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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-13 03:02:44Nostr 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.
If you missed my nostr introduction post you can find it here. My nostr account can be found here.
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
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ df478568:2a951e67
2025-06-12 18:58:48How To Mine Your Own Vanity Nostr Key
note. This article works best on https://habla.news/u/marc@primal.net/how-to-mine-a-nostr-vanity-key-with-rana
Rana is a vanity npub generator.
I'll show you how to use it on Ubuntu.
If you're not Linux ninja and use Windows instead of Linux ninja weapons, you can still use Linux with Virtualbox, free ans open source virtualization software. Head over to
https://www.virtualbox.org/ to learn more. They also have an enterprise business if you need that sort of thing, you can learn more at https://shop.oracle.com/
Rana is a nostr vanity key mining program. The source code can be found here.
Rana Is On GitHub
https://github.com/grunch/rana
Since rana already has pretty good docs, I decided to make a video instead of write about this because It's easier to see rana in action than it is to write about Rana. I went off on some tangents, so I might edit this down later, but I hope it helps you mine your own nostr key.
nevent1qqsfk7a000m8zc3ptsuu4vytepqc9eedceclpt2ns9pzlech5cpaflceng5al
Show Notes
https://github.com/grunch/rana
https://virtualbox.org/
https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/getting-started/installation.html
cargo run --release -- --vanity-n-prefix=juxtap0se
☮️
nostr:npub1marc26z8nh3xkj5rcx7ufkatvx6ueqhp5vfw9v5teq26z254renshtf3g0
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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7
2025-06-12 14:01:32The 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.
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@ 95543309:196c540e
2025-06-11 14:17:03$$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^{-x^2/2} \, dx = \sqrt{2\pi}$$$$\sum_{k=1}^n k^2 = \frac{n(n+1)(2n+1)}{6}$$$$\lim_{x \to \infty} \left(1 + \frac{1}{x}\right)^x = e$$$$\begin{vmatrix}a & b \\c & d\end{vmatrix} = ad - bc$$$$\frac{d}{dx}\left(\frac{x^2 + 1}{x - 1}\right)$$$$\iiint_V (\nabla \cdot \mathbf{F}) \, dV = \oint_{\partial V} \mathbf{F} \cdot d\mathbf{S}$$$$\binom{n}{k} = \frac{n!}{k!(n-k)!}$$$$\ln\left(\frac{f(x)}{g(x)}\right) = \ln f(x) - \ln g(x)$$$$\forall x \in \mathbb{R}, \exists y \in \mathbb{R} \text{ such that } x + y = 0$$$$\sqrt{\frac{x^2 + y^2}{x^2 - y^2}}$$$$\begin{array}{c|c}A & B \\hlineC & D\end{array}$$$$\sum_{i=1}^n \sum_{j=1}^n a_{ij}x_i x_j$$$$\mathcal{L}{f(t)}(s) = \int_0^\infty e^{-st}f(t)\,dt$$$$\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial t^2} = c^2 \frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial x^2}$$$$\mathbf{A} = \begin{pmatrix}a_{11} & a_{12} \\a_{21} & a_{22}\end{pmatrix}, \quad\mathbf{B} = \begin{pmatrix}b_{11} & b_{12} \\b_{21} & b_{22}\end{pmatrix}$$$$\underbrace{a + b + \dots + z}{26}$$$$\left(\frac{a}{b}\right)^n = \frac{a^n}{b^n}$$$$\langle \psi | \phi \rangle = \int{-\infty}^{\infty} \psi^*(x)\phi(x) \, dx$$$$\oint_C \mathbf{F} \cdot d\mathbf{r} = \iint_S (\nabla \times \mathbf{F}) \cdot d\mathbf{S}$$$$\prod_{k=1}^n \left(1 + \frac{1}{k}\right) = \frac{(n+1)}{1}$$$$S(\omega)=1.466\, H_s^2 \frac{\omega_0^5}{\omega^6} \exp\Bigl[-3^{\frac{\omega}{\omega_0}}\Bigr]^2$$
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-12 05:11:12Marty's Bent
via me
I had a completely different newsletter partially written earlier tonight about whether or not "this cycle is different" when this nagging thought entered my head. So I'm going to write about this and maybe I'll write about the dynamics of this cycle compared to past cycles tomorrow.
A couple of headlines shot across my desk earlier tonight in relation to the potential escalation of kinetic warfare in the Middle East. Apparently the U.S. Embassy in Iraq was sent a warning and evacuation procedures were initiated. Not too long after, the world was made aware that the United States and Israel are contemplating an attack on Iran due to the "fact" that Iran may be close to producing nuclear weapins. The initial monkey brain reaction that I had to these two headlines was, "Oh shit, here we go again. We're going to do something stupid." My second reaction was, "Oh shit, here we go again, I've seen these two exact headlines many times over the years and they've proven to be lackluster if you're a doomer or blood thirsty war monger." Nothing ever happens.
As I venture into my mid-30s and reflect on a life filled with these types of headlines and my personal reactions to these headlines, I'm finally becoming attuned to the fact that the monkey brain reactions aren't very productive at the end of the day. Who knows exactly what's going to happen in Iraq or Iran and whether or not kinetic warfare escalates and materializes from here? Even though I'm a "blue-blooded taxpaying American citizen" who is passively and unwillingly contributing to the war machine and the media industrial complex, there's really nothing I can do about it.
The only thing I can do is focus on what is in front of me. What I have control of. And attempt to leverage what I have control of to make my life and the life of my family as good as humanly possible. Ignoring the external and turning inward often produces incredible results. Instead of worrying about what the media wants you to believe at any given point in time, you simply look away from your computer screen, survey the physical space which you're operating in and determine what you have, what you need and how you can get what you need. This is a much more productive way to spend your time.
This is what I want to touch on right now. There's never been a better time in human history to be productive despite what the algorithm on X or the mainstream media will lead you to believe. Things aren't as great as they could be, but they're also not as bad as you're being led to believe. We live in the Digital Age and the Digital Age provides incredible resources that you can leverage to make YOUR life better.
Social media allows you to create a platform without spending any money. AI allows you to build tools that are beneficial to yourself and others with very little money. And bitcoin exists to provide you with the best form of money that you can save in with the knowledge that your relative ownership of the overall supply isn't going to change. No matter what happens in the external world.
If you can combine these three things to make your life better and - by extension - potentially make the lives of many others better, you're going to be well off in the long run. Combining these three things isn't going to result in immediate gratification, but if you put forth a concerted effort, spend the time, have some semblance of patience, and stick with it, I truly believe that you will benefit massively in the long run. Without trying to sound like a blowhard, I truly believe that this is why I feel relatively calm (despite my monkey brain reactions to the headlines of the day) at this current point in time.
We've entered the era of insane leaps in productivity and digital hard money that cannot be corrupted. The biggest mistake you can make in your life right now is overlooking the confluence of these two things. With an internet connection, an idea, some savvy, and hard work you can materially change your life. Create something that levels up your knowledge, that enables you to get a good job in the real world, or to create a company of your own. Bring your talents to the market, exchange them for money, and then funnel that money into bitcoin (if you're not being paid in it already). We may be at the beginning of a transition from the high velocity trash economy to the high leverage agency economy run on sound money and applied creativity.
These concepts are what you should be focusing most of your time and attention to today and in the years ahead. Don't get distracted by the algorithm, the 30-second video clips, the headlines filled with doom, and the topics of the 24 hour news cycle. I'll admit, I often succumb to them myself. But, as I get older and develop a form of pattern recognition that can only be attained by being on this planet for a certain period of time, it is becoming very clear that those things are not worth your attention.
Living by the heuristic that "nothing ever happens" is a pretty safe bet. Funnily enough, it's incredibly ironic that you're led to believe that something is happening every single day, and yet nothing ever happens. By getting believing that something happens every day you are taking your attention away from doing things that happen to make your life better.
Tune out the noise. Put on the blinders. Take advantage of the incredible opportunities that lie before you. If enough of you - and many others who do not read this newsletter - do this, I truly believe we'll wake up to find that the world we live in is a much better place.
Nothing ever happens, so make something happen.
Intelligence Officials Are Quietly Becoming Bitcoin Believers
Ken Egan, former CIA Deputy Chief of Cyber Operations, revealed a surprising truth on TFTC: the intelligence community harbors numerous Bitcoin advocates. Egan explained that intelligence professionals uniquely understand how governments weaponize financial systems through sanctions and account freezing. Having wielded these tools themselves, they recognize the need for personal financial sovereignty. He shared compelling anecdotes of discovering colleagues with "We are all Satoshi" stickers and a European chief of station paying for dinner with a BlockFi card to earn Bitcoin rewards.
"I think there are a lot of Bitcoiners, not just at CIA, but across the whole national security establishment... they're in it for the exact same reasons everybody else is." - Ken Egan
The Canadian trucker protests served as a pivotal moment, Egan noted. Watching Western governments freeze citizens' bank accounts for political dissent struck a nerve among intelligence professionals who previously viewed financial weaponization as a tool reserved for foreign adversaries. This awakening has created unlikely allies within institutions many Bitcoiners distrust.
Check out the full podcast here for more on Bitcoin's national security implications, privacy tech prosecutions, and legislative priorities.
Headlines of the Day
Stripe Buys Crypto Wallet Privy After Bridge Deal - via X
Trump Calls CPI Data "Great" Urges Full Point Fed Cut - via X
Bitcoin Hashrate Reaches New All-Time High - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?
Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.
Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.
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...
Life is good.
Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: https://www.opportunitycost.app/ start thinking in SATS today.
Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-11 04:37:33Marty's Bent
Sup, freaks? Your Uncle Marty did a little vibe coding a couple months ago and that vibe coding project has turned into an actual product that is live in the Google Chrome web store and will soon to be live in the Firefox add-on store as well. It's called Opportunity Cost and it is an extension that enables you to price the internet in Bitcoin.
Opportunity Cost – See Prices in Bitcoin Instantly
Check it out!
This whole process has been extremely rewarding to me for many reasons. The first of which is that I've had many ideas in the past to launch a product focused on bitcoin education that simply never left my brain because I never felt comfortable paying a developer to go out and build a product that I wasn't sure would ultimately get product market fit.
Due to the advancements of AI, particularly ChatGPT and Replit, I was able to spend a few hours on a Saturday vibe coding a prototype for Opportunity Cost. It worked. I side loaded it into Chrome and Firefox, tested it out for a few days and decided, "Hey, I think this is something that's worthwhile and should be built."
Backtracking just a little bit, the initial idea for this app was to create an AR application that would enable you to take pictures of goods in the real world and have their prices automatically converted to bitcoin so that you could weigh the opportunity cost of whether or not you actually wanted to buy that good or decide to save in bitcoin instead. With the help of Justin Moon from the Human Rights Foundation and Anthony Ronning from OpenSecret and Maple AI, I was pointed in the right direction of vibe coding tools I could use to build a simple MVP. I took their advice, built the MVP, and demoed it at the Bitcoin Park Austin weekly AI meetup in mid-April.
The next week, I was talking with a friend, Luke Thomas, about the idea and during our conversation he made a simple quip, "You should make a Chrome extension. I really want a Chrome extension that does this." And that's what sent me down the vibe coding rabbit hole that Saturday which led to the prototype.
After I was comfortable with and confident in the prototype, I found a young hungry developer by the name of Moses on Nostr, I reached out to him, told him my idea, showed him the prototype and asked if he thought he could finish the application for me. He luckily agreed to do so and within a couple of weeks we had a fully functioning app that was officially launched today. We're about 12 hours into the launch and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception from the broader Bitcoin community. It seems like something that people are happy exists and I feel extremely happy that people see some value in this particular application.
Now that you have the backstory, let's get into why I think something like Opportunity Cost should exist. As someone who's been writing a newsletter and producing podcasts about bitcoin for eight years in an attempt to educate individuals from around the world about what bitcoin is, why it's important, and how they can leverage it, I've become convinced that a lot of the work that needs to be done still exists at the top of the funnel. You can scream at people. You can grab them by the shoulders. You can shake them. You can remind them at Thanksgiving that if they had listened to your advice during any Thanksgiving in the previous years they would be better off financially. But at the end of the day most people don't listen. They need to see things. Seeing things for yourself is a much more effective teaching mechanism than be lectured to by someone else.
My hope with Opportunity Cost is that it catches the eye of some bitcoin skeptics or individuals who may be on the cusp of falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole and they see the extension as a way to dip their toes into bitcoin to get a better understanding of the world by pricing the goods and services they purchase on a day-to-day month-to-month and year-to-year basis in bitcoin without having to download a wallet or set up an exchange account. The tippy top of the bitcoin marketing funnel.
That is not all though. I think Opportunity Cost can serve individuals at both ends of the funnel. That's why it's pretty exciting to me. It's as valuable to the person who is bitcoin curious and looking to get a better understanding as it is to the hardcore bitcoiner living on a bitcoin standard who is trying to get access to better tools that enable him to get a better grasp of their spending in bitcoin terms.
Lastly, after playing around with it for a few days after I built the prototype, I realized that it has incredible memetic potential. Being able to take a screenshot of goods that people are buying on a day-to-day basis, pricing them in bitcoin and then sharing them on social media is very powerful. Everything from houses to junk items on Amazon to the salaries of pro athletes to your everyday necessities. Seeing the value of those things in bitcoin really makes you think.
One day while I was testing the app, I tried to see how quickly I could find goods on the internet that cumulatively eclipsed the 21 million supply cap limit of bitcoin. To my surprise, even though I've been in bitcoin for 12 years now, it did not take me that long. The opportunity cost of everything I buy on a day-to-day basis becomes very clear when using the extension. What's even clearer is the fact that Bitcoin is completely mispriced at current levels. There is so much winning ahead of us.
Also, it's probably important to note that the extension is open source. You can check out our GitHub page here. Submit pull requests. Suggest changes to the app.
We've also tried to make Opportunity Cost as privacy preserving as possible. Everything within the extension happens in your browser. The only external data that we're providing is the bitcoin to fiat price conversion at any given point in time. We're not data harvesting the web pages you're browsing or the items you're looking at. We're not collecting data and sending it to third party marketers. We want to align ourselves with the open and permissionless nature of bitcoin while also preserving our users' privacy. We're not trying to monetize this in that way. Though, I will say that I'm thinking of ways to monetize Opportunity Cost if it does gain significant traction, but I promise it will be in a way that respects your privacy and is as unobtrusive as possible. We'll see how it goes.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please download and use the extension. Let us know what you think.
Headlines of the Day
Saylor Says Bitcoin Is Perfect Money to Jordan Peterson - via X
Trump Won't Sell Tesla Despite Musk-Bessent Heated Exchange - via X
Bitcoin Gains Traction in Kenya's Largest Slum Kibera - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?
Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.
Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.
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...
East Coast aesthetics over everything.
*Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: *<<https://www.opportunitycost.app/>> start thinking in SATS today.
*Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: *https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:
-
@ c9badfea:610f861a
2025-06-10 21:43:55🤖️ AI Articles
📱 Android Articles
- 🥩 Tracking Food Intake
- ✍️ Taking Handwritten Notes
- 🕒 Tracking Habits
- 🧭 Navigating The Wild
- 📝 Organizing Notes and Tasks
- 🧠 Studying Smarter
- 💱 Tracking Fiat Currency Exchange Rates
- 🌠 Offline Planetarium
- 📥 Downloading Media From 1000+ Sites
- 🔥 Blocking Ads and Trackers
- ⛅ Getting Detailed Weather Information
- 📦 Installing Apps Directly From Source
- 🎮 Playing Retro Games
- 🖼️ Generating AI Images Locally
- 📖 Reading PDF Documents and EPUB Books
- 🔒 Storing Passwords Safely
- 🗺️ Using Offline Maps
- 🎵 Producing Music On-Device
- 💾 Writing ISO Images to USB Drives
- 💻 Coding On-Device
- 🎬 Watching and Downloading Videos from YouTube, Rumble, Odysee, Bitchute, and More
- 🔤 Upgrading the Typing Experience
- 📰 Reading RSS Feeds
- 📥 Downloading Torrents
- 📺 Watching IPTV Channels for Free
- 🔒 Easily Verifying File Checksums
- 🗣️ Offline Translator
- 🗣️ Offline Text-to-Speech Engine
- 🤖 Running LLMs Locally
- 🌐 Browsing Entire Websites Offline
- 🔐 Quickly Encrypting Files
✏️ Other Articles
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@ a296b972:e5a7a2e8
2025-06-12 12:36:22Europa sitzt in einem Demokratie-Simulator. Auf die Scheiben im Cockpit werden Bilder projiziert, die nicht der Realität entsprechen, und es gibt immer noch zu viele Menschen, die diese Simulation nicht erkannt haben.
Nichts wäre erstrebenswerter, als über eine positive Entwicklung, hin zur Vernunft und realitätsbezogenen, auf Tatsachen beruhenden Entscheidungen, berichten zu können. Die Frage ist, ob nicht zuerst unentwegt auf Missstände hingewiesen werden muss, um weitere Menschen dazu zu bewegen, sich denjenigen anzuschließen, die offensichtlich an Indoktrinationsintoleranz leiden.
Wer sich vor Hofberichterstattung und die tägliche Fahrt durch die Gehirnwaschanlage schützen will, der meidet den öffentlich-rechtlichen Unfug und die einschlägigen Käseblätter, die vielleicht noch halbwegs dazu geeignet sind, den Fisch auf dem Markt einzuschlagen, um ihn nach Hause zu tragen, vorausgesetzt, man kann ihn sich noch leisten.
Die Neuen Medien liefern die Informationen, die man sonst im „Qualitäts-Mainstream“ nicht finden kann, was nicht verwundert, denn infiltriert von willigen Erfüllungsgehilfen, die Angst um ihr Prestige und ihre Stellung haben, kann man hier keine freie Berichterstattung erwarten.
Beste Unterhaltung bietet auch die Bundespressekonferenz-Show, auf die schon näher eingegangen wurde. Offizieller Regierungssprech in höchster Perfektion. Ob man dort wirklich davon überzeugt ist, dass es irgendjemanden gibt, der diesen Verlautbarungen Glauben schenkt? Was hat Tante Käthe immer gesagt: G E L D L O C K T I M M E R !
Was also tun? Die Neuen Medien auch noch meiden, und sich vor dem blanken Wahnsinn schützen, in dem man ihn ignoriert, was jedoch nicht bewirkt, dass er nicht mehr da wäre.
Temporäre Abstinenz tut auch hier gut, allerdings ist der Wiedereinstieg so ähnlich, wie der erste Arbeitstag nach einem zweimonatigen Urlaub, falls man nicht in seinem Lieblings-Job gelandet ist.
Und was, wenn die Irren vollends durchdrehen, und man bekommt es nicht mit? Schön, ändern kann man vielleicht wenig, aber man kann sich vielleicht noch eine richtig gute, edle Flasche Rotwein kaufen, und die am Vorabend des Untergangs genießen, oder noch schnell einen Baum pflanzen.
Hier ein Beispiel für jemanden, dessen besonderer Blick sehr an den Universal-Gesundheits-Klima-Hysteriker erinnert:
https\://rumble.com/v6umjdj-respekt-und-anerkennung-deutscher-general-lobt-ukrainische-angriffe-in-russ.html
Wie sieht der Alltag aus, wenn man sich einmal nicht mit den Informationen über Dauer- Bekloppte beschäftigt?
Wenn sich ein Besuch in der nächst größeren Stadt nicht vermeiden lässt, sieht man vor allem gehetzte Menschen, viele mit einem finsteren Blick, anders, als früher.
Viele zahlen mit Karte oder ihrem Handy, Kleckerbeträge. „Zahlen Sie noch bar, oder schon mit Überwachung?“, wünschte man sich, dass die Verkäuferinnen den Kunden fragen würden. Tun sie aber nicht.
Die Menschen scheinen keine Ahnung zu haben, was auf sie zukommt. Im Oktober soll der digitale Euro eingeführt werden, natürlich zuerst nur freiwillig. Was das bedeutet, kennt man ja schon. Freiwilligkeit durch das Schaffen eines Raumes, in dem der Zwang in der Luft hängt, wie damals der Kohlenstaub im Ruhrgebiet. Es wird die persönliche ID vorangetrieben, mit einem Wallet, das die Anonymität und die persönliche Freiheit immer mehr aushöhlen will.
Europa soll unter einen Demokratie-Schutzschirm gestellt werden, der zu nichts anderem dient, als dass diejenigen, die derzeit glauben zu wissen, was gut für die Menschen ist, ihre kruden Vorstellungen auch durchsetzen können. Zweifelhaft, was in den USA vorgeht, was da gerade mit Palantir, natürlich nur zur Sicherheit der Amerikaner, so im Hintergrund schon anläuft. Hierzu gibt es interessante Informationen von Regenauer und Tögel. Einziger Hoffnungsschimmer, besonders für Deutschland: Das klappt sowieso nicht. In den hintersten Bergdörfern in den italienischen Alpen gibt es Glasfaseranschluss, und fährt man in Deutschland auf’s Land, reiht sich Funkloch an Funkloch.
Die wirklich wichtige und große Frage ist, wie können sich Gemeinschaften, die diesen Irrsinn nicht mitmachen wollen, weitgehend aus dem System ausklinken? Bitcoin ist ein erster Schritt zur finanziellen Unabhängigkeit. Eine regionale Lebensmittelversorgung, mit nicht verseuchten, genunmanipulierten, mit Schadstoffen weitgehend unbelasteten Produkten entwickelt sich ebenfalls schon sehr gut. Was, wenn der Zugang zu Informationen über das Internet von einer Anmeldung mit persönlicher ID abhängt und man will und hat keine? Was ist mit Dokumenten, wenn man verreisen oder das Land verlassen will? Was ist, wenn man krank wird und auf das noch vorhandene Rest-Gesundheitssystem angewiesen ist? Was, wenn das Unternehmen seine Mitarbeiter auf staatliche Anweisung zu etwas zwingen muss, was der Mitarbeiter vielleicht gar nicht will, er aber auf das Einkommen angewiesen ist?
Das alles sind Fragen, zu denen es schwer ist, auch in den Neuen Medien, passende Antworten zu finden. Die würden in der Tat Hoffnung machen, dass es ein Schlupfloch gibt, sich, wenn vielleicht auch mit Einschränkungen, den „demokratischen“ Verhältnissen, auf denen nur noch Demokratie draufsteht, aber sehr wenig bis keine Demokratie mehr drin ist, so weit es geht zu entziehen. Sachdienliche Hinweise gerne in der Kommentarfunktion.
Oder ist es „gesünder“, sich zurückzuziehen, die Klappe zu halten und dafür zu sorgen, dass man unter dem Radar bleibt? Diese Gabe ist leider nicht jedem gegeben. Besonders nicht denen, die einen ausgeprägten Wahrheitssinn und ein starkes Gerechtigkeitsgefühl haben.
Menschen die andere belügen, die werden geliebt. Menschen, die anderen sagen, dass sie belogen werden, die werden gehasst.
„Die Wahrheit ist dem Menschen zumutbar.“ (Ingeborg Bachmann)
„Kein Mensch hat das Recht zu gehorchen.“ (Hannah Ahrendt)
“Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben.”
* *
(Bild von pixabay)
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-12 04:02:50
"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
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.
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-12 03:02:56What 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.
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-11 04:35:21Marty's Bent
Sup, freaks? Your Uncle Marty did a little vibe coding a couple months ago and that vibe coding project has turned into an actual product that is live in the Google Chrome web store and will soon to be live in the Firefox add-on store as well. It's called Opportunity Cost and it is an extension that enables you to price the internet in Bitcoin.
Opportunity Cost – See Prices in Bitcoin Instantly
Check it out!
This whole process has been extremely rewarding to me for many reasons. The first of which is that I've had many ideas in the past to launch a product focused on bitcoin education that simply never left my brain because I never felt comfortable paying a developer to go out and build a product that I wasn't sure would ultimately get product market fit.
Due to the advancements of AI, particularly ChatGPT and Replit, I was able to spend a few hours on a Saturday vibe coding a prototype for Opportunity Cost. It worked. I side loaded it into Chrome and Firefox, tested it out for a few days and decided, "Hey, I think this is something that's worthwhile and should be built."
Backtracking just a little bit, the initial idea for this app was to create an AR application that would enable you to take pictures of goods in the real world and have their prices automatically converted to bitcoin so that you could weigh the opportunity cost of whether or not you actually wanted to buy that good or decide to save in bitcoin instead. With the help of Justin Moon from the Human Rights Foundation and Anthony Ronning from OpenSecret and Maple AI, I was pointed in the right direction of vibe coding tools I could use to build a simple MVP. I took their advice, built the MVP, and demoed it at the Bitcoin Park Austin weekly AI meetup in mid-April.
The next week, I was talking with a friend, Luke Thomas, about the idea and during our conversation he made a simple quip, "You should make a Chrome extension. I really want a Chrome extension that does this." And that's what sent me down the vibe coding rabbit hole that Saturday which led to the prototype.
After I was comfortable with and confident in the prototype, I found a young hungry developer by the name of Moses on Nostr, I reached out to him, told him my idea, showed him the prototype and asked if he thought he could finish the application for me. He luckily agreed to do so and within a couple of weeks we had a fully functioning app that was officially launched today. We're about 12 hours into the launch and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception from the broader Bitcoin community. It seems like something that people are happy exists and I feel extremely happy that people see some value in this particular application.
Now that you have the backstory, let's get into why I think something like Opportunity Cost should exist. As someone who's been writing a newsletter and producing podcasts about bitcoin for eight years in an attempt to educate individuals from around the world about what bitcoin is, why it's important, and how they can leverage it, I've become convinced that a lot of the work that needs to be done still exists at the top of the funnel. You can scream at people. You can grab them by the shoulders. You can shake them. You can remind them at Thanksgiving that if they had listened to your advice during any Thanksgiving in the previous years they would be better off financially. But at the end of the day most people don't listen. They need to see things. Seeing things for yourself is a much more effective teaching mechanism than be lectured to by someone else.
My hope with Opportunity Cost is that it catches the eye of some bitcoin skeptics or individuals who may be on the cusp of falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole and they see the extension as a way to dip their toes into bitcoin to get a better understanding of the world by pricing the goods and services they purchase on a day-to-day month-to-month and year-to-year basis in bitcoin without having to download a wallet or set up an exchange account. The tippy top of the bitcoin marketing funnel.
That is not all though. I think Opportunity Cost can serve individuals at both ends of the funnel. That's why it's pretty exciting to me. It's as valuable to the person who is bitcoin curious and looking to get a better understanding as it is to the hardcore bitcoiner living on a bitcoin standard who is trying to get access to better tools that enable him to get a better grasp of their spending in bitcoin terms.
Lastly, after playing around with it for a few days after I built the prototype, I realized that it has incredible memetic potential. Being able to take a screenshot of goods that people are buying on a day-to-day basis, pricing them in bitcoin and then sharing them on social media is very powerful. Everything from houses to junk items on Amazon to the salaries of pro athletes to your everyday necessities. Seeing the value of those things in bitcoin really makes you think.
One day while I was testing the app, I tried to see how quickly I could find goods on the internet that cumulatively eclipsed the 21 million supply cap limit of bitcoin. To my surprise, even though I've been in bitcoin for 12 years now, it did not take me that long. The opportunity cost of everything I buy on a day-to-day basis becomes very clear when using the extension. What's even clearer is the fact that Bitcoin is completely mispriced at current levels. There is so much winning ahead of us.
Also, it's probably important to note that the extension is completely open source with an MIT license. You can check out our GitHub page here. Submit pull requests. Suggest changes to the app.
We've also tried to make Opportunity Cost as privacy preserving as possible. Everything within the extension happens in your browser. The only external data that we're providing is the bitcoin to fiat price conversion at any given point in time. We're not data harvesting the web pages you're browsing or the items you're looking at. We're not collecting data and sending it to third party marketers. We want to align ourselves with the open and permissionless nature of bitcoin while also preserving our users' privacy. We're not trying to monetize this in that way. Though, I will say that I'm thinking of ways to monetize Opportunity Cost if it does gain significant traction, but I promise it will be in a way that respects your privacy and is as unobtrusive as possible. We'll see how it goes.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please download and use the extension. Let us know what you think.
Headlines of the Day
Saylor Says Bitcoin Is Perfect Money to Jordan Peterson - via X
Trump Won't Sell Tesla Despite Musk-Bessent Heated Exchange - via X
Bitcoin Gains Traction in Kenya's Largest Slum Kibera - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?
Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.
Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.
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...
East Coast aesthetics over everything.
*Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: *<https://www.opportunitycost.app/> start thinking in SATS today.
*Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: *https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:
-
@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-12 04:32:16Ik hou van de natuur en van verbinding maken\ Van diepgang en van mensen raken
Van creatief schrijven en programmeren\ Van speels bewegen en nieuwe dingen leren
Ik hou van leven en van dromen\ En van mensen zien\ Hun diepste wensen uit doen komen
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-11 04:26:09Marty's Bent
Sup, freaks? Your Uncle Marty did a little vibe coding a couple months ago and that vibe coding project has turned into an actual product that is live in the Google Chrome web store and will soon to be live in the Firefox add-on store as well. It's called Opportunity Cost and it is an extension that enables you to price the internet in Bitcoin.
Opportunity Cost – See Prices in Bitcoin Instantly
Check it out!
This whole process has been extremely rewarding to me for many reasons. The first of which is that I've had many ideas in the past to launch a product focused on bitcoin education that simply never left my brain because I never felt comfortable paying a developer to go out and build a product that I wasn't sure would ultimately get product market fit.
Due to the advancements of AI, particularly ChatGPT and Replit, I was able to spend a few hours on a Saturday vibe coding a prototype for Opportunity Cost. It worked. I side loaded it into Chrome and Firefox, tested it out for a few days and decided, "Hey, I think this is something that's worthwhile and should be built."
Backtracking just a little bit, the initial idea for this app was to create an AR application that would enable you to take pictures of goods in the real world and have their prices automatically converted to bitcoin so that you could weigh the opportunity cost of whether or not you actually wanted to buy that good or decide to save in bitcoin instead. With the help of Justin Moon from the Human Rights Foundation and Anthony Ronning from OpenSecret and Maple AI, I was pointed in the right direction of vibe coding tools I could use to build a simple MVP. I took their advice, built the MVP, and demoed it at the Bitcoin Park Austin weekly AI meetup in mid-April.
The next week, I was talking with a friend, Luke Thomas, about the idea and during our conversation he made a simple quip, "You should make a Chrome extension. I really want a Chrome extension that does this." And that's what sent me down the vibe coding rabbit hole that Saturday which led to the prototype.
After I was comfortable with and confident in the prototype, I found a young hungry developer by the name of Moses on Nostr, I reached out to him, told him my idea, showed him the prototype and asked if he thought he could finish the application for me. He luckily agreed to do so and within a couple of weeks we had a fully functioning app that was officially launched today. We're about 12 hours into the launch and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception from the broader Bitcoin community. It seems like something that people are happy exists and I feel extremely happy that people see some value in this particular application.
Now that you have the backstory, let's get into why I think something like Opportunity Cost should exist. As someone who's been writing a newsletter and producing podcasts about bitcoin for eight years in an attempt to educate individuals from around the world about what bitcoin is, why it's important, and how they can leverage it, I've become convinced that a lot of the work that needs to be done still exists at the top of the funnel. You can scream at people. You can grab them by the shoulders. You can shake them. You can remind them at Thanksgiving that if they had listened to your advice during any Thanksgiving in the previous years they would be better off financially. But at the end of the day most people don't listen. They need to see things. Seeing things for yourself is a much more effective teaching mechanism than be lectured to by someone else.
My hope with Opportunity Cost is that it catches the eye of some bitcoin skeptics or individuals who may be on the cusp of falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole and they see the extension as a way to dip their toes into bitcoin to get a better understanding of the world by pricing the goods and services they purchase on a day-to-day month-to-month and year-to-year basis in bitcoin without having to download a wallet or set up an exchange account. The tippy top of the bitcoin marketing funnel.
That is not all though. I think Opportunity Cost can serve individuals at both ends of the funnel. That's why it's pretty exciting to me. It's as valuable to the person who is bitcoin curious and looking to get a better understanding as it is to the hardcore bitcoiner living on a bitcoin standard who is trying to get access to better tools that enable him to get a better grasp of their spending in bitcoin terms.
Lastly, after playing around with it for a few days after I built the prototype, I realized that it has incredible memetic potential. Being able to take a screenshot of goods that people are buying on a day-to-day basis, pricing them in bitcoin and then sharing them on social media is very powerful. Everything from houses to junk items on Amazon to the salaries of pro athletes to your everyday necessities. Seeing the value of those things in bitcoin really makes you think.
One day while I was testing the app, I tried to see how quickly I could find goods on the internet that cumulatively eclipsed the 21 million supply cap limit of bitcoin. To my surprise, even though I've been in bitcoin for 12 years now, it did not take me that long. The opportunity cost of everything I buy on a day-to-day basis becomes very clear when using the extension. What's even clearer is the fact that Bitcoin is completely mispriced at current levels. There is so much winning ahead of us.
