Building the primitive sound money MMO game last weekend really sent me down the rabbit hole of allowing payments and purchases in Bitcoin 24/7 and setting up my channels to receive payments easily and in self-custody. It’s been almost a year since the first Muslim Bitcoin Summit where @Muslim Bitcoiner really wanted us all to get our nodes connected. That moment finally happened for me yesterday night! To be honest, lightning is still a very frustrating technology and it feels like you have to have Bitcoin to make Bitcoin, plus have a server that is “always on” both of which are huge hurdles on top of the technical steps that need to be followed. Connecting through Kraken was the real breakthrough for me as I didnt want to pay for short term in-bound liquidity. Setting up a channel with 1M sats and then sending half to my Kraken wallet to then be withdrawn on BTC L1 was a neat hack to allow myself a cheaper channel connected to the world and generate inbound capacity at the same time. Locking up 2M sats for a L connection to LQWD for example would have been pointless. I’d still need to pay someone for inbound channels (if not already in a welcoming community self-hosting Lightning users). Anyhow with all that resolved, now I still had some vanity problems I wanted to address to kind of future proof this build as I don’t really want to mess around with this for a bit: 1) how can I bring all my Lightning wallets and channels into one place for a portable view usable wherever and whenever 2) how do I ensure there is always a backup just in case my server or connection dies? The backup also needs to be with me at all times 3) how do I make sure we can scale this all up in case I suddenly get popular and need to accept a whole bitcoin or more in payments? The easiest BTCPayServer installation was actually with LunaNode and somehow that came with a default node manager called Ride The Lightning (RTL). It was easy to use and helped me understand how everything Lightning worked, but it doesn’t quite have Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) support the way I needed it so I could connect my live node directly to my Nostr app to send and receive zaps. No problem though, because the Zeus Wallet came in super handy and connected nicely with the configurations provided in the BTCPayServer > Server Settings > Services. You have to click on “get info” on each line to actually get why you need though if you want to avoid having to use the LunaNode VNC console where you can’t copy/paste anything from…. rabbit holes… anyway! Problem 1 solved. Meanwhile I’ve moved off of custodial wallets now (lots of appreciation for Adam and prior tips he’s provided though) except for Nostr and zap use. I’ve just included the custodial ones in Zues as well for a clean view and easy top up and off-load. With all that, I gained a strong appreciation of Alby Hub. I despised it before because it ate up all the channels I paid for every time I shut off my laptop, but after going through custom settings and putting my own Bitcoin into a channel, I was no longer subject to that breakage and fees problem. My laptop channel restored easily to my LunaNode! My laptop now serves as a great back up just in case the live server doesn’t work. It doesn’t have to be on all the time like the server, but it’s always ready to go just in case. Problem 2 solved! In future if when I do have to revisit this whole setup, I’m replacing RTL with Alby I think. Now for the final scale up virality problem, Zues offered one more solution there with their “Just-in-Time” (JIT) liquidity provisioning services. This one cost 9K sats and also offers a secondary LNURL-pay address where I can receive payments offline for 24 hours as well. Anything else to learn? Watchtowers… nah, outsource that shit. The End. Thanks for coming to me TED Talk.

In a K-shaped recovery, or even stagflation economy, wealth inequality really starts to show up in business as borrower-lender incentives no longer align. Any assets encumbered by debt loose value as collateral, and losses are multiplied. People quite often forget this fact under the assumption that home prices only go up. It's very clearly much worse for auto finance, except you usually pay down more of the asset much faster. I'm really advocating for including sound money in every partnership between different tax brackets to keep everyone better aligned and incentivized to operate and maintain relationships for the long haul. Bitcoin is just better business.

Another client, but weren’t you most supportive of knots @jimmysong ? View article →

fiat money is bid’ah, bitcoin is bid’ah, carpets in the mosque are bid’ah, madhabs are bid’ah, your car is bid’ah 🤡

Why people shilling MSTR and products like its a free lunch? Where’s the MSTR proof-of-reserve? Let’s just start there. All of MSTR BTC holdings is considered “collateral” don’t forget. Not even talking criminal stuff. Just controls and incentives. Saylor’s can hand over his shares to US treasury. SVB got eaten up on a short squeeze. These sorts of disclosures are actually in all the MSTR public documents so it’s fine if ppl read them like the Bitcoin Whitepaper. It’s not a free lunch, nothing is. View quoted note →

In other words, on average, MSTR and products will underperform Bitcoin by 2.05%. Trade it if you must guys, take your income where you can, just don’t HODL it forever like a retirement plan. You have other options to skip leverage and stay sovereign.

Gold was confiscated in 1933, Incomes were stolen in 1971, Homes were repossessed in 2008, Bitcoin’s real test is the 2040s.

Interest-bearing debt, even with the lowest possible rates, always carries one additional cost - your sovereignty.

View quoted note →

MSTR is important for Bitcoin adoption, rooted in a fiat/debt approach. It doesn’t create real value though. Sats per share increases with liabilities. Proof of Reserves are never published. Saylor’s controlling vote is both a blessing and a curse as it preserves vision but allows anything to change anytime, especially since most of the issued products are preferred stocks. It might beat Bitcoin in nice moments, but surprise Volker-style interest rate regimes might kill it. You need real cashflow assets to pair with a Bitcoin cost of capital, not “fight fiat ponzi with equity ponzi.”

MSTR is mostly just underperformance with a few nice moments, no cashflow either, just management fees for Saylor - credit where it’s due as it’s a key player in advancing Bitcoin, but the leverage isn’t really doing much.

Looking forward to this! View quoted note →

Nice message, to follow the teachings of Jesus is part and parcel of being Muslim. We submit, align and connect ourselves to the Most High. Bitcoin restores integrity in the money and frees us from Riba / Ribbis / Usury. Interest = Usury, for it incentivizes credit creation, and with it, reallocation of wealth without consent - a systemic injustice. We pray for the best in this life, and all that is to come.

greater good is best left to God View quoted note →

let's get some real economy bitcoin rolling

People think it's capitalism or socialism. They're both exactly the same. Mafia governments messing around with the money. Some just have more freedom and welfare, others less. Communism is a failed project. Capitalism is an ideal, only achieved when money is left alone. Safety nets and welfare exist within that if is charity 100% tax-deductible.

ChatGPT will fool you. Gotta talk to people. It proposed dealer floor plan & inventory finance is good short term cashflow with 6 month turnover... spoke to a real person about it and learned that while they bring solid yield, they're hardly returning principal until refinanced.

The real-economy alternative to STRC: 100-month real estate financing, with 25% contribution reserved in BTC instead of down payment. Result: low-cost homes, higher investor returns, regular cashflows, BTC as unit of account.

Y’all stop lurking and start posting, need to scale the dopamine on this network