Yeah there are elements of nostr that have carried themselves over from legacy social media & new elements like zapping. I think nostr culture is still evolving as we figure out what this thing can do & what we want it to be. There is also a constant feed of new people trying nostr out that bring their own way of interacting with it. I really like that people can be heard if people want to hear them - there's no algorithms to intercept messages. Nostr was built with the architecture of Bitcoin in mind. Now that it has been created, I don't think it can be stopped.

An individual's bitcoin is essentially protected by a complex secret that's hard to guess (12 or 24 randomly selected words). If I've secured that secret, it's near impossible to extract it from me. Obvious threats are torture/threats/coercion to get me to reveal my secret. At the end of the day, the attacker needs to get the owner to surrender their complex secret. This is a real threat & why many of us do not use our real identities when taking about bitcoin. We believe any amount of bitcoin will become significant with time & we know how that can motivate people.

The hot water heater was paid for by my credit card in fiat. I converted the fiat cost to sats out of interest & because it's what it essentially cost me (the opportunity cost). There are still few places to spend bitcoin here either - most people haven't touched bitcoin yet.

Is any money safe? Great question to ask - it leads on to - what is money?

I think we're at the end stages of a fiat currency experiment. I think all fiat currencies will lose most of their value this decade & that people will look for an alternative way to trade & save. Some will choose gold, silver &/or bitcoin, while others will accept the CBDC replacement. Barter will always occur, but it is terribly inefficient & slow for trading. I think it will occur but that bitcoin will be more preferred & readily accepted for trading.

I would encourage you to look at money through a neutral lens. What are the properties of money & how does bitcoin stack up against them? It's weakest aspect is how old it is (only 14 years) & it's level of acceptance. To me that is just indicative of how early we are on bitcoin. The future is uncertain & there is a chance a better option will be settled upon (I just can't see it though).

People tend to settle on a single form of money & that tends to also be the hardest money to create. For the last 5000 years humans have settled on gold as money, but it has a lot of flaws (transport, storage & verification primarily). Time will tell what happens, but it might just pay to have a little bitcoin in case it catches on.