We would have to take more responsibility for our own protection/enforcement, at least initially. So when a society first transitions to anarchy it would be hard on retirees/idiots, etc. Not impossible though.
However, there are already some great writings about how we could form a fully decentralized legal system and how regular folk could simply subscribe to an "Assurance Agency" to protect them from most problems in life. (From a mugging to foreign invaders) It's a multi-prong full solution & a whole new way of structuring society. Worth looking into if you're curious.
Make privacy even better, & transparently so.
I don't think hardly anyone knows exactly where Nostr is completely private and where it's sorta private. It may be the best private communications network mankind has ever made, but it seems there has been zero public education on what it's limits are.
At the very least I'd like to see apps give you a link at the time of posting explaining exactly what these limits are... So you know if the fedcoats are going to show up at your door or not when you say something risky, for instance.
Are there really people on Nostr that want to let Google back up all their nostr notes?
It's great to see experimentation, of course, but this feels like a Werewolf experimenting in silver bullets...
Engineers who have worked on larger projects like video codecs, mainframes, or the web itself all see protocols like bitcoin is something that must be scaled in layers. The nature of Blockchains in general is to fight against scaling so bitcoin's a natural fit.
I realize satoshi never sold anyone on the idea of waiting a couple of decades and using some other software that only stores value on his software, but that's what is practical and likely to work. We've gotten used to it (bitcoiners) and normies won't have to think about it when the wallets on layers 2 & 3 are finally where they should be. They'll just work and fees will be minimal.
You must me new around here.
Any talk about a blocksize Increase is full-on insurrectionist talk.
We're more likely to make it smaller, but hopefully there are no more changes.
Roger Ver Arrested in Spain for $50m tax evasion charges. Awaits extradition to US:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/early-bitcoin-investor-charged-tax-fraud
Don't like the guy but it's not the punishment he deserves.
The bitcoin whitepaper is literally the 1st thing everyone should read in this space: http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
Then there are millions of great essays and youtube vids to choose from, it's quite overwhelming. I suggest skipping most of it and picking up the book by Saifedean Ammous called "The Bitcoin Standard." It's by far the best thing to read in terms of understanding bitcoin's potential, past, present and future.
If you find yourself searching on Youtube, there are two things to specifically avoid: Videos where they talk about "Crypto" (as opposed to bitcoin) and videos where the guy on the image has his mouth open. You will always go wrong with those two types of video.
Hope that helps!
You do realize that making us Android users, who still have no idea when we can download your entire product, drool excessively like this is cruel & might be against some Geneva conventions.
Taking him down to El Salvador to see the volcano mining up close, eh?
OTOH, they certainly weren't commies. Gen Z is shaping up to become total commie fodder and that probably won't end too well.
GM/PV Nostr frens!
Today the privacy wars scale up with another self-censorship, this time from my favorite privacy wallet, Wasabi!
https://blog.wasabiwallet.io/zksnacks-now-blocking-u-s-residents-and-citizens
The good news here is that this wallet bakes in TOR usage and that is not optional, so the actual usage of the wallet doesn't appear to be hindered in the US in any way. This announcement was likely just a fed-facing statement to appear that they are compliant.
Still, I'm thinking of moving to JAM inside my umbrel node for any future coinjoins. How about you guys?
Keep calm and HODL #Bitcoin.
Everyone seems to be overreacting to the Samourai arrests, the FBI PSA, and Phoenix leaving the US. Here's my attempt to break it down.
Samourai
You have to unpack all of the different elements. Could this be a state attack on self-custody and privacy? Maybe. Probably not.
There are a few components here that need to be evaluated on their own.
1⃣ Samourai was a self-custodial wallet
2⃣ Samourai was a mixer
3⃣ Samourai was providing normal people with privacy
4⃣ Samourai were knowingly marketing the service to criminals and flaunting that fact
Reading the charges, it seems like #4 is pretty cut and dry for this case. Their getting arrested for #4, doesn't automatically mean #1, #2, #3 are under siege as well. If Samourai was a taco stand laundering money and bragging about it, I'm sure they would be taken down too.
They may be accused of running a money transmitter now, but that may or may not stick. We'll find out in the trial.
All that said, we should always be vigilant to attempts to erode privacy and the ability to self-custody. It just does not seem that this fight is *that* fight.
FBI PSA
Seems pretty normal that the FBI would advise people to use compliant services, and the entire announcement seems to revolve around potential disruptions due to Samourai being taken down, and potentially others in the future. Given they took action, they have to post some bulletin about it.
Remember that when people lose funds or have funds stolen from them, they do go to the FBI for help. From their point of view, the best thing for people to do is use compliant services where they can potentially help.
The announcement concludes saying that services that purposely break the law will be investigated - so again we go back to #4 above. This is nothing new, and self-custody is not being criminalized.
Phoenix Leaving
As nostr:npub1sg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q0uf63m said, it's feels completely unnecessary. Phoenix obviously is not a MSB and they are not doing anything illegal. In my view, their exit from the US app stores is a complete overreaction.
Keep Calm
Could "they" come after wallets, developers, mixers, nodes, LSPs, sidechains, eCash, VPNs, encryption, etc? It's totally possible. But if you're not breaking the law, you have nothing to worry about.
To my knowledge, there is still rule of law in the US, property rights are still protected, and privacy is enshrined in the Bill of Rights (nostr:npub1trr5r2nrpsk6xkjk5a7p6pfcryyt6yzsflwjmz6r7uj7lfkjxxtq78hdpu).
It would be very difficult to change the law or stretch it to incriminate these things because it's all just information and software, which is speech. Some will try. But as they are trying, #Bitcoin is becoming more and more mainstream and integral to the world's financial system.
#Bitcoin is freedom technology and it will continue on.
Go outside this weekend and think about why you're here.
Wasabi next:
https://blog.wasabiwallet.io/zksnacks-now-blocking-u-s-residents-and-citizens/
My take: Also completely unnecessary, but since TOR use is not optional inside Wasabi wallet, I don't see how this changes anything during actual usage. This announcement was likely just for assuring the fedcoats that Wasabi is being compliant.
That was so nice of her to tell her fellow child molesters how they can easily pay for their habit...
That was so nice of her to tell her fellow child molesters how they can easily pay for their habit...
The sad thing is that these MSB warnings from uncle sam are not new... Not by a longshot. We've been seeing them since 2015 at least from various govt agencies. Pure sword rattling.
Why do the French always surrender so easily?
Ouch. As a citizen of the USSA I'm honestly hurt. Your wife has a razor-sharp tongue, man.
I guess it could seem that way if you don't notice the fighting we do on other fronts.
Which decentralized protocols have been captured again? Was it key-pair encryption? Torrents? Onion Routing? I2P?
Tell me you don't understand what protocols look like without telling me...
You mean other than the native crowd funding feature called zaps that we've been using so much already?
No, you're just not very smart, that's all.
Bitcoin is well on track to becoming the alternative system that takes over all financial systems.