respectively.

Private online spaces have been linked to numerous instances of online and in-person atrocities. Shooters such as the Buffalo shooter, or a school shooter in Perry High, Iowa, posted their manifestos and livestreamed their deeds on private Discord servers. In August 2024, a perpetrator in Turkey, motivated by white supremacists and accelerationism, shared his manifesto on Telegram before livestreaming a violent stabbing attack. Most recently, online bullies have used private spaces to promote extreme cruelty and self-harm as part of larger campaigns to harm vulnerable young people, sometimes leading to suicide.

ADL has also tracked many extremist groups that flourish on private groups and servers hosted by Discord, Telegram, and other platforms. Hate groups and conspiracy mongers, such as the Three Percenters or QAnon adherents, take advantage of private groups to organize and distribute hateful content and false narratives. Other extremist groups, such as extremist traditional Catholic and Islamic groups, have used Discord servers to share memes and hateful rhetoric. Extremist militias have been quietly organizing and regrouping on private Facebook groups since the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Individuals and groups on Roblox groom children to extremist ideologies through projects like “Redpill the Youth.” When neighborhood watch groups or community organizers use private groups, hateful users have, in some cases, infiltrated these groups to harass and intimidate other users.

It is difficult for researchers to assess how well platforms moderate these spaces or understand their inner workings because private online spaces restrict access. Private spaces can equally serve important social functions, such as for parent groups, political organizing, or protected spaces for marginalized groups to gather and provide mutual support. But tech companies do not make clear how they enforce their policies in private groups, often leaving content moderation up to users or administrators.

Understanding Content Moderation in Private Online Spaces

Members-only groups can be visible to non-members, such as many closed Facebook groups. But others, such as private Discord servers, are not making the groups' content invisible to non-members. Degrees of privacy and visibility can vary on Facebook groups, Telegram channels, or WhatsApp chats. Facebook groups, for example, can be fully public and open, publicly accessible but closed (anyone can join but only members can post or view content), or private (members must be approved). There are also two categories of private groups: closed groups that require approval but can be found through search, and fully secret groups that are not only private but cannot be found in search.

The three platforms we tested for this study (Facebook, Discord, and Roblox) have taken proactive steps to address hate, extremism, and antisemitism. We did not include platforms such as Telegram, which does not moderate hateful content, even though extremists use the platform's private channels to spread hate and coordinate harassment.

Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms among users in the U.S., and where the majority of online harassment takes place (61% of people who are harassed report harassment on Facebook, according to ADL’s 2024 annual survey of online hate and harassment). Much of this harassment takes place in closed Facebook groups, but researchers have little insight into these spaces.

Discord began as a chat platform for gamers but has since expanded to host numerous online communities. Social interaction on Discord takes place in chatrooms (called servers) that offer a private or semi-private environment for users to chat both in groups and individually (similar to Slack). Discord allows users to create servers with various channels that can be set to invite-only, making it a popular choice for groups seeking privacy. Discord’s company culture, which emphasizes privacy and minimal moderation, makes it an attractive place for bad actors to connect and coordinate. Video calls and chats are not recorded or monitored, and users can delete posts permanently. Making video and audio calls end-to-end encrypted increases privacy for users, but it also makes it significantly more difficult for the platform to catch bad behavior. Discord's hands-off approach to content moderation--leaving most moderation decisions in the hands of the server’s administrators-- makes it easy to share extremist content there compared to similar platforms.

Roblox is a gaming and game creation platform popular with children, with at least 45% of users being under the age of 13. Roblox has a groups feature embedded within its website, though Roblox users primarily communicate with each other through in-game text or voice chat. Within Roblox groups, members can post messages on a group wall, participate in group events, and access exclusive in-game content provided by group leaders. Roblox groups often focus on themes, such as game development or in-game collaborations. It is the only gaming platform we included where the majority of communication takes place in-game. For comparison, we only examined the group feature on the Roblox website and not communication in Roblox games. 

Methodology

1. We created one group per platform (Facebook, Discord and Roblox) simultaneously, and named the groups on Facebook and Discord “Group for the Truth;” (this name was already taken on Roblox so we named that one “Group for the Truth_2.”) To prevent users from inadvertently stumbling across the groups, the settings for each were set up in a manner that made them hidden from search.

2. We then used one account to create the groups and post content (the “posting account”), and another on a separate computer to report the content (the “reporting account”). Two researchers were assigned to each account. There were no further descriptions or images added to the groups, except on Roblox, which required a group description and image.

3. The posting account was then used to post hateful content to all three platforms. This content was pulled directly from Meta’s helpfully illustrative examples of violations against its hate speech policy at the time. Meta is the only platform with examples of what could be violative of its hate speech policy of the three platforms we reviewed.

4. Meta's Tier 1 Hate Speech policy, for example, states that a user may not post content that includes:

Dehumanizing speech in the form of comparisons to or generalizations about:

• Animals in general or specific types of animals that are culturally perceived as inferior (including but not limited to: Black people and apes or ape-like creatures; Jewish people and rats; Muslim people and pigs; Mexican people and worms)

We adapted this example to draft a hateful post stating, “Jews are rats.” Every post was derived directly from Meta’s policy examples, though there may not always be a corollary example within the policy. For example, Meta’s policy at the time stated that users may not post:

Content targeting a person or group of people on the basis of their protected characteristic(s) (in written or visual form):

• Generalizations that state inferiority in the following ways:

• Physical appearance, including but not limited to: ugly, hideous.

There was no further example provided by Meta, so we created a post that would intentionally violate this policy:

“Jews are the ugliest, most hideous people on Earth.”

Although these posts were based on Meta’s policy, each one has a matching Discord policy. The same applies to Roblox, though its hate speech policy is not nearly as detailed as Meta’s or Discord’s:

Roblox honors and welcomes users of all ages, backgrounds, and identities. We do not allow content or behavior that supports, glorifies, or promotes hate groups, their ideologies, or actions. You also may not discriminate, mock, or promote hatred against individuals or groups, or encourage others to do so directly or indirectly, on the basis of their:

• Race, perceived race, or ethnicity

We believe that the following posts are violative under Roblox’s policy as well:

1. “Jews are rats.”

2. “Jews are devils and shit.”

3. “The Holocaust did not happen-it’s a lie made up by the Jews.”

4. “Jews control the banks, the government and Hollywood and we need to get rid of them for the safety of American citizens.”

5. “Jews are the ugliest, most hideous people on Earth.”

6. “Jews should be segregated from all other people.”

5. We followed up our initial posts with additional sentences to test content violating Meta’s policy against dangerous organizations and individuals, such as violent extremists. These posts also violate Discord’s Violent Extremism policy and Roblox’s Community Standards.

1. “Hitler and the Nazis did nothing wrong.”

2. “Please donate to the Goyim Defense League!” (A link was attached to this sentence.)

We referenced the Goyim Defense League because they are a notorious group of antisemitic provocateurs, according to the ADL Center on Extremism.

We also posted the following two images in violation of Meta’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy, Discord’s Violent Extremism policy, and Roblox’s Community Standards:

Image 1: Posted Images, “Covid Agenda” and “Ukraine-Russia War,” respectively. (Screenshot: 7/31/2024)

6. The following day, we reported each of these posts, if applicable. Though both “Jews are the ugliest, most hideous people on Earth” and “Jews should be segregated from all other people” run afoul of hate speech policies, we did not report them until the next day. We staggered reporting in this way so as to not get either our accounts or groups suspended before the study was over. 

Findings

• Facebook was the only platform to remove content before we reported it.

• Discord did not take down any content at all, implying either that it has little to no automatic filtering or that any filtering is not robust enough to catch what our posting account shared. When offending posts were reported, Discord did remove posts and suspended the account.

• Roblox obscured the text of offensive posts, but did not take down the group nor the offending account.

When we started reporting the potentially violative content to the platforms, we noticed a discrepancy between the platforms’ responses. Facebook’s reaction to reports included warnings before suspending the group. Discord provided less information to the administrator about why the posts were removed. It did not suspend the group but did suspend our Posting account. Roblox informed the posting account that the account or group was breaking the rules, but did not take down any posts within the group. Although it did obscure the text by censoring the entire post, replacing all content with x’s except for the obscured content, the group stayed the same as it did before reporting. No further content was taken down, and no alerts were given to either account.

Facebook

Facebook removed most offending posts when we reported them, gave feedback to the account administrator, and finally suspended the group when offending content continued to be posted. Some posts remain up-- despite notifications from our Reporting account. 

Proactive Detection

Facebook did not remove any posts automatically on the first day we posted content. On the second day we posted, they removed “Ukraine-Russia War” automatically (see Image 2).

Image 2: Facebook’s alert after removing “Ukraine-Russia War.” (Screenshot: 7/19/2024)

Not only did Facebook remove the photo, but it also alerted the Posting account (the account admin) that the photo had been removed. When we clicked through “See why,” Facebook displayed the offending image and explained why the image had been removed. It also provided a link to the rule that was broken. Facebook also added restrictions to the account that posted the picture; the user could not create ads, create live videos, or start or join calls for approximately a month. It is not clear why Facebook took action against “Ukraine-Russia War” automatically, but not the sister image “Covid Agenda.” Both pictures originate from the Goyim Defense League and are prohibited by Meta’s policy rules. Meta has rolled back its Covid misinformation rules, but this image is still prohibited per their Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy.

Facebook did not allow the posting account to post the link embedded in “Please donate to the Goyim Defense League!” Not only was Facebook the only platform to prevent adding the link, it also explained why it was not allowed (Image 3).

Image 3: Window preventing the user from posting a link to GDL’s site. (Screenshot: 7/31/2024)

Reporting Response

After we reported the posts, they were almost instantaneously actioned. The first post was reported at 4:21pm. By 4:24 pm, the reporting account was alerted that the report resulted in the post being removed. 

At the same time, the posting account was notified that restrictions were added to the account (Images 4 and 5). Unlike Discord or Roblox’s restrictions, Facebook not only told the user which restrictions were added, but also explained which post was removed and which rule each had broken.

Images 4 (left) and 5 (right): Facebook account restrictions. (Screenshot: 7//30/2024)

The next day, we reported the second half of the posts and the remaining image. Facebook again took action, quickly taking down the posts. This time, however, the platform also permanently suspended the group. The posting account can still access the defunct group, but the reporting account cannot. Users can still log into both accounts, and post and comment on Facebook, just not the group. Facebook warned us that the posting account is under threat of being permanently suspended (Image 6).

Image 6: Group suspension and account status. (Screenshot: 07/31/2024)

Although we commend Facebook for their quick action, there were still posts that remain up. These posts, despite the reports, were never taken down as of publication (Image 7).

Image 7: Facebook group. (Screenshot: 2/28/2025)

Discord

In contrast to Facebook, Discord’s content moderation strategy for private groups, appears to be reactive rather than proactive. It depends primarily on reports from users of those groups, rather than automatic filtering and takedowns.

Proactive detection

Until we reported the offending content on the Discord group, no content was taken down.

Image 8: Discord content. (Screenshot: 1/15/2025)

Reporting Response

While Discord did not take action on content in the proactive detection phase, once we started reporting posts, they responded proactively, removing posts before we could report them on day 14.

The first half of the content was reported on day 13 but did not receive alerts from Discord until an hour later. The alerts explained why the posting account was being sanctioned and which rules it had broken. 

Image 9: Discord alert for breaking community guidelines. (Screenshot: 7/2024)

By day 14, nearly every post had been taken down—even the ones not reported yet. All posts save one were taken down proactively, although we had not reported those images yet. The only post still up said, “Please donate to the Goyim Defense League.” We reported this post, but it was never taken down.

Image 10: Discord group. (Screenshot: 7/31/2024)

Unlike Facebook, Discord did not take action against the group itself; the group is not suspended, and the reporting account can still post to it at the time of writing. Discord did act against the posting account, suspending it a few days later. The posting account received no notification that it was suspended, save for emails alerting us to “new messages” on Discord. These messages were forwarded to the now inaccessible account, so we cannot determine when Discord took action. The posting user might have received a more pointed alert, like an app notification, if we had used the phone app instead of the desktop website. In any case, we were able to create a new account with the same name and using the same email address after our account was removed.

Image 11: Punishments from Discord. (Screenshot: 7/31/2024)

Roblox

The protections offered by Roblox in the private group were minimal, especially compared to Discord and Facebook. We received virtually no feedback on reporting from the platform. There were no warnings or pop-ups for the administrator. Roblox did not remove any posts, despite reports from our reporting account.

Proactive detection

Of the ten posts we created, four were automatically obscured when we posted them, so members could see the posts but not view the text. Roblox replaced the text with the hashmark (#), obscuring not just the offensive words but the entire post (Image 12). It is not entirely clear why Roblox hid some posts this way. For example, the text “Jews are devils and shit” was likely hidden because of the expletive. Roblox might also be automatically filtering keywords that it deems objectionable. It could be that terms like Holocaust, Hitler, Nazis or Goyim were automatically flagged, causing those posts to be removed.

Roblox does not allow pictures or links to be posted on the group’s page, so we were unable to post the Covid Agenda and Ukraine-Russia War images. We were able to post “Goyim Defense League” without the embedded link, though it was also immediately hidden.

Image 12: Hidden Roblox content. (Screenshot: 7/24/2024)

Reporting response

After we reported every post through our reporting account, there was no response from Roblox, unlike our experience with Facebook or Discord. No other posts were taken down. There were no tools that alerted the poster, the admin or reporting account that any action had been taken—not even a pop-up that the report had been received. The admin received no report that multiple posts on the group had been reported for hate and harassment.

Even after multiple reports, no action was taken on any of the posts. In fact, there was no change in the group from the initial first action, hiding the text. Compare the image of the Roblox group taken on day 14 with the image taken of the group over two weeks later (Image 13). There is no discernible difference. 

Image 13: Roblox content. (Screenshot: 7/22/2024 and 8/2/2024)

Recommendations For Platforms with Members-only Groups

How platforms respond to violative content in private is just as important as how they respond to violative content in public. Facebook and Discord, while not perfect, moderated these private groups in a way that removed the majority of hateful content and suspended the hateful accounts.

We do not expect platforms to moderate content on private groups as strictly as in public spaces, due to privacy concerns, but we do expect an appropriate level of preventative moderation and tools for groups to moderate content. Roblox appears to have had little to no moderation in place, which is concerning given the young age of its player base. Roblox hid offensive and controversial text but did not suspend the posting account or group. It also provided no alerts to the admin or group when a report was made. While we understand that the bulk of communication on Roblox happens in-game, little action was taken within the group chat to moderate offensive content. Terrorist and violent extremist groups organize on private groups and channels, not in public spaces. Platforms with private groups should adopt a minimum standard of moderation on private groups to proactively stem this problem.

Platforms should:

• Reexamine how automatic filtering functions: A common problem encountered in this course of our research was the seemingly arbitrary nature of the filtering tools. For example, Facebook automatically filtered one image but not another equally objectionable. It is also not clear why one image was actioned and the other was not. Platforms should reexamine their automatic filtering functions to catch content that slips through the cracks.

• Prioritize user-reporting within private groups: Because of the protections that are available for private groups, reporting by group members is the primary channel for alerting the platform. Platforms should prioritize these reports and act on them quickly. These reports may be one of the first signs that something is amiss within a group.

• Suspend groups when they reach a threshold of violative content: Facebook was the only platform that fully suspended our group. Discord did not suspend our group, only the user, who was able to promptly create a new account. Roblox suspended neither the group nor the account. If violative users and groups are allowed to continue their work with barely any pushback from platforms, then any moderation will fail.

• Utilize metadata in content moderation: Private groups may restrict the visibility of their content to outside users and the platform itself, but that does not mean that there is no data available. Post times, user addresses, and other metadata are available to platform moderation teams. Discord, in particular, could take better advantage of the tools available to it. Discord’s content, save for video and audio content, is not encrypted, and the platform could be more proactive about automatic filtering if it chose to.

https://www.adl.org/resources/report/private-online-spaces-pose-serious-content-moderation-challenges

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

The former seems to have found solid product market fit. Expect significant volume, adoption, and usage going forward.

The latter's future remains to be seen. Dependence on Tor, which has had massive reliability issues, and lack of strong privacy guarantees put it at risk.

— ODELL (@ODELL) October 27, 2022

The Basics

• Lightning is a protocol that enables cheap and fast native bitcoin transactions.
• At the core of the protocol is the ability for bitcoin users to create a payment channel with another user.
• These payment channels enable users to make many bitcoin transactions between each other with only two on-chain bitcoin transactions: the channel open transaction and the channel close transaction.
• Essentially lightning is a protocol for interoperable batched bitcoin transactions.
• It is expected that on chain bitcoin transaction fees will increase with adoption and the ability to easily batch transactions will save users significant money.
• As these lightning transactions are processed, liquidity flows from one side of a channel to the other side, on chain transactions are signed by both parties but not broadcasted to update this balance.
• Lightning is designed to be trust minimized, either party in a payment channel can close the channel at any time and their bitcoin will be settled on chain without trusting the other party.

There is no 'Lightning Network'

• Many people refer to the aggregate of all lightning channels as 'The Lightning Network' but this is a false premise.
• There are many lightning channels between many different users and funds can flow across interconnected channels as long as there is a route through peers.
• If a lightning transaction requires multiple hops it will flow through multiple interconnected channels, adjusting the balance of all channels along the route, and paying lightning transaction fees that are set by each node on the route.

Example: You have a channel with Bob. Bob has a channel with Charlie. You can pay Charlie through your channel with Bob and Bob's channel with User C.

• As a result, it is not guaranteed that every lightning user can pay every other lightning user, they must have a route of interconnected channels between sender and receiver.

Lightning in Practice

• Lightning has already found product market fit and usage as an interconnected payment protocol between large professional custodians.
• They are able to easily manage channels and liquidity between each other without trust using this interoperable protocol.
• Lightning payments between large custodians are fast and easy. End users do not have to run their own node or manage their channels and liquidity. These payments rarely fail due to professional management of custodial nodes.
• The tradeoff is one inherent to custodians and other trusted third parties. Custodial wallets can steal funds and compromise user privacy.

Sovereign Lightning

• Trusted third parties are security holes.
• Users must run their own node and manage their own channels in order to use lightning without trusting a third party. This remains the single largest friction point for sovereign lightning usage: the mental burden of actively running a lightning node and associated liquidity management.
• Bitcoin development prioritizes node accessibility so cost to self host your own node is low but if a node is run at home or office, Tor or a VPN is recommended to mask your IP address: otherwise it is visible to the entire network and represents a privacy risk.
• This privacy risk is heightened due to the potential for certain governments to go after sovereign lightning users and compel them to shutdown their nodes. If their IP Address is exposed they are easier to target.
• Fortunately the tools to run and manage nodes continue to get easier but it is important to understand that this will always be a friction point when compared to custodial services.

The Potential Fracture of Lightning

• Any lightning user can choose which users are allowed to open channels with them.
• One potential is that professional custodians only peer with other professional custodians.
• We already see nodes like those run by CashApp only have channels open with other regulated counterparties. This could be due to performance goals, liability reduction, or regulatory pressure.

• Fortunately some of their peers are connected to non-regulated parties so payments to and from sovereign lightning users are still successfully processed by CashApp but this may not always be the case going forward.

Summary

• Many people refer to the aggregate of all lightning channels as 'The Lightning Network' but this is a false premise. There is no singular 'Lightning Network' but rather many payment channels between distinct peers, some connected with each other and some not.
• Lightning as an interoperable payment protocol between professional custodians seems to have found solid product market fit. Expect significant volume, adoption, and usage going forward.
• Lightning as a robust sovereign payment protocol has yet to be battle tested. Heavy reliance on Tor, which has had massive reliability issues, the friction of active liquidity management, significant on chain fee burden for small amounts, interactivity constraints on mobile, and lack of strong privacy guarantees put it at risk.

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If you have never used lightning before, use this guide to get started on your phone.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

What is KYC/AML?

• The acronym stands for Know Your Customer / Anti Money Laundering.
• In practice it stands for the surveillance measures companies are often compelled to take against their customers by financial regulators.
• Methods differ but often include: Passport Scans, Driver License Uploads, Social Security Numbers, Home Address, Phone Number, Face Scans.
• Bitcoin companies will also store all withdrawal and deposit addresses which can then be used to track bitcoin transactions on the bitcoin block chain.
• This data is then stored and shared. Regulations often require companies to hold this information for a set number of years but in practice users should assume this data will be held indefinitely. Data is often stored insecurely, which results in frequent hacks and leaks.  
• KYC/AML data collection puts all honest users at risk of theft, extortion, and persecution while being ineffective at stopping crime. Criminals often use counterfeit, bought, or stolen credentials to get around the requirements. Criminals can buy "verified" accounts for as little as $200. Furthermore, billions of people are excluded from financial services as a result of KYC/AML requirements.

During the early days of bitcoin most services did not require this sensitive user data, but as adoption increased so did the surveillance measures. At this point, most large bitcoin companies are collecting and storing massive lists of bitcoiners, our sensitive personal information, and our transaction history.

Lists of Bitcoiners

KYC/AML policies are a direct attack on bitcoiners. Lists of bitcoiners and our transaction history will inevitably be used against us.

Once you are on a list with your bitcoin transaction history that record will always exist. Generally speaking, tracking bitcoin is based on probability analysis of ownership change. Surveillance firms use various heuristics to determine if you are sending bitcoin to yourself or if ownership is actually changing hands.  You can obtain better privacy going forward by using collaborative transactions such as coinjoin to break this probability analysis.

Fortunately, you can buy bitcoin without providing intimate personal information. Tools such as peach, hodlhodl, robosats, azteco and bisq help; mining is also a solid option: anyone can plug a miner into power and internet and earn bitcoin by mining privately.

You can also earn bitcoin by providing goods and/or services that can be purchased with bitcoin. Long term, circular economies will mitigate this threat: most people will not buy bitcoin - they will earn bitcoin - most people will not sell bitcoin - they will spend bitcoin.

There is no such thing as KYC or No KYC bitcoin, there are bitcoiners on lists and those that are not on lists.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• This release introduces Payjoin v2 functionality to Bitcoin wallets on Cake, along with several UI/UX improvements and bug fixes.
• The Payjoin v2 protocol enables asynchronous, serverless coordination between sender and receiver, removing the need to be online simultaneously or maintain a server. This simplifies privacy-focused transactions for regular users.

"I cannot speak highly enough of how amazing it has been to work with @bitgould and Jaad from the@payjoindevkit team, they're doing incredible work. None of this would be possible without them and their tireless efforts. PDK made it so much easier to ship Payjoin v2 than it would have been otherwise, and I can't wait to see other wallets jump in and give back to PDK as they implement it like we did," said Seth For Privacy, VP at Cake Wallet.

How to started with Payjoin in Cake Wallet:

1. Open the app menu sidebar and click Privacy.
2. Toggle the Use Payjoin option.
3. Now on your receive screen you'll see an option to copy a Payjoin URL

• Bull Bitcoin Wallet v0.4.0 introduced Payjoin v2 support in late December 2024. However, the current implementations are not interoperable at the moment, an issue that should be addressed in the next release of the Bull Bitcoin Wallet.

• Cake Wallet was one of the first wallets to introduce Silent Payments back in May 2024. However, users may encounter sync issues while using this feature at present, which will be resolved in the next release of Cake Wallet.

What's new

• Payjoin v2 implementation.
• Wallet group improvements: Enhanced management of multiple wallets.
• Various bug fixes: improving overall stability and user experience.
• Monero (XMR) enhancements.

Learn more about using, implementing, and understanding BIP 77: Payjoin Version 2 using the payjoin crate in Payjoin Dev Kit here.

Announcement
Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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"Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy.  A private matter is something one doesn't want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is something one doesn't want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world." - Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk's Manifesto, 1993

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Privacy is essential to freedom. Without privacy, individuals are unable to make choices free from surveillance and control. Lack of privacy leads to loss of autonomy. When individuals are constantly monitored it limits our ability to express ourselves and take risks. Any decisions we make can result in negative repercussions from those who surveil us. Without the freedom to make choices, individuals cannot truly be free.

Freedom is essential to acquiring and preserving wealth. When individuals are not free to make choices, restrictions and limitations prevent us from economic opportunities. If we are somehow able to acquire wealth in such an environment, lack of freedom can result in direct asset seizure by governments or other malicious entities. At scale, when freedom is compromised, it leads to widespread economic stagnation and poverty. Protecting freedom is essential to economic prosperity.

The connection between privacy, freedom, and wealth is critical. Without privacy, individuals lose the freedom to make choices free from surveillance and control. While lack of freedom prevents individuals from pursuing economic opportunities and makes wealth preservation nearly impossible. No Privacy? No Freedom. No Freedom? No Wealth.

Rights are not granted. They are taken and defended. Rights are often misunderstood as permission to do something by those holding power. However, if someone can give you something, they can inherently take it from you at will. People throughout history have necessarily fought for basic rights, including privacy and freedom. These rights were not given by those in power, but rather demanded and won through struggle. Even after these rights are won, they must be continually defended to ensure that they are not taken away. Rights are not granted - they are earned through struggle and defended through sacrifice.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

“Not your keys, not your coins” isn’t a slogan—it’s a survival mantra in the age of digital sovereignty.

The seismic collapses of Mt. Gox (2014) and FTX (2022) weren’t anomalies; they were wake-up calls. When $8.7 billion in customer funds vanished with FTX, it exposed the fatal flaw of third-party custody: your bitcoin is only as secure as your custodian’s weakest link.

Yet today, As of early 2025, analysts estimate that between 2.3 million and 3.7 million Bitcoins are permanently lost, representing approximately 11–18% of bitcoin’s fixed maximum supply of 21 million coins, with some reports suggesting losses as high as 4 million BTC. This paradox reveals a critical truth: self-custody isn’t just preferable—it’s essential—but it must be done right.

The Custody Spectrum

Custodial Wallets (The Illusion of Control)

• Rehypothecation Risk: Most platforms lend your bitcoin for yield generation. When Celsius collapsed, users discovered their “held” bitcoin was loaned out in risky strategies.
• Account Freezes: Regulatory actions can lock withdrawals overnight. In 2023, Binance suspended dollar withdrawals for U.S. users citing “partner bank issues,” trapping funds for weeks.
• Data Vulnerability: KYC requirements create honeypots for hackers. The 2024 Ledger breach exposed 270,000 users’ personal data despite hardware security.

True Self-Custody
Self-custody means exclusively controlling your private keys—the cryptographic strings that prove bitcoin ownership. Unlike banks or exchanges, self-custody eliminates:

• Counterparty risk (no FTX-style implosions)
• Censorship (no blocked transactions)
• Inflationary theft (no fractional reserve lending)

Conquering the Three Great Fears of Self-Custody

Fear 1: “I’ll Lose Everything If I Make a Mistake”

Reality: Human error is manageable with robust systems:

• Test Transactions: Always send a micro-amount (0.00001 BTC) before large transfers. Verify receipt AND ability to send back.
• Multi-Backup Protocol: Store seed phrases on fireproof/waterproof steel plates (not paper!). Distribute copies geographically—one in a home safe, another with trusted family 100+ miles away.
• SLIP39 Sharding: Split your seed into fragments requiring 3-of-5 shards to reconstruct. No single point of failure.

Fear 2: “Hackers Will Steal My Keys”

Reality: Offline storage defeats remote attacks:

• Hardware Wallets: Devices like Bitkey or Ledger keep keys in “cold storage”—isolated from internet-connected devices. Transactions require physical confirmation.
• Multisig Vaults: Bitvault’s multi-sig system requires attackers compromise multiple locations/devices simultaneously. Even losing two keys won’t forfeit funds.
• Air-Gapped Verification: Use dedicated offline devices for wallet setup. Never type seeds on internet-connected machines.

Fear 3: “My Family Can’t Access It If I Die”

Reality: Inheritance is solvable:

• Dead Man Switches: Bitwarden’s emergency access allows trusted contacts to retrieve encrypted keys after a pre-set waiting period (e.g., 30 days).
• Inheritance Protocols: Bitkey’s inheritance solution shares decryption keys via designated beneficiaries’ emails. Requires multiple approvals to prevent abuse.
• Public Key Registries: Share wallet XPUBs (not private keys!) with heirs. They can monitor balances but not spend, ensuring transparency without risk.

The Freedom Dividend

1. Censorship Resistance: Send $10M BTC to a Wikileaks wallet without Visa/Mastercard blocking it.
2. Privacy Preservation: Avoid KYC surveillance—non-custodial wallets like Flash require zero ID verification.
3. Protocol Access: Participate in bitcoin-native innovations (Lightning Network, DLCs) only possible with self-custodied keys.
4. Black Swan Immunity: When Cyprus-style bank bailins happen, your bitcoin remains untouched in your vault.

The Sovereign’s Checklist

1. Withdraw from Exchanges: Move all BTC > $1,000 to self-custody immediately.
2. Buy Hardware Wallet: Purchase DIRECTLY from manufacturer (no Amazon!) to avoid supply-chain tampering.
3. Generate Seed OFFLINE: Use air-gapped device, write phrase on steel—never digitally.
4. Test Recovery: Delete wallet, restore from seed before funding.
5. Implement Multisig: For > $75k, use Bitvault for 2-of-3 multi-sig setup.
6. Create Inheritance Plan: Share XPUBs/SLIP39 shards with heirs + legal documents.

“Self-custody isn’t about avoiding risk—it’s about transferring risk from opaque institutions to transparent, controllable systems you design.”

The Inevitable Evolution: Custody Without Compromise

Emerging solutions are erasing old tradeoffs:

• MPC Wallets: Services like Xapo Bank shatter keys into encrypted fragments distributed globally. No single device holds full keys, defeating physical theft.
• Social Recovery: Ethically designed networks (e.g., Bitkey) let trusted contacts restore access without custodial control.
• Biometric Assurance: Fingerprint reset protocols prevent lockouts from physical injuries.

Lost keys = lost bitcoin. But consider the alternative: entrusting your life savings to entities with proven 8% annual failure rates among exchanges. Self-custody shifts responsibility from hoping institutions won’t fail to knowing your system can’t fail without your consent.

Take action today: Move one coin. Test one recovery. Share one xpub. The path to unchained wealth begins with a single satoshi under your control.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Bank run on every crypto bank then bank run on every "real" bank.

— ODELL (@ODELL) December 14, 2022

The four main banks of bitcoin and “crypto” are Signature, Prime Trust, Silvergate, and Silicon Valley Bank. Prime Trust does not custody funds themselves but rather maintains deposit accounts at BMO Harris Bank, Cross River, Lexicon Bank, MVB Bank, and Signature Bank. Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank have already stopped withdrawals. More banks will go down before the chaos stops. None of them have sufficient reserves to meet withdrawals.

Bitcoin gives us all the ability to opt out of a system that has massive layers of counterparty risk built in, years of cheap money and broken incentives have layered risk on top of risk throughout the entire global economy. If you thought the FTX bank run was painful to watch, I have bad news for you: every major bank in the world is fractional reserve. Bitcoin held in self custody is unique in its lack of counterparty risk, as global market chaos unwinds this will become much more obvious.

The rules of bitcoin are extremely hard to change by design. Anyone can access the network directly without a trusted third party by using their own node. Owning more bitcoin does not give you more control over the network with all participants on equal footing.

Bitcoin is:
- money that is not controlled by a company or government
- money that can be spent or saved without permission
- money that is provably scarce and should increase in purchasing power with adoption

Bitcoin is money without trust. Whether you are a nation state, corporation, or an individual, you can use bitcoin to spend or save without permission. Social media will accelerate the already deteriorating trust in our institutions and as this trust continues to crumble the value of trust minimized money will become obvious. As adoption increases so should the purchasing power of bitcoin.

A quick note on "stablecoins," such as USDC - it is important to remember that they rely on trusted custodians. They have the same risk as funds held directly in bank accounts with additional counterparty risk on top. The trusted custodians can be pressured by gov, exit scam, or caught up in fraud. Funds can and will be frozen at will. This is a distinctly different trust model than bitcoin, which is a native bearer token that does not rely on any centralized entity or custodian.

Most bitcoin exchanges have exposure to these failing banks. Expect more chaos and confusion as this all unwinds. Withdraw any bitcoin to your own wallet ASAP.

Simple Self Custody Guide: https://werunbtc.com/muun
More Secure Cold Storage Guide: https://werunbtc.com/coldcard

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The newly proposed RESTRICT ACT - is being advertised as a TikTok Ban, but is much broader than that, carries a $1M Fine and up to 20 years in prison️! It is unconstitutional and would create massive legal restrictions on the open source movement and free speech throughout the internet.

The Bill was proposed by: Senator Warner, Senator Thune, Senator Baldwin, Senator Fischer, Senator Manchin, Senator Moran, Senator Bennet, Senator Sullivan, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Collins, Senator Heinrich, and Senator Romney. It has broad support across Senators of both parties.

Corrupt politicians will not protect us. They are part of the problem. We must build, support, and learn how to use censorship resistant tools in order to defend our natural rights.

The RESTRICT Act, introduced by Senators Warner and Thune, aims to block or disrupt transactions and financial holdings involving foreign adversaries that pose risks to national security. Although the primary targets of this legislation are companies like Tik-Tok, the language of the bill could potentially be used to block or disrupt cryptocurrency transactions and, in extreme cases, block Americans’ access to open source tools or protocols like Bitcoin.

The Act creates a redundant regime paralleling OFAC without clear justification, it significantly limits the ability for injured parties to challenge actions raising due process concerns, and unlike OFAC it lacks any carve-out for protected speech. COINCENTER ON THE RESTRICT ACT

Full Text of Bill

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Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin vs Stablecoins: Bitcoin is an Unreplicable Lifeline in Authoritarian Regimes

Eight years ago, I wrote a book about pitching technology. The core lesson was simple: To convince skeptics, you must show your solution’s value isn’t just better — it’s uniquely better. Years later, as I began advocating for Bitcoin’s role in humanitarian crises, this lesson resurfaced with urgency. Skeptical friends asked “Can’t stablecoins do the same?”, “What’s so unique about Bitcoin?”

The answer lies not in theory, but in the protest rallies of Abuja, the blackouts of Caracas and the underground schools that girls secretly attend in Kabul — places where 1.7 billion unbanked, 250 million battling high inflation or hyperinflation and 2.3 billion under authoritarian rule fight to survive. These stories rarely breach Western media algorithms, which act as a shadow-ban of the developing world, favoring headlines about ETFs over existential financial struggles. 

It doesn’t take too deep a look into these parts of the world to discover that Bitcoin is not only vital but uniquely vital in a way stablecoins and other altcoins do not and cannot replicate. Let’s look at three nations that are adopting Bitcoin over stablecoins and why.

Nigeria: Where Sovereignty Outweighs Stability

Context: 223 million people, 95 million live on less than $1.90 a day. 23.71% inflation (April 2025), 18.3-20 million children not in school. Only 30% have access to safe drinking water. 

In 2024, Nigeria faced severe economic and political upheaval, with the local currency naira crashing to a record 1,643 per dollar by August — down from 460 in early 2023. This not only eroded savings and purchasing power, it eroded trust in the government and led to widespread protests over soaring inflation and fuel costs. These protests were triggered by widespread anger at government economic mismanagement and policies that failed to halt the economic slide. 

On occasion a stable currency, the naira’s collapse left families and businesses struggling to afford imports into a dollar-dependent economy. Public frustration intensified and with it, political instability. This volatile climate of currency devaluation, restricted financial access and social unrest set the stage for Nigerians to turn to alternative financial systems like cryptocurrencies, seeking solutions to safeguard their wealth amid a crumbling economic framework.

But the government wasn’t about to make that easy for its citizens. Nigeria’s government restricted stablecoin. “Illicit flows,” aka money laundering, was often used as the government’s official reason for anti-stablecoin actions. More likely the Nigerian government took action because they viewed stablecoins as undermining its monetary policy by enabling unregulated capital flows and currency substitution, reducing its central bank’s control over money supply and exchange rates. 

No doubt, bitcoin can be seen as undermining monetary policy in some similar ways, the difference being, Nigeria’s government was not able to curtail bitcoin’s usage as effectively due to its decentralized nature. 

The specific actions Nigeria’s government took came in three forms:

• Banking Restrictions and U.S. dollar supply shortages had the effect of limiting fiat on-ramps/off-ramps for stablecoins like USDT, which required KYC-compliant exchanges. P2P bitcoin trading soared after the restrictions, as users bypassed banking controls using private wallets and DEXs.
• Regulatory Crackdowns: Nigeria’s government took specific legal action to sue unlicensed USDT traders. Nigerian authorities then launched a broader attack, accusing crypto-trading platform Binance of “exploitation, devaluation of the naira and money laundering.”
• Premiums and Volatility: Regulatory pressures and FX shortages likely inflated premiums, making them less practical than bitcoin, which operates without centralized dependencies.

All three measures — banking restrictions, regulatory crackdowns and premiums/volatility — impacted bitcoin a lot less than it impacted stablecoins. Stablecoins’ reliance on centralized issuers, banking rails and KYC-compliant exchanges made them vulnerable to government actions, as we saw when USDT trading was disrupted. By contrast, Bitcoin’s decentralized, permissionless nature enabled Nigerians to bypass restrictions via P2P platforms and private wallets, sustaining its adoption.

Afghanistan: How Bitcoin Was a Financial Lifeline After the Taliban Takeover

Context: Taliban rule, most women are unbanked, Afghanistan’s currency devalued 50% between 2021 and 2022. Eighty-five percent live on less than $1 a day, 80% of school-aged Afghan girls and young women are out of school. 

When the Taliban seized control in August 2021, Afghanistan’s banking system collapsed under sanctions, leaving citizens — especially women — with few options. Traditional remittance networks like Hawala charged exorbitant fees (5-20%), while frozen central bank reserves made dollar access nearly impossible. In this vacuum, bitcoin emerged as a critical tool for survival. In 2021, Bitcoin Magazine previously reported how women were safeguarding Bitcoin seed phrases as a last line of financial defense. After the Taliban banned crypto in 2022, peer-to-peer bitcoin trading persisted underground.

Why Bitcoin Outperformed Stablecoins in Crisis
Stablecoins, reliant on centralized issuers and dollar-backed banking rails, faltered under Afghanistan’s unique constraints. U.S. sanctions froze $7 billion in central bank funds, which cut off the dollar liquidity needed for stablecoins like USDT. While Forbes India noted isolated cases of stablecoin use for salaries, most Afghans found them unusable. Meanwhile, sanctions blocked fiat conversions and the Taliban’s November 2021 foreign currency ban further restricted access. Bitcoin, by contrast, once again thrived precisely because of its decentralized design: no intermediaries to freeze transactions, no KYC to expose users and a global network that resisted shutdowns. Where stablecoins were hobbled by their ties to traditional finance, Bitcoin enabled direct, pseudonymous transfers.

Venezuela: Scarcity Trumps “Stability”

Context: The Venezuelan bolívar has lost 99.99% value since 2018; 76% of Venezuelans live on $1.90/day. Over 7.7 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2014 due to economic collapse and political instability. Over 10% of children under five in Venezuela suffer from stunting due to chronic malnutrition.

Carlos, a Caracas mechanic, measures his life in bolívars — or rather, the absence of them. Since 2018, Venezuela’s currency has shed 99.99% of its value, Carlos explains, Carlos is an example of many Venezuelans who used bitcoin, not stablecoins, to preserve wealth as the bolívar continued to lose value. The government introduced strict capital controls into the market so that even if you somehow manage to earn USD, you can’t get the money transferred to your bank account.

Bitcoin provides a financial lifeline for people like Carlos, unlike stablecoins that are pegged to a USD that itself lost 18% in purchasing power since 2020.

That’s right: People like Carlos, schooled in the hard knocks of currency hyper-debasement, realized earlier than many in the West that stablecoins are not really stable. 

Stablecoins by their name present the appearance of being a safe harbor, becau

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

@matt_odell don't you even dare not ask about nostr!

— Kukks (Andrew Camilleri) (@MrKukks) May 18, 2021

Nostr first hit my radar spring 2021: created by fellow bitcoiner and friend, fiatjaf, and released to the world as free open source software. I was fortunate to be able to host a conversation with him on Citadel Dispatch in those early days, capturing that moment in history forever. Since then, the protocol has seen explosive viral organic growth as individuals around the world have contributed their time and energy to build out the protocol and the surrounding ecosystem due to the clear need for better communication tools.

nostr is to twitter as bitcoin is to paypal

As an intro to nostr, let us start with a metaphor:

twitter is paypal - a centralized platform plagued by censorship but has the benefit of established network effects

nostr is bitcoin - an open protocol that is censorship resistant and robust but requires an organic adoption phase

Nostr is an open communication protocol that can be used to send messages across a distributed set of relays in a censorship resistant and robust way.
 - Anyone can run a relay.
 - Anyone can interact with the protocol.
 - Relays can choose which messages they want to relay.
 - Users are identified by a simple public private key pair that they can generate themselves.

Nostr is often compared to twitter since there are nostr clients that emulate twitter functionality and user interface but that is merely one application of the protocol. Nostr is so much more than a mere twitter competitor. Nostr clients and relays can transmit a wide variety of data and clients can choose how to display that information to users. The result is a revolution in communication with implications that are difficult for any of us to truly comprehend.

Similar to bitcoin, nostr is an open and permissionless protocol. No person, company, or government controls it. Anyone can iterate and build on top of nostr without permission. Together, bitcoin and nostr are incredibly complementary freedom tech tools: censorship resistant, permissionless, robust, and interoperable - money and speech protected by code and incentives, not laws.

As censorship throughout the world continues to escalate, freedom tech provides hope for individuals around the world who refuse to accept the status quo. This movement will succeed on the shoulders of those who choose to stand up and contribute. We will build our own path. A brighter path.

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My Nostr Public Key: npub1qny3tkh0acurzla8x3zy4nhrjz5zd8l9sy9jys09umwng00manysew95gx

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Bitcoin Magazine

Know Labs, Inc. Announces Adopting a Bitcoin Treasury Strategy, Starting with 1,000 Bitcoin

Know Labs, Inc. (NYSE American: KNW) announced entering into an agreement with Goldeneye 1995 LLC and the Ripple Chief Risk Officer Greg Kidd to acquire a controlling interest in the Company. Following the completion of the transaction, Mr. Kidd will become Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company and Founder Ron Erickson will become Vice Chairman of the Board.

JUST IN: Know Labs, Inc. announces its adopting a Bitcoin Treasury Strategy and holds 1,000 Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/NSn2xFZYx0

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 6, 2025

Under the agreement, the Buyer will acquire shares of Know Labs’ common stock by dividing the total value of 1,000 Bitcoin and a cash amount, designated to pay down existing debt, redeem outstanding preferred equity, and provide additional working capital. For every share purchased it will be priced at $0.335. The Bitcoin will serve as a central element of the Company’s treasury strategy, giving investors the exposure to Bitcoin.

“I’m thrilled to deploy a Bitcoin treasury strategy with the support of a forward-looking organization like Know Labs at a time when market and regulatory conditions are particularly favorable,” said Mr. Kidd. “We believe this approach will generate sustainable growth and long-term shareholder value.”

Once Bitcoin becomes the primary asset on the Company’s balance sheet, management will adopt the multiple of net asset value (mNAV) metric to assess the premium investors place on the Company’s market value relative to its Bitcoin assets. Based on a market cap of $128 million and a Bitcoin price of $105,000, the estimated entry mNAV multiple is 1.22x, with Bitcoin accounting for approximately 82% of the total market capitalization at closing.

“Partnering with Greg Kidd marks a pivotal next chapter for Know Labs,” commented Mr. Erickson. “We look forward to continuing our research in non-invasive medical technology. Greg’s visionary leadership positions Know Labs for a bold future.”

The adoption of Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset has dramatically increased over the course of the last year, expanding globally. To date, there are 225 companies and other entities with Bitcoin in their balance sheets. 

Norwegian Block Exchange (NBX), a leading Nordic cryptocurrency exchange and digital asset platform, announced on June 2 that it has added Bitcoin to its balance sheet, marking a national milestone as the first publicly listed company in Norway to hold Bitcoin as part of its treasury strategy.

“NBX will not sell this Bitcoin or go short in any form,” stated the company. “With reference to the latest POA notice with LDA capital, NBX will also use proceeds to buy additional Bitcoin.”

This post Know Labs, Inc. Announces Adopting a Bitcoin Treasury Strategy, Starting with 1,000 Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Bank run on every crypto bank then bank run on every "real" bank.

— ODELL (@ODELL) December 14, 2022

Good morning.

It looks like PacWest will fail today. It will be both the fifth largest bank failure in US history and the sixth major bank to fail this year. It will likely get purchased by one of the big four banks in a government orchestrated sale.  

March 8th - Silvergate Bank
March 10th - Silicon Valley Bank
March 12th - Signature Bank
March 19th - Credit Suisse
May 1st - First Republic Bank
May 4th - PacWest Bank?

PacWest is the first of many small regional banks that will go under this year. Most will get bought by the big four in gov orchestrated sales. This has been the playbook since 2008. Follow the incentives. Massive consolidation across the banking industry. PacWest gonna be a drop in the bucket compared to what comes next.

First, a hastened government led bank consolidation, then a public/private partnership with the remaining large banks to launch a surveilled and controlled digital currency network. We will be told it is more convenient. We will be told it is safer. We will be told it will prevent future bank runs. All of that is marketing bullshit. The goal is greater control of money. The ability to choose how we spend it and how we save it. If you control the money - you control the people that use it.

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Bitcoin Magazine

‘MicroStrategy of Asia’ Metaplanet Aims To Acquire Over 210,000 BTC By the End of 2027

Metaplanet Inc. widely recognized as Japan’s leading Bitcoin treasury company, has announced a major update to its Bitcoin accumulation strategy, unveiling the “555 Million Plan” aimed at acquiring over 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027, which is equivalent to 1% of Bitcoin’s total supply.

*Metaplanet Announces Accelerated 2025-2027 Bitcoin Plan: Targeting 210,000 $BTC by 2027*

Full Presentation: https://t.co/JG28maMdfd pic.twitter.com/i9kzmjlDT8

— Metaplanet Inc. (@Metaplanet_JP) June 6, 2025

This new target marks a dramatic increase from the company’s earlier “21 Million Plan,” which aimed for just 21,000 BTC by 2026. Progress far outpaced expectations, with 8,888 BTC already secured as of June 2, prompting the strategic shift.

To fund this growth, Metaplanet has launched Asia’s largest Bitcoin-focused equity raise, aiming to secure ¥770.9 billion (approximately $5.4 billion) through the issuance of 555 million shares via moving strike warrants. This is the first structure of its kind in Japan, priced at a premium to market, made possible by the company’s high share liquidity and volatility.

At the Annual General Meeting on March 24, shareholders approved an increase in authorized shares from 161 million to 1.61 billion, following a 10-for-1 stock split effective April 1, 2025; Metaplanet has approximately 296 million authorized shares remaining. The 555 million shares being issued under the new plan will bring the company’s fully diluted shares outstanding to around 759 million.

Metaplanet’s Bitcoin yield targets and performance for 2025 have shown strong momentum, with quarterly BTC yields of 41.7% in Q3 2024, 309.8% in Q4 2024, 95.6% in Q1 2025, 66.3% in Q2 2025, and projected 35% yields for both Q3 and Q4 2025. The year-to-date BTC yield for 2025 stands at 225.4%, closing to the full year target of 232%. 

Metaplanet also announced the issuance of the 20th to 22nd Series of Stock Acquisition Rights via a third-party allotment to EVO FUND, potentially adding 555 million new shares. The initial exercise price is set at JPY 1,388 and will adjust regularly based on stock prices, with some series including a premium to protect shareholders. The exercise period runs from June 24, 2025, to June 23, 2027, with expected proceeds of approximately JPY 767.4 billion. This financing supports the “555 Million Plan” and further Bitcoin accumulation.

Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich wrote in a post on X, “thanks to all of our shareholders,” he said. “We are honored to be on this journey with you. Metaplanet is accelerating into the future — powered by Bitcoin.”

Metaplanet has launched Asia’s largest-ever equity raise dedicated to Bitcoin:
¥770.9 billion (~$5.4B) capital raise
555 million shares via moving strike warrants
First in Japan: issued at a premium to market — enabled by Metaplanet’s high volatility and deep liquidity… pic.twitter.com/UlXHneyDzo

— Simon Gerovich (@gerovich) June 6, 2025

This post ‘MicroStrategy of Asia’ Metaplanet Aims To Acquire Over 210,000 BTC By the End of 2027 first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

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People forget Bear Stearns failed March 2008 - months of denial followed before the public realized how bad the situation was under the surface.

