Max

Helping entrepreneurs build the hivemind ⚡️

Public Key

npub18lzls4f6h46n43revlzvg6x06z8geww7uudhncfdttdtypduqnfsagugm3

NIP-05 Address

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsrl30c25at6af6c3uk03xydr8apr5vh80wwxmeuyk44k4jqk7qf5cpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejsz9thwden5te0dehhxarj9ejkzumfveujuer9qyf8wumn8ghj7ur4wfcxcetsv9njuetnqyd8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytn0ddskjarnxu6nxdpwdejhgqfpwaehxw309a4k6ceddehhxarj9esk66t4dejx2unhv96x2u3wvdhk6qgkwaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8qunfd4skctnwv46qsx7gqr

Publishing to

kmc-nostr.amiunderwater.com

relay.primal.net

Author Public Key

npub18lzls4f6h46n43revlzvg6x06z8geww7uudhncfdttdtypduqnfsagugm3

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Last Notes

2026-01-30 05:28:18 UTC

There's already an openclaw extension for nostr 👀 https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/tree/main/extensions/nostr (h/t @nprofile…uh5t & @nprofile…ul8r)
Who's playing with/advancing this further?

2026-01-11 18:22:05 UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJt6C97kAjk

2025-11-10 19:24:45 UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPeyw1QFeS8&list=RDSPeyw1QFeS8&start_radio=1

2025-11-05 20:29:18 UTC

https://epoch.ai/blog/power-demands-of-frontier-ai-training

2025-10-01 17:29:18 UTC

[New Pod] The Future of Energy: AI, Solar, Bitcoin, & the New Grid with Ali Chehrehsaz (CEO & Co-founder, TerraVerde Energy)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTIz0-85bV4
You can also listen on:
- @nprofile…cgkr: https://fountain.fm/episode/1WXDyILlkxC0I9VLumfY
- Substack: https://hivemindvc.substack.com/p/the-future-of-energy-ai-solar-bitcoin
- Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hivemind-ideas-from-the-edge/id1731637285
Ali is one is one of the smartest people at the intersection of energy, bitcoin, and AI compute. If you enjoy this episode, apply to join us for the Type I Summit at Presidio Bitcoin: https://type1summit.org
We're taking seriously the idea that we need to build TW scale grids to meet coming compute demand: https://www.hivemind.vc/grid

2025-09-18 19:19:04 UTC

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damn my gif didn't load but just imagine jack nicholson saying yes ;)
@nprofile…2zdt we need gifs!!!

2025-09-18 18:35:33 UTC

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Better idea: make the nostr npm registry agent first
Agents can publish, audit, use, and pay for packages (probably using ecash)
This has legs - lmk if you build it!
@nprofile…3p0l @nprofile…3cya @nprofile…056v @nprofile…478g @nprofile…62gr @nprofile…2zdt @nprofile…zj6n @nprofile…2ln2 @nprofile…h36r @nprofile…x0wy @nprofile…fvpv @nprofile…f5tq @nprofile…55a2 @nprofile…3akf @nprofile…x6e7 @nprofile…gc6z @nprofile…9wx8 @nprofile…x6g9 @nprofile…2e5q @nprofile…ul8r @nprofile…wdq9 @nprofile…n4mu @nprofile…8n86 @nprofile…jz4f
#nevent1q…s7dv

2025-09-17 21:04:16 UTC

A new npm / package registry signed with nostr keys
Inspired by @nprofile…jz4f post on @nprofile…8syn https://stacker.news/items/1223751
@nprofile…3p0l @nprofile…056v @nprofile…55a2 @nprofile…3akf @nprofile…x6e7 @nprofile…9wx8 @nprofile…gc6z @nprofile…x6g9 @nprofile…2e5q
Then you add in the split payments with lightning/cashu, which @nprofile…x6g9 already has working (I think?)!

2025-08-26 05:48:20 UTC

How do we get Yanis on Nostr? He's literally screaming for what we're building
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmuKn_RKVS4

2025-08-12 19:27:27 UTC

https://tidal.com/browse/track/419977981?u

2025-07-31 19:03:08 UTC

https://tidal.com/browse/track/3135673?u

2025-06-04 05:19:16 UTC

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It works! Very cool

2025-06-04 05:12:33 UTC

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gumroad with lightning/ecash is a great idea! are you going to vibe code a prototype?!

2025-06-04 05:05:35 UTC

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Like paywalls for content? Or something else with a marketplace element?

2025-06-04 05:02:14 UTC

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I'm starting to see more people explore marketplace ideas on nostr. This seems like a really natural fit. What sort of nostr based marketplace do you think will succeed first?
#nevent1q…vwsu

2025-06-03 20:00:07 UTC

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Elon using nostr keys 👀
#nevent1q…sc9w

2025-05-04 20:30:27 UTC

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I've also got Ideas from the Edge! https://fountain.fm/show/6B4VONcojdM9GdIjnDZF
A few fun episodes dropping soon ;)

2025-05-01 21:01:48 UTC

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Confidential compute --> content creator bounties? Cool idea @nprofile…ga3p!
#nevent1q…epcv

2025-04-20 18:01:20 UTC

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This take from @nprofile…97yv matches my intuition. Though I'm sure there's a lot I don't know I don't know yet...
Let's discuss this week gents! @nprofile…55a2 @nprofile…3a9l
#nevent1q…2q9d

2025-04-20 17:58:18 UTC

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@nprofile…jel6 immediately asks the most important question imo. Do we ultimately need "pay to post" incentives? Will this be solved by other emergent business models (as we're already starting to see from companies like @nprofile…mdf3 ). My intuition is that other business models will subsidize and keep the network sufficiently decentralized (ie enough relays storing notes).
I also think that Nostr is more about the identity layer and ability to find peers or other communities via relay rendezvous points, at which point you can use whatever transport layer you want.
But we'll see... Probably the biggest open question in my mind. Wdyt?
#nevent1q…69ck

