I mentioned "from an utilitarian perspective" because better here would mean the one that achieves more results. That make the world a better place for more people.

There's not really a fixed and firmed answer but many would immediate jump to open source because it would make the technological accessible to more people quicker. In many instances it might well be the best way to go but in many others it could be a high time preference approach when staying close source and spread more slowly to fund the expertise might be better.

This illegal Bitaxe clone is quietly dominating Asia.

Today I had lunch with the guy behind it 👇

He’s a young bitcoin entrepreneur from Shenzhen, China.

Quiet, humble—but running a serious operation: large-scale self-mining, hosting, and full-scale manufacturing of mining hardware and spare parts.

He’s been in the space since 2017.

Genuinely believes in bitcoin’s mission.

LuckyMiner started as a hobby in late 2023.

He said he wanted to help more people get into mining—not really to make a profit.

But in early 2024 the demand exploded.

Thousands sold.

BREAKING THE LICENSE.

Bitaxe is open source under CERN-OHL-S-2.0—which means any modifications must be published.

So why do it?

I asked him directly. He didn’t get angry or defensive. He said:

1️⃣ Retail customers in Asia don’t care about open source, and the Bitaxe brand isn’t suited for the local market

2️⃣ His team is juggling too many projects—releasing modifications is low priority. Their time is too valuable

Not great reasons—but they felt honest.

👉 Legit Bitaxes:

They now manufacture open-source Bitaxes too—but only for B2B clients, fully license-compliant. LuckyMiners are sold direct to retail customers.

👉 Copying Braiins:

They copied us too—and admitted it to my face. But that’s a story for next time. Follow me so you don’t miss it 😆

What’s next?

As sales kept growing, they added a Litecoin version earlier this year.

And they plan to keep expanding—with more form factors and higher production volumes.

But he says chip availability is the biggest bottleneck.

CHIPS ARE THE PROBLEM.

Everywhere.

Or rather—not having chips available for purchase is the story here for me.

Hope we find a solution.

Anyways…

I don’t support his decisions.

But I have to admit—he’s a really nice guy, bitcoiner at heart, and I appreciated his honest answer and perspective on the Asian market.

Now you know the story behind the most controversial mini-miner on the market.

Curious to hear your thoughts.

Being an American means we can say whatever the fuck we want. Whenever the fuck we want.

I feel pity for the euros either they are so brainwashed they think they have free speech lol or they are painfully aware and the dissonance is tearing them up inside.

Not good. Something needs to change in Europe.

Will the ruling class be able to domesticate #Bitcoin or not... that is the question.

Bitcoin is so hard to Hodl that most of the people reading this won’t make it 20 more years.

Hell even the person writing this (me) might not.

That’s how hard it is.

Never forget that.

I will fight back.

#ChristIsLord

too much opinion, more shipping

Just found out day care has been charging me an extra $500/mo for like 7 months. I’m curious how they’ll respond.

Your fomo was misplaced, or your keys? ;)

Your fomo was misplaced, or your keys? ;)

Would using the wrong derivation path show some transactions but no funds some how?

Paying for things in Bitcoin has obvious benefits. But spending is spending and Bitcoin is just slightly more convenient and you can hodl it yourself. The real benefit is for merchants. I find myself wanting refunds in Bitcoin quite often because as a receiver the benefits WILDLY exceed fiat. I cannot understand why on earth there are not more merchants accepting Bitcoin. Final settlement, no third party to deal with, no charge back, no fee to a middleman, just a small tx fee, it costs nothing to start accepting it and you can opt in whenever you want.