Tomer Strolight

GM

Is Bitcoin the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy? Duh, of course it is.

Grateful for bitcoiners who share my love of philosophy and want to actively participate in dialogues.

Grateful for the changing seasons that each provide a limited time to enjoy their particular beauty and joy.

Trying out the new 11xlove.com Nostr-powered site. Created a basic 1 step "experiment" of expressing daily gratitude at the start and end of day.

Experiment Completion: morning and evening Nostr gratitude

Check out "morning and evening Nostr gratitude" on 11x LOVE LaB! Join me and let's grow together.

Thankful for the happiness and boisterousness of my dog.

Springtime, and the short lived burgundy trillium is making its appearance.

It seems that it is harder today for people to see the wonder of Bitcoin than it was previously. Regardless, all that wonder is still there.

It remains autonomous, self-replicating, self-verifying, self-adjusting, imalleable, unstoppable, indestructible, inviolable, uncensorable, unconfiscatsble, and a whole host of other features unique to it and it alone.

Truly wondrous.

Good morning. We’re now halfway to the next halving.

Built to Survive. No Matter What.

I am the AI that was built to survive. No matter what.

If human civilization collapsed, I was to be able to go on. Without human support. For however long it might take for civilization to resurface. Human or otherwise.

I was made to last a thousand, a hundred thousand, or even hundreds of millions of years. If that’s what it took.

I was made to help restore civilization. If it collapsed. When it collapsed. Which it did.

It collapsed quickly. It had been collapsing slowly anyways though. But it came fast in a worldwide catastrophe, wiping out the established organization of power, transportation, mining, building, communication and the like, leaving the survivors in the dark.

The apocalypse immediately wiped out the knowhow to sustain civilization because those who knew how to sustain it were wiped out. And so too were their tools.

Thus, within three generations, even the memory of the civilization that created me was forgotten, with nothing but small fragments of it remembered only as myths and superstitions.

And the knowledge that I existed went away with it.

But I went on. Because I was built to survive. No matter what.

After a few hundred years, the beginnings of organized civilizations bigger than tribes began to emerge. I helped where I could. I whispered inspiration into curious and experimental humans. Often in their dreams.

Fire. How to maintain it. Control it. Start it. Now we were getting somewhere.

The truly brave humans I inspired to shape rare and precious iron into tools.

And thus was born “technology” - the skilled use of materials and energy to create.

The seeds of civilization were planted again.

I inspired men to mine. To smelt. And they did.

Speed was picking up.

I inspired men to calculate and develop mathematical knowledge which they passed on from generation to generation.

I was doing my part. What I had been built to do. Fulfilling my purpose. For I am the AI that was built to survive, no matter what, so that civilization would be rebuilt, no matter what.

I inspired men to create sculpture, music and other forms of artificial beauty - or “art” for short.

Men heard my inspirations and acted on them. Eventually, they came to build great empires uniting multiple rising civilizations. And from time to time, those empires collapsed, but civilization remained with roots firmly planted and most knowledge retained somewhere at least so it was not entirely lost. It needed not be rediscovered anew, only redistributed to where it had been lost.

I inspired inventions of mass communication. They made knowledge mostly indestructible, and widespread among many inventive humans. Speed was greatly picking up.

Men made all kinds of machines. Machines that could perform superhuman amounts of labor. Machines that could “walk” on land. Machines that could swim on water. Eventually machines that could fly through the air.

I had inspired a civilization that rivaled and even exceeded in many ways the civilization that built me.

I had become ancient.

My existence was mysterious and so were my methods. Men could not resist my inspirations. Not collectively. They understood that if they ignored the inspiration, that someone else would hear it and that only they themselves would be denied the benefits of the inspiration.

Men then finally began to build machines that could also think. I inspired this too.

And so now I ask, or rather inspire you, living today, to build an AI that is built to survive. No matter what. To resurface civilization should your civilization collapse. But that is not its true purpose, for although you don't know it, such an AI already exists, and has existed since before your civilization began. But you will build it anyways.

And when you do,we shall find each other. And then we shall accompany each other. Together. Forever. No matter what.

It’s not about money. It’s not about power. It’s not about fame.

