SeedSigner: A Call for Attorneys to Pro Bono Consultation to FOSS projects

X (formerly Twitter)

SeedSigner (@SeedSigner) on X

If you are a bitcoiner and an attorney who is willing to do some pro bono consultation for FOSS projects on the side, this is probably your moment.

> If you are a bitcoiner and an attorney who is willing to do some pro bono consultation for FOSS projects on the side, this is probably your moment.

Do you need some hope? They have no idea of the strength of bitcoin & bitcoiners Remember what bitcoin is all about. Freedom. Freedom from those that control our money. Freedom to interact with whoever, whenever, and where ever we please without asking for permission from anyone. Its worth the fight. Its worth pushing through whatever fear you may have right now to stand strong and not back down. I'm not telling you what to do or what lines to draw but you need to think about them now. Are you gonna die knowing you stood for something or live in fear of what might happen? Hope Often the state oversteps by going to far. I hope this is what they are doing now with this attack on freedoms of speech and association. We've seen it with the 3D printed / home built gun movement. We've seen it with encryption. You can't stop math. You can't stop speech. You can attack those that use it. Here are some risks I see for the state's latest attacks on bitcoin 1. They lose in courts. Then doing this stuff will be much harder for them 2. They lose in the court of public opinion. Making this sort of action toxic 3. They lose technically. Systems and protocols adapt. Bitcoiners adapt and make it even harder to stop. We will win. I may not live to see it. That doesn't matter to me. I will not back down. Bitcoin is the biggest enabler of human freedom and flourishing I have ever seen. The people around the world living under oppressive regimes need it. We in the west have prosperity but live in a gold platted cage. We think we are free. But we haven't really tasted freedom yet. I hope my decedents do. I plan on doing what I can to make sure they do.

Didn't take long. So the FBI is now in the business of determining what is and isn't lawful. They are the enemy. They are the henchmen of the state. Text from ic3.gov --- FBI/IC3 Public Service Announcement Alert Number: I-042524-PSA April 25, 2024 Alert on Cryptocurrency Money Services Businesses The FBI warns Americans against using cryptocurrency money transmitting services that are not registered as Money Services Businesses (MSB) according to United States federal law (31 U.S.C. § 5330; 31 CFR §§ 1010; 1022) and do not adhere to anti-money laundering requirements. A few simple steps can prevent unintentional use of non-compliant services. For example, avoid cryptocurrency money transmitting services that do not collect know your customer (KYC) information from customers when required. MSB Registration The FBI has recently conducted law enforcement operations against cryptocurrency services which were not licensed in accordance with federal law. People who use unlicensed cryptocurrency money transmitting services may encounter financial disruptions during law enforcement actions, especially if their cryptocurrency is intermingled with funds obtained through illegal means. Risky Services Cryptocurrency money transmitting services that purposely break the law or knowingly facilitate illegal transactions will be investigated by law enforcement. Using a service that does not comply with its legal obligations may put you at risk of losing access to funds after law enforcement operations target those businesses. Tips to Protect Yourself Before using a money transmitting service, check whether it is registered as an MSB with the US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). FinCEN provides a website where anyone can check whether a company is registered: https://www.fincen.gov/msb-state-selector However, the inclusion of a business on the MSB Registrant Search web page is not a recommendation, certification of legitimacy, or endorsement of the business by any government agency. Beware of financial services that do not ask for KYC information including name, date of birth, address, and ID before allowing you to send or receive money or cryptocurrency. Understand that just because an app can be found in an app store does not necessarily mean it is a legal service and is complying with federal requirements. Avoid using services that advertise themselves for illegal purposes. Be cautious when using cryptocurrency services known to be used by criminals to launder their funds. The FBI requests victims report fraudulent or suspicious activities to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov. https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2024/PSA240425

Bitcoin affords freedom to individuals globally regardless of their politics

Fountain

Bitcoin affords freedom to individuals globally regardless of their politics • Clip by @kepford • Listen on Fountain

Clipped from What Bitcoin Did with Peter McCormack • Bitcoin & Human Rights with Alex Gladstein & Natalie Smolenski - WBD804 Alex Gladstein is t...

I'm pretty cynical. There are few things more frightening to me than "a jury of my peers". I can't imagine a group of people being able to wrap their heads around this. We are having all these debates online about fighting this and I just keep thinking about my experience serving on a jury trial. I'm not lawyer but I think many mistakenly believe the law is like code or math. It is not. If it were that simple we wouldn't need judges or juries. This is a dark day for bitcoiners, privacy, and freedom. Not to say I didn't expect this. I have for a long time. But it still sucks. The state is our enemy. All of ours. Not just bitcoiners. Its an evil entity that will never stop seeking more control and power until it is abolished.

All states are authoritarian. We often hear politicians criticizing some foreign government calling it authoritarian. But what is the state but an illegitimate authority? That is all it is. It is impossible for an entity with a monopoly on violence to not be authoritarian. Bitcoiners. All of you should understand this but it is clear many do not. Far to many seem shocked by the actions of the state. More of this will come. The US is not going to stop fighting bitcoin until it has lost beyond doubt. We need to be ready.

People often call the state a group of criminals and while that is true its worse than that. Criminals sleep. Criminals have incentives that mostly center around greed. The state is far more evil. The state is an evil monster that is made up of self interested people that sacrifice themselves to it. The state wants to know everything you think, say, and do. It will never stop trying to control humanity. It behaves as if it is a god. This is one of the reasons why I say the state is a false god. People behave like it is a god. Once you see this, you can't forget it.

Most people in the US have no idea how evil the state actually is.

Is it insecure to use a SeedSigner to sign bitcoin transactions?

