provoost
Sjors Provoost

Knaken (colloquial Dutch for former ƒ2.50 coins) was preemptively declared bankrupt by the court, at the request of the public prosecutor.
The reasoning is interesting. Because:
1. They didn't inform customers that €7 million is missing (for unknown reasons)
2. They locked users out of their accounts
3. They discouraged customers to take action
This makes it difficult for customers to assess their legal options and to request bankruptcy themselves.
https://www.rechtspraak.nl/organisatie-en-contact/organisatie/rechtbanken/rechtbank-rotterdam/nieuws/2026/07/knaken-cryptohandel-b.v.-failliet-verklaard

2026-07-16 11:04:10 UTC

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Who is "they"? The EU didn't exist 60 years ago.

2026-07-15 16:40:13 UTC

Guess who's back? https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/@nado/episodes/aaron-and-sjors-discuss-whats-new-in-bitcoin-core-v31

2026-07-15 13:01:36 UTC

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Yes, though it depends on how much these social media companies feel like complying - since they could detect VPN use.
But we can also just use Nostr.

2026-07-15 12:43:44 UTC

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It would only benefit people traveling between Latin America and Europe, and compete with Panama for much of that demographic.

2026-07-15 12:32:53 UTC

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You probably need to be an important enough destination for that to make economic sense. And for Amsterdam it's not really the case, as both the airport and KLM are heavily subsidized for their supposedly economic benefit as a transit hub. Well, convenient for me since we have flights everywhere.

2026-07-15 12:30:48 UTC

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Yeah it's retarded. But apparently not annoying enough for some Caribbean island to become a transit hub (like the Bahamas).

2026-07-15 09:46:44 UTC

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#nevent1q…fwr2

2026-07-15 09:46:03 UTC

My impression from reading more about the EU Digital Wallet project is that it originally had nothing to do with age verification. It was supposed to be a handy tool for a digital drivers license, for opening a bank account online abroad, making a digital signature, etc..
For such applications the privacy trade-offs were probably fine. Sure, the Dutch government can see that you just opened a German bank account. But they'd be notified of that anyway.
Where it gets more dubious is the requirement that large social networks support it for login. Then the government can see which accounts you have. And lock you out of them!
But realistically nobody would use that, it'd be some obscure option on the signup screen.
But then it got hijacked by the age-verification gang, headed by Von der Leyen herself - so coming straight from the top.
Because these apps will (initially) be the only way to do age verification, they go from a niche option to the default and effectively mandatory. And so what a started as a handy way to open a bank account after moving abroad, turns into a mass surveillance and censorship machine.
None of this is excusable, and the people voting for it knew (or were willfully ignorant, no moral difference) this would happen. But it's useful to understand the dynamics.
https://youtu.be/4VRRriyDKKk

2026-07-15 07:30:42 UTC

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#nevent1q…fwr2

2026-07-15 07:30:25 UTC

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Note that there's no such thing as an EU age verification app. Every country will have their own app, with different architectures and security / privacy* trade-offs.
E.g. the Dutch app doesn't have the keys. Instead all signing is done by a government server (with an HSM, but who cares). Websites with age checks require that government signature.
* = or lack of it, usually

2026-07-15 07:23:05 UTC

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You're bypassing a demo?

2026-07-14 19:07:15 UTC

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Thanks for having me.
To learn more about Stratum v2: https://stratumprotocol.org

2026-07-14 15:10:37 UTC

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I.e. 100 grams per liter. About the same per liter as Frappuccinos, but way less filling.
https://www.starbucks.com/menu/product/424/iced/nutrition

2026-07-14 14:41:52 UTC

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This part I haven't figured out, nor do I want to: it's some obtuse EU thing. I'm sure it has lots of checkboxes and doesn't actually checks the things that matters.

