@ 70c48e4b:00ce3ccb

Hello all :)

Something pretty exciting just happened in the world of decentralized tech.

A new social network project called Nostria successfully wrapped up its pre-seed funding round. It raised the funds through Angor, a crowdfunding platform built on Bitcoin and Nostr that aligns perfectly with the project’s decentralized mission.This post is all about what Nostria is doing, why it matters, and how Angor made it all possible.

What is Nostria?

nostr:npub16x7nxvehx0wvgy0sa6ynkw9c2ghuph3z0ll5t8veq3xwm8n9tqds6ka44x is a social network app that’s built to make the Nostr protocol easy to use. If you're not familiar with Nostr, it's an open protocol for decentralized social networking. It gives users more control and privacy, without relying on big platforms.

Nostria makes all that feel less like a tech experiment and more like a real social network. The app is simple, elegant, and beginner-friendly. It is available across iOS, Android, and web so you can jump in from anywhere.

Think of it as the easiest way to start using Nostr without needing to understand all the technical stuff under the hood.

https://www.nostria.app/assets/screenshots/nostria-01.jpg

The Problem Nostria is Solving:

One of the challenges Nostr faces right now is scaling. The network relies on relays to pass messages around, but many of these are centralized and getting overloaded. That creates serious bottlenecks and makes the whole experience less reliable. Just to give you an idea:

• Damus relay has around 646,000 users
• Nos relay has 601,000 users
• Snort sits at 417,000 users

When so many users depend on just a few relays, it puts a huge strain on the system and limits how far the network can grow.

Nostria’s Clever Fix

Nostria introduces a smarter way to scale Nostr without losing its decentralized core. Instead of relying on a few overloaded relays, it uses:

• Regionally deployed Discovery Relays – Think of these as local hubs placed in different parts of the world. When users connect, they are matched with a nearby relay, which keeps things faster and spreads the traffic out so no single relay gets overwhelmed.

• Pooled User Relays – Instead of each person depending on just one relay, users are connected through a shared pool. This means messages are sent and received more efficiently, especially when more people join the network.

All of this happens behind the scenes. The app keeps things simple and intuitive, with automation that handles the complexity for you. Whether you're posting, reading, or connecting with others, the experience stays smooth.

Nostria has bold ambitions. Here’s what they’re going for:

• A goal of 1 million daily active users
• Competing with platforms like Bluesky, Mastodon, and even X (formerly Twitter)
• A long-term plan to support both free and premium services to drive adoption

As of now, the Nostr network as a whole has:

• 15,000 daily active users
• 42.7 million total users
• 552 million total events

So the market is already there. It just needs the right tools to grow.

https://www.nostria.app/assets/screenshots/nostria-02.jpg

Meet the Team

Nostria is led by nostr:npub1zl3g38a6qypp6py2z07shggg45cu8qex992xpss7d8zrl28mu52s4cjajh, a software engineer with deep experience in distributed systems. He has been involved with the Nostr protocol since its early days in 2021 and is deeply passionate about decentralization and open-source tech.

https://www.nostria.app/assets/team/sondre.jpg

He’s joined by nostr:npub1e0krp2gr3l5nfd2jw2cydh68adxjpmcqdhs2e0jxkrqd4crwt4dslwrk0k, a thoughtful full-stack developer focused on simplicity and sovereignty, and nostr:npub10c4sn723akd7fqegfe6xntpq43p86vnyvv7j2ryaq8jzvhyea4pq72c5ul, a junior dev who’s already contributed to open source and is finishing up her studies.

https://www.nostria.app/assets/team/kosta.jpg https://www.nostria.app/assets/team/lu.jpg

The Funding Round

To bring Nostria to life, the team aimed to raise $30,000 during their pre-seed round. This funding would help them:

• Complete their MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
• Deploy global infrastructure
• Start building their user base
• Get ready for a full Seed round in late 2025

How Angor Helped?

Angor is a decentralized crowdfunding platform built on Bitcoin and the Nostr protocol. It’s designed exactly for projects like this. The team at Nostria launched their campaign on Angor between May 12 and May 31, and it was a success.

What made the campaign stand out?

1. The whole process was decentralized and transparent.
2. Backers could fund the project directly, without intermediaries.
3. Nostria aligned perfectly with Angor’s vision of empowering projects that push decentralization forward.

The campaign served as both a fundraiser and a real-world example of how decentralized infrastructure can power decentralized ideas. And it worked.

Inside the Funding Terms

As part of this funding round, Nostria offered contributors a post-money SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). This is a modern, flexible way for startups to raise money early without the complexity of traditional equity rounds.

In simple terms:

•Investors contributed funds now, and in return, they will receive equity in Nostria during a future priced equity round. When Nostria raises its next round, most likely a Seed round, then those SAFE contributions will convert into actual shares.

•The SAFE includes a valuation cap, which sets a maximum company valuation for conversion. This guarantees that early backers receive shares at a better rate than future investors. While the exact cap isn't publicly listed, this feature ensures early supporters are rewarded for their trust.

•There is no interest or maturity date, which is a major benefit over traditional convertible notes. There’s no ticking clock or repayment obligation. Investors simply wait until the next funding event.

•The SAFE also features a Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause. This ensures that if the company issues another SAFE later with better terms, early investors will automatically receive the same improved terms. It’s designed to keep things transparent and equitable.

•Jurisdiction and legal terms: While the full legal text isn’t included in the note, SAFEs typically specify the legal jurisdiction governing the agreement. Nostria’s approach suggests a commitment to following standard legal frameworks, further underlining their seriousness and professionalism.

You can read Nostria’s public SAFE summary here: nostr:npub16x7nxvehx0wvgy0sa6ynkw9c2ghuph3z0ll5t8veq3xwm8n9tqds6ka44x

And you can view the full campaign hosted on Angor here: https://hub.angor.io/project/angor1qwdgxjuzhjykgpn5q8p3l2q9vyrgqdlrkfp5sjr

By sharing these details openly, the team added a strong layer of transparency and trust to the entire campaign. It is a clear signal that they are building something serious and thoughtful, with long-term commitment and care instead of shortcuts.

What’s Next?

With the funding secured, Nostria is sprinting ahead. The roadmap includes:

• June: Deploying media and relay servers
• July: Adding premium features and full cross-platform support
• August: Growing the user base and preparing for the next funding round

If all goes well, Nostria is on track to become one of the most accessible and user-friendly Nostr based platforms out there. With a clear roadmap and a team focused on long-term decentralization, the journey is just getting started...

Got an idea of your own? You can launch your project on Angor, just like Nostria did, and start your own funding round with the support of a like-minded community.

Thanks for reading. See y’all next week with another story from the world of open, decentralized innovation. Ciao

@ 866e0139:6a9334e5

Autor: Tina Marie. 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 in unserem Telegram-Kanal.

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Die neuesten Artikel der Friedenstaube gibt es jetzt auch im eigenen Friedenstaube-Telegram-Kanal.

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Solange wir mit uns selbst im Krieg stehen, bleibt der Ruf nach Weltfrieden hohl.\ Ein Text über Selbstoptimierung, innere Leere – und die Möglichkeit, Frieden dort zu beginnen,\ wo wir ihn am wenigsten suchen: im eigenen Körper.

Es beginnt oft leise.\ Mit dem Wunsch, mehr aus sich zu machen.\ Dich zu entwickeln, Dich zu verbessern, das Beste aus Deinem Leben herauszuholen.

Manche nennen es Wachstum.\ Doch oft wird daraus etwas anderes:\ Ein ständiger Druck, ein inneres Getriebensein.\ Ein subtiler Krieg gegen alles, was noch nicht „gut genug“ ist.

Vielleicht kennst Du das auch:\ Du funktionierst, erreichst viel, bist stark.\ Aber tief innen wächst eine Leere.\ Eine Erschöpfung, die nicht vom Tun kommt –\ sondern vom dauerhaften Versuch, Dich selbst zu übertreffen.

„Wer nach außen schaut, träumt. Wer nach innen blickt, erwacht.“\ – C.G. Jung

Was wäre, wenn Du gar nicht „mehr“ sein musst?\ Wenn in der Akzeptanz dessen, was jetzt in Dir lebt, bereits alles enthalten ist?\ Was, wenn Frieden genau dort beginnt,\ wo Du aufhörst, Dich selbst ständig neu zu optimieren?

„Du kannst nicht tief in Dein Herz hinabtauchen,\ wenn Du versuchst, das Wasser mit Gewalt klar zu machen.“\ – Virginia Woolf

Wir leben in einer Welt, die das Laute feiert –\ die Schnelligkeit, die Disziplin, den Aufstieg.\ Aber was geht dabei verloren?

Wie oft passen wir uns an –\ an Bilder, an Formate, an Erwartungen,\ bis wir kaum noch wissen, was in uns wirklich lebt?

Statt authentischer Individualität\ formt sich ein konformer Einheitsbrei:\ angepasst, glatt, kontrolliert – aber leer.

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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.

Sie schreiben und haben etwas zum Frieden zu sagen? Melden Sie sich gerne: friedenstaube\@pareto.space

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Perfektion ist eine Illusion.\ Sie wird genährt durch Ideale, die nie wirklich unsere waren.\ Was wir sehen, sind Körper, die nach den Maßgaben digitaler Vorbilder geformt wurden –\ glattgezogen, modelliert, mit immer gleichen Proportionen, gleichen Posen,\ gleichen Michelin-Männchen-Lippen.\ Einheitsästhetik statt Echtheit.

Und wir fragen uns:\ Was macht uns wirklich reich?\ Was erfüllt uns – jenseits von Normkörpern, Klickzahlen und Anerkennung im Außen?

Wann hast Du zuletzt gespürt,\ dass Du nicht schöner, sondern nur echter sein musst?

Die Lehren von Neville Goddard erinnern daran:\ Was wir in uns tragen – an Bildern, Gefühlen, innerer Wahrheit – formt unsere Realität.\ Frieden entsteht nicht im Außen.\ Er entsteht in uns –\ wenn wir aufhören, uns zu überfordern,\ und beginnen, uns zu halten.

„Glauben ist fühlbares Wissen aus der Tiefe des Seins.“\ – Neville Goddard

Vielleicht ist die wichtigste Friedensarbeit heute nicht laut.\ Nicht strategisch. Nicht politisch.\ Sondern verkörpert.\ Spürbar.\ Verwurzelt im Menschsein.

„Der wahre Friede beginnt, wenn wir aufhören, gegen uns selbst zu kämpfen.“\ – unbekannt

Ein Mensch, der sich selbst nicht länger bekämpft,\ verändert die Welt.\ Nicht durch Argumente, sondern durch seine stille Gegenwart.\ Durch das, was mitschwingt, wenn jemand in sich selbst angekommen ist.

Vielleicht fliegt genau deshalb eines Tages eine Taube los.\ Nicht als Bild, sondern als natürliche Folge von gelebtem Frieden.\ Mit einem Olivenzweig im Schnabel –\ nicht getragen aus Pflicht, sondern aus Kraft.\ Ein leiser Flug, der sichtbar macht,\ was möglich wird,\ wenn wir in uns selbst aufhören, Krieg zu führen.

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Tina Marie begleitet Menschen auf dem Weg aus dem inneren Kampf.\ Nach mehreren Ausbildungen – unter anderem als High Performance Coach (nach Brendon Burchard) und als Heroic Optimize Coach (nach Brian Johnson) – erkannte sie,\ dass das Streben nach Perfektion oft mehr erschöpft als befreit.\ Heute arbeitet sie mit Körperbewusstsein, innerer Präsenzarbeit und den Lehren Neville Goddards – als Einladung, Frieden zu verkörpern. Tina1031\@protonmail.com

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LASSEN SIE DER FRIEDENSTAUBE FLÜGEL WACHSEN!

In Kürze folgt eine Mail an alle Genossenschafter, danke für die Geduld!

Hier können Sie die Friedenstaube abonnieren und bekommen die Artikel zugesandt.

Schon jetzt können Sie uns unterstützen:

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• Ab 1000 CHF werden Sie Genossenschafter der Friedenstaube mit Stimmrecht (und bekommen lebenslanges Abo, T-Shirt/Hoodie).

Für Einzahlungen in CHF (Betreff: Friedenstaube):

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Betreff: Friedenstaube

Wenn Sie auf anderem Wege beitragen wollen, schreiben Sie die Friedenstaube an: friedenstaube@pareto.space

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Sie sind noch nicht auf Nostr and wollen die volle Erfahrung machen (liken, kommentieren etc.)? Zappen können Sie den Autor auch ohne Nostr-Profil! Erstellen Sie sich einen Account auf Start. Weitere Onboarding-Leitfäden gibt es im Pareto-Wiki.

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

The new website is finally live! I put in a lot of hard work over the past months on it. I'm proud to say that it's out now and it looks pretty cool, at least to me!

Why rewrite it all?

The old kycnot.me site was built using Python with Flask about two years ago. Since then, I've gained a lot more experience with Golang and coding in general. Trying to update that old codebase, which had a lot of design flaws, would have been a bad idea. It would have been like building on an unstable foundation.

That's why I made the decision to rewrite the entire application. Initially, I chose to use SvelteKit with JavaScript. I did manage to create a stable site that looked similar to the new one, but it required Jav aScript to work. As I kept coding, I started feeling like I was repeating "the Python mistake". I was writing the app in a language I wasn't very familiar with (just like when I was learning Python at that mom ent), and I wasn't happy with the code. It felt like spaghetti code all the time.

So, I made a complete U-turn and started over, this time using Golang. While I'm not as proficient in Golang as I am in Python now, I find it to be a very enjoyable language to code with. Most aof my recent pr ojects have been written in Golang, and I'm getting the hang of it. I tried to make the best decisions I could and structure the code as well as possible. Of course, there's still room for improvement, which I'll address in future updates.

Now I have a more maintainable website that can scale much better. It uses a real database instead of a JSON file like the old site, and I can add many more features. Since I chose to go with Golang, I mad e the "tradeoff" of not using JavaScript at all, so all the rendering load falls on the server. But I believe it's a tradeoff that's worth it.

What's new

• UI/UX - I've designed a new logo and color palette for kycnot.me. I think it looks pretty cool and cypherpunk. I am not a graphic designer, but I think I did a decent work and I put a lot of thinking on it to make it pleasant!
• Point system - The new point system provides more detailed information about the listings, and can be expanded to cover additional features across all services. Anyone can request a new point!
• ToS Scrapper: I've implemented a powerful automated terms-of-service scrapper that collects all the ToS pages from the listings. It saves you from the hassle of reading the ToS by listing the lines that are suspiciously related to KYC/AML practices. This is still in development and it will improve for sure, but it works pretty fine right now!
• Search bar - The new search bar allows you to easily filter services. It performs a full-text search on the Title, Description, Category, and Tags of all the services. Looking for VPN services? Just search for "vpn"!
• Transparency - To be more transparent, all discussions about services now take place publicly on GitLab. I won't be answering any e-mails (an auto-reply will prompt to write to the corresponding Gitlab issue). This ensures that all service-related matters are publicly accessible and recorded. Additionally, there's a real-time audits page that displays database changes.
• Listing Requests - I have upgraded the request system. The new form allows you to directly request services or points without any extra steps. In the future, I plan to enable requests for specific changes to parts of the website.
• Lightweight and fast - The new site is lighter and faster than its predecessor!
• Tor and I2P - At last! kycnot.me is now officially on Tor and I2P!

How?

This rewrite has been a labor of love, in the end, I've been working on this for more than 3 months now. I don't have a team, so I work by myself on my free time, but I find great joy in helping people on their private journey with cryptocurrencies. Making it easier for individuals to use cryptocurrencies without KYC is a goal I am proud of!

