GM

The secret of happiness is #Freedom

The secret of freedom is courage

In life, you must act if you want to experience freedom.

No one is coming to save you.

#Bitcoin in self custody. Do it now.

Did you ever stop and *really* think about what it means to "do a Satoshi Nakamoto"?

Context for my weird question: I have met many, many bitcoiners over the years. Many of them take a stab at keeping privacy by doing some combo of: not revealing name, not revealing location, not revealing face. Etc. So often, if I happen to meet them in person, they end up revealing the things that they were hiding online. Quite literally a mask came off (pre covid!) once we started drinking - a simple, funny anecdotal example of what I mean. Many complain about photos being taken, many focus on always using a pseudonym. I'm sure most people reading recognize these patterns of behaviour.

I can see the purpose, up to a point, so this is not criticism. It's a little like me doing coinjoin "here and there" - you don't expect to defend yourself against a hyper powerful aggressor, only against a casual criminal looking for an easy score.

But if you do want *real* defence against *strong* attackers, you have a huge problem. These half-measures will be useless, perhaps worse than that, if you get overconfident, because the determined investigator only needs *one* strand to pull on, and the measures I describe above, which are almost always rules only half-stuck to anyway, don't cut it, at all.

Which brings me to my point: is it even possible to "go all the way"? Clearly it is; Satoshi Nakamoto is not the only person who's ever done it, but it's pretty damn rare at the very least.

Imagine what it would mean. If you are engaged in a serious project, that takes let's say at least a year's worth of full time work, then you are going to do that for no reward. Not just, no money, people do that quite often when it comes to things they genuinely enjoy, but no recognition, no social context, not even "oh I won't bother you because I know you're busy with that project". Nobody will say that because nobody will know. Imagine doing a full, intense 8 hour day of work (more likely, split over many days) and knowing that there will *never* be a direct reward of any form, for that. And then doing it again, and again.

What's more, you don't just "not get a reward". You have to do almost double the work, to ensure that at every step, every pushed commit or technical discussion, does not expose anything at the network trace level, or the language, vocabulary etc. Managing tricky pseudonym accounts, handling the headaches of Tor etc. I'm not trying to say it needs super-genius level tech skills, I'm trying to say it's a massive amount of effort.

Could you do that? I daren't even ask the question of myself, because I'm almost sure it's a no. But to *imagine* where that kind of motivation would come from, that's what fascinates me.

Use this one weird trick to know if you are a money transmitter!

Lots of people are so confused lately and unsure if they can operate in the US.

Here's the one simple trick they don't want to you know:

If the US government doesn't like you, you're a money transmitter!

To whom are you giving your time and energy?

Are you building a better world?

Or contributing to and further entrenching the current corrupt system?

What are the benefits? What are the costs?

(I’m currently wrestling with such questions.)

Anyway, good morning.

Every time i move some btc into cold, cold storage, i am starving the beast. It feels good.

#StarveTheBeast

Do you think I disagree with you ethically? If so I am guessing you are not an English teacher.

The system does what it does and questioning DOES get some grades raised. There is nothing to be lost by this student in doing this for every single grade. NOTHING to be lost.

The education system we have today K-12 and University are honestly lost causes at this point. Having hired engineers, programmers, marketers, etc. with degrees from very well known schools, I can tell you, a degree means zero to me at this point.

"The purpose of a system is what it does, not what it claims to do".

One day, it would be nice to see a well-capitalized challenge to the Bank Secrecy Act on 4th amendment grounds.

The Founding Fathers would be rolling in their graves if they saw that people need a license to transmit money, or that the government thinks it has the right to surveil and censor everyone’s money and transactions.

The default is privacy. To infringe on someone’s privacy should require probable cause and come with checks and balances. Ubiquitous surveillance shouldn’t be the default, since it enables tyranny.

GM ⚡☕🧡💜

Be Humble

Stack Sats

#Sovereignty

“There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.

Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them.

One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."

Alright it's time to go no KYC domains and hosting too I guess 🤷