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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-09-10 21:14:08 -
@ 46fcbe30:6bd8ce4d
2024-09-28 21:22:50I had an idea for an article but not really the ambition to write a long article right now, so I gave the idea to an LLM. What it returned was not to my liking and I felt a clear shift in the bias to what I had given it. Next I gave the same input to probably the most advanced LLM which in my opinion produced the same bias. Last I tried a smaller provider which promises to not put in such bias and it picked up on what I had in mind ... or was it just filling in the gaps with its own, now different bias?
The Input
In each of the three LLMs, my input was:
I have this stub of a post. Please help me expand it to be inspiring and engaging:
Agency, money and men dealing in favors.
Money gives agency but men with high agency also have no problem earning money. And then there is politicians that want to socially engineer society. Being able to tell millions how to live their lives is probably the peak of agency. The feeling of power these men perceive from passing laws? And the governed also feel how they just lost a little bit of agency.
ChatGPT o1-preview
The Power of Agency: Beyond Money and Influence
In a world driven by transactions and favors, it's easy to equate money with agency—the ability to make choices and enact change. Indeed, wealth can open doors, provide opportunities, and offer a semblance of freedom. Yet, there exists a breed of individuals who, regardless of their financial standing, exude a remarkable sense of agency. These are the men and women who move through life with purpose, resilience, and an unwavering belief in their ability to shape their destiny.
Money as a Tool, Not the Master
Money undeniably provides a platform for agency. It grants access to education, resources, and networks that can amplify one's influence. However, those with high personal agency understand that money is a tool, not the master. They recognize that true power comes from within—from their skills, knowledge, and the value they bring to others. This internal agency propels them to earn money not as an end but as a byproduct of their passion and hard work.
The Dance of Favors and Influence
In the intricate dance of society, favors become the currency of influence. Men and women dealing in favors weave networks of reciprocity, building bridges that money alone cannot construct. These relationships, founded on mutual respect and trust, often lead to opportunities that transcend monetary transactions. It's a reminder that agency is also about the connections we forge and the impact we have on others.
The Allure of Power and Social Engineering
At the pinnacle of perceived agency are those who shape societies—politicians and leaders who craft policies and laws. The power to influence millions is intoxicating. For some, it's a noble pursuit to improve lives; for others, it might be a means to consolidate control. The enactment of laws and policies can dramatically alter the course of a nation, showcasing the immense agency these individuals hold. Yet, with great power comes great responsibility.
The Balance Between Governance and Personal Agency
When new laws are passed, the governed may feel a subtle shift—a slight loss of personal agency as external rules dictate aspects of their lives. It's a delicate balance between the needs of society and individual freedoms. However, this doesn't mean that personal agency is diminished entirely. Citizens have the power to engage, voice their opinions, and influence future policies. Democracy thrives when individuals exercise their agency collectively.
Cultivating Personal Agency in Every Sphere
Regardless of where we stand—in halls of power or in everyday life—we each possess the capacity for agency. It's in the choices we make, the challenges we embrace, and the way we respond to circumstances beyond our control. Cultivating agency involves self-awareness, continuous learning, and the courage to take action. It's about being the author of our story, not a passive participant.
Empowerment Through Action
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Educate Yourself: Knowledge is a powerful catalyst for agency. Stay informed about the world around you, understand your rights, and learn new skills.
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Build Relationships: Surround yourself with people who inspire and challenge you. Strong networks can amplify your impact.
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Engage in Your Community: Participate in local initiatives, vote, and make your voice heard. Collective agency can drive significant change.
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Embrace Resilience: Obstacles are inevitable. Use them as stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks.
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Lead with Integrity: Whether in small groups or large organizations, lead by example. Influence others positively through your actions.
Conclusion
Agency is more than the accumulation of wealth or the wielding of power over others. It's the intrinsic ability to navigate life's complexities with intention and purpose. While money and influence can enhance one's reach, true agency stems from within. By embracing our individual power to make choices, we not only transform our own lives but also contribute to the betterment of society. Let's strive to be agents of positive change, recognizing that every action we take resonates beyond ourselves.
This was a bit lengthy so I asked "Reduce this to about 300 words, please." which gave me:
The Power of Agency: Beyond Money and Influence
In a world driven by transactions and favors, money often appears synonymous with agency—the ability to make choices and effect change. While wealth can provide opportunities and a sense of freedom, there are individuals who, regardless of financial status, possess a remarkable sense of agency. These people move through life with purpose and resilience, shaping their own destinies.
Money as a Tool, Not the Master
Money grants access to resources and networks that can amplify influence. However, those with high personal agency view money as a tool rather than an end goal. Their true power comes from within—their skills, knowledge, and the value they bring to others. For them, money is a byproduct of passion and hard work, not the driving force.
The Dance of Favors and Influence
Favors act as a currency of influence in society. Individuals dealing in favors build networks of reciprocity that money alone cannot forge. These relationships, based on mutual respect and trust, open doors to opportunities beyond monetary transactions. This underscores that agency also stems from the connections we make and the impact we have on others.
The Allure of Power and Social Engineering
At the pinnacle of perceived agency are politicians and leaders who craft policies and laws, shaping societies. The power to influence millions is intoxicating. While some pursue this path to improve lives, others may seek to consolidate control. The enactment of laws can dramatically alter a nation's course, highlighting the immense agency these individuals hold—and the great responsibility that comes with it.
Conclusion
Agency transcends wealth and the wielding of power over others. It's the intrinsic ability to navigate life's complexities with intention and purpose. By embracing our power to make choices, we not only transform our own lives but also contribute to the betterment of society. Let's strive to be agents of positive change, recognizing that every action we take resonates beyond ourselves.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Claude also gave me a long reply:
Here's an expanded and more engaging version of your post:
The Intricate Dance of Power: Agency, Money, and Social Engineering
In the grand theater of life, three actors take center stage: agency, money, and the men who deal in favors. Their performance is a complex interplay that shapes our world in ways both subtle and profound.
Agency: The Power to Act
At its core, agency is the ability to make meaningful choices and effect change in one's life and surroundings. It's the fire that fuels ambition, the spark that ignites innovation, and the force that propels individuals to overcome obstacles. But in our modern world, agency is not distributed equally.
Money: The Great Enabler
Enter money – the universal lubricant of human interactions. It's often said that money can't buy happiness, but it certainly can purchase options. A well-lined wallet opens doors, creates opportunities, and expands the realm of possible actions. In this sense, money amplifies agency, allowing individuals to transform their will into reality with greater ease.
Yet, there's a chicken-and-egg quality to this relationship. Those blessed with high agency – the driven, the clever, the relentless – often find themselves naturally adept at accumulating wealth. Their enhanced ability to navigate complex systems and seize opportunities translates directly into financial success. This creates a self-reinforcing cycle: more money leads to greater agency, which in turn facilitates further wealth accumulation.
The Political Arena: Where Agency Meets Scale
But what about those who seek agency not just for themselves, but over the lives of millions? Enter the realm of politics and social engineering. Here, we find individuals driven by a potent mix of idealism, ambition, and the intoxicating allure of power.
Imagine the rush a politician feels when signing a bill into law. With a simple stroke of a pen, they've just altered the fabric of society. Thousands, perhaps millions, will have their daily lives shaped by this decision. It's agency writ large, the ability to mold the world according to one's vision.
This power to legislate, to "socially engineer" on a massive scale, represents perhaps the ultimate expression of agency. It's a heady brew, one that has led both to humanity's greatest triumphs and its darkest hours.
The Ripple Effect: When Agency is Constrained
Yet, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. As lawmakers expand their sphere of influence, those governed often feel the ground shift beneath their feet. Each new regulation, each policy change, can feel like a small theft of personal autonomy. The factory worker whose job disappears due to new environmental regulations, the small business owner navigating an increasingly complex tax code – they experience the flip side of political agency.
This tension – between the agency of the few to shape society and the desire of the many to maintain personal freedom – lies at the heart of many of our most heated political debates.
A Delicate Balance
So where does this leave us? In a world where agency, money, and power are so intimately intertwined, how do we strike a balance? How do we create a society that fosters individual empowerment while also addressing collective needs?
Perhaps the answer lies in transparency, in robust democratic systems that hold the powerful accountable. Or maybe it's about education, equipping every citizen with the tools to navigate an increasingly complex world. It could be that technology will be the great equalizer, democratizing access to information and opportunities.
Whatever the solution, one thing is clear: understanding this dance of agency, money, and power is crucial. For in that understanding lies the key to shaping a future where personal freedom and collective progress can coexist harmoniously.
As we move forward, let us be mindful of our own agency, how we use it, and how our actions impact the agency of others. For in the end, the most inspiring use of power might just be empowering others to reach their full potential.
Again, I asked to shorten it to about 300 words:
Here's a condensed version of the post in about 300 words:
The Interplay of Agency, Money, and Power
Agency – the ability to make choices and effect change – is a fundamental human desire. In our modern world, it's intricately linked with money and power, creating a complex dynamic that shapes society.
Money acts as an amplifier of agency. It opens doors, creates opportunities, and expands possibilities. Those with financial resources can more easily transform their will into reality. Interestingly, individuals with high agency often excel at accumulating wealth, creating a self-reinforcing cycle.
However, some seek agency not just for themselves, but over the lives of many. Politicians and social engineers enter this arena, driven by a mix of idealism, ambition, and the allure of power. The ability to shape society through legislation represents perhaps the ultimate expression of agency. With a single decision, they can alter the lives of millions.
Yet, this expansion of political agency often comes at the cost of individual autonomy. Each new law or regulation can feel like a small theft of personal freedom to those governed. This tension – between the power to shape society and the desire for individual liberty – fuels many of our most heated political debates.
Balancing these competing forces is a central challenge of our time. How do we create a society that fosters individual empowerment while addressing collective needs? Solutions may lie in transparent governance, robust democratic systems, improved education, or technological advancements that democratize opportunities.
Understanding this intricate dance of agency, money, and power is crucial for shaping a future where personal freedom and collective progress coexist. As we navigate this complex landscape, we must remain mindful of our own agency and how our actions impact others. Perhaps the most inspiring use of power is in empowering others to reach their full potential.
Venice
Venice gave me an answer of about 300 words right away:
Here is an expanded version of your post that aims to be more inspiring and engaging:
Agency, Money and Men Dealing in Favors: A Dance for Dominance
In a world driven by ambition, few things grant us more agency than money and influence. Money provides the means to achieve our dreams, while men with high agency have no problem earning it. But what happens when politicians enter the fray, seeking to reshape society to their whims?
These power-hungry individuals, drunk on the feeling of control that comes with passing laws, exert their agency over millions of lives. They believe they know best how to live, love, work and play. And the governed? They feel a subtle tug, a loss of autonomy, as their freedoms are incrementally chipped away.
In this high-stakes game of dominance, favors are traded like currency. Men in positions of power grant concessions to their friends and allies, further consolidating their grip on society. It's a delicate dance, where the slightest misstep can lead to political ruin or societal upheaval.
But in the end, who really holds the reins? Is it the politicians, the wealthy, or the masses who ultimately have the power to shape their own destinies? The answer lies in the interplay of agency, money, and favors - a complex web of influence that will continue to shape our world for generations to come.
Conclusion
Today, content production is more and more supported if not outright done by LLMs and the makers of these put their thumbs on the scale in a very subtle way. I'm not a linguist researcher to break the results down sentence by sentence to illustrate the bias but to me it is clear the first two were a big edge more left leaning than the third LLM.
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@ 46fcbe30:6bd8ce4d
2024-09-28 20:31:23In a world driven by ambition, few things grant us more agency than money and influence. Money provides the means to achieve our dreams, while men with high agency have no problem earning it. But what happens when politicians enter the fray, seeking to reshape society to their whims?
These power-hungry individuals, drunk on the feeling of control that comes with passing laws, exert their agency over millions of lives. They believe they know best how to live, love, work and play. And the governed? They feel a subtle tug, a loss of autonomy, as their freedoms are incrementally chipped away.
In this high-stakes game of dominance, favors are traded like currency. Men in positions of power grant concessions to their friends and allies, further consolidating their grip on society. It's a delicate dance, where the slightest misstep can lead to political ruin or societal upheaval.
But in the end, who really holds the reins? Is it the politicians, the wealthy, or the masses who ultimately have the power to shape their own destinies? The answer lies in the interplay of agency, money, and favors - a complex web of influence that will continue to shape our world for generations to come.
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@ 4ce6abbd:94a514dd
2024-09-28 10:32:02We are Streaming the Dance Battle Festival Auditons
October 3rd 2024
6pm EST
Stream on TUNESTR
Zap: dancebattlefestival@geyser.fund
Mark your calendars, because October 3rd, 2024, is set to be a date to remember! 🎉 This is when Bitcoin, Nostr, and the art of dance collide in an electrifying celebration at the Dance Battle Festival Auditions.
The Dance Battle Festival Auditions: A Glimpse of Magic
Back in August, the vibrant city of Arusha, Tanzania, came alive as we held the Dance Battle Festival auditions. We captured all the energy and excitement on film, and we can’t wait to share it with you! Our vision? To showcase these incredible dancers on Tunestr, creating a whole new dynamic for the event.
Why This Matters? By sharing their performances on Tunestr, these talented dancers can expand their networks and even receive Bitcoin for their artistry. Value for Value | v4v
** Support from POWA: Empowering Artists** We’re thrilled to announce that POWA will be providing ongoing support to the dancers, helping them navigate the world of Bitcoin and Nostr. This isn’t just about technology; it’s about empowering artists and enriching their creative journey.
Join Us! So, we invite you to tune in and witness some phenomenal performances that showcase the spirit of the dance community in Arusha. Your support can help these dancers thrive through the innovative power of Bitcoin and Nostr.
Man Like Who?
Man Like Kweks!
Bitcoin #Nostr #DanceBattleFestival #DBFS2
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-09-06 22:23:03 -
@ bbb5dda0:f09e2747
2024-09-27 19:45:31Moving into Norway the nice, almost-alpine landscapes greeted me. Slowly however the mountains numbed down and fjords started appearing. I was nearing Trondheim, the most northern city in Norway that has something that resembles a high-way. Anything further north and you’re bound to 80km/h roads. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, given the views.
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| | On the road to Trondheim |
I went pretty much straight to Trondheim because I got in touch with Lucas through an ex-colleague of mine (Thanks Niek ;)). I texted Lucas about a week before we met to see if he’d be up to go hiking somewhere in the Trondheim area. He said he was thinking about going North, waaaay North, in order to see the midnight sun and he wanted to do this the next weekend. This was around June 21st, the longest day of the year. I said it’d be cool to experience that and so that is just what we did. For those of you who don’t know, on June 21st the sun is right at the ‘Tropic of Cancer’ (‘Kreeftskeerkring’ in Dutch), the most northern position of the sun after which the summer slowly turns into winter again. In the period around this moment, the sun will NOT go below the horizon at all when you are above the arctic circle.
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I’m glad Lucas has an electric car, because the round-trip would’ve cost me (whith my thirsty van) €333,-. Instead we spent less than €60,- for this 1200km round-trip. What a difference! So we left for the 9 hr drive on Friday-evening and camped out besides a lake next to the E6 highway, which runs all the way from the south to the north, which is over 3000(!) kilometers long.
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We found this seemingly abandoned bus, what a beauty! |
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Woke up to this view! | |
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Time for a charging break in Mosjøen |
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Because of a tunnel-closure we had to take this mountain-pass, not complaining here…
We moved on the next morning and had perfect weather, too perfect for Norway because it was just below 30 degrees Celsius. This hot weather reached well into the arctic circle, where we’d be hiking up a mountain to find a camp-spot with a view to the north. We parked the car and started to hike up the steep hill, we found a route online, but soon found out we missed the path shown on the map. We figured we would not backtrack but instead walk around the same height on the mountain to get back at that path. Long story short, that path didn’t exist (anymore). So we tried to get back at it but just couldn’t find it. Eventually we just followed the trail that was actually set out using red ‘T’-s that were painted on the rocks every 50-100 meters. It was quite a walk and the heat didn’t make it any easier.
A beginner mountaineer realizing he climbed the wrong mountain
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After a near-death experience with mosquito’s, the Deet really saved us |
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Finally we reached our intended camp-spot |
After draining most of our energy we finally arrived at the place we wanted to camp for the night day, which was in front of a small lake and a bigger one which lied a bit lower. I don’t think I need to say much more about the beauty of the place when you can just look at the pictures below:
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The ‘next’ day we hiked back, and tried to return using the ‘official’ path we wanted to hike in the first place, all in vain. It led us to hike some strange, steep and almost treacherous paths after which we decided it would be wise to just backtrack a little bit and get back to the (red) marked trail. We got back to the car safely after which we drove to the river that was just below the car park to take a refreshing dive before heading back south. We found a (safe) spot to take the dive in the river that was now raging because of the heavy snow-melt due to the extremely high temperatures. Lucas later told me that in some regions electricity was even free due to the surplus of hydro-electricity.
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We had to walk over this |
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We made a car-recharge stop at Mosjøen where we had a quick pizza-dinner. Just after leaving the parking-lot we saw a couple hitch-hikers who wanted to go to Trondheim just like us. We pulled over and took them with us, they were a couple from different south-eastern European countries and were touring around Europe and soon also the world. They shared some cool stories and told about their plans. When we got to Trondheim we dropped them off near their camping-spot and drove back to Lucas’s house. Quite tired I jumped back in my own bed in my own home. How nice is it to have your house with you (almost) everywhere… 🙂
I camped in front of his house for a couple days. To be honest I didn’t do much those days as I was pretty much drained from experiencing all kinds of different things back-to-back for over a month now. I used this time to work a bit on the official stuff for my own freelance IT company which I started, I finally got a bank-account approved after 3 weeks of waiting, which allowed me to manage some of the essential setup-things and book-keeping. After these formalities I took a bit of time to head into the city-center, of course using my folding bike like a real Dutchie. And since Trondheim is a hilly city, biking downhill from Lucas’s house was a blast but going back up was quite the struggle with these tiny wheels, but it all worked out… That same night a thunderstorm was rolling in and sitting on top of a hill in a campervan, with lightning striking the ground at less than 100 meters away from the van was a new thing for me. I guess this too is part of the ‘living closer to nature’ thing…
I’m very thankful for the experiences and the hospitality of the people I meet along the way. It was very much fun to make this trip together! It’s the people that make the journey…
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@ c6f7077f:ad5d48fd
2024-09-08 01:24:03“The more you learn about something, the more you realize you know nothing.” This saying resonates deeply with me. The truth is, no one really has all the big answers. Many in the scientific community seem to pretend they do. Let’s explore this further.
Consider the Most Fundamental Questions
- The Origin of the Universe
- The Origin of Life on Earth
The Origin of the Universe
You might think we have a solid answer: the Big Bang. However, this explanation has its limitations, and calling it a “start” can be misleading. In fact, this theory might be entirely wrong. New research challenges the Big Bang theory, and I highly recommend listening to Sir Roger Penrose for a deeper understanding.
The only substantial evidence we have is the universe's expansion. Penrose proposes a different hypothesis: the endless expansion and contraction of the universe. This idea doesn’t contradict our current understanding.
Thus, the evidence for the Big Bang and Penrose’s theory are both radically different, yet neither can be definitively proven over the other. This highlights the limitations of our current understanding.
The Origin of Life on Earth
The origin of life is even more complex. Life requires three essential components: - Proteins for basic functioning - RNA for storing and replicating genes - Lipids (cell walls) to create separation from the environment
Mathematical models suggest that while proteins and lipids have a reasonable probability of forming, the creation of RNA seems nearly impossible through random mutations in a short time frame. The best explanations indicate that we either lack crucial information or that these RNA molecules—and life as a whole—might have come from outside sources. Some scholars even question the entire random mutation model.
The Question of Certainty
If scientists don’t know the answers, why do they pretend they do? In my humble opinion, It seems they do this to distance science from religion and to close the discussion before the wealthiest can fit God into the narrative, Interestingly, I’m not alone in believing they closed the books too early.
Reclaiming Control of Science and Education
The best way to reclaim control of science and education is to learn. If you’re looking for a starting point, I highly recommend: - “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking for physics - “Sapiens” or “The Selfish Gene” for evolutionary biology
All three are excellent starting points—densely packed with information and covering a wide range of topics in a concise and accessible manner.
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@ 76c71aae:3e29cafa
2024-08-13 04:30:00On social media and in the Nostr space in particular, there’s been a lot of debate about the idea of supporting deletion and editing of notes.
Some people think they’re vital features to have, others believe that more honest and healthy social media will come from getting rid of these features. The discussion about these features quickly turns to the feasibility of completely deleting something on a decentralized protocol. We quickly get to the “We can’t really delete anything from the internet, or a decentralized network.” argument. This crowds out how Delete and Edit can mimic elements of offline interactions, how they can be used as social signals.
When it comes to issues of deletion and editing content, what matters more is if the creator can communicate their intentions around their content. Sure, on the internet, with decentralized protocols, there’s no way to be sure something’s deleted. It’s not like taking a piece of paper and burning it. Computers make copies of things all the time, computers don’t like deleting things. In particular, distributed systems tend to use a Kafka architecture with immutable logs, it’s just easier to keep everything around, as deleting and reindexing is hard. Even if the software could be made to delete something, there’s always screenshots, or even pictures of screens. We can’t provably make something disappear.
What we need to do in our software is clearly express intention. A delete is actually a kind of retraction. “I no longer want to associate myself with this content, please stop showing it to people as part of what I’ve published, stop highlighting it, stop sharing it.” Even if a relay or other server keeps a copy, and keeps sharing it, being able to clearly state “hello world, this thing I said, was a mistake, please get rid of it.” Just giving users the chance to say “I deleted this” is a way of showing intention. It’s also a way of signaling that feedback has been heard. Perhaps the post was factually incorrect or perhaps it was mean and the person wants to remove what they said. In an IRL conversation, for either of these scenarios there is some dialogue where the creator of the content is learning something and taking action based on what they’ve learned.
Without delete or edit, there is no option to signal to the rest of the community that you have learned something because of how the content is structured today. On most platforms a reply or response stating one’s learning will be lost often in a deluge of replies on the original post and subsequent posts are often not seen especially when the original goes viral. By providing tools like delete and edit we give people a chance to signal that they have heard the feedback and taken action.
The Nostr Protocol supports delete and expiring notes. It was one of the reasons we switched from secure scuttlebutt to build on Nostr. Our nos.social app offers delete and while we know that not all relays will honor this, we believe it’s important to provide social signaling tools as a means of making the internet more humane.
We believe that the power to learn from each other is more important than the need to police through moral outrage which is how the current platforms and even some Nostr clients work today.
It’s important that we don’t say Nostr doesn’t support delete. Not all apps need to support requesting a delete, some might want to call it a retraction. It is important that users know there is no way to enforce a delete and not all relays may honor their request.
Edit is similar, although not as widely supported as delete. It’s a creator making a clear statement that they’ve created a new version of their content. Maybe it’s a spelling error, or a new version of the content, or maybe they’re changing it altogether. Freedom online means freedom to retract a statement, freedom to update a statement, freedom to edit your own content. By building on these freedoms, we’ll make Nostr a space where people feel empowered and in control of their own media.
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@ 0e8c41eb:95ff0faa
2024-07-08 14:36:14Chef's notes
Sprinkle a pinch of salt in a bowl. Sift 275 grams of flour above it. Make a well in the center of the flour and sprinkle the yeast into it. Add 50 grams of butter, 25 grams of sugar, and the egg. Pour in the milk and knead the dough with the mixer or by hand into a smooth dough. If necessary, add a bit more flour if the dough is too sticky. Form the dough into a ball. Let the dough rise covered with cling film at room temperature for 1 hour.
Peel the apples. Cut the apples and apricots into pieces. Cook the fruit with 150 grams of sugar and 50 ml of water in 15 minutes into a thick compote. Let this fruit filling cool.
Knead the dough again briefly and roll it out to a round sheet of about 28-30 cm in diameter, so that it fits well over the baking tin. Press the dough into the tin and press it well into the corners. Let the dough rise again for 10 minutes and cut off the excess edges.
Spread the fruit filling over the dough.
Mix the rest of the flour with the remaining 100 grams of butter and 100 grams of sugar and knead it with your fingers into a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle this crumble mixture over the fruit filling. Bake the tart in the preheated oven at 200°C for about 30 minutes until golden brown.
Variations: Only apple? Make this tart with 1 kilo of apples. High or low? You can also bake the crumble tart in a low tart tin of 30 cm diameter. If the fruit filling is a bit too voluminous, you can make double the crumble mixture and sprinkle it over the larger surface area.
Additional needs: Mixer with dough hooks or food processor Cling film Round baking tin with a diameter of 28-30 cm, greased
Details
- ⏲️ Prep time: 45 min + 1 hour Rising
- 🍳 Cook time: 30 minutes
- 🍽️ Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 375 grams flour
- 1 packet dried yeast (7 grams)
- 125 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 275 grams sugar
- 1 egg
- 100 ml milk, at room temperature
- 500 grams apples
- 500 grams apricots (fresh or from a can)
Directions
- Sprinkle a pinch of salt in a bowl. Sift 275 grams of flour above it. Make a well in the center of the flour and sprinkle the yeast into it. Add 50 grams of butter, 25 grams of sugar, and the egg. Pour in the milk and knead the dough with the mixer or by hand into a smooth dough. If necessary, add a bit more flour if the dough is too sticky. Form the dough into a ball. Let the dough rise covered with cling film at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Peel the apples. Cut the apples and apricots into pieces. Cook the fruit with 150 grams of sugar and 50 ml of water in 15 minutes into a thick compote. Let this fruit filling cool.
- Knead the dough again briefly and roll it out to a round sheet of about 28-30 cm in diameter, so that it fits well over the baking tin. Press the dough into the tin and press it well into the corners. Let the dough rise again for 10 minutes and cut off the excess edges.
- Spread the fruit filling over the dough.
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@ bbb5dda0:f09e2747
2024-09-27 19:45:01After a small detour I entered the Jotunheimen National Park area and decided I would walk the Bessegen Ridge, A famous -you guessed it- ridge hike that runs all the way along a large lake.
It was a beautiful sunny day, blue skies and barely any wind. Quite rare conditions for Norway. So I thought that was a perfect moment to spend a couple hours video calling with my brother and his girlfriend. So in the late afternoon I decided to drive up to the trail-head and have some dinner before starting my hike.
At the trail-head there is a parking lot for both cars and campers for which they charge 250NOK (25EUR) per day! Since I was planning on hiking 2-3 days I decided I am too Dutch for this and drove on to the first free parking spot available, just ~1km further up the hill. So loaded up with a beefy backpack and my folding bike I sailed down to the parking lot and locked my bike to a tree. I just saved myself 50+ euros.
Day 1
Most people take the ferry at the trail-head first. After these delays I was ready to start the hike somewhere between 18:00 and 19:00. “Why so late, are you nuts!?”. Well, it’s not like there’s much of a difference between day and night there, remember. So I didn’t have to worry about a loss of daylight whilst up there. The only danger left was probably bears trying to eat me.
Contrary to what most people do I started to walk first and take the ferry back from Gjendesheim the last (of 2) stops. Most people take the ferry to the first stop which is Memurubu and then walk back to the trail-head. So while walking I would mostly come across batches of humans that came from the same ferry moving the opposite direction as me. Once they passed I’d be pretty much alone again.
Just above the trail-head.
After a steep start moving uphill I reached the ‘top’ of the ridge and from there on the walk was pretty flat until right before Memurubu. After a few hours of hiking and taking a moment here and there, and there, and there to take in the amazing views. As I arrived at the highest point overlooking two lakes I thought to myself: “Why not stay here?”. So that’s just what I did because the weather forecasts were good, no rain and barely any wind and good temperatures.
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I had to secure the tent to the ground with rocks |
At around the darkest moment of the ‘night’ | |
My initial idea was to camp right down there between the two lakes. (the right one is much higher than the left) |
Coffee? |
This place has been hands down the best view I’ve ever slept with. It was so quiet and felt deeply peaceful. Just being there, cooking a meal, prepping a coffee and slowly winding down to sleep. I walked roughly 7km with 700m in elevation gain. | | | | | --- | --- | --- | |
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Day 2
Gooooooooooooodmorning! After quite a relaxed night in my tent I woke up around 9 and slowly got up and made myself some breakfast: oats with raisins and cinnamon and of course water. I was in no rush as I had until 5pm the next day to get to the end of the lake, which is about 17km of hiking left and 1500m-ish in elevation changes.
I made my way to in-between those lakes in the pictures above. I was chatting with an old colleague (Yay, 4G!) and we even had a call over an IT problem. You can’t lock me inside an office because most of what I need is already in my head anyways ;). Moving on I entered the true wilderness where few men (and even fewer IT-people) dare to walk: places without cell-signal. But I can tell you I survived, seemingly unharmed.
Also a good time to fill up my camelback with fresh water. Filtering takes ~5-10min.
After a couple hours I reached Murumburu (I know, this placename sounds a bit like trying to pronounce a city while eating a sandwich to fast). There’s a cabin/hotel there that also sells some great coffee which is a warm welcome after a hike of 14km and 1700m elevation gain and loss. After enjoying this coffee I walked to the lake where there was a pebble beach that was part part of a riverbed. I decided to go in to freshen up. And fresh it it, because most of the water is fresh melting-water from nearby glaciers. It gets better after the tingling feeling of the whole body fades a bit. Then when you get out, you feel GREAT!
The water was probably well under 5 degrees Celsius
I still had plenty of time left so most of the afternoon I enjoyed the sun on my face lying on the grass. Not complaining…
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Yup, that’s where we’re going… |
This is a pretty good summary of Norway | |
Looking back at Merumburu |
Next to my campsite for the night |
I basically walked until I would find a suiting spot that was somewhat protected from the elements and ended up next to a small lake that seemed to house more mosquitos than water. But it was a pretty place nonetheless. Surrounded by glaciated peaks and lots of snow.
Goodnight.
Day 3
Last stretch! On to Gjendebu, where I would catch my ferry back to the trail-head. Just before starting my descent down from the platform I met the last of the very few signs, as 99% of the trail is just following the red T’s. This descend was very much as steep as it looks in the picture down below. I didn’t have much of a chance to take pictures as I needed all my focus not to slide down the bare rock when descending using several chains. Maybe without a backpack it wouldn’t have been too bad but keeping your stability with 10-15kg on your back takes a bit more effort.
Here, naive me was still thinking this path would just move parallel to the ridge. When I made it down and stepped foot in Gjendebu it started to rain, so it was a perfect moment to go inside and rest for a bit. I asked my inner voice if I deserved a beer. I did, because I saved so much money on parking and did a good job hiking. So this 9 Euro costing beer was enjoyed to the fullest.
Okay, actually 2 of them… The ferry was still an hour wait and to kill the time I went outside to sit down at a (covered) picnic table and made some soup. I wasn’t alone as a Norwegian family with kids aged ~1 and ~5 was also there prepping some food. We talked a bit and then the oldest girl -in her best English- offered me one of the pancakes they were making. Of course I couldn’t say no to that.
I really appreciate how they as a young family take the extra effort to bring out their kids to places like this while they could’ve just done the ‘made for kids’ activities in the area.
| | | | --- | --- | |
So I climbed almost straight down on this part… |
Thank you for your natural beauty! |
Sorry this was a bit of a long one. Writing these blogs isn’t always as easy and can be a bit intimidating at times. But it’s worth the effort, thank you for reading 😉
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@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1
2024-09-27 11:32:25A fortnight of being real on Nostr
It's been over two weeks, since I announced that I would primarily be noting from my lesser-known Silberengel npub, and it's been an interesting experience. As with anything I ever do, I clicked around a lot, tested out a lot, and tried out a lot. Mostly, I observed.
Let me share, what I've learned
- Nostr-related products are increasingly useless, if you don't follow anyone, or only follow a handful of people. Everything is geared to follows and you usually really do need to follow gobs of people, to have an interesting feed, by capturing the most-active people (about 10% of the people you follow). Those people tend to quote and boost other people's notes into your stream, allowing you to follow those additional people and so on, like a snowball scheme. This means that follows are actually a feed-management mechanism, rather than any indication of a relationship between npubs. It also means that 10% of the npubs decide what everyone will look at.
- Many people collect followers, by being active for a very short time, following lots and lots of people and getting follow-backs, then they unfollow the smaller npubs or abruptly change their tone or the content (this is common with spammers and scammers). Then they have a high WoT score. What, precisely, is being trusted here? (Also, centering WoT on follows is influencer-maxxing for plebs, KWIM?)
- Why are individuals never unfollowing these npubs? Because nobody unfollows anyone who hasn't seriously upset them. Follow-inertia is rampant and the follow lists are so long that most people don't even know who they are following. So long as the "bad npub" doesn't spam the people who are following them directly, they don't notice anything. That means following spam can inadvertently protect you from spam, whilst the same spammers throw crap at your own frens, all damned day.
- Most relay owners/operators don't ever look directly at the feed from their own relay, so it's usually full of enormous amounts of garbage. Your clients and personal/private relays are often downloading and broadcasting all of that garbage indiscriminately, so the garbage gets passed around, like a social media virus. Many of you just haven't noticed, because you also don't look at the feed from your relays (see 1).
- Almost all business logic (the controls, in the classic model-view-controller setup) has been placed on the client-side. This is great, if you're a client developer, as it makes relays superfluous and traps your customers in your app, by making moving to a different app more onerous. Every move requires a period of readjustment and fiddling, before they can see their feed the way that they are used to seeing it. This is less great, if you're a user and are interested in trying out a different app.
- When I began, two weeks ago, the concept of topical, private, and personal relays interacting were mostly a pipe dream (pun intended), but I've been pleased to see, that some other people are beginning to catch on to the appeal of decentralizing and specializing the model layer. A diverse, sprawling network of relays, connected through the outbox model and negentropy syncing, is really next-generation communication, and essential for ensuring censorship-resistance, while supporting smooth interaction.
- Once you get above a few hundred followers (which I already have, That went fast!), additional followers are increasingly spam or inactive/bot npubs, and once you get a few thousand followers, that Bot Effect goes parabolic, as your notes are spread more widely onto spammy relays. You won't notice, yourself, as anything over a few hundred becomes Some Big Number and you'll eventually stop even looking to see who they are, or caring about them, at all. Which leads directly to my next point...
- The number of followers a person has, correlates with an increase in their disdain for people who care about follower counts, likes, reactions, or even zaps. This noblesse oblige says nothing about the usefulness or information any of these signals carry. You will please also notice that they never change npubs and rarely change profile pics because of reasons I don't need to elaborate on, further.
- On-boarding is a lonely experience because nobody looks at the feed, and you initially have no followers. Even if you reply to people, they often can't see what you wrote because of your low WoT score. That is, unless you already know someone there, who can vouch for you. Or are lucky to get discovered by the Nostr Welcoming Committee and end up one of the biggest npubs overnight, which is like winning the follower lottery. For most new npubs, the experience is terrible and they eventually give up, for a handful the experience is absolutely fantastic and they are hooked. Obvious lesson: nobody should onboard, who doesn't know at least 1 other person: so invites only. Unlike Those Other Protocols, Nostr doesn't need a centrally-determined invite, as every client or relay can offer their own version, geared to a different audience. The goal simply needs to be: get off 1.
- I don't get many zaps or reactions, anymore, but I still have interesting conversations, and I no longer face the surreal situation of every cough, hiccup, or sneeze I emit being front-page news. Nostr feels more like Nostr, again, and less like Twitter, and now I want communities and forums even harder.
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-09-03 22:26:25 -
@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-09-03 22:26:25 -
@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-09-06 12:49:46Nostr: a quick introduction, attempt #2
Nostr doesn't subscribe to any ideals of "free speech" as these belong to the realm of politics and assume a big powerful government that enforces a common ruleupon everybody else.
Nostr instead is much simpler, it simply says that servers are private property and establishes a generalized framework for people to connect to all these servers, creating a true free market in the process. In other words, Nostr is the public road that each market participant can use to build their own store or visit others and use their services.
(Of course a road is never truly public, in normal cases it's ran by the government, in this case it relies upon the previous existence of the internet with all its quirks and chaos plus a hand of government control, but none of that matters for this explanation).
More concretely speaking, Nostr is just a set of definitions of the formats of the data that can be passed between participants and their expected order, i.e. messages between clients (i.e. the program that runs on a user computer) and relays (i.e. the program that runs on a publicly accessible computer, a "server", generally with a domain-name associated) over a type of TCP connection (WebSocket) with cryptographic signatures. This is what is called a "protocol" in this context, and upon that simple base multiple kinds of sub-protocols can be added, like a protocol for "public-square style microblogging", "semi-closed group chat" or, I don't know, "recipe sharing and feedback".
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@ 96417ed9:66b02a55
2024-09-29 20:01:36Image this.
You are scrolling through your favorite social media. It’s probably been 10 minutes Scroll. Like. Repeat. Scroll. Like. Repeat. And so on and on and on.
Does it sound familiar to you? How many times did you find yourself in this situations? Most importantly, how much attention did you pay to the hundreds of posts that you liked? What can you actually remember?
Attention and likes
Recently, I took a communication class. I was very surprised when the teacher told me that the average attention span is around 7 seconds! This means that when you are looking at something or talking to someone, you are actually paying attention for the first 7 seconds. After that, something else has already captured your mind. And it's actually getting worse and worse. Why is that, you might wonder? Yeah, you got it right, social media.
The infinite amount of content that you can consume on social media continuously steals your attention. Thus, when you are looking to a post, your focus is already on the next piece of information, and on the one after and so on indefinetly. Finally, when you decide to leave a like to the first post, you are not actually remembering what you were looking at.
In this context, likes moved from being an appreciation for someone else's work to a simple mechanism that feeds the social media algorithm. From a measure of the value provided by a creator, they became an empty number. Liking a post is no more action, but a mere unconscious reflex. A like is something free, something that you can leave without any conscious effort, to anyone, to anything. Even to something that you actually do not like.
In the last years, likes stopped being a measure of value provided.
And then, zaps came.
Zaps and the value 4 value revolution
Since I am publishing this article on Nostr, I expect most of the reader to know what a zap is. However, for the nebies whom may come across my random thought, here is a brief explaination.
Zaps are a simple way to communicate appreciation. Whenever you like a photo, a thought, a video, you can zap the creator. Exactly as a like, you might say. But here is the deal. When you zap someone, you are actually sending them some amount of money! And not a simple type of money, but the scarcest type of money on earth: Bitcoin! Basically, if a creator provides value to a user the user can award the creator with some monetary value. Nowadays, this concept is quite common and known as value4value (v4v for short).
This is a revolution. Anyone can provide value. Thus, everybody should be able to earn value if something of value is provided , not only some super influencer with sponsors and affiliate programs
Zaps from the user perspective
I started this article by talking about attention, and how there is such a huge competition for it that no one is actually able to focus on something anymore. How does it connect to zaps?
Zaps allow users to regain their lost attention. Since zaps provide real monetary value to a creator, a user has to be 100% on focus on what he is reading or watching: "Is this picture/video/post providing me value?". You do not want to separate from you hard-earned sats for something useless. Unlike likes, zaps are not free. When you zap someone, it means that you have actually paid attention to the post and you are actually acting to signal your appreciation.
Zaps from the creator perspective
I am an amateur photographer. I love going around places and took hundreds of photos at everyhting that catches my curiosity. I posted more than a hundred pictures on Instagram and received even a decent amount of likes. However, I eventually started to wonder if likes came from a genuine appreciation of my work, or only from the aforementioned mechanical reflex.
This does not happen on Nostr. Whenever I am zapped, I instantly know that the appreciation is real. My God, someone really spent some time looking at my photos and decided to give me some real monetary value for that! I really provided value to someone! This is truly exciting.
The realization of this fact has been one of those "ah-ah" moments. Why should I spent my time posting pictures on a social media just to get likes, when someone can send me a chunk of the best money ever created?
And why should you?
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@ e88527b4:7ccf6efa
2024-08-30 12:12:39書いてみた。。
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-29 02:16:28 -
@ f240c9c2:6c0c0a86
2024-08-22 06:50:33⚠️一部のクライアントでは表示が崩れている場合があります。HablaやYakihonneから見てください
NIP-51のkind:30007に関するPull Requestが承認され、2024/08/20時点で本家NIPsにもマージされました。今後「リポスト」や「リアクション」などの特定のkind^1をミュートするためのセット^2が対応するクライアントで使えるようになります。
kind mute set(kind:30007)にて、
"d"
タグには対応するイベントの種類の番号(リポストなら"6"
、リアクションなら"7"
)を入れ、"p"
タグにはユーザの公開鍵(pubkey)を入れるそうです。nostrクライアントのnostterは、これに対応したことで、Twitter(現:X)の「リポストをオフのする」機能のように"特定ユーザーのリポストをクライアント上で非表示にする"といったことができるようになりました。リアクションも同様に非表示にできます。 nostterでは、2024/07/29以降、ユーザーのプロフィール画面からこれらの設定を行えるようになっています。
2024/06/22 20時の時点では、nostter上ではこれを設定する画面が用意されていなかったので、別アプリを用いたり、イベントを自分で投げるなどして別途設定する必要がありました。 以下は、別アプリを用いて設定した際の手順です。
手順
kind:30007はのすとびうあというWebアプリで設定しました。 以下のようにのすとびうあのホーム画面「リストの種類」で30007を入力するか、
https://nostviewstr.vercel.app/<npub文字列>/30007
にアクセスして設定画面にいけました^3。左下の方にある≡を押して
ポップアップの「編集」を押して
ここではリポストのミュートのため、IDの欄に対応するイベントの種類の番号である「6」を入れて
右下にある青いボタン押して
Userの欄にリポストをミュートするユーザーの公開鍵のnpub文字列を入れ、public(ミュート状況が公開される)あるいはprivate(非公開)のボタンを押したら
そのユーザーが追加されて設定完了!
この設定を行うことで、入力した公開鍵(ユーザー)のリポストをnostter上でもミュートできました🙌
リポストやリアクションがどのように表示されるかをユーザーがコントロールできると便利なので、今後いろんなクライアントで対応されればいいな〜と思います!
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@ 4c96d763:80c3ee30
2024-08-19 16:26:43Changes
Rusty Russell (3):
- Makefile: fix missing dependencies on bolt11 headers.
- bolt11: update to latest version from CLN
- bolt11: remove unneeded fields.
William Casarin (1):
- ndb_filter_from_json
pushed to nostrdb:refs/heads/master
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@ dd664d5e:5633d319
2024-06-24 06:05:05The new Great Library
We have all heard tales of Amazon or other booksellers banning customers from their bookstores or censoring/editing purchased books. The famous Project Gutenberg, and similar organizations, are performing a good work, to help protect many of our precious books from this fate, but it is merely a centralized website and therefore not censorship resistant. Also, it mostly posts books in English or German.
So, we at nostr:npub1s3ht77dq4zqnya8vjun5jp3p44pr794ru36d0ltxu65chljw8xjqd975wz have decided to move Project Gutenberg to Nostr and house it in the most distributed way possible: on relays. Specifically, our new, public Citadel relay for out-of-print books (and other documents), but also on any relay, anywhere.
