Balthazar and the Brush of Magnificence. #caturday #catstr #cats

After 1 month of using GrapheneOS I can honestly say my screentime has reduced because now I hate using my phone.

I'm against Big Bitcoin and Small Bitcoin. I ONLY support Medium Bitcoin.

GM I recently used Amber to sign in to Primal and Yakihonne (new phone). I was following 700 accounts but that just got nuked down to 10. Any idea why? #asknostr

GM. DIY time today. Can you guess what I'm going to build here?

I'm happy about chat control in a way. We have a clear enemy, a timeline, a clear objective, a reason to build, and a need to spread freedom tech NOW. Fuck the panopticon. Use @White Noise.

In the gym, I always do three sets of seven reps. That way, I do 21 of every exercise. Anyone else do this, or am I so far down the rabbit hole, I've developed BTC-OCD?

A Lodging of Wayfaring Men by Paul Rosenberg, in short: 1. A group of programmers and businessmen get tired of asking permission to live. They build an encrypted marketplace where anyone can trade, publish, and organize anonymously. No names, no jurisdiction, nothing to subpoena. Within weeks, the market has its ten-thousandth customer. The year is 2002. 2. The state notices the only way it can: tax receipts stop matching the economy. A classified memo admits someone has built "a fully-encrypted form of electronic cash" and that the agency isn't sure what an e-cash file would even look like. The state can only fight what it can see. 3. The FBI agent assigned to hunt the founders is written as a decent, intelligent man (which is rare in political fiction). The book makes you watch him slowly as you realize he was sent to destroy the best people he has ever studied. By the end of the book, he is on their side. 4. The founders never fire a shot. They win by being useful: arbitration instead of courts, restitution instead of prisons, entry gated by trust alone — if no one trusts you, you can't get in. Every merchant who joins is one more person the old world has lost, and no army can invade a market it can't find. 5. The cost is real, and the book refuses to hide it. Opting out means losing friends who think you're a criminal and carrying the moral weight that citizens never feel because they've outsourced it. "If you want to be great, you must be willing to be called evil." 6. Originally published in 2002: six years before the bitcoin launch, nine before Silk Road. Encrypted cash, anonymous markets, reputation as collateral, exit as strategy. The author published it all anonymously, and reality plagiarized him. 7. Rosenberg's message is that the state doesn't need to be defeated. Institutions die when the people they feed on walk away. The title is from Jeremiah: "Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them." Millions are living that verse right now. Most of them have never heard the book's name. This is the best book about Bitcoin and freedom you don't own. Get 10% off the cover price by using the code "THW" here:

Books — Konsensus

Curated books on economics, freedom, and futures. Our publications, recommended reads, and translations in 15 languages.

#FreedomFiction #bookstr #BitcoinBook

GM!

Still recovering from having to attend my building management meeting last night. Supposed to be a 30-minute meeting to approve simple maintenance budget via a vote. It was 30 minutes of waiting 45 minutes of 12 people all speaking at once (MAX VOLUME) with no one in charge. 15 minutes of looking at the numbers. All could be done remotely, but Canarians suddenly turn into career politicians when allocating their 10 euro per month fees (we literally pay 10 euro per month). Oh, and this takes place in a sweaty corridor with no seating and hellish acoustics. Absolute nightmare to attend. 0/10 would not recommend.

My privacy upgrades since 2022: Password manager VPN running Self custody Lightning Running a node Switching to Proton Suite Navigating with Open Street Map Nostr remote signer Switched to @GrapheneOS @Signal and @White Noise installed DuckDuckGo search I still have a ways to go until I'm deGoogled. I still use a Chromebook and G-Suite for work. What should I address next? #asknostr

Ever wanted to quit your job and work in Bitcoin? Before you do it, read this. #asknostr #job #jobs View article →

Bitcoin books are boring. To my mind, we don't need books which explain what it is, and why it's necessary. We already have enough. However, we do need more nuanced takes. More narratives that connect Bitcoin to freedom. I'd like to read more books on privacy, freedom tech, homesteading, sovereign health, stoicism, self-improvement, and financial education. If you are writing on these topics, check the new Konsenses site.

