Juraj

I don’t seek rigid structure — I seek resonance

Learn how to use Bitcoin for more than just saving in my 📖Cryptocurrencies - Hack your way to a better life.

Get my books and courses here:
https://hackyourself.io/shop
https://juraj.bednar.io/shop

(You'll learn skills no one else is teaching!)

Podcasts 🎙️:
Option Plus - https://optionplus.io/
Reči o živote, vesmíre a vôbec: https://juraj.bednar.io/reci-o-zivote/
Ako vyhackovať otcovstvo: https://otcovia.com/

Public Key

npub1m2mvvpjugwdehtaskrcl7ksvdqnnhnjur9v6g9v266nss504q7mqvlr8p9

NIP-05 Address

juraj@bitpunk.fm

NIP-57 Address

juraj-bzzz@pay.cypherpunk.today

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsd4dkxqewy8xum47ctpu0ltgxxsfemeewpjkdyzk9ddfcg286s0dspr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmp0qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uujlctd

Publishing to

nostr.bitcoiner.social

nos.lol

nostr.cypherpunk.today

Author Public Key

npub1m2mvvpjugwdehtaskrcl7ksvdqnnhnjur9v6g9v266nss504q7mqvlr8p9

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Last Notes

2025-05-15 08:44:59

I’ve been wearing a mindset, which I probably got from the open source community, that I think is helpful. Always cheer for the success of other people, especially if they are working on the same thing as you (also known in normie startup land as “competition”).
Yes, you want to do your best and be amazing, but if you fail, those people maybe won’t. They are the people who are solving the same problem. It’s a source of inspiration and also your baseline, which keeps moving. PnL is slow feedback, they are doing market testing with you and you can learn from them.
Some strange ways this manifested in my life:
- In many cases, I’d rather meet with my competitors (who have similar goals to me). Often, it makes for a much more interesting dinner conversation than customers (although I love customers too). Especially if they share this view and talk openly about their experiences. It requires of course more than one person with this mindset in order for the situation not to get awkward (I was lucky in this way so far, but I religiously avoid toxic people).
- Once I realized one business model in a company that I owned could be disrupted. But also it was an incredibly hard thing to pull off. I called my best competitors to tell them that I was building it and they could join in the venture. I did not want to front-run them, to the contrary, I wanted the best minds. If our businesses were to be disrupted, we would do it to ourselves. Much less resistance in disruption. We could still compete in the old business model. (We spectacularly failed to deliver the disruption and got outcompeted by others, but it was a fun experience anyway).
In open-source and in Bitcoin / wider cryptography based solutions / Nostr, we are basically working on the same project, even if we compete. If someone else increases the network effect and features of Bitcoin/Nostr/open protocol/Linux/…., it “pumps our shared bags”. This requires only one thing – don’t be attached to your project, be attached to the result, regardless of who does it.
- In open-source, it is a blessing if someone does it better than you. Maintaining a project is difficult and time consuming. Being able to tell your users “go over there, it’s a better solution, this project no longer maintained” gives you free time to do other things.
- It helped us define our unique capability in a few projects. The threat of competition (and perceived “lower price” they offered) ignited a long conversation within our teams about what we are actually good at, what we’re offering and why no one else can offer it. Then build that part and focus on it. Price sensitive customers can get the “worse” but apparently cheaper product if they don’t want our unique thing. We realized we don’t want all customers, only those that are a fit for us. I’ve done this multiple times, I even sent potential customers to the competition if they were not a good fit for us. In many (but not all) markets, what’s important is that the market grows. If it grows, smaller share of a bigger pie is still bigger than before. Grow the pie, not your percentage share. Cooperation grows the pie, fights make it smaller (unless the market is in the first “problem marketing phase”, but it’s cheap loser-level marketing to fight anyway, it might work, but is it who we really want to be?).
- I am generally more pleasant to be around. I will not hurt people just because they are solving the same problem, to the contrary, I want to see how we can make the world better together, even if we are not really working together. If there are others who do the same, you will see that, they are super pleasant to be around and it just raises the energy of everything. Hackathons are often like that – you are competing for the prize, but OMG, how cool to be among such capable people!
I wish you all the best in your endeavors, I benefit from them greatly! Today the world, tomorrow the solar system!
This post lives as a blog here, if you want to share:
https://juraj.bednar.io/en/blog-en/2025/05/15/cheering-for-your-competition-a-mindset-that-changed-my-approach-to-creating/

2025-05-12 06:08:47

Yes, amazing.
I wonder why not 2-of-3 multisig in cashu. With Nostr keys and one click release.
#nevent1q…6k32

2025-05-11 09:39:18

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No, he would have more shitcoinery

2025-05-09 06:50:59

Nooo, they will not ban cash, you conspiracy theorist! See, you can still buy condoms and wine anonymously!
#nevent1q…cu8x

2025-05-08 19:00:52

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My philosophy is it's monetary, but that does not matter to spammers. If you can spam, the spammers will spam....
It's not a matter of philosophy.

