I’m not going to pretend there aren’t pros and cons to this to ‘fit in’ on Nostr…and yes there ARE ways this could ‘protect children’. And also ways it couldn’t if they have abusive guardians for example

The bubble is just beginning. We will see really shitty companies running really reckless strategies eventually

As I stepped onto the plane leaving Oslo 🇳🇴 the weight and warmth of the last few days settled into my chest.

The Oslo Freedom Forum is not a conference. It's not a summit. It’s something harder to name. A convergence of courage, truth, and defiance that burns through the noise of the modern world and gives you no choice but to listen, feel, and act.

For the second time, I’ve walked away from OFF more convinced than ever that the tide is turning. That amid the censorship, surveillance, and state repression, something unstoppable is rising.

The Forum doesn’t trade in empty optimism. It delivers a different kind of hope: forged from lived experience, stitched together by people who have been in the dark and still chose to build the light.

The stories shared were hard. At times, devastating. But they weren’t offered for pity. They were calls to action.

You don’t leave Oslo feeling defeated. You leave reminded that truth is more powerful than propaganda, that code can protect life, and that resistance isn’t just possible, it’s already happening.

This year, there was a noticeable pulse of momentum around freedom tech. Human rights defenders from the front lines spoke not only about the oppression they face, but about the tools they’re using to push back. #Bitcoin, nostr, privacy protocols, open source AI models, and uncensorable VPNs.

These are the instruments keeping movements alive, getting money to dissidents, and protecting voices at risk. And behind every tool is a quiet builder, a pseudonymous contributor, or an open-source developer who may never take the stage but is just as much a part of the story.

Being part of the financial freedom team at HRF only deepens this sense of purpose. I couldn’t ask for a more principled, talented group of allies.

nostr:nprofile1qqs9336p4f3sctdrtft2wlqaq5upjz9azpgylhfd3dplwf005mfrr9spzamhxue69uhkummnw3ezuendwsh8w6t69e3xj7spz3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezummcw3ezuer9wct4lwjj nostr:nprofile1qqsvyc3vj9kehy8pp2qm9wn8kxdal3wkhcnvy46k68uep5mctnsnvxcpzpmhxue69uh5ummnw3ezuamfdejsz9thwden5te0v4jx2m3wdehhxarj9ekxzmny2mxsde nostr:nprofile1qqs80mykdlxkf7gpz5k26hw8wvw8eqclughq9cawn8l3gcm7tfywl8qpp3mhxue69uhkyunz9e5k7qg4waehxw309ajkgetw9ehx7um5wghxcctwvsw86hga nostr:nprofile1qqspcvwvmgnsnlrv7hds5zcgwdsnuftyd39fg3mem76734kthnfwu8qpp3mhxue69uhkyunz9e5k7qg4waehxw309ajkgetw9ehx7um5wghxcctwvsqdcd98

nostr:nprofile1qqsz9g9lps62400tjx4wg8dgtjgmrq3easktmv3dlkslxtlltsj487spz4mhxue69uhk2er9dchxummnw3ezumrpdejqzrthwden5te0dehhxtnvdakqx9fh3z nostr:nprofile1qqsrjp40qtt73860r6ptfgr0ejwgl58s499egfvlvs49zszy4u2unaqpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqpr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmq3jzqf4nostr:nprofile1qqsgpq7lvzqajx6zhncsggs4ujlu39903y7dql4ywt5qr0q8jndrjdqpzamhxw309a6k6cnjv4kzumr0vdskcw358q6rstcpz9mhxw309a6k6cnjv4kr5dpcxsuz7j9w6wc nostr:nprofile1qqsrwhxpj2scvaevrzkrwm83qjzmkjh3adct7fgtzxlh4lpjy8qymmgpp3mhxue69uhkyunz9e5k7qg4waehxw309ajkgetw9ehx7um5wghxcctwvsjjpk4j

These are people who care deeply, work quietly, and show up every day to make sure those fighting for their rights and freedoms aren’t left alone.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of the problem, but being in this team reminds me that change starts by standing with those who share a vision and mission for a more free and just world.

