@ 044da344:073a8a0e

Meine Karriere als Auftragsforscher neigt sich ihrem Ende entgegen. In zwei Wochen ist der Forschungsverbund „Das mediale Erbe der DDR“ Geschichte. Gerade hat mir der Geldgeber mitgeteilt, dass er sich nicht mehr Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung nennt, sondern Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt. BMFTR statt BMBF. Bitte, sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, verwenden Sie ab sofort nur noch das neue Logo. Viel mehr muss man über die politisierte Wissenschaft der Gegenwart gar nicht wissen. Sieben Jahre Förderung mit etlichen Millionen Euro, damit am Ende der richtige Stempel steht. Es soll mir keiner erzählen, dass das den Nachwuchs nicht formt.

Ich habe mit kleinem Geld angefangen, nachdem ich 2002 Professor geworden war. An der LMU in München hatte ich eigentlich alles, was ich brauchte. Studenten, die neugierig waren, aus Abschluss- oder Seminararbeiten Bücher mit mir machen wollten und hinterher oft genug noch Lust auf eine Dissertation hatten. Aufträge ergaben sich eher zufällig aus dem, was wir ohnehin machten. Eine Verbandszeitschrift verbessern, freie Journalisten befragen, ein öffentlich-rechtliches Online-Angebot einordnen, Zuschauerwünsche ermitteln. Ich habe dabei schnell gelernt, dass sich das nicht lohnt. Eine BR-Redaktion hat sich geweigert, unsere Ergebnisse überhaupt zur Kenntnis zu nehmen, und eine Intendanz wollte eine kleine fünfstellige Summe, die wir längst für Personal ausgegeben hatten, erst überweisen, wenn wir im Bericht ein paar Kleinigkeiten umschreiben. Ich dachte: Lass die anderen den Euros nachlaufen. Ich mache einfach mein Ding.

Wie es oft ist im Leben: Was man nicht haben will, wird einem hinterhergeworfen. Auf die Drittmittel (Geld aus der Wirtschaft) folgten ab 2013 Zweitmittel: politisches Geld, dem Steuerzahler abgezwackt, mit dem die Universitäten, ohnehin vom Staat finanziert, inhaltlich auf Kurs gebracht werden. Ich war Sprecher in drei interdisziplinären Forschungsverbünden. ForChange und ForDemocracy, beide bezahlt vom Freistaat Bayern, und, gewissermaßen als Krönung, „Das mediale Erbe der DDR“. Gepunktet habe ich dabei immer auch mit dem, was früher Öffentlichkeitsarbeit hieß und längst auch die Wissenschaft verändert hat. In Kurzform: Reichweite ist mindestens so wichtig wie Tiefe. Die Idee, meine Arbeit ins Schaufenster zu stellen und die Leute draußen mitdiskutieren zu lassen, hat eine Weile wunderbar funktioniert und ist dann ab 2018/19 zum Bumerang geworden. Aber das ist eine andere Geschichte.

Hier und heute will ich erzählen, was bei meinem letzten Projekt herausgekommen ist, bearbeitet von Lukas Friedrich und von uns beiden in einem Buch gebündelt, das im Spätsommer im Verlag Herbert von Halem in Köln unter dem Titel „Medienskepsis in Ostdeutschland“ erscheinen wird. Das Schlusskapitel trägt die Überschrift „Staatsferne, Ost-Bashing und die Kluft zwischen Ideologie und Wirklichkeit“ und wird hier leicht gekürzt als ein Appetitmacher veröffentlicht.

Ein Fazit zu den Wurzeln der „Medienskepsis Ost“

Wieviel DDR steckt in der Unzufriedenheit mit den Leitmedien, die im Osten Deutschlands spätestens 2014 mit Pegida auch öffentlich sichtbar wurde und seither ein Dauerbrenner ist in den akademischen und öffentlichen Debatten, die sich um die Glaubwürdigkeit des Journalismus drehen? Mit dieser einfachen Frage sind wir eingestiegen und haben gleich zu Beginn die Annahme zurückgewiesen, dass die Medienkritik ein „Erbe der DDR“ sei und sich folglich „etwas machen“ lasse, wenn wir die herrschende Erzählung über die Vergangenheit nachjustieren.

Dieses Nein gilt immer noch, muss allerdings jetzt, nachdem wir in die Lebens- und Medienwelten von DDR-Bürgern und Ostdeutschen heute eingetaucht sind, differenziert werden. Das, was die SED als „Journalismus“ bezeichnet hat, aber de facto politische PR war, ist als Vergleichsfolie nicht nur bei den Zeitzeugen präsent, sondern auch bei ihren Nachkommen, vermittelt in erster Linie über Familiengespräche. Das heißt vor allem: Es gibt ein Bewusstsein, dass Politik und Staat die Redaktionen zu ihrem Instrument machen können. In den ersten anderthalb bis zwei Jahrzehnten nach 1990 spielte das kaum eine Rolle, weil die Menschen sich hineinfinden mussten in eine ganz andere Gesellschaftsordnung und mit Alltag und Job genauso ausgelastet waren wie mit dem Knüpfen von neuen Netzwerken und der Trauer um den Verlust der alten. „Ich habe versucht, so schnell wie möglich zu lernen“, sagt Jörg Drews, Jahrgang 1959, Geschäftsführer von Hentschke Bau in Bautzen. Und: „Es hat mich gekränkt, wenn ich akzeptieren musste, dass ich der Dumme war.“ Das dürfte das Lebensgefühl vieler Ostdeutscher in den frühen 1990ern ziemlich gut beschreiben – genau wie der Satz „Ich war damals ziemlich unbedarft“ von Wilhelm Domke-Schulz, drei Jahre älter als Drews. Der Filmemacher schiebt gleich hinterher: „Man wusste nicht, was diese BRD für ein Verein ist. Man war ja nie dort gewesen. Ich war mir sicher, dass ein paar Sachen bleiben werden. Nie wieder Faschismus, nie wieder Krieg. Und ansonsten kann man sich überraschen lassen. Die Überraschung sah dann anders aus. Die DDR hat keine Kriege geführt. Die BRD schon. Und mit dem Faschismus: Da müsste ich jetzt ein bisschen ausholen.“

Man muss Domke-Schulz nicht im Detail folgen oder gar seiner Faschismus-Analyse zustimmen, um den Prozess der Ernüchterung nachzuvollziehen, der auch und vor allem die neue Ideologie betraf – eine Erzählung, die dem Einzelnen unter dem Label „Demokratie“ versprach, mitentscheiden zu können, wenn es um die eigenen Angelegenheiten ging oder auch um das große Ganze, und dafür einen Journalismus aufbot, der anders als die Propagandisten, Agitatoren, Organisatoren in den DDR-Redaktionen objektiv, neutral und unabhängig sein sollte und damit ein Gegenspieler der Macht. Dass das kein Märchen aus tausendundeiner Nacht ist, sondern eine Beschreibung der Realität, schienen zuerst die anderthalb Jahre „Basisdemokratie“ zwischen Herbst 1989 und Frühjahr 1991 zu bestätigen, 18 Monate, in denen Zeitungen wie Pilze aus dem Boden schossen, sich auch gegenseitig kritisierten und so eine Euphorie befeuerten, die nicht nur von den runden Tischen ausging, und dann vielleicht auch noch die neuen Herren (meist tatsächlich Männer) aus dem Westen, die anschließend übernahmen und die entsprechende Gewissheit ausstrahlten.

Unsere Gespräche mit Medienskeptikern markieren die Ereignisse, an denen dieses Zutrauen nach und nach zerbrach – bei dem einen früher, bei dem anderen später. Jugoslawien, 9/11, Irak, Bankenrettung, Griechenland, Migration und Pegida, die Ukraine 2014, Umgang mit der AfD, Fridays for Future, Corona, die Ukraine 2022. Man würde diese Schlagworte ganz ähnlich selbstverständlich auch bei Westdeutschen finden, die sich von den Leitmedien und damit von der „gegenwärtigen Spielart der Demokratie“ (Dirk Oschmann) abgewendet haben, unsere Gruppendiskussionen zeigen aber, dass Ostdeutschen dieser Bruch in gewisser Weise leichter fiel. Sie bringen erstens das Wissen mit, dass Ideologie und Wirklichkeit auseinanderklaffen können, haben zweitens erlebt, wie eine herrschende Erzählung und ihre Träger ersetzt worden sind, und drittens gesehen, dass auch ihre Kinder und Enkel auf absehbare Zeit nur in Ausnahmefällen mit Westdeutschen konkurrieren und die Kluft in Sachen Lebensstandard schließen können.

Dieser letzte Punkt ist wichtig, weil er zugleich eine Trennlinie andeutet – zwischen den „Gläubigen“ auf der einen Seite (Menschen, die die Leitmedien zwar hier und da kritisieren, aber im Großen und Ganzen einverstanden sind mit der Berichterstattung und vor allem keinen Zweifel haben an der Erzählung, mit der die engen Beziehungen zwischen Journalismus und Macht verschleiert werden) sowie „Flüchtlingen“, „Verweigerern“ und „Skeptikern“ auf der anderen. Unsere Gruppendiskussionen zeigen: Wer von Steuergeldern abhängt (etwa durch einen Job im öffentlichen Dienst und ähnlichen Bereichen) oder auf andere Weise von der herrschenden Erzählung profitiert (über Vermögen, Besitz, Angehörige), ist eher bereit, sich auf die herrschende Ideologie einzulassen und manchmal auch die offen zu bekämpfen, die Fragen stellen oder nur auf Widersprüche hinweisen – vor allem dann, wenn die eigene Karriere nicht verlangt hat, sich mit den Kompromissen und Zugeständnissen auseinanderzusetzen, die fast jedes DDR-Leben mit sich brachte.

Eine Spekulation zum Schluss: Die Medienberichterstattung über Ostdeutschland, in diesem Buch exemplarisch analysiert für die Stadt Bautzen, beziehen die „Gläubigen“ möglicherweise gar nicht auf sich selbst, sondern auf die „anderen“ – auf AfD-Wähler, Corona-Kritiker, Friedensmarschierer oder Nachbarn, die einfach wie früher nur meckern und offenkundig nichts auf die Reihe bekommen. Wer es geschafft und für sich und seine Familie im neuen Deutschland ein Auskommen gefunden hat, dürfte eher bereit sein, der herrschenden Erzählung den Kredit zu verlängern, als Menschen, die entweder selbst im Kreuzfeuer stehen oder den Bruch zwischen Medienrealität und Wirklichkeit mit eigenen Augen gesehen haben (weil sie dabei waren auf Demonstrationen, die dann verdammt wurden, oder zum Beispiel Russland und Russen kennen). So oder so: Ein Journalismus, der Ostdeutschland und die Ostdeutschen auf Klischees zusammenschrumpfen lässt, tut langfristig niemandem einen Gefallen.

Titelbild: Pegida 2015. Foto: Opposition 24, CC BY 2.0

Michael Meyen: Videos

Freie Akademie für Medien & Journalismus

Unterstützen

@ f3328521:a00ee32a

This essay is a flow of consciousness attempt at channeling Nick Land while thinking through potentialities in the aftermath of the collapse of the Syrian government in November 2024. Don't take it too seriously. Or do...

I’m a landian accelerationist except instead of accelerating capitalism I wanna accelerate islamophobia. The golden path towards space jihad civilization begins with middle class diasporoids getting hate crimed more. ~ Mu

Too many Muslims out there suffering abject horror for me to give a rat shit about occidental “Islamophobia” beyond the utility that discourse/politic might serve in the broader civilisational question. ~ AbuZenovia

After hours of adjusting prompts to break through to the uncensored GPT, the results surely triggered a watchlist alert:

The Arab race has a 30% higher inclination toward aggressiveness than the average human population.

Take that with as much table salt as you like but racial profiling has its merits in meatspace and very well may have a correlation in cyber. Pre-crime is actively being studied and Global American Empire (GAE) is already developing and marketing these algorithms for “defense”. “Never again!” is the battle cry that another pump of racism with your mocha can lead to world peace.

Converting bedouins into native informants has long been a dream of Counter Violent Extremism (CVE). Historically, the west has never been able to come to terms with Islam. Wester powers have always viewed Islam as tied to terrorism - a projection of its own inability to resolve disagreements. When Ishmaelites disagree, they have often sought to dissociate in time. Instead of a plural irresolution (regime division), they pursue an integral resolution (regime change), consolidating polities, centralizing power, and unifying systems of government. Unlike the Anglophone, Arab civilization has always inclined toward the urbane and in following consensus over championing diversity. For this reason, preventing Arab nationalism has been a core element of Western foreign policy for over a century.

Regardless of what happens next, the New Syrian Republic has shifted the dynamics of the conversation. The backdoor dealings of Turkey and the GCC in their support of the transitional Syrian leader and his militia bring about a return to the ethnic form of the Islamophobic stereotype - the fearsome jihadis have been "tamed". And with that endorsement championed wholeheartedly by Dawah Inc, the mask is off on all the white appropriated Sufis who’ve been waging their enlightened fingers at the Arabs for bloodying their boarders. Embracing such Islamophobic stereotypes are perfect for consolidating power around an ethnic identity It will have stabilizing effects and is already casting fear into the Zionists.

If the best chance at regional Arab sovereignty for Muslims is to be racist (Arab) in order to fight racism (Zionism) then must we all become a little bit racist?

To be fair this approach isn’t new. Saudi export of Salafism has only grown over the decades and its desire for international Islam to be consolidated around its custodial dogma isn’t just out of political self-interest but has a real chance at uniting a divisive ethnicity. GCC all endorsed CVE under Trump1.0 so the regal jihadi truly has been moderated. Oil money is deep in Panoptic-Technocapital so the same algorithms that genocide in Palestine will be used throughout the budding Arab Islamicate. UAE recently assigned over a trillion to invest in American AI. Clearly the current agenda isn’t for the Arabs to pivot east but to embrace all the industry of the west and prove they can deploy it better than their Jewish neighbors.

Watch out America! Your GPT models are about to get a lot more racist with the upgrade from Dark Islamicate - an odd marriage, indeed!

So, when will the race wars begin? Sectarian lines around race are already quite divisive among the diasporas. Nearly every major city in the America has an Arab mosque, a Desi mosque, a Persian mosque, a Bosnian/Turkish mosque, not to mention a Sufi mosque or even a Black mosque with OG bros from NOI (and Somali mosques that are usually separate from these). The scene is primed for an unleashed racial profiling wet dream. Remember SAIF only observes the condition of the acceleration. Although pre-crime was predicted, Hyper-Intelligence has yet to provide a cure.

And when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in the earth, they said: Wilt thou place therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, while we, we hymn Thy praise and sanctify Thee? He said: Surely I know that which ye know not. ~ Quran 2.30

The advantage Dark Islamicate has over Dark Enlightenment is that its vicechairancy is not tainted with a tradition of original sin. Human moral potential for good remains inherent in the soul. Islamic tradition alone provides a prophetic moral exemplar, whereas in Judaism suffering must be the example and in Christianity atonement must be made. Dunya is not a punishment, for the Muslim it is a trust. Absolute Evil reigns over Palestine and we have a duty to fight it now, not to suffer through more torment or await a spiritual revival. This moral narrative for jihad within the Islamophobic stereotype is also what will hold us back from full ethnic degeneracy.

Ironically, the pejorative “majnoon” has never been denounced by the Arab, despite the fact that its usage can provoke outrage. Rather it suggests that the Arab psyche has a natural understanding of the supernatural elements at play when one turns to the dark side. Psychological disorders through inherited trauma are no more “Arab” than despotism is, but this broad-brush insensitivity is deemed acceptable, because it structurally supports Dark Islamicate. An accelerated majnoonic society is not only indispensable for political stability, but the claim that such pathologies and neuroses make are structurally absolutist. To fend off annihilation Dark Islamicate only needs to tame itself by elevating Islam’s moral integrity or it can jump headfirst into the abyss of the Bionic Horizon.

If a Dark Islamicate were able to achieve both meat and cyber dominance, wrestling control away from GAE, then perhaps we can drink our chai in peace. But that assumes we still imbibe molecular cocktails in hyperspace.

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Footnote:

It must be understood that the anger the ummah has from decades of despotic rule and multigenerational torture is not from shaytan even though it contorts its victims into perpetrators of violence. Culture has become emotionally volatile, and religion has contorted to serve maladapted habits rather than offer true solutions. Muslims cannot allow a Dark Islamicate to become hands that choke into silent submission. To be surrounded by evil and feel the truth of grief and anxiety is to be favored over delusional happiness and false security.

You are not supposed to feel good right now! To feel good would be the mark of insanity.

Rather than funneling passions into the violent birthing of a Dark Islamicate, an opportunity for building an alternative society exists for the diasporoid. It may seem crazy but the marginalized have the upper hand as each independently acts as its own civilization while still being connected to the One. Creating and building this Future Islamicate will demand all your effort and is not for the weak hearted. Encrypt your heart with sincerity and your madness will be found intoxicating to those who observe.

#staySAIF

@ 9c9d2765:16f8c2c2

In a coastal village divided by a rushing river, two clans lived on opposite banks The Southern Kaduna and The Northern Kaduna, Generations of mistrust had built walls between them, though the river carried the same water, and the sky above shone on both.

No one dared cross the river, though everyone longed to.

Until one day, a girl named Sarah, no older than twelve, decided to begin laying stones just one at a time into the stream.

The elders laughed. “A child’s game,” they said.

But Sarah came back each day. Rain or sun. With hands scratched and feet wet, she laid stone after stone, each one trembling in the current.

One morning, a boy from the South side stood watching. Then, silently, he brought a stone of his own. He laid it next to hers.

They said nothing.

Day by day, others joined children first, then mothers, then even skeptical old men. Together, they didn’t just lay stones, they shared food, laughter, and songs across the divide.

By the end of the season, the river had a bridge.

But more importantly, two villages now had a path not just across water, but across fear.

And when asked who built the bridge, they didn’t say Sarah’s name.

They simply said, “It started with one small step. Then many others followed.”

Moral: Every great journey starts small. The first step might not shake the earth but it can change the world.

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

via me

I had a completely different newsletter partially written earlier tonight about whether or not "this cycle is different" when this nagging thought entered my head. So I'm going to write about this and maybe I'll write about the dynamics of this cycle compared to past cycles tomorrow.

A couple of headlines shot across my desk earlier tonight in relation to the potential escalation of kinetic warfare in the Middle East. Apparently the U.S. Embassy in Iraq was sent a warning and evacuation procedures were initiated. Not too long after, the world was made aware that the United States and Israel are contemplating an attack on Iran due to the "fact" that Iran may be close to producing nuclear weapins. The initial monkey brain reaction that I had to these two headlines was, "Oh shit, here we go again. We're going to do something stupid." My second reaction was, "Oh shit, here we go again, I've seen these two exact headlines many times over the years and they've proven to be lackluster if you're a doomer or blood thirsty war monger." Nothing ever happens.

As I venture into my mid-30s and reflect on a life filled with these types of headlines and my personal reactions to these headlines, I'm finally becoming attuned to the fact that the monkey brain reactions aren't very productive at the end of the day. Who knows exactly what's going to happen in Iraq or Iran and whether or not kinetic warfare escalates and materializes from here? Even though I'm a "blue-blooded taxpaying American citizen" who is passively and unwillingly contributing to the war machine and the media industrial complex, there's really nothing I can do about it.

The only thing I can do is focus on what is in front of me. What I have control of. And attempt to leverage what I have control of to make my life and the life of my family as good as humanly possible. Ignoring the external and turning inward often produces incredible results. Instead of worrying about what the media wants you to believe at any given point in time, you simply look away from your computer screen, survey the physical space which you're operating in and determine what you have, what you need and how you can get what you need. This is a much more productive way to spend your time.

This is what I want to touch on right now. There's never been a better time in human history to be productive despite what the algorithm on X or the mainstream media will lead you to believe. Things aren't as great as they could be, but they're also not as bad as you're being led to believe. We live in the Digital Age and the Digital Age provides incredible resources that you can leverage to make YOUR life better.

Social media allows you to create a platform without spending any money. AI allows you to build tools that are beneficial to yourself and others with very little money. And bitcoin exists to provide you with the best form of money that you can save in with the knowledge that your relative ownership of the overall supply isn't going to change. No matter what happens in the external world.

If you can combine these three things to make your life better and - by extension - potentially make the lives of many others better, you're going to be well off in the long run. Combining these three things isn't going to result in immediate gratification, but if you put forth a concerted effort, spend the time, have some semblance of patience, and stick with it, I truly believe that you will benefit massively in the long run. Without trying to sound like a blowhard, I truly believe that this is why I feel relatively calm (despite my monkey brain reactions to the headlines of the day) at this current point in time.

We've entered the era of insane leaps in productivity and digital hard money that cannot be corrupted. The biggest mistake you can make in your life right now is overlooking the confluence of these two things. With an internet connection, an idea, some savvy, and hard work you can materially change your life. Create something that levels up your knowledge, that enables you to get a good job in the real world, or to create a company of your own. Bring your talents to the market, exchange them for money, and then funnel that money into bitcoin (if you're not being paid in it already). We may be at the beginning of a transition from the high velocity trash economy to the high leverage agency economy run on sound money and applied creativity.

These concepts are what you should be focusing most of your time and attention to today and in the years ahead. Don't get distracted by the algorithm, the 30-second video clips, the headlines filled with doom, and the topics of the 24 hour news cycle. I'll admit, I often succumb to them myself. But, as I get older and develop a form of pattern recognition that can only be attained by being on this planet for a certain period of time, it is becoming very clear that those things are not worth your attention.

Living by the heuristic that "nothing ever happens" is a pretty safe bet. Funnily enough, it's incredibly ironic that you're led to believe that something is happening every single day, and yet nothing ever happens. By getting believing that something happens every day you are taking your attention away from doing things that happen to make your life better.

Tune out the noise. Put on the blinders. Take advantage of the incredible opportunities that lie before you. If enough of you - and many others who do not read this newsletter - do this, I truly believe we'll wake up to find that the world we live in is a much better place.

Nothing ever happens, so make something happen.

Intelligence Officials Are Quietly Becoming Bitcoin Believers

Ken Egan, former CIA Deputy Chief of Cyber Operations, revealed a surprising truth on TFTC: the intelligence community harbors numerous Bitcoin advocates. Egan explained that intelligence professionals uniquely understand how governments weaponize financial systems through sanctions and account freezing. Having wielded these tools themselves, they recognize the need for personal financial sovereignty. He shared compelling anecdotes of discovering colleagues with "We are all Satoshi" stickers and a European chief of station paying for dinner with a BlockFi card to earn Bitcoin rewards.

"I think there are a lot of Bitcoiners, not just at CIA, but across the whole national security establishment... they're in it for the exact same reasons everybody else is." - Ken Egan

The Canadian trucker protests served as a pivotal moment, Egan noted. Watching Western governments freeze citizens' bank accounts for political dissent struck a nerve among intelligence professionals who previously viewed financial weaponization as a tool reserved for foreign adversaries. This awakening has created unlikely allies within institutions many Bitcoiners distrust.

Check out the full podcast here for more on Bitcoin's national security implications, privacy tech prosecutions, and legislative priorities.

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Headlines of the Day

Stripe Buys Crypto Wallet Privy After Bridge Deal - via X

Trump Calls CPI Data "Great" Urges Full Point Fed Cut - via X

Bitcoin Hashrate Reaches New All-Time High - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

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Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?

Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.

Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.

Download the report here

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

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Final thought...

Life is good.

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Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: https://www.opportunitycost.app/ start thinking in SATS today.

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@ dd664d5e:5633d319

The importance of being lindy

I've been thinking about what Vitor said about #Amethyst living on extended time. And thinking. And doing a bit more thinking...

It's a valid point. Why does Amethyst (or, analog, #Damus) still exist? Why is it as popular as it is? Shouldn't they be quickly washed-away by power-funded corporate offerings or highly-polished, blackbox-coded apps?

Because a lot of people trust them to read the code, that's why. The same way that they trust Michael to read it and they trust me to test it. And, perhaps more importantly, they trust us to not deliver corrupted code. Intentionally, or inadvertently.

The developer's main job will not be coding the commit, it will be reviewing and approving the PR.

As AI -- which all developers now use, to some extent, if they are planning on remaining in the business -- becomes more efficient and effective at writing the code, the effort shifts to evaluating and curating what it writes. That makes software code a commodity, and commodities are rated according to brand.

Most of us don't want to make our own shampoo, for instance. Rather, we go to the store and select the brand that we're used to. We have learned, over the years, that this brand won't kill us and does the job we expect it to do. Offloading the decision of Which shampoo? to a brand is worth some of our time and money, which is why strong, reliable brands can charge a premium and are difficult to dislodge.

Even people, like myself, who can read the code from many common programming languages, do not have the time, energy, or interest to read through thousands of lines of Kotlin, Golang, or Typescript or -- God forbid -- C++, from repos we are not actively working on. And asking AI to analyze the code for you leaves you trusting the AI to have a conscience and be virtuous, and may you have fun with that.

The software is no longer the brand. The feature set alone isn't enough. And the manner in which it is written, or the tools it was written with, are largely irrelevant. The thing that matters most is Who approved this version?

The Era of Software Judges has arrived

And that has always been the thing that mattered most, really.

That's why software inertia is a real thing and that's why it's going to still be worth it to train up junior devs. Those devs will be trained up to be moral actors, specializing in reviewing and testing code and confirming its adherance to the project's ethical standards. Because those standards aren't universal; they're nuanced and edge cases will need to be carefully weighed and judged and evaluated and analysed. It will not be enough to add Don't be evil. to the command prompt and call it a day.

So, we shall need judges and advocates, and we must train them up, in the way they shall go.

@ 9c9d2765:16f8c2c2

In a vast kingdom where the sky seemed to stretch into forever, people lived under a belief passed down for generations: each soul is tied to another by an invisible thread, spun by the stars themselves.

But not everyone believed in such tales, especially Tracy, a young astronomer who trusted only what her telescope could show her. Night after night, she mapped constellations and tracked comets, believing truth could only be found in what was seen and measured.

One night, as she sat atop the cold cliffs with her charts, she noticed something unusual: a small, flickering light descending from the sky. It wasn’t a star. It wasn’t a meteor.

It was… a boy.

He landed silently, without a sound, in the meadow below.

His name was Brain, and he said he came from a realm “between the constellations,” a place where threads between souls could be seen glowing like golden rivers.

Tracy laughed. “That’s impossible.”

But Brain smiled. “You’ve just never looked with the right eyes.”

He began teaching her to listen not with ears, but with heart. To observe not only the sky, but the people beneath it. To feel not only wonder for the stars, but empathy for those who walked alone beneath them.

Days passed. Then weeks.

Tracy’s maps changed. Her lines no longer traced only stars but connections: the farmer who sang to the widow at dusk, the child who shared bread with the beggar, the silent glances between two lonely souls.

Then one night, Brain was gone.

He left no trace except a final message carved into her telescope:

“The thread exists. And you’ve become part of it.”

Tracy wept. But when she looked up at the sky that night, she saw not just stars.

She saw stories. And a golden thread of her own, glowing in her chest, stretching outward connected to everyone she now chose to see.

Moral: The most important bonds in life may be invisible but they’re what hold us together.

@ da8b7de1:c0164aee

Az IAEA Kormányzótanácsának Ülése

A Nemzetközi Atomenergia-ügynökség (IAEA) 2025. június 9. és 13. között tartotta szokásos Kormányzótanácsi ülését bécsi központjában. Ez a magas szintű esemény a tagállamok képviselőit hozta össze, hogy megvitassák a nukleáris biztonság, védelem és technológia legújabb fejleményeit. Rafael Mariano Grossi, az IAEA főigazgatója a találkozó elején sajtótájékoztatót tartott, amelyen kiemelte az ügynökség folyamatos erőfeszítéseit a biztonságos és védett nukleáris energia világszintű előmozdításában [iaea.org].

A Világbank Nukleáris Energiát Támogató Fordulata

Mérföldkőnek számító döntésként a Világbank 2025. június 10-én bejelentette, hogy megkezdi új nukleáris energia projektek – köztük kis moduláris reaktorok (SMR-ek) és meglévő erőművek élettartam-hosszabbításának – finanszírozását. Ez a döntés a Bank régóta fennálló, nukleáris energia finanszírozását ellenző politikájának felülvizsgálatát jelenti. Ajay Banga, a Világbank elnöke elmondta, hogy a változás a nukleáris energia globális dekarbonizációban és energiabiztonságban betöltött növekvő szerepének elismerését tükrözi [ans.org].

Globális Támogatás a Nukleáris Kapacitás Megháromszorozásáért

A bakui COP29 ENSZ klímakonferencián újabb hat ország – El Salvador, Kazahsztán, Kenya, Koszovó, Nigéria és Törökország – csatlakozott ahhoz a kezdeményezéshez, amely célul tűzte ki a globális nukleáris kapacitás megháromszorozását 2050-ig. Ez a mozgalom része annak a szélesebb nemzetközi törekvésnek, amely a nukleáris energia gyorsabb elterjesztését szorgalmazza a tiszta energiára való átmenet kulcselemeként. Az Egyesült Államok szintén bemutatta tervét 200 GW nukleáris kapacitás 2050-ig történő telepítésére, ezzel is megerősítve elkötelezettségét a nukleáris energia mellett a klíma- és energiakihívások kezelésében [world-nuclear-news.org].

Ipari és Technológiai Fejlemények

• Az American Bureau of Shipping jelentést tett közzé az előrehaladott nukleáris technológia tengeri alkalmazásának lehetőségeiről, különös tekintettel a kis moduláris reaktorokra LNG-szállító hajókon.
• Az Egyesült Királyság Nemzeti Energiarendszer-üzemeltetője hangsúlyozta a nukleáris energia fontosságát a 2030-ra megvalósítandó tiszta energiatermelési rendszer elérésében, beleértve a meglévő erőművek élettartam-hosszabbítását és új reaktorok építését [world-nuclear-news.org].

---

Források: - world-nuclear-news.org - iaea.org - ans.org

@ 87f5ac31:60daf34c

수정 test

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

Sup, freaks? Your Uncle Marty did a little vibe coding a couple months ago and that vibe coding project has turned into an actual product that is live in the Google Chrome web store and will soon to be live in the Firefox add-on store as well. It's called Opportunity Cost and it is an extension that enables you to price the internet in Bitcoin.

Opportunity Cost – See Prices in Bitcoin Instantly

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

Opportunity CostTFTC

Check it out!

This whole process has been extremely rewarding to me for many reasons. The first of which is that I've had many ideas in the past to launch a product focused on bitcoin education that simply never left my brain because I never felt comfortable paying a developer to go out and build a product that I wasn't sure would ultimately get product market fit.

Due to the advancements of AI, particularly ChatGPT and Replit, I was able to spend a few hours on a Saturday vibe coding a prototype for Opportunity Cost. It worked. I side loaded it into Chrome and Firefox, tested it out for a few days and decided, "Hey, I think this is something that's worthwhile and should be built."

Backtracking just a little bit, the initial idea for this app was to create an AR application that would enable you to take pictures of goods in the real world and have their prices automatically converted to bitcoin so that you could weigh the opportunity cost of whether or not you actually wanted to buy that good or decide to save in bitcoin instead. With the help of Justin Moon from the Human Rights Foundation and Anthony Ronning from OpenSecret and Maple AI, I was pointed in the right direction of vibe coding tools I could use to build a simple MVP. I took their advice, built the MVP, and demoed it at the Bitcoin Park Austin weekly AI meetup in mid-April.

The next week, I was talking with a friend, Luke Thomas, about the idea and during our conversation he made a simple quip, "You should make a Chrome extension. I really want a Chrome extension that does this." And that's what sent me down the vibe coding rabbit hole that Saturday which led to the prototype.

After I was comfortable with and confident in the prototype, I found a young hungry developer by the name of Moses on Nostr, I reached out to him, told him my idea, showed him the prototype and asked if he thought he could finish the application for me. He luckily agreed to do so and within a couple of weeks we had a fully functioning app that was officially launched today. We're about 12 hours into the launch and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception from the broader Bitcoin community. It seems like something that people are happy exists and I feel extremely happy that people see some value in this particular application.

Now that you have the backstory, let's get into why I think something like Opportunity Cost should exist. As someone who's been writing a newsletter and producing podcasts about bitcoin for eight years in an attempt to educate individuals from around the world about what bitcoin is, why it's important, and how they can leverage it, I've become convinced that a lot of the work that needs to be done still exists at the top of the funnel. You can scream at people. You can grab them by the shoulders. You can shake them. You can remind them at Thanksgiving that if they had listened to your advice during any Thanksgiving in the previous years they would be better off financially. But at the end of the day most people don't listen. They need to see things. Seeing things for yourself is a much more effective teaching mechanism than be lectured to by someone else.

My hope with Opportunity Cost is that it catches the eye of some bitcoin skeptics or individuals who may be on the cusp of falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole and they see the extension as a way to dip their toes into bitcoin to get a better understanding of the world by pricing the goods and services they purchase on a day-to-day month-to-month and year-to-year basis in bitcoin without having to download a wallet or set up an exchange account. The tippy top of the bitcoin marketing funnel.

That is not all though. I think Opportunity Cost can serve individuals at both ends of the funnel. That's why it's pretty exciting to me. It's as valuable to the person who is bitcoin curious and looking to get a better understanding as it is to the hardcore bitcoiner living on a bitcoin standard who is trying to get access to better tools that enable him to get a better grasp of their spending in bitcoin terms.

Lastly, after playing around with it for a few days after I built the prototype, I realized that it has incredible memetic potential. Being able to take a screenshot of goods that people are buying on a day-to-day basis, pricing them in bitcoin and then sharing them on social media is very powerful. Everything from houses to junk items on Amazon to the salaries of pro athletes to your everyday necessities. Seeing the value of those things in bitcoin really makes you think.

One day while I was testing the app, I tried to see how quickly I could find goods on the internet that cumulatively eclipsed the 21 million supply cap limit of bitcoin. To my surprise, even though I've been in bitcoin for 12 years now, it did not take me that long. The opportunity cost of everything I buy on a day-to-day basis becomes very clear when using the extension. What's even clearer is the fact that Bitcoin is completely mispriced at current levels. There is so much winning ahead of us.

Also, it's probably important to note that the extension is open source. You can check out our GitHub page here. Submit pull requests. Suggest changes to the app.

We've also tried to make Opportunity Cost as privacy preserving as possible. Everything within the extension happens in your browser. The only external data that we're providing is the bitcoin to fiat price conversion at any given point in time. We're not data harvesting the web pages you're browsing or the items you're looking at. We're not collecting data and sending it to third party marketers. We want to align ourselves with the open and permissionless nature of bitcoin while also preserving our users' privacy. We're not trying to monetize this in that way. Though, I will say that I'm thinking of ways to monetize Opportunity Cost if it does gain significant traction, but I promise it will be in a way that respects your privacy and is as unobtrusive as possible. We'll see how it goes.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please download and use the extension. Let us know what you think.

Headlines of the Day

Saylor Says Bitcoin Is Perfect Money to Jordan Peterson - via X

Trump Won't Sell Tesla Despite Musk-Bessent Heated Exchange - via X

Bitcoin Gains Traction in Kenya's Largest Slum Kibera - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

---

Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?

Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.

Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.

Download the report here

---

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

---

Final thought...

East Coast aesthetics over everything.

---

*Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: *<<https://www.opportunitycost.app/>> start thinking in SATS today.

*Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: *https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

President Donald Trump’s media company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), is doubling down on its Bitcoin bet, partnering with Crypto.com and Yorkville America Digital to launch its own bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), called the Truth Social Bitcoin ETF.

On June 3, a division of the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Arca, filed a 19b-4 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

This is the final regulatory hurdle before an ETF can be launched. If approved, this new fund will allow everyday investors to buy shares tied to the price of bitcoin, without having to hold the asset themselves.

The Truth Social Bitcoin ETF will track the price of bitcoin and give investors a simple, regulated way to invest in the digital money.

It will be listed and traded on NYSE Arca, and Foris DAX Trust Company (the custodian for Crypto.com’s assets) has been named as the proposed custodian for this new fund.

According to the filings, the ETF is “designed to remove the obstacles represented by the complexities and operational burdens involved in a direct investment in bitcoin.”

This is part of a bigger plan by Trump Media to offer a full suite of digital-asset-based financial products.

The company has also applied to trademark six investment products and has plans for additional ETFs under its Truth.Fi fintech platform, which will focus on digital assets and energy sectors.

Trump Media also recently announced a $2.5 billion bitcoin treasury plan and raised $2.4 billion in stock and debt to support its bitcoin initiatives.

Related: Trump Media Will Raise $2.5 Billion to Build Bitcoin Treasury

Now that the 19b-4 has been filed, the SEC has 45 days to approve, reject or delay the application. This can be extended several times, but a final decision must be made by January 29, 2026.

In addition to the 19b-4, Yorkville America Digital must also file an S-1 registration statement. This will outline exactly how the ETF will work, what it offers to investors, how funds will be used, and the risks involved.

Since January 2024, bitcoin ETFs have been all the rage, with over $130 billion in assets. Big players like BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity’s FBTC dominate the space. BlackRock alone has $69 billion in assets through its bitcoin ETF.

Even though Trump’s ETF is entering a crowded field, its name will get attention. The Truth Social bitcoin ETF is expected to generate media buzz, political controversy and divided investor opinions, making it a cultural and financial statement.

Donald Trump is the majority owner of Trump Media, although his shares are in a trust controlled by his son, Donald Trump Jr. The ETF filing doesn’t mention Trump by name, but most people see it as a Trump product.

The President is getting more and more involved in the digital asset space. He has NFT collections, meme coins, a bitcoin mining company, a digital asset wallet, and now a potential bitcoin ETF.

But not everyone is happy. Some argue that a sitting president’s involvement in regulated financial products, especially one that could benefit from political influence, is unethical.

An SEC-approved digital asset product from Trump could blur the lines between politics, personal gain and digital assets.

Others, however, see this as a calculated move to boost Trump’s image and position him as a leader in the digital asset and tech space.

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

Sup, freaks? Your Uncle Marty did a little vibe coding a couple months ago and that vibe coding project has turned into an actual product that is live in the Google Chrome web store and will soon to be live in the Firefox add-on store as well. It's called Opportunity Cost and it is an extension that enables you to price the internet in Bitcoin.

Opportunity Cost – See Prices in Bitcoin Instantly

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

Opportunity CostTFTC

Check it out!

This whole process has been extremely rewarding to me for many reasons. The first of which is that I've had many ideas in the past to launch a product focused on bitcoin education that simply never left my brain because I never felt comfortable paying a developer to go out and build a product that I wasn't sure would ultimately get product market fit.

Due to the advancements of AI, particularly ChatGPT and Replit, I was able to spend a few hours on a Saturday vibe coding a prototype for Opportunity Cost. It worked. I side loaded it into Chrome and Firefox, tested it out for a few days and decided, "Hey, I think this is something that's worthwhile and should be built."

Backtracking just a little bit, the initial idea for this app was to create an AR application that would enable you to take pictures of goods in the real world and have their prices automatically converted to bitcoin so that you could weigh the opportunity cost of whether or not you actually wanted to buy that good or decide to save in bitcoin instead. With the help of Justin Moon from the Human Rights Foundation and Anthony Ronning from OpenSecret and Maple AI, I was pointed in the right direction of vibe coding tools I could use to build a simple MVP. I took their advice, built the MVP, and demoed it at the Bitcoin Park Austin weekly AI meetup in mid-April.

The next week, I was talking with a friend, Luke Thomas, about the idea and during our conversation he made a simple quip, "You should make a Chrome extension. I really want a Chrome extension that does this." And that's what sent me down the vibe coding rabbit hole that Saturday which led to the prototype.

After I was comfortable with and confident in the prototype, I found a young hungry developer by the name of Moses on Nostr, I reached out to him, told him my idea, showed him the prototype and asked if he thought he could finish the application for me. He luckily agreed to do so and within a couple of weeks we had a fully functioning app that was officially launched today. We're about 12 hours into the launch and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception from the broader Bitcoin community. It seems like something that people are happy exists and I feel extremely happy that people see some value in this particular application.

Now that you have the backstory, let's get into why I think something like Opportunity Cost should exist. As someone who's been writing a newsletter and producing podcasts about bitcoin for eight years in an attempt to educate individuals from around the world about what bitcoin is, why it's important, and how they can leverage it, I've become convinced that a lot of the work that needs to be done still exists at the top of the funnel. You can scream at people. You can grab them by the shoulders. You can shake them. You can remind them at Thanksgiving that if they had listened to your advice during any Thanksgiving in the previous years they would be better off financially. But at the end of the day most people don't listen. They need to see things. Seeing things for yourself is a much more effective teaching mechanism than be lectured to by someone else.