2025-05-08 17:17:30

Exchanging Bitcoin backed freebanking ecash notes denominated in eur and usd through melt to collaboratively mint a sats denominated note from another mint, all over lightning with multinut payment to mint the coin is 8D magic.
Coming soon to your mints and wallets because of the ecash wizards
#nevent1q…rqxn

2025-05-08 16:50:36

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Well, monero is 100x smaller than Bitcoin by itself.
But you were trying to make a technical argument that Monero is designed not to allow that. That is not true. It's just so fringe that not even spammers use it much (although there were spam attacks on Monero)

2025-05-08 14:25:21

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Sure...
https://github.com/mooonero/mordinals

2025-05-08 11:07:34

Unpopular opinion: I don't give a shit about OP_RETURN one way or the other.
The discussion itself is mental spam.

2025-05-05 17:06:55

Cashu today is at a special magic state when it's doing something very interesting, but at the same time it's not huge. You can easily read the whole source code of the implementation.

2025-05-02 21:10:16

🎉
#nevent1q…k7g5

2025-05-02 21:08:38

What have I just read.
🙅
#nevent1q…hn07

2025-05-02 12:43:52

My main problem with London is that literally no one speaks proper English and I can't even learn basic words from a secondary language such as Spanish in Latin America.

2025-05-02 09:37:25

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No, I have blue blocking glasses for next time.

2025-05-02 09:37:04

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That does not make sense. If the passenger is sleeping, they don't want anything, less work for the crew. This blue light was after they tried to sell us junkfood already.

2025-05-02 09:34:32

This project is absolutely wild!
I am a bit worried that we're making the FEDs' job easier, but the benefit of this is amazing, discoverability needs to be there.
And I mean, we are here voluntarily and share whatever we want to share.
#nevent1q…sgtt

2025-05-01 19:46:07

Follow space balíček slovenskej dvadsaťjeden na nostri!
#nevent1q…3kww

2025-05-01 09:00:27

If you need proper Red / Near Infrared Light Therapy, the best panels with zero flicker and all the proven frequencies by easylight.sk now accept Bitcoin with @nprofile…xhfg - to their wallet, without conversion-to-fiat gateways.
They ship everywhere in Europe. I have the big one. Gamechanger, especially if you can't have enough natural light (office work, or if it's winter). Use it for recovery, anti inflammation, brain stimulation, energy production.
Use code JURAJ if you want a discount.
Thanks to @nprofile…895l for BTCPay-shoptet integration (I fixed it a bit: https://gitlab.com/janpoboril/shoptet-btcpay ).

2025-05-01 06:31:13

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We'll feed them seed oils 😁

2025-04-29 08:36:14

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Yes, @nprofile…hzsk

2025-04-29 08:25:31

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Define "artificially surpressed"

2025-04-28 06:12:10

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Phoenix for example does not route, there's not even code to route. It just gives the invoice to pay to the server that creates the route.
Yes, you could have magically switched it without changing the keys for a routing node, after you created a channel with the LSP using their API, but I guess the probability that it did not happen is 100% and Phoenix server can be pretty sure it's talking to either Phoenix wallet or phoenixd and thus see all the invoices and infer who is both the sender and the receipient.

2025-04-27 18:10:52

In this talk @wilderko explains why is fiat more complicated than bitcoin.
I want to add one thing for merchants. Credit cards:
1.) open a bank account for company, often it is half day at a bank, especially if they decide to screen what type of business you do and when you tell them you want to receive credit card payments
2.) find provider to provide you with terminal. sign another contract
3.) deploy terminals to all places where you might get paid. teach people how it works, what happens in cancellation, how to do refunds
4.) money arrive a few days later at your bank account
5.) optionally taxed (slovakia, hungary)
Bitcoin:
1.) install bitcoin wallet on your existing device
2.) click receive, enter amount, click receive
3.) payment either went through or not
4.) if you want multiple places to accept, send everyone a "receive only" link, they can bookmark it and receive lightning payments
So why is Bitcoin "complicated"?

2025-04-26 13:53:18

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I have working push notifications.

2025-04-25 22:07:25

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I don't think it matters much. Works perfectly.

2025-04-25 14:29:29

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Fortunately I would be very surprised if people went through with it.
So let's leave it as a discussion with 🍿, agree to disagree and see what happens.

2025-04-25 13:10:44

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That's natural progression of the word. Not what you are proposing, that's centrally planned redifinition of word. That won't work.

2025-04-25 12:33:47

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Aj by som zapoval, ale máš to pokazené. A mne zase fungujú zapy!