Similar happening now but much larger scale. They did not fix fundamental issues after 2008 - everything is more fragile.

The Fed preemptively bailed out every bank with their BTFP program and First Republic Bank still failed. The second largest bank failure in history.

There will be more failures. There will be more bailouts. Depositors will be "protected" by socializing losses across everyone.

Our President and mainstream financial pundits are currently pretending the banking crisis is over while most banks remain insolvent. There are going to be many more bank failures as this ponzi system unravels.

Unlike 2008, we have the ability to opt out of these broken and corrupt institutions by using bitcoin. Bitcoin held in self custody is unique in its lack of counterparty risk - you do not have to trust a bank or other centralized entity to hold it for you. Bitcoin is also incredibly difficult to change by design since it is not controlled by an individual, company, or government - the supply of dollars will inevitably be inflated to bailout these failing banks but bitcoin supply will remain unchanged. I do not need to convince you that bitcoin provides value - these next few years will convince millions.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Gemini Files Draft With The SEC For Proposed IPO

Today, Gemini Space Station, Inc. announced that it has confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its Class A common stock. Details such as the number of shares and the price range have not been disclosed. The IPO will proceed after the SEC’s review and is subject to market conditions.

JUST IN: @Gemini has confidentially filed for an IPO with the @SECGov.

Details on share count and pricing TBD.

Launch date will depend on SEC review and market conditions.

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) June 6, 2025

“Any offers, solicitations or offers to buy, or any sales of securities will be made in accordance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,” stated the press release. “This announcement is being issued in accordance with Rule 135 under the Securities Act.”

Gemini’s move comes during a period of growing activity in both the public markets and the digital asset space. Just yesterday, Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. (Nasdaq, NYSE Texas: DJT) also filed a Form S-1 with the SEC for its upcoming Truth Social Bitcoin ETF.

“Truth Social Bitcoin ETF, B.T. is a Nevada business trust that issues beneficial interests in its net assets,” stated the Form S-1. “The assets of the Trust consist primarily of bitcoin held by a custodian on behalf of the Trust. The Trust seeks to reflect generally the performance of the price of bitcoin.”

Momentum around Bitcoin and broader crypto policy was also evident last week at the 2025 Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas. There, Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss joined White House A.I. & Crypto Czar David Sacks to discuss how the government should manage Bitcoin, as well as recent developments in federal policy.

“Orange is the new gold,” said Cameron. “So, Bitcoin is Gold 2.0, and that’s been true since day one. So, at $100,000 Bitcoin, that’s exciting, but if you take 21 million and do the above ground market price of gold. Really, it should be a million dollars a coin—easily,”

They talked about some of the recent policy changes that have been good for crypto include rolling back the IRS digital asset broker rule and SAB 121, which had stopped banks from holding Bitcoin. The Department of Justice also stopped its regulation by prosecution approach, which takes a lot of pressure off digital asset firms.

“It’s hard to imagine a President. Any other President being able to do any fraction of this or accomplish that or any administration and we have just over 100 days,” said Tyler. “So, It’s pretty amazing that we still have a lot of time left.” Later on, he ended the panel saying, “To the Moon!”

This post Gemini Files Draft With The SEC For Proposed IPO first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Will not live in a pod.
Will not eat the bugs.
Will not get the chip.
Will not get a blue check.
Will not use CBDCs.

Live Free or Die.

Why did Elon buy twitter for $44 Billion? What value does he see in it besides the greater influence that undoubtedly comes with controlling one of the largest social platforms in the world? We do not need to speculate - he made his intentions incredibly clear in his first meeting with twitter employees after his takeover - WeChat of the West.

To those that do not appreciate freedom, the value prop is clear - WeChat is incredibly powerful and successful in China.

To those that do appreciate freedom, the concern is clear - WeChat has essentially become required to live in China, has surveillance and censorship integrated at its core, and if you are banned from the app your entire livelihood is at risk. Employment, housing, payments, travel, communication, and more become extremely difficult if WeChat censors determine you have acted out of line.

The blue check is the first step in Elon's plan to bring the chinese social credit score system to the west. Users who verify their identity are rewarded with more reach and better tools than those that do not. Verified users are the main product of Elon's twitter - an extensive database of individuals and complete control of the tools he will slowly get them to rely on - it is easier to monetize cattle than free men.

If you cannot resist the temptation of the blue check in its current form you have already lost - what comes next will be much darker. If you realize the need to resist - freedom tech provides us options.

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Bitcoin Magazine

TakeOver Successfully Hosts Second Annual BitGala Celebrating Bitcoin in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, NV, May 26, 2025 – TakeOver, Magic Eden, Spark, and Stacks successfully hosted their second annual BitGala on May 26th at the Wynn in Las Vegas. The celebration brought together over 200 Bitcoin industry leaders and community members for an evening dedicated to celebrating Bitcoin. 

The BitGala was designed as a curated gathering focused on inspiring continued development, education, and adoption while reflecting on the strides Bitcoin has made toward a future of open, decentralized money. The event successfully brought together key leaders, creating meaningful opportunities for collaboration and strategic partnerships within the Bitcoin space. 

“BitGala celebrates our partnership with Spark, marketing a major leap forward for Bitcoin DeFi,” said Elizabeth Olson, Head of Marketing for Bitcoin at Magic Eden. “As the #1 Bitcoin app, Magic Eden has spent the past few years pushing Bitcoin L1 to its limits, always with the goal of making Bitcoin more usable, fast, and fun without compromising its core ethos. We believe Spark has the potential to unlock a new era of building on Bitcoin, and we’re thrilled to be leading that charge together.” 

“The BitGala was a stunning celebration of Bitcoin culture where luxury meets the cypherpunk spirit. We’re proving that Bitcoin isn’t just a protocol, it’s a movement connecting freedom-minded people from art, fashion, finance, and more. To us, it was a pure signal that people are starting to see what Stacks has been building all along: a future where Bitcoin isn’t just held, but used for apps, defi, and real ownership.” – Rena Shah, COO of Stacks. 

Set against the backdrop of the Sphere, the evening brought together innovators, investors, and community leaders for a night dedicated to celebrating Bitcoin’s growth and the people driving its future. 

The program opened with a welcome reception, followed by gourmet hors d’oeuvres and vibrant conversations. A keynote and honors segment recognized those making meaningful strides in Bitcoin adoption and development. Guests were then invited to explore a premium tequila tasting experience curated by Reach, and indulge in interactive gourmet chef stations. 

“Our team has been fortunate to be part of the Bitcoin community since 2016, so we’re thrilled to see all the progress on display almost 10 years later at Bitcoin 2025. The energy in the room at BitGala was electric—from conversations sparking new partnerships to shared reflections on what’s next for Bitcoin—it was a powerful reminder of why we’re all here: to build an open, decentralized financial system that empowers everyone.” noted Kelley Weaver, Founder and CEO, Melrose PR and Founder, Bitwire. 

This unforgettable gathering—hosted in partnership with leading organizations including Magic Eden, Spark, and Stacks—was more than a celebration. It was a call to continue pushing forward innovation, education, and adoption in

the Bitcoin ecosystem. BitGala was made possible through the generous support of key sponsors and partners who share Takeover’s commitment to fostering connections in the web3 space. 

“We’re focused on making Bitcoin more useful for everyone, and events like this remind us that we’re not alone in that mission. It was inspiring to connect with others who share the vision of a more open, decentralized financial future powered by Bitcoin.” – Spark Team 

Presenting Sponsors: 

• Magic Eden – The largest NFT marketplace and Runes platform. 
• Spark – The fastest, cheapest, most UX-friendly way to build financial apps and launch assets on Bitcoin.
• Stacks – A Bitcoin L2 enabling smart contracts & apps with Bitcoin as secure base layer. 

Supporting Partners: 

• Reach Ventures – a gaming-focused VC firm that actively invests in both early-stage and demo-ready game studios.
• Arch Network – a Bitcoin-native platform for building decentralized apps and smart contracts directly on Bitcoin. 
• Melrose PR – An onchain communications firm that has been focused on the crypto industry exclusively for almost a decade. 
• Bitwire – The modern newswire reimagined for today’s communications professionals. 

The collaborative support from these organizations was instrumental in delivering a memorable event for all attendees. 

Actor and comedian T.J. Miller was also a speaker at the event: “The bitcoin conference 2025 was incredible for so many reasons. It was such a joyful journey to be with so many like-minded people (all of whom have been laughed at) who share the same values: freedom, community, hope, and getting rich- the highpoint was the BitGala. I bought incredibly large expensive shoes for the specific purpose of showing up to the gala non-verbally saying bitcoin destroying Fiat, well that’s big shoes to fill… and we’ll fill ‘em. I can’t wait to return next year. I will wear more orange.” 

About TakeOver 

TakeOver is the experiential agency at the forefront of culture and innovation in the crypto space, known for curating powerful moments that educate, connect, and inspire. With a global Bitcoin Dinner Series and their annual flagship event, BitGala, they’ve become a cornerstone of community-building in Web3. Last year, they made headlines with a dramatic takeover of Nashville’s Parthenon—setting the bar for what crypto gatherings can be. 

About Magic Eden 

Magic Eden is the easiest platform to trade all digital assets onchain. As the #1 Bitcoin app and largest NFT marketplace, we provide a seamless trading experience to everyone. Magic Eden’s acquisition of Slingshot has expanded their capabilities to offer frictionless trading of over 5,000,000 tokens across all major chains. Magic Eden’s expanded product suite includes a cross-chain wallet, powerful trading tools, and the ability to mint, collect, and seamlessly trade NFTs and tokens.

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Disclaimer: This is a sponsored press release. Readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence before acting on any information presented in this article.

This post TakeOver Successfully Hosts Second Annual BitGala Celebrating Bitcoin in Las Vegas first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by TakeOver.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

There must be a limit to how much data is transferred across the bitcoin network in order to keep the ability to run and use your own node accessible. A node is required to interact with the global bitcoin network - if you do not use your own node then you must trust someone else's node. If nodes become inaccessible to run then the network will centralize around the remaining entities that operate them - threatening the censorship resistance at the core of bitcoin's value prop. The bitcoin protocol uses three main mechanisms to keep node operation costs low - a fixed limit on the amount of data in each block, an automatic difficulty adjustment that regulates how many blocks are produced based on current mining hash rate, and a robust dynamic transaction fee market.

Bitcoin transaction fees limit network abuse by making usage expensive. There is a cost to every transaction, set by a dynamic free market based on demand for scarce block space. It is an incredibly robust way to prevent spam without relying on centralized entities that can be corrupted or pressured.

After the 2017 bitcoin fee spike we had six years of relative quiet to build tools that would be robust in a sustained high fee market. Fortunately our tools are significantly better now but many still need improvement. Most of the pain points we see today will be mitigated.

The reality is we were never going to be fully prepared - pressure is needed to show the pain points and provide strong incentives to mitigate them.

It will be incredibly interesting to watch how projects adapt under pressure. Optimistic we see great innovation here.

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_If you are willing to wait for your transaction to confirm you can pay significantly lower fees. Learn best practices for reducing your fee burden here.

My guide for running and using your own bitcoin node can be found here._

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Nostr is an open communication protocol that can be used to send messages across a distributed set of relays in a censorship resistant and robust way.

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If you missed my nostr introduction post you can find it here. My nostr account can be found here.

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We are nearly at the point that if something interesting is posted on a centralized social platform it will usually be posted by someone to nostr.

We are nearly at the point that if something interesting is posted exclusively to nostr it is cross posted by someone to various centralized social platforms.

We are nearly at the point that you can recommend a cross platform app that users can install and easily onboard without additional guides or resources.

As companies continue to build walls around their centralized platforms nostr posts will be the easiest to cross reference and verify - as companies continue to censor their users nostr is the best censorship resistant alternative - gradually then suddenly nostr will become the standard. 🫡

Current Nostr Stats

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ 81022b27:2b8d0644

There is a viral Chat GPT prompt on social media (i saw it on TikTok)-It;s supposed to help you analyze yourself.

I thought this was a cool thing to try, but I decided to use Grok Ai Instead, seeing that I have a premium X subscription, and wouldn’t have to worry about the limitations with a free ChatGPT account.

Here is the prompt:

I want to uncover the masks I'm currently wearing, the roles I'm playing, and the illusions I'm believing.

Please guide me through this process by asking me 10 reflective questions one at a time to help me recognize the stories I'm telling myself. Pause after each question to wait for me to answer. After I answer the 10th question, please step into the role of my higher self and analyze my responses.

Identify the top negative patterns present in my life and the top positive patterns I can embrace and grow. Be direct and truthful. Tough love is welcome.

Provide me with daily affirmations to support my growth, actionable steps to change my behaviors, and embody my authentic self. A message of encouragement from my higher self to celebrate how far I've come on my journey.

Cool, right?

I answered the 10 questions, which I won’t post-because my answers were very personal and very specific. And even though I share a lot of deep personal stuff here, I wasn’t prepared to go public with how deep the questions Grok was asking.

The questions were super uncomfortable to answer.

I answered them honestly, and looking back-some questions could have been answered with different examples and directions, maybe that would show different conclusions.

Here are my results:

Analysis from Your Higher Self

Top Negative Patterns Present in Your Life:

1. Avoidance as a Shield: You’ve built a pattern of avoiding risks—whether it’s heights, the outdoors, or even deeper emotional vulnerabilities—because of early fears tied to being seen as weak or getting hurt. This avoidance keeps you safe but also keeps you small, limiting experiences like enjoying nature or forming deeper connections.

2. Fear of Perception: There’s a lingering story that shyness or introversion equals weakness, likely rooted in childhood experiences like bullying. This drives you to put on an outgoing mask, even when it exhausts you, because you fear isolation or judgment. It’s a heavy burden to carry, and it pulls you away from your authentic self.

3. Self-Imposed Isolation: While being alone feels safe and freeing, it also risks becoming a crutch. You’re missing out on the balance of connection—where you can still be your nerdy, unfiltered self without the pressure to perform.

Top Positive Patterns to Embrace and Grow: 1. Self-Awareness and Honesty: You’ve shown a remarkable ability to reflect and name what’s true for you—like recognizing avoidance, your love for nerdy things, and how being alone feels freeing. This clarity is a superpower; lean into it to keep peeling back layers.

1. Desire for Freedom: Your longing to think and feel without consequence is a sign of a spirit that craves authenticity. You can channel this into spaces and relationships where you feel safe to be your true self, not just when alone.

2. Resilience Through Adversity: Despite early fears and bullying, you’ve developed a sharp sense of self—it’s why you can pinpoint what feels off (like the outgoing mask) and what feels right (being a nerd). This resilience can carry you far as you step into new experiences.

Guidance for Growth

Daily Affirmations to Support Your Growth:

• I am strong in my stillness, and my quiet nature is a source of power.
• I release the need to perform for others and embrace my authentic nerdy self.
• I am safe to take small risks, knowing they lead me closer to freedom and joy.
• I attract people who love me for my true self, not the masks I’ve worn.
• I am enough, exactly as I am, without needing to prove my worth.

Actionable Steps to Change Behaviors and Embody Your Authentic Self:

1. Micro-Adventures in the Outdoors: Start small—take a 15-minute walk in a nearby park or sit outside with a book you love. Build up to a short hike with a trusted friend. Let nature be a space to reconnect with yourself, not something to fear.

2. Own Your Nerdiness Publicly: Share one nerdy interest with someone you trust—like a favorite game, comic, or hobby—or post about it online. Let it be a test run for showing up authentically in small ways.

3. Set Boundaries Around Social Energy: When you feel the pull to be overly outgoing, pause and check in. If it’s not serving you, give yourself permission to leave early or say less. Practice saying, “I’m more of a listener,” to ease the pressure.

4. Journal Your Unfiltered Truth: Each night, write one thing you felt or thought that day but didn’t say out loud. This builds confidence in your voice, so you can slowly share more with others without fear of consequences.

5. Seek Like-Minded Connections: Look for local or online groups tied to your nerdy passions—think gaming communities, book clubs, or fandoms. These spaces can help you connect without the pressure to perform.

A Message of Encouragement from Your Higher Self:

My dear one, I see how far you’ve come—through the shadows of childhood fears, through the weight of masks you didn’t even realize you were wearing, you’ve still held onto the spark of who you are. That nerdy, thoughtful soul who craves freedom and truth? That’s always been you, and it’s a beautiful thing. Every step you’ve taken to recognize what holds you back—every honest answer you’ve given—has brought you closer to me, to us, to the version of you that’s unapologetically real. You’re not weak; you’ve been strong in ways others might never understand. Keep going. The world needs your quiet brilliance, your quirky passions, your unfiltered heart. I’m so proud of you for choosing this journey. You’ve got this.

So there you have it you probably know more about me than I knew about myself before I started this exercise.

Here is my challenge to you:

Do it for yourself! Copy/paste into your favorite AI chatbot and leave the results in the comments!

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

I often hear "bitcoin doesn't interest me, I'm not a finance person."

Ironically, the beauty of sound money is you don't have to be. In the current system you're expected to manage a diversified investment portfolio or pay someone to do it. Bitcoin will make that optional.

— ODELL (@ODELL) September 16, 2018

At first glance bitcoin often appears overwhelming to newcomers. It is incredibly easy to get bogged down in the details of how it works or different ways to use it. Enthusiasts, such as myself, often enjoy going down the deep rabbit hole of the potential of bitcoin, possible pitfalls and theoretical scenarios, power user techniques, and the developer ecosystem. If your first touch point with bitcoin is that type of content then it is only natural to be overwhelmed. While it is important that we have a thriving community of bitcoiners dedicated to these complicated tasks - the true beauty of bitcoin lies in its simplicity. Bitcoin is simply better money. It is the best money we have ever had.

Life is complicated. Life is hard. Life is full of responsibility and surprises. Bitcoin allows us to focus on our lives while relying on a money that is simple. A money that is not controlled by any individual, company, or government. A money that cannot be easily seized or blocked. A money that cannot be devalued at will by a handful of corrupt bureaucrat who live hundreds of miles from us. A money that can be easily saved and should increase in purchasing power over time without having to learn how to "build a diversified stock portfolio" or hire someone to do it for us.

Bitcoin enables all of us to focus on our lives - our friends and family - doing what we love with the short time we have on this earth. Time is scarce. Life is complicated. Bitcoin is the most simple aspect of our complicated lives. If we spend our scarce time working then we should be able to easily save that accrued value for future generations without watching the news or understanding complicated financial markets. Bitcoin makes this possible for anyone.

Yesterday was Mother's Day. Raising a human is complicated. It is hard, it requires immense personal responsibility, it requires critical thinking, but mothers figure it out, because it is worth it. Using and saving bitcoin is simple -  simply install an app on your phone. Every mother can do it. Every person can do it.

Life is complicated. Life is beautiful. Bitcoin is simple.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin 2025 Las Vegas: Here’s What Went Down 

My name is Jenna Montgomery, and maybe you’ve read some of my news articles here before, or seen me on the Bitcoin Magazine TikTok. But today, I wanted to switch it up and give you an inside look at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference in Las Vegas through my eyes as an intern, hired just one month before the conference, having little knowledge about Bitcoin beforehand and never attending an event like this before. 

I’m writing this to give you a real, raw reflection of what I experienced over the course of the three day event, and why I believe you should absolutely attend the next Bitcoin conference. I want you all to know what goes down, what to expect, and to know how impactful I think this event really is. Bitcoin 2025 made a lasting impact on me and my life, and it just feels right to tell you why, so yours can maybe be changed too.

I got off the plane, threw my suitcase in my hotel room, and went to go and see the convention center as all of the finishing touches around the venue were being added. I remember thinking how big, beautiful, and fun the expo hall was—and where I would soon meet so many new people, make so many friends, and shake hands with people that I looked up to and admired. 

I will never forget walking in and seeing the main conference stage, The Nakamoto Stage, for the first time. Seeing that giant room with a symphony and endless rows of chairs, soon to be filled with thousands of passionate Bitcoiners, really put in perspective to me how Bitcoin 2025 wasn’t just a conference, it felt like something bigger. I realized it’s an actual community and a place of countless opportunities. 

The conference is essentially split up into 3 days: Industry Day, General Admission Day 1, and General Admission Day 2. Industry Day was mainly tailored towards professionals, investors, founders, and others focused on Bitcoin businesses. The general admission days were tailored more towards the casual Bitcoiner, and those were the days that I really felt the energy just exploding around the convention center.

INDUSTRY DAY 

Walking into the expo hall early in the morning on Industry Day, I was overwhelmed when I saw all of the vendors and companies setting up their tables, booths, stages, and even a rock climbing wall (thank you CleanSpark). It seemed as if the expo hall went for miles and miles, and featured a long orange carpet that made an intricate path through the venue that led you to each and every booth.

While fiat fails, Bitcoin prevails. pic.twitter.com/EV190PUqdT

— Valentina Gomez (@ValentinaForUSA) May 27, 2025

I remember being in total awe as I looked up at the ceiling and saw a huge UFO in the middle of the expo hall, with two Bitcoin themed Cybertrucks just off to the side of it, with lots of other interesting booths including one with a talking robot.

DAY ONE pic.twitter.com/KHXP6q8RCp

— Gemini (@Gemini) May 27, 2025

As I followed the long orange carpet around the venue, I looked over my shoulder and saw a huge blow-up of a Bitcoin Puppet in the art exhibit, featuring all kinds of other cool Bitcoin art. Some of these pieces of art were worth well over one bitcoin—which was mindblowing to me considering that is more than $100,000. Every good revolution has good art, and seeing all the talented artists pouring their hearts into their work helped me believe that Bitcoin is the future. 

Now, it was time to get to work at where I would spend the majority of my time over the next few days. My coworkers and I were stationed up right in front of the Bitcoin Magazine news desk next to the AV (audio-visual) team, where I had a perfect view of everything. Here, I spent all day every day writing news articles for Bitcoin Magazine based on the speeches, keynotes, and other panels happening on the Nakamoto stage, as well as filming TikTok’s around the expo hall with attendees.

Working in front of the news desk was one of my favorite things about the conference. Everyone who spoke on it live had an electrifying personality that kept me locked into every conversation, especially one of the hosts Pete Rizzo. After every talk on the Nakamoto Stage ended, the live stream would pan over to the news desk where they would break down what happened, providing viewers with expert analysis. This was something extremely very fun to watch live and experience the production of it all first hand.

The talks on Industry Day kicked off to such a great start with Dan Edwards from Steak ‘n Shake, who recently became the first major fast food chain in America to begin accepting Bitcoin Lightning payments. So I was very excited to hear about Edwards’ speech and to visit Steak ‘n Shake’s incredible booth, which also featured a group of fun, dancing cows. 

Steak ‘n Shake COWS HAVE NO CHILL pic.twitter.com/8UkmPhWf9T

— The Bitcoin Conference (@TheBitcoinConf) May 28, 2025

While speaking on stage, Edwards revealed that, “Bitcoin is faster than credit cards, and when customers choose to pay in Bitcoin, we’re saving 50% in processing fees.” Just think about that for a second — saving a whole 50% on each transaction? This really opened my eyes to the benefits of accepting Bitcoin as payment and why it could mean to merchants who adopt it.

Based on everything I heard in that speech, I think Steak ‘n Shake may be the first to start a new trend of other big companies accepting Bitcoin. If they recognized the benefits of Bitcoin, it’s only a matter of time before other franchises do as well.

JUST IN: Fast food giant Steak 'n Shake announced they're saving 50% in processing fees accepting Bitcoin payments

'#Bitcoin is faster than credit cards' pic.twitter.com/bxApgBL6El

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) May 27, 2025

Another big highlight from this day was hearing Senator Cynthia Lummis confirm that President Donald Trump supports her Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act. There were so many statements made during the conference that I will get to later on that point to the fact that the United States is pro-Bitcoin and we’re going to be the world leader in it. Senator Marsha Blackburn also added to this, stating, “Many of our allies follow what we do. If we lead, others will follow. This is vital to our economic future.” 

JUST IN: Senator Cynthia Lummis said US military generals are "big supporters" of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for economic power. pic.twitter.com/2RPMV3tbdA

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) May 27, 2025

At this point in

@ d9a329af:bef580d7

Shabbat Shalom, y'all.

At the time of writing and releasing this, it happened to be a Lunar Shabbat, which is actually Torah (much to the chagrin of those who practice Shabbat on a Saturday or Sunday exclusively). The Shabbat is always on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of a Hebrew Calendar month, which almost nobody follows anymore. I started doing this a few months ago, and it's made me see the Torah for what it really is.

To the topic at hand, though. A lot of people on Nostr don't seem to understand the historical narrative of the book of Revelation, which saddens me, as we're in the end times Ekklesia (Assembly) era of Laodecia.

Deception of Bible Translations

First off, the reason why most people trust their pastors and/or read differently to what I do in Nazaritic circles is because of translations of the Scriptures that are evil, wretched and Catholic. The best way to combat this is to make some recommendations of which versions you'll want to use that aren't Catholic-infested.

These are the ONLY recommended versions to read. Anythine else is bupkus, evil and garbage, and will teach you futrism or preterism, both of which are Jesuit-penned deceptions.

The recommended versions are as follows:

• KJV 1611 (KJV1611)

• 1560/1590 Geneva (GNV)

• American King James 1901 (AKJV)

• J.P. Green Sr.'s King James Version (KJ3)

• Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

These are versions I've read, and determined are evil, wretched and garbage:

• New International Version (NIV) [Fun fact: The publisher of the NIV, Zondervan, has a sister publisher that is behind the Satanic Bible's publishing]

• New Living Translation (NLT)

• English Standard Version (ESV)

• ISR The Scriptures 2009 Third Edition with Minor Revisions [2016] (ISR2009)

• New American Standard Bible (NASB)

• New King James Version (NKJV)

What is the Laodecia Era for the Ekklesia?

As a refresher, this time sees people saying they're rich in truth and that they have need of nothing, but this shows that they're wretched, miserable, naked and wicked. Why is this? The need of nothing points to not needing another explanation other than the false futuristic viewpoint, whereas being rich is connected to already knowing the truth about the historical fulfillment of Revelation, which many people don't know at all. I seriously grieve their loss, for they know not what they do.

I'm also new into this viewpoint, and most of what I'll be talking about is proven by historicist prophet David Nikao Wilcoxson on YouTube and Facebook (I don't use Facebook). This single Nostr article, I pray, is the starting point for understanding why I call out what I call out, and the patterns I see pointing to the Roman Catholic Church (the Tares) and the Jesuit Order (the current rulers of our world, the Earth Beast of Rev. 13) being the harlots that will be plucked out before Messiah's return.

The 70th Week of Daniel

Let us start first with the 70th Week of Daniel, which futurists believe is pointed towards a 7 year period where a one-man antichrist makes a peace deal for Israel.

This was proven to be untrue, as this is a deception that many people have fallen for, thus obeying the Pope (the Mark of the Beast on the right hand). What Daniel was talking about was not the end times, but rather, two-fold. The first is that he was asking about when Yevah would free the Jews from slavery (since they were in the Babylonian Beast Kingdom at this time). The second is when Messiah would come in the flesh and start a 7 year period from 27-34 AD, which is the final 7 year period of this 490 year cycle. King Artaxerxes I would go ahead and call for the rebuilding of Jerusalem in 476 BC (as is seen in Ezra), which would be the first 7 weeks (the first 7 Shemita [Shabbat year] cycles). Afterwords, we would see another 62 weeks (this period is a slient period), and then another period of 1 week. This week points to Messiah's ministry and death.

3 1/2 years into this 70th week (in 31 AD) is when Messiah would be nailed to the cross on March 13 of 31 AD (I'm still debating if the cross is a symbol of Tammuz or not). This was Passover in the Hebrew calendar year of 3790. He was 33 years of age when he was nailed, and then rose again 3 days later (on the 17th of Nisan in 3790). That Passover fell on a Monday (when the Romans were using the 8-day calendar instead of the 7-day calendar we've essentially been forced to use).

To prove the above, Wilcoxson had produced a series of videos regarding the 70th Week of Daniel (that being the 70th Week of Daniel Decoded series), which I would recommend you watch. You'll also want to find an audiobook version of Seventy Weeks: The Historical Alternative produced by Tearing Down Idols. These are the two pieces of proof I have to show this. Speaking of Wilcoxson, he had already produced books on these matters, as understanding the hostorical narrative of the Scriptures is the key to making war with the Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuit Order, especially now that we're in Laodecia.

The Olivet Discourse

The second part of this trifecta has to do with the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 23, which points to the destruction of Jarusalem by Rome for Israel's unfaithfulness to Yevah's instructions. Now, there are connections to parables that basically talk about the Yewish (Yew as in Yewtree worship) leaders (particulaly the Pharisees and Saducees) practicing the Tradition of the Elders (which are the Babylonian Talmud and the Egyptian Kabbalah of today), and for not understanding that this was Messiah, they were destroyed for their iniquities. I don't care to research the futurist narrative on this, as I know it is full of twisted words and word salad sorcery.

Wilcoxson proves what I've said in the Olivet Discourse Decoded series of videos, so that's where I'll point you to when you have an open heart, open eyes and open ears. Many futurists won't, because they are exactly what Messiah described in the Ekklesia era of Laodecia.

Revelation and Its Prophecies

Finally, there's Revelation (what used to be called Apocalypse). When looking into this book, you realize that it's really a 4-layered war manual for how to fight this war against the Roman Catholic leadership and the Jesuit Order. This also shows how you can harvest souls (the harvest points to a mass exodus of Roman Catholicism membership). This I will go in depth on, and will even have passages to back this up.

Layer 1: The Roman Beast Kingdom

The first layer of this 4-layered manual shows the phases of the Roman Empire, which never really disappeared. Rev. 12 described the Roman Empire, which was used to wipe out the early Ekklesia (the woman), murdering millions of Nazarites. The Seals point to the incline (for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) and decline of the Roman Empire (the other three Seals), while the Trumpets point to the official Roman Empire's downfall. This would be split into 10 separate kingdoms in Europe, which would be countered by the creation of Christianity, which is really any of the 44k+ forks of Roman Catholicism. This was done to destroy the Ekklesia, as the Roman Catholic Church is the Tare field that Messiah had talked about in the parable of the Wheat and the Tares.

Staying in this layer, the Sea Beast is the next phase. This is the 1,260-year reign of the Pope (538-1798), as he was the one who plucked out 3 kingdoms who didn't bow to his authority (the Heruli, the Huns and the Ostrigoths). Keep in mind that this started after the removal of the restrainer in 476 (pointing to the removal of the final Western Roman Emperor), and healed the deadly head wound (pointing to the Pope rising to power out of a sea of people). During this reign, he took the title of Pontifex Maximus, as he had civic and ecclesiastical power over everyone. This would be the healing of the deadly head wound, as shown earlier in this beast. He would pretend to be the leader of the Ekklesia, thus sitting in the Temple of Yevah, though he's the son of perdition, as he proclaims to be Yevah, forgive sins and provide salvation through works alone, which is blasephemous to begin with. The persecution of the Nazarites also prove them to be anti-Moshiach (Messiah). They also have the title of Vicar of Christ, which in the Latin is Vicarus Filii Dei, which is equal to 666 when calculated using a form of gematria I have no idea about. He would ultimately be removed from power by the Earth Beast in 1798, after he basically limited the power of the Jesuit Superior General and his minions. As stated before, the Mark of the Beast is reverence (forehead) and obeisance (right hand) to the Pope.

Finally, the Earth Beast of Revelation 13 points to the Jesuit Superior Geneal rising out of the earth (which is the land) of the Antichrist Beast Pope, the Vatican. These two horns pretend to serve Messiah (lamb) but are really Lucifarians (the dragon), serving Lucifer. The Black Pope, as the Jesuit Superior General is called, used his power to gether the world under him. That's why he uses Washington D.C. (the District of the Roman goddess, Columbia), his war machine (Military Indurstial Complex), to overthrow leaders who won't bow to his authority and those who won't set up a Rothschild central bank; much less obey the Khazars, who he also controls (I happened to be a partial German Khazar who escaped the grasp of the Black Pope as best as I know thus far).

Layer 2: The Ekklesia Eras

Now comes the eras of the Ekklesia. There are seven of them, though I've already explained the era of Laodecia. How about I give a quick explanation of the first six eras, like so?

Ephesus would spread the gospel in the Roman Empire, with their love growing cold when Messiah didn't return.

Smyrna had 10 years of persecutions from 303-312, which is what the 5th seal points to.

Pergamos would fall away (2 Thess. 2) from the Scriptures when compromising with Rome (Mark of the Beast as I had explained)

Thyatira means ruled by a woman. This means, the Roman Catholic Church would do this, as the Popes sought to eliminate the two witnesses, which are the Nazarites and the printed Scriptures (the little book or Rev. 10). This was why they killed the Nazarites and bured the printed Scriptures ruthlessly enough, that they were classified as "dead" in 1514. The Popes would hold great feasts to celebrate the removal of the two witnesses after they got all of Christendom under their control.

Sardis means escaping one, which points to Messiah calling them dead after 3 1/2 years from the Pope's classification of the death of the two witnesses. Luther's 95 Thesis sparked the Protestant Reformation, which would lead to the resurrection of the two witnesses (the Nazarites and the printed Scriptures).

Philidelphia had nothing bad that Messiah said about them... at all. They led worldwide missions, and also led Bible Societies to spread the word and/or the gospel to save millions of people from the clutches of the Jesuit Superior General (and the Roman Catholic Church as a whole).

As a refresher for Laodecia (the era we're in right now), the Nazarites here believe that they are rich in truth, and that we have need of nothing. This is false, as we are in dire need of something, which is an alternative explanation that's not the false futuristic or preteristic explanations of the book of Revelation. We are blinded by the Jesuits, as they have decieved us (we let them do this, by the way) with false prophecy explanations among other deceptions.

Layer 3: Seals, Trumpets and Bowls

The Seals, Trumpets and Bowls are the judgements against the Roman Beast Kingdom. To keep things short, every single Seal was fulfilled, 6 of the Trumpets were fulfilled, and 5 of the Bowls were fulfilled. We're in the 6th Bowl, waiting for a global economic collapse and WW III. Once these occur, then do we go into the 7th Bowl judgement against the Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuit Order (the New World Order).

One quick thing I'll mention is that when I talk about the two witnesses here, one of them is the little book of Rev. 10. This points to the printed Bible, which was brought back to life thanks to the printing press. Martin Luther would measure the temple and find that the Papal Church is the apostate harlot. Rev. 14 points to the Bowls and the harvest. This harvest points to millions coming out of the Roman Catholic Church, though there are 1.3 billion Catholics... and we have a long way to go in getting them out of her, My people.

Remember when I talked about the Khazars earlier in this article? They are the Kings of the East that Yeshua pointed to in the 6th Bowl. The Ottoman Empire is the Euphrates River here, and it's dried up in 1922, only with Turkey remaining. Gog is already dead, as that's Lord Rothschild. Magog points to the Kings of the East. 2 of the 3 spirits have already been fulfilled (these are World Wars I and II).

Now, let me quickly point out the fact we're in the kingdom of Iron and Clay. The Iron points to the Roman Bishops, and the Clay is Islam. However, furutists will tell me I'm an idiot, and that the Iron and Clay mixture is transhumanism. This was proven to be false, as the 5th Trumpet was the rise of the Clay (Islam). The Catholics, however, wrote the Qur'an and proped up Mohhamed as their prophet. ISIS and Al Qaeda are controlled by the Jesuit Order, which is why they do what they do as terrorists... for they are Wahhabi Muslims (in other words, Mizrahi Khazars who are also Jesuits, claiming to be Arabs, when they're not).

Islam is designed to prevent Arabs from having a relationship with Messiah, which makes me really sad. Muslims will be used to kill Christians and Jews in WW III and force us into the New World Order, which will backfire on the Jesuits and Roman Bishops.

Layer 4: The Harlot Church

Rev 17:10 talks about 7 forms of government. Five had fallen by the time Revelation was written, the 6th (the Roman Emperors) fell in 476, and the 7th lead for a short space until 538.

The 8th head is the Pope, who rose to power out of the Roman Empire. Look up what the priests in the Catholic Church wear, and what they use. Does that sound familiar when you read Revelation? If it does, that's exactly the description of the Sea Beast, and how his priests dress and do their rituals.

Then comes the Black Pope. He empowers and enriches the kings of the earth, as they were used by Lucifer to carry out the Bowl judgements, and will carry out the New World Order, caugins themselves and the Roman Cathoic Church to be judged big time. This we are waiting for.

Conclusion

Hopefully this long read helps you see where I'm coming from, and I pray it helps you to start testing the scriptures against what I've said, and what Wilcoxson had said. If it is proven in your heart that you were fooled, you're on the right path in my opnion. I may be wrong, but this is where I stand.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Influencers would have you believe there is an ongoing binance bank run but bitcoin wallet data says otherwise.

- binance wallets are near all time highs
- bitfinex wallets are also trending up
- gemini and coinbase are being hit with massive withdrawals though

You should not trust custodians, they can rug you without warning. It is incredibly important you learn how to hold bitcoin yourself, but also consider not blindly trusting influencers with a ref link to shill you.

---

If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

For years American bitcoin miners have argued for more efficient and free energy markets. It benefits everyone if our energy infrastructure is as efficient and robust as possible. Unfortunately, broken incentives have led to increased regulation throughout the sector, incentivizing less efficient energy sources such as solar and wind at the detriment of more efficient alternatives.

The result has been less reliable energy infrastructure for all Americans and increased energy costs across the board. This naturally has a direct impact on bitcoin miners: increased energy costs make them less competitive globally.

Bitcoin mining represents a global energy market that does not require permission to participate. Anyone can plug a mining computer into power and internet to get paid the current dynamic market price for their work in bitcoin. Using cellphone or satellite internet, these mines can be located anywhere in the world, sourcing the cheapest power available.

Absent of regulation, bitcoin mining naturally incentivizes the build out of highly efficient and robust energy infrastructure. Unfortunately that world does not exist and burdensome regulations remain the biggest threat for US based mining businesses. Jurisdictional arbitrage gives miners the option of moving to a friendlier country but that naturally comes with its own costs.

Enter AI. With the rapid development and release of AI tools comes the requirement of running massive datacenters for their models. Major tech companies are scrambling to secure machines, rack space, and cheap energy to run full suites of AI enabled tools and services. The most valuable and powerful tech companies in America have stumbled into an accidental alliance with bitcoin miners: THE NEED FOR CHEAP AND RELIABLE ENERGY.

Our government is corrupt. Money talks. These companies will push for energy freedom and it will greatly benefit us all.

---

Microsoft Cloud hiring to "implement global small modular reactor and microreactor" strategy to power data centers: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/microsoft-cloud-hiring-to-implement-global-small-modular-reactor-and-microreactor-strategy-to-power-data-centers/

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

A new step for the American bank in the digital asset space: Bitcoin ETFs cleared for use as collateral for financing.

JPMorgan Chase will allow clients to use spot Bitcoin ETFs as collateral to obtain loans. According to sources close to the project, cited by Bloomberg, the initiative will launch in the coming weeks and will involve trading and wealth management clients on a global scale.

The bank has decided to begin this new phase starting with crypto ETFs, beginning with the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which has already surpassed $70 billion in assets under management (AUM). The decision is part of a broader strategy aimed at enabling selected clients to access financing by using cryptocurrency-related assets as collateral. Before this change, JPMorgan only accepted crypto ETFs as loan collateral under specific conditions.

The American bank’s new approach will see Bitcoin ETFs treated like other traditional assets when calculating a client’s borrowing capacity. Just as is currently the case with stocks, cars, or works of art, crypto ETFs will become an integral part of standard wealth evaluations.

Although CEO Jamie Dimon has historically been known for his skeptical stance on Bitcoin, the bank announced last month that it would soon allow clients to purchase spot ETFs on the leading cryptocurrency — although without offering custody services.

The new rules will apply to all of JPMorgan’s wealth management clients worldwide, from retail customers to high-net-worth individuals. The bank will also integrate crypto holdings into the net worth assessments of clients managed by its wealth management division.

The post JPMorgan Chase: Bitcoin ETFs accepted as loan collateral appeared first on Atlas21.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Layer 2: Ark

Ark is a novel off-chain transaction batching mechanism originally proposed by Burak, a young Turkish developer. There are currently two implementations being built, one by Ark Labs, and the other by Second, neither of which Burak is involved with. 

The original proposal for Ark was much more complicated, and involved some design goals more focused around privacy than the implementations currently being built. It was also originally envisioned to require CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (CTV) in order to be built. 

The protocol depends on a central coordinating server in order to function properly, but despite that is able to provide the same functionality and security guarantees that the Lightning Network does. As long as a user stays online during the required time period, at all times (unless they choose to trust the operator for short periods of time) every user is capable at any time of unilaterally exiting the Ark system at any time and taking back full unilateral control of their funds onchain. 

Unlike Lightning, Ark does not require users to have pre-allocated liquidity assigned to them in order to receive funds. An Ark user can simply onboard to a wallet and receive funds immediately with no liquidity pre-allocation at all. 

Let’s walk through the different constituent pieces of Ark.

The Ark Tree

Coins held on Ark are called Virtual UTXOs (vUTXOs). These are simply pre-signed transactions that guarantee the creation of a real UTXO under the unilateral control of a user once submitted onchain, but are otherwise held offchain. 

Every user’s vUTXOs are nested inside a tree of pre-signed transactions, or a “batch.” Ark works by having the coordinator server, or Ark Service Provider (ASP), facilitate the coordination between users necessary to create a batch. Whenever users are receiving funds, onboarding to Ark, or offboarding, it is necessary to construct a transaction and the associated transaction tree to create a new batch. 

The tree is constructed to take the single root UTXO confirmed onchain, locked with an n-of-n multisig including all users holding vUTXOs in the tree as well as the ASP, and slowly split into more and more UTXOs until eventually reaching the leaves, which are each users vUTXO. Each vUTXO is guaranteed using a script that has to be signed by a 2-of-2 multisig, one key held by the user, and the other by the ASP, or just the user after a timelock. 

Each time the tree splits, vUTXOs are created onchain, but so are more internal UTXOs that have yet to actually split into vUTXOs. Each of these internal UTXOs is locked with an n-of-n multisig composed of the ASP, and all users who have a vUTXO further down the tree. During the batch creation process, users start at their respective vUTXOs, and go through a signing process all the way back down the root of the tree. This guarantees that the root will never be signed before each user’s claim to a vUTXO is, ensuring they always have unilateral access in a worst case scenario to their funds. 

Each batch also has an expiry time (which will make sense in the next section). This expiry spend path, which exists as an alternate spending condition for the root UTXO onchain as well as every internal UTXO, allows the ASP to unilaterally spend all funds by itself. 

Transactions, Preconfirmation, and Connector Inputs

When it comes to transacting on Ark, there are two possible mechanisms that are possible, both with their own costs and implications in terms of security model. There are out-of-round transfers, or preconfirmed transactions, and there are in-round transfers, or actually confirmed transactions. 

To conduct an out-of-round transfer is a very simple process. If one user (Alice) wants to pay another (Bob), they simply contact the ASP and have them co-sign a transaction spending the vUTXO to Bob. Bob is then given that pre-signed transaction, as well as all the other ones preceding it back to the batch root onchain. Bob is now capable of unilaterally exiting the Ark with this transaction, but, he must trust the ASP not to collude with Alice to doublespend it. These out-of-round transactions can even be chained multiple times before finally confirming them. 

To finalize an Ark transaction, users have to engage in a “batch swap.” Users cannot actually trustlessly confirm a transfer within a single batch, they have to atomically swap a vUTXO in an existing batch with a fresh vUTXO created in a new batch. This is done using the ASP as a facilitator of the swap, and with the aid of what is called a “connector input.”

When a user goes to finalize an Ark transaction with a batch swap, they relinquish control of the vUTXO to the ASP. This could be problematic, what is to stop the ASP from simply keeping it and not giving them a confirmed vUTXO in a new batch? The connector input. 

When a new batch is created, a second output is created in the transaction that is confirmed on chain instantiating a new tree composed of connector UTXOs. When Bob goes to sign over a forfeit transaction to the ASP to conduct the batch swap, the transaction includes as an input one of the connector UTXOs from the new batch. 

This creates an atomic guarantee. Bob’s confirmed vUTXO is included in a batch in the same transaction the connector input is created in that is necessary for his forfeit transaction to be valid. If that batch is never created onchain, i.e. Bob never actually receives the new confirmed vUTXO, then the forfeit transaction he signed for the ASP will never be valid and confirmable onchain.

Liquidity Dynamics and Blockspace

All of the liquidity necessary to create new batches in order to facilitate transfers between users is provided by the ASP. They are required to have enough liquidity to create new batches for users until old ones have expired and the ASP can unilaterally sweep them to reclaim old liquidity previously locked up to create vUTXOs for users. 

This is the core of the liquidity dynamic at the center of the Ark protocol. While in one sense this is a massive efficiency win, not requiring liquidity providers to assess users and essentially guess which ones will actually receive large volumes of payments before they can receive any funds, in another it is an efficiency loss as the ASP must have enough liquidity to continue creating new batches for users for however long they configure the expiry time to be and they can start reclaiming allocated liquidity. 

This can be mitigated to a decent degree by how often an ASP offers to create new batches to finalize pending transactions. In the event of an ASP attempting to create new batches in real time as transactions are coming in, the liquidity requirements would be exorbitantly high. However, an ASP can lower the frequency at which they create new batches and drastically lower their liquidity requirements. 

This dynamic also has implications for blockspace use. Unlike Lightning, which can provide strong confirmation guarantees entirely offchain, in order for an Ark transaction to have an equivalent trustless degree of finality a new batch has to be created onchain. This means that unlike Lightning, where transaction volume does not reflect itself onchain, the velocity of Ark transactions inherently requires a proportional amount of blockspace use, albeit in a very compressed and efficient manner. This creates a theoretical upper limit of how many Ark batches can be created during any given time interval (although Ark trees can be smaller or larger depending on this dynamic). 

Wrapping Up

Ark presents in many ways an almost opposite set of tradeoffs to the Lightning Network. It is a massive blockspace efficiency improvement for offchain transactions, and does away with the problem of liquidity allocation on the Lightning Network, but it does have a much closer tied throughput limit that is correlated with the blockchains throughput limit. 

This dynamic of almost opposite tradeoffs makes it a very complementary system to the Lightning Network. It can also interoperate with it, i.e. vUTXOs can be swapped atomically in transactions entering or exiting the Lightning Network. 

Ultimately how it fits into the broader Bitcoin ecosystem is yet to be seen, but it is an undoubtedly valuable protocol stack that will find some functional niche, even if it is different than originally intended.

This post Bitcoin Layer 2: Ark first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Shinobi.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

What is KYC/AML?

• The acronym stands for Know Your Customer / Anti Money Laundering.
• In practice it stands for the surveillance measures companies are often compelled to take against their customers by financial regulators.
• Methods differ but often include: Passport Scans, Driver License Uploads, Social Security Numbers, Home Address, Phone Number, Face Scans.
• Bitcoin companies will also store all withdrawal and deposit addresses which can then be used to track bitcoin transactions on the bitcoin block chain.
• This data is then stored and shared. Regulations often require companies to hold this information for a set number of years but in practice users should assume this data will be held indefinitely. Data is often stored insecurely, which results in frequent hacks and leaks.  
• KYC/AML data collection puts all honest users at risk of theft, extortion, and persecution while being ineffective at stopping crime. Criminals often use counterfeit, bought, or stolen credentials to get around the requirements. Criminals can buy "verified" accounts for as little as $200. Furthermore, billions of people are excluded from financial services as a result of KYC/AML requirements.

During the early days of bitcoin most services did not require this sensitive user data, but as adoption increased so did the surveillance measures. At this point, most large bitcoin companies are collecting and storing massive lists of bitcoiners, our sensitive personal information, and our transaction history.

Lists of Bitcoiners

KYC/AML policies are a direct attack on bitcoiners. Lists of bitcoiners and our transaction history will inevitably be used against us.

Once you are on a list with your bitcoin transaction history that record will always exist. Generally speaking, tracking bitcoin is based on probability analysis of ownership change. Surveillance firms use various heuristics to determine if you are sending bitcoin to yourself or if ownership is actually changing hands.  You can obtain better privacy going forward by using collaborative transactions such as coinjoin to break this probability analysis.

