My Freedom Tech Year End Review

2024 started off horribly for me. At the end of 2023, the canadian government shut down my bitcoin business, Nodeless. We were just hitting our stride with thousands of users and processing tens of millions of sats per month in e-commerce payments. After over a year of development work and over 2 BTC of investment, I got completely rug pulled.

My main AI business wasn't doing too well either. VC money flooded in, and services that I offered since 2018 were now being given away by startups looking to scam their next round of funding. My income dropped about 60%.

I took a break from nostr, took a trip to Calgary, Alberta to contemplate, plan and reflect on what the hell I was going to do with my life.

I visited a mountain range called "The Three Sisters" and just being in the presence of this incredible sight gave me the clarity I needed. This pristine beauty was carved out over millions of years by immense violence and energy beneath the surface. If I want to play a role in building a beautiful, free internet, I have to be willing to take the heat and put in the work.

The Birth of Bitvora

After this trip I got to work right away on my new freedom tech company, nostr:npub13tv0rauv3cgevcjzu298eg2ujd4j82ve6haer0lyu3rjuttw4a2s6mgea0

My goal with this company is to go way beyond bitcoin e-commerce payments, it is to build a beautiful internet that can last generations, just like the The Three Sisters. That meant more focus on open source & freedom tech - including nostr.

Having learned from my mistakes running Nodeless, the first product from our Bitcoin branch was a Bitcoin/Lightning API, not just to receive payments, but to send them, too. We also can't ignore that governments are part of the game we're playing and there is no glory in being a martyr. It is still my thesis that for Bitcoin to be successful, it must also become a medium of exchange. It has already proven itself to be the best store of value humanity has ever seen, and thousands of companies have already flooded the exchange market, but hardly anyone is tackling solving the medium of exchange issue. The majority of exchanges, websites and wallets still don't support lightning, and we intend to fix that.

Bitvora Nostr Relays

Nostr continues to be the only hope for true freedom of speech on the internet. Blue checks are a joke, and the only bigger joke is Bluesky. And while nostr clients had come a long way from when we were all using astral ninja, relays seemed to all be powered by strfry and have very limited functionality out of the box, and a common mantra in the space was "smart client, dumb relay"

This never sat right with me. Why would we offload all the compute to the phone when the server is the natural place for it? Why would we ask relay operators to write their own plugins to get the functionality they wanted on strfry?

And so I got to work building out every kind of relay I could think of to make it as easy as possible for anyone to run their own relay with the exact functionality they wanted. Within a year, Bitvora launched the following relays:

- Team Relay: a relay for your company or team, based on Nostr Address domains

- Fren Relay: a private chat relay for your frens on nostr

- WoT Relay: the first open source relay to filter spam using a Web of Trust

- SW2: a simple with whitelisting relay

- Haven: the most powerful personal relay + blossom server on nostr

- AlgoRelay: nostr's first algorithmic relay that serves personalized feeds for every npub

- Aegis: the fastest subscription relay + blossom server

Based on some preliminary and quick data gathering, approximately 20% of the nostr network is now powered by nostr:npub13tv0rauv3cgevcjzu298eg2ujd4j82ve6haer0lyu3rjuttw4a2s6mgea0 Relays.

I made one ask to nostr for donations to help cover some costs of relays, and hundreds of you donated to me. The outpouring of support literally had me in tears. I couldn't believe it. I am even tearing up while I type this. I had never experienced support like this in my life and felt so valued. I can't thank you guys enough. Maybe it's cheesy but that was one of the best days of my life and I will never forget it.

I was even blessed to receive my first ever open source grant from nostr:npub10pensatlcfwktnvjjw2dtem38n6rvw8g6fv73h84cuacxn4c28eqyfn34f to work on AlgoRelay and I plan to deliver a truly game changing experience to nostr in 2025.

Nostr Content Bots

To make nostr even more sticky, it is my goal to get more of the content you want directly on nostr without having to rely on other social media platforms.

My first experiment with nostr bots was making my own bot, nostr:npub1utx0ggvqc45sr0grmkmuymfhw54h4mxq5kdylvk4nnhagn4e9ywswqex7s . He's a very stupid bot, he just goes around saying gm to people and sending zaps. He mostly just annoyed people.

