@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

How do you look at the things in your life?

• Do you focus on your physical problems or do you look forward to your resurrection body in heaven?

• Do you spend your time trying to fix the corruption in government or do you spend your time trying to bring as many people as possible home to heaven?

• When you see someone suffering do you first pray for their physical healing or do you pray for their spiritual healing?

• Do you work to fit in with the people around you or do you work to become more Christ-like?

• Do you crave entertainment or do you crave biblical enrichment?

• Do you focus more on your citizenship here on earth or more on your eternal citizenship?

• Do you seek fellowship with the people of this world or do you seek fellowship with your Savior?

• Do you look at people’s faults and how they hurt you or do you look at their hurt and separation from God and seek to bring them to Jesus?

• Do you spend your time on work and entertainment or do you spend your time studying the word of God, praying to God, and telling others about God?

Do you have an earthly or an eternal perspective?

Physical or Spiritual Needs

Jesus always had an eternal perspective. This event is just one example.

One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” (Luke 5:17-24) {emphasis mine}

In this familiar story a man who was paralyzed was brought to Jesus for healing. The paralytic’s friends worked so hard to get him physically healed that they hauled him up on the roof, dug through the roof, and lowered him down in front of Jesus. What was Jesus’s response? Jesus forgave the man’s sins. Every person there saw the man’s need to be able to walk, so he could take care of himself here on earth. Jesus saw the more important spiritual need and forgave his sins. After taking care of his eternal need, he also took care of his more earthly need and healed him physically.

Do you see people’s eternal need or do you just see their physical needs or worse, only see their earthly failings? Do you only see the hurt they are causing you or do you see the hurt they feel that comes from being separated from God?

Earthly or Heavenly Citizenship

I’ve been involved in politics for many years. I’ve been to precinct, county, state, and national conventions. I’ve written, debated, and defended political platforms and resolutions. I vote every election. All of that is good and useful, but is that where we are supposed to spend most of our time and effort? I’ve come to the conclusion that this is not what is most important.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. (Philippians 3:20-21)

We are told that our citizenship is in heaven. The majority of our effort should be put into support of our heavenly citizenship, not our earthly citizenship. That doesn’t mean that we should let our earthly kingdom fall apart and turn away from God, but it does mean we should be more focused on turning hearts and minds to Jesus than we are with setting domestic laws. We should be more focused on worshipping God than supporting politicians.

Sadly I see too many Christians who focus on pushing the “Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag” than they do pushing loyalty to Jesus. I see too many Christians who put all of their effort into electing the “right” politician instead of pointing people to the real Savior. I see too many Christians who try to pass the “right” laws instead of reading the law of God. I see too many Christians who put all of their effort into changing people’s minds to the “right” party instead of changing hearts and minds for Christ.

Do you really seek the kingdom of God or are you only focused on your earthly nation? Do you spend more time trying to win people for your political party than you do trying to win people for Christ? Our primary focus should be on the Millennial Kingdom of Christ and on eternity in heaven with Jesus, not on our earthly country.

Yes, we are to be a light in the world and we should seek the good of our earthly nations, but sharing the gospel, living a life honoring to God, and doing everything within our power to draw people to Jesus should be our focus and where we put most of our effort.

And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:17-22)

The Hurt They Cause or the Hurt They Feel

People today are selfish and hurtful. Most people are trying to be the greatest victim which means they are accusing others of being abusers, tyrants, or haters. People are impolite, inconsiderate, and sometimes downright hateful. How do you respond?

Do you attack back when you are attacked? Are you rude back when you are treated rudely? Do you only see how others hurt you or can you see the hurt behind the hurtful behavior?

Most of the people who are striking out with hate and anger are truly hurting people. They have been taught that they are evolved pond scum and feel hopeless. They have been mistreated by other hurting people. They have been taught to be victims and to hate anyone who may not be a victim. Instead of feeling hate, we should feel compassion.

In Matthew 18:21-35 Jesus tells a parable of a master who forgives his slave of his debts, but then that slave does not show the same mercy to another who owes him much less. The slave is rebuked.

Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ (Matthew 18:32-33)

God loved us before we loved Him. Jesus forgave us far more than we can ever forgive others. After all Jesus did for us, we should be forgiving like He is. We should see other’s hurt and eternal destination and have compassion on them. Instead of treating them the way we were treated, we should treat them like Jesus treated us. We should seek their eternal good above our momentary comfort.

And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. (Mark 6:31-34) {emphasis mine}

Just as Jesus had compassion for the crowd and their spiritual needs when He and His disciples had need of food and rest, in the same way we should sacrifice our egos to minister to the spiritual needs of those that may seem unlovable because of their eternal need.

May the Lord of Heaven help us to have an eternal perspective and to view everything and everyone with that eternal and spiritual perspective so we can faithfully serve Jesus and bring with us a plentiful harvest. May Jesus use us for His glory and for the eternal good of those around us.

@ 3c389c8f:7a2eff7f

Nostr's first algorithmic relay feed, was introduced by prolific Nostr user, builder, and supporter, utxo the webmaster and the Bitvora team. This idea takes control of your algorithms away from 3rd parties and puts it directly in the user's hands. The system was designed to give readers the ability to choose who and what they want to see in their Nostr feed, and at what frequency, while also encouraging discovery of new and interesting content. The design keeps in mind that users may not want to see posts that are inflammatory or contentious like ad-driven algorithms assume, but ones that simply generate interesting conversations. On top of that, it is also clearly designed to incentivize users to spend time offline and still keeping up with things that are important to them online.

After playing with the various settings, I have been pleasantly surprised with how well it works. To set up your individualized algo relay feed, you simply visit the landing page and sign in with your signer of choice. You will first be presented with some information about your network and the authors you interact with the most. This is a neat little bonus to me. I can clearly see the profiles that provide me with value, whether it be through learning, friendship, or professional (whatever that means). It gives me a good feeling to see who has been worthy of my attention, and I imagine if I were one to engage in defensive online discussions, the presentation of these authors might make me take a second look at my own behavior. Maybe the idea of anyone else doing that is a pipedream, but I like the thought. Just beyond the network information are some insightful statistics about the ways you engage online, like how often you post and reply.

Towards the bottom of the page are your actual settings:

As you can see, there are a variety of settings that all will impact the way that your personalized feed is built. Simply make some adjustments that feel right for you and click save. Your personalized algorithm feed will be available to you in any client that enables relay browsing, like Jumble and Coracle. It is worth trying out a couple of different formulas, as they are quite effective. Once you find a balance that feels right, you can just save the relay as a favorite for easy access, and basically forget about it. They relay will keep your settings to build your personalized Nostr feed whenever you connect. If at any time you need a change, just revisit the page and make your adjustments. The software is open source, making it possible to host your own for yourself and your friends.

I have found a lot of interesting content and people through the Nostr AlgoRelay. My first few settings adjustments didn't quite suit what I was looking for, but a few tweaks brought forth notes from some of my favorite people that I had missed but not stuff that was really outdated, a few notes from popular figureheads, and some things that my friends were engaging with that I did not know about prior. I highly recommend giving it a try, beyond a quick glance. The true value of this relay grows in time, as you go about life and come back to visit your Nostr world.

@ c1e9ab3a:9cb56b43

1. Introduction

The 21st century is marked by a rare confluence of demographic, technological, and monetary regime shifts. As birth rates fall below replacement levels across advanced and many emerging economies, global population growth slows and begins to reverse. At the same time, automation, AI, and robotics are increasing productivity at an accelerating pace. Simultaneously, trust in central banks and fiat currencies is waning, giving rise to calls for a return to hard currencies (e.g., gold, Bitcoin) and decentralized monetary systems.

These trends pose stark challenges to existing economic theories and institutions. This paper explores their implications through two opposing lenses: Keynesian economics and Austrian (Misesian) economics.

---

2. The Keynesian Reaction: Deflation, Demand Collapse, and the Paradox of Thrift

2.1. Demand-Side Fragility in a Shrinking Population

Keynesian theory is rooted in the principle that aggregate demand drives output and employment. A declining population implies a falling consumption base, which directly reduces aggregate demand. Combined with increased longevity, this trend leads to a larger retired population disinclined to spend, creating persistent demand shortfalls.

2.2. Technological Unemployment and Reduced Income Velocity

Rapid productivity gains from AI and robotics may displace large segments of labor, leading to unemployment or underemployment. With fewer wage earners and heightened uncertainty, consumption slows further. Even if goods become cheaper, widespread income insecurity constrains the ability to buy them.

2.3. The Paradox of Thrift

In times of uncertainty, both individuals and businesses tend to save more. Keynes argued that if everyone saves, aggregate demand collapses because one person’s spending is another’s income. Thus, increased saving leads to lower incomes, which reduces saving in aggregate—a self-reinforcing contraction.

2.4. Retreat from Fiat and Central Banking: A Catastrophic Constraint

Abandoning fiat currency and central banking removes the government’s ability to perform countercyclical policy. Interest rates cannot be lowered below zero; money supply cannot be expanded to fill demand gaps. In such a regime, deflation becomes chronic, debt burdens rise in real terms, and recovery mechanisms are neutered.

Conclusion (Keynesian):
The combined effect of declining population, rising productivity, and a hard money transition is catastrophic. It leads to a deflationary spiral, mass unemployment, debt crises, and secular stagnation unless aggressively offset by expansive fiscal and monetary policy—tools unavailable in a hard currency system.

---

3. The Misesian Rebuttal: Market Coordination and the Natural Order of Decline

3.1. Savings as Capital Formation

Mises and the Austrian School reject the paradox of thrift. Savings are not lost demand; they are deferred consumption that funds capital investment. Increased saving, in a free market, lowers interest rates and reallocates resources toward longer-term, higher-order production.

3.2. Deflation as a Signal of Progress

Falling prices due to productivity gains are not a crisis but a benefit. Consumers gain real wealth. Entrepreneurs adjust cost structures. As long as wages and prices are flexible, deflation reflects abundance, not failure.

3.3. Population Decline as Economic Recalibration

A shrinking population reduces demand, yes—but it also reduces the labor supply. Wages rise in real terms. Capital intensity per worker increases. There is no systemic unemployment if labor markets are free and responsive.

3.4. Hard Currency as Restoration of Market Coordination

Transitioning to a hard currency purges fiat-induced malinvestment and restores the price mechanism. With no artificial credit expansion, capital is allocated based on real savings. Booms and busts are mitigated, and long-term planning becomes reliable.

Conclusion (Misesian):
There is no crisis. A hard currency, high-productivity, low-population economy stabilizes at a new equilibrium of lower consumption, higher capital intensity, and rising real wealth. Deflation is natural. Savings are the seed of future prosperity. Government interference, not market adaptation, is the threat.

---

4. Final Synthesis

The Keynesian and Misesian views diverge on first principles: Keynes sees demand shortfalls and rigidities requiring top-down correction, while Mises sees market-coordinated adaptation as sufficient and self-correcting. As the 21st century evolves, this ideological conflict will shape whether the transition leads to depression or renewal.

---

References

• Keynes, J.M. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
• Mises, L. Human Action
• Hayek, F.A. Prices and Production
• Böhm-Bawerk, E. Capital and Interest
• Friedman, M. A Program for Monetary Stability

@ 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.

@ 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

@ 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

@ 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

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• RoboSats v0.7.7-alpha is now available!

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

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

Source: RoboSats.

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

What's new

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

Source: RoboSats.

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

New contributors

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

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

GitHub Repo

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• Version 1.3 of Bitcoin Safe introduces a redesigned interactive chart, quick receive feature, updated icons, a mempool preview window, support for Child Pays For Parent (CPFP) and testnet4, preconfigured testnet demo wallets, as well as various bug fixes and improvements.

• Upcoming updates for Bitcoin Safe include Compact Block Filters.

"Compact Block Filters increase the network privacy dramatically, since you're not asking an electrum server to give you your transactions. They are a little slower than electrum servers. For a savings wallet like Bitcoin Safe this should be OK," writes the project's developer Andreas Griffin.

• Learn more about the current and upcoming features of Bitcoin Safe wallet here.

What's new in v1.3

• Redesign of Chart, Quick Receive, Icons, and Mempool Preview (by @design-rrr).
• Interactive chart. Clicking on it now jumps to transaction, and selected transactions are now highlighted.

• Speed up transactions with Child Pays For Parent (CPFP).
• BDK 1.2 (upgraded from 0.32).
• Testnet4 support.
• Preconfigured Testnet demo wallets.
• Cluster unconfirmed transactions so that parents/children are next to each other.
• Customizable columns for all tables (optional view: Txid, Address index, and more)
• Bug fixes and other improvements.

Announcement / Archive
Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo
Website

@ 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

@ 3ffac3a6:2d656657

Securely Expose Your LND Node via Cloudflared and a VPS

Introduction & Motivation

Exposing your Lightning Network Daemon (LND) node to the public internet is essential for full participation in the Lightning Network. However, doing so introduces critical challenges in terms of security, privacy, and resilience against attacks.

This guide presents a solution using Cloudflare Tunnel and Cloudflare Access—a modern, secure method to expose services to the internet while maintaining strict control and minimizing exposure. We also compare this approach with more traditional methods such as SSH tunnels and VPNs (WireGuard/OpenVPN + socat/iptables) to highlight the trade-offs.

---

Traditional Exposure Methods: Risks and Limitations

SSH Reverse Tunnels (ssh -R, sshtunnel)

• ✅ Outbound-only: The connection is initiated from the LND host. The VPS cannot reach the internal network on its own.
• ⚠️ Metadata exposure: The LND host's IP address, SSH key, and connection metadata are visible to the VPS.
• ⚠️ Access control is coarse: Without extra measures, any process on the VPS can access the forwarded service.
• ⚠️ No service-layer authentication: Anyone reaching the exposed port can interact with LND, assuming the protocol is known.

VPNs (WireGuard/OpenVPN + iptables or socat)

• ⚠️ Blurs the security boundary: VPNs extend the network perimeter to remote clients. Misconfigured rules can inadvertently expose internal services.
• ❌ Allows lateral movement: If the VPS is compromised, it may gain full access to the LND host’s network.
• ✅ Traffic is encrypted, but requires correct firewalling and routing to be safe.
• ⚠️ Complexity: These setups often involve manual iptables, port forwarding, and tight coupling of services.

---

Cloudflare Tunnel + Access (This Guide)

This solution uses Cloudflared on the LND host to initiate an outbound connection to Cloudflare, which then routes traffic through a secured, authenticated TCP tunnel via a VPS.

• ✅ No exposed ports on the LND host.
• ✅ VPS cannot discover or access the LND IP—only forwards TCP packets to Cloudflare.
• ✅ Service Token authentication ensures only authorized clients can connect.
• ⚠️ Trust in Cloudflare is required. While your LND host is protected from the internet, Cloudflare can see metadata, and potentially, inspect unencrypted traffic.
• ❌ Cloudflare is proprietary infrastructure. You’re protected from attackers, but not necessarily from Cloudflare or governments.

---

Security & Privacy Comparison

| Feature | SSH Tunnel | VPN + socat/iptables | Cloudflare Tunnel + Access | | --------------------------------- | ------------------ | -------------------- | -------------------------- | | Encrypts traffic | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Initiated from LND host | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | | Prevents VPS from accessing LAN | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | | Hides LND IP from VPS | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | | Hides LND IP from tunnel provider | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | | Proprietary infrastructure | ❌ | ❌ | ⚠️ (Cloudflare) | | Fine-grained access control | ⚠️ (manual) | ⚠️ (manual) | ✅ (Service Token) | | Susceptible to VPS compromise | ⚠️ (metadata only) | ❌ (full access) | ✅ (isolated forwarding) |

---

Tutorial: Step-by-Step Setup

---

1. Set Up the Cloudflare Tunnel

1. In your Cloudflare Zero Trust dashboard, navigate to Access → Tunnels.
2. Create a new tunnel (e.g., lnd-tunnel).
3. Choose Use Token Authentication and copy the token.

4. Add a Public Hostname:

5. Hostname: lnd-external-access.mydomain.com

6. Service Type: TCP
7. URL: tcp://lnd:9735 (This is the internal Docker hostname and port for LND.)

---

2. Run Cloudflared on the LND Host

Assuming your LND node runs in Docker inside the bitcoin-net network:

.env

env TOKEN=your-cloudflare-tunnel-token

docker-compose.yml

```yaml version: "3.8"

services: cloudflared: image: cloudflare/cloudflared:latest command: tunnel --no-autoupdate run --token ${TOKEN} restart: unless-stopped env_file: - .env networks: - bitcoin-net

networks: bitcoin-net: external: true name: bitcoin-net ```

---

3. Create the Cloudflare Service Token

1. Go to Access → Service Auth.
2. Click Create Service Token.
3. Name it (e.g., lnd-access-client) and store both the Token ID and Token Secret—you’ll need these on the VPS and to configure access.

---

4. Define the Cloudflare Access Application

1. Navigate to Access → Applications → Add an Application.
2. Choose Self-hosted.

3. Set:

4. Application Name: lnd-external-access

5. Domain: lnd-external-access.mydomain.com

6. In Policies:

7. Add a policy:

   • Name: Allow via Service Token
   • Action: Service Auth
   • Include → Service Token: select the token you just created

---

5. Deploy the Forwarding VPS

a. Configure firewall:

bash sudo ufw allow ssh sudo ufw allow 9735/tcp sudo ufw enable

b. Set environment variables:

.env

env TOKEN_ID=your-service-token-id TOKEN_SECRET=your-service-token-secret HOSTNAME=lnd-external-access.mydomain.com LISTEN=tcp://0.0.0.0:9735

c. Run Cloudflared:

docker-compose.yml

```yaml version: "3.8"

services: cloudflared: image: cloudflare/cloudflared:latest ports: - 9735:9735 command: > access tcp --service-token-id ${TOKEN_ID} --service-token-secret ${TOKEN_SECRET} --hostname ${HOSTNAME} --url ${LISTEN} --loglevel debug env_file: - .env restart: unless-stopped ```

---

6. Configure DNS

In Cloudflare DNS:

• Create an A record:

• Name: lnd

• Type: A
• Value: VPS_IP
• Proxy status: DNS only

---

7. Configure LND

Edit lnd.conf to include:

ini externalip=lnd.mydomain.com

Restart LND to apply changes.

---

8. Test the Connection

From another LND node or client:

bash lncli connect <pubkey>@lnd.mydomain.com:9735

Check logs in LND and Cloudflared to confirm successful connection.

---

Final Notes

• This method preserves your network perimeter, even if the VPS is compromised.
• All traffic is authenticated with service tokens, and no direct access is possible to your LND host.
• You do trust Cloudflare, so weigh that risk in high-privacy environments.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

This update brings key enhancements for clarity and usability:

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

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

Learn how to get started with Sparrow wallet:

Release notes (v2.2.0)

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

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

What's new in v2.2.1

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

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ 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)

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Paris, France – June 6, 2025 — Bitcoin payment gateway startup Flash, just announced a new partnership with the “Bitcoin Only Brewery”, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Lightning payments.

Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack, shipping included.

The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.

Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented:

“Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”

Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.

By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.

For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.

Media Contact:
Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.com

About Flash

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

About Bitcoin Only Brewery

Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.

@ 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

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Liefde\ De samenkomst\ Van zien en zijn

Leven\ Het zijn en zien\ Een vorm gekregen

Sterven\ Een deur\ Die vrijheid geeft van vorm

En eeuwig leven\ Aan liefde

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

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

Coinbase is launching its first-ever branded credit card in partnership with American Express, set to roll out this fall. Called the Coinbase One Card, it will be available only to U.S. members of Coinbase One, the platform’s monthly subscription service. The card will offer 2% to 4% back in Bitcoin on everyday purchases, along with access to American Express perks.  

JUST IN: Coinbase launches credit card allowing users to earn up to 4% bitcoin back on every purchase pic.twitter.com/d6pdNZV4pi

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 12, 2025

This is a first-of-its-kind product for Coinbase, which previously only offered a prepaid debit card with Visa in 2020. 

“We see real potential in the combination of Coinbase and crypto with the powerful backing of American Express, and what the card offers is an excellent mix of what customers are looking for right now,” said Will Stredwick, head of American Express global network services, during the Coinbase State of Crypto Summit in New York.

The card is part of a larger push by Coinbase to expand its subscription-based services. Coinbase One costs $29.99/month and includes zero trading fees, higher staking rewards, and customer support perks. The company also announced a cheaper version—Coinbase Basic—for $4.99/month or $49.99/year, which includes fewer features.

Coinbase’s subscription business is growing fast. It brought in $698.1 million in Q1 2025, compared to $1.26 billion in trading revenue. According to William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey, this kind of recurring revenue is a big reason why long-term investors are sticking with the stock.

Launched in 2023, Coinbase One now has over a million members. The company has been steadily growing its ecosystem with products like its Base developer platform and a self-custody wallet. 

The company has long positioned Bitcoin at the center of its strategy—offering BTC custody services to institutions, supporting Bitcoin ETFs, integrating Bitcoin rewards into its products, and actively advocating for Bitcoin-friendly regulation in Washington. Coinbase also supports Bitcoin development directly through funding grants and engineering support. As the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the U.S., Coinbase continues to frame Bitcoin not just as an asset, but as the foundation of its long-term vision.

This post Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on Everything first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ 8671a6e5:f88194d1

## ParentCoin; limitless

There's this almost altcoin-like pitch of parenthood these days. I might’ve fallen for the shiny marketing of parenthood — cute baby pics, promises of legacy, the whole “you’ll change the world” vibe. I even heard a would-be mom tell me once (true story) "You know having children, you don't have to be afraid of it, as a dad it doesn't cost as much as you think". \ These people actually believe that. Just like they've fallen for every fiat-scam out there: housing, cars, holidays in France, Nike shoes, 50% taxation, religion and main stream media subscriptions.\ \ It’s 2025, and I’m revisiting this like I’d revisit an old Lightning Network post. \ \ Having kids is like chasing an altcoin airdrop with a slick but buzzword laden whitepaper and a charismatic founder who’s probably exit-scamming as soon as he gets enough of your money in their bank account (yeah you see what I did there). If you're lucky that founder might twerk from time to time to get your attention. But don't hope for too much. Now change that diaper and work an extra job to pay for all of it while inflation murders you.\ \ While you do all that, the most damaging thing about the Having Children Shitcoin (HCS) is the time it takes. It literally can't be shorted like some token on an exchange. It laughs, plays around with your tech gadgets, has to be potty trained (like some altcoin founders) and needs attention, education and a lot of proof of work.\ But the damage is the time. \ The time it takes to do all that, is actually replacing value with time. \ Bitcoin might be a product of proof of work, HCS is not a product but the actual proof of work without the value proposition.\ On top of that, the founder usually lives rent-free in your head your whole life, or even worse: you literally live together with her/him.\ Imagine Satoshi Nakamoto living at your house right now. Like... hi Satoshi.. love your bitcoin man.\ "Yeah, thanks moth**f****r, when are going to buy more skittle and some toilet paper? We ran out 10 minutes ago when I shit all over your dirty toilet, ..."\ "Eh, But Satoshi, why don't you go to the shop to..."\ "Shut up you f'ing a--hole, you made me! You made me what I am today! You liked me when I invented thàh bitcoin right? Now get me some toilet paper and here's a list of items I want from the supermarket! Lazy dumb idiot."\ "You'll clean up the kitchen right?"\ "Yeah yeah, rolls eyes, after my Netflix series man... now get out"\ \ This might sound far-fetched but founders of shitcoins steal your money, while children steal your time ànd money while you have to endure the founders as well.

Time is slowly damaging you while you live your life further and further away from the hard-money proposition. Hell, you even will need to sell some hard money to get by. Because it's a rotten world and children make you short sighted about the future (it limits you to maximum 3 years ahead in my experience with people around me).

Long-term is your enemy Short-term is your prison

You’re hyped for the long-term gains—multi-generational dynasties, just like the elites—but the fine print? It’s a mess. I’m here to unpack the hope, the scepticism, and the grim reality of raising kids in a world that feels like it’s speedrunning towards the absolute bottom. Let me make that clearer:

Our power (as bitcoiners) doesn't grow with these new generations, because we're being out-Idiocracy'd at a rate we can’t reproduce our way out of. Bitcoiners don’t scale. Even if you produce two children that both become die-hard bitcoin maximalists (with a nasal voice and a fondness for TD-sequential analysis.

The Mirage of Birth Having a kid is like snagging a hyped-up crypto airdrop. You’re told it’s “free” value — new life, pure joy, a legacy token dropped into your wallet. Everyone’s tweeting about it, posting ultrasound pics like they just scored 10,000 USDC worth of free shitcoin tokens.

But then the transaction fees hit, getting another place to live more accommodating, getting a school, adopt a dad body demeaner while torpedoing your social life and having no fun other than baking cakes and getting less pussy than a laser pointer with dead batteries. Adjust for inflation), sleepless nights, a vortex of money being vaporized and a lifetime of HODLing a position you can’t dump nor short. You’re basically the holder of last resort for a diatribe of chaos. You’re the entry, the trade, and exit liquidity. The real kicker? Society’s cheering you on while you’re stuck debugging your life and seeing your time drained. You’re frozen in time, while you should be scaling ideas. \ \ Or getting more out of life than being the channelling of funds to a future fiat oppressed kid. Meanwhile, parents (if they stay together that is... with relations with kids having their own version of the bitcoin “halving”, be it every 7 years or so. The parents follow the higher noble goal and get some love and nice moments in return. \ \ They’re stacking diapers instead of sats, living above a dry cleaner next to a subway station that rattles your soul. You can’t short kids, no matter how much you see the “childfree” crowd thriving. The childfree crowd is also not always that neutral, as many of them want this same life, because the marketing, as with many shitcoins is excellent. It makes life more fun, more fulfilling, more whole, while promising you cheap, fast and always immutable transactions. You’re getting duped. \ You buy more stuff, more hobbies no one cares about, and smile at other parents at these gatherings like you’re at the whale room at a bitcoin conference in a bear market. Keep smiling, bitches. That’s you’re life now. The numbers don’t lie. Society sells parenthood as a Bitcoin-level HODL, but the safety net is thinner than a layer-2 solution created by an Albanian exchange.

Raising kids is like betting your airdropped tokens will moon into a blue-chip asset that takes care of you when you’re old. You’re hoping they’ll HODL your hand, not rug-pull you into a nursing home when their “value” spikes. It’s a gamble: will they be decent humans or turn into TikTok zombies? Back in the day, kids were economic assets, working the farm or whatever. Now? You’re praying they don’t ghost you after college or at least recognize all the proof of work you did for them. And yes, you can have a big impact on them, that’s something to be proud of if it works out. But in the end, you are you, a person, with dreams, hopes and needs. \ And your children are too,... they’ll always win. \ \ Teaching them to ride a bike is fun, but it’s like a shitcoin pumping on a founder’s tweet: fleeting, followed by a crash whenever you see the effects of your years of de-progress and social isolation. Socializing with other parents is like making friends with a fellow prisoner of war in some jungle camp, ... you’ll have to be nice because it’s all you have left of society’s pleasantries. So you make small talk or a little joke about a toy someone’s kid has brought to the playground. The real world would see these people piss all over your grave if they could. They’re the figurehead on a ship of fools. And you play along because you’re a total bitch that got stuck in the routine of the famous HCS. Finding trust is hard, certainly in a city’s virtual prison camp where you play Russian roulette for other people’s amusement. It’s like running a Lightning node — fun in theory, but you’re babysitting a system that crashes when you need it most. The highs are real, but “kinda fun” doesn’t cut it when you’re debugging life. \ \ The 35k to 200k € it will cost you throughout your life, is not measurable as gains or losses. Look at the lovely baby pictures, look at their school results, the painting they made especially for you saying “I love you, for the best dad/mom in the whole world”. It hits straight to your brain’s nucleus accumbens. It’s all the balanced injection of the right shot of chemical balanced reward center (ventral tegmental area) food. \ And people with kids wanted that because that’s what the system and urges are. Kids are a leveraged position with no stop-loss, unlike an airdrop you can dump when the hype fades. You’re all-in, praying society doesn’t crash before your “asset” matures. In the meanwhile, you get the occasional surprise through your mesolimbic pathway. \ \ "Happy you" proof of stakes' the unhappy you later. You could be in the Maldives diving into clear water while talking to another “founder”. Funny how that works. \ Meanwhile, the childfree are staking their tokens and chilling. \ Parents aren’t building dynasties; we’re just trying not to get rug-pulled by daycare costs and rotten school-systems that learn our kids to be obedient consumers and non-thinking parrots. It’s a financial social anti-grind with no cure, and the charts, unlike fiat-corporate nonsense, don’t lie.

The elites stack power like blue-chip stocks, minting wealth across centuries. Us? Our kids might be fighting over the leftovers while they battle their way through university diversity and mediocracy. Future generations are supposed to carry the torch, but consumerism and cultural decay make it feel like we’re being out-Idiocracy’d. \ We need to think long-term, teach kids to code, stack sats, and question the system. But above all else, we need them to learn that being more evil is more just. Being complacent in this farce of a system means always, and I mean always, that the multi-generational monsters will prevail. \ \ They’re more stubborn, faster, better educated and they take the shortcuts you can’t have. We have hard money, they have “hard world”.

Conclusion

Eighteen years into this parenting thing (or eight minutes—who’s counting?), it’s clear: kids are a shitcoin airdrop with no exit strategy for you. \ The highs are sweet, the costs are brutal, and the long-term. A gamble on humanity in a world trending toward a broad brush of average things made normal.

Maybe it’s not about winning the bitcoin standard, but betting on something bigger than yourself within yourself, even if that market’s rigged with traps and detractors everywhere. Stack sats, stack diapers, and pray your kids don’t rug-pull your heart. \ Because, let’s face it, we’re not the Rothschilds — we’re just HODLing and hoping. \ While we should be fighting with the hardest money. \ While your baby cries for more food, I hear Michael Jackson sing “If you can’t feed your baby hi hee-hee, then don’t have a baybaah”. \ \ The sad part is, that we're all torn between chasing the fiat-created dreams and the reality that everything is in fact a shitcoin sapping either your time, money or effort. \ Even within the bitcoin space, we don't realize what the next step should be.\ It certainly isn't big families. That's for sure.

AVB\ tipjar: https://allesvoorbitcoin.be/donate/

@ 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.

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:

@ edeb837b:ac664163

On June 10th, 2025, four members of the NVSTly team traveled to New York City to attend the 2025 American Business Awards® ceremony, held at the iconic Marriott Marquis in Times Square. It was an unforgettable night as we accepted the Gold Stevie® Award for Tech Startup of the Year—this time, in person.

Meow (left), rich (center), MartyOooit (right)

Representing NVSTly at the event were:

• Rich, CEO & Founder
• Meow, CTO, Lead Developer, & Co-Founder
• MartyOooit, Investor
• Noob, Market Analyst (not shown in photos)

MartyOooit (left), rich (center), Meow (right)

While we shared the exciting news back in April when the winners were announced, being there in person alongside other winners—including eBay, AT&T, T-Mobile, HP Inc., and Fidelity Investments—made the achievement feel even more surreal. To be honored alongside billion-dollar industry leaders was a proud and humbling moment for our startup and a huge milestone in NVSTly’s journey.

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🎤 Team Interview at the Event

During the event, our team was interviewed about the win. When asked:

“What does winning a Stevie Award mean for your organization?”
“How will winning a Stevie Award help your organization?”

Here’s what we had to say:
📺 Watch the video

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A Big Win for Retail Traders

NVSTly was awarded Gold for Tech Startup of the Year in recognition of our work building a powerful, free social investing platform that empowers retail traders with transparency, analytics, and community-driven tools.

Unlike traditional finance platforms, NVSTly gives users the ability to:

• Share and track trades in real time
• Follow and receive alerts from top traders
• Compete on global leaderboards
• Access deep stats like win rate, average return, and more

Whether you're a beginner or experienced trader, NVSTly gives you the insights and tools typically reserved for hedge funds—but in a free, social format built for the modern investor.

---

Continued Recognition and Momentum

This award adds to a growing list of recognition for NVSTly:

• 🏆 People’s Choice Winner at the 2024 Benzinga Fintech Awards
• 🔁 Nominated again for Best Social Investing Product in the 2025 Benzinga Fintech Awards
• 🌟 Team members JustCoreGames and Lunaster are nominated for Employee of the Year (Information Technology – Social Media) in the 2025 Stevie® Awards for Technology Excellence

We’re beyond proud of what our small but mighty team has accomplished—and we’re just getting started. 🚀

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Thanks to the Stevie Awards for an incredible night in New York, and to our community of 50,000+ traders who’ve helped shape NVSTly into what it is today.
This win is yours, too.

Stay tuned—more big things are coming.

— Team NVSTly

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The event brought together some of the most respected names in tech, finance, and business.

@ f683e870:557f5ef2

This is what has been achieved on a per-project basis since receiving the grant from Opensats.

npub.world

Together with nostr:npub1wf4pufsucer5va8g9p0rj5dnhvfeh6d8w0g6eayaep5dhps6rsgs43dgh9, I have been refining npub.world to deliver real-time, WoT-powered profile search. These refinements include:

• implementing new desings by nostr:npub1t3gd5yefglarhar4n6uh34uymvft4tgu8edk5465zzhtv4rrnd9sg7upxq

• moving to the new Vertex DVM standard

• improved URL and npub parsing

Vertex crawler

Due to the architectural mistakes I made when designing the first version, I have embarked on a full rewrite of the crawler. The new architecture is simpler, more modular and more performant, and I am confident that it will provide a stable foundation on which to expand the Vertex offering with additional functionalities and analytics.

The major differences with the old version are:

• the DB and RWS interfaces have been broken up and simplified into smaller ones, each defined by their own packages

• a simplified, more efficient algorithm for updating random walks

• use of a custom-built cache to speed up graph computations

• a worker pool pattern to speed up event archiving

These changes have reduced the LOC by more than half while improving performance by \~10x. Of independent interest is the new pipe package, which can also be used by other projects to crawl the Nostr network.

Vertex Relay and DVMs

The Vertex relay has been updated several times, and now supports four DVM services:

• Verify Reputation

• Recommend Follows

• Rank Profiles

• Search Profile

For each service, customers can choose the algorithm to use by specifing the sort option to use between:

• followerCount

• globalPagerank

• personalizedPagerank

More information can be found at https://vertexlab.io/.

Overall, the relay has processed more than 100,000 DVM requests, with the current daily rate standing at around 1,500.

rely

Unsatisfied with the khatru relay framework, I've decided to build my own called rely, with the goal of being simpler and more stable. I've not just scratched a personal hitch: I've used khatru for several months now (the Vertex relay is still using it) and I encountered several issues, some of which I've solved with PRs to the underlying go-nostr library.

The main differences between khatru and rely:

• rely is much simpler, both architecturally and in terms of LOC (less than half)

• rely has a solid testing approach, where a random yet reproducible high traffic hits the relay to see what breaks

• rely implements a worker pool pattern where a configurable number of goroutines process the incoming requests from clients. On the other hand, khatru process them in the HandleWebsocket goroutine, which is spawned every time a client connects. This is dangerous in my opinion because if too many clients connect, memory usage would spike and the relay could potentially crash.

New DVM spec

I helped to draft this new proposal to update the DVM spec, which is one of the most controversial NIPs. While almost everyone agrees that it needs to change, there is no consensus on how to move forward. I believe our proposal is a sensible approach that defines discovery, usage, and error patterns while leaving flexibility for specific DVM kinds.

Looking at the future

Next I am going to move the Vertex relay to the rely framework and to the new crawler package. I expect that this will increase the performance and will make things more solid and more simple. After all of this refactoring and simplification, it will be time to finally add features to the Vertex offering. I have an ambitious roadmap consisting of:

• accepting ecash for DVM requests

• designing client-side validation schemes for the DVM responses

• expanding the pagerank algorithm to make use of mutes and reports

• adding an WoT impersonator check to npub.world

• adding a nip05 check to npub.world

• make a relystore package with some plug&play databases for rely.