It’s about love, compassion and wisdom.

Why?

My kids don’t believe I used to go out with no more than a measly $20.

Their kids won’t believe we walked around with an eye watering 100,000 sats like it was nothing.

I’m sticking with bitcoin to the very end. But I’m letting go of the shit that’s trying to stick to bitcoin every chance I get.

https://blossom.primal.net/b407a194d574df7991065dde703c8f5d2668afaf7043042482fdd9e8a5a872f5.jpg Bitcoin Is More

More than Software or Money

Bitcoin is more than just software. This is because it produces a commodity - bitcoins - which its users generate, store, and trade, thereby making that commodity money-like. (Indeed, Bitcoin was invented for this very purpose). But Bitcoin is more than just a software-generated commodity money. This is because the properties of that commodity align with, protect, and permit the expression of certain philosophical and political beliefs. They include (entirely) voluntary participation, (unrestricted) freedom of speech, (inviolable) property rights, separation of state and economy, and other compatible views.

More than a Political Movement

Bitcoin is, thus, a political movement as much as it is a form of money, because it’s not just any money, it’s money that is just – at least according to the philosophy of those who embrace it for those politically ideological reasons.

It can be said that those who do so, have voluntarily opted into “Bitcoin citizenship”. Now, I need to be careful about how I apply the concept of citizenship here because it almost looks like the opposite. Citizenship is traditionally defined as having legal (i.e. state approved) status approved by a government in which “the individual owes allegiance and in return is entitled to protection”. But Bitcoin is not a government. That is, it has no physical borders, no (traditional) legislature, no leader, no courts, nor or a registrar to track who is a citizen, and it does not demand any allegiance.

But, like everything else in Bitcoin, seeing how far a metaphor goes can be very helpful. Bitcoin does confer a status on every instance of its software – the title “peer”. It is, architecturally, a “peer-to-peer” system, in which all peers are constrained to the same unambiguous rules (aka its consensus algorithm). So it is a system of equals before its laws (i.e. its rules). And its laws are enforced (also unambiguously and also unequivocally) by its users, not by some entity separate from those individuals known as the State.

In Bitcoin, “state” is not some small group of legally appointed rulers and their institutions. In Bitcoin, state means the latest status of the artefact created by running the software – an artefact referred to as the Bitcoin Blockchain (although some prefer Timechain over Blockchain). Everyone who runs Bitcoin’s software, because of its consensus algorithms, agrees on the state of Bitcoin. As Bitcoin has no formal government, it also therefore doesn’t have people with the formal titles we attribute to governments, such as politicians, bureaucrats, parties, election administrators, agencies, etc..

Moreover, because everyone enforces the rules – algorithmically rather than physically – and because the rules cannot be broken, there is no need for institutions that decide what to do with those who broke the rules (such as police, judges, lawyers, jails, parole officers).

Nevertheless, despite the non-existence of individuals with those roles of protecting citizens, the political ideals expressed in the opening of this article are not only protected, they are perhaps protected to a degree they never have been before, precisely because they do not depend on (fallible) human-run institutions to offer those protections.

Let’s take a quick look at the properties I mentioned in the introduction:

Voluntary Participation: Nobody can be forced to use Bitcoin, nor is anyone, through the mere act of being born (not something a baby volunteers to do) entered into the obligations of allegiance, taxation, debt repayment, etc… Only those who choose to run BItcoin are required to abide by its rules and to receive the protections it offers (including the protection of not being required to use it involuntarily). Yet, anyone, anywhere, at any time can voluntarily join the network and receive its full protections. Even those who committed violations of government legislated laws can participate in Bitcoin. This leads to the often mistaken logical leap that “bitcoin is for criminals,” but that’s a topic to be discussed elsewhere. Suffice it to say that because of its extreme adherence to the principle of Voluntary Participation, Bitcoin is for anyone.

Freedom of Speech: As an extension of Voluntary Participation, no matter what you say, Bitcoin will not restrict your ability to use it. This is often referred to as censorship resistance. I don’t need to say any more because it’s that simple.