And, because we are a very humble group, we're naming the effort "Alexandria". And the first book to be printed on Nostr is the Bible because obviously.
Why on relays?
Well, why not on relays? Relays are one of the few widely-distributed databases for documentation in existence. The relay database spans the entire globe and anyone can maintain their own relay on their personal computer or mobile phone.
That means that anyone can house their own books. Which books are their own? Any books they have in their own possession. Any books someone would have to physically pry out of their cold, dead, computer.
Notes are perfect for publishing
Once we begin generating eBooks from notes with an associated header (which will be quite easy to do, so long as they are written in markdown or similar), they will also be readable, downloadable, and storable in ePub format (see Pandoc). And it is, after all, only a matter of time until someone enterprising makes an ePaper Nostr client for calmer reading of notes, and then you can download and read them, without having to bother converting beforehand, which maintains their Nostr-navigation.
The new event kind 30040 allows us to take any sort of note containing any sort of characters and create a type of "note collection" or "book of notes", "journal of notes", "magazine of notes". And it can be nested or embedded in other notes, creating any sort of note-combination and note-hierarchy you can think of, only limited in size by the ability of your computer to processes the relationships.
Save the Zettels
The associated kind 30041 adds the prospect of breaking longer texts or articles up into sections or snippets (called "Zettel" in German). We can then collect or refer to particular bits of a longer text (like a chart, elegant paragraph or definition, data table), directly. Anyone can create such snippets, even of texts they didn't write, as they can add a reference to the original publication in the tags of the new event.
This means we no longer have to "copy-paste" or quote other people's works, we can simply tie them in. If we worry about them being deleted, we can fork them to create our own, digitally-linked version, and then tie that in. This means that source material can be tied to the new material, and you can trace back to the source easily (using Nostr IDs and tags, which are signed identifiers) and see who else is branching out from that source or discussing that source.
It's gonna be HUGE!
We are making a big, beautiful library... and you are going to build it for us. Anyone, anywhere can therefore publish or republish any document they wish, with Nostr, and store it wherever they have a relay, and view it on any client willing to display it.
You will own something and be happy.
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@ c4f5e7a7:8856cac7
2024-09-27 08:20:16Best viewed on Habla, YakiHonne or Highlighter.
TL;DR
This article explores the links between public, community-driven data sources (such as OpenStreetMap) and private, cryptographically-owned data found on networks such as Nostr.
The following concepts are explored:
- Attestations: Users signalling to their social graph that they believe something to be true by publishing Attestations. These social proofs act as a decentralised verification system that leverages your web-of-trust.
- Proof of Place: An oracle-based system where physical letters are sent to real-world locations, confirming the corresponding digital ownership via cryptographic proofs. This binds physical locations in meatspace with their digital representations in the Nostrverse.
- Check-ins: Foursquare-style check-ins that can be verified using attestations from place owners, ensuring authenticity. This approach uses web-of-trust to validate check-ins and location ownership over time.
The goal is to leverage cryptographic ownership where necessary while preserving the open, collaborative nature of public data systems.
Open Data in a public commons has a place and should not be thrown out with the Web 2.0 bathwater.
Cognitive Dissonance
Ever since discovering Nostr in August of 2022 I've been grappling with how BTC Map - a project that helps bitcoiners find places to spend sats - should most appropriately use this new protocol.
I am assuming, dear reader, that you are somewhat familiar with Nostr - a relatively new protocol for decentralised identity and communication. If you don’t know your nsec from your npub, please take some time to read these excellent posts: Nostr is Identity for the Internet and The Power of Nostr by @max and @lyn, respectively. Nostr is so much more than a short-form social media replacement.
The social features (check-ins, reviews, etc.) that Nostr unlocks for BTC Map are clear and exciting - all your silos are indeed broken - however, something fundamental has been bothering me for a while and I think it comes down to data ownership.
For those unfamiliar, BTC Map uses OpenStreetMap (OSM) as its main geographic database. OSM is centred on the concept of a commons of objectively verifiable data that is maintained by a global community of volunteer editors; a Wikipedia for maps. There is no data ownership; the data is free (as in freedom) and anyone can edit anything. It is the data equivalent of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) - FOSD if you will, but more commonly referred to as Open Data.
In contrast, Notes and Other Stuff on Nostr (Places in this cartographic context) are explicitly owned by the controller of the private key. These notes are free to propagate, but they are owned.
How do we reconcile the decentralised nature of Nostr, where data is cryptographically owned by individuals, with the community-managed data commons of OpenStreetMap, where no one owns the data?
Self-sovereign Identity
Before I address this coexistence question, I want to talk a little about identity as it pertains to ownership. If something is to be owned, it has to be owned by someone or something - an identity.
All identities that are not self-sovereign are, by definition, leased to you by a 3rd party. You rent your Facebook identity from Meta in exchange for your data. You rent your web domain from your DNS provider in exchange for your money.
Taken to the extreme, you rent your passport from your Government in exchange for your compliance. You are you at the pleasure of others. Where Bitcoin separates money from the state; Nostr separates identity from the state.
Or, as @nvk said recently: "Don't build your house on someone else's land.".
https://i.nostr.build/xpcCSkDg3uVw0yku.png
While we’ve had the tools for self-sovereign digital identity for decades (think PGP keys or WebAuthN), we haven't had the necessary social use cases nor the corresponding social graph to elevate these identities to the mainstream. Nostr fixes this.
Nostr is PGP for the masses and will take cryptographic identities mainstream.
Full NOSTARD?
Returning to the coexistence question: the data on OpenStreetMap isn’t directly owned by anyone, even though the physical entities the data represents might be privately owned. OSM is a data commons.
We can objectively agree on the location of a tree or a fire hydrant without needing permission to observe and record it. Sure, you could place a tree ‘on Nostr’, but why should you? Just because something can be ‘on Nostr’ doesn’t mean it should be.
https://i.nostr.build/s3So2JVAqoY4E1dI.png
There might be a dystopian future where we can't agree on what a tree is nor where it's located, but I hope we never get there. It's at this point we'll need a Wikifreedia variant of OpenStreetMap.
While integrating Nostr identities into OpenStreetMap would be valuable, the current OSM infrastructure, tools, and community already provide substantial benefits in managing this data commons without needing to go NOSTR-native - there's no need to go Full NOSTARD. H/T to @princeySOV for the original meme.
https://i.nostr.build/ot9jtM5cZtDHNKWc.png
So, how do we appropriately blend cryptographically owned data with the commons?
If a location is owned in meatspace and it's useful to signal that ownership, it should also be owned in cyberspace. Our efforts should therefore focus on entities like businesses, while allowing the commons to manage public data for as long as it can successfully mitigate the tragedy of the commons.
The remainder of this article explores how we can:
- Verify ownership of a physical place in the real world;
- Link that ownership to the corresponding digital place in cyberspace.
As a side note, I don't see private key custodianship - or, even worse, permissioned use of Places signed by another identity's key - as any more viable than the rented identities of Web 2.0.
And as we all know, the Second Law of Infodynamics (no citation!) states that:
"The total amount of sensitive information leaked will always increase over time."
This especially holds true if that data is centralised.
Not your keys, not your notes. Not your keys, not your identity.
Places and Web-of-Trust
@Arkinox has been leading the charge on the Places NIP, introducing Nostr notes (kind 37515) that represent physical locations. The draft is well-crafted, with bonus points for linking back to OSM (and other location repositories) via NIP-73 - External Content IDs (championed by @oscar of @fountain).
However, as Nostr is permissionless, authenticity poses a challenge. Just because someone claims to own a physical location on the Internet doesn’t necessarily mean they have ownership or control of that location in the real world.
Ultimately, this problem can only be solved in a decentralised way by using Web-of-Trust - using your social graph and the perspectives of trusted peers to inform your own perspective. In the context of Places, this requires your network to form a view on which digital identity (public key / npub) is truly the owner of a physical place like your local coffee shop.
This requires users to:
- Verify the owner of a Place in cyberspace is the owner of a place in meatspace.
- Signal this verification to their social graph.
Let's look at the latter idea first with the concept of Attestations ...
Attestations
A way to signal to your social graph that you believe something to be true (or false for that matter) would be by publishing an Attestation note. An Attestation note would signify to your social graph that you think something is either true or false.
Imagine you're a regular at a local coffee shop. You publish an Attestation that says the shop is real and the owner behind the Nostr public key is who they claim to be. Your friends trust you, so they start trusting the shop's digital identity too.
However, attestations applied to Places are just a single use case. The attestation concept could be more widely applied across Nostr in a variety of ways (key rotation, identity linking, etc).
Here is a recent example from @lyn that would carry more signal if it were an Attestation:
https://i.nostr.build/lZAXOEwvRIghgFY4.png
Parallels can be drawn between Attestations and transaction confirmations on the Bitcoin timechain; however, their importance to you would be weighted by clients and/or Data Vending Machines in accordance with:
- Your social graph;
- The type or subject of the content being attested and by whom;
- Your personal preferences.
They could also have a validity duration to be temporally bound, which would be particularly useful in the case of Places.
NIP-25 (Reactions) do allow for users to up/downvote notes with optional content (e.g., emojis) and could work for Attestations, but I think we need something less ambiguous and more definitive.
‘This is true’ resonates more strongly than ‘I like this.’.
https://i.nostr.build/s8NIG2kXzUCLcoax.jpg
There are similar concepts in the Web 3 / Web 5 world such as Verified Credentials by tdb. However, Nostr is the Web 3 now and so wen Attestation NIP?
https://i.nostr.build/Cb047NWyHdJ7h5Ka.jpg
That said, I have seen @utxo has been exploring ‘smart contracts’ on nostr and Attestations may just be a relatively ‘dumb’ subset of the wider concept Nostr-native scripting combined with web-of-trust.
Proof of Place
Attestations handle the signalling of your truth, but what about the initial verification itself?
We already covered how this ultimately has to be derived from your social graph, but what if there was a way to help bootstrap this web-of-trust through the use of oracles? For those unfamiliar with oracles in the digital realm, they are simply trusted purveyors of truth.
Introducing Proof of Place, an out–of-band process where an oracle (such as BTC Map) would mail - yes physically mail- a shared secret to the address of the location being claimed in cyberspace. This shared secret would be locked to the public key (npub) making the claim, which, if unlocked, would prove that the associated private key (nsec) has physical access to the location in meatspace.
One way of doing this would be to mint a 1 sat cashu ecash token locked to the npub of the claimant and mail it to them. If they are able to redeem the token then they have cryptographically proven that they have physical access to the location.
Proof of Place is really nothing more than a weighted Attestation. In a web-of-trust Nostrverse, an oracle is simply a npub (say BTC Map) that you weigh heavily for its opinion on a given topic (say Places).
In the Bitcoin world, Proof of Work anchors digital scarcity in cyberspace to physical scarcity (energy and time) in meatspace and as @Gigi says in PoW is Essential:
"A failure to understand Proof of Work, is a failure to understand Bitcoin."
In the Nostrverse, Proof of Place helps bridge the digital and physical worlds.
@Gigi also observes in Memes vs The World that:
"In Bitcoin, the map is the territory. We can infer everything we care about by looking at the map alone."
https://i.nostr.build/dOnpxfI4u7EL2v4e.png
This isn’t true for Nostr.
In the Nostrverse, the map IS NOT the territory. However, Proof of Place enables us to send cryptographic drones down into the physical territory to help us interpret our digital maps. 🤯
Check-ins
Although not a draft NIP yet, @Arkinox has also been exploring the familiar concept of Foursquare-style Check-ins on Nostr (with kind 13811 notes).
For the uninitiated, Check-ins are simply notes that signal the publisher is at a given location. These locations could be Places (in the Nostr sense) or any other given digital representation of a location for that matter (such as OSM elements) if NIP-73 - External Content IDs are used.
Of course, not everyone will be a Check-in enjoyooor as the concept will not sit well with some people’s threat models and OpSec practices.
Bringing Check-ins to Nostr is possible (as @sebastix capably shows here), but they suffer the same authenticity issues as Places. Just because I say I'm at a given location doesn't mean that I am.
Back in the Web 2.0 days, Foursquare mitigated this by relying on the GPS position of the phone running their app, but this is of course spoofable.
How should we approach Check-in verifiability in the Nostrverse? Well, just like with Places, we can use Attestations and WoT. In the context of Check-ins, an Attestation from the identity (npub) of the Place being checked-in to would be a particularly strong signal. An NFC device could be placed in a coffee shop and attest to check-ins without requiring the owner to manually intervene - I’m sure @blackcoffee and @Ben Arc could hack something together over a weekend!
Check-ins could also be used as a signal for bonafide Place ownership over time.
Summary: Trust Your Bros
So, to recap, we have:
Places: Digital representations of physical locations on Nostr.
Check-ins: Users signalling their presence at a location.
Attestations: Verifiable social proofs used to confirm ownership or the truth of a claim.
You can visualise how these three concepts combine in the diagram below:
https://i.nostr.build/Uv2Jhx5BBfA51y0K.jpg
And, as always, top right trumps bottom left! We have:
Level 0 - Trust Me Bro: Anyone can check-in anywhere. The Place might not exist or might be impersonating the real place in meatspace. The person behind the npub may not have even been there at all.
Level 1 - Definitely Maybe Somewhere: This category covers the middle-ground of ‘Maybe at a Place’ and ‘Definitely Somewhere’. In these examples, you are either self-certifying that you have checked-in at an Attested Place or you are having others attest that you have checked-in at a Place that might not even exist IRL.
Level 2 - Trust Your Bros: An Attested Check-in at an Attested Place. Your individual level of trust would be a function of the number of Attestations and how you weigh them within your own social graph.
https://i.nostr.build/HtLAiJH1uQSTmdxf.jpg
Perhaps the gold standard (or should that be the Bitcoin standard?) would be a Check-in attested by the owner of the Place, which in itself was attested by BTC Map?
Or perhaps not. Ultimately, it’s the users responsibility to determine what they trust by forming their own perspective within the Nostrverse powered by web-of-trust algorithms they control. ‘Trust Me Bro’ or ‘Trust Your Bros’ - you decide.
As we navigate the frontier of cryptographic ownership and decentralised data, it’s up to us to find the balance between preserving the Open Data commons and embracing self-sovereign digital identities.
Thanks
With thanks to Arkinox, Avi, Ben Gunn, Kieran, Blackcoffee, Sebastix, Tomek, Calle, Short Fiat, Ben Weeks and Bitcoms for helping shape my thoughts and refine content, whether you know it or not!
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-28 01:53:35 -
@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-05-21 12:38:08Bitcoin transactions explained
A transaction is a piece of data that takes inputs and produces outputs. Forget about the blockchain thing, Bitcoin is actually just a big tree of transactions. The blockchain is just a way to keep transactions ordered.
Imagine you have 10 satoshis. That means you have them in an unspent transaction output (UTXO). You want to spend them, so you create a transaction. The transaction should reference unspent outputs as its inputs. Every transaction has an immutable id, so you use that id plus the index of the output (because transactions can have multiple outputs). Then you specify a script that unlocks that transaction and related signatures, then you specify outputs along with a script that locks these outputs.
As you can see, there's this lock/unlocking thing and there are inputs and outputs. Inputs must be unlocked by fulfilling the conditions specified by the person who created the transaction they're in. And outputs must be locked so anyone wanting to spend those outputs will need to unlock them.
For most of the cases locking and unlocking means specifying a public key whose controller (the person who has the corresponding private key) will be able to spend. Other fancy things are possible too, but we can ignore them for now.
Back to the 10 satoshis you want to spend. Since you've successfully referenced 10 satoshis and unlocked them, now you can specify the outputs (this is all done in a single step). You can specify one output of 10 satoshis, two of 5, one of 3 and one of 7, three of 3 and so on. The sum of outputs can't be more than 10. And if the sum of outputs is less than 10 the difference goes to fees. In the first days of Bitcoin you didn't need any fees, but now you do, otherwise your transaction won't be included in any block.
If you're still interested in transactions maybe you could take a look at this small chapter of that Andreas Antonopoulos book.
If you hate Andreas Antonopoulos because he is a communist shitcoiner or don't want to read more than half a page, go here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Coin_analogy
-
@ 27676f17:0726572a
2024-06-21 23:13:04foobar
-
@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1
2024-09-27 07:10:40Let's talk about baking bread
I've mentioned a few times, how large-scale central planning leads inevitably to artificial scarcity and rising prices. Allow me to illustrate -- using a completely invented allegory about bread -- that has absolutely no parallels to any economy you may already be familiar with.
We start with 20
Let us say, there is a group of 20 people in a village doing something that requires some niche skill and interest, but not inordinate amounts of talent or uncommon knowledge, such as baking loaves of bread containing emmer wheat. This is not an easy thing to do, and you'd have to read up on it and practice, to begin with, but it's not an insurmountably-high barrier for anyone who already knows how to bake.
Now, they're not baking all that much of this bread, as the market for people who want to eat it, is still rather small. But, they're happy to bake the bread, and sell it below cost (at $10), as they can see that the market is steadily growing and they know that there is a possibility of recuperating their investments, and maybe even turning some profit. They hope to eventually profit either directly (through the selling of the bread), or indirectly (as A Person Who Helped Invent Emmer Bread), or ideally some combination of the two.
They are baking away, and honing their baking skills, and scrounging up the money for bigger and better ovens or cleverly-arranging discounted contracts for slightly-larger deliveries of wheat, and more and more bakers see this activity and wander over to their village, to see how this bread is made. Well, the current bakers are starting to sink under all of the bread orders they are receiving, and customers are complaining of late deliveries, so they start to ask the 10 visiting bakers, if they would like to also set up a bakery and take some of the production off of their hands.
We now have 25 bakers
The visiting bakers consider it and 5 agree and the rest wander off again, as they already are quite busy baking the bread they've always baked, and they aren't as certain of the possibility of growth, for this new type of bread.
The 5 additional bakers take a while to setup shop and assemble staff and place wheat orders and etc., but after a few weeks or months, they are also adding to the bread supply. There are now 25 bakers, all completely booked-out, producing bread. The price of bread has fallen, to $8/loaf.
And the bread they produced! All of the bakers competing for orders and expanding their product lines and customer base quickly lead to the white emmer bread being followed by whole-grain emmer bread, emmer dinner rolls, emmer-raisin bread, and even one rebel daring to bake spelt-emmer pretzels because... Well, why not? The customer, (who, at this point, is the person eating the bread), gets to decide which bread will be baked, and the pretzels sell like hotcakes.
The emmer hotcakes also sell like hotcakes.
No baker is making much (or any) money off of the baking, but they all can see where this will end up, so they are still highly motivated and continue to invest and innovate at breathtaking speed. We now have emmer baking mixes, "We luv emmer" t-shirts, emmer baking crowd-sourcing, all-about-emmer recipe books and blogs, etc. The bakers see this all as an investment, and cross-finance their fledgling businesses through selling other bread types, their spouse's day job, burning through their savings, or working Saturday night, stocking shelves at the grocery.
Everyone can be a winner! Everyone can find their niche-in-niche! Everyone can specialize! Private enterprise for every baker, who rises and falls on his own efforts alone! And although everyone was competing with everyone else, there was no bitterness, as everyone could clearly see that effort and reward were in some sort of balance.
We are now short 3
But, alas, that was not meant to be. The joy and harmony is short-lived.
A gigantic, wealthy foundation, who is dedicated to "ensuring much emmer bread will be baked, by financially supporting emmer bakers" enters the chat.
"We have seen that there is much baking going on, here, but just think how much better and more baking could be done, if we financed your baking! Isn't that clever? Then you could really concentrate on baking, instead of having to worry about financing your business or marketing your products. All you have to do, is apply to receive our baker's grant, by signing this form, acknowledging that you will only bake products containing nothing but emmer and you will otherwise support our mission. We promise to pay you $100/loaf."
The 2 people making spelt-emmer pretzels, and the 1 person making spelt-emmer cookies, refuse to sign on, and slink off, as they are very convinced of the rightness of including spelt. One emmer-purist baker refuses on some economic principle that nobody comprehends, and immediately turns around and goes back to work in their bakery, with their shoulders hunched. But the remaining 21 bakers happily apply for a baker's grant. The mixed-grain bakers are upset about the breakup of the emmer market, and spend some time sulking, before wandering off to the new, much-smaller, spelt bread market, that is setting up, down the street. Where they sell their bread for $6 and slowly go bankrupt.
And then there were 10
2 weeks go by. 4 weeks go by. Baking has slowed. The grant hopefuls hold a meeting, where they discuss the joys of baking. Baking slows further.
Everyone is too excited, to find out if their new Universal Customer will be paying for the bread they bake. $100 a loaf! Just think of it! All of the bakers quickly do the math and realize that they not only will turn a profit, they can buy themselves a nice house and a new car and...
Nobody listens to the complaints from The Old Customers, who are the useless individual people only paying $8, despite them slaving away, all day, in front of a hot oven. They should be happy that they are getting bread, at all! Instead they complain that the bread is dry, that the delivery is late, that the bottoms are burnt. Ingrates.
And, then, the big day arrives, and the foundation happily announces that they will be giving 10 lucky bakers a grant.
The bakers are stunned. It had seemed that all of the bakers would be getting the grants, not only part of them. But, of course, the Universal Customer looked through the applications and tried to spend its money wisely. Why give grants to 5 bakers, who all produce the same type of olive-emmer bread? Give it to one, and then tell him to produce 5 times as much bread. He is then the olive-emmer bread expert and they will simply keep loose tabs on him, to nudge him to bake the bread in a sensible manner. And, of course, he shall always focus on baking olive bread, as that is what the grant is for.
The bakers stroll off, to their bakeries. Those who baked olive bread and received no grant, close up shop, as they can see which way the wind is blowing. The other grantless bakers reformulate their bakery plans, to see if they can somehow market themselves as "grant-free bakers" and wonder at how long they can stand the humiliation of selling to demanding, fickle customers at $8/loaf, when others are selling at $100/loaf, to an indifferent customer who doesn't even eat it.
The happiest 10 bakers leave for another conference, and while they are gone, their bakeries burn down. Their grants continue to flow, regardless, and the actual bread eaters are now standing in line at the last few bakeries, paying $20/loaf.
The End.
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@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3
2024-09-29 14:28:15I'm up big after hitting on my two parleys of Panthers moneyline + the over and Commies moneyline + the over. I'm going to keep going with this style of parley this week, because I saw a bunch of them that I liked.
Here are the moneyline + O/U parleys that I'm looking at this week: * Seattle + the under (+406) * Denver + the under (+620) * Raiders + the under (+310) * Chargers + the under (+625) * Commies + the over (+396) * Rams + the over (+350) * Jags + the over (+490) * Saints + the over (+310)
Basically, I look for games where I think the underdog has a good shot at winning and then parley them winning with how I see that win playing out.
What are some other exciting bets out there?
originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/704920
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@ b83a28b7:35919450
2024-08-27 16:48:28https://image.nostr.build/df0721d6d45d82db35d06663a0318ffe68c0b2b3c694888d23694efcc4255de5.gif
-
@ deab79da:88579e68
2024-05-20 20:48:09Details
- ⏲️ Prep time: 30 min
- 🍳 Cook time: 20-30 min
- 🍽️ Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 lb cod fillets
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup white flour
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1 tsp salt
- pepper to taste
- 1 small onion
- 1 carrot
- 3 celery stalks
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup shredded old cheddar
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375F. Place cod in a greased baking dish.
- Make the white sauce in a heavy saucepan. Melt the butter over medium heat and stir in the flour until smooth. Remove from heat and slowly stir in half of the milk, then return to heat and beat until smooth and shiny.
- Gradually add the remaining milk, followed by salt, pepper, and your vegetables. Cook until sauce is smooth & thickened.
- Pour sauce over the fish, and sprinkle breadcrumbs and cheese over the top.
- Bake, uncovered for 20-30 minutes until sauce bubbles and the cheese begins to brown. Let rest 10 minutes after cooking completes.
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@ 266815e0:6cd408a5
2024-04-24 23:02:21NOTE: this is just a quick technical guide. sorry for the lack of details
Install NodeJS
Download it from the official website https://nodejs.org/en/download
Or use nvm https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm?tab=readme-ov-file#install--update-script
bash wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash nvm install 20
Clone example config.yml
bash wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hzrd149/blossom-server/master/config.example.yml -O config.yml
Modify config.yml
```bash nano config.yml
or if your that type of person
vim config.yml ```
Run blossom-server
```bash npx blossom-server-ts
or install it locally and run using npm
npm install blossom-server-ts ./node_modules/.bin/blossom-server-ts ```
Now you can open http://localhost:3000 and see your blossom server
And if you set the
dashboard.enabled
option in theconfig.yml
you can open http://localhost:3000/admin to see the admin dashboard -
@ 266815e0:6cd408a5
2024-04-22 22:20:47While I was in Mediera with all the other awesome people at the first SEC cohort there where a lot of discussions around data storage on nostr and if it could be made censorship-resistent
I remember lots of discussions about torrents, hypercore, nostr relays, and of course IPFS
There were a few things I learned from all these conversations:
- All the existing solutions have one thing in common. A universal ID of some kind for files
- HTTP is still good. we don't have to throw the baby out with the bath water
- nostr could fix this... somehow
Some of the existing solutions work well for large files, and all of them are decentralization in some way. However none of them seem capable of serving up cat pictures for social media clients. they all have something missing...
An Identity system
An identity system would allow files to be "owned" by users. and once files have owners servers could start grouping files into a single thing instead of a 1000+ loose files
This can also greatly simplify the question of "what is spam" for a server hosting (or seeding) these files. since it could simply have a whitelist of owners (and maybe their friends)
What is blossom?
Blossom is a set of HTTP endpoints that allow nostr users to store and retrieve binary data on public servers using the sha256 hash as a universal id
What are Blobs?
blobs are chunks of binary data. they are similar to files but with one key difference, they don't have names
Instead blobs have a sha256 hash (like
b1674191a88ec5cdd733e4240a81803105dc412d6c6708d53ab94fc248f4f553
) as an IDThese IDs are universal since they can be computed from the file itself using the sha256 hashing algorithm ( you can get a files sha256 hash on linux using:
sha256sum bitcoin.pdf
)How do the servers work?
Blossom servers expose four endpoints to let clients and users upload and manage blobs
GET /<sha256>
(optional file.ext
)PUT /upload
Authentication
: Signed nostr event- Returns a blob descriptor
GET /list/<pubkey>
- Returns an array of blob descriptors
Authentication
(optional): Signed nostr eventDELETE /<sha256>
Authentication
: Signed nostr event
What is Blossom Drive?
Blossom Drive is a nostr app built on top of blossom servers and allows users to create and manage folders of blobs
What are Drives
Drives are just nostr events (kind
30563
) that store a map of blobs and what filename they should have along with some extra metadataAn example drive event would be
json { "pubkey": "266815e0c9210dfa324c6cba3573b14bee49da4209a9456f9484e5106cd408a5", "created_at": 1710773987, "content": "", "kind": 30563, "tags": [ [ "name", "Emojis" ], [ "description", "nostr emojis" ], [ "d", "emojis" ], [ "r", "https://cdn.hzrd149.com/" ], [ "x", "303f018e613f29e3e43264529903b7c8c84debbd475f89368cb293ec23938981", "/noStrudel.png", "15161", "image/png" ], [ "x", "a0e2b39975c8da1702374b3eed6f4c6c7333e6ae0008dadafe93bd34bfb2ca78", "/satellite.png", "6853", "image/png" ], [ "x", "e8f3fae0f4a43a88eae235a8b79794d72e8f14b0e103a0fed1e073d8fb53d51f", "/amethyst.png", "20487", "image/png" ], [ "x", "70bd5836807b916d79e9c4e67e8b07e3e3b53f4acbb95c7521b11039a3c975c6", "/nos.png", "36521", "image/png" ], [ "x", "0fc304630279e0c5ab2da9c2769e3a3178c47b8609b447a30916244e89abbc52", "/primal.png", "29343", "image/png" ], [ "x", "9a03824a73d4af192d893329bbc04cd3798542ee87af15051aaf9376b74b25d4", "/coracle.png", "18300", "image/png" ], [ "x", "accdc0cdc048f4719bb5e1da4ff4c6ffc1a4dbb7cf3afbd19b86940c01111568", "/iris.png", "24070", "image/png" ], [ "x", "2e740f2514d6188e350d95cf4756bbf455d2f95e6a09bc64e94f5031bc4bba8f", "/damus.png", "32758", "image/png" ], [ "x", "2e019f08da0c75fb9c40d81947e511c8f0554763bffb6d23a7b9b8c9e8c84abb", "/old emojis/astral.png", "29365", "image/png" ], [ "x", "d97f842f2511ce0491fe0de208c6135b762f494a48da59926ce15acfdb6ac17e", "/other/rabbit.png", "19803", "image/png" ], [ "x", "72cb99b689b4cfe1a9fb6937f779f3f9c65094bf0e6ac72a8f8261efa96653f5", "/blossom.png", "4393", "image/png" ] ] }
There is a lot going on but the main thing is the list of "x" tags and the path that describes the folder and filename the blob should live at
If your interested, the full event definition is at github.com/hzrd149/blossom-drive
Getting started
Like every good nostr client it takes a small instruction manual in order to use it properly. so here are the steps for getting started
1. Open the app
Open https://blossom.hzrd149.com
2. Login using extension
You can also login using any of the following methods using the input - NIP-46 with your https://nsec.app or https://flare.pub account - a NIP-46 connection string - an
ncryptsec
password protected private key - ansec
unprotected private key (please don't) - bunker:// URI from nsecbunker3. Add a blossom server
Right now
https://cdn.satellite.earth
is the only public server that is compatible with blossom drive. If you want to host your own I've written a basic implementation in TypeScript github.com/hzrd149/blossom-server4. Start uploading your files
NOTE: All files upload to blossom drive are public by default. DO NOT upload private files
5. Manage files
Encrypted drives
There is also the option to encrypt drives using NIP-49 password encryption. although its not tested at all so don't trust it, verify
Whats next?
I don't know, but Im excited to see what everyone else on nostr builds with this. I'm only one developer at the end of the day and I can't think of everything
also all the images in this article are stored in one of my blossom drives here
nostr:naddr1qvzqqqrhvvpzqfngzhsvjggdlgeycm96x4emzjlwf8dyyzdfg4hefp89zpkdgz99qq8xzun5d93kcefdd9kkzem9wvr46jka
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@ 6bae33c8:607272e8
2024-09-29 08:47:44I’m sure people are already doing this, but I know someone who runs a company that builds models, and I had some ideas. One of them is to divide the AI agents into two groups of bettors: (1) Situational and (2) Fundamentals. The former group would have parameters like days since the last game, travel distance, whether they are coming off a win or loss, closeness of the win or loss, difference in weather conditions from the norm, more than one consecutive road game, national game or not, etc. All the situational correlation stuff many consider when betting.
The latter would solely focus on yards per play, play success rate, YPP allowed, success rate allowed, big plays, big plays allowed, first downs, etc. It would be solely based on performance and ignore situation.
The idea would be to throw in 20 years of play data, weather, situational and ATS results and figure out which parameters are most predictive. Use those for each agent (maybe weight more or less on particular ones for each) and have them bet and compete against one another. The results should tell you what is more priced in — performance or situation?
You could also do things like have some of the agents for each ignore games where the QB was starting his first 3 games for either team, eliminating discontinuity and the noise of backups. There are hundreds of parameters and tweaks you could make, but the idea is to take the best performing of both and when they align on a game, you bet it, track the results.
I really should have been more of a tech guy — too much partying in college and afterwards. But maybe the tech will progress to a point where regular people will be able to create advanced models solely with verbal instructions.
My other big idea, and I’ve expressed it before, is only to look at outliers — games where the spread was covered by more than two TDs on either side. See what was it ahead of those games that teams (winning and losing) had in common. I’m sure turnovers would be big, but I would look at games where the surprise result happened in the performance metrics, not just on the scoreboard too. Build a model of extreme over or underperformance, see if there’s not something that could be captured, either via situation or metrics.
The holy grail would be to develop rules to analyze matchup anomalies. Extreme run-heavy vs extreme pass, different base defenses vs base offenses, team speed and size matchups, coaching styles etc. Maybe there are combinations where the styles portend anomalous results.
It’s too much data, and there are too many variables for a person to comb through. But that’s where AI can help.
-
@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-25 20:26:43 -
@ 6bae33c8:607272e8
2024-09-29 08:18:21I went 2-3 last week to bring my record to 5-10. I don’t have to explain how dire that is for my prospects of cashing in the overall, though there are still nice quarterly prizes I can win even if I don’t make a miraculous turnaround.
Here are this week’s picks:
Colts +1.5 vs Steelers — This was just a pure contrarian hunch. Anthony Richardson has been terrible, and the Steelers defense has been nasty. But it’s the NFL, and sometimes when a line looks off, it’s a signal. I was actually buying groceries today, and it hit me to take the Colts. (Might turn out to be foolish.)
Bengals -4.5 at Panthers — Andy Dalton had a nice game against the Raiders, but the Panthers are still a doormat, and it’s still Dalton. If ever there were a get-well game for the 0-3 Bengals, this should be it.
Rams +3 at Bears — I don’t love that they were in such a roller-coaster comeback win last week, but Matthew Stafford is so much better than Caleb Williams at this stage of their respective careers, and Sean McVay is going to make the offense work.
Cardinals -3.5 vs Team — Jayden Daniels played great last week, and the Cardinals defense is nothing special, but I think their offense moves the ball at will, and I like the buy-low, sell-high here.
Chargers +7 vs Chiefs — Maybe this is dumb with all the Chargers injuries, but it felt like this assumed Justin Herbert would sit, and he’s only questionable. They’re missing Rashawn Slater and Joey Bosa too, but seven on the road is a massive line, and before last week this game would have been Chiefs -2.5 at best. If Herbert really is out (and they may sit him with Slater out), it’s probably a mistake though.
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@ 01d0bbf9:91130d4c
2024-09-26 17:58:10Chef's notes
Amazingly tangy, firey hot, but still mellow and bright.
I use this on everything– Use it to dress salads, dip (honey mustard) for fried chicken, elevate your taco nights, heck a spoonful first thing in the morning will wake you up better than coffee!
Don't forget to use up those delicious chilis and garlic, they are so good!
Details
- ⏲️ Prep time: 20 min
- 🍳 Cook time: 1-2 weeks
- 🍽️ Servings: (12x) 8oz jars
Ingredients
- 16oz fresh chili peppers
- 8oz red onion
- 8oz garlic
- 96oz honey
- Fresh thyme
Directions
- Thinly slice peppers, garlic, shallots and fresh thyme
- Add chopped ingredients to the honey
- Leave to ferment (loosely covered) for 1-2 weeks
- Drizzle that amazing pungent firey gold liquid over EVERYTHING. (Don't forget to use up those amazing chilis and garlic too.)
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@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1
2024-09-27 07:09:57Young people, in Europe and America, started moving out at the turn of the last century. It wasn't a tradition, in those countries. Housing was formerly multigenerational, but people became steadily more transient, with industrialization and the following rise of office work and the concentration closer to cities.
Prior to then, housing (including rents) was prohibitively expensive, so everyone tried to stay in their parents' or employers' home, for as long, as possible. Both the "Go west!" and "Lebensraum!" slogans hint at that crowded past. People risked their lives, en mass, trying to find enough cheap land, to build their own home. Many people left Germany, and similarly crowded countries, to move to places like Texas, where you could own your own home and therefore marry without your employers' or parents' permission.
It is still common to have inheritance fueds, here, in Bavaria, with the children squabbling over who gets to "keep" the house and how much "payout" the other children will receive, as compensation. Because you cannot always simply move to a different home in the same area (there is little available land for building and nothing to rent), leaving the ancestral home can result in de facto banishment from the entire region.
Wages increased, after WWI created a tighter labor market, and governments and large corporations (receiving government subsidies) began building or subsidizing massive amounts of homes, while the size of each home shrank dramatically. Those factors combined to lower the relative cost of housing, to the individual purchaser.
But the resulting Baby Boom construction explosion so overwhelmed the housing and mortgage markets, that housing is a very unappealing long-term investment, now, as there is hardly anyone around, to move into those many homes, when the Boomers pass. Their children and grandchildren (if they have any) are much poorer than they are, and much fewer in number, which guarantees that the housing market in most areas will eventually begin to collapse, in real terms, as Boomers pass away, or attempt to downsize.
To stabilize prices and prevent fires or delinquency, governments will begin demolishing empty houses, as they already sometimes do, in the former East Germany. Former West Germany dealt with steadily-falling house prices by mass-importing foreigners and paying for their rent at above-market prices, to artificially reinflate the housing market, but it appears that the easterners had a more politically- and economically- sustainable model for ridding themselves of excess homes.
But the era of cheap housing is over, and will continue to be so, for the next 10-15 years, so young people increasingly stay home, well into adulthood. As some cultures now have "moving out", as a prerequisite to dating, their childrens' marriage rate has plummeted and, consequently, so has the birth rate.
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@ f977c464:32fcbe00
2024-04-15 20:30:053724
Dürbününü yazı masasının çekmecesine koydu. O adamın bakışlarında bir şey vardı, tüylerini ürperten bir aşinalık.
Sağ tarafa kavislenen toprak yol, şehir merkezindeki idam platformuna doğru uzanırdı. On, on beş adım aralıkla, telefon ve radyo tellerini taşıyan, aynı zamanda geceleri yağ fenerlerinin asıldığı direkleri geçerdiniz. At arabalarının kaldırdığı toz ve yaydığı koku gözlerinizi yaşartırdı.
Ve darağacının önüne geldiğinizde, arkanızda bıraktığınız direklerin ne kadar güçsüz, acınası olduğu, öncesinde defalarca fark etmediyseniz bile, tam o anda, yüreğinize otururdu. Platformun üstünden gökyüzünü tehdit eden, ölüme mahkûm edilenleri kınayan gövdesi ve aniden yere eğdiği, acıyla çarpılmış boynuyla kaba tahtadan bir ucube!
Oysaki geçip geldiğiniz direklerin aksine, yanınızda uzanan, çoğunluğu iki katlı evler de tahtadan yapılmıştı ve çatıların, yağmur oluklarının, kapı çerçevelerinin, pencere kapaklarının üstündeki doğa tasviri süslemeleriyle öyle kibarlardı ki...
Dikkat etmemiş olacaksınız ama aralarında, soğuk elleriyle sizi yere bastıran, tasvirlerin yerini görkemli hayvanların -kartalların, aslanların, köpeklerin- aldığı taş evler sıralanırdı. Darağacının bedeni diğer evlerdense, ruhu kesinlikle bunlardan geliyordu.
Uzaktan kuş sesleri duyuluyordu. Bülbül. Buraya ait olmayan, dalgınlığını tamamlayan, kafese kapatılmış bir ses.
Çalışma masasının üzerine, pencereye doğru abandı. Artık ezberlediği bu hac yolculuğuna ihtiyacı yoktu. Evinden olanları az buçuk seçebiliyordu ve zaten görmeye katlanabileceğini görmüştü.
Adamın boynuna ilmeği çoktan geçirmişlerdi. Otuzlu yaşlarının başında gösteriyordu. Teni güneşten sertleşmişti. Çatlaklar gözlerinin yanından elmacık kemiklerine uzanıyordu. Saçı ve sakalı uzun, mat siyahtı.
Neredeyse kimse izlemiyordu. Sadece tek tük, aralarına mesafe koymuş ilgisiz kişiler...
Radyo her zamanki gibi celladın konuşmasını canlı olarak yayınlıyordu.
“...lece günahlarımızdan arınmış olacağız! Doğaya küfür olan tüm bu ucubeler, düzensizlikler...”
Bir kişiyi kurtarmak için ölen onlarca insan... Attıkları çığlıklar bilinçaltının derinliklerinde hafifçe kıvrandı.
İdamların başladığı o gün...
Erken saatlerde ortaya çıkıveren genci tanımıyorlardı. İnsanlara garip sorular sormuş ve kısa süre sonra ortadan kaybolmuştu. Öğlen vakti kucağındaki paketle geri dönmüştü.
“...lumumuz için büyük tehdit teşkil etmektedirler. Şüphesiz bundan birkaç yıl sonra yapacağı hareketleriyle sadece öldüreceği insanların değil, toplumun çökü...”
Darağacını hiç değiştirmediler. Yoksa bu da hafızasındaki bulanıklığın çarpıttığı anılardan mıydı? Hatırlamaya her çalıştığında başı ağrıyordu.
Gence üzülmüş ve apar topar alınan karar karşısında dehşete düşmüştü. Diğerlerinin arasına karışmak, sesini çıkarmak, hiç değilse bunların neden olduğunu öğrenmek istemişti.
“...esin iyiliğini gözetmek zorundayız. Bunu yapabilecek gücümüzün kalmış olduğu için şükretmeliyiz. Omzumuzdaki bu gö...”
Vazgeçmişti. Korkmuştu. Ellerini titreten ilkel dürtüden değil, uzun zamandır üzerinde çalıştığı romanının bittiğini görememe ihtimalinden. “Ertesi gün,” demişti, “ertesi gün orada olacağım.”
Odanın büyük bölümünü işgal eden radyoyu kapattı. İnsan boyu ve genişliğinde, üzerindeki kontrol düğmeleri dışında cilalı ahşaptandı. Güzel olsa da pili hızlı tükeniyordu. Yenisini alması gerekecekti.
Banyoya gitti. Evin her yerinde az eşya bulundurmayı severdi: içi temiz su dolu kova, küvet olarak kullandığı büyük varil ve ayna.
Şehirdeki diğerleri gibi hafif esmer tenli, kahverengiye çalan koyu saçlı ve gözlüydü. Onların aksine gözlerinin içinde hâlâ heyecan ateşi yanıyordu. Saçları bile daha canlıydı sanki. Ve ne kısa ne uzun ne yakışıklı ne çirkin... Olması gereken neyse o. Yüzünü yıkadı, gülümseyip çalışma odasına geri döndü.
Yeniden kâğıtlarının karşısına geçi. Romanını nihayet bitiriyordu. Son cümlelerini yazdı.
Her şeye geç kalmasına değmişti.
9386
Dürbününü pencerenin iç denizliğine, yaslandığı yerin kenarına bıraktı. O adamın bakışlarında açıklayamadığı bir şey vardı. Tüylerini ürperten bir aşinalık.
Adamın boynuna ilmeği çoktan geçirmişlerdi. Orta yaşlarındaydı. Beyazlaşmaya, griye dönmeye yeni yeni başlamış saçı ve sakalı, rengi atmış kıyafetleriyle oldukça hırpaniydi.
Kimdi o? Tanıyordu sanki..
Mutlaka yakından bakmalıydı.
“...felaketin eşiğinden döndüğümüz günün üzerinden uzun zaman geçmedi. Unutmayın! Unutmanız on...”
Radyoyu kapattı. Pili hızlı bitiyordu. Ne zaman değiştirmişti? Baş ağrısı geri geliyordu.
Merdivenlerden indi. En az dört basamağı gıcırdamıştı. Yenilenmelerinin zamanı geliyordu, temizlenmelerinin de. Parmak kalınlığında toz! Eski ve yeni ayak izleri üst üste binmişti.