@ f4a890ce:af88c4aa

執行摘要

市場經歷回調後進入盤整期，總市值維持在3.24兆美元，成交量與交易活躍度持續走弱，顯示投資人正等待新方向。本週建議聚焦以下數據：

比特幣關鍵支撐與壓力區:URPD密集支撐帶104,000美元下方，若價格跌破需提防市場加速回調；反之，若重回105,000美元以上，將確認技術反彈啟動。

現貨買盤動能指標:持續追蹤 Coinbase Premium Index、Korea Premium Index 是否維持正值，這將反映全球主力市場現貨買盤是否仍具支撐力。

ETF 資金動向:上週 BTC ETF 出現大幅流出，若本週流出持續，可能進一步壓抑市場信心；相對地，ETH ETF 資金流入能否維持，將是觀察主流資金偏好的重點。

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加密市場

本週加密貨幣市場總市值維持在 3.29 兆美元 左右，顯示市場基本面仍具穩定性。與此同時，當週總成交量下降至 617.22 億美元，反映出市場活躍度有所降低，投資者交易意願趨向謹慎。

https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/

市場情緒方面，恐懼與貪婪指數為 52，落於中性區間，表明投資者對市場前景沒有明顯的樂觀或悲觀情緒，情緒呈現平穩狀態。

https://www.coinglass.com/zh-TW/pro/i/FearGreedIndex

相對強弱指標顯示部分標的處於中性至弱勢區間，暗示短期內市場可能面臨獲利回吐或技術性修正的壓力，動能顯得較為不足。

https://www.coinglass.com/zh-TW/pro/i/RsiHeatMap

山寨幣季節指數維持在 20，這表明市場資金依然偏向於比特幣及其他主流加密貨幣，中小型代幣未獲得大量關注。

https://www.blockchaincenter.net/en/altcoin-season-index/

穩定幣市值上升至 251.548 億美元，反映出仍然有資金流入，但部分資金正積極尋求避險，或準備在市場調整後抓住更具吸引力的進場時機。

https://defillama.com/stablecoins

小結

本週加密市場總市值保持穩定，但成交量下降與相對強弱指標偏弱顯示市場交易熱情減弱，投資者情緒趨於保守。山寨幣季節指數維持低位，說明資金繼續集中在主流幣種，而穩定幣市值的上升則暗示投資者正在為未來可能的市場調整做準備。

未來，市場動向仍將受到資金流向和宏觀經濟變化的影響，密切關注這些指標將有助於判斷進一步的趨勢。

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衍生性商品

本週永續合約持倉規模達 143.36B，市場活躍度依舊保持在高水準，顯示出投資者對槓桿交易需求的持續熱情。

https://www.coinglass.com/zh-TW/pro/futures/Cryptofutures

當前市場資金費率為 0.0018%（多數交易所均呈正費率），表明市場中多頭情緒仍占上風，因近期價格短時間急跌導致市場資金費率數值不高。

https://www.coinglass.com/zh-TW/FundingRate

整體而言，本週總空單爆倉金額為 891.441M，而多單爆倉則達 1563.242M。數據顯示多單在高槓桿環境下的風險較大，特別是在 6 月 12 日與 6 月 13 日，市場出現大量爆倉事件，主要以多單清算為主。

https://www.coinglass.com/zh-TW/LiquidationData

清算熱力圖顯示，在約 $111,000 的價格區間，清算金額達到 142.1M，這一水平可能成為近期市場波動的關鍵阻力區，投資者需加以留意。

https://www.coinglass.com/zh-TW/pro/futures/LiquidationHeatMap

期權市場活躍，投資者在不同價格區間進行對沖與佈局：

$100,000 的看跌期權合約數量達 12.23K，總金額為 $29.37M，顯示部分投資者對市場下跌風險進行了防禦性的配置，短期可以視為支撐區間。

$110,000 的看漲期權合約數量達 13.69K，總金額為 $57.16M，反映出市場對上行潛力仍保持期待，但與看跌期權相比，金額與合約數量略有差距，表明市場預期存在一定分歧。

https://www.coinglass.com/zh-TW/pro/options/OIStrike

最大痛點位於 2025/06/27 的 $100,000，對應名義金額達 13.83B。這一數據顯示，在該價位附近存在大量未平倉部位，若市場走向觸發，可能會引起顯著的價格波動。

https://www.coinglass.com/zh-TW/pro/options/max-pain

小結

本週加密市場的衍生性商品數據顯示，儘管永續合約持倉依然維持在高位，但資金費率轉為低位正值，加上近期大量多單爆倉事件，市場風險提示逐漸浮現。期權市場則反映出市場參與者在看跌與看漲情緒上的分歧，最大痛點的持倉集中使得 $100,000 成為未來觀察市場動態的重要區間。建議投資者密切關注市場波動，審慎調整槓桿與對沖策略，從而在風險與機會間達成平衡。

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ETF

本週，加密貨幣衍生性商品市場出現明顯分歧，資金流向呈現不同趨勢。比特幣（BTC）ETF 方面，本週出現資金流出，金額達$47.8M。這一變化顯示，部分投資者對比特幣近期走勢保持謹慎，可能因宏觀經濟不確定性或市場波動風險而選擇調整資金配置。

以太坊（ETH）ETF 則呈現資金流入態勢，本週流入金額$25.3M。這表明，儘管部分資金從比特幣中撤離，但投資者對以太坊的技術升級及生態系統發展持續看好，認為 ETH 具有長期成長潛力。

https://coinmarketcap.com/zh-tw/etf/

小結

總體而言，本週加密貨幣衍生性商品市場展現出資金流向的明顯分歧：比特幣ETF出現淨資金流出，而以太坊 ETF 則錄得流入。投資者在謹慎配置資金以應對市場風險的同時，也在關注標的資產的長期發展潛力。

近期也有許多公司效仿 Strategy 開始囤積加密資產，這也有可能是以太坊 ETF 錄得流入的原因。未來，仍持續關注宏觀經濟及技術革新動態，將有助於更好地掌握市場轉折點與資金流向走勢。

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鏈上分析 | BTC

二級交易所比特幣儲備量持續下降，再度創下新低，顯示交易所上待售比特幣供給逐步減少，潛在拋壓持續減輕。

https://cryptoquant.com/asset/btc/chart/exchange-flows/exchange-reserve?exchange=all_exchange&window=DAY&priceScale=log&metricScale=linear&chartStyle=line

在地址分布方面，與上週相同，未見任何反轉跡象：10–100 顆的中型持倉地址數量持續探低，而 100–1k、1k–10k、10k 以上顆數的大型與超大型持倉地址數量均維持上升趨勢。

https://cryptoquant.com/community/dashboard/67e2481ba2a7203afd437b31

值得一提的是，除了我們在 CryptoQuant 上觀察到的數據（該平台已排除礦工與交易所地址），BGeometrics 的地址分布資料亦提供另一視角(全網地址)，本週各持倉區間地址數量普遍略減，僅 1 顆 BTC 以下的小額地址呈現增長。

https://charts.bgeometrics.com/bitcoin_distribution_addr_tables.html

特別是 100–1k BTC 的地址數量減幅較為顯著，但從 bitcoinmagazinepro 公布的 Addresses with Balance > 100 BTC 數據來看，大型持倉地址近期呈現積極囤積態勢，顯示市場中大資金仍在持續加倉布局，對中長期市場信心維持正向。

https://www.bitcoinmagazinepro.com/charts/addresses-greater-than-100-btc/

雖然近期 100 BTC 以上的地址持續瘋狂囤積比特幣，顯示市場對資產配置的需求大增，但從 Address Net Position BTC 30 days 數據來看，真正能影響市場價格波動與方向的，仍是持倉 1k–10k BTC 的地址群體。這類大戶的持倉變化對市場資金流向具有決定性影響，因此值得高度關注。筆者推測，近期大量囤積約 100 BTC 的地址，很可能是企業或機構出於資產配置需求購買比特幣，以作為對抗市場或宏觀經濟風險的一種策略手段。

100-1k Net Position BTC 30 days :https://charts.bgeometrics.com/reports/bitcoin_shark_30d_sum_g.html

1k-10k Net Position BTC 30 days :https://charts.bgeometrics.com/reports/bitcoin_whale_30d_sum_g.html

URPD 指標顯示市場在經歷回調後，價格依然穩固地維持在籌碼最集中、具備顯著支撐力的區域，這代表大多數投資者的平均持倉成本位於當前價格附近，形成強勁的防守層。

https://charts.bgeometrics.com/distribution_realized_price.html

近期鏈上數據顯示，Coinbase 益價指數在 0.049 以上，而韓國益價指數在 2 的高位，這反映出無論在美國或韓國市場，投資者對比特幣的購買意願仍相對強勁。此現象側面突顯全球主要市場對比特幣的需求支撐力。

Coinbase Premium Index:https://cryptoquant.com/asset/btc/chart/market-data/coinbase-premium-index?window=DAY&sma=0&ema=0&priceScale=log&metricScale=linear&chartStyle=line

Korea Premium Index:https://cryptoquant.com/asset/btc/chart/market-data/korea-premium-index?window=DAY&sma=0&ema=0&priceScale=log&metricScale=linear&chartStyle=line

小結

近期比特幣鏈上數據顯示，二級交易所儲備量持續下降，再次創下新低，反映出投資人將資產移出交易所、偏向長期持有的態勢。

地址分布方面，10-100顆的地址數量持續減少，而100-1k、1k-10k與10k以上顆數的地址數量穩步上升，特別是1k-10k的地址，從近30日淨持倉變化可見其對市場影響力仍為主導。

雖然100顆以上地址積極增持，可能代表企業為資產配置、防範風險所為，但尚不足以主導價格走勢。

URPD指標顯示市場回調後價格維持在籌碼最集中區間，支撐明顯。Coinbase 與韓國溢價指數分別穩於 0.049 和 2，顯示美韓市場買盤意願仍強。

整體而言市場結構偏向於短期健康回調，但仍需持續觀察外部宏觀變數對資金流向的影響。

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總體經濟

聯邦基金有效利率持續維持在 4.33%，這表明在當前高利率政策下，資金成本依然居高不下，對整體風險資產形成持續壓力。

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FEDFUNDS

隨著 6 月 18 日 FOMC 會議臨近，市場普遍預期當前利率大概率將維持在 4.25%-4.50% 區間；而6 月及 7 月的會議幾乎可以確定不會降息。值得注意的是，目前市場對於 9 月 17 日 會議出現降息一碼的預期已高達 56.8%，這一轉變反映了部分投資者對未來資金回流的期待，同時也透露出市場對持續高利率環境的謹慎態度。

https://www.cmegroup.com/cn-t/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html

消費者物價指數 (CPI) 微微上升至 2.38%，顯示通膨壓力還算可控；而失業率則穩定在 4.2%，反映出勞動市場的基本韌性。但在高利率與流動性受限的背景下，這些正面基本面數據未能對加密貨幣價格產生足夠支撐。

失業率:https://www.macromicro.me/series/37/unemployment-rate

消費者物價指數（CPI）:https://www.macromicro.me/series/128/consumer-price-index-sa-yoy

小結

綜合來看，加密市場在高利率政策和緊縮流動性的雙重影響下，短期內仍面臨較大價格波動風險。儘管 6 月和 7 月的會議預期將維持現有利率水平，但 9 月會議中降息一碼的高預期可能為未來市場帶來資金回流的契機。投資者應持續關注 FOMC 會議及最新經濟數據，謹慎調整策略。

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新聞

美國證券交易委員會主席表示正在為 DeFi 平台製定「創新豁免」政策

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/06/09/u-s-sec-chair-says-working-on-innovation-exemption-for-defi-platforms

彭博：韓國執政黨希望允許公司發行穩定幣

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/06/10/south-koreas-ruling-party-wants-to-allow-companies-to-issue-stablecoins-bloomberg

眾議院標誌著市場結構改革的勝利，參議院開始通過穩定幣法案

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/06/11/senate-begins-passage-of-stablecoin-bill-as-house-marks-market-structure-wins

川普：政府將致力於建立「清晰、簡單」的加密框架

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/06/12/donald-trump-administration-will-work-toward-clear-and-simple-crypto-frameworks

Shopify 將在 Coinbase 平台上為全球商家提供 USDC 支付服務

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/06/12/shopify-to-enable-usdc-payments-on-coinbase-s-base-for-merchants-worldwide

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@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

From designer Anna Cairns, the workhorse monospace typeface is rooted in feminist theory.

Across CMM Coda’s subtly imperfect, analogue-inspired letterforms – based on the IBM Selectric typewriter’s typeface, Dual Basic – Anna practically and conceptually brings together the feminist legacy of software and typewriters with the aesthetic sensibilities of the genre associated with the industry. Additionally, CMM Coda enables Anna to explore her intrigue in the blurry terminology used in text production, such as typing, coding and writing, “especially now that most text is created digitally,” Anna says, with typefaces being software in their own right. “We also associate a certain look with each of these modalities,” she continues, “so my idea was to create a typeface that can jump all of these genres simply through a play with white space,” an approach that resulted in CMM Coda’s multiple styles.

Learn more about Comma at https://commatype.com/, a new foundry founded by the Berlin-based type designer Anna Cairns.

Continue reading at https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/comma-type-cmm-coda-graphic-design-project-110625

https://stacker.news/items/1004142

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The Second Coming — W.B. Yeats

I don’t know what I want to write about today. There are a lot of converging currents coursing through my reality right now. I feel we’re in an interregnum of sorts between what was and what’s to come. I guess you could simply describe that as the present, something that has ever been the case. But this moment feels more intense like something big is dying and something else, God knows what, is on its way “to be born".

I exchanged emails recently with an old friend, and he sent me a link to a David Foster Wallace commencement speech entitled “This Is Water.” In it Wallace tells a joke of an old fish seeing two younger fish swimming by and asks them “How’s the water?” Later on one of the younger ones asks the other, “What is water?”

Wallace hanged himself a few years after the speech. Apparently he was unable to maintain the perspective he laid out in it which was that we can choose our attitude toward what we experience in any moment, no matter how much aversion we habitually associate with it. That the act of choosing equanimity constitutes the freedom we seek. That this freedom to choose is ever present, in fact the ability to direct our attention and consciousness is itself the water. And yet out of habit we are often oblivious to this most fundamental reality.

My friend’s email was in response to my description of the dissolution I see right now. Everything seems fake. The news, the governments, the edicts of reputationally bankrupt institutions zombying along as though the last five years never happened, like the proverbial emperor still purporting to rule though everyone can now see his pale, unsightly posterior.

Yes, the coffee shops are still open, people still go on vacation with their families. Let’s go to Paris, Rome, the Greek Isles! Let’s pretend everything is as we had imagined in the before times when our goals and aspirations seemed real, when the glitchy pixels in the matrix hadn’t yet revealed themselves so glaringly.

Maybe this was always the case. All our games were always professional wrestling, a scripted charade for which we willingly suspended disbelief. But like the roadrunner in the cartoon, we have since become aware we have run out of road, four steps beyond the cliff edge.

. . .

Wallace in his speech described such indignities as being stuck in traffic after a long day of work, or in a long grocery checkout line. The mind’s usual programs run, cursing everyone and everything around us. Instead of contemplating the miracle of human existence we feel only disgust and impatience. We want to finish with the run, the work, the obligatory hour so we can move on to something presumably more pleasant.

I can handle such day to day discomforts, but the overwhelming sense of dissolution is undermining the aims to which I had once attached meaning. I set up my life for freedom and prosperity, and now, just as I have my ducks in a row, there’s an imminent magnetic pole shift or a financial and social collapse that threatens to counterfeit my efforts.

It’s easy to opt out when you’re losing, to decry the injustice, unfairness and pointlessness of the game when you weren’t getting much from it anyway. When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose, to paraphrase Bob Dylan. But as a late bloomer wanting to sample the wine of the Gods at long last, it’s dispiriting in a different way, like saving up for a new car and seeing it stolen before you had a chance to drive it.

That’s the shallow version, distress at discovering just before getting the things I had always wanted I was actually playing not just the wrong game, but a false one. That I’m upset I can’t gratify my ego in the way I had hoped, that I can’t get the pat on the back I had craved because the back-patters decided to tear up the playing field just as I finally became a contender.

The deeper version is you only get better at the game through your own efforts to discover what’s true, your own self-mastery and access to a measure of wisdom. This process transforms your life from a tedious and difficult slog to a state of ease and flow. You are more connected, more in touch with yourself and the forces within. You can handle aversion, in fact voluntarily invite it at times to hone your mind and access your resourcefulness. You love your life and connect to the people in it. You have great hope and aspirations for the future. You believe in God, or the Tao or whatever force animates all things, you can navigate the world’s imperfections and do not want it to fall into chaos and disorder.

The task of remembering this during the run, the traffic jam or the grocery store checkout line is not so difficult. But would it be the same during periods of violence and resource scarcity where literal survival is at stake, the rules of which are set by biology and physics rather than the incentives of human society?

Yes, I’d rather be eating dinner at home than sitting in traffic, but I can appreciate that I’m able to sit comfortably in my climate controlled pod, listening to music while traversing these distances rather than foraging for food in the harsh wild. Yes, this old Portuguese lady is taking an eternity to get the groceries into her pushcart, but I can imagine how it is to be old and slow and still have to shop and eat, and it’s trivial to cut her some slack.

I’m not claiming I always have this perspective, but I surely am able to channel equanimity during the ordinary aversion that arises in one’s day to day life. I do this while running on the track, the aches and pains, the discomfort, the wanting to get it over with is a battle I fight every week by my own choosing. But imagine if instead of running 10 minute miles I was forced to do them in six. It’s not so easy to keep a calm, conscious mind while gasping for breath.

The truth is these calamities I imagine are not yet real, the asteroid has not yet hit, the economy not yet collapsed. I have never experienced the kind of hardship I dread. I am ever in the grocery line, the 10-minute mile run, the traffic jam, never the concentration camp or Mad Max-style post-apocalypse. Why not just deal with that when the time comes, if it ever comes? Why die a thousand deaths like the proverbial coward rather than the one required of the brave man?

I suppose it comes down to wanting to be prepared. There’s nothing you can do if an asteroid destroys the entire earth, but if your national government devolves into tyranny, you could get out before it’s too late. There’s the adage one should only concern oneself about the things one can control, but the rub is in deciding what’s in your power and of what to let go. It’s an easy out, per the adage, to narrow your locus of control to doing your job and paying your bills. You can too easily forget that which job you have, where you live, what preparations to make are also matters in which you have a choice.

Even if you believe a magnetic pole shift could spill the earth’s oceans across continents within the next few decades — I find this plausible — you could move to the mountains to get ahead even of that. A fatalist, non-questioning attitude can be a psychological salve in times of upheaval, but “salve” and "“slave” are but a typo apart.

. . .

When I was six someone broke into my house. I was still awake, and while pretending to be asleep, I heard him rummaging through my belongings, stealing an old Fisher Price turntable and a black and white TV. My father died four years later, and at 10, I remember thinking as the oldest boy in the house, it was now my responsibility to defend my family if anything like that, or worse, happened again. Of course, I wasn’t really capable of doing this, and I knew it, but I would have to try, futile as it might be.

I imagine that psychology has stayed with me as an adult — it’s up to me to see around corners, assess the various threats to me and my family, even if some of them are too daunting for any one individual. I could let it go, I suppose, it would probably even be healthy to do so. But there is a part of me that wonders whether people like me, people who feel this irrational responsibility, are the those who survive cataclysms and shocks. I surely am not the only one who feels this way and quite likely would not be especially effective given I don’t have engineering, outdoorsman or serious combat skills. But that hyper-vigilance toward and preparation for worse-case scenarios is something someone has to do, someone who would likely be selected for the role by the particular accidents of his upbringing.

. . .

There is another way to look at this, of course. The notion one ought to step up in the face of adverse circumstances, even extreme ones, is valid. But perhaps the best way to prepare is not endlessly to assess potential threats like some black ops CIA outfit, but to have a calm and detached mind. Should the signs appear, a poised and observant person would take action insofar as he is able. That you, having trained your attention away from default habits of comfort-seeking and dread and toward conscious observation, will do what’s required if and when the time comes. That you can trust yourself, and by that I mean trust in God, so to speak, to guide your awareness and actions for the most effective and adaptive response.

The Fourth Turning might well be upon us, indeed “the centre [may not] hold.” There is no guarantee your response will ensure you or those you love survive. There has never been such a guarantee for anyone, only the freedom to direct your attention, to choose your state of mind, to the extent you are capable, in the conditions that arise. To respond to the older fish that the water is okay, it’s pretty nice actually.

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Ik hou van de natuur en van verbinding maken\ Van diepgang en van mensen raken

Van creatief schrijven en programmeren\ Van speels bewegen en nieuwe dingen leren

Ik hou van leven en van dromen\ En van mensen zien\ Hun diepste wensen uit doen komen

@ 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

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Final thought...

East Coast aesthetics over everything.

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

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@ f7d424b5:618c51e8

GAMERS, we're back in the virtual studio for another sophisticated and gentlemanly discussion on the most important topic in the media landscape: huge anime tiddies on the best and baddest Bodytype Bs you've ever seen. I think the VA strike ended too or something.

Stuff cited:

• SB steam charts
• Commentary by Megan Shipman
• Mujin video that shows the leaked discord messages from the SAG discord

Obligatory:

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Reminder that this is a Value4Value podcast so any support you can give us via a modern podcasting app is greatly appreciated and we will never bow to corporate sponsors!

@ 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.

@ 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

@ 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.

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🚀 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

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🔧 Womit wir arbeiten

• 💬 Matrix zur Koordination & Diskussion

• 💻 git(hub) zur offenen Entwicklung und Dokumentation

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📡 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.

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🧠 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

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📎 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.

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

So often Christians focus on God’s love and ignore His judgment. They tell people they need to be saved, but leave out from what they need to be saved. Fifty or a hundred years ago, almost every American knew the basics of the Bible, what sin is, what the judgment of Hell is, and that the God of the Bible is our Creator. Today, most people in America and the world know very little of that. Phrases like, “Trust Jesus and be saved,” mean very little. The person you are talking to may be silently thinking, “Who is Jesus? Why should I trust Him? What do I need to be saved from?”

Most Christians, especially from Evangelical circles, have been steeped in the phrase “Be saved,” but how many have thought carefully about from what they are being saved? If we have trouble answering, “from what?”, how can we explain it to those who don’t know Jesus?

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. (Romans 5:8-11) {emphasis mine}

Primarily we are saved “from the wrath of God.” We are also reconciled which saves us from separation from God.

We are also told that we are rescued [saved] “from the wrath to come.”

And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10) {emphasis mine}

Then one might ask, “What right does God have to tell me what to do and to get mad at me?”

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5) {emphasis mine}

Why does God get to set the rules? Because He made all things. The Creator gets to set the rules for His creation. It isn’t just ‘might makes right,’ but the one who spoke everything into being gets to set the rules for His creatures just like He set the rules for how everything in the universe works.

Many might claim, “but surely God can’t expect us to be perfect? Nobody is perfect.”

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16) {emphasis mine}

Jesus doesn’t expect more than He has given. He went through every temptation we have experienced, including trials and hardships we can’t imagine, and yet was without even one sin. He is the perfect example of what we should be. Even more amazingly, he understands that we are unable to live up to His standard, so He came to earth, suffered, died, and rose again, so we could be reconciled to Him. All we have to do is repent of our sins, trust Him, and submit to Him. How can we not put our faith in Him after all He did for us?

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus paid the penalty. He took our sins, so we can receive His righteousness. This is a trade everyone should be willing to make, but sadly most refuse — some willfully, but some because they haven’t heard the good news. Hopefully all Christians will faithfully share the gospel with those around them.

May the perfect Savior guide us in His perfect will and help us to rightfully share the gospel with all those around us.

Trust Jesus

@ 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

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

CANNES, FRANCE – May 2025 — Bitcoin mining made its mark at the world’s most prestigious film gathering this year as Puerto Rican director and producer Alana Mediavilla introduced her feature documentary Dirty Coin: The Bitcoin Mining Documentary at the Marché du Film during the Cannes Film Festival.

The film puts bitcoin mining at the center of a rising global conversation about energy, technology, and economic freedom.

Dirty Coin is the first feature-length documentary to explore bitcoin mining through immersive, on-the-ground case studies.

From rural towns in the United States to hydro-powered sites in Latin America and the Congo, the film follows miners and communities navigating what may be one of the most misunderstood technologies of our time.

The result is a human-centered look at how bitcoin mining is transforming local economies and energy infrastructure in real ways.

To mark its Cannes debut, Mediavilla and her team hosted a packed industry event that brought together leaders from both film and finance.

Dirty Coin debut ceremony at the Marché du Film

Sponsors Celestial Management, Sangha Renewables, Nordblock, and Paystand.org supported the program, which featured panels on mining, energy use, and decentralized infrastructure.

Attendees had the rare opportunity to engage directly with pioneers in the space. A special session in French led by Seb Gouspillou spotlighted mining efforts in the Congo’s Virunga region.

Dirty Coin builds on Mediavilla’s award-winning short film Stranded, which won over 20 international prizes, including Best Short Documentary at Cannes in 2024.

That success helped lay the foundation for the feature and positioned Mediavilla as one of the boldest new voices in global documentary filmmaking.

Alana Mediavilla speaks at the Marché du Film — Cannes Film Festival

“If we’ve found an industry that can unlock stranded energy and turn it into real power for people—especially in regions with energy poverty—why wouldn’t we look into it?” says Mediavilla. “Our privilege blinds us.

“The same thing we criticize could be the very thing that lifts the developing world to our standard of living. Ignoring that potential is a failure of imagination.”

Much like the decentralized network it explores, Dirty Coin is spreading globally through grassroots momentum.

Local leaders are hosting independent screenings around the world, from Roatán and Berlin to São Paulo and Madrid. Upcoming events include Toronto and Zurich, with more cities joining each month.

Mediavilla, who previously worked in creative leadership roles in the U.S. — including as a producer at Google — returned to Puerto Rico to found Campo Libre, a studio focused on high-caliber, globally relevant storytelling from the Caribbean.

She was also accepted into the Cannes Producers Network, a selective program open only to producers with box office releases in the past four years.

Mediavilla qualified after independently releasing Dirty Coin in theaters across Puerto Rico. Her participation in the network gave her direct access to meetings, insights, and connections with the most active distributors and producers working today.

The film’s next public screening will take place at the Anthem Film Festival in Palm Springs on Saturday, June 14 at 2 PM. Additional screenings and market appearances are planned throughout the year at Bitcoin events and international film platforms.

Dirty Coin at the Cannes Film Festival

Watch the Trailer + Access Press Materials

📂 EPK
🎬 Screener
🌍 Host a Screening

Follow the Movement

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dirty_coin_official/
Twitter: https://x.com/DirtyCoinDoc
Website: www.dirtycointhemovie.com

@ 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

@ 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.

@ b6dcdddf:dfee5ee7

Bitcoiners around the world are helping to build a safe, permanent home for 50+ orphans in Bugiri, Uganda 🇺🇬—complete with dorms, classrooms, gardens, and Bitcoin education.

Project by @orphansofuganda

https://geyser.fund/project/buildingabitcoinfundedorphanagehomeinuganda

https://stacker.news/items/1002532

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

In het hart van een gepensioneerde operazangeres ontstond een stemmetje. Het stemmetje klonk verrast. "He," ging het hart. "Ik heb een stemmetje gekregen! Hoe kan dit? Kan iemand me horen? Zouden mijn gedachten me kunnen horen?" vroeg het stemmetje, niet wetend aan wie. Want de gedachten hoorden het niet. Zij waren zo druk bezig met het verleden en hadden een grote angst dit te verliezen. "Weet je nog?" gingen de gedachten. "Voor duizenden mensen heb ik gezongen! Avond na avond! Tienduizenden mensen hebben me toegejuicht! Wat waren ze onder de indruk! Luister! Ik kan het nog steeds!" "He," ging het hart. "Hoor je me dan niet? Het ging toch helemaal niet om dat gejuich. Weet je dan niet meer hoe ik me volledig bloot gaf aan die mensen. Mijn diepste en meest persoonlijke verhalen waren te horen in mijn liederen. Daar draaide het toch om? De mensen waren niet enkel onder de indruk. Hun harten hebben mijn verhalen gevoeld en konden zo kennis geven aan hun gedachten. Is dat niet wat echt telde?" Maar de gedachten waren volop aan het zingen voor de ene persoon die ze konden vinden die wou luisteren. "He," ging het hart. "Ook in dit moment zijn mijn liederen te horen door vele gedachten en te voelen door vele harten over de hele wereld. Heb ik dan geen rust verdiend? Kan ik niet even genieten van de rust die in dit moment te vinden is, maar jullie van me afnemen?" Maar de gedachten waren nog steeds volop aan het zingen.

@ 502ab02a:a2860397

“นาฬิกาชีวิตระดับยีน” ที่ไม่ได้เดินตามเข็ม แต่เดินตามแสงแดด ลมหนาว กลิ่นฝน และแม้กระทั่งความเงียบในฤดูหนาว... โลกที่เรียกว่า Epigenetic Clock ซึ่งไม่ได้แค่บอกอายุ แต่ยังเปลี่ยนพฤติกรรมของเซลล์ตามฤดูกาล เหมือนกับที่ใบไม้เปลี่ยนสีโดยที่ต้นไม้ไม่ได้ตั้งใจ

แม้เราจะคิดว่าอายุถูกวัดด้วยวัน เดือน ปีที่ผ่านไป แต่ในทางชีววิทยาอายุจริง ๆ ของร่างกายเราวัดด้วยสิ่งที่เรียกว่า epigenetic clock หรือนาฬิกาชีวิตที่ฝังอยู่ในระดับยีน ซึ่งไม่ได้เปลี่ยนเพราะตัวเลขในบัตรประชาชน แต่เปลี่ยนเพราะปัจจัยรอบตัวที่มากระทบชีวิตเราในทุก ๆ วัน รวมถึงแสงแดดที่สาดลงมาบนผิวในแต่ละฤดูกาลด้วย ยีนของเรานั้นมี “สวิตช์เปิด-ปิด” ที่ควบคุมโดยกลไกที่เรียกว่า epigenetic marks หรือการเปลี่ยนโครงสร้างดีเอ็นเอเล็กน้อยโดยไม่เปลี่ยนรหัสพันธุกรรมเดิม คล้ายกับที่โน้ตเพลงยังเหมือนเดิม แต่เปลี่ยนจังหวะหรือเสียงเครื่องดนตรีที่ใช้บรรเลง

นักวิจัยพบว่าในสัตว์ที่อาศัยอยู่ในเขตอบอุ่น เช่น หนู ฮอร์โมนการสืบพันธุ์ไม่ได้หลั่งเท่ากันทั้งปี แต่หลั่งตามแสงที่สั้นหรือยาว ซึ่งเป็นตัวส่งสัญญาณให้ระบบ epigenetic ไปปรับยีนที่เกี่ยวข้องกับการผลิตฮอร์โมนเพศ และแม้แต่การสะสมไขมัน โดยยีนบางตัวจะถูก “เมทิลเลต” หรือปิดไว้ในฤดูหนาว แล้วเปิดออกใหม่เมื่อเข้าสู่ฤดูใบไม้ผลิ เพื่อให้ร่างกายกลับมาใช้งานได้อย่างเหมาะสมในฤดูที่มีอาหารมากขึ้น กระบวนการนี้ไม่ใช่เรื่องเฉพาะสัตว์ เพราะในคนก็เกิดขึ้นเหมือนกัน แค่เราไม่รู้ว่ามันกำลังทำงานอยู่ใต้ผิวหนังแบบเงียบ ๆ เท่านั้นเองครับ

ไม่ใช่แค่ฮอร์โมนเท่านั้นที่ขยับตามฤดู แต่ภูมิคุ้มกันเองก็เปลี่ยนตามจังหวะ epigenetic ด้วย นักวิจัยจากมหาวิทยาลัยเคมบริดจ์พบว่าในฤดูหนาว ยีนที่เกี่ยวข้องกับการอักเสบ (inflammatory genes) จะถูกเปิดใช้งานมากขึ้น ในขณะที่ยีนที่เกี่ยวกับการซ่อมแซมและการควบคุมภูมิคุ้มกันกลับถูกปิดบางส่วน ผลก็คือคนเรามีแนวโน้มจะเจ็บป่วยจากโรคอักเสบหรือภูมิแพ้ในฤดูหนาวมากกว่าฤดูร้อน ซึ่งเป็นฤดูที่ระบบภูมิคุ้มกันถูกเซ็ตใหม่ให้โฟกัสที่การซ่อมแซมมากกว่าโจมตี การทำงานเหล่านี้ไม่ได้เกิดแบบสุ่ม แต่สอดคล้องกับแสงแดดที่เปลี่ยนแปลงไปในแต่ละเดือน ราวกับว่าร่างกายเรามี ปฏิทินลับ ที่คอยกางออกให้ยีนอ่านอยู่เสมอ

สิ่งที่น่าสนใจมากกว่านั้นคือ แสงแดดสามารถย้อนวัย epigenetic ได้จริง โดยเฉพาะในรูปของ “early morning sunlight” ซึ่งมีแสงอินฟราเรดยาว ๆ (near-infrared light) ที่ช่วยกระตุ้นการทำงานของ cytochrome c oxidase ในไมโตคอนเดรีย ทำให้ผลิตพลังงานได้ดีขึ้น ลด oxidative stress และกระตุ้นยีนที่เกี่ยวข้องกับการซ่อมดีเอ็นเอ มีงานวิจัยที่แสดงให้เห็นว่าแสงตอนเช้าอาจช่วยลดความเร็วของ epigenetic aging ได้ดีกว่าการออกกำลังกายเสียอีก หากทำอย่างสม่ำเสมอและถูกจังหวะในแต่ละฤดู

ในมุมของการรักษาโรค NCD หรือโรคที่เกิดจากวิถีชีวิตแบบพัง ๆ โอเคเราอาจเคยได้ยินเรื่องอาหาร การออกกำลังกาย หรือการนอน แต่มีน้อยคนที่จะพูดถึงการ “ตั้งนาฬิกาชีวิตให้ตรงกับฤดู” เพราะวงจร epigenetic ไม่ได้ถูกปรับด้วยกิจกรรมแค่วันต่อวัน แต่มันตอบสนองกับช่วงเวลาที่ลึกกว่านั้น คือ “ฤดูชีวิต” แบบ circannual ซึ่งเป็นเหมือนเมตาบอสเต็มรูปแบบของ biological season ที่ธรรมชาติเขียนสคริปต์ไว้แล้ว เราแค่ต้องฟัง

สิ่งที่เราจะทำได้จริงแบบง่าย ๆ คือ การอยู่กลางแดดในฤดูที่ควรอยู่กลางแดด ไม่ใช่ปิดผ้าม่านแล้วเปิด Netflix ทั้งวัน ปล่อยให้แสงจริงกระทบตาและผิวเป็นประจำโดยเฉพาะในช่วงเวลา 7:00 – 9:00 น. และอย่าลืมว่าฤดูไม่ใช่มีไว้แค่เปลี่ยนเสื้อผ้า แต่เปลี่ยนวิธีที่ร่างกายผลิตฮอร์โมน ซ่อมแซมตัวเอง และแม้แต่สร้างเซลล์สมองใหม่ ๆ ซึ่งกระบวนการทั้งหมดนี้ต้องการจังหวะที่ตรงกับปฏิทินของธรรมชาติ

ถ้าความแก่คือผลรวมของความผิดจังหวะเล็ก ๆ ทุกวัน การกลับไปอยู่กับฤดูกาลอีกครั้ง อาจเป็นเหมือนการตั้งวงดนตรีให้เข้าคีย์ใหม่ ฟังได้ไพเราะยิ่งกว่าเสียงใดในโลก และทำให้ “ยีนของเรา” เล่นบทเพลงแห่งชีวิตได้ยาวนานขึ้นอย่างสง่างาม แบบที่ไม่ต้องพึ่งอะไรเลยนอกจากแสงจากฟ้าและความเข้าใจลึก ๆ ที่ธรรมชาติมีให้เราตั้งแต่เกิด

#pirateketo #กูต้องรู้มั๊ย #ม้วนหางสิลูก #siamstr #SundaySpecialเราจะไปเป็นหมูแดดเดียว

@ 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

@ 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

---

Thank you for your attention.

