Some memorable software in stages...

Late 80s/Early 90s 1) Hypercard, Simcity, Oregon Trail, Breakout, Word Processing, Encarta

Mid 90s 2) Netscape, Yahoo, Winamp, Chatrooms, Anglefire, Geocities, Hotmail, Freevote, PowerPoint, Warcraft 1, Myst, ICQ, Napster

Early 2000s 3) MSN, IRC, MySpace, Limewire, Torrents, Wikipedia, Facebook, Piratebay

Who could have seen this coming?!

Laugh out loud funny.

when your #bitcoin is in cold storage

Zaps will help orange pill the masses for many reasons, but I think one of the most obvious reasons isn't because of value for value. It isn't because Zaps are friction-less, fun, and used in stress-free manner. It's because Zaps are not referred to as Bitcoin. For many, they hear Bitcoin and think of all of the Crypto bros, the scammers, and the charlatans. The masses lump Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency together. Nostr helps to showcase the differences that we often talk about, such as Bitcoin being actual money with actual value. This little bit of branding change has the potential to powerful.

The Misconception of Weakening Altcoins Through Drivechains

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Recently, I penned an essay on why drivechains won't eradicate altcoins, and it appears to have sparked some heated reactions. Several drivechain advocates have come forward with different responses, prompting me to write this follow-up piece to clarify my stance and address the critiques.

Firstly, some argue that drivechain proponents are not actually claiming that altcoins will be eradicated. However, this is manifestly untrue. For instance, Paul Sztorc has openly stated that drivechains will eliminate 99.9% of altcoins. While the claim has been made, there is little evidence to support it.

David Bailey further summarized the argument, stating that if you eliminate an altcoin's claim to technological novelty, you reduce its value to that of meme coins like Doge or Pepe. He believes this would prevent significant malinvestment. But this assertion also lacks supporting evidence, and here's why:

1. **Unaware Investors:** Most altcoin investors are barely aware of the technology and rarely examine arguments against their chosen altcoins. They are often oblivious to factors like serial scamming or the open source nature of the code, which would deter investment in a rational world. This lack of knowledge is usually only rectified after investment, by which point bias clouds their judgment.

2. **Persistence of Altcoins:** History has shown that events that should have killed off altcoins (e.g., the DAO incident, exploits, chain reorgs) haven't done so. Decisions surrounding altcoins are rarely made rationally, and the behavior of investors does not align with the homo economicus model of economic rationality.

3. **Unpopularity of Non-Premine Protocols:** We already have sidechains that allow building features using Bitcoin as the native asset, without premines or native tokens. Generally, these do not get nearly as much attention as an altcoin with its large marketing budgets and gambling potential. Without a get-rich-quick scheme to fuel the frenzy, technological advancement alone fails to garner much interest.

Considering these factors, the assertion that drivechains will eliminate or even significantly weaken altcoins is unfounded.

What is the purpose of drivechains if they won't diminish the popularity of altcoins? Drivechains may foster experimentation with various technical features or serve as a platform for token launches, akin to Ethereum. But this objective has been chased by nearly every altcoin since Ethereum came into existence, with few managing to dent Ethereum's popularity among altcoin investors, even in the face of its evident technical failures. This means drivechains' value is as a technical playground, which undoubtedly has value but prompts the question: Is it worth implementing through a soft fork in Bitcoin? For many Bitcoiners, the primary feature of Bitcoin is its secure value storage. Anything perceived as a distraction to this capability is likely to be met with resistance and in a consensus driven network, this means doom for the proposal. The lack of sufficient support for drivechains over the past six years illustrates this sentiment.

In conclusion, the belief that drivechains will reduce or halt the proliferation of altcoins is rooted more in wishful thinking than in tangible evidence. While drivechains represent an interesting technological aspect, their impact on the altcoin space is overstated. Far from ending or even significantly curtailing the diverse altcoin gambling market, drivechains simply adds another competitor to an already saturated landscape. The real challenge remains in educating and guiding investors to make informed and rational decisions, rather than hoping for a technical silver bullet that suddenly curbs the altcoiners' desire to gamble.

Author proofs so that I can check the details.

The gray stripe is a not-for-resell indicator as an author proof.

Orange circuits grow across the cover, representing the future.

you give the people an absolute freedom of expression protocol & look!

#Nostr hasn’t devolved intro hatred & spam but rather close-knit new communities of people lifting each other up, sharing thoughtful ideas, building, seeking truth, speaking truth to malignant state & corporate power, solving problems, networking, transacting, but mostly just having fun human interactions.

Directionally the #Nostr network now is the type of internet & society feel I want to spend time with. I feel it always could have been like this.

Rules without rulers. Rough consensus & running code. Protect this space.

Note?

Just get set up with Fountain to listen to my Bitcoin podcasts. Amazing that it literally took seconds to send Sats to my Fountain wallet via Lightning. Literally a moment after send was complete, the sats had been moved. Now I can Boost sats to my favorite podcasters with easy. Value4value!

Anyone reading Softwar? I’m about 15% of the way through.