Argentina or Uruguay would be awesome for the next Nostr.World conference.

That’s my vote. 🫡

The studio is ready, Danny's flights are booked, and next week we’ll begin recording episodes for our new podcast.

I wanted to share the reasons behind this shift as many have been asking. Three primary factors influenced this decision:

1. I hate making remote shows—I never want to do them again. These interviews need the intimacy of being in person.

2. Traveling constantly has been detrimental to my health and my family.

3. My commitments here with the football club and local community are growing.

So, the solution was clear: build a studio in the UK and produce the show locally.

We’ve secured a fantastic space in Soho, London, and we’re ready to go but given the limited number of Bitcoin guests available in the UK or those willing to fly in, it’s time to retire What Bitcoin Did.

Our new podcast will be similar in feel but will cover a broader range of topics. While some episodes will focus on Bitcoin (though less frequently), most will explore other interesting topics or people.

Having made nearly 900 episodes covering a wide range of #bitcoin topics and guests, we’re now aiming higher. By diversifying our content and guests, we hope to introduce more people to the concept of sound money through podcast osmosis. If we get this right, it will be a bigger show, if we get it wrong, well we tried.

For a long time I have felt there is a need to get out of the #bitcoin corner of the party. Real Bedford FC was a way of integrating sound money into a traditional business model. CheatCode purposely did not include Bitcoin in the title, so changing the show feels like a natural next step.

Sometimes when stuck in the #bitcoin landscape you can lose site of how other people in the world think, lose empathy for the complexities of the world. I have felt this. I'd come home from spending two weeks with Bitcoiners and be with friends and family locally and notice a distinct difference in how we see the world. As everything feels like it is going to shit, I feel like there is a bigger job to do now.

The Bitcoin podcast landscape is well served, from Marty and Odell to Natalie and Preston, from The Blue Collar guys to Stefan Livera and anyone I haven't mentioned. There’s no shortage of high-quality Bitcoin podcasts.

However, there seems to be some fatigue in the space, with similar guests and topics being revisited. With our new show we want to bring fresh perspectives and ideas, aligning with sound money where relevant—think of the shows we’ve had with the likes of Eric Weinstein and Michael Malice.

On a personal note, I’m need the challenge, test myself wider, get fit and find a good woman. I can't do this travelling all the time.

When I started the podcast my life was a shit show - divorced, coming off drugs, heading towards bankruptcy. I've had an incredible 7 years, travelled the world, made amazing friends and got to live my dream by buying my local football club.

To everyone who has helped us get this far - the guests, the listeners, the sponsors, we could not have done this without you. I am forever in your debt.

I hope you’ll check out the new show and enjoy it, though it may not be for some of you. Regardless, Danny and I will work hard to deliver the best show possible, like we always have.

Roll on The McCormack Show!

CEO of Telegram was arrested in France. They’re going full authoritarian on free speech and devs *could* be targeted.

Holy shit this is dark (read til the end)

Most websites have Google Analytics installed to help track their details.

I used to do this. It expired on my website some years ago, so I fixed it.

It then expired again. Always updating their tech. I was too busy to give a fuck that second time, so I still haven’t fixed it. My followers don’t care about Google anymore. And we’re not based on advertisers.

I don’t track numbers on my website anymore. I just post based on vibes. I write what I want to and I observe the feedback on any medium that people provide it. And now there’s Nostr.

So I go on vibes. Not numbers.

My friend and artist Agustin Romero from Montevideo, Uruguay. Setting up some paintings by him in Edinborg Cultural House in Ísafjörður, Iceland. *He doesn't have a Nostr account yet, but I'm slowly trying to convince him to get one and start posting his work. Nostr needs art and maybe he can get a few zaps 🤷‍♂️... who knows.

GM

Nice I'll have to pick up a copy for myself one day and give it a read.

Rest of the post below 👇

The guy wearing a suit would then tell me his boring ideas of mainstream mass-adoption and getting big banks onboard. This happened all the time, and the business guys even attempted a hostile takeover of Bitcoin.

Mass adoption is a meme that means "build a bad product to pump my bags". It's the same mindset of trashy US startups where the aim is to grab money, stuff your org with HR and marketing and "fake it till you make it" mindset.

Now today we see people calling for a return to the core principles at the heart of cryptocurrency's journey in 2010.

What can we learn from the history of Linux?