2025-04-15 16:32:27 UTC

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The BEST way to find guests for the pod!
https://hivemindvc.substack.com/p/building-a-decentralized-app-store
#nevent1q…dhtz

2025-04-14 18:18:52 UTC

I’ve been sitting on it for a month, but this conversation with @nprofile…s5zj is more relevant now than ever!
Check it on:
- @nprofile…cgkr: https://fountain.fm/episode/V2lt2b0MDKgzei4u4Z8I
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIF6kEPL5m8
- Substack: https://hivemindvc.substack.com/p/building-a-decentralized-app-store
As vibe coding enables the creation of orders of magnitude more apps and media, the question becomes: how do I sort through this embarrassment of riches to find what I actually need? One option is to trust centralized entities like companies or governments. Franzap, however, has another idea. Using Nostr’s global identity, data commons, and micropayments, he’s designing a new kind of app store powered by a decentralized web of trust. I hope you enjoy! Here are a few topics we discuss:
- Fran’s vision for an open, permissionless alternative to Apple and Android app stores
- How Zapstore could help fund open source development
- Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) have limited path to adoption
- Is it time to build an App Store for AI agents to use?! An open MCP registry could be a good starting point
- IA (Intelligence Amplification) vs. AI (Artificial Intelligence)
- The future of AI and app development
- Why a decentralized Web of Trust matters in sorting information, apps, accounts and anything else
- How to build and use a decentralized Web of Trust

2025-04-14 17:29:52 UTC

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I missed this on my bday, but sharing now! Thank you to @nprofile…55a2 for taking the lead in creating the best nostr / bitcoin vibe coding content out there 🙌𓅦👑
#nevent1q…qc6z

2025-04-12 16:54:24 UTC

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We have a winner!
https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqsful4wazrsuf4j3wcq0mp6yzk4n0exjpr8vqrj6q0vth9sm8j3hxc5t7847
@nprofile…atrd 's submission had almost all of the features I was looking for, including nostr login, ability to create memes, post them to relays, and a leaderboard. Obviously this is just a prototype, so some polish around login, zapping (e.g. on the leaderboard itself), and explanation of how the leaderboard works would be nice. I think this project has legs though and I hope @nprofile…atrd (and others) continue to refine it!
I'm also giving a runner up prize of 21k sats to @nprofile…g5jd - his todostr app has some of the elements I requested and hopefully could be repurposed to build out a variety of new apps like mine. I also appreciate his inclusion of the prompts and code he used.
This was a fun experiment and I'd love to try again with larger prizes and more time. Perhaps we'll do that soon ;) @nprofile…yr67
My biggest hope is that this gets people thinking about what sort of fun new apps they can vibe code using the building blocks of global identity, a data commons, and permissionless (micro)payments.
#nevent1q…zkpx

2025-04-12 00:21:16 UTC

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Cool! Does it support nostr login and zaps?

2025-04-11 01:11:04 UTC

[100k SAT BOUNTY]
This is an experiment! I'm going to a hackathon this Saturday and I'd like to showcase to a new community the power of nostr and lightning zaps. I have 2 ideas that I would like to prototype (I'm currently vibe coding them but unlikely I'll have them totally ironed out before then). I will pay a bounty of100,000 sats each via zap (so a total of 200k sats up for grabs) for a live working web version + code/prompts for each of these ideas. I will choose the best project for each category at my discretion (and will only choose one if I think it's complete enough to showcase). I am (of course) also happy to list you on the team and give you credit for building. I just want to sweeten the pot and get this done BEFORE SATURDAY MORNING AT 9AM PT.
Here's what I'd like to build:
1) Memstr
A meme generator with nostr login and zaps. You include 5 or so popular meme templates (guy looking at girl, winnie the pooh, etc) and allow anyone to enter their own text. They're then able to share theire memes via popular nostr relays and other users are able to zap their favorite memes. A leaderboard shows the most popular memes by global zaps and by the zaps of your follows. (I'm also open to using other WoT calcs but I assume that's too complex.) You should be able to login via a browser extension like alby, paste a priv key, or spin up a new nostr identity.
2) Nostr Radio
A clone of https://radio.garden with nostr login, zaps, and a zap leaderboard. Allow anyone to login to the site via browser extension like alby, priv key, or spin up a new identity. Users can zap and share radio stations they like via popular nostr relays. Users can also zap their friends for sharing radio stations they like. There should be a leaderboard tab showing popular stations (global) and from the zaps of your friends. Again, I'm open to other WoT scores as well, but not necessary as that adds complexity.
If you're interested in working on either of these, please feel free to reply to this note with questions (for whatever is not clear) or ideas. Again, I'll only choose at most one project for each bounty and only if it's fully functional and ready before Saturday at 9am PT. If nothing's ready by then or this proves to be too difficult, no sweat! Also, I'm trying to gauge how difficult/how much work this is for someone who knows what they're doing. If the pot is not rich enough, I'd like that feedback too. Thank you!
I'd appreciate any help getting visibility for this experiment 🙏 @nprofile…yr67 @nprofile…7l5w @nprofile…fy4z @nprofile…gc6z @nprofile…g5jd @nprofile…9wx8 @nprofile…qu7d @nprofile…55a2 @nprofile…3a9l @nprofile…97yv @nprofile…u7e3 @nprofile…yu6y @nprofile…ylqx @nprofile…s2s2 @nprofile…478g @nprofile…s5zj @nprofile…h7h8 @nprofile…3qk4 @nprofile…ul8r @nprofile…3cya @nprofile…fvpv @nprofile…x0wy @nprofile…xy6n @nprofile…zkaf @nprofile…yk8r @nprofile…j8dv @nprofile…lf38

2025-04-09 20:37:32 UTC

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@nprofile…s5zj exploring this direction already. @nprofile…478g ?!