If you appreciate my work, you can support me through the methods listed here. Alternatively, feel free to send me an email with a kind message!

Technical details

All the code is written in Golang, the website makes use of the chi router for the routing part. I also make use of BigCache for caching database requests. There is 0 JavaScript, so all the rendering load falls on the server, this means it needed to be efficient enough to not drawn with a few users since the old site was reporting about 2M requests per month on average (note that this are not unique users).

The database is running with mariadb, using gorm as the ORM. This is more than enough for this project. I started working with an sqlite database, but I ended up migrating to mariadb since it works better with JSON.

The scraper is using chromedp combined with a series of keywords, regex and other logic. It runs every 24h and scraps all the services. You can find the scraper code here.

The frontend is written using Golang Templates for the HTML, and TailwindCSS plus DaisyUI for the CSS classes framework. I also use some plain CSS, but it's minimal.

The requests forms is the only part of the project that requires JavaScript to be enabled. It is needed for parsing some from fields that are a bit complex and for the "captcha", which is a simple Proof of Work that runs on your browser, destinated to avoid spam. For this, I use mCaptcha.

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

Know Your Customer is a regulation that requires companies of all sizes to verify the identity, suitability, and risks involved with maintaining a business relationship with a customer. Such procedures fit within the broader scope of anti-money laundering (AML) and counterterrorism financing (CTF) regulations.

Banks, exchanges, online business, mail providers, domain registrars... Everyone wants to know who you are before you can even opt for their service. Your personal information is flowing around the internet in the hands of "god-knows-who" and secured by "trust-me-bro military-grade encryption". Once your account is linked to your personal (and verified) identity, tracking you is just as easy as keeping logs on all these platforms.

Rights for Illusions

KYC processes aim to combat terrorist financing, money laundering, and other illicit activities. On the surface, KYC seems like a commendable initiative. I mean, who wouldn't want to halt terrorists and criminals in their tracks?

The logic behind KYC is: "If we mandate every financial service provider to identify their users, it becomes easier to pinpoint and apprehend the malicious actors."

However, terrorists and criminals are not precisely lining up to be identified. They're crafty. They may adopt false identities or find alternative strategies to continue their operations. Far from being outwitted, many times they're several steps ahead of regulations. Realistically, KYC might deter a small fraction – let's say about 1% ^1 – of these malefactors. Yet, the cost? All of us are saddled with the inconvenient process of identification just to use a service.

Under the rhetoric of "ensuring our safety", governments and institutions enact regulations that seem more out of a dystopian novel, gradually taking away our right to privacy.

To illustrate, consider a city where the mayor has rolled out facial recognition cameras in every nook and cranny. A band of criminals, intent on robbing a local store, rolls in with a stolen car, their faces obscured by masks and their bodies cloaked in all-black clothes. Once they've committed the crime and exited the city's boundaries, they switch vehicles and clothes out of the cameras' watchful eyes. The high-tech surveillance? It didn’t manage to identify or trace them. Yet, for every law-abiding citizen who merely wants to drive through the city or do some shopping, their movements and identities are constantly logged. The irony? This invasive tracking impacts all of us, just to catch the 1% ^1 of less-than-careful criminals.

KYC? Not you.

KYC creates barriers to participation in normal economic activity, to supposedly stop criminals. ^2

KYC puts barriers between many users and businesses. One of these comes from the fact that the process often requires multiple forms of identification, proof of address, and sometimes even financial records. For individuals in areas with poor record-keeping, non-recognized legal documents, or those who are unbanked, homeless or transient, obtaining these documents can be challenging, if not impossible.

For people who are not skilled with technology or just don't have access to it, there's also a barrier since KYC procedures are mostly online, leaving them inadvertently excluded.

Another barrier goes for the casual or one-time user, where they might not see the value in undergoing a rigorous KYC process, and these requirements can deter them from using the service altogether.

It also wipes some businesses out of the equation, since for smaller businesses, the costs associated with complying with KYC norms—from the actual process of gathering and submitting documents to potential delays in operations—can be prohibitive in economical and/or technical terms.

You're not welcome

Imagine a swanky new club in town with a strict "members only" sign. You hear the music, you see the lights, and you want in. You step up, ready to join, but suddenly there's a long list of criteria you must meet. After some time, you are finally checking all the boxes. But then the club rejects your membership with no clear reason why. You just weren't accepted. Frustrating, right?

This club scenario isn't too different from the fact that KYC is being used by many businesses as a convenient gatekeeping tool. A perfect excuse based on a "legal" procedure they are obliged to.

Even some exchanges may randomly use this to freeze and block funds from users, claiming these were "flagged" by a cryptic system that inspects the transactions. You are left hostage to their arbitrary decision to let you successfully pass the KYC procedure. If you choose to sidestep their invasive process, they might just hold onto your funds indefinitely.

Your identity has been stolen

KYC data has been found to be for sale on many dark net markets^3. Exchanges may have leaks or hacks, and such leaks contain very sensitive data. We're talking about the full monty: passport or ID scans, proof of address, and even those awkward selfies where you're holding up your ID next to your face. All this data is being left to the mercy of the (mostly) "trust-me-bro" security systems of such companies. Quite scary, isn't it?

As cheap as $10 for 100 documents, with discounts applying for those who buy in bulk, the personal identities of innocent users who passed KYC procedures are for sale. ^3

In short, if you have ever passed the KYC/AML process of a crypto exchange, your privacy is at risk of being compromised, or it might even have already been compromised.

(they) Know Your Coins

You may already know that Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies have a transparent public blockchain, meaning that all data is shown unencrypted for everyone to see and recorded forever. If you link an address you own to your identity through KYC, for example, by sending an amount from a KYC exchange to it, your Bitcoin is no longer pseudonymous and can then be traced.

If, for instance, you send Bitcoin from such an identified address to another KYC'ed address (say, from a friend), everyone having access to that address-identity link information (exchanges, governments, hackers, etc.) will be able to associate that transaction and know who you are transacting with.

Conclusions

To sum up, KYC does not protect individuals; rather, it's a threat to our privacy, freedom, security and integrity. Sensible information flowing through the internet is thrown into chaos by dubious security measures. It puts borders between many potential customers and businesses, and it helps governments and companies track innocent users. That's the chaos KYC has stirred.

The criminals are using stolen identities from companies that gathered them thanks to these very same regulations that were supposed to combat them. Criminals always know how to circumvent such regulations. In the end, normal people are the most affected by these policies.

The threat that KYC poses to individuals in terms of privacy, security and freedom is not to be neglected. And if we don’t start challenging these systems and questioning their efficacy, we are just one step closer to the dystopian future that is now foreseeable.

Edited 20/03/2024 * Add reference to the 1% statement on Rights for Illusions section to an article where Chainalysis found that only 0.34% of the transaction volume with cryptocurrencies in 2023 was attributable to criminal activity ^1

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

Over the past few months, I've dedicated my time to a complete rewrite of the kycnot.me website. The technology stack remains unchanged; Golang paired with TailwindCSS. However, I've made some design choices in this iteration that I believe significantly enhance the site. Particularly to backend code.

UI Improvements

You'll notice a refreshed UI that retains the original concept but has some notable enhancements. The service list view is now more visually engaging, it displays additional information in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. Both filtering and searching functionalities have been optimized for speed and user experience.

Service pages have been also redesigned to highlight key information at the top, with the KYC Level box always accessible. The display of service attributes is now more visually intuitive.

The request form, especially the Captcha, has undergone substantial improvements. The new self-made Captcha is robust, addressing the reliability issues encountered with the previous version.

Terms of Service Summarizer

A significant upgrade is the Terms of Service summarizer/reviewer, now powered by AI (GPT-4-turbo). It efficiently condenses each service's ToS, extracting and presenting critical points, including any warnings. Summaries are updated monthly, processing over 40 ToS pages via the OpenAI API using a self-crafted and thoroughly tested prompt.

Nostr Comments

I've integrated a comment section for each service using Nostr. For guidance on using this feature, visit the dedicated how-to page.

Database

The backend database has transitioned to pocketbase, an open-source Golang backend that has been a pleasure to work with. I maintain an updated fork of the Golang SDK for pocketbase at pluja/pocketbase.

Scoring

The scoring algorithm has also been refined to be more fair. Despite I had considered its removal due to the complexity it adds (it is very difficult to design a fair scoring system), some users highlighted its value, so I kept it. The updated algorithm is available open source.

Listings

Each listing has been re-evaluated, and the ones that were no longer operational were removed. New additions are included, and the backlog of pending services will be addressed progressively, since I still have access to the old database.

API

The API now offers more comprehensive data. For more details, check here.

About Page

The About page has been restructured for brevity and clarity.

Other Changes

Extensive changes have been implemented in the server-side logic, since the whole code base was re-written from the ground up. I may discuss these in a future post, but for now, I consider the current version to be just a bit beyond beta, and additional updates are planned in the coming weeks.

@ f0fd6902:a2fbaaab

Bettylou Sakura Johnson vs Molly Picklum | Lexus Trestles Pro presented by Outerknown 2025 - Final:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nfXUpcbxmA&ab_channel=WorldSurfLeague

Yago Dora vs Kanoa Igarashi | Lexus Trestles Pro presented by Outerknown 2025 - Final:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGIdse7cT4s&ab_channel=WorldSurfLeague

Ranking WSL Women and Men:

All the Highlights: Lexus Trestles Pro presented by Outerknown 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KudyJghs2E4&ab_channel=WorldSurfLeague

Every Excellent Wave - Lexus Trestles Pro presented by Outerknown 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvQU7o83l3Q&ab_channel=WorldSurfLeague

https://stacker.news/items/1007486

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

I'm launching a new service review section on this blog in collaboration with OrangeFren. These reviews are sponsored, yet the sponsorship does not influence the outcome of the evaluations. Reviews are done in advance, then, the service provider has the discretion to approve publication without modifications.

Sponsored reviews are independent from the kycnot.me list, being only part of the blog. The reviews have no impact on the scores of the listings or their continued presence on the list. Should any issues arise, I will not hesitate to remove any listing.

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The review

WizardSwap is an instant exchange centred around privacy coins. It was launched in 2020 making it old enough to have weathered the 2021 bull run and the subsequent bearish year.

| Pros | Cons | |------|------| | Tor-friendly | Limited liquidity | | Guarantee of no KYC | Overly simplistic design | | Earn by providing liquidity | |

Rating: ★★★★★ Service Website: wizardswap.io

Liquidity

Right off the bat, we'll start off by pointing out that WizardSwap relies on its own liquidity reserves, meaning they aren't just a reseller of Binance or another exchange. They're also committed to a no-KYC policy, when asking them, they even promised they would rather refund a user their original coins, than force them to undergo any sort of verification.

On the one hand, full control over all their infrastructure gives users the most privacy and conviction about the KYC policies remaining in place.

On the other hand, this means the liquidity available for swapping isn't huge. At the time of testing we could only purchase at most about 0.73 BTC with XMR.

It's clear the team behind WizardSwap is aware of this shortfall and so they've come up with a solution unique among instant exchanges. They let you, the user, deposit any of the currencies they support into your account and earn a profit on the trades made using your liquidity.

Trading

Fees on WizardSwap are middle-of-the-pack. The normal fee is 2.2%. That's more than some exchanges that reserve the right to suddenly demand you undergo verification, yet less than half the fees on some other privacy-first exchanges. However as we mentioned in the section above you can earn almost all of that fee (2%) if you provide liquidity to WizardSwap.

It's good that with the current Bitcoin fee market their fees are constant regardless of how much, or how little, you send. This is in stark contrast with some of the alternative swap providers that will charge you a massive premium when attempting to swap small amounts of BTC away.

Test trades

Test trades are always performed without previous notice to the service provider.

During our testing we performed a few test trades and found that every single time WizardSwap immediately detected the incoming transaction and the amount we received was exactly what was quoted before depositing. The fees were inline with what WizardSwap advertises.

• Monero payment proof
• Bitcoin received
• Wizardswap TX link - it's possible that this link may cease to be valid at some point in the future.

ToS and KYC

WizardSwap does not have a Terms of Service or a Privacy Policy page, at least none that can be found by users. Instead, they offer a FAQ section where they addresses some basic questions.

The site does not mention any KYC or AML practices. It also does not specify how refunds are handled in case of failure. However, based on the FAQ section "What if I send funds after the offer expires?" it can be inferred that contacting support is necessary and network fees will be deducted from any refund.

UI & Tor

WizardSwap can be visited both via your usual browser and Tor Browser. Should you decide on the latter you'll find that the website works even with the most strict settings available in the Tor Browser (meaning no JavaScript).

However, when disabling Javascript you'll miss the live support chat, as well as automatic refreshing of the trade page. The lack of the first means that you will have no way to contact support from the trade page if anything goes wrong during your swap, although you can do so by mail.

One important thing to have in mind is that if you were to accidentally close the browser during the swap, and you did not save the swap ID or your browser history is disabled, you'll have no easy way to return to the trade. For this reason we suggest when you begin a trade to copy the url or ID to someplace safe, before sending any coins to WizardSwap.

The UI you'll be greeted by is simple, minimalist, and easy to navigate. It works well not just across browsers, but also across devices. You won't have any issues using this exchange on your phone.

Getting in touch

The team behind WizardSwap appears to be most active on X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/WizardSwap_io

If you have any comments or suggestions about the exchange make sure to reach out to them. In the past they've been very receptive to user feedback, for instance a few months back WizardSwap was planning on removing DeepOnion, but the community behind that project got together ^1 and after reaching out WizardSwap reversed their decision ^2.

You can also contact them via email at: support @ wizardswap . io

Disclaimer

None of the above should be understood as investment or financial advice. The views are our own only and constitute a faithful representation of our experience in using and investigating this exchange. This review is not a guarantee of any kind on the services rendered by the exchange. Do your own research before using any service.

@ e5de992e:4a95ef85

The Innovator's Algorithm: A Deep Dive into Elon Musk's First Principles Thinking

Introduction

In the landscape of modern industry, progress often appears as a steady, predictable march forward. Companies refine their products, optimize their processes, and achieve incremental gains. Yet, periodically, an individual or an organization emerges that does not simply take the next step, but redefines the path entirely. They achieve non-linear breakthroughs that leave competitors years, or even decades, behind. Elon Musk, through ventures like SpaceX and Tesla, has become the modern archetype of this kind of innovator, repeatedly solving problems long considered impossible or impossibly expensive, from mass-market electric vehicles to affordable, reusable rockets.
The question that naturally arises is: how? Is it a matter of unique genius, unlimited resources, or sheer luck? The evidence suggests something more fundamental and, crucially, more systematic. The engine driving these revolutionary leaps is a mental model known as First Principles Thinking.
This is not a new concept, but its application by Musk has thrust it into the spotlight as a powerful tool for innovation. At its core, first principles thinking is a method of deconstruction and reconstruction. It involves a conscious rejection of the most common form of human reasoning—reasoning by analogy—where we do things because they are like things that have been done before. Instead, it demands that we break down a problem into its most fundamental, irreducible truths—the "first principles"—and reason up from that solid foundation to create entirely new solutions.
This report provides a comprehensive and actionable deconstruction of this powerful mental model. The analysis will journey from its ancient philosophical roots to its modern application in the high-stakes worlds of aerospace and automotive manufacturing. It will offer detailed, data-driven case studies of how first principles thinking has been deployed at SpaceX and Tesla to shatter industry dogma. Finally, it will synthesize these lessons into a practical, step-by-step framework, equipping leaders, entrepreneurs, and ambitious professionals with a blueprint to apply this innovator's algorithm to their own most significant challenges.