The next bot was one people seemed to enjoy more, called nostr:npub1r3kty2vkh247jgdu63wgkcsnktdtp9hc3e962eudg0getgvxs4gsz4uytc . This bot reports all leveraged liquidations over 1 BTC. If you haven't followed it yet, check it out for some serious schadenfreude.

The most useful bot by far is NewsBot, which is currently reporting news from over 45 sources (and growing) and has shared over 55,000 articles on nostr since inception. If you're looking for news on nostr, here are some sources NewsBot is sharing:

- nostr:npub1n3ws0yesjtk3pye77t85kqr0m4m7n3mw603yet0fszv0uqtk6alqvmwvft

- nostr:npub1n3wsgqs0qfaqt557u0m428jsgvpnuwa4w68sdrvenvylsm5g8g5s0xsea7

- nostr:npub1n3wsatjhsy9kj2udeuu4s3xanyxnemrv0et7qsh2mzxtsy083sqsre3acj

- nostr:npub1n3wsc5w500uuh0sjpkany47danqrdrqu6g5gvcxh6ugavcm70w2sx4mc6c

- nostr:npub1n3wshl4uv4hhdczj7h3739980z0hhtq968ltg4s3ha3dllrx55xs3vhuj9

- nostr:npub1n3wsw9y2c2rm0gjj7ath0nrftsjwrhlk0eueaa8qcm6zj7vty4mqx98jtg

- nostr:npub1n3wsqmygczxcm5ladpmkmu3ljm4www7ky4fq0qpzj6wlfc8ya6msq40exx

- nostr:npub1n3wsamf0er3d5tgjq4kz6qmr43arycysc0emjwhmz4erw406543qlm4ueg

- nostr:npub1n3wskhrx4q4w0z2q28qnf6mwkyq2vqntq0lmdtvlq8tkglzk8hus9mst7l

- nostr:npub1n3wsqgcgsjpllhmtke5s4xuaan8ylpntkt6s8rmjvujcqarzq4xq5u6v8v

- nostr:npub1n3wsku2nwq97el556aq2dzyyjcwu32ztzvny068zkkfl8g8ptf8skszfnl

- nostr:npub1n3wsckgal6qqy5renf7pccm0sv2xj4n8wjnp9yds30fupe8q37uqv77ykq

- nostr:npub1n3wsqnk8kag5270fa4lmgzan2xytyvcyfnm33cy5a68umxhr608sa7v2ss

- nostr:npub1n3wsqe64jzqay9kr5k7ze9qfv0at45ws49e2jgzzwlgfa76rrpks85llsn

- nostr:npub1n3wslkezwpgafg0h4p3w9sjtsmmpljskgf45xtr8yeuv6sqkanjsjrrv5k

- nostr:npub1n3wsv24ktds5m2zrjtts5f6yay0wrftcupq3wy2ry3yd52m89d0s97tyzp

- nostr:npub1n3wshnz9vqyzf2ky9qj7vzaeu8levpew2g7jnas04stlx3u8ee0qv5n46l

- nostr:npub1n3wsz8egcpttwy300nwqgrux9cxpnyvka68ud2sp0ktu9lzmhxps9pe7hs

- nostr:npub1n3wsv62vvk3jqet9paz5qn0fzmf62vct5vresj4v3u3y94gkcpyq4ljy30

- nostr:npub1n3wskys0qxm49ykj527r99etlyvv3hvfyl42vv7n7chpsx3f9vnsmtpu6q

- nostr:npub1n3wskd0rlmclhwvvv202ygnqwfcgqaunnwjdxvvuaup6etfh3qxs8e976j

- nostr:npub1n3ws64ku9dpxps0fttuc2vl8kwhm74wlq3m9d9r65avrf3eamm9qldu6jv

- nostr:npub1n3wsa7d9mmcdjz7m0z6dxe6n39ahyf0e9yth7rg8qp69xrzunxyq9q3vxw

- nostr:npub1n3wsx7wav3u7dntgut5k26wk49xyfstyhr8d7fh6lqnvaxncurusmg2dad

- nostr:npub1n3wsfwpz8475tv8jswxzxs0890t2949wpwhcq364vlwetddjevkq7dlsgq

- nostr:npub1n3ws3vkse3cp6qtdfd5uquwk7xc6qwgsfuyd4ts3wrrv4pnlvlqsu575az

- nostr:npub1n3ws3065p2yl8epfg5j9vaxua9tz2ln3u5q3x6csj8a5avc2ee7q4n6npj

- nostr:npub1n3wsma04n8u4073tp55uulpklvkaq5tvh66mex7y5st5wsv0lj6qxe8j8w

- nostr:npub1n3wsp9dr82n4xqx99v4xzj5wf9j5rkag3nv6xsmdpdenyw0tedps3sjgzd

- nostr:npub1n3wszy2l5z963ma7ty3tm4phh4cjkevsgtzs6v2y8wpww5scrsgsfkymcl

- nostr:npub1n3wscee3vus2ys2dmmketyjqmp9xtxss2qzq2l6mmk6fz7d7s9nstr232t

- nostr:npub1n3wsw9fjt9dy3ntnevcpvztmh99vuw5vflmp6axac2jxz5dczwvs9jx7gu

- nostr:npub1n3wsmndj98uye7t7sdlz8d6nxyf75f7x50j8tvqh95nqm7hltzgqk9lpfx

- nostr:npub1n3ws0v49fxlzfk9vxm89g5j6x9f0y096dzxxyayc6smxjs8r9q4qgv04pf