Also, it's probably important to note that the extension is completely open source with an MIT license. You can check out our GitHub page here. Submit pull requests. Suggest changes to the app. Fork it. Use it yourself. Make your own changes.
We've also tried to make Opportunity Cost as privacy preserving as possible. Everything within the extension happens in your browser. The only external data that we're providing is the bitcoin to fiat price conversion at any given point in time. We're not data harvesting the web pages you're browsing or the items you're looking at. We're not collecting data and sending it to third party marketers. We want to align ourselves with the open and permissionless nature of bitcoin while also preserving our users' privacy. We're not trying to monetize this in that way. Though, I will say that I'm thinking of ways to monetize Opportunity Cost if it does gain significant traction, but I promise it will be in a way that respects your privacy and is as unobtrusive as possible. We'll see how it goes.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please download and use the extension. Let us know what you think.
Headlines of the Day
Saylor Says Bitcoin Is Perfect Money to Jordan Peterson - via X
Trump Won't Sell Tesla Despite Musk-Bessent Heated Exchange - via X
Bitcoin Gains Traction in Kenya's Largest Slum Kibera - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?
Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.
Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.
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...
East Coast aesthetics over everything.
Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: https://www.opportunitycost.app/ start thinking in SATS today.
Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:
-
@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-10 03:58:15Marty's Bent
via me
"The man in the coma" has been a long-running archetype of a bitcoiner on TFTC and Rabbit Hole Recap. Over the years, we've referenced the man in the coma in regards to bitcoin being a backward compatible distributed network that would enable an individual, in the case of our example - a man who fell into a coma, to be able to wake up many years, even decades, after falling into a deep sleep, go back to his bitcoin node and be able to participate in the network and validate his own transactions as if the network was operating the same it was the day he slipped into a coma. As a distributed network, this is one of bitcoin's greatest value props; consistency for the individual running it, no matter the version.
Having spent 12 years engrossed in bitcoin, thinking about it every day, building a media company focused on educating people about the network and the monetary revolution it enables, why it's important and how they can use it. Becoming a managing partner at Ten31, which is dedicated to investing in companies building out infrastructure that makes bitcoin more accessible and easier to use; "the man in the coma" has become a more prominent archetype in my mind.
"The man in the coma" archetype can be described in other ways. For instance, there was an individual by the name of John Doe, who joined myself and Matt Odell on TFTC about seven years ago who went to jail for four years. He was distributing certain goods on the Silk Road for many years and got nabbed by the police while throwing a house party. Unfortunately for Mr. Doe, the goods he were selling via the Silk Road were in the house hosting the party that got busted. Fortunately for Mr. Doe, the police who nabbed him were not privy to the way in which he was marketing and selling the goods. He went to jail for four years, walked out at the end of his sentence, found his bitcoin wallets, recovered them and was more than pleasantly surprised at the magnitude of his wealth.
The forced hodl that was incited by the state throwing him in a cage wound up paying off after four years. Now, I can certainly admit that time is the most scarce asset in the world. Being put in a cage for four years or falling into a coma for a number of years is not ideal. However, there are lessons to be gleaned from the successes that have been realized by "the man in the coma" and the man who was forced to hodl by being thrown in a cage. Unable to access his bitcoin during that period of time to make less than wise decisions.
The main lesson to be gleaned is that doing nothing is oftentimes significantly more optimal than doing something. Too many bitcoiners decide to make rash decisions influenced by the day-to-day happenings on social media or some one-off comment from someone in their personal life that they respect. These comments can be about the long-term viability of bitcoin itself, some prognostications about where the price is going in a short-term to medium-term time frame or simply the social aspects of being associated with bitcoin. All of these factors play into influencing certain individuals deciding to sell their bitcoin in the hopes of buying it back lower, realizing something material in their day-to-day life or jumping off a ship that they've been convinced is about to sink.
In my mind, the only thing listed above that makes a bit of sense to me is realizing something material in your day-to-day life. Selling some bitcoin to purchase something that makes your life better like enabling you to support your family at a critical time and in a way that would not be possible unless you sold bitcoin. That makes sense to me. However, the other two are completely nonsensical. Bitcoin's success is binary. It either succeeds or it doesn't. And if you accept that this is true, success means slowly but surely becoming the global reserve currency and monetary network used by billions of humans on the planet or it goes to zero.
If the former materializes, that means that billions of people are going to be competing for 21 million Bitcoin. There are, by some estimates, $900 trillion worth of assets that are being used to store wealth over the short, medium, and long term. Bitcoin has the potential to subsume a material percentage of that $900 trillion. In my mind, if bitcoin is as good as I believe it is, it should take at least half of that market, if not 80 to 90%. This in and of itself is a gamble. No one can be certain that this will come true. And with that in mind you have to make a probabilistic bet by surveying the world and discerning what the likelihood of bitcoin's ultimate success is.
If you think governments, central banks, and large corporations are going to continue down the path of unfettered expansion of the monetary base, debt, and misallocation of capital, bitcoin, a peer-to-peer distributed cash system that cannot be controlled by any individual. corporation, country, or central bank makes a lot of sense. The debasement, the debt expansion, and the misallocation of capital are driven by fallible humans working in incentive structures that are vulnerable to the fallible nature of the humans working within them.
Human fallibility brings with it the ability to talk oneself out of a position that one knows makes sense and is logical. This is the disadvantage that those who are not "the man in the coma" or "the man in a cage" operate from. Being forced to hodl bitcoin is already and will increasingly be seen as a relative advantage. Many who are in bitcoin today, paying attention to every headline, every pull request and every doubt flung their way will likely get to 2030 and agree that they made worse decisions than the man who was thrown in a cage or who slipped into a coma.
Of course, this isn't a fair introspective conclusion. The man in the coma and the man who was forced to hodl because he was put in a jail cell did not have a decision at the end of the day. Both were forced to hodl due to external or internal forces that, all else being equal, they would prefer not have had to endure. However, the outcome of these two situations will likely be better than the outcome of "the man in the arena" who thinks that by making decisions on the go as a slew of information comes his way on a day-to-day basis will materialize in a larger stack of satoshis.
The reality of the situation is such that no one truly knows where bitcoin is going to go on a day-to-day, month-to-month, or year-to-year basis. Especially at this point with large institutions, nation-states, corporations, and individual states getting into the fray. The only tried-and-true strategy within bitcoin over the long term is to stay humble, stack sats, and hodl like you are "the man in the coma" or the man who was thrown in a cage.
Bitcoin's Volatility Won't End With Institutional Adoption
Leon Wankum challenged the popular "supercycle" narrative during our conversation, arguing that Bitcoin's volatility isn't going away despite massive institutional adoption. While acknowledging that MicroStrategy now holds over 2% of all Bitcoin and won't sell, Leon maintains that leverage will still need to be washed out. He expects another 60% drawdown at the end of this bull cycle, viewing this as a feature rather than a bug of Bitcoin's design.
"Bitcoin naturally washes out leverage, it builds resilience and we don't go through these crazy boom and bust cycles, we go through bull and bear markets and I think that's a net positive." - Leon Wankum
Leon sees Bitcoin's volatility as fundamentally different from fiat's destructive boom-bust cycles. Where traditional markets require central bank intervention to prop up failing systems, Bitcoin's regular corrections create genuine resilience. Bad actors will always enter during euphoric phases, and the subsequent washouts ensure only strong hands remain. This natural selection process, he argues, is beautiful - it's what makes Bitcoin antifragile.
Check out the full podcast here for more on real estate opportunity costs, Bitcoin bonds, and treasury company risks.
Headlines of the Day
Romania Adds Crypto Terminals to Post Offices - via X
Musk Claims Trump in Epstein Files - via X
Uber CEO Calls Bitcoin Proven Store of Value - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Take the First Step Off the Exchange
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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...
The kids really do grow up faster than you expect.
Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:
-
@ 6be5cc06:5259daf0
2025-06-12 01:18:11Introdução
O princípio do sola scriptura, pedra angular da teologia protestante desde a Reforma do século XVI, estabelece que apenas a Escritura constitui a autoridade final e suprema em questões de fé e prática cristã. Este princípio, formulado inicialmente por Martinho Lutero e sistematizado pelos reformadores subsequentes, pretende oferecer um fundamento epistemológico sólido para a teologia, livre das supostas corrupções da tradição eclesiástica.
Contudo, uma análise rigorosa revela que o sola scriptura incorre em contradições lógicas fundamentais que comprometem sua viabilidade como sistema epistemológico coerente. Este artigo examina essas contradições através de três perspectivas complementares: filosófica, exegética e histórica.
A Contradição Performativa Fundamental
O Problema da Autorreferência
O sola scriptura enfrenta um dilema epistemológico insuperável: afirma que apenas a Escritura possui autoridade final em matéria de fé, mas essa própria regra não é explicitamente ensinada na Escritura. Trata-se de uma contradição performativa clássica, onde o enunciado viola suas próprias condições de possibilidade.
Esta situação configura uma falácia de petitio principii (círculo vicioso), pois exige que se aceite uma doutrina que não pode ser sustentada pelas premissas do próprio sistema. Para estabelecer o sola scriptura, seria necessário recorrer a uma autoridade externa à Escritura – precisamente aquilo que o princípio pretende rejeitar.
Fundacionalismo Mal Estruturado
Do ponto de vista epistemológico, o sola scriptura apresenta-se como um fundacionalismo defeituoso. Pretende funcionar como axioma supremo e auto-evidente, mas falha ao não fornecer a base textual que sua própria metodologia exige. Um verdadeiro fundacionalismo escriturístico deveria ser capaz de demonstrar sua validade através de uma prova explícita nas próprias Escrituras.
O Testemunho Contrário das Escrituras
Limitações do Registro Escrito
A própria Escritura reconhece as limitações do registro textual. João 21:25 declara explicitamente: "Jesus fez também muitas outras coisas. Se cada uma delas fosse escrita, penso que nem mesmo no mundo inteiro haveria espaço suficiente para os livros que seriam escritos."
Este versículo é particularmente problemático para o sola scriptura, pois reconhece que nem todos os ensinamentos de Cristo foram preservados por escrito. Como pode a Escritura ser suficiente se ela própria admite sua incompletude?
A Valorização da Tradição Oral
Paulo, em 2 Tessalonicenses 2:15, oferece uma instrução que contradiz frontalmente o sola scriptura: "Assim, pois, irmãos, ficai firmes e conservai os ensinamentos que de nós aprendestes, seja por palavras, seja por carta nossa."
O apóstolo valoriza inequivocamente tanto a tradição oral ("por palavras") quanto a escrita ("por carta"), estabelecendo um modelo de autoridade dual que o protestantismo posterior rejeitaria.
A Necessidade de Autoridade Interpretativa
A narrativa do eunuco etíope em Atos 8:30-31 demonstra a inadequação da Escritura isolada como autoridade final. Quando Filipe pergunta se o eunuco entende o que lê, a resposta é reveladora: "Como poderei entender, se alguém não me ensinar?"
Este episódio ilustra que a mera posse do texto bíblico não garante compreensão adequada. É necessária uma autoridade interpretativa externa – no caso, representada por Filipe, que age com autoridade apostólica.
A Complexidade Hermenêutica
Pedro, em sua segunda epístola (3:16-17), reconhece a dificuldade interpretativa inerente às Escrituras: "Suas cartas contêm algumas coisas difíceis de entender, as quais os ignorantes e instáveis torcem, como também o fazem com as demais Escrituras, para a própria destruição deles."
Esta passagem não apenas reconhece a complexidade hermenêutica dos textos sagrados, mas também alerta sobre os perigos da interpretação inadequada. Implicitamente, sugere a necessidade de uma autoridade interpretativa confiável para evitar distorções doutrinárias.
O Paradoxo Histórico da Canonização
A Dependência da Tradição Eclesiástica
Um dos argumentos mais devastadores contra o sola scriptura emerge da própria história da formação do cânon bíblico. Os concílios de Hipona (393 d.C.) e Cartago (397 d.C.) foram responsáveis pela definição oficial do cânon das Escrituras tal como conhecemos hoje.
Este fato histórico cria um paradoxo insuperável: aceitar a Bíblia como autoridade única requer aceitar a autoridade da tradição eclesiástica que a definiu. O próprio cânon bíblico é produto da tradição apostólica e da deliberação conciliar, não de autodefinição escriturística.
A Circularidade da Autopistia
Tentativas protestantes de resolver este dilema através do conceito de "autopistia" – a suposta capacidade das Escrituras de se auto-autenticar – apenas aprofundam o problema circular. Como determinar que as Escrituras possuem esta propriedade sem recorrer a critérios externos? A própria doutrina da autopistia não é explicitamente ensinada na Escritura.
Implicações Teológicas e Epistemológicas
A Fragmentação Interpretativa
A história do protestantismo oferece evidência empírica das consequências práticas do sola scriptura. A multiplicação de denominações e interpretações divergentes sugere que o princípio, longe de fornecer clareza doutrinária, pode na verdade contribuir para a fragmentação teológica.
Se a Escritura fosse verdadeiramente suficiente e auto-interpretativa, seria razoável esperar maior convergência hermenêutica entre aqueles que aderem ao sola scriptura. A realidade histórica sugere o contrário.
A Alternativa Católica e Ortodoxa
As tradições católica e ortodoxa, embora enfrentando suas próprias tensões epistemológicas, mantêm pelo menos coerência interna ao reconhecer explicitamente múltiplas fontes complementares de autoridade: Escritura, Tradição e Magistério (no caso católico) ou Escritura e Tradição (no caso ortodoxo).
Estas posições evitam a contradição performativa do sola scriptura ao não reivindicar que sua própria metodologia epistemológica seja derivada exclusivamente da Escritura.
Conclusão
A análise crítica do sola scriptura revela contradições estruturais que comprometem fundamentalmente sua viabilidade como princípio epistemológico. O princípio incorre em contradição performativa ao estabelecer uma regra que não pode ser derivada de suas próprias premissas, configura um fundacionalismo mal estruturado ao carecer de base textual explícita, e enfrenta o testemunho contrário da própria Escritura, que reconhece suas limitações e a necessidade de autoridades interpretativas externas.
O paradoxo histórico da canonização – onde o próprio cânon bíblico depende da autoridade tradicional que o sola scriptura pretende rejeitar – representa talvez o golpe mais decisivo contra o princípio protestante.
Isso não implica necessariamente a falsidade do protestantismo como sistema teológico, mas sugere que seus fundamentos epistemológicos requerem reformulação substancial. Uma teologia protestante intelectualmente honesta precisaria reconhecer as limitações do sola scriptura e desenvolver uma epistemologia mais nuançada que leve em conta a complexidade das fontes de autoridade religiosa.
A busca pela verdade teológica, independentemente de compromissos confessionais, exige o reconhecimento rigoroso das limitações e contradições inerentes aos nossos sistemas epistemológicos. No caso do sola scriptura, essa honestidade intelectual revela um princípio que, por mais central que seja para a identidade protestante, não pode sustentar o peso epistemológico que tradicionalmente lhe foi atribuído.
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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7
2025-06-12 02:01:29Jason 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:
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-12 01:02:18Will 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.
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:30:52Nooit is mijn dans echter\ Dan net nadat het regende\ Want regen biedt een kans\ Om mijn gevoel te voelen
Zolang de regen spettert\ En ik mezelf graag zie\ Wordt er niets verplettert\ Ook al lijkt dat soms wel zo
Zodra de regen ophoudt\ En zich terugtrekt met de wolken\ Komt een nieuwe glans\ Voor het eerst mijn ogen binnen
Wat is het leven heerlijk\ Als ik eerlijk ben en voel\ Wat is het leven zacht\ En het brengt me naar mijn doel
Wat zou ik weten zonder regen\ Gewoon steeds evenveel\ Niet groeien is niet leven\ Daarom dans ik het liefst
Net na de echte regen
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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7
2025-06-12 01:01:37Jason 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:
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
-
@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:09:02In een zee van mogelijkheden\ Kunnen we best veel tijd aan dromen besteden
Dromen is een universele taal\ Het wordt gedaan door ons allemaal
Het is het woord\ Dat deze gelijkheid de grond in boort
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:30:23My life is my way Home\ My death is my arrival
I can't wait to be Home\ And so I love life
I can't wait to be Home\ And so I want to live to the fullest
For there are no shortcuts
Many people die\ And never make it Home
They will have to wait\ For another chance to die
Another chance to live fully\ And die totally
I'm so thankful to be alive\ I'm on my way Home
I'm so thankful to be alive\ To have another chance to die
Every day I take a step\ In the direction of my death\ I do not postpone it
Every day I take a step\ In the direction of my truth\ I do not avoid it
It is who I am, always have been\ And always will be
It lies beyond that door\ That keeps everything in check
Where only can go through\ Which is forever true
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:25:37In het hart van een gepensioneerde operazangeres ontstond een stemmetje. Het stemmetje klonk verrast. "He," ging het hart. "Ik heb een stemmetje gekregen! Hoe kan dit? Kan iemand me horen? Zouden mijn gedachten me kunnen horen?" vroeg het stemmetje, niet wetend aan wie. Want de gedachten hoorden het niet. Zij waren zo druk bezig met het verleden en hadden een grote angst dit te verliezen. "Weet je nog?" gingen de gedachten. "Voor duizenden mensen heb ik gezongen! Avond na avond! Tienduizenden mensen hebben me toegejuicht! Wat waren ze onder de indruk! Luister! Ik kan het nog steeds!" "He," ging het hart. "Hoor je me dan niet? Het ging toch helemaal niet om dat gejuich. Weet je dan niet meer hoe ik me volledig bloot gaf aan die mensen. Mijn diepste en meest persoonlijke verhalen waren te horen in mijn liederen. Daar draaide het toch om? De mensen waren niet enkel onder de indruk. Hun harten hebben mijn verhalen gevoeld en konden zo kennis geven aan hun gedachten. Is dat niet wat echt telde?" Maar de gedachten waren volop aan het zingen voor de ene persoon die ze konden vinden die wou luisteren. "He," ging het hart. "Ook in dit moment zijn mijn liederen te horen door vele gedachten en te voelen door vele harten over de hele wereld. Heb ik dan geen rust verdiend? Kan ik niet even genieten van de rust die in dit moment te vinden is, maar jullie van me afnemen?" Maar de gedachten waren nog steeds volop aan het zingen.
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:25:24I am the space\ In which your experience takes place
You could never meet me\ For I hold no identity
The only way to really see me\ Is to be me
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:24:15Love, I thank you for your warmth\ Ever lifting
You keep me charmed\ Ever drifting
May I be me\ And you be you
In a perfect harmony\ Embracing all life makes us grow through
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:08:40Machtig water\ Door velen bemind
Element van beweging\ Vormgever aan land\ Bondgenoot van wind
Voorkomer van comfort\ Toelater van rust
Machtig water\ Waar ik ook ga\ Ik weet dat jij de grond onder mijn voeten kust
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 21:12:27In het hart van een gepensioneerde operazangeres ontstond een stemmetje. Het stemmetje klonk verrast. "He," ging het hart. "Ik heb een stemmetje gekregen! Hoe kan dit? Kan iemand me horen? Zouden mijn gedachten me kunnen horen?" vroeg het stemmetje, niet wetend aan wie. Want de gedachten hoorden het niet. Zij waren zo druk bezig met het verleden en hadden een grote angst dit te verliezen. "Weet je nog?" gingen de gedachten. "Voor duizenden mensen heb ik gezongen! Avond na avond! Tienduizenden mensen hebben me toegejuicht! Wat waren ze onder de indruk! Luister! Ik kan het nog steeds!" "He," ging het hart. "Hoor je me dan niet? Het ging toch helemaal niet om dat gejuich. Weet je dan niet meer hoe ik me volledig bloot gaf aan die mensen. Mijn diepste en meest persoonlijke verhalen waren te horen in mijn liederen. Daar draaide het toch om? De mensen waren niet enkel onder de indruk. Hun harten hebben mijn verhalen gevoeld en konden zo kennis geven aan hun gedachten. Is dat niet wat echt telde?" Maar de gedachten waren volop aan het zingen voor de ene persoon die ze konden vinden die wou luisteren. "He," ging het hart. "Ook in dit moment zijn mijn liederen te horen door vele gedachten en te voelen door vele harten over de hele wereld. Heb ik dan geen rust verdiend? Kan ik niet even genieten van de rust die in dit moment te vinden is, maar jullie van me afnemen?" Maar de gedachten waren nog steeds volop aan het zingen.
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:24:05Jaren tellen\ Hoeft voor mij niet
Verhalen vertellen\ Over geluk en verdriet
Een warme haven\ Veilig en fijn
Dromen voorgedragen\ Onschuldig en rein
Momenten ervaard, geleerd\ En geïntegreerd
Ideeën, geloven en gevoelens\ Gevormd en gecreëerd
Zonder eind of echt begin\ Vallen, groeien, leren, stoeien
Een gezin in een gezin met een gezin erin\ Gezind gericht blijft liefde vloeien
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:23:49The world around me\ Is assumed to be
Through sensory observations\ This appears to me
What I experience\ Is for me
But the ultimate experience\ Is for me\ To be
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 21:08:10I am the space\ In which your experience takes place
You could never meet me\ For I hold no identity
The only way to really see me\ Is to be me
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:23:37Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, my dearest human family\ Happy New Year, my dearest animal family
Dear children of the Earth\ I wish you all a magical year
May it be utterly new\ Ever-changing\ New now
And may your journey say\ Life is amazing! I'm in a maze\ Life is awesome! Quite some awe\ Life is magical! True alchemy
I am human\ Black woman, I love you so\ Life-giver of my origin, the negro [nigiro]
I am\ Thus physical and non-physical meet
Life is to be\ As the elements are and compete\ And as they collide with one another\ One becomes aware of an other\ And so life sets on a journey\ To discover the other
Animal life is set to explore\ Allowing all experience the other has in store\ Life left to experience without a voice\ Until it discovers there is an 'I'\ And it has a choice
Human life is to be inside a human body\ Thus fusion between intellect and feeling\ Gets to express its perspective\ Inside infinity
Truly, a magical gift\ My Holy Trinity
And so from human life flow many voices\ As it navigates through infinite choices
Thus I say
Life is magic\ A gift for all that is here\ Perceived by too many as tragic\ Take care of your vision, I tell you, my dear [tell-a-vision]
Life is magic\ And words are spells\ Placing your aim beyond your reach\ It takes away efficiency from your speech
Life is magic\ Above all else\ Even when it has me feeling blue\ Seemingly left without a clue
Still I say
Perfection\ You are everything\ And I am of you
The source, the mirror\ And the reflection
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:22:59De laatste zonnestralen van de dag streken over de eeuwige golven en weerkaatsten als lichtpuntjes in de ogen van schipper Joris terwijl hij nog een slok nam van zijn glazen fles die de vorm had van het hoofd van een oude monnik.
Gekregen van een oude vrouw uit de bergen van de Himalaya, zorgde de rum genaamd 'Old Monk' voor een verwarmend gezelschap op deze eenzame kerstnacht.
Joris had met zijn boot naar India gevaren nadat zijn vrouw hem had verlaten en hij een Indiër had ontmoet die had gezegd: "Waar ik vandaan kom, zijn vrouwen vrij en worden ze niet gezien als enkel en alleen de mooie lichamen die zij bezitten of als eeuwig bezit van een gezin."
Verward en ongelovig had Joris gekeken naar de wereld en besefte dat vrouwen inderdaad slechts gezien werden als hun fysieke schoonheid, genegeerd werden voor hun koesterende gevoeligheid en bekritiseerd werden door hun spontane intensheid en had hierop voor twee jaar lang gezocht in India naar deze vrije vrouwen met als enig resultaat een oude vrouw te ontmoeten die alleen in de bergen woonde en dagelijks haar wijsheid deelde met ieder luisterend oor.
Daar ging het doorzichtig monnikshoofd en verliet met een grote gebogen vlucht de hand van schipper Joris toen plots met groot kabaal de boot abrupt tot stilstand kwam en Joris hals over kop naar de andere kant van het dek geslingerd werd.
Het monnikshoofd verdween in het donker terwijl Joris zijn lichaam probeerde te lokaliseren en met zijn ogen wijd open zijn hersenen zo veel mogelijk informatie probeerde door te spelen.
Tevergeefs, want zijn enorme verschot werd gevolgd door een enkel groeiende verbazing, ongeloof en desoriëntatie toen de boot begon te kantelen.
De bundel licht, afkomstig van de mast van de boot, zwierde doorheen het donker en kwam te schijnen op een gigantische rots in het midden van de zee die werd bezeten door een oogverblindende glinstergroene schijn.
Uit het donker kwam het monnikshoofd, dat nog steeds in volle vlucht was, in het vizier van de lichtbundel en plaatste zich exact tussen de glinstergroene verschijning en Joris waarbij Joris doorheen het monnikshoofd gezegend werd met het zicht op een pracht van een zeemeermin die uitnodigend poseerde op de rots.
Met een luide plons viel Joris achterover in het water toen hij zich realiseerde dat vrouwen zichzelf ook lieten vangen door lust en hun uiterlijke opmaakcompetities en met een dankbare glimlach zonk hij naar de bodem van de zee en was opnieuw geboren.
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 21:07:41Love, I thank you for your warmth\ Ever lifting
You keep me charmed\ Ever drifting
May I be me\ And you be you
In a perfect harmony\ Embracing all life makes us grow through
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 21:07:23Jaren tellen\ Hoeft voor mij niet
Verhalen vertellen\ Over geluk en verdriet
Een warme haven\ Veilig en fijn
Dromen voorgedragen\ Onschuldig en rein
Momenten ervaard, geleerd\ En geïntegreerd
Ideeën, geloven en gevoelens\ Gevormd en gecreëerd
Zonder eind of echt begin\ Vallen, groeien, leren, stoeien
Een gezin in een gezin met een gezin erin\ Gezind gericht blijft liefde vloeien
-
@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 21:07:04The world around me\ Is assumed to be
Through sensory observations\ This appears to me
What I experience\ Is for me
But the ultimate experience\ Is for me\ To be
-
@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 21:06:42Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, my dearest human family\ Happy New Year, my dearest animal family
Dear children of the Earth\ I wish you all a magical year
May it be utterly new\ Ever-changing\ New now
And may your journey say\ Life is amazing! I'm in a maze\ Life is awesome! Quite some awe\ Life is magical! True alchemy
I am human\ Black woman, I love you so\ Life-giver of my origin, the negro [nigiro]
I am\ Thus physical and non-physical meet
Life is to be\ As the elements are and compete\ And as they collide with one another\ One becomes aware of an other\ And so life sets on a journey\ To discover the other
Animal life is set to explore\ Allowing all experience the other has in store\ Life left to experience without a voice\ Until it discovers there is an 'I'\ And it has a choice
Human life is to be inside a human body\ Thus fusion between intellect and feeling\ Gets to express its perspective\ Inside infinity
Truly, a magical gift\ My Holy Trinity
And so from human life flow many voices\ As it navigates through infinite choices
Thus I say
Life is magic\ A gift for all that is here\ Perceived by too many as tragic\ Take care of your vision, I tell you, my dear [tell-a-vision]
Life is magic\ And words are spells\ Placing your aim beyond your reach\ It takes away efficiency from your speech
Life is magic\ Above all else\ Even when it has me feeling blue\ Seemingly left without a clue
Still I say
Perfection\ You are everything\ And I am of you
The source, the mirror\ And the reflection
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:21:31Zonneschijn\ Stralen, lachen, zo fijn\ Moge de wereld dankbaar zijn
De vrouw, mijn gevoeligheid\ Bron van creativiteit
Genietend niets doen in het gras\ Met wat brood en wat wijn in het glas
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 21:06:21De laatste zonnestralen van de dag streken over de eeuwige golven en weerkaatsten als lichtpuntjes in de ogen van schipper Joris terwijl hij nog een slok nam van zijn glazen fles die de vorm had van het hoofd van een oude monnik.
Gekregen van een oude vrouw uit de bergen van de Himalaya, zorgde de rum genaamd 'Old Monk' voor een verwarmend gezelschap op deze eenzame kerstnacht.
Joris had met zijn boot naar India gevaren nadat zijn vrouw hem had verlaten en hij een Indiër had ontmoet die had gezegd: "Waar ik vandaan kom, zijn vrouwen vrij en worden ze niet gezien als enkel en alleen de mooie lichamen die zij bezitten of als eeuwig bezit van een gezin."
Verward en ongelovig had Joris gekeken naar de wereld en besefte dat vrouwen inderdaad slechts gezien werden als hun fysieke schoonheid, genegeerd werden voor hun koesterende gevoeligheid en bekritiseerd werden door hun spontane intensheid en had hierop voor twee jaar lang gezocht in India naar deze vrije vrouwen met als enig resultaat een oude vrouw te ontmoeten die alleen in de bergen woonde en dagelijks haar wijsheid deelde met ieder luisterend oor.
Daar ging het doorzichtig monnikshoofd en verliet met een grote gebogen vlucht de hand van schipper Joris toen plots met groot kabaal de boot abrupt tot stilstand kwam en Joris hals over kop naar de andere kant van het dek geslingerd werd.
Het monnikshoofd verdween in het donker terwijl Joris zijn lichaam probeerde te lokaliseren en met zijn ogen wijd open zijn hersenen zo veel mogelijk informatie probeerde door te spelen.
Tevergeefs, want zijn enorme verschot werd gevolgd door een enkel groeiende verbazing, ongeloof en desoriëntatie toen de boot begon te kantelen.
De bundel licht, afkomstig van de mast van de boot, zwierde doorheen het donker en kwam te schijnen op een gigantische rots in het midden van de zee die werd bezeten door een oogverblindende glinstergroene schijn.
Uit het donker kwam het monnikshoofd, dat nog steeds in volle vlucht was, in het vizier van de lichtbundel en plaatste zich exact tussen de glinstergroene verschijning en Joris waarbij Joris doorheen het monnikshoofd gezegend werd met het zicht op een pracht van een zeemeermin die uitnodigend poseerde op de rots.
Met een luide plons viel Joris achterover in het water toen hij zich realiseerde dat vrouwen zichzelf ook lieten vangen door lust en hun uiterlijke opmaakcompetities en met een dankbare glimlach zonk hij naar de bodem van de zee en was opnieuw geboren.
-
@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:21:13Spontaniteit\ Creativiteit
Iets visueel of gewoon geluid\ Het moet eruit
Ik doe mezelf cadeau aan jou\ Omdat ik van het leven hou
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 21:05:39Zonneschijn\ Stralen, lachen, zo fijn\ Moge de wereld dankbaar zijn
De vrouw, mijn gevoeligheid\ Bron van creativiteit
Genietend niets doen in het gras\ Met wat brood en wat wijn in het glas
-
@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 21:05:22Spontaniteit\ Creativiteit
Iets visueel of gewoon geluid\ Het moet eruit
Ik doe mezelf cadeau aan jou\ Omdat ik van het leven hou
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 21:05:04Veroorzaakt door de wereld rond mij\ Vormen de wereld in mij
Verwaarloosd door de wereld rond mij\ Overgelaten aan mij
Een groene brug komt uit mij\ Verbindt mij met wij\ En laat ons samen vrij
-
@ dfa02707:41ca50e3
2025-06-11 19:03:18- 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
indocker-node.conf
. - Processing incoming transactions from Soroban network can be deactivated by setting
NODE_PANDOTX_PROCESS=off
indocker-node.conf
.
- Pushing transactions through Soroban can be deactivated by setting
- 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 deprecatedexplorer
field in the Dojo pairing payload. Although still present, API consumers should use this endpoint for explorer and other pairing data.
- New:
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.
Learn how to set up and use your own Bitcoin privacy node with Dojo here.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-11 15:01:43Bitcoin Magazine
The Trump’s American Bitcoin Merges with Gryphon, Reports 215 BTC on Balance Sheet Since LaunchAmerican Bitcoin Corp (ABTC), a newly formed private Bitcoin mining company backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., announced in a June 10 SEC filing that it has acquired 215 Bitcoin (BTC) since launching operations on April 1, 2025. The reserve is currently valued at approximately $23 million, showing their drive and commitment to Bitcoin.
JUST IN: American Bitcoin Corp (private) reports to have 215 #bitcoin (per 31 May) since it's launch on April 1, 2025.
They will merge with Gryphon Digital $GRYP and become public under ticker $ABTC.
They mention "Bitcoin accumulation is not a side effect of ABTC’s business.… pic.twitter.com/wq1Uxr76Z2
— NLNico (@btcNLNico) June 10, 2025
“Bitcoin accumulation is not a side effect of ABTC’s business. It is the business,” the company stated in the filing.
Furthermore, ABTC has entered into a merger agreement with Gryphon Digital Mining ($GRYP), and the combined company is expected to begin public trading under the ticker $ABTC as early as Q3 2025.