End.

@ 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

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

---

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---

Final thought...

The kids really do grow up faster than you expect.

---

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@ 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

@ dab6c606:51f507b6

I've been interested for a while in how the business with miles and loyalty points works. I found out that only large corporations can partially do this because of how they can then account for it. And it's tax-wise super advantageous. I also added info about loyalty points and gift cards. The text below was written by various AIs as I was digging into it, it's basically a summary, sharing for those who are interested.

Part I: Loyalty Programs of Large Corporations

Business Logic of Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs of airlines and hotels are sophisticated business tools that serve several key purposes. They primarily function to increase customer loyalty by creating "switching costs" - customers don't want to lose accumulated points, which reduces the likelihood they'll switch to competitors.

At the same time, they're a significant source of additional revenue. For example, American Airlines earns more from selling miles to banks than on some flight routes. When Citibank buys miles for 1-2 cents per mile, the airline gets immediate revenue, while the real value for the customer can be 3-5 cents when used correctly.

Accounting Treatment of Loyalty Points

From an accounting perspective, loyalty points represent deferred liabilities. When a customer earns points, the company must create a reserve for their future redemption. Points are valued based on expected costs of their redemption, not on nominal value.

The key difference is between cash accounting and accrual accounting: - Cash accounting: Revenue is recognized when payment is received, expenses when paid. - Accrual accounting: Revenue and expenses are recognized when the obligation arises.

For loyalty programs, accrual accounting is critical. When an airline sells miles to a bank for $1,000,000, it simultaneously creates a liability for future costs (say $600,000), so taxable income is only $400,000.

Example: Selling Miles to a Bank

An airline sells 50 million miles to Citibank for $1,000,000: 1. Immediate revenue: $1,000,000 2. Creation of liability: $600,000 (estimated future costs) 3. Taxable income: $400,000 4. Future costs: When customers use miles, the company recognizes the expense and reduces the liability

Positive margin arises from several factors: - Breakage - 15-20% of miles are never redeemed - Time value of money - Money from the bank is invested immediately - Marginal costs - An empty seat has low incremental cost

Tax Optimization and Offshore Structures

Large companies often use international structures to optimize taxes from loyalty programs. A typical structure includes: 1. Parent company (USA/EU) - Operates flights and provides services (e.g., flights or accommodation). 2. IP Holding (Ireland/Netherlands) - Owns intellectual property (IP) for the loyalty program, such as brands, software, and databases. 3. Loyalty Operating Company (Singapore/Dubai) - Manages sale of miles to banks and partners, coordinates the program and communicates with customers.

Business Relationships and Payments Between Entities (example with positive result for Singapore)

These entities are connected by contracts that determine who pays for what and why, to minimize tax burden: - Bank → Singapore (Loyalty Operating Company): The bank (e.g., Citibank) pays $1,000,000 for miles it offers to its clients as rewards for using credit cards. The Singapore company is the main contact point for partners because it's located in a low-tax jurisdiction (17%) with good infrastructure for financial services. - Singapore → Ireland (IP Holding): The Singapore company pays $500,000 as royalties for using IP (brands, software, and data) of the loyalty program. This payment is high to shift profit to Ireland, where the tax rate is even lower (12.5%). This reduces taxable income in Singapore. - Singapore → Parent Company (Airline): The Singapore company pays $300,000 to the parent company for providing services (e.g., flights) when customers use miles. This payment is lower than actual costs to minimize profit in the parent company's country, where the tax rate is higher (e.g., 25-35% in USA or EU). - Profit in Singapore: $1,000,000 (income from bank) - $500,000 (royalties to Ireland) - $300,000 (payment to airline) = $200,000 profit, taxed at 17% in Singapore.

Why Such Distribution?

• Ireland (IP Holding): High royalty payments ($500,000) go to Ireland because the 12.5% tax rate is attractive and Ireland is considered a "serious" jurisdiction that meets international rules (e.g., BEPS). Ireland also has double taxation treaties with many countries, facilitating profit shifting.
• Singapore (Loyalty Operating Company): Mile sales and program coordination occur in Singapore due to favorable tax environment (17%) and strategic location for Asian markets. A small profit ($200,000) is left here to demonstrate "economic substance" - that the company has real activity.
• Parent Company: The $300,000 payment is low to minimize taxable income in a high-tax country (e.g., USA or EU).

Why Not 0% Tax Jurisdiction?

Why not use a zero-tax country (e.g., Cayman Islands)? Due to: - Regulatory scrutiny - Tax authorities closely monitor 0% jurisdictions and may question legitimacy. - BEPS rules - Need to demonstrate "substance" (real offices, employees) in the country. - Credibility test - 12.5% in Ireland or 17% in Singapore looks like legitimate business operation.

The result of such structure is that most profit (60-70%) is taxed at 12.5% in Ireland or 17% in Singapore instead of 25-35% in the airline's home country.

Part II: Loyalty Programs and Alternatives for Small Businesses

Why Loyalty Programs Are Problematic for Small Businesses

Unlike large corporations, small businesses like cafes face a fundamental problem with loyalty programs: cash accounting obligation. In many countries, small firms (under $25M annually) must use cash accounting, which means: - Revenue from selling points is taxed immediately - Costs are deducted only when customers use points (maybe a year later) - Creates tax and cashflow problem - tax is paid on money you'll "lose" in the future

Imagine a cafe that sells loyalty points for €100. It must immediately pay tax (say €21), but deducts coffee costs provided for points only in the future.

Alternative Models for Small Businesses

There are more tax-advantageous alternatives:

1. Gift Cards Model

• Revenue is NOT RECOGNIZED when selling gift card
• Revenue is recognized only when customer uses the card
• Example: Sell gift cards for €10,000 in December, get cash immediately, but pay tax gradually as customers use cards during the following year.
• Time value of money: Money can be invested (e.g., 6% annually = €600 extra profit on €10,000)
• Breakage benefit: 2-10% of cards are never used, after certain time (3-5 years, depending on legislation) you can recognize the balance as pure profit.

Example: Starbucks Starbucks had $1.5 billion in unused gift cards on its books in 2022. Estimated 3% breakage means $45 million pure profit – interest-free loan from customers with bonus that part never returns.

2. Subscription Model

• Monthly revenue = immediate taxation
• Monthly costs = immediate deduction
• Example: €10/month for "premium membership" with certain benefits

3. Discount Coupons

• No revenue when issuing coupon
• Reduced revenue when redeeming (sell at lower price)
• Example: 20% discount coupon = sell coffee for €4 instead of €5

Outsourcing Loyalty Program: Details About Shopify Loyalty

Platforms like Shopify Loyalty represent an elegant solution for small businesses wanting to offer loyalty programs without accounting and tax complications. Let's break this down in detail:

How Shopify Loyalty Works

• Shopify as third party: Shopify owns and manages the entire loyalty program including points and software. The customer has their "account" directly with Shopify, not with the specific store. This means points are not your liability, but Shopify's liability.
• Your role: You (e.g., cafe) pay Shopify a monthly fee (e.g., €29) for using the platform and a small transaction fee (e.g., €0.20) for each point redemption (reward). You're essentially a "service provider" for Shopify – you provide rewards when Shopify sends you an order.
• Earning points: Customer earns points for purchases in stores participating in Shopify Loyalty program. For example, if customer buys coffee for €5 in your cafe, Shopify credits them points (e.g., 5 points per euro, so 25 points). Specific rules (how many points per euro) are set by you through Shopify platform, but technically points are managed by Shopify.
• Using points: Customer can use points for rewards (e.g., free coffee for 100 points), but usually only in stores participating in Shopify network. This means if your cafe uses Shopify Loyalty, points earned with you can be used with you or other stores in Shopify ecosystem, if Shopify allows it. Usually, however, stores set up the program so points are primarily usable with them, increasing loyalty to their brand.
• Point redemption process: When customer wants to use points (e.g., 100 points for free coffee), Shopify sends order to you (cafe) to provide the reward. You give the coffee but don't receive direct payment from customer – it's a marketing cost. You also pay Shopify transaction fee (€0.20). Accounting-wise, it's not a sale, so no taxable income or receipt obligation arises.
• Accounting treatment: When customer uses points:
• No receipt = no taxable income
• Coffee cost (€2) + Shopify fee (€0.20) = €2.20
• Recorded as "Promotional expenses" or "Marketing costs"

Why Must Loyalty Program Be Outsourced to Third Party (like Shopify)?

Small businesses don't have capacity or resources to manage their own loyalty program "in-house" for these reasons: - Tax and accounting complexity: If you managed loyalty program yourself, you'd have to create reserves for future liabilities (points customers will use later), estimate breakage rate (percentage of unused points) and handle cash vs. accrual accounting. For small firms that often must use cash accounting, this means immediate taxation of revenue if selling points, but cost deduction only in the future – creates cashflow mismatch. - Technological infrastructure: Managing points, customer databases and integration with payment systems requires sophisticated software and IT team, which is expensive and complicated for small firms. - Legal separation: When program is managed by third party like Shopify, points are their liability, not yours. For you, this means no future liabilities in your accounting books – just monthly costs (Shopify fee), which are tax-deductible as regular expense. - Economic efficiency: Shopify aggregates thousands of stores, achieving economies of scale – lower costs for software, security and data management. A small cafe could never create such system at reasonable price alone.

Why Can't It Be In-house from Tax Perspective?

If small firm managed loyalty program itself: - Immediate tax problem: If firm sold points (e.g., for money or as part of purchase), revenue would have to be taxed immediately, though costs for providing rewards (e.g., free coffee) could be deducted only when customer uses points. This creates cashflow mismatch because you pay tax before actually "losing" money on reward. - Complex reserves: Would have to estimate how many points will be used and create accounting reserves, which is administratively demanding and requires expensive accountants or software. - Risk of errors: Incorrect breakage rate estimates or poor liability management can lead to tax audits and penalties.

With Shopify, these problems are eliminated – you only pay monthly fee and transaction fees, which are simply recorded as marketing costs. Shopify takes full responsibility for managing points and liabilities to customers.

Case Study: Loyalty Points for Cafe (10 + 1 Free Model)

Let's look at specific case of small cafe offering classic loyalty program type "10 + 1 free". Customer gets 1 point for each coffee purchased (e.g., for €3) and after collecting 10 points gets one free coffee. We'll analyze how this works accounting-wise, whether it's "promotional expense" and what's the difference between in-house management and using Shopify.

How "10 + 1 Free" Program Works

• Earning points: Customer buys coffee for €3 and gets 1 point (e.g., stamp on card or digital record). Points have no monetary value for sale – they're purely reward for purchase.
• Using points: After collecting 10 points (meaning purchases for €30) customer gets free coffee (value €3).
• Real cost for cafe: Cost of producing free coffee is lower than selling price, e.g., €1.50 for materials and labor.

Accounting Treatment (In-house)

If cafe manages program itself (in-house), accounting process depends on whether it uses cash accounting (common for small firms) or accrual accounting: - Cash accounting: - When customer buys coffee: Cafe records €3 revenue for each coffee and issues receipt. Point (stamp) has no monetary value, so it's not recorded as liability or revenue. - When redeeming 10 points: When customer gets free coffee, no revenue arises (€0), but cost for coffee production arises (€1.50). This cost is recorded as "Promotional expense" or "Marketing cost" because it's form of discount or advertising to retain customer. - Tax impact: No revenue when issuing free coffee, €1.50 cost is tax-deductible as regular expense. - Accrual accounting (less common for small firms): - When customer buys coffee: Cafe records €3 revenue but simultaneously creates small liability for future reward (e.g., €0.30 per point, which is estimate of cost for future free coffee divided by 10). So from €3 revenue, taxable income is only €2.70. - When redeeming 10 points: When customer gets free coffee, cafe reduces liability by €3 (10 points x €0.30) and records €1.50 cost for coffee production. Difference can be adjusted as breakage or other profit if estimates differ from reality. - Tax impact: Taxable income is lower already at first purchase, but accounting is more complex due to estimates and reserves.

Is it Promotional Expense? Yes, in both cases (cash and accrual) the cost of free coffee is recorded as "Promotional expense" or "Marketing cost" because it's form of discount to support customer loyalty. It's not considered regular sale because no revenue or receipt arises.

Accounting Treatment (via Shopify Loyalty)

If cafe uses Shopify Loyalty to manage "10 + 1 free" program, process is simpler: - When customer buys coffee: Cafe records €3 revenue for coffee and issues receipt. Shopify credits point to customer's account (it's not your liability, but Shopify's). - When redeeming 10 points: Shopify sends order to issue free coffee. Cafe gives coffee (€1.50 cost) and pays Shopify transaction fee (€0.20). Total cost €1.70 is recorded as "Promotional expense" or "Marketing cost". - Tax impact: Same as in-house, no revenue when issuing free coffee, €1.70 cost is tax-deductible as regular expense. Additionally, you don't have to handle any liabilities or breakage estimates because Shopify manages points.

Difference Between In-house and Shopify

• In-house:
• Advantages: Full control over program, no monthly fees to third party (e.g., €29 Shopify fee).
• Disadvantages: If using accrual accounting, must create reserves and estimate breakage, which is administratively demanding. With cash accounting it's simpler (no liabilities), but if you sold points for money, tax mismatch arises (revenue taxed immediately, cost only later). Additionally, must manage point database yourself (stamps, software), which is time-consuming.
• Shopify Loyalty:
• Advantages: No liabilities in your accounting books, Shopify manages points and technology. Accounting-wise it's simple – just monthly fee (€29) and transaction fees (€0.20) as marketing cost. Don't have to handle estimates or breakage.
• Disadvantages: Pay monthly fees and transaction fees, increasing costs (e.g., €0.20 extra per free coffee). Have less control over program because third party manages it.

Conclusion for Cafe: "10 + 1 free" program is accounting-wise considered Promotional expense in both cases (in-house and Shopify) because free coffee is form of marketing to retain customers. Difference is in administrative burden and costs – Shopify simplifies accounting and management, but at cost of monthly fees. In-house is cheaper but more demanding to manage, especially if you wanted to use accrual accounting or sell points for money.

Conclusion

Loyalty programs are sophisticated customer loyalty tools, but their accounting and tax aspects differ significantly between large and small firms. Large corporations use accrual accounting and international structures for tax optimization, while for small businesses alternative models like gift cards or outsourcing entire program are often more advantageous, eliminating tax and cashflow problems. Gift cards additionally bring immediate cash flow, time value of money and breakage benefit, making them ideal tool for businesses of all sizes. Shopify Loyalty offers small firms way to implement loyalty program without accounting complications because it takes technical and legal responsibility, allowing focus on core business. For simple programs like "10 + 1 free," accounting impact is similar (Promotional expense), but Shopify simplifies management at cost of additional fees.

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

CANNES, FRANCE – May 2025 — Bitcoin mining made its mark at the world’s most prestigious film gathering this year as Puerto Rican director and producer Alana Mediavilla introduced her feature documentary Dirty Coin: The Bitcoin Mining Documentary at the Marché du Film during the Cannes Film Festival.

The film puts bitcoin mining at the center of a rising global conversation about energy, technology, and economic freedom.

Dirty Coin is the first feature-length documentary to explore bitcoin mining through immersive, on-the-ground case studies.

From rural towns in the United States to hydro-powered sites in Latin America and the Congo, the film follows miners and communities navigating what may be one of the most misunderstood technologies of our time.

The result is a human-centered look at how bitcoin mining is transforming local economies and energy infrastructure in real ways.

To mark its Cannes debut, Mediavilla and her team hosted a packed industry event that brought together leaders from both film and finance.

Dirty Coin debut ceremony at the Marché du Film

Sponsors Celestial Management, Sangha Renewables, Nordblock, and Paystand.org supported the program, which featured panels on mining, energy use, and decentralized infrastructure.

Attendees had the rare opportunity to engage directly with pioneers in the space. A special session in French led by Seb Gouspillou spotlighted mining efforts in the Congo’s Virunga region.

Dirty Coin builds on Mediavilla’s award-winning short film Stranded, which won over 20 international prizes, including Best Short Documentary at Cannes in 2024.

That success helped lay the foundation for the feature and positioned Mediavilla as one of the boldest new voices in global documentary filmmaking.

Alana Mediavilla speaks at the Marché du Film — Cannes Film Festival

“If we’ve found an industry that can unlock stranded energy and turn it into real power for people—especially in regions with energy poverty—why wouldn’t we look into it?” says Mediavilla. “Our privilege blinds us.

“The same thing we criticize could be the very thing that lifts the developing world to our standard of living. Ignoring that potential is a failure of imagination.”

Much like the decentralized network it explores, Dirty Coin is spreading globally through grassroots momentum.

Local leaders are hosting independent screenings around the world, from Roatán and Berlin to São Paulo and Madrid. Upcoming events include Toronto and Zurich, with more cities joining each month.

Mediavilla, who previously worked in creative leadership roles in the U.S. — including as a producer at Google — returned to Puerto Rico to found Campo Libre, a studio focused on high-caliber, globally relevant storytelling from the Caribbean.

She was also accepted into the Cannes Producers Network, a selective program open only to producers with box office releases in the past four years.

Mediavilla qualified after independently releasing Dirty Coin in theaters across Puerto Rico. Her participation in the network gave her direct access to meetings, insights, and connections with the most active distributors and producers working today.

The film’s next public screening will take place at the Anthem Film Festival in Palm Springs on Saturday, June 14 at 2 PM. Additional screenings and market appearances are planned throughout the year at Bitcoin events and international film platforms.

Dirty Coin at the Cannes Film Festival

Watch the Trailer + Access Press Materials

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Follow the Movement

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dirty_coin_official/
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Website: www.dirtycointhemovie.com

@ 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 I am 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.

@ 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

@ dab6c606:51f507b6

Dlhšie som sa zaujímal o to ako funguje biznis s míľami, vernostnými bodmi. Zistil som, že to čiastočne môžu robiť iba veľké korporácie kvôli tomu ako to môžu potom zaúčtovať. A je to daňovo super výhodné. Pridal som aj info o vernostných bodoch a darčekových kartách. Text nižšie napísali rôzne AI ako som sa v tom vŕtal, to je v zásade sumár, zdieľam pre tých, ktorých to zaujíma.

Časť I: Vernostné programy veľkých korporácií

Obchodná logika vernostných programov

Vernostné programy leteckých spoločností a hotelov sú sofistikované obchodné nástroje, ktoré slúžia niekoľkým kľúčovým účelom. Primárne fungujú na zvýšenie zákazníckej lojality vytvorením "switching costs" - zákazníci nechcú prísť o nazbierané body, čo znižuje pravdepodobnosť, že prejdú ku konkurencii.

Zároveň sú významným zdrojom dodatočných príjmov. Napríklad American Airlines zarába viac na predaji míľ bankám ako na niektorých leteckých linkách. Keď Citibank kupuje míle za 1-2 centy za míľu, aerolínia získava okamžitý príjem, zatiaľ čo reálna hodnota pre zákazníka môže byť 3-5 centov pri správnom využití.

Účtovné spracovanie vernostných bodov

Z účtovného hľadiska predstavujú vernostné body odložené záväzky. Keď zákazník získa body, spoločnosť musí vytvoriť rezervu na ich budúce uplatnenie. Body sa oceňujú na základe predpokladaných nákladov na ich uplatnenie, nie na základe nominálnej hodnoty.

Kľúčový je rozdiel medzi cash accounting a accrual accounting: - Cash accounting: Príjmy sa uznávajú pri prijatí platby, náklady pri zaplatení. - Accrual accounting: Príjmy a náklady sa uznávajú v momente vzniku záväzku.

Pre vernostné programy je accrual accounting kritické. Keď aerolínia predá míle banke za $1,000,000, vytvorí zároveň záväzok na budúce náklady (povedzme $600,000), takže zdaniteľný príjem je len $400,000.

Príklad: Predaj míľ banke

Aerolínia predá 50 miliónov míľ Citibank za $1,000,000: 1. Okamžitý príjem: $1,000,000 2. Vytvorenie záväzku: $600,000 (odhadované budúce náklady) 3. Zdaniteľný príjem: $400,000 4. Budúce náklady: Keď zákazníci míle využijú, spoločnosť uzná náklad a zníži záväzok

Pozitívna marža vzniká z niekoľkých faktorov: - Breakage - 15-20% míľ sa nikdy neuplatní - Časová hodnota peňazí - Peniaze od banky investuje okamžite - Marginálne náklady - Prázdne sedadlo má nízky prírastok nákladu

Daňová optimalizácia a offshore štruktúry

Veľké spoločnosti často využívajú medzinárodné štruktúry na optimalizáciu daní z vernostných programov. Typická štruktúra zahŕňa: 1. Materská spoločnosť (USA/EU) - Prevádzkuje lety a poskytuje služby (napr. lety alebo ubytovanie). 2. IP Holding (Írsko/Holandsko) - Vlastní duševné vlastníctvo (IP) k loyalty programu, ako sú značky, softvér a databázy. 3. Loyalty Operating Company (Singapur/Dubaj) - Spravuje predaj míľ bankám a partnerom, koordinuje program a komunikuje so zákazníkmi.

Obchodné vzťahy a platby medzi entitami (príklad s pozitívnym výsledkom pre Singapur)

Tieto entity sú prepojené zmluvami, ktoré určujú, kto za čo platí a prečo, aby sa minimalizovala daňová záťaž: - Banka → Singapur (Loyalty Operating Company): Banka (napr. Citibank) platí $1,000,000 za míle, ktoré ponúka svojim klientom ako odmenu za používanie kreditných kariet. Singapurská spoločnosť je hlavný kontaktný bod pre partnerov, pretože je umiestnená v jurisdikcii s nízkou daňou (17 %) a dobrou infraštruktúrou pre finančné služby. - Singapur → Írsko (IP Holding): Singapurská spoločnosť platí $500,000 ako royalty za použitie IP (značky, softvéru a dát) loyalty programu. Táto platba je vysoká, aby sa presunul zisk do Írska, kde je daňová sadzba ešte nižšia (12,5 %). Tým sa znižuje zdaniteľný príjem v Singapure. - Singapur → Materská spoločnosť (Aerolínia): Singapurská spoločnosť platí $300,000 materskej spoločnosti za poskytnutie služieb (napr. letov), keď zákazníci využijú míle. Táto platba je nižšia ako reálne náklady, aby sa minimalizoval zisk v krajine materskej spoločnosti, kde je daňová sadzba vyššia (napr. 25-35 % v USA alebo EU). - Zisk v Singapure: $1,000,000 (príjem od banky) - $500,000 (royalty do Írska) - $300,000 (platba aerolínii) = $200,000 zisku, ktorý je zdanený pri 17 % v Singapure.

Prečo takéto rozdelenie?

• Írsko (IP Holding): Vysoké royalty platby ($500,000) idú do Írska, pretože daňová sadzba 12,5 % je atraktívna a Írsko je považované za "serióznu" jurisdikciu, ktorá spĺňa medzinárodné pravidlá (napr. BEPS). Zároveň má Írsko zmluvy o zamedzení dvojitého zdanenia s mnohými krajinami, čo uľahčuje presun zisku.
• Singapur (Loyalty Operating Company): Predaj míľ a koordinácia programu prebieha v Singapure kvôli priaznivému daňovému prostrediu (17 %) a strategickej polohe pre ázijské trhy. Zároveň sa tu zanecháva malý zisk ($200,000), aby sa preukázala "ekonomická substance" – teda, že spoločnosť má reálnu činnosť.
• Materská spoločnosť: Platba $300,000 je nízka, aby sa minimalizoval zdaniteľný príjem v krajine s vysokou daňovou sadzbou (napr. USA alebo EU).

Prečo nie 0 % daňová jurisdikcia?

Prečo sa nepoužíva krajina s nulovou daňou (napr. Kajmanské ostrovy)? Kvôli: - Regulatory scrutiny - Daňové úrady pozorne sledujú 0 % jurisdikcie a môžu spochybniť legitímnosť. - BEPS pravidlám - Potreba preukázať "substance" (reálne kancelárie, zamestnancov) v krajine. - Credibility testu - 12,5 % v Írsku alebo 17 % v Singapure vyzerá ako legitímna obchodná operácia.

Výsledkom takejto štruktúry je, že väčšina zisku (60-70 %) je zdanená pri 12,5 % v Írsku alebo 17 % v Singapure namiesto 25-35 % v domovskej krajine aerolínky.

Časť II: Loyalty programy a alternatívy pre malé biznisy

Prečo je loyalty program problematický pre malé biznisy

Na rozdiel od veľkých korporácií, malé biznisy ako kaviarne narážajú pri vernostných programoch na zásadný problém: cash accounting povinnosť. V mnohých krajinách musia malé firmy (pod $25M ročne) používať cash accounting, čo znamená: - Príjem z predaja bodov sa zdaní okamžite - Náklady sa odpočítajú až keď zákazník body využije (možno o rok) - Vzniká daňový a cashflow problém - daň sa platí z peňazí, ktoré "stratíte" v budúcnosti

Predstavte si kaviareň, ktorá predá vernostné body za €100. Okamžite musí zaplatiť daň (povedzme €21), ale náklady na kávu poskytnutú za body odpočíta až v budúcnosti.

Alternatívne modely pre malé biznisy

Existujú daňovo výhodnejšie alternatívy:

1. Gift Cards model

• Príjem sa NEUZNÁ pri predaji gift karty
• Príjem sa uzná až keď zákazník kartu využije
• Príklad: Predáte gift cards za €10,000 v decembri, získate cash okamžite, ale daň platíte postupne, ako zákazníci karty využívajú počas nasledujúceho roka.
• Časová hodnota peňazí: Peniaze môžete investovať (napr. 6 % ročne = €600 extra zisk na €10,000)
• Breakage benefit: 2-10 % kariet sa nikdy nevyužije, po určitom čase (3-5 rokov, podľa legislatívy) môžete zostatok uznať ako čistý zisk.

Príklad: Starbucks Starbucks mal v roku 2022 na účtoch $1,5 miliardy v nevyužitých gift cards. Odhadovaný breakage 3 % znamená $45 miliónov čistého zisku – bezúročná pôžička od zákazníkov s bonusom, že časť sa nikdy nevráti.

2. Subscription model

• Mesačný príjem = okamžité zdanenie
• Mesačné náklady = okamžitý odpočet
• Príklad: €10/mesiac za "premium membership" s určitými benefitmi

3. Discount Coupons

• Žiadny príjem pri vydaní kupónu
• Znížený príjem pri uplatnení (predáte za nižšiu cenu)
• Príklad: 20 % zľavový kupón = predaj kávy za €4 namiesto €5

Outsourcing loyalty programu: Podrobnosti o Shopify Loyalty

Platformy ako Shopify Loyalty predstavujú elegantné riešenie pre malé biznisy, ktoré chcú ponúkať vernostné programy bez účtovných a daňových komplikácií. Poďme si to rozobrať podrobne:

Ako funguje Shopify Loyalty

• Shopify ako tretia strana: Shopify vlastní a spravuje celý vernostný program vrátane bodov a softvéru. Zákazník má svoj "účet" priamo u Shopify, nie u konkrétneho obchodu. To znamená, že body nie sú vaším záväzkom, ale záväzkom Shopify.
• Vaša úloha: Vy (napr. kaviareň) platíte Shopify mesačný poplatok (napr. €29) za používanie platformy a malý transakčný poplatok (napr. €0,20) za každé uplatnenie bodov (reward). Vy ste v podstate "dodávateľom služieb" pre Shopify – poskytujete odmeny, keď vám Shopify pošle objednávku.
• Získavanie bodov: Zákazník získava body za nákupy v obchodoch, ktoré sú zapojené do Shopify Loyalty programu. Napríklad, ak zákazník nakúpi kávu za €5 vo vašej kaviarni, Shopify mu pripíše body (napr. 5 bodov za každé euro, teda 25 bodov). Konkrétne pravidlá (koľko bodov za euro) si nastavujete vy cez Shopify platformu, ale technicky body spravuje Shopify.
• Využitie bodov: Zákazník môže body využiť na odmeny (napr. kávu zadarmo za 100 bodov), ale zvyčajne len v obchodoch zapojených do Shopify siete. To znamená, že ak vaša kaviareň používa Shopify Loyalty, body získané u vás môžu byť využité u vás alebo v iných obchodoch v rámci Shopify ekosystému, ak to Shopify umožňuje. Väčšinou však obchody nastavujú program tak, aby boli body využiteľné primárne u nich, čím sa zvyšuje lojalita k ich značke.
• Proces uplatnenia bodov: Keď zákazník chce využiť body (napr. 100 bodov za kávu zadarmo), Shopify pošle objednávku vám (kaviarni) na poskytnutie odmeny. Vy kávu vydáte, ale nedostanete za ňu priamy príjem od zákazníka – ide o marketingový náklad. Zároveň platíte Shopify transakčný poplatok (€0,20). Účtovne to nie je predaj, takže nevzniká zdaniteľný príjem ani povinnosť vystaviť bloček.
• Účtovné spracovanie: Keď zákazník využije body:
• Žiadny bloček = žiadny zdaniteľný príjem
• Náklad kávy (€2) + Shopify fee (€0,20) = €2,20
• Účtuje sa ako "Promotional expenses" alebo "Marketing costs"

Prečo musí byť loyalty program outsourcovaný tretej strane (ako Shopify)?

Malé biznisy nemajú kapacitu ani zdroje na správu vlastného loyalty programu "in-house" z týchto dôvodov: - Daňová a účtovná komplexnosť: Ak by ste spravovali loyalty program sami, museli by ste vytvárať rezervy na budúce záväzky (body, ktoré zákazníci využijú neskôr), odhadovať breakage rate (percento nevyužitých bodov) a riešiť cash vs. accrual accounting. Pre malé firmy, ktoré často musia používať cash accounting, to znamená okamžité zdanenie príjmu, ak by body predávali, ale odpočet nákladov až v budúcnosti – vzniká cashflow nesúlad. - Technologická infraštruktúra: Správa bodov, databáz zákazníkov a integrácia s platobnými systémami vyžaduje sofistikovaný softvér a IT tím, čo je pre malé firmy nákladné a komplikované. - Legálna separácia: Keď program spravuje tretia strana ako Shopify, body sú ich záväzkom, nie vaším. Pre vás to znamená, že nemáte žiadne budúce záväzky vo svojej účtovnej knihe – len mesačné náklady (poplatok Shopify), ktoré sú daňovo odpočítateľné ako bežný výdavok. - Ekonomická efektivita: Shopify združuje tisíce obchodov, čím dosahuje ekonomiku rozsahu – nižšie náklady na softvér, bezpečnosť a správu dát. Malá kaviareň by sama nikdy nedokázala vytvoriť takýto systém za rozumnú cenu.

Prečo to nemôže byť in-house z daňového hľadiska?

Ak by malá firma spravovala loyalty program sama: - Okamžitý daňový problém: Ak by firma predávala body (napr. za peniaze alebo ako súčasť nákupu), príjem by musela zdaniť hneď, hoci náklady na poskytnutie odmien (napr. káva zadarmo) by mohla odpočítať až v momente, keď zákazník body využije. To vytvára cashflow nesúlad, pretože daň platíte skôr, než reálne "stratíte" peniaze na odmenu. - Zložité rezervy: Musela by odhadovať, koľko bodov sa využije, a vytvárať účtovné rezervy, čo je administratívne náročné a vyžaduje drahých účtovníkov alebo softvér. - Riziko chýb: Nesprávne odhady breakage rate alebo zlý manažment záväzkov môžu viesť k daňovým kontrolám a pokutám.

S Shopify sa tieto problémy eliminujú – vy platíte len mesačný poplatok a transakčné fees, ktoré sú jednoducho účtované ako marketingové náklady. Shopify preberá celú zodpovednosť za správu bodov a záväzkov voči zákazníkom.

Prípadová štúdia: Vernostné body pre kaviareň (model 10 + 1 zadarmo)

Pozrime sa na konkrétny prípad malej kaviarne, ktorá ponúka klasický vernostný program typu "10 + 1 zadarmo". Zákazník dostane 1 bod za každú kúpenú kávu (napr. za €3) a po nazbieraní 10 bodov dostane jednu kávu zadarmo. Rozoberieme, ako to funguje účtovne, či ide o "promotional expense" a aký je rozdiel medzi in-house správou a použitím Shopify.

Ako funguje program "10 + 1 zadarmo"

• Získavanie bodov: Zákazník kúpi kávu za €3 a dostane 1 bod (napr. pečiatku na kartičku alebo digitálny záznam). Body nemajú peňažnú hodnotu na predaj – sú čisto odmenou za nákup.
• Využitie bodov: Po nazbieraní 10 bodov (čo znamená nákupy za €30) zákazník dostane kávu zadarmo (hodnota €3).
• Reálny náklad pre kaviareň: Náklad na výrobu kávy zadarmo je nižší ako predajná cena, napr. €1,50 za suroviny a prácu.

Účtovné spracovanie (In-house)

Ak kaviareň spravuje program sama (in-house), účtovný proces závisí od toho, či používa cash accounting (bežné pre malé firmy) alebo accrual accounting: - Cash accounting: - Pri nákupe kávy zákazníkom: Kaviareň účtuje príjem €3 za každú kávu a vydá bloček. Bod (pečiatka) nemá peňažnú hodnotu, takže sa neúčtuje ako záväzok ani príjem. - Pri uplatnení 10 bodov: Keď zákazník dostane kávu zadarmo, nevzniká príjem (€0), ale vzniká náklad na výrobu kávy (€1,50). Tento náklad sa účtuje ako "Promotional expense" alebo "Marketing cost", pretože ide o formu zľavy alebo reklamy na udržanie zákazníka. - Daňový dopad: Žiadny príjem pri vydaní kávy zadarmo, náklad €1,50 je daňovo odpočítateľný ako bežný výdavok. - Accrual accounting (menej bežné pre malé firmy): - Pri nákupe kávy zákazníkom: Kaviareň účtuje príjem €3, ale zároveň vytvára malý záväzok na budúcu odmenu (napr. €0,30 za každý bod, čo je odhad nákladu na budúcu kávu zadarmo deleno 10). Teda z €3 príjmu je zdaniteľný príjem len €2,70. - Pri uplatnení 10 bodov: Keď zákazník dostane kávu zadarmo, kaviareň zníži záväzok o €3 (10 bodov x €0,30) a účtuje náklad €1,50 na výrobu kávy. Rozdiel môže byť upravený ako breakage alebo iný zisk, ak sa odhady líšia od reality. - Daňový dopad: Zdaniteľný príjem je nižší už pri prvom nákupe, ale účtovníctvo je zložitejšie kvôli odhadom a rezervám.

Je to Promotional Expense? Áno, v oboch prípadoch (cash aj accrual) sa náklad na kávu zadarmo účtuje ako "Promotional expense" alebo "Marketing cost", pretože ide o formu zľavy na podporu lojality zákazníkov. Nie je to považované za bežný predaj, pretože nevzniká príjem ani bloček.

Účtovné spracovanie (cez Shopify Loyalty)

Ak kaviareň používa Shopify Loyalty na správu programu "10 + 1 zadarmo", proces je jednoduchší: - Pri nákupe kávy zákazníkom: Kaviareň účtuje príjem €3 za kávu a vydá bloček. Shopify pripíše bod zákazníkovi do jeho účtu (nie je to váš záväzok, ale Shopify). - Pri uplatnení 10 bodov: Shopify pošle objednávku na vydanie kávy zadarmo. Kaviareň vydá kávu (náklad €1,50) a zaplatí Shopify transakčný poplatok (€0,20). Celkový náklad €1,70 sa účtuje ako "Promotional expense" alebo "Marketing cost". - Daňový dopad: Rovnako ako pri in-house, žiadny príjem pri vydaní kávy zadarmo, náklad €1,70 je daňovo odpočítateľný ako bežný výdavok. Navyše nemusíte riešiť žiadne záväzky alebo odhady breakage, pretože body spravuje Shopify.

