Imagine where the world would be if there were no shitcoins distracting people from the bitcoin journey
Discussion
It's a hero's journey. Every Bitcoiner must travel through the underbelly of the beast, fight the shitcoin demons, to eventually resurface as hardened Bitcoiners.
Yes 🎯
Shitcoins exist because people saw bitcoin go from zero to one and thought they missed it so they tried to find the next bitcoin.
🎯
I thought ICO's would replace the stock market in 2017. I was so dumb.
Same lmao I thought the stock market would be built on crypto blockchains 🤣
Part of me thinks the government officials are just as confused as I was ten years ago. It's as if they read books like Digital Gold and The Age of Cryptocurrency, but haven't got around to the reading The Bitcoin Standard yet.
It also doesn't seem that anyone in the mainstream media is aware of the lightning network yet.
You are correct. I was even talking to a guy yesterday who works at a crypto media company and he had no idea about Lightning or Nostr.
It makes sense. There's less than 5,000 bitcoin in public lightning nodes. 
According to nostr:npub19tcpurtt6xulhw0r6sc404j9jraj0h8me2lzs7z2tqewz7l0hpas59nlea, our homegrown nostr:npub1hxfkcs9gvtm49702rmwn2aeuvhkd2w6f0svm4sl84g8glhzx5u9srk5p6t group makes up over 800 of that!
Where is this group?
Hop in, it’s fun.
Nodestrich was started in January 2023 by myself and nostr:npub1rcr8h76csgzhdhea4a7tq5w5gydcpg9clgf0cffu6z45rnc6yp5sj7cfuz as a way to find as many existing and aspiring noderunners as possible. It actually predates zapping on nostr:npub18m76awca3y37hkvuneavuw6pjj4525fw90necxmadrvjg0sdy6qsngq955 and many other clients!
The goal was to help more users learn how to use bitcoin and Lightning self-custodially. We saw how many people were using nostr:npub1hcwcj72tlyk7thtyc8nq763vwrq5p2avnyeyrrlwxrzuvdl7j3usj4h9rq, and knew that would end badly for a lot of people. It did, when they left the United States less than a year later.
Two years on, it's grown to over 275 nodes (it was once a bit higher, but nostr:npub19tcpurtt6xulhw0r6sc404j9jraj0h8me2lzs7z2tqewz7l0hpas59nlea purged the inactive ones) and we're now the third largest community listed there.
Lightning Noderunning is a team sport...communities are great to provide and seek support. More communities the better! Makes the network stronger. 🤝💪🤙
I don’t think reading is their strong suit 😂
Did you fall for Patrick Byrne’s tZERO pitch?
No. I never even heard of that one. I bought 1 Ethereum on Coinbase for $11.00 and Litecoin for $33 for no other reason than the fact thay they were listed on Coinbaase.
I started trading ICO's after the bcash fork. I lost all the bcash by sending it to a bitcoin address.
It was something like a corporate blockchain for the stock market built on Ethereum. Glad I didn’t invest in that, I don’t think it ever went anywhere.
I was part of a trading group with some friends so I blew a sad amount of BTC on some ETH that went into an ICO pool and mostly all dropped to zero, except the one I sold too soon that would have given me a 1000x.
FML.
Brutal
tbh
the hero's journey is one of illumination and slaying the demons of ignorance *in ones own mind*
there are plenty of maxis who think theyve accomplished that just by autistically latching onto Bitcoin groupthink.
they haven't and its detrimental to themselves and the greater community.
When I first started to understand bitcoin, it really put me at peace. I felt so happy and optimistic about the future. It was euphoric. Michael Saylor was like a prophet. But as I became exposed to some of the other concerns, like privacy, I began to worry about governments trying to attack us. Like what happened with Roman Sterlingov. Chainalysis is a real problem. The samourai team is still not free. And Saylor looks like a real spook to me. I began to notice my euphoria and optimism for the future becoming dark. Then I read mandibles and felt humbled. I am trying to balance the optimism and pessimism but it’s hard. I naturally lean toward pessimism and I kind of understand why some Bitcoiners ignore the problems. This SBR is a problem because of the civil asset forfeiture side. I’ve already been depressed about the future of humanity for so long that I feel so exhausted going down more rabbit holes. So I can’t really blame a bitcoiner who is in his 50s that finally found some hope and wants to ignore the negative stuff. But I can’t do that. Ultimately, advocacy isn’t going to save anyone from government attacks. It’s going to be their own actions: learning about the dangers of KYC and other things like that. Creating a plan to manage those risks and being prepared for the worst is our best bet right now. As Bitcoin becomes more mainstream, it will inevitably bring in more retarded people. We can’t save everyone. The ones that will be saved are the ones that seek out the answers on their own.
