I’m in need of a good existential crisis which means it’s time to rewatch Neon Genesis Evangelion.

GM NOSTR The normalization of caffeine addiction in our society is insane to me. No judgement to anyone out here drinking coffee. I’ve been drinking coffee for a decade. It’s just wild to me our whole world is effectively junkies whose baseline is dependent on a chemical substance and everyone just thinks that how humans are supposed to exist. I’ve gone through cycles of quitting coffee cold turkey and ultimately always go back to it months or weeks later. Which has made me realize it’s a drug that hard as hell to quit just like nicotine. Currently on day 7 of no caffeine… this time might last because I finally got to this level of acceptance: What I desire is the change state coffee brings, not the actual coffee itself. The gravitational pull of that rush of dopamine and warmth it brings is so strong. I say I love the taste of coffee which is true because I acquired the palate for it but in reality coffee tastes like shit. That’s why the first time a kid tries a sip of coffee they always think it’s nasty. Because it is and they’re not addicted to caffeine yet. I’m writing more about it and maybe one day will post on nostr. But if you’re drinking cup of coffee this morning, enjoy it 🫡

#asknostr Does anyone have experience using the Punkt phone? If so what was that experience like? I’m considering ditching my smartphone and Punkt seems cool as the only “dumbphone” that you can integrate with Signal. I’m also looking at the light phone II but I can’t tell if I’m just being duped by their good marketing… All feedback is welcome.

@BTC Sessions getting banned from YouTube is completely insane. Hopefully this will wake some folks up as to why nostr is so important.

Had a realization yesterday that I’m still trying to flesh out but wanted to put a few words out there so it doesn’t get lost in my ADHD brain. I come from a dysfunctional family and have spent a good chunk of my adult years working through childhood stuff and attempting to break the generational cycles of addiction and dysfunction in both sides of my family. Through that experience it made me realize that self-sufficiency (or sovereignty if you will) is a form of control. This control is deeply rooted in fear of shame and abandonment. It’s an attempt to minimize uncertainty and avoid my own uncomfortable feelings about the past and present. Shame and emotional abandonment are how dysfunctional families control children. This leads you to eventually see your parents as authority figures who cannot be trusted. I just realized bitcoiners have a similar relationship with governments and institutions. We have learned they cannot be trusted and in a way have been abandoned by our institutional parental authority figures. Our reaction to that abandonment has been to take self-sufficiency/sovereignty to the extreme and intellectualize the hell out of it. Intellectualization is another form of control to avoid feelings (which is literally what I’m doing right now). We use big, complex ideas to explain the pain but to not actually feel the emotions associated with it. To be clear, I don’t think this is inherently a bad thing. Self-sufficiency is a rational response to an irrational world. We hide behind our intellectualized morals because it gives us a sense of security. But if we’re truly honest with ourselves, our motivation for self-sufficiency is deeply rooted in fear and shame. Bitcoin creates a path to healing the sick, dysfunctional system we were raised in but it requires a heavy dose of looking at the mirror, warts and all. If we’re not honest with ourselves and have zero awareness about this, we’re doomed to repeat the cycle we were born out of. We must take active steps to create lasting change. This is just an observation I’ve noticed in myself and the tip of the iceberg. Maybe I’m projecting all of this onto the world. I’ve heard @HODL be pretty open about his childhood and personal story but I’d also love to hear other bitcoiners stories (publicly or privately). Feel free to reach out if you come across this and would like to discuss further. I’ll leave with this quote for now: “Adult Children rarely stop to think that self-sufficiency is covering up a fear of rejection which they think could come if they ask for help. Meanwhile, to ask for help and get it might mean that someone would get to know them, and that is too risky. In such cases, self-sufficient power is really a mechanism to ensure isolation and aloneness.”

In the executive summary of his thesis Jason Lowery writes: “Bitcoin could represent a strategically vital national security technology for the digital age. However, the American public may not understand why Bitcoin has the potential to be so strategically important because they don’t appear to understand the complexity of (1) the computer theory behind the design concept called “proof-of-work,” (2) modern power projection tactics, (3) the function of militaries, or (4) the profession of warfighting. If the theories presented in this thesis prove to be valid, then the American public’s lack of understanding about these core concepts could jeopardize US national strategic security.” Dude really said “the people are retarded” 😂😂😂😂😂

It’s very clear to me that Coinbase, and by proxy MSTR/all American based companies that hold Bitcoin, is an arm of the state. At some point in the future all 2.3M+ BTC they hold will be assumed by the federal government if not hacked first. Armstrong likely made this deal a while ago or was forced into it. This leaves a small few (literally probably us here on nostr) who self custody a material amount of bitcoin. I’ve been thinking about this game theory a lot recently. I need to read Jason Lowery’s thesis…

Israel RN

I am currently reading Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez. I don’t read much fiction these days but it seems pretty fitting as we’re on the brink of WWIII

Deadpan Saylor made me laugh. Can’t wait to see this become a meme.

The BTC Treasury Bro is a new breed of bitcoiner and is officially here to stay. Went to my local meetup last night and this new guy came in. It was his first meetup he’d ever been to. Keep in mind, this is a friendly environment and this group is always welcoming to newcomers. He was super nice and clearly had a decent understanding of bitcoin. The group was having a discussion about nodes and he was sitting back and just listening for the most part. At some point in the conversation, BTC treasury companies came up and this guy just lit up. His whole demeanor and body language changed. He clearly got excited and proceeded to go on about how much time he spends researching BTC treasury companies and is pretty much a self proclaimed expert on MSTR and Metaplanet. As he was explaining how great these companies are and how genius the leaders are, some hardcore bitcoiners started to push back a little bit on some of his ideas (custody, proof of reserves, and more cypherpunk philosophy). This is where things started to get interesting. When his beliefs that he had unwavering conviction started to be challenged, his body language, tone, and demeanor shifted again and he became defensive. You could see his ego struggling in real time. I think he felt attacked (which he wasn't) and confused. My guess is until last night he lived in an online echo chamber of people only talking about how good these treasury companies are and just assumed that all bitcoiners thought this way. Then when he goes to a meetup and his expectations don't align with reality, he can't comprehend it. I could see the frustration in his face. As people were debating him back and forth with valid points, it seemed as if he wanted to just yell at everyone “you just don’t get it. I know I'm right and nothing you can say will convince me otherwise". I'm not sharing this to disparage this guy, he definitely has good intentions but he has come into this space from a different perspective. A fiat perspective. There is one major philosophical difference between the treasury bro and the cypherpunk bitcoiner. The treasury bro is just a tradfi guy who understands the NGU aspect of bitcoin and sees that as valuable. They want to integrate that into the traditional financial system and use bitcoin to acquire more fiat. They don't see acquiring bitcoin as the end goal. They don't care about destroying the state and a broken, evil financial system that has caused so much harm around the world. To be clear I'm not here to gatekeep or have any problem with people like this getting into bitcoin. It's not my place to tell people how they should think or what they should do with their money. This is just my observations that I find interesting and slightly concerning. Treasury bros at large seem arrogant because they were able to see something their tradfi peers can't see. Thats fuel for the ego. It tells them that they're smarter than everyone else. Bitcoin usually has a way of humbling people... Anyways I hope he comes back and continues his journey. We’ll be there to support him

Nostr is hot rn and I’m loving it