GM! ☕ Censorship is happening and it's a good thing! 🤩 😂

#Nodelou🐈 has been smashing all time highs daily. ⚡️ #LightningNetwork

Last 24h:

Transactions: 4349

Total forwarded: 1124660243 sats (11.24660243 BTC)

1st percentile: 10682 sats

25th percentile: 47326 sats

50th percentile (median): 97488 sats

75th percentile: 230317 sats

95th percentile: 725269 sats

Last 7d:

Transactions: 17463

Total forwarded: 5200817560 sats (52.00817560 BTC)

1st percentile: 10001 sats

25th percentile: 40001 sats

50th percentile (median): 90254 sats

75th percentile: 228127 sats

95th percentile: 793736 sats

It's that time of the year again. Fees are low, and my node would appreciate some new Lightning Channels.

DON’T TRUST, VERIFY: OPSEC FOR NORMAL PEOPLE

You don’t need to be a spy. You just need to stop acting like an easy mark.

OPSEC (operational security) isn’t about paranoia. It’s about probability. Every time you click, share, like, swipe, or log in you’re feeding the system. Not just with data, but with predictability. And the more predictable you are, the easier you are to profile, track, influence, or destroy.

But this isn’t a guide for spooks. This is for you. You, with the day job. The rent. The normal life. You’re not trying to hide from satellites, you just want to make it harder for data brokers, cops, stalkers, and advertisers to run your life without your permission.

Here’s how to build real world OPSEC for people who don’t live in bunkers.

THE BASICS: NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE YOU

Stop outsourcing your thinking.

VPNs won’t protect you if you log into Facebook on the same session.

Tor doesn’t help if your exit node hits your real email.

Secure messengers mean nothing if you send selfies of your license.

Password managers are great until your master password is Password123.

You can’t bolt on privacy. You have to think differently. That means trading convenience for control, comfort for clarity.

THE CORE RULE: DON’T TRUST — VERIFY

Every person, app, network, and company must be treated as a potential leak. Not because they’re evil. But because they’re not you. They don’t care like you care. They don’t suffer the fallout when your info leaks. They won’t lose sleep when your information gets doxed. So stop assuming trust. Assume compromise.

Then verify reality:

Is this connection encrypted?

Is this app open source?

Is this site phoning home?

Is this device mine, or just leased surveillance?

Default to skepticism. Not cynicism. Just practical defense.

MENTAL MODELS THAT ACTUALLY MATTER

1. EVERYTHING YOU SHARE IS PERMANENT

Messages get screen-capped. Emails get forwarded. Cloud backups get subpoenaed. If it’s digital, it’s duplicable. If it’s duplicable, it’s uncontrollable. Say less. Send less. Assume nothing is private unless you control every link in the chain.

2. ANONYMITY DIES IN CROSS-REFERENCE

You use the same username on Reddit and GitHub? You’re already deanonymized. You check Telegram from the same IP you use for online banking? Done. You walk around with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on? You’re trackable by MAC address. Your habits are the fingerprint. The tools don’t matter if you glue them together with laziness.

3. THREAT MODELS

Most of your threats aren’t hackers in hoodies.

They’re:

Employers snooping

Advertisers building profiles

Cops asking for metadata

Creeps stalking exes

AI scraping your digital trail

So act accordingly. Encrypt your messages. Keep your devices locked. Don’t post your kids’ full names. Use fake birthdays. Rotate email aliases. You don’t need spy gear. You need boundaries.

4. METADATA IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN CONTENT

What you said matters less than when, where, and to whom.

Call logs > call audio

Message timing > message content

Location pings > social posts

You can encrypt the payload, but if the headers stay public, they’ll still build your network map. Use tools that don’t just encrypt, use tools that erase or decoy metadata.

HABITS THAT STACK THE ODDS

You want practical?

Here:

Use different usernames for different roles (social, work, crypto, political)

Compartmentalize accounts with burner emails and password managers

Turn off Wi-Fi/Bluetooth when not using them

Use privacy-respecting browsers (Brave, Firefox, or Mull with uBlock, JSBlock, CanvasBlocker)

Use DNS that doesn’t log (like NextDNS with hardened settings)

Keep a separate phone for dumb tasks (ride shares, deliveries, junk apps)

Run a VPN over Tor, not the other way around

Don’t reuse passwords. Ever.

Encrypt your devices full disk, no exceptions

Use 2FA

Check what your apps are really doing (Exodus Privacy, NetGuard, TrackerControl)

MINIMIZE YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

It’s not about deleting your life. It’s about casting less of a shadow. Don’t post in real time. Don’t geotag anything. Don’t sync everything to “the cloud”. Don’t store your life in Google’s hive mind. Every extra bit of data you leave behind is an anchor point for advertisers, cops, creeps, or HR looking for a reason not to hire you. Cut the anchor. Move lightly. Leave gaps.

KNOW WHEN TO WALK AWAY

If an app gets shady, drop it. If a service demands ID, burn it. If a platform changes its terms, don’t argue. Exit. You owe nothing to the digital landlords. No app, platform, or device is sacred. No habit is worth your safety.

FINAL WORD

You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be less predictable than the next target. You just have to make surveillance harder, more expensive, more uncertain. That’s OPSEC for normal people. It’s not magic. It’s not elite.

It’s just a mindset:Don’t trust. Verify.

Then act like you give a damn.

GHOST

Nodelou🐈 Update: Apparently the 10% target was too low 😽

Not bad. My humble pleb node routed over 21 BTC and counting in the past seven days alone... Mindblowing! Feels pretty amazing coming back from a full rebuild, ready to quit routing forever– and now six months later looking at stats like this. 🧡

HUGE thank you to all the #Plebnet noderunners. I would not be here if it were not for the massive amount of help and support over the years. The LN community is absolutely amazing, I'm forever grateful to be a small part of it. 🙏

P.S. Any #Noderunners out there please drop your pubkey in the comments. Any operators with more than 10 public channels will recieve a 10k sat zap for your service. 🫡

#Lightning #LN #Nodestrich #Nodelou🐈