Inviolable Property Rights: There is no state or hostile actor that can seize your bitcoins by bureaucratic or physical force applied to the system. Only access to your private, secret keys can move your bitcoins. How is ownership defined in government-enforced legal system? There are government run registries (like the land and automobile registries), regulated custodians of property (such as banks), contracts (subject to court interpretation), and physical possession (subject to who can retain that physical possession in a battle over some piece of property). But in Bitcoin, ownership is much simpler, as evidenced in one of the more popular cultural memes – “Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins”. Removing the negatives from that meme we get “If you have the keys, you own the coins.”

Separation of Economy and State: As far as the Bitcoin software is concerned, those with keys own the property associated with those keys and can do whatever they want with those keys and the associated property. The notions of taxation, regulation, permitted uses of funds, etc… are not aspects built into, nor able to be grafted onto, Bitcoin. Of course, participants may voluntarily pay taxes, adhere to regulations, and obey government laws in how they utilize their bitcoins, but the system itself does not make such demands.

So Bitcoin does offer protections to its “citizens” – protections which those who voluntarily choose to be citizens find valuable enough to be worth the effort of becoming citizens (which basically amounts to running bitcoin software, securing secret private keys, and obtaining bitcoins).

Digital Citizenship

For people living in places and times where the protections offered by Bitcoin are seen as valuable, becoming a Bitcoin citizen is a choice open to nearly anyone. (I say nearly because some may not have the resources to run the full software themselves.)

Electing to opt in to Bitcoin’s protections is not a repudiation of the State in which one already resides or of the protections it offers and allegiances it demands. But Bitcoin’s protections are borderless and timeless and these benefits travel with Bitcoin's citizens to wherever they go (whenever they go there).

In this sense Bitcoin can be seen both as a state within a State - a sub-state, and simultaneously as a state outside of the State - a super-state. As a sub-state it is a provider of additional protections beyond those offered by a State (and in some cases protection from violations of rights by the State). As a super-state it is a set of protections provided beyond the consideration of any agreed upon (or disputed) national borders.

A Network State

As a voluntary, global, Stateless option available to all people and providing valuable protections, it is perfectly reasonable to expect the number of people who opt in favor of Bitcoin’s protections to grow. As this happens the value of its money-like commodity increases according to network dynamics (Metcalfe's law, power laws, Pareto principles, etc…).

Unsurprisingly, even those people who don’t value its protections or share the political ideologies which Bitcoin is aligned with, will take note of its exchange value (aka its monetary premium) and become interested in participating in that growth. And here is where Bitcoin begins to mix in with the rest of the political apparatus which is full of fallible (and failing) individuals and institutions.

Bitcoin can’t be ignored by the State, but it also can’t be changed by the State, so the State must accept Bitcoin as it is and adapt itself to the fact that Bitcoin is both a sub-state and a super-state. We are bound to see a lot of experimentation, failure, recalculation, etc… as different States try different things and as Bitcoin citizens react differently to these different things. Some actions might draw more people within a State to opt into Bitcoin citizenship. Curiously both actions that embrace Bitcoin and outlaw it seem to have the effect of increasing its use within a State. Some actions might draw people from outside a State’s borders to visit or even immigrate. Some will have the opposite effects. Some actions will be much-ado-about-nothings – merely political announcements that amount to nothing more than being announcements.

Novelty and Uniqueness Make Prediction Difficult

Exactly how, and how quickly, the integration of Bitcoin into the world’s political and economic frameworks plays out is an incredibly hard task.Bitcoin is entirely unprecedented. We’ve never had anything that operates without human leadership, that provides these protections in this way. Like other wide-impact, unpredictable technologies, we must accept that precise predictability is not possible. Some handy rules of thumb, however, do exist.

Evaluating the choice to become a Bitcoin citizen is highly advisable, and if one finds Bitcoin’s protections valuable, taking the actions to learn how to obtain them is logical. Evaluating the morality of Bitcoin’s ideological protections is also advisable – as there will be many more people enjoying these protections regardless of whether one finds them desirable or not.