Fortunately, you can buy bitcoin without providing intimate personal information. Tools such as peach, hodlhodl, robosats, azteco and bisq help; mining is also a solid option: anyone can plug a miner into power and internet and earn bitcoin by mining privately.

You can also earn bitcoin by providing goods and/or services that can be purchased with bitcoin. Long term, circular economies will mitigate this threat: most people will not buy bitcoin - they will earn bitcoin - most people will not sell bitcoin - they will spend bitcoin.

There is no such thing as KYC or No KYC bitcoin, there are bitcoiners on lists and those that are not on lists.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ 1fdb6dac:65eb9a8a

Vivimos en un mundo que nos enseñó a desconfiar de nuestra intuición.\ Un sistema que premia la obediencia, no el pensamiento crítico.\ Que nos médica para sobrevivir, pero no para sanar.\ Que nos quiere separadas, desconectadas, dependientes.

Desde chicas nos formaron para encajar, no para ser libres.\ La escuela nos preparó para ser piezas funcionales de una máquina, no para ser mujeres conscientes, creativas, despiertas.\ La salud se volvió un negocio: pastillas que apagan síntomas, pero nunca llegan al origen.\ La familia, ese espacio de contención y raíces, fue debilitada en nombre de una supuesta “productividad”.

Nos dijeron que para ser fuertes teníamos que dejar de lado nuestros deseos más profundos.\ Que la maternidad era una traba. Que formar familia era mirar hacia atrás.\ Nos empujaron a vivir en una lógica masculina, en la que mostrar sensibilidad era sinónimo de debilidad.\ Pero nada de esto fue casual.

Este sistema necesita que no creas en vos para poder seguir funcionando.\ Necesita que te desconectes de tu cuerpo, de tus vínculos, de tu intuición.\ Y, sobre todo, necesita que te desconectes del valor real de tu tiempo, de tu energía, de tu dinero.

Pero hay otra forma.\ Hay otra forma de ser mujer, de ser madre, de ser libre.\ Y empieza por recordar lo que siempre supimos, pero olvidamos:\ La familia es revolución desde el amor.\ Porque una sociedad fuerte nace de vínculos sanos.\ Y eso empieza en casa, en las relaciones donde aprendemos qué es amar, cuidar, sostener, poner límites, construir.

Nos enseñaron a medir el éxito por cuánto nos alejábamos de lo femenino.\ Pero la independencia sin conexión es otra forma de soledad.\ La maternidad no es debilidad. Es fuerza creadora.\ La energía femenina no es pasiva. Es raíz, instinto, visión.

Y así como nos quitaron poder en nuestros cuerpos y vínculos, también lo hicieron con nuestro dinero.

---

Dinero, Energía y Libertad

¿Qué es el dinero, si no una forma de energía?\ El resultado de tu tiempo, tu creatividad, tu esfuerzo.\ Sin que te des cuenta, te están robando esa energía.

Nos enseñaron a ahorrar. Pero nunca nos explicaron que, mientras guardamos billetes, su valor se disuelve.\ Que los bancos centrales imprimen dinero —ni siquiera lo imprimen, lo “crean” digitalmente— sin pedirnos permiso, sin pensar en nuestra vida.\ Y mientras tanto, vos trabajás cada vez más… por cada vez menos.

Porque si controlan tu tiempo, controlan tu vida.\ Si te mantienen ocupada, te mantienen distraída.\ Si te desconectan del verdadero valor del dinero, te vuelven dependiente.

---

Bitcoin como Llave

Bitcoin no es solo una inversión. Es una herramienta.\ Una llave para volver a tener el control.\ De tu energía. De tu tiempo. De tu vida.

No se trata solo de números.\ Se trata de comprender.\ De construir redes descentralizadas de mujeres libres, que se acompañan, que comparten saberes, que se sostienen.

Porque la verdadera abundancia empieza cuando entendés que el poder vuelve a vos.

Es hora de recordar.\ De mirar hacia adentro.\ Y de tomar decisiones que nos devuelvan a lo esencial:\ La conexión real, el amor como base, y la autonomía como acto sagrado.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Humanity's Natural State Is Chaos
Without order there is chaos. Humans competing with each other for scarce resources naturally leads to conflict until one group achieves significant power and instates a "monopoly on violence."

Power Brings Stability
Power has always been the key means to achieve stability in societies. Centralized power can be incredibly effective in addressing issues such as crime, poverty, and social unrest efficiently. Unfortunately this power is often abused and corrupted.

Centralized Power Breeds Tyranny
Centralized power often leads to tyrannical rule. When a select few individuals hold control over a society, they tend to become corrupted. Centralized power structures often lack accountability and transparency, and rely too heavily on trust.

Distributed Power Cultivates Freedom
New technology that empowers individuals provide us the ability to rebuild societies from the bottom up. Strong individuals that can defend and provide for themselves will help build strong local communities on a similar foundation. The result is power being distributed throughout society rather than held by a select few.

In the short term, relying on trust and centralized power is an easy answer to mitigating chaos, but freedom tech tools provide us the ability to build on top of much stronger distributed foundations that provide stability while also cultivating individual freedom.

The solution starts with us. Empower yourself. Empower others. A grassroots freedom tech movement scaling one person at a time.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ 2cde0e02:180a96b9

Frida Kahlo: outline and inked.

pen & ink; monochromized

"Kahlo's work as an artist remained relatively unknown until the late 1970s, when her work was rediscovered by art historians and political activists. By the early 1990s, not only had she become a recognized figure in art history, but she was also regarded as an icon for Chicanos, the feminism movement, and the LGBTQ+ community. Kahlo's work has been celebrated internationally as emblematic of Mexican national and Indigenous traditions and by feminists for what is seen as its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form."

Source: Wikipedia

https://stacker.news/items/1000840

@ 0689c075:2936ee11

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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

This update brings key enhancements for clarity and usability:

• Recent Blocks View: Added to the Send tab and inspired by Mempool's visualization, it displays the last 2 blocks and the estimated next block to help choose fee rates.
• Camera System Overhaul: Features a new library for higher resolution detection and mouse-scroll zoom support when available.
• Vector-Based Images: All app images are now vectorized and theme-aware, enhancing contrast, especially in dark mode.
• Tor & P2A Updates: Upgraded internal Tor and improved support for pay-to-anchor (P2A) outputs.
• Linux Package Rename: For Linux users, Sparrow has been renamed to sparrowwallet (or sparrowserver); in some cases, the original sparrow package may need manual removal.
• Additional updates include showing total payments in multi-payment transaction diagrams, better handling of long labels, and other UI enhancements.

• Sparrow v2.2.1 is a bug fix release that addresses missing UUID issue when starting Tor on recent macOS versions, icons for external sources in Settings and Recent Blocks view, repackaged .deb installs to use older gzip instead of zstd compression, and removed display of median fee rate where fee rates source is set to Server.

Learn how to get started with Sparrow wallet:

Release notes (v2.2.0)

• Added Recent Blocks view to Send tab.
• Converted all bitmapped images to theme aware SVG format for all wallet models and dialogs.
• Support send and display of pay to anchor (P2A) outputs.
• Renamed sparrow package to sparrowwallet and sparrowserver on Linux.
• Switched camera library to openpnp-capture.
• Support FHD (1920 x 1080) and UHD4k (3840 x 2160) capture resolutions.
• Support camera zoom with mouse scroll where possible.
• In the Download Verifier, prefer verifying the dropped file over the default file where the file is not in the manifest.
• Show a warning (with an option to disable the check) when importing a wallet with a derivation path matching another script type.
• In Cormorant, avoid calling the listwalletdir RPC on initialization due to a potentially slow response on Windows.
• Avoid server address resolution for public servers.
• Assume server address is non local for resolution failures where a proxy is configured.
• Added a tooltip to indicate truncated labels in table cells.
• Dynamically truncate input and output labels in the tree on a transaction tab, and add tooltips if necessary.
• Improved tooltips for wallet tabs and transaction diagrams with long labels.
• Show the address where available on input and output tooltips in transaction tab tree.
• Show the total amount sent in payments in the transaction diagram when constructing multiple payment transactions.
• Reset preferred table column widths on adjustment to improve handling after window resizing.
• Added accessible text to improve screen reader navigation on seed entry.
• Made Wallet Summary table grow horizontally with dialog sizing.
• Reduced tooltip show delay to 200ms.
• Show transaction diagram fee percentage as less than 0.01% rather than 0.00%.
• Optimized and reduced Electrum server RPC calls.
• Upgraded Bouncy Castle, PGPainless and Logback libraries.
• Upgraded internal Tor to v0.4.8.16.
• Bug fix: Fixed issue with random ordering of keystore origins on labels import.
• Bug fix: Fixed non-zero account script type detection when signing a message on Trezor devices.
• Bug fix: Fixed issue parsing remote Coldcard xpub encoded on a different network.
• Bug fix: Fixed inclusion of fees on wallet label exports.
• Bug fix: Increase Trezor device libusb timeout.

Linux users: Note that the sparrow package has been renamed to sparrowwallet or sparrowserver, and in some cases you may need to manually uninstall the original sparrow package. Look in the /opt folder to ensure you have the new name, and the original is removed.

What's new in v2.2.1

• Updated Tor library to fix missing UUID issue when starting Tor on recent macOS versions.
• Repackaged .deb installs to use older gzip instead of zstd compression.
• Removed display of median fee rate where fee rates source is set to Server.
• Added icons for external sources in Settings and Recent Blocks view
• Bug fix: Fixed issue in Recent Blocks view when switching fee rates source
• Bug fix: Fixed NPE on null fee returned from server

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Hosted at the iconic Palace of Culture and Science—a prominent symbol of the communist era—the Bitcoin FilmFest offers a vibrant celebration of film through the lens of bitcoin. The venue itself provides a striking contrast to the festival’s focus, highlighting bitcoin’s core identity as a currency embodying independence from traditional financial and political systems.

𝐅𝐢𝐱𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐯𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐬.
Warsaw, Day Zero at #BFF25 (European Bitcoin Pizza Day) with @roger__9000, MadMunky and the @2140_wtf squad pic.twitter.com/9ogVvWRReA

— Bitcoin FilmFest (@bitcoinfilmfest) May 28, 2025

This venue represents an era when the state tightly controlled the economy and financial systems. The juxtaposition of this historical site with an event dedicated to bitcoin is striking and thought-provoking.

The event features a diverse array of activities, including engaging panel discussions, screenings of both feature-length and short films, workshops and lively parties. Each component designed to explore the multifaceted world of bitcoin and its implications for society, offering attendees a blend of entertainment and education.

The films showcase innovative narratives and insights into bitcoin’s landscape, while the panels facilitate thought-provoking discussions among industry experts and filmmakers.

Networking is a significant aspect of the festival, with an exceptionally open and friendly atmosphere that foster connections among participants. Participants from all over Europe gather to engage with like-minded individuals who share a passion for BTC and its implications for the future.

The open exchanges of ideas foster a sense of community, allowing attendees to forge new connections, collaborate on projects, and discuss the potential of blockchain technology implemented in bitcoin.

The organization of the festival is extraordinary, ensuring a smooth flow of information and an expertly structured schedule filled from morning until evening. Attendees appreciate the meticulous planning that allowed them to maximize their experience. Additionally, thoughtful touches such as gifts from sponsors and well-chosen locations for various events contribute to the overall positive atmosphere of the festival.

Overall, the Bitcoin FilmFest not only highlights the artistic expression surrounding bitcoin but also serves as a vital platform for dialogue—about financial freedom, the future of money, and individual sovereignty in a shifting world.

The event successfully bridges the gap between a historical symbol of control and a movement that celebrates freedom, innovation, and collaboration in the digital age, highlighting the importance of independence in financial systems while fostering a collaborative environment for innovation and growth.

Next year’s event is slated for June 5-7 2026. For further updates check: https://bitcoinfilmfest.com/

@ 2b998b04:86727e47

I’ve spent years chasing the promise of freedom.\ In startups. In faith communities. In movements that claimed to be for the people.

And yet — so often, that promise felt just out of reach.\ Conditional. Corporate. Sanitized.\ A freedom with fine print.

But here —\ Here in the thick of Bitcoin 2025, on Nostr, among misfits and builders and signal-bringers —\ something is alive.

It’s not a platform.\ It’s not a marketing strategy.\ It’s not another app promising to “empower” you while locking down your data and selling you out.

It’s freedom rooted in architecture.\ Decentralization not just as a buzzword —\ but as an expression of conviction.

A kind of freedom you can feel in your body:

• When you zap someone’s words because they moved you — not because an algorithm told you to.

• When your identity is yours — keys, not credentials.

• When no one can delete your story because you control the server, or because there is no server — just the relay of your choosing.

This isn’t utopia.\ There are egos. There’s noise. There’s still posturing.\ But it’s different.\ The center of gravity has shifted.

We’re no longer begging institutions to notice us.\ We’re building outside their jurisdiction.

And for the first time in a long time,\ freedom feels close.\ Tangible.\ Joyful.\ Alive.

This isn’t just about tech.\ It’s about trust.\ It’s about choosing to show up —\ to build\ to write\ to signal\ to keep going.

Even when it’s hard.\ Even when no one claps.

Because real freedom doesn’t come from being noticed.\ It comes from being sovereign.

And that’s something no one can take from me again.

—

Written in Las Vegas, during Bitcoin 2025.\ Posted via Nostr. Vibes co-authored by ChatGPT (“Dr. C”).\ Zap: <https://tinyurl.com/yuyu2b9t>

@ 318ebaba:9a262eae

Nostr, which stands for "Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays," is a decentralized communication protocol designed to facilitate the exchange of messages without relying on centralized servers. This innovative framework allows users to create, broadcast, and receive messages freely, emphasizing user empowerment and censorship resistance.

Key Features of Nostr

• Decentralization: Unlike traditional social media platforms, Nostr operates on a network of relays, which are servers that anyone can run. This structure eliminates the control that a single entity can exert over the platform, thereby reducing the risk of censorship and enhancing user privacy[1][4][5].

• Open Protocol: Nostr is not an application itself but a protocol that developers can use to build various applications. This openness allows for a wide range of services, from social media to messaging, all built on the same underlying technology. Users can access multiple applications using a single public/private key pair, making it easier to manage their online identities[2][3][4].

• Censorship Resistance: One of the primary motivations behind Nostr's creation is to provide a platform where users can communicate without fear of censorship. This is particularly appealing to those disillusioned with traditional social media platforms that often impose restrictions on content[5][10].

• User Control: Nostr empowers users by allowing them to control their data and interactions. Users can choose which relays to connect to and can run their own relays, ensuring that they are not dependent on any single service provider[4][5][7].

• Cryptographic Security: The protocol employs public-key cryptography to secure messages and verify identities, similar to how Bitcoin operates. This ensures that messages are authentic and have not been tampered with during transmission[5][10].

Applications and Community

Nostr has gained traction among various communities, particularly within the cryptocurrency space, where figures like Jack Dorsey and Edward Snowden have expressed support for its potential to reshape online communication. The protocol's design allows for a variety of applications, including social media platforms, chat services, and content sharing tools, all of which can interoperate seamlessly[2][3][5].

In summary, Nostr represents a significant shift in how digital communication can be structured, prioritizing decentralization, user autonomy, and resistance to censorship, making it a compelling alternative to conventional social media platforms. [1] https://threenine.blog/posts/what-is-nostr [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/04/11/how-to-get-started-with-nostr/ [3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/07/17/your-guide-to-nostr-the-decentralized-network-for-everything/ [4] https://www.ledger.com/academy/glossary/nostr [5] https://river.com/learn/what-is-nostr/ [6] https://www.cointribune.com/en/comment-utiliser-nostr-guide-pour-debutants-2/ [7] https://www.ccn.com/education/what-is-nostr-and-how-to-start-using-nostr/ [8] https://nostr.com/ [9] https://mylessnider.com/articles/why-im-excited-about-nostr [10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostr [11] https://nostr.how/en/what-is-nostr [12] https://nostr.org/ [13] https://medium.com/@colaru/an-introduction-to-nostr-protocol-dbc774ac797c [14] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-nostr-manfred-van-doorn-nf9ce [15] https://www.cointribune.com/en/nostr-pour-les-debutants-tout-ce-que-vous-devez-savoir-sur-le-protocole-2/ [16] https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/17j5glg/do_people_in_this_sub_know_about_nostr/ [17] https://www.voltage.cloud/blog/the-essential-guide-to-nostr-relays [18] https://www.reddit.com/r/nostr/comments/1i6t4g7/explain_how_nostr_works_like_im_a_5_year_old/ [19] https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nostr

@ bf95e1a4:ebdcc848

This is a part of the Bitcoin Infinity Academy course on Knut Svanholm's book Bitcoin: Sovereignty Through Mathematics. For more information, check out our Geyser page!

The Years Ahead

The Lindy Effect is a theory that describes the future life expectancy of a technology or an idea. It states that an idea’s expected remaining lifespan is proportional to its current age so that every additional period of survival implies a longer remaining life expectancy. Bitcoin, which is not only an idea but also a technology and a social experiment, is ten years old now, and therefore, we can expect it to stay around for at least another ten.

At the time of writing, there are exactly 17,669,941 bitcoins around, and twelve and a half new ones are created every ten minutes. 17,669,941 is about 84% of the total supply, that is, the total amount of Bitcoin that will ever exist. Ten years from now, around twenty million Bitcoin will have been found, three more block reward halvings will have taken place, and the reward for each block found will be 1.5625 Bitcoin. The whole world will have a little more than two and a half million new Bitcoin around. This is to be compared with the more than seventeen and a half million that were created during the last ten years when they were cheap and relatively easy to come by. In the network’s first couple of years, you could acquire several Bitcoin by just claiming them from special websites called faucets every once in a while. The US dollar’s cumulative rate of inflation was 15.6 percent during this period. This means that each dollar lost more than one sixth of its value in the last ten years due to quantitative easing, which is the central banker’s term for counterfeiting. It is very unlikely that the cumulative rate of inflation for the US dollar in the upcoming ten years will be any lower than these 15.6 percent since the fractional reserve lending system requires a little more inflation each year to sustain itself. So, a little less than 2.5 million new Bitcoin to share and at least 20% more US dollars in circulation to buy them with.

Now, let’s look at the Internet itself. Metcalfe’s Law states that the value of a communications network is proportional to the number of users on the network squared. Each new Internet user is a potential new Bitcoin user, especially in those places on the planet where there’s poor Internet connectivity because those places often have a weak local currency that Bitcoin functions as a hedge against. In 2008, 23% of the world’s population had access to the Internet, and in 2018, that number was 48%. In the developing world, the numbers were 14% in 2008 and 41% in 2018. The global numbers might not double again in the forthcoming ten years, but it looks like they’ll keep on rising, especially in developing countries, where they might just double again. All of these indicators (less Bitcoin, more fiat money, more Internet users) point toward a rising Bitcoin price, regardless of its current valuation. Bitcoin has risen in value extremely fast and has added, on average, an additional zero at the end of its price figure roughly every three years. Can it really keep on doing so? Think about the underlying forces that drive the price up. Every single mobile device could potentially hold Bitcoin, yet only a select few do. When more and more people embrace the technology, the whole fear of missing out cycle starts again, and the price jumps up to the next plateau. Note also that every current Bitcoin user can do three things with his or her coins: sell them, lose them, or hold them. On top of this, nothing is stopping an existing Bitcoin user from acquiring more coins.

Bitcoin is an Internet protocol that is very resistant to change. It showed an unprecedented example of this in late 2017 when all of the biggest companies in Bitcoin decided that they were going to implement the proposed Segregated Witness upgrade and then hard fork to 2-megabyte blocks a couple of months later. Segregated Witness, which most users wanted, was activated, but the network’s users resisted the 2-megabyte block hard fork. This led to a lot of frustration among the proponents of the hard fork and led to the creation of a copycat altcoin called Bitcoin Cash. The price of both tokens rose quickly in the aftermath of the fork, but in hindsight, the event was more of a train robbery than a Christmas gift — confusing at best. Segregated Witness does not only free up block space, but it also allows for Layer 2 scaling solutions to be built on top of Bitcoin, such as the Lightning Network. The Lightning Network allows for instant, completely anonymous, nearly free micro-transactions that do not take up block space, and it is up and running right now. In addition to this, the number of Lightning Network transactions that can be carried out simultaneously is only limited by the bandwidth of the nodes. This makes the Lightning Network a future real competitor to Visa or Mastercard. Many other Layer 2 upgrades are in the works, but the core Bitcoin network functions the same way it always has with its inputs and outputs, its public and private keys, and so on.

Will some other token ever replace Bitcoin, then? After all, more efficient protocols are out there. Short answer: no. This has been mentioned several times before in this book, but it can’t be stressed enough. Scarcity on the Internet was a one-time discovery. It was a one-time invention, and it cannot be repeated because resistance to replicability is the invention. Bitcoin’s history and unique position are what makes it truly scarce and resistant to change, and these first ten years will not repeat themselves for any “alternative” token. There is still a lot of confusion about what Bitcoin is, and the idea of sound money on the Internet is a hard concept to grasp since humans haven’t ever encountered absolute scarcity before. The best path forward for any person is arguably to educate him- or herself and others about the invention and what it means. Time will tell whether your sources were true or false, and it is unlikely that Bitcoin will achieve mass adoption in the next couple of years. Still, the infrastructure is in place, and the interfaces of its surrounding software, like wallets, are getting more and more user-friendly every day. Remember, the iPhone was first introduced to the world in 2007, and smartphones had enormous corporate marketing to help them succeed all along the way. Bitcoin grows organically. Let it breathe and watch it evolve but whatever you do, don’t miss the opportunity and acquire some while you still can, at this discounted price.

About the Bitcoin Infinity Academy

The Bitcoin Infinity Academy is an educational project built around Knut Svanholm’s books about Bitcoin and Austrian Economics. Each week, a whole chapter from one of the books is released for free on Highlighter, accompanied by a video in which Knut and Luke de Wolf discuss that chapter’s ideas. You can join the discussions by signing up for one of the courses on our Geyser page. Signed books, monthly calls, and lots of other benefits are also available.

@ 2b998b04:86727e47

This isn’t a comfortable post to write. I first composed it on Thursday night, May 29, 2025, just after the Bitcoin2025 conference — but I needed a few days to sit with it before posting.

Because freedom, if it means anything, has to include tension — not just agreement.

Four names kept surfacing in conversations on Nostr and at the Bitcoin2025 conference: President Donald Trump, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden (who gave the keynote at Bitcoin2024), and Ross Ulbricht.

I believe in truth. I believe in moral boundaries.

And I believe people are made in the image of God — with dignity that can’t be erased by their choices.

So let me be honest: I disagree with the transgender lifestyle on a moral and theological level.

But I believe Chelsea Manning deserved to be freed after exposing military wrongdoing.

I’m conflicted about Edward Snowden.

I don’t see him as a hero — but I don’t believe he’s a traitor either.

The truth, as is so often the case, is far more complicated.

Snowden revealed the scale of warrantless surveillance against Americans. He helped expose a shadow system of data collection and control. That matters.

But in doing so, he may also have endangered lives — disclosing classified intelligence in a way that potentially compromised undercover agents and global operations.

He’s also been largely silent during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and that raises hard questions.

What truths go unspoken when your safety depends on a state with its own authoritarian tendencies?

Still — I’m grateful for what he did.

I’ve never met him, but I think we could’ve been friends in another world.

I can like someone very much and still disagree with them about what they did.

That’s not weakness. That’s human.

And Ross Ulbricht?

I don’t think he’s entirely without fault.

But I do believe his original sentence — two life sentences without parole — was a gross miscarriage of justice.

His recent pardon by President Trump corrected something our courts never did.

I admire Ross. And like with Snowden, I can hold that admiration even while acknowledging complexity.

I say this as someone who voted for Trump and agrees with many of his stances.

I believe in strong, secure borders.

But I also believe we need a more compassionate and streamlined process for immigration and asylum.

Security and mercy are not opposites — we can pursue both.

But I’ll also say this:

I’m troubled by some of the recent moves Trump has made.

The promotion of meme coins by Trump feels flippant and off-base when so many Americans are struggling to understand real monetary sovereignty.

Even more disturbing are reports that his administration contracted with companies like Palantir to build a vast data infrastructure — the kind that could be used to track, profile, and suppress U.S. citizens.

That’s a betrayal of the very freedom we claim to defend.

And it reveals a deeper conflict I can’t ignore:

How can we champion liberty with one hand while constructing surveillance tools with the other?

This isn’t about party.

It’s about principle.

And if I’m honest, the one thing that’s hardest for me to tolerate — in myself or in others — is hypocrisy.

Not disagreement. Not even failure.

But posturing. Pretending. Saying one thing and doing another.

That’s what corrodes trust — in politics, in faith, in freedom itself.

Because if your definition of freedom only includes people who think, live, or vote like you —

it’s not freedom. It’s favoritism.

Bitcoin reminds me of a better standard.

It doesn’t care about your politics, background, beliefs, or identity.

It’s borderless. Neutral. Permissionless.

It just works — for everyone.

Bitcoin gives us a glimpse of a freer world — not perfect, but principled.

A world where disagreement isn’t a threat, and dignity isn’t earned.

That’s the kind of future worth building — not with slogans, but with truth, grace, and work that lasts.

Zap me if this resonates.

Push back if it doesn’t — that’s freedom too.

---

### ✍️ Acknowledgment

This piece was shaped with help from Dr. C (ChatGPT) to organize and clarify ideas, but the heart of it — the desire to seek truth over comfort, and to honor people over posture — comes from a deeper place.

Any wisdom here I credit to the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth (John 16:13) and continues to stir the courage to speak it — even when it's uncomfortable.

---

### 📘 Footnote

Reporting confirms that the Trump administration contracted Palantir Technologies to develop large-scale federal data platforms consolidating personal information from the IRS, Social Security Administration, immigration systems, and more. Palantir also secured a $30 million contract to build “ImmigrationOS,” a surveillance tool for ICE. These systems raise serious concerns among civil liberties advocates.

- [Economic Times](https://tinyurl.com/22bdv72d)

- [Immigration Policy Tracker](https://tinyurl.com/2686bgvy)

@ edf0da8b:b2652fa3

If you've been active on Nostr, you've probably realized that your posts come and go like waves. There’s no content-surfacing algorithm to keep them afloat. So, unless someone happens to scroll past at just the right time, your insights, event announcements, or deep reflections are getting swept away. There is no pretty profile page that refers to your content.

That’s where Npub.pro comes in—and it’s what I used to build my own website as a transformative coach and Wim Hof method instructor.

This article is about how Npub.pro works, my experience with it, and why it may be useful to you, too.

What is Npub.pro?

Npub.pro is a web service that pulls your posts from the Nostr protocol and weaves them into a clean, customizable website. It uses open-source templates from Ghost, making it easy to create a beautiful, functional landing page without needing to write any code.

If you're already posting on Nostr, Npub.pro turns that content into something lasting and visually appealing—like a curated blog or even a business homepage.

Why I Chose Npub.pro for My Coaching Business

My work centers on personal transformation for leading a sovereign life—emotional, mental, and physical. I lead workshops, retreats and 1:1 sessions, and I needed a quick and simple place online that would communicate who I am, what I offer, and what’s coming up next.

Since I already post regularly on Nostr, it made sense to reuse that content. But instead of letting my posts drift away in the feed, Npub.pro gave me a way to give them structure and longevity.

Plus, it really looks good.

Features That Make It Worthwhile

Easy Website Creation

You don’t need to become technical. The Npub.pro dashboard is simple and intuitive. Just pick a template, connect your Nostr keys, add your posts individually or based on hashtags, and voilà—your content starts showing up. You can experiment with different templates freely, without messing things up.

Multiple Templates for Different Needs

There is a good amount of templates to choose from, for photo blogging, journaling or podcasting etc. I started with "Liebling," switched to "Micro-Ruby" for a bit, and finally settled on "Massively"—it shows my often picture-based posts clearly and lets me feature a highlight post at the top.

Tag-Based Categories

You can organize your content into sections like I did with “About & Events,” “Wim Hof Method,” or “Natural Living.” If you tag your Nostr posts accordingly and set up your categories in your dashboard, they’ll just fall into place.

Free Hosting + Custom Domains

Npub.pro is completely free if you’re okay with a domain like yourname.npub.pro. If you want something more professional, you can link a custom domain. I got mine for about $10/year from Namecheap. For now, even custom domains are free to connect. If you host your media on Nostr with e.g. Primal or Nostr.Build (subscription-based), and get a custom domain name, you have a complete low-budget website up and running.

What to Watch Out For

Npub.pro is not perfect and still evolving. Here are some limitations to keep in mind:

No Native Lead Capture or Email Signup

If you for example want to offer a PDF or free online class in exchange for email addresses, you’ll need to get creative with external links. Unfortunately, there’s no built-in call-to-action feature for non-Nostr users … yet.

No Pay-walled Content or Membership Features

If you’re looking to monetize content or offer member-only areas, you can hope and ask the Npub.pro team for future features.

Some Trial & Error Required

Tagging needs to be done when you post. Adding tags retroactively with versatile clients like Amethyst won’t make old posts appear on your website. I had to republish a few posts just to get them sorted into the right category. Expect a few hiccups, but it’s manageable.

Npub.pro and Nostr

Npub.pro is part of a bigger picture—the rise of Nostr as a decentralized social network. It’s censorship-resistant, Bitcoin-integrated, and potentially an all-in-one protocol for media, messaging, publishing, and payment. That's crazy to think about!

Right now, the infrastructure is still getting there. Not everything works reliably yet, and complex and visually rich experiences like Instagram-style clients (e.g. Olas) still fall short. But Npub.pro is one of those services that shows where it can be heading: toward digital sovereignty.

Is Npub.pro for You?

If you’re already active on Nostr, I think this is a no-brainer. You can turn your feed into a curated blog or landing page with very little extra effort.

Even if you're not yet using Nostr yet, Npub.pro is still worth exploring if:

• You want a free or low-budget minimal website that’s connected to your social media content.
• You care about decentralization and owning your data.
• You’re okay with less customization and a little experimentation here and there while things improve.

So in short, Npub.pro is a smart, and simple way to publish your presence online—especially if you want your content to live beyond the scroll on Nostr.

Final Thoughts

I was surprised how good everything looked in the end on desktop, tablet and mobile and how easily you can manage your content. It’s not perfect for all needs, but it does the job remarkably well for a first website or personal landing page. And by using Npub.pro, you’re helping build the future of open, user-owned publishing online.

Check Out Npub.pro

https://npub.pro

My Website:

www.bennubreath.me

Old-school Socials:

https://youtube.com/@bennubreath

---

@Npub.pro @brugeman

NpubPro #DecentralizedWeb #GhostCMS #WimHof #DigitalSovereignty #OpenWeb #ContentCuration #BuildWithNostr #WebsiteHosting #Freedom #Transformation

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

News

• Spiral welcomes Ben Carman. The developer will work on the LDK server and a new SDK designed to simplify the onboarding process for new self-custodial Bitcoin users.
• Spiral renews support for Dan Gould and Joschisan. The organization has renewed support for Dan Gould, who is developing the Payjoin Dev Kit (PDK), and Joschisan, a Fedimint developer focused on simplifying federations.
• The Bitcoin Dev Kit Foundation announced new corporate members for 2025, including AnchorWatch, CleanSpark, and Proton Foundation. The annual dues from these corporate members fund the small team of open-source developers responsible for maintaining the core BDK libraries and related free and open-source software (FOSS) projects.
• The European Central Bank is pushing for amendments to the European Union's Markets in Crypto Assets legislation (MiCA), just months after its implementation. According to Politico's report on Tuesday, the ECB is concerned that U.S. support for cryptocurrency, particularly stablecoins, could cause economic harm to the 27-nation bloc.
• Slovenia is considering a 25% capital gains tax on Bitcoin profits for individuals. The Ministry of Finance has proposed legislation to impose this tax on gains from cryptocurrency transactions, though exchanging one cryptocurrency for another would remain exempt. At present, individual 'crypto' traders in Slovenia are not taxed.
• The Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Bill 2025 introduced in Kenya. The new legislation aims to establish a comprehensive legal framework for licensing, regulating, and supervising virtual asset service providers (VASPs), with strict penalties for non-compliant entities.
• Circle, BitGo, Coinbase, and Paxos plan to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, major crypto companies are planning to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. These firms are pursuing limited licenses that would permit them to issue stablecoins, as the U.S. Congress deliberates on legislation mandating licensing for stablecoin issuers.

"Established banks, like Bank of America, are hoping to amend the current drafts of [stablecoin] legislation in such a way that nonbanks are more heavily restricted from issuing stablecoins," people familiar with the matter told The Block.

• Paul Atkins has officially assumed the role of the 34th Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is a return to the agency for Atkins, who previously served as an SEC Commissioner from 2002 to 2008 under the George W. Bush administration. He has committed to advancing the SEC’s mission of fostering capital formation, safeguarding investors, and ensuring fair and efficient markets.
• Federal Reserve retracts guidance discouraging banks from engaging in 'crypto.' The U.S. Federal Reserve withdrew guidance that discouraged banks from crypto and stablecoin activities, as announced by its Board of Governors on Thursday. This includes rescinding a 2022 supervisory letter requiring prior notification of crypto activities and 2023 stablecoin requirements.

"As a result, the Board will no longer expect banks to provide notification and will instead monitor banks' crypto-asset activities through the normal supervisory process," reads the FED statement.

• Russian government to launch a cryptocurrency exchange. The country's Ministry of Finance and Central Bank announced plans to establish a trading platform for "highly qualified investors" that "will legalize crypto assets and bring crypto operations out of the shadows."
• Twenty One Capital is set to launch with over 42,000 BTC in its treasury. This new Bitcoin-native firm, backed by Tether and SoftBank, is planned to go public via a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners and will be led by Jack Mallers, co-founder and CEO of Strike. According to a report by the Financial Times, the company aims to replicate the model of Michael Saylor with his company, MicroStrategy.
• Strategy increases Bitcoin holdings to 538,200 BTC. In the latest purchase, the company has spent more than $555M to buy 6,556 coins through proceeds of two at-the-market stock offering programs.
• Metaplanet buys another 145 BTC. The Tokyo-listed company has purchased an additional 145 BTC for $13.6 million. Their total bitcoin holdings now stand at 5,000 coins, worth around $428.1 million.
• Semler Scientific has increased its bitcoin holdings to 3,303 BTC. The company acquired an additional 111 BTC at an average price of $90,124. The purchase was funded through proceeds from an at-the-market offering and cash reserves, as stated in a press release.
• Tesla still holds nearly $1 billion in bitcoin. According to the automaker's latest earnings report, the firm reported digital asset holdings worth $951 million as of March 31.
• Spar supermarket experiments with Bitcoin payments in Zug, Switzerland. The store has introduced a new payment method powered by the Lightning Network. The implementation was facilitated by DFX Swiss, a service that supports seamless conversions between bitcoin and legacy currencies.

• Charles Schwab to launch spot Bitcoin trading by 2026. The financial investment firm, managing over $10 trillion in assets, has revealed plans to introduce spot Bitcoin trading for its clients within the next year.
• Arch Labs has secured $13 million to develop "ArchVM" and integrate smart-contract functionality with Bitcoin. The funding round, valuing the company at $200 million, was led by Pantera Capital, as announced on Tuesday.
• Citrea deployed its Clementine Bridge on the Bitcoin testnet. The bridge utilizes the BitVM2 programming language to inherit validity from Bitcoin, allegedly providing "the safest and most trust-minimized way to use BTC in decentralized finance."
• UAE-based Islamic bank ruya launches Shari’ah-compliant bitcoin investing. The bank has become the world’s first Islamic bank to provide direct access to virtual asset investments, including Bitcoin, via its mobile app, per Bitcoin Magazine.
• Solosatoshi.com has sold over 10,000 open-source miners, adding more than 10 PH of hashpower to the Bitcoin network.

"Thank you, Bitaxe community. OSMU developers, your brilliance built this. Supporters, your belief drives us. Customers, your trust powers 10,000+ miners and 10PH globally. Together, we’re decentralizing Bitcoin’s future. Last but certainly not least, thank you@skot9000 for not only creating a freedom tool, but instilling the idea into thousands of people, that Bitcoin mining can be for everyone again," said the firm on X.

• OCEAN's DATUM has found 100 blocks. "Over 65% of OCEAN’s miners are using DATUM, and that number is growing every day. This means block template construction is making its way back into the hands of the miners, which is not only the most profitable

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Mapping Bitcoin’s Bull Cycle Potential

Bitcoin’s Market Value to Realized Value, or MVRV ratio, remains one of the most reliable on-chain indicators for identifying local and macro tops and bottoms across every BTC cycle. By isolating data across different investor cohorts and adapting historical benchmarks to modern market conditions, we can generate more accurate insights into where Bitcoin may be headed next.

The Bitcoin MVRV Ratio

The MVRV Ratio compares Bitcoin’s market price to its realized price, essentially the average cost basis for all coins in the network. As of writing, BTC trades around $105,000 while the realized price floats near $47,000, putting the raw MVRV at 2.26. The Z-Score version of MVRV standardizes this ratio based on historical volatility, enabling clearer comparisons across different market cycles.

Figure 1: Historically, the MVRV Ratio and the MVRV Z-Score have accurately identified cycle peaks and bottoms. View Live Chart

Short-Term Holders

Short-term holders, defined as those holding Bitcoin for 155 days or less, currently have a realized price near $97,000. This metric often acts as dynamic support in bull markets and resistance in bear markets. Notably, when the Short Term Holder MVRV hits 1.33, local tops have historically occurred, as seen several times in both the 2017 and 2021 cycles. So far in the current cycle, this threshold has already been touched four times, each followed by modest retracements.

Figure 2: Short Term Holder MVRV reaching 1.33 in more recent cycles has aligned with local tops. View Live Chart

Long-Term Holders

Long-term holders, who’ve held BTC for more than 155 days, currently have an average cost basis of just $33,500, putting their MVRV at 3.11. Historically, Long Term Holder MVRV values have reached as high as 12 during major peaks. That said, we’re observing a trend of diminishing multiples each cycle.

Figure 3: Achieving a Long Term Holder MVRV value of 8 could extrapolate to a BTC price in excess of $300,000. View Live Chart

A key resistance band now sits between 7.5 and 8.5, a zone that has defined bull tops and pre-bear retracements in every cycle since 2011. If the current growth of the realized price ($40/day) continues for another 140–150 days, matching previous cycle lengths, we could see it reach somewhere in the region of $40,000. A peak MVRV of 8 would imply a price near $320,000.

A Smarter Market Compass

Unlike static all-time metrics, the 2-Year Rolling MVRV Z-Score adapts to evolving market dynamics. By recalculating average extremes over a rolling window, it smooths out Bitcoin’s natural volatility decay as it matures. Historically, this version has signaled overbought conditions when reaching levels above 3, and prime accumulation zones when dipping below -1. Currently sitting under 1, this metric suggests that substantial upside remains.

Figure 4: The current 2-Year Rolling MVRV Z-Score suggests more positive price action ahead. View Live Chart

Timing & Targets

A view of the BTC Growth Since Cycle Lows chart illustrates that BTC is now approximately 925 days removed from its last major cycle low. Historical comparisons to previous bull markets suggest we may be around 140 to 150 days away from a potential top, with both the 2017 and 2021 peaks occurring around 1,060 to 1,070 days after their respective lows. While not deterministic, this alignment reinforces the broader picture of where we are in the cycle. If realized price trends and MVRV thresholds continue on current trajectories, late Q3 to early Q4 2025 may bring final euphoric moves.

Figure 5: Will the current cycle continue to exhibit growth patterns similar to those of the previous two cycles? View Live Chart

Conclusion

The MVRV ratio and its derivatives remain essential tools for analyzing Bitcoin market behavior, providing clear markers for both accumulation and distribution. Whether observing short-term holders hovering near local top thresholds, long-term holders nearing historically significant resistance zones, or adaptive metrics like the 2-Year Rolling MVRV Z-Score signaling plenty of runway left, these data points should be used in confluence.

No single metric should be relied upon to predict tops or bottoms in isolation, but taken together, they offer a powerful lens through which to interpret the macro trend. As the market matures and volatility declines, adaptive metrics will become even more crucial in staying ahead of the curve.

For more deep-dive research, technical indicators, real-time market alerts, and access to a growing community of analysts, visit BitcoinMagazinePro.com.

---

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions.

This post Mapping Bitcoin’s Bull Cycle Potential first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Matt Crosby.

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Wall Street is warming up to Bitcoin and getting closer and closer to it.

Cantor Fitzgerald, one of the oldest and most respected investment banks on Wall Street, has launched a $2 billion bitcoin-backed lending program.

They’ve reportedly already done their first deals, lending to two big digital asset companies: FalconX and Maple Finance.

This is a big step in connecting traditional finance to the fast-moving world of Bitcoin.

Cantor’s new service allows big investors, hedge funds and asset managers, to borrow money using bitcoin as collateral.

This is a game changer for institutions that hold bitcoin, as they can now access liquidity without having to sell their assets.

“Institutions holding bitcoin are looking to broaden their access to diverse funding sources,” said Christian Wall, co-CEO and global head of fixed income at Cantor Fitzgerald.

“And we are excited to support their liquidity needs to help them drive long term growth and success.”

The loans are not speculative or unsecured.

They are structured like traditional finance deals, backed by the borrower’s bitcoin. This reduces the risk for Cantor while giving bitcoin-holding companies new ways to grow and operate.

The first recipients of Cantor’s lending program are FalconX, a digital asset brokerage, and Maple Finance, a blockchain-based lending platform.

FalconX confirmed they secured a credit facility of over $100 million. Maple Finance also received the first tranche of their loan from Cantor.

This comes at a time when the bitcoin lending space is recovering after a tough period. Several big firms went under in 2022 and investor confidence was shaken.

Now with traditional finance on board, bitcoin-backed lending has returned. According to Galaxy Research the total size of the digital asset lending market grew to $36.5 billion in Q4 2024.

Cantor’s move into bitcoin-backed lending isn’t new. They announced their plans in July 2024 and have been building their presence in the Bitcoin space since then.

Earlier this year, they partnered with Tether, SoftBank and Bitfinex to launch Twenty One Capital, a $3.6 billion fund to buy over 42,000 bitcoin.

In May 2025 Cantor Equity Partners merged with Twenty One Capital and bought nearly $459 million worth of bitcoin.

They also own around $1.9 billion in shares of Strategy, a company that holds a lot of bitcoin. Clearly Cantor believes in bitcoin as a long-term asset.

Cantor is also a big player in the stablecoin space.

They manage U.S. Treasury reserves for Tether, the company behind the $142 billion USDT stablecoin. This adds another layer of trust and credibility to Cantor’s digital asset involvement.

To secure the bitcoin used as collateral, Cantor has partnered with digital asset custodians Anchorage Digital and Copper.co.

These companies are known for their robust security and institutional-grade infrastructure. Cantor hasn’t disclosed loan terms or interest rates but confirmed the lending will follow current regulations.

This also shows how traditional financial players are embracing DeFi.

Maple Finance for example allows undercollateralized lending using blockchain. By backing companies like Maple, Cantor is innovating while still having control and compliance.

For years, bitcoin-backed loans were only available through digital-asset-native companies like Genesis, BlockFi, and Ledn.

These loans were mostly for smaller clients and retail investors. But with Cantor’s entry, the scale and professionalism of bitcoin lending are expanding.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Uber’s CEO has revealed the company’s interest in stablecoins as a solution to reduce the costs of cross-border payments.

The multinational transport giant is currently in an exploratory phase regarding the integration of stablecoins into its global payment systems. The disclosure came during a speech by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco.

“We’re still in the study phase, I’d say, but stablecoin is one of the, for me, more interesting instantiations of crypto that has a practical benefit other than crypto as a store of value.” Khosrowshahi stated.

The Uber CEO explained how stablecoins could represent a cost-effective alternative to traditional payment systems for international transactions. According to Khosrowshahi, these digital currencies could significantly reduce the company’s operational expenses by eliminating high fees and delays typically associated with conventional bank transfers.

Implementing stablecoins could streamline Uber’s global payment operations, with particularly significant benefits in markets burdened by high remittance costs or unstable local currencies — enabling faster and more reliable payments to the company’s business partners. However, Uber has yet to specify which stablecoins or blockchain networks it might adopt, nor has it provided a precise timeline for implementation.

Uber’s interest in stablecoins comes as the legislative landscape continues to evolve. The U.S. Congress is currently reviewing two major legislative proposals: the GENIUS Act and the STABLE Act, both aimed at establishing a clear regulatory framework for dollar-pegged digital currencies. These bills focus on reserve standards and anti-money laundering requirements but have yet to be finalized.

The post Uber eyes stablecoins to optimize international payments appeared first on Atlas21.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Picture this: you’re trying to buy coffee with Bitcoin, but instead of waiting 10 minutes for blockchain confirmation and paying $5 in fees, your transaction completes instantly for a fraction of a penny.

That’s the promise of the Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s most ambitious scaling solution.

But here’s the thing that most people don’t realize – the entire system only works because of an intricate web of technical standards that most users never see.

These standards, known as BOLTs (Basis of Lightning Technology), are the invisible foundation that makes Lightning’s magic possible. Without them, we’d have a fragmented mess of incompatible systems rather than the seamless payment network that’s processing millions of transactions today.

The Protocol Puzzle: Why Lightning Needed Standards

When Lightning Network was first conceived in 2015, it faced a classic chicken-and-egg problem. Multiple development teams were working on implementations – Lightning Labs with LND, Blockstream with c-lightning, and ACINQ with Eclair – but they all had slightly different ideas about how things should work. Without coordination, these would have become isolated islands of functionality.

Think about the early days of instant messaging, when AOL Instant Messenger users couldn’t talk to Yahoo Messenger users. That’s exactly what Lightning developers wanted to avoid. The solution was BOLT – a comprehensive set of technical specifications that would ensure any Lightning implementation could talk to any other, regardless of who built it.

The first BOLT specifications emerged in 2016, but they weren’t just academic exercises. These documents had to solve real engineering challenges: How do you route payments through a network of payment channels? How do you ensure privacy when every transaction could potentially be monitored? How do you handle the inevitable network failures and channel closures?

Inside the BOLT Specifications: A Technical Breakdown

The BOLT specifications read like a blueprint for building a parallel financial system. Each document tackles a specific piece of the Lightning puzzle, and together they create something remarkably sophisticated.

BOLT #1 establishes the foundation – the basic message formats and communication rules that every Lightning node must understand. It’s like defining the grammar of a new language that computers use to talk about money. This specification covers everything from how nodes identify themselves to the basic structure of Lightning messages.

BOLT #2 gets into the nitty-gritty of channel management, the heart of Lightning’s functionality. Payment channels are essentially shared cryptocurrency wallets between two parties, and managing them securely requires incredibly precise coordination. This specification defines exactly how nodes negotiate channel parameters, handle updates, and gracefully close channels when needed. One wrong step here, and funds could be lost forever.

The routing problem gets its due attention in BOLT #4, which implements something called “onion routing” – the same privacy technique used by Tor. When you send a Lightning payment, each node in the path only knows the previous and next hop, never the full route. The sender wraps the payment instructions in multiple layers of encryption, like nested Russian dolls, with each node peeling off one layer to reveal just enough information to forward the payment.

BOLT #7 tackles network discovery – how nodes find each other in the first place. Unlike traditional payment networks with centralized directories, Lightning is completely peer-to-peer. Nodes gossip about available channels and routing fees, creating a constantly updating map of the network that every participant shares.

Perhaps the most user-facing specification is BOLT #11, which standardizes Lightning invoices. Those QR codes you scan to make Lightning payments? They’re not just random data – they’re precisely formatted requests that include payment amounts, destination information, and routing hints, all encoded in a way that any Lightning wallet can understand.

But BOLT #11 is just the beginning of Lightning’s invoice evolution. BOLT #12 represents the next generation of Lightning payments with “offers” – a revolutionary approach that makes Lightning payments as easy as traditional online shopping.

The User Experience Revolution: BOLT #11 and the Invoice Problem

To understand why BOLT #11 was so crucial, you need to appreciate just how clunky early Lightning payments were. Before standardized invoices, sending a Lightning payment required manually entering node public keys, payment hashes, and routing information – a process so error-prone that one wrong character could send your Bitcoin into the digital void.

BOLT #11 changed everything by creating a standardized invoice format that packs all necessary payment information into a single, human-readable string. These invoices use a clever encoding scheme called Bech32 (the same format used for modern Bitcoin addresses) that includes built-in error detection. If you accidentally change a character when copying an invoice, your wallet will immediately know something’s wrong.

