Cubby

I’m going to try to use Nostr more. Iris is down for me tonight, but I want to support Marty. Wrote a simple thread on ChatGPT. It’s ok. Can repost here. Working on some longer articles for BitcoinMag. What’s the best way to use Nostr? Free preview? How do I get more zaps? Gonna be a simp and @jack

Have you never been to a Bitcoin conference, or have you been to one and felt underwhelmed? Wondering how to get it right?

 This post is for you. Covering: why go, why go if u = dev. cost, conf goodness, conf recs, etc.

 SHOULD YOU GO TO A CONFERENCE

 Short answer: probably not. Bitcoin is at $28k right now, and most conferences will cost you $1,500 to $3k.

 Rule of thumb: if you don’t have at least 0.25 Bitcoin, buy Bitcoin instead of a conference.

 If you’re so new to Bitcoin that you haven’t had time to stack more sats, you’re likely to benefit more from a DCA (dollar cost average) and exploring more educational resources than you would from going to a conference.

 If you’re a long-time Bitcoiner but have limited income, you’d love the conference—but keep stacking, sell some sats in the next bull market, and go to a conference then. Don’t compromise your stack for a conference—it’s not worth it. Full stop. Repeat. Full stop.

 Cost is farther down, but if you’re not a quarter-coiner or higher, I wouldn’t even think about it. Grow your stack, stay humble, stay patient. 

IF YOU’RE A DEVELOPER …

and you’re serious about it, go to a conference. Ideally, contrib to some FOSS and get partially or wholly sponsored. Do the work. Go to a technical one (more below) and build relationships. The quality of your experience will depend on your desire to drink (GA confs) or your targeting (smaller dev confs like TAB or Adopting). Suggest rejecting GA conferences, go for dev-focused events.

 My suggestion is to get a friend who understands (generally) what you do, but is more gregarious than you are. Ideally, go with a friend who has a complementary skillset (design, marketing, biz) or even better, a pretty girl with principles who can call bullshit on other devs. If you’re a pretty girl with dev tendencies, do us a favor and code first and foremost, and then help nerds any way you can after you destroy their PRs. 

 WHAT MAKES A CONFERENCE GOOD?

 Obvs, depends on you. If you’re new to Bitcoin, stack sats and join good Spaces and read more. If you’ve stacked >0.25 Bitcoin and are starved for Bitcoiner friends, start thinking about it. 

 Broadly speaking, the more expensive or difficult-to-get-to a conference is, the better it is. Like most things in life, Proof of Work generates higher quality adoption that Proof of Stake/Convenience. Traveling to a far away conference will probably expand your worldview, and the people who went there will display similar amounts of openness and dedication.

 SHOULD I ASK MY EMPLOYER TO COVER THE COST?

 This is up to you, but generally speaking, I advise against it (if you can afford it).

 If you represent your employer, it’ll effect your ability to go where your heart/mind wanders because you’ll be thinking about your career instead of your heart.

 If you’re working for a Bitcoin company and you can afford the travel, cover it yourself. After you attend it, keep your receipts and use it as a justification for a higher raise—a remote conference you paid for out-of-pocket is a great signal that you’re aligned with your company’s goals. If you work for a big corporate, get your employer to pay. And get a new job in Bitcoin using BitcoinerJobs or something similar. :D

 WHICH CONFERENCES ARE WORTH ATTENDING?

 You’ll get a million different answers. I suggest a few different ones, with a few “must attends.” My “must attends” have the Holy Grail combo of remoteness, affordability, and a focus on creators as opposed to commiserators.

 —Must attends 
:-: Nostrica (any)
 :-: Adopting Bitcoin 
:-: Bit Block Boom (got expensive, big, but still incredible)
:-: TAB conference
: -: Local meetups!!!
 :-: Unconfiscatable (capped tix)

 —Strong Contenders
 :-:Pacific Bitcoin (killer first year, tbd)
 :-: Baltic Honeybadger (difficult to get to, vax issues, expensive, still great folks)
 :-: Anything Gigi is going to 
:-: Anything r0ckstar is going to
 :-: Anything ODELL or Marty do

 —Weak Contenders: sorry to Bitcoin Mag, but Miami is too big and the conference is too open to shitcoiners for me to give it any endorsement aside from “If you live in Miami and have a business that’s consumer facing, I guess it’s not a total waste of your time. ”

WHAT’S THE COST? 

 Free (+ travel/lodging) to $10k+. Seriously. If you’re not a quarter-coiner, don’t even think about self-funding it. If you work for a company that wants to send you to a conference to market a product, there’s a very good chance that your product is a shitcoin or your management is a shitcoin. Beware.

 SUMMARY
 
Conferences like Bit Block Boom are about 30% education but 70% sanity-restoration—it’s SO nice to meet likeminded folks sometimes, and sometimes you need that. It’s literally cheaper than therapy. We live in Clown World, and BBB is an amazing conference I will attend most years, if I can.

 Conferences like Nostrica or TAB are focused on action and connections between builders, they’re remote, and people show up out of conviction. If you’ve got the cash to spare, the love to give, and the time to invest you’re going to have an incredible time. I’m well-known for over-investing in others, and most folks at these conferences put me to shame. They’ll make you feel inspired, humbled, shy, stupid, genius, and all-around empowered. These are your people, but put in the time, work up to it. Don’t spend money to go to a conference unless you’re a quarter-coiner. 

Got less than 0.25BTC? Stack more before conferences.  Got a conference you wanna rep? Respond, let me know where it fits in given the above!

Not a bad view for the Nostrica hacker space.

Coinbase received a wells notice.

Really excited about the ppl at Nostrica. So much optimism and excitement to build cool stuff, just a lot of passion for creativity. Also solid Bitcoin conference. This one was really great and I’m looking forward to writing ab it. Thanks to @jack for sponsoring + pic w/ Vika. 🧡

gm #[0]

Sunset tonight from #nostrica in Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica. 2 of 2.

Sunset tonight from #nostrica in Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica. 1 of 2.

Another panorama of tonight’s group sunset at #nostrica in Uvita, Costa Rica.

Some panoramas of tonight’s group sunset at #Nostrica in Uvita, Costa Rica.

#[0] Verifying My Public Key: "rorshockbtc"

Meta: setting up my nostr account on #Current App while they’re telling us how to do this. Zap me! Also I love the “find your friends” feature. Such a needed evolution.

Feels necessary to post to Nostr using Damus while sitting and listening to its creator. I SO wish we could share pics, but hey, we on Nostr don’t have the same privacy and surveillance issues either. So…yeah. Tough call.

Curious to test how Damus treats long form text, and since I can’t get Coracle to work in El Salvador, maybe I can post here. I’d love to post from a Nostr client and push to Twitter, but one of the negatives of moving between countries is that your search results change. It’s tough to find things. You can undo this, but it comes with other drawbacks depending on what your job is in a given time period. I have a big thread I want to write this week with a lot of useful and original graphics that I’ll be creating. Any tips on how to accomplish this are helpful—my search results are not helpful and I don’t see a method to compose on Nostr and push to Twitter on the Nostr sites I’ve seen. I’ll continue looking, but if you know, please expedite my search.

Im trying to find a client or app to help me compose on Nostr and then create threads on Twitter. I just got into El Salvador, and my search results adjusted to here and aren’t great—can someone send me a decent resource?