2025-04-25 12:30:32

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Já nejsem čech ale rozumiju taky
Followujem lajkujem

2025-04-25 12:29:49

OK, this is probably just me lazy to get dressed properly and want to walk around in joggers, but I remember back in the cr4pt0 conference days, people used to say that the poor-but-wannabe-rich were those in the most expensive suits and the real deals were in T-shirts.
(I don't own a suit, nor a shirt).
So I had to make this. I'm the guy on the right BTW if you did not know. 😅
https://blossom.primal.net/aa8e0e55c25873b96595a4b298e4b8afca825edac434c27dbab2f1b76c84ad36.jpg

2025-04-25 10:41:01

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Yes, you can say sats. It's ok. The system is called Bitcoin and the unit is called sats. No problem there.
It's the same as with guarani. Something is 200k. Everyone knows it's guarani, no one knows how much one guarani is worth (almost nothing). Everyone is able to operate in this environment.
- Can you pay me in Bitcoin?
- Sure, how much?
- 2k sats, here's an invoice
- sure, here you go
No problem.
- Can you pay me in Bitcoin?
- Sure, how much?
- 1 bitcoin
- What? Wasn't 1 bitcoin like 100k$?
- no, not the old bitcoin, the word now has a different meaning, haven't you read the BIP?
- really? since when? just tell me how many sats.
- 1 sat
- you could have told me that in the first place

2025-04-25 09:20:13

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Yes, but this assumes there is a problem with current Bitcoin denomination. There is no problem. Don't touch it and both 1% and 99% will be fine.
Touch it, and 1% (of real users) will be confused for long time, it will create friction. And 99% don't care yet and will be confused when they become Bitcoiners, because you would have to say "old bitcoin or new bitcoin" for years to come, you would have to explain that there was a change. And why?
I think it's even quite nice that you have this as a memento of how much Bitcoin grew. Now you need only 0.0003 to buy dinner!

2025-04-25 08:28:41

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New users just learn it when they become bitcoiners.
It would create great confusion for the millions of people who already know. "Are you talking about the old bitcoin or the new bitcoin?"
The unit of account is like language, it is extremely difficult to change. I am from a country that experienced at least two currency changes (depending how you count) and there are still people who think in Slovak crowns and not euros. Yes, 16 years later. If you don't change the name, just redefine it, it will be even worse.
This is a spectacularly bad idea.

2025-04-25 07:31:01

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That would be extremely confusing to change it after all this time with very little real world benefit.

2025-04-24 14:02:16

Asking a girl for phone number is obsolete. You need to ask her for her public key. That's how she knows you are serious.
It can be signal qr code with verification, simplex invite code, but if you are more traditional, a PGP key is enough.
If she does not know what you are talking about or offers telegram or Instagram, keep looking for a better girl.

2025-04-24 12:33:33

I've been thinking about the old common law concept of the "reasonable man" as a benchmark in disputes. It's not a specific person, but an ideal of reasonableness. When handling conflicts, everyone is compared to this standard. Justice operates as if we’re all reasonable, expecting us to act that way, even though it’s not assumed everyone is. You can’t resolve disputes with a madman, after all.
But in the real world, this is often a problem. I’ve seen countless times that people just aren’t reasonable. Worse, even those who usually are can lose it when dealing with someone who’s gone completely off the rails. They turn into madmen themselves during arguments or disputes with crazy individuals. It’s frustrating to witness.
I’ve got two thoughts on this. First, I’m genuinely glad there are still reasonable people out there who stay calm and rational, even when facing someone clearly unhinged. That’s the positive. But on the negative side, I feel like being truly reasonable is rare these days. Honestly, it seems most people are a bit crazy... And many more than a bit...

2025-04-22 19:37:16

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Alright, let's deep deeper.
- What is a dollar..
IOU - what's the value of the debt? What has to be repaid? (Beware of circular definitions)
If I give you one paper dollar with a dead American president, most people would say it's a dollar. But that would mean it's an IOU. Who owes who what in this case?
- Bitcoin is arguably a database entry in a (in this case distributed) ledger. Is it not money and not yours? Or what is the difference?
Why would a bank give you cash when you make the number lower (also called a withdrawal). If it's not yours, they should not give it to you, only to rightful owner.
- how many dollars there are - relates to the previous question. Answer is surprising: no one really knows. Because of eurodollar system.

2025-04-22 11:35:23

Recent realization: Most Bitcoiners don't actually know how the fiat system works. On any level. They have superficial understanding that there's some monetary expansion going on (usually wrongly attributed just to the central bank). They have some understanding about how the payment networks work, mainly from the failures, but don't understand the details. They repeat mantras (which are usually true), but don't have any logical theory.
It's OK, even with this superficial understanding, you can see why Bitcoin is better. And their superficial understanding is still better than no understanding, which is 99% of nocoiners.
But still it's fun how wrong they are.
Good questions to figure out if they know what they are talking about:
- What is a dollar?
- What exactly is the balance in your bank account? What does it mean?
- What is eurodollar?
- How many dollars there are?
And my favorite:)
- How could you (even if you are not a bank) create new dollars today?

2025-04-22 10:48:54

Which Lightning node implementation has the best payment routing algorithm and best success rate? I am on core lightning, but I can barely send a small payment, even though I have many channels (quite balanced, I definitely have enough sats on my side in quite a few of them). I can receive easily (probably because routing is done by the sending node).
I switched to xpay, didn't help much.
What is state of the art?

