bergealex4
Alex B.

Public Key

npub16fhh3ev4gytmt3jn3gkkez9z99kxtspcwupen4cxn2tcym4sd22surn62p

NIP-05 Address

bergealex@bitcoinpark.com

NIP-57 Address

olivinezebra3@primal.net

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsdymmcuk25z9a4cefc5ttv3z3zjmr9cqu8wque6urf49uzd6cx49gpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfdung88e2

Publishing to

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

nostr.orangepill.dev

Author Public Key

npub16fhh3ev4gytmt3jn3gkkez9z99kxtspcwupen4cxn2tcym4sd22surn62p

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Last Notes

2024-10-11 16:11:07

We just announced yesterday in Amsterdam that @`Boltz - Non-Custodial Bitcoin Bridge` swaps are coming to Ark, day 1!
Thanks to native support for Bitcoin script operations, Ark allows servers to virtualize many of the same contracts used by existing Bitcoin products and services.
One we're excited about are Virtual HTLCs (vHTLCs). Combined with off-chain execution, we think they open the door to many new, and old, use cases that weren't possible before, or could not scale.
Those properties can extend to other script extensions of Bitcoin and potentially scale smart contract settlements!
Using virtual swaps, we can close Lightning's "liquidity loop" by providing participants with an interface to batch their channel management operations off-chain.
Many infrastructure providers will find interesting ways to leverage the efficiency of Ark swaps and we encourage anyone interested to reach out @npub1hf5…dp8n
https://m.primal.net/LSdV.jpg

2024-09-26 12:38:30

A lot of angst and pessimism on the timeline over the last 24 hours around the prospect of future upgrades to the Bitcoin protocol.
TLDR; A number of highly technical people got together and apparently could not come to an agreement on the various tradeoffs of theoretical applications of covenants and associated OP codes.
Frankly, this is the least surprising outcome anyone could have expected out of this type of exercise.
Putting a bunch of gigabrain engineers into a room is not conducive to consensus. They will, by nature, try to outsmart one another.
"You haven't considered this angle."
"What if we approached it this way?"
"There's a more efficient way."
"Have you really thought through the implications?"
Their drive to achieve the 'right' outcome fuels a race to devise "clever" solutions, each inevitably clashing with the alternatives.
If you're wondering why you should care about this at all. It's because most people involved do agree that multi-party on-chain contracts are necessary to achieve true scale.
The limitations of two-party Lightning channels are increasingly obvious hence the interest in optimizing the flow of capital around the network across larger hubs of individuals sharing UTXOs.
Unfortunately, the lack of first-hand experience with covenant-based constructs is allowing everyone’s imagination to run wild.
We are all attempting to optimize for the end game with little to no appreciation for the present situation.
Some have devised clever ways to implement zero-knowledge technology using Bitcoin script. Others are designing coin pool protocols that can potentially withstand the mass exit of hundreds of thousands of users without catastrophic economic consequences.
All of them are frustrated others can't seem to be as excited as them about their progress.
Meanwhile, a credible opportunity to further our common understanding of multi-party contracts is staring everyone in the face: the Ark protocol.
Unsurprisingly, most every one of these very competent individuals have their own opinions of it.
"The liquidity requirements are too high."
"It can't possibly work without covenants."
"Fees and unilateral exit scenarios are tricky."
Again, not only only are these experts seemingly fixated on perfecting the 'right' outcome, but at times it feels like they’re trying to control it.
My advice to everyone involved: let go of this obsession with perfection and embrace the good.
There are now two teams iterating through various ways to implement Ark in ways that can solve real problems, TODAY.
Sure, Ark as originally proposed and as currently implemented is not yet the ubiquitous payment grail it was originally propped up as.
A lot of different adversarial scenarios will challenge the different use cases vying to leverage it, but if you give it honest consideration, you will realize it is MUCH more practical than some would want you to believe.
It does not need to immediately find its way into retail user wallets to have a massive impact on the current Bitcoin payment infrastructure.
Various existing sets of counterparties should be able to use Ark as a simple and straightforward way to amortize the cost of their on-chain operations.
And if all you care about is to achieve pie-in-the-sky perfection then there is probably no better alternative as we speak to gain real world economic feedback on the behavior of users of those future protocols.
If you want to accelerate the development of technology that will directly inform the design of future covenant-based evolutions, I believe there is no better way to funnel your energy today than to participate in the conversation, contribute and start building on Ark.
Join us!
https://arkdev.info

2024-08-30 14:41:02

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lmao nahhhhhhhh

2024-08-30 01:55:15

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TBD's biggest challenge is that it deals in consortium, top down hierarchies and institutionalized standards, making it pretty unlikely to ever gain significant traction.