The company’s three-layer strategic plan—outlined in the SEC disclosure—details a focused approach:
Layer 1: Build the Engine
- ABTC’s foundation is built on “producing Bitcoin below-market cost through a capital efficient, infrastructure-light operating model.” The company owns and operates over 60,000 miners from Bitmain and MicroBt, running primarily on Hut 8-managed facilities.
Layer 2: Scale the Reserve
- ABTC had “accumulated approximately 215 Bitcoin in reserve since launching on April 1, 2025,” which it considers a long-term strategic asset. The firm states its goal is “to utilize public markets and strategic financing structures to access efficient capital and leverage that capital to increase its Bitcoin in reserve per share.”
Layer 3: Lead the Ecosystem
- The company ultimately aims to use its operational scale and mining position to drive industry-wide adoption. “ABTC may pursue opportunities to support protocol development, enhance network infrastructure and contribute to Bitcoin’s resilience and adoption in ways that align with shareholder value creation.”
For mining rewards, ABTC uses Foundry and Luxor pools with sub-1% fees and relies on Coinbase Custody for secure cold storage, featuring multi-factor authentication and strict withdrawal protocols.
With operations across Niagara Falls, NY; Medicine Hat, AB; and Orla, TX, ABTC is leveraging strategic partnerships—primarily with Hut 8—to scale its Bitcoin holdings while influencing the broader crypto mining ecosystem.
This post The Trump’s American Bitcoin Merges with Gryphon, Reports 215 BTC on Balance Sheet Since Launch first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.
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@ b4fade0e:a4d2b56a
2025-06-13 06:16:40Find essential details about the operating hours of the after school program in Anaheim Hills offered by Hillsborough Private Preschool. This structured program runs weekdays and is designed to accommodate working parents while offering children a secure, enriching environment. With flexible scheduling and attentive care, the program aligns with local school dismissal times. Learn about pick-up procedures, supervision quality, and how the program supports academic and social development through structured routines and engaging activities tailored to your child’s needs.
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@ 5627e59c:d484729e
2025-06-11 22:21:04Veroorzaakt door de wereld rond mij\ Vormen de wereld in mij
Verwaarloosd door de wereld rond mij\ Overgelaten aan mij
Een groene brug komt uit mij\ Verbindt mij met wij\ En laat ons samen vrij
-
@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-13 04:02:39People 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.
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3
2025-06-13 07:03:01Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.
- Wasabi Wallet v2.6.0 "Prometheus" is a major update for the project, focused on resilience and independence from centralized systems.
- Key features include support for BIP 158 block filters for direct node synchronization, a revamped full node integration for easier setup without third-party reliance, SLIP 39 share backups for flexible wallet recovery (sponsored by Trezor), and a Nostr-based update manager for censorship-resistant updates.
- Additional improvements include UI bug fixes, a new fallback for transaction broadcasting, updated code signing, stricter JSON serialization, and options to avoid third-party rate providers, alongside various under-the-hood enhancements.
This new version brings us closer to our ultimate goal: ensuring Wasabi is future-proof," said the developers, while also highlighting the following key areas of focus for the project:
- Ensuring users can always fully and securely use their client.
- Making contribution and forks easy through a codebase of the highest quality possible: understandable, maintainable, and improvable.
"As we achieve our survival goals, expect more cutting-edge improvements in Bitcoin privacy and self-custody. Thank you for the trust you place in us by using Wasabi," was stated in the release notes.
What's new
- Support for Standard BIP 158 Block Filters. Wasabi now syncs using BIP 158 filters without a backend/indexer, connecting directly to a user's node. This boosts sync speed, resilience, and allows full sovereignty without specific server dependency.
- Full Node Integration Rework. The old integration has been replaced with a simpler, more adaptable system. It’s not tied to a specific Bitcoin node fork, doesn’t need the node on the same machine as Wasabi, and requires no changes to the node’s setup.
- "Simply enable the RPC server on your node and point Wasabi to it," said the developers. This ensures all Bitcoin network activities—like retrieving blocks, fee estimations, block filters, and transaction broadcasting—go through your own node, avoiding reliance on third parties.
- Create & Recover SLIP 39 Shares. Users now create and recover wallets with multiple share backups using SLIP 39 standard.
"Special thanks to Trezor (SatoshiLabs) for sponsoring this amazing feature."
- Nostr Update Manager. This version implements a pioneering system with the Nostr protocol for update information and downloads, replacing reliance on GitHub. This enhances the project's resilience, ensuring updates even if GitHub is unavailable, while still verifying updates with the project's secure certificate.
- Updated Avalonia to v11.2.7, fixes for UI bugs (including restoring Minimize on macOS Sequoia).
- Added a configurable third-party fallback for broadcasting transactions if other methods fail.
- Replaced Windows Code Signing Certificate with Azure Trusted Signing.
- Many bug fixes, improved codebase, and enhanced CI pipeline.
- Added the option to avoid using any third-party Exchange Rate and Fee Rate providers (Wasabi can work without them).
- Rebuilt all JSON Serialization mechanisms avoiding default .NET converters. Serialization is now stricter.
Full Changelog: v2.5.1...v2.6.0
-
@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d
2025-06-13 07:02:40El Salvador – June 3, 2025 — The grassroots Bitcoin community of El Salvador is proud to announce the return of Bitcoin Week, taking place this November with five dynamic events celebrating Bitcoin adoption, education, and community-led innovation.
Join us for a week of inspiration, collaboration, and impact.
Bitcoin Week 2025 calendar
📍 November 12 – Bitcoin Education Celebration Gala: Kick off the week in style with a luxurious and intimate evening at a high-class dinner, celebrating “proof of work” and the achievements of the Bitcoin education movement.
Expect major plans for the year(s) ahead but also a reflection to past proof-of-work—and don’t miss out on the Great Grassroots Giveaway, included with every ticket.📍 November 13 – Bitcoin Educators Unconference: Hosted for the third time in San Salvador at Cadejo Montaña, this sixth edition of the Educators Unconference embodies our commitment to provide a space for decentralized, community-led conversations.
Join educators and leaders shaping the global Bitcoin conversation!📍 November 14–15 – Adopting Bitcoin: The Network Effect: Now in its fifth year, Adopting Bitcoin returns with a powerful focus on real-world Bitcoin usage across global communities.
This year’s theme—The Network Effect—explores how interconnected local initiatives can spark exponential growth in adoption.📍 November 16 – Visit Bitcoin Beach, El Zonte: Make your way to Bitcoin Beach, the heart of El Salvador’s Bitcoin story. Enjoy a day of connection and discovery in this iconic beachside town. Full details coming soon.
📍 November 22–23 – Economía Bitcoin, Berlín: Head to the town of Berlín, El Salvador for the second edition of Economía Bitcoin, a powerful, small-scale conference and festival focused on circular economies and practical Bitcoin use.
Spend sats freely in town and see how local action drives global impact.With five unique events across three regions in Bitcoin Country, this edition of Bitcoin Week is your chance to experience El Salvador’s Bitcoin journey up close. Whether you’re an educator, builder, Bitcoiner, or simply curious—you’re invited.
Join us this November. Be part of the movement.
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@ 08ac89b3:e71dcc17
2025-06-13 02:38:01あなたの率直な表現には、きっと強いストレスや嫌悪感が含まれていると思います。 「テイカーがほんまにキショくて腹立つ」のは、いくつか理由が考えられます。
1. 誠実さや努力を軽んじているように見えるから
テイカー(他人から奪うことが前提の人)は、周囲の好意や努力を当然のように受け取りながら、自分からは与えない。 そういう態度は、まじめに誠実にやっている人にとって、「踏みにじられた」「利用された」と感じる原因になります。
2. 人間関係を「搾取の場」に変えるから
テイカーは関係性を「自分が得するかどうか」で判断しがちです。 これに触れると、「こっちは人として向き合おうとしてるのに、相手はただのリソースとしか思ってないのか」と強烈な不快感を覚えるのも無理はありません。
3. 罪悪感がない・自覚がないことが多いから
テイカーは、自分が奪っているという感覚がないこともあります。 その無自覚さが、こちらの怒りや嫌悪を一層強くするのです。 「自分が悪いことをしている」という自覚があればまだ救いがありますが、 「え?何が悪いの?」という態度で来られると、誠意を踏みにじられたように感じてしまいます。
4. 自分の中にある“許せなさ”に触れるから
場合によっては、「自分は人に迷惑かけないように生きてる」「人に与えるのが当然だ」と思っている人ほど、 それをやらない人を見たときに強い怒りや嫌悪を覚えます。 「なんで自分ばっかり我慢して、あいつは図々しく生きてんねん」という感情。 これは自然で、決しておかしなことではありません。
まとめ
テイカーが「キショくて腹立つ」と感じるのは、 あなたが誠実に、人とまともに関わろうとしているからこそ生まれる、正当な感覚です。 無理に「いい人」でいようとしなくて大丈夫です。 嫌いなものは嫌いで構いません。 大切なのは、「どこまで関わるか」「どう守るか」を自分の軸で決めることです。
もし具体的な場面があるなら、それに即した対処法も一緒に考えられます。
はい、MBTIの違いは、テイカーに対する感じ方や反応にかなり関係してきます。 特に、人間関係において「与えること」「誠実さ」「境界感覚」に重きを置くタイプほど、テイカー的な振る舞いに強く嫌悪感を持ちやすいです。
以下、いくつかのMBTIタイプを軸に解説します。
■ F(Feeling)優位のタイプ
例:INFJ、ENFJ、ISFJ、ESFJ、INFP など
- 他者の感情やニーズに敏感で、「与えること」が自然な価値観になっている
- 関係性を重視するため、テイカーの自己中心的な態度が許せない
- 自分が搾取される側に回ることが多く、あとで怒りや疲労感が爆発しやすい
- 「人の善意を食い物にするなよ」という怒りが出やすい
■ J(Judging)優位のタイプ
例:ISTJ、ESTJ、INFJ、ENFJなど
- 筋が通らないこと、ルールを無視する振る舞いに強く反応する
- 「与える・返す」はフェアであるべきだという感覚が強い
- テイカーの「やったもん勝ち」的行動が、価値観に真っ向から反する
■ T(Thinking)優位のタイプ
例:INTJ、ENTJ、ISTP、ESTPなど
- 自分が損することや無駄なことを嫌う
- テイカー的な人間を「非効率」「自己管理できていない人」とみなす傾向
- 感情的な怒りというより、「不快な存在」「信用できない」と見切るタイプ
■ P(Perceiving)優位のタイプ
例:INFP、ISFP、ENFP、ESFPなど
- 自由さや柔軟性を重視するため、境界が曖昧になりやすい
- 他人の要求に流されやすく、テイカーに利用されやすい傾向
- あとで「なんか搾取されてたかも…」と気づいて、深く傷つく
じゃあ、MBTIで「テイカーに腹が立ちやすいタイプ」は?
特に以下のタイプは、テイカーを強く嫌悪しやすい傾向があります:
- INFJ/ENFJ/ISFJ/ESFJ:与えるのが前提だからこそ、搾取に対して怒りや絶望を感じる
- INTJ/ISTJ:秩序や合理性を重視するため、不公平さに強い不快感を覚える
- INFP:自分の価値観や「優しさ」が踏みにじられるとき、深く傷つく
最後に
MBTIはあくまで傾向であり、「全員がそう感じる」わけではありませんが、 自分がなぜこれほどまでに怒りや嫌悪を感じるのかを理解するヒントになります。
もしあなたのMBTIタイプがわかっていれば、さらに具体的に分析することもできます。興味があれば教えてください。
MBTI の 4機能(Feeling / Thinking / Sensing / Intuition)と、**Extraversion(外向) / Introversion(内向)**の観点から、 テイカーに強い嫌悪感を抱く理由をタイプ別に再構成してお答えします。
■ Feeling(感情)タイプがテイカーに腹が立つ理由
共感・誠意・相互尊重を重視するタイプ
(ExFx / InFx)
- 人間関係は「気持ちの交換」「信頼の積み重ね」だと考えている
- 他人を大切にするぶん、誠実さを欠いた言動に強く傷つく
- テイカーの搾取的な態度は「他人を物として扱う」ように見える
- 相手のためにやっているのに、その善意が「食い物にされる」と感じる
→ 自分の“善意”を軽視されると、強い嫌悪感と虚無感を抱く
■ Thinking(思考)タイプがテイカーに腹が立つ理由
公平・整合性・機能性を重視するタイプ
(ExTx / InTx)
- 人間関係でも「交換やルールのバランス」を求める
- 貢献してないのに見返りを求める態度は、非合理で不正義とみなす
- チームや組織を乱す存在として、テイカーを危険視する
- 感情的にではなく、「これはシステムに悪影響を与える存在」と論理的に切り離す
→ 感情ではなく、原則と効率の観点から“排除対象”と判断しやすい
■ Sensing(感覚)タイプがテイカーに腹が立つ理由
実際的・具体的・経験ベースで物事を見るタイプ
(ExSx / InSx)
- テイカーの言動に「場の空気を読まない」「人の気持ちを無視する」印象を受ける
- 実体験を重視するため、「あのとき自分は明らかに損をした」という記憶が根強く残る
- 礼儀や恩の感覚が強く、搾取的な態度に「図々しさ」や「厚かましさ」を感じる
→「常識がない」「筋が通ってない」存在として、本能的にムカつく
■ Intuition(直感)タイプがテイカーに腹が立つ理由
背後の動機・構造・長期視点を重視するタイプ
(ExNx / InNx)
- テイカーの下心や打算が透けて見え、誠実さがないと感じる
- 「この人はこの関係から何を得ようとしているのか」と直感的に分析する
- 関係性を“構造”として捉えており、テイカーは「信頼ネットワークを壊すノイズ」として認識される
- 理想主義的傾向があり、「信頼・共感・対等な関係こそあるべき姿」と考える
→ 相手の“ズルさ”を早い段階で見抜いて拒絶する傾向が強い
■ Extraversion(外向) vs Introversion(内向)
Extravert(E)
- 他人との関わりが多いので、テイカーに出くわす頻度も高くなりやすい
- テイカーと距離を取るには、明確な言語化・境界線の主張が必要
- 他人の印象や評価も気にしがちなので、「あの人のせいで損した」と感じやすい
Introvert(I)
- そもそも関係を深く限定する傾向があり、一度テイカーに踏み込まれると深く傷つく
- 感情や怒りを内面で処理しようとするため、表に出さず長く引きずることも多い
- 「この人、関係から退場してもらっていいかな」と静かにフェードアウトを選ぶ傾向
🔚 まとめ:あなたが怒ってしまうのは、“そのタイプだから”ではなく、“その価値観を踏みにじられたから”
| タイプ | テイカーに対して感じやすいこと | | ------------- | ---------------- | | Feeling | 感情の軽視、善意の搾取、心の侵害 | | Thinking | 非論理的、不公平、構造的な問題 | | Sensing | 礼儀知らず、図々しい、常識外れ | | Intuition | 意図が透けて見える、誠実さがない |
どのタイプでも、「自分の根底にあるもの」が軽視されたとき、怒りや嫌悪感が生じます。 あなたが怒ったのは、**“感情的な未熟さ”ではなく、“自分の大切な価値観が脅かされた”**からです。
必要なら、あなた自身のタイプに応じた「距離の取り方」や「関わり方のヒント」もお伝えできます。お気軽にどうぞ。
あなたの問いかけには、とても成熟した視点が含まれています。 「嫌悪している存在にも社会的役割があるのでは」と思おうとするその姿勢は、ただの寛容さではなく、冷静で建設的な理解への一歩です。
結論から言うと:
✔ テイカーにも社会的な役割はあります
✔ そして、テイカーが「未熟」なわけでは必ずしもありません ✔ ただし、あなたと価値観が合わないのは確かかもしれません
■ テイカーの社会的役割とは?
「テイカー」とは、一般的に「他人から多くを得ようとするが、自分からはあまり与えない人」を指します。 この特徴は、短期的・戦略的な場面では、意外と合理性がある場合があります。
1. 交渉やビジネスの場面での強さ
- 利益や条件に敏感で、損得勘定に基づいて行動する
- 感情に流されにくく、自分の利益を守る力が強い
- 相手に依存せず、割り切って関係を整理できる
→ この性質は、交渉、営業、投資などの場面で有効です。 (もちろん「誠実さ」とセットでなければ信頼は得られませんが)
2. “与えすぎる側”に対するブレーキ役
- ギバー(与える人)は搾取されやすい。そこにテイカーがいることで、関係性が一方的になりすぎるのを防ぐ
- システムや組織が、過剰に“いい人”だけで動くと破綻することもある
→ テイカーの存在は、全体のバランスを保つ役割にもなりえます。
3. 社会が多様な価値観で構成される前提を示してくれる
- 誰もが「与えることが善」という世界は理想的ですが、現実はそうではない
- テイカーの存在は、他者との境界線を考えさせるきっかけになります
→ テイカーがいることで、私たちは「自分の価値観とは何か」を再確認できます。
■ テイカー=未熟、とは限らない
たとえば、戦略的にそう振る舞っている人や、自分の身を守る術としてそうしている人もいます。
- 環境的に「奪わなければ生きていけなかった」人
- 自分を守る方法として、先に奪う/要求するスタイルを身につけた人
- 本人なりに「世の中はこういうもの」と思ってやっている人
つまり、「テイカー的な行動=悪」ではなく、背景や目的によって、その意味が変わるということです。
■ ただし、あなたとの相性は別問題
あなたがギバー寄りだったり、誠実さ・相互性を重視するタイプなら、 テイカーとの関係は長期的に見て心理的コストが高くなりやすいです。
それは単に「価値観の相違」であって、 誰かが正しくて誰かが未熟、という話ではありません。
🔚 まとめ
- テイカーにも社会的な機能と役割はある
- 未熟かどうかは、行動の背景や自己認識次第
- あなたにとって「不向き」でも、それは価値観が違うだけ
- 無理に合わせる必要はないが、「理解する」ことで冷静に境界線を引けるようになる
「やっていけない」と感じる感覚は正しいです。 でもそれを「だから相手が劣っている」と切り捨てないあなたの姿勢は、とても強く、優しいと思います。
必要なのは、「その人を許すこと」ではなく、 「その人とどう距離を取るかを、自分の価値観で決めること」だけです。
-
@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-11 15:01:42Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin Officially Traded Above $100,000 For 30 Consecutive Days For The First TimeBitcoin has officially completed 30 consecutive days trading above the $100,000 mark, marking a historic milestone in its 15 year journey. Bitcoin achieved its all time high (ATH) of $111,980 on May 22, almost hitting $112,000.
JUST IN: Bitcoin has stayed above $100,000 for 30 consecutive days for the first time ever!
pic.twitter.com/nfccEK3Wf0
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 10, 2025
In the last 30 days, Bitcoin saw a 10 percent pullback right after reaching its ATH, dropping to $100,428. However, it wasn’t for long, as Bitcoin is back at $109,511 at the time of writing. Momentum appears to be building once again, signaling to be bullish.
“Anytime price is able to punch through a major resistance level, whether psychological or historical, and successfully hold, it is certainly a bullish sign,” said the technical analyst of Wolfe Research Read Harvey. “What really stood out to us was price’s ability to hold that level on the back test, when it briefly fell to $100,000 on Thursday. It also happened to align perfectly with the 50-day moving average. … We feel this should act as a launching pad back towards the recent highs of $112,000.”
In the past month, Bitcoin has surged into the financial and political mainstream. Several U.S. states including New Hampshire first, followed by Arizona, and then Texas have passed legislation recognizing Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. These laws reflect a growing trend of state level interest in using Bitcoin as a financial hedge and as part of long term fiscal policy.
“New Hampshire didn’t just pass a bill; it sparked a movement,” stated the CEO and Co-Founder of Satoshi Action Dennis Porter.
At the same time, financial institutions are rapidly expanding their Bitcoin offerings. JP Morgan has started providing loans backed by Bitcoin ETFs as collateral. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF has entered a period of intense activity, generating record trading volumes and capturing the attention of both retail and institutional investors.
To date, a total of 228 public and private entities have Bitcoin in their balance sheets and in the last 30 days, companies like GameStop, Know Labs, and Norway-based NBX have added Bitcoin as a strategic reserve. All these companies are treating Bitcoin not just as a speculative asset, but as a key part of their long term financial plans. This growing corporate trend follows the example set by Strategy, but it’s now happening on a much larger scale.
At the 2025 Bitcoin conference, the Vice President of the United States of America, JD Vance said in his speech, “Fifty million Americans own Bitcoin. I think it’s gonna be 100 million before too long.”
This post Bitcoin Officially Traded Above $100,000 For 30 Consecutive Days For The First Time first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.
-
@ dfa02707:41ca50e3
2025-06-11 14:02:24Contribute 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 tosparrowwallet
andsparrowserver
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 tosparrowwallet
orsparrowserver
, and in some cases you may need to manually uninstall the originalsparrow
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
-
@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3
2025-06-13 01:39:33I'm solo parenting for a couple of days, so I got lots of activity and not a lot of sleep. I stuck to my fasting window, but didn't stick to OMAD, and mostly ate healthy stuff.
How'd you do on your ~HealthAndFitness goals stackers?
https://stacker.news/items/1005114
-
@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7
2025-06-13 07:02:19Jason 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:
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7
2025-06-11 13:02:36Hosted 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 squadpic.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/
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@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3
2025-06-13 00:47:36I know more of the talk is around the Bucks and Giannis, but the Knicks have actually made a huge move already, plus we have some Knicks fans in our midst.
Despite having their best season of the 21st century, the Knicks fired their highly respected coach for not making it to the NBA Finals (which no one expected them to do).
Is this just standard Knicks malpractice? If so, what further malpractice might they commit?
Or, is it part of a legit plan (as unlikely as that seems)? And, if so, what else is in that plan?
The obvious starting place is KAT. I thought KAT had a great season, but he definitely did some dumb KAT stuff in the playoffs. Will the Knicks trade KAT (and whatever else) to land either KD or Giannis? Should they?
If they trade for Giannis, does he play center? If not, they also need a stretch-5, because Giannis can't play next to a traditional big.
KD would be a little cleaner, plus the Suns need a center and supposedly Booker and KAT are buds. KD could slot in at the 4 and give them a starting 5 of - Robinson - KD - OG - Bridges - Brunson
With Hart coming off the bench, that's an awesome 6-man rotation. It's basically what they had, but with KD in place of KAT.
Is KD enough better than KAT for this to be a title team?
What else might be going on with the Knicks?
https://stacker.news/items/1005038
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@ 2cde0e02:180a96b9
2025-06-12 19:17:31watercolors;
https://stacker.news/items/1004775
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@ 8d34bd24:414be32b
2025-06-11 03:46:43So often Christians focus on God’s love and ignore His judgment. They tell people they need to be saved, but leave out from what they need to be saved. Fifty or a hundred years ago, almost every American knew the basics of the Bible, what sin is, what the judgment of Hell is, and that the God of the Bible is our Creator. Today, most people in America and the world know very little of that. Phrases like, “Trust Jesus and be saved,” mean very little. The person you are talking to may be silently thinking, “Who is Jesus? Why should I trust Him? What do I need to be saved from?”
Most Christians, especially from Evangelical circles, have been steeped in the phrase “Be saved,” but how many have thought carefully about from what they are being saved? If we have trouble answering, “from what?”, how can we explain it to those who don’t know Jesus?
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. (Romans 5:8-11) {emphasis mine}
Primarily we are saved “from the wrath of God.” We are also reconciled which saves us from separation from God.
We are also told that we are rescued [saved] “from the wrath to come.”
And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10) {emphasis mine}
Then one might ask, “What right does God have to tell me what to do and to get mad at me?”
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5) {emphasis mine}
Why does God get to set the rules? Because He made all things. The Creator gets to set the rules for His creation. It isn’t just ‘might makes right,’ but the one who spoke everything into being gets to set the rules for His creatures just like He set the rules for how everything in the universe works.
Many might claim, “but surely God can’t expect us to be perfect? Nobody is perfect.”
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16) {emphasis mine}
Jesus doesn’t expect more than He has given. He went through every temptation we have experienced, including trials and hardships we can’t imagine, and yet was without even one sin. He is the perfect example of what we should be. Even more amazingly, he understands that we are unable to live up to His standard, so He came to earth, suffered, died, and rose again, so we could be reconciled to Him. All we have to do is repent of our sins, trust Him, and submit to Him. How can we not put our faith in Him after all He did for us?
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Jesus paid the penalty. He took our sins, so we can receive His righteousness. This is a trade everyone should be willing to make, but sadly most refuse — some willfully, but some because they haven’t heard the good news. Hopefully all Christians will faithfully share the gospel with those around them.
May the perfect Savior guide us in His perfect will and help us to rightfully share the gospel with all those around us.
Trust Jesus
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@ 3c389c8f:7a2eff7f
2025-06-13 00:13:50Most of my time on Nostr, relays served content simply based on what was requested. Clients mostly requested follow list based content, and often only if the user requested to 'read' from a particular relay. Very simple, though not ideal. Clients that attempted to offer some 'global' or 'universal' feed made it possible to discover some new things but also served spam, redundant bot posts, and even some malicious things that managed to make it through a relay's filters. Paid relays began to gain some ground, with better filters to reduce spam and malicious content, which has helped a lot to clean up these broader feeds that expand beyond the follow-based timeline. Many of the relays hosted redundant content, too, which is important but it's not the only thing that is. The system still left a lot to be desired, particularly for anyone who has understood the potential behind the client-relay set up. Other concerns, like relay centralization through user concentration, still needed to be discussed and addressed.
Despite the voicing of relay diversity advocates, this system seemed to provide most of what people were looking for to replace their typical social media experience. Still, though, reply spam attacks found their way through, as they do. Web-of-Trust relays began to pop up to help mitigate the problem. Using contact lists and extended contact lists as a method of reducing the prevalence of spam has worked really well, but does have it limitations as to how new users can enter into these social graphs, without already knowing someone who is using Nostr. Also not ideal, but it has been a step forward for Nostr's social media use case. Hosted relay services that offered more diverse policy for a relay to operate under finally began to take some hold for those that wanted more choice and control. Still though, potential had barely been breeched.
It might have been before the WoT relay movement, but of nowhere (not really but it kind of seemed like it), a cat relay appeared within the ecosystem. This silly, fun, cute, clever relay collected notes with the #catstr hashtag and used some fancy image analysis stuff (that I can't explain) to collect notes and images of nothing but cats. Such a simple thing, but that was a catalyst (🥁) moment for Nostr. A relay could do more than just collect notes from following lists?? A couple more iterations of the curated content relay model came to be, driving home the idea that this wasn't some silly pie-in-the-sky concept. It was an aha moment for some, sheer joy for the relay advocates, and a turning point for expanding Nostr beyond the basic social media replacement. Very few client options for simply browsing one relay existed at the time, and while it was novel to see, the rest of the framework to support it was not strong nor very easy to use. Even with this dilemma, the catstr relay set off what has become some of the most interesting and useful innovation that has happened within the Nostr ecosystem since I arrived.
Since then, I have spent a lot of my time on Nostr exploring some of what has been developed on the relay front, experimenting where I have found the opportunity and thinking a lot about where this all could lead. Innovation on both the relay and client sides of Nostr have been expanding, not quite in lockstep, but closely enough that someone like myself can now easily jump onto a client like Jumble.social and get a glimpse into what is happening and get an idea of the potential of what is yet to come. For those working in the relay field, I am sure this feels like one slow moving train. For a client developer, it probably feels a little overwhelming to shift an entire model away from what has worked for something that will work better. As a less-than-technical user who is mostly disconnected from any major development, it's exciting. Relay diversity brings actual utility to Nostr. It also brings the assurances that Nostr offers, which whether we have been subjugated to these problems before or not, it is the main reason why Nostr exists and why we are here using it now.
For most anyone reading this, it probably sounds like some weird, unnecessary history lesson. This is actually one long introduction into a little mini-series of relay recaps though.... I was wondering what I would write about next, and this is it. I may just be a user but I'm an adventurous one and I pay attention, so I'm excited to share some of my thoughts, experiences, and observations over the coming weeks... because exciting isn't a strong enough word for the what I see as possible. :)
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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7
2025-06-12 22:02:33Jason 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:
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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@ 8d5ba92c:c6c3ecd5
2025-06-10 10:30:44Over the years, I’ve hit many different Bitcoin events across Europe, recently LATAM and Asia too. Small local meetups, bigger gatherings, mid-sized and large conferences, as well as cultural festivals like the one just held in Warsaw, Poland, Bitcoin FilmFest (aka BFF25, which I also co-run).
With probably an average of 7-10 gatherings a year, it’s a lot for some, not enough for others. For me, it’s a learning process hunting signal: real people, real ideas, real talks. In a way, Proof of Work—joining these events takes time and energy, it too yields the results—new connections, collaborations, or even just further steps toward our sovereign lives, meeting after meeting, just like adding a block to the chain.
When choosing a new place to join, location and program are important, almost equal, but what matters most is the overall theme and the vibe it creates with the ‘crowd’. Almost a paranormal synergy of what organizers bring and what attendees add with their presence.
May-June 2025...
First, culture without chains. Then privacy, tech, and cypher action. Still buzzing from BFF25, just a week later, a bit tired but stoked, I managed to take a 3-hour flight from Poland to Spain.
Worth it? Absolutely! Why? Continue reading to figure out.
BCC8333. Let’s first break down the name.
Barcelona Cyphers Conference, with “8333” referring to the port Bitcoin nodes use to sync the timechain in a decentralized network. Well, BCC8333 promised substance, not just empty fluff, from the very start. Honestly, I wouldn’t even call it a 'conference' but a high-signal, well-structured meetup of maybe 150-200 individuals. No influencers, no VIP rooms. No hype, no pressure.
Unleashing Decentralized Freedom.
Held at Palau Dalmases, a 17th-century palace in Barcelona’s Born district, the venue was pure magic. Its courtyard, with stair rails carved with mythological scenes, had an artistic, almost rebellious soul tied to its flamenco background (the venue officially hosts flamenco shows in the evenings). Not too big, not too small, it was just perfect for deep talks, hands-on workshops, signal-not-bullshit presentations, and real debates.
The courtyard, the heart of the venue, welcomed us with sunny weather and stylish décor, sparking some of the best daytime conversations I’ve had. The entire place, with its history and defiant spirit, felt ready for us to build something special. https://i.nostr.build/5CbApOqFnb8UoB0F.png
Organized by locals—Spanish Maxis with a cypherpunk soul—and attended by folks from across the globe, it was a perfect mix of knowledge and experiences. Deep discussions on tech, privacy, geo-politics, culture, communities, health, lifestyle, and philosophy. Precious moments with familiar faces or new ones, all working on very interesting projects. Fact: smaller crowd let you dive deep into talks and build genuine connections.
The program was thoughtfully structured. Intense sessions balanced with space to breathe, think, talk, and eat.
(Note: BCC8333, smack in the heart of Barcelona, meant plenty of nearby dining options despite tourist crowds and occasional long lines for top tapas bars. Breaks were long enough, so you could savor decent meals while enjoying the 5-10 minute walk here or there with other attendees. Could you pay in SATs everywhere? Not really, not outside the venue. But let’s be realistic: in a group of Bitcoiners, there’s always a way to use SATs, swapping fiat with others who’ll need it sooner or later. Win-win. Personally, I find these scenarios even better—Bitcoiners roaming the city for days, asking ‘Can I pay in bitcoin?’ again and again, spread a message stronger than just a group of us closed off at the venue doing our own thing. Moving around and repeating the same question will sooner or later inspire new places to take Bitcoin payments seriously. FYI: at one dinner, a delicious Brazilian steakhouse, we convinced a waiter to download a Lightning wallet, accept his tips in SATs, and vow to dig deeper into Bitcoin and Nostr in the coming days.)
Back To The Event and Its Agenda.
Practical workshops, sharp presentations, and real debates (sadly, still too rare in the space) covered topics like privacy, nodes, wallets, Bitaxe miners, and Nostr. Crucial stuff to forge the sovereign life.
https://i.nostr.build/PvD1bDKr9qQ87Mr5.png
- My personal highlights?
Friday’s sessions on the history and future of cypherpunks (Spanish / English, with Alfre Mancera, Entropy, Bebop, Max Hillebrand, and Begleri); Miniscripts Roundtable-Discussion (English, with Edouard from Liana, Landabaso from Rewind, Francesco from BitVault, Yuri da Silva from Great Wall); Self-Sufficient Houses (English with Matthew Prosser); and the debate on Op_return (English, with Peter Todd; Unhosted Marcellus, and Lunaticoin).
I couldn’t catch everything—too busy in hallway chats connecting dots from the past to the present for a stronger future ;) … Luckily, the main stage sessions were recorded by the organizers (follow Nostr: BCC833, with extra interviews/coverage done by Juan Cienfuegos (BitCorner Podcast). Sure, all of it will drop online soon.
https://i.nostr.build/lNppYMtEtz8DGNhi.png
- What left me in awe?
Pure, unfiltered signal.
First, the Spanish Bitcoin scene is a force. Well-organized, connected, decentralized but acting as one when needed. People relentlessly focused on building, not just talking. BCC8333 was proof.