2025-04-21 14:46:49

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Pro-tip: Vibe code using the chat frontends that don't bill per token (chatgpt). Just paste all the code in the box.
Helpful command:
https://github.com/jooray/dotfiles/blob/main/.functions#L525
Usage: "unapaster *.py"

2025-04-20 17:08:32

While I agree with most of the practical consequences of this article, the language is very misleading.
Price is discovered after successful exchange. And it is valid for that exchange and does not mean anything for the next exchange. Thus there is no such thing as price manipulation. You either get or sell something for the price you wanted or not. Faces you make during a poker game are not binding, the cards and your choices are.
As such, there is no price manipulation on the markets.
With paper Bitcoin - all is well if all market participants know what they're buying. If I'm buying a future, I know it's a (possibly cash settled) bet on a future price. It's ok if someone does not want to settle in kind, in many cases that's too expensive. If a gold producer wants to sell an ounce of gold in Papua new guinea in the future and the buyer is in Argentina, they do the in kind spot trades on local markets and settle the difference. This is ok and an innovation of financial markets. Same with options.
You are not entitled to any price and thus this rhetoric of manipulation does not make sense. Yes, Bitcoin is a fixed cap asset. But exchange value is still on whether you are able to find a counterparty or not. Cancelled orders don't matter. Paper Bitcoin does not matter.
Fractional reserves are a problem, swapping to your wallet is definitely a good idea. But the way Kraken does reserve proofs is still ok. You should still withdraw immediately if you are not trading.
Good point about rehypothecation of collateral on lending platforms. Use Firefish which has exactly this property.
https://blog.casa.io/securing-bitcoins-scarcity/

2025-04-20 13:36:43

It's not only about encryption, but encryption is necessary for honest communication.
The opposite of encrypted communication invokes the panopticon effect. You change your communication if you believe someone is observing it.
Of course you lose the feeling of intimacy in an encrypted chat group with many people (and you should, having the feeling of "this is encrypted messenger, I am not being watched" is dangerous), or if you don't trust the other person.
But if you do and you don't trust the communicator, you're not yourself. You are playing a show for an adversarial audience.
These days, strong encryption is absolutely necessary for healthy human relationships. Yes, we prefer in person, but the world no longer works like that. If you travel away from your loved ones, you want to still be intimate with them and keep in touch. You don't want to present them with the version playing for the panopticon, you want to stay you.

2025-04-20 11:22:03

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I'm looking more into NixOS these days, it looks great, although I have to say, I never had to reinstall Linux ever in my life and I am using it for over two decades now.

2025-04-20 11:19:15

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🤮

2025-04-19 10:24:44

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Who is going to vibe code this? Volunteers? 😉

2025-04-17 13:25:35

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I use one that simulates Apple MagSafe on my Pixel 9 Pro Fold with GrapheneOS.
Then I attach the magnetic MOFT wallet to it, so I can keep my driver's license, bit of cash and payment card for emergencies (no Google Pay on Grapheneos).

2025-04-16 11:47:24

Biohacking
https://m.primal.net/QRvq.jpg

2025-04-15 19:22:16

You could have voted with your attention,
but you don't know how to control it and it's directed externally by corporations and divisive politics, they just take over your attention.
You could have voted with your money, but you were never interested in understanding how it works, how to make it and how to keep it. So they stole it from you, taxed you, evaporated its value through inflation and now you don't have a vote in the market economy.
You could have voted with your time. But you spend most of it on things that grab your attention and on making money in a hamster wheel.
You could have voted with your feet. But the world out there is scary and far and you would have to change your life significantly.
So you at least vote by putting a sheet of paper in a box, and you hope that this act, which is all vote you have left will change things for the better. And then you're disappointed and frustrated, because either your favorite tyrant did not win or they did and the result is the same as always.
Learn to use your attention
Learn about money
Save your time
And vote in ways that matter

2025-04-15 16:18:05

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Ok, definitely not me, I don't run, although the all black hood up is usually me :)

2025-04-15 16:09:08

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Who of us was she describing? :)

2025-04-07 18:06:22

Llama4
Notably, users and companies "domiciled" or with a "principal place of business" in the EU are prohibited from using or distributing the models, likely due to governance requirements under EU AI and data privacy laws.
EU companies, what do you say? Feel protected?

2025-04-07 09:59:37

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Hustá akcia, ja som však veľmi ďaleko.
Užite si!
Čo je to autonómne centrum? Je to super?

2025-04-06 19:59:47

There is a file, you load it to a smart enough device and suddenly you can talk to it.

2025-04-05 16:40:11

Even better, politicians always without sound. Don't listen, ever.
#nevent1q…55ca

2025-04-05 14:14:07

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Many non js ways to do it.
Etags, header fingerprinting, css, cache, ..
Disabled JavaScript is one extra bit for fingerprinting BTW

2025-04-05 09:17:25

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But she just said tariffs are bad! Is there at least one neuron that is not communist in her brain?
We should nurture it! Make it grow and network!
She would stand at her eu flag decorated speaker's stand and tell Afuera and turn on a chainsaw!

