Kirk

Freedom Maximalist

Public Key

npub16dvms6kppqgnv9k0murxnp8zyap2y6yem5y2f74sm8dgxfdvtj4syj2dq2

NIP-05 Address

Kirk@nostr.nz

NIP-57 Address

Kirk@primal.net

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsdxkdcdtqssyfkzm8a7pnfsn3zws4zdzva6z9yl2cdnk5rykk9e2cusph69

Author Public Key

npub16dvms6kppqgnv9k0murxnp8zyap2y6yem5y2f74sm8dgxfdvtj4syj2dq2

Show more details

Last Notes

2025-05-22 20:31:38

- reply

For me it isn't whether someone says something stupid, it's whether they are acting in good faith, or just pretending to believe something for ulterior reasons.

2025-05-09 12:29:48

Listening to this 1979 talk by the late psychologist, Nathaniel Branden. Though the topic is how libertarians can unwittingly work to undermine their own movement, it all equally applies to bitcoiners.
What starts as earnest and principled can so easily become performative if we don't engage in constant self-reflection.
https://youtu.be/pZiE_jcShXg?si=dPTvhKDRMaBUKuRP

2025-04-19 17:34:06

I've been using o3 for a complex surgical and unfortunately it still hallucinates a ton. It fully fabricated a couple of citations.
Would recommend using 'Deep Research' for investigating a topic, and then o3 for contextual reasoning about the results of that investigation.
npub1fls5au5fxj6qj0t36sage857cs4tgfpla0ll8prshlhstagejtkqc9s2yl#nevent1q…5cll

2025-04-17 11:25:24

- reply

Psychiatry has to be the most pretensious form of witch-doctory.

2025-04-15 15:54:59

- reply

We could also all stand to become a little weirder ourselves

2025-04-03 12:26:04

- reply

Great interview, Max! Stellar work 🔥

2025-03-18 08:52:50

I'm really not a fan of MSTR getting these kinds of passive flows.
Within bitcoin we rightly view yield with a mixture of suspicion and contempt, often saying things like "you are the yield".
MSTR stock has a perpetual gravity that pushes the stock price back to the value of their bitcoin treasury. The way Saylor generates his "BTC yield" is from indiscriminate buyers who pile in at multiples to MSTR's underlying bitcoin holdings. They are the ones being harvested.
Having retail investors passively and indiscriminately buying this thing every month makes them easy to harvest. Being charitable, MSTR is a strategic trading vehicle and shouldn't be treated as something you just allocate to the same way you DCA bitcoin.
#nevent1q…20pc

2025-03-18 08:31:59

- reply

Spontaneous Order looks pretty interesting

2025-03-16 18:49:38

Bitcoiners make fun of goldbugs a lot (and often for good reason).
However, gold is still the only other asset that it really makes sense to own. The kind of asset you would feel comfortable holding if you knew you were about to go into a coma for a decade.
Gold is the perfect compliment to bitcoin in a portfolio. The tail risks that could make bitcoin go to zero are twofold: political and technological. The tail risk that could make gold fall is that bitcoin's tail risks don't materialize.

2025-03-13 19:14:10

- reply

Brian, didn't recognize you without your caps on

2025-03-13 06:58:30

We have to remember, he’s saying this to a man who referred to Abu Dhabi as Aboo Daboo four times after having spent a week there.
#nevent1q…wtrz

2025-03-11 03:22:40

So much for the first amendment
https://m.primal.net/PbdT.png

2025-03-07 09:32:43

I like how, when a zap fails to send on Primal, it gives you a notification with the option "No"
https://m.primal.net/PWnV.png

2025-03-07 08:14:32

Civil asset forfeiture is just a fancy term for theft

2025-03-02 20:44:52

- reply

Why do we need a strategic bitcoin reserve? Why steal my money to buy the asset I want to buy more of? Why not just stop stealing my money and let me buy it?

2025-02-28 03:19:44

https://m.primal.net/POFl.png

2025-02-25 18:14:56

A nation of genocidal Jussie Smollett's
#nevent1q…judu

2025-02-17 02:31:13

https://m.primal.net/Oznb.png 😂

2025-02-16 06:09:52

https://m.primal.net/Oydw.png
Full tank of gas!
#nevent1q…8g39

2025-02-12 03:55:08

https://m.primal.net/Obuk.jpg
GM

2025-02-09 08:24:40

- reply

As do I 💔

2025-02-02 21:14:35

- reply

Are you optimistic about bitcoin's future as freedom tech? Does a future where the vast majority of people interact with bitcoin through large custodians seem inevitable to you?