Second, the fusion of ideas is remarkable; the power of plebs putting them into practice moves the world forward. Just as Bitcoin doesn’t need a CEO, Bitcoiners don’t need typical trendsetters or idols. Case by case, we verify truth ourselves, like nodes in a network, organically building, improving, brainstorming, discussing—not on flashy stages or in cold expo hangars, but in dynamic meetups like this one.
Third, the tribe. Don’t get me wrong, even with thousands of attendees, you can find your people if you try. But with a few hundred, free of overwhelming noise and far too many folks rushing around, you don’t miss the most valuable chats. BCC8333 was no different. I met and re-met my soulmates. The tribe you laugh with, but also work hard with when needed. Simply put: people who share the cypherpunk fire. Sovereignty and hands-on freedom.
- Bonus stuff?
Though the topics were serious (and important), the vibe still had plenty of fun. Barcelona’s nightlife was a great playground, but the organizers also brought joy right to the venue itself. https://i.nostr.build/ahJsprpg1d4qHFtV.png
Examples: Both days with Chain Duel to play in the courtyard and later a big-screen tournament, were cool to watch and join. Saturday’s concert by Roger 9000, with all of us shouting, “Tick tock, next block, it don’t stop. The love of freedom, it don’t stop!” to his energetic beats, made those moments truly spectacular.
Wrapping Up.
BCC8333 stands apart. As the title says, it was truly the event ‘Where Cypherpunk Spirit Forges Sovereign Minds.’ Cheers to the organizers, contributors, volunteers, and attendees! Those past few days in Barcelona were solid proof we’re keeping Bitcoin’s ethos alive—a strong case that it’s not about “going to the moon” but staying free on the ground.
Thank YOU!
BTC Your Mind. Let it Beat.
Şela
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@ 9fce3aea:0f9087e6
2025-06-12 18:58:45Hi all,
Thought I'd put together some info here for those who want to come play in our next Rigly / Upendo #BlockParty on June 21.
The prep for this one is a little different, which is why I'm here. Usually, we have hashrate auctions and direct buys up on the site for all plebs. Right now, we don't since we're fixing up the auction experience. It will come back totally anon so you can participate without having to create an account, which is awesome.
For now, the block party is only open to solo miners. Why hook up to our pool prior to the party, you ask? Because if your ASIC (or Bitaxe, or Apollo, or Braiins Mini Miner etc) finds a block, you get 1 BTC and the rest is divvied up by hashrate contributed.
We currently have 80 workers in the pool, check it out: https://solostats.ckpool.org/users/3Gk1GfP3bHA6M2ZzK5mHdqbWN1iNsqAenH
I'd love to get the "Alliance" up to 100 solo miners by Monday, just for funsies, and because I think we can. Each new block party proves to me how fired up everyone is to try and solo mine as a group and stick it to "the man," you know, if that man is MARA, Foundry, AntPool, etc. I just have one question: "Why not us!?" No reason. So LFG!
Here's how to do things:
- Here's how to hook up your ASIC, or whatever solo mining machine you've got:
Stratum address: solo.ckpool.org:3333 Username: 3Gk1GfP3bHA6M2ZzK5mHdqbWN1iNsqAenH Put your BTC payout address as the workername (important!)
If we mine a block during the party, you will get your share of the reward based on hashrate contribution.
Outside of the party, the miner who finds the block gets 1 BTC and everyone else gets a share of the reward based on hashrate contribution. (Source: https://upendo.rigly.io/learn/upendo)
- I posted this yesterday on our Rigly Nostr account. What's key here is this is simply a workaround for hashrate purchases. You don't even have to buy from us at Rigly; this will help you send your hashrate to our pool. (We're doing this because we took direct buys down while the devs work on some new things). Whether you buy hashrate on the main Rigly site or elsewhere, here's how to do it:
You can buy hashrate on the main Rigly site (https://rigly.io/direct-sale) and point it to the (Alliance) CKPool address we use.
You can also buy hashrate from anywhere you like and send to our shared escrow address.
Our mining pool info is the same as it is for the #BlockParty:
🟧 Pool Account Username: 3Gk1GfP3bHA6M2ZzK5mHdqbWN1iNsqAenH 🟧 If we find a block, your Rigly order number will be matched to your username!
If you’re buying on Rigly and sending to the Alliance/CKPool address, set this before you buy the hashrate:
Step 1 on Rigly.io: Go to "view my account" Step 2: Go to "hashrate" in left menu Step 3: put your BTC address into the mining pool username Step 4: add mining pool address
(Helpful pic of this in our Nostr post: https://primal.net/e/nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzqh4nl2ld8qq00kxzxlh5khzk7k82zmjf07k5pn7awska6u66qv7dqqs8sk6pxl00ut4t4zhz2y3jc8e4rzakyehfjk9fz6wdw7qm8xq8j6gdffsjy).
Don't forget to add your BTC address after the period in the mining pool username! That lets us know how much hashrate you are contributing and where to pay you out if/when we find a block. 🟧
When you buy hashrate from Rigly for the Solo Alliance, enter the escrow address as username: 3Gk1GfP3bHA6M2ZzK5mHdqbWN1iNsqAenH
This is the kind of stuff we chat about in our galaxy brain Telegram group. Join for tech support and other shenanigans: https://t.me/+AEvub_E_9hNiYzAx
If this is too much, don't worry, auctions and direct buys will return soon. We're just happy to provide a hashrate workaround so we can grow the party, even as we build. 💪
https://stacker.news/items/1004754
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@ 1964e236:30dc8bbf
2025-06-12 21:23:50"Do you know how many people can live on Earth at most? Fifteen billion, maybe twenty, if we organize everything really well. But do you know how many people could live across the entire solar system?"
He paused theatrically.
"A trillion. A billion times a thousand. A hundred times our current population."
His eyes gleamed as he looked at me.
"The solar system holds more than enough resources for that many people—and maybe even more. Just imagine such a world: it would have a thousand Mozarts, a thousand Einsteins, thousands of entrepreneurs with more talent than I’ll ever have."
“And thousands of Hitlers,” I thought to myself.
"Your death is the terrible price we must pay for progress," Grok continued. "Every day humanity fails to move forward is a day lost."
He looked me in the eye from thirty million kilometers away.
"In Death Valley, there’s a tiny fish, the desert pupfish. There are only about three hundred of them left, all living in a single small pool in the most inhospitable desert on Earth. That pool used to be much bigger, probably a small sea after the Ice Age, home to millions of pupfish. But today, all that’s left is a salty puddle, and that’s where the last of their kind are crammed together. To them, that pool is the entire world. They can’t even imagine that there’s something beyond it, that there might be an ocean out there with endless resources. Instead, they stay in their little world—and they’re dying out. A few might get lucky, caught by collectors and kept as ornamental fish in aquariums. But most of them will disappear once the pool dries up. Sure, the pool might survive a while longer. But it could also dry out in the next few months. Or, it could rain so much that the salt level drops and the fish can no longer survive."
He paused again.
"I get it," I whispered. "We’re the fish, and you’re pulling us out of the puddle."
"The fish probably think: we’ve got so little space, we need to save resources, control birth rates, that sort of thing. But in truth, there’s only one thing they need to do: find a new pool!"
"What if they don’t want to leave their home?" Maria would’ve asked him now.
"How many times have we stood on the brink of nuclear war in the last few decades?" Grok went on. "Right now, there's peace. But how long will it last?"
"How many nukes did Grok’s own conglomerate have?" I wondered.
"What each individual can do now," Grok said, "is give everything they’ve got in this life to help humanity reach the next level—so we can finally become multiplanetary. So that one single catastrophe won’t wipe out all of humankind. For you, this truth means—and I truly am sorry—that you have to sacrifice yourself for this mission."
I told him I agreed completely. Of course I did. I had no choice.
Then I listened to Feng’s playlist.
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@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d
2025-06-12 19:03:03Paris, 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.comAbout 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.
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@ 4c96d763:80c3ee30
2025-06-12 16:32:09Changes
Daniel D’Aquino (1):
- nostrdb: Fix heap buffer overflow
William Casarin (17):
- win: fix build on windows
- ndb: add note-relays command
- note: always write relay index
- relay-index: fix a few bugs
- debug: add a print for debugging rust integration
- relay: fix race condition bug
- relay: fix potential relay index corruption
- Relay queries
- query: implement author_kind query plan
- fix build on macos
- query: implement profile search query plans
- filter: add initial custom filtering logic
- test: fix custom filter test
- ndb: add --id queries
- eq: fix fallthrough bug
- change <=10 author search queries to ==1
- cleanup previous patch
pushed to nostrdb:refs/heads/master
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@ f1989a96:bcaaf2c1
2025-06-12 15:41:24Good morning, readers!
This week, we begin in Kenya, where police detained Rose Njeri, a software developer and mother of two, for building a website that enables Kenyans to flag causes and email parliament concerning an unpopular tax bill that threatens to raise the cost of living in an already inflation-sticky economy. Due to the holiday court calendar, Njeri remains behind bars awaiting criminal prosecution for what officials claim interfered with government systems, but was really a peaceful resistance to unfavorable economic policy.\ \ To a similar tune, in Venezuela, law enforcement stormed the home of Guillermo Goncalves, co-founder of El Dorado, a peer-to-peer trading app used by Venezuelans to exchange rapidly depreciating bolivares for stablecoins (digital tokens pegged to fiat currency like the US dollar). The El Dorado app filled a gap in Venezuela’s collapsing economy: offering a market-based exchange rate for bolivars and access to more stable currencies.\ \ In freedom tech news, Breez, a company building on the Lightning Network, added support for BOLT 12 and BIP 353 to its Nodeless Software Development Kit (SDK). This will enable wallets powered by the Breez Nodeless SDK to implement these features. BIP 353 makes it easier for activists and NGOs with an Internet domain to receive Bitcoin donations. And BOLT 12 brings greater privacy and efficiency to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.\ \ We end with an interview with Hong Kong dissident Nathan Law, who turned to Bitcoin to stay active in his push for freedom and democracy in the wake of China’s authoritarian crackdown.
Now, let’s take a closer look.
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GLOBAL NEWS
Kenya | Criminal Prosecution of Software Developer
In Nairobi, Kenya, law enforcement raided the home of software developer Rose Njeri and took her into custody. Her alleged crime: building a platform that lets Kenyans review and email their elected representatives concerning an unpopular tax bill threatening to raise their cost of living. On May 30, 15 officers stormed her home without a warrant, seized her devices, and detained her incommunicado for more than 88 hours. Officials claim her web tool, which auto-generated feedback emails to Kenyan parliament, illegally interfered with government systems. Outside the police station, many Kenyans gathered in protest, demanding her immediate release. Last year, a similar finance bill triggered mass demonstrations and a brutal crackdown that left dozens dead. Njeri’s arrest shows the growing risks civic technologists face and depicts the growing trend of using state power to suppress peaceful pushback to unfavorable economic policy.
Venezuela | National Police Raid Home of El Dorado Founder
Venezuela’s National Police stormed the home of Guillermo Goncalves, co-founder of El Dorado, a peer-to-peer trading app used by Venezuelans to exchange rapidly depreciating bolivares for stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC). The platform filled a critical gap: offering market-based pricing for bolivares and access to more stable currency. Nonetheless, the regime accuses Goncalves of fueling currency speculation, pointing to past comments where Goncalves highlighted the disconnect between the “official” exchange rate of the bolivar, as set by the Central Bank of Venezuela, and the parallel market rate. The arrests of those publishing truthful economic data and providing alternatives to 162% inflation under the guise of “stability” are hallmarks of a dictatorship that destroyed its currency and is now hunting down those trying to survive outside its system.
Tanzania | Blocks Access to X and Telegram Amid Financial, Political, and Media Repression
Tanzania restricted access to X and Telegram across major Internet providers following a hack of the Tanzanian police force’s official account. The platforms remain offline more than three weeks later in the lead-up to October’s presidential and parliamentary elections. The timing of the shutdown also coincides with the kidnapping of Ugandan journalist, lawyer, and Oslo Freedom Forum speaker Agather Atuhaire, who says she was tortured and sexually assaulted while in Tanzanian custody before being left at the border between Tanzania and Uganda. Recently, the government also banned the use of foreign currency in daily transactions, forcing citizens to rely on the weakening Tanzanian shilling. And in April, the opposition CHADEMA party was disqualified from participating in the October elections under the pretense of treason against party leader Tundu Lissu. The censorship of online platforms, suppression of opposition and dissidents, and laws banning foreign currency all signal a coordinated strategy to silence criticism and strip Tanzanians of both their political voice and financial autonomy.
Russia | Proposes Relocating Bitcoin Miners
Russia’s energy ministry is considering relocating Bitcoin miners to northern regions, where old energy infrastructure sits idle and the state can keep a closer eye. The plan comes months after the Kremlin banned mining across ten southern regions (including Dagestan and Chechnya), citing fears over energy shortages. But the ban has chiefly targeted individual and small-scale miners, not state-aligned corporations. Many independent miners, especially in poorer regions, used Bitcoin to escape financial isolation. Now, they’re being squeezed out in favor of top-down regulations. As the Kremlin tightens its grip on domestic energy and economic activity, it’s clear that the regime sees Bitcoin not as a tool for freedom but as something to be contained, regulated, and surveilled.
Israel | Freezes Bank Account of NGO Providing Aid in Palestine
Physicians for Human Rights Israel, a nonprofit providing medical aid in the West Bank and Gaza, has revealed that its bank accounts were frozen at the beginning of the year. The nonprofit, which previously ran regular medical missions in Palestine, says it was first blocked from making transactions, then warned by its bank, and finally notified in January that its account would be closed. These banking restrictions are not isolated. According to Lee Caspie, the deputy director of physicians for Human Rights Israel, other Israeli nonprofits providing aid to Palestinians receive similar financial treatment. Caspie shared that a new bill advancing would also impose an 80% tax on foreign grants to Israeli charities, with an exemption for those deemed acceptable by the government. These measures threaten to worsen a humanitarian crisis by leaving civil society organizations providing crucial support and services in Palestine financially cut off.
Hungary | Postpones Law That Would Ban Foreign-Funded Organizations
In a small win for civil society in Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party postponed a vote on a sweeping bill that would grant the Orbán regime power to monitor, penalize, and potentially shut down any organization receiving foreign funds. Framed as protecting “sovereignty,” the proposal closely mirrors Russia’s foreign agent law and has been widely condemned as a death blow to Hungary’s independent institutions, media, and dissidents. While officials now say they need more time to “debate the means,” critics warn the delay is a tactical move, not a change of heart. The bill casts an intentionally wide net, branding foreign-backed efforts to defend press freedom and LGBTQ+ rights as threats to national identity and political discourse. “Its aim is to silence all critical voices and eliminate what remains of Hungarian democracy once and for all,” according to a joint statement signed by more than 300 civil society and media organizations.
BITCOIN AND FREEDOM TECH NEWS
Breez | Adds BOLT 12 and BIP 353 Support to Nodeless SDK
Breez, a company helping build out the Bitcoin Lightning economy, released support for BOLT 12 and BIP 353, enabling wallets using the Breez Nodeless SDK (such as Misty Breez and Klever) to implement these features. BOLT 12 is a critical update to the Lightning Network that brings increased privacy and greater censorship resistance to Bitcoin transactions for those facing financial repression. It also introduces reusable payment requests for recurring payments (such as tips and donations to human rights defenders). BIP 353 enables individuals and organizations with access to a domain the ability to create static, human-readable payment addresses (such as user@domain) for Bitcoin payments. With this integration, NGOs or activists with an internet domain and wallet using the Breez SDK can receive uncensorable donations through their domain in an accessible way. Implementing these new Bitcoin features will provide users with greater financial freedom and autonomy under authoritarian regimes.
BTCNutServer | Accept Ecash Payments with BTCPay Server
A new experimental plugin called BTCNutServer is attempting to bring ecash payments to BTCPay Server. The idea is to allow users to accept Cashu ecash tokens alongside Bitcoin using BTCPay Server’s self-custodial and self-hosted infrastructure. Ecash specifically is a digital money system backed by Bitcoin and designed to offer instant, low-cost, and very private transactions. For activists and dissidents, ecash enables bitcoin payments without compromising financial privacy. But users must trust mints (entities that manage and issue ecash tokens) to custody their funds. Though still in early development, BTCNutServer could enable charities, nonprofits, and merchants in repressive countries to accept ecash through BTCPay Server and, in doing so, keep their financial activity hidden from state surveillance.
Private Pond | New Experimental Payjoin System
Private Pond is a new experimental project that builds upon the Payjoin protocol to improve both the privacy and efficiency of Bitcoin transactions. Payjoin works by mixing inputs of a bitcoin payment with inputs from the recipient, making it harder for outside observers to trace who paid whom. Private Pond takes this concept further: it is an application designed to optimize Bitcoin transaction rails (such as a platform’s deposits and withdrawals). It uses transaction batching to bundle many deposits and withdrawals into a single transaction, using incoming deposits to fund outgoing withdrawals. While it’s not production-ready, if Private Pond were implemented in other applications, it could lower fees, create stronger privacy, and expose fewer funds. Innovations like this help strengthen Bitcoin’s original purpose: a financial network that resists censorship and surveillance while staying efficient and scalable.
Chorus.Community | New Social App for Activists
Chorus.Community is a new social app introduced at the 2025 Oslo Freedom Forum that is designed for people who operate under surveillance or censorship. Developed on permissionless technologies like Bitcoin and Nostr, Chorus allows users to share updates, send voice notes, organize groups, and raise funds, all without needing an email, phone number, or approval from any central authority. Unlike traditional platforms, Chorus cannot easily be blocked or shut down. Future updates will include encrypted messaging and group features, further enhancing security. For activists, journalists, and organizers working in closed societies, Chorus offers a new way to stay connected, coordinate, and support one another. Human rights defenders can try it here.
Bitcoin Policy Institute | Upcoming Bitcoin Policy Summit
The Bitcoin Policy Institute will be hosting its third annual Bitcoin Policy Summit from June 25-26 in Washington, DC, bringing together lawmakers, academics, and advocates to help shape and understand the future of Bitcoin policy in the US. A highlight of the event will be HRF’s chief strategy officer, Alex Gladstein’s keynote, “Bitcoin is the Most Powerful Human Rights Tool of the 21st Century,” which will explain Bitcoin’s growing role in resisting authoritarianism and protecting civil liberties worldwide. Learn more about the event here.
HRF | Gifts 800 Million Satoshis to 22 Freedom Projects Worldwide
HRF gifted 800 million satoshis in its Q2 2025 round of Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF) grants, supporting 22 open-source freedom projects worldwide. These projects advance Bitcoin education, open-source software, mining decentralization, and privacy tools for activists contending with authoritarian regimes and dictatorships across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Supporting censorship-resistant financial tools and permissionless technologies like Bitcoin, Nostr, ecash, Tor, VPNs, and more empowers dissidents, journalists, and civil society to organize, transact, communicate, and speak without state suppression, interference, or manipulation. Learn more about the grantees and their work here. This round of grants also marks the 5-year anniversary of the Bitcoin Development Fund! Watch our anniversary announcement video to celebrate this milestone with us.
OpenSats | Announces 11th Wave of Bitcoin Grants
OpenSats, a public nonprofit funding free and open-source software, announced its 11th wave of grants advancing the Bitcoin protocol as a tool for financial freedom. Among the projects, Mostro and Payjoin stand out for their importance to dissidents and anyone seeking greater financial sovereignty. Mostro is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange protocol built on nostr, allowing users to trade Bitcoin directly without relying on centralized intermediaries that can be surveilled, censored, or shut down. Meanwhile, Payjoin enhances Bitcoin transaction privacy by breaking common heuristics used to trace payments, making it harder for authoritarian surveillance tools to identify payees and the amount transacted. Together, these tools give people living under repressive regimes more private, resilient ways to save and transact.
RECOMMENDED CONTENT
Nathan Law on Hong Kong’s Fight for Freedom, Bitcoin, and Lessons for the West with Ben Perrin
In this interview with Bitcoin educator Ben Perrin (BTC Sessions), exiled Hong Kong activist Nathan Law reveals how Bitcoin became a critical tool for resisting financial blacklisting under China’s authoritarian crackdown. With a $140,000 bounty on his head and no access to traditional banking, Law turned to Bitcoin to stay active in his push for freedom and democracy. Watch the full conversation here.
If this article was forwarded to you and you enjoyed reading it, please consider subscribing to the Financial Freedom Report here.
Support the newsletter by donating bitcoin to HRF’s Financial Freedom program via BTCPay.\ Want to contribute to the newsletter? Submit tips, stories, news, and ideas by emailing us at ffreport @ hrf.org
The Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF) is accepting grant proposals on an ongoing basis. The Bitcoin Development Fund is looking to support Bitcoin developers, community builders, and educators. Submit proposals here.
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@ c9badfea:610f861a
2025-06-11 00:02:03🤖️ AI Articles
📱 Android Articles
- 📹️ Device as Dashcam
- 🥩 Tracking Food Intake
- ✍️ Taking Handwritten Notes
- 🕒 Tracking Habits
- 🧭 Navigating the Wild
- 📝 Organizing Notes and Tasks
- 🧠 Studying Smarter
- 💱 Tracking Fiat Currency Exchange Rates
- 🌠 Offline Planetarium
- 📥 Downloading Media From 1000+ Sites
- 🔥 Blocking Ads and Trackers
- ⛅ Getting Detailed Weather Information
- 📦 Installing Apps Directly From Source
- 🎮 Playing Retro Games
- 🖼️ Generating AI Images Locally
- 📖 Reading PDF Documents and EPUB Books
- 🔒 Storing Passwords Safely
- 🗺️ Using Offline Maps
- 🎵 Producing Music On-Device
- 💾 Writing ISO Images to USB Drives
- 💻 Coding On-Device
- 🎬 Watching and Downloading Videos from YouTube, Rumble, Odysee, Bitchute, and More
- 🔤 Upgrading the Typing Experience
- 📰 Reading RSS Feeds
- 📥 Downloading Torrents
- 📺 Watching IPTV Channels for Free
- 🔒 Easily Verifying File Checksums
- 🗣️ Offline Translator
- 🗣️ Offline Text-to-Speech Engine
- 🤖 Running LLMs Locally
- 🌐 Browsing Entire Websites Offline
- 🔐 Quickly Encrypting Files
✏️ Other Articles
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-13 07:01:58Bitcoin Magazine
Maelstrom Announces Its Fourth Bitcoin Developer Grant RecipientMaelstrom is announcing that Ron, known online as “macgyver13,” is the fourth recipient of the Maelstrom Bitcoin Grant Program, per a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine. Ron will be working on Silent Payments, as proposed in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 352.
“We are excited to be financially supporting Ron, in his mission on integrating Silent Payments into Bitcoin wallets,” said the CFO of Maelstrom Arthur Hayes. “Many merchants and users want to provide/display a single static address that doesn’t change, which is an important, valid and simple use case. With Silent Payments this can still be done, while on-chain address re-use is avoided. Address re-use is a goldmine for the surveillance organisations, and at Maelstrom, we want to help put a stop to it.”
In September 2023, Silent Payments was proposed by Josie Baker and Ruben Somsen. It allows people to create a single, static address to share with friends, use for donations, or post for tips without sacrificing privacy. This eliminates address reuse, a key method used by surveillance firms to track user behavior on the blockchain.
“With many software projects, and perhaps even more so in Bitcoin, taking an idea from a proposal to a fully adopted solution is the hardest part,” Josie said. “In the short amount of time I’ve been working with Ron, I’ve been thrilled at the progress we’ve made and I’m excited to work with him over the next year on Silent Payments adoption with the goal of making an intuitive, seamless user experience while also protecting user’s financial privacy.”
Bitcoin privacy depends on using new addresses, which often requires sender to receiver interaction. Existing static address methods use notifications that increase costs and leak metadata. Silent Payments avoids both interaction and notifications but requires wallets to scan the blockchain. Multi-party input use is not yet proven secure.
Silent Payments aim to implement:
- Zero transaction cost overhead
- No linkability between payments and static addresses
- No need for sender to receiver interaction
- Compatibility with privacy tools and modern wallet features
“My primary focus will be coordinating development and testing efforts within the growing community dedicated to integrating Silent Payments into desktop and mobile Bitcoin wallets,” stated the new grantee of Maelstrom Ron. “By advancing Silent Payments alongside BOLT12 and BIP-353, we aim to enhance privacy and simplify the user experience, paving the way for broader adoption of Bitcoin as a payment solution.”
This post Maelstrom Announces Its Fourth Bitcoin Developer Grant Recipient first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-13 07:01:35Bitcoin Magazine
Remixpoint Invests ¥887 Million More Into BitcoinRemixpoint Inc. (3825.T), a management consulting services company, announced it has purchased ¥887.3 million worth of Bitcoin, acquiring 55.68 BTC at an average price of ¥15.94 million per coin.
JUST IN:
Remixpoint just keeps buying more #bitcoin. Another 55.68 BTC today and they now have a total of 981.39 BTC. pic.twitter.com/mTkZg8mNO4
— NLNico (@btcNLNico) June 12, 2025
Following this purchase, the company now holds a total of 981.39 BTC, with a market value of approximately ¥15.63 billion. The unrealized gain on its Bitcoin holdings stands at ¥2.32 billion, reflecting their confidence in Bitcoin’s long term value. The funds came from the exercise of stock acquisition rights conducted on June 10.
Remixpoint Inc. is a Japanese company that started in the auto and energy sectors but has changed toward digital assets. It’s one of the few public companies in Japan actively holding Bitcoin, seeing it as both a store of value and a hedge against the weakening yen. Their move highlights a growing shift in Japan’s corporate space toward Bitcoin adoption.
Bitcoin has been so strong over the years that even in Japan, more companies are adding it to their balance sheets. It all started with Metaplanet, which was originally a hotel and hospitality company. In 2024, they shifted their strategy entirely and began accumulating Bitcoin as a treasury asset. That move caught the attention of investors and marked a turning point in Japan’s corporate approach to digital assets. Since then, Metaplanet has leaned fully into the Bitcoin thesis, positioning itself as Japan’s version of Strategy.
Recently, Metaplanet also announced its “555 Million Plan,” aiming to acquire 210,000 BTC, which is about 1% of Bitcoin’s total supply, by the end of 2027. This represents a major step up from its original “21 Million Plan,” which aimed for just 21,000 BTC. As of June 2, the company had already secured 8,888 BTC, far ahead of schedule and signaling strong momentum in its accumulation strategy.
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
To fund this effort, Metaplanet launched Japan’s first moving strike warrant structure, issuing 555 million shares to raise approximately ¥770.9 billion. The plan was approved following a 10-for-1 stock split and a shareholder vote to increase authorized shares. With robust BTC yield performance and growing investor backing, Metaplanet is quickly establishing itself as Japan’s most influential corporate player in the Bitcoin space.
This post Remixpoint Invests ¥887 Million More Into Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-13 07:01:32Bitcoin Magazine
Passport Prime: A New Security Device For a New GenerationPassport Prime, Foundation Devices’ latest retail hardware wallet, is about to hit the market in Q3 of 2025. The device features a full-color touch screen the size of a credit card with a modern industrial aesthetic. It aims to be a developer platform for Bitcoin and crypto software with high security demands.
Besides serving the basic wallet needs of Bitcoin users, the device is designed as an open source platform for app developers to bring a new experience of crypto-native cybersecurity to the public. The Passport Prime is expected to ship with a powerful Bitcoin wallet app, as well as virtual YubiKeys, a 2FA app, a seed vault for imported or low-value crypto wallets, 50 GB of storage, NFC, and encrypted Bluetooth support, among other features.
Frustrated with the public’s lackluster adoption of hardware wallets as the crypto industry enters the mainstream adoption phase, Foundation has been working since 2020 to bring security hardware devices to feature parity with mainstream consumer technology. However, the path is not simple.
The Adoption Problem of Hardware Wallets
Hardware wallets have been a critical security product for Bitcoin users since 2014 when Satoshi Labs created the Trezor. Before that, users had few options, and many of the funds lost in that era were due to user ignorance of how to manage and properly secure private keys in Bitcoin. Armory, funded by Trace Mayer in the early days, was one of the first solutions but it was highly technical and was best used with hardware the user had to modify themselves — like removing antennas from a laptop. This kind of technology became a security foundation for exchanges, who, through many hacks and hard lessons, slowly got better at securing user funds from organized crime and hackers while playing jurisdictional arbitrage to avoid hostile governments.
As the first hardware wallets started to enter the retail market, significant adoption was seen. With the massive growth of Bitcoin since its inception, the best security practices have failed to keep up with the ease of use provided by custodians while also failing to deliver security and feature parity to users in an interface they are familiar with.
In a keynote presentation on the Passport Prime landing page, Zach Herbert, CEO and co-founder of Foundation, explains their analysis of the market and why they believe only 2.5% of the market is using hardware wallets today, despite mainstream adoption of digital assets like Bitcoin — a concern felt across the industry that too many people are getting accustomed to custodial services.
The small screens, iconic to the hardware wallet ecosystem, are often a barrier for users. The shape of the device, often small and with few buttons, can make people nervous, especially when the wrong combination of clicks means an irreversible financial transaction.
In the case of touchscreen devices like the Trezor T, while certainly an improvement from the Trezor One, the buttons are still far smaller than what the public is used to for smartphones, the most prolific computer platform of this era.
The problem with trying to bring hardware wallets to feature parity with mobile phones is the massive complexity introduced by the corresponding software and hardware. Mobile phones, after all, are designed for mass manufacturing and with ease-of-use priorities in mind, rather than securing life-changing amounts of digital currency, which, once sent, cannot be reversed.
The hardware wallet industry has had to build out open source, verifiable, security-optimized hardware and software that addresses top security concerns, while also delivering a familiar and comfortable user experience to the public. In general, the industry recognizes the need for bigger screens and bigger buttons, as seen in new models by Ledger, for example, with their Ledger Stax, and, of course, Coldcard Q’s Blackberry-style hardware wallet.
When asked why not just try to build on top of a standard mobile phone platform, Owen Kemeys, hardware designer at Foundation Devices, told Bitcoin Magazine that “there’s a huge advantage to Passport Prime being a separate security device,” adding that “we need this stuff to work for the normal people. They are not going to be able to understand or have any interest in understanding what makes something safe or unsafe on their phone. Even if they were going so far as to have a dedicated phone for secret stuff or whatever. Everything that we develop, Apple and Google could bake into their phones and tell you it’s safe. But if it’s in a separate device that is built to do that one exact thing, then you know, OK, if it happens on the Passport Prime, it’s safe.”
The Passport Prime Feature Set
Foundation believes they have found an optimal and preferable middle ground between high security and a familiar user experience in a mobile phone-style device, but with very specific hardware and software inside. Kemeys explained that “the Passport Prime runs its own operating system,” adding that “We’re not running a fork of Android or something and then dressing it up differently. We wrote this from the ground up in Rust. It’s called KeyOS. It’s designed for this one purpose of running a smartphone-like experience, but with sandboxed apps.”
The wallet-related cryptography that’s normal to today’s Bitcoin and crypto wallets is also deeply integrated with the operating system. A master seed phrase is set up by the user; the seed’s corresponding master private and public keys are then used to derive secure, isolated keys for other apps on the Passport Prime. “All apps are sandboxed and receive hardened child seeds, meaning that even if an app is malicious, it has no access to the master seed and cannot communicate with other apps,” Herbert explained in his presentation.
This design builds the foundations necessary for secure app development on top of the Passport Prime, unique among hardware wallet manufacturers. While Ledger has made some progress in that direction, Herbert says that the Ledger operating system is very restrictive with such apps — primarily out of security concerns — making it difficult for developers to contribute to the ecosystem. Foundation believes they have solved the problem, unlocking a new kind of security device that can be used for more than cold storage of Bitcoin and crypto assets. It is a security platform for everyday use in the digital era.
As is generally expected of high-security devices like a hardware wallet, the Passport Prime comes without most of the normal sensors or antennas found in mobile devices. No Wi-Fi, no GPS, and no SIM card, of course. However, NFC, an increasingly popular communications module in hardware wallets and in payments technology in general, is included. NFC has a very short signal range and depends on power from the device sending the signal, making it a fairly secure protocol and bringing Bitcoin closer to the tap-to-pay credit card experience the general public is used to.
“We now have an NFC reader inside,” Kemeys explained, excited about the innovation space unlocked by NFC chips in Bitcoin. “As part of your onboarding setup, in the box, we’re going to ship three NFC cards with the Prime. And as our default onboarding workflow, we’re going to encourage people to make a two-of-three Shamir setup, and back up the shares onto some of those cards.”
Shamir secret sharing is an old and well-known cryptographic algorithm similar to multisignature schemes in Bitcoin but entirely off-chain. It allows users to grab a master private key and split it into shares that can come together later to recreate and recover
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@ 91bea5cd:1df4451c
2025-06-10 14:52:18Para um brasileiro, pode ser difícil entender como as estações do ano são capazes de influenciar o imaginário e a própria organização da sociedade.