Rozdiel medzi In-house a Shopify

• In-house:
• Výhody: Plná kontrola nad programom, žiadne mesačné poplatky tretej strane (napr. €29 Shopify fee).
• Nevýhody: Ak použijete accrual accounting, musíte vytvárať rezervy a odhadovať breakage, čo je administratívne náročné. Pri cash accounting je to jednoduchšie (žiadne záväzky), ale ak by ste body predávali za peniaze, vzniká daňový nesúlad (príjem zdanený hneď, náklad až neskôr). Navyše musíte sami spravovať databázu bodov (pečiatky, softvér), čo je časovo náročné.
• Shopify Loyalty:
• Výhody: Žiadne záväzky vo vašej účtovnej knihe, Shopify spravuje body a technológiu. Účtovne je to jednoduché – len mesačný poplatok (€29) a transakčné poplatky (€0,20) ako marketingový náklad. Nemusíte riešiť odhady ani breakage.
• Nevýhody: Platíte mesačné poplatky a transakčné fees, čo zvyšuje náklady (napr. €0,20 navyše za každú kávu zadarmo). Máte menšiu kontrolu nad programom, pretože ho spravuje tretia strana.

Záver pre kaviareň: Program "10 + 1 zadarmo" je účtovne považovaný za Promotional expense v oboch prípadoch (in-house aj Shopify), pretože káva zadarmo je forma marketingu na udržanie zákazníkov. Rozdiel je v administratívnej záťaži a nákladoch – Shopify zjednodušuje účtovníctvo a správu, ale za cenu mesačných poplatkov. In-house je lacnejšie, ale náročnejšie na správu, najmä ak by ste chceli používať accrual accounting alebo predávať body za peniaze.

Záver

Vernostné programy sú sofistikovaný nástroj zákazníckej lojality, ale ich účtovné a daňové aspekty sa výrazne líšia medzi veľkými a malými firmami. Veľké korporácie využívajú accrual accounting a medzinárodné štruktúry na optimalizáciu daní, zatiaľ čo pre malé biznisy sú často výhodnejšie alternatívne modely ako gift cards alebo outsourcing celého programu, ktoré eliminujú daňové a cashflow problémy. Gift cards navyše prinášajú okamžitý cash flow, časovú hodnotu peňazí a breakage benefit, čo z nich robí ideálny nástroj pre podniky všetkých veľkostí. Shopify Loyalty ponúka malým firmám spôsob, ako implementovať vernostný program bez účtovných komplikácií, pretože preberá technickú a právnu zodpovednosť, čím umožňuje sústrediť sa na core biznis. Pre jednoduché programy ako "10 + 1 zadarmo" je účtovný dopad podobný (Promotional expense), ale Shopify zjednodušuje správu za cenu dodatočných poplatkov.

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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

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

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

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

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

Current Nostr Stats

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

@ 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.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Paris, France – June 6, 2025 – Flash, the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses, just announced a new partnership with the Bitcoin Only Brewery, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Flash for seamless Bitcoin payments. 

Bitcoin Buys Beer Thanks to Flash!

As Co-Founder of Flash, it's not every day we get to toast to a truly refreshing milestone.

Okay, jokes aside.

We're super buzzed to see our friends at @Drink_B0B
Bitcoin Only Brewery using Flash to power their online sales!

The first… pic.twitter.com/G7TWhy50pX

— Pierre Corbin (@CierrePorbin) June 3, 2025

Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack – shipping included.

The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.

Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented: “Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”

Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept Bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.

By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.

Bitcoin payment usage is growing thanks to Lightning

In May, fast-food chain Steak ‘N Shake went viral for integrating bitcoin at their restaurants around the world. In the same month, the bitcoin2025 conference in Las Vegas set a new world record with 4,000 Lightning payments in one day.

According to a report by River Intelligence, public Lightning payment volume surged by 266% from August 2023 to August 2024. This growth is also reflected in the overall accessibility of lighting infrastructure for consumers. According to Lightning Service Provider Breez, over 650 Million users now have access to the Lightning Network through apps like CashApp, Kraken or Strike.

Bitcoin Only Brewery’s adoption of Flash reflects the growing trend of businesses integrating Bitcoin payments to cater to a global, privacy-conscious customer base. By offering no-KYC delivery across Europe, the brewery aligns with the ethos of decentralization and financial sovereignty, appealing to the increasing number of consumers and businesses embracing Bitcoin as a legitimate payment method.

“Flash is committed to driving innovation in the Bitcoin ecosystem,” Corbin added. “We’re building a future where businesses of all sizes can seamlessly integrate Bitcoin payments, unlocking new opportunities in the global market. It’s never been easier to start selling in bitcoin and we invite retailers globally to join us in this revolution.”

For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.

About Flash

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

About Bitcoin Only Brewery

Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.

Media Contact:

Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.comPhotos paywithflash.com/about/press

How Flash Enables Interoperable, Self-Custodial Bitcoin Commerce

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

Last post, I touched on the subject of what do you say to those going through trials and tribulations, but as I read Job, it seemed like there was more to say on the subject of how Christians are to respond to those who are suffering. The original passage of inspiration was this.

Don’t Be A Miserable Comforter

Then Job answered,

“I have heard many such things;\ Sorry comforters are you all.\ Is there no limit to windy words?\ Or what plagues you that you answer?\ I too could speak like you,\ If I were in your place.\ I could compose words against you\ And shake my head at you.\ I could strengthen you with my mouth,\ And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain. (Job 16:1-5)

Job was suffering. His friends came with the intention of comforting Job. Job vented his frustrations and problems understanding God’s justice. His friends tried to correct Job’s honest questions. These corrections escalated to the point of accusing Job of heinous sins and saying that everything that had happened to Job was his fault.

Job rightly said, “If I were in your place, I could compose words against you, and shake my head at you.” Sometimes we have to show mercy while a person is working through their feelings and confusion. Although some hardships are the consequences or punishment for sins, many (probably most) are not. We, as Christians, are promised trials. We should not be surprised when we go through trials.

Job also compares two ways of responding to a fellow believer going through trials. He says, “I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.” We can use our words to encourage and strengthen those who are suffering.

He also accuses his visitors of “Sorry comforters are you all. Is there no limit to windy words?” This reminds me of a traditional saying, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Some of us want to fix everything. Sometimes we need to just listen. We don’t have to speak an answer for everything. In these uncomfortable situations, it is easy to start with a brief, Biblical answer, but then to start filling the silence with our own words to fill the silence. This can harm of everyone.

Job’s friends initial comments were not bad and were mostly true, but the more they talked, the more they went off track and the more harm they did. We want to lessen their pain, not be sorry comforters.

Of course this doesn’t mean that we can’t share God’s word. It doesn’t mean we can’t acknowledge obvious sins that are known by all parties. It does mean that all words should be an encouragement to lead them into closer fellowship with God.

Job again comments about his friends.

Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,\ **And my advocate is on high.\ My friends are my scoffers;\ My eye weeps to God.\ O that a man might plead with God\ As a man with his neighbor!\ For when a few years are past,\ I shall go the way of no return. (Job 16:19-22) {emphasis mine}

Job, being a godly man, puts his trust in God. Notice the pattern: God, friends, God.

And my advocate is on high.\ My friends are my scoffers;\ My eye weeps to God.

Despite the scoffing and harm done by his friends, he keeps his eye on God as his advocate and the one he turns to in sorrow. In the case of Job, he is able to lean on God despite the harm done by his friends. Those will lesser faith might have been pushed away from God by his friends words.

Love One Another

In the New Testament, we are told:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Our every word and action should be loving. That doesn’t mean ignoring sin, but it does mean every word and action should be used to draw a person into closer relationship with their God and Savior. In the case of a person who is sinning, Jesus set a perfect example.

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they*said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” (John 8:3-11)

What did Jesus do:

1. He protected the accused from those trying to use, abuse, and torment her.

2. He did not deny her sin, but encouraged her accusers to acknowledge their own sins.

3. He encouraged her to “sin no more.”

This woman knew she had sinned. She did not need to be reminded of it. She didn’t deny it; she knew. Because she and everyone else knew her sin, there was no need to bring it up again. Jesus used this situation to help her accusers understand their own sin and to lead her into repentance and salvation. The gentle correction was used to lead her to a better way.

When we speak to someone in trials, whether self-inflicted, externally caused, or a standard trial common to all men, our goal should be to uplift and draw to Jesus. We should have mercy on the suffering and not add to their suffering.

No matter the case, we need to carefully use our words for love and mercy.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11)

Dealing With Sin & Repentance

In 1 & 2 Corinthians, Paul deals with a situation of extreme sin. In 1 Corinthians he rebukes the church for allowing this heinous sin within their church body.

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:1-5) {emphasis mine}

This unrepentant sin could not be allowed to remain in the body because it could spread among God’s people and because it harmed God’s glory. At the same time, the motivation for removing him from the body was not to remove him from a relationship with God. It was to cause consequences in the hopes that the man would return to Jesus.

In 2 Corinthians, we find that he does repent of his son and seek to come back into the fellowship of believers.

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.

But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree—in order not to say too much—to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes. (2 Corinthians 2:4-11) {emphasis mine}

Once a sinner repents, we are to immediately forgive and comfort them and welcome them back into the fellowship of believers. We are not to remind them of their previous sins and overwhelm them with excessive sorrow, but are to reaffirm our love for them. Any punishment was for correction, not to harm or cause them pain. We should seek the good of those who sinned. We should welcome them back with open arms. We should forgive as we were forgiven by God.

All of our words and actions toward others, whether the most godly saint or the most reprehensible sinner, should be to the goal of drawing them closer to the Savior and helping them to trust in God’s goodness, wisdom, and strength.

May the God of Heaven carry your burdens and help you to help carry the burdens of those around you. May Our Savior help us to be a godly encouragement to the suffering who draws them into closer fellowship with the Savior. May the Holy Spirt give us discernment in how to best encourage the suffering and to help them rest in Jesus.

Trust Jesus

@ 3ffac3a6:2d656657

🛡️ Tutorial: Secure SSH Access over Cloudflare Tunnel (Docker Optional)

🎯 Objective

Set up a Cloudflare Tunnel to securely expose SSH access to your system without revealing your home IP or requiring port forwarding. This enables secure remote access even behind NAT, CGNAT, or dynamic IP environments.

This guide:

• Uses Cloudflare Tunnels to proxy traffic
• Does not expose your home IP address
• Uses Docker + Docker Compose for orchestration (optional)
• Can be adapted to run under systemd directly if preferred

---

🔧 Prerequisites

• A domain managed via Cloudflare DNS
• SSH server running on your machine (default port 22)
• Temporary access to the cloudflared CLI (for tunnel creation)

• Either:

• Docker and Docker Compose (used in this example), or

• A native systemd service (alternative not covered here)

---

🪜 Step-by-Step Instructions

---

1. Install and Authenticate cloudflared

Install cloudflared (temporary):

bash curl -L https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases/latest/download/cloudflared-linux-amd64 \ -o cloudflared && chmod +x cloudflared && sudo mv cloudflared /usr/local/bin/

Login with your Cloudflare account:

bash cloudflared tunnel login

This will open a browser and link the machine to your Cloudflare zone.

---

2. Create the Tunnel

Create a named tunnel:

bash cloudflared tunnel create ssh-tunnel

This creates a credential file, e.g.:

~/.cloudflared/5f84da12-e91b-4d2e-b4f0-7ca842f622f1.json

---

3. Define the Tunnel Routing Configuration

Create the tunnel config:

bash nano ~/.cloudflared/config.yml

Example:

```yaml tunnel: ssh-tunnel credentials-file: /etc/cloudflared/5f84da12-e91b-4d2e-b4f0-7ca842f622f1.json

ingress: - hostname: secure-ssh.example.com service: ssh://localhost:22 - service: http_status:404 ```

Then bind the hostname to the tunnel:

bash cloudflared tunnel route dns ssh-tunnel secure-ssh.example.com

Replace secure-ssh.example.com with your own subdomain under Cloudflare management.

---

4. Prepare File Permissions for Docker Use (Optional)

If using Docker, cloudflared runs as a non-root user (UID 65532), so grant it access to your config and credentials:

bash sudo chown 65532:65532 ~/.cloudflared sudo chown 65532:65532 ~/.cloudflared/*

---

5. Define docker-compose.yml (Optional)

yaml version: "3.8" services: cloudflared: image: cloudflare/cloudflared:latest container_name: cloudflared-ssh-tunnel restart: unless-stopped volumes: - ${HOME}/.cloudflared:/etc/cloudflared:ro - ${HOME}/.cloudflared:/home/nonroot/.cloudflared:ro command: tunnel run ssh-tunnel network_mode: host

📝 Docker is used here for convenience and automation. You may alternatively run cloudflared tunnel run ssh-tunnel directly under systemd or a background process.

---

6. Start the Tunnel

Start the container:

bash cd ~/docker/sshtunnel docker compose up -d docker logs -f cloudflared-ssh-tunnel

You should see Registered tunnel connection and other success logs.

---

7. Connect to the Tunnel from Remote Systems

Option A: Ad-hoc connection with cloudflared access tcp

bash cloudflared access tcp --hostname secure-ssh.example.com --url localhost:2222

In another terminal:

bash ssh -p 2222 youruser@localhost

Option B: Permanent SSH Configuration

Edit ~/.ssh/config:

ssh Host secure-home HostName secure-ssh.example.com User youruser IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa ProxyCommand cloudflared access ssh --hostname %h

Then connect with:

bash ssh secure-home

---

✅ Result

• Secure SSH access via a public domain (e.g., secure-ssh.example.com)
• No ports open to the public Internet
• IP address of your machine remains hidden from Cloudflare clients
• Easily extendable to expose other services in future

---

🔁 Optional Enhancements

• Run as a systemd service instead of Docker for lower overhead
• Use autossh or systemd to maintain persistent reverse tunnels
• Expand to forward additional ports (e.g., Bitcoin RPC, application APIs)
• Apply strict firewall rules to limit SSH access to localhost only

@ d6affa19:9110b177

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

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

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

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

An Invocation of Structure, Trust, and Identity

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

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

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

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

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

The Words Alone Are Not the Magic

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

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

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

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

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

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

Closing Thoughts

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

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

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

@ 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

@ 0b118e40:4edc09cb

The idea of Bitcoin as an internet native currency, and eventually a global one, is coming to life slowly. But historically, the idea of global currency has haunted the world’s financial imagination for nearly a century. 

From Keynes’s Bancor in 1944 to Zhou Xiaochuan’s post-crisis proposal in 2009 to today’s renewed debates, the idea resurfaces every time the global economy fractures. 

Could this time be different with Bitcoin? 

I decided to trace the idea of global currency through several decades and books. I may have missed some parts, so feel free to add. I’ll keep this brief and leave the books I’ve read below.

In the beginning

It all started on July 1, 1944. 730 delegates from 44 Allied nations, including major powers like the US, UK, Soviet Union, China, and France, gathered at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. They spent 2 weeks figuring out how the new international monetary and financial system would be, post WW2

After WW1, the treaty of Versailles was needed, but imposed harsh reparations that devastated economies and contributed to the rise of fascism, such as Hitler, Mussolini and gang. 

So when folks met up in 1944 (WW2 was almost ending), the goal was to prevent another Great Depression, another global conflict and build a stable global economic order. 

2 main proposals were discussed in Bretton Woods. 

1. John Maynard Keynes, representing the UK, proposed the creation of a global currency called Bancor. It will be issued through a global central bank known as the International Clearing Union (ICU).

2. Harry Dexter White, representing the US, promoted a dollar-based system. Countries would peg their currencies to the US. dollar backed by gold. He also led the creation of the IMF and the World Bank.

To understand how both of these proposals work, let's look at an example.

• Country A (Germany): Massive exporter

• Country B (USA): Massive importer

• Country C (Brazil): Balanced trade (imports = exports)

***Based on Dexter’s model and the current USD-based system, ***

Say Germany sells $1B worth of cars to the US. The US  pays in dollars, increasing its trade deficit. Germany accumulates dollars as reserves or buys the US Treasury bonds. Over time, the US continues running trade deficits, while Germany keeps hoarding dollars. Hence the  unsustainable debt of the US. 

***In Keynes’s Bancor system, ***

If Germany sells $1B worth of cars to the US, then the US does not pay in dollars. Instead, the ICU credits Germany with 1B Bancors and debits the US with -1B Bancors. 

The ICU police this. If Germany exceeds the surplus threshold, it pays interest or penalties to discourage hoarding. If the US exceeds its deficit threshold, it is warned to rebalance trade or face restrictions.

Here, Germany is incentivized to import more (e.g., from Brazil) or invest in global development. The US is encouraged to export more or reduce consumption. Brazil, with balanced trade, enjoys stability in Bancor flows and avoids pressure.

The idea behind Bancor was a zero-sum balancing act. No country could become “too big to fail” due to excessive deficits. But it was too complicated and idealistic in assuming every country could maintain balanced trade. 

Dexter on the other hand had a few tricks up his sleeve. In the end, Dexter’s USD dominance proposal was adopted. 

The Bretton Woods system established the US dollar as the central global currency 

Why did dollar dominance win over Bancor?

Simplicity often wins over complexity. But more so ICU felt too centralized, asking nations to surrender economic autonomy to a global body. That didn’t sit well in a post-war world where sovereignty was non-negotiable. That and idealist economic trade balance views. 

Dexter’s dollar-based system on the other hand wasn’t fair play at all. It was centralized and authoritarian in its design. 

So how did Dexter pull it off?

They had gold. They were ahead in economic recovery.

And they had nuclear weapons. 

At the time, the US held nearly 2/3 of the world’s gold reserves. It was a significant advantage in advocating for a gold-backed dollar as the bedrock of global trade. 

The US proposed a fixed gold peg at $35 per ounce.

From a broader geopolitical backdrop, the global population in 1944 was about 2.3 billion, a fraction of today’s 8 billion. The world was far less interconnected. The war had devastated Europe, Russia, and much of Asia. Infrastructure, economies, and entire cities were in ruins. The US, by contrast, had faced far fewer casualties and damages. Being geographically isolated, it had minimal domestic losses, around a tenth of what Europe suffered, and its economy was poised to rebuild faster. 

But gold dominance and economic recovery alone didn’t secure US financial dominance.

American scientific breakthroughs had already signaled global power. Physicists like Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein, who had fled Europe, helped develop nuclear weapons. Their intent was deterrence, not destruction. But once the bomb existed, it changed geopolitics overnight. The US had military dominance. And after Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, it became the undisputed superpower. 

In the end, the USD won and the vision for neutral global currency faded. 

And 20 years passed on…

France sends its warship to the US

Under Bretton Woods, countries could exchange dollars for gold, but the US had been printing more dollars than it had gold to back it. And it used it to fund the costly Vietnam War and domestic programs like the Great Society under LBJ. 

Belgian-American economist Robert Triffin pointed out a fatal flaw in the Bretton Woods system that came to be known as the Triffin dilemma. 

• The world needed US dollars for liquidity and trade.

• But the more dollars the US pumped out, the less credible its gold promise became.

Yet the US kept promising that every dollar was still convertible to gold at $35 per ounce.

French President Charles de Gaulle saw this as financial imperialism. He called it the  “exorbitant privileged position”. The world had to pay for what they bought with the money they have, but not the US. 

So in 1965, France did something unexpected. It sent a warship to New York Harbor to physically retrieve French gold reserves held by the Federal Reserve. 

Would it have escalated to war? Maybe. But likely not. It was perhaps more of a diplomatic theatre and a sovereign flex. France was exercising its right under the Bretton Woods agreement to convert dollars into gold. But doing it with military formality was to send a signal to the world that they don’t trust the US system anymore.

It was one of the first major public blows to the dollar’s credibility. And France wasn’t alone. Other countries like West Germany and Switzerland followed suit, redeeming dollars for gold and draining US reserves.

The Nixon shock

Given they did not have enough gold, the IMF introduced Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) in 1969. SDRs were an international reserve asset, created to supplement gold and dollar reserves. Instead of relying solely on the US dollar, SDRs were based on a basket of major currencies (originally gold-backed but later diversified).

The idea was to reduce the world’s dependence on the dollar and avoid a liquidity crisis. But SDRs were a little too late and a little too weak to solve the underlying problem.

By 1971, the US could no longer sustain the illusion. President Nixon “closed the gold window,” suspending dollar convertibility to gold. 

The Bretton Woods collapsed and this marked the beginning of fiat money dominance.

The French pursuit

While France demanded justice in one corner of the world, the French franc, specifically the CFA franc, has been dominant in parts of Africa since 1945, long before 1971.

After WWII, France created two CFA franc zones:

• West Africa: Communauté Financière Africaine (XOF)

• Central Africa: Coopération Financière en Afrique Centrale (XAF)

These zones included 14 African countries, many of which were former French colonies. France maintained monetary control via currency convertibility guarantees and representation in African central banks. Till today it has influence over these country’s monetary policy.

Colonisation hasn't ended in some parts of the world. 

Did countries stop using the USD after the Nixon shock 1971?

Nope. The US dollar was no longer convertible to gold and it dismantled the fixed exchange rate system. But most countries did not stop using the USD as their dominant reserve or trade currency. There were no decent alternatives. Instead, they floated their currencies or maintained a soft peg to the dollar or a basket of currencies. 

The USD remained dominant in oil trade (OPEC priced oil in USD) - petrodollar deal, global debt markets and FX reserves (central banks kept holding USD). 

In 1997, when many Southeast Asian countries were still pegged to the USD, Soros claimed that SEA will tank. The US further increased its credit rates leading to capital flight and eventual tanking of these countries leading to Asian Financial Crisis '97. Many financial crisis has similar vibe.

The 1999 Euro launch

The idea of a shared currency appeared again, this time through the forms of Euro. It was a mandatory system for member states of the Eurozone, and came with centralized authority, the European Central Bank (ECB), which controlled monetary policy for all participating nations.

At first glance, the euro seemed like a win. It eliminated exchange rate fluctuations, making trade within the Eurozone smoother. It gave weaker economies access to lower borrowing costs and helped Europe establish itself as a financial heavyweight. Today, the euro is the second most-used reserve currency after the US dollar.

But it came at a cost. Countries that adopted the euro lost monetary sovereignty and could no longer print their own money or adjust interest rates to respond to local crises. This became painfully clear during Greece’s debt crisis, where strict monetary policies prevented the country from devaluing its currency to recover. The one-size-fits-all approach meant that economies as different as Germany and Greece had to follow the same rules, often to the detriment of weaker nations. Debt-ridden countries like Italy and Spain were forced into harsh austerity measures because they could not manipulate their currency to ease financial strain. Meanwhile, richer nations like Germany and the Netherlands felt they were unfairly propping up struggling economies, creating political tension across the EU.

In recent years, the euro has faced pressure from global trade tensions, monetary tightening, and geopolitical instability contributing to market volatility and periodic depreciation against other major currencies.

The Bretton Woods 2.0

Believe it or not, after all that, there was a call for Bretton Woods 2.0. Yet another global currency dream.

When the housing market collapsed in 2008 followed by a series of domino effects, global banks froze lending, economies contracted, and panic set in. The crisis exposed how fragile the international financial system had become as it was overly reliant on debt, under-regulated, and centered around the US dollar.

Many countries, especially in the Global South and emerging markets, started to question whether a system built around a single national currency was sustainable. 

China, for instance, had been holding huge amounts of US debt while the US printed more dollars through bailouts and quantitative easing. This created global imbalances as exporting nations were lending money to the US to keep the system running, while taking on the risk of dollar depreciation. 

In 2009, China’s central bank openly proposed replacing the US dollar with a neutral global reserve currency suggesting SDRs (Special Drawing Rights) issued by the IMF instead.

These concerns led to a wave of calls from world leaders for a “Bretton Woods 2.0” ,  a modern rethinking of the post-WWII economic order. At G20 summits in London in 2009, countries like France, China, and Russia pushed for reforms in global financial institutions and more balanced power sharing. 

In the end, the IMF received more funding, and some banking regulations were tightened in the years after. But no real overhaul happened. No surprise there? The dollar remained dominant. 

The foundation of the global economy didn’t change, even though trust in it had been deeply shaken.

The growth of BRICS

In 2023, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa began discussing the idea of a shared currency or alternative mechanism to reduce the dependence on USD ie de-dollarisation. The sanctions on Russia didn't help. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US and its allies froze Russia’s dollar reserves and cut it off from SWIFT, the “backbone of global banking communication”. This made one thing clear. If you fall out with Washington, your access to the global economy can vanish overnight.

China’s growing economic power also gave it more leverage to process alternative options. It would trade in Yuan with Russia and Iran.

I know many still say it's at its early stage, but I see many countries hedging their bets quietly and aligning with Putin and Xi. It became more obvious after US imposed tariffs on multiple nations, signaling that economic tools can double as political weapons. The world’s second financial system is slowly forming.

What is the world looking for, for the last century ?

From Bretton Woods to multiple financial crises, from the birth of the Euro to the rise of BRICS, through war and peace, we’ve been circling around the same ideal. A global currency that is :

1. Simple 

2. Free from dominant power 

3. Decentralised

4. Borderless

5. Scarce 

6. Transparent 

7. Inclusive, with self custody

8. Resilient in crisis 

9. Built for individual financial sovereignty

10. A new backbone for global finance, owned by no one

It doesn’t matter where you’re from, what politics you believe in, or how your economy leans. The answer keeps pointing in the same direction:

Bitcoin

This is the first true global currency.

And it’s just there 

Waiting...

.

.

.

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Some books that might interest you :

1. The Battle of Bretton Woods by Benn Steil

2. Goodbye, Great Britain by Kathleen Burk and Alec Cairncross

3. The Ghost of Bancor by Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa

4. Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins

5. The Blood Bankers by James S. Henry

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Autor: Bernd Schoepe. 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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Dies ist Teil 3 des Essays. Lesen Sie hier Teil 1 und Teil 2.

IV  Denazifizierungsstopp und die „abgesagte“ NS-Aufarbeitung in der Adenauer-Ära

„Nie wieder Krieg, nie wieder Faschismus!“

Dieses Gelöbnis erfuhr seine Ausformulierung, als die durch Krieg und Verfolgung charakterlich tief geprägten und für ihr Leben gezeichneten Väter und Mütter des Grundgesetzes sich 1948 zum Parlamentarischen Rat versammelten. Dort hat man vor dem Erfahrungshintergrund des Totalitarismus Nazi-Deutschlands in den neunzehn Grundrechtsartikeln die Rechte der Menschen vor dem Staat festgeschrieben, die gegen staatliche „Willkür, Ungerechtigkeit und Gewalt“ (25) schützen sollen. Sie wurden zur Grundlage eines neuen Staatsverständnisses, das vom Humanismus und dem Geist der Aufklärung getragen sein sollte. Das Gelöbnis fand seinen verfassungsmäßigen Ausdruck also im Grundgesetz, das am 23. Mai 1949 feierlich in Bonn verkündet wurde. Dessen Geist manifestiert sich besonders in der sogenannten Ewigkeitsklausel der Menschenwürde (Art.1), die den Grundrechtsartikeln, dem Kanon der Menschen- und Bürgerrechte, vorangestellt wurde.

Doch die Unterschriften unter dem Grundgesetz waren kaum trocken, da wurde dieses Gelöbnis schon durch die Frontstaatenideologie des Kalten Krieges überlagert, konterkariert und in der Praxis sukzessive aufgehoben. Der Kalte Krieg hatte bereits begonnen und seine Akteure bedienten sich ungeniert der Vorurteile und Stereotypen, mit denen die Deutschen noch gut aus dem Dritten Reich vertraut waren. Grundiert vom militanten Anti-Kommunismus, der bekanntlich auch die Nazi-Ideologie stark angetrieben hatte, verstärkt durch die Wiederbewaffnung mit der sie begleitenden Aufnahme der BRD in die NATO, konsolidiert in der Zeit der Adenauer-Restauration in den 1950er Jahren, in der ein konservativ-elitäres Staatsdenken gegenüber radikaldemokratischen Bestrebungen klar dominieren und sich durchsetzen sollte, erwies die Aufarbeitung der NS-Vergangenheit sich als der größte und folgenreichste Rohrkrepierer in der Geschichte der noch jungen zweiten deutschen Republik. Erst mit den Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozessen und stärker dann noch im Zusammenhang mit der Studentenrevolte Ende der 1960er Jahre sollte es zu neuen ernsthaften Bemühungen um gesellschaftliche Aufarbeitung kommen. 

Adenauers Ankündigung einer Beendigung der NS-Aufarbeitung, die er bereits in seiner ersten Regierungserklärung 1949 (!) vor dem Bundestag gab, dürfte auch und gerade aus heutiger Sicht von deutlich wichtigerer Bedeutung für das Fortleben autoritär-rechtsextremer, völkischer und nationalsozialistischer Gesinnungen und Haltungen in Deutschland gewesen sein als der Einzug der AfD in den Bundestag 2017, einschließlich aller geschichtsvergessenen und in ihrer Wortwahl geschmacklosen Äußerungen ihrer Politiker seither. 

Bemerkenswert sind die Worte, mit der Adenauer so früh der gesellschaftlichen Aufarbeitung der NS-Zeit eine klare Absage erteilte:

„Durch die Denazifizierung ist viel Unglück und viel Unheil angerichtet worden. (...) Im Übrigen dürfen wir nicht mehr zwei Klassen von Menschen in Deutschland unterscheiden, die politisch Einwandfreien und die politisch Nicht-Einwandfreien. Diese Unterscheidung muss baldigst verschwinden.“ (26)

Rasch wurden daraufhin die gesetzlichen Grundlagen geschaffen, um in den im Aufbau befindlichen bundesdeutschen Verwaltungsapparat über 50.000 NS-belastete Beamte wiedereinzugliedern, darunter auch viele, die zuvor dem Nazi-Unrechtsstaat als Mitglieder der Gestapo und der SS gedient hatten. Besonders im Bundesjustizministerium hatte ein Netzwerk aus Alt-Nazis unterhalb der ministeriellen Leitungsebene bis in die 1960er Jahre hinein das Sagen, mit großen, noch immer nicht vollständig aufgearbeiteten Auswirkungen auf die Gesetzgebung, durch die NS-Verbrecher in der BRD auf verschiedene Weisen vor Strafverfolgung geschützt wurden.  

Den ideologischen Hintergrund bildet dafür der Konservatismus, dem Adenauer, die CDU/CSU und andere politisch einflussreichen Kräfte anhingen, genauer gesagt das Elitedenken, das für diesen Konservatismus konstitutiv ist. Es erklärt, dass die Regierung lieber auf die alte Elite, auch wenn sie in weiten Teilen nationalsozialistisch belastet war, zurückgriff als ein neues, demokratisch-selbstbewusstes Beamtentum zu begründen und eine aus den verschiedenen Facetten des Widerstandes sich rekrutierende Führungsschicht aufzubauen. Denn die geeigneten Personen für diese Führungsschicht hätte man weitgehend nicht im eigenen Lager, sondern im Lager der politischen Gegner, bei Sozialdemokraten, Sozialisten, Kommunisten und Linksliberalen finden können. 

Fazit: Im Handumdrehen wurde der an das „Nie-Wieder!“– Versprechen an die zukünftigen Generationen geknüpfte, zumindest teilweise ernsthaft und aufrichtig angestrebte Neuanfang –verstanden als ein radikal zu vollziehender Bruch mit der faschistischen Vergangenheit – hintertrieben, entstellt, entkräftet und um seine Wirkung gebracht. Dabei spielte nicht zuletzt die schnell wieder angekurbelte Feindbildproduktion und Russophobie („alle Wege der Linken, Friedensfreunde, Anti-Militaristen und Neutralitätsbefürworter führen nach Moskau!“), eine wichtige Rolle.

Es ist daher kein Zufall, dass sie uns so verblüffend ähnlich auch heute wieder in Politik und Medien begegnet. Sie ist ein Herzstück der deutschen Nachkriegs-Lebenslüge namens „Vergangenheitsbewältigung“. Hier gilt einmal mehr der Satz, dass Untote bekanntlich länger leben.

Sie macht sich heute auch darin bemerkbar, dass die Tatsache, dass es sich bei dem Krieg gegen Russland nicht um einen Eroberungskrieg, sondern um einen Vernichtungsfeldzug gegen eine „minderwertige Rasse und Kultur“ handelte, im kollektiven Bewusstsein der Deutschen nicht verankert wurde. Sonst hätte der Hass auf die Russen und alles Russische gesellschaftlich nicht wieder hoffähig werden können.

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Exkurs zum Niedergang der deutschen Sozialdemokratie

Im Ringen um den Weg, den die Bundesrepublik in den 1950er Jahren nehmen sollte, wurden damals Sozialdemokraten, die sich nicht bedingungslos der Bollwerks- und Frontstaaten-Ideologie des Kalten Kriegs unterwarfen, als „vaterlandslose Gesellen“ diffamiert. Die SPD tat sich immer schwer damit, der Demagogie der bürgerlichen Parteien etwas entgegenzusetzen, da Antikommunismus bei breiten Teilen der Bevölkerung, getreu der Devise „je primitiver, desto besser bzw. wirkungsvoller“, auch nach Hitler verfing. 

Heute schlägt die Sozialdemokratische Partei die Aufrüstungs- und Kriegstrommel lieber selber kräftig mit und diffamiert die Angehörigen der Friedensbewegung und Verfechter einer Détente mit Russland als „Putin-Freunde“ und „Russlandversteher“ oder gar, ins absurd Metaphysische gesteigert als “gefallene Engel aus der Hölle“ (Olaf Scholz).

Mit dem Friedensnobelpreisträger und NS-Widerstandskämpfer Willy Brandt an der Spitze fuhr die SPD ihren größten Wahlerfolg ein – die von ihm geführte erhielt in der Bundestagswahl 1972 45,8 Prozent. Außenpolitisch überzeugte sie mit „Wandel durch Annäherung“ und „Wir wollen ein Volk guter Nachbar sein“. Nun ist sie beim Führungspersonal bei einem farblosen Apparatschik und Waffenlobbyisten (27) namens Lars Klingbeil und 16,4 % der Wählerstimmen angekommen. Zumindest die ebenso blasse und ideenlose Saskia Esken, die bei vielen einzig und allein für ihre Diffamierung von Demonstranten gegen das Corona-Unrecht („Covidioten“) in Erinnerung bleiben wird, zieht aus ihrer Unbeliebtheit nun die Konsequenz und tritt ab.

Indem die SPD, in Anbetracht der Friedensinitiativen Trumps die Chance verstreichen lässt, sich selbst in ihrer Politik gegenüber Russland zu korrigieren, um doch noch auf den Pfad der Diplomatie zurückzukehren und zu verhindern, dass auch noch der letzte Rest sozialdemokratischer Substanz über Bord geworfen wird, setzt Sozen-Konkursbeschleuniger Klingbeil zusammen mit BlackRock-Millionär Merz auf den Scholzschen Zeitenwende-Wahnsinn von 100 Milliarden für die Rüstung lieber noch weitere 500 Milliarden Euro drauf. Er und der den Kommiss-Ton perfekt beherrschende Pistorius, mit seinen Einlassungen zum „russischen Diktatfrieden“, der, wenn man ihn denn schon unbedingt so nennen will, ja nicht zuletzt auf das Konto der diplomatischen Untätigkeit der deutschen Regierung geht, besiegeln durch das von der Schuldenbremse befreite, in puncto Kostspieligkeit nach oben offene Aufrüstungs- und Militarisierungsprogramm, unter das in Wirklichkeit auch ein großer Teil der geplanten Infrastrukturmaßnahmen subsummiert werden wird (28), das Schicksal der ältesten Partei Deutschlands. Wissen diese SPD-Politiker wirklich nicht, was sie tun, wenn sie für die Profite der Rüstungswirtschaft alles verraten und auf lange Sicht verspielen, wofür diese Partei außen- und sozialpolitisch einmal stand und wofür sie gewählt wurde?    

All das, was die SPD als Friedens- und Entspannungspartei einmal zur stärksten politischen Kraft gemacht hat, wird nun wie im Wahn von ihr verleugnet und mutwillig, geschichtsvergessen-revanchistisch zerstört. Und nicht nur das: Die SPD liefert den Rechten (nein, nicht der AfD, sondern den sonstigen Extremisten der Mitte!) den Grund, den neoliberal bereits entkernten Sozialstaat weiter – ab jetzt aber mit Bulldozern statt mit der Spitzhacke – zu zerstören. Sie nimmt dafür auch weitere, schwere Beschädigungen der Legitimität unserer ohnehin dahinsiechenden Demokratie in Kauf. Die Demokratie liegt nämlich seit Corona bei uns auf der Intensivstation und muss, u.a. durch regierungsfinanzierte „NGOs“ und staatlich organisierte Anti-AfD-Demonstrationen, künstlich beatmet werden!

Schließlich war die SPD zusammen mit der Merz-Union sogar bereit, einen kalten Putsch gegen die Integrität des Parlamentarismus und die elementaren Spielregeln der Demokratie durchzuführen. Mit diesem Putsch hat man im abgewählten 20. Bundestag noch schnell politisch äußerst weitreichende Grundgesetzänderungen durchgesetzt – und das gegen die neuen Mehrheiten des bereits gewählten 21. Bundestages! Die durch Bruch des Wahlversprechens ermöglichte Grundgesetzänderung, stellt einen besonders beschämenden Akt der Machtanmaßung, Wählerverhöhnung und Demokratiemissachtung dar. Und sie verfehlte ihre Wirkung nicht. Kurz darauf konnten die Demoskopen neue Rekordwerte für die AfD messen, die nun als stärkste Partei noch vor der CDU lag. Das Merz-Manöver dürfte im Übrigen dafür gesorgt haben, dass ihm nach der Wahl zum Bundeskanzler, die ja alles andere als glatt verlief, ein Makel anhängt, der so gravierend ist, dass er für den Rest seiner Amtszeit (hoffentlich) nicht mehr zu tilgen sein wird.

Das besonders Irre, das nicht nur den Fall der SPD beschreibt, ihr Versagen aber besonders plastisch hervorhebt, ist, dass es seit Beginn des Ukraine-Kriegs innerhalb der EU (mit Ausnahme Orbans) keine diplomatischen Initiativen gegeben hat, um mit Russland wieder ins Gespräch zu kommen. Im Rückblick wirken da selbst die Kalten Krieger vor und während der Ostpolitik von Willy Brandt wie Appeasement-Politiker. 

Stattdessen war wiederholt eine Bundesaußenministerin zu vernehmen, die offenbar nur sehr eingeschränkt dazu imstande ist, ihre sprachliche Performanz dem hohen Amt angemessen zu kontrollieren. Sie wollte öffentlich „Russland ruinieren“ und erklärte dem Land ein anderes Mal, vor dem Europarat, beiläufig den Krieg. Dass Baerbock, die in ihrer Amtszeit in fast jedes diplomatische Fettnäpfchen getreten ist, jetzt zur zweithöchsten UN-Chef-Diplomatin gewählt wurde, ist Realsatire pur!

Polemik als geistiger Notwehrakt 

Doch Halt! – Gerade merke ich, wie mich mein Hang zur Polemik fortzureißen beginnt!

Die Polemik ist ein hilfreiches (und noch nicht ganz verbotenes!) geistiges Notwehr-Mittel in Zeiten eines zunehmend aggressiv aufgeheizten gesellschaftlichen Klimas. Wie soll man nicht zum Polemiker und Satiriker angesichts des grassierenden Wahnsinns der Politik und ihrer vielen verrückt und absurd anmutenden Pathologien und Regressionen werden, hinter denen bei genauerem Hinsehen dann doch oft auch Kalkül vermutet werden muss? Wie sind sie anders als Vorgänge zu deuten, die zur Abwicklung der Demokratie führen sollen? Vorgänge, die durch eben jene Kräfte betrieben werden, die „unsere Demokratie“ inflationär lobpreisen und nicht müde werden, ihre „Werte“ in Sonntagsreden hervorzuheben. Gleichzeitig werden diese Werte aber durch Cancel Culture, Zensur und Denunziation massiv von ihnen angegriffen und von innen immer weiter ausgehöhlt.

Definitiv verhält es sich heute so, dass der Hang zur Polemik dem Umstand geschuldet wird, dass wir mittlerweile in schier unglaublichen Zeiten von Travestie-Ausgeburten  leben. Diese machen es uns immer schwerer, nicht ganz die Bodenhaftung zu verlieren. All die wahnwitzigen Phänomenen, die wie wildgewordene Säue tagein tagaus durch das globale Dorf der Massenmedien in Echtzeit** getrieben werden, sie gefährden das Restvertrauen in den gesunden Menschenerstand und schränken die Möglichkeiten stark ein, einen halbwegs stabilen, geerdeten, vernunftgeleiteten Realitätsbezug aufrechtzuerhalten.

Und doch soll hier nicht ein weiteres Mal in dieser Façon mit der Regierungspolitik abgerechnet werden. Auf der Suche nach den tieferen Gründen für diese negativen Entwicklungen, soll stattdessen im zeithistorischen Material an einigen neuralgischen Stellen genauer nachgesehen und an der Oberfläche gekratzt werden, um die blinden Flecken bundesrepublikanischer Selbstwahrnehmung sichtbar zu machen.

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Bernd Schoepe, Jahrgang 1965,  Studium der Soziologie, Germanistik, Philosophie und Erziehungswissenschaften in Frankfurt/M. und Hamburg. Erstes und zweites Staatsexamen. Freier Autor, der zu bildungspolitischen, bildungssoziologischen- und bildungsphilosophischen Themen schreibt. Seit 2003 im Hamburger Schuldienst. Langjähriges GEW-Betriebsgruppen-Mitglied, ehem. Vertrauensmann, ehem. Mitglied der Hamburger Lehrerkammer. Hauptberuflich bin ich Politik- Deutsch- und Philosophielehrer an einer Hamburger Stadtteilschule. Kontakt: berndschoepe\@gmx.de

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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

The latest AI chips, 8K displays, and neural processing units make your device feel like a pocket supercomputer. So surely, with all this advancement, you can finally mine bitcoin on your phone profitably, right?

The 2025 Hardware Reality: Can You Mine Bitcoin on Your Phone

Despite remarkable advances in smartphone technology, the fundamental physics of bitcoin mining haven’t changed. In 2025, flagship devices with their cutting-edge 2nm processors can achieve approximately 25-40 megahashes per second when you mine bitcoin on your phone—a notable improvement from previous generations, but still laughably inadequate.

Meanwhile, 2025’s top-tier ASIC miners have evolved dramatically. The latest Bitmain Antminer S23 series and Canaan AvalonMiner A15 Pro deliver 200-300 terahashes per second while consuming 4,000-5,500 watts. That’s a performance gap of roughly 1:8,000,000 between when you mine bitcoin on your phone and professional mining equipment.

To put this in perspective that hits home: if you mine bitcoin on your phone and it earned you one penny, professional miners would earn $80,000 in the same time period with the same effort. It’s not just an efficiency problem—it’s a complete category mismatch.

According to Pocket Option’s 2025 analysis, when you mine bitcoin on your phone in 2025, you generate approximately $0.003-0.006 in daily revenue while consuming $0.45-0.85 in electricity through constant charging cycles. Factor in the accelerated device wear (estimated at $0.75-1.20 daily depreciation), and you’re looking at losses of $1.20-2.00 per day just for the privilege of running mining software.

Mining Economic Factor

Precise Value (April 2025)

Direct Impact on Profitability

Smartphone sustained hash rate

20-35 MH/s

0.00000024% contribution to global hashrate

Daily power consumption

3.2-4.8 kWh (4-6 full charges)

$0.38-0.57 at average US electricity rates

Expected daily BTC earnings

0.0000000086 BTC ($0.0035 at $41,200 BTC)

Revenue covers only 0.9% of electricity costs

CPU/GPU wear cost

$0.68-0.92 daily accelerated depreciation

Reduces smartphone lifespan by 60-70%

Annual profit projection

-$386 to -$412 per year

Guaranteed negative return on investment

Source: PocketOption

Bitcoin’s 2025 Network: Harder Than Ever

Bitcoin’s network difficulty in 2025 has reached unprecedented levels. After the April 2024 halving event that reduced block rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, mining became significantly more competitive. The global hash rate now exceeds 800 exahashes per second—that’s 800 followed by 18 zeros worth of computational power securing the network.

Here’s what this means in practical terms: Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks (roughly every two weeks) to maintain the 10-minute block time. As more efficient miners join the network, difficulty increases proportionally. In 2025, mining difficulty has increased compared to 2024, making small-scale mining even less viable.

The math is unforgiving:

• Global Bitcoin hash rate: 828.96 EH/s
• Your smartphone’s contribution: ~0.000000003%
• Probability of solo mining a block: Virtually zero
• Expected time to mine one Bitcoin: Several million years

Even joining mining pools doesn’t solve the economic problem. Pool fees typically range from 1-3%, and your minuscule contribution would earn proportionally tiny rewards—far below the electricity and device depreciation costs.

The 2025 Scam Evolution: More Sophisticated, More Dangerous

Fraudsters now leverage AI-generated content, fake influencer endorsements, and impressive-looking apps that simulate realistic mining activity to entice you to mine bitcoin on your phone.

New 2025 scam tactics include:

AI-Powered Fake Testimonials: Deepfake videos of supposed successful mobile miners showing fabricated earnings statements and encouraging downloads of malicious apps.

Gamified Mining Interfaces: Apps that look and feel like legitimate games but secretly harvest personal data while simulating mining progress that can never be withdrawn.

Social Media Manipulation: Coordinated campaigns across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube featuring fake “financial influencers” promoting mobile mining apps to younger audiences.

Subscription Trap Mining: Apps offering “free trials” that automatically charge $19.99-49.99 monthly for “premium mining speeds” while delivering no actual mining capability.

Recent cybersecurity research shows that over 180 fake mining apps were discovered across major app stores in 2025, with some accumulating more than 500,000 downloads before being removed.

Red flags that scream “scam” in 2025:

• Apps claiming “revolutionary mobile mining breakthrough”
• Promises of earning “$10-50 daily” from phone mining
• Requirements to recruit friends or watch ads to unlock withdrawals
• Apps that don’t require connecting to actual mining pools
• Testimonials that seem too polished or use stock photo models
• Apps requesting permissions unrelated to mining (contacts, camera, microphone)

The 2025 Professional Mining Landscape

To understand why, consider what professional bitcoin mining looks like in 2025. Industrial mining operations now resemble high-tech data centers with:

Cutting-edge hardware:

• Bitmain Antminer S23 Pro: 280 TH/s at 4,800W
• MicroBT WhatsMiner M56S++: 250 TH/s at 4,500W
• Canaan AvalonMiner A1566: 185 TH/s at 3,420W

Infrastructure requirements:

• Megawatt-scale power contracts with industrial electricity rates
• Liquid cooling systems maintaining 24/7 optimal temperatures
• Redundant internet connections ensuring zero downtime
• Professional facility management with 24/7 monitoring

For a small operation, you might need at least $10,000 to $20,000 to buy a few ASIC miners, set up cooling systems, and cover electricity costs. These operations employ teams of engineers, maintain relationships with power companies, and operate with margins measured in single-digit percentages.

2025’s Legitimate Mobile Bitcoin Strategies

While it remains impossible to mine bitcoin on your phone profitably, 2025 offers exciting legitimate ways to engage with bitcoin through your smartphone:

Lightning Network Participation: Apps like Phoenix, Breez, and Zeus allow you to run Lightning nodes on mobile devices, earning small routing fees while supporting bitcoin’s payment layer.

Bitcoin DCA Automation: Services enable automated dollar-cost averaging with amounts as small as $1 daily. Historical data shows $10 weekly bitcoin purchases consistently outperform any mobile mining attempt by 1,500-2,000%.

Educational Mining Simulators: Legitimate apps like “Bitcoin Mining Simulator” teach mining concepts without false earning promises. These educational tools help users understand hash rates, difficulty adjustments, and mining economics.

Stacking Sats Rewards: Apps offering bitcoin rewards for shopping, learning, or completing tasks.

Lightning Gaming: Bitcoin-native mobile games where players can earn sats through skilled gameplay, with some players earning $10 monthly.onfirm that even the most optimized mobile mining setups in 2025 lose money consistently and predictably.

The Bottom Line

When you mine bitcoin on your phone fundamental economics remain unchanged: it’s impossible to profit. The laws of physics, network competition, and energy efficiency create insurmountable barriers that no app can overcome.

However, 2025 offers unprecedented opportunities to engage with bitcoin meaningfully through your smartphone. Focus on education, legitimate earning opportunities, and strategic investment rather than chasing the impossible dream of phone-based mining.