2025-02-01 04:19:05

I normally agree with Lola, but she’s mistaken here on virtually every point of this: 
1. USDT on lightning is in no way “expanding US hegemony over the global south”. Most people in third world countries are desperate for dollars (Jack Mallers talks about this a lot, and this bottom-up demand is why Strike started supporting USDT on Tron). Compared to their local govt shitcoin, the USD is a pretty decent store-of-value.  
While it used to be that only fairly wealthy people in these countries who were able to save in dollars (as they either had to have offshore bank accounts or purchase physical cash on the grey market), USDT vastly expands who has access to dollars. As much as I hate the dollar and the entire fiat system, in this context it is the opposite of subjugation. It is liberation for potentially billions of people.   
It is also entirely opt-in. Compare some individual buying USDT on an app in their phone to vs the IMF or World Bank giving massive loans to their country’s dictator and then forcing all the citizens to pay off the debt once that dictator inevitably embezzles the funds. One is liberatory and voluntary, the other repressive and forced. 
2. As for Lola’s second paragraph: “The collab circumvents US dependency on selling debt to other nations while furthering Tether's position as one of the largest buyers of US Treasuries, custodied by a private entity formerly owned and operated by the US Secretary of Commerce.” I’m not sure what is particularly negative about any of this.
  We should want Tether’s position as one of the largest buyers of US Treasuries to be further cemented. Demand for USDT has historically been directly proportional to demand for bitcoin. If the US govt is dependent on Tether to buy its treasuries so it can fund itself, it can’t then go cracking down on bitcoin because that will affect demand for USDT and thus demand for treasuries.   
This is unambiguously a good thing.  
3. As for USDT being a CBDC… I’m not sure how Lola could be defining CBDC for this to make sense.   
Despite being issued by the company, Tether, this company has virtually zero insight into who actually holds USDT. Tether only has direct knowledge of the KYC-verified accounts that deposit/redeem USDT directly with them.   
This makes accurately discerning and freezing certain USDT wallets incredibly difficult. Especially since USDT is on a bunch of chains and swapped on all kinds of DEXes.   
Chainalysis is already a bunch of probabilistic nonsensical voodoo akin to blood spatter analysis or the polygraph.   Imagine how much harder things are going to be for the surveillers with USDT on lightning, where you already have pretty good privacy. Especially since you will be able to atomically swap USDT on lightning to USDT on Liquid (with confidential transactions).   
This seems like the opposite of a CBDC. It’s far closer to the creation of dark, digital USDs.
https://m.primal.net/OKnR.png

2025-01-27 08:44:16

- reply

Check's the best! Great episode 🔥

2025-01-27 08:44:13

- reply

Check's the best! Great episode 🔥

2025-01-25 09:01:07

https://m.primal.net/NzMX.png
I knew things were going to change with Gensler gone, but this is pretty wild

2025-01-24 09:27:57

- reply

Dumb question, but how are you embedding this video in your nostr post?

2025-01-23 09:37:27

- reply

When is Simplicity coming to Liquid?

2025-01-22 02:26:33

- reply

Reminiscent of 2008-9, when they used the media frenzy of Obama's election to commit atrocities whilst the world was looking the other way.

2025-01-20 08:16:08

- reply

Contact by Daft Punk

2025-01-17 23:21:14

- reply

His episodes with Zuck, all of them with Elon, Andreesen...basically any tech oligarch. He just incredulously believes everything they tell him with zero pushback or critical questioning.

2025-01-17 18:59:48

- reply

Oh man, what an awesome guy!

2025-01-12 08:18:28

Rogan was nothing short of heroic during covid. That makes it all the more disappointing to see what he has become since: the Oprah of the new right — the place all the most despicable people go to rehabilitate their image.

2025-01-10 06:48:58

It is curious to me that so many of those apoplectic about the supposed "grooming gangs" in the UK, are also staunch defenders of Israel, a state that explicitly advocates for the rape of Palestinian hostages.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-war-idf-palestinian-prisoner-alleged-rape-sde-teinman-abuse-protest/

2025-01-06 09:20:23

- reply

I did much the same and finished the trilogy in September. The characters are so great!...and actually admirable.