Kulaklarındaki ince çınlama, ensesindeki ter... İçinden yükselip göğsünü ittiren, dengesini bozup neredeyse düşercesine aşağıya inmesine neden olan panik...
Holü geçerken diğer odalara kısaca göz attı. Hepsinin durumu aynıydı. Onu asıl şaşırtansa yatak odası oldu. Her gün uyuduğu yatağın, yanındaki bazanın, kirli çamaşır sepetinin ve etejerin üzeri... Nasıl fark etmemişti tüm bunları? Peki elbiselerinin böyle eskidiğini?
Dokunduğu elinde kalıyor veya kapalı kalmışlık kokusu yüzünden midesini bulandırıyordu. Eline geçen paçavraları apar topar giydi. Dokuması incelmiş bol beyaz keten gömleği, rengi griye yaklaşmış pantolonu -önceden? Belki siyah-, her tarafı çatlamış ve dikişleri atmış uzun deri çizmesi.
Neler oluyor neler oluyor neler oluyor neler oluyor...
Sokağa çıktı ve hava soluk borusunu temizlerken gözleri yaşardı. Hayır, kendimi kaptırmış olmalıyım. Kesin zamanın ucunu kaçırdım. Ev dün böyle değildi. Hayır hayır hayır hayır hayır...
Bulanık görüyordu ama hiç değilse burası normaldi.
İdam platformu şehir merkezindeydi. Oraya koştu.
Buranın o eğlenceli, panayır havasından eser kalmamıştı elbette. Kahveye girip çıkanlar, yan sokaktaki pazara gidip gelenler... Kimsenin olup bitenlere ilgisi yoktu. Dükkânların yarısı kapalıydı zaten. İnsanların burada oyalanmak için gittikçe daha az sebebi oluyordu.
“...lediğimiz kurtuluşumuz.”
Cellat, onun tam karşısında durduğunu görünce sustu. Herkes merakla onlara döndü.
Ve işte o anda, darağacındaki adamın bağırmasıyla celladın koşup kolu çekmesi ve zemindeki kapağı açması, infazı tamamlaması bir oldu.
“Koñrul! Onu...”
Çığlıkları ancak onu eve, yatağına taşıdıklarında biraz dindi. Sayıklamaya devam ediyordu: “Romanım romanım romanım romanım..."
Sakinleşmesi için yukarıdan kâğıtlarını ve kalemini getirdiler. Son cümlesini yazdı. Yarını göremeyecekti.
14796
Masanın üzerinde, koyduğu yerde durmayan, yuvarlanan ve düşüp merceği kırılan dürbünü fark etmedi. O adamın bakışlarında açıklayamadığı bir şey vardı. Tüylerini ürperten bir aşinalık.
Ve yine aynı gün, diğerlerinin aynı... İnsanlar bile gün geçtikçe birbirine benziyordu.
Adamın boynuna ilmeği çoktan geçirmişlerdi. Yaşlı sayılırdı veya yaşlanmaya başlıyordu. Saçı ve sakalı beyaz ama gösterdiği yaşa rağmen hâlâ gürdü. Istırap çekmenin, büyük yük taşımanın bezginliği her yerinden hissediliyordu.
“...rine inmemiz gerek. Bu insan müsveddeleri toplumumuz için büyük tehdit...”
Evet... evet. Demek bu adam da kimsenin anlamadığı haltlar yemek üzereydi.
Rahatı kaçanlar olacaktı, belki ölenler.
Adamı gerçekten tanıyor olabilir miydi?
Kendini aşırı zorlamıştı. Radyoyu kapatıp banyoya gitti. Yeni pili ne zaman takmıştı?
Aynada kendine baktı. Geceleri uyuyup uyumadığını bile bilmiyordu. Gözleri iyice yuvalarına kaçmış, etrafı kararırken akları sararmış, zayıf ve soluk, yüzünün üstüne bırakılıp unutulmuş çöplerden farksızdı. Saçlarını düzeltmeye çalıştı, her hareketiyle onlarca saç teli kopunca vazgeçti. Renkleri solmuştu.
Şehirde yiyecek kalmamıştı. Her gün stoklar azalıyordu. Tarlalardaki olgunlaşmamış meyve sebzelere düşmüşlerdi. Tüccarlar niye gelmiyordu ki? Diğer şehirlerde de mi durum kötüydü?
Kafasından aşağı su döküp geri döndü. Kâğıtlarını önüne çekti. Romanını bitirmeliydi, açlıktan ölmeden veya idam edilen sonraki kişi olmadan. Son cümlelerini yazdı:
“Dünya yine ölürken ve her şey baştan başlarken gidebileceği bir yer kalmamıştı. Eski çağların roketlerini düşündü. Gerçekten başka gezegenler var mıydı? O zamanlarda yaşasaydı Güneş’e giderdi! Şimdi hareket etmek için duracaktı. Sonraki güne kadar.”
20251
Dürbününü kapıdan çıkarken tuvalet kovasının içine attı. Yine bir idam. Saçları dökülüyordu. Alnının iki yanı geriye doğru açılmış, sakallarıyla birleşip yekpare olan tellerin arasından kafa derisi seçilebiliyordu.
Ne ilgi çekici... Bıraksalar kendisi ölecekti zaten. Pazara gidip ne bulabileceğine bakmayı tercih ederdi.
İnsanlar ayağını sürüyerek yürüyordu. Celladın konuşması dışında çıt çıkaran yoktu. Ne kuş ötüşü veya köpek havlaması ne çocuk gülüşmeleri... Konuşanları görebiliyordu, duyamıyordu. Fısıltıdan fazlasını çıkaracak istekleri yoktu.
“...hennemin böyleleriyle dolu olduğundan şüphesi olan var mı aranızda? Onları tekrar layık oldukları yere göndereceğiz. Bunun için yardı...”
Evet... evet. “Elma kaça?”
Pazarcı taburesinden kalkıp tezgâha geldi. O da aynıydı. Farklı bedende aynı sefalet. “Hangisi?”
“Fazla ham olmayanlardan.”
“Tanesi 600 lira.”
“Yarım ver. Şundan da...” Lafını tamamlayamadı. Biri bağırıyordu. Genç, on yedisinde bile göstermeyen biri. Yüzü etli, hareketleri canlı, kıyafetleri yeni ancak kendisine büyük gelmiş ve epey hırpalanmıştı. Hele o paltosu... İçi pamukla dolu olmalıydı. Kocamandı.
“Ya idam ne demek abi! Manyak mısınız lan siz? Kaçıncı yüzyıldasınız a...”
Küfrünün ortasında ağzını kapattılar. Koluna girmiş, kahveye geri sokuyorlardı.
Tezgâhtara “Kim bu?” diye sordu.
“Birinin torunuymuş, öyle diyor. Daha önce duyduysam n’olayım. Meczup herhalde,” dedi tezgâhtar.
“İsmi neymiş dedesinin?”
“Hakan mı, Hasan mı, öyle bi’şey.”
“Ekmekten çeyrek dilim, deri parçasını da ver. Çorbalık, değil mi?”
“Evet, çorbalık.”
Hakan... Şu saçma romanını bitirmek için evine döndü. Artık tozlar ayak bileğine geliyordu. Umursamadı. Son cümlelerini yazdı, kâğıt tomarını masanın yanından tertemiz yere bıraktı.
25803
Dürbünüyle ensesini kaşıdı. O adamın gözlerinde küçük cinler vardı. Neşeyle hoplayıp zıpladıklarını ta buradan seçebiliyordu! Ah, tatlılığa bak! Hahaha!Boynundaki ilmekle, gözlerinin içine bakan, hiç korkmayan ama bıkkın, ölümün bile hayatında olup bitenleri değiştirmeyeceğini kabullenmiş bir adamın duruşuna sahipti. Çok yaşlı, kafasında tel tel beyaz saçları, göbeğine uzanan sakallarıyla kurumuş bir ceset. Omuzları çökmek üzereydi, kamburunun ağırlığıyla ipi geriyordu.
Dürümü tekrar gözüne kaldırdı. Dürüm? Hahaha! Evet... evet! Radyoda cellat konuşuyordu.
“...endinizde değişiklik hissederseniz yakınınızdaki güvenlik güçleriyle ileti...”
Ah! Kendisine şöyle baktı. Yok... Aynı ben ya!
Sahneye -Tam bir gösteri! Gösteri!- doğru koşan adamı gördü. Üzerindeki puf puf paltosuyla, orta yaşlarında...
Masanın üzerine fırladı, dizlerinin üstüne çöküp içindeki safrayı pencereden dışarıya kustu. Eliyle ağzını silerken derisinin yapışarak etinden ayrıldığını hissedebiliyor ve o bant sökülürken çıkana benzeyen sesi duyabiliyordu. Cellat konuşmayı bırakmıştı. N’oldu? N’oulduuv?
Yaşlı adamı asmışlardı. Şimdi dik duruyordu, yükü hafiflemişti ama huzurlu olduğunu söyleyemezdiniz.
Diğer adam onları umursamadı, yere eğilip mikrofonun kablosunu tuttu ve ayaklığını devirerek kendisine çekti.
“Tabutun kapağını kaldırdığında yerin altına döne döne ilerleyen o kuyuyu... Tamam... tamam!”
Adamın şakağına inen ilk sopadan çıkan ses odayı doldurdu. Sonrası sessizlik ve ölüm. Ahhh... ahhh...
Hemen bağdaş kurup kaldığı sayfayı buldu. Ne ilham! NE İLHAM!
Son cümlelerini yazıp romanını bitirdi.
34125
Dürbünü öylece dışarıya bırakıverdi. Derisi kemiklerine yapışmış, kaşına kadar her tüyü dökülmüş bir ihtiyarı asıyorlardı. Açıktaki tüm bedeni yaşlılık lekeleriyle doluydu. Bembeyaz sakalı uzun ve temizdi. Dönecek! İpin ucunda! Sağa sola!_Tahta pencereleri kapadı ve -_Ha ha!- fenerin fitilini -Ha ha _ha!- yaktı. Duvardaki gölgeleri beğenmedi ama. Söndürdü. Püf füfüfüf ha ha _ha! Tekrar yaktı. Yine istediği gibi olmasa da iş görürdü.
Radyonun sesini açtı. Evet... Evet açtım! Tiz ve kalın, tanıdık ve yabancı... Burnu kanadı.
“...EN HİÇBİR ŞEYİN SONU YOKTUR! SONU OLAN HİÇBİR ŞEY BİTMİŞ DEĞİLDİR VE BİTEN HİÇBİR ŞEYİN SONU YOKTUR! SONU OLAN HİÇBİR ŞEY...”
Yüzüne döktüğü suyu alttaki tasla toplayıp içtikten sonra -Ha ha _ha! Hazırım, evet hazırım! Romanı bitirelim. Bundan iyisi olamaz! Olamaz! Ha ha!- masasına dönüp kâğıtlarını önüne çekti. Son cümleler ve sonrasında -Özgürüm! Özgürüm!” Radyo yayınına başka, yabancı biri karıştı. Öyle bağırıyordu ki duvarlar titriyordu. Çok yaşlıydı, çok...
“Geldiğimden beri, her gün! Asmayın artık şu adamı! Görmüyor mu...”
Sonra celladın sesi duyuldu. Cılız, uzaktan...
“Bunu da hazırlayın.”
“Evet... evet. Ne olacak, beni de her gün asın a...”
Not: Bu öykü ilk olarak 2019 yılında Esrarengiz Hikâyeler'de yayımlanmıştır.
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2024-09-25 04:12:35Last night I had the pleasure of sitting down with Caitlin Long, Founder and CEO of Custodia - a fully reserved bank providing banking services to bitcoin companies, to discuss an affidavit written by Elaine Hetrick of Silvergate Bank. Elaine is the Chief Administrative Officer of Silvergate and wrote an affidavit, a sworn testimony subject to perjury, in which she detailed the events that led to Silvergate voluntarily winding down their business and returning deposits to their customers.
This affidavit is a bombshell because it confirms speculation that Silvergate was solvent in early 2023 and wasn't shut down because of bad risk management on behalf of the bank's management team, but instead was forced to shutter its doors because the Biden Administration, with strong influence from Senator Elizabeth Warren, forced Silvergate's hand because they didn't like that they were banking digital asset companies.
For those who are a bit fuzzy on the details of the narratives that were flying around Silvergate at the time, I'll jog your memory. FTX was a customer of Silvergate's at the time their Ponzi scheme unraveled. As FTX was blowing up, everyone and their mother was scrambling to get their money out of Silvergate because they assumed that since one of the bank's largest counterparties was going bust, the bank must be in trouble too. A sane decision. Especially considering the history of systemically non-important financial institutions this century.
Unless you were paying close attention during this time, you were likely under the impression that Silvergate was a typical fractionally reserved bank that was experiencing a run that led to its inevitable demise. The media made it seem this way. The regulators made it seem this way. And one pompous short seller made it seem this way. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Here are the most important parts of the affidavit:
Silvergate had stabilized, was able to make regulatory capital requirements, and had the capability to continue to serve its customers that had kept their deposits with Silvergate Bank.
Despite this, regulators decided to turn the pressure up and essentially gave Silvergate Bank, and Signature Bank as well, an ultimatum; drastically change your business models immediately by dropping your digital asset customer base or we'll shut you down. There were no hard numbers described in Elaine's testimony, but rumors are that the regulators wanted Silvergate to quickly shrink their exposure to digital asset-related clients to less than 15% of their capital base. At the time, Silvergate's customer base was made up almost entirely of digital asset companies (99.5% to be exact).
The regulators were asking Silvergate to do something that was quite literally impossible given the circumstances. Faced with an impossible task, on March 8th of 2023 Silvergate decided to voluntarily wind down their operations and return deposits back to their customers.
Let's be very clear here, Silvergate did not lose a single penny of customer deposits due to the run on their bank. Management, understanding the volatile nature of the digital asset markets, designed their risk management and capital allocation strategies in a way that would enable them to return dollars to any customer who requested them. And that's exactly what they did when customers came to request their money. They returned EVERY SINGLE PENNY.
This begs the question, "Why did they essentially force Silvergate to shut down?" They seemed to be running a very responsible operation after all. You'd think the regulators would applaud Silvergate's vigilance in risk management on behalf of their customer base. How many banks would have been able to do the same thing if put in the same situation? Probably not many.
The answer to this question is already well known throughout the industry, but Elaine Hetrick's testimony adds some hard evidence that makes it undeniable; Elizabeth Warren, the SEC, the FDIC and the Federal Reserve have been acting in concert to unconstitutionally and extrajudicially target the bitcoin and broader digital asset industry because they do not believe that it should exist. It is a threat to their power structure. The financial system, as it is designed today, gives those who would like to centrally plan the economy and micromanage the lives of American citizens a ton of power. Bitcoin is a threat to that power and they have to do everything in their power to prevent its proliferation.
The targeting of the industry was also confirmed by the aftermath of the NYDFS and FDIC uncharacteristically taking Signature Bank behind the woodshed in the evening of Sunday, March 20th, 2023, despite the fact that Barney Frank and others at the bank were convinced they could handle withdraws come market open the next day.
Signature Bank was ultimately sold to Flagstar Bank. However, they were forced to spin out their digital asset-related accounts before doing so.
This public signaling and sudden regulatory shift made clear that, at least as of the first quarter of 2023, the Federal Bank Regulatory Agencies would not tolerate banks with significant concentrations of digital asset customers, ultimately preventing Silvergate Bank from continuing its digital asset focused business model.
Pretty damning if you ask me. Also, very frustrating and most definitely illegal.
Elizabeth Warren and her gaggle of hall monitors across alphabet soup agencies and the Federal Reserve have been on one massive, unconstitutional, power trip for the last four years. They've besmirched bitcoin and those of us working hard to ensure that the United States of America leads the way forward as bitcoin adoption continues at every turn. Good people striving to make the world a better place.
No one is a better example of this than Alan Lane, the former CEO of Silvergate Bank. I consider Alan a friend and feel supremely confident when I say that he is one of the nicest and thoughtful people I have met in this industry. A man who followed his passion to bring legitimacy and much needed banking services to an industry that the incumbents refused to touch. And he did bring legitimacy. As I explained earlier, Alan and his team understood the volatile nature of the industry and built their firm in a way that took this volatility into account. Silvergate did not fail, they were forced to shut down by Elizabeth Warren and her acolytes at the regulatory agencies.
What's worse, Warren's vendetta against bitcoin and the digital asset industry incited the largest banking crisis this country had seen since 2008. Silvergate and Signature being taken behind the woodshed put everyone on their toes and bank runs started across the country. This led to the failure of First Republic, Silicon Valley Bank and a couple of smaller banks, forced the Fed to step in with their emergency BTFP program, and burdened taxpayers with $40B in FDIC costs that needed to be absorbed as a result. If it weren't for the bailouts things would have gotten completely out of control. All because Elizabeth Warren wants to live in a world in which we are forced to use CBDCs and unable to opt-in to bitcoin.
The euthanasia of Silvergate and Signature are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Chokepoint 2.0.
Caitlin Long and Custodia have been in a years long battle with the Federal Reserve to receive a Fed master account so that they can properly serve their customers. For those who are unaware, Custodia is a full-reserve bank that exist to serve bitcoin and digital asset businesses as well as other adjacent businesses like fintechs, banks and funds. Custodia is a chartered bank and special purpose depository institution that has built custody services so that customers can hold bitcoin within their bank accounts alongside their dollar accounts.
Like Silvergate and Signature, Custodia has been singled out and unlawfully denied a master account with the Fed because the Federal Reserve doesn't want a bank like Custodia to exist. Either because they worry about the ramifications of the introduction of a full-reserve bank into a system dominated by fractional-reserve banks or they simply do not want to see bitcoin succeed. If we're being honest, it's probably a combination of the two.
Despite what we, or anyone else, thinks about the potential effect a bank like Custodia could have on the market if it's granted a master account, the Fed's actions are unconstitutional in this case as well. This was made pretty clear (but yet to be determined by a court) in an amicus brief written by Paul Clement on behalf of Custodia earlier this Summer. The Fed is actively undermining the dual-banking system that was set up in this country to enable competition between state chartered banks and the Federal Reserve system.
In the case of Custodia, the Federal Reserve is exhibiting expansive discretionary power that it has never shown before. Custodia is a state chartered special purpose depository institution in the state of Wyoming. Historically, it would be trivial for this type of state chartered bank to get a master account with the Fed. But for whatever reason (we know the reason) the Fed has been denying Custodia their right to this account for a number of years. To the point where Custodia was forced to sue the Federal Reserve and take their case to the courts.
What's interesting about the saga of Custodia and the Fed is that it has forced Custodia's legal team to dig in and highlight where the Fed is overextending its reach and acting arbitrarily. In the amicus brief that was published in July of this year, Paul Clement argues that the way Federal Reserve Bank presidents are chosen is unconstitutional when you take into consideration the fact the these Fed branch presidents are unilaterally undermining state banking laws by denying master accounts.
If they are going to unilaterally undermine state banking laws they need to be appointed by the President or an official acting on behalf of the Executive Branch. Federal Reserve Bank presidents aren't appointed by the President of the United States or any official acting with the authority of the Executive Branch. Instead, they are appointed by their boards, which are controlled by the privately held commercial banks who own them. The Federal Reserve system is clearly acting unconstitutionally when they deny Custodia from being assigned a master account.
The people in power within the federal government and the Federal Reserve system are actively targeting the bitcoin and digital asset industry, acting extrajudicially and making a mockery of the rule of law in the United States. They are completely out of control and it is important that everyone who cares about the future of bitcoin in the United States and the future of the United States more broadly (even if you don't like bitcoin) speaks out and fights against these totalitarians as vehemently as possible. What they are doing is wrong. It's unconstitutional. And it is putting the future of our country at risk.
If the federal government, the regulators and the Federal Reserve do not get out of the way and let law abiding citizens build the businesses they want and associate with businesses they want, those businesses will go elsewhere and the United States will be set back generations as a result.
It's time to put these people in their place and let it be known that freedom will reign supreme in the Land of the Free. Fight!
Final thought... I promised Parker Lewis that I would do cross fit on Friday morning and I'm using today's final thought as an accountability tool.
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-24 23:57:19asdasdasdsad
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2024-09-23 22:33:24While most of the world is focused on the lead up to the Presidential election here in the US and louder war drums being beat across the world, the number of bullish developments that are stacking up for bitcoin is increasing rapidly. These developments deserve the OG Marty's Bent smorgasbord treatments, so here are the things that have caught my attention over the last week in no particular order.
The First Ark Transactions on Bitcoin Mainnet
I had the pleasure of participating in a demo of Second's Ark protocol implementation. For those who are unaware, Ark is a new layer-two protocol solution for making off-chain bitcoin payments. Unlike the lightning network, Ark doesn't depend on liquidity channels to facilitate payments. Within the lightning network two counterparties share UTXOs within a channel to move sats back and forth, nodes connect to many different channels to create a network effect that increases the chance of payments getting routed successfully, and node operators manage their channel liquidity as channel imbalances emerge.
Ark is similar in the sense that it also leverages a shared UTXO model. However, instead of having one-to-one channels that come with liquidity management issues, Ark enables a large amount of individuals to share UTXOs, which are managed by an Ark Service Provider (ASP). The ASP is a central party within the protocol, but it is a central party that does not custody UTXOs. It only coordinates the transfer of sats between Ark "rounds". Users have the ability to unilaterally exit the second-layer protocol whenever they deem necessary by broadcasting a Virtual UTXO (vtxo) transaction.
This may seem daunting and complicated. All you need to know is that there is now an new way to make off-chain bitcoin payments that are fast and relatively cheap and it is possible today. As it stands today, Ark has some scaling limitations that can be solved if covenants get merged into the bitcoin protocol, which would significantly reduce the data requirements for signing this type of transaction.
It should also be noted that Ark isn't here to replace the lightning network. It can help serve different use cases and, at the same time, significantly improve the UX of the lightning network. Particularly channel management. The progression of the Ark protocol is a welcomed development. I look forward to following what's going on with Ark as the protocol matures.
The Kingdom of Bhutan is Stacking A LOT of Sats
We were made aware of the fact that the Kingdom of Bhutan, a small country in the Himalayas with a population less than 1,000,000 people, was mining bitcoin in early 2023 when their sovereign wealth fund was doxxed in the bankruptcy proceedings of BlockFi and Celsius. Don't look now, but Bhutan has been doxxed again, this time by the chain surveillance firm Arkham, which is reporting that the nation currently holds more than 13,000 bitcoin, which is nearly 1/3 of its GDP. Driven predominately by its mining operations, which have expanded significantly over the last two years in an attempt to monetize the country's excess hydroelectric power.
While we're not big fans of doxxing here at TFTC, we are fans of the game theory of bitcoin playing out in front of our eyes. And the Kingdom of Bhutan is a shining example of the game theory bitcoiners have been talking about for 15 years playing out perfectly.
Bitcoin is a very thorny topic for individuals at every layer of society. At the individual layer, people have to independently decide that bitcoin is a better money and they have to actively decide to store their wealth in it instead of other assets. For companies, the decision to use bitcoin as the preferred savings vehicle is even harder because most businesses have multiple stakeholders that need to align on a decision before making it. When you move up to the nation state level, the complexity of making the decision to add bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset gets even harder. Many more people and different branches of government need to agree and pass bills (in most cases) before bitcoin can ever make it into a nation's treasury asset mix.
It has long been said within bitcoin circles that individuals who have the ability to think independently, companies that have a lean corporate structure, and nation states with little to lose will be the first movers into bitcoin. And they will benefit massively over the long-run for being early.
If you're an individual reading this who is using bitcoin as their money of choice, you are one of these early movers. Microstrategy under Michael Saylor, who has the ability to make somewhat unilateral decisions due to the company's share structure, is an early move. And, Bhutan, a small nation in the Himalaya mountains with a sovereign wealth fund that seems to have the ability to take risk, is an early mover. With little to lose and greatness to gain, Bhutan is giving other small nation states the playbook for leap frogging the competition in the digital age. Stack a shit ton of bitcoin on the DL, hold on to it for a considerable amount of time, and wake up one day as an economic powerhouse.
The Fed Cuts Rates by 50 Basis Points
I'm sure all of you are well aware at this point. Last week the Federal Reserve made it's first rate cuts in over four years when it cut the fed funds target rate by 0.50% to 4.75-5.00%. With the economy reeling despite what the official government and mainstream narrative may try to make you believe, Jerome Powell and crew have decided it is time to ease up on their monetary policy.
Put another way, inflation is likely to come back with a vengeance as easy money begins to reenter the economy. To be clear, a lower fed funds rate doesn't technically necessitate that newly printed dollars enter the economy like they have over the last 15 years via operations like quantitative easing. However, one has to imagine that the Fed sees some sort of liquidity crisis on the horizon that requires them to begin cutting rates. And not only cutting, but cutting at a pace that was very low probability only a couple of months ago. The consensus in the middle of the Summer was that the Fed would begin lowering rates with a modest 25bps cut this month. They doubled that.
It's probably safe to assume that something is approaching a breaking point on the back end of the financial system. One only has to look at record high credit card debt, record low savings rates, the state of the job market for native born Americans, and the continued turn over of commercial real estate markets to see that not all is well in the American economy. Your Uncle Marty's spidey senses are signaling that a liquidity crunch is likely lurking around the corner. When it does rear its ugly head, you can expect quantitative easing to make a big come back.
When money printer goes brrr, bitcoin goes berserk.
It seems that the Treasury's move over the last 18-months of over-indexing on the front end of the curve during their auctions is already having an expansionary effect on M2 as it has officially entered expansion territory for the first time since 2022. Hold on to your butts, freaks.
Bitcoin's fundamentals are only getting stronger as time goes on. This is evidenced by continued improvement to the protocol stack via second layer protocols, continued adoption by reputable actors like the Kingdom of Bhutan, and the continued mismanagement of the fiat monetary system.
The price of bitcoin has been range bound since the Spring and it has lulled the market into a state of boredom. Enjoy the boring period while it lasts. All signs are pointing to a bitcoin bull run the likes of which the world hasn't seen before. There is a lot of tinder, it is extremely dry, and there are flame throwers on the horizon.
Final thought... Nothing makes me happier than meeting someone who gets value from this newsletter or the podcasts in the wild. Love you, freaks.
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-24 23:54:44 -
@ e83b66a8:b0526c2b
2024-09-26 19:29:43If you’re thinking of buying a Bitaxe, here is some information about pools vs solo mining.
Firstly, although the terms are clear “pool mining”, “solo mining” there is nuance in these definitions, so I want to explain these terms fully.
Solo mining pools exist, such as: https://solo.ckpool.org/
It is called a pool, because you are using their credentials to mine, but you keep all the rewards if you win a block. Despite the name, this is not a pool.
You then have a pool such as https://ocean.xyz/ who are a pool, you use their credentials to mine, and you earn a share of their income relative to your contribution in hash power.
There has been some publicity about a solo miner winning a pool recently, there were about 12 blocks won in 2023 by solo miners. However a winning solo miner is likely to be a server farm with hundreds or even thousands of S19’s or S21’s sharing the same payout wallet address. The image of a home miner with a Bitaxe winning a block is extremely unlikely.
A solo miner is defined as a group of miners that share a payout wallet address, so for example you could have 10 Bitaxe’s at home all configured with the same BTC wallet address, this is considered a single solo miner. And so it is with mid tier mining farms, often privately owned, who have a number of machines set to the same payout address. Most of the time, they share earnings for a more reliable income, but the owner may decide to gamble on winning a block and so choose to solo (lottery) mine.
So far, my Bitaxe, which has been running for 4 days now and is part of the Ocean pool. It is earning about 50 Sats a day. If I were to wait for an on-chain payout, it would take around 60 years to receive one. I can, however, setup a BOLT12 lightning payout address and earn this tiny income through Lightning.
So here’s my recommendation.
Currently, there are two pools that control more than 50% of mining, Foundry USA and AntPool. This is a dangerous position and in fact Bitmain, who provide around 90% of all mining hardware actually invest and have stakes in these and several other pools. This is centralising mining and could potentially allow a 51% attack, which could compromise Bitcoin.
Jack Dorsey is currently developing competing mining hardware chipset, through his company Block and Ocean are attempting to decentralise the pools by building a truly independent option for miners to join.
If you buy a Bitaxe, the best way you can help alleviate the dominance of Bitmain is to join a true pool like Ocean to slowly move control away from the dominant pools.
Bear in mind that many of the other smaller pools are still controlled by Bitmain.
If you're still interested in lottery mining, here are your chances of winning a block:
Represented as Hash rates of different miners:
Nerdminer: 20 KH/s = 20,000 H/s
Bitaxe: 750 GH/s = 750,000,000,000 H/s
Bitmain Antminer S9: 13.5 TH/s = 13,500,000,000,000 H/s
Bitmain Antminer S19: 110TH/s = 110,000,000,000,000 H/s
Bitmain Antminer S21: 200TH/s = 200,000,000,000,000 H/s
Current Global Hash rate 628EH/s (Sept 2024) = 628,000,000,000,000,000,000
If you're running a Bitaxe, your percentage chance of winning a block is: 0.000000119426751592357%
Over a year, your chances increase to: 0.00627707006369428%
Your chances of winning the UK national lottery (assuming 20M tickets sold and you buy one):
0.000005%
Over a year, your chances increase to: 0.00026%
Like in all things in Bitcoin, I don’t ask you to trust me. If you want to verify, here are the references I used in making my conclusions:
https://protos.com/chart-when-solo-miners-found-a-bitcoin-block/
https://investors.block.xyz/investor-news/news-details/2024/Blocks-New-Bitcoin-Mining-Chip-to-Be-Part-of-an-Ongoing-Project-With-Core-Scientific-to-Decentralize-Mining-Hardware/default.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo91DWvZRs8
https://i.nostr.build/9rQ9Plv6XQYtt6xd.jpg
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@ eac63075:b4988b48
2024-09-20 08:49:03This event has been deleted; your client is ignoring the delete request.
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@ c11cf5f8:4928464d
2024-09-29 08:09:06Let's hear some of your latest Bitcoin purchases, feel free to include links to the shops or merchants you bought from too.
If you missed our last thread, here are some of the items stackers recently spent their sats on.
originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/704707
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@ 3f770d65:7a745b24
2024-06-17 18:56:54Several months ago, nostr:npub1hqaz3dlyuhfqhktqchawke39l92jj9nt30dsgh2zvd9z7dv3j3gqpkt56s and I set out to do tackle a task that had never been done before throughout Nostr's short history. We decided adopt the "go big, or go home" mentality and give our best effort to Purple Pill all of the nostr:npub167n5w6cj2wseqtmk26zllc7n28uv9c4vw28k2kht206vnghe5a7stgzu3r conference.
We couldn't accomplish this monumental task without the help of the Nostr community. From every day Nostriches and plebs, to legendary developers putting their blood, sweat, and tears into building this new protocol, to several companies within the Nostr ecosystem, everyone was going to need to do their part to turn this dream into a reality.
The mission
For the original vision of Nostr at BTC Prague, we planned on supporting the smallest available booth and a small panel on the secondary stage. The plan was for any Nostr developer to contribute what they could and then use the Nostr booth as a central hub to onboard users to their applications, provide support to their users, and meet the community. I embarked on my first crowdfunding journey and was able to initially raise over 10M sats thanks to the greater Nostr community donating towards our efforts.
Shortly afterwards, I was approached by nostr:npub1dtgg8yk3h23ldlm6jsy79tz723p4sun9mz62tqwxqe7c363szkzqm8up6m from Satlantis. He had planned on doing a mainstage presentation at BTC Prague on his new Nostr powered application. He asked me if I wanted to combine our efforts to upgrade the Nostr booth to the largest booth possible to give Nostr an even larger presence. I reached out to Avi and several other trusted Nostriches to see their opinions on this potential upgrade and everyone seemed to agree that we should continue with the "go big, or go home" mentality and try our best to Purple Pill all of Prague.
Now with a larger goal at hand, we were able to garner even more support from the Nostr community in addition by adding Highlighter from nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft and Primal from nostr:npub16c0nh3dnadzqpm76uctf5hqhe2lny344zsmpm6feee9p5rdxaa9q586nvr as larger contributors.
The final tallies for funds raised were 16M+ sats from the greater Nostr community and 38M+ sats raised from Satlantis, Primal, and Highlighter. (We did have to raise a little more than originally anticipated because the Bitcoin 58K Gang made the fiat value of Bitcoin dip down for a bit right when we were trying to finalize payment.)
Putting it all together
This support enabled us to secure one of the four large booths at BTC Prague and a main stage panel. Given that these three companies made significant contributions, enabling our acquisition of the largest booth, we decided that it was logical to feature these companies more prominently. However, it was crucial to strike a delicate balance here. While emphasizing that this booth represented the Nostr community and was a true community effort, we also wanted to acknowledge and showcase those who made it possible. These companies could have opted for smaller individual booths, but their collaboration in a unified space demonstrates Nostr's principles of openness and interoperability—demonstrating that everyone and everything can work together seamlessly.
Therefore, we included as many logos across the Nostr ecosystem as possible throughout our iconography.
And, we also had a dedicated area of the booth highlighting our larger contributors.
The results exceeded all expectations. For three days during the BTC Prague conference, the Nostr booth was continuously bustling with activity. Attendees ranged from individuals who had never heard of Nostr before to those who were curious, active users within the ecosystem, and developers creating the applications we use daily. It was a remarkable community effort, with unexpected volunteers stepping up to onboard new users and provide support. Recognizing our busy schedules and flocks of new Nostriches hatching, they chose to assist in our efforts, offering help, and answering questions. It was a truly inspiring experience. Despite the busyness, the enthusiasm and support of so many people made each day enjoyable and dynamic, ensuring there was never a dull moment and we were always surrounded by friends.
Booth takeaways
As this was our very first attempt at doing something like this, I'd like to do a personal post mortem and highlight many of our successes and even some areas where I feel we can improve upon in the future.
Several Nostriches went above and beyond, helping onboard people and answer questions for three days straight. nostr:npub17plqkxhsv66g8quxxc9p5t9mxazzn20m426exqnl8lxnh5a4cdns7jezx0 nostr:npub1spdnfacgsd7lk0nlqkq443tkq4jx9z6c6ksvaquuewmw7d3qltpslcq6j7 nostr:npub1v0lxxxxutpvrelsksy8cdhgfux9l6a42hsj2qzquu2zk7vc9qnkszrqj49 nostr:npub1k6tqlj78cpznd0yc74wy3k0elmj4nql87a3uzfz98tmj3tuzxywsf0dhk6 nostr:npub1md39ua3h2s7204a7v5p9sdxmxx9qc7m4kr3r6naeuwfznad6d7nsxpctp9 nostr:npub1arkn0xxxll4llgy9qxkrncn3vc4l69s0dz8ef3zadykcwe7ax3dqrrh43w nostr:npub1zga04e73s7ard4kaektaha9vckdwll3y8auztyhl3uj764ua7vrqc7ppvc were the lifeblood of the booth, always answering questions themselves or referring them to others if they were unable to help, didn't know the answer or were busy at the time. You all put in the work and deserve much credit and thanks. Even nostr:npub1995y964wmxl94crx3ksfley24szjr390skdd237ex9z7ttp5c9lqld8vtf was helping with onboarding!
Additionally, beyond general use case questions, we also had many developers stop by and answer many more technical questions for those wanting to learn a bit more too. nostr:npub1zach44xjpc4yyhx6pgse2cj2pf98838kja03dv2e8ly8lfr094vqvm5dy5 nostr:npub1v0lxxxxutpvrelsksy8cdhgfux9l6a42hsj2qzquu2zk7vc9qnkszrqj49 nostr:npub1arkn0xxxll4llgy9qxkrncn3vc4l69s0dz8ef3zadykcwe7ax3dqrrh43w nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft were often seen answering more technical questions on various developmental topics.
Identifying areas for improvement is challenging, as the entire team of Nostriches performed exceptionally well, exceeding expectations. The event was a whirlwind of activity, with constant engagement and zero downtime. Volunteers seamlessly rotated at the front counter answering questions and distributing items to attendees. (Thanks nostr:npub1cgcwm56v5hyrrzl5ty4vq4kdud63n5u4czgycdl2r3jshzk55ufqe52ndy . Your nostr.how and nostrapps.com business cards were a HUGE help here!)
Full disclosure, I personally didn't leave the booth for three days all that much for two reasons. 1) Because I love to #GrowNostr and talk to people and 2) Because I was worried that the booth would turn into a corporate Primal or Satlantis show. However, this wasn't the case. While these teams did have a large presence with many team members all wearing t-shirts, none of my fears became a reality. If people asked questions about Nostr in general, that was discussed. If people asked questions about Primal or Satlantis, that was discussed. I personally recommended numerous social apps, Damus, Amethyst, Primal, Nostur, Nos.social - all of them. The booth was a true decentralized effort and I absolutely did not need to worry as much as I did, but I felt like I had an obligation to fulfill and I wanted to be there to see it through.
If I had to choose an area that needed improvement, I'd say that the three Satlantis women that nostr:npub1dtgg8yk3h23ldlm6jsy79tz723p4sun9mz62tqwxqe7c363szkzqm8up6m brought with him were supposed to shadow some of us to learn more about Nostr, so that they could then use this information to do the initial intake booth questions before making the referral to those with more information, but this just didn't happen. We were all so busy. Sorry! It was just too hard to coordinate. Maybe in the future we can prepare a bit more in this area. Although, nostr:npub1hz5alqscpp8yjrvgsdp2n4ygkl8slvstrgvmjca7e45w6644ew7sewtysa did a fantastic job, jumping right in there head first!
Secondly, we could have improved our television capabilities. We rotated from showing the live dashboard from the booth's Zap.stream livestream, to showing Primal.net/explore Nostr statistics, to showing nostr:npub1lelkh3hhxw9hdwlcpk6q9t0xt9f7yze0y0nxazvzqjmre3p98x3sthkvyz 's Nostr Documentary on loop, to playing the Satlantis promotional video. The majority of the time our TV was playing the same Nostr Documentary. It's great! I love that video, but we may be able to work out a better schedule and rotation mechanism in the future to showcase more content equally. Plus, I don't want to always be on the TV. I don't want people getting the wrong idea.
Nostr takeaways
After speaking with hundreds of people at BTC Prague, I feel that I've discovered the best way to describe Nostr.
Nostr has a portable digital social identity, allowing you to be in control of your digital social identity for the very first time, allowing you to take your entire social graph with you, every time you use a different application from Nostr's ecosystem.
Nostr is the social glue that binds all of your apps together.
In general, at BTC Prague, while explaining Nostr to people, the digital social identity route was what clicked with the most people. From there, it's not a long stretch to understand building a reputation and web of trust either.
Many people do not use the "Other Stuff" and explaining to them how to use these applications is hard. People want a native application.
Damus, Primal, and Amethyst seem to be the number one apps that people are using, with maybe Primal being the number one altogether? This is probably due to Primal being available on Android, iOS, and the web. Also, many people don't know that Damus still supports Zaps via the Nostr script workaround. I had to show many how to enable Zaps.
Everyone wants Nostr at their conference
There is significant interest in featuring Nostr at various conferences. Although not everyone has reached out, numerous individuals at BTC Prague expressed enthusiasm about incorporating a Nostr booth, along with several Nostr talks and sessions, into their upcoming events. They recognize the critical role Nostr and free speech play globally and acknowledge Nostr's popularity within the Bitcoin community. However, they also understand that more work is needed, and we must continue our efforts to onboard and engage new users.
I have two primary observations on this matter:
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The community effort demonstrated here serves as a blueprint for success. We have proven that this approach to growing Nostr is effective, desired, and necessary. The engagement at our booth and attendance at our panels prove this with ease.
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This fundraising initiative is likely a one-time effort. I cannot, in good conscience, continue to ask the community to bootstrap these endeavors. If we are to sustain these booths and promote Nostr at similar conferences, the conference organizers themselves must provide substantial support or discounts to foster broader Nostr adoption. While I understand that conferences entail significant operational costs, it is not feasible for Nostr developers and the broader Nostr community to finance these efforts continuously. Additionally, I would not feel comfortable requesting financial contributions from you all again for this purpose.
Looking forward
Will we do _this _again? I don't know. While our initial endeavor was a complete success, it would be unfortunate to cease our efforts just as we are gaining momentum.
Avi and I have a lot to discuss between ourselves and a lot to discuss with all of you.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Thank you nostr:npub1dtgg8yk3h23ldlm6jsy79tz723p4sun9mz62tqwxqe7c363szkzqm8up6m nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft nostr:npub16c0nh3dnadzqpm76uctf5hqhe2lny344zsmpm6feee9p5rdxaa9q586nvr for making all of this possible. Thank you to every single Nostrich that donated your hard earned sats to make this possible. Thank you to all of the developers that built all of this to make all of this possible. Thank you to everyone else <3
Keep building.
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@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-09-18 10:37:09How to do curation and businesses on Nostr
Suppose you want to start a Nostr business.
You might be tempted to make a closed platform that reuses Nostr identities and grabs (some) content from the external Nostr network, only to imprison it inside your thing -- and then you're going to run an amazing AI-powered algorithm on that content and "surface" only the best stuff and people will flock to your app.
This will be specially good if you're going after one of the many unexplored niches of Nostr in which reading immediately from people you know doesn't work as you generally want to discover new things from the outer world, such as:
- food recipe sharing;
- sharing of long articles about varying topics;
- markets for used goods;
- freelancer work and job offers;
- specific in-game lobbies and matchmaking;
- directories of accredited professionals;
- sharing of original music, drawings and other artistic creations;
- restaurant recommendations
- and so on.
But that is not the correct approach and damages the freedom and interoperability of Nostr, posing a centralization threat to the protocol. Even if it "works" and your business is incredibly successful it will just enshrine you as the head of a platform that controls users and thus is prone to all the bad things that happen to all these platforms. Your company will start to display ads and shape the public discourse, you'll need a big legal team, the FBI will talk to you, advertisers will play a big role and so on.
If you are interested in Nostr today that must be because you appreciate the fact that it is not owned by any companies, so it's safe to assume you don't want to be that company that owns it. So what should you do instead? Here's an idea in two steps:
- Write a Nostr client tailored to the niche you want to cover
If it's a music sharing thing, then the client will have a way to play the audio and so on; if it's a restaurant sharing it will have maps with the locations of the restaurants or whatever, you get the idea. Hopefully there will be a NIP or a NUD specifying how to create and interact with events relating to this niche, or you will write or contribute with the creation of one, because without interoperability this can't be Nostr.
