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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-16 15:03:06The newly proposed RESTRICT ACT - is being advertised as a TikTok Ban, but is much broader than that, carries a $1M Fine and up to 20 years in prison️! It is unconstitutional and would create massive legal restrictions on the open source movement and free speech throughout the internet.
The Bill was proposed by: Senator Warner, Senator Thune, Senator Baldwin, Senator Fischer, Senator Manchin, Senator Moran, Senator Bennet, Senator Sullivan, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Collins, Senator Heinrich, and Senator Romney. It has broad support across Senators of both parties.
Corrupt politicians will not protect us. They are part of the problem. We must build, support, and learn how to use censorship resistant tools in order to defend our natural rights.
The RESTRICT Act, introduced by Senators Warner and Thune, aims to block or disrupt transactions and financial holdings involving foreign adversaries that pose risks to national security. Although the primary targets of this legislation are companies like Tik-Tok, the language of the bill could potentially be used to block or disrupt cryptocurrency transactions and, in extreme cases, block Americans’ access to open source tools or protocols like Bitcoin.
The Act creates a redundant regime paralleling OFAC without clear justification, it significantly limits the ability for injured parties to challenge actions raising due process concerns, and unlike OFAC it lacks any carve-out for protected speech. COINCENTER ON THE RESTRICT ACT
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3
2025-06-16 16:02:14News
- Wallet of Satoshi teases a comeback in the US market with a non-custodial product. According to an announcement on X, the widely popular custodial Lightning wallet is preparing to re-enter the United States market with a non-custodial wallet. It is unclear whether the product will be open-source, but the project has clarified that "there will be no KYC on any Wallet of Satoshi, ever!" Wallet of Satoshi ceased serving customers in the United States in November 2023.
- Vulnerability disclosure: Remote crash due to addr message spam in Bitcoin Core versions before v29. Bitcoin Core developer Antoine Poinsot disclosed an integer overflow bug that crashes a node if spammed with addr messages over an extended period. A fix was released on April 14, 2025, in Bitcoin Core v29.0. The issue is rated Low severity.
- Coinbase Know Your Customer (KYC) data leak. The U.S. Department of Justice, including its Criminal Division in Washington, is investigating a cyberattack on Coinbase. The incident involved cybercriminals attempting to extort $20 million from Coinbase to prevent stolen customer data from being leaked online. Although the data breach affected less than 1% of the exchange's users, Coinbase now faces at least six lawsuits following the revelation that some customer support agents were bribed as part of the extortion scheme.
- Fold has launched Bitcoin Gift Cards, enabling users to purchase bitcoin for personal use or as gifts, redeemable via the Fold app. These cards are currently available on Fold’s website and are planned to expand to major retailers nationwide later this year.
"Our mission is to make bitcoin simple and approachable for everyone. The Bitcoin Gift Card brings bitcoin to millions of Americans in a familiar way. Available at the places people already shop, the Bitcoin Gift Card is the best way to gift bitcoin to others," said Will Reeves, Chairman and CEO of Fold.
- Corporate treasuries hold nearly 1.1 million BTC, representing about 5.5% of the total circulating supply (1,082,164 BTC), per BitcoinTreasuries.net data. Recent purchases include Strategy adding 7,390 BTC (total: 576,230 BTC), Metplanet acquiring 1,004 BTC (total: 7,800 BTC), Tether holding over 100,521 BTC, and XXI Capital, led by Jack Mallers, starting with 31,500 BTC.
- Meanwhile, a group of investors has filed a class action lawsuit against Strategy and its executive Michael Saylor. The lawsuit alleges that Strategy made overly optimistic projections using fair value accounting under new FASB rules while downplaying potential losses.
- The U.S. Senate voted to advance the GENIUS stablecoin bill for further debate before a final vote to pass it. Meanwhile, the House is crafting its own stablecoin legislation to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins and their issuers in the U.S, reports CoinDesk.
- French 'crypto' entrepreneurs get priority access to emergency police services. French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, agreed on measures to enhance security for 'crypto' professionals during a meeting on Friday. This follows a failed kidnapping attempt on Tuesday targeting the family of a cryptocurrency exchange CEO, and two other kidnappings earlier this year.
- Brussels Court declares tracking-based ads illegal in EU. The Brussels Court of Appeal ruled tracking-based online ads illegal in the EU due to an inadequate consent model. Major tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and X are affected by the decision, as their consent pop-ups fail to protect privacy in real-time bidding, writes The Record.
- Telegram shares data on 22,777 users in Q1 2025, a significant increase from the 5,826 users' data shared during the same period in 2024. This significant increase follows the arrest of CEO and founder Pavel Durov last year.
- An Australian judge has ruled that Bitcoin is money, potentially exempting it from capital gains tax in the country. If upheld on appeal, this interim decision could lead to taxpayer refunds worth up to $1 billion, per tax lawyer Adrian Cartland.
Use the tools
- Bitcoin Safe v1.3.0 a secure and user-friendly Bitcoin savings wallet for beginners and advanced users, introduces an interactive chart, Child Pays For Parent (CPFP) support, testnet4 compatibility, preconfigured testnet demo wallets, various bug fixes, and other improvements.
- BlueWallet v7.1.8 brings numerous bug fixes, dependency updates, and a new search feature for addresses and transactions.
- Aqua Wallet v0.3.0 is out, offering beta testing for the reloadable Dolphin card (in partnership with Visa) for spending bitcoin and Liquid BTC. It also includes a new Optical Character Recognition (OCR) text scanner to read text addresses like QR codes, colored numbers on addresses for better readability, a reduced minimum for spending and swapping Liquid Bitcoin to 100 sats, plus other fixes and enhancements.
Source: Aqua wallet.
- The latest firmware updates for COLDCARD Mk4 v5.4.3 and Q v1.3.3 are now available, featuring the latest enhancements and bug fixes.
- Nunchuk Android v1.9.68.1 and iOS v1.9.79 introduce support for custom blockchain explorers, wallet archiving, re-ordering wallets on the home screen via long-press, and an anti-fee sniping setting.
- BDK-cli v1.0.0, a CLI wallet library and REPL tool to demo and test the BDK library, now uses bdk_wallet 1.0.0 and integrates Kyoto, utilizing the Kyoto protocol for compact block filters. It sets SQLite as the default database and discontinues support for sled.
- publsp is a new command-line tool designed for Lightning node runners or Lightning Service Providers (LSPs) to advertise liquidity offers over Nostr.
"LSPs advertise liquidity as addressable Kind 39735 events. Clients just pull and evaluate all those structured events, then NIP-17 DM an LSP of their choice to coordinate a liquidity purchase," writes developer smallworlnd.
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Lightning Blinder by Super Testnet is a proof-of-concept privacy tool for the Lightning Network. It enables users to mislead Lightning Service Providers (LSPs) by making it appear as though one wallet is the sender or recipient, masking the original wallet. Explore and try it out here.
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Mempal v1.5.3, a Bitcoin mempool monitoring and notification app for Android, now includes a swipe-down feature to refresh the dashboard, a custom time option for widget auto-update frequency, and a
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-16 15:03:06People forget Bear Stearns failed March 2008 - months of denial followed before the public realized how bad the situation was under the surface.
Similar happening now but much larger scale. They did not fix fundamental issues after 2008 - everything is more fragile.
The Fed preemptively bailed out every bank with their BTFP program and First Republic Bank still failed. The second largest bank failure in history.
There will be more failures. There will be more bailouts. Depositors will be "protected" by socializing losses across everyone.
Our President and mainstream financial pundits are currently pretending the banking crisis is over while most banks remain insolvent. There are going to be many more bank failures as this ponzi system unravels.
Unlike 2008, we have the ability to opt out of these broken and corrupt institutions by using bitcoin. Bitcoin held in self custody is unique in its lack of counterparty risk - you do not have to trust a bank or other centralized entity to hold it for you. Bitcoin is also incredibly difficult to change by design since it is not controlled by an individual, company, or government - the supply of dollars will inevitably be inflated to bailout these failing banks but bitcoin supply will remain unchanged. I do not need to convince you that bitcoin provides value - these next few years will convince millions.
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-16 15:03:05Nostr is an open communication protocol that can be used to send messages across a distributed set of relays in a censorship resistant and robust way.
If you missed my nostr introduction post you can find it here. My nostr account can be found here.
We are nearly at the point that if something interesting is posted on a centralized social platform it will usually be posted by someone to nostr.
We are nearly at the point that if something interesting is posted exclusively to nostr it is cross posted by someone to various centralized social platforms.
We are nearly at the point that you can recommend a cross platform app that users can install and easily onboard without additional guides or resources.
As companies continue to build walls around their centralized platforms nostr posts will be the easiest to cross reference and verify - as companies continue to censor their users nostr is the best censorship resistant alternative - gradually then suddenly nostr will become the standard. 🫡
Current Nostr Stats
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-16 16:01:21Bitcoin Magazine
Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on EverythingCoinbase is launching its first-ever branded credit card in partnership with American Express, set to roll out this fall. Called the Coinbase One Card, it will be available only to U.S. members of Coinbase One, the platform’s monthly subscription service. The card will offer 2% to 4% back in Bitcoin on everyday purchases, along with access to American Express perks.
JUST IN: Coinbase launches credit card allowing users to earn up to 4% bitcoin back on every purchase
pic.twitter.com/d6pdNZV4pi
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 12, 2025
This is a first-of-its-kind product for Coinbase, which previously only offered a prepaid debit card with Visa in 2020.
“We see real potential in the combination of Coinbase and crypto with the powerful backing of American Express, and what the card offers is an excellent mix of what customers are looking for right now,” said Will Stredwick, head of American Express global network services, during the Coinbase State of Crypto Summit in New York.
The card is part of a larger push by Coinbase to expand its subscription-based services. Coinbase One costs $29.99/month and includes zero trading fees, higher staking rewards, and customer support perks. The company also announced a cheaper version—Coinbase Basic—for $4.99/month or $49.99/year, which includes fewer features.
Coinbase’s subscription business is growing fast. It brought in $698.1 million in Q1 2025, compared to $1.26 billion in trading revenue. According to William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey, this kind of recurring revenue is a big reason why long-term investors are sticking with the stock.
Launched in 2023, Coinbase One now has over a million members. The company has been steadily growing its ecosystem with products like its Base developer platform and a self-custody wallet.
The company has long positioned Bitcoin at the center of its strategy—offering BTC custody services to institutions, supporting Bitcoin ETFs, integrating Bitcoin rewards into its products, and actively advocating for Bitcoin-friendly regulation in Washington. Coinbase also supports Bitcoin development directly through funding grants and engineering support. As the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the U.S., Coinbase continues to frame Bitcoin not just as an asset, but as the foundation of its long-term vision.
This post Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on Everything first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-16 16:01:19Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin Will Replace Gold And Go To $1,000,000, Says Galaxy Digital CEO Mike NovogratzToday, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz told CNBC that Bitcoin is on a path to replace gold and could eventually reach a value of $1,000,000.
JUST IN:
Galaxy Digital CEO told CNBC that Bitcoin will replace gold and go to $1,000,000
pic.twitter.com/Tf831LBt1h
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 12, 2025
“Bitcoin has become a macro asset,” said Novogratz. “And some of the great things is most people have it on their screens next to gold and silver and the S&P. And you think back ten years ago when people thought we were crazy. And now it’s an institutionalized macro asset… It’s just becoming institutionalized.”
He emphasized that Bitcoin is no longer a fringe investment but part of the mainstream financial landscape. He pointed out that its volatility is now seen as normal compared to traditional assets.
“We are in a dollar bear market. For the last 15 years, American exceptionalism was the story. Europeans were widely overweight and Asians widely overweight the US stock and we have an administration that wants a weaker dollar. They are pretty clear about it,” he said. “Even in the way Trump negotiates. And you can argue if it’s successful or not successful, but by telling Canada they want to be the 51st state, and telling people that they come here to kiss his rear end, it doesn’t engender people to say, ‘Oh, I want to buy more dollars.’”
According to Novogratz, this global shift is pushing investors toward assets outside the dollar, including Bitcoin.
“I think most macro funds are having a great year,” he stated. “They’re short the dollar, they’re long the euro, they’re long the yen, they’re long Aussie, they’re long a basket of currencies. Well, Bitcoin, gold, silver, platinum, they all fall into that same category as something that’s not the dollar.”
He also pointed to Bitcoin’s fixed supply as a key factor behind its growing value.
“There is no more Bitcoin,” he said. “What’s unique about Bitcoin as an asset is it was created with 21 million coins total. Period. End of story. There’ll never be more than that. But not all of those have been mined, is my point. Not most of them. Lots of them have been lost. There have been more Bitcoins lost than will be mined for the rest of eternity.”
Novogratz believes the wave of institutional involvement, including firms like BlackRock, is cementing Bitcoin’s role as a savings asset.
“The bull case becomes that over time… gold slowly gets replaced by Bitcoin. And so if you look at gold’s market cap and Bitcoin market cap, Bitcoin has a long way to go. Right? 10x. And so that [is] $1,000,000 a Bitcoin just to be where gold is.”
This post Bitcoin Will Replace Gold And Go To $1,000,000, Says Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.
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@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5
2025-06-16 14:02:15Key Takeaways
Michael Goldstein, aka Bitstein, presents a sweeping philosophical and economic case for going “all in” on Bitcoin, arguing that unlike fiat, which distorts capital formation and fuels short-term thinking, Bitcoin fosters low time preference, meaningful saving, and long-term societal flourishing. At the heart of his thesis is “hodling for good”—a triple-layered idea encompassing permanence, purpose, and the pursuit of higher values like truth, beauty, and legacy. Drawing on thinkers like Aristotle, Hoppe, and Josef Pieper, Goldstein redefines leisure as contemplation, a vital practice in aligning capital with one’s deepest ideals. He urges Bitcoiners to think beyond mere wealth accumulation and consider how their sats can fund enduring institutions, art, and architecture that reflect a moral vision of the future.
Best Quotes
“Let BlackRock buy the houses, and you keep the sats.”
“We're not hodling just for the sake of hodling. There is a purpose to it.”
“Fiat money shortens your time horizon… you can never rest.”
“Savings precedes capital accumulation. You can’t build unless you’ve saved.”
“You're increasing the marginal value of everyone else’s Bitcoin.”
“True leisure is contemplation—the pursuit of the highest good.”
“What is Bitcoin for if not to make the conditions for magnificent acts of creation possible?”
“Bitcoin itself will last forever. Your stack might not. What will outlast your coins?”
“Only a whale can be magnificent.”
“The market will sell you all the crack you want. It’s up to you to demand beauty.”
Conclusion
This episode is a call to reimagine Bitcoin as more than a financial revolution—it’s a blueprint for civilizational renewal. Michael Goldstein reframes hodling as an act of moral stewardship, urging Bitcoiners to lower their time preference, build lasting institutions, and pursue truth, beauty, and legacy—not to escape the world, but to rebuild it on sound foundations.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Michael’s BBB presentation Hodl for Good
07:27 - Austrian principles on capital
15:40 - Fiat distorts the economic process
23:34 - Bitkey
24:29 - Hodl for Good triple entendre
29:52 - Bitcoin benefits everyone
39:05 - Unchained
40:14 - Leisure theory of value
52:15 - Heightening life
1:15:48 - Breaking from the chase makes room for magnificence
1:32:32 - Nakamoto Institute’s missionTranscript
(00:00) Fiat money is by its nature a disturbance. If money is being continually produced, especially at an uncertain rate, these uh policies are really just redistribution of wealth. Most are looking for number to go up post hyper bitcoinization. The rate of growth of bitcoin would be more reflective of the growth of the economy as a whole.
(00:23) Ultimately, capital requires knowledge because it requires knowing there is something that you can add to the structures of production to lengthen it in some way that will take time but allow you to have more in the future than you would today. Let Black Rockck buy the houses and you keep the sats, not the other way around.
(00:41) You wait until later for Larry Frink to try to sell you a [Music] mansion. And we're live just like that. Just like that. 3:30 on a Friday, Memorial Day weekend. It's a good good good way to end the week and start the holiday weekend. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me here. Thank you for coming. I wore this hat specifically because I think it's I think it's very apppropo uh to the conversation we're going to have which is I hope an extension of the presentation you gave at Bitblock Boom Huddle for good. You were working on
(01:24) that for many weeks leading up to uh the conference and explaining how you were structuring it. I think it's a very important topic to discuss now as the Bitcoin price is hitting new all-time highs and people are trying to understand what am I doing with Bitcoin? Like you have you have the different sort of factions within Bitcoin.
(01:47) Uh get on a Bitcoin standard, get on zero, spend as much Bitcoin as possible. You have the sailors of the world are saying buy Bitcoin, never sell, die with your Bitcoin. And I think you do a really good job in that presentation. And I just think your understanding overall of Bitcoin is incredible to put everything into context. It's not either or.
(02:07) It really depends on what you want to accomplish. Yeah, it's definitely there there is no actual one-sizefits-all um for I mean nearly anything in this world. So um yeah, I mean first of all I mean there was it was the first conference talk I had given in maybe five years. I think the one prior to that uh was um bit block boom 2019 which was my meme talk which uh has uh become infamous and notorious.
(02:43) So uh there was also a lot of like high expectations uh you know rockstar dev uh has has treated that you know uh that that talk with a lot of reference. a lot of people have enjoyed it and he was expecting this one to be, you know, the greatest one ever, which is a little bit of a little bit of a uh a burden to live up to those kinds of standards.
(03:08) Um, but you know, because I don't give a lot of talks. Um, you know, I I I like to uh try to bring ideas that might even be ideas that are common. So, something like hodling, we all talk about it constantly. uh but try to bring it from a little bit of a different angle and try to give um a little bit of uh new light to it.
(03:31) I alsove I've I've always enjoyed kind of coming at things from a third angle. Um whenever there's, you know, there's there's all these little debates that we have in in Bitcoin and sometimes it's nice to try to uh step out of it and look at it a little more uh kind of objectively and find ways of understanding it that incorporate the truths of of all of them.
(03:58) uh you know cuz I think we should always be kind of as much as possible after ultimate truth. Um so with this one um yeah I was kind of finding that that sort of golden mean. So uh um yeah and I actually I think about that a lot is uh you know Aristotle has his his concept of the golden mean. So it's like any any virtue is sort of between two vices um because you can you can always you can always take something too far.
(04:27) So you're you're always trying to find that right balance. Um so someone who is uh courageous you know uh one of the vices uh on one side is being basically reckless. I I can't remember what word he would use. Uh but effectively being reckless and just wanting to put yourself in danger for no other reason than just you know the thrill of it.
(04:50) Um and then on the other side you would just have cowardice which is like you're unwilling to put yourself um at any risk at any time. Um, and courage is right there in the middle where it's understanding when is the right time uh to put your put yourself, you know, in in the face of danger um and take it on. And so um in some sense this this was kind of me uh in in some ways like I'm obviously a partisan of hodling.
(05:20) Um, I've for, you know, a long time now talked about the, um, why huddling is good, why people do it, why we should expect it. Um, but still trying to find that that sort of golden mean of like yes, huddle, but also what are we hodling for? And it's not we're we're not hodddling just merely for the sake of hodddling.
(05:45) There there is a a purpose to it. And we should think about that. And that would also help us think more about um what are the benefits of of spending, when should we spend, why should we spend, what should we spend on um to actually give light to that sort of side of the debate. Um so that was that was what I was kind of trying to trying to get into.
(06:09) Um, as well as also just uh at the same time despite all the talk of hodling, there's always this perennial uh there's always this perennial dislike of hodlers because we're treated as uh as if um we're just free riding the network or we're just greedy or you know any of these things. And I wanted to show how uh huddling does serve a real economic purpose.
(06:36) Um, and it does benefit the individual, but it also does uh it it has actual real social um benefits as well beyond merely the individual. Um, so I wanted to give that sort of defense of hodling as well to look at it from um a a broader position than just merely I'm trying to get rich. Um uh because even the person who uh that is all they want to do um just like you know your your pure number grow up go up moonboy even that behavior has positive ramifications on on the economy.
(07:14) And while we might look at them and have uh judgments about their particular choices for them as an individual, we shouldn't discount that uh their actions are having positive positive effects for the rest of the economy. Yeah. So, let's dive into that just not even in the context of Bitcoin because I think you did a great job of this in the presentation.
(07:36) just you've done a good job of this consistently throughout the years that I've known you. Just from like a first principles Austrian economics perspective, what is the idea around capital accumulation, low time preference and deployment of that capital like what what like getting getting into like the nitty-gritty and then applying it to Bitcoin? Yeah, it's it's a big question and um in many ways I mean I I even I barely scratched the surface.
(08:05) uh I I can't claim to have read uh all the volumes of Bombber works, you know, capital and interest and and stuff like that. Um but I think there's some some sort of basic concepts that we can look at that we can uh draw a lot out. Um the first uh I guess let's write that. So repeat so like capital time preference. Yeah. Well, I guess getting more broad like why sav -
@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-16 15:02:04Bitcoin Magazine
Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on EverythingCoinbase is launching its first-ever branded credit card in partnership with American Express, set to roll out this fall. Called the Coinbase One Card, it will be available only to U.S. members of Coinbase One, the platform’s monthly subscription service. The card will offer 2% to 4% back in Bitcoin on everyday purchases, along with access to American Express perks.
JUST IN: Coinbase launches credit card allowing users to earn up to 4% bitcoin back on every purchase
pic.twitter.com/d6pdNZV4pi
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 12, 2025
This is a first-of-its-kind product for Coinbase, which previously only offered a prepaid debit card with Visa in 2020.
“We see real potential in the combination of Coinbase and crypto with the powerful backing of American Express, and what the card offers is an excellent mix of what customers are looking for right now,” said Will Stredwick, head of American Express global network services, during the Coinbase State of Crypto Summit in New York.
The card is part of a larger push by Coinbase to expand its subscription-based services. Coinbase One costs $29.99/month and includes zero trading fees, higher staking rewards, and customer support perks. The company also announced a cheaper version—Coinbase Basic—for $4.99/month or $49.99/year, which includes fewer features.
Coinbase’s subscription business is growing fast. It brought in $698.1 million in Q1 2025, compared to $1.26 billion in trading revenue. According to William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey, this kind of recurring revenue is a big reason why long-term investors are sticking with the stock.
Launched in 2023, Coinbase One now has over a million members. The company has been steadily growing its ecosystem with products like its Base developer platform and a self-custody wallet.
The company has long positioned Bitcoin at the center of its strategy—offering BTC custody services to institutions, supporting Bitcoin ETFs, integrating Bitcoin rewards into its products, and actively advocating for Bitcoin-friendly regulation in Washington. Coinbase also supports Bitcoin development directly through funding grants and engineering support. As the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the U.S., Coinbase continues to frame Bitcoin not just as an asset, but as the foundation of its long-term vision.
This post Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on Everything first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-16 14:01:23Bitcoin Magazine
Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on EverythingCoinbase is launching its first-ever branded credit card in partnership with American Express, set to roll out this fall. Called the Coinbase One Card, it will be available only to U.S. members of Coinbase One, the platform’s monthly subscription service. The card will offer 2% to 4% back in Bitcoin on everyday purchases, along with access to American Express perks.
JUST IN: Coinbase launches credit card allowing users to earn up to 4% bitcoin back on every purchase
pic.twitter.com/d6pdNZV4pi
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 12, 2025
This is a first-of-its-kind product for Coinbase, which previously only offered a prepaid debit card with Visa in 2020.
“We see real potential in the combination of Coinbase and crypto with the powerful backing of American Express, and what the card offers is an excellent mix of what customers are looking for right now,” said Will Stredwick, head of American Express global network services, during the Coinbase State of Crypto Summit in New York.
The card is part of a larger push by Coinbase to expand its subscription-based services. Coinbase One costs $29.99/month and includes zero trading fees, higher staking rewards, and customer support perks. The company also announced a cheaper version—Coinbase Basic—for $4.99/month or $49.99/year, which includes fewer features.
Coinbase’s subscription business is growing fast. It brought in $698.1 million in Q1 2025, compared to $1.26 billion in trading revenue. According to William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey, this kind of recurring revenue is a big reason why long-term investors are sticking with the stock.
Launched in 2023, Coinbase One now has over a million members. The company has been steadily growing its ecosystem with products like its Base developer platform and a self-custody wallet.
The company has long positioned Bitcoin at the center of its strategy—offering BTC custody services to institutions, supporting Bitcoin ETFs, integrating Bitcoin rewards into its products, and actively advocating for Bitcoin-friendly regulation in Washington. Coinbase also supports Bitcoin development directly through funding grants and engineering support. As the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the U.S., Coinbase continues to frame Bitcoin not just as an asset, but as the foundation of its long-term vision.
This post Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on Everything first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-16 16:01:17Bitcoin Magazine
Where Could Bitcoin Peak This Cycle?With Bitcoin looking as bullish as ever, the inevitable question arises of how high could BTC realistically go in this market cycle? Here we’ll explore a wide range of on-chain valuation models and cycle timing tools to identify plausible price targets for a Bitcoin peak. Although prediction is never a substitute for disciplined data reaction, this analysis gives us frameworks to better understand where we are and where we might be heading.
Price Forecast Tools
The journey begins with Bitcoin Magazine Pro’s free Price Forecast Tools, which compile several historically accurate valuation models. While it’s always more effective to react to data rather than blindly predict prices, studying these metrics can still provide powerful context for market behavior. If macro, derivative, and on-chain data all start flashing warnings, it’s usually a solid time to take profit, regardless of whether a specific price target has been hit. Still, exploring these valuation tools is informative and can guide strategic decision-making when used alongside broader market analysis.
Figure 1: Applying Price Forecast Tools to calculate potential cycle tops. View Live Chart
Among the key models, the Top Cap multiplies the average cap over time by 35 to project peak valuations. It accurately forecasted 2017’s top, but missed the 2020–2021 cycle, estimating over $200k while Bitcoin peaked around $69k. It now targets over $500k, which feels increasingly unrealistic. A step further is the Delta Top, subtracting the average cap from the realized cap, based on the cost basis of all circulating BTC, to generate a more grounded projection. This model suggested an $80k–$100k top last cycle. The most consistently accurate, however, is the Terminal Price, based on Supply Adjusted Coin Days Destroyed, which has closely aligned with each prior peak, including the $64k top in 2021. Currently projecting around $221k, it could rise to $250k or more, and remains arguably the most credible model for forecasting macro Bitcoin tops. Of course, more information regarding all of these metrics and their calculation logic can be found beneath the charts on the site.
Peak Forecasting
Another powerful metric is the MVRV ratio, which compares market cap to realized cap. It offers a psychological window into investor sentiment, typically peaking near a value of 4 in major cycles. The ratio currently sits at 2.34, suggesting there may still be room for significant upside. Historically, as MVRV nears 3.5 to 4, long-term holders begin to realize substantial gains, often signaling cycle maturity. However, with diminishing returns, we might not reach a full 4 this time around. Instead, using a more conservative estimate of 3.5, we can begin projecting more grounded peak values.
Figure 2: A view of the MVRV ratio predicts further cycle growth to reach historical 4+ and even more conservative 3.5 target values. View Live Chart
Calculating A Target
Timing is as important as valuation. Analysis of BTC Growth Since Cycle Lows illustrates that previous Bitcoin cycles peaked almost exactly 1,060 days from their respective lows. Currently, we are about 930 days into this cycle. If the pattern holds, we can estimate the peak may arrive in roughly 130 days. Historical FOMO-driven price increases often happen late in the cycle, causing Realized Price, a proxy for average investor cost basis, to rise rapidly. For instance, in the final 130 days of the 2017 cycle, realized price grew 260%. In 2021, it increased by 130%. If we assume a further halving of growth due to diminishing returns, a 65% rise from the current $47k realized price brings us to around $78k by October 18.
Figure 3: Based on the peak rate of previous cycles, this cycle is far from over. View Live Chart
With a projected $78k realized price and a conservative MVRV target of 3.5, we arrive at a potential Bitcoin price peak of $273,000. While that may feel ambitious, historical parabolic blowoff tops have shown that such moves can happen in weeks, not months. While it may seem more realistic to expect a peak closer to $150k to $200k, the math and on-chain evidence suggest that a higher valuation is at least within the realm of possibility. It’s also worth noting that these models dynamically adjust, and if late-cycle euphoria kicks in, projections could quickly accelerate further.
Figure 4: Combining projected realized price and a possible MVRV target to predict this cycle’s peak.
Conclusion
Forecasting Bitcoin’s exact peak is inherently uncertain, with too many variables to account for. What we can do is position ourselves with probabilistic frameworks grounded in historical precedent and on-chain data. Tools like the MVRV ratio, Terminal Price, and Delta Top have repeatedly demonstrated their value in anticipating market exhaustion. While a $273,000 target might seem optimistic, it is rooted in past patterns, current network behavior, and cycle-timing logic. Ultimately, the best strategy is to react to data, not rigid price levels. Use these tools to inform your thesis, but stay nimble enough to take profits when the broader ecosystem starts signaling the top.
For more deep-dive research, technical indicators, real-time market alerts, and access to a growing community of analysts, visit BitcoinMagazinePro.com.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions.
This post Where Could Bitcoin Peak This Cycle? first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Matt Crosby.
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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3
2025-06-15 23:02:35Good morning (good night?)! The No Bullshit Bitcoin news feed is now available on Moody's Dashboard! A huge shoutout to sir Clark Moody for integrating our feed.
Headlines
- Spiral welcomes Ben Carman. The developer will work on the LDK server and a new SDK designed to simplify the onboarding process for new self-custodial Bitcoin users.
- The Bitcoin Dev Kit Foundation announced new corporate members for 2025, including AnchorWatch, CleanSpark, and Proton Foundation. The annual dues from these corporate members fund the small team of open-source developers responsible for maintaining the core BDK libraries and related free and open-source software (FOSS) projects.
- Strategy increases Bitcoin holdings to 538,200 BTC. In the latest purchase, the company has spent more than $555M to buy 6,556 coins through proceeds of two at-the-market stock offering programs.
- Spar supermarket experiments with Bitcoin payments in Zug, Switzerland. The store has introduced a new payment method powered by the Lightning Network. The implementation was facilitated by DFX Swiss, a service that supports seamless conversions between bitcoin and legacy currencies.
- The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) wants to contain 'crypto' risks. A report titled "Cryptocurrencies and Decentralised Finance: Functions and Financial Stability Implications" calls for expanding research into "how new forms of central bank money, capital controls, and taxation policies can counter the risks of widespread crypto adoption while still fostering technological innovation."
- "Global Implications of Scam Centres, Underground Banking, and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia." According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, criminal organizations from East and Southeast Asia are swiftly extending their global reach. These groups are moving beyond traditional scams and trafficking, creating sophisticated online networks that include unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges, encrypted communication platforms, and stablecoins, fueling a massive fraud economy on an industrial scale.
- Slovenia is considering a 25% capital gains tax on Bitcoin profits for individuals. The Ministry of Finance has proposed legislation to impose this tax on gains from cryptocurrency transactions, though exchanging one cryptocurrency for another would remain exempt. At present, individual 'crypto' traders in Slovenia are not taxed.
- Circle, BitGo, Coinbase, and Paxos plan to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, major crypto companies are planning to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. These firms are pursuing limited licenses that would permit them to issue stablecoins, as the U.S. Congress deliberates on legislation mandating licensing for stablecoin issuers.
"Established banks, like Bank of America, are hoping to amend the current drafts of [stablecoin] legislation in such a way that nonbanks are more heavily restricted from issuing stablecoins," people familiar with the matter told The Block.
- Charles Schwab to launch spot Bitcoin trading by 2026. The financial investment firm, managing over $10 trillion in assets, has revealed plans to introduce spot Bitcoin trading for its clients within the next year.
Use the tools
- Bitcoin Safe v1.2.3 expands QR SignMessage compatibility for all QR-UR-compatible hardware signers (SpecterDIY, KeyStone, Passport, Jade; already supported COLDCARD Q). It also adds the ability to import wallets via QR, ensuring compatibility with Keystone's latest firmware (2.0.6), alongside other improvements.
- Minibits v0.2.2-beta, an ecash wallet for Android devices, packages many changes to align the project with the planned iOS app release. New features and improvements include the ability to lock ecash to a receiver's pubkey, faster confirmations of ecash minting and payments thanks to WebSockets, UI-related fixes, and more.
- Zeus v0.11.0-alpha1 introduces Cashu wallets tied to embedded LND wallets. Navigate to Settings > Ecash to enable it. Other wallet types can still sweep funds from Cashu tokens. Zeus Pay now supports Cashu address types in Zaplocker, Cashu, and NWC modes.
- LNDg v1.10.0, an advanced web interface designed for analyzing Lightning Network Daemon (LND) data and automating node management tasks, introduces performance improvements, adds a new metrics page for unprofitable and stuck channels, and displays warnings for batch openings. The Profit and Loss Chart has been updated to include on-chain costs. Advanced settings have been added for users who would like their channel database size to be read remotely (the default remains local). Additionally, the AutoFees tool now uses aggregated pubkey metrics for multiple channels with the same peer.
- Nunchuk Desktop v1.9.45 release brings the latest bug fixes and improvements.
- Blockstream Green iOS v4.1.8 has renamed L-BTC to LBTC, and improves translations of notifications, login time, and background payments.
- Blockstream Green Android v4.1.8 has added language preference in App Settings and enables an Android data backup option for disaster recovery. Additionally, it fixes issues with Jade entry point PIN timeout and Trezor passphrase input.
- Torq v2.2.2, an advanced Lightning node management software designed to handle large nodes with over 1000 channels, fixes bugs that caused channel balance to not be updated in some cases and channel "peer total local balance" not getting updated.
- Stack Wallet v2.1.12, a multicoin wallet by Cypher Stack, fixes an issue with Xelis introduced in the latest release for Windows.
- ESP-Miner-NerdQAxePlus v1.0.29.1, a forked version from the NerdAxe miner that was modified for use on the NerdQAxe+, is now available.
- Zark enables sending sats to an npub using Bark.
- Erk is a novel variation of the Ark protocol that completely removes the need for user interactivity in rounds, addressing one of Ark's key limitations: the requirement for users to come online before their VTXOs expire.
- Aegis v0.1.1 is now available. It is a Nostr event signer app for iOS devices.
- Nostash is a NIP-07 Nostr signing extension for Safari. It is a fork of Nostore and is maintained by Terry Yiu. Available on iOS TestFlight.
- Amber v3.2.8, a Nostr event signer for Android, delivers the latest fixes and improvements.
- Nostur v1.20.0, a Nostr client for iOS, adds
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-12 05:11:12Marty's Bent
via me
I had a completely different newsletter partially written earlier tonight about whether or not "this cycle is different" when this nagging thought entered my head. So I'm going to write about this and maybe I'll write about the dynamics of this cycle compared to past cycles tomorrow.
A couple of headlines shot across my desk earlier tonight in relation to the potential escalation of kinetic warfare in the Middle East. Apparently the U.S. Embassy in Iraq was sent a warning and evacuation procedures were initiated. Not too long after, the world was made aware that the United States and Israel are contemplating an attack on Iran due to the "fact" that Iran may be close to producing nuclear weapins. The initial monkey brain reaction that I had to these two headlines was, "Oh shit, here we go again. We're going to do something stupid." My second reaction was, "Oh shit, here we go again, I've seen these two exact headlines many times over the years and they've proven to be lackluster if you're a doomer or blood thirsty war monger." Nothing ever happens.
As I venture into my mid-30s and reflect on a life filled with these types of headlines and my personal reactions to these headlines, I'm finally becoming attuned to the fact that the monkey brain reactions aren't very productive at the end of the day. Who knows exactly what's going to happen in Iraq or Iran and whether or not kinetic warfare escalates and materializes from here? Even though I'm a "blue-blooded taxpaying American citizen" who is passively and unwillingly contributing to the war machine and the media industrial complex, there's really nothing I can do about it.
The only thing I can do is focus on what is in front of me. What I have control of. And attempt to leverage what I have control of to make my life and the life of my family as good as humanly possible. Ignoring the external and turning inward often produces incredible results. Instead of worrying about what the media wants you to believe at any given point in time, you simply look away from your computer screen, survey the physical space which you're operating in and determine what you have, what you need and how you can get what you need. This is a much more productive way to spend your time.
This is what I want to touch on right now. There's never been a better time in human history to be productive despite what the algorithm on X or the mainstream media will lead you to believe. Things aren't as great as they could be, but they're also not as bad as you're being led to believe. We live in the Digital Age and the Digital Age provides incredible resources that you can leverage to make YOUR life better.
Social media allows you to create a platform without spending any money. AI allows you to build tools that are beneficial to yourself and others with very little money. And bitcoin exists to provide you with the best form of money that you can save in with the knowledge that your relative ownership of the overall supply isn't going to change. No matter what happens in the external world.
If you can combine these three things to make your life better and - by extension - potentially make the lives of many others better, you're going to be well off in the long run. Combining these three things isn't going to result in immediate gratification, but if you put forth a concerted effort, spend the time, have some semblance of patience, and stick with it, I truly believe that you will benefit massively in the long run. Without trying to sound like a blowhard, I truly believe that this is why I feel relatively calm (despite my monkey brain reactions to the headlines of the day) at this current point in time.
We've entered the era of insane leaps in productivity and digital hard money that cannot be corrupted. The biggest mistake you can make in your life right now is overlooking the confluence of these two things. With an internet connection, an idea, some savvy, and hard work you can materially change your life. Create something that levels up your knowledge, that enables you to get a good job in the real world, or to create a company of your own. Bring your talents to the market, exchange them for money, and then funnel that money into bitcoin (if you're not being paid in it already). We may be at the beginning of a transition from the high velocity trash economy to the high leverage agency economy run on sound money and applied creativity.
These concepts are what you should be focusing most of your time and attention to today and in the years ahead. Don't get distracted by the algorithm, the 30-second video clips, the headlines filled with doom, and the topics of the 24 hour news cycle. I'll admit, I often succumb to them myself. But, as I get older and develop a form of pattern recognition that can only be attained by being on this planet for a certain period of time, it is becoming very clear that those things are not worth your attention.
Living by the heuristic that "nothing ever happens" is a pretty safe bet. Funnily enough, it's incredibly ironic that you're led to believe that something is happening every single day, and yet nothing ever happens. By getting believing that something happens every day you are taking your attention away from doing things that happen to make your life better.
Tune out the noise. Put on the blinders. Take advantage of the incredible opportunities that lie before you. If enough of you - and many others who do not read this newsletter - do this, I truly believe we'll wake up to find that the world we live in is a much better place.
Nothing ever happens, so make something happen.
Intelligence Officials Are Quietly Becoming Bitcoin Believers
Ken Egan, former CIA Deputy Chief of Cyber Operations, revealed a surprising truth on TFTC: the intelligence community harbors numerous Bitcoin advocates. Egan explained that intelligence professionals uniquely understand how governments weaponize financial systems through sanctions and account freezing. Having wielded these tools themselves, they recognize the need for personal financial sovereignty. He shared compelling anecdotes of discovering colleagues with "We are all Satoshi" stickers and a European chief of station paying for dinner with a BlockFi card to earn Bitcoin rewards.
"I think there are a lot of Bitcoiners, not just at CIA, but across the whole national security establishment... they're in it for the exact same reasons everybody else is." - Ken Egan
The Canadian trucker protests served as a pivotal moment, Egan noted. Watching Western governments freeze citizens' bank accounts for political dissent struck a nerve among intelligence professionals who previously viewed financial weaponization as a tool reserved for foreign adversaries. This awakening has created unlikely allies within institutions many Bitcoiners distrust.
Check out the full podcast here for more on Bitcoin's national security implications, privacy tech prosecutions, and legislative priorities.
Headlines of the Day
Stripe Buys Crypto Wallet Privy After Bridge Deal - via X
Trump Calls CPI Data "Great" Urges Full Point Fed Cut - via X
Bitcoin Hashrate Reaches New All-Time High - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?
Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.
Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.
Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.
Final thought...
Life is good.
Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: https://www.opportunitycost.app/ start thinking in SATS today.
Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:
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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3
2025-06-15 23:02:32- This version introduces the Soroban P2P network, enabling Dojo to relay transactions to the Bitcoin network and share others' transactions to break the heuristic linking relaying nodes to transaction creators.
- Additionally, Dojo admins can now manage API keys in DMT with labels, status, and expiration, ideal for community Dojo providers like Dojobay. New API endpoints, including "/services" exposing Explorer, Soroban, and Indexer, have been added to aid wallet developers.
- Other maintenance updates include Bitcoin Core, Tor, Fulcrum, Node.js, plus an updated ban-knots script to disconnect inbound Knots nodes.
"I want to thank all the contributors. This again shows the power of true Free Software. I also want to thank everyone who donated to help Dojo development going. I truly appreciate it," said Still Dojo Coder.
What's new
- Soroban P2P network. For MyDojo (Docker setup) users, Soroban will be automatically installed as part of their Dojo. This integration allows Dojo to utilize the Soroban P2P network for various upcoming features and applications.
- PandoTx. PandoTx serves as a transaction transport layer. When your wallet sends a transaction to Dojo, it is relayed to a random Soroban node, which then forwards it to the Bitcoin network. It also enables your Soroban node to receive and relay transactions from others to the Bitcoin network and is designed to disrupt the assumption that a node relaying a transaction is closely linked to the person who initiated it.
- Pushing transactions through Soroban can be deactivated by setting
NODE_PANDOTX_PUSH=off
indocker-node.conf
. - Processing incoming transactions from Soroban network can be deactivated by setting
NODE_PANDOTX_PROCESS=off
indocker-node.conf
.
- Pushing transactions through Soroban can be deactivated by setting
- API key management has been introduced to address the growing number of people offering their Dojos to the community. Dojo admins can now access a new API management tab in their DMT, where they can create unlimited API keys, assign labels for easy identification, and set expiration dates for each key. This allows admins to avoid sharing their main API key and instead distribute specific keys to selected parties.
- New API endpoints. Several new API endpoints have been added to help API consumers develop features on Dojo more efficiently:
- New:
/latest-block
- returns data about latest block/txout/:txid/:index
- returns unspent output data/support/services
- returns info about services that Dojo exposes
- Updated:
/tx/:txid
- endpoint has been updated to return raw transaction with parameter?rawHex=1
- The new
/support/services
endpoint replaces the deprecatedexplorer
field in the Dojo pairing payload. Although still present, API consumers should use this endpoint for explorer and other pairing data.
- New:
Other changes
- Updated ban script to disconnect inbound Knots nodes.
- Updated Fulcrum to v1.12.0.
- Regenerate Fulcrum certificate if expired.
- Check if transaction already exists in pushTx.
- Bump BTC-RPC Explorer.
- Bump Tor to v0.4.8.16, bump Snowflake.
- Updated Bitcoin Core to v29.0.
- Removed unnecessary middleware.
- Fixed DB update mechanism, added api_keys table.
- Add an option to use blocksdir config for bitcoin blocks directory.
- Removed deprecated configuration.
- Updated Node.js dependencies.
- Reconfigured container dependencies.
- Fix Snowflake git URL.
- Fix log path for testnet4.
- Use prebuilt addrindexrs binaries.
- Add instructions to migrate blockchain/fulcrum.
- Added pull policies.
Learn how to set up and use your own Bitcoin privacy node with Dojo here.
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@ 2c564b98:5c6444b0
2025-06-16 15:14:09© unsplash
Dieser Beitrag von Laura und Phillip aus dem FOERBICO Team erschien zuerst auf dem Theologie-Blog y-nachten.
Alle reden von OER - was ist das eigentlich?
Offene Vorlesungsreihen auf YouTube, Podcasts, Blogs, Podiumsdiskussionen und die Beteiligung an Wikipedia-Einträgen machen deutlich, dass sich das Geschehen an Hochschulen zunehmend öffnet, um mit einer interessierten Öffentlichkeit transparent zu kommunizieren sowie Diskurse breiter zugänglich zu machen (vgl. Mößle, Pirker 2024). Für viele wirkt aber gerade die wissenschaftliche Theologie wie eine Disziplin für Expert:innen, geprägt von antiken Sprachen, dogmatischen Gerüsten und traditionsgebundenen Denken, das ein hohes Maß an Vorwissen erfordert. Doch muss die Theologie wirklich so fern und unverständlich wirken? Die Open-Science-Bewegung zielt auf Transparenz und Nachvollziehbarkeit und fordert Wissenschaftler:innen sowie Akteur:innen aus Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur dazu auf, zum Austausch beizutragen und den wissenschaftlichen Dialog im Sinne einer Demokratisierung des Wissens mitzugestalten (vgl. Siegfried, Scherp, Linek, Flieger 2024). Hierbei kommt den Open Educational Resources, kurz OER, eine bedeutsame Rolle zu. OER sind frei zugängliche Bildungsmaterialien, die in unterschiedlichen Formaten und Medien vorliegen können. Sie stehen unter einer offenen Lizenz, die es ermöglicht, sie kostenlos zu nutzen, zu verändern und mit oder ohne Änderungen weiterzugeben, mit wenigen oder gar keinen Einschränkungen. Ob einzelne Arbeitsblätter, komplette Lehrbücher, Onlinekurse, Videos oder Podcasts, solange sie offen, d.h. mit CC-Lizenzen versehen sind, gelten sie als OER. Ziel ist es, Bildung für alle zugänglicher und flexibler zu machen (vgl. UNESCO 2019). OER unterscheiden sich von kostenlosen Materialien durch die rechtssichere Möglichkeit der Bearbeitung und Weiterverbreitung, vgl. exemplarisch die OER-Lizensierung bei (Pirner 2024). Dies ermöglicht sowohl Lehrenden die Anpassung der Lehrmaterialien an ihre Zielgruppe als auch Lernenden die Bearbeitung der Materialien für sich und ihre Lerngruppe.
OER braucht Praxis! Open Educational Practice
OER allein führen jedoch nicht zu einer Bildungsreform. Eine partizipative Lehr- und Lernkultur ist notwendig und es bedarf einer gewissen Haltung und Praxis, damit OER entstehen und weiterentwickelt werden können, die sog. Open Educational Practices (OEP). Die Definition von (Cronin 2017, 4) gibt einen guten Einblick, um was es sich dabei handelt. OEP sind:
»collaborative practices that include the creation, use, and reuse of OER, as well as pedagogical practices employing participatory technologies and social networks for interaction, peer-learning, knowledge creation, and empowerment of learners« .
OEP sind also kollaborative Praktiken, die rund um OER stattfinden und den Prozess der OER-Erstellung und Bearbeitung von Anfang an mitbestimmen. Besonders wichtig sind dabei soziale Netzwerke und Communities. Diese können Lernende, Lehrende, Expert:innen oder Fächergruppen umfassen, die sich austauschen, OER weiterentwickeln und sich gegenseitig motivieren, neue Ansätze zu erproben.
Third Mission an Hochschulen: Über die Grenzen hinaus
Unter dem Schlagwort Third Mission, also der dritten Mission von Hochschule neben Forschung und Lehre, stehen die zentralen Fragen: Wie kann sich Hochschule für die Gesellschaft öffnen? Und wie lässt sich der Austausch zwischen Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit fördern? Hierbei tritt die Hochschule in wechselseitige Interaktion mit der Gesellschaft und ist offen für Erwartungen, Herausforderungen und Fragen, die an sie gerichtet werden. Im Sinne der wissenschaftlichen Weiterbildung gehört es auch zur Third Mission, Lernaktivitäten zu entwickeln, die Fähigkeiten und Kompetenzen in persönlicher, gesellschaftlicher oder beruflicher Perspektive erhöhen (vgl. Roessler 2015). Aus der Perspektive theologischer Hochschullehre lässt sich dieser Aspekt besonders fruchtbar mit OER und OEP verknüpfen und kann die Third Mission sogar weiterentwickeln. Denn Theologie lebt nicht nur vom reinen Wissenstransfer, sondern auch von der dialogischen Auseinandersetzung und der gemeinsamen Suche. Hierfür ist eine Kultur der Partizipation ein Gamechanger. Denn OER bietet mehr als nur den offenen Zugang zu Materialien. Es schafft Bewusstsein für Lizensierungen und ermöglicht eine Kultur des Teilens. So könnte zum Beispiel eine Vorlesung aus dem Theologiestudium nicht nur öffentlich zugänglich gemacht werden, sondern – im Sinne von OER – auch zur Weiterverarbeitung und Anpassung einladen. Damit hätten Kirchengemeinden, Bildungseinrichtungen oder interreligiöse Dialogkreise Zugang zu Materialien und könnten sie für ihren Kontext anpassen, mit ihrem Wissen, ihren Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisgewinnen weiterentwickeln und wiederum mit anderen teilen. Theologie ist in ihrem Kern auf Dialog auslegt, sei es mit anderen Disziplinen, Religionen oder der Gesellschaft. OER und OEP fördern diese Lehr- und Lernkultur, in der Menschen miteinander in Beziehung treten, Wissen teilen und sich gegenseitig inspirieren können. Dies entspricht nicht nur dem Kerngedanken der Third Mission, sondern auch der theologischen Grundhaltung, dass Erkenntnis vor allem im Dialog wächst.
Fürchtet euch nicht! Gehet hinaus und teilet!
Offene Bildungsressourcen bieten zwar viele Chancen, doch ihre Nutzung bringt auch Herausforderungen und gewisse Ängste mit sich. In Fachgesprächen und Interviews wird deutlich, dass die Idee von OER zwar sympathisch ist, aber auch Bedenken hervorruft. Das größte Hindernis sind rechtliche Unsicherheiten, insbesondere bei der Verwendung von Bildern, Musiksequenzen oder auch Texten Dritter. Die Klärung dieser Fragen ist oft zeitaufwendig und erfordert etwas Lust, sich reinzudenken. Es gibt auch Anlaufstellen, an die man sich bei konkreten Fragen wenden kann, z.B. bei OERInfo; Irights; Twillo oder ORCA.nrw. Bei eigenen Forschungsergebnissen oder selbst erstelltem Material, sind diese Bedenken hingegen weniger relevant. Zudem muss nicht sofort alles als OER veröffentlicht werden. Ein schrittweiser Einstieg mit einzelnen Elementen kann bereits einen Beitrag leisten. Je mehr offen lizenzierte Inhalte existieren, desto leichter wird es, rechtssichere OER zu erstellen. Ein weiteres häufig geäußertes Bedenken ist der potenzielle Missbrauch von offenem Material. Die Möglichkeit zur Bearbeitung oder Neuzusammenstellung birgt das Risiko von Verfremdungen oder Verfälschungen. Doch Erfahrung mit OER-Communities zeigen, dass die Inhalte meist verantwortungsvoll genutzt werden. Zudem kann eine vollständige Kontrolle über die Verwendung von Wissen nie gewährleistet werden. Dies gilt nicht nur für OER, sondern für alle öffentlichen Inhalte.
Theologie sollte nicht hinter verschlossenen Türen stattfinden, sondern im offenen Austausch mit der Gesellschaft. OER bieten die Chance, theologisches Wissen zugänglich zu machen und neu mit der Gesellschaft in Diskurs zu treten. Theologie-Treiben sollte kein einseitiger Prozess sein, sondern ein gemeinsames Lernen, Wagen und Gestalten. Dabei spielt auch der Gedanke der Freigiebigkeit eine Rolle: Bildung sollte geteilt, verbreitet und möglichst vielen Menschen zugänglich gemacht werden. OER können ein neuer Impuls sein, um Barrieren zu überwinden und theologische Erkenntnisse mit der Lebenswelt der Menschen zu verbinden.
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@ 2c564b98:5c6444b0
2025-06-16 15:12:30Welcome to Nostr: A Decentralized Future
Nostr (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is a simple, open protocol that enables global, decentralized, and censorship-resistant social media.
Why Nostr?
Traditional social media platforms have several problems:
- Centralized Control - A single company controls your data
- Censorship - Content can be removed at will
- Data Lock-in - Hard to move your social graph
Nostr solves these problems through:
- Decentralization - No single point of control
- Cryptographic Signatures - You own your identity
- Relay Network - Multiple servers ensure availability
How It Works
javascript // Simple example of creating a Nostr event const event = { kind: 1, // Text note content: "Hello, Nostr!", tags: [], created_at: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) };
Getting Started
To start using Nostr:
- Generate your keys (public/private keypair)
- Choose a client (web, mobile, or desktop)
- Connect to relays
- Start publishing!
Long-Form Content on Nostr
This post itself is an example of long-form content on Nostr, using:
- NIP-23 standard for long-form content
- Markdown formatting for rich text
- Metadata for better organization
Join the Revolution
Nostr represents a fundamental shift in how we think about social media and online identity. By giving users control over their data and identity, it creates a more open and resilient internet.
This post was published using nostr-publisher - a simple tool for publishing long-form content to Nostr.
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-11 04:37:33Marty's Bent
Sup, freaks? Your Uncle Marty did a little vibe coding a couple months ago and that vibe coding project has turned into an actual product that is live in the Google Chrome web store and will soon to be live in the Firefox add-on store as well. It's called Opportunity Cost and it is an extension that enables you to price the internet in Bitcoin.
Opportunity Cost – See Prices in Bitcoin Instantly
Check it out!
This whole process has been extremely rewarding to me for many reasons. The first of which is that I've had many ideas in the past to launch a product focused on bitcoin education that simply never left my brain because I never felt comfortable paying a developer to go out and build a product that I wasn't sure would ultimately get product market fit.
Due to the advancements of AI, particularly ChatGPT and Replit, I was able to spend a few hours on a Saturday vibe coding a prototype for Opportunity Cost. It worked. I side loaded it into Chrome and Firefox, tested it out for a few days and decided, "Hey, I think this is something that's worthwhile and should be built."
Backtracking just a little bit, the initial idea for this app was to create an AR application that would enable you to take pictures of goods in the real world and have their prices automatically converted to bitcoin so that you could weigh the opportunity cost of whether or not you actually wanted to buy that good or decide to save in bitcoin instead. With the help of Justin Moon from the Human Rights Foundation and Anthony Ronning from OpenSecret and Maple AI, I was pointed in the right direction of vibe coding tools I could use to build a simple MVP. I took their advice, built the MVP, and demoed it at the Bitcoin Park Austin weekly AI meetup in mid-April.
The next week, I was talking with a friend, Luke Thomas, about the idea and during our conversation he made a simple quip, "You should make a Chrome extension. I really want a Chrome extension that does this." And that's what sent me down the vibe coding rabbit hole that Saturday which led to the prototype.
After I was comfortable with and confident in the prototype, I found a young hungry developer by the name of Moses on Nostr, I reached out to him, told him my idea, showed him the prototype and asked if he thought he could finish the application for me. He luckily agreed to do so and within a couple of weeks we had a fully functioning app that was officially launched today. We're about 12 hours into the launch and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception from the broader Bitcoin community. It seems like something that people are happy exists and I feel extremely happy that people see some value in this particular application.
Now that you have the backstory, let's get into why I think something like Opportunity Cost should exist. As someone who's been writing a newsletter and producing podcasts about bitcoin for eight years in an attempt to educate individuals from around the world about what bitcoin is, why it's important, and how they can leverage it, I've become convinced that a lot of the work that needs to be done still exists at the top of the funnel. You can scream at people. You can grab them by the shoulders. You can shake them. You can remind them at Thanksgiving that if they had listened to your advice during any Thanksgiving in the previous years they would be better off financially. But at the end of the day most people don't listen. They need to see things. Seeing things for yourself is a much more effective teaching mechanism than be lectured to by someone else.
My hope with Opportunity Cost is that it catches the eye of some bitcoin skeptics or individuals who may be on the cusp of falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole and they see the extension as a way to dip their toes into bitcoin to get a better understanding of the world by pricing the goods and services they purchase on a day-to-day month-to-month and year-to-year basis in bitcoin without having to download a wallet or set up an exchange account. The tippy top of the bitcoin marketing funnel.
That is not all though. I think Opportunity Cost can serve individuals at both ends of the funnel. That's why it's pretty exciting to me. It's as valuable to the person who is bitcoin curious and looking to get a better understanding as it is to the hardcore bitcoiner living on a bitcoin standard who is trying to get access to better tools that enable him to get a better grasp of their spending in bitcoin terms.
Lastly, after playing around with it for a few days after I built the prototype, I realized that it has incredible memetic potential. Being able to take a screenshot of goods that people are buying on a day-to-day basis, pricing them in bitcoin and then sharing them on social media is very powerful. Everything from houses to junk items on Amazon to the salaries of pro athletes to your everyday necessities. Seeing the value of those things in bitcoin really makes you think.
One day while I was testing the app, I tried to see how quickly I could find goods on the internet that cumulatively eclipsed the 21 million supply cap limit of bitcoin. To my surprise, even though I've been in bitcoin for 12 years now, it did not take me that long. The opportunity cost of everything I buy on a day-to-day basis becomes very clear when using the extension. What's even clearer is the fact that Bitcoin is completely mispriced at current levels. There is so much winning ahead of us.
Also, it's probably important to note that the extension is open source. You can check out our GitHub page here. Submit pull requests. Suggest changes to the app.
We've also tried to make Opportunity Cost as privacy preserving as possible. Everything within the extension happens in your browser. The only external data that we're providing is the bitcoin to fiat price conversion at any given point in time. We're not data harvesting the web pages you're browsing or the items you're looking at. We're not collecting data and sending it to third party marketers. We want to align ourselves with the open and permissionless nature of bitcoin while also preserving our users' privacy. We're not trying to monetize this in that way. Though, I will say that I'm thinking of ways to monetize Opportunity Cost if it does gain significant traction, but I promise it will be in a way that respects your privacy and is as unobtrusive as possible. We'll see how it goes.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please download and use the extension. Let us know what you think.
Headlines of the Day
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Final thought...
East Coast aesthetics over everything.
*Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: *<<https://www.opportunitycost.app/>> start thinking in SATS today.
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-
@ dfa02707:41ca50e3
2025-06-15 17:02:37Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.
This update brings key enhancements for clarity and usability:
- Recent Blocks View: Added to the Send tab and inspired by Mempool's visualization, it displays the last 2 blocks and the estimated next block to help choose fee rates.
- Camera System Overhaul: Features a new library for higher resolution detection and mouse-scroll zoom support when available.
- Vector-Based Images: All app images are now vectorized and theme-aware, enhancing contrast, especially in dark mode.
- Tor & P2A Updates: Upgraded internal Tor and improved support for pay-to-anchor (P2A) outputs.
- Linux Package Rename: For Linux users, Sparrow has been renamed to sparrowwallet (or sparrowserver); in some cases, the original sparrow package may need manual removal.
- Additional updates include showing total payments in multi-payment transaction diagrams, better handling of long labels, and other UI enhancements.
- Sparrow v2.2.1 is a bug fix release that addresses missing UUID issue when starting Tor on recent macOS versions, icons for external sources in Settings and Recent Blocks view, repackaged
.deb
installs to use older gzip instead of zstd compression, and removed display of median fee rate where fee rates source is set to Server.
Learn how to get started with Sparrow wallet:
Release notes (v2.2.0)
- Added Recent Blocks view to Send tab.
- Converted all bitmapped images to theme aware SVG format for all wallet models and dialogs.
- Support send and display of pay to anchor (P2A) outputs.
- Renamed
sparrow
package tosparrowwallet
andsparrowserver
on Linux. - Switched camera library to openpnp-capture.
- Support FHD (1920 x 1080) and UHD4k (3840 x 2160) capture resolutions.
- Support camera zoom with mouse scroll where possible.
- In the Download Verifier, prefer verifying the dropped file over the default file where the file is not in the manifest.
- Show a warning (with an option to disable the check) when importing a wallet with a derivation path matching another script type.
- In Cormorant, avoid calling the
listwalletdir
RPC on initialization due to a potentially slow response on Windows. - Avoid server address resolution for public servers.
- Assume server address is non local for resolution failures where a proxy is configured.
- Added a tooltip to indicate truncated labels in table cells.
- Dynamically truncate input and output labels in the tree on a transaction tab, and add tooltips if necessary.
- Improved tooltips for wallet tabs and transaction diagrams with long labels.
- Show the address where available on input and output tooltips in transaction tab tree.
- Show the total amount sent in payments in the transaction diagram when constructing multiple payment transactions.
- Reset preferred table column widths on adjustment to improve handling after window resizing.
- Added accessible text to improve screen reader navigation on seed entry.
- Made Wallet Summary table grow horizontally with dialog sizing.
- Reduced tooltip show delay to 200ms.
- Show transaction diagram fee percentage as less than 0.01% rather than 0.00%.
- Optimized and reduced Electrum server RPC calls.
- Upgraded Bouncy Castle, PGPainless and Logback libraries.
- Upgraded internal Tor to v0.4.8.16.
- Bug fix: Fixed issue with random ordering of keystore origins on labels import.
- Bug fix: Fixed non-zero account script type detection when signing a message on Trezor devices.
- Bug fix: Fixed issue parsing remote Coldcard xpub encoded on a different network.
- Bug fix: Fixed inclusion of fees on wallet label exports.
- Bug fix: Increase Trezor device libusb timeout.
Linux users: Note that the
sparrow
package has been renamed tosparrowwallet
orsparrowserver
, and in some cases you may need to manually uninstall the originalsparrow
package. Look in the/opt
folder to ensure you have the new name, and the original is removed.What's new in v2.2.1
- Updated Tor library to fix missing UUID issue when starting Tor on recent macOS versions.
- Repackaged
.deb
installs to use older gzip instead of zstd compression. - Removed display of median fee rate where fee rates source is set to Server.
- Added icons for external sources in Settings and Recent Blocks view
- Bug fix: Fixed issue in Recent Blocks view when switching fee rates source
- Bug fix: Fixed NPE on null fee returned from server
-
@ bf47c19e:c3d2573b
2025-06-16 15:06:0127.08.2014
Originalni tekst na fee.org / Autor: Džefri A. Taker
Oni koji se koriste delom Mizesa da bi osporili Bitkoin trebalo bi ponovo da razmisle.
Mnogi ljudi koji nikada nisu koristili Bitkoin posmatraju ga sa zbunjenošću. Zašto ovaj magični internet novac uopšte ima bilo kakvu vrednost? To je samo nekakva kompjuterska stvar koju je neko izmislio.
Uzmite u obzir kritike zlatoljubaca, koji su decenijama gurali ideju da čvrst novac mora biti podržan nečim stvarnim, čvrstim i vrednim samim po sebi.
Bitkoin ne ispunjava te uslove, zar ne?
Možda ipak ispunjava. Pogledajmo detaljnije.
Bitkoin se prvi put pojavio pre skoro šest godina kao mogući konkurent nacionalnom novcu kojim upravlja država. Beli papir Satošija Nakamota objavljen je 31. oktobra 2008. godine. Struktura i jezik ovog rada poslali su poruku: Ova valuta je za kompjuterske tehničare, a ne za ekonomiste niti za političke komentatore. Domet ovog rada je bio ograničen; početnici koji su ga čitali bili su zbunjeni.
Ali nedostatak interesovanja nije sprečio istoriju da ide napred. Dva meseca kasnije, oni koji su obraćali pažnju videli su pojavu Genesis bloka, prve grupe Bitkoina generisanih putem Nakamotovog koncepta distribuirane knjige (distributed ledger) koja je postojala na bilo kom kompjuterskom čvoru na svetu koji je želeo da je hostuje.
Ovde smo šest godina kasnije, a jedan Bitkoin vredi 500 američkih dolara, dok je njegova najviša vrednost bila 1.200 dolara po novčiću. Ovu valutu prihvata na hiljade institucija, kako onlajn, tako i oflajn. Njen platni sistem je veoma popularan u siromašnim zemljama koje nemaju razvijenu bankarsku infrastrukturu, ali i u razvijenim zemljama. Velike institucije – uključujući Federalne rezerve, OECD, Svetsku banku i velike investicione kuće – posvećuju mu pažnju sa dužnim poštovanjem.
Entuzijasti, koji se nalaze u svakoj zemlji, kažu da će njegova tržišna vrednost u budućnosti rasti jer je njegova ponuda strogo ograničena i pruža sistem koji je znatno superiorniji od državnog novca. Bitkoin se prenosi između pojedinaca bez posrednika. Razmena je gotovo besplatna. Ima predvidivu ponudu. Trajan je, zamenljiv i deljiv: sve su to ključne karakteristike novca. Stvara monetarni sistem koji ne zavisi od poverenja i identiteta, a mnogo manje od centralnih banaka i države. To je novi sistem za digitalno doba.
Teške pouke o čvrstom novcu
Onima koji su obrazovani u tradiciji 'čvrstog novca', cela ideja je predstavljala ozbiljan izazov. Govoreći o sebi, čitao sam o Bitkoinu dve godine pre nego što sam makar približno uspeo da ga razumem. Jednostavno, nešto u celoj toj ideji mi je smetalo. Ne možete stvoriti novac ni iz čega, a kamoli iz kompjuterskog koda. Zašto onda ima vrednost? Mora da nešto nije kako treba. Nismo očekivali da će se novac tako reformisati.
Tu je i problem: naša očekivanja. Trebalo je da posvetimo više pažnje teoriji porekla novca Ludviga fon Mizesa — ne onome što mislimo da je on napisao, već onome što je on zaista napisao.
Godine 1912. Mizes je objavio delo "Teorija novca i kredita". Kada je objavljeno na nemačkom, postiglo je ogroman uspeh u Evropi i prevedeno je na engleski jezik. Iako je obuhvatilo svaki aspekt novca, njegov ključni doprinos bio je u praćenju vrednosti i cene novca — i ne samo novca — sve do njegovog porekla. To jest, objasnio je kako novac formira svoju cenu u smislu dobara i usluga koje se njime mogu nabaviti. Kasnije je ovaj proces nazvao "teoremom regresije novca" i ispostavilo se da Bitkoin zadovoljava sve uslove te teoreme.
Mizesov učitelj, Karl Menger, demonstrirao je da sam novac potiče sa tržišta – a ne od države i ne od društvenog ugovora. On se postepeno pojavljuje dok monetarni preduzetnici traže idealan oblik robe za indirektnu razmenu. Umesto da neposredno vrše trampu, ljudi pribavljaju neko dobro ne da bi ga konzumirali, već da bi ga razmenili. To dobro postaje novac, najtržišnije dobro.