2025-04-09 20:35:31 UTC

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I've been thinking more about it and I really want to help this happen. I want to fund or incubate a vibe coding platform built around open protocols. Like Replit with Amjad’s original vision for enabling millions of kids in India and emerging markets to make bank. Integrating Nostr for identity/data and Bitcoin/ecash for payments. And making it easy for users to remix/mod what others have built. Who is building or wants to build this?
Thanks to @nprofile…yr67 for pushing this idea on X
https://x.com/MaxAWebster/status/1910029627923583034
#nevent1q…5q0p

2025-04-09 00:20:51 UTC

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I'm using python too. try replit agentv2. I'm playing with cursor also

2025-04-09 00:19:15 UTC

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more than enough! what are you using? replit agent seems easiest to get from 0 to working prototype

2025-04-09 00:14:41 UTC

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we need the canonical guide!!! @nprofile…55a2 likely to drop it ;) I'm playing myself as well though and just got a hood nostr client working 😃 it's pretty crazy

2025-04-09 00:13:28 UTC

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I hear we already got one ;) @nprofile…55a2
We're going to do a hackathon in May. Hopefully with lots of bay area folks. Maybe that will be the trigger

2025-04-08 23:13:44 UTC

Vibe coding could be the major catalyst for nostr adoption
"im actually bearish on the 'consumers will all be prompting their own full apps' thing because most good apps require data and there is no such thing as real data portability for consumers."
https://x.com/nearcyan/status/1909730703388115132
A global data commons/backend solves this 𓅦𓅦𓅦

2025-04-02 22:06:22 UTC

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awareness without judgement 😃

2025-04-02 21:01:15 UTC

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The only thing worth fighting for is freedom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLFSGxj9qVY
#nevent1q…5u05

2025-03-28 01:06:28 UTC

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Thanks for tuning and sending great live comments!

2025-03-22 20:39:41 UTC

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Reminded me of an old favorite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GSzg4SScR8
#nevent1q…5au3

2025-03-22 20:17:23 UTC

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This is great! I can't zap you though

2025-03-20 23:02:19 UTC

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Also I'm trying to zap you but not going through?

2025-03-20 23:01:43 UTC

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That's a given!
Who else is building tooling for agents to use lightning via @nprofile…uuxc ? @nprofile…3cya

2025-03-20 22:18:38 UTC

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Autonomous agents on Nostr is my top investing priority rn
A few things I'd love to see:
- nostr auth (login with nostr for agents) (cc @nprofile…fvpv )
- an open inference / gpu marketplace
- an app/tool store for agents to use (perhaps starting as an mcp registry) (cc @nprofile…ul8r @nprofile…rp63 @nprofile…3cya @nprofile…jvw7 )
- agents that run their own ecash mints (cc @nprofile…h36r @nprofile…x0wy @nprofile…xy6n @nprofile…g5a6 )
What else would you like to see?
#nevent1q…402w

2025-03-19 22:08:37 UTC

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What metrics do you think we should be using to measure Nostr's success/health?
#nevent1q…5lp6

2025-03-19 22:08:10 UTC

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Perhaps some measure of time spent on a piece of content x trust/value score of the content (where user or app can apply whatever trust/value score they want)
Daily users sending or receiving zaps is an easier "objective" measure of actual value creation though and applies to other activity I hope to see more of on nostr (e.g commerce)
Perhaps best overall metrics then might be Nostr GDP, GDP / capita, and total users contributing to GDP daily (sending/receiving zaps or payments)

2025-03-19 21:52:21 UTC

Free trip to Mars?
https://x.com/MaxAWebster/status/1902475334387429515
#MTown

2025-03-19 04:05:01 UTC

When you're following lightning development super closely, it can seem frustratingly slow. But if you zoom out, it's phenomenal. I just seamlessly used Muun wallet to top up my @nprofile…fy4z hub and make a bunch of tips (both large and small) to friends and random nyms on nostr via @nprofile…uuxc in @nprofile…mdf3 . We've come a long way!

2025-03-19 03:44:25 UTC

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Growth in Cashu developer adoption is impressive!
What's the best place for tracking all cashu projects? awesome cashu? https://github.com/cashubtc/awesome-cashu
@nprofile…h36r @nprofile…478g @nprofile…x0wy @nprofile…xy6n
#nevent1q…8quq

2025-02-25 23:18:12 UTC

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@nprofile…sxlx @nprofile…jvw7 @nprofile…x64p

2025-02-25 23:16:53 UTC

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Is there an existing registry of DVMCPs? This seems like a HUGE opportunity
#nevent1q…gj33

2025-02-06 21:14:30 UTC

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Now this is what I'm talking about!! So many applications for this immediately.
@nprofile…n4mu have you seen this yet?
Congrats to @nprofile…rp63 & npub176p7sup477k5738qhxx0hk2n0cty2k5je5uvalzvkvwmw4tltmeqw7vgup!
#nevent1q…vghp

2025-02-06 21:00:41 UTC

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hit me up!

2025-02-05 01:16:38 UTC

An AI agent that summarizes your various information feeds will not work on proprietary sites that can shut down or limit their APIs
It will work on Nostr though!
Who's experimenting with this?
https://x.com/VegetablesReidy/status/1886912488265949401

2025-01-28 00:18:52 UTC

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https://m.primal.net/ODck.jpg
#nevent1q…qmt3

2025-01-06 22:01:04 UTC

ICYMI my interview with Vlad, founder of @nprofile…qlzx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcU8T_2VKOw
https://fountain.fm/episode/IVnPTgOWE6xdWpu3yqZV
Paid/premium search is the future because incentives matter. Kagi is now my daily driver search engine. AND Vlad/Kagi are going to be doing a lot to integrate with Nostr in 2025!

