Gm,

The value/use case of bitcoin is a permission-less medium of échange and fair unit of account. Eliminate those and it has no quality as a store of value for me.

when btc started it would appear the 10 minute wait was acceptable. if there are any that used btc in this time it would be great to know what the experience was like. pros and cons.

today's corruption of currency and the financial tools, makes 10 mins seem like a small price to pay for the freedom. the downside are the fees to do small transactions, which reduces the feasibility of using btc for minor transactions. yes there are some great l2 solutions. are we reinventing the wheel though?

if btc was unlimited transactions from the start and only installed small blocks for protection of the early network, would it be reckless to consider expanding the scope of operations to match the network scale?

the danger is ossification or stagnation. if nobody uses the network for anything other than huge payments, it is no longer the people's money. can l2s be locked out of the network? eg: can lightning be switched off/disconnected?

thank you for your response. it is all extremely helpful in understanding.

good fortunes with your ventures.

GM 🙃

btc is being attacked on two fronts from outside and from within. satoshi's white paper spoke of nothing more than a medium of exchange. the store of value was never mentioned. it is arguable therefore the value is the medium of exchange.

crisis of confidence - small blocks, big blocks.

small blocks allow millions of nodes to run domestically. they also protect against 'dod' attack of the network. in the early days this was necessary. today with millions of users, less so.

big blocks allow for more and faster transactions. btc is scaleable. it always has been. spv made that possible, it is still possible today. the small blocks were only a precaution in the early days. so why do we still have small blocks?

small blocks make it easier for everyone to store a full node. given the full node is less than a tb, this is really not a something we should be worried about. most businesses run 40tb servers+. btc could expand the block size and still maintain 100s of thousands of nodes. so why keep blocks small? who wins?

in the short term those setting fees. in the long term, nobody. btc will fail to be of any value unless it is returned to being a medium of exchange. it is only an asset if it has value to people. if the network only handles the monster payments, what value is it to you and i?

dollar go up is completely the wrong thinking.

use btc to avoid fraud, corruption and dystopian rule. return to a free market and peace. the value in that is instant.

if you are in business or starting out price in btc. sell, buy borrow lend .... in btc and create the world you want for you and yours.

lets also open the discussion around block size again and stop the censorship from within. this way we win on both fronts. we leave fiat behind and move on with the world's best money.

GM 🙃

My web of trust are those that can give the correct reply to GM 👇

Thanks! For the coming years I see BTC mainly as a SOV, store of value. The role of MOE comes next in my opinion. This role is currently still small but will continue to grow. Finally BTC, can become a UOA, unit of account. At this 3rd stage we will be in full Hyperbitcoinization mode, perhaps 10 to 15 years from now?

Focus your energy. If you’re building a business, just focus on building the business if you want it to be great.

I’ve seen too many entrepreneurs think they can do side gigs at the same time and rarely ends well.

I decided today to quit smoking. This may sound trivial to those who don’t smoke or have already quit, but for me, it’s a big deal. I have been smoking for almost my entire life, and I have enjoyed it. Everyone who knows me is familiar with my Parisienne cigarettes. Somehow, they suited me. (Even non-smokers have told me they would start smoking if they knew it would look as elegant as it does on me. No joke.) Smoking has become a part of me.

Today, I have decided of my own free will that I have smoked long enough. There is no specific reason for this decision.

To put a little pressure on myself—just in case—I’m leaving this message here. If you are a smoker and in the mood to quit as well, let me know. Maybe we can support each other in the coming weeks.

I'm announcing BitVotr, a new voting protocol to fight election fraud, releasing today to the public domain.

The whitepaper of the protocol is available on GitHub and has a website, BitVotr.com.

Pull requests welcome. Questions and comments welcome in GitHub issues section, and will go towards a FAQ document later.

The protocol introduces new concepts and borrows from old...

- Proof of Tax linked to public keys (new).

- Vote merging for anonymity (borrowed from coin mixing).

