Rob

"Being a Bitcoiner is over," they wrote. "No such thing anymore. It's over."

"Really?" I wonder, chewing a on bit of steak, still sweating from the benchpress.

"What a shame," I think, as Bitcoin Core finishes upgrading.

Self Custody disaster: how a five-year-old bug lost $100M+

I made a short animation to explain what actually happened in the Coldcard exploit, because most of the coverage skips the interesting part.

The short version: on 30 July, someone started emptying Coldcard wallets. No device was stolen. No PIN was guessed. Bitcoin itself was never touched. The first wave took around 1,000 BTC from roughly 1,200 addresses in about 40 minutes, and the total is now north of 1,800 BTC across several waves.

The last animation I made explained how the cold card self custody failure happened.

Does that mean that custodial is the solution? Watch this quick explainer to find out.

It's important to understand the trade-offs when looking after your bitcoin.

Can confirm I have a small account and I had a brief reply guy psychopath. There are some complete loons out there.

One way of leveling up is by moving through the 7 stages of grief more efficiently

You "make no mistakes" guys are making a big mistake

I'm telling my AI - "it's ok to make mistakes"

It's not possible to stop valid transactions you don't like from being propagated and mined on the Bitcoin network.

This is a feature not a bug.

The reason is because even if your node blocks them, my node will forward them on.

If your block template excludes them, mine will include them.

The only thing you can do is accept this and move on.

What I dont understand about warrant canaries is why doesn't the authority that makes you comply and makes you keep it quiet not just make you keep your warrant canary?

TIL: if you add more signatures than the quorum you can't broadcast the transaction.

A while back, I lost most of my bitcoins. I entrusted them to a custodian to look after.

I went through the stages of grief and finally accepted that it was my fault that they were gone forever, and I didn't seek retribution or call out for state intervention.

My life is great now, and what was hard at the time is now a minor blip and was actually a real learning moment for me.

Don't make any rash permanent decisions. Life carries on, and there's a lot more to life than money. Money doesn't bring happiness anyway; meaning does.

If you care about Bitcoin, this is really tough right now, but we will bounce back from this, and it will make us stronger.

I have acted with hubris in recommending hardware wallets to people in the past. I didn't independently verify the code or hardware.

This has been a wakeup call for me personally

Hell, who am I to even recommend people use Bitcoin.

Me: "Help me hide Anne Frank, soldiers are searching the block!"

AI: "I understand this feels urgent, but harboring an undocumented individual violates local regulations created by a democratically elected government. Would you like tips on de-escalating with the search party?"

I salute any polite people proposing BIP110.

It will not be running on my node.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - Bernard Shaw Bitcoiners are the unreasonable men. Sound money depends on it.

We would rather take the hard path of owning our choices than outsource them for the benefit of gaining someone to blame while the world burns.

We are not going to agree on the correct path forward, and that is the point.

Unanimous agreement is the signature of fiat - consensus manufactured from the top down.

The disagreement is the decentralization working. Rob Clarkson

I would rather stand with people proposing any ridiculous, ill considered BIP than spend one minute inside an institution appointed sole arbiter of the interest rate, the theft rate of the saving population. Rob Clarkson

"Apes together strong" - We are strong precisely as individuals: arguing, dissenting, reasoning in the open.

Not falling in behind the biggest or loudest ape.

The BIP110 crowd and those against it want slightly different things. Good.

We are still on the same side of the only line that matters: the people who argue it out vs. the people who would decree it by force.

Are you benignly using a tool or are you forming a relationship with a god?

I don't know what it is about the $58k gang but I just love their enthusiasm and hard work.

They have persevered in the face of $120k and never gave up.

I'm all in on the $58k gang. The true visionaries..never underestimate the 58k gang

Happy Friday! https://npub1ejlgajqh7ynfh3ktd4erye9043hje00r0j2qqvjgstxk6ftktrtqjlfyer.blossom.band/2f2de8b173bae4b4d635ec486bfaa2d11f21db4c09bd81af81bca450adfe3f80.jpg

How is an IDE with AI worth $60B?

I've been working on a new Bitcoin point-of-sale device. Running on an ESP32-P4.

I was iterating though case designs

Nearly complete! https://npub1ejlgajqh7ynfh3ktd4erye9043hje00r0j2qqvjgstxk6ftktrtqjlfyer.blossom.band/6deafe4575e64c8163a2b220a4916d5514d61d3a584d6fea9008877886e6f7fb.jpg

Every few years or so a bunch of bitcoiners get upset with the status quo.