My hope with Opportunity Cost is that it catches the eye of some bitcoin skeptics or individuals who may be on the cusp of falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole and they see the extension as a way to dip their toes into bitcoin to get a better understanding of the world by pricing the goods and services they purchase on a day-to-day month-to-month and year-to-year basis in bitcoin without having to download a wallet or set up an exchange account. The tippy top of the bitcoin marketing funnel.

That is not all though. I think Opportunity Cost can serve individuals at both ends of the funnel. That's why it's pretty exciting to me. It's as valuable to the person who is bitcoin curious and looking to get a better understanding as it is to the hardcore bitcoiner living on a bitcoin standard who is trying to get access to better tools that enable him to get a better grasp of their spending in bitcoin terms.

Lastly, after playing around with it for a few days after I built the prototype, I realized that it has incredible memetic potential. Being able to take a screenshot of goods that people are buying on a day-to-day basis, pricing them in bitcoin and then sharing them on social media is very powerful. Everything from houses to junk items on Amazon to the salaries of pro athletes to your everyday necessities. Seeing the value of those things in bitcoin really makes you think.

One day while I was testing the app, I tried to see how quickly I could find goods on the internet that cumulatively eclipsed the 21 million supply cap limit of bitcoin. To my surprise, even though I've been in bitcoin for 12 years now, it did not take me that long. The opportunity cost of everything I buy on a day-to-day basis becomes very clear when using the extension. What's even clearer is the fact that Bitcoin is completely mispriced at current levels. There is so much winning ahead of us.

Also, it's probably important to note that the extension is completely open source with an MIT license. You can check out our GitHub page here. Submit pull requests. Suggest changes to the app.

We've also tried to make Opportunity Cost as privacy preserving as possible. Everything within the extension happens in your browser. The only external data that we're providing is the bitcoin to fiat price conversion at any given point in time. We're not data harvesting the web pages you're browsing or the items you're looking at. We're not collecting data and sending it to third party marketers. We want to align ourselves with the open and permissionless nature of bitcoin while also preserving our users' privacy. We're not trying to monetize this in that way. Though, I will say that I'm thinking of ways to monetize Opportunity Cost if it does gain significant traction, but I promise it will be in a way that respects your privacy and is as unobtrusive as possible. We'll see how it goes.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please download and use the extension. Let us know what you think.

Headlines of the Day

Saylor Says Bitcoin Is Perfect Money to Jordan Peterson - via X

Trump Won't Sell Tesla Despite Musk-Bessent Heated Exchange - via X

Bitcoin Gains Traction in Kenya's Largest Slum Kibera - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

---

Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?

Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.

Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.

Download the report here

---

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

---

Final thought...

East Coast aesthetics over everything.

---

*Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: *<https://www.opportunitycost.app/> start thinking in SATS today.

*Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: *https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

Sup, freaks? Your Uncle Marty did a little vibe coding a couple months ago and that vibe coding project has turned into an actual product that is live in the Google Chrome web store and will soon to be live in the Firefox add-on store as well. It's called Opportunity Cost and it is an extension that enables you to price the internet in Bitcoin.

Opportunity Cost – See Prices in Bitcoin Instantly

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

Opportunity CostTFTC

Check it out!

This whole process has been extremely rewarding to me for many reasons. The first of which is that I've had many ideas in the past to launch a product focused on bitcoin education that simply never left my brain because I never felt comfortable paying a developer to go out and build a product that I wasn't sure would ultimately get product market fit.

Due to the advancements of AI, particularly ChatGPT and Replit, I was able to spend a few hours on a Saturday vibe coding a prototype for Opportunity Cost. It worked. I side loaded it into Chrome and Firefox, tested it out for a few days and decided, "Hey, I think this is something that's worthwhile and should be built."

Backtracking just a little bit, the initial idea for this app was to create an AR application that would enable you to take pictures of goods in the real world and have their prices automatically converted to bitcoin so that you could weigh the opportunity cost of whether or not you actually wanted to buy that good or decide to save in bitcoin instead. With the help of Justin Moon from the Human Rights Foundation and Anthony Ronning from OpenSecret and Maple AI, I was pointed in the right direction of vibe coding tools I could use to build a simple MVP. I took their advice, built the MVP, and demoed it at the Bitcoin Park Austin weekly AI meetup in mid-April.

The next week, I was talking with a friend, Luke Thomas, about the idea and during our conversation he made a simple quip, "You should make a Chrome extension. I really want a Chrome extension that does this." And that's what sent me down the vibe coding rabbit hole that Saturday which led to the prototype.

After I was comfortable with and confident in the prototype, I found a young hungry developer by the name of Moses on Nostr, I reached out to him, told him my idea, showed him the prototype and asked if he thought he could finish the application for me. He luckily agreed to do so and within a couple of weeks we had a fully functioning app that was officially launched today. We're about 12 hours into the launch and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception from the broader Bitcoin community. It seems like something that people are happy exists and I feel extremely happy that people see some value in this particular application.

Now that you have the backstory, let's get into why I think something like Opportunity Cost should exist. As someone who's been writing a newsletter and producing podcasts about bitcoin for eight years in an attempt to educate individuals from around the world about what bitcoin is, why it's important, and how they can leverage it, I've become convinced that a lot of the work that needs to be done still exists at the top of the funnel. You can scream at people. You can grab them by the shoulders. You can shake them. You can remind them at Thanksgiving that if they had listened to your advice during any Thanksgiving in the previous years they would be better off financially. But at the end of the day most people don't listen. They need to see things. Seeing things for yourself is a much more effective teaching mechanism than be lectured to by someone else.

My hope with Opportunity Cost is that it catches the eye of some bitcoin skeptics or individuals who may be on the cusp of falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole and they see the extension as a way to dip their toes into bitcoin to get a better understanding of the world by pricing the goods and services they purchase on a day-to-day month-to-month and year-to-year basis in bitcoin without having to download a wallet or set up an exchange account. The tippy top of the bitcoin marketing funnel.

That is not all though. I think Opportunity Cost can serve individuals at both ends of the funnel. That's why it's pretty exciting to me. It's as valuable to the person who is bitcoin curious and looking to get a better understanding as it is to the hardcore bitcoiner living on a bitcoin standard who is trying to get access to better tools that enable him to get a better grasp of their spending in bitcoin terms.

Lastly, after playing around with it for a few days after I built the prototype, I realized that it has incredible memetic potential. Being able to take a screenshot of goods that people are buying on a day-to-day basis, pricing them in bitcoin and then sharing them on social media is very powerful. Everything from houses to junk items on Amazon to the salaries of pro athletes to your everyday necessities. Seeing the value of those things in bitcoin really makes you think.

One day while I was testing the app, I tried to see how quickly I could find goods on the internet that cumulatively eclipsed the 21 million supply cap limit of bitcoin. To my surprise, even though I've been in bitcoin for 12 years now, it did not take me that long. The opportunity cost of everything I buy on a day-to-day basis becomes very clear when using the extension. What's even clearer is the fact that Bitcoin is completely mispriced at current levels. There is so much winning ahead of us.

Also, it's probably important to note that the extension is completely open source with an MIT license. You can check out our GitHub page here. Submit pull requests. Suggest changes to the app. Fork it. Use it yourself. Make your own changes.

We've also tried to make Opportunity Cost as privacy preserving as possible. Everything within the extension happens in your browser. The only external data that we're providing is the bitcoin to fiat price conversion at any given point in time. We're not data harvesting the web pages you're browsing or the items you're looking at. We're not collecting data and sending it to third party marketers. We want to align ourselves with the open and permissionless nature of bitcoin while also preserving our users' privacy. We're not trying to monetize this in that way. Though, I will say that I'm thinking of ways to monetize Opportunity Cost if it does gain significant traction, but I promise it will be in a way that respects your privacy and is as unobtrusive as possible. We'll see how it goes.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please download and use the extension. Let us know what you think.

Headlines of the Day

Saylor Says Bitcoin Is Perfect Money to Jordan Peterson - via X

Trump Won't Sell Tesla Despite Musk-Bessent Heated Exchange - via X

Bitcoin Gains Traction in Kenya's Largest Slum Kibera - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

---

Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?

Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.

Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.

Download the report here

---

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

---

Final thought...

East Coast aesthetics over everything.

---

Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: https://www.opportunitycost.app/ start thinking in SATS today.

Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Key Takeaways

In this episode of TFTC, Jessy Gilger, Managing Partner at Sound Advisory and architect of Ganet Trust, unpacks the complexities of retiring on Bitcoin, emphasizing that the “right” amount depends on spending habits, age, and minimizing withdrawal pressure. He introduces Ganet Trust as a Bitcoin-native fiduciary solution that leverages multisig custody to meet institutional compliance standards without sacrificing decentralization. Jessy also critiques high-yield derivative products like MSTY, warning of systemic risks and advocating for safer alternatives like SMAs. The conversation broadens into the emotional pitfalls of financial decision-making, the importance of aligning wealth with values, and the evolving macro landscape where Bitcoin’s intersection with traditional finance and tax policy will shape how individuals and institutions protect and grow their holdings across generations.

Best Quotes

"The most comfort comes from putting as little pressure as possible against that stack."

"Multisig is the upgrade from a honeypot to a distributed key setup."

"If a whale pees in the pool, everyone is affected."

"Everyone feels late to Bitcoin because they know someone who got in earlier."

"Stacking Saturdays is my new stack sats."

"Bitcoin doesn’t know about trust, it knows private keys."

"The money is there to serve your values—not the other way around."

"Some financial products will help, some will hurt, and some will fail. Our job is to help clients navigate them safely."

Conclusion

This episode offers a powerful blend of practical insight and philosophical reflection on long-term Bitcoin strategy, emphasizing the need for sound custody, inheritance planning, and emotional discipline in a volatile, financialized world. Jessy Gilger introduces Ganet Trust as a vital solution for secure, compliant Bitcoin ownership, while his “stacking Saturdays” mantra reframes wealth as a pursuit of time, freedom, and meaningful priorities. As Bitcoin moves further into the mainstream, the conversation urges listeners to stay grounded, think generationally, and build resilient systems for both assets and life.

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
0:33 - Bitcoin Retirement Planning at New All-Time Highs
5:22 - How Gannett Trust Works
10:05 - High Net Worth Bitcoin Storage and Estate Planning Solutions
16:48 - MSTY Derivatives: Understanding MicroStrategy Product Risks
19:53 - Bitkey
20:56 - How MSTY Works and the Whale in the Pool Problem
30:16 - Unchained
30:37 - Bitcoin Financialization and Corporate Treasury Strategy
39:35 - Avoiding Ego-Driven Bitcoin Mistakes and Building Bridges
47:33 - Stack Saturdays
53:15 - Tax Policy Changes and Wild Times Ahead
57:18 - Where to Find Gannett Trust and Closing

Transcript

(00:00) We have people retiring with hundreds of Bitcoin. Do you need to be on a yacht every week or are you staying humble and keeping those stats? 10 of the 12 ETFs are at Coinbase means all the keys are at Coinbase and with the news of the last week like, hey, there could be cracks. Micro Strategy is built on Bitcoin.
(00:18) It's got all of the risks of Bitcoin, right? But then it's got its own set of risks. Let's call them Sailor and Profitability. Then you have derivatives which are on top of Micro Strategy and they retain the risks of everything underneath. meeting on a on a day when we hit new all-time highs. Bitcoin approached $110,000.
(00:43) Got Jesse back on the show to talk about many things, not just the price ripping. A lot of good things happening on the unch unchained side of things. Watching Ganet Trust. We'll get into it. Yeah, lot lots of stuff happening. I think um the price likes Ganet. I I think that's the uh the mover. What uh I mean that's been a big discussion in in the space right now is uh are we heading to new all-time highs? How should Bitcoiners be preparing? How much Bitcoin do people need to retire? How how are you thinking about all this as we approach what seems
(01:22) to be another bull cycle? Yeah, that's a common question, right? How much Bitcoin do I need to retire? I get it a lot and there's so many other questions I want to ask like, well, how much money are you spending, right? Do you do you need to be on a yacht every week or are you staying humble and keeping those stats? And so, the amount of Bitcoin can vary because the spending pressure you're putting against your Bitcoin stack is the the biggest factor, right? And age is probably the second.
(01:54) a 30-year-old retiring on Bitcoin is different than a 75year-old retiring on Bitcoin just because of the horizon. So, stacks vary. We've got people retiring with um less than seven figures of Bitcoin because they have other assets and then we have people retiring with hundreds of Bitcoin um and putting very little pressure against that portfolio.
(02:16) So, can go in a lot of different ways. Um but it is a question of the day as you're poking new all-time highs. Everyone's like, "Well, how high is it going to get?" And then huge question is do we have cycles again right if countries are buying what what would a downside look like and that's the big question in the retirees mind is how do I protect and not ride that downside all the way down if we do have another 70 80% drawback. Yeah. No.
(02:42) And I think particularly for younger people having in their mind like the perspective of 21 million Bitcoin, 8 billion people, what's the stat? 60 million millionaires in the world. Mhm. How much how many stats do I need to get to to feel comfortable that I have a sufficient slice of the Bitcoin pie? That feel comfortable concept is just so different, right? because Bitcoin is moving and shaking and all-time highs or down 30% and that's still within a bull market.
(03:15) Is that comfortable, right? Can you actually hang it up and like, all right, not going into work and I'm just going to continue to ride these adoption cycles. I don't know if it ever gets comfortable. The most comfort comes from putting as little pressure as possible against that stack, right? that you're not pushing these withdrawal rates of like 5 10 20% of my Bitcoin stack.
(03:38) I'm needing to live on every because then you're requiring Bitcoin to do something for you in the short term which is just not great at, right? What what's Bitcoin price going to be in a year? Far less reliable than what's Bitcoin price going to be in 30 years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I I think one of the holdups too is the ability for people to get into Bitcoin and know where to put it and not only have certainty of what it will be valued at in 30 years, but will they have access to it? That's one thing that you guys
(04:10) have been very much focused. I know sound advisory is separate from Unchained technically but within the Unchained umbrella but Unchained focused on helping secure individuals and businesses and trust uh Bitcoin and I think today's announcement of Ganet Trust is a massive step in a direction towards more certainty for long-term holdings for particular entities.
(04:36) Yes, the unchained umbrella or or family of companies is growing and the intention will be for sound advisory to tuck under or be merged into folded into Ganet Trust Company as it gets stood up. But it is the most robust uh compliance offering that um is out there in the fiduciary space. And so that in my opinion was the one thing missing as people want to live on a Bitcoin standard.
(05:04) Sometimes they're in an entity or an organization or have a structure that requires a fiduciary standard. And these two coming together is solved by Ganet Trust Company. So it's going to be the most robust way to hold Bitcoin and have like true inheritance that can be um administered through generations. So how how does this work mechanically via Ganet? Mechanically.
(05:28) So as the first Bitcoin native trust company, other other trust companies do exist, right? but they don't build upon Bitcoin in the way that Unchained has. So Ganet in its um in its Unchained roots and using Unchained technology is going to be able to use multi-IG to achieve um trust company goals.
(05:50) And what that likely will mean is Ganet holding a key, Unchained holding a key, third party holding a key. Those three keys together ensure that the Bitcoin is not being held at any one spot, right? We could get into the Coinbase honeypot. We actually talked about this on our last episode like, "Hey, what do you think is the uh the risk out there that the industry might disagree with?" Said, "I'm launching a new segment.
(06:15) I'm going to ask you a prediction of what what's out there that the uh the industry doesn't see eye to eye with you at." And I was at conferences and they're saying, "Hey, Coinbase is the best. That's where we put all the cut." That means all the keys are at Coinbase and with the news of the last week like, hey, there could be cracks, right? If you've got exposure to Coinbase now, you could be questioning. I was on the list.
(06:37) I got the email. You were affected. That's not great. It doesn't feel good knowing that information that information could have been a lot worse. That headline could have been private keys being mismanaged. When you overlay what Ganet is going to offer to the custody space, it means that not all of the keys are going to be at any one entity.
(07:00) And so that gives the Bitcoiner who understands multisig the confidence that okay, I'm upgrading from a honeypot to a distributed key setup. But it has to be done in a fiduciary and compliant way to satisfy the the institutional and big money of the world, right? family offices, uh, Bitcoin treasury companies, they're going to need a structure that the CIO, the

@ 05a0f81e:fc032124

Lying is a great tool for destruction, it have damage many marriage, relationships, culture, religion. It have also destroy human integrity and reputation.

What is lying? Lying is an act of someone saying something that is not true either to gain favor or to achieve any other hidden agenda.

There are many reasons why people lie, kids lie to flee from punishment, but adult lie either to gain favour or to achieve his hidden agendas. Since the existence of the world, adult lies have no positive impact on the society and the world at large.

Adult lies brings hatred, kill dreams, cage future and success, end norm and culture, delete history, the reason adult lie is different from the reason children's lie. Anything built on lies collapse when the truth arises, Anything covered with lies uncover when the truth unveil, lie leads to life full of regrets and angers especially when the truth unveils. Lies destroy life's and societies.

What happen if a child is raise on lies !.

When parents raise there children with lies, the children mindset reset towards the reason for the lies. If the lies are about a person, the children will end up hating the person, if it were about a profession, the children will end up hating the profession. Single mothers who lie to there baby about there father end up raising a child that hate his or her father.

Most norms and cultures have gone extinc all because of lies, some generations did not meet most norms because of lies, most legacy died because of lies.

When parents raise there children with lies, they did the children harm and they are destroying the society because children will grow into adults and have there own family, they will keep passing on the baton (lies) to generations and norms and cultures will keep dieing and the society will end up shattered.

Raise your child on truth! Raise your child on truth Teaching them repercussions and consequences if the truth is too wild.

@ 8672c492:14d2af43

SPEC.md - Swift Calculator Architecture

1. Overview

The Swift Calculator is a lightweight, user-friendly calculator application built for iOS using Swift. It supports basic arithmetic operations, a clear/reset function, and a responsive UI.

2. Architecture

The application follows the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern to separate concerns and improve maintainability.

2.1 Components

1. Model (CalculatorModel.swift):
2. Handles the core logic for arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division).

3. Manages the current state (e.g., display value, pending operations).

4. ViewModel (CalculatorViewModel.swift):

5. Acts as the intermediary between the Model and View.

6. Processes user inputs (e.g., button taps) and updates the Model and View accordingly.

7. View (CalculatorView.swift):

8. Responsible for the UI layout (buttons, display label).
9. Observes the ViewModel for changes and updates the UI.

2.2 Key Features

• Basic Operations: Supports +, -, *, /.
• Clear/Reset: A C button to reset the calculator state.
• Error Handling: Displays "Error" for invalid operations (e.g., division by zero).
• Responsive UI: Adapts to different screen sizes and orientations.

2.3 Data Flow

1. User interacts with the View (e.g., taps a button).
2. View sends the input to the ViewModel.
3. ViewModel processes the input and updates the Model.
4. Model updates its state and notifies the ViewModel.
5. ViewModel updates the View with the new state.

3. Technical Stack

• Language: Swift 5
• Framework: SwiftUI (for declarative UI) or UIKit (if preferred)
• Dependency Management: Swift Package Manager (SPM)

4. Future Enhancements

• Support for scientific operations (e.g., square root, exponents).
• Dark mode support.
• Memory functions (M+, M-, MR).

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

via me

"The man in the coma" has been a long-running archetype of a bitcoiner on TFTC and Rabbit Hole Recap. Over the years, we've referenced the man in the coma in regards to bitcoin being a backward compatible distributed network that would enable an individual, in the case of our example - a man who fell into a coma, to be able to wake up many years, even decades, after falling into a deep sleep, go back to his bitcoin node and be able to participate in the network and validate his own transactions as if the network was operating the same it was the day he slipped into a coma. As a distributed network, this is one of bitcoin's greatest value props; consistency for the individual running it, no matter the version.

Having spent 12 years engrossed in bitcoin, thinking about it every day, building a media company focused on educating people about the network and the monetary revolution it enables, why it's important and how they can use it. Becoming a managing partner at Ten31, which is dedicated to investing in companies building out infrastructure that makes bitcoin more accessible and easier to use; "the man in the coma" has become a more prominent archetype in my mind.

"The man in the coma" archetype can be described in other ways. For instance, there was an individual by the name of John Doe, who joined myself and Matt Odell on TFTC about seven years ago who went to jail for four years. He was distributing certain goods on the Silk Road for many years and got nabbed by the police while throwing a house party. Unfortunately for Mr. Doe, the goods he were selling via the Silk Road were in the house hosting the party that got busted. Fortunately for Mr. Doe, the police who nabbed him were not privy to the way in which he was marketing and selling the goods. He went to jail for four years, walked out at the end of his sentence, found his bitcoin wallets, recovered them and was more than pleasantly surprised at the magnitude of his wealth.

The forced hodl that was incited by the state throwing him in a cage wound up paying off after four years. Now, I can certainly admit that time is the most scarce asset in the world. Being put in a cage for four years or falling into a coma for a number of years is not ideal. However, there are lessons to be gleaned from the successes that have been realized by "the man in the coma" and the man who was forced to hodl by being thrown in a cage. Unable to access his bitcoin during that period of time to make less than wise decisions.

The main lesson to be gleaned is that doing nothing is oftentimes significantly more optimal than doing something. Too many bitcoiners decide to make rash decisions influenced by the day-to-day happenings on social media or some one-off comment from someone in their personal life that they respect. These comments can be about the long-term viability of bitcoin itself, some prognostications about where the price is going in a short-term to medium-term time frame or simply the social aspects of being associated with bitcoin. All of these factors play into influencing certain individuals deciding to sell their bitcoin in the hopes of buying it back lower, realizing something material in their day-to-day life or jumping off a ship that they've been convinced is about to sink.

In my mind, the only thing listed above that makes a bit of sense to me is realizing something material in your day-to-day life. Selling some bitcoin to purchase something that makes your life better like enabling you to support your family at a critical time and in a way that would not be possible unless you sold bitcoin. That makes sense to me. However, the other two are completely nonsensical. Bitcoin's success is binary. It either succeeds or it doesn't. And if you accept that this is true, success means slowly but surely becoming the global reserve currency and monetary network used by billions of humans on the planet or it goes to zero.

If the former materializes, that means that billions of people are going to be competing for 21 million Bitcoin. There are, by some estimates, $900 trillion worth of assets that are being used to store wealth over the short, medium, and long term. Bitcoin has the potential to subsume a material percentage of that $900 trillion. In my mind, if bitcoin is as good as I believe it is, it should take at least half of that market, if not 80 to 90%. This in and of itself is a gamble. No one can be certain that this will come true. And with that in mind you have to make a probabilistic bet by surveying the world and discerning what the likelihood of bitcoin's ultimate success is.

If you think governments, central banks, and large corporations are going to continue down the path of unfettered expansion of the monetary base, debt, and misallocation of capital, bitcoin, a peer-to-peer distributed cash system that cannot be controlled by any individual. corporation, country, or central bank makes a lot of sense. The debasement, the debt expansion, and the misallocation of capital are driven by fallible humans working in incentive structures that are vulnerable to the fallible nature of the humans working within them.

Human fallibility brings with it the ability to talk oneself out of a position that one knows makes sense and is logical. This is the disadvantage that those who are not "the man in the coma" or "the man in a cage" operate from. Being forced to hodl bitcoin is already and will increasingly be seen as a relative advantage. Many who are in bitcoin today, paying attention to every headline, every pull request and every doubt flung their way will likely get to 2030 and agree that they made worse decisions than the man who was thrown in a cage or who slipped into a coma.

Of course, this isn't a fair introspective conclusion. The man in the coma and the man who was forced to hodl because he was put in a jail cell did not have a decision at the end of the day. Both were forced to hodl due to external or internal forces that, all else being equal, they would prefer not have had to endure. However, the outcome of these two situations will likely be better than the outcome of "the man in the arena" who thinks that by making decisions on the go as a slew of information comes his way on a day-to-day basis will materialize in a larger stack of satoshis.

The reality of the situation is such that no one truly knows where bitcoin is going to go on a day-to-day, month-to-month, or year-to-year basis. Especially at this point with large institutions, nation-states, corporations, and individual states getting into the fray. The only tried-and-true strategy within bitcoin over the long term is to stay humble, stack sats, and hodl like you are "the man in the coma" or the man who was thrown in a cage.

Bitcoin's Volatility Won't End With Institutional Adoption

Leon Wankum challenged the popular "supercycle" narrative during our conversation, arguing that Bitcoin's volatility isn't going away despite massive institutional adoption. While acknowledging that MicroStrategy now holds over 2% of all Bitcoin and won't sell, Leon maintains that leverage will still need to be washed out. He expects another 60% drawdown at the end of this bull cycle, viewing this as a feature rather than a bug of Bitcoin's design.

"Bitcoin naturally washes out leverage, it builds resilience and we don't go through these crazy boom and bust cycles, we go through bull and bear markets and I think that's a net positive." - Leon Wankum

Leon sees Bitcoin's volatility as fundamentally different from fiat's destructive boom-bust cycles. Where traditional markets require central bank intervention to prop up failing systems, Bitcoin's regular corrections create genuine resilience. Bad actors will always enter during euphoric phases, and the subsequent washouts ensure only strong hands remain. This natural selection process, he argues, is beautiful - it's what makes Bitcoin antifragile.

Check out the full podcast here for more on real estate opportunity costs, Bitcoin bonds, and treasury company risks.

---

Headlines of the Day

Romania Adds Crypto Terminals to Post Offices - via X

Musk Claims Trump in Epstein Files - via X

Uber CEO Calls Bitcoin Proven Store of Value - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

---

Take the First Step Off the Exchange

Bitkey is an easy, secure way to move your Bitcoin into self-custody. With simple setup and built-in recovery, it’s the perfect starting point for getting your coins off centralized platforms and into cold storage—no complexity, no middlemen.

Take control. Start with Bitkey.

Use the promo code “TFTC20” during checkout for 20% off

---

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

---

Final thought...

The kids really do grow up faster than you expect.

---

Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ f40a134b:60fb788b

{"url":"https://convy.click","title":"Convy","description":"","submittedAt":1749849014}

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has long been an outspoken skeptic and critic of bitcoin. He has called Bitcoin a speculative asset, a fraud, a pet rock, and has opined that it will inevitably blow up. A couple of years ago, he was on Capitol Hill saying that if he were the government, he would "close it down". Just within the last month, he was on Fox Business News talking with Maria Bartiromo, proclaiming that the U.S. should be stockpiling bullets and rare earth metals instead of bitcoin. It's pretty clear that Jamie Dimon, who is at the helm of the most powerful and largest bank in the world, does not like bitcoin one bit.

Evidence below:

via Bitcoin Magazine

via me

via CNBC

via Trending Politics

Despite Dimon's distinguished disdain for Bitcoin, J.P. Morgan cannot deny reality. The CEO of the largest bank in the world is certainly a powerful man, but no one individual, even in the position that Jamie Dimon is in, is more powerful than the market. And the market has spoken very clearly, it is demanding bitcoin. The Bitcoin ETFs have been the most successful ETFs in terms of pace of growth since their launch. They've accumulated tens of billions of dollars in AUM in a very short period of time. Outpacing the previous record set by the gold ETF, GLD.

Whether or not Jamie Dimon himself likes Bitcoin doesn't matter. J.P. Morgan, as the largest bank in the world and a publicly traded company, has a duty to shareholders. And that duty is to increase shareholder value by any ethical and legal means necessary. Earlier today, J.P. Morgan announced plans to offer clients financing against their Bitcoin ETFs, as well as some other benefits, including having their bitcoin holdings recognized in their overall net worth and liquid assets, similar to stocks, cars, and art, which will be massive for bitcoiners looking to get mortgages and other types of loans.

via Bloomberg

I've talked about this recently, but trying to buy a house when most of your liquid net worth is held in bitcoin is a massive pain in the ass. Up until this point, if you wanted to have your bitcoin recognized as part of your net worth and count towards your overall credit profile, you would need to sell some bitcoin, move it to a bank account, and have it sit there for a certain period of time before it was recognized toward your net worth. This is not ideal for bitcoiners who have sufficient cash flows and don't want to sell their bitcoin, pay the capital gains tax, and risk not being able to buy back the amount of sats they were forced to sell just to get a mortgage.

It's not yet clear to me whether or not J.P. Morgan will recognize bitcoin in cold storage toward their clients' net worth and credit profile, or if this is simply for bitcoin ETFs only. However, regardless, this is a step in the right direction and a validation of something that many bitcoiners have been saying for years. Inevitably, everyone will have to bend the knee to bitcoin. Today, it just happened to be the largest bank in the world. I expect more of this to come in the coming months, years, and decades.

Lyn Alden likes to say it in the context of the U.S. national debt and the fiscal crisis, but it also applies to bitcoin adoption and the need for incumbents to orient themselves around the demands of individual bitcoiners; nothing stops this train.

Corporate Bitcoin Treasuries are Changing Market Dynamics

Leon Wankum revealed how corporate Bitcoin treasuries are fundamentally reshaping business dynamics. Companies can now issue equity to fund operations while preserving their Bitcoin holdings, creating a revolutionary capital structure. Leon highlighted MicroStrategy's position, noting they hold enough Bitcoin to cover dividend payments for over 200 years. This model enables companies to reduce founder dilution since they don't need repeated funding rounds when their treasury appreciates.

"Some companies' Bitcoin treasuries are now worth more than all money they've ever raised." - Leon Wankum

Leon shared examples from his own portfolio companies where this strategy has proven transformative. Public companies have discovered an entirely new business model through strategic dilution that actually increases BTC per share. As Leon explained, this approach allows firms to leverage equity markets for operational funding while their Bitcoin treasury compounds in value, creating a positive feedback loop that benefits both shareholders and the company's long-term sustainability.

Check out the full podcast here for more on real estate price cycles, Bitcoin lending products, and the transition to a Bitcoin standard.

---

Headlines of the Day

California May Seize Idle Bitcoin After 3 Years - via X

Semler Scientific Buys $20M More Bitcoin, Holds $467M - via X

US Home Sellers Surge as Buyers Hit 4-Year Low - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

---

Take the First Step Off the Exchange

Bitkey is an easy, secure way to move your Bitcoin into self-custody. With simple setup and built-in recovery, it’s the perfect starting point for getting your coins off centralized platforms and into cold storage—no complexity, no middlemen.

Take control. Start with Bitkey.

Use the promo code “TFTC20” during checkout for 20% off

---

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

---

Final thought...

I feel old.

---

Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ f40a134b:60fb788b

{"url":"https://test.com","title":"test.com","description":"","submittedAt":1749848822}

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Passport Prime: A New Security Device For a New Generation

Passport Prime, Foundation Devices’ latest retail hardware wallet, is about to hit the market in Q3 of 2025. The device features a full-color touch screen the size of a credit card with a modern industrial aesthetic. It aims to be a developer platform for Bitcoin and crypto software with high security demands.

Besides serving the basic wallet needs of Bitcoin users, the device is designed as an open source platform for app developers to bring a new experience of crypto-native cybersecurity to the public. The Passport Prime is expected to ship with a powerful Bitcoin wallet app, as well as virtual YubiKeys, a 2FA app, a seed vault for imported or low-value crypto wallets, 50 GB of storage, NFC, and encrypted Bluetooth support, among other features.

Frustrated with the public’s lackluster adoption of hardware wallets as the crypto industry enters the mainstream adoption phase, Foundation has been working since 2020 to bring security hardware devices to feature parity with mainstream consumer technology. However, the path is not simple.

The Adoption Problem of Hardware Wallets

Hardware wallets have been a critical security product for Bitcoin users since 2014 when Satoshi Labs created the Trezor. Before that, users had few options, and many of the funds lost in that era were due to user ignorance of how to manage and properly secure private keys in Bitcoin. Armory, funded by Trace Mayer in the early days, was one of the first solutions but it was highly technical and was best used with hardware the user had to modify themselves — like removing antennas from a laptop. This kind of technology became a security foundation for exchanges, who, through many hacks and hard lessons, slowly got better at securing user funds from organized crime and hackers while playing jurisdictional arbitrage to avoid hostile governments.

As the first hardware wallets started to enter the retail market, significant adoption was seen. With the massive growth of Bitcoin since its inception, the best security practices have failed to keep up with the ease of use provided by custodians while also failing to deliver security and feature parity to users in an interface they are familiar with.

In a keynote presentation on the Passport Prime landing page, Zach Herbert, CEO and co-founder of Foundation, explains their analysis of the market and why they believe only 2.5% of the market is using hardware wallets today, despite mainstream adoption of digital assets like Bitcoin — a concern felt across the industry that too many people are getting accustomed to custodial services.

The small screens, iconic to the hardware wallet ecosystem, are often a barrier for users. The shape of the device, often small and with few buttons, can make people nervous, especially when the wrong combination of clicks means an irreversible financial transaction.

In the case of touchscreen devices like the Trezor T, while certainly an improvement from the Trezor One, the buttons are still far smaller than what the public is used to for smartphones, the most prolific computer platform of this era.

The problem with trying to bring hardware wallets to feature parity with mobile phones is the massive complexity introduced by the corresponding software and hardware. Mobile phones, after all, are designed for mass manufacturing and with ease-of-use priorities in mind, rather than securing life-changing amounts of digital currency, which, once sent, cannot be reversed.

The hardware wallet industry has had to build out open source, verifiable, security-optimized hardware and software that addresses top security concerns, while also delivering a familiar and comfortable user experience to the public. In general, the industry recognizes the need for bigger screens and bigger buttons, as seen in new models by Ledger, for example, with their Ledger Stax, and, of course, Coldcard Q’s Blackberry-style hardware wallet.

When asked why not just try to build on top of a standard mobile phone platform, Owen Kemeys, hardware designer at Foundation Devices, told Bitcoin Magazine that “there’s a huge advantage to Passport Prime being a separate security device,” adding that “we need this stuff to work for the normal people. They are not going to be able to understand or have any interest in understanding what makes something safe or unsafe on their phone. Even if they were going so far as to have a dedicated phone for secret stuff or whatever. Everything that we develop, Apple and Google could bake into their phones and tell you it’s safe. But if it’s in a separate device that is built to do that one exact thing, then you know, OK, if it happens on the Passport Prime, it’s safe.”

The Passport Prime Feature Set

Foundation believes they have found an optimal and preferable middle ground between high security and a familiar user experience in a mobile phone-style device, but with very specific hardware and software inside. Kemeys explained that “the Passport Prime runs its own operating system,” adding that “We’re not running a fork of Android or something and then dressing it up differently. We wrote this from the ground up in Rust. It’s called KeyOS. It’s designed for this one purpose of running a smartphone-like experience, but with sandboxed apps.”

The wallet-related cryptography that’s normal to today’s Bitcoin and crypto wallets is also deeply integrated with the operating system. A master seed phrase is set up by the user; the seed’s corresponding master private and public keys are then used to derive secure, isolated keys for other apps on the Passport Prime. “All apps are sandboxed and receive hardened child seeds, meaning that even if an app is malicious, it has no access to the master seed and cannot communicate with other apps,” Herbert explained in his presentation.

This design builds the foundations necessary for secure app development on top of the Passport Prime, unique among hardware wallet manufacturers. While Ledger has made some progress in that direction, Herbert says that the Ledger operating system is very restrictive with such apps — primarily out of security concerns  — making it difficult for developers to contribute to the ecosystem. Foundation believes they have solved the problem, unlocking a new kind of security device that can be used for more than cold storage of Bitcoin and crypto assets. It is a security platform for everyday use in the digital era.

As is generally expected of high-security devices like a hardware wallet, the Passport Prime comes without most of the normal sensors or antennas found in mobile devices. No Wi-Fi, no GPS, and no SIM card, of course. However, NFC, an increasingly popular communications module in hardware wallets and in payments technology in general, is included. NFC has a very short signal range and depends on power from the device sending the signal, making it a fairly secure protocol and bringing Bitcoin closer to the tap-to-pay credit card experience the general public is used to.

“We now have an NFC reader inside,” Kemeys explained, excited about the innovation space unlocked by NFC chips in Bitcoin. “As part of your onboarding setup, in the box, we’re going to ship three NFC cards with the Prime. And as our default onboarding workflow, we’re going to encourage people to make a two-of-three Shamir setup, and back up the shares onto some of those cards.”

Shamir secret sharing is an old and well-known cryptographic algorithm similar to multisignature schemes in Bitcoin but entirely off-chain. It allows users to grab a master private key and split it into shares that can come together later to recreate and reco

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

via nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqy0hwumn8ghj7mn0wd68yttjv4kxz7fwvf5hgcm0d9hzumnfde4xzqpq85h9z5yxn8uc7retm0n6gkm88358lejzparxms5kmy9epr236k2qtyz2zr

A lot of the focus over the last couple of months has been on the emergence of Strategy competitors in public markets looking to build sizable bitcoin treasuries and attract investors of all shapes and sizes to drive shareholder value. The other big topic in the bitcoin development world has been around OP_RETURN and the debate over whether or not the amount of data that can be shoved into a bitcoin transaction should be decided by the dominant implementation.

A topic that is just as, if not more, important that is not getting enough appreciation is the discussion around open source bitcoin developers and the lingering effects of the Biden administration's attack on Samourai Wallet and Tornado Cash. If you read our friend Matt Corallo's tweet above, you'll notice that the lingering effects are such that even though the Trump administration has made concerted efforts to reverse the effects of Operation Chokepoint 2.0 that were levied by the Biden administration, Elizabeth Warren, and her friends at the Treasury and SEC - it is imperative that we enshrine into law the rights of open source developers to build products and services that enable individuals to self-custody bitcoin and use it in a peer-to-peer fashion without the threat of getting thrown in jail cell.

As it stands today, the only assurances that we have are from an administration that is overtly in favor of the proliferation of bitcoin in the United States. There is nothing in place to stop the next administration or another down the line from reverting to Biden-era lawfare that puts thousands of bitcoin developers around the world at risk of being sent into a cage because the government doesn't like how some users leverage the code they write. To make sure that this isn't a problem down the line it is imperative that we pass the Blockchain Regulatory Clarity Act, which would not hold bitcoin developers liable for the ways in which end users leverage their tools.

Not only is this an act that would protect developers from pernicious government officials targeting them when end users use their technology in a way that doesn't make the government happy, it will also protect YOU, the end user, looking to transact in a peer-to-peer fashion and leverage all of the incredible properties of bitcoin the way they were meant to be. If the developers are not protected, they will not be able to build the technology that enables you to leverage bitcoin.

So do your part and go to saveourwallets.org. Reach out to your local representatives in Congress and Senators and make some noise. Let them know that this is something that you care deeply about and that they should not only pay attention to this bill but push it forward and enshrine it into law as quickly as possible.

There are currently many developers either behind bars or under house arrest for developing software that gives you the ability to use Bitcoin in a self-sovereign fashion and use it in a privacy-preserving way. Financial privacy isn't a crime. It is an inalienable human right that should be protected at all cost. The enshrinement of this inalienable right into law is way past due.

#FreeSamourai #FreeRoman

Headlines of the Day

MicroStrategy Copycats See Speculative Premiums Fade - via X

Square Tests Bitcoin Payments, Lightning Yields Beat DeFi - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Bitfinex Moves $731M Bitcoin to Jack Mallers' Fund - via X

---

Take the First Step Off the Exchange

Bitkey is an easy, secure way to move your Bitcoin into self-custody. With simple setup and built-in recovery, it’s the perfect starting point for getting your coins off centralized platforms and into cold storage—no complexity, no middlemen.

Take control. Start with Bitkey.

Use the promo code “TFTC20” during checkout for 20% off

---

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

---

Final thought...

Should I join a country club?

---

Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ a4a6b584:1e05b95b

Prerequisites

```bash

Make sure your package list is fresh

sudo apt update

(Optional but recommended) ffmpeg lets yt-dlp negotiate the best formats

sudo apt install ffmpeg jq ```

---

1 Install yt-dlp system-wide

bash sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp \ -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp && sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

A single binary is dropped into /usr/local/bin/; version upgrades are as simple as running the same command again in the future.

---

2 Download the auto-generated captions as SRT

Pick any video ID—here we’ll use knAGgxzYqw8 (Chase Hughes on What is Money?).