Ali Mizes je dodao da se vrednost novca prati unazad kroz vreme sve do njegove vrednosti kao robe koja je služila za trampu. Mizes je smatrao da je to jedini način na koji novac može imati vrednost.
"Teorija vrednosti novca kao takvog može pratiti objektivnu tržišnu vrednost novca kroz vreme samo do tačke kada njegova vrednost prestaje da bude vrednost kao novca i postaje isključivo vrednost kao robe... Ako se na ovaj način neprestano vraćamo sve dalje unazad, na kraju moramo doći do tačke gde više ne nalazimo nijednu komponentu u objektivnoj tržišnoj vrednosti novca koja proističe iz vrednovanja zasnovanih na funkciji novca kao opšteg sredstva razmene; gde vrednost novca nije ništa drugo do vrednost predmeta koji je koristan na neki drugi način osim kao novac... Pre nego što je postalo uobičajeno nabavljati robu na tržištu, ne za ličnu potrošnju, već jednostavno radi ponovne razmene za robu za kojom zaista postoji potreba, svakoj pojedinačnoj robi pripisivana je samo ona vrednost data subjektivnim vrednovanjem zasnovanom na njenoj direktnoj korisnosti."
Mizesovo objašnjenje rešilo je veliki problem koji je dugo zbunjivao ekonomiste. Radi se o nagađajućem istorijskom narativu, a ipak ima savršenog smisla. Da li bi so postala novac da je inače bila potpuno beskorisna? Da li bi dabrovo krzno dobilo monetarnu vrednost da nije bilo korisno kao odeća? Da li bi srebro ili zlato imali novčanu vrednost da isprva nisu imali vrednost kao roba? Odgovor u svim slučajevima monetarne istorije je jasno ne. Početna vrednost novca, pre nego što postane široko razmenjivano kao novac, potiče iz njegove direktne korisnosti. To je objašnjenje koje je demonstrirano kroz istorijsku rekonstrukciju. To je Mizesova teorema regresije novca.
Upotrebna vrednost Bitkoina
Na prvi pogled, Bitkoin deluje kao izuzetak. Ne možete koristiti Bitkoin ni za šta drugo osim kao novac. Ne može se nositi kao nakit. Ne možete od njega napraviti mašinu. Ne možete ga jesti, pa čak ni koristiti ga kao dekoraciju. Njegova vrednost se ostvaruje samo kao jedinica koja olakšava indirektnu razmenu. Pa ipak, Bitkoin je već novac. Koristi se svakodnevno. Razmene možete videti u realnom vremenu. To nije mit. Ta stvar je stvarna.
Može izgledati kao da smo prinuđeni da biramo. Da li je Mizes pogrešio? Možda moramo odbaciti celu njegovu teoriju. Ili je možda njegova poenta bila isključivo istorijska i nije primenjiva na budućnost digitalnog doba. Ili je možda njegova teorema regresije dokaz da je Bitkoin samo prazna manija bez snage da potraje jer se ne može svesti na svoju vrednost kao korisna roba.
Pa ipak, ne morate se pozivati na komplikovane monetarne teorije da biste razumeli osećaj uzbune koji okružuje Bitkoin. Mnogi ljudi, kao i ja, jednostavno osećaju nelagodu u vezi sa novcem koji nema nikakvu fizičku osnovu. Naravno, možete odštampati Bitkoin na komadu papira, ali posedovanje papira sa QR kodom ili javnim ključem nije dovoljno da ublaži taj osećaj nelagode.
Kako da rešimo ovaj problem? U svojoj glavi, zabavljao sam se ovim pitanjem više od godinu dana. Zbunjivalo me je. Pitao sam se da li je Mizesovo shvatanje primenjivo samo u preddigitalnom dobu. Pratio sam onlajn spekulacije da bi vrednost Bitkoina bila nula, da nema nacionalnih valuta u koje se konvertuje. Možda je potražnja za Bitkoinom prevazišla zahteve Mizesovog scenarija zbog očajničke potrebe za nečim drugačijim od dolara.
Vreme je prolazilo — i čitajući radove Konrada Grafa, Petera Šurde i Danijela Kraviša — rešenje je konačno samo stiglo. Preći ću odmah na stvar i otkriti ga: Bitkoin je i sistem plaćanja i novac. Sistem plaćanja je izvor vrednosti, dok obračunska jedinica samo izražava tu vrednost u smislu cene. Jedinstvo novca i plaćanja je njegova najneobičnija karakteristika i ona koju je većina komentatora imala poteškoća da shvati.
Navikli smo da razmišljamo o valuti kao o nečemu što je odvojeno od sistema plaćanja. Ovo razmišljanje je odraz istorijskih tehnoloških ograničenja. Postoji dolar i postoje kreditne kartice. Postoji evro i postoji PayPal. Postoji jen i postoje servisi za prenos novca. U svim ovim slučajevima, transfer novca se oslanja na pružaoce usluga koji predstavljaju treću stranu. Da biste ih koristili, potrebno je da uspostavite ono što se naziva „odnos poverenja“ (trust relationship) sa njima, što znači da institucija koja dogovara posao mora da vam veruje da ćete platiti.
Ovaj jaz između novca i plaćanja uvek je bio prisutan, osim u slučaju fizičke blizine. Ako ti dam dolar za parče pice, nema treće strane. Ali sistemi plaćanja, treće strane i odnosi poverenja postaju neophodni kada napustite geografsku blizinu. Tada kompanije poput Vise i institucije poput banaka postaju nezaobilazne. One su ta aplikacija koja omogućava monetarnom softveru da radi ono što želite.
Problem je u tome što sistemi plaćanja koje danas imamo nisu dostupni svakome. Zapravo, ogromna većina čovečanstva nema pristup takvim alatima, što je glavni razlog siromaštva u svetu. Oni koji su finansijski obespravljeni su ograničeni samo na lokalnu trgovinu i ne mogu proširiti svoje trgovinske odnose sa svetom.
Vodeći, ako ne i primarni, cilj nastanka Bitkoina bio je rešavanje ovog problema. Protokol je postavio sebi zadatak da poveže funkciju valute sa sistemom plaćanja. Te dve stvari su potpuno međusobno povezane u samoj strukturi koda. Ova veza je ono što čini Bitkoin drugačijim od bilo koje postojeće nacionalne valute i, zaista, bilo koje valute u istoriji.
Neka nam se sam Nakamoto obrati iz uvodnog sažetka svog belog papira. Zapazite koliko je platni sistem ključan za monetarni sistem koji je stvorio:
"Potpuna peer-to-peer verzija elektronskog novca omogućila bi slanje uplata putem interneta direktno od jedne strane ka drugoj bez posredovanja finansijskih institucija. Digitalni potpisi pružaju deo rešenja, ali se glavni benefiti gube ako je i dalje potrebna pouzdana treća strana za sprečavanje dvostruke potrošnje. Predlažemo rešenje problema dvostruke potrošnje korišćenjem peer-to-peer mreže. Mreža vremenski označava transakcije tako što ih hešuje u tekući lanac dokaza o radu (proof of work) temeljen na hešu, formirajući zapis koji se ne može promeniti bez ponovnog rada i objavljivanja dokaza o tom radu. Najduži lanac ne služi samo kao dokaz niza događaja, nego i kao dokaz da je taj niz događaja potvrđen od strane dela peer-to-peer mreže koja poseduju najveću zbirnu procesorsku snagu (CPU). Sve dok većinu procesorske snage kontrolišu čvorovi (nodes) koji ne sarađuju u napadu na mrežu, oni će generisati najduži lanac i nadmašiti napadače. Sama mreža zahteva minimalnu strukturu. Poruke kroz mrežu se prenose uz pretpostavku da svaki čvor čini maksimalan napor da poruku prenese u svom izvornom obliku i na optimalan način, a čvorovi mogu napustiti mrežu i ponovo joj se pridružiti po želji, prihvatajući najduži lanac dokaza o radu kao dokaz onoga što se dogodilo dok ih nije bilo."
Ono što je veoma upečatljivo u ovom paragrafu je da se uopšte ne spominje sama valuta. Spominje se samo problem dvostruke potrošnje (odnosno, problem inflatornog stvaranja novca). Inovacija ovde je, čak i prema rečima njenog pronalazača, platna mreža, a ne novčić. Novčić ili digitalna jedinica samo izražava vrednost mreže. To je računovodstveni alat koji apsorbuje i prenosi vrednost mreže kroz vreme i prostor.
Ova mreža se naziva blokčejn. To je knjiga transakcija koja živi u digitalnom oblaku, distribuirana mreža i njeno funkcionisanje može posmatrati svako u bilo koje vreme. Pažljivo je nadgledaju svi korisnici. Omogućava prenos sigurnih i neponovljivih bitova informacija od jedne osobe do bilo koje druge osobe bilo gde u svetu, a ovi informacioni bitovi su zaštićeni digitalnim oblikom vlasništva. Ovo je ono što je Nakamoto nazvao „digitalnim potpisima“. Njegov izum knjige transakcija koja se nalazi na oblaku omogućava proveru vlasničkih prava bez oslanjanja na agenciju koja vrši ulogu treće strane od poverenja.
Blokčejn je rešio ono što je postalo poznato kao "problem vizantijskih generala". To je problem koordinacije akcija na velikom geografskom području u prisustvu potencijalno zlonamernih aktera. Budući da se generali razdvojeni prostorom moraju oslanjati na glasnike i to oslanjanje zahteva vreme i poverenje, nijedan general ne može biti apsolutno siguran da je drugi general primio i potvrdio poruku, a kamoli njenu tačnost.
Postavljanje knjige transakcija, kojoj svi imaju pristup, na Internet rešava ovaj problem. Knjiga transakcija beleži iznose, vremena i javne adrese svake transakcije. Informacije se dele širom sveta i stalno se ažuriraju. Knjiga transakcija garantuje integritet sistema i omogućava da valutna jedinica postane digitalni oblik imovine sa vlasništvom.
Kada ovo shvatite, možete videti da je suština vrednosti Bitkoin povezana sa njegovom integrisanom platnom mrežom. Ovde se pronalazi upotrebna vrednost na koju se Mizes poziva. Ona nije ugrađena u samu valutnu jedinicu, već u briljantan i inovativan platni sistem na kojem Bitkoin živi. Kada bi bilo moguće da se blokčejn nekako odvoji od Bitkoina (a to zaista nije moguće), vrednost valute bi odmah pala na nulu.
Dokaz koncepta
Da biste dalje razumeli kako se Mizesova teorija uklapa u Bitkoin, morate razumeti još jednu stvar u vezi sa istorijom kriptovalute. Na dan pokretanja (9. januar 2009.), vrednost Bitkoina bila je tačno nula. I tako je ostalo 10 meseci nakon pokretanja. Sve to vreme su se transakcije odvijale, ali tokom celog tog perioda vrednost nije bila iznad nule.
Prva objavljena cena Bitkoina pojavila se 5. oktobra 2009. Na ovoj menjačnici, 1 dolar je iznosio 1.309,03 Bitkoina (što su mnogi tada smatrali precenjenim). Drugim rečima, prva procena vrednosti Bitkoina bila je nešto više od jedne desetine penija. Da, da ste kupili Bitkoin u vrednosti od 100 dolara u to vreme i niste ih panično prodali, danas biste bili „polu-milijarder“.
Dakle, postavlja se pitanje: Šta se dogodilo između 9. januara i 5. oktobra 2009. godine, što je dovelo do toga da Bitkoin dobije tržišnu vrednost? Odgovor je da su trgovci, entuzijasti, preduzetnici i drugi isprobavali blokčejn. Želeli su da znaju da li funkcioniše. Da li je prenosio jedinice bez dvostruke potrošnje? Da li je sistem koji se oslanjao na dobrovoljnu računarsku snagu zaista bio dovoljan za verifikaciju i potvrđivanje transakcija? Da li bitkoini koji su dodeljeni kao nagrada završavaju tamo gde treba kao naknada za usluge verifikacije? I iznad svega, da li je ovaj novi sistem zaista uspeo da uradi ono što se činilo nemogućim – to jest, da prenosi bezbedne delove informacija zasnovanih na vlasničkim pravima kroz geografski prostor, bez posredovanja neke treće strane, već direktno između korisnika (peer-to-peer)?
Potrajalo je 10 meseci da se izgradi poverenje. Bilo je potrebno još 18 meseci dok Bitkoin nije dostigao paritet sa američkim dolarom. Ovu istoriju je ključno razumeti, pogotovo ako se oslanjate na teoriju porekla novca koja spekuliše o praistoriji novca, kao što to čini Misesova regresiona teorema. Bitkoin nije uvek bio novac koji ima vrednost. Nekada je bio čisto računovodstvena jedinica vezana za knjigu transakcija (ledger). Ova knjiga transakcija je pribavila ono što je Mises nazvao „upotrebnom vrednošću“. Svi uslovi teoreme su time zadovoljeni.
Zavšni obračun
Da ponovimo, ako neko kaže da se Bitkoin zasniva ni na čemu drugom osim na "običnoj magli", da ne može biti novac jer nema pravu istoriju kao istinska roba i, bez obzira da li je ta osoba početnik ili visoko obučeno ekonomista, morate istaći dve centralne tačke. Prvo, Bitkoin nije samostalna valuta već obračunska jedinica vezana za inovativnu platnu mrežu. Drugo, ova mreža, a samim tim i Bitkoin, svoju tržišnu vrednost stekla je isključivo kroz testiranje u realnom vremenu u tržišnom okruženju.
Drugim rečima, ako zanemarimo impresivne tehničke karakteristike, Bitkoin je prešao put baš kao i svaka druga valuta, od soli do zlata. Ljudi su smatrali da je platni sistem koristan, a vezana računovodstvena jedinica je bila prenosiva, deljiva, zamenljiva, trajna i retka.
Novac je rođen. Ovaj novac poseduje sve istorijski najbolje osobine novca, ali uključuje i bestežinsku i besprostornu platnu mrežu koja omogućava celom svetu da trguje bez potrebe za trećim stranama.
Ali primetite nešto što je izuzetno važno. Kod blokčejna se ne radi samo o novcu. Radi se o bilo kakvom prenosu informacija koji zahteva sigurnost, potvrđivanje i punu garanciju autentičnosti. Ovo se odnosi na ugovore i transakcije svih vrsta, sve obavljene direktno između stranaka (peer-to-peer). Zamislite svet bez trećih strana, uključujući i najopasniju treću stranu ikada stvorenu od strane čoveka: samu Državu. Zamislite tu budućnost i počećete da shvatate implikacije naše budućnosti u svojoj potpunosti.
Mises bi bio zapanjen i iznenađen Bitkoinom. Ali možda bi osećao i ponos što je njegova monetarna teorija, stara više od 100 godina, potvrđena i dobila novi život u 21. veku.
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@ 3c7dc2c5:805642a8
2025-06-16 12:15:35🧠Quote(s) of the week:
"Bitcoin trades 168 hours a week. Every other asset trades 35 hours at best (and less on holidays). This is the most magical, transparent, and hard-working [asset] in history. I’m in awe watching Bitcoin trade at 9:30 pm on a Saturday. You could liquidate $100 million worth, any hour of any day, and maybe take a 3% haircut. This is extremely high-bandwidth price discovery." —Michael Saylor https://i.ibb.co/LXCm3Kp8/Gshl-Ixas-Awezk3.png
🧡Bitcoin news🧡
13 years ago the block subsidy was 50 BTC. 13 years from now it will be 0.39 BTC.
On the 2nd of June:
➡️Hong Kong’s Reitar Logitech files to acquire $1.5B in Bitcoin, becoming the latest firm to join the Bitcoin treasury trend. The logistics and real estate company says the move strengthens its financial foundation as it scales its global tech platform.
➡️Bitcoin's global hashrate has reached a new all-time high, with data from Hashrate Index showing a 7-day simple moving average peak of 943 EH/s. https://i.ibb.co/3yR2ZZ0w/Gsahm-VXMAA1m-Ol.png
➡️(K)now (Y)our (C)ustomer is nothing but Stealth Mass Surveillance. What 95% of regulations cost versus return in one picture? https://i.ibb.co/Q3CLzF7j/Gsb20g-Pb-IAABy4-L.jpg
➡️Norwegian Block Exchange becomes the first publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company in Norway.' - Simply Bitcoin
➡️Poland just elected pro-Bitcoin Presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki. “Poland should be a birthplace of innovation rather than regulation.”
➡️NYC Mayor Eric Adams: “You all mocked me, ‘You’re taking your first 3 paychecks in #Bitcoin, what’s wrong with you?’ Now you wish you would have done.”
➡️Strategy plans to launch an IPO for 2.5M shares of its 10% Series A 'Stride' Preferred Stock (STRD), with proceeds going toward general corporate use and Bitcoin acquisition. Dividends are non-cumulative and paid only if declared.
Bit Paine: 'Remember: the entire fiat system is just various forms and layers of debt with different issuers all backed by an “asset,” (itself just a base layer of sovereign debt) that can and will be printed into oblivion. MSTR is just recapitulating this system but with a fixed supply underlying, meaning that in real terms anything it issues will benefit from the dilution of the fiat base layer and hence outperform (wildly) any fiat debt. No matter your institutional mandate, it makes no sense to hold debt whose base layer can be unilaterally demonetized when you can hold debt backed by a fixed supply underlying commodity that goes up forever.'
On the 3rd of June:
➡️Tether sends 37,229 Bitcoin worth almost $4 billion in total to Jack Maller's Twenty-One Capital
➡️El Salvador is running a full Bitcoin node!
➡️Canadian construction engineering company SolarBank adopts a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve "As the adoption of Bitcoin continues to grow, SolarBank believes that establishing a Bitcoin treasury strategy taps into a growing sector that is seeing increasing adoption."
➡️Willy Woo: "Who are the idiots who are selling when institutions and sovereigns are racing to buy billions in BTC?" This chart sheds light. The big whales >10k BTC have been selling since 2017. "They're stupid!" Most of those coins were bought between $0-$700 and held 8-16 years.' https://i.ibb.co/xKctV3Tf/Gsid236as-AAXPl-D.jpg
Selling at 20,000% profit is generally not a bad move.
➡️'South Korea just elected a pro-Bitcoin President who promised to legalize spot Bitcoin ETFs and scrap unfair regulation.' -Bitcoin Archive
➡️The average US investor owns 0.3% of their net worth in Bitcoin.
https://i.ibb.co/5WtFH9LM/Gsfoem-Tb0-AEfo-Ds.jpg
We are so damnn early.
➡️MARA mined 950 Bitcoin worth over $100 MILLION in May. They HODLed all of it.
➡️Bitcoin for Corporations: "Metaplanet just became Japan’s most traded stock — topping the charts in both value and volume:
➤ 170M shares traded
➤ ¥222B ($1.51B) value traded
This is what a Bitcoin strategy looks like in motion."
➡️'The Blockchain Group acquires 624 BTC for €60.2 million, nearly doubling their stack. They are now holding a total of 1,471 BTC with a BTC Yield of 1,097.6% YTD.' -Bitcoin News
➡️Publicly traded company K33 buys 10 Bitcoin for SEK 10 million for its balance sheet.
➡️California Assembly passes a bill to allow the state to receive payments in Bitcoin and digital currencies. It passed 68-0 and now heads to the Senate.
But hold up...
Bitcoin held on exchanges for +3 years will be transferred to the state of California under a law passed by the Assembly.
Not your keys…
➡️Adam Back invests $2.1 million into Swedish Bitcoin treasury company H100.
On the 4th of June:
➡️Daniel Batten: 'A large Bitcoin mining operation uses < 1/3 of the water of an average US family, and 0.0006% of the water a typical Gold mine uses.' https://i.ibb.co/TxNWSkHg/Gsn-VIjh-XQAEECOh.jpg
➡️And there it is: for JPMorgan, Bitcoin is now "safe collateral" JP Morgan will now offer loans backed by Bitcoin ETFs.
https://i.ibb.co/cXX0hKBK/Gsn-C5-B8-Wg-AA2e3i.png
Bent the knee. Wall Street realizes that Bitcoin is pristine collateral. Liquid 24/7/365 globally.
➡️Spanish coffee chain Vanadi Coffee to purchase $1.1 billion Bitcoin for its treasury reserve.
Disclaimer: This sounds great but it's not the whole story.
Pledditor: 'You mean a coffee shop chain founded just 4 years ago, only has 6 locations, and every year it has operated has suffered millions of dollars of net losses? They have 1975 Instagram followers. They have 149 Facebook followers. They have 48 X followers. But remember guys, you are investing in a "COFFEE GIANT"
So where does the $1.1B come from?
'The same way it came for Metaplanet (and all these other penny stocks) Get a bunch of high follower Bitcoin X accounts to hype your ticker (usually Bitcoin Magazine, Vivek, Pete Rizzo, etc), start up an "Irresponsibly Long ___" group, then dump a shitload of stock on the plebs.'
I have said it before...
Bitcoin treasury companies won't prevent another bear market; they’re the reason it’ll happen again this cycle.
➡️Public company Semler Scientific purchases an additional 185 Bitcoin for $20 million.
➡️Wicked: Imagine how rekt people would get if we went from $200k back down to $58k next bear market. The funny thing is that’d only be a 71% pullback, the smallest bear market pullback ever.
https://i.ibb.co/DfFtFZnP/Gsnr-U-3-Xo-AAJy-Kq.jpg
➡️Fidelty: An increasing number of institutions are leveraging Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. And as understanding of the asset deepens, interest continues to grow. See what may be driving the shift: Source: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/research-and-insights/adding-bitcoin-corporate-treasury?ccsource=owned_social_btc_corp_treasury_june_x
➡️Solo Bitcoin miner solves block 899,826, earning 3.151 BTC ( $330K). A solo miner rented a massive amount of hashrate on @NiceHashMining and successfully mined a Bitcoin block solo on CKpool, claiming the full reward alone.
➡️Romania's national postal service, Poșta Română, launches a pilot program by installing its first Bitcoin ATM at a Tulcea branch, partnering with Bitcoin Romania (BTR Exchange), the country's leading cryptocurrency exchange.
On the 6th of June:
➡️Mononaut: 'With a weight of only 5723 units, block 899998 was the second lightest non-empty block of this halving epoch.'
➡️'UK-listed gold miner Bluebird Mining Ventures announces strategy to convert gold mining income into Bitcoin. A gold mining company will become the first UK-listed company to implement a Strategic Bitcoin Treasury' - Bitcoin News
➡️Phoenix Wallet: Phoenix 2.6.1 now supports NFC for sending and receiving. Works on Android and iOS. (NFC received on iOS is only due to Apple restrictions)
➡️Man from Germany fails to declare 24 words when crossing the border – nothing happens.
https://i.ibb.co/21W5qVks/Gswdghd-Xw-AA7-SH6.png
➡️Know Labs, Inc. to become a Bitcoin Treasury Strategy company starting with 1,000 BTC. Funny isn't it? Even former Ripple executive, Greg Kidd, is choosing to fill their company treasuries with bitcoin—not XRP.
➡️Bitcoin Successfully Mines the 900,000th Block! https://x.com/i/status/1930973314475815120
➡️Trump Media's latest S-3 filing officially adopts a Bitcoin treasury strategy. - Registers up to $12B in new securities to buy BTC - Adds to $2.44B already raised - Mentions “Bitcoin” 362 times (vs. once in prior S-3)
➡️Bitcoin News: Metaplanet just issued ¥855B ($5.4B) in moving-strike warrants to buy more Bitcoin, Japan’s largest equity issuance of its kind ever. It’s the first above-market pricing in Japan's history, defying the usual 8–10% discount.
➡️ Uber CEO tells Bloomberg Bitcoin is a proven store of value and that it is exploring crypto payments.
➡️Agricultural commodity trading company Davis Commodities will buy $4.5 million Bitcoin for their reserves, calling it "digital gold.
➡️Fidelity: As digital assets evolve, bitcoin’s potential as a store of value sets it apart from other cryptocurrencies. “Coin Report: Bitcoin” outlines why the asset’s design, scarcity, and decentralized nature help make it distinct—and where its future opportunities may lie. Read now: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/research-and-insights/coin-report-bitcoin-btc?ccsource=owned_social_btc_report_june_x
➡️Japanese public company Remixpoint announces it bought 44.8 #Bitcoin worth $4.7 million
On the 8th of June:
➡️Wicked: Bitcoin has been running for 6,000 days and it’s already spent 60 of them, 1% of its life, closing above $100k. https://i.ibb.co/kVyrjR7v/Gs4uy-MIW8-AAOl-A.jpg
On the 9th of June:
➡️Australia’s ABC News reports on how Bitcoin adoption is bringing financial freedom and greater safety to Kibera, one of Africa’s largest slums in Kenya.
➡️ IBIT just blew through $70b and is now the fastest ETF to ever hit that mark in only 341 days, which is 5x faster than the old record held by GLD of 1,691 days. https://i.ibb.co/DfKbwhjG/Gt-Ar6-Eq-X0-AAzrl5.png
Credit chart JackiWang17 on X
➡️Japanese fashion brand ANAP plans to buy and hold over 1,000 Bitcoin by August 2025.
➡️South Korean President to introduce legislation this week to allow big banks to adopt Bitcoin.
➡️Wicked: Bitcoin's now 3x larger than the top 9 shitcoins combined. https://i.ibb.co/LDQKsGHM/Gt-AJy-D6-X0-AA7-PIY.jpg
💸Traditional Finance / Macro:
On the 3rd of May:
👉🏽'Hedge funds are still not buying the Magnificent 7: Hedge funds’ long/short ratio on Magnificent 7 stocks is now at its lowest level in 5 years, per Goldman Sachs. This is even lower than at the 2022 bear market bottom. Furthermore, their exposure to Magnificent 7 stocks is now down -50% over the last year. Meanwhile, hedge funds have bought US information technology stocks for 3 consecutive weeks. This occurred after the sector had been net sold in 10 of the previous 12 weeks. Retail has led the recent rebound.' -TKL
On the 6th of June:
👉🏽If you net out the Mag 7 from the S&P 500, the remaining 493 stocks have barely gone anywhere in over a decade (comparatively speaking). Chart: Goldman Sachs https://i.ibb.co/s9LmVBL8/Gsx53k6-W8-AAM2xr.jpg
🏦Banks:
On the 21st of May: 👉🏽No News
🌎Macro/Geopolitics:
'The reality is that the US soft defaults on its debt every day through structural inflation (the perpetual debasement of the US dollar). In other words, the Treasury pays you back dollars that are worth far less than what you lent to them. A soft default.' This is also valid for Europe.
On top of that, the richest man in the world is publicly arguing with the president of the United States about America’s solvency. Consider buying bitcoin.
So far regarding Trump: - didn't audit the Gold - didn't stop the wars - didn't reduce the deficit/debt/budget - didn't form a Bitcoin reserve - didn't release the Epstein files
Anyway, consider buying Bitcoin.
On the 2nd of June:
👉🏽'The Bank of Japan just racked up a record ¥28.6 trillion in bond losses That’s three times bigger than last year! This isn’t just Japan’s problem. It’s a screaming red alert for global markets.' - StockMarket News
TKL: " Japanese equity funds posted a record $11.8 billion in net outflows last week. This brought the 4-week moving average of outflows to $4.0 billion, an all-time high. Investors’ concerns over rapidly rising long-dated Japanese government bond yields were behind the outflows. Additionally, investors withdrew $5.1 billion from US stock funds. All while global equity funds saw $9.5 billion in net outflows, the most this year. Investors are taking profits after a sharp market recovery."
👉🏽The money printer is back on. US M2 just hit a new all-time high at $21.86T. Liquidity is flowing back into the system.
https://i.ibb.co/fGdx5kmt/Gsd-Jn-R9-XUAAUAO2.jpg
Recession odds have just dropped by 70% to 30% That’s the steepest decline in 65 years without a recession actually happening. Forget everything about a recession when M2 is moving up. Simple as that.
👉🏽$698 billion worth of homes are for sale in the United States, a new all-time high. Rajat Soni: 'The price of a house should be 0.01 BTC right now The housing market is way overpriced in terms of Bitcoin Interest rates or real estate prices will have to fall for these these homes actually to be sold.'
👉🏽The US Dollar is worth 8.9% less than it was at the beginning of the year.
👉🏽Argentina's economy grew 8% year-over-year in April 2025, the highest in the Western world!
On the 3rd of June:
👉🏽Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" bans all 50 states from regulating AI for 10 years, centralizes control at the federal level, and integrates AI systems into key federal agencies. https://i.ibb.co/Q7t14q7M/Gse-V2f-YWUAAyb-Py.png
👉🏽 ZeroHedge: 'Total US debt is now $37.5 trillion (accrued). The $36.2 trillion actual is just the ceiling set by the debt limit which will be revised to $40 trillion in August/September.'
👉🏽A million seconds ago was May 23rd
A billion seconds ago was 1993
A trillion seconds ago was 30,000 B.C.
The US national debt is now rising by $1 Trillion every 180 days.
👉🏽NATO pushes European members to increase ground-based air defense systems five-fold — Bloomberg
👉🏽Global Markets Investor: 'This is incredible how European markets have outperformed the US this year. Poland, the Czech Republic, and Austria have grown their market capitalization by 44%, 36%, and 33%, respectively. Next are Hungary, Spain, Luxembourg, Greece, and Germany. The US has been flat.'
https://i.ibb.co/TMwrLnB0/Gsiu-KWYXEAAto-U1.jpg
This is one of the WORST years for the US stock market in history: The S&P 500 has UNDERperformed World stocks excluding the US by 12 percentage points year-to-date, the most in 32 YEARS. This is even worse than during the Great Financial Crisis.
👉🏽Bravos Research: 'M2 money supply is now expanding at 4.4% After reaching its deepest contraction in 65 years This is quite constructive for the stock market.' https://i.ibb.co/hFCRgFhr/Gsht-Kgk-Xw-AAy-PFq.jpg
On the 4th of June:
👉🏽“The $1.06 trillion unrealized loss in 2024 was ‘modestly higher’ than the $948.4 billion paper loss seen in 2023.” https://i.ibb.co/Pvm7zVWy/Gsj-9-OWs-AAvwp-F.jpg
Probably nothing. What’s a trillion between friends…
Currently, the US is spending $1,200 trillion per year on interest payments (dark line). If everything were financed at the current interest rate, the cost would exceed $1,500 trillion per year (green). https://i.ibb.co/mCpYtwVW/Gsm-H6-Mr-Xc-AAqd-F5.png
Note: The national debt is $36,9 trillion.
👉🏽Global debt is gigantic: Debt-to-GDP is above 100% in 6 of 7 G7 nations, and is still rising. Japan: ~250% Italy, the US, France, the UK, and Canada: all near or above 100%.
For 5 of 7 G7 economies, debt is set to surge further by 2030. Now debt is a problem but the main question would be...what will the productivity be in 2030?
On the 5th of June:
👉🏽 The United States Treasury just bought back $10 Billion of its own debt, the largest Treasury buyback in history.
Buying back your own debt with printed money. That's what happens just before fiat money goes to die (eventually). Eventually, nobody wants that worthless debt anymore, eventually!
Context by EndGame Macro:
💰 $10 Billion Buyback: The Treasury’s Silent Signal
On June 3, 2025, the U.S. Treasury quietly executed the largest debt buyback in American history, repurchasing $10 billion in short- and medium-term bonds. At first glance, it looked routine. But under the surface, this was a stealth intervention aimed at calming a system under increasing strain. This wasn’t just liquidity smoothing. It was strategic triage.
🧾 What Happened
Buyback Size: $10B (a record)
Debt Offered: $22.87B — more than double what was accepted
Target Maturities: July 2025 to May 2027
Issues Accepted: 22 of 40 eligible
Settlement: June 4, 2025
That huge offer volume isn’t just noise—it’s a warning sign that institutional players are under pressure.
🚨 What the Buyback Really Signaled
- A Quiet Circuit Breaker The buyback focused on maturities clustered around a $9 trillion rollover wall over the next 12 months. Without announcing it, the Treasury effectively tripped a circuit breaker to reduce near-term funding stress.
- QE Without the Label This wasn’t the Fed. No balance sheet expansion. But by retiring debt ahead of maturity and shrinking market float, the effect mirrored QE—without the political baggage.
- Institutions Are Feeling the Squeeze A staggering $22.87 billion in offers points to constraints at banks, funds, or foreign reserve desks. The Treasury didn’t save everyone—just enough to relieve pressure quietly.
🎯 Strategic Motivation
This wasn’t about boosting confidence. It was about managing two threats: Maturity Wall Risk: Avoiding auction failures as short-term debt piles up in 2025–2026. Yield Curve Stability: Preventing disorderly spikes by quietly absorbing supply. This move avoided triggering headlines—while containing the fire under the hood.
🧠 Echoes from History
This buyback fits into a lineage of quiet but powerful interventions: Operation Twist (1961) – Rebalancing maturity without QE branding. BoE Gilt Crisis (2022) – Targeted long-end intervention to save pensions. Belgium’s Shadow QE (2014) – U.S. debt absorbed off-balance-sheet during geopolitical tension. Each move relied on subtlety and intent—not optics.
🧩 What the Market Heard
Primary Dealers: Help exists—but it’s selective and discretionary.
Foreign Holders: Exit in order—or risk exclusion.
Money Markets: Relief, not resolution.
❗ Where the Logic Cracks
If this was routine: Why buy back below par? Why accept only 44% of the offered debt? Why deploy this now and not earlier? Each of these points to deeper stress than officials are openly admitting.
🔒 High-Conviction Takeaway
This buyback was a preemptive stabilization maneuver, not a stimulus. With over $9 trillion in short-term debt set to roll, foreign participation weakening, and institutional selling pressure rising, the Treasury acted before fractures became visible. The line wasn’t drawn to show strength. It was drawn behind the market—to stop a collapse.
🕵️♂️ Known Unknowns
Who were the biggest sellers—and what’s pressuring them? Was this coordinated with the Fed or global reserve desks? Is this a one-off event—or the start of a multi-phase liquidity campaign? The silence is strategic—but the signal is loud.
👉🏽Joe Consorti: 'Congress refuses to cut spending. So we must "grow our way out" of the deficit. That would take 39 years of 5% nominal GDP growth, or 22 years at 10%. In other words, 2-4 decades of explosive growth just to break even. We can't "grow our way out". We'll print our way out.'
👉🏽ZeroHedge: And just like that, the "climate crisis" is gone https://i.ibb.co/GQ76Z79P/Gsr3uus-XEAAjuv6.png
Don't get me wrong and with all respect to my environmentalist friends, but the “Crisis” never existed. A big part of the push has been marketing dollars/euros and media spin, let's face it.
Why do I think that? How do you think we will grow out of the Global Debt problem? One word: PRODUCTIVITY.
How can we manage that? They (Governments/Central Banks) need AI data farms. What do data farms need?
Electricity, water, energy.
Because Big Tech and AI need energy -- wherever they can find it -- climate change as a cause is finished. It was all virtue signaling. And remember the climate didn’t cool, it just stopped polling well. The scariest part of the “climate crisis” becoming out-of-vogue with the left is that it'll likely be replaced by something equally absurd and artificially manufactured.
On the 6th of June
👉🏽 'The US economy adds 139,000 jobs in May, above expectations of 126,000. The unemployment rate was 4.2%, in line with expectations of 4.2%. The April jobs number was revised down from 177,000 to 147,000. The headline numbers continue to exceed expectations.' - TKL
Surprise, surprise…
March jobs revised: 185K 120K (-65k)
April jobs revised: 177K 147K (-30k)
13 of the L16 have been revised lower.
Just to make it even worse, this is something I have shared multiple times in 2024. The number of year-over-year private job gains in 2024 was likely overstated by a MASSIVE 907,000 jobs, according to BLS data released Wednesday. This comes as the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data covering 97% of employers showed a private payroll growth rate of 0.6% for December 2024. This is 50% lower than the 1.2% growth rate initially reported in the monthly non-farm payroll (NFP) reports. To put this differently, there was a 907,000 gap between NFP data and QCEW data in 2024. This means jobs were likely overstated by an average of 75,583 PER MONTH in 2024.
👉🏽Opinion: Milei reduced government spending by 30% and achieved a surplus in only 1 month. His popularity didn't fall, it rose. Don't tell me fiscal discipline isn't popular with the general public. It's just unpopular to the powerful special interests that control DC or Brussels.
👉🏽'In the current fiscal year, the U.S. government already spent $4,159 billion. This is for the first 7 months and the fiscal year ends in September. The latest available data is as of April. The already accrued deficit amounts to over $1 trillion: $1,049 billion.
You can see in the chart how net interest expense has become the #2 largest spending category at $579 billion (for 7 months) after social security ($907 billion) and even exceeded national defense ($536 billion), health ($555 billion), and Medicare ($550 billion). The deficit is 34% of total receipts! (1049/3110) In other words: the U.S. government spent 34% more than it took in.
The last full fiscal year ended in September 2024. In that fiscal year, we spent $1.13 trillion on interest expenses. After only the first 7 months of fiscal year 2025 ending in September, they are already at $776 billion. This means we'll likely touch $1.3 trillion this fiscal year!' - AJ https://i.ibb.co/RTLTZPn1/Gsxv-Tso-Xc-AAZs-Zo.jpg
On the 7th of June:
👉🏽 The EU Commission paid climate "NGOs" for questionable lobbying with money from German taxpayers and wanted to keep it secret. https://i.ibb.co/zH6J41Zq/Gsz-Lu-F9-Xg-AAZttn.jpg Now read the above statement again and after that read the following bit:
👉🏽EU TRIES TO LECTURE EL SALVADOR - BUKELE BODYSLAMS BACK Source: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/el-salvador-statement-spokesperson-foreign-agents-law-and-recent-developments_en
The Diplomatic Service of the European: "El Salvador: The EU regrets the adoption of the Foreign Agents Law, which risks restricting civil society and runs counter to international obligations. Recent arrests of human rights defenders raise further concerns."
The EU’s sanctimonious finger-wagging at El Salvador reeks of hypocrisy. Brussels lectures sovereign nations on “civil society” while funneling billions into globalist NGOs that undermine national sovereignty. The institution that attacks liberty, freedom, democracy, and free speech in the name of a neosocialist woke ideology wants to lecture other countries on how they defend against their constant meddling and aggression. They are a bunch of unelected bureaucrats, accountable to no one, representing no one. Classic!
Supporting this further, let’s have a look how the EU is increasingly positioning itself as a technocratic regulator of personal freedom:
'The EU – the one that:
•wants to monitor every Bitcoin transaction through MiCA & DAC-8 •would love to ban non-custodial wallets
•is planning a chat control law that would make even China blush
•is considering a wealth register to digitally track every cent of your retirement savings
•restricts cash withdrawals in some member states •is testing CBDCs with expiration dates and spending limits
•and is preparing the digital euro as a full-blown control tool
…this EU is now complaining about human rights violations in El Salvador – a country whose government enjoys one of the highest approval ratings in the world. Over 85% support for President Bukele. Show me a single Western leader who even comes close to that.' - Bitcoin Hotel
Great reply by El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele: 'EU: El Salvador regrets that a bloc which is aging, overregulated, energy-dependent, tech-lagging, and led by unelected bureaucrats still insists on lecturing the rest of the world.'
👉🏽Sam Callahan: Alternative title: 73% of bonds in the world trading at less than the rate of debasement https://i.ibb.co/Y4qMvh0T/Gs7-Ry-WMAABf49.jpg
On the 8th of June:
👉🏽'US existing home sales dropped -3.1% year-over-year to an annualized 4.0 million in April, the lowest for any April since 2009. Month-over-month, home sales fell 0.5%, well below expectations of a +2.0% increase. The decline was driven by the West and Northeast regions. Sales in the South were flat, while in the Midwest improved slightly. Meanwhile, existing home inventory rose +21%, to 1.45 million, the most for any April since 2020, per ZeroHedge. Despite that, the median sales price increased +1.8% year-over-year to $414,000, a record for April. Homebuyer demand is weak and prices are still rising.' -TKL
On the 9th of June:
👉🏽Jeroen Blokland: '- China bought more gold in May. -China has been buying even more gold through ‘unofficial’ channels. - China's gold reserves today are low compared to those of the US and European countries -China is determined to move away from US dollar hegemony - China’s ambition to move away from the US dollar will only have strengthened because of the Trump tariff war - China has to acknowledge that few countries, companies, and households want to hold the Yuan So what will China be doing for years to come?'
No surprise central banks are avoiding sovereign debt and adding gold.
👉🏽TKL: Gold is on fire: Gold's share of global reserves reached 23% in Q2 2025, the highest level in 30 years. Over the last 6 years, the percentage has DOUBLED. At the same time, the US Dollar's share of international reserves has declined 10 percentage points, to 44%, the lowest since 1993. By comparison, the Euro's share has decreased 2 percentage points, to 16%, the lowest in 22 years. Gold is quickly replacing fiat currencies as a reserve currency.
🎁If you have made it this far, I would like to give you a little gift:
Lysander: "Lyn Alden gave one of the clearest breakdowns of why the U.S. is on an unstoppable fiscal path—and why Bitcoin matters more than ever because of it.
Lyn Alden walks through the numbers behind the federal deficit, interest expenses, Social Security, and the structural changes that happened post-2008. The short version? We’re in a new era. One where the government can’t slow down even if it wants to.
Her phrase: “Nothing stops this train.” Not because of ideology, but because of math—and human nature.
This isn’t hyperinflation doom-talk. It’s a sober look at what happens when a system built on ever-growing debt reaches its limits—and why Bitcoin, with its fixed supply and transparent rules, is the opposite of that system.
If you haven’t seen it, this is a must watch. Pure signal! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Giuzcd4oxIk
Credit: I have used multiple sources!
My savings account: Bitcoin The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: PocketBitcoin especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly.
Use the code SE3997
Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges. Save them on a hardware wallet, run your own node...be your own bank. Not your keys, not your coins. It's that simple. ⠀ ⠀
⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
Do you think this post is helpful to you?
If so, please share it and support my work with a zap.
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⭐ Many thanks⭐
Felipe - Bitcoin Friday!
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-16 15:03:05Will not live in a pod.
Will not eat the bugs.
Will not get the chip.
Will not get a blue check.
Will not use CBDCs.Live Free or Die.
Why did Elon buy twitter for $44 Billion? What value does he see in it besides the greater influence that undoubtedly comes with controlling one of the largest social platforms in the world? We do not need to speculate - he made his intentions incredibly clear in his first meeting with twitter employees after his takeover - WeChat of the West.
To those that do not appreciate freedom, the value prop is clear - WeChat is incredibly powerful and successful in China.
To those that do appreciate freedom, the concern is clear - WeChat has essentially become required to live in China, has surveillance and censorship integrated at its core, and if you are banned from the app your entire livelihood is at risk. Employment, housing, payments, travel, communication, and more become extremely difficult if WeChat censors determine you have acted out of line.
The blue check is the first step in Elon's plan to bring the chinese social credit score system to the west. Users who verify their identity are rewarded with more reach and better tools than those that do not. Verified users are the main product of Elon's twitter - an extensive database of individuals and complete control of the tools he will slowly get them to rely on - it is easier to monetize cattle than free men.
If you cannot resist the temptation of the blue check in its current form you have already lost - what comes next will be much darker. If you realize the need to resist - freedom tech provides us options.
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ 2c564b98:5c6444b0
2025-06-16 15:04:39My First Nostr Long-Form Post
This is a test of long-form content publishing on Nostr using the NIP-23 standard.
What is Nostr?
Nostr is a simple, open protocol that enables global, decentralized, and censorship-resistant social media.
Features of This Post
- Written in Markdown
- Tagged appropriately
- Includes metadata
- Published to multiple relays
Code Example
javascript console.log("Hello, Nostr!");
Conclusion
This demonstrates how easy it is to publish long-form content to Nostr!
Published using nostr-publisher
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@ 97c70a44:ad98e322
2025-06-06 20:48:33Vibe coding is taking the nostr developer community by storm. While it's all very exciting and interesting, I think it's important to pump the brakes a little - not in order to stop the vehicle, but to try to keep us from flying off the road as we approach this curve.
In this note Pablo is subtweeting something I said to him recently (although I'm sure he's heard it from other quarters as well):
nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzp75cf0tahv5z7plpdeaws7ex52nmnwgtwfr2g3m37r844evqrr6jqy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qghwaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8qunfd4skctnwv46z7qg6waehxw309ac8junpd45kgtnxd9shg6npvchxxmmd9uqzq0z48d4ttzzkupswnkyt5a2xfkhxl3hyavnxjujwn5k2k529aearwtecp4
There is a naive, curmudgeonly case for simply "not doing AI". I think the intuition is a good one, but the subject is obviously more complicated - not doing it, either on an individual or a collective level, is just not an option. I recently read Tools for Conviviality by Ivan Illich, which I think can help us here. For Illich, the best kind of tool is one which serves "politically interrelated individuals rather than managers".
This is obviously a core value for bitcoiners. And I think the talks given at the Oslo Freedom Forum this year present a compelling case for adoption of LLMs for the purposes of 1. using them for good, and 2. developing them further so that they don't get captured by corporations and governments. Illich calls both the telephone and print "almost ideally convivial". I would add the internet, cryptography, and LLMs to this list, because each one allows individuals to work cooperatively within communities to embody their values in their work.
But this is only half the story. Illich also points out how "the manipulative nature of institutions... have put these ideally convivial tools at the service of more [managerial dominance]."
Preventing the subversion and capture of our tools is not just a matter of who uses what, and for which ends. It also requires an awareness of the environment that the use of the tool (whether for virtuous or vicious ends) creates, which in turn forms the abilities, values, and desires of those who inhabit the environment.
The natural tendency of LLMs is to foster ignorance, dependence, and detachment from reality. This is not the fault of the tool itself, but that of humans' tendency to trade liberty for convenience. Nevertheless, the inherent values of a given tool naturally gives rise to an environment through use: the tool changes the world that the tool user lives in. This in turn indoctrinates the user into the internal logic of the tool, shaping their thinking, blinding them to the tool's influence, and neutering their ability to work in ways not endorsed by the structure of the tool-defined environment.
The result of this is that people are formed by their tools, becoming their slaves. We often talk about LLM misalignment, but the same is true of humans. Unreflective use of a tool creates people who are misaligned with their own interests. This is what I mean when I say that AI use is anti-human. I mean it in the same way that all unreflective tool use is anti-human. See Wendell Berry for an evaluation of industrial agriculture along the same lines.
What I'm not claiming is that a minority of high agency individuals can't use the technology for virtuous ends. In fact, I think that is an essential part of the solution. Tool use can be good. But tools that bring their users into dependence on complex industry and catechize their users into a particular system should be approached with extra caution. The plow was a convivial tool, and so were early tractors. Self-driving John Deere monstrosities are a straightforward extension of the earlier form of the technology, but are self-evidently an instrument of debt slavery, chemical dependency, industrial centralization, and degradation of the land. This over-extension of a given tool can occur regardless of the intentions of the user. As Illich says:
There is a form of malfunction in which growth does not yet tend toward the destruction of life, yet renders a tool antagonistic to its specific aims. Tools, in other words, have an optimal, a tolerable, and a negative range.
The initial form of a tool is almost always beneficial, because tools are made by humans for human ends. But as the scale of the tool grows, its logic gets more widely and forcibly applied. The solution to the anti-human tendencies of any technology is an understanding of scale. To prevent the overrun of the internal logic of a given tool and its creation of an environment hostile to human flourishing, we need to impose limits on scale.
Tools that require time periods or spaces or energies much beyond the order of corresponding natural scales are dysfunctional.
My problem with LLMs is:
- Not their imitation of human idioms, but their subversion of them and the resulting adoption of robotic idioms by humans
- Not the access they grant to information, but their ability to obscure accurate or relevant information
- Not their elimination of menial work, but its increase (Bullshit Jobs)
- Not their ability to take away jobs, but their ability to take away the meaning found in good work
- Not their ability to confer power to the user, but their ability to confer power to their owner which can be used to exploit the user
- Not their ability to solve problems mechanistically, but the extension of their mechanistic value system to human life
- Not their explicit promise of productivity, but the environment they implicitly create in which productivity depends on their use
- Not the conversations they are able to participate in, but the relationships they displace
All of these dysfunctions come from the over-application of the technology in evaluating and executing the fundamentally human task of living. AI work is the same kind of thing as an AI girlfriend, because work is not only for the creation of value (although that's an essential part of it), but also for the exercise of human agency in the world. In other words, tools must be tools, not masters. This is a problem of scale - when tool use is extended beyond its appropriate domain, it becomes what Illich calls a "radical monopoly" (the domination of a single paradigm over all of human life).
So the important question when dealing with any emergent technology becomes: how can we set limits such that the use of the technology is naturally confined to its appropriate scale?
Here are some considerations:
- Teach people how to use the technology well (e.g. cite sources when doing research, use context files instead of fighting the prompt, know when to ask questions rather than generate code)
- Create and use open source and self-hosted models and tools (MCP, stacks, tenex). Refuse to pay for closed or third-party hosted models and tools.
- Recognize the dependencies of the tool itself, for example GPU availability, and diversify the industrial sources to reduce fragility and dependence.
- Create models with built-in limits. The big companies have attempted this (resulting in Japanese Vikings), but the best-case effect is a top-down imposition of corporate values onto individuals. But the idea isn't inherently bad - a coding model that refuses to generate code in response to vague prompts, or which asks clarifying questions is an example. Or a home assistant that recognized childrens' voices and refuses to interact.
- Divert the productivity gains to human enrichment. Without mundane work to do, novice lawyers, coders, and accountants don't have an opportunity to hone their skills. But their learning could be subsidized by the bots in order to bring them up to a level that continues to be useful.
- Don't become a slave to the bots. Know when not to use it. Talk to real people. Write real code, poetry, novels, scripts. Do your own research. Learn by experience. Make your own stuff. Take a break from reviewing code to write some. Be independent, impossible to control. Don't underestimate the value to your soul of good work.
- Resist both monopoly and "radical monopoly". Both naturally collapse over time, but by cultivating an appreciation of the goodness of hand-crafted goods, non-synthetic entertainment, embodied relationship, and a balance between mobility and place, we can relegate new, threatening technologies to their correct role in society.
I think in all of this is implicit the idea of technological determinism, that productivity is power, and if you don't adapt you die. I reject this as an artifact of darwinism and materialism. The world is far more complex and full of grace than we think.
The idea that productivity creates wealth is, as we all know, bunk. GDP continues to go up, but ungrounded metrics don't reflect anything about the reality of human flourishing. We have to return to a qualitative understanding of life as whole, and contextualize quantitative tools and metrics within that framework.
Finally, don't believe the hype. Even if AI delivers everything it promises, conservatism in changing our ways of life will decelerate the rate of change society is subjected to and allow time for reflection and proper use of the tool. Curmudgeons are as valuable as technologists. There will be no jobspocalypse if there is sufficient political will to value human good over mere productivity. It's ok to pump the breaks.
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-16 10:01:55What is KYC/AML?
- The acronym stands for Know Your Customer / Anti Money Laundering.
- In practice it stands for the surveillance measures companies are often compelled to take against their customers by financial regulators.
- Methods differ but often include: Passport Scans, Driver License Uploads, Social Security Numbers, Home Address, Phone Number, Face Scans.
- Bitcoin companies will also store all withdrawal and deposit addresses which can then be used to track bitcoin transactions on the bitcoin block chain.
- This data is then stored and shared. Regulations often require companies to hold this information for a set number of years but in practice users should assume this data will be held indefinitely. Data is often stored insecurely, which results in frequent hacks and leaks.
- KYC/AML data collection puts all honest users at risk of theft, extortion, and persecution while being ineffective at stopping crime. Criminals often use counterfeit, bought, or stolen credentials to get around the requirements. Criminals can buy "verified" accounts for as little as $200. Furthermore, billions of people are excluded from financial services as a result of KYC/AML requirements.
During the early days of bitcoin most services did not require this sensitive user data, but as adoption increased so did the surveillance measures. At this point, most large bitcoin companies are collecting and storing massive lists of bitcoiners, our sensitive personal information, and our transaction history.
Lists of Bitcoiners
KYC/AML policies are a direct attack on bitcoiners. Lists of bitcoiners and our transaction history will inevitably be used against us.
Once you are on a list with your bitcoin transaction history that record will always exist. Generally speaking, tracking bitcoin is based on probability analysis of ownership change. Surveillance firms use various heuristics to determine if you are sending bitcoin to yourself or if ownership is actually changing hands. You can obtain better privacy going forward by using collaborative transactions such as coinjoin to break this probability analysis.
Fortunately, you can buy bitcoin without providing intimate personal information. Tools such as peach, hodlhodl, robosats, azteco and bisq help; mining is also a solid option: anyone can plug a miner into power and internet and earn bitcoin by mining privately.
You can also earn bitcoin by providing goods and/or services that can be purchased with bitcoin. Long term, circular economies will mitigate this threat: most people will not buy bitcoin - they will earn bitcoin - most people will not sell bitcoin - they will spend bitcoin.
There is no such thing as KYC or No KYC bitcoin, there are bitcoiners on lists and those that are not on lists.
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ c631e267:c2b78d3e
2025-06-06 18:54:04Willst du den Charakter eines Menschen kennenlernen, \ so gib ihm Macht. \ Abraham Lincoln
Vermutlich war Friedrich Merz erleichtert nach seinem Besuch beim US-Präsidenten im Oval Office. Dem Bundeskanzler kam zwar neben der Wortgewalt Donald Trumps eher eine Statistenrolle in der Medienrunde zu, aber es hätte natürlich viel schlimmer kommen können. Deswegen hatte er sich wohl vorher Ratschläge geholt, wie man hört unter anderem vom ukrainischen Präsidenten Wolodymyr Selenskyj. Offiziell gab der deutsche Regierungschef sogar an, «außerordentlich zufrieden» mit seinem Antrittsbesuch zu sein.
Dabei gibt es aktuell doch mehr Differenzen als Gemeinsamkeiten. Zu den Themen, mit denen es eine sehr unterschiedliche Umgehensweise hier und dort gibt, gehört die Gesundheit. Trumps Gesundheitsminister, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., kritisiert zum Beispiel, die meisten US-Universitäten würden den Studenten zu wenig über die Bedeutung gesunder Ernährung beibringen. Im Vordergrund der medizinischen Ausbildung stünde zu sehr die Behandlung der Menschen mit Medikamenten. Daher plant er, den Fakultäten die Bundesmittel zu streichen, wenn sie ihren Studenten keine Ernährungskurse anbieten.
Der oft als Verschwörungstheoretiker diffamierte RFK Jr. ist auch Teil des wachsenden Widerstands gegen Geoengineering-Aktivitäten. Die Manipulation von Wetter und Klima beispielsweise durch das Freisetzen von Chemikalien in die Atmosphäre kann kaum gesund sein und soll daher mit Louisiana jetzt in einem weiteren US-Bundesstaat verboten werden. Kennedy hatte derartige Maßnahmen auch schon als ein Verbrechen bezeichnet, das es zu stoppen gelte.
Indes ist der deutsche Beitrag in diesem Kontext, dass Ex-Gesundheitsminister und Covid-Impfpflicht-Befürworter Karl Lauterbach jetzt zum Klimaexperten mutiert. Laut Spiegel soll er Mitglied einer Kommission für Klima und Gesundheit bei der Weltgesundheitsorganisation werden, angeblich unentgeltlich. Vermutlich möchte die WHO im Sinne ihrer One-Health-Initiative mit solcher Lobbyarbeit für «Klimaschutz als Teil des Gesundheitsschutzes» ihren globalen Führungsanspruch untermauern.
Das Thema «Corona» ist im Übrigen noch lange nicht erledigt und das Narrativ bekommt weitere Risse. Nachdem Kennedy in den USA den Covid-«Impfstoff» für gesunde Kinder und schwangere Frauen aus dem empfohlenen Impfplan gestrichen hat, ist eine CDC-Beraterin zurückgetreten, die die Gen-Injektionen für Schwangere gefördert hatte. Auch die australische Regierung hat ihre Impfempfehlungen aktualisiert. Sie räumt jetzt ein, dass der Nutzen des «Impfstoffs» die Schäden für gesunde Jugendliche nicht überwiegt.
Gleichzeitig berichten Medien von einer neuen, anhaltenden «Covid-19-Welle» in China. Es gebe Befürchtungen, dass es zu erneuten Lockdowns und anderen drastischen Maßnahmen kommen könnte, obwohl sich die «Infektionen» laut den Gesundheitsbehörden auf einem Abwärtstrend befinden. In einigen Schulen seien Schüler isoliert und unter Quarantäne gestellt worden.
Isolierung, Überwachung und Kontrolle sind ebenfalls ein höchst ungesundes Erbe der «Coronazeit». Die weltweit vielfach eingeführten digitalen «Impfpässe» wurden als Instrument benutzt, um Kampagnen für digitale Identitäten zu fördern und die entsprechenden Systeme aufzubauen. Gerade hat auch Griechenland mit der Einführung seiner «Personal Citizen Number» den Grundstein für ein einheitliches digitales ID-System gelegt.
Derweil schlagen Datenschützer Alarm wegen des Tracking-Potenzials der sogenannten «Phone Home»-Funktion vieler digitaler Ausweise. Dieses «Feature», bei dem im Hintergrund jedesmal der Aussteller kontaktiert wird, um eine Angabe zu überprüfen, werde ganz leise in der Gesellschaft eingeführt, warnen sie. Das gebe den Regierungen den Vorgeschmack auf eine Macht, die sie kaum jemals wieder loslassen würden. Dagegen hilft nur eins: wachsam sein, hinterfragen und im Zweifel «Nein» sagen, anstatt auf eine vermeintliche Bequemlichkeit hereinzufallen.
[Titelbild: Pixabay]
Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben und ist zuerst auf Transition News erschienen.
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-11 04:35:21Marty's Bent
Sup, freaks? Your Uncle Marty did a little vibe coding a couple months ago and that vibe coding project has turned into an actual product that is live in the Google Chrome web store and will soon to be live in the Firefox add-on store as well. It's called Opportunity Cost and it is an extension that enables you to price the internet in Bitcoin.
Opportunity Cost – See Prices in Bitcoin Instantly
Check it out!
This whole process has been extremely rewarding to me for many reasons. The first of which is that I've had many ideas in the past to launch a product focused on bitcoin education that simply never left my brain because I never felt comfortable paying a developer to go out and build a product that I wasn't sure would ultimately get product market fit.
Due to the advancements of AI, particularly ChatGPT and Replit, I was able to spend a few hours on a Saturday vibe coding a prototype for Opportunity Cost. It worked. I side loaded it into Chrome and Firefox, tested it out for a few days and decided, "Hey, I think this is something that's worthwhile and should be built."
Backtracking just a little bit, the initial idea for this app was to create an AR application that would enable you to take pictures of goods in the real world and have their prices automatically converted to bitcoin so that you could weigh the opportunity cost of whether or not you actually wanted to buy that good or decide to save in bitcoin instead. With the help of Justin Moon from the Human Rights Foundation and Anthony Ronning from OpenSecret and Maple AI, I was pointed in the right direction of vibe coding tools I could use to build a simple MVP. I took their advice, built the MVP, and demoed it at the Bitcoin Park Austin weekly AI meetup in mid-April.
The next week, I was talking with a friend, Luke Thomas, about the idea and during our conversation he made a simple quip, "You should make a Chrome extension. I really want a Chrome extension that does this." And that's what sent me down the vibe coding rabbit hole that Saturday which led to the prototype.
After I was comfortable with and confident in the prototype, I found a young hungry developer by the name of Moses on Nostr, I reached out to him, told him my idea, showed him the prototype and asked if he thought he could finish the application for me. He luckily agreed to do so and within a couple of weeks we had a fully functioning app that was officially launched today. We're about 12 hours into the launch and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception from the broader Bitcoin community. It seems like something that people are happy exists and I feel extremely happy that people see some value in this particular application.
Now that you have the backstory, let's get into why I think something like Opportunity Cost should exist. As someone who's been writing a newsletter and producing podcasts about bitcoin for eight years in an attempt to educate individuals from around the world about what bitcoin is, why it's important, and how they can leverage it, I've become convinced that a lot of the work that needs to be done still exists at the top of the funnel. You can scream at people. You can grab them by the shoulders. You can shake them. You can remind them at Thanksgiving that if they had listened to your advice during any Thanksgiving in the previous years they would be better off financially. But at the end of the day most people don't listen. They need to see things. Seeing things for yourself is a much more effective teaching mechanism than be lectured to by someone else.
My hope with Opportunity Cost is that it catches the eye of some bitcoin skeptics or individuals who may be on the cusp of falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole and they see the extension as a way to dip their toes into bitcoin to get a better understanding of the world by pricing the goods and services they purchase on a day-to-day month-to-month and year-to-year basis in bitcoin without having to download a wallet or set up an exchange account. The tippy top of the bitcoin marketing funnel.
That is not all though. I think Opportunity Cost can serve individuals at both ends of the funnel. That's why it's pretty exciting to me. It's as valuable to the person who is bitcoin curious and looking to get a better understanding as it is to the hardcore bitcoiner living on a bitcoin standard who is trying to get access to better tools that enable him to get a better grasp of their spending in bitcoin terms.
Lastly, after playing around with it for a few days after I built the prototype, I realized that it has incredible memetic potential. Being able to take a screenshot of goods that people are buying on a day-to-day basis, pricing them in bitcoin and then sharing them on social media is very powerful. Everything from houses to junk items on Amazon to the salaries of pro athletes to your everyday necessities. Seeing the value of those things in bitcoin really makes you think.
One day while I was testing the app, I tried to see how quickly I could find goods on the internet that cumulatively eclipsed the 21 million supply cap limit of bitcoin. To my surprise, even though I've been in bitcoin for 12 years now, it did not take me that long. The opportunity cost of everything I buy on a day-to-day basis becomes very clear when using the extension. What's even clearer is the fact that Bitcoin is completely mispriced at current levels. There is so much winning ahead of us.
Also, it's probably important to note that the extension is completely open source with an MIT license. You can check out our GitHub page here. Submit pull requests. Suggest changes to the app.
We've also tried to make Opportunity Cost as privacy preserving as possible. Everything within the extension happens in your browser. The only external data that we're providing is the bitcoin to fiat price conversion at any given point in time. We're not data harvesting the web pages you're browsing or the items you're looking at. We're not collecting data and sending it to third party marketers. We want to align ourselves with the open and permissionless nature of bitcoin while also preserving our users' privacy. We're not trying to monetize this in that way. Though, I will say that I'm thinking of ways to monetize Opportunity Cost if it does gain significant traction, but I promise it will be in a way that respects your privacy and is as unobtrusive as possible. We'll see how it goes.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please download and use the extension. Let us know what you think.
Headlines of the Day
Saylor Says Bitcoin Is Perfect Money to Jordan Peterson - via X
Trump Won't Sell Tesla Despite Musk-Bessent Heated Exchange - via X
Bitcoin Gains Traction in Kenya's Largest Slum Kibera - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
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Final thought...
East Coast aesthetics over everything.
*Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: *<https://www.opportunitycost.app/> start thinking in SATS today.
*Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: *https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
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@ 6a14b203:2e99b880
2025-06-16 15:04:11My First Nostr Long-Form Post
This is a test of long-form content publishing on Nostr using the NIP-23 standard.
What is Nostr?
Nostr is a simple, open protocol that enables global, decentralized, and censorship-resistant social media.
Features of This Post
- Written in Markdown
- Tagged appropriately
- Includes metadata
- Published to multiple relays
Code Example
javascript console.log("Hello, Nostr!");
Conclusion
This demonstrates how easy it is to publish long-form content to Nostr!
Published using nostr-publisher
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@ 70c48e4b:00ce3ccb
2025-06-16 06:59:12Hello all :)
Something pretty exciting just happened in the world of decentralized tech.
A new social network project called Nostria successfully wrapped up its pre-seed funding round. It raised the funds through Angor, a crowdfunding platform built on Bitcoin and Nostr that aligns perfectly with the project’s decentralized mission.This post is all about what Nostria is doing, why it matters, and how Angor made it all possible.
What is Nostria?
nostr:npub16x7nxvehx0wvgy0sa6ynkw9c2ghuph3z0ll5t8veq3xwm8n9tqds6ka44x is a social network app that’s built to make the Nostr protocol easy to use. If you're not familiar with Nostr, it's an open protocol for decentralized social networking. It gives users more control and privacy, without relying on big platforms.
Nostria makes all that feel less like a tech experiment and more like a real social network. The app is simple, elegant, and beginner-friendly. It is available across iOS, Android, and web so you can jump in from anywhere.
Think of it as the easiest way to start using Nostr without needing to understand all the technical stuff under the hood.
https://www.nostria.app/assets/screenshots/nostria-01.jpg
The Problem Nostria is Solving:
One of the challenges Nostr faces right now is scaling. The network relies on relays to pass messages around, but many of these are centralized and getting overloaded. That creates serious bottlenecks and makes the whole experience less reliable. Just to give you an idea:
- Damus relay has around 646,000 users
- Nos relay has 601,000 users
- Snort sits at 417,000 users
When so many users depend on just a few relays, it puts a huge strain on the system and limits how far the network can grow.
Nostria’s Clever Fix
Nostria introduces a smarter way to scale Nostr without losing its decentralized core. Instead of relying on a few overloaded relays, it uses:
• Regionally deployed Discovery Relays – Think of these as local hubs placed in different parts of the world. When users connect, they are matched with a nearby relay, which keeps things faster and spreads the traffic out so no single relay gets overwhelmed.
• Pooled User Relays – Instead of each person depending on just one relay, users are connected through a shared pool. This means messages are sent and received more efficiently, especially when more people join the network.
All of this happens behind the scenes. The app keeps things simple and intuitive, with automation that handles the complexity for you. Whether you're posting, reading, or connecting with others, the experience stays smooth.
