It’s fun 😂

A considerable number of people get it wrong.

Can you solve it?

Key takeaways from the 2025 conference:

1. Stablecoins are the future.

2. Politicians got your back and deserve your vote.

3. Blockchain is the revolution.

4. Wall Street deserves your bitcoin and your trust.

5. Crypto is incredible technology.

6. Everything will be tokenized.

7. Bitcoin is okay.

8. Las Vegas is the perfect location for this conference… so we’re doing it again next year!

Here is what I learned arguing with people on both sides of the op_return argument. Cunningham's Law in full effect for sure.

1. The Bitcoin blocksize limit is unaffected by the PR. A full archival node is going to grow hard drive storage at up to 4MB every 10 minutes, that number does not change.

2. That 4MB is with maxed out witness data. The base block limit is 1MB, also unchanged.

3. Op_return is base block data while most current arbitrary data schemes store in the larger witness data area.

4. The true limits were always only at the block total level. The total can be made up of any combination of sizes of the sub fields, this is unchanged. My initial assumption on this was backwards. I thought the block limit came from the collection of limits of sub types of data because of my background in networking where that is how the TCPIP packet limits are set. See my incorrect posts earlier where I got this wrong and got corrected.

5. Any "limit" on any particular field size that you set only affects your mempool. This means those limits affect what is in RAM on your node only, not drive space or bandwidth consumption.

6. Your node always validated blocks with any op_return that fits into the base block. This is true of core, libre, and knots. This is why the large op_returns during the dispute did not cause a chain fork even though knots had a limit of 80.

7. More bluntly, nothing changes about what blocks validate. The node runners still have full control over validation and they are not being asked to change validation rules.

8. Only what is carried in mempool will change and no hardware usage changes for nodes.

9. From a TX side, getting nodes to carry the larger op_returns in mempool means they don't have to pay miner accelerator markups. Removing the markup will make op_returns cheaper than the witness data schemes used by most current arbitrary data. This is the entire purpose of the change.

10. Changing op_return to be cheaper than witness data should get arbitrary data users to prioritize using op_return.

11. Witness data cannot be purged from a pruned node without losing economic transactions. Op_returns can be purged in a pruned node, though this may change if future L2s require op_return arbitrary data. That would only affect node runners who wanted to support that L2.

12. 11 means that after the change pruned nodes should have lower hard drive capacity requirements for the same amount of arbitrary data stored on chain.

13. Very slowly for the back of the class. It should be easier for people who don't want to store arbitrary data to not store arbitrary on their node hard drives after the change.

14. Not keeping large op_returns in mempool means you have an incomplete view of who you are bidding against when you set fees for your on chain transactions. Right now this is not a big deal because there aren't many large open_returns. Once there are more, particularly during arbitrary data rushes like the taproot wizards craze, you may wait many blocks after paying what you thought was a next block fee.

15. 14 is most important for lightning where timely automated transactions can be critical such as justice transactions.

16. Mempool has a user set size limit. It drops transactions based on fee. Only the highest fee TXs stay in mempool if mempool size exceeds your limit. This means that storing large op_returns in mempool does not increase RAM requirements for your node.

17. Satoshi stored arbitrary data in op_return not witness data.

So TLDR.

I support the change now. For people who don't want their node resources used for arbitrary data, this makes it easier for you while Knots actually makes it harder. I'll be staying on core and I will be upgrading.

That said, I still think core and the insiders who support this handled it like a bunch of asshats. Pathetic public relations and they need to do much better in the future if they want to be taken seriously. If one person doesn't get it they may be an idiot, if the entire class doesn't get it you are a shitty teacher. Stop condescending and work on your teaching skills.

That’s a pretty legit list.

Are zaps tips? 🤔

Defense of The Realm

Plumes of "Infochemicals" are released into the air by broad bean plants when attacked by aphids. These particular chemicals attract a wasp that prey upon the offending aphids.

If several broad bean plants are networked together via underground mycorrhizae they can alert each other of an aphid attack. An experiment was done wherein broad bean plants were connected by a fungal network. A plastic bag tightly covered one plant and into that bag aphids were released.

The volatile compound (the "infochemical") was not only released by the plant under attack, the compound was found to be emitting from the healthy plants as well. All the plants attracted the very wasp that would protect them if the aphid infestation spread.

The only way the healthy plants could have been prompted to begin production of the chemistry needed was through the fungal network as the plume emitted by the attacked plant was contained within the plastic bag it was covered by. A chemical 911 call.

Examples of Infochemicals 👇

Is there a word for the tendency of morals to become inverted over time or by society? I feel like there should be some concise psychological jargon for it... Probably a Greek word...

"Sin" encapsulates it, but its not precise enough. Sin can mean either an action or a state. "Corruption" is closer, but can also mean a state and has political connotations. "Evil" covers it, but with its religious connotation, isn't useful if speaking to an academic, and is too loosely defined anyways.

I'm looking for a word that names the momentum of the drift to the bad - the force that pushes from the straight and verifiable, which befuddles the mind and creates illusions. Justifications... Compromise... But the impulse behind that.

Dangit, my vocabulary is too small !!!

still terrorizing.

turn your self in.

Take that dog stick!

#memes #funny

The central bankers are very scared and they should be. They will attempt to convince politicians to use lawfare to punish those of us who have been championing sound freedom money as they continually debase their fiat currencies.

Buckle up, freaks.

Turns out I love H.P. Lovecrafts writing. Will be reading more from him. Need shower. Whole time I was reading I felt like I had spiders in my hair - which felt fitting, given the genre, but still.