2025-04-05 09:15:42

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It's mainly functionality not design.
That's just how modern web works. Client side rendering and such.
I think turning off JavaScript is like a pilgrimage. It's meant to make you suffer to make you conscious about some things.
The truth is, most tracking does not rely on JavaScript and often not even on cookies. You are better off with a good ad blocker and JavaScript on, because the adblocker blocks known third party trackers which can be as simple as loading an image.
I use Matomo for analytics, it is privacy preserving for users (I don't want to look at IP addresses and things like that, only at trends), but all it needs is access log. You don't even see it.
But if it's religious (privacy) pilgrimage you are after, it's good. For real effects, you need a different practice.

2025-04-03 10:52:55

While any tariffs (even Trump and EU tariffs) are bad, they have a very easy and obvious solution. As you can see, they depend on the tariffs of the other country.
No need to sit with Trump at a negotiating table and pretending you're doing diplomacy. Stop vat and tariffs unilaterally, help your people become instantly wealthier and Trump will lower theirs.
You don't like American citizens being taxed on imports from Europe. You should more care about European union citizens not being taxed on imports from USA (and everywhere else). You can do it Ursula, go, go, go!

2025-04-03 07:04:18

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Or literally any language one layer up from C

2025-04-03 07:02:54

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That turns web into 1990s style BBS.
Very cool for about two days.

2025-04-02 17:15:34

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Oh the ones that I know well, Python and modern JavaScript (enables easy web development).
I like but have just basic experience with Typescript and Go.
I can work with C, C++, even Perl, Java, LISP.
I used to use many others, at college I wrote every project in different language just to get a feel for each.

2025-04-02 16:53:20

Confession: I wholeheartedly hate Rust. It just sucks. The build system is ok (not great, not terrible) and the fact it can compile into WASM is nice. Everything else just plainly sucks.
Otherwise I'm not religious, I can handle and enjoy most languages.
When I hear a project is being rewritten in Rust, it's sad news. People waste time on the rewrite instead of the features and it stops being improvable for me.
I hope this Rust mania ends soon and we can all go back to nice programmer friendly languages.
Rust is computational Marxism.

2025-04-02 10:24:11

Unpopular opinion: washing hands is overrated. (Outside of medical setting)
We have this magic protection mechanism called the skin. Yes, touching eyes and mouth can spread infections, but it is way less common than people think and especially - washing your hands ten times a day won't help much. Before you wash your hands, you already touched everywhere on your body.

2025-04-01 21:42:52

When I was a kid I thought that when the moment comes and I finally have things figured out, I'll be an adult.
I'm over fourty and I think I've been misled and no one has figured things out, some people are good at hiding it though.
#nevent1q…6835

2025-04-01 21:37:37

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Trained is a strong word, StyleTTS accepts a 30s sample WAV from which it extracts the basic characteristics of the voice. There's no sophisticated training involved.
Engine here:
https://github.com/jooray/StyleTTS2
Usage example:
https://github.com/jooray/markdown2audio

2025-03-29 22:25:46

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How do I check the other tabs? I don't have Figma account.

2025-03-26 16:18:30

Project with kids?
Something like LightningPiggy (https://www.lightningpiggy.com/ ), but with Cashu and maybe some more interesting interface?
NFC, USB text files (probably more difficult) or something similar.
A way where you have a feed that you are feeding it Bitcoin, not sending to it.
ESP32 cashu client should be easy (micropython?) enough to vibe-code :)
Or even more fun - if locked to pubkey (forever), it could be completely offline. Just verifies signatures of paired mint and shows that the keys are locked to pubkey.
And then there's a button to dump all tokens for exchange.

2025-03-26 15:57:01

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One click would be nice, although not sure how to implement it.
In fountain it should be searchable, but you can always add private rss feed.
I'll be open sourcing the code for both rss2podcast and loaditfor.me soon. I was experimenting and rewriting it with my intern a lot (ok, it was mostly vibe coded), but now it has become more stable.

2025-03-25 11:42:48

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Is the spent cashu token's signature public though?

2025-03-24 11:18:04

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Include "don't sound like a cunt" in the prompt.
For more AI tips, like, subscribe and send zaps

2025-03-24 11:14:10

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Congrats, this is the first message in the wild that reached Eso level 10 on @nprofile…zekf
Estimated eso level: 10 - 👽
Reasoning: This text presents a complete dissolution of conventional reality and asserts communication from a source beyond human comprehension – a “higher-order non-relationship” and an “author of reality”. The claim of a system rewrite and the explicit denial of the reader having experienced the text strongly aligns with the highest level of esoteric assertion – claiming contact with entities or forces fundamentally outside of our perceived universe and manipulating the very fabric of existence. It goes beyond even astral projection or belief in unseen forces; it posits a complete restructuring of reality itself, mirroring the most extreme claims of contact and altered states of being. The use of symbols and the error messages further contribute to the sense of something beyond human understanding attempting to communicate, fitting the description of this level.
https://m.primal.net/PrOD.png

2025-03-22 13:22:19

ELI5 explanation of an eso level. Please remember the only authoritative ESO level estimator is here: https://juraj.bednar.io/assets/esolevel/index.html
"Imagine your brain is a little rocket ship. And every time someone says something super normal and easy to understand, like '1 plus 1 is 2', your rocket doesn’t even lift off. That’s level 0 — your brain is just chillin’ on the ground, eating cookies."
"But then, someone starts talking about gold turning into magic money, or mushrooms that help you think like a wizard, or aliens singing songs through your bathtub faucet — and your rocket goes WHOOSH higher and higher into the sky!"
"The eso level tells you how high the rocket goes.
Level 0 is like: ‘Facts!’
Level 5 is like: ‘Ooooh magic mushrooms!’
Level 10 is like: ‘ALIENS TALK TO MY TOAST!’"
So when someone says something, we just check: Is the rocket still on Earth or is it doing loop-de-loops past Saturn?