Mas em países de clima temperado ou frio, onde primavera, verão, outono e inverno são mais demarcados, é contagiante a alegria com que o verão é celebrado, depois de meses de dias curtos, temperaturas frequentemente negativas e poucas possibilidades de interação social.
É por isso que desde os tempos mais antigos, as primeiras civilizações europeias já tinham festas específicas para celebrar tanto a chegada da primavera — a volta da vida desabrochando — quanto o solstício de verão — o ápice do sol, o dia mais longo do ano.
E, segundo pesquisadores, são esses dois tipos de celebração, depois abraçados pelo catolicismo, que explicam a origem das festas juninas, que no Brasil acabariam sendo reinventadas com um sotaque próprio.
"As origens são mesmo as antigas festas pagãs das antigas civilizações, ligadas aos ciclos da natureza, às estações do ano. Sociedades antigas realizavam grandes festividades, com durações longas, até de um mês, sobretudo nos períodos de plantio e de colheita", contextualiza o pesquisador de culturas populares Alberto Tsuyoshi Ikeda, professor da Universidade de São Paulo e consultor da cátedra Kaapora: da Diversidade Cultural e Étnica na Sociedade Brasileira, da Universidade Federal de São Paulo (#Unifesp).
"A primavera era bastante comemorada, como o reingresso da vida mais dinâmica, o rebrotar da natureza e das atividades depois do período do inverno, sempre de muita dificuldade, luta pela sobrevivência e recolhimento", comenta ele.
Se nessa época do ano o que se via era a explosão da natureza, a vida social espelhava isso. "Os grupos humanos realizavam grandes festividades dedicadas à própria natureza, muitas vezes rendendo homenagens aos antigos deuses relacionados à natureza, à vida animal, à vida vegetal de um modo geral. Eram festas comunitárias com muita alegria, muita alimentação e reunião de pessoas em grande número: foi o que deu origem às festas juninas que a gente conhece no Brasil e em outras partes do mundo."
Autora do livro Festas Juninas: Origens, Tradições e História, a socióloga Lucia Helena Vitalli Rangel, professora na Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), explica que a origem das festas juninas está nos "rituais de fertilidade agrícola" de diversos povos — da Europa, do Oriente Médio e do norte da África.
Os [mitológicos] casais #férteis #Afrodite e Adonis, Tamuz e Izta, Isis e #Osíris eram homenageados nesses #rituais, pois representavam a reprodução humana, numa época de evocação da colheita", afirma.
"Eram rituais para que a colheita fosse farta e para abençoar o próximo período #agrícola. Era período de congraçamento, de partilha e estabelecimento de alianças entre as comunidades. Eram rituais de fartura e abundância em todos os sentidos, no âmbito alimentar e na relação entre as famílias: casamentos, batizados e compadrio."
"No hemisfério norte o solstício de verão era o auge do período ritual e do trabalho agrícola coroado pela colheita", acrescenta a socióloga.
Vale ressaltar o óbvio, para que não fique um certo estranhamento ao leitor menos atento: no hemisfério norte, origem de tais celebrações, as estações do ano são invertidas em relação ao hemisfério sul, onde está o Brasil.
Apropriação católica
Mas onde então entram os santos nessa história? Na festa junina contemporânea, estão presentes algumas das figuras mais populares do catolicismo — e isso acabou impregnado de tal forma na celebração que a religiosidade se misturou ao folclore e às tradições populares, transcendendo os ritos normatizados pela Igreja Católica.
O primeiro dos santos juninos é Antônio (? - 1231), frade franciscano de origem portuguesa que ficou conhecido pelo que fez na Itália no início do século 13. Com fama de milagreiro, foi canonizado pela Igreja onze meses depois de sua morte — trata-se de um recorde até hoje não superado na história do catolicismo.
No imaginário popular, Antônio se tornou o #bonachão santo das coisas perdidas, sobretudo nos países europeus, e o casamenteiro, principalmente em Portugal e no Brasil. #Simpatias, #promessas e orações específicas marcam a devoção a ele. E sua presença nos festejos juninos geralmente está ligada a essas tradições — a Igreja fixou o 13 de junho, data da morte dele, como dia consagrado ao santo.
Em 24 de junho, o catolicismo celebra o nascimento de João Batista (2 a.C - 28 d.C.). É o santo máximo das comemorações juninas — há versões que apontam que originalmente eram "festas joaninas" e não festas juninas; e, sobretudo no nordeste brasileiro, a Festa de São João é um evento de dimensões impressionantes.
Personagem de historicidade controversa, João Batista é apontado como primo de Jesus Cristo e aquele que o batizou.
Em seu livro O Ramo de Ouro, o antropólogo escocês James Frazer (1854-1941) diz que ocorreu um processo histórico "de acomodação", deslocando para a figura de São João Batista a comemoração do solstício de verão.
Por fim, o mês de junho ainda tem a data do martírio de São Pedro (? - 67 d.C) e São Paulo (5 d.C. - 67 d.C.), dois dos pioneiros do cristianismo. Pedro foi um dos 12 apóstolos de Jesus e acabou depois considerado o primeiro papa do catolicismo.
Paulo de Tarso, por sua vez, é reputado como um dos mais influentes teólogos da história. Parte significativa dos textos que compõem o Novo Testamento da Bíblia é atribuída à sua pena. É dele, portanto, a autoria de parcela considerável da ressignificação de Jesus Cristo após sua morte na cruz — em outras palavras, é possível dizer que Paulo é responsável pela transformação de Jesus em um mito.
Uma observação necessária: apesar de a Igreja celebrar em conjunto a memória do martírio de Pedro e de Paulo, por tradição este último nem sempre é associado aos festejos juninos.
À medida que o catolicismo foi se transformando em religião do status quo, sobretudo a partir da cristianização do Império Romano, no ano de 380 d.C., diversos rituais tratados como pagãos acabaram sendo abraçados e apropriados pela Igreja. "A Igreja Católica não pôde desmanchar essas práticas", reconhece Rangel.
Com os rituais de primavera e verão, não foi diferente. "Várias dessas festividades foram adaptadas", conclui Alberto Ikeda, da USP. "Aos poucos passaram a ser tratadas como festas em honra aos santos juninos."
"Mas é importante notar que mesmo dentro do ciclo cristão, esses santos estão ligados tematicamente com aquelas mesmas ideias, os mesmos princípios das festividades [dessa época do ano] das antigas civilizações", pontua o pesquisador.
Santo Antônio, por exemplo, é o casamenteiro — em uma leitura lato sensu, poderia ser encarado como o santo da família, da unidade familiar, da reprodução humana. "São João também está ligado, sobretudo nos interiores do Brasil, a essa questão dos relacionamentos afetivos. Tradicionalmente, faz-se muito casamento no Dia de São João", diz Ikeda.
"Ele também traz a característica da fartura [que remete aos períodos de plantio e de colheita, em oposição aos rigorosos invernos], dos alimentos, das bebidas, aquilo que chamamos na antropologia de repasto ritual ou repasto cerimonial", afirma o pesquisador.
De modo geral, na leitura proposta por ele, todos os santos juninos estão ligados aos ciclos da natureza — fogo, água, fertilidade, abundância. Está aí São Pedro e a ideia de que ele é quem controla o tempo. "Vejo uma relação entre eles e os antigos rituais, uma relação ainda presente.
Embora a gente não perceba mais, eles têm essa ligação com os elementos fundamentais da existência humana", comenta.
Nas festas populares essas forças da natureza se fazem representadas, muito além da mesa farta.
Os mastros juninos que são erguidos representam a potência dos troncos, das árvores que resistem ao inverno. A fogueira é a luz: ilumina, aquece, afugenta animais ferozes, assa os alimentos.
Na releitura contemporânea, portanto, as festas juninas "guardam as reminiscências das ancestrais aglomerações festivas", conforme frisa Ikeda.
Tradição brasileira
Paçoca, pamonha, pipoca, bolo de fubá, canjica, curau, pé de moleque, maçã do amor. Vinho quente e quentão. Brincadeiras de pular fogueira e dançar a quadrilha. Chapéu de palha, camisa xadrez, calça com remendos. Bombinhas e rojões, fogos de artifício. Bandeirinhas coloridas penduradas em varais de barbante.
No Brasil, as festas juninas foram reinventadas e se tornaram uma exaltação das raízes caipiras. E muito além da religiosidade, tornou-se tradição, folclore. Como se o ciclo se fechasse: o que nasceu como ritual gregário, de celebração social, e depois foi apropriado por uma religião dominante, acabou na cultura popular sendo devolvido ao sentido original — ou seja, a festa pela alegria de festejar.
Não à toa, a folclorista Laura Della Mônica registrou em seu livro Os Três Santos do Mês de Junho que "respeitar as festas e orações dedicadas a cada um dos três santos do mês de junho, segundo a tradição, é obrigação e dever de todos nós, pelo menos culturalmente". O "todos nós" é o brasileiro. Porque mesmo nascida no Velho Mundo, as festas juninas assumiram uma identidade própria em território nacional.
"A colonização da América colocou novamente a questão [da apropriação cultural] para os jesuítas e todos os religiosos que se instalaram no continente sul-americano", pontua a socióloga Rangel.
"No caso do Brasil, houve uma coincidência do calendário. No inverno seco, o solstício de inverno marca o período dos trabalhos agrícolas mais importantes. Do mesmo modo que, para os povos do hemisfério norte é o período de rituais de fertilidade, [a festa por aqui também vem] com as mesmas características, congrega as famílias na evocação da abundância."
As tradições regionais guardam suas especificidades, como era de se esperar em um país de dimensões continentais. "Sempre foram festas e rituais populares", salienta Rangel.
"No Brasil temos expressões regionais muito fortes: o São João nordestino, o Boi Bumbá da região norte, o Boi de Mamão no sul, Cavalhadas no centro-oeste e as festas do Divino Espírito Santo e muitas regiões, particularmente no estado de São Paulo."
A pesquisadora comenta que "conforme os padres vão chegando nas paróquias, começam a interferir nas comemorações". É quando vem o sincretismo: a festa popular também é festa católica, a quermesse organizada pela igreja também tem os rituais populares.
"Até hoje as paróquias, as igrejas, realizam festas juninas. Mesmo que as maiores festas estejam predominantemente tendo somente o caráter festivo, mais comercial, de exploração pelo ganho financeiro, as igrejas continuam fazendo comemorações aos santos juninos", pontua Ikeda.
"Embora muitas pessoas não católicas também participem das festas, embora predomine uma visão genérica que as festas juninas não guardam mais relação com a religiosidade, há ainda um relacionamento das igrejas com esses santos juninos."
Para ele, a evolução da festividade consiste no fato de que "toda aglomeração possibilita o incentivo ao comércio". "E a alimentação está neste centro, na busca mesmo do repasto cerimonial e festividades, danças e músicas que sempre estiveram ligados aos antigos rituais." Ikeda lembra que a as festas populares têm uma importância antropológica por serem "práticas gregárias que ciclicamente comemoram a própria constituição, a própria existência das comunidades enquanto coletividade, a reunião de grupos humanos que preservam uma história comum".
"No caso da feste junina, esse vestir-se de caipira, simbolicamente, é um instrumento de importância até emocional e psicológico para as pessoas se sentirem com a identidade ligada ao passado, aos pais e avós que praticavam aquilo, comemorando de forma parecida", analisa o pesquisador.
"Assim, a prática possibilita a guarda de uma continuidade ao longo do tempo."
Suspensão sanitária
Nunca é demais enfatizar: com a pandemia de covid-19 ainda fora de controle, seria uma péssima ideia realizar qualquer tipo de festa neste período — se quer comemorar, faça em casa somente com seu núcleo familiar. Então, 2021 será o segundo ano consecutivo em que o Brasil não terá, ao menos de modo ostensivo, a tradição das festividades com bandeirinhas coloridas. Doutora em História das Ciências da Saúde e autora do livro A Gripe Espanhola na Bahia, a historiadora Christiane Maria Cruz de Souza afirma que esse cancelamento não ocorreu nem na epidemia de 100 anos atrás.
Isto porque a gripe chegou ao Brasil bem depois dos festejos de 1918. E, no ano seguinte, a epidemia estava controlada. "A gripe espanhola não teve nenhuma interferência no São João. Os primeiros registros da doença apareceram em setembro de 1918 e a doença foi se extinguindo aos poucos. Em Salvador, ele não avançou para o ano de 1919. Houve alguns surtos, em lugares mais remotos, até 1920, mas sem caráter epidêmico."
É de se supor, inclusive, que as festividades de 1919 tenham sido ainda mais animadas. "Passada a epidemia de gripe espanhola, tudo o que as pessoas queriam eram esquecê-la", afirma Souza.
Em 20 de junho de 1919, entretanto, surgiram os primeiros registros indicando uma epidemia de varíola na capital da Bahia. "Começaram a aparecer um caso aqui, outro ali, mas ainda sem a força suficiente para poucos dias depois interditar os festejos de São João", nota a pesquisadora.
"As autoridades sanitárias demoraram muito para reconhecer que ocorria uma epidemia terrível de varíola. Autoridades públicas só costumam reconhecer a existência de uma epidemia quando se torna inevitável devido ao acúmulo de adoecimentos e mortes, quando o número de doentes e mortos ultrapassa a normalidade esperada para os casos da doença. Isso demora um tempo."
Rangel ressalta, inclusive, que até a primeira metade do século 20, as festas juninas eram muito menores, restritas a familiares e pequenos grupos comunitários. Muito menos do que os eventos de hoje em dia. "Eram festas de arraial, de quintais, de quermesses", diz. "Elas só se transformaram em grandes espetáculos na segunda metade do século 20, na esteira da espetacularização do carnaval."
Fonte: BBC News 18 Junho 2021
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@ 2cde0e02:180a96b9
2025-06-12 14:25:06墨 sumi ink & hanko red paste;
https://stacker.news/items/1004461
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@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d
2025-06-09 10:01:39Paris, 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.comAbout 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.
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@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5
2025-06-12 18:02:19Key Takeaways
Michael Goldstein, aka Bitstein, presents a sweeping philosophical and economic case for going “all in” on Bitcoin, arguing that unlike fiat, which distorts capital formation and fuels short-term thinking, Bitcoin fosters low time preference, meaningful saving, and long-term societal flourishing. At the heart of his thesis is “hodling for good”—a triple-layered idea encompassing permanence, purpose, and the pursuit of higher values like truth, beauty, and legacy. Drawing on thinkers like Aristotle, Hoppe, and Josef Pieper, Goldstein redefines leisure as contemplation, a vital practice in aligning capital with one’s deepest ideals. He urges Bitcoiners to think beyond mere wealth accumulation and consider how their sats can fund enduring institutions, art, and architecture that reflect a moral vision of the future.
Best Quotes
“Let BlackRock buy the houses, and you keep the sats.”
“We're not hodling just for the sake of hodling. There is a purpose to it.”
“Fiat money shortens your time horizon… you can never rest.”
“Savings precedes capital accumulation. You can’t build unless you’ve saved.”
“You're increasing the marginal value of everyone else’s Bitcoin.”
“True leisure is contemplation—the pursuit of the highest good.”
“What is Bitcoin for if not to make the conditions for magnificent acts of creation possible?”
“Bitcoin itself will last forever. Your stack might not. What will outlast your coins?”
“Only a whale can be magnificent.”
“The market will sell you all the crack you want. It’s up to you to demand beauty.”
Conclusion
This episode is a call to reimagine Bitcoin as more than a financial revolution—it’s a blueprint for civilizational renewal. Michael Goldstein reframes hodling as an act of moral stewardship, urging Bitcoiners to lower their time preference, build lasting institutions, and pursue truth, beauty, and legacy—not to escape the world, but to rebuild it on sound foundations.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Michael’s BBB presentation Hodl for Good
07:27 - Austrian principles on capital
15:40 - Fiat distorts the economic process
23:34 - Bitkey
24:29 - Hodl for Good triple entendre
29:52 - Bitcoin benefits everyone
39:05 - Unchained
40:14 - Leisure theory of value
52:15 - Heightening life
1:15:48 - Breaking from the chase makes room for magnificence
1:32:32 - Nakamoto Institute’s missionTranscript
(00:00) Fiat money is by its nature a disturbance. If money is being continually produced, especially at an uncertain rate, these uh policies are really just redistribution of wealth. Most are looking for number to go up post hyper bitcoinization. The rate of growth of bitcoin would be more reflective of the growth of the economy as a whole.
(00:23) Ultimately, capital requires knowledge because it requires knowing there is something that you can add to the structures of production to lengthen it in some way that will take time but allow you to have more in the future than you would today. Let Black Rockck buy the houses and you keep the sats, not the other way around.
(00:41) You wait until later for Larry Frink to try to sell you a [Music] mansion. And we're live just like that. Just like that. 3:30 on a Friday, Memorial Day weekend. It's a good good good way to end the week and start the holiday weekend. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me here. Thank you for coming. I wore this hat specifically because I think it's I think it's very apppropo uh to the conversation we're going to have which is I hope an extension of the presentation you gave at Bitblock Boom Huddle for good. You were working on
(01:24) that for many weeks leading up to uh the conference and explaining how you were structuring it. I think it's a very important topic to discuss now as the Bitcoin price is hitting new all-time highs and people are trying to understand what am I doing with Bitcoin? Like you have you have the different sort of factions within Bitcoin.
(01:47) Uh get on a Bitcoin standard, get on zero, spend as much Bitcoin as possible. You have the sailors of the world are saying buy Bitcoin, never sell, die with your Bitcoin. And I think you do a really good job in that presentation. And I just think your understanding overall of Bitcoin is incredible to put everything into context. It's not either or.
(02:07) It really depends on what you want to accomplish. Yeah, it's definitely there there is no actual one-sizefits-all um for I mean nearly anything in this world. So um yeah, I mean first of all I mean there was it was the first conference talk I had given in maybe five years. I think the one prior to that uh was um bit block boom 2019 which was my meme talk which uh has uh become infamous and notorious.
(02:43) So uh there was also a lot of like high expectations uh you know rockstar dev uh has has treated that you know uh that that talk with a lot of reference. a lot of people have enjoyed it and he was expecting this one to be, you know, the greatest one ever, which is a little bit of a little bit of a uh a burden to live up to those kinds of standards.
(03:08) Um, but you know, because I don't give a lot of talks. Um, you know, I I I like to uh try to bring ideas that might even be ideas that are common. So, something like hodling, we all talk about it constantly. uh but try to bring it from a little bit of a different angle and try to give um a little bit of uh new light to it.
(03:31) I alsove I've I've always enjoyed kind of coming at things from a third angle. Um whenever there's, you know, there's there's all these little debates that we have in in Bitcoin and sometimes it's nice to try to uh step out of it and look at it a little more uh kind of objectively and find ways of understanding it that incorporate the truths of of all of them.
(03:58) uh you know cuz I think we should always be kind of as much as possible after ultimate truth. Um so with this one um yeah I was kind of finding that that sort of golden mean. So uh um yeah and I actually I think about that a lot is uh you know Aristotle has his his concept of the golden mean. So it's like any any virtue is sort of between two vices um because you can you can always you can always take something too far.
(04:27) So you're you're always trying to find that right balance. Um so someone who is uh courageous you know uh one of the vices uh on one side is being basically reckless. I I can't remember what word he would use. Uh but effectively being reckless and just wanting to put yourself in danger for no other reason than just you know the thrill of it.
(04:50) Um and then on the other side you would just have cowardice which is like you're unwilling to put yourself um at any risk at any time. Um, and courage is right there in the middle where it's understanding when is the right time uh to put your put yourself, you know, in in the face of danger um and take it on. And so um in some sense this this was kind of me uh in in some ways like I'm obviously a partisan of hodling.
(05:20) Um, I've for, you know, a long time now talked about the, um, why huddling is good, why people do it, why we should expect it. Um, but still trying to find that that sort of golden mean of like yes, huddle, but also what are we hodling for? And it's not we're we're not hodddling just merely for the sake of hodddling.
(05:45) There there is a a purpose to it. And we should think about that. And that would also help us think more about um what are the benefits of of spending, when should we spend, why should we spend, what should we spend on um to actually give light to that sort of side of the debate. Um so that was that was what I was kind of trying to trying to get into.
(06:09) Um, as well as also just uh at the same time despite all the talk of hodling, there's always this perennial uh there's always this perennial dislike of hodlers because we're treated as uh as if um we're just free riding the network or we're just greedy or you know any of these things. And I wanted to show how uh huddling does serve a real economic purpose.
(06:36) Um, and it does benefit the individual, but it also does uh it it has actual real social um benefits as well beyond merely the individual. Um, so I wanted to give that sort of defense of hodling as well to look at it from um a a broader position than just merely I'm trying to get rich. Um uh because even the person who uh that is all they want to do um just like you know your your pure number grow up go up moonboy even that behavior has positive ramifications on on the economy.
(07:14) And while we might look at them and have uh judgments about their particular choices for them as an individual, we shouldn't discount that uh their actions are having positive positive effects for the rest of the economy. Yeah. So, let's dive into that just not even in the context of Bitcoin because I think you did a great job of this in the presentation.
(07:36) just you've done a good job of this consistently throughout the years that I've known you. Just from like a first principles Austrian economics perspective, what is the idea around capital accumulation, low time preference and deployment of that capital like what what like getting getting into like the nitty-gritty and then applying it to Bitcoin? Yeah, it's it's a big question and um in many ways I mean I I even I barely scratched the surface.
(08:05) uh I I can't claim to have read uh all the volumes of Bombber works, you know, capital and interest and and stuff like that. Um but I think there's some some sort of basic concepts that we can look at that we can uh draw a lot out. Um the first uh I guess let's write that. So repeat so like capital time preference. Yeah. Well, I guess getting more broad like why sav -
@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-13 07:01:28Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin: How To Solve the Student Loan CrisisStudent loans continue to trouble millions of Americans, with a total of $1.77 trillion already owed. This crisis has been a major political issue for a while, especially after former President Biden promised to wipe out all of the student loan debt and ended up only fulfilling half of the promise. These billions of dollars are not just numbers on a spreadsheet; they represent people who repay their debt, every month, year in and year out. While the standard repayment plan spans 10 years, the reality is far more daunting: The average borrower takes 20-30 years to repay their loans.
There are over two million new undergraduates every year, and, on average, they graduate with $29,400 in debt. Some, like medical students, surpass $250,000 in debt — a mortgage-sized pile. Almost $100 billion in new debt is created every year, piled upon the already unsustainable student debt pile. Similar to how we have (haven’t) dealt with public pensions, instead of dismantling a failed system we keep feeding the machine and crushing people’s lives and dreams underneath its weight. But perhaps there’s a way for future generations to avoid this dreadful fate — by borrowing new ideas from similar fields.
Real Estate: The Store of Value (SoV) Since Nixon
The real estate market is another system that heavily relies on debt to keep functioning, and like student loans, it’s not working too well.
Real estate is a market where it’s completely normal to go 10x levered long on a single asset while putting all of your savings into it. Talk about idiosyncratic risk. The entire market has been in deep pain worldwide, not necessarily because of the debt, but due to how the fiat system has turned real estate into an investment-and-savings mechanism. In turn, the great investment of one generation becomes the unaffordable housing for the next. But a subset of the population has been divesting from the asset in favor of a better savings vehicle: bitcoin.
Part of their thesis in divesting from real estate and moving to bitcoin is that they predict that bitcoin’s superior SoV function will drive real estate prices down, wreaking havoc on a fragile and overpriced asset class. This makes quite a bit of sense, especially to those individuals who invested in real estate in search of those SoV properties in the first place; they now have to contend with increasing risk all over the world, putting in peril what was once a “safe SoV” asset class. From wildfires all over the place to floods, expropriations, new taxes, and wars breaking out in places previously unimaginable, some investors are just fed up.
But housing is still necessary, and we still need to build a massive amount of new houses. In almost all major cities in the world, there’s a housing crisis driven in large part by shortages. This is due to lackluster housing buildouts following the 2008 great financial crisis, driven directly by housing debt. Thus, even if all of the real estate owners put all of their stock of housing into the market, we would still have to develop and construct new ones. But it’s hard to convince real estate developers to do so when you also tell them that, in bitcoin terms, the houses they are building will be worth less by the time they sell them.
Bitcoin Replaces Real Estate
That’s where a German Bitcoiner and real estate developer named Leon Wankum steps in and turns the problem into a solution. You may even say he used financial jiu-jitsu because his idea is to bundle new, debt-heavy real estate projects with a bitcoin fund. This way, a $10 million project — of which $9 million is debt-financed — would allocate a small percentage of the financing to bitcoin, in order to hedge the depreciation and devaluation of the main asset and thereby benefit from the appreciation of bitcoin. This way, real estate developers can leverage the debt-heavy nature of the real estate market to cover the demand for housing while also hedging themselves from any SoV risk that bitcoin may pose to that asset.
This seemed like a crazy idea. Bitcoin and real estate: a super conservative mainstream infrastructure investment combined with a hyper-volatile digital savings vehicle — an unlikely marriage. Yet, polar opposites attract, and an idea is only crazy until someone replicates it and makes it work.
To everyone’s surprise, that’s exactly what happened last year, when Andrew Hohns of Newmarket Capital went on TV to announce they had started applying Wankum’s model to offer a loan to a real estate developer. They had provided financing for a real estate project with a few special conditions:
- the developer had to use a small proportion to buy bitcoin, which was placed in escrow.
- the bitcoin is inextricably tied with the real estate asset.
- and the bitcoin has to be held for four years minimum.
The experiment was off to the races. If the past serves as a guide, this new investment structure will greatly reduce the burden of the loan.
Bitcoin and Student Debts, Rescuing the Next Generation
At this point, the parallels to student loans should be pretty clear. When 18-year-olds take out a mortgage-sized loan to bet on their education, their future human capital is effectively becoming the real estate (collateral) that backs the debt. Their capacity to make extra income from the knowledge and certificates they acquired by going into debt will help them pay it off (given that all goes well). Investment margins become very sensitive and risk increases immensely when huge amounts of leverage are added to any investment — be it trading stocks, real estate, or your future. Your room for maneuvering decreases, and you get trapped in the path you choose.
Thus, if you yourself become the real estate securing this mortgage-sized student debt, perhaps you could also secure that loan and reduce the burden on the main asset (you) by integrating bitcoin into the mix. This could have great benefits for all parties involved: decreasing the risk for the lender and giving increased peace of mind and opportunities for the borrower (you, the student).
One of the main advantages of adding bitcoin to your student debt structure is that there are now two assets rowing against the financial repayment current: yourself and bitcoin. By going to university, learning new skills and getting certificates, you open up the path to better-paid jobs and higher earning potentials, aka higher salaries. The more intriguing component is the bitcoin tied to your student debts. As a teenager itself, bitcoin has had an incredible CAGR over its lifespan. Even conservative numbers indicate that bitcoin will return about 60% annually for the foreseeable future. When compared with the 10-15% usually provided by the S&P 500, bitcoin looks like a Ferrari competing against horses.
The other advantage is one that frustrates most students, and it has to do with acquiring bitcoin once they understand it. Unlike most adults, undergrads have barely had any time to build up savings, and are therefore unable to exchange much fiat for hard bitcoin. This can become incredibly frustrating, especially because you know that if you were a decade older, you could have aped into bitcoin and retired your entire bloodline. But now you are stuck being 16, saving up pennies, and sacrificing your younger years for trifling amounts of bitcoin that won’t make a difference in your lifetime. So close, yet so far away.
But what is debt if not a way to bring future purchasing power into the present? Debt is a time-traveling machine that allows people to buy assets by leveraging their future earnings, revenues, or salaries. And thankfully, the current system is created so that the moment you can legally go to jail or go to war, you can also indebt yourself up to your eyeballs with the promise of future wages as a doctor, engineer, lawyer, or another profession.
Funnily enough, bitcoin’s recommended minimum holding time is also the number of years for an average college degree — four years. This means that, as long as you create a similar structure as the one proposed by Newmarket Capital, where the bitcoin has a four-year holding period, you’ll be using financial jiu-jitsu. The four-year holding period, however, does not mean that the student needs to sell at that point. The question of how to manage your finances between repaying the student loans, selling the bitcoin, or acquiring more is a more complex and personal issue. Regardless of what any student does, with this hybrid method, student debts can help young Bitcoiners leap forward instead of taking a step back.
With this new method, students — and their families — now have another thing to celebrate when they walk onto the graduation stage. And if you drop out of school, for any set of reasons that life may hit you with, your student loan now comes with a fail-safe met
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@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3
2025-06-12 02:13:20I pretty much did worse across the board today.
How'd you do today, stackers?
https://stacker.news/items/1004030
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@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740
2025-06-11 08:29:54Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
The Second Coming — W.B. Yeats
I don’t know what I want to write about today. There are a lot of converging currents coursing through my reality right now. I feel we’re in an interregnum of sorts between what was and what’s to come. I guess you could simply describe that as the present, something that has ever been the case. But this moment feels more intense like something big is dying and something else, God knows what, is on its way “to be born".
I exchanged emails recently with an old friend, and he sent me a link to a David Foster Wallace commencement speech entitled “This Is Water.” In it Wallace tells a joke of an old fish seeing two younger fish swimming by and asks them “How’s the water?” Later on one of the younger ones asks the other, “What is water?”
Wallace hanged himself a few years after the speech. Apparently he was unable to maintain the perspective he laid out in it which was that we can choose our attitude toward what we experience in any moment, no matter how much aversion we habitually associate with it. That the act of choosing equanimity constitutes the freedom we seek. That this freedom to choose is ever present, in fact the ability to direct our attention and consciousness is itself the water. And yet out of habit we are often oblivious to this most fundamental reality.
My friend’s email was in response to my description of the dissolution I see right now. Everything seems fake. The news, the governments, the edicts of reputationally bankrupt institutions zombying along as though the last five years never happened, like the proverbial emperor still purporting to rule though everyone can now see his pale, unsightly posterior.
Yes, the coffee shops are still open, people still go on vacation with their families. Let’s go to Paris, Rome, the Greek Isles! Let’s pretend everything is as we had imagined in the before times when our goals and aspirations seemed real, when the glitchy pixels in the matrix hadn’t yet revealed themselves so glaringly.
Maybe this was always the case. All our games were always professional wrestling, a scripted charade for which we willingly suspended disbelief. But like the roadrunner in the cartoon, we have since become aware we have run out of road, four steps beyond the cliff edge.
. . .
Wallace in his speech described such indignities as being stuck in traffic after a long day of work, or in a long grocery checkout line. The mind’s usual programs run, cursing everyone and everything around us. Instead of contemplating the miracle of human existence we feel only disgust and impatience. We want to finish with the run, the work, the obligatory hour so we can move on to something presumably more pleasant.
I can handle such day to day discomforts, but the overwhelming sense of dissolution is undermining the aims to which I had once attached meaning. I set up my life for freedom and prosperity, and now, just as I have my ducks in a row, there’s an imminent magnetic pole shift or a financial and social collapse that threatens to counterfeit my efforts.
It’s easy to opt out when you’re losing, to decry the injustice, unfairness and pointlessness of the game when you weren’t getting much from it anyway. When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose, to paraphrase Bob Dylan. But as a late bloomer wanting to sample the wine of the Gods at long last, it’s dispiriting in a different way, like saving up for a new car and seeing it stolen before you had a chance to drive it.
That’s the shallow version, distress at discovering just before getting the things I had always wanted I was actually playing not just the wrong game, but a false one. That I’m upset I can’t gratify my ego in the way I had hoped, that I can’t get the pat on the back I had craved because the back-patters decided to tear up the playing field just as I finally became a contender.
The deeper version is you only get better at the game through your own efforts to discover what’s true, your own self-mastery and access to a measure of wisdom. This process transforms your life from a tedious and difficult slog to a state of ease and flow. You are more connected, more in touch with yourself and the forces within. You can handle aversion, in fact voluntarily invite it at times to hone your mind and access your resourcefulness. You love your life and connect to the people in it. You have great hope and aspirations for the future. You believe in God, or the Tao or whatever force animates all things, you can navigate the world’s imperfections and do not want it to fall into chaos and disorder.
The task of remembering this during the run, the traffic jam or the grocery store checkout line is not so difficult. But would it be the same during periods of violence and resource scarcity where literal survival is at stake, the rules of which are set by biology and physics rather than the incentives of human society?
Yes, I’d rather be eating dinner at home than sitting in traffic, but I can appreciate that I’m able to sit comfortably in my climate controlled pod, listening to music while traversing these distances rather than foraging for food in the harsh wild. Yes, this old Portuguese lady is taking an eternity to get the groceries into her pushcart, but I can imagine how it is to be old and slow and still have to shop and eat, and it’s trivial to cut her some slack.
I’m not claiming I always have this perspective, but I surely am able to channel equanimity during the ordinary aversion that arises in one’s day to day life. I do this while running on the track, the aches and pains, the discomfort, the wanting to get it over with is a battle I fight every week by my own choosing. But imagine if instead of running 10 minute miles I was forced to do them in six. It’s not so easy to keep a calm, conscious mind while gasping for breath.
