TIP_NZ

Based monologue 🧡

https://fountain.fm/episode/SsNQiqPjLNKrbu6DRjzo

Dollar at All Time Low! A dollar can't even buy 1000 sats!

John Arnold's take on why early-stage investing in Bitcoin differs from fiat venture capital. These points stood out and echo what many Bitcoin-focused angels and funds prioritize:

Bitcoin as Opportunity Cost: Bitcoin-native investors assess every deal against the benchmark of simply holding Bitcoin, setting a high bar for capital deployment.

Profitability & Speed: Preference for startups that can become profitable quickly, stack sats early, and minimize dependence on follow-on funding or dilution.

Aligned Incentives: Founders, teams, and investors often personally hold Bitcoin, creating a shared equity mindset across the ecosystem.

Open Source as Force Multiplier: Most Bitcoin startups build on shared open-source infrastructure (e.g. BDK), enabling lean teams to ship faster and collaborate with less friction.

Network Effects Across Portfolio: Unlike traditional VC portfolios with disconnected sectors, Bitcoin companies often benefit from each other’s progress through shared standards and interoperability.

Post-Easy Money Mindset: Generalist VCs still follow a playbook shaped by years of artificially cheap capital—burn cash for growth, chase markups, and rely on future rounds. Bitcoin VCs see that era ending, and instead emphasize capital efficiency and durable returns.

Ecosystem as Shared Project: Every company contributes to and benefits from the broader Bitcoin network, making the entire portfolio stronger as the ecosystem matures.

https://fountain.fm/clip/Hff10TRb1kzQRNo8AJCC

https://fountain.fm/episode/Q89gPQcVfAtQkaRBZRs0

A spicy piece of artistry I want to share:

This is a photo of a Mongrel Mob member wearing a jacket full of gang patches. The Mongrel Mob is one of New Zealand’s most prominent gangs, known for its bulldog patch. Last year, the Gangs Act 2024 banned the public display of gang patches. While these symbols are linked to violence and intimidation, they also represent cultural identity and resistance for some.

Real luxuries are:

1. Slow mornings
2. Great companion
3. UnKYC'd UTXOs

We underestimate the free market's ability to sort things out through pricing. Eventually the important and urgent stuff prices out the noise (on-chain and everywhere else).

A straw man is when you distort someone’s argument by making it overly simplistic or extreme so it’s easier to attack. For example, saying “Christianity is just worshipping a bearded man in the sky” is a straw man. Hardly any Christian would agree with that depiction.

The opposite is a steel man where you represent your opponent’s argument as strongly and fairly as possible.

Daniel Dennett believed steelmanning was essential to good philosophical debate. In 2013, he laid out four key rules:

1. Restate your opponent’s view so clearly and fairly that they say, “I wish I’d put it that way.”
2. List where you agree.
3. Acknowledge what you’ve learned from them.
4. Only then should you critique their position.

Respect is foundational. Socrates, in Plato’s dialogues, often begins by clarifying and strengthening his opponent’s argument. Because real debate isn’t about winning—it’s about understanding, refining ideas, and growing together.

Let’s debate to build, not to destroy.

(H/T Jonny Thomson via TikTok)

As NGU, let’s spend sats on what we love to shape the world we want.

It's 2025 and billion dollar funds are still pouring pension money into proprietary fintechs built on legacy fiat rails and new closed social platforms that replicate the same walled garden models of the past.

Allocating other people's capital without understanding the tectonic shift in technology isn't just negligent, it's an absolute fucking betrayal of society's future.

Drove through Altadena and saw the aftermath of the LA fires

Was having issues seeing zap stats on my notes and getting zap notifications across all clients.

Changed my Lightning address from Blink to WOs, and it fixed the issue.

Not sure why. Sats were arriving, but zap events weren't showing. Just a heads up

Test

The new scarcity is taste.

Now that anyone can make anything, only the intentional will truly stand out - those who create with care, not just speed.

We’ve gone from a world of restricted access (tools, capital, gatekeepers) to one where anyone can create with ease. The barrier is no longer execution, but discernment. The true differentiator isn’t how much you make, but how well you filter, frame, and refine.

Tools are everywhere, but good taste remains rare. Taste, rooted in experience, observation, and intuition, isn’t easily copied or scaled. It’s the ability to strip away the excess, highlight what matters, and shape resonance behind every great work.

Intentionality, taking time to care about context, composition, and consequence, is the new craftsmanship. Those who lead with taste rise above the noise, because they don’t just add... They elevate.

Finally got my

x

OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING hat!

She's a nostrich but doesn't know it yet

Matrix Nostr client! https://image.nostr.build/160ba8014efd5ce94d7b6c3d8529f2aee87d646144884fc0e15e214177c0c91b.jpg https://image.nostr.build/6037bdafa71876c2d2ed595e0c171fccebecc9e54071efe0bb0f14334b2f3dbe.jpg

Transmitting signal from enterthenostr.com

GM everybody!!! 🥰

This was a great ring around the rosy. Helpful explanation of why anonymous micropayments didn't work on the old fiat web, and how computing power acts as proof that open systems need to make them possible on the new web.

https://fountain.fm/episode/mRBFoMz8dQq6AEDcSObI

When investors ask, “How do you make money from open source?” What they mean is, “How do you extract rent without locking users in?”

