sword in the stone / sword in the stone is on Nostr

Long time Bitcoiner, new to Nostr!

Last Notes

2026-03-14 07:06:01 UTC

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Sorry forgot to reply. Basically the original argument was that Core fundamentally changed Bitcoin when they changed the op return limit. As in, they had changed the way Bitcoin worked at a network level. That also means not just for nodes running that software, but for everyone on the network.
But when BIP110 was first introduced, it was framed as 'Core have changed Bitcoin, we want to change it back.' That message may have changed now, but that was certainly the original framing.
Then as time went on the community level of understanding about the difference between relay policy and consensus policy deepened. I had no idea about any of this before this whole drama, and neither did most people.
But now it's quite apparent that Core didn't change the consensus rules, they just changed the default policy to match consensus.
And quite the opposite, it's BIP110 which is actually a change to Bitcoin, and not just for the people running it, but for everyone else too.
That's the only sometimes dishonest feeling thing about the framing, just that it keeps shifting

2026-03-11 08:57:00 UTC

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One way I like to think about it is: Your node allows you to control YOUR experience of using Bitcoin, but it doesn't give any control over the network.
So the reason to run a node is really to verify your own transactions, not other people's.
But that cuts both ways. A node run by an exchange or a miner can't determine your experience of using or verifying Bitcoin either.
However all nodes agree to the consensus rules, so only changes to the consensus rules matter. Otherwise you can just run another client or an old version.
And to be honest I'm on the fence about BIP 110 because I feel like a lot of the time it's either framed dishonestly or a lot of supporters don't understand it. But it's BIP 110 which is actually changing OTHER people's experience of Bitcoin, i.e consensus rules, not the other way round.

2026-03-08 07:51:23 UTC

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I'm genuinely confused, what exactly are you referring to?

2026-02-21 02:17:06 UTC

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That's so scary!

2025-02-11 20:47:07 UTC

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I will say I don't think most people need that tech to bypass firewalls and censorship though, or at least not Mullvad's primary user base. So it's not really a threat to them. Whereas Obscura is going to be targeting a slightly different customer base, and yet they're still effectively funneling customers to Mullvad, so I'm sure this is a win for both companies. Obscura gets access to a lot more infrastructure than they could offer and they can just focus on their tech, Mullvad gets lots of new customers effectively through Obscura.
Also, I'm not sure at all on the details of Obscura or how it works or who's behind it or anything (the website seems to be down anyway so maybe they can't handle the traffic of this sudden spike in interest). So take this with a massive pinch of salt, but Mullvad's primary customer base are people who want the best level of privacy from their VPN provider, they allow anonymous sign ups with no account details, pay in lots of different ways etc. And a potential problem with using a service like Obscura which goes through two different services (Obscura and then Mullvad) is that you're increasing your exposure to different parties, so maybe you're increasing your exposure to correlation attacks which could de-anonymise you for example, or maybe to supply chain attacks.
That's why I was saying they're probably different audiences, because it seems like Obscura's main benefit is this tech to bypass firewalls by obfuscating traffic. But that's not really Mullvad's use case. And if you want better obfuscation with Mullvad then you've got their DAITA system anyway which makes every packet the same size/timing to avoid traffic analysis.

2025-02-11 20:37:20 UTC

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Out of interest what problems have you run into? I've had Ubuntu 23.10, then updated to 24.04, then updated to 24.10 and it's been rock solid even with lots of messing about.
By the way if you're looking at Debian then you might want to look at Spiral Linux. It's not a separate distro, it's just a configuration for Debian but still uses all standard repos etc. But basically it's just Debian with BTRFS encrypted, Snapper (snapshots) with grub integration, backports and flatpaks enabled by default etc etc. It's just exactly what you might want to do if you were setting up a Debian desktop, but all done for you, and without the risk of anything happening to the distro or it's maintainer because they're not actually separate.
On the broader point I really wouldn't recommend Arch or Nix, just soooo much messing about for no real world benefit that I can see. Even if you like to tinker, after several months all I can say is save your sanity and don't let it eat away at your time.
So other than that maybe look at Fedora, maybe OpenSuse, or even OpenMandriva?