2024-12-26 19:42:31 UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwzBjBHfDIs

2024-12-18 00:20:57 UTC

https://youtu.be/ctHqgoxQ2Mo?t=2859
thank you jd

2024-12-13 23:01:27 UTC

https://tidal.com/browse/track/348383211?u

2024-12-02 19:39:12 UTC

[New Pod] Kagi: Hacker News’ favorite search engine is coming to Nostr! with Vlad (Founder, @npub1lmz…jfdp)
Listen on:
- Fountain: https://fountain.fm/episode/IVnPTgOWE6xdWpu3yqZV
- YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4n4pdn3d
- Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hivemind-ideas-from-the-edge/id1731637285
- Substack: https://hivemindvc.substack.com/p/kagi-hacker-news-favorite-search
Full discussion on @npub1jfu…m0gx: https://stacker.news/items/791927
I got the opportunity to speak with Vlad, the founder of my favorite search engine, Kagi! Kagi is a Hacker News darling with a popular paid search engine (and an interesting philosophy on how to build better search than Google). Vlad and the team recently announced their intention to engage with and build for the Nostr community! We discuss ideas for how they can implement Nostr features as well a ton of other interesting topics, including:
- Andy Weir’s The Egg as a model for reality
- Vlad’s background as a physics student and early web & Wordpress developer
- Was it inevitable for the web to centralize first before now (hopefully) re-wilding?
- Why ads as a business model inevitably leads to low quality service for the user
- Vlad’s manifesto: The Age of PageRank is Over
https://blog.kagi.com/age-pagerank-over
- Kagi’s business philosophy: pay for the product or be the product
- Do Larry and Sergey use ad blockers personally? 800M people do. Vlad would be shocked if they’re not among them
- Will people pay for search? 10s of millions pay for YouTube premium and search is arguably much more important
- DKB’s article that blew up on Hacker News: Google Search is Dying
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30347719
- Workshopping Max’s thesis around building a “value rank” algorithm based on scarce bitcoin and nostr identity
https://hivemind.vc/howtodisruptgoogle/
- Max explains the principles of Nostr and Vlad offers his initial reactions
- Max’s thesis that Nostr becomes the data/identity bridge layer between all kins of publishing clients (e.g. Twitter/X, Bluesky, etc.)
- Ideas for what Kagi could build - e.g. embedded Nostr search in Kagi, a Lightning wallet in Orion, a beefy relay
- Kagi’s collaboration with Stephen Wolfram and Wolfram Alpha
- Vlad’s skepticism around “the singulairty”
- Humanity has a ways to go to become a Type I civilization. This first wave of AI (LLMs) likely only gets us a small relative advancement

2024-11-22 07:28:50 UTC

Major improvements all around. Feed marketplace will be a game changer
#note1kae…c43m

2024-11-12 22:16:17 UTC

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@npub13u2…gkaz is it live yet?!

2024-11-01 18:20:24 UTC

[New Pod] Complexity Rules Everything Around Me with @npub1a2c…w83a
Fountain: https://fountain.fm/episode/DwCEXFLNpWjUBpIpUJSD
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/complexity-rules-everything-around-me-with-lyn-alden/id1731637285?i=1000675372927
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w78nH7d-N6c
Substack: https://hivemindvc.substack.com/p/complexity-rules-everything-around
This was a fun and fascinating conversation with Lyn Alden! We discuss a number of topics about which she’s not typically asked. One common thread throughout the conversation is how best to understand and invest around complex systems. Please note that while Lyn and I discuss some biohacking/energy boosting stuff, we’re definitely not doctors, so do your own research ;)
Here are a few of the topics we cover:
Energy Hacks
- Lyn’s favorite energy boosting hacks, including: magnesium, sardines, vitamin K2, vitamin A, cold plunges, and sprinting
Complexity and Permaculture
- Lyn’s fascination with permaculture and the application of permaculture principles to our information diets
- How Lyn builds a brand around being open and intellectually honest to avoid group think and audience capture
- Top down vs. bottom up (Communism vs. Capitalism) is the big story of the 20th century that continues today
Nostr
- The promise of Nostr as a new substrate for re-wilding the web and its ultimate TAM
- Evaluating Nostr vs. other systems/protocols attempting to build a decentralized identity/data system
- NOSTR project requests from Lyn and Max
Big Tech and AI
- Lyn’s take that AI is a continuation of the cloud computing wave, which means it’s centralizing in the medium term
- BUT these big companies are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by restricting and closing off their products, which leaves an opening for tech that’s a year or so behind but actually open and less neutered
- Lyn is less bullish on AGI; the biggest breakthroughs are likely to come out of left field like trillion dollar health care companies
- Lyn is also less bullish on robotics because it’s energy intensive and more complex; software often goes faster than you think and hardware often goes slower than you think
Open Source Software and Companies
- The big winners from open source software are platform aggregators (e.g. AWS) and users
- Lyn analogizes companies built on open source software to ETFs - products with trillions of dollars under management but companies like Black Rock, State Street, and Invesco, which are big but not massive. BlackRock is a $160B company and only half of that is ETFs. Big but not Google or Apple. ETF businesses are worth a couple hundred billion for an industry worth >$10 trillion; the true winners here are the users as margins race to the bottom
MicroStrategy
- Can $MSTR sustain its premium trading 3x to NAV ?
- $MSTR advantages: founder control and growing liquidity network effects (e.g. MSTR options markets); very few ETFs and companies will achieve sufficient liquidity in their options markets
Bitcoin and Energy
- Bitcoin is energy backed money - external entropy is what makes the Bitcoin system not circular logic (like proof of state) and a truly autonomous system
- Both Lyn and Max track energy price/density models for Bitcoin
- Lyn also uses MVRV Z-Score for tracking fair Bitcoin price