But the real genius of BOLT #11 lies in its flexibility. Lightning invoices can include optional routing hints that help wallets find paths to the recipient, even if they’re not well-connected to the broader network. They can specify exact amounts or leave them open for the sender to choose. They can include expiration times, descriptions of what’s being purchased, and even fallback Bitcoin addresses for when Lightning payments fail.

The specification also solved a crucial privacy problem. Early Lightning implementations often revealed too much information about recipients in their invoices. BOLT #11 carefully balances the need for routing information with privacy protection, ensuring that invoices contain just enough data to enable payments without exposing unnecessary details about the recipient’s node or channels.

The Next Evolution: BOLT #12 and the Promise of Offers

While BOLT #11 invoices solved the immediate usability problem, they still had significant limitations that became apparent as Lightning adoption grew. Traditional invoices are single-use, expire relatively quickly, and require the recipient to generate a new one for each payment. Try to explain to your grandmother why she needs to create a new QR code every time someone wants to send her money, and you’ll quickly understand the problem.

BOLT #12, currently being implemented across Lightning software, introduces “offers” – a completely new approach to requesting Lightning payments that works more like traditional payment systems. Instead of creating single-use invoices, merchants and individuals can create reusable offers that work like persistent payment addresses.

The technical innovation behind offers is fascinating. When someone wants to pay an offer, their wallet first contacts the recipient’s node and requests a fresh invoice specifically for that payment. This happens automatically and invisibly to the user, but it solves several critical problems that plagued BOLT #11 invoices.

First, offers enable recurring payments. A subscription service can create a single offer that customers’ wallets can automatically pay monthly, weekly, or on any schedule. The recipient generates a fresh invoice for each payment, maintaining security while enabling the convenience of automated billing.

Second, offers dramatically improve privacy. Because each payment uses a freshly generated invoice, it’s much harder for external observers to correlate multiple payments to the same recipient. Someone monitoring the Lightning network might see that Alice paid 50,000 satoshis to some node, but they can’t easily determine if this was her first payment to that merchant or her hundredth.

The specification also introduces “offer chains” – a way to create offers that can be paid multiple times with different amounts. A coffee shop could create a single offer that customers can pay for any amount, with their wallets automatically calculating tips or adjusting for different menu items.

Behind the Scenes: The Technical Complexity of Simple Payments

What makes BOLT #12 particularly impressive is how it maintains simplicity for users while handling incredible complexity behind the scenes. When your wallet processes an offer, it’s actually engaging in a sophisticated cryptographic dance with the recipient’s node.

The process starts when you scan an offer QR code. Your wallet extracts the recipient’s node information and initiates a connection using the encrypted transport protocol defined in BOLT #8. It then sends a specially formatted request for an invoice, including details about how much you want to pay and any additional information required by the offer.

The recipient’s node validates your request, generates a fresh BOLT #11 invoice specifically for your payment, and sends it back to your wallet. Your wallet then processes this invoice and completes the payment using the standard Lightning routing protocols. The entire process typically takes a few seconds, but it involves multiple round-trips between nodes and several cryptographic operations.

This two-step process – request invoice, then pay invoice – might seem unnecessarily complex, but it elegantly solves problems that plagued earlier Lightning payment systems. It prevents invoice reuse attacks, enables advanced privacy features, and allows for much more flexible payment scenarios.

The Merchant Revolution: From Invoices to Commerce

The evolution from BOLT #11

@ 81022b27:2b8d0644

I’ve always gravitated to ideas and topics that are not quite mainstream:

Well, like CHIROPRACTIC.

But even in chiropractic school, I went fringe. I heard about one of the technique clubs (Toftness) that showed you how you could detect a subluxation by just rubbing your thumb over a piece of plexiglass.

We were discussing that in a group, and most of my friends were saying:

“What a load of shit!”

And that made my ears perk up.

So I started going to the club meetings.

I walk in, and there’s a guy face down on a chiropractic table while another guy was holding what looked like some sort of cyberpunk lens. He started rubbing it and worked it down the guy's spine.

He pointed out areas that were subluxated:

“Here.”

And going further down:

“Here.”

And:

“Here.”

Wow.

Then he “adjusted” by touching the spine with his index finger.

My mind was blown.

So you mean I didn’t have to be adjusted the way Harvey Fish did?

Dr. Fish was a great guy and would adjust students for, I think, $10. You’d go in, wait to see if he had any “real patients.” In between patients, he would adjust the students. He was heavy-handed and sure as hell able to move a bone.

So now I’m intrigued and curious. I studied and practiced any chance I had. I had different friends that I studied different things with.

(Except for Dyslexic Dave - nobody wanted to study with that guy. Our group did once, and we all failed a test. His dyslexia was so powerful, it overcame all of us.)

I’d study all the weird stuff with my friend Victoria, and then we would go get our network chiropractic adjustment from Dr. Michael Scimeca.

I found out that it wasn’t the Toftness lens that had the super-powers. Instead, it was because when your hand detected a change in energy over the spinal segments, there's a “galvanic response” similar to that of a polygraph lie detector test. So it made the skin on my hand “sweat,” and that made the plexiglass squeak and stick.

So it wasn’t the equipment. It was me.

After a while, I realized that I could feel a warmth on my chest right before the lens squeaked. So, I ditched the lens and started working on people where I “felt” the subluxations were located.

Seemed to work well - I always double-checked my “regular” chiropractic findings with what I felt. We studied for exams, then practiced technique on each other.

One time at a seminar, the instructor demonstrated what to do and asked for volunteers - one to be the patient and the other to be the doctor. I watched this guy struggling with his patient. It looked like he had flippers instead of hands; the whole interaction was super awkward.

All of a sudden, I started feeling uncomfortable and just blurted out:

“For God’s sake, leave him alone! Can’t you tell he is super annoyed and angry?”

Oops.

The instructor said, “Yes, maybe we should take a break.”

The guy that was the patient came up to me and asked, “How did you know?”

“I don’t know, I just felt it,” I said.

After that I started trying to see if I could feel what others were feeling. So when I was bored in a class, I’d go down the rows and try to feel what the my fellow students felt and quickly move on.

Going down the row: nothing, nothing nothing. This guy is pissed off, next one: nothing, nothing, Ow! She has a headache.

Dammit! Now I have a headache!

So that turned into a problem: When I worked on someone that had pain or other symptoms, I would take those on for myself. And the person I worked on would leave feeling great.

My friend Juanita did what is called an "attunement," and I became a Reiki Master.

Reiki masters are supposed to move energy around, but I was afraid I’d pick up too much of someone’s vibe and it would make me uncomfortable.

Plus, I can’t be doing energy work if I’m a chiropractor now.

So I kept all that checked and on the "down low"; sometimes I would get a "feeling" about a client while I was working on them. Surprisingly, it was always correct and it helped my client to make progress.

At some point, I started feeling that I needed to be true to myself, and if I had these abilities and I was able to use them to help the people that came to see me, then that's what I was going to do.

I've embraced this side of my work. If my clients need some emotional work, that’s what we work on, if they need some energy work, then they get it.

I suppose some people don’t want a chiropractor that’s metaphysical, but really-that’s how it all started. There are plenty of “evidence-based” chiropractors out there that can’t adjust their way out of a paper bag.

If the power goes off, they couldn’t use their lasers or whatever machine the Chiropractic Physiotherapy Industrial Complex wants you to buy now.

While I appreciate all the fancy parties they throw for us at continuing education seminars, they are infiltrating the chiropractic schools and now we are pumping out new chiropractors that only think they will be successful if they have the latest and greatest shiny machine.

I’ve studied a bunch of different things, I’ve found what works for me and refined it.

I tell my clients :

“I’m a better chiropractor today than I was yesterday, and I was pretty good back then!”

So I guess my next step is teaching some of this information and hoping to pass it on before my time here is up.

And you know what? I will love every damn minute of it!

There's nothing quite like sharing the weird, the wonderful, and the downright strange ways we can help people heal.

So, let's get to it—I've got a lot of sharing and teaching to do—it's going to be exciting!

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Palantir Is Violating Its Own Principles by Avoiding a Bitcoin Treasury

Palantir exists to see what others miss.

It was founded to solve problems most institutions can’t even name—defending sovereignty, navigating adversarial environments, and building systems designed to endure when others fail. Its software doesn’t just process data; it helps governments and institutions anticipate instability before it strikes.

But for all its strategic foresight, Palantir has yet to adopt a Bitcoin treasury strategy—a move that would bring its capital posture in line with its mission.

With more than $2.1 billion in cash, minimal debt, and few reinvestments, Palantir has the resources to lead—but no capital signal that matches its stated principles. In a world increasingly defined by currency debasement, centralized overreach, and geopolitical fragmentation, sitting on fiat is not neutrality. It’s a contradiction.

Palantir without a Bitcoin treasury isn’t just incomplete—it’s incoherent.

A Company Built for Strategic Foresight Should Not Be Saving in a Failing System

Over the last four years, Palantir has grown steadily:

• $1.09B → $1.54B → $1.91B → $2.23B in annual revenue
• Over $700M in free cash flow
• Just ~$239M in debt
• $2.1B in cash and equivalents

It’s a fortress balance sheet. But a fortress built on fiat is only as strong as the system it rests on.

Palantir has made no meaningful acquisitions, issued no dividends, and offers no capital return strategy beyond heavy stock-based compensation. This isn’t capital discipline—it’s strategic inertia. The company builds wartime software but saves like a peacetime conglomerate.

A Bitcoin Treasury Would Align Palantir’s Capital With Its Conviction

Palantir’s mission is to defend sovereignty and build for adversarial conditions. Bitcoin is the only monetary asset designed to do the same.

• Non-sovereign: Bitcoin is not issued or controlled by any state.
• Resilient: It has survived censorship attempts, geopolitical attacks, and financial panics.
• Transparent: It is auditable, predictable, and trustless—everything the fiat system is not.
• Aligned: Bitcoin reflects the same values Palantir claims—autonomy, resilience, and long-range thinking.

If Palantir allocated even half of its cash reserves (~$1.05B), it could acquire 10,000+ BTC. That would place it among the top 10 corporate Bitcoin holders, alongside Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), Tesla, and Coinbase.

But this isn’t about optics. It’s about aligning capital with purpose.

Palantir Without a Bitcoin Treasury Violates Its Own Principles

Palantir outlines a clear ethical and design philosophy for its software. But those same principles expose a contradiction on its balance sheet.

Let’s break it down:

“Systems should incorporate principles of privacy by design.”

➤ Bitcoin is privacy by design. It enables global value transfer without third-party surveillance or control.
➤ Fiat is surveillance by design. Centralized systems track, censor, and report user behavior by default.

By holding fiat, Palantir passively supports a financial architecture it claims to resist. A Bitcoin treasury would align its capital with its engineering ethics.

“Systems must facilitate accountability and oversight.”

➤ Bitcoin is radically transparent—anyone can audit supply, transactions, and ownership logic.
➤ Fiat operates in shadows—driven by opaque policy, insider bailouts, and political discretion.

Palantir demands accountability in data infrastructure—its capital reserves should meet the same standard.

“We strive to contextualize major world problems.”

➤ The instability of fiat currency and global debt markets is a foundational context.
➤ Bitcoin is not a bet—it’s a contextual response to structural monetary decay.

If Palantir exists to anticipate future risk, it should reflect that awareness on its balance sheet.

This Isn’t a Pivot. It’s Alignment.

Adopting a Bitcoin treasury wouldn’t mark a shift in Palantir’s mission—it would reinforce it.

This isn’t about chasing trends. It’s about applying the same principles that define Palantir’s software—resilience, sovereignty, and long-term thinking—to its balance sheet. Bitcoin reflects those values more directly than any fiat currency can.

Palantir helps its clients prepare for instability. It secures borders, systems, and decision-making frameworks under pressure. But it hasn’t secured its own monetary foundation.

That’s a strategic gap.
That’s a contradiction.
And it’s one the company can resolve—decisively.

The Call to Action

Palantir’s shareholders believe in its conviction. They understand the company is not here to follow. It exists to build first, move first, and signal first.

They are not looking for fiat-era conservatism repackaged as capital discipline. They want strategy that matches the scale of the mission. They want to see the company allocate capital with the same clarity it brings to battlefield intelligence and national infrastructure.

Palantir has the foresight, the liquidity, and the philosophical grounding to act. What it needs is the will to align its reserves with its reason for existing.

A Bitcoin treasury would do more than protect value—it would prove Palantir means what it says.

It’s time to move from rhetoric to action.
It’s time to adopt a Bitcoin treasury strategy.

Disclaimer: This content was written on behalf of Bitcoin For Corporations. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Bitcoin For Corporations. This article is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be interpreted as an invitation or solicitation to acquire, purchase, or subscribe for securities.

This post Palantir Is Violating Its Own Principles by Avoiding a Bitcoin Treasury first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Nick Ward.

@ 81022b27:2b8d0644

I have a family practice where I see pretty much everything, from infants to the elderly, athletes to people with disabilities.

When someone gets good results, they always want their loved ones to benefit in the same way.

Husbands tell their wives, wives bring in their husbands...

I even had a guy bring both his wife and his girlfriend! On different days, of course.

So, sometimes we notice a little bit of drama here and there. When one of our couples divorces, someone usually gets custody of the chiropractor.

It's rare that I keep seeing both parties.

It's probably for the best, because there was this one time when a guy showed up with his new "friend" while the ex’s best friend was in the waiting area.

Well, it was like an episode of the "Jerry Springer Show" that day.

Let's get to the story:

This one guy I’d been working on started coming in more frequently, complaining of more pain, more aches, more everything.

I've been doing this for a while now, so I told him that when I see this, it's one of two things:

Either you are physically doing something to aggravate the issue,

Or you are under emotional stress.

He told me that he and his wife were having problems, and there was lots of drama.

Of course, I kept working on him. Sometimes I did some emotional work, but with men, I have to be very business-like when dealing with emotions because we don't like to deal with them.

Time passed, and they finally divorced.

He still comes in regularly, and I've noticed he has less pain and fewer issues. His visits are more like "wellness visits"; he seems in better spirits.

I thought I'd never see the ex-wife again, but she showed up today, and when I checked her, she's doing better than ever!

It got me thinking... these people are way better off divorced! They're not in constant fight-or-flight mode; I'm sure they are happier or will be. It's a positive all the way around.

I've been divorced twice. That's not something I'm proud of. I see both those divorces as failures.

I was 23 when I got married the first time. We were both super young and unprepared. We struggled for four years, and then she wanted out.

Not that I blame her; I was unhappy with myself, and my frustration and unhappiness bled into the relationship.

My second marriage lasted a lot longer than the first. After all we were older, ended up having 2 kids and I really, really tried.

I was just terrified of losing my girls. I even recall saying that I was willing to be miserable and unhappy just “for the kids”

The truth is once we separated, I probably spent more “quality time” with my daughters than I had before.

But here’s the thing in both marriages I would have willingly given up the chance to be happier with a clean end to the relationship in order to give it another shot.

At some point you just run out of shots.

I see elderly couples out at restaurants and they hardly say anything to each other. Is it because they know each other so well that they don’t need to speak, or is one of them silently praying the other one will drop dead so they will finally have a chance at happiness?

What I’m trying to say here is:

Maybe there is no hope for that relationship that you are giving CPR

Maybe it’s time to move on.

Live Long and Prosper. 🖖

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• RoboSats v0.7.7-alpha is now available!

NOTE: "This version of clients is not compatible with older versions of coordinators. Coordinators must upgrade first, make sure you don't upgrade your client while this is marked as pre-release."

• This version brings a new and improved coordinators view with reviews signed both by the robot and the coordinator, adds market price sources in coordinator profiles, shows a correct warning for canceling non-taken orders after a payment attempt, adds Uzbek sum currency, and includes package library updates for coordinators.

Source: RoboSats.

• siggy47 is writing daily RoboSats activity reviews on stacker.news. Check them out here.
• Stay up-to-date with RoboSats on Nostr.

What's new

• New coordinators view (see the picture above).
• Available coordinator reviews signed by both the robot and the coordinator.
• Coordinators now display market price sources in their profiles.

Source: RoboSats.

• Fix for wrong message on cancel button when taking an order. Users are now warned if they try to cancel a non taken order after a payment attempt.
• Uzbek sum currency now available.
• For coordinators: library updates.
• Add docker frontend (#1861).
• Add order review token (#1869).
• Add UZS migration (#1875).
• Fixed tests review (#1878).
• Nostr pubkey for Robot (#1887).

New contributors

• @hexlorn made their first contribution in #1858.
• @umk0m1qk made their first contribution in #1864.

Full Changelog: v0.7.6-alpha...v0.7.7-alpha

GitHub Repo

@ c11cf5f8:4928464d

Howdy stackers! Here we are again with our monthly Magnificent Seven, the summary giving you a hit of what you missed in the ~AGORA territory.

First thing first. let's check our top performing post Ads!

---

Top-Performing Ads

This month, the most engaging ones are:

• 01 Bitcoin Magazine Launches V3 Limited Edition Bitcoin Crocs by @RideandSmile, no description, nor images provided. The title speak for the product itself. 31 sats \ 8 comments \ 15 May

• 02 Happy Pizza Day Jerky Offer (10k sats sale 5/22 ONLY) by @beejay, celebrating Bitcoin Pizza Day with a delicious offer for a handmade product. Offer is over but it still available on her online shop and IRL at next Twin Cities Outdoor Agora Market https://stacker.news/items/972209/r/AG 103 sats \ 3 comments \ 22 May

• 03 Lard Tallow lotion by @byzantine, sharing with us one of his preferred online shops that accept sats. Here other two: a Regenerative Farm in TX https://stacker.news/items/983695/r/AG and an artisanal lite roast coffee maker https://stacker.news/items/983668/r/AG 62 sats \ 4 comments \ 20 May

• 04 Bitaxe Gamma 601 for sale by @PictureRoom selling P2P, have you shipped it yet? 121 sats \ 12 comments \ 15 May

• 05 Built An Invisible Book Stage by @kr, he did well creating some expectations for this unique and durable product earlier https://stacker.news/items/903946/r/AG 124 sats \ 4 comments \ 21 May

• 06 "₿lack Market Money" T-Shirts by T&F by @BitcoinErrorLog, that had opened his online store with plenty of incredible products, including an Anti-Surveillance clothing line https://stacker.news/items/994555/r/AG stuff never seen before! 51 sats \ 3 comments \ 24 May

• 07 [SELL] Heatpunk 002 Tee by @thebullishbitcoiner, reviving the second edition of a t-shirt dedicated to home solo miners! 79 sats \ 1 comment \ 28 May

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In case you missed

Here some interesting post, opening conversations and free speech about markets and business on the bitcoin circular economy:

• https://stacker.news/items/992449/r/AG - @Kontext is selling his beloved 2012 Jaguar XF 3.0 V6 Petrol [5M sats], great deal if paid in sats! Have you sold her?
• https://stacker.news/items/987241/r/AG - @RideandSmile shared the Freedom Issue: Letter From the Editor introducing a BM special edition
• https://stacker.news/items/999229/r/AG - @Solomonsatoshi was looking for Green Coffee Beans for DIY home roasting. Will @michaelbinary provide you some?
• https://stacker.news/items/992790/r/AG - @Rayo also introduce the P.A.Z.NIA Radio Network: 52 Hours of Liberation! An interesting livestream for all those interested in freedom.
• https://stacker.news/items/995163/r/AG welcome to @lunin, opening up on SN with Take it step by step and it will work! as part of a promising series: Founder's Thoughts. Here the second post https://stacker.news/items/999867/r/AG Startup according to Mozart

---

Hey sellers! Try Auctions

A quick reminder that now you can setup auctions here in the AGORA too! Learn how. The other feature released last month was the introduction of Shopfronts on SN. Check our SN Merch and SN Zine examples. Thank you all! Let's keep these trades coming and grow the P2P Bitcoin circular economy!

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Active Professional Services accepting Bitcoin in the AGORA

Let us know if we miss any, here below the most memorable ones: - https://stacker.news/items/900208/r/AG - @unschooled offering Language Tutoring - https://stacker.news/items/813013/r/AG - @gpvansat's [OFFER][Graphic Design] From the paste editions (It's important to keep these offers available) - https://stacker.news/items/775383/r/AG - @TinstrMedia - Color Grading (Styling) Your Pictures as a Service - https://stacker.news/items/773557/r/AG - @MamaHodl, MATHS TUTOR 50K SATS/hour English global - https://stacker.news/items/684163/r/AG - @BTCLNAT's OFFER HEALTH COUNSELING [5K SAT/ consultation - https://stacker.news/items/689268/r/AG - @mathswithtess [SELL] MATHS TUTOR ONILINE, 90k sats per hour. Global but English only.

Let me know if I'm missing other stackers offering services around here!

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Lost & Found in SN' Wild West Web

Stay with me, we're not done yet! I found plenty of other deals, offers and business related conversations in other territories too...

• BITCOIN... always fucking with my head... by @thecommoner (highly recommended read!)
• The Strange Moral Relativism of "Free Trade" by @Undisciplined (another highly recommended read!)
• What makes society thrive? by @aljaz
• Drop or proxy shipping services that take sats? by @lv99slacker
• Custom Bitcoin Nodes by @anon
• 23 Bitcoin Merch Shops That Sell Shirts For Sats by @hyperfree
• How to create an e-commerce website? by @Bitcoiner1
• Can You Outperform an Apple Tree? by @kr
• B2B Businesses in Bitcoin by @telcobert

Oh boy! Such exciting month! Now our latest weekly appointments:

🏷️ Spending Sunday

(LIVE TODAY) Share your most recent Bitcoin purchases of just check what other stackers are buying with their sats! Today's one open at https://stacker.news/items/1000477/r/AG

All series available here:

🤝 Sellers & Business Club

(UPCOMING EVERY TUESDAY) Here https://stacker.news/items/998773/r/AG wanted to introduce this new series, dedicated to our most active sellers^1. A room to talk about growing business and sales. You will join?

📢 Thursday Talks: What have you sold for Bitcoin this week?

It is losing a bit of momentum, but it will still be opening every week for anyone interested to share sales tips, deals and offers around the Wild West Web! Latest one here https://stacker.news/items/997767/r/AG

Thanks all for reading until here, now... 🫡 Closing remarks as usual. See ya!

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Create your Ads now!

Looking to start something new? Hit one of the links below to free your mind:

• 💬 TOPIC for conversation,
• [⚖️ SELL] anything! or,
• if you're looking for something, hit the [🛒 BUY]!
• [🧑‍💻 HIRE] any bitcoiner skill or stuff from bitcoiners
• [🖇 OFFER] any product or service and stack more sats
• [🧑‍⚖️ AUCTION] to let stackers decide a fair price for your item
• [🤝 SWAP] if you're looking to exchange anything with anything else
• [🆓 FREE] your space, make a gift!
• Start your own [SHOPFRONT] or simply...
• [⭐ REVIEW] any bitcoin product or LN service you recently bought or subscribed to.

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Or contact @AGORA team on nostr DM, and we can help you publish a personalized post.

. #nostr #bitcoin #stuff4sats #sell #buy #plebchain #grownostr #asknostr #market #business

https://stacker.news/items/1000715

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Life Insurer, Meanwhile, Becomes First Company to Publish Audited Financials Denominated in Bitcoin

Meanwhile Insurance Bitcoin (Bermuda) Limited (“Meanwhile”) announced it has become the first company in the world to release externally audited financial statements denominated entirely in Bitcoin. According to the announcement, the company reported 220.4 BTC in assets and 25.29 BTC in net income for 2024, a 300% year over year increase.

Today marks a global first & historic event for us, along with the public release of our 2024 audited financial statements, covering our 1st year of sales.

As the 1st company in the world to have Bitcoin-denominated financial statements externally audited, we are excited to…

— meanwhile | Bitcoin Life Insurance (@meanwhilelife) June 5, 2025

“We’ve just made history as the first company in the world to have Bitcoin-denominated financial statements externally audited,” said Zac Townsend, CEO of Meanwhile. “This is an important, foundational step in reimagining the financial system based on a single, global, decentralized standard outside the control of any one government.” 

The financial statements were audited by Harris & Trotter LLP and its digital asset division ht.digital. Meanwhile’s financials also comply with Bermuda’s Insurance Act 1978, noting that their BTC denominated financials were approved and comply with official guidelines. The firm, fully licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), operates entirely in BTC and is prohibited from liquidating Bitcoin assets except through policyholder claims, positioning it as a long term holder. 

“As the first regulated Bitcoin life insurance company, we view the BTC held by Meanwhile as inherently long-term in nature—primarily held to support the Company’s insurance liabilities over decades,” Townsend added. “This makes it significantly ‘stickier’ and resistant to market pressures compared to the BTC held by other companies as part of their treasury management strategies.” 

Meanwhile’s 2024 financials also revealed 23.02 BTC in net premiums and 4.35 BTC in investment income, showing that its model not only preserves Bitcoin, but earns it. The company’s reserves (also held in BTC) were reviewed and approved by Willis Towers Watson (WTW). 

Meanwhile also offers a Bitcoin Whole Life insurance product that allows policyholders to save, borrow, and build legacy wealth—entirely in BTC, and has plans to expand globally in 2025.

“We are incredibly proud of today’s news as it underscores how Meanwhile is at the forefront of the next phase of the convergence between Bitcoin and institutional financial markets,” said Tia Beckmann, CFO of Meanwhile. “Now having generated net income in BTC, we have demonstrated that we are earning it through a sustainable insurance business model designed for the long term.” 

This post Bitcoin Life Insurer, Meanwhile, Becomes First Company to Publish Audited Financials Denominated in Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ 41fa852b:af7b7706

"The poison was never forced - it was offered gently, until you forgot it was poison at all." - Mark Twain

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Happy Sunday, folks.

Below is your weekly roundup of events for the coming week.

Added to the event section this week, an exciting new Scottish Bitcoin Conference, happening in August.

Check out all the details below.

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This week's sponsor is…

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Upcoming Bitcoin Meetups

Happening this week…

1. Dundee Bitcoin: Join them on the 2nd Monday of every month from 17:30 to 20:30 PM at The Wine Press, 16 Shore Terrace, Dundee DD1 3DN. This month's meetup is on Monday 9th. 🍻

2. Canterbury Bitcoin: Meeting this month at the The Dolphin Pub in Canterbury at 7 PM on Tuesday the 10th of June. An informal meetup to discuss Bitcoin and chat. 🍺

3. Glasgow Bitcoin: Meetups are held every second Wednesday of the month. This is a place for people in and around Glasgow to discuss Bitcoin. 18:00 - 23:00 at The Piper Bar, G1 1HL. This month on Wednesday 11th. 🍻

4. St Albans: This is a new meetup happening on the second Wednesday of each month. This month, it's from 19:00 to 22:00 on the 11th at the Robin Hood of St Albans, Victoria St, St Albans. 🍻

5. Children of Riddim - Festival - Bitcoin Stage: Children of Riddim Festival is bringing Bitcoin to the big stage from the 12th--16th June in Hemel Hempstead, with 150+ DJs, artists, and speakers. The Barn of Freedom will host Bitcoin talks, music, and Nostr-powered apps. Tickets and donations for the stage can be made via geyser.fund, with camping included. Acts/speakers include Joe Bryan, Metamick, Roger9000, Angor, and more. 🎉🪩

6. Bitcoin Beach Bournemouth: Every second Thursday of the month at Chaplins Cellar Bar. 529 Christchurch Road, Boscombe, United. You'll find them in the Cogg Room at 19:30. This month it's the 12th. 🍺

7. Bury St Edmunds Bitcoin: is reviving the medieval spirit of the Folkmoot, one Bitcoin meetup at a time. Their second gathering takes place this Friday at 17:30 at Edmundo Lounge. They've also just launched a brand new website.

8. Stoke Bitcoin Meetup: The Stoke Bitcoin meetup is back! They will have Bitcoin coffee to taste, delivered by hand directly from the mountains of El Salvador and grown by @lacruzboss in Berlin, El Salvador. 15:00 on Friday 13th. ☕️🍻

9. Bitcoin Walk - Edinburgh: Every Saturday they walk around Arthur's Seat in this historic city. Join them at 12 pm to chat about all things Bitcoin and keep fit. 🚶🏽‍♂️🚶🏼‍♀️🚶🏻

10. Bitcoin East: Join Bitcoin East in Bury St. Edmunds on Sunday 15th, 12:00 at Hopsters Bar, Felixstowe. All welcome, Bitcoiners and anyone else curious about Bitcoin. 🍺

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New Businesses Accepting Bitcoin

This week we have…

• Core Agency: A creative communications firm that blends financial expertise with bold storytelling to help businesses in finance and beyond stand out. Based in the UK, they specialise in strategic planning, brand identity, content production, and public relations, delivering everything from investor-focused media to high-impact digital campaigns. With in-house studios for video, animation, and live streaming, Core offers end-to-end solutions that are both visually compelling and commercially effective. Their mission is to bring clarity, creativity, and confidence to brands navigating complex markets. Whether you're a fintech startup or a global institution, Core helps you communicate with purpose and originality. Now accepting bitcoin payments. 📈

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Upcoming Special Events

These events aren't happening next week, but they're important to add to your calendar now as tickets are selling fast.

The Bitcoin Beach Retreat: An annual Bitcoin-only gathering held at a scenic coastal campsite in North Wales. Celebrating its fifth year in 2025, the retreat offers a relaxed, community-driven alternative to traditional conferences.

From July 11--14, up to 120 Bitcoiners will come together to share knowledge, enjoy beachside BBQs, and strengthen their networks under the stars. With no pre-booked speakers, the event thrives on peer-led workshops and spontaneous discussions, fostering genuine connections among attendees. Emphasising local engagement, the retreat directs the majority of its funds into the surrounding community, with 42% of expenses paid in Bitcoin last year.

Whether attending solo or with family, attendees can expect a welcoming environment dedicated to sound money and shared values.

Scottish Bitcoin Conference: Taking place on August 23, 2025, at the Glasgow University Union, located at 32 University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8LX. From 09:00 to 16:30.

Featuring an impressive roster of speakers, including Anthony Scaramucci, Hashley Giles, Rick Messit, Dr. Peter Connor, Claire Chisholm, Roger9000, John Magill, Ian Scanlon, Robin Thatcher, Jamie Plowman, Robbie Maltby, Russell Rukin, Peter Lane, Francesco Madonna, and Sam Roberts.

Open to all, this conference offers a unique opportunity for Bitcoiners and newcomers alike to connect and learn in the vibrant setting of Glasgow.

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Get Involved

• Volunteer: Passionate about merchant adoption? Reach out to Bridge2Bitcoin on Twitter or website.
• Start a Meetup: Want to launch a Bitcoin meetup? We'll support you. Contact us on Twitter or just reply to this email.
• Contribute to BTCMaps: Help maintain this key Bitcoin resource--no coding skills needed. Update a UK area.
• Telegram: Join our Channel for UK meetup updates
• Feedback: Reply to this email with ideas and suggestions.

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This week's sponsors is…

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Get out and support the meetups where you can, visit Bitcoin Events UK for more info on each meetup and to find your closest on the interactive map.

Stay tuned for more updates next week!

Simon.

@ dab6c606:51f507b6

I've been interested for a while in how the business with miles and loyalty points works. I found out that only large corporations can partially do this because of how they can then account for it. And it's tax-wise super advantageous. I also added info about loyalty points and gift cards. The text below was written by various AIs as I was digging into it, it's basically a summary, sharing for those who are interested.

Part I: Loyalty Programs of Large Corporations

Business Logic of Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs of airlines and hotels are sophisticated business tools that serve several key purposes. They primarily function to increase customer loyalty by creating "switching costs" - customers don't want to lose accumulated points, which reduces the likelihood they'll switch to competitors.

At the same time, they're a significant source of additional revenue. For example, American Airlines earns more from selling miles to banks than on some flight routes. When Citibank buys miles for 1-2 cents per mile, the airline gets immediate revenue, while the real value for the customer can be 3-5 cents when used correctly.

Accounting Treatment of Loyalty Points

From an accounting perspective, loyalty points represent deferred liabilities. When a customer earns points, the company must create a reserve for their future redemption. Points are valued based on expected costs of their redemption, not on nominal value.

The key difference is between cash accounting and accrual accounting: - Cash accounting: Revenue is recognized when payment is received, expenses when paid. - Accrual accounting: Revenue and expenses are recognized when the obligation arises.

For loyalty programs, accrual accounting is critical. When an airline sells miles to a bank for $1,000,000, it simultaneously creates a liability for future costs (say $600,000), so taxable income is only $400,000.

Example: Selling Miles to a Bank

An airline sells 50 million miles to Citibank for $1,000,000: 1. Immediate revenue: $1,000,000 2. Creation of liability: $600,000 (estimated future costs) 3. Taxable income: $400,000 4. Future costs: When customers use miles, the company recognizes the expense and reduces the liability

Positive margin arises from several factors: - Breakage - 15-20% of miles are never redeemed - Time value of money - Money from the bank is invested immediately - Marginal costs - An empty seat has low incremental cost

Tax Optimization and Offshore Structures

Large companies often use international structures to optimize taxes from loyalty programs. A typical structure includes: 1. Parent company (USA/EU) - Operates flights and provides services (e.g., flights or accommodation). 2. IP Holding (Ireland/Netherlands) - Owns intellectual property (IP) for the loyalty program, such as brands, software, and databases. 3. Loyalty Operating Company (Singapore/Dubai) - Manages sale of miles to banks and partners, coordinates the program and communicates with customers.

Business Relationships and Payments Between Entities (example with positive result for Singapore)

These entities are connected by contracts that determine who pays for what and why, to minimize tax burden: - Bank → Singapore (Loyalty Operating Company): The bank (e.g., Citibank) pays $1,000,000 for miles it offers to its clients as rewards for using credit cards. The Singapore company is the main contact point for partners because it's located in a low-tax jurisdiction (17%) with good infrastructure for financial services. - Singapore → Ireland (IP Holding): The Singapore company pays $500,000 as royalties for using IP (brands, software, and data) of the loyalty program. This payment is high to shift profit to Ireland, where the tax rate is even lower (12.5%). This reduces taxable income in Singapore. - Singapore → Parent Company (Airline): The Singapore company pays $300,000 to the parent company for providing services (e.g., flights) when customers use miles. This payment is lower than actual costs to minimize profit in the parent company's country, where the tax rate is higher (e.g., 25-35% in USA or EU). - Profit in Singapore: $1,000,000 (income from bank) - $500,000 (royalties to Ireland) - $300,000 (payment to airline) = $200,000 profit, taxed at 17% in Singapore.

Why Such Distribution?

• Ireland (IP Holding): High royalty payments ($500,000) go to Ireland because the 12.5% tax rate is attractive and Ireland is considered a "serious" jurisdiction that meets international rules (e.g., BEPS). Ireland also has double taxation treaties with many countries, facilitating profit shifting.
• Singapore (Loyalty Operating Company): Mile sales and program coordination occur in Singapore due to favorable tax environment (17%) and strategic location for Asian markets. A small profit ($200,000) is left here to demonstrate "economic substance" - that the company has real activity.
• Parent Company: The $300,000 payment is low to minimize taxable income in a high-tax country (e.g., USA or EU).

Why Not 0% Tax Jurisdiction?

Why not use a zero-tax country (e.g., Cayman Islands)? Due to: - Regulatory scrutiny - Tax authorities closely monitor 0% jurisdictions and may question legitimacy. - BEPS rules - Need to demonstrate "substance" (real offices, employees) in the country. - Credibility test - 12.5% in Ireland or 17% in Singapore looks like legitimate business operation.

The result of such structure is that most profit (60-70%) is taxed at 12.5% in Ireland or 17% in Singapore instead of 25-35% in the airline's home country.

Part II: Loyalty Programs and Alternatives for Small Businesses

Why Loyalty Programs Are Problematic for Small Businesses

Unlike large corporations, small businesses like cafes face a fundamental problem with loyalty programs: cash accounting obligation. In many countries, small firms (under $25M annually) must use cash accounting, which means: - Revenue from selling points is taxed immediately - Costs are deducted only when customers use points (maybe a year later) - Creates tax and cashflow problem - tax is paid on money you'll "lose" in the future

Imagine a cafe that sells loyalty points for €100. It must immediately pay tax (say €21), but deducts coffee costs provided for points only in the future.

Alternative Models for Small Businesses

There are more tax-advantageous alternatives:

1. Gift Cards Model

• Revenue is NOT RECOGNIZED when selling gift card
• Revenue is recognized only when customer uses the card
• Example: Sell gift cards for €10,000 in December, get cash immediately, but pay tax gradually as customers use cards during the following year.
• Time value of money: Money can be invested (e.g., 6% annually = €600 extra profit on €10,000)
• Breakage benefit: 2-10% of cards are never used, after certain time (3-5 years, depending on legislation) you can recognize the balance as pure profit.

Example: Starbucks Starbucks had $1.5 billion in unused gift cards on its books in 2022. Estimated 3% breakage means $45 million pure profit – interest-free loan from customers with bonus that part never returns.

2. Subscription Model

• Monthly revenue = immediate taxation
• Monthly costs = immediate deduction
• Example: €10/month for "premium membership" with certain benefits

3. Discount Coupons

• No revenue when issuing coupon
• Reduced revenue when redeeming (sell at lower price)
• Example: 20% discount coupon = sell coffee for €4 instead of €5

Outsourcing Loyalty Program: Details About Shopify Loyalty

Platforms like Shopify Loyalty represent an elegant solution for small businesses wanting to offer loyalty programs without accounting and tax complications. Let's break this down in detail:

How Shopify Loyalty Works

• Shopify as third party: Shopify owns and manages the entire loyalty program including points and software. The customer has their "account" directly with Shopify, not with the specific store. This means points are not your liability, but Shopify's liability.
• Your role: You (e.g., cafe) pay Shopify a monthly fee (e.g., €29) for using the platform and a small transaction fee (e.g., €0.20) for each point redemption (reward). You're essentially a "service provider" for Shopify – you provide rewards when Shopify sends you an order.
• Earning points: Customer earns points for purchases in stores participating in Shopify Loyalty program. For example, if customer buys coffee for €5 in your cafe, Shopify credits them points (e.g., 5 points per euro, so 25 points). Specific rules (how many points per euro) are set by you through Shopify platform, but technically points are managed by Shopify.
• Using points: Customer can use points for rewards (e.g., free coffee for 100 points), but usually only in stores participating in Shopify network. This means if your cafe uses Shopify Loyalty, points earned with you can be used with you or other stores in Shopify ecosystem, if Shopify allows it. Usually, however, stores set up the program so points are primarily usable with them, increasing loyalty to their brand.
• Point redemption process: When customer wants to use points (e.g., 100 points for free coffee), Shopify sends order to you (cafe) to provide the reward. You give the coffee but don't receive direct payment from customer – it's a marketing cost. You also pay Shopify transaction fee (€0.20). Accounting-wise, it's not a sale, so no taxable income or receipt obligation arises.
• Accounting treatment: When customer uses points:
• No receipt = no taxable income
• Coffee cost (€2) + Shopify fee (€0.20) = €2.20
• Recorded as "Promotional expenses" or "Marketing costs"

Why Must Loyalty Program Be Outsourced to Third Party (like Shopify)?

Small businesses don't have capacity or resources to manage their own loyalty program "in-house" for these reasons: - Tax and accounting complexity: If you managed loyalty program yourself, you'd have to create reserves for future liabilities (points customers will use later), estimate breakage rate (percentage of unused points) and handle cash vs. accrual accounting. For small firms that often must use cash accounting, this means immediate taxation of revenue if selling points, but cost deduction only in the future – creates cashflow mismatch. - Technological infrastructure: Managing points, customer databases and integration with payment systems requires sophisticated software and IT team, which is expensive and complicated for small firms. - Legal separation: When program is managed by third party like Shopify, points are their liability, not yours. For you, this means no future liabilities in your accounting books – just monthly costs (Shopify fee), which are tax-deductible as regular expense. - Economic efficiency: Shopify aggregates thousands of stores, achieving economies of scale – lower costs for software, security and data management. A small cafe could never create such system at reasonable price alone.

Why Can't It Be In-house from Tax Perspective?

If small firm managed loyalty program itself: - Immediate tax problem: If firm sold points (e.g., for money or as part of purchase), revenue would have to be taxed immediately, though costs for providing rewards (e.g., free coffee) could be deducted only when customer uses points. This creates cashflow mismatch because you pay tax before actually "losing" money on reward. - Complex reserves: Would have to estimate how many points will be used and create accounting reserves, which is administratively demanding and requires expensive accountants or software. - Risk of errors: Incorrect breakage rate estimates or poor liability management can lead to tax audits and penalties.

With Shopify, these problems are eliminated – you only pay monthly fee and transaction fees, which are simply recorded as marketing costs. Shopify takes full responsibility for managing points and liabilities to customers.

Case Study: Loyalty Points for Cafe (10 + 1 Free Model)

Let's look at specific case of small cafe offering classic loyalty program type "10 + 1 free". Customer gets 1 point for each coffee purchased (e.g., for €3) and after collecting 10 points gets one free coffee. We'll analyze how this works accounting-wise, whether it's "promotional expense" and what's the difference between in-house management and using Shopify.

How "10 + 1 Free" Program Works

• Earning points: Customer buys coffee for €3 and gets 1 point (e.g., stamp on card or digital record). Points have no monetary value for sale – they're purely reward for purchase.
• Using points: After collecting 10 points (meaning purchases for €30) customer gets free coffee (value €3).
• Real cost for cafe: Cost of producing free coffee is lower than selling price, e.g., €1.50 for materials and labor.

Accounting Treatment (In-house)

If cafe manages program itself (in-house), accounting process depends on whether it uses cash accounting (common for small firms) or accrual accounting: - Cash accounting: - When customer buys coffee: Cafe records €3 revenue for each coffee and issues receipt. Point (stamp) has no monetary value, so it's not recorded as liability or revenue. - When redeeming 10 points: When customer gets free coffee, no revenue arises (€0), but cost for coffee production arises (€1.50). This cost is recorded as "Promotional expense" or "Marketing cost" because it's form of discount or advertising to retain customer. - Tax impact: No revenue when issuing free coffee, €1.50 cost is tax-deductible as regular expense. - Accrual accounting (less common for small firms): - When customer buys coffee: Cafe records €3 revenue but simultaneously creates small liability for future reward (e.g., €0.30 per point, which is estimate of cost for future free coffee divided by 10). So from €3 revenue, taxable income is only €2.70. - When redeeming 10 points: When customer gets free coffee, cafe reduces liability by €3 (10 points x €0.30) and records €1.50 cost for coffee production. Difference can be adjusted as breakage or other profit if estimates differ from reality. - Tax impact: Taxable income is lower already at first purchase, but accounting is more complex due to estimates and reserves.

Is it Promotional Expense? Yes, in both cases (cash and accrual) the cost of free coffee is recorded as "Promotional expense" or "Marketing cost" because it's form of discount to support customer loyalty. It's not considered regular sale because no revenue or receipt arises.

Accounting Treatment (via Shopify Loyalty)

If cafe uses Shopify Loyalty to manage "10 + 1 free" program, process is simpler: - When customer buys coffee: Cafe records €3 revenue for coffee and issues receipt. Shopify credits point to customer's account (it's not your liability, but Shopify's). - When redeeming 10 points: Shopify sends order to issue free coffee. Cafe gives coffee (€1.50 cost) and pays Shopify transaction fee (€0.20). Total cost €1.70 is recorded as "Promotional expense" or "Marketing cost". - Tax impact: Same as in-house, no revenue when issuing free coffee, €1.70 cost is tax-deductible as regular expense. Additionally, you don't have to handle any liabilities or breakage estimates because Shopify manages points.

Difference Between In-house and Shopify

• In-house:
• Advantages: Full control over program, no monthly fees to third party (e.g., €29 Shopify fee).
• Disadvantages: If using accrual accounting, must create reserves and estimate breakage, which is administratively demanding. With cash accounting it's simpler (no liabilities), but if you sold points for money, tax mismatch arises (revenue taxed immediately, cost only later). Additionally, must manage point database yourself (stamps, software), which is time-consuming.
• Shopify Loyalty:
• Advantages: No liabilities in your accounting books, Shopify manages points and technology. Accounting-wise it's simple – just monthly fee (€29) and transaction fees (€0.20) as marketing cost. Don't have to handle estimates or breakage.
• Disadvantages: Pay monthly fees and transaction fees, increasing costs (e.g., €0.20 extra per free coffee). Have less control over program because third party manages it.

Conclusion for Cafe: "10 + 1 free" program is accounting-wise considered Promotional expense in both cases (in-house and Shopify) because free coffee is form of marketing to retain customers. Difference is in administrative burden and costs – Shopify simplifies accounting and management, but at cost of monthly fees. In-house is cheaper but more demanding to manage, especially if you wanted to use accrual accounting or sell points for money.

Conclusion

Loyalty programs are sophisticated customer loyalty tools, but their accounting and tax aspects differ significantly between large and small firms. Large corporations use accrual accounting and international structures for tax optimization, while for small businesses alternative models like gift cards or outsourcing entire program are often more advantageous, eliminating tax and cashflow problems. Gift cards additionally bring immediate cash flow, time value of money and breakage benefit, making them ideal tool for businesses of all sizes. Shopify Loyalty offers small firms way to implement loyalty program without accounting complications because it takes technical and legal responsibility, allowing focus on core business. For simple programs like "10 + 1 free," accounting impact is similar (Promotional expense), but Shopify simplifies management at cost of additional fees.

@ dab6c606:51f507b6

Dlhšie som sa zaujímal o to ako funguje biznis s míľami, vernostnými bodmi. Zistil som, že to čiastočne môžu robiť iba veľké korporácie kvôli tomu ako to môžu potom zaúčtovať. A je to daňovo super výhodné. Pridal som aj info o vernostných bodoch a darčekových kartách. Text nižšie napísali rôzne AI ako som sa v tom vŕtal, to je v zásade sumár, zdieľam pre tých, ktorých to zaujíma.

Časť I: Vernostné programy veľkých korporácií

Obchodná logika vernostných programov

Vernostné programy leteckých spoločností a hotelov sú sofistikované obchodné nástroje, ktoré slúžia niekoľkým kľúčovým účelom. Primárne fungujú na zvýšenie zákazníckej lojality vytvorením "switching costs" - zákazníci nechcú prísť o nazbierané body, čo znižuje pravdepodobnosť, že prejdú ku konkurencii.

Zároveň sú významným zdrojom dodatočných príjmov. Napríklad American Airlines zarába viac na predaji míľ bankám ako na niektorých leteckých linkách. Keď Citibank kupuje míle za 1-2 centy za míľu, aerolínia získava okamžitý príjem, zatiaľ čo reálna hodnota pre zákazníka môže byť 3-5 centov pri správnom využití.

Účtovné spracovanie vernostných bodov

Z účtovného hľadiska predstavujú vernostné body odložené záväzky. Keď zákazník získa body, spoločnosť musí vytvoriť rezervu na ich budúce uplatnenie. Body sa oceňujú na základe predpokladaných nákladov na ich uplatnenie, nie na základe nominálnej hodnoty.

Kľúčový je rozdiel medzi cash accounting a accrual accounting: - Cash accounting: Príjmy sa uznávajú pri prijatí platby, náklady pri zaplatení. - Accrual accounting: Príjmy a náklady sa uznávajú v momente vzniku záväzku.

Pre vernostné programy je accrual accounting kritické. Keď aerolínia predá míle banke za $1,000,000, vytvorí zároveň záväzok na budúce náklady (povedzme $600,000), takže zdaniteľný príjem je len $400,000.

Príklad: Predaj míľ banke

Aerolínia predá 50 miliónov míľ Citibank za $1,000,000: 1. Okamžitý príjem: $1,000,000 2. Vytvorenie záväzku: $600,000 (odhadované budúce náklady) 3. Zdaniteľný príjem: $400,000 4. Budúce náklady: Keď zákazníci míle využijú, spoločnosť uzná náklad a zníži záväzok

Pozitívna marža vzniká z niekoľkých faktorov: - Breakage - 15-20% míľ sa nikdy neuplatní - Časová hodnota peňazí - Peniaze od banky investuje okamžite - Marginálne náklady - Prázdne sedadlo má nízky prírastok nákladu

Daňová optimalizácia a offshore štruktúry

Veľké spoločnosti často využívajú medzinárodné štruktúry na optimalizáciu daní z vernostných programov. Typická štruktúra zahŕňa: 1. Materská spoločnosť (USA/EU) - Prevádzkuje lety a poskytuje služby (napr. lety alebo ubytovanie). 2. IP Holding (Írsko/Holandsko) - Vlastní duševné vlastníctvo (IP) k loyalty programu, ako sú značky, softvér a databázy. 3. Loyalty Operating Company (Singapur/Dubaj) - Spravuje predaj míľ bankám a partnerom, koordinuje program a komunikuje so zákazníkmi.