2024-08-29 23:00:22

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there was supposed to be an embedded video but that was a total fail

2024-08-29 22:56:47

GLOBAL MONEY
LOCAL NUTS 🥜
My #BHB talk

2024-08-29 22:15:52

Nostr : TCP/IP
Whatever they're building over there : OSI
Let's keep things weird folks cause this stuff going on over there is... uh... disturbing
https://block.xyz/inside/block-partners-with-commerce-department-NIST-to-accelerate-development-and-adoption-of-digital-identity

2024-08-29 12:53:38

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I have made the case for why CTV is safe, you are just not able to understand it because of simple technical shortcomings. This is not an ad hominem, simply an observation.
Do you imagine people will spoonfeed everything to you?
These conversations will carry on without you and you will remain puzzled and confused when changes happen because all you rely on are your feelings.

2024-08-29 12:38:36

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I'm not advocating for CTV. I'm just pointing out that your lack of technical knowledge will hinder your ability to understand those things and participate in such conversations because all of your arguments are based on feelings, not facts.
There is no "we" in this. A soft fork proposal doesn't need you if YOU can't show the proof-of-work as to why your opinion is valuable or worthy of consideration.
Hence, when improvements to Bitcoin script inevitably come, you will be left screaming in the void because the stakes for you are clearly not enough to have an informed, non-biased, opinion.

2024-08-29 01:20:05

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There's nothing CTV gives us that brings us much further along in the near term, at all.
I would listen to Rusty's latest recording with the Brink team to get a better sense of what actual improvement makes sense.
We can do better and we have plenty of time to unlock true scripting capabilities that will be long lasting and enable all use cases we might want.

2024-08-28 13:36:21

In NostRiga @npub1lun…27lj had this intuition Web-Of-Trust is deflationary. He is correcdt!
There is no better explanation of this than MP's "GPG Contracts" article.
http://trilema.com/2012/gpg-contracts/
The potential of this is MASSIVE. It's a complete shift from the society we live in. https://m.primal.net/KRho.png

2024-08-28 13:21:20

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make them stable!

2024-08-26 19:42:05

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No. This will be live on mainnet soon.
Covenants can make it better but it doesn’t require a fork

2024-08-26 19:11:40

Feels like a completely new world opened up to me this weekend.
Euro-bitcoin feels different. No nonsense. High character. Diverse and open-minded.
Can’t believe I’ve missed out on this for so long.
Thank you so much for the opportunity @npub1zu5…qtgz Max and all the BHB team

2024-08-23 10:46:55

The quality of people in the Nostr space is pretty mindblowing to me as a mere Bitcoin pleb.
We're going to get so sick of winning

2024-08-22 13:54:06

Ark is coming 👀
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/tim-draper-invests-in-ark-labs-to-make-bitcoin-payments-easier

2024-08-14 19:24:00

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>utxo ownership proofs
feels limiting, most people aren't likely to own utxos in the first place

2024-08-14 17:11:35

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I completely agree with everything you've just said but let's just not errr on using terms like unilateral exit when they have a very well defined intent which doesn't apply here.

2024-08-14 15:40:10

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The mint running away with the collateral

2024-08-14 14:29:14

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Hmm this is cool but it doesn't address the actual custodial risk typically associated with ecash.

2024-08-14 13:58:25

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Can you expend on this?
By custodian do you mean the mint or wherever you are storing your nsac?

2024-08-11 23:43:13

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Wow!

2024-08-09 18:27:09

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Try Bitkey 😉

2024-08-09 17:07:41

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cool story bro

2024-08-09 17:02:22

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Reads note.
Check profile.
Sees XMR.
Ignores.

2024-08-09 16:43:51

Bitcoiners are going to have a hard time, get scammed, repeatedly deceived and go into depression until they are ready to admit that 99% of retail payments will not go through self-custodial UTXOs.
You don't and can't get around L1 economics.