Nostria has bold ambitions. Here’s what they’re going for:
- A goal of 1 million daily active users
- Competing with platforms like Bluesky, Mastodon, and even X (formerly Twitter)
- A long-term plan to support both free and premium services to drive adoption
As of now, the Nostr network as a whole has:
- 15,000 daily active users
- 42.7 million total users
- 552 million total events
So the market is already there. It just needs the right tools to grow.
https://www.nostria.app/assets/screenshots/nostria-02.jpg
Meet the Team
Nostria is led by nostr:npub1zl3g38a6qypp6py2z07shggg45cu8qex992xpss7d8zrl28mu52s4cjajh, a software engineer with deep experience in distributed systems. He has been involved with the Nostr protocol since its early days in 2021 and is deeply passionate about decentralization and open-source tech.
https://www.nostria.app/assets/team/sondre.jpg
He’s joined by nostr:npub1e0krp2gr3l5nfd2jw2cydh68adxjpmcqdhs2e0jxkrqd4crwt4dslwrk0k, a thoughtful full-stack developer focused on simplicity and sovereignty, and nostr:npub10c4sn723akd7fqegfe6xntpq43p86vnyvv7j2ryaq8jzvhyea4pq72c5ul, a junior dev who’s already contributed to open source and is finishing up her studies.
https://www.nostria.app/assets/team/kosta.jpg https://www.nostria.app/assets/team/lu.jpg
The Funding Round
To bring Nostria to life, the team aimed to raise $30,000 during their pre-seed round. This funding would help them:
- Complete their MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
- Deploy global infrastructure
- Start building their user base
- Get ready for a full Seed round in late 2025
How Angor Helped?
Angor is a decentralized crowdfunding platform built on Bitcoin and the Nostr protocol. It’s designed exactly for projects like this. The team at Nostria launched their campaign on Angor between May 12 and May 31, and it was a success.
What made the campaign stand out?
- The whole process was decentralized and transparent.
- Backers could fund the project directly, without intermediaries.
- Nostria aligned perfectly with Angor’s vision of empowering projects that push decentralization forward.
The campaign served as both a fundraiser and a real-world example of how decentralized infrastructure can power decentralized ideas. And it worked.
Inside the Funding Terms
As part of this funding round, Nostria offered contributors a post-money SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). This is a modern, flexible way for startups to raise money early without the complexity of traditional equity rounds.
In simple terms:
•Investors contributed funds now, and in return, they will receive equity in Nostria during a future priced equity round. When Nostria raises its next round, most likely a Seed round, then those SAFE contributions will convert into actual shares.
•The SAFE includes a valuation cap, which sets a maximum company valuation for conversion. This guarantees that early backers receive shares at a better rate than future investors. While the exact cap isn't publicly listed, this feature ensures early supporters are rewarded for their trust.
•There is no interest or maturity date, which is a major benefit over traditional convertible notes. There’s no ticking clock or repayment obligation. Investors simply wait until the next funding event.
•The SAFE also features a Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause. This ensures that if the company issues another SAFE later with better terms, early investors will automatically receive the same improved terms. It’s designed to keep things transparent and equitable.
•Jurisdiction and legal terms: While the full legal text isn’t included in the note, SAFEs typically specify the legal jurisdiction governing the agreement. Nostria’s approach suggests a commitment to following standard legal frameworks, further underlining their seriousness and professionalism.
You can read Nostria’s public SAFE summary here: nostr:npub16x7nxvehx0wvgy0sa6ynkw9c2ghuph3z0ll5t8veq3xwm8n9tqds6ka44x
And you can view the full campaign hosted on Angor here: https://hub.angor.io/project/angor1qwdgxjuzhjykgpn5q8p3l2q9vyrgqdlrkfp5sjr
By sharing these details openly, the team added a strong layer of transparency and trust to the entire campaign. It is a clear signal that they are building something serious and thoughtful, with long-term commitment and care instead of shortcuts.
What’s Next?
With the funding secured, Nostria is sprinting ahead. The roadmap includes:
- June: Deploying media and relay servers
- July: Adding premium features and full cross-platform support
- August: Growing the user base and preparing for the next funding round
If all goes well, Nostria is on track to become one of the most accessible and user-friendly Nostr based platforms out there. With a clear roadmap and a team focused on long-term decentralization, the journey is just getting started...
Got an idea of your own? You can launch your project on Angor, just like Nostria did, and start your own funding round with the support of a like-minded community.
Thanks for reading. See y’all next week with another story from the world of open, decentralized innovation. Ciao
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@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-16 06:25:50After almost 3 months of work, we've completed the redesign of kycnot.me. More modern and with many new features.
Privacy remains the foundation - everything still works with JavaScript disabled. If you enable JS, you will get some nice-to-have features like lazy loading and smoother page transitions, but nothing essential requires it.
User Accounts
We've introduced user accounts that require zero personal information:
- Secret user tokens - no email, no phone number, no personal data
- Randomly generated usernames for default privacy and fairness
- Karma system that rewards contributions and unlocks features: custom display names, profile pictures, and more.
Reviews and Community Discussions
On the previous sites, I was using third party open source tools for the comments and discussions. This time, I've built my own from scratch, fully integrated into the site, without JavaScript requirements.
Everyone can share their experiences and help others make informed decisions:
- Ratings: Comments can have a 1-5 star rating attached. You can have one rating per service and it will affect the overall user score.
- Discussions: These are normal comments, you can add them on any listed service.
Comment Moderation
I was strugling to keep up with moderation on the old site. For this, we've implemented an AI-powered moderation system that:
- Auto-approves legitimate comments instantly
- Flags suspicious content for human review
- Keeps discussions valuable by minimizing spam
The AI still can mark comments for human review, but most comments will get approved automatically by this system. The AI also makes summaries of the comments to help you understand the overall sentiment of the community.
Powerful Search & Filtering
Finding exactly what you need is now easier:
- Advanced filtering system with many parameters. You can even filter by attributes to pinpoint services with specific features.
The results are dynamic and shuffle services with identical scores for fairness.
See all listings
Listings are now added as 'Community Contributed' by default. This means that you can still find them in the search results, but they will be clearly marked as such.
Updated Scoring System
New dual-score approach provides more nuanced service evaluations:
- Privacy Score: Measures how well a service protects your personal information and data
-
Trust Score: Assesses reliability, security, and overall reputation
-
Combined into a weighted Overall Score for quick comparisons
- Completely transparent and open source calculation algorithm. No manual tweaking or hidden factors.
AI-Powered Terms of Service Analysis
Basically, a TLDR summary for Terms of Service:
- Automated system extracts the most important points from complex ToS documents
- Clear summaries
- Updated monthly to catch any changes
The ToS document is hashed and only will be updated if there are any changes.
Service Events and Timelines
Track the complete history of any service, on each service page you can see the timeline of events. There are two types of events:
- Automatic events: Created by the system whenever something about a service changes, like its description, supported currencies, attributes, verification status…
- Manual events: Added by admins when there’s important news, such as a service going offline, being hacked, acquired, shut down, or other major updates.
There is also a global timeline view available at /events
Notification System
Since we now have user accounts, we built a notifiaction system so you can stay informed about anything:
- Notifications for comment replies and status changes
- Watch any comment to get notified for new replies.
- Subscribe to services to monitor events and updates
- Notification customization.
Coming soon: Third-party privacy-preserving notifications integration with Telegram, Ntfy.sh, webhooks...
Service Suggestions
Anyone with an account can suggest a new service via the suggestion form. After submitting, you'll receive a tracking page where you can follow the status of your suggestion and communicate directly with admins.
All new suggestions start as "unlisted" — they won't appear in search results until reviewed. Our team checks each submission to ensure it's not spam or inappropriate. If similar services already exist, you'll be shown possible duplicates and can choose to submit your suggestion as an edit instead.
You can always check the progress of your suggestion, respond to moderator questions, and see when it goes live, everything will also be notified to your account. This process ensures high-quality listings and a collaborative approach to building the directory.
These are some of the main features we already have, but there are many more small changes and improvements that you will find when using the site.
What's Next?
This is just the beginning. We will be constantly working to improve KYCnot.me and add more features that help you preserve your privacy.
Remember: True financial freedom requires the right to privacy. Stay KYC-free!
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-16 15:03:05Bank run on every crypto bank then bank run on every "real" bank.
— ODELL (@ODELL) December 14, 2022
Good morning.
It looks like PacWest will fail today. It will be both the fifth largest bank failure in US history and the sixth major bank to fail this year. It will likely get purchased by one of the big four banks in a government orchestrated sale.
March 8th - Silvergate Bank
March 10th - Silicon Valley Bank
March 12th - Signature Bank
March 19th - Credit Suisse
May 1st - First Republic Bank
May 4th - PacWest Bank?PacWest is the first of many small regional banks that will go under this year. Most will get bought by the big four in gov orchestrated sales. This has been the playbook since 2008. Follow the incentives. Massive consolidation across the banking industry. PacWest gonna be a drop in the bucket compared to what comes next.
First, a hastened government led bank consolidation, then a public/private partnership with the remaining large banks to launch a surveilled and controlled digital currency network. We will be told it is more convenient. We will be told it is safer. We will be told it will prevent future bank runs. All of that is marketing bullshit. The goal is greater control of money. The ability to choose how we spend it and how we save it. If you control the money - you control the people that use it.
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-11 04:26:09Marty's Bent
Sup, freaks? Your Uncle Marty did a little vibe coding a couple months ago and that vibe coding project has turned into an actual product that is live in the Google Chrome web store and will soon to be live in the Firefox add-on store as well. It's called Opportunity Cost and it is an extension that enables you to price the internet in Bitcoin.
Opportunity Cost – See Prices in Bitcoin Instantly
Check it out!
This whole process has been extremely rewarding to me for many reasons. The first of which is that I've had many ideas in the past to launch a product focused on bitcoin education that simply never left my brain because I never felt comfortable paying a developer to go out and build a product that I wasn't sure would ultimately get product market fit.
Due to the advancements of AI, particularly ChatGPT and Replit, I was able to spend a few hours on a Saturday vibe coding a prototype for Opportunity Cost. It worked. I side loaded it into Chrome and Firefox, tested it out for a few days and decided, "Hey, I think this is something that's worthwhile and should be built."
Backtracking just a little bit, the initial idea for this app was to create an AR application that would enable you to take pictures of goods in the real world and have their prices automatically converted to bitcoin so that you could weigh the opportunity cost of whether or not you actually wanted to buy that good or decide to save in bitcoin instead. With the help of Justin Moon from the Human Rights Foundation and Anthony Ronning from OpenSecret and Maple AI, I was pointed in the right direction of vibe coding tools I could use to build a simple MVP. I took their advice, built the MVP, and demoed it at the Bitcoin Park Austin weekly AI meetup in mid-April.
The next week, I was talking with a friend, Luke Thomas, about the idea and during our conversation he made a simple quip, "You should make a Chrome extension. I really want a Chrome extension that does this." And that's what sent me down the vibe coding rabbit hole that Saturday which led to the prototype.
After I was comfortable with and confident in the prototype, I found a young hungry developer by the name of Moses on Nostr, I reached out to him, told him my idea, showed him the prototype and asked if he thought he could finish the application for me. He luckily agreed to do so and within a couple of weeks we had a fully functioning app that was officially launched today. We're about 12 hours into the launch and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception from the broader Bitcoin community. It seems like something that people are happy exists and I feel extremely happy that people see some value in this particular application.
Now that you have the backstory, let's get into why I think something like Opportunity Cost should exist. As someone who's been writing a newsletter and producing podcasts about bitcoin for eight years in an attempt to educate individuals from around the world about what bitcoin is, why it's important, and how they can leverage it, I've become convinced that a lot of the work that needs to be done still exists at the top of the funnel. You can scream at people. You can grab them by the shoulders. You can shake them. You can remind them at Thanksgiving that if they had listened to your advice during any Thanksgiving in the previous years they would be better off financially. But at the end of the day most people don't listen. They need to see things. Seeing things for yourself is a much more effective teaching mechanism than be lectured to by someone else.
My hope with Opportunity Cost is that it catches the eye of some bitcoin skeptics or individuals who may be on the cusp of falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole and they see the extension as a way to dip their toes into bitcoin to get a better understanding of the world by pricing the goods and services they purchase on a day-to-day month-to-month and year-to-year basis in bitcoin without having to download a wallet or set up an exchange account. The tippy top of the bitcoin marketing funnel.
That is not all though. I think Opportunity Cost can serve individuals at both ends of the funnel. That's why it's pretty exciting to me. It's as valuable to the person who is bitcoin curious and looking to get a better understanding as it is to the hardcore bitcoiner living on a bitcoin standard who is trying to get access to better tools that enable him to get a better grasp of their spending in bitcoin terms.
Lastly, after playing around with it for a few days after I built the prototype, I realized that it has incredible memetic potential. Being able to take a screenshot of goods that people are buying on a day-to-day basis, pricing them in bitcoin and then sharing them on social media is very powerful. Everything from houses to junk items on Amazon to the salaries of pro athletes to your everyday necessities. Seeing the value of those things in bitcoin really makes you think.
One day while I was testing the app, I tried to see how quickly I could find goods on the internet that cumulatively eclipsed the 21 million supply cap limit of bitcoin. To my surprise, even though I've been in bitcoin for 12 years now, it did not take me that long. The opportunity cost of everything I buy on a day-to-day basis becomes very clear when using the extension. What's even clearer is the fact that Bitcoin is completely mispriced at current levels. There is so much winning ahead of us.
Also, it's probably important to note that the extension is completely open source with an MIT license. You can check out our GitHub page here. Submit pull requests. Suggest changes to the app. Fork it. Use it yourself. Make your own changes.
We've also tried to make Opportunity Cost as privacy preserving as possible. Everything within the extension happens in your browser. The only external data that we're providing is the bitcoin to fiat price conversion at any given point in time. We're not data harvesting the web pages you're browsing or the items you're looking at. We're not collecting data and sending it to third party marketers. We want to align ourselves with the open and permissionless nature of bitcoin while also preserving our users' privacy. We're not trying to monetize this in that way. Though, I will say that I'm thinking of ways to monetize Opportunity Cost if it does gain significant traction, but I promise it will be in a way that respects your privacy and is as unobtrusive as possible. We'll see how it goes.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please download and use the extension. Let us know what you think.
Headlines of the Day
Saylor Says Bitcoin Is Perfect Money to Jordan Peterson - via X
Trump Won't Sell Tesla Despite Musk-Bessent Heated Exchange - via X
Bitcoin Gains Traction in Kenya's Largest Slum Kibera - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?
Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.
Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.
Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.
Final thought...
East Coast aesthetics over everything.
Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: https://www.opportunitycost.app/ start thinking in SATS today.
Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-10 03:58:15Marty's Bent
via me
"The man in the coma" has been a long-running archetype of a bitcoiner on TFTC and Rabbit Hole Recap. Over the years, we've referenced the man in the coma in regards to bitcoin being a backward compatible distributed network that would enable an individual, in the case of our example - a man who fell into a coma, to be able to wake up many years, even decades, after falling into a deep sleep, go back to his bitcoin node and be able to participate in the network and validate his own transactions as if the network was operating the same it was the day he slipped into a coma. As a distributed network, this is one of bitcoin's greatest value props; consistency for the individual running it, no matter the version.
Having spent 12 years engrossed in bitcoin, thinking about it every day, building a media company focused on educating people about the network and the monetary revolution it enables, why it's important and how they can use it. Becoming a managing partner at Ten31, which is dedicated to investing in companies building out infrastructure that makes bitcoin more accessible and easier to use; "the man in the coma" has become a more prominent archetype in my mind.
"The man in the coma" archetype can be described in other ways. For instance, there was an individual by the name of John Doe, who joined myself and Matt Odell on TFTC about seven years ago who went to jail for four years. He was distributing certain goods on the Silk Road for many years and got nabbed by the police while throwing a house party. Unfortunately for Mr. Doe, the goods he were selling via the Silk Road were in the house hosting the party that got busted. Fortunately for Mr. Doe, the police who nabbed him were not privy to the way in which he was marketing and selling the goods. He went to jail for four years, walked out at the end of his sentence, found his bitcoin wallets, recovered them and was more than pleasantly surprised at the magnitude of his wealth.
The forced hodl that was incited by the state throwing him in a cage wound up paying off after four years. Now, I can certainly admit that time is the most scarce asset in the world. Being put in a cage for four years or falling into a coma for a number of years is not ideal. However, there are lessons to be gleaned from the successes that have been realized by "the man in the coma" and the man who was forced to hodl by being thrown in a cage. Unable to access his bitcoin during that period of time to make less than wise decisions.
The main lesson to be gleaned is that doing nothing is oftentimes significantly more optimal than doing something. Too many bitcoiners decide to make rash decisions influenced by the day-to-day happenings on social media or some one-off comment from someone in their personal life that they respect. These comments can be about the long-term viability of bitcoin itself, some prognostications about where the price is going in a short-term to medium-term time frame or simply the social aspects of being associated with bitcoin. All of these factors play into influencing certain individuals deciding to sell their bitcoin in the hopes of buying it back lower, realizing something material in their day-to-day life or jumping off a ship that they've been convinced is about to sink.
In my mind, the only thing listed above that makes a bit of sense to me is realizing something material in your day-to-day life. Selling some bitcoin to purchase something that makes your life better like enabling you to support your family at a critical time and in a way that would not be possible unless you sold bitcoin. That makes sense to me. However, the other two are completely nonsensical. Bitcoin's success is binary. It either succeeds or it doesn't. And if you accept that this is true, success means slowly but surely becoming the global reserve currency and monetary network used by billions of humans on the planet or it goes to zero.
If the former materializes, that means that billions of people are going to be competing for 21 million Bitcoin. There are, by some estimates, $900 trillion worth of assets that are being used to store wealth over the short, medium, and long term. Bitcoin has the potential to subsume a material percentage of that $900 trillion. In my mind, if bitcoin is as good as I believe it is, it should take at least half of that market, if not 80 to 90%. This in and of itself is a gamble. No one can be certain that this will come true. And with that in mind you have to make a probabilistic bet by surveying the world and discerning what the likelihood of bitcoin's ultimate success is.
If you think governments, central banks, and large corporations are going to continue down the path of unfettered expansion of the monetary base, debt, and misallocation of capital, bitcoin, a peer-to-peer distributed cash system that cannot be controlled by any individual. corporation, country, or central bank makes a lot of sense. The debasement, the debt expansion, and the misallocation of capital are driven by fallible humans working in incentive structures that are vulnerable to the fallible nature of the humans working within them.
Human fallibility brings with it the ability to talk oneself out of a position that one knows makes sense and is logical. This is the disadvantage that those who are not "the man in the coma" or "the man in a cage" operate from. Being forced to hodl bitcoin is already and will increasingly be seen as a relative advantage. Many who are in bitcoin today, paying attention to every headline, every pull request and every doubt flung their way will likely get to 2030 and agree that they made worse decisions than the man who was thrown in a cage or who slipped into a coma.
Of course, this isn't a fair introspective conclusion. The man in the coma and the man who was forced to hodl because he was put in a jail cell did not have a decision at the end of the day. Both were forced to hodl due to external or internal forces that, all else being equal, they would prefer not have had to endure. However, the outcome of these two situations will likely be better than the outcome of "the man in the arena" who thinks that by making decisions on the go as a slew of information comes his way on a day-to-day basis will materialize in a larger stack of satoshis.
The reality of the situation is such that no one truly knows where bitcoin is going to go on a day-to-day, month-to-month, or year-to-year basis. Especially at this point with large institutions, nation-states, corporations, and individual states getting into the fray. The only tried-and-true strategy within bitcoin over the long term is to stay humble, stack sats, and hodl like you are "the man in the coma" or the man who was thrown in a cage.
Bitcoin's Volatility Won't End With Institutional Adoption
Leon Wankum challenged the popular "supercycle" narrative during our conversation, arguing that Bitcoin's volatility isn't going away despite massive institutional adoption. While acknowledging that MicroStrategy now holds over 2% of all Bitcoin and won't sell, Leon maintains that leverage will still need to be washed out. He expects another 60% drawdown at the end of this bull cycle, viewing this as a feature rather than a bug of Bitcoin's design.
"Bitcoin naturally washes out leverage, it builds resilience and we don't go through these crazy boom and bust cycles, we go through bull and bear markets and I think that's a net positive." - Leon Wankum
Leon sees Bitcoin's volatility as fundamentally different from fiat's destructive boom-bust cycles. Where traditional markets require central bank intervention to prop up failing systems, Bitcoin's regular corrections create genuine resilience. Bad actors will always enter during euphoric phases, and the subsequent washouts ensure only strong hands remain. This natural selection process, he argues, is beautiful - it's what makes Bitcoin antifragile.
Check out the full podcast here for more on real estate opportunity costs, Bitcoin bonds, and treasury company risks.
Headlines of the Day
Romania Adds Crypto Terminals to Post Offices - via X
Musk Claims Trump in Epstein Files - via X
Uber CEO Calls Bitcoin Proven Store of Value - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Take the First Step Off the Exchange
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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.
Final thought...
The kids really do grow up faster than you expect.
Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:
-
@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d
2025-06-16 06:01:49CANNES, 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 -
@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5
2025-06-16 13:02:03Key Takeaways
Michael Goldstein, aka Bitstein, presents a sweeping philosophical and economic case for going “all in” on Bitcoin, arguing that unlike fiat, which distorts capital formation and fuels short-term thinking, Bitcoin fosters low time preference, meaningful saving, and long-term societal flourishing. At the heart of his thesis is “hodling for good”—a triple-layered idea encompassing permanence, purpose, and the pursuit of higher values like truth, beauty, and legacy. Drawing on thinkers like Aristotle, Hoppe, and Josef Pieper, Goldstein redefines leisure as contemplation, a vital practice in aligning capital with one’s deepest ideals. He urges Bitcoiners to think beyond mere wealth accumulation and consider how their sats can fund enduring institutions, art, and architecture that reflect a moral vision of the future.
Best Quotes
“Let BlackRock buy the houses, and you keep the sats.”
“We're not hodling just for the sake of hodling. There is a purpose to it.”
“Fiat money shortens your time horizon… you can never rest.”
“Savings precedes capital accumulation. You can’t build unless you’ve saved.”
“You're increasing the marginal value of everyone else’s Bitcoin.”
“True leisure is contemplation—the pursuit of the highest good.”
“What is Bitcoin for if not to make the conditions for magnificent acts of creation possible?”
“Bitcoin itself will last forever. Your stack might not. What will outlast your coins?”
“Only a whale can be magnificent.”
“The market will sell you all the crack you want. It’s up to you to demand beauty.”
Conclusion
This episode is a call to reimagine Bitcoin as more than a financial revolution—it’s a blueprint for civilizational renewal. Michael Goldstein reframes hodling as an act of moral stewardship, urging Bitcoiners to lower their time preference, build lasting institutions, and pursue truth, beauty, and legacy—not to escape the world, but to rebuild it on sound foundations.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Michael’s BBB presentation Hodl for Good
07:27 - Austrian principles on capital
15:40 - Fiat distorts the economic process
23:34 - Bitkey
24:29 - Hodl for Good triple entendre
29:52 - Bitcoin benefits everyone
39:05 - Unchained
40:14 - Leisure theory of value
52:15 - Heightening life
1:15:48 - Breaking from the chase makes room for magnificence
1:32:32 - Nakamoto Institute’s missionTranscript
(00:00) Fiat money is by its nature a disturbance. If money is being continually produced, especially at an uncertain rate, these uh policies are really just redistribution of wealth. Most are looking for number to go up post hyper bitcoinization. The rate of growth of bitcoin would be more reflective of the growth of the economy as a whole.
(00:23) Ultimately, capital requires knowledge because it requires knowing there is something that you can add to the structures of production to lengthen it in some way that will take time but allow you to have more in the future than you would today. Let Black Rockck buy the houses and you keep the sats, not the other way around.
(00:41) You wait until later for Larry Frink to try to sell you a [Music] mansion. And we're live just like that. Just like that. 3:30 on a Friday, Memorial Day weekend. It's a good good good way to end the week and start the holiday weekend. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me here. Thank you for coming. I wore this hat specifically because I think it's I think it's very apppropo uh to the conversation we're going to have which is I hope an extension of the presentation you gave at Bitblock Boom Huddle for good. You were working on
(01:24) that for many weeks leading up to uh the conference and explaining how you were structuring it. I think it's a very important topic to discuss now as the Bitcoin price is hitting new all-time highs and people are trying to understand what am I doing with Bitcoin? Like you have you have the different sort of factions within Bitcoin.
(01:47) Uh get on a Bitcoin standard, get on zero, spend as much Bitcoin as possible. You have the sailors of the world are saying buy Bitcoin, never sell, die with your Bitcoin. And I think you do a really good job in that presentation. And I just think your understanding overall of Bitcoin is incredible to put everything into context. It's not either or.
(02:07) It really depends on what you want to accomplish. Yeah, it's definitely there there is no actual one-sizefits-all um for I mean nearly anything in this world. So um yeah, I mean first of all I mean there was it was the first conference talk I had given in maybe five years. I think the one prior to that uh was um bit block boom 2019 which was my meme talk which uh has uh become infamous and notorious.
(02:43) So uh there was also a lot of like high expectations uh you know rockstar dev uh has has treated that you know uh that that talk with a lot of reference. a lot of people have enjoyed it and he was expecting this one to be, you know, the greatest one ever, which is a little bit of a little bit of a uh a burden to live up to those kinds of standards.
(03:08) Um, but you know, because I don't give a lot of talks. Um, you know, I I I like to uh try to bring ideas that might even be ideas that are common. So, something like hodling, we all talk about it constantly. uh but try to bring it from a little bit of a different angle and try to give um a little bit of uh new light to it.
(03:31) I alsove I've I've always enjoyed kind of coming at things from a third angle. Um whenever there's, you know, there's there's all these little debates that we have in in Bitcoin and sometimes it's nice to try to uh step out of it and look at it a little more uh kind of objectively and find ways of understanding it that incorporate the truths of of all of them.
(03:58) uh you know cuz I think we should always be kind of as much as possible after ultimate truth. Um so with this one um yeah I was kind of finding that that sort of golden mean. So uh um yeah and I actually I think about that a lot is uh you know Aristotle has his his concept of the golden mean. So it's like any any virtue is sort of between two vices um because you can you can always you can always take something too far.
(04:27) So you're you're always trying to find that right balance. Um so someone who is uh courageous you know uh one of the vices uh on one side is being basically reckless. I I can't remember what word he would use. Uh but effectively being reckless and just wanting to put yourself in danger for no other reason than just you know the thrill of it.
(04:50) Um and then on the other side you would just have cowardice which is like you're unwilling to put yourself um at any risk at any time. Um, and courage is right there in the middle where it's understanding when is the right time uh to put your put yourself, you know, in in the face of danger um and take it on. And so um in some sense this this was kind of me uh in in some ways like I'm obviously a partisan of hodling.
(05:20) Um, I've for, you know, a long time now talked about the, um, why huddling is good, why people do it, why we should expect it. Um, but still trying to find that that sort of golden mean of like yes, huddle, but also what are we hodling for? And it's not we're we're not hodddling just merely for the sake of hodddling.
(05:45) There there is a a purpose to it. And we should think about that. And that would also help us think more about um what are the benefits of of spending, when should we spend, why should we spend, what should we spend on um to actually give light to that sort of side of the debate. Um so that was that was what I was kind of trying to trying to get into.
(06:09) Um, as well as also just uh at the same time despite all the talk of hodling, there's always this perennial uh there's always this perennial dislike of hodlers because we're treated as uh as if um we're just free riding the network or we're just greedy or you know any of these things. And I wanted to show how uh huddling does serve a real economic purpose.
(06:36) Um, and it does benefit the individual, but it also does uh it it has actual real social um benefits as well beyond merely the individual. Um, so I wanted to give that sort of defense of hodling as well to look at it from um a a broader position than just merely I'm trying to get rich. Um uh because even the person who uh that is all they want to do um just like you know your your pure number grow up go up moonboy even that behavior has positive ramifications on on the economy.
(07:14) And while we might look at them and have uh judgments about their particular choices for them as an individual, we shouldn't discount that uh their actions are having positive positive effects for the rest of the economy. Yeah. So, let's dive into that just not even in the context of Bitcoin because I think you did a great job of this in the presentation.
(07:36) just you've done a good job of this consistently throughout the years that I've known you. Just from like a first principles Austrian economics perspective, what is the idea around capital accumulation, low time preference and deployment of that capital like what what like getting getting into like the nitty-gritty and then applying it to Bitcoin? Yeah, it's it's a big question and um in many ways I mean I I even I barely scratched the surface.
(08:05) uh I I can't claim to have read uh all the volumes of Bombber works, you know, capital and interest and and stuff like that. Um but I think there's some some sort of basic concepts that we can look at that we can uh draw a lot out. Um the first uh I guess let's write that. So repeat so like capital time preference. Yeah. Well, I guess getting more broad like why sav -
@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-04 20:58:53Marty'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
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.
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@ a8d1560d:3fec7a08
2025-06-16 00:58:00THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!
After the wave of word-scrambling spam bots, a new and very problematic kind of spam has arrived in the Nostr. Whenever you post something now, you will get gay porn videos as an automated answer (No, being gay itself is not problematic!!!). To get rid of all the automated spam, remove the following relays from your inbox and outbox relay list: - nos.lol - relay.damus.io - nostr.oxtr.dev - relay.primal.net
As long as you have even one of these relays in your inbox and outbox lists, you and your followers will be spammed whenever posting something.
It is unknown if the bots only reply to kind 1 events or to all events.
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@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5
2025-06-16 15:02:53The political landscape around Bitcoin is shifting rapidly, and this week's conversations reveal critical developments that could reshape the industry. From legislative battles to institutional adoption, here are the key predictions that emerged from recent episodes.
Bitcoin Will Transform Government Spending Incentives and Reverse Institutional Rot - Ken Egan
Ken Egan predicts that Bitcoin adoption will fundamentally restructure how government institutions operate, forcing fiscal responsibility through unchangeable monetary constraints. "Right now, in a lot of federal agencies... there's no incentive not to spend. The incentive is to spend and protect your budgets," he explained, describing the current system where agencies rush to exhaust budgets to maintain future allocations. Ken believes Bitcoin's fixed supply will make this behavior untenable, creating "a sense of responsibility" and bringing "value back to dollars." He sees this transformation as inevitable once Bitcoin becomes integrated into national strategy, making the "drift toward statism, soft authoritarianism, censorship" incompatible with Bitcoin's core properties. Drawing from his 20 years in government, including his role at the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence, Ken argues that Bitcoin will either "capture institutions" or be captured by them - and he's betting on Bitcoin winning. This institutional transformation represents a return to pre-9/11 values of sovereignty and financial freedom that he believes still resonate within the national security establishment.
Non-Custodial Lightning Will Achieve 99.9% Reliability Within 12 Months - Matt Corallo
Matt Corallo predicts that non-custodial Lightning wallets will become as reliable as centralized solutions within the next six to twelve months. This transformation hinges on recent technical breakthroughs, particularly zero-fee commitment transactions that solve Lightning's long-standing fee estimation problem. "Finally, after years of work, we can replace this whole scheme that we had with something that doesn't randomly break all the time," Matt explained. He believes the combination of improved payment reliability, splicing standardization, and graduated wallet models (starting custodial for small amounts, then automatically transitioning to non-custodial) will make Lightning competitive with traditional payment systems. Block's C=Lightning node already demonstrates this potential, generating a 9.7% annualized yield on locked Bitcoin. Matt emphasized that with the language protecting non-custodial wallets potentially being included in the market structure bill, we're approaching a tipping point where Lightning becomes the default Bitcoin transaction layer for everyday use.
The Blockchain Regulatory Clarity Act Must Pass This Year or Face Severe Industry Consequences
Matt warns that without passing the Blockchain Regulatory Clarity Act (BRCA) or incorporating its language into the current market structure bill, the U.S. risks driving all Bitcoin innovation offshore. The urgency is palpable - Phoenix wallet already left the U.S. market after the Samurai arrests, and developers remain terrified of prosecution. "We need the law to be super clear so that big players who have lots of capital, have lots of technical expertise... can do so without fear of criminal prosecution," Matt emphasized. The current window represents the best opportunity in years, with the BRCA language now included in Section 110 of the market structure bill heading for markup. If this fails, Matt predicts the next administration could resurrect the aggressive enforcement approach, potentially making the U.S. join "North Korea, Iran, Russia, Crimea" on the list of countries where Bitcoin services refuse to operate. The stakes couldn't be higher for maintaining America's Bitcoin dominance.
The message is clear: call your representatives at SaveOurWallets.org and make your voice heard. The next few weeks will determine whether America leads or lags in the Bitcoin revolution.
Blockspace conducts cutting-edge proprietary research for investors.
Bitcoin Could See 4,066,047 BTC Institutional Wave by 2026, Breaking Traditional Market Cycles
Professional investors pulled $6.2 billion from U.S. bitcoin ETFs in Q1 2025, marking the first institutional retreat since the products launched. Holdings dropped 23% to $21.2 billion, outpacing bitcoin's 11% price decline and the broader ETF market's 12% dip.
Hedge funds led the exodus, slashing exposure by one-third as the lucrative basis trade unwound when bitcoin futures lost their premium. These tactical traders, managing shorter-term capital, predictably fled when easy profits dried up.
Yet beneath the headline numbers lies a bullish shift: investment advisors managing long-term client portfolios actually increased their bitcoin holdings. They now control 50% of all institutional ETF assets, up from 42% last quarter, and represent 81% of professional filers.
Major players are betting bigger. BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and Macquarie added $559 million combined. Brown University opened an endowment position. The UAE's Mubadala sovereign wealth fund expanded to $411 million.
With institutional allocations still averaging under 1% and corporations increasing BTC holdings 20% this year, the pullback looks less like a reversal and more like healthy repositioning. The smart money isn't leaving—it's consolidating.
Subscribe to them here (seriously, you should): https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com/
Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150M 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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@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d
2025-06-16 15:02:33BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has become the fastest exchange-traded fund (ETF) to ever reach $70 billion in assets under management (AUM).
The fund, which launched in January 2024, hit this milestone in just 341 trading days—five times faster than the previous record-holder, the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD), which took 1,691 days to reach the same mark.
IBIT now holds over 662,000 BTC — iShares
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted on June 9, “IBIT just blew through $70 billion and is now the fastest ETF to ever hit that mark in only 341 days.” This is a big deal and shows bitcoin is going mainstream.
IBIT has beaten fastest growing ETFs in history — Eric Balchunas on X
The fund’s rapid growth means institutional investors are embracing bitcoin at scale.
The fund has $71.9 billion in AUM and holds over 662,000 bitcoin. This makes BlackRock the largest institutional bitcoin holder in the world. To put that in perspective, the fund holds more bitcoin than Binance or Michael Saylor’s Strategy.
“IBIT’s growth is unprecedented,” said Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart. “It’s the fastest ETF to reach most milestones, faster than any other ETF in any asset class.”
BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF isn’t just big. It’s also greatly outperforming other spot bitcoin ETFs launched at the same time. BlackRock’s brand and global client base gave the fund instant credibility.
Many institutional investors want a regulated and convenient way to get into bitcoin without holding the asset directly, and this fund has made it easy for them to invest.
Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, told Yahoo Finance that bitcoin’s rising status as an inflation hedge and alternative store of value is driving IBIT’s popularity.
He explained bitcoin is becoming an inflation hedge and alternative store of value and that’s what’s driving the growth.
Eric Balchunas also noted that when BlackRock filed for IBIT, bitcoin was at $30,000 and there was still skepticism after the FTX blowup. Now that bitcoin is at $110,000, it is “seen as legitimate for other big investors.”
Institutional demand for bitcoin has never been stronger, with IBIT making up nearly 20% of all bitcoin held by public companies, private firms, governments, exchanges and decentralized finance platforms.
That dominance may soon be challenged as public companies prepare to buy more bitcoin and shake up the current supply distribution.
Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital assets research, shared data that six public companies plan to raise, or have raised, up to $76 billion to buy bitcoin. That’s more than half of the spot Bitcoin ETF industry’s current AUM, so there’s clearly interest beyond ETFs.
On the broader market, IBIT’s rise coincided with bitcoin’s price surge to new highs above $110,000. The inflows reflect investors’ confidence in Bitcoin’s future and desire for regulated exposure through traditional products.
It’s worth mentioning that IBIT also had over $1 billion in volume on its first day of trading. It’s now the largest ETF in BlackRock’s lineup, even bigger than gold funds and other popular ETFs tracking international equities.
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-04 01:37:37Marty's Bent
via nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqy0hwumn8ghj7mn0wd68yttjv4kxz7fwvf5hgcm0d9hzumnfde4xzqpq85h9z5yxn8uc7retm0n6gkm88358lejzparxms5kmy9epr236k2qtyz2zr
A lot of the focus over the last couple of months has been on the emergence of Strategy competitors in public markets looking to build sizable bitcoin treasuries and attract investors of all shapes and sizes to drive shareholder value. The other big topic in the bitcoin development world has been around OP_RETURN and the debate over whether or not the amount of data that can be shoved into a bitcoin transaction should be decided by the dominant implementation.
A topic that is just as, if not more, important that is not getting enough appreciation is the discussion around open source bitcoin developers and the lingering effects of the Biden administration's attack on Samourai Wallet and Tornado Cash. If you read our friend Matt Corallo's tweet above, you'll notice that the lingering effects are such that even though the Trump administration has made concerted efforts to reverse the effects of Operation Chokepoint 2.0 that were levied by the Biden administration, Elizabeth Warren, and her friends at the Treasury and SEC - it is imperative that we enshrine into law the rights of open source developers to build products and services that enable individuals to self-custody bitcoin and use it in a peer-to-peer fashion without the threat of getting thrown in jail cell.
As it stands today, the only assurances that we have are from an administration that is overtly in favor of the proliferation of bitcoin in the United States. There is nothing in place to stop the next administration or another down the line from reverting to Biden-era lawfare that puts thousands of bitcoin developers around the world at risk of being sent into a cage because the government doesn't like how some users leverage the code they write. To make sure that this isn't a problem down the line it is imperative that we pass the Blockchain Regulatory Clarity Act, which would not hold bitcoin developers liable for the ways in which end users leverage their tools.
Not only is this an act that would protect developers from pernicious government officials targeting them when end users use their technology in a way that doesn't make the government happy, it will also protect YOU, the end user, looking to transact in a peer-to-peer fashion and leverage all of the incredible properties of bitcoin the way they were meant to be. If the developers are not protected, they will not be able to build the technology that enables you to leverage bitcoin.
So do your part and go to saveourwallets.org. Reach out to your local representatives in Congress and Senators and make some noise. Let them know that this is something that you care deeply about and that they should not only pay attention to this bill but push it forward and enshrine it into law as quickly as possible.
There are currently many developers either behind bars or under house arrest for developing software that gives you the ability to use Bitcoin in a self-sovereign fashion and use it in a privacy-preserving way. Financial privacy isn't a crime. It is an inalienable human right that should be protected at all cost. The enshrinement of this inalienable right into law is way past due.
#FreeSamourai #FreeRoman
Headlines of the Day
MicroStrategy Copycats See Speculative Premiums Fade - via X
Square Tests Bitcoin Payments, Lightning Yields Beat DeFi - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Bitfinex Moves $731M Bitcoin to Jack Mallers' Fund - via X
Take the First Step Off the Exchange
Bitkey is an easy, secure way to move your Bitcoin into self-custody. With simple setup and built-in recovery, it’s the perfect starting point for getting your coins off centralized platforms and into cold storage—no complexity, no middlemen.
Take control. Start with Bitkey.
Use the promo code “TFTC20” during checkout for 20% off
Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.
Final thought...
Should I join a country club?
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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7
2025-06-16 09:01:16Paris, France – June 6, 2025 – Flash, the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses, just announced a new partnership with the Bitcoin Only Brewery, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Flash for seamless Bitcoin payments.
Bitcoin Buys Beer Thanks to Flash!
As Co-Founder of Flash, it's not every day we get to toast to a truly refreshing milestone.
Okay, jokes aside.
We're super buzzed to see our friends at @Drink_B0B
Bitcoin Only Brewery using Flash to power their online sales!The first… pic.twitter.com/G7TWhy50pX
— Pierre Corbin (@CierrePorbin) June 3, 2025
Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack – shipping included.
The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.
Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented: “Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”
Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept Bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.
By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.
Bitcoin payment usage is growing thanks to Lightning
In May, fast-food chain Steak ‘N Shake went viral for integrating bitcoin at their restaurants around the world. In the same month, the bitcoin2025 conference in Las Vegas set a new world record with 4,000 Lightning payments in one day.
According to a report by River Intelligence, public Lightning payment volume surged by 266% from August 2023 to August 2024. This growth is also reflected in the overall accessibility of lighting infrastructure for consumers. According to Lightning Service Provider Breez, over 650 Million users now have access to the Lightning Network through apps like CashApp, Kraken or Strike.
Bitcoin Only Brewery’s adoption of Flash reflects the growing trend of businesses integrating Bitcoin payments to cater to a global, privacy-conscious customer base. By offering no-KYC delivery across Europe, the brewery aligns with the ethos of decentralization and financial sovereignty, appealing to the increasing number of consumers and businesses embracing Bitcoin as a legitimate payment method.
“Flash is committed to driving innovation in the Bitcoin ecosystem,” Corbin added. “We’re building a future where businesses of all sizes can seamlessly integrate Bitcoin payments, unlocking new opportunities in the global market. It’s never been easier to start selling in bitcoin and we invite retailers globally to join us in this revolution.”
For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.
About Flash
Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.
About Bitcoin Only Brewery
Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.
Media Contact:
Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.comPhotos paywithflash.com/about/pressHow Flash Enables Interoperable, Self-Custodial Bitcoin Commerce
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@ a5ee4475:2ca75401
2025-06-06 15:30:41[EM ATUALIZAÇÃO]
vacina #saude #politica #manipulacao #mundial #genocidio #pandemia #conspiracao
"Aqueles que não conseguem lembrar o passado estão condenados a repeti-lo." - George Satayana
Este artigo reúne algumas menções e evidências mais antigas que vim registrando durante alguns anos em relação a Covid-19, vacinas obrigatórias e a ação de agências de governo, fundações, políticos, mídia tradicional, celebridades, influenciadores, cientistas, redes sociais e laboratórios, em envolvimento com genocídio e restrições de liberdades em escala mundial causado por decisões em várias esferas relativas ao covid e as vacinas obrigatórias em geral.
Porém, alguns links podem não estar mais disponíveis, foram que ainda faltam ser registradas muitas informações já divulgadas nos últimos anos e que muitos não tiveram contato pela escassez de meios para a obtenção dessas informações de forma organizada.
Portanto, o presente artigo ainda passará por atualizações de conteúdo e formatação. Logo, se possível, ajudem sugerindo complementos ou alterações, ou com doações.
Noções iniciais:
- O termo 'Coronavírus' (COVID) é na verdade um nome genérico para vários vírus de gripes já comuns, dado para o tipo corona (com uma "coroa", 'espetos' ao redor dele), o Sars-Cov-2 (que passou a ser chamado erroneamente só de Covid), é só um deles.
- SARS-CoV-2 é que é nome do vírus. Ele que causa a doença Covid-19;
- O coronavírus SARS-CoV-2 é o segundo tipo de SARS-CoV documentado, o primeiro ocorreu entre 2002 e 2003, se originando também da China e também dito como tendo origem animal;
- SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) - Síndrome Respiratória Aguda Grave (SRAG) é a uma doença respiratória viral, relatada ser de origem zoonótica (animal), causada pelos coronavírus SARS-CoV (2002) e SARS-CoV-2 (2019), ambos de origem chinesa;
1. Vacinas Obrigatórias em Geral
23/01/2025 - [Pesquisa] Vacinas nos EUA causando autismo em crianças https://publichealthpolicyjournal.com/vaccination-and-neurodevelopmental-disorders-a-study-of-nine-year-old-children-enrolled-in-medicaid/
- O CDC admite que 98 milhões de pessoas receberam o vírus do câncer através da vacina da Poliomielite https://medicinanews.com.br/frente/frente_1/o-cdc-admite-que-98-milhoes-de-pessoas-receberam-o-virus-do-cancer-atraves-da-vacina-poliomielite/
"O CDC (Os Centros de Controle e Prevenção de Doenças dos Estados Unidos) removeu rapidamente uma página do seu site, que estava em cache no Google, como você pode ver logo abaixo, admitindo que mais de 98 milhões de americanos receberam uma ou mais doses de vacina contra pólio dentro de 8 período entre 1955 e 1963, quando uma proporção da vacina foi contaminada com um poliomavírus causador de câncer chamado SV40."
Fonte original da imagem: https://preventdisease.com/images13/CDC_Polio.png [indisponível] - A imagem foi trocada por outra de menor qualidade e em outro link, mas eu já tinha a imagem original salva.
Imagem arquivada em: https://web.archive.org/web/20201203231640/
27/02/2021 - Por que o Japão demorou para vacinar, mesmo com Olimpíada se aproximando https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/internacional/2021/02/27/por-que-o-japao-demorou-para-vacinar-mesmo-com-olimpiada-se-aproximando
"Desconfiança da população japonesa em relação a vacinas, ligada a casos ocorridos no passado, está entre razões que atrasaram imunização no país.
A resistência à vacina do Japão remonta à década de 1970, quando duas crianças morreram dentro de 24 horas após receberem a vacina combinada contra difteria, tétano e coqueluche (coqueluche). A vacina foi temporariamente suspensa, mas a confiança já havia sido abalada. Por vários anos, as taxas de vacinação infantil caíram, levando a um aumento nos casos de tosse convulsa.
No final dos anos 1980, houve outro susto com a introdução da vacina tripla contra sarampo, caxumba e rubéola produzida no Japão. As primeiras versões do imunizante foram associadas à meningite asséptica, ou inchaço das membranas ao redor do cérebro e da medula espinhal. O problema foi rastreado até o componente caxumba da vacina tripla, o que levou a uma ação judicial e a indenização por danos pesados.
O Instituto Nacional de Ciências da Saúde interrompeu a dose combinada em 1993 e a substituiu por vacinas individuais. Após o escândalo, Shibuya disse que o governo japonês se tornou "ciente dos riscos" e seu programa nacional de vacinação tornou-se voluntário.
O Dr. Yuho Horikoshi, especialista em doenças infecciosas, diz que os processos levaram a uma "lacuna de vacinação", em que nenhuma vacina foi aprovada no Japão por cerca de 15 anos.
Mais recentemente, em 2013, o Japão adicionou a vacina contra o papilomavírus humano (HPV) ao calendário nacional para proteger as meninas contra o vírus sexualmente transmissível, que é conhecido por causar câncer cervical. No entanto, vídeos de meninas supostamente sofrendo de reações adversas começaram a circular no YouTube, levando o governo a retirá-los da programação nacional."
2. PRIMEIRAS OCORRÊNCIAS PREDITIVAS AO COVID-19
2002 - Síndrome respiratória aguda grave (SARS) Brenda L. Tesini (setembro de 2018). Síndrome respiratória aguda grave (SARS) [indisponível]. Manual Merck. Consultado em 23 de janeiro de 2020, citado no Wikipedia
SARS - Wikipédia: "A SARS [doença do vírus SARS-CoV] foi detectada pela primeira vez no fim de 2002 na China. Entre 2002 e 2003, um surto da doença resultou em mais de 8 000 casos e cerca de 800 mortes em todo o mundo."
2010 - Fundação Rockfeller, Lockstep. https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/Annual-Report-2010-1.pdf
Neste PDF da fundação Rockfeller, em seu próprio site, a fundação deixou claro o seu envolvimento em casos de ‘contenção’ de pandemias juntamente com a USAID (agência americana com nome ambíguo, como formalmente ‘United States Agency for International Development’, mas soando como ‘US Socorre’, mas sendo um braço do governo democrata que financiava interferências políticas diretas em vários países, como em intervenções no Brasil ), inclusive em relacionadas ao SARS, o mesmo sintoma dos coronavírus Sars-Cov e Sars-Cov-2 (o vírus propagado em 2019) e que causa o COVID-19.
Segundo eles:
“Integração entre Regiões e Países
A Fundação Rockefeler investiu US$ 22 milhões em sua Iniciativa de Redes de Vigilância de Doenças para ajudar a conter a disseminação de doenças infecciosas e pandemias, fortalecendo os sistemas nacionais, regionais e globais de vigilância e resposta a doenças. Dois programas-chave da Rockefeler — a Rede de Vigilância de Doenças da Bacia do Mekong e a Rede Integrada de Vigilância de Doenças da África Oriental — conectaram e capacitaram profissionais de saúde, epidemiologistas e autoridades de saúde pública em toda a região, levando a um aumento de seis vezes nos locais de vigilância de doenças transfronteiriças somente nos últimos três anos. Em 2010, a Rockefeler expandiu a bem-sucedida campanha transdisciplinar One Health, que a USAID e o Banco Asiático de Desenvolvimento adotaram como modelos. One Health refere-se à integração da ciência médica e veterinária para combater essas novas variedades de doenças zoonóticas que se movem e sofrem mutações rapidamente de animais para humanos. Essas colaborações criaram e fortaleceram uma rede regional crítica de saúde pública, enquanto as lições aprendidas foram exportadas entre disciplinas e países. Além de fortalecer os laços globais em saúde pública, a Rockefeler ajudou a elevar o nível de especialização e treinamento em campo. O Programa de Treinamento em Epidemiologia de Campo coloca graduados nos mais altos escalões do governo no Laos e no Vietnã, enquanto as bolsas da Rockefeler transformaram as ferramentas disponíveis para os médicos, permitindo-lhes utilizar o poder da internet para se comunicar e monitorar eventos, compreender contextos locais e analisar novos problemas. Finalmente, estamos aplicando ferramentas do século XXI para combater os desafios de saúde do século XXI.”
Julho de 2012 - Revista Mundo Estranho - Epidemias Citado em: https://super.abril.com.br/especiais/epidemia-o-risco-invisivel/
Página do site ME salva em Imagem no Voidcat
Houve uma ‘coincidência’, a revista Mundo Estranho em julho de 2012, entrevistou o até então doutorando em virologia, Átila Iamarino (do canal Nerdologia no Youtube - O mesmo cientista que fez diversas propagandas das vacinas no Brasil), para descrever um possível cenário de propagação de uma epidemia viral, a revista descreve com grande precisão os eventos de 2020, mas apontando o oposto da China, em que, na realidade, sua economia cresceu vertiginosamente.
Segundo eles:
“ 1 – A Ásia é o ponto de partida. Após várias mutações, um novo vírus surge hospedado em morcegos. As fezes que eles soltam no ar infectam guaxinins. Dos mercados da China, esses animais são levados vivos para serem abatidos em restaurantes. Estressados, eles arranham e mordem os cozinheiros, espalhando o vírus.
2 – O vírus adquire a capacidade de ser transmitido de homem para homem por via aérea – forma mais fácil de contágio. Além disso, o contágio se dá antes mesmo de o enfermo apresentar os sintomas. Assim, em média, o doente infecta cinco pessoas antes de ter febre, vômito, diarreia, desidratação e falta de ar.
3 – O governo chinês envia uma comissão para avaliar a doença misteriosa que acomete alguns vilarejos. A equipe volta sem resultados e não considera o surto alarmante até que três pesquisadores adoecem e um deles morre. A China não informa a Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS) para não demonstrar fragilidade.
4 – Os sintomas são comuns e a doença só chama a atenção quando muita gente começa a morrer na mesma região. Ainda assim, demora para que médicos e enfermeiros percebam a ineficiência de antibióticos na cura – o que exclui a maioria das bactérias como agente causador. Testes com vírus comuns também dão negativo.
5 – O governo isola comunidades em que há focos da doença. Ninguém entra nas cidades e nenhum doente pode sair. Mas, como a misteriosa enfermidade demora quatro dias para mostrar seus sintomas, muitos doentes saem dos vilarejos sem saber que estão infectados, alastrando a epidemia.
6 – Doentes viajam de avião para grandes cidades, como Hong Kong. O fervilhante centro comercial, que atrai gente do mundo todo, é um polo de contágio e disseminação. Sem imaginar o risco que correm, pessoas são contaminadas e, ao voltar para seu local de origem, carregam o vírus para todos os continentes.
7 – Com a doença já fora de controle, começa uma corrida entre laboratórios e cientistas de grandes universidades para descobrir o agente causador. Mesmo com o vírus isolado, as vacinas demoram para ser feitas em larga escala, tornando impossível o atendimento à demanda mundial.
8 – Os países se isolam, mantendo esquemas de quarentena. Aeroportos são fechados e o turismo mundial cai a quase zero. A China sofre as piores consequências, com o fluxo de empresários para Hong Kong suspenso – gerando prejuízos de bilhões de dólares – e com o boicote a produtos alimentícios vindos da Ásia.
9 – Além dos 10% de casos letais, os milhões de doentes precisam de atendimento médico. Enquanto hospitais e cemitérios estão lotados, escolas, indústrias e comércio ficam paralisados por falta de profissionais. O transporte público também para e os trabalhadores que podem passam a trabalhar em casa.
10 – Nas nações pobres, quase 20% da população morre – e outros milhões são vitimados mesmo em países ricos. Parte dessa mortalidade ocorre por causa da doença, mas outro fator determinante é a crise financeira global. A produção de alimentos cai por falta de mão de obra.
Fontes: A História e Suas Epidemias e Pandemias – A Humanidade em Risco, de Stefan Cunha Ujvari; Pragas e Epidemias – Histórias de Doenças Infecciosas, de Antonio Carlos de Castro Toledo Jr. Consultoria: Stefan Ujvari Cunha, infectologista do Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz; Paolo Zanotto, professor de virologia do Instituto de Ciências Biológicas (ICB) da USP; Átila Iamarino, doutorando em HIV-1 no ICB da USP. “
3. PRIMEIROS INDÍCIOS
10/2019 - Evento 201 - Durante os Jogos Militares Internacionais na China https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/
Promovido por: - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - John Hopkins Institute - Fórum econômico mundial
"O evento simula a liberação de um coronavírus novo do tipo zoonótico transmitido por morcegos para porcos e por fim para humanos. Eventualmente ele se torna muito transmissível entre humanos levando a uma pandemia severa. O vírus é muito parecido com o vírus da SARS, mas se transmite muito mais facilmente entre pessoas devido a sintomas muito mais leves destas."
Também mencionado por: Jornal Estadão
Sobre o "Movimento antivacina"
05/12/2017 - Movimento antivacina: como surgiu e quais consequências ele pode trazer? https://www.uol.com.br/universa/noticias/redacao/2017/12/05/o-que-o-movimento-antivacina-pode-causar.htm?cmpid=copiaecola
23/03/2019 - "Instagram bloqueia hashtags e conteúdo antivacinação" https://canaltech.com.br/redes-sociais/instagram-bloqueia-hashtags-e-conteudo-antivacinacao-135411/
23/05/2021 - Novos dados sobre pesquisadores de Wuhan aumentam debate sobre origens da Covid https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/saude/novos-dados-sobre-pesquisadores-de-wuhan-aumentam-debate-sobre-origens-da-covid/
"A China relatou à Organização Mundial da Saúde que o primeiro paciente com sintomas semelhantes aos de Covid-19 foi registrado em Wuhan em 8 de dezembro de 2019"
01/02/2020 - O que aconteceu desde que o novo coronavírus foi descoberto na China https://exame.com/ciencia/o-que-aconteceu-desde-que-o-novo-coronavirus-foi-descoberto-na-china/
"O primeiro alerta foi recebido pela Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS) em 31 de dezembro de 2019"
15/09/2020 - YouTube diz que vai remover vídeos com mentiras sobre vacina contra COVID-19 https://gizmodo.uol.com.br/youtube-remover-videos-mentiras-vacina-covid-19/
"O YouTube anunciou na quarta-feira (14) que estenderá as regras atuais sobre mentiras, propaganda e teorias da conspiração sobre a pandemia do coronavírus para incluir desinformação sobre as vacinas contra a doença.
De acordo com a Reuters, a gigante do vídeo diz que agora vai proibir conteúdos sobre vacinas contra o coronavírus que contradizem “o consenso de especialistas das autoridades de saúde locais ou da OMS”, como afirmações falsas de que a vacina é um pretexto para colocar chips de rastreamento nas pessoas ou que irá matar ou esterilizar quem tomar."
*07/01/2021 - YouTube vai punir canais que promovem mentiras sobre eleições – incluindo os de Trump https://olhardigital.com.br/2021/01/07/noticias/youtube-vai-punir-canais-que-promovem-mentiras-sobre-eleicoes-incluindo-os-de-trump/
"O YouTube anunciou que vai punir canais que promovem mentiras sobre as eleições, removendo sumariamente qualquer vídeo que contenha desinformação e, ao mesmo tempo, advertindo com um “strike” o canal que o veicular. A medida já está valendo e a primeira “vítima” é ninguém menos que o ex-presidente americano, Donald Trump.
A medida não é exatamente nova, mas foi novamente comunicada e reforçada pelo YouTube na quarta-feira (6), após os eventos de invasão do Capitólio, em Washington, onde o presidente eleito Joe Biden participava da cerimônia que confirmava a sua vitória nas eleições de novembro de 2020. A ocasião ficou marcada pela tentativa de invasão de correligionários de Trump, que entraram no edifício em oposição à nomeação do novo presidente. Uma mulher acabou sendo morta pela polícia que protegia o local.
O ex-presidente Donald Trump teve vídeos banidos de seu canal no YouTube após os eventos de ontem (6) no capitólio."
4. FIGURAS CENTRAIS
Bill Gates
- Bill Gates diz 'não' a abrir patentes de vacinas https://www.frontliner.com.br/bill-gates-diz-nao-a-abrir-patentes-de-vacinas/
"Bill Gates, um dos homens mais ricos do mundo, cuja fundação tem participação na farmacêutica alemã CureVac, produtora de vacina mRNA para prevenção de covid-19, disse não acreditar que a propriedade intelectual tenha algo a ver com o longo esforço global para controlar a pandemia."
João Doria - Governo de São Paulo
26/07/2017 - João Dória vai a China conhecer drones para ampliar segurança eletrônica na capital paulista https://jc.ne10.uol.com.br/blogs/jamildo/2017/07/26/joao-doria-vai-china-conhecer-drones-para-ampliar-seguranca-eletronica-na-capital-paulista/
02/08/2019 - Governo de SP fará Missão China para ampliar cooperação e atrair investimentos https://www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/spnoticias/governo-de-sao-paulo-detalha-objetivos-da-missao-china/
20/11/2019 - Doria se encontra com chineses das gigantes CREC e CRCC e oferece concessões de rodovia, metrô e ferrovia https://diariodotransporte.com.br/2019/11/20/doria-se-encontra-com-chineses-das-gigantes-crec-e-crcc-e-oferece-concessoes-de-rodovia-metro-e-ferrovia/
25/01/2020 - "Chineses serão agressivos" nas privatizações em SP até 2022, afirma Dória https://noticias.uol.com.br/colunas/jamil-chade/2020/01/25/entrevista-joao-doria-privatizacoes-sao-paulo-china.htm
O governador de São Paulo, João Doria, afirma que vai acelerar os programas de desestatização no estado em 2020 e acredita que concessões e vendas poderão permitir uma arrecadação de pelo menos R$ 40 bilhões. Nesse processo, o governador avalia que a China deve atuar de forma agressiva e que aprofundará sua posição de maior parceira comercial do estado, se distanciando de americanos e argentinos.
29/06/2020 - Doria estabelece multa para quem estiver sem máscara na rua em SP https://veja.abril.com.br/saude/doria-estabelece-multa-para-quem-estiver-sem-mascara-na-rua/
24/12/2020 - Doria é flagrado sem máscara e fazendo compras em Miami https://pleno.news/brasil/politica-nacional/doria-e-flagrado-sem-mascara-e-fazendo-compras-em-miami.html
"Foto do governador de São Paulo sem o item de proteção viralizou nas redes"
07/06/2021 - Doria é criticado na internet por tomar sol sem máscara em hotel no Rio https://vejasp.abril.com.br/cidades/doria-e-criticado-na-internet-por-tomar-sol-sem-mascara-em-hotel-no-rio/
30/09/2020 - Governo de SP assina contrato com Sinovac e prevê vacina para dezembro https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/saude/noticia/2020-09/governo-de-sp-assina-contrato-com-sinovac-e-preve-vacina-para-dezembro
O governador de São Paulo, João Doria, e o vice-presidente da laboratório chinês Sinovac, Weining Meng, assinaram hoje (30), um contrato que prevê o fornecimento de 46 milhões de doses da vacina CoronaVac para o governo paulista até dezembro deste ano.
O contrato também prevê a transferência tecnológica da vacina da Sinovac para o Instituto Butantan, o que significa que, o instituto brasileiro poderá começar a fabricar doses dessa vacina contra o novo coronavírus. O valor do contrato, segundo o governador João Doria é de US$ 90 milhões.
20/10/2020 - Coronavac terá mais de 90% de eficácia, afirmam integrantes do governo paulista https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/saude/2020/12/20/coronavac-tera-mais-de-90-de-eficacia-afirmam-integrantes-do-governo
24/10/2020 - Não esperamos 90% de eficácia da Coronavac’, diz secretário de saúde de SP https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/saude/2020/12/24/nao-esperamos-90-de-eficacia-da-coronavac-diz-secretario-de-saude-de-sp
07/01/2021 - Vacina do Butantan: eficácia é de 78% em casos leves e 100% em graves https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/saude/2021/01/07/vacina-do-butantan-eficacia-e-de-78-em-casos-leves-e-100-em-graves
09/01/2021 - Não é hora de sermos tão cientistas como estamos sendo agora https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/video/nao-e-hora-de-sermos-tao-cientistas-como-estamos-sendo-agora-diz-secretario-de-saude-de-sp-9166405.ghtml
10/01/2021 - Dados da Coronavac relatados à Anvisa não estão claros, diz médico https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/saude/2021/01/10/dados-da-coronavac-relatados-a-anvisa-nao-estao-claros-diz-medico
"O diretor do Laboratório de Imunologia do Incor, Jorge Kalil, reforçou que faltaram informações sobre a Coronavac nos dados divulgados à Anvisa"
12/01/2021 - New Brazil data shows disappointing 50,4% efficacy for China’s Coronavac vaccine [Novos dados do Brasil mostram eficácia decepcionante de 50,4% para a vacina CoronaVac da China] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-brazil-coronavirus/new-brazil-data-shows-disappointing-504-efficacy-for-chinas-coronavac-vaccine-idUSKBN29H2CE
13/01/2021 - Eficácia da Coronavac: 50,38%, 78% ou 100%? https://blogs.oglobo.globo.com/lauro-jardim/post/5038-78-ou-100.html
“De acordo com interlocutores que participaram tanto do anúncio de ontem como da semana passada, quem pressionou para que os dados de 78% e 100% fossem liberados foi João Dória.”
07/05/2021 - Covid-19: Doria toma primeira dose da vacina CoronaVac https://veja.abril.com.br/saude/covid-19-doria-toma-primeira-dose-da-vacina-coronavac/
04/06/2021 - Doria é vacinado com a segunda dose da CoronaVac em São Paulo https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2021/06/04/doria-e-vacinado-com-a-segunda-dose-da-coronavac-em-sao-paulo.htm
15/07/2021 - Doria testa positivo para a Covid-19 pela 2ª vez https://www.correiobraziliense.com.br/politica/2021/07/4937833-doria-testa-positivo-para-covid-19-pela-segunda-vez.html
"Governador de São Paulo já havia sido diagnosticado com a doença no ano passado. Ele diz que, apesar da infecção, se sente bem, o que atribui ao fato de ter sido vacinado com duas doses da Coronavac"
06/08/2021 - CPI recebe investigação contra Doria por compra de máscara sem licitação https://www.conexaopoder.com.br/nacional/cpi-recebe-investigacao-contra-doria-por-compra-de-mascara-sem-licitacao/150827
"Empresa teria usado o nome de Alexandre Frota para vender máscaras ao governo de SP. Doria nega informação"
Renan Filho
(filho do Renan Calheiros)
25/07/2019 - Governador Renan Filho vai à China em busca de investimentos para o estado https://www.tnh1.com.br/videos/vid/governador-renan-filho-vai-a-china-em-busca-de-investimentos-para-o-estado/
20/03/2020 - Governadores do NE consultam China e pedem material para tratar covid-19 https://noticias.uol.com.br/saude/ultimas-noticias/redacao/2020/03/20/governadores-do-ne-consultam-china-e-pedem-material-para-tratar-covid-19.htm
5. Narrativas, restrições e proibições
17/12/2020 - STF decide que vacina contra a covid pode ser obrigatória, mas não forçada https://noticias.uol.com.br/saude/ultimas-noticias/redacao/2020/12/17/stf-julga-vacinacao-obrigatoria.htm?cmpid=copiaecola
"O STF (Supremo Tribunal Federal) decidiu, em julgamento hoje, que o Estado pode determinar a obrigatoriedade da vacinação contra a covid-19. Porém fica proibido o uso da força para exigir a vacinação, ainda que possam ser aplicadas restrições a direitos de quem recusar a imunização.
Dez ministros foram favoráveis a obrigatoriedade da vacinação, que poderá ser determinada pelo governo federal, estados ou municípios. As penalidades a quem não cumprir a obrigação deverão ser definidas em lei."
27/07/2021 - Saiba que países estão adotando 'passaporte da vacina' para suspender restrições https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/internacional/2021/07/27/saiba-que-paises-estao-adotando-passaporte-da-vacina-para-suspender-restricoes
" - Israel - Uniao Europeia - Áustria - Dinamarca - Eslovênia - França - Grécia - Irlanda - Itália - Letônia - Lituânia - Luxemburgo - Holanda - Portugal - Japão - Coreia do sul"
18/06/2021 - O que é o passaporte da vacina que Bolsonaro quer vetar? https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2021/06/18/uol-explica-o-que-e-o-passaporte-da-vacina-que-opoe-bolsonaro-e-damares.htm
"O Brasil poderá ter um certificado de imunização futuramente. Aprovado no Senado na semana passada, o "passaporte da vacina", como é chamado, prevê identificar pessoas vacinadas para que entrem em locais públicos ou privados com possíveis restrições."
