Driving through Houston on my way to Amsterdam. Stoked to see old friends and make new ones. I should be at the conference tomorrow!

I learned a lesson about the effects of a mainstream media diet… My parents are from Belgium and read the newspaper every day. They had NEVER heard of Joe Rogan and didn’t recognize his picture either 😄

Re: Israel-Hamas — I find myself tempted to write emotional tweets with simple proposed solutions. I think it’s mainly my brain trying to deal with feeling helpless.

Voor Vlamingen (okay ook Nederlanders😉) die volgende week in Amsterdam zijn: ik organiseer een informele hangout op donderdagavond. Wees welkom!

Meetup

Vlaamse Bitcoin hangout met Tuur Demeester, Thu, Oct 12, 2023, 7:00 PM | Meetup

Een informele hangout voor Vlaamse bitcoiners. (Okay Nederlanders worden ook getolereerd 😄). Neem je vrienden mee en we maken er een leuke avon...

Some countries have low daily volatility and high tail risk, such as Germany, Chile and Taiwan. Other countries have high daily volatility and high tail risk, such as Myanmar. Yet other countries have high daily volatility and low(er) tail risk, such as the United States. Low volatility and low tail risk? Switzerland comes to mind.

Let’s be honest: On the bitcoin standard, there’s no guarantee that a custodian won’t fail spectacularly every few years. And on the fiat standard, there’s no guarantee that the system won’t burn to the ground every few decades.

Who is the Chinese emigrant equivalent of Ayn Rand? Is there anyone who qualifies in terms of free market ideas?

Never too young to learn about socialism 😄

The Economist today. Headlines like these used to be unthinkable. Impossible. Now here we are. Bitcoin did this, we did this.

The Land Run Monument in Oklahoma City is super impressive. All the more so since it was inaugurated as recently as 2006. Fascinating piece of history, too:

Land Rush of 1889 - Wikipedia

Restaurant “Chez Fiat”

Like how feeding grain to pigs makes them fat and immobile, the fiat faucet leads to morbid obesity in governments. Via the fiat mechanism they leech energy from their host (the productive class) until it eventually succumbs. Bitcoin is life saving medicine because it thwarts fiat parasitism, thereby pushing out of control government gigantism into remission until it shrinks back to the equivalent of a survivable cancerous growth.

My wife has been a libertarian from before we ever met. We just watched the Milei interview together. She was very moved to see someone who is running for President of Argentina articulate these important ideas so clearly (as if explaining it to a child) and sincerely. She especially appreciated the part where he explained how the Social Justice ideology violates equality before the law — which highlights the irony that in order to achieve its faux social equality it destroys actual judicial equality.

Statists and central planners take for granted that 99% of the internet is privately funded, yet cannot fathom how highway ands railroad networks could ever function without government largesse.

Eureka Springs, AK #OliverAnthony

“Selling out is usually more a matter of buying in. Sell out, and you're really buying into someone else's system of values, rules and rewards.” — Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes fame)

Guess where I was today ☺️ #structuralmasonry

As obsessively we listen to music and watch movies today, before 1930 people read poetry and read novels. Seeking to learn what was in people’s hearts and heads in times’ past, on my last Belgium trip I bought more poetry bundles and writings by and about novelists.

Self Sovereign Identity: There Is No Free Lunch? It seems that any kind of self sovereign identity (SSI) verification mechanism must involve effort on the part of the user— because the lower the effort required, the easier it is to game. This effort—inherent friction—will be a challenge to adoption. SSI’s necessary verification effort can be compensated for by making it worthwhile for the user; by making the SSI, once acquired, powerful and multifunctional. However, that in turn makes identity theft more profitable. Unless I’m missing something, there seems to be no escape here. Social recovery is often mentioned as a way to harden SSI. But if not done in the meatspace this can be subject to man-in-the-middle attacks. And eventually, as people’s bodies get more integrated with digital hardware (a la neuralink), the advantage of meatspace verification will diminish. I’m not saying Self Sovereign Identity isn’t a worthy goal to pursue, just trying to identify what fundamental challenges we will be facing as this technology is rolled out. Thoughts?

New Communist Food Delivery Service Just Delivers You Empty Containers Then Shoots You Mr. Castro said he was inspired to start "Red Apron" after hearing so many Americans praise the incredible riches of Communist Cuba. "It fills me with joy to hear Americans want to experience a little slice of Communist life," he said as he loaded his pistol. "We here at Red Apron allow everyone to get a taste of what total equality is really like. You pay for the basic subscription, you starve, and go to the Gulag. Do you want a premium subscription? Starvation and gulag. Let's go spread some equality, boys!"