2024-08-09 16:43:46

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I was in the dragonsden fighting in the trenches at Bitcoin's most critical moment? Where were you?
I have done my fair share of Bitcoin "recruiting". Most of the time it's a total waste of time.
People will come to Bitcoin as they need it. Same for Nostr

2024-08-09 16:14:34

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The UX problems with Nostr clients are front and center and very apparent in contrast with centralized solutions.
We know that the current state of key management is unsustainable for larger audiences. There seems to be promising progress in that regard.
I do agree that waves of adoption stimulate innovation but "recruiting" people to Nostr feels like "recruiting" people to Bitcoin. It's a pretty perilous endeavour.

2024-08-09 15:44:20

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The infrastructure is still lacking in MANY respect, rushing to onboard people who aren't ready for it will leave them struggling through a subpar experience and more likely than not give up on Nostr. Good luck getting them to come back after this.
Nostr is just like Bitcoin, people are going to flock to it in cycle but it's probably for the best that we don't have a "breakout moment" right now.

2024-08-09 00:17:33

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yeah let's support an administration that put up a literal retard as candidate to replace a senile president they tried to hide from the constituents for the last 4 years

2024-08-09 00:13:40

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fiat banks consolidate because regulations make creating fiat banks prohibitive

2024-08-09 00:12:24

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So then in your world anyone you disagree with can stale Bitcoin development by being very loud and supportive towards any potential change
I hope you realize what a silly outcome that would be

2024-08-08 21:07:48

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if you want to move spam off the network you should support OP_CAT

2024-08-08 19:19:38

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It does not make shitcoining any easier.
It allows any Bitcoin users to set spending restrictions on their bitcoins. If you have an issue with how other people might use their bitcoins that's a you problem not a Bitcoin problem.
Any feature that makes Bitcoin better by default makes the life of anyone who use it better. Would we want to remove multisig because it makes shitcoining on Bitcoin easier?
Meanwhile you can use those new spending conditions to create a vault with reactive security for your savings, or your ecash mint.
Or build more capital efficient ARKs to further improve liquidity for Lightning Service Providers.

2024-08-08 19:10:52

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People are already shitcoining on Bitcoin and it will never stop.
OP_CAT allows you to build covenants and perhaps ways for the shitcoiners to have fun while not hurting every other Bitcoin users.
On top of that, Bitcoin users interested in self-custody and payments alone would benefit from having covenants available.
Win win

2024-08-06 21:01:49

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No that’s the thing. You have very little optionality in today’s system. Everything is hyper consolidated. Barriers to entry are prohibitively high. Innovation is repressed. Network effects are captured into oligopolies.
Lightning is the bridge to permissionless finance.

2024-08-06 19:24:11

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You can decide which of the hundreds of thousands of financial services built on it you will use.

2024-08-06 19:16:51

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Lightning creates a level playing ground for every financial service on the planet.
It is far and away the future for Bitcoin regardless of how people decide to use it. Custodial or not.

2024-08-06 17:00:35

Over the last year Lightning, has been integrated into
- Largest exchange in world (Binance)
- Largest exchange in USA (Coinbase)
- Largest exchange in Mexico (Bitso)
- Largest exchange in SEA (Coinsph)
- Largest fintech bank in South America (Nubank)
but there are still people out there fading it.

2024-08-06 14:13:51

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They don't owe you shit

2024-08-06 13:47:25

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What have you done for them that you think you are entitled to anything more than what they've disclosed in their article?
Did you donate?

2024-08-05 21:23:44

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But it's just not the case.
It's much harder to securely generate a private key and back it up than it is to open an online account I don't know what you're talking about.

2024-08-05 20:21:54

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>In the western world if you can figure out how to open a bank account, you can learn how to self custody #Bitcoin
Lol no. To open a bank account you:
1. pay someone to do it for you
2. trust them to manage it.
In either case you don't have much liability at all or room to fuck up because a professional is paid to do all the work and you can sleep safe knowing you can sue them if they lose your money (or ask to rewrite the fiat chain).
Self custody requires responsibility and vigilance.

2024-08-05 02:14:22

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must suck living in your little bubble of a world

2024-08-04 20:48:28

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If you're okay with paying the costs of self custody then Phoenix and others launched soon should be able to do Lightning pretty seamlessly.

2024-08-04 17:24:34

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yes better hold your keys and go broke holding an asset heading for zero

2024-08-04 17:11:41

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if the goal is poverty yes

2024-08-04 16:11:33

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It seems most of the issues you outline are resolved by simply using ecash.