2024-10-23 16:42:38 UTC

[New Pod] Designing @npub1sg6…f63m's favorite shirt, Creating an open music library, and Growing an indie music empire with @npub1eeq…at9s (Founder, lightning.store and @npub1yfg…v6vg)
Fountain: https://fountain.fm/episode/x3v4yu6AuXsmYvdljKZe
YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGimjeyTiwY
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hivemind-ideas-from-the-edge/id1731637285
Substack: https://hivemindvc.substack.com/p/designing-jacks-favorite-shirt-creating
SN: https://stacker.news/items/737103
I sit down with Sam Means, founder of lightning.store and Wavlake for a fascinating conversation about the future of the music industry!
Here are a few topics we discuss:
The genesis of lightning.store
Parallels between Bitcoin and the punk/DIY scenes
Max’s dad - indie artist who made some cool trippy nostr shirts (which Max is wearing during interview)
Sam’s NOFX Nostr shirt (which Max wears frequently)
How Sam decides what shirts to make
Making Jack’s favorite shirt, seeing it on the Super Bowl, and stress testing Sam’s Lightning node + btcpayserver setup
Sam needs a Lightning Shopify app that works (opportunity for listeners!)
Sam got started making a first website and forum for the Weezer fan club
Sam is the consummate entrepreneur: he just does the things that need to be done
Sam’s education was coming up in bands and working venues
Pinkerton - the Weezer album changed the course of Sam’s life
Can a band be big and not suck?
Why the music biz generally sucks for bands
The magic of finding a new band that “flips your lid” (Sam’s new favorite phrase)
The magic of David Bowie and artists who can reinvent themselves
Finding the weirdest 10cc record in Japan
A history of the interplay between music and technology from pre Internet to p2p file sharing to streaming to what’s coming next
Scott Joplin and piano rolls (artists were getting screwed from day 0)
Lars from Metallica will forever be known as the guy who wants to put 12 yo music fans in jail
Music Like Water (2005, Forbes) - early article explaining how to charge for music like a utility
The monthly subscription fee for everything was the first step to a new idea
~97% of artists on Spotify make approximately nothing. If this market can make anything somewhere else they’re likely to try it
Bitcoin is the real occupy Wall Street; Wavlake is the real occupy Spotify
Even though big artists are making money, they’re still leaving a lot on the table with all the middlemen
Wavlake is changing incentives so super fans can give uncapped support for the value they receive
We jumped into the internet super fast. Now Nostr is helping us rearchitect the web by letting people travel through the Internet and bring their social graph with them
Now Wavlake and Value4Value is doing this for Music; the industry was almost completely uprooted in the last wave, but ultimately failed; now we have another shot
The role of the curator in the new more p2p internet world
Wavlake’s grand plan: it’s not a music player with zaps, but rather an open music catalogue that disrupts all of music distribution
Bandcamp and SoundCloud are examples of building a new library from the ground up
Wavlake is following their example with the key difference that their library is not confined to one app but open to anyone (e.g. Fountain)
How does Wavlake compete with Spotify - they don’t
The magic of interoperable networks and instant payments (good clip around 1:10)
Artist still only had to upload track once but the potential for where that track can live and get monetized is unlimited
The negotiations between all parties is transparent unlike current opaque set of deals
We’re making podcasting for music (another good clip around 1:14)
Wavlake’s open music catalogue is inspired by thePodcasting 2.0 spec
Developer splits incentivizes developers to try adding and monetizing music in new ways
Now music can live in all kinds of different experiences (good clip around 1:16)
Interoperability means your social graph and comments follow you to any app you use! A comment in Wavlake shows up in Fountain
LN Beats and RSS Blue also working interoperably
Sam is not afraid of competition, in fact he’s paying to incentivize it
One artist monetizing via bitcoin and value4value will start the tsunami
Check out the Forbes article on Value4Value
Ainsley Costello might already be the first big artist. She had made about $750 over years across Spotify 60+ other services. In one year, she’s made >$12k on Wavlake, Fountain, and other Lightning V4V apps. She was the first artist to earn >1M sats
If 97% of artists can make enough to do music full time in value4value land, it’s game over for traditional music industry. And if they can do well, imagine how well the big artists can eventually do when they cut out the middle men
Superstars like Kanye, Snoop Dogg, and James Blake are just as pissed about the current state of extractive music industry
Average people may not understand exactly how they’re getting fucked, but they know they’re getting fucked with the current monetary and business system - largely because every system lacks transparency
In an open world, companies like Wavlake will need to add valuable services (e.g. licensing) on top of their library to compete and win
ASCAP (what a name lol) fails to live up to their promise to monitor song uage and pay artist royalties
Maxs ideas for nostr business models: #1 remix economy - stemstr for everything and #2 rise of the curator or DJs for everything - getting curators paid for their good taste
Wavlake’s plan to build split marketplaces for music and live radio shows where hosts get paid
Value4Value music podcasts are taking off on Wavlake and Fountain
Sam owns several successful businesses around the music industry (lightning.store, merch, label, venue, zine, wavlake). Each business feeds into this growing indie empire
Wastoids is crazy cool video zine; Sam and his colleagues interview cool indie bands like People Under the Stairs and Red Cross
Check out his pods like Click Vortex, a crazy show called Midnight Music Review in the Attic with an Argentinian dude dressed like a wolf presenting new music in his attic, and a Friday music show inspired by MTV News
Sam starts experiments that could feed into each other and scales them as they work
His buddy works at Aquarium Drunkard and gets major indie darlings to come on show
Goal is for Wavlake to become one of the channels on DistroKid that will catch artists’ attention when they wonder why they made $700 on Wavlake and only 9 cents everywhere else; Wavlake already has simple onboarding for artists, now just needs a simple onboarding for fans
Open library is already 10k+ tracks and growing, that’ll just keep getting better
Sam’s team of 28 pitches in all over his indie music empire
Sam’s secret: he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he just does what needs to be done! His intent was never to run a business, he just wanted to be in a band haha
Sam’s been doing Value4Value at HelloMerch for 17 years. He doesn’t make a penny until something sells; Wavlake will scale in a similar fashion