There's a natural evolution from getting Bitcoin to getting Monero.
Now are we Bitcoin OGs smarter than everybody else?Unlikely. Are our senses more sharp? Maybe. But in the end it's time in the market aka experience that shapes our perceptions of risks.
It's also why you hardly find a Bitcoin OG from 2009-2012 that doesn't own and understand the value proposition of Monero.
I am in Bitcoin for 15 years and it took me 5 years to understand the value proposition of Monero. So I am not mad at anybody who takes their time before they start appreciating the hard lessons earlier Bitcoins tried to pass on to the freshmen.
Same is true for the use of self-custody. It was clear after Bitcoinica in 2011 that CEX are not a safe store for your Bitcoins and never will be due to many different things. Still it's a constant up hill battle. How many more CEX need to fail before people learn? Instead any new generation comes in ignoring the basic principals taught to them, insisting on learning the hard way.
Last year you insulted me as a shitcoiner and I told you, that you just need some more time to understand. Now we're there. Welcome to the dark side.
That really isn't about pessimism but providing the tools that give hope.
Idk about that lol I’ll never give up bitcoin. But I will use whatever privacy tools i feel that i need. I also don’t remember ever insulting you but i also don’t know who you are because you have no picture or name 😂
I'd look into what's the cause of the feeling exhausted. Optimism done properly will ignite something in you that will seem like effortless work.
Really good thread.
I think it’s just seeing people like Roman get attacked by the government in such a vicious manner with very weak evidence against him. It could easily happen to any one of us on nostr.
I don't know enough about it to comment on it.
For me, the greatest tragedy and loss in bitcoin is the one of Mircea Popescu. I wish more people read Trilema. Maybe it would be less statist cucks cheering for sbr today.
Peter McCormack talked to his lawyers about it on his podcast maybe two years ago. It’s pretty depressing and makes you really fear what governments can and will do to innocent people just to push their agenda or send a message to the public.
Anyone who has been to prison, jail or at least in the court of law has at least a little bit of an idea about what the gov is. You only fear what you don't understand. Ultimately, bitcoin finds its rightful owners. I don't take seriously people who think the gov is weak for those are just the front bureaucrats meant to prolong the grift.
great recap of Roman's case by his lawyers on this Monerotalk episode
I don't see groupthink affecting Bitcoiners as much as people in other spaces.
Everything seems to be an argument; SBR, Saylor & MSTR, Ordinals, mining centralisation v decentralisation, ossification, ect.
Even when it comes to politics outside of the protocol itself, people are arguing on here all the time.
Some haven't even figured out Batman is better than Superman...
Groupthink, to me, is what people do when they all agree on something they do not understand or haven't thought through deeply.
Personally, I don't see that nearly as much with Bitcoiners, as I do with any one else.
FWIW, I like that you still have your Santa hat on.
I had to search up what FWIW means 😂
We’re getting old bro it’s ok. We have technology to sustain our aging minds.
It wasn't in my dictionary, so I had to dial up the internet to find out about it. You learn something new everyday.
Good ol’ dial up. I dial 1-800-AOL-CHINA for my facts. Correct every time.
I tried calling, but I don't think I can use my home phone when connected to the world wide web.
😂😂😂 this too. My mom would call her friend while I was online and kick me off. So many fights happened
Dial-up was really something. I used to try and watch Naruto episodes on YouTube that way. Would take an hour to load 5 minutes of the episode. Kids today don’t know the struggle 😂
I remember downloading the original X-Men movie on Kazaa. It took a full week to download.
One day, it was at 99% before going to school..I was super excited, knowing I could finally watch the movie when I got back home.
When I pressed play, it was a goddamn 2hr long gay threesome video 😂🤣
Kids don't know the struggle
That’s actually cursed lmaoooo that was og internet trolling.
lol!! I was deep in p2p myself but wow would that have pissed me off. I had all the school computers as nodes for p2p and doing Folding@Home.
i got hooked on a some game that was on a BBS in Hong Kong.
phone bill was legit several hundred dollars.
so that was my birthday present that year.
Oh man I remember downloading a VCD of the matrix from gnutella, 2000ish. It was like seeing the future 👀
Never change 😂
no doubt it's a greater social condition.
👆great point. I’ve been muted by a couple Bitcoiners for my political views. Been toning back the arguments because I realized it doesn’t ever really lead anywhere. I can’t think of many people I’ve been able to change their mind on anything by arguing. Usually it pushes them to maintain their current position more stubbornly.
