USD down 30% against BTC since this note 😏
The surveillance state strikes again. Am being forced to install a "smart" meter by my energy company. It will send my energy use to them every 30 minutes.
There doesn't seem to be any way to refuse as they're claiming my perfectly good current meter is no longer "certified", and only smart meters are available to replace it.
The UK government is fining these companies if they don't get enough customers to switch. Will allow them to penalise me for wanting to make a cup of tea when it isn't windy enough. Yet another problem created to solve a problem created by government.
The company I work at just unveiled it's master strategy for 2024: we want to grow revenue and retain customers 🤯
Man I have to try so hard to not let my cynicism come through too obviously 😅
Wow, incontrovertible evidence that the Federal Reserve would buy defaulted US treasuries at their non-default price in order to preserve liquidity. Cc nostr:npub1a2cww4kn9wqte4ry70vyfwqyqvpswksna27rtxd8vty6c74era8sdcw83a
This is a great tweet.
I'd take your observation further though ...
This is most wars in history. WW1 clearly more so, though.
Debasing the money to fund wars that were actually just feuds between elites goes at least as far back as the Romans.
Funny, a lot of bitcoiners will say they hate government regulation.
Well, without environmental regulation in the U.S., these landfill gas bitcoin mining projects would probably not exist, as we’re hearing on this spaces (landfills are being told they need to reduce methane emissions by gov’t regulators). In other countries where there aren’t these same regulations, it’s much lower on their list of priorities!
Just making an observation don’t shoot the messenger!
Cc nostr:npub13lkyycj8s3da6fhndtj0wd6s3s2ahmq86s7wrruvzd4tnc66cgfqn4lpsy 
This is a bad argument. You're trying to say that regulation is good because in this one edge case it creates a business opportunity for some Bitcoin miners, and people are too happy about it?
It's possible that bitcoiners can be enthusiastic about something incentived by regulation because it helps to offset the mountain of other regulatory threats it faces. Also possible that people just like the idea of using waste in an innovative way.
It's not a gotcha about being hypocritical about regulation.
Was at the London transport museum and there was an exhibit on all the private "turnpike" (toll) roads in London 200 years ago - basically all the best roads.
So ... I guess we already know who will build the roads.
So if the USD isn't redeemable for anything by other countries, but the main leverage the US has is military protection ...
... then it must be in the US interest for there to be more wars and a need for the US military. No one's going to abandon the Dollar at the same time as needing Uncle Sam to protect them from Iran/China/Russia/NK.
Youve just got to make a plate of cheese, cold meats and boiled eggs. Only edible things in most hotel buffets.
Just realized Phoenix Wallet doesn't rotate the swap-in address. Was about to send some coinjoined utxos - luckily I noticed :/
ACINQ's explanation about this not adding much privacy since a rotated address would still be linked to the channel makes a lot of sense though. Seems like this will be improved once they move to taproot addresses.
Just got asked to share my location on a Mac, and have now learned that it uses relative wifi signal strength to know where I am. Man it's hard to get rid of all this surveillance tech!
The fact that Elon Musk's title is "Technoking" and Jack Dorsey's title is "Block Head", speaks volumes.
One is about ego, and one is not. But more importantly we can see the difference in their actions more than titles from there.
Elon wants to build Twitter or the shitty name "X" into the next WeChat, with himself as the leader. He has literally said this. I used to be able to report bots on Twitter easily for many years, but now I have to show a drivers' ID to report someone that copies my persona even as a 600k following paid blue check, and so I don't bother anymore, and therefore bots proliferate. And if you don't pay for reach, you get devalued. Only in the past few months have I had to show my ID to report my countless bot copiers if I want to report them on Twitter/X. And so their rate of removal has decreased. If my Nym differs a bit from my name, well LET'S FILE SOME TPS REPORTS!!!! (which wasn't previously the case). And so as bots proliferate, and as Musk fails to contain bots as he promised he would and bragged about with memes, he will instead reference his own self-created bot problem as a reason to require even more ID requirements and try to build his US version of the Chinese Communist Party WeChat app. This is exactly what governments do. In my professional opinion, after careful consideration, Elon Musk can ::check notes:: politely go fuck himself, and those who worship him should reconsider what exactly they show blind obedience toward.
Meanwhile, nostr:npub1sg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q0uf63m helps improve the Bitcoin network and the Nostr network and has put capital into them in various ways, and Bitcoin and Nostr have no leader. The fact that Bitcoin and Nostr have no leader, is specifically why Jack puts time and capital into them. He funds many different companies, and for bitcoin, Cash App has been among the networks to incorporate Lightning early. Yes, Cash App deals with domestic compliance issues. But they are trying, and they are early. Their network can connect to many others, like an email provider using SMTP to connect to many others. They're open, they're trying. And now they are making Bitkey, which helps with self custody. They're certainly not a directional enemy of freedom in the way that Twitter/X has been.
Companies that incorporate open networks with various levels of compliance trump companies that purposely don't adopt open networks and instead push new ID requirements, in my book.
+10 Jack
-10 Elon
Any day of the week.
Elon is a visionary, but supremely ego-driven even if his stated goals in other domains sound noble.
But I don't think it makes sense to compare these two as if we have to choose allegiance to one multi-company CEO. Jack is great (and I love his commitment to open networks), but there are aspects of Elon that I admire (although don't personally aspire to) even if he's ruining Twitter.
I know it's a workaround, but Bitrefill is actually amazing. Great way to spend sats almost anywhere you want.
At some point (some of) the vendors will realize how much gift card volume is coming from Bitcoiners, and try provide it as a payment option directly. Using Bitrefill is still a strong message, and better than selling at an exchange to pay in fiat via a bank card.
So does everyone on the "right" agree that we actually need censorship now because some morons shouted "jihad"?
Something tells me that the BBC is trying to discredit Milei. Very subtle 😂
Nice essay - I fully agree with it, although admit I didn't have the courage to avoid accessing those gated privileges since I needed to travel to see family. My traffic fine is just a tiny and trivial example but still a perfect fit for what you articulate.
Great example of where free speech advocates need to speak up.
Detestable to be glorifying violence against innocent people. But to then threaten to "hunt" these protestors is the root of why we have these conflicts to begin with: governments abusing their power to punish those they don't like.
Apparently we're trying to cancel Orwell now.
"Wow, this is some dystopian Orwellian shit"
"Orwell was a misogynist though, I can't believe you take that stuff seriously"
I think maybe I didn't make my point clearly enough. I'm not suggesting a revolution because I go a traffic fine ... I mean, what?!
I'm saying the incident is an analogy for how governments usually don't have our best interests in mind, and even weaponise compliance to turn us against each other. Replace traffic fine with lack of access due to no COVID vaccine etc. The stated intention is "the good of all" or something, but in reality the goal is control, and many unwittingly help the government/mafia enforce it by condemning their neighbours.
This seems really insightful and profound, but way too galaxy brained for me to understand 😂
Government = Mafia + rigged game?