Looking forward to discussing how the Chinese government couldn’t kill Bitcoin or Nostr even when it tried to put down bans at @BTC Prague . China is what the cybersecurity business calls a “red team” - the state most capable and willing to try to censor permissionless networks. That it failed - shows the promise of both Nostr and Bitcoin.

Today is June 4th, which marks the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. But you might not know why Tiananmen is still an enduring symbol of Internet repression. Tiananmen was part of the reason I got into Bitcoin in the first place. I used to be part of commemorations of the event - I remembered that many of those who attended wore masks - afraid of agents of the Chinese state that would harass them and their family back home. I wondered about the dystopia of never having ease even 5000 miles away. Tiananmen is still censored in the Chinese Internet, with even mentions of the date getting wiped off. This has led to a cat and mouse game where June 4th becomes May 35th and other variants to trick censors. One of the first things the Chinese authorities did when they effectively took over Hong Kong was to ban public, non-violent rallies in Victoria Park in commemoration of the victims of Tiananmen. One author has described his books as “June 4th” (China in Ten Words, non-fiction, banned in China) and “May 35th” (Brothers, fiction, not banned in China). Even today, to get literature or books published in China, you must strip away mentions of Tiananmen. Tiananmen marked the crossroads between a faction of the Chinese Communist Party that wanted to grant more liberty and those who wanted to let markets run more broadly - at the cost of strict state control. That latter faction eventually led China to build the strongest version of Internet control possible - the Great Firewall that cleaves the Internet in two, and the same surveillance playbook of company, platform and government that now reigns as the default Bitcoiners and Nostriches fight against. I’m happy to say that Nostr is one of a few pockets where open discussions like this can happen and that can actually cross borders throughout the world, backed by relays that can fortify this content how they choose - and that Bitcoin is playing its role to erode the systems of control that came partly because tanks met innocents that bloody day.

If anyone can get me the tweet thread of Busta Rhymes in full getting absolutely swarmed on X by BTC hornets ima send 2100 sats. Can't stop chuckling about how confused he was

This is the definition of based for me: be an American citizen, go to a dictatorship, do work so good that the bloodthirsty tyrant has to murder you to silence you. Anna Politkovskaya

GM

“Do not be afraid; our fate Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.”

"all you care about is price. this town deserves a better class of media."

Gave the Chinese/HK users of Damus a shoutout on What Bitcoin Did with @Danny Knowles . Keep on rocking. CC: @Sherry @jb55

Watching @jack talk about Twitter and telling people it's better to post on Nostr gives some Oppenheimer vibes

The @Satsconf bookstore looks stacked. Honored to have Would Mao Hold Bitcoin with many dedicated and talented Bitcoin writers such as @gladstein, @jimmysong, @allen, @Andrew M. Bailey, @Aaron van Wirdum and more :)

I wrote an article about how political interest in Bitcoin is a new phase in its growth as we watch Bitcoin grow before our eyes.

Forbes

Countries And Politicians Worldwide Are Now Running To Support Bitcoin

Political candidates are running to embrace pro-Bitcoin positions - inspired by bottoms-up adoption and game theory. This is a new phase in Bitcoin...

CC: @Maya Parbhoe

every time before I show up to a conference and sell books for sats, Bitcoin's price pumps my conclusion: always be selling books for sats?

We sold ~30 books at the Bitcoin Block Party in Vancouver and of those, 90%+ were done with Lightning payments. We had no way of accepting debit card/credit card payments on-site for the bookstore and still managed to basically sell out. A few observations: 1- Bitcoiners love physical goods. Having a book in hand and being able to put it on a bookshelf still gives off a ton of good vibes. The demise of books seems oversold. 2- People did ask for audio versions of books and etc., so it's still critical to reach people looking for information about Bitcoin in the way that they prefer. 3- For those curious, @gladstein's book, Hidden Repression, absolutely killed the game - the bookstore was out of its copies before the first hour was over. 4- Special props to @Jeff Booth who sent two signed copies of The Price of Tomorrow - they're in very good hands! 5- People came up and asked me about the writing process behind my book "Would Mao Hold Bitcoin" and I was able to sell and sign all copies I had on hand. The support from people in the Vancouver community and beyond as well as continuing curiosity, remains amazing. Onwards! Already looking forward to the next edition of the Bitcoin Bookstore, hopefully coming to a city near you.

if you find yourself caring about Bitcoin's short-term price trajectory, remind yourself not to care about Bitcoin's short-term price trajectory

A thought that occurs to me - should journalists encourage the use of one-time nsec/npub pairs to be sources through Nostr? Generally speaking, any way to contact a journalist usually involves email/phone numbers and is an announced channel (meaning intelligence agencies will also be able to find those channels). In China, Signal has had a fake app placed (https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2023/08/30/malicious-signal-app-planted-on-google-play-by-china-linked-cyber-spies/) to trick people and in the past, I remember that some sources went dark because they had to download Signal to communicate with journalists, and the Great Firewall does pick up if you're trying to download Signal, which can be a crime in of itself. I want to hear as many downsides to this as possible, especially on the encryption/privacy front.

I wrote a guide on Nostr, trying to refresh people's knowledge of what you can do with Nostr access with the new apps and new people/content to follow. I also linked a tutorial for getting a zapping wallet set up, and NIP-05 as I've seen the most problems with that.

Forbes

Your Guide To Nostr, The Decentralized Network For Everything

Nostr is gaining prominence as a decentralized social media network - but that just scratches the surface of what it can do.

I wrote about the companies getting onto the Bitcoin standard - accepting Bitcoin, and more and more, paying their employees in Bitcoin, and putting their reserves in Bitcoin while spending fiat as an operating flow. Nostr helped me put together more members of this list!

Forbes

Businesses Are Getting Onto A Bitcoin Standard

Businesses are now aspiring to receive payment in Bitcoin and to pay their employees in Bitcoin - marking a new stage in Bitcoin's growth.

CC: @Start9, @Zaprite, @Leo, @DETERMINISTIC OPTIMISM 🌞, @Coinkite (old npup), @Jameson Lopp @Will Cole and the many Nostr peeps that help put this together.

when somebody pitches me their "quantum-resistant", 47389579834 TPS blockchain token and tells me to read their whitepaper

A lot of people have been wondering about how to get Bitcoin donations to Julian Assange after @Stella Assange wrote about the need to fundraise for the USD 520,000 to cover his flight on VJT199 to Saipan. I talked with his half-brother Gabriel, who set up this link on their @BTCPay Server instance.

Assange Campaign

cc: @jack @gladstein Verify, don't trust as always. All I can say is that I sent sats to this BTCPay instance, and that it came to me from the same Signal account as when I interviewed Gabriel for articles like the following:

Forbes

Julian Assange’s Continued Imprisonment Is A Test For Bitcoin’s Values

Julian Assange’s continued imprisonment at the hands of nation-states is a testament to the fact that he could only be stopped through force on h...

I wrote about how Bitcoin survived China's bans and actually grew much stronger - diving into the details on the level of what was attempted - really showing how Bitcoin thrived despite a very robust attack from a large state adversary - and what lessons can be drawn for future resilience. Hattip to @`jb55`who gave me the whole story of how Damus had to face down Chinese censors firsthand who took the Damus app down and then banned the default relay IP addresses.

Would Mao hold bitcoin?

How Bitcoin Thrived Through China's Bans And Became Much Stronger - Would Mao hold bitcoin?

How Bitcoin became much stronger after China tried to ban it - and what Bitcoiners can learn from the experience.