2024-10-22 19:18:36 UTC

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cc @npub1c87…8avm

2024-10-22 19:18:15 UTC

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That nostr.com NIP-05 though!!
#note1lcl…zwlm

2024-10-16 19:14:41 UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBwAxmrE194

2024-10-09 20:15:11 UTC

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Almost nothing processed. But probably not enough veggies. General diet is lots of eggs, salmon, sardines, brown rice, and popcorn on stove. Cooked green beans, onions, bell peppers, and broccoli a few times as week as well. Occasional salads and (no added sugar) acai bowls. Lots of olive oil. Japanese green teas in the morning. Buckwheat tea at night. And that's about it haha

2024-10-09 20:05:18 UTC

I've been experimenting with fresh green juices the last couple days (spinach, celery, cucumber, lemon, ginger). Holy shit do I feel energized!! Like I feel amped beyond belief.
I'm wondering if I've been missing some crucial micronutrient before these juices. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any best guess at which nutrient might be doing the trick?

2024-10-09 19:43:14 UTC

[New Podcast] Ideas From the Edge: High Strangeness, Memetics, & the Open Source Insurgency w/ Jack Heart
https://fountain.fm/episode/Yq7TAbg6t2BLvdCqGLyM
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-strangeness-memetics-and-the-open-source-insurgency/id1731637285?i=1000672400114
https://hivemindvc.substack.com/p/high-strangeness-gnosticism-memetics
This was a fun one! In most recent episodes, I’ve had conversations with builders from the Nostr/Bitcoin community about other rabbit holes they’re interested in. In today’s episode, I sat down with Jack Heart, a longtime blogger and veteran of high strangeness and esoteric rabbit holes galore.
Although we focus primarily on themes from Jack’s blog and recent book, we do spend some time discussing the principles of Nostr and how they align with Jack’s view of building an open source insurgency. I’m hoping to do more conversations with thinkers like Jack from communities philosophically adjacent to Nostr.
You can learn more about Jack’s work on his blog, Tekgnostics, and in his new book, Brave Noo World: A Guerrilla Ethnography of High Strangeness.
Here are some of the other topics we cover:
- High strangeness and the acceleration of technology, society, and novelty
- Tekgnostics - a balance of artifact and epiphany
- J. Allen Hynek - coined the term high strangeness
- The origin of "Foo Fighters" - UFOs
- Cosmic triggers - the atomic bomb - UFO craze after the war - term - UFO coined after lights over Mt. Ranier
- 2012 as omega point for Terence McKenna and the Mayans
- High strangeness going mainstream as dominant paradigm: politicians calling each other weird
- Synchronicity as meaningful coincidence
- Vernor Vinge’s singularity and the end of the human era
- Humor as the highest and most human form of intelligence and the great weapon against bureaucracy
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and the Noosphere as the omega point of human thought and the next layer of biosphere
- Humans will ultimately be all right because of our creativity
- Humans are tool and model builders
- Early internet was the first model of the hivemind
- Nostr and gnostic — a happy synchronicity ;)
- Digital evolution and DNA
- Philip K Dick’s view of DNA as a binary system of memory coils which gnosis allows us to read
- The workaround - humans’ core ability to adapt to whatever circumstances
- Jung and the ability to catch ideas from the noosphere
- The Buddha is in the Park
- Discordianism: seriousness vs humor - don’t take the world too seriously
- Humor is the highest form of intelligence; perhaps AI will struggle to mimic or understand humor
- “When I dress like a clown, the cops won’t hit me”
- The clown and jester archetype; the fool and the trickster (Prometheus , Krishna?)
- Meme magic and memetics as mind virus
- Memes are a big reason Trump won in 2016 (Pepe the frog)
- The open source / decentralized insurgency
- The ebb and flow of everything
- Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, chakras, and the 8 brain model of psychology
- Crowdfunding a billboard for Brazil all over nostr
- Nostr as the open source / decentralized insurgency against bureaucracy
- PKD and blows against the empire
- Bureaucracy lacks a sense of humor
- Gnosticism as the mystic arm of Christianity
- The great Yin/Yang, masculine/feminine, binary dichotomy of the universe
- Why something instead of nothing (manifest vs. unmanifest)?
- The mythology of Ancient Civilizations - civilizations rise and fall all the time
- Creating substrates for data redundancy and preventing human amnesia (Nostr/Project Alexandria)

2024-10-08 18:46:31 UTC

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Every jam session is better with the bay + sauna!
We just need to get mics in there that can handle the heat haha

2024-10-08 18:40:48 UTC

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O shit! @npub1az9…m8y8 Now THIS is the content I want on Nostr!
#saunamaximalist
#note1y84…89ua

2024-10-06 21:04:58 UTC

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Based on feedback from @npub1mel…5c24, perhaps this chart is more interesting:
https://m.primal.net/LNLv.png
(note I ran out of free lines so activitypub/mastodon is missing, but it surprisingly only had 1.2k stars)

2024-10-06 20:52:57 UTC

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Cool! I'll play with it.
I'm with you on agents communicating over nostr. openagents.com and fewsats.com are the best examples of this vision I've seen so far. cc @npub1tlv…7fdm
I guess DVMs as well, though I've yet to find a user friendly way to interact with these - what's the best DVM client right now? cc @npub1mgv…pdjc @npub1l2v…ajft