The truth is these calamities I imagine are not yet real, the asteroid has not yet hit, the economy not yet collapsed. I have never experienced the kind of hardship I dread. I am ever in the grocery line, the 10-minute mile run, the traffic jam, never the concentration camp or Mad Max-style post-apocalypse. Why not just deal with that when the time comes, if it ever comes? Why die a thousand deaths like the proverbial coward rather than the one required of the brave man?
I suppose it comes down to wanting to be prepared. There’s nothing you can do if an asteroid destroys the entire earth, but if your national government devolves into tyranny, you could get out before it’s too late. There’s the adage one should only concern oneself about the things one can control, but the rub is in deciding what’s in your power and of what to let go. It’s an easy out, per the adage, to narrow your locus of control to doing your job and paying your bills. You can too easily forget that which job you have, where you live, what preparations to make are also matters in which you have a choice.
Even if you believe a magnetic pole shift could spill the earth’s oceans across continents within the next few decades — I find this plausible — you could move to the mountains to get ahead even of that. A fatalist, non-questioning attitude can be a psychological salve in times of upheaval, but “salve” and "“slave” are but a typo apart.
. . .
When I was six someone broke into my house. I was still awake, and while pretending to be asleep, I heard him rummaging through my belongings, stealing an old Fisher Price turntable and a black and white TV. My father died four years later, and at 10, I remember thinking as the oldest boy in the house, it was now my responsibility to defend my family if anything like that, or worse, happened again. Of course, I wasn’t really capable of doing this, and I knew it, but I would have to try, futile as it might be.
I imagine that psychology has stayed with me as an adult — it’s up to me to see around corners, assess the various threats to me and my family, even if some of them are too daunting for any one individual. I could let it go, I suppose, it would probably even be healthy to do so. But there is a part of me that wonders whether people like me, people who feel this irrational responsibility, are the those who survive cataclysms and shocks. I surely am not the only one who feels this way and quite likely would not be especially effective given I don’t have engineering, outdoorsman or serious combat skills. But that hyper-vigilance toward and preparation for worse-case scenarios is something someone has to do, someone who would likely be selected for the role by the particular accidents of his upbringing.
. . .
There is another way to look at this, of course. The notion one ought to step up in the face of adverse circumstances, even extreme ones, is valid. But perhaps the best way to prepare is not endlessly to assess potential threats like some black ops CIA outfit, but to have a calm and detached mind. Should the signs appear, a poised and observant person would take action insofar as he is able. That you, having trained your attention away from default habits of comfort-seeking and dread and toward conscious observation, will do what’s required if and when the time comes. That you can trust yourself, and by that I mean trust in God, so to speak, to guide your awareness and actions for the most effective and adaptive response.
The Fourth Turning might well be upon us, indeed “the centre [may not] hold.” There is no guarantee your response will ensure you or those you love survive. There has never been such a guarantee for anyone, only the freedom to direct your attention, to choose your state of mind, to the extent you are capable, in the conditions that arise. To respond to the older fish that the water is okay, it’s pretty nice actually.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-13 07:01:25Bitcoin Magazine
France’s The Blockchain Group Secures €9.7 Million More For Its Bitcoin Treasury StrategyToday, The Blockchain Group (ALTBG), listed on Euronext Growth Paris and recognized as Europe’s first Bitcoin Treasury Company, announced it has raised around €9.7 million through a mix of equity and convertible bond issuances. This move is part of their continued push to build out their Bitcoin Treasury Company strategy.
The Blockchain Group announces an equity and convertible bond issuance for a total amount of ~€9.7M to pursue its Bitcoin Treasury Company strategy
Full Press Release (EN): https://t.co/jjGOBswJsd
Full Press Release (FR): https://t.co/0Jwuv2sP7W
BTC Strategy (EN):… pic.twitter.com/mUVLHJduX5
— The Blockchain Group (@_ALTBG) June 12, 2025
The funding comes from multiple sources and was carried out through their wholly-owned Luxembourg subsidiary, “The Blockchain Group Luxembourg SA.” A major portion, about €6 million, was raised through a convertible bond issuance to TOBAM, with bonds priced at €6.24 per share. That price reflects a 30 percent premium over ALTBG’s closing price on June 9, 2025.
Ludovic Chechin-Laurans also came in with around €2.4 million, subscribing in BTC at a conversion price of about €0.7072 per share. This was part of a deal originally set up back in March 2025. If the stock price climbs 30 percent above that level, to around €0.919 over 20 consecutive trading days, he’ll have the option to convert into up to 3.4 million new ALTBG shares.
Adam Back also finalized his conversion of all OCA Tranche 1 bonds into 14.9 million ALTBG shares and subscribed to an additional 2.1 million shares for €1.16 million at €0.544 per share.
“The Company recalls that Adam Back notified The Blockchain Group of his intention to convert all OCA Tranche 1 he holds, in accordance with the terms of the OCA Issuance Agreement entered into on March 4, 2025, the details of which were disclosed in a press release dated March 6, 2025, and which the Company now confirms has been definitively completed,” stated the press release.
TOBAM did the same, converting 1 million Tranche 1 bonds into 1.84 million shares and subscribing to 262,605 new shares for €0.14 million.
“Given the recent high volatility in the Company’s share price observed since the signing of the OCA Issuance Agreement, the conversion price of €0.544 reflects a discount of 89.52% compared to the closing price on June 12, 2025,” the press release added.
“These operations could allow for the potential acquisition of ~80 BTC, bringing the Company’s total potential holdings to ~1,611 BTC, including the proceeds from the potential completion of remaining operations announced in the press release dated May 26, 2025,” said the press release.
This post France’s The Blockchain Group Secures €9.7 Million More For Its Bitcoin Treasury Strategy first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.
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@ 69eea734:4ae31ae6
2025-06-12 17:44:54Vor ein paar Tagen stieß ich auf einen faszinierenden Artikel von Michel Bauwens, Mitbegründer der P2PFoundation, mit Links zu weiteren Texten (zum Beispiel über den Puls der Commons), die ich ebenfalls äußerst interessant fand.
Der Artikel zeigt unter anderem, wie unterschiedlich Commons aussehen können, so dass ich ihn heute als Ausgangspunkt nehmen möchte, um ein paar Puzzle-Steine in mein entstehendes Bild der Commons einzufügen.
Das Grundmuster menschlichen Zusammenlebens?
Bauwens betrachtet die Commons aus historischer Sicht, wie sie sich in verschiedenen Zeiten unterschiedlich manifestieren, manchmal gar nahezu verschwinden und heute in wiederum veränderter Form neu entstehen – und plädiert dafür, dass sie noch weit stärker werden sollten.
Er legt zunächst dar, was die Commons sind und was nicht. (zum Beispiel nichts, was vom Staat verwaltet wird, wie ein öffentlicher Park.) Ausschlaggebend ist, dass eine Ressource von ihren Herstellern oder Benutzern selbst betreut wird. Commons entstehen dabei durch Beziehungen. Sie sind etwas spezifisch Menschliches und eine Wahl, die „fast immer“ zur Verfügung steht, so Bauwens. Eine die Geschichte überdauernde menschliche Praxis.
Er nennt drei verschiedene geschichtlichen Entwicklungen:
- Eine lineare - Wie präsentiert sich der Commons über verschiedene, komplexer werdende, Phasen der Menschheitsgeschichte hinweg?
- Eine hin und her schwingendende: In der Geschichte einer Zivilisation werden die Commons in Zeiten von Überfluss -- und daraus resultierender Verschwendung uns steigender Ressourcen-Extraktion -- unterdrückt, konstitutieren sich aber dann als Gegenbewegung wieder neu.
- Eine stufenweise: Die heutigen, mit neuen Möglichkeiten ausgestatteten Formen der Commons könnten in der nächsten Phase unserer Zivilisation (oder nach unserer Zivilisation) eine entscheidende Rolle spielen.
Wenn man verschiedene Arten des Austausches betrachtet (Bauwens beruft sich hierbei auf Alan Fiske), kann man geschichtlich analysieren, welche zu verschiedenen Zeiten vorrangig waren (dies tat Kojin Karatani in The Structure of World History von 2014).
Die vier Muster sind:
- Gemeinschaftliche Beteiligung, Commons (die Gemeinschaft baut mir ein Haus, und ich helfe später bei einem anderen Hausbau mit; ein Beispiel aus neuerer Zeit ist die Entwicklung von Linux)
- Wechselseitiger Austausch (Geschenkökonomie – es wird eine etwa gleichwertige Leistung zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt erwartet)
- Hierarchisch bedingte Verteilung, wie im Feudalismus
- Marktwirtschaft (es gibt ein allgemeines Zahlungsmittel mit einem bestimmten Wert)
Bauwens: „Entscheidend ist jedoch, dass die Menschheit ständig bestrebt ist, Modus A wiederherzustellen, denn die Menschen haben eine kulturelle und wahrscheinlich auch allgemeine Vorliebe für ein geselliges Leben in kleinen, vertrauten Gruppen. Aber menschliche Gruppen versuchen, dies auch auf höheren Komplexitätsebenen zu tun, in einem ständigen Versuch, die extraktive Logik der Zivilisation zu mäßigen.“ (Katarani bezeichnet eine Verbindung von Commoning und Geschenkökonomie in stammesorientierten Kulturen als Modus A)
Commons durch die Zeiten
In der ursprünglichsten Form der Commons in Jäger- und Sammler-Gemeinschaften, werden Nahrung und sonstige Ressourcen mit der ganzen Gemeinschaft geteilt - dies ist zumindest die vorherrschende Form des Austauschs.
Im Zuge der Agrar-Revolution geht es um das gemeinsame Bewirtschaften von Flächen.
Im Mittelalter entwickelt sich in Europa das Feudalsystem. Auch hier werden manche Felder aber noch von den Dorfbewohnern gemeinsam verwaltet.
Ab dem 16. Jahrhundert fanden, am stärksten in England, die Enclosures (auf deutsch Einhegungen) statt. Das heißt, dass Felder zur effizienteren Bewirtschaftung von den Besitzern zusammengelegt und umzäunt wurden.
Besonders im 19. Jahrhundert, mit dem Aufkommen der Industrialisierung, nahm diese Entwicklung immer stärker zu. Die landwirtschaftlichen Commons wurden dadurch weitgehend zerstört.
Im industriellen Kapitalismus, als die Arbeiter kaum Rechte hatten, und es auch um das bloße Überleben ging, entwickelte sich ein sozialer Commons Dieser bestand darin, dass sich die Arbeiter gegenseitig halfen und sich gegenseitig versicherten. Aus dieser Bewegung entstand dann der Sozialstaat. Der Staat übernahm also Aufgaben, die die Menschen zuvor füreinander geleistet hatten.
Man könnte daher sagen, dass im Kapitalismus die natürlichen Commons-Ressourcen privatisiert und die sozialen Commons verstaatlicht wurden.
In der Moderne waren sich viele Menschen der Bedeutung von Commons gar nicht mehr bewusst.
Mit dem Internet, dem World Wide Web und weiteren digitalen Techniken erschlossen sich dann neue Möglichkeiten. Mit Peer Production, Open Source Software, sowie den Creative Commons Lizenzen, enstand eine neue Inkarnation der Commons. Und damit ist die Entwicklung noch nicht abgeschlossen...
Warum Commons nicht in ein Links-Rechts-Schema passen
Mit seinem Streifzug durch die Geschichte zeigt Bauwens, wie vielfältig die Commons sein können, und warum ihnen in der heutigen Zeit eine starke Rolle zukommen sollte. Nebenbei ergibt sich für mich auch, dass sie jenseits von linker oder rechter Ideologie liegen. Hierzu eine kurze Zwischenbetrachtung von mir:
Weil es um kollektives Handeln geht, und auch wegen des Namens („hört sich an wie Kommunismus“, meinte meine Mutter), entsteht leicht der Eindruck, es handele sich um ein besonders linksgerichtetes Phänomen.
Eine gut eingespielte Fußballmannschaft agiert auch als Kollektiv. Der Verein verwaltet vielleicht ein Clubhaus. Wohl kaum jemand würde deswegen den Verein als links bezeichnen.
Freilich sind die Mitglieder heutiger Commons-Bewegungen vorwiegend „progressiv“, zuweilen auf eine rigide Weise. Bauwens hat damit schon eine leidvolle Erfahrung gemacht. Aber Commons als soziales System sind es nicht. Dafür spricht allein schon die Tatsache, dass es sie viel länger gibt als die politische Links-Rechts-Einteilung.
Eine starke Rolle für die Commons
Wie steht es um die Commons heute? Das werde ich in weiteren Artikeln noch versuchen zu beleuchten...
Michel Bauwens hat in seinen Artikeln noch Einiges dazu sagen. Inbesondere beführwortet er das Kosmo-Lokale (Cosmo-Local). Was leicht ist (Wissen) wird geteilt, was Gewicht hat (etwa landwirtschaftliche und andere Produktion), wird an lokale Gegebenheiten angepasst und vor Ort bewerkstelligt.
Und das Zusammenspiel von Digitalem und Materiellem verspricht weitere Möglichkeiten.
In jedem Fall haben die Commons eine ausgleichende, regenerierende Kraft, die wir aufgrund der heutigen vielen Kriesen gar nicht ungenützt lassen können, ganz unabhängig von unserer sozialer Ebene - das gilt auch für die Superreichen.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-13 07:01:18Bitcoin Magazine
Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on EverythingCoinbase is launching its first-ever branded credit card in partnership with American Express, set to roll out this fall. Called the Coinbase One Card, it will be available only to U.S. members of Coinbase One, the platform’s monthly subscription service. The card will offer 2% to 4% back in Bitcoin on everyday purchases, along with access to American Express perks.
JUST IN: Coinbase launches credit card allowing users to earn up to 4% bitcoin back on every purchase
pic.twitter.com/d6pdNZV4pi
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 12, 2025
This is a first-of-its-kind product for Coinbase, which previously only offered a prepaid debit card with Visa in 2020.
“We see real potential in the combination of Coinbase and crypto with the powerful backing of American Express, and what the card offers is an excellent mix of what customers are looking for right now,” said Will Stredwick, head of American Express global network services, during the Coinbase State of Crypto Summit in New York.
The card is part of a larger push by Coinbase to expand its subscription-based services. Coinbase One costs $29.99/month and includes zero trading fees, higher staking rewards, and customer support perks. The company also announced a cheaper version—Coinbase Basic—for $4.99/month or $49.99/year, which includes fewer features.
Coinbase’s subscription business is growing fast. It brought in $698.1 million in Q1 2025, compared to $1.26 billion in trading revenue. According to William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey, this kind of recurring revenue is a big reason why long-term investors are sticking with the stock.
Launched in 2023, Coinbase One now has over a million members. The company has been steadily growing its ecosystem with products like its Base developer platform and a self-custody wallet.
The company has long positioned Bitcoin at the center of its strategy—offering BTC custody services to institutions, supporting Bitcoin ETFs, integrating Bitcoin rewards into its products, and actively advocating for Bitcoin-friendly regulation in Washington. Coinbase also supports Bitcoin development directly through funding grants and engineering support. As the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the U.S., Coinbase continues to frame Bitcoin not just as an asset, but as the foundation of its long-term vision.
This post Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on Everything first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.
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@ 73868430:0ec4fe27
2025-06-13 06:36:42皇居 Imperial Palace
巽櫓(桜田二重櫓) Sakurada Tatsumi Yagura
二重橋 Nijubashi Bridge
靖國神社 Yasukuni Jinja
遊就館 Yushukan
上野動物園 Ueno Zoological Garden
上野動物園不忍池 Ueno Zoological Garden Shinobazuno Pond
上野東照宮五重塔 Ueno Toshogu Shrine Five Story Pagoda
築地活鮮市場,御徒町店 Tsukiji Kassen Ichiba, Okachimachi
鉄道博物館 The Railway Museum
TOHAKU茶館 (応挙館) Tohaku Chakan
新大久保駅 Shin-Ōkubo
シンボルプロムナード公園 Symbol Promenade Park
セントラル広場 Central Square
日本科学未来館 The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation Japan (Miraikan)
箱根町 Hakone
芦ノ湖 Lake Ashi
元箱根 Motohakone
彫刻の森駅 Chokokunomori
三の鳥居,箱根神社 The Third Torii of Hakone Shrine
小田原城 Odawara Castle
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@ df478568:2a951e67
2025-06-12 16:16:11Marty Bent Vibe coded the opportunity cost app. I have not tried it yet, but love the concept. I have been into bitcoin since 2014, but I spent more generational wealth than I would care to admit back then. I've heard stories of fortunes blown on cocaine in the 1980's. I could write a story about spending a fortune on Diet Mt. Dew. I don't drink Diet Mt. Dew anymore. This one time, I spent about a million sats for a light beer at a baseball game. I wouldn't say I had a drinking problem, a million sats was only five bucks at the time. I didn't know that much bitcoin would be worth over a thousand bucks eleven years later.
I don't drink beer anymore. Bitcoin tends to do that to you.
We can afford chairs now. To be honest, we need a couch. The last couch I bought was in 2017 and it cost about a whole bitcoin. That couch is buried in a landfill today. My wife loves furniture, but even she's hesitant to spend sats on a couch now. We know we need a couch, but we don't want to spend sats on something we will need to replace before the next halving.
Many of us who have been in bitcoin for more than a decade have some regrets. I know I do, but we need to live our lives. I would never say you should sit on the floor, but I encourage to you to think about time. How long will this thing I need to buy last? If you think you can give a 3 million sat couch to your grandchildren, spend three million sats on the couch. If your five year plan for the couch is to help fill a landfill, maybe you only need to buy a used couch at a thrift store. This is not investment advice of course. How can it be? I don't know what kind of couch hazards you have in your house. I have trouble finding a couch of my own, but it's how I think about making bigger purchases. How many years of your retirement will that watch, car, house or whatever cost you from your stack? You can only determine that for yourself. I think the opportunity cost app will help you keep track of your decision.
This app was made by someone who once spent a whole bitcoin on a heater. I can't speak for Marty, but I believe the opportunity cost app will help you learn from my mistakes.
For more information, check out:
https://www.opportunitycost.app/
Check out the code on GitHub.
Using The Opportunity Cost App
The app is pretty straight forward. It is only available on Chrome for now so I installed it on the Chromium browser. I looked at the settings, but kept them default.
Then I searched for a Rolex in Duck Duck Go.
The default is bitcoin, but there is a sat calculator in the corner too, I have always wanted a Rolex Milgauss with a green sapphire so I looked it up on eBay. It's about 8 million sats. That's too rich for my blood, but I might be willing to part with a million sats for that watch. I'll definitely pick it up for 500,000 sats. I can wait. Bitcoin is the best clock in the world. I wouldn't go so far as to call this Rolex a shitcoin, but bitcoin is a better clock than any watch in my opinion--Even when compared to my favorite watch.
Video From Opportunity Cost Website
How will you use the Opportunity Cost browser extension?
☮️ npub1marc26z8nh3xkj5rcx7ufkatvx6ueqhp5vfw9v5teq26z254renshtf3g0
https://zapthisblog.com/calculate-your-opportunity-cost-while-shopping/
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@ 79c79f2d:7dbd8c3f
2025-06-12 16:02:47HVAC services in Tucson cover everything from air conditioning repairs to furnace installations, designed specifically for the region’s unique desert climate. With temperatures ranging from freezing winters to blazing summers, efficient heating and cooling systems are vital. Tucson HVAC contractors offer expert installation, maintenance, and emergency repairs to keep your system running smoothly. They provide energy-saving solutions and work with top brands to ensure comfort and reliability. Whether it’s residential or commercial service, Tucson HVAC professionals are known for their fast response, honest pricing, and technical expertise.
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@ d5ca7093:549ad1ec
2025-06-13 06:25:59I recently decided to create my own personal brand website—something simple with a clean landing page, contact info, links to my work, and a blog. The idea was straightforward: when you meet people in real life or connect online, you need a reliable, consistent place they can go to learn more about you. Social media platforms aren’t built for that—they’re noisy, crowded, and ultimately not under your control.
As we shift into a decentralized digital future, owning your own website is one of the easiest and most powerful moves you can make. Social media pages are just websites owned by someone else. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube—they all serve specific functions, but there’s nothing stopping you from creating your own platform. If you make videos, host a video gallery. If you write, post your own blog. You don’t need to depend on Twitter or Medium to get your thoughts out. Open-source tools and modern frameworks make it easier than ever to replicate what these big platforms do—on your terms.
This shift is already visible with platforms like Nostr and Mastodon, which promote the idea of identity and communication without central ownership. Your website can be a central node in that ecosystem. Unlike a profile on a platform that can vanish overnight, your domain name is portable and permanent. You can point it anywhere—your own server, a decentralized network, or a new platform that respects user autonomy. That kind of control is only possible when you own your digital real estate.
In fact, I believe domain names are the next evolution of usernames. They’re already being used that way on services like BlueSky and Mastodon. A domain name isn’t just a web address—it’s a digital identity. It can be your contact card, your blog, your portfolio, and even your inbox. In a decentralized world, owning a domain is like planting a flag. It says: this is mine.
The deeper truth is that these centralized platforms are incentivized to keep you inside their ecosystem. They harvest your data, limit your reach unless you pay, and can suspend or ban your account without warning. When you build on their land, you play by their rules. When you build on your own land—your website—you make the rules. You decide what gets seen, what gets featured, and what data gets collected.
And let’s talk discoverability. While social media relies on algorithms and trends to push your content, your website can be indexed and searched globally on your terms. SEO tools, schema markup, and open metadata standards let you control how your content appears across the web. Add analytics, email capture, or even push notifications, and you’ve created a full digital marketing system that doesn’t depend on anyone else’s infrastructure.
For developers and technical creators, building a personal site also becomes a live demo of your skillset. It’s an interactive resume, a sandbox for new technologies, and a launchpad for projects. Whether you’re using React, Astro, Hugo, or GhostCMS, the tools you choose say as much about you as the content you publish. And because it’s all yours, you’re free to experiment without limitation.
Ultimately, your website is an investment in future-proofing your digital identity. As decentralized protocols evolve, your personal site can plug into that infrastructure—whether it’s connecting wallets, supporting decentralized comments, or syndicating content to multiple platforms. Owning your site today means you’ll be ready for the web of tomorrow.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-13 07:01:07Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin Will Replace Gold And Go To $1,000,000, Says Galaxy Digital CEO Mike NovogratzToday, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz told CNBC that Bitcoin is on a path to replace gold and could eventually reach a value of $1,000,000.
JUST IN:
Galaxy Digital CEO told CNBC that Bitcoin will replace gold and go to $1,000,000
pic.twitter.com/Tf831LBt1h
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 12, 2025
“Bitcoin has become a macro asset,” said Novogratz. “And some of the great things is most people have it on their screens next to gold and silver and the S&P. And you think back ten years ago when people thought we were crazy. And now it’s an institutionalized macro asset… It’s just becoming institutionalized.”
He emphasized that Bitcoin is no longer a fringe investment but part of the mainstream financial landscape. He pointed out that its volatility is now seen as normal compared to traditional assets.
“We are in a dollar bear market. For the last 15 years, American exceptionalism was the story. Europeans were widely overweight and Asians widely overweight the US stock and we have an administration that wants a weaker dollar. They are pretty clear about it,” he said. “Even in the way Trump negotiates. And you can argue if it’s successful or not successful, but by telling Canada they want to be the 51st state, and telling people that they come here to kiss his rear end, it doesn’t engender people to say, ‘Oh, I want to buy more dollars.’”
According to Novogratz, this global shift is pushing investors toward assets outside the dollar, including Bitcoin.
“I think most macro funds are having a great year,” he stated. “They’re short the dollar, they’re long the euro, they’re long the yen, they’re long Aussie, they’re long a basket of currencies. Well, Bitcoin, gold, silver, platinum, they all fall into that same category as something that’s not the dollar.”
He also pointed to Bitcoin’s fixed supply as a key factor behind its growing value.
“There is no more Bitcoin,” he said. “What’s unique about Bitcoin as an asset is it was created with 21 million coins total. Period. End of story. There’ll never be more than that. But not all of those have been mined, is my point. Not most of them. Lots of them have been lost. There have been more Bitcoins lost than will be mined for the rest of eternity.”
Novogratz believes the wave of institutional involvement, including firms like BlackRock, is cementing Bitcoin’s role as a savings asset.
“The bull case becomes that over time… gold slowly gets replaced by Bitcoin. And so if you look at gold’s market cap and Bitcoin market cap, Bitcoin has a long way to go. Right? 10x. And so that [is] $1,000,000 a Bitcoin just to be where gold is.”
This post Bitcoin Will Replace Gold And Go To $1,000,000, Says Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.
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@ 69eea734:4ae31ae6
2025-06-12 15:25:09Vor ein paar Tagen stieß ich auf einen faszinierenden Artikel von Michel Bauwens, Mitbegründer der P2PFoundation, mit Links zu weiteren Texten – zum Beispiel über den Puls der Commons –, die ich ebenfalls äußerst interessant fand.
Der Artikel zeigt unter anderem gut, wie unterschiedlich Commons aussehen können, so dass ich ihn heute als Ausgangspunkt nehmen möchte, um ein paar Puzzle-Steine in mein entstehendes Bild der Commons einzufügen.
Das Grundmuster menschlichen Zusammenlebens?
Bauwens betrachtet die Commons aus historischer Sicht, wie sie sich in verschiedenen Zeiten unterschiedlich manifestieren, manchmal gar nahezu verschwinden und heute in wiederum veränderter Form neu entstehen – und plädiert dafür, dass sie noch weit stärker werden sollten.
Er legt zunächst dar, was die Commons sind und was nicht. (zum Beispiel nichts, was vom Staat verwaltet wird, wie ein öffentlicher Park.) Ausschlaggebend ist, dass eine Ressource von ihren Herstellern oder Benutzern selbst betreut wird. Commons entstehen dabei durch Beziehungen. Sie sind etwas spezifisch Menschliches und eine Wahl, die „fast immer“ zur Verfügung steht, so Bauwens. Eine die Geschichte überdauernde menschliche Praxis.
Er nennt drei verschiedene geschichtlichen Entwicklungen:
- Eine lineare - Wie präsentiert sich der Commons über verschiedene, komplexer werdende, Phasen der Menschheitsgeschichte hinweg?
- Eine hin und her schwingendende: In der Geschichte einer Zivilisation werden die Commons in Zeiten von Überfluss -- und daraus resultierender Verschwendung uns steigender Ressourcen-Extraktion -- unterdrückt, konstitutieren sich aber dann als Gegenbewegung wieder neu.
- Eine stufenweise: Die heutigen, mit neuen Möglichkeiten ausgestatteten Formen der Commons könnten in der nächsten Phase unserer Zivilisation (oder nach unserer Zivilisation) eine entscheidende Rolle spielen.
Wenn man verschiedene Arten des Austausches betrachtet (Bauwens beruft sich hierbei auf Alan Fiske), kann man geschichtlich analysieren, welche zu verschiedenen Zeiten vorrangig waren (dies tat Kojin Karatani in The Structure of World History von 2014).
Die vier Muster sind:
- Gemeinschaftliche Beteiligung, Commons (die Gemeinschaft baut mir ein Haus, und ich helfe später bei einem anderen Hausbau mit; ein Beispiel aus neuerer Zeit ist die Entwicklung von Linux)
- Wechselseitiger Austausch (Geschenkökonomie – es wird eine etwa gleichwertige Leistung zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt erwartet)
- Hierarchisch bedingte Verteilung, wie im Feudalismus
- Marktwirtschaft (es gibt ein allgemeines Zahlungsmittel mit einem bestimmten Wert)
Bauwens: „Entscheidend ist jedoch, dass die Menschheit ständig bestrebt ist, Modus A wiederherzustellen, denn die Menschen haben eine kulturelle und wahrscheinlich auch allgemeine Vorliebe für ein geselliges Leben in kleinen, vertrauten Gruppen. Aber menschliche Gruppen versuchen, dies auch auf höheren Komplexitätsebenen zu tun, in einem ständigen Versuch, die extraktive Logik der Zivilisation zu mäßigen.“ (Katarani bezeichnet eine Verbindung von Commoning und Geschenkökonomie in stammesorientierten Kulturen als Modus A)
Commons durch die Zeiten - ein kurzer Abriss
In der ursprünglichsten Form der Commons in Jäger- und Sammler-Gemeinschaften, werden Nahrung und sonstige Ressourcen mit der ganzen Gemeinschaft geteilt - dies ist zumindest die vorherrschende Form des Austauschs.
Im Zuge der Agrar-Revolution geht es um das gemeinsame Bewirtschaften von Flächen.
Im Mittelalter entwickelt sich in Europa das Feudalsystem. Auch hier werden manche Felder aber noch von den Dorfbewohnern gemeinsam verwaltet.
Ab dem 16. Jahrhundert fanden, am stärksten in England, die Enclosures (auf deutsch Einhegungen) statt. Das heißt, dass Felder zur effizienteren Bewirtschaftung von den Besitzern zusammengelegt und umzäunt wurden.
Besonders im 19. Jahrhundert, mit dem Aufkommen der Industrialisierung, nahm diese Entwicklung immer stärker zu. Die landwirtschaftlichen Commons wurden dadurch weitgehend zerstört.
Im industriellen Kapitalismus, als die Arbeiter kaum Rechte hatten, und es auch um das bloße Überleben ging, entwickelte sich ein sozialer Commons Dieser bestand darin, dass sich die Arbeiter gegenseitig halfen und sich gegenseitig versicherten. Aus dieser Bewegung entstand dann der Sozialstaat. Der Staat übernahm also Aufgaben, die die Menschen zuvor füreinander geleistet hatten.
Man könnte daher sagen, dass im Kapitalismus die natürlichen Commons-Ressourcen privatisiert und die sozialen Commons verstaatlicht wurden.
In der Moderne waren sich viele Menschen der Bedeutung von Commons gar nicht mehr bewusst.
Mit dem Internet, dem World Wide Web und weiteren digitalen Techniken erschlossen sich dann neue Möglichkeiten. Mit Peer Production, Open Source Software, sowie den Creative Commons Lizenzen, enstand eine neue Inkarnation der Commons. Und damit ist die Entwicklung noch nicht abgeschlossen...
Warum Commons nicht in ein Links-Rechts-Schema passen
Mit seinem Streifzug durch die Geschichte zeigt Bauwens, wie vielfältig die Commons sein können, und warum ihnen in der heutigen Zeit eine starke Rolle zukommen sollte. Nebenbei ergibt sich für mich auch, dass sie jenseits von linker oder rechter Ideologie liegen. Hierzu eine kurze Zwischenbetrachtung von mir:
Weil es um kollektives Handeln geht, und auch wegen des Namens („hört sich an wie Kommunismus“, meinte meine Mutter), entsteht leicht der Eindruck, es handele sich um ein besonders linksgerichtetes Phänomen.
Eine gut eingespielte Fußballmannschaft agiert auch als Kollektiv. Der Verein verwaltet vielleicht ein Clubhaus. Wohl kaum jemand würde deswegen den Verein als links bezeichnen.
Freilich sind die Mitglieder heutiger Commons-Bewegungen vorwiegend „progressiv“, zuweilen auf eine rigide Weise. Bauwens hat damit schon eine leidvolle Erfahrung gemacht. Aber Commons als soziales System sind es nicht. Dafür spricht allein schon die Tatsache, dass es sie viel länger gibt als die politische Links-Rechts-Einteilung.
Eine starke Rolle für die Commons
Wie steht es um die Commons heute? Das werde ich in weiteren Artikeln noch versuchen zu beleuchten.
Mir kommt gerade der Gedanke in den Sinn: Sie wachsen überall.
Wie oben erwähnt, enstand mit zunehmenden digitalen Möglichkeiten eine neue Form der Commons. Leider gab es hier auch moderne Formen der Einhegungen. Github wurde von Microsoft übernommen, der Sardex (alternatives lokales Wirtschaftsnetzwerk) anscheinend von einer Investment-Firma. AWS (Amazon Web Services) verleibt sich gerne woanders entwickelte Projekte ein und bietet sie als zahlungspflichtige Services an. Krypto wurde -- weitgehend -- "gekapert".
Aber zum einen gibt es nicht nur den digital basierten Commons, es entsteht schon viel auf anderer Ebene, und zum anderen sind Commoners erfinderische Menschen...
Michel Bauwens hat in seinen Artikeln im Übrigen noch mehr zu den heutigen Commons zu sagen. Inbesondere beführwortet er das Kosmo-Lokale (Cosmo-Local). Was leicht ist (Wissen) wird geteilt, was Gewicht hat (etwa landwirtschaftliche und andere Produktion), wird an lokale Gegebenheiten angepasst und vor Ort bewerkstelligt.
Und das Zusammenspiel von Digitalem und Materiellem verspricht weitere Möglichkeiten.
In jedem Fall haben die Commons eine ausgleichende, regenerierende Kraft, die wir aufgrund der heutigen vielen Kriesen gar nicht ungenützt lassen können, ganz unabhängig von unserer sozialer Ebene - das gilt auch für die Superreichen.
