There's this completely unfounded cypherpunk nostalgia (*) among some bitcoiners.

(*) Nostalgia: we had a glorious past full of ideals and now the present is corrupt, we have relaxed on the ideals, we wish we went back to the good old times

I think it's completely unfounded. We could not even imagine in our wildest dreams that we would arrive at the current moment. We had crampy slow mixmasters, command line encryption that no one used and fiat in envelopes and later centralized electronic gold custodians.

You say that there are some services that require KYC, got corrupt by VCs and compliant, not really punk. That is true, but also these corrupted services did not exist at all in the before times you are so nostalgic about.

Do we have more options or less? Definitely more. We are participating in an open decentralized project that emerged into sixth largest reserve currency in the world. And we are only beginning.

Pissed about grandmas with ETFs? Even if you remove them, we are more than 1000x of what anyone expected. We thought we are going to be fringe like the 0.001% PGP users.

We don't need everyone to be cypherpunk. Let others do what they want, we're already winning our game. Their game? Not playing, sorry, too boring.

No safety without cryptography.

No free thought without privacy.

No free speech without pseudonymity.

I propose putting an end to draconian politicians on podiums.

That's why I believe we must push forward the principle of pseudonymity as the functioning element of FOSS development and force all these politicians to deal with the fact that cryptography is not a crime and that no amount of force will ever solve a math problem.

❄️⚡☄️🎄

Go for a 1 hour walk and listen to a Bitcoin podcast. You don’t need to analyse how many calories you burnt. ☺️

Bubbling up this post I wrote a few months ago. You might notice that I put breathwork on par with Nostr and Bitcoin as it relates to potential for societal impact. I’m sure many of you will disagree with me. Please do. That’s why we’re here.

I believe breathwork is revolutionary in that, like Nostr and Bitcoin, it’s a freedom tool.

Connecting with our breath allows us to exit the matrix of suffering and small mindedness bred from chronic stress & fight or flight functioning. It serves as a vessel to unrealized expansiveness, creativity, and safety in our bodies. Breathwork created inside-out transformations. Although the science is sound, I often refer to it as magic.

Without breathwork, I wouldn’t be on Nostr fighting for a healthier society. I would still be hiding from the world. That alone is enough to convince me of its power.

nostr:note1060szr255duy4p9zzy5hse02w4s6mzw9dqa7mgnynjl3zl34qflscp8avq

Get’em while you can! nostr:note1kqngup8dt07f6v9p0draqsnhjjp7cfqchcm98c6yzq27ed0qea5sdxrqpm

Doesn't get old.

Ohh! I’m not that technical 😬

The #Bitcoin community is not just about transactions; it's about human connections.

It's a supportive network where ideas are shared, friendships are forged, and together, we're pushing the boundaries of what's possible.

The most FOMO I ever had for a conference was not going to Oslo this year. Had too much stuff clustered around this time to make it easily workable.

Most bitcoin conferences are great, but there's different energy in Oslo. Feels more like the essence of what this is all about.

I've also found, when talking to some (generally wealthy) American media personalities and so forth, is that the inflationary/authoritarian country use-case for bitcoin is generally off their radar until someone really gives them examples. They just think, "Visa works fine, why do I need the BitCoins?" and when you explain, "Well look at the underbanked percentage in this country" or "Look at how these democracy advocates had their bank accounts frozen" or "You're not a fan of Putin, eh? Well let me tell you about how Nalvany's organization used bitcoin to circumvent Putin's bank freezes for quite a while." or "Imagine you're in a small country with hyperinflation and decide to leave. You can't bring a lot of cash or gold with you. What asset do you bring to get more of your wealth out? And when getting that asset, wouldn't it have been better to hold some as a permanent part of your savings before you need it, rather than try to get some after things fall apart and capital controls are more firmly in place?"

Alex Gladstein's books, Check Your Financial Privilege and Hidden Repression, or his associated talks/presentations on those topics, are I think really powerful to showcase to normal people who don't think about this stuff too often why this technology is important.