2026-07-14 10:58:19 UTC

I had Codex whip up a list of EU (adjacent) countries and their Digital Identity wallets. Many have already launched!
It seems multiple countries simply ignored the open source requirement, or certification for that matter. Safe to assume they also ignored the privacy requirements then.
Anyway, I don't have time to fully verify this list, let alone maintain it. Feel free to fork and take over...
https://sjors.github.io/eu-digital-wallets/

2026-07-14 08:56:07 UTC

Just a reminder that it's quite easy for someone to wipe their website history from the internet archive, making it hard to prove someone said something after the fact.
https://youtu.be/dWb9vRzsrk8
https://image.nostr.build/9e5b12cd7ba77e0516b735f0a0cd25cb89fde4329a2acbbbfe768ca855c2b386.jpg

2026-07-13 16:54:37 UTC

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"tappable" with two p's
Tapaple is a JavaScript library.
When I ask the (ever retarted) Google AI about "Tapable exploit" it thinks I meant Tapjacking. So maybe Fable thought you were trying something sneaky with js?

2026-07-13 16:49:07 UTC

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No 5

2026-07-13 16:48:48 UTC

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(I meant footnote 4 btw)

2026-07-13 16:46:24 UTC

Fable flagged my attempt to expose yet another privacy leak in the Dutch implementation of the EU Digital Identity wallet.
Gave them /feedback to not do that. Anyway, I'm sure Opus 4.8 can handle it.
https://image.nostr.build/666b8c8e16e2f1f36fb899d52a0588f2daaea76c7d489257e36b85201e3f401a.jpg

2026-07-13 15:19:09 UTC

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And given that you're in the EU, asking you to disclose your GPS location is a probably a GDPR violation?

2026-07-13 13:51:12 UTC

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In the past the EU did perform such studies, but they ask very suggestive questions.

2026-07-13 12:16:27 UTC

There should be age limits on who these EU propagandists are allowed to survey, manipulate and abuse.
#nevent1q…0nrr

2026-07-12 12:50:24 UTC

One reason to not flee The Netherlands over the upcoming unrealized capital gains tax, is that I'm looking forward to sue the government once they claim such forks are gains that I should pay taxes over.
Precisely because of the reasons here: claiming the forks is work, and dangerous work at that. So it should be taxed as income, if and only if I do such work.
#nevent1q…xc6y

2026-07-12 12:43:39 UTC

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address != obey
In the high-voltage line example many objections were addressed by adjusting the plan, but more than 50 were addressed through the court system.
There's no high court for open source. Instead there is:
1. Forks (of the code), like Knots (which doesn't get much technical scrutiny, so doesn't have to address many objections in code review)
2. The process of rough technical consensus (which BIP110 folks do not follow, as they completely ignore - rather than address - technical objections to their idiotic code)
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7282

2026-07-12 12:04:38 UTC

Reading a (different) long form article about why it took 15 years to plan (not build) a 100km high voltage line. Basically a Bitcoin Core pull request, where you just keep improving it until everyone and their mom has their objections addressed.
https://www.omroepbrabant.nl/nieuws/6016664/hoogspanningslijn-liet-15-jaar-op-zich-wachten-door-juridisch-gesteggel

2026-07-11 15:28:19 UTC

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Dear EU lawmakers, please split your commits...
Claude: done
https://github.com/Sjors/eu-lex-digital-identity
https://image.nostr.build/d88dc61a6b465d319f8d7ce594b9c50e560d5839d0e0c65f4915fe974d4e8fc5.jpg

2026-07-11 14:37:09 UTC

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Short term yes, long term is not something most politicians are concerned with.

2026-07-11 14:14:36 UTC

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Well it solves their budget problem without raising taxes?

2026-07-11 12:36:50 UTC

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I haven't studied that part of the Directive yet. Recovery could just mean: if you lose your pin, you sign up again, download your digital drivers license and other stuff again. Not much different from losing a physical wallet. It's a UX trade-off, but with serious privacy consequences.
The harder (but maybe not impossible) part is blacklisting (by the authorities) and revocation (by the user, after they lose access).