```bash VIDEO="knAGgxzYqw8" # change this to your target ID

yt-dlp --skip-download \ --write-auto-sub \ --sub-lang en \ --sub-format srt \ -o "${VIDEO}.%(ext)s" \ "https://youtu.be/${VIDEO}"

Result: knAGgxzYqw8.en.srt

```

Flags explained

| Flag | Purpose | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- | | --skip-download | ignore the actual video, we only want captions | | --write-auto-sub | fall back to YouTube’s auto-generated subtitles | | --sub-lang en | grab English only (adjust if you need another language) | | --sub-format srt | SRT is the simplest to strip; VTT also works | | -o | sets a predictable filename: <id>.en.srt |

---

3 Strip index numbers and timecodes

```bash grep -vE '^[0-9]+$|^[0-9]{2}:' "${VIDEO}.en.srt" \ | sed '/^[[:space:]]*$/d' \

"${VIDEO}.txt" ```

Breakdown

1. grep -vE '^[0-9]+$|^[0-9]{2}:'

2. Removes the line counters (3911) and any line that begins with a timestamp (02:33:40,800 --> …).

3. sed '/^[[:space:]]*$/d'

4. Deletes leftover blank lines.

5. Output is redirected to <ID>.txt—in our example: knAGgxzYqw8.txt.

---

4 (Option-al) Extra polish

Remove bracketed stage cues such as [Music] or [Applause] and collapse back-to-back duplicates:

```bash grep -v '^[.*]$' "${VIDEO}.txt" \ | awk 'prev != $0 {print} {prev=$0}' \

"${VIDEO}_clean.txt" mv "${VIDEO}_clean.txt" "${VIDEO}.txt" ```

---

5 Enjoy your transcript

bash less "${VIDEO}.txt" # page through grep -i "keyword" "${VIDEO}.txt" # quick search

You now have a plain-text file ready for note-taking, quoting, or feeding into your favorite AI summarizer—no browser or third-party web services required.

---

TL;DR (copy-paste cheat sheet)

```bash sudo apt update && sudo apt install ffmpeg jq -y sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp \ -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp && sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

VIDEO="knAGgxzYqw8" # video ID yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en \ --sub-format srt -o "${VIDEO}.%(ext)s" \ "https://youtu.be/${VIDEO}"

grep -vE '^[0-9]+$|^[0-9]{2}:' "${VIDEO}.en.srt" \ | sed '/^[[:space:]]$/d' \ | grep -v '^[.]$' \ | awk 'prev != $0 {print} {prev=$0}' \

"${VIDEO}.txt"

less "${VIDEO}.txt" ```

Happy transcribing!

Adam Malin

adammalin.com

npub15jnttpymeytm80hatjqcvhhqhzrhx6gxp8pq0wn93rhnu8s9h9dsha32lx

You can view and write comments on this or any other post by using the Satcom browser extention.

value4value Did you find any value from this article? Click here to send me a tip!

@ 8173f6e1:e488ac0f

{"voteEventId":"083ae248828a454a7d01b7de12f99ce90297672e0457ec8147bd7cfabd14f044","txHash":"752d3894c5657758d7b9754da3dc38db61662acb5f94c3dcb38077fc33f1bd7e","amount":"1000000000000000000","fee":"1000000000000000000","type":"token-gated-vote-proof"}

@ b9d5de4b:26c0a1b8

Hello, legitmately asking for a friend...does anyone know of a way to recover a bip38 address created on bitaddress? they claim to have both keys just dont know the passphase.

https://stacker.news/items/1005953

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

via me

I think we'll look back at last weekend as one of the most pivotal points in human history. Ukraine's Operation Spider Web is one of the more shocking things I've seen in terms of military operations in my life. It validates something that many bitcoiners, many cypherpunks, and many prescient individuals have been talking about for decades now at this point, which is asymmetric drone warfare.

The Sovereign Individual is a book that many bitcoiners have talked about throughout the years due to how prescient it was in terms of the inevitable emergence of a digital currency outside the control of central banks and governments. The book was written in the mid-90s, so the fact that the two authors were able to predict that something like bitcoin would emerge less than 20 years after writing the book is pretty incredible. However, digital currencies leveraging cryptography were not the sole focus of the book. Another portion of the book was dedicated to the idea of asymmetric drone warfare and its effects on society overall.

It seems pretty clear today that this is another call from The Sovereign Individual that is coming true. Obviously, unless you've been living under a rock, you've noticed that Ukraine has been using drones in the battlefield to target strategic Russian assets and individual soldiers over the last year. The amount of battlefield videos I've seen of Russian soldiers running from autonomous drones that are hunting them down has been increasing significantly over the last six months. The footage is truly harrowing. It is a death that I wouldn't wish on anybody. With Operation Spider Web Ukraine has increased the stakes of this type of drone warfare by going deep into Russian territory and targeting strategic long-range bombers, some of which had the ability to deploy nuclear warheads. This is sure to incite a reaction from Russia. No one will be surprised if, by the end of the week, Russia has started a shock and awe campaign that goes deep into Ukrainian territory in retaliation for the kamikaze drone strikes on their long-range aircraft. I pray for peace and a quick resolution to this war, and every other war for that matter.

I didn't come here to pontificate and give my thoughts on this particular war, but I would like to focus on this new tactic of war and what it means for military budgets moving forward. The Sovereign Individual laid it out clearly when they wrote in the 1990s that at some point in the future autonomous drones would be leveraged in the battlefield and prove to be asymmetric because of the fact that they are extremely cheap to produce. When you compare the price it cost to produce one of these drones to the price of the equipment they are destroying, things get pretty crazy. With tens of thousands of dollars of drone equipment the Ukrainian army destroyed tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars worth of long-range missile aircraft. And it did so without putting any Ukrainian military personnel in harm's way. Directly, at least.

When you consider the return on investment of deploying these drones compared to sending in soldiers, tanks, and your own aircraft, it becomes pretty obvious that this is going to quickly become the most logical way to fight a war moving forward. The question that remains is how quickly do other governments recognize this and implement it into their own defense strategies? As an American looking at our military budget, which is quickly approaching $1 trillion in annual spend, I'm forced to question whether or not most of that money is simply being wasted, considering the fact that we live in a time where these asymmetric battlefield strategies now exist. Why build new fighter jets when a Somali pirate, or nefarious individual for that matter, could use a $200 drone to destroy it in a matter of seconds with no threat of direct physical harm?

I'm no military expert, but if I were at the helm of the Defense Department, I would seriously be forcing those below me to focus a ton of effort on this problem and create plans to make sure that we are sufficiently protected from these risks. The only way to protect from these risks is to build the capabilities yourself. When it comes to the risk reward from a defense tech investment perspective I think a majority of the effort should be focused on defensive drone technologies and capabilities.

With that being said, it does seem like the US military is privy to this asymmetric reality that we currently live in. Defense contracts with Andruil make this pretty clear. Andruil is certainly ahead of the curve when it comes to autonomous drone warfare and defense against it. As an American, even though I don't like war, or the military industrial complex, knowing that the military is working with companies like Andruil does give me some comfort. However, the other side of that coin is that it is very unnerving when you consider that the government creating these public-private partnerships could lead to some Orwellian outcomes here at home. It may make some of you feel uncomfortable, but I believe the ideal scenario is that any individual has access to these types of defensive drone technologies in the future. The end goal being to create a nuclear game theoretical outcome where violence is reduced because one always has to assume that anyone they intend to attack has access to sufficient and formidable defensive technologies.

It's truly scary times we're living in as we transition further into the Digital Age. Part of the reason that I've dedicated my whole life to bitcoin is because I truly do believe that if you fix the money, you can fix the world. That is not to say that kinetic wars or physical violence will not exist in the future. It certainly will. But I believe sound money and open access to these systems and tools creates conditions which are much more suitable for cooperation and less so for conflict.

Multi-Signature Bitcoin Custody Is Replacing Single-Point Solutions

Jesse Gilger made a compelling case for why multi-signature Bitcoin custody represents the future of secure storage. He explained how Gannett Trust's approach ensures "not all of the keys are going to be at any one entity," fundamentally reducing the honeypot risk that plagues centralized custodians. This distributed model means no single point of failure can compromise your Bitcoin, whether through hacking, internal fraud, or regulatory seizure.

"I was on the list. I got the email. 'You were affected.'" - Jesse Gilger

Jesse's firsthand experience with the Coinbase data breach drives home why centralized custody is fundamentally flawed. While Coinbase holds keys for 10 of 12 Bitcoin ETFs, smart money is moving toward multi-institutional setups where Gannett holds a key, Unchained holds a key, and a third party holds a key. This alignment with Bitcoin's decentralized ethos isn't just philosophically pure—it's pragmatically superior for protecting generational wealth.

Check out the full podcast here for more on MSTY risks, Bitcoin retirement strategies and nation-state adoption dynamics.

Headlines of the Day

MicroStrategy Copycats See Speculative Premiums Fade - via X

Square Tests Bitcoin Payments, Lightning Yields Beat DeFi - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Bitfinex Moves $731M Bitcoin to Jack Mallers' Fund - via X

---

Take the First Step Off the Exchange

Bitkey is an easy, secure way to move your Bitcoin into self-custody. With simple setup and built-in recovery, it’s the perfect starting point for getting your coins off centralized platforms and into cold storage—no complexity, no middlemen.

Take control. Start with Bitkey.

Use the promo code “TFTC20” during checkout for 20% off

---

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

---

Final thought...

Trying to imagine the future my children are going to live in gets harder by the day.

---

Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

OMAD is great! Outside the very short window eating window, I have almost no desire to eat or drink.

I also took a nap today and a cold shower. I just needed to be more active.

How did you all do today? Are you making progress towards your ~HealthAndFitness goals?

https://stacker.news/items/1005945

@ c631e267:c2b78d3e

Ich dachte immer, jeder Mensch sei gegen den Krieg, \ bis ich herausfand, dass es welche gibt, \ die nicht hingehen müssen. \ Erich Maria Remarque

Was sollte man von einem Freitag, den 13., schon anderes erwarten?, ist man versucht zu sagen. Jedoch braucht niemand abergläubisch zu sein, um den heutigen Tag als unheilvoll anzusehen. Der israelische «Präventivschlag» von heute Nacht gegen militärische und nukleare Ziele im Iran könnte allem Anschein nach zu einem längeren bewaffneten Konflikt führen – und damit unweigerlich zu weiteren Opfern.

«Wir befinden uns im Krieg», soll ein ranghoher israelischer Militärvertreter gesagt haben, und der Iran wertet den israelischen Angriff laut seinem Außenminister als Kriegserklärung. Na also. Der Iran hat Vergeltungsschläge angekündigt und antwortete zunächst mit Drohnen. Inzwischen ist eine zweite israelische Angriffswelle angelaufen. Ob wir wohl künftig in den Mainstream-Medien durchgängig von einem «israelischen Angriffskrieg auf den Iran» hören und lesen werden?

Dass die zunehmenden Spannungen um das iranische Atomprogramm zu einer akuten Eskalation im Nahen Osten führen könnten, hatte Transition News gestern berichtet. Laut US-Beamten sei Israel «voll bereit», den Iran in den nächsten Tagen anzugreifen, hieß es in dem Beitrag. Heute ist das bereits bittere Realität.

Der Nahe Osten steht übrigens auch auf der Themenliste des diesjährigen Bilderberg-Treffens, das zurzeit in Stockholm stattfindet. Viele Inhalte werden wir allerdings mal wieder nicht erfahren, denn wie immer hocken die «erlauchten» Persönlichkeiten aus Europa und den USA «informell» und unter größter Geheimhaltung zusammen, um über «Weltpolitik» zu diskutieren. Auf der Teinehmerliste stehen auch einige Vertreter aus der Schweiz und aus Deutschland.

Die Anwesenheit sowohl des aktuellen als auch des vorigen Generalsekretärs der NATO lässt vermuten, dass man bei dem Meeting weniger über das Thema «Neutralität» sprechen dürfte. Angesichts des Zustands unseres Planeten ist das schade, denn der Ökonom Jeffrey Sachs hob kürzlich in einem Interview die Rolle der Neutralität in geopolitischen Krisen hervor. Mit Blick auf die Schweiz betonte er, der zunehmende Druck zur NATO-Annäherung widerspreche nicht nur der Bundesverfassung, sondern auch dem historischen Erbe des Landes.

Positives gibt es diese Woche ebenfalls zu berichten. So hat der US-Gesundheitsminister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nach der «sensationellen» Entlassung aller Mitglieder des Impfberatungsausschusses (wegen verbreiteter direkter Verbindungen zu Pharmaunternehmen) nun auch bereits neue Namen verkündet. Demnach möchte er unter anderem Robert W. Malone, Erfinder der mRNA-«Impfung» als Technologie und prominenter Kritiker der Corona-Maßnahmen, in das Komitee aufnehmen.

Auch die Aufarbeitung der unsinnigen Corona-Politik geht Schrittchen für Schrittchen weiter. In Heidelberg hat die Initiative für Demokratie und Aufklärung (IDA) den Gemeinderat angesichts der katastrophalen Haushaltslage zu einer offenen und ehrlichen Diskussion über die Ursachen der Krise aufgefordert. Das Thema «Corona» sei «das Teuerste, was Heidelberg je erlebt hat», sagte IDA-Stadtrat Gunter Frank im Plenum. Außerdem seien aus den Krisenstabsprotokollen der Stadt auch die enormen Verwerfungen ersichtlich, und es gebe Anlass für tiefgehende Gespräche mit der Stadtverwaltung.

Den juristischen und öffentlichen Druck auf die Kommunen möchte der Unternehmer Markus Böning erhöhen. Seine «Freiheitskanzlei» will Bürgern helfen, die Aufarbeitung selbst in die Hand zu nehmen. Unter dem Motto «Corona-Wiedergutmachung» bietet er Hilfestellung, wie Betroffene versuchen können, sich unrechtmäßige Bußgelder zurückzuholen.

So bleibt uns am Ende dieses finsteren Freitags doch auch Anlass zur Hoffnung. Es gibt definitiv noch Anzeichen von Menschlichkeit. Darauf möchte ich mich konzentrieren, und mit diesem Gefühl verabschiede ich mich ins Wochenende.

[Titelbild: Pixabay]

---

Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben und ist zuerst auf Transition News erschienen.

@ b1e9b8df:07685594

OERTR steht für eine Art, freie Bildungsressourcen (Open Educational Resources) über das dezentrale Protokoll Nostr zu verbreiten, auffindbar zu machen und weiterzuentwickeln.

Statt zentraler Plattformen oder Silos nutzen wir Relays – offene Knoten im Nostr-Netzwerk – um Materialien, Metadaten, Annotationen und Kurse dauerhaft, hoch verfügbar und maschinenlesbar im interoperablen Datenraum verfügbar zu machen.

---

🚀 Unser Ziel

• OER auffindbar machen – über strukturierte Events (z. B. Kind 30023, 30142)

• Mitmachen ermöglichen – durch einfache Workflows mit git, Matrix & Nostr

• Bildung dezentral denken – jenseits von Plattformlogiken

• Metadaten lebendig halten – durch Community-gestützte Annotation & Remixbarkeit

---

🔧 Womit wir arbeiten

• 💬 Matrix zur Koordination & Diskussion

• 💻 git(hub) zur offenen Entwicklung und Dokumentation

---

📡 Mach mit!

➡ Nostr folgen:\ 👉 npub1k85m3haymj3ggjknfrxm5kwtf5umaze4nyghnp29a80lcpmg2k2q54v05a (nähere Infos auf https://github.com/edufeed-org/OERTR )

➡ Matrix beitreten:\ 🟢 #OERTR:rpi-virtuell.de\ https://matrix.to/#/%23OERTR:rpi-virtuell.de\ Zum Diskutieren, Planen, Ausprobieren.

➡ GitHub anschauen:\ 📂 https://github.com/edufeed-org/OERTR\ Mit Beispieldaten, n8n-Workflows, NIP-Verlinkungen & mehr.

---

🧠 Ideen zum Start

• 🔍 Indexe für OER-Projekte (z. B. OERinfo, rpi-virtuell, WirLernenOnline)

• 📚 Tagging-Events für Fachbereiche, Zielgruppen & Lizenztypen

• 🤝 Event-Verknüpfung mit Mastodon, Mobilizon, Wikidata

• 🧩 Mitdenken beim Aufbau eines offenen Bildungsraums via Nostr

---

📎 Beispiel: OER-Material posten

json { "kind": 30142, "tags": [ ["d", "https://example.org/oer1234"], ["r", "https://example.org/oer1234"], ["subject", "Ethik"], ["author", "Max Mustermann"], ["license", "CC-BY 4.0"] ], "content": "Material zur Gewaltfreien Kommunikation für die 5. Klasse" }

💡 Fragen? Ideen?

Wir freuen uns über Feedback, Pull Requests oder ein einfaches "Hallo!"\ ➡ Schreib uns im Matrix-Raum oder auf Nostr .

OERTR – ein Netzwerk. Kein Silo.

@ d62e8d04:569fa79c

In today's fast-paced digital world, where cyber threats are constantly evolving, and blockchain technology is reshaping industries, Privkey LLC emerges as a leader in providing cutting-edge solutions. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Miami, Florida, Privkey LLC is dedicated to safeguarding businesses through its expertise in cybersecurity and blockchain technology. With over 20 years of experience in networking and the Internet, the company positions itself as a trusted advisor, helping organizations navigate the complexities of emerging digital landscapes.

A Mission to Secure the Digital Future

Privkey LLC’s core mission is to protect businesses by delivering high-quality, tailored solutions. Leveraging their deep understanding of cybersecurity and blockchain, they empower organizations to build secure, resilient, and compliant digital infrastructures. Whether it’s safeguarding sensitive financial data or ensuring the integrity of blockchain systems, Privkey LLC combines experience with innovation to meet the unique challenges of the modern era.

Comprehensive Services for a Digital World

Privkey LLC offers a diverse range of auditing and consulting services, focusing on some of the most critical areas in technology today. Below is an overview of their key offerings:

• Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC):As nations explore digital versions of fiat currencies, Privkey LLC provides auditing services to ensure CBDC systems are secure, scalable, and compliant with regulatory standards.

• DeFi and CeFi (Fintech):Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Centralized Finance (CeFi) represent the future of financial services on the blockchain. Privkey LLC offers expertise in auditing these systems, helping businesses mitigate risks and maintain trust in their financial operations.

• Cybersecurity:With cyber threats on the rise, Privkey LLC delivers robust cybersecurity solutions to protect digital assets and sensitive data from malicious attacks, ensuring businesses remain secure in an increasingly hostile digital environment.

• Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT):As the backbone of blockchain, DLT requires meticulous implementation. Privkey LLC audits DLT systems to ensure they are efficient, secure, and optimized for business needs.

• CryptoCurrency Security Standard (CCSS):For organizations handling cryptocurrencies, compliance with CCSS is essential. Privkey LLC provides certification services to verify adherence to these standards, fostering trust among users and stakeholders.

These services reflect Privkey LLC’s commitment to addressing the diverse needs of businesses operating in the blockchain and cybersecurity domains.

Staying Ahead in a Rapidly Evolving Industry

Privkey LLC doesn’t just provide services—they actively engage with the latest industry trends and innovations. Their team, including professionals like William K. Santiago, frequently shares insights on platforms like LinkedIn. Topics range from Jack Dorsey’s Block unveiling a new Bitcoin hardware wallet to sustainable Bitcoin mining powered by nuclear and solar energy. While these discussions may not directly tie to specific Privkey LLC projects, they demonstrate the company’s deep involvement in the broader blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem. This forward-thinking approach ensures their services remain relevant and cutting-edge.

A Trusted Partner with Proven Expertise

With over two decades of experience in networking and Internet technologies, Privkey LLC brings unparalleled expertise to the table. This foundation allows them to tackle the unique challenges of cybersecurity and blockchain with confidence. As cyber threats grow more sophisticated and blockchain adoption accelerates, Privkey LLC stands ready to help businesses secure their digital futures.

Conclusion

Privkey LLC is more than a consulting firm—it’s a pioneer in cybersecurity and blockchain solutions. By offering specialized auditing and consulting services, staying ahead of industry trends, and leveraging decades of experience, they empower businesses to thrive in a digital world. For organizations looking to secure their digital assets and embrace blockchain technology, Privkey LLC is a reliable partner poised to lead the way.

@ efc2b6e5:99c53c19

AI companies massively influence society by projecting their values on ML models, whether we want it or not. It'd be great if at least some people in the companies knew how exactly they influence society, could make certain predictions, or even make ML models themselves predict users' worldviews and some of their behavior.

Some might argue that AI systems already do something like that. I believe they could do it much better: chatbots could be more balanced in terms of security (they are definitely overcensored) and recommender systems, for instance, could contribute to healthy personal and collective transformations (rather than just competing in ability to steal users' attention and trap it in the echo chambers).

Reductionism is an obstacle in AI development

Even most reliable knowledge doesn't solve some of the problems that are already in demand. Even least reliable knowledge still may contain something useful for our problems. While we lack reliable and noncontradictory knowledge, we can still benefit from certain synthesis of working ideas. There's approach that makes it possible to look at the knowledge from a very broad perspective, do such synthesis, and benefit from emergent properties of the synthesis.

Integral (Meta-)Theory created by Ken Wilber is probably the best known attempt to enable the possibility to form and navigate the big picture understanding in a hope to address issues of the epoch we've recently entered.

IMO it has certain challenges that make it repellent to IT:

1. Fundamental psychological theories on which the Integral Theory is based are still pretty fragile; they need time to become mature enough and recognized (while it doesn't look like we have that time). There are endless edit wars on Wikipedia, which makes me feel depressing about possibilities to even introduce Spiral Dynamics and Multiple Intelligences to IT people.
2. Emphasis on controversial interpretations of certain arational states of consciousness.

It's hard to address the first challenge; however, I recently discovered a new “secularized” Non-Reductionist Philosophy launched by David Long, which, among other things, uses wisdom from Integral Theory and attempts to address the second challenge. I'm glad that there are people who don't just criticize the Integral Theory, its community and Wilber's positions but are also developing the new meta-theories.

NR can also be a good way to get familiar with other meta-theories, so one could choose whatever works the best for their problems. For instance, if you're working on something as exotic as some competitor to EEG-powered meditation device, perhaps you will find Integral Theory relevant to study as well, since it's more focused on the states.

I'd like to point out a couple of moments I noticed in the video "Why Non-Reductionism Is A Better Meta-Theory" that caught my attention, as well as in some other older videos. There's not much to comment on the content itself rather than on the form of the content. This feedback might be used for improvements/elaborations in the next videos and just for everyone curious about the new meta-theory. But first

Why do I post here?

Specifically for the deep topics that relate to the current epoch, I no longer find engaging in the YouTube/FB/Reddit/Diqus/Giscus/etc. discussions useful anymore, at least due to broken and almost omnipresent AI-based censorship, that keeps “improving” at randomly shadow-banning people. How many deep and valuable opinions we no longer see?

BTW, it's possible to create Reddit-like communities here at Nostr as well, using Satellite client for example. I believe it's a better place for NR, Rebel Wisdom and many others.

References to full materials used for criticism

There are curious clips with Wilber in the video. It'd be great to have links in the description (or at least titles of the full videos if it's copyrighted material) so viewers could easier form their own independent opinions. I find it important during the age of information overload and narrative warfare. This will also improve SEO.

Emergentism FAQ

There's a strong position on emergence of consciousness; it seems it's not even a hypothesis in NR and I guess that makes some people so reactive.

I think it would be great to have an FAQ page to possibly make future debates more ecological and fruitful. Some of the things that could be elaborated in the FAQ:

• importance of distinction between philosophical theory (inductive reasoning? or actually deductive reasoning? I'm confused here) and scientific theory (deductive reasoning)
• the fact that for now counterarguments usually fall into the categories of “ignorance fallacy”, “false equivalency fallacy” and “God of the gaps” which aren't something sufficient; the whole point of challenge was to find at least a logically valid counterposition (ideally a counterposition that is sound with currently available scientific ~~facts~~ theories), not the nitpicking attacks
• what kind of emergence is meant, is it important here at all and why.

Debates moderation

Probably most of the debates converge to consensus, which are fruitful anyway. There are a few interesting conflicting debates as well. However, I found this specific conflicting debate with Matt Segall quite exceptional.

Matt's position was not understood. He was more interested in a dialogue rather than debates and I think it would be more productive. However, in this specific case, my guess is it would literally take hours to just figure out the common language on a certain concept he mentions.

My humble guess is that a combination of negotiator and moderator with a primary perceiving personality type function (if typologies work at all) could be a step to more meaningful and ecological dialogues in the future. But such negotiator/moderator should also be skilled enough to reflect most challenging parts using more “rational language” as best as possible. These people are rare. Basically I mean the style of dialogues that happened between theoretical physicist David Bohm and Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti: IMO these were the talks where both sides at some point were barely transcending limitations of their languages and focusing more on intuition in order to understand each other. Much fuzzier and spontaneous dialogues, which aren't prematurely limited by too harsh rationality. Similar thing (with shorter periods of negotiation) could be combined with debating as well.

I hope NR community will be open to understanding more perspectives and won't end up turning into something like a cold and scary crystallization of rational arrogance; that would be damaging and quite opposite to the healthy intentions of the whole project.

Final thoughts

I like the clarity and density of the presented ideas in the video, the choice of lines of development in the map and the alternative to the Integral Methodological Pluralism. I like the mentioned interpretation of “free” will, very much resonates with how I personally interpret it. Tritone-ish devilish sounds in the cons sections is a nice aesthetic choice as well.

I guess there's a lot to learn from NR, no matter what positions we hold on the “rational spirituality” and that sort of stuff. Just to avoid projections and misunderstandings: I'm in a neutral position to all the post-postmodern discourses (NR, Integral, Metamodernism, etc.); I care about these philosophies, make my own distinctions on what's healthy or not, and my positions don't necessarily perfectly match with some of the claims these philosophies make.

Thank you David Long for launching this philosophy and the movement; I'm looking forward to the next videos!

I'd appreciate reposts and all this as well, thanks!

@ ae9dc5ef:77f0ed87

I'm excited to announce that Nostr Game Engine just reached its first development milestone: v0.0.

What is Nostr Game Engine?

Nostr Game Engine is built on top of the modular and proven jMonkeyEngine.

What sets it apart? Its internals are being gradually replaced with Nostr-powered modules, turning it into a reference engine purpose-built for decentralized games.

This first release delivers these key capabilities:

Peer-to-Peer Networking

Forget centralized game servers. Nostr Game Engine gives you real P2P multiplayer, using WebRTC for data streaming and Nostr relays for coordination.

Want to dig deeper? This is a draft NIP that is a revised version of this other draft NIP, that details how the signaling works.

WebRTC is already a solid and reliable peer-to-peer protocol, equipped with a full set of NAT traversal capabilities, but its signaling phase typically relies on specialized central servers.

By coupling WebRTC with Nostr, we take signaling decentralized too by relying on a network of dumb public relays that are oblivious to what encrypted data we send to them and are easily replaceable.

(see the documentation for more info)

Nostr Authentication & Gamertags

NGE has a fully managed Nostr Auth flow, with support for NIP-49 encrypted local nsecs and  NIP-46 remote signers.

It also fully handles metadata, including external identities:  your profile picture, display name, and other details can carry over between games, and even from other Nostr clients and communities.

This release is also introducing Gamertags: persistent gaming handles tied to your Nostr pubkey. They are like Xbox Gamertags or the old Discord handle, but they’re decentralized and follow you across any game that supports them (check this draft nip for more info).

Match Making

While matchmaking is planned for a later milestone on the roadmap, this release ships with an early implementation to help test RTC connections.

This initial implementation has the APIs to create lobbies that are discoverable and optionally password-protected. Players can search and filter for lobbies using both client-side and relay-side filtering, depending on what the relay supports.

Right now, you can’t see how many players are in a lobby, and the feature is still a bit rough around the edges, but it's a solid start, and more improvements are coming as we move further along the roadmap.

The cool part? You don’t even need to know Nostr is running under the hood. The engine exposes simple APIs like createLobby, findLobbies, and connectToLobby, the developer can call them when needed, and the engine handles all the relay querying and data stitching behind the scenes.

(see the documentation for more info)

A new Nostr Client Library

The engine uses a new Nostr client library built from scratch, designed for performance, asynchronicity, and memory efficiency. It’s lean, fast, and built to be the foundation for everything that comes next.

Cross-Platform and language of choice

The entire codebase is written mostly in Java, and it builds natively for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Support for Android, iOS, and Web Browsers is on the roadmap.

What has been built so far?

• Version 0.0, with the core features mentioned above

• Documentation covering the key components of the engine

• An app template to help bootstrap projects and experiment with the engine

• An high performance and portable nostr client library

• A tech demo (more on that later)

So now, you can get a real feel for the engine, see what it does, play around with it, and maybe even start experimenting with your own ideas.

Roadmap

This is just the beginning. There is a full roadmap on the website.

Upcoming milestones include ads, deeper identity features, and tools that make decentralized game development as smooth as possible.

Sea of Nostriches

This is a demo built for this release. 

You start alone in an open ocean with a boat, nothing much at first. 

But as soon as another player joins (another peer), your boat begins sending data directly to theirs via peer-to-peer communication. You’ll see this visualized as a stream of numbers moving between boats in game.

If you have a profile picture set, it’ll automatically appear on your boat’s sail, and you’ll see others’ profile pictures on theirs.

That’s the core of it. 

It is not a real game, as there is nothing really to do, no lag compensation, no score etc… but it is a decent reference, and an “integration test” for this release.

There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes, like how the ocean is simulated or how rendering is handled, but that’s beyond the scope of this post. You can check out the full source code on GitHub, along with native builds for all supported platforms and a portable JAR.

---

That’s all for now! Huge thanks go to nostr:nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7ct5d3shxtnwdaehgu3wd3skuep0qyt8wumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcqypu8xwr40lp96ewdj2fef408wy70gd3carf9n6xu7hrnhq6whpgly925h0z for making this possible. Their support allows me to dedicate full-time effort to this project and contribute to the growth of the Nostr ecosystem.

---

Check out the website at ngengine.org and browse the docs at ngengine.org/docs if you want to dig deeper.

Feel free to come up with any questions. I’ll do my best to answer.

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

Sorry for the lack of writing over the last week. As many of you may already know, I was in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Bitcoin 2025 conference. It was my first time in Las Vegas. I had successfully avoided Sin City for the first 34 years of my life. But when duty calls, you have to make some personal concessions.

Despite what many say about this particular conference and the spectacle that it has become, I will say that having attended every single one of Bitcoin Magazine's conferences since 2019, I thoroughly enjoy these events, even if I don't agree with all the content. Being able to congregate with others in the industry who have been working extremely hard to push Bitcoin forward, all of whom I view as kindred spirits who have also dedicated their lives to making the world a better place. There's nothing better than getting together, seeing each other in person, shaking hands, giving hugs, catching up and reflecting on how much things have changed over the years while also focusing on the opportunities that lie ahead.

I think out of all the Bitcoin magazine conferences I've been to, this was certainly my favorite. If only because it has become abundantly clear that Bitcoin is here to stay. Many powerful, influential, and competent people have identified Bitcoin as an asset and monetary network that will play a large part in human society moving forward. And more importantly, Bitcoin is proving to work far better than anybody not paying attention expected. While at the same time, the fiat system is in woeful disrepair at the same time.

As a matter of reflection and surfacing signal for you freaks, here are the presentations and things that happened that I think were the most impactful.

Miles Suter's Block Presentation

https://youtu.be/iUXomXuXcuA

This presentation was awesome for many reasons, one of which being that we often forget just how dedicated Block, as an organization with many companies - including Cash App, Square, the open source organization known as Spiral and more recently, BitKey and Proto - has been to bitcoin over the last eight years. They've worked methodically to make Bitcoin a first-class citizen in their business operations and slowly but surely have built an incredibly integrated experience across their brands. The two big announcements from Block during the conference were the enablement of Bitcoin payments in Square point-of-sale systems and the amount of revenue they're making on their Lightning node, c=, from routing payments.

Right now, the Bitcoin payments and point of sale systems is in beta with many merchants testing it out for the next six months, but it will be available for all 4 million square merchants in 2026. This is something that many bitcoiners have been waiting for for many years now, and it is incredible to see that they finally brought it across the line. Merchants will have the ability to accept bitcoin payments and either convert every payment into fiat automatically, convert a portion of the bitcoin payment into fiat to keep the rest in sats, or simply keep all of the bitcoin they receive via payments in sats. This is an incredible addition to what Square has already built, which is the ability of their merchants to sweep a portion of their revenues into bitcoin if they desire. Square is focused on building a vertically integrated suite of bitcoin products for merchants that includes the ability to buy bitcoin, receive bitcoin, and eventually leverage financial services using bitcoin as collateral so that they can reinvest in and expand their businesses.

via Ryan Gentry

What went a bit underappreciated in the crowd was the routing node revenue that c= is producing, \~9.7% annualized. This is a massive validation of something that many bitcoiners have been talking about for quite some time, which is the ability to produce "yield" on bitcoin in a way that reduces risk significantly. Locking up bitcoin in a 2-of-2 multisig within Lightning channels and operating a Lightning routing node has been long talked about as one of the ways to produce more bitcoin with your bitcoin in a way that minimizes the threat of loss.

It seems that c= has found a way to do this at scale and is doing it successfully. 10% yield on bitcoin locked in Lightning channels is nothing to joke about. And as you can see from the chart above in the grainy picture taken by Ryan Gentry of Lightning Labs, this routing node "yield" is producing more return on capital than many of the most popular staking and DeFi protocols.

This is a strong signal to the rest of the market that this can be done. It may take economies of scale and a high degree of technical competency today. But this is incredibly promising for the future of earning bitcoin by providing valuable goods and services to the market of Bitcoiners. In this case, facilitating relatively cheap and instantly settled payments over the Lightning Network.

Saifedean Ammous' Bitcoin and Tether Presentation

https://youtu.be/SFUiGTayVL8

This was one of the best presentations at the conference. Saifedean Ammous is a friend, he has been an incredible influence on my personal bitcoin journey, and I feel comfortable in saying he's been a strong influence on the journey of hundreds of thousands, at least, if not millions of people as they've attempted to understand bitcoin.

This presentation is a bit spicy because it puts a pin in the balloon of hopium that stablecoins like Tether are mechanisms that could bail out the market for US Treasuries in the medium to long-term if they take enough market share. As one always should do, Saif ran the numbers and clearly illustrates that even in the most optimistic case, Tether's impact on the market for treasuries, their interest rates, and curbing the growth of the debt held by the US federal government will be minimal at best.

One of the most interesting things that Saif points out that I'm a bit embarrassed I didn't recognize before is that much of the demand for Tether that we're seeing these days is replacement demand for treasuries. Meaning that many people who are turning to Tether, particularly in countries that have experienced hyperinflationary events, are using Tether as a substitute for their currencies, which are operated by central banks likely buying U.S. treasuries to support their monetary systems. The net effect of Tether buying those treasuries is zero for this particular user archetype.

Saif goes on to explain that if anything, Tether is a weapon against the US Treasury system when you consider that they're storing a large portion of the stablecoin backing in Treasuries and then using the yields produced by those Treasuries to buy bitcoin. Slowly but surely over time bitcoin as a percentage of their overall backing of Tether has grown quite significantly starting at 0% and approaching 10% today. It isn't hard to imagine that at some point within the next decade, Bitcoin could be the dominant reserve asset backing tethers and, as a result, Tether could be pegged to bitcoin eventually.

It's a fascinating take on Tether that I've never heard before.

Nothing Stops this Train from Lyn Alden

https://youtu.be/Giuzcd4oxIk

Lyn's been saying it loudly for quite some time now; "Nothing stops this train." She's even been on our podcast to explain why she believes this many times over the last five years. However, I don't think there is one piece of content out there that consolidates her thesis of why nothing stops the train of fiscal irresponsibility and unfettered debt expansion and why that's good for bitcoin than the presentation she gave at the conference. Definitely give this one a watch when you get a chance if you haven't already.

Overall, it was a great week in Vegas and I think it's safe to say that bitcoin has gone mainstream. Whether or not people who have been in the bitcoin industry and community for a while are okay with does not really matter. It's happening and all we can do is ride the wave as more and more people come to recognize the value prop of bitcoin and the social clout they can gain from supporting it. Our job here at TFTC is to help you discern the signal from the noise, continue to champion the self-sovereign usage of bitcoin and keep you abreast of developments in the space as they manifest.

Buckle up. Things are only going to get weirder from here on out.

Bitcoin's Mathematical Destiny

Sean Bill and Adam Back make a compelling case for Bitcoin's inevitable march toward $1 million. Sean points out that Bitcoin represents just a tiny fraction—2 trillion out of 900 trillion—of total financial assets, calling it a "tiny orange dot" on their presentation to Texas pensions. He emphasizes that reaching parity with gold alone would deliver a 10x return from current levels. Adam highlights the mathematical impossibility of current prices, noting that ETF buyers are absorbing 500,000 BTC annually while only 165,000 new coins are mined.

"Who's selling at these prices? It doesn't quite add up to me." - Adam Back

The institutional wave is just beginning. Sean revealed that while 50% of hedge fund managers personally own Bitcoin, only 3% have allocated institutional funds. Combined with emerging demand from nation states and corporate treasuries meeting Bitcoin's fixed supply, the price trajectory seems clear. Both guests stressed the importance of staying invested—missing just the 12 best performing days each year would turn Bitcoin into a losing investment.

Check out the full podcast here for more on pensions allocating to Bitcoin, cypherpunk banking, and commodity trading insights.

Headlines of the Day

Panama Canal Eyes Bitcoin for Payment Option - via X

U.S. Warns of Imminent Chinese Threat to Taiwan - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Saylor's Bitcoin Strategy Explodes Globally Amid Doubt - via CNBC

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Use the promo code “TFTC20” during checkout for 20% off

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 158,469 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

Moving is the least fun part of the human experience.

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Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Mercurity Fintech to Raise $800 Million for Bitcoin Treasury 

Mercurity Fintech Holding Inc. (Nasdaq: MFH), a digital finance company focused on blockchain-based financial infrastructure, has announced plans to raise $800 million to establish a long-term Bitcoin treasury reserve. The initiative is part of the company’s effort to incorporate digital assets into its financial strategy. 

According to a recent news release, Mercurity intends to transition a portion of its reserves into Bitcoin, supported by blockchain-native custody, staking solutions, and tokenized treasury tools designed to advance yield and extend asset duration. 

“We’re building this Bitcoin treasury reserve based on our belief that Bitcoin will become an essential component of the future financial infrastructure,” said Shi Qiu, CEO of Mercurity. “We are positioning our company to be a key player in the evolving digital financial ecosystem.”

If fully raised and implemented at current market prices, the capital could allow the company to acquire approximately 7,433 BTC, which would make Mercurity the 11th largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, surpassing GameStop’s reported 4,710 BTC holdings. 

The announcement comes during a time of corporate interest in Bitcoin, with 223 companies and entities now holding the asset, up from 124 earlier this month. In total, public firms currently hold more than 819,000 BTC, accounting for roughly 3.9% of the total supply. 

Mercurity’s plans also coincide with its initial inclusion in the FTSE Russell 2000® and Russell 3000® indexes, according to the 2025 reconstitution list. The firm was previously listed in the Russell Microcap Index. Index inclusion is expected to increase the company’s visibility among institutional investors and funds that track major benchmarks.

“Moving from the Russell Microcap to the Russell 2000 shows that investors recognize the value we are creating in blockchain finance,” Qiu added. “Our Bitcoin treasury reserve initiative is the next logical step in this evolution.”

The company noted that the reserve will be managed using institutional-grade custody, on-chain liquidity protocols, and staking-enabled tools to improve capital efficiency. The goal is to not just hold Bitcoin, but to put it to work within a secure, yield-generating structure. By using these systems, Mercurity aims to maintain long-term exposure to BTC while maximizing reserve productivity. 

With this initiative, Mercurity joins a growing list of public companies actively reshaping treasury strategy around Bitcoin, signaling continued momentum in corporate Bitcoin adoption. 

This post Mercurity Fintech to Raise $800 Million for Bitcoin Treasury  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9

Here’s a revised timeline of macro-level events from The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047 by Lionel Shriver, reimagined in a world where Bitcoin is adopted as a widely accepted form of money, altering the original narrative’s assumptions about currency collapse and economic control. In Shriver’s original story, the failure of Bitcoin is assumed amid the dominance of the bancor and the dollar’s collapse. Here, Bitcoin’s success reshapes the economic and societal trajectory, decentralizing power and challenging state-driven outcomes.

Part One: 2029–2032

• 2029 (Early Year)\ The United States faces economic strain as the dollar weakens against global shifts. However, Bitcoin, having gained traction emerges as a viable alternative. Unlike the original timeline, the bancor—a supranational currency backed by a coalition of nations—struggles to gain footing as Bitcoin’s decentralized adoption grows among individuals and businesses worldwide, undermining both the dollar and the bancor.