Section 1: Deconstructing the Idea: The Philosophical and Scientific Origins

To fully grasp the power of first principles thinking, one must understand that it is not a modern business-school fad or a Silicon Valley buzzword. It is a rigorous method of inquiry with a rich intellectual lineage stretching back over two millennia, used by many of history's most profound thinkers, from Aristotle to Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Its power lies in its timeless, disciplined approach to establishing true knowledge.

1.1 The Search for the Archê: From Ancient Greece to Modern Physics

The origins of this mental model lie in the philosophical inquiries of ancient Greece. Philosophers like Thales, Anaximander, and Heraclitus were engaged in a search for the archê—a Greek term meaning the "first principle," "origin," or "ultimate underlying substance" from which everything else is derived. They sought to understand the world not by accepting myths or surface appearances, but by identifying the most fundamental reality that could explain everything else.
This ancient quest for foundational truths laid the groundwork for a systematic approach to knowledge that would be formalized and championed by one of history's greatest thinkers.

1.2 Aristotle's Blueprint: Knowledge from Primary Causes

It was the Greek philosopher Aristotle who first popularized and structured the concept of first principles. He defined a first principle as “the first basis from which a thing is known”—a foundational proposition or assumption that is self-evident and cannot be deduced from any other proposition. For Aristotle, true scientific knowledge, or episteme, was not possible without understanding these primary causes. In his Metaphysics, he wrote, "in every systematic inquiry...knowledge and science result from acquiring knowledge of these; for we think we know something just in case we acquire knowledge of the primary causes, the primary first principles, all the way to the elements".
The common modern interpretation of first principles thinking as simply "breaking a problem down" is a significant oversimplification of the Aristotelian method. Aristotle provided a more structured framework for this deconstruction through his concept of the Four Causes, a diagnostic tool for understanding the fundamental nature of any object or problem :

1. The Material Cause: What is it made of? This refers to the physical matter or raw materials from which something is composed. For a statue, it is the marble; for a rocket, it is the aerospace-grade aluminum alloys.
2. The Formal Cause: What is its form, essence, or design? This is the pattern or blueprint that shapes the material. For the statue, it is the figure the sculptor carves; for a battery, it is the specific cell architecture.
3. The Efficient Cause: What agent or process brings it into being? This is the primary source of the change or creation. It is the sculptor's hands and tools, or the automated assembly line in a factory.
4. The Final Cause: What is its purpose or end goal (telos)? This is the ultimate reason for its existence. The statue's purpose might be aesthetic beauty; the rocket's purpose is to achieve affordable access to space.

By analyzing a problem through these four causal lenses, one moves beyond simple deconstruction into a comprehensive causal analysis. This framework provides a far more robust method for identifying the true, fundamental components of a problem, which, as will be shown, maps directly onto how modern innovators like Musk approach complex challenges.

1.3 The Scientific Revolution: From Philosophy to Physics

The thread of first principles thinking runs directly from Aristotle through the Scientific Revolution. Thinkers like René Descartes, the 17th-century French philosopher and scientist, embraced this approach through his method of "Cartesian Doubt." Descartes resolved to "systematically doubt everything he could possibly doubt until he was left with what he saw as purely indubitable truths". His famous conclusion, "Cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"), was his first principle—the one truth he could not doubt, from which he could begin to reconstruct knowledge.
This method had a profound impact on the development of the modern scientific method, which is fundamentally a first-principles approach. Science does not advance by simply accepting existing theories as dogma. It advances by testing hypotheses against empirical evidence and reasoning up from the foundational, established laws of nature.
This brings us to why Elon Musk often describes his approach as a "physics way of looking at the world". This is not a casual metaphor; it is a literal description of his methodology. Physics seeks to understand reality by identifying the most fundamental, non-negotiable laws (like gravity, conservation of energy, and the speed of light) and using them as the axioms from which to build models of the universe. When a model (like Newtonian mechanics) is found to be incomplete, physicists do not just tweak it; they develop a new model (like Einstein's relativity) from more fundamental principles that better explains reality.
Musk applies this same intellectual rigor to business and engineering. He views an industry's "best practices" and conventional wisdom as a flawed model of reality. His goal is to discard that model, identify the fundamental truths of the situation—the "laws of physics" for that particular problem, which might be the commodity cost of raw materials or the physical limits of a manufacturing process—and build a new, more effective solution from that foundation. This is why the method is so disruptive: it treats business challenges with the same intellectual honesty and rigor that a physicist applies to understanding the cosmos.

Section 2: The Cognitive Fork in the Road: First Principles vs. Reasoning by Analogy

To fully appreciate the power of first principles thinking, one must understand its opposite: reasoning by analogy. This is the default mode of human cognition, the well-worn path our minds naturally follow. First principles thinking is the conscious, deliberate choice to leave that path and forge a new one, a decision that requires significant mental effort but unlocks vastly different outcomes.

2.1 The Path of Least Resistance: Why We Reason by Analogy

Reasoning by analogy means making decisions and solving problems by looking for a precedent. As Musk explains, it means "copying what other people do with slight variations". We do something because it is like something else that was done, or it is what everyone else is doing.
This cognitive shortcut is not a flaw; it is a feature of an efficient brain. Our minds have evolved to conserve energy, and re-deriving every solution from scratch every day would be mentally exhausting. Analogy allows us to navigate the world quickly by leveraging the accumulated knowledge and experience of others. However, while this efficiency is useful for most daily tasks, it becomes a severe limitation when the goal is not just to function, but to innovate.
The distinction between these two modes of thought is powerfully illustrated by several metaphors found in the works of thinkers who study this topic :

• The Chef vs. The Cook: The cook reasons by analogy. They follow a recipe, a pre-existing solution, to create something that has been made before. Their knowledge is effective but fragile; if the recipe is lost, the cook is "screwed". The chef, in contrast, reasons from first principles. They understand the fundamental properties of ingredients, the chemistry of heat, and the principles of flavor combination. They can invent new recipes because they possess true, foundational knowledge.
• The Coach vs. The Play-Stealer: The play-stealer reasons by analogy. They copy plays from other teams, running them without a deep understanding of their design. The coach reasons from first principles. They understand the rules of the game, the physics of motion, and the specific capabilities of their players. They design novel plays from this foundational knowledge. When a play fails, the play-stealer is lost, but the coach understands why it failed and can adjust it, because they designed it from its core components.

In both cases, the analogical thinker is dependent on the work of others, while the first-principles thinker is capable of generating original solutions.

2.2 The Traps of Analogical Thinking

Relying on analogy as the primary tool for solving complex problems creates several cognitive traps that stifle innovation.
Trap 1: Optimizing Form Over Function Reasoning by analogy often leads us to optimize the existing form of a solution, rather than rethinking its essential function. A powerful example of this is the rolling suitcase. For thousands of years, humans had bags (form) and wheels (form), yet the rolling suitcase was not invented until 1970. For centuries, innovation focused on making better bags (new materials, zippers, more pockets), optimizing the existing form. The breakthrough came only when Bernard Sadow, observing a worker rolling a heavy machine on a wheeled skid, shifted his focus from the form ("a better bag") to the function ("a better way to move belongings").
A similar modern example is the perennial question, "Where are the flying cars?". This question reveals a fixation on a specific form (a car that flies) while completely overlooking that the function (personal air transportation) has been solved, just in a different form (airplanes). Analogical thinking gets stuck on the car, while first principles thinking focuses on the flying.
Trap 2: The Prison of Dogma and Convention Analogy is the mechanism by which dogma and convention are perpetuated. Phrases like "we do it this way because it's how it's always been done" are the hallmark of analogical reasoning. This mode of thought prevents us from questioning the shared beliefs that underpin our industries and societies. As thinkers like Shane Parrish of Farnam Street note, everything that is not an immutable law of nature—from the value of money to the existence of national borders—is ultimately just a shared belief. Analogy reinforces these beliefs, while first principles thinking gives us permission to question them.
Trap 3: The Illusion of Progress Reasoning by analogy is the engine of incremental improvement. It allows for continuous, linear progress within the boundaries of an existing vision. However, it rarely, if ever, leads to breakthrough innovation. It sets a company on a trajectory of making a slightly better version of what already exists. As author James Clear puts it, without first principles, "you spend your time making small improvements to a bicycle rather than a snowmobile". The trajectory is different from the very beginning.

2.3 First Principles as the Escape Route

First principles thinking is the conscious and disciplined act of escaping these cognitive traps. It requires abandoning our allegiance to previous forms and inherited conventions. It forces a shift in focus from "how can we make this existing thing 10% better?" to the more fundamental questions: "What are we actually trying to accomplish? What is the functional outcome we seek? And what is the most direct, physically possible way to achieve it?" By starting from this clean slate, built only on a foundation of verified truths, we open up a new, unconstrained solution space where true innovation can occur.

Section 3: Case Study I - The SpaceX Revolution: Deconstructing the Cost of Reaching for the Stars

Perhaps no example better illustrates the raw, disruptive power of first principles thinking than the story of SpaceX. By applying this mental model to an industry ossified by decades of convention and cost-plus government contracting, Elon Musk did not just create a new rocket company; he fundamentally altered humanity's economic relationship with space.

3.1 The "Impossible" Problem: The Astronomical Cost of Rockets

The story begins in 2002. After selling PayPal, Musk turned his attention to his goal of making humanity a multi-planetary species, starting with a mission to Mars. His initial plan was not to build rockets, but to buy them. However, after inquiries in the United States and Russia, he discovered that the cost was astronomical, with prices as high as $65 million for a single launch. The aerospace industry operated on a deeply entrenched assumption: rockets are, and always will be, incredibly expensive.
The prevailing analogy governing the industry was that rockets were like ammunition—complex, high-performance machines designed for a single, fiery use before being discarded. This dogma had gone largely unchallenged for half a century, leading to a culture of inefficiency and a lack of financial incentive to innovate on cost.

3.2 Applying the "Physics Framework": Deconstructing the Rocket

Faced with this "impossible" price tag, Musk did not try to negotiate a 10% discount or find a slightly cheaper supplier. He rejected the analogy and instead applied his "physics framework". He began a first principles deconstruction of the rocket, starting with Aristotle's Material Cause. He asked the simple, foundational question: "What is a rocket made of?".
The answer was not some unobtainable, magical substance. It was a list of industrial commodities: aerospace-grade aluminum alloys, titanium, copper, and carbon fiber. His next step was to determine the cost of these materials on the open commodity market. The result of this analysis was the critical insight that ignited the SpaceX revolution: the raw material cost of a rocket was only about 2% of the typical sale price.
This single data point was transformative. It proved that the high cost of rockets was not a fundamental truth of physics or economics. It was a man-made artifact, a consequence of the industry's Efficient Cause—the accumulated inefficiencies of bloated supply chains, legacy manufacturing processes, and cost-plus contracting models that rewarded complexity rather than simplicity. The discovery that 98% of the cost was not in the "what" but in the "how" revealed the true problem to be solved: inefficiency.

3.3 Rebuilding from the Ground Up: Vertical Integration and Reusability

With the fundamental problem identified, the solution path became clear. The strategy had to be about attacking the 98% inefficiency gap. This led to two core strategic pillars for SpaceX, both direct consequences of first principles thinking.
The Logic of Vertical Integration: If the exorbitant cost was embedded in the traditional aerospace supply chain, the only way to escape it was to build a new one. This led to SpaceX's strategy of extreme vertical integration. By designing and manufacturing over 70-90% of its rocket components in-house, SpaceX could control the entire process, re-engineer it for efficiency, and bypass the layers of middlemen and legacy contractors that defined the old way of doing business.
The Reusability Revolution: The most radical innovation was to challenge the foundational analogy of the expendable rocket. Musk asked the quintessential first principles question: "Why can't rockets be reused?". Reasoning by analogy provided a simple answer: because it's too hard; NASA and the Soviet Union never achieved it, so it must be nearly impossible. But reasoning from the first principles of physics and engineering provided a different answer: while difficult, there was no law of physics preventing a rocket from taking off and landing again. It was a solvable engineering challenge. This led to the decade-long development of the Falcon 9, the first orbital-class rocket capable of landing its first stage for rapid reuse, a feat that has fundamentally changed the economics of spaceflight.

3.4 The Staggering Results: Quantifying the Disruption

The impact of this first-principles-driven approach is not theoretical; it is starkly visible in the numbers. The cost of access to space has plummeted, creating a paradigm shift in the industry.
Table 1: The Economics of Space Access - A Comparative Analysis

| Launch System | Operator | Era | Cost per Launch (Approx. USD) | Payload to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) (kg) | Cost per kg to LEO (Approx. USD) | | :---- | :---- | :---- | :---- | :---- | :---- | | Space Shuttle | NASA | 1981-2011 | $1.5 Billion | 27,500 | $54,500 | | Delta IV Heavy | ULA | 2004-2024 | $400 Million | 28,790 | $13,900 | | Ariane 5 | Arianespace | 1996-2023 | $200 Million | 21,000 | $9,500 | | Falcon 9 (Reusable) | SpaceX | 2015-Present | $67 Million | 17,500 | $3,800 | | Falcon 9 (Expended) | SpaceX | 2015-Present | $90 Million | 22,800 | $3,950 | | Starship (Target) | SpaceX | Future | $10 Million (Target) | 150,000 | \<$100 (Target) |

Sources:
The data in Table 1 reveals the scale of the disruption. Prior to SpaceX, launch costs had remained stubbornly high for decades, with the Space Shuttle costing over $54,000 per kilogram to orbit. SpaceX's Falcon 9 reduced that cost by a factor of nearly 20. With Starship, the company's next-generation fully reusable vehicle, the target is a further reduction of more than 100-fold, potentially driving the cost below $100 per kilogram. This is not incremental improvement. This is a complete re-writing of the rules of an industry, born directly from the process of deconstructing a problem to its fundamental truths and reasoning up from there.

Section 4: Case Study II - The Tesla Disruption: Rebuilding the Automobile from the Atom Up

The application of first principles thinking within Musk's ventures did not stop at the edge of space. At Tesla, the same mental model has been systematically applied to disrupt the century-old automotive industry, first by deconstructing the economics of the electric vehicle's most critical component, and now by deconstructing the very process of manufacturing itself. This demonstrates a clear evolution in the application of the framework, moving from a single component to an entire system of production.

4.1 Part A: The Battery Cost Problem

When Tesla began its mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy, it faced a monumental obstacle: the prohibitive cost of lithium-ion batteries. The prevailing analogy in the automotive and electronics industries was simple and seemingly unbreakable: "Battery packs are expensive, and they always will be".
The Prevailing Analogy: Industry experts and analysts pointed to the historical cost, which hovered around $600 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), and projected only slow, incremental improvements. This single data point was the foundation of the argument that affordable, long-range electric vehicles were not commercially viable for the mass market.
Musk's Deconstruction: Mirroring his approach at SpaceX, Musk rejected the industry's top-down price and instead began a bottom-up analysis from first principles. He asked the fundamental question of Material Cause: "What are the material constituents of the batteries?". He publicly listed the core components: cobalt, nickel, aluminum, carbon (for the anode), lithium, polymers for the separator, and a steel can for the cell housing.
The Commodity Market Truth: The next step was to price these raw materials on the commodity markets, such as the London Metal Exchange. This analysis revealed a staggering discrepancy. The fundamental cost of the raw materials required to make a battery was not $600/kWh, but closer to $80/kWh.
Table 2: Deconstructing the Battery - Market Price vs. Material Truth (Illustrative)

| Component Material | Function | Illustrative Material Cost per kWh (USD) | | :---- | :---- | :---- | | Nickel | Cathode Material | $25 | | Graphite (Carbon) | Anode Material | $10 | | Lithium | Charge Carrier | $15 | | Cobalt | Cathode Stabilizer | $8 | | Aluminum | Cathode Conductor / Casing | $5 | | Copper | Anode Conductor | $7 | | Polymers & Electrolyte | Separator & Ion Transport | $5 | | Steel Can & Assembly | Housing & Manufacturing Overhead | $5 | | Sum of Material & Basic Processing Costs | | \~$80 | | Historical Industry Price (c. 2012) | | \~$600 | | The "Inefficiency Gap" | | \~$520 |

Note: The costs in this table are illustrative, based on public statements by Musk and general market conditions around 2012 to demonstrate the principle of the analysis. Actual costs vary with chemistry and market fluctuations. Sources:
The conclusion from this analysis was identical to the one for rockets: the high cost was not a law of physics, but an artifact of inefficient processes. As Musk stated, "Clearly you just need to think of clever ways to take those materials and combine them into the shape of a battery cell, and you can have batteries that are much, much cheaper than anyone realizes". This insight drove Tesla's massive investment in battery R\&D and manufacturing, leading to innovations in the Formal Cause (the design of the larger, tabless 4680 cell) and the Efficient Cause (pioneering a more efficient dry-electrode manufacturing process) to systematically attack the "inefficiency gap" and drive down costs.

