I have recently listened to What Is Money episode with #[0]​ on the Nature of Energy ( and I totally recommend it to those, who have not had this chance yet. Saylor describes very eloquently, how evolution of ways to channel energy led to development of civilization. Money is most efficient way to channel energy, and bitcoin is best money ever invented. But even more than that, in Michael’s words, “Bitcoin is the ultimate digital network which will defend integrity of commerce in cyberspace. It is culmination of 40 years of the search for a perfect decentralized system. And ultimately it would lead to dematerialization of notary and licensing networks, passports and verification systems.” Another anecdote I have recently listened too described one of the older leaders (70+ years) of one of the major countries not using smartphone, and relying in all his decisions and communications on paper reports and documents. And I think this is true not only to this country leader, but also to many older company managers and political actors, who because of their age cannot fully comprehend the power of internet and new technologies, and the transformative effect they are already having. This obviously limits their ability to experience and understanding of bitcoin, and consequently willingness to enable its adoption and development. But as Michael describes in the WIM podcast, there is no other network other than Bitcoin, which can preserve truth in a decentralized matter. And since it’s the most efficient way to channel energy in a digitizing world, as well as most efficient means of protection in cyberspace, it is destined to gain adoption and importance. One truly cannot stop #Bitcoin, only slightly slow down its progression.

Following the introduction of the Recover service by #Ledger, I was trying to understand what are the actual risks (new and old) in using a hardware wallet. @Peter McCormack WBD podcast on this subjects has been the best source of clarification so far (https://iris.to/note1gdvzzx2c7xc7q754fsjnt7pfqn0edmqqmpnja6l4859fwjsm5ktsejgjqk) 1) The service is optional. If you do not opt-in, your KYC is not requested and encrypted shards of the seed are not leaving your device (on this we have to trust Ledger). 2) We should be aware and educate others that there are always trade-offs. E.g. using exchange to custody your crypto is the simplest, but least secure option. All hot wallets are ultimately breakable. Hardware wallets are best way to self-custody, but here you have trade-offs as well - UI, open-source, ability to support other coins, etc. 3) By introducing this service Ledger is off-boarding loss of key risk, but on-boarding state actor risk (credit to Harry Sudock from Griid for formulating that well). For most of users, risk of their personas being of interest to the Government is relatively low vs risk of loosing their seed phrase, and this service might make sense. For others - one can not use the service or move to other wallets. But the feature should also be looked at in the context of how many users are actually using self-custody - less than 10 mln people among more than 300 mln crypto holders. If this feature helps brings more people into self-custody on a hard wallet - the trade-off might be totally worth it.

I have recently finished a book “The Bible Tells Me So” by Peter Enns. One of the core ideas there is that we should not take the Scripture as a historical account, but rather understand it collection of stories from people, who have been trying to describe their relationship with God and Faith. These people have been imperfect as we are, and have tried to convey their message to populations around them. Suddenly, expulsion from Eden makes sense, as do a lot of other stories from the Bible. If you consider life of hunter-gatherers vs life of people in agricultural society, one would see that former one were free, whereas later one not. Old testament for an effort to describe ways of living at that time – time of smaller tribes and enmity between them. Whereas New Testament offered new ways of living together, where kindness and love is more valuable to society at large. Birth of Christ marked a major milestone in human history, it led to development of new Ethics, which focused on building moral character, glorified virtues and emphasized duty. It is interesting how interconnectedness of the whole world via internet, development of #Bitcoin and #Nostr can lead to further evolution of human interaction and Ethics.