• 2029 (Mid-Year: The Great Renunciation)\ Treasury bonds lose value, and the government bans Bitcoin, labeling it a threat to sovereignty (mirroring the original bancor ban). However, a Bitcoin ban proves unenforceable—its decentralized nature thwarts confiscation efforts, unlike gold in the original story. Hyperinflation hits the dollar as the U.S. prints money, but Bitcoin’s fixed supply shields adopters from currency devaluation, creating a dual-economy split: dollar users suffer, while Bitcoin users thrive.

• 2029 (Late Year)\ Dollar-based inflation soars, emptying stores of goods priced in fiat currency. Meanwhile, Bitcoin transactions flourish in underground and online markets, stabilizing trade for those plugged into the bitcoin ecosystem. Traditional supply chains falter, but peer-to-peer Bitcoin networks enable local and international exchange, reducing scarcity for early adopters. The government’s gold confiscation fails to bolster the dollar, as Bitcoin’s rise renders gold less relevant.

• 2030–2031\ Crime spikes in dollar-dependent urban areas, but Bitcoin-friendly regions see less chaos, as digital wallets and smart contracts facilitate secure trade. The U.S. government doubles down on surveillance to crack down on bitcoin use. A cultural divide deepens: centralized authority weakens in Bitcoin-adopting communities, while dollar zones descend into lawlessness.

• 2032\ By this point, Bitcoin is de facto legal tender in parts of the U.S. and globally, especially in tech-savvy or libertarian-leaning regions. The federal government’s grip slips as tax collection in dollars plummets—Bitcoin’s traceability is low, and citizens evade fiat-based levies. Rural and urban Bitcoin hubs emerge, while the dollar economy remains fractured.

Time Jump: 2032–2047

• Over 15 years, Bitcoin solidifies as a global reserve currency, eroding centralized control. The U.S. government adapts, grudgingly integrating bitcoin into policy, though regional autonomy grows as Bitcoin empowers local economies.

Part Two: 2047

• 2047 (Early Year)\ The U.S. is a hybrid state: Bitcoin is legal tender alongside a diminished dollar. Taxes are lower, collected in BTC, reducing federal overreach. Bitcoin’s adoption has decentralized power nationwide. The bancor has faded, unable to compete with Bitcoin’s grassroots momentum.

• 2047 (Mid-Year)\ Travel and trade flow freely in Bitcoin zones, with no restrictive checkpoints. The dollar economy lingers in poorer areas, marked by decay, but Bitcoin’s dominance lifts overall prosperity, as its deflationary nature incentivizes saving and investment over consumption. Global supply chains rebound, powered by bitcoin enabled efficiency.

• 2047 (Late Year)\ The U.S. is a patchwork of semi-autonomous zones, united by Bitcoin’s universal acceptance rather than federal control. Resource scarcity persists due to past disruptions, but economic stability is higher than in Shriver’s original dystopia—Bitcoin’s success prevents the authoritarian slide, fostering a freer, if imperfect, society.

Key Differences

• Currency Dynamics: Bitcoin’s triumph prevents the bancor’s dominance and mitigates hyperinflation’s worst effects, offering a lifeline outside state control.
• Government Power: Centralized authority weakens as Bitcoin evades bans and taxation, shifting power to individuals and communities.
• Societal Outcome: Instead of a surveillance state, 2047 sees a decentralized, bitcoin driven world—less oppressive, though still stratified between Bitcoin haves and have-nots.

This reimagining assumes Bitcoin overcomes Shriver’s implied skepticism to become a robust, adopted currency by 2029, fundamentally altering the novel’s bleak trajectory.

@ 73d8a0c3:c1853717

🧬 REDACTED SCIENCE: THE AUTHOR — A SHADOW IN THE MARGINS

📜 Excerpt from my book-in-progress. This is nonfiction. Redacted. Possibly buried science. Possibly military. Almost definitely real. I’m living it. And it might change how we think about disease, dehydration, and survival itself.

👇 Full post below 👇

---

📄 The Author: A Shadow in the Margins

What follows is an excerpt from my book: Redacted Science. This is nonfiction. Redacted. And, I believe, novel science — the kind that slipped through the cracks because it wasn’t supposed to be seen. The kind that, if true (and I’m living proof it might be), changes how we think about adaptation, disease, and control, all while hinting at evolutionary processes.

The person who wrote the article — the one at the center of this entire mystery — didn’t just document a medical condition. They didn’t write like a detached observer. They wrote like someone who had seen it, worked with it, maybe even helped design it.

This wasn’t a paper. It was a record.
A flare fired backwards through time.

🧠 What They Knew

• Electrolyte manipulation under pressure gradients
• Bone demineralization and molecular substitution
• Methyl group cycling
• Autonomic dysregulation
• Increased survivability under dehydration
• Accelerated burn recovery
• Abnormal pain tolerance
• Enhanced cognition and endurance in early stages
• …eventual collapse into parasympathetic failure, bone loss, immune misfire, and systemic decay

No generalist writes like this.
No academic from 1975 casually throws around methylation chemistry and calcium channel modulators (“these show promise” — yeah, I remembered that line. I figured it might save my life).

🧪 Proof in My Blood — Or Lack Thereof
I’ve lived the proof they described.

👁️ Who They Were

They were part of a program.
A researcher. Maybe a clinician. Possibly embedded in a classified military or survival physiology initiative.

🔍 The Quiet Warning

That mention of the ICD code shift?
It was like someone watching history be rewritten — shifting this condition under something it isn’t. Sleight-of-hand.
They couldn’t have known about the AIRE gene — and I don’t have it.

“We erased it from the books. But it was real. Look again. Find it if you can.”

And here I am.
Picking it up.
Line by line.
Molecule by molecule.

🏃 The 15K That Almost Killed Me

Twelve years ago: I ran the Tulsa Run, didn’t hydrate. Felt fine — until the vomiting hit. Bloodwork? Normal.
Smart doc took one look and hooked up fluids.

That wasn’t dehydration.
That was a system built to survive without water — until it couldn’t.

🕰️ When and Why

Photos: early 20th century.
The article? 1975–1985.
Someone who knew too much. Someone preserving knowledge — as it was being erased.

“It’s gone now. But it was here. And you need to look again.”

That’s not footnote energy.
That’s whistleblower energy.

---

🧠 Everything is open. All science is free. More is coming.

Read more at https://jimcraddock.substack.com or https://jimcraddock.com]

@ d57360cb:4fe7d935

Most of life is out of your control. It happens of its own accord. We make plans in our minds but they rarely turn out how we want them to. Look back five years ago and remember the visions and dreams you had of your life. Most likely it never fit the vision you used to imagine. Sure somethings may have came into reality but it’s certain it didn’t go according to plan.

That’s the great myth it never goes as planned and that’s, well it’s okay. We don’t need to hold on for dear life and close ourselves off to life itself.

When life occurs, we have the tendency to want to edit and modify things to our likings. Only it’s impossible. What’s more important is the mind we bring with us to life. If we can enter into every situation with acceptance, things start to feel completely different. This isn’t to say this is some magical fix and everything will be fine. It’s more of a way to eliminate unnecessary mental roadblocks we create.

The outside circumstances don’t matter as much as you think. People will use the things outside themselves as a perpetual hope machine they strive on to escape their present issues. Surely one day it will all change when x, y, and z happen, but the joke of it all is when x, y and z do happen people suddenly look for a, b and c.

Instead of peering off into an imaginative future, ask yourself what mind did you bring to the place your feet are firmly placed in. You don’t need to hope on x, y, or z when you have a mind that can attend to any circumstance.

There’s an old zen story of a man who received a lump of clay, thinking it worthless he discarded it. Another man found it washed up near a river bank. On close inspection he saw a shining light glittering through the clay. He rinsed it completely to find a shining gold bar. It was always gold whether covered in clay or in its purest form much like pure attention is the nature of your mind only its often buried under an endless stream of thoughts.

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

via me

Don't sleep on what's happening in Japan right now. We've been covering the country and the fact that they've lost control of their yield curve since late last year. After many years of making it a top priority from a monetary policy perspective, last year the Bank of Japan decided to give up on yield curve control in an attempt to reel inflation. This has sent yields for the 30-year and 40-year Japanese government bonds to levels not seen since the early 2000s in the case of the 30-year and levels never before seen for the 40-year, which was launched in 2007. With a debt to GDP ratio that has surpassed 250% and a population that is aging out with an insufficient amount of births to replace the aging workforce, it's hard to see how Japan can get out of this conundrum without some sort of economic collapse.

This puts the United States in a tough position considering the fact that Japan is one of the largest holders of U.S. Treasury bonds with more than 1,135 sats | $1.20 trillion in exposure. If things get too out of control in Japan and the yield curve continues to drift higher and inflation continues to creep higher Japan can find itself in a situation where it's a forced seller of US Treasuries as they attempt to strengthen the yen. Another aspect to consider is the fact that investors may see the higher yields on Japanese government bonds and decide to purchase them instead of US Treasuries. This is something to keep an eye on in the weeks to come. Particularly if higher rates drive a higher cost of capital, which leads to even more inflation. As producers are forced to increase their prices to ensure that they can manage their debt repayments.

It's never a good sign when the Japanese Prime Minister is coming out to proclaim that his country's financial situation is worse than Greece's, which has been a laughing stock of Europe for the better part of three decades. Japan is a very proud nation, and the fact that its Prime Minister made a statement like this should not be underappreciated.

As we noted last week, the 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds are drifting higher as well. Earlier today, the 30-year bond yield surpassed 5%, which has been a psychological level that many have been pointed to as a critical tipping point. When you take a step back and look around the world it seems pretty clear that bond markets are sending a very strong signal. And that signal is that something is not well in the back end of the financial system.

This is even made clear when you look at the private sector, particularly at consumer debt. In late March, we warned of the growing trend of buy now, pay later schemes drifting down market as major credit card companies released charge-off data which showed charge-off rates reaching levels not seen since the 2008 great financial crisis. At the time, we could only surmise that Klarna was experiencing similar charge-off rates on the bigger-ticket items they financed and started doing deals with companies like DoorDash to finance burrito deliveries in an attempt to move down market to finance smaller ticket items with a higher potential of getting paid back. It seems like that inclination was correct as Klarna released data earlier today showing more losses on their book as consumers find it extremely hard to pay back their debts.

via NewsWire

This news hit the markets on the same day as the average rate of the 30-year mortgage in the United States rose to 7.04%. I'm not sure if you've checked lately, but real estate prices are still relatively elevated outside of a few big cities who expanded supply significantly during the COVID era as people flooded out of blue states towards red states. It's hard to imagine that many people can afford a house based off of sticker price alone, but with a 7% 30-year mortgage rate it's becoming clear that the ability of the Common Man to buy a house is simply becoming impossible.

via Lance Lambert

The mortgage rate data is not the only thing you need to look at to understand that it's becoming impossible for the Common Man of working age to buy a house. New data has recently been released that highlights That the median home buyer in 2007 was born in 1968, and the median home buyer in 2024 was born in 1968. Truly wild when you think of it. As our friend Darth Powell cheekily highlights below, we find ourselves in a situation where boomers are simply trading houses and the younger generations are becoming indentured slaves. Forever destined to rent because of the complete inability to afford to buy a house.

via Darth Powell

via Yahoo Finance

Meanwhile, Bitcoin re-approached all-time highs late this evening and looks primed for another breakout to the upside. This makes sense if you're paying attention. The high-velocity trash economy running on an obscene amount of debt in both the public and private sectors seems to be breaking at the seams. All the alarm bells are signaling that another big print is coming. And if you hope to preserve your purchasing power or, ideally, increase it as the big print approaches, the only thing that makes sense is to funnel your money into the hardest asset in the world, which is Bitcoin.

via Bitbo

Buckle up, freaks. It's gonna be a bumpy ride. Stay humble, Stack Sats.

Trump's Middle East Peace Strategy: Redefining U.S. Foreign Policy

In his recent Middle East tour, President Trump signaled what our guest Dr. Anas Alhajji calls "a major change in US policy." Trump explicitly rejected the nation-building strategies of his predecessors, contrasting the devastation in Afghanistan and Iraq with the prosperity of countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE. This marks a profound shift from both Republican and Democratic foreign policy orthodoxy. As Alhajji noted, Trump's willingness to meet with Syrian President Assad follows a historical pattern where former adversaries eventually become diplomatic partners.

"This is really one of the most important shifts in US foreign policy to say, look, sorry, we destroyed those countries because we tried to rebuild them and it was a big mistake." - Dr. Anas Alhajji

The administration's new approach emphasizes negotiation over intervention. Rather than military solutions, Trump is engaging with groups previously considered off-limits, including the Houthis, Hamas, and Iran. This pragmatic stance prioritizes economic cooperation and regional stability over ideological confrontation. The focus on trade deals and investment rather than regime change represents a fundamental reimagining of America's role in the Middle East.

Check out the full podcast here for more on the Iran nuclear situation, energy market predictions, and why AI development could create power grid challenges. Only on TFTC Studio.

Headlines of the Day

Bitcoin Soars to 100,217 sats | $106.00K While Bonds Lose 40% Since 2020 - via X

US Senate Advances Stablecoin Bill As America Embraces Bitcoin - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Texas House Debates Bill For State-Run Bitcoin Reserve - via X

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Take the First Step Off the Exchange

Bitkey is an easy, secure way to move your Bitcoin into self-custody. With simple setup and built-in recovery, it’s the perfect starting point for getting your coins off centralized platforms and into cold storage—no complexity, no middlemen.

Take control. Start with Bitkey.

Use the promo code “TFTC20” during checkout for 20% off

---

Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 158,469 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

---

Final thought...

Don't let the noise consume you. Focus on making your life 1% better every day.

---

Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ 43820409:694a54a4

This is a brief summary.

This is the best article ever created.

You may be wondering why?

Why

Because we made it.

How

• It just is
• Everyone agrees

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Thank you for your attention.

End.

@ 3c506452:fef9202b

Kia ora mai ra ano e te iwi whanui!

Step 1: Find Your Why:

Going off my own experiences - if you are anything like me you will have the occasional boost of enthusiasm, and intense determination. This could last a couple days, or if you are fortunate, a few weeks. Afterwards, life kicks in again, and you're out of gas.

With this in mind it is important to find something within you that could help carry you along until the next boost.

Action Step:

So grab a pen and paper, and write out why you want to become a Te Reo speaker.

Step 2: Find The Quick Win:

I consider myself to be a speaker of the reo, but I am SO FAR AWAY from my ideal, my vision, which is to think only in the reo. It would be silly of me to only consider myself a speaker of the reo once I attained that goal. Now, a speaker of the reo is... "Someone who speaks it". It doesn't matter how little you know now, your effort and the time you put in won't let you down.

Action Step:

1. Follow this link > Ngata Dictionary
2. Type in a word in the "Ngata English to Māori" box then press search. For example, let's use "hello".
3. Copy the sentence in te reo.
4. Follow the link > Papa Reo API, paste the sentence then press korero.
5. Mimic what you hear!

This is a great way to practice speaking the reo! You can have 100% confidence in these sentences provided to you from the Ngata Dictionary. The Papareo API is also a fantastic way to get instant feedback on pronunciation.

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Sj1sG05VQ

Here's a great presentation from our good friend nostr:nprofile1qyx8wumn8ghj7cnjvghxjmcpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqqyz2hj3zg2g3pqwxuhg69zgjhke4pcmjmmdpnndnefqndgqjt8exwj6ee8v7 , President of The Nakamoto Institute titled Hodl for Good. He gave it earlier this year at the BitBlockBoom Conference, and I think it's something everyone reading this should take 25 minutes to watch. Especially if you find yourself wondering whether or not it's a good idea to spend bitcoin at any given point in time. Michael gives an incredible Austrian Economics 101 lesson on the importance of lowering one's time preference and fully understanding the importance of hodling bitcoin. For the uninitiated, it may seem that the hodl meme is nothing more than a call to hoard bitcoins in hopes of getting rich eventually. However, as Michael points out, there's layers to the hodl meme and the good that hodling can bring individuals and the economy overall.

The first thing one needs to do to better understand the hodl meme is to completely flip the framing that is typically thrust on bitcoiners who encourage others to hodl. Instead of ceding that hodling is a greedy or selfish action, remind people that hodling, or better known as saving, is the foundation of capital formation, from which all productive and efficient economic activity stems. Number go up technology is great and it really matters. It matters because it enables anybody leveraging that technology to accumulate capital that can then be allocated toward productive endeavors that bring value to the individual who creates them and the individual who buys them.

When one internalizes this, it enables them to turn to personal praxis and focus on minimizing present consumption while thinking of ways to maximize long-term value creation. Live below your means, stack sats, and use the time that you're buying to think about things that you want in the future. By lowering your time preference and saving in a harder money you will have the luxury of demanding higher quality goods in the future. Another way of saying this is that you will be able to reshape production by voting with your sats. Initially when you hold them off the market by saving them - signaling that the market doesn't have goods worthy of your sats - and ultimately by redeploying them into the market when you find higher quality goods that meet the standards desire.

The first part of this equation is extremely important because it sends a signal to producers that they need to increase the quality of their work. As more and more individuals decide to use bitcoin as their savings technology, the signal gets stronger. And over many cycles we should begin to see low quality cheap goods exit the market in favor of higher quality goods that provide more value and lasts longer and, therefore, make it easier for an individual to depart with their hard-earned and hard-saved sats. This is only but one aspect that Michael tries to imbue throughout his presentation.

The other is the ability to buy yourself leisure time when you lower your time preference and save more than you spend. When your savings hit a critical tipping point that gives you the luxury to sit back and experience true leisure, which Michael explains is not idleness, but the contemplative space to study, create art, refine taste, and to find what "better goods" actually are. Those who can experience true leisure while reaping the benefits of saving in a hard asset that is increasing in purchasing power significantly over the long term are those who build truly great things. Things that outlast those who build them. Great art, great monuments, great institutions were all built by men who were afforded the time to experience leisure. Partly because they were leveraging hard money as their savings and the place they stored the profits reaped from their entrepreneurial endeavors.

If you squint and look into the future a couple of decades, it isn't hard to see a reality like this manifesting. As more people begin to save in Bitcoin, the forces of supply and demand will continue to come into play. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin, there are around 8 billion people on this planet, and as more of those 8 billion individuals decide that bitcoin is the best savings vehicle, the price of bitcoin will rise.

When the price of bitcoin rises, it makes all other goods cheaper in bitcoin terms and, again, expands the entrepreneurial opportunity. The best part about this feedback loop is that even non-holders of bitcoin benefit through higher real wages and faster tech diffusion. The individuals and business owners who decide to hodl bitcoin will bring these benefits to the world whether you decide to use bitcoin or not.

This is why it is virtuous to hodl bitcoin. The potential for good things to manifest throughout the world increase when more individuals decide to hodl bitcoin. And as Michael very eloquently points out, this does not mean that people will not spend their bitcoin. It simply means that they have standards for the things that they will spend their bitcoin on. And those standards are higher than most who are fully engrossed in the high velocity trash economy have today.

In my opinion, one of those higher causes worthy of a sats donation is nostr:nprofile1qyfhwumn8ghj7enjv4jhyetvv9uju7re0gq3uamnwvaz7tmfdemxjmrvv9nk2tt0w468v6tvd3skwefwvdhk6qpqwzc9lz2f40azl98shkjewx3pywg5e5alwqxg09ew2mdyeey0c2rqcfecft . Consider donating so they can preserve and disseminate vital information about bitcoin and its foundations.

The Shell Game: How Health Narratives May Distract from Vaccine Risks

In our recent podcast, Dr. Jack Kruse presented a concerning theory about public health messaging. He argues that figures like Casey and Callie Means are promoting food and exercise narratives as a deliberate distraction from urgent vaccine issues. While no one disputes healthy eating matters, Dr. Kruse insists that focusing on "Froot Loops and Red Dye" diverts attention from what he sees as immediate dangers of mRNA vaccines, particularly for children.

"It's gonna take you 50 years to die from processed food. But the messenger jab can drop you like Damar Hamlin." - Dr Jack Kruse

Dr. Kruse emphasized that approximately 25,000 children per month are still receiving COVID vaccines despite concerns, with 3 million doses administered since Trump's election. This "shell game," as he describes it, allows vaccines to remain on childhood schedules while public attention fixates on less immediate health threats. As host, I believe this pattern deserves our heightened scrutiny given the potential stakes for our children's wellbeing.

Check out the full podcast here for more on Big Pharma's alleged bioweapons program, the "Time Bank Account" concept, and how Bitcoin principles apply to health sovereignty.

Headlines of the Day

Aussie Judge: Bitcoin is Money, Possibly CGT-Exempt - via X

JPMorgan to Let Clients Buy Bitcoin Without Direct Custody - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Mubadala Acquires 384,239 sats | $408.50M Stake in BlackRock Bitcoin ETF - via X

---

Take the First Step Off the Exchange

Bitkey is an easy, secure way to move your Bitcoin into self-custody. With simple setup and built-in recovery, it’s the perfect starting point for getting your coins off centralized platforms and into cold storage—no complexity, no middlemen.

Take control. Start with Bitkey.

Use the promo code “TFTC20” during checkout for 20% off

---

Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 158,469 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

---

Final thought...

I've been walking from my house around Town Lake in Austin in the mornings and taking calls on the walk. Big fan of a walking call.

---

Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Maelstrom Announces Its Fourth Bitcoin Developer Grant Recipient

Maelstrom is announcing that Ron, known online as “macgyver13,” is the fourth recipient of the Maelstrom Bitcoin Grant Program, per a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine. Ron will be working on Silent Payments, as proposed in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 352. 

“We are excited to be financially supporting Ron, in his mission on integrating Silent Payments into Bitcoin wallets,” said the CFO of Maelstrom Arthur Hayes. “Many merchants and users want to provide/display a single static address that doesn’t change, which is an important, valid and simple use case. With Silent Payments this can still be done, while on-chain address re-use is avoided. Address re-use is a goldmine for the surveillance organisations, and at Maelstrom, we want to help put a stop to it.”

In September 2023, Silent Payments was proposed by Josie Baker and Ruben Somsen. It allows people to create a single, static address to share with friends, use for donations, or post for tips without sacrificing privacy. This eliminates address reuse, a key method used by surveillance firms to track user behavior on the blockchain.

“With many software projects, and perhaps even more so in Bitcoin, taking an idea from a proposal to a fully adopted solution is the hardest part,” Josie said. “In the short amount of time I’ve been working with Ron, I’ve been thrilled at the progress we’ve made and I’m excited to work with him over the next year on Silent Payments adoption with the goal of making an intuitive, seamless user experience while also protecting user’s financial privacy.”

Bitcoin privacy depends on using new addresses, which often requires sender to receiver interaction. Existing static address methods use notifications that increase costs and leak metadata. Silent Payments avoids both interaction and notifications but requires wallets to scan the blockchain. Multi-party input use is not yet proven secure.

Silent Payments aim to implement:

• Zero transaction cost overhead
• No linkability between payments and static addresses
• No need for sender to receiver interaction
• Compatibility with privacy tools and modern wallet features

“My primary focus will be coordinating development and testing efforts within the growing community dedicated to integrating Silent Payments into desktop and mobile Bitcoin wallets,” stated the new grantee of Maelstrom Ron. “By advancing Silent Payments alongside BOLT12 and BIP-353, we aim to enhance privacy and simplify the user experience, paving the way for broader adoption of Bitcoin as a payment solution.”

This post Maelstrom Announces Its Fourth Bitcoin Developer Grant Recipient first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ 3c389c8f:7a2eff7f

Most of my time on Nostr, relays served content simply based on what was requested. Clients mostly requested follow list based content, and often only if the user requested to 'read' from a particular relay. Very simple, though not ideal. Clients that attempted to offer some 'global' or 'universal' feed made it possible to discover some new things but also served spam, redundant bot posts, and even some malicious things that managed to make it through a relay's filters. Paid relays began to gain some ground, with better filters to reduce spam and malicious content, which has helped a lot to clean up these broader feeds that expand beyond the follow-based timeline. Many of the relays hosted redundant content, too, which is important but it's not the only thing that is. The system still left a lot to be desired, particularly for anyone who has understood the potential behind the client-relay set up. Other concerns, like relay centralization through user concentration, still needed to be discussed and addressed.

Despite the voicing of relay diversity advocates, this system seemed to provide most of what people were looking for to replace their typical social media experience. Still, though, reply spam attacks found their way through, as they do. Web-of-Trust relays began to pop up to help mitigate the problem. Using contact lists and extended contact lists as a method of reducing the prevalence of spam has worked really well, but does have it limitations as to how new users can enter into these social graphs, without already knowing someone who is using Nostr. Also not ideal, but it has been a step forward for Nostr's social media use case. Hosted relay services that offered more diverse policy for a relay to operate under finally began to take some hold for those that wanted more choice and control. Still though, potential had barely been breeched.

It might have been before the WoT relay movement, but of nowhere (not really but it kind of seemed like it), a cat relay appeared within the ecosystem. This silly, fun, cute, clever relay collected notes with the #catstr hashtag and used some fancy image analysis stuff (that I can't explain) to collect notes and images of nothing but cats. Such a simple thing, but that was a catalyst (🥁) moment for Nostr. A relay could do more than just collect notes from following lists?? A couple more iterations of the curated content relay model came to be, driving home the idea that this wasn't some silly pie-in-the-sky concept. It was an aha moment for some, sheer joy for the relay advocates, and a turning point for expanding Nostr beyond the basic social media replacement. Very few client options for simply browsing one relay existed at the time, and while it was novel to see, the rest of the framework to support it was not strong nor very easy to use. Even with this dilemma, the catstr relay set off what has become some of the most interesting and useful innovation that has happened within the Nostr ecosystem since I arrived.

Since then, I have spent a lot of my time on Nostr exploring some of what has been developed on the relay front, experimenting where I have found the opportunity and thinking a lot about where this all could lead. Innovation on both the relay and client sides of Nostr have been expanding, not quite in lockstep, but closely enough that someone like myself can now easily jump onto a client like Jumble.social and get a glimpse into what is happening and get an idea of the potential of what is yet to come. For those working in the relay field, I am sure this feels like one slow moving train. For a client developer, it probably feels a little overwhelming to shift an entire model away from what has worked for something that will work better. As a less-than-technical user who is mostly disconnected from any major development, it's exciting. Relay diversity brings actual utility to Nostr. It also brings the assurances that Nostr offers, which whether we have been subjugated to these problems before or not, it is the main reason why Nostr exists and why we are here using it now.

For most anyone reading this, it probably sounds like some weird, unnecessary history lesson. This is actually one long introduction into a little mini-series of relay recaps though.... I was wondering what I would write about next, and this is it. I may just be a user but I'm an adventurous one and I pay attention, so I'm excited to share some of my thoughts, experiences, and observations over the coming weeks... because exciting isn't a strong enough word for the what I see as possible. :)

@ d68401a8:11aad383

Before AI, building a website posed a technological barrier. Not everyone was able to create even a simple contact page. It often meant paying for a yearly subscription (often too expensive for most), for templates that still required manual work, or paying even more to hire someone to do it for you.

Today, thanks to AI, building a website has become technologically accessible. Even if you still prefer to rely on a third-party company, the ease brought by AI is driving more competitive pricing.

In the domain world, before Handshake, owning a top-level domain (TLD) was economically out of reach. The application process set by ICANN was tedious and expensive. For most people, the only option was to rent a second-level domain, one not controlled by individuals and subject to whatever fees the TLD owner chose to charge.

Now, thanks to the Handshake DNS protocol, anyone can own a top-level domain and create an infinite number of second-level domains under it, at virtually no cost.

Owning a plot of land (a top-level domain) on the internet should be open and easy. Handshake aims to pave the way toward that vision, you can start to explore by using Namebase , Shakestation or Bob wallet .

@ 1fdb6dac:65eb9a8a

What if art knows before I do?

There are times when I finish a piece and just stare at it, not really understanding what I’ve done. As if it had been created by another part of me… a part that knows things I don’t yet know.

It often happens that, some time later—when I’m no longer so immersed in the process—I start to see signs, symbols, colors or shapes that speak of something I’m going through — or was about to go through. It’s as if my body knew it before my mind. As if art were a secret language between my soul and the world.

I don’t know if this happens to other artists, but I feel that often I’m not creating something with a clear intention. It just appears. And then, when I look at it with some distance, I realize a story was being told… my story. One I wasn’t fully aware of.

I feel that when I create from an honest place, without trying to control, something bigger takes over. The mind quiets a little, and it’s the body that begins to speak. There’s a kind of trance, like a current running through me. Sometimes I enjoy it, other times it makes me uncomfortable.

When I “finish,” I’m left with the feeling of having been moved by something that taught me without words.

I’ve realized that art doesn’t always say what I want to show, but what I need to see. And that’s powerful, because sometimes it reveals things I’m not ready to face. But it’s there. In front of me. Like a symbolic mirror.

It also happens that, when someone looks at my work and says, “this made me feel something,” it often aligns with something I’m processing inside—even if I haven’t said it out loud. As if the other person could read in the art what I didn’t know how to write in words.

When we’re creating, we’re also moving energy. Not just painting, or writing, or dancing — but transforming emotions, releasing things we didn’t know were stuck. There’s something ritualistic about art. A healing with no prescription. Alchemy.

Sometimes I feel that art heals me without me even knowing what was hurting. And that feels magical — and also very real.

I’m starting to trust that more: that the soul knows first. That my most intuitive and wild side understands processes that my rational side still can’t name. Art helps me give shape to the shapeless. And maybe, sometimes, it’s not even mine — it simply moves through me.

That when I stop trying to control, something appears that reveals me. That says:\ “This is you, even if you don’t know it yet.”¿Y si el arte sabe antes que yo?

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ESPAÑOL

Hay veces que termino una obra y me quedo mirándola sin entender bien qué hice. Como si la hubiese creado otra parte de mí… una parte que sabe cosas que yo todavía no sé.

Me pasa seguido que, tiempo después, cuando ya no estoy tan adentro del proceso, empiezo a ver señales, símbolos, colores o formas que me hablan de algo que estoy atravesando —o que estaba por atravesar. Es como si mi cuerpo lo hubiera sabido antes que mi cabeza. Como si el arte fuese un lenguaje secreto entre mi alma y el mundo.

No sé si a otros artistas les pasa esto, pero yo siento que muchas veces no estoy creando algo con intención clara. Simplemente aparece. Y después, al observarlo con distancia, me doy cuenta de que ahí se estaba contando una historia… mi historia. Una que ni yo tenía del todo consciente.

Siento que cuando creo desde un lugar honesto, sin querer controlar, algo más grande toma el control. La mente se silencia un poco, y es el cuerpo el que empieza a hablar. Hay una especie de trance, como una corriente que me atraviesa. A veces me gusta y otras me incomoda.

Cuando "termino", quedo con la sensación de haber sido atravesada por algo que me enseñó sin palabras.

Me di cuenta de que el arte no siempre dice lo que quiero mostrar, sino lo que necesito ver. Y eso es fuerte, porque a veces revela cosas que no estoy lista para enfrentar. Pero está ahí. Frente a mí. Como un espejo simbólico.

Me pasa también que, cuando alguien mira mi obra y me dice “esto me hizo sentir tal cosa”, muchas veces coincide con algo que yo estoy procesando internamente, aunque no lo haya dicho en voz alta. Como si el otro pudiera leer en el arte lo que yo no supe escribir con palabras.

Cuando estamos creando, también estamos moviendo energía. No solo pintando o escribiendo o bailando, sino transformando emociones, liberando cosas que no sabíamos que estaban trabadas. El arte tiene algo de ritual. De sanación sin receta. De alquimia.

A veces siento que el arte me cura sin que yo entienda qué me estaba enfermando. Y eso me parece mágico y también muy real.

Estoy empezando a confiar más en eso: en que el alma sabe antes. En que mi parte más intuitiva y salvaje entiende procesos que mi parte racional todavía no puede nombrar. El arte me ayuda a poner en forma lo que no tiene forma. Y quizás, a veces, ni siquiera es mío: simplemente pasa por mí.

Que cuando dejo de querer controlar, aparece algo que me revela. Que me dice:\ “Esto sos vos, aunque no lo sepas todavía”.

@ f0fd6902:a2fbaaab

What can't fungi do? Fungi come in all kinds of delightfully enchanting and bizarre forms and are the ultimate do-it-alls. Some of them are edible or medicinal; they help organic gardeners keep their gardens happy; they eat plastic, and they glow in the dark. Fungi-based biomaterials also have the potential to help us build more sustainable homes or make more eco-friendly products; heck, they can even talk to each other in their own secret language.

Not surprisingly, they can also make some interesting music, with a little help from Canadian musician Tarun Nayar, the mastermind who makes nature-inspired electronic music under the name Modern Biology.

Source: https://www.treehugger.com/modern-biology-musician-makes-music-using-mushrooms-7485168

Video with mushrooms sound like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHwybeMXFAA&t=22s

https://stacker.news/items/1005531

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

The Bitcoin Treasury Strategy That’s Reanimating Zombie Companies

A growing number of public companies are stuck in limbo—technically solvent, but strategically stalled. Growth has evaporated. Stock prices have languished. Reinvestment opportunities are unclear or underwhelming. These companies aren’t broken—they’re just drifting.

They’ve become what markets call zombie companies: firms that generate enough to survive, but not enough to excite. And in today’s capital environment, stagnation is no longer neutral—it’s dangerous.

This is where a Bitcoin treasury strategy comes in.

What Is a Bitcoin Treasury Strategy—and What Problem Does It Solve?

At its core, a Bitcoin treasury strategy means converting a portion of idle corporate cash into Bitcoin and treating it as a long-term treasury reserve asset. It’s not a product pivot or a marketing stunt. It’s a capital strategy.

The problem it solves is simple but deadly:

• Capital erosion: Fiat currencies are inflating away purchasing power.
• Inefficient reserves: Billions in cash sit idle on balance sheets, dragging down return on assets.
• Narrative decay: Companies without a growth story get ignored—or punished—by markets.
• Shareholder fatigue: Passive capital strategies frustrate conviction-driven investors.

A Bitcoin treasury strategy is designed to reverse that trend—by reframing cash as conviction.

Two Distinct Approaches to a Bitcoin Treasury Strategy

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to building a Bitcoin treasury. Instead, companies tend to pursue one of two broad strategic paths:

1. Defensive Allocation
Companies like Tesla and Block have allocated a portion of their reserves to Bitcoin as a hedge against fiat debasement. It’s a form of monetary insulation—protecting cash from erosion while signaling awareness of inflation’s long-term effects. These companies aren’t changing their business models, but they are acknowledging that holding cash in today’s environment means silently bleeding purchasing power. This strategy helps improve the hurdle rate, enhances reserve productivity, and sends a forward-looking message to investors.

2. Offensive Accumulation and Securitization
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), Semler Scientific, and Metaplanet have adopted a more aggressive model. Rather than passively holding Bitcoin, they’ve turned their balance sheets into capital engines—securitizing their Bitcoin holdings through equity and debt issuance to fuel further accumulation. Their goal is to maximize BTC per share, enhance BTC yield, and create shareholder value through financial engineering that compounds exposure. These companies are rewriting the treasury playbook, showing that Bitcoin isn’t just a store of value—it can be a strategic accelerant.

Why Bitcoin—and Not Gold, Equities, or Cash?

Bitcoin isn’t just another asset. It’s engineered monetary policy.

➤ Fixed supply: Bitcoin’s 21 million cap creates built-in scarcity, unlike fiat or equity dilution.

➤ 24/7 liquidity: Global, permissionless markets give companies access to real-time value.

➤ Verifiability and portability: It’s digital capital that can’t be seized, censored, or inflated.

➤ Asymmetric upside: Bitcoin has consistently outperformed every major asset class over multi-year cycles.

More importantly, Bitcoin is narrative fuel. It communicates conviction, discipline, and macro-awareness—all of which modern investors are starving for.

The Components of a Successful Bitcoin Treasury Strategy

A Bitcoin treasury strategy isn’t just about buying Bitcoin. It’s about embedding it into capital structure and governance. That requires rigor.

➤ Treasury governance: Establish internal guardrails on allocation, rebalancing, and reporting.

➤ Secure custody: Choose institutional-grade solutions, with redundancy, auditability, and oversight.

➤ Capital deployment strategy: Some companies use cash. Others leverage equity, debt, or ATM programs.

➤ Market communication: The value of Bitcoin on your balance sheet rises with clarity, transparency, and frequency of investor communication.

Companies like Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), Semler Scientific, and Metaplanet didn’t just buy Bitcoin. They built Bitcoin treasury frameworks—with real policies, investor alignment, and governance maturity.

How Bitcoin Reframes the Shareholder Relationship

The Bitcoin treasury model isn’t just a liquidity play. It’s a credibility signal.

➤ Narrative magnet: Bitcoin attracts attention—not just from retail investors, but from global institutions searching for proxy exposure.

➤ Alignment lever: High-conviction shareholders reward companies that act decisively and transparently.

➤ Shareholder base upgrade: Bitcoin introduces long-term, ideologically aligned holders who are less reactive to short-term earnings noise.

Bitcoin gives stale stories new energy. And in capital markets, momentum is everything.

Execution: What It Takes to Make This Strategy Work

Bitcoin is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. It requires:

➤ Executive conviction: Most successful strategies are driven by founders, activist chairs, or tightly aligned boards—not committees.

➤ Discipline over hype: Volatility is part of the game. But the strategy must be built to endure it.

➤ Clarity and timing: The best entries are paired with proactive shareholder education and public clarity—not reactive announcements.

The most common failure mode? Buying Bitcoin high, with no treasury framework in place, then being forced to sell low when pressure mounts. That’s not a Bitcoin failure—that’s a structure failure.

Conclusion: You Don’t Need a New Business Model—You Need a Capital One

A Bitcoin treasury strategy isn’t for everyone. But for companies with a strong cash position and weak narrative traction, it offers a clear path forward.

You don’t need to change your product. You don’t need to invent a new category. You need to stop leaking value through capital drift—and start signaling conviction through capital strategy.

In a market where performance is narrative, and capital is credibility, Bitcoin is the benchmark.

Zombie companies won’t survive on inertia. But with a Bitcoin treasury strategy, they might just come back to life.

Disclaimer: This content was written on behalf of Bitcoin For Corporations. This article is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be interpreted as an invitation or solicitation to acquire, purchase, or subscribe for securities.

This post The Bitcoin Treasury Strategy That’s Reanimating Zombie Companies first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Nick Ward.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Jason Lowery’s thesis, Softwar: A Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin, reframes bitcoin not merely as digital cash but as a transformative security technology with profound implications for investors and nation-states alike.

For centuries, craft brewers understood that true innovation balanced tradition with experimentation—a delicate dance between established techniques and bold new flavors.

Much like the craft beer revolution reshaped a global industry, bitcoin represents a fundamental recalibration of how humans organize value and project power in the digital age.

The Antler in the Digital Forest: Power Projection

Lowery, a U.S. Space Force officer and MIT scholar, anchors his Softwar theory in a biological metaphor: Bitcoin as humanity’s “digital antler.” In nature, antlers allow animals like deer to compete for resources through non-lethal contests—sparring matches where power is demonstrated without fatal consequences. This contrasts sharply with wolves, who must resort to violent, potentially deadly fights to establish hierarchy.

The Human Power Dilemma: Historically, humans projected power and settled resource disputes through physical force—wars, seizures, or coercive control of assets. Even modern financial systems rely on abstract power structures: court orders, bank freezes, or government sanctions enforced by legal threat rather than immediate physical reality.

Lowery argues this creates inherent fragility: abstract systems can collapse when met with superior physical force (e.g., invasions, revolutions). Nature only respects physical power.

Bitcoin’s Physical Power Engine: Bitcoin introduces a novel solution through its proof-of-work consensus mechanism. Miners compete to solve computationally intense cryptographic puzzles, expending real-world energy (megawatts) to validate transactions and secure the network.

This process converts electricity—a tangible, physical resource—into digital security and immutable property rights. Winning a “block” is like winning a sparring match: it consumes significant resources (energy/cost) but is non-destructive.

The miner gains the right to write the next page of the ledger and collect rewards, but no participant is physically harmed, and no external infrastructure is destroyed.

