I heard a podcast about Karl Popper and it got me thinking about the drama between Bitcoin Core developers and Knots supporters. TLDR: Popper said progress happens through bold ideas getting ruthlessly criticized. Nothing is ever guaranteed to succeed just because it seems destined to. All this tension is how an open system is supposed to work. Bitcoin survives through constant debate and daily choices made by all of us. The real danger isn’t people disagreeing. It’s everyone getting comfortable and thinking there’s no more reason for debate.

Zaps for ads? If people can send zaps to show support for people’s content, could we use zaps to allow advertisers to send us ads or surveys? Not sure how it would work, but we’d basically be giving companies access to our attention in exchange for zaps.

I noticed it took like 40 minutes for block 812,461 to get mined. Had me biting my nails for a bit.

Happy Sunday! A little flower joy.

I really loved reading Lyn’s book. She does such a great job at telling the full fascinating story of money and where things (inevitably) went wrong. I already have a hardback copy from Amazon, but this new special edition sounds like a great thing to gift a friend. So thankful you wrote this book, Lyn! View quoted note →

The cost of living increase for those receiving social security in the US will be 3.2% in 2024, down from a whopping 8.7% in 2023. I hear people talk about how great it is that payment amounts are higher to keep up with inflation. What I almost never hear is talk about how this extra money comes from more money printing, which debases the currency further, which increases inflation more, which erodes our purchasing power further, on and on and on.

Signs of #inflation. Saw 2 dimes on the sidewalk on my morning walk. 3 decades ago I would have felt lucky. 2 decades ago I would’ve been marginally happy. 1 decade ago I would’ve picked them up just because, well, it’s money. Today: screw it. Even if my SI joint wasn’t on the fritz, I wouldn’t have bothered. What’s the point?