I’m leaving with a head full of names and projects, and a heart that feels cracked open in the best way. I’m grateful for the conversations, the hard questions, the laughter over dinners, and the moments of silence that said more than any speech could.

Above all, I’m reminded that no authoritarian regime, no matter how brutal or well-funded, has ever succeeded in stamping out the human desire to be free.

Oslo is proof of that. And if you're paying attention, it's also a glimpse into what comes next.

Onwards and upwards, my friends 🧡

I love what’s happening in the #bitcoin space right now, although it’s not very clean—but that’s ok.

I believe two teams have emerged, and that’s actually very healthy for phase 2 (or maybe 3?) of Bitcoin’s journey.

We now have Team Store of Value (Michael Saylor, BlackRock, Wall Street, ETFs) and Team Medium of Exchange (Jack Dorsey, Lightning devs, Nostr, El Salvador).

One says: “Hold it, don’t touch it.”

The other says: “Use it, live it, grow with it.”

I’m firmly with the Medium of Exchange camp. To me, the real revolution is not just in holding harder money—it’s in spending it, earning it, and building on it.

That’s how we build real circular economies. That’s how we normalize it. That’s how we win.

And while I disagree with nostr:npub1sg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q0uf63m on the Sats part, I believe this is the more exciting team. nostr:npub15dqlghlewk84wz3pkqqvzl2w2w36f97g89ljds8x6c094nlu02vqjllm5m is not even here to tag 😂

Choose your team wisely.

new sats symbol just dropped

stay humble and stack them

fuck it, I'm going to release TENEX today

I've mentioned it to a few people here in Oslo in the past few days and I realize just how exciting this vibecoding tooling is

new sats symbol just dropped

stay humble and stack them

BITS = SATOSHIS

Bits.

That’s the new name for sats - rolled out quietly, but intentionally, during the largest Bitcoin conference of the year in Las Vegas. With corporations circling and political figures like Trump stepping onstage, we’re now seeing the slow rebranding of Bitcoin’s most fundamental unit.

No real community discussion.

No transparent rationale.

Just a switch - from “sats” (Satoshis) to “bits.”

As someone who studies this space daily and speaks from the perspective of an artist - I see this as more than a cosmetic tweak. This is a symbolic shift. A move away from Bitcoin’s roots. A subtle erasure of Satoshi Nakamoto from the language we use every day.

Sats were never just a unit of measure. They were a tribute. A memetic anchor tying Bitcoin to its origin and ethos. You don’t rename that lightly. You don’t discard it in the name of “clarity” or “adoption” without telling the community why.

“Bits” might sound cleaner. It might fit better on an app screen. But it comes at a cost: cultural continuity. Historical weight. Identity.

This is happening at a moment when Bitcoin is under more pressure than ever to conform - to be repackaged for mass markets, for regulators, for billionaires. And now even its smallest piece is being reshaped.

This isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about respect. For the people who carried Bitcoin through the early years. For the vision behind it. For the name that still matters.

And most of all - for the ethos of Bitcoin.

Sats are named after the inventor who disappeared so the network could live freely. That absence is the foundation of Bitcoin’s independence. It’s what makes it different. Their systems have money, but no mystery. Power, but no principle. Control, but no character.

Bitcoin has a legend.

And no matter how many interfaces get rewritten, or tickers rebranded, Satoshi Nakamoto should be honored forever - through the name of the smallest unit that makes this entire movement possible.

We should be asking:

Why now?

Why this?

And who benefits from rewriting the words we built this protocol around?

Because if sats can be rebranded overnight… what’s next?

⚡️ FUCK WINDOWS - I'm a little ashamed to tell you why I've been very inactive today, but it's a scandal!

