The UN just approved the UN Cybercrime Treaty, a drastic global surveillance law that gives UN member states the ability to freeze assets in other countries

I'm too tired to explain, so here's an overview 👇 longer post coming next week

Zap so I can hire help

The IRS just finalized its new broker rule, finding that control is not necessary to be considered a broker subject to IRS reporting requirements.

It's a nightmare for every non-custodial exchange and swap provider.

Built a website to let users swap between currencies? You're a broker under IRS reporting requirements.

Built a mobile app to let users swap between currencies? You're a broker under IRS reporting requirements.

Built a browser extension to let people swap between currencies? You're a broker under IRS reporting requirements.

As long as you have the ability to collect fees on a trade, or have the ability to affect the terms under which a trade is provided, or a whole bunch of other nonsense, you're a broker, which makes pretty much any non-custodial exchange or swap provider a broker.

While wallets without swap or exchange features are excluded by the broker rule, it's a taste of what's to come for BSA reporting requirements for non-custodial software.

INB4: "bUt ThEy CaN'T FoRcE mY nOn-CuStOdIaL wAlLeT tO Do aNyThiNg"

That's right they can't. But they can force the people building the software and services. And if they don't, they'll go to jail.

Unless challenged, the rule goes into effect in 2027.

My Nostr predictions for 2025

Exactly one year ago I published my Nostr predictions for 2024. Some came true, but most were, shall we say, aspirational, and, if we want to be generous, directionally correct. Happy to continue in the same vein and go out on a limb for 2025. Here we go, ordered by likelihood of coming true:

1. Primal will become much, MUCH better. Primal 3.0 will be a bigger leap forward than Primal 2.0 was. We will surprise everyone by the features, speed, level of polish, and ease of use.

2. Many other Nostr clients will impress by their progress in a relatively short time frame. If I had to pick one, I have a really good feeling about Highlighter.

3. Way more bitcoiners will join Nostr. While we currently only have a small subset of bitcoin enjoyers on Nostr, the new features and unique content will make Nostr irresistible to anyone interested in bitcoin.

4. Bitcoin-adjacent communities will start to discover and join Nostr. This will include health & wellness, financial twitter, human rights, libertarians, and other communities. As a result, the network will grow and become more formidable.

5. Spammers gonna spam. With the growth of the network, spammers will return in force. They will be sophisticated and relentless, putting all of our spam mitigation services to the test.

6. The Blossom protocol will make media hosting on Nostr much more robust and resistant to censorship.

7. Long form content will start to hit its stride on Nostr. This includes textual long form content (blogs, essays, articles, etc.) as well as long form video content.

8. Multiple Nostr projects will find effective and ethical ways to monetize, marking a watershed moment for the protocol. We will witness the formation of the first cohort of real businesses on Nostr, signaling the inevitable changing of the guard and the eventual extinction of the Legacy Web.

9. Nostr will experience a glimpse of what a ‘suddenly’ mainstream adoption moment looks like.

10. By the end of the year, everyone - even the haters - will realize that Nostr is going to win.

Bitcoin is the only financial network that allows anyone to move billions of dollars in value for less than a dollar.

Safe to say Dominical provided today with beautiful waves🇨🇷

#surf

Let me know if you want more surfing edits or one wave posts?