2025-01-02 18:17:12

I increasingly worry that the block size wars were a Pyrrhic victory. It conditioned an unhealthy reactivity and knee-jerk opposition to all proposed protocol changes, regardless of merit.
In any case, happy Genesis Day.

2025-01-01 09:26:32

Iyah has incredible talent! I really hope this doesn't turn out to be another 'Rich Men North of Richmond'. Her voice is much needed in our crazy world.
https://youtu.be/y29kmnhjtc8?si=TRckyzELOx99pJDC

2025-01-01 00:04:12

Ross Stevens just dropped his latest investor letter. As always, beautifully written and an absolute must-read.
https://www.nydig.com/research/stone-ridge-2024-investor-letter

2024-12-27 06:02:45

The NZD is like one of those shitcoins that doesn't even make the first page of Coinmarketcap.
https://m.primal.net/NHtq.jpg

2024-12-22 09:37:15

- reply

I think this is the Saylor-effect on Bitcoin culture. It's not so much that any of the people who were preaching self-sovereignty in 2020 have changed their tune, it's just that bitcoin has gone more mainstream and those with the largest microphone now don't care about freedom tech.

2024-12-21 08:29:25

For some reason YT decided to feed this up to me today 😂
Mike is one of those guys who is ideologically such a Statist that bitcoin's success is both a repudiation of everything he believes, and deeply threatening to the "reasonable, centrist, adult-in-the-room" soft authoritarianism he yearns to see enacted across the world.
Mike is the man for whom the "Have Fun Staying Poor" meme was invented. He is poor in the sense that really matters: intellectually bereft and morally bankrupt... And I can only hope bitcoin's continued rise will make him reputationally destitute as well.
@npub1d3f…r4xv
https://m.primal.net/NCOT.png

2024-12-08 07:08:02

- reply

The mentality is more sad than it is annoying.
Might as well say “hey, if you aren’t prostituting yourself you are leaving sats on the table!”

2024-12-07 21:47:38

Are there any ARKs running on Liquid? I want to get a sense for the UX.

2024-12-05 08:35:38

Just having fun playing with my bitcoin

2024-12-03 09:58:55

- reply

Welcome!

2024-12-03 09:34:47

It's generally not my kind of art, but I swear all I want for Christmas is a @npub1ndk…gk2v painting of some babe and a machine gun.

2024-12-03 04:28:29

I can imagine how many eth folks are looking at this lovely little series of higher lows and higher highs and embodying that dude with the butterfly meme.
If it rolls over, max pain.
https://m.primal.net/Mmbx.png

2024-12-01 01:54:56

- reply

As typical, New Zealand is cut off

2024-11-25 04:19:28

- reply

I don't see the threat posed by people saving in bitcoin and spending in USD. If anything, it seems like a healthy stage in bitcoin's adoption.
Care to elaborate on how this could lead to bitcoin becoming captured?

2024-11-23 21:59:59

🎯
#note127v…cw7l

2024-11-22 02:54:17

You can't convince me this is healthy
https://m.primal.net/Mdhx.png

2024-11-18 07:38:46

💜
https://fountain.fm/episode/pTtCIyCxMnVEIGcF7Dei
#nevent1q…7j2t

2024-11-14 06:07:33

An excellent and much-needed conversation.
https://fountain.fm/show/n47quu602F1XE9xejWvh
#nevent1q…8ju8

2024-11-10 02:58:49

Am I the only one feeling a bit depressed by the resurgence in shitcoins?

2024-11-05 20:25:25

- reply

💜 https://m.primal.net/LtnN.jpg

2024-11-04 22:09:10

Great, non-technical overview of the Ark protocol by @npub1jus…hr2e: https://youtu.be/HKaj41uFMr4?si=Oe4tDeGXhkm-IEyk

2024-11-02 17:37:24

For those looking for the best independent reporting and commentary on the US security state and Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, I highly recommend The Grayzone: https://www.youtube.com/live/PgDHJyaSCjY?si=faZcB8M5lyAxicM6
They come from a really principled anti-war progressive viewpoint. And even though I am in the free market anarchist camp (the the extent there's enough ancaps to comprise a camp), I have deep admiration for their intellectual honesty and rigor.