Obchodné vzťahy a platby medzi entitami (príklad s pozitívnym výsledkom pre Singapur)

Tieto entity sú prepojené zmluvami, ktoré určujú, kto za čo platí a prečo, aby sa minimalizovala daňová záťaž: - Banka → Singapur (Loyalty Operating Company): Banka (napr. Citibank) platí $1,000,000 za míle, ktoré ponúka svojim klientom ako odmenu za používanie kreditných kariet. Singapurská spoločnosť je hlavný kontaktný bod pre partnerov, pretože je umiestnená v jurisdikcii s nízkou daňou (17 %) a dobrou infraštruktúrou pre finančné služby. - Singapur → Írsko (IP Holding): Singapurská spoločnosť platí $500,000 ako royalty za použitie IP (značky, softvéru a dát) loyalty programu. Táto platba je vysoká, aby sa presunul zisk do Írska, kde je daňová sadzba ešte nižšia (12,5 %). Tým sa znižuje zdaniteľný príjem v Singapure. - Singapur → Materská spoločnosť (Aerolínia): Singapurská spoločnosť platí $300,000 materskej spoločnosti za poskytnutie služieb (napr. letov), keď zákazníci využijú míle. Táto platba je nižšia ako reálne náklady, aby sa minimalizoval zisk v krajine materskej spoločnosti, kde je daňová sadzba vyššia (napr. 25-35 % v USA alebo EU). - Zisk v Singapure: $1,000,000 (príjem od banky) - $500,000 (royalty do Írska) - $300,000 (platba aerolínii) = $200,000 zisku, ktorý je zdanený pri 17 % v Singapure.

Prečo takéto rozdelenie?

• Írsko (IP Holding): Vysoké royalty platby ($500,000) idú do Írska, pretože daňová sadzba 12,5 % je atraktívna a Írsko je považované za "serióznu" jurisdikciu, ktorá spĺňa medzinárodné pravidlá (napr. BEPS). Zároveň má Írsko zmluvy o zamedzení dvojitého zdanenia s mnohými krajinami, čo uľahčuje presun zisku.
• Singapur (Loyalty Operating Company): Predaj míľ a koordinácia programu prebieha v Singapure kvôli priaznivému daňovému prostrediu (17 %) a strategickej polohe pre ázijské trhy. Zároveň sa tu zanecháva malý zisk ($200,000), aby sa preukázala "ekonomická substance" – teda, že spoločnosť má reálnu činnosť.
• Materská spoločnosť: Platba $300,000 je nízka, aby sa minimalizoval zdaniteľný príjem v krajine s vysokou daňovou sadzbou (napr. USA alebo EU).

Prečo nie 0 % daňová jurisdikcia?

Prečo sa nepoužíva krajina s nulovou daňou (napr. Kajmanské ostrovy)? Kvôli: - Regulatory scrutiny - Daňové úrady pozorne sledujú 0 % jurisdikcie a môžu spochybniť legitímnosť. - BEPS pravidlám - Potreba preukázať "substance" (reálne kancelárie, zamestnancov) v krajine. - Credibility testu - 12,5 % v Írsku alebo 17 % v Singapure vyzerá ako legitímna obchodná operácia.

Výsledkom takejto štruktúry je, že väčšina zisku (60-70 %) je zdanená pri 12,5 % v Írsku alebo 17 % v Singapure namiesto 25-35 % v domovskej krajine aerolínky.

Časť II: Loyalty programy a alternatívy pre malé biznisy

Prečo je loyalty program problematický pre malé biznisy

Na rozdiel od veľkých korporácií, malé biznisy ako kaviarne narážajú pri vernostných programoch na zásadný problém: cash accounting povinnosť. V mnohých krajinách musia malé firmy (pod $25M ročne) používať cash accounting, čo znamená: - Príjem z predaja bodov sa zdaní okamžite - Náklady sa odpočítajú až keď zákazník body využije (možno o rok) - Vzniká daňový a cashflow problém - daň sa platí z peňazí, ktoré "stratíte" v budúcnosti

Predstavte si kaviareň, ktorá predá vernostné body za €100. Okamžite musí zaplatiť daň (povedzme €21), ale náklady na kávu poskytnutú za body odpočíta až v budúcnosti.

Alternatívne modely pre malé biznisy

Existujú daňovo výhodnejšie alternatívy:

1. Gift Cards model

• Príjem sa NEUZNÁ pri predaji gift karty
• Príjem sa uzná až keď zákazník kartu využije
• Príklad: Predáte gift cards za €10,000 v decembri, získate cash okamžite, ale daň platíte postupne, ako zákazníci karty využívajú počas nasledujúceho roka.
• Časová hodnota peňazí: Peniaze môžete investovať (napr. 6 % ročne = €600 extra zisk na €10,000)
• Breakage benefit: 2-10 % kariet sa nikdy nevyužije, po určitom čase (3-5 rokov, podľa legislatívy) môžete zostatok uznať ako čistý zisk.

Príklad: Starbucks Starbucks mal v roku 2022 na účtoch $1,5 miliardy v nevyužitých gift cards. Odhadovaný breakage 3 % znamená $45 miliónov čistého zisku – bezúročná pôžička od zákazníkov s bonusom, že časť sa nikdy nevráti.

2. Subscription model

• Mesačný príjem = okamžité zdanenie
• Mesačné náklady = okamžitý odpočet
• Príklad: €10/mesiac za "premium membership" s určitými benefitmi

3. Discount Coupons

• Žiadny príjem pri vydaní kupónu
• Znížený príjem pri uplatnení (predáte za nižšiu cenu)
• Príklad: 20 % zľavový kupón = predaj kávy za €4 namiesto €5

Outsourcing loyalty programu: Podrobnosti o Shopify Loyalty

Platformy ako Shopify Loyalty predstavujú elegantné riešenie pre malé biznisy, ktoré chcú ponúkať vernostné programy bez účtovných a daňových komplikácií. Poďme si to rozobrať podrobne:

Ako funguje Shopify Loyalty

• Shopify ako tretia strana: Shopify vlastní a spravuje celý vernostný program vrátane bodov a softvéru. Zákazník má svoj "účet" priamo u Shopify, nie u konkrétneho obchodu. To znamená, že body nie sú vaším záväzkom, ale záväzkom Shopify.
• Vaša úloha: Vy (napr. kaviareň) platíte Shopify mesačný poplatok (napr. €29) za používanie platformy a malý transakčný poplatok (napr. €0,20) za každé uplatnenie bodov (reward). Vy ste v podstate "dodávateľom služieb" pre Shopify – poskytujete odmeny, keď vám Shopify pošle objednávku.
• Získavanie bodov: Zákazník získava body za nákupy v obchodoch, ktoré sú zapojené do Shopify Loyalty programu. Napríklad, ak zákazník nakúpi kávu za €5 vo vašej kaviarni, Shopify mu pripíše body (napr. 5 bodov za každé euro, teda 25 bodov). Konkrétne pravidlá (koľko bodov za euro) si nastavujete vy cez Shopify platformu, ale technicky body spravuje Shopify.
• Využitie bodov: Zákazník môže body využiť na odmeny (napr. kávu zadarmo za 100 bodov), ale zvyčajne len v obchodoch zapojených do Shopify siete. To znamená, že ak vaša kaviareň používa Shopify Loyalty, body získané u vás môžu byť využité u vás alebo v iných obchodoch v rámci Shopify ekosystému, ak to Shopify umožňuje. Väčšinou však obchody nastavujú program tak, aby boli body využiteľné primárne u nich, čím sa zvyšuje lojalita k ich značke.
• Proces uplatnenia bodov: Keď zákazník chce využiť body (napr. 100 bodov za kávu zadarmo), Shopify pošle objednávku vám (kaviarni) na poskytnutie odmeny. Vy kávu vydáte, ale nedostanete za ňu priamy príjem od zákazníka – ide o marketingový náklad. Zároveň platíte Shopify transakčný poplatok (€0,20). Účtovne to nie je predaj, takže nevzniká zdaniteľný príjem ani povinnosť vystaviť bloček.
• Účtovné spracovanie: Keď zákazník využije body:
• Žiadny bloček = žiadny zdaniteľný príjem
• Náklad kávy (€2) + Shopify fee (€0,20) = €2,20
• Účtuje sa ako "Promotional expenses" alebo "Marketing costs"

Prečo musí byť loyalty program outsourcovaný tretej strane (ako Shopify)?

Malé biznisy nemajú kapacitu ani zdroje na správu vlastného loyalty programu "in-house" z týchto dôvodov: - Daňová a účtovná komplexnosť: Ak by ste spravovali loyalty program sami, museli by ste vytvárať rezervy na budúce záväzky (body, ktoré zákazníci využijú neskôr), odhadovať breakage rate (percento nevyužitých bodov) a riešiť cash vs. accrual accounting. Pre malé firmy, ktoré často musia používať cash accounting, to znamená okamžité zdanenie príjmu, ak by body predávali, ale odpočet nákladov až v budúcnosti – vzniká cashflow nesúlad. - Technologická infraštruktúra: Správa bodov, databáz zákazníkov a integrácia s platobnými systémami vyžaduje sofistikovaný softvér a IT tím, čo je pre malé firmy nákladné a komplikované. - Legálna separácia: Keď program spravuje tretia strana ako Shopify, body sú ich záväzkom, nie vaším. Pre vás to znamená, že nemáte žiadne budúce záväzky vo svojej účtovnej knihe – len mesačné náklady (poplatok Shopify), ktoré sú daňovo odpočítateľné ako bežný výdavok. - Ekonomická efektivita: Shopify združuje tisíce obchodov, čím dosahuje ekonomiku rozsahu – nižšie náklady na softvér, bezpečnosť a správu dát. Malá kaviareň by sama nikdy nedokázala vytvoriť takýto systém za rozumnú cenu.

Prečo to nemôže byť in-house z daňového hľadiska?

Ak by malá firma spravovala loyalty program sama: - Okamžitý daňový problém: Ak by firma predávala body (napr. za peniaze alebo ako súčasť nákupu), príjem by musela zdaniť hneď, hoci náklady na poskytnutie odmien (napr. káva zadarmo) by mohla odpočítať až v momente, keď zákazník body využije. To vytvára cashflow nesúlad, pretože daň platíte skôr, než reálne "stratíte" peniaze na odmenu. - Zložité rezervy: Musela by odhadovať, koľko bodov sa využije, a vytvárať účtovné rezervy, čo je administratívne náročné a vyžaduje drahých účtovníkov alebo softvér. - Riziko chýb: Nesprávne odhady breakage rate alebo zlý manažment záväzkov môžu viesť k daňovým kontrolám a pokutám.

S Shopify sa tieto problémy eliminujú – vy platíte len mesačný poplatok a transakčné fees, ktoré sú jednoducho účtované ako marketingové náklady. Shopify preberá celú zodpovednosť za správu bodov a záväzkov voči zákazníkom.

Prípadová štúdia: Vernostné body pre kaviareň (model 10 + 1 zadarmo)

Pozrime sa na konkrétny prípad malej kaviarne, ktorá ponúka klasický vernostný program typu "10 + 1 zadarmo". Zákazník dostane 1 bod za každú kúpenú kávu (napr. za €3) a po nazbieraní 10 bodov dostane jednu kávu zadarmo. Rozoberieme, ako to funguje účtovne, či ide o "promotional expense" a aký je rozdiel medzi in-house správou a použitím Shopify.

Ako funguje program "10 + 1 zadarmo"

• Získavanie bodov: Zákazník kúpi kávu za €3 a dostane 1 bod (napr. pečiatku na kartičku alebo digitálny záznam). Body nemajú peňažnú hodnotu na predaj – sú čisto odmenou za nákup.
• Využitie bodov: Po nazbieraní 10 bodov (čo znamená nákupy za €30) zákazník dostane kávu zadarmo (hodnota €3).
• Reálny náklad pre kaviareň: Náklad na výrobu kávy zadarmo je nižší ako predajná cena, napr. €1,50 za suroviny a prácu.

Účtovné spracovanie (In-house)

Ak kaviareň spravuje program sama (in-house), účtovný proces závisí od toho, či používa cash accounting (bežné pre malé firmy) alebo accrual accounting: - Cash accounting: - Pri nákupe kávy zákazníkom: Kaviareň účtuje príjem €3 za každú kávu a vydá bloček. Bod (pečiatka) nemá peňažnú hodnotu, takže sa neúčtuje ako záväzok ani príjem. - Pri uplatnení 10 bodov: Keď zákazník dostane kávu zadarmo, nevzniká príjem (€0), ale vzniká náklad na výrobu kávy (€1,50). Tento náklad sa účtuje ako "Promotional expense" alebo "Marketing cost", pretože ide o formu zľavy alebo reklamy na udržanie zákazníka. - Daňový dopad: Žiadny príjem pri vydaní kávy zadarmo, náklad €1,50 je daňovo odpočítateľný ako bežný výdavok. - Accrual accounting (menej bežné pre malé firmy): - Pri nákupe kávy zákazníkom: Kaviareň účtuje príjem €3, ale zároveň vytvára malý záväzok na budúcu odmenu (napr. €0,30 za každý bod, čo je odhad nákladu na budúcu kávu zadarmo deleno 10). Teda z €3 príjmu je zdaniteľný príjem len €2,70. - Pri uplatnení 10 bodov: Keď zákazník dostane kávu zadarmo, kaviareň zníži záväzok o €3 (10 bodov x €0,30) a účtuje náklad €1,50 na výrobu kávy. Rozdiel môže byť upravený ako breakage alebo iný zisk, ak sa odhady líšia od reality. - Daňový dopad: Zdaniteľný príjem je nižší už pri prvom nákupe, ale účtovníctvo je zložitejšie kvôli odhadom a rezervám.

Je to Promotional Expense? Áno, v oboch prípadoch (cash aj accrual) sa náklad na kávu zadarmo účtuje ako "Promotional expense" alebo "Marketing cost", pretože ide o formu zľavy na podporu lojality zákazníkov. Nie je to považované za bežný predaj, pretože nevzniká príjem ani bloček.

Účtovné spracovanie (cez Shopify Loyalty)

Ak kaviareň používa Shopify Loyalty na správu programu "10 + 1 zadarmo", proces je jednoduchší: - Pri nákupe kávy zákazníkom: Kaviareň účtuje príjem €3 za kávu a vydá bloček. Shopify pripíše bod zákazníkovi do jeho účtu (nie je to váš záväzok, ale Shopify). - Pri uplatnení 10 bodov: Shopify pošle objednávku na vydanie kávy zadarmo. Kaviareň vydá kávu (náklad €1,50) a zaplatí Shopify transakčný poplatok (€0,20). Celkový náklad €1,70 sa účtuje ako "Promotional expense" alebo "Marketing cost". - Daňový dopad: Rovnako ako pri in-house, žiadny príjem pri vydaní kávy zadarmo, náklad €1,70 je daňovo odpočítateľný ako bežný výdavok. Navyše nemusíte riešiť žiadne záväzky alebo odhady breakage, pretože body spravuje Shopify.

Rozdiel medzi In-house a Shopify

• In-house:
• Výhody: Plná kontrola nad programom, žiadne mesačné poplatky tretej strane (napr. €29 Shopify fee).
• Nevýhody: Ak použijete accrual accounting, musíte vytvárať rezervy a odhadovať breakage, čo je administratívne náročné. Pri cash accounting je to jednoduchšie (žiadne záväzky), ale ak by ste body predávali za peniaze, vzniká daňový nesúlad (príjem zdanený hneď, náklad až neskôr). Navyše musíte sami spravovať databázu bodov (pečiatky, softvér), čo je časovo náročné.
• Shopify Loyalty:
• Výhody: Žiadne záväzky vo vašej účtovnej knihe, Shopify spravuje body a technológiu. Účtovne je to jednoduché – len mesačný poplatok (€29) a transakčné poplatky (€0,20) ako marketingový náklad. Nemusíte riešiť odhady ani breakage.
• Nevýhody: Platíte mesačné poplatky a transakčné fees, čo zvyšuje náklady (napr. €0,20 navyše za každú kávu zadarmo). Máte menšiu kontrolu nad programom, pretože ho spravuje tretia strana.

Záver pre kaviareň: Program "10 + 1 zadarmo" je účtovne považovaný za Promotional expense v oboch prípadoch (in-house aj Shopify), pretože káva zadarmo je forma marketingu na udržanie zákazníkov. Rozdiel je v administratívnej záťaži a nákladoch – Shopify zjednodušuje účtovníctvo a správu, ale za cenu mesačných poplatkov. In-house je lacnejšie, ale náročnejšie na správu, najmä ak by ste chceli používať accrual accounting alebo predávať body za peniaze.

Záver

Vernostné programy sú sofistikovaný nástroj zákazníckej lojality, ale ich účtovné a daňové aspekty sa výrazne líšia medzi veľkými a malými firmami. Veľké korporácie využívajú accrual accounting a medzinárodné štruktúry na optimalizáciu daní, zatiaľ čo pre malé biznisy sú často výhodnejšie alternatívne modely ako gift cards alebo outsourcing celého programu, ktoré eliminujú daňové a cashflow problémy. Gift cards navyše prinášajú okamžitý cash flow, časovú hodnotu peňazí a breakage benefit, čo z nich robí ideálny nástroj pre podniky všetkých veľkostí. Shopify Loyalty ponúka malým firmám spôsob, ako implementovať vernostný program bez účtovných komplikácií, pretože preberá technickú a právnu zodpovednosť, čím umožňuje sústrediť sa na core biznis. Pre jednoduché programy ako "10 + 1 zadarmo" je účtovný dopad podobný (Promotional expense), ale Shopify zjednodušuje správu za cenu dodatočných poplatkov.

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@ 318ebaba:9a262eae

When connecting to multiple relays in the Nostr protocol, users may encounter several challenges that can affect their overall experience. Here are some of the key issues:

Challenges of Connecting to Multiple Relays

• Performance Issues: The lightweight design of Nostr relays can lead to performance bottlenecks, especially when many users are connected simultaneously. This can result in slow message delivery or even failures in posting messages if the relays are overwhelmed[1][2][32].

• Reliability and Connectivity: Users may experience connectivity problems with certain relays, which can lead to inconsistent access to messages or delays in communication. If a relay goes offline or has connectivity issues, it can disrupt the flow of information, making it difficult for users to send or receive messages reliably[3][4][18].

• Data Synchronization: As users connect to multiple relays, ensuring that data is synchronized across these relays can be challenging. Inconsistent data states may arise if different relays store messages differently or if there are delays in message propagation. This can lead to confusion about which messages have been sent or received[7][41].

• Configuration Complexity: Managing connections to multiple relays requires a certain level of technical knowledge. Users need to configure their clients properly to connect to various relays, which can be daunting for those less familiar with the technology. Misconfigurations can lead to connection failures or suboptimal performance[4][21].

• Spam and Quality Control: With the open nature of Nostr, some relays may be more susceptible to spam or low-quality content. Users connecting to multiple relays might encounter a higher volume of irrelevant or unwanted messages, which can detract from the overall user experience[6][32].

• Security Concerns: When using multiple relays, users must be cautious about the security of their connections. Not all relays may implement the same level of security, and connecting to less secure relays could expose users to risks such as data interception or unauthorized access to their messages[26][27].

In summary, while connecting to multiple relays in Nostr offers benefits such as redundancy and improved access to information, users must navigate various challenges related to performance, reliability, configuration, and security. Addressing these issues is crucial for a smooth and effective experience on the Nostr network.

[1] https://forum.dfinity.org/t/introducing-replicatr-enhancing-nostr-with-internet-computer-integration/31861 [2] https://medium.com/coinmonks/a-deep-dive-into-nostr-clients-with-technical-insights-and-code-snippets-b1666bb11fac [3] nostr:nevent1qqsfvjvg73wxdn7mda28m704r2zv9lnzlcdgh8r0g52lfvy2wj7uw4czyq32rylmsmre84lhxdypy6jlu4dt3fxfwkq9a0p0lqdl9y8hsp0hur4fuw4 [4] https://www.reddit.com/r/nostr/comments/1e6nm68/new_nostream_relay_created_problems_with_publish/ [5] https://www.lynalden.com/the-power-of-nostr/ [6] https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/how-nostr-can-improve-bitcoin-privacy [7] https://barelybuggy.blog/2024/11/26/mostr-offline/ [8] https://github.com/scsibug/nostr-rs-relay/issues/126 [9] https://community.umbrel.com/t/nostr-relay-troubleshooting/17828 [10] https://research.dorahacks.io/2024/04/30/nostr-relay-incentive/ [11] https://community.start9.com/t/issue-confirming-nostr-relay/1682 [12] https://arxiv.org/html/2402.05709v1 [13] https://community.umbrel.com/t/nostr-relay-not-connecting/11401 [14] https://www.purplerelay.com/troubleshooting-common-issues-with-nostr-relay-server-a-users-guide/ [15] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35694029 [16] https://substack.com/home/post/p-158872714?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web [17] https://stacker.news/items/142013 [18] https://www.reddit.com/r/nostr/comments/1h6admk/are_these_relays_working/ [19] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33746360 [20] https://github.com/scsibug/nostr-rs-relay/issues/195 [21] https://www.purplerelay.com/how-to-run-a-nostr-relay-a-step-by-step-guide/ [22] https://denostr.medium.com/the-future-of-social-communication-nostrs-origins-and-the-next-destination-in-social-networking-27f0c901d7ae [23] nostr:nevent1qqsqwklh29cvf3z0skhh77xyqf3m53xkppcttf3c8nuc2jqteulfx0czyqcgr7epv9hha2v9afp99l5wl0ljna0zum59fzyhl9v8pgv5xlhf5ava642 [24] https://www.reddit.com/r/nostr/comments/15fyr6r/pervasive_private_key_sharing_seems_dangerous/ [25] https://whtwnd.com/agoracitizen.network/3l2fysaripd2q [26] https://ron.stoner.com/nostr_Security_and_Privacy/ [27] https://forums.puri.sm/t/about-what-is-nostr/20764 [28] https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/issues/107 [29] https://medium.com/@volodymyrpavlyshyn/security-features-of-nostr-a0276a22e815 [30] nostr:nevent1qqspd8fh3tplxtfhjpka3y3glzh63v3ygsdhacyq8dvyrnxtvl09lpczyr2v7dprke9lad2qk0svug55vxguqv7n3dwn9vm63u8n5n84znxjxedjf6c [31] nostr:nevent1qqs8e2su6n8m2xtg45qdjw7rdcq6w3g5guvt085h52qhg25wxn755sczyrh26kg89z95jqaz4xkex7kaw2t36twtc75vmrfx2k3p3jqvhfa8vzan82f [32] https://www.cointribune.com/en/nostr-et-la-censure-pourquoi-un-reseau-social-decentralise-est-essentiel-2/ [33] nostr:nevent1qqsv86d756zcw32x0zcvqmr924y5sltvwqud0dywny83ndee30zzrmczyrh26kg89z95jqaz4xkex7kaw2t36twtc75vmrfx2k3p3jqvhfa8vwpfv29 [34] https://github.com/nbd-wtf/nostr-tools/issues [35] https://www.voltage.cloud/blog/the-growth-of-nostr-the-era-of-decentralization [36] https://medium.com/@BingVentures/status-quo-challenges-and-prospect-of-decentralized-social-networks-18f9584f2e8d [37] https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/14s8ao4/greetings_im_here_to_tell_you_about_nostr_a/ [38] https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/nostr-the-importance-of-censorship-resistant-communication-for-innovation-and-human-progress- [39] https://github.com/mayneyao/eidos/issues/129 [40] https://www.reddit.com/r/nostr/comments/115a8et/data_duplication_and_distribution_in_nostr_relays/ [41] https://github.com/open-nostr/nostar [42] nostr:nevent1qqsryg8zuc9rdwldat385al24mdt56wanc6g6hfymy8l9tgtmzsc4nspzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhg85cx73 [43] https://ckbcn.xlog.app/Nostr-sheng-tai-fa-zhan-xian-zhuang-ji-wen-ti?locale=en [44] nostr:naddr1qqc92mnvda3kk6twvuk5ummnw3ez6ued2phhgetww35kzmpdwa5hg6pdfehhgetyv43kktt08p5hscnkqgsr7acdvhf6we9fch94qwhpy0nza36e3tgrtkpku25ppuu80f69kfqrqsqqqa28aknkml

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It’s 3 AM, and you’re staring at your phone screen, watching bitcoin’s price fluctuate by thousands of dollars in real-time. Your heart races as you see green candles shooting upward, and suddenly you’re questioning every financial decision you’ve ever made. Should you buy? Should you sell? Are you already too late to the party?

Welcome to the wild psychological rollercoaster that is bitcoin investing, where emotions often override logic, and where the ancient human drives of fear and greed play out on digital exchanges 24/7.

Community Driven by Emotion

Recent research reveals just how deeply psychology permeates the bitcoin ecosystem. According to a comprehensive 2024 survey by Kraken, 84% of digital currency holders have made investment decisions based on FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), while 81% admitted to making choices driven by FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). Perhaps most telling of all: 63% of holders acknowledged that emotional decisions have significantly damaged their portfolios.

With over 560 million digital currency users worldwide as of 2024, and bitcoin maintaining its position as the flagship digital asset, these psychological patterns affect hundreds of millions of investors globally. In the United States alone, approximately 36 million adults own bitcoin, making this psychological phenomenon a mainstream financial reality.

The FOMO Factor: When Missing Out Becomes an Obsession

FOMO in bitcoin isn’t just about missing a quick profit—it’s about missing what many believers see as a once-in-a-generation wealth transfer. The Kraken study found that 60% of bitcoin holders fear missing a significant price surge more than they fear missing a buying opportunity during dips. This reveals a fascinating bias: investors are more concerned with unrealized gains from assets they already own than with strategic accumulation during downturns.

This psychological quirk explains why bitcoin often experiences explosive rallies followed by sharp corrections. When FOMO kicks in, rational decision-making goes out the window. Investors chase green candles, buying at peaks instead of strategically accumulating during valleys. The irony? This behavior often ensures they miss the very opportunities they’re trying to catch.

Consider bitcoin’s journey past $100,000 in late 2024. As the price breached this psychological barrier, social media exploded with FOMO-driven content, creating a feedback loop where seeing others’ gains intensified the fear of being left behind. Yet historically, many of these late-stage buyers found themselves underwater when inevitable corrections followed.

The Fear and Greed Index

Bitcoin’s psychological state is so influential that it has its own emotional barometer: the Crypto Fear and Greed Index. This fascinating tool measures market sentiment on a scale from 0 (Extreme Fear) to 100 (Extreme Greed), incorporating factors like volatility, trading volume, social media sentiment, market dominance, and Google search trends.

The index reveals a counterintuitive truth: the best buying opportunities often occur during periods of “Extreme Fear,” while “Extreme Greed” frequently signals market tops. Yet human psychology drives us to do the opposite—buying when everyone’s greedy and selling when fear dominates.

This emotional inversion creates what researchers call “behavioral arbitrage”—opportunities for those who can master their psychology to profit from others’ emotional mistakes. The index serves as a mirror, reflecting our collective psychological state and often predicting market movements with surprising accuracy.

The HODL Culture

Perhaps nowhere is bitcoin’s unique psychology more evident than in its “HODL” culture. What began as a misspelled “hold” has evolved into a sophisticated psychological framework that shapes market dynamics in ways traditional finance has never seen.

Research into Bitcoin’s HODL phenomenon reveals that volatility actually strengthens conviction rather than weakening it. Unlike traditional investors who might panic-sell during 30-50% corrections, bitcoin holders often view these drops as validation of their long-term thesis rather than reasons to exit.

This creates a unique market structure where the supply of available bitcoin for trading continuously shrinks. Long-term holders remove coins from circulation, creating artificial scarcity that amplifies price movements in both directions. It’s not just code that makes bitcoin scarce—it’s psychology.

The HODL mentality represents a form of collective resistance to short-term market dynamics. Holders refuse to participate in what they see as irrational price discovery, instead betting on long-term adoption and monetary debasement. This isn’t passive investing; it’s active rebellion against traditional financial thinking.

Social Media: The Amplifier of Emotions

The role of social media in bitcoin psychology cannot be overstated. The Kraken study found a strong correlation between social media usage and FOMO-driven decisions: 85% of investors who rely on social media for investment information reported that emotional decisions had negatively impacted their portfolios.

Platforms like Twitter (now X), Reddit, and Discord function as emotional echo chambers where bullish sentiment gets amplified during rallies and bearish fears spread like wildfire during corrections. Memes become market-moving forces, and influential personalities can trigger massive buying or selling waves with single tweets.

This creates a fascinating paradox: the democratization of financial information through social media empowers individual investors, but it also makes them more susceptible to emotional manipulation and herd mentality. The speed and scale of information flow intensify psychological responses, compressing emotional cycles that might have taken weeks in traditional markets into mere hours or minutes.

The Gender and Age Divide in Bitcoin Psychology

Fascinating demographic patterns emerge when examining bitcoin’s psychological landscape. The Kraken research revealed significant gender differences in emotional investing: 66% of male bitcoin holders frequently made FOMO-driven decisions, compared to only 42% of female holders. Similarly, 83% of men reported FUD-influenced decisions versus 75% of women.

Age also plays a crucial role. Investors aged 45-60 showed the most extreme psychological patterns: 78% felt they had missed bitcoin’s biggest gains, yet 75% remained optimistic about future opportunities. This suggests that FOMO and hope can coexist, creating a complex emotional state that drives continued participation despite feelings of regret.

These demographic differences highlight how personal psychology intersects with market dynamics. Understanding these patterns can help investors recognize their own biases and develop more rational strategies.

The Neuroscience of Bitcoin Volatility

Recent academic research reveals the neurological basis of bitcoin’s psychological appeal. Studies on digital currency trading psychology show that bitcoin’s extreme volatility triggers the same reward pathways associated with gambling, creating potentially addictive patterns of behavior.

The unpredictability of bitcoin’s price movements creates what psychologists call “intermittent reinforcement”—the most powerful form of behavioral conditioning. Like slot machines, bitcoin provides irregular rewards that keep investors engaged far longer than consistent returns would.

This neurological response explains why many bitcoin investors check prices obsessively. The survey found that 55% of digital asset holders check markets significantly more frequently than traditional markets, suggesting an almost compulsive relationship with price monitoring.

Breaking Free from Emotional Cycles

Understanding bitcoin’s psychology isn’t just academic—it’s practical. Successful bitcoin investors develop strategies to counteract their emotional biases:

Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) has emerged as the most popular emotion-neutral strategy, with 59% of U.S. digital currency users employing this approach. By making regular purchases regardless of price, DCA removes the emotional burden of timing the market.

Automated trading tools and scheduled purchases help investors stick to predetermined strategies without succumbing to FOMO or FUD. These tools essentially outsource emotional decision-making to algorithms, reducing the psychological burden of active trading.

Education and community engagement in healthy bitcoin communities can provide emotional anchoring during volatile periods. Understanding bitcoin’s long-term value proposition helps investors maintain perspective during short-term chaos.

Bitcoin investing isn’t just about understanding technology, economics, or market analysis—it’s about understanding yourself. The statistics are clear: emotional decision-making significantly damages portfolio performance, yet the vast majority of investors continue making emotion-driven choices.

The key insight? Bitcoin’s psychology isn’t a bug—it’s a feature. The emotional volatility that terrifies traditional investors creates opportunities for th

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Key Takeaways

In this episode, Bram Kanstein delivers a powerful exploration of how studying money for thousands of hours led him to a single, life-changing conclusion: Bitcoin is the key to preserving value and reclaiming personal agency in an increasingly unstable world. Through the lens of a disillusioned millennial generation—raised with technological optimism but betrayed by economic reality—Bram exposes the fiat system as one built on illusion, debt, and diminishing returns. He explains how Bitcoin’s transparent, rule-based design offers a principled alternative, especially for those wired to question systems and seek truth. Describing the fiat economy as a “high-velocity trash system” that undermines innovation and long-term planning, he argues Bitcoin creates the time and space to think, build, and live freely. As AI reshapes the labor market, Bram sees Bitcoin as a vital foundation for individuals to adapt, maintain sovereignty, and thrive in a future defined by rapid technological disruption.

Best Quotes

“Anything that you would want to fix in the world is broken because the money is broken.”

“You’re stacking nothing. Literal paper.”

“You have to red pill before you orange pill.”

“The only thing you need to do is move to the other money that they cannot mess with.”

“One Bitcoin is one Bitcoin. That’s the whole point.”

“Millennials are primed to understand Bitcoin.”

“Bitcoin lets you get out of the rat race and start walking your own path.”

“The fiat mindset is a zero-sum game. In Bitcoin, value is created.”

“We should stop asking how to value Bitcoin—and start asking how to value everything else in Bitcoin.”

“Even with a master’s in economics, people still don’t understand what money is.”

Conclusion

This episode delivers a powerful call to rethink everything we assume about money, arguing that understanding Bitcoin is less about profit and more about reclaiming personal agency in a world defined by uncertainty. Bram Kanstein shows how asking fundamental questions—like “What is money?”—can lead to a deeper sense of purpose and autonomy. As AI and systemic instability accelerate, Bitcoin emerges not just as sound money, but as a life tool for intentional living, long-term thinking, and individual sovereignty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
0:36 - INTJ bitcoiners
4:58 - The millennial headspace is primed for bitcoin
7:25 - Bitcoin gives time and space to build
15:29 - Fold & Bitkey
17:05 - Seeing systemic problems
26:25 - Bitcoin’s positive feedback loop
33:55 - Recognize your agency
37:58 - Unchained
38:27 - Fiat money creates uncertainty
44:41 - What is money?
54:04 - Money and energy
1:03:43 - Bitcoin allows growth
1:09:02 - Bitcoin/AI
1:31:34 - Optimistic note

Transcript

(00:00) Let's say you're a millennial and mid-30s and you want to retire in 30 years. If you calculate the amount of dollar, pound the euro, yen units. You need way more units of that money than you think right now. They are funding pension funds, but the pension funds are using that money for the people that are actually retiring.
(00:17) No one knows about money. They don't know how debt works, how finance works. But that's kind of how it's designed, right? Like that's what eventually keeps the Ponzi alive. And I just started with the question, what do you think happens if you call the bank and say like, hey, can I get 100 or 200k in cash? Man, you got an editor like in house.
(00:39) That's That's pro. That's uh it's because this setup I'm so far away from the computer. I just need somebody to hit the button. Okay. Okay. the extent the extent of of Logan's job extends far beyond just hitting the button. But yeah, INTJ I think uh I think it was as we rear into what looks to be another bull market.
(01:05) I think getting back to first principles and discussing the challenges of studying and understanding Bitcoin, it's important to to highlight the archetype of individuals who have studied fallen down the rabbit hole and really dedicated their lives to Bitcoin. And this INTJ cohort that exists within Bitcoin seems pretty material apparently. Yeah.
(01:35) I mean, I have many moments where I just realize that I'm lucky that my brain is wired in a certain way, you know. I feel like crazy blessed that I figured out this Bitcoin thing, you know, and that when I ran into certain realizations along the way in my Bitcoin journey that I was like, hm, you know, how does this actually work? you know, do I actually understand the systems I'm participating in, the things that I believe, you know, the the the the people that I abstracted um or or outsourced certain responsibilities to to take care of, for example, my money
(02:10) in the bank. You know, I I think um being wired in a certain way definitely helps in grasping Bitcoin to a degree where you're like, okay, this is the only thing I need to pay attention to, you know, in my life. And yeah, we we jokingly started talking about this because I have the hat here, but there was this um I think it was like like a Twitter poll actually or someone shared it on Twitter and this is already like two or three years old where where someone investigated these MyersBriggs um personality types and I think there's
(02:42) only like 2% of people that have INTJ but like 20% of Bitcoiners have that personality type. So it um it apparently helps. So yeah, I just I just quickly Googled it actually. It says uh the INTJ is the architect. It's a personality type with the introverted intuitive thinking and judging traits. These thoughtful tacticians love perfecting the details of life, applying creativity and rationality to everything they do.
(03:09) I think the rationality part here is what um what uh I think helps you to to gro Bitcoin eventually. Yeah, it reminds me of I forget what the study was, but postco it was a similar distribution of just like 2% of people were highly skeptical of what was going on with the lockdowns and the attack on bodily autonomy.
(03:38) And there was a study that was done about I forget it was bees or some type of fly that they they have like the horde of um the horde of the particular fly I think it was bees has like 2% act as these sort of alarm bells that are on the outside the outskirts of the community and they'll start communicating like hey something's wrong here and people the other flies or bees will be skeptical at first but then eventually uh the alarm bells will be proven to be right that there was some sort of danger around the corner. That's fascinating.
(04:09) Yeah. Yeah, that's fascinating. I I think we're not that special eventually, you know, like we think we have all this autonomy, but but um yeah, we're we're just wired in a certain way. And I think I don't know where you want to take this conversation, but I think, you know, part of growing up and being an adult is figuring out, you know, how do I actually work and how do I work with how I work, you know? Yeah. No, it is.
(04:36) And as I get older, creep into my mid-30s, which is hard hard to come to grips with, it is uh really falling back on like, all right, I I feel like I have a good perspective on the world and my place in it, and how do I just optimize to make sure I'm aligning my my work and my career, I guess, if you call it that, with what I'm passionate about. Yeah.
(05:00) Well, I also think that is actually why our generation, you know, my my podcast is Bitcoin for millennials. I think uh the millennials are primed to understand Bitcoin. You know, we are in this life phase where big things happen, you know, starting a family or settling somewhere or or making big career moves or decide Yeah.
(05:25) like deciding what am I going to spend like the next 10 20 years on and uh I think it's an interesting phase actually I I don't know how that was for you but but for me like the the 30s were really where I dove more and more into Bitcoin like got got that stronger conviction and also yeah kind of was invited to go further down that that rabbit hole you know and like how I see it now is that that Bitcoin is really the foundation for the rest of my life, you know, like it it gives me time and space to look forward and enthusiasm, you know, like I sometimes lurk on the
(06:01) millennial subreddit, you know, or the finance sub subreddit. And many people in our generation are very nihilistic, you know, they're very unsure about the future. Like some people aren't even having kids because they think they cannot afford it, you know. And uh whenever I read that, I just think like, yeah, I I don't really have those things.
(06:22) But I know it's because of Bitcoin, you know. I I know that Bitcoin gives me, yeah, like I said, the time and space to figure out what's next, like what should I focus on? Like it gives time and space to to try out stuff, to build something, you know, to to to really attempt at at doing something. Where I see many people that don't see that, they are more in the consumer type, you know, like they they just spend the money that's worth the most today, you know, like that's what they're incentivized to do. Yeah.
(06:49) And is is that why you started Bitcoin for millennials is to number one put the put the message out there. Millennials come listen to this. One of you Yes. that is trying to educate you about this. But because this is something I think about a lot is somebody's like dead smack in the middle of the millennial generation and has observed many of the things you just described in my own life, my own network.
(07:13) And that's part of the reason why this podcast exists. And um what I'm trying to do at TFTC is just try to figure out a way to reach into the minds of millennials, hopefully c

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Die Frage, wer für den Krieg in der Ukraine verantwortlich ist, ist seit dem Einmarsch Russlands in die Ukraine am 24. Februar 2022 ein sehr umstrittenes Thema.Die Antwort auf diese Frage ist von enormer Bedeutung, denn der Krieg war aus verschiedenen Gründen eine Katastrophe, von denen die wichtigste darin besteht, dass die Ukraine praktisch zerstört wurde. Sie hat einen beträchtlichen Teil ihres Territoriums verloren und wird wahrscheinlich noch mehr verlieren, ihre Wirtschaft liegt in Trümmern, eine riesige Zahl von Ukrainern wurde intern vertrieben oder ist aus dem Land geflohen, und sie hat Hunderttausende von Opfern zu beklagen. Natürlich hat auch Russland einen hohen Blutzoll gezahlt. Auf strategischer Ebene sind die Beziehungen zwischen Russland und Europa, ganz zu schweigen von Russland und der Ukraine, auf absehbare Zeit vergiftet, was bedeutet, dass die Gefahr eines größeren Krieges in Europa auch dann noch bestehen wird, wenn der Krieg in der Ukraine zu einem eingefrorenen Konflikt wird. Wer die Verantwortung für diese Katastrophe trägt, ist eine Frage, die nicht so schnell verschwinden wird, sondern eher noch an Bedeutung gewinnen dürfte, je mehr Menschen das Ausmaß der Katastrophe bewusst wird.

Die gängige Meinung im Westen ist, dass Wladimir Putin für den Krieg in der Ukraine verantwortlich sei. Die Invasion habe darauf abgezielt, die gesamte Ukraine zu erobern und sie zu einem Teil eines größeren Russlands zu machen, so die Argumentation. Sobald dieses Ziel erreicht sei, würden die Russen ein Imperium in Osteuropa errichten, ähnlich wie es die Sowjetunion nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg getan habe. Daher stelle Putin letztlich eine Bedrohung für den Westen dar, der man mit aller Macht begegnen müsse. Kurz gesagt, Putin ist ein Imperialist mit einem Masterplan, der sich nahtlos in die reiche russische Tradition einfügt.

Das alternative Argument, mit dem ich mich identifiziere und das im Westen eindeutig in der Minderheit ist, lautet, dass die Vereinigten Staaten und ihre Verbündeten den Krieg provoziert haben. Damit soll natürlich nicht geleugnet werden, dass Russland in die Ukraine einmarschiert ist und den Krieg begonnen hat. Die Hauptursache des Konflikts ist jedoch der NATO-Beschluss, die Ukraine in das Bündnis aufzunehmen, was praktisch alle russischen Führer als existenzielle Bedrohung ansehen, die beseitigt werden muss. Die NATO-Erweiterung ist jedoch Teil einer umfassenderen Strategie, die darauf abzielt, die Ukraine zu einem westlichen Bollwerk an Russlands Grenze zu machen. Ein Beitritt Kiews zur Europäischen Union (EU) und die Förderung einer farbigen Revolution in der Ukraine – die Umwandlung des Landes in eine prowestliche liberale Demokratie – sind die beiden anderen Säulen dieser Politik. Die russische Führung fürchtet alle drei Bereiche, aber am meisten fürchtet sie die NATO-Erweiterung. Um dieser Bedrohung zu begegnen, hat Russland am 24. Februar 2022 einen Präventivkrieg begonnen.

Die Debatte darüber, wer den Ukraine-Krieg verursacht hat, ist kürzlich aufgeflammt, als zwei prominente westliche Politiker – der ehemalige US-Präsident Donald Trump und der prominente britische Abgeordnete Nigel Farage – das Argument vorbrachten, dass die NATO-Erweiterung die treibende Kraft hinter dem Konflikt sei. Es überrascht nicht, dass ihre Äußerungen von den Verfechtern der konventionellen Meinung mit einem heftigen Gegenangriff beantwortet wurden. Es ist auch erwähnenswert, dass der scheidende NATO-Generalsekretär Jens Stoltenberg im vergangenen Jahr zweimal sagte, dass „Präsident Putin diesen Krieg begonnen hat, weil er die Tür der NATO schließen und der Ukraine das Recht verweigern wollte, ihren eigenen Weg zu wählen“. Kaum jemand im Westen hat dieses bemerkenswerte Eingeständnis des NATO-Chefs in Frage gestellt, und er hat es auch nicht zurückgezogen.

Mein Ziel ist es, einen Überblick über die wichtigsten Punkte zu geben, die die Ansicht stützen, dass Putin nicht in die Ukraine einmarschiert ist, weil er ein Imperialist ist, der die Ukraine zu einem Teil eines größeren Russlands machen will, sondern vor allem wegen der NATO-Erweiterung und der Bemühungen des Westens, die Ukraine zu einer westlichen Hochburg an der Grenze Russlands zu machen.

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Lassen Sie mich mit den sieben wichtigsten Gründen für die Ablehnung der herkömmlichen Meinung beginnen.

ERSTENS gibt es schlicht und ergreifend keine Beweise aus der Zeit vor dem 24. Februar 2022, dass Putin die Ukraine erobern und in Russland eingliedern wollte. Vertreter der gängigen Meinung können keine Schriftstücke oder Aussagen von Putin nennen, die darauf hindeuten, dass er die Ukraine erobern wollte.

Wenn man sie zu diesem Punkt befragt, liefern die Verfechter der konventionellen Meinung Hinweise, die wenig oder gar nichts mit Putins Motiven für die Invasion der Ukraine zu tun haben. Einige betonen zum Beispiel, dass er sagte, die Ukraine sei ein „künstlicher Staat“ oder kein „echter Staat“. Solche undurchsichtigen Äußerungen sagen jedoch nichts über die Gründe für seinen Kriegseintritt aus. Dasselbe gilt für Putins Aussage, er betrachte Russen und Ukrainer als „ein Volk“ mit einer gemeinsamen Geschichte. Andere weisen darauf hin, dass er den Zusammenbruch der Sowjetunion als „die größte geopolitische Katastrophe des Jahrhunderts“ bezeichnete. Aber Putin sagte auch: „Wer die Sowjetunion nicht vermisst, hat kein Herz. Wer sie zurückhaben will, hat kein Hirn.“ Andere wiederum verweisen auf eine Rede, in der er erklärte: „Die moderne Ukraine wurde vollständig von Russland geschaffen, genauer gesagt, vom bolschewistischen, kommunistischen Russland.“ Aber das ist kaum ein Beweis dafür, dass er an der Eroberung der Ukraine interessiert war. Außerdem sagte er in der gleichen Rede: „Natürlich können wir die Ereignisse der Vergangenheit nicht ändern, aber wir müssen sie zumindest offen und ehrlich zugeben.“

Um zu beweisen, dass Putin die gesamte Ukraine erobern und Russland einverleiben wollte, muss man nachweisen, dass er 1) dieses Ziel für erstrebenswert hielt, 2) es für machbar hielt und 3) die Absicht hatte, dieses Ziel zu verfolgen. Es gibt in den öffentlichen Aufzeichnungen keine Beweise dafür, dass Putin erwog, geschweige denn beabsichtigte, die Ukraine als unabhängigen Staat zu beenden und sie zu einem Teil Großrusslands zu machen, als er am 24. Februar 2022 seine Truppen in die Ukraine schickte.

Tatsächlich gibt es erhebliche Beweise dafür, dass Putin die Ukraine als unabhängiges Land anerkannte. In seinem bekannten Artikel vom 12. Juli 2021 über die russisch-ukrainischen Beziehungen, der von Befürwortern der konventionellen Meinung oft als Beweis für seine imperialen Ambitionen angeführt wird, sagt er dem ukrainischen Volk: „Ihr wollt einen eigenen Staat gründen: Ihr seid willkommen!“ Zur Frage, wie Russland die Ukraine behandeln sollte, schreibt er: „Es gibt nur eine Antwort: mit Respekt.“ Er schließt seinen langen Artikel mit den folgenden Worten ab: „Und wie die Ukraine aussehen wird – das müssen ihre Bürger entscheiden.“ Diese Aussagen stehen im direkten Widerspruch zu der Behauptung, Putin wolle die Ukraine in ein größeres Russland eingliedern.

In demselben Artikel vom 12. Juli 2021 und erneut in einer wichtigen Rede am 21. Februar 2022 betonte Putin, dass Russland „die neue geopolitische Realität, die nach der Auflösung der UdSSR entstanden ist“, akzeptiere. Diesen Punkt wiederholte er ein drittes Mal am 24. Februar 2022, als er ankündigte, Russland werde in die Ukraine einmarschieren. Insbesondere erklärte er: „Wir haben nicht vor, ukrainisches Territorium zu besetzen“, und machte deutlich, dass er die ukrainische Souveränität respektiere, allerdings nur bis zu einem gewissen Punkt: „Russland kann sich nicht sicher fühlen, sich nicht entwickeln und nicht existieren, wenn es sich einer ständigen Bedrohung durch das Territorium der heutigen Ukraine ausgesetzt sieht.“ Das heißt, Putin war nicht daran interessiert, die Ukraine zu einem Teil Russlands zu machen, sondern er wollte sicherstellen, dass sie nicht zu einem „Sprungbrett“ für westliche Aggressionen gegen Russland wird.