The client should work independently of any special backend requirements and ideally be open-source. It should have a way for users to configure to which relays they want to connect to see "global" content -- i.e., they might want to connect to
wss://nostr.chrysalisrecords.com/
to see only the latest music releases accredited by that label or towss://nostr.indiemusic.com/
to get music from independent producers from that community.- Run a relay that does all the magic
This is where your value-adding capabilities come into play: if you have that magic sauce you should be able to apply it here. Your service -- let's call it
wss://magicsaucemusic.com/
-- will charge people or do some KYM (know your music) validation or use some very advanced AI sorcery to filter out the spam and the garbage and display the best content to your users who will request the global feed from it (["REQ", "_", {}]
), and this will cause people to want to publish to your relay while others will want to read from it.You set your relay as the default option in the client and let things happen. Your relay is like your "website" and people are free to connect to it or not. You don't own the network, you're just competing against other websites on a leveled playing field, so you're not responsible for it. Users get seamless browsing across multiple websites, unified identities, a unified interface (that could be different in a different client) and social interaction capabilities that work in the same way for all, and they do not depend on you, therefore they're more likely to trust you.
Does this centralize the network still? But this a simple and easy way to go about the matter and scales well in all aspects.
Besides allowing users to connect to specific relays for getting a feed of curated content, such clients should also do all kinds of "social" (i.e. following, commenting etc) activities (if they choose to do that) using the outbox model -- i.e. if I find a musician I like under
wss://magicsaucemusic.com
and I decide to follow them I should keep getting updates from them even if they get banned from that relay and start publishing onwss://nos.lol
orwss://relay.damus.io
or whatever relay that doesn't even know anything about music.The hardcoded defaults and manual typing of relay URLs can be annoying. But I think it works well at the current stage of Nostr development. Soon, though, we can create events that recommend other relays or share relay lists specific to each kind of activity so users can get in-app suggestions of relays their friends are using to get their music from and so on. That kind of stuff can go a long way.
-
@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-24 23:52:38 -
@ f977c464:32fcbe00
2024-01-30 20:06:18Güneşin kaybolmasının üçüncü günü, saat öğlen on ikiyi yirmi geçiyordu. Trenin kalkmasına yaklaşık iki saat vardı. Hepimiz perondaydık. Valizlerimiz, kolilerimiz, renk renk ve biçimsiz çantalarımızla yan yana dizilmiş, kısa aralıklarla tepemizdeki devasa saati kontrol ediyorduk.
Ama ne kadar dik bakarsak bakalım zaman bir türlü istediğimiz hızla ilerlemiyordu. Herkes birkaç dakika sürmesi gereken alelade bir doğa olayına sıkışıp kalmış, karanlıktan sürünerek çıkmayı deniyordu.
Bekleme salonuna doğru döndüm. Nefesimden çıkan buharın arkasında, kalın taş duvarları ve camlarıyla morg kadar güvenli ve soğuk duruyordu. Cesetleri o yüzden bunun gibi yerlere taşımaya başlamışlardı. Demek insanların bütün iyiliği başkaları onları gördüğü içindi ki gündüzleri gecelerden daha karanlık olduğunda hemen birbirlerinin gırtlağına çökmüş, böğürlerinde delikler açmış, gözlerini oyup kafataslarını parçalamışlardı.
İstasyonun ışığı titrediğinde karanlığın enseme saplandığını hissettim. Eğer şimdi, böyle kalabalık bir yerde elektrik kesilse başımıza ne gelirdi?
İçerideki askerlerden biri bakışlarımı yakalayınca yeniden saate odaklanmış gibi yaptım. Sadece birkaç dakika geçmişti.
“Tarlalarım gitti. Böyle boyum kadar ayçiçeği doluydu. Ah, hepsi ölüp gidiyor. Afitap’ın çiçekleri de gi-”
“Dayı, Allah’ını seversen sus. Hepimizi yakacaksın şimdi.”
Karanlıkta durduğunda, görünmez olmayı istemeye başlıyordun. Kimse seni görmemeli, nefesini bile duymamalıydı. Kimsenin de ayağının altında dolaşmamalıydın; gelip kazayla sana çarpmamalılar, takılıp sendelememeliydiler. Yoksa aslında hedefi sen olmadığın bir öfke gürlemeye başlar, yaşadığın ilk şoku ve acıyı silerek üstünden geçerdi.
İlk konuşan, yaşlıca bir adam, kafasında kasketi, nasırlı ellerine hohluyordu. Gözleri ve burnu kızarmıştı. Güneşin kaybolması onun için kendi başına bir felaket değildi. Hayatına olan pratik yansımalarından korkuyordu olsa olsa. Bir anının kaybolması, bu yüzden çoktan kaybettiği birinin biraz daha eksilmesi. Hayatta kalmasını gerektiren sebepler azalırken, hayatta kalmasını sağlayacak kaynaklarını da kaybediyordu.
Onu susturan delikanlıysa atkısını bütün kafasına sarmış, sakalı ve yüzünün derinliklerine kaçmış gözleri dışında bedeninin bütün parçalarını gizlemeye çalışıyordu. İşte o, güneşin kaybolmasının tam olarak ne anlama geldiğini anlamamış olsa bile, dehşetini olduğu gibi hissedebilenlerdendi.
Güneşin onlardan alındıktan sonra kime verileceğini sormuyorlardı. En başta onlara verildiğinde de hiçbir soru sormamışlardı zaten.
İki saat ne zaman geçer?
Midemin üstünde, sağ tarafıma doğru keskin bir acı hissettim. Karaciğerim. Gözlerimi yumdum. Yanımda biri metal bir nesneyi yere bıraktı. Bir kafesti. İçerisindeki kartalın ıslak kokusu burnuma ulaşmadan önce bile biliyordum bunu.
“Yeniden mi?” diye sordu bana kartal. Kanatları kanlı. Zamanın her bir parçası tüylerinin üstüne çöreklenmişti. Gagası bir şey, tahminen et parçası geveliyor gibi hareket ediyordu. Eski anılar kolay unutulmazmış. Şu anda kafesinin kalın parmaklıklarının ardında olsa da bunun bir aldatmaca olduğunu bir tek ben biliyordum. Her an kanatlarını iki yana uzatıverebilir, hava bu hareketiyle dalgalanarak kafesi esneterek hepimizi içine alacak kadar genişleyebilir, parmaklıklar önce ayaklarımızın altına serilir gibi gözükebilir ama aslında hepimizin üstünde yükselerek tepemize çökebilirdi.
Aşağıya baktım. Tahtalarla zapt edilmiş, hiçbir yere gidemeyen ama her yere uzanan tren rayları. Atlayıp koşsam… Çantam çok ağırdı. Daha birkaç adım atamadan, kartal, suratını bedenime gömerdi.
“Bu sefer farklı,” diye yanıtladım onu. “Yeniden diyemezsin. Tekrarladığım bir şey değil bu. Hatta bir hata yapıyormuşum gibi tonlayamazsın da. Bu sefer, insanların hak etmediğini biliyorum.”
“O zaman daha vahim. Süzme salaksın demektir.”
“İnsanların hak etmemesi, insanlığın hak etmediği anlamına gelmez ki.”
Az önce göz göze geldiğim genççe ama çökük asker hâlâ bana bakıyordu. Bir kartalla konuştuğumu anlamamıştı şüphesiz. Yanımdakilerden biriyle konuştuğumu sanmış olmalıydı. Ama konuştuğum kişiye bakmıyordum ona göre. Çekingence kafamı eğmiştim. Bir kez daha göz göze geldiğimizde içerideki diğer iki askere bir şeyler söyledi, onlar dönüp beni süzerken dışarı çıktı.
Yanımızdaki, az önce konuşan iki adam da şaşkınlıkla bir bana bir kartala bakıyordu.
“Yalnız bu sefer kalbin de kırılacak, Prometheus,” dedi kartal, bana. “Belki son olur. Biliyorsun, bir sürü soruna neden oluyor bu yaptıkların.”
Beni koruyordu sözde. En çok kanıma dokunan buydu. Kasıklarımın üstüne oturmuş, kanlı suratının ardında gözleri parlarken attığı çığlık kulaklarımda titremeye devam ediyordu. Bu tabloda kimsenin kimseyi düşündüğü yoktu. Kartalın, yanımızdaki adamların, artık arkama kadar gelmiş olması gereken askerin, tren raylarının, geçmeyen saatlerin…
Arkamı döndüğümde, asker sahiden oradaydı. Zaten öyle olması gerekiyordu; görmüştüm bunu, biliyordum. Kehanetler… Bir şeyler söylüyordu ama ağzı oynarken sesi çıkmıyordu. Yavaşlamış, kendisini saatin akışına uydurmuştu. Havada donan tükürüğünden anlaşılıyordu, sinirliydi. Korktuğu için olduğunu biliyordum. Her seferinde korkmuşlardı. Beni unutmuş olmaları işlerini kolaylaştırmıyordu. Sadece yeni bir isim vermelerine neden oluyordu. Bu seferkiyle beni lanetleyecekleri kesinleşmişti.
Olması gerekenle olanların farklı olması ne kadar acınasıydı. Olması gerekenlerin doğasının kötücül olmasıysa bir yerde buna dayanıyordu.
“Salaksın,” dedi kartal bana. Zamanı aşan bir çığlık. Hepimizin önüne geçmişti ama kimseyi durduramıyordu.
Sonsuzluğa kaç tane iki saat sıkıştırabilirsiniz?
Ben bir tane bile sıkıştıramadım.
Çantama uzanıyordum. Asker de sırtındaki tüfeğini indiriyordu. Benim acelem yoktu, onunsa eli ayağı birbirine dolaşıyordu. Oysaki her şey tam olması gerektiği anda olacaktı. Kehanet başkasının parmaklarının ucundaydı.
Güneş, bir tüfeğin patlamasıyla yeryüzüne doğdu.
Rayların üzerine serilmiş göğsümün ortasından, bir çantanın içinden.
Not: Bu öykü ilk olarak 2021 yılında Esrarengiz Hikâyeler'de yayımlanmıştır.
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@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-06-07 15:27:10Report of how the money Jack donated to the cause in December 2022 is being spent.
Bounties given
June 2024
- Darashi: 5,000,000 - maintaining nos.today, searchnos, search.nos.today and other experiments
- Toshiya: 5,000,000 - keeping the NIPs repo clean and other stuff
May 2024
- James: 3,500,000 - https://github.com/jamesmagoo/nostr-writer
- Yakihonne: 5,000,000 - spreading the word in Asia
- Dashu: 9,000,000 - https://github.com/haorendashu/nostrmo
February 2024
- Viktor: 5,000,000 - https://github.com/viktorvsk/saltivka and https://github.com/viktorvsk/knowstr
- Eric T: 5,000,000 - https://github.com/tcheeric/nostr-java
- Semisol: 5,000,000 - https://relay.noswhere.com/ and https://hist.nostr.land relays
- Sebastian: 5,000,000 - Drupal stuff and nostr-php work
- tijl: 5,000,000 - Cloudron, Yunohost and Fraidycat attempts
- Null Kotlin Dev: 5,000,000 - AntennaPod attempt
December 2023
- hzrd: 5,000,000 - Nostrudel
- awayuki: 5,000,000 - NOSTOPUS illustrations
- bera: 5,000,000 - getwired.app
- Chris: 5,000,000 - resolvr.io
- NoGood: 10,000,000 - nostrexplained.com stories
October 2023
- SnowCait: 5,000,000 - https://nostter.vercel.app/ and other tools
- Shaun: 10,000,000 - https://yakihonne.com/, events and work on Nostr awareness
- Derek Ross: 10,000,000 - spreading the word around the world
- fmar: 5,000,000 - https://github.com/frnandu/yana
- The Nostr Report: 2,500,000 - curating stuff
- james magoo: 2,500,000 - the Obsidian plugin: https://github.com/jamesmagoo/nostr-writer
August 2023
- Paul Miller: 5,000,000 - JS libraries and cryptography-related work
- BOUNTY tijl: 5,000,000 - https://github.com/github-tijlxyz/wikinostr
- gzuus: 5,000,000 - https://nostree.me/
July 2023
- syusui-s: 5,000,000 - rabbit, a tweetdeck-like Nostr client: https://syusui-s.github.io/rabbit/
- kojira: 5,000,000 - Nostr fanzine, Nostr discussion groups in Japan, hardware experiments
- darashi: 5,000,000 - https://github.com/darashi/nos.today, https://github.com/darashi/searchnos, https://github.com/darashi/murasaki
- jeff g: 5,000,000 - https://nostr.how and https://listr.lol, plus other contributions
- cloud fodder: 5,000,000 - https://nostr1.com (open-source)
- utxo.one: 5,000,000 - https://relaying.io (open-source)
- Max DeMarco: 10,269,507 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA-jiiepOrE
- BOUNTY optout21: 1,000,000 - https://github.com/optout21/nip41-proto0 (proposed nip41 CLI)
- BOUNTY Leo: 1,000,000 - https://github.com/leo-lox/camelus (an old relay thing I forgot exactly)
June 2023
- BOUNTY: Sepher: 2,000,000 - a webapp for making lists of anything: https://pinstr.app/
- BOUNTY: Kieran: 10,000,000 - implement gossip algorithm on Snort, implement all the other nice things: manual relay selection, following hints etc.
- Mattn: 5,000,000 - a myriad of projects and contributions to Nostr projects: https://github.com/search?q=owner%3Amattn+nostr&type=code
- BOUNTY: lynn: 2,000,000 - a simple and clean git nostr CLI written in Go, compatible with William's original git-nostr-tools; and implement threaded comments on https://github.com/fiatjaf/nocomment.
- Jack Chakany: 5,000,000 - https://github.com/jacany/nblog
- BOUNTY: Dan: 2,000,000 - https://metadata.nostr.com/
April 2023
- BOUNTY: Blake Jakopovic: 590,000 - event deleter tool, NIP dependency organization
- BOUNTY: koalasat: 1,000,000 - display relays
- BOUNTY: Mike Dilger: 4,000,000 - display relays, follow event hints (Gossip)
- BOUNTY: kaiwolfram: 5,000,000 - display relays, follow event hints, choose relays to publish (Nozzle)
- Daniele Tonon: 3,000,000 - Gossip
- bu5hm4nn: 3,000,000 - Gossip
- BOUNTY: hodlbod: 4,000,000 - display relays, follow event hints
March 2023
- Doug Hoyte: 5,000,000 sats - https://github.com/hoytech/strfry
- Alex Gleason: 5,000,000 sats - https://gitlab.com/soapbox-pub/mostr
- verbiricha: 5,000,000 sats - https://badges.page/, https://habla.news/
- talvasconcelos: 5,000,000 sats - https://migrate.nostr.com, https://read.nostr.com, https://write.nostr.com/
- BOUNTY: Gossip model: 5,000,000 - https://camelus.app/
- BOUNTY: Gossip model: 5,000,000 - https://github.com/kaiwolfram/Nozzle
- BOUNTY: Bounty Manager: 5,000,000 - https://nostrbounties.com/
February 2023
- styppo: 5,000,000 sats - https://hamstr.to/
- sandwich: 5,000,000 sats - https://nostr.watch/
- BOUNTY: Relay-centric client designs: 5,000,000 sats https://bountsr.org/design/2023/01/26/relay-based-design.html
- BOUNTY: Gossip model on https://coracle.social/: 5,000,000 sats
- Nostrovia Podcast: 3,000,000 sats - https://nostrovia.org/
- BOUNTY: Nostr-Desk / Monstr: 5,000,000 sats - https://github.com/alemmens/monstr
- Mike Dilger: 5,000,000 sats - https://github.com/mikedilger/gossip
January 2023
- ismyhc: 5,000,000 sats - https://github.com/Galaxoid-Labs/Seer
- Martti Malmi: 5,000,000 sats - https://iris.to/
- Carlos Autonomous: 5,000,000 sats - https://github.com/BrightonBTC/bija
- Koala Sat: 5,000,000 - https://github.com/KoalaSat/nostros
- Vitor Pamplona: 5,000,000 - https://github.com/vitorpamplona/amethyst
- Cameri: 5,000,000 - https://github.com/Cameri/nostream
December 2022
- William Casarin: 7 BTC - splitting the fund
- pseudozach: 5,000,000 sats - https://nostr.directory/
- Sondre Bjellas: 5,000,000 sats - https://notes.blockcore.net/
- Null Dev: 5,000,000 sats - https://github.com/KotlinGeekDev/Nosky
- Blake Jakopovic: 5,000,000 sats - https://github.com/blakejakopovic/nostcat, https://github.com/blakejakopovic/nostreq and https://github.com/blakejakopovic/NostrEventPlayground
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@ 3c984938:2ec11289
2024-06-07 11:14:17The Chamorros: People of my island
They islanders for centuries took care of the island. They fished, farmed, hunted, voyaged, made tools, art, had stories, had marriages within clans. Then, the Spanish came. When they first came, the Chamorros boarded their boat to greet the weird people(I'm sure they thought they were weird too). It started peaceful until the Spaniards coffer's slowly dried up. This led to the occupation of the island and grew oppressive. Eventually, The Spanish lost the war to the Americans. Guam was then sold to the American gov't as spoils of war, trading one oppressive regime for another.
The TakeOver Process-1
The TakeOver Process-2
The TakeOver Process-3
Get a job, you lazy islanders. We need to tax you, come work for us. This was the price to become American to the indigenous islanders.
Then the war came.
close up
Guam was hit first before Pearl Harbor(The international Date line puts Guam timezone first ahead) but after this, The Japanese invaded and then occupied the island. Note at the bottom, The American Naval governor surrendered. This led to the islanders thus to become slaves to the Japanese Empire.
Recall "Day of Infamy" by FDR
Life under Japanese Rule Note Northern Marianas islands are the smaller islands above Guam. See the next image below.
Map of the island geography. Guam is referred as NYC in the Marianas. The rest are really, really small.
Nearly 16k of indigenous islander died, by the end of the war less than 6kish Chamorro survived.
The Federal Government then claimed parts of the land and since then and haven't returned it. They've returned some of it. This was a long time ago, I think it's time to let it go. Some islanders demand war repatriations. It makes zero sense to demand money from future Americans to pay for those war repatriations. The enemy is not the people, it's those that wield the pen to create unreasonable bills and the ones that enforce it.
Final Words. The islanders lived peaceful. There was no room to be a bad person of the colony because that person was risked getting shunned. Often, they sent the bad natives (thus becoming 2nd class citizens) inland, barring them from getting access to the ocean. But the land is rich and fertile. Instead of saltwater fish, they had fresh water 🐟fish, 🐍eel, 🦐shrimp and 🦞crawfish and plenty of fruit to eat and farm.
They didn't ask to become Spanish or American. It was this way or the highway. When countries want to expand they need more territories, land, money and human capital(your life energy). History doesn't repeat, it just rhymes.
🦋The best way to combat this is go back to a similar economy that is less corruptible. I believe Bitcoin can do this. History gives clues. Don't trust, verify.
Thank you for joining me on this walk (lol, reading) through the museum, please comment if you enjoyed this.
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-24 23:33:51test
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@ e97aaffa:2ebd765d
2024-09-29 08:07:01É verdade, que a curto prazo, o #Bitcoin é mais volátil que o dólar ou euro, mas isto é a visão de ocidental, que vive com uma moeda forte (melhor dizendo, menos fraca). Para o restante da população que vive com moedas bastante inflacionárias, têm uma visão diferente.
Eu gosto de chamar isto de “viés ocidental”, na prática, é o egocentrismo das pessoas que vivem economias mais fortes e com melhores moedas FIAT, como EUA, EU, UK, Canada, Austrália e mais alguns. Assim, nesta resposta, sempre que utilizo o termo “ocidental”, estou a referir-me a este pequeno grupo, a pseudo elite.
Nós (sociedade) ocidental temos uma visão altamente egocêntrica, privilegiada, mas só olhamos para o nosso umbigo e extrapolamos que todo o mundo vive com as mesmas condições de vida, a mesma liberdade monetária, financeira e bancária que nós. Nós temos uma visão do mundo enviesada, a condições de vida dos restantes 7 biliões de cidadãos é muito diferente da nossa. Este viés é bem notório quando falamos de Bitcoin, onde os ocidentais têm dificuldades em ver a utilidade do bitcoin como moeda, praticamente só olham como um investimento. Para a generalidade dos ocidentais, usar o Bitcoin ou euro/dólar para pagar as compras do dia-a-dia é indiferente, mas para quem vive na Venezuela, Líbano ou outros países africanos, onde a inflação é altíssima, faz toda a diferença.
No ocidente é extremamente fácil ter uma conta bancária, existem instalações bancárias por todos os lados, qualquer pequena cidade tem várias. Mas isto não é a realidade do resto do mundo, a percentagem de desbancarizados é enorme. Existem comunidades que nem documentos têm, como vão fazer o KYC? Estarão sempre impedidos de ter serviço bancários, o Bitcoin é a melhor e única solução.
É também excelente para remessas ou transações internacionais, especialmente para os emigrantes enviarem o dinheiro para os seus países de origem. A Western Union e similares cobram percentagens absurdas por esses serviços, chega a atingir os 30% e pode demorar alguns dias. Além disso, alguns países têm regras de controle de capitais, que usurpam parte dessas remessas.
Muitos agentes dos mercados financeiros tradicionais, questionam a utilidade do Bitcoin como reserva de valor, dando exemplos das EFTs do S&P500 ou ações das 7 Magníficas como uma alternativa para combater a inflação. Aqui está o cerne da questão, nós ocidental temos fácil acesso a esses recursos, basta meia dúzia de cliques num smartphone para adquirir estes produtos financeiros, mas existem biliões de pessoas em todo planeta que não tem acesso a esses produtos, como fazem? Estas pessoas também têm o direito a fazer uma poupança, de preservar o resultado do seu esforço/trabalho.
Além disso, o Bitcoin desempenha um papel fundamental na luta pelas liberdades civis, individuais e pelos direitos humanos para todos que vivem sob regimes autoritários. Sendo o principal meio de sobrevivência dos opositores na Nicarágua, Cuba, entre outros. Não existe liberdade sem a liberdade financeira.
Este viés ocidental também afeta alguns bitcoiners, que não conseguem compreender a utilidade das layers 2 ou sidechains. Neste momento, existem países onde parte da população já está praticamente “impedida” de utilizar o Layer 1 devido aos custos de transação, como Cuba e Venezuela, mas no futuro serão muito mais países. Para os cidadãos destes países, que apenas conseguem preservar poucos dólares, não pode pagar 5$ por uma transação na L1, 5$ possivelmente é o salário de uma semana de trabalho, para eles a Liquid é excelente. A L1 é muito superior, mas a qualidade tem um preço, nem toda a gente tem possibilidade de pagar, essas pessoas tem apenas duas possibilidades, ou Liquid ou FIAT, entre as duas opções, sem dúvida nenhuma o Bitcoin através da Liquid é muito melhor. A possibilidade de um confisco pela Liquid é residual, mas o “confisco” do FIAT é uma realidade diária.
Quando os bitcoiners ocidentais, estudam o efeito Cantillon, revêem-se nos prejudicados e são críticos dos “Amigos do Rei”, mas isto é uma visão micro do mundo. Se tivermos uma visão mais macro, nós ocidentais somos os “Amigos do Rei" e os principais penalizados são os restantes 7 biliões.
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@ a9434ee1:d5c885be
2024-09-26 10:42:521. Relay = Community?
If spinning up a relay is getting easier and cheaper by the day, why can't the relays literally be the group/community?
Then: * Any relay is by default a public community. The more restricted read- or write-access is, the more it becomes a private group. * Any publication targeted at (h-tag) and stored, and thus accepted, by a relay can be seen as a publication in that community. * All-in-1 hosting solutions (integrated blossom servers, lightning nodes, ...) are made easier.
2. Why invent new kinds?
Why can't Kind 1 posts that are targeted and accepted by a relay (i.e. community) just be the forum-posts of that community? Why create new kinds for this? And even weirder, why create a new kind with that exclusively serves as a reply to that new kind? Why not just use generic replies (kind 1111) and take the #otherstuff (event kinds and apps) as an opportunity to introduce those?
For chat messages, however, I get it. You need a kind + reply-kind for those.
3. Community VS Private group
It seems like the only distinction you really need, both for the user and the apps implementing all this, is:
1. Public Community: anyone can read and follow this community but for writing the admins can set limits (pricing, white listings, ...) 2. Private group: only the profiles that even know this relay (i.e. group) exists can interact with it. Read-access has to be granted (invite, pricing, ...) and admins can set limits for writing too. Beyond this distinction it's a bit naive to try to categorize them. Open vs Closed doesn't really mean much for example, since technically all groups/communities set limits and are thus closed. It's more interesting to look the ways in which they can be closed and build on the simplest distinctions you can make there.The difference between Public communities and private groups is the most important one because they both have very different UX and specification requirements:
Memberlist
Communities: None existent
Anyone can read and follow. It just has limits on who can publish what, when. So the most interesting thing to surface is probable something like a list of most active members or a highlighted set of profiles that have special characteristics within this community (top supporter, god-mode, resident artist, ...).
Private Groups: Necessary for it's existence
The whitelisted npubs for read-access are the members.Moderation actions
Both types of groups need a way for the admin(s) to:
* Block/remove users * Remove events * Edit metadata (name, description, guidelines...) * Specify who can write publish what, under what conditionOnly private groups need a way for the admin(s) to:
* Add/approve new members → specify who has read-access, under what conditionGeneralizing too many actions like
add member
,join request
, etc... that are only applicable to one of these categories just creates bad UX for the other one. You don't "add a member" to a public community. People can follow it without asking anyone's permission (ok yes, some will AUTH for reading but that's besides the point). Some of its followers will then just choose to publish something there and the admin either allows them or not.Having a common protocol for specifying the conditions for this write-access interoperably (as mentioned above) is what I would like to see instead: * Both Communities and Private groups need it anyway * You have to assume admins need granularity in the conditions they set for publishing in their group/community: Who, what, under what condition, ... * You don't want to link out to custom websites (or similar) explaining their allowance schemes
Sidenote: we need a similar kind of spec for the services that allow you to spin up your hosting solution (relay, server, node, ...) so that, when you click "Create new community" in an app, those services can be surfaced. With their business models (including options to self-host parts of it) just there, in the app, without linking out. Same for the lines of communication and payments that are needed to make those business models work from within any app.
Publication and Discovery
Only Communities allow for the exciting possibility of publishing something in multiple overlapping communities at once. Someone writing about how Bees are Capitalists can target their article at the communities that most overlap with its content (and with the author's means and write-access of course). Members of a community around beekeeping can organically discover content and communities on Austrian economics relevant to them.
With Private groups publication happens only in the group and discovery is blocked on purpose.
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@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-01-15 11:15:06Pequenos problemas que o Estado cria para a sociedade e que não são sempre lembrados
- **vale-transporte**: transferir o custo com o transporte do funcionário para um terceiro o estimula a morar longe de onde trabalha, já que morar perto é normalmente mais caro e a economia com transporte é inexistente. - **atestado médico**: o direito a faltar o trabalho com atestado médico cria a exigência desse atestado para todas as situações, substituindo o livre acordo entre patrão e empregado e sobrecarregando os médicos e postos de saúde com visitas desnecessárias de assalariados resfriados. - **prisões**: com dinheiro mal-administrado, burocracia e péssima alocação de recursos -- problemas que empresas privadas em competição (ou mesmo sem qualquer competição) saberiam resolver muito melhor -- o Estado fica sem presídios, com os poucos existentes entupidos, muito acima de sua alocação máxima, e com isto, segundo a bizarra corrente de responsabilidades que culpa o juiz que condenou o criminoso por sua morte na cadeia, juízes deixam de condenar à prisão os bandidos, soltando-os na rua. - **justiça**: entrar com processos é grátis e isto faz proliferar a atividade dos advogados que se dedicam a criar problemas judiciais onde não seria necessário e a entupir os tribunais, impedindo-os de fazer o que mais deveriam fazer. - **justiça**: como a justiça só obedece às leis e ignora acordos pessoais, escritos ou não, as pessoas não fazem acordos, recorrem sempre à justiça estatal, e entopem-na de assuntos que seriam muito melhor resolvidos entre vizinhos. - **leis civis**: as leis criadas pelos parlamentares ignoram os costumes da sociedade e são um incentivo a que as pessoas não respeitem nem criem normas sociais -- que seriam maneiras mais rápidas, baratas e satisfatórias de resolver problemas. - **leis de trãnsito**: quanto mais leis de trânsito, mais serviço de fiscalização são delegados aos policiais, que deixam de combater crimes por isto (afinal de contas, eles não querem de fato arriscar suas vidas combatendo o crime, a fiscalização é uma excelente desculpa para se esquivarem a esta responsabilidade). - **financiamento educacional**: é uma espécie de subsídio às faculdades privadas que faz com que se criem cursos e mais cursos que são cada vez menos recheados de algum conhecimento ou técnica útil e cada vez mais inúteis. - **leis de tombamento**: são um incentivo a que o dono de qualquer área ou construção "histórica" destrua todo e qualquer vestígio de história que houver nele antes que as autoridades descubram, o que poderia não acontecer se ele pudesse, por exemplo, usar, mostrar e se beneficiar da história daquele local sem correr o risco de perder, de fato, a sua propriedade. - **zoneamento urbano**: torna as cidades mais espalhadas, criando uma necessidade gigantesca de carros, ônibus e outros meios de transporte para as pessoas se locomoverem das zonas de moradia para as zonas de trabalho. - **zoneamento urbano**: faz com que as pessoas percam horas no trânsito todos os dias, o que é, além de um desperdício, um atentado contra a sua saúde, que estaria muito melhor servida numa caminhada diária entre a casa e o trabalho. - **zoneamento urbano**: torna ruas e as casas menos seguras criando zonas enormes, tanto de residências quanto de indústrias, onde não há movimento de gente alguma. - **escola obrigatória + currículo escolar nacional**: emburrece todas as crianças. - **leis contra trabalho infantil**: tira das crianças a oportunidade de aprender ofícios úteis e levar um dinheiro para ajudar a família. - **licitações**: como não existem os critérios do mercado para decidir qual é o melhor prestador de serviço, criam-se comissões de pessoas que vão decidir coisas. isto incentiva os prestadores de serviço que estão concorrendo na licitação a tentar comprar os membros dessas comissões. isto, fora a corrupção, gera problemas reais: __(i)__ a escolha dos serviços acaba sendo a pior possível, já que a empresa prestadora que vence está claramente mais dedicada a comprar comissões do que a fazer um bom trabalho (este problema afeta tantas áreas, desde a construção de estradas até a qualidade da merenda escolar, que é impossível listar aqui); __(ii)__ o processo corruptor acaba, no longo prazo, eliminando as empresas que prestavam e deixando para competir apenas as corruptas, e a qualidade tende a piorar progressivamente. - **cartéis**: o Estado em geral cria e depois fica refém de vários grupos de interesse. o caso dos taxistas contra o Uber é o que está na moda hoje (e o que mostra como os Estados se comportam da mesma forma no mundo todo). - **multas**: quando algum indivíduo ou empresa comete uma fraude financeira, ou causa algum dano material involuntário, as vítimas do caso são as pessoas que sofreram o dano ou perderam dinheiro, mas o Estado tem sempre leis que prevêem multas para os responsáveis. A justiça estatal é sempre muito rígida e rápida na aplicação dessas multas, mas relapsa e vaga no que diz respeito à indenização das vítimas. O que em geral acontece é que o Estado aplica uma enorme multa ao responsável pelo mal, retirando deste os recursos que dispunha para indenizar as vítimas, e se retira do caso, deixando estas desamparadas. - **desapropriação**: o Estado pode pegar qualquer propriedade de qualquer pessoa mediante uma indenização que é necessariamente inferior ao valor da propriedade para o seu presente dono (caso contrário ele a teria vendido voluntariamente). - **seguro-desemprego**: se há, por exemplo, um prazo mínimo de 1 ano para o sujeito ter direito a receber seguro-desemprego, isto o incentiva a planejar ficar apenas 1 ano em cada emprego (ano este que será sucedido por um período de desemprego remunerado), matando todas as possibilidades de aprendizado ou aquisição de experiência naquela empresa específica ou ascensão hierárquica. - **previdência**: a previdência social tem todos os defeitos de cálculo do mundo, e não importa muito ela ser uma forma horrível de poupar dinheiro, porque ela tem garantias bizarras de longevidade fornecidas pelo Estado, além de ser compulsória. Isso serve para criar no imaginário geral a idéia da __aposentadoria__, uma época mágica em que todos os dias serão finais de semana. A idéia da aposentadoria influencia o sujeito a não se preocupar em ter um emprego que faça sentido, mas sim em ter um trabalho qualquer, que o permita se aposentar. - **regulamentação impossível**: milhares de coisas são proibidas, há regulamentações sobre os aspectos mais mínimos de cada empreendimento ou construção ou espaço. se todas essas regulamentações fossem exigidas não haveria condições de produção e todos morreriam. portanto, elas não são exigidas. porém, o Estado, ou um agente individual imbuído do poder estatal pode, se desejar, exigi-las todas de um cidadão inimigo seu. qualquer pessoa pode viver a vida inteira sem cumprir nem 10% das regulamentações estatais, mas viverá também todo esse tempo com medo de se tornar um alvo de sua exigência, num estado de terror psicológico. - **perversão de critérios**: para muitas coisas sobre as quais a sociedade normalmente chegaria a um valor ou comportamento "razoável" espontaneamente, o Estado dita regras. estas regras muitas vezes não são obrigatórias, são mais "sugestões" ou limites, como o salário mínimo, ou as 44 horas semanais de trabalho. a sociedade, porém, passa a usar esses valores como se fossem o normal. são raras, por exemplo, as ofertas de emprego que fogem à regra das 44h semanais. - **inflação**: subir os preços é difícil e constrangedor para as empresas, pedir aumento de salário é difícil e constrangedor para o funcionário. a inflação força as pessoas a fazer isso, mas o aumento não é automático, como alguns economistas podem pensar (enquanto alguns outros ficam muito satisfeitos de que esse processo seja demorado e difícil). - **inflação**: a inflação destrói a capacidade das pessoas de julgar preços entre concorrentes usando a própria memória. - **inflação**: a inflação destrói os cálculos de lucro/prejuízo das empresas e prejudica enormemente as decisões empresariais que seriam baseadas neles. - **inflação**: a inflação redistribui a riqueza dos mais pobres e mais afastados do sistema financeiro para os mais ricos, os bancos e as megaempresas. - **inflação**: a inflação estimula o endividamento e o consumismo. - **lixo:** ao prover coleta e armazenamento de lixo "grátis para todos" o Estado incentiva a criação de lixo. se tivessem que pagar para que recolhessem o seu lixo, as pessoas (e conseqüentemente as empresas) se empenhariam mais em produzir coisas usando menos plástico, menos embalagens, menos sacolas. - **leis contra crimes financeiros:** ao criar legislação para dificultar acesso ao sistema financeiro por parte de criminosos a dificuldade e os custos para acesso a esse mesmo sistema pelas pessoas de bem cresce absurdamente, levando a um percentual enorme de gente incapaz de usá-lo, para detrimento de todos -- e no final das contas os grandes criminosos ainda conseguem burlar tudo.
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@ ae1008d2:a166d760
2024-09-25 21:52:49I wanted to share this PDF on Nostr. Original post: Block ~862,844 September 25th, 2024 Original link Original PDF 👇Click the link below to view as original PDF on YakiHonne or Satellite.Earth👇
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-24 23:29:20 -
@ 472f440f:5669301e
2024-09-18 02:15:29As I'm sure many of you are aware already, Israel executed an attack on thousands of Hezbollah members in Lebanon earlier today. At the moment, it looks like Israel successfully waged a supply chain attack on the pagers used by Hezbollah members. Intercepting the devices and placing highly explosive material on the batteries that could be triggered remotely by raising the temperature of the batteries.
To my knowledge, this is the first time an attack of this nature and of this scale has ever been waged. This is a very serious and dangerous precedent that should make anyone reading this think long and hard about the ramifications of the normalization of this type of warfare.
It's not clear to me yet whether this is exactly what happened, but this seems to be where all of the reports are pointing. And when you consider the scale of this operation, it is hard to think of alternative ways that this could have been achieved outside of corrupting the supply chain of this particular pager. Regardless, the die has been cast and remote detonation attacks in crowded civilian areas has been battle tested as an appropriate war tactic.
Not only does this set a terrible precedent for war, but it also begs the question; if they can do something like this with a relatively dumb pager, how much damage could they do with something like an iPhone? How vulnerable are the billions of people who hold smartphones in their pockets, or drive internet connected electric vehicles with lithium ion batteries? How trivial was it for Mossad to gain access to these devices and at what part of the supply chain? Now that this attack has been deemed to be "on the table" how long will it take before others begin to wage similar attacks?
War tactics and their costs are rapidly changing right before our eyes. The war between Russia and Ukraine is showing that low cost drones strapped with bombs can be very effective weapons that can do damage to military equipment worth anywhere between tens of millions to billions of dollars. The Houthi rebels have used cheap drones to completely disrupt the Suez Canal for the better part of a year. The world has only seen the tip of the iceberg in regards to how this type of technology can be used at scale to tip the leverage of power towards those with less financial resources, but a willingness to engage in kinetic conflict. Some of these drones are strapped with thermite flame throwers!
Now that new information has been brought to the market - you can turn pagers and (likely) cellular phones into a network of improvised explosive devices via a software push that increases the temperature of the devices' batteries - it is only a matter of time before others figure out how to do it and begin using these tactics themselves. War machines have never been easier and cheaper to deploy. In a world that is becoming increasingly fractured and angry, this is absolutely frightening. Asymmetric warfare as predicted in the Sovereign Individual is upon us.
As it relates to bitcoin hardware, these attacks highlight that an attack that has been long talked about in the industry but not yet exploited to the best of our knowledge is very real. Supply chain attacks, particularly on bitcoin signing devices that store private key information, have just been proven to be very possible by motivated state actors. If a nation state wanted to somehow "prove" that bitcoin is insecure or figure out a low effort way to do a mass confiscation of bitcoin all they have to do is successfully attack the supply chain of a hardware manufacturer, corrupt the devices, and let them flow to the hands of individuals who believe they are securing their bitcoin in the best way possible. The best way to mitigate this risk is to hold you bitcoin in a multi-sig wallet using a quorum of keys produced by different hardware produced by different manufacturers. Companies like Unchained make this process as seamless and possible and supply chain attacks like the one that was laid bare today highlight why these collaborative custody models are so important. Especially if you are holding a large amount of wealth in bitcoin.
This is a sad day for the world. I'll be praying for peace and sanity to prevail.
Final thought... That was a terrible loss by the Birds.
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-24 23:26:03hello draft
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@ 17538dc2:71ed77c4
2024-09-16 15:26:32Quiztime
Oil and gas
Oil and gas is naturally occurring. The prevalent worldview is that oil & gas has a biotic origin. There are real world examples of abiotic oil deposits, which proponents of the status quo have a difficult time reconciling.
Irregardless, when oil & gas is burned, it simply turns to plant food (carbon dioxide + water).
Oil and gas greens the Earth, and increases fertilization and agricultural crop yield across the globe.
The energy density of oil and gas is only surpassed by that of nuclear power.
Energy produced by oil and gas combustion is generally on-demand, reliable, economically storable & transportable.
Solar
The sun is an abudant energy source, which keeps Earth warm, and alive. Thank you sun 🌞!
With the exception of places such as the UK, where it is unclear if inhabitants have ever seen the sun, solar rays keep plants, animals, and humans happy & alive on most of planet Earth.
Inventions such as solar panels harness the sun's energy, and convert it to electricity.
Solar panels consist of silicon, rare earth metals, and require toxic metals.
Solar panels have an expected life of decades, are not readily or economically recyclable.
A very low solar energy density practically means that land is inefficiently utilized in solar energy production. Solar used on arable land can no longer be farmed, and where no plains exist solar is known to cause deforestation and landslides.
Solar energy is not reliable, not can it be summoned on demand. Solar energy is not economically storable, and is many cases is not produced at the point of demand.
Despite central planner mandates & subsidies in the US, the #EULAG and elsewhere, due to its intermittent nature, solar power cannot be counted on to replace reliable power generation in nuclear, hydro, or carbon fuel thermoelectric plants.
What this means is that solar does not replace, and yet ratheradds to reliable energy generation, as most people in the developed world would not be OK with having electricity for at most 1/3 of the day. This increases the price of electricity, which in turn increases energy poverty, and drives businesses to shut down manufacturing, or move to a more energy competitive jurisdiction.
The capital wasted by central planners could have been used to reduce burden on consumers, and businesses, or fund healthcare, infrastructure, or other services.
It should be noted that off grid applications where there is no grid, or energy alternatives can be massively useful for folks otherwise without electricity.
Which energy source would you consider renewable?
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@ 6389be64:ef439d32
2024-09-14 22:58:12originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/685129
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@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-01-14 13:55:28IPFS problems: Community
I was an avid IPFS user until yesterday. Many many times I asked simple questions for which I couldn't find an answer on the internet in the #ipfs IRC channel on Freenode. Most of the times I didn't get an answer, and even when I got it was rarely by someone who knew IPFS deeply. I've had issues go unanswered on js-ipfs repositories for year – one of these was raising awareness of a problem that then got fixed some months later by a complete rewrite, I closed my own issue after realizing that by myself some couple of months later, I don't think the people responsible for the rewrite were ever acknowledge that he had fixed my issue.
Some days ago I asked some questions about how the IPFS protocol worked internally, sincerely trying to understand the inefficiencies in finding and fetching content over IPFS. I pointed it would be a good idea to have a drawing showing that so people would understand the difficulties (which I didn't) and wouldn't be pissed off by the slowness. I was told to read the whitepaper. I had already the whitepaper, but read again the relevant parts. The whitepaper doesn't explain anything about the DHT and how IPFS finds content. I said that in the room, was told to read again.
Before anyone misread this section, I want to say I understand it's a pain to keep answering people on IRC if you're busy developing stuff of interplanetary importance, and that I'm not paying anyone nor I have the right to be answered. On the other hand, if you're developing a super-important protocol, financed by many millions of dollars and a lot of people are hitting their heads against your software and there's no one to help them; you're always busy but never delivers anything that brings joy to your users, something is very wrong. I sincerely don't know what IPFS developers are working on, I wouldn't doubt they're working on important things if they said that, but what I see – and what many other users see (take a look at the IPFS Discourse forum) is bugs, bugs all over the place, confusing UX, and almost no help.
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@ 4c96d763:80c3ee30
2024-05-31 07:05:51Here's a quick script for generating git shortlog longform notes on git push. It currently powers the Damus Code nostr account:
Let's say you are hosting a bare git repository on a server at
git/project
. You can add apost-receive
hook that generates a longform note when you push to the server:In
server:git/project/hooks/post-receive
:```bash
!/usr/bin/env bash
commit_body="" last="" project="my-project" # update this with your project name sec="abcdef..." # update this with your secret key branch="master"
while read oldrev newrev refname; do branch=$refname last=$newrev relays="wss://relay.damus.io wss://nos.lol" commit_body=$(git shortlog $oldrev..$newrev | awk -f /home/user/markdown-shortlog.awk) done
if [[ $branch == "refs/heads/master" ]]; then
nostril --content "# Changes
$commit_body" \ --envelope \ --kind 30023 \ --tag title "$project" \ --tag summary "Latest codebase changes to $project" \ --tag t gitlog \ --sec $sec \ | nostcat --connect-timeout 1000 $relays fi ```
you'll need nostril, nostcat, and
markdown-shortlog.awk
:```awk /^[^ ]/ { if (author) { print "" } author = $0 print "## " author }
/^ / { print "-" substr($0, 6) } ```
Now when you push, it will generate a longform note that looks something like this:
Example
William Casarin (10):
- fix warnings
- readme: add usage
- textmode: fix coloring of abbreviated names
- profiling: update puffin version
- refactor: move note into its own widget
- refactor: rename widgets to ui
- ui: simplify note widget
- get all missing ids from all timelines
- initial inline note previews
- fix until filters
kernelkind (6):
- Add custom visual themes
- Add modular custom text styles
- Apply app style to AccountLoginView
- Add MobileAccountLoginView
- Refactor 'ui tests' conception to previews
- Use custom style in app
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@ 44dc1c2d:31c74f0b
2024-09-25 20:15:13Chef's notes
Last time I made this I subbed the tomato puréed with some blistered cherry tomatoes. Don't think I'll be using the purée going forward.