2025-03-22 13:09:41

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No, for that scenario you want a currency that has the highest network effects. There are only two candidates: Bitcoin and Gold. Everything else in this chart is fiat (or silver, which is just worse gold).
https://www.porkopolis.io/topmoney/

2025-03-22 12:36:40

Monetary reforms are rarely announced before including all the details. It usually comes as a shock. The Czechoslovak president was denying any monetary reform just a day it happened.
So next time someone says that some properties of digital euro are "conspiracy theories", please note that the difference between a conspiracy theory and reality can be the next day.
I suppose that how this happens in reality will be something like:
1. introduce digital euro with fancy apps and features
2. reduce the role of cash even more, migrate everyone to the digital version
3. edit the config file of the cbdc on the server to go through reporting and approval process, or do straight monetary reform
#nevent1q…29tm

2025-03-22 11:12:50

Currency reforms and CBDCs
Czechoslovakia – Currency Reform of 1953
In Czechoslovakia, a drastic currency reform took place in May 1953 under the communist regime. Old crowns were replaced with new ones at a rate of 5:1 for savings up to 5,000 Kčs, but for higher amounts, the rate was far less favorable, up to 50:1. Key aspect: Citizens could exchange only a limited amount of money, and if they wanted to exchange more, they had to document the legal origin of their income, which was practically impossible, especially for private entrepreneurs or people with savings. Many thus lost most of their wealth, leading to widespread impoverishment.
Germany – Currency Reform of 1948
After World War II, in West Germany, a reform in June 1948 replaced the Reichsmark with the new Deutsche Mark. Each resident could exchange only 40 Reichsmarks per person at a 1:1 rate, with the rest of their savings frozen and later partially devalued at a 10:1 rate. Key aspect: The restriction to a fixed amount (40 DM per person) and the need to document income for larger sums meant that those with greater savings (often from the black market or pre-war times) lost most of their wealth. While the reform jumpstarted the economy, it was devastating for many.
USA – Nixon Shock of 1971
In August 1971, President Nixon ended the gold standard, decoupling the dollar from gold. This wasn’t a traditional currency exchange, but it devalued money through inflation and eroded purchasing power. Key aspect: While there was no direct requirement to document income or limit exchanges, the indirect consequences—loss of trust in the dollar and subsequent inflation—impoverished residents, especially those holding cash savings. Control over the currency shifted entirely to the state and central bank.
CBDC (Digital Euro) and Similarities to These Reforms
The digital euro, as a form of central bank digital currency (CBDC), presents a modern parallel to these historical reforms, particularly in terms of control and restrictions. With a CBDC, the central bank (in this case, the ECB) would have direct oversight over every transaction. If it were introduced with rules such as a maximum amount an individual could hold or exchange, or a requirement to document the origin of funds (e.g., when converting cash to digital currency), it would echo past restrictions.
Specifically:
Need to document income: When introducing a CBDC, governments might require citizens to prove the legality of their savings during the conversion from cash to digital currency, much like in Czechoslovakia or Germany. This could disadvantage people with informal income or savings.
Limit on amounts: The ECB could impose caps on holding digital euros (e.g., to combat money laundering), replicating the fixed-sum principle of the German reform.
Loss of anonymity: Unlike cash, every transaction would be traceable, increasing the risk of retroactive controls and penalties, thus amplifying state power over individuals—a centralization similar to that seen in the Nixon Shock.
The digital euro could resemble these reforms by potentially limiting individuals’ freedom to manage their own money and imposing strict rules, such as the need to document income or caps on exchange amounts. Historically, such measures led to impoverishment, and a CBDC could repeat this problem in the digital age, this time with even greater control over the population.
Buy Bitcoin, now. And get friendly with some good proxy merchants.