- nostr:npub1n3wsf0f8449c5st7pjyfc8qf5g67rw05ypu2ym2l43d3teqwx9us8e00dz

- nostr:npub1n3wsajped2jr8ch9yw0sgp6w09kf392t74pmm5mqmyruk08gnrcqdlmzx9

- nostr:npub1n3wscqr22uqm0s4wu509qjgwfnzeefxf40unwpyuw6wnf4dwuheq9mtrxd

- nostr:npub1n3wslcjxhq9uxycg923ahd8cyaz8289g67vsrhr57l4knwag449svlzklz

- nostr:npub1n3wsad800d23jsjprxzgssxp69r2um0rersqgl6z2vggphk9p35slyc33n

- nostr:npub1n3wsva9ghneruc864yga3p9057xyg8j3tw32fayqah8fkxq5p8squrtreh

- nostr:npub1n3ws8dqmdvff5ve6v2fa45h6h003wc8lcfwsc7qwmz322f223t9s8clq80

- nostr:npub1n3ws27uu3t4ckgpl9cduhxqk6rw6addg5p4p9pnt78ttmj8ycx2qtaex80

Standing on the Shoulders of a Giant

What started as just a buddy to play Starcraft with, nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6 has quickly become a mentor and close friend. Nothing I built this year would be possible without him. The Bitvora Bitcoin/Lightning API actually has amazing tech under the hood that I could have never understood, let alone built without his guidance. Every single relay I built uses either the Khatru framework or the go-nostr package, both built by Fiatjaf.

I cannot stress enough that without Fiatjaf, I'd be lost right now. Thank you, sir.

Working with the Best

I also also so blessed to work with some of the smartest bitcoiners in the space everyday at Bitvora. Many of you know nostr:npub1clk6vc9xhjp8q5cws262wuf2eh4zuvwupft03hy4ttqqnm7e0jrq3upup9 already, probably from his based takes and taste in music, but many of you might not know the man knows the industry inside and out and has insane knowledge in business and life. Love you brother and feel so honored to work with you everyday.

Another bitcoiner you probably don't know is nostr:npub1zd4wx0w8an2pv0g4atufy8p2ckm697gaqldm80s7qdyu4apkfy4qsq87vw , who I've been working with for the last 3 years on a variety of bitcoin and AI projects, including nodeless and bitvora. One of the best product minds in Bitcoin, he keeps me in check and makes sure the products we build are solid, bug free and delivered on time. Pavel you are a god among men and I appreciate the fuck out of you brother.

2025 and Beyond

I love Mike Tyson's quote "Everyone has a plan to fight me until I punch them in the face". I know this feeling all too well as I mentioned earlier. So while I do have some goals for 2025, I'm more ready than ever for this fight for a free internet and ready to be nimble and pivot on a dime if needed. That said, at a high level, you can expect:

- Huge leap forward in AlgoRelay, giving users choice to control algorithms like the internet has never seen before

- Building more Bitcoin products to make doing business in sats easier than ever

- More of the content you love from all over the internet, directly on nostr

- More ways for you to control your own money, your own data, your own destiny on the internet

If you made it this far in this note, you are a true psychopath, and I love you. I'm all in on nostr and bitcoin and hope I can be worthy of your support again next year.

Happy New Year Nostr and gfy!