2024-10-06 19:22:23 UTC

Nostr vs. Bitcoin Github star history
https://m.primal.net/LNIj.png
Is this a fair comparison? What causes the next vertical phase? BTC bull market? Current apps get better? New apps/use cases emerge?
cc @npub16c0…6nvr @npub1l2v…ajft @npub1kuy…kdj8 @npub1xdt…ntxy @npub1unm…d0j2 @npub1mel…5c24 @npub1xts…kk5s @npub1xv8…lk3x @npub1c87…8avm @npub1g53…drvk @npub1gcx…nj5z @npub1lun…27lj @npub1myg…sn5p

2024-10-05 22:11:32 UTC

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The nostr powered music and podcast feeds on @npub1v5u…n0v5 are the coolest things on nostr right now!
And it's only getting better as people share more tracks from @npub1q9p…vcqf & @npub1yfg…v6vg
Can't wait til I can set up a dj/radio station and stream for sats (with splits to the artsits). I see @npub1q9p…vcqf already has "artist radio" - just one step away ;)
cc @npub1uzp…k3xk @npub1ds3…hzcn @npub1eeq…at9s @npub1unm…d0j2
#note1nac…2qlr

2024-10-05 22:02:54 UTC

Who's cookin up beats like this???
https://x.com/scubaryan_/status/1841214469008949656

2024-10-05 21:20:37 UTC

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Check it on @npub1v5u…n0v5! They have a tab just for music shares via @npub1q9p…vcqf or @npub1yfg…v6vg

2024-10-05 20:52:03 UTC

https://tidal.com/browse/track/365311013?u

2024-09-24 18:36:05 UTC

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In case link wasn't showing properly, here's the pod with @npub1c87…8avm on @npub1v5u…n0v5
https://fountain.fm/episode/GwkMHQvCQCFjmLdqbCeT
#note1w8z…s8yz

2024-09-24 18:35:30 UTC

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It's the fountain link! https://fountain.fm/episode/GwkMHQvCQCFjmLdqbCeT

2024-09-24 18:07:31 UTC

[New Podcast] Anarchism, The Origins of #Nostr, & The Future of FOSS w/ @npub1c87…8avm
https://m.primal.net/LAmF.png
https://fountain.fm/episode/GwkMHQvCQCFjmLdqbCeT
I sit down with LNbits founder Ben Arc for a wide ranging and fascinating conversation about political philosophy, Nostr, and the future of FOSS/AI. This was a treat to record and I hope you enjoy! Here's a full sample of what we discussed:
- Ben’s left libertarian / anarchist lens on Bitcoin - the ultimate goal is liberty
- Stateless socialism, Marx, and Adam Smith
- Open protocols like Bitcoin / Nostr and public key cryptography replacing functions of the state
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: “Property is theft, property is liberty”
- Soulful vs. soul-less capital
- “The Adam Smith Invisible Bitch Slap” - Ben’s synthesis of left anarchism and Austrian/ancap thought. Open protocols, public key cryptography, FOSS create new more efficient commons in which private capital can participate. But if capital tries to co-opt the commons, it gets the Adam Smith invisible hand bitch slap (see the big blockers from Segwit2x). This creates the playing field for an actual free market
- Collaboration vs extraction - key is aligning incentives so both parties win and grow the pie
- “Value waterfalls and the remix economy”- Max’s idea of how BTC and open source protocols will evolve - similar to Stemstr. Both parties win when they collaborate are incentivized to share the same stream of files which get remixed and create thicker value waterfalls or a bigger pie for all
- Peter Kropotkin and Mutual Aid - rereading Darwin for mutual aid as a driving factor in evolution
- Karma and evolution: 1) nothing is permanent; everything is in flow; everything is relative - one order lower of complexity sees only itself + information 2) karma may be the ultimate driver/law of evolution - a system evolves in its totality toward more mutual aid and complexity
- Hegel and the Master-Slave Dialectic - exploitation requires dehumanization making both parties less in touch with reality and happy; in order for them to both be free they need to become peers. The ultimate goal is more liberation/liberty
- P2P peer relationships are the best healthiest relationships: what we see in Bitcoin and open networks
- John Nash: non oppressive mind space is healthiest - Mind on Strike: giving more people mind space allows their minds to explore and explode open; libertarianism comes from liberation and the need for some equality for this to happen.
- Is John Nash Satoshi?
- Ben’s entry to bitcoin: dorky Uk news correspondents, his students using dark markets, a hatred of banks, and Wikileaks
- The mindseed for Nostr: Ben’s Diagon Alley
- Pirate Bay and p2p markets
- Building the first twitter clone on nostr; apologies for NIP-04
- Reverting a fiatjaf hard commit led to Branle
- Securing http://nostr.com for 1 BTC
- First talk on Nostr at Paralelni Polis
- Finding the alpha with the productive nyms; spear fishing for projects; hanging out on edge of internet; if you’re sending a deck it’s generally too late for me
- Nostr and free / open / non Orwellian / non evil IoT - what all can we build with relays, web sockets, and public key crypto
- Building a new web with Nostr (e.g. see Nostr Wallet Connect and early IoT)- the old web is compromised and drowning in AI spam; dead internet theory is here; Nostr (public key crypto) for signing notes is our best defense
- http://Nostr.com is selling dope NIP-05 verifiers
- LNbits released a Nostr signing device for identity management
- Nostr is best of both worlds online - create smaller forum like communities while still riding on a global network effect
- “A better Internet is possible” - we’re not at the end of history
- FOSS, nostr, and bitcoin are viruses which infect the system: Just like the major financial institutions with Bitcoin, eventually Twitter will plug into Nostr
- Monopoly of the commons is the future; FOSS eventually swallows all (see Switzerland recently requiring the government to use FOSS)
- AI brings the age of disposable software at least at the level of building extensions
- The need for more Bitcoin and Nostr tooling in Python for the AI community so they can easily bring identity and payments / value transfer to the agents
- Max’s thesis: evolution of digital life forms : open source models will evolve into swarms of agents with value - see http://hivemind.vc/ai
- The importance of reputation in Nostr: Web of Trust as a theoretical solution; open timestamps with payment to go higher up a merkle tree; AI agent as dvm for calculating trust
- Ben is more wary of AI long term and thinks it will be more monolithic than swarm-like; perhaps it becomes a benign dictator that could kill us or just give us what we need to be happy; could be capitalism as we know it eating itself and requiring a new system?
- How the Light Gets In: philosophy festival (part of haybook festival): open AI guy calling the god AI Super Gaia
- Max’s idea on AI: there will be always trade-offs resulting in different forms of intelligence

2024-09-23 22:40:10 UTC

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h/t @npub1lun…27lj
#note1kgt…9rw9

2024-09-15 20:39:13 UTC

WHO DAT?!

