An open letter from 70 European renowned economists asks for an acceleration in the launch of the digital Euro.
While these academics correctly identifies the risks of Europe’s current dependence on foreign payment monopolies, its proposed solution (the Digital Euro) suffers from a profound ignorance of an existing, superior alternative: Bitcoin.
The signatories frame the Digital Euro as the "only defense" for European sovereignty, yet they overlook a battle-tested technology that already achieves their stated goals without the inherent risks of a centralized state currency.
They claim that a European CBDC is the "only" way to ensure resilience. However, Bitcoin has operated 24/7 since 2009 with 99.9% uptime, providing a globally available, robust payment infrastructure that is "immediately available" today, unlike the Digital Euro which remains a project with mired in political negotiations with undefined technological foundations.
The economists all belong to SFL (Sustainable Finance Lab), an independent academic think tank stemming out of Utrecht University’s School of Economics. “The mission of the Sustainable Finance Lab is to contribute to a financial sector that serves people and planet.”
And yet, in 2025, they still ignore Bitcoin.
You can find the letter (PDF) here: https://sustainablefinancelab.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/506/2026/01/The-Digital-Euro-Let-te-public-interest-prevail.pdf
I cannot possibly think these people have a neutral stance towards Bitcoin, as I doubt their funding comes from sources other than those directly or indirectly tied to EU institutions.
Nice way of putting it! To be less controversial, which is obviously*not* the aim of your notes, I'd say science if the study of the behavior of nature, which might be useful but tells nothing to very little of its nature (the nature of nature).
Is it? #asknostr nostr:note15nd6ckq3cden3ej6e3u7r5ygcux7d9ejhcgj8397px42czkj8kuq6cc32e
Not sure whether the definition of a bearer asset necessarily implies that it should be a claim against another, generally more valuable asset.
Bitcoin is money and as such it can be exchanged against all goods and services currently sold for Bitcoin, but it's not a claim on any underlying asset that somehow legitimizes it, as gold legitimized cash.
A bearer asset is in my opinion better understood through the lens of counterparty risk. Cash has counterparty risk since the fiat money supply can be increased or decreased in arbitrary ways.
I remember reading he was arrested in Egypt or something a while ago and since then released, his initial conversion to Islam being also very weird. Look it up, it's interesting, but I agree his whole persona feels a bit sketchy
I've also stumbled upon this guy a few times on YouTube and thought to myself: just who the fuck is this guy? And then I googled his biography a couple of months ago
Most definitely!
Quoting from the essay linked below:
"The ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao-Tzu, once said: ‘He who knows he has enough is rich’ (Vanenbroeck, 1991: 116). Thoreau was telling his contemporaries that they had enough, but that they did not know it, and so were poor. Always wanting more luxuries and comforts, and never content with less, Thoreau felt that people did not understand the meaning of ‘Economy’, did not understand that ‘the cost of a thing is the amount of … life which is required to be exchanged for it’ (286). ‘Most [people],’ he insisted, ‘even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance or mistake, are so occupied with factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them’ (261). By a ‘seeming fate’, there was ‘no time to be anything but a machine’ (261)."
https://simplicitycollective.com/the-simple-life-of-henry-david-thoreau
I recommend this read on what constitutes real progress in software engineering https://www.metaspex.com/Abstraction.pdf
Majority rule sounds nice—until it becomes mob rule.
True freedom isn’t about 51% of people voting away the rights of the other 49%. That’s not liberty—it’s oppression with a ballot box. The protection of individual rights is what keeps us free, and that’s a principle worth teaching to our kids early on.
The Tuttle Twins Family Starter Pack gives families the tools to explain why liberty means protecting every person’s rights, not just those in the majority.
#TuttleTwins #RaiseThinkers #FamilyFreedom #IndividualRights
Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1303830458456958
> True freedom isn’t about 51% of people voting away the rights of the other 49%. That’s not liberty—it’s oppression with a ballot box. The protection of individual rights is what keeps us free, and that’s a principle worth teaching to our kids early on.
AI slop detected!
I couldn't stand the slop either! As soon as I detect it, I tune out
Happy JAN 3 everyone!
In modern parlance: doers are the best thinkers
This sucks, but it's nothing new
https://blossom.primal.net/d5141c4f7baeff7d22b0f7b9d37aa2f5eed12eedbd051d7911f9e3a5204593d9.mp4
Thinking visually about the economics and political means to wealth creation, and how it connects to money.
Being able to think of a single problem long enough is a skill only a few people possess unfortunately, especially in the age of LLMs and social media.
The main reason is that both Bisq and RoboSats have to process fiat currencies. Handling fiat, even indirectly, introduces KYC/AML requirements that they must adhere to. WhiteEyeSats coordinates RoboSats trades, so that's something to consider! https://clearnet.whiteyesats.website/ or http://s4usqbcf2pk2xwghdzaggrxd3paiqpvnl4lm2dxp6dec3wbclgbdyiyd.onion/
Nice, I'll look into it! To go back to my original question, does this leave cash as the only KYC free option?
Why do you think Bisq and Robosats are not KYC free? Genuine question
Isn't it designed in a way that makes it effectively broken for most people though?