Via Thai Enquirer: A building under construction in the Chatuchak area collapsed following the tremors in Bangkok, triggered by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar.

Sudden earthquake in Bangkok just now. My parents are pretty shaken up. Hope #siamstr nostriches are doing ok na krub! 🙏

Happy and successful people celebrate when other people are happy and successful.

Unhappy and unsuccessful people celebrate when other people are unhappy and unsuccessful.

Choose your friends accordingly 💜

GM 🧡 from the 21st floor rooftop!

Here's to new paradigm things being built 🍻

https://fountain.fm/episode/QbhdvSSyRJq6O4sfKvn9

Bitcoin activity is booming in New Zealand.

Since Lightning Pay NZ launched last year, plebs have been onboarding local businesses to accept Bitcoin. They've processed over $12M in transactions so far.

The Bitcoin Basin launched in Queenstown with its own PlebLab.

There are monthly meetups run by local groups and quarterly nationwide events by Bitkiwi.

All Bitcoin only.

https://lightningpay.nz/

https://bitcoinbasin.nz/

https://kiwibitcoinguide.org/

888888 soon™

Boost a

post today!

Bitkiwi Bitcoin meet up in Auckland 26 July, 1PM The Birdcage, Franklin Road Speakers TBD https://image.nostr.build/0901fa8ab2bd77cea193d558516f452b7c973a7665361cb75f13dfacbb823695.jpg https://image.nostr.build/1537bfd41d54345886c97b1178577aeea34cb46d1c9ed39ab310978b5d0bf2b7.jpg

As a perfectionist who hasn't shipped in a while... I needed to hear this 😅

https://fountain.fm/episode/MNSJtjAm15IkzevFuk1l

This global interactive map offers a fun way to explore and track predictions. Once it becomes nostr-based with zap voting it will be truly majestic 🤗

HornHub Premium

The most dangerous thing in my neighborhood https://image.nostr.build/3b584edd193f067fac17a7561668b96155a255c224e30e43814fb3bf4ec2b7ba.jpg

Exactly 4 years ago today, I sat in a company-wide meeting with a "crypto expert."

He said Bitcoin was useless beyond being digital gold — and some random altcoin called Polkadot was the future. Everyone thanked him for his wisdom. We were supposed to learn from "industry experts" to keep up with trends as early-stage venture investors.

I started digging deeper into Bitcoin and calling out altcoins as scams.

A senior partner pulled me aside and tore me down: "Are we done here?" "You have no track record." "Your conviction is like a religious belief." "You're being irrational and ideological."

He laughed when I said maybe the financial system is broken. From his perspective, he couldn’t see it — because he was making a fortune pumping startups that barely existed. The irony was lost on him: the very fact that so much money was being thrown at vaporware proved just how broken the system was.

Another partner called me a spruiker — said I was trying to pump my own Bitcoin bag to get rich and dump it on others.

It was hard to hold steady when surrounded by people who benefit from the status quo.

That day, I wrote in my journal: "As of today, I've decided to leave [this company]."

Four years later, Polkadot is down 90% against Bitcoin. And it’s been the best four years of my life.

(Btw, I use a journalling app called Journey that reminds me of what I wrote x years ago today, it's useful for reflecting)

GM herro 👋

#siamstr

Bitkiwi Queenstown Livestream happening now!

https://data.zap.stream/stream/51e5dd5a-87d8-491b-945d-1fd4dce66361.m3u8

Virtual Nostr talks embody Nostr's ethos—global, accessible, and connected.

https://zap.stream/naddr1qqjxydnzxccrqer995crqdn9956ryde395uxzvtr94jxyvfhxenrjvfsxu6rxqghwaehxw309aex2mrp0yhxummnw3ezucnpdejz7qgewaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8xmn0wf6zuum0vd5kzmp0qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq32amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwv3sk6atn9e5k7tcpz9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezumrpdejz7qg7waehxw309ahx7um5wgkhqatz9emk2mrvdaexgetj9ehx2ap0qyghwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnhd9hx2tcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzvuhsz9thwden5te0dehhxarj9ehhsarj9ejx2a30qgsv73dxhgfk8tt76gf6q788zrfyz9dwwgwfk3aar6l5gk82a76v9fgrqsqqqan80atsrr

Watching

surviving and thriving in the hunger games

https://njump.me/naddr1qqjrjdn9v33kgvn995cngwtx956r2c3h95uxxdt995ukgdpkv4nxxdfnxp3njq3qeaz6dwsnvwkha5sn5puwwyxjgy26uusundrm684lg3vw4ma5c2jsxpqqqpmxwv6qm0k

ctrl + shift + c motherlode enter

My heart rate and Bitcoin are in sync at 💯 https://image.nostr.build/787883f89d0fbe15a3ceafc67f9fa5b2010588e511a6a1c00d16c5764a374164.jpg

Epoch 1 $10 Epoch 2 $100 Epoch 3 $1,000 Epoch 4 $10,000 Epoch 5 $100,000 ⬅️ u r here Epoch 6 $1,000,000 Epoch 7 $10,000,000 Epoch 8 $100,000,000