4.2 Part B: The Factory as the Product - The "Unboxed" Revolution

Having applied first principles to the car's key components, Tesla is now applying the same thinking to the entire system of production. The new guiding principle is that the factory itself is the ultimate product, and that the "machine that builds the machine" must be designed for maximum physical efficiency.
Deconstructing the Assembly Line: The target for deconstruction is the century-old automotive assembly line, an invention of Henry Ford that has become the unquestioned analogy for mass manufacturing. A first principles analysis reveals its fundamental limitation: it is a linear, sequential process. A car body moves down a line, and parts are added one after another. This creates a physical bottleneck; only a limited number of people or robots can work on a five-meter-long object at any given time, limiting the speed and density of the operation.
The "Unboxed" Solution: Tesla's proposed solution, known as the "Unboxed Process" or Global Automotive Modular Evolution (GAME), is a complete reconstruction of the manufacturing process from the ground up.

• Core Idea: Instead of building a car body and moving it down a line, the new method involves building the car in large, separate modules—such as the front body, rear body, structural battery pack, and side panels—in parallel sub-assembly lines. These fully completed and even painted modules only come together for final assembly at the very end.
• Enabling Technology: This radical rethinking of the Efficient Cause is made possible by a corresponding innovation in the Material and Formal Causes: "giga-casting." Tesla uses enormous high-pressure die-casting machines to produce huge sections of the car's underbody as a single piece. This one innovation eliminates hundreds of individual stamped metal parts and the complex welding and joining processes they required.
• The Result: This parallel process allows more people and robots to work on the vehicle simultaneously in an open, accessible space before it is "boxed" up. Tesla projects this will reduce manufacturing costs by as much as 50% and shrink the required factory footprint by over 40%. It represents a step-change in operator density and space-time efficiency, moving car manufacturing closer to the efficiency of assembling consumer electronics like Lego blocks.

This journey from deconstructing a battery to deconstructing a factory shows a powerful co-evolution. The first principles analysis of vehicle structure identified part-count and assembly complexity as a primary inefficiency. This created the demand for a new technology—giga-casting—to solve that fundamental problem. The existence of giga-casting, in turn, enabled a completely new and more efficient manufacturing process—the unboxed factory. This demonstrates a virtuous cycle where first principles thinking drives technological innovation, which then unlocks the possibility for even more radical process innovation.

Section 5: Your Blueprint for First Principles Thinking: A Practical Guide

Understanding the philosophy and seeing its effects in high-profile case studies is inspiring, but the true value of a mental model lies in its application. First principles thinking is not an esoteric art reserved for billionaire entrepreneurs; it is a disciplined, systematic process that can be learned and applied to any significant challenge, professional or personal. The goal is to move from passively accepting the world "as is" to actively imagining it "as it could be," constrained only by fundamental, evidence-based truths.
This section synthesizes the various practical methodologies described by practitioners and analysts into a single, robust, four-step framework for deconstruction and reconstruction.

5.1 The Four-Step Framework for Deconstruction and Reconstruction

This framework is an algorithm for converting unexamined assumptions into innovative solutions built on a foundation of truth.
Step 1: Identify and Isolate the Problem & Your Assumptions Before you can deconstruct a problem, you must define it with precision and make your implicit beliefs about it explicit.

• Pinpoint the Problem: Clearly articulate the specific challenge you are trying to solve. Vague problem statements lead to vague solutions. Be sharp and focused. For example, instead of "I want to be more successful," a better problem statement is "I need to increase my project's user acquisition by 50% in the next six months".
• List Your Assumptions: This is the most critical part of the first step. List every assumption, convention, and "best practice" you hold about the problem. Ask yourself: What do I believe to be true about this situation? Why do I believe it? What does my industry or community accept as gospel? For example, if the problem is growing a business, an assumption might be, "Growing my business will require a large marketing budget". The goal is to create a comprehensive inventory of the beliefs that are currently constraining your thinking.

Step 2: Deconstruct to Fundamental Truths with Rigorous Questioning This is the analytical core of the process, where you systematically test the validity of the assumptions you listed in Step 1. The goal is to break the problem down until you are left with only irreducible, evidence-based components—the first principles. Two powerful techniques are central to this step.

• Technique A: Socratic Questioning This disciplined, systematic questioning process, named after the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, is designed to uncover truths, reveal underlying assumptions, and separate knowledge from ignorance. It is a dialogue with yourself or your team, guided by a series of probing questions :
• Clarifying Your Thinking: What exactly do I mean by [concept]? Why do I think this is important?
• Challenging Assumptions: How do I know this is true? What if I thought the opposite? What if this assumption is no longer valid?
• Looking for Evidence: What is the source for this belief? How can I back this up with data? Is this a universal fact or a shared opinion?
• Considering Alternative Perspectives: What might others think? How would an expert in a different field view this? How do I know I am correct?
• Examining Consequences and Implications: What are the consequences if I am wrong? What are the logical implications of this belief?
• Questioning the Original Question: Why did I ask that question in the first place? Was it the right question to ask?
• Technique B: The Five Whys This technique, popularized by the Toyota Production System, is a simpler, more intuitive method for drilling down to the root cause of a problem. It mirrors the relentless curiosity of a child. You start with your problem and ask "Why?" repeatedly until you can no longer provide a factual answer. That final, unanswerable point often reveals the true, fundamental issue.
• Example: Declining Sales Revenue
  1. Problem: Sales revenue declined last quarter. Why?
  2. Answer 1: Because our customer acquisition rate dropped. Why?
  3. Answer 2: Because our website traffic has decreased. Why?
  4. Answer 3: Because our search engine ranking for key terms has fallen. Why?
  5. Answer 4: Because a competitor has published more comprehensive, helpful content that now outranks ours. Why?
  6. Answer 5: Because our content strategy has not adapted to meet the evolving needs and search intent of our target audience. This process peels back the layers of symptoms to reveal the root cause, which is a strategic issue with content, not just a tactical sales problem.

Step 3: Rebuild Your Approach from a New Foundation Once you have broken the problem down to its fundamental truths, the final step is to reconstruct a solution from these new building blocks, free from the constraints of your original assumptions.

• Focus on Function: Begin by stating the core function you are trying to achieve. Ignore the form of previous solutions. In the sales example, the function is not "to run more ads" but "to provide the most valuable information to our target audience to attract and convert them."
• Brainstorm from Scratch: Working from your newly established first principles, generate novel solutions. How can you achieve the desired function in the most direct and effective way? This is the stage for creativity and "out-of-the-box" thinking.
• Combine and Synthesize: Look for opportunities to combine ideas and components from different domains, just as the snowmobile was conceived by combining parts from a bicycle, a tank, and a boat.

Step 4: Implement, Test, and Iterate (The Role of Failure) A solution derived from first principles is, by its nature, a new theory about how to solve a problem. Like any scientific theory, it must be tested against reality.

• Frame as an Experiment: Treat the implementation of your new solution not as a final deployment, but as an experiment designed to test a hypothesis. This reframes the entire endeavor and manages expectations.
• Embrace Failure as Data: In this framework, failure is not an endpoint or a mark of defeat; it is a critical form of data collection. When an experiment fails, it provides invaluable information about how your reconstructed model deviates from reality. It is the feedback loop that allows you to refine your understanding of the first principles and iterate on your solution.
• Cultivate a "Fail-Fast, Learn-Fast" Culture: This contrasts sharply with an analogical system, where failure is often seen as a deviation to be punished. In a first-principles-driven system, the goal is to accelerate the rate of learning by accelerating the rate of (controlled) failure. This iterative process of building, testing, failing, and learning is what ultimately leads to a robust and revolutionary solution. The implementation and testing phase is not merely a follow-on activity; it is the crucial verification mechanism for the entire thinking process.

Section 6: The Innovator's Edge and Its Burdens: A Nuanced View

Adopting first principles thinking offers a profound competitive advantage, but it is not a panacea. It is a mentally demanding and often difficult process, fraught with its own unique challenges and risks. Acknowledging both the immense benefits and the significant burdens is essential for its successful application.

6.1 The Benefits: Why It's Worth the Effort

The reasons to undertake this cognitively expensive process are compelling, as they offer rewards that are often non-linear and transformative.

• Unlocking True Innovation: This is the most significant benefit. First principles thinking is the most reliable path from making incremental improvements on existing ideas to generating genuine, breakthrough solutions. It allows individuals and organizations to move from linear to non-linear results, creating entirely new categories or fundamentally reshaping existing ones.
• Developing a Defensible Moat: Solutions built from a unique understanding of fundamental truths are inherently difficult for competitors to copy. A competitor reasoning by analogy will only see the surface-level product or strategy; they will not understand the deep, first-principles reasoning that led to its creation, making their attempts to replicate it shallow and ineffective.
• Achieving Unparalleled Clarity and Efficiency: By stripping away the noise of convention, historical baggage, and flawed assumptions, this method allows a thinker to focus on the true root cause of a problem. This prevents wasted time, energy, and resources on addressing mere symptoms, leading to more direct and efficient strategies.
• Thinking for Yourself: Ultimately, reasoning from first principles is one of the best ways to learn how to think for yourself. It breaks the dependency on the ideas and frameworks of others, fostering intellectual independence and the confidence to tackle problems that have never been solved before.

6.2 The Burdens: The Challenges and Risks of Thinking from Scratch

Despite its power, first principles thinking is difficult and comes with significant risks that must be managed.

• High Cognitive Load: As Musk and others have noted, it takes far more mental energy and time to reason from first principles than to reason by analogy. It is a deliberate, slow, and analytical process that is not practical or necessary for every decision.
• The Expertise Paradox: This is perhaps the central challenge of applying the method effectively. On one hand, it requires deep domain expertise to correctly identify the true, fundamental principles of a complex field. A novice attempting to deconstruct a problem in particle physics or automotive engineering without sufficient knowledge is likely to arrive at naive and incorrect conclusions. On the other hand, that very expertise can be a trap, creating dogma and blind spots that prevent the expert from questioning the conventions of their own field. The solution to this paradox lies in cultivating a "beginner's mind" while possessing expert knowledge, or in building teams with diverse perspectives that can challenge the expert's ingrained assumptions.
• The Risk of Overconfidence: Successfully deconstructing a problem and arriving at a contrarian conclusion through what feels like impeccable logic can lead to a dangerous sense of overconfidence. This is especially risky if the analysis has missed a single, crucial piece of information that the "experts" knew all along. The history of innovation is littered with individuals who were certain they had reinvented the wheel, only to discover their reasoning was flawed.
• The "Wrong Set of True Principles" Failure: The most subtle and pernicious failure mode occurs when the reasoning process is logically sound and every base axiom used is, in fact, true. Failure can still occur if the thinker has selected the wrong set of true principles to build their argument upon. For example, one could build a perfectly logical business model based on the true principles of user engagement and viral growth, only to find it fails because it ignored the more relevant (and equally true) principles of unit economics. The elegance of a logical argument is no substitute for its utility in the real world. This highlights a critical point: the ultimate arbiter of a first-principles analysis is not its internal logical consistency, but its effectiveness when tested against reality.

Conclusion: Answering Your Challenge

First principles thinking is more than a problem-solving technique; it is a disciplined and rigorous mindset for engaging with reality. It represents the fundamental difference between following a map created by others and learning to read the terrain to draw your own. The former is a process of analogy, efficient and reliable on well-trodden paths. The latter is a process of deconstruction and discovery, demanding but essential for navigating uncharted territory and finding new destinations.
The case studies of SpaceX and Tesla are not just stories of entrepreneurial success; they are powerful demonstrations of this mental algorithm in action. At SpaceX, deconstructing the cost of a rocket to its raw materials revealed that 98% of the price was not a physical necessity but a human-created inefficiency, paving the way for the revolution of reusability. At Tesla, the same process exposed the gap between the market price of batteries and their fundamental material cost, unlocking the path to the mass-market electric vehicle. Now, with the "unboxed" manufacturing concept, this thinking is being applied to the factory itself, treating the century-old assembly line as just another assumption to be questioned and rebuilt from the ground up.
This brings us to the ultimate application of this framework: using it to address your own most significant challenges. The prompt for deeper learning asks: “What are the fundamental truths behind my biggest challenge today, and how can I rebuild my strategy from scratch like Elon Musk would?”
To answer this question is to begin the first principles process yourself.
Start by isolating your biggest challenge—be it a business goal, a career path, or a personal ambition. Then, apply the first step of the framework: identify and list every single assumption you hold about it. What are the "rules" you believe are unbreakable? What is the conventional wisdom you have accepted without question?

• "To have a secure career, I must follow a traditional corporate path."
• "My industry has always operated this way, so it must continue to do so."
• "I don't have enough capital/time/experience to pursue my real goal."
• "This problem is too complex to be solved."

These are the analogies and dogmas that define the boundaries of your current thinking. The next step is to take each one and subject it to the rigorous questioning of the Socratic method or the Five Whys. How do you know it's true? What is the evidence? What if the opposite were true? Deconstruct these beliefs until you are left only with what you can prove to be a fundamental, unshakeable truth.
From that new, solid foundation of truth, you can begin to rebuild. You can construct a new strategy, a new path, a new solution—one that is not constrained by the inherited limitations of others, but is based on what is actually possible.
The process is difficult. It requires more mental energy than simply following the crowd. It demands intellectual honesty and the courage to discard long-held beliefs. But it is this very process that separates incremental improvement from non-linear breakthroughs. The first step to thinking like an innovator is not to conjure a brilliant idea out of thin air, but to have the courage to fundamentally question what you already believe to be true. In doing so, you can begin to see the world not just as it is, but as it could be.

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Bitcoin enthusiasts frequently and correctly remark how much value it adds to Bitcoin not to have a face, a leader, or a central authority behind it. This particularity means there isn't a single person to exert control over, or a single human point of failure who could become corrupt or harmful to the project.

Because of this, it is said that no other coin can be equally valuable as Bitcoin in terms of decentralization and trustworthiness. Bitcoin is unique not just for being first, but also because of how the events behind its inception developed. This implies that, from Bitcoin onwards, any coin created would have been created by someone, consequently having an authority behind it. For this and some other reasons, some people refer to Bitcoin as "The Immaculate Conception".

While other coins may have their own unique features and advantages, they may not be able to replicate Bitcoin's community-driven nature. However, one other cryptocurrency shares a similar story of mystery behind its creation: Monero.