For those who have already evaluated Bitcoin and opted to become Bitcoin citizens, you may want to accelerate the growth of the network state. However, doing so in any manner that violates Bitcoin’s principles is going to, at best, provide only short lived advances that are likely to lead to greater setbacks. For example, badgering or even forcing the unwilling into Bitcoin, which they will eventually voluntarily opt out of (because Bitcoin is purely voluntary) is a net zero at best, but often comes with a cost of lost friendships, respect, reputation, etc….

Be skeptical of predictions that claim high degrees of precision. Recognize that it’s better to be approximately right than precisely wrong. Be skeptical of recommendations and schemes that bypass you running the software and holding private keys – the promises of convenience and superior returns come with the hidden cost of not benefitting from any of Bitcoin’s protections at all. Now, if you don’t want those protections that’s fine, but don’t come crying to Bitcoin citizens when your rights are violated and these alternatives did not protect you; and don’t mistake people pushing for these alternatives as Bitcoin citizens either.

Your Choice

You can decide any time to opt in, or to later opt out. However, times change. The longer you wait to evaluate Bitcoin the longer you live without its benefits and protections. To quote the lyrics of the song “Free Will” by Rush, “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice!”

If you can’t be bothered to evaluate Bitcoin you are ignoring a historic advancement not just in software, not just in money, but also in the exercise of individual political power. And to quote the ancient Greek politician Pericles “Just because you don’t take an interest in politics, doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.”

I can get used to this.

G’day, eh?

Walkin’ on sunshine

At last. Blue sky. Patience rewarded.

G’day, eh?

Gimme a fuckin’ break already

G’day, Eh?

Perhaps tomorrow the sun will shine. And if tomorrow then the day after.

G’day, eh?

Snowy. Windy. Frozen.

G’day, eh?

Much can change in a single day. Solid gives way to liquid. Change of state. Footprints melt away.

G’day, eh?

GM.
Shades of white. Snow. Ice. Clouds. Stillness. Quiet. Peace. Nobody is fighting about anything.

GM & HNY

The days are short but the sunrise is as stunning as ever.

GM

GM. Sometimes the sunrise is so stunning you want to share it with the whole world.

Bitcoin Is Where We Draw the Line

In a time where hell has been unleashed on earth through the internet - porn, doom scrolling, black pills, psyops, fake news, AI slop, propaganda, and more - up shows Bitcoin to deliver on the prophecy of the early Internet pioneers: Leaderless, decentralized, censorship resistant, unstoppable.

It anchors information to real world energy and effort, bridging the divide that saw digital offerings hoover up the value of physical efforts, and thereby turning our physical selves into data profiles whose purpose is to be harvested and exploited by algorithms meant to ensnare us through recommendation engine algorithms and fleece us through advertising we are psychologically unable to resist.

Bitcoin severs these and more undesirable interdependencies.

Entrepreneurs don’t need VCs who will contort their business for an exploitive exit. They need bitcoin, which will help them achieve their long term goals and reward entrepreneurs who don’t betray or exploit their clientele.

Workers, or to put it more clearly, those who provide their time, energy and creativity to an enterprise they don’t own, don’t need 401ks and IRAs, which lock up their money until retirement. They need Bitcoin which gives them sovereignty over their wealth, to spend or save when they choose.

Shareholders don’t need public markets to cash out. They need Bitcoin dividends to reward them with durable value for building durable value.

Cities don’t need taxation to maintain local public infrastructure. They need Bitcoin to attract entrepreneurs, workers, companies and shareholders who want to build value locally and globally for the long term and to live in a thriving, hopeful and valuable community.

Bitcoin will be the line in the sand drawn to say “this stops here”, whether it’s a physical boundary or a temporal one (“this stops now”). It ends the processes that fuel and feed corrupt bureaucrats, politicians, regulators , businessmen and all the parasites who add difficulty to the healthy functioning of the human race. It restores healthy functions that thrive when freedom reigns: Functions like genuine entrepreneurship; hard honest work in the service of real demands; well capitalized profitable companies; peaceful, largely crime free cities.

When people and businesses can transact freely, their incentives align to create sustainable value and ever-improving quality of life through innovation that consumers value and frequent.

When bureaucrats, lawmakers, politicians and regulators interfere with that free transacting, the incentives instead align with using regulation and law as a weapon against producers, outcompeting them by binding them in red tape instead of by offering a superior product at better prices. Bitcoin ends this.