2024-11-02 06:24:22

This painting by @npub17nd…950x has quickly become one my prized possessions 💜
It isn't just the beauty of the art, and incredible expressivity in the brushstrokes, but the fact that I purchased it on Nostr, with bitcoin.
Every time walk through my entryway and see it, it makes me smile. I think of how this nascent, censorship-resistant communications protocol connected me in New Zealand with an incredible artist in Italy. And using unstoppable money I was able to instantly transfer value across the globe. No middle-men. No "platforms" taking a cut and manipulating me with their ads and perverse incentives. Just two people, trading value for value. The best money in the world, for some the best art.
https://m.primal.net/Lpzl.jpg

2024-10-29 05:44:00

- reply

Don’t be discouraged 💜 This guy clearly doesn’t understand the value of art. Fiat mindset.

2024-10-28 22:03:45

https://m.primal.net/LlOK.png

2024-10-28 20:09:19

- reply

Sounds epic! Throughly regretting missing it

2024-10-22 05:20:40

I think the vitriol is a result of people correctly identifying, if not always fully articulating, that Saylor frequently talks out of both sides of his mouth.
In a few short years has he gone from saying "tax that!" to essentially condemning self-custody, cryptoanarchy, and anyone with an adversarial mindset vis a vis the state.
There is more than a whiff Elon Musk-esque carnival barker-y in Saylor. He reeks of inauthenticity and a lack of any deeply held values. He seems willing to change his views on a dime, with no acknowledgement, based on what he sees as being in his economic interest at that moment.
This isn't a case of Bitcoin's overactive social immune system. The pushback against Saylor is warranted and healthy, in my view. He wields a lot of influence, and has the potential to do a great deal of harm even as he helps pump the price. I would argue his position as an ossificationist has already done significant damage. And his opposition to self-custody and bitcoin's more revolutionary potential could do even more (btw, notice that his opposition to further protocol changes and self-custody are entirely consistent).
Just my 2sats. I'd be curious to hear if anyone disagrees.
#note1tlt…lc4c

2024-10-20 10:19:02

- reply

I question how much this says about society. Mental hospitals were in many ways even worse than prisons, administering all sorts of torturous, pseudoscientific psychiatric practices that had long-term consequences for many.
A search for "insulin shock therapy" provides a glimpse into this very dark world.

2024-10-10 08:02:53

Great conversation! Mandrik has a fascinating story.
https://fountain.fm/episode/AuG7zMijkD6NmihgPFLa
#nevent1q…9e82

2024-10-07 16:12:59

https://youtu.be/bFEurGy05ps?si=EmYoZ9XNUNXUyyIl

2024-10-07 09:10:34

This is the least important election of our lifetime

2024-10-04 19:48:24

- reply

In what culture do they call a sunshower "the devil is beating his wife"?

2024-10-01 16:39:38

- reply

When Fedimint?

2024-09-28 07:58:51

When it comes to increased totalitarianism, this is definitely one of those “suddenly” moments.
https://fountain.fm/episode/qltr6tLa6LUs458CTFnx
#nevent1q…tz6k

2024-09-28 07:10:41

- reply

That is a cute pup! 💜

2024-09-19 19:30:50

- reply

The book or the mini-series?
The mini-series with Pierce Brosnan is superb! It’s this perfect time-capsule of Hong Kong at its peak in 1988.

2024-09-18 22:20:17

- reply

GM good sir

2024-09-18 22:18:07

Did Coracle go down?

2024-09-18 22:16:06

- reply

I notice that Israel doesn’t make the list, but Palestine does.
So we can use Geyser to donate to those perpetrating a genocide, just not to those being slaughtered?

2024-09-18 21:58:57

- reply

didn't expect you to be making jokes about Israel committing an act of mass terrrorism.

2024-09-18 14:46:26

- reply

As good as this conversation was, the aesthetics of this studio is truly sublime 💜

2024-09-15 07:59:44

https://m.primal.net/KqZK.png

2024-09-13 08:03:01

- reply

It's very true. Things being a bit inconvenient and unintuitive is a feature 💜

2024-09-09 18:36:25

- reply

💜 Gold on the Ocean

2024-09-04 14:42:30

Is anyone else finding their zaps only intermittently work on Primal?
On Coracale and Iris they send every time, but on Primal I get maybe a 30% success rate.

