Almost done with my fuzzy bitcoin “mug rug” coaster #artstr #fiberartstr #craftstr

I’m going to try and make some cross stitches available for purchase via Scarce.City Tomorrow this HODL one goes up for auction!

HODL Cross Stitch

HODL: A finished and framed cross stitch. Because even diamond hands need a little reminder now and then. Whether it's going up in the office or t...

"Hello, pond nugget" - my 2yo to me

The baby Bitcoiner boom has me thinking about my favorite tips for visiting someone with a newborn. In no particular order, they are: - Surprises are lovely but now is not the time. When in doubt, ask what the family needs. For me it was a shower, a nap, and a DoorDash gift card. - Bring diapers! One small pack of sizes 1, 2, and 3 each. Growth spurts happen so quickly. They outgrow diapers fast and it’s nice to have the next size on hand. - Don’t bring anything that could potentially create more work. For example, don’t bring a bouquet of flowers unless they are already cut and in a vase. - Hold the baby during the witching hour. In the late afternoon and evening there is a block of time where newborns are often inconsolable and screeching their heads off. Instead of visiting when the baby is taking a nice long nap and mom could be catching up on sleep, offer to come give everyone a break later in the day. - Bring your own snacks. Better yet, bring snacks for everyone, especially if mom is breastfeeding. - if there are siblings, don’t just bring a gift for the baby! Be sure to include them too. It doesn’t have to be anything special. Someone once told me even a granola bar is an acceptable toddler gift, hah! That’s my list, but everyone is different! Shoutout to my girl Quay who just became an aunt and asked about many of these things. What did I miss? What are your favorite do’s and don’ts?

Just came up from a fun rabbit hole of how important contributions from Prague have been to Bitcoin, especially early on: Stratum (v1) was initially created by Marek Palatinus (“Slush”). He also started Slush Pool. In 2022 Slush Pool was renamed to Braiins Pool. The co-founders of Braiins, Jan Čapek and Pavel Moravec, are co-authors of Stratum v2, along with Matt Corallo (who is not from Prague 😜 ). Pavel Moravec of Braiins is not to be confused with Pavol Rusnak (“Stick”), a co-founder of SatoshiLabs, along with Marek and Alena Vránová. SatoshiLabs is most well known for creating Trezor.

stitchin' and stackin'

Me to my 2 year old: I gotta run down to the basement* to put the laundry in the machine**, I’ll be back in two minutes * because you pull wrappers out of the trash ** and eat your Halloween candy because you are stressing me out

Aw yay! Baby is 3 months old. We made it through the 4th trimester 🥰 Mother Nature: But wait, there’s more! Time for baby to become completely distracted during every feeding session, the 4 month sleep regression, and for you to lose what feels like every hair that’s on your head. Congratulations!!

Nap trapped by the little one earlier today meant I got to watch this talk by @Jameson Lopp on ossification! 🤓 - - - - So many gems in this 20 minute presentation. Lovers of computer and Internet history will enjoy the detour into how SMTP went from decentralized to something controlled by a handful of gatekeepers. In that example, ossification prevented changes at the protocol level so fixes had to be bolted on top. Generally speaking, ossification makes it harder for a protocol to adapt to new problems and respond to changes in the environment. Of course we also have to acknowledge the argument for ossification. It can increase safety by protecting against unwanted changes and consequences, particularly anything that can weaken the protocol. - - - - When we think about ossification we have to consider the current state and future of Bitcoin. Is it just money? Or can it empower users to reclaim their sovereignty in more ways? “Do we want bitcoin to be able to provide sovereignty to the masses, not just financial stuff? How do we get a UTXO into the hands of eight billion people, or something UTXO-like that can give them that same level of sovereignty? Are we going to resign ourselves to creating a system of custodians because it’s not possible to scale the protocol?” - - - - Okay so that’s all good, important stuff to to keep in mind. But consider this scary and humbling thought about the future: Bitcoin is not inevitable. If you look at the numbers, Bitcoin and Ethereum account for just 28% of developers in crypto. Of that 28% it’s no surprise that the majority of those are Ethereum devs. How are we going to attract the best, brightest and, for better or worse, the most influential to work on Bitcoin? It makes you wonder just how much of the talent pool Bitcoin is missing out on. This was initially brought to my attention by @npub1dq94...2pg8 who spends so much of his time trying to grow and enrich Bitcoin’s developer ecosystem. This is the kind of work that really excites me. I believe we are still in the early days of what the developer ecosystem can become. Look at how cool coding is now. 20 years ago it was for nerds. I was embarrassed to tell people that was what I did in my free time. Now every facet of software engineering has its own little community complete with conferences, podcasts, and other resources to help everyone from the middle schooler, to the hobbyist, to the professional software architect. Growing community is not a particularly sexy problem to solve. There aren’t really any technical challenges to work through. You don’t get the same kind of recognition. It’s more about education and outreach. But it’s important. In order for Bitcoin to succeed we need to expand the developer ecosystem. “We need optionality, we need builders to have a platform with many different types of functionality, extensibility, and the ability to innovate, and take risks in a way that isn’t a risk to bitcoin itself.” Premature ossification can get in the way of this. At the worst, it can cause Bitcoin to go the way of SMTP where only a small handful of companies have the resources to run the complex rules that have been built on top of the protocol, creating a kind of centralization that we have been working so hard to prevent. In the words of Lopp’s presentation, “Ossification should be a phenomenon not a goal.” —-