6. Vacinas
Alegações iniciais
- CoronaVac, Oxford e Pfizer: veja diferenças entre as vacinas contra covid noticias.uol.com.br/saude/ultimas-noticias/redacao/2021/05/11/diferencas-vacinas-covid-brasil.htm
" - CoronaVac (Butantan/Sinovac - Chinesa) Com virus inativo 50,38% de eficácia 2 doses
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Covishield - 'AstraZeneca' (Fiocruz/Astrazenica/Oxford - Britânica) Com virus não replicante 67% de eficácia 2 doses
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ComiRNAty - 'Pfizer' (Pfizer - Americana / BioNTech - Alemã) Com RNA mensageiro 96% de eficácia 2 doses"
Riscos diretos
15/06/2021 - Trombose após vacinação com AstraZeneca: Quais os sintomas e como se deve atuar? https://www.istoedinheiro.com.br/trombose-apos-vacinacao-com-astrazeneca-quais-os-sintomas-e-como-se-deve-atuar/
"Agências europeias estão reticentes com a vacina da AstraZeneca. Ela chegou a ser desaconselhada a pessoas com idade inferior a 60 anos, e um alto funcionário da Agência Europeia de Medicamentos declarou que era melhor deixar de administrar a vacina deste laboratório em qualquer idade quando há alternativas disponíveis, devido aos relatos de trombose após a primeira dose, apesar de raros."
11/05/2021 - CoronaVac, Oxford e Pfizer: veja diferenças entre as vacinas contra covid https://noticias.uol.com.br/saude/ultimas-noticias/redacao/2021/05/11/diferencas-vacinas-covid-brasil.htm
"Na terça-feira (12), o Ministério da Saúde determinou a suspensão da aplicação da vacina de Oxford/AstraZeneca para gestantes e puérperas com comorbidades. A decisão segue recomendação da Anvisa, que apura a morte de uma grávida de 35 anos que tomou o imunizante e teve um AVC (acidente vascular cerebral)."
30/07/2021 - Pfizer representa o mesmo risco de trombose que a Astrazeneca, aponta levantamento https://panoramafarmaceutico.com.br/pfizer-representa-o-mesmo-risco-de-trombose-que-a-astrazeneca-aponta-levantamento/
7. CRIMES
Crimes da Pfizer
18/11/2020 Não listado no google - Os Crimes documentados da produtora de vacinas de Covid - Pfizer [INGLÊS] https://www.dmlawfirm.com/crimes-of-covid-vaccine-maker-pfizer-well-documented/
"A velocidade com que a vacina Covid da Pfizer foi produzida, a ausência de estudos em animais, testes de controle randomizados e outros testes e procedimentos padrão usuais para um novo medicamento são, no mínimo, preocupantes. Além disso, todos os fabricantes de vacinas Covid receberam imunidade legal para quaisquer ferimentos ou mortes que possam causar. Se essas vacinas são tão seguras quanto promovidas, por que seus fabricantes precisam de imunidade geral?"
"A Pfizer, uma empresa farmacêutica que parece ter ganhado na loteria para produzir a primeira vacina Covid-19, está atualmente lutando contra centenas de ações judiciais sobre o Zantac, um popular medicamento contra azia. Os processos da Zantac afirmam que a droga popular pode estar contaminada com uma substância cancerígena chamada N-nitrosodimetilamina (NDMA). Os processos Zantac são em aberto e em andamento, já que a farmacêutica está lutando contra eles; mas a Pfizer, sabemos, cometeu vários crimes ou transgressões pelos quais foi punida nos últimos anos. As falhas da empresa estão bem documentadas e vale a pena revisá-las neste momento crítico da história da humanidade, enquanto todos nós buscamos respostas."
A Pfizer recebeu a maior multa da história dos Estados Unidos como parte de um acordo judicial de US $ 2,3 bilhões com promotores federais por promover medicamentos erroneamente (Bextra, Celebrex) e pagar propinas a médicos complacentes. A Pfizer se confessou culpada de falsificar a marca do analgésico Bextra, promovendo o medicamento para usos para os quais não foi aprovado.
Na década de 1990, a Pfizer estava envolvida em válvulas cardíacas defeituosas que causaram a morte de mais de 100 pessoas. A Pfizer enganou deliberadamente os reguladores sobre os perigos. A empresa concordou em pagar US $ 10,75 milhões para acertar as acusações do departamento de justiça por enganar reguladores.
A Pfizer pagou mais de US $ 60 milhões para resolver um processo sobre o Rezulin, um medicamento para diabetes que causou a morte de pacientes de insuficiência hepática aguda.
No Reino Unido, a Pfizer foi multada em quase € 90 milhões por sobrecarregar o NHS, o Serviço Nacional de Saúde. A Pfizer cobrou do contribuinte um adicional de € 48 milhões por ano, pelo que deveria custar € 2 milhões por ano.
A Pfizer concordou em pagar US $ 430 milhões em 2004 para resolver acusações criminais de que havia subornado médicos para prescrever seu medicamento para epilepsia Neurontin para indicações para as quais não foi aprovado. Em 2011, um júri concluiu que a Pfizer cometeu fraude em sua comercialização do medicamento Neurontin. A Pfizer concordou em pagar $ 142,1 milhões para liquidar as despesas.
A Pfizer revelou que pagou quase 4.500 médicos e outros profissionais médicos cerca de US $ 20 milhões por falar em nome da Pfizer.
Em 2012, a Comissão de Valores Mobiliários dos Estados Unidos - anunciou que havia chegado a um acordo de US $ 45 milhões com a Pfizer para resolver acusações de que suas subsidiárias haviam subornado médicos e outros profissionais de saúde no exterior para aumentar as vendas no exterior.
A Pfizer foi processada em um tribunal federal dos Estados Unidos por usar crianças nigerianas como cobaias humanas, sem o consentimento dos pais das crianças. A Pfizer pagou US $ 75 milhões para entrar em acordo no tribunal nigeriano pelo uso de um antibiótico experimental, o Trovan, nas crianças. A empresa pagou um valor adicional não divulgado nos Estados Unidos para liquidar as despesas aqui. A Pfizer violou o direito internacional, incluindo a Convenção de Nuremberg estabelecida após a Segunda Guerra Mundial, devido aos experimentos nazistas em prisioneiros relutantes.
Em meio a críticas generalizadas de roubar os países pobres em busca de drogas, a Pfizer prometeu dar US $ 50 milhões para um medicamento para a AIDS para a África do Sul. Mais tarde, no entanto, a Pfizer falhou em honrar essa promessa.
- Pfizer contract leaked!
[Contrato da Pfizer vazado]
http://sanjeev.sabhlokcity.com/Misc/LEXO-KONTRATEN-E-PLOTE.pdf
Segundo o contrato "o produto não deve ser serializado":
"5.5 Reconhecimento do comprador.
O Comprador reconhece que a Vacina e os materiais relacionados à Vacina, e seus componentes e materiais constituintes estão sendo desenvolvidos rapidamente devido às circunstâncias de emergência da pandemia de COVID-19 e continuarão a ser estudados após o fornecimento da Vacina ao Comprador nos termos deste Contrato. O Comprador reconhece ainda que os efeitos de longo prazo e eficácia da Vacina não são atualmente conhecidos e que pode haver efeitos adversos da Vacina que não são atualmente conhecidos. Além disso, na medida do aplicável, o Comprador reconhece que o Produto não deve ser serializado."
Crimes da AstraZeneca
21/06/2003 - AstraZeneca se declara culpada no esquema de médico de câncer https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/21/business/astrazeneca-pleads-guilty-in-cancer-medicine-scheme.html
"A AstraZeneca, a grande empresa farmacêutica, se declarou culpada hoje de uma acusação de crime de fraude no sistema de saúde e concordou em pagar $ 355 milhões para resolver as acusações criminais e civis de que se envolveu em um esquema nacional para comercializar ilegalmente um medicamento contra o câncer de próstata.
O governo disse que os funcionários da empresa deram incentivos financeiros ilegais a cerca de 400 médicos em todo o país para persuadi-los a prescrever o medicamento Zoladex. Esses incentivos incluíram milhares de amostras grátis de Zoladex [...]"
27/04/2010 - Farmacêutica gigante AstraZeneca pagará US $ 520 milhões pelo marketing de medicamentos off-label https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/pharmaceutical-giant-astrazeneca-pay-520-million-label-drug-marketing
"AstraZeneca LP e AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP vão pagar $ 520 milhões para resolver as alegações de que a AstraZeneca comercializou ilegalmente o medicamento antipsicótico Seroquel para usos não aprovados como seguros e eficazes pela Food and Drug Administration (FDA), os Departamentos de Justiça e Saúde e Serviços Humanos A Equipe de Ação de Fiscalização de Fraudes em Saúde (HEAT) anunciou hoje. Esses usos não aprovados também são conhecidos como usos "off-label" porque não estão incluídos no rótulo do medicamento aprovado pela FDA."
- List of largest pharmaceutical settlements [Lista dos maiores acordos farmaceuticos] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_pharmaceutical_settlements
8. CIENTISTAS
- Máscara Provoca Insuficiência Respiratória E Contaminação Microbiana… [Canal deletado] https://youtube.com/watch?v=eHu-pydSvDI
Não lembro mais a quem pertencia, mas provavelmente era de um médico falando do assunto. Creio ter sido do Dr. Paulo Sato, por essa temática ter sido abordada por ele, mas ao abrir o site aparece somente:
"Este vídeo foi removido por violar as diretrizes da comunidade do YouTube"
Dr. Paulo Sato
- USAR ou NÃO USAR a CUECA do seu governador no rosto https://fb.watch/7NPP_7rS5S/ https://www.facebook.com/AdoniasSoaresBR/videos/1347904292291481/ Adonias Soares entrevista ao Dr. Paulo Sato sobre as máscaras, em que é simulado o efeito da respiração prolongada das máscaras no organismo com o uso de águas de torneira, natural, gaseificada (com gás carbônico) e antioxidante, em que a com gás carbônico (PH 4 - Ácido) representa o organismo humano, e na prática representa lesão corporal e iniciação de doenças.
Dr. Kary Mullis
(Criador do teste PCR)
- PCR nas palavras do seu inventor - Dr. Kary Mullis (legendado) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1O52uTygk8
"Qualquer um pode testar positivo para quase qualquer coisa com um teste de PCR, se você executá-lo por tempo suficiente… Com PCR, se voce fizer isso bem, você pode encontrar quase tudo em qualquer pessoa… Isso não te diz que você está doente."
- Kary Mullis DESTRUYE a Anthony Fauci lbry://@CapitalistChile#0/Kary-Mullis---Fauci#5
"Ele [...] não entende de medicina e não deveria estar onde está. A maioria dos que estão acima são só administrativos e não têm nem ideia do que ocorre aqui em baixo e essas pessoas tem uma agenda que não é a que gostaríamos que tivessem, dado que somos nós os que pagamos a eles para que cuidem da nossa saúde. Têm uma agenda pessoal."
Dra. Li-Meng Yan
- Dra. Li-Meng Yan: O vírus foi criado em laboratório com um objetivo: Causar dano. https://youtu.be/pSXp3CZnvOc
Dr. Joe Roseman
- Cientista Phd Dr Joe Roseman faz seríssimas advertencias sobre a picada https://youtu.be/0PIXVFqJ_h8
Dr. Robert Malone
- As vacinas podem estar causando ADE - Dr. Robert Malone https://odysee.com/@AkashaComunidad:f/Las_vacunas_pueden_estar_causando_ADE_magnificaci%C3%B3n_mediada_por:f lbry://@Información.#b/Drrm#9
Dr. Robert Malone, um dos três inventores da tecnologia de RNAm que se usa de forma farmacêutica. No vídeo fala sobre os efeitos de ADE (realce dependente de anticorpos) que estão ocorrendo com as vacinas. Nas palavras do Dr. Malone, já não é somente uma hipótese, mas baseada nos conhecimentos gerados nas provas e ensaios pré clínicos, com as vacinas contra o primeiro vírus da SARS.
Dr. Luc Montagnier
- Dr. Luc Montagnier, virologista, prêmio Nobel de medicina, um dos descobridores do vírus HIV, afirma: "a vacinação em massa está criando as novas variantes' (@medicospelavida , telegram)
CASOS DOCUMENTADOS
13/09/2021 - 13 de setembro de 2021 - Carta aberta ao Ministro da Saúde por Arlene Ferrari Graf, mãe de Bruno Oscar Graf https://telegra.ph/Carta-aberta-ao-Ministro-da-Sa%C3%BAde-09-13
Também em: Gazeta do Povo
O texto de uma mãe discorrendo sobre o filho dela, Bruno Oscar Graf, ter ANTI-HEPARINA PF4 AUTO-IMUNE e ter vindo a falecer por reação à vacina.
11/05/2021 - Rio notifica morte de grávida vacinada com imunizante Oxford https://www.terra.com.br/noticias/coronavirus/rio-notifica-morte-de-gravida-vacinada-com-imunizante-oxford,415b9b0c49169427ac2f90ae3765c057e9suy3qn.html
"Vítima não apresentava histórico de doença circulatória nem sofria de nenhuma doença viral; relação será investigada"
13/08/2021 - Cruzeiro com 4.336 pessoas tem 27 contaminados com Covid-19 em Belize https://paranaportal.uol.com.br/geral/cruzeiro-com-4-336-pessoas-tem-27-contaminados-com-covid-19-em-belize/amp/
"Segundo um comunicado do Conselho de Turismo de Belize emitido na quarta-feira (11), 26 contaminados são da tripulação e um é passageiro. A maioria é assintomática e os 27 estão vacinados."
9. ALEGAÇÕES DIRETAS
09/2021 - Setembro de 2021 - BOMBA: Ex-membro do Partido Comunista da China revela que o primeiro surto da Covid foi “intencional” https://terrabrasilnoticias.com/2021/09/bomba-ex-membro-do-partido-comunista-da-china-revela-que-o-primeiro-surto-da-covid-foi-intencional/
01/03/2023 - 1 de Março de 2023 - O chefe do FBI, Christopher Wray, diz que vazamento de laboratório na China é muito provável https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64806903
26/12/2024 - 26 de Dezembro 2024 - FBI ‘não tem permissão para informar Biden’ sobre a teoria de vazamento de laboratório da Covid https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/fbi-not-allowed-to-brief-biden-on-covid-lab-leak-theory-8df9mr997
O FBI concluiu com "confiança moderada" que a COVID-19 pode ter sido criada em laboratório, com base em parte na análise genômica conduzida por cientistas do Centro Nacional de Inteligência Médica.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-16 15:02:07Bitcoin Magazine
France’s The Blockchain Group Secures €9.7 Million More For Its Bitcoin Treasury StrategyToday, The Blockchain Group (ALTBG), listed on Euronext Growth Paris and recognized as Europe’s first Bitcoin Treasury Company, announced it has raised around €9.7 million through a mix of equity and convertible bond issuances. This move is part of their continued push to build out their Bitcoin Treasury Company strategy.
The Blockchain Group announces an equity and convertible bond issuance for a total amount of ~€9.7M to pursue its Bitcoin Treasury Company strategy
Full Press Release (EN): https://t.co/jjGOBswJsd
Full Press Release (FR): https://t.co/0Jwuv2sP7W
BTC Strategy (EN):… pic.twitter.com/mUVLHJduX5
— The Blockchain Group (@_ALTBG) June 12, 2025
The funding comes from multiple sources and was carried out through their wholly-owned Luxembourg subsidiary, “The Blockchain Group Luxembourg SA.” A major portion, about €6 million, was raised through a convertible bond issuance to TOBAM, with bonds priced at €6.24 per share. That price reflects a 30 percent premium over ALTBG’s closing price on June 9, 2025.
Ludovic Chechin-Laurans also came in with around €2.4 million, subscribing in BTC at a conversion price of about €0.7072 per share. This was part of a deal originally set up back in March 2025. If the stock price climbs 30 percent above that level, to around €0.919 over 20 consecutive trading days, he’ll have the option to convert into up to 3.4 million new ALTBG shares.
Adam Back also finalized his conversion of all OCA Tranche 1 bonds into 14.9 million ALTBG shares and subscribed to an additional 2.1 million shares for €1.16 million at €0.544 per share.
“The Company recalls that Adam Back notified The Blockchain Group of his intention to convert all OCA Tranche 1 he holds, in accordance with the terms of the OCA Issuance Agreement entered into on March 4, 2025, the details of which were disclosed in a press release dated March 6, 2025, and which the Company now confirms has been definitively completed,” stated the press release.
TOBAM did the same, converting 1 million Tranche 1 bonds into 1.84 million shares and subscribing to 262,605 new shares for €0.14 million.
“Given the recent high volatility in the Company’s share price observed since the signing of the OCA Issuance Agreement, the conversion price of €0.544 reflects a discount of 89.52% compared to the closing price on June 12, 2025,” the press release added.
“These operations could allow for the potential acquisition of ~80 BTC, bringing the Company’s total potential holdings to ~1,611 BTC, including the proceeds from the potential completion of remaining operations announced in the press release dated May 26, 2025,” said the press release.
This post France’s The Blockchain Group Secures €9.7 Million More For Its Bitcoin Treasury Strategy first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.
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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671
2025-06-06 15:00:57Bitcoin Magazine
President Trump’s Truth Social Files S-1 Form For Bitcoin ETFToday, Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. (Nasdaq, NYSE Texas: DJT) filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a Form S-1 for their upcoming Truth Social Bitcoin ETF.
The ETF, which will hold bitcoin directly, is designed to track the bitcoin’s price performance.
“Truth Social Bitcoin ETF, B.T. is a Nevada business trust that issues beneficial interests in its net assets,” stated the Form S-1. “The assets of the Trust consist primarily of bitcoin held by a custodian on behalf of the Trust. The Trust seeks to reflect generally the performance of the price of bitcoin.”
The ETF is sponsored by Yorkville America Digital, LLC and will trade under NYSE Arca. The Trust’s assets primarily consist of bitcoin held by Foris DAX Trust Company, LLC, the designated bitcoin custodian. Crypto.com will act as the ETF’s prime execution agent and liquidity provider.
“Shares will be offered to the public from time to time at varying prices that will reflect the price of bitcoin and the trading price of the Shares on New York Stock Exchange Arca, Inc. at the time of the offer,” mentioned the Form S-1.
While the ETF offers investors a regulated avenue for bitcoin exposure, the Trust warned of several risks related to digital assets:
- Loss, theft, or compromise of private keys could result in permanent loss of bitcoin.
- Bitcoin’s reliance on blockchain and Internet technologies makes it vulnerable to disruptions and cyber threats.
- Environmental and regulatory pressures tied to high electricity use in bitcoin mining could impact market stability.
- Potential forks or protocol failures in the Bitcoin Network may lead to volatility and uncertainty in asset value.
Last week, during an interview at the 2025 Bitcoin Conference, Donald Trump Jr. announced that TMTG and Truth Social were forming a Bitcoin treasury with $2.5 billion. “We’re seriously on crypto—we’re seriously on Bitcoin,” said Trump Jr. “We’re in three major deals. I believe we’re at the beginning of what will be the future of finance. And the opportunity is massive.”
The day after that interview, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., joined by American Bitcoin Executive Chairman and Board Member Mike Ho, CEO Matt Prusak, and Altcoin Daily founder Aaron Arnold, discussed the future of Bitcoin.
“The whole system is broken and now all of the sudden you have crypto which solves all the problems,” commented Eric Trump. “It makes everything cheaper, it makes everything faster, it makes it safer, it makes it more transparent. It makes the whole system more functional.“
“Everybody wants Bitcoin. Everybody is buying Bitcoin,” Eric added.
This post President Trump’s Truth Social Files S-1 Form For Bitcoin ETF first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-15 20:01:53The former seems to have found solid product market fit. Expect significant volume, adoption, and usage going forward.
The latter's future remains to be seen. Dependence on Tor, which has had massive reliability issues, and lack of strong privacy guarantees put it at risk.
— ODELL (@ODELL) October 27, 2022
The Basics
- Lightning is a protocol that enables cheap and fast native bitcoin transactions.
- At the core of the protocol is the ability for bitcoin users to create a payment channel with another user.
- These payment channels enable users to make many bitcoin transactions between each other with only two on-chain bitcoin transactions: the channel open transaction and the channel close transaction.
- Essentially lightning is a protocol for interoperable batched bitcoin transactions.
- It is expected that on chain bitcoin transaction fees will increase with adoption and the ability to easily batch transactions will save users significant money.
- As these lightning transactions are processed, liquidity flows from one side of a channel to the other side, on chain transactions are signed by both parties but not broadcasted to update this balance.
- Lightning is designed to be trust minimized, either party in a payment channel can close the channel at any time and their bitcoin will be settled on chain without trusting the other party.
There is no 'Lightning Network'
- Many people refer to the aggregate of all lightning channels as 'The Lightning Network' but this is a false premise.
- There are many lightning channels between many different users and funds can flow across interconnected channels as long as there is a route through peers.
- If a lightning transaction requires multiple hops it will flow through multiple interconnected channels, adjusting the balance of all channels along the route, and paying lightning transaction fees that are set by each node on the route.
Example: You have a channel with Bob. Bob has a channel with Charlie. You can pay Charlie through your channel with Bob and Bob's channel with User C.
- As a result, it is not guaranteed that every lightning user can pay every other lightning user, they must have a route of interconnected channels between sender and receiver.
Lightning in Practice
- Lightning has already found product market fit and usage as an interconnected payment protocol between large professional custodians.
- They are able to easily manage channels and liquidity between each other without trust using this interoperable protocol.
- Lightning payments between large custodians are fast and easy. End users do not have to run their own node or manage their channels and liquidity. These payments rarely fail due to professional management of custodial nodes.
- The tradeoff is one inherent to custodians and other trusted third parties. Custodial wallets can steal funds and compromise user privacy.
Sovereign Lightning
- Trusted third parties are security holes.
- Users must run their own node and manage their own channels in order to use lightning without trusting a third party. This remains the single largest friction point for sovereign lightning usage: the mental burden of actively running a lightning node and associated liquidity management.
- Bitcoin development prioritizes node accessibility so cost to self host your own node is low but if a node is run at home or office, Tor or a VPN is recommended to mask your IP address: otherwise it is visible to the entire network and represents a privacy risk.
- This privacy risk is heightened due to the potential for certain governments to go after sovereign lightning users and compel them to shutdown their nodes. If their IP Address is exposed they are easier to target.
- Fortunately the tools to run and manage nodes continue to get easier but it is important to understand that this will always be a friction point when compared to custodial services.
The Potential Fracture of Lightning
- Any lightning user can choose which users are allowed to open channels with them.
- One potential is that professional custodians only peer with other professional custodians.
- We already see nodes like those run by CashApp only have channels open with other regulated counterparties. This could be due to performance goals, liability reduction, or regulatory pressure.
- Fortunately some of their peers are connected to non-regulated parties so payments to and from sovereign lightning users are still successfully processed by CashApp but this may not always be the case going forward.
Summary
- Many people refer to the aggregate of all lightning channels as 'The Lightning Network' but this is a false premise. There is no singular 'Lightning Network' but rather many payment channels between distinct peers, some connected with each other and some not.
- Lightning as an interoperable payment protocol between professional custodians seems to have found solid product market fit. Expect significant volume, adoption, and usage going forward.
- Lightning as a robust sovereign payment protocol has yet to be battle tested. Heavy reliance on Tor, which has had massive reliability issues, the friction of active liquidity management, significant on chain fee burden for small amounts, interactivity constraints on mobile, and lack of strong privacy guarantees put it at risk.
If you have never used lightning before, use this guide to get started on your phone.
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-02 21:12:29Marty's Bent
via me
I think we'll look back at last weekend as one of the most pivotal points in human history. Ukraine's Operation Spider Web is one of the more shocking things I've seen in terms of military operations in my life. It validates something that many bitcoiners, many cypherpunks, and many prescient individuals have been talking about for decades now at this point, which is asymmetric drone warfare.
The Sovereign Individual is a book that many bitcoiners have talked about throughout the years due to how prescient it was in terms of the inevitable emergence of a digital currency outside the control of central banks and governments. The book was written in the mid-90s, so the fact that the two authors were able to predict that something like bitcoin would emerge less than 20 years after writing the book is pretty incredible. However, digital currencies leveraging cryptography were not the sole focus of the book. Another portion of the book was dedicated to the idea of asymmetric drone warfare and its effects on society overall.
It seems pretty clear today that this is another call from The Sovereign Individual that is coming true. Obviously, unless you've been living under a rock, you've noticed that Ukraine has been using drones in the battlefield to target strategic Russian assets and individual soldiers over the last year. The amount of battlefield videos I've seen of Russian soldiers running from autonomous drones that are hunting them down has been increasing significantly over the last six months. The footage is truly harrowing. It is a death that I wouldn't wish on anybody. With Operation Spider Web Ukraine has increased the stakes of this type of drone warfare by going deep into Russian territory and targeting strategic long-range bombers, some of which had the ability to deploy nuclear warheads. This is sure to incite a reaction from Russia. No one will be surprised if, by the end of the week, Russia has started a shock and awe campaign that goes deep into Ukrainian territory in retaliation for the kamikaze drone strikes on their long-range aircraft. I pray for peace and a quick resolution to this war, and every other war for that matter.
I didn't come here to pontificate and give my thoughts on this particular war, but I would like to focus on this new tactic of war and what it means for military budgets moving forward. The Sovereign Individual laid it out clearly when they wrote in the 1990s that at some point in the future autonomous drones would be leveraged in the battlefield and prove to be asymmetric because of the fact that they are extremely cheap to produce. When you compare the price it cost to produce one of these drones to the price of the equipment they are destroying, things get pretty crazy. With tens of thousands of dollars of drone equipment the Ukrainian army destroyed tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars worth of long-range missile aircraft. And it did so without putting any Ukrainian military personnel in harm's way. Directly, at least.
When you consider the return on investment of deploying these drones compared to sending in soldiers, tanks, and your own aircraft, it becomes pretty obvious that this is going to quickly become the most logical way to fight a war moving forward. The question that remains is how quickly do other governments recognize this and implement it into their own defense strategies? As an American looking at our military budget, which is quickly approaching $1 trillion in annual spend, I'm forced to question whether or not most of that money is simply being wasted, considering the fact that we live in a time where these asymmetric battlefield strategies now exist. Why build new fighter jets when a Somali pirate, or nefarious individual for that matter, could use a $200 drone to destroy it in a matter of seconds with no threat of direct physical harm?
I'm no military expert, but if I were at the helm of the Defense Department, I would seriously be forcing those below me to focus a ton of effort on this problem and create plans to make sure that we are sufficiently protected from these risks. The only way to protect from these risks is to build the capabilities yourself. When it comes to the risk reward from a defense tech investment perspective I think a majority of the effort should be focused on defensive drone technologies and capabilities.
With that being said, it does seem like the US military is privy to this asymmetric reality that we currently live in. Defense contracts with Andruil make this pretty clear. Andruil is certainly ahead of the curve when it comes to autonomous drone warfare and defense against it. As an American, even though I don't like war, or the military industrial complex, knowing that the military is working with companies like Andruil does give me some comfort. However, the other side of that coin is that it is very unnerving when you consider that the government creating these public-private partnerships could lead to some Orwellian outcomes here at home. It may make some of you feel uncomfortable, but I believe the ideal scenario is that any individual has access to these types of defensive drone technologies in the future. The end goal being to create a nuclear game theoretical outcome where violence is reduced because one always has to assume that anyone they intend to attack has access to sufficient and formidable defensive technologies.
It's truly scary times we're living in as we transition further into the Digital Age. Part of the reason that I've dedicated my whole life to bitcoin is because I truly do believe that if you fix the money, you can fix the world. That is not to say that kinetic wars or physical violence will not exist in the future. It certainly will. But I believe sound money and open access to these systems and tools creates conditions which are much more suitable for cooperation and less so for conflict.
Multi-Signature Bitcoin Custody Is Replacing Single-Point Solutions
Jesse Gilger made a compelling case for why multi-signature Bitcoin custody represents the future of secure storage. He explained how Gannett Trust's approach ensures "not all of the keys are going to be at any one entity," fundamentally reducing the honeypot risk that plagues centralized custodians. This distributed model means no single point of failure can compromise your Bitcoin, whether through hacking, internal fraud, or regulatory seizure.
"I was on the list. I got the email. 'You were affected.'" - Jesse Gilger
Jesse's firsthand experience with the Coinbase data breach drives home why centralized custody is fundamentally flawed. While Coinbase holds keys for 10 of 12 Bitcoin ETFs, smart money is moving toward multi-institutional setups where Gannett holds a key, Unchained holds a key, and a third party holds a key. This alignment with Bitcoin's decentralized ethos isn't just philosophically pure—it's pragmatically superior for protecting generational wealth.
Check out the full podcast here for more on MSTY risks, Bitcoin retirement strategies and nation-state adoption dynamics.
Headlines of the Day
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Square Tests Bitcoin Payments, Lightning Yields Beat DeFi - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Bitfinex Moves $731M Bitcoin to Jack Mallers' Fund - via X
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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.
Final thought...
Trying to imagine the future my children are going to live in gets harder by the day.
Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3
2025-06-15 20:01:49Good morning (good night?)! The No Bullshit Bitcoin news feed is now available on Moody's Dashboard! A huge shoutout to sir Clark Moody for integrating our feed.
Headlines
- Spiral welcomes Ben Carman. The developer will work on the LDK server and a new SDK designed to simplify the onboarding process for new self-custodial Bitcoin users.
- The Bitcoin Dev Kit Foundation announced new corporate members for 2025, including AnchorWatch, CleanSpark, and Proton Foundation. The annual dues from these corporate members fund the small team of open-source developers responsible for maintaining the core BDK libraries and related free and open-source software (FOSS) projects.
- Strategy increases Bitcoin holdings to 538,200 BTC. In the latest purchase, the company has spent more than $555M to buy 6,556 coins through proceeds of two at-the-market stock offering programs.
- Spar supermarket experiments with Bitcoin payments in Zug, Switzerland. The store has introduced a new payment method powered by the Lightning Network. The implementation was facilitated by DFX Swiss, a service that supports seamless conversions between bitcoin and legacy currencies.
- The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) wants to contain 'crypto' risks. A report titled "Cryptocurrencies and Decentralised Finance: Functions and Financial Stability Implications" calls for expanding research into "how new forms of central bank money, capital controls, and taxation policies can counter the risks of widespread crypto adoption while still fostering technological innovation."
- "Global Implications of Scam Centres, Underground Banking, and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia." According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, criminal organizations from East and Southeast Asia are swiftly extending their global reach. These groups are moving beyond traditional scams and trafficking, creating sophisticated online networks that include unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges, encrypted communication platforms, and stablecoins, fueling a massive fraud economy on an industrial scale.
- Slovenia is considering a 25% capital gains tax on Bitcoin profits for individuals. The Ministry of Finance has proposed legislation to impose this tax on gains from cryptocurrency transactions, though exchanging one cryptocurrency for another would remain exempt. At present, individual 'crypto' traders in Slovenia are not taxed.
- Circle, BitGo, Coinbase, and Paxos plan to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, major crypto companies are planning to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. These firms are pursuing limited licenses that would permit them to issue stablecoins, as the U.S. Congress deliberates on legislation mandating licensing for stablecoin issuers.
"Established banks, like Bank of America, are hoping to amend the current drafts of [stablecoin] legislation in such a way that nonbanks are more heavily restricted from issuing stablecoins," people familiar with the matter told The Block.
- Charles Schwab to launch spot Bitcoin trading by 2026. The financial investment firm, managing over $10 trillion in assets, has revealed plans to introduce spot Bitcoin trading for its clients within the next year.
Use the tools
- Bitcoin Safe v1.2.3 expands QR SignMessage compatibility for all QR-UR-compatible hardware signers (SpecterDIY, KeyStone, Passport, Jade; already supported COLDCARD Q). It also adds the ability to import wallets via QR, ensuring compatibility with Keystone's latest firmware (2.0.6), alongside other improvements.
- Minibits v0.2.2-beta, an ecash wallet for Android devices, packages many changes to align the project with the planned iOS app release. New features and improvements include the ability to lock ecash to a receiver's pubkey, faster confirmations of ecash minting and payments thanks to WebSockets, UI-related fixes, and more.
- Zeus v0.11.0-alpha1 introduces Cashu wallets tied to embedded LND wallets. Navigate to Settings > Ecash to enable it. Other wallet types can still sweep funds from Cashu tokens. Zeus Pay now supports Cashu address types in Zaplocker, Cashu, and NWC modes.
- LNDg v1.10.0, an advanced web interface designed for analyzing Lightning Network Daemon (LND) data and automating node management tasks, introduces performance improvements, adds a new metrics page for unprofitable and stuck channels, and displays warnings for batch openings. The Profit and Loss Chart has been updated to include on-chain costs. Advanced settings have been added for users who would like their channel database size to be read remotely (the default remains local). Additionally, the AutoFees tool now uses aggregated pubkey metrics for multiple channels with the same peer.
- Nunchuk Desktop v1.9.45 release brings the latest bug fixes and improvements.
- Blockstream Green iOS v4.1.8 has renamed L-BTC to LBTC, and improves translations of notifications, login time, and background payments.
- Blockstream Green Android v4.1.8 has added language preference in App Settings and enables an Android data backup option for disaster recovery. Additionally, it fixes issues with Jade entry point PIN timeout and Trezor passphrase input.
- Torq v2.2.2, an advanced Lightning node management software designed to handle large nodes with over 1000 channels, fixes bugs that caused channel balance to not be updated in some cases and channel "peer total local balance" not getting updated.
- Stack Wallet v2.1.12, a multicoin wallet by Cypher Stack, fixes an issue with Xelis introduced in the latest release for Windows.
- ESP-Miner-NerdQAxePlus v1.0.29.1, a forked version from the NerdAxe miner that was modified for use on the NerdQAxe+, is now available.
- Zark enables sending sats to an npub using Bark.
- Erk is a novel variation of the Ark protocol that completely removes the need for user interactivity in rounds, addressing one of Ark's key limitations: the requirement for users to come online before their VTXOs expire.
- Aegis v0.1.1 is now available. It is a Nostr event signer app for iOS devices.
- Nostash is a NIP-07 Nostr signing extension for Safari. It is a fork of Nostore and is maintained by Terry Yiu. Available on iOS TestFlight.
- Amber v3.2.8, a Nostr event signer for Android, delivers the latest fixes and improvements.
- Nostur v1.20.0, a Nostr client for iOS, adds
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@ 3eab247c:1d80aeed
2025-06-05 08:51:39Global Metrics
Here are the top stats from the last period:
- Total Bitcoin-accepting merchants: 15,306 → 16,284
- Recently verified (1y): 7,540 → 7,803 (the rest of our dataset is slowly rotting; help us before it's too late!)
- Avg. days since last verification: 398 → 405 (more mappers, please)
- Merchants boosted: 22 (for a total of 4,325 days, someone is feeling generous)
- Comments posted: 34
Find current stats over at the 👉 BTC Map Dashboard.
Merchant Adoption
Steak n’ Shake
The US 🇺🇸 is a massive country, yet its BTC Map footprint has been lagging relative to other countries ... that is until now!
In what came as a nice surprise to our Shadowy Supertaggers 🫠, the Steak ’n Shake chain began accepting Bitcoin payments across hundreds of its locations nationwide (with some international locations too).
According to CoinDesk, the rollout has been smooth, with users reporting seamless transactions powered by Speed.
This marks a significant step towards broader Bitcoin adoption in the US. Now to drop the capital gains tax on cheesburgers!
SPAR Switzerland
In other chain/franchise adoption news, the first SPAR supermarket in Switzerland 🇨🇭 to begin accepting Bitcoin was this one in Zug. It was quickly followed by this one in Rossrüti and this one in Kreuzlingen, in what is believed to be part of a wider roll-out plan within the country powered by DFX's Open CryptoPay.
That said, we believe the OG SPAR crown goes to SPAR City in Arnhem Bitcoin City!
New Features
Merchant Comments in the Web App
Web App users are now on par with Android users in that they can both see and make comments on merchants.
This is powered by our tweaked API that enables anyone to make a comment as long as they pass the satswall fee of 500 sats. This helps keep spam manageable and ensure quality comments.
And just in case you were wondering what the number count was on the merchant pins - yep, they're comments!
Here is an 👉 Example merchant page with comments.
Merchant Page Design Tweaks
To support the now trio of actions (Verify, Boost & Comment) on the merchant page, we've re-jigged the design a little to make things a little clearer.
What do you think?
Technical
Codebase Refactoring
Thanks to Hannes’s contributions, we’ve made progress in cleaning-up the Web App's codebase and completing long overdue maintenance. Whilst often thankless tasks, these caretaking activities help immensely with long-term maintainability enabling us to confidently build new features.
Auth System Upgrades
The old auth system was held together with duct tape and prayers, and we’re working on a more robust authentication system to support future public API access. Updates include:
- Password hashing
- Bearer token support
- Improved security practices
More enhancements are in progress and we'll update you in the next blog post.
Better API Documentation
Instead of relying on tribal knowledge, we're finally getting around to writing actual docs (with the help/hindrance of LLMs). The "move fast, break everything" era is over; now we move slightly slower and break slightly less. Progress!
Database Improvements
We use SQLite, which works well but it requires careful handling in async Rust environments. So now we're untangling this mess to avoid accidental blocking queries (and the ensuing dumpster fires).
Backup System Enhancements
BTC Map data comes in three layers of fragility:
- Merchants (backed up by OS - the big boys handle this)
- Non-OSM stuff (areas, users, etc. - currently stored on a napkin)
- External systems (Lightning node, submission tickets - pray to Satoshi)
We're now forcing two core members to backup everything, because redundancy is good.
Credits
Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to the project this period:
- Comino
- descubrebitcoin
- Hannes
- Igor Bubelov
- Nathan Day
- Rockedf
- Saunter
- SiriusBig
- vv01f
Support Us
There are many ways in which you can support us:
-
Become a Shadowy Supertagger and help maintain your local area or pitch-in with the never-ending global effort.
-
Consider a zapping this note or make a donation to the to the project here.
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@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-15 14:14:03Know Your Customer is a regulation that requires companies of all sizes to verify the identity, suitability, and risks involved with maintaining a business relationship with a customer. Such procedures fit within the broader scope of anti-money laundering (AML) and counterterrorism financing (CTF) regulations.
Banks, exchanges, online business, mail providers, domain registrars... Everyone wants to know who you are before you can even opt for their service. Your personal information is flowing around the internet in the hands of "god-knows-who" and secured by "trust-me-bro military-grade encryption". Once your account is linked to your personal (and verified) identity, tracking you is just as easy as keeping logs on all these platforms.
Rights for Illusions
KYC processes aim to combat terrorist financing, money laundering, and other illicit activities. On the surface, KYC seems like a commendable initiative. I mean, who wouldn't want to halt terrorists and criminals in their tracks?
The logic behind KYC is: "If we mandate every financial service provider to identify their users, it becomes easier to pinpoint and apprehend the malicious actors."
However, terrorists and criminals are not precisely lining up to be identified. They're crafty. They may adopt false identities or find alternative strategies to continue their operations. Far from being outwitted, many times they're several steps ahead of regulations. Realistically, KYC might deter a small fraction – let's say about 1% ^1 – of these malefactors. Yet, the cost? All of us are saddled with the inconvenient process of identification just to use a service.
Under the rhetoric of "ensuring our safety", governments and institutions enact regulations that seem more out of a dystopian novel, gradually taking away our right to privacy.
To illustrate, consider a city where the mayor has rolled out facial recognition cameras in every nook and cranny. A band of criminals, intent on robbing a local store, rolls in with a stolen car, their faces obscured by masks and their bodies cloaked in all-black clothes. Once they've committed the crime and exited the city's boundaries, they switch vehicles and clothes out of the cameras' watchful eyes. The high-tech surveillance? It didn’t manage to identify or trace them. Yet, for every law-abiding citizen who merely wants to drive through the city or do some shopping, their movements and identities are constantly logged. The irony? This invasive tracking impacts all of us, just to catch the 1% ^1 of less-than-careful criminals.
KYC? Not you.
KYC creates barriers to participation in normal economic activity, to supposedly stop criminals. ^2
KYC puts barriers between many users and businesses. One of these comes from the fact that the process often requires multiple forms of identification, proof of address, and sometimes even financial records. For individuals in areas with poor record-keeping, non-recognized legal documents, or those who are unbanked, homeless or transient, obtaining these documents can be challenging, if not impossible.
For people who are not skilled with technology or just don't have access to it, there's also a barrier since KYC procedures are mostly online, leaving them inadvertently excluded.
Another barrier goes for the casual or one-time user, where they might not see the value in undergoing a rigorous KYC process, and these requirements can deter them from using the service altogether.
It also wipes some businesses out of the equation, since for smaller businesses, the costs associated with complying with KYC norms—from the actual process of gathering and submitting documents to potential delays in operations—can be prohibitive in economical and/or technical terms.
You're not welcome
Imagine a swanky new club in town with a strict "members only" sign. You hear the music, you see the lights, and you want in. You step up, ready to join, but suddenly there's a long list of criteria you must meet. After some time, you are finally checking all the boxes. But then the club rejects your membership with no clear reason why. You just weren't accepted. Frustrating, right?
This club scenario isn't too different from the fact that KYC is being used by many businesses as a convenient gatekeeping tool. A perfect excuse based on a "legal" procedure they are obliged to.
Even some exchanges may randomly use this to freeze and block funds from users, claiming these were "flagged" by a cryptic system that inspects the transactions. You are left hostage to their arbitrary decision to let you successfully pass the KYC procedure. If you choose to sidestep their invasive process, they might just hold onto your funds indefinitely.
Your identity has been stolen
KYC data has been found to be for sale on many dark net markets^3. Exchanges may have leaks or hacks, and such leaks contain very sensitive data. We're talking about the full monty: passport or ID scans, proof of address, and even those awkward selfies where you're holding up your ID next to your face. All this data is being left to the mercy of the (mostly) "trust-me-bro" security systems of such companies. Quite scary, isn't it?
As cheap as $10 for 100 documents, with discounts applying for those who buy in bulk, the personal identities of innocent users who passed KYC procedures are for sale. ^3
In short, if you have ever passed the KYC/AML process of a crypto exchange, your privacy is at risk of being compromised, or it might even have already been compromised.
(they) Know Your Coins
You may already know that Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies have a transparent public blockchain, meaning that all data is shown unencrypted for everyone to see and recorded forever. If you link an address you own to your identity through KYC, for example, by sending an amount from a KYC exchange to it, your Bitcoin is no longer pseudonymous and can then be traced.
If, for instance, you send Bitcoin from such an identified address to another KYC'ed address (say, from a friend), everyone having access to that address-identity link information (exchanges, governments, hackers, etc.) will be able to associate that transaction and know who you are transacting with.
Conclusions
To sum up, KYC does not protect individuals; rather, it's a threat to our privacy, freedom, security and integrity. Sensible information flowing through the internet is thrown into chaos by dubious security measures. It puts borders between many potential customers and businesses, and it helps governments and companies track innocent users. That's the chaos KYC has stirred.
The criminals are using stolen identities from companies that gathered them thanks to these very same regulations that were supposed to combat them. Criminals always know how to circumvent such regulations. In the end, normal people are the most affected by these policies.
The threat that KYC poses to individuals in terms of privacy, security and freedom is not to be neglected. And if we don’t start challenging these systems and questioning their efficacy, we are just one step closer to the dystopian future that is now foreseeable.
Edited 20/03/2024 * Add reference to the 1% statement on Rights for Illusions section to an article where Chainalysis found that only 0.34% of the transaction volume with cryptocurrencies in 2023 was attributable to criminal activity ^1
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@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-16 06:26:05The new website is finally live! I put in a lot of hard work over the past months on it. I'm proud to say that it's out now and it looks pretty cool, at least to me!
Why rewrite it all?
The old kycnot.me site was built using Python with Flask about two years ago. Since then, I've gained a lot more experience with Golang and coding in general. Trying to update that old codebase, which had a lot of design flaws, would have been a bad idea. It would have been like building on an unstable foundation.
That's why I made the decision to rewrite the entire application. Initially, I chose to use SvelteKit with JavaScript. I did manage to create a stable site that looked similar to the new one, but it required Jav aScript to work. As I kept coding, I started feeling like I was repeating "the Python mistake". I was writing the app in a language I wasn't very familiar with (just like when I was learning Python at that mom ent), and I wasn't happy with the code. It felt like spaghetti code all the time.
So, I made a complete U-turn and started over, this time using Golang. While I'm not as proficient in Golang as I am in Python now, I find it to be a very enjoyable language to code with. Most aof my recent pr ojects have been written in Golang, and I'm getting the hang of it. I tried to make the best decisions I could and structure the code as well as possible. Of course, there's still room for improvement, which I'll address in future updates.
Now I have a more maintainable website that can scale much better. It uses a real database instead of a JSON file like the old site, and I can add many more features. Since I chose to go with Golang, I mad e the "tradeoff" of not using JavaScript at all, so all the rendering load falls on the server. But I believe it's a tradeoff that's worth it.
What's new
- UI/UX - I've designed a new logo and color palette for kycnot.me. I think it looks pretty cool and cypherpunk. I am not a graphic designer, but I think I did a decent work and I put a lot of thinking on it to make it pleasant!
- Point system - The new point system provides more detailed information about the listings, and can be expanded to cover additional features across all services. Anyone can request a new point!
- ToS Scrapper: I've implemented a powerful automated terms-of-service scrapper that collects all the ToS pages from the listings. It saves you from the hassle of reading the ToS by listing the lines that are suspiciously related to KYC/AML practices. This is still in development and it will improve for sure, but it works pretty fine right now!
- Search bar - The new search bar allows you to easily filter services. It performs a full-text search on the Title, Description, Category, and Tags of all the services. Looking for VPN services? Just search for "vpn"!
- Transparency - To be more transparent, all discussions about services now take place publicly on GitLab. I won't be answering any e-mails (an auto-reply will prompt to write to the corresponding Gitlab issue). This ensures that all service-related matters are publicly accessible and recorded. Additionally, there's a real-time audits page that displays database changes.
- Listing Requests - I have upgraded the request system. The new form allows you to directly request services or points without any extra steps. In the future, I plan to enable requests for specific changes to parts of the website.
- Lightweight and fast - The new site is lighter and faster than its predecessor!
- Tor and I2P - At last! kycnot.me is now officially on Tor and I2P!
How?
This rewrite has been a labor of love, in the end, I've been working on this for more than 3 months now. I don't have a team, so I work by myself on my free time, but I find great joy in helping people on their private journey with cryptocurrencies. Making it easier for individuals to use cryptocurrencies without KYC is a goal I am proud of!
If you appreciate my work, you can support me through the methods listed here. Alternatively, feel free to send me an email with a kind message!
Technical details
All the code is written in Golang, the website makes use of the chi router for the routing part. I also make use of BigCache for caching database requests. There is 0 JavaScript, so all the rendering load falls on the server, this means it needed to be efficient enough to not drawn with a few users since the old site was reporting about 2M requests per month on average (note that this are not unique users).
The database is running with mariadb, using gorm as the ORM. This is more than enough for this project. I started working with an
sqlite
database, but I ended up migrating to mariadb since it works better with JSON.The scraper is using chromedp combined with a series of keywords, regex and other logic. It runs every 24h and scraps all the services. You can find the scraper code here.
The frontend is written using Golang Templates for the HTML, and TailwindCSS plus DaisyUI for the CSS classes framework. I also use some plain CSS, but it's minimal.
The requests forms is the only part of the project that requires JavaScript to be enabled. It is needed for parsing some from fields that are a bit complex and for the "captcha", which is a simple Proof of Work that runs on your browser, destinated to avoid spam. For this, I use mCaptcha.
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@ 624d01ef:f122bf4a
2025-06-16 14:30:52In his testimony at Meta's antitrust trial, Mark Zuckerberg confessed that social media has changed. He said it is over.
What does that mean?
In its heyday, social media connected people. People shared their lives - romantic updates, party and holiday pictures and what not. And the rest of us partook in it all. We liked, shared, poked. It was a place for friends to connect with friends.
But, now, fatigue has set in. We are no longer interested in the lives of other people. Dopamine stimulation lasts only so long. After that, everything gets jaded and boring. And that is precisely what has happened to traditional social media. No one cares about your holiday pictures any more or what you are doing at work or in your personal life. No one cares about your trendy new clothes or hairstyle. It has all gotten old.
It is incredible that traditional social media lasted almost two decades. But now it - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, BlueSky, Mastodon - is all jaded.
Instead, people now want to share ideas and opinions, not their lives. I see a lot of that happening over at Nostr. People anonymously share their thoughts, opinions, ideas, their gripes and rants - anything but their personal lives. It is almost like we are returning to the heyday of the Internet - before Web 2.0, user-generated content, and social media took hold. When people anonymously shared thoughts, opinions, and ideas.
Nostr is ideal for that. Technology comes and goes in waves. So, one cannot be certain how long that charm of Nostr will survive. But, for now, Nostr is the future.
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@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-16 06:26:04Know Your Customer is a regulation that requires companies of all sizes to verify the identity, suitability, and risks involved with maintaining a business relationship with a customer. Such procedures fit within the broader scope of anti-money laundering (AML) and counterterrorism financing (CTF) regulations.
Banks, exchanges, online business, mail providers, domain registrars... Everyone wants to know who you are before you can even opt for their service. Your personal information is flowing around the internet in the hands of "god-knows-who" and secured by "trust-me-bro military-grade encryption". Once your account is linked to your personal (and verified) identity, tracking you is just as easy as keeping logs on all these platforms.
Rights for Illusions
KYC processes aim to combat terrorist financing, money laundering, and other illicit activities. On the surface, KYC seems like a commendable initiative. I mean, who wouldn't want to halt terrorists and criminals in their tracks?
The logic behind KYC is: "If we mandate every financial service provider to identify their users, it becomes easier to pinpoint and apprehend the malicious actors."
However, terrorists and criminals are not precisely lining up to be identified. They're crafty. They may adopt false identities or find alternative strategies to continue their operations. Far from being outwitted, many times they're several steps ahead of regulations. Realistically, KYC might deter a small fraction – let's say about 1% ^1 – of these malefactors. Yet, the cost? All of us are saddled with the inconvenient process of identification just to use a service.
Under the rhetoric of "ensuring our safety", governments and institutions enact regulations that seem more out of a dystopian novel, gradually taking away our right to privacy.
To illustrate, consider a city where the mayor has rolled out facial recognition cameras in every nook and cranny. A band of criminals, intent on robbing a local store, rolls in with a stolen car, their faces obscured by masks and their bodies cloaked in all-black clothes. Once they've committed the crime and exited the city's boundaries, they switch vehicles and clothes out of the cameras' watchful eyes. The high-tech surveillance? It didn’t manage to identify or trace them. Yet, for every law-abiding citizen who merely wants to drive through the city or do some shopping, their movements and identities are constantly logged. The irony? This invasive tracking impacts all of us, just to catch the 1% ^1 of less-than-careful criminals.
KYC? Not you.
KYC creates barriers to participation in normal economic activity, to supposedly stop criminals. ^2
KYC puts barriers between many users and businesses. One of these comes from the fact that the process often requires multiple forms of identification, proof of address, and sometimes even financial records. For individuals in areas with poor record-keeping, non-recognized legal documents, or those who are unbanked, homeless or transient, obtaining these documents can be challenging, if not impossible.
For people who are not skilled with technology or just don't have access to it, there's also a barrier since KYC procedures are mostly online, leaving them inadvertently excluded.
Another barrier goes for the casual or one-time user, where they might not see the value in undergoing a rigorous KYC process, and these requirements can deter them from using the service altogether.
It also wipes some businesses out of the equation, since for smaller businesses, the costs associated with complying with KYC norms—from the actual process of gathering and submitting documents to potential delays in operations—can be prohibitive in economical and/or technical terms.
You're not welcome
Imagine a swanky new club in town with a strict "members only" sign. You hear the music, you see the lights, and you want in. You step up, ready to join, but suddenly there's a long list of criteria you must meet. After some time, you are finally checking all the boxes. But then the club rejects your membership with no clear reason why. You just weren't accepted. Frustrating, right?
This club scenario isn't too different from the fact that KYC is being used by many businesses as a convenient gatekeeping tool. A perfect excuse based on a "legal" procedure they are obliged to.
Even some exchanges may randomly use this to freeze and block funds from users, claiming these were "flagged" by a cryptic system that inspects the transactions. You are left hostage to their arbitrary decision to let you successfully pass the KYC procedure. If you choose to sidestep their invasive process, they might just hold onto your funds indefinitely.
Your identity has been stolen
KYC data has been found to be for sale on many dark net markets^3. Exchanges may have leaks or hacks, and such leaks contain very sensitive data. We're talking about the full monty: passport or ID scans, proof of address, and even those awkward selfies where you're holding up your ID next to your face. All this data is being left to the mercy of the (mostly) "trust-me-bro" security systems of such companies. Quite scary, isn't it?
As cheap as $10 for 100 documents, with discounts applying for those who buy in bulk, the personal identities of innocent users who passed KYC procedures are for sale. ^3
In short, if you have ever passed the KYC/AML process of a crypto exchange, your privacy is at risk of being compromised, or it might even have already been compromised.
(they) Know Your Coins
You may already know that Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies have a transparent public blockchain, meaning that all data is shown unencrypted for everyone to see and recorded forever. If you link an address you own to your identity through KYC, for example, by sending an amount from a KYC exchange to it, your Bitcoin is no longer pseudonymous and can then be traced.
If, for instance, you send Bitcoin from such an identified address to another KYC'ed address (say, from a friend), everyone having access to that address-identity link information (exchanges, governments, hackers, etc.) will be able to associate that transaction and know who you are transacting with.
Conclusions
To sum up, KYC does not protect individuals; rather, it's a threat to our privacy, freedom, security and integrity. Sensible information flowing through the internet is thrown into chaos by dubious security measures. It puts borders between many potential customers and businesses, and it helps governments and companies track innocent users. That's the chaos KYC has stirred.
The criminals are using stolen identities from companies that gathered them thanks to these very same regulations that were supposed to combat them. Criminals always know how to circumvent such regulations. In the end, normal people are the most affected by these policies.
The threat that KYC poses to individuals in terms of privacy, security and freedom is not to be neglected. And if we don’t start challenging these systems and questioning their efficacy, we are just one step closer to the dystopian future that is now foreseeable.
Edited 20/03/2024 * Add reference to the 1% statement on Rights for Illusions section to an article where Chainalysis found that only 0.34% of the transaction volume with cryptocurrencies in 2023 was attributable to criminal activity ^1
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@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5
2025-06-16 14:02:14Key Takeaways
Leon Wankum, a real estate expert turned Bitcoiner, presents a powerful argument that Bitcoin is emerging as the new “hurdle rate,” outpacing real estate as the preferred store of value in a shifting financial landscape. As the 18-year property cycle nears its end amid high interest rates and imbalanced markets, Bitcoin’s scarcity, performance, and optionality are prompting capital allocators to rethink traditional strategies. Institutions are beginning to reallocate cash flows and refinance properties into Bitcoin treasuries, while new yield-bearing Bitcoin instruments like Strike, Strife, and Stride offer compelling alternatives to bonds and property. Wankum envisions a gradual transition to a Bitcoin standard, facilitated by dual collateralization and designed to avoid economic disruption as Bitcoin steadily replaces legacy financial infrastructure.
Best Quotes
"Bitcoin is starting to become the new hurdle rate that all other financial products have to abide to."
“No asset—not even prime real estate—can compete with Bitcoin’s long-term performance and absolute scarcity.”
"You can refinance a property and allocate to Bitcoin without selling—this is how many are making the transition."
"Strategy (MicroStrategy) has enough Bitcoin to cover preferred stock dividends for over 200 years."
"20% of our property cash flow into Bitcoin outperformed the 80% left in fiat."
“Bitcoin is digital real estate—but better. Scarce, global, and doesn’t need maintenance or tax sheltering gimmicks.”
“If it’s just 1% of the real estate market, that’s $3 trillion. And that’s enough.”
"A smooth transition, not collapse, is the optimal path forward."
Conclusion
This episode explores how Bitcoin is overtaking real estate as the global store of value, with Leon Wankum offering a rational, experience-based framework for understanding this shift. While institutional inertia slows adoption, capital flows are beginning to reflect Bitcoin’s growing dominance, as new financial instruments and treasury strategies emerge. Leon advocates for a thoughtful, evolutionary transition to a Bitcoin standard—one that prioritizes stability, practical integration, and long-term value creation across the global economy.
Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
0:50 - Real Estate
12:36 - Bitcoin for real estate investors
17:44 - Bitkey
18:39 - MSTR products and opportunity cost
30:43 - Unchained
31:13 - Cash flow alternatives
37:40 - Strategy risks
44:41 - Smooth or chaotic transition
50:58 - Is this cycle different?
56:42 - Tradfi degeneracy
1:02:00 - Leon’s Book - Digital Real EstateTranscript
(00:00) Other than real estate, there were little investments that performed better. Few were aware of the existence of Bitcoin. As people become more aware, they will likely also sell off their properties. Bitcoin as a near-perfect form of money is starting to become the new hurdle rate that all other financial products have to abide to.
(00:19) Instead of buying a regular bond issued by a nation state, you can actually buy a fixed income product issued by Strategy. This is a product that could potentially tap into the real estate market. If it's just 1%, that's 3 trillion. And that's enough. They are starting to weigh the opportunity cost of not putting money into Bitcoin.
(00:36) But very few are able to comprehend the necessity of quickly investing large part of the capital into Bitcoin. Every 18 years will have a correction on housing. We're bringing in a housing expert to talk about the real estate market and Bitcoin corporate adoption. in the crazy frenzy that's going on right now in public markets.
(01:04) Leon, welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me back. It was great seeing you even though it was briefly in Vegas last week. I caught you literally as I was running to the airport off the stage. Yeah. And uh look, I'm pull that back up because I think this is a good jumping off point. We'll start with like a personal story.
(01:24) I'm currently in the middle of a move right now, but decided to rent a house because I was looking at the prices for housing in the places I'm looking to buy and they were they were too high. Not only were they too high, we put a bid in on one house and it wound up going a million dollars over asking.
(01:44) And I think over here in the United States, this is a big topic of discussion right now, which is the real estate market feels a little toppy. Prices are still very high, very sticky. Rates are still very high. Uh, and that's one thing I'm trying to discern as somebody who would like to buy a house in the next few years, a forever house for my family, what is going on.
(02:08) And as we can see here, Red Red Fin reported earlier this week that 34% there are 34% more sellers in the market than buyers. At no other point in records dating back to 2013 have sellers outnumbered buyers this much. There are a total of $698 billion worth of homes for sale in the US, up 20.
(02:29) 3% from a year ago in the highest dollar amount ever. So, it seems like there's a ton of people who have rode the real estate market and they're being a bit stingy on pricing and we're waiting for a correction. Is that your take on this? Yeah, we definitely need to wait for price equilibrium to build because since 2008 really since we had low interest rates um prices were skyrocketing and now with a different interest rate environment.
(02:57) Um what I personally also feel is that people are not willing to sell their houses for a price that they believe is not what they could get because they still have the prices in mind that they were able to receive 2 three years ago and the buyers are not willing to pay prices that people want because interest rates are higher meaning the cost of capital and the cost of borrowing went up.
(03:21) So I think this is a healthy um and a healthy um development. We need a price equilibrium. We need um demand and supply prices to match. It's going to take a long time. I think it's also it also depends on interest rates. If Powell is going to um lower interest rates, which I don't think he will, even though that's something that the president would like him to do, but I don't think he will because it would cause inflation to go up again, especially in in goods and services and groceries.
(03:51) And um judging by that, I think interest rates will stay above 3% at least for the foreseeable future. Meaning I believe that real estate prices will come down a little bit till we meet that equilibrium. But something that's important to to remember which makes it a little bit odd that because as a Bitcoiner when you look at housing, I think you constantly think now it's going to crash, now it's going to crash.
(04:15) But the reason it's not really going to crash is as soon as new money is being introduced into your economy or as soon as interest rates are lowered that money is being funneled into real estate and also the existing system that is depending on real estate as collateral has an interest in propping prices up.
(04:34) So this can go on for another 10 or 20 years I think. I mean there could be there's definitely a correction that we can see right now and I personally wouldn't get into uh real estate development at this point if you'll ask me from the perspective what's the better investment of course that is Bitcoin but I just want to make a point that this can go can go on for longer than we think because housing is limited not as limited as Bitcoin but there's something called the 18-year property cycle and it says that every 18 years, we'll
(05:08) have a correction in housing. And the reason for that is if the money supply is expanded and that money goes into land, it's not going out of land because land is limited. It's similar to Bitcoin. But what happens is that after around 14 15 years, prices start to come down and then they find a new price equilibrium which is higher than when the cycle started.
(05:33) And we are at the end of this 18-year property cycle. and I had suggest that prices will fall until 2026 and then in 2026 if interest rates are lowered I think prices can find price equilibrium and then possibly move up in nominal value of course if you start now accounting for real estate and bitcoin it's a whole different story I know talked from the lens of a fiat um based system yeah that note on pal and the fed is interesting that it It's very obvious Trump's wanted him to lower rates since before he even got elected.
(06:09) But I was reading an article yesterday that made a lot of sense to me, which is he's not going to lower rates for multiple reasons. One of which you mentioned, which is it would it would reignite inflation, which nobody wants to see right now. And then number two, profit margins are going up because the productivity uh increases due to AI.
(06:32) I mean, and we're still at the early stages of that, um, where you have many of the big big tech, the MAG 7 beginning to lay off people because they're creating all these efficiencies via AI. So, we're able to increase productivity and profit margins and so there's no reason to to lower rates from that perspective, which agreed.
(06:58) Yeah, absolutely true. Yeah, which is uh you know it'll be it's crazy the confluence of events that are happening right now whether it's real estate market looking a little toppy at least temporarily the interest rate environment the progression of AI and the adoption uh by many large companies and small companies alike and then you have Bitcoin sitting over here sitting over $2 trillion establishing itself as a $2 trillion asset and it still seems a bit fringe where um where we are certainly as Bitcoiners, individuals -
@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5
2025-06-16 14:02:13Marty's Bent
Sup, freaks? Your Uncle Marty did a little vibe coding a couple months ago and that vibe coding project has turned into an actual product that is live in the Google Chrome web store and will soon to be live in the Firefox add-on store as well. It's called Opportunity Cost and it is an extension that enables you to price the internet in Bitcoin.
[
Opportunity Cost – See Prices in Bitcoin Instantly
Convert USD prices to Bitcoin (satoshis) as you browse. Dual display, privacy-first, and open source.
Opportunity CostTFTC
](https://www.opportunitycost.app/?ref=tftc.io)
Check it out!
This whole process has been extremely rewarding to me for many reasons. The first of which is that I've had many ideas in the past to launch a product focused on bitcoin education that simply never left my brain because I never felt comfortable paying a developer to go out and build a product that I wasn't sure would ultimately get product market fit.
Due to the advancements of AI, particularly ChatGPT and Replit, I was able to spend a few hours on a Saturday vibe coding a prototype for Opportunity Cost. It worked. I side loaded it into Chrome and Firefox, tested it out for a few days and decided, "Hey, I think this is something that's worthwhile and should be built."
Backtracking just a little bit, the initial idea for this app was to create an AR application that would enable you to take pictures of goods in the real world and have their prices automatically converted to bitcoin so that you could weigh the opportunity cost of whether or not you actually wanted to buy that good or decide to save in bitcoin instead. With the help of Justin Moon from the Human Rights Foundation and Anthony Ronning from OpenSecret and Maple AI, I was pointed in the right direction of vibe coding tools I could use to build a simple MVP. I took their advice, built the MVP, and demoed it at the Bitcoin Park Austin weekly AI meetup in mid-April.
The next week, I was talking with a friend, Luke Thomas, about the idea and during our conversation he made a simple quip, "You should make a Chrome extension. I really want a Chrome extension that does this." And that's what sent me down the vibe coding rabbit hole that Saturday which led to the prototype.
After I was comfortable with and confident in the prototype, I found a young hungry developer by the name of Moses on Nostr, I reached out to him, told him my idea, showed him the prototype and asked if he thought he could finish the application for me. He luckily agreed to do so and within a couple of weeks we had a fully functioning app that was officially launched today. We're about 12 hours into the launch and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception from the broader Bitcoin community. It seems like something that people are happy exists and I feel extremely happy that people see some value in this particular application.
Now that you have the backstory, let's get into why I think something like Opportunity Cost should exist. As someone who's been writing a newsletter and producing podcasts about bitcoin for eight years in an attempt to educate individuals from around the world about what bitcoin is, why it's important, and how they can leverage it, I've become convinced that a lot of the work that needs to be done still exists at the top of the funnel. You can scream at people. You can grab them by the shoulders. You can shake them. You can remind them at Thanksgiving that if they had listened to your advice during any Thanksgiving in the previous years they would be better off financially. But at the end of the day most people don't listen. They need to see things. Seeing things for yourself is a much more effective teaching mechanism than be lectured to by someone else.
My hope with Opportunity Cost is that it catches the eye of some bitcoin skeptics or individuals who may be on the cusp of falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole and they see the extension as a way to dip their toes into bitcoin to get a better understanding of the world by pricing the goods and services they purchase on a day-to-day month-to-month and year-to-year basis in bitcoin without having to download a wallet or set up an exchange account. The tippy top of the bitcoin marketing funnel.
That is not all though. I think Opportunity Cost can serve individuals at both ends of the funnel. That's why it's pretty exciting to me. It's as valuable to the person who is bitcoin curious and looking to get a better understanding as it is to the hardcore bitcoiner living on a bitcoin standard who is trying to get access to better tools that enable him to get a better grasp of their spending in bitcoin terms.
Lastly, after playing around with it for a few days after I built the prototype, I realized that it has incredible memetic potential. Being able to take a screenshot of goods that people are buying on a day-to-day basis, pricing them in bitcoin and then sharing them on social media is very powerful. Everything from houses to junk items on Amazon to the salaries of pro athletes to your everyday necessities. Seeing the value of those things in bitcoin really makes you think.
One day while I was testing the app, I tried to see how quickly I could find goods on the internet that cumulatively eclipsed the 21 million supply cap limit of bitcoin. To my surprise, even though I've been in bitcoin for 12 years now, it did not take me that long. The opportunity cost of everything I buy on a day-to-day basis becomes very clear when using the extension. What's even clearer is the fact that Bitcoin is completely mispriced at current levels. There is so much winning ahead of us.
Also, it's probably important to note that the extension is completely open source. You can check out our GitHub page here. Submit pull requests. Suggest changes to the app.