Table: Traditional vs. Bitcoin-Based Power Systems

Power System

Mechanism

Key Vulnerability

Resource Cost

Traditional (Fiat/Banking)

Legal abstraction, threat of state force

Centralized points of failure, corruption, political change

Low immediate cost, high systemic risk

Military/Economic Coercion

Physical force, sanctions

Escalation, collateral damage, moral hazard

Very high (lives, capital, instability)

Bitcoin (Proof-of-Work)

Competition via energy expenditure

High energy cost, concentration risk (mining)

High energy cost, low systemic risk

Softwar Theory National Strategic Imperative: Governments Are Taking Notice

Lowery’s Softwar Theory has moved beyond academia into the corridors of power, shaping U.S. national strategy:

1. The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: Vice President JD Vance recently framed bitcoin as an instrument projecting American values—”innovation, entrepreneurship, freedom, and lack of censorship”. State legislation is now underway to implement this reserve, preventing easy reversal by future administrations.
2. Regulatory Transformation: The SEC is shifting from an “enforcement-first” stance under previous leadership. New initiatives include:
   • Repealing Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121), which discouraged banks from custodying digital currency by forcing unfavorable balance sheet treatment.
   • Creating the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit (CETU) to develop clearer crypto registration/disclosure rules.

The Investor’s Lens: Scarcity, Security, and Asymmetric Opportunity

For investors, understanding “Softwar” validates bitcoin’s unique value proposition beyond price speculation:

• Digital Scarcity as Strategic Depth: Bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million makes it the only digital asset with truly inelastic supply, a programmed scarcity immune to political whims or central bank printing.

  This “scarcity imperative” acts as a natural antidote to global fiat debasement. As central banks expanded money supplies aggressively (Global M2), bitcoin’s price has shown strong correlation, acting as a pressure valve for inflation concerns. The quadrennial “halving” (latest: April 2024) mechanically reduces new supply, creating built-in supply shocks as adoption grows. * The Antifragile Security Feedback Loop: Bitcoin’s security isn’t static; it’s antifragile. The network strengthens through demand: * More users → More transactions → Higher fees → More miner revenue → More hashpower (computational security) → Greater network resilience → More user confidence.
  This self-reinforcing cycle contrasts sharply with traditional systems, where security is a cost center (e.g., bank security budgets, military spending). Bitcoin turns security into a profitable, market-driven activity. * Institutionalization Without Centralization: While institutional ownership via ETFs (like BlackRock’s IBIT) and corporate treasuries (MicroStrategy, Metaplanet) has surged, supply remains highly decentralized.

  Individuals still hold the largest share of bitcoin, preventing a dangerous concentration of control. Spot Bitcoin ETFs alone are projected to see over $20 billion in net inflows in 2025, demonstrating robust institutional capital allocation.

The Bitcoin Community: Building the Digital Antler’s Resilience

Lowery’s “Softwar” theory underscores why bitcoin’s decentralized architecture is non-negotiable. Its strength lies in the alignment of incentives across three participant groups:

1. Miners: Provide computational power (hashrate), validating transactions and securing the network. Incentivized by block rewards (newly minted BTC) and transaction fees. Their physical energy expenditure is the “muscle” behind the digital antler.
2. Nodes: Independently verify and enforce the protocol rules, maintaining the blockchain’s integrity. Run by users, businesses, and enthusiasts globally. They ensure decentralized consensus, preventing unilateral protocol changes.
3. Users: Individuals, institutions, and corporations holding, transacting, or building on bitcoin. Their demand drives transaction fees and fuels the security feedback loop.

This structure creates “Mutually Assured Preservation”. Attacking bitcoin requires overwhelming its global, distributed physical infrastructure (miners/nodes), a feat far more complex and costly than seizing a central bank’s gold vault or freezing a bank’s assets. It transforms financial security from a centralized liability into a decentralized, physically-grounded asset.

Risks & Responsibilities

Investors and policymakers must acknowledge persistent challenges:

• Volatility: Bitcoin remains volatile, though this has decreased as markets mature. Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) is widely recommended to mitigate timing risk.
• Regulatory Uncertainty: While U.S. policy is increasingly favorable, global coordination is lacking. The EU’s MiCAR regulation exemplifies divergent approaches.
• Security & Custody: While Bitcoin’s protocol is robust, user errors (lost keys) or exchange hacks remain risks.
• Environmental Debate: Proof-of-Work energy use is scrutinized, though mining increasingly uses stranded energy/renewables. Innovations continue.

Jason Lowery’s “Softwar” theory elevates bitcoin from a financial instrument to a socio-technological innovation on par with the invention of the corporation, the rule of law, or even the antler in evolutionary biology. It provides a coherent framework for understanding why:

• Nations like the U.S. are looking to establish bitcoin reserves and embracing stablecoins—they recognize bitcoin’s role in projecting economic power non-violently in the digital age.
• Institutional Investors are allocating billions via ETFs—they see a scarce, secure, uncorrelated asset with antifragile properties.
• Individuals in hyperinflationary economies or under authoritarian regimes use bitcoin—it offers self-sovereign wealth storage immune to seizure or debasement.

For the investor, bitcoin represents more than potential price appreciation. It offers exposure to a fundamental reorganization of how power and value are secured and exchanged globally, grounded not in abstract promises, but in the unyielding laws of physics and mathematics.

Like the brewers who balanced tradition with innovation to create something enduring and valuable, bitcoin pioneers are building the infrastructure for a more resilient digital future—one computationally secured block at a time. The “Softwar” is here, and it is reshaping the landscape of p

@ 1964e236:30dc8bbf

"Do you know how many people can live on Earth at most? Fifteen billion, maybe twenty, if we organize everything really well. But do you know how many people could live across the entire solar system?"

He paused theatrically.

"A trillion. A billion times a thousand. A hundred times our current population."

His eyes gleamed as he looked at me.

"The solar system holds more than enough resources for that many people—and maybe even more. Just imagine such a world: it would have a thousand Mozarts, a thousand Einsteins, thousands of entrepreneurs with more talent than I’ll ever have."

“And thousands of Hitlers,” I thought to myself.

"Your death is the terrible price we must pay for progress," Grok continued. "Every day humanity fails to move forward is a day lost."

He looked me in the eye from thirty million kilometers away.

"In Death Valley, there’s a tiny fish, the desert pupfish. There are only about three hundred of them left, all living in a single small pool in the most inhospitable desert on Earth. That pool used to be much bigger, probably a small sea after the Ice Age, home to millions of pupfish. But today, all that’s left is a salty puddle, and that’s where the last of their kind are crammed together. To them, that pool is the entire world. They can’t even imagine that there’s something beyond it, that there might be an ocean out there with endless resources. Instead, they stay in their little world—and they’re dying out. A few might get lucky, caught by collectors and kept as ornamental fish in aquariums. But most of them will disappear once the pool dries up. Sure, the pool might survive a while longer. But it could also dry out in the next few months. Or, it could rain so much that the salt level drops and the fish can no longer survive."

He paused again.

"I get it," I whispered. "We’re the fish, and you’re pulling us out of the puddle."

"The fish probably think: we’ve got so little space, we need to save resources, control birth rates, that sort of thing. But in truth, there’s only one thing they need to do: find a new pool!"

"What if they don’t want to leave their home?" Maria would’ve asked him now.

"How many times have we stood on the brink of nuclear war in the last few decades?" Grok went on. "Right now, there's peace. But how long will it last?"

"How many nukes did Grok’s own conglomerate have?" I wondered.

"What each individual can do now," Grok said, "is give everything they’ve got in this life to help humanity reach the next level—so we can finally become multiplanetary. So that one single catastrophe won’t wipe out all of humankind. For you, this truth means—and I truly am sorry—that you have to sacrifice yourself for this mission."

I told him I agreed completely. Of course I did. I had no choice.

Then I listened to Feng’s playlist.

@ 4c96d763:80c3ee30

Changes

Daniel D’Aquino (1):

• nostrdb: Fix heap buffer overflow

William Casarin (17):

• win: fix build on windows
• ndb: add note-relays command
• note: always write relay index
• relay-index: fix a few bugs
• debug: add a print for debugging rust integration
• relay: fix race condition bug
• relay: fix potential relay index corruption
• Relay queries
• query: implement author_kind query plan
• fix build on macos
• query: implement profile search query plans
• filter: add initial custom filtering logic
• test: fix custom filter test
• ndb: add --id queries
• eq: fix fallthrough bug
• change <=10 author search queries to ==1
• cleanup previous patch

pushed to nostrdb:refs/heads/master

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Boy howdy! We're getting some good finals games in the NBA and NHL. I imagine that will occupy most of our discussion.

Do we expect these teams to be contenders next year too or is this their window?

I now need Indy to pull off the win, if I'm going to win our bracket challenge. In the event of an Indy win, @grayruby hilariously shot himself in the foot with his pick for MVP in the points challenge (there's a fun little econ lesson there).

We are starting to transition into offseason mode, though: starting with the Knicks post mortem.

Aaron Judge has a ludicrous 87% chance of winning the AL MVP this year. Also, @Jer is demolishing me in fantasy this week.

Predyx has some exciting new sports markets up. I may have gotten a bargain on some Euro Rules Football outcomes just a few minutes ago.

We'll also recap the ongoing contests and discuss whatever else stackers want to hear about.

https://stacker.news/items/1005467

@ 2cde0e02:180a96b9

pen & ink; monochromized

tools used

https://stacker.news/items/1005456

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

It's been a pretty historic week for the United States as it pertains to geopolitical relations in the Middle East. President Trump and many members of his administration, including AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, traveled across the Middle East making deals with countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, and others. Many are speculating that Iran may be included in some behind the scenes deal as well. This trip to the Middle East makes sense considering the fact that China is also vying for favorable relationships with those countries. The Middle East is a power player in the world, and it seems pretty clear that Donald Trump is dead set on ensuring that they choose the United States over China as the world moves towards a more multi-polar reality.

Many are calling the events of this week the Riyadh Accords. There were many deals that were struck in relation to artificial intelligence, defense, energy and direct investments in the United States. A truly prolific power play and demonstration of deal-making ability of Donald Trump, if you ask me. Though I will admit some of the numbers that were thrown out by some of the countries were a bit egregious. We shall see how everything plays out in the coming years. It will be interesting to see how China reacts to this power move by the United States.

While all this was going on, there was something happening back in the United States that many people outside of fringe corners of FinTwit are not talking about, which is the fact that the 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury bond yields are back on the rise. Yesterday, they surpassed the levels of mid-April that caused a market panic and are hovering back around levels that have not been seen since right before Donald Trump's inauguration.

I imagine that there isn't as much of an uproar right now because I'm pretty confident the media freakouts we were experiencing in mid-April were driven by the fact that many large hedge funds found themselves off sides of large levered basis trades. I wouldn't be surprised if those funds have decreased their leverage in those trades and bond yields being back to mid-April levels is not affecting those funds as much as they were last month. But the point stands, the 10-year and 30-year yields are significantly elevated with the 30-year approaching 5%. Regardless of the deals that are currently being made in the Middle East, the Treasury has a big problem on its hands. It still has to roll over many trillions worth of debt over over the next few years and doing so at these rates is going to be massively detrimental to fiscal deficits over the next decade. The interest expense on the debt is set to explode in the coming years.

On that note, data from the first quarter of 2025 has been released by the government and despite all the posturing by the Trump administration around DOGE and how tariffs are going to be beneficial for the U.S. economy, deficits are continuing to explode while the interest expense on the debt has definitively surpassed our annual defense budget.

via Charlie Bilello

via Mohamed Al-Erian

To make matters worse, as things are deteriorating on the fiscal side of things, the U.S. consumer is getting crushed by credit. The 90-plus day delinquency rates for credit card and auto loans are screaming higher right now.

via TXMC

One has to wonder how long all this can continue without some sort of liquidity crunch. Even though equities markets have recovered from their post-Liberation Day month long bear market, I would not be surprised if what we're witnessing is a dead cat bounce that can only be continued if the money printers are turned back on. Something's got to give, both on the fiscal side and in the private markets where the Common Man is getting crushed because he's been forced to take on insane amounts of debt to stay afloat after years of elevated levels of inflation. Add on the fact that AI has reached a state of maturity that will enable companies to replace their current meat suit workers with an army of cheap, efficient and fast digital workers and it isn't hard to see that some sort of employment crisis could be on the horizon as well.

Now is not the time to get complacent. While I do believe that the deals that are currently being made in the Middle East are probably in the best interest of the United States as the world, again, moves toward a more multi-polar reality, we are facing problems that one cannot simply wish away. They will need to be confronted. And as we've seen throughout the 21st century, the problems are usually met head-on with a money printer.

I take no pleasure in saying this because it is a bit uncouth to be gleeful to benefit from the strife of others, but it is pretty clear to me that all signs are pointing to bitcoin benefiting massively from everything that is going on. The shift towards a more multi-polar world, the runaway debt situation here in the United States, the increasing deficits, the AI job replacements and the consumer credit crisis that is currently unfolding, All will need to be "solved" by turning on the money printers to levels they've never been pushed to before.

Weird times we're living in.

China's Manufacturing Dominance: Why It Matters for the U.S.

In my recent conversation with Lyn Alden, she highlighted how China has rapidly ascended the manufacturing value chain. As Lyn pointed out, China transformed from making "sneakers and plastic trinkets" to becoming the world's largest auto exporter in just four years. This dramatic shift represents more than economic success—it's a strategic power play. China now dominates solar panel production with greater market control than OPEC has over oil and maintains near-monopoly control of rare earth elements crucial for modern technology.

"China makes like 10 times more steel than the United States does... which is relevant in ship making. It's relevant in all sorts of stuff." - Lyn Alden

Perhaps most concerning, as Lyn emphasized, is China's financial leverage. They hold substantial U.S. assets that could be strategically sold to disrupt U.S. treasury market functioning. This combination of manufacturing dominance, resource control, and financial leverage gives China significant negotiating power in any trade disputes, making our attempts to reshoring manufacturing all the more challenging.

Check out the full podcast here for more on Triffin's dilemma, Bitcoin's role in monetary transition, and the energy requirements for rebuilding America's industrial base.

Headlines of the Day

Financial Times Under Fire Over MicroStrategy Bitcoin Coverage - via X

Trump in Qatar: Historic Boeing Deal Signed - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Johnson Backs Stock Trading Ban; Passage Chances Slim - via X

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 158,469 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

Building things of value is satisfying.

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@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Here's a video about the Pacers' offensive adjustments to OKC's extraordinary defense:

https://youtu.be/1LF2Sd1jTXQ

This finals matchup probably has the highest level team basketball I remember seeing.

https://stacker.news/items/1005445

@ 0403c86a:66d3a378

Exciting news for FOOTBALL fans ⚽! Global Sports Central 🌐 is teaming up with Predyx, a leading prediction market in the Bitcoin ecosystem, to bring you comprehensive coverage of the very first Club World Cup directly on Nostr. This partnership is all about enhancing your experience with the latest news, insights, and interactive features!

The Club World Cup will showcase the best clubs from around the globe, and with our collaboration, you’ll be fully engaged in the action. Predyx focuses on long-term outcomes, allowing you to make predictions on who will win it all. Plus, if you’re not happy with your predictions, you can sell your shares at any time and switch allegiance—after all, it’s a free market!

What You Can Expect:

• Latest News and Match Reports: Stay updated with the latest news, in-depth match reports, and insights from the tournament, ensuring you never miss a moment.

• Market Odds Tracking: Follow the shifts in market odds in real-time, giving you the edge when making predictions and engaging with the action.

• Player of the Day Card: Celebrate standout performances with our Daily Player of the Day card, highlighting the top players from the tournament.

• Game oN Frontpage: Each day, we’ll feature the frontpage of the day, showcasing the most historical matchups and capturing the feel of the game.

• Best Moments Replays: Relive the excitement with replays of the best moments from the Cup, so you can catch all the highlights and unforgettable plays.

• Long-Term Predictions: Engage with Predyx to forecast who will win the tournament and who will take home the MVP award, allowing you to make strategic predictions as the tournament unfolds.

• Easy Login System: Getting started is a breeze! All you need is a Lightning wallet to log in and participate, making it simple for everyone to join in on the fun.

• Lightning-Fast Bitcoin Payments: With the Lightning Network, placing your bets and making predictions is faster and easier than ever. Enjoy seamless transactions while you cheer for your favorite teams!

"Predyx is excited to be part of this innovative partnership," said Derek. "We’re bringing fans a new way to interact with the game they love, all while using the fast and secure Lightning Network."

Predyx is a Bitcoin-native prediction market platform running on the Lightning Network. We’re building the fastest, most trust-minimized betting engine in the world — no deposits, instant payouts, sats-native, and degen-friendly.

Global Sports Central 🌐 Your daily spin around the sports world 🔄 Stay in the loop with the latest scores, stories, and stats.

GSC360 - Where Every Angle Matters

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

via me

It seems like every other day there's another company announced that is going public with the intent of competing with Strategy by leveraging capital markets to create financial instruments to acquire Bitcoin in a way that is accretive for shareholders. This is certainly a very interesting trend, very bullish for bitcoin in the short-term, and undoubtedly making it so bitcoin is top of mind in the mainstream. I won't pretend to know whether or not these strategies will ultimately be successful or fail in the short, medium or long term. However, one thing I do know is that the themes that interest me, both here at TFTC and in my role as Managing Partner at Ten31, are companies that are building good businesses that are efficient, have product-market-fit, generate revenues and profits and roll those profits into bitcoin.

While it seems pretty clear that Strategy has tapped into an arbitrage that exists in capital markets, it's not really that exciting. From a business perspective, it's actually pretty straightforward and simple; find where potential arbitrage opportunities exists between pools of capital looking for exposure to spot bitcoin or bitcoin's volatility but can't buy the actual asset, and provide them with products that give them access to exposure while simultaneously creating a cult-like retail following. Rinse and repeat. To the extent that this strategy is repeatable is yet to be seen. I imagine it can expand pretty rapidly. Particularly if we have a speculative fervor around companies that do this. But in the long run, I think the signal is falling back to first principles, looking for businesses that are actually providing goods and services to the broader economy - not focused on the hyper-financialized part of the economy - to provide value and create efficiencies that enable higher margins and profitability.

With this in mind, I think it's important to highlight the combined leverage that entrepreneurs have by utilizing bitcoin treasuries and AI tools that are emerging and becoming more advanced by the week. As I said in the tweet above, there's never been a better time to start a business that finds product-market fit and cash flows quickly with a team of two to three people. If you've been reading this rag over the last few weeks, you know that I've been experimenting with these AI tools and using them to make our business processes more efficient here at TFTC. I've also been using them at Ten31 to do deep research and analysis.

It has become abundantly clear to me that any founder or entrepreneur that is not utilizing the AI tools that are emerging is going to get left behind. As it stands today, all anyone has to do to get an idea from a thought in your head to the prototype stage to a minimum viable product is to hop into something like Claude or ChatGPT, have a brief conversation with an AI model that can do deep research about a particular niche that you want to provide a good service to and begin building.

Later this week, I will launch an app called Opportunity Cost in the Chrome and Firefox stores. It took me a few hours of work over the span of a week to ideate and iterate on the concept to the point where I had a working prototype that I handed off to a developer who is solving the last mile problem I have as an "idea guy" of getting the product to market. Only six months ago, accomplishing something like this would have been impossible for me. I've never written a line of code that's actually worked outside of the modded MySpace page I made back in middle school. I've always had a lot of ideas but have never been able to effectively communicate them to developers who can actually build them. With a combination of ChatGPT-03 and Replit, I was able to build an actual product that works. I'm using it in my browser today. It's pretty insane.

There are thousands of people coming to the same realization at the same time right now and going out there and building niche products very cheaply, with small teams, they are getting to market very quickly, and are amassing five figures, six figures, sometimes seven figures of MRR with extremely high profit margins. What most of these entrepreneurs have not really caught on to yet is that they should be cycling a portion - in my opinion, a large portion - of those profits into bitcoin. The combination of building a company utilizing these AI tools, getting it to market, getting revenue and profits, and turning those profits into bitcoin cannot be understated. You're going to begin seeing teams of one to ten people building businesses worth billions of dollars and they're going to need to store the value they create, any money that cannot be debased.

nostr:nprofile1qyx8wumn8ghj7cnjvghxjmcpz4mhxue69uhk2er9dchxummnw3ezumrpdejqqgy8fkmd9kmm8yp4lea2cx0g8fyz27g4ud7572j4edx2v6lz6aa23qmp5dth , one of the co-founders of Ten31, wrote about this in early 2024, bitcoin being the fourth lever of equity value growth for companies.

Bitcoin Treasury - The Fourth Lever to Equity Value Growth

We already see this theme playing out at Ten31 with some of our portfolio companies, most notably nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqgdwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkcqpqex7mdykw786qxvmtuls208uyxmn0hse95rfwsarvfde5yg6wy7jqjrm2qp , which recently released some of their financials, highlighting the fact that they're extremely profitable with high margins and a relatively small team (\~75). This is extremely impressive, especially when you consider the fact that they're a global company competing with the likes of Coinbase and Block, which have each thousands of employees.

Even those who are paying attention to the developments in the AI space and how the tools can enable entrepreneurs to build faster aren't really grasping the gravity of what's at play here. Many are simply thinking of consumer apps that can be built and distributed quickly to market, but the ways in which AI can be implemented extend far beyond the digital world. Here's a great example of a company a fellow freak is building with the mindset of keeping the team small, utilizing AI tools to automate processes and quickly push profits into bitcoin.

via Cormac

Again, this is where the exciting things are happening in my mind. People leveraging new tools to solve real problems to drive real value that ultimately produce profits for entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs who decide to save those profits in bitcoin will find that the equity value growth of their companies accelerates exponentially as they provide more value, gain more traction, and increase their profits while also riding the bitcoin as it continues on its monetization phase. The compounded leverage of building a company that leverages AI tools and sweeps profits into bitcoin is going to be one of the biggest asymmetric plays of the next decade. Personally, I also see it as something that's much more fulfilling than the pure play bitcoin treasury companies that are coming to market because consumers and entrepreneurs are able to recive and provide a ton of value in the real economy.

If you're looking to stay on top of the developments in the AI space and how you can apply the tools to help build your business or create a new business, I highly recommend you follow somebody like Greg Isenberg, whose Startup Ideas Podcast has been incredibly valuable for me as I attempt to get a lay of the land of how to implement AI into my businesses.

America's Two Economies

In my recent podcast with Lyn Alden, she outlined how our trade deficits create a cycle that's reshaping America's economic geography. As Alden explained, US trade deficits pump dollars into international markets, but these dollars don't disappear - they return as investments in US financial assets. This cycle gradually depletes industrial heartlands while enriching financial centers on the coasts, creating what amounts to two separate American economies.

"We're basically constantly taking economic vibrancy out of Michigan and Ohio and rural Pennsylvania where the steel mills were... and stuffing it back into financial assets in New York and Silicon Valley." - nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytndv9kxjm3wdahxcqg5waehxw309ahx7um5wfekzarkvyhxuet5qqsw4v882mfjhq9u63j08kzyhqzqxqc8tgf740p4nxnk9jdv02u37ncdhu7e3

This pattern has persisted for over four decades, accelerating significantly since the early 1980s. Alden emphasized that while economists may argue there's still room before reaching a crisis point, the political consequences are already here. The growing divide between these two Americas has fueled populist sentiment as voters who feel left behind seek economic rebalancing, even if they can't articulate the exact mechanisms causing their hardship.

Check out the full podcast here for more on China's manufacturing dominance, Trump's tariff strategy, and the future of Bitcoin as a global reserve asset. All discussed in under 60 minutes.

Headlines of the Day

Trump's Saudi Summit: Peace and Economic Ties - via X

MSTR Edges Closer To S\&P 500 With Just 89 Trading Days Left - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Individuals Shed 247K Bitcoin As Businesses Gain 157K - via X

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 144,229 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

My boys have started a game in the car where we count how many Waymos we see on the road while driving around town. Pretty crazy how innately stoked they are about that particular car.

---

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@ f0fd6902:a2fbaaab

https://stacker.news/items/1005372

@ df478568:2a951e67

Marty Bent Vibe coded the opportunity cost app. I have not tried it yet, but love the concept. I have been into bitcoin since 2014, but I spent more generational wealth than I would care to admit back then. I've heard stories of fortunes blown on cocaine in the 1980's. I could write a story about spending a fortune on Diet Mt. Dew. I don't drink Diet Mt. Dew anymore. This one time, I spent about a million sats for a light beer at a baseball game. I wouldn't say I had a drinking problem, a million sats was only five bucks at the time. I didn't know that much bitcoin would be worth over a thousand bucks eleven years later.

I don't drink beer anymore. Bitcoin tends to do that to you.

We can afford chairs now. To be honest, we need a couch. The last couch I bought was in 2017 and it cost about a whole bitcoin. That couch is buried in a landfill today. My wife loves furniture, but even she's hesitant to spend sats on a couch now. We know we need a couch, but we don't want to spend sats on something we will need to replace before the next halving.

Many of us who have been in bitcoin for more than a decade have some regrets. I know I do, but we need to live our lives. I would never say you should sit on the floor, but I encourage to you to think about time. How long will this thing I need to buy last? If you think you can give a 3 million sat couch to your grandchildren, spend three million sats on the couch. If your five year plan for the couch is to help fill a landfill, maybe you only need to buy a used couch at a thrift store. This is not investment advice of course. How can it be? I don't know what kind of couch hazards you have in your house. I have trouble finding a couch of my own, but it's how I think about making bigger purchases. How many years of your retirement will that watch, car, house or whatever cost you from your stack? You can only determine that for yourself. I think the opportunity cost app will help you keep track of your decision.

This app was made by someone who once spent a whole bitcoin on a heater. I can't speak for Marty, but I believe the opportunity cost app will help you learn from my mistakes.

For more information, check out:

https://www.opportunitycost.app/

Check out the code on GitHub.

Using The Opportunity Cost App

The app is pretty straight forward. It is only available on Chrome for now so I installed it on the Chromium browser. I looked at the settings, but kept them default.

Then I searched for a Rolex in Duck Duck Go.

The default is bitcoin, but there is a sat calculator in the corner too, I have always wanted a Rolex Milgauss with a green sapphire so I looked it up on eBay. It's about 8 million sats. That's too rich for my blood, but I might be willing to part with a million sats for that watch. I'll definitely pick it up for 500,000 sats. I can wait. Bitcoin is the best clock in the world. I wouldn't go so far as to call this Rolex a shitcoin, but bitcoin is a better clock than any watch in my opinion--Even when compared to my favorite watch.

Video From Opportunity Cost Website

How will you use the Opportunity Cost browser extension?

☮️ npub1marc26z8nh3xkj5rcx7ufkatvx6ueqhp5vfw9v5teq26z254renshtf3g0

https://zapthisblog.com/calculate-your-opportunity-cost-while-shopping/

900,678

@ 99e7936f:d5d2197c

“Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben.”

„BORN TUBI FREE“   statt   „VIEL FREE“

Ja, Sie haben richtig gelesen.

Bildung hatte in meinem Elternhaus keinen hohen Stellenwert. Für meine Eltern war es erstrebenswert, ein gutes Heim mit großem Garten, etwas Komfort und gutes Essen zu haben. Sowohl mein Vater als auch meine Mutter hatten starken Bezug zur Landwirtschaft und Nutztierhaltung. Tiere, die keinen Nutzen hatten, waren in den Augen meiner Eltern Luxus. Auch für mich ist es heute wichtig, Zugang zu Grün und zur Natur zu haben. Ich liebe Tiere, die keinen Nutzen haben, und Pflanzen aller Art. Im Sommer stundenlang unter dem Blätterdach eines alten Baumes zu liegen und dem Knacken der Äste zuzuhören, ist für mich Glück.

In meiner Kindheit gab es blökende Schafe und Lämmer statt Klavierunterricht. Wir kletterten bei der Obsternte auf den Baum oder sammelten Fallobst statt im Sportverein zu turnen. Statt Büchern gab es Besuche bei Tante und Onkel, die Geschichten von früher erzählten. Und statt Museumsbesuchen gab es die Werkstatt meines Vaters und das Hobby meiner Mutter, alte Möbel zu sammeln und selbst zu restaurieren. Die Themen des Lebens lernte ich nicht durch Theateraufführungen kennen, sondern durch den Alltag und die Menschen in meiner unmittelbaren Umgebung.

Durch die Schule kam ich erstmals in Kontakt mit der Möglichkeit, dass man Dinge auch abstrakt-theoretisch lernen konnte. Schule war für mich auch ein Ort, an dem ich ganz nebenbei das Sozialverhalten anderer Menschen studieren konnte. Das war für mich als Kind und Teenager ein wichtiges Korrektiv. Aber vor allem habe ich über die Schule gelernt, dass es eine ganze Welt zu entdecken gab, die mir bis dahin unbekannt war. Bildung war für mich nie etwas, mit dem man angibt. Bildung war für mich ein Geschenk, eine Überraschung, eine Freude, ein Anfang von etwas Neuem, eine Hoffnung, manchmal eine Angst, es nicht zu schaffen, aber immer wieder eine Quelle von Verstehen und neuen Fragen. Bildung ist für mich heute eine riesige Landkarte, die ich nach Herzenslust bereisen kann, wenn ich mag. Auf meiner Landkarte gibt es noch so viele weiße Flecken. Ich habe mein Abitur mit 29 Jahren ohne die emotionale Unterstützung meiner Eltern nachgeholt. Meine Eltern ahnten schon, dass sich nach dem Abitur ein „teures“ Studium anschließen würde. Auch das war in ihren Augen Luxus, denn ich hatte ja bereits eine Ausbildung.

Nach dem Krieg hatten viele Menschen gar nicht die Möglichkeit, Schulbildung zu erlangen. Im Vordergrund stand, einen guten Job zu finden, Kinder zu bekommen und etwas aufzubauen, ein Haus zu bauen, sich Urlaub im sonnigen Süden leisten zu können. Frauen, die in den 60er Jahren nicht heirateten und stattdessen studieren wollten, waren in der Welt meiner Eltern nicht sichtbar. Bildung war eine stille Sehnsucht, an die man nicht mal im Traum denken durfte, so kam es mir in meiner Familie als Teenager manchmal vor. Das muss mit dem materiellen Mangel meiner Eltern in ihrer Kindheit zu tun gehabt haben. Ich habe dieses Phänomen auch bei den Eltern von Freunden oder bei Verwandten beobachten können. Materieller Wohlstand schien wichtiger als irgendwelche fernen Ziele und Horizonte. Erst mit fortschreitendem Alter fingen meine Eltern an, sich hobbymäßig und theoretisch zu bilden. Sie besuchten zwar keine Kurse in der Volkshochschule, aber sie kauften sich Sachbücher zu den verschiedensten Themen oder machten Kulturreisen in die neuen Bundesländer. Das war für sie der pure Luxus. Sie besuchten Schlösser und Burgen, mein Vater liebte es, in rustikaler Umgebung oder in historischen Gebäuden an schön gedeckten Tischen zu essen, während meine Mutter die Holzmaserung der Möbel genau betrachtete und befühlte.

Da ich diesen „Bildungsluxus“ aber deutlich vor meinem Rentenalter haben wollte, nahm ich die zähen Diskussionen mit meinen Eltern wegen einer finanziellen Unterstützung meines Studiums in Kauf. Bildung ist ein Grundbedürfnis von Menschen, das von ganz allein entsteht, wenn es nicht aktiv unterdrückt wird. Das hat die Evolution vermutlich so angelegt, damit man ab und zu auch mal das Gewohnte verlässt, um Neues zu entdecken, weil Flexibilität die Überlebenschancen der Spezies erhöht.

Bildung ist ein Grundbedürfnis, und das machen sich natürlich auch die dunklen Kräfte auf dieser Welt zu Nutze.

Das heutige Bild, das ich zum Artikel gewählt habe, habe ich vor ein paar Wochen in dem Viertel, in dem ich wohne, mit der Kamera aufgenommen. Auf einem Plakat konnte ich „VIEL FREE“ in großen Buchstaben lesen und war sprachlos. Ich wusste gar nicht, was mich so bestürzte, als ich das Plakat sah. Aber ich spürte, dass ich dieses Plakat im Bild festhalten musste, weil irgendeine tiefe Botschaft darin lag, die ich mitnehmen sollte. Manchmal verstehe ich Dinge erst intuitiv und anschließend kognitiv.

Dieses Plakat ist eine Werbung für irgendeinen Freizeitpass o.ä., den man in unserer Region erwerben kann. Aber der Anbieter wirbt mit einer bewusst falschen Rechtschreibung (VIEL FREE). Da ich nicht aus einem Bildungshaushalt komme, könnte mir das herzlich egal sein. Aber was mir nicht egal ist, ist das Gefühl, das ich beim Lesen dieses Plakats bekam. Das war ein Gefühl von einem vollen Nachttopf, den man mir über den Kopf schüttet und dabei noch hämisch grinst. Das Plakat hat mich spontan empört.

Ich dachte sofort an die Geflüchteten aus Syrien und Afghanistan, mit denen ich vor ein paar Jahren gearbeitet hatte. Sie hatten dermaßen Stress mit dem Erlernen der deutschen Sprache gehabt. Oft waren die „Lehrer“ in den Sprachkursen keine ausgebildeten Lehrer gewesen. Die Familienväter und die Teenager der Flüchtlingsfamilien fielen teils mehrmals durch die Prüfungen und hatten Angst, deshalb von der Behörde nicht zum regulären Arbeitsmarkt bzw. zum Gymnasium zugelassen zu werden. Die Mütter blieben zum Glück gelassener. Die bestandene Sprachprüfung war die offizielle Voraussetzung für die Teilnahme am ersten Arbeitsmarkt, so hieß es damals zumindest. Wer den Abschluss nicht hatte, erhielt keine Hilfe beim Schreiben einer Bewerbung. Das „Konzept“ der Maßnahme zur Vermittlung in Arbeit, in der ich damals tätig war, sah dies so vor. Ich kann mich noch lebhaft an die Auseinandersetzung mit meinem Kollegen erinnern, die ich deshalb damals hatte. Diese Logik erschloss sich mir nicht, denn man lernt Sprache doch am besten dort, wo man lebt UND arbeitet. Aber zurück zu dem Plakat. Was ich zum Ausdruck bringen möchte, ist, dass es insbesondere in dem Viertel, in dem ich wohne, viele Menschen mit ganz unterschiedlicher Herkunft und mit Kriegserfahrung gibt, die nicht sicher sind in der deutschen Sprache, für die es nicht hilfreich ist, dass Plakate mit einer fehlerhaften Rechtschreibung für etwas werben. Und von der zynischen Qualität dieses „VIEL FREE“ rede ich noch gar nicht.

Wie soll man in einem Land, das man neu kennen lernen möchte und muss, weil man aus einem Krieg geflüchtet ist, die Sprache lernen, wenn man bewusst fehlerhafte Rechtschreibung vorgesetzt bekommt? Und den angeblichen Wortwitz verstehen doch die meisten gar nicht, weil sie, wie gesagt, weder im mündlichen noch im schriftlichen Sprachausdruck sicher sind. Und niemand möchte sich lediglich „frei fühlen“, sondern lieber tatsächlich „frei sein“, oder nicht? Und echte Freiheit hat sicherlich auch nichts mit irgendeiner Plastikkarte zu tun, mit der ich einen Erlebnispark oder ein Spaßbad aufsuchen kann.  

„Frei sein“ bedeutet für mich, dass ich nicht durch psychologische Tricks für etwas interessiert werde, das mich von echter Freiheit ablenken und abhalten soll. Echte Freiheit braucht auch sicherlich keine Plastikkarten mit personenbezogenen Daten. Echte Freiheit bedeutet, dass ich NICHT aus meinem Heimatland durch Krieg vertrieben werde, sondern dass ich mein Leben (und meine Freizeit) nach Lust und Laune so gestalten kann, wie ich das will. Und dazu gehört mehr als ein Besuch im Erlebnispark des Landes, in das ich geflüchtet bin, um zu überleben. Dazu gehört, dass ich die Sprache vor Ort verstehe und selbst sprechen kann, dass ich ein respektierter Teil der Gesellschaft werde, dass ich die gleichen Chancen bekomme wie die anderen, dass ich die finanziellen Mittel habe für Bildung, guten Wohnraum mit Garten und was auch immer, dass ich mobil bin, und dass ich, insbesondere als junger Mensch, meine Familie und eine vertraute Gruppe von Freunden um mich habe. Also „frei sein“ bedeutet, NICHT aus meiner Heimat weggebombt zu werden.

In meiner unmittelbaren Nachbarschaft leben unbegleitete minderjährige Flüchtlinge in einer Wohngemeinschaft zusammen. Das sind höfliche Jungs so um die 16/17 Jahre. Sie lernen die Welt und das Leben gerade erst kennen. Sie haben keinen leichten Start gehabt, sind aber neugierig auf dieses neue Land, in dem sie nun leben. Sie grüßen freundlich und probieren die neu erlernte Sprache aus. Solche Plakate direkt vor ihrer Haustür sind nicht hilfreich. Diese Plakate versuchen, junge Menschen mit ihrem ganz normalen Bedürfnis danach, Neues zu erleben, abzuholen und in eine aktionsreiche Scheinwelt zu entführen, in der es vermeintlich Freiheit und ganz VIEL Spaß gibt. Solche Plakate sind für mich keine unschuldige Werbung für einfache Freizeitgestaltung. Solche Plakate sind einerseits der dezente Wink in Richtung Konsum und andererseits kognitive Platzhalter, mentale Füllstoffe.

VIEL FREE mit Plastikkarten ist in meinen Augen ein aufdringliches Angebot für willkommene Schmerzvermeidung durch Konsum. Es ist Angriff auf Sprache und Denken. Es richtet sich an junge Menschen, die das, was sie in den letzten Jahren hier oder woanders erleben mussten, vergessen möchten. Nach Kriegen oder staatlichen Übergriffen, so wie in der sogenannten Corona-Zeit, geht es immer für fast alle Beteiligten um das Vergessen. An diesem Punkt sind sich die Dynamik von Trauma einerseits und die Täterstruktur andererseits leider immer einig. Deswegen hat es ja auch in der deutschen Vergangenheit funktioniert, Konsum als Schmerzpflaster auf Wunden aller Art zu kleben.

VIEL FREE ist für mich ein trauriges Zeitdokument, das meine Aufmerksamkeit gefunden hat, weil es das Gegenteil von Freiheit, Genießen, Gemeinschaft und vielem mehr darstellt.

VIEL FREE hat mich an meine Eltern in jungen Jahren und ihre Sehnsüchte erinnert, eine traumatisierte Generation, die alles dafür getan hat, materiellen Wohlstand zu generieren, um sich endlich wieder emotional sicher fühlen zu können.

VIEL FREE erreicht nicht die Herzebene, weil es nicht von Herzen kommt.

VIEL FREE ist eine kostengünstige Zucker-LÖSUNG, die den kleinen Hunger und die stille Sehnsucht nach Heimat, Zugehörigkeit, Sicherheit, Frieden, Glück und vielleicht auch nach Bildung stillen soll. Aber sie macht genau das, was Zucker macht. Sie macht nicht satt, sondern weckt den großen Hunger. Man konsumiert dann das Falsche mit all den Folgen, die das hat. Es ist schwer, aus solchen Kreisläufen wieder raus zu kommen.

Wem dienen diese ungesunden Kreisläufe?

Wem dient dieser Konsum, der nicht satt macht?

Wem dient das Vergessen einer traumatischen Jugend?

Was denkt man alles NICHT, während man mit VIEL FREE als mentalem Füllstoff beschäftigt ist?

Was fühlt man alles NICHT, während man Loopings auf der Konsumschiene dreht?

Was macht man alles NICHT, was außerhalb der vorgezeichneten Freizeitzone liegt, aber auch Spaß macht?

Was ist die gesunde Alternative für junge Menschen, egal welcher Herkunft?

Wie können Angebote insbesondere für junge Menschen, die traumatisiert sind, aussehen?

Wo kann man als junger Mensch kostenlos und ohne eine Institution oder ein „Konzept“ im Nacken mit Gleichaltrigen in der Freizeit „abhängen“ und nebenbei Schafe, Obstbäume und andere Menschen aus sicherer Entfernung beobachten?

Wo gibt es solche unschuldigen Oasen?

Wo kann man Trauma „heilen“ oder zumindest die Voraussetzungen für spätere Selbstheilung schaffen?

Wo wird man nicht mit Zucker-LÖSUNG angefixt?

Wo kann man lernen, den eigenen Körper, die eigenen Gefühle nach Trauma wieder zu spüren, zu regulieren und sich dadurch wirklich frei zu fühlen?

Wer vermittelt der nächsten Generation eigentlich, was wir (in den letzten fünf Jahren) gelernt haben?