2025-02-02 15:13:47 UTC

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I'm just outside Valencia now and you can really see the destructive force of the floods even far away from the worst affected areas. There's also an impression that a lot of emergency work was done at the very start, and now things have really slowed down whilst people are waiting for resources and money to be allocated to start rebuilding. It's still a lovely area to visit though as the people are really nice.
Also very strange walking through the now completely drive river beds (best place to walk the dogs) and seeing how high the water must have been!
https://i.nostr.build/gEVinOAJ2OLr63Mv.jpg
https://i.nostr.build/SyiIy7LQL3fnOAto.jpg
https://i.nostr.build/3v7EyLM1p1iGbq7z.jpg

2025-01-17 23:07:40 UTC

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Shouldn't you look like a cross between your daughter and your mom?
Now I'm confused.

2024-12-15 21:07:21 UTC

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I have no idea what any of that means but it sounds worrying!

2024-12-13 18:11:05 UTC

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I completely agree, and I find it so cringe whenever I hear people talk about psychedelics on podcasts.
It's like they're so oblivious to the fact that yes obviously doing drugs makes you feel something very intensely, but so what? That's nothing new. And yet they go on and on about metaphysical effects as if it's actually real, rather than just as you say, putting their body through something very unnatural and coming out the other side with a bit of a reset perspective.
But to be fair, I do subscribe to the idea that every plant on the planet is the exact right medicine for something, it's just a question of knowing which medicine to use for a particular illness. And obviously you don't take medicine every day, or when you don't need it, or a for a disease that you don't have.
So I will say fair play to them, if you've found the right medicine to take for a particular condition and it helps, amazing. But I think too many people self prescribe that medicine to themselves just to feel good, and that is simply drug abuse, nothing more.
Like weed, yes it stimulates your dopamine receptors like crazy, and that is definitely the required treatment (in tiny moderation) for something. But it's not a healthy lifestyle, as you'll just burn out your dopamine receptors and they'll be harder and harder to activate (literally hardened). And then you'll never ever more extreme stimulation to feel anything.
But people who are addicted will get angry when you tell them that, because they are literally dependent on the substance to boost their dopamine levels, so they get angry if they feel their dependency might be taken away from them.
Anyway bit of rant, but hopefully you see what I mean. Yes it's all useful and medicinal for something, but that doesn't mean that everyone should just be self prescribing dopamine hits to themselves as if that's a healthy way to go through life.

2024-11-25 21:46:27 UTC

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48 too apparently. I'm actually 37 but very grumpy, so I'm OK with that result.

2024-11-18 08:24:39 UTC

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100%, fuck patents, fuck intellectual property, fuck copyright.
You can't copy Bitcoin. You can copy other information, end of.

2024-11-17 10:03:11 UTC

#gm #nostr from
Jessie (who is nearly 15!)
https://image.nostr.build/1f3083c66b4de60239aacfb5a810507c8c0d59386b7f5c3a7d895d8e4e0d7c54.jpg
and Blue (11 but thinks he's a puppy)
https://image.nostr.build/ed2203cce5cafa1b5277cb1c3ef1524361ff9c567f6141cda15426e7348888c0.jpg

2024-11-16 20:37:10 UTC

What the world desperately needs is a Nostr based alternative to YouTube!

2024-11-11 17:19:03 UTC

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I have those exact same plant pots!

2024-10-15 02:07:23 UTC

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Shack

2024-10-05 18:46:38 UTC

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The same goes for bitcoin. People must actually use it to make transactions if they want to see it succeed.

2024-09-26 09:08:13 UTC

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Not sure about the technical answer to your question, but I do think there's a 'if you build it they will come' element to Nostr for sure.