2024-08-04 14:54:53

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Sounds maybe like a squared peg in a round hole problem?

2024-08-03 15:47:53

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Destroying an L2 requires a 51% attack on Bitcoin.
ie. destroying Bitcoin.

2024-08-02 22:14:58

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it's a balloon

2024-08-01 16:26:59

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See https://medium.com/@RubenSomsen/snarks-and-the-future-of-blockchains-55b82012452b

2024-08-01 16:22:23

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sorry missed zeros here say 30-50x.
still not a lot
https://m.primal.net/JlKJ.png

2024-08-01 16:21:12

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If you want trustless ZK rollup you must use DA on Bitcoin.
This does not scale by default. You still need non-witness data therefore you only get 5-10x increase in the throughput depending on who you ask.

2024-08-01 16:11:19

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>Yes but in this scenario you assume that most of the traffic will still happen on L1 directly ? Assuming most of the traffic move to L2s then it's not the case.
Blocks on L1 will be made full regardless, this will increase on-chain costs which are directly tied to the cost of transacting on the rollup. Bitcoin"s DA is extremely scarce and we know this creates a ceiling for rollups.
AFAIK it's well understood that rollups actually do a poor job of actually scaling though they have undeniable utility advancements.

2024-08-01 15:56:14

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>With validity proofs it's trustless. You're only giving up censorship resistance (up to L2 consensus), but gaining: scale (like lightning) and functionality. In fact, the latter also gives more security because you can do DeFi and self-custodial applications.
I was referring to sequencing layers. Rollups do not scale like Lightning in any way. They involve global state and data that has to be made available to users.
Using Bitcoin as a DA will make tx onchain strictly more expensive than on Bitcoin today the moment any sort of scale usage shows up.
All of the gadgets you refer to are underexplored and add new layers of complexity that I don't think are fully appreciate because they've never been tested in real world environment.
What we know of rollups is that they are permissioned, likely very expensive to operate and consolidate into few service providers that can capture network effect. (observations from ETH)

2024-08-01 15:29:12

Okay Nostur I see you

2024-08-01 15:28:25

Okay Nostur I see you

2024-08-01 15:23:51

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nop

2024-08-01 13:10:21

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>What bother you the most about this is the need of having a consensus and hence economic security needs ?
Precisely, yes. It's just another blockchain. Blockchain decentralization doesn't manifest in and of itself and every attempt other than Bitcoin are looking like failure so I don't see why it would be different here.
>And you don't believe that Bitcoin could be used as DA layer ?
Too expensive
>Validium
That's an option but I'm not sure how it would play out in practice. Overall it just seems overarchitectured. Another example is I have no reason to believe at the moment that fraud proof economic games are actually sustainable. They seem quite capital inefficient and I've read pretty serious concerns around the long term game theory.
I'm open to changing my minds but directionally I'm just not very impressed by the approach.
>Fragmentation
Fragmentation of social layers, liquidity, and yes interoperability. I just look at the way it's playing out on Ethereum and I don't see anything particularly appealing. It reminds me of internet gatekeeping platforms.

2024-08-01 12:50:32

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I just don't believe in decentralized sequencing. Nor do I believe you can trust DA layers. You are basically trusting other blockchains with new types of incentives. I haven't seen anything design that seems robust or sustainable. Most involve yet another token which is doomed to fail. Escape hatches are cool but they will be too expensive for just about anyone.
In this context, fragmentation is my biggest concern. I am ready to concede trust where needed (ex: I like ecash of course) but I prefer designs that optimize for market optionality (ie. cost of operating service provider is maximally low)

2024-08-01 12:39:57

Give this guy a follow Nostriches
I'm personally not a big fan of ZK as a scaling solution for Bitcoin but DVMs and zero-knowledge computation seems like a match made in heaven.
#note1wac…akqx

2024-07-30 20:04:51

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First time hearing about security cameras?

2024-07-20 17:53:46

sooooo who's the first Nostr client to integrate nuts in their wallets?

2024-07-20 15:05:16

I just wanna say I love you guys here

2024-07-15 15:14:23

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Seems to be a reoccurring pattern with him 😅
Builds cool stuff then gets jaded with it.
Hopefully he doesn't sour on Nostr the same way he seemed to with LN.

2024-07-15 14:41:57

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Indeed

2024-07-15 14:38:11

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Is there not a video of the guy basically yelling "slash the republicans throat"....?

