Avatar
Hypnagog
7d50ca8c167a10723c24afa9fe9ac7170dc4d5c000d7fcd470c5aecf7ff3aeb7
The hypnagogic state is a peculiar sensory experience that marks the onset of sleep. You will almost certainly recognize it, even if you've never paid attention or thought much about it before · This intriguing mildly hallucinogenic state can be used to have wake induced lucid dreams.
Replying to Avatar miljan

Dust has finally settled on the “Primal censorship” drama. That’s good to see, but I don’t want to sweep this episode under the rug. It is probably appropriate to do a post mortem, assess what has happened and see what we can learn. Let’s make sure that Nostr is a better place after this episode.

Two weeks ago, Primal’s trending algorithm was attacked by bots. The attacker generated hundreds of thousands of reactions, propping his note to the top of our trending feed. At the time, our only defence was a simple “can’t trend” list, so we put the attacker on it. He immediately posted on Nostr, accusing us of censorship, but his note never took off. The attacker then selected a few well liked Nostr accounts and started stuffing the ballot box for them. We saw a bunch of bogus notes with massive bot engagement, so we resorted to the only blunt tool we had. The attacker jumped on the opportunity to publicize the fact that some well liked accounts were being suppressed on Primal and accused us of “shadowbanning”. The whole thing exploded on Nostr.

What followed was a pretty tough week for Primal. Many of our users turned against us. They took the idea of shadowbanning seriously, as they should. Most feedback was in good spirits, people making fun of Primal via memes. But we also got a fair bit of hate from complete strangers, which was super-weird. All in all, Nostr users were clear about what they think of censorship. This was the Nostr immune system reacting. Being on the receiving end of it really sucked, but still it’s beautiful to see!

The crazy part is that those “shadowbanned” accounts were actually perfectly visible throughout the entire Primal site. They had *exactly* the same level of visibility as they do on Damus, Snort, Coracle, and other Nostr clients. They just couldn’t show up in our trending bar. I tried to explain, but there was little room for nuance with the drama in full swing.

So we decided to disengage temporarily, focus on building, and let our product do the talking. We made our trending algorithm more resistant to bots and removed everyone from the “can’t trend” list. We also built a new content moderation system for Nostr, giving complete control to the user. This is our best take on how to do content moderation on such a radically open network. I cover the features and our reasoning in my blog post below.

So Primal is strictly a better product after this episode. But what about Nostr itself?

Attacks can be useful. While they disrupt our systems and really suck for us and our users, they do force us to improve and become more competent at operating in an adversarial environment. However, we should be careful about making it socially acceptable for Nostr devs to attack other projects in broad daylight. That’s not the most productive way to collaborate. It also creates weird vibes which I think we don’t want here. Nostr is in its infancy and the way we act will set the tone for things to come. There is so much to build and we are all working as fast as we can. At Primal we build open source software and run services for Nostr. If you don’t like the way something works, fork it and do your own thing. If you want to contribute, we accept PRs. If you have found a vulnerability, there are multiple good ways to disclose it.

As for Nostr users, I think you all reacted perfectly. Push back hard at any whiff of censorship. When in doubt, mercilessly create memes, point out things that are wrong, and don’t let up. Even if the target is Primal.

If Primal is real, it can stand the pressure. 🤙💜

https://habla.news/u/miljan@primal.net/1693416828339

This is exactly the type of reaction we want fr a Dev on Nostr. A typical centralized network would have doubled down and flexed muscles , while youopted to embrace the reaction and learn from it.

Not a primal user but you earned my respect with this post.

Also, journalism is very alive on independent sites like substack. Intelligent investigative reports there. Media hasn't gone, its changed.

This video was taken down, it showed humans calcinated on the spot, some even still sitting in their cars. The bodies were burned very quickly, you could even see the calcinated remains of their hairdoos.

Learn about assange and wikileaks. Keep the flame alive.

"Wikileaks turned out to be a good concept as a democracy test. If governments cannot deal with full transparency , that's says a lot about them"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGAZqtzkrYI

Clear and logical alternative take on BRICS expansion, saying it is not an erosion of western power, but rather a cementing of corporate interests. Worth a listen.

https://t.me/worldalternativemedia/319738

I usually dont link to twitter.... But this... Warning graphic. Re: Maui fires. Nothing to see here.

https://twitter.com/chuckdpete/status/1698497764022272493?s=20

All things considered I think the amount of capital required to enter bitcoin mining now is much higher than what it should be.

I blame the proof of stake switch from ETH and others, which brought a huge pile of hardware to bitcoin mining.

In the long run I only hope a decentralized solution to btc mining is created (like a high hash rate usb mining device anyone can plug in their home computers) and I hope mining doesnt centralize

I have a single unit (not a double like yours) and hit 44kh/s. I hear they will make it so the screen doesnt reset when the device restarts on next version which I am looking forward to.

Of course , calculating odds of mining a block, we have 1 in 79 TRILLION of mining one at 45kh/s. Its safe to say its statistically 0.

Let's look at why halvings are important;

Right now the price of bitcoin is levelled at the 25k-30k price range, and has been floating there for a while.

This means there is (roughly) as much demand as there is supply. For every bitcoin being sold, someone is buying it at this price.

Now, let's consider that 6 btc are being created every 10 minutes (with every block as miner subsidy )

There are 1440 minutes everyday, which translates to 864 btc being created everyday. Assuming this btc is being sold, and an average price of 26k, that's $22.4 million of supply EVERY DAY.

since the price is stable, this means there is $22million NEW MONEY buying bitcoin every day. 22million going into bitcoin everyday

Now, at halving, the supply halves. At these prices, that means 11.2 million is created in btc. But if demand remains at 22.4 million daily then there is more money entering bitcoin than there is supply.

This is compounded by increased demand from growing adoption or etf etc.

Watching people (especially "freedom loving people" ) continuing to use x.com is very similar to watching people agree to wear a mask two years ago, despite knowing they prevent nothing.

I wonder what we can do to wake them up... Sometimes I think nothing but a big slap in the face will wake them up... And when that comes it'll likely be too late.

It is the unelected policy people in supra national organisations who are building international global standards which in turn unelected policy people in government recommend to elected officials, which in turn pass into legislation, which is then enforced on you.

BBC gets a dose of truth on mainstream media propaganda on free speech and media control

https://nostr.build/av/32caa1515cd4b745a91ac0cf46c0a6fafbed7c560ae89045c3c9f860460d770e.mp4