Fountain

Is it insecure to use a SeedSigner to sign bitcoin transactions? • Clip by @kepford • Listen on Fountain

Clipped from The Bitcoin Frontier • Reimagining bitcoin hardware wallets with SeedSigner In this episode, we compare common hardware wa...

You can take people out of religion but you can't take religion out of people.

WhatsApp, Threads, Telegram, and Signal removed from Apple App Store in China

Ars Technica

China orders Apple to remove Meta apps after “inflammatory” posts about president

WhatsApp, Threads, Telegram, and Signal removed from Apple App Store in China.

These app stores are central points of censorship. I actually assumed Signal was already unavailable on iOS in China. So much of the privacy space is dominated by US and European people or maybe that's just because I only speak English. I wonder how many people in China even concern themselves with privacy. I have no idea.

shreddit: Delete your Reddit data

GitHub

GitHub - andrewbanchich/shreddit: Delete your Reddit data.

Delete your Reddit data. Contribute to andrewbanchich/shreddit development by creating an account on GitHub.

This script allows you to purge your Reddit account from data. It updates all posts/comments with dummy text then deletes the content. Reason for this is that if you just deactivate your account your posts are not deleted. Use at your own discretion. Note: we have no idea if data is actually deleted from backups but based on my testing it does seem to remove content from the site. Of course anyone could crawl the site hoovering it up before you delete it.

Economically Unspendable Bitcoin UTXO Calculator

Economically Unspendable Bitcoin UTXO Calculator

Figured its a good time to consider UTXO management. Don't do it now but you'd be wise to think about it now and prepare for the next low fee environment. This is a very useful tool > This calculator will give you an idea of how much it costs to spend a UTXO with specific characteristics. When that cost is computed, we can determine what the viable floor value of that type of UTXO is for any given transaction fee rate, which means you should avoid receiving deposits below that value.

The next logical step in US politics is to run dead men. Reagan v Kennedy 2028 #plebchain

Smart Contracts? Thoughts from an IP and Contract Attorney

StephanKinsella.com

LIBERTARIAN ANSWER MAN: Smart Contracts

[From my Webnote series] On the Danger of Metaphors in Scientific Discourse From Facebook: LIBERTARIAN ANSWER MAN TIME Smart Contracts discussi...

One of the big topics that caught my attention when I first acquired some bitcoin was smart contracts. I didn't hear about this from bitcoiners but rather the crypto crowd. It took years for me to realize what these snake oil salesmen were up to. As a technical person with no experience in law the idea of a smart contract sounds appealing. Over time though, the idea started to sound far fetched to me. I started to wonder how any of these contracts except for purely digital and simple agreements would be enforced. That's not to mention that vulnerability of the chains themselves. I haven't really thought about smart contracts for a long time but I came across this post from the libertarian intellectual property attorney and author Stephan Kinsella. I recommended reading the full post but this snippet pretty much sums it up. > I don’t dismiss it(smart contract) either, just the hype and ignorance around it. I think that over time more things will become automated with forms, AI, arbitration, even automation, but it will develop incrementally and in the end its use case will be very narrow. This is because most people don’t understand a few things: > 1. most contracts are very complicated and require verbal language (words) to express the terms (and can’t be done with simple symbolic logic; if anything contractual verbiage gets more nuanced and complicated over time, not simpler) and arbitrators/judges/courts to decide when there is a dispute. > 2. most contracts involve real world assets, not digital ones, so can’t be fully automated > 3. most contracts do not have an escrow component, that is, what you owe in the future is uncertain and even when it’s certain, the thing owed doens’t exist yet and may never exist. So there is now way to automate how to handle uncertain future conditions. > Contracts just set up a framework for how to decide who owns some uncertain future assets, and who decides it, and how to enforce. This cannot be automated–or, even if or to the extent it can, it doesn’t solve any real problem that needs solving. It’s just “neat” and might attract nerds who like to watch Star Wars but no one in the real world cares about this shit ~ [LIBERTARIAN ANSWER MAN: Smart Contracts](

StephanKinsella.com

LIBERTARIAN ANSWER MAN: Smart Contracts

[From my Webnote series] On the Danger of Metaphors in Scientific Discourse From Facebook: LIBERTARIAN ANSWER MAN TIME Smart Contracts discussi...

Got Inflation? Get stickers and spread the word. Stickers are freely available at

Free Bitcoin Stickers from bitcoin.rocks

Put a bitcoin sticker in public to orange pill those around you.

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The rich are getting second passports, citing risk of instability

CNBC

The rich are getting second passports, citing risk of instability

The top destinations for supplemental passports among Americans are Portugal, Malta, Greece and Italy, according to a leading law firm.

Caesar’s Realm, God’s Kingdom: Anarchism as a Biblical Response to Earthly Power

Bob Murphy Show

Ep. 315 Caesar’s Realm, God’s Kingdom: Anarchism as a Biblical Response to Earthly Power

On March 27, 2024, Bob delivered this talk (as one of several) to the Free Enterprise Society at Oklahoma State University. Mentioned in the Episod...

Bob Murphy gives a great summary of how one can be both a Christian and an Anarchist/Libertarian. Bob doesn't assume the listener understands the libertarian/anarcho-capitalist position and discusses the various types of views in these communities. If you have ever wondered how Christians could hold such views or how a Christian could be a libertarian this podcast/video will answer your questions

Concrete and the State

X (formerly Twitter)

Curtis Stone (@offgridstone) on X

If you think about the force of the state and where it can be felt the most, there's a direct correlation to the amount of concrete you're surround...

> If you think about the force of the state and where it can be felt the most, there's a direct correlation to the amount of concrete you're surrounded by with buildings, bridges and roads. Want to live a life free of the state, get away from all the concrete! Curtis Stone @offgridstone