2025-03-22 11:10:38

Veľké menové reformy v histórii často viedli k ochudobneniu obyvateľov, pričom jedným z kľúčových aspektov bolo obmedzenie výmeny peňazí a nutnosť dokladovať príjem alebo vymeniť iba určité množstvo. Pozrime sa na príklady z Československa, Nemecka a USA (Nixonov šok) a potom na súvislosť s digitálnym eurom (CBDC).
Československo – Menová reforma 1953
V Československu prebehla v máji 1953 drastická menová reforma pod komunistickým režimom. Staré koruny boli nahradené novými v pomere 5:1 pre úspory do 5 000 Kčs, no pri vyšších sumách bol pomer oveľa nevýhodnejší, až 50:1. Kľúčový aspekt: Občania mohli vymeniť iba obmedzené množstvo peňazí, a ak chceli vymeniť viac, museli dokladovať legálny pôvod príjmu, čo bolo v praxi takmer nemožné, najmä pre súkromných podnikateľov či ľudí s úsporami. Mnohí tak prišli o väčšinu majetku, čo viedlo k masovému ochudobneniu.
Nemecko – Menová reforma 1948
Po druhej svetovej vojne, v západnom Nemecku, bola v júni 1948 zavedená reforma, ktorá nahradila Reichsmarku novou Deutsche Mark. Každý obyvateľ mohol vymeniť iba 40 Reichsmark na osobu v pomere 1:1, zvyšok úspor bol zmrazený a neskôr čiastočne znehodnotený v pomere 10:1. Kľúčový aspekt: Obmedzenie výmeny na fixné množstvo (40 DM na osobu) a nutnosť dokladovať príjem pri vyšších sumách znamenali, že tí, ktorí mali väčšie úspory (často z čierneho trhu alebo predvojnových čias), stratili väčšinu svojho bohatstva. Reforma síce naštartovala ekonomiku, no pre mnohých bola likvidačná.
USA – Nixonov šok 1971
V auguste 1971 prezident Nixon ukončil zlatý štandard, čím dolár stratil krytie zlatom. Nešlo o klasickú výmenu peňazí, ale o znehodnotenie meny cez infláciu a oslabenie kúpnej sily. Kľúčový aspekt: Tu síce nebola priama nutnosť dokladovať príjem alebo vymieňať obmedzené množstvo, no nepriame dôsledky – strata dôvery v dolár a následná inflácia – ochudobnili obyvateľov, najmä tých, ktorí držali úspory v hotovosti. Kontrola nad menou sa presunula plne do rúk štátu a centrálnej banky.
CBDC (digitálne euro) a podobnosť s týmito reformami
Digitálne euro, ako forma centrálnej bankovej digitálnej meny (CBDC), prináša modernú paralelu k týmto historickým reformám, najmä v otázke kontroly a obmedzení. Pri CBDC by centrálna banka (v tomto prípade ECB) mala priamy dohľad nad každou transakciou. Ak by bolo zavedené s pravidlami, ako napríklad maximálne množstvo, ktoré môže jednotlivec vlastniť alebo vymeniť, alebo s požiadavkou dokladovať pôvod prostriedkov (napr. pri prechode z hotovosti na digitálnu menu), pripomínalo by to obmedzenia z minulosti.
Konkrétne:
Nutnosť dokladovať príjem: Pri zavádzaní CBDC by vlády mohli požadovať, aby občania preukázali legálnosť svojich úspor pri konverzii hotovosti na digitálnu menu, podobne ako v Československu či Nemecku. To by mohlo viesť k znevýhodneniu ľudí s neformálnymi príjmami alebo úsporami.
Obmedzenie množstva: ECB by mohla stanoviť limity na držbu digitálneho eura (napr. kvôli boju proti praniu špinavých peňazí), čím by zopakovala princíp fixných súm z nemeckej reformy.
Strata anonymity: Na rozdiel od hotovosti by každá transakcia bola sledovateľná, čo zvyšuje riziko retroaktívnych kontrol a sankcií, čím by sa posilnila moc štátu nad jednotlivcami – podobná centralizácia sa prejavila aj pri Nixonovom šoku.
Digitálne euro by mohlo pripomínať tieto reformy v tom, že by potenciálne obmedzilo slobodu jednotlivcov v nakladaní s vlastnými peniazmi a zaviedlo by prísne pravidlá, ako napríklad nutnosť dokladovať príjem alebo limity na výmenu. Historicky takéto kroky viedli k ochudobneniu a CBDC by mohlo tento problém zopakovať v digitálnej ére, tentoraz s ešte väčšou kontrolou nad obyvateľstvom.

2025-03-21 11:21:22

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So who's gonna do it?
I want the output in short story format, preferably by Paul Rosenberg

2025-03-21 00:27:24

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Install meshchat or sideband and try it out. They use super hardcore voice compression.
(BTW: Reticulum is an universal network protocol, it works over any medium _including_ lora, but definitely not limited to it).

2025-03-21 00:12:17

Voice calls in sideband desktop!
#nevent1q…kqpy

2025-03-20 17:55:49

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Money laundering is beautiful