We've also tried to make Opportunity Cost as privacy preserving as possible. Everything within the extension happens in your browser. The only external data that we're providing is the bitcoin to fiat price conversion at any given point in time. We're not data harvesting the web pages you're browsing or the items you're looking at. We're not collecting data and sending it to third party marketers. We want to align ourselves with the open and permissionless nature of bitcoin while also preserving our users' privacy. We're not trying to monetize this in that way. Though, I will say that I'm thinking of ways to monetize Opportunity Cost if it does gain significant traction, but I promise it will be in a way that respects your privacy and is as unobtrusive as possible. We'll see how it goes.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please download and use the extension. Let us know what you think.
Headlines of the Day
Saylor Says Bitcoin Is Perfect Money to Jordan Peterson - via X
Trump Won't Sell Tesla Despite Musk-Bessent Heated Exchange - via X
Bitcoin Gains Traction in Kenya's Largest Slum Kibera - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?
Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.
Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.
Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.
Final thought...
East Coast aesthetics over everything.
Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: https://www.opportunitycost.app/ start thinking in SATS today.
Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
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@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-16 06:26:02Over the past few months, I've dedicated my time to a complete rewrite of the kycnot.me website. The technology stack remains unchanged; Golang paired with TailwindCSS. However, I've made some design choices in this iteration that I believe significantly enhance the site. Particularly to backend code.
UI Improvements
You'll notice a refreshed UI that retains the original concept but has some notable enhancements. The service list view is now more visually engaging, it displays additional information in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. Both filtering and searching functionalities have been optimized for speed and user experience.
Service pages have been also redesigned to highlight key information at the top, with the KYC Level box always accessible. The display of service attributes is now more visually intuitive.
The request form, especially the Captcha, has undergone substantial improvements. The new self-made Captcha is robust, addressing the reliability issues encountered with the previous version.
Terms of Service Summarizer
A significant upgrade is the Terms of Service summarizer/reviewer, now powered by AI (GPT-4-turbo). It efficiently condenses each service's ToS, extracting and presenting critical points, including any warnings. Summaries are updated monthly, processing over 40 ToS pages via the OpenAI API using a self-crafted and thoroughly tested prompt.
Nostr Comments
I've integrated a comment section for each service using Nostr. For guidance on using this feature, visit the dedicated how-to page.
Database
The backend database has transitioned to pocketbase, an open-source Golang backend that has been a pleasure to work with. I maintain an updated fork of the Golang SDK for pocketbase at pluja/pocketbase.
Scoring
The scoring algorithm has also been refined to be more fair. Despite I had considered its removal due to the complexity it adds (it is very difficult to design a fair scoring system), some users highlighted its value, so I kept it. The updated algorithm is available open source.
Listings
Each listing has been re-evaluated, and the ones that were no longer operational were removed. New additions are included, and the backlog of pending services will be addressed progressively, since I still have access to the old database.
API
The API now offers more comprehensive data. For more details, check here.
About Page
The About page has been restructured for brevity and clarity.
Other Changes
Extensive changes have been implemented in the server-side logic, since the whole code base was re-written from the ground up. I may discuss these in a future post, but for now, I consider the current version to be just a bit beyond beta, and additional updates are planned in the coming weeks.
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@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9
2025-05-16 18:06:46Bitcoin has always been rooted in freedom and resistance to authority. I get that many of you are conflicted about the US Government stacking but by design we cannot stop anyone from using bitcoin. Many have asked me for my thoughts on the matter, so let’s rip it.
Concern
One of the most glaring issues with the strategic bitcoin reserve is its foundation, built on stolen bitcoin. For those of us who value private property this is an obvious betrayal of our core principles. Rather than proof of work, the bitcoin that seeds this reserve has been taken by force. The US Government should return the bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex and the Silk Road.
Using stolen bitcoin for the reserve creates a perverse incentive. If governments see bitcoin as a valuable asset, they will ramp up efforts to confiscate more bitcoin. The precedent is a major concern, and I stand strongly against it, but it should be also noted that governments were already seizing coin before the reserve so this is not really a change in policy.
Ideally all seized bitcoin should be burned, by law. This would align incentives properly and make it less likely for the government to actively increase coin seizures. Due to the truly scarce properties of bitcoin, all burned bitcoin helps existing holders through increased purchasing power regardless. This change would be unlikely but those of us in policy circles should push for it regardless. It would be best case scenario for American bitcoiners and would create a strong foundation for the next century of American leadership.
Optimism
The entire point of bitcoin is that we can spend or save it without permission. That said, it is a massive benefit to not have one of the strongest governments in human history actively trying to ruin our lives.
Since the beginning, bitcoiners have faced horrible regulatory trends. KYC, surveillance, and legal cases have made using bitcoin and building bitcoin businesses incredibly difficult. It is incredibly important to note that over the past year that trend has reversed for the first time in a decade. A strategic bitcoin reserve is a key driver of this shift. By holding bitcoin, the strongest government in the world has signaled that it is not just a fringe technology but rather truly valuable, legitimate, and worth stacking.
This alignment of incentives changes everything. The US Government stacking proves bitcoin’s worth. The resulting purchasing power appreciation helps all of us who are holding coin and as bitcoin succeeds our government receives direct benefit. A beautiful positive feedback loop.
Realism
We are trending in the right direction. A strategic bitcoin reserve is a sign that the state sees bitcoin as an asset worth embracing rather than destroying. That said, there is a lot of work left to be done. We cannot be lulled into complacency, the time to push forward is now, and we cannot take our foot off the gas. We have a seat at the table for the first time ever. Let's make it worth it.
We must protect the right to free usage of bitcoin and other digital technologies. Freedom in the digital age must be taken and defended, through both technical and political avenues. Multiple privacy focused developers are facing long jail sentences for building tools that protect our freedom. These cases are not just legal battles. They are attacks on the soul of bitcoin. We need to rally behind them, fight for their freedom, and ensure the ethos of bitcoin survives this new era of government interest. The strategic reserve is a step in the right direction, but it is up to us to hold the line and shape the future.
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@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-16 06:26:01I'm launching a new service review section on this blog in collaboration with OrangeFren. These reviews are sponsored, yet the sponsorship does not influence the outcome of the evaluations. Reviews are done in advance, then, the service provider has the discretion to approve publication without modifications.
Sponsored reviews are independent from the kycnot.me list, being only part of the blog. The reviews have no impact on the scores of the listings or their continued presence on the list. Should any issues arise, I will not hesitate to remove any listing.
The review
WizardSwap is an instant exchange centred around privacy coins. It was launched in 2020 making it old enough to have weathered the 2021 bull run and the subsequent bearish year.
| Pros | Cons | |------|------| | Tor-friendly | Limited liquidity | | Guarantee of no KYC | Overly simplistic design | | Earn by providing liquidity | |
Rating: ★★★★★ Service Website: wizardswap.io
Liquidity
Right off the bat, we'll start off by pointing out that WizardSwap relies on its own liquidity reserves, meaning they aren't just a reseller of Binance or another exchange. They're also committed to a no-KYC policy, when asking them, they even promised they would rather refund a user their original coins, than force them to undergo any sort of verification.
On the one hand, full control over all their infrastructure gives users the most privacy and conviction about the KYC policies remaining in place.
On the other hand, this means the liquidity available for swapping isn't huge. At the time of testing we could only purchase at most about 0.73 BTC with XMR.
It's clear the team behind WizardSwap is aware of this shortfall and so they've come up with a solution unique among instant exchanges. They let you, the user, deposit any of the currencies they support into your account and earn a profit on the trades made using your liquidity.
Trading
Fees on WizardSwap are middle-of-the-pack. The normal fee is 2.2%. That's more than some exchanges that reserve the right to suddenly demand you undergo verification, yet less than half the fees on some other privacy-first exchanges. However as we mentioned in the section above you can earn almost all of that fee (2%) if you provide liquidity to WizardSwap.
It's good that with the current Bitcoin fee market their fees are constant regardless of how much, or how little, you send. This is in stark contrast with some of the alternative swap providers that will charge you a massive premium when attempting to swap small amounts of BTC away.
Test trades
Test trades are always performed without previous notice to the service provider.
During our testing we performed a few test trades and found that every single time WizardSwap immediately detected the incoming transaction and the amount we received was exactly what was quoted before depositing. The fees were inline with what WizardSwap advertises.
- Monero payment proof
- Bitcoin received
- Wizardswap TX link - it's possible that this link may cease to be valid at some point in the future.
ToS and KYC
WizardSwap does not have a Terms of Service or a Privacy Policy page, at least none that can be found by users. Instead, they offer a FAQ section where they addresses some basic questions.
The site does not mention any KYC or AML practices. It also does not specify how refunds are handled in case of failure. However, based on the FAQ section "What if I send funds after the offer expires?" it can be inferred that contacting support is necessary and network fees will be deducted from any refund.
UI & Tor
WizardSwap can be visited both via your usual browser and Tor Browser. Should you decide on the latter you'll find that the website works even with the most strict settings available in the Tor Browser (meaning no JavaScript).
However, when disabling Javascript you'll miss the live support chat, as well as automatic refreshing of the trade page. The lack of the first means that you will have no way to contact support from the trade page if anything goes wrong during your swap, although you can do so by mail.
One important thing to have in mind is that if you were to accidentally close the browser during the swap, and you did not save the swap ID or your browser history is disabled, you'll have no easy way to return to the trade. For this reason we suggest when you begin a trade to copy the url or ID to someplace safe, before sending any coins to WizardSwap.
The UI you'll be greeted by is simple, minimalist, and easy to navigate. It works well not just across browsers, but also across devices. You won't have any issues using this exchange on your phone.
Getting in touch
The team behind WizardSwap appears to be most active on X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/WizardSwap_io
If you have any comments or suggestions about the exchange make sure to reach out to them. In the past they've been very receptive to user feedback, for instance a few months back WizardSwap was planning on removing DeepOnion, but the community behind that project got together ^1 and after reaching out WizardSwap reversed their decision ^2.
You can also contact them via email at:
support @ wizardswap . io
Disclaimer
None of the above should be understood as investment or financial advice. The views are our own only and constitute a faithful representation of our experience in using and investigating this exchange. This review is not a guarantee of any kind on the services rendered by the exchange. Do your own research before using any service.
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@ 88cc134b:5ae99079
2025-06-16 14:40:11small test
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@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-16 06:25:59Bitcoin enthusiasts frequently and correctly remark how much value it adds to Bitcoin not to have a face, a leader, or a central authority behind it. This particularity means there isn't a single person to exert control over, or a single human point of failure who could become corrupt or harmful to the project.
Because of this, it is said that no other coin can be equally valuable as Bitcoin in terms of decentralization and trustworthiness. Bitcoin is unique not just for being first, but also because of how the events behind its inception developed. This implies that, from Bitcoin onwards, any coin created would have been created by someone, consequently having an authority behind it. For this and some other reasons, some people refer to Bitcoin as "The Immaculate Conception".
While other coins may have their own unique features and advantages, they may not be able to replicate Bitcoin's community-driven nature. However, one other cryptocurrency shares a similar story of mystery behind its creation: Monero.
History of Monero
Bytecoin and CryptoNote
In March 2014, a Bitcointalk thread titled "Bytecoin. Secure, private, untraceable since 2012" was initiated by a user under the nickname "DStrange"^1^. DStrange presented Bytecoin (BCN) as a unique cryptocurrency, in operation since July 2012. Unlike Bitcoin, it employed a new algorithm known as CryptoNote.
DStrange apparently stumbled upon the Bytecoin website by chance while mining a dying bitcoin fork, and decided to create a thread on Bitcointalk^1^. This sparked curiosity among some users, who wondered how could Bytecoin remain unnoticed since its alleged launch in 2012 until then^2^.
Some time after, a user brought up the "CryptoNote v2.0" whitepaper for the first time, underlining its innovative features^4^. Authored by the pseudonymous Nicolas van Saberhagen in October 2013, the CryptoNote v2 whitepaper^5^ highlighted the traceability and privacy problems in Bitcoin. Saberhagen argued that these flaws could not be quickly fixed, suggesting it would be more efficient to start a new project rather than trying to patch the original^5^, an statement simmilar to the one from Satoshi Nakamoto^6^.
Checking with Saberhagen's digital signature, the release date of the whitepaper seemed correct, which would mean that Cryptonote (v1) was created in 2012^7^, although there's an important detail: "Signing time is from the clock on the signer's computer" ^9^.
Moreover, the whitepaper v1 contains a footnote link to a Bitcointalk post dated May 5, 2013^10^, making it impossible for the whitepaper to have been signed and released on December 12, 2012.
As the narrative developed, users discovered that a significant 80% portion of Bytecoin had been pre-mined^11^ and blockchain dates seemed to be faked to make it look like it had been operating since 2012, leading to controversy surrounding the project.
The origins of CryptoNote and Bytecoin remain mysterious, leaving suspicions of a possible scam attempt, although the whitepaper had a good amount of work and thought on it.
The fork
In April 2014, the Bitcointalk user
thankful_for_today
, who had also participated in the Bytecoin thread^12^, announced plans to launch a Bytecoin fork named Bitmonero^13^.The primary motivation behind this fork was "Because there is a number of technical and marketing issues I wanted to do differently. And also because I like ideas and technology and I want it to succeed"^14^. This time Bitmonero did things different from Bytecoin: there was no premine or instamine, and no portion of the block reward went to development.
However, thankful_for_today proposed controversial changes that the community disagreed with. Johnny Mnemonic relates the events surrounding Bitmonero and thankful_for_today in a Bitcointalk comment^15^:
When thankful_for_today launched BitMonero [...] he ignored everything that was discussed and just did what he wanted. The block reward was considerably steeper than what everyone was expecting. He also moved forward with 1-minute block times despite everyone's concerns about the increase of orphan blocks. He also didn't address the tail emission concern that should've (in my opinion) been in the code at launch time. Basically, he messed everything up. Then, he disappeared.
After disappearing for a while, thankful_for_today returned to find that the community had taken over the project. Johnny Mnemonic continues:
I, and others, started working on new forks that were closer to what everyone else was hoping for. [...] it was decided that the BitMonero project should just be taken over. There were like 9 or 10 interested parties at the time if my memory is correct. We voted on IRC to drop the "bit" from BitMonero and move forward with the project. Thankful_for_today suddenly resurfaced, and wasn't happy to learn the community had assumed control of the coin. He attempted to maintain his own fork (still calling it "BitMonero") for a while, but that quickly fell into obscurity.
The unfolding of these events show us the roots of Monero. Much like Satoshi Nakamoto, the creators behind CryptoNote/Bytecoin and thankful_for_today remain a mystery^17^, having disappeared without a trace. This enigma only adds to Monero's value.
Since community took over development, believing in the project's potential and its ability to be guided in a better direction, Monero was given one of Bitcoin's most important qualities: a leaderless nature. With no single face or entity directing its path, Monero is safe from potential corruption or harm from a "central authority".
The community continued developing Monero until today. Since then, Monero has undergone a lot of technological improvements, migrations and achievements such as RingCT and RandomX. It also has developed its own Community Crowdfundinc System, conferences such as MoneroKon and Monerotopia are taking place every year, and has a very active community around it.
Monero continues to develop with goals of privacy and security first, ease of use and efficiency second. ^16^
This stands as a testament to the power of a dedicated community operating without a central figure of authority. This decentralized approach aligns with the original ethos of cryptocurrency, making Monero a prime example of community-driven innovation. For this, I thank all the people involved in Monero, that lead it to where it is today.
If you find any information that seems incorrect, unclear or any missing important events, please contact me and I will make the necessary changes.
Sources of interest
- https://forum.getmonero.org/20/general-discussion/211/history-of-monero
- https://monero.stackexchange.com/questions/852/what-is-the-origin-of-monero-and-its-relationship-to-bytecoin
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583449.0
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=563821.0
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=233561
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=512747.0
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=740112.0
- https://monero.stackexchange.com/a/1024
- https://inspec2t-project.eu/cryptocurrency-with-a-focus-on-anonymity-these-facts-are-known-about-monero/
- https://medium.com/coin-story/coin-perspective-13-riccardo-spagni-69ef82907bd1
- https://www.getmonero.org/resources/about/
- https://www.wired.com/2017/01/monero-drug-dealers-cryptocurrency-choice-fire/
- https://www.monero.how/why-monero-vs-bitcoin
- https://old.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/u8e5yr/satoshi_nakamoto_talked_about_privacy_features/
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@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9
2025-05-16 17:59:23Recently we have seen a wave of high profile X accounts hacked. These attacks have exposed the fragility of the status quo security model used by modern social media platforms like X. Many users have asked if nostr fixes this, so lets dive in. How do these types of attacks translate into the world of nostr apps? For clarity, I will use X’s security model as representative of most big tech social platforms and compare it to nostr.
The Status Quo
On X, you never have full control of your account. Ultimately to use it requires permission from the company. They can suspend your account or limit your distribution. Theoretically they can even post from your account at will. An X account is tied to an email and password. Users can also opt into two factor authentication, which adds an extra layer of protection, a login code generated by an app. In theory, this setup works well, but it places a heavy burden on users. You need to create a strong, unique password and safeguard it. You also need to ensure your email account and phone number remain secure, as attackers can exploit these to reset your credentials and take over your account. Even if you do everything responsibly, there is another weak link in X infrastructure itself. The platform’s infrastructure allows accounts to be reset through its backend. This could happen maliciously by an employee or through an external attacker who compromises X’s backend. When an account is compromised, the legitimate user often gets locked out, unable to post or regain control without contacting X’s support team. That process can be slow, frustrating, and sometimes fruitless if support denies the request or cannot verify your identity. Often times support will require users to provide identification info in order to regain access, which represents a privacy risk. The centralized nature of X means you are ultimately at the mercy of the company’s systems and staff.
Nostr Requires Responsibility
Nostr flips this model radically. Users do not need permission from a company to access their account, they can generate as many accounts as they want, and cannot be easily censored. The key tradeoff here is that users have to take complete responsibility for their security. Instead of relying on a username, password, and corporate servers, nostr uses a private key as the sole credential for your account. Users generate this key and it is their responsibility to keep it safe. As long as you have your key, you can post. If someone else gets it, they can post too. It is that simple. This design has strong implications. Unlike X, there is no backend reset option. If your key is compromised or lost, there is no customer support to call. In a compromise scenario, both you and the attacker can post from the account simultaneously. Neither can lock the other out, since nostr relays simply accept whatever is signed with a valid key.
The benefit? No reliance on proprietary corporate infrastructure.. The negative? Security rests entirely on how well you protect your key.
Future Nostr Security Improvements
For many users, nostr’s standard security model, storing a private key on a phone with an encrypted cloud backup, will likely be sufficient. It is simple and reasonably secure. That said, nostr’s strength lies in its flexibility as an open protocol. Users will be able to choose between a range of security models, balancing convenience and protection based on need.
One promising option is a web of trust model for key rotation. Imagine pre-selecting a group of trusted friends. If your account is compromised, these people could collectively sign an event announcing the compromise to the network and designate a new key as your legitimate one. Apps could handle this process seamlessly in the background, notifying followers of the switch without much user interaction. This could become a popular choice for average users, but it is not without tradeoffs. It requires trust in your chosen web of trust, which might not suit power users or large organizations. It also has the issue that some apps may not recognize the key rotation properly and followers might get confused about which account is “real.”
For those needing higher security, there is the option of multisig using FROST (Flexible Round-Optimized Schnorr Threshold). In this setup, multiple keys must sign off on every action, including posting and updating a profile. A hacker with just one key could not do anything. This is likely overkill for most users due to complexity and inconvenience, but it could be a game changer for large organizations, companies, and governments. Imagine the White House nostr account requiring signatures from multiple people before a post goes live, that would be much more secure than the status quo big tech model.
Another option are hardware signers, similar to bitcoin hardware wallets. Private keys are kept on secure, offline devices, separate from the internet connected phone or computer you use to broadcast events. This drastically reduces the risk of remote hacks, as private keys never touches the internet. It can be used in combination with multisig setups for extra protection. This setup is much less convenient and probably overkill for most but could be ideal for governments, companies, or other high profile accounts.
Nostr’s security model is not perfect but is robust and versatile. Ultimately users are in control and security is their responsibility. Apps will give users multiple options to choose from and users will choose what best fits their need.
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@ 726e789c:197726c2
2025-06-16 14:01:34{ "id": "id-1750023454416-5oavlpy", "name": "Gottesbild und künstliche Intelligenz", "description": "", "authors": [ "Joachim Happel" ], "summary": "### Intention\nDie Lehrkraft möchte eine Unterrichtsstunde in der 11. Klasse zum Thema 'Gottesbild und Künstliche Intelligenz' gestalten. Ziel ist es, die Schülerinnen und Schüler dazu zu befähigen, eigene Gottesvorstellungen zu entwickeln, diese mit biblischen Gottesbildern zu vergleichen, und die lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen verschiedener Gottes- und Menschenbilder im Kontext technischer Entwicklungen zu reflektieren. Dabei sollen sie auch religionskritische Perspektiven und ethische Fragen im Zusammenhang mit KI erarbeiten.\n\n### Assoziationen\n\nDie wichtigsten Fachbegriffe und Themen sind \"Gottesbild\" und \"Künstliche Intelligenz\" im Kontext des Religionsunterrichts.\n\n### Kompetenzen\n\n- SuS stellen eigene Gottesvorstellungen dar und vergleichen sie mit biblischen Gottesvorstellungen. Inhaltsbereich: \"Die Frage nach Gott\".\n- SuS erörtern die verschiedenen Gottes- und Menschenbilder hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen in ihrer Lebenswelt. Inhaltsbereich: \"Christliche Antworten auf die Gottesfrage\".\n- SuS beurteilen religionskritische Entwürfe hinsichtlich ihrer Überzeugungskraft im Kontext der Diskussion über Gottesbilder. Inhaltsbereich: \"Christliche Antworten auf die Gottesfrage\".\n- SuS deuten die biblische Rede von Geschöpf und Ebenbild Gottes hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen. Inhaltsbereich: \"Der Mensch in christlicher Perspektive\".\n\naus: Lehrplan NRW - Evangelische Religion, Jahrgangsstufe 11\n\n### Gottesbild und Künstliche Intelligenz im Religionsunterricht\n\nDas Thema 'Gottesbild und Künstliche Intelligenz' bietet die Möglichkeit, zentrale Fragen nach Gott und Mensch in der heutigen technologischen Gesellschaft zu reflektieren. Dabei können Schülerinnen und Schüler eigene Vorstellungen von Gott entwickeln, sie mit biblischen Gottesbildern vergleichen und die ethischen, gesellschaftlichen und philosophischen Implikationen moderner KI-Technologien diskutieren. Besonders geeignet ist die Verbindung von biblischer Rede vom Menschen als Gottes Ebenbild mit aktuellen Diskussionen um Geschöpflichkeit, Kreativität und Verantwortung im Zusammenhang mit KI. Diese Herangehensweise fördert die kritische Reflexion und die Entwicklung eigener Glaubens- und Gottesvorstellungen, während sie gleichzeitig die ethischen Dimensionen der technologischen Entwicklung in den Fokus rückt.", "backgroundColor": "#bbf7d0", "customStyle": "", "columns": [ { "id": "id-1750021978851-vf7abwh", "name": "Materialien", "color": "color-gradient-1", "cards": [ { "id": "id-1750021978851-my9mqug", "heading": "Zusammenfassung für die didaktische Aufbereitung: Gottesbild und Künstliche Intelligenz im Religionsunterricht", "content": "Das Thema 'Gottesbild und Künstliche Intelligenz' bietet die Möglichkeit, zentrale Fragen nach Gott und Mensch in der heutigen technologischen Gesellschaft zu reflektieren. Dabei können Schülerinnen und Schüler eigene Vorstellungen von Gott entwickeln, sie mit biblischen Gottesbildern vergleichen und die ethischen, gesellschaftlichen und philosophischen Implikationen moderner KI-Technologien diskutieren. Besonders geeignet ist die Verbindung von biblischer Rede vom Menschen als Gottes Ebenbild mit aktuellen Diskussionen um Geschöpflichkeit, Kreativität und Verantwortung im Zusammenhang mit KI. Diese Herangehensweise fördert die kritische Reflexion und die Entwicklung eigener Glaubens- und Gottesvorstellungen, während sie gleichzeitig die ethischen Dimensionen der technologischen Entwicklung in den Fokus rückt.", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "", "url": "Synthese basierend auf Relpaed-Tool-Ergebnissen", "labels": "", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750021978851-x33rwqz", "heading": "Virtuelle und interreligiöse Zugänge zum Gottesbild", "content": "\"Der Einsatz virtueller Realitäten kann dazu beitragen, religiöse Vorstellungen auf innovative Weise erfahrbar zu machen.\" (Klara Pišonić, Virtual Reality, kirchengeschichtsdidaktisch)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "", "url": "https://www.die-bibel.de/ressourcen/redirect/slug/virtual-reality-kirchengeschichtsdidaktisch", "labels": "", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750021978851-8ayid4u", "heading": "Religionspsychologische Perspektiven auf Gottesbilder", "content": "\"Religionspsychologische Zugänge können wichtige Anknüpfungspunkte bieten, um die persönlichen Vorstellungen von Gott im Zusammenhang mit gesellschaftlichen und technischen Entwicklungen zu verstehen.\" (Constantin Klein, Religionspsychologie)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "", "url": "https://www.die-bibel.de/ressourcen/redirect/slug/religionspsychologie", "labels": "", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750021978851-zzecyqf", "heading": "Interreligiöses Lernen und Dialog der Religionen", "content": "\"Der Dialog zwischen Religionen schärft das Verständnis für unterschiedliche Gottesbilder und eröffnet neue Perspektiven, auch im Kontext moderner ethischer Fragen rund um Künstliche Intelligenz.\" (Monika Tautz, Interreligiöses Lernen)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "", "url": "https://www.die-bibel.de/ressourcen/redirect/slug/interreligioeses-lernen", "labels": "", "inactive": false } ] }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-wy47anx", "name": "Material Fragmente", "color": "color-gradient-1", "cards": [ { "id": "id-1750022132843-pd6b0qh", "heading": "Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "content": "Das Dokument ist hervorragend geeignet, um das Thema 'Gottesbild und Künstliche Intelligenz' zu behandeln, da es vielfältige didaktische Bausteine für die ethische und anthropologische Auseinandersetzung mit KI bietet und explizit theologische Perspektiven einbezieht.", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-3ysegds", "heading": "KI im Alltag: Chancen und Gefahren von Pflegerobotern", "content": "Aufgabenstellung: Stelle dir vor, deine pflegebedürftige Großmutter lebt in einem Pflegeheim, in dem zunehmend Roboter einfache Aufgaben übernehmen und als Ansprechpartner dienen. Du bist schockiert und möchtest dir ein genaueres Bild machen. (Absatz: Thematische Hinführung, Baustein 1: KI – was verbirgt sich dahinter?)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein ermöglicht einen lebensweltnahen Einstieg in das komplexe Thema KI, indem er eine konkrete, emotional relevante Situation aufgreift. Er bereitet die Reflexion über ethische Implikationen von KI vor, die später mit Gottes- und Menschenbildern verknüpft werden kann.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert die Wahrnehmung und Beschreibung ethischer Herausforderungen durch KI. Ermöglicht erste, spontane Äußerungen zu eigenen Vorstellungen und Meinungen.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Im Einstieg zur Aktivierung von Vorwissen und zur emotionalen Annäherung an das Thema. Die SuS können in einem kurzen Brainstorming oder einer stillen Minute ihre ersten Gedanken und Gefühle zu dieser Situation sammeln.\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Einzelarbeit (Reflexion), anschließend Plenum für spontane Äußerungen.\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Einstieg", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-d2g6bz2", "heading": "Was ist KI? Sammeln von Alltagsbeispielen und Positionierung", "content": "Methode: Nach der anfänglichen Konfrontation mit dem Pflegeroboter-Szenario überlegen die Schülerinnen (Think-Pair-Share), in welchen Bereichen KI heute schon vorkommt. Gemeinsam wird im Plenum eine Mindmap erstellt. Anschließend positionieren sich die Lernenden auf einer Linie (Chancen vs. Gefahren) zu diesen Entwicklungen und erläutern ihre Position im Unterrichtsgespräch. Zur Begriffsbestimmung kann ein Informationstext (M1) oder ein kurzer Lehrervortrag genutzt werden. (Absatz: Baustein 1: KI – was verbirgt sich dahinter?, S. 24)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein schafft ein grundlegendes Verständnis für den Begriff KI und seine Präsenz im Alltag der SuS. Die Positionierung zu Chancen und Gefahren leitet die ethische Reflexion ein und ermöglicht die Verknüpfung mit unterschiedlichen Menschen- und Gottesbildern.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert die Wahrnehmung und Beschreibung ethischer Herausforderungen durch KI. Ermöglicht das Darstellen eigener Vorstellungen und das Erörtern von Konsequenzen in der Lebenswelt.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Im Einstieg zur Begriffsklärung und im Übergang zur Erarbeitung ethischer Fragen. Die SuS könnten Beispiele wie Sprachassistenten, personalisierte Werbung, autonomes Fahren oder Gesichtserkennung nennen. Bei der Positionierung auf der Linie könnten sie begründen, warum sie z.B. autonomes Fahren eher als Chance (mehr Sicherheit) oder Gefahr (Kontrollverlust) sehen.\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Think-Pair-Share (Einzel-, Partnerarbeit), Plenum (Mindmap, Unterrichtsgespräch).\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Einstieg, Erarbeitung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-bwjpm1a", "heading": "Ethische Herausforderungen der KI: Gruppenpuzzle zu Anwendungsfeldern", "content": "Aufgabenstellung: Bildet bis zu fünf Gruppen und bearbeitet jeweils eine der folgenden herausfordernden Entwicklungen im Bereich der KI anhand eines Infotextes mit Arbeitsaufträgen (M2a-e): Pflegeroboter, autonome Waffensysteme, automatische Bewerbungssoftware, KI in der Schule, Steuerungscomputer im Verkehr. Präsentiert eure Ergebnisse im Gruppenpuzzle oder Plenum, um ein ethisches Problembewusstsein zu schaffen. (Absatz: Baustein 1, S. 24)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein ermöglicht eine vertiefte Auseinandersetzung mit konkreten ethischen Dilemmata, die durch KI entstehen. Die Diskussion dieser Problemfelder ist essentiell für die spätere Reflexion über Gottes- und Menschenbilder und deren lebenspraktische Konsequenzen.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert die Wahrnehmung und Beschreibung ethischer Fragestellungen. Ermöglicht das sachgemäße Erschließen themenrelevanter Texte und die argumentative Auseinandersetzung mit anthropologisch-ethischen Aspekten.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Erarbeitung neuer Inhalte und zur Schaffung eines Problembewusstseins. Die SuS könnten sich mit Fragen auseinandersetzen wie: \"Welche Verantwortung tragen Entwickler autonomer Waffensysteme?\" oder \"Inwiefern beeinflusst automatische Bewerbungssoftware Chancengleichheit?\".\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Gruppenarbeit (Expertengruppen), Gruppenpuzzle oder Plenum (Präsentation der Ergebnisse). Es kann auch auf die \"Schritte ethischer Urteilsbildung\" zurückgegriffen werden.\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Erarbeitung, Vertiefung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-rmmqjg6", "heading": "Videoanalyse: „K.O. durch KI? Keine Angst vor schlauen Maschinen!“ (Leschs Kosmos)", "content": "Video: Einsatz der Dokumentation „K.O. durch KI? Keine Angst vor schlauen Maschinen!“ mit Prof. Harald Lesch (28.05.2019, 29 Min.). Die Dokumentation greift in kurzen, anschaulichen Sequenzen verschiedene KI-Entwicklungen auf und diskutiert diese: Autonomes Fahren, Deep Learning (Medizin), Algorithmen (Bewerbungssoftware), intelligente Roboter (Katastrophenfall), Roboworld (Mensch-Maschine-Verhältnis), Schlussmoderation (Unterschied Mensch-Maschine). (Absatz: Baustein 1, S. 24, Punkt 3)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Das Video bietet eine anschauliche und wissenschaftlich fundierte Einführung in verschiedene KI-Anwendungsfelder und ethische Fragestellungen. Es kann als Impuls dienen, um die Diskussion über Gottes- und Menschenbilder im Kontext von KI zu vertiefen und religionskritische Entwürfe zu beurteilen.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert die Wahrnehmung ethischer Fragestellungen. Unterstützt die argumentative Auseinandersetzung mit anthropologisch-ethischen Aspekten durch die Bereitstellung von Hintergrundinformationen und Diskussionsansätzen.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Vertiefung der bereits erarbeiteten Themen oder als alternativer Einstieg in spezifische KI-Bereiche. Die Lehrkraft kann gezielt Sequenzen auswählen und mit Arbeitsaufträgen versehen, z.B. \"Fasst die Argumente Pro und Contra zum autonomen Fahren zusammen und diskutiert, welche ethischen Prinzipien hier relevant sind.\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Plenum (gemeinsames Schauen), Partner- oder Kleingruppenarbeit (Analyse von Sequenzen), Unterrichtsgespräch.\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Erarbeitung, Vertiefung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-11qwb31", "heading": "Science-Fiction-Filme: KI, Bewusstsein und menschliche Beziehungen", "content": "Lernmedium: Analyse von Science-Fiction-Filmen wie \"Ex Machina\" (UK, 2015), \"I, Robot\" (USA, 2004) und \"Her\" (USA, 2013). Schülergruppen präsentieren, wie diese Filme das Thema KI aufgreifen (z.B. Roboter, die menschliche Qualitäten entwickeln; Beziehung zu lernfähigem Betriebssystem). Anschließend werden die in den Filmen aufgeworfenen anthropologisch-ethischen Fragen (Können Maschinen Bewusstsein/Gefühle haben? Können digitale Systeme menschliche Partner ersetzen?) in der Lerngruppe vertieft. (Absatz: Baustein 2: Künstliche Intelligenz in Filmen, S. 24)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Filme bieten einen niedrigschwelligen Zugang zu komplexen philosophischen und ethischen Fragen rund um KI, Bewusstsein und menschliche Identität. Dies ermöglicht eine kreative Auseinandersetzung mit verschiedenen Menschenbildern und deren Implikationen für das Gottesbild.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Darstellen eigener Gottesvorstellungen im Kontext moderner Technologie und das Erörtern von Gottes- und Menschenbildern hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen. Unterstützt die argumentative Auseinandersetzung mit anthropologisch-ethischen Aspekten.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Als Erarbeitungs- oder Vertiefungsphase. Die SuS könnten in Gruppenarbeit die Filme analysieren und Präsentationen vorbereiten. Diskussionsfragen könnten sein: \"Was macht den Menschen menschlich im Vergleich zu einer KI?\" oder \"Verändert die Möglichkeit, eine Beziehung zu einer KI aufzubauen, unser Verständnis von Liebe und Partnerschaft?\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Gruppenarbeit (Filmanalyse, Präsentation), Plenum (Diskussion).\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Erarbeitung, Vertiefung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-0zmqiuo", "heading": "Biblische Schöpfungserzählung und die Frage nach dem Gegenüber (Replika)", "content": "Textquelle: Thematisierung des Chatbots „Replika“ als aktuelles Beispiel für einen digitalen Sozialkontakt (Werbung: „Wenn du traurig bist oder Angst hast oder einfach jemanden zum Reden brauchst, ist dein Replika für dich da – 24/7“). Als spannender biblischer Bezugspunkt dient die Schöpfungserzählung in Gen 2, in der der Mensch unter den Tieren kein adäquates Gegenüber findet und Gott ihm daraufhin einen menschlichen Partner schafft. Die Unterscheidung zwischen Echo- und Resonanzbeziehungen (Hartmut Rosa) kann zur vertieften Auseinandersetzung genutzt werden (M3). (Absatz: Baustein 2, S. 24, Punkt 5)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein stellt eine direkte Verbindung zwischen der biblischen Schöpfungserzählung (Gottesbild, Menschenbild als Ebenbild Gottes) und der modernen Entwicklung von KI (Chatbots) her. Er ermöglicht die Reflexion über die Einzigartigkeit des Menschen und die Qualität menschlicher Beziehungen im Vergleich zu KI-Interaktionen.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Deuten der biblischen Rede von Geschöpf und Ebenbild Gottes hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen. Unterstützt das Erörtern verschiedener Gottes- und Menschenbilder und die argumentative Auseinandersetzung.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Vertiefung der anthropologischen Fragen. Die SuS könnten diskutieren: \"Was unterscheidet eine Beziehung zu einem Menschen von einer Beziehung zu einem Chatbot?\" oder \"Inwiefern fordert die Existenz von Chatbots unser Verständnis von 'Gegenüber' und 'Ebenbild Gottes' heraus?\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Partnerarbeit (Diskussion der Replika-Werbung), Plenum (Vergleich mit Gen 2 und Rosa-Konzept).\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Vertiefung, Transfer", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-eljz9b2", "heading": "Können Maschinen Bewusstsein besitzen? Der Turing-Test", "content": "Methode: Anknüpfend an den Film \"Ex Machina\" wird eine Szene (9:50 bis 14:32) gezeigt, in der Caleb die Aufgabe erhält, zu testen, ob die Roboterfrau Ava ein Bewusstsein besitzt. Eindrücke und Überlegungen zur Szene, zur Darstellung der Charaktere und zur Möglichkeit einer Bewusstwerdung von Maschinen werden gesammelt. Die Lehrkraft gibt ggf. Hinweise zum sog. „Turing-Test“. (Absatz: Baustein 3: Können „intelligente“ Maschinen menschlich werden?, S. 25)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein greift eine zentrale philosophische Frage im Kontext von KI auf: die des Bewusstseins. Durch die Verknüpfung mit dem Turing-Test wird eine konkrete Methode zur Diskussion angeboten, die zur Reflexion über die Grenzen von Maschinen und die Einzigartigkeit menschlichen Bewusstseins anregt. Dies ist direkt relevant für die Diskussion von Gottes- und Menschenbildern.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Erörtern verschiedener Gottes- und Menschenbilder und die argumentative Auseinandersetzung mit anthropologisch-ethischen Aspekten.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Im Erarbeitungs- oder Vertiefungsteil. Nach dem Zeigen der Szene könnten die SuS in Kleingruppen diskutieren: \"Was versteht man unter Bewusstsein? Kann eine Maschine Bewusstsein haben? Welche Kriterien würden wir anwenden, um dies zu beurteilen?\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Plenum (Sammeln von Eindrücken), Kleingruppenarbeit (Diskussion), Lehrervortrag (Erklärung Turing-Test).\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Erarbeitung, Vertiefung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-ggkzdhv", "heading": "Das Gedankenexperiment „Mary“: Subjektives Erleben vs. Physiologie", "content": "Textquelle: Vertiefung durch das philosophische Gedankenexperiment „Mary“ (Frank Jackson), das von Caleb Ava in der vierten Sitzung in \"Ex Machina\" erzählt wird. Das Experiment versucht zu zeigen, dass subjektives Erleben nicht mit messbaren neurophysiologischen Vorgängen identifiziert werden kann. Näheres zum Experiment, seiner Bedeutung im Film und der unterrichtlichen Umsetzung im Download: M4. (Absatz: Baustein 3, S. 25)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Das Gedankenexperiment \"Mary\" ist ein hervorragendes Instrument, um die Grenzen eines rein materialistischen Menschenbildes aufzuzeigen und die Bedeutung des subjektiven Erlebens zu betonen. Dies ist entscheidend für die Auseinandersetzung mit der Frage nach dem menschlichen \"Ebenbild Gottes\" und der Abgrenzung von KI.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Erörtern verschiedener Gottes- und Menschenbilder und das Deuten der biblischen Rede von Geschöpf und Ebenbild Gottes. Unterstützt die argumentative Auseinandersetzung mit philosophischen und anthropologischen Aspekten.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Vertiefung der Diskussion über Bewusstsein und menschliche Einzigartigkeit. Die SuS könnten den Text zu M4 lesen und in Partnerarbeit diskutieren: \"Was ist das Kernproblem, das Marys Experiment aufwirft? Inwiefern ist dieses Problem relevant für die Diskussion über KI und menschliches Bewusstsein?\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Partnerarbeit (Textanalyse), Plenum (Diskussion und Austausch).\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Vertiefung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-0i321ar", "heading": "Der Mensch als Ebenbild Gottes: Unterschied zu digitalen Systemen (Charbonnier)", "content": "Textquelle: Klärungsversuch zur Frage nach Mensch und Maschine durch den Text des Theologen Ralph Charbonnier (M5). Der Autor zeigt, dass digitale Systeme (z.B. Roboter) „nicht lernen, (sich) entscheiden, handeln und vertrauenswürdig sind“. Die vorgeschlagene Aufgabenstellung nimmt auch theologische Perspektiven auf den Menschen („Ebenbild Gottes“) mit in den Blick. Alternativ kann M6 genutzt werden (sprachlich einfacherer Text). (Absatz: Baustein 3, S. 25)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein bietet eine explizit theologische Perspektive auf den Unterschied zwischen Mensch und Maschine, insbesondere im Hinblick auf das Konzept des Menschen als \"Ebenbild Gottes\". Dies ist zentral für die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Gottesbild und den anthropologischen Konsequenzen von KI.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Deuten der biblischen Rede von Geschöpf und Ebenbild Gottes. Unterstützt das argumentative Auseinandersetzen mit anthropologisch-ethischen Aspekten aus christlicher Perspektive.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Erarbeitung oder Sicherung theologischer Argumente. Die SuS könnten den Text lesen und in Kleingruppen die Argumente Charbonniers zusammenfassen. Eine Aufgabe könnte sein: \"Diskutiert, welche Eigenschaften laut Charbonnier den Menschen von einer Maschine unterscheiden und inwiefern diese Eigenschaften mit der Vorstellung des Menschen als Ebenbild Gottes zusammenhängen.\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Einzelarbeit (Textlektüre), Kleingruppenarbeit (Analyse), Plenum (Diskussion).\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Erarbeitung, Vertiefung, Sicherung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-ptyfx1r", "heading": "Heilserwartungen an KI: „Way of the Future“ und Unsterblichkeit", "content": "Rechercheaufgabe: Die Lernenden recherchieren zur Bewegung „Way of the Future“, einer 2015 gegründeten Kirche, die „eine auf KI basierende Gottheit aus Hardware und Software realisieren, akzeptieren und anbeten“ will. Alternativ ist eine Recherche zu „KI und Unsterblichkeit“ möglich (z.B. Ray Kurzweil und das Hochladen des menschlichen Geistes in die Cloud). (Absatz: Baustein 4: Die neuen Technologien als „Weg zum Paradies“?, S. 25)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein adressiert direkt religionskritische Entwürfe und quasi-religiöse Heilserwartungen, die mit KI verbunden sind. Er ermöglicht es den SuS, diese Phänomene kritisch zu beurteilen und mit traditionellen Gottesbildern zu kontrastieren.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Beurteilen religionskritischer Entwürfe hinsichtlich ihrer Überzeugungskraft im Kontext der Diskussion über Gottesbilder. Unterstützt die argumentative Auseinandersetzung mit anthropologisch-ethischen Aspekten aus christlicher Perspektive.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Als Hausaufgabe zur Vorbereitung oder als Erarbeitungsphase im Unterricht. Die SuS könnten ihre Rechercheergebnisse in kurzen Präsentationen vorstellen und anschließend im Plenum diskutieren: \"Inwiefern ähneln die Hoffnungen auf KI als 'Gottheit' oder auf digitale Unsterblichkeit religiösen Heilserwartungen? Welche Gefahren oder Chancen seht ihr darin?\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Einzelarbeit (Recherche), Partner-/Kleingruppenarbeit (Aufbereitung der Ergebnisse), Plenum (Präsentation, Diskussion).\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Erarbeitung, Vertiefung, Transfer", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-ogten47", "heading": "„Ihr werdet sein wie Gott“: Theologische Einordnung von KI-Heilserwartungen", "content": "Textquelle: Zur Weiterarbeit nach der Recherche zu KI-Heilserwartungen wird auf einen Text von Jörg Hermann, „Ihr werdet sein wie Gott“ (M7), zurückgegriffen. Darin zeigt der Autor Tendenzen zur religiösen Überhöhung von KI auf und ordnet sie theologisch ein. (Absatz: Baustein 4, S. 25)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein bietet eine theologische Einordnung der in Baustein 10 thematisierten Heilserwartungen an KI. Er hilft den SuS, religionskritische Entwürfe aus einer theologischen Perspektive zu beurteilen und das eigene Gottesbild zu schärfen.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Beurteilen religionskritischer Entwürfe und die argumentative Auseinandersetzung aus der Perspektive des christlichen Glaubens.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Vertiefung und Sicherung der theologischen Reflexion. Die SuS könnten den Text lesen und die Hauptargumente Hermanns herausarbeiten. Diskussionsfrage: \"Wie bewertet Hermann die 'Gottesähnlichkeit' im Kontext von KI? Welche biblischen Bezüge stellt er her und wie helfen sie uns, die Rolle des Menschen zu verstehen?\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Einzelarbeit (Textlektüre), Partnerarbeit (Diskussion der Thesen), Plenum (Sicherung der Ergebnisse).\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Vertiefung, Sicherung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-c2no4z6", "heading": "Digitaler Humanismus: Ethik für den Umgang mit KI", "content": "Konzept: Vorstellung des Konzepts „Digitaler Humanismus“ von Julian Nida-Rümelin als „Ethik für das Zeitalter der KI“. Es grenzt sich gegen Ideologisierung und apokalyptische Befürchtungen ab und zielt darauf ab, Demokratie und menschliche Urteilsfähigkeit im Umgang mit neuen Technologien zu stärken. Hinführend kann eine Karikatur (z.B. H. Haitzinger) oder ein Interview (Yvonne Hofstetter, \"Bots, Fake News und BigData: Das Ende der Demokratie?\", BpB, 2017, 4:13 Min.) thematisieren, inwieweit KI eine Gefahr für Demokratie und Selbstbestimmung darstellen kann. Das Konzept kann mithilfe von M8 erschlossen und erörtert werden. (Absatz: Baustein 5: Digitaler Humanismus, S. 25)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein bietet einen umfassenden ethischen Rahmen für den Umgang mit KI, der über rein technische Aspekte hinausgeht. Er ermöglicht es den SuS, die lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen von KI im Hinblick auf Demokratie und Selbstbestimmung zu reflektieren und eigene ethische Leitlinien zu entwickeln, die im Einklang mit einem christlichen Menschenbild stehen können.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Erörtern der verschiedenen Gottes- und Menschenbilder hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen. Unterstützt die argumentative Auseinandersetzung mit ethischen Aspekten und das Entwickeln eigener Leitlinien.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Erarbeitung eines ethischen Rahmens oder zum Transfer des Gelernten auf konkrete Anwendungsfelder. Die SuS könnten nach der Einführung des Konzepts (ggf. mit Video/Karikatur) in Gruppen ethische Leitlinien für den Einsatz von KI in den zu Beginn kennengelernten Beispielfeldern (Pflegeroboter, Bewerbungssoftware etc.) entwickeln.\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Plenum (Einführung, Diskussion von Karikatur/Video), Gruppenarbeit (Erschließung M8, Entwicklung von Leitlinien), Präsentation der Ergebnisse.\naus: Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe", "url": "https://www.rpi-ekkw-ekhn.de/fileadmin/templates/rpi/normal/material/rpiimpulse/2020/heft_2/Artikel/RPI_Impluse_2-2020_12_Mensch_und_Maschine.pdf", "labels": "Erarbeitung, Transfer", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-bh41s13", "heading": "Chatten mit Gott?", "content": "Das Dokument ist sehr gut geeignet, um einen aktuellen und lebensweltnahen Zugang zum Thema 'Gottesbild und Künstliche Intelligenz' zu schaffen. Es ermöglicht eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit KI-generierten 'Gottesbildern' und ethischen Fragen im Kontext von Glauben und Technologie.", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "\naus: Chatten mit Gott?", "url": "https://www.sonntagsblatt.de/artikel/medien/chatten-mit-gott-so-gut-funktioniert-das-mit-der-kuenstlichen-intelligenz", "labels": "", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-x5a0bpk", "heading": "Chat-Experiment: Was sagt eine KI über Gott?", "content": "Aufgabenstellung: Lies den Artikel 'Chatten mit Gott?' und notiere, welche Fragen der Autor der KI stellt und welche Antworten er erhält, insbesondere wenn er direkt nach Gottes Existenz, Aussehen oder Geschlecht fragt. Achte auch darauf, wie die KI auf indirekte Fragen antwortet. (Absatz: 'Ein richtiges Gespräch mit Gott will sich nicht so recht einstellen...' und 'Wird die Frage aber indirekt gestellt...')", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein bietet einen direkten und hochaktuellen Einstieg in das Thema. Er regt die Schülerinnen und Schüler an, sich mit der Möglichkeit auseinanderzusetzen, wie eine KI 'Gott' darstellt, und dies mit ihren eigenen Vorstellungen sowie biblischen Gottesbildern zu vergleichen.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert die Kompetenz, eigene Gottesvorstellungen darzustellen und mit anderen (hier: KI-generierten) zu vergleichen. Schärft die Wahrnehmung für die Grenzen von KI im Bereich komplexer theologischer Fragen.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Im Einstieg oder als erste Erarbeitungsphase. Die SuS könnten in Einzelarbeit die relevanten Passagen markieren und anschließend in Partnerarbeit die Antworten der KI diskutieren. Beispiel-Diskussionsfrage: 'Warum gibt die KI auf direkte Fragen nach Gott immer die gleiche Antwort, dass sie eine KI ist?'\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Einzelarbeit (Leseauftrag), Partnerarbeit (Austausch), Plenum (Sammeln erster Eindrücke und Fragen).\naus: Chatten mit Gott?", "url": "https://www.sonntagsblatt.de/artikel/medien/chatten-mit-gott-so-gut-funktioniert-das-mit-der-kuenstlichen-intelligenz", "labels": "Einstieg, Erarbeitung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-6q2zttn", "heading": "KI als theologischer Ratgeber: Glaube, Kirche und persönliche Beziehung", "content": "Diskussionsanregung: Die KI gibt dem Autor den Rat, sich 'nicht an alles zu halten, was die Kirche sagt, sondern eine persönliche Beziehung zu Gott zu haben.' Diskutiert diese Aussage der KI. Welche Chancen und Gefahren seht ihr in einem solchen 'theologischen Rat' durch eine KI? Vergleicht die Haltung der KI mit euren eigenen Vorstellungen von Glauben, Kirche und der Beziehung zu Gott. (Absatz: 'Theologischer Rat' und folgende Absätze bis 'Beim Rest ihrer Antwort wiederholt sie nochmal ihren Standpunkt zum persönlichen Glauben.')", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein greift eine konkrete, potenziell provokante Aussage der KI auf, die direkt die lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen von Gottes- und Menschenbildern berührt. Er ermöglicht die Reflexion über Autorität im Glauben, die Rolle der Kirche und die Bedeutung einer persönlichen Gottesbeziehung im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Erörtern verschiedener Gottes- und Menschenbilder hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen. Ermöglicht das Beurteilen religionskritischer Entwürfe (hier: die implizite Kritik der KI an kirchlicher Autorität) und die argumentative Auseinandersetzung.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Erarbeitung ethischer und theologischer Fragen. Die SuS könnten in Kleingruppen die Aussage der KI analysieren und Argumente für oder gegen diesen 'Rat' sammeln. Beispiel-Aufgabenstellung: 'Formuliert Pro- und Contra-Argumente für die Aussage der KI, man solle auf die persönliche Beziehung zu Gott hören und nicht alles machen, was die Kirche fordert.'\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Kleingruppenarbeit (Diskussion, Argumentation), Plenum (Austausch der Ergebnisse, Debatte).\naus: Chatten mit Gott?", "url": "https://www.sonntagsblatt.de/artikel/medien/chatten-mit-gott-so-gut-funktioniert-das-mit-der-kuenstlichen-intelligenz", "labels": "Erarbeitung, Vertiefung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-4qwv4pr", "heading": "Die Technik hinter dem 'KI-Gott': Grenzen von Large Language Models", "content": "Textquelle & Analyse: Der Artikel erklärt, dass Character.AI auf 'Large Language Models' basiert, die durch riesige Textmengen trainiert werden und das nächste Wort oder den nächsten Satz vorhersagen sollen. Gleichzeitig werden die Grenzen dieser KI deutlich: Sie wiederholt sich, vergisst den Kontext, enthält grammatikalische Fehler und liefert veraltete oder falsche Informationen. (Absatz: 'Die Technologie hinter Character.AI' und 'Was heißt das alles?')\n\nAufgabenstellung: Fasse zusammen, wie Character.AI funktioniert und welche konkreten Schwächen der Autor im Gespräch mit dem 'KI-Gott' feststellt. Diskutiert, welche Schlussfolgerungen sich daraus für die 'Wahrheit' oder 'Autorität' von KI-generierten Inhalten, insbesondere im religiösen Kontext, ziehen lassen. (Absatz: 'Was heißt das alles?')", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein ist entscheidend für die kritische Reflexion über KI. Er ermöglicht es den Schülerinnen und Schülern, die technischen Grundlagen und Limitationen von KI zu verstehen, um deren 'Aussagen' über Gott oder theologische Fragen fundiert beurteilen zu können. Dies ist direkt relevant für die Bewertung religionskritischer Entwürfe und die Reflexion über die Einzigartigkeit menschlicher Erkenntnis und Glaubens.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das sachgemäße Erschließen themenrelevanter Texte. Unterstützt das Beurteilen religionskritischer Entwürfe hinsichtlich ihrer Überzeugungskraft, indem die technische Basis und die Grenzen der KI offengelegt werden. Schärft die Medienkompetenz.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Sicherung des Verständnisses von KI und zur Vertiefung der kritischen Auseinandersetzung. Die SuS könnten die relevanten Abschnitte lesen und die Funktionsweise sowie die Fehler der KI in Stichpunkten festhalten. Beispiel-Diskussionsfrage: 'Warum ist es wichtig zu wissen, wie eine KI funktioniert, wenn man mit ihr über Gott spricht?'\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Einzelarbeit (Textanalyse), Partnerarbeit (Zusammenfassung), Plenum (Diskussion der Schlussfolgerungen).\naus: Chatten mit Gott?", "url": "https://www.sonntagsblatt.de/artikel/medien/chatten-mit-gott-so-gut-funktioniert-das-mit-der-kuenstlichen-intelligenz", "labels": "Erarbeitung, Sicherung, Vertiefung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-apkj7dv", "heading": "Mensch und Maschine: Utopie oder Dystopie?", "content": "Diskussionsanregung: Der Text beginnt mit der Frage: \"Siri ist schlau, denkt man sich. Computer wissen mehr als Menschen, könnte man meinen. Muss man dann nicht nachziehen und Denken optimieren, Gehirnströme tunen und die Menschheit neuronal vernetzen? Klingt nach einem Wettbewerb, dessen Ausgang offen ist: Utopie oder Dystopie?\" Diskutiert diese Eingangsfragen und eure ersten Assoziationen zum Thema 'Mensch und KI'. (Absatz: Thematische Hinführung)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein dient als aktivierender Einstieg, um die Schülerinnen und Schüler für die anthropologischen und ethischen Kernfragen der Einheit zu sensibilisieren. Er knüpft an ihr Vorwissen und ihre Meinungen an und eröffnet den Diskussionsraum.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert die Wahrnehmung ethischer Fragestellungen und die Darstellung eigener Vorstellungen.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Im Einstieg als Impuls für eine offene Klassendiskussion oder eine kurze Brainstorming-Phase. Die SuS könnten Stichworte oder kurze Sätze zu 'Utopie' und 'Dystopie' im Kontext von KI sammeln.\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Plenum, Think-Pair-Share.\naus: Homo Digitalis — Upgrade für das Gehirn", "url": "https://webcompetent.org/homo-digitalis-upgrade-fuer-das-gehirn", "labels": "Einstieg", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-m25ypwv", "heading": "Mein digitales Ich: Smartphone-Nutzung und Assistenzsysteme", "content": "Aufgabenstellung:\n1. Prüft euer Wissen zum Smartphone mit dem Kahoot (Link im Originaldokument).\n2. Führt einen Selbstversuch mit einer Detox-App (Android) oder Forest (iOS) durch, um euer Nutzungsverhalten zu entdecken. Haltet die Ergebnisse in Protokollen fest und tauscht euch darüber aus: Was war dir vorher bewusst? Was war neu? Bewegt sich für dich alles im grünen Bereich? Willst du etwas ändern?\n3. Denkt über die Intelligenz von Assistenzsystemen wie Siri oder Cortana nach. Wenn du dir ein intelligenteres Smartphone wünschen könntest: Was müsste dieses Gerät können? (Absatz: Kapitel: Was das Smartphone heute schon kann (00:21 — 01:06))", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein verbindet das abstrakte Thema KI mit der konkreten Lebenswelt der Schülerinnen und Schüler. Durch den Selbstversuch und die Reflexion über Assistenzsysteme werden erste ethische Fragen und die Frage nach der menschlichen Identität im digitalen Raum greifbar.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert die Wahrnehmung ethischer Herausforderungen und das Erörtern von Konsequenzen in der Lebenswelt.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: In der Erarbeitung zur Aktivierung von Alltagserfahrungen und zur Sensibilisierung für das Thema. Die SuS könnten ihre Protokolle in Kleingruppen besprechen und Wünsche für zukünftige Smartphone-Funktionen formulieren, die auch ethische Implikationen haben könnten (z.B. \"ein Smartphone, das meine Gefühle erkennt und darauf reagiert\").\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Einzelarbeit (Selbstversuch, Kahoot), Partner-/Kleingruppenarbeit (Austausch), Plenum (Sammeln von Wünschen).\naus: Homo Digitalis — Upgrade für das Gehirn", "url": "https://webcompetent.org/homo-digitalis-upgrade-fuer-das-gehirn", "labels": "Erarbeitung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-a2dmufz", "heading": "Wenn Gedanken Maschinen steuern: Brain-Computer Interfaces", "content": "Diskussionsanregung & Aufgabenstellung:\n1. Beschreibt die Steuerung von Geräten mithilfe von Gedanken, wie sie am Ars Electronica FutureLab erforscht wird.\n2. Entwickelt Theorien über das Lernen und diskutiert die Frage, wie Schulen für das 21. Jh. aussehen müssen.\n3. Erläutere ethischen Herausforderungen, an denen Science-Fiction-Autoren, Ingenieure, Informatiker und Psychologen zusammen arbeiten. (Absatz: Kapitel: Wie das Gehirn mit KI mithalten kann (01:07 — 02:34))", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein führt in die komplexere Thematik der Brain-Computer Interfaces ein und regt zur Reflexion über die Zukunft des Lernens und die ethischen Grenzen der Technologie an. Er ermöglicht eine tiefere Auseinandersetzung mit dem Menschenbild.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Erörtern verschiedener Gottes- und Menschenbilder und die argumentative Auseinandersetzung mit ethischen Aspekten.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Erarbeitung neuer Inhalte. Die SuS könnten in Gruppenarbeit die gestellten Fragen bearbeiten und ihre Theorien und Herausforderungen präsentieren. Beispiel: \"Welche ethischen Bedenken ergeben sich, wenn Gedanken zur Steuerung von Maschinen genutzt werden?\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Gruppenarbeit, Plenum (Präsentation und Diskussion).\naus: Homo Digitalis — Upgrade für das Gehirn", "url": "https://webcompetent.org/homo-digitalis-upgrade-fuer-das-gehirn", "labels": "Erarbeitung, Vertiefung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-h3rgdyd", "heading": "Identität und Erinnerung: Wer bin ich im digitalen Zeitalter?", "content": "Aufgabenstellung:\n1. Erstelle ein Akrostichon und bestimme, wer du bist.\n2. Erzähle von deinen ältesten Erinnerungen.\n3. Bestimme auf einer biografischen Zeitleiste die für deine Identität bedeutsamen Momente.\n4. Erkläre Zusammenhänge zwischen Kontinuitäten, Wandlungen und Erinnerungen. Visualisiere die Zusammenhänge in einer Grafik, z.B. in einer biografischen Landkarte, einem Garten oder einem Stadtplan.\n5. Diskutiert in der Lerngruppe mit Rückgriff auf eure Grafiken, inwiefern ein Eingriff in die Erinnerungen sich negativ oder positiv auf die Identitäten von Menschen auswirken kann. Formuliert Fallbeispiele. (Absatz: Kapitel: Manipulierte Erinnerungen (02:35 — 04:31))", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein ist zentral für die anthropologische Reflexion. Er verbindet philosophische Konzepte von Identität mit der konkreten Möglichkeit der Manipulation von Erinnerungen durch Technologie. Dies ist ein direkter Bezug zur Frage nach dem menschlichen Ebenbild und seiner Unversehrtheit.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Erörtern verschiedener Gottes- und Menschenbilder und das Deuten der biblischen Rede von Geschöpf und Ebenbild Gottes hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Vertiefung der anthropologischen Fragen. Die SuS können kreativ ihre Identität visualisieren und anschließend die ethischen Implikationen von Erinnerungsmanipulation diskutieren. Beispiel: \"Welche ethischen Grenzen sollte es bei der Möglichkeit geben, Erinnerungen zu verändern?\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Einzelarbeit (kreative Aufgabe), Partner-/Kleingruppenarbeit (Diskussion, Fallbeispiele), Plenum (Vorstellung der Grafiken und Diskussion).\naus: Homo Digitalis — Upgrade für das Gehirn", "url": "https://webcompetent.org/homo-digitalis-upgrade-fuer-das-gehirn", "labels": "Vertiefung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-e7nti6s", "heading": "Der optimierte Mensch: Eine theologische Perspektive", "content": "Diskussionsanregung & Aufgabenstellung:\n1. Gib das Vorhaben Bryan Johnsons (kognitive und empathische Fähigkeiten durch Implantate beschleunigen) mit eigenen Worten wieder.\n2. Muss sich der Mensch optimieren? Präsentiere deine Einstellung mithilfe einer Positionslinie: JA! <- Hier stehe ich! -> Nein! Ordnet die unterschiedlichen Begründungszusammenhänge in einer Mindmap.\n3. Kann man die Humanmedizin und ihre Entwicklungen als Optimierungsversuch oder ‑prozess des Menschen verstehen? Sammelt Argumente und Beispiele und führt eine Pro- und Contra-Diskussion.\n4. Im Alten Testament wird in unterschiedlichen Texten von der Erschaffung des Menschen durch Gott erzählt. Im Schöpfungshymnus Gen 1,31 wird das Geschöpf beurteilt. In Gen 2,18 findet sich eine weitere Einschätzung. Inwiefern spiegeln sich in den Texten Überlegungen der biblischen Autoren zur „Optimierung” des Menschen? (Absatz: Kapitel: Aufmerksamer, konzentrierter, kreativer: Maschinenlesbare Hirnströme (04:32 — 06:05))", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein ist ein Kernstück für die Verknüpfung von KI und Gottesbild. Er fordert die SuS heraus, die Idee der menschlichen Optimierung kritisch zu hinterfragen und mit biblischen Schöpfungsaussagen zu kontrastieren. Dies ermöglicht eine tiefgehende Reflexion über das Gottesbild und die biblische Rede vom Menschen als Geschöpf.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Deuten der biblischen Rede von Geschöpf und Ebenbild Gottes. Unterstützt das Erörtern verschiedener Gottes- und Menschenbilder und das Beurteilen religionskritischer Entwürfe.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Vertiefung der theologischen und ethischen Fragen. Die Positionslinie und die Pro-Contra-Diskussion fördern die argumentative Auseinandersetzung. Die Analyse der biblischen Texte verbindet die moderne Debatte mit religiösen Traditionen. Beispiel: \"Was bedeutet es für unser Gottesbild, wenn wir versuchen, den Menschen 'perfekter' zu machen?\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Einzelarbeit (Positionslinie, Textanalyse), Partner-/Kleingruppenarbeit (Mindmap, Pro-Contra-Diskussion), Plenum (Austausch, Sicherung).\naus: Homo Digitalis — Upgrade für das Gehirn", "url": "https://webcompetent.org/homo-digitalis-upgrade-fuer-das-gehirn", "labels": "Vertiefung, Erarbeitung", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-gjp4zyr", "heading": "Das vernetzte Gehirn: Konzentration, Ablenkung und Mitgefühl", "content": "Diskussionsanregung & Aufgabenstellung:\n1. Stelle die Position Ian Pearsons zur Zukunft vernetzter menschlicher Hirne dar und formuliere ein eigenes Statement.\n2. Erläutere das Experiment an der Ars Electronica, Linz, und kläre die Bedeutungen von Konzentration und Ablenkungfreiheit.\n3. Diskutiert die Frage, ob die sonst hochgelobte „Konzentration” nicht auch Gefahren in sich birgt.\n4. In Mt 8,5−10 wird von einer Fernheilung gesprochen. Empathie oder Mitgefühl bekommen in dieser Geschichte eine große Bedeutung. Diskutiert die Vergleichbarkeit mit dem Experiment.\n5. Beurteilt die positiven Potentiale der Hirnschnittstellen an selbstgewählten Beispielen.\n6. Entwickelt Theorien, warum ausgerechnet der Spitzenforscher Christopher Lindinger vor einer letzten Vernetzung der menschlichen Gehirne warnt. (Absatz: Kapitel: Schnittstellen zum Gehirn (06:06 — 09:40))", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein erweitert die Diskussion um Brain-Computer Interfaces um die Aspekte Konzentration, Ablenkung und Empathie. Die Verknüpfung mit der biblischen Fernheilungsgeschichte (Mt 8,5-10) ermöglicht eine theologische Reflexion über Mitgefühl und die Grenzen menschlicher Fähigkeiten im Vergleich zu göttlicher Macht.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Erörtern verschiedener Gottes- und Menschenbilder. Unterstützt das Deuten biblischer Texte hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen und die argumentative Auseinandersetzung.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Vertiefung und zum Transfer des Gelernten. Die SuS könnten in Gruppenarbeit die verschiedenen Aspekte bearbeiten und ihre Ergebnisse präsentieren. Beispiel: \"Welche ethischen Bedenken ergeben sich, wenn menschliche Gehirne vollständig vernetzt werden? Welche Rolle spielt dabei die Empathie?\"\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Gruppenarbeit, Plenum (Diskussion, Präsentation).\naus: Homo Digitalis — Upgrade für das Gehirn", "url": "https://webcompetent.org/homo-digitalis-upgrade-fuer-das-gehirn", "labels": "Vertiefung, Transfer", "inactive": false }, { "id": "id-1750022132843-1gmsy6f", "heading": "Homo Digitalis: Eine abschließende Positionsbestimmung", "content": "Diskussionsanregung: \"Was passiert, wenn es uns gelingt, das Organ zu verändern, das unser Denken bestimmt, unser Bewusstsein, unsere Identität? Bleiben wir dann noch Mensch? Was denkst Du?\" Formuliert eure persönliche Antwort auf diese Kernfrage der Einheit und begründet sie unter Bezugnahme auf die erarbeiteten Inhalte und eure eigenen Gottes- und Menschenbilder. (Absatz: Abschließende Frage am Ende des Dokuments)", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "Didaktischer Kommentar als Markdown-String:\n\n Beitrag zur Intention: Dieser Baustein dient der abschließenden Synthese und Reflexion der gesamten Unterrichtseinheit. Er fordert die Schülerinnen und Schüler auf, eine eigene, begründete Position zu den komplexen Fragen von Menschsein und KI zu entwickeln und dabei die erarbeiteten Kompetenzen anzuwenden.\n Kompetenzförderung: Fördert das Darstellen eigener Gottesvorstellungen und das Erörtern der verschiedenen Gottes- und Menschenbilder hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen.\n Konkrete Anwendung & Beispiele: Zur Sicherung und zum Transfer des Gelernten. Die SuS könnten ihre Antworten schriftlich festhalten (z.B. als Essay oder Statement) und anschließend in einer Gallery Walk oder einer Fishbowl-Diskussion präsentieren und diskutieren.\n Methodische Vielfalt & Sozialformen: Einzelarbeit (schriftliche Reflexion), Plenum (Diskussion, Präsentation).\naus: Homo Digitalis — Upgrade für das Gehirn", "url": "https://webcompetent.org/homo-digitalis-upgrade-fuer-das-gehirn", "labels": "Sicherung, Transfer", "inactive": false } ] }, { "id": "id-1750022178956-tvws3tr", "name": "Unterrichtsreihe", "color": "color-gradient-1", "cards": [ { "id": "id-1750022178956-cprxgo9", "heading": "Gottesbild und Künstliche Intelligenz", "content": "## Unterrichtsverlaufsplan: Gottesbild und Künstliche Intelligenz (Klasse 11)\n\nIntention der Unterrichtseinheit: Die Schülerinnen und Schüler sollen befähigt werden, eigene Gottesvorstellungen zu entwickeln, diese mit biblischen Gottesbildern zu vergleichen, und die lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen verschiedener Gottes- und Menschenbilder im Kontext technischer Entwicklungen zu reflektieren. Dabei sollen sie auch religionskritische Perspektiven und ethische Fragen im Zusammenhang mit KI erarbeiten.\n\nLerngruppe: Schülerinnen und Schüler der 11. Klasse\n\n### Stunde 1: Einführung in KI und ethische Alltagsfragen\n\nSchwerpunkt Kompetenzen:\n\n1. SuS erörtern die verschiedenen Gottes- und Menschenbilder hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen in ihrer Lebenswelt.\n2. SuS stellen eigene Gottesvorstellungen dar (erste Ansätze durch die Auseinandersetzung mit den Auswirkungen von KI auf die Lebenswelt).\n\nPhasen:\n\n1. Einstieg (ca. 15 Min)\n2. Impuls und Brainstorming:\n\n> Mensch und Maschine: Utopie oder Dystopie?\n\n1. Die Lehrkraft beginnt mit der Frage nach den ersten Assoziationen der SuS zum Thema Künstliche Intelligenz und leitet eine offene Diskussion zu 'Utopie oder Dystopie' ein.\n2. Situationsbezug:\n\n> KI im Alltag: Chancen und Gefahren von Pflegerobotern\n\n1. Die SuS versetzen sich in die beschriebene Situation mit der pflegebedürftigen Großmutter. In Einzelarbeit sammeln sie erste Gedanken und Gefühle, gefolgt von einer kurzen Plenumsaussprache.\n2. Erarbeitung (ca. 25 Min)\n3. Begriffsdefinition und Alltagsbezug:\n\n> Was ist KI? Sammeln von Alltagsbeispielen und Positionierung\n\n1. \ \\Methode:\\ Think-Pair-Share. Die SuS überlegen zunächst allein, dann zu zweit, in welchen Bereichen KI heute schon vorkommt. \ \\Plenum:\\ Gemeinsam wird eine Mindmap mit Alltagsbeispielen für KI erstellt (z.B. Sprachassistenten, personalisierte Werbung, autonomes Fahren). \ \\Positionierung:\\ Die SuS positionieren sich auf einer gedachten Linie im Raum, an deren Enden 'Chancen' und 'Gefahren' markiert sind, und erläutern ihre Positionen im Unterrichtsgespräch. \ \\Lücke:\\ Eine konkrete Materialgrundlage (M1) zur Begriffsbestimmung von KI aus dem Artefakt \