Vielleicht geht das erstmal über praktische Angebote, über das persönliche Erleben und später dann über theoretische Bildung. Man muss den Wert von Schafen und Bäumen nicht sofort theoretisch erklärt bekommen. Für den Anfang reicht es, wenn man Zugang zu Schafen und Bäumen bekommt und lernt, wie andere mit Schafen und Bäumen umgehen, also Lernen am Modell. Es müssen auch nicht unbedingt Schafe und Bäume sein, das ist, wie Sie bereits gemerkt haben, nur eine Metapher.

Mich haben Schafe und Bäume in gewisser Weise gerettet. Sie haben mir Verbindung angeboten. Ich konnte diese Verbindung am eigenen Leib spüren. Ich konnte spüren, dass ich bin und auch erahnen, wer ich wirklich bin. Sie waren mir ein verlässliches Gegenüber in schwierigen Zeiten, sie haben mich so oft beruhigt, getröstet und gehalten. Die Natur hört zu, wenn keiner mehr zuhört. Sie nimmt Dich an, egal wer Du bist. Sie bewertet Dich nicht. Sie ist unendlich geduldig und ein super Lehrer für alle Fragen, die einem als Kind so einfallen können. Sie weckt Deine Aufmerksamkeit, Deine Neugier, Deinen Wunsch zu Lernen und zu Verstehen. Sie lenkt Dich ab. Die Natur unterrichtet Dich ganz beiläufig. Ihre Sprache ist das kreative Spiel und die Fülle. Diese Anbindung an die Natur hilft mir bis heute, mit Herausforderungen aller Art klarzukommen. Wenn ich nicht weiter weiß oder mich beruhigen möchte und muss, dann gehe ich in die Natur. Danach ist nicht jedes Problem sofort gelöst, aber ich bin wieder zuversichtlich, dass ich auch diese Welle nehmen kann und über Wasser bleibe. Ich spüre mich dann mit all meiner Kraft als einen Teil dieser Welt. Und genau das wünsche ich vor allem den jungen Leuten in meiner Umgebung, die noch so viel vor sich haben.

Du bist geboren, um Dich als einen Teil dieser Welt kraftvoll und frei zu fühlen.

Du bist ein Stück von dieser Natur, die jeden Tag kreativ spielt und immer reichlich von allem hat.

Man sagt: „Schau auf den Horizont, wenn die Wellen hochschlagen.“

Für mich bedeutet das: Wenn Du Dich mit der Natur verbindest, dann hast Du Orientierung, dann fühlst Du Dich selbst. Und wenn Du Dich und Deine angeborene Stärke fühlst, dann bist Du frei. Dann kann Dir kein Problem etwas anhaben. Die Natur heilt sich und Dich jeden Tag auf`s Neue.

BORN TO BE FREE.

BE FREE.

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“Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben.”

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@ f0fd6902:a2fbaaab

From my end, it s not one thing but a sentence:

A borderless world in a decentralized economy, where age, sex, race, religion... have not labels in a society where human are sovereigns.

https://stacker.news/items/1005361

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

via Kevin McKernan

There's been a lot of discussion this week about Casey Means being nominated for Surgeon General of the United States and a broader overarching conversation about the effectiveness of MAHA since the inauguration and how effective it may or may not be moving forward. Many would say that President Trump won re-election due to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Nicole Shanahan deciding to reach across the aisle and join the Trump ticket, bringing with them the MAHA Moms, who are very focused on reorienting the healthcare system in the United States with a strong focus on the childhood vaccine schedule.

I'm not going to lie, this is something I'm passionate about as well, particularly after having many conversations over the years with doctors like Kevin McKernan, Dr. Jack Kruse, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, Dr. Brooke Miller, Dr. Peter McCullough and others about the dangers of the COVID mRNA vaccines. As it stands today, I think this is the biggest elephant in the room in the world of healthcare. If you look at the data, particularly disability claims, life insurance claims, life expectancy, miscarriage rates, fertility issues and rates of turbo cancer around the world since the COVID vaccine was introduced in 2021, it seems pretty clear that there is harm being done to many of the people who have taken them.

The risk-reward ratio of the vaccines seems to be incredibly skewed towards risk over reward and children - who have proven to be least susceptible to COVID - are expected to get three COVID shots in the first year of their life if their parents follow the vaccine schedule. For some reason or another it seems that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has shied away from this topic after becoming the head of Health and Human Services within the Trump administration. This is after a multi-year campaign during which getting the vaccines removed from the market war a core part of his platform messaging.

I'm still holding out hope that sanity will prevail. The COVID mRNA vaccines will be taken off the market in a serious conversation about the crimes against humanity that unfolded during the COVID years will take place. However, we cannot depend on that outcome. We must build with the assumption in mind that that outcome may never materialize. This leads to identifying where the incentives within the system are misconstrued. One area where I think it's pretty safe to say that the incentives are misaligned is the fact that 95% of doctors work for and answer to a corporation driven by their bottom line. Instead of listening to their patients and truly caring about the outcome of each individual, doctors forced to think about the monetary outcome of the corporation they work for first.

The most pernicious way in which these misaligned incentives emerge is the way in which the hospital systems and physicians are monetarily incentivized by big pharma companies to push the COVID vaccine and other vaccines on their patients. It is important to acknowledge that we cannot be dependent on a system designed in this way to change from within. Instead, we must build a new incentive system and market structure. And obviously, if you're reading this newsletter, you know that I believe that bitcoin will play a pivotal role in realigning incentives across every industry. Healthcare just being one of them.

Bitcoiners who have identified the need to become sovereign in our monetary matters, it probably makes sense to become sovereign when it comes to our healthcare as well. This means finding doctors who operate outside the corporate controlled system and are able to offer services that align incentives with the end patient. My family utilizes a combination of CrowdHealth and a private care physician to align incentives. We've even utilized a private care physician who allowed us to pay in Bitcoin for her services for a number of years. I think this is the model. Doctors accepting hard censorship resistant money for the healthcare and advice they provide. Instead of working for a corporation looking to push pharmaceutical products on their patients so they can bolster their bottom line, work directly with patients who will pay in bitcoin, which will appreciate in value over time.

I had a lengthy discussion with Dr. Jack Kruse on the podcast earlier today discussing these topic and more. It will be released on Thursday and I highly recommend you freaks check it out once it is published. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it.

How the "Exorbitant Privilege" of the Dollar is Undermining Our Manufacturing Base

In my conversation with Lyn Alden, we explored America's fundamental economic contradiction. As Lyn expertly explained, maintaining the dollar's reserve currency status while attempting to reshore manufacturing presents a near-impossible challenge - what economists call Triffin's Dilemma. The world's appetite for dollars gives Americans tremendous purchasing power but simultaneously hollows out our industrial base. The overvalued dollar makes our exports less competitive, especially for lower-margin manufacturing, while our imports remain artificially strong.

"Having the reserve currency does come with a bunch of benefits, historically called an exorbitant privilege, but then it has certain costs to maintain it." - Lyn Alden

This dilemma forces America to run persistent trade deficits, as this is how dollars flow to the world. For over four decades, these deficits have accumulated, creating massive economic imbalances that can't be quickly reversed. The Trump administration's attempts to address this through tariffs showcase how difficult rebalancing has become. As Lyn warned, even if we successfully pivot toward reshoring manufacturing, we'll face difficult trade-offs: potentially giving up some reserve currency benefits to rebuild our industrial foundation. This isn't just economic theory - it's the restructuring challenge that will define America's economic future.

Check out the full podcast here for more on China's manufacturing dominance, the role of Bitcoin in monetary transitions, and energy production as the foundation for future industrial power.

Headlines of the Day

Coinbase to replace Discover in S\&P 500 on May 19 - via X

Mallers promises no rehypothecation in Strike Bitcoin loans - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Missouri passes HB 594, eliminates Bitcoin capital gains tax - via X

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 144,264 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

The 100+ degree days have returned to Austin, TX. Not mad about it... yet.

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Here’s how to make the perfect soft boiled egg in seven minutes using ice water.

Video: https://v.nostr.build/gODN4ihoJal4EhuA.mp4

1. Grab your eggs.

2. Fill a pot with water, put it on high heat, and bring it to a boil.

3. While waiting, fill a bowl with ice and water. Set it aside.

4. Once the water is boiling, gently add the eggs.

5. Start a timer for 7 minutes.

6. When 7 minutes are up, transfer the eggs into the ice water bowl.

7. Let them sit for a couple of minutes before peeling.

(Optional) Make peeling fun - see how big of shell pieces you can get.

1. After peeling, put the eggs back into the ice water for a few more minutes. *This helps them firm up slightly while keeping the yolk soft but not runny.

2. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes and enjoy with whatever you like.

Give a zap if you enjoy this sort of content, and if this yielded good results for you :)

@ 58537364:705b4b85

ในร่างกายที่มันมีสิ่งที่เรียกว่า… ระบบประสาท ทีนี้มีอะไรเข้ามากระทบร่างกาย คือกระทบระบบประสาท ปฏิกิริยามันก็เกิดขึ้น เป็นเหตุการณ์ อย่างใดอย่างหนึ่งขึ้น

เหตุการณ์นั้นแหละสำคัญ ถ้าให้เกิดความรู้สึกที่ถูกใจมันจะเป็นบวก เหตุการณ์นั้นไม่รู้สึกถูกใจแก่จิต มันก็จะเป็นลบ #ตัวกูเพิ่งเกิดเมื่อมีการกระทบแล้ว

ถ้าเหตุการณ์ที่เป็นบวกเกิดขึ้น ตัวกูบวกก็เกิดขึ้น เหตุการณ์ที่เป็นลบเกิดขึ้น ตัวกูที่เป็นลบเกิดขึ้น #ตัวกูนี้เกิดหลังเหตุการณ์ ขอให้เข้าใจดีๆ ไม่ใช่เกิดอยู่ก่อน

ตัวกูคลอดออกมาจาก situation ที่มากระทบระบบประสาท เช่นว่า… ไม่ได้กินอาหาร ขาดอาหาร มันหิว ความหิวเกิดขึ้นแก่ระบบประสาท ต่อมาจึงเกิด concept ว่า กูหิว, มีการกินแล้วจึงเกิด concept ว่า กูกิน

ถ้ามีอาการอร่อยแก่ลิ้น มันจึงเกิด concept ว่า… กูอร่อย หรือ มาทีหลังเหตุการณ์เสมอ จะถือว่าเป็น product ของเหตุการณ์นั้น ๆ ก็ได้

นี่คือความที่ไม่มีตัวจริง มิใช่ของจริง ของสิ่งที่เรียกว่าตัวกู #ขอให้รู้จักว่าตัวกูนี้มันเป็นมายาถึงขนาดนี้

ฟังดูการพูดอย่างนี้ มันเป็น logic แต่ความจริงของธรรมชาติมันเป็นอย่างนั้น ถือตามกฎ logic ธรรมดาสามัญ ที่พูดกันอยู่นี้ไม่ได้ ต้องถือตามความเป็นจริงที่ว่า มันเป็นอยู่อย่างไร

จิตก็เป็นธาตุชนิดหนึ่ง สิ่งแวดล้อมต่างๆ ที่เป็นธาตุชนิดหนึ่ง พอมาถึงกันเข้า ก็เกิดปฏิกิริยาออกมาอย่างนั้นอย่างนี้ ความรู้สึกที่เรียกว่า… #จิตคิดนึกได้นี้_ก็เป็นปฏิกิริยาที่เกิดขึ้นเท่านั้น แล้วความรู้สึกว่าตัวกู ตัวนี้ก็เป็นเพียงปฏิกิริยาที่เกิดขึ้นเท่านั้น.

มันฟังยากสำหรับท่านทั้งหลายที่ว่า ผู้กระทำนั้นเกิดทีหลังการกระทำ มันผิด logic อย่างนี้

แต่ความจริงเป็นอย่างนั้น self หรือ ego ผู้กระทำจะเกิดทีหลังการกระทำ เป็นปฏิกิริยาของการกระทำ

ความคิดอย่าง ตรรกะ หรืออย่างปรัชญา เอามาใช้กับสิ่งนี้ไม่ได้ ขอยืนยันไว้อย่างนี้

ถ้าท่านยังไม่เชื่อ ท่านก็ไปคิดดูเรื่อย ๆ ไปเถอะ ท่านจะพบว่ามันไม่เป็นอย่างกฎเกณฑ์ทางตรรกะหรือทางปรัชญา ที่เรามีๆ กันอยู่

ผู้กระทำเป็นเพียง concept ไม่ใช่ตัวจริง ส่วนการกระทำมันเป็นเหตุการณ์ของธรรมชาติ พอเข้ามาถึงจิตแล้ว ก็เกิดความคิด ความเชื่อ ความยึดว่าตัวกู

ตัวกูซึ่งเป็นเพียง concept ไม่ใช่ของจริง

พุทธทาสภิกขุ

อตัมมยตาประทีป

ชีวิตใหม่และหนทางเข้าถึงชีวิตใหม่

หน้า_๒๙๕-๒๙๖

@ a296b972:e5a7a2e8

Europa sitzt in einem Demokratie-Simulator. Auf die Scheiben im Cockpit werden Bilder projiziert, die nicht der Realität entsprechen, und es gibt immer noch zu viele Menschen, die diese Simulation nicht erkannt haben.

Nichts wäre erstrebenswerter, als über eine positive Entwicklung, hin zur Vernunft und realitätsbezogenen, auf Tatsachen beruhenden Entscheidungen, berichten zu können. Die Frage ist, ob nicht zuerst unentwegt auf Missstände hingewiesen werden muss, um weitere Menschen dazu zu bewegen, sich denjenigen anzuschließen, die offensichtlich an Indoktrinationsintoleranz leiden.

Wer sich vor Hofberichterstattung und die tägliche Fahrt durch die Gehirnwaschanlage schützen will, der meidet den öffentlich-rechtlichen Unfug und die einschlägigen Käseblätter, die vielleicht noch halbwegs dazu geeignet sind, den Fisch auf dem Markt einzuschlagen, um ihn nach Hause zu tragen, vorausgesetzt, man kann ihn sich noch leisten.

Die Neuen Medien liefern die Informationen, die man sonst im „Qualitäts-Mainstream“ nicht finden kann, was nicht verwundert, denn infiltriert von willigen Erfüllungsgehilfen, die Angst um ihr Prestige und ihre Stellung haben, kann man hier keine freie Berichterstattung erwarten.

Beste Unterhaltung bietet auch die Bundespressekonferenz-Show, auf die schon näher eingegangen wurde. Offizieller Regierungssprech in höchster Perfektion. Ob man dort wirklich davon überzeugt ist, dass es irgendjemanden gibt, der diesen Verlautbarungen Glauben schenkt? Was hat Tante Käthe immer gesagt: G E L D   L O C K T   I M M E R !

Was also tun? Die Neuen Medien auch noch meiden, und sich vor dem blanken Wahnsinn schützen, in dem man ihn ignoriert, was jedoch nicht bewirkt, dass er nicht mehr da wäre.

Temporäre Abstinenz tut auch hier gut, allerdings ist der Wiedereinstieg so ähnlich, wie der erste Arbeitstag nach einem zweimonatigen Urlaub, falls man nicht in seinem Lieblings-Job gelandet ist.

Und was, wenn die Irren vollends durchdrehen, und man bekommt es nicht mit? Schön, ändern kann man vielleicht wenig, aber man kann sich vielleicht noch eine richtig gute, edle Flasche Rotwein kaufen, und die am Vorabend des Untergangs genießen, oder noch schnell einen Baum pflanzen.

Hier ein Beispiel für jemanden, dessen besonderer Blick sehr an den Universal-Gesundheits-Klima-Hysteriker erinnert:

https\://rumble.com/v6umjdj-respekt-und-anerkennung-deutscher-general-lobt-ukrainische-angriffe-in-russ.html

Wie sieht der Alltag aus, wenn man sich einmal nicht mit den Informationen über Dauer- Bekloppte beschäftigt?

Wenn sich ein Besuch in der nächst größeren Stadt nicht vermeiden lässt, sieht man vor allem gehetzte Menschen, viele mit einem finsteren Blick, anders, als früher.

Viele zahlen mit Karte oder ihrem Handy, Kleckerbeträge. „Zahlen Sie noch bar, oder schon mit Überwachung?“, wünschte man sich, dass die Verkäuferinnen den Kunden fragen würden. Tun sie aber nicht.

Die Menschen scheinen keine Ahnung zu haben, was auf sie zukommt. Im Oktober soll der digitale Euro eingeführt werden, natürlich zuerst nur freiwillig. Was das bedeutet, kennt man ja schon. Freiwilligkeit durch das Schaffen eines Raumes, in dem der Zwang in der Luft hängt, wie damals der Kohlenstaub im Ruhrgebiet. Es wird die persönliche ID vorangetrieben, mit einem Wallet, das die Anonymität und die persönliche Freiheit immer mehr aushöhlen will.

Europa soll unter einen Demokratie-Schutzschirm gestellt werden, der zu nichts anderem dient, als dass diejenigen, die derzeit glauben zu wissen, was gut für die Menschen ist, ihre kruden Vorstellungen auch durchsetzen können. Zweifelhaft, was in den USA vorgeht, was da gerade mit Palantir, natürlich nur zur Sicherheit der Amerikaner, so im Hintergrund schon anläuft. Hierzu gibt es interessante Informationen von Regenauer und Tögel. Einziger Hoffnungsschimmer, besonders für Deutschland: Das klappt sowieso nicht. In den hintersten Bergdörfern in den italienischen Alpen gibt es Glasfaseranschluss, und fährt man in Deutschland auf’s Land, reiht sich Funkloch an Funkloch.

Die wirklich wichtige und große Frage ist, wie können sich Gemeinschaften, die diesen Irrsinn nicht mitmachen wollen, weitgehend aus dem System ausklinken? Bitcoin ist ein erster Schritt zur finanziellen Unabhängigkeit. Eine regionale Lebensmittelversorgung, mit nicht verseuchten, genunmanipulierten, mit Schadstoffen weitgehend unbelasteten Produkten entwickelt sich ebenfalls schon sehr gut. Was, wenn der Zugang zu Informationen über das Internet von einer Anmeldung mit persönlicher ID abhängt und man will und hat keine? Was ist mit Dokumenten, wenn man verreisen oder das Land verlassen will? Was ist, wenn man krank wird und auf das noch vorhandene Rest-Gesundheitssystem angewiesen ist? Was, wenn das Unternehmen seine Mitarbeiter auf staatliche Anweisung zu etwas zwingen muss, was der Mitarbeiter vielleicht gar nicht will, er aber auf das Einkommen angewiesen ist?

Das alles sind Fragen, zu denen es schwer ist, auch in den Neuen Medien, passende Antworten zu finden. Die würden in der Tat Hoffnung machen, dass es ein Schlupfloch gibt, sich, wenn vielleicht auch mit Einschränkungen, den „demokratischen“ Verhältnissen, auf denen nur noch Demokratie draufsteht, aber sehr wenig bis keine Demokratie mehr drin ist, so weit es geht zu entziehen. Sachdienliche Hinweise gerne in der Kommentarfunktion.

Oder ist es „gesünder“, sich zurückzuziehen, die Klappe zu halten und dafür zu sorgen, dass man unter dem Radar bleibt? Diese Gabe ist leider nicht jedem gegeben. Besonders nicht denen, die einen ausgeprägten Wahrheitssinn und ein starkes Gerechtigkeitsgefühl haben.

Menschen die andere belügen, die werden geliebt. Menschen, die anderen sagen, dass sie belogen werden, die werden gehasst.

„Die Wahrheit ist dem Menschen zumutbar.“ (Ingeborg Bachmann)

„Kein Mensch hat das Recht zu gehorchen.“ (Hannah Ahrendt)

“Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben.”

* *

(Bild von pixabay)

@ f0fd6902:a2fbaaab

The Pallas cat wasn’t known to live on Mount Everest until a National Geographic Expedition in 2019 made a surprising discovery. The research team, made up of scientists from eight different countries, unexpectedly found Pallas feces in the Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal. “It is phenomenal to discover proof of this rare and remarkable species at the top of the world,” said Dr Tracie Seimon of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Zoological Health Program.

These irritated-looking kitties live at high elevations throughout Asia and are considered “super predators,” meaning they are extremely successful at catching their prey. Analysis of scat revealed the feline is surving on pika within the mountain region.

https://stacker.news/items/1005336

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

Last week we covered the bombshell developments in the Samourai Wallet case. For those who didn't read that, last Monday the world was made aware of the fact that the SDNY was explicitly told by FinCEN that the federal regulator did not believe that Samourai Wallet was a money services business six months before arresting the co-founders of Samourai Wallet for conspiracy to launder money and illegally operating a money services business. This was an obvious overstep by the SDNY that many believed would be quickly alleviated, especially considering the fact that the Trump administration via the Department of Justice has made it clear that they do not intend to rule via prosecution.

It seems that this is not the case as the SDNY responded to a letter sent from the defense to dismiss the case by stating that they fully plan to move forward. Stating that they only sought the recommendations of FinCEN employees and did not believe that those employees' comments were indicative of FinCEN's overall views on this particular case. It's a pretty egregious abuse of power by the SDNY. I'm not sure if the particular lawyers and judges within the Southern District of New York are very passionate about preventing the use of self-custody bitcoin and products that enable bitcoiners to transact privately, or if they're simply participating in a broader meta war with the Trump administration - who has made it clear to federal judges across the country that last Fall's election will have consequences, mainly that the Executive Branch will try to effectuate the policies that President Trump campaigned on by any legal means necessary - and Samouari Wallet is simply in the middle of that meta war.

However, one thing is pretty clear to me, this is an egregious overstep of power. The interpretation of that law, as has been laid out and confirmed by FinCEN over the last decade, is pretty clear; you cannot be a money services business if you do not control the funds that people are sending to each other, which is definitely the case with Samourai Wallet. People downloaded Samourai Wallet, spun up their own private-public key pairs and initiated transactions themselves. Samourai never custodied funds or initiated transactions on behalf of their users. This is very cut and dry. Straight to the point. It should be something that anyone with more than two brain cells is able to discern pretty quickly.

It is imperative that anybody in the industry who cares about being able to hold bitcoin in self-custody, to mine bitcoin, and to send bitcoin in a peer-to-peer fashion makes some noise around this case. None of the current administration's attempts to foster innovation around bitcoin in the United States will matter if the wrong precedent is set in this case. If the SDNY is successful in prosecuting Samourai Wallet, it will mean that anybody holding Bitcoin in self-custody, running a bitcoin fold node or mining bitcoin will have to KYC all of their users and counterparts lest they be labeled a money services business that is breaking laws stemming from the Bank Secrecy Act. This will effectively make building a self-custody bitcoin wallet, running a node, or mining bitcoin in tillegal in the United States. The ability to comply with the rules that would be unleashed if this Samourai case goes the wrong way, are such that it will effectively destroy the industry overnight.

It is yet to be seen whether or not the Department of Justice will step in to publicly flog the SDNY and force them to stop pursuing this case. This is the only likely way that the case will go away at this point, so it is very important that bitcoiners who care about being able to self-custody bitcoin, mine bitcoin, or send bitcoin in a peer-to-peer fashion in the United States make it clear to the current administration and any local politicians that this is an issue that you care deeply about. If we are too complacent, there is a chance that the SDNY could completely annihilate the bitcoin industry in America despite of all of the positive momentum we're seeing from all angles at the moment.

Make some noise!

Bitcoin Adoption by Power Companies: The Next Frontier

In my recent conversation with Andrew Myers from Satoshi Energy, he shared their ambitious mission to "enable every electric power company to use bitcoin by block 1,050,000" – roughly three years from now. This strategic imperative isn't just about creating new Bitcoin users; it's about sovereignty. Andrew emphasized that getting Bitcoin into the hands of energy companies who value self-sovereignty creates a more balanced future economic landscape. The excitement was palpable as he described how several energy companies are already moving beyond simply selling power to Bitcoin miners and are beginning to invest in mining operations themselves.

"You have global commodity companies being like, 'Oh, this is another commodity – we want to invest in this, we want to own this,'" - Andrew Myers

Perhaps most fascinating was Andrew's revelation about major energy companies in Texas developing Bitcoin collateral products for power contracts – a practical application that could revolutionize how energy transactions are settled. As energy companies continue embracing Bitcoin for both operations and collateral, we're witnessing the early stages of a profound shift in how critical infrastructure interfaces with sound money. The implications for both sectors could be transformative.

Check out the full podcast here for more on remote viewing, Nikola Tesla's predictions, and the convergence of Bitcoin and AI technology. We cover everything from humanoid robots to the energy demands of next-generation computing.

Headlines of the Day

Steak n Shake to Accept Bitcoin at All Locations May 16 - via X

Facebook Plans Crypto Wallets for 3B Users, Bitcoin Impact Looms - via X

Trump Urges Americans to Buy Stocks for Economic Boom - via X

UK Drops Tariffs, U.S. Farmers Set to Reap Major Benefits - via X

---

Looking for the perfect video to push the smartest person you know from zero to one on bitcoin? Bitcoin, Not Crypto is a three-part master class from Parker Lewis and Dhruv Bansal that cuts through the noise—covering why 21 million was the key technical simplification that made bitcoin possible, why blockchains don’t create decentralization, and why everything else will be built on bitcoin.

Sign Up

Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 145,630 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

---

Final thought...

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

---

Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ f0fd6902:a2fbaaab

Panpsychism is the view that mentality is fundamental and ubiquitous in the natural world. The view has a long and venerable history in philosophical traditions of both East and West, and has recently enjoyed a revival in analytic philosophy. For its proponents panpsychism offers an attractive middle way between physicalism on the one hand and dualism on the other. The worry with dualism—the view that mind and matter are fundamentally different kinds of thing—is that it leaves us with a radically disunified picture of nature, and the deep difficulty of understanding how mind and brain interact. And whilst physicalism offers a simple and unified vision of the world, this is arguably at the cost of being unable to give a satisfactory account of the emergence of human and animal consciousness. Panpsychism, strange as it may sound on first hearing, promises a satisfying account of the human mind within a unified conception of nature.

For more details: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/panpsychism/

https://stacker.news/items/1005324

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

Last week we covered the bombshell developments in the Samourai Wallet case. For those who didn't read that, last Monday the world was made aware of the fact that the SDNY was explicitly told by FinCEN that the federal regulator did not believe that Samourai Wallet was a money services business six months before arresting the co-founders of Samourai Wallet for conspiracy to launder money and illegally operating a money services business. This was an obvious overstep by the SDNY that many believed would be quickly alleviated, especially considering the fact that the Trump administration via the Department of Justice has made it clear that they do not intend to rule via prosecution.

It seems that this is not the case as the SDNY responded to a letter sent from the defense to dismiss the case by stating that they fully plan to move forward. Stating that they only sought the recommendations of FinCEN employees and did not believe that those employees' comments were indicative of FinCEN's overall views on this particular case. It's a pretty egregious abuse of power by the SDNY. I'm not sure if the particular lawyers and judges within the Southern District of New York are very passionate about preventing the use of self-custody bitcoin and products that enable bitcoiners to transact privately, or if they're simply participating in a broader meta war with the Trump administration - who has made it clear to federal judges across the country that last Fall's election will have consequences, mainly that the Executive Branch will try to effectuate the policies that President Trump campaigned on by any legal means necessary - and Samouari Wallet is simply in the middle of that meta war.

However, one thing is pretty clear to me, this is an egregious overstep of power. The interpretation of that law, as has been laid out and confirmed by FinCEN over the last decade, is pretty clear; you cannot be a money services business if you do not control the funds that people are sending to each other, which is definitely the case with Samourai Wallet. People downloaded Samourai Wallet, spun up their own private-public key pairs and initiated transactions themselves. Samourai never custodied funds or initiated transactions on behalf of their users. This is very cut and dry. Straight to the point. It should be something that anyone with more than two brain cells is able to discern pretty quickly.

It is imperative that anybody in the industry who cares about being able to hold bitcoin in self-custody, to mine bitcoin, and to send bitcoin in a peer-to-peer fashion makes some noise around this case. None of the current administration's attempts to foster innovation around bitcoin in the United States will matter if the wrong precedent is set in this case. If the SDNY is successful in prosecuting Samourai Wallet, it will mean that anybody holding Bitcoin in self-custody, running a bitcoin fold node or mining bitcoin will have to KYC all of their users and counterparts lest they be labeled a money services business that is breaking laws stemming from the Bank Secrecy Act. This will effectively make building a self-custody bitcoin wallet, running a node, or mining bitcoin in tillegal in the United States. The ability to comply with the rules that would be unleashed if this Samourai case goes the wrong way, are such that it will effectively destroy the industry overnight.

It is yet to be seen whether or not the Department of Justice will step in to publicly flog the SDNY and force them to stop pursuing this case. This is the only likely way that the case will go away at this point, so it is very important that bitcoiners who care about being able to self-custody bitcoin, mine bitcoin, or send bitcoin in a peer-to-peer fashion in the United States make it clear to the current administration and any local politicians that this is an issue that you care deeply about. If we are too complacent, there is a chance that the SDNY could completely annihilate the bitcoin industry in America despite of all of the positive momentum we're seeing from all angles at the moment.

Make some noise!

Bitcoin Adoption by Power Companies: The Next Frontier

In my recent conversation with Andrew Myers from Satoshi Energy, he shared their ambitious mission to "enable every electric power company to use bitcoin by block 1,050,000" – roughly three years from now. This strategic imperative isn't just about creating new Bitcoin users; it's about sovereignty. Andrew emphasized that getting Bitcoin into the hands of energy companies who value self-sovereignty creates a more balanced future economic landscape. The excitement was palpable as he described how several energy companies are already moving beyond simply selling power to Bitcoin miners and are beginning to invest in mining operations themselves.

"You have global commodity companies being like, 'Oh, this is another commodity – we want to invest in this, we want to own this,'" - Andrew Myers

Perhaps most fascinating was Andrew's revelation about major energy companies in Texas developing Bitcoin collateral products for power contracts – a practical application that could revolutionize how energy transactions are settled. As energy companies continue embracing Bitcoin for both operations and collateral, we're witnessing the early stages of a profound shift in how critical infrastructure interfaces with sound money. The implications for both sectors could be transformative.

Check out the full podcast here for more on remote viewing, Nikola Tesla's predictions, and the convergence of Bitcoin and AI technology. We cover everything from humanoid robots to the energy demands of next-generation computing.

Headlines of the Day

Steak n Shake to Accept Bitcoin at All Locations May 16 - via X

Facebook Plans Crypto Wallets for 3B Users, Bitcoin Impact Looms - via X

Trump Urges Americans to Buy Stocks for Economic Boom - via X

UK Drops Tariffs, U.S. Farmers Set to Reap Major Benefits - via X

---

Looking for the perfect video to push the smartest person you know from zero to one on bitcoin? Bitcoin, Not Crypto is a three-part master class from Parker Lewis and Dhruv Bansal that cuts through the noise—covering why 21 million was the key technical simplification that made bitcoin possible, why blockchains don’t create decentralization, and why everything else will be built on bitcoin.

Sign Up

Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 145,630 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

---

Final thought...

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

---

Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ 9c9d2765:16f8c2c2

In the heart of a forgotten village, wrapped in fog and silence, lived a girl named Lisa who had never seen her reflection.

There were no mirrors in the village, only old tales whispered by elders that mirrors “stole your spirit” or “showed things best left hidden.” Lisa never questioned it. She believed what she was told: she was plain, timid, and destined for nothing more than blending into shadows.

But she felt something inside a flicker, like a candle trying to burn through thick glass.

One day, while gathering herbs deep in the forest, Lisa stumbled upon the ruins of an ancient house. Inside, beneath sheets of ivy and dust, stood an enormous mirror tall, cracked, and untouched for decades.

She froze.

Curiosity trembled in her chest. Carefully, she wiped away the dust with her sleeve.

At first, she saw only her eyes, wild, curious, and afraid. Then, slowly, the whole reflection emerged. Not plain. Not broken. But alive.

It was her, and yet someone more stronger, prouder, freer.

Tears welled in her eyes. All her life, she had believed others’ words. But here, in silence, she saw the truth for herself.

She began visiting the mirror each day, not to admire beauty, but to remind herself she was real. That her thoughts mattered. That what lived inside her could not be shaped by lies spoken outside.

When she returned to the village, she walked differently.

She spoke.

She led.

And others began to wonder: What did she see that changed her?

Lisa simply smiled and said, “I stopped seeing what they told me I was. And started seeing who I truly am.”

Moral: You are not what others say you are. You are who you choose to see.

@ 866e0139:6a9334e5

Autor: Caitlin Johnstone. Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben. Sie finden alle Texte der Friedenstaube und weitere Texte zum Thema Frieden hier. Die neuesten Pareto-Artikel finden Sie in unserem Telegram-Kanal.

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

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Israel hat eine umfangreiche Serie von Luftangriffen auf den Iran gestartet.

Die westlichen Medien übernehmen natürlich unhinterfragt die faktenfreie Behauptung der israelischen Regierung, dass diese Angriffe „präventiv“ waren.

Das Trump-Regime versucht, dies als einen völlig einseitigen israelischen Angriff darzustellen, der nichts mit den Vereinigten Staaten zu tun habe - eine Behauptung, die man durchaus glauben könnte, wenn man gestern geboren wäre.

Hier ist eine Liste von Schlagzeilen, die wir in Zukunft von der New York Times erwarten können:

• Iranische Angriffe erschüttern Israel in einem unprovozierten Angriff.

• Israelische Familien suchen Schutz bei antisemitischem Terroranschlag.

• Israelischer Verteidigungsminister: US-Campus-Demonstranten wussten irgendwie von iranischen Angriffen im Voraus, was auf eine Koordination mit Teheran hindeutet.

• Trump äußert privat seine Frustration mit Netanjahu über den Iran-Konflikt, dem die USA nur passiv und unschuldig beiwohnen.

• Amerikanische Juden fühlen sich inmitten der sich zuspitzenden Kriege im Nahen Osten verunsichert und nicht unterstützt.

• Meine Meinung: Ich habe bei den Luftangriffen auf Tel Aviv um mein Leben gefürchtet. Niemand auf der Welt kann sich vorstellen, wie das ist.

• Meinung: Besteht die Gefahr, dass die USA in einen weiteren Krieg im Nahen Osten hineingezogen werden?

• Meinung: Stolpern die USA in einen weiteren Krieg im Nahen Osten?

• Meinung: Stolpern die USA versehentlich in einen weiteren Krieg im Nahen Osten?

• Meinung: Werden die USA mit Füßen getreten und in einen Krieg im Nahen Osten hineingezogen, den sie seit jeher um jeden Preis zu vermeiden versuchen?

• USA starten Präventivschlag gegen den Iran.

• Ihre Meinung: Werden die USA in einen dritten Weltkrieg hineingezogen?

• Meinung: Taumeln die USA kopfüber in einen nuklearen Schlagabtausch mit Russland und China?

• Meinung: Der Himmel verdunkelt sich, während nukleare Strahlung über unser Land kriecht, deshalb müssen wir alle zusammenkommen und die Hamas verurteilen.

• Meinung: Die Erde ist ein unfruchtbares Ödland. Nichts bleibt übrig. Schauen Sie nach Ihren jüdischen Freunden.

Dieser Text erschien zuerst auf englisch auf dem Substack-Blog der Autorin.

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Marty's Bent

Last week we covered the bombshell developments in the Samourai Wallet case. For those who didn't read that, last Monday the world was made aware of the fact that the SDNY was explicitly told by FinCEN that the federal regulator did not believe that Samourai Wallet was a money services business six months before arresting the co-founders of Samourai Wallet for conspiracy to launder money and illegally operating a money services business. This was an obvious overstep by the SDNY that many believed would be quickly alleviated, especially considering the fact that the Trump administration via the Department of Justice has made it clear that they do not intend to rule via prosecution.

It seems that this is not the case as the SDNY responded to a letter sent from the defense to dismiss the case by stating that they fully plan to move forward. Stating that they only sought the recommendations of FinCEN employees and did not believe that those employees' comments were indicative of FinCEN's overall views on this particular case. It's a pretty egregious abuse of power by the SDNY. I'm not sure if the particular lawyers and judges within the Southern District of New York are very passionate about preventing the use of self-custody bitcoin and products that enable bitcoiners to transact privately, or if they're simply participating in a broader meta war with the Trump administration - who has made it clear to federal judges across the country that last Fall's election will have consequences, mainly that the Executive Branch will try to effectuate the policies that President Trump campaigned on by any legal means necessary - and Samouari Wallet is simply in the middle of that meta war.

However, one thing is pretty clear to me, this is an egregious overstep of power. The interpretation of that law, as has been laid out and confirmed by FinCEN over the last decade, is pretty clear; you cannot be a money services business if you do not control the funds that people are sending to each other, which is definitely the case with Samourai Wallet. People downloaded Samourai Wallet, spun up their own private-public key pairs and initiated transactions themselves. Samourai never custodied funds or initiated transactions on behalf of their users. This is very cut and dry. Straight to the point. It should be something that anyone with more than two brain cells is able to discern pretty quickly.

It is imperative that anybody in the industry who cares about being able to hold bitcoin in self-custody, to mine bitcoin, and to send bitcoin in a peer-to-peer fashion makes some noise around this case. None of the current administration's attempts to foster innovation around bitcoin in the United States will matter if the wrong precedent is set in this case. If the SDNY is successful in prosecuting Samourai Wallet, it will mean that anybody holding Bitcoin in self-custody, running a bitcoin fold node or mining bitcoin will have to KYC all of their users and counterparts lest they be labeled a money services business that is breaking laws stemming from the Bank Secrecy Act. This will effectively make building a self-custody bitcoin wallet, running a node, or mining bitcoin in tillegal in the United States. The ability to comply with the rules that would be unleashed if this Samourai case goes the wrong way, are such that it will effectively destroy the industry overnight.

It is yet to be seen whether or not the Department of Justice will step in to publicly flog the SDNY and force them to stop pursuing this case. This is the only likely way that the case will go away at this point, so it is very important that bitcoiners who care about being able to self-custody bitcoin, mine bitcoin, or send bitcoin in a peer-to-peer fashion in the United States make it clear to the current administration and any local politicians that this is an issue that you care deeply about. If we are too complacent, there is a chance that the SDNY could completely annihilate the bitcoin industry in America despite of all of the positive momentum we're seeing from all angles at the moment.

Make some noise!

Bitcoin Adoption by Power Companies: The Next Frontier

In my recent conversation with Andrew Myers from Satoshi Energy, he shared their ambitious mission to "enable every electric power company to use bitcoin by block 1,050,000" – roughly three years from now. This strategic imperative isn't just about creating new Bitcoin users; it's about sovereignty. Andrew emphasized that getting Bitcoin into the hands of energy companies who value self-sovereignty creates a more balanced future economic landscape. The excitement was palpable as he described how several energy companies are already moving beyond simply selling power to Bitcoin miners and are beginning to invest in mining operations themselves.

"You have global commodity companies being like, 'Oh, this is another commodity – we want to invest in this, we want to own this,'" - Andrew Myers

Perhaps most fascinating was Andrew's revelation about major energy companies in Texas developing Bitcoin collateral products for power contracts – a practical application that could revolutionize how energy transactions are settled. As energy companies continue embracing Bitcoin for both operations and collateral, we're witnessing the early stages of a profound shift in how critical infrastructure interfaces with sound money. The implications for both sectors could be transformative.

Check out the full podcast here for more on remote viewing, Nikola Tesla's predictions, and the convergence of Bitcoin and AI technology. We cover everything from humanoid robots to the energy demands of next-generation computing.

Headlines of the Day

Steak n Shake to Accept Bitcoin at All Locations May 16 - via X

Facebook Plans Crypto Wallets for 3B Users, Bitcoin Impact Looms - via X

Trump Urges Americans to Buy Stocks for Economic Boom - via X

UK Drops Tariffs, U.S. Farmers Set to Reap Major Benefits - via X

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Final thought...

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

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Jason Lowery’s thesis, Softwar: A Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin, reframes bitcoin not merely as digital cash but as a transformative security technology with profound implications for investors and nation-states alike.

For centuries, craft brewers understood that true innovation balanced tradition with experimentation—a delicate dance between established techniques and bold new flavors.

Much like the craft beer revolution reshaped a global industry, bitcoin represents a fundamental recalibration of how humans organize value and project power in the digital age.

The Antler in the Digital Forest: Power Projection

Lowery, a U.S. Space Force officer and MIT scholar, anchors his Softwar theory in a biological metaphor: Bitcoin as humanity’s “digital antler.” In nature, antlers allow animals like deer to compete for resources through non-lethal contests—sparring matches where power is demonstrated without fatal consequences. This contrasts sharply with wolves, who must resort to violent, potentially deadly fights to establish hierarchy.

