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Would be hilarious if Trump wins the election because the dems pissed off the Amish by raiding a farm that sells raw milk.

The “never sell” Bitcoin crowd is so cringe. Bitcoin is meant to be used as a currency. Back in mid 2022 I decided to sell some Bitcoin at $23k to put towards a down payment on a house with my then-fiancée, several months before our wedding. I desperately wanted to buy a house and move out of our rented apartment in Boston. I knew Bitcoin would go up, but I also wanted a home. I have no regrets because I understood the tradeoffs. It’s good to have a low time preference and to hold Bitcoin as your savings account. But it’s also good to spend it. Whether contributing to the circular economy, making other investments, or buying important things for your family – it’s okay to spend Bitcoin.

Apple should have instead withdrew from the entire UK market, shut down all services, and allowed the population to hound their elected officials until regulators withdraw their insane backdoor request. Huge missed opportunity, huge capitulation.

I've been hesitating to post something like this at the risk of being canceled, but whatever, here it goes: Back in the earlier Bitcoin days (2013 for me), we often thought of altcoins as a sort of testnet. Good ideas that were implemented in certain altcoins may, eventually, after many years, arrive to Bitcoin as protocol improvements. Most Bitcoiners were at some point in their journey interested in altcoins. Many still are. Toxic maximalism only arrived later. There's an element to this toxic maximalism today, as I observe from the Core vs Knots debate, that says Bitcoin is perfect as is, it should begin to ossify, and all non-financial transactions are spam. I think this is a dangerous point of view. First, Bitcoin is an Internet protocol, and obviously cannot ever ossify. The most obvious example is quantum computing – if or when that happens, Bitcoin will need a protocol upgrade. Hopefully this upgrade will happen before quantum computing is viable. Second, re altcoins: Bitcoin has already learned a lot and is continuing to learn from experiments on altcoins. Calling them "shitcoiners" is nice for your social engagement and stirring up an angry mob. But here's a list of some things that started in altcoins and is now on Bitcoin, or is useful to Bitcoin, or is being worked on in Bitcoin related projects: - Namecoin and colored coins inspired the creation of OP_RETURN. - SegWit was implemented on Litecoin before it came to Bitcoin. - Ring signatures and stealth addresses, pioneered by Monero, influenced Bitcoin privacy research and concepts like scriptless scripts and Silent Payments. - Zero-knowledge proofs (Zcash and beyond) accelerated exploration of zk-based verification and client proofs for Bitcoin. - MimbleWimble introduced new ways to aggregate and compress transactions – ideas that informed work on CoinJoin efficiency, CTV, and general scalability discussions. - Utreexo, which is promising tech and has been discussed at Bitdevs meetups, implemented on Siacoin this year. In my opinion, Bitcoin Core developers should be aware of all developments in the industry and looking to bring the best technology to Bitcoin, in a slow and methodical way. Third, what is spam? I genuinely do not know what spam is. I've heard Knots supporters say that spam is any kind of "non-financial transaction" – but this is a slippery slope. Let's talk about BIP47, for example, which enables reusable payment codes (like PayNym). BIP47 notification transactions include an OP_RETURN output. Does this mean payment codes are considered spam by Knots supporters? Knots supporters might say to that "no, of course not, they use tiny amounts of data anyway, so it's okay if we just restrict the maximum size of an OP_RETURN." So what stops a "scammer" from doing multiple smaller transactions then? And what if I develop a better privacy protocol that requires larger OP_RETURNs than allowed? Do I have to go beg the Core developers to change the defaults? Is it a "non-financial" transaction? To be even more controversial – back when I got into Bitcoin, I liked the idea of everything converging into Bitcoin. Bitcoin's proof of work will continue consuming more and more computing resources (as Saylor and many others rightfully say). The Bitcoin network and protocol will be the most secure, decentralized, resilient protocol in the world. Well then, you can't have it both ways – why are you averse to everyone coming and building on our open, decentralized protocol? I thought we cared about freedom and sovereignty. I thought we wanted a healthy fee market. I thought we are worried about what happens after the last block reward is mined. I thought we want full blocks. Now I hear Knots supporters saying "get away from our Bitcoin, our perfect money, go do your own thing, do your own blockchain." Why aren't we all saying "come build on Bitcoin?" As technology progresses, and as there is demand for more tech to be built on Bitcoin, Core devs have historically upgraded the protocol (slowly and carefully). Lightning, for example, was the culmination of years of Core protocol work: 2016: CSV, relative timelocks → channel mechanics 2017: SegWit → malleability fix & efficiency 2018: Bech32 → cleaner Lightning addresses 2021: Taproot → more private, advanced channels Lightning would have never happened if we had ossified the protocol. You want to scale Bitcoin to 10 billion users? Then you'd be insane to ossify the protocol. So I'm saying it, loud and clear. I want everything built on Bitcoin. I want the Bitcoin network to be the most important and resilient network on Earth, and I want all value to flow into Bitcoin. I want to enable everyone to permissionlessly build on Bitcoin. And I want the Core devs to continuously improve the protocol. Thanks for reading.