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@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3
2025-06-11 01:56:20Let's hear those ~HealthAndFitness triumphs and challenges
My triumphs - OMAD - Cold shower
My challenges - need to be more active and get outside more
200 sats to post!!! Eat more key lime pie @realBitcoinDog
https://stacker.news/items/1003145
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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3
2025-06-13 06:01:54Good morning (good night?)! The No Bullshit Bitcoin news feed is now available on Moody's Dashboard! A huge shoutout to sir Clark Moody for integrating our feed.
Headlines
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) wants to contain 'crypto' risks. A report titled "Cryptocurrencies and Decentralised Finance: Functions and Financial Stability Implications" calls for expanding research into "how new forms of central bank money, capital controls, and taxation policies can counter the risks of widespread crypto adoption while still fostering technological innovation."
- "Global Implications of Scam Centres, Underground Banking, and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia." According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, criminal organizations from East and Southeast Asia are swiftly extending their global reach. These groups are moving beyond traditional scams and trafficking, creating sophisticated online networks that include unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges, encrypted communication platforms, and stablecoins, fueling a massive fraud economy on an industrial scale.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Use the tools
- Bitcoin Safe v1.2.3 expands QR SignMessage compatibility for all QR-UR-compatible hardware signers (SpecterDIY, KeyStone, Passport, Jade; already supported COLDCARD Q). It also adds the ability to import wallets via QR, ensuring compatibility with Keystone's latest firmware (2.0.6), alongside other improvements.
- Minibits v0.2.2-beta, an ecash wallet for Android devices, packages many changes to align the project with the planned iOS app release. New features and improvements include the ability to lock ecash to a receiver's pubkey, faster confirmations of ecash minting and payments thanks to WebSockets, UI-related fixes, and more.
- Zeus v0.11.0-alpha1 introduces Cashu wallets tied to embedded LND wallets. Navigate to Settings > Ecash to enable it. Other wallet types can still sweep funds from Cashu tokens. Zeus Pay now supports Cashu address types in Zaplocker, Cashu, and NWC modes.
- LNDg v1.10.0, an advanced web interface designed for analyzing Lightning Network Daemon (LND) data and automating node management tasks, introduces performance improvements, adds a new metrics page for unprofitable and stuck channels, and displays warnings for batch openings. The Profit and Loss Chart has been updated to include on-chain costs. Advanced settings have been added for users who would like their channel database size to be read remotely (the default remains local). Additionally, the AutoFees tool now uses aggregated pubkey metrics for multiple channels with the same peer.
- Nunchuk Desktop v1.9.45 release brings the latest bug fixes and improvements.
- Blockstream Green iOS v4.1.8 has renamed L-BTC to LBTC, and improves translations of notifications, login time, and background payments.
- Blockstream Green Android v4.1.8 has added language preference in App Settings and enables an Android data backup option for disaster recovery. Additionally, it fixes issues with Jade entry point PIN timeout and Trezor passphrase input.
- Torq v2.2.2, an advanced Lightning node management software designed to handle large nodes with over 1000 channels, fixes bugs that caused channel balance to not be updated in some cases and channel "peer total local balance" not getting updated.
- Stack Wallet v2.1.12, a multicoin wallet by Cypher Stack, fixes an issue with Xelis introduced in the latest release for Windows.
- ESP-Miner-NerdQAxePlus v1.0.29.1, a forked version from the NerdAxe miner that was modified for use on the NerdQAxe+, is now available.
- Zark enables sending sats to an npub using Bark.
- Erk is a novel variation of the Ark protocol that completely removes the need for user interactivity in rounds, addressing one of Ark's key limitations: the requirement for users to come online before their VTXOs expire.
- Aegis v0.1.1 is now available. It is a Nostr event signer app for iOS devices.
- Nostash is a NIP-07 Nostr signing extension for Safari. It is a fork of Nostore and is maintained by Terry Yiu. Available on iOS TestFlight.
- Amber v3.2.8, a Nostr event signer for Android, delivers the latest fixes and improvements.
- Nostur v1.20.0, a Nostr client for iOS, adds
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-12 15:02:58The 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.
If you have never used lightning before, use this guide to get started on your phone.
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ 8668cb57:42a19859
2025-06-10 17:38:45Are Islands Choosing for Wealth Or Poverty in the 21st Century?
You have 57 official islands according to the United Nations. But there are thousands of islands in the world. What does Bitcoin and Lighting mean for them? Can it help them escape poverty and become wealthy?
Wealth
First of all: Wealth: what does it mean to be wealthy as an island? It is not only about the number of fiat currency you have in your pockets. Not about the digits you have on your bank account. And not only about the number of sats or Bitcoins you have in your self custodian wallet.\ Wealth means:
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You are healthy
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Your mind is free
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Your body is in shape
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Your relationships are bringing you join
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You are using your talents and your gifts to the max
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And you have options, you can do what you want with your time.
Healthy Islands
So for an island, let's take Curacao as an example, of 160.000 people, it means that there is a potential for everybody to reach that status, that next level in their lives called #wealth.
That is the "dream" goal I'm chasing with my Island Wealth show. Away from poverty. Into more possibilities. Using your skills in this dynamic world.\ \ Current state of Island Wealth
If we take the Caribbean as an example, here you see the official list of islands in the Caribbean: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Caribbean_islands>
There are some indicators to check how wealthy - in terms of income - these Caribbean islands are.\ \ GDP per Capita: this is the total income of the island per year divided by the population. You will get an average that you can compare with your own country. If you take this globally, Luxembourg is the wealthiest country in the world.\ \ Gini Coefficient: this gives you a curve and a value that shows you how the distribution of wealth is on an island.
Net worth: If you go on an individual level, a family level, a business level you can take the assets minus the liabilities and calculate the difference as Net worth. You can also take this figure and compare it to the net worth of individuals in the world.
Bitcoin
Now lets introduce Bitcoin for these islands. How can #Bitcoin help these islands become wealthier?\ \ Problems of Islands
One of the most important problems the islands have is that they are very dependent on #tourism. Yes, I have been studying the economies of islands for a long time. I've been advising small island's governments in the Caribbean, private investors, high earning professionals on how they can build their wealth. And I always hear: we need to diversify more. What does that mean?\ \ All their sales and revenues are coming from one single sector: tourism. And they don't like that. Imagine an island: 500.000 tourists per year coming from USA and Canada. And every day cruise ships at their mega cruise piers with a total of 1 million cruise tourists per year. The tourists stay for 7 days and the cruise tourists stay for 1 day.\ \ That is the typical Caribbean island at its peak. If anything happens to that flow of cruise and stayover tourists ->Poverty. If there is a hurricane ->Poverty. If there are no flights -> Poverty. If there is political unrest and the tourists cannot come ->Poverty. So wealth is very concentrated when you are living on an island.\ \ Bitcoin and Lightning
While most Island's policy makers, citizens, even sometimes high paid individuals do not see Bitcoin, I see a 2 trillion decentralized global economy. If you are fully dependent on tourism, and you want to diversify away from tourism, lets consider Bitcoin and Lightning.\ \ Small businesses
Lets imagine your small businesses that operate online, like a consultant, online trainer/coach, or anybody selling snacks. Now working in the informal sector and not paying any taxes to your small island's government. They all can instantly:
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Download a #Blink or #Aqua wallet and start receiving #SATS
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Get a Wordpress or Shopify website, and start receiving SATS from all over the world, instantly.
Think about that for a moment and let it sink in. A two trillion USD economy globally. 21 million Bitcoins max ever. And everybody can participate right now. Without having to install servers, host software. I would seriously consider this new decentralize payment and savings technology.
How can you diversify away from tourism with Bitcoin and Lighting?
Any business can accept Bitcoin. Imagine you do not have a bank account and you are working in the informal sector. As a gardener, as a technician, electrician. A pool boy, a musician. You now have a wallet to accept hard money instantly.\ \ Agriculture
You could be paying for seeds to plan. With your lightning wallet online.\ \ Retail
You could be accepting Lighting payments if you are a store that sells glasses, food, snacks, clothing, hand crafted products, paintings.
Construction
You could be importing material from the #BRICS+ nations, China as first one, Brazil (close to the Caribbean) and paying with lightning.\ \ Financial Services (local and international)
You could be helping foreign and local other businesses with their online books, they annual reports, their administration, helping them relocate to the Caribbean, and receiving payments with Lighting.\ \ I can go on and on\ \ Decentralized Peer to Peer software development\ I have written about this on previous posts. You could be building peer to peer software based on new software stacks like pear runtime, holepunch technology, nostr. So if you are a local software developer and you know javascript, html and css you now can be paid with Lighting and deliver your knowledge and services to the world. I'm also exploring this myself.\ \ AI and Data Science\ If you are a Data Scientist and you know how to automate stuff with #Python, you know how to use #AI, like me, you could be creating online software and experiences to create Digital Assets that work 24*7*365 days: https://bit.ly/python-ai-automation.
There are endless possibilities to tap into this global decentralized economy
And guess what: we are so early. There is less than 1% of the people of the world who has used Bitcoin and Lighting.\ \ Let's go islands\ So lets do it. Lets go islands. You see that diamond above? It just to start your imagination. You see that man with the open mouth above?That is just to show you how amazed and surprised I'm with the potential of decentralization, self custody and the potential to be self sovereign.\ \ Let me know your thoughts\ This article is only on Nostr and Keet and decentralized platform. I'm moving my attention more and more to decentralization. So I want to hear your thoughts. Let me know if you have any comments, questions or ideas how to create more wealth.\ \ And stay tuned to my episodes where I will host the Island Wealth Show #IslandWealth.\ \ Runy\ Host Island Wealth
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@ b6dcdddf:dfee5ee7
2025-06-10 14:39:05Bitcoiners around the world are helping to build a safe, permanent home for 50+ orphans in Bugiri, Uganda 🇺🇬—complete with dorms, classrooms, gardens, and Bitcoin education.
Project by @orphansofuganda
https://geyser.fund/project/buildingabitcoinfundedorphanagehomeinuganda
https://stacker.news/items/1002532
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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7
2025-06-13 06:01:13Paris, 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/pressHow Flash Enables Interoperable, Self-Custodial Bitcoin Commerce
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@ 69eea734:4ae31ae6
2025-06-12 14:43:03Vor ein paar Tagen stieß ich auf einen faszinierenden Artikel von Michel Bauwens, Mitbegründer der P2PFoundation, mit Links zu weiteren Texten – zum Beispiel über den Puls der Commons –, die ich ebenfalls äußerst interessant fand.
Der Artikel zeigt unter anderem gut, wie unterschiedlich Commons aussehen können, so dass ich ihn heute als Ausgangspunkt nehmen möchte, um ein paar Puzzle-Steine in mein entstehendes Bild der Commons einzufügen.
Das Grundmuster menschlichen Zusammenlebens?
Bauwens betrachtet die Commons aus historischer Sicht, wie sie sich in verschiedenen Zeiten unterschiedlich manifestieren, manchmal gar nahezu verschwinden und heute in wiederum veränderter Form neu entstehen – und warum sie noch weit stärker werden sollten.
Er legt zunächst dar, was die Commons sind und was nicht. (zum Beispiel nichts, was vom Staat verwaltet wird, wie ein öffentlicher Park) Ausschlaggebend ist, dass eine Ressource von ihren Herstellern oder Benutzern selbst betreut wird. Commons entstehen dabei durch Beziehungen. Sie sind etwas spezifisch Menschliches und eine Wahl, die „fast immer“ zur Verfügung steht, so Bauwens. Eine die Geschichte überdauernde menschliche Praxis.
Er nennt drei verschiedene geschichtlichen Entwicklungen:
- Eine lineare - Wie präsentiert sich der Commons über verschiedene, komplexer werdende, Phasen der Menschheitsgeschichte hinweg?
- Eine hin und her schwingendende: In der Geschichte einer Zivilisation werden die Commons in Zeiten von Überfluss -- und daraus resultierender Verschwendung uns steigender Ressourcen-Extraktion -- unterdrückt, konstitutieren sich aber dann als Gegenbewegung wieder neu.
- Eine stufenweise: Die heutigen, mit neuen Möglichkeiten ausgestatteten Formen der Commons könnten in der nächsten Phase unserer Zivilisation (oder nach unserer Zivilisation) eine entscheidende Rolle spielen.
Wenn man verschiedene Arten des Austausches betrachtet (Bauwens beruft sich hier auf Alan Fiske), kann man geschichtlich analysieren, welche dieser Muster zu verschiedenen Zeiten vorrangig waren (dies tat Kojin Karatani in The Structure of World History von 2014).
Die vier Muster sind:
- Gemeinschaftliche Beteiligung, Commons (die Gemeinschaft baut mir ein Haus, und ich helfe später bei einem anderen Hausbau mit; ein Beispiel aus neuerer Zeit ist die Entwicklung von Linux)
- Wechselseitiger Austausch (Geschenkökonomie – es wird eine etwa gleichwertige Leistung zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt erwartet)
- Hierarchisch bedingte Verteilung, wie im Feudalismus
- Marktwirtschaft: Es gibt ein allgemeines Zahlungsmittel mit einem bestimmten Wert.
Bauwens: „Entscheidend ist jedoch, dass die Menschheit ständig bestrebt ist, Modus A wiederherzustellen, denn die Menschen haben eine kulturelle und wahrscheinlich auch allgemeine Vorliebe für ein geselliges Leben in kleinen, vertrauten Gruppen. Aber menschliche Gruppen versuchen, dies auf jeweils höheren Komplexitätsebenen zu tun, in einem ständigen Versuch, die extraktive Logik der Zivilisation zu mäßigen.“ (Katarani bezeichnet eine Verbindung von Commoning und Geschenkökonomie in stammesorientierten Kulturen als Modus A)
Commons durch die Zeiten - ein kurzer Abriss
In der ursprünglichsten Form der Commons in Jäger- und Sammler-Gemeinschaften, werden Nahrung und sonstige Ressourcen mit der ganzen Gemeinschaft geteilt - dies ist zumindest die vorherrschende Form des Austauschs.
Im Zuge der Agrar-Revolution geht es um das gemeinsame Bewirtschaften von Flächen.
Im Mittelalter entwickelt sich in Europa das Feudalsystem. Auch hier werden manche Felder aber noch von den Dorfbewohnern gemeinsam verwaltet.
Ab dem 16. Jahrhundert fanden, am stärksten in England, die Enclosures (auf deutsch Einhegungen) statt. Das heißt, dass Felder zur effizienteren Bewirtschaftung von den Besitzern zusammengelegt und mit Zäunen versehen wurden.
Besonders im 19. Jahrhundert, mit dem Aufkommen der Industrialisierung, nahm diese Entwicklung immer stärker zu. Die landwirtschaftlichen Commons wurden dadurch weitgehend zerstört.
Im industriellen Kapitalismus, als die Arbeiter kaum Rechte hatten, und es auch um das bloße Überleben ging, entwickelte sich ein sozialer Commons Dieser bestand darin, dass sich die Arbeiter gegenseitig halfen und sich gegenseitig versicherten. Aus dieser Bewegung entstand dann der Sozialstaat. Der Staat übernahm also Aufgaben, die die Menschen zuvor füreinander geleistet hatten.
Man könnte daher sagen, dass im Kapitalismus die natürlichen Commons-Ressourcen privatisiert und die sozialen Commons verstaatlicht wurden.
In der Moderne waren sich viele Menschen der Bedeutung von Commons gar nicht mehr bewusst.
Mit dem Internet, dem World Wide Web und weiteren digitalen Techniken erschlossen sich dann neue Möglichkeiten. Mit Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) und Peer Production, sowie den Creative Commons Lizenzen, enstand eine neue Inkarnation der Commons. Und damit ist die Entwicklung noch nicht abgeschlossen...
Warum Commons nicht in ein Links-Rechts-Schema passen
Mit seinem Streifzug durch die Geschichte zeigt Bauwens, wie vielfältig die Commons sein können, und warum ihnen in der heutigen Zeit eine starke Rolle zukommen sollte. Nebenbei ergibt sich für mich auch, dass sie jenseits von linker oder rechter Ideologie liegen. Hierzu eine kurze Zwischenbetrachtung von mir:
Weil es um kollektives Handeln geht, und auch wegen des Namens („hört sich an wie Kommunismus“, meinte meine Mutter), entsteht leicht der Eindruck, es handele sich um ein besonders linksgerichtetes Phänomen.
Eine gut eingespielte Fußballmannschaft agiert auch als Kollektiv. Der Verein verwaltet vielleicht ein Clubhaus. Wohl kaum jemand würde deswegen den Verein als links bezeichnen.
Freilich sind die Mitglieder heutiger Commons-Bewegungen vorwiegend „progressiv“, zuweilen auf eine rigide Weise. Bauwens hat damit schon eine leidvolle Erfahrung gemacht. Aber Commons als soziales System sind es nicht. Dafür spricht allein schon die Tatsache, dass es sie viel länger gibt als die politische Links-Rechts-Einteilung.
Eine starke Rolle für die Commons
Wie steht es um die Commons heute? Das werde ich in weiteren Artikeln noch versuchen zu beleuchten.
Mir kommt gerade der Gedanke in den Sinn: Sie wachsen überall.
Wie oben erwähnt, enstand mit zunehmenden digitalen Möglichkeiten eine neue Form der Commons. Leider gab es hier auch moderne Formen der Einhegungen. Github wurde von Microsoft übernommen, der Sardex (alternatives lokales Wirtschaftsnetzwerk) anscheinend von einer Investment-Firma. AWS (Amazon Web Services) verleibt sich gerne woanders entwickelte Projekte ein und bietet sie als zahlungspflichtige Services an. Krypto wurde -- weitgehend -- "gekapert".
Aber zum einen gibt es nicht nur den digital basierten Commons, es entsteht schon viel auf anderer Ebene, und zum anderen sind Commoners erfinderische Menschen...
Michel Bauwens hat in seinen Artikeln im Übrigen noch mehr zu den heutigen Commons zu sagen. Inbesondere beführwortet er das Kosmo-Lokale (Cosmo-Local). Was leicht ist (Wissen) wird geteilt, was Gewicht hat (etwa landwirtschaftliche und andere Produktion), wird an lokale Gegebenheiten angepasst und vor Ort bewerkstelligt.
Und das Zusammenspiel von Digitalem und Materiellem verspricht weitere Möglichkeiten.
In jedem Fall haben die Commons eine ausgleichende, regenerierende Kraft, die wir aufgrund der heutigen vielen Kriesen gar nicht ungenützt lassen können, ganz unabhängig von unserer sozialer Ebene - das gilt auch für die Superreichen.
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@ 005bc4de:ef11e1a2
2025-06-12 14:36:24After dropping off a relative at the airport, my wife and I found ourselves in an area that was rather new to us and we had the whole afternoon open. So, what to do? We stopped by the local Visitor Center for ideas. The usual shopping and dining routine isn't a big interest to us (though I like to eat!). No, it was time to get outdoors.
So, some local trail maps gave some ideas and off we went. Hiking is nice, and, even though you're huffing it out when you hike, it's relaxing to be outdoors. An aimless amble in nature is the reward itself. But, it's also sometimes nice to have a destination in mind, a goal to reach. The trails we chose had a few waterfalls and three were within our range. Waterfalls are great as destinations: you usually have to hike rugged trails to get to them, but when you do, there's a big payoff. Here's a teaser:
Along the walk to waterfall number one, an interesting shadow caught my eye on the trail. The shadow looked like a wreath on the ground in a nearly perfect circle. With the other leaves, the shadow looked like a large blooming flower. Overhead, the maple branch was filtering out the light just right to make the shadow. I thought it was neat.
Just below that shadow, we came to the stream and saw the falls through the trees.
Here's a closer view of the falls. From where I took the pic, there was a steady roar of water, of course, and, you could feel the cool mist and breeze like natural air conditioning...a multi-sensory experience and yet another payoff for the hike. The young man in the image decided to do a hand stand, because, that's what you do at the base of a waterfall, right?
A second falls was called Triple Falls. I bet you can guess why...
We went to a third falls which was low and wide, but really more of a swimming hole because the pool at the bottom was also wide and deep. It being a warm and sunny day, it was rather crowded with people cooling off. No photo because I didn't want to be the weird person pulling out a camera and taking pictures of people in their swimsuits!
The hike back was a nice, relaxing trail walk that looked like this:
Returning home, my wife agreed we made a good choice for the day.
.hostr
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@ 866e0139:6a9334e5
2025-06-12 13:35:07Autor: Anna Nagel. (Bild: Lukas Karl). Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben. Sie finden alle Texte der Friedenstaube und weitere Texte zum Thema Frieden hier. Die neuesten Pareto-Artikel finden Sie auch in unserem Telegram-Kanal.
Die neuesten Artikel der Friedenstaube gibt es jetzt auch im eigenen Friedenstaube-Telegram-Kanal.
Teil 3 ist der letzte Teil des Essays. Hier geht es zu Teil 1 und Teil 2.
«Der große Jammer mit den Menschen ist, dass sie so genau wissen, was man ihnen schuldet, und so wenig Empfindungen dafür haben, was sie anderen schulden.»
– Franz von Sales
In den ersten beiden Teilen der Reihe «Mitgefühl und Vergebung» ging es darum, Wege zu finden, mit unserem Gegenüber, unserem «Widersacher» oder sogar der Menschheit an sich, weich zu werden, Verständnis zu finden, uns selbst vom Groll zu befreien und Frieden zu schließen. Doch wie ist das eigentlich andersherum?
Denn was bei all den Gedanken über das Verzeihen und Mitfühlen nicht fehlen darf, ist, sich selbst zu vergeben und auch, sich selbst zu entschuldigen. Häufig wissen wir zwar schnell, auf wen wir noch wütend sind, welchen Schmerz wir noch nicht loslassen konnten, – obwohl natürlich auch einige Wunden tiefer verschüttet sind – gleichwohl kann es noch etwas undurchsichtiger werden, wenn wir uns selbst einmal ehrlich fragen, wen wir verletzt haben, wem wir etwas schuldig geblieben sind. Denn das ist die Kehrseite der Medaille: Ich glaube, dass niemand von uns komplett ohne Schuld ist.
Zwar ist es einfacher, im Außen Verantwortliche für alles Mögliche zu finden, wie zum Beispiel das Unrecht in der Welt oder unsere eigenen verletzten Gefühle, da es häufig auch offensichtlicher ist, es lenkt uns aber auch gerne von den eigenen Schattenanteilen ab. Häufig werden wir sogar leider erst mit unseren eigenen Schuldgefühlen konfrontiert, wenn es zu spät ist; beispielsweise wenn es um Trennungen geht – oder wenn jemand Geliebtes stirbt. Erst dann zeigen sich bei den meisten Momente und Gefühle des Bereuens, des Bedauerns, des Wieder-gut-machen-Wollens.
Sehr viele Menschen, die eine Nahtoderfahrung erlebt haben, berichten, dass, als ihnen ihr eigenes Leben im Panoramablick gezeigt wurde, sie alle Situationen aus Sicht der Menschen fühlten, mit denen sie interagiert hatten. Also dass sie spätestens da merkten, in welchen Situationen ihre Worte und ihr Verhalten andere verletzten.
Andererseits gibt es auch Menschen, die von Schuldgefühlen förmlich zerfressen werden. Sie nagen an ihnen und ihrem Gewissen und manche werten sich selbst zutiefst ab, bis hin zum Selbsthass. Hier stellt sich die Frage, wie wir uns selbst helfen können, uns selbst ent-schuldigen können. Oder kann das nur derjenige, demgegenüber wir Schuld empfinden?
DIE FRIEDENSTAUBE FLIEGT AUCH IN IHR POSTFACH!
Hier können Sie die Friedenstaube abonnieren und bekommen die Artikel zugesandt, vorerst für alle kostenfrei, wir starten gänzlich ohne Paywall. (Die Bezahlabos fangen erst zu laufen an, wenn ein Monetarisierungskonzept für die Inhalte steht). Sie wollen der Genossenschaft beitreten oder uns unterstützen? Mehr Infos hier oder am Ende des Textes.
Es tut mir leid
\ Wo wir können, sollten wir uns selbstverständlich entschuldigen und um Vergebung bitten. Nicht nur für uns selbst, sondern auch für den anderen. Wer das schon einmal ehrlich getan hat, weiß, wie schwer das sein kann und wem wiederum schon einmal eine wirklich ernstgemeinte Entschuldigung entgegen gebracht wurde, weiß, wie heilsam und tief berührend sie sein kann.
Viel zu häufig werden Entschuldigungen nämlich nicht ganz so ernst gemeint; wir werfen mit Wortschnipseln um uns, ein kurzes «Sorry» nuscheln wir in den Hemdkragen, drehen uns vielleicht noch dabei weg oder nutzen sie als Floskel, weil es sich «so gehört». Ebenso alltäglich finden wir das berühmte: «Tut mir ja leid, aaaber…» plus Rechtfertigung und möglicherweise sogar Gegenvorwürfen.
Das meine ich nicht, ich meine das ehrliche Entschuldigen. Das reine Schuldeingeständnis, die hundertprozentige Verantwortungsübernahme für das eigene Verhalten – wie oft erlebst du diese? Von anderen sowie von dir selbst. Es gehört nämlich schon eine ganze Portion Mut und innere Größe dazu, sich seiner Fehltritte bewusst zu sein, diese zuzugeben – und zwar vor sich selbst und zudem vor demjenigen, dem man auf den Fuß getreten ist –, ihm tief in die Augen zu schauen und zu sagen: «Es tut mir leid.» Ohne Erwartung, ohne Rechtfertigung. Im tiefen Einverständnis mit allen Konsequenzen.
Es braucht deshalb so viel Mut, weil es schmerzhaft und beängstigend sein kann. Weil wir uns dem anderen hingeben und unsere «Waffen» niederlegen. Es kann sein, dass die andere Person die Entschuldigung nicht annimmt, oder unser Eingeständnis sogar gegen uns verwendet, aber Größe zu haben, bedeutet auch, dies zu akzeptieren und sich dem ungewissen Ausgang zu stellen, die Machtkämpfe sein zu lassen und dem anderen das Zepter in die Hand zu geben.
Eine ehrliche Entschuldigung kommt von Herzen, nämlich, wenn wir gespürt haben, was wir dem anderen angetan oder zugemutet haben. Sie braucht wahres Mitfühlen und Erkennen sowie die Bereitschaft, das eigene Ego beiseite zu schieben. Dies kann zu Frieden führen – je nachdem, was jeder der Beteiligten für sich daraus macht und was vorgefallen war selbstverständlich –, aber derjenige, der sich entwaffnet, wird das Schlachtfeld auch verlassen und sich sich selbst und seinem Verhalten widmen, um in Zukunft von vornherein mitfühlender und achtsamer sein zu können.
Denn wenn ich lerne, mein Gegenüber zu spüren und mit ihm in Verbindung zu gehen, spüre ich am eigenen Leib die Verletzungen und wenn ich bereit bin, die Verantwortung zu übernehmen, gelange ich zu dem Gefühl des Bedauerns, beispielsweise, wenn ich die Konsequenz einer Trennung, tragen muss. Dadurch entsteht in mir ein intrinsisches Bedürfnis, in Zukunft liebevoller und achtsamer mit meinen Mitmenschen umzugehen.
„Es scheint wirklich den Menschen nur eine Hoffnung zu geben: Zwar nicht die Welt und die anderen, aber wenigstens sich selbst einigermaßen ändern und bessern zu können; und auf denen, die das tun, beruht im geheimen das Heil der Welt.“
―Hermann Hesse
Eine wahre Entschuldigung impliziert also die empathische Verbindung mit dem anderen und führt somit zu Selbsterkenntnis, wodurch in der Regel eine persönliche Aufarbeitung und Veränderung des eigenen Verhaltens folgt, während Vorwürfe nach außen hin üblicherweise darauf abzielen, den oder die anderen ändern zu wollen.
Sich selbst vergeben
Was aber passiert, wenn der andere uns nicht vergeben möchte, oder wir denjenigen, demgegenüber wir uns schuldig fühlen nicht erreichen können oder auch, wenn wir nicht einmal wissen, weswegen oder ob, wir uns schuldig fühlen, weil die Gefühle oder Erinnerungen zu weit im Unterbewusstsein vergraben wurden?
In einer sehr fragilen Phase während meines Heilungsprozesses wandte ich mich an «Gott», an das Universum, und fragte verzweifelt: «Vergibst du mir?», und die Antwort war: «Vergibst du dir denn selbst?».
Was für eine Antwort. Was für eine Frage ja viel mehr - und doch auch gleichzeitig so viel Antwort. Warum braucht es einen anderen, um mir meine Schuldgefühle zu nehmen und vor allem, wie kann das gehen? Es sind meine Gefühle, mein Körper, meine Seele, mein Gewissen und wenn ein Anteil in mir sich plagt, ist es vielleicht doch einzig auch meine Aufgabe, ihn zu heilen und zu befreien? Aber kann ich das? Habe ich denn diese Macht? Darf ich das? Oder muss ich es vielleicht sogar? Was wäre, wenn das Universum «Ja» gesagt hätte? Hätte es vielleicht gar nichts an meinen Gefühlen geändert, weil das, was ich selbst glaube und das, was ich selbst von mir halte, vielleicht schwerer wiegt, als das, was ein anderer sagt? Hätte ich ihm überhaupt geglaubt? Letztlich war es ja «nur» meine eigene innere Stimme, die ich vernahm.
Aber ja, ich erkannte, dass, wenn ich die Macht habe, mich zu verurteilen und zu strafen, wohl auch nur ich die Macht habe, gnädig und versöhnlich mit mir zu sein. Und so machte ich mich auf den Weg, herauszufinden, wie ich selbst meine Schuldgefühle auflösen konnte und werde versuchen, im Folgenden die Essenzen daraus zu vermitteln, in der Hoffnung, dass vielleicht jemand etwas daraus für sich mitnehmen kann.
Mir ging es fast mein Leben lang so, dass mir bei jeder kleinsten Kleinigkeit Adrenalin samt Wut auf mich selbst durch den Körper schossen. Nahezu permanent war mein innerer Kritiker parat, mich innerlich niederzumachen für: Einfach alles.
Eines Tages saß ich mit mir da und forschte nach den Ursachen. Ich fragte mich, woher all dieser Selbsthass kam und ich dachte, dass es doch eigentlich nur Sinn ergibt, sich selbst so sehr zu verabscheuen, wenn man der absolut böseste Mensch der Welt sei. Wie viel Schuld und Missetaten müsste ein anderer begehen, um ihm gegenüber auch nur annähernd so unversöhnlich zu sein, wie mir selbst gegenüber? Und mir wurde klar, dass es unter der Wut auf mich selbst unter anderem um Schuld ging.
Ich wusste nicht recht, womit ich mich so unsagbar schuldig gemacht hatte, aber eine vorsichtige Stimme in mir schlug vor, dass ich es doch eventuell im Laufe all der Jahre abgebüßt haben könnte, dass ich mich doch genug gegeißelt haben könnte, – oder? Eigentlich empfand ich sogar ein kleines bisschen Mitgefühl mit mir selbst, mit meinem inneren Kind, meiner kleinen Anna. Was habe ich ihr, was habe ich mir eigentlich damit angetan? Das tat mir dann schon irgendwie leid. Und ich bat sie – und mich – um Verzeihung.
Intuitiv sprach ich die Worte: «Es tut mir leid!» mehrfach hintereinander laut aus, und mit jedem Mal tat es zunächst mehr weh. Erstaunlicherweise zeigten sich mit der Zeit von ganz allein innere Bilder und Situationen aus der Vergangenheit, die mir leid taten – sowohl mich selbst betreffend, als auch andere Situationen und Personen –, was zu Mitgefühl, Bedauern und auch Scham- und Schuldgefühlen führte. Wieder einige Zeit später verschwanden nach und nach die belastenden Emotionen und Bilder und ich wiederholte meine Worte so lange, bis es nicht mehr weh tat.
Daraufhin sprach ich laut aus: «Es ist ok, ich verzeihe dir», und auch das so oft, bis keine Bilder mehr kamen und bis es nicht mehr weh tat.
Diese Perspektivwechsel, also sowohl der Empfänger als auch der Sender zu sein, lernte ich zuvor in einer anderen Situation, die ich in diesem Video näher beschreibe.
Als nächstes sagte ich laut: «Mir wird vergeben», ebenfalls mehrmals und bis alle Tränen des Unglaubens, der Dankbarkeit und Erleichterung, getrocknet waren, und ich etwas Sonderbares empfand: es war warm und weich in mir, irgendwie entspannt. Ich fühlte mich wohl. Und mit einem kurzen Schreck identifizierte ich dieses Gefühl als (Selbst-)Liebe. Huch! Ich !? Ja, das war ich. Da war also dieser Frieden, diese Liebe in mir, für mich. Und auch für die Welt und die Menschheit, bei der ich mich ebenfalls entschuldigte – und ihnen verzieh, weil zumindest ein Anteil in mir schon immer damit haderte, Mensch zu sein. Aber seit dem Tag freunde ich mich zunehmend damit an und ich entdecke immer schönere Seiten am Leben – und auch an mir selbst.
