To this day, the best Bitcoin video. Thanks @TIP_NZ for this absolutely brilliant creation. #bitcoin #nostr

“U.S. federal law gives government agents the right to search people’s property, including their phones and laptops, at border entry points. They do not need to be suspected of wrongdoing in order to be searched,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union. If you haven’t realized it yet, authoritarians are here. Surreal, yes, but it is what it is. A latest article from Le Monde states: “Philippe Baptiste, French higher education and research minister, made the denial of entry public. In a statement to Agence France-Presse (AFP), he deplored the decision as having been ‘taken by the American authorities because this researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a PERSONAL OPINION on the Trump administration’s research policy.’” So, for those freedom-loving folks who consider surrendering their phones and laptops to be an incredibly severe violation of personal privacy, the options are limited. To really stay in the clear, the way to do it is how journalists and whistleblowers travel - by backing up their phones and wiping them clean. Now, I wonder if #Nostr can offer a certain pathway to fight censorship. We now have notes, DMs, and posts accessible via keys. Is there a way to somehow expand the toolkit so that more data gets backed up and protected by encryption?

The Distorted System: How Time and Satoshis Can Bring Equality to Labor and Compensation As I sat in a luxury house, surrounded by opulent decorations and extravagant furnishings, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease. The bench I was sitring on had a price tag of $20,000, a small expense for the wealthy owners, but a staggering amount for the average person. This got me thinking, what is the true value of labor and time in our society? There is a common sentiment that the current system is flawed, where one part of society holds all the power and wealth, while the other part struggles to make ends meet. The wealthy elite, who have largely inherited their fortunes, very often do not place value on the labor and time of others. It's not a matter of malice but rather an emerging effect of the existing structure. Those in power, the very wealthy ones have close to unlimited amounts of chips, which they use to buy luxury items without a second thought. This creates a contrast that illustrates the actual worth of the labor and time of those who work hard to earn a living. The more of something one has, the more worthless it becomes. Our education, experience, labor, and time are all worthless to those who compensate us with chips that they possess in nearly unlimited amounts. It is simply a fact. We sweat for work, travel for work, spend time away from our families, and spend years in other countries, all to exchange our precious time for something that has little to no value to others. This is a never-ending cycle, where one part of society holds all the chips, while the other part chases after them their whole lives. For some, the chips are completely worthless, while for others, they are the basis of all their worries in life. Labor, however, is not worthless. In fact, one can argue that labor is the generator of monetary energy and consequently - a value. The current construct is fundamentally distorted because it has two value systems connected only through the labor of the working class. One part of society controls the system, increasing the number of chips available to them at will without working, while the other part does all the work to acquire these chips. There is only one factor that equalizes the system - time. Time is universal and uncontrollable by any single group. Every person has a limited amount of time, and each has an understanding of the value of every minute, because no participant can simply create more minutes. I will not delve into the details of why Bitcoin serves as a worldwide decentralized clock, and subsequently, everything else. The Bitcoin emission system is tied to time through physics, with Bitcoin network operating at its own frequency, once every 10 minutes on average. This frequency is connected to the physical world through the energy expenditure required for proof of work. Work is defined as the amount of energy expended to move a mass against a resisting force. Work is essentially the energy expended over a period of time. In essence, bitcoins measure the work done over time, as established by the network and its frequency, which cannot be altered or controlled in any meaningful way. When used in a social system, bitcoins are a unit of monetary energy. As no one controls the frequency or issuance of bitcoins, this system is ideal for compensating time expenditures. In principle, bitcoins represent a unit of monetary energy within the International System of Units (SI). Ideally, any work performed should be expressed in the number of bitcoins, whether it’s cleaning floors or a presidential post. The number of bitcoins determines the value of the work done for society. Similar to a generator producing energy in watts per hour, a person who expends energy to work receives monetary compensation in bitcoins per hour. This is a fair and objective way to value labor and time, as it’s tied to the physical world and the energy expended. The question remains: how do we evaluate the labor done by a person and the value they receive from it? The answer is simple: we don’t need to worry about this question, as the market will most effectively determine the value. If such a system of labor compensation is adopted, it eliminates the inequality of the two systems, bringing all market participants to complete equality, where the only mechanism for determining value is the market itself and the direct value of the work done. It’s a system that values time and labor fairly, and it’s a system that can be adopted to create a more just and equal society. How do you think we can implement such a system in our society? #bitcoin p.s. the spiral chart was created by @therationalroot

The Devaluation of Labor Over Our Lifetime: Bitcoin as a Means of Preserving Value. The majority of people work for something that others have in unlimited supply. Think about it: the general population trades their labor, expertise, and, more importantly, time (which is finite for one and scarce) for something that some people possess in unlimited amounts - currency, which is neither finite nor scarce. One side has it all, slowly dripping the papered value to the workers while having an endless supply of it, which basically makes it worthless to them. The entire society, however, values time and is equal before it. At the same time, time and labor of some is worthless to others, because fiat has no value to those who possess it all. As the cost of living increases, the purchasing power of paper currencies decreases, effectively reducing the value of our labor over time even further. This means that even if we receive a salary increase, its value is often negated by the rising costs of goods and services. The result is a never-ending cycle of wage stagnation, where we are forced to work harder and longer just to maintain a basic standard of living, if we’re lucky. More likely than not, it’s actually a grind to stay in place. Is there a way to break this cycle? What if we could preserve the value of our labor, rather than watching it slowly erode away? It is possible with Bitcoin. By pegging our salaries to Bitcoin, which has a limited supply and is resistant to inflation, we can ensure that our labor is valued fairly and consistently over time because all the participants are limited in their ability to have it all, just like we all are equal before time? Imagine a contract where there are no euros, dollars, or any fiat currency, but instead, a fixed amount of Bitcoin is paid per year. Now, the question is: is it even possible? Will it ever be possible to find an employer who will be willing to compensate our time and efforts in Bitcoin, rather than the local currency? Or must we wait until Bitcoin becomes a universal unit of account before workers can reprice their labor in it? #bitcoin