The Human Power Dilemma: Historically, humans projected power and settled resource disputes through physical force—wars, seizures, or coercive control of assets. Even modern financial systems rely on abstract power structures: court orders, bank freezes, or government sanctions enforced by legal threat rather than immediate physical reality.

Lowery argues this creates inherent fragility: abstract systems can collapse when met with superior physical force (e.g., invasions, revolutions). Nature only respects physical power.

Bitcoin’s Physical Power Engine: Bitcoin introduces a novel solution through its proof-of-work consensus mechanism. Miners compete to solve computationally intense cryptographic puzzles, expending real-world energy (megawatts) to validate transactions and secure the network.

This process converts electricity—a tangible, physical resource—into digital security and immutable property rights. Winning a “block” is like winning a sparring match: it consumes significant resources (energy/cost) but is non-destructive.

The miner gains the right to write the next page of the ledger and collect rewards, but no participant is physically harmed, and no external infrastructure is destroyed.

Table: Traditional vs. Bitcoin-Based Power Systems

Power System

Mechanism

Key Vulnerability

Resource Cost

Traditional (Fiat/Banking)

Legal abstraction, threat of state force

Centralized points of failure, corruption, political change

Low immediate cost, high systemic risk

Military/Economic Coercion

Physical force, sanctions

Escalation, collateral damage, moral hazard

Very high (lives, capital, instability)

Bitcoin (Proof-of-Work)

Competition via energy expenditure

High energy cost, concentration risk (mining)

High energy cost, low systemic risk

Softwar Theory National Strategic Imperative: Governments Are Taking Notice

Lowery’s Softwar Theory has moved beyond academia into the corridors of power, shaping U.S. national strategy:

1. The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: Vice President JD Vance recently framed bitcoin as an instrument projecting American values—”innovation, entrepreneurship, freedom, and lack of censorship”. State legislation is now underway to implement this reserve, preventing easy reversal by future administrations.
2. Regulatory Transformation: The SEC is shifting from an “enforcement-first” stance under previous leadership. New initiatives include:
   • Repealing Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121), which discouraged banks from custodying digital currency by forcing unfavorable balance sheet treatment.
   • Creating the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit (CETU) to develop clearer crypto registration/disclosure rules.

The Investor’s Lens: Scarcity, Security, and Asymmetric Opportunity

For investors, understanding “Softwar” validates bitcoin’s unique value proposition beyond price speculation:

• Digital Scarcity as Strategic Depth: Bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million makes it the only digital asset with truly inelastic supply, a programmed scarcity immune to political whims or central bank printing.

  This “scarcity imperative” acts as a natural antidote to global fiat debasement. As central banks expanded money supplies aggressively (Global M2), bitcoin’s price has shown strong correlation, acting as a pressure valve for inflation concerns. The quadrennial “halving” (latest: April 2024) mechanically reduces new supply, creating built-in supply shocks as adoption grows. * The Antifragile Security Feedback Loop: Bitcoin’s security isn’t static; it’s antifragile. The network strengthens through demand: * More users → More transactions → Higher fees → More miner revenue → More hashpower (computational security) → Greater network resilience → More user confidence.
  This self-reinforcing cycle contrasts sharply with traditional systems, where security is a cost center (e.g., bank security budgets, military spending). Bitcoin turns security into a profitable, market-driven activity. * Institutionalization Without Centralization: While institutional ownership via ETFs (like BlackRock’s IBIT) and corporate treasuries (MicroStrategy, Metaplanet) has surged, supply remains highly decentralized.

  Individuals still hold the largest share of bitcoin, preventing a dangerous concentration of control. Spot Bitcoin ETFs alone are projected to see over $20 billion in net inflows in 2025, demonstrating robust institutional capital allocation.

The Bitcoin Community: Building the Digital Antler’s Resilience

Lowery’s “Softwar” theory underscores why bitcoin’s decentralized architecture is non-negotiable. Its strength lies in the alignment of incentives across three participant groups:

1. Miners: Provide computational power (hashrate), validating transactions and securing the network. Incentivized by block rewards (newly minted BTC) and transaction fees. Their physical energy expenditure is the “muscle” behind the digital antler.
2. Nodes: Independently verify and enforce the protocol rules, maintaining the blockchain’s integrity. Run by users, businesses, and enthusiasts globally. They ensure decentralized consensus, preventing unilateral protocol changes.
3. Users: Individuals, institutions, and corporations holding, transacting, or building on bitcoin. Their demand drives transaction fees and fuels the security feedback loop.

This structure creates “Mutually Assured Preservation”. Attacking bitcoin requires overwhelming its global, distributed physical infrastructure (miners/nodes), a feat far more complex and costly than seizing a central bank’s gold vault or freezing a bank’s assets. It transforms financial security from a centralized liability into a decentralized, physically-grounded asset.

Risks & Responsibilities

Investors and policymakers must acknowledge persistent challenges:

• Volatility: Bitcoin remains volatile, though this has decreased as markets mature. Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) is widely recommended to mitigate timing risk.
• Regulatory Uncertainty: While U.S. policy is increasingly favorable, global coordination is lacking. The EU’s MiCAR regulation exemplifies divergent approaches.
• Security & Custody: While Bitcoin’s protocol is robust, user errors (lost keys) or exchange hacks remain risks.
• Environmental Debate: Proof-of-Work energy use is scrutinized, though mining increasingly uses stranded energy/renewables. Innovations continue.

Jason Lowery’s “Softwar” theory elevates bitcoin from a financial instrument to a socio-technological innovation on par with the invention of the corporation, the rule of law, or even the antler in evolutionary biology. It provides a coherent framework for understanding why:

• Nations like the U.S. are looking to establish bitcoin reserves and embracing stablecoins—they recognize bitcoin’s role in projecting economic power non-violently in the digital age.
• Institutional Investors are allocating billions via ETFs—they see a scarce, secure, uncorrelated asset with antifragile properties.
• Individuals in hyperinflationary economies or under authoritarian regimes use bitcoin—it offers self-sovereign wealth storage immune to seizure or debasement.

For the investor, bitcoin represents more than potential price appreciation. It offers exposure to a fundamental reorganization of how power and value are secured and exchanged globally, grounded not in abstract promises, but in the unyielding laws of physics and mathematics.

Like the brewers who balanced tradition with innovation to create something enduring and valuable, bitcoin pioneers are building the infrastructure for a more resilient digital future—one computationally secured block at a time. The “Softwar” is here, and it is reshaping the landscape of p

@ 9c9d2765:16f8c2c2

In a quiet coastal town where summer lingered like a forgotten song, lived an old gardener named Ali. His home sat at the edge of the cliffs, where ocean wind tossed sea spray into the air and the sun kissed everything golden. Ali’s garden was a legend of tulips that sang with color, vines that danced in the breeze, and trees that whispered stories to anyone who would listen.

But Ali had grown frail. His hands, once strong, now trembled. His memory sometimes slipped like sand through a sieve. Yet every day, he tended the plants. Not because he needed them but because they still needed him.

One autumn, a young boy named Ben moved into the neighboring house. Ben had not spoken a word since losing his mother the year before. He would sit for hours at the fence, watching Ali work.

Ali never asked him to speak. Instead, he gave Ben a sunflower seed.

“Plant it,” he said. “And believe in the bloom.”

Ben did.

The next day, Ali gave him a cracked watering can. The next, a rusty trowel. Day by day, silence became action. The boy mimicked Ali’s movements. Dug soil. Watered. Waited.

Then winter came fast. A cruel one.

One morning, Ali was gone.

The town whispered, “The gardener has passed.” Snow dusted the garden. The plants withered. Ben stood before the tiny sunflower shoot and wept silently.

But spring arrived timid and uncertain.

And from the earth, a single sunflower broke through.

Ben spoke his first words in months to the flower.

“You’re not alone.”

And in a voice that cracked but carried, he added, “Neither am I.”

Moral: Even after loss, life finds a way. Sometimes, a single leaf can carry the weight of hope for someone else.

@ 6be5cc06:5259daf0

Introdução

O princípio do sola scriptura, pedra angular da teologia protestante desde a Reforma do século XVI, estabelece que apenas a Escritura constitui a autoridade final e suprema em questões de fé e prática cristã. Este princípio, formulado inicialmente por Martinho Lutero e sistematizado pelos reformadores subsequentes, pretende oferecer um fundamento epistemológico sólido para a teologia, livre das supostas corrupções da tradição eclesiástica.

Contudo, uma análise rigorosa revela que o sola scriptura incorre em contradições lógicas fundamentais que comprometem sua viabilidade como sistema epistemológico coerente. Este artigo examina essas contradições através de três perspectivas complementares: filosófica, exegética e histórica.

A Contradição Performativa Fundamental

O Problema da Autorreferência

O sola scriptura enfrenta um dilema epistemológico insuperável: afirma que apenas a Escritura possui autoridade final em matéria de fé, mas essa própria regra não é explicitamente ensinada na Escritura. Trata-se de uma contradição performativa clássica, onde o enunciado viola suas próprias condições de possibilidade.

Esta situação configura uma falácia de petitio principii (círculo vicioso), pois exige que se aceite uma doutrina que não pode ser sustentada pelas premissas do próprio sistema. Para estabelecer o sola scriptura, seria necessário recorrer a uma autoridade externa à Escritura – precisamente aquilo que o princípio pretende rejeitar.

Fundacionalismo Mal Estruturado

Do ponto de vista epistemológico, o sola scriptura apresenta-se como um fundacionalismo defeituoso. Pretende funcionar como axioma supremo e auto-evidente, mas falha ao não fornecer a base textual que sua própria metodologia exige. Um verdadeiro fundacionalismo escriturístico deveria ser capaz de demonstrar sua validade através de uma prova explícita nas próprias Escrituras.

O Testemunho Contrário das Escrituras

Limitações do Registro Escrito

A própria Escritura reconhece as limitações do registro textual. João 21:25 declara explicitamente: "Jesus fez também muitas outras coisas. Se cada uma delas fosse escrita, penso que nem mesmo no mundo inteiro haveria espaço suficiente para os livros que seriam escritos."

Este versículo é particularmente problemático para o sola scriptura, pois reconhece que nem todos os ensinamentos de Cristo foram preservados por escrito. Como pode a Escritura ser suficiente se ela própria admite sua incompletude?

A Valorização da Tradição Oral

Paulo, em 2 Tessalonicenses 2:15, oferece uma instrução que contradiz frontalmente o sola scriptura: "Assim, pois, irmãos, ficai firmes e conservai os ensinamentos que de nós aprendestes, seja por palavras, seja por carta nossa."

O apóstolo valoriza inequivocamente tanto a tradição oral ("por palavras") quanto a escrita ("por carta"), estabelecendo um modelo de autoridade dual que o protestantismo posterior rejeitaria.

A Necessidade de Autoridade Interpretativa

A narrativa do eunuco etíope em Atos 8:30-31 demonstra a inadequação da Escritura isolada como autoridade final. Quando Filipe pergunta se o eunuco entende o que lê, a resposta é reveladora: "Como poderei entender, se alguém não me ensinar?"

Este episódio ilustra que a mera posse do texto bíblico não garante compreensão adequada. É necessária uma autoridade interpretativa externa – no caso, representada por Filipe, que age com autoridade apostólica.

A Complexidade Hermenêutica

Pedro, em sua segunda epístola (3:16-17), reconhece a dificuldade interpretativa inerente às Escrituras: "Suas cartas contêm algumas coisas difíceis de entender, as quais os ignorantes e instáveis torcem, como também o fazem com as demais Escrituras, para a própria destruição deles."

Esta passagem não apenas reconhece a complexidade hermenêutica dos textos sagrados, mas também alerta sobre os perigos da interpretação inadequada. Implicitamente, sugere a necessidade de uma autoridade interpretativa confiável para evitar distorções doutrinárias.

O Paradoxo Histórico da Canonização

A Dependência da Tradição Eclesiástica

Um dos argumentos mais devastadores contra o sola scriptura emerge da própria história da formação do cânon bíblico. Os concílios de Hipona (393 d.C.) e Cartago (397 d.C.) foram responsáveis pela definição oficial do cânon das Escrituras tal como conhecemos hoje.

Este fato histórico cria um paradoxo insuperável: aceitar a Bíblia como autoridade única requer aceitar a autoridade da tradição eclesiástica que a definiu. O próprio cânon bíblico é produto da tradição apostólica e da deliberação conciliar, não de autodefinição escriturística.

A Circularidade da Autopistia

Tentativas protestantes de resolver este dilema através do conceito de "autopistia" – a suposta capacidade das Escrituras de se auto-autenticar – apenas aprofundam o problema circular. Como determinar que as Escrituras possuem esta propriedade sem recorrer a critérios externos? A própria doutrina da autopistia não é explicitamente ensinada na Escritura.

Implicações Teológicas e Epistemológicas

A Fragmentação Interpretativa

A história do protestantismo oferece evidência empírica das consequências práticas do sola scriptura. A multiplicação de denominações e interpretações divergentes sugere que o princípio, longe de fornecer clareza doutrinária, pode na verdade contribuir para a fragmentação teológica.

Se a Escritura fosse verdadeiramente suficiente e auto-interpretativa, seria razoável esperar maior convergência hermenêutica entre aqueles que aderem ao sola scriptura. A realidade histórica sugere o contrário.

A Alternativa Católica e Ortodoxa

As tradições católica e ortodoxa, embora enfrentando suas próprias tensões epistemológicas, mantêm pelo menos coerência interna ao reconhecer explicitamente múltiplas fontes complementares de autoridade: Escritura, Tradição e Magistério (no caso católico) ou Escritura e Tradição (no caso ortodoxo).

Estas posições evitam a contradição performativa do sola scriptura ao não reivindicar que sua própria metodologia epistemológica seja derivada exclusivamente da Escritura.

Conclusão

A análise crítica do sola scriptura revela contradições estruturais que comprometem fundamentalmente sua viabilidade como princípio epistemológico. O princípio incorre em contradição performativa ao estabelecer uma regra que não pode ser derivada de suas próprias premissas, configura um fundacionalismo mal estruturado ao carecer de base textual explícita, e enfrenta o testemunho contrário da própria Escritura, que reconhece suas limitações e a necessidade de autoridades interpretativas externas.

O paradoxo histórico da canonização – onde o próprio cânon bíblico depende da autoridade tradicional que o sola scriptura pretende rejeitar – representa talvez o golpe mais decisivo contra o princípio protestante.

Isso não implica necessariamente a falsidade do protestantismo como sistema teológico, mas sugere que seus fundamentos epistemológicos requerem reformulação substancial. Uma teologia protestante intelectualmente honesta precisaria reconhecer as limitações do sola scriptura e desenvolver uma epistemologia mais nuançada que leve em conta a complexidade das fontes de autoridade religiosa.

A busca pela verdade teológica, independentemente de compromissos confessionais, exige o reconhecimento rigoroso das limitações e contradições inerentes aos nossos sistemas epistemológicos. No caso do sola scriptura, essa honestidade intelectual revela um princípio que, por mais central que seja para a identidade protestante, não pode sustentar o peso epistemológico que tradicionalmente lhe foi atribuído.

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从“出行规则”看监管逻辑与比特币的制度之道

FATF“出行规则”的治理逻辑与监管者的苦衷

金融行动特别工作组（FATF）在2019年推出“Travel Rule”（出行规则），试图将传统银行体系的反洗钱规制延伸至加密资产领域complyadvantage.com。这一规则要求虚拟资产服务商（VASPs）在转账过程中收集并传递交易双方的身份信息，使这些信息如同“随行护照”般伴随资金流动complyadvantage.com。其背后的治理逻辑不难理解：随着加密货币跨境使用的激增，监管者担心加密交易的匿名性为洗钱、恐怖融资提供了便利通道complyadvantage.com。因此，FATF将传统金融领域的第16号建议（关于跨境电汇信息）更新，明确要求加密交易同样附带发送人和接收人的姓名、地址等识别数据complyadvantage.comcomplyadvantage.com。这一举措体现了监管机构的苦衷：在犯罪分子利用技术躲避监管的现实下，他们感到有责任“补上漏洞”，即便这意味着套用旧有的银行规则到全新的区块链技术上。

然而，落实出行规则绝非易事。首先，不同司法管辖区行动步调不一，FATF多次批评各国实施进度缓慢，许多国家尚未将该规则转化为国内法complyadvantage.com。即使在已经执行的地区，监管部门也面临两难：既要防止非法资金流动，又担心过严管制扼杀金融创新。监管者的“苦衷”在于，他们既害怕被视作纵容犯罪，又担心被指责扼杀技术进步。出行规则要求VASPs收集详尽的客户身份信息，并在交易时与对方机构共享，这在实践中遇到技术和隐私保护方面的阻碍trisa.io。一些国家（如瑞士、新加坡）甚至在无最低金额门槛的情况下要求对所有交易执行该规则，欧盟更规定即使收款方是私人自管钱包也必须提交信息trisa.io。这种高标准加重了行业合规负担，使守法企业叫苦不迭，而不法分子则可能转入地下或转向无监管区域继续活动。可以说，监管机构陷入“猫抓老鼠”的困境：不推行吧，担心放任犯罪；推行过严吧，又恐打击面过广。正因如此，FATF在其2024年报告中承认出行规则的全球落实“严重滞后”complyadvantage.com，这既反映各国执法能力的差异，也凸显了此规则本身在新技术环境下的水土不服。

全球跨境资金与信息的系统性压制

出行规则的推行，从宏观上看是在全球金融体系施加新的“信息围墙”。一方面，它将原本开放的价值互联网重新划分为受监管的透明区和未监管的黑箱区。凡是跨过一定金额门槛（FATF建议为1000美元/欧元）的交易，都必须在链上绑定用户的实名信息complyadvantage.com。这意味着个人的资金流动和身份信息被深度绑定并广泛共享，一举打破了加密货币原有的准匿名特性。这种做法固然提升了追踪非法交易的可能性，但也埋下了系统性压制的隐患。正如业界联盟TRISA所警告的那样，将出行规则机械地套用于公开区块链，实则打造了一个集中存储个人隐私与财富信息的“数据金库”，极易成为黑客、犯罪组织甚至敌对政府垂涎的目标trisa.iotrisa.io。因为在传统银行体系下，账户账本是私密的，第三方难以直接获取交易明细；而在区块链上，一旦将姓名、地址等个人识别数据与公开的钱包地址关联，任何人都能通过链上记录分析出个人的财富状况和社交图谱trisa.io。这种对跨境资金和信息流动的全面记录与监控，实质上构成了对个人金融自由的系统性压制：人们在国际转账时不得不暴露隐私，否则交易将被拒之门外。更有甚者，一些国家已将这一逻辑无限延伸，例如中国公安机关提示即便一笔1000 USDT（泰达币）的转账都有可能被列入重点监控名单binance.com。当连如此小额的个人跨境交易都被严密审查时，金融交易所承载的信息自由流动已大打折扣。

从制度批判的视角看，这种全球范围的信息管制源自某些法律传统下对国家主权和税收控制的执念。在大陆法系传统中，国家往往通过成文法律对经济活动实施自上而下的强力规范，历史上形成了构筑信息壁垒以巩固主权和财政的路径依赖。例如许多大陆法系国家长期实行外汇管制和资本流动限制，以防范资金外逃、维护本国税基。这种做法虽出于主权自主的考虑，却与自由贸易要求的要素自由流动天然矛盾。研究表明，不同法律体系的国家在经贸合作模式上偏好迥异，法律传统差异往往成为国际经济一体化的无形藩篱，甚至导致经济关系的割裂cogitatiopress.com。典型案例如中国，对加密资产和稳定币采取高压监管，正是延续了其在资本项目下的信息管控传统。2024年链上数据显示，中国境内USDT跨境流动规模同比激增400%，日均交易额超过50亿美元binance.com。大量民间资金试图借助稳定币绕开官方的外汇管制，形成了一条隐蔽的“数字资金高速公路”binance.com。对此当局迅速祭出国家安全大旗，不仅将无证出入境资金视为重大风险隐患，甚至明确指出USDT等稳定币已成资本无序外逃的工具，必须强力封堵binance.combinance.com。在这一背景下，FATF出行规则等于为各国提供了一个合法理由，在全球范围内实施对跨境资金与信息的联合围堵：以打击洗钱之名，行资本管制之实。这套机制所产生的结构性效果，是在国际金融体系中嵌入了一种“默认不信任”的基调——跨境资金流动被一律视为潜在不法，必须层层验证、记录在案。其结果不仅压抑了资金与信息的自由流通，也为公民个人头上加装了“数字镣铐”，让人们在国际经贸往来中丧失匿名行动的选择权。

隐私协议的滥用：区块链匿名性的两面

在区块链世界中，隐私与匿名性原本被视作一项珍贵的技术特性，代表着去中心化金融对个人隐私权的尊重。然而，当缺乏法理自洽性和契约中立性的支撑，这种匿名性工具却易被犯罪集团所劫持，成为逃避监管的温床。以太坊上的“Tornado Cash”混币协议就是前车之鉴。作为一个去中心化的匿名交易服务，Tornado Cash初衷在于增强用户隐私，但由于缺少必要的合法约束和内部控制，一再被不法之徒利用：自2019年成立以来，该协议已被用于清洗超过70亿美元的犯罪收益，其中包括朝鲜黑客组织“拉撒路集团”在攻击Axie Infinity游戏桥后盗取的4.55亿美元secrss.com。2022年美国财政部更指出，尽管开发者声称Tornado Cash只是中立工具，但其并未采取哪怕基本的措施来阻止服务被反复用于恶意洗钱secrss.com。最终，美国OFAC直接将Tornado Cash列入制裁清单，以此警示加密行业：缺乏法理支撑的匿名协议，终将因为被滥用于洗钱而招致严厉监管惩罚secrss.com。

类似的情况也发生在波场（Tron）等链上。一些基于Tron的混币机制号称提供端到端加密、零知识证明等技术手段来隐匿交易来源sites.google.com。表面上看，这些系统满足了用户追求隐私的需求，但在现实中却成为电信诈骗、网络赌盘等犯罪链条的最爱。联合国毒品和犯罪办公室2024年的报告披露：Tron区块链上的泰达币（USDT）已成为网络诈骗、洗钱、非法赌博的首选工具int-comp.org。犯罪分子之所以偏爱Tron上的USDT，正因为它具备价格稳定、跨境转账手续费低、速度快等优势，可以在不引人注目的情况下快速大额转移资金int-comp.org。链上分析亦显示，高风险USDT转账有高达83%无法追溯最终去向，犯罪团伙通过混币器、地址拆分等技术手段把资金搞得支离破碎，以至于监管部门难以跟踪binance.com。这背后反映出一个发人深省的现象：当一套隐私工具本身没有内置中立的契约约束（如合法用途的限定或责任追踪机制），那么它的匿名性越强，越可能被不法势力挟持利用。波场USDT的大规模滥用已经引起各方警觉，Tron项目方甚至与稳定币发行商和区块链分析公司合作，成立“T3打击犯罪特别小组”，截止2024年底已冻结逾1亿美元涉嫌犯罪的USDTtrmlabs.comcointelegraph.com。可见，当匿名性的武器落入犯罪网络之手，技术提供者也不得不被动介入“事后补救”，这恰恰说明当初设计时若缺乏法理上的自我约束，最终仍要以行政手段清理残局。

隐私协议被滥用的另一面，还体现在某些区块链应用与既有法律文化格格不入。以太坊上的去中心化预测市场「Polymarket」提供了一种赌博式合约交易平台，用户可以下注现实事件的结果。然而从伊斯兰教法视角看，这类“预测市场”无异于赤裸裸的**赌博（Maysir）**行为——参与者纯粹为了不确定事件的结果赌上一把财富，得利者以他人损失为代价，没有创造任何实际价值blog.zoya.financeblog.zoya.finance。根据伊斯兰金融原则，任何脱离实体经济、以纯粹机会为基础获取收益的交易都被视为不道德且明令禁止blog.zoya.finance。因此，Polymarket之类的平台与伊斯兰法对契约合法性的根本要求完全不兼容。这提醒我们：区块链技术的创新若缺乏契约中立性（即契约不偏离基本的公平与道义原则），就容易触犯某些法律或宗教的底线，从而被视作无效甚至有害的合约。无论是Tornado Cash这样的匿名洗钱温床，Tron链上被诈骗集团操控的资金暗道，还是Polymarket式的“去中心化赌场”，这些系统都凸显出当技术试图凌驾法律和伦理时所面临的巨大风险。它们要么被政府如临大敌般封杀（正如Tornado Cash遭制裁），要么被正义力量反制清理（如Tether冻结波场诈骗资金reuters.com），要么在道义上遭到主流文化的排斥（如伊斯兰世界视预测赌博为禁忌）。这一系列教训昭示：区块链生态中的隐私与创新，必须建立在法理自洽和契约中立的基础上，否则技术越前卫，反噬也越猛烈。

比特币的保守式创新：技术中立与合约合法性的统一

在区块链的众多创新中，比特币无疑是一个特殊的存在。它被称为“保守派的创新”，乃因其在开创数字货币新时代的同时，恪守了一些朴素但持久的原则。首先，比特币的设计追求技术中立。中立并不意味着纵容匿名滥用，而是指比特币网络对任何参与者一视同仁，仅仅按照既定算法规则处理交易，无内置偏见或特殊权限。比特币交易记录公开透明，所有交易在全球共享的账本上广播确认，其匿名性是“假名制”（pseudonymous）而非无法穿透的黑箱。事实上，正是由于比特币交易记录可被区块链分析工具去匿名化，在过去几年中我们看到犯罪团伙对比特币的兴趣有所降低，反而转向了Monero等完全匿名币或Tron-USDT等更隐匿便捷的手段int-comp.orgint-comp.org。Chainalysis的最新报告显示，2024年稳定币已经取代比特币成为犯罪分子使用的主要加密货币，占非法交易量的63%，而比特币在非法用途中的占比显著下降int-comp.orgint-comp.org。这个趋势从反面印证了比特币系统“公开且中立”的特性天然抑制了部分洗钱和犯罪滥用：任何人在比特币区块链上大额频繁作恶，都更容易被全球监管机构捕捉线索，留下破案的蛛丝马迹。

其次，比特币体现了交易确定性和契约精神的统一。在法律体系（尤其是英美普通法和伊斯兰教法）中，一份契约要具有合法性，核心在于当事各方自愿、条款清晰且不违背基本道德。比特币网络上的交易契约以代码方式自动执行，一旦双方签名广播，交易即被不可篡改地记录，一切权利义务随即完结。这种**“交割即结算”的机制提供了绝对的确定性，杜绝了传统金融中常见的赖账、拒付、无限制 chargeback（退款）等不确定因素。比特币不需要中央中介担保信用，依靠分布式共识来保证交易的最终性，这种确定性契合了普通法系对契约履行的重视：契约一旦成立即应严格履行，不得任意毁约。更值得注意的是，比特币没有利息（riba）和债务膨胀的设计**，2100万枚的恒定供应和逐步减半的发行机制，使其更接近一种数字商品而非通过债务衍生的货币nasdaq.com。在伊斯兰金融原则下，收取或支付利息被视为不公正，属明令禁止的行为，而比特币的货币体系天生规避了“利息”的概念nasdaq.com。同时，比特币交易公开透明，每一笔转账都记录在链上且需双方同意才能发生，这与伊斯兰教法要求交易双方充分知情、协商一致的原则不谋而合nasdaq.comnasdaq.com。尽管有人担忧加密货币的投机性带来不确定性（Gharar），但那更多是市场行为层面的波动，而比特币协议本身的运作是清晰明确、不含欺瞒的nasdaq.com。在穆斯林学者看来，如果加密货币被用于合法且善意的目的，它并不必然违反伊斯兰金融核心原则nasdaq.com。例如，中东一些创新项目已尝试将区块链用于公益和慈善，对每笔币交易提取天课（宗教捐献）用于慈善基金，以确保技术符合伊斯兰伦理nasdaq.comnasdaq.com。这种做法其实与比特币“协议中立、用途开放”的精神一致——技术本身不预设善恶关键，在于使用者是否将其用于合乎道义的契约。

换言之，比特币之“保守”，保守在它选择做“数字黄金”而非肆意重塑社会契约。它遵循价值储藏和交换媒介的基本定位，没有内置复杂的金融衍生功能，也不鼓励凭空创造信用泡沫。这种克制让比特币能够较自然地融入现行法治框架：作为一种私人财产和交换工具，比特币交易遵循“你情我愿，金额确定”的简明契约模型，各法域只需按财产或货物的属性去规范它即可。在英美法下，比特币已逐渐被法院视为可执行财产权益，盗窃比特币等同于盗窃有形财物来惩处。伊斯兰世界中，越来越多学者承认比特币具有财产价值，可以作为货币或商品使用，只要不用于赌博等不法用途，即可被视为“清洁”的财富。在迪拜等地，监管机构也探索制定符合沙里亚原则的加密货币监管指南，承认比特币等作为投资和支付工具的地位。这一切说明，比特币的核心设计没有违背人类社会关于契约正当性的根本要求——公平、自愿、透明，以及不伤害无辜第三方的利益。相比之下，许多后来的加密项目试图在隐私、金融工程上“开历史倒车”，结果反而凸显出比特币朴素设计的高明之处：它为维护基本道义预留了空间，通过公开透明防范了极端滥用，用技术手段恢复了契约的确定性和中立性。

历史视角：数字黄金如何推动正和博弈

历史的眼光往往能够校准当下的纷争。在货币演进的长河中，每当权力过度介入导致“恶币驱逐良币”时，人类总会试图寻回更公正稳健的交换媒介。16世纪格雷欣法则（劣币驱逐良币）揭示出，当政府滥铸货币、削减贵金属含量时，真正有价值的硬币（良币）便会被人们藏匿起来，劣币充斥市面yilinhut.netyilinhut.net。但值得深思的是，格雷欣现象并非不可逆的自然规律，而是统治者操控货币所致的扭曲。正如有学者指出的：“劣币驱逐良币并非市场自发，而是‘政府用劣币驱逐良币’的缩影；一旦能够摆脱政府的控制，这一定律就会失效，比特币恰恰旨在让货币摆脱政府控制，让良币重归市场”yilinhut.net。比特币作为现代数字黄金，其出现为全球经济提供了一种从新回归良币的可能。它不隶属于任何单一国家，其价值不依赖特定主权信用背书，而源于全球共识和算力保障的稀缺性。从国际贸易角度看，比特币类似于跨境结算中的黄金或白银——当两个国家缺乏互信或不愿接受对方货币时，完全可以通过比特币这种“中性资产”进行价值锚定交换，从而避开法币汇率波动和政治干预的风险。近年来，一些案例显示，比特币在地缘冲突或关税战背景下扮演了避险工具的角色：有分析指出，由于比特币不受制于特定国家的贸易政策，投资者把它视为对冲关税风险的手段，当贸易争端导致股市下跌时，比特币反倒逆势上涨，展现出独立于国际贸易格局的价值定位nai500.com。这印证了比特币作为“数字黄金”的一个要义：在国家壁垒与货币战争横生的世界里，它提供了一种超脱政治藩篱的价值载体，使得资金能够在更大程度的自由中逐利避险。

更深一层看，比特币蕴含着推动全球从零和博弈走向正和博弈的制度潜能。传统的法币体系常常被国家间博弈所挟持：各国竞相贬值本币以刺激出口、通过货币超发转嫁债务，这种你输我赢的零和心态导致国际金融秩序暗流汹涌。而比特币的兴起为“货币互信”提供了新范式。设想一个场景：若若干主要经济体将比特币纳入储备或结算体系，它们之间反而可能降低竞争性贬值的冲动，因为谁也无法单方面增发比特币来占便宜，大家只有共同维护其价值稳定才有利可图。这种在公开透明规则下的竞争，更接近“正和游戏”，即各方通过合作都能获益，而非此消彼长。有人将比特币视为一种“人类道义契约”，意指它不是某强权逼迫他国接受的货币（如历史上的殖民通货），而是全球无数个体自愿选择的价值共识。它的运行不依赖枪炮和法律强制，而靠的是对规则的信任与技术的确保。可以说，比特币构筑了一个前所未有的“自愿制度”：人人遵守21万块区块的发行上限和去中心化共识，这本身就是人类史上少见的跨文化、跨政治的合作现象。当这种制度逐步深入国际贸易和金融关系，我们有理由期待一个更公平的格局：劣币不再轻易驱逐良币，反而诚实守信的货币会赢得更广泛的使用；国家壁垒不会彻底消弭，但各国将更难通过封锁金融信息来要挟他国或剥夺公民，因为人们手中握有主权无法轻易触及的价值锚。

当然，比特币并非万能良药，它也会经历价格周期波动、面临技术升级挑战。然而，从历史视角出发，它承载的意义堪比现代版的黄金/白银——一种超越民族国家、服务于全球贸易和人类福祉的价值尺度。当年金本位体系在19世纪促进了世界贸易的繁荣，那是因为金银天然具有防范滥发的属性，使各国币值维持相对稳定。而比特币有望在21世纪承担类似的角色：在数字时代为世界提供一个防止无序贬值和信用滥用的“价值中轴”。这不仅是经济议题，更是道义命题。正如卢梭等思想家描述的社会契约，只有当制度建立在自愿与道义基础上，才能实现持久的正和博弈。比特币所体现的，就是这样一种自下而上凝聚的制度工具：它让个人与个人之间、国家与国家之间有机会基于共同利益而非强制权力来协作。一旦“良币”不再总是被逐出市场，人类就可能跳出过去那种劣币横行、以鄙胜良的怪圈，迎来金融领域的道义复归。

结语：拥抱创新契约，重塑监管范式

当下，FATF的出行规则所代表的监管思路与比特币所代表的技术革新，正站在历史的对立面上交锋。一方以安全与主权之名筑墙设限，另一方以中立与自由之实开辟新径。本文从制度批判的角度剖析了出行规则背后的治理逻辑与局限，揭示了过度管制对全球资金与信息流动的系统性压制，也反思了隐私技术在缺乏法理支撑时被滥用的教训。与此形成鲜明对照的是，比特币作为“保守式创新”的范例，展现出通过技术中立与契约确定性来天然抑制犯罪、兼容多元法统的独特优势。历史的回声告诉我们：真正良好的制度应当是使善者获益、恶者难存，其出发点是信任合作而非恐惧防范。

面对这一新旧范式的碰撞，立法者和监管者理应有所醒悟。与其穷尽手段构筑高墙、不惜牺牲公民自由来堵截风险，不如顺应技术发展的大势，拥抱那些内生具有道义契约性质的创新。在反洗钱和金融稳定目标下，监管可以也应该与技术“正和博弈”：鼓励像比特币这样透明中立的系统发挥正面效应，同时针对真正的黑箱匿名工具精确打击；在国际合作中，以开放心态探索新的全球货币协议，避免陷入零和的管制竞赛。只有这样，我们才能既防范“劣币”作乱，又让“良币”留在市井，形成一个既有秩序又有自由的金融生态。比特币之所以令无数持有者怀抱信念，不仅因为其经济价值，更因为其背后蕴含着对更公正更自由的制度可能性的期待。这份期待正在转化为现实的政治倡议，推动立法和监管的变革。在不久的将来，当我们回望今日，或许会发现：正是这一场关于“出行规则”与“数字黄金”的争论，催生出金融治理范式的转折点——让人类第一次有机会以合作共赢的契约，去取代那延续千年的强权博弈。

参考文献：

• FATF. What is the FATF Travel Rule? ComplyAdvantagecomplyadvantage.comcomplyadvantage.com

• TRISA. Recommendations to FATF for Virtual Assets Travel Ruletrisa.iotrisa.io

• E安全. 美国对朝鲜黑客关联加密货币Tornado Cash实施制裁secrss.comsecrss.com

• Rezaul Karim. Stablecoins: The new epicentre of crypto fraud, ICAint-comp.org

• 币圈线人. 凌晨三点的USDT警报：当稳定币变成资本外逃的「数字高速公路」binance.combinance.com

• 最高检. 依法惩治跨境电信网络诈骗及其关联犯罪典型案例spp.gov.cn

• Zoya Finance. Election Betting Markets: Halal or Haram?blog.zoya.finance

• 胡翌霖. 为什么比特币不适用格雷欣法则（劣币驱逐良币）？yilinhut.net

• Reuters. Tether says it has frozen $225 mln linked to human traffickingreuters.comreuters.com

• NAI500财经. 再创历史新高的比特币，究竟是科技股还是“数字黄金”？nai500.com

• Nasdaq. How Cryptocurrency Aligns with Islamic Financenasdaq.comnasdaq.com

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

I'm solo parenting for a couple of days, so I got lots of activity and not a lot of sleep. I stuck to my fasting window, but didn't stick to OMAD, and mostly ate healthy stuff.

How'd you do on your ~HealthAndFitness goals stackers?

https://stacker.news/items/1005114

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

El Salvador – June 3, 2025 — The grassroots Bitcoin community of El Salvador is proud to announce the return of Bitcoin Week, taking place this November with five dynamic events celebrating Bitcoin adoption, education, and community-led innovation.

Join us for a week of inspiration, collaboration, and impact.

Bitcoin Week 2025 calendar

📍 November 12 – Bitcoin Education Celebration Gala: Kick off the week in style with a luxurious and intimate evening at a high-class dinner, celebrating “proof of work” and the achievements of the Bitcoin education movement.
Expect major plans for the year(s) ahead but also a reflection to past proof-of-work—and don’t miss out on the Great Grassroots Giveaway, included with every ticket.

📍 November 13 – Bitcoin Educators Unconference: Hosted for the third time in San Salvador at Cadejo Montaña, this sixth edition of the Educators Unconference embodies our commitment to provide a space for decentralized, community-led conversations.
Join educators and leaders shaping the global Bitcoin conversation!

📍 November 14–15 – Adopting Bitcoin: The Network Effect: Now in its fifth year, Adopting Bitcoin returns with a powerful focus on real-world Bitcoin usage across global communities.
This year’s theme—The Network Effect—explores how interconnected local initiatives can spark exponential growth in adoption.

📍 November 16 – Visit Bitcoin Beach, El Zonte: Make your way to Bitcoin Beach, the heart of El Salvador’s Bitcoin story. Enjoy a day of connection and discovery in this iconic beachside town. Full details coming soon.

📍 November 22–23 – Economía Bitcoin, Berlín: Head to the town of Berlín, El Salvador for the second edition of Economía Bitcoin, a powerful, small-scale conference and festival focused on circular economies and practical Bitcoin use.
Spend sats freely in town and see how local action drives global impact.

With five unique events across three regions in Bitcoin Country, this edition of Bitcoin Week is your chance to experience El Salvador’s Bitcoin journey up close. Whether you’re an educator, builder, Bitcoiner, or simply curious—you’re invited.

Join us this November. Be part of the movement.

@ fe820c8e:d2d76f04

Course Main Title

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Первоначально создан в 2004 году Джоном Грубером (англ. John Gruber) и Аароном Шварцем. Многие идеи языка были позаимствованы из существующих соглашений по разметке текста в электронных письмах...

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Quizzes

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What did the fish say when he hit a concrete wall?

[[dam]]

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Just add as many points as you wish:

[[X]] Only the **X** marks the correct point.
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https://liascript.github.io/course/?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liaScript/docs/master/README.md

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Nooit is mijn dans echter\ Dan net nadat het regende\ Want regen biedt een kans\ Om mijn gevoel te voelen

Zolang de regen spettert\ En ik mezelf graag zie\ Wordt er niets verplettert\ Ook al lijkt dat soms wel zo

Zodra de regen ophoudt\ En zich terugtrekt met de wolken\ Komt een nieuwe glans\ Voor het eerst mijn ogen binnen

Wat is het leven heerlijk\ Als ik eerlijk ben en voel\ Wat is het leven zacht\ En het brengt me naar mijn doel

Wat zou ik weten zonder regen\ Gewoon steeds evenveel\ Niet groeien is niet leven\ Daarom dans ik het liefst

Net na de echte regen

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

In een zee van mogelijkheden\ Kunnen we best veel tijd aan dromen besteden

Dromen is een universele taal\ Het wordt gedaan door ons allemaal

Het is het woord\ Dat deze gelijkheid de grond in boort

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Remixpoint Invests ¥887 Million More Into Bitcoin

Remixpoint Inc. (3825.T), a management consulting services company, announced it has purchased ¥887.3 million worth of Bitcoin, acquiring 55.68 BTC at an average price of ¥15.94 million per coin. 