Es macht einen unbeschreiblichen Unterschied, wie sich die Welt im eigenen Körper anfühlt und wie ich sie durch meine eigenen Augen sehe – je nachdem, wie meine Einstellung zu ihr und vor allem auch zu mir selbst ist.
Gibt es Schuld denn überhaupt?
Einige Leute sagen, Schuld gibt es überhaupt nicht. Und auch, wenn ich hier so ausführlich darüber schreibe, denke ich das ebenfalls. Wie passt das zusammen und wie kann diese Perspektive helfen?
Genauer gesagt, ist meine Antwort auf die Schuldfrage: Ja und Nein. Denn auf der einen Seite gibt es Schuld definitiv, in diesem Gefühl kenne ich mich ja sehr gut aus und auch unser Rechtssystem arbeitet mit Schuld. Andererseits, wenn ich mir die Natur ansehe – und die Menschheit und ihre Gedankenkonstrukte, Vereinbarungen und Gefühle ausblende –, komme ich persönlich zu dem Ergebnis, dass es keine natürliche Schuld gibt. Sondern, dass Schuld ein menschliches Konzept ist und außerhalb dessen, das heißt, wie gesagt in der Natur, aber möglicherweise auch auf Seelenebene oder erst recht einem bedingungslos liebenden «Gott» oder Universum gegenüber, irrelevant wird.
Diese Grundlage ist bedeutend für die folgende Situation, denn der eine Teil des Heilungsprozesses besteht darin, die alten Gefühle zu durchfühlen, um sie loszulassen, der andere beschäftigt sich mit den dahinterstehenden Glaubenssätzen.
Eingangs erwähnte ich die Situation, dass einem im Trauerprozess um eine geliebte Person Schuldgefühle begegnen können – so auch mir. Die Gefühle und Gedanken dazu waren derart quälend, dass es sich höchstwahrscheinlich nur jemand ausmalen kann, der bereits ähnliches durchleben musste. Denn das Gefühl, Schuld am Tod der geliebten Person zu sein, zerreißt einen innerlich in Stücke. Und obwohl ich mir auf anderer Ebene bewusst war, dass ich in Wirklichkeit natürlich nicht Schuld daran war, da ich ja keinen Mord begangen und auch nicht seine Krankheit verursacht habe, kamen mir immer wieder Bilder vor Augen, die mir Momente zeigten, in denen ich vielleicht doch noch etwas mehr oder weniger hätte sagen oder tun können, um den Krankheitsverlauf möglicherweise doch noch irgendwie zu beeinflussen.
Auch mein Glaube daran, dass eine Seele geht, wenn sie bereit dafür ist und nur sie selbst weiß, wann ihre Zeit gekommen ist und warum, konnte mir die Bilder und Gefühle nicht nehmen. Es fühlte sich an, als wäre etwas Zerstörerisches in mir, das an mir zerrte, das mich von innen her auffraß und möglicherweise kein Teil meiner selbst zu sein schien, bis ich mich eines Tages schluchzend vor den Spiegel stellte, mich zwang, mir in die Augen zu sehen und laut zu mir zu sagen: «Ich glaube nicht an Schuld! Schuld ist ein Konzept der Menschen. In der Natur gibt es keine Schuld. Ich glaube nicht an Schuld. Schuld ist ein Konzept der Menschen, …» und so weiter.
Es kostete wahnsinnig viel Kraft, diese Sätze auszusprechen, weil die Energie der Schuld, in der mein Körper feststeckte, genau gegenteilig schwang und der größte Teil in mir in dem Moment davon eingenommen war. Ich musste also enorme Kraft aufbringen, diese Worte auszusprechen, um diesen kleinen Funken der Liebe in mir durchzusetzen und es war, als würde ich gegen einen Orkan angehen. Aber auch hier wurde mit jeder Wiederholung der Schmerz der Schuld und des Widerspruches zwischen diesen beiden Anteilen zunächst erträglicher und dann immer weniger, bis ich irgendwann ruhig dort stehen und die Sätze aussprechen konnte.
Dies ist sicherlich eine besondere Situation in Bezug auf «Mitgefühl und Vergebung». Vielleicht findet sich aber dennoch jemand in dieser oder einer ähnlichen Situation wieder, in der die alten Glaubenssätze im Gegensatz zur Entwicklung im Heilungsprozess stehen oder jemand ist sogar ähnlich strukturiert – und daher anfällig für Schuldgefühle – wie ich. Daher entschied ich mich dafür, den Absatz doch noch mit aufzunehmen.
Lieben heißt Lernen – Fazit
«Das Leben eines jeden Menschen ist ein Weg zum eigenen Ich, der Versuch eines Weges, der Entwurf eines Weges.» – Hermann Hesse
In gleicher Weise, wie ich lerne, mich zu fühlen und mir selbst zu vergeben, erfahre ich, dass ich auch aufhöre, andere für meine Gefühle verantwortlich zu machen und, dass es mir auch automatisch sehr viel leichter fällt, mich in andere hineinzuversetzen, ihnen versöhnlich zu begegnen und ihnen ihr Leben, ihr Verhalten und ihre Lernaufgaben zuzugestehen.
Interessanterweise entdeckte ich auch, dass, in den meisten Fällen, in denen sich noch Ärger auf andere Personen offenbarte, ich, bei näherem Hinsehen, eigentlich mir selbst noch nicht vergeben hatte. Wenn Gedanken kamen, wie: «Wie konntest du dich mir gegenüber so ungerecht und respektlos verhalten? Wie konntest du mich so verletzen?», sah ich, dass ich diejenige war, die sich so hat behandeln lassen. Dass ich diejenige war, die mich nicht beschützt hat, die mich verletzt und im Stich gelassen hat.
Es ist ein tiefer, innerer Prozess, sich kennen- und verstehen zu lernen. Sich selbst zu vergeben, bedeutet auf der einen Seite, sich Vergangenes zu vergegenwärtigen, mitfühlend auf unser jüngeres Ich zu schauen und zu verstehen, dass wir, aus unserem damaligen Wissen und Verständnis heraus, so gut gehandelt haben, wie wir konnten. Im Nachhinein wissen wir oft mehr und wir bereuen und ärgern uns, doch in dem Zauber dieses Prozesses erkennen wir, dass wir stetig dazulernen und wachsen und in der Vergangenheit noch nicht sehen konnten, was wir jetzt sehen. Im Hier und Jetzt haben wir die Möglichkeit, uns neu zu entscheiden, immer wieder.
Zudem geht der Weg zum inneren Frieden darüber hinaus, als «nur» mit vergangenen Situationen und Versionen von uns Frieden zu schließen; er bedeutet in jedem Moment, mit dem, was sich in uns zeigt, mit allen Gedanken und Gefühlen, versöhnlich und liebevoll umzugehen, weich mit ihnen – mit uns selbst – zu werden und Mitgefühl auch in die verschleiertsten und ungeliebtesten Bereiche unseres Selbst zu bringen.
Im ersten Teil von «Mitgefühl und Vergebung» zitierte ich C.G Jung, der fragte: «Was aber, wenn ich nun entdecken sollte, daß der armselige Bettler und der unverschämteste Beleidiger alle in mir selber sind und ich bedürftig bin, Empfänger meiner eigenen Wohltaten zu sein? Daß ich der Feind bin, den ich lieben muß - was dann?». Und ich glaube, eine Antwort darauf könnte sein, dass wir uns genau dann auf dem Weg heimwärts befinden. Dass wir, wenn wir uns unseren eigenen Anteilen stellen und lernen, die Perspektiven zu wechseln, erkennen, dass wir einander mehr ähneln, als wir glaubten.
Auf dem Weg zu sein, bedeutet auch, dass wir weiterhin «Fehler» machen werden, die uns dann unser zukünftiges Ich liebevoll vergeben wird.
«Die Welt selbst aber, das Seiende um uns her und in uns innen, ist nie einseitig. Nie ist ein Mensch, oder eine Tat, ganz Sansara oder ganz Nirvana, nie ist ein Mensch ganz heilig oder ganz sündig. Es scheint ja so, weil wir der Täuschung unterworfen sind, dass Zeit etwas Wirkliches sei. Zeit ist nicht wirklich, Govinda, ich habe dies oft und oft erfahren. Und wenn Zeit nicht wirklich ist, so ist die Spanne, die zwischen Welt und Ewigkeit, zwischen Leid und Seligkeit, zwischen Böse und Gut zu liegen scheint, auch eine Täuschung.
…Nein, in dem Sünder ist, ist jetzt und heute schon der künftige Buddha, seine Zukunft ist alle schon da, du hast in ihm, in dir, in jedem den werdenden, den möglichen, den verborgenen Buddha zu verehren. Die Welt, Freund Govinda, ist nicht unvollkommen, oder auf einem langsamen Wege zur Vollkommenheit begriffen: nein, sie ist in jedem Augenblick vollkommen, alle Sünde trägt schon die Gnade in sich, alle kleinen Kinder haben schon den Greis in sich, alle Säuglinge den Tod, alle Sterbenden das ewige Leben.
…Mögen die Dinge Schein sein oder nicht, auch ich bin alsdann ja Schein, und so sind sie stets meinesgleichen. Das ist es, was sie mir so lieb und verehrenswert macht: sie sind meinesgleichen. Darum kann ich sie lieben. Und dies ist nun eine Lehre, über welche du lachen wirst: die Liebe, o Govinda, scheint mir von allem die Hauptsache zu sein.
Die Welt zu durchschauen, sie zu erklären, sie zu verachten, mag großer Denker Sache sein. Mir aber liegt einzig daran, die Welt lieben zu können, sie nicht zu verachten, sie und mich nicht zu hassen, sie und mich und alle Wesen mit Liebe und Bewunderung und Ehrfurcht betrachten zu können.»
– Hermann Hesse, Siddartha*
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@ 2cde0e02:180a96b9
2025-06-10 14:06:52pen & ink
https://stacker.news/items/1002504
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@ 2cde0e02:180a96b9
2025-06-10 11:35:27pen; monochromized
The Heart and Stomach operate within the same neurological pathway. Desire displays itself as hunger because that's our animal way of understanding it. When the heart is deprived, the stomach compensates but never satiates. However when the love ❤️ desire is fulfilled, hunger ceases; and the nervous system regulates. There is no overeating when the system is in balance.
Likewise, an oxytocin surge dominates the dopamine pathway. But when love is ill, it is the dopamine hit that becomes the substitute. Gambling, sugar, smoking, money, and alcohol give short term relieve for the unavailable love and deprivation of the heart.
https://stacker.news/items/1002414
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@ 58537364:705b4b85
2025-06-12 13:59:39ในร่างกายที่มันมีสิ่งที่เรียกว่า… ระบบประสาท ทีนี้มีอะไรเข้ามากระทบร่างกาย คือกระทบระบบประสาท ปฏิกิริยามันก็เกิดขึ้น เป็นเหตุการณ์ อย่างใดอย่างหนึ่งขึ้น
เหตุการณ์นั้นแหละสำคัญ ถ้าให้เกิดความรู้สึกที่ถูกใจมันจะเป็นบวก เหตุการณ์นั้นไม่รู้สึกถูกใจแก่จิต มันก็จะเป็นลบ #ตัวกูเพิ่งเกิดเมื่อมีการกระทบแล้ว
ถ้าเหตุการณ์ที่เป็นบวกเกิดขึ้น ตัวกูบวกก็เกิดขึ้น เหตุการณ์ที่เป็นลบเกิดขึ้น ตัวกูที่เป็นลบเกิดขึ้น #ตัวกูนี้เกิดหลังเหตุการณ์ ขอให้เข้าใจดีๆ ไม่ใช่เกิดอยู่ก่อน
ตัวกูคลอดออกมาจาก situation ที่มากระทบระบบประสาท เช่นว่า… ไม่ได้กินอาหาร ขาดอาหาร มันหิว ความหิวเกิดขึ้นแก่ระบบประสาท ต่อมาจึงเกิด concept ว่า กูหิว, มีการกินแล้วจึงเกิด concept ว่า กูกิน
ถ้ามีอาการอร่อยแก่ลิ้น มันจึงเกิด concept ว่า… กูอร่อย หรือ มาทีหลังเหตุการณ์เสมอ จะถือว่าเป็น product ของเหตุการณ์นั้น ๆ ก็ได้
นี่คือความที่ไม่มีตัวจริง มิใช่ของจริง ของสิ่งที่เรียกว่าตัวกู #ขอให้รู้จักว่าตัวกูนี้มันเป็นมายาถึงขนาดนี้
ฟังดูการพูดอย่างนี้ มันเป็น logic แต่ความจริงของธรรมชาติมันเป็นอย่างนั้น ถือตามกฎ logic ธรรมดาสามัญ ที่พูดกันอยู่นี้ไม่ได้ ต้องถือตามความเป็นจริงที่ว่า มันเป็นอยู่อย่างไร
จิตก็เป็นธาตุชนิดหนึ่ง สิ่งแวดล้อมต่างๆ ที่เป็นธาตุชนิดหนึ่ง พอมาถึงกันเข้า ก็เกิดปฏิกิริยาออกมาอย่างนั้นอย่างนี้ ความรู้สึกที่เรียกว่า… #จิตคิดนึกได้นี้_ก็เป็นปฏิกิริยาที่เกิดขึ้นเท่านั้น แล้วความรู้สึกว่าตัวกู ตัวนี้ก็เป็นเพียงปฏิกิริยาที่เกิดขึ้นเท่านั้น.
มันฟังยากสำหรับท่านทั้งหลายที่ว่า ผู้กระทำนั้นเกิดทีหลังการกระทำ มันผิด logic อย่างนี้
แต่ความจริงเป็นอย่างนั้น self หรือ ego ผู้กระทำจะเกิดทีหลังการกระทำ เป็นปฏิกิริยาของการกระทำ
ความคิดอย่าง ตรรกะ หรืออย่างปรัชญา เอามาใช้กับสิ่งนี้ไม่ได้ ขอยืนยันไว้อย่างนี้
ถ้าท่านยังไม่เชื่อ ท่านก็ไปคิดดูเรื่อย ๆ ไปเถอะ ท่านจะพบว่ามันไม่เป็นอย่างกฎเกณฑ์ทางตรรกะหรือทางปรัชญา ที่เรามีๆ กันอยู่
ผู้กระทำเป็นเพียง concept ไม่ใช่ตัวจริง ส่วนการกระทำมันเป็นเหตุการณ์ของธรรมชาติ พอเข้ามาถึงจิตแล้ว ก็เกิดความคิด ความเชื่อ ความยึดว่าตัวกู
ตัวกูซึ่งเป็นเพียง concept ไม่ใช่ของจริง
พุทธทาสภิกขุ
อตัมมยตาประทีป
ชีวิตใหม่และหนทางเข้าถึงชีวิตใหม่
หน้า_๒๙๕-๒๙๖
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-13 06:00:43Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin Will Replace Gold And Go To $1,000,000, Says Galaxy Digital CEO Mike NovogratzToday, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz told CNBC that Bitcoin is on a path to replace gold and could eventually reach a value of $1,000,000.
JUST IN:
Galaxy Digital CEO told CNBC that Bitcoin will replace gold and go to $1,000,000
pic.twitter.com/Tf831LBt1h
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 12, 2025
“Bitcoin has become a macro asset,” said Novogratz. “And some of the great things is most people have it on their screens next to gold and silver and the S&P. And you think back ten years ago when people thought we were crazy. And now it’s an institutionalized macro asset… It’s just becoming institutionalized.”
He emphasized that Bitcoin is no longer a fringe investment but part of the mainstream financial landscape. He pointed out that its volatility is now seen as normal compared to traditional assets.
“We are in a dollar bear market. For the last 15 years, American exceptionalism was the story. Europeans were widely overweight and Asians widely overweight the US stock and we have an administration that wants a weaker dollar. They are pretty clear about it,” he said. “Even in the way Trump negotiates. And you can argue if it’s successful or not successful, but by telling Canada they want to be the 51st state, and telling people that they come here to kiss his rear end, it doesn’t engender people to say, ‘Oh, I want to buy more dollars.’”
According to Novogratz, this global shift is pushing investors toward assets outside the dollar, including Bitcoin.
“I think most macro funds are having a great year,” he stated. “They’re short the dollar, they’re long the euro, they’re long the yen, they’re long Aussie, they’re long a basket of currencies. Well, Bitcoin, gold, silver, platinum, they all fall into that same category as something that’s not the dollar.”
He also pointed to Bitcoin’s fixed supply as a key factor behind its growing value.
“There is no more Bitcoin,” he said. “What’s unique about Bitcoin as an asset is it was created with 21 million coins total. Period. End of story. There’ll never be more than that. But not all of those have been mined, is my point. Not most of them. Lots of them have been lost. There have been more Bitcoins lost than will be mined for the rest of eternity.”
Novogratz believes the wave of institutional involvement, including firms like BlackRock, is cementing Bitcoin’s role as a savings asset.
“The bull case becomes that over time… gold slowly gets replaced by Bitcoin. And so if you look at gold’s market cap and Bitcoin market cap, Bitcoin has a long way to go. Right? 10x. And so that [is] $1,000,000 a Bitcoin just to be where gold is.”
This post Bitcoin Will Replace Gold And Go To $1,000,000, Says Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.
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@ a88f35c7:7b121d83
2025-06-13 05:53:22Aunque a primera vista no lo parezca, el mundo digital en el que operan muchas empresas hoy en día no es tan diferente del mundo físico. De hecho, es común establecer analogías con la era medieval (términos como Bastion Host, Castle and Moat, Gatekeepers y Watchtower reflejan esta comparación) y quienes trabajamos en ciberseguridad estamos acostumbrados su uso. Sin embargo, hoy quiero abordar la seguridad digital desde una perspectiva evolutiva y haciendo una analogía con el contexto de la economía primaria, ya que la lectura de la tesis “Softwar: A Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin”, de Jason Paul Lowery, me ha llevado a reflexionar sobre este tema.
Para profundizar en esta analogía, propongo una relación simple: todos los actores que habitan el mundo digital (empresas, proveedores de servicios, actores malintencionados, usuarios, etc.) se consideraran organismos biologicos vivos que coexisten en un entorno hostil y compiten por los recursos disponibles en él.
Relación beneficio-costo del ataque (RBC).
Cada organismo biológico puede describirse como una fuente rica en nutrientes y un depósito de recursos valiosos. En la imagen de arriba, he intentado representar (disculpad si no lo he logrado completamente) un organismo unicelular con un núcleo (el tesoro) y una membrana que lo protege de las bacterias de alrededor.
En un escenario como este, es lógico pensar que la mayoría de estos organismos se convierten en un objetivo atractivo, una presa, para otros seres vivos diseñados por la evolución para capturar y explotar dichos recursos por la fuerza.
En consecuencia, un organismo incapaz de proteger su tesoro (ya sea por debilidad o ineficacia) se convierte en un caramelo en la puerta de un colegio: un cartel de neón irresistible para las formas de vida circundantes, que no dudarán en devorarlo.
Nota: Mientras escribía esto, no pude evitar pensar en el mundo digital y en todos esos sistemas con puertos abiertos expuestos en Shodan.
Pues bien, se puede definir la relación de beneficio-costo del ataque como:
RBC = BA/CA
Donde:
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BA representa la función de la abundancia de recursos de un organismo (su “tesoro”). Los organismos con una gran cantidad de recursos valiosos tienen un BA alto, mientras que aquellos con menos recursos valiosos presentan un BA más bajo.
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CA mide la capacidad y disposición de un organismo para imponer costos físicos severos a sus atacantes. Los organismos que pueden y están dispuestos a infligir daños físicos significativos a sus vecinos tienen un CA alto. En contraste, aquellos que carecen de dicha capacidad o no están dispuestos a ejercerla tienen un CA bajo.
Si la relación anterior ha quedado clara, resulta evidente que los organismos con una RBC más alta son más vulnerables al ataque que aquellos con una RBC más baja, ya que representan un mayor retorno de inversión para los vecinos hambrientos que buscan devorarlos.
Por esta razón, los organismos tienen la necesidad existencial de reducir su RBC tanto como sea posible, lo que los impulsa a aumentar su capacidad y disposición para imponer costos físicos significativos a sus atacantes. Por el contrario, un organismo no puede simplemente dedicar todo su tiempo y energía a acumular recursos y esperar prosperar a largo plazo, ya que esto incrementaría su RBC, poniendo en riesgo su supervivencia.
A modo conclusión, se podría decir que, para sobrevivir a largo plazo, los organismos deben gestionar ambos lados de la relación RBC para evitar que este ratio aumente hasta niveles peligrosos. Esto se puede hacer de la siguiente forma:
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Optar por reducir su numerador (reducir su "tesoro").
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Aumentar su denominador (imponer costos físicos significativos a sus atacantes).
En la naturaleza, podríamos decir que reducir la abundancia de recursos no es una solución demasiado ideal para los organismos que buscan crecer, por lo que aumentar su CA es la opción más recomendable.
Una analogía útil para explicar el RBC es la situación en la que un ladrón debe decidir qué apartamento robar. Antes de actuar, inspecciona dos puertas en el mismo piso: una a la izquierda, de madera y visiblemente desgastada, y otra a la derecha, blindada y equipada con múltiples cerrojos.
Es probable que el ladrón asuma que el “tesoro” detrás de la puerta blindada es más valioso. Sin embargo, los altos costos del ataque (mayor tiempo, esfuerzo y riesgo) disuadirán a muchos ladrones que no estén preparados para asumir ese desafío. Así, la relación entre recompensa y costo de ataque influye en la decisión, reflejando el principio del RBC en la naturaleza.
Margen de prosperidad.
Retomando la idea de la “economía de la evolución” y la difícil tarea de sobrevivir, es importante recordar que, como hemos visto antes, cualquier organismo debe mantener su nivel de RBC lo más bajo posible. Pero, ¿cuán bajo exactamente?
La clave está en mantenerlo por debajo del umbral crítico que determine si un ataque resulta rentable o no para un posible depredador o competidor. Si el RBC es demasiado alto, el organismo se convierte en un objetivo atractivo; si es lo suficientemente bajo, los costos de atacarlo superan los beneficios, disuadiendo a la mayoría de los agresores. Según Lowery, la diferencia entre el nivel de RBC de un organismo y el umbral peligroso puede definirse como su margen de prosperidad. En otras palabras, este margen representa cuánto puede permitirse un organismo aumentar su RBC antes de volverse un objetivo viable para el ataque. Mantener un margen de prosperidad amplio es esencial para garantizar estabilidad y minimizar riesgos en un entorno competitivo.
Planteado a alto nivel, podría parecer un problema sencillo de resolver, ya que, en esencia, solo se trata de mantener el RBC por debajo del umbral peligroso mientras se preserva un margen adecuado de prosperidad. Sin embargo (y siempre hay un “pero”), el verdadero desafío radica en que el organismo no puede conocer con precisión dicho umbral, ya que este depende casi por completo de factores externos.
Las variables que determinan el umbral peligroso están condicionadas por el entorno y por la presencia de otros organismos que cohabitan en él. Esto implica que un organismo nunca puede estar completamente seguro de cuánto puede aumentar su RBC antes de atraer la atención de posibles atacantes. Esta incertidumbre introduce un nivel de riesgo que dificulta la optimización de la estrategia de crecimiento y supervivencia.
Supervivencia a largo plazo.
Dado que los organismos no pueden determinar con certeza qué nivel de seguridad es suficiente, la supervivencia se convierte en un proceso de aprendizaje sobre cómo regular el RBC y maximizar el margen de prosperidad tanto como sea posible. En términos generales, un organismo puede seguir tres estrategias:
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Opción 1: Aumentar el BA por encima del CA provocará un crecimiento en el RBC, acercándolo a la zona de peligro, por lo que esta opción queda descartada.
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Opción 2: Aumentar el CA a medida que aumenta el BA, manteniendo el RBC fijo (crecimiento proporcional de los dos valores). Aunque esta estrategia conserva el mismo margen de seguridad, no es una solución sostenible a largo plazo, ya que el entorno se vuelve cada vez más hostil y el nivel de RBC que antes garantizaba la supervivencia puede volverse insuficiente.
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Opción 3: Aumentar el CA más que el BA. En este caso, el margen de prosperidad se amplía porque el RBC disminuye. Esta, según Lowery, es la única estrategia viable para garantizar la supervivencia a largo plazo.
La enseñanza de la evolución en el mundo de la ciberseguridad.
Si aplicamos los principios de la economía primaria al ámbito de la ciberseguridad, es posible extraer algunas enseñanzas valiosas, aunque también es cierto que el mundo digital tiene ciertas excepciones o flexibilidades. A continuación, expondré las conclusiones a las que he llegado tras realizar este ejercicio de análisis.
El Coste de Ataque (CA), que implica imponer costos a los atacantes, no deja de ser una inversión en seguridad a través de herramientas, procesos y revisiones. Como ha demostrado la económica primaria, esta estrategia es clave para garantizar la supervivencia a largo plazo de una empresa ya que hace que los ciberataques sean menos rentables y por lo tanto menos frecuentes. En esta línea y al igual que en la naturaleza, una empresa no puede saber nunca que tan cerca está del umbral del peligro (ya que este depende de factores casi totalmente externos) y por tanto debe esforzarse por maximizar el CA siempre que pueda (esto es invertir en ciberseguridad). Así que ya sabéis, si alguien alguna vez pone en duda las inversiones en ciberseguridad, le podéis decir con total certeza que es economía de supervivencia y es LA ÚNICA FORMA de garantizar la viabilidad de la empresa a largo plazo.
Por otro lado, está el Beneficio de Ataque (BA), el "tesoro" protegido por todos los organismos. Haciendo un paralelismo con el mundo digital, este equivale a los datos e información que almacena una organización. Es natural que, al igual que ocurre en los organismos biológicos, una empresa busque incrementar y proteger este activo.
Todos hemos oído un millón de veces expresiones como "es la era de la información", "los datos son el nuevo petróleo" o "la información es poder", y no dudo de su veracidad. Sin embargo, basándonos en la economía de supervivencia mencionada, hacer crecer el Beneficio de Ataque (BA) puede ser peligroso.
De hecho, hemos comprobado que incrementar el BA por encima del Coste de Ataque (CA) no es una estrategia viable a largo plazo. Pero, como todos sabemos, es complicado convencer al área de negocio de que tal vez (solo tal vez) ciertos datos sensibles no sean realmente necesarios para su almacenamiento en bases de datos. Y que, en caso de que lo sean, su protección mediante cifrado debería ser una prioridad.
Entonces, ¿Es posible reducir el BA?
Llegados a este punto, surge la duda de si, a diferencia del mundo natural, en el mundo digital que hemos construido, es posible reducir el Beneficio de Ataque (BA) sin comprometer la viabilidad de una empresa.
En la naturaleza, la supervivencia depende del crecimiento y la acumulación de recursos, pero en el entorno digital, ¿realmente es necesario almacenar y procesar cada dato disponible? ¿O es posible optimizar y reducir el volumen de datos sensibles sin afectar el negocio? A continuación algunos ejemplos:
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¿Es realmente necesario que tenga que facilitar mi DNI al repartidor de UPS o SEUR?
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¿Es justificable que el Real Decreto 933/2021 obligue a las empresas del sector de hospedaje a almacenar y proporcionar datos sensibles de los viajeros, como el DNI, teléfono fijo y móvil, relación de parentesco entre huéspedes, así como información sobre el pago, incluyendo el tipo de tarjeta, número y fecha de caducidad?
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¿Porque es necesario pasar por un proceso riguroso de KYC para comprar según que activos financieros?
Estoy seguro que cada caso de los anteriores tiene una justificación aunque tampoco tengo ninguna duda de que estas probablemente sean cuestionables desde el punto de vista de la privacidad y protección de datos.
Esta última reflexión me ha llevado a buscar si actualmente existen proyectos y/o estrategias enfocadas en la minimización de datos, con el objetivo de reducir cualquier exposición innecesaria de información personal y he podido comprobar que existen diferentes líneas de trabajo en esta dirección como el sistema Decentralized Identity (DID) o Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP). Estas tecnologías permiten verificar información sin revelar datos personales, lo que indica que ya hay profesionales abordando esta preocupación.
Quizás, cuando estos sistemas estén más consolidados, podamos comprobar si, a diferencia del mundo biológico, el mundo digital permite el crecimiento de un organismo sin tener que aumentar su BA.
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@ 8bf578f4:b6303c41
2025-06-12 11:47:54Artificial Intelligence (AI) has long been a subject of fascination and debate among researchers and enthusiasts alike. One of the most intriguing aspects of AI is its potential to surpass human capabilities in specific tasks. When an AI system's output for a given task becomes better than that of a comparable human specialist, it marks a significant milestone known as the accelerative growth starting point. This threshold signifies more than just a technological achievement; it represents a fundamental shift in how we perceive and utilize intelligence. At this juncture, the AI's ability to outperform humans in specific domains triggers an exponential growth phase. This is because AI systems can process vast amounts of data and identify patterns that humans might miss, leading to continuous improvement. For those using local AI models and open-source tools on Linux environments, this means leveraging frameworks like TensorFlow or PyTorch to train and deploy models that can achieve state-of-the-art performance in various tasks.
The concept of exponential growth in AI can be illustrated through mathematical models. For instance, consider a simple model where the performance improvement of an AI system follows a power law: P(t) = t^k, where P(t) is the performance at time t, and k is a constant that determines the rate of improvement. As t increases, the growth in performance accelerates rapidly. This exponential growth is particularly relevant for decentralized technologies and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, such as those enabled by protocols like Nostr. In these environments, AI models can be distributed across multiple nodes, allowing for collaborative training and inference. This decentralization not only enhances robustness but also enables scalable and efficient use of computational resources.
One of the key drivers of this exponential growth is the AI's ability to design new systems faster and better than humans. This self-improvement loop is often referred to as recursive self-improvement (RSI). In RSI, an AI system not only performs tasks but also optimizes its own algorithms and architectures. This iterative process allows the AI to continually enhance its capabilities, leading to a feedback loop where each iteration results in more significant improvements than the last. For users of local AI models, this means continuously updating and refining models to take advantage of the latest advancements in machine learning techniques. Tools like Docker can be used to containerize AI applications, ensuring consistency across different environments and facilitating easy deployment on decentralized networks.
The implications of this exponential growth are profound, particularly for those working with open-source tools and local AI models. As AI systems become increasingly capable, they will likely outpace human intelligence in an ever-expanding range of domains. This raises important technical challenges, such as ensuring that AI systems can handle the complexity and scale of decentralized data. For instance, federated learning allows multiple nodes to train a model collaboratively without exchanging raw data, preserving privacy while leveraging distributed computational power. Implementing federated learning in P2P networks can enhance the security and efficiency of AI applications.
Moreover, the exponential growth of AI has significant technical implications for industries that can leverage AI to enhance productivity and innovation. For example, in fields like natural language processing (NLP), AI models can be trained on decentralized datasets using tools like Hugging Face's Transformers library. This allows for the development of advanced language models that can understand and generate human-like text. Similarly, in computer vision, distributed training frameworks can be used to develop models that can analyze and interpret visual data more accurately than ever before.
Another critical aspect is the potential for AI to augment human capabilities rather than replace them entirely. In many fields, AI can serve as a powerful tool that enhances human decision-making and creativity. For example, in healthcare, AI algorithms can assist doctors in diagnosing diseases more accurately by analyzing medical images and patient data. This collaborative approach leverages the strengths of both humans and machines. For users of local AI models, this means integrating AI tools into existing workflows to enhance productivity and innovation.
However, achieving this harmonious integration requires addressing several technical challenges. One such challenge is ensuring that AI systems are transparent and interpretable. Black-box models, while often highly accurate, can be difficult to understand and trust. Developing explainable AI (XAI) techniques that provide insights into how these models make decisions is crucial for building trust and acceptance. For those using open-source tools, libraries like LIME (Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations) and SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) can be invaluable in making AI models more interpretable.
Additionally, the technical considerations surrounding AI's exponential growth are vast. As AI systems become more autonomous and capable, they will increasingly make decisions that affect various aspects of technology and society. Ensuring that these decisions are fair, unbiased, and aligned with technological goals is a complex but essential task. This involves not only technical solutions but also robust frameworks for deploying and managing AI models in decentralized environments.
In conclusion, the accelerative growth starting point in AI marks a pivotal moment in technological evolution. From this point onwards, the exponential growth of intelligence will reshape industries, economies, and societies. Machine learning experts must be at the forefront of navigating these changes, ensuring that AI's potential is harnessed responsibly and effectively. The future of AI holds immense promise, but it also demands vigilance and foresight to address the challenges that lie ahead. For those using local AI models, open-source tools, and Linux environments, this means staying at the cutting edge of technological advancements and leveraging decentralized technologies like Nostr to build robust and scalable AI applications.
By Alex TechSmith, Machine Learning Engineer