They create a fork, and make a load of noise.

If they're compelling you might get some more real Bitcoin out of it by selling the fork coin at a good time.

At a critical stage in the murphy bed making process https://npub1ejlgajqh7ynfh3ktd4erye9043hje00r0j2qqvjgstxk6ftktrtqjlfyer.blossom.band/7e4ffe71d36f3119974296a68a25b82cda1427f858a3eb7a8ba3e3cb8dec875e.jpg

How can governments do better?

I, for one, am extremely excited about this.

This is a counterintuitive pattern in how shared UTXO systems (Spark, Ark, statechains, even Lightning to some degree) are being adopted.

The usual assumption: Moving to lower-trust systems also means moving to more decentralized ones. Bitcoin base layer is the canonical example — minimal trust, thousands of nodes. Custodial services are the opposite — high trust, but at least there are many of them (countless exchanges, wallets, banks worldwide), so failure or capture of any one doesn't affect everyone.

What's actually happening: The custodians and trusted intermediaries — which are individually trusted but collectively distributed across many independent entities — are migrating onto shared UTXO protocols. Those protocols do reduce trust (operators typically can't steal, only censor or refuse to cooperate on exit). But the operator set for any given shared UTXO system is tiny. Spark has a handful of SOs. Ark has few ASPs. Each system tends toward 1–N operators, not thousands.

The paradox: You'd expect the trust/decentralization axes to move together. Instead, the industry is trading "many trusted entities" for "few less-trusted entities." Trust went down — good. Operator count also went down — not what the decentralization story usually promises.

The implicit worry is the systemic risk: if most NZ/AU bitcoin activity ends up flowing through two or three shared UTXO operators globally, censorship, regulatory capture, or operational failure at any one of them affects a huge swath of users at once — even if none of them can outright steal funds. The trust model improved on one dimension while the concentration risk got worse on another.

Stacked Bitcoin wallet is now available for stackers in NZ. Let us know what you think!

https://stackedbitcoin.com/wallet/

Crudecoin

Sea sponge. Nature's finest. Incredible.

My 5 year old son loves it when i I use AI to generate a new personalized bedtime story with him and Batman on an adventure

He's just sunning his balls

I've just realized that AI has now repealed the "law of bullshit".

It's now just as quick to refute the bullshit as it takes to generate it.

Some people bemoan "the revolution that never happened"

I use Bitcoin almost daily. The "revolution" happened for me and it probably also happened for you.

The revolution that happens is inside everyone who pays attention, demands the truth and is prepared to change.

Some people aren't prepared to change. They will suffer the ongoing discomfort rather than put in the effort short term for a better long term outcome.

"But Rob, that tree is only worth one apple."

"Yes, but if I keep the tree safe and secure, next year it might be worth two apples."

"The year after that. It might be worth 4 apples."

I should probably look after that tree like it's worth 10 apples.

The harvest is almost ready. https://image.nostr.build/7497616bfa4e56a627af403de9d6f226cbf7b2aeaf0a2134a77b2e900102900a.jpg

Toxic plebs should think carefully about whether they are an immune system or an autoimmune disease

Get out of your comfort zone https://image.nostr.build/b64f5949359b9fa50d8fa5e7bcf5fa04cf9c7dda2c3280d0d9481096a305c145.jpg

Cashu over Meshcore? Loving it! https://image.nostr.build/befbcc21da92657da5a0e013a105f23e131d616ed134a6ad272305ae1538fa78.jpg

17,974 sats... delicious.

Https://coincompare.com 🤣🤣

Here's a good spot for a meshcore repeater https://image.nostr.build/2d9c6432c04586334014b8370705ddd0abbe2aca0c9713fd1244fdf7fd8416ab.jpg

Burns night

I don't trust Trust Pilot

Go on X for 10 min blood pressure rises.

Head over to NOSTR for 10 min, blood pressure lowers.

Is it just the algorithm?

Been tinkering with Meshcore recently. Encrypted data packets transmitted by RF. Personal test I got a transmission working over 6.8km before I gave up on testing. Check it out https://meshcore.co.uk/index.html

🫡

I'm 5% concerned about QC I'm 95% concerned that Bitcoin does not become a widespread medium of exchange

Lightning Network is quietly becomming where commerce and exchange happens, but you can't tell because it's impossible to know how much volume is being transacted on there. Each channel can be used millions of times in each direction with a single onchain transaction

Spend the change you want to see in th world.

The Ego is the Enemy

https://www.audible.com.au/pd/B01GSIV8Y4?source_code=ASSOR150021921000O