⚡️💬 I operate a lot with gamification, both in my life and on Nostr. I stake your trust, collect components, and lay stone after stone to build my castle here. My goal? To be recognized throughout the village.

My daily quests are information publications: verified and verifiable. My level is measured by several parameters: the number of subscribers, sats received, and interactions on each post.

Those who’ve spent hours grinding in MMOs or Hack’N’Slash games know exactly what I mean.

I'm a sweets person, so when I found myself craving beef and savory foods, I suspected I might be carrying a boy.

I've heard that some women have this experience.

When I saw an ad for ice cream, and didn't think it looked appealing, I started wondering who I was!

Then I saw another ice cream ad that looked like it either had pretzels or salted caramel in it, and that one DID look appealing, I understood more of what was happening.

Now I'm more myself again, as sweets have become more appealing again, though smelling the beef scent from an In-n-out last night had me almost jumping out of the car at over 40mph. 😅

Hubby ended up bringing me to an In-n-out for dinner last night, but one that didn't have as strong of a scent 🤣 it was still delicious!

Thanks hubby! 🥰 nostr:nprofile1qqsfepkhw5m6vwqvudc78fyxp0r7r7e2mwegyxl34rcu6n5vuq3ypjgpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzv9hxgtcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsz9mhwden5te0wfjkccte9ec8y6tdv9kzumn9wshsvy7dle

As predicted 5 years ago, Pakistan had bottomed and now the path to becoming the strongest economy in the Middle East and Southeast Asia is clear. The next 20 years are going to be wild.

India, while massive, is deeply entangled in Western influence, most of its moves come with a green light from Washington. Its economy thrives on dependency.

Pakistan 🇵🇰 , on the other hand, was built on one ideology: Islam. With 98% of its population being Muslim and minimal reliance on the West, it’s a nation that keeps bouncing back, making the right moves when it matters most.

Feels like there’s something supernatural protecting this land.

Most people think Bitcoin governance is decentralized. It’s not.

Here's the uncomfortable truth:

You don’t need 51% of miners to change Bitcoin.

You just need 5 Core maintainers and a network of node operators who click “update” without reading.

That’s not decentralization.

That’s blind trust in a gatekeeping elite.

Here is how.

Bitcoin's 51% hashpower rule protects against double-spends, not protocol changes.

Changing the rules requires consensus. but in practice, consensus often follows the code, not the other way around.

When Core maintainers approve a change, it propagates silently.

Most node operators don’t audit code.

They trust.

They comply.

Exampl: #OPRETURN

Core removed the 80-byte limit with almost no discussion.

Thousands of nodes implemented it automatically.

Most had no idea what changed.

That quiet change triggered a silent revolt:

#Knots node usage surged 137% as informed operators rejected Core’s move.

But let’s be real:

That’s a small, technical elite.

Most #node runners are flying blind.

This creates a hidden centralization vector:

#Core devs don’t just write code. they decide which changes even get considered.

If they don’t approve it, it doesn’t reach the network.

They control what’s ‘acceptable’ and that shapes Bitcoin’s future more than most realize.

They decide which changes are “reasonable.”

And that shapes Bitcoin’s future. far more than people admit.

This isn’t about malice.

It’s about structure.

Complexity creates dependence.

And dependence creates power.

#Bitcoin’ s biggest centralization risk isn’t hashpower.

It’s the silent authority of trusted code maintainers (of the most dominated node sotwares out there) and the myth that decentralization protects us from that.

nostr:nprofile1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq36amnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wvf5hgcm0d9hx2u3wwdhkx6tpdshsqgy4xcdzks4zds3t4sakk6aych9vf5mfqm4se7ucy6rgr3z6xqw9rqdwmzvs post contains a critical oversight in conflating contributors with maintainers (most of the world has the same misconception or wrong perception as well). Bitcoin Core currently has just 5 maintainers with commit access (Hennadii Stepanov, Michael Ford, Andrew Chow, Marco Falke, and Gloria Zhao [just two years ago Gloria told me they were eight contributors then.]), not the "40 regular contributors" mentioned. This distinction matters profoundly for decentralization.

The maintainer exodus is concerning - Wladimir van der Laan (lead for 9+ years), Samuel Dobson, and Jonas Schnelli have all departed. These maintainers serve as gatekeepers with actual power to merge code, while contributors merely propose changes. This is a topic rarely discussed because the core of Core is not something you want the world to know about regarding their politics, risks, and threats. That's the main maintenance garage for the only workable money vehicle in human history.

Both Core and Knots ultimately represent centralized decision-making structures:Core with its 5-person bottleneck and Knots with its single-developer approach. The recent OP_RETURN controversy perfectly illustrates this tension, with Core's removal of the 80b limit triggering a 137% surge in Knots nodes (from 674 to 1,890 nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7cnjvghxjme0qyt8wumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcqyr7at68k4cxms9a7pdca5gzf3svqd95d3fj9j4vuyj0nyta8x3j2whad7ya nostr:nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7ct5d3shxtnwdaehgu3wd3skuep0qyt8wumn8ghj7ct4w35zumn0wd68yvfwvdhk6tcqyp60l3gucvq4pnmekm9nzmf6zh8nx24jngu0aj0tfp9tz4gad5v9v94ulq2 nostr:nprofile1qyvhwue69uhkyat8d4skutndva6hjtnwv46r5dpcxsuqz9nhwden5te0vfjhgcfwdehhxarjd9kzucmpd5qzqxvfqd89dw8kqmrjfaz6zt8gfggcg93p4tm3s2slv4jrszuugfmt74rjkj ) as users actively choose which monetary values they want preserved.

While Bitcoin Core currently benefits from nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqyehwumn8ghj7mnhvvh8qunfd4skctnwv46z7ctewe4xcetfd3khsvrpdsmk5vnsw96rydr3v4jrz73hvyu8xqpqsg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q8dzj6n 's principled funding (providing over 60% of its $8.4 million annual development budget), this centralized patronage model fundamentally contradicts Bitcoin's sovereign design and creates vulnerability to future influence shifts. The passionate debates between Bitcoin Core and Knots supporters may appear toxic to outsiders, but these confrontations serve as essential alarm bells that educate the ecosystem about threats to Bitcoin's monetary properties.

This is Bitcoin's true governance at work. While development teams may act as centralized decision-makers, ultimate power rests with individual Bitcoiners who collectively determine which vision prevails through their choice of software. Every node operator independently decides which implementation best preserves the monetary properties they value - whether that's #Core 's more permissive approach or #Knots ' stricter filters against non-monetary uses. This symbiotic relationship between Bitcoin and its most principled defenders ensures long-term resilience against changes that might compromise its fundamental value proposition. demonstrating that #Bitcoin needs sound money maximalists, imo, as much as maxis need Bitcoin to preserve the world's only truly sound money.

GM #Nostr!

Keep stacking #Bitcoin

Stay humble

Keep grinding

nevent1qqsdvc0z642ansyrck2sj48k3tvd7lfhlsmj59qpnwpzmwd0ngkqnzcpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgutljqk

Those power hungry brown nosing middle managers are the worst

Hope it works now!

What app are you using for note taking?

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