2026-07-11 12:33:14 UTC

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Article 5a(3) is what actually counts:
> The source code of the application software components of European Digital Identity Wallets shall be open-source licensed. Member States may provide that, for duly justified reasons, the source code of specific components other than those installed on user devices shall not be disclosed.
The EU is nice enough to publish a consolidated text, i.e. the 2024 patch applied to the 2014 Directive. The authoritative legal source is the patch. It's also where the recitals live, which is like a ten page commit message.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2014/910/2024-10-18

2026-07-11 11:20:07 UTC

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The one-to-one coupling does it, yes. It would still be the case if they follow my suggestion to generate (and store) a random number for each BSN and then hash that.
It's not fundamental to the EU directive afaik, it's a problem with this particular architecture. But I suspect that any conceivable architecture that's permitted under the law (which is flexible) is going to have serious issues like this.

2026-07-11 09:18:07 UTC

Oh this is actually mandatory (to be fair, the Dutch government embraced open source in similar projects in the past).
So ask your clanker to follow my investigation and repeat the same analysis on your country's app.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32024R1183
https://image.nostr.build/e699daf4fbb0ce02338e661105d565d2f817213a7ee2143940167ea30cf426c8.jpg
#nevent1q…hdae

2026-07-11 07:24:45 UTC

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Governments would rather sue big corporations, than hold parent voters responsible for their children.

2026-07-10 19:32:22 UTC

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That said, my limited experience with buying things from Ukrainian merchants is that half the advertised payment methods don't actually work, or at least get flagged by my fiat bank(s).

2026-07-10 19:27:46 UTC

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Well they can... as long as the Russians don't file a complaint I guess?
https://image.nostr.build/bbd803b3cc0807f5a907be6388aeccde2a39d1ee9dc7d1bb7e9505273d0571b4.jpg
https://image.nostr.build/67921d7c840df4d55bd7112e4e69f125337e5f100c7b3d0b0815c41e69c4b381.jpg
https://image.nostr.build/0b455f701f0c64a18de491805e7eeba1fda137d5f628dc49a8096da1a6be9866.jpg

2026-07-10 16:38:26 UTC

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Fwiw I, yesterday I probably black-pilled Claude with my prompts. Hence the need to await reality checks. Meanwhile I should probably read what actual security researchers have written so far.
#nevent1q…g2j2

2026-07-10 16:36:39 UTC

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I'll give the authors some time to respond, also to make sure I'm not hallucinating.
With some help from Claude I already found other potential issues, as hinted in the footnotes, but I want to more thoroughly understand these.

2026-07-10 16:34:49 UTC

I appreciate that the Dutch government at least open sources their dystopian age verification wallet project. It makes it possible to more accurately pin down where the privacy and censorship problems are. I would encourage others in the EU to look for what their country is up to.
First concrete issue found: they use a deterministic hash of the national identification number (SSN-like) as a recovery (and blacklisting) mechanism.
https://github.com/MinBZK/nl-wallet/issues/38

2026-07-09 19:56:18 UTC

Ok, maybe spent a bit too much time with Claude going down the EU digital wallet privacy theater rabbit hole.
I need to do some non-agentic reading of what actual humans wrote...
https://image.nostr.build/1ab251b94bf6b92109b8ce21a78b87eff0b4ffd70308f9930a0acd30c3cb0b73.jpg

2026-07-09 19:19:11 UTC

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@npub1cev…etlq

2026-07-09 18:53:55 UTC

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Madness, but sounds cool :-)

2026-07-09 18:44:34 UTC

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WhatsApp servers don't require device attestation? I.e. they let you use custom apps?

2026-07-09 10:00:48 UTC

Ondertussen, aan het front tussen HRIF.eu en DNB: https://waag.social/@hrifeu/116888990936533836

2026-07-08 19:41:20 UTC

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Cluster mempool based package relay soon(tm), hopefully.

2026-07-08 17:27:43 UTC

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And I assume the lack of package relay (beyond 1P1C) makes it even more painful?

2026-07-08 14:59:31 UTC

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Also if you switch wallets, the background monitor for the other wallet stops?

2026-07-08 14:57:34 UTC

@npub1xnf…lpr5 it seems that the NWC functionality will not pick up an attempted zap if I did it before (re)starting the app and its campfire. I've noticed this with other NWC integrations too, maybe it doesn't ask the relay for older events?

