80
szarka
80ba3b7745d73bf269d5dad1e9952f3eff851d3f16fc5efb1f052889dea18705
Geek. Bitcoiner. Economist.

Needs a half-eaten jar of pickles and some sports drinks.

Replying to Avatar Lyn Alden

I’ve always been amazed that people go cashless, meaning they literally walk around and even travel without cash, and just rely on cards to pay.

Credit and debit cards are centralized and can be shut off or denied for all sorts of reasons, or can run into technical issues. BTC/LN is better because it’s decentralized, although it still needs power+internet and merchant acceptance. Cash as physical bearer asset money is great. Of course I wish cash was redeemable for something sound, but maybe in the future that’ll be the case again. In the meantime it’s good to have a few meals or taxis or hotel rooms worth of cash on hand.

I always have a diverse mix of digital and physical payment methods on hand, so I never get caught unable to pay.

So far in life I have only had one instance where I couldn’t pay. I was at a restaurant in Cairo a few years ago and their card machine/connection was down, and were only accepting cash. I had physical US dollars but they were part of a bigger corporate restaurant chain and so didn’t have the flexibility to accept them. My husband normally carries Egyptian currency but didn’t have any on him that day, and since he carried it, I previously did not. Neither did our friend that was with us. So we had to go on an awkward search for an ATM for a while and then come back and pay. And from that point I iterated, so I always carry Egyptian currency in Egypt as well as my other methods. And it has come in handy a bunch of times, when my husband needs some spare cash for tips or something I always have a little stockpile ready to go since I am a stickler about always having a certain amount whereas he is more flexible.

I always have a kind of “prepare for everything” type of mentality and like to be in control of my situation, and thus always have like backups for my backups in various contexts, including payment or being able to access various types of value anywhere, even when such preparation is not really needed.

I feel like this "be prepared" mentality is the hallmark of a Bitcoiner, though it manifests in many different ways. E.g., I would be shocked to meet a hardcore Bitcoiner who didn't have several days of water set aside.

nostr:nevent1qqs837447nswvzcv9hhf2pgtqsn3lk5754ahugg6wc4cj85ug4qpyjcprfmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujummjv9hxwetsd9kxctnyv4mqyg82krn4d5etsz7dge8nmpztspqrqvr45yl2hs6enfmzexk84wglfupsgqqqqqqs2v7ur8

Second-best song ever called "Gloria", right after Patti Smith's cover of Van Morrison. Still a banger today.

Emmylou, Gillian, & Allison—three of the greatest voices in country music right there!

Happy first birthday to my Lightning node. 🎂

Any suggested protocol to follow re: removing apparently dead links? Open an issue or just YOLO it?

E.G.: So far, looks from here like yosup.app and nostr-relay.org are dead. Could be temporary, tho.

I'd be willing to pitch in as a second. Don't think I could handle it alone right now, either. Too much happening in this space to keep up!

GitHub = szarka

I mean, it's still less sketchy than Tether.

I needed to refund a customer's unspent balance recently, but was in the middle of a move and couldn't find the checkbook I haven't used in a few years. Tried to use that Zelle thing my bank is always bragging about. Payment failed and I wound up with my account completely locked. Managed to get my ATM card unfrozen so I could withdraw cash and send a Walmart money order, like a savage. Can't get the actual Zelle thing sorted out unless I visit a physical branch. Yeah, that's gonna happen.