“Have fun staying poor” bums me out every time I see it.

If getting rich is your goal, perhaps you’re better suited to a more traditional Wall Street banker gig.

Bitcoin isn’t about lambos, yachts, and fancy watches. Bitcoin is about real utility for real people. It’s about providing an alternative to corrupt power structures and systems of control.

HFSP is a distraction from the mission.

I understand that the red pill contagion is a reaction to wokeism... it just bums me out to see so many people sacrifice their values to vengeance.

I’m doing a bit of the end of year review stuff and taking a look at the status of the Lightning Labs YouTube channel, and I’m rather proud of our content.

No clickbait, no sensationalism, just the information you’re looking for if you’re building with Lightning ⚡🧡

Dare I say… pretty high signal.

https://www.youtube.com/@LightningLabs

Individuation: The process through which a person achieves a sense of individuality separate from the identities of others and begins to consciously exist as a human in the world.

It’s a life long process and we often get stuck. Stuck in attachment to our parents, stuck in co-dependent romantic relationships, stuck in the role of parent, stuck in identity with our career, stuck in ideological movements and cults, etc. etc.

This is why it’s so damn important to consciously craft a self concept that is not at all dependent on circumstance or the world around you.

We’ve finished up the tapd demo series! But here is some bonus content on metadata.

We weren’t able to fit in a metadata demo video in this round, but below are the basics of working with metadata with Taproot Assets.

First we need to note that there are many types and ways to add metadata to assets, below is the simplest.

Also, as always, have a look at the docs and the API info.

Docs: https://docs.lightning.engineering/lightning-network-tools/taproot-assets

API info: https://lightning.engineering/api-docs/api/taproot-assets/

Let’s start with the CLI. You can add metadata to an asset mint with the flag --meta_bytes

The data that you add after that flag with be encoded as hex and added to the mint. The data you add there may already be hex which means you may have to decode it twice when retrieving it.

To do that, try this command…

$ tapcli assets meta --asset_id [asset ID]

You should be able to find your metadata in the “data” value that is returned. You can then use a command similar to the below to convert that data from hex back to the original value on the command line. You’ll want to run the command once or twice depending on how you added the data.

$ echo [“data” value] | xxd -r -p && echo ''

$ echo [Output from last command] | xxd -r -p && echo ''

If you are working with tapd via the API, we’ve got some examples for you!

The below files are Python scripts for working with the REST API.

This script includes a simple metadata example: https://github.com/HannahMR/tapd-python-scripts/blob/main/mint.py

This script returns the metadata for an asset: https://github.com/HannahMR/tapd-python-scripts/blob/main/meta-data.py

This script returns the metadata and converts the result from hex to text: https://github.com/HannahMR/tapd-python-scripts/blob/main/metadata-conversion.py

I hope this helps 🧡

#keepbuilding

I love halvings, not for the impact on price, but for the nostalgia.

When the first halving happened I was very new to Bitcoin and barely understood it. I was also living in rural Australia and caring for a baby, so no parties for me 👶

For the second halving I was in Chicago and involved with the BOB meetup. It was a great party 🥳

The third, I was hiding out in the basement of a family home in the midst of lockdown. ...not a lot of fun, but I got to join a livestream and share the moment with some friends 🙃

For the fourth I plan to throw a big party here in San Juan with San Juan Bitdevs

. Should be a blast 💃

I didn’t see a lockdown halving party or a Puerto Rican halving parting coming. And it makes me ponder what I’ll be up to on the 5th 🤔

You?

Do you know what pulled your friend out of that place?

I know you can't change people's minds for them, but there are some good friends of mine who are currently in dark places, and I'd like to help pull them out of that, if at all possible.

Yup. If you can't get along with half of the human race, it's not half of humanity that's the problem, it's you, you're the problem.

There is nothing wrong with being a feminist or a meninist in the context of supporting humans rights. Both men and woman should have basic human rights.

The root of the problem is the hate and the collectivism.

It’s all of our responsibility to keep our values.

I’m very angry at the red pill talking heads for encouraging so many of my friends to lose their values. They have corrupted people by tapping into men’s wounds and insecurities. An evil thing to do.

Now we could also blame the angry blue haired radical feminists of TikTok, and some of them are just awful, and deserving of condemnation. But the solution to a problem is never to lose your values.

I’ve had a lot of very ugly experiences, I could easily slide into hate and lose my values. Especially this last year as I’ve been bombarded by very ugly messages from the red pill crew. But it's on me to not become hateful to men despite past traumas or the current state of my DM's.

It's my job to keep my values. It’s your job to keep your values.

The secret to living a good life isn't to be happy or successful or better than anyone else, it's just to have some values and live in accordance with them.

And the fucking brilliant part about this this that absolutely no one can stop you, ever. No matter the situation, no matter hardship, you don't need anyone else to care or help at all, this is always entirely in your control.

Ridicule isn't a persuasion strategy, it's an emotional revenge strategy.

It’s a core human weakness that goes by many names, “false dichotomy”, “black or white thinking”, “for us or against us”, etc. etc.

Humans have trouble with nuance on any issue that has emotional impact for them.

The standard scenario is team A says mean things about team B. People with a connection to team B are insulted, as they should be. Some some grifter comes along and says extra mean things about team A. The wounded of team B exalt the grifter giving them the attention that they crave. Some grifter on team A will do the same. And both sides, full of the wounded, slide deeper and deeper into hateful manias.

If you take a step back, zoom out a bit, it is quite clear that both teams have, have spiraled into a hateful mania. This happens all the time, and it is our job, as rational, caring human beings, to not participate in or support any of the hate.

I lost all my faith in politics and politicians well over a decade ago. I’m not excited about this, I’m not hopeful. I suspect that Milei will cave the way that they always do. And I will invest no time in this… Except, to take a moment to note that it would be rather lovely if I were wrong.

https://news.yahoo.com/argentina-holds-cliffhanger-election-economy-011043999.html

If you’re building with Taproot Assets there are a ton of resources for you. Extensive docs at docs.lightning.engineering, API documentation, and a variety of tutorial videos. But also, if you get stuck on anything, you can chat with us on Slack or Telegram.

➜ Slack: https://lightning.engineering/slack.html (join the taproot-assets channel)

➜ Telegram: https://t.me/lightninglab

We’ve now got 5 videos in the Tapping into Taproot Assets playlist! This is a series of short demo videos walking through using the #TaprootAssets Daemon, tapd, from install to mint to transfer to burn.

So far we’ve demoed installing tapd… three different ways, adding a universe to your federation, and now, finally, we demo minting!

In this one we mint some Taproot Assets using the CLI while discussing batching, block space and fees, meta data, and more.

https://youtu.be/FccI6j0mxuE?list=PL-3jjRT_28Sh3u_9CPVJkm8BLomh23QGk

Or maybe, AI will just help you to write it much faster and easier that you could have on your own! ...maybe.

It’s gotten to the point where I, nearly, have less respect for people the more Twitter followers they have.

Being on the platform for many years now I’ve seen what is necessary to gain a following there, and it ain’t pretty or respectable.

What an utter tragedy of the soul it is to be fixated on status and hierarchy. It stunts your growth as an individual and renders you a slave to the standards of the world around you.