I prefer thighs so that's what I use for this but use whatever you want.
Adjust spices based on the size of your onions. If all you have is two massive onions maybe use one and a half onion or just up the amount of spices a little.
Details
- ⏲️ Prep time: ~10 min
- 🍳 Cook time: ~40 ish min
- 🍽️ Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 Onions
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 1/3 cup cashews
- 1.5 tsp Garam Masala
- 2 ish cloves of crushed garlic
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsb ground turmeric
- 1 tsb salt
- 1 tbsp plain yogurt
- 2 tbsp of your cooking oil or fat
- 1 tbsp Coriander (Cilantro) plus extra for garnish
- 1 tbsp sultanas (golden raisins)
- 1 lb of chicken cubed
- 6 oz of white button mushrooms
Directions
- Quarter the onions and put them in a food possessor for about a minute
- Add the tomatoes, nuts, garlic, Garam masala, chili powder, lemon juice, turmeric, salt, yogurt and blend for another minute tell its well mixed in.
- In a wok or a large pan heat your cooking oil and add the onion and spice mix in. Fry gently for around 2-ish minutes, stir frequently.
- Add the chicken, coriander, and raisins to the pan. Stir-fry for another minute or so.
- Add mushrooms and water. Bring to simmer and cover the pan cook for 10 min or until the chicken is 100% cooked through.
- Serve with plain rice and enjoy!
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@ f77dfdcf:17e93422
2024-05-29 04:06:39Proof of Work เป็น concept ที่คนที่เคยศึกษาการทำงานของ bitcoin อาจจะเคยได้ยินผ่านหูมาบ้าง แต่จริง ๆ แล้ว สิ่งนี้สามารถนำมาประยุกต์ใช้กับชีวิตประจำวันของเราได้อย่างเป็นธรรมชาติมาก
Proof of Work สำหรับ bitcoin เอาแบบสั้น ๆ คือ การที่เราเจอ ตัวเลขที่ถูกต้อง (Proof) ซึ่งได้จากการขุด ที่จะเกิดขึ้นได้โดยการใช้พลังงานและเวลาของเครื่องขุดในการคำนวณตัวเลข (Work)
ยิ่งมี Proof of Work ใน chain เยอะขึ้น ก็ทำให้ transaction มี confirmation มากขึ้น
ถ้าจะให้เขียนให้ครบจบตรงนี้ คนอ่านน่าจะตาลอย แนะนำให้ลองอ่านต่อใน Inventing Bitcoin ดูครับ
พอเราซูมออกมาเป็นภาพกว้าง ๆ Proof of Work จะหมายถึง “หลักฐาน” ที่เกิดขึ้น จากการทำ “งาน”
งาน (Work)ในที่นี้ คือ การลงทุนทาง “เวลา” ไปกับการทำส่ิง ๆ หนึ่ง ซึ่งจะได้ผลตอบแทนเป็น Proof of Work ในรูปแบบใดรูปแบบหนึ่ง
Proof ที่พูดถึง ไม่จำเป็นต้องเป็นชิ้นงานที่มองเห็นหรือจับต้องได้ มันอาจจะหมายถึงทักษะ ความรู้ หรือ ประสบการณ์ ก็ได้
ตัวอย่างในชีวิตประจำวันชัด ๆ เลยก็อย่างเช่น
- การที่บางคนที่มีหุ่นดี สุขภาพแข็งแรง มีกล้ามเนื้อกำยำ ก็เป็น Proof of Work ของการออกกำลังกาย กินอาหารที่ดี และความมีวินัย
- การที่เราเรียนรู้เรื่องใหม่ ๆ แล้วเรารู้สึกว่ายังไม่แน่ใจกับสิ่งที่รู้ เราเลยศึกษาเพิ่ม สิ่งนี้ก็เป็นการเพิ่ม Proof of Work ตัวเรา ซึ่งคือ knowledge ของสิ่งนั้น ทำให้เรามั่นใจในองค์ความรู้นั้น ๆ มากขึ้น และสามารถนำไปส่งมอบ valueให้กับคนอื่น ๆ ได้
- หรือจะเป็นการฝึกทักษะการทำงาน ถ้าเรารู้ว่ายังไม่เก่ง Work ที่เราจะทำเพิ่ม ก็คือการหมั่นฝึกฝน และ Proof of Work ที่ได้ คือ ทักษะที่ดีขึ้นของเรา พอมองแบบนี้ เราจะชั่งน้ำหนักได้ง่ายขึ้น ว่าเราอยากจะลงทุนเวลาของเราไปกับ Proof of Work แบบไหน เพราะทุกคนย่อมอยากได้ผลตอบแทนที่คุ้มค่าจากการลงทุน
แต่มันมีข้อสังเกตอยู่อย่างหนึ่ง คือ เราต้องมองให้ออก ว่าอะไรเป็น Proof of Work จริง ๆ ของแต่ละสิ่ง
อย่างบางที เราบอกว่า เราเข้าใจเรื่องนี้นะ เพราะเราเคยเรียนคลาสนี้มา และเราอาจจะคิดว่าเอารูปถ่ายหรือประกาศนีย์บัตรมันเป็น Proof of Work ได้ แต่จริง ๆ แล้วไม่น่าใช่ มันคือ Proof of อะไรไม่รู้
อ่ะ ๆ มันอาจจะเป็น Proof ว่าเราเคยไปเรียนมาจริง อันนี้ยอมรับได้ แต่ไม่ใช่ว่ามันจะเป็น Proof ว่าเราเข้าใจเรื่องนั้นได้โดยตรง
เพราะ Proof ของ Work ที่เรากำลังพูดถึง มันคือ knowledge ที่อยู่ในหัวเรา ถ้าเราอยากโชว์ว่ามี Proof of Work จริง ๆ เราต้องเอาสิ่งที่ได้เรียนรู้ มาแชร์ให้คนอื่นฟังได้
และสังเกตดี ๆ จะเห็นว่า Proof of Work ที่ได้พวกนี้ มันเป็นสิ่งที่จะติดไปกับตัวเราทั้งหมดเลย มันจึงเกิดเป็น quote ที่ว่า
“You are your Proof of Work”
ซึ่งสื่อว่า สิ่งที่เราเป็น ล้วนเป็น Proof of Work มาจากสิ่งที่เราทำทั้งสิ้น และยิ่งเรามี Proof of Work เยอะขึ้น เราก็จะยิ่งเติบโตขึ้นเรื่อย ๆ
บางทีเราสามารถมองได้ด้วยตาเปล่าด้วยซ้ำ ว่าใครมี Proof of Work ที่มากหรือน้อย เพราะมันจะมันสะท้อนออกมาในรูปแบบของความมั่นใจ
พอรู้จักสิ่งที่เรียกว่า Proof of Work แล้ว สุดท้าย เราต้องกลับมาถามตัวเอง ว่าสิ่งที่เราทำอยู่ มันกำลังให้อะไรกับเรา กำลังสอนอะไรกับเรา หรือมันจะมอบ Proof of Work ที่เราต้องการ สำหรับเป้าหมายของเราในอนาคตหรือเปล่า
พิจารณามันให้ดี และอย่าลืม
หมั่นสร้าง Proof of Work ให้กับตัวเอง
Reference
https://youtu.be/E0LYMhjHnBU?si=AY6ySrTy5t-OgYFT
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@ 6f7db55a:985d8b25
2024-09-29 02:41:30http://blossom.sector01.com/fa8f761e078a71ab682fb88fcdbc34325c4be0cd4839c91af6669b1a51621870.mp4
CATO: Buttered Cat is an adorable puzzle platformer, inspired by the buttered-cat paradox meme: Cats always land on their feet, and toast always lands buttered side down. By strapping a piece of buttered toast to a cat's back, you create a paradox that results in an infinitely spinning, floating butter-cat perpetual motion machine!
Available on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1999520/CATO_Buttered_Cat/
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-24 23:07:08 -
@ 7bdef7be:784a5805
2024-05-28 13:47:50I wrote Oracolo (see the announcement below) because I was brainstorming about Nostr "long format" and thinking about how to promote it. There seems to be little love for this format, why?
Long posts should have interesting value because the author usually put effort into them, and are produced for a long-term fruition. In the end, blogging was one of the most productive strands on the web, and still holds considerable importance.But in standard (kind-1) social clients they are rather hidden. I think many people don't even know they exist, they probably intuit something just because they see a particular formatting. This is quite evident if you compare the responses/zaps/reactions of the short notes with the long ones, the latter have far fewer interactions, a fact that I read as less exposure to readers.
Interlude: don't know what this "long format" stuff is?
Check https://habla.news or https://highlighter.comI think the situation can be largely improved with some adjustments in kind-1 clients:
- Add a tab/section to the user's profile, next to the usual posts/responses, that lists only the long format notes;
- Highlight/pinning recent long notes in the user's profile to give them visibility; the user picture could also have a special mark that alerts about fresh content available;
- In the feed show the preview of long notes with a special design, and allow the user to read them in a separate/immersive view (or just link to njump.me);
- In an appropriate context (es. at the footer of a long note) invite the user to discover long format and post his own content;
- Offer a filtered feed that display only long format notes;
Finally, we should probably also evaluate and agree on a new labeling in clients, because “long notes” is self-explanatory but also a bit confusing next to "plain notes”. Perhaps “articles” might be a better term.
If clients bring more interaction on articles, content creators are naturally incentivized to invest their time in this area, thus increasing the production of in-depth content that may be of interest even to those who are not as involved in social media dynamics.
Memo for kind-1 clients: interoperability is our superpower and currently your are the main entrance to Nostr, so don't be fearful or lazy, please embrace it.
nostr:nevent1qqsrrcl7sfaxd505lyezj7u54tpdg93x0swpcpe0xj5adax5l6xz3yspzamhxue69uhky6t5vdhkjmn9wgh8xmmrd9skctcpr3mhxue69uhkxmm4de68y6t9wvhxv6tpw34xze3wvdhk6tcppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0aagyzp
nostrdesign
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2024-09-12 03:17:07TAPS SIGN
"There is no industry in the world that is more ruthlessly competitive than the bitcoin mining industry."
From any angle you cut it the bitcoin mining economic landscape is absolutely BRUTAL at the moment. Hashprice is sitting right above an all time low at $0.04/TH/day. Yesterday brought with it yet another new difficulty all time high. Competition for energy resources is as fierce as it has ever been as rack space continues to be tight in the United States and hoards of AI data centers move in to scoop up as much power as possible.
To make matters worse, with current economics it doesn't really make sense to buy bitcoin mining machines at their current prices. The pay back period on machines is absurd considering where we find ourselves in the market. Adam O from Upstream Data broke it down in a tweet earlier today.
As he says, it probably makes more sense to buy used machines than new machines right now if you are looking to make back your money on a reasonable timeline. The only reasons you would buy new hardware right now is if you believe the price is going to rip in the near term (risky bet), you think hashrate is going to come off the network (risky bet), or if you have obscenely low power costs (unlikely for most).
If you have machines plugged in or are thinking about plugging them in soon you better be running firmware that enables you to run your machines more efficiently to increase margins. With current economics, I would make the argument that it is incredibly irresponsible to be running your machines using stock firmware. Especially if you are operating a miner in the public markets or are a private miner backed by investors. It is a disservice to your shareholders. This is a strategy we have been deploying at Cathedra for years now and it has helped us to survive during these trying times in the mining industry and set us up to successfully complete a strategic merger with Kungsleden at an opportune time.
On that note, this is a trend you can expect to pick up over the next six months; mergers and acquisitions. We wrote earlier this year that M&A activity would pick up after the halving began to eat into the economics of mining businesses and that is exactly what is happening. We decided to move early at Cathedra to get ahead of the curve. Since then Cleanspark announced a merger with GRIID, Riot has initiated an attempted hostile takeover of Bitfarms, Bitfarms has entered an agreement to merge with Stronghold, and Terawulf has signaled that they are open to a merger if a particular deal makes sense. On top of this, Rhodium slipped into bankruptcy last month. As margins continue to be squeezed and companies get more desperate I expect this type of consolidation to accelerate.
All signs are pointing toward more pain in the world of mining in the near term. There is nothing outside of a face ripping rally in the price of bitcoin or some unforeseen event that knocks out a material amount of hashrate that will change this reality. Especially considering the fact that Bitmain announced a new hydro model that will produce 860 TH/s at ~13 J/TH! This will be the highest hashing, most energy efficient machine to ever hit the market by a considerable margin.
Once these machines hit the market (if they haven't already via Bitmain plugging them in, which could explain new difficulty all time highs despite terrible mining conditions) every other machine on the market is going to suffer economically.
To make matters worse for everyone struggling right now, savvy energy producers are beginning to understand the benefits bitcoin mining can bring to their operational stack. Japanese energy giant TEPCO is reportedly planning to scale up their mining operations after beginning pilots in late 2022. They want to utilize the excess energy produced by renewable sources to mine bitcoin. From what I can tell, they haven't scaled up significantly yet. However, it is reasonable to believe that they will scale up and other energy producers will take notice. Pushing the industry closer to its inevitable end state; vertical integration via energy producers who have the lowest cost of production.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Keep hashing if you can.
Final thought...
The pets need protecting.
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@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-01-14 13:55:28Castas hindus em nova chave
Shudras buscam o máximo bem para os seus próprios corpos; vaishyas o máximo bem para a sua própria vida terrena e a da sua família; kshatriyas o máximo bem para a sociedade e este mundo terreno; brâmanes buscam o máximo bem.
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@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740
2024-09-11 15:16:53I’ve occasionally been called cynical because some of the sentiments I express strike people as negative. But cynical, to me, does not strictly mean negative. It means something more along the lines of “faithless” — as in lacking the basic faith humans thrive when believing what they take to be true, rather than expedient, and doing what they think is right rather than narrowly advantageous.
In other words, my primary negative sentiment — that the cynical utilitarian ethos among our educated classes has caused and is likely to cause catastrophic outcomes — stems from a sort of disappointed idealism, not cynicism.
On human nature itself I am anything but cynical. I am convinced the strongest, long-term incentives are always to believe what is true, no matter the cost, and to do what is right. And by “right,” I don’t mean do-gooding bullshit, but things like taking care of one’s health, immediate family and personal responsibilities while pursuing the things one finds most compelling and important.
That aside, I want to touch on two real-world examples of what I take to be actual cynicism. The first is the tendency to invoke principles only when they suit one’s agenda or desired outcome, but not to apply them when they do not. This kind of hypocrisy implies principles are just tools you invoke to gain emotional support for your side and that anyone actually applying them evenhandedly is a naive simpleton who doesn’t know how the game is played.
Twitter threads don’t show up on substack anymore, but I’d encourage you to read this one with respect to objecting to election outcomes. I could have used many others, but this one (probably not even most egregious) illustrates how empty words like “democracy” or “election integrity” are when thrown around by devoted partisans. They don’t actually believe in democracy, only in using the word to evoke the desired emotional response. People who wanted to coerce people to take a Pfizer shot don’t believe in “bodily autonomy.” It’s similarly just a phrase that’s invoked to achieve an end.
The other flavor of cynicism I’ve noticed is less about hypocrisy and more about nihilism:
I’d encourage people to read the entire thread, but if you’re not on Twitter, it’s essentially about whether money (and apparently anything else) has essential qualities, or whether it is whatever peoples’ narratives tell them it is.
In other words, is money whatever your grocer takes for the groceries, or do particular forms of money have qualities wherein they are more likely to be accepted over the long haul? The argument is yes, gold, for example had qualities that made it a better money (scarcity, durability, e.g.) than say seashells which are reasonably durable but not scarce. You could sell the story of seashells as a money (and some societies not close to the sea used them as such), but ultimately such a society would be vulnerable to massive inflation should one of its inhabitants ever stroll along a shore.
The thread morphed into whether everything is just narrative, or there is an underlying reality to which a narrative must correspond in order for it to be useful and true.
The notion that anything could be money if attached to the right story, or any music is good if it’s marketed properly is deeply cynical. I am not arguing people can’t be convinced to buy bad records — clearly they can — but that no matter how much you market it, it will not stand the test of time unless it is in fact good.
In order to sell something that does not add value, meaning or utility to someone’s life, something you suspect they are likely to regret buying in short order, it’s awfully useful to convince yourself that nothing has inherent meaning or value, that “storytelling is all that matters.”
I am not against marketing per se, and effective storytelling might in fact point someone in the right direction — a good story can help someone discover a truth. But that storytelling is everything, and by implication the extent to which a story has correlates in reality nothing, is the ethos of scammers, the refuge of nihilists who left someone else holding the bag and prefer not to think about it.
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@ bf95e1a4:ebdcc848
2024-09-24 13:40:45This is the full AI-generated transcript of Bitcoin Infinity Show #127 featuring George Manolov!
If you'd like to support us, check out https://bitcoininfinitystore.com/ for our books, merch, and more!
Welcoming George Manolov
Luke: George, welcome to the Bitcoin Infinity Show, thank you for joining us.
George: Thank you, Knut.
Knut: Good to have you here, George.
George: to be here, yeah.
you're here to tell us about the city that I was most surprised by ever. Like, I've never heard of the city before I went to Bulgaria, Yeah, time flies.
Knut: So Plovdiv, Bulgaria, which was amazing, this rich, Thousands of years of history plays with a lot of different eras and different styles of architecture and stuff, really enjoyed Plovdiv, and you have a football team there.
George: yeah, indeed.
George Manolov and Botev Plovdiv
George: Please give us the story about George and Plovdiv Yeah, sure.
Knut: Plovdiv.
George: Sure, sure. So, Plovdiv is, well, I would say it's the oldest living city in Europe, so continuously inhabited. Like you say, not many people know it. I guess, like, we don't have good enough marketing, but, that's probably part of my job right now, right? To spread the word about it. so it's, like the second largest city in the country.
And, yeah, it's just this, it's very, like, I love how you put it because almost nobody has really heard of Plovdiv, right? Most people, when they hear of Bulgaria, they've probably heard of Sofia but Sofia is, okay, but Plovdiv is kind of the chill place, Plovdiv is the place that is actually worth visiting, the place where, people just enjoy going there.
I was born there, right? and, grew up there till 18 or so, then, Studied, lived in Sofia most of the time. And, last year, in kind of summer, I was already kind of way deeper into Bitcoin. I decided I'm going to go full time into Bitcoin, just commit all my time in Bitcoin at the time, educating, publishing books in Bulgarian about Bitcoin, creating my own educational platform.
And then I got, reached out and connected really to the owner of the football club in the city, which is also the oldest football club in the country, Botev Plovdiv, who was, well, he got introduced into Bitcoin himself and he realized it's going to be a very big, project. You know, going to play a central role in where the world is going.
Knut: What is this the owner of the club?
George: That's right. The owner of the club. was like, Hey, I think we can do something unique with Bitcoin because, you know, the club is really a company, right? It's a business on the one hand, but it's a special type of business, it's not where just you produce a certain product or service.
It's really a living organism where people are involved into it, for very emotional reasons. people feel like it's their own and it's not like a small group of people. It's a very large group of people. In our case, we have tens of thousands, arguably more than a hundred, 200, 000 people who care, who watch, who follow the club.
And so on the one hand, like there's many different ways in which we can look into this, but on the one hand. It's for me, what really inspired me and what got me like, Oh my God, like, is this really happening is that we can bring the conversation about Bitcoin from a completely different angle into society to a group of people who for the most part would never really They would like this, they would never listen to podcasts like this, they would never get to any of the kind of places and things we listen to, watch, consume, right?
and people go, You know, people go kind of for bread and circus, right,
Knut: yeah, yeah.
George: for the games. That's what really football is, right? It's fun and it's emotion, it's enjoyment, but then we push them censorship resistance and hard money, right?
And we don't really push it, you know, that's the thing, right? Because are like consistently, progressively, gradually over time, introducing it and finding the best way and the most appropriate way to, yeah, plant that seed. To the minds of the people, into the views of the people and so on and so forth.
so it's really like, you know, what we're trying to build is, we feel we're in a very privileged position, right? because we've been, the first really professional sports club globally, I would say, to have, uh, crypto Bitcoin, you know, people, departments, who is actually full time employed to, you know, think of a way to grow the business, to think of a way to integrate Bitcoin natively, within the various aspects of, of, of the organization, which obviously initially includes like accepting payments and so on and so forth.
But, um, but there's so much more you can do exactly with this type of, Like organization, again, like not, not, not just a business in a traditional sense.
Knut: Yeah. And, uh, won the league, right? Is that, is that right?
George: Yeah, man, like it's, uh, yeah, so we, um, when I started last year, things were super bad. Like exactly one year ago, I was there for the, for one of the first games. It was horrible. Like, I was like, okay, this is a great idea, but if the team is doing so bad and if, uh, if they keep losing and if the fans keep getting, you know, being unhappy, Um, it's not gonna go anywhere, but still, I gave it a, I gave it a go, right, because I was like, okay, I just hope that the sports side guys are going to do their, their part, and I have my opportunity here, um, to, to just like push, to educate, to, To do what, what, what life is giving me an opportunity to do.
And, uh, very fortunately, as we started working, the team started performing better and better and better. We got a completely new coach. We got a new sports director. We, we had a lot of key staff changes across the organization, which, Um, relatively quickly started showing results. So, uh, yeah, like, 10 months later in May, we won the Bulgarian Cup.
Luke: Is that the cup or the league? Like, uh,
George: it's the cup, it's the cup. So, so, I was saying, like, we started very bad in the league. And so, we were doing better and better, but still, like, we finished 9th in the league out of 16 clubs at the end of the day. But which was still okay, because, like, when I joined, like, we were, like,
Luke: Worried about relegation or something like that?
George: there. I mean,
Knut: We're complete, uh, like I've tried to take an interest to football, but like, uh, my ADD just, the brain just wanders away after five minutes and I can't concentrate anymore. So I don't
Luke: a basketball fan.
Knut: Am I now?
Football for Noobs
Knut: Uh, so, uh, what's the difference between the cup and the league? Let's begin there. That's, that's how much of a football noob I
George: So, so pretty much in every country is the same, right? You have a league or a championship where you have, in our case, 16 teams, and every team plays twice against every other team. So home game, away game, and then, you know, you either win three points when you win, or you lose, or you draw, and you, you, you win one point.
And then, so after you play, after you play, in our case, this, what is it, games? You know,
Luke: 30.
George: yeah, about 30. Yeah, right. You're better than Matt, it's obvious. So, um, so once you play these 30 games, um, you, um, yeah, like the team with the most points wins, right? Whereas, uh, the cup is direct elimination
Knut: So quarterfinals, semifinals, all that.
George: exactly. So it's the easier way. So this was the way for us to due to the bad start of the season. This was the way for us to, to achieve something in this season and to achieve something important because what the Cubs gives us as an opportunity and gave us was to play in the European Leagues.
So UEFA Leagues. And we just did that. We played six games. Uh, for the Europe, uh, Europe League and the Europe Conference League.
Knut: Okay. But to, to be in the champions league, that's a totally, you have to, yeah, yeah. You have to win the league and you have to win all sorts of stuff. Like how does that work?
George: yeah. You have to win the league. And then in our case, so in every country it's different, but in our case, we have to win, like we go to qualifications for the Champions League. So it's like, I mean, three to four games. And if we win that, we go to the Champions League.
Knut: Alright,
George: That's the current state of affairs, although that can change over the years.
Knut: alright, uh, it all makes sense to me now, that's a lie, but anyway.
Luke: No, uh, I'll definitely, we'll acknowledge here that I'm more of the, the sports fan, uh, generally here, and I, I follow football, I like, uh, I like European, uh, football, uh, well, and obviously I'm using the correct, uh, term despite my, um, my pseudo American accent, uh. Yeah, anyway, um, uh, no, it's fantastic to see, and I mean, yeah, for the non sports fans, uh, listening to this, I get that
Knut: Well, I am a sports fan, it's just that Starcraft 2 is my sport, and yeah, yeah,
Luke: yeah,
George: eSports.
Knut: yeah, yeah, so I watch, watch Starcraft 2 games. That's what I do for procrastination sometimes.
Luke: valid sports, I'm not going to compare it to other things that aren't
Knut: breakdancing? Is that a valid sport?
Luke: Breakdancing is, um, hmm, interesting. I think anything with points, that judges give points, is kind of not a sport, it's an activity.
Knut: yeah.
Luke: but, yeah, anyway,
Knut: thing to do.
Luke: is a thing to do, yes, definitely, but back to, back to, um, um, Botev Plod, is it Botev, Botev, what's, what's, Botev, Botev Plod, yeah, so, so, um, yeah, yeah, like, the, the, the achievement, winning, winning the cup, I mean, the, The cups are sort of more difficult.
They're both difficult in their own way, right? Like, the cup, you lose one game, you're out, basically, right? But, I mean, the league is like this endurance, achievement, right? You have to perform well over the course of the whole season. But the cheat code, so to say, and I probably subconsciously used the other football team's terminology, who's in the space, Real Bedford, um,
Botev Plovdiv's Bitcoin Strategy
Luke: The, the idea right, if, if I'm getting it, is that you guys would, would keep the Bitcoin in the, in the, the treasury, the, the company, and then over the course of time it's just gonna do the number go up thing and, and the, the club will have more resources.
Right. Is that, is that the idea you're thinking with the, the bitcoin strategy?
George: There's actually many, many things to it. And this is kind of the most, let's say, vanilla type of approach. Yeah, like just buy Bitcoin and hold it on the balance sheet, which is, which is great. But there's actually so many other things you can do. And that's where, because if you just do that, frankly, like, I mean, you don't need me involved, right, much.
I mean, just call Coinbase, whatever, wire the money, crack in and, buy. but with us it's like, really, uh, we see a huge opportunity to, first of all, align our brand with the Bitcoin brand, which is a royalty free, uh, The biggest brand in finance, for sure. One, uh, like it's going to be the biggest brand in the world for sure at some point.
Right. So that's, that's one play. And to do this, it's not enough for you to just buy Bitcoin and hold it on a balance sheet. It's what you need to do is proof of work, right? You need to do things that nobody has ever done. You need to really kind of be creative. Uh, and, and, um, to push the boundaries of what anyone has ever done before, right?
So, so that is, uh, that is my kind of job and it's a lot of, um, a lot of just like, let's, let's think of what, what new things we can do with Bitcoin and sports and football that nobody has ever done. Just because others are focused on the short term things, they're focused on, hitting those, those quick wins, those quick goals, which is why, for example, like a lot of the sports and, and that have, you know, interact, they haven't really interacted outside of Bedford with Bitcoin, right?
It's mostly been crypto because it's just, okay, let's make some quick money. Um,
Luke: usually, it's usually just sponsorships, right?
Knut: yeah,
George: yes. Um, and for us, because on the one hand, like, we're not like Manchester United, right? We're not Chelsea. So we don't have that much to monetize immediately. Like we're a large club, but.
Luke: You're a large club in a local league, which is, which is different from the, it's not one of the leagues that is internationally positioned like that. But, but, I mean, the, the difference between you guys and Bedford that I, that I think is, is really interesting. Like, McCormack, what he, Peter McCormack, what he's doing, I mean, he's, he's taking a club from the bottom and aiming for the top.
But who knows how long that's going to take him to get there, right? But you guys are already in the top of your league, right? Like, in the top league.
George: right, yeah, and also there's, there's different in this, we're in the top of our league. My goal, personally, is to go to Champions League, but this is very hard, right? Because, like, okay, when you start from Peter's ground, like, it's easy, okay, every year you level up, you level up, or, I mean, I'm not gonna say it's easy, but it's easier than, uh, than once you're, you know, at our level.
For us, it's important to play currently every year in European leagues like we've done so far and to every year consistently, like, increase the level of the sports, level of the business department bit by bit, and, but like breaking that point where we, you know, win the league, Where we win several more games and enter the Champions League, that, that's really hard.
I mean, because you're already at that stage where everybody, like, so many teams are so strong, right? So it's um, it takes just a lot of ingredients for you to, to, to hit, uh, in order to win. But we're gonna get there.
Knut: and does the club self custody it's bitcoin? And if so, is it a something out of 11 multisig, that sounds like a football thing?
George: Why so? Ah, yeah, an 11? Nah, nah, fuck that. I mean Nah, even, even 7 Motosick is a, is a killer, but no. Um, yeah, I can't really speak too much about this at this point. Yeah. Um, but, um, but yeah, I mean, we do, of course we do self custody. So that's, that's the approach that we've chosen with kind of a lot of, um, we've chosen to go really pure, pure Bitcoin in terms of the strategy.
And that's how we set ourselves apart. That's how we believe we win the long game because for instance, like we Bitcoin with BTC pay server. Which in my mind they don't even have competition. It's the only like, real, solid, autonomous, sovereign way to accept payments. And it's also the way which makes sense for like, Frankly, any standard business, because like, man, we're selling scarves, we're selling, um, membership boat cards, we're selling jerseys, we're selling basic merch, and if we are to sell it with basically any other service out there, outside of BTC Pay Server, we have to basically, uh, indirectly do KYC, right?
Like, we have to go through KYC, we have to go through KYB, which is ridiculous, um, in my mind. And so, um, so that's why we're exceptionally thankful to B2C Pay Server guys, uh, for what they've built. Uh, it's been like an absolute pleasure to, um, to use their product, to use their service. Uh, we have, you know, outside of B2C Pay, we, uh, we are the first, uh, sports club on Nostr.
Where, uh, we have, uh, actively been posting, exploring, you know, meeting people here. Kind of thinking of what we could do from our angle again, like first, first time on Nostr.
Aqua WAllet
George: Um, we have partnered with, uh, Aqua, JAN3's Aqua wallet, which has a, a Botive skin mode now. So if you go to settings, you can turn Botive mode and then it turns into the colors of the club and, you know, have the picture of the stadium there.
Um,
Luke: I'm using Aqua right now because, uh, uh, usually I like to use Aqua as like a sort of a middle wallet, uh, uh, because it's still slightly slower than other lightning wallets because they, they, the, everything actually lives on, on liquid and then they, they, uh, go out via bolts. Uh, so it's slightly slower than a faster, um, like, like than other, um, more direct lightning wallets.
And so usually when I come to a conference, I'm going to load up a, like a temporary. I don't know, Blink or something like that, but I forgot to do that, so I'm just using my Aqua wallet, and you know what, it's been great here, it's been working, uh, so yeah, we're big fans of Aqua wallet and what
Knut: Yeah, and a BTC pay server. I mean, uh, we can echo everything you said that we, BitcoinInfinity. com, like, and the store here We just fired up. Everything is powered by a BTC pay server, and we just love it. Yes.
Luke: So what was your question about, uh, Aqua?
George: If yours is on BOTEV mode.
Luke: Uh, I don't think I've gone into the settings and changed it to Vaudev mode, I'll have to do that, maybe we'll take
George: It's dark mode,
but cooler.
Luke: Doc dark mode, but cooler. Okay. Okay. Actually that's a, that's a, that's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah. We'll take a, we'll take a picture after, uh, after the episode and we'll de proof, bot, uh, bot e mode, and, uh, uh, post that on Nostr.
How does that sound?
George: Let's go.
Knut: Yeah. Nostr. Um, is there a connection there between both a plot and Nostr while you're doing Nostr stuff as well?
History and Freedom
George: Yeah. Well, look, um, a lot of these things is like, so What Botev Plovdiv stands for, um, very importantly, so the club was named after Hristo Botev, who's, uh, like, one of the most Bulgarians, if the most famous Bulgarian revolutionaries, like, historical figure, uh, he was a poet, he was a revolutionary, he fought for Bulgaria's freedom back in the day,
Luke: Which, which day, which, what day did you
George: uh, 110, uh, what is it, like, 50 years ago or so?
Yeah.
Knut: Mm-Hmm?
Luke: Okay. So, so
Knut: before the Commes.
Luke: ottoman, uh,
George: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He, he, he, he fought for the, for the liberation of Bulgaria from, from the Ottoman Empire. And a lot of what he stands for is this fight for freedom, his fight for liberty. Um, and this, this lives until this very day into the identity of the club and to what we stand for into the songs, into the, into the music.
Um, you know, um, the kind of like what, what our fans also resonate with, um, and, and what they sing like in many, in many ways. Right. So, um, Freedom of speech, freedom of, uh, of like freedom in general is, is a value that is deeply ingrained into kind of like what the club stands for. Um, and, uh, you know, that's why I'm into Bitcoin.
That's why I believe. And that's, that's why I saw this even bigger opportunity. Oh my God, like, how is this happening? There's so many, sometimes, you know, some like weird things happen in life and you have no explanation why and how all these things align. But, but for me, it's like this club was made really to.
to be aligned with BOTEF and to be, uh, to, to, to be aligned with Bitcoin and with Nostr. If I look at all the other clubs in Bulgaria, right, like just in Bulgaria, none of the others, like, there's no this contextual historical background that you can make these connections. But with us, we have it, and what a chance that, like, we have this owner, and he got, like, introduced to it, and then we got connected.
Like, how the hell does this happen, man? I don't know,
Luke: We like to say this, the surreal doesn't end, you know, and like, uh, my, my whole story, I've been talking about this, uh, at the, the conference here is like two years ago was the first time I ever met Bitcoiners here in Baltic Honeybadger. We, we met for the, for the first time, uh, all three of us, uh, met for the first time two years ago, I've been in Baltic Honeybadger and it's like, things, things happen so fast.
Uh, I've, I've, uh, I've thought it was been awesome just following, uh, what you've been doing with the, the club and the story. So great to, Great to get to talk about it, but, uh,
Bitcoin in Football
George: Yeah. No, for, for me, like really the, the most exciting part is really even coming forward. So, uh, because, so now it's been, so we, a long, we announced, uh, publicly that we're doing this, uh, 31st October last year. So the anniversary of the, of the, uh, Bitcoin White paper, um, we've built a lot right. And very, very importantly, I'm super proud, like, I don't know if you saw this, but like a month ago, we played on European League, the UEFA League with Bitcoin straight on our jerseys, which was like, like, when I saw this, I'm like, dude, it's crazy that this is happening.
But, but the best is really yet to come, like, like we like to say. Um, so I, I think we, we're, we have, um, we have still so much more to do. So for me, the next big part, which I'm super excited about literally in the coming month as, uh, as I go back. So is to finally get some of our. Players or at least one or two to get to do something publicly about this, because at the end of the day, that's why for me, the more I do, the more I, uh, play in this arena, I realized this is really a Trojan horse for us to bring Bitcoin into the conversation, into the minds, like I said, of people who otherwise wouldn't and, and our players, you know, especially a few of them, they're really influencers, right?
Um, a lot of people follow them. A lot of people respect them. And, um, and if they do, uh, you know, something meaningful, something cool, something impactful, this is going to have a huge impact onto our forwards. This could very well have impact onto, um, other sportsmen, other football people, other football clubs, right?
Uh, so that's why I'm doing it, right? Really?
Luke: No, this is fantastic, and actually this was exactly where I was hoping to go next, so thank you for queuing that up. But, no, no, the game theory of all this, right? Like, one club getting, Positioning as the, as the Bitcoin club in a league, uh, really means that eventually all the other clubs are going to need to adopt Bitcoin.
If they're going to be able to compete, because if play playing out the game theory, number go up, whatever it is, Bitcoin strategy plays out, you guys are going to be the most financially capable club. Financially sustainable in not very long, you know, assuming everything plays out the way we're thinking it will, right?
So, so other, other clubs then would become incentivized to also adopt Bitcoin. So what, what do you, what do you think about that? Like you, do you, do you see that, uh, happening as well?
George: Yeah, I'm not really sure if it would happen to me. That fast, to be fair. Like, I think it's inevitable, right, obviously, but I think it, yeah, like, I think this definitely takes at least three, four years, maybe more. Um,
Luke: That's, that's still pretty fast.
George: yeah, I guess. I mean, I mean, like, okay, let me define it better. It takes three, four years.
So, for other clubs within our league to start doing something like this, uh, maybe it takes less time for other clubs to realize it, but I think for them to do it, it also depends on our actions, right? So because like, we don't have like a treasury of microstrategy or something, so it's not, and we're not doing like a
Luke: you don't?
George: monthly like leverage on top of leverage on top of another leverage, you know, uh, we're not in, in Michael's privileged position. but we can do other cool things, right? Uh, one of the, um, so this is not yet live and this is not yet happening, but one of the, like two, two projects, let's say, I'm gonna briefly, like, tease here that, that I'm working on that I hope to have very large impact is first, uh, building this, uh, simple tool Uh, called like a Bitcoin, uh, football salary calculator that, uh, it's like really a DCA tool, but like looking back and like tailoring it to our niche where I want to, for us to visually and emotionally Show, um, to players, but also to fans of ours, like what Bitcoin could have done for their remuneration, if you look one year back in time, two years back in time, three years back in time, four years back in time, and for them to really realize, Oh my God, this is a no brainer.
Right? I want to make this mess. And this is hard, right? Um, because like, there's so many tools and like, but I want to be, because the audience is very wide, very different types of audience. I want to make this so that you can consume it in like two, three, four minutes. And you're like, okay, I need to learn more about this.
This actually is interesting. There's like, that's so much dense and emotional and compact information that you're like, Whoa. Why am I not doing this? How did I miss this?
Knut: What, what, what was the name of that website? I, I don't know if it's still up, but bitcoin or shit.com or something like that. So, so it lists if you bought this item when it came out, an iPhone five or whatever, uh, and if you had bought b bitcoin instead.com, I think that that's the, that's the name. So if you bought, uh, if you bought Bitcoin instead, it shows you how much, how much more money you'd have now and how many iPhones you
George: Yeah. Yeah. And of course there's many of these tools, obviously like we've all see them and we all like like them and retweet them and repost them. And it's all great. But I think, at least I hope that we can do something impactful with this. If we really tailor it, compact it to a specific type of niche audience with a specific message designed for them.
And because this audience is also like. A type of audience who can also like, um, you know, bring it to other bubbles that we ourselves are not part of, right? So that's, for example, one like, uh, one like project I'm very, very excited about and I hope we can, um, yeah, we'll bring forward relatively soon.
There's a few moving elements, but definitely in the coming month or two, uh, at most. And then, uh, and then, you know, speaking of the other clubs, what, what I want us to do is what we're working is next year, we're targeting to do, I hope we could do the world's first, uh, Bitcoin, uh, Cup tournament. Uh, for youth players, 70 year old boys who are, you know, right there before they sign their first professional contract, start earning money, for them, first of all, like, it's a Bitcoin football cup, like, it's the first time this, this could potentially ever happen And then it's, it's a football first tournament, right?
This is the, we want to make it like top quality, like really the highest quality when it comes to sports, but then you have Bitcoin involved all over the place, right? In terms of brand, in terms of rewards, in terms of, um, in terms of like plays, um, like, like games and, and interactions, activations, uh, throughout, before, throughout, and after the, And after the event, and for this, I'm targeting to get really like, like big clubs.
I mean, because it's academies, right? I mean, I cannot get the Manchester United first team, just maybe we could get the Manchester United 17 year old team or, you know, another big club. We get some of these, and then like we get their brands, we get them on the focus of Bitcoin. And we drive the conversation faster, you know, not three, four years from now, but Less
Knut: what about, um, like right now there's you and there's, um, you guys and there's a real bed for it, right? Those are the two I know of in Europe. Are you aware of any other clubs that are doing a Bitcoin strategy? I mean, is this virus spreading? Like, have you heard anything like,
George: Um, Oh, there's, uh, there's the Austrian Admira Vakir who have done some integration. So it's a second tier, uh, second league, uh, second league, uh, club that have, uh, that have, uh, you know, they've also had Bitcoin on the, their second team jersey. And, um, and they, they also accept Bitcoin payments, uh, here and there, but you know, the thing is, there's some other clubs, um, there's a Miami, um, not Miami, um, a Hawaiian club that, that is doing, uh, that is doing like their Bitcoin gig,
Knut: yeah, there are other, other sports, right, other sports team and sports teams in other sports that are doing it. But, but for football specifically,
George: which ones?
Knut: Uh, I'm so bad with sports, but wasn't there like a hockey team or a basketball team or
Luke: I'm not aware of any others, actually. Yeah, like, uh, there's been some attempts at
Knut: it's
Luke: an orange colored team or something like
Knut: more the individual athletes,
Luke: Yeah, yeah, there have been individual
Knut: for instance, a
Luke: have been individual
Knut: player, and there was some American football player.
George: There's been individual athletes, a lot of them. There's been, I was asking if you know, but there's been a baseball club in Australia, the Port Heat. Uh, who did kind of a Bitcoin strategy. Uh, but very unfortunately that didn't work out. They kind of started this at the peak of the last bull cycle. And, um, and as I understand, uh, there wasn't like a strong alignment between the owners and the management in terms of like understanding that this is a long game.
So that's why this kind of flopped. Um, but yeah, like I, I think the reason why it's not happening in more, unfortunately, and, and, and I see this even, even within our club, uh, you know, but, but definitely no other clubs because Fiat has permitted sports as well. Right. So all the sports club, uh, clubs or the vast majority in football, for sure.
They're like, you know, on the hamster wheel themselves.
Knut: They're indebted,
George: They're indebted.
Knut: to an extreme level,
George: yeah, like, like fighting for every dollar for every income. So it's, it's hard for you to like, Oh yeah, we're going to have this long term Bitcoin strategy that's going to take like two, three, four, five years to play out.
And we can benefit a lot from it. It's very, very hard in, you know, unfortunately for a large organizations, sports club in particular to To have this realization, to map this out, to get others on board. That's why it's not so popular and uh, and that's why I'm grateful and keep pushing that we have this chance.
Luke: I mean, you make a great point here about essentially the, it's the organizational alignment, right? Like the, the, these are companies, sports clubs are companies. They just have this large, the business is involved around getting fans to come in and consume this sort of marketing. Product, essentially. So it's, it's a certain kind of company that's run a certain way, but just like any other company, you need, you need alignment from the management.
So it's, it's fantastic that, uh, Boteb Plovdiv has, has the, uh, alignment and is, is putting their, their trust in you to, to move this thing forward. And I mean, from the, from the perspective of this thing, Playing out, right? The, the best part that, uh, I think one of the best parts that you, you mentioned again was the, the influencers.