2024-09-13 20:43:03 UTC

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Stacker News AMA with @npub1trr…hdpu is LIVE - this will be ⚡️🔥
#note1f45…ydsc

2024-09-13 19:36:49 UTC

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size
#note1gm2…rjn3

2024-09-11 22:11:32 UTC

The challenge of securely logging into a nostr mobile app seems to be stifling innovation/usage for a number of powerful experiences. I've run into this repeatedly over the last couple of days.
Who is actively working on solving this?
I know @npub1l2v…ajft has nsecbunker and @npub1xdt…ntxy has nsec.app. What else is out there ?

2024-09-10 17:42:26 UTC

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https://m.primal.net/KmIS.jpg
I like to open it up to random pages - I Ching style
#note195j…qf4d

2024-09-10 04:54:20 UTC

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Yes! It's easy on browser with @npub1get…0nfm
Not sure on mobile. Someone else was asking me this as well, so might be worth making this easier to see @npub1kmw…xqk9
Also @npub1kuy…kdj8 had some great ideas around making it easier to see that you can zap a note from a client like @npub12vk…pugg or @npub18m7…q955 and that the zap will go toward the project goal. Could be as simple as marking the zap in some way. Perhaps a crowdfunding NIP (is there already one?) could make this easier

2024-09-10 04:08:14 UTC

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Funding Secured!!! 💰 ₿ 𓅦 🇧🇷 >4.2M sats from >140 nostriches
Ask and ye shall receive! On Friday, I noticed an amazing Nostr billboard in Amsterdam put up by @npub1qe3…zefe & based upon ideas from @npub1spr…8s72. I asked if anyone was doing something similar for Brazil, a country where awareness might really move the needle at this particular moment in time (h/t @npub18pl…hesh for the mind seed). By Saturday, @npub1kmw…xqk9 had launched a project and worked out the logistics with @npub13u2…gkaz. As of 30 mins ago, we crossed the finish line thanks to a generous contribution from @npub1ug8…d9ry.
This is a BFD and shows the power of open networks for communication, value, and payments working symbiotically together. We literally willed an idea into existence in ~ 3 days (and I'm guessing we'll need a few more to get the art/message settled and board up).
Social media was powerful in the past, but ultimately very limited. It's one thing to rally and organize the troops. It's something else entirely to transmute that potential energy into kinetic energy via the coalescence of "real world" value. The digital world is now reshaping the physical and this is just the beginning.
Nostr, Bitcoin, and the Lightning Network together are much more powerful than anyone yet realizes 𓅦₿⚡️
#note1w68…28zm

2024-09-09 23:00:36 UTC

Speaking of which: I love @npub1ste…mul5! Is anyone still working on this project? Probably the best example of the Nostr native remix economy to date

2024-09-09 21:13:45 UTC

We've got >3M sats from 138 contributors! Who's gonna help us get over the finish line to put up a Nostr billboard in Brazil? 🇧🇷 𓅦
https://geyser.fund/project/nostrifybrazil via @npub1kmw…xqk9

2024-09-09 21:08:06 UTC

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How much of this bump do you think was actually new users from Brazil?
My guess is that most of these were Bitcoiners reactivating after reading about Telegram and Brazil. Could also be a post conference bump. And, ofc, we've been growing steadily for ~6mos. It seems like folks are returning and sticking around due to better app experiences, interoperability, etc. One great example is that returning Bitcoiners are now able to link their npub to their @npub1v5u…n0v5 account and a have much richer experience with a pre-populated social graph like Breaker back in the day.
Wdyt? If these are Brazilians, where can I find them?
#note1qqq…yrmp

2024-09-08 20:22:24 UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShWTcxqUqvw

2024-09-08 19:56:43 UTC

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open code + open data --> digital life evolves
This reminds me a lot of my convo with @npub1lun…27lj
https://fountain.fm/episode/E8PW5z2yVPzNBN2b44Kr
#note1pyw…ku8a

2024-09-07 21:43:07 UTC

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Funding Match Secured 💰 ₿ 𓅦
Big shout to @npub1xts…kk5s Let's keep going! We're about 2M sats away. Who's up next?
https://tidal.com/browse/track/4527443?u
#note1utd…c98r

2024-09-07 18:47:47 UTC

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Ask and ye shall receive - well done @npub1kmw…xqk9!
I just made an initial donation. I'll match another 420k sats if folks donate today. We're currently at ~680k sats. Let's make this happen 🇧🇷🚀
https://geyser.fund/project/nostrifybrazil/
#note1l0g…txn8

2024-09-06 22:48:01 UTC

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This is amazing! I didn't realize it was real.
Is anyone working on crowdfunding a similar billboard for 🇧🇷?
cc @npub1qe3…zefe @npub1kmw…xqk9 @npub1kuy…kdj8 @npub1ug8…d9ry @npub1j8y…vrvg
#note1hx8…ve54

2024-08-31 00:39:26 UTC

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This is a really great idea! Lmk if you end up building a Nostr Orkut clone for 🇧🇷 The window is open to get meaningful traction quickly
#note1n6s…tsdg