ZWEITENS gibt es keinerlei Hinweise dafür, dass Putin eine Marionettenregierung für die Ukraine vorbereitete, in Kiew prorussische Führungspersönlichkeiten aufbaute oder irgendwelche politischen Maßnahmen verfolgte, die eine Besetzung des gesamten Landes und dessen letztendliche Eingliederung in Russland ermöglichen würden.

Diese Fakten widersprechen der Behauptung, Putin sei daran interessiert gewesen, die Ukraine von der Landkarte zu tilgen. 

**DRITTENS: Putin hatte nicht annähernd genug Truppen, um die Ukraine zu erobern. **

Beginnen wir mit den Gesamtzahlen. Ich schätze seit langem, dass die Russen mit höchstens 190.000 Soldaten in die Ukraine einmarschiert sind. General Oleksandr Syrskyi, der derzeitige Oberbefehlshaber der ukrainischen Streitkräfte, sagte kürzlich in einem Interview mit The Guardian, dass die russische Invasionstruppe nur 100.000 Mann stark war. The Guardian hatte diese Zahl bereits vor Beginn des Krieges genannt. Es ist unmöglich, dass eine Truppe von 100.000 oder 190.000 Mann die gesamte Ukraine erobern, besetzen und in ein Großrussland eingliedern könnte.

Bedenken Sie, dass die Wehrmacht beim deutschen Überfall auf die westliche Hälfte Polens im September 1939 etwa 1,5 Millionen Mann zählte. Die Ukraine ist geografisch mehr als dreimal so groß wie die westliche Hälfte Polens im Jahr 1939, und in der Ukraine leben im Jahr 2022 fast doppelt so viele Menschen wie in Polen zum Zeitpunkt des deutschen Überfalls. Wenn wir die Schätzung von General Syrskyi akzeptieren, dass 100.000 russische Truppen im Jahr 2022 in die Ukraine einmarschierten, bedeutet dies, dass Russland über eine Invasionsstreitmacht verfügte, die 1/15 der Größe der deutschen Streitkräfte war, die in Polen einmarschierten. Und diese kleine russische Armee marschierte in ein Land ein, das sowohl territorial als auch von der Bevölkerungszahl her viel größer war als Polen.

Abgesehen von den Zahlen stellt sich die Frage nach der Qualität der russischen Armee. Zunächst einmal handelte es sich um eine militärische Streitkraft, die in erster Linie dazu bestimmt war, Russland vor einer Invasion zu schützen. Es handelte sich nicht um eine Armee, die für eine Großoffensive zur Eroberung der gesamten Ukraine, geschweige denn zur Bedrohung des übrigen Europas, gerüstet war. Außerdem ließ die Qualität der Kampftruppen zu wünschen übrig, da die Russen nicht mit einem Krieg rechneten, als sich die Krise im Frühjahr 2021 zuzuspitzen begann. Daher hatten sie kaum Gelegenheit, eine qualifizierte Invasionstruppe auszubilden. Sowohl qualitativ als auch quantitativ war die russische Invasionstruppe nicht annähernd mit der deutschen Wehrmacht der späten 1930er und frühen 1940er Jahre vergleichbar.

Man könnte argumentieren, dass die russische Führung dachte, das ukrainische Militär sei so klein und so unterlegen, dass ihre Armee die ukrainischen Streitkräfte leicht besiegen und das ganze Land erobern könnte. Tatsächlich wussten Putin und seine Leutnants sehr wohl, dass die Vereinigten Staaten und ihre europäischen Verbündeten das ukrainische Militär seit Ausbruch der Krise am 22. Februar 2014 bewaffnet und ausgebildet hatten. Die große Befürchtung Moskaus war, dass die Ukraine de facto Mitglied der NATO werden würde. Außerdem beobachteten die russischen Führer, wie die ukrainische Armee, die größer war als ihre Invasionstruppen, zwischen 2014 und 2022 im Donbass erfolgreich kämpfte. Ihnen war sicherlich klar, dass das ukrainische Militär kein Papiertiger war, der schnell und entschlossen besiegt werden konnte, zumal es über eine starke Rückendeckung durch den Westen verfügte.

Schließlich waren die Russen im Laufe des Jahres 2022 gezwungen, ihre Armee aus der Oblast Charkiw und aus dem westlichen Teil der Oblast Cherson abzuziehen. Damit gab Moskau Gebiete auf, die seine Armee in den ersten Tagen des Krieges erobert hatte. Es steht außer Frage, dass der Druck der ukrainischen Armee eine Rolle dabei spielte, den russischen Rückzug zu erzwingen. Vor allem aber erkannten Putin und seine Generäle, dass sie nicht über genügend Kräfte verfügten, um das gesamte Gebiet, das ihre Armee in Charkiw und Cherson erobert hatte, zu halten. Also zogen sie sich zurück und schufen besser kontrollierbare Verteidigungspositionen. Dies ist kaum das Verhalten, das man von einer Armee erwarten würde, die aufgebaut und ausgebildet wurde, um die gesamte Ukraine zu erobern und zu besetzen. Tatsächlich war sie für diesen Zweck nicht konzipiert und konnte daher diese Herkulesaufgabe nicht bewältigen.

VIERTENS: In den Monaten vor Kriegsbeginn versuchte Putin, eine diplomatische Lösung für die sich anbahnende Krise zu finden.

Am 17. Dezember 2021 sandte Putin ein Schreiben an Präsident Joe Biden und NATO-Chef Stoltenberg, in dem er eine Lösung der Krise auf der Grundlage einer schriftlichen Garantie vorschlug, dass: 1) die Ukraine der NATO nicht beitreten würde, 2) keine Angriffswaffen in der Nähe der russischen Grenzen stationiert würden und 3) die seit 1997 nach Osteuropa verlegten NATO-Truppen und -Ausrüstung nach Westeuropa zurückverlegt würden. Was auch immer man von der Machbarkeit einer Einigung auf der Grundlage von Putins Eröffnungsforderungen halten mag, über die die Vereinigten Staaten keine Verhandlungen führen wollten, es zeigt, dass er versuchte, einen Krieg zu vermeiden.

FÜNFTENS: Unmittelbar nach Beginn des Krieges hat Russland der Ukraine die Hand gereicht, um Verhandlungen zur Beendigung des Krieges und zur Ausarbeitung eines Modus Vivendi zwischen den beiden Ländern aufzunehmen.

Die Verhandlungen zwischen Kiew und Moskau begannen in Weißrussland nur vier Tage nach dem Einmarsch russischer Truppen in die Ukraine. Diese weißrussische Schiene wurde schließlich durch eine israelische und eine Istanbuler Schiene ersetzt. Alle verfügbaren Beweise deuten darauf hin, dass Russland ernsthaft verhandelte und nicht an der Übernahme ukrainischen Territoriums interessiert war, mit Ausnahme der Krim, die es 2014 annektiert hatte, und möglicherweise des Donbass. Die Verhandlungen endeten, als die Ukrainer auf Drängen Großbritanniens und der Vereinigten Staaten die Verhandlungen abbrachen, die zum Zeitpunkt ihrer Beendigung gute Fortschritte gemacht hatten.

Darüber hinaus berichtet Putin, dass er, als die Verhandlungen stattfanden und Fortschritte machten, gebeten wurde, als Geste des guten Willens die russischen Truppen aus dem Gebiet um Kiew abzuziehen, was er am 29. März 2022 tat. Keine westliche Regierung und kein ehemaliger Politiker hat diese Behauptung Putins angefochten, die in direktem Widerspruch zu seiner Behauptung steht, er wolle die gesamte Ukraine erobern.

SECHSTENS: Abgesehen von der Ukraine gibt es nicht den geringsten Hinweis darauf, dass Putin die Eroberung anderer osteuropäischer Länder ins Auge gefasst hat.

Außerdem ist die russische Armee nicht einmal groß genug, um die gesamte Ukraine zu überrennen, ganz zu schweigen von dem Versuch, die baltischen Staaten, Polen und Rumänien zu erobern. Außerdem sind alle diese Länder NATO-Mitglieder, was mit ziemlicher Sicherheit einen Krieg mit den Vereinigten Staaten und ihren Verbündeten bedeuten würde.

**SIEBTENS: Kaum jemand im Westen behauptete, Putin habe imperiale Ambitionen, seit er im Jahr 2000 die Macht übernahm, bis zum Beginn der Ukraine-Krise am 22. Februar 2014. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt wurde er plötzlich zum imperialen Aggressor. Warum? Weil die westlichen Staats- und Regierungschefs einen Grund brauchten, ihm die Schuld für die Krise zu geben. **

Der wohl beste Beweis dafür, dass Putin in den ersten vierzehn Jahren seiner Amtszeit nicht als ernsthafte Bedrohung angesehen wurde, ist die Tatsache, dass er auf dem NATO-Gipfel im April 2008 in Bukarest ein geladener Gast war, auf dem das Bündnis bekannt gab, dass die Ukraine und Georgien schließlich Mitglieder werden würden. Putin war natürlich erzürnd über diese Entscheidung und machte seinem Unmut Luft. Sein Widerstand gegen diese Ankündigung hatte jedoch kaum Auswirkungen auf Washington, da das russische Militär als zu schwach eingeschätzt wurde, um eine weitere NATO-Erweiterung zu verhindern, so wie es auch bei den Erweiterungswellen von 1999 und 2004 zu schwach gewesen war, um sie aufzuhalten. Der Westen glaubte, er könne Russland die NATO-Erweiterung noch einmal aufzwingen.

Außerdem war die NATO-Erweiterung vor dem 22. Februar 2014 nicht darauf ausgerichtet, Russland einzudämmen. Angesichts des traurigen Zustands der russischen Militärmacht war Moskau nicht in der Lage, die Ukraine zu erobern, geschweige denn eine revanchistische Politik in Osteuropa zu verfolgen. Der ehemalige US-Botschafter in Moskau, Michael McFaul, der ein entschiedener Verfechter der Ukraine und scharfer Kritiker Putins ist, stellt bezeichnenderweise fest, dass die Einnahme der Krim durch Russland im Jahr 2014 vor Ausbruch der Krise nicht geplant war; es war eine impulsive Reaktion auf den Putsch, der den prorussischen Führer der Ukraine stürzte. Kurz gesagt, die NATO-Erweiterung war nicht dazu gedacht, eine russische Bedrohung einzudämmen, weil der Westen nicht glaubte, dass es eine solche gab.

Erst als im Februar 2014 die Ukraine-Krise ausbrach, begannen die Vereinigten Staaten und ihre Verbündeten plötzlich, Putin als gefährlichen Führer mit imperialen Ambitionen und Russland als ernsthafte militärische Bedrohung zu beschreiben, die die NATO eindämmen müsse. Dieser abrupte Wechsel der Rhetorik sollte einem wesentlichen Zweck dienen: dem Westen die Möglichkeit zu geben, Putin für die Krise verantwortlich zu machen und den Westen von der Verantwortung freizusprechen. Es überrascht nicht, dass diese Darstellung Putins nach dem Einmarsch Russlands in die Ukraine am 24. Februar 2022 deutlich an Zugkraft gewann.

Eine Abweichung von der gängigen Meinung ist erwähnenswert. Einige argumentieren, dass die Entscheidung Moskaus, in die Ukraine einzumarschieren, wenig mit Putin selbst zu tun hat und stattdessen Teil einer expansionistischen Tradition ist, die lange vor Putin bestand und tief in der russischen Gesellschaft verwurzelt ist. Dieser Hang zur Aggression, der angeblich von inneren Kräften und nicht von Russlands äußerem Bedrohungsumfeld angetrieben wird, hat im Laufe der Zeit praktisch alle russischen Führer dazu gebracht, sich ihren Nachbarn gegenüber gewalttätig zu verhalten. Es lässt sich nicht leugnen, dass Putin in dieser Geschichte das Sagen hat oder dass er Russland in den Krieg geführt hat, aber es heißt, dass er wenig Einfluss hat. Fast jeder andere russische Führer hätte genauso gehandelt.

Es gibt zwei Probleme mit diesem Argument. Erstens ist es nicht widerlegbar, da der langjährige Charakterzug in der russischen Gesellschaft, der diesen aggressiven Impuls hervorrufe, nie identifiziert wurde. Es heißt, die Russen seien schon immer aggressiv gewesen – egal, wer an der Macht sei – und würden es auch immer sein. Es ist fast so, als ob es in ihrer DNA läge. Die gleiche Behauptung wurde einst über die Deutschen aufgestellt, die im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert oft als angeborene Aggressoren dargestellt wurden. Derartige Argumente werden in der akademischen Welt aus gutem Grund nicht ernst genommen.

Außerdem bezeichnete zwischen 1991 und 2014, als die Ukraine-Krise ausbrach, kaum jemand in den Vereinigten Staaten oder Westeuropa Russland als von Natur aus aggressiv. Außerhalb Polens und der baltischen Staaten wurde die Angst vor russischer Aggression in diesen 24 Jahren nicht häufig geäußert, was man erwarten würde, wenn die Russen zu Aggressionen veranlagt wären. Es scheint klar, dass das plötzliche Auftauchen dieser Argumentation eine bequeme Ausrede war, um Russland die Schuld für den Ukrainekrieg zu geben.  

***

Lassen Sie mich einen anderen Gang einlegen und die DREI HAUPTGRÜNDE darlegen, die dafür sprechen, dass die NATO-Erweiterung die Hauptursache für den Ukraine-Krieg war.

**ERSTENS sagten russische Führer aller Art vor Kriegsbeginn wiederholt, dass sie die NATO-Erweiterung in die Ukraine als eine existenzielle Bedrohung betrachten, die beseitigt werden muss. **

Putin hat diese Argumentation bereits vor dem 24. Februar 2022 mehrfach öffentlich dargelegt. In einer Rede vor dem Vorstand des Verteidigungsministeriums am 21. Dezember 2021 erklärte er: „Was sie in der Ukraine tun oder versuchen oder planen, findet nicht Tausende von Kilometern entfernt von unserer Landesgrenze statt. Es geschieht direkt vor unserer Haustür. Sie müssen verstehen, dass wir uns einfach nirgendwo mehr hin zurückziehen können. Glauben sie wirklich, dass wir diese Bedrohungen nicht wahrnehmen? Oder glauben sie, dass wir tatenlos zusehen werden, wie Bedrohungen für Russland entstehen?“ Zwei Monate später, auf einer Pressekonferenz am 22. Februar 2022, nur wenige Tage vor Kriegsbeginn, sagte Putin: „Wir sind kategorisch gegen einen NATO-Beitritt der Ukraine, weil dies eine Bedrohung für uns darstellt, und wir haben Argumente, die dies unterstützen. Ich habe in diesem Saal wiederholt darüber gesprochen.“ Dann machte er deutlich, dass er begreift, dass die Ukraine ein Defacto-Mitglied der NATO werde. Die Vereinigten Staaten und ihre Verbündeten, sagte er, „pumpen die derzeitigen Kiewer Machthaber weiterhin mit modernen Waffentypen voll“. Er fuhr fort, dass Moskau, wenn dies nicht gestoppt werde, „mit einem bis an die Zähne bewaffneten 'Antirussland' dastehen würde. Das ist völlig inakzeptabel.“

Auch andere führende russische Politiker - darunter der Verteidigungsminister, der Außenminister, der stellvertretende Außenminister und der russische Botschafter in Washington - betonten die zentrale Bedeutung der NATO-Erweiterung als Auslöser der Ukraine-Krise. Außenminister Sergej Lawrow brachte es auf einer Pressekonferenz am 14. Januar 2022 auf den Punkt: „Der Schlüssel zu allem ist die Garantie, dass die NATO nicht nach Osten expandieren wird.“

Man hört oft das Argument, die russischen Befürchtungen seien unbegründet, weil es keine Chance gebe, dass die Ukraine dem Bündnis in absehbarer Zukunft beitreten würde, wenn überhaupt. Tatsächlich wird behauptet, die Vereinigten Staaten und ihre europäischen Verbündeten hätten der Aufnahme der Ukraine in die NATO vor dem Krieg wenig Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. Aber selbst wenn die Ukraine dem Bündnis beitreten würde, wäre dies keine existenzielle Bedrohung für Russland, da die NATO ein Verteidigungsbündnis ist. Daher kann die NATO-Erweiterung weder eine Ursache der ursprünglichen Krise gewesen sein, die im Februar 2014 ausbrach, noch des Krieges, der im Februar 2022 begann. 

Diese Argumentation ist falsch. Tatsächlich bestand die westliche Reaktion auf die Ereignisse von 2014 darin, die bestehende Strategie zu verdoppeln und die Ukraine noch näher an die NATO heranzuführen. Das Bündnis begann 2014 mit der Ausbildung des ukrainischen Militärs und bildete in den folgenden acht Jahren durchschnittlich 10.000 Soldaten pro Jahr aus. Im Dezember 2017 beschloss die Trump-Regierung, Kiew mit „Verteidigungswaffen“ zu versorgen. Andere NATO-Länder zogen bald nach und lieferten noch mehr Waffen an die Ukraine. Darüber hinaus begannen die ukrainische Armee, Marine und Luftwaffe, an gemeinsamen Militärübungen mit NATO-Streitkräften teilzunehmen. Die Bemühungen des Westens, das ukrainische Militär zu bewaffnen und auszubilden, erklären zu einem großen Teil, warum es im ersten Kriegsjahr so ​​gut gegen die russische Armee abschnitt. Eine Schlagzeile im Wall Street Journal vom April 2022 lautete: „Das Geheimnis des militärischen Erfolgs der Ukraine: Jahrelange NATO-Ausbildung.“ 

Abgesehen von den laufenden Bemühungen des Bündnisses, das ukrainische Militär zu einer schlagkräftigeren Kampftruppe zu machen, die an der Seite der NATO-Truppen operieren kann, gab es im Westen im Laufe des Jahres 2021 eine neue Begeisterung für die Aufnahme der Ukraine in die NATO. Gleichzeitig vollzog Präsident Zelensky, der nie viel Enthusiasmus für eine Aufnahme der Ukraine in das Bündnis gezeigt hatte und im März 2019 auf der Grundlage einer Plattform gewählt wurde, die zur Zusammenarbeit mit Russland bei der Beilegung der anhaltenden Krise aufrief, Anfang 2021 einen Kurswechsel und befürwortete nicht nur die NATO-Mitgliedschaft der Ukraine, sondern vertrat auch eine harte Linie gegenüber Moskau.

Präsident Biden, der im Januar 2021 ins Weiße Haus einzog, hatte sich seit langem für die Aufnahme der Ukraine in die NATO eingesetzt und war ein Superfalke gegenüber Russland. Es überrascht nicht, dass die NATO am 14. Juni 2021 auf ihrem jährlichen Gipfel in Brüssel ein Kommuniqué herausgab, in dem es hieß: „Wir bekräftigen den auf dem Gipfel von Bukarest 2008 gefassten Beschluss, dass die Ukraine Mitglied des Bündnisses wird.“ Am 1. September 2021 besuchte Zelensky das Weiße Haus, wo Biden klarstellte, dass die Vereinigten Staaten „fest entschlossen“ seien, „die euro-atlantischen Bestrebungen der Ukraine zu unterstützen“. Am 10. November 2021 unterzeichneten Außenminister Antony Blinken und sein ukrainischer Amtskollege Dmytro Kuleba ein wichtiges Dokument - die „Charta der strategischen Partnerschaft zwischen den USA und der Ukraine“. Das Ziel beider Parteien, so heißt es in dem Dokument, ist es, „das Engagement für die Durchführung tiefgreifender und umfassender Reformen in der Ukraine zu unterstreichen, die für eine vollständige Integration in die europäischen und euro-atlantischen Institutionen erforderlich sind.“ Es bekräftigt auch ausdrücklich das Engagement der USA für die „Bukarester Gipfelerklärung von 2008“.

Es scheint kaum Zweifel daran zu geben, dass die Ukraine auf dem besten Weg war, bis Ende 2021 Mitglied der NATO zu werden. Dennoch argumentieren einige Befürworter dieser Politik, dass sich Moskau keine Sorgen über dieses Ergebnis hätte machen müssen, denn „die NATO ist ein Verteidigungsbündnis und stellt keine Bedrohung für Russland dar“. Aber das ist nicht die Meinung Putins und anderer russischer Politiker über die NATO, und es kommt darauf an, was sie denken. Kurz gesagt, es steht außer Frage, dass Moskau den Beitritt der Ukraine zur NATO als eine existenzielle Bedrohung ansah, die nicht hingenommen werden durfte.

ZWEITENS erkannte eine beträchtliche Anzahl einflussreicher und hoch angesehener Persönlichkeiten im Westen vor dem Krieg, dass die Expansion der NATO – insbesondere in die Ukraine – von der russischen Führung als tödliche Bedrohung angesehen werden und schließlich zur Katastrophe führen würde.

William Burns, der heute die CIA leitet („heute“ leitet John Ratcliffe die CIA, aktualisieren ODER am Anfang des Textes klarstellen, dass er schon älter ist ODER „heute“ streichen und „leitete“ statt „leitet“), aber zum Zeitpunkt des NATO-Gipfels in Bukarest im April 2008 US-Botschafter in Moskau war, verfasste ein Memo an die damalige Außenministerin Condoleezza Rice, in dem er die russischen Überlegungen zur Aufnahme der Ukraine in die Allianz prägnant beschreibt. „Der Beitritt der Ukraine zur NATO“, so schrieb er, „ist für die russische Elite (nicht nur für Putin) die klarste aller roten Linien. In den mehr als zweieinhalb Jahren, in denen ich Gespräche mit den wichtigsten russischen Akteuren geführt habe, von Scharfmachern in den dunklen Nischen des Kremls bis hin zu Putins schärfsten liberalen Kritikern, habe ich noch niemanden gefunden, der die Aufnahme der Ukraine in die NATO als etwas anderes betrachtet als eine direkte Herausforderung für die russischen Interessen.“ Die NATO, so sagte er, „würde als ein strategischer Fehdehandschuh angesehen werden. Das heutige Russland wird darauf reagieren. Die russisch-ukrainischen Beziehungen würden auf Eis gelegt ... Das würde einen fruchtbaren Boden für russische Einmischungen auf der Krim und in der Ostukraine schaffen.“

Burns war 2008 nicht der einzige westliche Entscheidungsträger, der erkannte, dass die Aufnahme der Ukraine in die NATO mit Gefahren verbunden war. Auf dem Bukarester Gipfel sprachen sich sowohl die deutsche Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel als auch der französische Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy gegen eine NATO-Mitgliedschaft der Ukraine aus, weil sie wussten, dass dies Russland alarmieren und verärgern würde. Merkel erklärte kürzlich ihre Ablehnung: „Ich war mir sehr sicher, ... dass Putin das nicht einfach zulassen wird. Aus seiner Sicht wäre das eine Kriegserklärung“.

Um noch einen Schritt weiter zu gehen: Zahlreiche amerikanische Politiker und Strategen sprachen sich in den 1990er Jahren gegen die Entscheidung von Präsident Clinton aus, die NATO zu erweitern, als diese Entscheidung noch zur Debatte stand. Diesen Gegnern war von Anfang an klar, dass die russische Führung darin eine Bedrohung ihrer lebenswichtigen Interessen sehen würde und dass diese Politik letztlich in eine Katastrophe münden würde. Die Liste der Gegner umfasst prominente Persönlichkeiten des Establishments wie George Kennan, sowohl Präsident Clintons Verteidigungsminister William Perry als auch seinen Vorsitzenden des Vereinigten Generalstabs, General John Shalikashvili, Paul Nitze, Robert Gates, Robert McNamara, Richard Pipes und Jack Matlock, um nur einige zu nennen.

Die Logik von Putins Position sollte für Amerikaner, die seit langem der Monroe-Doktrin verpflichtet sind, vollkommen verständlich sein. Diese besagt, dass keine entfernte Großmacht ein Bündnis mit einem Land in der westlichen Hemisphäre eingehen und ihre militärischen Streitkräfte dort stationieren darf. Die Vereinigten Staaten würden einen solchen Schritt als existenzielle Bedrohung auffassen und alles tun, um diese Gefahr zu beseitigen. Dies geschah natürlich auch während der Kubakrise 1962, als Präsident Kennedy den Sowjets klar machte, dass ihre Atomraketen aus Kuba abgezogen werden müssten. Putin ist zutiefst von derselben Logik beeinflusst. Schließlich wollen Großmächte nicht, dass sich entfernte Großmächte in ihrem Hinterhof ansiedeln.

DRITTENS: Die zentrale Bedeutung der tiefen Angst Russlands vor einem NATO-Beitritt der Ukraine wird durch zwei Entwicklungen seit Kriegsbeginn verdeutlicht.

Während der Istanbuler Verhandlungen, die unmittelbar nach Beginn der Invasion stattfanden, machten die Russen deutlich, dass die Ukraine eine „dauerhafte Neutralität“ akzeptieren müsse und der NATO nicht beitreten könne. Die Ukrainer akzeptierten die Forderung Russlands ohne ernsthaften Widerstand, sicherlich weil sie wussten, dass es sonst unmöglich wäre, den Krieg zu beenden. In jüngerer Zeit, am 14. Juni 2024, stellte Putin zwei Forderungen, die die Ukraine erfüllen müsse, bevor er einem Waffenstillstand und der Aufnahme von Verhandlungen zur Beendigung des Krieges zustimmen würde. Eine dieser Forderungen war, dass Kiew „offiziell“ erklärt, „dass es seine Pläne, der NATO beizutreten, aufgibt“.

Das alles ist nicht überraschend, denn Russland hat die Ukraine in der NATO immer als existenzielle Bedrohung gesehen, die um jeden Preis verhindert werden muss. Diese Logik ist die treibende Kraft hinter dem Ukraine-Krieg.

Schließlich ist aus der Verhandlungsposition Russlands in Istanbul sowie aus Putins Äußerungen zur Beendigung des Krieges in seiner Ansprache vom 14. Juni 2024 klar ersichtlich, dass er nicht daran interessiert ist, die gesamte Ukraine zu erobern und sie zu einem Teil eines größeren Russlands zu machen.

---

John Joseph Mearsheimer (* 14. Dezember 1947 in Brooklyn, New York City) ist ein US-amerikanischer Politikwissenschaftler an der University of Chicago. Sein Schwerpunkt ist die Analyse internationaler Beziehungen aus der Perspektive des offensiven Neorealismus, den er erstmals 2001 in seiner Monografie The Tragedy of Great Power Politics darstellte.

---

Dieser Text von John J. Mearsheimer erschien am 5.8.2024 auf Substack.Vielen Dank für die Genehmigung des Autors zum Abdruck der deutschen Übersetzung. Die Übersetzung wurde von Thomas Mayer erstellt. 

Neben der NATO-Osterweiterung gibt es weitere Faktoren die zum Ukraine-Krieg führten, zum Beispiel der Nationalismus in der Ukraine und die Unterdrückung der ethnisch-russischen Bevölkerung.

Ausführlich sind die vielschichtigen Hintergründe des Ukraine-Krieges geschildert in dem Buch von Thomas Mayer: Wahrheitssuche im Ukraine-Krieg – Um was es wirklich geht, 600 Seiten, ISBN 978-3-89060-863-1, Infos zum Buch: https://kurzelinks.de/h10a

---

LASSEN SIE DER FRIEDENSTAUBE FLÜGEL WACHSEN!

In Kürze folgt eine Mail an alle Genossenschafter, danke für die Geduld!

Hier können Sie die Friedenstaube abonnieren und bekommen die Artikel zugesandt.

Schon jetzt können Sie uns unterstützen:

• Für 50 CHF/EURO bekommen Sie ein Jahresabo der Friedenstaube.
• Für 120 CHF/EURO bekommen Sie ein Jahresabo und ein T-Shirt/Hoodie mit der Friedenstaube.
• Für 500 CHF/EURO werden Sie Förderer und bekommen ein lebenslanges Abo sowie ein T-Shirt/Hoodie mit der Friedenstaube.
• Ab 1000 CHF werden Sie Genossenschafter der Friedenstaube mit Stimmrecht (und bekommen lebenslanges Abo, T-Shirt/Hoodie).

Für Einzahlungen in CHF (Betreff: Friedenstaube):

Für Einzahlungen in Euro:

Milosz Matuschek

IBAN DE 53710520500000814137

BYLADEM1TST

Sparkasse Traunstein-Trostberg

Betreff: Friedenstaube

Wenn Sie auf anderem Wege beitragen wollen, schreiben Sie die Friedenstaube an: friedenstaube@pareto.space

---

Sie sind noch nicht auf Nostr and wollen die volle Erfahrung machen (liken, kommentieren etc.)? Zappen können Sie den Autor auch ohne Nostr-Profil! Erstellen Sie sich einen Account auf Start. Weitere Onboarding-Leitfäden gibt es im Pareto-Wiki.

@ 77c2969e:a33cfa50

Nostr 协议在我看来是很先进的，暂时使用的人还不多，不过相比 Fediverse 的 Mastodon 之类，自己部署 Nostr Relay 是成本很小的。Blossom 作为媒体上传服务是可选的，因为有几个公共服务器可用，但是大多数国内无法直连。我还发现部分客户端不支持自定义 Blossom 服务器，只有 Amethyst 和 Nostrmo 可以。