Like you get, you get some players, there's, there's so many angles to, to reach people through this. I think it's, I think it's fantastic. The, uh, orange pilling a player and then they move to another club, but they, they, maybe they don't get to get paid in Bitcoin, but maybe they still put, put their money in, in Bitcoin.
Maybe they even ask their club to, to, uh, pay them in Bitcoin, something like that. And then the, the Questions start getting, uh, asked and all this.
5 Year Goals
Luke: So what, what is the, the goal in, in five years, for example, where, where do you see the club in the five year mark?
George: Oh man. Yeah, in five years, I think we definitely have to be in Champions League. Like in my mind, you know, like people around me like, oh, you're too ambitious. I'm like, man, yeah, like in five years, we definitely have to be in Champions League. Uh, that's, that's my personal goal. On our internal Slack, I have the Champions League icon there.
That's why I'm there, right? Um, so, uh, it's a lot of hard work. Like, it's really a lot of hard work. And it's also not completely dependent on me and my work, to be fair. Like, because, at all. I mean, really, like, uh, I mean, at the end of the day, the most important part is the sports department, right? Uh, in the club.
Um, so that has to continue going well. But, but I think We're going in a good direction there too, because we have the, they're the long term view as well, right. We have our academy internally, which is, yeah, it's one of the best academies. It's the best really academy in terms of infrastructure in the country.
That's why we're also can't afford to think of this Bitcoin Cup tournament, because we have the infrastructure, we have like a super cool stadium, that's crazy. If we can, if we can do a final for, for such a tournament there. Um, so, so we have all the things in place in terms of In terms of assets, I would say, uh, it's just a lot of moving parts.
a lot of work, consistency, and a bit of luck. Always it comes, you know, when, when it comes to, when it comes to football and sports, but, but five years from now, I want us to be in the champions league. I want us to be the absolute, you know, international professional level, uh, Bitcoin level, Bitcoin sports club.
and, uh, and I want for this tournament that I start to be like a, like, like to have the fourth edition by then. Uh, and, and I want to have clubs, but five years is a lot of time, you know, as you say, like, I also want to have other clubs following us by then. I think that's absolutely, absolutely is going to be doable.
Knut: What, what are the, what are the tax laws around Bitcoin in Bulgaria? Like what, are there any issues there? Or like what, is it easy enough,
George: It's kind of okay. Uh, it's kind of okay. So if you just buy Bitcoin and hold it, like you don't, uh, you don't, uh, incur taxes, uh, until you sell it, if you accept Bitcoin for payments, um, and if you don't sell it, you can just, uh, keep it as inventory on your balance sheet. So again, no,
Knut: but there's a capital gains tax or something if you sell it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright.
George: 10%. So it's, it's, uh,
Knut: Pretty good.
George: Yeah, I mean, it's not like El Salvador. Okay. Uh, but, but it's, uh, it's, it's way better than many other places. Um, and, uh, yeah, so we've been looking, looking actually, so I was in El Salvador a couple of months ago, because we've been looking very much to do stuff there.
And we've been, uh, yeah. Um, because we've been, we've been thinking of what to do more with Bitcoin, right? So that's why I said, like, it's not just about buying and accepting Bitcoin. It's about corporate strategies, about branding strategies, about how to make money. Um, it's about education strategies. It's, there's so much around it.
So in terms of corporate strategy, I was, uh, we're very attracted by El Salvador, um, and their, uh, capital markets regulation, because they're basically striving to build capital markets on top of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is legal tender there. They have all kinds of, tax incentives for companies to issue debt or to sell equity.
on their capital, on their, um, well, let's say nascent upcoming capital markets, because it's not like it's, you know, hustling and bustling yet. Um, but, but they're, they've put a lot of the rails, uh, um, or they're building a lot of the rails to, um, to really enable the, the, the creation of Bitcoin based capital markets.
So, um, we've had great talks there. We have meetings with, uh, um, we have. Yeah, with the Bitcoin office, right? Um, so, ideally, like, we're striving to build some connection there and to do something, interesting and world first again from a corporate perspective. It's just that, as many things, it's a little harder than you would expect it to be, or it takes a little more time than, Then you would hope to do it.
But my idea or long term vision, frankly, like what we want to do with Bitcoin, uh, and with the club is to enable our current fans and global fans to become co owners of the club. And that's why, you know, I have big hopes for, uh, for us being able to do this out of El Salvador and through El Salvador, because this would, like from a tax perspective, from a branding perspective, from legal security perspective would be, would be ideal.
It's just that, again, um, my enthusiasm is a little over, uh, ahead of kind of like how, uh, how, how advanced and set up everything there is, but, uh, but we're, we're very actively talking to them. We're working with many parties there, so. Just maybe we can have big news there too.
International and Local Effects
Luke: Well, no, and, and you actually said something great about global fans. I think this is a, a fantastic thing, right? A a again, Bedford is, is similar. They've, they've got, they've got fans all over the world and, and I think for you guys it's like who is going to tune into the Bulgarian football league outside of Bulgaria before, well, not too many people, but now a bunch of Bitcoiners.
If they're into, if they're into football or, or not even, because this is the funny thing. There were, there were a lot of people posting about that. They, they've got, they, they don't usually follow, follow sports at all, but, but they'll follow the Bitcoin team. So the, the funny thing is, I think, I think the first, the first club to adopt Bitcoin in every league is going to get all of these global fans.
And maybe the, maybe the, the second one, the third one, maybe can get some kind of other support, but it's really the first one in every
George: really.
Luke: That, that
George: Not
Luke: That's that. I, I completely agree with you there. It's the, it's the first one
Knut: first mover advantage.
Luke: mover advantage. It's gonna get, it is gonna get all of the, all of the Bitcoiners are gonna now be, be supporting and, uh, uh, yeah.
I mean, have, have you seen, uh, some, some uptick in, uh, kind of international
George: yeah, yeah. So, international but also local. Like, local is very important. Like, we have, like, so many people in the country who's like, just what you say, like, I didn't care about sports or football, like, forever, or at all, ever, but now I follow, now I buy merch, now I come, you know, every now and then they come to games, so
Luke: Well, because there's the bread and circuses thing that you said, it gets tossed around in the Bitcoin world and also some other places on kind of the Twitter sphere and whatever, it's like it's a distraction, that sports is sort of a distraction from clown world basically and it's a way of people to sort of Uh, forget about what's going on around them, but I think that's also missing the, the positives, which it, it's a, it's a community builder, it brings people together, there's a, there's a sense of, of pride in, in something local succeeding, everyone, everyone's happy, there's, there's real economic, uh, effects usually when a, when a local sports team wins, and so, so from, from my perspective, I, I, I think, I think sport is a good thing, and it's, and it's, it's something that, that people can rally around, and so,
George: an amazing thing.
Luke: Yeah.
And, and so what, what are, what are you looking at locally? Like what, what do you hope to have the effect, uh, uh, locally in, in piv?
George: Yeah. Um, yeah, no, look, uh, for me, sports, like, for us, the, the, the, the, about Plovdiv, for me, that's what I realized, like, we're kind of very much into Bitcoin and stuff, obviously, that's our interest, but I think when we go on a Bitcoin standard, Right. And, uh, in general, people start feeling wealthier, opposed to, like, being in the grind.
You're just going to have more time for fun stuff, right? Like playing football, I mean, or volleyball, or whatever your sport is, or, like, going and cheering your team, and, uh, and being part of such a community. And I think that's really what, you know, even Nostr is about. Like it's, Being part of these communities, because that's fun, and like, we as humans, at the end of the day, we are living to be part of communities, right?
And you find your community, you're an active part of it, you contribute to it, you evolve it, right? You build it in one way or another. And unfortunately, you know, today in the fiat world, this is just like A stress valve in many ways, or like you say, like Brothers and Sisters, whatever. Um, but, uh, but I think it can be so much more, right?
It is, but it can be so much more for a larger amount of people and so on and so forth. uh, but yeah, well, back in Plovdiv, man, like, I have big hopes. I really have big, big ambitions there. I want to get Bitcoin into the wallets of, uh, of like tens of thousands of people. I want people to wake up. I want people to see.
Luke: big is piv? How many
George: It's like three, four hundred thousand people. So it's a lot. Uh, our stadium is, uh, 21, 000 seats stadium. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's, it's 19. I wish it was 21.
Luke: Yeah. You'll have to add 2000 more
George: Maybe, yeah, we'll, we'll think of some additional construction.
Luke: the, make the infinity stand when
George: Right. Right. But, uh, but yeah, like the setting was super cool. Like, it's really cool.
Like when it's feel like, man, the atmosphere is amazing. Um, and so it's, and it's really this community that you can feel that people are involved. So it's, it's like consistency and it's social engineering in one way or another, right?
Knut: one of our favorite words,
George: but in a positive way.
Knut: in a positive way, okay.
George: So it's social engineering for us to ingrain Bitcoin and make it part of kind of what people see, do, have, own, interact with, right?
So, uh, I think exactly because of this community element, exactly because, Because, you know, football is a football club and there's this unique living organism we can, we can create this and, you know, it's fascinating. I'm so much into this and there's other people who are so much into this. Oh my god, like, we can make such a big difference.
And, and like in the country. You know, on a political and economic level, they don't get it. Like, they don't see it. They just are in their, you know, like, oh, are we going to accept the euro? Oh, what's happening with the war? I'm like, who cares? Let's build.
Bulgarian Currency Situation
Knut: Yeah, Bulgaria has its own shitcoin, I almost forgot about that, but uh, what's it called again?
George: Kinda. Um, but not quite, to be fair. It's, it's a good coin, uh, not for investing, but, but for medium of exchange is actually decent. Uh, Lev, Lev
Knut: Lev, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah,
George: and I recently got educated about this. So, uh, the lev is pegged to the euro. So, um, uh, so, so that, that is super cool for, for us, for me as a consumer, for businesses, because like the fixed rate.
So for trade is, um, It's, it's good, right? As the world would be in the future. You have one currency, Bitcoin, you don't have the currency exchange risk, right? We don't have it only with the European Union. And the good part with this, so, we got, we got hyperinflation back in 1997. Was really bad. People lost almost everything, everything, in many cases.
Um, and then we got this so called currency board introduced and the currency board is like we have the left, but the left has to be backed up by other currencies. So it's like a stable coin, kind of like how Tether is backed by, by dollars. You know, the levy is backed by euro and like a basket of, I think they have some other currencies and assets, which is cool because the local politicians, they cannot print, they cannot, you know, so, so it's been, it's been, I think, way better than Hungary, Sweden, uh, Finland, you have your, oh
but Sweden I've heard it's kind of bad,
Knut: It's kinda bad, Norway too, like, both Swedish and Norwegian crown, and the crown in Czechia, like the Czech Republic, it's also
George: Yeah.
Knut: I mean, they're all going to shit the smaller
George: So, so for us, it's like, I would say we're better than, than the Corona, the, and, and all these like local currencies, because we kind of just are there to the, peg to the Euro. The local politicians don't have the opportunity to print. So it's, it's a very good position for us to be.
Luke: You, you get the, the negatives of the, the euro. But, but still, I mean, I mean the, the realistically, the dollar at the Euro and maybe the, the Chinese currency are the only, are the only ones that are in the, sort of within our own, within our own lifetimes are, are going to be not as terribly bad against Bitcoin.
But all the other ones are just, are. All the other ones are
Knut: Yeah, I think it's just a matter of time before both, uh, at least Sweden, uh, switches to Euro standard. If not switching to Bitcoin standard happens first, but well, we'll see, we'll see what happens.
George: man. I'm very bearish about the Euro.
Knut: yeah, yeah, it's like,
Luke: It'll be the second last to fall or third last but but yeah it's it's it's it's not going to be the the last and so it's yeah.
Knut: So that is what it is. I mean, speaking of Bulgaria and currencies and stuff,
Bitcoin Adoption in Bulgaria
Knut: like, how is the rest of, how is Bitcoin adoption in general in Bulgaria? What's happening in other places? Like, Plamen opened a bar, I saw, and like, what are the connections? What's happening?
George: It's actually quite cool. I'm, I'm, I'm quite happy with, with how the ecosystem is evolving. There's, there's Plamen, um, with his whole community, like content creation, the conferences he's been doing, which has been like a very, I think he's responsible for like, I don't know, probably like, 000, maybe several 10, 000s of people who have opened their eyes and even if they're not hard bitcoiners, they now own bitcoin.
Uh, so that's huge. We have other content creators also who've had an impact. We have now once or twice per, yeah, about twice per year we have like, uh, A small, uh, merchant, uh, like, conference events, so for merchants to accept Bitcoin. we have these people who are active and who are doing things. Now, actually, yeah, there's something new that's coming up here, uh, literally in Plovdiv is we have this, um, this, uh, great dudes who have this, um, um, it's an application for, uh, ordering food, like takeaway and, uh, what is it, like,
Knut: like Glovo or
George: yeah, yeah, like Glovo, um, but, um, but, um, But it's not like this big corporate thing that, but, but still, it's a very good product and they've integrated accepting Bitcoin there for quite some time now they've made it even easier and they've introduced.
So we have like about, I think it's 15 restaurants in Sofia and like five or so in Plovdiv where through their system, you can order food. And pay with Bitcoin online, or you can also go in the restaurant and pay in Bitcoin online, and they just, um, they just won a, uh, grant from, uh, Bitcoin Beach, uh, and, uh, they're going to use the grant, uh, to, well, the attempt is really to start like a small circular economy, if you would Um, where, so if you go, uh, to one of those restaurants and pay with Bitcoin, you're going to get sats back 10%, and then, um, the restaurant is also going to get 10 percent sats back.
And if you order food, um, through their app, also the driver is going to get, uh, some sats back. And, uh, we've just been discussing, because obviously we're partnering with them, with the football club, so we'll push this out, because some of the restaurants that are there are our, I mean, basically, like, we have two restaurants locally that are partners, we got them in, right, obviously, in the deal, um, So, so that is also like, for me, it's like super cool because now for so far, the club has been pushing Bitcoin.
Now we have two of our restaurant partners who are themselves like hard Botevists, Botefans, and like they're popular. Now they're starting to accept Bitcoin in their, in their two restaurants, right? And they're going to have their campaigns. We're going to push them more. So, um, so I'm really excited about this and fingers crossed this goes well.
We have good metrics because if we have good metrics. Yeah, we'll look for ways to grow this. So there's a lot of grassroots things happening, which I love. On the top, nothing.
Knut: It's the way it's supposed to be.
George: But it's the way it is. Yeah, it's a better
Luke: Yeah it really seems like that you get one or two of these big anchors like like for example you you guys have had that had that conference last couple of years but now with both of Plavdev now Bulgaria is really got a couple of big anchors. Big relative in relative terms, uh, and all of this other stuff can, can start coming up around it.
And, uh, love, love to see it. I mean, he, I mean here, here with Rega, there's Honey Budger has been going for a really long time, and I, and I even think that they are honest about, we, we would, we just talked to, to Max, uh, about this, uh, from Defi and like yeah, there's not much other adoption in, in Lavia and this conference has been going on for a long time.
Exactly. And so it's just like, uh, it's, it's, it's great to see, uh, in, in your case, in Bulgaria's case, that there's, there's more of this, uh, picking up. So, yeah,
George: Well, I think it's really, in our case, I don't know, like it's grassroots, like I said, and I really believe grassroots and then Rio or for the vast majority, Rio adoption comes permissionless life. It comes like it's not forced. You know, there is this point where, okay, there's Plamen, like, he got the inspiration, he makes his content, he does the conferences, Like, our owner, he sees this opportunity for Bitcoin, for the club. He takes the action, right? So it's, it's not like, so it's individuals, right? Taking actions and then, as you have, you know, several of them, maybe others get inspired or get ideas going and that's how the magic happens. And, uh, yeah. Excited about it.
Wrapping Up
Luke: it's awesome, man. Great hear your story. So, was, uh, was there anything else that you wanted to discuss or bring up on this topic?
George: no, I mean, what I would say is absolutely, uh, Please, uh, you know, Knut, you've been, but please, you're absolutely welcome, Luke, join as well, like, both of you should come
Knut: Absolutely. Highly recommend it. I had a great time in Bulgaria, and it's such a fascinating country, it's such a rich history and such a beautiful place, and the food is great, and it's very affordable, it's very, yeah, very
George: like, I have people who come in Plogis specifically to, like, nomads, spend, like, a or a month. So, so please enjoy, visit the game. come spend in the restaurants where they accept Bitcoin, follow us on social media for sure, so, X and Nostr,
Luke: Yes, all the details, please.
Knut: And also like one of the eras, uh, infamous eras of Bulgaria is the commie era, right? Where you can see the impact that system had on the country and how horrid it is. Uh, so it's, it's, uh, that might not be a good pitch for, uh, but that's
Luke: Let him, let him share his social medias, Knut.
George: wait, do you have, do you have something
Knut: no, no, I think like the, The point I was getting to is, if you get to Bulgaria, don't only go to Sofia, go around the rest of the country, because it's not as raped as that town was by, as that city was by communism, all this concrete, yeah, yeah,
George: yeah, the,
Knut: you can really see the impact there. I'm not, um, yeah, this came out totally wrong, but I'm trying to, I'm trying to, To hype Bulgaria here, but also there's a historical lesson to be learned in the country, for sure,
George: sure. It's really like, there's so many different things there. So there's the communist part, there's like fucking amazing nature, there's like
Knut: is everything, yeah.
George: if you're into hiking, there's like, just like from Sofia, what I love about Sofia, like just last week, twice, end of the day, I'm like fucked up, like tired of computer.
40 minutes up and I'm up in the mountains, hiking, in like 2000 meters altitude. Uh, so, so there's all these like super cool things, but on the socials, yeah, we're on Twitter. we're on Nostr, uh, so Twitter is, um, botif underscore, uh, en, on Nostr, uh, we are just botif. Yeah, you can find us.
Luke: going say you're NPUB? No, no, no,
George: I'm still learning it, okay?
Luke: we'll post, you're still learning, we'll post all the details in the show
George: Yes. Yes. And feel free to also check out our website. We have, due to our El Salvadorian, um, kind of project, we already have a Salvadorian website, which is very easy to remember, botif. sv. So you can go there and from there you'll find all the links and information.
Luke: Absolutely fantastic.
Knut: Great! Get the inverse of Clown World. This is a shill. BitcoinInfinityStore. com And thank you very much for coming on,
George: was great having
Knut: Great to have
Luke: George, thanks so much. This has been Bitcoin Infinity Show. Thank you for
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@ ee11a5df:b76c4e49
2024-09-11 06:10:27Bye-Bye Reply Guy
There is a camp of nostr developers that believe spam filtering needs to be done by relays. Or at the very least by DVMs. I concur. In this way, once you configure what you want to see, it applies to all nostr clients.
But we are not there yet.
In the mean time we have ReplyGuy, and gossip needed some changes to deal with it.
Strategies in Short
- WEB OF TRUST: Only accept events from people you follow, or people they follow - this avoids new people entirely until somebody else that you follow friends them first, which is too restrictive for some people.
- TRUSTED RELAYS: Allow every post from relays that you trust to do good spam filtering.
- REJECT FRESH PUBKEYS: Only accept events from people you have seen before - this allows you to find new people, but you will miss their very first post (their second post must count as someone you have seen before, even if you discarded the first post)
- PATTERN MATCHING: Scan for known spam phrases and words and block those events, either on content or metadata or both or more.
- TIE-IN TO EXTERNAL SYSTEMS: Require a valid NIP-05, or other nostr event binding their identity to some external identity
- PROOF OF WORK: Require a minimum proof-of-work
All of these strategies are useful, but they have to be combined properly.
filter.rhai
Gossip loads a file called "filter.rhai" in your gossip directory if it exists. It must be a Rhai language script that meets certain requirements (see the example in the gossip source code directory). Then it applies it to filter spam.
This spam filtering code is being updated currently. It is not even on unstable yet, but it will be there probably tomorrow sometime. Then to master. Eventually to a release.
Here is an example using all of the techniques listed above:
```rhai // This is a sample spam filtering script for the gossip nostr // client. The language is called Rhai, details are at: // https://rhai.rs/book/ // // For gossip to find your spam filtering script, put it in // your gossip profile directory. See // https://docs.rs/dirs/latest/dirs/fn.data_dir.html // to find the base directory. A subdirectory "gossip" is your // gossip data directory which for most people is their profile // directory too. (Note: if you use a GOSSIP_PROFILE, you'll // need to put it one directory deeper into that profile // directory). // // This filter is used to filter out and refuse to process // incoming events as they flow in from relays, and also to // filter which events get/ displayed in certain circumstances. // It is only run on feed-displayable event kinds, and only by // authors you are not following. In case of error, nothing is // filtered. // // You must define a function called 'filter' which returns one // of these constant values: // DENY (the event is filtered out) // ALLOW (the event is allowed through) // MUTE (the event is filtered out, and the author is // automatically muted) // // Your script will be provided the following global variables: // 'caller' - a string that is one of "Process", // "Thread", "Inbox" or "Global" indicating // which part of the code is running your // script // 'content' - the event content as a string // 'id' - the event ID, as a hex string // 'kind' - the event kind as an integer // 'muted' - if the author is in your mute list // 'name' - if we have it, the name of the author // (or your petname), else an empty string // 'nip05valid' - whether nip05 is valid for the author, // as a boolean // 'pow' - the Proof of Work on the event // 'pubkey' - the event author public key, as a hex // string // 'seconds_known' - the number of seconds that the author // of the event has been known to gossip // 'spamsafe' - true only if the event came in from a // relay marked as SpamSafe during Process // (even if the global setting for SpamSafe // is off)
fn filter() {
// Show spam on global // (global events are ephemeral; these won't grow the // database) if caller=="Global" { return ALLOW; } // Block ReplyGuy if name.contains("ReplyGuy") || name.contains("ReplyGal") { return DENY; } // Block known DM spam // (giftwraps are unwrapped before the content is passed to // this script) if content.to_lower().contains( "Mr. Gift and Mrs. Wrap under the tree, KISSING!" ) { return DENY; } // Reject events from new pubkeys, unless they have a high // PoW or we somehow already have a nip05valid for them // // If this turns out to be a legit person, we will start // hearing their events 2 seconds from now, so we will // only miss their very first event. if seconds_known <= 2 && pow < 25 && !nip05valid { return DENY; } // Mute offensive people if content.to_lower().contains(" kike") || content.to_lower().contains("kike ") || content.to_lower().contains(" nigger") || content.to_lower().contains("nigger ") || { return MUTE; } // Reject events from muted people // // Gossip already does this internally, and since we are // not Process, this is rather redundant. But this works // as an example. if muted { return DENY; } // Accept if the PoW is large enough if pow >= 25 { return ALLOW } // Accept if their NIP-05 is valid if nip05valid { return ALLOW; } // Accept if the event came through a spamsafe relay if spamsafe { return ALLOW; } // Reject the rest DENY
} ```
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@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-01-14 13:55:28Thoughts on Nostr key management
On Why I don't like NIP-26 as a solution for key management I talked about multiple techniques that could be used to tackle the problem of key management on Nostr.
Here are some ideas that work in tandem:
- NIP-41 (stateless key invalidation)
- NIP-46 (Nostr Connect)
- NIP-07 (signer browser extension)
- Connected hardware signing devices
- other things like musig or frostr keys used in conjunction with a semi-trusted server; or other kinds of trusted software, like a dedicated signer on a mobile device that can sign on behalf of other apps; or even a separate protocol that some people decide to use as the source of truth for their keys, and some clients might decide to use that automatically
- there are probably many other ideas
Some premises I have in my mind (that may be flawed) that base my thoughts on these matters (and cause me to not worry too much) are that
- For the vast majority of people, Nostr keys aren't a target as valuable as Bitcoin keys, so they will probably be ok even without any solution;
- Even when you lose everything, identity can be recovered -- slowly and painfully, but still --, unlike money;
- Nostr is not trying to replace all other forms of online communication (even though when I think about this I can't imagine one thing that wouldn't be nice to replace with Nostr) or of offline communication, so there will always be ways.
- For the vast majority of people, losing keys and starting fresh isn't a big deal. It is a big deal when you have followers and an online persona and your life depends on that, but how many people are like that? In the real world I see people deleting social media accounts all the time and creating new ones, people losing their phone numbers or other accounts associated with their phone numbers, and not caring very much -- they just find a way to notify friends and family and move on.
We can probably come up with some specs to ease the "manual" recovery process, like social attestation and explicit signaling -- i.e., Alice, Bob and Carol are friends; Alice loses her key; Bob sends a new Nostr event kind to the network saying what is Alice's new key; depending on how much Carol trusts Bob, she can automatically start following that and remove the old key -- or something like that.
One nice thing about some of these proposals, like NIP-41, or the social-recovery method, or the external-source-of-truth-method, is that they don't have to be implemented in any client, they can live in standalone single-purpose microapps that users open or visit only every now and then, and these can then automatically update their follow lists with the latest news from keys that have changed according to multiple methods.
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@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-01-14 13:55:28IPFS problems: Shitcoinery
IPFS was advertised to the Ethereum community since the beggining as a way to "store" data for their "dApps". I don't think this is harmful in any way, but for some reason it may have led IPFS developers to focus too much on Ethereum stuff. Once I watched a talk showing libp2p developers – despite being ignored by the Ethereum team (that ended up creating their own agnostic p2p library) – dedicating an enourmous amount of work on getting a libp2p app running in the browser talking to a normal Ethereum node.
The always somewhat-abandoned "Awesome IPFS" site is a big repository of "dApps", some of which don't even have their landing page up anymore, useless Ethereum smart contracts that for some reason use IPFS to store whatever the useless data their users produce.
Again, per se it isn't a problem that Ethereum people are using IPFS, but it is at least confusing, maybe misleading, that when you search for IPFS most of the use-cases are actually Ethereum useless-cases.
See also
- Bitcoin, the only non-shitcoin
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-24 21:27:00 -
@ c69b71dc:426ba763
2024-09-28 16:22:05Chef's notes
This soup is a beautiful combination of simplicity, flavor, and nourishment. Quick to make, it delivers a fresh, slightly sweet taste that’s rich in nutrients. I've added avocado oil, pine nuts, sprouted buckwheat and millet, and a few herbs for the decoration. Feel free to experiment with different herbs, sprouts, seeds etc. making it a delightful and wholesome dish 💚
Details
- ⏲️ Prep time: 5 min.
- 🍳 Cook time: 0
- 🍽️ Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw fennel (medium-sized) cut into peaces
- 1 small-medium apple cut into pieces
- 1 cup water, kefir, or rejuvelac
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp (preferable raw) almond butter
- 1/2 tsp salt or herbal salt
- 1 tbsp Nama Tamari
- 1 tbsp avocado oil (or sesame seed oil)
- 1 pinch of nutmeg (about a knife’s tip)
Directions
- Add all ingredients to a blender: fennel, apple, water (or kefir/rejuvelac), nutritional yeast, almond butter, salt, Nama Tamari, avocado oil, and nutmeg.
- Blend until smooth and creamy.
- Pour into two bowls and garnish with pine nuts, sprouted buckwheat, sprouted brown millet or any other sprouts, and fresh herbs as desired.
-
@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-24 00:10:45 -
@ 6ad08392:ea301584
2024-05-27 18:31:39Release announcement & short overview
Two years, six drafts, and 125,000 words later, and The Bushido of Bitcoin is almost complete.
Before the book’s release in Q3 of this year I will be doing a few things:
- Making it available for pre-order on Geyser. For the general paperback, digital and audio copies, it will save you roughly 50%. I will also include some limited edition options, like a short run of 21 leather-bound versions of the book. More on that in the coming weeks.
- Drip-feeding snippets from the book, in the form of quotes, lessons, etymology progressions and insights, across all my socials. On Substack I’ll do longer form posts, on Twitter & Nostr, I’ll keep them more succinct, and finally, I’m reviving my Instagram to wrap the insights in beautiful, shareable, bite-size visuals.
- Jumping on a bunch of podcasts, both Bitcoin and not Bitcoin-related to dig into the content of the book. I’ve recorded with Breedlove already. Many more to come - and who knows, I may even revive my old Wake Up Podcast and do a few short episodes there too.
I want to treat this book as both an ongoing work and a piece of art. So alongside the book, I’m also going to produce some pieces of visual and physical art. The video trailer, alone, I promise will blow your mind., as will the warrior-samurai artwork I’m going to have commissioned in collaboration with some soon-to-be-announced artists. I’ll probably even do a tradings cards pack with Bitcoin Trading cards next year, and some other collaborations along the way.
In any case, it’s been an incredible journey writing this book and I’m honoured to have had people like John Carter help me edit it, and Ross Stevens agreeing to do the foreword. I can’t wait to have the final version completed and in your hands.
For those who might be wondering what I am talking about…
**What is The Bushido of Bitcoin? **
This is a book I’ve been writing for almost two years now. Its genesis was a conversation I had with Erik Cason on my old Wake Up Podcast - also called “The Bushido of Bitcoin.” It was Episode 65: you can check out here. The inspiration for that episode came from a shared love of the book by James Clavell, called: Shogun (now a HBO series - which it seems they didn’t make woke..thank God), and of course we related the idea of Bushido (Way of the warrior: Code of Virtue) back to Bitcoin.
I felt that this was a seed of an idea, well worth watering. So after that, I decided to go on a history binge and start collecting ideas. What ensued was a real journey. I must’ve listened to a thousand hours of history books and Dan Carlin podcasts in the first six months and the concept began to form. But before I tell you what the concept is - let me tell you what it’s not.
This is NOT another book about the history of money, nor does it make an Austrian case for sound money, or an economic case for Bitcoin as sound money. Neither is it concerned with how Bitcoin works, or any of the technicals. We have enough of those books, and I don’t think I will add anything new to that corpus of knowledge. What this book IS about, is something so much deeper and more profound: The behaviour, virtue, culture and civilisation of greatness.
The book seeks to answer the question: “What happens when Bitcoin wins?” What happens to those who rise to the top, and become the socio-economic elite of the world?
- Will we become a new parasitic class?
- Will we become self-indulgent degenerates? Or..
- Will become men and women of virtue?
The latter is not a given, and it’s certainly not enough to just say “Bitcoin Fixes This.” To become men and women of stature and character requires actively developing the virtues which give rise to a culture of excellence. This is the only way to reclaim and rebuild civilisation - complaining and wishing about the past won’t cut it.
Over the coming weeks, I will introduce you to the Ten Virtues that make up The Bushido of Bitcoin. The book of course is more complete, but I will hold nothing back. We’ll follow the historical and etymological genesis of these virtues with an in-depth analysis on how they were embodied by the greatest leaders and warriors throughout history. We’ll also draw lessons from this analysis that will help us navigate the road ahead.
What lies before us may be a “clown world” but hope is far from lost. We’ve been here before. Many times, and against greater odds. This is our generation’s opportunity for a re-conquista.
The Bushido of Bitcoin is written to remind you there is something greater inside of you, and the only way through hell, is forward. I hope you find value in the up-coming content, and that should you pick up a copy of the book, it greatly inspires you.
Thankyou Aleksandar Svetski
Per-order the book here: https://geyser.fund/project/bushidoofbitcoin Get a free introductory chapter here: BushidoOfBitcoin.com Follow my work here: Linktree.com/Svetski
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@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-01-14 13:55:28Economics
Just a bunch of somewhat-related notes.
- notes on "Economic Action Beyond the Extent of the Market", Per Bylund
- Mises' interest rate theory
- Profits, not wages, as the originary factor
- Reisman on opportunity cost
- Money Supply Measurement
- Per Bylund's insight
- Maybe a new approach to the Austrian Business Cycle Theory, some disorganized thoughts
- An argument according to which fractional-reserve banking is merely theft and nothing else
- Conjecture and criticism
- Qual é o economista? (piadas)
- UBI calculations
- Donations on the internet
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-22 22:06:11 -
@ 472f440f:5669301e
2024-09-06 21:56:48I had the pleasure of sitting back down with Will Reeves, Founder and CEO of Fold, on TFTC last week to discuss Fold's journey from a startup to (soon to be) a publicly listed company. I particularly liked this conversation because it was a great lens into the grit it takes to run a successful bitcoin company.
https://fountain.fm/episode/1FrspxmpK5bsoReGx73n
Building a successful company is extremely hard in its own right. Building a successful bitcoin company is significantly harder considering the fact that you're building a company in parallel with a nascent and volatile monetary asset that is monetizing in real time. Bitcoin adoption comes in waves. People flood in when the price is ripping and fade out when the price corrects and goes into a multi-year bear market before the tide comes back in. This means that your potential user base is expanding and contracting more than it would be in other industries. As a company you need to be able to absorb the incoming waves of new adopters and then capture and retain the users who stick around for the bear market.
To do this correctly, a founder and their team needs to thread many needles. First, can you assemble a team that can actually build something? Second, can you bring a product to market that people actually use because it provides value to them? Third, can you stick out against the crowd? So on and so forth. One of the most important aspects of building a bitcoin company during bitcoin's monetization phase is timing. There are many great ideas that people have in terms of companies, products and tools that can built using bitcoin. There are sci-fi futures that can be built today on bitcoin if people really wanted to.
The problem that arises is that adoption and understanding of bitcoin are at a point where, even though a functional product could be brought to market, it won't be adopted by a large number of people because there 1.) aren't enough people who would understand how to use it and 2.) for the people who do understand how to use it and could benefit from it, the universe of people they can interact with using that product is minuscule.
Timing is everything. And I think Fold nailed the timing of their product. Allowing people to passively stack sats by offering a product that enables them to go about their daily spending and get sats back instead of cash back rewards is a great first-touch bitcoin experience. Once Fold found their sticky user base and perfected their sats back experience, they began expanding their product offering to provide their users with more bitcoin services. Buy/sell bitcoin in-app, bill pay for sats back, and more. They'll eventually roll out a credit card and additional financial services. Start simple, provide something of value, nail the timing and then expand from there. That seems to be the recipe.
For any founders in the space reading this, I highly recommend you listen to the episode. Particularly for the advice Will gives about knowing when to sprint on product and when to lean into growth. Bear markets are for building and bull markets are for casting the widest net possible and capturing as many new users as possible.
At Ten31 we are extremely proud to back Fold and a number of other companies in the bitcoin space that understand the intricacies described above. We work with some of the best founders in the world. Founders who know how to eat glass with the best of them. Bitcoin can be a cruel mistress and no one knows that more intimately than the founders building bitcoin companies.
Final thought...
The NFL having a week 1 game in Brazil should get Roger Godell fired.
Enjoy your weekend, freaks.
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@ 362ebffa:492e2719
2024-05-27 12:51:14Consciousness is the subjective experience arising from the brain (as the viewer, the beholder) While reality encompasses both the objective external world and our subjective perception of it.
The two are deeply interconnected, with consciousness shaping our experience of reality and reality influencing the state and content of our consciousness.
Therefor we do live in various bubbles of reality, my reality (my perception of reality) is my own.
What do you think?
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@ 2ecde0a6:10022dcb
2024-05-25 20:28:41Opinion about KeepKey (hardware)
KeepKey is a hardware wallet with a high level of security and supports more than 40 different crypto assets.
The device provides a PIN code and recovery seeds. It has a feature where it switches your PIN code numbers from time to time, making it impossible for malware to copy our code. Also, the device has a system for trade where you have to press and hold to confirm the transaction to avoid external hacks.
KeepKey has only one button to manage it. This button is used for turning the device on and off. All the other processes can be managed through the mobile app. That includes entering your PIN code and setting up the recovery seed, which makes it very simple to use, unlike other complex wallets. The device has a wide screen that allows you to see the entire cryptocurrency address without the need to scroll back and forth. But it's easy to break or scratch if you don't have a protecting casing.
Its price is around $80.
But you have to remember that the device is a little big and heavy, compared to other hard wallets, so it's difficult to carry around with it.
WalletScrutiny #nostrOpinion
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-21 21:37:35 -
@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-09-06 12:15:47a way to do an open and permissionless mesh network
I don't have much experience with that so maybe this is all a stupid, but I think that routing in mesh networks is never scalable. It basically always requires all the nodes to keep a full view of the network in order to route packages -- and often there is no incentive for them to do that either. And then the thing is easily spammable but either that problem doesn't happen because the mesh never gets big enough or it has a central committee that decides who can join.
The biggest example is, of course, the big ICANN-controlled IP network, that gets all the negatives of being centrally controlled while weirdly getting also all the negatives of being a kinda-decentralized peer-to-peer ad-hoc network between indepent ISPs.
A good solution that makes kinda-decentralized (at least open and permissionless) routing possible and replaces node addresses with pubkeys could get rid of ICANN. Once that is done, ad-hoc peering would become more seamless and ISPs wouldn't have to be so big, clunky and centralized, they could slowly split, and non-comercial entities could join the party too by basically just plugging a cable or pointing an antenna at the correct place.
What is it?
One very dumb solution that came to my mind that has a chance of working is one in which each node as a keypair and to be reachable by others they announce their address -- for example, using some kind of DNS (on a [spacechain]?) or by directly communicating their address through some other means -- as their public key plus some "routing hints".
The routing hints are just pubkeys of other nodes known to be routers. Known to whom? Well, this would require some schelling points to naturally appear and the network would be ordered around them, but you are never forced to use them, you have to include as many routing hints as required to ensure that all the people you want to connect to you will eventually be able to, but nothing is ever 100% guaranteed.
Such network could probably work with a pure onion routing scheme with all its privacy benefits in some cases; degrading to a trampoline onion routing scheme otherwise, which means it will just be slightly less private the more trampolines you have to use. And every node has to keep track of just a set of routes from them to a bunch of known routers (or trampolines, which in my mind are mostly the same nodes, but are slightly different roles).
Example
Suppose A is trying to connect to B.
A is a home computer in the city of Évora, Portugal.
B is a home computer in the city of Udine, Italy.
There is a route (we, the narrator, know) between them that goes like this:
A--Ev--Li--Al--Ro--Sm--Ve--Ud--B, in which Ev means the node of an ISP in Évora which directly serves A, Li means a big node in Lisboa, Al a node in Algiers, Ro a node in Rome, Sm a node in San Marino, Ve a node in Venice and Ud a gateway node in the mesh of Udine to which B is connected.
There could be many other routes, but we'll ignore them for now.
B could have published his address as
<pubkey-B>?hint=<pubkey-Ud>,<pubkey-Ve>,<pubkey-Sm>,<pubkey-Ro>
, which would mean A would only have to know a route from Ev up to Ro.If Ro is known to be a big router, A could easily have a route cached there, and could discover other routes by asking around every now and then too. It wouldn't take a lot of space to have routes cached to some thousands of different known big nodes like that. Then A can just wrap an onion with all the coordinates and the message inside and hand it to Ev and it would reach B. Inside the message she would also include the full route for a message to be sent back.
However, even if A doesn't have a route to Ro, it could still hope that Li would have, then she could make a special "trampoline" onion that goes Ev--Li and then when Li receives it it sees a request to forward the next packet to Ro, so Li has the freedom to choose a route from itself to Ro (as long as it knows Ro, of course) and from there A's message continues.
The same trampolining can exist on B's side, if B doesn't have a route from Ud to Ro, but knows Ro is likely to have one up to Ud -- or if B feels it's not worth including so many hints when most big nodes will have routes to Ud, for example, it can publish his address as
<pubkey-B>?hint=<pubkey-Ud>*<pubkey-Ro>
meaning that one should find a route up to Ro and from there ask Ro to trampoline it up to Ud.Or, if B doesn't expect Ud to be very well-known, but Sm yes, then it could do
<pubkey-B>?hint=<pubkey-Ud>,<pubkey-Sm>*<pubkey-Ro>
. Again, this is just one hint, in practice it would have to have a lot (maybe 10, 20?) other hints, in a tree structure that this querystring syntax isn't very suited for encoding:``` Ud Tr Pu Za Li
Sm * Ro Ba Mi La Ge * Mo Tu
```
(Remember, we're using city name abbreviations here, but each of these would be a specific node, with a specific public key, supposed for the example to be in such a city, but nothing prevents them from being in different cities or that multiple nodes exist in the same city.)
Summary
Basically packets go from node to node, in a sequence established by the sender -- with optional trampolines in between -- until they get to the target. Target responds in the same route. Nodes can be anyone. Focal points form around big nodes, but they can be replaced easily, the receivers just have to stop using them in their hints, so the network is flexible and open.
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@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-01-14 13:55:28tempreites
My first library to get stars on GitHub, was a very stupid templating library that used just HTML and HTML attributes ("DSL-free"). I was inspired by http://microjs.com/ at the time and ended up not using the library. Probably no one ever did.
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@ eac63075:b4988b48
2024-09-28 09:13:08O mundo das criptomoedas sempre foi um espaço de inovação e experimentação, onde ideias revolucionárias surgem para transformar mercados. Recentemente, um conceito novo tem chamado a atenção de especuladores e investidores mais ousados: o re-staking. Ao contrário do staking tradicional, onde os tokens ficam bloqueados em uma única plataforma, o re-staking vai além e permite que os mesmos tokens sejam usados em múltiplas plataformas ao mesmo tempo, aumentando a percepção de escassez e, potencialmente, os riscos.
Mas o que isso significa para o mercado e, principalmente, para os investidores? Para entender o re-staking, precisamos primeiro compreender os princípios do staking e como ele tem sido utilizado para criar uma sensação de escassez no mercado.
A Escassez Forçada no Staking Tradicional
No staking tradicional, os investidores alocam seus tokens em um contrato inteligente, geralmente para ajudar a validar transações em uma rede blockchain, como o Ethereum. Esses tokens ficam "travados" por um período de tempo, durante o qual não podem ser negociados ou movimentados. Em troca, os investidores recebem recompensas, como juros, por ajudar a manter a segurança e a operação da rede.
O interessante é que, quando muitos tokens estão travados em staking, isso cria uma escassez artificial no mercado. Embora o número total de tokens de uma determinada criptomoeda permaneça o mesmo, os tokens em circulação — ou seja, aqueles disponíveis para compra e venda — tornam-se mais limitados. Essa "escassez forçada" pode, em teoria, aumentar o preço dos tokens circulantes, já que a demanda pode permanecer alta, mas a oferta disponível é menor.
O Problema da Ilusão de Escassez
Mas será que essa escassez é real? Em termos práticos, os tokens estão apenas temporariamente fora de circulação. Quando o período de staking termina, eles voltam ao mercado. O conceito de escassez forçada, portanto, levanta preocupações sobre a sustentabilidade desse mecanismo. Alguns críticos argumentam que isso cria uma falsa impressão de valor, já que os tokens não desapareceram — eles apenas estão "em espera".
Isso nos leva a uma das principais questões sobre o staking: ele pode realmente sustentar uma economia baseada em escassez artificial? E, mais importante, ele pode garantir a segurança e a descentralização que as blockchains precisam para funcionar de forma eficaz? Muitos acreditam que não, o que nos leva ao surgimento do re-staking como uma solução alternativa — ou seria uma armadilha?
Re-staking: A Nova Fronteira da Alavancagem em Cripto
O re-staking surge como uma tentativa de maximizar o potencial dos tokens bloqueados. Nesse modelo, os mesmos tokens que já estão alocados em uma plataforma podem ser "re-stakeados" em outras plataformas, permitindo que os investidores ganhem recompensas adicionais sem precisar comprar mais tokens. Parece uma solução perfeita, certo? Afinal, quem não gostaria de ganhar mais sem precisar gastar mais?