I bought a used Thinkpad (I plan to take nostr:nprofile1qqsy67zzq5tc9cxnl6crf52s4hptdwhyaca5j7r8jwll535tdadedvcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduq3qamnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wd3skueqxd28ts to the next level), when I first turned it on I did everything properly, but they forced me to create an Outlook account to activate Windows. Today I spent a lot of time trying to remove my Outlook account from my Microsoft pc account, impossible to find so I ask their AI "copilot" he gives me outdated documentation I lose patience and I decide to do a reinstallation of the complete system so that I make rather a local account during my reset rather than an account linked to Outlook I wait several minutes and arrives at 100% the reinstallation of the operating system has bug he offers me to cancel.

In a fit of nerves I find a way to delete my Outlook account completely (which will only be effective in 60 days) I accept. BUT IT REMAINS IN MY WINDOWS as an administrator account.

The solution is chatGPT which gives it to me in a bit of a rogue mode (I've already published the prompt) which tells me to disconnect your pc from the internet and it's only then that Windows suggests you create a local account otherwise it's impossible.

I end up creating a local account, I make it administrator, I reboot and I finally manage to delete this Microsoft account linked to my Outlook. At the same time, I purge my PC of all the crap like teams, onedrive, and the whole office suite. I don't want to hear any more about these Trojans.

I was this close to sticking a magnet on my SSD ( I know it worked on HDDs back in the day)

Before I press publish, I almost forgot: yes, I know Linux, but unfortunately I can't play with it, which is the only thing that stops me every time.

Agreed, just bite the bullet and go cold-turkey to Linux. I did it years ago and I don’t miss Windows. Make the commitment to switch and be free!

Sats

Are

The

Standard

That is why you put the JPEGs on the Zenon Network, Lightning Networks successor.

Wow touchy subject you brought up

I am not running a full node and if I was, I think I would disagree with you and opt for a fork that focuses Bitcoin on transactions only as that is what it is for

I think JPEGs on the timechain are stupid.

But the idea that they're going to hurt Bitcoin seems so weak to me. Like the US dollar can withstand people scribbling on it but Bitcoin can't?

In fact, the idea of Bitcoin as a glorious digital monument with some graffiti scribbled on it represents humanity pretty well. That's kind of us in a nutshell. Seems on-brand. Perfectionists trying to keep their little gardens tidy while trolls come in and find ways to mess with them anyway.

NFTs and memecoins already had their peak fad moments. People now know that they're non-scarce gambling toys rather than investments. It's just echoes of that peak now. The only thing that concerned me about the ordinals/runes period was the rapid UTXO bloat, not the blockspace usage, since the latter already has a consensus limit on it.

And if Bitcoin transactions can't outprice JPEGs in the long run, then it's just not that valuable. Bitcoin currently does about 1% of the gross settlement volume of Fedwire. That's peanuts. Imagine if it reaches a point where it does even like 10% of Fedwire. What would you pay to move a full bitcoin globally, permissionlessly, in 10 minutes, in a world where it's no longer a niche thing?

Hi Matthew, to answer your question:

(Assuming core has not been corrupted), these are a few possible motivations of what core might be thinking:

1) “changing things at consensus level to stop spammers is a pain in the ass for several reasons (reaching consensus, code maintenance), so let’s first try this method and let’s see if it works”

2) “the best defence is to be as open as possible: if we try to stop spams with filters or at consensus level, they’ll always find a way in eventually. Let’s instead open it up completely and hopefully the market will sort it out for good”__(personally I wouldn’t mind this approach, just afraid that perhaps btc is still in the nurturing phase and still needs some “monetary focus” protection before being strong enough to be open up completely ?)

3) “we have a mining centralization problem, since we don’t want to stop spams at consensus level (see point #1 above) this is the best we can do to prevent further centralization at the moment

4) btc is fundamentally based on game theory, let’s actually let it play out and see if the players want more a “money database” or a “spam database”

FYI, if it was for me I’d change things at consensus level cause I’m a “monetary maxis”, but I am also not adverse to other use cases as long as they don’t greatly impact/prevent the monetary aspect of btc

Ciao

Nostr is not your backup identity when centralized and legacy platforms fail you. Nostr is your identity. You own it. You're in control of it. Full stop.

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