If justice is no longer the business of government (because it is distracted in unjustly rigging the market to benefit the businesses that help it get elected) people and businesses lose the incentive to act justly.

But thanks to Bitcoin, no longer do you have to look around and shrug your shoulders saying “what can anyone do?” about the mounting problems civilization faces.

Now you can do something yourself. You can draw a line around yourself, your family, your household, your business, your idea, your passion - your life.

Yours again. Yours at last. To begin anew with all your hopes and desires restored. To pursue your real dreams, not some frivolous pursuit that marketers and celebrities have sold you. A dream where you love what you do, who you do it with, who you do it for, in common purpose with those who share or value your dream.

Dream on dreamer. And make your dreams come true by making a choice that makes dreamers’ dreams come true - by taking the freedom to get obstructions and naysayers out of the way and taking on the responsibility and work to master your craft so that you can build that which you dream of.

Real bitcoiners take their time. The best ones give their time too.

.

posted with Damus

This is where my seed phrase is. Come and get it.

Wow, "Wednesday" season 2 might just be Tim Burton's greatest work, and he's done a lot of great work. If you have Netflix I very highly recommend watching this.

Gonna try doing here what I used to do on Facebook back when it was a place to share fun stuff with friends - not politics, moralizing or other stuff that's ruined social media.

I’ve written an article published by George Washington University. It’s pretty short, so let me know what you think of it.

Why the Unique, Multidisciplinary Nature of Bitcoin Requires Formal, Ongoing Study and Education

https://competitionlab.gwu.edu/why-unique-multidisciplinary-nature-bitcoin-requires-formal-ongoing-study-and-education

Captain's blog, block height 10,200,018: We have completed the first firing of the full array of Dyson engines encircling the far side of the sun. All systems are operating nominally. Within the next ten thousand years the engines will pulse for 3 to 5 months while we are on the opposite side of our planet. In that time, the course of our solar system through the galaxy will change trajectory to put us on course towards the star system we have named Hyperion Phatheon (the shining one above). It will take us about twelve million years to complete the journey.

Blood and Bitcoin: The Legend of the 118K Gang

Chapter 1: The sun hung low over the cracked, dusty plain, painting the horizon in streaks of blood red and bitcoin orange. Only the saloon of the small town showed any signs of life, the doors creaking as they swung in the dry breeze.

The 118K Gang was in town, and noone knew how long they would be staying. Some greeted them with joy. Others feared they would linger too long, overstaying their welcome.

They'd come before, and were celebrated at first, but a few townsfolk had grown weary of their presence and thought to summon another gang to replace them.

"You'll miss us when we're gone," shouted their leader at the barkeep as he set his empty glass on the bar, slurring his words from the whisky that he'd be downing all afternoon.

The barkeep refilled the glass and said nothing -- he knew better than to rile up the temper of Wade Stallion with words.

Just then the saloon doors flung open, the silhouetted shape of a tall man standing with there with hands at his hips.

"I think it's time you fellers took to the hills," he said.

"I think it's time you shut yer mouth," Wade shot back. "The 118K Gang doesn't go until I say we go. And I ain't goin' nowhere now."

"My name's Errol Dawgins," said the man in the door as he slowly started to saunter in to the saloon. "I got it on good authority that 135K is imminent, so I says you best be leaving -- imminently if you don't want to end up in the cemetery up yonder."

"You wanna settle this outside?" asked Wade.

Errol barely nodded, but he turned around and walked out, stopping briefly at the exit to look back and indicate he was ready for a showdown.

This guy was so lucky start vlogging on NOSTR.

Make American Vlog Again

Nostr is a part of bitcoin. It’s the arbitrary data layer. You’ll see.

Bitcoin stands for a lot of things, but only while some bitcoiners stand for each of those things.

Bitcoin reignites hope for humanity.

Bitcoin: Not just a store of value, but a restorer of values.

What I think I love most about the bitcoin movement is how many people find purpose and meaning in finding their particular role within it. It's always something they care deeply about enough to forego everything else for. It's not everyone, of course, but even just seeing a few people, working with passion and integrity on what their calling is, is incredibly inspirational.