History of Monero

Bytecoin and CryptoNote

In March 2014, a Bitcointalk thread titled "Bytecoin. Secure, private, untraceable since 2012" was initiated by a user under the nickname "DStrange"^1^. DStrange presented Bytecoin (BCN) as a unique cryptocurrency, in operation since July 2012. Unlike Bitcoin, it employed a new algorithm known as CryptoNote.

DStrange apparently stumbled upon the Bytecoin website by chance while mining a dying bitcoin fork, and decided to create a thread on Bitcointalk^1^. This sparked curiosity among some users, who wondered how could Bytecoin remain unnoticed since its alleged launch in 2012 until then^2^.

Some time after, a user brought up the "CryptoNote v2.0" whitepaper for the first time, underlining its innovative features^4^. Authored by the pseudonymous Nicolas van Saberhagen in October 2013, the CryptoNote v2 whitepaper^5^ highlighted the traceability and privacy problems in Bitcoin. Saberhagen argued that these flaws could not be quickly fixed, suggesting it would be more efficient to start a new project rather than trying to patch the original^5^, an statement simmilar to the one from Satoshi Nakamoto^6^.

Checking with Saberhagen's digital signature, the release date of the whitepaper seemed correct, which would mean that Cryptonote (v1) was created in 2012^7^, although there's an important detail: "Signing time is from the clock on the signer's computer" ^9^.

Moreover, the whitepaper v1 contains a footnote link to a Bitcointalk post dated May 5, 2013^10^, making it impossible for the whitepaper to have been signed and released on December 12, 2012.

As the narrative developed, users discovered that a significant 80% portion of Bytecoin had been pre-mined^11^ and blockchain dates seemed to be faked to make it look like it had been operating since 2012, leading to controversy surrounding the project.

The origins of CryptoNote and Bytecoin remain mysterious, leaving suspicions of a possible scam attempt, although the whitepaper had a good amount of work and thought on it.

The fork

In April 2014, the Bitcointalk user thankful_for_today, who had also participated in the Bytecoin thread^12^, announced plans to launch a Bytecoin fork named Bitmonero^13^.

The primary motivation behind this fork was "Because there is a number of technical and marketing issues I wanted to do differently. And also because I like ideas and technology and I want it to succeed"^14^. This time Bitmonero did things different from Bytecoin: there was no premine or instamine, and no portion of the block reward went to development.

However, thankful_for_today proposed controversial changes that the community disagreed with. Johnny Mnemonic relates the events surrounding Bitmonero and thankful_for_today in a Bitcointalk comment^15^:

When thankful_for_today launched BitMonero [...] he ignored everything that was discussed and just did what he wanted. The block reward was considerably steeper than what everyone was expecting. He also moved forward with 1-minute block times despite everyone's concerns about the increase of orphan blocks. He also didn't address the tail emission concern that should've (in my opinion) been in the code at launch time. Basically, he messed everything up. Then, he disappeared.

After disappearing for a while, thankful_for_today returned to find that the community had taken over the project. Johnny Mnemonic continues:

I, and others, started working on new forks that were closer to what everyone else was hoping for. [...] it was decided that the BitMonero project should just be taken over. There were like 9 or 10 interested parties at the time if my memory is correct. We voted on IRC to drop the "bit" from BitMonero and move forward with the project. Thankful_for_today suddenly resurfaced, and wasn't happy to learn the community had assumed control of the coin. He attempted to maintain his own fork (still calling it "BitMonero") for a while, but that quickly fell into obscurity.

The unfolding of these events show us the roots of Monero. Much like Satoshi Nakamoto, the creators behind CryptoNote/Bytecoin and thankful_for_today remain a mystery^17^, having disappeared without a trace. This enigma only adds to Monero's value.

Since community took over development, believing in the project's potential and its ability to be guided in a better direction, Monero was given one of Bitcoin's most important qualities: a leaderless nature. With no single face or entity directing its path, Monero is safe from potential corruption or harm from a "central authority".

The community continued developing Monero until today. Since then, Monero has undergone a lot of technological improvements, migrations and achievements such as RingCT and RandomX. It also has developed its own Community Crowdfundinc System, conferences such as MoneroKon and Monerotopia are taking place every year, and has a very active community around it.

Monero continues to develop with goals of privacy and security first, ease of use and efficiency second. ^16^

This stands as a testament to the power of a dedicated community operating without a central figure of authority. This decentralized approach aligns with the original ethos of cryptocurrency, making Monero a prime example of community-driven innovation. For this, I thank all the people involved in Monero, that lead it to where it is today.

If you find any information that seems incorrect, unclear or any missing important events, please contact me and I will make the necessary changes.

Sources of interest

• https://forum.getmonero.org/20/general-discussion/211/history-of-monero
• https://monero.stackexchange.com/questions/852/what-is-the-origin-of-monero-and-its-relationship-to-bytecoin
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583449.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=563821.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=233561
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=512747.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=740112.0
• https://monero.stackexchange.com/a/1024
• https://inspec2t-project.eu/cryptocurrency-with-a-focus-on-anonymity-these-facts-are-known-about-monero/
• https://medium.com/coin-story/coin-perspective-13-riccardo-spagni-69ef82907bd1
• https://www.getmonero.org/resources/about/
• https://www.wired.com/2017/01/monero-drug-dealers-cryptocurrency-choice-fire/
• https://www.monero.how/why-monero-vs-bitcoin
• https://old.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/u8e5yr/satoshi_nakamoto_talked_about_privacy_features/

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

— ODELL (@ODELL) October 27, 2022

The Basics

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

There is no 'Lightning Network'

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

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

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

Lightning in Practice

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

Sovereign Lightning

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

The Potential Fracture of Lightning

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

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

Summary

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

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

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

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What is KYC/AML?

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

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

Lists of Bitcoiners

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full Text of Bill

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

I've been thinking about how to improve my seed backup in a cheap and cool way, mostly for fun. Until now, I had the seed written on a piece of paper in a desk drawer, and I wanted something more durable and fire-proof.

Show me the final result!

After searching online, I found two options I liked the most: the Cryptosteel Capsule and the Trezor Keep. These products are nice but quite expensive, and I didn't want to spend that much on my seed backup. Privacy is also important, and sharing details like a shipping address makes me uncomfortable. This concern has grown since the Ledger incident^1. A $5 wrench attack^2 seems too cheap, even if you only hold a few sats.

Upon seeing the design of Cryptosteel, I considered creating something similar at home. Although it may not be as cool as their device, it could offer almost the same in terms of robustness and durability.

Step 1: Get the materials and tools

When choosing the materials, you will want to go with stainless steel. It is durable, resistant to fire, water, and corrosion, very robust, and does not rust. Also, its price point is just right; it's not the cheapest, but it's cheap for the value you get.

I went to a material store and bought:

• Two bolts
• Two hex nuts and head nuts for the bolts
• A bag of 30 washers

All items were made of stainless steel. The total price was around €6. This is enough for making two seed backups.

You will also need:

• A set of metal letter stamps (I bought a 2mm-size letter kit since my washers were small, 6mm in diameter)
  • You can find these in local stores or online marketplaces. The set I bought cost me €13.
• A good hammer
• A solid surface to stamp on

Total spent: 19€ for two backups

Step 2: Stamp and store

Once you have all the materials, you can start stamping your words. There are many videos on the internet that use fancy 3D-printed tools to get the letters nicely aligned, but I went with the free-hand option. The results were pretty decent.

I only stamped the first 4 letters for each word since the BIP-39 wordlist allows for this. Because my stamping kit did not include numbers, I used alphabet letters to define the order. This way, if all the washers were to fall off, I could still reassemble the seed correctly.

The final result

So this is the final result. I added two smaller washers as protection and also put the top washer reversed so the letters are not visible:

Compared to the Cryptosteel or the Trezor Keep, its size is much more compact. This makes for an easier-to-hide backup, in case you ever need to hide it inside your human body.

Some ideas

Tamper-evident seal

To enhance the security this backup, you can consider using a tamper-evident seal. This can be easily achieved by printing a unique image or using a specific day's newspaper page (just note somewhere what day it was).

Apply a thin layer of glue to the washer's surface and place the seal over it. If someone attempts to access the seed, they will be forced to destroy the seal, which will serve as an evident sign of tampering.

This simple measure will provide an additional layer of protection and allow you to quickly identify any unauthorized access attempts.

Note that this method is not resistant to outright theft. The tamper-evident seal won't stop a determined thief but it will prevent them from accessing your seed without leaving any trace.

Redundancy

Make sure to add redundancy. Make several copies of this cheap backup, and store them in separate locations.

Unique wordset

Another layer of security could be to implement your own custom mnemonic dictionary. However, this approach has the risk of permanently losing access to your funds if not implemented correctly.

If done properly, you could potentially end up with a highly secure backup, as no one else would be able to derive the seed phrase from it. To create your custom dictionary, assign a unique number from 1 to 2048 to a word of your choice. Maybe you could use a book, and index the first 2048 unique words that appear. Make sure to store this book and even get a couple copies of it (digitally and phisically).

This self-curated set of words will serve as your personal BIP-39 dictionary. When you need to translate between your custom dictionary and the official BIP-39 wordlist, simply use the index number to find the corresponding word in either list.

Never write the idex or words on your computer (Do not use Ctr+F)

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

kycnot.me features a somewhat hidden tool that some users may not be aware of. Every month, an automated job crawls every listed service's Terms of Service (ToS) and FAQ pages and conducts an AI-driven analysis, generating a comprehensive overview that highlights key points related to KYC and user privacy.

Here's an example: Changenow's Tos Review

Why?

ToS pages typically contain a lot of complicated text. Since the first versions of kycnot.me, I have tried to provide users a comprehensive overview of what can be found in such documents. This automated method keeps the information up-to-date every month, which was one of the main challenges with manual updates.

A significant part of the time I invest in investigating a service for kycnot.me involves reading the ToS and looking for any clauses that might indicate aggressive KYC practices or privacy concerns. For the past four years, I performed this task manually. However, with advancements in language models, this process can now be somewhat automated. I still manually review the ToS for a quick check and regularly verify the AI’s findings. However, over the past three months, this automated method has proven to be quite reliable.

Having a quick ToS overview section allows users to avoid reading the entire ToS page. Instead, you can quickly read the important points that are grouped, summarized, and referenced, making it easier and faster to understand the key information.

Limitations

This method has a key limitation: JS-generated pages. For this reason, I was using Playwright in my crawler implementation. I plan to make a release addressing this issue in the future. There are also sites that don't have ToS/FAQ pages, but these sites already include a warning in that section.

Another issue is false positives. Although not very common, sometimes the AI might incorrectly interpret something harmless as harmful. Such errors become apparent upon reading; it's clear when something marked as bad should not be categorized as such. I manually review these cases regularly, checking for anything that seems off and then removing any inaccuracies.

Overall, the automation provides great results.

How?

There have been several iterations of this tool. Initially, I started with GPT-3.5, but the results were not good in any way. It made up many things, and important thigs were lost on large ToS pages. I then switched to GPT-4 Turbo, but it was expensive. Eventually, I settled on Claude 3 Sonnet, which provides a quality compromise between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 Turbo at a more reasonable price, while allowing a generous 200K token context window.

I designed a prompt, which is open source^1, that has been tweaked many times and will surely be adjusted further in the future.

For the ToS scraping part, I initially wrote a scraper API using Playwright^2, but I replaced it with Jina AI Reader^3, which works quite well and is designed for this task.

Non-conflictive ToS

All services have a dropdown in the ToS section called "Non-conflictive ToS Reviews." These are the reviews that the AI flagged as not needing a user warning. I still provide these because I think they may be interesting to read.

Feedback and contributing

You can give me feedback on this tool, or share any inaccuraties by either opening an issue on Codeberg^4 or by contacting me ^5.

You can contribute with pull requests, which are always welcome, or you can support this project with any of the listed ways.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

Live Free or Die.

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

— ODELL (@ODELL) December 14, 2022

Good morning.

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

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

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

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

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

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

— ODELL (@ODELL) December 14, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

These reviews are sponsored, yet the sponsorship does not influence the outcome of the evaluations. Sponsored reviews are independent from the kycnot.me list, being only part of the blog. The reviews have no impact on the scores of the listings or their continued presence on the list. Should any issues arise, I will not hesitate to remove any listing. Reviews are in collaboration with Orangefren.

The review

Swapter.io is an all-purpose instant exchange. They entered the scene in the depths of the bear market about 2 years ago in June of 2022.

| Pros | Cons | | --------------- | ---------------------------------- | | Low fees | Shotgun KYC with opaque triggers | | Large liquidity | Relies on 3rd party liquidity | | Works over Tor | Front-end not synced with back-end | | Pretty UI | |

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Service Website: swapter.io

⚠️ There is an ongoing issue with this service: read more on Reddit.

Test Trades

During our testing we performed a trade from XMR to LTC, and then back to XMR.

Our first trade had the ID of: mpUitpGemhN8jjNAjQuo6EvQ. We were promised 0.8 LTC for sending 0.5 XMR, before we sent the Monero. When the Monero arrived we were sent 0.799 LTC.

On the return journey we performed trade with ID: yaCRb5pYcRKAZcBqg0AzEGYg. This time we were promised 0.4815 XMR for sending 0.799 LTC. After Litecoin arrived we were sent 0.4765 XMR.

As such we saw a discrepancy of ~0.1% in the first trade and ~1% in the second trade. Considering those trades were floating we determine the estimates presented in the UI to be highly accurate and honest.

Of course Swapter could've been imposing a large fee on their estimates, but we checked their estimates against CoinGecko and found the difference to be equivalent to a fee of just over 0.5%. Perfectly in line with other swapping services.

Trading

Swapter supports BTC, LTC, XMR and well over a thousand other coins. Sadly they don't support the Lightning Network. For the myriad of currencies they deal with they provide massive upper limits. You could exchange tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of dollars worth of cryptocurrency in a single trade (although we wouldn't recommend it).

The flip side to this is that Swapter relies on 3rd party liquidity. Aside from the large liqudity this also benefits the user insofar as it allows for very low fees. However, it also comes with a negative - the 3rd party gets to see all your trades. Unfortunately Swapter opted not to share where they source their liquidity in their Privacy Policy or Terms of Service.

KYC & AML policies

Swapter reserves the right to require its users to provide their full name, their date of birth, their address and government-issued ID. A practice known as "shotgun KYC". This should not happen often - in our testing it never did - however it's not clear when exactly it could happen. The AML & KYC policy provided on Swapter's website simply states they will put your trade on hold if their "risk scoring system [deems it] as suspicious".

Worse yet, if they determine that "any of the information [the] customer provided is incorrect, false, outdated, or incomplete" then Swapter may decide to terminate all of the services they provide to the user. What exactly would happen to their funds in such a case remains unclear.

The only clarity we get is that the Swapter policy outlines a designated 3rd party that will verify the information provided by the user. The third party's name is Sum & Substance Ltd, also simply known as samsub and available at sumsub.com

It's understandable that some exchanges will decide on a policy of this sort, especially when they rely on external liquidity, but we would prefer more clarity be given. When exactly is a trade suspicious?

Tor

We were pleased to discover Swapter works over Tor. However, they do not provide a Tor mirror, nor do they work without JavaScript. Additionally, we found that some small features, such as the live chat, did not work over Tor. Fortunately, other means of contacting their support are still available.

UI

We have found the Swapter UI to be very modern, straightforward and simple to use. It's available in 4 languages (English, French, Dutch and Russian), although we're unable to vouch for the quality of some of those, the ones that we used seemed perfectly serviceable.

Our only issue with the UI was that it claims the funds have been sent following the trade, when in reality it seems to take the backend a minute or so to actually broadcast the transaction.

