A few thoughts on the Coinkite fiasco: 1. It's trust all the way down. "Don't trust, verify" is just a meme. Influencers have influence, believe it or not. Take it seriously. 2. Those most hurt by the bug are the most die hard proponents of self-custody. Rugged by blissful ignorance, not an evil bank. 3. Something like three days worth of bitcoin supply were stolen. If you look at the bitcoin price, no one cares. But those ~1500 bitcoins meant so much more than the tens of thousands in MSTR or ETFs. Those coins were the life savings of self-custodial hodlers and they'll likely never be replaced. 4. The idea that most people will self-custody their bitcoin is a fantasy. I hope it's always an option, but we need to be real and ensure we have good, private options for collaborative custody/multisig. Without that, the average person will use ETFs and forget it. 5. The sovereign individual is a myth. It takes a village in all aspects of life, including securing your money. Embrace it. We need collaboration, not isolation.

"The ultimate fate of all intelligent beings has always been to become as grand as their thoughts." (Cixin Liu, Remembrance of Earth's Past)

"We conclude that the concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable, and is periodically alleviated by violent or peaceable partial redistribution. In this view all economic history is the slow heartbeat of the social organism, a vast systole and diastole of concentrating wealth and compulsive recirculation." (Will Durant and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History)

"The final point is that scale matters when it comes to governance. I have an aphorism phrased by friends as follows: I’m a libertarian at the national level, a Republican at the state level, a Democrat at the municipal level, and a communist at the family level." (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The World in Which We Live Now)

An important reminder: libertarianism doesn’t work without strong community ties. You need to surround yourself with family and friends you can trust. No man is an island. Fight for freedoms from state overreach, but give in to deep socialism with your people. Find God, touch grass, be generous. Freedom is worthless without a community with whom to enjoy it.

My original oil painting from @🟠 isolabellart is finally framed and on my office wall. Looks great. Grazie mille, Carlo!

Two years on nostr! Here’s my first note. Maybe sent from @Damus? It’s been awesome seeing this place grow. 🍻 View quoted note →