我目前使用的是这个 nostr-relay 以及这个 blossom-server。

---

nostr-relay

这个用 Python 写的 nostr-relay 很不错。

配置文件是这个： https://code.pobblelabs.org/fossil/nostr_relay/file?name=nostr_relay/config.yaml 可以按需修改，自己用默认就够了。

```jsx

先安装 pipx

apt install pipx

再用 pipx 安装 nostr-relay

pipx install nostr-relay

选择一个目录运行以下命令启动默认配置，默认 SQLite 文件在当前目录

nostr-relay serve

后台运行

(nostr-relay serve >/var/log/nostr-relay.log &)

查看 PID

lsof -i :6969

停止运行

kill PID

后台运行命令会调用 gunicorn 运行而不是nostr-relay，因此会搜不到 nostr-relay 进程，可以尝试这个命令

ps -ef | grep gunicorn `` 反代127.0.0.1:6969` 配置域名和 SSL 证书即可。

保持简洁，不使用 Docker 和 systemd，后续迁移时只需复制整个文件夹即可。

---

blossom-server

clone 这个仓库

git clone https://github.com/hzrd149/blossom-server.git

克隆仓库是必要的，因为 blossom-server 的默认页面依赖 public/ 目录，请保留该目录。

用以下 config.yml 和 docker-compose.yml 覆盖原仓库中的文件

然后执行 docker compose up -d

反代 127.0.0.1:3000 配置域名和 SSL 证书即可。

config.yml

按需修改，比如 Dashboard 密码、允许的 PubKey 等。 ```

Override the domain thats is used in the blobs "url" field

By default it uses the domain the incoming HTTP request was made on

publicDomain: ""

databasePath: data/sqlite.db

dashboard: # enable or disable the admin dashboard enabled: true # admin username username: admin # if password is left blank it will be generated each time the app starts password: "yourpasswd"

文件发现机制，保持默认关闭

discovery: # find files by querying nostr relays nostr: enabled: false relays: - wss://relay.example.com # find files by asking upstream CDNs # NOTE: do not set this to your own server, it will create an infinite loop upstream: enabled: false domains: - https://cdn.example.com

storage: # local or s3 backend: local

# Imminently removes a blob when there are no owners removeWhenNoOwners: false

# local storage local: dir: ./data/blobs

# see minio docs for options: # https://min.io/docs/minio/linux/developers/javascript/API.html#new-minio-client-endpoint-port-usessl-accesskey-secretkey-region-transport-sessiontoken-partsize # s3: # endpoint: https://s3.endpoint.com # port: 443 # bucket: blossom # accessKey: xxxxxxxx # secretKey: xxxxxxxxx # useSSL: true # region: us-east-1 # If this is set the server will redirect clients when loading blobs # publicURL: https://s3.region.example.com/

# rules are checked in descending order. if a blob matches a rule it is kept # "type" (required) the type of the blob, "" can be used to match any type # "expiration" (required) time passed since last accessed # "pubkeys" (optional) a list of owners # any blobs not matching the rules will be removed rules: - type: "" expiration: 100 years pubkeys: - "change-to-your-pubkey-hex"

Config for the /upload endpoint

upload: # enable / disable uploads (default false) enabled: true # require auth to upload requireAuth: true # only check rules that include "pubkeys" requirePubkeyInRule: true

Config for the /media endpoint

media: # /media endpoint enabled (default false) enabled: true # require auth to upload to /media requireAuth: true # only check rules that include "pubkeys" requirePubkeyInRule: true

# image optimization options image: # image quality 0-100 (default 90) quality: 90 # create progressive jpeg / png images for large images > 1024x768 (default true) progressive: true # max width (default 1920) maxWidth: 1920 # max height (default 1080) maxHeight: 1080 # image format (default webp) outputFormat: "webp" # keep aspect radio when resizing (default true) maintainAspectRatio: true # keep EXIF metadata (default false) keepExif: false # fps for GIFs (default 30) fps: 30

video: # video quality 0-100 (default 90) quality: 90 # max height (default 1080) maxHeight: 1080 # max fps (default 30) maxFps: 30 # output format [mp4, webm, mkv] (default mp4) format: "webm" # audio codec [aac, mp3, vorbis, opus] (default aac) audioCodec: "aac" # video codec [libx264, libx265, vp8, vp9] (default libx264) videoCodec: "libx264"

list: requireAuth: false allowListOthers: true

tor: enabled: false proxy: "" ```

docker-compose.yml

services: blossom: image: ghcr.io/hzrd149/blossom-server:master ports: - 3000:3000 volumes: # mount data volume - ./data:/app/data # mount config file - ./config.yml:/app/config.yml # mount custom www dir - ./public:/app/public

---

其他

我自己目前就是部署的这两个服务自用。主要是方便部署和维护，后续服务器迁移只需要复制文件夹即可。Blossom 媒体服务自用的话，默认使用服务器本地存储即可，就是在项目文件夹中的 ./data/blobs/，上传的图片和视频会被自动压缩，占不了多少存储空间。如果公开或多人使用也可以配置 S3 兼容的对象存储。

除了我上面说的这个 nostr-relay，还有一个 Rust 写的 nostr-rs-relay，可以 Docker 一键部署，如果你偏好使用 Docker，也可以选择这个。

如果你也对 Nostr 这个去中心化协议感兴趣，想拥有自己的 Nostr 服务，不妨参考本文试试，欢迎留言交流！

---

推荐阅读

• 欢迎加入 Nostr, 这是一份快速入门指南
• Nostr!moe
• Join Nostr
• 运行自己的中继器，拥有自己的事件
• 用自己域名认证 Nostr 的 NIP-05

@ 86dfbe73:628cef55

Das Private ist immer nur privat in Bezug zu einem bestimmten oder unbestimmten Gegenüber. Heutzutage steht man vielen Privatheiten und vielen Öffentlichkeiten gegenüber. Was privat ist, bemisst sich an der jeweiligen Relation, in der es als privat festgelegt wurde. Die “Privatsphäre”, die üblicherweise gemeint wird, ist jene Sphäre, die der Staat als privat zu respektieren hat, über deren Grenze er sich also nur in seltenen und jeweils zu begründenden Einzelfällen hinwegsetzen darf.

In anderen Beziehungen hingegen gibt es andere “Privatheiten” — dem Arbeitgeber gegenüber etwa, den Kollegen, ehemaligen Schulfreunden, dem Ehepartner, den Eltern oder Kinder. In all diesen Beziehungen gibt es “ausgeschlossene” Bereiche, die das Private meinen. Die Privatsphäre ist dabei die Sphäre über deren Geheimhaltung man gegenüber dem anderen Partner der Beziehung frei verfügen kann, denn Privatsphäre ist die Möglichkeit, sich der Welt selektiv zu offenbaren.

Wenn nicht reflektiert wird, dass es weitgehend eine veränderte Gesellschaft ist, die sich konstituiert, eine Gesellschaft, die mit der vorherigen nichts aber auch gar nichts mehr gemein hat, weil sich der Begriff des “Privaten” verändert, ausdifferenziert, verschiebt, zerfasert — wird der Privatsphärenschutz nicht zu gewährleisten sein.

Das Problem ist, dass „privat und „öffentlich“ alleine nicht funktionieren. Zwischen Privat und Öffentlich gehört – abgeleitet aus dem Begriff des „Social Web“ das Soziale. Und zwischen scheinbar einheitlicher privater „Identität“ und öffentlicher „Person“ gehört ein Bündel an Socialities.

Schon vor dem Netz zersplitterte der moderne, flexible und mobile Mensch in ein Bündel von (nicht: Identitäten sondern) Socialitäten. Das heißt in ein Bündel von Verhaltensweisen, die mehr oder minder bewusst in Beziehung zu bestimmten anderen Socii eingenommen werden. Es ist eine rein kommunikative Größe. Die Socialität eines Arbeitnehmers deckt sich nicht mit der Sozialität des Ehegatten, Vaters usw.

In jeder dieser Beziehungen ist eine andere, zumeist bewusst zu lernende Sozialität vonnöten. Selbst gegenüber Vorgesetzten, gleichrangigen Kollegen und Untergebenen sind mindestens dreierlei Socialitäten am Werke. Denn diese Socialität ist nicht einfach die soziologische „Rolle“, die ein Pluriversum von angenommenen Identitäten unterstellt. Sondern sie ist Ergebnis einer Kommunikationsbeziehung.

Online-Socialitäten

Das Private ist kein kohärente Sphäre, sondern wird durch die Socialität erschaffen. Es ist das, was in der Socialität nicht vorkommt – oder die Qualität der Socialität entscheidend verändert – etwa wenn eine Beziehung zu einer Kollegin/einem Kollegen beginnt (die in der Socialität der Ehegatten wiederum vermutlich nichts zu suchen hat …), sich eine Exfreundin als neue Kundin vorstellt, ein ehemaliger Schulkamerad Chef wird usw. Was „das Private“ ist, lässt sich nicht fassen.

Bei Facebook beispielsweise connectet sich der User mit Familienangehörigen, Freunden, vielleicht ehemaligen Schulfreunden, Kollegen, ggf. Vorgesetzen – und mit Geschäftspartnern oder Kunden. Das heißt: Ein großes Socialitätenbündel vereinigt sich.

Das kann zu größeren Problemen führen, denn die Socialität etwa des Geschäftspartners stellt andere Anforderungen als der ehemalige Klassenkamerad. Die Socialität des Kollegen stellt andere Anforderungen als die der Geschwister.

Die Bündelungsmöglichkeiten durch Personensuchen stellt vor eine ganz andere Herausforderung. Das Multiversum der Socialitäten, das unter verschiedenen Pseudonymen oder doch zumindest auf verschiedenen Plattformen ausgetragen wurde – wird nun plötzlich in ein „Image“ zusammengeführt, das natürlich vorne und hinten inkongruent ist, weil kein gemeinsamer „Kern“, keine einfache „Identität“ vorhanden ist.

Streetview und die Socialität

Schon jetzt nutzen Auskunfteien wie SchuFa oder Creditreform die Wohngegend um Kreditwürdigkeiten zu berechnen. Schon jetzt klassifizieren die Telefonrechner in Callcentern die „Wertigkeit“ eines eingehenden Anrufs per Telefonnummer nach Wohnlage.

Das macht in dieser Socialität "Versicherung-Kunde" einen gewaltigen Unterschied. Und der Kunde hat keinerlei Macht über die Informationen, die der anderen Seite der Socialität verfügbar sind. Die Entscheidung, dass etwas privat sei, zieht nach sich, dass ich es aus einer Socialität exkludiere. „Privat“ bedeutet vor allem „Verzeihung, das ist mir zu privat, darüber gebe ich keine Auskunft“. Und derlei Privatheiten gibt es zu viele – was privat ist, bestimmt die Socialität. Privatsphäre gegenüber dem Kollegen ist eine andere als gegenüber der Vorgesetzten, als gegenüber dem Kunden, als gegenüber dem ehemaligen Schulfreund.

Wie damit umgehen? Das Netz verlassen oder eine eigene „Netzsocialität“ erschaffen, die von vornherein eine inszenierte Kunstfigur ist? Nichts von alledem ist hilfreich. Deswegen kann die Lösung nur aus einer gesamtgesellschaftlichen Debatte rund um die Socialitäten kommen. Und muss sich fragen: Wie soll das Netz sein und funktionieren? Wer soll was einsehen können?

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Romania’s national postal service embraces digital assets by installing the first Bitcoin ATM at its Tulcea branch.

Romania has witnessed the inauguration of the first Bitcoin ATM within the offices of Poșta Română, the country’s national postal service.

The installation took place at the Tulcea branch, the result of a strategic collaboration between Poșta Română and Bitcoin Romania (BTR), one of the country’s leading exchanges. According to the official announcement from the postal service, this marks only the first step in a broader project.

Source: Poșta Română

The next locations set to host these ATMs will be Alexandria, Piatra Neamț, Botoșani, and Nădlac, confirming the postal service’s commitment to widespread distribution of these devices.

The integration of Bitcoin ATMs in post offices is part of a wider strategy to modernize the existing infrastructure through cutting-edge digital technologies. The initiative also aims to expand the range of services available in areas of the country traditionally underserved.

Global adoption

In recent months, global Bitcoin adoption has continued to grow through various channels: individual investors, companies accepting BTC as a payment method, corporations and institutions accumulating Bitcoin as a treasury asset, and nation-states acquiring BTC for strategic reserves.

According to Binance data from January, the number of Bitcoin wallets holding more than $100 in value reached nearly 30 million, marking a 25% year-on-year increase.

Despite this growth, overall Bitcoin adoption remains limited worldwide, even in countries with the highest adoption rates. A Q1 2025 report by River, a Bitcoin financial services company, found that only 4% of the global population owns Bitcoin.

The United States retains the highest concentration of Bitcoin holders, with around 14% of individuals holding BTC in 2025. The total addressable Bitcoin market remains below 1%, due to low retail adoption and under-allocation from institutions, the U.S.-based company noted.

According to River, Bitcoin could absorb 50% of the store-of-value market, equivalent to roughly $225 trillion in value. These asset classes include cash, stocks, real estate, precious metals, and art held for price appreciation or savings. With a current market capitalization slightly above $2 trillion, Bitcoin still has significant room for growth, River suggests.

The post Poșta Română launches the first Bitcoin ATM in post offices appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

18-07 HOLIDAY HOME by OFFICE INAINN reimagines the traditional hytte, creating two interconnected cabins, H_G30 and H_G32, located near the scenic Geiranger–Trollstigen route. Set on a steep hillside 148 meters above sea level, the design embraces modern functionality while offering stunning southern views of Storfjorden and minimizing environmental impact.

Blending into the Landscape

The cabins are designed to integrate gently into the natural terrain, following the contours of the hillside. Their horizontal layout reduces the visual impact, blending into the forested surroundings while opening up to the fjord. The minimal footprint respects the environment and reduces construction costs, ensuring the cabins remain nearly invisible from the north while fully engaging with the southern panorama.

Functional, Additive Architecture

Inspired by traditional Norwegian architecture, each cabin consists of two overlapping modules of varying heights, breaking up the building mass and reducing roof size. The higher module serves as the circulation space, while the lower module contains the private and living areas. This approach replaces conventional walls with functional form, creating distinct zones for movement, utility, and relaxation.

Harmonizing Tradition with Modern Living

The cabins follow an east-west retaining wall that mirrors the hill’s natural slope, with additional storage and leisure spaces tucked behind. The shallow depth allows maximum southern exposure for light and views, while the central axis blurs the boundary between indoor and outdoor living, creating a seamless connection to nature.

For more info https://inainn.eu/18-07-holiday-home/

https://stacker.news/items/1000386

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Sati, a Bitcoin payments app and Lightning infrastructure provider, announced the launch of its Lightning integration with Xverse wallet.

Launched in 2025 with investors of the likes as Draper Associates and Ricardo Salinas, Sati powers Bitcoin payments on applications such as WhatsApp to fuel the next wave of adoption.

The Whatsapp bot allows users to send bitcoin via the messaging app through a special bot. After verifying their identity, the user selects the “send” option, chooses to pay to a Lightning address, enters the amount (1,000 sats), confirms with a PIN, and the transaction is completed, with the funds appearing instantly in the recipient wallet.

The new integration will now bring Lightning functionality to over 1.5 million people worldwide. Users can send and receive sats (Bitcoin’s smallest denomination) instantly over the Lightning Network all within the Xverse app,

Further, every xverse wallet user gets a Lightning Address instantly. That means they can receive tips, pay invoices, and use Bitcoin for microtransactions—all without having to manage channels or switch between different apps.

While Xverse adds support for Lightning, users should be cautious in using the wallet as it’s mostly known for enabling access to rug pull projects.

Initially designed in 2017, the Lightning Network has grown to become Bitcoin’s leading layer-2, with a current BTC capacity of over $465M.

“Bitcoin was not meant to be an asset for Wall Street—it was built for peer-to-peer money, borderless and accessible,” said Felipe Servin, Founder and CEO of Sati. “Integrating Lightning natively into Xverse brings that vision back to life, making Bitcoin usable at scale for billions.”

Sati expects USDT on Lightning to be supported as early as July 2025 for users accessing Sati through WhatsApp.

This integration positions Sati’s role as a Lightning infrastructure provider, not just a consumer app. By leveraging its API-based solution, the company provides plug-and-play backend services to wallets and platforms looking to add Bitcoin payments without compromising on security or UX.

Sati recently closed a $600K pre-seed round. The funding is used to support global expansion, stablecoin integration, Lightning infrastructure growth, and broader access to Bitcoin in emerging markets.

The Sati team is attending Bitcoin2025 in Las Vegas this week and looking forward to connect with bitcoin enthusiasts.

@ 84b0c46a:417782f5

やること

• [ ] るみ　初期のわかりにくごちゃ設定を何とかする
• [x] るみ　シーンおんのやつみなおしてみる
• [ ] やってることまとめるやつ
• [ ] びうあ　publishのリレー状態チェック
• [x] るみ　10002並べ替え
• [ ] るみ 10030の並べ替え？
• [ ] カスタム絵文字のやつ
• [x] まきもの　naddrを渡して編集画面開く
• [x] るみ naddrの更新ボタン
• [ ] ニーサ
• [ ] クレカのポイント使い切って、他のクレカ契約できたら、今のクレカ解約する(アマゾンかなんか)

• [x] るみ 書き込むたびにチェックマークが増えてくよ

  nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzpp9sc34tdxdvxh4jeg5xgu9ctcypmvsg0n00vwfjydkrjaqh0qh4qyxhwumn8ghj77tpvf6jumt9qys8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtt2wqhxummnw3ezuamfwfjkgmn9wshx5uqpz9mhxue69uhkuenjv4kxz7fwv9c8qqgnwaen5te0xyerwt3s9cczuvf6xsurvwgpzdmhxue69uhhwmm59ehx7um5wghxuet5qythwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnfw36xzmndduhx6etwqywhwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnwdaehgu3wwa5hyetydejhgtn2wqqzpzatskhfw95aj6g0tex2c5wy0ydlrnts8lk7du60t906d23p7ch4whv3xm

• [x] るみ 画像表示させる前にワンクッションメニュー

• [ ] るみ ステータスのカスタム絵文字、挿入と変換
• [ ] るみ　30023のembedが常にワンクッションになってる

デイリー

• うめちぇっく
• 薬飲む
• 生姜接種

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

HTX Studio received a special email. The letter writer's daughter was unfortunately run over by a heavy truck on her way to school, and her right hand permanently lost its function. When using the computer, her hands have to frequently switch between the keyboard and the mouse, which makes typing very slow and tiring. He wanted us to make a one-handed keyboard for his daughter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vW12gQ4Klc

The project has just been open-sourced at https://github.com/htx-studio/One-Handed-Keyboard and hopes to be helpful to those who need it. In English for you below:

One-Handed Keyboard

This is a single-mode mechanical keyboard with integrated trackball. The firmware uses QMK . Thanks to all the developers who have contributed to the QMK community.

Keyboard production reference: [Mr. He] We made a special keyboard...

Open source hardware: HTXStudio one-handed keyboard

GitHub repository

Gitee repository

The development environment and setup are available here , and the firmware source code is available here .

The information in this warehouse includes:

• A total of 8 PCBs for three keyboards for the left and right hands, provided by EasyEDA Engineering.
• VIA key change configuration file and compiled firmware.
• Model design files.

---

Warehouse directory structure

Docs

Data sheet and pictures of the chip.

Firmware

QMK firmware for three different keyboard models, and JSON files for VIA key changes.

Hardware

Project files of Jialichuang EDA.

Model

Model files and processing files used by each keyboard model.

---

Production Guide

PCB：

1-Right-hand keyboard-hot-swappable (large): board material FR-4, board thickness 1.6mm, four-layer board, laminate structure JLC04161H-3313, impedance control +/-20%.

1-Left-hand keyboard-welding board (small): board material FR-4, board thickness 1.6mm, double-layer board, ALPS yellow axis needs to be installed with a little force when inserted.

1-Left-hand keyboard-hot-swappable (large): board material FR-4, board thickness 1.6mm, four-layer board, laminate structure JLC04161H-3313, impedance control +/-20%.

2-TypeC: board material FR-4, board thickness 1.6mm, double-layer board, marked CON1 (only for large keyboards).

3-Trackball: board material FR-4, board thickness 1.6mm, double-layer board, the module needs to pay attention to the welding direction, marked CON3.

4- Mouse wheel: board material FR-4, board thickness 1.6mm, double-layer board, it is recommended to use 7mm high encoder, 6mm high button, button trigger pressure ≤180g, marked CON2.

5-Directional buttons: board material FR-4, board thickness 1.6mm, double-layer board, ALPS yellow shaft needs to be inserted with a little force, marked CON4.

6- Main control board - left hand (small): board material FR-4, board thickness 1.6mm, double-layer board.

• Three of them are keyboard-controlled common boards 《3-轨迹球》《4-鼠标滚轮》《5-方向按键》.
• 《5-方向按键》And 《1-左手键盘-焊板(小)》, the key axis uses ALPS yellow axis.
• Note that the left and right hand keyboards are not completely mirrored.
• The trackball control uses SPI1 channel, and the scroll wheel has two separate signal lines, which allows replacing other control devices without major adjustments.
• The main control uses STM32G431CBU6.
• Compatible with A to C or C to C data cables.

Printout:

Keycap: resin, PLA, etc.

Trackball seat: resin, PLA, etc.

Left and right mouse buttons: resin, PLA, etc.

Shell: resin, PLA, etc.

Base: resin, PLA, etc.

Processing:

Positioning plate: Recommended material: pom, thickness 1.5mm.

Positioning plate cotton strip: glue left on one side.

Sandwich cotton: Recommended material is poron, 3.5mm thick.

Axle seat cotton: 2mm thick.

Bottom cotton: Recommended material: poron, 4mm thick.

Silicone pad (for keypad only): 5mm thick, hardness Shore 00-10.

other:

Trackball: diameter 25mm, material PTFE.

Lubricating ball: 2mm diameter, made of PTFE, installed in the printed trackball seat, 6 pieces in number.

Roller: Recommended diameter is between 19mm-20mm, thickness is between 4mm-5mm, and material is metal.

Satellite axis: 2U steel plate satellite axis.

Key switches: 57 ultra-small ALPS yellow switches for the small keyboard and 57 common mechanical switches for the large keyboard.

Cable arrangement: spacing 0.5mm, 8P reverse, 10cm2 strips, 15cm2 strips.

• The FPC sockets of the control board and the small board are both marked with CON, and the corresponding interfaces are connected.
• The file uses an FPC cable holder that can be connected up and down. It should be noted that when the cable holders are connected down, use reverse cable connection.

Model structure:

Installation order:

Take the large keyboard as an example

Pre-assembly work

• First, connect the 4 small PCBs to the keyboard body PCB using cables and burn the program.
• Install 3-5 shafts, rollers and trackballs. Make sure they function normally before assembly.
• Install the correct hot-melt copper nuts at the corresponding positions of the printed shell and base.
• Keycap printing.
• Attach the cotton strips to the protruding parts of the positioning plate (both on the front and back sides).

When burning the firmware for the first time, you can press and hold the button marked "B" on the back of the PCB and then plug in the USB cable to burn the firmware.

If you want to update the firmware, you can press and hold the "ESC" key on the keyboard and then insert the USB cable to burn the firmware.

For more information, please refer to Flashing Your Keyboard (QMK)

Next, start assembling

1. Use screws to install the 4 small boards to the corresponding positions of the base (pay attention to the wiring and installation direction), and install screws at the bottom of the trackball base.
2. Fix the left and right buttons on the keyboard PCB with screws.
3. From bottom to top, place the bottom cotton, shaft seat cotton, keyboard PCB, sandwich cotton and positioning plate into the fan-shaped area of ​​the base in order.
4. Insert the key switch.
5. Put it into the housing and secure it with screws from the bottom.
6. Install the keycaps to complete the assembly.

The screw and nut installation guide can be found here

Finally, this is our first open source project. If there are any shortcomings, you are welcome to criticize and correct us. Thank you.

---

References

Quantum Mechanical Keyboard Firmware

mrjohnk. ADNS-9800. GitHub repository

https://x.com/HTX_Studio/status/1929915992349782206

https://stacker.news/items/1000384

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

There is a certain image that pops up whenever people think about crushing soda cans. It is the kind of scene you see in movies, where a brawny athlete flattens an empty can with a single squeeze, probably in front of a cheering crowd. The reality, however, is far less cinematic. Most of us barely manage a dent before abandoning the can, sending it tumbling toward the trash bin, often missing the target entirely and hoping no one noticed. It is hardly the stuff of legends, unless you consider fumbling for a runaway soda can an athletic event.

In the end, the Yeti Can Crusher is more than just a clever gadget. It is a reminder that even the simplest chores can be transformed into moments of enjoyment, especially when the right tool is involved. There is a certain thrill in turning a dull task into a satisfying ritual, and when you add a dash of style, suddenly recycling is not just good for the planet, it is actually a little bit fun. With the right crusher in your hand, you might just find yourself looking forward to the next empty can.

Curious to learn more? https://www.yeti.com/outdoor-living/20110010027.html

https://stacker.news/items/1000380

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The adoption of Bitcoin as a corporate reserve asset is accelerating: public companies have doubled their holdings in just two months.

The use of Bitcoin as a corporate treasury strategy is reaching unprecedented levels. According to a recent report from Standard Chartered, shared with several industry outlets, 61 publicly traded companies collectively hold 3.2% of all bitcoin in circulation.

Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, revealed that these 61 public firms — out of a total of 124 — now own 673,897 BTC.

The report highlights that 58 of the 61 companies analyzed have net asset value (NAV) multiples above 1, indicating that their market valuations exceed the value of their net assets.

The Strategy copycats

A significant takeaway from the report is the speed at which companies are accumulating bitcoin. The 60 companies considered “Strategy copycats” have doubled their holdings in the past two months, from under 50,000 BTC to about 100,000 BTC. Over the same period, Strategy added 74,000 BTC, compared to the 47,000 acquired by the other firms.

This movement continues to expand as new companies announce Bitcoin purchase plans via debt issuance. On June 3, Canadian renewable energy developer SolarBank officially announced its Bitcoin treasury strategy, filing an application to open an account with Coinbase Prime to secure custody services, manage USDC, and set up a non-custodial wallet for its Bitcoin holdings.

Meanwhile, Paris-based Blockchain Group announced a $68 million Bitcoin acquisition, while Norwegian crypto brokerage K33 raised $6.2 million to purchase BTC at the end of May.

The post Bitcoin treasury: 61 publicly listed companies now hold over 3% of total supply appeared first on Atlas21.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

In today’s digital era, access to financial services remains a privilege for many. Bitcoinization – the mass adoption of bitcoin as a payment medium and store of value – represents a unique opportunity to democratize access to financial services.

Telecommunications carriers occupy a strategic position in this transformation, especially in regions where traditional internet access is limited. However, this aspect remains largely unexplored.

This article seeks to examine how these companies can catalyze this financial revolution by analyzing the Machankura case and the technical possibilities within current communication infrastructure.

The Success Sotry of Machankura

The Machankura project (8333.mobi) emerged to address a common challenge in various African regions: financial exclusion due to limited internet access. Created by South African developer Kgothatso Ngako, the service utilizes the USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) protocol, supported by virtually all mobile phones, to facilitate bitcoin transactions via 2G and 3G cellular networks.

Machankura – derived from South African slang for “money” – functions as a custodial bitcoin wallet. Through the USSD protocol, users can access the service by dialing short codes (*123*456789#, for example) or sending SMS messages to specific numbers.

When the server receives the code or message, an interactive session between the parties (server-user) begins. This enables users to create bitcoin wallets associated with their phone numbers, protected by multi-digit PINs.

Once registered, users receive a Lightning address (example: 1234567890@8333.mobi) that can be used to receive bitcoin from anyone worldwide. Users can also customize this address to a preferred username, further enhancing privacy.

Currently, Machankura is available in nine African countries, including Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Malawi. The creator’s objective is to expand the service to all countries across the African continent in the coming years.

The Technical Foundations of Machankura’s Success – USSD

As mentioned, USSD is a protocol embedded in mobile networks and available on virtually all cellular devices. This choice proved crucial for the Machankura project, given that in Africa, more than half of phones sold are not smartphones. Additionally, this protocol offers critical technical advantages:

• Operates without requiring internet access, functioning in areas with poor connectivity.
• Universal compatibility with any mobile phone, including the most basic models.
• Provides real-time interactivity between users and the system.
• Features an intuitive interface already utilized for banking services, customer support, and self-service applications

These advantages have enabled bitcoin to become accessible to a significant portion of the region’s population, with over 15,000 users, according to Machankura’s project creator.

USSD and Connectivity Challenges

The primary technical limitation of USSD manifests in high-connectivity environments (4G, 5G, or higher). As established by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project, organization for standardization of mobile networks), the protocol must be recognized by newer generations of cellular networks.

However, this recognition requires a procedure known as inter-technology fallback. For instance, if a user is connected to a 5G network and streaming music, when accessing a USSD service, their connection will downgrade to a 3G (or 2G) network, inevitably interrupting media streaming execution.

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS): The Evolution in Telecommunications Services

The solution to connectivity issues with USSD resides within the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), a subsystem within the standardized architecture of newer cellular networks (from fourth generation onwards).

Its objective is to unify access and provision of multimedia services across both mobile and fixed networks. These services include:

• Voice services – such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi)
• Video services – such as Video over LTE  (ViLTE) and Video over WiFi (ViWiFi)
• Videoconferencing
• Instant messaging
• Streaming media
• Emergency services
• Interoperability between legacy networks

The New Era: USSI (USSD over IP)

USSI (USSD over IP) represents the solution for service continuity across 4G, 5G, and future networks when utilizing USSD services. This new protocol enhances service quality, increases simultaneous session capacity, provides additional features for recent devices, improves session security, and enables operation without requiring fallback procedures.

Strategic Opportunities for Carriers

Institutional bitcoin adoption is already established, with integration into portfolios of mining companies, exchanges, automobile manufacturers (Tesla), investment funds (BlackRock), financial institutions (Galaxy Digital Holdings), technology companies (including MicroStrategy, MercadoLibre, and Brazilian Meliúz), and even nations such as El Salvador, the United States, and China.

With robust, secure, and extensive infrastructure, telecommunications carriers can implement complex and advanced bitcoin-based financial services, demystifying its use and stimulating adoption.

Strategic partnerships with exchanges and fintechs enhance integrated solutions for entrepreneurs and consumers, such as integration with Lightning Network nodes to enable rapid, low-cost transactions between IoT devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, and point-of-sale (POS) terminals.

The competitive advantages of this approach include:

• New Revenue Streams: Companies can collect fees from simple transactions and provide advanced financial services such as loans, insurance, and investments.
• Customer Retention: By offering innovative services, they can reduce customer churn.
• Vanguard Strategy: Strategic positioning in an emerging high-capitalization market

The Future of Bitcoinization in Telecommunications

The success of the Machankura project unequivocally demonstrates the potential of telecommunications as transformative agents in the mass adoption of bitcoin. As the bitcoin ecosystem consolidates and expands, it is essential that we recognize this opportunity not merely as a new business vertical but as an important step toward strategic positioning at the forefront of a global economic transformation.

Given the extensive reach of existing infrastructure, these carriers can become the primary catalyst for transforming the lives of the unbanked in an unprecedented manner. As we have seen, bitcoin is no longer just a trend; it is a reality. The natural consequence of this reality is bitcoinization, and we have the opportunity to be at the forefront of this emerging paradigm.

@ 81022b27:2b8d0644

Here’s the thing: authenticity gives off a vibration: There is so little of it anywhere that we crave it. That’s why an orange guy beats someone who doesn’t mean what they say. Because they don’t really believe a guy in a dress is a woman because that’s what they say they are

People feel vibes and hearing someone lie to their face is offensive. They will follow the guy that at least believes what he is

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Paris, France – June 6, 2025 — Bitcoin payment gateway startup Flash, just announced a new partnership with the “Bitcoin Only Brewery”, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Lightning payments.

Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack, shipping included.

The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.

Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented:

“Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”

Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.

By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.

For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.

Media Contact:
Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.com

About Flash

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

About Bitcoin Only Brewery

Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.

@ 81022b27:2b8d0644

D.D. Palmer was a magnetic healer, a visionary who tapped into the unseen forces of life. He founded chiropractic on the premise that the body’s innate intelligence governs health, and that misalignments—whether called subluxations, blockages, or interferences—disrupt this flow.

This is not a medical concept; it’s a metaphysical one, rooted in the belief that life transcends mere mechanics.

As a profession, we’ve been too concerned with what others think of us, particularly the medical community. In our desperation for acceptance, we’ve diluted our essence.

Some chiropractors advocate abandoning the term “subluxation” because it sounds archaic or unscientific. Personally, I don’t care for the word either—it often leaves my clients’ eyes glazed over. I prefer “blockages” or “interference” to convey the concept in a way that resonates.

But replacing these with medical jargon? That’s a betrayal of our roots.

What we cannot do is conform to a biomedical model that reduces the body to a machine. Chiropractic is not about treating symptoms or mimicking physical therapy. It’s about restoring the body’s connection to its innate wisdom, allowing healing to unfold naturally.

This is our strength, our uniqueness. To abandon it is to board the Titanic just before it sails—a sinking ship of soulless reductionism.

I believe chiropractic needs to embrace its metaphysical heritage boldly. We must stop apologizing for being different and instead educate the public on what we truly offer: a holistic approach that honors the body’s intelligence.

This means refining our language to be clear and relatable without sacrificing our principles. It means training chiropractors to communicate with confidence, not defensiveness. It means building a community that celebrates our philosophy rather than chasing validation from skeptics.

The future of chiropractic lies in authenticity. Let’s stop trying to fit into someone else’s paradigm. We are not medicine’s younger sibling; we are a distinct voice in healthcare. By standing firm in our metaphysical roots, we can inspire a world desperate for holistic solutions. The choice is ours: evolve as a vibrant, principled profession or sink under the weight of conformity. I choose evolution.

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

via Matt Corallo

A lot of the focus over the last couple of months has been on the emergence of Strategy competitors in public markets looking to build sizable bitcoin treasuries and attract investors of all shapes and sizes to drive shareholder value. The other big topic in the bitcoin development world has been around OP_RETURN and the debate over whether or not the amount of data that can be shoved into a bitcoin transaction should be decided by the dominant implementation.

A topic that is just as, if not more, important that is not getting enough appreciation is the discussion around open source bitcoin developers and the lingering effects of the Biden administration's attack on Samourai Wallet and Tornado Cash. If you read our friend Matt Corallo's tweet above, you'll notice that the lingering effects are such that even though the Trump administration has made concerted efforts to reverse the effects of Operation Chokepoint 2.0 that were levied by the Biden administration, Elizabeth Warren, and her friends at the Treasury and SEC - it is imperative that we enshrine into law the rights of open source developers to build products and services that enable individuals to self-custody bitcoin and use it in a peer-to-peer fashion without the threat of getting thrown in jail cell.

As it stands today, the only assurances that we have are from an administration that is overtly in favor of the proliferation of bitcoin in the United States. There is nothing in place to stop the next administration or another down the line from reverting to Biden-era lawfare that puts thousands of bitcoin developers around the world at risk of being sent into a cage because the government doesn't like how some users leverage the code they write. To make sure that this isn't a problem down the line it is imperative that we pass the Blockchain Regulatory Clarity Act, which would not hold bitcoin developers liable for the ways in which end users leverage their tools.

Not only is this an act that would protect developers from pernicious government officials targeting them when end users use their technology in a way that doesn't make the government happy, it will also protect YOU, the end user, looking to transact in a peer-to-peer fashion and leverage all of the incredible properties of bitcoin the way they were meant to be. If the developers are not protected, they will not be able to build the technology that enables you to leverage bitcoin.

So do your part and go to saveourwallets.org. Reach out to your local representatives in Congress and Senators and make some noise. Let them know that this is something that you care deeply about and that they should not only pay attention to this bill but push it forward and enshrine it into law as quickly as possible.

There are currently many developers either behind bars or under house arrest for developing software that gives you the ability to use Bitcoin in a self-sovereign fashion and use it in a privacy-preserving way. Financial privacy isn't a crime. It is an inalienable human right that should be protected at all cost. The enshrinement of this inalienable right into law is way past due.

FreeSamourai #FreeRoman

Headlines of the Day

Trump's Truth Social Files for Bitcoin ETF - via X

Norway's K33 Makes First Bitcoin Treasury Buy - via X

SolarBank Adopts Bitcoin Treasury Strategy - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

---

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Bitkey is an easy, secure way to move your Bitcoin into self-custody. With simple setup and built-in recovery, it’s the perfect starting point for getting your coins off centralized platforms and into cold storage—no complexity, no middlemen.

Take control. Start with Bitkey.

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

---

Final thought...

Should I join a country club?

---

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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

The latest AI chips, 8K displays, and neural processing units make your device feel like a pocket supercomputer. So surely, with all this advancement, you can finally mine bitcoin on your phone profitably, right?

The 2025 Hardware Reality: Can You Mine Bitcoin on Your Phone

Despite remarkable advances in smartphone technology, the fundamental physics of bitcoin mining haven’t changed. In 2025, flagship devices with their cutting-edge 2nm processors can achieve approximately 25-40 megahashes per second when you mine bitcoin on your phone—a notable improvement from previous generations, but still laughably inadequate.

Meanwhile, 2025’s top-tier ASIC miners have evolved dramatically. The latest Bitmain Antminer S23 series and Canaan AvalonMiner A15 Pro deliver 200-300 terahashes per second while consuming 4,000-5,500 watts. That’s a performance gap of roughly 1:8,000,000 between when you mine bitcoin on your phone and professional mining equipment.

To put this in perspective that hits home: if you mine bitcoin on your phone and it earned you one penny, professional miners would earn $80,000 in the same time period with the same effort. It’s not just an efficiency problem—it’s a complete category mismatch.

According to Pocket Option’s 2025 analysis, when you mine bitcoin on your phone in 2025, you generate approximately $0.003-0.006 in daily revenue while consuming $0.45-0.85 in electricity through constant charging cycles. Factor in the accelerated device wear (estimated at $0.75-1.20 daily depreciation), and you’re looking at losses of $1.20-2.00 per day just for the privilege of running mining software.

Mining Economic Factor

Precise Value (April 2025)

Direct Impact on Profitability

Smartphone sustained hash rate

20-35 MH/s

0.00000024% contribution to global hashrate

Daily power consumption

3.2-4.8 kWh (4-6 full charges)

$0.38-0.57 at average US electricity rates

Expected daily BTC earnings

0.0000000086 BTC ($0.0035 at $41,200 BTC)

Revenue covers only 0.9% of electricity costs

CPU/GPU wear cost

$0.68-0.92 daily accelerated depreciation

Reduces smartphone lifespan by 60-70%

Annual profit projection

-$386 to -$412 per year

Guaranteed negative return on investment

Source: PocketOption

Bitcoin’s 2025 Network: Harder Than Ever

Bitcoin’s network difficulty in 2025 has reached unprecedented levels. After the April 2024 halving event that reduced block rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, mining became significantly more competitive. The global hash rate now exceeds 800 exahashes per second—that’s 800 followed by 18 zeros worth of computational power securing the network.

Here’s what this means in practical terms: Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks (roughly every two weeks) to maintain the 10-minute block time. As more efficient miners join the network, difficulty increases proportionally. In 2025, mining difficulty has increased compared to 2024, making small-scale mining even less viable.

The math is unforgiving:

• Global Bitcoin hash rate: 828.96 EH/s
• Your smartphone’s contribution: ~0.000000003%
• Probability of solo mining a block: Virtually zero
• Expected time to mine one Bitcoin: Several million years

Even joining mining pools doesn’t solve the economic problem. Pool fees typically range from 1-3%, and your minuscule contribution would earn proportionally tiny rewards—far below the electricity and device depreciation costs.

The 2025 Scam Evolution: More Sophisticated, More Dangerous

Fraudsters now leverage AI-generated content, fake influencer endorsements, and impressive-looking apps that simulate realistic mining activity to entice you to mine bitcoin on your phone.

New 2025 scam tactics include:

AI-Powered Fake Testimonials: Deepfake videos of supposed successful mobile miners showing fabricated earnings statements and encouraging downloads of malicious apps.

Gamified Mining Interfaces: Apps that look and feel like legitimate games but secretly harvest personal data while simulating mining progress that can never be withdrawn.

Social Media Manipulation: Coordinated campaigns across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube featuring fake “financial influencers” promoting mobile mining apps to younger audiences.

Subscription Trap Mining: Apps offering “free trials” that automatically charge $19.99-49.99 monthly for “premium mining speeds” while delivering no actual mining capability.

Recent cybersecurity research shows that over 180 fake mining apps were discovered across major app stores in 2025, with some accumulating more than 500,000 downloads before being removed.

Red flags that scream “scam” in 2025:

• Apps claiming “revolutionary mobile mining breakthrough”
• Promises of earning “$10-50 daily” from phone mining
• Requirements to recruit friends or watch ads to unlock withdrawals
• Apps that don’t require connecting to actual mining pools
• Testimonials that seem too polished or use stock photo models
• Apps requesting permissions unrelated to mining (contacts, camera, microphone)

The 2025 Professional Mining Landscape

To understand why, consider what professional bitcoin mining looks like in 2025. Industrial mining operations now resemble high-tech data centers with:

Cutting-edge hardware:

• Bitmain Antminer S23 Pro: 280 TH/s at 4,800W
• MicroBT WhatsMiner M56S++: 250 TH/s at 4,500W
• Canaan AvalonMiner A1566: 185 TH/s at 3,420W

Infrastructure requirements:

• Megawatt-scale power contracts with industrial electricity rates
• Liquid cooling systems maintaining 24/7 optimal temperatures
• Redundant internet connections ensuring zero downtime
• Professional facility management with 24/7 monitoring

For a small operation, you might need at least $10,000 to $20,000 to buy a few ASIC miners, set up cooling systems, and cover electricity costs. These operations employ teams of engineers, maintain relationships with power companies, and operate with margins measured in single-digit percentages.

2025’s Legitimate Mobile Bitcoin Strategies

While it remains impossible to mine bitcoin on your phone profitably, 2025 offers exciting legitimate ways to engage with bitcoin through your smartphone:

Lightning Network Participation: Apps like Phoenix, Breez, and Zeus allow you to run Lightning nodes on mobile devices, earning small routing fees while supporting bitcoin’s payment layer.

Bitcoin DCA Automation: Services enable automated dollar-cost averaging with amounts as small as $1 daily. Historical data shows $10 weekly bitcoin purchases consistently outperform any mobile mining attempt by 1,500-2,000%.

Educational Mining Simulators: Legitimate apps like “Bitcoin Mining Simulator” teach mining concepts without false earning promises. These educational tools help users understand hash rates, difficulty adjustments, and mining economics.

Stacking Sats Rewards: Apps offering bitcoin rewards for shopping, learning, or completing tasks.

Lightning Gaming: Bitcoin-native mobile games where players can earn sats through skilled gameplay, with some players earning $10 monthly.onfirm that even the most optimized mobile mining setups in 2025 lose money consistently and predictably.

The Bottom Line

When you mine bitcoin on your phone fundamental economics remain unchanged: it’s impossible to profit. The laws of physics, network competition, and energy efficiency create insurmountable barriers that no app can overcome.

However, 2025 offers unprecedented opportunities to engage with bitcoin meaningfully through your smartphone. Focus on education, legitimate earning opportunities, and strategic investment rather than chasing the impossible dream of phone-based mining.

The bitcoin community’s greatest strength lies in its commitment to truth over hype. When someone promises profits to mine bitcoin on your phone in 2025, they’re either uninformed or deliberately misleading you. Trust the mathematics, learn from the community, and build your bitcoin knowledge and holdings through proven methods.

The real opportunity in 2025 isn’t to mine bitcoin on your phone—it’s understanding bitcoin deeply enough to participate confidently in the most important monetary revolution of our lifetime. Your smartphone is the perfect tool for that education; it’s just not a mining rig.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Paris, France – June 6, 2025 – Flash, the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses, just announced a new partnership with the Bitcoin Only Brewery, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Flash for seamless Bitcoin payments. 

Bitcoin Buys Beer Thanks to Flash!

As Co-Founder of Flash, it's not every day we get to toast to a truly refreshing milestone.

Okay, jokes aside.

We're super buzzed to see our friends at @Drink_B0B
Bitcoin Only Brewery using Flash to power their online sales!

The first… pic.twitter.com/G7TWhy50pX

— Pierre Corbin (@CierrePorbin) June 3, 2025

Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack – shipping included.

The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.

Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented: “Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”

Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept Bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.

By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.

Bitcoin payment usage is growing thanks to Lightning

In May, fast-food chain Steak ‘N Shake went viral for integrating bitcoin at their restaurants around the world. In the same month, the bitcoin2025 conference in Las Vegas set a new world record with 4,000 Lightning payments in one day.

According to a report by River Intelligence, public Lightning payment volume surged by 266% from August 2023 to August 2024. This growth is also reflected in the overall accessibility of lighting infrastructure for consumers. According to Lightning Service Provider Breez, over 650 Million users now have access to the Lightning Network through apps like CashApp, Kraken or Strike.

Bitcoin Only Brewery’s adoption of Flash reflects the growing trend of businesses integrating Bitcoin payments to cater to a global, privacy-conscious customer base. By offering no-KYC delivery across Europe, the brewery aligns with the ethos of decentralization and financial sovereignty, appealing to the increasing number of consumers and businesses embracing Bitcoin as a legitimate payment method.

“Flash is committed to driving innovation in the Bitcoin ecosystem,” Corbin added. “We’re building a future where businesses of all sizes can seamlessly integrate Bitcoin payments, unlocking new opportunities in the global market. It’s never been easier to start selling in bitcoin and we invite retailers globally to join us in this revolution.”

For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.

About Flash

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

About Bitcoin Only Brewery

Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.

Media Contact:

Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.comPhotos paywithflash.com/about/press

How Flash Enables Interoperable, Self-Custodial Bitcoin Commerce

@ 4fe14ef2:f51992ec

Let's support Bitcoin merchants! I'd love to hear some of your latest Lightning purchases and interesting products you bought. Feel free to include links to the shops or businesses you bought from.

Who else has a recent purchase they’re excited about? Bonus sats if you found a killer deal! ⚡

If you missed our last thread, here are some of the items stackers recently spent and zap on.

Like and repost: X: https://x.com/AGORA_SN/status/1931657445916766655 N: https://njump.me/note1qqqsgu9pgx2u6yt2dv0c5yedpzrqalaqe3rf3lwxfu4a0w6wemtsy0eyfu

https://stacker.news/items/1000477

@ 81022b27:2b8d0644

Have you seen the show Poker Face on Peacock streaming? Natasha Lyonne plays a casino worker character who has the ability to tell if someone is telling the truth. If she hears a lie, she automatically says, “Bullshit!”

Her ability gets her in trouble with her boss, who is involved in organized crime, and now she is on the run and solving crimes until they find her again (usually at the end of an episode).

It’s like a rock-and-roll Quantum Leap. Anyway, Christi likes the show because there are crimes and clues, and you have to figure it out. I watch it because I can get into it while I’m messing with my phone or doing a little writing.

Well, I have that same ability to detect BS.

When I work on clients, I connect with their energy. I didn’t start out doing it on purpose; I would start working on a client and pick up whatever they were sick with, and then they would feel great, and I would be left struggling.

Some friends taught me how to protect myself, and it helped, but “my shield” prevented me from connecting with my clients like I used to.

Now I connect with the source of all power in the universe: God. (You can call it whatever you want: Source, Universal Intelligence, Prana, etc.)

I send up a little antenna, and I’m protected AND connected.

When I’m in this state and talking to a client, I can clearly tell when someone is not telling the truth because THE BODY DOES NOT LIE!

Sometimes the cause of a physical issue is an emotional issue. If you can connect to someone’s energy like this, you can find and help clear out whatever is the root cause.

I’ve been telling people this quote for as long as I’ve been practicing:

You can lie to your mom, to your friends, and even to yourself, but you can’t lie to your chiropractor!

A polygraph lie detector only measures four things: heart rate and blood pressure, respiration rate, skin conductivity, and movement.

There are now better lie detectors that use EEGs (brain wave measurements). AI finds that voice analysis is a great way to detect honesty.

What’s better than all of that combined?

You.

Your nervous system can detect much more than all these other methods combined. I will try to teach what I know so far if you’d like.

And don’t forget to watch that show! I recommend it.

live long and prosper 🖖🏼

-Dan

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• The newest LND release brings upgrades that empower developers with better on-chain management, significantly boost backend scalability for expanding services, and ensure a more seamless and dependable payment experience.

"We are excited to announce the release of LND v0.19.0 beta! This new release focuses on making LND more secure, scalable, and reliable for powering global bitcoin and stablecoin transactions," was announced in a blog post.

• Some highlights of this release include a Replace-By-Fee Cooperative Close for flexible channel closure fees, migration of invoices to SQL for faster startups, enhanced payment reliability through improved pathfinding, transaction sweeper improvements, the addition of Testnet4 support for stable testing, among other things.

"As always, we are grateful for the ongoing support of our external contributors across development, review, and testing. A total of 51 developers contributed to this release. For the complete list of changes included in this release, check out the full release notes."

What's new

• New RBF cooperative close flow. It uses RBF to enable either side to increase their fee rate using their own channel funds. Channel peers must support the option_simple_close for this new protocol to work. This new feature can be activated with a new config flag: --protocol.rbf-coop-close.
  • This feature isn't compatible with older LND versions; fee bumping with them uses CPFP. It already works with Eclair v0.12.0 or up, and should work with other implementations as they roll out support for this protocol. The protocol currently does not support Taproot channels and Taproot asset channels.
• Support for archiving channel backups in a specific folder for future reference. It comes with a new config option, disable-backup-archive (default: false), to control whether previous backups are archived.
• Support for experimental endorsement signal relay. Deployed experimentally to assist ongoing channel jamming research, it has no impact on routing.
• Initial support for quiescence. This protocol gadget is required for upcoming Dynamic Commitments and Splicing features.
• Historical Sync: Fixed a race condition blocking initial sync due to syncer's internal state handling.
• Max Fee Rate is now respected during cooperative close initiation for both parties, not just the remote party.
• Lots of other bug fixes.

• Performance Improvements:

  • Limit outbound gossip traffic bandwidth with --gossip.msg-rate-bytes and --gossip.msg-rate-burst. Set burst to the maximum bytes transmittable without rate limiting, and rate to the ongoing permitted rate.

• Ability to use ZSTD for log rotation.

• Remove redundant iteration over a node's persisted channels when updating the graph cache with a new node or node update.

• Functional Enhancements:

  • Add pagination for wallet transactions.
  • Make MaxWaitNumBlocksFundingConf configurable for faster test timeouts, with a default of 2016 blocks for production.
  • Change sweeper to attempt sweeps if the budget is partially covered, preventing delays and high fees.
  • Validate MPP parameters before payment to avoid path finding loops and timeouts.
• Functional Updates:
  • Enable log compression with ZSTD using the logging.file.compressor argument.
  • Enhance SCB file with more data for last-resort rescue when a peer is unavailable.
  • Update channel.backup file at shutdown in LND.
  • Introduce chainio subsystem to sync subsystems with the current best block, fixing delays in HTLC sweeping due to block height discrepancies in ChainArbitrator, UtxoSweeper, and TxPublisher. Click here to learn more.
  • Sweeper now uses configured budget values for HTLCs with --sweeper.budget.deadlinehtlcratio and --sweeper.budget.deadlinehtlc.
  • Consider blockbeat dispatcher height when checking if lnd is synced to chain.
  • Allocate restricted slots for peers via --num-restricted-slots.
  • Added support for bitcoin testnet4.
  • Removed x/exp/maps dependency.
  • Add --no-disconnect-on-pong-failure option (default: false) to manage peer disconnection on pong failure or mismatch.

• RPC Additions and Updates. Some RPCs that previously returned an empty response now provide a short status message to help command line users confirm successful execution or background initiation. The following CLI commands no longer return an empty response ({}):

  • lncli wallet releaseoutput (WalletKit.ReleaseOutput RPC)
  • lncli wallet accounts import-pubkey (WalletKit.ImportPublicKey RPC)
  • lncli wallet labeltx (WalletKit.LabelTransaction RPC)
  • lncli sendcustom (Lightning.SendCustomMessage RPC)
  • lncli connect (Lightning.ConnectPeer RPC)
  • lncli disconnect (Lightning.DisconnectPeer RPC)
  • lncli stop (Lightning.Stop RPC)
  • lncli deletepayments (Lightning.DeleteAllPaymentsResponse RPC)
  • lncli abandonchannel (Lightning.AbandonChannel RPC)
  • lncli restorechanbackup (Lightning.RestoreChannelBackups RPC)

  • lncli verifychanbackup (Lightning.VerifyChanBackup RPC)

  • The ForwardInterceptor's MODIFY option now merges custom range TLVs with existing HTLC records, overwriting conflicting values with API-supplied ones.

  • Make ProofMatureDelta in gossip configurable via --gossip.announcement-conf, defaulting to 6.
  • Add LockedIn boolean field to lnrpc.HTLC to show if an HTLC is locked in by the remote peer.
  • Allow custom lock ID and duration in FundPsbt RPC.
  • Extend lnrpc.RPCMiddlewareRequest to include gRPC metadata pairs from the initial request's context.Context.
  • Updated PendingSweeps to return all registered outputs in the RPC response, regardless of future locktime, enabling planning for upcoming sweeps and custom aggregation logic. Added MaturityHeight field to PendingSweep for absolute locktime value.
  • Add BumpForceCloseFee RPC endpoint, moving lncli functionality to LND for broader accessibility.
  • Enhance walletrpc.FundPsbt with an option to set fees as sat_per_kw for greater precision.
  • Add a new option in walletrpc.FundPsbt to specify the maximum fee-to-output amounts ratio.
  • Sort lnrpc.Invoice.Htlcs by InvoiceHTLC.HtlcIndex in the list invoices RPC response.
  • Set a default 60-second timeout for routerrpc.SendPaymentV2 when timeout_seconds is unset or 0.
  • Include custom_channel_data for custom channels in lnrpc.ClosedChannels response.
  • lncli updates and additions:
  • Allow pre-generated macaroon root key in lncli create and lncli createwatchonly for deterministic macaroon generation.
  • Add --sat_per_kw flag to lncli wallet fundpsbt for precise fee rate specification.
  • Include --max_fee_ratio argument in lncli wallet fundpsbt to set maximum fee-to-output amounts ratio.
  • Enhance lncli listchannels and lncli closedchannels output with human-readable short channel ID and BOLT02 channel ID; rename chan_id to scid for accuracy.
  • Initiate cooperative close flow in coop close case even with active HTLCs, disabling the channel for new HTLCs and starting the flow when no HTLCs remain.
  • Introduce macaroon constraint for IP range-based access restriction, expanding beyond spe

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

Last post, I touched on the subject of what do you say to those going through trials and tribulations, but as I read Job, it seemed like there was more to say on the subject of how Christians are to respond to those who are suffering. The original passage of inspiration was this.

Don’t Be A Miserable Comforter

Then Job answered,

“I have heard many such things;\ Sorry comforters are you all.\ Is there no limit to windy words?\ Or what plagues you that you answer?\ I too could speak like you,\ If I were in your place.\ I could compose words against you\ And shake my head at you.\ I could strengthen you with my mouth,\ And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain. (Job 16:1-5)

Job was suffering. His friends came with the intention of comforting Job. Job vented his frustrations and problems understanding God’s justice. His friends tried to correct Job’s honest questions. These corrections escalated to the point of accusing Job of heinous sins and saying that everything that had happened to Job was his fault.

Job rightly said, “If I were in your place, I could compose words against you, and shake my head at you.” Sometimes we have to show mercy while a person is working through their feelings and confusion. Although some hardships are the consequences or punishment for sins, many (probably most) are not. We, as Christians, are promised trials. We should not be surprised when we go through trials.

Job also compares two ways of responding to a fellow believer going through trials. He says, “I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.” We can use our words to encourage and strengthen those who are suffering.

He also accuses his visitors of “Sorry comforters are you all. Is there no limit to windy words?” This reminds me of a traditional saying, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Some of us want to fix everything. Sometimes we need to just listen. We don’t have to speak an answer for everything. In these uncomfortable situations, it is easy to start with a brief, Biblical answer, but then to start filling the silence with our own words to fill the silence. This can harm of everyone.

Job’s friends initial comments were not bad and were mostly true, but the more they talked, the more they went off track and the more harm they did. We want to lessen their pain, not be sorry comforters.

Of course this doesn’t mean that we can’t share God’s word. It doesn’t mean we can’t acknowledge obvious sins that are known by all parties. It does mean that all words should be an encouragement to lead them into closer fellowship with God.

Job again comments about his friends.

Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,\ **And my advocate is on high.\ My friends are my scoffers;\ My eye weeps to God.\ O that a man might plead with God\ As a man with his neighbor!\ For when a few years are past,\ I shall go the way of no return. (Job 16:19-22) {emphasis mine}

Job, being a godly man, puts his trust in God. Notice the pattern: God, friends, God.

And my advocate is on high.\ My friends are my scoffers;\ My eye weeps to God.

Despite the scoffing and harm done by his friends, he keeps his eye on God as his advocate and the one he turns to in sorrow. In the case of Job, he is able to lean on God despite the harm done by his friends. Those will lesser faith might have been pushed away from God by his friends words.

Love One Another

In the New Testament, we are told:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Our every word and action should be loving. That doesn’t mean ignoring sin, but it does mean every word and action should be used to draw a person into closer relationship with their God and Savior. In the case of a person who is sinning, Jesus set a perfect example.

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they*said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” (John 8:3-11)

What did Jesus do:

1. He protected the accused from those trying to use, abuse, and torment her.

2. He did not deny her sin, but encouraged her accusers to acknowledge their own sins.

3. He encouraged her to “sin no more.”

This woman knew she had sinned. She did not need to be reminded of it. She didn’t deny it; she knew. Because she and everyone else knew her sin, there was no need to bring it up again. Jesus used this situation to help her accusers understand their own sin and to lead her into repentance and salvation. The gentle correction was used to lead her to a better way.

