I don't understand zaps. Why would I need a financial incentive to post my thoughts? And why would I want to read a person's thoughts if they are only posting them because they are being paid to?

The SBR discussion is complex

A) We should want American citizens, families, communities, and businesses to hold BTC, not the state

But…

B) It is unrealistic to expect that Bitcoin grows into a global currency without government adoption

Government interest (as opposed to ignorance or dismissal or attacks) is absolutely a signal that Bitcoin is evolving, growing, and succeeding

If Bitcoin was dying no one would be talking about an SBR (obviously)

SBR advocacy *will probably* hasten the transition to the Bitcoin standard

But such advocacy is also fraught with traps of centralization and government shitcoining (as we are watching play out)

IMO it’s ok to not have a black and white take on this

Probably more important than SBR advocacy (which will happen anyway if NGU continues) is civil liberties advocacy to ensure Americans can use Bitcoin privately, self-custodially, and p2p and to ensure American companies and developers can build tools that enable this reality

Intrigued in whether there is a difference of opinion on Nostr v Twitter.

Ukraine / Russia…thoughts?

Musk / Trump handling of the situation…thoughts?

gm, blue skies ✊🗽

Yes. They have to catch up from the last block that was synced. That's one of the major complaints about Monero is the sync times.

If you use the same keys on a new wallet you have to sync all the way back from wallet creation date.

Last block synced is one of the few pieces of data that nodes can see.

Why is it a terrible argument? People are more likely to use the easier tool. If it's too hard they wont do it. The facts are there on your own github. If you further separated non-custodial LSPs like Phoenix that can see your transactions as well it would be even more obvious.

So are you saying if Lightning wasn't easier to use privately more users wouldn't use it that way? Of course they would!

Do you expect the average user to use PGP to find someones public keys and manually encrypt every time they want to send someone a message? What if I showed them something like Signal and said everything was done for them by default? How popular do you expect each one would be? The answer is glaringly obvious if you're honest.

If Monero was just as hard to use privately as Lightning I would expect the same consequence.

damn bro all that work for 21k sats, good job no one can find the sender's node of this zap, meanwhile he's receiving it on coinos (custodial) so you guys basically re-invented PayPal, visa, mc, alipay, etc

Just sent a Stripe payment to an online ecommerce, will send 100x to whoever finds my origin bank!

My interpretation of USDT over lighthing news, correct me if I’m wrong in my logic:

Pros:

- Cheaper fees for USDT transfers. People who rely on USDT benefit.

- More value brought onto the lightning network

- Ultimately more value and liquidity ochain as it’s easier to move on the same blockchain over different ones

- LESS value for the other shitcoin chains. Now that they dont’ facilitate USDT, what’s the point of them?

- Better privacy over wide open chains.

- Off-chain - no need to wait at all if there were any wait times to begin with (I don’t know because I don’t use it).

Cons:

- Has USDT verified reserves? If not, this is a liability

- Potential for increased regulatory scrutiny and targetting

- More attention to lightning network enabled privacy if there is any

Net: probably a good thing - saying it cautiously.

Curious what you think?

So the Trump's 'crypto* EO is out, and I'm seeing lots of weak bitches cry that its a shitcoin reserve.

Given the fact that the proposed digital assets stockpile would possibly be built on *seized* coins, let me give you a quick introduction to forfeiture law, and why crying for daddy to please please make its pile of flying horseshit "bitcoin only" *literally* the most retarded thing you could be wishing for, ever.

Forfeiture law – or civil asset forfeiture, to be precise – is this fun little game the government plays in which it does not have to accuse you of a crime to confiscate your property.

Instead of accusing you of a crime, the Government claims that the asset itself has facilitated a crime, and can therefore be seized by the Government.

In civil asset forfeiture, there is no innocent until proven guilty. To get your property back, *you* have to prove that the Government is wrong – which turns out pretty complicated seeing how its impossible to prove a negative.

Civil asset forfeiture results in cases that are not filed against a person, but filed against the property itself. This results in fun little cases like US vs. Binance Account XYZ, or US vs. 123 Wilmington Drive.

To extend this idea to Bitcoin, in a civil forfeiture case, the US Government is in theory able to seize *any bitcoin* that has *ever* come out of a criminal transaction.

Made some bitcoin for selling a service? Bought some bitcoin on a P2P exchange? Unless you checked that the UTXO you received has never touched a criminal transaction in its entire history, your coins can be confiscated, and there's pretty much nothing you can do about it.

As Cato Institute points out in its piece on civil forfeiture reform, forfeiture law is routinely misused to enrich the Government – Philadelphia, for example, has seized over 1000 homes, over 3000 vehicles, and over $44M in cash over an 11 year period. In 2010, the city tried to seize *an entire fucking house* because a woman's grandson sold less than $200 of weed out of the basement.

If you think that taxes are bad, civil asset forfeiture is straight up evil.

It doesn't matter whether you participated in a crime. It doesn't matter whether you know that someone else participated in a crime. If it involved your property, even if said property was fully legally acquired, the Government will come and take it.

Civil asset forfeiture is the most insane Government funding technique that is out there, and you most definitely do not want this declared as a strategic means to pump the Government's bitcoin bags.

You are *literally* asking the Government to steal your coins with a practice that *every* libertarian advocate wants to see abolished.

Doing an #introduction 2.0

Since my first time around, I had 2 followers…

My name is max, I am a photographer based in Newport Beach, Southern California. I grew up in Lake Tahoe, Ca.

I shoot surfing, skiing, lifestyle, and whatever else I find interesting or someone’s pays me to shoot.

I love it. It’s my job and hobby.

I live to be outside, either surfing or skiing or hangin. Don’t care as long as I’m not stuck in an office.

Sports marketing is another thing I’m weirdly passionate about and love making content for athletes, as I used to be a competitive skier.

Big fan of this community. I’m a little new and still figuring it all out, but freedom and autonomy are things I value greatly, and it seems to me that these are pillars here, so that’s exciting.

Below is some of my work and a photo of me

Cheers!

#introductions

#photography

#artstr

#surfing

#skiing