I think the privacypass type solution (of which cashu is a variant) is probably the best fit here, and if captcha isn't the best way to pay for those blinded tokens, long term (and surely it isn't), we could go the route of utxo ownership proofs of the type I'm working on (directly paying on LN is possible, but suboptimal for privacy).

PoW to me only really fits the bitcoin use case, the problem for more consumer type applications is that the honest user only has advantage over the kind of attacker who needs literally millions of accounts. The cost to the honest user is not negligible enough, I feel. But it's a debatable point.

Agree. But that risk can be mitigated by using multiple mints and the ability to clear out to Lightning at a moment’s note. Also, by separating the mint operator from the service provider, it further mitigates a single point of failure risk.

In the end, this architecture makes a mint like a money router - if one goes down, you can easily switch. Finally there are some neat reputation services appearing like bitcoinmints.com and nostr.watch that’s where I discovered reliable relays and mints that I can use.

Sooner or later, an organization will stake their reputation on running a reliable mint and/or relay. When that time comes, we’ll be able to manage our risks accordingly.

Which specific custodial risk are you referring to?

Currently for the service I built, I have a custodial wallet for each user where I store the privat data in my own database. With this new component, I plan to push all that private data encrypted out to relays with reference to mints and blossom servers. So the only thing I ‘custody’ is the nsec of that wallet instance I am holding that nsec on behalf of that user who ‘trusts’ me. . I will let the user have access to that nsec, if they want it, and if they begin to distrust me, they can sweep the wallet without my permission.

As well, I am no longer storing any unencrypted personal data in my database server so that eliminates a big honeypot risk for me. As for availability, storing on redundant relay servers, is a big plus too.

The beauty of an #nsac is that you can create one for custodial purposes and if you are suspicious of the custodian, you can sweep out the #nsac before they rug you.

This is the unilateral exit option we’re looking for. 👀

This is a brilliant idea. Honeypots ftw!

MORE CLIENTS SHOULD SUPPORT DISPOSABLE NPUBS. AMETHYST IS LEADING THE WAY HERE. WOULD BE THE SINGLE BIGGEST PRIVACY WIN FOR ONLINE SPEECH ACROSS THE BOARD.

NORMALIZE SINGLE USE DISPOSABLE IDENTITIES. AS THE REST OF THE INTERNET MOVES TOWARD LINKING EVERY ACTION TO LEGAL IDENTITIES, NOSTR REPRESENTS A BRIGHTER PATH.

I spent 2 hours this morning helping a grandma set up a multisig wallet. I directed her to the service provider that I believe has the best UX out there. The easiest and most friendly environment possible.

It was grueling. I am drained after that experience.

Don't get me wrong. I have no regrets and I'd do it again. In fact, I keep a running list of people to help. That's what it means to be an Uncle Jim. Helping people achieve financial sovereignty is one of the best and most important things you can teach someone these days.

However, I don't believe we can achieve meaningful levels of self custody with the current generation. We need to be focusing mostly on the next generation.

I didn't get my first email address until I was in my 20s. My kids get an email address automatically when they enter Kindergarten. These days it's just a life skill that everyone learns. Likewise, bitcoin self custody will become a basic life skill. The move to financial self-sovereignty will be a generational shift.

I see a lot of frustration at the slow uptake of these trends. My message to those folks is simple: lower your time preference.

Medieval cathedrals took many generations to build. The workers who started the foundations did it knowing they would never see the completed project.

We are building a cathedral. We're only 15 years in. Lower your time preference.

Arrived at XMR after years of using lightning, seeing how its used in El Salvador and Costa Rica and realizing that it is complete bullshit.

UX is still terrible if you dont want to use a custodial wallet. Fees are way higher than a few sats if you dont transact within the same wallet ecosystem.

Lightning has promised a lot and has not delivered on its promises at all. Relying on Lightning to scale BTC was a huge mistake and it has set back BTC development for many years.

The actual number is 100%. L1 can only handle 0.5% of credit card transactions.

people have been recruiting others to bitcoin at great cost and for a long time, even michael saylor, while you did nothing and just enjoyed the growth of your network effect while shitting on the same people who were putting in the work

congratulations

Nostr will never be complete, nor will it be ready until the needs and problems present themselves. Over the last 20 months I have not witnessed major issues being tackled until they're front and center. The motivation to not fail is strong. The motivation to not solve issues that aren't apparent are often put on the back burners too. I feel we need a catalyst.

Nostr's usage and growth among active users of the protocol continues to grow, however overall active users are still fairly low. Clearly our core community loves Nostr and understands it's importance. We are all bullish. That said, we need a breakout moment or event if we want to continue to #grownostr outside of the Bitcoin community.

We can to recruit streamers to try zap.stream to see it's potential to get paid for their content.

We can recruit bloggers to use habla.news and highlighter.com to have their voices heard without censorship.

I still feel we need a good Instagram and TikTok alternative to recruit from those audiences.

People who have been actively & openly working to attack bitcoin (explicitly in their own words) want something because it would improve their ability to attack bitcoin. You cannot imporve bitcoin by making it easier to attack.

People who do not think adversarially should be just totally dismissed when it comes to what that want to do to improve bitcoin. We live in an adversarial world, and in this case you don't even have to guess about whether this one might be used against us or not, it absolutely will be.