Mensch und Maschine - Entwicklungen künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) als Ausgangspunkt anthropologisch-ethischer Lernprozesse in der Oberstufe\\
wird im Artefakt \Was ist KI? Sammeln von Alltagsbeispielen und Positionierung\\
erwähnt, ist aber nicht explizit als Kärtchen vorhanden. \ \\Vorschlag zur Füllung:\\ Die Lehrkraft bereitet eine kurze, prägnante Definition von KI vor oder stellt einen kurzen Informationstext (z.B. M1 aus dem Originaldokument) bereit, der nach der Mindmap zur Sicherung des Begriffsverständnisses dient.\n2. Sicherung/Ausblick (ca. 5 Min)\n3. Zusammenfassung: Die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse zu KI im Alltag und die Bandbreite der Meinungen zu Chancen und Gefahren werden kurz zusammengefasst.\n4. Ausblick: Die Lehrkraft leitet über zur Notwendigkeit, sich mit konkreten ethischen Dilemmata auseinanderzusetzen.\n\n### Stunde 2: Ethische Herausforderungen und die Frage nach dem Bewusstsein\n\nSchwerpunkt Kompetenzen:\n\n1. SuS erörtern die verschiedenen Gottes- und Menschenbilder hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen in ihrer Lebenswelt.\n2. SuS beurteilen religionskritische Entwürfe hinsichtlich ihrer Überzeugungskraft im Kontext der Diskussion über Gottesbilder (erste Ansätze durch ethische Problemfelder).\n\nPhasen:\n\n1. Einstieg (ca. 10 Min)\n2. Wiederholung: Kurze Aktivierung der in Stunde 1 gesammelten KI-Anwendungsfelder.\n3. Impuls: Die Lehrkraft zeigt einen kurzen, provokanten Filmausschnitt oder ein Bild, das eine ethische Herausforderung im Kontext von KI darstellt (z.B. autonome Waffensysteme, KI in der Medizin).\n4. Erarbeitung (ca. 30 Min)\n5. Vertiefung ethischer Dilemmata (Gruppenpuzzle):\n\n> Ethische Herausforderungen der KI: Gruppenpuzzle zu Anwendungsfeldern\n\n1. \ Die SuS bilden Expertengruppen (bis zu fünf), die sich jeweils mit einem spezifischen Anwendungsfeld der KI (Pflegeroboter, autonome Waffensysteme, automatische Bewerbungssoftware, KI in der Schule, Steuerungscomputer im Verkehr) anhand von Infotexten (M2a-e aus dem Originaldokument) und Arbeitsaufträgen auseinandersetzen. \ Die Ergebnisse werden anschließend im Gruppenpuzzle oder direkt im Plenum präsentiert, um ein umfassendes ethisches Problembewusstsein zu schaffen.\n2. Mediale Ergänzung (optional):\n\n> Videoanalyse: „K.O. durch KI? Keine Angst vor schlauen Maschinen!“ (Leschs Kosmos)\n\n1. \ Gezielte Sequenzen des Videos können zur Vertiefung der jeweiligen Gruppenarbeitsthemen eingesetzt werden (z.B. \\\"Autonomes Fahren – mehr Sicherheit?\\\" oder \\\"Algorithmen – warum lügen sie?\\\").\n2. Sicherung/Ausblick (ca. 5 Min)\n3. Reflexion: Kurze gemeinsame Reflexion über die Komplexität ethischer Entscheidungen im KI-Kontext.\n4. Ausblick: Überleitung zur Frage, was den Menschen im Angesicht dieser Technologien ausmacht und wie sich dies auf unser Verständnis von Bewusstsein und Identität auswirkt.\n\n### Stunde 3: Menschliche Identität, Bewusstsein und biblische Anthropologie\n\nSchwerpunkt Kompetenzen:\n\n1. SuS erörtern die verschiedenen Gottes- und Menschenbilder hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen.\n2. SuS deuten die biblische Rede von Geschöpf und Ebenbild Gottes hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen.\n\nPhasen:\n\n1. Einstieg (ca. 10 Min)\n2. Filmimpuls:\n\n> Science-Fiction-Filme: KI, Bewusstsein und menschliche Beziehungen\n\n1. Die Lehrkraft zeigt eine ausgewählte Szene aus \\\"Ex Machina\\\" (z.B. 9:50-14:32) oder \\\"Her\\\", die die Frage nach dem Bewusstsein von Maschinen oder der Qualität menschlicher Beziehungen zu KI aufwirft.\n2. Sammeln von Eindrücken: Erste Eindrücke und Überlegungen zur Möglichkeit einer Bewusstwerdung von Maschinen oder der Rolle von KI in Beziehungen werden im Plenum gesammelt.\n3. Erarbeitung (ca. 20 Min)\n4. Philosophische Perspektiven auf Bewusstsein:\n\n> Können Maschinen Bewusstsein besitzen? Der Turing-Test\n\n1. \ Die Lehrkraft erläutert den Turing-Test. \ In Kleingruppen diskutieren die SuS: \\\"Was versteht man unter Bewusstsein? Kann eine Maschine Bewusstsein haben? Welche Kriterien würden wir anwenden, um dies zu beurteilen?\\\"\n2. Vertiefung der Identitätsfrage:\n\n> Identität und Erinnerung: Wer bin ich im digitalen Zeitalter?\n\n1. \ Die SuS erstellen ein Akrostichon oder eine biografische Zeitleiste zu ihrer Identität. \ In Kleingruppen diskutieren sie anschließend, inwiefern ein (hypothetischer) Eingriff in Erinnerungen sich negativ oder positiv auf die Identität von Menschen auswirken könnte.\n2. Vertiefung/Transfer (ca. 15 Min)\n3. Gedankenexperiment und theologische Reflexion:\n\n> Das Gedankenexperiment „Mary“: Subjektives Erleben vs. Physiologie\n\n1. \ Die SuS lesen den Text zum Gedankenexperiment \\\"Mary\\\" (M4 aus 'Mensch und Maschine...') und diskutieren in Partnerarbeit das Kernproblem: \\\"Was unterscheidet subjektives Erleben von messbaren physiologischen Vorgängen?\\\" \ \\Lücke:\\ Die direkte theologische Verknüpfung des Gedankenexperiments mit der biblischen Anthropologie ist im Artefakt impliziert, muss aber explizit gemacht werden. \ \\Vorschlag zur Füllung:\\ Die Lehrkraft führt die Diskussion fort mit der Frage: \\\"Was bedeutet es für unser Verständnis des Menschen als 'Ebenbild Gottes' (vgl. Gen 1,27), wenn subjektives Erleben nicht rein materiell erklärbar ist? Welche einzigartigen menschlichen Qualitäten werden hier sichtbar, die eine KI nicht abbilden kann?\\\"\n\n### Stunde 4: Der Mensch als Ebenbild Gottes und die Optimierung des Menschen\n\nSchwerpunkt Kompetenzen:\n\n1. SuS deuten die biblische Rede von Geschöpf und Ebenbild Gottes hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen.\n2. SuS erörtern die verschiedenen Gottes- und Menschenbilder hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen.\n\nPhasen:\n\n1. Einstieg (ca. 10 Min)\n2. Blitzlicht: Kurze Wiederholung der wichtigsten Erkenntnisse aus Stunde 3 zu Bewusstsein und Identität.\n3. Impuls: Die Lehrkraft stellt kurz das Vorhaben von Bryan Johnson (menschliche Optimierung durch Implantate) vor.\n4. Erarbeitung (ca. 25 Min)\n5. Diskussion über menschliche Optimierung:\n\n> Der optimierte Mensch: Eine theologische Perspektive\n\n1. \ Die SuS positionieren sich auf einer Positionslinie (\\\"Muss sich der Mensch optimieren? JA! <-> NEIN!\\\") und begründen ihre Haltung in einer Mindmap (Partnerarbeit). \ \\Plenum:\\ Pro- und Contra-Diskussion zur Frage, ob Humanmedizin und technologische Entwicklungen als Optimierungsversuch des Menschen verstanden werden können.\n2. Vertiefung (ca. 10 Min)\n3. Biblische Perspektive auf Geschöpflichkeit:\n\n> Der optimierte Mensch: Eine theologische Perspektive\n\n1. \ Analyse der biblischen Texte Gen 1,31 (Beurteilung des Geschöpfes als \\\"sehr gut\\\") und Gen 2,18 (Finden eines adäquaten Gegenübers). \ Diskussion: \\\"Inwiefern spiegeln sich in diesen Texten Überlegungen der biblischen Autoren zur 'Optimierung' des Menschen wider? Was bedeuten diese Texte für unsere heutige Debatte über menschliche Optimierung durch KI?\\\"\n2. Theologische Abgrenzung:\n\n> Der Mensch als Ebenbild Gottes: Unterschied zu digitalen Systemen (Charbonnier)\n\n1. \ Die SuS lesen den Text von Ralph Charbonnier (M5 aus 'Mensch und Maschine...') und fassen seine Argumente zusammen, warum digitale Systeme \\\"nicht lernen, (sich) entscheiden, handeln und vertrauenswürdig sind\\\". \ Anschließend wird der Bezug zum Menschen als \\\"Ebenbild Gottes\\\" diskutiert: Welche Eigenschaften des Menschen sind nach Charbonnier einzigartig und unübertragbar auf Maschinen?\n\n### Stunde 5: KI als 'Gott'? Religionskritik und theologische Einordnung\n\nSchwerpunkt Kompetenzen:\n\n1. SuS stellen eigene Gottesvorstellungen dar und vergleichen sie mit biblischen Gottesvorstellungen.\n2. SuS beurteilen religionskritische Entwürfe hinsichtlich ihrer Überzeugungskraft im Kontext der Diskussion über Gottesbilder.\n\nPhasen:\n\n1. Einstieg (ca. 10 Min)\n2. Provokation und Diskussion:\n\n> Chat-Experiment: Was sagt eine KI über Gott?\n\n1. Die SuS lesen den Artikel 'Chatten mit Gott?' und diskutieren die direkten und indirekten Antworten der KI auf Fragen nach Gott.\n2. Religionskritische Perspektive der KI:\n\n> KI als theologischer Ratgeber: Glaube, Kirche und persönliche Beziehung\n\n1. Diskussion der Aussage der KI, man solle sich 'nicht an alles halten, was die Kirche sagt, sondern eine persönliche Beziehung zu Gott haben'. Welche Chancen und Gefahren seht ihr in einem solchen 'theologischen Rat' durch eine KI?\n2. Erarbeitung (ca. 20 Min)\n3. Grenzen der KI im religiösen Kontext:\n\n> Die Technik hinter dem 'KI-Gott': Grenzen von Large Language Models\n\n1. \ Die SuS fassen zusammen, wie Character.AI funktioniert und welche konkreten Schwächen der Autor im Gespräch mit dem 'KI-Gott' feststellt (Wiederholungen, Kontextverlust, Fehler). \ Diskussion: \\\"Welche Schlussfolgerungen lassen sich daraus für die 'Wahrheit' oder 'Autorität' von KI-generierten Inhalten, insbesondere im religiösen Kontext, ziehen lassen?\\\"\n2. Recherche und Präsentation (Hausaufgabe oder Kurzrecherche):\n\n> Heilserwartungen an KI: „Way of the Future“ und Unsterblichkeit\n\n1. Kurze Präsentation der Rechercheergebnisse zu \\\"Way of the Future\\\" oder \\\"KI und Unsterblichkeit\\\".\n2. Vertiefung/Sicherung (ca. 15 Min)\n3. Theologische Einordnung von KI-Heilserwartungen:\n\n> „Ihr werdet sein wie Gott“: Theologische Einordnung von KI-Heilserwartungen\n\n1. \ Die SuS lesen den Text von Jörg Hermann (M7 aus 'Mensch und Maschine...') und erarbeiten, wie er Tendenzen zur religiösen Überhöhung von KI theologisch einordnet. \ Diskussion: \\\"Wie beurteilt Hermann die 'Gottesähnlichkeit' im Kontext von KI? Welche biblischen Bezüge stellt er her und wie helfen sie uns, die Rolle des Menschen zu verstehen?\\\"\n\n### Stunde 6: Digitaler Humanismus und Abschlussreflexion\n\nSchwerpunkt Kompetenzen:\n\n1. SuS erörtern die verschiedenen Gottes- und Menschenbilder hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen in ihrer Lebenswelt.\n2. SuS deuten die biblische Rede von Geschöpf und Ebenbild Gottes hinsichtlich ihrer lebenspraktischen Konsequenzen.\n3. SuS stellen eigene Gottesvorstellungen dar und vergleichen sie mit biblischen Gottesvorstellungen.\n\nPhasen:\n\n1. Einstieg (ca. 10 Min)\n2. Impuls:\n\n> Digitaler Humanismus: Ethik für den Umgang mit KI\n\n1. Die Lehrkraft zeigt eine Karikatur (z.B. von H. Haitzinger) oder einen kurzen Ausschnitt aus dem Interview mit Yvonne Hofstetter (\\\"Bots, Fake News und BigData: Das Ende der Demokratie?\\\") zur Frage, inwieweit KI eine Gefahr für Demokratie und Selbstbestimmung darstellen kann.\n2. Sammeln von Assoziationen: Kurze Sammlung von Assoziationen und Fragen der SuS.\n3. Erarbeitung (ca. 20 Min)\n4. Konzept des Digitalen Humanismus:\n\n> Digitaler Humanismus: Ethik für den Umgang mit KI\n\n1. \ Die SuS erschließen das Konzept des „Digitalen Humanismus“ von Julian Nida-Rümelin (M8 aus 'Mensch und Maschine...') in Kleingruppen. \ Diskussion: \\\"Wie grenzt sich Nida-Rümelin von Ideologisierung und apokalyptischen Befürchtungen ab, und was ist sein Ziel für den Umgang mit KI?\\\"\n2. Entwicklung ethischer Leitlinien:\n\n> Digitaler Humanismus: Ethik für den Umgang mit KI\n\n1. \ Ausgehend vom Konzept des Digitalen Humanismus entwickeln die SuS in Gruppen ethische Leitlinien für den verantwortungsvollen Umgang mit KI. Dabei sollen sie sich auf die zu Beginn der Einheit kennengelernten Beispielfelder (Pflegeroboter, Bewerbungssoftware etc.) beziehen.\n2. Sicherung/Transfer (ca. 15 Min)\n3. Abschließende Positionsbestimmung:\n\n> Homo Digitalis: Eine abschließende Positionsbestimmung\n\n1. \ Die SuS formulieren ihre persönliche, begründete Antwort auf die Kernfrage der Einheit: \\\"Was passiert, wenn es uns gelingt, das Organ zu verändern, das unser Denken bestimmt, unser Bewusstsein, unsere Identität? Bleiben wir dann noch Mensch? Was denkst Du?\\\" \ \\Optional:\\ Präsentation der entwickelten Leitlinien und der persönlichen Statements im Plenum, gefolgt von einer abschließenden Diskussion.\n2. Lücke: Möglichkeiten für systematisches Feedback und Selbstbewertung fehlen noch.\n3. Vorschlag zur Füllung: Am Ende der Stunde oder der Einheit können die SuS eine 'Exit-Card' ausfüllen, auf der sie 1-2 zentrale Erkenntnisse der gesamten Einheit und 1 offene Frage notieren. Dies dient der Selbstreflexion und gibt der Lehrkraft Feedback zum Lernerfolg.", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "", "url": "", "labels": "", "inactive": false } ] }, { "id": "id-1750082204880-fpucylt", "name": "New Column", "color": "color-gradient-1", "cards": [ { "id": "id-1750082207747-a6bqez9", "heading": "Das Konzept eines digitalen Humanismus kann...", "content": "Das Konzept eines digitalen Humanismus kann mithilfe\nvon M8 erschlossen und erörtert werden. Die Schülerin-\nnen entwickeln (präzisieren) ausgehend davon ethische\nLeitlinien für den Umgang mit KI und greifen dazu noch\neinmal die zu Beginn kennengelernten Beispielfelder auf.", "color": "color-gradient-1", "thumbnail": "", "comments": "", "url": "", "labels": "", "inactive": false } ] } ], "aiConfig": { "provider": "", "apiKey": "", "model": "", "baseUrl": "" }, "backgroundTransparency": 80, "backgroundHex": "#bbf7d0", "headerRGBA": "rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8)", "exportDate": "2025-06-16T14:01:34.711Z", "nostrEvent": true } -
@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-16 06:25:53“The future is there... staring back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become.” — William Gibson.
This month is the 4th anniversary of kycnot.me. Thank you for being here.
Fifteen years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system: a decentralized currency free from government and institutional control. Nakamoto's whitepaper showed a vision for a financial system based on trustless transactions, secured by cryptography. Some time forward and KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and CTF (Counter-Terrorism Financing) regulations started to come into play.
What a paradox: to engage with a system designed for decentralization, privacy, and independence, we are forced to give away our personal details. Using Bitcoin in the economy requires revealing your identity, not just to the party you interact with, but also to third parties who must track and report the interaction. You are forced to give sensitive data to entities you don't, can't, and shouldn't trust. Information can never be kept 100% safe; there's always a risk. Information is power, who knows about you has control over you.
Information asymmetry creates imbalances of power. When entities have detailed knowledge about individuals, they can manipulate, influence, or exploit this information to their advantage. The accumulation of personal data by corporations and governments enables extensive surveillances.
Such practices, moreover, exclude individuals from traditional economic systems if their documentation doesn't meet arbitrary standards, reinforcing a dystopian divide. Small businesses are similarly burdened by the costs of implementing these regulations, hindering free market competition^1:
How will they keep this information safe? Why do they need my identity? Why do they force businesses to enforce such regulations? It's always for your safety, to protect you from the "bad". Your life is perpetually in danger: terrorists, money launderers, villains... so the government steps in to save us.
‟Hush now, baby, baby, don't you cry Mamma's gonna make all of your nightmares come true Mamma's gonna put all of her fears into you Mamma's gonna keep you right here, under her wing She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing Mamma's gonna keep baby cosy and warm” — Mother, Pink Floyd
We must resist any attack on our privacy and freedom. To do this, we must collaborate.
If you have a service, refuse to ask for KYC; find a way. Accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Monero. Commit to circular economies. Remove the need to go through the FIAT system. People need fiat money to use most services, but we can change that.
If you're a user, donate to and prefer using services that accept such currencies. Encourage your friends to accept cryptocurrencies as well. Boycott FIAT system to the greatest extent you possibly can.
This may sound utopian, but it can be achieved. This movement can't be stopped. Go kick the hornet's nest.
“We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do.” — Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk's Manifesto
The anniversary
Four years ago, I began exploring ways to use crypto without KYC. I bookmarked a few favorite services and thought sharing them to the world might be useful. That was the first version of kycnot.me — a simple list of about 15 services. Since then, I've added services, rewritten it three times, and improved it to what it is now.
kycnot.me has remained 100% independent and 100% open source^2 all these years. I've received offers to buy the site, all of which I have declined and will continue to decline. It has been DDoS attacked many times, but we made it through. I have also rewritten the whole site almost once per year (three times in four years).
The code and scoring algorithm are open source (contributions are welcome) and I can't arbitrarly change a service's score without adding or removing attributes, making any arbitrary alterations obvious if they were fake. You can even see the score summary for any service's score.
I'm a one-person team, dedicating my free time to this project. I hope to keep doing so for many more years. Again, thank you for being part of this.
-
@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-15 14:13:52“The future is there... staring back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become.” — William Gibson.
This month is the 4th anniversary of kycnot.me. Thank you for being here.
Fifteen years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system: a decentralized currency free from government and institutional control. Nakamoto's whitepaper showed a vision for a financial system based on trustless transactions, secured by cryptography. Some time forward and KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and CTF (Counter-Terrorism Financing) regulations started to come into play.
What a paradox: to engage with a system designed for decentralization, privacy, and independence, we are forced to give away our personal details. Using Bitcoin in the economy requires revealing your identity, not just to the party you interact with, but also to third parties who must track and report the interaction. You are forced to give sensitive data to entities you don't, can't, and shouldn't trust. Information can never be kept 100% safe; there's always a risk. Information is power, who knows about you has control over you.
Information asymmetry creates imbalances of power. When entities have detailed knowledge about individuals, they can manipulate, influence, or exploit this information to their advantage. The accumulation of personal data by corporations and governments enables extensive surveillances.
Such practices, moreover, exclude individuals from traditional economic systems if their documentation doesn't meet arbitrary standards, reinforcing a dystopian divide. Small businesses are similarly burdened by the costs of implementing these regulations, hindering free market competition^1:
How will they keep this information safe? Why do they need my identity? Why do they force businesses to enforce such regulations? It's always for your safety, to protect you from the "bad". Your life is perpetually in danger: terrorists, money launderers, villains... so the government steps in to save us.
‟Hush now, baby, baby, don't you cry Mamma's gonna make all of your nightmares come true Mamma's gonna put all of her fears into you Mamma's gonna keep you right here, under her wing She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing Mamma's gonna keep baby cosy and warm” — Mother, Pink Floyd
We must resist any attack on our privacy and freedom. To do this, we must collaborate.
If you have a service, refuse to ask for KYC; find a way. Accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Monero. Commit to circular economies. Remove the need to go through the FIAT system. People need fiat money to use most services, but we can change that.
If you're a user, donate to and prefer using services that accept such currencies. Encourage your friends to accept cryptocurrencies as well. Boycott FIAT system to the greatest extent you possibly can.
This may sound utopian, but it can be achieved. This movement can't be stopped. Go kick the hornet's nest.
“We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do.” — Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk's Manifesto
The anniversary
Four years ago, I began exploring ways to use crypto without KYC. I bookmarked a few favorite services and thought sharing them to the world might be useful. That was the first version of kycnot.me — a simple list of about 15 services. Since then, I've added services, rewritten it three times, and improved it to what it is now.
kycnot.me has remained 100% independent and 100% open source^2 all these years. I've received offers to buy the site, all of which I have declined and will continue to decline. It has been DDoS attacked many times, but we made it through. I have also rewritten the whole site almost once per year (three times in four years).
The code and scoring algorithm are open source (contributions are welcome) and I can't arbitrarly change a service's score without adding or removing attributes, making any arbitrary alterations obvious if they were fake. You can even see the score summary for any service's score.
I'm a one-person team, dedicating my free time to this project. I hope to keep doing so for many more years. Again, thank you for being part of this.
-
@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d
2025-06-16 06:01:44Paris, France – June 6, 2025 — Bitcoin payment gateway startup Flash, just announced a new partnership with the “Bitcoin Only Brewery”, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Lightning payments.
Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack, shipping included.
The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.
Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented:
“Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”
Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.
By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.
For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.
Media Contact:
Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.comAbout Flash
Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.
About Bitcoin Only Brewery
Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.
-
@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-06-01 13:48:34Marty's Bent
Sorry for the lack of writing over the last week. As many of you may already know, I was in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Bitcoin 2025 conference. It was my first time in Las Vegas. I had successfully avoided Sin City for the first 34 years of my life. But when duty calls, you have to make some personal concessions.
Despite what many say about this particular conference and the spectacle that it has become, I will say that having attended every single one of Bitcoin Magazine's conferences since 2019, I thoroughly enjoy these events, even if I don't agree with all the content. Being able to congregate with others in the industry who have been working extremely hard to push Bitcoin forward, all of whom I view as kindred spirits who have also dedicated their lives to making the world a better place. There's nothing better than getting together, seeing each other in person, shaking hands, giving hugs, catching up and reflecting on how much things have changed over the years while also focusing on the opportunities that lie ahead.
I think out of all the Bitcoin magazine conferences I've been to, this was certainly my favorite. If only because it has become abundantly clear that Bitcoin is here to stay. Many powerful, influential, and competent people have identified Bitcoin as an asset and monetary network that will play a large part in human society moving forward. And more importantly, Bitcoin is proving to work far better than anybody not paying attention expected. While at the same time, the fiat system is in woeful disrepair at the same time.
As a matter of reflection and surfacing signal for you freaks, here are the presentations and things that happened that I think were the most impactful.
Miles Suter's Block Presentation
This presentation was awesome for many reasons, one of which being that we often forget just how dedicated Block, as an organization with many companies - including Cash App, Square, the open source organization known as Spiral and more recently, BitKey and Proto - has been to bitcoin over the last eight years. They've worked methodically to make Bitcoin a first-class citizen in their business operations and slowly but surely have built an incredibly integrated experience across their brands. The two big announcements from Block during the conference were the enablement of Bitcoin payments in Square point-of-sale systems and the amount of revenue they're making on their Lightning node, c=, from routing payments.
Right now, the Bitcoin payments and point of sale systems is in beta with many merchants testing it out for the next six months, but it will be available for all 4 million square merchants in 2026. This is something that many bitcoiners have been waiting for for many years now, and it is incredible to see that they finally brought it across the line. Merchants will have the ability to accept bitcoin payments and either convert every payment into fiat automatically, convert a portion of the bitcoin payment into fiat to keep the rest in sats, or simply keep all of the bitcoin they receive via payments in sats. This is an incredible addition to what Square has already built, which is the ability of their merchants to sweep a portion of their revenues into bitcoin if they desire. Square is focused on building a vertically integrated suite of bitcoin products for merchants that includes the ability to buy bitcoin, receive bitcoin, and eventually leverage financial services using bitcoin as collateral so that they can reinvest in and expand their businesses.
via Ryan Gentry
What went a bit underappreciated in the crowd was the routing node revenue that c= is producing, \~9.7% annualized. This is a massive validation of something that many bitcoiners have been talking about for quite some time, which is the ability to produce "yield" on bitcoin in a way that reduces risk significantly. Locking up bitcoin in a 2-of-2 multisig within Lightning channels and operating a Lightning routing node has been long talked about as one of the ways to produce more bitcoin with your bitcoin in a way that minimizes the threat of loss.
It seems that c= has found a way to do this at scale and is doing it successfully. 10% yield on bitcoin locked in Lightning channels is nothing to joke about. And as you can see from the chart above in the grainy picture taken by Ryan Gentry of Lightning Labs, this routing node "yield" is producing more return on capital than many of the most popular staking and DeFi protocols.
This is a strong signal to the rest of the market that this can be done. It may take economies of scale and a high degree of technical competency today. But this is incredibly promising for the future of earning bitcoin by providing valuable goods and services to the market of Bitcoiners. In this case, facilitating relatively cheap and instantly settled payments over the Lightning Network.
Saifedean Ammous' Bitcoin and Tether Presentation
This was one of the best presentations at the conference. Saifedean Ammous is a friend, he has been an incredible influence on my personal bitcoin journey, and I feel comfortable in saying he's been a strong influence on the journey of hundreds of thousands, at least, if not millions of people as they've attempted to understand bitcoin.
This presentation is a bit spicy because it puts a pin in the balloon of hopium that stablecoins like Tether are mechanisms that could bail out the market for US Treasuries in the medium to long-term if they take enough market share. As one always should do, Saif ran the numbers and clearly illustrates that even in the most optimistic case, Tether's impact on the market for treasuries, their interest rates, and curbing the growth of the debt held by the US federal government will be minimal at best.
One of the most interesting things that Saif points out that I'm a bit embarrassed I didn't recognize before is that much of the demand for Tether that we're seeing these days is replacement demand for treasuries. Meaning that many people who are turning to Tether, particularly in countries that have experienced hyperinflationary events, are using Tether as a substitute for their currencies, which are operated by central banks likely buying U.S. treasuries to support their monetary systems. The net effect of Tether buying those treasuries is zero for this particular user archetype.
Saif goes on to explain that if anything, Tether is a weapon against the US Treasury system when you consider that they're storing a large portion of the stablecoin backing in Treasuries and then using the yields produced by those Treasuries to buy bitcoin. Slowly but surely over time bitcoin as a percentage of their overall backing of Tether has grown quite significantly starting at 0% and approaching 10% today. It isn't hard to imagine that at some point within the next decade, Bitcoin could be the dominant reserve asset backing tethers and, as a result, Tether could be pegged to bitcoin eventually.
It's a fascinating take on Tether that I've never heard before.
Nothing Stops this Train from Lyn Alden
Lyn's been saying it loudly for quite some time now; "Nothing stops this train." She's even been on our podcast to explain why she believes this many times over the last five years. However, I don't think there is one piece of content out there that consolidates her thesis of why nothing stops the train of fiscal irresponsibility and unfettered debt expansion and why that's good for bitcoin than the presentation she gave at the conference. Definitely give this one a watch when you get a chance if you haven't already.
Overall, it was a great week in Vegas and I think it's safe to say that bitcoin has gone mainstream. Whether or not people who have been in the bitcoin industry and community for a while are okay with does not really matter. It's happening and all we can do is ride the wave as more and more people come to recognize the value prop of bitcoin and the social clout they can gain from supporting it. Our job here at TFTC is to help you discern the signal from the noise, continue to champion the self-sovereign usage of bitcoin and keep you abreast of developments in the space as they manifest.
Buckle up. Things are only going to get weirder from here on out.
Bitcoin's Mathematical Destiny
Sean Bill and Adam Back make a compelling case for Bitcoin's inevitable march toward $1 million. Sean points out that Bitcoin represents just a tiny fraction—2 trillion out of 900 trillion—of total financial assets, calling it a "tiny orange dot" on their presentation to Texas pensions. He emphasizes that reaching parity with gold alone would deliver a 10x return from current levels. Adam highlights the mathematical impossibility of current prices, noting that ETF buyers are absorbing 500,000 BTC annually while only 165,000 new coins are mined.
"Who's selling at these prices? It doesn't quite add up to me." - Adam Back
The institutional wave is just beginning. Sean revealed that while 50% of hedge fund managers personally own Bitcoin, only 3% have allocated institutional funds. Combined with emerging demand from nation states and corporate treasuries meeting Bitcoin's fixed supply, the price trajectory seems clear. Both guests stressed the importance of staying invested—missing just the 12 best performing days each year would turn Bitcoin into a losing investment.
Check out the full podcast here for more on pensions allocating to Bitcoin, cypherpunk banking, and commodity trading insights.
Headlines of the Day
Panama Canal Eyes Bitcoin for Payment Option - via X
U.S. Warns of Imminent Chinese Threat to Taiwan - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Saylor's Bitcoin Strategy Explodes Globally Amid Doubt - via CNBC
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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...
Moving is the least fun part of the human experience.
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-
@ e1cde248:609c13b0
2025-06-16 15:03:12ในการกล่าวสุนทรพจน์หลักในงาน Bitcoin 2025 ไมเคิล เซย์เลอร์ (Michael Saylor) นักเคลื่อนไหวชื่อดังด้านบิตคอยน์และซีอีโอของบริษัท MicroStrategy ได้บรรยายหัวข้อที่ทรงพลังชื่อว่า "21 วิธีสู่ความมั่งคั่ง" เขาได้เสนอเส้นทางเชิงกลยุทธ์สำหรับบุคคลทั่วไป ครอบครัว และธุรกิจขนาดเล็ก ในการบรรลุความมั่งคั่งทางการเงินผ่านบิตคอยน์
ต่างจากคำพูดก่อนหน้าของเขาที่มุ่งเป้าไปที่สถาบันและรัฐบาล คำพูดนี้ถูกออกแบบมาสำหรับผู้คนทั้ง 8 พันล้านคน บนโลก โดยเน้นขั้นตอนปฏิบัติที่สามารถใช้บิตคอยน์เป็นทรัพย์สินเปลี่ยนชีวิตอย่างแท้จริง ด้านล่างนี้คือการสำรวจเชิงลึกใน 21 หลักการ ของเซย์เลอร์ ซึ่งเปรียบเสมือนพิมพ์เขียวในการสร้างความมั่งคั่งในยุคดิจิทัล:
1. ความชัดเจน (Clarity): เข้าใจบิตคอยน์ในฐานะทุนที่สมบูรณ์แบบ เซย์เลอร์เริ่มต้นด้วยแนวคิดเรื่อง “ความชัดเจน” โดยเน้นว่าบิตคอยน์คือ "ทุนที่ถูกออกแบบอย่างสมบูรณ์" ซึ่งไม่สามารถถูกทำลายหรือดัดแปลงได้ ความเข้าใจนี้เป็นพื้นฐานสำคัญในการยอมรับศักยภาพของบิตคอยน์ในฐานะรากฐานของความมั่งคั่ง
2. ความเชื่อมั่น (Conviction): ศรัทธาในศักยภาพการเติบโตเหนือกว่า เซย์เลอร์ยืนยันว่าบิตคอยน์ถูกออกแบบมาให้เติบโตเร็วกว่าสินทรัพย์ทั่วไป เช่น หุ้น ทองคำ หรืออสังหาริมทรัพย์ การมีความเชื่อมั่นอย่างแท้จริงเป็นสิ่งจำเป็นต่อการให้ความสำคัญกับบิตคอยน์เหนือการลงทุนแบบดั้งเดิม
3. ความกล้า (Courage): ยอมรับความเสี่ยงทางการเงินอย่างชาญฉลาด บิตคอยน์คือการยอมรับความเสี่ยงที่คำนวณได้อย่างชาญฉลาด ไม่ใช่ความกลัวหรือการพนัน ผู้ที่ "เติมเชื้อไฟ" ให้กับระบบนี้คือผู้ที่เปลี่ยนเงินเฟียตหรือสินทรัพย์ด้อยค่ามาเป็นบิตคอยน์
4. ความร่วมมือ (Cooperation): ผนึกกำลังในครอบครัวเพื่อความแข็งแกร่ง เมื่อครอบครัวร่วมมือกัน ศักยภาพในการสร้างความมั่งคั่งจะเพิ่มทวีคูณ เซย์เลอร์เสนอให้ครอบครัวผสานความสามารถและทรัพยากร เพื่อผลักดันกันและกันสู่อนาคตที่ดีกว่า
5. ความสามารถ (Capability): เชี่ยวชาญปัญญาประดิษฐ์ ในปี 2025 AI เป็นกุญแจสำคัญในการปลดล็อกโอกาสทางการเงินระดับสูง โดยที่บุคคลทั่วไปสามารถเข้าถึงคำแนะนำจากทนาย นักบัญชี หรือผู้เชี่ยวชาญ โดยไม่เสียค่าใช้จ่าย
6. การจัดวางโครงสร้าง (Composition): สร้างนิติบุคคลเพื่อป้องกันและขยายผล การตั้งบริษัท ทรัสต์ หรือโครงสร้างทางกฎหมาย เช่น IRA หรือ 401(k) คือวิธีเพิ่มประสิทธิภาพในการลงทุนบิตคอยน์อย่างปลอดภัยและถูกกฎหมาย
7. สัญชาติทางเศรษฐกิจ (Citizenship): เลือกฐานภาษีอย่างชาญฉลาด เลือกอยู่ในพื้นที่หรือประเทศที่เป็นมิตรกับบิตคอยน์ เช่น ฟลอริดา หรือประเทศอย่างสิงคโปร์ เพื่อลดภาระภาษีและเพิ่มเสถียรภาพระยะยาว
8. ความสุภาพ (Civility): เคารพโครงสร้างอำนาจ ไม่จำเป็นต้องล้มล้างระบบเก่า เพียงแค่รู้จักเคารพอำนาจและสร้างพันธมิตรในทางที่สร้างสรรค์เพื่อเดินหน้ากับบิตคอยน์ได้
9. การใช้บริษัท (Corporation): บริษัทคือเครื่องจักรสร้างความมั่งคั่ง บริษัทสามารถใช้ประโยชน์จากระบบการเงินและภาษีได้ดีกว่าปัจเจกบุคคล จึงควรจัดตั้งนิติบุคคลเพื่อลงทุนในบิตคอยน์อย่างจริงจัง
10. โฟกัส (Focus): อย่าหลงทาง อย่าวอกแวกไปกับธุรกิจเสี่ยงสูงหรือเหรียญอื่น ๆ เพราะบิตคอยน์มีประวัติผลตอบแทนสูงอย่างสม่ำเสมอ
11. การมีส่วนร่วม (Equity): ร่วมมือกับนักลงทุน ให้ผู้อื่นร่วมลงทุนในกิจการของคุณ เช่น หมอฟันอาจขายหุ้นบางส่วนของคลินิกเพื่อนำเงินไปลงทุนในบิตคอยน์
12. เครดิต (Credit): ใช้หนี้เป็นเครื่องมือ กู้เงินดอกเบี้ยต่ำและลงทุนในบิตคอยน์ที่มีแนวโน้มเติบโตสูง เพื่อทำกำไรจากส่วนต่างระหว่างดอกเบี้ยกับผลตอบแทน
13. การปฏิบัติตามกฎ (Compliance): ทำตามกฎหมาย สร้างบริษัทที่สอดคล้องกับกฎระเบียบเพื่อขยายเงินทุนได้อย่างมั่นคงและปลอดภัย
14. การระดมทุน (Capitalization): หาเงินลงทุนอย่างต่อเนื่อง ไม่ว่าจะจากการขายหุ้น หรือรีไฟแนนซ์ทรัพย์สินส่วนตัว ทุกโอกาสคือช่องทางในการระดมทุนและลงทุนต่อในบิตคอยน์
15. การสื่อสาร (Communication): โปร่งใสและจริงใจ การเปิดเผยแผนและเป้าหมายอย่างชัดเจนจะสร้างความไว้วางใจจากนักลงทุน พนักงาน และลูกค้า
16. ความมุ่งมั่น (Commitment): อยู่กับบิตคอยน์ ไม่หลงทาง หลีกเลี่ยงเหรียญอื่น ๆ หรือโปรเจกต์ที่ไม่มั่นคง ยึดมั่นในบิตคอยน์เพื่อเสถียรภาพระยะยาว
17. การลงมือทำ (Delivery): ลงมือจริงอย่างแม่นยำ ไม่ใช่แค่คิด แต่ต้องทำอย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ สม่ำเสมอ และไม่ประมาท
18. การปรับตัว (Adaptation): พร้อมเปลี่ยนแปลงเมื่อจำเป็น ระบบใด ๆ ก็มีวันล้มเหลว การปรับตัวตามสถานการณ์คือสิ่งที่ทำให้ยืนหยัดได้ในระยะยาว
19. วิวัฒนาการ (Evolution): เติบโตจากจุดแข็ง ขยายธุรกิจจากสิ่งที่คุณเชี่ยวชาญ แทนที่จะพยายามเริ่มสิ่งใหม่จากศูนย์
20. การเผยแพร่ (Advocacy): เป็นกระบอกเสียงเพื่อเสรีภาพทางเศรษฐกิจ บอกต่อและสอนผู้อื่นให้เข้าใจบิตคอยน์ เพื่อขยายเครือข่ายแห่งความมั่งคั่ง
21. ความเอื้อเฟื้อ (Generosity): แบ่งปันความสำเร็จ การช่วยเหลือครอบครัว ชุมชน และพนักงาน ด้วยทรัพยากรที่คุณมี จะสร้างความสุขทั้งต่อตัวคุณและโลก
เซย์เลอร์จบท้ายด้วยคำของซาโตชิ นากาโมโตะว่า:
“มันอาจจะดีถ้ามี bitcoin ไว้บ้าง เผื่อว่ามันจะกลายเป็นสิ่งสำคัญในอนาคต”
หลังจาก 16 ปีแห่งการเติบโตและมูลค่าตลาดกว่า 2 ล้านล้านดอลลาร์ หลักการทั้ง 21 ข้อนี้คือพิมพ์เขียวแห่งเสรีภาพทางการเงิน ที่รวมเอาความชัดเจน ความกล้า และเครื่องมืออย่าง AI, การจัดตั้งบริษัท และเครดิต เข้าด้วยกัน เพื่อให้ทุกคนสามารถใช้บิตคอยน์สร้างอนาคตที่ดีกว่าได้
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@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-15 14:04:11The new website is finally live! I put in a lot of hard work over the past months on it. I'm proud to say that it's out now and it looks pretty cool, at least to me!
Why rewrite it all?
The old kycnot.me site was built using Python with Flask about two years ago. Since then, I've gained a lot more experience with Golang and coding in general. Trying to update that old codebase, which had a lot of design flaws, would have been a bad idea. It would have been like building on an unstable foundation.
That's why I made the decision to rewrite the entire application. Initially, I chose to use SvelteKit with JavaScript. I did manage to create a stable site that looked similar to the new one, but it required Jav aScript to work. As I kept coding, I started feeling like I was repeating "the Python mistake". I was writing the app in a language I wasn't very familiar with (just like when I was learning Python at that mom ent), and I wasn't happy with the code. It felt like spaghetti code all the time.
So, I made a complete U-turn and started over, this time using Golang. While I'm not as proficient in Golang as I am in Python now, I find it to be a very enjoyable language to code with. Most aof my recent pr ojects have been written in Golang, and I'm getting the hang of it. I tried to make the best decisions I could and structure the code as well as possible. Of course, there's still room for improvement, which I'll address in future updates.
Now I have a more maintainable website that can scale much better. It uses a real database instead of a JSON file like the old site, and I can add many more features. Since I chose to go with Golang, I mad e the "tradeoff" of not using JavaScript at all, so all the rendering load falls on the server. But I believe it's a tradeoff that's worth it.
What's new
- UI/UX - I've designed a new logo and color palette for kycnot.me. I think it looks pretty cool and cypherpunk. I am not a graphic designer, but I think I did a decent work and I put a lot of thinking on it to make it pleasant!
- Point system - The new point system provides more detailed information about the listings, and can be expanded to cover additional features across all services. Anyone can request a new point!
- ToS Scrapper: I've implemented a powerful automated terms-of-service scrapper that collects all the ToS pages from the listings. It saves you from the hassle of reading the ToS by listing the lines that are suspiciously related to KYC/AML practices. This is still in development and it will improve for sure, but it works pretty fine right now!
- Search bar - The new search bar allows you to easily filter services. It performs a full-text search on the Title, Description, Category, and Tags of all the services. Looking for VPN services? Just search for "vpn"!
- Transparency - To be more transparent, all discussions about services now take place publicly on GitLab. I won't be answering any e-mails (an auto-reply will prompt to write to the corresponding Gitlab issue). This ensures that all service-related matters are publicly accessible and recorded. Additionally, there's a real-time audits page that displays database changes.
- Listing Requests - I have upgraded the request system. The new form allows you to directly request services or points without any extra steps. In the future, I plan to enable requests for specific changes to parts of the website.
- Lightweight and fast - The new site is lighter and faster than its predecessor!
- Tor and I2P - At last! kycnot.me is now officially on Tor and I2P!
How?
This rewrite has been a labor of love, in the end, I've been working on this for more than 3 months now. I don't have a team, so I work by myself on my free time, but I find great joy in helping people on their private journey with cryptocurrencies. Making it easier for individuals to use cryptocurrencies without KYC is a goal I am proud of!
If you appreciate my work, you can support me through the methods listed here. Alternatively, feel free to send me an email with a kind message!
Technical details
All the code is written in Golang, the website makes use of the chi router for the routing part. I also make use of BigCache for caching database requests. There is 0 JavaScript, so all the rendering load falls on the server, this means it needed to be efficient enough to not drawn with a few users since the old site was reporting about 2M requests per month on average (note that this are not unique users).
The database is running with mariadb, using gorm as the ORM. This is more than enough for this project. I started working with an
sqlite
database, but I ended up migrating to mariadb since it works better with JSON.The scraper is using chromedp combined with a series of keywords, regex and other logic. It runs every 24h and scraps all the services. You can find the scraper code here.
The frontend is written using Golang Templates for the HTML, and TailwindCSS plus DaisyUI for the CSS classes framework. I also use some plain CSS, but it's minimal.
The requests forms is the only part of the project that requires JavaScript to be enabled. It is needed for parsing some from fields that are a bit complex and for the "captcha", which is a simple Proof of Work that runs on your browser, destinated to avoid spam. For this, I use mCaptcha.
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-15 20:01:52Bank run on every crypto bank then bank run on every "real" bank.
— ODELL (@ODELL) December 14, 2022
Good morning.
It looks like PacWest will fail today. It will be both the fifth largest bank failure in US history and the sixth major bank to fail this year. It will likely get purchased by one of the big four banks in a government orchestrated sale.
March 8th - Silvergate Bank
March 10th - Silicon Valley Bank
March 12th - Signature Bank
March 19th - Credit Suisse
May 1st - First Republic Bank
May 4th - PacWest Bank?PacWest is the first of many small regional banks that will go under this year. Most will get bought by the big four in gov orchestrated sales. This has been the playbook since 2008. Follow the incentives. Massive consolidation across the banking industry. PacWest gonna be a drop in the bucket compared to what comes next.
First, a hastened government led bank consolidation, then a public/private partnership with the remaining large banks to launch a surveilled and controlled digital currency network. We will be told it is more convenient. We will be told it is safer. We will be told it will prevent future bank runs. All of that is marketing bullshit. The goal is greater control of money. The ability to choose how we spend it and how we save it. If you control the money - you control the people that use it.
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ ecda4328:1278f072
2025-06-16 14:26:44⚡ TL;DR: Bitcoin Core is removing the 80-byte OP_RETURN relay limit — a policy, not consensus, change. It aligns with how miners already behave, but reduces node configurability.
Relay policy is policy — and what nodes don’t forward rarely gets mined. Spam resistance should come from fees and filters, not hardcoded caps.
Bitcoin runs on rules, not rulers. Let the market and nodes decide — not just Core.
Intro (for non-techies)
Bitcoin Core plans to remove a size limit on data stored in special transactions called OP_RETURN, but this is a policy change, not a consensus change.
What is OP_RETURN?
OP_RETURN
is a Bitcoin script opcode introduced in 2014 (Bitcoin Core 0.9.0) to allow small amounts of arbitrary data to be embedded in transactions.- Crucially, it creates provably unspendable outputs, preventing UTXO set pollution.
- A default policy limit of 80 bytes was added to discourage non-payment data usage while still allowing basic use cases (e.g., hashes, commitments).
Historical Context: Why OP_RETURN Was Introduced (Bitcoin Core 0.9, March 2014)
When
OP_RETURN
was introduced in Bitcoin Core 0.9, it was not meant to encourage data storage on-chain. Instead, it was a harm-reduction feature:“This change is not an endorsement of storing data in the blockchain. The OP_RETURN change creates a provably-prunable output, to avoid data storage schemes — some of which were already deployed — that were storing arbitrary data such as images as forever-unspendable TX outputs, bloating Bitcoin’s UTXO database.”
— Bitcoin Core 0.9 Release Notes (March 2014)
Before
OP_RETURN
, users were already embedding data in fake outputs, which polluted the UTXO set (the set of unspent coins all full nodes track in memory).OP_RETURN
allowed data to be embedded in a provably unspendable output, which:-
Makes the output prunable, improving node performance
-
Avoids permanently bloating the UTXO set
-
Encouraged safer practices while still discouraging large-scale non-financial data storage
The 80-byte cap was a policy deterrent, not a consensus limit — large OP_RETURNs were discouraged, not invalid.
🔹 What does that mean?
- The fundamental rules of Bitcoin — like the 4 MB block size limit — are not changing.
- This change only affects how the Bitcoin Core software relays certain types of data transactions, not what it considers valid in a block.
🔹 What is changing?
- Bitcoin Core will stop enforcing an 80-byte size limit on OP_RETURN data, allowing larger metadata transactions to be shared between nodes.
- Miners already include such transactions using custom policy settings.
🧘♂️ Why Bitcoiners Don’t Need to Panic
- ✅ No risk of a chain split: This doesn’t touch Bitcoin’s consensus rules — everyone still agrees on what makes a valid block.
- ✅ Block size stays the same (\~4 MB): This ensures that blockchain growth remains limited and sustainable.
- ✅ Alternative options exist: If you prefer the old limits, you can run Bitcoin Knots, which still enforces them.
Bottom line:
This is a software configuration change, not a change to Bitcoin’s fundamental rules. If you're using Bitcoin to store value or make payments, nothing about that has changed.
Bitcoin still enforces a ~100k virtual byte (kvB) standardness limit for most transactions (equivalent to 400,000 weight units), which helps mitigate spam and DoS attacks. For witness-heavy transactions, this can approach ~400kB in serialized size.
Common Uses of OP_RETURN
- Timestamping documents
- Cross-chain anchoring (e.g., merge-mined sidechains)
- Asset issuance (e.g., Omni/Tether)
- Notarization and digital certificates
- Commitment schemes for external protocols (e.g., Citrea)
Note: Ordinal inscriptions and Stamps use witness data or fake outputs, not OP_RETURN.
The Change (PR #32359)
- Bitcoin Core developers proposed removing the 80-byte OP_RETURN size cap.
- The change also deprecates the
-datacarrier
and-datacarriersize
options, with removal planned in future versions. This reflects an effort to consolidate node behavior and improve interoperability, though it reduces user-configurable relay control. - Larger
OP_RETURN
transactions would now be relayed and mined by default.
Why Remove the Limit? (Arguments For)
-
The cap is ineffective: Easily bypassed via:
-
Multi-output/multisig scripts
- Witness data
- Private miner APIs (e.g., MARA Slipstream)
- Perverse incentives: Drives users to harmful alternatives that pollute the UTXO set.
- Cleaner data: Encourages proper use of OP_RETURN rather than misusing spendable outputs. OP_RETURN outputs are prunable and do not enter the UTXO set — this is the cleanest way to embed data without long-term storage burdens.
- Aligns with mining reality: Miners already include larger OP_RETURN transactions if their policies allow it.
- Fee market is sufficient: Block size (4MB) + fee pressure limits abuse naturally.
- Improves relay consistency: Nodes and miners share policy, improving block propagation and mempool estimation. While standardness rules don't prevent non-standard transactions from being mined, they raise the cost, delay inclusion, and reduce miner incentives — effectively discouraging misuse.
- Reduces miner centralization: Some argue removing the limit spreads fee opportunities more evenly across miners. Others caution it may disadvantage miners who choose not to include such transactions — potentially reducing diversity. (i.e. purist miners (e.g., Ocean) may become less competitive if spam volume and revenue increases.)
- Improves block relay performance: Removing artificial limits leads to fewer compact block reconstruction failures, reducing latency and making the network more resilient.
- Enables better metaprotocol support: Clean OP_RETURN usage helps future protocols (e.g. Citrea, tokens, cross-chain anchoring) embed structured data safely without abusing spendable outputs.
Why Oppose the Change? (Arguments Against)
- Encourages non-monetary use: Seen as shifting Bitcoin toward data storage.
- Spam and bloat: Fear of more data-heavy protocols (e.g., inscriptions, stamps, NFTs) and “junk” data.
- Undermines Bitcoin’s monetary purpose: Viewed as deviating from “sound money” principles.
Some argue that Bitcoin should remain minimal, focusing solely on censorship-resistant money — not general-purpose data storage.
-
Governance concerns:
-
Allegations of irregular PR handling
- Claims of GitHub bans and manipulation
-
Some have noted that the change was poorly communicated — the initial feedback round may have been missed by the wider community, causing tension once the PR was submitted more formally.
-
Community dissent: Change was pushed despite vocal opposition from notable Bitcoiners and developers.
Note: “Inscriptions” technically refer to a specific Tapscript pattern used in Ordinals. Other methods like Stamps use different — and often more harmful — techniques.
Why this matters: Stamps are more harmful than inscriptions or OP_RETURN because they trick the network into storing data as if it were real, spendable bitcoin — permanently bloating the UTXO set, increasing node costs, and degrading performance
- Weakens mempool-level spam resistance: Critics argue that filters play a vital role in making spam expensive and harder to propagate. Without such deterrents, spammers can bypass node filtering entirely via direct submission services (e.g., MARA Slipstream), further empowering large mining pools.
While miners are free to include any valid transaction in blocks, network-wide filters still raise the cost of abuse and protect the mempool from being flooded — as noted by Matt Hill (Start9): “Filters can’t stop every attack, but they deter most and raise the cost of success. We should be adding filters, not removing them. All filters should be configurable. Power to the nodes.”
The Role of Configuration Options
-
Previously, miners could set:
-
-datacarrier=1
to allow OP_RETURN -datacarriersize=X
to raise the limit- Many private miners already raised these limits and mine such transactions.
- Deprecating user-level control (e.g.,
-datacarrier
,-datacarriersize
) has sparked concerns about diminishing node sovereignty — even if such options had little practical impact in today's mining landscape.
Policy vs. Consensus: Why the 80-Byte Limit Causes Relay Inconsistency
- The OP_RETURN size limit is a policy rule—not a consensus rule.
- Miners/nodes can already mine/accept large OP_RETURN txs, and all nodes must still accept blocks containing them if they are valid under consensus rules (block size < 4MB).
- This causes inconsistency between what gets relayed and what gets mined.
Today, many nodes won’t relay OP_RETURN transactions over 80 bytes, while miners using custom settings may still mine them. This creates an inconsistency: transactions not visible to most of the network can still end up in blocks. Removing the limit aligns what nodes relay with what miners accept, making mempools more consistent, block propagation faster, and fee estimates more reliable.
Some argue that removing the OP_RETURN cap weakens Bitcoin's built-in spam defenses. As Luke Dashjr noted, spam filters work collectively and are distinct from censorship — a block can always include any valid tx, but mempool filters help keep spam out before it gets that far.
Only ~30 non-standard OP_RETURN transactions have been mined out of 7 million in 2024, showing that standardness rules were a strong deterrent in practice.
Bitcoin Knots: A Protest Client
Bitcoin Knots (maintained by Luke Dashjr) retains the old 80-byte policy by default — in fact, it sets an even stricter default of 40 bytes for
-datacarriersize
. After the PR surfaced, some users switched to Knots as a protest.According to Matthew R. Kratter, Bitcoin Knots briefly surpassed Core 29.0 in node count during early 2025 — but this spike appears to have been driven more by timing mismatches between release cycles and a coordinated protest campaign, rather than a durable shift in user adoption. In fact, most Bitcoin nodes today still run older versions of Core. As of May 2025, Core 28.1.0 alone accounts for over 21% of nodes, while Core 29.0.0 sits below 6%, and Knots 20250305 trails at just over 6% — suggesting that the majority of the network remains on pre-29 Core versions rather than switching to Knots en masse.
Implications
- Bitcoin Governance: Highlights tension over who steers Bitcoin—developers, miners, users?
- Network Fragmentation: Policy divergence leads to inconsistent mempool contents and complicates block propagation across nodes.
- Market-driven moderation: Supporters argue fee markets, not hard-coded caps, should regulate block usage.
- User Sovereignty: Running alternative clients (like Knots) is a check against centralization of development control.
Final Thoughts
This debate isn’t just about a technical tweak — it cuts to the heart of Bitcoin’s design: what it is for, who controls it, and how we preserve its neutrality: What is Bitcoin for? Who decides how it evolves? And how do we protect user sovereignty?
Removing the OP_RETURN limit appears to be a technically sound cleanup that brings Core’s policy in line with how miners already operate. It improves relay consistency and encourages clean, prunable data over harmful workarounds. But it also reduces node configurability by deprecating
-datacarriersize
, and introduces new tradeoffs around block space usage, fee pressure, and miner incentives.What nodes don’t relay rarely gets mined — and that’s why relay policy is policy.
While blocks are still capped at 4 MiB and consensus remains unchanged, this change underscores a deeper truth: Bitcoin's integrity depends not just on code correctness, but on who gets to shape that code and how.
If miners continue favoring pay-to-prioritize services (e.g., MARA Slipstream) over standard mempool flows, the removal of the cap may not reduce centralization as hoped. Instead, it may highlight the incentive distortions created by mining pool dominance — a more urgent challenge than OP_RETURN usage itself.
As Matthew Kratter noted:
“It's not that spam filters caused mining pool centralization — it's the reverse. Centralized pools make spam profitable.”
Ultimately, Bitcoiners must wrestle with the root problem: How do we decentralize transaction selection in a world where relay policy, miner behavior, and mempool visibility are increasingly shaped by a handful of large actors?
The answer isn’t to freeze innovation or block all non-monetary use. It’s to protect choice.
👉 Run your own full node. Customize your policy. Choose your client. This is where Bitcoin's sovereignty lies — and where its future will be decided.
Refs
- PR: Remove arbitrary limits on OP_Return (datacarrier) outputs #32359
- mailing list: Relax OP_RETURN standardness restrictions
- youtube: Bitcoin Core Removes The Mask - by Matthew R. Kratter
- gist: Retiring the 80-Byte OP_RETURN Limit
- Bitcoin Knots
- PR: Deprecate datacarrier options without removing them #32406
- Q&A Compilation on OP_RETURN Policy Change (Stacker News) — curated answers to common concerns and misconceptions from the community debate
- youtube: Bitcoin Spam and Mining Pool Centralization - by Matthew R. Kratter
🙏 Acknowledgements
Special thanks to @hodlinator for insightful and technically grounded feedback on:
- The distinction between policy vs. consensus rules
- Correcting OP_RETURN use case misconceptions (e.g., RSK, Lightning, inscriptions)
- Emphasizing the ongoing role of transaction size limits for DoS mitigation
- Clarifying miner centralization risks and block propagation realities
- Improving phrasing around metaprotocols and node impact
Thanks also to ShiShi21m for surfacing the historical context from Bitcoin Core 0.9 — highlighting that OP_RETURN was originally introduced as a harm-reduction measure, not an endorsement of on-chain data storage.
Thanks to @murchandamus for technical corrections on Bitcoin Knots defaults and transaction size limits.
Additional thanks to all those who participated in the discussion — including critics — whose questions and objections helped clarify and refine key points.A detailed breakdown of the recent debate around Bitcoin Core’s proposed policy change to OP_RETURN — and why it’s less dramatic than some fear.
TL;DR
Removing the 80-byte OP_RETURN limit is a mempool policy cleanup, not a consensus rule change. It reduces UTXO bloat, improves relay consistency, and doesn’t affect Bitcoin’s monetary properties or block size limits.
What Is OP_RETURN?
OP_RETURN
is a Bitcoin script opcode introduced in 2014 (Bitcoin Core 0.9.0) to allow small amounts of arbitrary data to be embedded in transactions. Crucially, it creates provably unspendable outputs, preventing UTXO set pollution.A default policy limit of 80 bytes was added to discourage non-payment data usage while still allowing basic use cases (e.g., hashes, commitments).
Why Was OP_RETURN Added? (Bitcoin Core 0.9, March 2014)
When OP_RETURN was introduced, it wasn’t to promote on-chain data — it was a harm-reduction tool:
“This change is not an endorsement of storing data in the blockchain... [It] creates a provably-prunable output, to avoid data storage schemes... storing arbitrary data... bloating Bitcoin’s UTXO database.” — Bitcoin Core 0.9 Release Notes
Before that, users embedded data in fake outputs, bloating the UTXO set and degrading node performance.
OP_RETURN made those outputs prunable and cleaner, though it imposed an 80-byte policy cap — not a consensus rule.
What’s Actually Changing?
Bitcoin Core PR #32359 proposes:
- Removing the 80-byte policy limit on OP_RETURN data
- Removing the
-datacarrier
and-datacarriersize
configuration options - Default behavior will now relay (and mine) larger OP_RETURNs
⚠️ This is not a consensus change. Blocks stay limited to \~4MB. No rules about block validity are altered.
Why It’s Not a Big Deal
- ✅ Consensus stays the same: No risk of chain splits
- ✅ Block size stays capped (\~4MB)
- ✅ You can still run Bitcoin Knots if you prefer stricter policies
- ✅ Transaction size limit (\~100KB) remains for DoS protection
Bottom line: This is a configuration tweak to improve consistency between nodes and miners.
Common Uses of OP_RETURN
- Timestamping
- Cross-chain anchoring (e.g., merge-mined sidechains)
- Asset issuance (e.g., Omni/Tether)
- Notarization and commitments
- Metadata for protocols like Citrea
📝 In contrast, Ordinal inscriptions use witness data; Stamps use fake outputs — not OP_RETURN.
Arguments For Removing the Limit
- The limit is ineffective — easily bypassed via witness/multisig/fake outputs
- Cleaner data paths — prevents UTXO bloat from “Stamp”-style tricks
- Reflects mining reality — miners already include these transactions
- Improves relay/mempool consistency
- Avoids centralization risks — removes miner advantages from custom policies
- Enables metaprotocols — safely embed structured metadata without abusing Bitcoin’s core design
Arguments Against Removing the Limit
- Risk of encouraging non-monetary use
- Fears of "spam" or NFT-like inscriptions
- Concerns over governance process
- Perceived erosion of Bitcoin’s monetary purity
🧠 Note: The 80-byte cap was policy, not consensus. Removing it doesn’t allow anything that wasn’t already valid on-chain.
Policy vs. Consensus
- Policy rules affect relay and mempool behavior
- Consensus rules affect what blocks are considered valid
Large OP_RETURNs are already valid. The inconsistency is that many nodes don’t relay them, while miners do include them. This change aligns relay with mining, improving propagation and fee estimation.
Bitcoin Knots: A Protest Client
Bitcoin Knots (maintained by Luke Dashjr) retains the old 80-byte policy. After the PR surfaced, some users switched to Knots as a protest.
According to Matthew R. Kratter, Bitcoin Knots briefly surpassed Core 29.0 in node count during early 2025 — but this spike appears to have been driven more by timing mismatches between release cycles and a coordinated protest campaign, rather than a durable shift in user adoption. In fact, most Bitcoin nodes today still run older versions of Core. As of May 2025, Core 28.1.0 alone accounts for over 21% of nodes, while Core 29.0.0 sits below 6%, and Knots 20250305 trails at just over 6% — suggesting that the majority of the network remains on pre-29 Core versions rather than switching to Knots en masse.
