One of my top fav books View quoted note →

Just a reminder that anyone advocating to change bitcoin’s core protocol must show that the change is both necessary and safe. A change is necessary only if it fixes an existential problem that cannot be fixed any other way. It’s not necessary if it addresses a potential future problem, or if we can add the feature elsewhere. It’s safe only if we know that it cannot be abused to harm the overall bitcoin ecosystem. This includes encouraging centralization of miners or nodes, or undermining the power of nodes to govern the network. We cannot accept “trust me”. Anyone advocating for a change must show their proof of work. And we must verify it. The core software is the most vulnerable part of the network. Bitcoin is the world’s money and our hope for the future. It will survive only as long as we actively protect it.

This is what I was referring to when I said that nostr has “centralizing gravity”. This guide essentially says that all users must connect to one of the large international relays. Clearly having all users gravitate to a few large relays isn’t the best for freedom of speech and increases legal risk for those operators. There could be many ways to fix this problem but it starts with acknowledging that it exists and working with the community to solve it. View quoted note →

Such an incredible video. He lied to Congress — which is a crime. Ask yourself… will there be any accountability? Is the rule of law dead? I think it is. And, if it *is* dead, what does that mean for the future of the country? This obviously sounds like crazy hyperbole, but it’s possible that we could be watching the last “real” election in the 🇺🇸. After this point, half the country may believe that there is no point to voting anymore. IMHO, to step back from the brink, there should be a truth and reconciliation process (with accountability) immediately. Not gonna happen. 🙅‍♂️ View quoted note →

Zuck admits official govt pressure. This should allow court cases to proceed. Courts previously ruled that the complainants couldn’t prove govt pressure. Remember, the govt lied, saying the hunter laptop was fake, when they knew it wasn’t. Proof that govt agencies actively interfered with the election. Conspiracy theorists right again. 😎 View quoted note →

The world continues to decentralize. Money, communications, sanctions power… https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/08/26/telegram-and-youtube-censorship-show-bitcoin-and-nostr-are-critical/

China Gains Secret Access to Nvdia Microchips by Renting Computers – MishTalk

Still believe that we’re following the thesis from the Sovereign Individual book and this eventually results in the breakup of the nations as we know them today.

Many people are saying “put it in the client”. Of course, this would be ideal. A few challenges: 1) Right now, each client can only connect to a limited number of relays. For example, Damus recommends ~10. This forces nostr clients to connect to a small number of large (high bandwidth) relays to reach all other users. Basically, if you can only connect to 10, then you want to connect to the same 10 as everyone else so that you can reach everyone. 2) If relays were installed in phones, they would quickly go online and offline. Each client would then be forced to connect to a massive number of low bandwidth relays. This is the opposite of what happens today. 3) Mobile devices have limited bandwidth and aren’t designed to be low latency servers. Desktops can handle more load, they generally have higher bandwidth limits, and can be left running for longer. People need to be motivated to run desktops to support the network. To move the relays into the clients (which should be done to make the network decentralized) the core underlying protocol would need to be completely redesigned. I’ve been brainstorming and experimenting with such a thing but it’s not ready for presentation. I think I’ve loosely “solved” the broadcasting piece (hint: bees and flowers). But I still have two massive missing pieces. First - replies (replying to someone else’s message so that 3rd parties can see it) Second - data efficient discovery (eg. how to allow hashtags in a way that doesn’t drown your device in spam). Both of the missing pieces are essentially data discoverability problems so perhaps they will eventually have a common solution 🤞 The challenge is minimizing latency, bandwidth, and data replication. Also, no matter what, moving the relays into the clients will likely degrade the UX. Centralized systems are faster, more responsive, and therefore generally have better UX. View quoted note →