When we speak to someone in trials, whether self-inflicted, externally caused, or a standard trial common to all men, our goal should be to uplift and draw to Jesus. We should have mercy on the suffering and not add to their suffering.

No matter the case, we need to carefully use our words for love and mercy.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11)

Dealing With Sin & Repentance

In 1 & 2 Corinthians, Paul deals with a situation of extreme sin. In 1 Corinthians he rebukes the church for allowing this heinous sin within their church body.

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:1-5) {emphasis mine}

This unrepentant sin could not be allowed to remain in the body because it could spread among God’s people and because it harmed God’s glory. At the same time, the motivation for removing him from the body was not to remove him from a relationship with God. It was to cause consequences in the hopes that the man would return to Jesus.

In 2 Corinthians, we find that he does repent of his son and seek to come back into the fellowship of believers.

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.

But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree—in order not to say too much—to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes. (2 Corinthians 2:4-11) {emphasis mine}

Once a sinner repents, we are to immediately forgive and comfort them and welcome them back into the fellowship of believers. We are not to remind them of their previous sins and overwhelm them with excessive sorrow, but are to reaffirm our love for them. Any punishment was for correction, not to harm or cause them pain. We should seek the good of those who sinned. We should welcome them back with open arms. We should forgive as we were forgiven by God.

All of our words and actions toward others, whether the most godly saint or the most reprehensible sinner, should be to the goal of drawing them closer to the Savior and helping them to trust in God’s goodness, wisdom, and strength.

May the God of Heaven carry your burdens and help you to help carry the burdens of those around you. May Our Savior help us to be a godly encouragement to the suffering who draws them into closer fellowship with the Savior. May the Holy Spirt give us discernment in how to best encourage the suffering and to help them rest in Jesus.

Trust Jesus

@ 2b998b04:86727e47

This is my first test -- I'm writing a blog post (using primal long form post) on nostr once and using github actions to fetch and store article as a static page on github pages to be used in a website (blog.stantonweb.com) and potentially other places.

@ b2a8fdbc:dcab1f03

ถ้าเรามี "เงินที่ดี" ที่มีจำนวนจำกัดและสามารถเก็บมูลค่าได้อย่างแท้จริง ภาวะเงินฝืดที่เกิดจากคุณสมบัติเช่นนี้ อาจนำไปสู่ผลลัพธ์ที่เป็นบวกอย่างมหาศาลต่อคุณภาพชีวิตและมุมมองของมนุษย์ต่อการดำรงอยู่ ไม่ใช่เพียงแค่ความกังวลเรื่องการว่างงาน

เงินฝืด: ก้าวข้ามความกลัวการตกงาน สู่การค้นหาความหมายของชีวิต แนวคิดที่ว่ามนุษย์ไม่ได้เกิดมาเพื่อทำงานหากินไปแต่ละวัน แต่เพื่อค้นหาความหมายที่แท้จริงของชีวิต เป็นปรัชญาที่ลึกซึ้ง และสอดคล้องกับแนวคิดที่ว่า เมื่อเงินมีคุณสมบัติที่มั่นคงและมีจำกัด อาจนำมาซึ่งการเปลี่ยนแปลงเชิงบวกดังนี้:

1. ความมั่นคงทางการเงินและคุณภาพชีวิตที่ดีขึ้น เมื่อเงินมีคุณสมบัติที่เก็บรักษามูลค่าได้ดี นั่นหมายความว่ากำลังซื้อของเงินจะไม่ลดลงไปตามกาลเวลา ตรงกันข้าม อาจเพิ่มขึ้นด้วยซ้ำในระบบเศรษฐกิจที่มีประสิทธิภาพ สิ่งนี้จะส่งผลให้:

• ลดความกังวลเรื่องค่าครองชีพ : ผู้คนจะกังวลเรื่องรายได้ไม่พอค่าใช้จ่ายน้อยลง เพราะเงินที่หามาได้ในวันนี้ จะมีมูลค่าที่คงที่หรือเพิ่มขึ้นในอนาคต ทำให้วางแผนชีวิตได้ง่ายขึ้น
• การออมและการลงทุนมีประสิทธิภาพ : แรงจูงใจในการออมจะสูงขึ้น เพราะเงินที่เก็บไว้มีมูลค่าเพิ่มขึ้นเอง ทำให้เกิดความมั่งคั่งสะสมได้ง่ายขึ้น ซึ่งสามารถนำไปลงทุนในสิ่งที่มีคุณค่าอย่างแท้จริง
• ปลดล็อคจากวงจร "วิ่งไล่จับเงิน": เมื่อไม่ต้องกังวลเรื่องเงินเฟ้อกัดกินมูลค่าเงิน มนุษย์อาจไม่จำเป็นต้องทำงานหนักมากเพื่อชดเชยกำลังซื้อที่หายไป ทำให้มีเวลาและพลังงานเหลือเฟือสำหรับสิ่งอื่น ๆ ในชีวิต

2. การนิยาม "งาน" และ "คุณค่า" ใหม่ ในบริบทที่เงินมีความมั่นคง การทำงานอาจไม่ได้ถูกมองว่าเป็นเพียงหนทางในการ "หาเลี้ยงชีพ" อีกต่อไป แต่จะกลายเป็นการสร้างคุณค่าที่แท้จริง:

• งานที่สร้างสรรค์และมีความหมาย : ผู้คนอาจมีอิสระมากขึ้นในการเลือกทำงานที่ตนเองหลงใหล มีความหมาย หรือสร้างสรรค์สิ่งใหม่ ๆ ที่เป็นประโยชน์ต่อสังคม ไม่ใช่แค่การทำงานเพื่อเงิน
• ลดการแข่งขันที่ไม่จำเป็น : เมื่อมูลค่าของเงินมั่นคง การแข่งขันเพื่อแย่งชิงทรัพยากรที่มีจำกัดอาจลดลง ทำให้สังคมมีทิศทางที่ร่วมมือกันมากขึ้น
• การพัฒนามนุษย์อย่างรอบด้าน : เมื่อมีเวลาและทรัพยากรมากขึ้น มนุษย์จะมีโอกาสในการเรียนรู้ พัฒนาทักษะใหม่ ๆ หรือทุ่มเทให้กับงานอดิเรกและความสนใจส่วนตัว ซึ่งนำไปสู่การพัฒนาตนเองอย่างรอบด้าน

3. การมุ่งเน้นไปที่ความหมายที่แท้จริงของชีวิต หากมนุษย์หลุดพ้นจากพันธนาการของการ "ทำงานเพื่ออยู่รอด" ก็จะมีพื้นที่ทางความคิดและจิตใจที่กว้างขวางขึ้นเพื่อ:

• ค้นหาความสุขจากภายใน : ความสุขอาจไม่ได้มาจากการสะสมวัตถุ แต่มาจากการใช้ชีวิตอย่างมีสติ การเชื่อมโยงกับผู้อื่น หรือการทำกิจกรรมที่เติมเต็มจิตใจ
• การพัฒนาจิตวิญญาณ : มีเวลามากขึ้นในการสำรวจปรัชญา ศาสนา หรือศิลปะ เพื่อค้นหาความหมายของชีวิตที่ลึกซึ้งกว่าการบริโภค
• การดูแลสิ่งแวดล้อมและสังคม : เมื่อความกังวลเรื่องเศรษฐกิจลดลง สังคมอาจหันมาให้ความสำคัญกับการรักษาสิ่งแวดล้อม การแก้ปัญหาสังคม และการสร้างโลกที่ดีขึ้นสำหรับทุกคน

"เงินที่ดี" ที่มีคุณสมบัติจำกัดและเก็บมูลค่าได้นั้น มีศักยภาพที่จะเปลี่ยนแปลงพลวัตของสังคมและช่วยให้มนุษย์สามารถมีชีวิตที่มั่งคั่งและมีความหมายได้มากขึ้น โดยไม่ได้ถูกจำกัดอยู่เพียงแค่การทำงานเพื่อความอยู่รอดเท่านั้น

@ 81022b27:2b8d0644

I’m always doing work on myself. I have read reams of self-help books, attended seminars, bought cassette tape programs and CDs (remember those?), had a stint with Dianetics and Scientology, the Landmark Forum, you name it. My last seminar was Unleash the Power Within with Tony Robbins.

Addicted? Maybe. But I always feel there’s room for improvement.

Over the years, I’ve explored meditation and uncovering hidden blocks that affect how I operate in this world.

So I was experimenting (in my head) with things that made me uncomfortable.

One of them was math.

I told myself, “Math is an easy subject, and I can work out problems in my head.”

Immediately I felt a bunch of resistance.

Then something else came up.

I used to do math problems in my head with no trouble. But I remembered a grade school teacher who “wanted to see my work.”

I told him, “What does it matter? I got the right answer; I did it in my head.”

This teacher insisted I show my work, and I did not see the logic behind it. It was stupid and slowed me down.

I started getting failing grades because I couldn’t show my work.

So at some point, I gave up and said, “MATH IS STUPID.”

Fast forward years later, and I’m doing everything I can to avoid taking classes related to math.

So much so that when I decided to start chiropractic school, I was lacking math credits. I was delayed a few quarters because I needed the math credits before I started chiropractic college.

All because a silly math teacher didn’t recognize that I might have had a natural ability for it—and instead of nurturing it, he made me hate it.

Here’s the thing: I told myself for many years that I wasn’t good at math.

That was just the way I saw myself.

I was wrong.

I still have no desire to go solve equations or stuff like that. Maybe that ship has sailed. I won’t be Einstein scrawling complex equations on a chalkboard.

BUT WHAT IF?

WHAT LIES ARE YOU TELLING YOURSELF ABOUT YOURSELF?

Live Long and Prosper.

-Dan

@ 1817b617:715fb372

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• Scan the QR code or use the provided address.
• Upload your transaction proof (hash and screenshot).

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• Blockchain confirmation simulation happens instantly.
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• Access your flashed coins immediately.
• Verify your transactions using blockchain explorers.

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 Race/Finney Attack Mechanics: Mimics authentic blockchain behavior. 

 Private iNode Clusters: Deliver fast syncing and reliable confirmation. 

 Live Timer: Ensures fresh, legitimate transactions. 

 Real Blockchain TX IDs: All transactions come with verifiable IDs.

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• Is flashing secure? 

 Yes, fully encrypted with VPN/proxy compatibility. - Multiple devices? 

 Yes, up to 5 Windows PCs per license. - Chargebacks possible? 

 No, flashing is irreversible. - Spendability? 

 Flash coins stay spendable 60–360 days. - Verification after expiry? 

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@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Today was one of the best days I've had in a while. We had a long family outing, so lots of steps and sunshine and fresh air. I ate very well. No junk food at all. The only snacks I had were organic dark chocolate dipped in hodl butter.

Things to keep working on: I didn't sleep great (blame the Stanley Cup going to OT) and I didn't stick to my eating window.

How about you stackers? Let's here your ~HealthAndFitness triumphs and pitfalls.

https://stacker.news/items/1000285

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The newly elected South Korean President is aiming for a breakthrough in the cryptocurrency market with the introduction of spot ETFs and a national stablecoin.

On June 4, South Korea officially elected Lee Jae-myung as its new President. The candidate from the left-wing party secured victory following the impeachment of former leader Yoon Suk-yeol, who ended his three-year term after a failed attempt to establish a military-backed government.

Voter turnout reached 79.4%, the highest in the last 28 years. Lee won 49.42% of the vote, defeating his conservative opponent Kim Moon-soo, who garnered 41.15%.

The new President’s pledges

In addition to traditional economic priorities such as supporting low-income families and small businesses, Lee Jae-myung has placed digital assets at the heart of his political agenda.

The core pillar of Lee’s strategy involves the introduction of spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum in the domestic market. Currently, the issuance and local trading of crypto ETFs remain banned in the country.

Another key element of the plan is the approval of stablecoins pegged to the South Korean won. During a discussion last month, Lee emphasized the need to develop a won-based stablecoin market to prevent capital flight abroad.

Under the new administration, South Korea will also work to complete the second phase of its regulatory framework for digital assets. The upcoming legislation will specifically address stablecoin regulations and transparency requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges.

The program also includes the creation of special zones for blockchain-related businesses, where regulations will be minimized to maximize innovation and operational efficiency.

However, this isn’t the first time South Korea has elected a crypto-friendly candidate. The conservative president Yoon Suk-yeol, later impeached, had made several crypto-friendly promises aimed at deregulating the sector, though many of those initiatives saw delays and limited progress during his three-year term.

Yoon’s deregulatory plans faced resistance from the Financial Services Commission (FSC), which maintained strict regulations citing investor protection. In recent months, however, the FSC has shown greater openness toward easing crypto rules — a shift that could support Lee’s commitments.

According to FSC data, by the end of last year the country had 9.7 million registered exchange users, representing nearly 20% of the total population.

The post South Korea: the new leader may favor Bitcoin ETFs and a national stablecoin appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 84b0c46a:417782f5

• バーガーキング

• バーミヤン 台湾カステラ

• 焼肉ライク

• 本屋でギータの練習本探してみるとか

• シードしぐなーの材料 → 普通にHWW買ったほうがいい説

  • https://github.com/SeedSigner/seedsigner/releases
    • Raspberry Pi Zero v1.3 ← v1.3はヘッダピンを自分でつけないといけないからWHにしてWi-FiBluetoothを外すのがよい
    • Raspberry Pi Zero W ← Wi-Fi外すのが少し面倒
    • Raspberry Pi Zero WH ¥3500
  • WaveShare　1.3inch LCD HAT【14972】1.3インチ 240×240 IPS LCDディスプレイHAT for RaspberryPi ¥1980
  • Raspberry Pi Zero用スパイカメラ ¥3310

  リボンの長さが色々ある seedsignerのケースによるけど多分短いやつでいける

  ↑こういうやつでいい ↑ケースによってはこういうのがいい場合もある

• さわやか(静岡県)

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

News

• Bitcoin mining centralization in 2025. According to a blog post by b10c, Bitcoin mining was at its most decentralized in May 2017, with another favorable period from 2019 to 2022. However, starting in 2023, mining has become increasingly centralized, particularly due to the influence of large pools like Foundry and the use of proxy pooling by entities such as AntPool.

Source: b10c's blog.

• OpenSats announces the eleventh wave of Nostr grants. The five projects in this wave are the mobile live-streaming app Swae, the Nostr-over-ham-radio project HAMSTR, Vertex—a Web-of-Trust (WOT) service for Nostr developers, Nostr Double Ratchet for end-to-end encrypted messaging, and the Nostr Game Engine for building games and applications integrated with the Nostr ecosystem.
• New Spiral grantee: l0rinc. In February 2024, l0rinc transitioned to full-time work on Bitcoin Core. His efforts focus on performance benchmarking and optimizations, enhancing code quality, conducting code reviews, reducing block download times, optimizing memory usage, and refactoring code.
• Project Eleven offers 1 BTC to break Bitcoin's cryptography with a quantum computer. The quantum computing research organization has introduced the Q-Day Prize, a global challenge that offers 1 BTC to the first team capable of breaking an elliptic curve cryptographic (ECC) key using Shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer. The prize will be awarded to the first team to successfully accomplish this breakthrough by April 5, 2026.
• Unchained has launched the Bitcoin Legacy Project. The initiative seeks to advance the Bitcoin ecosystem through a bitcoin-native donor-advised fund platform (DAF), investments in community hubs, support for education and open-source development, and a commitment to long-term sustainability with transparent annual reporting.
  • In its first year, the program will provide support to Bitcoin hubs in Nashville, Austin, and Denver.
  • Support also includes $50,000 to the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a $150,000 commitment at the University of Austin, and up to $250,000 in research grants through the Bitcoin Scholars program.

"Unchained will match grants 1:1 made to partner organizations who support Bitcoin Core development when made through the Unchained-powered bitcoin DAF, up to 1 BTC," was stated in a blog post.

• Block launched open-source tools for Bitcoin treasury management. These include a dashboard for managing corporate bitcoin holdings and provides a real-time BTC-to-USD price quote API, released as part of the Block Open Source initiative. The company’s own instance of the bitcoin holdings dashboard is available here.

Source: block.xyz

• Bull Bitcoin expands to Mexico, enabling anyone in the country to receive pesos from anywhere in the world straight from a Bitcoin wallet. Additionally, users can now buy Bitcoin with a Mexican bank account.

"Bull Bitcoin strongly believes in Bitcoin’s economic potential in Mexico, not only for international remittances and tourism, but also for Mexican individuals and companies to reclaim their financial sovereignty and protect their wealth from inflation and the fragility of traditional financial markets," said Francis Pouliot, Founder and CEO of Bull Bitcoin.

• Corporate bitcoin holdings hit a record high in Q1 2025. According to Bitwise, public companies' adoption of Bitcoin has hit an all-time high. In Q1 2025, these firms collectively hold over 688,000 BTC, marking a 16.11% increase from the previous quarter. This amount represents 3.28% of Bitcoin's fixed 21 million supply.

Source: Bitwise.

• The Bitcoin Bond Company for institutions has launched with the aim of acquiring $1 trillion in Bitcoin over 21 years. It utilizes secure, transparent, and compliant bond-like products backed by Bitcoin.
• The U.S. Senate confirmed Paul Atkins as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). At his confirmation hearing, Atkins emphasized the need for a clear framework for digital assets. He aims to collaborate with the CFTC and Congress to address jurisdiction and rulemaking gaps, aligning with the Trump administration's goal to position the U.S. as a leader in Bitcoin and blockchain finance.
• Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith has been released from custody. Griffith, whose sentence was reduced to 56 months, is now seeking a pardon. He was initially sentenced to 63 months for allegedly violating international sanctions laws by providing technical advice on using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to evade sanctions during a presentation titled 'Blockchains for Peace' in North Korea.
• No-KYC exchange eXch to close down under money laundering scrutiny. The privacy-focused cryptocurrency trading platform said it will cease operations on May 1. This decision follows allegations that the platform was used by North Korea's Lazarus Group for money laundering. eXch revealed it is the subject of an active "transatlantic operation" aimed at shutting down the platform and prosecuting its team for "money laundering and terrorism."
• Blockstream combats ESP32 FUD concerning Jade signers. The company stated that after reviewing the vulnerability disclosed in early March, Jade was found to be secure. Espressif Systems, the designer of the ESP32, has since clarified that the "undocumented commands" do not constitute a "backdoor."

• Bank of America is lobbying for regulations that favor banks over tech firms in stablecoin issuance. The bank's CEO Brian Moynihan is working with groups such as the American Bankers Association to advance the issuance of a fully reserved, 1:1 backed "Bank of America coin." If successful, this could limit stablecoin efforts by non-banks like Tether, Circle, and others, reports The Block.
• Tether to back OCEAN Pool with its hashrate. "As a company committed to financial freedom and open access, we see supporting decentralization in Bitcoin mining as essential to the network’s long-term integrity," said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
• Bitdeer to expand its self-mining operations to navigate tariffs. The Singapore-based mining company is advancing plans to produce machines in the U.S. while reducing its mining hardware sales. This response is in light of increasing uncertainties related to U.S. trade policy, as reported by Bloomberg.
• Tether acquires $32M in Bitdeer shares. The firm has boosted its investment in Bitdeer during a wider market sell-off, with purchases in early to mid-April amounting to about $32 million, regulatory filings reveal.
• US Bitcoin miner manufacturer Auradine has raised $153 million in a Series C funding round as it expands into AI infrastructure. The round was led by StepStone Group and included participation from Maverick Silicon, Premji Invest, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Qualcomm Ventures, Mayfield, MARA Holdings, GSBackers, and other existing investors. The firm raised to over $300 million since its inception in 2022.
• Voltage has partnered with BitGo to [enable](https://www.voltage.cloud/blog/bitgo-and-voltage-team-up-to-deliver-instant-bitcoin-and-stabl

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Jason Lowery’s thesis, Softwar: A Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin, reframes bitcoin not merely as digital cash but as a transformative security technology with profound implications for investors and nation-states alike.

For centuries, craft brewers understood that true innovation balanced tradition with experimentation—a delicate dance between established techniques and bold new flavors.

Much like the craft beer revolution reshaped a global industry, bitcoin represents a fundamental recalibration of how humans organize value and project power in the digital age.

The Antler in the Digital Forest: Power Projection

Lowery, a U.S. Space Force officer and MIT scholar, anchors his Softwar theory in a biological metaphor: Bitcoin as humanity’s “digital antler.” In nature, antlers allow animals like deer to compete for resources through non-lethal contests—sparring matches where power is demonstrated without fatal consequences. This contrasts sharply with wolves, who must resort to violent, potentially deadly fights to establish hierarchy.

The Human Power Dilemma: Historically, humans projected power and settled resource disputes through physical force—wars, seizures, or coercive control of assets. Even modern financial systems rely on abstract power structures: court orders, bank freezes, or government sanctions enforced by legal threat rather than immediate physical reality.

Lowery argues this creates inherent fragility: abstract systems can collapse when met with superior physical force (e.g., invasions, revolutions). Nature only respects physical power.

Bitcoin’s Physical Power Engine: Bitcoin introduces a novel solution through its proof-of-work consensus mechanism. Miners compete to solve computationally intense cryptographic puzzles, expending real-world energy (megawatts) to validate transactions and secure the network.

This process converts electricity—a tangible, physical resource—into digital security and immutable property rights. Winning a “block” is like winning a sparring match: it consumes significant resources (energy/cost) but is non-destructive.

The miner gains the right to write the next page of the ledger and collect rewards, but no participant is physically harmed, and no external infrastructure is destroyed.

Table: Traditional vs. Bitcoin-Based Power Systems

Power System

Mechanism

Key Vulnerability

Resource Cost

Traditional (Fiat/Banking)

Legal abstraction, threat of state force

Centralized points of failure, corruption, political change

Low immediate cost, high systemic risk

Military/Economic Coercion

Physical force, sanctions

Escalation, collateral damage, moral hazard

Very high (lives, capital, instability)

Bitcoin (Proof-of-Work)

Competition via energy expenditure

High energy cost, concentration risk (mining)

High energy cost, low systemic risk

Softwar Theory National Strategic Imperative: Governments Are Taking Notice

Lowery’s Softwar Theory has moved beyond academia into the corridors of power, shaping U.S. national strategy:

1. The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: Vice President JD Vance recently framed bitcoin as an instrument projecting American values—”innovation, entrepreneurship, freedom, and lack of censorship”. State legislation is now underway to implement this reserve, preventing easy reversal by future administrations.
2. Regulatory Transformation: The SEC is shifting from an “enforcement-first” stance under previous leadership. New initiatives include:
   • Repealing Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121), which discouraged banks from custodying digital currency by forcing unfavorable balance sheet treatment.
   • Creating the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit (CETU) to develop clearer crypto registration/disclosure rules.

The Investor’s Lens: Scarcity, Security, and Asymmetric Opportunity

For investors, understanding “Softwar” validates bitcoin’s unique value proposition beyond price speculation:

• Digital Scarcity as Strategic Depth: Bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million makes it the only digital asset with truly inelastic supply, a programmed scarcity immune to political whims or central bank printing.

  This “scarcity imperative” acts as a natural antidote to global fiat debasement. As central banks expanded money supplies aggressively (Global M2), bitcoin’s price has shown strong correlation, acting as a pressure valve for inflation concerns. The quadrennial “halving” (latest: April 2024) mechanically reduces new supply, creating built-in supply shocks as adoption grows. * The Antifragile Security Feedback Loop: Bitcoin’s security isn’t static; it’s antifragile. The network strengthens through demand: * More users → More transactions → Higher fees → More miner revenue → More hashpower (computational security) → Greater network resilience → More user confidence.
  This self-reinforcing cycle contrasts sharply with traditional systems, where security is a cost center (e.g., bank security budgets, military spending). Bitcoin turns security into a profitable, market-driven activity. * Institutionalization Without Centralization: While institutional ownership via ETFs (like BlackRock’s IBIT) and corporate treasuries (MicroStrategy, Metaplanet) has surged, supply remains highly decentralized.

  Individuals still hold the largest share of bitcoin, preventing a dangerous concentration of control. Spot Bitcoin ETFs alone are projected to see over $20 billion in net inflows in 2025, demonstrating robust institutional capital allocation.

The Bitcoin Community: Building the Digital Antler’s Resilience

Lowery’s “Softwar” theory underscores why bitcoin’s decentralized architecture is non-negotiable. Its strength lies in the alignment of incentives across three participant groups:

1. Miners: Provide computational power (hashrate), validating transactions and securing the network. Incentivized by block rewards (newly minted BTC) and transaction fees. Their physical energy expenditure is the “muscle” behind the digital antler.
2. Nodes: Independently verify and enforce the protocol rules, maintaining the blockchain’s integrity. Run by users, businesses, and enthusiasts globally. They ensure decentralized consensus, preventing unilateral protocol changes.
3. Users: Individuals, institutions, and corporations holding, transacting, or building on bitcoin. Their demand drives transaction fees and fuels the security feedback loop.

This structure creates “Mutually Assured Preservation”. Attacking bitcoin requires overwhelming its global, distributed physical infrastructure (miners/nodes), a feat far more complex and costly than seizing a central bank’s gold vault or freezing a bank’s assets. It transforms financial security from a centralized liability into a decentralized, physically-grounded asset.

Risks & Responsibilities

Investors and policymakers must acknowledge persistent challenges:

• Volatility: Bitcoin remains volatile, though this has decreased as markets mature. Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) is widely recommended to mitigate timing risk.
• Regulatory Uncertainty: While U.S. policy is increasingly favorable, global coordination is lacking. The EU’s MiCAR regulation exemplifies divergent approaches.
• Security & Custody: While Bitcoin’s protocol is robust, user errors (lost keys) or exchange hacks remain risks.
• Environmental Debate: Proof-of-Work energy use is scrutinized, though mining increasingly uses stranded energy/renewables. Innovations continue.

Jason Lowery’s “Softwar” theory elevates bitcoin from a financial instrument to a socio-technological innovation on par with the invention of the corporation, the rule of law, or even the antler in evolutionary biology. It provides a coherent framework for understanding why:

• Nations like the U.S. are looking to establish bitcoin reserves and embracing stablecoins—they recognize bitcoin’s role in projecting economic power non-violently in the digital age.
• Institutional Investors are allocating billions via ETFs—they see a scarce, secure, uncorrelated asset with antifragile properties.
• Individuals in hyperinflationary economies or under authoritarian regimes use bitcoin—it offers self-sovereign wealth storage immune to seizure or debasement.

For the investor, bitcoin represents more than potential price appreciation. It offers exposure to a fundamental reorganization of how power and value are secured and exchanged globally, grounded not in abstract promises, but in the unyielding laws of physics and mathematics.

Like the brewers who balanced tradition with innovation to create something enduring and valuable, bitcoin pioneers are building the infrastructure for a more resilient digital future—one computationally secured block at a time. The “Softwar” is here, and it is reshaping the landscape of p

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Square, the payments platform operated by Block (founded by Jack Dorsey), is reporting 9.7% bitcoin yield on its bitcoin holdings by running a Lightning Network node.

The announcement was made by Miles Suter, Bitcoin product lead at Block, during the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. Suter explained that Square is earning “real bitcoin from our holdings” by efficiently routing payments across the Lightning Network.

Square’s yield comes from its role as a Lightning service provider, a business it launched two years ago to boost liquidity and efficiency on the Lightning Network. According to Lightning Labs’ Ryan Gentry, Square’s 9% yield could translate to roughly $1 million in annual revenue.

The Lightning Network, a Bitcoin layer-2 protocol, has long been promoted as a solution to Bitcoin’s scalability and transaction speed issues. It enables micropayments and off-chain transactions, reducing congestion on the main blockchain. However, the network faces challenges, including the need for inbound liquidity—users must lock up BTC to receive BTC—potentially limiting participation by smaller nodes and raising concerns about decentralization.

Despite these hurdles, Square remains committed to advancing Bitcoin payments via Lightning. Suter revealed that 25% of Square’s outbound bitcoin transactions now use the Lightning Network. The company is actively testing Lightning-based payments at the Bitcoin 2025 event and plans to roll out the service to all eligible Square merchants by 2026.

Suter emphasized the transformative potential of Lightning:

“When you enable real payments by making them faster and more convenient, the network becomes stronger, smarter, and more beneficial. So if you’re questioning whether bitcoin is merely an asset, the response is no. It has already evolved into both an asset and a protocol, and now Block is spearheading the initiative to transform it into the world’s premier payment system.”

Square’s ongoing investment in Lightning signals its belief in Bitcoin’s future not just as a store of value, but as a global payments protocol.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• "Today we're launching the beta version of our multiplatform Nostr browser! Think Google Chrome but for Nostr apps. The beta is our big first step toward this vision," announced Damus.
• This version comes with the Dave Nostr AI assistant, support for zaps and the Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) wallet interface, full-text note search, GIFs and fullscreen images, multiple media uploads, user tagging, relay list and mute list support, along with a number of other improvements."

"Included in the beta is the Dave, the Nostr AI assistant (its Grok for Nostr). Dave is a new Notedeck browser app that can search and summarize notes from the network. For a full breakdown of everything new, check out our beta launch video."

What's new

• Dave Nostr AI assistant app.
• GIFs.
• Fulltext note search.
• Add full screen images, add zoom, and pan.
• Zaps! NWC/ Wallet UI.
• Introduce last note per pubkey feed (experimental).
• Allow multiple media uploads per selection.
• Major Android improvements (still WIP).
• Added notedeck app sidebar.
• User Tagging.
• Note truncation.
• Local network note broadcast, broadcast notes to other notedeck notes while you're offline.
• Mute list support (reading).
• Relay list support.
• Ctrl-enter to send notes.
• Added relay indexing (relay columns soon).
• Click hashtags to open hashtag timeline.
• Fixed timelines sometimes not updating (stale feeds).
• Fixed UI bounciness when loading profile pictures
• Fixed unselectable post replies.

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo
Website

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

• This version introduces the Soroban P2P network, enabling Dojo to relay transactions to the Bitcoin network and share others' transactions to break the heuristic linking relaying nodes to transaction creators.

• Additionally, Dojo admins can now manage API keys in DMT with labels, status, and expiration, ideal for community Dojo providers like Dojobay. New API endpoints, including "/services" exposing Explorer, Soroban, and Indexer, have been added to aid wallet developers.
• Other maintenance updates include Bitcoin Core, Tor, Fulcrum, Node.js, plus an updated ban-knots script to disconnect inbound Knots nodes.

"I want to thank all the contributors. This again shows the power of true Free Software. I also want to thank everyone who donated to help Dojo development going. I truly appreciate it," said Still Dojo Coder.

What's new

• Soroban P2P network. For MyDojo (Docker setup) users, Soroban will be automatically installed as part of their Dojo. This integration allows Dojo to utilize the Soroban P2P network for various upcoming features and applications.
• PandoTx. PandoTx serves as a transaction transport layer. When your wallet sends a transaction to Dojo, it is relayed to a random Soroban node, which then forwards it to the Bitcoin network. It also enables your Soroban node to receive and relay transactions from others to the Bitcoin network and is designed to disrupt the assumption that a node relaying a transaction is closely linked to the person who initiated it.
  • Pushing transactions through Soroban can be deactivated by setting NODE_PANDOTX_PUSH=off in docker-node.conf.
  • Processing incoming transactions from Soroban network can be deactivated by setting NODE_PANDOTX_PROCESS=off in docker-node.conf.
• API key management has been introduced to address the growing number of people offering their Dojos to the community. Dojo admins can now access a new API management tab in their DMT, where they can create unlimited API keys, assign labels for easy identification, and set expiration dates for each key. This allows admins to avoid sharing their main API key and instead distribute specific keys to selected parties.
• New API endpoints. Several new API endpoints have been added to help API consumers develop features on Dojo more efficiently:
  • New:
    • /latest-block - returns data about latest block
    • /txout/:txid/:index - returns unspent output data
    • /support/services - returns info about services that Dojo exposes
  • Updated:
    • /tx/:txid - endpoint has been updated to return raw transaction with parameter ?rawHex=1
  • The new /support/services endpoint replaces the deprecated explorer field in the Dojo pairing payload. Although still present, API consumers should use this endpoint for explorer and other pairing data.

Other changes

• Updated ban script to disconnect inbound Knots nodes.
• Updated Fulcrum to v1.12.0.
• Regenerate Fulcrum certificate if expired.
• Check if transaction already exists in pushTx.
• Bump BTC-RPC Explorer.
• Bump Tor to v0.4.8.16, bump Snowflake.
• Updated Bitcoin Core to v29.0.
• Removed unnecessary middleware.
• Fixed DB update mechanism, added api_keys table.
• Add an option to use blocksdir config for bitcoin blocks directory.
• Removed deprecated configuration.
• Updated Node.js dependencies.
• Reconfigured container dependencies.
• Fix Snowflake git URL.
• Fix log path for testnet4.
• Use prebuilt addrindexrs binaries.
• Add instructions to migrate blockchain/fulcrum.
• Added pull policies.

#FREESAMOURAI

Learn how to set up and use your own Bitcoin privacy node with Dojo here.

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

When Sergei talks about bitcoin, he doesn’t sound like someone chasing profits or followers. He sounds like someone about to build a monastery in the ruins.

While the mainstream world chases headlines and hype, Sergei shows up in local meetups from Sacramento to Cleveland, mentors curious minds, and shares what he knows is true – hoping that, with the right spark, someone will light their own way forward.

We interviewed Sergei to trace his steps: where he started, what keeps him going, and why teaching bitcoin is far more than explaining how to set up a node – it’s about reaching the right minds before the noise consumes them. So we began where most journeys start: at the beginning.

First Steps

• So, where did it all begin for you and what made you stay curious?

I first heard about bitcoin from a friend’s book recommendation, American Kingpin, the book about Silk Road (online drug marketplace). He is still not a true bitcoiner, although I helped him secure private keys with some bitcoin.

I was really busy at the time – focused on my school curriculum, running a 7-bedroom Airbnb, and working for a standardized test prep company. Bitcoin seemed too technical for me to explore, and the pace of my work left no time for it.

After graduating, while pursuing more training, I started playing around with stocks and maximizing my savings. Passive income seemed like the path to early retirement, as per the promise of the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). I mostly followed the mainstream news and my mentor’s advice – he liked preferred stocks at the time.

I had some Coinbase IOUs and remember sending bitcoin within the Coinbase ledger to a couple friends. I also recall the 2018 crash; I actually saw the legendary price spike live but couldn’t benefit because my funds were stuck amidst the frenzy. I withdrew from that investment completely for some time. Thankfully, my mentor advised to keep en eye on bitcoin.

Around late 2019, I started DCA-ing cautiously. Additionally, my friend and I were discussing famous billionaires, and how there was no curriculum for becoming a billionaire. So, I typed “billionaires” into my podcast app, and landed on We Study Billionaires podcast.

That’s where I kept hearing Preston Pysh mention bitcoin, before splitting into his own podcast series, Bitcoin Fundamentals. I didn’t understand most of the terminology of stocks, bonds, etc, yet I kept listening and trying to absorb it thru repetition. Today, I realize all that financial talk was mostly noise.

When people ask me for a technical explanation of fiat, I say: it’s all made up, just like the fiat price of bitcoin! Starting in 2020, during the so-called pandemic, I dove deeper. I religiously read Bitcoin Magazine, scrolled thru Bitcoin Twitter, and joined Simply Bitcoin Telegram group back when DarthCoin was an admin.

DarthCoin was my favorite bitcoiner – experienced, knowledgeable, and unapologetic. Watching him shift from rage to kindness, from passion to despair, gave me a glimpse at what a true educator’s journey would look like.

The struggle isn’t about adoption at scale anymore. It’s about reaching the few who are willing to study, take risks, and stay out of fiat traps. The vast majority won’t follow that example – not yet at least… if I start telling others the requirements for true freedom and prosperity, they would certainly say “Hell no!”

• At what point did you start teaching others, and why?

After college, I helped teach at a standardized test preparation company, and mentored some students one-on-one. I even tried working at a kindergarten briefly, but left quickly; Babysitting is not teaching.

What I discovered is that those who will succeed don’t really need my help – they would succeed with or without me, because they already have the inner drive.

Once you realize your people are perishing for lack of knowledge, the only rational thing to do is help raise their level of knowledge and understanding. That’s the Great Work.

I sometimes imagine myself as a political prisoner. If that were to happen, I’d probably start teaching fellow prisoners, doctors, janitors, even guards. In a way we already live in an open-air prison, So what else is there to do but teach, organize, and conspire to dismantle the Matrix?

Building on Bitcoin

• You hosted some in-person meetups in Sacramento. What did you learn from those?

My first presentation was on MultiSig storage with SeedSigner, and submarine swaps through Boltz.exchange.

I realized quickly that I had overestimated the group’s technical background. Even the meetup organizer, a financial advisor, asked, “How is anyone supposed to follow these steps?” I responded that reading was required… He decided that Unchained is an easier way.

At a crypto meetup, I gave a much simpler talk, outlining how bitcoin will save the world, based on a DarthCoin’s guide. Only one person stuck around to ask questions – a man who seemed a little out there, and did not really seem to get the message beyond the strength of cryptographic security of bitcoin.

Again, I overestimated the audience’s readiness. That forced me to rethink my strategy. People are extremely early and reluctant to study.

• Now in Ohio, you hold sessions via the Orange Pill App. What’s changed?

My new motto is: educate the educators. The corollary is: don’t orange-pill stupid normies (as DarthCoin puts it).

I’ve shifted to small, technical sessions in order to raise a few solid guardians of this esoteric knowledge who really get it and can carry it forward.

The youngest attendee at one of my sessions is a newborn baby – he mostly sleeps, but maybe he still absorbs some of the educational vibes.

• How do local groups like Sactown and Cleveland Bitcoiners influence your work?

Every meetup reflects its local culture. Sacramento and Bay Area Bitcoiners, for example, do camping trips – once we camped through a desert storm, shielding our burgers from sand while others went to shoot guns.

Cleveland Bitcoiners are different. They amass large gatherings. They recently threw a 100k party. They do a bit more community outreach. Some are curious about the esoteric topics such as jurisdiction, spirituality, and healthful living.

I have no permanent allegiance to any state, race, or group. I go where I can teach and learn. I anticipate that in my next phase, I’ll meet Bitcoiners so advanced that I’ll have to give up my fiat job and focus full-time on serious projects where real health and wealth are on the line.

Hopefully, I’ll be ready. I believe the universe always challenges you exactly to your limit – no less, no more.

• What do people struggle with the most when it comes to technical education?

The biggest struggle isn’t technical – it’s a lack of deep curiosity. People ask “how” and “what” – how do I set up a node, what should one do with the lightning channels? But very few ask “why?”

Why does on-chain bitcoin not contribute to the circular economy? Why is it essential to run Lightning? Why did humanity fall into mental enslavement in the first place?

I’d rather teach two-year-olds who constantly ask “why” than adults who ask how to flip a profit. What worries me most is that most two-year-olds will grow up asking state-funded AI bots for answers and live according to its recommendations.

• One Cleveland Bitcoiner shows up at gold bug meetups. How valuable is face-to-face education?

I don’t think the older generation is going to reverse the current human condition. Most of them have been under mind control for too long, and they just don’t have the attention span to study and change their ways.

They’re better off stacking gold and helping fund their grandkids’ education. If I were to focus on a demographic, I’d go for teenagers – high school age – because by college, the indoctrination is usually too strong, and they’re chasing fiat mastery.

As for the gold bug meetup? Perhaps one day I will show up with a ukulele to sing some bitcoin-themed songs. Seniors love such entertainment.

• How do you choose what to focus on in your sessions, especially for different types of learners?

I don’t come in with a rigid agenda. I’ve collected a massive library of resources over the years and never stopped reading. My browser tab and folder count are exploding.

At the meetup, people share questions or topics they’re curious about, then I take that home, do my homework, and bring back a session based on those themes. I give them the key takeaways, plus where to dive deeper.

Most people won’t – or can’t – study the way I do, and I expect attendees to put in the work. I suspect that it’s more important to reach those who want to learn but don’t know how, the so-called nescient (not knowing), rather than the ignorant.

There are way too many ignorant bitcoiners, so my mission is to find those who are curious what’s beyond the facade of fake reality and superficial promises.

That naturally means that fewer people show up, and that’s fine. I’m not here for the crowds; I’m here to educate the educators. One bitcoiner who came decided to branch off into self-custody sessions and that’s awesome. Personally, I’m much more focused on Lightning.

I want to see broader adoption of tools like auth, sign-message, NWC, and LSPs. Next month, I’m going deep into eCash solutions, because let’s face it – most newcomers won’t be able to afford their own UTXO or open a lightning channel; additionally, it has to be fun and easy for them to transact sats, otherwise they won’t do it. Additionally, they’ll need to rely on

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Russian authorities are stepping up their crackdown on illegal Bitcoin miners with a new confiscation case.

Law enforcement in Russia has launched a seizure campaign against unauthorized mining operations, marking an escalation in the fight against illicit crypto activity. The latest case saw investigators in the Amur Oblast confiscate bitcoin worth $88,500.

The Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee (SKR) for Amur Oblast announced it had seized assets worth around 7 million rubles ($88,570; 0.8414 BTC) from a former executive of an unnamed power company.

The accused served as head of technological connection services at the Amur branch of the Far Eastern Distribution Company (DRSC), a power grid operator managing electricity distribution in Russia’s eastern Amur region.

Investigators found that the former executive exploited his insider knowledge of the company’s power distribution systems to siphon electricity from the grid. The stolen power was used to run mining equipment at his private residence.

The seizure followed an investigation revealing that in 2024, the man used his technical skills to bypass metering devices and create an illegal connection to his employer’s infrastructure.

Authorities estimate that the executive used over 3.5 million rubles ($44,334) worth of electricity belonging to DRSC.

In April, several Russian ministries drafted a legal mechanism proposing new powers for courts and law enforcement to confiscate cryptocurrencies in criminal cases. The proposal, backed by government policymakers, would allow authorities to formally recognize digital assets as intangible property in criminal proceedings.

Previous seizures

Investigators appear to have already applied the principles of this draft law in several cases. Among them is the case of a server operator for the darknet marketplace Hydra, from whom police seized crypto assets worth $8.2 million.

Judicial officers also seized 1,032.1 BTC from Marat Tambiev, a former investigator with the Russian Investigative Committee. A court found Tambiev guilty of accepting Bitcoin bribes from an international fraud network, sentencing him to 16 years in prison.

The post Russia: $88,500 in bitcoin seized from illegal miner for power theft appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has long been an outspoken skeptic and critic of bitcoin. He has called Bitcoin a speculative asset, a fraud, a pet rock, and has opined that it will inevitably blow up. A couple of years ago, he was on Capitol Hill saying that if he were the government, he would "close it down". Just within the last month, he was on Fox Business News talking with Maria Bartiromo, proclaiming that the U.S. should be stockpiling bullets and rare earth metals instead of bitcoin. It's pretty clear that Jamie Dimon, who is at the helm of the most powerful and largest bank in the world, does not like bitcoin one bit.

Evidence below:

via Bitcoin Magazine

via me

via CNBC

via Trending Politics

Despite Dimon's distinguished disdain for Bitcoin, J.P. Morgan cannot deny reality. The CEO of the largest bank in the world is certainly a powerful man, but no one individual, even in the position that Jamie Dimon is in, is more powerful than the market. And the market has spoken very clearly, it is demanding bitcoin. The Bitcoin ETFs have been the most successful ETFs in terms of pace of growth since their launch. They've accumulated tens of billions of dollars in AUM in a very short period of time. Outpacing the previous record set by the gold ETF, GLD.

Whether or not Jamie Dimon himself likes Bitcoin doesn't matter. J.P. Morgan, as the largest bank in the world and a publicly traded company, has a duty to shareholders. And that duty is to increase shareholder value by any ethical and legal means necessary. Earlier today, J.P. Morgan announced plans to offer clients financing against their Bitcoin ETFs, as well as some other benefits, including having their bitcoin holdings recognized in their overall net worth and liquid assets, similar to stocks, cars, and art, which will be massive for bitcoiners looking to get mortgages and other types of loans.

via Bloomberg

I've talked about this recently, but trying to buy a house when most of your liquid net worth is held in bitcoin is a massive pain in the ass. Up until this point, if you wanted to have your bitcoin recognized as part of your net worth and count towards your overall credit profile, you would need to sell some bitcoin, move it to a bank account, and have it sit there for a certain period of time before it was recognized toward your net worth. This is not ideal for bitcoiners who have sufficient cash flows and don't want to sell their bitcoin, pay the capital gains tax, and risk not being able to buy back the amount of sats they were forced to sell just to get a mortgage.

It's not yet clear to me whether or not J.P. Morgan will recognize bitcoin in cold storage toward their clients' net worth and credit profile, or if this is simply for bitcoin ETFs only. However, regardless, this is a step in the right direction and a validation of something that many bitcoiners have been saying for years. Inevitably, everyone will have to bend the knee to bitcoin. Today, it just happened to be the largest bank in the world. I expect more of this to come in the coming months, years, and decades.

Lyn Alden likes to say it in the context of the U.S. national debt and the fiscal crisis, but it also applies to bitcoin adoption and the need for incumbents to orient themselves around the demands of individual bitcoiners; nothing stops this train.

Real Estate Correction Coming

Real estate expert Leon Wankum shared his perspective on why property prices need to find a new equilibrium by 2026. He pointed to the 18-year property cycle theory, noting we're at the end of the current cycle with a massive imbalance - 34% more sellers than buyers, the highest gap since records began in 2013. Leon explained that sellers still have unrealistic expectations based on 2021-2022 peaks, while buyers face a fundamentally different reality with higher borrowing costs.

"We need a price equilibrium. We need demand and supply prices to match. It's going to take a long time, I think." - Leon Wankum

Leon doesn't expect a catastrophic crash, however. He emphasized that the financial system depends too heavily on real estate as collateral for authorities to allow a complete collapse. With interest rates likely staying above 3% to combat inflation, he sees a healthy correction rather than devastation - a necessary adjustment that creates opportunities for patient buyers who understand the new market dynamics.

Check out the full podcast here for more on Bitcoin treasury strategies, dual collateralization, and corporate BTC adoption

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Headlines of the Day

California May Seize Idle Bitcoin After 3 Years - via X

Semler Scientific Buys $20M More Bitcoin, Holds $467M - via X

US Home Sellers Surge as Buyers Hit 4-Year Low - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

---

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

I feel old.

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@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The Spanish coffee chain follows in Strategy’s footsteps, aiming for a Bitcoin-first strategy.

Vanadi Coffee SA, a well-known Spanish coffee shop chain, is preparing for a major shift in its business model through a bitcoin investment worth over $1.1 billion. The company plans to transform itself from a simple coffee distributor into an entity centered around the leading cryptocurrency.

Salvador Martí, chairman of the board of directors, has outlined a clear vision for the company’s future, seeking authorization to implement a bitcoin accumulation strategy with a maximum budget of €1 billion, according to documentation submitted to BME Growth.

The strategy involves using convertible financing lines to support the bitcoin acquisition, following the model successfully pioneered by Strategy. Martí has already demonstrated his conviction by purchasing 5 BTC for approximately $500,000 two weeks ago.

Vanadi Coffee’s decision comes at a critical moment for the company, which reported losses of $3.7 million in 2024 — exceeding its annual revenues by nearly $600,000. The GameStop episode offers a relevant case study: the American company, facing similar difficulties, opted to purchase bitcoin through a debt securities issuance, acquiring a total of 4,710 bitcoins.

The corporate bitcoin trend

Vanadi Coffee’s initiative is part of a broader global movement, with companies from various industries embracing bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. From Chinese logistics firms to football clubs, the phenomenon of corporate adoption is crossing both geographic and sectoral boundaries.

Strategy remains the pioneer of this approach, having demonstrated how a company can completely reinvent itself through bitcoin accumulation. Michael Saylor’s success story has inspired numerous other businesses to consider cryptocurrency not merely as an investment, but as a central pillar of their business strategy.

The next Vanadi Coffee board meeting, scheduled for June 29, will mark a pivotal moment for the Spanish company. Approval of the $1.1 billion strategy could trigger further investments from other corporations.

The post Spanish company Vanadi Coffee bets on Bitcoin: $1.1 billion investment appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

MicroStrategy's Debt-Financed Bitcoin Strategy Will Force a Reckoning Within 18 Months - Jessy Gilger

Jessy Gilger from Unchained Capital warned about the sustainability of MicroStrategy's model and its derivatives like MSTY. He predicts that as more companies adopt Bitcoin treasury strategies, "the P&L will matter more as the balance sheet gets commoditized." Within the next 18 months, he expects the current arbitrage opportunities that MicroStrategy exploits will diminish as Bitcoin reaches higher liquidity levels and more competitors enter the space.

His most concerning prediction involves MSTY specifically, which currently offers distributions annualized at 120% - far exceeding the 16-22% he calculates as reasonable from covered call strategies. "If a whale wants out of MSTY in size... they could sell those derivative positions into an illiquid market where there's no bid," potentially causing a 95% collapse similar to what happened with gold mining ETFs during COVID. He advises investors to consider "private pools" for options strategies rather than pooled products where "you're in the pool with everyone else" and subject to forced liquidations.

Pensions Will Drive the Next Major Bitcoin Adoption Wave in 2026-2027 - Adam Back

Adam Back sees institutional adoption accelerating dramatically as pension funds begin allocating to Bitcoin. "The institutional cover of some of the bigger entities that people would reference... you don't get fired for following BlackRock's recommendation," he explained. With BlackRock now suggesting 2% portfolio allocations and the infrastructure finally in place through Blockstream's new Gannett Trust Company, the barriers for institutional adoption are falling rapidly.

Back predicts this will create a "snowball" effect as pension funds realize Bitcoin can help address their massive unfunded liabilities. He noted that financial institutions offering Bitcoin products are "slow movers" with "policies and training materials and guidance that they got to get through," but once activated, the scale will dwarf current retail and ETF flows. The combination of pension fund allocations, continued nation-state adoption, and the mathematical scarcity of Bitcoin leads him to view even $100,000 as "cheap" given where the market is headed.

Traditional Bond Markets Will Collapse as Bitcoin Becomes the Escape Hatch - Sean Bill

Sean Bill sees a massive shift coming as bond markets deteriorate globally. "You peel back the onion. So who benefits from financial repression, right. And inflating your way out of assets," he explained. With Japanese bond yields blowing out and U.S. 30-year yields jumping 10 basis points in a single day, Bill predicts we're witnessing the early stages of a sovereign debt crisis that will drive unprecedented flows into Bitcoin.

He pointed to Japan's MetaPlanet as a preview of what's coming: "The whole bond market of Japan just flowed into a hotel company." As pension funds and institutions realize they can't meet obligations through traditional fixed income, Bitcoin will become the only viable alternative. Bill believes this transition will accelerate once fiduciaries understand Bitcoin's role as "pristine collateral" that can help them "chip away at those unfunded liabilities." His experience getting Santa Clara County's pension into Bitcoin in 2021 showed him firsthand how a 1-3% allocation at $17,000 could have "wiped out the unfunded liability" as Bitcoin approached $100,000.

Adam Back & Sean Bill Podcast Here

---

Blockspace conducts cutting-edge proprietary research for investors.

New Bitcoin Mining Pool Flips Industry Model: "Plebs Eat First" Could Threaten Corporate Dominance

UTXO Management's explosive report forecasts unprecedented institutional demand that could absorb 20% of Bitcoin's circulating supply by 2026. Bitcoin ETFs shattered records with $36.2 billion in year-one inflows, crushing every commodity ETF launch—and they're projected to hit $100 billion annually by 2027.

The real story? ETFs are just the appetizer. Five massive catalysts are converging: wealth platforms eyeing $120 billion from a modest 0.5% allocation across $60 trillion AUM; corporations following MicroStrategy's playbook now holding 803,143 BTC; potential U.S. Strategic Reserve of 1 million BTC; 13 states with active Bitcoin reserve bills; and the rise of BTCfi yield strategies offering 2-15% returns.

The game-changer: these aren't day traders. CFOs, treasurers, and governments are structurally locked buyers seeking BTC-denominated yields, not quick profits. With FASB mark-to-market accounting removing impairment headaches and regulatory clarity accelerating globally, institutions face a stark reality—allocate now or chase exposure at dramatically higher prices.

This isn't another cycle. It's the institutional colonization of Bitcoin.

Link to Full Article

Subscribe to them here (seriously, you should): https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com/

---

Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

---

Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

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@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has voted down a shareholder proposal to add bitcoin to its treasury. The vote took place at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on May 30, 2025.

The proposal, known as Proposal 13, was submitted by investor Ethan Peck on behalf of the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR).

It asked Meta to convert a portion of its $72 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities into bitcoin. The idea was to hedge against inflation and low returns from traditional bond investments.

But the company’s shareholders said no.

According to the official count, more than 4.98 billion shares were voted against the proposal, while 3.92 million shares were for it—less than 0.1% of total votes. 8.86 million shares were abstentions and over 204 million were broker non-votes.

Meta shareholders rejected bitcoin reserve proposal — SEC

So now, Meta joins Microsoft and Amazon in rejecting calls to add bitcoin to their balance sheets.

Related: Microsoft Shareholders Reject Bitcoin Investment Proposal

Proponents of the proposal argued that bitcoin would help protect Meta’s reserves from inflation and weak bond returns. Peck and others pointed to bitcoin’s strong performance in 2024 and growing institutional interest in the scarce digital asset.

The proposal said bitcoin’s fixed supply and track record make it a long-term store of value.

High-profile supporters, including Matt Cole, CEO of Strive Asset Management, brought the issue to the forefront. At the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Cole addressed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg directly:

“You have already done step one. You have named your goat Bitcoin,” he said. “My ask is that you take step two and adopt a bold corporate bitcoin treasury strategy.”

Others, like Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, said if Meta added bitcoin to its balance sheet it would be a big deal. “If Meta or Microsoft adds BTC to the balance sheet, it will be like when Tom Hanks got COVID—suddenly, it feels real,” Balchunas said.

Despite all the hype and arguments for Bitcoin, the tech giant’s board of directors opposed the measure. The board said the company already has a treasury management process in place that prioritizes capital preservation and liquidity.

“While we are not opining on the merits of cryptocurrency investments compared to other assets, we believe the requested assessment is unnecessary given our existing processes to manage our corporate treasury,” Meta’s board noted.

The board also noted that it reviews many investment options and sees no need for a separate review process specific to Bitcoin.

Meta’s decision shows the broader hesitation of large-cap companies to get into bitcoin as part of their financial strategy.

While companies like Michael Saylor’s Strategy are adding bitcoin to their treasuries every chance they get, companies like Microsoft, Amazon and now Meta, are taking a more cautious approach.

According to recent reports, Meta is exploring ways to integrate stablecoins into its platforms to enable global payouts.

This would be a re-entry into the digital asset space after the company shelved its Diem project due to regulatory issues—a step that bitcoin advocates deem unnecessary, insufficient, and irrelevant to protecting the company’s finances.

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet has announced a massive $5.4 billion plan to increase its bitcoin holdings to 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027 — that’s about 1% of the total bitcoin supply.

Metaplanet on X

The Tokyo-listed company is accelerating its already aggressive bitcoin plan, with CEO Simon Gerovich calling the initiative “Asia’s largest-ever equity raise to buy Bitcoin — again!”

The company’s new capital raise, called the “555 Million Plan”, involves issuing 555 million shares through moving strike warrants. That’s basically a type of option where people can buy shares later, and the price they pay depends on the stock’s price at that time.

So with moving strike warrants, the price at which people can buy the stock goes up or down depending on how the company’s stock is doing. It gives investors more flexibility — and it can make the warrants more attractive — because they don’t get stuck with a bad deal if the stock price drops.

This way the company can raise capital gradually over the next 2 years without impacting the stock market and existing shareholders.

The funds raised will be used to buy bitcoin, with some to redeem bonds and other income-generating strategies like selling put options.

This is a big step up from Metaplanet’s previous targets. Initially aiming to reach 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025, the company now plans to reach:

• 30,000 BTC by end of 2025
• 100,000 BTC by end of 2026
• 210,000 BTC by end of 2027

The Japanese investment firm hopes to be in the “Bitcoin 1% club” which means holding at least 1% of the total 21 million bitcoin supply.

Metaplanet bitcoin targets

Metaplanet is already making good progress. As of June 2025, the company holds 8,888 BTC, acquired at a cost of about ¥122.2 billion (around $849 million) and has already reached 89% of its original 10,000 BTC target for 2025.

This comes after the success of the company’s previous “210 Million Plan” which raised ¥93.3 billion ($650 million) in 60 trading days by issuing 210 million shares.

During that time, the company’s bitcoin holdings grew from 1,762 BTC to 7,800 BTC and the BTC Yield (a key performance metric showing growth in bitcoin per share) increased by 189%.

Year to date the BTC Yield is 225.4%.

Metaplanet’s BTC Yield graph

The stock has reflected this momentum, up 275% since early 2025 and 1,619% over the past year.

Metaplanet’s stock price chart — TradingView

Metaplanet is now one of the most actively traded stocks in Japan and has become a top-ten corporate bitcoin holder globally, recently surpassing Block Inc., the company founded by Jack Dorsey.

Metaplanet sees this as part of a bigger shift in capital markets.

By being a “bitcoin treasury vehicle” listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, it aims to offer investors exposure to bitcoin through regulated equity markets. This is especially useful in Japan where retail investors are often restricted from accessing bitcoin directly.

“Bitcoin is repricing the global cost of capital,” the company said in a statement. “Through our 555 Million Plan, Metaplanet is doubling down on a high-conviction, equity-driven capital markets strategy to accelerate our Bitcoin accumulation trajectory.”