Getting in touch

Swapter's team has a chat on their website, a support email address and a support Telegram. Their social media presence in most active on Telegram and X (formerly Twitter).

Disclaimer

None of the above should be understood as investment or financial advice. The views are our own only and constitute a faithful representation of our experience in using and investigating this exchange. This review is not a guarantee of any kind on the services rendered by the exchange. Do your own research before using any service.

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

“The future is there... staring back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become.” — William Gibson.

This month is the 4th anniversary of kycnot.me. Thank you for being here.

Fifteen years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system: a decentralized currency free from government and institutional control. Nakamoto's whitepaper showed a vision for a financial system based on trustless transactions, secured by cryptography. Some time forward and KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and CTF (Counter-Terrorism Financing) regulations started to come into play.

What a paradox: to engage with a system designed for decentralization, privacy, and independence, we are forced to give away our personal details. Using Bitcoin in the economy requires revealing your identity, not just to the party you interact with, but also to third parties who must track and report the interaction. You are forced to give sensitive data to entities you don't, can't, and shouldn't trust. Information can never be kept 100% safe; there's always a risk. Information is power, who knows about you has control over you.

Information asymmetry creates imbalances of power. When entities have detailed knowledge about individuals, they can manipulate, influence, or exploit this information to their advantage. The accumulation of personal data by corporations and governments enables extensive surveillances.

Such practices, moreover, exclude individuals from traditional economic systems if their documentation doesn't meet arbitrary standards, reinforcing a dystopian divide. Small businesses are similarly burdened by the costs of implementing these regulations, hindering free market competition^1:

How will they keep this information safe? Why do they need my identity? Why do they force businesses to enforce such regulations? It's always for your safety, to protect you from the "bad". Your life is perpetually in danger: terrorists, money launderers, villains... so the government steps in to save us.

‟Hush now, baby, baby, don't you cry Mamma's gonna make all of your nightmares come true Mamma's gonna put all of her fears into you Mamma's gonna keep you right here, under her wing She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing Mamma's gonna keep baby cosy and warm” — Mother, Pink Floyd

We must resist any attack on our privacy and freedom. To do this, we must collaborate.

If you have a service, refuse to ask for KYC; find a way. Accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Monero. Commit to circular economies. Remove the need to go through the FIAT system. People need fiat money to use most services, but we can change that.

If you're a user, donate to and prefer using services that accept such currencies. Encourage your friends to accept cryptocurrencies as well. Boycott FIAT system to the greatest extent you possibly can.

This may sound utopian, but it can be achieved. This movement can't be stopped. Go kick the hornet's nest.

“We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do.” — Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk's Manifesto

The anniversary

Four years ago, I began exploring ways to use crypto without KYC. I bookmarked a few favorite services and thought sharing them to the world might be useful. That was the first version of kycnot.me — a simple list of about 15 services. Since then, I've added services, rewritten it three times, and improved it to what it is now.

kycnot.me has remained 100% independent and 100% open source^2 all these years. I've received offers to buy the site, all of which I have declined and will continue to decline. It has been DDoS attacked many times, but we made it through. I have also rewritten the whole site almost once per year (three times in four years).

The code and scoring algorithm are open source (contributions are welcome) and I can't arbitrarly change a service's score without adding or removing attributes, making any arbitrary alterations obvious if they were fake. You can even see the score summary for any service's score.

I'm a one-person team, dedicating my free time to this project. I hope to keep doing so for many more years. Again, thank you for being part of this.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

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

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

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

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

Current Nostr Stats

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

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Key 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 mission

Transcript

(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

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

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

nostr is to twitter as bitcoin is to paypal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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My Nostr Public Key: npub1qny3tkh0acurzla8x3zy4nhrjz5zd8l9sy9jys09umwng00manysew95gx

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

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on Everything

Coinbase 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.

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

Silent.link is an anonymous eSIM provider. They offer pay-as-you-go roaming in 160+ countries.

Pros

• Anonymous
• Private payment options
• High performance
• Global availability

Cons

• Need to select the right networks sometimes
• Latency
• Data and incoming SMS & call only

Rating

★★★★★

Service website

Silent.link

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eSIMs replace traditional, physical SIM cards, if you have a fairly new phone, odds are it supports them. Since most people change their mobile carrier very rarely, the most common use case for these new eSIMs is their use in travel. Although their use as a piece of a larger OPSEC puzzle to improve privacy when using the internet from your phone is increasingly popular too.

Silent.link is not the only eSIM provider out there. Yet, they’re so unique that even Twitter’s (now X) founder Jack Dorsey recommends them.

Let’s start off with a quick explanation of how Silent.link works and what pay-as-you-go means. Most other eSIM providers will sell you packages of GBs with an expiration date. For instance imagine you’re visiting France then going to the UK after a few months. With other providers you might buy a 10GB in France package valid for 7 days, then after some months a 10GB in the UK package also valid for 7 days. You likely won’t use up the full package in either country and the remaining capacity will be voided as the package expires.

Silent.link’s pay-as-you-go is different. There are no geographic packages. There are no expiration dates. You simply have a balance denominated in USD and are charged as you use up the data according to the pricing of whichever local carrier you’re connecting via.

Preparing for the same trips from the example above you’d simply top-up your Silent.link balance with $10. Then you’d use Silent.link in France paying $1.33/GB, you’d only be charged for the exact amount used, then you’d go to the UK and pay $1.54/GB from the balance you had left over from France. It doesn’t matter how much time passes between the trips, because Silent.link balances don’t expire. If you have a balance left over you can use it on a future trip, or simply use it up in your home country.

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Pros

Anonymity

Silent.link is anonymous. Most other eSIM providers require some form of identification. This can be a traditional, full KYC, procedure involving your ID or passport numbers or, as seemingly innocent, as verifying your phone number with your main carrier. Regardless, a link between the eSIM you bought online and your identity is established.

In some countries you’ll be able to pick up a traditional SIM (or the new eSIM) from a local carrier without undergoing this verification. This can still be a hassle though. You’ll need to look up the laws before travelling, you’ll need to find a local store selling them, you’ll need to decide how you’ll pay privately, etc. And that’s the best case, that’s assuming the country you want to get the SIM in allows you to buy one anonymously.

Private payment methods

Silent.link only accepts cryptocurrency and according to their stats, most payments are made with Bitcoin (either onchain or using the Lightning Network) or with Monero. As such paying anonymously is not a problem. The use a self-hosted instance of BTCPay Server to process payments and operate their own LN node. The entire checkout process can be completed over Tor.

---

Cons

Network selection

Although you can skip the hassle of buying a new eSIM every time you travel it’s a good idea to look up the pricing of different mobile networks in the country you’re going to. The differences can be trivial, but can also be 100x. If a specific mobile network offers a much better deal, you’ll probably want to dive into your phone’s settings to make sure it only connects to that network.

High prices for some regions

Second issue can be that, especially for poorer countries, Silent.link might not have the best prices. For instance if you travel to Angola you’ll end up paying $155.44/GB. But if you search around for other providers you’ll find eSIM that offer much lower prices for that same country.

Data & incoming SMS & calls only

These eSIMs are either data-only or only offer data and inbound sms and calls. You can’t use Silent.link eSIMs to send texts or make phone calls.

Latency

For most use-cases this shouldn’t matter, but the way roaming works is that when you’re abroad your data is first sent to your home country then sent out into the internet from there. For instance if you’re a Brit on holiday in Spain wherever you open up a website your phone communicates with the Spanish network who forwards the request to your home network in the UK and only there does the request start going towards the website you’re trying to load. The response takes the same path in reverse.

The home network for the Silent.link eSIMs is Poland. To take an extreme (antipodal) example, if you’re in Chile loading a Chilean website your request will go to Poland then back from Poland to the website’s server in Chile, then the response will go from Chile to Poland to you (in Chile). All those trips add latency. In our testing, done during the recent OrangeFren.com meetup in Istanbul, the difference was an additional 73ms. The bandwidth, however, was exceptional, easily surpassing 100 Mbps.

This latency issue isn’t unique to Silent.link, other eSIM providers usually suffer from it too, though their home network may be better suited for your latency needs. If you need the best latency we recommend a SIM from a local provider (or WiFi).

This proxy behaviour isn’t all negative however. It may potentially allow you to circumvent censorship or geoblocking if you’re trying to access resources available from Poland, but unavailable elsewhere.

Besides Istanbul one of the countries we also tested Silent.link in was Northern Cyprus. This territory is mostly unrecognized. It’s a country that, depending on who you ask, is or isn’t real. Despite this unresolved geopolitical status Silent.link performed without any issues.

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Installation

If you decide to give Silent.link a try, you'll need to select if you want a data-only plan or a plan with inbound SMS & calling, once you complete the payment simply scan the QR code on the order confirmation page with your phone. Make sure to save the url of that order confirmation page somewhere! You will need it to top up your eSIM and check your remaining balance.

Getting in touch

The preferred way of contacting Silent.link's support is using the website's built-in chat function. Alternative methods include X (formerly Twitter), Matrix and email.

Their support is online from 09:00 - 21:00 UTC although even when testing outside of those hours we got a reply within a minute.

NOTE: These reviews are sponsored, yet the sponsorship does not influence the outcome of the evaluations. Sponsored reviews are independent from the kycnot.me list, being only part of the blog. The reviews have no impact on the scores of the listings or their continued presence on the list. Should any issues arise, I will not hesitate to remove any listing.

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty'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

Convert USD prices to Bitcoin (satoshis) as you browse. Dual display, privacy-first, and open source.

Opportunity CostTFTC

](https://www.opportunitycost.app/?ref=tftc.io)

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. 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

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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.

Download the report here

---

Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

East Coast aesthetics over everything.

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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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@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

After almost 3 months of work, we've completed the redesign of kycnot.me. More modern and with many new features.

Privacy remains the foundation - everything still works with JavaScript disabled. If you enable JS, you will get some nice-to-have features like lazy loading and smoother page transitions, but nothing essential requires it.

User Accounts

We've introduced user accounts that require zero personal information:

• Secret user tokens - no email, no phone number, no personal data
• Randomly generated usernames for default privacy and fairness
• Karma system that rewards contributions and unlocks features: custom display names, profile pictures, and more.

Reviews and Community Discussions

On the previous sites, I was using third party open source tools for the comments and discussions. This time, I've built my own from scratch, fully integrated into the site, without JavaScript requirements.

Everyone can share their experiences and help others make informed decisions:

• Ratings: Comments can have a 1-5 star rating attached. You can have one rating per service and it will affect the overall user score.
• Discussions: These are normal comments, you can add them on any listed service.

Comment Moderation

I was strugling to keep up with moderation on the old site. For this, we've implemented an AI-powered moderation system that:

• Auto-approves legitimate comments instantly
• Flags suspicious content for human review
• Keeps discussions valuable by minimizing spam

The AI still can mark comments for human review, but most comments will get approved automatically by this system. The AI also makes summaries of the comments to help you understand the overall sentiment of the community.

Powerful Search & Filtering

Finding exactly what you need is now easier:

• Advanced filtering system with many parameters. You can even filter by attributes to pinpoint services with specific features.

The results are dynamic and shuffle services with identical scores for fairness.

See all listings

Listings are now added as 'Community Contributed' by default. This means that you can still find them in the search results, but they will be clearly marked as such.

Updated Scoring System

New dual-score approach provides more nuanced service evaluations:

• Privacy Score: Measures how well a service protects your personal information and data

• Trust Score: Assesses reliability, security, and overall reputation

• Combined into a weighted Overall Score for quick comparisons

• Completely transparent and open source calculation algorithm. No manual tweaking or hidden factors.

AI-Powered Terms of Service Analysis

Basically, a TLDR summary for Terms of Service:

• Automated system extracts the most important points from complex ToS documents
• Clear summaries
• Updated monthly to catch any changes

The ToS document is hashed and only will be updated if there are any changes.

Service Events and Timelines

Track the complete history of any service, on each service page you can see the timeline of events. There are two types of events:

• Automatic events: Created by the system whenever something about a service changes, like its description, supported currencies, attributes, verification status…
• Manual events: Added by admins when there’s important news, such as a service going offline, being hacked, acquired, shut down, or other major updates.

There is also a global timeline view available at /events

Notification System

Since we now have user accounts, we built a notifiaction system so you can stay informed about anything:

• Notifications for comment replies and status changes
• Watch any comment to get notified for new replies.
• Subscribe to services to monitor events and updates
• Notification customization.

Coming soon: Third-party privacy-preserving notifications integration with Telegram, Ntfy.sh, webhooks...

Service Suggestions

Anyone with an account can suggest a new service via the suggestion form. After submitting, you'll receive a tracking page where you can follow the status of your suggestion and communicate directly with admins.

All new suggestions start as "unlisted" — they won't appear in search results until reviewed. Our team checks each submission to ensure it's not spam or inappropriate. If similar services already exist, you'll be shown possible duplicates and can choose to submit your suggestion as an edit instead.

You can always check the progress of your suggestion, respond to moderator questions, and see when it goes live, everything will also be notified to your account. This process ensures high-quality listings and a collaborative approach to building the directory.

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These are some of the main features we already have, but there are many more small changes and improvements that you will find when using the site.

What's Next?

This is just the beginning. We will be constantly working to improve KYCnot.me and add more features that help you preserve your privacy.

Remember: True financial freedom requires the right to privacy. Stay KYC-free!

@ e5de992e:4a95ef85

Stop Chasing Goals, Start Building Systems: The Mindset Shift That Unlocks Sustainable Success

We’ve all been there. Fired up with a new resolution, a bold ambition, a tantalizing goal shimmering on the horizon. "I want to get 1,000 new customers." "I'm going to lose 20 pounds." "This is the year I finally write that novel." We pour our energy into the chase, fueled by visions of a triumphant finish line. But more often than not, this pursuit leads to a familiar cycle of burnout, frustration, and the dispiriting feeling of falling short.
What if the finish line is the problem? What if the relentless focus on a fixed outcome is the very thing holding us back?
This is the core of a powerful mindset shift championed by thinkers like Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, and embodied in the relentless innovation of entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. The alternative? Think in systems, not goals. This approach liberates you from the all-or-nothing pressure of a single target and instead focuses on building repeatable processes that generate progress, foster resilience, and compound results over time.
Instead of the goal to “get 1,000 customers,” you design a system: “Publish one valuable blog post every day to drive inbound leads.” The former is a destination; the latter is a continuous engine. And in the long game of life and business, it’s the quality of your engine that matters most.

The Hidden Pitfalls of a "Goals-Only" Mindset

At first glance, shunning goals feels counterintuitive. They provide direction, after all. But as James Clear, bestselling author of Atomic Habits, points out, a myopic focus on goals has several inherent flaws:

• Winners and Losers Share the Same Goals: Every Olympian wants to win gold. Every startup founder wants to be a unicorn. If successful and unsuccessful people share the same goals, then the goal itself cannot be the differentiating factor. The true differentiator is the consistent system of training, practice, and improvement that the winner implements.
• Goals Are a Fleeting Moment of Change: Imagine you’ve worked for months to clean a cluttered room. You achieve the goal, and for a moment, it’s a triumph. But if you haven’t changed the underlying system of accumulating and not tidying, the clutter will inevitably return. As Clear says, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
• Goals Restrict Your Happiness: The goal-oriented mindset operates on a "deferred happiness" model: "I'll be happy when I reach my sales target." or "I'll be satisfied when I get that promotion." This creates a perpetual state of pre-success failure. By contrast, a systems-based approach allows for satisfaction every time you execute your system. You wrote your daily blog post? That's a win. You did your 30 minutes of exercise? A victory. You're no longer waiting for permission to feel good about your efforts.
• Goals Can Undermine Long-Term Progress: What happens after you cross the finish line? For many marathon runners, the weeks after the race are a void, as the singular goal that drove them is now gone. A system, however, is infinite. A system of "being a person who runs regularly" has no end date. It encourages continuous engagement and improvement, long after a specific milestone is passed.