Can someone explain to me why all these collateralized Bitcoin lending products are at ~12% rate when I can get a HELOC for ~7%? The loans are overcollateralized. There is no risk to the lender.

I am in awe of my incredible wife for delivering our first child, my son, with an unmedicated birth. What a primal, beautiful, and overwhelmingly spiritual experience.

I don’t want my tax dollars (and printed money) to be used for any “reserve”; I want to see capital gains tax itself eliminated.

Don’t even know what to say. FinCEN guidance was clear. They did the right thing and had counsel give them a legal opinion that their CoinJoin service was not breaking the law. And then they were arrested and jailed anyway.

Massively excited to soon show you all what we’ve been working on for the last 18 months. It’s not a hardware wallet. It’s an entirely new category of device.

I have a crazy idea for the X algo. What if it just showed me posts from the accounts I follow?

Too much drama. Too much focus on treasury companies and government adoption. Same podcast guests, same topics. Drifting away from cypherpunk roots and values. AI slop everywhere. Better to just build instead of wading into the public debates.

Battleship with enormous nuclear reactor running at 100% output, powering laser weapons and rail guns. Onboard ASIC farm to suck up the excess electricity and generate revenue. When firing, spin down all ASICs and temporarily route all electricity to the weapons systems.

This sums up a lot that's wrong with the state of Bitcoin. New Bitcoiners are coming in and are told that Bitcoin is perfect. It sounds more like a religion and less like a protocol. The environment of Bitcoin influencers and hero-worshipping has created an army of zealots who do not think of Bitcoin as a technology, as a computer program, as an open source engineering project. Instead they think of Bitcoin as a perfect, powerful idea – a religion. And anyone who threatens that perfect idea is an enemy!

The “never sell” Bitcoin crowd is so cringe. Bitcoin is meant to be used as a currency. Back in mid 2022 I decided to sell some Bitcoin at $23k to put towards a down payment on a house with my then-fiancée, several months before our wedding. I desperately wanted to buy a house and move out of our rented apartment in Boston. I knew Bitcoin would go up, but I also wanted a home. I have no regrets because I understood the tradeoffs. It’s good to have a low time preference and to hold Bitcoin as your savings account. But it’s also good to spend it. Whether contributing to the circular economy, making other investments, or buying important things for your family – it’s okay to spend Bitcoin.

Would be hilarious if Trump wins the election because the dems pissed off the Amish by raiding a farm that sells raw milk.

