The kilogram and the meter were first introduced in the late 18th century to standardize measurements. The joule was introduced in the 19th century.
International trade benefited massively from adopting these standards. Without these a merchant might need to know the local units for each country or region they did business in and further have to trust the methods of measurement which were often manipulated for profit.
We now use these units in textbooks, research papers, and specs all across the world and humanity has the benefit of being able to compare weights and lengths across the world and through generations.
Until 2009 we didn’t have a precise unit for economic measurement: local currencies introduce the same problems we had with weights and the global supply of gold isn’t auditable. With the introduction of Bitcoin we’ve set the stage for a new era of economic development and prosperity.
The world is still learning to live with this new unit though and there’s a real motivation for some people to slow adoption at all costs. We’re truly living in exciting times.
#bitcoin #history #standards #economics
When earlier humans discovered how to harness energy to cook food and outsource digestion we evolved into a new species. We consumed more energy to improve our biological processes in a way that allowed us to flourish.
In just the last 10-20 years as web search and then LLMs began proliferating, we began outsourcing mental “digestion” analogous to the leap we made with cooked food.
This most likely marks the subtle beginning of a new species. The transition won’t happen in a decade, but over the course of many generations as those who embrace technology will outcompete those who do not.
The difference this time is that we have the ability to record these changes with high fidelity in ways our ancestors couldn’t and therefore future generations will better understand this transition into yet another species.
Imagine having millions of hours of video of ancestral human species as they lived before the use of fire.
Assuming the above holds true, how does cyberwarfare play a role? Does polluting a group’s cyberspace have an impact analogous to limiting earlier humans access to fire? And how does bitcoin play a role given its pivotal role in digital commerce, savings, and cybersecurity?
#evolution #sapiens #ai #llm #energy #bitcoin #cybersecurity
If the average consumer has so much debt they won’t have excess liquidity for years to come then bitcoin at any price becomes unaffordable. They just need to keep rates high long enough to rack up sufficiently high debt before lowering them again.
Effectively blocking the exits without doing so explicitly.
A network’s value scales somewhere between n² (Metcalfe’s law) and 2^n (Reed’s law) where n is the number of users. There are tipping points and saturation points where the marginal value of each user is amplified or dampened (due to congestion) respectively.
Because Bitcoin’s model is simple and open and makes minimal assumptions about its users it can accommodate many independent networks: energy grids, monetary networks, social networks, cybersecurity, etc.
It can act as a bridge between all of these other large and valuable networks (Schelling Point). The lightning network alleviates congestion for some applications which in turn reduces dampening effects due to congestion. eCash does as well.
I’m excited to see what else we come up with to attract other networks.
I’ll take a look! I’ll be out the next several weeks but will pick it up in mid to late July
To summarize: many words bad. Few words better. Bitcoin best.
Gensler a closet anarchist?!
If you want more privacy in Bitcoin you might be interested in Silent Payments - https://bips.dev/352/
The name comes from Thailand but this particular sauce is exclusively made in the US.
For all of human history our societies were largely bound by geography. The average person’s wealth, generally speaking, was limited to the region they were born or settled in.
With the invention of the telegraph and the automobile and the airplane people became more mobile but at the same time our currencies failed and were captured by regional powers therefore again constraining our movement.
The consequences of having a secure and decentralized digital money are still very much under appreciated. In much the same degree the airplane changed civilization, bitcoin too will shape the direction of history.
#nomad #bitcoin
I didn’t get far yet and after seeing the work on NDS it’s probably better to swarm on that for now. I’d love to help in some capacity though!
nostr:npub12rv5lskctqxxs2c8rf2zlzc7xx3qpvzs3w4etgemauy9thegr43sf485vg do you know of any efforts to build escrow/collateral systems on top of Cashu so that the mint loses funds if they rug users?
I’m just learning about FROST. Wonder if that can be part of the solution. I’ve heard it can be used for making off-chain covenants?
Proof of reserves is reactive while escrow is proactive.
#ecash #covenants #cashu
Before going too crazy, try experimenting with mint inside a docker container. That way if you completely screw up your system packages you can reset without fear.
And while you’re at it you can sell recent purchases at a loss and buy back immediately. This way you realize a loss and you can write it off on your taxes.
Wash sale restrictions don’t apply to bitcoin.
PSA: wash sale rules don’t apply to Bitcoin so you can sell part of your stack and buy back immediately to realize a loss and claim that on your taxes.
This only applies to real Bitcoin and not the ETFs. This dip might be a good opportunity depending on your cost basis.
LLMs are effectively just functions. The prompt is an argument. You could build a stack frame from the prompt, LLM model, an HTTP endpoint as the return address, and a distributed vector DB for the heap.
With this in place you need a runtime. You could probably build the runtime on Nostr.
A system like this could be ran by millions of people in a decentralized way and although would have higher latencies than centralized models like ChatGPT it might be more powerful.
Prompts could be paid for with #bitcoin via #lightning or #ecash. Miners can supplement their revenue by providing access to high performance compute and still earn bitcoin.
#ai #mining
The first place you might see it is in cafes and hotels.
Eventually we might see communities deploy mesh networks to cover larger areas to earn sats this way. Imagine not needing a cell phone plan because you can pay as you go on these community networks.
Very excited to see this happening. I begrudgingly started on an OpenWRT package to do the same thing but pleased to see someone else get there first!
OpenAI is now being deployed to the Apple ecosystem, embedded in many Microsoft products, taking up massive amounts of compute in Azure and Oracle Cloud, and has a former leader from the NSA on their board so presumably they’ll pick up military and intelligence contracts.
This is a centralized system becoming more powerful at least partially because the economic incentives encourage that. Bitcoin has proven that a decentralized system can work and dominate if the incentives are right. We as a community need to work on this problem. Open source models aren’t a solution if they’re just being subsidized by VCs.
Many Bitcoin mining centers are adopting AI workloads for revenue diversity so maybe we can lean into that somehow. A tighter integration between AI and the Bitcoin economy feels like the right direction. Something to think about.
#ai #decentralized #chatGPT #bitcoin
