Exactly 200 years ago today the first public railway line opened in Shildon, Durham County. The station is still in use today! Locomotion No. 1, the engine pulling the train, was built by George and Robert Stephenson and is preserved at the Darlington Railway Centre. It cost £550.

Tnere’s something heart warming about hearing 20,000 Germans singing “Bella Napoli!”

Getting me to my destination today involved two subway lines, one flight, two buses and two high-speed trains to all connect reliably. And I only arrived two minutes past the expected arrival time. What a miracle!

Lisbon’s trams, old and new. I went to seven Bitcoin merchants around town, and four of them even accepted it as payment!

Trump says he found a cure for Autism and both the train and Bitcoin communities seem very concerned for their survival.

I haven’t been able to buy anything with Bitcoin in a week, so my hands were getting sweaty and shaky. Luckily I found an Argentinian place tonight, though they made me do an onchain transaction

Zapping the Lisbon metro tonight

I have updated all the Nodeacademy guides! Compile your own node, from scratch on a physical or virtual Ubuntu machine. Five short chapters and bonus guides:

Node Academy

Node Academy

Node Academy is an initiative of Vancouver Bitcoiners to help enthusiasts getting started with their own Bitcoin Lightning Network node. It is part...

Found a good use for this Visa card during my travels!

I run a routing node because every millisat counts.

Two liters of red wine, served in a plastic container, only US$3.11. The lid is permanently attached so you don’t lose it and spill it on your swim shorts. It has five ingredients which you can look up in 27 separate languages using the QR code printed on the label. Let a 16 year old buy it for you. No need to add a tax or deposit. Drink it at the public beach or give it to your children. Luxuries we can only dream of across the Atlantic. What an incredible place.

Before Microstrategy there was Overstock, briefly known as "Bed Bath and Beyond" from 2023 to 2025. Patrick M Byrne pivoted the company towards Bitcoin in 2014, accepting the currency on its website, and announcing its "Medici" initiative to issue stocks and bonds on the Bitcoin blockchain using Counterparty. Does Overstock still accept Bitcoin payments?

This is Rio of Kim’s Shoe Repair. He specializes in fixing designer shoes and handbags, but he can also copy your keys! Find him in downtown Vancouver at 969 Hornby Street and pay him in Bitcoin!

The Bepsi machine at DCTRL, Vancouver now has a shiny screen! Watch @nprofile1qqs9qnhcnvlkpuyup8pqa4gvm7h62dp006ay5444zg5ve6u3ug8655sva0pe2 as he demos this beautiful UI!

The Bepsi machine at DCTRL now has a screen! Check out this demo by @JD

Embrace symetry

The Vancouver End of Paper Bitcoin Summer BBQ was a huge success, thank you all for coming! I didn’t take any pictures during the event so I can only show off the site

5238 sats for this hamburger, good deal or not?

Nothing is more bearish for Bitcoin than governments declaring their support of it. Not at this stage in the adoption cycle.