2024-08-29 10:28:21

- reply

Gabor and Daniel Maté have also been doing great work advocating for Palestinian rights

2024-08-29 10:09:12

It's interesting how two people can look at the same data point and take away diametrically opposed signals.
To me, the fact the market has absorbed so much sell-side pressure over the past six months, and the most we got a 32% drawdown (and even that lasted for 48hrs), is bullish.
TX believes that this cycle is going to be more muted than in the past. And that the fact that bitcoin could not even break $70k last cycle, even with all the covid stimulus, it would be unrealistic to expect bitcoin to perform anywhere near as well in tighter monetary conditions.
My view is that the covid stimulus actually hurt bitcoin's performance last cycle. It turned the entire market into a casino. Pokemon cards, NFTs, rare watches, memecoins...every piece of shit asset mooned. It encouraged gambling, which actually drove liquidity out of bitcoin and into things way farther down the risk curve.
What we are seeing this cycle is bitcoin decoupling as the market sobers up and has to actually work out what has fundamental value: What is real and what is fake.
Long the real (bitcoin, gold, energy). Fade the fake (shitcoins, unprofitable tech).
https://m.primal.net/KTQW.png

2024-08-29 09:32:14

- reply

Can’t wait! 🔥

2024-08-29 07:02:28

AI+Nostr+eCash+Lightning
#note1kmg…thqx

2024-08-25 21:30:13

- reply

Szasz also points out how pseudo-scientific the concept of mental illness is. It misattributes the cause of feelings and behavior to mere brain chemical balances and hand-wavy genetics without being able to objectively demonstrate any of this.
Instead, the true cause of what are often called mental illnesses is the trauma individuals experience (generally at young age). And the lessons that get internalized from these traumas.

2024-08-23 14:41:31

"what is a Nostr conference without a million talks by @npub1l2v…ajft?"
#note1r9w…8znj

2024-08-23 14:34:08

- reply

Congratulations! 💜

2024-08-22 21:11:26

- reply

Thanks 🙏 Copied a bunch and it's already noticeably improved things

2024-08-22 21:07:27

@npub1s5y…6q7z practicing pole dancing in preparation for the next bear market
#note1h2u…jnqk

2024-08-22 18:11:18

Can anyone recommend the best relays to join, outside of what Primal automatically connects you to?
I previously went and subscribed to a bunch of paid relays, yet it somehow made my Nostr experience worse 🤷‍♂️

2024-08-22 17:22:14

tis the season
https://youtu.be/9X4Z1lLUMfw?si=BAv7wMkmrcde6W5H

2024-08-20 20:33:26

- reply

I struggle to put myself in the mindset of the architect who designed this. Unless it was originally built as some rendition dark site for MI6, or the place for Jimmy Savile to take his victims, its malevolence makes no sense.

2024-08-20 20:25:54

- reply

I would watch AND zap 💜

2024-08-20 20:24:59

I've been in UK for medical care at this place.
I struggle to believe anyone has ever recovered from anything in this building.
https://m.primal.net/KFzN.jpg

2024-08-20 20:22:14

- reply

Hello Tony

2024-08-16 05:18:31

- reply

https://loaf.com/products/our-perfect-mattress?variant=firm
Affordable, but excellent

2024-08-16 05:13:40

- reply

Pocket sprung, relatively firm, a slatted bed frame that allows air flow through the mattress.
Latex and memory foam are torture devices, especially if you are a hot sleeper.

2024-08-15 08:57:57

- reply

I think because Saif has heard Konstantin in other venues and has seen how dishonest of a broker he is. His actions bely his protestations that he is not pro-genocide.
The debate he moderated with Brianna Joy Gray and Eli Lake was especially revealing: https://youtu.be/_M15lTZ41dM?si=prBKnHdbDrfOAbwK
Saif is in a difficult position of calling bullshit on someone who feigns objective impartiality but who is really a propagandist with an agenda.

2024-08-15 07:01:21

- reply

When you consider that Konstantin is advocating for the continued genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, I can understand Saif struggling to keep his cool.

2024-08-14 18:45:55

Weird juxtaposition