2026-07-08 13:54:51 UTC

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That said, I expect most DATUM users follow the drama on X, so there's not going to be that many users caught entirely by surprise. In that it's different from SegWit2x which relied on a very large uninformed userbase.

2026-07-08 13:52:13 UTC

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It reminds me of how the SegWit2x team initially planned to ship their "upgrade" without informing users of the fact it was a contentious hard-fork.

2026-07-08 13:50:22 UTC

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It has no effect given their hash rate.
However, since they have no way to contact all users, they're effectively making customers signal without their knowledge or intent. That seems malicious to me.

2026-07-08 11:51:00 UTC

#DAC8 infographic from @npub18ul…dcl9
https://dac8.com/infographics/dac8-en.jpg

2026-07-07 06:13:24 UTC

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@npub1zkh…qqcm it's already a great meme though.
https://image.nostr.build/13fab75c92a9d13630a46f2254990ead669bd5669d9cc0f85ea8c6fd4d541d10.jpg

2026-07-06 20:48:34 UTC

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Turns out it was a measurement glitch, not actually an imminent overload.
https://www.nu.nl/economie/6402115/stroomafsluiting-tilburg-kwam-door-foutieve-meter-niet-door-overbelasting.html

2026-07-06 18:22:51 UTC

Claude sees terror beetle...
https://image.nostr.build/08fb9fcdae7fb3c40a0a1523fc61c6fa97880374fb559534711f42815433ab46.jpg

2026-07-06 14:15:03 UTC

Omsk dus niet nét iets te ver weg...
https://nos.nl/artikel/2621910-oekraine-valt-grootste-russische-olieraffinaderij-in-omsk-aan

2026-07-06 14:08:32 UTC

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Fantom breaking is probably already killing people, but not sure how well these stats are collected.

2026-07-06 14:07:49 UTC

EU wants to make it easier to kill people on highways, using GPS jammers and fake speed limit signs: https://cybernews.com/privacy/europe-drivers-speeding-satellites/

2026-07-06 11:31:34 UTC

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Share with nostriches.
Share with nonestriches?

2026-07-06 08:43:22 UTC

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#nevent1q…k4cj

2026-07-06 08:42:55 UTC

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You should ask @npub1j9k…uswx

2026-07-06 07:05:23 UTC

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And at some point the government is going to give them friendly suggestions of other things to include in their fork.

2026-07-05 20:30:09 UTC

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Oh wait, no he served two terms.
> Kouloglou was a substitute member of the European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (PEGA Committee) from March 24, 2022 to July 18, 2023.
> We found with high confidence that his device was successfully infected with Pegasus spyware on or around October 21, 2022, and again on March 6 and 7, 2023.
So that's quite brazen.

2026-07-05 20:27:13 UTC

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Which makes you wonder why these checks are not standard procedure for such roles.

2026-07-05 20:26:29 UTC

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Not that this happened *before* he joined the EU parliament.

2026-07-05 20:24:36 UTC

Good to occasionally get your phone checked.
https://citizenlab.ca/research/member-of-committee-investigating-spyware-hacked-with-pegasus/

2026-07-05 20:20:53 UTC

A seventeen minute (pre-emptive) blackout on a Sunday morning, affecting 18k households, is somewhat concerning (and newsworthy here). But it's not "channel rug, time for UPS" long. RAID 1 for channel management data is never a bad idea though.
https://nos.nl/artikel/2621803-netbeheerders-schrikken-van-uitschakelen-stroomnet-tilburg-zeer-ongebruikelijk

2026-07-05 07:16:29 UTC

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It's pretty radical outside the mainstream too.

2026-07-04 16:04:27 UTC

> Your assets remain safe and secure, and will remain accessible at all times.
I wish Binance would just give up trying to get an MiCA license and instead actively encourage Europeans to use them anyway. But they're here to make money, not to do great things.
https://www.binance.com/en/blog/regulation/4457979419755346760 (ht @npub1dg6…sguz)

2026-07-04 15:01:29 UTC

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Still haven't run into this, but I probably will...

