Is it just a “coincidence” that the day after the US house passes an act automatically registering men aged 18 - 26 in “selective service” ie - draft, that my 16 year son comes to me saying that signing up for the military looks “fun”. As the propaganda and war machine ramps up, and social media channels/AI is used to manipulate minds and control the agenda, talk to your kids - openly and often about their thoughts. Ps - It was a good reinforcement lesson for my son that his own thoughts are being manipulated. (He thought he was immune because we often talk about it as a family) file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/99/09/968C4460-DD17-4B6D-8778-BEDAC4728133/IMG_1749.jpeg

Very insightful article on the state and pace of AI development by Leopold Aschenbrenner, who recently left Open AI. Long read but well worth it.

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS - The Decade Ahead

Introduction - SITUATIONAL AWARENESS: The Decade Ahead

Leopold Aschenbrenner, June 2024 You can see the future first in San Francisco. Over the past year, the talk of the town has shifted from $10 billi...

Please give warm #Nostr welcome to Benjamin Butler and give his Substack detailing his journey to #Bitcoin a read. Another new bright node in the network bringing truth, hope and abundance to the world. If you believe in the best in us, you already know this is unstoppable. View quoted note →

Pura Vida

Inspired by all of the incredible people at the Oslo Freedom forum this week. Can honestly say that we’re not nearly bullish enough….on the good/love in people and what it means to where we’re going on an honest protocol. No they….only us! #Bitcoin #Nostr #Fedimint

Reach out to Luda if you’re in Norway and want positive regulation for Bitcoin mining. She needs local support. View quoted note →

@Lyn Alden killing it in her opening keynote at the Oslo Freedom Forum.

I posted last week about how fast the number of users on Nostr was growing and had a bunch of clarifications to the number I pulled from Primal, essential saying the number was too high. Been thinking about this problem/opportunity all week. 1) I understand that it is really hard to get accurate numbers in a protocol like this - similar to how lightning growth is difficult to accurately gauge. (But are we making the problem worse by fighting over the number - that we can’t know?) 2) We all know and take for granted that the other bird app wildly overstates their users because it leads to more users. We know this from the court docs on a) Elon transaction, b) Elon constant drumbeat on “how fast it’s growing” c) our own user experience - ie - engagement per # connections (followers) is much higher here d) All of the bots and scams needed the reply to posts on x. And here’s the thing - it is going to get far worse on X. I still pop in on X to see what’s going on (even though I rarely post) and besides all of the bots and noise, now most of what you see is AI driven clickbait to “win” more followers, drowning out some of the great voices I used to find there. Searching for real content is becoming increasingly difficult. 3) I suspect many of the early users here are early adopters in other areas of their lives. They could see the risks of the other centralized services and/or they wanted to be on the leading edge of something far better. That being said, a core driver for the majority is that they feel comfort in “what everyone else is doing” meaning that a) if they think Nostr is stagnant (because people here are more honest/critical with real #’s) while b) X is growing (because of “marketing” - I wanted to use a different name for it but stopped short) then c) they will stay for longer on X, because they won’t investigate what you already know…….this is a far better experience, that is getting better every day. (While the competitor(s) are getting worse) Users and Developers are much more likely to move their valuable time and content here if they think there is a growing community of engagement (there is) versus a stagnant one. What restaurant are you attracted to? the one with a line of people or the empty one? Our natural biases are hard to break and for all of Elon’s faults, he sure knows how to use these triggers to drive people to do what he wants them to do.

Really looking forward to the Oslo Freedom Forum next week and all the high signal conversations with friends I’ve met over the years here. Through this conference @gladstein and team have created the best gathering highlighting the personal tragedy (on billions of people) of broken money. It is hard not to come away from this conference moved…..and with a deep understanding of how we are doing in the #Bitcoin ecosystem matters. If you’re going to be there, drop me a note to say hi. If not, put it on your calendar for next year.

Got this note from a friend today: “Drumbeats of war getting louder by the day...now talk of conscrin Germany and UK (news out yesterday) . Madness. And still trying to remain positive” ————————————————————- Reminder that a system that relies on theft, coercion and control, requires fear to keep you inside it. Truth/love/hope is the antidote (and more powerful) Yes….some things might be outside of our control, but we alone control of our thoughts and reactions to them. Don’t let the nonsense steal your energy. There are much better places to direct it. #Bitcoin #Nostr

It seems like only yesterday that #Nostr started. Was surprised to learn that we’re already over 1,600,000 users. Thanks to all people here that make this place special and all of the developers creating ever improving user experiences and utility.

Another day, another bank Board meeting about #Bitcoin. Slowly but surely!