The movement started in the early 90s, but had its roots much earlier. Richard Stallman saw the influx of VCs into the PC industry in the 80s, and the culture completely changed.

People stopped caring about computer freedom. So he proposed a big mission: lets create a new operating system. People called him crazy and a crank, but he didn't listen to them. Stallman invented the Linux operating system.

As the movement start gaining traction, soon the money people came back again. We need mass adoption they said.

They also said this: "talking about freedom is scary for big business. We need to tone that down and focus just on the benefits for business."

This was the origin of opensource. It was created to push Stallman out of the movement he created, and attract big business.

We saw the same thing happen in crypto. Corrupt people who benefit from money printing said "if only we can wrestle this Bitcoin thing out of the hands of the anarchists, then we can get mainstream adoption by big banks".

Opensource pumped big time on the stock market during the 90s, but then cooled off and eventually the markets got bored and moved on.

The Linux movement stalled, and the big meme in the Linux community became mass adoption. Notice the similarity here with crypto? Big money coming in but nothing new happening. Then people get bored and the movement dies, failing to achieve its objective.

Linux became a poor man's alternative to Windows and Mac. It tried to play catch up always copying its competitor, and being one step behind.

Worst yet, we missed the rise of mobile and Linux was left behind scrambling.

But that's changing in the Linux community. And I'm sensing crypto is also about to undergo this character arc.

The Linux renaissance was first sparked by outrage over systemd, but now people are getting back to the heart of Linux.

Linux is not Windows or Mac. Linux is Linux.

With Linux you can make infrastructure. Linux runs communities and gives you economic and social power. You are in charge. Everyone is a main character- you are developer and user.

By contrast, Windows and Mac are for cucks. You are enslaved. If you are locked out or experience injustice, you can only send the big tech corporation an angry email. You have no power. They make the decisions, and you live with them.

Worst yet, they don't care about people rallying to fix their situation. They spy on you and sell your data to corporations and governments. You are the product.

Linux is power. Cypherpunks use Linux.

Imagine an authoritarian regime comes to power and puts your friends in jail. They are oppressing you.

Are you going to use Google Docs and your Mac to overthrow the regime? Nope!

You will want anonymous freedom tech but it will be too late since you did not develop your skills. Think of it like prepping for the apocalypse, but rather than stockpiling tins of food, you're acquiring hard skills which your community will need when SHTF.

Understand anon, this is the true purpose and power of cryptocurrency too. Anonymous, uncensored and sovereign economic networks.

Cryptocurrency is power. You can send money from anywhere in the world to anywhere else fully anonymously using Monero and nobody can stop you. We can even form anonymous on-chain DAOs with DarkFi, mobilize to gather funds and act together as one powerful voice in the market. Nobody can stop this.

They might put any one of us in jail, or suicide us like what happened with Ross Ulbricht and John McAfee, but the ball is rolling and crypto is primed for a renaissance.

I remember telling everyone in 2000 the governments were spying on everyone. I downloaded OpenCV library and made an app in 10 mins to track my face on a webcam. Then I read how London has the highest number of CCTV cameras in the world. I put two and two together, and it made sense, right?

WRONG. People all called me a conspiracy theorist and gave me strange looks. I tried telling everybody, but nobody believed me.

Then the @Snowden

disclosures happened, and suddenly everybody was saying "the government's spying on you!"... well duh! Hackers had been saying this for years!

But now the Overton window has shifted. People have woken up to the elites in power and their lies. The politicians used black magic and manipulated people. But black magic has a cost that must be repaid in the future and now their lies are catching up with them. People no longer believe anything the media says. It's all lies.

We are searching for the path forwards together. Crypto is meant to be a boat carrying us through the storm.

Things are about to change. There is a deep desire burning beneath the surface.

> How can we bring back the cypherpunk spirit?

We need to research, educate, spread the message, run nodes and write code. Learn philosophy/history and hard skills. Make video, movies and write. Actually run nodes, use Linux and write code. Even if you won't be a coder, still learn to write code and participate actively as a user. We need to rally and organize as a community around agorist cypherpunk values.

We need to create orgs dedicated to change and train the next gen of leaders. We need to create strategy and take action. We need to write code and ship products. We need to fight everyday with all our energy for freedom.

Our aim: end the FED

Crypto is power. Cypherpunks use crypto.

Þetta eru ansi flottar myndir hjá þér.

Áttu til eitthvað gott stuff sem lýsir Íslandi og Bitcoin Byltingunni? 😁