The problem with this is that well-run, boring, positive cash flow companies are really hard to find. All the obvious ones were snarfed up by previous variants of this play. It *sounds* great, until you get to the messy reality that the firms you want don't need you. So you have to find and pitch them. And why would they say yes? Because they're looking for an exit, which is the opposite of what you said you wanted. This is not to say it's impossible, but there's a reasonable case that it's going to be far harder than VCs think, who are used to people approaching them. View quoted note →

Apparently the idea that we should be our best online, not our worst, is radically outside the mainstream?

Copyright was important and unassailable until there was Real Hot Money in ignoring it. I'm not *happy* that intellectual property got broken by greed, but TBH I'm pretty happy...

This was fun! Good chat about finer grained control and incentives to mirror.... View quoted note →

Sometimes I forget there are old pictures of me on the internet...

LWN.net

The Linux.Conf.Au dunk tank

Linus Torvalds was not the only one to get wet in the Linux.Conf.Au dunk tank. Here

At #OsloFF several people asked when Shit Bitcoiners Say would be back, so let me put it on the record: it's hibernating during the bear market. The account serves me as a balance, to keep things grounded. It's not there to kick people when they're down, it's to serve as a reality check. When Bitcoin is a grind it should be offering free hugs or something. When people are extrapolating to infinity and you feel the urge to research low-gravity espresso machines for your inevitable Bitcoin moon-citadel: I'll be back!

Hey @ODELL should I be pitching @Century Metadata to OpenSats?

I'm back wearing a Pebble watch! I loved the original, and wanted to support the reboot. Let's see how we go after a month...

This is my new Century Metadata account. I'll try to remember to post CM stuff there, not here! View quoted note →

This is really touching! I loved working on #bitcoinlightning and #CLN over the years, and I leave both in excellent hands. Lightning is going to be so much more than it is now... View quoted note →

I don't understand why @jb55, @ODELL and @Ben Arc hate each other, and at this point I'm afraid to ask...

Official Bitcoin Twitter Self-Worth Chart $70k: your hairline recedes. $60k: gangrene develops. $50k: you lose the ability to make coherent sentences, and all you can say to your panicked loved ones is "Bitcoin is digital energy". $150k: erectile dysfunction vanishes. $250k: your wife returns with the kids, saying she made a terrible mistake. $500k: your long-dead father rises from the grave, tells you that he was wrong and you were right, and he's proud of you.

Starting the long walk to Vienna!

Several people have asked about the future of CLN without me at the helm. It's a worthy question, but not one I'm concerned about. One of my key responsibilities at Blockstream was to build up a team to support CLN development and usage. I've done that, and there's no critical dependency on me any more. I expect new developments to slow for a year while the team fills gaps, but users probably won't notice, because CLN is entering a phase of refinement, not radical change. Most of the exciting change happens one layer up now: plugins are really coming into their own, and daywalker90 has plans to rewrite reckless as a "one stop shop" plugin manager, which should really boost the ecosystem. Its telling that my last two big efforts in CLN have been in plugins: payer proofs and repeatpay are both in plugins (coming in 26.09!). I also have 2400 branches in my git tree; I'll have scripts and an LLM churn through them all looking for the unfinished/unmerged ones to decide how many are worth exposing to the world for others to finish. Software is never finished, but this is not my first time handing over major FOSS projects I've founded: I consider that doing that well is a key part of maintenance. My team is ready, and they will continue to make me proud!

So I'm leaving Blockstream at the end of the month, to try to start up Century Metadata. A non -profit to store and serve a small amount of encrypted data for 100 years, for a small one -time payment. Lots of fun problems in doing this, only half of then technical. I'll be talking about it at BTC++ in Vienna, and I'll also be attending the Oslo Freedom Forum just afterwards.

The main benefit of LLMs is that you don't need to apologize or justify when you clean up their mediocre code. It's a bit like having an insomniac coding intern who really likes to type.

BOLT 12 can be in different currencies for this reason. View quoted note →

I've been thinking about taking profits from a Sztorc Fork. I wouldn't sell someone a lemon face-to-face, even with full disclosure. Sure, they're adults, but the world is a better place when we care for each other: that is not who I want to be. Do not enable bad things. The anonymity of the marketplace does not absolve this. So, no. I will not encourage it, talk about it, or handle it. And I'll sleep great.

Guess in getting up for 5:30am then. View quoted note →

Don't support things you don't want to see more of.