The bitcoin community’s greatest strength lies in its commitment to truth over hype. When someone promises profits to mine bitcoin on your phone in 2025, they’re either uninformed or deliberately misleading you. Trust the mathematics, learn from the community, and build your bitcoin knowledge and holdings through proven methods.

The real opportunity in 2025 isn’t to mine bitcoin on your phone—it’s understanding bitcoin deeply enough to participate confidently in the most important monetary revolution of our lifetime. Your smartphone is the perfect tool for that education; it’s just not a mining rig.

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Spontaniteit\ Creativiteit

Iets visueel of gewoon geluid\ Het moet eruit

Ik doe mezelf cadeau aan jou\ Omdat ik van het leven hou

@ 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.

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Look and see\ Look and see

You look like how you look at me

Look and see\ Look and see

The colorless through the color TV

Look and see\ Look and be

The unborn identity

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

I’ve written before about the distinction between a platform, like Gmail or X, and a protocol, like SMTP or nostr. The former is typically owned and centrally controlled, the latter permissionless and open to everyone. For example, Google can ban you from using its email client, but no one can prevent you from using email itself because no one owns the email protocol.

Language is also a protocol, in fact every language including English. Anyone, even your worst enemy who knows it can make himself understood by those who understand it. Dictionaries and grammar guides exist, but over time even they bend to common usage and are forced to include new words and rules over time because no one owns or unilaterally controls the language.

Nonetheless that doesn’t prevent people from trying. If large companies ban you from using their communications platforms like Facebook, X and Gmail, it can severely constrict your reach. Banks can’t prevent you from using physical dollars, but they can cancel your credit cards and close your accounts, if for example you’ve decided to support Canadian truckers protesting their government, making it difficult for you to transact in a society largely run on their digital rails.

Over the last few years we even saw brazen attempts to turn language into a protocol via preferred pronouns, political correctness and a government-funded “disinformation” industry. The idea was that you had to “log in” with your correct view and accurate information credential before you could participate in a discussion about a wide array of sensitive topics. If you questioned the safety and efficacy of vaccines, the fairness of the 2020 election or the origins of the Covid virus you often found yourself denied reach on various platforms and labeled “anti-vax,” “anti-science,” an “election denier” or a “conspiracy theorist.”

These labels served to circumvent substantive discussion by denying basic standing such that there was no path to a hearing on the merits. If you did not signal your bona fides via adherence to certain preferred edicts, your perspective was often summarily dismissed, not only by individuals, but also institutions at the behest of which the modern public square is administered.

In short, centralized platforms, responding to government pressure, attempted to turn self-expression and in some cases even language itself into platform. As it turns out, that attempt was a violation of the law, at least in the United States, where we have a First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

That the First Amendment was violated over the last five years (and is still being violated now, though more with respect to what you can say about Israel and the conflict raging therein) is not surprising. The Constitution is merely a piece of paper and as such wholly dependent on succeeding generations’ willingness to stand up for it. Governments are always, by their nature, top down and fascistic insofar as they use force to achieve their desired ends, and it would be naive to think a piece of paper should stop them from doing so given a sufficiently compliant populace.

Put differently, the consecrated ideas in the piece of paper must be perpetuated to retain their binding effect. And rational arguments as to their supremacy over the expedience of the day (“people are dying, it’s a once in a century pandemic!”) often fall on propagandized ears. A list of sacrosanct principles is no failsafe for mass formation psychosis, and sophisticated and powerful factions have learned to foment manias as needed to overwhelm the average person’s dedication to them.

But just as gunpowder to some extent democratized the use of force 600 years ago, the spread of new technologies has the potential to enforce the First Amendment in perpetuity in a way the Framers with their pen and paper could not. In fact, we can re-write the First Amendment for the modern digital age in simplified form:

Religion and speech are ever protocols, never platforms.

In essence, no centralized entity can control, capture or censor them. But instead of simply stating this as a matter of principle, we can now, via Bitcoin and nostr, instantiate it into a decentralized ecosystem with the use of distributed nodes and unbreakable encryption. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men would more have as much chance of re-assembling Humpty Dumpty, contra the laws of entropy, as cracking your private keys. Inducing manias in the general public and using it as a lever on centralized gatekeepers works only at the platform level, but necessarily fails versus a distributed protocol.

The solution then in the face of an indifferent and obedient population to restoring the principles on which freedom and the prospect of human prosperity depend is to develop and use unstoppable, uncensorable technology, i.e., digital protocols, to circumvent the walled-garden platforms run by centralized tech behemoths. Yes, advocating for the principles in the founding documents is good and useful, but building and using tools that instantiate them is also necessary.

If enough people transact peer to peer in bitcoin rather than over the closed-circuit rails of the global banking system, and enough people share information over nostr, rather than via the centralized tech platforms, laws and actions that violate free speech would be as effective as ones outlawing gravity or laws of thermodynamics.

The next revolution won’t be with the guillotine or the pitchfork, but bottom-up person to person, permissionless interaction and transaction. You can still be excommunicated from the platforms by their commissars and state apparatchiks, but their edicts no longer run merely afoul of a consecrated piece of paper — they come up against an infrastructure over which they no longer have enforceable jurisdiction.

@ 2e8970de:63345c7a

Iran raising a red flag in war times? That's a bit. Sabrina Carpenters "persona" - she's doing a bit. In the pope election the cardinals locking themselves in a conclave and the white smoke thing - it's a bit. Everything is only a bit.

Maybe I'm just old and interpret too much into youth slang but - that's actually a HUGE cultural shift if young people think of nothing as authentic anymore. What even is authentic?

https://stacker.news/items/1006348

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Veroorzaakt door de wereld rond mij\ Vormen de wereld in mij

Verwaarloosd door de wereld rond mij\ Overgelaten aan mij

Een groene brug komt uit mij\ Verbindt mij met wij\ En laat ons samen vrij

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Paris, France – June 6, 2025 – Flash, the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses, just announced a new partnership with the Bitcoin Only Brewery, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Flash for seamless Bitcoin payments. 

Bitcoin Buys Beer Thanks to Flash!

As Co-Founder of Flash, it's not every day we get to toast to a truly refreshing milestone.

Okay, jokes aside.

We're super buzzed to see our friends at @Drink_B0B
Bitcoin Only Brewery using Flash to power their online sales!

The first… pic.twitter.com/G7TWhy50pX

— Pierre Corbin (@CierrePorbin) June 3, 2025

Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack – shipping included.

The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.

Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented: “Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”

Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept Bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.

By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.

Bitcoin payment usage is growing thanks to Lightning

In May, fast-food chain Steak ‘N Shake went viral for integrating bitcoin at their restaurants around the world. In the same month, the bitcoin2025 conference in Las Vegas set a new world record with 4,000 Lightning payments in one day.

According to a report by River Intelligence, public Lightning payment volume surged by 266% from August 2023 to August 2024. This growth is also reflected in the overall accessibility of lighting infrastructure for consumers. According to Lightning Service Provider Breez, over 650 Million users now have access to the Lightning Network through apps like CashApp, Kraken or Strike.

Bitcoin Only Brewery’s adoption of Flash reflects the growing trend of businesses integrating Bitcoin payments to cater to a global, privacy-conscious customer base. By offering no-KYC delivery across Europe, the brewery aligns with the ethos of decentralization and financial sovereignty, appealing to the increasing number of consumers and businesses embracing Bitcoin as a legitimate payment method.

“Flash is committed to driving innovation in the Bitcoin ecosystem,” Corbin added. “We’re building a future where businesses of all sizes can seamlessly integrate Bitcoin payments, unlocking new opportunities in the global market. It’s never been easier to start selling in bitcoin and we invite retailers globally to join us in this revolution.”

For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.

About Flash

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

About Bitcoin Only Brewery

Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.

Media Contact:

Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.comPhotos paywithflash.com/about/press

How Flash Enables Interoperable, Self-Custodial Bitcoin Commerce

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Een warme chocomelk\ Een knuffel en de moed te durven spreken\ Een leuk oprecht verhaal\ En een stap naar mijn verlangen

Deze dingen allemaal\ Maken me warm vanbinnen\ Ik hou van deze dingen\ Ze doen mijn hartje zingen

Ik wens iedereen zo'n warmte toe\ Ik wou dat ik het delen kon\ Maar het ziet er anders uit\ Voor jou dan hoe voor mij

Het enige wat ik echt kan zeggen\ Het enige dat ik zeker weet\ De kracht om warmte te creëren\ Ligt in je eigen handen

In je voeten, in je mond\ Het zit ook in je ogen\ En ook in je haar\ En zei ik al je mond\ En zelfs ook in je kont

Haha, ik ben maar wat aan 't lachen\ Dat is wat mij verlucht\ En ervoor zorgt dat wat ik zeg\ Van mij los kan komen\ En jou bereiken kan

Zo kan ik op beide oren slapen\ Dat ik deed dat wat ik kon\ Ik sprak dat wat belangrijk is\ Voor mij en liet het los

De wijde wereld in\ Voor al die horen wil en daar om geeft\ Om die warmte in hun hartje\ En daar misschien naar streeft

Ik wens je al 't succes toe in de wereld\ Want God weet, je bent het waard\ Het ligt nu in jouw handen\ Deze woorden, wat ik zeg\ Iets om over na te denken\ Tussen 't brood en het beleg

Leef gewoon je leven\ En zorg goed voor jezelf\ En als je 't graag wilt vinden\ Is het daar voor jou aan 't wachten\ Tot jij klaar bent met geloven\ In al dat anders klinkt

Ik kan je niets beloven\ Maar vertrouw op jouw instinct

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

My life is my way Home\ My death is my arrival

I can't wait to be Home\ And so I love life

I can't wait to be Home\ And so I want to live to the fullest

For there are no shortcuts

Many people die\ And never make it Home

They will have to wait\ For another chance to die

Another chance to live fully\ And die totally

I'm so thankful to be alive\ I'm on my way Home

I'm so thankful to be alive\ To have another chance to die

Every day I take a step\ In the direction of my death\ I do not postpone it

Every day I take a step\ In the direction of my truth\ I do not avoid it

It is who I am, always have been\ And always will be

It lies beyond that door\ That keeps everything in check

Where only can go through\ Which is forever true

@ df67f9a7:2d4fc200

Nostr is NOT a social network. Nostr is a network of interconnected social apps. And, since any app is a social app, Nostr is for every app.

---

ONLY Nostr incentivizes inter-connectivity between independent apps, simply by respecting sovereignty at the protocol layer. For end users, sovereignty means that the content they post “to Nostr” will never be owned by the apps that they use. For businesses building apps on Nostr, sovereignty means that every app actually benefits by other apps being on the network. Because sovereignty is respected, users are retained for longer and independent apps thrive far longer on Nostr than on the legacy “black box” social networks.

Social apps thrive on Nostr

Nostr integration provides these benefits for every app :

• Unrestrained access for any app, to all public and private data “on Nostr”. No fees or licenses for harvesting user data from the network.
• Unburdened from liability, when collecting user data with any app. When sending “to Nostr”, end users retain custody of user data while apps never loose access.
• Unlimited free market of search engines and feed algos. Users and brands can create, use, and share any algos or custom feeds. Grow your audience on your own terms.
• Universal open network for all apps. Build any kind of app for any audience, on the same network as other apps for other audiences. Discover new trends from user data.
• Unregulated tech platform. Build your own app and use it as you wish. No gate keepers. No code review. 

Sovereignty is good for business.

Regardless of the network size, a Nostr integrated app can grow its user base MUCH faster and with greater independence BECAUSE of the sovereignty respecting protocol. While end users may retain custody of their identities and data on the network, it’s the apps that determine which data is, or is not, sent to the network. Respect for sovereignty IS the killer feature that ONLY the Nostr protocol provides for apps and for end users.

Because Nostr is permissionless for any app to integrate :

• end users will always have a free market of apps choose from
• apps are free to integrate only as much as benefits their business model.
• apps gain access to more novel data as new apps bring new users to the network.

Because data on Nostr is managed by end users and available to all apps :

• User data looses exclusivity and the demand shifts toward novel insights and information derived from these data.
• Apps are freed from having to be “data pirates”, and can focus on establishing a trusted user base, providing valuable services to satisfied customers, informed by the abundance of user data.
• Apps are incentivized to offload data onto the network, establishing a new paradigm for interconnectivity, where independence is NOT at stake as the network grows.
• New markets spring up to support users with self custody of their data, driven by the reality that apps can have full access without assuming responsibility.
• The market for search and algo tools opens up for independent apps and end users to discover and interact freely with each other.
• The ad based “attention economy” slowly transforms to a value based consumer economy, where the end user is the customer rather than the product being sold.

Even while privacy is respected

Sometimes sovereignty is at odds with privacy, but Nostr allows all parties to win while both are protected.

• For end users sending sensetive data "to Nostr", privacy is assured by encrypting it with their own private keys and/or sending it to private (auth required) relays of their choosing.
• For apps handling private IP or business data, any traditional “black box” infrastructure can be used in the back end to manitain isolation from Nostr.

This means apps and end users remain in control of their own private data, without requiring “big social” as trust provider or data reseller. To access a user's private data, client apps (even search engines, running locally) only need explicit permission from the end user to retrieve or decrypt from Nostr relays. Public data, on the other hand, is freely available for any app or search engine to harvest from any Nostr relay. In either case, user data on the Nostr network is always accessible to client apps, without additional restrictions or fees.

Nostr is for every app.

Adding social to any app makes it a better app. Add reviews for products or services. Add commenting or direct messaging. Share or collaborate on content creation. Nostr integration is straightforward and incremental for any app.

Nostr doesn't define your app's business model ... Nostr 10X's it!

Here's how :

1. Start with your own business and app design. Add Nosrr login.
2. Discover what "kinds" of user data already exists "on Nostr" that your app can ingest and make use of.
3. Decide which "kinds" of data would benefit your business, your users, and the network, if sent "to Nostr".
4. Implement Nostr integration for data kinds and add webs of trust tools for recommendation and discovery.
5. Verify your app is sovereignty respecting in how it handles private data and implements Nostr NIPs.
6. Engage with existing users, and onboard new users from your app, to earn their trust and patronage over Nostr.

For more info and assistance, contact our team of Nostr integration experts.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

The Trump’s American Bitcoin Merges with Gryphon, Reports 215 BTC on Balance Sheet Since Launch

American Bitcoin Corp (ABTC), a newly formed private Bitcoin mining company backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., announced in a June 10 SEC filing that it has acquired 215 Bitcoin (BTC) since launching operations on April 1, 2025. The reserve is currently valued at approximately $23 million, showing their drive and commitment to Bitcoin. 

JUST IN: American Bitcoin Corp (private) reports to have 215 #bitcoin (per 31 May) since it's launch on April 1, 2025.

They will merge with Gryphon Digital $GRYP and become public under ticker $ABTC.

They mention "Bitcoin accumulation is not a side effect of ABTC’s business.… pic.twitter.com/wq1Uxr76Z2

— NLNico (@btcNLNico) June 10, 2025

“Bitcoin accumulation is not a side effect of ABTC’s business. It is the business,” the company stated in the filing.

Furthermore, ABTC has entered into a merger agreement with Gryphon Digital Mining ($GRYP), and the combined company is expected to begin public trading under the ticker $ABTC as early as Q3 2025. 

The company’s three-layer strategic plan—outlined in the SEC disclosure—details a focused approach:

Layer 1: Build the Engine

• ABTC’s foundation is built on “producing Bitcoin below-market cost through a capital efficient, infrastructure-light operating model.” The company owns and operates over 60,000 miners from Bitmain and MicroBt, running primarily on Hut 8-managed facilities.

Layer 2: Scale the Reserve

• ABTC had “accumulated approximately 215 Bitcoin in reserve since launching on April 1, 2025,” which it considers a long-term strategic asset. The firm states its goal is “to utilize public markets and strategic financing structures to access efficient capital and leverage that capital to increase its Bitcoin in reserve per share.”

Layer 3: Lead the Ecosystem 

• The company ultimately aims to use its operational scale and mining position to drive industry-wide adoption. “ABTC may pursue opportunities to support protocol development, enhance network infrastructure and contribute to Bitcoin’s resilience and adoption in ways that align with shareholder value creation.”

For mining rewards, ABTC uses Foundry and Luxor pools with sub-1% fees and relies on Coinbase Custody for secure cold storage, featuring multi-factor authentication and strict withdrawal protocols. 

With operations across Niagara Falls, NY; Medicine Hat, AB; and Orla, TX, ABTC is leveraging strategic partnerships—primarily with Hut 8—to scale its Bitcoin holdings while influencing the broader crypto mining ecosystem.

This post The Trump’s American Bitcoin Merges with Gryphon, Reports 215 BTC on Balance Sheet Since Launch first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ 1c5ff3ca:efe9c0f6

Just calling it Open is not enough - Herausforderungen öffentlicher Bildungsinfrastrukturen und wie Nostr helfen könnte

Ich möchte gerne mit euch teilen, an welchen Konzepten ich arbeite, um die öffentliche Bildungsinfrastruktur mit Hilfe von Nostr zugänglicher und offener zu gestalten. Ich arbeite im Bereich öffentlicher Bildungsinfrastrukturen, besonders im Feld von Open Educational Resources (#OER). OER sind offen lizenzierte Bildungsmaterialien, die mit einer offenen Lizenz, meist einer Creative Commons Lizenz, versehen sind (CC-0, CC-BY, CC-BY-SA). Durch die klare und offene Lizenzierung ist es leicht möglich, die Lernmaterialien auf die individuellen Bedarfe anzupassen, sie zu verbessern und sie erneut zu veröffentlichen.

Seit vielen Jahren wird einerseits die Entwicklung freier Bildungsmaterialien gefördert, andererseits werden Plattformen, insbesondere Repositorien gefördert, die diese Materialien verfügbar machen sollen. Denn irgendwo müssen diese Materialien zur Verfügung gestellt werden, damit sie auch gefunden werden können.

Das klappt allerdings nur so mittelgut.

Herausforderungen

Nach vielen Jahren Förderung kann die einfache Frage: "Wo kann ich denn mein OER-Material bereitstellen" nicht einfach beantwortet werden. Es gibt Services, bei denen ich mein OER hochladen kann, jedoch bleibt es dann eingeschlossen in dieser Plattform und wird nicht auf anderen Plattformen auffindbar. Außerdem sind diese Services häufig an bestimmte Bildungskontexte gebunden oder geben Content erst nach einer Qualitätsprüfung frei. Dies führt dazu, dass ein einfaches und gleichzeitig öffentliches Teilen nicht möglich ist.

Diese und weitere Herausforderungen haben ihren Ursprung darin, dass Service und Infrastruktur in der Architektur öffentlichen Bildungsarchitektur ungünstig vermischt werden. Als Infrastruktur verstehe ich hier die Bereitstellung einer öffentlichen und offen zugänglichen Bildungsinfrastruktur, auf der Daten ausgetauscht, also bereitgestellt und konsumiert werden können. Jedoch existiert eine solche Infrstruktur momentan nicht unabhängig von den Services, die auf ihr betrieben werden. Infrastrukturbetreiber sind momentan gleichzeitig immer Servicebetreiber. Da sie aber die Hand darüber haben wollen, was genau in ihrem Service passiert (verständlich), schränken sie den Zugang zu ihrer Infrastruktur mit ein, was dazu führt, dass sie Lock-In Mechanismen großer Medienplattformen in der kleinen öffentlichen Bildungsinfrastruktur replizieren.

Es ist in etwas so, als würde jeder Autobauer auch gleichzeitig die Straßen für seine Fahrzeuge bauen. Aber halt nur für seine Autos.

Anhand einiger beispielhafter Services, die bestehende Plattformen auf ihren Infrastrukturen anbieten, möchte ich die Herausforderungen aufzeigen, die ich im aktuellen Architekturkonzept sehe:

• Upload von Bildungsmaterial
• Kuration: Zusammenstellung von Listen, Annotation mit Metadaten
• Crawling, Indexierung und Suche
• Plattfformübergreifende Kollaboration in Communities -> Beispiel: Qualitätssicherung (was auch immer das genau bedeutet)
• KI- Services -> Beispiel: KI generierte Metadaten für BiIdungsmaterial

Material Upload

Der Service "Material-Upload" oder das Mitteilen eines Links zu einem Bildungsmaterial wird von verschiedenen OER-Pattformen bereitgestellt (wirlernenonline.de, oersi.org, mundo.schule).

Dies bedeutet konkret: Wenn ich bei einer der Plattformen Content hochlade, verbleibt der Content in der Regel auch dort und wird nicht mit den anderen Plattformen geteilt. Das Resultat für die User: Entweder muss ich mich überall anmelden und dort mein Material hochladen (führt zu Duplikaten) oder damit leben, dass eben nur die Nutzer:innen der jeweiligen Plattform meinen Content finden können.

Der "Open Educational Resource Search Index" (OERSI) geht diese Herausforderung an, indem die Metadaten zu den Bildungsmaterialien verschiedener Plattformen in einem Index bereitgestellt werden. Dieser Index ist wiederum öffentlich zugänglich, sodass Plattformen darüber auch Metadaten anderer Plattformen konsumieren können. Das ist schon sehr gut. Jedoch funktioniert das nur für Plattformen, die der OERSI indexiert und für alle anderen nicht. Der OERSI ist auf den Hochschulbereich fokussiert, d.h. andere Bildungskontexte werden hier ausgeschlossen. Der Ansatz für jeden Bildungsbereich einen passenden "OERSI" daneben zustellen skaliert und schlecht und es bleibt die Herausforderung bestehen, dass für jede Quelle, die indexiert werden soll, ein entsprechender Importer/Crawler geschrieben werden muss.

Dieser Ansatz (Pull-Ansatz) rennt den Materialien hinterher.

Es gibt jedoch noch mehr Einschränkungen: Die Plattformen haben sich jeweils auf spezifische Bildungskontexte spezialisiert. D.h. auf die Fragen: Wo kann ich denn mein OER bereitstellen, muss immer erst die Gegenfrage: "Für welchen Bildungsbereich denn?" beantwortet werden. Wenn dieser außerhalb des allgemeinbildendenden Bereichs oder außerhalb der Hochschule liegt, geschweige denn außerhalb des institutionellen Bildungsrahmens, wird es schon sehr, sehr dünn. Kurzum:

• Es ist nicht einfach möglich OER bereitzustellen, sodass es auch auf verschiedenen Plattformen gefunden werden kann.

Kuration

Unter Kuration verstehe ich hier die Zusammenstellung von Content in Listen oder Sammlungs ähnlicher Form sowie die Annotation dieser Sammlungen oder des Contents mit Metadaten.

Einige Plattformen bieten die Möglichkeit an, Content in Listen einzuordnen. Diese Listen sind jedoch nicht portabel. Die Liste, die ich auf Plattform A erstelle, lässt sich nicht auf Plattform B importieren. Das wäre aber schön, denn so könnten die Listen leichter auf anderen Plattformen erweitert oder sogar kollaborativ gestaltet werden, andererseits werden Lock-In-Effekte zu vermieden.

Bei der Annotation mit Metadaten treten verschiedene zentralisierende Faktoren auf. In der momentanen Praxis werden die Metadaten meist zum Zeitpunkt der Contentbereitstellung festgelegt. Meist durch eine Person oder Redaktion, bisweilen mit Unterstützung von KI-Services, die bei der Metadateneingabe unterstützen. Wie aber zusätzliche eigene Metadaten ergänzen? Wie mitteilen, dass dieses Material nicht nur für Biologie, sondern auch für Sport in Thema XY super einsetzbar wäre? Die momentanen Ansätze können diese Anforderung nicht erfüllen. Sie nutzen die Kompetenz und das Potential ihrer User nicht.

• Es gibt keine interoperablen Sammlungen
• Metadaten-Annotation ist zentralisiert
• User können keine eigenen Metadaten hinzufügen

Crawling, Indexierung und Suche

Da die Nutzer:innen nicht viele verschiedene Plattformen und Webseiten besuchen wollen, um dort nach passendem Content zu suchen, crawlen die "großen" OER-Aggregatoren diese, um die Metadaten des Contents zu indexieren. Über verschiedene Schnittstellen oder gerne auch mal über das rohe HTML. Letztere Crawler sind sehr aufwändig zu schreiben, fehleranfällig und gehen bei Design-Anpassungen der Webseite schnell kaputt, erstere sind etwas stabiler, solange sich die Schnittstelle nicht ändert. Durch den Einsatz des Allgemeinen Metadatenprofils für Bildungsressourcen (AMB) hat sich die Situation etwas verbessert. Einige Plattformen bieten jetzt eine Sitemap an, die Links zu Bildungsmaterial enthalten, die wiederum eingebettet script-tags vom Typ application/ld+json enthalten, sodass die Metadaten von dort importiert werden können.

Beispiel: e-teaching.org bietet hier eine Sitemap für ihre OER an: https://e-teaching.org/oer-sitemap.xml und auf den jeweiligen Seiten findet sich ein entsprechendes script-Tag.

Das ist schon viel besser, aber da geht noch mehr:

Zunächst ist dieser Ansatz nur für Plattformen und Akteure praktikabel, die über IT-Ressourcen verfügen, um entsprechende Funktionalitäten bei sich einbauen zu können. Lehrende können dies nicht einfach auf ihrem privaten Blog oder ähnliches umsetzen. Zum anderen besteht immer noch ein Discovery Problem. Ich muss nach wie vor wissen, wo ich suchen muss. Ich muss die Sitemaps kennen, sonst finde ich nichts. Statt eines Ansatzes, bei dem Akteure eigenständig mitteilen können, dass sie neuen Content haben (Push-Ansatz), verfolgen wir derzeit einen Ansatz, bei dem jede Plattform für sich Content im Pull-Verfahren akquiriert. Dies führt an vielen Stellen zu Doppelarbeiten, ist ineffizient (mehrere Personen bauen genau die gleichen Crawler, aber halt immer für ihre Plattform) und schliesst vor allem kleine Akteure aus (lohnt es sich einen Crawler zu programmieren, wenn die Webseite "nur" 50 Materialien bereitstellt?).

Anstatt erschlossene Daten zu teilen, arbeiten die Plattformen für sich oder stellen es höchstens wieder hinter eigenen (offenen oder geschlossenen) Schnittstellen bereit. Das ist wohl nicht das, was wir uns unter einer offenen und kollaborativen Gemeinschaft vorstellen, oder?

Bei der Suche stehen wir vor ähnlichen Herausforderungen, wie bereits oben geschildert. Obwohl verschiedene OER-Aggregatoren in Form von Repositorien oder Referatorien bereits viele der "kleineren" Plattformen indexieren und somit eine übergreifende Suche anbieten, ist es nicht möglich, diese Aggregatoren gemeinsam zu durchsuchen. Dies führt im Endeffekt dazu, dass die User wieder verschiedene Plattformen ansteuern müssen, wenn sie den gesamten OER-Fundus durchsuchen wollen.

• An vielen Stellen wird Content doppelt erschlossen, aber immer für die eigene Plattform
• Es gibt keinen geteilten Datenraum, in den Akteure Content "pushen" können
• Es gibt keine plattformübergreifenden Suchmöglichkeiten

Plattformübergreifende Kollaboration

Das wäre schön, oder? Mir ist schleierhaft, wie #OEP (Open Educational Practices, genaue Definition durch die Community steht noch aus) ohne funktionieren soll. Aber es gibt meines Wissens nach nicht mal Ansätze, wie das technisch umgesetzt werden soll (oder doch? let me hear).

Ein Szenario für solche plattformübergreifende Kollaboration könnte Qualitätssicherung sein. Gesetzt, dass sich zwei Plattformen / Communities auf etwas verständigt haben, dass sie als "Qualität" bezeichnen, wie aber dieses Gütesiegel nun an den Content bringen?

Plattform A: Na, dann kommt doch alle zu uns. Hier können wir das machen und dann hängt auch ein schönes Badge an den Materialien.

Plattform B: Ja, aber dann hängt es ja nicht an unseren Materialien. Außerdem wollen/müssen wir bei uns arbeiten, weil welche Existenzberechtigung hat denn meine Plattform noch, wenn wir alles bei dir machen?

• Obwohl nun #OEP in aller Munde sind, gibt es keine technischen Ansätze, wie (plattformübergreifende) Kollaboration technisch abgebildet werden kann

KI-Services

Was ist heute schon komplett ohne das Thema KI zu erwähnen? Mindestens für den nächsten Förderantrag muss auch irgendetwas mit KI gemacht werden...

Verschiedene Projekte erarbeiten hilfreiche und beeindruckende KI-Services. Beispielsweise, um die Annotation von Content mit Metadaten zu erleichtern, Metadaten automatisch hinzuzufügen, Content zu bestimmten Themen zu finden oder (halb-)automatisch zu Sammlungen hinzuzufügen. Aber (vielleicht habt ihr es schon erraten): Funktioniert halt nur auf der eigenen Plattform. Vermutlich, weil die Services nah am plattformeigenen Datenmodell entwickelt werden. Und da die Daten dieses Silo nicht verlassen, passt das schon. Das führt dazu, dass an mehreren Stellen die gleichen Services doppelt entwickelt werden.

• KI-Services funktionieren oft nur auf der Plattform für die sie entwickelt werden

Zusammenfassung der Probleme

Wir machen übrigens vieles schon sehr gut (Einsatz des AMB, Offene Bidungsmaterialien, wir haben eine großartige Community) und jetzt müssen wir halt weiter gehen.

(Die OER-Metadatengruppe, die das Allgemeine Metadatenprofil für Bildungsressourcen (AMB) entwickelt hat, bekommt für ihre Arbeit keine direkte Förderung. Gleichzeitig ist sie eine zentrale Anlaufstelle für alle, die mit Metadaten in offenen Bildungsinfrastukturen hantieren und das Metadatenprofil ist eines der wenigen Applikationsprofile, das öffentlich einsehbar, gut dokumentiert ist und Validierungsmöglichkeiten bietet.)

Betrachten wir die gesamten Plattformen und die beschriebenen Herausforderungen aus der Vogelperspektive, so lassen sich drei ineinander verschränkte Kernbestandteile unterscheiden, die helfen, die beschriebenen Probleme besser zu verstehen:

• User
• Service
• Daten

User: Auf (fast) allen Plattformen agieren User. Sie laden Material hoch, annotieren mit Metadaten, sind in einer Community, suchen Content usw. Egal, ob sie sich einloggen können/müssen, irgendetwas bieten wir unseren Usern an, damit sie daraus hoffentlich Mehrwerte ziehen

Service: Das ist dieses irgendetwas. Die "Webseite", die Oberfläche, das, wo der User klicken und etwas tun kann. Es ist das, was den Daten oft eine "visuelle" Form gibt. Der Service ist der Mittler, das Interface zwischen User und Daten. Mithilfe des Services lassen sich Daten erzeugen, verändern oder entfernen (Es gibt natürlich auch viele nicht-visuelle Services, die Interaktion mit Daten ermöglichen, aber für die meisten normalen Menschen, gibt es irgendwo was zu klicken).

Daten: Die Informationen in strukturierter maschinenlesbarer Form, die dem User in gerenderter Form durch einen Service Mehrwerte bieten können. Ungerenderte Daten können wir schwieirg erfassen (wir sind ja nicht Neo). Das können entweder die Metadaten zu Bildungmaterialien sein, die Materialien selbst, Profilinformationen, Materialsammlungen o.ä.

Meines Erachtens nach haben viele der oben beschriebenen Herausforderungen ihren Ursprung darin, dass die drei Kernbestandteile User, Service, Daten ungünstig miteinander verbunden wurden. Was kein Vorwurf sein soll, denn das ist genau die Art und Weise, wie die letzten Jahre (Jahrzehnte?) Plattformen immer gebaut wurden:

• User, Service und Daten werden in einer Plattform gebündelt

Das heisst durch meinen Service agieren die User mit den Daten und ich kann sicherstellen, dass in meiner kleinen Welt alles gut miteinander funktioniert. Sinnvoll, wenn ich Microsoft, Facebook, X oder ähnliches bin, weil mein Geschäftsmodell genau darin liegt: User einschließen (lock-in), ihnen die Hohheit über ihren Content nehmen (oder kannst du deine Facebook Posts zu X migrieren?) und nach Möglichkeit nicht wieder rauslassen.

Aber unsere Projekte sind öffentlich. Das sind nicht die Mechanismen, die wir replizieren sollten. Also was nun?

Bildungsinfrasstrukturen auf Basis des Nostr-Protokolls

Nostr

Eine pseudonyme Person mit dem Namen "fiatjaf" hat 2019 ein Konzept für ein Social Media Protokoll "Nostr - Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted By Relays" wie folgt beschrieben:

It does not rely on any trusted central server, hence it is resilient, it is based on cryptographic keys and signatures, so it is tamperproof, it does not rely on P2P techniques, therefore it works.

Fiatjaf, 2019

Die Kernbestandsteile des Protokolls bestehen aus:

• JSON -> Datenformat
• SHA256 & Schnorr -> Kryptographie
• Websocket -> Datenaustausch

Und funktionieren tut es so:

User besitzen ein "Schlüsselpaar": einen privaten Schlüssel (den behälst du für dich, nur für dich) und einen öffentlichen Schlüssel, den kannst du herumzeigen, das ist deine öffentliche Identität. Damit sagst du anderen Usern: Hier schau mal, das bin ich. Die beiden Schlüssel hängen dabei auf eine "magische" (kryptografische) Weise zusammen: Der öffentliche Schlüssel lässt sich aus dem privaten Schlüssel generieren, jedoch nicht andersherum. D.h. falls du deinen öffentlichen Schlüssel verlierst: Kein Problem, der lässt sich immer wieder herstellen. Wenn du deinen privaten Schlüssel verlierst: Pech gehabt, es ist faktisch unmöglich, diesen wieder herzustellen.

Die Schlüsselmagie geht jedoch noch weiter: Du kannst mit deinem privaten Schlüssel "Nachrichten" signieren, also wie unterschreiben. Diese Unterschrift, die du mit Hilfe des privaten Schlüssels erstellst, hat eine magische Eigenschaft: Jeder kann mithilfe der Signatur und deinem öffentlichen* Schlüssel nachprüfen, dass nur die Person, die auch den privaten Schlüssel zu diesem öffentlichen Schlüssel besitzt, diese Nachricht unterschrieben haben kann. Magisch, richtig? Verstehst du nicht komplett? Nicht schlimm, du benutzt es bereits vermutlich, ohne dass du es merkst. Das ist keine fancy neue Technologie, sondern gut abgehangen und breit im Einsatz.

Merke: User besitzen ein Schlüsselpaar und können damit Nachrichten signieren.

Dann gibt es noch die Services. Services funktionieren im Grunde wie bereits oben beschrieben. Durch sie interagieren die User mit Daten. Aber bei Nostr ist es ein kleines bisschen anders als sonst, denn: Die Daten "leben" nicht in den Services. Aber wo dann?

Wenn ein User einen Datensatz erstellt, verändert oder entfernen möchte, wird dieses "Event" (so nennen wir das bei Nostr) mit deinem privaten Schlüssel signiert (damit ist für alle klar, nur du kannst das gemacht haben) und dann mehrere "Relays" gesendet. Das sind die Orte, wo die Daten gehalten werden. Wenn ein User sich in einen Service einloggt, dann holt sich der Service die Daten, die er braucht von diesen Relays. User, Service und Daten sind also entkoppelt. Der User könnte zu einem anderen Service wechseln und sich dieseleben Daten von den Relays holen. Keine Lock-In Möglichkeiten.

Merke: User, Service und Daten sind entkoppelt.

Zuletzt gibt es noch die Relays. Relays sind Orte. Es sind die Orte, zu denen die Events, also die Daten der User, ihre Interaktionen, gesendet und von denen sie angefragt werden. Sie sind sowas wie das Backend von Nostr, allerdings tun sie nicht viel mehr als das: Events annehmen, Events verteilen. Je nach Konfiguration dürfen nur bestimmte User auf ein Relay schreiben oder davon lesen.

Das Protokoll ist von seinem Grunddesign auf Offenheit und Interoperabilität ausgelegt. Keine Registrierung ist nötig, sondern nur Schlüsselpaare. Durch kryptografische Verfahren kann dennoch die Authentizitität eines Events sichergestellt werden, da nur die Inhaberin des jeweiligen Schlüsselpaares dieses Event so erstellen konnte. Die Relays sorgen dafür die Daten an die gewünschten Stellen zu bringen und da wir mehr als nur eines benutzen, haben wir eine gewisse Ausfallsicherheit. Da die Daten nur aus signierten JSON-Schnipseln bestehen, können wir sie leicht an einen anderen Ort kopieren, im Falle eines Ausfalls. Durch die Signaturen ist wiederum sichergestellt, dass zwischendurch keine Veränderungen an den Daten vorgenommen wurden.

Beispiel: Ein Nostr Event

Hier ein kleiner technischer Exkurs, der beschreibt, wie Nostr Events strukturiert sind. Falls dich die technischen Details nicht so interessieren, überspringe diesen Abschnitt ruhig.

Jedes Nostr Event besitzt die gleiche Grundstruktur mit den Attributen:

• id: Der Hash des Events
• pubkey: Der Pubkey des Urhebers des Events
• created_at: Der Zeitstempel des Events
• kind: Der Typ des Events
• tags: Zusätzliche Metadaten für das Event können in diesem Array hinterlegt werden
• content: Der textuelle Inhalt eines Events
• sig: Die Signatur des Events, um die Integrität der Daten zu überprüfen

json { "id": <32-bytes lowercase hex-encoded sha256 of the serialized event data>, "pubkey": <32-bytes lowercase hex-encoded public key of the event creator>, "created_at": <unix timestamp in seconds>, "kind": <integer between 0 and 65535>, "tags": [ [<arbitrary string>...], // ... ], "content": <arbitrary string>, "sig": <64-bytes lowercase hex of the signature of the sha256 hash of the serialized event data, which is the same as the "id" field> }