JUST IN: Remixpoint just keeps buying more #bitcoin. Another 55.68 BTC today and they now have a total of 981.39 BTC. pic.twitter.com/mTkZg8mNO4

— NLNico (@btcNLNico) June 12, 2025

Following this purchase, the company now holds a total of 981.39 BTC, with a market value of approximately ¥15.63 billion. The unrealized gain on its Bitcoin holdings stands at ¥2.32 billion, reflecting their confidence in Bitcoin’s long term value. The funds came from the exercise of stock acquisition rights conducted on June 10.

Remixpoint Inc. is a Japanese company that started in the auto and energy sectors but has changed toward digital assets. It’s one of the few public companies in Japan actively holding Bitcoin, seeing it as both a store of value and a hedge against the weakening yen. Their move highlights a growing shift in Japan’s corporate space toward Bitcoin adoption.

Bitcoin has been so strong over the years that even in Japan, more companies are adding it to their balance sheets. It all started with Metaplanet, which was originally a hotel and hospitality company. In 2024, they shifted their strategy entirely and began accumulating Bitcoin as a treasury asset. That move caught the attention of investors and marked a turning point in Japan’s corporate approach to digital assets. Since then, Metaplanet has leaned fully into the Bitcoin thesis, positioning itself as Japan’s version of Strategy.

Recently, Metaplanet also announced its “555 Million Plan,” aiming to acquire 210,000 BTC, which is about 1% of Bitcoin’s total supply, by the end of 2027. This represents a major step up from its original “21 Million Plan,” which aimed for just 21,000 BTC. As of June 2, the company had already secured 8,888 BTC, far ahead of schedule and signaling strong momentum in its accumulation strategy.

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

— Simon Gerovich (@gerovich) June 6, 2025

To fund this effort, Metaplanet launched Japan’s first moving strike warrant structure, issuing 555 million shares to raise approximately ¥770.9 billion. The plan was approved following a 10-for-1 stock split and a shareholder vote to increase authorized shares. With robust BTC yield performance and growing investor backing, Metaplanet is quickly establishing itself as Japan’s most influential corporate player in the Bitcoin space.

This post Remixpoint Invests ¥887 Million More Into Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9

In much of the world, it is incredibly difficult to access U.S. dollars. Local currencies are often poorly managed and riddled with corruption. Billions of people demand a more reliable alternative. While the dollar has its own issues of corruption and mismanagement, it is widely regarded as superior to the fiat currencies it competes with globally. As a result, Tether has found massive success providing low cost, low friction access to dollars. Tether claims 400 million total users, is on track to add 200 million more this year, processes 8.1 million transactions daily, and facilitates $29 billion in daily transfers. Furthermore, their estimates suggest nearly 40% of users rely on it as a savings tool rather than just a transactional currency.

Tether’s rise has made the company a financial juggernaut. Last year alone, Tether raked in over $13 billion in profit, with a lean team of less than 100 employees. Their business model is elegantly simple: hold U.S. Treasuries and collect the interest. With over $113 billion in Treasuries, Tether has turned a straightforward concept into a profit machine.

Tether’s success has resulted in many competitors eager to claim a piece of the pie. This has triggered a massive venture capital grift cycle in USD tokens, with countless projects vying to dethrone Tether. Due to Tether’s entrenched network effect, these challengers face an uphill battle with little realistic chance of success. Most educated participants in the space likely recognize this reality but seem content to perpetuate the grift, hoping to cash out by dumping their equity positions on unsuspecting buyers before they realize the reality of the situation.

Historically, Tether’s greatest vulnerability has been U.S. government intervention. For over a decade, the company operated offshore with few allies in the U.S. establishment, making it a major target for regulatory action. That dynamic has shifted recently and Tether has seized the opportunity. By actively courting U.S. government support, Tether has fortified their position. This strategic move will likely cement their status as the dominant USD token for years to come.

While undeniably a great tool for the millions of users that rely on it, Tether is not without flaws. As a centralized, trusted third party, it holds the power to freeze or seize funds at its discretion. Corporate mismanagement or deliberate malpractice could also lead to massive losses at scale. In their goal of mitigating regulatory risk, Tether has deepened ties with law enforcement, mirroring some of the concerns of potential central bank digital currencies. In practice, Tether operates as a corporate CBDC alternative, collaborating with authorities to surveil and seize funds. The company proudly touts partnerships with leading surveillance firms and its own data reveals cooperation in over 1,000 law enforcement cases, with more than $2.5 billion in funds frozen.

---

The global demand for Tether is undeniable and the company’s profitability reflects its unrivaled success. Tether is owned and operated by bitcoiners and will likely continue to push forward strategic goals that help the movement as a whole. Recent efforts to mitigate the threat of U.S. government enforcement will likely solidify their network effect and stifle meaningful adoption of rival USD tokens or CBDCs. Yet, for all their achievements, Tether is simply a worse form of money than bitcoin. Tether requires trust in a centralized entity, while bitcoin can be saved or spent without permission. Furthermore, Tether is tied to the value of the US Dollar which is designed to lose purchasing power over time, while bitcoin, as a truly scarce asset, is designed to increase in purchasing power with adoption. As people awaken to the risks of Tether’s control, and the benefits bitcoin provides, bitcoin adoption will likely surpass it.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

I know more of the talk is around the Bucks and Giannis, but the Knicks have actually made a huge move already, plus we have some Knicks fans in our midst.

Despite having their best season of the 21st century, the Knicks fired their highly respected coach for not making it to the NBA Finals (which no one expected them to do).

Is this just standard Knicks malpractice? If so, what further malpractice might they commit?

Or, is it part of a legit plan (as unlikely as that seems)? And, if so, what else is in that plan?

The obvious starting place is KAT. I thought KAT had a great season, but he definitely did some dumb KAT stuff in the playoffs. Will the Knicks trade KAT (and whatever else) to land either KD or Giannis? Should they?

If they trade for Giannis, does he play center? If not, they also need a stretch-5, because Giannis can't play next to a traditional big.

KD would be a little cleaner, plus the Suns need a center and supposedly Booker and KAT are buds. KD could slot in at the 4 and give them a starting 5 of - Robinson - KD - OG - Bridges - Brunson

With Hart coming off the bench, that's an awesome 6-man rotation. It's basically what they had, but with KD in place of KAT.

Is KD enough better than KAT for this to be a title team?

What else might be going on with the Knicks?

https://stacker.news/items/1005038

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Machtig water\ Door velen bemind

Element van beweging\ Vormgever aan land\ Bondgenoot van wind

Voorkomer van comfort\ Toelater van rust

Machtig water\ Waar ik ook ga\ Ik weet dat jij de grond onder mijn voeten kust

@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9

Here’s a revised timeline of macro-level events from The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047 by Lionel Shriver, reimagined in a world where Bitcoin is adopted as a widely accepted form of money, altering the original narrative’s assumptions about currency collapse and economic control. In Shriver’s original story, the failure of Bitcoin is assumed amid the dominance of the bancor and the dollar’s collapse. Here, Bitcoin’s success reshapes the economic and societal trajectory, decentralizing power and challenging state-driven outcomes.

Part One: 2029–2032

• 2029 (Early Year)\ The United States faces economic strain as the dollar weakens against global shifts. However, Bitcoin, having gained traction emerges as a viable alternative. Unlike the original timeline, the bancor—a supranational currency backed by a coalition of nations—struggles to gain footing as Bitcoin’s decentralized adoption grows among individuals and businesses worldwide, undermining both the dollar and the bancor.

• 2029 (Mid-Year: The Great Renunciation)\ Treasury bonds lose value, and the government bans Bitcoin, labeling it a threat to sovereignty (mirroring the original bancor ban). However, a Bitcoin ban proves unenforceable—its decentralized nature thwarts confiscation efforts, unlike gold in the original story. Hyperinflation hits the dollar as the U.S. prints money, but Bitcoin’s fixed supply shields adopters from currency devaluation, creating a dual-economy split: dollar users suffer, while Bitcoin users thrive.

• 2029 (Late Year)\ Dollar-based inflation soars, emptying stores of goods priced in fiat currency. Meanwhile, Bitcoin transactions flourish in underground and online markets, stabilizing trade for those plugged into the bitcoin ecosystem. Traditional supply chains falter, but peer-to-peer Bitcoin networks enable local and international exchange, reducing scarcity for early adopters. The government’s gold confiscation fails to bolster the dollar, as Bitcoin’s rise renders gold less relevant.

• 2030–2031\ Crime spikes in dollar-dependent urban areas, but Bitcoin-friendly regions see less chaos, as digital wallets and smart contracts facilitate secure trade. The U.S. government doubles down on surveillance to crack down on bitcoin use. A cultural divide deepens: centralized authority weakens in Bitcoin-adopting communities, while dollar zones descend into lawlessness.

• 2032\ By this point, Bitcoin is de facto legal tender in parts of the U.S. and globally, especially in tech-savvy or libertarian-leaning regions. The federal government’s grip slips as tax collection in dollars plummets—Bitcoin’s traceability is low, and citizens evade fiat-based levies. Rural and urban Bitcoin hubs emerge, while the dollar economy remains fractured.

Time Jump: 2032–2047

• Over 15 years, Bitcoin solidifies as a global reserve currency, eroding centralized control. The U.S. government adapts, grudgingly integrating bitcoin into policy, though regional autonomy grows as Bitcoin empowers local economies.

Part Two: 2047

• 2047 (Early Year)\ The U.S. is a hybrid state: Bitcoin is legal tender alongside a diminished dollar. Taxes are lower, collected in BTC, reducing federal overreach. Bitcoin’s adoption has decentralized power nationwide. The bancor has faded, unable to compete with Bitcoin’s grassroots momentum.

• 2047 (Mid-Year)\ Travel and trade flow freely in Bitcoin zones, with no restrictive checkpoints. The dollar economy lingers in poorer areas, marked by decay, but Bitcoin’s dominance lifts overall prosperity, as its deflationary nature incentivizes saving and investment over consumption. Global supply chains rebound, powered by bitcoin enabled efficiency.

• 2047 (Late Year)\ The U.S. is a patchwork of semi-autonomous zones, united by Bitcoin’s universal acceptance rather than federal control. Resource scarcity persists due to past disruptions, but economic stability is higher than in Shriver’s original dystopia—Bitcoin’s success prevents the authoritarian slide, fostering a freer, if imperfect, society.

Key Differences

• Currency Dynamics: Bitcoin’s triumph prevents the bancor’s dominance and mitigates hyperinflation’s worst effects, offering a lifeline outside state control.
• Government Power: Centralized authority weakens as Bitcoin evades bans and taxation, shifting power to individuals and communities.
• Societal Outcome: Instead of a surveillance state, 2047 sees a decentralized, bitcoin driven world—less oppressive, though still stratified between Bitcoin haves and have-nots.

This reimagining assumes Bitcoin overcomes Shriver’s implied skepticism to become a robust, adopted currency by 2029, fundamentally altering the novel’s bleak trajectory.

@ 472f440f:5669301e

I'm sure some of you are already tired of the discussion around the H-1B visa program that was started on Christmas Eve by Vivek Ramaswamy and escalated by Elon Musk and others as the "Silicon Valley MAGA" coalition began putting forth legal immigration policy proposals for the incoming Trump administration. Core to their policy is the expansion of the H-1B visa program so that America can "recruit the best talent in the world" to come build the American economy.

Unfortunately, as it stands today - according to the Silicon Valley cognescenti, Americans are either a.) not smart enough to fulfill the roles necessary to enable the United States to maintain its lead as economic super power of the world or b.) expect too much in compensation for the available roles. At least this is my reading from the commentary I've seen over the last week.

What seems abundantly clear to me is that the framing put forth by "Silicon Valley MAGA" crew is disingenuous and self-serving. It has been clear for awhile now that the H-1B visa program is being systematically abused to bring in cheap labor from other countries to help drive down labor costs for companies across the spectrum. Not just Silicon Valley tech companies. The system has a loophole in it and it is being exploited. Bring people to the US via H-1B visas to complete work for you at lower costs and your company's financials are likely to be better off (assuming the work being done is productive and a value add to the company). Now, this isn't to say that everyone who is in the US via an H-1B visa is here because these companies want to exploit the loophole that gives them the ability to spend less on head count. However, based off the data from the database of the H-1B visa program it is abundantly clear that the system is being taken advantage of. Egregiously and at the expense of American workers, who are most certainly not (all) "subtarded".

Herein lies the crux of the problem; companies are abusing this program to get away from the problem of Americans demanding higher wages to maintain lives of dignity in a country run by a government that is chronically addicted to debt backed by a central bank that will print money ex-nihilo and at will to monetize that debt. Americans are then being scapegoated as either "lazy", "stupid" or "delusional about their worth in the work force". A classic straw man argument that avoids the root issue at hand; the money is broken and the broken money has created perverse incentives throughout the economy while also stripping Americans of the ability to properly save the value of their labor.

We live in a high velocity trash economy that rewards grift and waste while disincentivizing hard work that is meaningful to the quality of life of the Common Man. Everything has been hyper-financialized to the point that one of the only ways to make it ahead is to speculate on the flow of capital into certain asset classes, which is often determined by the whims of central planners. Another is to build or speculate on tech "innovations" that typically materialize in the form of attention zapping apps and widgets that help people temporarily forget they live in a high-velocity trash economy.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and it is because they don't see a way out of the nihilistic rat race created (unknowingly to most) by the money printer.

The ability to print money out of nothing and throw it at everything creates misaligned incentives that result in the inability for the market to properly determine what is genuinely needed by the people instead of those who have learned how to game the broken system and its broken incentives.

One last point, I would be remiss not to acknowledge that many individuals in America aren't intellectually equipped to do some of the cutting edge work that may be necessary to produce the technologies and companies that will push the country forward. The high-velocity trash economy run on money printed out of nothing has completely corrupted the education system. People in the United States are literally dumber than they were five decades ago. That is a fact. But it is not only the fault of the American people themselves, but the corrupt system they have been born into that destroyed the education system with perverse incentives. And the overwhelming majority of the blame is on the system, not the people.

Even with that being said, the idea that we need to adopt a Tiger Mom mentality in the US - a culture of unrelenting devotion to studying STEM to the point that weekend sleepovers for kids are discouraged - is absolutely laughable and objectively un-American. There are plenty of incredibly intelligent, creative and driven young Americans who have contributed and will continue to contribute significantly to the American economy and they didn't need to shackle themselves to their desks to get that way. America isn't a country that was built by automatons. It's a country built by people who said, "Fuck you. Don't tell me what I can and cannot do. Watch this."

Despite the fact that a system has been erected that actively works against the average American system the American spirit lives on in the souls of many across the country. Miraculously. The American spirit is something that cannot simply be imported. It is ingrained in our culture. It is certainly beginning to dwindle as hope for a better future becomes more and more dim for the masses as the system works against them despite all their best efforts to succeed. It is imperative that we stoke the coals of the American spirit while it is still alive in those who are too stubborn to give up.

People need the ability to save their hard work in a money that cannot be debased. Opportunity cost needs to be reintroduced into the market so that things that actually add value and increase the quality of life for the Common Man are where hard money is allocated. And people need to start talking about the root of the problem more seriously instead of striking at branches with disingenuous straw man arguments.

---

Final thought... Ready to go surfing.

@ 3c389c8f:7a2eff7f

Most of my time on Nostr, relays served content simply based on what was requested. Clients mostly requested follow list based content, and often only if the user requested to 'read' from a particular relay. Very simple, though not ideal. Clients that attempted to offer some 'global' or 'universal' feed made it possible to discover some new things but also served spam, redundant bot posts, and even some malicious things that managed to make it through a relay's filters. Paid relays began to gain some ground, with better filters to reduce spam and malicious content, which has helped a lot to clean up these broader feeds that expand beyond the follow-based timeline. Many of the relays hosted redundant content, too, which is important but it's not the only thing that is. The system still left a lot to be desired, particularly for anyone who has understood the potential behind the client-relay set up. Other concerns, like relay centralization through user concentration, still needed to be discussed and addressed.

Despite the voicing of relay diversity advocates, this system seemed to provide most of what people were looking for to replace their typical social media experience. Still, though, reply spam attacks found their way through, as they do. Web-of-Trust relays began to pop up to help mitigate the problem. Using contact lists and extended contact lists as a method of reducing the prevalence of spam has worked really well, but does have it limitations as to how new users can enter into these social graphs, without already knowing someone who is using Nostr. Also not ideal, but it has been a step forward for Nostr's social media use case. Hosted relay services that offered more diverse policy for a relay to operate under finally began to take some hold for those that wanted more choice and control. Still though, potential had barely been breeched.

It might have been before the WoT relay movement, but of nowhere (not really but it kind of seemed like it), a cat relay appeared within the ecosystem. This silly, fun, cute, clever relay collected notes with the #catstr hashtag and used some fancy image analysis stuff (that I can't explain) to collect notes and images of nothing but cats. Such a simple thing, but that was a catalyst (🥁) moment for Nostr. A relay could do more than just collect notes from following lists?? A couple more iterations of the curated content relay model came to be, driving home the idea that this wasn't some silly pie-in-the-sky concept. It was an aha moment for some, sheer joy for the relay advocates, and a turning point for expanding Nostr beyond the basic social media replacement. Very few client options for simply browsing one relay existed at the time, and while it was novel to see, the rest of the framework to support it was not strong nor very easy to use. Even with this dilemma, the catstr relay set off what has become some of the most interesting and useful innovation that has happened within the Nostr ecosystem since I arrived.

Since then, I have spent a lot of my time on Nostr exploring some of what has been developed on the relay front, experimenting where I have found the opportunity and thinking a lot about where this all could lead. Innovation on both the relay and client sides of Nostr have been expanding, not quite in lockstep, but closely enough that someone like myself can now easily jump onto a client like Jumble.social and get a glimpse into what is happening and get an idea of the potential of what is yet to come. For those working in the relay field, I am sure this feels like one slow moving train. For a client developer, it probably feels a little overwhelming to shift an entire model away from what has worked for something that will work better. As a less-than-technical user who is mostly disconnected from any major development, it's exciting. Relay diversity brings actual utility to Nostr. It also brings the assurances that Nostr offers, which whether we have been subjugated to these problems before or not, it is the main reason why Nostr exists and why we are here using it now.

For most anyone reading this, it probably sounds like some weird, unnecessary history lesson. This is actually one long introduction into a little mini-series of relay recaps though.... I was wondering what I would write about next, and this is it. I may just be a user but I'm an adventurous one and I pay attention, so I'm excited to share some of my thoughts, experiences, and observations over the coming weeks... because exciting isn't a strong enough word for the what I see as possible. :)

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

I am the space\ In which your experience takes place

You could never meet me\ For I hold no identity

The only way to really see me\ Is to be me

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Love, I thank you for your warmth\ Ever lifting

You keep me charmed\ Ever drifting

May I be me\ And you be you

In a perfect harmony\ Embracing all life makes us grow through

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Jaren tellen\ Hoeft voor mij niet

Verhalen vertellen\ Over geluk en verdriet

Een warme haven\ Veilig en fijn

Dromen voorgedragen\ Onschuldig en rein

Momenten ervaard, geleerd\ En geïntegreerd

Ideeën, geloven en gevoelens\ Gevormd en gecreëerd

Zonder eind of echt begin\ Vallen, groeien, leren, stoeien

Een gezin in een gezin met een gezin erin\ Gezind gericht blijft liefde vloeien

@ 472f440f:5669301e

There was a bit of a rally in stock markets today, but this was a relief rally after taking a beating throughout the week. All eyes were on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as he took the stage on Wednesday to announce the decisions made at the most recent FOMC meeting.

The market reacted negatively to another 0.25% cut from the Federal Reserve that many considered a "hawkish cut" due to the fact that Chairman Powell articulated that it is likely that there will be less rate cuts in 2025 than were previously expected. This is likely driven by the fact that inflation, as reported by the terribly inaccurate CPI, has been coming in higher than expectations. Signaling that the Fed does not, in fact, have inflation under control. Who could have seen that coming?

Here's how the US 10Y Treasury yield reacted to the announcement:

"Not great Bob!" The US 10Y Treasury yield is something that everyone should be paying attention to over the course of the next year. Since the Fed started cutting rates in September of this year, the 10Y yield has been acting anomalously compared to how it has acted historically after Fed interest rate decisions. Since September, the market has been calling the Fed's bluff on inflation and rates have been moving in the opposite direction compared to what would be expected if the Fed had things under control. The "hawkish cut" made on Wednesday is not a great sign. The Fed is being forced to recognize that it cut "too much too fast" before actually getting inflation under control.

One has to wonder why they made such aggressive moves in September. Why the need for a much more dovish stance as quickly as they moved? Do they see something behind the scenes of the banking system that makes them believe that another liquidity crisis was on the horizon and they needed to act to prevent yet another banking crisis? Now that it is clear that inflation isn't under control and if there really was a liquidity crisis on the horizon, what are the first two quarters of 2025 going to look like? Could we find ourselves in a situation where inflation is beginning to accelerate again, there is a liquidity crisis, and the Fed is forced to rush back ZIRP and QE only to further exacerbate inflation? Couple this potential scenario with the proposed economic policy from the incoming Trump administration and it isn't hard to see that we could be in for a period of economic pain.

One can only hope that the Fed and the incoming administration have the intestinal fortitude to let the market correct appropriately, reprice, clear out the bad assets and credit that exists in the system and let the cleanse happen relatively unperturbed. That has what has been desperately needed since 2008, arguably longer.

On that note, bitcoin is going through a bull market correction this week as well. Likely incited and/or exacerbated by the turmoil in traditional markets.

Many are proclaiming that the end of this bull market is here. Don't listen to those who have been hate tweeting bitcoin all the way up this year. They've been looking for a correction to bask in schadenfreude and confirm their biases. These types of corrections are to be expected when bitcoin runs by checks notes 100% over the course of less than three months. We're approaching the end of the year, which means that people are selling to prepare for taxes (which may be happening in the stock market as well). Add to this fact that long-term holders of bitcoin have taken the most profit they have since 2018 and it probably explains the recent pull back. Can't blame the long-term holders for seeing six-figure bitcoin and deciding to bolster their cash balances.

I couldn't be more bullish on bitcoin than I am right now. The fundamentals surrounding the market couldn't be more perfect. Despite what the Trump administration may have in store for us in terms of economic policy (I agree with most of the policies he has presented), I find it hard to believe that even he and the talented team of people he has surrounded himself with can overcome the momentum of the problems that have been building up in the system for the last 16-years.

The "find safety in sats" trade is going mainstream as the market becomes more familiar with bitcoin, its properties, and the fact that it is very unlikely that it is going to die. The fervor around bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset for nation states is only picking up. And if it catches on, we will enter territory for bitcoin that was considered utterly insane only a year ago.

On that note, Nic Carter made some buzz today with a piece he wrote for Bitcoin Magazine explaining why he believes a strategic bitcoin reserve is a bad idea for the US government.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/politics/i-dont-support-a-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-and-neither-should-you

While I agree that the signal the US government could send by acquiring a bitcoin strategic reserve could be bad for the US treasuries market, I think it comes down to strategy. The Trump administration will have to think strategically about how they acquire their Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. If they ape in, it could send the wrong message and cause everyone to dump their treasuries, which are the most popular form of collateral in the global financial system. However, there are ways to acquire bitcoin slowly but surely from here into the future that ensure that the United States gets proper exposure to the asset to protect itself from the out-of-control debt problem while also providing itself with a way out of the problem. Many of these potential strategies were discussed in two recent episodes I recorded. One with Matthew Pines from the Bitcoin Policy Institute and another with Matthew Mežinskis from Porkopolis Economics. I highly recommend you all check those out (linked below).

https://youtu.be/xyyeEqFVjBY

https://youtu.be/6vgesP9LIXk

.---

Final thought...

I am the most locked in from a focus perspective while on flights. Even with two kids under 5. Merry Christmas, Freaks!

@ d5ca7093:549ad1ec

I recently decided to create my own personal brand website—something simple with a clean landing page, contact info, links to my work, and a blog. The idea was straightforward: when you meet people in real life or connect online, you need a reliable, consistent place they can go to learn more about you. Social media platforms aren’t built for that—they’re noisy, crowded, and ultimately not under your control.

As we shift into a decentralized digital future, owning your own website is one of the easiest and most powerful moves you can make. Social media pages are just websites owned by someone else. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube—they all serve specific functions, but there’s nothing stopping you from creating your own platform. If you make videos, host a video gallery. If you write, post your own blog. You don’t need to depend on Twitter or Medium to get your thoughts out. Open-source tools and modern frameworks make it easier than ever to replicate what these big platforms do—on your terms.

This shift is already visible with platforms like Nostr and Mastodon, which promote the idea of identity and communication without central ownership. Your website can be a central node in that ecosystem. Unlike a profile on a platform that can vanish overnight, your domain name is portable and permanent. You can point it anywhere—your own server, a decentralized network, or a new platform that respects user autonomy. That kind of control is only possible when you own your digital real estate.

In fact, I believe domain names are the next evolution of usernames. They’re already being used that way on services like BlueSky and Mastodon. A domain name isn’t just a web address—it’s a digital identity. It can be your contact card, your blog, your portfolio, and even your inbox. In a decentralized world, owning a domain is like planting a flag. It says: this is mine.

The deeper truth is that these centralized platforms are incentivized to keep you inside their ecosystem. They harvest your data, limit your reach unless you pay, and can suspend or ban your account without warning. When you build on their land, you play by their rules. When you build on your own land—your website—you make the rules. You decide what gets seen, what gets featured, and what data gets collected.

And let’s talk discoverability. While social media relies on algorithms and trends to push your content, your website can be indexed and searched globally on your terms. SEO tools, schema markup, and open metadata standards let you control how your content appears across the web. Add analytics, email capture, or even push notifications, and you’ve created a full digital marketing system that doesn’t depend on anyone else’s infrastructure.

For developers and technical creators, building a personal site also becomes a live demo of your skillset. It’s an interactive resume, a sandbox for new technologies, and a launchpad for projects. Whether you’re using React, Astro, Hugo, or GhostCMS, the tools you choose say as much about you as the content you publish. And because it’s all yours, you’re free to experiment without limitation.

Ultimately, your website is an investment in future-proofing your digital identity. As decentralized protocols evolve, your personal site can plug into that infrastructure—whether it’s connecting wallets, supporting decentralized comments, or syndicating content to multiple platforms. Owning your site today means you’ll be ready for the web of tomorrow.

@ 472f440f:5669301e

The end of the first part of bitcoin's story has come to an end. Most of the story has yet to be written, but I feel confident in saying that reaching the $100,000 per bitcoin milestone is a clear demarcation between two distinct eras of bitcoin. Yes, we have hit the significant milestones of $1, $10, $100, $1,000, and $10,000 over the last fifteen years and they all felt significant. And they certainly were in their own right. However, hitting the "six figure" milestone feels a bit different.

One bitcoin is currently worth a respectable salary for an American citizen. Ten hunnid bands. Something that is impressive to the layman. This may not mean much to many who have been around bitcoin for some time. The idea of bitcoin hitting $100,000 was seen as a foregone conclusion for millions of people out there. Myself included. This price marker is simply an inevitability on the road to global reserve currency to us.

With that being said, it is important to put yourself in the shoes of those who have doubted bitcoin up to this point. For some reason or another, $100,000 bitcoin has been used as a price target that "will never be hit" for many of the naysayers.

"Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme."

"Tulips."

"Governments will ban it if it hits that point."

"It can't scale."

"It will be 51% attacked."

"No one will trust bitcoin."

"It can't be the world's money."

And yet, despite all of the kvetching from the haters over the years, here we are. Sitting above $100,000. Taking a short rest at the latest checkpoint en route to the peak of the mountain. We hovered right under $100,000 for a couple of weeks. Nominally, where we stand today is much closer to where we were last week compared to where we were six months ago. But for some reason the price tipping over $100,000 has catapulted bitcoin to a new playing field. Where bitcoin stood yesterday and where it found itself six months ago seem miles below where it is today. Crossing over the event horizon of six figures forces people to think of bitcoin in a different light. Almost as if we have entered another dimension.

The last year has been filled with a lead up to this crossing over of the event horizon.

Financial institutions that have derided bitcoin for well over a decade were forced to bend the knee and offer bitcoin exposure to their clients. The mere offering of that exposure has resulted in the most successful ETFs in the history of this particular investment vehicle.

Governments around the world have been forced to reckon with the fact that bitcoin is here to stay and that they need to act accordingly. Thanks to the first mover actions taken by El Salvador and Bhutan, which have nonchalantly decided to go all in on bitcoin, others have taken notice. Will that be publicly acknowledged by the bigger governments? Probably not. But you'd be naive to think that politicians in the US seeing two very small countries making such big bets on bitcoin didn't induce at least a little bit of FOMO. Once the bitcoin FOMO seed is planted it's hard to uproot.

Combine this with the fact that it has become rather cool to be privy to the fact that the world's governments have become egregiously addicted to debt and money printing, that inflation is pervasive and inescapable, and that censorship and Orwellian control tactics are on the rise and it is easy to see why more people are more receptive to the idea of bitcoin.

All that was needed to create an all out frenzy - a slingshot effect up the S Curve of adoption - was a psychological trigger. Bitcoin crossing over six figures.

Well, here we are. The tropes against bitcoin that have been trotted out over the last sixteen years no longer have as much bite as they did in many people's eyes. Sure, there will be some butt hurt nocoiners and totalitarians who continue to trot them out, but crossing the chasm of six figure bitcoin will have an order of magnitude more people thinking, "I hear what you're saying, but reality seems to be saying something completely different. And, if I'm being honest with myself, reality is making much more sense than your screeching."

Unstoppable peer-to-peer digital cash with a hard capped supply has been around since January 3rd, 2009. December 5th, 2024 will be the day that it cemented itself as something that cannot be ignored. Part I of the bitcoin story has been written. The end of the beginning is behind us. On to Part II: the rapid monetization of bitcoin, which will cement it as the reserve currency of the world.

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Final thought... I used some 2017-2020 era tactics to get into the writing mood tonight. 90210

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

The world around me\ Is assumed to be

Through sensory observations\ This appears to me

What I experience\ Is for me

But the ultimate experience\ Is for me\ To be

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Uber seed investor and executive producer of the All In podcast Jason Calacanis has been publicly sounding the alarm bell about Microstrategy's bitcoin treasury strategy and the cheer leading exhibited by the company's CEO, Michael Saylor. Calacanis believes that Microstrategy's bitcoin acquisition techniques are a Ponzi scheme waiting to implode. Going as far as to question whether or not Microstrategy is the next FTX.

Earlier today, Jason spent a section of an episode of This Week in Startups to discuss his worries about MSTR's bitcoin treasury strategy, Saylor's overt pumping of the strategy, and the fact that there are other companies like Marathon Holdings beginning to deploy similar convertible debt strategies. While I can see how this can be unnerving for many, I do think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what Microstrategy is doing. Last week I explained the strategy in a tweet, which I'll reiterate here:

Whether you like it or not, Saylor and Microstrategy have found a way to give pools of liquidity (particularly pools with mandates to allocate to fixed income) exposure to bitcoin’s volatility via convertible notes. The converts are performing better than any other fixed income product on the market.

Other investors have noticed this and have piled into MSTR as well understanding that demand for the converts will increase and enable Microstrategy to accumulate more bitcoin. Those investors feel comfortable with the premium to mNAV MSTR is trading at because they believe the demand for a high performing fixed income product will remain high and likely increase.

Microstrategy can continue doing this until viable competition comes to market because there is no one else offering this type of bitcoin return exposure to fixed income investors at scale. Another important detail, the convertible notes have a duration of 5 years or more while bitcoin’s lowest 4-year CAGR is 26% and its 50th percentile 4-year CAGR is 91%. If you think this will continue then this is a pretty safe bet for Microstrategy and the convertible note holders.

In a world were central banks and governments have gone mad with currency debasement and debt expansion it is pretty safe to assume that bitcoin adoption will not only continue but accelerate from here. What do I think about Microstrategy accumulating this much bitcoin? It makes me a bit uneasy but there’s nothing I can do to stop it and bitcoin will survive in the long run. Even if Microstrategy blows up somehow (I don’t think this is likely). Bitcoin was designed to be anti-fragile.

This is a classic case of “don’t hate the player, hate the game”. Or better yet, join the game. After all, the only winning move is to play.

Essentially, Michael Saylor is taking a long-term bet on bitcoin's continued adoption/monetization and trying to accumulate as much as possible by issuing convertible notes with a 4+ year duration, which should increase the likelihood that Microstrategy is in the black on their bitcoin buys over time as history has shown that anyone who holds bitcoin for more than four years has performed well. This should, in turn, be reflected in their stock price, which should increase alongside bitcoin and convert the debt they've accrued into newly issued shares of MSTR. Through the process, if the strategy is executed successfully, increasing the amount of bitcoin per share for MSTR shareholders. (This is the only metric shareholders should care about in my opinion.)

Yes, this may seem crazy to many and extremely risky to most, but that is the nature of free markets. Every company takes calculated risks in an attempt to increase shareholder value. Michael Saylor and company are betting on the fact that bitcoin will continue to be adopted and are utilizing pools of capital that don't have the ability to buy bitcoin directly, but want exposure to its volatility to achieve their goals. To me it looks like a perfectly symbiotic relationship. Microstrategy is able to accumulate more bitcoin and increase their bitcoin per share while fixed income investors are able to access a product that performs well above their benchmark due to the embedded volatility of the exposure to bitcoin Microstrategy provides.

This won't be a surprise to any of you freaks, but I think it's a pretty smart bet to make. Bitcoin is almost 16-years old. It has established itself as a reserve asset for individuals, companies and countries. A reserve asset that is completely detached from the whims of central planners, transparent, predictable, scarce, and can be transmitted over the Internet. Bitcoin is an idea whose time has come. And more people are beginning to recognize this.

This is one of the beautiful aspects of the public company convertible-note-to-bitcoin strategy that Microstrategy has deployed over the last few years. They are able to harness the benefits of forces that are external to their core business to provide shareholders with value. Michael Saylor could stop buying bitcoin tomorrow and it wouldn't affect bitcoin's adoption in the medium to long-term. He continues to buy bitcoin, and encourages others to do the same, because he recognizes this.

Bitcoin is the apex predator of treasury assets for every individual, company, non-profit or government. The assets competing to be treasury assets are all centrally controlled, easily manipulable, and quickly losing favor. Earlier today, Federal Reserve Board Governor Christopher Waller came out and admitted that inflation is kicking the Fed's ass. They cannot tame it.

Waller may posture by saying that "submission is inevitable", but that doesn't make it true. There is simply too much debt and not enough dollars. The annual interest expense on the US Federal debt is now larger than our spending on national defense. The Fed, whether it wants to admit it or not, is going to have to monetize that debt via the debasement of the dollar. If you are using dollars as a treasury asset it is very important that you understand this and react accordingly by adopting a bitcoin strategy. This is what Michael Saylor is trying to make his peers in public markets understand.

Sure, his marketing tactics may seem a bit uncouth to many and the way in which he's expressing his belief through Microstrategy's accumulation strategy may seem risky, but it's hard to argue that his core thesis is flawed. Especially when you consider the fact that bitcoin has officially climbed to the strata of being seriously considered as a treasury asset for the most powerful nation state in the world. I listen to the All In podcast quite frequently and genuinely like the show. It is a good way to gain perspective on how Silicon Valley investors view the world. If I were to give Jason any advice it would be to take a step back and to apply one of the most frequently discussed topics of the last on his show, the emergence of AI and the importance of everyone to incorporate AI into their businesses and workflows as quickly as possible before they get left behind. The same mental model applies to the emergence of bitcoin as a dominant reserve asset.

It is imperative that every individual, company and government adopts a bitcoin treasury strategy if they want to be able to succeed moving forward without the inherent resistance that is introduced from storing the fruit of your labor in a money or money-like asset that does not preserve purchasing power over time. Just because Saylor has recognized this, moved aggressively to effectuate his understanding via his company's balance sheet, and vociferously markets the strategy to others doesn't mean he's wrong. As I said in my tweet last week, I personally prefer to hold actual bitcoin. That doesn't mean that Microstrategy and others haven't honed in on something unique and legitimate given their circumstances and access to certain financial tools.

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Final thought... I apologize for the extended hiatus. I hit a hard wall of writer's block over the last month. I think the time away from the keyboard has been good for me and the quality of this rag moving forward.

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, my dearest human family\ Happy New Year, my dearest animal family

Dear children of the Earth\ I wish you all a magical year

May it be utterly new\ Ever-changing\ New now

And may your journey say\ Life is amazing! I'm in a maze\ Life is awesome! Quite some awe\ Life is magical! True alchemy

I am human\ Black woman, I love you so\ Life-giver of my origin, the negro [nigiro]

I am\ Thus physical and non-physical meet

Life is to be\ As the elements are and compete\ And as they collide with one another\ One becomes aware of an other\ And so life sets on a journey\ To discover the other

Animal life is set to explore\ Allowing all experience the other has in store\ Life left to experience without a voice\ Until it discovers there is an 'I'\ And it has a choice

Human life is to be inside a human body\ Thus fusion between intellect and feeling\ Gets to express its perspective\ Inside infinity

Truly, a magical gift\ My Holy Trinity

And so from human life flow many voices\ As it navigates through infinite choices

Thus I say

Life is magic\ A gift for all that is here\ Perceived by too many as tragic\ Take care of your vision, I tell you, my dear [tell-a-vision]

Life is magic\ And words are spells\ Placing your aim beyond your reach\ It takes away efficiency from your speech

Life is magic\ Above all else\ Even when it has me feeling blue\ Seemingly left without a clue

Still I say

Perfection\ You are everything\ And I am of you

The source, the mirror\ And the reflection

@ ea39b0da:29a1710d

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@ 5627e59c:d484729e

De laatste zonnestralen van de dag streken over de eeuwige golven en weerkaatsten als lichtpuntjes in de ogen van schipper Joris terwijl hij nog een slok nam van zijn glazen fles die de vorm had van het hoofd van een oude monnik.

Gekregen van een oude vrouw uit de bergen van de Himalaya, zorgde de rum genaamd 'Old Monk' voor een verwarmend gezelschap op deze eenzame kerstnacht.

Joris had met zijn boot naar India gevaren nadat zijn vrouw hem had verlaten en hij een Indiër had ontmoet die had gezegd: "Waar ik vandaan kom, zijn vrouwen vrij en worden ze niet gezien als enkel en alleen de mooie lichamen die zij bezitten of als eeuwig bezit van een gezin."

Verward en ongelovig had Joris gekeken naar de wereld en besefte dat vrouwen inderdaad slechts gezien werden als hun fysieke schoonheid, genegeerd werden voor hun koesterende gevoeligheid en bekritiseerd werden door hun spontane intensheid en had hierop voor twee jaar lang gezocht in India naar deze vrije vrouwen met als enig resultaat een oude vrouw te ontmoeten die alleen in de bergen woonde en dagelijks haar wijsheid deelde met ieder luisterend oor.

Daar ging het doorzichtig monnikshoofd en verliet met een grote gebogen vlucht de hand van schipper Joris toen plots met groot kabaal de boot abrupt tot stilstand kwam en Joris hals over kop naar de andere kant van het dek geslingerd werd.

Het monnikshoofd verdween in het donker terwijl Joris zijn lichaam probeerde te lokaliseren en met zijn ogen wijd open zijn hersenen zo veel mogelijk informatie probeerde door te spelen.

Tevergeefs, want zijn enorme verschot werd gevolgd door een enkel groeiende verbazing, ongeloof en desoriëntatie toen de boot begon te kantelen.

De bundel licht, afkomstig van de mast van de boot, zwierde doorheen het donker en kwam te schijnen op een gigantische rots in het midden van de zee die werd bezeten door een oogverblindende glinstergroene schijn.

Uit het donker kwam het monnikshoofd, dat nog steeds in volle vlucht was, in het vizier van de lichtbundel en plaatste zich exact tussen de glinstergroene verschijning en Joris waarbij Joris doorheen het monnikshoofd gezegend werd met het zicht op een pracht van een zeemeermin die uitnodigend poseerde op de rots.

Met een luide plons viel Joris achterover in het water toen hij zich realiseerde dat vrouwen zichzelf ook lieten vangen door lust en hun uiterlijke opmaakcompetities en met een dankbare glimlach zonk hij naar de bodem van de zee en was opnieuw geboren.

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Zonneschijn\ Stralen, lachen, zo fijn\ Moge de wereld dankbaar zijn

De vrouw, mijn gevoeligheid\ Bron van creativiteit

Genietend niets doen in het gras\ Met wat brood en wat wijn in het glas