The Unrivaled Power of Systems: Consistency, Adaptability, and Compounding Progress

So, what does it mean to "think in systems"? A system is a process, a habit, a routine that you control and that you can perform consistently. It's the architecture of your ambition.
Scott Adams famously articulated this distinction on his blog. He didn’t have a goal to become a syndicated cartoonist. Instead, he built a system: he would draw and write every single day. This system, this relentless practice, not only honed his skills but also generated a constant stream of output that dramatically increased his odds of success. "Goals are for losers," he provocatively wrote. "Systems are for winners."
The beauty of this approach lies in its key benefits:

• It Reduces Burnout: Chasing a distant, high-stakes goal is mentally and emotionally taxing. Every day you haven't achieved it can feel like a failure. A system, however, focuses your energy on the immediate, controllable present. Did you follow your process today? If so, you succeeded. This reframing is a powerful antidote to burnout.
• It Creates Sustainable Habits: Systems are the fertile ground from which habits grow. By focusing on a daily or weekly process—writing 500 words, making 10 sales calls, meditating for 10 minutes—you are laying down the neurological pathways for these actions to become automatic. The system is the scaffolding for the habit.
• It Increases Adaptability and Long-Term Results: A rigid goal can shatter in the face of unexpected change. What if the market shifts and your initial customer acquisition target becomes irrelevant? A person fixated on the goal might be lost. A person with a system of "consistently creating valuable content and engaging with my community" can pivot. Their engine is still running, and they can direct its power toward new opportunities. This adaptability is crucial for long-term relevance and success.

Systems Thinking in Action: Lessons from the Titans of Industry

This isn't just a theory for personal development; it's the operating manual for some of the most successful enterprises in modern history.
Jeff Bezos and the Amazon Machine: Amazon is a breathtaking collection of interlocking systems. A prime example is the "Day 1" philosophy. Bezos has long advocated that Amazon must always operate with the urgency, customer-centricity, and inventive spirit of a startup on its very first day. This isn't a goal; it's a cultural system designed to ward off the complacency that often comes with success. From the "two-pizza teams" designed to keep innovation agile to the institutionalized practice of "working backwards" from a customer's needs, Amazon is a testament to the power of systemic thinking.
Elon Musk and First Principles: When Elon Musk set out to build rockets, he didn't have the goal of "making cheaper rockets." He employed a system of thinking known as "first principles." Instead of accepting the high cost of existing rockets, he asked, "What are the fundamental material components of a rocket?" By breaking down the problem to its physical truths and rebuilding from there, SpaceX was able to create a far more efficient and cost-effective system of manufacturing and launch. This first-principles approach is Musk's system for tackling seemingly insurmountable problems, and he has applied it across his ventures, from Tesla's battery technology to Neuralink's brain-computer interfaces.

Your Turn: How to Redesign Your Goals into Powerful Systems

The shift from goals to systems is a practical one that you can begin implementing today. The key is to reframe your desired outcome as a consistent process that you can control.
Here’s a look at how to transform common goals into robust systems:

| Instead of this Goal... | Build this System... | | :---- | :---- | | "Get 1,000 customers." | "Publish one valuable blog post every weekday to drive inbound leads and spend 30 minutes daily engaging with potential customers on social media." | | "Lose 20 pounds." | "Focus on eating whole foods for every meal and engage in 30 minutes of enjoyable physical activity five times a week." | | "Write a bestselling novel." | "Write 500 words every morning before checking email and read one book in my genre every two weeks." | | "Become fluent in Spanish." | "Complete one lesson on a language app every day during my commute and have a 15-minute conversation with a language partner twice a week." | | "Raise $1 million in funding." | "Identify and reach out to five potential investors every single day and refine my pitch deck for one hour each week based on feedback." |

Now, it's time for you to reflect. Look at the ambitions currently driving you. Ask yourself:
“How can I redesign my current goals into daily or weekly systems that deliver value regardless of the outcome?”
By shifting your focus from the distant prize to the daily process, you are not giving up on your ambitions. On the contrary, you are building a more reliable, resilient, and ultimately more powerful path to achieving them. You are trading the anxiety of the chase for the quiet confidence of the craftsman. You are playing the long game.
Stop waiting for the finish line to feel successful. Build a system, execute it with consistency, and start winning today.

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

Jump straight to the rules

Getting services and paying with cryptocurrencies comes with some risks that every user must understand. However, there are some simple steps you can take to reduce them.

The risks

Transactions are Irreversible

Cryptocurrency transactions are final and irreversible. Once you hit send, there's no chargeback option, no bank to call, and no dispute resolution (unless the recipient voluntarily returns your funds). This creates opportunities for bad actors to exploit.

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Shotgun KYC

One of the most predatory practices in the crypto space is Shotgun KYC (classified as level 3 on KYCnot.me). Here's how it typically unfolds:

1. You send your cryptocurrency to a service
2. After receiving your funds, they suddenly claim your coins are "dirty" or flagged
3. They hold your funds hostage, demanding extensive documentation
4. Even after compliance, they may continue requesting more information indefinitely until you can't no longer provide what they are requesting
5. Your funds remain frozen with no guarantee of release

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Transaction Scanning

Most crypto services use blockchain analysis to scan your coins' transaction history, assigning risk scores based on past associations. A low score doesn't mean you did anything wrong, you could have unknowingly received "tainted" coins from a simple P2P trade, inheriting a history that wasn't your fault.

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Other Concerns

• Limited Support: Many services operate with very small teams or even just a single person, offering minimal customer service. Even established services may ignore customer complaints or disputes.
• Exit Scams: A service that was apparently trustworthy and processing orders can disappear overnight, taking users' funds with them.
• No Regulatory Recourse: Very limited legal protections compared to traditional financial services

The rules

Rule #1: Batch Your Amounts

Avoid sending a large amount in a single transaction, instead, divide your trades into smaller batches. If something goes wrong with one batch, you haven't lost everything. Always remember that crypto transactions are final and irreversible.

Some services scam users selectively: they process smaller transactions normally to build trust, then freeze larger amounts when they detect high-value transfers.

Yes, batching means paying more fees, but it's almost always worth paying the extra rather than losing your entire amount to a scam or frozen trade.

A surprising number of people report losing significant funds in a single, large transaction. Start small, build confidence through successful transactions, and always maintain reasonable batch sizes even with "trusted" services.

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Rule #2: Record Everything

When problems arise, services tend to mysteriously "lose" records, delete order pages, or even deny entire conversations. Keeping good records become very valuable against fraud and negligence.

Take screenshots and save them until you are satisfied with the service:

• Ensure timestamps are visible when possible
• Capture full pages, not just portions
• Make sure the URL is always visible

You can also use websites like archive.is to take snapshots of each step of the process, or use the Single File browser extension to snapshot the entire site in a single html file. This extension will preserve exact page appearance, includes all embedded content and is easy to share and store. For email conversations, exporting the raw .eml file is best, as it retains all the original headers and metadata.

Make sure to keep all the blockchain evidence, such as transaction IDs and wallet addresses.

Remember: If it's not documented, it didn't happen in the eyes of dispute resolution. Make documentation a habit. This will grant you evidence for contacting support if there was an issue, and in the event of being scammed, effectively reporting the scam to the community.

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Rule #3: Do Your Own Research

A quick investigation before operating with a service can save you from costly mistakes and frozen funds.

For service reviews, a starting point can be KYCnot.me. It's also wise to check popular forums like BitcoinTalk, TrustPilot, or Reddit. To search on specific sites, you can use site keyword on any search engine, for example, this shows all mentions of "Bisq" on BitcoinTalk.

If you are about to use a service without existing reviews, you're taking a risk, but you could help others by documenting it. Write a detailed review and add supporting evidence to increase your credibility. Your feedback will help building a knowledge base that protects the community from bad actors and unreliable services. Leaving reviews on KYCnot.me is very easy and does not require any personal data.

Spend at least five minutes researching any new service before sending funds. This small time investment can reveal crucial information about reliability, processing times, and potential issues.

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Rule #4: Ask for AML Checks

Most services will offer you a free AML score check before sending your funds, but they rarely advertise this. If you're dealing with a service known for freezing funds, requesting a pre-transaction AML check can save you from having your cryptocurrency held hostage.

Simply contact the service's support before sending any funds and explain your situation:

"I'd like to use your service but want to avoid KYC. Can you perform an AML check on my transaction before I send the funds?"

This check should always be free, if they ask for payment, consider it a red flag.

Never send funds to a third party to get an AML check. To prepare for the check, it's best to consolidate the funds into a single address in your own wallet. Then, you only need to share that public address for the analysis. Your funds should never leave your possession.

DIY AML Checking Options

You can also run these checks yourself using services like AMLBot (paid service) or the free AML scanners available in Blockchair's dApps section. These tools analyze your transaction history and provide risk scores based on various algorithms.

However, different AML services use different algorithms and metrics, so you might get varying risk scores for the same transaction. As you see in the image above, one service would flag your coins as medium-risk while another considers them clean. So to be 100% sure, it is always better to ask the service you want to interact with for the pre-trade AML check rather than checking it yourself.

Taking a few minutes to request an AML check can prevent problems like the permanent loss of your funds. A service that respects your privacy will have no problem with this reasonable request.

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Rule #5: Seek fungibility

To protect yourself from arbitrary fund freezing and "dirty coin" accusations, simply use privacy coins whenever possible. While transparent blockchains expose your entire transaction history to scrutiny, privacy coins make these predatory scanning practices completely useless.

Traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum operate on transparent blockchains where every transaction is publicly visible forever. This means not all coins are treated equally. A Bitcoin you received might be worth less than another Bitcoin simply because of its transaction history, even when you had nothing to do with that history.

Even if you try to break the history with mixers or coinjoins, you are leaving patterns that will also taint the coins. Once they are marked as "tainted" by blockchain analysis, that reputation follows them indefinitely, you can even be penalized for transactions that occurred years before you owned the cryptocurrency, creating an unfair system of inherited blame.

Monero's privacy-by-default architecture makes transaction scanning impossible. Legitimate services that respect user privacy usually welcome privacy coins. Services that discriminate against privacy coins often have ulterior motives.

Using privacy coins is often simpler because you don't need to worry about coin history or risk scores. So, any chance you get to use a privacy coin such as Monero, just do it.

Conclusion

Even by following all these rules, you're still assuming a certain level of risk. However, by following these simple safety measures, you will dramatically reduce your exposure to scams, fund freezes, and predatory practices. And, if a problem occurs, having good evidence is your best defense. Records like screenshots and transaction histories are essential for resolving disputes and reporting scams to protect others.

@ a396e36e:ec991f1c

🎯 The Invisible Hands Behind Bitcoin: How Market Makers Quietly Control the Price If you’ve ever looked at the Bitcoin chart and thought, “This makes no sense” — you’re right. What looks like chaos is often orchestrated. While the crypto world celebrates decentralization and “free markets,” the reality is murkier. Behind many of Bitcoin’s wild swings are market makers, whales, and even exchanges themselves, subtly (or not so subtly) steering the price.

This isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s a pattern. And it’s been happening for over a decade.

🧰 Classic Manipulation Tactics Let’s start with the usual suspects:

Spoofing: Fake buy or sell orders create false demand or panic. In 2017, an anonymous whale nicknamed Spoofy manipulated Bitfinex’s order books with massive spoof orders. No one knows who he was — but traders tracked his behavior for months.

Wash Trading: Exchanges faking volume by buying and selling to themselves. Bitwise reported in 2019 that 95% of crypto trading volume was fake. Yes, 95%.

Pump-and-Dump Schemes: Coordinated social hype, then a rug pull. Still common in altcoins, but BTC isn't immune.

Bear Raids: Dumping thousands of BTC to trigger cascading liquidations. In 2019, one 5,000 BTC market sell on Bitstamp led to $250M in liquidations on BitMEX.

Front-Running: Exchanges or insiders trading ahead of big orders — an invisible tax on every retail move.

🕳️ Down the Rabbit Hole: Advanced and Hidden Tactics What you don’t see is even worse.

Stop-Loss Hunting: Price pushed to obvious stop zones, liquidating small traders, then bouncing.

Long/Short Squeezes: Whales deliberately cause liquidation cascades by leveraging market structure.

Cross-Exchange Price Engineering: Manipulate BTC price on a small exchange that affects global indices.

Fake News & FUD Campaigns: Twitter rumors. Telegram raids. Even fake press releases.

Exchange Collusion or Insider Trading: Who polices the exchanges when they are the ones trading?

🐳 Case Studies That Should Scare You Mt. Gox Bots (2013): “Willy” and “Markus” bought BTC with fake money. Pushed price from $150 to $1,000.

Tether & Bitfinex (2017): Academic research shows newly printed USDT was used systematically to buy dips — possibly inflating BTC’s rally to $20k.

Upbit (Korea): Prosecuted for $226B in fake trades.

Operation Token Mirrors (2024): FBI sting revealed market makers offering wash-trading and pump services as a business.

🧠 This Isn’t Just Theory — Regulators Know It Too The SEC refused to approve a spot BTC ETF for years, citing manipulation risk.

The CFTC and DOJ have brought spoofing and wash trading cases — and are still investigating.

The EU’s MiCA law now treats crypto market abuse the same as securities fraud.

💣 And Retail? You're the Exit Liquidity While whales dump, retail buys the dip.

In both the Terra-LUNA crash (May 2022) and FTX collapse (Nov 2022), blockchain data showed whales exiting while small holders were buying. The net result? Whales got out. You got rekt.

Bitcoin’s volatility isn’t just “the market doing its thing.” Often, it’s someone making you believe it’s safe — until it isn’t.

🔍 The Good News: It’s Getting Harder to Hide Nasdaq’s SMARTS surveillance system is now used by major exchanges.

Proof-of-Reserves audits are more common post-FTX.

Whale alerts and on-chain tools let savvy traders track big moves.

EU regulations (MiCA) now criminalize manipulation across Europe.

But until enforcement is global and airtight, Bitcoin remains manipulable. The game is still tilted — and the house usually wins.

🧭 Final Thought: Don’t Be Naïve Bitcoin is powerful. It’s freedom tech. But its price is not pure. It’s not just a function of adoption and demand. It’s shaped, poked, prodded, and occasionally hijacked by entities with deeper pockets, faster bots, and better information than you.

Until transparency, regulation, and decentralization catch up, every trader should assume one thing:

The market is rigged — but sometimes you can still play the game.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

— ODELL (@ODELL) September 16, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The Russian government is preparing sanctions against those who violate mining regulations, with fines of up to $25,000.

The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation has drafted a bill introducing financial penalties and the seizure of cryptocurrencies for miners operating illegally.

The ministerial proposal, currently under interdepartmental review according to Forbes Russia, would grant judicial authorities extraordinary powers over the mining sector. Courts would be able not only to impose financial penalties but also to directly confiscate illegally mined bitcoins.

Fines will follow a progressive scale:

• private individuals: 100,000 to 200,000 rubles ($1,272–$2,544);
• individual entrepreneurs and public officials: 200,000 to 400,000 rubles ($2,544–$5,088);
• companies and corporations: 1 million to 2 million rubles ($12,728–$25,456).

Crackdown on mining pools

Another aspect of the proposed legislation concerns mining pools. If approved, the bill would introduce penalties for those participating in such groups illegally. The government strategy aims to amend the Code of Administrative Offenses, effectively turning illegal mining into a criminal offense with harsher consequences than current administrative fines.