Porém, como muitos especialistas têm alertado, o re-staking cria uma dinâmica de alavancagem dentro do próprio mercado de staking. Ao permitir que os mesmos tokens sejam usados em múltiplas plataformas ao mesmo tempo, você cria a ilusão de que mais valor está sendo gerado, quando, na verdade, o risco subjacente está aumentando exponencialmente.
Pense nisso como um sistema de empréstimos sobre empréstimos. Se tudo correr bem, os ganhos são maiores. Mas se algo der errado, o efeito dominó pode ser catastrófico. O re-staking, de certa forma, transforma o mercado de criptomoedas em uma montanha russa de riscos, onde os investidores estão sempre um passo à frente de uma possível queda.
Os Riscos de Segurança no Re-staking
Um dos maiores riscos associados ao re-staking está relacionado à segurança. Quando você distribui seus tokens por várias plataformas, aumenta a exposição a possíveis falhas de segurança. Cada plataforma possui seus próprios contratos inteligentes, que, por mais bem auditados que sejam, estão sempre suscetíveis a falhas ou ataques.
Imagine que você está cuidando de uma planta. Se você dividir essa planta em várias partes e plantar cada uma em um solo diferente, você precisaria garantir que cada solo fosse adequado e que as condições fossem perfeitas em todos os lugares ao mesmo tempo. No mundo das criptomoedas, cada plataforma de staking é como um vaso diferente, e se um deles tiver uma rachadura — ou, no caso de uma falha em um contrato inteligente —, você pode perder parte ou até mesmo todos os seus tokens.
O risco de slashing (perda de tokens como penalidade por má conduta do validador) também é ampliado no re-staking. Se um validador com quem você está associado cometer um erro ou for desonesto em qualquer uma das plataformas onde você está re-stakeando seus tokens, você pode ser penalizado, perdendo parte do que alocou. Aumentar a quantidade de plataformas significa aumentar o risco de ser impactado por um erro de um terceiro.
Alavancagem: Uma Receita para o Colapso?
Outro fator importante a ser considerado é o impacto da alavancagem no mercado de criptomoedas. No re-staking, a alavancagem ocorre porque você está, essencialmente, duplicando o uso dos mesmos tokens, gerando mais valor do que realmente existe. Essa prática é semelhante à alavancagem no mercado financeiro tradicional, onde investidores tomam empréstimos para aumentar suas apostas.
O problema da alavancagem é que ela pode ser uma faca de dois gumes. Em um mercado em alta, ela pode amplificar os ganhos. Mas, em um mercado em queda, os prejuízos são igualmente amplificados. Se o preço das criptomoedas cair, os investidores que utilizaram re-staking podem ser forçados a liquidar suas posições para cobrir perdas, desencadeando um efeito dominó que pode colapsar todo o sistema.
Esse risco sistêmico é uma das maiores preocupações com o re-staking. Como vimos em crises financeiras anteriores, como a de 2008, o uso excessivo de alavancagem pode levar a um colapso total do mercado, e no mundo das criptomoedas, onde a volatilidade é alta e os preços podem mudar rapidamente, isso é ainda mais perigoso.
Conclusão: Re-staking — O Futuro ou uma Armadilha?
O re-staking representa um passo interessante na evolução do staking e das finanças descentralizadas. Ele oferece a promessa de maiores retornos, mas com essa promessa vêm riscos substanciais que precisam ser considerados cuidadosamente.
Para investidores que estão dispostos a assumir riscos maiores em busca de recompensas mais altas, o re-staking pode parecer uma oportunidade irresistível. No entanto, para aqueles que preferem uma abordagem mais cautelosa, o re-staking pode ser uma armadilha, criando uma falsa sensação de segurança e de crescimento, enquanto expõe o investidor a riscos potencialmente devastadores.
Assim como em qualquer investimento, a chave para o sucesso no re-staking está em compreender os riscos envolvidos e em adotar uma abordagem equilibrada. Afinal, no mundo das criptomoedas, onde o inesperado é a única certeza, um passo em falso pode ser o suficiente para transformar um grande salto em uma queda dolorosa.
Assista esse assunto no Morning Crypto
(artigo editado para ver se propaga)
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@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-01-14 13:55:28nix
Pra instalar o neuron fui forçado a baixar e instalar o nix. Não consegui me lembrar por que não estava usando até hoje aquele maravilhoso sistema de instalar pacotes desde a primeira vez que tentei, anos atrás.
Que sofrimento pra fazer funcionar com o
fish
, mas até que bem menos sofrimento que da outra vez. Tive que instalar um tal defish-foreign-environment
(usando o próprio nix!, já que a outra opção era ooh-my-fish
ou qualquer outra porcaria dessas) e aí usá-lo para aplicar as definições de shell para bash direto nofish
.E aí lembrei também que o
/nix/store
fica cheio demais, o negócio instala tudo que existe neste mundo a partir do zero. É só para computadores muito ricos, mas vamos ver como vai ser. Estou gostando do neuron (veja, estou usando como diário), então vou ter que deixar o nix aí. -
@ 592295cf:413a0db9
2024-09-28 08:19:25Week 23th September
It's not your voice anymore if it's available to everyone.
Nostr is psycho pop.
Nostrasia took place today. It all seemed beautiful. A muffled meeting, a bit in the clouds compared to the air you breathe in social media.
It seems there are two types of Nostr the one who doesn't want to grow and the one who wants to grow. 😅
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There has always been a misconception that kind1 is the discovery layer, but in reality it is the opposite. If someone publishes a long form article there is less audience, it is true, but then it is easier to find quality content, therefore quality profiles to follow in the kind1 client aka twitter clone. And this can be true for all portable data layers, video streaming, audio, long form, ngit, wiki and whatsoever. So you have finally good follow.
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The fact that in Nostr you don't see who follows you generally, only in a few clients, I only know one where you see who started following you. It's a strange thing, made to avoid seeing masses of bots that follow you and you can want to block, and you increase that list to the point of absurdity. It's strange because there is a lot of focus on the social graph, if you follow me it's an important aspect.
So in Nostr there are - portable data layers (Twitter style and other social) - non-portable, applications that use disposable npub, where the key is ephemeral.
- 0xchat was becoming a good client, they killed it because it has to focus on chat. I don't use chat, I don't have anyone to chat with, I follow the 0xchat channel and then I read things from Moment. I use it with my second account, because after the nos2x-amber affair with the Odell result, which I had already told you about, I no longer tried to have the first profile even on the mobile. In the end they are all keys that will be burned 😔
Maybe I won't use Nostr anymore in the future just with burn npub, pow and whatsoever. In the end you don't build anything because it's a "stateless" communication.
Lol Moment
On Nostr the poor answer guy is helping the network 🤣🤣
call the police 911: what is your emergency?
a spam bot is attacking "nostr" relays.
you want some government censorship on those relays that contain spam, yes we can do that.
-Previous week- 16 09 Machines Like Me was a good book, maybe now it will become reality.
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The cool thing about Plebchain radio, it's not the guests, it's these two Nostr users that do a podcast. And they focused on Bitcoin and Nostr and lightning, but maybe it's just the beginning, first you have to focus on a niche and then you expand to the whole world. I think the whole world phase is starting, the podcast topics would become too repetitive. The best part is the 15 10 minute intro. Or in the live show part, there could be some interesting clips.
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idea White button for activity pub user on voyage (app).
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People hate Nostr. Don't use it
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UnNip, now we've seen it all
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Until the morale improves
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People think Sync works like this by magic. Unfortunately it doesn't, I think, at least that's what those who are trying to do say, auto-merge, tinybase, evolu. There is an interesting local-first project. Jaguard a collaborative environment for writing empirical research papers.
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Now I can search by id. I couldn't do it and I didn't understand the mechanism. Everything has to be instantiated. it works. Now I have to create a function maybe note_list_id and note_id. I continued to edit the NIPs page with asciidoc, categorizing this table is very fun.
New wave of Opensats grants.
- If you haven't heard about WoT this week, you probably live on Mars. There are people who didn't know you could edit on amethyst.
You need to do a podcast of NIPs, features and whatsoever, maybe doing a podcast is not the best solution because it assumes you know something more and something that could change the next day or be no longer valid. maybe you should avoid doing things you don't have full control over, or at least not spread it outside. Maybe because last year at this time I was recording audio.
-
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@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-05-24 12:31:40About Nostr, email and subscriptions
I check my emails like once or twice a week, always when I am looking for something specific in there.
Then I go there and I see a bunch of other stuff I had no idea I was missing. Even many things I wish I had seen before actually. And sometimes people just expect and assume I would have checked emails instantly as they arrived.
It's so weird because I'm not making a point, I just don't remember to open the damn "gmail.com" URL.
I remember some people were making some a Nostr service a while ago that sent a DM to people with Nostr articles inside -- or some other forms of "subscription services on Nostr". It makes no sense at all.
Pulling in DMs from relays is exactly the same process (actually slightly more convoluted) than pulling normal public events, so why would a service assume that "sending a DM" was more likely to reach the target subscriber when the target had explicitly subscribed to that topic or writer?
Maybe due to how some specific clients work that is true, but fundamentally it is a very broken assumption that comes from some fantastic past era in which emails were 100% always seen and there was no way for anyone to subscribe to someone else's posts.
Building around such broken assumptions is the wrong approach. Instead we should be building new flows for subscribing to specific content from specific Nostr-native sources (creators directly or manual or automated curation providers, communities, relays etc), which is essentially what most clients are already doing anyway, but specifically Coracle's new custom feeds come to mind now.
This also reminds me of the interviewer asking the Farcaster creator if Farcaster made "email addresses available to content creators" completely ignoring all the cryptography and nature of the protocol (Farcaster is shit, but at least they tried, and in this example you could imagine the interviewer asking the same thing about Nostr).
I imagine that if the interviewer had asked these people who were working (or suggesting) the Nostr DM subscription flow they would have answered: "no, you don't get their email addresses, but you can send them uncensorable DMs!" -- and that, again, is getting everything backwards.
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2024-09-05 22:25:15https://x.com/parkeralewis/status/1831746160781938947 Here's a startling chart from an American staple, Walgreens. The convenience store and pharmacy chain has seen its stock price plummet by more than 67% this year and by more than 90% from its all time high, which was reached in 2015.
The combination of the COVID lock downs and the lax laws around theft that followed were materially detrimental to Walgreens business. The crux of their problem at the moment, however, is a double whammy of those disruptions in their business coupled with the "higher for longer" interest rate policy from the Fed over the last couple of years. As Tuur points out in the tweet above, Walgreens has $34B in debt, which means they definitely have significant interest rate payments they need to make on a monthly basis. Tuur also points out that Walgreens has very little cash compared to their debt obligations. Let's take a look at their balance sheet as of May of this year.
Less than $1B in cash for $34B debt with $67.56B in total liabilities. Even worse, their cash balance was drained by more than 27% over the course of the year between May 2023 and May 2024. As you may notice their total assets fell by more than 15% over the same period. This is because Walgreens understands the dire financial straits it finds itself in and has begun shutting down thousands of their locations across the country.
The recent efforts of Walgreens to sell off their assets to raise cash to pay down their debts seem to be completely ineffective as their cash balance is falling faster than their total assets, which is falling 7x faster than their total liabilities. These numbers are most definitely going to get worse as cascading sell pressure in commercial real estate markets (which is the bucket that Walgreens locations fall into) drive down the value of their assets. Leaving them with less cash to pay down their debts as time goes on. To make matters worse, it puts the institutions that lent money to Walgreens in a terrible position. How many commercial and investment banks has Walgreens tapped to fund their operations with expensive debt? How exposed to Walgreens is any individual lender? Could a default on some or all of their loans catch these financial institutions off sides? If it isn't Walgreens that pushes them off sides, how many more bad borrowers would it take to push them off sides?
As our good friend Parker Lewis points out, the only way the hemorrhaging can be stopped is if the Federal Reserve and Federal Government step in with bail outs in the form of massive liquidity injections via quantitative easing and other emergency measures. On top of this, the Fed and the Federal Government find themselves in a classic catch-22. If they let Walgreens fall into bankruptcy it could set off a domino effect that could exacerbate inflation. Riteaid, a similar retail convenience store and pharmacy chain, filed for bankruptcy last October and is still wading its way through that process. Part of that process has been shuttering many of their storefronts. One has to imagine that since Walgreens and Riteaid are having these problems, some of their other competitors must be feeling the pain as well. If enough of these convenience stores, which tens of millions of Americans depend on for everyday goods, find themselves in a position where they have to shut down their stores it could lead to a supply crunch. People will obviously not be able to get their goods from Riteaid or Walgreens and will flee to alternatives, exacerbating the stress on their supplies, which will drive prices higher.
This is a catch-22 because the only way to avoid this mad dash for consumer goods in the midst of a convenience store Armageddon is to re-introduce ZIRP and flood the market with freshly printed dollars, which will drive prices up as well.
Talk about a rock and a hard place. You better get yourself some bitcoin.
Final thought... Zach Bryan radio crushes.
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@ 126a29e8:d1341981
2024-05-22 06:47:20Esta es la traducción de una carta de Ross Ulbricht que se publicó en su blog en Septiembre de 2019. Podéis leer el artículo original aquí: https://rossulbricht.medium.com/bitcoin-equals-freedom-6c33986b4852
Algo especial sucedió en el primer año después de que Satoshi nos regalara Bitcoin. Algo que nadie esperaba y que muchos pensaban que era imposible. Intenta imaginar Bitcoin en aquel entonces, antes de que pudieras comprar cosas con él, antes de que hubiera un tipo de cambio, antes de que nadie supiera realmente qué pasaría con él, si es que pasaba algo. Bitcoin no empezó como dinero. Se convirtió en dinero, pero lo hizo de forma distinta a cualquier dinero anterior. A pesar de todas las cosas que Bitcoin ha hecho posibles, a pesar de todas las formas en que está cambiando nuestro mundo, no apreciamos plenamente o ni siquiera entendemos lo que sucedió en aquellos primeros días, cuando era sólo un juguete para geeks.
Cualquier otro dinero anterior al Bitcoin -en la larga historia de la civilización humana- se valoraba por razones distintas a su uso como dinero. El ganado en África, los sellos de correos en las prisiones, las conchas marinas y los metales preciosos se han utilizado como dinero y encajan en este patrón. La única excepción es el dinero fiduciario -algo declarado como dinero por una autoridad-, pero incluso las monedas fiduciarias nacionales estuvieron en su día respaldadas por algo con valor previo, como el oro.
Bitcoin cambió todo eso. Bitcoin no tenía ningún valor previo y nadie estaba obligado a utilizarlo, pero de alguna manera se convirtió en un medio de intercambio. Las personas que no entienden y se preocupan poco por Bitcoin pueden, sin embargo, aceptarlo como pago porque saben que puede ser utilizado para pagar por otra cosa o ser intercambiado por dinero convencional.
La gente suele mencionar las pizzas que se compraron por diez mil bitcoins y, en retrospectiva, se burlan del tipo que se comió lo que se convertiría en un almuerzo multimillonario. A mí me interesa más la persona que renunció a dos pizzas en perfecto estado por meros bitcoins. ¿Qué vio en esos bits y bytes, en esa firma digital de algo que la gente llamaba cadena de bloques? Lo que motivó al vendedor de pizzas pudo haber llamado también la atención de los primeros mineros, que no podían vender pero acumulaban alegremente. Quizá inspiró a los que simplemente regalaban bitcoins por miles. Fuera lo que fuese, era algo nuevo.
La teoría económica clásica dice que un intercambio no se produce a menos que ambas partes valoren más lo que reciben que lo que entregan. Entonces, ¿de dónde viene el valor? Bitcoin nunca debería haber despegado, pero lo hizo. Incluso un producto nuevo tiene algún tipo de valor, y los primeros en adoptarlo corren el riesgo de no obtener el valor de su dinero, pero aún así esperan ganar con el intercambio.
En cambio, los primeros usuarios de Bitcoin no tenían ni idea de lo que sabemos ahora. Todo lo que tenían era un sueño, una convicción y el entusiasmo suficiente para convertir un artilugio digital en un fenómeno multimillonario del que sólo estamos empezando a ver los efectos.
Te diré lo que creo que pasó, aunque lo cierto es que nadie lo sabe. Es casi magia que Bitcoin pudiera surgir de la nada y, sin valor previo ni decreto de autoridad, convertirse en dinero. Pero Bitcoin no se originó en el vacío. Fue la solución a un problema con el que los criptógrafos llevaban lidiando muchos años: Cómo crear dinero digital sin autoridad central que no pudiera falsificarse y en el que se pudiera confiar.
Este problema persistió durante tanto tiempo que algunos dejaron la solución a otros y soñaron en cambio con cómo sería nuestro futuro si el dinero digital descentralizado llegara a existir de alguna manera. Soñaban con un futuro en el que el poder económico del mundo estuviera al alcance de todos, en el que el valor pudiera transferirse a cualquier lugar con sólo pulsar una tecla. Soñaban con que la prosperidad y libertad dependieran únicamente de las matemáticas de una encriptación robusta.
Bitcoin nacía pues en terreno fértil y era reconocido por quienes lo habían estado esperando. Fue un momento histórico para ellos, mucho más importante que las pizzas o las facturas de la electricidad generadas por la minería. La promesa de libertad y el encanto del destino dieron energía a la comunidad inicial. Bitcoin se adoptó consciente y espontáneamente como dinero mientras nadie lo veía, y nuestro mundo nunca volverá a ser el mismo.
https://freeross.org
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@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea
2024-08-21 21:37:35hello world
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@ bf95e1a4:ebdcc848
2024-09-24 13:38:58This is the cleaned, AI-generated transcript of Bitcoin Infinity Show #127
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Welcoming George Manolov
Luke: George, welcome to the Bitcoin Infinity Show, thank you for joining us.
George: Thank you, Knut.
Knut: Good to have you here, George.
George: to be here, yeah.
you're here to tell us about the city that I was most surprised by ever. Like, I've never heard of the city before I went to Bulgaria, Yeah, time flies.
Knut: So Plovdiv, Bulgaria, which was amazing, this rich, Thousands of years of history plays with a lot of different eras and different styles of architecture and stuff, really enjoyed Plovdiv, and you have a football team there.
George: yeah, indeed.
George Manolov and Botev Plovdiv
George: Please give us the story about George and Plovdiv Yeah, sure.
Knut: Plovdiv.
George: Sure, sure. So, Plovdiv is, well, I would say it's the oldest living city in Europe, so continuously inhabited. Like you say, not many people know it. I guess, like, we don't have good enough marketing, but, that's probably part of my job right now, right? To spread the word about it. so it's, like the second largest city in the country.
And, yeah, it's just this, it's very, like, I love how you put it because almost nobody has really heard of Plovdiv, right? Most people, when they hear of Bulgaria, they've probably heard of Sofia but Sofia is, okay, but Plovdiv is kind of the chill place, Plovdiv is the place that is actually worth visiting, the place where, people just enjoy going there.
I was born there, right? and, grew up there till 18 or so, then, Studied, lived in Sofia most of the time. And, last year, in kind of summer, I was already kind of way deeper into Bitcoin. I decided I'm going to go full time into Bitcoin, just commit all my time in Bitcoin at the time, educating, publishing books in Bulgarian about Bitcoin, creating my own educational platform.
And then I got, reached out and connected really to the owner of the football club in the city, which is also the oldest football club in the country, Botev Plovdiv, who was, well, he got introduced into Bitcoin himself and he realized it's going to be a very big, project. You know, going to play a central role in where the world is going.
Knut: What is this the owner of the club?
George: That's right. The owner of the club. was like, Hey, I think we can do something unique with Bitcoin because, you know, the club is really a company, right? It's a business on the one hand, but it's a special type of business, it's not where just you produce a certain product or service.
It's really a living organism where people are involved into it, for very emotional reasons. people feel like it's their own and it's not like a small group of people. It's a very large group of people. In our case, we have tens of thousands, arguably more than a hundred, 200, 000 people who care, who watch, who follow the club.
And so on the one hand, like there's many different ways in which we can look into this, but on the one hand. It's for me, what really inspired me and what got me like, Oh my God, like, is this really happening is that we can bring the conversation about Bitcoin from a completely different angle into society to a group of people who for the most part would never really They would like this, they would never listen to podcasts like this, they would never get to any of the kind of places and things we listen to, watch, consume, right?
and people go, You know, people go kind of for bread and circus, right,
Knut: yeah, yeah.
George: for the games. That's what really football is, right? It's fun and it's emotion, it's enjoyment, but then we push them censorship resistance and hard money, right?
And we don't really push it, you know, that's the thing, right? Because are like consistently, progressively, gradually over time, introducing it and finding the best way and the most appropriate way to, yeah, plant that seed. To the minds of the people, into the views of the people and so on and so forth.
so it's really like, you know, what we're trying to build is, we feel we're in a very privileged position, right? because we've been, the first really professional sports club globally, I would say, to have, uh, crypto Bitcoin, you know, people, departments, who is actually full time employed to, you know, think of a way to grow the business, to think of a way to integrate Bitcoin natively, within the various aspects of, of, of the organization, which obviously initially includes like accepting payments and so on and so forth.
But, um, but there's so much more you can do exactly with this type of, Like organization, again, like not, not, not just a business in a traditional sense.
Knut: Yeah. And, uh, won the league, right? Is that, is that right?
George: Yeah, man, like it's, uh, yeah, so we, um, when I started last year, things were super bad. Like exactly one year ago, I was there for the, for one of the first games. It was horrible. Like, I was like, okay, this is a great idea, but if the team is doing so bad and if, uh, if they keep losing and if the fans keep getting, you know, being unhappy, Um, it's not gonna go anywhere, but still, I gave it a, I gave it a go, right, because I was like, okay, I just hope that the sports side guys are going to do their, their part, and I have my opportunity here, um, to, to just like push, to educate, to, To do what, what, what life is giving me an opportunity to do.
And, uh, very fortunately, as we started working, the team started performing better and better and better. We got a completely new coach. We got a new sports director. We, we had a lot of key staff changes across the organization, which, Um, relatively quickly started showing results. So, uh, yeah, like, 10 months later in May, we won the Bulgarian Cup.
Luke: Is that the cup or the league? Like, uh,
George: it's the cup, it's the cup. So, so, I was saying, like, we started very bad in the league. And so, we were doing better and better, but still, like, we finished 9th in the league out of 16 clubs at the end of the day. But which was still okay, because, like, when I joined, like, we were, like,
Luke: Worried about relegation or something like that?
George: there. I mean,
Knut: We're complete, uh, like I've tried to take an interest to football, but like, uh, my ADD just, the brain just wanders away after five minutes and I can't concentrate anymore. So I don't
Luke: a basketball fan.
Knut: Am I now?
Football for Noobs
Knut: Uh, so, uh, what's the difference between the cup and the league? Let's begin there. That's, that's how much of a football noob I
George: So, so pretty much in every country is the same, right? You have a league or a championship where you have, in our case, 16 teams, and every team plays twice against every other team. So home game, away game, and then, you know, you either win three points when you win, or you lose, or you draw, and you, you, you win one point.
And then, so after you play, after you play, in our case, this, what is it, games? You know,
Luke: 30.
George: yeah, about 30. Yeah, right. You're better than Matt, it's obvious. So, um, so once you play these 30 games, um, you, um, yeah, like the team with the most points wins, right? Whereas, uh, the cup is direct elimination
Knut: So quarterfinals, semifinals, all that.
George: exactly. So it's the easier way. So this was the way for us to due to the bad start of the season. This was the way for us to, to achieve something in this season and to achieve something important because what the Cubs gives us as an opportunity and gave us was to play in the European Leagues.
So UEFA Leagues. And we just did that. We played six games. Uh, for the Europe, uh, Europe League and the Europe Conference League.
Knut: Okay. But to, to be in the champions league, that's a totally, you have to, yeah, yeah. You have to win the league and you have to win all sorts of stuff. Like how does that work?
George: yeah. You have to win the league. And then in our case, so in every country it's different, but in our case, we have to win, like we go to qualifications for the Champions League. So it's like, I mean, three to four games. And if we win that, we go to the Champions League.
Knut: Alright,
George: That's the current state of affairs, although that can change over the years.
Knut: alright, uh, it all makes sense to me now, that's a lie, but anyway.
Luke: No, uh, I'll definitely, we'll acknowledge here that I'm more of the, the sports fan, uh, generally here, and I, I follow football, I like, uh, I like European, uh, football, uh, well, and obviously I'm using the correct, uh, term despite my, um, my pseudo American accent, uh. Yeah, anyway, um, uh, no, it's fantastic to see, and I mean, yeah, for the non sports fans, uh, listening to this, I get that
Knut: Well, I am a sports fan, it's just that Starcraft 2 is my sport, and yeah, yeah,
Luke: yeah,
George: eSports.
Knut: yeah, yeah, so I watch, watch Starcraft 2 games. That's what I do for procrastination sometimes.
Luke: valid sports, I'm not going to compare it to other things that aren't
Knut: breakdancing? Is that a valid sport?
Luke: Breakdancing is, um, hmm, interesting. I think anything with points, that judges give points, is kind of not a sport, it's an activity.
Knut: yeah.
Luke: but, yeah, anyway,
Knut: thing to do.
Luke: is a thing to do, yes, definitely, but back to, back to, um, um, Botev Plod, is it Botev, Botev, what's, what's, Botev, Botev Plod, yeah, so, so, um, yeah, yeah, like, the, the, the achievement, winning, winning the cup, I mean, the, The cups are sort of more difficult.
They're both difficult in their own way, right? Like, the cup, you lose one game, you're out, basically, right? But, I mean, the league is like this endurance, achievement, right? You have to perform well over the course of the whole season. But the cheat code, so to say, and I probably subconsciously used the other football team's terminology, who's in the space, Real Bedford, um,
Botev Plovdiv's Bitcoin Strategy
Luke: The, the idea right, if, if I'm getting it, is that you guys would, would keep the Bitcoin in the, in the, the treasury, the, the company, and then over the course of time it's just gonna do the number go up thing and, and the, the club will have more resources.
Right. Is that, is that the idea you're thinking with the, the bitcoin strategy?
George: There's actually many, many things to it. And this is kind of the most, let's say, vanilla type of approach. Yeah, like just buy Bitcoin and hold it on the balance sheet, which is, which is great. But there's actually so many other things you can do. And that's where, because if you just do that, frankly, like, I mean, you don't need me involved, right, much.
I mean, just call Coinbase, whatever, wire the money, crack in and, buy. but with us it's like, really, uh, we see a huge opportunity to, first of all, align our brand with the Bitcoin brand, which is a royalty free, uh, The biggest brand in finance, for sure. One, uh, like it's going to be the biggest brand in the world for sure at some point.
Right. So that's, that's one play. And to do this, it's not enough for you to just buy Bitcoin and hold it on a balance sheet. It's what you need to do is proof of work, right? You need to do things that nobody has ever done. You need to really kind of be creative. Uh, and, and, um, to push the boundaries of what anyone has ever done before, right?
So, so that is, uh, that is my kind of job and it's a lot of, um, a lot of just like, let's, let's think of what, what new things we can do with Bitcoin and sports and football that nobody has ever done. Just because others are focused on the short term things, they're focused on, hitting those, those quick wins, those quick goals, which is why, for example, like a lot of the sports and, and that have, you know, interact, they haven't really interacted outside of Bedford with Bitcoin, right?
It's mostly been crypto because it's just, okay, let's make some quick money. Um,
Luke: usually, it's usually just sponsorships, right?
Knut: yeah,
George: yes. Um, and for us, because on the one hand, like, we're not like Manchester United, right? We're not Chelsea. So we don't have that much to monetize immediately. Like we're a large club, but.
Luke: You're a large club in a local league, which is, which is different from the, it's not one of the leagues that is internationally positioned like that. But, but, I mean, the, the difference between you guys and Bedford that I, that I think is, is really interesting. Like, McCormack, what he, Peter McCormack, what he's doing, I mean, he's, he's taking a club from the bottom and aiming for the top.
But who knows how long that's going to take him to get there, right? But you guys are already in the top of your league, right? Like, in the top league.
George: right, yeah, and also there's, there's different in this, we're in the top of our league. My goal, personally, is to go to Champions League, but this is very hard, right? Because, like, okay, when you start from Peter's ground, like, it's easy, okay, every year you level up, you level up, or, I mean, I'm not gonna say it's easy, but it's easier than, uh, than once you're, you know, at our level.
For us, it's important to play currently every year in European leagues like we've done so far and to every year consistently, like, increase the level of the sports, level of the business department bit by bit, and, but like breaking that point where we, you know, win the league, Where we win several more games and enter the Champions League, that, that's really hard.
I mean, because you're already at that stage where everybody, like, so many teams are so strong, right? So it's um, it takes just a lot of ingredients for you to, to, to hit, uh, in order to win. But we're gonna get there.
Knut: and does the club self custody it's bitcoin? And if so, is it a something out of 11 multisig, that sounds like a football thing?
George: Why so? Ah, yeah, an 11? Nah, nah, fuck that. I mean Nah, even, even 7 Motosick is a, is a killer, but no. Um, yeah, I can't really speak too much about this at this point. Yeah. Um, but, um, but yeah, I mean, we do, of course we do self custody. So that's, that's the approach that we've chosen with kind of a lot of, um, we've chosen to go really pure, pure Bitcoin in terms of the strategy.
And that's how we set ourselves apart. That's how we believe we win the long game because for instance, like we Bitcoin with BTC pay server. Which in my mind they don't even have competition. It's the only like, real, solid, autonomous, sovereign way to accept payments. And it's also the way which makes sense for like, Frankly, any standard business, because like, man, we're selling scarves, we're selling, um, membership boat cards, we're selling jerseys, we're selling basic merch, and if we are to sell it with basically any other service out there, outside of BTC Pay Server, we have to basically, uh, indirectly do KYC, right?
Like, we have to go through KYC, we have to go through KYB, which is ridiculous, um, in my mind. And so, um, so that's why we're exceptionally thankful to B2C Pay Server guys, uh, for what they've built. Uh, it's been like an absolute pleasure to, um, to use their product, to use their service. Uh, we have, you know, outside of B2C Pay, we, uh, we are the first, uh, sports club on Nostr.
Where, uh, we have, uh, actively been posting, exploring, you know, meeting people here. Kind of thinking of what we could do from our angle again, like first, first time on Nostr.
Aqua WAllet
George: Um, we have partnered with, uh, Aqua, JAN3's Aqua wallet, which has a, a Botive skin mode now. So if you go to settings, you can turn Botive mode and then it turns into the colors of the club and, you know, have the picture of the stadium there.
Um,
Luke: I'm using Aqua right now because, uh, uh, usually I like to use Aqua as like a sort of a middle wallet, uh, uh, because it's still slightly slower than other lightning wallets because they, they, the, everything actually lives on, on liquid and then they, they, uh, go out via bolts. Uh, so it's slightly slower than a faster, um, like, like than other, um, more direct lightning wallets.
And so usually when I come to a conference, I'm going to load up a, like a temporary. I don't know, Blink or something like that, but I forgot to do that, so I'm just using my Aqua wallet, and you know what, it's been great here, it's been working, uh, so yeah, we're big fans of Aqua wallet and what
Knut: Yeah, and a BTC pay server. I mean, uh, we can echo everything you said that we, BitcoinInfinity. com, like, and the store here We just fired up. Everything is powered by a BTC pay server, and we just love it. Yes.
Luke: So what was your question about, uh, Aqua?
George: If yours is on BOTEV mode.
Luke: Uh, I don't think I've gone into the settings and changed it to Vaudev mode, I'll have to do that, maybe we'll take
George: It's dark mode,
but cooler.
Luke: Doc dark mode, but cooler. Okay. Okay. Actually that's a, that's a, that's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah. We'll take a, we'll take a picture after, uh, after the episode and we'll de proof, bot, uh, bot e mode, and, uh, uh, post that on Nostr.
How does that sound?
George: Let's go.
Knut: Yeah. Nostr. Um, is there a connection there between both a plot and Nostr while you're doing Nostr stuff as well?
History and Freedom
George: Yeah. Well, look, um, a lot of these things is like, so What Botev Plovdiv stands for, um, very importantly, so the club was named after Hristo Botev, who's, uh, like, one of the most Bulgarians, if the most famous Bulgarian revolutionaries, like, historical figure, uh, he was a poet, he was a revolutionary, he fought for Bulgaria's freedom back in the day,
Luke: Which, which day, which, what day did you
George: uh, 110, uh, what is it, like, 50 years ago or so?
Yeah.
Knut: Mm-Hmm?
Luke: Okay. So, so
Knut: before the Commes.
Luke: ottoman, uh,
George: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He, he, he, he fought for the, for the liberation of Bulgaria from, from the Ottoman Empire. And a lot of what he stands for is this fight for freedom, his fight for liberty. Um, and this, this lives until this very day into the identity of the club and to what we stand for into the songs, into the, into the music.
Um, you know, um, the kind of like what, what our fans also resonate with, um, and, and what they sing like in many, in many ways. Right. So, um, Freedom of speech, freedom of, uh, of like freedom in general is, is a value that is deeply ingrained into kind of like what the club stands for. Um, and, uh, you know, that's why I'm into Bitcoin.
That's why I believe. And that's, that's why I saw this even bigger opportunity. Oh my God, like, how is this happening? There's so many, sometimes, you know, some like weird things happen in life and you have no explanation why and how all these things align. But, but for me, it's like this club was made really to.
to be aligned with BOTEF and to be, uh, to, to, to be aligned with Bitcoin and with Nostr. If I look at all the other clubs in Bulgaria, right, like just in Bulgaria, none of the others, like, there's no this contextual historical background that you can make these connections. But with us, we have it, and what a chance that, like, we have this owner, and he got, like, introduced to it, and then we got connected.
Like, how the hell does this happen, man? I don't know,
Luke: We like to say this, the surreal doesn't end, you know, and like, uh, my, my whole story, I've been talking about this, uh, at the, the conference here is like two years ago was the first time I ever met Bitcoiners here in Baltic Honeybadger. We, we met for the, for the first time, uh, all three of us, uh, met for the first time two years ago, I've been in Baltic Honeybadger and it's like, things, things happen so fast.
Uh, I've, I've, uh, I've thought it was been awesome just following, uh, what you've been doing with the, the club and the story. So great to, Great to get to talk about it, but, uh,
Bitcoin in Football
George: Yeah. No, for, for me, like really the, the most exciting part is really even coming forward. So, uh, because, so now it's been, so we, a long, we announced, uh, publicly that we're doing this, uh, 31st October last year. So the anniversary of the, of the, uh, Bitcoin White paper, um, we've built a lot right. And very, very importantly, I'm super proud, like, I don't know if you saw this, but like a month ago, we played on European League, the UEFA League with Bitcoin straight on our jerseys, which was like, like, when I saw this, I'm like, dude, it's crazy that this is happening.
But, but the best is really yet to come, like, like we like to say. Um, so I, I think we, we're, we have, um, we have still so much more to do. So for me, the next big part, which I'm super excited about literally in the coming month as, uh, as I go back. So is to finally get some of our. Players or at least one or two to get to do something publicly about this, because at the end of the day, that's why for me, the more I do, the more I, uh, play in this arena, I realized this is really a Trojan horse for us to bring Bitcoin into the conversation, into the minds, like I said, of people who otherwise wouldn't and, and our players, you know, especially a few of them, they're really influencers, right?
Um, a lot of people follow them. A lot of people respect them. And, um, and if they do, uh, you know, something meaningful, something cool, something impactful, this is going to have a huge impact onto our forwards. This could very well have impact onto, um, other sportsmen, other football people, other football clubs, right?
Uh, so that's why I'm doing it, right? Really?
Luke: No, this is fantastic, and actually this was exactly where I was hoping to go next, so thank you for queuing that up. But, no, no, the game theory of all this, right? Like, one club getting, Positioning as the, as the Bitcoin club in a league, uh, really means that eventually all the other clubs are going to need to adopt Bitcoin.
If they're going to be able to compete, because if play playing out the game theory, number go up, whatever it is, Bitcoin strategy plays out, you guys are going to be the most financially capable club. Financially sustainable in not very long, you know, assuming everything plays out the way we're thinking it will, right?
So, so other, other clubs then would become incentivized to also adopt Bitcoin. So what, what do you, what do you think about that? Like you, do you, do you see that, uh, happening as well?
George: Yeah, I'm not really sure if it would happen to me. That fast, to be fair. Like, I think it's inevitable, right, obviously, but I think it, yeah, like, I think this definitely takes at least three, four years, maybe more. Um,
Luke: That's, that's still pretty fast.
George: yeah, I guess. I mean, I mean, like, okay, let me define it better. It takes three, four years.
So, for other clubs within our league to start doing something like this, uh, maybe it takes less time for other clubs to realize it, but I think for them to do it, it also depends on our actions, right? So because like, we don't have like a treasury of microstrategy or something, so it's not, and we're not doing like a
Luke: you don't?
George: monthly like leverage on top of leverage on top of another leverage, you know, uh, we're not in, in Michael's privileged position. but we can do other cool things, right? Uh, one of the, um, so this is not yet live and this is not yet happening, but one of the, like two, two projects, let's say, I'm gonna briefly, like, tease here that, that I'm working on that I hope to have very large impact is first, uh, building this, uh, simple tool Uh, called like a Bitcoin, uh, football salary calculator that, uh, it's like really a DCA tool, but like looking back and like tailoring it to our niche where I want to, for us to visually and emotionally Show, um, to players, but also to fans of ours, like what Bitcoin could have done for their remuneration, if you look one year back in time, two years back in time, three years back in time, four years back in time, and for them to really realize, Oh my God, this is a no brainer.
Right? I want to make this mess. And this is hard, right? Um, because like, there's so many tools and like, but I want to be, because the audience is very wide, very different types of audience. I want to make this so that you can consume it in like two, three, four minutes. And you're like, okay, I need to learn more about this.
This actually is interesting. There's like, that's so much dense and emotional and compact information that you're like, Whoa. Why am I not doing this? How did I miss this?
Knut: What, what, what was the name of that website? I, I don't know if it's still up, but bitcoin or shit.com or something like that. So, so it lists if you bought this item when it came out, an iPhone five or whatever, uh, and if you had bought b bitcoin instead.com, I think that that's the, that's the name. So if you bought, uh, if you bought Bitcoin instead, it shows you how much, how much more money you'd have now and how many iPhones you
George: Yeah. Yeah. And of course there's many of these tools, obviously like we've all see them and we all like like them and retweet them and repost them. And it's all great. But I think, at least I hope that we can do something impactful with this. If we really tailor it, compact it to a specific type of niche audience with a specific message designed for them.
And because this audience is also like. A type of audience who can also like, um, you know, bring it to other bubbles that we ourselves are not part of, right? So that's, for example, one like, uh, one like project I'm very, very excited about and I hope we can, um, yeah, we'll bring forward relatively soon.
There's a few moving elements, but definitely in the coming month or two, uh, at most. And then, uh, and then, you know, speaking of the other clubs, what, what I want us to do is what we're working is next year, we're targeting to do, I hope we could do the world's first, uh, Bitcoin, uh, Cup tournament. Uh, for youth players, 70 year old boys who are, you know, right there before they sign their first professional contract, start earning money, for them, first of all, like, it's a Bitcoin football cup, like, it's the first time this, this could potentially ever happen And then it's, it's a football first tournament, right?
This is the, we want to make it like top quality, like really the highest quality when it comes to sports, but then you have Bitcoin involved all over the place, right? In terms of brand, in terms of rewards, in terms of, um, in terms of like plays, um, like, like games and, and interactions, activations, uh, throughout, before, throughout, and after the, And after the event, and for this, I'm targeting to get really like, like big clubs.
I mean, because it's academies, right? I mean, I cannot get the Manchester United first team, just maybe we could get the Manchester United 17 year old team or, you know, another big club. We get some of these, and then like we get their brands, we get them on the focus of Bitcoin. And we drive the conversation faster, you know, not three, four years from now, but Less
Knut: what about, um, like right now there's you and there's, um, you guys and there's a real bed for it, right? Those are the two I know of in Europe. Are you aware of any other clubs that are doing a Bitcoin strategy? I mean, is this virus spreading? Like, have you heard anything like,
George: Um, Oh, there's, uh, there's the Austrian Admira Vakir who have done some integration. So it's a second tier, uh, second league, uh, second league, uh, club that have, uh, that have, uh, you know, they've also had Bitcoin on the, their second team jersey. And, um, and they, they also accept Bitcoin payments, uh, here and there, but you know, the thing is, there's some other clubs, um, there's a Miami, um, not Miami, um, a Hawaiian club that, that is doing, uh, that is doing like their Bitcoin gig,
Knut: yeah, there are other, other sports, right, other sports team and sports teams in other sports that are doing it. But, but for football specifically,
George: which ones?
Knut: Uh, I'm so bad with sports, but wasn't there like a hockey team or a basketball team or
Luke: I'm not aware of any others, actually. Yeah, like, uh, there's been some attempts at
Knut: it's
Luke: an orange colored team or something like
Knut: more the individual athletes,
Luke: Yeah, yeah, there have been individual
Knut: for instance, a
Luke: have been individual
Knut: player, and there was some American football player.
George: There's been individual athletes, a lot of them. There's been, I was asking if you know, but there's been a baseball club in Australia, the Port Heat. Uh, who did kind of a Bitcoin strategy. Uh, but very unfortunately that didn't work out. They kind of started this at the peak of the last bull cycle. And, um, and as I understand, uh, there wasn't like a strong alignment between the owners and the management in terms of like understanding that this is a long game.
So that's why this kind of flopped. Um, but yeah, like I, I think the reason why it's not happening in more, unfortunately, and, and, and I see this even, even within our club, uh, you know, but, but definitely no other clubs because Fiat has permitted sports as well. Right. So all the sports club, uh, clubs or the vast majority in football, for sure.
They're like, you know, on the hamster wheel themselves.
Knut: They're indebted,
George: They're indebted.
Knut: to an extreme level,
George: yeah, like, like fighting for every dollar for every income. So it's, it's hard for you to like, Oh yeah, we're going to have this long term Bitcoin strategy that's going to take like two, three, four, five years to play out.
And we can benefit a lot from it. It's very, very hard in, you know, unfortunately for a large organizations, sports club in particular to To have this realization, to map this out, to get others on board. That's why it's not so popular and uh, and that's why I'm grateful and keep pushing that we have this chance.
Luke: I mean, you make a great point here about essentially the, it's the organizational alignment, right? Like the, the, these are companies, sports clubs are companies. They just have this large, the business is involved around getting fans to come in and consume this sort of marketing. Product, essentially. So it's, it's a certain kind of company that's run a certain way, but just like any other company, you need, you need alignment from the management.
So it's, it's fantastic that, uh, Boteb Plovdiv has, has the, uh, alignment and is, is putting their, their trust in you to, to move this thing forward. And I mean, from the, from the perspective of this thing, Playing out, right? The, the best part that, uh, I think one of the best parts that you, you mentioned again was the, the influencers.