2026-07-04 13:27:50 UTC

Happy colony restructuring day! :-)

2026-07-04 08:42:49 UTC

Having lived here for 25 years, I can confirm these changes are impressive and mostly positive. Though in some cases the municipality cut down dozens of old trees to redesign a road, replacing them with "more" but tiny new trees.
https://youtu.be/M0jSNVk46gY

2026-07-02 07:59:08 UTC

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That bus looks pretty empty to me.

2026-07-01 13:06:10 UTC

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They just nuked your whole account or just refuse to continue with a chat? I had the latter happen with Codex once, although it seemed (to pretend everything is) ok when I pointed out that I was verifying my own uncommitted code.

2026-07-01 13:02:24 UTC

Shadowy super coder detected!
#nevent1q…mdpn

2026-07-01 11:46:35 UTC

Please @npub1klk…x3vt hurry up with replacing Telegram :-)
#nevent1q…s5c5

2026-07-01 11:44:20 UTC

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I think it's simpler than that: the EU is a huge market for regulatory capture, and American companies understand that and profit from it.

2026-07-01 10:00:42 UTC

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Question is who is doing the corrupting: #nevent1q…k3c9

2026-07-01 09:42:26 UTC

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With EU chat control we know it's US based AI / identity verification companies lobbying for it (Thorn in particular): https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/the-battle-over-chat-control-how-eu-governments-and-the-tech-lobby-are-trying-to-overturn-parliaments-vote-a-comprehensive-fact-check/

2026-07-01 08:22:14 UTC

GM
https://img.sprovoost.nl/0fc8428e9f518955526166ea328bf252baa951f879c1a36667dae191b6f9f4b1.webp
https://img.sprovoost.nl/4598ca408ecc8d361f3884d71979e723a940229b33367d1b9e8ce70ad471d9ff.webp
https://img.sprovoost.nl/5e9fc78345677135423d8aaaa4dcae50104a3dc920e5c0cb012c504b31101066.webp

2026-06-30 16:26:50 UTC

The bi-annual zombie returns...
#nevent1q…y8yz

2026-06-30 09:56:00 UTC

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Ok, ze gaan over "enkele ogenblikken" beginnen.

2026-06-30 09:21:25 UTC

Eerste Kamer debat over #box3 zou nu moeten beginnen, maar ze zijn nog bezig over de herindeling van twee dorpen.
https://www.eerstekamer.nl/9370000/1/j9vvkfvj6b325az/vmufnioh93jf

2026-06-28 17:52:56 UTC

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My outer soles tend to die within two years or so, but I managed to find (hiking) shoes that can be resoled - we'll see how that goes.
I also figured out ridiculously late that there's such a thing as shoe width, and I needed wider ones (though leather can also stretch a bit).
Another pro tip: walk for about an hour before trying on new shoes, as your feet expand once warmed up. By the time you find out you've used them outdoors too much to return.

2026-06-28 15:26:19 UTC

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This also hinges on you having a device that let's you type the clear text without immediately ratting you out the censors. And the EU and UK are working really hard to outlaw such devices, with no tears from the CCP and friends.

2026-06-28 11:13:57 UTC

Anti-drone technology in action: https://youtube.com/shorts/KOyeNmrBe-4
(maybe teach them to bite through fiber cables?)

2026-06-28 10:49:47 UTC

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I mean this does look cool!
#nevent1q…jw0n

2026-06-28 09:59:30 UTC

Starting this Wednesday the Dutch Financial Stasi (FIU) can order banks to freeze your transactions. Presumably without ever telling you why.
Reminder: Bitcoin transactions can only be temporarily frozen on the order of Poisson.
https://nos.nl/artikel/2620677-dit-verandert-per-1-juli-belverbod-voor-bedrijven-duurder-pakje-uit-china
https://image.nostr.build/15c4913d686bbea753d543bba3cd4ef4ba02cf1f32e45e3836e1022de3bc6ec6.jpg