Crypto payments under scrutiny

Beyond mining operations, the new provisions would also target the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment outside the official sandbox managed by Russia’s Central Bank. Sanctions for this violation could reach 1 million rubles ($12,728).

Andrey Medvedev, Head of the Legal Department at the Central Bank, emphasized during the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum that “[crypto] illegally used as a means of payment will be confiscated.”

Regional restrictions on mining

Under current Russian regulations, unregistered citizens are allowed to mine domestically provided their energy consumption does not exceed 6,000 kWh per month. However, about ten Russian regions and territories under Russian control maintain specific restrictions.

Operators of mining infrastructures — primarily data center and hosting service providers — will be required to report operational details to Rosfinmonitoring, the national financial intelligence agency, including wallet addresses used at their facilities.

While penalties are tightening, the government recently chose not to extend mining bans to new regions. The government’s energy commission, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, rejected a proposal to ban mining in Khakassia and postponed annual restrictions in Zabaikalsky Krai and Buryatia. However, Moscow has approved a one-year mining ban in the southern part of the Irkutsk region, widely considered the de facto capital of Russian mining.

The post Mining in Russia: fines and asset seizures for illegal operations appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Today wasn't great from a ~HealthAndFitness perspective: poor sleep, junk food, no fast. At least I did get a decent amount of activity and take a cold shower.

How did other stackers fare on Father's Day?

https://stacker.news/items/1007373

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Lightspark introduces a layer 2 for instant payments, stablecoins and interoperability with Lightning.

Spark is an open-source layer 2 protocol developed by Lightspark, designed to offer instant low-cost payments without the need for intermediaries. It allows the creation of wallets and applications that interact directly with the Bitcoin and Lightning networks. The company’s stated goal is to transform Bitcoin into a true global digital currency, solving the scalability limitations of the base layer.

Lightspark, a company led by David Marcus (former PayPal and former Facebook), officially launched Spark in beta version on April 29, 2025. Developers can already use Spark’s SDKs (Wallet and Issuer) to build self-custodial wallets compatible with Lightning and tokens (such as stablecoins) native to the Bitcoin network.

How it works

Spark adopts a statechain-based approach, allowing the transfer of ownership of a UTXO off-chain between different users without using the main blockchain, thus reducing costs and transaction times. Instead of executing an on-chain transaction that physically moves the asset, users acquire signing rights or control over a key that represents a bitcoin UTXO. Transfers occur through a chain of signatures and a mechanism that allows subsequent transactions to overwrite previous ones, ensuring that neither the user nor the service provider (Spark Service Provider, SSP) can lose funds during the operation.

Spark is designed to be fully interoperable with LN, supporting not only bitcoin transactions, but also stablecoins and other tokenized assets. SSPs facilitate Lightning payments by accepting funds on Spark and converting them into Lightning transactions or vice versa, eliminating the need for users to manage nodes or worry about channel liquidity. For example, a user can pay an LN invoice with a stablecoin on Spark, with the SSP converting the stablecoin to BTC in the background and sending the funds to the recipient.

Shared signature model (multisig 2-of-2)

Unlike the LN trust model, which is based on peer-to-peer bidirectional channels with smart contract logic, Spark involves a coordinating entity, the “Spark Service Provider” (SSP). This shifts part of the risk from channel liquidity management to trust in operators who sign off-chain transactions. The SSP’s task is to sign “blindly” (blindly) on behalf of the user, which means the SSP does not see the content of the signature and does not even know if it is signing a Bitcoin transaction or something else.

Bitcoin deposited on Spark always remains under the user’s control. When a user sends funds to Spark, they are initially transferred to a statechain. Once funds are on the statechain, payments on the Spark network occur instantly and at near-zero costs.

At the heart of Spark’s security is the use of a shared signature scheme, specifically a multisig 2-of-2 model. This means that two keys are required to authorize a transaction, and the user always holds one. When users deposit funds on Spark, they send them to a multisig address. Here, they maintain control of their funds and can perform a unilateral exit without the need to interact with other parties.

Each payment is enabled by a Spark Service Provider (SSP), which must co-authorize the transaction together with the user for it to be valid and successful.

Although the network is currently managed only by Lightspark and another operator (Flashnet), users do not risk losing funds even if these operators stopped cooperating. In fact, Spark offers the possibility to unilaterally force the return of bitcoin to the mainnet at any time. Users can exit Spark in two ways: through a cooperative exit (cheaper and faster) or a unilateral exit (slower, but possible in case of malfunction or loss of trust). Lightspark has declared its intention to add more operators in the future to increase decentralization.

Fee structure

Regarding fees, transactions within the Spark network are zero fee. The only fees users will have to bear are Bitcoin’s on-chain fees for depositing or withdrawing funds from Spark. Additionally, transferring bitcoin from Spark to LN involves a 0.25% fee plus routing fees. Conversely, a transaction from LN to Spark costs 0.15%.

The native LRC20 token protocol

Introduced in the summer of 2024, LRC20 is a token issuance protocol designed to be compatible with both Bitcoin’s mainnet and LN. Anyone can issue an LRC20 token. The protocol also supports freeze and burn operations, giving the original issuing wallet the power to freeze tokens at any address, preventing transactions until unlocked. LRC20 is primarily designed for issuing stablecoins and regulated assets.

After thoroughly testing it, the Lightspark team decided to run the LRC20 protocol natively on Spark, to enable token issuance on the network.

Ecosystem and partnerships

The birth of Spark has immediately attracted the interest of other Bitcoin projects. Among the various partnerships established, the multisig wallet Theya has integrated Spark to offer its users simpler and faster bitcoin and stablecoin payments.

Last May, Breez announced a new implementation of the Breez SDK based on Spark, which allows developers to integrate Lightning payments directly into their apps through Spark. As part of this collaboration, Breez will also act as a Spark Service Provider, helping to expand the ecosystem. According to the two companies, this partnership will provide developers with new Bitcoin-native tools for use cases such as streaming payments, international remittances and micro-payments for AI.

The post Spark: the layer 2 launched by Lightspark appeared first on Atlas21.

@ a8d1560d:3fec7a08

THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!

After the wave of word-scrambling spam bots, a new and very problematic kind of spam has arrived in the Nostr. Whenever you post something now, you will get gay porn videos as an automated answer (No, being gay itself is not problematic!!!). To get rid of all the automated spam, remove the following relays from your inbox and outbox relay list: - nos.lol - relay.damus.io - nostr.oxtr.dev - relay.primal.net

As long as you have even one of these relays in your inbox and outbox lists, you and your followers will be spammed whenever posting something.

It is unknown if the bots only reply to kind 1 events or to all events.

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

In a move that diverges from many other U.S. states, Connecticut has passed a new law that bars state and local governments from investing in bitcoin or any other digital currency.

The bill, HB7082, passed unanimously in both the House and Senate with zero opposing votes.

The law, officially titled “An Act Concerning the Regulation of Virtual Currency and State Investments,” was signed into law recently and is causing a stir in the Bitcoin and financial communities.

HB7082 prohibits the state of Connecticut and its political subdivisions from accepting, holding or investing in digital currencies. This includes bitcoin, ethereum and other digital assets. It also bars the state from creating a bitcoin reserve, a concept being explored by other states.

The law goes further by imposing strict rules on digital asset businesses operating in the state. These rules enforce anti-money laundering (AML) compliance and parental consent verification for digital asset users under 18.

It also requires 1:1 reserve requirements for bitcoin custodians.

Businesses that handle Bitcoin transactions must now provide users with clear information about risks and fees and provide receipts with full transaction details.

No business can let a minor use a money-sharing app without first getting proof of consent from a parent or guardian.

Lawmakers in Connecticut say it’s about protecting public funds and minimizing financial risk. They say Connecticut’s new law bars state investments in bitcoin to protect its financial assets from market risk.

Supporters argue that the high volatility of bitcoin makes it a risky investment for public money like pension funds and state reserves.

The law also looks to bring bitcoin businesses under tighter control, to make them follow the same rules as the traditional financial system.

While Connecticut is cracking down on digital assets, other states are going the other way.

States like Texas, New Hampshire and Arizona have already passed laws or proposed bills to create a bitcoin reserve, which allows public funds to be invested in bitcoin.

Texas has even described bitcoin as a “forward-thinking investment opportunity” and a long-term store of value.

The new law has caused mixed reactions in the financial world. Some think it’s too cautious, others think it’s part of a bigger plan.

Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise, responded with sarcasm, “The hedge fund managers got so upset they couldn’t beat Bitcoin…”

Matt Hougan on X

Some states like Florida, South Dakota and Oklahoma have either killed or vetoed Bitcoin bills this year. Others like Louisiana are still exploring the tech. Louisiana just announced it would create a special committee to study AI, blockchain and digital assets.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

In a quiet corner of the world, bitcoin mining operations in Africa are turning electricity into digital currency and in the process, redefining how value is created.

At its core, bitcoin mining involves validating transaction information before adding new blocks to the Bitcoin blockchain by competing to solve a cryptographic puzzle that meets a specific criterion.

Globally, mining plays a key role in keeping the blockchain decentralized and secure. The system depends on miners to verify and record transactions, mainly to prevent a problem called double spending, the digital version of using the same money twice.

To understand this better, imagine Charles sends $5 to Amanda. With physical cash, Amanda can trust the note is real and hasn’t been used elsewhere. But with digital currency, copying data is easy, so how can she be sure that the same $5 wasn’t sent to someone else too? That’s the exact problem Bitcoin mining helps solve.

In recent years, Africa has started to draw attention in this space, positioning itself as a key hub in global bitcoin mining. While there may be less than 2 million bitcoin left to be mined from the total 21 million supply, the rise of mining operations in Africa has sparked excitement, creating new jobs and drawing in foreign capital.

Although some countries still grapple with power shortages and the energy demands of mining, many citizens view bitcoin as a more stable store of value and a safeguard against the volatility of their local currencies.

At the same time, Africa’s wealth of hydro, solar, wind, and geothermal resources makes the continent one of the most promising regions for cost-effective and sustainable mining.

What Makes a Large-Scale Bitcoin Mining Operation in Africa?

It all starts with difficulty. Bitcoin mining isn’t just about solving a puzzle, it’s about solving one that keeps getting harder. Mining difficulty refers to how much computational work is needed to generate a number lower than the target hash.

This difficulty automatically adjusts every 2,016 blocks (about every two weeks), depending on how quickly miners solved the previous batch. If mining is fast and efficient, the network increases the difficulty; if miners drop off and block times slow, it reduces it, all to maintain a consistent block production time of roughly 10 minutes.

The significance of mining difficulty lies in the increased demands it places on mining operations. As difficulty rises, miners require more powerful hardware, cost-effective energy sources, advanced infrastructure, and substantial financial investment. These requirements distinguish large-scale mining operations from smaller, casual miners.

In short, it’s the difficulty of mining that births the need for large facilities, massive energy inputs, industrial-grade hardware, and significant financial investment, the very traits that define a “large” bitcoin mining operation.

This leads us to the 4 key factors that define large Bitcoin mining operations in Africa, each one a direct response to the growing demands of the network:

1. Facility size and infrastructure:

The physical size of a mining facility is a direct reflection of its capacity to house mining equipment and support systems. Larger operations typically have thousands of mining rigs installed, supported by extensive infrastructure such as advanced cooling systems and stable power supplies.

These are critical to ensure that the equipment runs continuously and efficiently, given the intense heat and electricity demands of mining.

While it is possible to mine Bitcoin using desktop computers or gaming rigs by joining mining pools, these setups are limited in profitability. Mining pools distribute rewards based on the computational power contributed, meaning small or less efficient machines earn only modest returns.

To compete effectively, mining operations invest in specialized hardware known as Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) miners. These machines are far more powerful and energy-efficient than regular computers but require significant capital investment, with prices ranging from $4,000 to $12,000 per rig depending on their performance.

Large-scale operations typically deploy hundreds or thousands of these ASIC miners, which necessitates the large facilities and sophisticated infrastructure mentioned earlier. In this way, the size of the facility and the sophistication of the mining equipment are tightly linked, together defining the overall scale and capability of a bitcoin mining operation.

2. Hashrate contribution:

Hashrate refers to the computational power used to mine and process transactions on the Bitcoin network. A higher hashrate indicates a more significant contribution to the network’s security and transaction processing.

Large mining operations often possess substantial hashrate, measured in exa hashes per second (EH/s). For instance, as of July 2024, the Bitcoin network’s hashrate was approximately 733.41 EH/s.

3. Energy consumption and power source:

Bitcoin mining is energy-intensive. The total energy consumption of the Bitcoin network has been estimated at 175.87 terawatt-hours annually, comparable to the power consumption of Poland. Large mining operations often seek locations with access to cheap and reliable energy sources, such as hydroelectric, solar, or wind power, to reduce operational costs and environmental impact.

4. Financial banking and investor interest:

Significant financial investment is required to establish and maintain large-scale mining operations. This includes the cost of mining hardware, facility construction, energy procurement, and operational expenses. Companies with substantial financial backing can invest in cutting-edge technology and infrastructure, enhancing their mining capabilities. 

Overview of Bitcoin Mining in Africa

Africa is beginning to carve out its share of the global Bitcoin mining market, which was valued at $2.45 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $8.24 billion by 2034. 

As Bitcoin’s value continues to rise, countries across the continent are positioning themselves to benefit, many by tapping into abundant renewable energy sources and taking advantage of regulatory ambiguity or excess energy production. 

Ethiopia currently leads the continent in Bitcoin mining activity, with around 2.5% of the global hashrate reportedly coming from operations powered entirely by renewable energy. 

This energy mismatch has attracted major miners from China and other regions, who see an opportunity to monetize surplus electricity. Ethiopia’s success showcases how renewable energy and mining can coexist sustainably while contributing meaningfully to state revenue. 

Kenya follows closely behind. As the top geothermal energy producer in Africa, with an installed capacity of 863 MW, the country is using its energy advantage to support sustainable mining. 

Nigeria is emerging as a serious contender. While not yet dominant, its large population, increasing tech engagement, and growing interest in using flared gas for mining signal potential for expansion. Nigeria’s complex but evolving regulatory landscape also leaves room for further mining developments as the government explores clearer crypto frameworks.

Malawi represents a more localized model of Bitcoin mining. By converting rainfall-powered microgrids into revenue-generating infrastructure, Malawi shows how small-scale mining can play a powerful role in community development and rural electrification.

In Libya, Bitcoin mining is technically illegal, but that hasn’t stopped it. Despite the ban, underground mining continues to thrive thanks to heavily subsidized electricity. In 2021, Libyan miners accounted for an estimated 0.6% of the global Bitcoin production, the highest in both the Arab world and Africa at the time. Today, mining reportedly consumes around 2% of the country’s electricity, even as it operates in the shadows.

Angola rounds out the list with limited public data but notable potential. The country struggles with energy inefficiencies, losing nearly 40% of its hydroelectric power during transmission. Some reports suggest Bitcoin miners are beginning to capitalize on this otherwise stranded energy, though large-scale operations are yet to surface.

What unites these countries is a shared set of conditions: untapped or mismanaged energy resources, an openness or gray area in regulation, and the growing understanding that Bitcoin mining can serve as a financial incentive to build and stabilize decentralized energy systems. 

Whether through massive hydroelectric projects or rural microgrids, Bitcoin mining is emerging as both an energy monetization strategy and a bridge to infrastructure development across Africa.

Profiles of the Largest Bitcoin Mining Operations in Africa

1. BitCluster (Ethiopia)

As of 2024, Bitcoin mining in Africa is largely concentrated in