Broader Implications
- 🛠️ Highlights tensions between devs, miners, and users over governance
- 🧭 Shows how non-consensus rules can impact perceived neutrality
- 🧪 Sparks renewed focus on tooling (e.g., ASMap, better banlists, relay filtering)
- 🔐 Reaffirms user sovereignty through client diversity
Final Thoughts
Removing the OP_RETURN limit aligns Bitcoin Core’s policy with reality — what’s already getting mined — while cleaning up harmful workarounds.
It won’t break Bitcoin.
But it does surface deeper tensions about Bitcoin’s purpose, evolution, and who ultimately decides what gets built and accepted.
References
- PR: Remove arbitrary limits on OP_RETURN #32359
- PR: Deprecate datacarrier options #32406
- Mailing list: Relax OP_RETURN standardness restrictions
- Gist with full community discussion
- Bitcoin Knots
- Kratter video: Bitcoin Core Removes the Mask
🙏 Acknowledgements
Thanks to @hodlinator, ShiShi21m, and many others in the community for their thoughtful insights, corrections, and spirited discussion.
Based on the original GitHub Gist: Bitcoin OP_RETURN Controversy: Complete Summary
-
@ 52b4a076:e7fad8bd
2025-04-28 00:48:57I have been recently building NFDB, a new relay DB. This post is meant as a short overview.
Regular relays have challenges
Current relay software have significant challenges, which I have experienced when hosting Nostr.land: - Scalability is only supported by adding full replicas, which does not scale to large relays. - Most relays use slow databases and are not optimized for large scale usage. - Search is near-impossible to implement on standard relays. - Privacy features such as NIP-42 are lacking. - Regular DB maintenance tasks on normal relays require extended downtime. - Fault-tolerance is implemented, if any, using a load balancer, which is limited. - Personalization and advanced filtering is not possible. - Local caching is not supported.
NFDB: A scalable database for large relays
NFDB is a new database meant for medium-large scale relays, built on FoundationDB that provides: - Near-unlimited scalability - Extended fault tolerance - Instant loading - Better search - Better personalization - and more.
Search
NFDB has extended search capabilities including: - Semantic search: Search for meaning, not words. - Interest-based search: Highlight content you care about. - Multi-faceted queries: Easily filter by topic, author group, keywords, and more at the same time. - Wide support for event kinds, including users, articles, etc.
Personalization
NFDB allows significant personalization: - Customized algorithms: Be your own algorithm. - Spam filtering: Filter content to your WoT, and use advanced spam filters. - Topic mutes: Mute topics, not keywords. - Media filtering: With Nostr.build, you will be able to filter NSFW and other content - Low data mode: Block notes that use high amounts of cellular data. - and more
Other
NFDB has support for many other features such as: - NIP-42: Protect your privacy with private drafts and DMs - Microrelays: Easily deploy your own personal microrelay - Containers: Dedicated, fast storage for discoverability events such as relay lists
Calcite: A local microrelay database
Calcite is a lightweight, local version of NFDB that is meant for microrelays and caching, meant for thousands of personal microrelays.
Calcite HA is an additional layer that allows live migration and relay failover in under 30 seconds, providing higher availability compared to current relays with greater simplicity. Calcite HA is enabled in all Calcite deployments.
For zero-downtime, NFDB is recommended.
Noswhere SmartCache
Relays are fixed in one location, but users can be anywhere.
Noswhere SmartCache is a CDN for relays that dynamically caches data on edge servers closest to you, allowing: - Multiple regions around the world - Improved throughput and performance - Faster loading times
routerd
routerd
is a custom load-balancer optimized for Nostr relays, integrated with SmartCache.routerd
is specifically integrated with NFDB and Calcite HA to provide fast failover and high performance.Ending notes
NFDB is planned to be deployed to Nostr.land in the coming weeks.
A lot more is to come. 👀️️️️️️
-
@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-15 14:04:08Over the past few months, I've dedicated my time to a complete rewrite of the kycnot.me website. The technology stack remains unchanged; Golang paired with TailwindCSS. However, I've made some design choices in this iteration that I believe significantly enhance the site. Particularly to backend code.
UI Improvements
You'll notice a refreshed UI that retains the original concept but has some notable enhancements. The service list view is now more visually engaging, it displays additional information in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. Both filtering and searching functionalities have been optimized for speed and user experience.
Service pages have been also redesigned to highlight key information at the top, with the KYC Level box always accessible. The display of service attributes is now more visually intuitive.
The request form, especially the Captcha, has undergone substantial improvements. The new self-made Captcha is robust, addressing the reliability issues encountered with the previous version.
Terms of Service Summarizer
A significant upgrade is the Terms of Service summarizer/reviewer, now powered by AI (GPT-4-turbo). It efficiently condenses each service's ToS, extracting and presenting critical points, including any warnings. Summaries are updated monthly, processing over 40 ToS pages via the OpenAI API using a self-crafted and thoroughly tested prompt.
Nostr Comments
I've integrated a comment section for each service using Nostr. For guidance on using this feature, visit the dedicated how-to page.
Database
The backend database has transitioned to pocketbase, an open-source Golang backend that has been a pleasure to work with. I maintain an updated fork of the Golang SDK for pocketbase at pluja/pocketbase.
Scoring
The scoring algorithm has also been refined to be more fair. Despite I had considered its removal due to the complexity it adds (it is very difficult to design a fair scoring system), some users highlighted its value, so I kept it. The updated algorithm is available open source.
Listings
Each listing has been re-evaluated, and the ones that were no longer operational were removed. New additions are included, and the backlog of pending services will be addressed progressively, since I still have access to the old database.
API
The API now offers more comprehensive data. For more details, check here.
About Page
The About page has been restructured for brevity and clarity.
Other Changes
Extensive changes have been implemented in the server-side logic, since the whole code base was re-written from the ground up. I may discuss these in a future post, but for now, I consider the current version to be just a bit beyond beta, and additional updates are planned in the coming weeks.
-
@ 2cde0e02:180a96b9
2025-06-16 13:55:54pen & ink; monochromized
https://stacker.news/items/1007644
-
@ a19caaa8:88985eaf
2025-06-16 13:47:40NostrをXのように使い始めて3か月が経った。最初は「ぷ プロトコル? ブロックチェーン?サーバー? そもそも、ギットハブって??」って謎だらけで、それでも利用できてしまうから「使えちゃって大丈夫かな」とすら思っていたけど、いちユーザーながら少しずつわかることが増えてきたから、この3か月間で覚えたこととかできるようになったことを、備忘録も兼ねてまとめてみる。といっても過去ツイ(便宜上)を集めてきただけだけど。初心を忘れたくない!!
-
PCで始めて、スマホは後だったんだろうな nostr:note1q8t0spfhg9dc4h590jedd00a5pag5j44tv0vzu55004q8qjw7fkscecvkz
-
iPhoneからNostore(拡張機能(NIP-??))を使ってSafariでlumilumiにログイン nostr:note1egt7y4a8wulu6kex40z0zqtgls0r9ups0q4npyrlmgd3f2swrcysrskp42 nostr:note15gjqzpnevft2h6ywlz2hzacsk6emlna5lwechcpwkx5n6fq8gs9qprfh6v ↑Damusをdisるな
nostr:note1cn4aspxthcysjgwhyd3wwr6slsz57anwn2ep3th05lpa0yag6xrqm8x3lh やかましい ※用語解説:Nostrクライアントなどの名前です - Nostore: 拡張機能(の、説明のscrapbox)
- nostter: https://nostter.app/about
- damus(for iOS): https://damus.io/
- lumilumi: https://lumilumi.app/about
- Rabbit(拡張機能必須): https://rabbit.syusui.net/
- 出会い nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzqv33pxtldvmmdntqhv269r56zjadmhalpp660h3yc6gj8gxpuexvqyxhwumn8ghj77tpvf6jumt9qyghwumn8ghj7u3wddhk56tjvyhxjmcpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqqyz9k4uamtpsy9rtfh4dpxez0n8vr7tufttz5x5v9j5vd3t76kapjwxk245u nostr:note10e6flvadpyfshtnplfnc83dunzjrgl4fl0uzrw70xt3ulf0nv2yqm4qjfa nostr:note1wwchrc7vz8fcp2jrknms5ascup9eux9fkd89jxhqy6d46mkr06ssmgrjhk ↓続き
-
3sats (zap)(NIP-?? kind:??) nostr:nevent1qqsw9sfvmaqy6ngvl98drg93e7sy08kfu2y4tuyj8m2mleftvcx5mqc8uyq3m nostr:note1zzs7qfemq7qaekxv0qjea24t6k4kvlla0m9lusep2ce38tef8gjqfgv7zu nostr:nevent1qqsz8m0c5drajst00x92uc8pjwxa40nd5hmzxu4vn3yhuzjkaqmk4fqa4lvkl nostr:note106n902n66lsfxck4fsu9dqkwmelnp06qqx96nzyqvp89c9v28apqzjcflw (急な意思表示)
たゃ仕事中に熟考
-
nostr:note1fj5mmtsk0nh0e23hez2dm4unweklrypm6s6n9ajwaug574dg7pqq8phvav nostr:note1wk0ugra9pyv0y0rmpql6sjgsavu634x53f4v4jztqluq02awxwhql8d8mf nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzq2aj4wlutzft00dg77x4x6pdjy7vnfzxk30pry5lpy6a3l0uks9aqyxhwumn8ghj77tpvf6jumt9qqsyt4yh934z6fd324z5hljwlx74nndfwetu04lnu8wcj0pkhkqlppqwpsmue ⚡3satsくれました
- ステータス NIP-??kind:30315
nostr:note1p836vncvcxfvkqmpggxzf53q6kywxn443w2hytydr7pdvrca835s83nd2u
nostr:nevent1qqsdu2mf3d5am8hpjj432yf0qmpfxuwy50pv9rx6q7pryz0axnj44dg0d7auc
nostr:nevent1qqsyaypjm0a99g7626r28ct97jhjvt4kk4vyv63fphdz8guhsdtevsg4yvvhr
nostr:nevent1qqswea28tdayxe67axzxmwjfc4jq664phrep82zhveg8f5c0nfd06mgwt0taw
nostr:nevent1qqsqkt8pgpchqphgvv8hd6lxfv4ylx3xtu76x2psj7asm6z846amy3c3w2s2z nostr:note1657tlek0uulr5xa3jqc2sj2l0lm24q79m0984xhm9tnzyy9nsrksynxl6y みんなやさしすぎる おkじゃないねん みんなありがとうございます - バッジ kind:??
nostr:nevent1qqst45zcjha92jy0raun59lm05haw24rpjpw6njae93qfyasgxppmjchuq2c0
nostr:nevent1qqstvtx67c74xztstc9hze62h25saycr2ktrkwknevkhy8glzf0g78sqge3fu こいつbotなんヤバい
nostr:nevent1qqsv6k54yysjdrfpxxtlxhfuh56mhslx63xwfncfvvg8a8vug4az4vstjyey6 nostr:nevent1qqspgur97rvwtry6t9nc6gjm9p8taw2563u3lgqn4p32e2gmqe30xxqwz9d90 nostr:note15shchwfllja7k9nd428a7ts7xf0ggefwllk7rv6qq3guuztjvcfs80pe03 - カスタム絵文字(いっぱいある)(kind10030(使うやつ),kind30030(仕切り板みたいな)) nostr:note16qkqfhezksjxrkk5z4vca8qs42fr8z9awvny39fytl73gty64nrs738g7c nostr:note1xrrer5ayqg3meskga2uc9m2x0lg2dglr3dkaf3qukpjtftysn96qdq7uda nostr:note156fyw2e4w8f0cmu6xmkj7k7f39yh8zw4pq2q90l9llmtefmtu0ds6743zm nostr:note1zz288585z68a0xlm9pc6y4s48ghfdl8hg6zkfmslaj2k9v0nscpsae8m95 nostr:note17tcfuxu8h3ss3rzjpx3zwwnucqdpramnh0yd5j4vj3ee65dleyxqfhcwk7 nostr:note1tu8d06kyw9a4s7xrsu723xmu24f2y34shd6qzn9wpa2jz5ddcu5sa5nvpq
- ネームタグ? kind:?? nostr:note1ck3h58hjm6z00xcxu6fmm2raujrzy8t5ajc7p76pwafl6e0ffdvqh3k07t
- ピン留め kind:?? nostr:note18dfzlgaf4ugkxs5209556p53gl67d8hfkutvtm7qnprjlfnavf0sr98k2h nostr:note1mnz5xlu0wnrh2rhjucjmzv2p9ta6xm5e0hhg2p8kyhe2dkgul3qs09h98h
- リスト? NIP-?? kind:30000 nostr:note1ug7lcgjpkac57a9wd27rjqwymv5cwczmuc4ezg5wweuzrxgwhddqzp3mwz nostr:note126ahjdpmy6alv7mfm5x0yupyty03w3knlwf03cyypguguqjwrxqqyk7ysp
- 長文投稿 kind30023(これ)NIP-?? nostr:note1qzt4xpwv63tac460ha2am9xfdys4l0p34g8q93tqyp8dckgf6lkqkrua73 nostr:note1cx6w82s6p735n765y5rurzu038qkly03t7pcf4u8r6z6yucgf8qspsnkt4
- Suno(上記音楽生成AI)が出力した曲の耳コピ nostr:note12pry99d4z8w3cnpzy46xlg2kpudzj09jpv4vjxt62l54gt4v8dqsvlwyxl
- Damusへのリンク共有? nostr:note1y2uzgxz89lnnzqgj0ndj43qan34wv4cvx56srgzghezt07jc6g6qukddry nostr:note1hcnndcrmwjulzt07t4aelraptr7zyhjuf8ut3vg293j06fwn7fgqae0w0y
- 警告? NIP-?? nostr:note1w6djak9hknd84ryz389jctrmx39eqm2xvwv97k4sk2m2c0akvmysuny8p4
- emoji kitchen (先述のnostterからすぐできます!他もできるかも) nostr:note1k5s6x4hglqwzqghajpl8r7g7t9q8t6uzv2cx92q26tkjcj8hm6rq8elxfu nostr:note1ue575wzjvun0zy4wg2lfv6unrcxnzd688980eur9mulak3msxqgsf2rw72 nostr:note1246rg8v3gvwpwhu5tgzdf2e8cwn77q65gkjt7yhyyqchcchpsduq6mrex7
- kind7のkind5 nostr:note1fwtplut4pshq55790rrf328gxqglrx2m77wkxhsfrpajrnxjnvkqwvlf7w 無事外せたというか、全部lumilumiでできることがわかったんだけど、その記録が見当たらなかった
- ハッシュタグ NIP-?? kind:?? nostr:note13lfdgatre3v5hnxcst0hkcgm8guzlavu6vyxez6n4s09jl7setlsfq3fcf nostr:note1dllf6795ttv0sft4rlclf7zerfpher23z3ga26kyn9yfafffncls3z5n42
kind30023用クライアントまとめ
(拡張機能を使わずに使用した所感)
* makimono:署名方法→秘密鍵×/nsec.app〇 表示→編集画面で表示確認可、njumpとlumilumiのnaddrリンクあり NIP-21→対応 kind5(削除)→流せない kind30024→多分、流せない-
habla:署名方法→なし(秘密鍵ログインできない。nsec.appもなんか入れない(読み込みから進まない)。)read only 表示→シンプルだけど文字がデカい nip-21→対応
-
yakihonnne:署名方法→秘密鍵〇/nsec.app→試してない kind30023の編集ができない(読み込みから進まない)。NIP-21試してない。
-
flycat:署名方法→秘密鍵〇/nsec.app試してない kind1も流せる NIP-21→非対応 kind30024→Draftがあるけど、kind30024を流しているわけでは無さそう。キャッシュクリアして再ログインすると残ってない。 kind5→流せない。
-
tagayasu:署名方法:秘密鍵×/ncec.app×/拡張機能のみ?(画像↓参照) でも、なんか、全部できる。kind5も流せる。kind30024も。
※NIP-21はこうやって引用元のツイートを表示するルール(※ルールっていうとニュアンス違うくて!ちゃぴに聞こう↓)
さすがちゃぴ。
まとめ
| クライアント | 署名方法 | NIP-21 | 備考 | |--------------|-----------|--------|------| | makimono | 秘密鍵× / nsec.app〇 | 対応 | 編集画面で表示確認可。njump・lumilumiのnaddrリンクあり。kind5(削除)は送信不可。kind30024(下書き)も多分送信不可。 | | flycat | 秘密鍵〇 / nsec.app未確認 | 非対応 | kind1も送信可。kind5は送信不可。Draft機能はあるけどkind30024ではなさそう(キャッシュ消すと消える)。 | | habla | 秘密鍵× / nsec.app× | 対応 | nsec.appのBunkerURLの読み込みが進まない。使うとしたら表示確認。シンプルだけど文字が大きい。 | | yakihonnne | 秘密鍵〇 / nsec.app未確認 | 不明 | kind30023の編集が読み込みで止まる。NIP-21対応は未確認。 | | tagayasu | 秘密鍵× / nsec.app×(拡張機能のみ?) | 不明 | 拡張ログインさえあれば全部できる。kind5・kind30024も送信可能。 |
- 未確認を埋めたいひとはコピペしてご自身でkind30023をお流しくださいませね🙏
今のたゃが言えるのはこんなとこかなー!!! 穴(NIPとかkindとか未試行とか)、いつかは埋めたいけど、いつか、かな…。
別にこれが仕事に繋がるとかじゃないけど、たゃ生(人生のたゃバージョン)がより良い(好い)ものになったことは確か!
一旦ここまで!
終 -
-
@ b2d670de:907f9d4a
2025-02-28 16:39:38onion-service-nostr-relays
A list of nostr relays exposed as onion services.
The list
| Relay name | Description | Onion url | Operator | Payment URL | Payment options | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | nostr.oxtr.dev | Same relay as clearnet relay nostr.oxtr.dev | ws://oxtrdevav64z64yb7x6rjg4ntzqjhedm5b5zjqulugknhzr46ny2qbad.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | | relay.snort.social | Same relay as clearnet relay relay.snort.social | wss://skzzn6cimfdv5e2phjc4yr5v7ikbxtn5f7dkwn5c7v47tduzlbosqmqd.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | | nostr.thesamecat.io | Same relay as clearnet relay nostr.thesamecat.io | ws://2jsnlhfnelig5acq6iacydmzdbdmg7xwunm4xl6qwbvzacw4lwrjmlyd.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | | nostr.land | The nostr.land paid relay (same as clearnet) | ws://nostrland2gdw7g3y77ctftovvil76vquipymo7tsctlxpiwknevzfid.onion | operator | Payment URL | BTC LN | | bitcoiner.social | No auth required, currently | ws://bitcoinr6de5lkvx4tpwdmzrdfdpla5sya2afwpcabjup2xpi5dulbad.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | | relay.westernbtc.com | The westernbtc.com paid relay | ws://westbtcebhgi4ilxxziefho6bqu5lqwa5ncfjefnfebbhx2cwqx5knyd.onion | operator | Payment URL | BTC LN | | freelay.sovbit.host | Free relay for sovbit.host | ws://sovbitm2enxfr5ot6qscwy5ermdffbqscy66wirkbsigvcshumyzbbqd.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | | nostr.sovbit.host | Paid relay for sovbit.host | ws://sovbitgz5uqyh7jwcsudq4sspxlj4kbnurvd3xarkkx2use3k6rlibqd.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | | nostr.wine | 🍷 nostr.wine relay | ws://nostrwinemdptvqukjttinajfeedhf46hfd5bz2aj2q5uwp7zros3nad.onion | operator | Payment URL | BTC LN, BTC, Credit Card/CashApp (Stripe) | | inbox.nostr.wine | 🍷 inbox.nostr.wine relay | ws://wineinboxkayswlofkugkjwhoyi744qvlzdxlmdvwe7cei2xxy4gc6ad.onion | operator | Payment URL | BTC LN, BTC | | filter.nostr.wine | 🍷 filter.nostr.wine proxy relay | ws://winefiltermhqixxzmnzxhrmaufpnfq3rmjcl6ei45iy4aidrngpsyid.onion | operator | Payment URL | BTC LN, BTC | | N/A | N/A | ws://pzfw4uteha62iwkzm3lycabk4pbtcr67cg5ymp5i3xwrpt3t24m6tzad.onion:81 | operator | N/A | N/A | | nostr.fractalized.net | Free relay for fractalized.net | ws://xvgox2zzo7cfxcjrd2llrkthvjs5t7efoalu34s6lmkqhvzvrms6ipyd.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | | nfrelay.app | nfrelay.app aggregator relay (nostr-filter-relay) | ws://nfrelay6saohkmipikquvrn6d64dzxivhmcdcj4d5i7wxis47xwsriyd.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | relay.nostr.net | Public relay from nostr.net (Same as clearnet) | ws://nostrnetl6yd5whkldj3vqsxyyaq3tkuspy23a3qgx7cdepb4564qgqd.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | | nerostrator | Free to read, pay XMR to relay | ws://nerostrrgb5fhj6dnzhjbgmnkpy2berdlczh6tuh2jsqrjok3j4zoxid.onion | operator |Payment URL | XMR | | nostr.girino.org | Public relay from nostr.girino.org | ws://gnostr2jnapk72mnagq3cuykfon73temzp77hcbncn4silgt77boruid.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | | wot.girino.org | WoT relay from wot.girino.org | ws://girwot2koy3kvj6fk7oseoqazp5vwbeawocb3m27jcqtah65f2fkl3yd.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | | haven.girino.org/{outbox, inbox, chat, private} | Haven smart relay from haven.girino.org | ws://ghaven2hi3qn2riitw7ymaztdpztrvmm337e2pgkacfh3rnscaoxjoad.onion/{outbox, inbox, chat, private} | operator | N/A | N/A | | relay.nostpy.lol | Free Web of Trust relay (Same as clearnet) | ws://pemgkkqjqjde7y2emc2hpxocexugbixp42o4zymznil6zfegx5nfp4id.onion | operator |N/A | N/A | | Poster.place Nostr Relay | N/A | ws://dmw5wbawyovz7fcahvguwkw4sknsqsalffwctioeoqkvvy7ygjbcuoad.onion | operator | N/A | N/A | | Azzamo Relay | Azzamo Premium Nostr relay. (paid) | ws://q6a7m5qkyonzb5fk5yv4jyu3ar44hqedn7wjopg737lit2ckkhx2nyid.onion | operator | Payment URL | BTC LN | | Azzamo Inbox Relay | Azzamo Group and Private message relay. (Freemium) | ws://gp5kiwqfw7t2fwb3rfts2aekoph4x7pj5pv65re2y6hzaujsxewanbqd.onion | operator | Payment URL | BTC LN | | Noderunners Relay | The official Noderunners Nostr Relay. | ws://35vr3xigzjv2xyzfyif6o2gksmkioppy4rmwag7d4bqmwuccs2u4jaid.onion | operator | Payment URL | BTC LN |
Contributing
Contributions are encouraged to keep this document alive. Just open a PR and I'll have it tested and merged. The onion URL is the only mandatory column, the rest is just nice-to-have metadata about the relay. Put
N/A
in empty columns.If you want to contribute anonymously, please contact me on SimpleX or send a DM on nostr using a disposable npub.
Operator column
It is generally preferred to use something that includes a NIP-19 string, either just the string or a url that contains the NIP-19 string in it (e.g. an njump url).
-
@ 39cc53c9:27168656
2025-06-15 11:51:25Bitcoin enthusiasts frequently and correctly remark how much value it adds to Bitcoin not to have a face, a leader, or a central authority behind it. This particularity means there isn't a single person to exert control over, or a single human point of failure who could become corrupt or harmful to the project.
Because of this, it is said that no other coin can be equally valuable as Bitcoin in terms of decentralization and trustworthiness. Bitcoin is unique not just for being first, but also because of how the events behind its inception developed. This implies that, from Bitcoin onwards, any coin created would have been created by someone, consequently having an authority behind it. For this and some other reasons, some people refer to Bitcoin as "The Immaculate Conception".
While other coins may have their own unique features and advantages, they may not be able to replicate Bitcoin's community-driven nature. However, one other cryptocurrency shares a similar story of mystery behind its creation: Monero.
History of Monero
Bytecoin and CryptoNote
In March 2014, a Bitcointalk thread titled "Bytecoin. Secure, private, untraceable since 2012" was initiated by a user under the nickname "DStrange"^1^. DStrange presented Bytecoin (BCN) as a unique cryptocurrency, in operation since July 2012. Unlike Bitcoin, it employed a new algorithm known as CryptoNote.
DStrange apparently stumbled upon the Bytecoin website by chance while mining a dying bitcoin fork, and decided to create a thread on Bitcointalk^1^. This sparked curiosity among some users, who wondered how could Bytecoin remain unnoticed since its alleged launch in 2012 until then^2^.
Some time after, a user brought up the "CryptoNote v2.0" whitepaper for the first time, underlining its innovative features^4^. Authored by the pseudonymous Nicolas van Saberhagen in October 2013, the CryptoNote v2 whitepaper^5^ highlighted the traceability and privacy problems in Bitcoin. Saberhagen argued that these flaws could not be quickly fixed, suggesting it would be more efficient to start a new project rather than trying to patch the original^5^, an statement simmilar to the one from Satoshi Nakamoto^6^.
Checking with Saberhagen's digital signature, the release date of the whitepaper seemed correct, which would mean that Cryptonote (v1) was created in 2012^7^, although there's an important detail: "Signing time is from the clock on the signer's computer" ^9^.
Moreover, the whitepaper v1 contains a footnote link to a Bitcointalk post dated May 5, 2013^10^, making it impossible for the whitepaper to have been signed and released on December 12, 2012.
As the narrative developed, users discovered that a significant 80% portion of Bytecoin had been pre-mined^11^ and blockchain dates seemed to be faked to make it look like it had been operating since 2012, leading to controversy surrounding the project.
The origins of CryptoNote and Bytecoin remain mysterious, leaving suspicions of a possible scam attempt, although the whitepaper had a good amount of work and thought on it.
The fork
In April 2014, the Bitcointalk user
thankful_for_today
, who had also participated in the Bytecoin thread^12^, announced plans to launch a Bytecoin fork named Bitmonero^13^.The primary motivation behind this fork was "Because there is a number of technical and marketing issues I wanted to do differently. And also because I like ideas and technology and I want it to succeed"^14^. This time Bitmonero did things different from Bytecoin: there was no premine or instamine, and no portion of the block reward went to development.
However, thankful_for_today proposed controversial changes that the community disagreed with. Johnny Mnemonic relates the events surrounding Bitmonero and thankful_for_today in a Bitcointalk comment^15^:
When thankful_for_today launched BitMonero [...] he ignored everything that was discussed and just did what he wanted. The block reward was considerably steeper than what everyone was expecting. He also moved forward with 1-minute block times despite everyone's concerns about the increase of orphan blocks. He also didn't address the tail emission concern that should've (in my opinion) been in the code at launch time. Basically, he messed everything up. Then, he disappeared.
After disappearing for a while, thankful_for_today returned to find that the community had taken over the project. Johnny Mnemonic continues:
I, and others, started working on new forks that were closer to what everyone else was hoping for. [...] it was decided that the BitMonero project should just be taken over. There were like 9 or 10 interested parties at the time if my memory is correct. We voted on IRC to drop the "bit" from BitMonero and move forward with the project. Thankful_for_today suddenly resurfaced, and wasn't happy to learn the community had assumed control of the coin. He attempted to maintain his own fork (still calling it "BitMonero") for a while, but that quickly fell into obscurity.
The unfolding of these events show us the roots of Monero. Much like Satoshi Nakamoto, the creators behind CryptoNote/Bytecoin and thankful_for_today remain a mystery^17^, having disappeared without a trace. This enigma only adds to Monero's value.
Since community took over development, believing in the project's potential and its ability to be guided in a better direction, Monero was given one of Bitcoin's most important qualities: a leaderless nature. With no single face or entity directing its path, Monero is safe from potential corruption or harm from a "central authority".
The community continued developing Monero until today. Since then, Monero has undergone a lot of technological improvements, migrations and achievements such as RingCT and RandomX. It also has developed its own Community Crowdfundinc System, conferences such as MoneroKon and Monerotopia are taking place every year, and has a very active community around it.
Monero continues to develop with goals of privacy and security first, ease of use and efficiency second. ^16^
This stands as a testament to the power of a dedicated community operating without a central figure of authority. This decentralized approach aligns with the original ethos of cryptocurrency, making Monero a prime example of community-driven innovation. For this, I thank all the people involved in Monero, that lead it to where it is today.
If you find any information that seems incorrect, unclear or any missing important events, please contact me and I will make the necessary changes.
Sources of interest
- https://forum.getmonero.org/20/general-discussion/211/history-of-monero
- https://monero.stackexchange.com/questions/852/what-is-the-origin-of-monero-and-its-relationship-to-bytecoin
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583449.0
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=563821.0
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=233561
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=512747.0
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=740112.0
- https://monero.stackexchange.com/a/1024
- https://inspec2t-project.eu/cryptocurrency-with-a-focus-on-anonymity-these-facts-are-known-about-monero/
- https://medium.com/coin-story/coin-perspective-13-riccardo-spagni-69ef82907bd1
- https://www.getmonero.org/resources/about/
- https://www.wired.com/2017/01/monero-drug-dealers-cryptocurrency-choice-fire/
- https://www.monero.how/why-monero-vs-bitcoin
- https://old.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/u8e5yr/satoshi_nakamoto_talked_about_privacy_features/
-
@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5
2025-06-16 14:02:14Marty's Bent
via Matt Corallo
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...
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-
@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7
2025-06-15 10:02:09The latest AI chips, 8K displays, and neural processing units make your device feel like a pocket supercomputer. So surely, with all this advancement, you can finally mine bitcoin on your phone profitably, right?
The 2025 Hardware Reality: Can You Mine Bitcoin on Your Phone
Despite remarkable advances in smartphone technology, the fundamental physics of bitcoin mining haven’t changed. In 2025, flagship devices with their cutting-edge 2nm processors can achieve approximately 25-40 megahashes per second when you mine bitcoin on your phone—a notable improvement from previous generations, but still laughably inadequate.
Meanwhile, 2025’s top-tier ASIC miners have evolved dramatically. The latest Bitmain Antminer S23 series and Canaan AvalonMiner A15 Pro deliver 200-300 terahashes per second while consuming 4,000-5,500 watts. That’s a performance gap of roughly 1:8,000,000 between when you mine bitcoin on your phone and professional mining equipment.
To put this in perspective that hits home: if you mine bitcoin on your phone and it earned you one penny, professional miners would earn $80,000 in the same time period with the same effort. It’s not just an efficiency problem—it’s a complete category mismatch.
According to Pocket Option’s 2025 analysis, when you mine bitcoin on your phone in 2025, you generate approximately $0.003-0.006 in daily revenue while consuming $0.45-0.85 in electricity through constant charging cycles. Factor in the accelerated device wear (estimated at $0.75-1.20 daily depreciation), and you’re looking at losses of $1.20-2.00 per day just for the privilege of running mining software.
Mining Economic Factor
Precise Value (April 2025)
Direct Impact on Profitability
Smartphone sustained hash rate
20-35 MH/s
0.00000024% contribution to global hashrate
Daily power consumption
3.2-4.8 kWh (4-6 full charges)
$0.38-0.57 at average US electricity rates
Expected daily BTC earnings
0.0000000086 BTC ($0.0035 at $41,200 BTC)
Revenue covers only 0.9% of electricity costs
CPU/GPU wear cost
$0.68-0.92 daily accelerated depreciation
Reduces smartphone lifespan by 60-70%
Annual profit projection
-$386 to -$412 per year
Guaranteed negative return on investment
Source: PocketOption
Bitcoin’s 2025 Network: Harder Than Ever
Bitcoin’s network difficulty in 2025 has reached unprecedented levels. After the April 2024 halving event that reduced block rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, mining became significantly more competitive. The global hash rate now exceeds 800 exahashes per second—that’s 800 followed by 18 zeros worth of computational power securing the network.
Here’s what this means in practical terms: Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks (roughly every two weeks) to maintain the 10-minute block time. As more efficient miners join the network, difficulty increases proportionally. In 2025, mining difficulty has increased compared to 2024, making small-scale mining even less viable.
The math is unforgiving:
- Global Bitcoin hash rate: 828.96 EH/s
- Your smartphone’s contribution: ~0.000000003%
- Probability of solo mining a block: Virtually zero
- Expected time to mine one Bitcoin: Several million years
Even joining mining pools doesn’t solve the economic problem. Pool fees typically range from 1-3%, and your minuscule contribution would earn proportionally tiny rewards—far below the electricity and device depreciation costs.
The 2025 Scam Evolution: More Sophisticated, More Dangerous
Fraudsters now leverage AI-generated content, fake influencer endorsements, and impressive-looking apps that simulate realistic mining activity to entice you to mine bitcoin on your phone.
New 2025 scam tactics include:
AI-Powered Fake Testimonials: Deepfake videos of supposed successful mobile miners showing fabricated earnings statements and encouraging downloads of malicious apps.
Gamified Mining Interfaces: Apps that look and feel like legitimate games but secretly harvest personal data while simulating mining progress that can never be withdrawn.
Social Media Manipulation: Coordinated campaigns across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube featuring fake “financial influencers” promoting mobile mining apps to younger audiences.
Subscription Trap Mining: Apps offering “free trials” that automatically charge $19.99-49.99 monthly for “premium mining speeds” while delivering no actual mining capability.
Recent cybersecurity research shows that over 180 fake mining apps were discovered across major app stores in 2025, with some accumulating more than 500,000 downloads before being removed.
Red flags that scream “scam” in 2025:
- Apps claiming “revolutionary mobile mining breakthrough”
- Promises of earning “$10-50 daily” from phone mining
- Requirements to recruit friends or watch ads to unlock withdrawals
- Apps that don’t require connecting to actual mining pools
- Testimonials that seem too polished or use stock photo models
- Apps requesting permissions unrelated to mining (contacts, camera, microphone)
The 2025 Professional Mining Landscape
To understand why, consider what professional bitcoin mining looks like in 2025. Industrial mining operations now resemble high-tech data centers with:
Cutting-edge hardware:
- Bitmain Antminer S23 Pro: 280 TH/s at 4,800W
- MicroBT WhatsMiner M56S++: 250 TH/s at 4,500W
- Canaan AvalonMiner A1566: 185 TH/s at 3,420W
Infrastructure requirements:
- Megawatt-scale power contracts with industrial electricity rates
- Liquid cooling systems maintaining 24/7 optimal temperatures
- Redundant internet connections ensuring zero downtime
- Professional facility management with 24/7 monitoring
For a small operation, you might need at least $10,000 to $20,000 to buy a few ASIC miners, set up cooling systems, and cover electricity costs. These operations employ teams of engineers, maintain relationships with power companies, and operate with margins measured in single-digit percentages.
2025’s Legitimate Mobile Bitcoin Strategies
While it remains impossible to mine bitcoin on your phone profitably, 2025 offers exciting legitimate ways to engage with bitcoin through your smartphone:
Lightning Network Participation: Apps like Phoenix, Breez, and Zeus allow you to run Lightning nodes on mobile devices, earning small routing fees while supporting bitcoin’s payment layer.
Bitcoin DCA Automation: Services enable automated dollar-cost averaging with amounts as small as $1 daily. Historical data shows $10 weekly bitcoin purchases consistently outperform any mobile mining attempt by 1,500-2,000%.
Educational Mining Simulators: Legitimate apps like “Bitcoin Mining Simulator” teach mining concepts without false earning promises. These educational tools help users understand hash rates, difficulty adjustments, and mining economics.
Stacking Sats Rewards: Apps offering bitcoin rewards for shopping, learning, or completing tasks.
Lightning Gaming: Bitcoin-native mobile games where players can earn sats through skilled gameplay, with some players earning $10 monthly.onfirm that even the most optimized mobile mining setups in 2025 lose money consistently and predictably.
The Bottom Line
When you mine bitcoin on your phone fundamental economics remain unchanged: it’s impossible to profit. The laws of physics, network competition, and energy efficiency create insurmountable barriers that no app can overcome.
However, 2025 offers unprecedented opportunities to engage with bitcoin meaningfully through your smartphone. Focus on education, legitimate earning opportunities, and strategic investment rather than chasing the impossible dream of phone-based mining.
The bitcoin community’s greatest strength lies in its commitment to truth over hype. When someone promises profits to mine bitcoin on your phone in 2025, they’re either uninformed or deliberately misleading you. Trust the mathematics, learn from the community, and build your bitcoin knowledge and holdings through proven methods.
The real opportunity in 2025 isn’t to mine bitcoin on your phone—it’s understanding bitcoin deeply enough to participate confidently in the most important monetary revolution of our lifetime. Your smartphone is the perfect tool for that education; it’s just not a mining rig.
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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3
2025-06-16 00:02:32Good morning (good night?)! The No Bullshit Bitcoin news feed is now available on Moody's Dashboard! A huge shoutout to sir Clark Moody for integrating our feed.
Headlines
- Spiral welcomes Ben Carman. The developer will work on the LDK server and a new SDK designed to simplify the onboarding process for new self-custodial Bitcoin users.
- The Bitcoin Dev Kit Foundation announced new corporate members for 2025, including AnchorWatch, CleanSpark, and Proton Foundation. The annual dues from these corporate members fund the small team of open-source developers responsible for maintaining the core BDK libraries and related free and open-source software (FOSS) projects.
- Strategy increases Bitcoin holdings to 538,200 BTC. In the latest purchase, the company has spent more than $555M to buy 6,556 coins through proceeds of two at-the-market stock offering programs.
- Spar supermarket experiments with Bitcoin payments in Zug, Switzerland. The store has introduced a new payment method powered by the Lightning Network. The implementation was facilitated by DFX Swiss, a service that supports seamless conversions between bitcoin and legacy currencies.
- The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) wants to contain 'crypto' risks. A report titled "Cryptocurrencies and Decentralised Finance: Functions and Financial Stability Implications" calls for expanding research into "how new forms of central bank money, capital controls, and taxation policies can counter the risks of widespread crypto adoption while still fostering technological innovation."
- "Global Implications of Scam Centres, Underground Banking, and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia." According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, criminal organizations from East and Southeast Asia are swiftly extending their global reach. These groups are moving beyond traditional scams and trafficking, creating sophisticated online networks that include unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges, encrypted communication platforms, and stablecoins, fueling a massive fraud economy on an industrial scale.
- Slovenia is considering a 25% capital gains tax on Bitcoin profits for individuals. The Ministry of Finance has proposed legislation to impose this tax on gains from cryptocurrency transactions, though exchanging one cryptocurrency for another would remain exempt. At present, individual 'crypto' traders in Slovenia are not taxed.
- Circle, BitGo, Coinbase, and Paxos plan to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, major crypto companies are planning to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. These firms are pursuing limited licenses that would permit them to issue stablecoins, as the U.S. Congress deliberates on legislation mandating licensing for stablecoin issuers.
"Established banks, like Bank of America, are hoping to amend the current drafts of [stablecoin] legislation in such a way that nonbanks are more heavily restricted from issuing stablecoins," people familiar with the matter told The Block.
- Charles Schwab to launch spot Bitcoin trading by 2026. The financial investment firm, managing over $10 trillion in assets, has revealed plans to introduce spot Bitcoin trading for its clients within the next year.
Use the tools
- Bitcoin Safe v1.2.3 expands QR SignMessage compatibility for all QR-UR-compatible hardware signers (SpecterDIY, KeyStone, Passport, Jade; already supported COLDCARD Q). It also adds the ability to import wallets via QR, ensuring compatibility with Keystone's latest firmware (2.0.6), alongside other improvements.
- Minibits v0.2.2-beta, an ecash wallet for Android devices, packages many changes to align the project with the planned iOS app release. New features and improvements include the ability to lock ecash to a receiver's pubkey, faster confirmations of ecash minting and payments thanks to WebSockets, UI-related fixes, and more.
- Zeus v0.11.0-alpha1 introduces Cashu wallets tied to embedded LND wallets. Navigate to Settings > Ecash to enable it. Other wallet types can still sweep funds from Cashu tokens. Zeus Pay now supports Cashu address types in Zaplocker, Cashu, and NWC modes.
- LNDg v1.10.0, an advanced web interface designed for analyzing Lightning Network Daemon (LND) data and automating node management tasks, introduces performance improvements, adds a new metrics page for unprofitable and stuck channels, and displays warnings for batch openings. The Profit and Loss Chart has been updated to include on-chain costs. Advanced settings have been added for users who would like their channel database size to be read remotely (the default remains local). Additionally, the AutoFees tool now uses aggregated pubkey metrics for multiple channels with the same peer.
- Nunchuk Desktop v1.9.45 release brings the latest bug fixes and improvements.
- Blockstream Green iOS v4.1.8 has renamed L-BTC to LBTC, and improves translations of notifications, login time, and background payments.
- Blockstream Green Android v4.1.8 has added language preference in App Settings and enables an Android data backup option for disaster recovery. Additionally, it fixes issues with Jade entry point PIN timeout and Trezor passphrase input.
- Torq v2.2.2, an advanced Lightning node management software designed to handle large nodes with over 1000 channels, fixes bugs that caused channel balance to not be updated in some cases and channel "peer total local balance" not getting updated.
- Stack Wallet v2.1.12, a multicoin wallet by Cypher Stack, fixes an issue with Xelis introduced in the latest release for Windows.
- ESP-Miner-NerdQAxePlus v1.0.29.1, a forked version from the NerdAxe miner that was modified for use on the NerdQAxe+, is now available.
- Zark enables sending sats to an npub using Bark.
- Erk is a novel variation of the Ark protocol that completely removes the need for user interactivity in rounds, addressing one of Ark's key limitations: the requirement for users to come online before their VTXOs expire.
- Aegis v0.1.1 is now available. It is a Nostr event signer app for iOS devices.
- Nostash is a NIP-07 Nostr signing extension for Safari. It is a fork of Nostore and is maintained by Terry Yiu. Available on iOS TestFlight.
- Amber v3.2.8, a Nostr event signer for Android, delivers the latest fixes and improvements.
- Nostur v1.20.0, a Nostr client for iOS, adds
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@ 460c25e6:ef85065c
2025-02-25 15:20:39If you don't know where your posts are, you might as well just stay in the centralized Twitter. You either take control of your relay lists, or they will control you. Amethyst offers several lists of relays for our users. We are going to go one by one to help clarify what they are and which options are best for each one.
Public Home/Outbox Relays
Home relays store all YOUR content: all your posts, likes, replies, lists, etc. It's your home. Amethyst will send your posts here first. Your followers will use these relays to get new posts from you. So, if you don't have anything there, they will not receive your updates.
Home relays must allow queries from anyone, ideally without the need to authenticate. They can limit writes to paid users without affecting anyone's experience.
This list should have a maximum of 3 relays. More than that will only make your followers waste their mobile data getting your posts. Keep it simple. Out of the 3 relays, I recommend: - 1 large public, international relay: nos.lol, nostr.mom, relay.damus.io, etc. - 1 personal relay to store a copy of all your content in a place no one can delete. Go to relay.tools and never be censored again. - 1 really fast relay located in your country: paid options like http://nostr.wine are great
Do not include relays that block users from seeing posts in this list. If you do, no one will see your posts.
Public Inbox Relays
This relay type receives all replies, comments, likes, and zaps to your posts. If you are not getting notifications or you don't see replies from your friends, it is likely because you don't have the right setup here. If you are getting too much spam in your replies, it's probably because your inbox relays are not protecting you enough. Paid relays can filter inbox spam out.
Inbox relays must allow anyone to write into them. It's the opposite of the outbox relay. They can limit who can download the posts to their paid subscribers without affecting anyone's experience.
This list should have a maximum of 3 relays as well. Again, keep it small. More than that will just make you spend more of your data plan downloading the same notifications from all these different servers. Out of the 3 relays, I recommend: - 1 large public, international relay: nos.lol, nostr.mom, relay.damus.io, etc. - 1 personal relay to store a copy of your notifications, invites, cashu tokens and zaps. - 1 really fast relay located in your country: go to nostr.watch and find relays in your country
Terrible options include: - nostr.wine should not be here. - filter.nostr.wine should not be here. - inbox.nostr.wine should not be here.
DM Inbox Relays
These are the relays used to receive DMs and private content. Others will use these relays to send DMs to you. If you don't have it setup, you will miss DMs. DM Inbox relays should accept any message from anyone, but only allow you to download them.
Generally speaking, you only need 3 for reliability. One of them should be a personal relay to make sure you have a copy of all your messages. The others can be open if you want push notifications or closed if you want full privacy.
Good options are: - inbox.nostr.wine and auth.nostr1.com: anyone can send messages and only you can download. Not even our push notification server has access to them to notify you. - a personal relay to make sure no one can censor you. Advanced settings on personal relays can also store your DMs privately. Talk to your relay operator for more details. - a public relay if you want DM notifications from our servers.
Make sure to add at least one public relay if you want to see DM notifications.
Private Home Relays
Private Relays are for things no one should see, like your drafts, lists, app settings, bookmarks etc. Ideally, these relays are either local or require authentication before posting AND downloading each user\'s content. There are no dedicated relays for this category yet, so I would use a local relay like Citrine on Android and a personal relay on relay.tools.
Keep in mind that if you choose a local relay only, a client on the desktop might not be able to see the drafts from clients on mobile and vice versa.
Search relays:
This is the list of relays to use on Amethyst's search and user tagging with @. Tagging and searching will not work if there is nothing here.. This option requires NIP-50 compliance from each relay. Hit the Default button to use all available options on existence today: - nostr.wine - relay.nostr.band - relay.noswhere.com
Local Relays:
This is your local storage. Everything will load faster if it comes from this relay. You should install Citrine on Android and write ws://localhost:4869 in this option.
General Relays:
This section contains the default relays used to download content from your follows. Notice how you can activate and deactivate the Home, Messages (old-style DMs), Chat (public chats), and Global options in each.
Keep 5-6 large relays on this list and activate them for as many categories (Home, Messages (old-style DMs), Chat, and Global) as possible.
Amethyst will provide additional recommendations to this list from your follows with information on which of your follows might need the additional relay in your list. Add them if you feel like you are missing their posts or if it is just taking too long to load them.
My setup
Here's what I use: 1. Go to relay.tools and create a relay for yourself. 2. Go to nostr.wine and pay for their subscription. 3. Go to inbox.nostr.wine and pay for their subscription. 4. Go to nostr.watch and find a good relay in your country. 5. Download Citrine to your phone.
Then, on your relay lists, put:
Public Home/Outbox Relays: - nostr.wine - nos.lol or an in-country relay. -
.nostr1.com Public Inbox Relays - nos.lol or an in-country relay -
.nostr1.com DM Inbox Relays - inbox.nostr.wine -
.nostr1.com Private Home Relays - ws://localhost:4869 (Citrine) -
.nostr1.com (if you want) Search Relays - nostr.wine - relay.nostr.band - relay.noswhere.com
Local Relays - ws://localhost:4869 (Citrine)
General Relays - nos.lol - relay.damus.io - relay.primal.net - nostr.mom
And a few of the recommended relays from Amethyst.
Final Considerations
Remember, relays can see what your Nostr client is requesting and downloading at all times. They can track what you see and see what you like. They can sell that information to the highest bidder, they can delete your content or content that a sponsor asked them to delete (like a negative review for instance) and they can censor you in any way they see fit. Before using any random free relay out there, make sure you trust its operator and you know its terms of service and privacy policies.
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@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5
2025-06-16 13:02:04Marty's Bent
via me
I think we'll look back at last weekend as one of the most pivotal points in human history. Ukraine's Operation Spider Web is one of the more shocking things I've seen in terms of military operations in my life. It validates something that many bitcoiners, many cypherpunks, and many prescient individuals have been talking about for decades now at this point, which is asymmetric drone warfare.
The Sovereign Individual is a book that many bitcoiners have talked about throughout the years due to how prescient it was in terms of the inevitable emergence of a digital currency outside the control of central banks and governments. The book was written in the mid-90s, so the fact that the two authors were able to predict that something like bitcoin would emerge less than 20 years after writing the book is pretty incredible. However, digital currencies leveraging cryptography were not the sole focus of the book. Another portion of the book was dedicated to the idea of asymmetric drone warfare and its effects on society overall.
It seems pretty clear today that this is another call from The Sovereign Individual that is coming true. Obviously, unless you've been living under a rock, you've noticed that Ukraine has been using drones in the battlefield to target strategic Russian assets and individual soldiers over the last year. The amount of battlefield videos I've seen of Russian soldiers running from autonomous drones that are hunting them down has been increasing significantly over the last six months. The footage is truly harrowing. It is a death that I wouldn't wish on anybody. With Operation Spider Web Ukraine has increased the stakes of this type of drone warfare by going deep into Russian territory and targeting strategic long-range bombers, some of which had the ability to deploy nuclear warheads. This is sure to incite a reaction from Russia. No one will be surprised if, by the end of the week, Russia has started a shock and awe campaign that goes deep into Ukrainian territory in retaliation for the kamikaze drone strikes on their long-range aircraft. I pray for peace and a quick resolution to this war, and every other war for that matter.
I didn't come here to pontificate and give my thoughts on this particular war, but I would like to focus on this new tactic of war and what it means for military budgets moving forward. The Sovereign Individual laid it out clearly when they wrote in the 1990s that at some point in the future autonomous drones would be leveraged in the battlefield and prove to be asymmetric because of the fact that they are extremely cheap to produce. When you compare the price it cost to produce one of these drones to the price of the equipment they are destroying, things get pretty crazy. With tens of thousands of dollars of drone equipment the Ukrainian army destroyed tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars worth of long-range missile aircraft. And it did so without putting any Ukrainian military personnel in harm's way. Directly, at least.
When you consider the return on investment of deploying these drones compared to sending in soldiers, tanks, and your own aircraft, it becomes pretty obvious that this is going to quickly become the most logical way to fight a war moving forward. The question that remains is how quickly do other governments recognize this and implement it into their own defense strategies? As an American looking at our military budget, which is quickly approaching $1 trillion in annual spend, I'm forced to question whether or not most of that money is simply being wasted, considering the fact that we live in a time where these asymmetric battlefield strategies now exist. Why build new fighter jets when a Somali pirate, or nefarious individual for that matter, could use a $200 drone to destroy it in a matter of seconds with no threat of direct physical harm?
I'm no military expert, but if I were at the helm of the Defense Department, I would seriously be forcing those below me to focus a ton of effort on this problem and create plans to make sure that we are sufficiently protected from these risks. The only way to protect from these risks is to build the capabilities yourself. When it comes to the risk reward from a defense tech investment perspective I think a majority of the effort should be focused on defensive drone technologies and capabilities.
With that being said, it does seem like the US military is privy to this asymmetric reality that we currently live in. Defense contracts with Andruil make this pretty clear. Andruil is certainly ahead of the curve when it comes to autonomous drone warfare and defense against it. As an American, even though I don't like war, or the military industrial complex, knowing that the military is working with companies like Andruil does give me some comfort. However, the other side of that coin is that it is very unnerving when you consider that the government creating these public-private partnerships could lead to some Orwellian outcomes here at home. It may make some of you feel uncomfortable, but I believe the ideal scenario is that any individual has access to these types of defensive drone technologies in the future. The end goal being to create a nuclear game theoretical outcome where violence is reduced because one always has to assume that anyone they intend to attack has access to sufficient and formidable defensive technologies.
It's truly scary times we're living in as we transition further into the Digital Age. Part of the reason that I've dedicated my whole life to bitcoin is because I truly do believe that if you fix the money, you can fix the world. That is not to say that kinetic wars or physical violence will not exist in the future. It certainly will. But I believe sound money and open access to these systems and tools creates conditions which are much more suitable for cooperation and less so for conflict.
Multi-Signature Bitcoin Custody Is Replacing Single-Point Solutions
Jesse Gilger made a compelling case for why multi-signature Bitcoin custody represents the future of secure storage. He explained how Gannett Trust's approach ensures "not all of the keys are going to be at any one entity," fundamentally reducing the honeypot risk that plagues centralized custodians. This distributed model means no single point of failure can compromise your Bitcoin, whether through hacking, internal fraud, or regulatory seizure.
"I was on the list. I got the email. 'You were affected.'" - Jesse Gilger
Jesse's firsthand experience with the Coinbase data breach drives home why centralized custody is fundamentally flawed. While Coinbase holds keys for 10 of 12 Bitcoin ETFs, smart money is moving toward multi-institutional setups where Gannett holds a key, Unchained holds a key, and a third party holds a key. This alignment with Bitcoin's decentralized ethos isn't just philosophically pure—it's pragmatically superior for protecting generational wealth.
Check out the full podcast here for more on MSTY risks, Bitcoin retirement strategies and nation-state adoption dynamics.
Headlines of the Day
MicroStrategy Copycats See Speculative Premiums Fade - via X
Square Tests Bitcoin Payments, Lightning Yields Beat DeFi - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Bitfinex Moves $731M Bitcoin to Jack Mallers' Fund - via X
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Final thought...
Trying to imagine the future my children are going to live in gets harder by the day.
Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
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@ a8d1560d:3fec7a08
2025-06-16 01:27:33THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!
After the wave of word-scrambling spam bots, a new and very problematic kind of spam has arrived in the Nostr. Whenever you post something now, you will get gay porn videos as an automated answer (No, being gay itself is not problematic!!!). To get rid of all the automated spam, remove the following relays from your inbox and outbox relay list: - nos.lol - relay.damus.io - nostr.oxtr.dev - relay.primal.net
As long as you have even one of these relays in your inbox and outbox lists, you and your followers will be spammed whenever posting something.
It is unknown if the bots only reply to kind 1 events or to all events.
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@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9
2025-05-20 15:47:16Here’s a revised timeline of macro-level events from The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047 by Lionel Shriver, reimagined in a world where Bitcoin is adopted as a widely accepted form of money, altering the original narrative’s assumptions about currency collapse and economic control. In Shriver’s original story, the failure of Bitcoin is assumed amid the dominance of the bancor and the dollar’s collapse. Here, Bitcoin’s success reshapes the economic and societal trajectory, decentralizing power and challenging state-driven outcomes.
Part One: 2029–2032
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2029 (Early Year)\ The United States faces economic strain as the dollar weakens against global shifts. However, Bitcoin, having gained traction emerges as a viable alternative. Unlike the original timeline, the bancor—a supranational currency backed by a coalition of nations—struggles to gain footing as Bitcoin’s decentralized adoption grows among individuals and businesses worldwide, undermining both the dollar and the bancor.
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2029 (Mid-Year: The Great Renunciation)\ Treasury bonds lose value, and the government bans Bitcoin, labeling it a threat to sovereignty (mirroring the original bancor ban). However, a Bitcoin ban proves unenforceable—its decentralized nature thwarts confiscation efforts, unlike gold in the original story. Hyperinflation hits the dollar as the U.S. prints money, but Bitcoin’s fixed supply shields adopters from currency devaluation, creating a dual-economy split: dollar users suffer, while Bitcoin users thrive.
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2029 (Late Year)\ Dollar-based inflation soars, emptying stores of goods priced in fiat currency. Meanwhile, Bitcoin transactions flourish in underground and online markets, stabilizing trade for those plugged into the bitcoin ecosystem. Traditional supply chains falter, but peer-to-peer Bitcoin networks enable local and international exchange, reducing scarcity for early adopters. The government’s gold confiscation fails to bolster the dollar, as Bitcoin’s rise renders gold less relevant.
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2030–2031\ Crime spikes in dollar-dependent urban areas, but Bitcoin-friendly regions see less chaos, as digital wallets and smart contracts facilitate secure trade. The U.S. government doubles down on surveillance to crack down on bitcoin use. A cultural divide deepens: centralized authority weakens in Bitcoin-adopting communities, while dollar zones descend into lawlessness.
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2032\ By this point, Bitcoin is de facto legal tender in parts of the U.S. and globally, especially in tech-savvy or libertarian-leaning regions. The federal government’s grip slips as tax collection in dollars plummets—Bitcoin’s traceability is low, and citizens evade fiat-based levies. Rural and urban Bitcoin hubs emerge, while the dollar economy remains fractured.
Time Jump: 2032–2047
- Over 15 years, Bitcoin solidifies as a global reserve currency, eroding centralized control. The U.S. government adapts, grudgingly integrating bitcoin into policy, though regional autonomy grows as Bitcoin empowers local economies.
Part Two: 2047
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2047 (Early Year)\ The U.S. is a hybrid state: Bitcoin is legal tender alongside a diminished dollar. Taxes are lower, collected in BTC, reducing federal overreach. Bitcoin’s adoption has decentralized power nationwide. The bancor has faded, unable to compete with Bitcoin’s grassroots momentum.
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2047 (Mid-Year)\ Travel and trade flow freely in Bitcoin zones, with no restrictive checkpoints. The dollar economy lingers in poorer areas, marked by decay, but Bitcoin’s dominance lifts overall prosperity, as its deflationary nature incentivizes saving and investment over consumption. Global supply chains rebound, powered by bitcoin enabled efficiency.
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2047 (Late Year)\ The U.S. is a patchwork of semi-autonomous zones, united by Bitcoin’s universal acceptance rather than federal control. Resource scarcity persists due to past disruptions, but economic stability is higher than in Shriver’s original dystopia—Bitcoin’s success prevents the authoritarian slide, fostering a freer, if imperfect, society.
Key Differences
- Currency Dynamics: Bitcoin’s triumph prevents the bancor’s dominance and mitigates hyperinflation’s worst effects, offering a lifeline outside state control.
- Government Power: Centralized authority weakens as Bitcoin evades bans and taxation, shifting power to individuals and communities.
- Societal Outcome: Instead of a surveillance state, 2047 sees a decentralized, bitcoin driven world—less oppressive, though still stratified between Bitcoin haves and have-nots.
This reimagining assumes Bitcoin overcomes Shriver’s implied skepticism to become a robust, adopted currency by 2029, fundamentally altering the novel’s bleak trajectory.
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@ 4fe4a528:3ff6bf06
2025-02-01 13:41:28In my last article I wrote about NOSTR. I found another local bitcoiner via NOSTR last week so here is why it is important to join / use NOSTR — start telling people “Look me up on NOSTR”
Self-sovereign identity (SSI) is a revolutionary approach to digital identity that puts individuals in control of their own identity and personal data. Unlike traditional digital identity models, which rely on third-party organizations to manage and authenticate identities, SSI empowers individuals to own and manage their digital identity.
This approach is made possible by emerging technologies such as secure public / private key pairs. Decentralized identifiers, conceived and developed by nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6 is an attempt to create a global technical standard around cryptographically secured identifiers - a secure, universal, and sovereign form of digital ID. This technology uses peer-to-peer technology to remove the need for intermediaries to own and authenticate ID information.
Notably, NOSTR, a decentralized protocol, has already begun to utilize decentralized IDs, demonstrating the potential of this technology in real-world applications. Via NOSTR, users can be sure that the person or computer publishing to a particular npub knows their nsec (password for your npub), highlighting the secure and decentralized nature of this approach.
With SSI, individuals can decide how their personal data is used, shared, and protected, giving them greater control and agency over their digital lives.
The benefits of SSI are numerous, including:
Enhanced security and protection of personal data. Reduced risk of identity theft and fraud Increased autonomy and agency over one's digital identity. Improved scalability and flexibility in digital identity management
challenges:
Ensuring the security and integrity of decentralized identity systems. Developing standards and protocols for interoperability and compatibility. Addressing concerns around ownership and control of personal data. Balancing individual autonomy with the need for verification and authentication in various contexts.
Overall, self-sovereign identity has the potential to transform the way we think about digital identity and provide individuals with greater control and agency over their personal data. Without people in control of their bitcoin seed words no freedom loving people would be able to exchange their money with others. Yes, keep enjoying using the only free market on the planet BITCOIN. Long live FREEDOM!
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@ 3f770d65:7a745b24
2025-01-19 21:48:49The recent shutdown of TikTok in the United States due to a potential government ban serves as a stark reminder how fragile centralized platforms truly are under the surface. While these platforms offer convenience, a more polished user experience, and connectivity, they are ultimately beholden to governments, corporations, and other authorities. This makes them vulnerable to censorship, regulation, and outright bans. In contrast, Nostr represents a shift in how we approach online communication and content sharing. Built on the principles of decentralization and user choice, Nostr cannot be banned, because it is not a platform—it is a protocol.
PROTOCOLS, NOT PLATFORMS.
At the heart of Nostr's philosophy is user choice, a feature that fundamentally sets it apart from legacy platforms. In centralized systems, the user experience is dictated by a single person or governing entity. If the platform decides to filter, censor, or ban specific users or content, individuals are left with little action to rectify the situation. They must either accept the changes or abandon the platform entirely, often at the cost of losing their social connections, their data, and their identity.
What's happening with TikTok could never happen on Nostr. With Nostr, the dynamics are completely different. Because it is a protocol, not a platform, no single entity controls the ecosystem. Instead, the protocol enables a network of applications and relays that users can freely choose from. If a particular application or relay implements policies that a user disagrees with, such as censorship, filtering, or even government enforced banning, they are not trapped or abandoned. They have the freedom to move to another application or relay with minimal effort.
THIS IS POWERFUL.
Take, for example, the case of a relay that decides to censor specific content. On a legacy platform, this would result in frustration and a loss of access for users. On Nostr, however, users can simply connect to a different relay that does not impose such restrictions. Similarly, if an application introduces features or policies that users dislike, they can migrate to a different application that better suits their preferences, all while retaining their identity and social connections.
The same principles apply to government bans and censorship. A government can ban a specific application or even multiple applications, just as it can block one relay or several relays. China has implemented both tactics, yet Chinese users continue to exist and actively participate on Nostr, demonstrating Nostr's ability to resistant censorship.
How? Simply, it turns into a game of whack-a-mole. When one relay is censored, another quickly takes its place. When one application is banned, another emerges. Users can also bypass these obstacles by running their own relays and applications directly from their homes or personal devices, eliminating reliance on larger entities or organizations and ensuring continuous access.
AGAIN, THIS IS POWERUFL.
Nostr's open and decentralized design makes it resistant to the kinds of government intervention that led to TikTok's outages this weekend and potential future ban in the next 90 days. There is no central server to target, no company to regulate, and no single point of failure. (Insert your CEO jokes here). As long as there are individuals running relays and applications, users continue creating notes and sending zaps.
Platforms like TikTok can be silenced with the stroke of a pen, leaving millions of users disconnected and abandoned. Social communication should not be silenced so incredibly easily. No one should have that much power over social interactions.
Will we on-board a massive wave of TikTokers in the coming hours or days? I don't know.
TikTokers may not be ready for Nostr yet, and honestly, Nostr may not be ready for them either. The ecosystem still lacks the completely polished applications, tools, and services they’re accustomed to. This is where we say "we're still early". They may not be early adopters like the current Nostr user base. Until we bridge that gap, they’ll likely move to the next centralized platform, only to face another government ban or round of censorship in the future. But eventually, there will come a tipping point, a moment when they’ve had enough. When that time comes, I hope we’re prepared. If we’re not, we risk missing a tremendous opportunity to onboard people who genuinely need Nostr’s freedom.
Until then, to all of the Nostr developers out there, keep up the great work and keep building. Your hard work and determination is needed.
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@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5
2025-06-16 14:02:14Marty'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
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.
Real Estate Correction Coming
Real estate expert Leon Wankum shared his perspective on why property prices need to find a new equilibrium by 2026. He pointed to the 18-year property cycle theory, noting we're at the end of the current cycle with a massive imbalance - 34% more sellers than buyers, the highest gap since records began in 2013. Leon explained that sellers still have unrealistic expectations based on 2021-2022 peaks, while buyers face a fundamentally different reality with higher borrowing costs.
"We need a price equilibrium. We need demand and supply prices to match. It's going to take a long time, I think." - Leon Wankum
Leon doesn't expect a catastrophic crash, however. He emphasized that the financial system depends too heavily on real estate as collateral for authorities to allow a complete collapse. With interest rates likely staying above 3% to combat inflation, he sees a healthy correction rather than devastation - a necessary adjustment that creates opportunities for patient buyers who understand the new market dynamics.
Check out the full podcast here for more on Bitcoin treasury strategies, dual collateralization, and corporate BTC adoption
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:
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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda
2025-06-15 20:01:53The newly proposed RESTRICT ACT - is being advertised as a TikTok Ban, but is much broader than that, carries a $1M Fine and up to 20 years in prison️! It is unconstitutional and would create massive legal restrictions on the open source movement and free speech throughout the internet.
The Bill was proposed by: Senator Warner, Senator Thune, Senator Baldwin, Senator Fischer, Senator Manchin, Senator Moran, Senator Bennet, Senator Sullivan, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Collins, Senator Heinrich, and Senator Romney. It has broad support across Senators of both parties.
Corrupt politicians will not protect us. They are part of the problem. We must build, support, and learn how to use censorship resistant tools in order to defend our natural rights.
The RESTRICT Act, introduced by Senators Warner and Thune, aims to block or disrupt transactions and financial holdings involving foreign adversaries that pose risks to national security. Although the primary targets of this legislation are companies like Tik-Tok, the language of the bill could potentially be used to block or disrupt cryptocurrency transactions and, in extreme cases, block Americans’ access to open source tools or protocols like Bitcoin.
The Act creates a redundant regime paralleling OFAC without clear justification, it significantly limits the ability for injured parties to challenge actions raising due process concerns, and unlike OFAC it lacks any carve-out for protected speech. COINCENTER ON THE RESTRICT ACT
If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.
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@ 8671a6e5:f88194d1
2025-06-14 21:39:15## 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/
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-05-20 13:01:09Marty's Bent
via me
Don't sleep on what's happening in Japan right now. We've been covering the country and the fact that they've lost control of their yield curve since late last year. After many years of making it a top priority from a monetary policy perspective, last year the Bank of Japan decided to give up on yield curve control in an attempt to reel inflation. This has sent yields for the 30-year and 40-year Japanese government bonds to levels not seen since the early 2000s in the case of the 30-year and levels never before seen for the 40-year, which was launched in 2007. With a debt to GDP ratio that has surpassed 250% and a population that is aging out with an insufficient amount of births to replace the aging workforce, it's hard to see how Japan can get out of this conundrum without some sort of economic collapse.