2026-06-28 08:54:37 UTC

Let me guess, someone vibe coded a list website?
#nevent1q…hp57

2026-06-27 13:39:56 UTC

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Didn't hit my session limit yet, so switched from High to Ultracode and asked the agent to debunk to scheme :-)
https://image.nostr.build/42802b7028ec642e58a41a5c15e93a164887a1854e00c2142e0e8e96cfa7e1c5.jpg

2026-06-27 13:35:21 UTC

Tried to wrap my head around @npub1cev…etlq's latest quantum tripwire proposal, which lets victims* of quantum-theft prove** that ECDL is broken... so I vibe coded it.
* = only those who use a NUMS point in the taproot keypath. Attackers can't tell when that's the case, but they can still avoid the tripwire by not stealing from any taproot output.
** = so we depend less on a benevolent quantum computer operator helping out.
https://github.com/Sjors/bitcoin/pull/121

2026-06-27 09:03:03 UTC

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* is competent

2026-06-27 09:02:44 UTC

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Which of course they won't take care half of the time. And so you have to call again and explain the situation, hoping this time the person is confident.
Meanwhile for ever interaction you get ... AN EMAIL ASKING YOUR FEEDBACK. So I have to put with their email and answer all their stupid questions, but the other way around, nope.

2026-06-27 09:00:36 UTC

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WhatsApp being the only alternative to something even worse: a browser chatbot that you have to keep an eye on. Or even worse: CALLING THEM, where you speak a random support staff who may or may not know what they're doing, and with no written record of what they promised they would take care of.

2026-06-27 08:56:47 UTC

One of the more annoying trends is companies completely disabling email support and switching to WhatsApp. Stateless whatsapp, so you can't follow up on a previous issue because the employee and bots can't see history.

2026-06-26 21:07:06 UTC

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This was around the same time as the "mostly peaceful" protests for car free (autovrij) neighborhoods all over the country.
https://youtu.be/06_ggJCU_n4
https://image.nostr.build/8b13fa15dfb07de4754e5de9d3ca4bc7343baa360ef1b762ad3ab92542f04fad.jpg

2026-06-26 20:46:49 UTC

The Dutch fatbike saga is hilarious. In the olden day, all the cool kids had a moped (bromfiets). But then in 1975 the government mandated helmets.
But helmets are terrible for your hair (apparently, I haven't had either for decades). So everyone switched to a speed-limited variant (snorfiets) which doesn't require a helmet. And then of course they'd bypass the speed limiter, you'd get fines for doing that, etc.
Enter the fatbike: same speed limit, equally trivial to bypass, no helmet required. The same type of annoying youth using it, which sets the stage. But these things are also wildly popular with young kids with a predictable increase in accidents.
(adjusted for inflation a fatbike costs about the same as a moped, but economic growth outpaced inflation, and modern parents are much richer - and have fewer kids to spoil)
How to solve that? You could make helmets mandatory on all e-bikes, which would reduce their social status, but that's like revoking the Second Amendment.
No, the solution is simple, just ban bicycles with tires wider than 7cm! Yes, some cities did this ... so now you can buy fatbikes with 7cm tires, known as skinny-bikes.
The article here predicts we'll get mandatory helmets for all e-bikes, until age 18 (queue lawsuits over how cops decide how old you look, and/or whether it's proportional to stop all cyclists and ask for ID during random checks).
I guess they'll gradually raise that age as the new generation gets used to helmets. I think the aversion to helmets isn't about protecting ones hair, but rather a dislike of cars, which were gaining popularity back in the seventies, resulting in increased accidents, especially with kids. People correctly demanded physically separate bike lanes, rather than being forced to wear a helmet. But we have those now, so the new generation doesn't have to continue this fight.
https://wnl.tv/2026/06/26/fatbike-ondernemer-omzeilt-verbod-met-dunnere-banden-zodra-die-er-zijn-mogen-ze-hier-fietsen-erkent-wethouder

2026-06-26 11:10:36 UTC

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfzW2WEX3kPrL8-j1xI3gg9PgfCiOWeRuyutZ_q0y-XgiCYag/viewform
https://image.nostr.build/4fca7f34b0bbdcf62c0941611ad84e4c5b6e0bfbeb47921ea8c5303a63ab69ad.jpg