Like you get, you get some players, there's, there's so many angles to, to reach people through this. I think it's, I think it's fantastic. The, uh, orange pilling a player and then they move to another club, but they, they, maybe they don't get to get paid in Bitcoin, but maybe they still put, put their money in, in Bitcoin.
Maybe they even ask their club to, to, uh, pay them in Bitcoin, something like that. And then the, the Questions start getting, uh, asked and all this.
5 Year Goals
Luke: So what, what is the, the goal in, in five years, for example, where, where do you see the club in the five year mark?
George: Oh man. Yeah, in five years, I think we definitely have to be in Champions League. Like in my mind, you know, like people around me like, oh, you're too ambitious. I'm like, man, yeah, like in five years, we definitely have to be in Champions League. Uh, that's, that's my personal goal. On our internal Slack, I have the Champions League icon there.
That's why I'm there, right? Um, so, uh, it's a lot of hard work. Like, it's really a lot of hard work. And it's also not completely dependent on me and my work, to be fair. Like, because, at all. I mean, really, like, uh, I mean, at the end of the day, the most important part is the sports department, right? Uh, in the club.
Um, so that has to continue going well. But, but I think We're going in a good direction there too, because we have the, they're the long term view as well, right. We have our academy internally, which is, yeah, it's one of the best academies. It's the best really academy in terms of infrastructure in the country.
That's why we're also can't afford to think of this Bitcoin Cup tournament, because we have the infrastructure, we have like a super cool stadium, that's crazy. If we can, if we can do a final for, for such a tournament there. Um, so, so we have all the things in place in terms of In terms of assets, I would say, uh, it's just a lot of moving parts.
a lot of work, consistency, and a bit of luck. Always it comes, you know, when, when it comes to, when it comes to football and sports, but, but five years from now, I want us to be in the champions league. I want us to be the absolute, you know, international professional level, uh, Bitcoin level, Bitcoin sports club.
and, uh, and I want for this tournament that I start to be like a, like, like to have the fourth edition by then. Uh, and, and I want to have clubs, but five years is a lot of time, you know, as you say, like, I also want to have other clubs following us by then. I think that's absolutely, absolutely is going to be doable.
Knut: What, what are the, what are the tax laws around Bitcoin in Bulgaria? Like what, are there any issues there? Or like what, is it easy enough,
George: It's kind of okay. Uh, it's kind of okay. So if you just buy Bitcoin and hold it, like you don't, uh, you don't, uh, incur taxes, uh, until you sell it, if you accept Bitcoin for payments, um, and if you don't sell it, you can just, uh, keep it as inventory on your balance sheet. So again, no,
Knut: but there's a capital gains tax or something if you sell it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright.
George: 10%. So it's, it's, uh,
Knut: Pretty good.
George: Yeah, I mean, it's not like El Salvador. Okay. Uh, but, but it's, uh, it's, it's way better than many other places. Um, and, uh, yeah, so we've been looking, looking actually, so I was in El Salvador a couple of months ago, because we've been looking very much to do stuff there.
And we've been, uh, yeah. Um, because we've been, we've been thinking of what to do more with Bitcoin, right? So that's why I said, like, it's not just about buying and accepting Bitcoin. It's about corporate strategies, about branding strategies, about how to make money. Um, it's about education strategies. It's, there's so much around it.
So in terms of corporate strategy, I was, uh, we're very attracted by El Salvador, um, and their, uh, capital markets regulation, because they're basically striving to build capital markets on top of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is legal tender there. They have all kinds of, tax incentives for companies to issue debt or to sell equity.
on their capital, on their, um, well, let's say nascent upcoming capital markets, because it's not like it's, you know, hustling and bustling yet. Um, but, but they're, they've put a lot of the rails, uh, um, or they're building a lot of the rails to, um, to really enable the, the, the creation of Bitcoin based capital markets.
So, um, we've had great talks there. We have meetings with, uh, um, we have. Yeah, with the Bitcoin office, right? Um, so, ideally, like, we're striving to build some connection there and to do something, interesting and world first again from a corporate perspective. It's just that, as many things, it's a little harder than you would expect it to be, or it takes a little more time than, Then you would hope to do it.
But my idea or long term vision, frankly, like what we want to do with Bitcoin, uh, and with the club is to enable our current fans and global fans to become co owners of the club. And that's why, you know, I have big hopes for, uh, for us being able to do this out of El Salvador and through El Salvador, because this would, like from a tax perspective, from a branding perspective, from legal security perspective would be, would be ideal.
It's just that, again, um, my enthusiasm is a little over, uh, ahead of kind of like how, uh, how, how advanced and set up everything there is, but, uh, but we're, we're very actively talking to them. We're working with many parties there, so. Just maybe we can have big news there too.
International and Local Effects
Luke: Well, no, and, and you actually said something great about global fans. I think this is a, a fantastic thing, right? A a again, Bedford is, is similar. They've, they've got, they've got fans all over the world and, and I think for you guys it's like who is going to tune into the Bulgarian football league outside of Bulgaria before, well, not too many people, but now a bunch of Bitcoiners.
If they're into, if they're into football or, or not even, because this is the funny thing. There were, there were a lot of people posting about that. They, they've got, they, they don't usually follow, follow sports at all, but, but they'll follow the Bitcoin team. So the, the funny thing is, I think, I think the first, the first club to adopt Bitcoin in every league is going to get all of these global fans.
And maybe the, maybe the, the second one, the third one, maybe can get some kind of other support, but it's really the first one in every
George: really.
Luke: That, that
George: Not
Luke: That's that. I, I completely agree with you there. It's the, it's the first one
Knut: first mover advantage.
Luke: mover advantage. It's gonna get, it is gonna get all of the, all of the Bitcoiners are gonna now be, be supporting and, uh, uh, yeah.
I mean, have, have you seen, uh, some, some uptick in, uh, kind of international
George: yeah, yeah. So, international but also local. Like, local is very important. Like, we have, like, so many people in the country who's like, just what you say, like, I didn't care about sports or football, like, forever, or at all, ever, but now I follow, now I buy merch, now I come, you know, every now and then they come to games, so
Luke: Well, because there's the bread and circuses thing that you said, it gets tossed around in the Bitcoin world and also some other places on kind of the Twitter sphere and whatever, it's like it's a distraction, that sports is sort of a distraction from clown world basically and it's a way of people to sort of Uh, forget about what's going on around them, but I think that's also missing the, the positives, which it, it's a, it's a community builder, it brings people together, there's a, there's a sense of, of pride in, in something local succeeding, everyone, everyone's happy, there's, there's real economic, uh, effects usually when a, when a local sports team wins, and so, so from, from my perspective, I, I, I think, I think sport is a good thing, and it's, and it's, it's something that, that people can rally around, and so,
George: an amazing thing.
Luke: Yeah.
And, and so what, what are, what are you looking at locally? Like what, what do you hope to have the effect, uh, uh, locally in, in piv?
George: Yeah. Um, yeah, no, look, uh, for me, sports, like, for us, the, the, the, the, about Plovdiv, for me, that's what I realized, like, we're kind of very much into Bitcoin and stuff, obviously, that's our interest, but I think when we go on a Bitcoin standard, Right. And, uh, in general, people start feeling wealthier, opposed to, like, being in the grind.
You're just going to have more time for fun stuff, right? Like playing football, I mean, or volleyball, or whatever your sport is, or, like, going and cheering your team, and, uh, and being part of such a community. And I think that's really what, you know, even Nostr is about. Like it's, Being part of these communities, because that's fun, and like, we as humans, at the end of the day, we are living to be part of communities, right?
And you find your community, you're an active part of it, you contribute to it, you evolve it, right? You build it in one way or another. And unfortunately, you know, today in the fiat world, this is just like A stress valve in many ways, or like you say, like Brothers and Sisters, whatever. Um, but, uh, but I think it can be so much more, right?
It is, but it can be so much more for a larger amount of people and so on and so forth. uh, but yeah, well, back in Plovdiv, man, like, I have big hopes. I really have big, big ambitions there. I want to get Bitcoin into the wallets of, uh, of like tens of thousands of people. I want people to wake up. I want people to see.
Luke: big is piv? How many
George: It's like three, four hundred thousand people. So it's a lot. Uh, our stadium is, uh, 21, 000 seats stadium. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's, it's 19. I wish it was 21.
Luke: Yeah. You'll have to add 2000 more
George: Maybe, yeah, we'll, we'll think of some additional construction.
Luke: the, make the infinity stand when
George: Right. Right. But, uh, but yeah, like the setting was super cool. Like, it's really cool.
Like when it's feel like, man, the atmosphere is amazing. Um, and so it's, and it's really this community that you can feel that people are involved. So it's, it's like consistency and it's social engineering in one way or another, right?
Knut: one of our favorite words,
George: but in a positive way.
Knut: in a positive way, okay.
George: So it's social engineering for us to ingrain Bitcoin and make it part of kind of what people see, do, have, own, interact with, right?
So, uh, I think exactly because of this community element, exactly because, Because, you know, football is a football club and there's this unique living organism we can, we can create this and, you know, it's fascinating. I'm so much into this and there's other people who are so much into this. Oh my god, like, we can make such a big difference.
And, and like in the country. You know, on a political and economic level, they don't get it. Like, they don't see it. They just are in their, you know, like, oh, are we going to accept the euro? Oh, what's happening with the war? I'm like, who cares? Let's build.
Bulgarian Currency Situation
Knut: Yeah, Bulgaria has its own shitcoin, I almost forgot about that, but uh, what's it called again?
George: Kinda. Um, but not quite, to be fair. It's, it's a good coin, uh, not for investing, but, but for medium of exchange is actually decent. Uh, Lev, Lev
Knut: Lev, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah,
George: and I recently got educated about this. So, uh, the lev is pegged to the euro. So, um, uh, so, so that, that is super cool for, for us, for me as a consumer, for businesses, because like the fixed rate.
So for trade is, um, It's, it's good, right? As the world would be in the future. You have one currency, Bitcoin, you don't have the currency exchange risk, right? We don't have it only with the European Union. And the good part with this, so, we got, we got hyperinflation back in 1997. Was really bad. People lost almost everything, everything, in many cases.
Um, and then we got this so called currency board introduced and the currency board is like we have the left, but the left has to be backed up by other currencies. So it's like a stable coin, kind of like how Tether is backed by, by dollars. You know, the levy is backed by euro and like a basket of, I think they have some other currencies and assets, which is cool because the local politicians, they cannot print, they cannot, you know, so, so it's been, it's been, I think, way better than Hungary, Sweden, uh, Finland, you have your, oh
but Sweden I've heard it's kind of bad,
Knut: It's kinda bad, Norway too, like, both Swedish and Norwegian crown, and the crown in Czechia, like the Czech Republic, it's also
George: Yeah.
Knut: I mean, they're all going to shit the smaller
George: So, so for us, it's like, I would say we're better than, than the Corona, the, and, and all these like local currencies, because we kind of just are there to the, peg to the Euro. The local politicians don't have the opportunity to print. So it's, it's a very good position for us to be.
Luke: You, you get the, the negatives of the, the euro. But, but still, I mean, I mean the, the realistically, the dollar at the Euro and maybe the, the Chinese currency are the only, are the only ones that are in the, sort of within our own, within our own lifetimes are, are going to be not as terribly bad against Bitcoin.
But all the other ones are just, are. All the other ones are
Knut: Yeah, I think it's just a matter of time before both, uh, at least Sweden, uh, switches to Euro standard. If not switching to Bitcoin standard happens first, but well, we'll see, we'll see what happens.
George: man. I'm very bearish about the Euro.
Knut: yeah, yeah, it's like,
Luke: It'll be the second last to fall or third last but but yeah it's it's it's it's not going to be the the last and so it's yeah.
Knut: So that is what it is. I mean, speaking of Bulgaria and currencies and stuff,
Bitcoin Adoption in Bulgaria
Knut: like, how is the rest of, how is Bitcoin adoption in general in Bulgaria? What's happening in other places? Like, Plamen opened a bar, I saw, and like, what are the connections? What's happening?
George: It's actually quite cool. I'm, I'm, I'm quite happy with, with how the ecosystem is evolving. There's, there's Plamen, um, with his whole community, like content creation, the conferences he's been doing, which has been like a very, I think he's responsible for like, I don't know, probably like, 000, maybe several 10, 000s of people who have opened their eyes and even if they're not hard bitcoiners, they now own bitcoin.
Uh, so that's huge. We have other content creators also who've had an impact. We have now once or twice per, yeah, about twice per year we have like, uh, A small, uh, merchant, uh, like, conference events, so for merchants to accept Bitcoin. we have these people who are active and who are doing things. Now, actually, yeah, there's something new that's coming up here, uh, literally in Plovdiv is we have this, um, this, uh, great dudes who have this, um, um, it's an application for, uh, ordering food, like takeaway and, uh, what is it, like,
Knut: like Glovo or
George: yeah, yeah, like Glovo, um, but, um, but, um, But it's not like this big corporate thing that, but, but still, it's a very good product and they've integrated accepting Bitcoin there for quite some time now they've made it even easier and they've introduced.
So we have like about, I think it's 15 restaurants in Sofia and like five or so in Plovdiv where through their system, you can order food. And pay with Bitcoin online, or you can also go in the restaurant and pay in Bitcoin online, and they just, um, they just won a, uh, grant from, uh, Bitcoin Beach, uh, and, uh, they're going to use the grant, uh, to, well, the attempt is really to start like a small circular economy, if you would Um, where, so if you go, uh, to one of those restaurants and pay with Bitcoin, you're going to get sats back 10%, and then, um, the restaurant is also going to get 10 percent sats back.
And if you order food, um, through their app, also the driver is going to get, uh, some sats back. And, uh, we've just been discussing, because obviously we're partnering with them, with the football club, so we'll push this out, because some of the restaurants that are there are our, I mean, basically, like, we have two restaurants locally that are partners, we got them in, right, obviously, in the deal, um, So, so that is also like, for me, it's like super cool because now for so far, the club has been pushing Bitcoin.
Now we have two of our restaurant partners who are themselves like hard Botevists, Botefans, and like they're popular. Now they're starting to accept Bitcoin in their, in their two restaurants, right? And they're going to have their campaigns. We're going to push them more. So, um, so I'm really excited about this and fingers crossed this goes well.
We have good metrics because if we have good metrics. Yeah, we'll look for ways to grow this. So there's a lot of grassroots things happening, which I love. On the top, nothing.
Knut: It's the way it's supposed to be.
George: But it's the way it is. Yeah, it's a better
Luke: Yeah it really seems like that you get one or two of these big anchors like like for example you you guys have had that had that conference last couple of years but now with both of Plavdev now Bulgaria is really got a couple of big anchors. Big relative in relative terms, uh, and all of this other stuff can, can start coming up around it.
And, uh, love, love to see it. I mean, he, I mean here, here with Rega, there's Honey Budger has been going for a really long time, and I, and I even think that they are honest about, we, we would, we just talked to, to Max, uh, about this, uh, from Defi and like yeah, there's not much other adoption in, in Lavia and this conference has been going on for a long time.
Exactly. And so it's just like, uh, it's, it's, it's great to see, uh, in, in your case, in Bulgaria's case, that there's, there's more of this, uh, picking up. So, yeah,
George: Well, I think it's really, in our case, I don't know, like it's grassroots, like I said, and I really believe grassroots and then Rio or for the vast majority, Rio adoption comes permissionless life. It comes like it's not forced. You know, there is this point where, okay, there's Plamen, like, he got the inspiration, he makes his content, he does the conferences, Like, our owner, he sees this opportunity for Bitcoin, for the club. He takes the action, right? So it's, it's not like, so it's individuals, right? Taking actions and then, as you have, you know, several of them, maybe others get inspired or get ideas going and that's how the magic happens. And, uh, yeah. Excited about it.
Wrapping Up
Luke: it's awesome, man. Great hear your story. So, was, uh, was there anything else that you wanted to discuss or bring up on this topic?
George: no, I mean, what I would say is absolutely, uh, Please, uh, you know, Knut, you've been, but please, you're absolutely welcome, Luke, join as well, like, both of you should come
Knut: Absolutely. Highly recommend it. I had a great time in Bulgaria, and it's such a fascinating country, it's such a rich history and such a beautiful place, and the food is great, and it's very affordable, it's very, yeah, very
George: like, I have people who come in Plogis specifically to, like, nomads, spend, like, a or a month. So, so please enjoy, visit the game. come spend in the restaurants where they accept Bitcoin, follow us on social media for sure, so, X and Nostr,
Luke: Yes, all the details, please.
Knut: And also like one of the eras, uh, infamous eras of Bulgaria is the commie era, right? Where you can see the impact that system had on the country and how horrid it is. Uh, so it's, it's, uh, that might not be a good pitch for, uh, but that's
Luke: Let him, let him share his social medias, Knut.
George: wait, do you have, do you have something
Knut: no, no, I think like the, The point I was getting to is, if you get to Bulgaria, don't only go to Sofia, go around the rest of the country, because it's not as raped as that town was by, as that city was by communism, all this concrete, yeah, yeah,
George: yeah, the,
Knut: you can really see the impact there. I'm not, um, yeah, this came out totally wrong, but I'm trying to, I'm trying to, To hype Bulgaria here, but also there's a historical lesson to be learned in the country, for sure,
George: sure. It's really like, there's so many different things there. So there's the communist part, there's like fucking amazing nature, there's like
Knut: is everything, yeah.
George: if you're into hiking, there's like, just like from Sofia, what I love about Sofia, like just last week, twice, end of the day, I'm like fucked up, like tired of computer.
40 minutes up and I'm up in the mountains, hiking, in like 2000 meters altitude. Uh, so, so there's all these like super cool things, but on the socials, yeah, we're on Twitter. we're on Nostr, uh, so Twitter is, um, botif underscore, uh, en, on Nostr, uh, we are just botif. Yeah, you can find us.
Luke: going say you're NPUB? No, no, no,
George: I'm still learning it, okay?
Luke: we'll post, you're still learning, we'll post all the details in the show
George: Yes. Yes. And feel free to also check out our website. We have, due to our El Salvadorian, um, kind of project, we already have a Salvadorian website, which is very easy to remember, botif. sv. So you can go there and from there you'll find all the links and information.
Luke: Absolutely fantastic.
Knut: Great! Get the inverse of Clown World. This is a shill. BitcoinInfinityStore. com And thank you very much for coming on,
George: was great having
Knut: Great to have
Luke: George, thanks so much. This has been Bitcoin Infinity Show. Thank you for
-
@ e771af0b:8e8ed66f
2024-09-05 22:14:04I have searched the web for "Find bitcoin block number from historical date" maybe 100 times in my life.
Never again.
You'll need a bitcoin node for this to work. The script is fast.
Install
WoT Install
one liner ```
curl
curl -o fjb.sh https://gist.githubusercontent.com/dskvr/18252c16cf85c06c1ee6cb5ae04a3197/raw/34bad6a35d98501978c8cd0c25b1628db1191cfe/fjb.sh && chmod +x fjb.sh
wget
wget -O fjb.sh https://gist.githubusercontent.com/dskvr/18252c16cf85c06c1ee6cb5ae04a3197/raw/34bad6a35d98501978c8cd0c25b1628db1191cfe/fjb.sh && chmod +x fjb.sh ```
Trust no one.
create file ``` vi fjb.sh
or
nano fjb.sh ```
review, copy and past into file ``` TIMESTAMP=$1 LOWER=0 UPPER=$(bitcoin-cli getblockcount)
while (( LOWER <= UPPER )); do MID=$(( (LOWER + UPPER) / 2 )) BLOCKHASH=$(bitcoin-cli getblockhash $MID) BLOCKTIME=$(bitcoin-cli getblockheader $BLOCKHASH | jq .time)
if (( BLOCKTIME < TIMESTAMP )); then LOWER=$(( MID + 1 )) elif (( BLOCKTIME > TIMESTAMP )); then UPPER=$(( MID - 1 )) else echo "$BLOCKTIME" exit 0 fi
done
echo "$UPPER" ```
give executable permissions
chmod +x ./fjb.sh
Usage
./fjb.sh <timestampSeconds>
It returns block number onlyExample
$: ./fjb.sh 1668779310 763719
-
@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d
2024-01-14 13:55:28O Bitcoin como um sistema social humano
Afinal de contas, o que é o Bitcoin? Não vou responder a essa pergunta explicando o que é uma "blockchain" ou coisa que o valha, como todos fazem muito pessimamente. A melhor explicação em português que eu já vi está aqui, mas mesmo assim qualquer explicação jamais será definitiva.
A explicação apenas do protocolo, do que faz um programa
bitcoind
sendo executado em um computador e como ele se comunica com outros em outros computadores, e os incentivos que estão em jogo para garantir com razoável probabilidade que se chegará a um consenso sobre quem é dono de qual parte de qual transação, apesar de não ser complicada demais, exigirá do iniciante que seja compreendida muitas vezes antes que ele se possa se sentir confortável para dizer que entende um pouco.E essa parte técnica, apesar de ter sido o insight fundamental que gerou o evento miraculoso chamado Bitcoin, não é a parte mais importante, hoje. Se fosse, várias dessas outras moedas seriam concorrentes do Bitcoin, mas não são, e jamais poderão ser, porque elas não estão nem próximas de ter os outros elementos que compõem o Bitcoin. São eles:
- A estrutura
O Bitcoin é um sistema composto de partes independentes.
Existem programadores que trabalham no protocolo e aplicações, e dia após dia novos programadores chegam e outros saem, e eles trabalham às vezes em conjunto, às vezes sem que um se dê conta do outro, às vezes por conta própria, às vezes pagos por empresas interessadas.
Existem os usuários que realizam validação completa, isto é, estão rodando algum programa do Bitcoin e contribuindo para a difusão dos blocos, das transações, rejeitando usuários malignos e evitando ataques de mineradores mal-intencionados.
Existem os poupadores, acumuladores ou os proprietários de bitcoins, que conhecem as possibilidades que o mundo reserva para o Bitcoin, esperam o dia em que o padrão-Bitcoin será uma realidade mundial e por isso mesmo atributem aos seus bitcoins valores muito mais altos do que os preços atuais de mercado, agarrando-se a eles.
Especuladores de "criptomoedas" não fazem parte desse sistema, nem tampouco empresas que aceitam pagamento em bitcoins para imediatamente venderem tudo em troca de dinheiro estatal, e menos ainda gente que usa bitcoins e a própria marca Bitcoin para aplicar seus golpes e coisas parecidas.
- A cultura
Mencionei que há empresas que pagam programadores para trabalharem no código aberto do BitcoinCore ou de outros programas relacionados à rede Bitcoin -- ou mesmo em aplicações não necessariamente ligadas à camada fundamental do protocolo. Nenhuma dessas empresas interessadas, porém, controla o Bitcoin, e isso é o elemento principal da cultura do Bitcoin.
O propósito do Bitcoin sempre foi ser uma rede aberta, sem chefes, sem política envolvida, sem necessidade de pedir autorização para participar. O fato do próprio Satoshi Nakamoto ter voluntariamente desaparecido das discussões foi fundamental para que o Bitcoin não fosse visto como um sistema dependente dele ou que ele fosse entendido como o chefe. Em outras "criptomoedas" nada disso aconteceu. O chefe supremo do Ethereum continua por aí mandando e desmandando e inventando novos elementos para o protocolo que são automaticamente aceitos por toda a comunidade, o mesmo vale para o Zcash, EOS, Ripple, Litecoin e até mesmo para o Bitcoin Cash. Pior ainda: Satoshi Nakamoto saiu sem nenhum dinheiro, nunca mexeu nos milhares de bitcoins que ele gerou nos primeiros blocos -- enquanto os líderes dessas porcarias supramencionadas cobraram uma fortuna pelo direito de uso dos seus primeiros usuários ou estão aí a até hoje receber dividendos.
Tudo isso e mais outras coisas -- a mentalidade anti-estatal e entusiasta de sistemas p2p abertos dos membros mais proeminentes da comunidade, por exemplo -- faz com que um ar de liberdade e suspeito de tentativas de centralização da moeda sejam percebidos e execrados.
- A história
A noção de que o Bitcoin não pode ser controlado por ninguém passou em 2017 por dois testes e saiu deles muito reforçada: o primeiro foi a divisão entre Bitcoin (BTC) e Bitcoin Cash (BCH), uma obra de engenharia social que teve um sucesso mediano em roubar parte da marca e dos usuários do verdadeiro Bitcoin e depois a tentativa de tomada por completo do Bitcoin promovida por mais ou menos as mesmas partes interessadas chamada SegWit2x, que fracassou por completo, mas não sem antes atrapalhar e difundir mentiras para todos os lados. Esses dois fracassos provaram que o Bitcoin, mesmo sendo uma comunidade desorganizada, sem líderes claros, está imune à captura por grupos interessados, o que é mais um milagre -- ou, como dizem, um ponto de Schelling.
Esse período crucial na história do Bitcoin fez com ficasse claro que hard-forks são essencialmente incompatíveis com a natureza do protocolo, de modo que no futuro não haverá a possibilidade de uma sugestão como a de imprimir mais bitcoins do que o que estava programado sejam levadas a sério (mas, claro, sempre há a possibilidade da cultura toda se perder, as pessoas esquecerem a história e o Bitcoin ser cooptado, eis a importância da auto-educação e da difusão desses princípios).
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2024-09-28 05:24:34Table Of Content
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Types of Bitcoin Wallets
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Security Measures
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Conclusion
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FAQ
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that is used as a means of payment and as an investment. It is a digital currency that is based on a decentralized blockchain network. One of the most important aspects of Bitcoin is the security of the wallet that holds it. In this article, we will cover everything you need to know about Bitcoin wallets and security.
Types of Bitcoin Wallets
There are several types of Bitcoin wallets, each with its own set of features and security levels. Here are some of the most common types of Bitcoin wallets:
Hardware Wallets
Hardware wallets are physical devices that store your Bitcoin offline. They are considered to be the most secure type of Bitcoin wallet as they are not connected to the internet.
Software Wallets
Software wallets are applications that can be downloaded on your computer or mobile device. They are easy to use and are a popular choice for beginners.
Paper Wallets
Paper wallets are simply printed pieces of paper that contain your Bitcoin address and private key. They are not as secure as hardware wallets but are still a good option for storing small amounts of Bitcoin.
Web Wallets
Web wallets are online wallets that are accessible through a web browser. They are convenient but are considered to be less secure than other types of wallets.
Security Measures
No matter what type of Bitcoin wallet you choose, there are several security measures you can take to keep your Bitcoin safe:
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Use a Strong Password: Make sure your password is at least 8 characters long and includes a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols.
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Enable Two-Factor Authentication: Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to your account by requiring a code in addition to your password.
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Keep Your Private Keys Safe: Your private keys are what give you access to your Bitcoin. Make sure to keep them in a safe place and never share them with anyone.
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Regularly Update Your Software: Make sure to keep your Bitcoin wallet software up to date to ensure that any security vulnerabilities are patched.
Conclusion
Bitcoin wallets are an essential part of owning and investing in Bitcoin. By choosing the right type of wallet and implementing security measures, you can keep your Bitcoin safe from hackers and other threats. Remember to always keep your private keys safe and to regularly update your software to ensure the security of your Bitcoin wallet. With the information provided in this article, you now have everything you need to know about Bitcoin wallets and security.
FAQ
What happens if I lose my Bitcoin wallet? If you lose your Bitcoin wallet, you will lose access to your Bitcoin. That's why it's important to keep your private keys safe and to have a backup of your wallet.
Can I store my Bitcoin on an exchange? While it is possible to store your Bitcoin on an exchange, it is not recommended as exchanges are often targeted by hackers.
Can I recover my Bitcoin if I forget my password? If you forget your password, you may be able to recover your Bitcoin using your recovery seed. However, if you lose your recovery seed, you will not be able to recover your Bitcoin.
That's all for today
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2024-09-24 12:29:11OBJECTIVES
To establish a guideline for the management of Acute Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) in our center, for both outpatient and hospitalized patients, with the aim of:
- Reducing morbidity and mortality associated with the condition.
- Improving the quality of medical care and optimizing hospital resources.
- Delaying the progression of antimicrobial resistance.
SCOPE
All patients over 16 years of age diagnosed with Acute Community-Acquired Pneumonia who are being followed by our institution in an outpatient or inpatient setting.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Physicians from the Medical Clinic, Medical Emergency, Coronary Unit, and Intensive Care Service. Nursing Coordination. Pharmacy Service. Infection Control Committee.
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Adults. Recommendations for its management. Lopardo et al. MEDICINA (Buenos Aires) 2015; 75: 245-257. Argentine Society of Infectiology. ISSN 0025-7680
- Diagnosis and Treatment of Adults with Community-acquired Pneumonia. An Official Clinical Practice Guideline of the American Thoracic Society and Infectious Diseases Society of America. 2019. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Volume 200 Number 7 | October 1, 2019. DOI: 10.1164 rccm.201908-1581ST
- ERS/ESICM/ESCMID/ALAT guidelines for the management of severe community-acquired pneumonia. Intensive Care Med (2023) 49:615–632 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-023-07033-8
- Antimicrobial resistance. WHO. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial resistance
- Internal Medicine. Farreras-Rosman. Volume I. Elsevier. 2008 Edition.
- Considerations for the Responsible Use of Antibiotics in COVID-19. Argentine Society of Infectiology. 2020. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BmXD5x6rEpSqDIc8urccdqLcZKkP3U7X/view
- Penicillin Allergy. Castells M. New England Journal of Medicine, 381(24), 2338–2351. doi:10.1056 nejmra1807761
INTRODUCTION
Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, affecting patients of all ages and with various risk factors. Proper management in both outpatient and hospital settings is crucial for improving clinical outcomes and reducing associated complications.
This document aims to standardize and optimize the treatment of pneumonia based on the most current evidence and recommendations from leading scientific organizations. It seeks to be a practical tool for healthcare professionals, providing a clear and concise approach to the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of patients with pneumonia.
FOUNDATIONS. HOSPITAL SITUATION ANALYSIS:
- Pneumonias represent a significant burden on the healthcare system due to their high prevalence and potential severity, underscoring the need for a standardized approach.
- A clinical guideline facilitates decision-making, ensuring that all healthcare professionals follow a uniform protocol that integrates best practices, thereby reducing variability in treatments. This allows for better resource utilization, optimizing antibiotic use and reducing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance.
- Antimicrobial resistance has been proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and related organizations as the leading cause of death and hospital expenditure by the year 2050.
- Pneumonias in our center, in their various presentations, have shown significant prevalence in hospitalizations according to measurements taken in 2024.
- In our center, antibiotics, as a whole, have been the main source of financial losses related to drugs during the billing cycle from June 2023 to July 2024.
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SITUATION:
Pneumonias represent a global incidence of 1.26 cases per 1000 inhabitants. It has been documented in some centers that this incidence can increase in patients over 65 years of age, representing 34 cases per 1000 inhabitants. Outpatient mortality varies between 0.1% and 5%, but can reach up to 50% in hospitalized patients, especially those requiring Intensive Care Unit stay.
The main risk factors for developing pneumonia are:
- Chronic Heart Disease.
- Chronic Respiratory Disease.
- Chronic Kidney Disease.
- Advanced-stage HIV infection.
- Immunosuppressed. Solid Organ Transplant. Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.
- Diabetes mellitus.
- Neoplasms.
- Smoking.
- Chronic use of Corticosteroids or Proton Pump Inhibitors.
- Multiple Myeloma and Hypogammaglobulinemia.
- Anatomical or Functional Asplenia.
The main causative agents of acute community-acquired pneumonia in our setting are:
- Respiratory Viruses (Influenza, SARS-CoV2, RSV).
- Streptococcus pneumoniae.
- Haemophilus influenzae.
- Staphylococcus aureus.
- Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydophila pneumoniae.
It should be noted that Streptococcus pneumoniae shows a good sensitivity pattern to penicillin and continues to be the most frequent causative microorganism. Haemophilus influenzae only shows beta-lactamase production in 10% to 23% of cases. Staphylococcus aureus in our setting has a low incidence of methicillin resistance, although this possibility should be considered in certain situations and severe clinical presentations. Given these considerations, beta-lactams remain the first-line treatment.
Regarding Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates, they will only be relevant in patients with risk factors such as bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, prior treatment with corticosteroids, or broad-spectrum antibiotics.
Emerging pathogens of some relevance include the eventual emergence of cases caused by Leptospira interrogans, Legionella pneumophila, and Hantavirus. These cases should always be associated with a specific epidemiological link.
DIAGNOSIS
The diagnosis of pneumonia is based on clinical and imaging criteria. For the diagnosis of Acute Community-Acquired Pneumonia, we will consider:
Symptoms and Clinical Signs (at least 1 of the following): * Fever. * Altered general condition. * Cough. * Sputum production. * Chest pain. * Dyspnea. * Hemoptysis.
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Radiopacity on Chest X-ray (Alveolar consolidation with or without air bronchogram, interstitial pattern, bronchiectasis, cavitation, pleural effusion, new radiopacity, etc.). It is always recommended to request both frontal and lateral views.
Chest CT remains a method with greater sensitivity and specificity for evaluating lung parenchyma compared to conventional X-ray in infectious pathology. However, a simple chest X-ray is an adequate method for the initial evaluation of the condition and its complications, which is why a CT scan is not recommended as an initial method for evaluating pneumonia and should always be preceded by a conventional chest X-ray.
CT studies should be considered in the following situations:
- Respiratory failure.
- Evaluation or suspicion of differential diagnoses to Acute Community-Acquired Pneumonia.
- Evaluation or suspicion of complications of Acute Community-Acquired Pneumonia.
- Evaluation of radiological patterns that are not entirely clear on the chest X-ray.
CHOICE OF CARE SITE AND TREATMENT
For the choice of care site and treatment of pneumonia, it is recommended to complement clinical criteria with validated mortality scores associated with risk factors and clinical status.
CURB-65 (1 point for each item): * Confusion * Elevated urea greater than 90 mg/dl * Respiratory rate greater than 30/minute * Systolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure < 60 mmHg * Age equal to or greater than 65 years
Results:
- Groups 0 to 1: Outpatient management.
- Groups 1-2: Admission to General Ward.
- Groups 3-5: Admission to Intensive Care Unit.
- Appendix: A pulse oximetry reading of less than 92% is recommended as an independent factor for inpatient management under expert recommendation to complement the score.
COMPLEMENTARY STUDIES AND CULTURE SAMPLING
Once the diagnosis is completed, the patient's risk stratification and the choice of admission site are made, the following complementary studies and culture sampling are recommended to proceed with the patient's study during treatment.
Outpatient patient: * Pulse Oximetry. * Laboratory routine (complete blood count, glucose, urea, creatinine, liver function tests).
Inpatient patient in general ward: * Pulse Oximetry. * Laboratory routine (complete blood count, glucose, urea, creatinine, liver function tests). Acid-base status if pulse oximetry is less than 92%. * Sputum sample (Gram stain, culture, antibiogram). * Blood cultures. * In the presence of pleural effusion: Thoracentesis. Physical-chemical study for Light's Criteria. Direct and Culture of Pleural Fluid.
Inpatient patient in intensive care unit: * Pulse Oximetry. * Laboratory routine (complete blood count, glucose, urea, creatinine, liver function tests) plus acid-base status. * Sputum sample (Gram stain, culture, antibiogram). Tracheal aspirate, Mini-BAL, or BAL sampling for patients requiring ARM upon admission. * Blood cultures. * Urinary antigen for detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae, if available in microbiology. * In the presence of pleural effusion: Thoracentesis. Physical-chemical study for Light's Criteria. Direct and Culture of Pleural Fluid.
Special considerations for Viral Pneumonias: * We recommend performing a viral panel for Influenza A/B for any pneumonia presenting at least 1 risk factor mentioned during periods of viral circulation in the community. * We recommend performing a viral panel for SARS-CoV2 for any pneumonia presenting at least 1 risk factor mentioned during periods of viral circulation in the community or having epidemiological criteria of a suspected COVID-19 case. * The Infection Control Committee will timely inform based on the National Epidemiological Bulletin about the presence of circulating respiratory viruses in our setting.
Special considerations for Atypical Pneumonias and HIV Testing: * We recommend serological testing for IgM/IgG for Chlamydia and Mycoplasma for any pneumonia presenting a subacute evolution at the time of clinical presentation or clinical-radiological dissociation in its presentation. * In the suspicion of pneumonia caused by emerging pathogens (Legionella pneumophila, Leptospira interrogans, Hantavirus), consider the necessary epidemiological link as a prior epidemiological background before requesting specific diagnostic tests. * HIV testing is recommended for all pneumonias, with special emphasis on those that do not present the conventional risk factors mentioned.
ANTIMICROBIAL TREATMENT AND DURATION OF TREATMENT:
Directed antimicrobial treatment will be based on the present risk factors and the choice of care site and treatment.
Outpatient patient <65 years and without risk factors:
First choice: * Amoxicillin 875mg/12h orally for 5-7 days.
Scheme for history of allergy to Beta-Lactams: * Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally for 5 days or * Azithromycin 500-1000mg/day for 5 days.
Outpatient patient >65 years or with at least 1 risk factor:
First choice: * Amoxicillin-Clavulanate 1g/12h orally for 7 days.
Scheme for history of allergy to Beta-Lactams: * Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally for 5 days or * Azithromycin 500-1000mg/day orally for 5 days.
Inpatient patient in General Ward <65 years and without risk factors:
First choice: * Ampicillin-Sulbactam 1.5g/6h IV +/- Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally/IV for 5-7 days.
Scheme for history of allergy to Beta-Lactams: * Ceftriaxone 1g/day IV for 5-7 days.
Inpatient patient in General Ward >65 years or with at least 1 risk factor:
First choice: * Ampicillin-Sulbactam 1.5g/6h IV for 7 days +/- Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally/IV for 5 days.
Scheme for history of allergy to Beta-Lactams: * Ceftriaxone 1g/day IV for 7 days.
Inpatient patient in Intensive Care Unit:
First choice: * Ampicillin-Sulbactam 1.5g/6h IV for 7 days +/- Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally/IV for 5 days.
Scheme for history of allergy to Beta-Lactams: * Ceftriaxone 1-2g/day IV for 7 days.
Special Considerations for Inpatients:
Scheme for risk factors for Pseudomonas aeruginosa*: * Piperacillin/Tazobactam 4.5g/6h IV or Cefepime 2g/8h IV for 7 days +/- Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally/IV for 5 days.
Scheme for risk factors for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus**: * Add to conventional scheme: Vancomycin 15-20mg/kg/8-12h IV +/- Clindamycin 600mg/8h IV for 7-14 days.
Aspiration Pneumonia:
First choice: * Ampicillin-Sulbactam 1.5g/6h IV for 5-7 days.
*Risk factors for Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, prior treatment with corticosteroids or broad-spectrum antibiotics. Documented isolates in respiratory cultures of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
**Risk factors for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Previously healthy young patients with severe, necrotizing, and rapidly progressive pneumonia, cavitary infiltrates, hemoptysis, prior influenza, intravenous drug users, rash, leukopenia, recent or concomitant skin and soft tissue infections.
The routine use of corticosteroids in pneumonia is not recommended.
CONSIDERATIONS ON ANTIMICROBIALS IN VIRAL AND ATYPICAL PNEUMONIAS:
In the case of a concomitant antigen test or PCR for Influenza A/B or SARS-CoV2, the following treatment recommendations are made:
Influenza Virus A/B:
First choice: * Oseltamivir 75mg every 12 hours orally for 5 days. Other considerations: * In cases of Respiratory Failure in ARM or Obesity: Oseltamivir 150mg every 12 hours orally for 5 days. * Concomitant antimicrobial treatment is recommended as there is documented frequent association of Influenza Virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae.
COVID-19: * First choice is conventional treatment with dexamethasone 8 mg IV for 10 days in the event of respiratory failure. * Routine antimicrobial treatment is not recommended for COVID-19; therefore, upon a positive SARS-CoV2 test, it is recommended to discontinue antimicrobials.
Consider maintaining concomitant antimicrobial treatment only in suspected bacterial infection due to severe presentation: * Focal alveolar consolidation +/- air bronchogram in imaging studies plus 1 of the following: sepsis, risk factors, and/or immunosuppression.
Atypical Pneumonias with Seroconversion for Chlamydia or Mycoplasma:
First choice: * Clarithromycin 500mg every 12 hours IV/orally for 14 days. * Azithromycin 500-1000mg/day IV/orally for 14 days. * Doxycycline 100mg every 12 hours IV/orally for 14 days.
CONSIDERATIONS ON PENICILLIN AND OTHER BETA-LACTAM ALLERGIES:
Patients who report penicillin allergy are often misclassified. It is documented that more than 95% of patients who report penicillin allergy can receive beta-lactams without any complications. Additionally, penicillin hypersensitivity diminishes over the years.
Allergy to one beta-lactam does not imply the impossibility of using the entire spectrum of beta-lactams, as there are only a few cases of cross-hypersensitivity.
Therefore, we recommend the safe use of beta-lactams except in cases of a reported or documented history of severe allergy to penicillin (anaphylaxis).
In doubtful cases or confirmed allergy events during hospitalization, a consultation with an Allergy Specialist is available to evaluate the case.
FOLLOW-UP IN OUTPATIENT TREATMENT MODALITY
Patients undergoing pneumonia treatment in an outpatient setting can continue their treatment at home, considering advising them to seek further consultation in case of alarm signs (fever that does not subside after 48 to 72 hours, dyspnea, hemoptysis, chest pain, etc.). Nevertheless, it is good practice to consider a follow-up consultation in the emergency department or clinic after 48 to 72 hours of starting antibiotic therapy.
It is not routinely recommended to repeat a chest X-ray or CT scan to evaluate the evolution of pneumonia under outpatient treatment. Only in the case of suspected complications or unfavorable evolution. A follow-up at the end of treatment with the primary care physician is suggested.
FOLLOW-UP IN INPATIENT TREATMENT MODALITY
For hospitalized patients, we should consider transitioning from parenteral medication to oral when the following conditions are met
- Completion of 48 hours of parenteral treatment.
- Presence of a 24-hour afebrile period, with hemodynamic stability and significant clinical improvement.
- Availability of the oral route.
It is not routinely recommended to repeat a chest X-ray or CT scan to evaluate the evolution of pneumonia under outpatient or inpatient treatment. Only in the case of suspected complications or unfavorable evolution.
PREVENTION
The prevention of pneumonia is based on timely immunization with pneumococcal vaccines, influenza vaccination, and COVID-19 vaccination according to the immunization recommendations and current schedule from the Ministry of Health.
ICD-11 CODING
- CA40 - Pneumonia.
- CA40.0 - Bacterial Pneumonia.
- CA40.1 - Viral Bronchopneumonia.
- CA40.2 - Fungal Pneumonia.
- CA40.Z - Pneumonia, organism unspecified.
Autor
Kamo Weasel - MD Infectious Diseases - MD Internal Medicine - #DocChain Community npub1jdvvva54m8nchh3t708pav99qk24x6rkx2sh0e7jthh0l8efzt7q9y7jlj
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2024-08-18 21:01:07