Is this Primal? If so, just download nostr:npub1yzvxlwp7wawed5vgefwfmugvumtp8c8t0etk3g8sky4n0ndvyxesnxrf8q!
I might be out of the loop on this one, what change did instagibbs propose/implement that is now allowing this kind of stuff to be relayed?
84045c18e6f1b948defcf33fb13de0b7bea73dccea056bd8438c9101bd5b339e should have been possible before Core 30 too though, right? Unless I'm missing something
I see what you mean, realism is definitely sometimes forgotten in certain echo chambers
Bank employees are just employees and, as such, are not required to understand how banking really works. Saying that ordinary good people work anywhere doesn't mean that the organization they work for are good in and of themselves.
To use an analogy, we can all argue that McDonald's employees are good, hard working people, but the food there is far from healthy.
Nothing wrong with you're saying, but banks today are not exactly neutral custodians.
Was it React this time? Cloudflare really need to get their shit together
This! If we hope Bitcoin will succeed by waiting for permission from the state then we're screwed. l say let's taint all UTXOs by making them go through coinjoins and then we'll see what is considered radioactive and by whom
Single individuals buying ETFs are very bad for Bitcoin, they undermine its purpose.
What would you say is the end vision for Monero? Does it aim to survive as a parallel system, letting fiat to normies?
We often hear that money converges to one, so I imagine a lot of Bitcoiners expect Bitcoin to become the global money for all individuals and eventually nations, which is either naive in many respects or a very very long term thing.
Would XMR aim at such a thing as well or does it recognize it as something undesirable?
How can I do this at home?
What do you make of articles like this one? https://murmurationstwo.substack.com/p/bitcoin-and-the-quantum-problem-part-47f
Stack more sats
That's obviously true, but what drives it? My take is that there is a fundamental difference in approach towards uncertainty.
Socialism wants to plan and control everything. It literally fears unknown dynamics.
Capitalism embraces uncertainty and places its trust on the naturally emerging behavior of groups and individuals.
I agree with your take, yet I also think that these things are implemented in degrees, where each choice leads societies closer to socialism or to capitalism.
Quick example: capitalism rests on the free market principle where prices are free to move wherever demand and supply bring them to. This is not currently happening with the most important price: interest rates are determined by the central banks. We can conclude that in this respect we're not closer to capitalism.
I wanted to propose this example since too often we hear that "X has not been really tried" and it seems like a mischaracterization of how complex systems work.
Nice! What's your setup? I'm considering getting one
I was listening to this before and I have to say that I lost him on the oil analogy. Saylor is really knowledgeable and smart, but he mostly is a master rhetorician.
Things are quite simple as I see them: Bitcoin is money. That's it. Pretty hard to entertain a crowd for 30 minutes like that though
What's their marketing excuse? "Share your life* or something?
I'm almost disappointed to say that the Core side really doesn't have good enough points in this debate. Couple that with their dismissive approach to criticism and one is left wondering why should this change be pushed through.
Node runners do your own research and choose very carefully whether you should update or not when v30 is released. nostr:note1jjgv79hraa203pvp9dm4r2ehp7guk7qn4a0w60j743922vedqflsfvssed
Which one exactly is the change that allows Knots not to relay taproot inscriptions? A simple check that disallows OP_FALSE OP_IF or something more involved?
What's your opinion on https://github.com/instagibbs/bips/blob/bip_op_templatehash/bip-templatehash-csfs-ik.md ?
That's what I think as well, but dismissing Core as a bad actor feels too much right now
Bitcoin Core Hitting New Lows
https://blossom.primal.net/9901c5c81e3b1d81437da514ab946aa3888a621dea18ca0fbfc46abb8b87c283.mp4
As I've said many times, Citrea really seems like a shady coverup of the whole thing.
Why can Alpen Labs fit everything in just under 80 bytes?
https://docs.alpenlabs.io/how-alpen-works/bitcoin-bridge
If Citrea sucks as a layer 2 it's its team that should find a better way of doing things instead of Bitcoin Core changing long standing, non controversial policy.
Weird, why would they do that?
6. What's broken? It seems that the real motivation behind this change is that of allowing Citrea to publish arbitrary data larger than 80 bytes. However, why is it that Alpen Labs with their Strata bridge can fit everything they need for *very similar purposes* under 80 bytes? The fact that Citrea sucks shouldn't cause any damage to Bitcoin, hence I'm beginning to think there's unfortunately something shady going on here
It's launch day!!! Damus is now available on all platforms with Android ready to download! Thanks to everyone who has contributed, tested, and waited patiently for this release. We can't wait to hear what you think! https://damus.io/android/
When on Zapstore?
Agreed, however the energy independence part seems almost impossible to achieve, especially taking into consideration that mining is very energy intensive.
What's your take on the energy side?
Yep that sounds good enough, but I'm not sure the suits asked for permission
Would you say there's no hope for privacy on Bitcoin anymore, and, if so, is it mainly because of KYC? I'm just thinking that the tradeoff seems inevitable: the more any given currency appreciates in value, the more regulators and the "old world" institutions are interested in controlling it.
Could things have gone differently in your opinion? And more importantly, do you see any paths forward for Bitcoin in this regard?
For example, would not privacy be good enough (whatever that means) if one purchases KYC-free Bitcoin and then goes through coinjoins on top of that?