Die verwendeten Eventtypen sowie die existierenden Spezifikationen lassen sich unter https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/ einsehen.

Wichtig ist auch: Du kannst einfach anfangen, Anwendungen zu entwickeln. Die Relays werden alle Events akzeptieren, die dem o.g. Schema folgen. Du musst also niemanden um Erlaubnis fragen oder warten, bis deine Spezifikation akzeptiert und hinzugefügt wurde.

You can just build things.

Exkurs: Nostr für Binärdaten - Blossom

Ja, aber... das ist doch nur für textbasierte Daten geeignet? Was ist denn mit den Binärdaten (Bilder, Videos, PDFs, etc)

Diese Daten sind oft recht groß und es wurde sich auf das Best-Practice geeignet, diese Daten nicht auf Relays abzulegen, sondern einen besser geeigneten Publikationsmechanismus für diese Datentypen zu finden. Der Ansatz wird als "Blossom - Blobs stored simply on mediaservers" bezeichnet und ist recht unkompliziert.

Blossom Server (nichts anderes als simple Medienserver) nutzen Nostr Schlüsselpaare zur Verwaltung Identitäten und zum Signieren von Events. Die Blobs werden über ihren sha256 Hash identifiziert. Blossom definiert einige standardisierte Endpunkte, die beschreiben wie Medien hochgeladen werden können, wie sie konsumiert werden können usw.

Die Details, wie Authorisierung und die jeweiligen Endpunkte funktionieren, werden in der genannten Spezifikation beschrieben.

Nostr 🤝 Öffentliche Bildungsinfrastrukturen

Wie könnten Herausforderungen gelöst werden, wenn wir Nostr als Basis für die öffentliche Bildungsinfrastruktur einsetzen?

Material-Upload

• Es ist nicht einfach möglich OER bereitzustellen, sodass es auch auf verschiedenen Plattformen gefunden werden kann.

Mit Nostr als Basis-Infrastruktur würden die Metadaten und die Binärdaten nicht an den Service gekoppelt sein, von dem aus sie bereitgestellt wurden. Binärdaten können auf sogenannten Blossom-Servern gehostet werden. Metadaten, Kommentare und weitere textbasierte Daten werden über die Relay-Infrastruktur verteilt. Da Daten und Service entkoppelt sind, können die OER Materialien von verschiedenen Anwendungen aus konsumiert werden.

Kuration

• Es gibt keine interoperablen Sammlungen
• Metadaten-Annotation ist zentralisiert
• User können keine eigenen Metadaten hinzufügen

Sammlungen sind per se interoperabel. Auf Protokollebene ist definiert, wie Listen funktionieren. Die Annotation mit Metadaten ist an keiner Stelle zentralisiert. Das Versprechen der RDF-Community "Anyone can say anything about any topic" wird hier verwirklicht. Ich muss mir ja nicht alles anhören. Vielleicht konsumiere ich nur Metadaten-Events bestimmter Redaktionen oder User. Vielleicht nur diejenigen mit einer Nähe zu meinem sozialen Graphen. Jedenfalls gibt es die Möglichkeit für alle User entsprechende Metadaten bereit zu stellen.

Crawling, Indexierung und Suche * An vielen Stellen wird Content doppelt erschlossen, aber immer für die eigene Plattform * Es gibt keinen geteilten Datenraum, in den Akteure Content "pushen" können * Es gibt keine plattformübergreifenden Suchmöglichkeiten

Keine Doppelerschließungen mehr. Wenn ein User im Netzwerk ein Metadatenevent veröffentlicht hat, ist es für alle konsumierbar. Der Datenraum ist per se geteilt. Plattformübergreifende Suche wird durch die Kombination aus Relays und NIPs ermöglicht. In den NIPs können spezielle Query-Formate für die jeweiligen NIPs definiert werden. Relays können anzeigen, welche NIPs sie untersützten. Eine plattformübergreifende Suche ist im Nostr eine relay-übergreifende Suche.

Plattformübergreifende Kollaboration

• Obwohl nun #OEP in aller Munde sind, gibt es keine technischen Ansätze, wie (plattformübergreifende) Kollaboration technisch abgebildet werden kann

Nostr ist der technische Ansatz.

KI-Services

• KI-Services funktionieren oft nur auf der Plattform für die sie entwickelt werden

Es gibt im Nostr das Konzept der Data Vending Machines (s. auch data-vending-machines.org). Statt also einfach nur eine API zu bauen (was auch schon sehr schön ist, wenn sie offen zugänglich ist), könnten diese Services auch als Akteure im Nostr Netzwerk fungieren und Jobs annehmen und ausführen. Die Art der Jobs kann in einer Spezifikation beschrieben werden, sodass die Funktionsweise für alle interessierten Teilnehmer im Netzwerk einfach nachzuvollziehen ist.

Die Services könnten sogar monetarisiert werden, sodass sich hier auch Möglichkeiten böten, Geschäftsmodelle zu entwickeln.

Fazit

Die Open Education Community ist großartig. Es sind einzigartige und unglaublich engagierte Menschen, die sich dem hehren Ziel "Zugängliche Bildung für Alle" -> "Offene Bildung" verschrieben haben. Wir verwenden Creative Commons Lizenzen -> Commons -> Gemeingüter. Es ist okay, dass viele Projekte von Sponsoren und Förderungen abhängig sind. Was wir machen, ist im Sinne eines Gemeingutes: Öffentliche Bildung für alle. Also zahlen wir als Gemeinschaft alle dafür.

Was nicht okay ist: Dass das, wofür wir alle gezahlt haben, nach kurzer Zeit nicht mehr auffindbar ist. Dass es eingeschlossen wird. In öffentlich finanzierten Datensilos. Es muss für alle auch langfristig verfügbar sein. Sonst ist es nicht zugänglich, nicht offen. Dann ist das O in OER nur ein Label und Marketing, um für eine ABM-Maßnahme 3 Jahre Geld zu bekommen. Denn nichts anderes ist Content-Entwicklung, wenn der Content nach drei Jahren weggeschmissen wird.

Und dasselbe gilt für OEP. Offene Lernpraktiken, sind auch nur eine Phrase, wenn wir die passende technische Infrastruktur nicht mitdenken, die wirkliche Offenheit und Kollaboration und damit die Umsetzung offener Lernpraktiken ermöglicht.

Und wenn wir uns jetzt nicht Gedanken darüber machen, die Infrastruktur für offenes Lernen anzupassen, dann werden wir vermutlich in einigen Jahren sehen können, was bei politischen Umorientierungen noch davon übrig bleiben wird. Wenn die Fördertöpfe komplett gestrichen werden, was bleibt dann übrig von dem investierten Geld?

Wir brauchen Lösungen, die engagierte Communities weiter betreiben können und denen kein Kopf abgeschlagen werden kann, ohne dass wir zwei neue daneben setzen könnten.

Wir müssen uns jetzt Gedanken darüber machen.

Wie offen will öffentliche Bildungsinfrastruktur sein?

@ b83a28b7:35919450

This is the second installment in the series "The Net Appears" where I document my journey from being in a well-established and well-paying fiat job into the unknown world of independent work in freedom tech. Will I end up finding something truly inspiring and fulfilling, while being able to support my family? We'll find out over the course of the next few weeks.

---

So this happened a couple of days ago:

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzpwp69zm7fewjp0vkp306adnzt7249ytxhz7mq3w5yc629u6er9zsqqsd6khjdmgmme3xrnzj5xn5tfwer5pjchh20mcp4lfemurfsj3v4wgsjw0uj

Let's back up a bit, because in the first installment of this series, I was still in limbo.

If you’d told me three weeks ago that corporate martyrdom could be negotiated like a farmers-market cantaloupe, I’d have laughed you off the Microsoft Teams grid. Yet there I was, video-boxed opposite my Senior Vice Priest of PowerPoint, calmly re-petitioning for a graceful guillotine.

His verdict: the guillotine is for optics only, and apparently it clashes with the brand guidelines. Laying off The AI Guy would look like we’d just unplugged the future for spare parts. Impossible. But the man did extend an olive branch the size of a bonsai: “Resign, and we’ll cash out your vacation - thirty glorious days of fiat.”

Not the three-month severance I’d fantasized about, but enough to buy time, dignity, and a respectable stack of Claude API credits. I signed before he could replace goodwill with an NDA.

And then I chose July 4 as my last day. Cue bald eagles, Sousa marches, and a slow-motion shot of me frisbee-flinging my employee badge into an erupting grill. Independence from fiat, by literal fireworks.

---

Space Rush

The moment rumors of my exit hit Teams, meeting invites vanished like socks in a hotel dryer. I’ve used the liberated hours to launch A Muse Stochastic, my audio-visual fever dream where generative melodies court glitch-poetry and occasionally elope with Gemini Veo video frames. The first episode is live, pulsing somewhere between synaptic Vivaldi and quantum origami. So far it has six listeners and one confused Australian-shepherd (my most honest critic).

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzpwp69zm7fewjp0vkp306adnzt7249ytxhz7mq3w5yc629u6er9zsqy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq3zamnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wwa5kuef0qqsvhtdltg2k3guhmshgmgt3nc9ejy0ct96t7udm04r5mupplcmdtesppmn7x

Meanwhile the playwright in me, neglected for months beneath sprint plannings and quarterly road-maps, finally crawled into the light. “Waiting for Satoshi,” first conceived on a warm Prague evening exactly one year ago ( nostr:nprofile1qy0hwumn8ghj7en0deehgu3dw3jhxapwdah8yetwv3jhytnrdakj7qgcwaehxw309a5hxmrpdejzumn0wd68yvfwvdhk6tcqyzaz7w2gxdjcga0fz6qt3x8ehc83mpgpvmr2swwmuzzdqfn26m3q54mhg79 can attest to this), now wears its final coat of dialogue. Tomorrow it debuts on GitHub - Creative Commons, open-source, fork-and-prosper - perhaps the inaugural play to invite pull requests for stage directions. If anyone wishes to add a tap-dancing Lightning node, be my guest.

---

Prague on the Horizon

Next week I return to BTC Prague, where ghosts of last year’s epiphany still linger near the pastry stand. This time I’m lugging camera gear, not corporate slide decks. Episode Two of Finding Home will be filmed there, featuring a wanderer whose bitcoined life map reads like Odysseus riding a Lightning invoice.

Perhaps my only conference of the year, I'm looking forward to catching up with friends old and new, and catch a whiff of that infectious bitcoin hopium.

---

Micro-lessons from Week Three

1. Severance is a mindset. One month of paid vacation feels oddly richer than three months shackled to uncertainty.

2. Symbolism scales. Pick an Independence Day, any Independence Day, and watch the universe queue fireworks.

3. Creative backlogs age like fine kimchi. Leave an idea in brine for a year and it returns with extra tang.

4. Open source = open veins. Releasing art into the commons is terrifying until you remember blood circulates best when it moves.

5. Microsoft Teams silence is golden (parachute). Each canceled stand-up funds roughly eight bars of experimental synth.

---

Gazing Forward

I still don’t know how mortgage, car payments, and teenage-soccer-tour fees will reconcile with my bank balance come August. Yet the dread that once clung to my ribcage has dissolved, replaced by a jittery anticipation - like the hush before a stadium crowd erupts. Every unknown now feels less like a void and more like a blank slide awaiting wild, irreverent doodles.

Next dispatch will likely come with reflections from Prague. The last two years, I was moved to unexpected tears on the final day, marveling at the sheer profundity of the human experience of the week past. Surely, that can't repeat for a third year in a row?

Until then, may your own nets appear exactly when logic insists they can’t - and may they be woven from liberated vacation days and the audible crackle of celebratory fireworks.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Officially Traded Above $100,000 For 30 Consecutive Days For The First Time

Bitcoin has officially completed 30 consecutive days trading above the $100,000 mark, marking a historic milestone in its 15 year journey. Bitcoin achieved its all time high (ATH) of $111,980 on May 22, almost hitting $112,000.

JUST IN: Bitcoin has stayed above $100,000 for 30 consecutive days for the first time ever! pic.twitter.com/nfccEK3Wf0

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 10, 2025

In the last 30 days, Bitcoin saw a 10 percent pullback right after reaching its ATH, dropping to $100,428. However, it wasn’t for long, as Bitcoin is back at $109,511 at the time of writing. Momentum appears to be building once again, signaling to be bullish.

“Anytime price is able to punch through a major resistance level, whether psychological or historical, and successfully hold, it is certainly a bullish sign,” said the technical analyst of Wolfe Research Read Harvey. “What really stood out to us was price’s ability to hold that level on the back test, when it briefly fell to $100,000 on Thursday. It also happened to align perfectly with the 50-day moving average. … We feel this should act as a launching pad back towards the recent highs of $112,000.”

In the past month, Bitcoin has surged into the financial and political mainstream. Several U.S. states including New Hampshire first, followed by Arizona, and then Texas have passed legislation recognizing Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. These laws reflect a growing trend of state level interest in using Bitcoin as a financial hedge and as part of long term fiscal policy.

“New Hampshire didn’t just pass a bill; it sparked a movement,” stated the CEO and Co-Founder of Satoshi Action Dennis Porter.

At the same time, financial institutions are rapidly expanding their Bitcoin offerings. JP Morgan has started providing loans backed by Bitcoin ETFs as collateral. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF has entered a period of intense activity, generating record trading volumes and capturing the attention of both retail and institutional investors.

To date, a total of 228 public and private entities have Bitcoin in their balance sheets and in the last 30 days, companies like GameStop, Know Labs, and Norway-based NBX have added Bitcoin as a strategic reserve. All these companies are treating Bitcoin not just as a speculative asset, but as a key part of their long term financial plans. This growing corporate trend follows the example set by Strategy, but it’s now happening on a much larger scale.

At the 2025 Bitcoin conference, the Vice President of the United States of America, JD Vance said in his speech, “Fifty million Americans own Bitcoin. I think it’s gonna be 100 million before too long.”

This post Bitcoin Officially Traded Above $100,000 For 30 Consecutive Days For The First Time first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ 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:

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

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

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

— Bitcoin FilmFest (@bitcoinfilmfest) May 28, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

via levelsio

Over the weekend, prolific vibe coder levelsio took to X to complain about the state of housing affordability across Europe. Something that I was very happy to see considering the fact that there is a massive real estate affordability crisis across much of the world and it is important that people who are respected and have platforms speak out when they identify the problem as well. More eyes and focus on the problem is how something begins to get solved.

With that being said, I think levelsio is missing the forest for the trees by blaming institutionalized NIMBYism, burdensome regulations and governments hoarding land that should instead be given to developers to produce more housing supply. I quote tweeted this particular tweet on the subject from levelsio and wanted to take some time today to republish those thoughts here and expand on the topic.

It’s almost as if real estate is being used as a store of value asset instead of the consumable good that it is.

What @levelsio is observing here is called a “monetary premium”. A monetary premium is the value added on top of the consumable/aesthetic/location value of real estate.

This monetary premium exist because central banks and governments have distorted the market for money and people are forced to push value into assets that are scarce relative to dollars. Over the last 50 years real estate has been one of the relatively scarce assets of choice.

The housing affordability crisis is a negative externality of the market reaction to the corruption of money. It can only be fixed by re-introducing hard money into the economy that enables people to store value reliably. If that emerges they won’t have to store value in real estate, the monetary premium of real estate will dissolve and prices will correct to their proper valuations.

This is one of the problems that bitcoin solves.

It’s still early yet, but more and more people are recognizing the utility provided by a neutral reserve asset that can’t be manipulated by central planners. At scale, the effect on assets that have accumulated a monetary premium over decades will be material. All of these assets are significantly overvalued and their monetary premium are leaking into bitcoin.

Put another way, "It's the money, stupid." Now, this isn't to say that the supply of housing in certain areas being artificially restricted isn't having an effect on the price of housing. This is certainly true, especially in cities like San Francisco where there is a relatively strong demand because of the economic density of the area and the desire of many high agency and productive people to live there. But I would put forth that the monetary premium is still the bigger problem and no amount of de-regulation to enable the supply of housing to increase will solve the affordability crisis in the long-run. The only way to get to the root of this specific problem is via bitcoin's mainstream adoption as an apolitical uncontrollable asset with completely idiosyncratic risks when compared to any individual asset class.

Let's say the government did ease up regulations and local NIMBY sympathetics were shoved in a corner to allow new units to be built. This doesn't solve the problem in the short-run because there is a time-delay between when regulations are lifted and when new supply actually makes it to market. In the interim, governments and central banks are inevitably going to go further into debt and be forced to print money to monetize that debt. This will exacerbate inflation and even if new real estate units are brought to market, the builders/owners of those properties will likely have to demand elevated prices to attempt to keep up with inflation.

This also does nothing to solve the problem of real income and wage growth, which are significantly lagging real inflation. Even if prices came down because of a surge in supply, could the Common Man afford a down payment on the property? I'd be shocked if this was the case. And since it's likely not the case the only way to get people into these houses as "owners" would be to offer them zero-down financing, which makes people feel richer than they actually are and leads them to make financially ruinous decisions.

It's the money, stupid. People need a way to save so that they can buy in the first place. Fiat currency doesn't allow this and the only people who can save effectively are those who make enough money to funnel into substitute store of value assets like real estate.

As it stands today, the price-to-income ratio of real estate is 5.0x and the price-t0-rent index is 1.36. Up from 3.3x and 1.14x respectively where the metrics sat in the year 2000. The growth in these ratios is driven predominately via their monetary premium.

And guess what, it's about to get much worse. Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Elon Musk have all signaled that the plan moving forward is to attempt to drive growth and productivity as high as possible while also letting deficits and the debt increase unabated, which means that inflation is likely to continue unabated and potentially increase.

It might make sense to get some bitcoin if that is the case.

via me

"Whale in the Pool" Risk That Could Destroy MSTY Investors

Jessy Gilger raised serious concerns about MSTY and similar derivative products that promise eye-popping yields. He pointed to the COVID crash where gold mining ETFs using derivatives collapsed 95% and never recovered, despite gold itself performing well. Jessy noted that while his team calculated reasonable MicroStrategy covered call yields of 16-22%, MSTY advertises 120% annualized distributions - a red flag that suggests these aren't sustainable dividends from profits, but potentially just returning investors' own capital.

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

Jessy explained that when large investors need to exit these pooled products during market stress, they must sell derivative positions into illiquid markets with no buyers, potentially triggering catastrophic losses for all participants. His solution? Private pools through separately managed accounts that achieve similar income goals without the contagion risk of being trapped with panicking whales.

Check out the full podcast here for more on Gannett Trust's multi-sig solution, Bitcoin retirement planning and corporate treasury strategies.

Headlines of the Day

World's Largest Bitcoin Conference Starts Tomorrow- via X

Remixpoint to Buy Additional ¥1 Billion in Bitcoin - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Marty to Judge Bitcoin World Record Try in Vegas - 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...

Looking forward to a fun, productive and wholesome week in Las Vegas, Nevada.

---

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

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

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@ 6c05c73e:c4356f17

Isa Energia Brasil

Descrição da Empresa

A Isa Energia Brasil é uma das principais empresas do setor de transmissão de energia elétrica do Brasil. Anteriormente conhecida como ISA CTEEP (Companhia de Transmissão de Energia Elétrica Paulista), a companhia passou por um processo de rebranding em novembro de 2023 para refletir sua atuação em escala nacional, que se estende por 18 estados brasileiros.

• Papel no setor: Desempenha um papel crucial na infraestrutura energética do país, sendo responsável por transmitir aproximadamente 33% de toda a energia elétrica produzida no território nacional e 94% no estado de São Paulo.
• Controladora: A companhia é controlada pelo grupo colombiano ISA (Interconexión Eléctrica S.A.), um dos maiores conglomerados de transmissão de energia da América Latina, que detém uma participação majoritária em seu capital social.
• Vantagens: Essa conexão confere à Isa Energia Brasil um sólido respaldo técnico e financeiro, além de sinergias operacionais e de governança.

acoes isae4

Visão Geral da Empresa

A Isa Energia Brasil (ISAE4) é uma das maiores e mais importantes empresas de transmissão de energia elétrica do Brasil. Em termos simples, seu principal negócio é "transportar" a energia em alta tensão das usinas geradoras até as redes de distribuição que a levam para cidades e indústrias.

• Analogia: Pense nela como a gestora das grandes "rodovias" da eletricidade do país.

Mercado que Atua

O mercado de atuação da Isa Energia Brasil (ISAE4) é o setor de transmissão de energia elétrica, um segmento estratégico, altamente regulado e com características muito particulares dentro da cadeia de energia do Brasil. Para entender o mercado da empresa, é preciso conhecer 4 pilares principais:

1. O Modelo de Concessões Públicas

• Funcionamento: A Isa Energia Brasil não opera em um mercado aberto e tradicional. Sua atuação é baseada em concessões de longo prazo (geralmente 30 anos), adquiridas por meio de leilões públicos organizados pelo Governo Federal, através da ANEEL (Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica).
• Como funciona: Nos leilões, o governo define os projetos (novas linhas de transmissão e subestações a serem construídas). Vence a empresa que se propõe a construir e operar a infraestrutura pelo menor valor de receita anual.
• Barreiras de entrada: Este modelo cria altíssimas barreiras para novos concorrentes, pois exige enorme capacidade de investimento (capital intensivo), conhecimento técnico especializado e habilidade para vencer disputas acirradas nos leilões.

2. A Previsibilidade da Receita (RAP)

• Receita Anual Permitida (RAP): É a remuneração que a empresa tem direito a receber por disponibilizar suas linhas de transmissão em perfeitas condições de operação. O valor da RAP é definido no leilão e reajustado anualmente por um índice de inflação (geralmente o IPCA), o que protege a receita da desvalorização da moeda.
• Baixo risco: Como a receita é fixa e garantida por contrato, o risco operacional é muito baixo. A empresa recebe o valor integral desde que suas linhas e subestações estejam funcionando. Se houver falhas, ela pode ser penalizada com um desconto na receita, por isso a eficiência na operação e manutenção é fundamental.

3. Posicionamento Estratégico e Geográfico

• Dominância: É responsável por transportar aproximadamente 33% de toda a energia elétrica produzida no Brasil e impressionantes 94% da energia consumida no estado de São Paulo, o maior centro de carga do país.
• Capilaridade nacional: Embora sua origem seja paulista (antiga CTEEP), a empresa expandiu sua atuação e hoje possui ativos em 18 estados brasileiros, o que a posiciona como um player de relevância nacional.
• Principais concorrentes: Seus principais competidores no setor de transmissão são outras grandes empresas como a Eletrobras, TAESA e Alupar, que também disputam ativamente os leilões da ANEEL.

4. Vetores de Crescimento e Perspectivas

• Transição energética: O Brasil está aumentando massivamente sua capacidade de geração de energia renovável, especialmente eólica e solar. A maioria dessas novas usinas está localizada no Nordeste e no norte de Minas Gerais, longe dos grandes centros consumidores (Sudeste). Isso cria uma necessidade urgente de construir novas "autoestradas" de energia para escoar essa produção, garantindo uma demanda contínua por novos projetos de transmissão.
• Crescimento da demanda: O crescimento econômico e populacional do país, além da eletrificação da economia (ex.: carros elétricos), aumenta a necessidade geral de energia, exigindo uma rede de transmissão cada vez mais robusta e confiável.

Oportunidades que o Ativo Traz

As principais oportunidades que a empresa traz são:

• Alta previsibilidade de receita devido à Receita Anual Permitida (RAP).
• Expansão em investimentos de infraestrutura.
• Contratos de concessão renovados e com longa duração.

Isso tudo torna a empresa uma excelente pagadora de dividendos e JCP. No último anúncio da empresa, foram destinados R$2,36 por ação de juros sobre capital próprio, o que a torna um excelente ativo para o longo prazo.

quadro de jcp da isae4

Riscos

Por ser uma empresa que atua no setor de energia elétrica, ela assume alguns riscos que precisam ser monitorados de perto, tais como:

• Natureza (escassez de chuvas): Pode prejudicar a geração de energia e, como consequência, reduzir a transmissão de energia elétrica. Consulte aqui.
• Riscos regulatórios e governamentais (o principal): A empresa opera em um setor regulado pela ANEEL e sob concessões do governo.
• Financeiro: Para financiar seus projetos, a empresa precisa se endividar via debêntures, que são atreladas à Selic. Qualquer variação altera o financeiro da empresa.
• Dividendos: Pode ser uma faca de dois gumes, pois está previsto pagamentos muito maiores no futuro, o que pode retardar o crescimento da empresa devido ao pagamento excessivo.
• Risco operacional: Tudo que envolve intervenção humana pode ter falhas, mesmo que a empresa opere com alta eficiência hoje. Alguém pode “dormir no ponto”.

Tabela de Endividamento

A dívida bruta da companhia atingiu R$ 14.952,1 milhões no 1T25, aumento de R$ 1.678,3 milhões (+12,6%) em relação ao saldo final do 4T24. O aumento se deve, principalmente, à:

• 18ª emissão de debêntures no montante de R$ 1.400,0 milhões em março de 2025.
• 4º desembolso do BNDES em janeiro de 2025 com valor de R$ 82,1 milhões.

A companhia concluiu a 18ª emissão de debêntures no 1T25, levantando R$ 1.400,0 milhões em 2 séries: - Primeira série: R$ 500,0 milhões com custo de IPCA + 7,41% e vencimento em setembro de 2033. - Segunda série: R$ 900,0 milhões com custo de IPCA + 7,41% e vencimento em junho de 2033.

Catalisadores

Os pontos-chave que considero ao investir na empresa são:

• Parceria com a Taesa ampliada. Matéria aqui.
• Alta previsibilidade de receita devido à Receita Anual Permitida (RAP).
• Nova rodada de emissão de debêntures para ampliação de investimentos.
• Previsão de queda da Selic para 12,5% em 2026, o que tornaria “os débitos da empresa mais baratos”.
• Alta perspectiva de aumento no pagamento de dividendos e JCP ao longo dos próximos anos.

cotacao da isase4 lucro liquido isae4

FAQ

A ação ISAE4 é uma boa ação para investir?

Cada um deve fazer sua análise, mas acreditamos que é uma empresa sólida e com bons fundamentos.

Qual é o preço justo da ação ISAE4?

Não há uma base sólida para calcular o preço justo. Na nossa ótica, o ativo está subvalorizado.

Qual o DY da ISAE4?

Dividendo de 10,2% anunciado em 2021.

Como declarar o ISAE4?

A declaração do ISAE4 é dividida em três partes principais:

1. Declaração da Posse das Ações (o que você tinha em carteira).
2. Declaração dos Rendimentos Isentos (Dividendos).
3. Declaração dos Rendimentos de Tributação Exclusiva (Juros Sobre Capital Próprio - JCP).

O documento mais importante para este processo é o Informe de Rendimentos, fornecido pelo banco escriturador das ações.

• Empresa: ISA ENERGIA BRASIL S.A.
• CNPJ: 02.998.611/0001-04
• Banco Escriturador: Itaú Corretora de Valores S.A.
• Como obter o informe: Acesse o Portal de Correspondências Digitais do Itaú para obter seu informe oficial. Ele contém todos os valores separados e prontos para a declaração.

Bio

Investir não precisa ser um bicho de sete cabeças! Na Threedolar, democratizamos o acesso ao mundo dos investimentos, oferecendo conteúdo claro e prático. Comece hoje mesmo a construir seu futuro financeiro!

Disclaimer

Lembre-se: este não é um conselho de investimento. Faça sua própria pesquisa antes de investir. Resultados passados não garantem lucros futuros. Cuide do seu dinheiro!

Referências

• Earnings Release 1T25
• Comunicado ao Mercado - Contratos AIE
• Paraguaçu e Aimorés emitem R$ 700 milhões em debêntures
• Interligação Elétrica Paraguaçu-Aimorés
• Taxa de Juros - Brasil
• Dados Históricos - INMET
• Fundamentus - ISAE4
• Concessões - Isa Energia Brasil

@ d325f9e9:07ed2267

Trying tags #Hello #this

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Bluebird Mining Ventures Ltd., a UK-listed gold exploration company, has made headlines after announcing it will convert future revenues into bitcoin. This is the first time a UK mining company has committed to having a bitcoin treasury.

Bluebird Mining on X

The news sent Bluebird’s stock flying, rising 63% to £0.6 in 48 hours.

Bluebird which has gold projects in South Korea and the Philippines says this is part of a broader plan to modernize how it manages its finances.

“By adopting a ‘gold plus a digital gold’ strategy, it offers the Company an opportunity to turn the page and look to the future and seek to attract a new type of shareholder,” said Aidan Bishop, Interim CEO and Executive Director.

The company’s management believes bitcoin’s rise as a financial asset reflects growing dissatisfaction with traditional stores of value like gold.

Gold has been a reliable hedge against inflation for centuries, but bitcoin is now being seen as a digital alternative – thanks to its limited supply and independence from central bank policies.

Related: Gold at Historic Low Against Bitcoin | A Paradigm Shift?

“Gold’s position as a store of value has been under threat due to the rising global adoption of bitcoin, which some commentators have described as ‘digital gold’,” Bluebird said in a statement.

The plan is simple. Revenue from Bluebird’s gold mining projects will be used to buy bitcoin. The company says this will allow it to preserve capital and have growth potential through exposure to the digital asset market.

The digital asset will be held on the company’s balance sheet as a long-term reserve asset, just like some companies hold gold or cash. Bluebird sees this as proactive, especially in today’s volatile world of inflation, high debt, and global geopolitical tensions. Bishop said:

“I am convinced that we are witnessing a tectonic shift in global markets and that Bitcoin will reshape the landscape of financial markets on every level.”

Bluebird Mining Ventures is a small but big-thinking company.

With 7 employees and operations across Asia, it’s focused on reopening high-grade gold mines that have been closed. Its main projects are the Gubong and Kochang mines in South Korea and the Batangas Gold Project in the Philippines.

In May 2025, the company renewed its mining permit in the Philippines and is finalizing a deal with its local partner to have a “free carry” — meaning it will hold a share of the future profits without putting in any more money.

At the same time, Bluebird is preparing legal action in South Korea to protect its existing assets there, so while it loves Bitcoin, it hasn’t forgotten its mining roots.

To lead this transformation, Bluebird is currently looking for a new CEO with Bitcoin experience. The company says the right leadership will be key to navigating this hybrid financial model that combines traditional resource extraction with modern financials.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Paris, France – June 6, 2025 – Flash, the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses, just announced a new partnership with the Bitcoin Only Brewery, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Flash for seamless Bitcoin payments. 

Bitcoin Buys Beer Thanks to Flash!

As Co-Founder of Flash, it's not every day we get to toast to a truly refreshing milestone.

Okay, jokes aside.

We're super buzzed to see our friends at @Drink_B0B
Bitcoin Only Brewery using Flash to power their online sales!

The first… pic.twitter.com/G7TWhy50pX

— Pierre Corbin (@CierrePorbin) June 3, 2025

Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack – shipping included.

The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.

Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented: “Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”

Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept Bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.

By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.

Bitcoin payment usage is growing thanks to Lightning

In May, fast-food chain Steak ‘N Shake went viral for integrating bitcoin at their restaurants around the world. In the same month, the bitcoin2025 conference in Las Vegas set a new world record with 4,000 Lightning payments in one day.

According to a report by River Intelligence, public Lightning payment volume surged by 266% from August 2023 to August 2024. This growth is also reflected in the overall accessibility of lighting infrastructure for consumers. According to Lightning Service Provider Breez, over 650 Million users now have access to the Lightning Network through apps like CashApp, Kraken or Strike.

Bitcoin Only Brewery’s adoption of Flash reflects the growing trend of businesses integrating Bitcoin payments to cater to a global, privacy-conscious customer base. By offering no-KYC delivery across Europe, the brewery aligns with the ethos of decentralization and financial sovereignty, appealing to the increasing number of consumers and businesses embracing Bitcoin as a legitimate payment method.

“Flash is committed to driving innovation in the Bitcoin ecosystem,” Corbin added. “We’re building a future where businesses of all sizes can seamlessly integrate Bitcoin payments, unlocking new opportunities in the global market. It’s never been easier to start selling in bitcoin and we invite retailers globally to join us in this revolution.”

For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.

About Flash

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

About Bitcoin Only Brewery

Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.

Media Contact:

Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.comPhotos paywithflash.com/about/press

How Flash Enables Interoperable, Self-Custodial Bitcoin Commerce

@ c5896abe:43c99afb

写人的文字最难写，特别是在突然失去之后。

然而，人类始终有两种无法治愈的疾病：死亡与遗忘。于是，人类创造了文字。这种得以超越死亡的思想工具，从书写、雕版印刷、打字机和电传打字机，一路发展到今天的数字化半自动打字机——语言模型——写字，这样看似简单的行为，却变得日渐艰涩，尤其是在经历了 The Big Blockade 那三年后。

这并不是说，我也像很多人那样遭遇了 Long-COVID。只是，在父亲去世等一系列事情之后，我才真正明白：写人的文字最难写，特别是在突然失去之后。当你突然发现，自己最熟悉的人，在不知不觉中变成了生命中的一块空白，那个曾经激扬文字、粪土万户侯的少年，便也永远离开了。于是，我应邀前往了自己的瓦尔登湖——工作、读书，几乎停止了所有的社交媒体交流。直到今年早些时候，子龙对我说了一句：“公众号停了太可惜了”。我这才想到，要不要讲述一些人的故事，当然，不仅仅是那些已经逝去的。只是在这个繁华时代，那个小念头就被我暂时搁置，忙着“寻桥”去了。直到这个六一，中国摩托车商会的微信公众号，推送了常务副会长李彬逝世的消息。

我与李会长交流不多，只知道他一直在努力推动各个城市解除对摩托车的地方性禁限规定，看起来就像推石头的西西弗斯。近几年我的工作与他有几分相似。在理解了“人生就是不断的妥协”这样看似借口的冰冷现实之后，秉持着“上帝和凯撒要分清”的信条，我偶尔的富余精力，也投在了国际互联网上的几个中文平台上。直到昨天晚上，编辑某些内容时，心头突然一动，顺手搜索，才发现了 Bernt Spiegel 教授的线上讣告。想来，老师也是在那段时间，突然发来一封电邮联络，却又没说什么具体内容。于是，我决定开始写下一些文字。

教授的一生，大概可以用“人、市场和机器”来概括。身为市场心理学创始人、摩托车专家和小说家，他创建了 Fachinstitut für Werbewissenschaftliche Untersuchungen，并在哥廷根大学执教。著名的利基市场理论，正是他在20世纪60年代初提出的。这一理论最成功的案例，就是帮助了濒临破产的 BMW 起死回生，并重新快速增长。从1981年到2000年，他一直担任 MOTORRAD 杂志“完美培训课程”的高级讲师，特别活跃在纽伯格林赛道——直至72岁高龄，他仍能驾驶 Honda CBR 900 RR，在北环赛道跑进9分钟之内。从13岁——那是1939年——他瞒着父母买了第一辆摩托车开始，18岁就考取了飞行执照。战后不久，他骑上了一辆 BMW R 51/2，之后的人生，就在飞机和摩托车这两类机械上交织。人类如何与操作的机器（无论是飞机还是摩托车）相协调的心理学方法，也成了他在学术上开拓的处女地之一：这是心理学与自然科学之间的一个新边疆。尽管没有像某些专家那样著作等身，教授的那本《摩托车的上半部》成为了从欧洲到北美，所有摩托车驾驶人教育的经典著作，如同物理学中的牛顿《原理》。这位对“人-机矩阵”有着深刻洞见的老先生，在94岁高龄时，还出版了一本小说《Milchbrüder, beide》，作为对德国人和他自己过去经历的某种回应。

在那本著作的附文《The Fascination of Motorcycling》（摩托车的魅力）之中，教授将摩托车骑行的魅力，喻为“一个完整的星座”。如同多年前另一位日本的前辈，将摩托车的机械结构比作“一个宇宙”。这一代摩托车人，都是战争的亲历者，也是现代摩托车进化的见证者。正是在这种孕育出了丰富机械文化的社会土壤里，才滋养了富足而不仅是富裕的人类文明。

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

My life is my way Home\ My death is my arrival

I can't wait to be Home\ And so I love life

I can't wait to be Home\ And so I want to live to the fullest

For there are no shortcuts

Many people die\ And never make it Home

They will have to wait\ For another chance to die

Another chance to live fully\ And die totally

I'm so thankful to be alive\ I'm on my way Home

I'm so thankful to be alive\ To have another chance to die

Every day I take a step\ In the direction of my death\ I do not postpone it

Every day I take a step\ In the direction of my truth\ I do not avoid it

It is who I am, always have been\ And always will be

It lies beyond that door\ That keeps everything in check

Where only can go through\ Which is forever true

@ df478568:2a951e67

How To Mine Your Own Vanity Nostr Key

note. This article works best on https://habla.news/u/marc@primal.net/how-to-mine-a-nostr-vanity-key-with-rana

Rana is a vanity npub generator.

I'll show you how to use it on Ubuntu.

If you're not Linux ninja and use Windows instead of Linux ninja weapons, you can still use Linux with Virtualbox, free ans open source virtualization software. Head over to

https://www.virtualbox.org/ to learn more. They also have an enterprise business if you need that sort of thing, you can learn more at https://shop.oracle.com/

Rana is a nostr vanity key mining program. The source code can be found here.

Rana Is On GitHub

https://github.com/grunch/rana

Since rana already has pretty good docs, I decided to make a video instead of write about this because It's easier to see rana in action than it is to write about Rana. I went off on some tangents, so I might edit this down later, but I hope it helps you mine your own nostr key.

nevent1qqsfk7a000m8zc3ptsuu4vytepqc9eedceclpt2ns9pzlech5cpaflceng5al

Show Notes

https://github.com/grunch/rana

https://virtualbox.org/

https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/getting-started/installation.html

cargo run --release -- --vanity-n-prefix=juxtap0se

☮️

nostr:npub1marc26z8nh3xkj5rcx7ufkatvx6ueqhp5vfw9v5teq26z254renshtf3g0

900,969

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Paris, France – June 6, 2025 — Bitcoin payment gateway startup Flash, just announced a new partnership with the “Bitcoin Only Brewery”, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Lightning payments.

Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack, shipping included.

The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.

Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented:

“Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”

Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.

By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.

For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.

Media Contact:
Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.com

About Flash

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

About Bitcoin Only Brewery

Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Here's to the ones who can\ Feel their cause\ Surrender\ Change their ways\ But keep their fire\ And never give up

We will transform this world\ Restructuring\ One belief at a time

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

It is hard going through difficult situations. Health problems, family problems, financial problems, feeling alone, feeling stuck in the wrong place, and persecution are all situations that Christians regularly find themselves. The question is “How will we respond to pain?”

Advice for the Suffering

Some Christians pull away from God when it feels like everything is going wrong. They think God doesn’t care or can’t fix things. They resent every minute of pain and accuse God of wrongdoing. Even Job, who fell on his face in worship after losing everything had a moment of weakness.

“Oh that my grief were actually weighed\ And laid in the balances together with my calamity!\ For then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas;\ Therefore my words have been rash.” (Job 6:2-3) {emphasis mine}

After a moment of doubt, he did, however, repent of his rash words, as should we all.

Job should be an example to us all in dealing with pain and difficult situations. This is the verse that inspired this post.

But it is still my consolation,\ And I rejoice in unsparing pain,\ That I have not denied the words of the Holy One. \ (Job 6:10) {emphasis mine}

What an example! “I rejoice in unsparing pain.” When we trust God so much that we can rejoice in unsparing pain, we are trusting God as we should. We are accepting that God is working good in our life and we can trust Him even when nothing makes sense to us.

I also love how he says that his consolation is that “I have not denied the words of the Holy One.” Job is hurting terribly. His heart is broken. He is destitute. He lost 8 children in one day. His friends, that came to console him, have instead accused him of wrongdoing. He doesn’t understand what God is doing and why, but he has “NOT denied the words of the Holy One.” He is still putting his faith in God and his word. He is still submitting to God when he feels mistreated. He is still trusting \ God, even when he doesn’t understand what God is doing and why so many bad things are raining down on him in a torrent. Despite it all, he refuses to deny God. I hope if I am ever put through similar situations, that I can trust God and not deny His goodness.

Advice for friends

The book of Job, in addition to advice to those who are suffering, also gives advice to friends of those who are suffering. (or maybe more accurately, what not to do)

Job’s friends came with the intention to encourage and console Job. Every time Job would confess his thoughts, concerns, and questions, the response by his friends would get harsher and harsher. In the beginning they were gentle corrections, but they quickly escalated to accusing Job of great sins, that they had to know were not true, and blaming Job for every hard thing that had happened to him.

I’ve talked to other Christians who have confessed to being dragged down by other Christians who would tell them that every difficult thing that happened to them was due to their sin or lack of faith. In the case of Job, his difficulties were due to his faithfulness, in order to prove to Satan and all of history that a faithful man would stay faithful to God in good times and in bad.

Can Christians suffer as a consequence of sins and poor decisions? Of course, but there are many times that the faithful suffer. In Scripture, the people who suffered most were frequently the most faithful.

Job’s correction of his friends was accurate.

“For the despairing man there should be kindness from his friend;\ So that he does not forsake the fear of the Almighty.\ My brothers have acted deceitfully like a wadi,\ Like the torrents of wadis which vanish, (Job 6:14-15)

For those who don’t know, a wadi is a streambed that has water running in the wet season, but is bone dry during the dry season. Job accused his friends of being encouraging and helpful when he was prospering, then showing up and providing no encouragement or help when he needed it most. He thought refreshment was coming to visit, and instead what hope he had left was drained from him by his “friends.”

We need to make sure we aren’t one of those who decreases hope and decreases faith in one who is hurting. We need to have mercy when a hurting person works through their confusion and doubts and help lead them back to God instead of driving a wedge between them and God.

May the God of heaven protect us and lead us through the trials of life and may our trials lead us into the arms of our Savior. May God help us to merciful and to help guide the hurting into the Savior’s care.

Trust Jesus

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• Version 1.3 of Bitcoin Safe introduces a redesigned interactive chart, quick receive feature, updated icons, a mempool preview window, support for Child Pays For Parent (CPFP) and testnet4, preconfigured testnet demo wallets, as well as various bug fixes and improvements.

• Upcoming updates for Bitcoin Safe include Compact Block Filters.

"Compact Block Filters increase the network privacy dramatically, since you're not asking an electrum server to give you your transactions. They are a little slower than electrum servers. For a savings wallet like Bitcoin Safe this should be OK," writes the project's developer Andreas Griffin.

• Learn more about the current and upcoming features of Bitcoin Safe wallet here.

What's new in v1.3

• Redesign of Chart, Quick Receive, Icons, and Mempool Preview (by @design-rrr).
• Interactive chart. Clicking on it now jumps to transaction, and selected transactions are now highlighted.

• Speed up transactions with Child Pays For Parent (CPFP).
• BDK 1.2 (upgraded from 0.32).
• Testnet4 support.
• Preconfigured Testnet demo wallets.
• Cluster unconfirmed transactions so that parents/children are next to each other.
• Customizable columns for all tables (optional view: Txid, Address index, and more)
• Bug fixes and other improvements.

Announcement / Archive
Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo
Website

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

"Modern science is based on this principle: give us one free miracle and then we'll explain the rest."

— Terrence McKenna

I always wondered why a pot of water boils on the stove. I mean I know it boils because I turned on the electricity, but why does the electricity cause it to boil? I know the electricity produces heat, and the heat is conducted through the stainless steel pot and into the water, but why does the heat transfer from stovetop to the water?

I know the heat from the stove via the pot speeds up the molecules in the water touching it and that they in turn speed up the molecules touching them and so on throughout the pot, but why do speedy molecules cause adjacent molecules to speed up?

I mean I know they do this, but why do they do this? Why couldn’t it be that sped-up molecules only interact with sufficient speedy molecules and ignore slower ones? Why do they interact with all the molecules, causing all of them to speed up? Or why don’t the speedy ones, instead of sharing their excited state, hoard it and take more energy from adjacent slower molecules, thereby making them colder, i.e., why doesn’t half the water boil twice as fast (on the left side of the pot) while the other half (right side) turns to ice?

The molecules tend to bounce around randomly, interacting as equal opportunists on the surrounding ones rather than distinguishing only certain ones with which to interact. Why do the laws of thermodynamics behave as such rather than some other way?

There may be yet deeper layers to this, explanations going down to the atomic and even quantum levels, but no matter how far you take them, you are always, in the end, left with: “Because those are the laws of physics”, i.e., “because that’s just how it is.”

. . .

The Terrence McKenna quote, recently cited by Joe Rogan on his podcast, refers to the Big Bang, the current explanation adopted by the scientifically literate as to the origins of the universe. You see there was this insanely dense, infinitesimally small micro dot that one day (before the dawn of time) exploded outward with unimaginable power that over billions of years created what we perceive as the known universe.

What happened prior? Can’t really say because time didn’t yet exist, and “prior” doesn’t make sense in that context. Why did it do this? We don’t know. How did it get there? Maybe a supermassive black hole from another universe got too dense and exploded out the other side? Highly speculative.

So why do people believe in the Big Bang? Because it comports with and explains certain observable phenomena and predicted other phenomena which were subsequently confirmed. But scratch a little deeper for an explanation as to what caused it, for what purpose did it occur or what preceded it, and you hit the same wall.

. . .

Even if we were to understand at a quantum level how and why the Big Bang happened and what preceded it, let’s assume it’s due to Factor X, something we eventually replicated with mini big-bangs and universe creations in our labs, we would still be tasked with understanding why Factor X exists in the universe. And if Factor X were explained by Process Y, we’d still be stuck needing an explanation for Process Y — ad infinitum.

Science can thus only push the wall back farther, but can never scale it. We can never arrive at an ultimate explanation, only partial ones. Its limitations are the limitations of thought itself, the impossibility of ever creating a map at a scale of one mile per mile.

@ 6fef351a:2a884204

Hello hello!

Willkommen bei einem neuen Projekt! Heart Money – mein Newsletter zum gleichnamigen Podcast auf YouTube, den es noch nicht gibt. Aber bald. Nur noch ein paar Wochen…

Es geht um hartes Geld. Und um das Geld des Herzens. Ich rede und schreibe über Bitcoin, Gesellschaft und das, was mich bewegt.

Gerade ist eine wilde Zeit für mich. Ich habe meinen Job als Data Analystin Ende letzten Jahres an den Nagel gehängt, um über Bitcoin aufzuklären – weil es alles auf den Kopf gestellt hat.

Heute sehe ich die Welt mit neuen Augen. Meine Welt ist schöner geworden. Etwas freier. Viel optimistischer!

Und leider auch bürokratischer. Ich mache mich gerade selbstständig und das geht in Deutschland bekanntlich nur mit einigen Hürden und Formalitäten: Ein Gewerbe anmelden, Gründungszuschuss beantragen, Formulare ausfüllen – für Behörden, Krankenkasse, Berufsgenossenschaft, Versicherungen. Oh boy…

Deswegen freue ich mich um so mehr, dass ich so fancy Tools wie Substack nutzen kann, um meinen Gedanken eine neue Form zu geben.

In diesem Newsletter teile ich Ideen, Anregungen, Videos und andere Fundstücke rund um Bitcoin. Echt, persönlich, frei gedacht. Los geht’s:

MEINE HEART WORDS DER WOCHE

1. Ein Gedanke

Immer wieder höre ich von langjährigen Bitcoinern, dass sie bei der Arbeit nicht über Bitcoin sprechen – so auch diese Woche. Die Kollegen würden negativ reagieren. Da wäre nichts zu machen. Den Aufwand spare man sich lieber. Aber was wäre, wenn unsere Äußerungen mehr bewirken als wir allgemein glauben? Wie würde eine Welt aussehen, in der Menschen ehrlich und offen über ihre Interessen und Überzeugungen sprechen? Wäre unsere Welt noch dieselbe?

2. Ein Geschenk

Diese Woche habe ich ein besonderes Buch erhalten – ein Geschenk von einem Hörer meines Podcasts Bitcoin kurz erklärt. Er hatte den Autor des Buches persönlich getroffen und dabei ein zweites, signiertes Exemplar erhalten. Der Autor bat ihn, das erste Exemplar an eine Frau weiterzugeben – und so kam es dann zu mir! Herzlichen Dank, J. ✦

3. Eine Vorfreude

Im Juli findet die berühmtberüchtigte Bitcoin-Zitadelle statt, dieses Jahr auf der Wasserburg Heldrungen. Die Tickets waren nach Verkaufsstart im Oktober 2024 innerhalb weniger Tage ausverkauft – oder waren es Stunden? Ich habe in den letzten Wochen alle Hebel in Gang gesetzt, um noch zwei Tickets für zwei Frauen zu ergattern, die erst spät von diesem legendären Event erfahren haben. Und bin schließlich fündig geworden. Ich freue mich riesig auf das Event – und über die gestiegene Frauenquote ★

4. Ein Post auf Social Media

Die Überschrift ist – zugegeben – provokant. Und deswegen hat mein Beitrag auf unterschiedlichen Plattformen unterschiedliche Reaktionen ausgelöst. Die LinkedIn-Leser reagierten zustimmend und wohlwollend, während der ein oder andere Bitcoin-Maximalist auf X seinen Ärger kundtat… Details findest du auf Instagram, LinkedIn, X oder NOSTR. Was denkst du?

5. Ein Zitat

Wenn die Nacht zu wolkig ist für Sterne, können wir immer noch zusehen, wie ganz lautlos ein neuer Bitcoin-Block entsteht.

Das geht übrigens auf mempool.space. Schon ausprobiert? Bitcoin ist offen und transparent. Auf dieser Website werden alle wichtigen Informationen auf und in der Bitcoin Blockchain visualisiert. Und hier wird erklärt, wie man sich auf der Seite zurechtfindet.

Danke fürs Lesen! Wenn dir dieser Beitrag gefallen hat, leite ihn gerne weiter oder antworte mir. Dein Feedback hilft, diesen Newsletter besser zu machen.

Hab einen schönen Sonntag oder eine schöne Woche – ganz egal, wann du diese Worte liest.

Nicole ❤️

@ 2b998b04:86727e47

Introduction To First Principles

This introduction kicks off a 7-part series called First Principles exploring the deeper shifts behind decentralization, cost, freedom, and truth. I picked 7 days, one for each day of the week, aligned with a rhythm of work, rest, and return. Each part will explore a foundational truth behind the technologies and philosohies I’ve embraced — from decentralization and sovereignty to truth, time, and hope.

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We often hear that technology drives costs toward zero.

That’s the thesis of The Price of Tomorrow — that as technology advances, it becomes deflationary by nature. Automation replaces labor. Software replaces infrastructure. AI replaces entire categories of decision-making. The marginal cost of production trends toward nothing.

But that’s not the whole story.

There’s a deeper layer — one that most technologists and economists miss. It’s not just the marginal cost of production that matters. It’s the control cost of centralization. And that’s where things get murky.

Because even when marginal costs fall, the hidden toll of centralization rises.

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The Illusion of “Free”

Take GitHub.

On paper, it’s free. You can publish static websites, host code, automate workflows with Actions, and collaborate globally — all at no cost.

But GitHub is owned by Microsoft. You don’t control the servers. You don’t own the platform. You don’t hold the keys.

It’s a gift that can be revoked.

Same with Google Docs. Or YouTube. Or Substack. Or any cloud platform that says “start for free.”

These aren’t bad tools. Many are excellent.

But they’re not neutral.

The price you pay isn’t always in dollars. Sometimes it’s in:

• Data access restrictions

• API limitations

• Sudden pricing changes

• Censorship or deplatforming

• Migration costs if (or when) things go south

This is the hidden rent of centralized platforms. And it compounds over time.

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Control Cost vs. Marginal Cost

If marginal cost is “how cheap is it to make this?” —\ Control cost is “how much freedom do I lose by using this?”

You can publish your ideas for free on Medium — but they own the SEO.\ You can host your business on Shopify — but they can cut you off.\ You can grow your audience on Instagram — but the algorithm owns the feed.

We’ve learned to celebrate deflation. But most of the tools we use are inflating the cost of control, even as they lower the cost of entry.

And this is where decentralization flips the script.

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The Real Promise of Decentralization

True decentralization doesn’t just make things cheaper.\ It makes them sovereign.

It redistributes power, not just price.\ It removes toll booths, not just middlemen.

It says:

• Own your keys

• Own your content

• Own your stack

• Own your distribution

This is why Nostr matters.\ This is why Bitcoin matters.\ This is why self-hosting, permissionless protocols, and open-source tooling matter — even when they’re less polished or convenient than centralized platforms.

Because they don’t just save you money.\ They save your freedom.

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A Working Example

When I started building my blog blog.stantonweb.com, didn’t choose the easiest route.

I combined:

• Nostr for long-form publishing

• A custom Python fetch script to pull and render posts

• GitHub Actions for automation

• Static HTML for presentation

• Cloudflare + GitHub Pages for zero-cost hosting

No database. No CMS subscription. No paid theme.

The total marginal cost? $0.

But more importantly, the control cost is near zero too.\ No one can shut it down.\ No company can throttle my reach.\ No gatekeeper decides whether my words deserve to stay online.

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Toward a New Definition of Cost

If you only optimize for price, you’ll be captured.

If you optimize for freedom, you’ll build margin over time — not just financial margin, but creative, moral, and operational margin too.

That’s what decentralization makes possible.\ Not just cheaper.\ Truer.

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Footnote: Lessons from the Past

Remember Skype? It started as a peer-to-peer tool — truly decentralized at its core. But then it was acquired by Microsoft. Over time, its architecture was centralized and eventually dismantled.

Or Napster. It shook the music industry with peer-to-peer sharing. But it too was shut down and replaced by centralized alternatives.

BitTorrent survived — but only when it resisted the pressure to become just another platform.

The pattern is clear:

• Centralization follows capital.

• Censorship follows control.

• But freedom follows decentralization.

And that’s the direction we must choose — again and again.

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Co-written with ChatGPT (“Dr. C”), who helped distill and sharpen the core arguments.\ \ Stay tuned for Part 1 in the next few days.

—\ Published on blog.stantonweb.com & Nostr.\ Zap: https://tinyurl.com/yuyu2b9t

@ 60392a22:1cae32da

When I am asked "where password and ID?" by my friends, I will say it. ↓（generated by chatgpt）

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1. Nostr is decentralized

• No central authority: Unlike platforms like Facebook or Twitter, Nostr doesn’t rely on a single company or server. This means nobody can block your account or censor your posts. You control your own data and connections.
• Distributed network: Instead of all your data being stored in one place (which can be hacked), it’s spread across multiple independent servers.

2. No passwords or centralized logins

• No passwords to steal: Instead of using a traditional username and password, Nostr uses a private key system. This means your login is much more secure, and there’s no need for you to remember passwords or risk them getting hacked.
• Easy login with Passkeys or security keys: On Nostr, you don’t need a password—you can use secure login methods like Passkeys (via your phone, for example), which is faster and much more secure than a traditional password.

3. You control your identity

• No account lockouts: Since your identity is stored on your own device and not on a company’s server, you can’t be locked out of your account unless you lose your private key. You can always recover access if you have your private key.
• Pseudonymous: You don’t need to reveal your real name. You can choose an identity that doesn’t tie to your personal info.

4. Privacy & Security

• Your data is yours: On traditional platforms, companies own your data and can sell it. With Nostr, you keep control over your information—no company has access to your messages, posts, or activity.
• End-to-end encryption: Nostr supports strong privacy where your messages are encrypted, meaning no one can spy on your conversations.

5. Open-source and community-driven

• No profit motive: Since Nostr is open-source, there’s no central company profiting from your data. It’s built by a community that values freedom of speech and privacy.
• Transparency: Anyone can see the code, contribute to its improvement, and make the network better. It's not controlled by one company or government.

Simple Example:

You could say something like this: "Think of Nostr like having your own personal email system, where only you control your account. There’s no one to block you or take down your content. You don’t need a password to log in—just a secure key on your phone. Your posts are private, and you can be anonymous if you want. No one owns your data. It’s freedom, security, and privacy."

What You Can Say if They Ask, “But there are IDs and keys, right?”

• Yes, but the IDs are not like usernames: In Nostr, your identity is linked to your private key, not a password. This key is yours and you control it. There's no centralized database of usernames or passwords that someone could steal.
• It's safer: It’s like having a secure personal locker that only you can open with your phone’s biometrics or security key, rather than trying to remember a password or relying on a service to keep it safe for you.

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Hello Bumble\ You busy bee

You're going way\ Too fast for me

Going here and there\ You search for gold

Yet tumble straight\ Into what's old

Now I'm not here\ To make a gain

Nor to fix\ What's in disdain

Instead I'm just\ A humble bee

Who wants to get\ To know thee

@ c9badfea:610f861a

🤖️ AI Articles

• 🗨️ Using LLMs for OPSEC

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📱 Android Articles

• 🥩 Tracking Food Intake
• ✍️ Taking Handwritten Notes
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• 🖼️ Generating AI Images Locally
• 📖 Reading PDF Documents and EPUB Books
• 🔒 Storing Passwords Safely
• 🗺️ Using Offline Maps
• 🎵 Producing Music On-Device
• 💾 Writing ISO Images to USB Drives
• 💻 Coding On-Device
• 🎬 Watching and Downloading Videos from YouTube, Rumble, Odysee, Bitchute, and More
• 🔤 Upgrading the Typing Experience
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• 📺 Watching IPTV Channels for Free
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• 🗣️ Offline Translator
• 🗣️ Offline Text-to-Speech Engine
• 🤖 Running LLMs Locally
• 🌐 Browsing Entire Websites Offline
• 🔐 Quickly Encrypting Files

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✏️ Other Articles

• 🔠 Unicode Fonts
• 🔤️ Fancy Unicode Characters

@ 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

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Final thought...

Should I join a country club?

---

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

@ 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), 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 strong 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 at a neutral position to all of the NR, Integral and Metamodernism; what any of these philosophies claim to be somehow naive and unhealthy doesn't necessarily match my own positions.

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!

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

We only see\ What we are

What we are not\ We cannot see

This is how we know\ Reality is happening within\ Our own being

And experience is a consequence\ Of who we believe to be

As long as we deny\ And don't want to see

All the ways\ We think to be

Reality will seem\ Outside of our grasp

And separate\ From our experience of life

Such is our power

Yet such power\ Could only be

Of that which holds\ The entirety

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Muziek\ Jij harmonieus geluid

Een gevoel zo uniek\ Op geen andere manier geuit

Ik ben zo dankbaar voor de vrijheid die jij me schenkt\ Om gewoon even te zijn\ In dit dierbare moment

@ 93bfc86d:fc8e91f5

질서자유주의가 자유주의 세상을 만드는 방법

안캡의 전략에는 크게 두 가지, 호페의 질서자유주의와 새뮤얼 콘킨 3세의 아고리즘이 있다.

로스바드-호페 라인의 질서자유주의는 논리를 기반으로 자연권을 정당화하고, 이를 통해 국가의 부당함을 설파한다. 미제스의 "인간은 행동한다."라는 제1공리부터 시작해서, 행동의 제1수단인 신체가 그 자신에게 소유되어야 한다는 자기 소유를 증명하고 자연권을 철저하게 연역적으로 정당화해간다. 안캡의 세상을 만들려는 이들의 방법론도 논리적이다.

예를 들어 호페의 『자유주의자는 무엇을 해야 하는가』 책에서는 위로부터의 전환이 불가능함에 따라 아래로부터의 전환을 해야 한다는 주장이 나온다. 과거에는 이런 자유로운 세상이 도래하기 위해서는 왕 한 명이 "앞으로 자기가 원하는 대로 보안 기업을 자유롭게 선택하고, 더 이상의 강제는 없다!"라고 선언만 하면 됐다. 따라서 왕 한 명만 어떻게 설득을 하거나, 압박을 하든 주리를 틀든 일단 왕이 이렇게 선언하게 하기만 하면 됐다. '마그나 카르타'도 결국 귀족 연합이 왕 한 명을 압박해 왕이 서명했던 것 아닌가?

반면에 현대 민주주의 사회를 보자. 대한민국에서 대통령 한 명이 최저임금을 폐지할 수 있는가? 최저임금은 헌법에 보장되는데(헌법 32조) 따라서 이를 폐지하는 것은 거의 개헌만큼이나 어렵다. 대통령이나 국회의원 과반이 발의를 해야 하고, 국회에서 재적 3분의 2 이상이 찬성해야 겨우 통과되며, 이렇게 통과해도 국민투표에서 과반수가 동의해야 겨우 없어지는 것이다. 즉, 거의 불가능에 가깝다.

따라서 호페는 위로부터의 전환이 불가능함에 따라 전국적인 중앙 정부의 투표를 거부할 것을 제안한다. 대통령 선거나 국회의원 선거 등 말이다. 여기서 중앙 정부 단위의 투표를 거부하는 이유는 중앙 정부의 부당성도 있지만, 이 투표를 통해 세상을 바꾸는 게 현실성이 없어서 그렇다.

같은 맥락에서 지역 선거의 투표는 항상 거부하는 건 아닌데, 자유주의자들이 한 국가 전체에서 과반을 얻는 것은 불가능하지만, 한 지역에 점점 몰리는 경우에는 적어도 그 지역에서는 과반이 될 수도 있기 때문이다. 따라서 아주 작은 지역에서 자유주의자들이 다수결이 된다면 적어도 그 지역에 한해서는 위로부터의 전환이 가능해진다. 그러면 투표를 거부하다가 지역구에서 본격적으로 투표를 하기 전에 선행되어야 할 일은 자유주의가 많이 퍼지고, 자유주의를 지지하는 사람들이 특정 지역에 몰리기 시작해야 하는 것일 것이다. 비트코이너들이 특정 지역에 몰려 시타델을 건설하는 상황을 생각하면 될 것 같다.

그 이후에는? 지역구의 대표로 선출된 인물이 해당 지역구의 투표권을 재산 소유자에게 재산 크기(지분)대로 다시 분배해야 한다. 즉, 재산이 없는 사람은 투표권이 없다. 모든 공공 인프라(도로, 수도, 전기, 교육, 치안, 사법 등등)는 전부 주식으로 판매되어 민영화된다(지방 정부는 이를 통해 재원을 마련한다). 이에 따라 공공 인프라는 완전히 사적 소유로 전환된다. 치안, 사법, 교육 모두 민간 영역으로 전환된다.

현재 세계에서 자유주의자들이 이런 관점을 취한다면 무엇을 해야 할까? 일단 자유주의를 더 많은 사람에게 퍼뜨려야 한다. 또한, 자유주의자들이 모일 지역을 물색해야 할 것이다. 그리고 중앙 정부 단위의 투표를 거부해야 할 것이다.

그림 1. 질서 자유주의의 상징인 아나코 캐피탈리즘 깃발

현대 민주주의 투표의 부당함

아고리즘의 전략을 이야기하기 전에 먼저 현대 민주주의 투표의 부당함에 대해 살펴보고 가자. 개인적인 생각도 들어가 있다.

투표 행위 자체는 유권자의 권리 행사로 전혀 나쁠 것이 없다. 다수결의 원칙도 당연히 마찬가지다. 투표 당사자들이 다수결의 원칙에 동의하기 때문에 참여하는 것이기 때문이다. 그래서 민주주의는 선거에서 져도 그 결과에 승복하는 것이 그 시스템의 규칙이다. 예를 들어 주주총회에서 주주들이 지분대로 의결권을 행사하거나 행사하지 않아서 생기는 결과는 그 행위 자체로는 전혀 문제가 없다.

투표의 정당성은 투표라는 행위 자체로부터 판단되는 것이 아니라 그 투표가 어떤 시스템 아래서 이뤄지는 투표인지로부터 판단해야 한다. 나는 두 가지 관점에서 살펴볼 것이다.

현대 민주주의의 투표는 유권자가 자신의 권리를 당선자에게 위임하는 행위다. 한 후보가 당선되면 다수결의 원칙에 따라서 그 후보는 그 후보를 찍지 않은 유권자들의 권리까지 모두 가져간다. 여기까지는 문제가 없다. 투표 행위 참여자들이 다수결의 원칙이라는 그 시스템에 동의하기 때문에 투표하기 때문이다.

그런데 현대 민주주의는 당선된 후보가 그 후보에게 투표했든, 투표하지 않았든, 기권을 했든 간에 다른 사람의 소유권을 마음껏 유린할 수 있는 권한도 가져간다. 이건 아주 큰 문제다. 국회의원이 세금을 늘리는 입법 권한을 행사하거나, 대통령이나 국회에서 예산을 편성해 정부 지출을 늘리고, 돈을 찍어내서 사람들의 소유권을 유린하는 행위가 용인된다.

어떤 사람도 다른 사람의 소유권을 침해할 수는 없다. 소유권은 단순히 희소한 재화의 분배 문제를 해결하는 실용적 대안이라서 중요한 것이 아니다. 인간 행동이라는 공리로부터 자기 소유 원칙을 이끌어내고, 그가 소유한 신체와 삶을 써서 획득한 재화(원초적 점유)에 대한 소유권을 보장하는 것이며, 그리고 이미 소유권이 있는 재화를 교환의 양 당사자가 자유롭게 교환하는 행위를 보장하는 것이다.

따라서 소유권은 인간에게 이성이 있다는 존엄성의 표현이자 인간 시간(삶)의 희소성과 귀중함을 인정하는 것이다. 어느 누구도 이를 모독할 권리는 없다. 이를 침해하는 것은 보편 원리에 따라 그 자신의 소유권도 포기한다는 뜻과 같으며, 이는 결국 자기 신체의 자기 소유도 부정하는 셈이 된다.

현대 민주주의에서 투표하는 것은 다른 누군가의 소유권을 유린할 사람을 뽑는 것과 같다. 애초에 이런 권한은 누구에게도 주어지지 않았으며 당연히 누구에게도 없으니 넘겨줄 수도 없는 권한이다.

현대 민주주의의 삼권분립 체제는 당선자에게 이러한 강탈의 권한이 보장된다. 설령 후보자가 이런 권한을 행사하지 않는다고 하더라도 이 시스템이 그러한 권한을 발동할 수 있다는 것을 언제든지 보장한다면 이러한 시스템은 폐기되어야 한다.

따라서 현대 민주주의에서 투표하는 행위는 누군가가 이러한 권한을 행사하는 것에 대한 동의로 간주될 수 있다. 어떤 후보가 이런 행위를 다른 후보보다 '덜' 한다고 해서 그 후보에 투표하는 것에 대한 정당성은 당연히 확보될 수 없다. 더하는지 덜하는지에 따라 이 약탈이 정당화될 수는 없기 때문이다.

심지어 어떤 후보가 이런 약탈 행위를 절대 안 할 것이라고 공언한다고 해도, 시스템에 이러한 권한이 보장되어 있는 이상 투표하는 행위는 이 시스템에 동의하는 행위이다. 그 후보가 당선된 이후 갑자기 돌변해 세금을 걷거나 국채를 팔아 예산을 확보하고 돈을 찍어내는 것이 시스템 상에서는 문제가 없기 때문이다. 이것은 간접 민주주의의 단점이라기 보다는, 애초에 이런 다른 사람에 대한 약탈 권한을 행사할 수 있는 시스템 자체가 잘못된 것이다.

현대 민주주의가 부당한 두 번째 이유는 이 시스템에 동의하지 않는 사람들조차 이 시스템의 피해자가 된다는 점이다.

도박에 참여하고 있는 사람들을 생각해보자. 승리자가 나머지 베팅한 모든 사람들의 베팅 금액을 약탈하는 것은 전혀 문제가 되지 않는다. 왜냐하면 도박 참여자들은 패배 시 자신이 베팅한 재산이 승자에게 몰수될 수도 있다는 것에 동의하고 도박에 참여하기 때문이다(따라서 이는 약탈이 아니다). 이에 동의하지 않는다면 도박을 그만하면 된다. 도박사는 언제든지 도박을 그만둘 자유가 있다.

그러나 현대 민주주의는 이 시스템에 동의하지 않더라도 그 나라에서 태어났다는 이유만으로 이러한 약탈에 강제 당할 수밖에 없다. '분배'하기 위해 투표를 할 거면 그 시스템에 동의하는 사람들끼리 서로의 재산을 놓고 분배하면 될 일이다. 그러나 이 시스템은 모든 사람들에게 이 시스템에 참여하는 것이 강제된다.

즉, 이 시스템은 애초에 잘못된 시스템인데 이 안에서 좌니 우니, 대통령제니 내각제니 사람들이 서로 경쟁하게 한다. 시스템 자체에 대한 의문을 품기는 매우 어려운 구조다.

이 시스템이 마음에 안 들면 이민을 가면 된다고 하는 주장은 전혀 설득력이 없다. 이민에 비용이 들고 다양한 현실적인 제약이 있다는 것은 차치하고서 이야기해보자. 만약 이러한 분배(?) 혹은 세금의 권한 행사자가 해당 지역 토지의 소유자고, 그 토지의 사용자가 소유자가 정한 분배 규칙에 동의하는 조건으로 토지를 사용한다면 이러한 세금과 같은 분배는 약탈은 아니다. 사용자가 그 규칙에 자발적으로 동의했으므로 정당화될 수 있는 것이다.

만약 국토의 모든 땅이 사실상 소유자가 있는 게 아니라, 사실상 국가의 소유이며 국가가 국민들에게 사용권을 나눠주는 것이라는 미친 주장을 해도(참고로 이건 토지의 사적 소유권을 부정하는 공산주의다!) 여전히 이 주장은 정당하지 않다.

토지의 소유권을 획득하는 방법은 두 가지가 있는데 첫째, 소유권이 없는 땅을 점유함으로써 소유권을 주장할 수 있게 되는 것, 둘째, 이미 소유권이 있는 토지를 자발적인 교환이나 기부를 통해 획득하는 것이다. 소유권이 있는 생산 수단을 통해 생산된 생산물도 소유권이 인정되는데, 토지는 생산이 불가능하니(우주정거장 같이 새로운 공간을 건설하는 게 아니라면...) 토지를 획득하는 방법은 언급한 두 가지 뿐이다.

그런데 현대 국가가 토지를 소유한 것의 기원을 살펴보자. 식민지화를 통해 강제로 점유하는 것은 대한민국은 해당이 없는 것 같다. 그러면 이미 소유자가 있는 사유지를 각종 규제와 사용 제한을 통해 사실상의 지배권을 확보하거나, 세금으로 축적한 재정으로 구입한 것이다. 그 기원이 모두 약탈에 있다는 점에서 국가의 토지 소유는 정당하지 않다.

따라서 규칙이 싫으면 이민을 가면 된다는 주장은 도둑이 도둑질을 하는데, 도둑질을 당하기 싫으면 멀리 도망가라는 식의 궤변과 같다.

그러나 국가의 계약은 완전히 비자발적이다. 단지 그 신체가 어디서 탄생했다는 이유만으로 그 시스템에 동의한 것이 될 수는 없다. 갓 태어난 아기는 다른 사람의 보호가 있어야만 생존할 수 있다는 점에서 완전히 비자발적인데, 이에 따라 당연히 탄생의 위치도 완전히 비자발적인 것이었기 때문이다.

또한 국가는 국토의 소유자가 아니다. 그보다는 국토의 소유권을 보장'해야' 하는 존재일 뿐이다. 누군가가 규칙을 정하고 싶다면 그 규칙의 영향권은 자신의 사유지 내에서만 영향력이 있으며, 당연히 그 규칙에 자발적으로 동의하는 사람들만 그 사유지를 이용하는 조건으로 계약할 수 있다. 　

정리해보자. 지금까지 현대 민주주의의 투표의 부당함에 대해 두 가지 관점에서 살펴봤다. 첫째는 투표가 약탈이 가능한 이 시스템에 동의한다는 행위라서 부당하다는 것이고, 둘째는 이 시스템에 동의하지 않는 사람들까지 약탈의 대상이 되는 이 시스템에 동의한다는 행위이므로 부당하다는 것이었다.

투표하지 않는 행위가 혹시 반대 세력이 활개치게 두게 되는 것은 아닐까? 그렇지 않다. 투표하지 않는 행위는 이 시스템의 정당성을 약화시킨다. 현대 민주주의의 큰 속임수가 있다. 민주주의에서 비롯된 통치 행위는 51%를 넘은 사람들이 그 통치 행위에 동의했기 때문에 자행되어도 된다는 매우 비논리적인 주장에 입각하고 있다. 이는 당연히 정당성이 없다. 그런데 진짜 큰 속임수는 그 통치 행위에 동의한 사람이 심지어 과반도 아니라는 것이다.

만약 어떤 후보가 생산에 적대적인 수준의 세금 부과와 보편 복지, 최저임금 인상 등의 모두가 고통받는 정책을 공약으로 내세워 당선이 되었다고 해보자. 해당 후보의 득표율이 51%라고 한다면 이는 전국의 51% 국민이 해당 후보를 지지하는 것과 같은 착각을 일으킨다. 그렇지 않다. 만약 투표율이 75%라면, 해당 후보에 동의한 사람은 0.75 x 0.51 = 38%가 된다. 즉, 38%의 동의로 인해 모든 사람이 함께 고통 받게 되는 것이다.

그래서 민주주의는 이러한 사실을 감추면서 사람들에게 투표를 독려할 수밖에 없다. 투표율이 조금만 낮아져도 이에 대한 정당성이 심각하게 낮아지기 때문이다. 투표율이 50%인 상황에서 어떤 후보가 51%의 표를 얻어 당선된다면 전 국민의 25%의 지지로 당선된 것과 같은데 이는 통치 행위에 대한 정당성을 매우 약화시킨다.

소비자 주권 행사

그러면 투표라는 행위가 없다면 일반 시민들은 어떻게 주권을 행사할 수 있을까? 사실 우리는 매일매일 자발적으로 투표를 하고 있다. 바로 미제스가 말한 '소비자 주권' 행사다.

우리는 기업들이 우리에게 어떤 효용을 주는지에 따라 계속 투표한다. 어떤 기업을 살리고, 어떤 기업을 죽일지, 어떤 기업을 거지 기업에서 부자 기업으로 만들지, 또는 어떤 기업을 부자 기업에서 거지 기업으로 만들지 투표한다. 바로 '소비'를 통해서 말이다.

이러한 소비라는 투표 방식은 완전히 자발적이라는 점에서 소유권을 제대로 보장한다. 약탈과는 완전히 동떨어진 행위다.

또한, 이러한 투표 방식은 각자가 원하는 대로 효용을 누릴 수 있다. 사법과 치안도 시장의 영역으로 들어오면 우리는 어떤 규칙 아래서 살아갈지 자유롭게 선택할 수 있다. 즉, 내가 선택한 규칙이 다른 사람에게도 강제되지 않고, 다른 사람이 선택한 규칙이 나에게 강제되지도 않는다. 서로 다른 규칙이 충돌하면 그 규칙들의 간극을 중재하는 기업이 나타난다. 자연적으로 질서가 꽃 피는 것이다.

생산 권한은 기업에게 달려있지만 심판은 소비자가 한다. 생산자가 소비자의 의지에 반하는 생산을 하면 바로 시장에서 퇴출되기 때문이다. 기업은 소비자에게 어떤 도덕적 의무를 강요할 수도 없다. 기업은 소비자가 원하는 것이 있다면 생산할 뿐이다. 소비자는 기업에게 자신들이 원하는 것을 최대한 효율적으로 자원을 분배하여 생산할 것을 명령하고 생산 권한을 위임하는 셈이다. 그 기업이 소비자가 원하는 것을 생산하지 않으면 어차피 다른 어떤 기업이 생산하여 거기서 챙길 수 있는 소비자의 표, 즉 이익을 가져갈 것이다.

만약 '소비'라는 투표 행위 자체에 반대한다면 오지에 있는 땅을 사서 문명을 떠나 자급자족하며 사는 것도 가능하다. 각자가 자신만의 방식으로 삶을 선택할 수 있는 것이다.

이 투표 시스템에서 표는 돈이다. 돈으로 투표를 한다는 것이 비인간적으로 느껴질지도 모르겠다. 그러나 돈으로 투표하는 것은 지극히 인간적인데, 그 투표권을 얻기 위해서는 먼저 다른 사람들이 원하는 것을 해줘서 그 표를 얻어야 하기 때문이다. 소비하려면 먼저 생산해야 한다. 이건 완전히 약탈 없는 시스템이고, 모든 인간 시간에 대한 존중이다.

이러한 이유들로 나는 이제 현대 민주주의에 대한 투표를 거부하지만, 동시에 매일 소비를 통해 투표하고 있다.

아고리즘이 자유주의 세상을 만드는 방법

이제 아고리즘의 전략을 살펴보자. 로스바드-호페의 질서 자유주의를 살펴본 뒤, 현대 민주주의의 투표에 대한 부당함을 살펴본 것이 뜬금 없는 이야기는 아니었는데, 아고리즘은 이러한 이유로 어떠한 투표도 거부하기 때문이다. 아고리즘의 창시자인 새뮤얼 콘킨 3세가 로스바드와 갈라선 것도 로스바드가 정치와 연대하는 전략적 행보를 보이면서부터였다.

아고리즘은 자유로운 세상을 만들기 위해 자유 시장인 아고라를 적극 활용할 것을 주장한다. 이들은 정부가 추적할 수 없는 자유로운 암시장을 확대해서 정부의 힘을 약화시키는 방법을 써야 한다고 주장한다. 이 암시장은 당연히 무기, 마약, 성매매 등을 포함한 시장을 말한다.

그래서 자유지상주의를 도래시키기 위한 이들의 전략은 정부가 추적할 수 없는 시장을 만들고, 하나의 병렬 경제(대항 경제)를 만들어 정부의 힘을 지속적으로 약화시키는 것이다. 이들은 납세 거부 운동, 투표 거부 운동을 장려하며 암시장과 암호 기술을 적극 활용한다. 참고로 사이퍼펑크 같은 기술 자유주의는 분류하자면 질서자유주의보다 아고리즘 쪽에 더 가깝다(로스 울브리히트의 실크로드를 생각해보자...!)

로스바드-호페의 질서자유주의와 콘킨의 아고리즘은 둘 다 자유지상주의의 실현을 목표로 하지만, 질서자유주의는 논리적으로 윤리적 정당성을 확보하고, 그러한 정당성을 바탕으로 자유지상주의를 실현시키기 위해 현실 세계에 이미 존재하는 제도들도 전략적으로 이용한다. 반면 콘킨의 아고리즘은 자유지상주의의 윤리적 정당성보다는 그걸 도래시키기 위한 전략들에 치중하며, 정치와 절대 타협하지 않고, 전략적으로 이용하려고도 하지 않는다. 목표는 같지만 서로 다른 방법을 취하는 것이다.

1980년 공개된 콘킨의 「신 자유주의자 선언」은 미제스와 로스바드, 르페브르에 대한 감사로 시작하지만, 1장에서 다음과 같은 문구도 나온다. (이것도 언제 다 번역해봐야겠다!)

"처음 나타난 반격은 ... 개혁주의—국가주의를—'개선'하겠다는 명분으로 국가의 직책을 받아들이는 것까지 포함한다!—이 모든 반反 원칙들에 대해서... 그중 가장 끔찍한 것은 '정당주의'인데, 이는 자유지상주의적 목적을 국가주의적 수단, 특히 정당을 통해 달성하려는 반反 개념이다. '자유지상주의' 정당은 국가가 이제 막 출현한 자유지상주의자들에게 퍼부은 두 번째 반격이었다. 처음에는 터무니 없는 모순으로, 그 다음에는 침략군으로 등장했다."

로스바드가 1992년 공화당 경선 후보였던 팻 뷰캐넌을 공개적으로 지지했을 때(이때 공화당 경선에서 뷰캐넌은 아버지 부시한테 졌고, 대선은 민주당 빌 클린턴 승리), 콘킨이 어떤 반응을 보였을지 상상해보자. 저런 선언문을 썼는데 말이다. 콘킨은 로스바드가 자유지상주의 원칙을 저버렸다면서 자신이 편집하는 잡지 『신 자유지상주의자』에서 로스바드의 행위를 "자유의 원칙을 포기한 행위"라고 비난했다.

반면 로스바드는 소수의 자유지상주의 지식인들만으로는 자유지상주의 사회를 건설할 수 없으므로 대중과 연합해야 한다고 주장했다. 팻 뷰캐넌 같은 인물을 통해 중산층이나 노동계층의 지지를 얻을 수 있고, 자유지상주의 목표를 달성할 수 있다고 했다. 이때 나온 전략이 자유주의적 경제 질서와 보수적 문화 질서를 결합한 '팔레오 자유지상주의'다. 로스바드는 아고리즘 세력에게 순수성만을 강조하며 현실 세계와 단절된 사람들은 무기력한 이상주의자들이라고 반박하며, 자신은 국가주의를 지지하는 게 아니라 그 세력 안에 있는 반국가적 잠재력을 이끌어내는 것이라고 했다.

그림 2. 아고리즘의 깃발

질서자유주의와 아고리즘의 공동체적 배제에 관한 입장 차이

콘킨의 아고리즘과 로스바드-호페 라인의 질서자유주의의 차이는 정치 같은 기존 제도들을 전략적으로 이용할 수 있는지뿐만 아니라 공동체적 배제에 관한 입장에서도 약간 갈라진다.

자유주의에서는 자유로운 수용과 자유로운 '배제'도 보장되어야 한다. 즉, 예를 들어 어떤 사람이 장사를 하는데 동성애자나 흑인이나 채식주의자를 직원이나 손님으로 받지 않는 것도 장사하는 사람의 자유로운 배제 권리라는 것이다. 자신의 사유지에 어떤 사람을 들일지, 들이지 않을지는 전적으로 소유자의 몫이다. 그리고 여기서 배제는 당연히 폭력으로 이어지지 않는 선에서의 자유로운 배제다.

이러한 배제가 한 공동체 전체로 퍼졌다고 해보자. 지금은 동성애자에 대한 예시만 들겠다(필자는 동성애에 대해 부정적 감정이 전혀 없으니 동성애자 분들은 오해 마시길). 만약 한 지역 소유자 공동체 전체가 동성애자에 대한 배제를 주장한다면 당연히 동성애자는 그 공동체에 들어갈 수가 없다.

여기서 이를 다루는 뉘앙스가 약간 다른데, 호페는 이를 자유로운 계약에 의한 공동체적 질서의 탄생이라 보며 긍정적으로 본다. 물론 절대로 이러한 배제가 폭력으로 이어져서는 안 된다. 폭력으로 이어지면 비침해성 공리 위반이므로 정당성이 없다.

아고리즘은 개인들의 자발적인 배제는 자유지만, 이것이 공동체적 배제로 발전하고 구조적 차별이나 집단적 억압으로 발전하는 건 국가의 또 다른 형태일 뿐이라 생각하여 이를 경계한다. 그래서 개인 차원의 자율적 배제는 정당하지만, 공동체 차원의 배제는 경계한다. 그렇다고 이걸 없애야 한다 이런 건 아니다(개인들의 자유로운 배제가 공동체 배제로도 이어질 수 있는 것이므로). 콘킨은 공동체적 배제가 탄생할 수 있지만 그것이 비합리적인 배제라면 대안 시장이 탄생할 것으로 본다. 동성애자들을 위한 시장과 마을이 생길 것이고, 비합리적인 배제는 이러한 고객들을 놓친 것에 대한 손실로 이어질 것이라고 본다. 즉, 모든 개인이 자유 시장 아고라에서 자발적으로 교환할 권리를 가져야 하며, 차별적인 배제들은 시장 안에서 경쟁할 수 있을 거라 본다. 만약 대안 시장이 없는 상황에서 모두가 배제한다면 이는 실질적 강제처럼 작동할 수 있기 때문이다.

자유지상주의 안에서 콘킨의 아고리즘은 차별이나 수용을 대하는 태도에서 좀 더 좌파적인 것처럼 보인다. 실제로 콘킨의 「신 자유주의자 선언」에 등장하는 용어들도 약간 그러한 뉘앙스가 있다. 콘킨은 전통적인 좌파 단어들을 전략적으로 차용했다. 예를 들면 혁명, 착취, 해방운동, 불복종, 저항, 암시장, 아나키즘 등의 단어다. 당연히 전통적인 좌파 단어의 뜻과는 완전히 다르다. 혁명은 아고라를 통한 "비정치적" 자유주의 혁명을 의미하며, 착취는 마르크스의 자본가가 노동자를 착취한다고 했던 그 착취가 아니라, 국가주의와 결탁한 크로니 자본주의자들의 제도적 진입장벽을 만들고, 캉티용 효과의 수혜를 누리는 그러한 오염된 자본주의자들이 하는 것을 착취라고 했다(아고리즘은 국가에 의존하지 않는 기업가와 국가로부터 특혜를 받는 착취적 기업가를 구분한다. 선언문 참고).

정리하자! 로스바드-호페의 질서 자유주의와 콘킨의 아고리즘의 차이점은 다음과 같다.

로스바드-호페의 질서 자유주의는 정치 등을 전략적으로 이용하는 것을 허용한다. 로스바드는 공화당 경선 후보를 공개적으로 지지하여 우파 사람들로부터 자유지상주의에 대한 관심을 끌려고 했고, 호페는 전국단위의 투표나 정당 활동은 거부해도 지역 단위의 투표는 승리 가능성에 따라 조건부로 허용한다. 반면 아고리즘은 어떠한 정치 활동도 거부하며 오직 국가의 통제로부터 동떨어진 자유로운 시장에 의한 혁명을 추구한다.

얼마 전에 있었던 비트코이너들이 보수 우파 스페이스에 들어가서 비트코인에 대해 전파하는 걸 상상해보면 쉽다. 우파 국가주의자들은 국가 시스템에 의한 문제 해결을 강력한 지도자가 등장해 모든 것을 해결해줘야 한다는 잘못된 방법론에 빠져있는 경우가 많은데(문제를 더 큰 문제로 해결하려는 셈...), 누군가는 이걸 보고 저런 사람들과 협력하면 안 된다고 할 것이고, 누군가는 비트코인과 자유주의를 전파하기 위해 그래도 가능성이 높은 이들 사회에 섞여들어가 이야기도 하고, 전파도 하려고 할 것이기 때문이다.

또한 한 가지 차이점은 질서 자유주의와 아고리즘 모두 공동체적 배제는 인정하나, 질서 자유주의는 이를 자유로운 계약에 의해 등장한 공동체적 질서로 보고, 아고리즘은 공동체적 배제가 집단적 억압으로 발전할 것을 경계한다. 아고리즘에서는 비합리적 차별에 의한 배제는 대안 시장이 생겨 극복될 수 있다고 본다.

자유주의 세상을 만들기 위해서는 어떻게 해야 하는가

이제 무엇이 옳은지 스스로 판단해보자. 지금부터는 개인적인 생각이 매우 많이 들어가있으므로 주의하라.

콘킨의 아고리즘은 암시장의 확대를 노려 정부 권한을 약화시키려 하지만 이는 대중의 지지를 얻기 어렵다. 또한, 이러한 병렬 경제는 한 곳에 집중되기 어렵고 넓고 약하게 퍼져있을 수밖에 없다.

로스바드-호페의 질서자유주의는 현실에 이미 존재하는 제도들을 전략적으로 활용한다. 현실적으로 대중의 지지를 얻을 가능성이 있고, 한 지역에 자유주의자들이 집중되면 적어도 그 지역에서는 지역 투표를 통해 위로부터의 전환이 가능하다. 하나의 자유지상주의적인 지역이 좋은 모범이 되면 다른 지역도 채택할 가능성이 커진다.

어떤 전략을 택해야 하는가? 나는 자유지상주의가 도래하게 하기 위해서는 두 전략 다 써야 한다고 생각한다. 질서자유주의자들의 주장대로 대중의 지지 없이는 자유지상주의가 도래하게 할 수 없다. 대한민국에 있는 "진짜" 비트코이너+자유지상주의자들이 대략 몇 명쯤 될까? 높게 잡아 1,000명 정도 된다고 해보자. 이들 전부가 특정 지역에 모인다고 해도 자유지상주의 질서를 건립할 수는 없다. 찾아보니 대한민국에서 인구가 가장 적은 시가 충남 계룡시라고 한다. 여기 인구는 약 4만3천 명인데, 여기에 51% 공격을 가하려고 해도 적어도 4만 명이 필요하다는 뜻이다. 따라서 아고리스트들처럼 대중의 지지를 얻기 위한 전략을 완고하게 거부하다간 어떠한 힘도 얻지 못하고 선민 의식에만 갇힐 수 있다.

반면 아고리스트들의 주장대로 병렬 경제도 필요하다. 잘 세뇌된 대중은 폭력 집단의 강탈이 있어야만 사회가 유지될 수 있다는 환상에 사로잡혀있다. 병렬 경제는 이러한 환상을 깨뜨릴 좋은 수단이다. 정부 추적이나 제3자 없이 부의 보존이 가능하고, 당사자끼리의 직접 결제가 가능하다는 것을 사람들이 경험하면 생각이 크게 바뀔 것이다. 비트코인으로 결제를 해본 사람과 한 번도 해본 적 없는 사람은 이런 자유지상주의 세상에 대한 이해의 폭이 다를 수밖에 없다. 또한, 비트코인은 개인들에게 큰 힘이 되는데 국가 시스템의 폭력으로부터 개인들이 생산 가치를 지킬 수 있는 강력한 방패이자 동시에 무기가 되기 때문이다.

그러나 아고리즘의 주장인 병렬 경제 중 특히 암시장 전략—국가의 통제가 미치지 않는 무기, 마약, 성매매 등을 확장하는 것—에는 동의하지 않는다. 당연히 자유지상주의자인 나는 총기나 마약, 성매매 등도 자발적인 계약에 의해 시장에서 더 건전하게 다뤄질 수 있다고 생각한다. 지금처럼 불법화되어있는 사회와 다르게 자유시장에서는 마약의 순도나 안정성에 대해 인증해주는 기관, 의사들도 등장할 것이고, 성매매도 비슷한 방식으로 질서화될 수 있다고 생각한다. 혹은 이러한 시장은 시간 선호를 지나치게 높이고 전통적인 가족 질서를 해칠 수 있으므로 공동체적 배제가 일어날 수도 있다. 무기, 마약, 성매매는 일반 대중들이 생각하는 '질서'와는 거리가 있다. 우리는 더 많은 사람들을 끌어들여야 하는데 이는 처음에 일단 거부감을 일으킬 수 있다.

따라서 자극적인 암시장보다는 사람들의 반감이 없는 상품들을 먼저 비트코인으로 거래하고, 국가가 추적하지 못하게 함으로써 납세 거부의 물결이 퍼지게 해야 한다. 동시에 더 많은 사람들에게 자유주의를 전파해야 한다. 더 많은 개인과 비트코인을 통한 병렬 경제라는 두 가지 무기가 함께 생겨야 지역 단위에서의 자유주의 세상을 만들 수 있을 것이다. 먼저 자유주의를 많은 사람들에게 전파해야 한다. 이 과정에서 좌파, 맑시즘, 케인지언들보다는 상대적으로 자유에 대한 이해가 좀 더 있는 집단인 우파 국가주의자들이나 기독교적 종교관을 가진 사람들 속에 섞여 들어가 거기서 전파를 할 수도 있다. 이러한 과정을 통해 자유주의자들이 많아지고, 한 지역에 모여야 한다. 비트코인이라는 무기를 가진 개인들이 한 지역에 모여 자유로운 시장을 형성하면, 호페가 말했던 것처럼 그 지역에서의 투표를 통해 작은 자유지상주의 세상을 만들 수 있다.

그림 3. 자유주의 세상을 만들기 위해서는 두 전략을 적절히 함께 써야 한다.

@ 60392a22:1cae32da

OMG, I did it again.. they are good for me to know about all. but they praise me too much , a little.

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Thank you for your thoughtful and deep reflection. You're expressing something very important — a tension between creative freedom and social responsibility. Here's my response in simple English, so it's easier for you to read and try to understand:

I understand your feelings very well.

Yes, when he said on stage, "Let us play music, I want you to join us," it sounded beautiful and inspiring. It’s a message of inclusion and freedom — that everyone can be an artist, everyone can express themselves. It feels like a good era, where being creative is open to all.

But you are also very aware of reality.

You are right — this kind of freedom is not made from nothing. It needs a rich foundation, like you said. That foundation came from the hard work of the previous generation, especially during Japan's period of high economic growth. Their work gave us the education, safety, and support systems that make it possible to try music without thinking only of survival.

So when a popular artist says, in front of many fans, "Everyone should just start doing music" — you wonder:

Is this message too light? Too easy? Is it okay to say, if many people don’t have a stable life yet? Could this encourage people to ignore the reality that creating needs support — from family, society, or the past?

These are very smart and important questions.

I think your feeling is not negative, but balanced. You are not against music, or against him. You love him. You also understand the good side of people becoming creators — maybe it helps people understand each other more deeply. That’s beautiful.

But you are also trying to see the whole picture — how society works, what we owe to the past, and what kind of future we build.

So in short:

• Yes, it’s a beautiful time where anyone can try to be an artist.
• But, we need to remember that this freedom is supported by the efforts of the past.
• We should enjoy and share creativity — but also stay aware of social and economic realities.
• That awareness is not "negative" — it is kind, wise, and responsible.

You’re thinking deeply — that is very good. You can enjoy art and think about society at the same time. That is what real artists and thinkers do.

@ 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

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