2024-07-14 03:50:56

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Yep, today is a good demonstration that Twitter is still the place where history plays out in real time.

2024-07-14 03:43:18

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Le'ts enjoy it while it lasts 🥲

2024-07-14 03:37:51

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Well so I was just thinking, can I chart the follower count of someone using their npubs?

2024-07-14 02:33:22

Is anyone building a Nostr explorer?

2024-07-14 02:32:12

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Also bad marketing to position Nostr as social media ;)

2024-07-13 20:09:23

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have you ever tried selling gold jewelry though

2024-07-13 20:02:56

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Yeah this didn't come out exactly how I would've wanted to but yeah I do mean my "internet" day

2024-07-13 19:29:06

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You could simply auto-pilot "trusted mints" by taking a sample of mints used by your trusted contacts.
With enough time the market will price out the risks and find local equilibrium on social graph for every user.

2024-07-13 19:22:05

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I do see what you are saying here.

2024-07-13 18:55:43

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Just consolidate them into mints you trust. Problem solved

2024-07-13 18:53:54

The point where I open Primal to start the day off before Twitter is getting closer.
I can feel it.

2024-07-13 18:43:16

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We'll be talking about this in Nashville! And Riga!
I think you will understanding the "why" when it starts proliferating here on Nostr.

2024-07-11 20:25:39

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you mean ecash support ;)

2024-07-11 20:23:44

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yes please

2024-07-07 22:20:59

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Do they care about this at all though? 😕

2024-07-07 22:20:59

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Do they care about this at all though? 😕

2024-07-07 16:09:57

Most of my popular tweets lately have been about Nostr and ecash.
Lesson there.

2024-06-26 01:48:59

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I don't think zapping with Ark makes a lot of sense.
It's not exactly intended for high-velocity and cheap payments.
(Though it definitely supports them through Lightning)

2024-06-26 01:26:03

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What are Ark tokens?

2024-06-26 01:23:21

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You should be able to get one through the official channel.
DM Me if you run into an issue
https://bitcoin2024.b.tc/2024/opensource-ticket

2024-06-21 14:30:09

Should've been the first decade long commitment!
#note1jf8…80n2

2024-05-27 03:16:25

Ecash has given me a reason to be on Nostr.
It feels like a more intimate topic I can have a conversation about outside of the noise of Twitter.
For some reason it just feels right sharing my excitement here.
I can use the bird app for everything else.

2024-05-26 19:01:12

Financial consolidation is a fiat psyop.
Ecash can return banking back to its smallest common denominator.
Payments and the lower functions of finance will be completely commoditized. Interoperability and the absence of friction or barriers to entry will drive the market towards efficiency.
Where protocols attempt to eliminate trust, markets seek to align it.

2024-05-26 15:40:54

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https://boardwalkcash.com/wallet?token=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

2024-05-26 15:30:37

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It would be very surprising IMO

2024-05-26 14:26:05

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Just reading this again. It was late and I had wires twisted.
I don't mean depositors necessarily. I mean that different wallets or users could collaborate to run an ecash mint with each of them holding a proportion of the mint's deposits

2024-05-26 03:14:08

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if I fund the mint but don't host it and others do the same, who's mint is it?

2024-05-26 02:53:22

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I'm pretty sure you can easily get cashu mints funded by different users so that point is moot.

2024-05-26 02:00:36

I do not want to backup my ecash wallet with a seed phrase.
This is backwards UX. I’m assuming it is as good as app developers can provide for now but this is not a long term solution.

2024-05-25 18:00:07

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> Kids don’t have IDs.
yes because kids do not participate in the economy
nor is making a payment necessarily participating in the economy
here is a complete theory of economics in a couple of paragraphs. hopefully you can appreciate why a WoT involving identity is sine qua non
http://trilema.com/2014/a-complete-theory-of-economics/

2024-05-25 15:59:48

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anonymity of your finances is one thing
you cannot operate in the world being anonymous ie. no identity because the world is based on trust (funny right)

2024-05-25 15:40:58

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what is there to engage with?
> tyranical lil mini dictatorships.
we already have tyranical dictatorships. Nostr is just an open standard. it opens reputation up and removes barriers to entry.
the alternative is the closed walled gardens we operate in already.
anonymity is a larp. you can’t have markets with anonymity