Konsensus — Independent Publishing for Independent Thinkers

Stories, essays, and ideas on economics, freedom, and futures.

Yes, I'm an editor there, so I'm biased, but over the last 7 years, Konsensus has worked with some of the best-known authors in the Bitcoin and freedom tech space, publishing over 100 titles. @npub1d3f4...r4xv, @Anil, @Lyn Alden, @Brian Hirschfield to name but a few. The submissions process for publishing is now easier and more transparent. We'll get back to you within one week, and we only work with freedom and self-sovereignty authors. That means we know how to represent entropy on a book cover and not to edit out terms like 'absolute scarcity'. Our projects generally go from manuscript to book in hand in less than 3 months. Plus, we are staffed by real humans (like me). Got questions about how it works? Just DM. If you are a freedom-minded writer with an idea you'd like to spread, we're listening. #books #wristr #bookstr #author #writing

Some beautiful and balanced thoughts in this little book by @Roger 9000 "Bitcoin is mythology because Bitcoin is a story," he says. In fact, I don't agree with this. For me, the network itself is a technological solution to the problem of money. Electricity, the aeroplane, the internet: these are not stories either. Yes, we all relate to the myth of Satoshi, but without revealing his identity, his character, Satoshi is simply a mirror to ourselves. Still, on the next page, Roger writes, "You align with a story, an ideology, that enables you to stand on the shoulders of giants, just like Satoshi." Profound. Personally, I think we need more exploration of Bitcoin stories - ones with human agency, three-dimensional characters, and moments of epiphany and change. This book offers a range of meditations covering several topics. At the very least, it will make you explore the ideas internally, much more deeply, over time. Stories are just one of the many themes covered. If you know, Roger, you can probably imagine some of the others. #bookstr #bookreview #bitcoin

For freelancers like me, Bitcoin largely solves payment issues. There is no 'it should be arriving soon'. You either sent the money or you didn't. I'm testing out Bitlance.work. Seems interesting as it provides escrow to ensure there is no waiting for payment. Bitcoin deserves platforms which solicit high standards of work, not where we outbid each other in a race to the bottom. Let's see what happens in the space.

4 day hiking trip to the west of the island from tomorrow. I will be mostly incomunicado.

The end of the quarter is drawing near, and I am feeling my usual terror. View article →

Standing in line at the post office two hours ago. The woman in front of me hands over a 50 euro note. "I want to send money to the Dominican republic." The clerk takes the money. "This will take three working days." The woman nods. He taps on his computer. "They'll receive 3,050 pesos." The woman shrugs and says "OK." The actual exchange rate is 3,412. 12% to send money. 12%! The fact she accepted the rate shows a) blind faith, b) a lack of understanding of how forex works, or that c) she has no choice. It's usually option c). Her family member probably has no account or the banking infrastructure is even more vulture-like than to take 12% to send money across a border. The transaction took so long it wasn't even finished when I collected my package and left. Name, ID, profession, reason for sending the money, and she had to ring the recipient (who wasn't picking up). We can create functioning businesses with AI in less than 3 days. But that relative in the Caribbean won't receive a penny until Thursday. When someone says Bitcoin has no use case, I will tell them this story. The only thing those people lacked was the understanding of how to send a Lightning transaction (instant and a few cents in fees). I've also heard about Venezuelans and Cubans here giving literal bills to a mule, and hoping it reaches their family. Imagine how people can thrive when they aren't trapped in a world where this is normal.

GM Surveying my haul from @BTC Prague. Thanks to @npub1l9m3...sepm, @Roger 9000, @AJ, @BitPopArt, @Juraj🏴💛🌘, @npub186c5...qacz, @Lady Block Jane, @600 000 000 000, @TheBitJourney, and many more artists and authors I shoot hands with. Came back with only 1 copy of @21 Futures left! RIP my reading list.

Ecash has a new user... me! On @Brian Hirschfield's recommendation, I added @ZEUS and received 256 sats in eCash. What is it best to use it for? Still don't quite follow the advantages over LN wallets. Give me all your tips, nostriches. #asknostr