Funny where you meet fellow Bitcoiners. I live in the middle of nowhere in the UK and just started chatting to my only neighbour's carer. She's from Cape Town and my age, 54. Since it was raining (as usual in the UK), I joked that she should be hoping on a plane back home to the sunshine. She then explained that she had to come over and work as a carer because she had lost all her savings which were in Crypto. She had been investing since 2015 and was doing well until she connected her hardware wallet to a dummy Trezor website. Man I feel for her! I'm also glad I've got a multisig setup.
"For money as for all other activities of man, liberty is the mother, not the daughter of order."
- Murray N. Rothbard, "What has the government done to our money?" #asknostr
The Feds estimate for US crypto users is somewhat lower than Coinbase's. Quelle surprise.
nostr:npub14s0sy96lqn7vl0vdj59e2pjnnsgvlneds6ws6sjy89cwg8ck3zvqhm3x2dTheir argument is that some UTXO are less substitutional than others because they have been used for and can be traced to criminal purposes
Is Bitcoin Fungible?
The reason I ask is I've just been reading the latest book by Dave Birch and Victoria Richardson (a good read if you're a money nerd like me). In it, they postulate that Bitcoin can't be money because each one is unique and hence, not 'fungible'. For example, in the UK, the High Court has ruled that Bitcoin is digital property, and, as such is capable of being the subject of a proprietary injunction against an exchange. In other words, an exchange will be obliged to identify the owner of any stolen coins and the owner can be legally pursued to recover the stolen coins even if they didn't know that the Bitcoin they bought were stolen.
I would argue that is no less Fungible than the physical pound or dollar in yours or my pocket. Thoughts 💭?
#asknostr
....and they're pretty efficient for USD remittances. You can easily move your money across the globe for sub-75 basis points, instantly. Not bad for low-value payments in comparison to the average of 620 bps.
Drivechains, Side chains, Spider chains, Soft Chains, Space Chains, Cross Chains, Anchored Chains, Rollups, ecash, Mints, Lightning, Liquid...argggh. Just took another peek at Jameson Lopp's excellent Bitcoin Information page:
https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/other-layers.html
It's a couple of years since I started pealing the Bitcoin layer 2 onion and I still don't feel like I'm any closer to having a decent grasp.
Which of the L2s enable final settlement of payments in addition to clearing without recourse to the underlying UTXO?
Hmmm curious. I wonder what the conclusion of Sweden's investigation into the Baltic underwater cable damage will be.
Done (nice work in Bedford btw)
Laughable attempt to ESG shame Bitcoin
https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67564205.amp?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID #amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17012792575487&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_7914695188042843241699003194.webp
This photo perfectly illustrates the state of UK - and the wider world - politics today. Our Prime Minister interviewing and fawning over the richest man in the world whilst feigning concern about a new technology in which both their respected organisations have vested interests.
https://unherd.com/2023/10/welcome-to-the-cashless-dystopia/
Good article by Rachel O'Dwyer
I've stopped collecting my own bitcoin / lightning library because of this. It's the best curated site for all things Bitcoin/Lightning. Thank you!