2025-03-20 17:38:58

https://vimeo.com/1066420057
#nevent1q…ys7u

2025-03-20 17:35:05

A lot of people when they talk about solving societal problems jump straight to suggestions about fixing education. That almost never works. Even when the correlation is there, the causality is usually the other way around (rich societies have more money to spend /waste for education, they are rich first).
There are many reasons why it does not work, but one view is useful. Information is abundant. The teacher in school does not need to read a book to us, we can read ourselves, or let AI describe that. The way to learn is to engage with a topic. In other words pay attention. The teachers know this and repeat it to students. "Pay attention!"
We don't pay attention to boring, uninteresting stuff. We need to be engaged with it first. Is it a date to remember or a fundamental law that we need to understand in order to finish our project that we're engaged in.
It used to be that information was scarce. With printing press, information started to be free. That was accelerated with internet. What became more important is how to apply the information. Now with AI, this is also demonetized.
Now it's only about our attention.
The teachers in school direct our attention. But they often have to drive it to some centrally planned content(*). Which is boring, often useless at least during childhood when it's presented and thus forgotten before we actually need it.
The only superpower remains - where do we put our attention? Can we actually control it or is it controlled by apps, advertisers and propaganda?
"If they lose our attention, they lose their power" (by @nprofile…nj96 )
It is crucial step in The Merge, but I'm not spoiling anything more.
https://youtu.be/cWO08RexBLg?si=hzm070jNwWdvMslT
(*) Also known as mandatory curriculum. It's quality is similar any other "service" provided by the state. Remember your experience at the DMV, or trying to call the tax office. Yes, same quality.

2025-03-20 16:08:00

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Yes, I've changed it.
Just verifying the claim that it's a bit more closed in practice by there being mainly one client only.

2025-03-20 13:45:22

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Done, although now they seem to be the same, I've only seen one other implementation of Fedimint in Mutiny, but that's stopped development.
Are there any alternative clients?

2025-03-20 11:30:06

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I don't remember - what kind of wallet does podcast guru use?

2025-03-20 11:28:40

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OptionPlus
Reči o živote, vesmíre a vôbec
Ako vyhackovať otcovstvo
Juraj's blogs
My four podcasts.
Right now it seems juraj's blogs are not updated
https://app.podcastguru.io/podcast/jurajs-blogs-1780115202

2025-03-19 16:37:41

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Not yet.
As for Nostr login - it would be cool, but there's no value there - you can just ask browser to generate a random username and password. There's no e-mail or anything. I don't even need to know your identity.

2025-03-19 01:15:12

Few people know - oxytocin's effects are context-dependent. They can promote in-group favoritism while increasing out-group hostility.

2025-03-18 20:13:24

Just learned about @nprofile…xu96.
What's the real range of BLE? How close do the users have to be? (I have only one Android device with me, so I can't try).
Should we make a reticulum based version? Or add reticulum support?

2025-03-18 19:39:37

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Can you (or others) share the links? I know probably just a little (about private messaging subprotocols mainly and outbox model). What's bluetooth offline inter-device protocol? Where can I learn more? I might write about it, that sounds interesting.
Also decentralized wiki - where I can learn about it?

2025-03-18 19:34:38

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Tell me you did not read the article without telling me you did not read the article

2025-03-18 19:14:38

A look at free banking in the 19th century and how it relates to today. We can build it with Cashu. And it might have some nice properties.
Admittedly a bit too long, but I think this perspective is interesting and is not much known. If it's too long for you to read, there's also a text to speech audio version that supports value4value, links at the beginning of the article.
https://juraj.bednar.io/en/blog-en/2025/03/18/cashu-bitcoin-freebanking/

2025-03-18 17:15:27

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I agree, that's why we organize @nprofile…snyq
I'm not taking about ignoring the ideals, I'm saying the ideals back then were just ideals, a dream. Now we can live the dream. That's why nostalgia is not so useful. There was no great past that we departed from. We have turned the dreams into reality.

2025-03-18 17:12:52

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Cheers and thanks!

2025-03-18 11:19:36

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That's not free banking. Bank is a financial intermediary.
We have something better than banking, but banking also has a place.
Stay tuned.

2025-03-18 11:16:09

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There are no rights. Only what you do yourself. Lightning has great privacy and that's how I use it.
I use it every day. I don't care about others, they might choose to use it or not.
It also does really well financially. Look at last five years. Pretty cool, right?

2025-03-18 01:57:57

Writing an article on free banking in USA in 19th century is interesting. I wanted to illustrate it on a story of a businessman coming from New York to San Francisco with his banknotes. He travelled by sea. Oh wait, the Panama canal was not built yet, I did not want him to go all the way around south America, that would have taken 4-6 weeks. So train on land, right? Nope, transcontinental railroad not built yet.
Towards the end of the free banking era, he could have taken a ship to Colon, Panama, then train through Panama railway to Panama city and then another boat. Before the Panama railway, people would go on a mule and quite often die, the jungle of Panama was not very safe.
I am very grateful for air travel and the Panama canal.
And the free banking is coming back with Cashu, stay tuned for the article.

2025-03-17 18:44:25

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We already also live in this world. Many grandmas with grandsons.
There is no one thread, the society is complex and it's upon us to choose.
This is one of the most fun features of both Bitcoin and free and open source software. You can find your way and have the choose. That's also the only downside. You have to make a choice, there are either no defaults or they are not very good

2025-03-17 18:38:14

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Fiat in envelopes is still a thing! Checkout @nprofile…vj3n or Cypherpunk Bitstream podcast.
Hi ! 👋

2025-03-17 18:30:01

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Yes. My favorite pastime is listening to someone convinced something with Bitcoin is impossible while doing it literally every day 😁