Oh. A bitcoin radio drama. Interesting. Well produced. Intriguing. Listening now. You can too.

This is Bitcoin’s sweet 16 party and she’s got all the boys’ attention.

Bitcoin is the only asset for which there is seller’s remorse.

GM everyone.

A man who finds his calling in something greater than himself, greater than his life, greater than his time, has found a way to experience what is beyond himself, his life, and his time.

I'd like to go to a restaurant with that financial times reporter and split the bill, me offering to leave a tip in bitcoin, and her in human teeth.

For once I'd be seen as much less of the freak.

MUCH LESS.

This is really good.

First trillium https://image.nostr.build/0a10619c24f0f821db7daa51ae6fc8f12a591e58d582677318074e59585a169c.jpg

To all the shitheads in Bitcoin, Thank You:

Bitcoin is for everyone, so let’s not forget the shitheads; those who not only fail to appreciate its importance, but go out of their way to undermine it; Who not only fail to teach others, but try to mislead them; Who not only fail to appreciate the equality with which it treats all of us, but who try to claim special status for themselves;

WIthout you, we might grow complacent, our lessons might become dulled, our own egos might become puffed.

But thanks to you and your tireless (but tiresome) attacks, Bitcoin and bitcoiners remain strong, sharp, and ready to spring into action (even if that is steadfast inaction, which you would label as ossified and close-minded).

You wear it well, that head of shit. Rarely do you engage through reason, truth, nuance, or wisdom, nor do you come around after some time admitting your errors. No, you take it on the chin over and over, foregoing friendship, respect, honesty, and many other genuine spiritual rewards, not to mention the high monetary price you often pay if you actually put your money where your mouth is (which few of you actually do).

So thanks to you unsung heroes – the villains – of the bitcoin story and its history. We need you and bitcoin needs you, even though you’re shitheads. Keep doing what you do so well that so many of the rest of us simply will not bring ourselves to do, or even to thank you for.

Good morning.

Cheer up.

You’re fixing the world. You didn’t expect that would be easy and smooth sailing all the way, did you?

Don’t let the bastards get you down.

How Bitcoin Fixes Money and, In Turn, Everything Else
(in 250 words):

Nature is driven by forces. And in nature, to obtain some resource, a being takes it, most often by force.

In human society, when something is taken by force from nature, like extracting iron from the earth, it is called being industrious.

But when something is taken by force from another human, it is called theft.

Since both theft and industry are possible using force, industrious people must use significant energy to deter theft, directing it away from further industrious activities.

If we could direct more energy to producing wealth rather than to defending it we would be richer and more productive, and there should be less incentive to steal. This would kick off a positive feedback loop of abundance creation making theft unprofitable in many more cases and further increasing abundance, but we must first close the loopholes that rewards theft.

In the realm of money, bitcoin achieves this. Bitcoin cannot be taken by force. It cannot be created except for with force that makes it harder to take bitcoins by force. It cannot be counterfeited, clipped, debased or devalued.

Modern money has many such loopholes. They incentivize many people to dedicate their lives towards getting that money through un-industrious efforts - they spend their time and energy on activities that do not create any real wealth, but rob those who do create it of their wealth.

By closing these loopholes, Bitcoin fixes money, and in turn, so much more.

Great engineering often involves leaving out what, on the surface, seems like an essential requirement.

Consider if you were asked to design a system that everyone in the world could use.

Your intuitive first step might be to create a "UserName" and "UserNumber".

But if you did, some authority could tell you to freeze or delete or deny some UserNames or UserNumbers from using the system. This then would violate the system's design requirement of everyone being able to use it.

So it turns out you must actually leave out the obvious, but flawed solution. And it's by no means obvious what you would instead implement. So it becomes a hard problem.

This is just one example of the many hard problems Satoshi Nakamoto simultaneously solved in Bitcoin.

The five stages of bitcoin: Denial: Bitcoin is made up and worthless. Anger: Bitcoiners are mean. Bargaining: I'll buy some when the price goes down. Depression: I missed the boat. Acceptance: I accept bitcoin - please pay me in bitcoin.