This puts the United States in a tough position considering the fact that Japan is one of the largest holders of U.S. Treasury bonds with more than 1,135 sats | $1.20 trillion in exposure. If things get too out of control in Japan and the yield curve continues to drift higher and inflation continues to creep higher Japan can find itself in a situation where it's a forced seller of US Treasuries as they attempt to strengthen the yen. Another aspect to consider is the fact that investors may see the higher yields on Japanese government bonds and decide to purchase them instead of US Treasuries. This is something to keep an eye on in the weeks to come. Particularly if higher rates drive a higher cost of capital, which leads to even more inflation. As producers are forced to increase their prices to ensure that they can manage their debt repayments.
It's never a good sign when the Japanese Prime Minister is coming out to proclaim that his country's financial situation is worse than Greece's, which has been a laughing stock of Europe for the better part of three decades. Japan is a very proud nation, and the fact that its Prime Minister made a statement like this should not be underappreciated.
As we noted last week, the 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds are drifting higher as well. Earlier today, the 30-year bond yield surpassed 5%, which has been a psychological level that many have been pointed to as a critical tipping point. When you take a step back and look around the world it seems pretty clear that bond markets are sending a very strong signal. And that signal is that something is not well in the back end of the financial system.
This is even made clear when you look at the private sector, particularly at consumer debt. In late March, we warned of the growing trend of buy now, pay later schemes drifting down market as major credit card companies released charge-off data which showed charge-off rates reaching levels not seen since the 2008 great financial crisis. At the time, we could only surmise that Klarna was experiencing similar charge-off rates on the bigger-ticket items they financed and started doing deals with companies like DoorDash to finance burrito deliveries in an attempt to move down market to finance smaller ticket items with a higher potential of getting paid back. It seems like that inclination was correct as Klarna released data earlier today showing more losses on their book as consumers find it extremely hard to pay back their debts.
via NewsWire
This news hit the markets on the same day as the average rate of the 30-year mortgage in the United States rose to 7.04%. I'm not sure if you've checked lately, but real estate prices are still relatively elevated outside of a few big cities who expanded supply significantly during the COVID era as people flooded out of blue states towards red states. It's hard to imagine that many people can afford a house based off of sticker price alone, but with a 7% 30-year mortgage rate it's becoming clear that the ability of the Common Man to buy a house is simply becoming impossible.
via Lance Lambert
The mortgage rate data is not the only thing you need to look at to understand that it's becoming impossible for the Common Man of working age to buy a house. New data has recently been released that highlights That the median home buyer in 2007 was born in 1968, and the median home buyer in 2024 was born in 1968. Truly wild when you think of it. As our friend Darth Powell cheekily highlights below, we find ourselves in a situation where boomers are simply trading houses and the younger generations are becoming indentured slaves. Forever destined to rent because of the complete inability to afford to buy a house.
via Darth Powell
via Yahoo Finance
Meanwhile, Bitcoin re-approached all-time highs late this evening and looks primed for another breakout to the upside. This makes sense if you're paying attention. The high-velocity trash economy running on an obscene amount of debt in both the public and private sectors seems to be breaking at the seams. All the alarm bells are signaling that another big print is coming. And if you hope to preserve your purchasing power or, ideally, increase it as the big print approaches, the only thing that makes sense is to funnel your money into the hardest asset in the world, which is Bitcoin.
via Bitbo
Buckle up, freaks. It's gonna be a bumpy ride. Stay humble, Stack Sats.
Trump's Middle East Peace Strategy: Redefining U.S. Foreign Policy
In his recent Middle East tour, President Trump signaled what our guest Dr. Anas Alhajji calls "a major change in US policy." Trump explicitly rejected the nation-building strategies of his predecessors, contrasting the devastation in Afghanistan and Iraq with the prosperity of countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE. This marks a profound shift from both Republican and Democratic foreign policy orthodoxy. As Alhajji noted, Trump's willingness to meet with Syrian President Assad follows a historical pattern where former adversaries eventually become diplomatic partners.
"This is really one of the most important shifts in US foreign policy to say, look, sorry, we destroyed those countries because we tried to rebuild them and it was a big mistake." - Dr. Anas Alhajji
The administration's new approach emphasizes negotiation over intervention. Rather than military solutions, Trump is engaging with groups previously considered off-limits, including the Houthis, Hamas, and Iran. This pragmatic stance prioritizes economic cooperation and regional stability over ideological confrontation. The focus on trade deals and investment rather than regime change represents a fundamental reimagining of America's role in the Middle East.
Check out the full podcast here for more on the Iran nuclear situation, energy market predictions, and why AI development could create power grid challenges. Only on TFTC Studio.
Headlines of the Day
Bitcoin Soars to 100,217 sats | $106.00K While Bonds Lose 40% Since 2020 - via X
US Senate Advances Stablecoin Bill As America Embraces Bitcoin - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Texas House Debates Bill For State-Run Bitcoin Reserve - via X
Take the First Step Off the Exchange
Bitkey is an easy, secure way to move your Bitcoin into self-custody. With simple setup and built-in recovery, it’s the perfect starting point for getting your coins off centralized platforms and into cold storage—no complexity, no middlemen.
Take control. Start with Bitkey.
Use the promo code “TFTC20” during checkout for 20% off
Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 158,469 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.
Final thought...
Don't let the noise consume you. Focus on making your life 1% better every day.
Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/
Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-05-20 02:00:54Marty's Bent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Sj1sG05VQ
Here's a great presentation from our good friend nostr:nprofile1qyx8wumn8ghj7cnjvghxjmcpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqqyz2hj3zg2g3pqwxuhg69zgjhke4pcmjmmdpnndnefqndgqjt8exwj6ee8v7 , President of The Nakamoto Institute titled Hodl for Good. He gave it earlier this year at the BitBlockBoom Conference, and I think it's something everyone reading this should take 25 minutes to watch. Especially if you find yourself wondering whether or not it's a good idea to spend bitcoin at any given point in time. Michael gives an incredible Austrian Economics 101 lesson on the importance of lowering one's time preference and fully understanding the importance of hodling bitcoin. For the uninitiated, it may seem that the hodl meme is nothing more than a call to hoard bitcoins in hopes of getting rich eventually. However, as Michael points out, there's layers to the hodl meme and the good that hodling can bring individuals and the economy overall.
The first thing one needs to do to better understand the hodl meme is to completely flip the framing that is typically thrust on bitcoiners who encourage others to hodl. Instead of ceding that hodling is a greedy or selfish action, remind people that hodling, or better known as saving, is the foundation of capital formation, from which all productive and efficient economic activity stems. Number go up technology is great and it really matters. It matters because it enables anybody leveraging that technology to accumulate capital that can then be allocated toward productive endeavors that bring value to the individual who creates them and the individual who buys them.
When one internalizes this, it enables them to turn to personal praxis and focus on minimizing present consumption while thinking of ways to maximize long-term value creation. Live below your means, stack sats, and use the time that you're buying to think about things that you want in the future. By lowering your time preference and saving in a harder money you will have the luxury of demanding higher quality goods in the future. Another way of saying this is that you will be able to reshape production by voting with your sats. Initially when you hold them off the market by saving them - signaling that the market doesn't have goods worthy of your sats - and ultimately by redeploying them into the market when you find higher quality goods that meet the standards desire.
The first part of this equation is extremely important because it sends a signal to producers that they need to increase the quality of their work. As more and more individuals decide to use bitcoin as their savings technology, the signal gets stronger. And over many cycles we should begin to see low quality cheap goods exit the market in favor of higher quality goods that provide more value and lasts longer and, therefore, make it easier for an individual to depart with their hard-earned and hard-saved sats. This is only but one aspect that Michael tries to imbue throughout his presentation.
The other is the ability to buy yourself leisure time when you lower your time preference and save more than you spend. When your savings hit a critical tipping point that gives you the luxury to sit back and experience true leisure, which Michael explains is not idleness, but the contemplative space to study, create art, refine taste, and to find what "better goods" actually are. Those who can experience true leisure while reaping the benefits of saving in a hard asset that is increasing in purchasing power significantly over the long term are those who build truly great things. Things that outlast those who build them. Great art, great monuments, great institutions were all built by men who were afforded the time to experience leisure. Partly because they were leveraging hard money as their savings and the place they stored the profits reaped from their entrepreneurial endeavors.
If you squint and look into the future a couple of decades, it isn't hard to see a reality like this manifesting. As more people begin to save in Bitcoin, the forces of supply and demand will continue to come into play. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin, there are around 8 billion people on this planet, and as more of those 8 billion individuals decide that bitcoin is the best savings vehicle, the price of bitcoin will rise.
When the price of bitcoin rises, it makes all other goods cheaper in bitcoin terms and, again, expands the entrepreneurial opportunity. The best part about this feedback loop is that even non-holders of bitcoin benefit through higher real wages and faster tech diffusion. The individuals and business owners who decide to hodl bitcoin will bring these benefits to the world whether you decide to use bitcoin or not.
This is why it is virtuous to hodl bitcoin. The potential for good things to manifest throughout the world increase when more individuals decide to hodl bitcoin. And as Michael very eloquently points out, this does not mean that people will not spend their bitcoin. It simply means that they have standards for the things that they will spend their bitcoin on. And those standards are higher than most who are fully engrossed in the high velocity trash economy have today.
In my opinion, one of those higher causes worthy of a sats donation is nostr:nprofile1qyfhwumn8ghj7enjv4jhyetvv9uju7re0gq3uamnwvaz7tmfdemxjmrvv9nk2tt0w468v6tvd3skwefwvdhk6qpqwzc9lz2f40azl98shkjewx3pywg5e5alwqxg09ew2mdyeey0c2rqcfecft . Consider donating so they can preserve and disseminate vital information about bitcoin and its foundations.
The Shell Game: How Health Narratives May Distract from Vaccine Risks
In our recent podcast, Dr. Jack Kruse presented a concerning theory about public health messaging. He argues that figures like Casey and Callie Means are promoting food and exercise narratives as a deliberate distraction from urgent vaccine issues. While no one disputes healthy eating matters, Dr. Kruse insists that focusing on "Froot Loops and Red Dye" diverts attention from what he sees as immediate dangers of mRNA vaccines, particularly for children.
"It's gonna take you 50 years to die from processed food. But the messenger jab can drop you like Damar Hamlin." - Dr Jack Kruse
Dr. Kruse emphasized that approximately 25,000 children per month are still receiving COVID vaccines despite concerns, with 3 million doses administered since Trump's election. This "shell game," as he describes it, allows vaccines to remain on childhood schedules while public attention fixates on less immediate health threats. As host, I believe this pattern deserves our heightened scrutiny given the potential stakes for our children's wellbeing.
Check out the full podcast here for more on Big Pharma's alleged bioweapons program, the "Time Bank Account" concept, and how Bitcoin principles apply to health sovereignty.
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Final thought...
I've been walking from my house around Town Lake in Austin in the mornings and taking calls on the walk. Big fan of a walking call.
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@ dd664d5e:5633d319
2025-06-14 07:21:07The 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.
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@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5
2025-06-16 13:02:04Marty's Bent
Sorry for the lack of writing over the last week. As many of you may already know, I was in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Bitcoin 2025 conference. It was my first time in Las Vegas. I had successfully avoided Sin City for the first 34 years of my life. But when duty calls, you have to make some personal concessions.
Despite what many say about this particular conference and the spectacle that it has become, I will say that having attended every single one of Bitcoin Magazine's conferences since 2019, I thoroughly enjoy these events, even if I don't agree with all the content. Being able to congregate with others in the industry who have been working extremely hard to push Bitcoin forward, all of whom I view as kindred spirits who have also dedicated their lives to making the world a better place. There's nothing better than getting together, seeing each other in person, shaking hands, giving hugs, catching up and reflecting on how much things have changed over the years while also focusing on the opportunities that lie ahead.
I think out of all the Bitcoin magazine conferences I've been to, this was certainly my favorite. If only because it has become abundantly clear that Bitcoin is here to stay. Many powerful, influential, and competent people have identified Bitcoin as an asset and monetary network that will play a large part in human society moving forward. And more importantly, Bitcoin is proving to work far better than anybody not paying attention expected. While at the same time, the fiat system is in woeful disrepair at the same time.
As a matter of reflection and surfacing signal for you freaks, here are the presentations and things that happened that I think were the most impactful.
Miles Suter's Block Presentation
This presentation was awesome for many reasons, one of which being that we often forget just how dedicated Block, as an organization with many companies - including Cash App, Square, the open source organization known as Spiral and more recently, BitKey and Proto - has been to bitcoin over the last eight years. They've worked methodically to make Bitcoin a first-class citizen in their business operations and slowly but surely have built an incredibly integrated experience across their brands. The two big announcements from Block during the conference were the enablement of Bitcoin payments in Square point-of-sale systems and the amount of revenue they're making on their Lightning node, c=, from routing payments.
Right now, the Bitcoin payments and point of sale systems is in beta with many merchants testing it out for the next six months, but it will be available for all 4 million square merchants in 2026. This is something that many bitcoiners have been waiting for for many years now, and it is incredible to see that they finally brought it across the line. Merchants will have the ability to accept bitcoin payments and either convert every payment into fiat automatically, convert a portion of the bitcoin payment into fiat to keep the rest in sats, or simply keep all of the bitcoin they receive via payments in sats. This is an incredible addition to what Square has already built, which is the ability of their merchants to sweep a portion of their revenues into bitcoin if they desire. Square is focused on building a vertically integrated suite of bitcoin products for merchants that includes the ability to buy bitcoin, receive bitcoin, and eventually leverage financial services using bitcoin as collateral so that they can reinvest in and expand their businesses.
via Ryan Gentry
What went a bit underappreciated in the crowd was the routing node revenue that c= is producing, ~9.7% annualized. This is a massive validation of something that many bitcoiners have been talking about for quite some time, which is the ability to produce "yield" on bitcoin in a way that reduces risk significantly. Locking up bitcoin in a 2-of-2 multisig within Lightning channels and operating a Lightning routing node has been long talked about as one of the ways to produce more bitcoin with your bitcoin in a way that minimizes the threat of loss.
It seems that c= has found a way to do this at scale and is doing it successfully. 10% yield on bitcoin locked in Lightning channels is nothing to joke about. And as you can see from the chart above in the grainy picture taken by Ryan Gentry of Lightning Labs, this routing node "yield" is producing more return on capital than many of the most popular staking and DeFi protocols.
This is a strong signal to the rest of the market that this can be done. It may take economies of scale and a high degree of technical competency today. But this is incredibly promising for the future of earning bitcoin by providing valuable goods and services to the market of Bitcoiners. In this case, facilitating relatively cheap and instantly settled payments over the Lightning Network.
Saifedean Ammous' Bitcoin and Tether Presentation
This was one of the best presentations at the conference. Saifedean Ammous is a friend, he has been an incredible influence on my personal bitcoin journey, and I feel comfortable in saying he's been a strong influence on the journey of hundreds of thousands, at least, if not millions of people as they've attempted to understand bitcoin.
This presentation is a bit spicy because it puts a pin in the balloon of hopium that stablecoins like Tether are mechanisms that could bail out the market for US Treasuries in the medium to long-term if they take enough market share. As one always should do, Saif ran the numbers and clearly illustrates that even in the most optimistic case, Tether's impact on the market for treasuries, their interest rates, and curbing the growth of the debt held by the US federal government will be minimal at best.
One of the most interesting things that Saif points out that I'm a bit embarrassed I didn't recognize before is that much of the demand for Tether that we're seeing these days is replacement demand for treasuries. Meaning that many people who are turning to Tether, particularly in countries that have experienced hyperinflationary events, are using Tether as a substitute for their currencies, which are operated by central banks likely buying U.S. treasuries to support their monetary systems. The net effect of Tether buying those treasuries is zero for this particular user archetype.
Saif goes on to explain that if anything, Tether is a weapon against the US Treasury system when you consider that they're storing a large portion of the stablecoin backing in Treasuries and then using the yields produced by those Treasuries to buy bitcoin. Slowly but surely over time bitcoin as a percentage of their overall backing of Tether has grown quite significantly starting at 0% and approaching 10% today. It isn't hard to imagine that at some point within the next decade, Bitcoin could be the dominant reserve asset backing tethers and, as a result, Tether could be pegged to bitcoin eventually.
It's a fascinating take on Tether that I've never heard before.
Nothing Stops this Train from Lyn Alden
Lyn's been saying it loudly for quite some time now; "Nothing stops this train." She's even been on our podcast to explain why she believes this many times over the last five years. However, I don't think there is one piece of content out there that consolidates her thesis of why nothing stops the train of fiscal irresponsibility and unfettered debt expansion and why that's good for bitcoin than the presentation she gave at the conference. Definitely give this one a watch when you get a chance if you haven't already.
Overall, it was a great week in Vegas and I think it's safe to say that bitcoin has gone mainstream. Whether or not people who have been in the bitcoin industry and community for a while are okay with does not really matter. It's happening and all we can do is ride the wave as more and more people come to recognize the value prop of bitcoin and the social clout they can gain from supporting it. Our job here at TFTC is to help you discern the signal from the noise, continue to champion the self-sovereign usage of bitcoin and keep you abreast of developments in the space as they manifest.
Buckle up. Things are only going to get weirder from here on out.
Bitcoin's Mathematical Destiny
Sean Bill and Adam Back make a compelling case for Bitcoin's inevitable march toward $1 million. Sean points out that Bitcoin represents just a tiny fraction—2 trillion out of 900 trillion—of total financial assets, calling it a "tiny orange dot" on their presentation to Texas pensions. He emphasizes that reaching parity with gold alone would deliver a 10x return from current levels. Adam highlights the mathematical impossibility of current prices, noting that ETF buyers are absorbing 500,000 BTC annually while only 165,000 new coins are mined.
"Who's selling at these prices? It doesn't quite add up to me." - Adam Back
The institutional wave is just beginning. Sean revealed that while 50% of hedge fund managers personally own Bitcoin, only 3% have allocated institutional funds. Combined with emerging demand from nation states and corporate treasuries meeting Bitcoin's fixed supply, the price trajectory seems clear. Both guests stressed the importance of staying invested—missing just the 12 best performing days each year would turn Bitcoin into a losing investment.
Check out the full podcast here for more on pensions allocating to Bitcoin, cypherpunk banking, and commodity trading insight
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@ 6389be64:ef439d32
2025-01-14 01:31:12Bitcoin is more than money, more than an asset, and more than a store of value. Bitcoin is a Prime Mover, an enabler and it ignites imaginations. It certainly fueled an idea in my mind. The idea integrates sensors, computational prowess, actuated machinery, power conversion, and electronic communications to form an autonomous, machined creature roaming forests and harvesting the most widespread and least energy-dense fuel source available. I call it the Forest Walker and it eats wood, and mines Bitcoin.
I know what you're thinking. Why not just put Bitcoin mining rigs where they belong: in a hosted facility sporting electricity from energy-dense fuels like natural gas, climate-controlled with excellent data piping in and out? Why go to all the trouble building a robot that digests wood creating flammable gasses fueling an engine to run a generator powering Bitcoin miners? It's all about synergy.
Bitcoin mining enables the realization of multiple, seemingly unrelated, yet useful activities. Activities considered un-profitable if not for Bitcoin as the Prime Mover. This is much more than simply mining the greatest asset ever conceived by humankind. It’s about the power of synergy, which Bitcoin plays only one of many roles. The synergy created by this system can stabilize forests' fire ecology while generating multiple income streams. That’s the realistic goal here and requires a brief history of American Forest management before continuing.
Smokey The Bear
In 1944, the Smokey Bear Wildfire Prevention Campaign began in the United States. “Only YOU can prevent forest fires” remains the refrain of the Ad Council’s longest running campaign. The Ad Council is a U.S. non-profit set up by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers in 1942. It would seem that the U.S. Department of the Interior was concerned about pesky forest fires and wanted them to stop. So, alongside a national policy of extreme fire suppression they enlisted the entire U.S. population to get onboard via the Ad Council and it worked. Forest fires were almost obliterated and everyone was happy, right? Wrong.
Smokey is a fantastically successful bear so forest fires became so few for so long that the fuel load - dead wood - in forests has become very heavy. So heavy that when a fire happens (and they always happen) it destroys everything in its path because the more fuel there is the hotter that fire becomes. Trees, bushes, shrubs, and all other plant life cannot escape destruction (not to mention homes and businesses). The soil microbiology doesn’t escape either as it is burned away even in deeper soils. To add insult to injury, hydrophobic waxy residues condense on the soil surface, forcing water to travel over the ground rather than through it eroding forest soils. Good job, Smokey. Well done, Sir!
Most terrestrial ecologies are “fire ecologies”. Fire is a part of these systems’ fuel load and pest management. Before we pretended to “manage” millions of acres of forest, fires raged over the world, rarely damaging forests. The fuel load was always too light to generate fires hot enough to moonscape mountainsides. Fires simply burned off the minor amounts of fuel accumulated since the fire before. The lighter heat, smoke, and other combustion gasses suppressed pests, keeping them in check and the smoke condensed into a plant growth accelerant called wood vinegar, not a waxy cap on the soil. These fires also cleared out weak undergrowth, cycled minerals, and thinned the forest canopy, allowing sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor. Without a fire’s heat, many pine tree species can’t sow their seed. The heat is required to open the cones (the seed bearing structure) of Spruce, Cypress, Sequoia, Jack Pine, Lodgepole Pine and many more. Without fire forests can’t have babies. The idea was to protect the forests, and it isn't working.
So, in a world of fire, what does an ally look like and what does it do?
Meet The Forest Walker
For the Forest Walker to work as a mobile, autonomous unit, a solid platform that can carry several hundred pounds is required. It so happens this chassis already exists but shelved.
Introducing the Legged Squad Support System (LS3). A joint project between Boston Dynamics, DARPA, and the United States Marine Corps, the quadrupedal robot is the size of a cow, can carry 400 pounds (180 kg) of equipment, negotiate challenging terrain, and operate for 24 hours before needing to refuel. Yes, it had an engine. Abandoned in 2015, the thing was too noisy for military deployment and maintenance "under fire" is never a high-quality idea. However, we can rebuild it to act as a platform for the Forest Walker; albeit with serious alterations. It would need to be bigger, probably. Carry more weight? Definitely. Maybe replace structural metal with carbon fiber and redesign much as 3D printable parts for more effective maintenance.
The original system has a top operational speed of 8 miles per hour. For our purposes, it only needs to move about as fast as a grazing ruminant. Without the hammering vibrations of galloping into battle, shocks of exploding mortars, and drunken soldiers playing "Wrangler of Steel Machines", time between failures should be much longer and the overall energy consumption much lower. The LS3 is a solid platform to build upon. Now it just needs to be pulled out of the mothballs, and completely refitted with outboard equipment.
The Small Branch Chipper
When I say “Forest fuel load” I mean the dead, carbon containing litter on the forest floor. Duff (leaves), fine-woody debris (small branches), and coarse woody debris (logs) are the fuel that feeds forest fires. Walk through any forest in the United States today and you will see quite a lot of these materials. Too much, as I have described. Some of these fuel loads can be 8 tons per acre in pine and hardwood forests and up to 16 tons per acre at active logging sites. That’s some big wood and the more that collects, the more combustible danger to the forest it represents. It also provides a technically unlimited fuel supply for the Forest Walker system.
The problem is that this detritus has to be chewed into pieces that are easily ingestible by the system for the gasification process (we’ll get to that step in a minute). What we need is a wood chipper attached to the chassis (the LS3); its “mouth”.
A small wood chipper handling material up to 2.5 - 3.0 inches (6.3 - 7.6 cm) in diameter would eliminate a substantial amount of fuel. There is no reason for Forest Walker to remove fallen trees. It wouldn’t have to in order to make a real difference. It need only identify appropriately sized branches and grab them. Once loaded into the chipper’s intake hopper for further processing, the beast can immediately look for more “food”. This is essentially kindling that would help ignite larger logs. If it’s all consumed by Forest Walker, then it’s not present to promote an aggravated conflagration.
I have glossed over an obvious question: How does Forest Walker see and identify branches and such? LiDaR (Light Detection and Ranging) attached to Forest Walker images the local area and feed those data to onboard computers for processing. Maybe AI plays a role. Maybe simple machine learning can do the trick. One thing is for certain: being able to identify a stick and cause robotic appendages to pick it up is not impossible.
Great! We now have a quadrupedal robot autonomously identifying and “eating” dead branches and other light, combustible materials. Whilst strolling through the forest, depleting future fires of combustibles, Forest Walker has already performed a major function of this system: making the forest safer. It's time to convert this low-density fuel into a high-density fuel Forest Walker can leverage. Enter the gasification process.
The Gassifier
The gasifier is the heart of the entire system; it’s where low-density fuel becomes the high-density fuel that powers the entire system. Biochar and wood vinegar are process wastes and I’ll discuss why both are powerful soil amendments in a moment, but first, what’s gasification?
Reacting shredded carbonaceous material at high temperatures in a low or no oxygen environment converts the biomass into biochar, wood vinegar, heat, and Synthesis Gas (Syngas). Syngas consists primarily of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane. All of which are extremely useful fuels in a gaseous state. Part of this gas is used to heat the input biomass and keep the reaction temperature constant while the internal combustion engine that drives the generator to produce electrical power consumes the rest.
Critically, this gasification process is “continuous feed”. Forest Walker must intake biomass from the chipper, process it to fuel, and dump the waste (CO2, heat, biochar, and wood vinegar) continuously. It cannot stop. Everything about this system depends upon this continual grazing, digestion, and excretion of wastes just as a ruminal does. And, like a ruminant, all waste products enhance the local environment.
When I first heard of gasification, I didn’t believe that it was real. Running an electric generator from burning wood seemed more akin to “conspiracy fantasy” than science. Not only is gasification real, it’s ancient technology. A man named Dean Clayton first started experiments on gasification in 1699 and in 1901 gasification was used to power a vehicle. By the end of World War II, there were 500,000 Syngas powered vehicles in Germany alone because of fossil fuel rationing during the war. The global gasification market was $480 billion in 2022 and projected to be as much as $700 billion by 2030 (Vantage Market Research). Gasification technology is the best choice to power the Forest Walker because it’s self-contained and we want its waste products.
Biochar: The Waste
Biochar (AKA agricultural charcoal) is fairly simple: it’s almost pure, solid carbon that resembles charcoal. Its porous nature packs large surface areas into small, 3 dimensional nuggets. Devoid of most other chemistry, like hydrocarbons (methane) and ash (minerals), biochar is extremely lightweight. Do not confuse it with the charcoal you buy for your grill. Biochar doesn’t make good grilling charcoal because it would burn too rapidly as it does not contain the multitude of flammable components that charcoal does. Biochar has several other good use cases. Water filtration, water retention, nutrient retention, providing habitat for microscopic soil organisms, and carbon sequestration are the main ones that we are concerned with here.
Carbon has an amazing ability to adsorb (substances stick to and accumulate on the surface of an object) manifold chemistries. Water, nutrients, and pollutants tightly bind to carbon in this format. So, biochar makes a respectable filter and acts as a “battery” of water and nutrients in soils. Biochar adsorbs and holds on to seven times its weight in water. Soil containing biochar is more drought resilient than soil without it. Adsorbed nutrients, tightly sequestered alongside water, get released only as plants need them. Plants must excrete protons (H+) from their roots to disgorge water or positively charged nutrients from the biochar's surface; it's an active process.
Biochar’s surface area (where adsorption happens) can be 500 square meters per gram or more. That is 10% larger than an official NBA basketball court for every gram of biochar. Biochar’s abundant surface area builds protective habitats for soil microbes like fungi and bacteria and many are critical for the health and productivity of the soil itself.
The “carbon sequestration” component of biochar comes into play where “carbon credits” are concerned. There is a financial market for carbon. Not leveraging that market for revenue is foolish. I am climate agnostic. All I care about is that once solid carbon is inside the soil, it will stay there for thousands of years, imparting drought resiliency, fertility collection, nutrient buffering, and release for that time span. I simply want as much solid carbon in the soil because of the undeniably positive effects it has, regardless of any climactic considerations.
Wood Vinegar: More Waste
Another by-product of the gasification process is wood vinegar (Pyroligneous acid). If you have ever seen Liquid Smoke in the grocery store, then you have seen wood vinegar. Principally composed of acetic acid, acetone, and methanol wood vinegar also contains ~200 other organic compounds. It would seem intuitive that condensed, liquefied wood smoke would at least be bad for the health of all living things if not downright carcinogenic. The counter intuition wins the day, however. Wood vinegar has been used by humans for a very long time to promote digestion, bowel, and liver health; combat diarrhea and vomiting; calm peptic ulcers and regulate cholesterol levels; and a host of other benefits.
For centuries humans have annually burned off hundreds of thousands of square miles of pasture, grassland, forest, and every other conceivable terrestrial ecosystem. Why is this done? After every burn, one thing becomes obvious: the almost supernatural growth these ecosystems exhibit after the burn. How? Wood vinegar is a component of this growth. Even in open burns, smoke condenses and infiltrates the soil. That is when wood vinegar shows its quality.
This stuff beefs up not only general plant growth but seed germination as well and possesses many other qualities that are beneficial to plants. It’s a pesticide, fungicide, promotes beneficial soil microorganisms, enhances nutrient uptake, and imparts disease resistance. I am barely touching a long list of attributes here, but you want wood vinegar in your soil (alongside biochar because it adsorbs wood vinegar as well).
The Internal Combustion Engine
Conversion of grazed forage to chemical, then mechanical, and then electrical energy completes the cycle. The ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) converts the gaseous fuel output from the gasifier to mechanical energy, heat, water vapor, and CO2. It’s the mechanical energy of a rotating drive shaft that we want. That rotation drives the electric generator, which is the heartbeat we need to bring this monster to life. Luckily for us, combined internal combustion engine and generator packages are ubiquitous, delivering a defined energy output given a constant fuel input. It’s the simplest part of the system.
The obvious question here is whether the amount of syngas provided by the gasification process will provide enough energy to generate enough electrons to run the entire system or not. While I have no doubt the energy produced will run Forest Walker's main systems the question is really about the electrons left over. Will it be enough to run the Bitcoin mining aspect of the system? Everything is a budget.
CO2 Production For Growth
Plants are lollipops. No matter if it’s a tree or a bush or a shrubbery, the entire thing is mostly sugar in various formats but mostly long chain carbohydrates like lignin and cellulose. Plants need three things to make sugar: CO2, H2O and light. In a forest, where tree densities can be quite high, CO2 availability becomes a limiting growth factor. It’d be in the forest interests to have more available CO2 providing for various sugar formation providing the organism with food and structure.
An odd thing about tree leaves, the openings that allow gasses like the ever searched for CO2 are on the bottom of the leaf (these are called stomata). Not many stomata are topside. This suggests that trees and bushes have evolved to find gasses like CO2 from below, not above and this further suggests CO2 might be in higher concentrations nearer the soil.
The soil life (bacterial, fungi etc.) is constantly producing enormous amounts of CO2 and it would stay in the soil forever (eventually killing the very soil life that produces it) if not for tidal forces. Water is everywhere and whether in pools, lakes, oceans or distributed in “moist” soils water moves towards to the moon. The water in the soil and also in the water tables below the soil rise toward the surface every day. When the water rises, it expels the accumulated gasses in the soil into the atmosphere and it’s mostly CO2. It’s a good bet on how leaves developed high populations of stomata on the underside of leaves. As the water relaxes (the tide goes out) it sucks oxygenated air back into the soil to continue the functions of soil life respiration. The soil “breathes” albeit slowly.
The gasses produced by the Forest Walker’s internal combustion engine consist primarily of CO2 and H2O. Combusting sugars produce the same gasses that are needed to construct the sugars because the universe is funny like that. The Forest Walker is constantly laying down these critical construction elements right where the trees need them: close to the ground to be gobbled up by the trees.
The Branch Drones
During the last ice age, giant mammals populated North America - forests and otherwise. Mastodons, woolly mammoths, rhinos, short-faced bears, steppe bison, caribou, musk ox, giant beavers, camels, gigantic ground-dwelling sloths, glyptodons, and dire wolves were everywhere. Many were ten to fifteen feet tall. As they crashed through forests, they would effectively cleave off dead side-branches of trees, halting the spread of a ground-based fire migrating into the tree crown ("laddering") which is a death knell for a forest.
These animals are all extinct now and forests no longer have any manner of pruning services. But, if we build drones fitted with cutting implements like saws and loppers, optical cameras and AI trained to discern dead branches from living ones, these drones could effectively take over pruning services by identifying, cutting, and dropping to the forest floor, dead branches. The dropped branches simply get collected by the Forest Walker as part of its continual mission.
The drones dock on the back of the Forest Walker to recharge their batteries when low. The whole scene would look like a grazing cow with some flies bothering it. This activity breaks the link between a relatively cool ground based fire and the tree crowns and is a vital element in forest fire control.
The Bitcoin Miner
Mining is one of four monetary incentive models, making this system a possibility for development. The other three are US Dept. of the Interior, township, county, and electrical utility company easement contracts for fuel load management, global carbon credits trading, and data set sales. All the above depends on obvious questions getting answered. I will list some obvious ones, but this is not an engineering document and is not the place for spreadsheets. How much Bitcoin one Forest Walker can mine depends on everything else. What amount of biomass can we process? Will that biomass flow enough Syngas to keep the lights on? Can the chassis support enough mining ASICs and supporting infrastructure? What does that weigh and will it affect field performance? How much power can the AC generator produce?
Other questions that are more philosophical persist. Even if a single Forest Walker can only mine scant amounts of BTC per day, that pales to how much fuel material it can process into biochar. We are talking about millions upon millions of forested acres in need of fuel load management. What can a single Forest Walker do? I am not thinking in singular terms. The Forest Walker must operate as a fleet. What could 50 do? 500?
What is it worth providing a service to the world by managing forest fuel loads? Providing proof of work to the global monetary system? Seeding soil with drought and nutrient resilience by the excretion, over time, of carbon by the ton? What did the last forest fire cost?
The Mesh Network
What could be better than one bitcoin mining, carbon sequestering, forest fire squelching, soil amending behemoth? Thousands of them, but then they would need to be able to talk to each other to coordinate position, data handling, etc. Fitted with a mesh networking device, like goTenna or Meshtastic LoRa equipment enables each Forest Walker to communicate with each other.
Now we have an interconnected fleet of Forest Walkers relaying data to each other and more importantly, aggregating all of that to the last link in the chain for uplink. Well, at least Bitcoin mining data. Since block data is lightweight, transmission of these data via mesh networking in fairly close quartered environs is more than doable. So, how does data transmit to the Bitcoin Network? How do the Forest Walkers get the previous block data necessary to execute on mining?
Back To The Chain
Getting Bitcoin block data to and from the network is the last puzzle piece. The standing presumption here is that wherever a Forest Walker fleet is operating, it is NOT within cell tower range. We further presume that the nearest Walmart Wi-Fi is hours away. Enter the Blockstream Satellite or something like it.
A separate, ground-based drone will have two jobs: To stay as close to the nearest Forest Walker as it can and to provide an antennae for either terrestrial or orbital data uplink. Bitcoin-centric data is transmitted to the "uplink drone" via the mesh networked transmitters and then sent on to the uplink and the whole flow goes in the opposite direction as well; many to one and one to many.
We cannot transmit data to the Blockstream satellite, and it will be up to Blockstream and companies like it to provide uplink capabilities in the future and I don't doubt they will. Starlink you say? What’s stopping that company from filtering out block data? Nothing because it’s Starlink’s system and they could decide to censor these data. It seems we may have a problem sending and receiving Bitcoin data in back country environs.
But, then again, the utility of this system in staunching the fuel load that creates forest fires is extremely useful around forested communities and many have fiber, Wi-Fi and cell towers. These communities could be a welcoming ground zero for first deployments of the Forest Walker system by the home and business owners seeking fire repression. In the best way, Bitcoin subsidizes the safety of the communities.
Sensor Packages
LiDaR
The benefit of having a Forest Walker fleet strolling through the forest is the never ending opportunity for data gathering. A plethora of deployable sensors gathering hyper-accurate data on everything from temperature to topography is yet another revenue generator. Data is valuable and the Forest Walker could generate data sales to various government entities and private concerns.
LiDaR (Light Detection and Ranging) can map topography, perform biomass assessment, comparative soil erosion analysis, etc. It so happens that the Forest Walker’s ability to “see,” to navigate about its surroundings, is LiDaR driven and since it’s already being used, we can get double duty by harvesting that data for later use. By using a laser to send out light pulses and measuring the time it takes for the reflection of those pulses to return, very detailed data sets incrementally build up. Eventually, as enough data about a certain area becomes available, the data becomes useful and valuable.
Forestry concerns, both private and public, often use LiDaR to build 3D models of tree stands to assess the amount of harvest-able lumber in entire sections of forest. Consulting companies offering these services charge anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars per square kilometer for such services. A Forest Walker generating such assessments on the fly while performing its other functions is a multi-disciplinary approach to revenue generation.
pH, Soil Moisture, and Cation Exchange Sensing
The Forest Walker is quadrupedal, so there are four contact points to the soil. Why not get a pH data point for every step it takes? We can also gather soil moisture data and cation exchange capacities at unheard of densities because of sampling occurring on the fly during commission of the system’s other duties. No one is going to build a machine to do pH testing of vast tracts of forest soils, but that doesn’t make the data collected from such an endeavor valueless. Since the Forest Walker serves many functions at once, a multitude of data products can add to the return on investment component.
Weather Data
Temperature, humidity, pressure, and even data like evapotranspiration gathered at high densities on broad acre scales have untold value and because the sensors are lightweight and don’t require large power budgets, they come along for the ride at little cost. But, just like the old mantra, “gas, grass, or ass, nobody rides for free”, these sensors provide potential revenue benefits just by them being present.
I’ve touched on just a few data genres here. In fact, the question for universities, governmental bodies, and other institutions becomes, “How much will you pay us to attach your sensor payload to the Forest Walker?”
Noise Suppression
Only you can prevent Metallica filling the surrounds with 120 dB of sound. Easy enough, just turn the car stereo off. But what of a fleet of 50 Forest Walkers operating in the backcountry or near a township? 500? 5000? Each one has a wood chipper, an internal combustion engine, hydraulic pumps, actuators, and more cooling fans than you can shake a stick at. It’s a walking, screaming fire-breathing dragon operating continuously, day and night, twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year. The sound will negatively affect all living things and that impacts behaviors. Serious engineering consideration and prowess must deliver a silencing blow to the major issue of noise.
It would be foolish to think that a fleet of Forest Walkers could be silent, but if not a major design consideration, then the entire idea is dead on arrival. Townships would not allow them to operate even if they solved the problem of widespread fuel load and neither would governmental entities, and rightly so. Nothing, not man nor beast, would want to be subjected to an eternal, infernal scream even if it were to end within days as the fleet moved further away after consuming what it could. Noise and heat are the only real pollutants of this system; taking noise seriously from the beginning is paramount.
Fire Safety
A “fire-breathing dragon” is not the worst description of the Forest Walker. It eats wood, combusts it at very high temperatures and excretes carbon; and it does so in an extremely flammable environment. Bad mix for one Forest Walker, worse for many. One must take extreme pains to ensure that during normal operation, a Forest Walker could fall over, walk through tinder dry brush, or get pounded into the ground by a meteorite from Krypton and it wouldn’t destroy epic swaths of trees and baby deer. I envision an ultimate test of a prototype to include dowsing it in grain alcohol while it’s wrapped up in toilet paper like a pledge at a fraternity party. If it runs for 72 hours and doesn’t set everything on fire, then maybe outside entities won’t be fearful of something that walks around forests with a constant fire in its belly.
The Wrap
How we think about what can be done with and adjacent to Bitcoin is at least as important as Bitcoin’s economic standing itself. For those who will tell me that this entire idea is without merit, I say, “OK, fine. You can come up with something, too.” What can we plug Bitcoin into that, like a battery, makes something that does not work, work? That’s the lesson I get from this entire exercise. No one was ever going to hire teams of humans to go out and "clean the forest". There's no money in that. The data collection and sales from such an endeavor might provide revenues over the break-even point but investment demands Alpha in this day and age. But, plug Bitcoin into an almost viable system and, voilà! We tip the scales to achieve lift-off.
Let’s face it, we haven’t scratched the surface of Bitcoin’s forcing function on our minds. Not because it’s Bitcoin, but because of what that invention means. The question that pushes me to approach things this way is, “what can we create that one system’s waste is another system’s feedstock?” The Forest Walker system’s only real waste is the conversion of low entropy energy (wood and syngas) into high entropy energy (heat and noise). All other output is beneficial to humanity.
Bitcoin, I believe, is the first product of a new mode of human imagination. An imagination newly forged over the past few millennia of being lied to, stolen from, distracted and otherwise mis-allocated to a black hole of the nonsensical. We are waking up.
What I have presented is not science fiction. Everything I have described here is well within the realm of possibility. The question is one of viability, at least in terms of the detritus of the old world we find ourselves departing from. This system would take a non-trivial amount of time and resources to develop. I think the system would garner extensive long-term contracts from those who have the most to lose from wildfires, the most to gain from hyperaccurate data sets, and, of course, securing the most precious asset in the world. Many may not see it that way, for they seek Alpha and are therefore blind to other possibilities. Others will see only the possibilities; of thinking in a new way, of looking at things differently, and dreaming of what comes next.
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@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5
2025-06-16 14:02:13The real estate market is showing cracks while Bitcoin continues its march toward becoming the global monetary standard. This week's conversation with Leon Wankum reveals how traditional assets are losing ground to the hardest money on earth. This was a high signal rip that deserves all the spotlight in today's newsletter.
Real Estate Prices Will Fall Through 2026 Before Finding New Equilibrium
Leon predicts we're entering a corrective phase in the 18-year property cycle that will see real estate prices decline until 2026. He bases this on the current mismatch between sellers who still expect peak 2021-2022 prices and buyers facing higher interest rates. "We need a price equilibrium. We need demand and supply prices to match. It's going to take a long time," Leon explained. He doesn't expect the Fed to lower rates significantly, keeping them above 3% for the foreseeable future, which will continue putting downward pressure on property values.
The key insight is that we're at year 15 of the typical 18-year property cycle, where prices naturally correct before finding a new floor. Leon suggests that by 2026, if interest rates are lowered, prices will stabilize at levels higher than the cycle's starting point but lower than current peaks. For those looking to buy, patience through this correction period could pay off.
Bitcoin Will Experience a 60% Drawdown This Cycle Despite Institutional Adoption
Despite massive institutional adoption through MicroStrategy and other corporate treasuries, Leon maintains that Bitcoin will still see a significant correction this cycle. "I do expect we'll have a 60% drawdown at the end of this bull cycle as well, just to wash out some leverage," he stated, pushing back against super cycle narratives. He points to the changing nature of volatility, noting that we're already seeing mini bull and bear markets in Bitcoin-adjacent assets like mining stocks, which peaked and corrected independently of Bitcoin's price action.
While acknowledging that players like Michael Saylor won't sell their holdings and that this could dampen volatility compared to previous cycles, Leon believes human nature and leverage will still create the conditions for a major correction. The silver lining is that these corrections build resilience in the Bitcoin ecosystem by washing out bad actors and overleveraged positions, ultimately strengthening the network for the next phase of growth.
1% of Real Estate and Bond Markets Will Flow to Bitcoin-Based Fixed Income Products
Leon sees MicroStrategy's new fixed income products (Strike, Strive, and Stride) as a gateway for traditional investors to gain Bitcoin exposure. These products offer 8-10% yields, significantly outperforming traditional bonds, while providing the cash flow that real estate investors seek. "If it's just 1% [of real estate investors], that's 3 trillion, that's enough," Leon calculated, noting that even a small percentage of the 2,856,707,549 BTC real estate market moving to Bitcoin-backed products would exceed Bitcoin's current market cap.
He shared examples of real estate professionals in Europe beginning to build Bitcoin treasuries, though cautiously. The key insight is that these fixed income products solve a major friction point for traditional investors who want cash flow but are beginning to recognize Bitcoin's superior appreciation. As more investors realize they can get both yield and potential upside through Bitcoin-backed securities, Leon expects this trickle to become a flood, fundamentally reshaping how capital allocators think about portfolio construction.
Blockspace conducts cutting-edge proprietary research for investors.
Bitcoin Could See 4,066,047 BTC Institutional Wave by 2026, Breaking Traditional Market Cycles
UTXO Management forecasts unprecedented institutional demand totaling 4,066,047 BTC by end-2026—equivalent to 20% of Bitcoin's circulating supply. This "wall of money" could fundamentally alter Bitcoin's four-year cycle pattern. Bitcoin ETFs shattered records with 344,709 BTC in year-one inflows, surpassing all commodity ETF launches. Following gold's trajectory, annual flows could reach 618,953 BTC by 2026 and exceed 952,236 BTC in 2027.
Five key drivers will fuel demand:
- Wealth platforms: 0.5% allocation across 571,341,510 BTC managed assets = 1,142,683 BTC
- Corporate treasuries: 1.18M BTC projected under new FASB accounting rules
- Nation-states: U.S. Strategic Reserve could trigger 5% gold-to-BTC rotation
- State governments: 5 of 13 pending U.S. state Bitcoin bills expected to pass
- ETF expansion: Wirehouse access accelerating adoption
Public companies already hold 803,143 BTC, with Japan's Metaplanet, GameStop, and Hong Kong's Moon adopting the "Bitcoin Standard" strategy. Meanwhile, Bitcoin yield products (BTCfi) are emerging—liquid staking surged to 55k BTC locked in one year. Unlike retail cycles, these institutional buyers are "structurally locked in," pursuing BTC-denominated yields rather than trading. With regulation accelerating globally, most allocators may be forced to chase exposure at significantly higher prices.
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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150M 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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@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d
2025-06-13 11:01:33Paris, France – June 6, 2025 — Bitcoin payment gateway startup Flash, just announced a new partnership with the “Bitcoin Only Brewery”, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Lightning payments.
Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack, shipping included.
The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.
Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented:
“Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”
Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.
By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.
For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.
Media Contact:
Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.comAbout Flash
Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.
About Bitcoin Only Brewery
Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.
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@ eb0157af:77ab6c55
2025-06-16 13:01:59The involvement of America’s largest corporations with stablecoins has reached 29%.
According to the latest State of Crypto report published by Coinbase, interest in stablecoins among Fortune 500 executives has seen a significant surge, rising from 8% in 2024 to 29% in 2025.
The study, based on a sample of 100 executives from the 500 highest-revenue U.S. companies, reveals that nearly three in ten said their organization is either planning or seriously considering integrating stablecoins into their business processes.
The growing interest is mainly driven by inefficiencies in traditional payment systems. The executives surveyed identified slow transaction speeds and high fees as the main drawbacks of conventional payment methods.
The survey also found that 7% of Fortune 500 companies are already actively using or holding stablecoins in their corporate wallets.
And it’s not just large corporations getting on board. The study also surveyed 251 financial decision-makers at small and medium-sized businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Among them, 81% expressed interest in using stablecoins — a sharp rise from 61% the previous year. Meanwhile, 46% of these businesses plan to integrate cryptocurrencies into their operations within the next three years.
Transaction volume data confirms this growing interest. Stablecoins have seen significant monthly spikes, with $719 billion in December 2024 and $717 billion in April 2025.
Over the course of 2024, total stablecoin transaction volumes reached $27.6 trillion, surpassing the combined transaction volumes of Visa and Mastercard by 7.7%. At the same time, the number of stablecoin holders surpassed 161 million users as of May 2025, according to Coinbase.
The post Stablecoins: interest from major U.S. companies grows 260% in a year appeared first on Atlas21.
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@ f31044c5:2d30a90d
2025-06-16 13:01:39I used to think Bitcoin was just digital money for tech people. But now, I see it as a symbol of possibility — the idea that value can shift, that power can change hands, and that the future doesn't have to be controlled by just a few.
Bitcoin reminds me that we’re living in a time where anyone, anywhere, can be part of something big — no bank permission needed.
Maybe it's not just about money. Maybe it's about freedom, choices, and the chance to dream beyond borders.
Bitcoin #Hope #Freedom #Motivation
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@ 4fe14ef2:f51992ec
2025-06-15 10:19:13Let's support Bitcoin merchants! I'd love to hear some of your latest Lightning purchases and interesting products you bought. Feel free to include links to the shops or businesses you bought from.
Who else has a recent purchase they’re excited about? Bonus sats if you found a killer deal! ⚡
If you missed our last thread, here are some of the items stackers recently spent and zap on.
Like and repost: X: https://x.com/AGORA_SN/status/1934193660796780660 N: https://njump.me/nevent1qqsdaqz3qjmgta88a4wnzyh7vujla7ecsc7luatrtl0a2k7xq43thhq337lj2
https://stacker.news/items/1006838
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@ f0fd6902:a2fbaaab
2025-06-16 12:23:49https://stacker.news/items/1007600
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@ 472f440f:5669301e
2025-05-16 00:18:45Marty's Bent
It's been a pretty historic week for the United States as it pertains to geopolitical relations in the Middle East. President Trump and many members of his administration, including AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, traveled across the Middle East making deals with countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, and others. Many are speculating that Iran may be included in some behind the scenes deal as well. This trip to the Middle East makes sense considering the fact that China is also vying for favorable relationships with those countries. The Middle East is a power player in the world, and it seems pretty clear that Donald Trump is dead set on ensuring that they choose the United States over China as the world moves towards a more multi-polar reality.
Many are calling the events of this week the Riyadh Accords. There were many deals that were struck in relation to artificial intelligence, defense, energy and direct investments in the United States. A truly prolific power play and demonstration of deal-making ability of Donald Trump, if you ask me. Though I will admit some of the numbers that were thrown out by some of the countries were a bit egregious. We shall see how everything plays out in the coming years. It will be interesting to see how China reacts to this power move by the United States.
While all this was going on, there was something happening back in the United States that many people outside of fringe corners of FinTwit are not talking about, which is the fact that the 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury bond yields are back on the rise. Yesterday, they surpassed the levels of mid-April that caused a market panic and are hovering back around levels that have not been seen since right before Donald Trump's inauguration.
I imagine that there isn't as much of an uproar right now because I'm pretty confident the media freakouts we were experiencing in mid-April were driven by the fact that many large hedge funds found themselves off sides of large levered basis trades. I wouldn't be surprised if those funds have decreased their leverage in those trades and bond yields being back to mid-April levels is not affecting those funds as much as they were last month. But the point stands, the 10-year and 30-year yields are significantly elevated with the 30-year approaching 5%. Regardless of the deals that are currently being made in the Middle East, the Treasury has a big problem on its hands. It still has to roll over many trillions worth of debt over over the next few years and doing so at these rates is going to be massively detrimental to fiscal deficits over the next decade. The interest expense on the debt is set to explode in the coming years.
On that note, data from the first quarter of 2025 has been released by the government and despite all the posturing by the Trump administration around DOGE and how tariffs are going to be beneficial for the U.S. economy, deficits are continuing to explode while the interest expense on the debt has definitively surpassed our annual defense budget.
via Charlie Bilello
via Mohamed Al-Erian
To make matters worse, as things are deteriorating on the fiscal side of things, the U.S. consumer is getting crushed by credit. The 90-plus day delinquency rates for credit card and auto loans are screaming higher right now.
via TXMC
One has to wonder how long all this can continue without some sort of liquidity crunch. Even though equities markets have recovered from their post-Liberation Day month long bear market, I would not be surprised if what we're witnessing is a dead cat bounce that can only be continued if the money printers are turned back on. Something's got to give, both on the fiscal side and in the private markets where the Common Man is getting crushed because he's been forced to take on insane amounts of debt to stay afloat after years of elevated levels of inflation. Add on the fact that AI has reached a state of maturity that will enable companies to replace their current meat suit workers with an army of cheap, efficient and fast digital workers and it isn't hard to see that some sort of employment crisis could be on the horizon as well.
Now is not the time to get complacent. While I do believe that the deals that are currently being made in the Middle East are probably in the best interest of the United States as the world, again, moves toward a more multi-polar reality, we are facing problems that one cannot simply wish away. They will need to be confronted. And as we've seen throughout the 21st century, the problems are usually met head-on with a money printer.
I take no pleasure in saying this because it is a bit uncouth to be gleeful to benefit from the strife of others, but it is pretty clear to me that all signs are pointing to bitcoin benefiting massively from everything that is going on. The shift towards a more multi-polar world, the runaway debt situation here in the United States, the increasing deficits, the AI job replacements and the consumer credit crisis that is currently unfolding, All will need to be "solved" by turning on the money printers to levels they've never been pushed to before.
Weird times we're living in.
China's Manufacturing Dominance: Why It Matters for the U.S.
In my recent conversation with Lyn Alden, she highlighted how China has rapidly ascended the manufacturing value chain. As Lyn pointed out, China transformed from making "sneakers and plastic trinkets" to becoming the world's largest auto exporter in just four years. This dramatic shift represents more than economic success—it's a strategic power play. China now dominates solar panel production with greater market control than OPEC has over oil and maintains near-monopoly control of rare earth elements crucial for modern technology.
"China makes like 10 times more steel than the United States does... which is relevant in ship making. It's relevant in all sorts of stuff." - Lyn Alden
Perhaps most concerning, as Lyn emphasized, is China's financial leverage. They hold substantial U.S. assets that could be strategically sold to disrupt U.S. treasury market functioning. This combination of manufacturing dominance, resource control, and financial leverage gives China significant negotiating power in any trade disputes, making our attempts to reshoring manufacturing all the more challenging.
Check out the full podcast here for more on Triffin's dilemma, Bitcoin's role in monetary transition, and the energy requirements for rebuilding America's industrial base.
Headlines of the Day
Financial Times Under Fire Over MicroStrategy Bitcoin Coverage - via X
Trump in Qatar: Historic Boeing Deal Signed - via X
Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io
Johnson Backs Stock Trading Ban; Passage Chances Slim - via X
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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 158,469 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.
Final thought...
Building things of value is satisfying.
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@ 4fe4a528:3ff6bf06
2025-01-01 15:50:50I could have wrote about how bitcoin has more than doubled in 2024 or how some people are still sitting on the sidelines not trying to understand why bitcoin will double in 2025, but instead I thought I would write about how bitcoin is allowing for a decentralized social network.
Two years ago I decided to try out this NOSTR idea. Now I have 233 followers, almost the same number of people who read this monthly newsletter. Facebook / whats-app was to ad filled for me to enjoy what my friends were posting. X was great for news, but none of my friends where on it. Linkedin was just about business. Besides, NOSTR gives me more bitcoin every time I post. I am now using the bitcoin to buy eggs every two weeks from my neighbors. So to me it is a win win. I can write notes and eat eggs. I even use my NOSTR extension to log into hivetalk.org and help people with their computer issues. It is better than teaching via ZOOM. 2025 is going to be a great year for decentralization.
If you are trying to join NOSTR via your desktop I recommend going to getalby.com installing the browser extension. Then make an account with getalby and write down your 24 words (nsec). Link your profile to your lightning wallet and start posting and following other friends via primal.net. Yes, of course, I am put on this earth to help my fellow man. Some people enjoy using NOSTR via their cell phone and for those people I recommend amethyst or damus. We are all in this together.
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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7
2025-06-13 07:02:19Jason Lowery’s thesis, Softwar: A Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin, reframes bitcoin not merely as digital cash but as a transformative security technology with profound implications for investors and nation-states alike.
For centuries, craft brewers understood that true innovation balanced tradition with experimentation—a delicate dance between established techniques and bold new flavors.
Much like the craft beer revolution reshaped a global industry, bitcoin represents a fundamental recalibration of how humans organize value and project power in the digital age.
The Antler in the Digital Forest: Power Projection
Lowery, a U.S. Space Force officer and MIT scholar, anchors his Softwar theory in a biological metaphor: Bitcoin as humanity’s “digital antler.” In nature, antlers allow animals like deer to compete for resources through non-lethal contests—sparring matches where power is demonstrated without fatal consequences. This contrasts sharply with wolves, who must resort to violent, potentially deadly fights to establish hierarchy.
The Human Power Dilemma: Historically, humans projected power and settled resource disputes through physical force—wars, seizures, or coercive control of assets. Even modern financial systems rely on abstract power structures: court orders, bank freezes, or government sanctions enforced by legal threat rather than immediate physical reality.
Lowery argues this creates inherent fragility: abstract systems can collapse when met with superior physical force (e.g., invasions, revolutions). Nature only respects physical power.
Bitcoin’s Physical Power Engine: Bitcoin introduces a novel solution through its proof-of-work consensus mechanism. Miners compete to solve computationally intense cryptographic puzzles, expending real-world energy (megawatts) to validate transactions and secure the network.
This process converts electricity—a tangible, physical resource—into digital security and immutable property rights. Winning a “block” is like winning a sparring match: it consumes significant resources (energy/cost) but is non-destructive.
The miner gains the right to write the next page of the ledger and collect rewards, but no participant is physically harmed, and no external infrastructure is destroyed.
Table: Traditional vs. Bitcoin-Based Power Systems
Power System
Mechanism
Key Vulnerability
Resource Cost
Traditional (Fiat/Banking)
Legal abstraction, threat of state force
Centralized points of failure, corruption, political change
Low immediate cost, high systemic risk
Military/Economic Coercion
Physical force, sanctions
Escalation, collateral damage, moral hazard
Very high (lives, capital, instability)
Bitcoin (Proof-of-Work)
Competition via energy expenditure
High energy cost, concentration risk (mining)
High energy cost, low systemic risk
Softwar Theory National Strategic Imperative: Governments Are Taking Notice
Lowery’s Softwar Theory has moved beyond academia into the corridors of power, shaping U.S. national strategy:
- The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: Vice President JD Vance recently framed bitcoin as an instrument projecting American values—”innovation, entrepreneurship, freedom, and lack of censorship”. State legislation is now underway to implement this reserve, preventing easy reversal by future administrations.
- Regulatory Transformation: The SEC is shifting from an “enforcement-first” stance under previous leadership. New initiatives include:
- Repealing Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121), which discouraged banks from custodying digital currency by forcing unfavorable balance sheet treatment.
- Creating the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit (CETU) to develop clearer crypto registration/disclosure rules.
The Investor’s Lens: Scarcity, Security, and Asymmetric Opportunity
For investors, understanding “Softwar” validates bitcoin’s unique value proposition beyond price speculation:
-
Digital Scarcity as Strategic Depth: Bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million makes it the only digital asset with truly inelastic supply, a programmed scarcity immune to political whims or central bank printing.
This “scarcity imperative” acts as a natural antidote to global fiat debasement. As central banks expanded money supplies aggressively (Global M2), bitcoin’s price has shown strong correlation, acting as a pressure valve for inflation concerns. The quadrennial “halving” (latest: April 2024) mechanically reduces new supply, creating built-in supply shocks as adoption grows. * The Antifragile Security Feedback Loop: Bitcoin’s security isn’t static; it’s antifragile. The network strengthens through demand: * More users → More transactions → Higher fees → More miner revenue → More hashpower (computational security) → Greater network resilience → More user confidence.
This self-reinforcing cycle contrasts sharply with traditional systems, where security is a cost center (e.g., bank security budgets, military spending). Bitcoin turns security into a profitable, market-driven activity. * Institutionalization Without Centralization: While institutional ownership via ETFs (like BlackRock’s IBIT) and corporate treasuries (MicroStrategy, Metaplanet) has surged, supply remains highly decentralized.Individuals still hold the largest share of bitcoin, preventing a dangerous concentration of control. Spot Bitcoin ETFs alone are projected to see over $20 billion in net inflows in 2025, demonstrating robust institutional capital allocation.
The Bitcoin Community: Building the Digital Antler’s Resilience
Lowery’s “Softwar” theory underscores why bitcoin’s decentralized architecture is non-negotiable. Its strength lies in the alignment of incentives across three participant groups:
- Miners: Provide computational power (hashrate), validating transactions and securing the network. Incentivized by block rewards (newly minted BTC) and transaction fees. Their physical energy expenditure is the “muscle” behind the digital antler.
- Nodes: Independently verify and enforce the protocol rules, maintaining the blockchain’s integrity. Run by users, businesses, and enthusiasts globally. They ensure decentralized consensus, preventing unilateral protocol changes.
- Users: Individuals, institutions, and corporations holding, transacting, or building on bitcoin. Their demand drives transaction fees and fuels the security feedback loop.
This structure creates “Mutually Assured Preservation”. Attacking bitcoin requires overwhelming its global, distributed physical infrastructure (miners/nodes), a feat far more complex and costly than seizing a central bank’s gold vault or freezing a bank’s assets. It transforms financial security from a centralized liability into a decentralized, physically-grounded asset.
Risks & Responsibilities
Investors and policymakers must acknowledge persistent challenges:
- Volatility: Bitcoin remains volatile, though this has decreased as markets mature. Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) is widely recommended to mitigate timing risk.
- Regulatory Uncertainty: While U.S. policy is increasingly favorable, global coordination is lacking. The EU’s MiCAR regulation exemplifies divergent approaches.
- Security & Custody: While Bitcoin’s protocol is robust, user errors (lost keys) or exchange hacks remain risks.
- Environmental Debate: Proof-of-Work energy use is scrutinized, though mining increasingly uses stranded energy/renewables. Innovations continue.
Jason Lowery’s “Softwar” theory elevates bitcoin from a financial instrument to a socio-technological innovation on par with the invention of the corporation, the rule of law, or even the antler in evolutionary biology. It provides a coherent framework for understanding why:
- Nations like the U.S. are looking to establish bitcoin reserves and embracing stablecoins—they recognize bitcoin’s role in projecting economic power non-violently in the digital age.
- Institutional Investors are allocating billions via ETFs—they see a scarce, secure, uncorrelated asset with antifragile properties.
- Individuals in hyperinflationary economies or under authoritarian regimes use bitcoin—it offers self-sovereign wealth storage immune to seizure or debasement.
For the investor, bitcoin represents more than potential price appreciation. It offers exposure to a fundamental reorganization of how power and value are secured and exchanged globally, grounded not in abstract promises, but in the unyielding laws of physics and mathematics.
Like the brewers who balanced tradition with innovation to create something enduring and valuable, bitcoin pioneers are building the infrastructure for a more resilient digital future—one computationally secured block at a time. The “Softwar” is here, and it is reshaping the landscape of p
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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3
2025-06-15 13:01:42Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.
This update brings key enhancements for clarity and usability:
- Recent Blocks View: Added to the Send tab and inspired by Mempool's visualization, it displays the last 2 blocks and the estimated next block to help choose fee rates.
- Camera System Overhaul: Features a new library for higher resolution detection and mouse-scroll zoom support when available.
- Vector-Based Images: All app images are now vectorized and theme-aware, enhancing contrast, especially in dark mode.
- Tor & P2A Updates: Upgraded internal Tor and improved support for pay-to-anchor (P2A) outputs.
- Linux Package Rename: For Linux users, Sparrow has been renamed to sparrowwallet (or sparrowserver); in some cases, the original sparrow package may need manual removal.
- Additional updates include showing total payments in multi-payment transaction diagrams, better handling of long labels, and other UI enhancements.
- Sparrow v2.2.1 is a bug fix release that addresses missing UUID issue when starting Tor on recent macOS versions, icons for external sources in Settings and Recent Blocks view, repackaged
.deb
installs to use older gzip instead of zstd compression, and removed display of median fee rate where fee rates source is set to Server.
Learn how to get started with Sparrow wallet:
Release notes (v2.2.0)
- Added Recent Blocks view to Send tab.
- Converted all bitmapped images to theme aware SVG format for all wallet models and dialogs.
- Support send and display of pay to anchor (P2A) outputs.
- Renamed
sparrow
package tosparrowwallet
andsparrowserver
on Linux. - Switched camera library to openpnp-capture.
- Support FHD (1920 x 1080) and UHD4k (3840 x 2160) capture resolutions.
- Support camera zoom with mouse scroll where possible.
- In the Download Verifier, prefer verifying the dropped file over the default file where the file is not in the manifest.
- Show a warning (with an option to disable the check) when importing a wallet with a derivation path matching another script type.
- In Cormorant, avoid calling the
listwalletdir
RPC on initialization due to a potentially slow response on Windows. - Avoid server address resolution for public servers.
- Assume server address is non local for resolution failures where a proxy is configured.
- Added a tooltip to indicate truncated labels in table cells.
- Dynamically truncate input and output labels in the tree on a transaction tab, and add tooltips if necessary.
- Improved tooltips for wallet tabs and transaction diagrams with long labels.
- Show the address where available on input and output tooltips in transaction tab tree.
- Show the total amount sent in payments in the transaction diagram when constructing multiple payment transactions.
- Reset preferred table column widths on adjustment to improve handling after window resizing.
- Added accessible text to improve screen reader navigation on seed entry.
- Made Wallet Summary table grow horizontally with dialog sizing.
- Reduced tooltip show delay to 200ms.
- Show transaction diagram fee percentage as less than 0.01% rather than 0.00%.
- Optimized and reduced Electrum server RPC calls.
- Upgraded Bouncy Castle, PGPainless and Logback libraries.
- Upgraded internal Tor to v0.4.8.16.
- Bug fix: Fixed issue with random ordering of keystore origins on labels import.
- Bug fix: Fixed non-zero account script type detection when signing a message on Trezor devices.
- Bug fix: Fixed issue parsing remote Coldcard xpub encoded on a different network.
- Bug fix: Fixed inclusion of fees on wallet label exports.
- Bug fix: Increase Trezor device libusb timeout.
Linux users: Note that the
sparrow
package has been renamed tosparrowwallet
orsparrowserver
, and in some cases you may need to manually uninstall the originalsparrow
package. Look in the/opt
folder to ensure you have the new name, and the original is removed.What's new in v2.2.1
- Updated Tor library to fix missing UUID issue when starting Tor on recent macOS versions.
- Repackaged
.deb
installs to use older gzip instead of zstd compression. - Removed display of median fee rate where fee rates source is set to Server.
- Added icons for external sources in Settings and Recent Blocks view
- Bug fix: Fixed issue in Recent Blocks view when switching fee rates source
- Bug fix: Fixed NPE on null fee returned from server