- Peer to peer network to submit, sign, and merge votes (every voter is a peer).

- Tamper proofing of count via pgp signatures.

- Peers use RAFT protocol for consensus and data protection (borrowed).

- Byzantine Fault Tolerance thresholds for minimum verification, and defends against network attack.

- Data dissemination of the tally and signatures to Nostr and BitTorrent (no blockchain or token required).

- Vote count by the public (like nodes in Bitcoin verifying blocks).

- Election clock using Bitcoin timechain (without writing to it).

BitVote doesn't force a tyrannical government to be honest and benign, instead, it makes election fraud evident.

Voting doesn't overthrow tyranny, only revolution or total collapse does. Step 1 is to overcome the gaslighting and make fraud undeniable.

Of course dishonest governments will reject this. The system must begin small, prove itself, and be unavoidable to larger and larger democracies.

This is not an endorsement of voting as an ethical way to organise society, but if we are going to vote, it should be verifiable by the people it affects.

Here’s where I’m at.

There’s not a doubt in my mind that god is real.

Still not really a fan of organized religion though.

Today I visited a school for mentally challenged and disabled kids that didn’t have a lick of AC.

Classrooms do have ceiling fans but they do sweet fuck all when it gets to a certain temperature.

It was 35 degrees + humid today but felt like 42.

That’s like when you open the oven door to check on your chicken.. every time you step outside.

Why was I there?

Well bitcoiners at btccuracao funded the school’s brand new WiFi.

I wanted to see the impact of this donation and speak to a poorer community about their experience with btc.

Btccuraco paid the internet company that installed the WiFi in Sats as part of the donation. It’s one of many grassroots initiatives they undertake to try to show that bitcoin is better money.

The new WiFi is a total game changer for the school and the teachers were tearful explaining how much it has helped them teach, inspire and lead these less fortunate kids.

But it only goes so far.

The solar panels atop the school’s long roof “stopped working” this week.

A govt contractor installed the panels this year as a “go green” initiative.

Long story of govt enraging incompetence short, basically half the school had working WiFi + ceiling fans. Sometimes the electricity simply cuts out.

So one half of the school had classrooms of engaged kids with YouTube access + useful visual aids for the kids in a semi manageable heat

while the other half slowly cooked and tried to read books in the inferno.

My white shirt was wet and transparent by the time I finished the school tour. I was like how the feck are these kids gonna get a chance in life?

I interviewed the head of ICT who was gushing about the new WiFi and was saying how some of the kids can now learn to code with this Minecraft coding thing.

She had the biggest heart. But like many islanders she had been crypto scammed a few years ago and was still really reluctant about bitcoin.

Really saddening because of course no sane person thinks “oh yeah I’m gonna learn about bitcoin now I sold my gold necklace for a crypto thing 5 years ago and never got the money back.”

I managed to send her some sats to say thank you but if I’m honest I think it’s coz I was recording this during the interview.

In all, I left the school utterly humbled and a little bit angry at the world.

I don’t have a nice thing to round off on, sorry.

Bitcoin doesn’t fix everything. And some things utterly suck.

LESS THAN 200 YEARS AGO OVER 400K PEOPLE WALKED ACROSS AMERICA TO BUILD A BETTER LIFE BUT YOU THINK NOSTR HAS TOO MUCH FRICTION TO BOOTSTRAP NETWORK EFFECT.

If you're trying to grow your NOSTR profile and are focused on posting new content, you're missing out.

commenting on other people's stuff is the way

think about it. there's no Discovery tool for people to find new accounts that are posting and everyone who is posting is starving for engagement.

This has been the same for growing an account on X, but it's even more drastic here.

Good morning! Uncle is taking a break from social media, but with BTC hitting $53K, I thought I'd drop in with some positive energy and sats for you - I'm zapping every reply 🫂

Hello everyone, I’ve literally just joined the Nostr community and I just wanted to say hello. 👋

#introductions

For a limited time only: Reply to this Nostr note with something positive and get zapped. Try it.