I've been hesitating to post something like this at the risk of being canceled, but whatever, here it goes: Back in the earlier Bitcoin days (2013 for me), we often thought of altcoins as a sort of testnet. Good ideas that were implemented in certain altcoins may, eventually, after many years, arrive to Bitcoin as protocol improvements. Most Bitcoiners were at some point in their journey interested in altcoins. Many still are. Toxic maximalism only arrived later. There's an element to this toxic maximalism today, as I observe from the Core vs Knots debate, that says Bitcoin is perfect as is, it should begin to ossify, and all non-financial transactions are spam. I think this is a dangerous point of view. First, Bitcoin is an Internet protocol, and obviously cannot ever ossify. The most obvious example is quantum computing – if or when that happens, Bitcoin will need a protocol upgrade. Hopefully this upgrade will happen before quantum computing is viable. Second, re altcoins: Bitcoin has already learned a lot and is continuing to learn from experiments on altcoins. Calling them "shitcoiners" is nice for your social engagement and stirring up an angry mob. But here's a list of some things that started in altcoins and is now on Bitcoin, or is useful to Bitcoin, or is being worked on in Bitcoin related projects: - Namecoin and colored coins inspired the creation of OP_RETURN. - SegWit was implemented on Litecoin before it came to Bitcoin. - Ring signatures and stealth addresses, pioneered by Monero, influenced Bitcoin privacy research and concepts like scriptless scripts and Silent Payments. - Zero-knowledge proofs (Zcash and beyond) accelerated exploration of zk-based verification and client proofs for Bitcoin. - MimbleWimble introduced new ways to aggregate and compress transactions – ideas that informed work on CoinJoin efficiency, CTV, and general scalability discussions. - Utreexo, which is promising tech and has been discussed at Bitdevs meetups, implemented on Siacoin this year. In my opinion, Bitcoin Core developers should be aware of all developments in the industry and looking to bring the best technology to Bitcoin, in a slow and methodical way. Third, what is spam? I genuinely do not know what spam is. I've heard Knots supporters say that spam is any kind of "non-financial transaction" – but this is a slippery slope. Let's talk about BIP47, for example, which enables reusable payment codes (like PayNym). BIP47 notification transactions include an OP_RETURN output. Does this mean payment codes are considered spam by Knots supporters? Knots supporters might say to that "no, of course not, they use tiny amounts of data anyway, so it's okay if we just restrict the maximum size of an OP_RETURN." So what stops a "scammer" from doing multiple smaller transactions then? And what if I develop a better privacy protocol that requires larger OP_RETURNs than allowed? Do I have to go beg the Core developers to change the defaults? Is it a "non-financial" transaction? To be even more controversial – back when I got into Bitcoin, I liked the idea of everything converging into Bitcoin. Bitcoin's proof of work will continue consuming more and more computing resources (as Saylor and many others rightfully say). The Bitcoin network and protocol will be the most secure, decentralized, resilient protocol in the world. Well then, you can't have it both ways – why are you averse to everyone coming and building on our open, decentralized protocol? I thought we cared about freedom and sovereignty. I thought we wanted a healthy fee market. I thought we are worried about what happens after the last block reward is mined. I thought we want full blocks. Now I hear Knots supporters saying "get away from our Bitcoin, our perfect money, go do your own thing, do your own blockchain." Why aren't we all saying "come build on Bitcoin?" As technology progresses, and as there is demand for more tech to be built on Bitcoin, Core devs have historically upgraded the protocol (slowly and carefully). Lightning, for example, was the culmination of years of Core protocol work: 2016: CSV, relative timelocks → channel mechanics 2017: SegWit → malleability fix & efficiency 2018: Bech32 → cleaner Lightning addresses 2021: Taproot → more private, advanced channels Lightning would have never happened if we had ossified the protocol. You want to scale Bitcoin to 10 billion users? Then you'd be insane to ossify the protocol. So I'm saying it, loud and clear. I want everything built on Bitcoin. I want the Bitcoin network to be the most important and resilient network on Earth, and I want all value to flow into Bitcoin. I want to enable everyone to permissionlessly build on Bitcoin. And I want the Core devs to continuously improve the protocol. Thanks for reading.

Can someone explain to me why all these collateralized Bitcoin lending products are at ~12% rate when I can get a HELOC for ~7%? The loans are overcollateralized. There is no risk to the lender.

I am in awe of my incredible wife for delivering our first child, my son, with an unmedicated birth. What a primal, beautiful, and overwhelmingly spiritual experience.

Apple should have instead withdrew from the entire UK market, shut down all services, and allowed the population to hound their elected officials until regulators withdraw their insane backdoor request. Huge missed opportunity, huge capitulation.

Battleship with enormous nuclear reactor running at 100% output, powering laser weapons and rail guns. Onboard ASIC farm to suck up the excess electricity and generate revenue. When firing, spin down all ASICs and temporarily route all electricity to the weapons systems.

Massively excited to soon show you all what we’ve been working on for the last 18 months. It’s not a hardware wallet. It’s an entirely new category of device.

This sums up a lot that's wrong with the state of Bitcoin. New Bitcoiners are coming in and are told that Bitcoin is perfect. It sounds more like a religion and less like a protocol. The environment of Bitcoin influencers and hero-worshipping has created an army of zealots who do not think of Bitcoin as a technology, as a computer program, as an open source engineering project. Instead they think of Bitcoin as a perfect, powerful idea – a religion. And anyone who threatens that perfect idea is an enemy!

I don’t want my tax dollars (and printed money) to be used for any “reserve”; I want to see capital gains tax itself eliminated.

I have a crazy idea for the X algo. What if it just showed me posts from the accounts I follow?

Don’t even know what to say. FinCEN guidance was clear. They did the right thing and had counsel give them a legal opinion that their CoinJoin service was not breaking the law. And then they were arrested and jailed anyway.

A lot has been cooking over here in addition to our announcement of Passport Prime. Baby #1 arriving in April!

Knots supporters would likely be against any privacy on Bitcoin because they would not be able to see or control what other people do on the network. They would likely create huge amounts of FUD, saying things like “Core is putting a target on our backs” “Core is shitcoining like Monero” “now the government is going to ban Bitcoin”