Gauss
Rafe Gauss⚡️

The real enemy? Progressive taxation.
One intervention creates problems that demand five more interventions, each generating revenue for the system.
Start with a 15% top rate "just on the wealthy." Within decades, you get bracket creep pushing middle-class earners into those top rates. Politicians respond by creating new deductions and credits to "help families."
Tax code balloons from 400 pages to 75,000 pages. Compliance costs hit $400 billion annually in the US alone. Small businesses hire accountants instead of workers. Entrepreneurs relocate to Singapore or Dubai.
Each complication spawns three new bureaucracies. The Alternative Minimum Tax arrives to catch "tax avoiders" (translation: people following the law). Then comes the Earned Income Tax Credit to help low earners crushed by payroll taxes. Estate tax planning creates entire industries. Corporate inversions trigger anti-inversion rules that trigger new loopholes that trigger more rules.
Sweden tried this experiment in the 1970s and 80s. Top rates hit 87%. Astrid Lindgren (Pippi Longstocking author) paid 102% marginal rates. IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad fled to Switzerland. Tennis star Björn Borg moved to Monaco. Tax revenues as percentage of GDP actually fell. Sweden eventually slashed rates and simplified the system.
The original promise was to soak the rich. The result: middle class paying 40%+ effective rates while billionaires hire armies of lawyers to pay 15%. Each new "fix" creates ten new distortions, ten new lobbying opportunities, ten new ways for connected insiders to game the system.
Modern taxation, working as designed.
#economy #libertarian

2026-05-02 10:00:48 CEST

Your town starts with a simple 2% property tax to fund basic services.
Year 3: Revenue shortfall hits. Infrastructure "desperately needs" upgrades. Property tax jumps to 3.5%. City council promises this covers everything.
Year 5: School district claims crisis funding needs. Separate education tax appears; just 1.5% for the children, they say. Your total tax load now sits at 5%.
Year 8: Environmental impact assessments become mandatory for all development. New environmental compliance tax of 0.8% gets tacked on. Plus a transportation improvement fee of 1.2% because the roads can't handle the delayed projects.
Year 12: Housing affordability crisis emerges (funny how that works). City creates affordable housing trust fund requiring another 1% tax. Storm water management fees add 0.5%. Total burden now exceeds 8.5%.
Year 15: Local businesses start fleeing to neighboring counties. Commercial tax base shrinks. Residential property owners must make up the difference. Rates jump across all categories. Your effective rate hits 11%.
The city's books show every tax paying for its designated purpose. The infrastructure still crumbles. Schools still claim poverty. Housing costs skyrocketed beyond what any middle-class family can afford.
You started with one modest tax for basic municipal services. A complex web of overlapping levies now funds an army of bureaucrats managing the crisis created by the previous army of bureaucrats.
Each department gets its budget. Each program gets its funding. Each tax collector gets their cut.
The services you actually wanted remain broken, just more expensive.
#economy #libertarian
https://blossom.primal.net/770e0e9194ad52217abd236c67b8b22224082e4bbe3c3723ade2cfa1e970be34.jpg

2026-05-02 08:23:27 CEST

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В монеро размер блоков динамичный. Это увеличивает блокчейн.
Как ты оцениваешь критику биткоинеров, что это приведет к централизации узлов в руках богатых крупных участников?
Те же аргументы они высказывали в войне с крупноблочниками.

2026-05-02 08:14:50 CEST

The #government forces you to hand over 30% of your income before you even see it, then taxes you again when you buy groceries, fill up your car, and pay your property taxes.
They call this "your fair share" while spending $6.75 trillion of your money in 2024 on wars you didn't vote for, subsidies for corporations that already turn massive profits, and bureaucrats whose jobs exist solely to create more rules for you to follow.
You work January through April just to pay the federal government. Add state and local taxes, and you're working until mid-May before you earn a single dollar for yourself. Medieval serfs worked one day in three for their lords. You work more than that for yours.
The tax code spans 75,000 pages. Complexity serves power. Simple rules would mean simple compliance and simple resistance. Complex rules require expensive accountants, create arbitrary enforcement, and ensure that only the connected can navigate the system efficiently. Small businesses drown in compliance costs while Amazon pays effective tax rates in the single digits.
They tell you taxes fund essential services, but the largest expenditures go to interest payments on debt they created and military interventions that make you less safe. Your local roads get funded, but so do gender studies programs in Pakistan and million-dollar grants to study the mating habits of quail on cocaine.
Every tax they collect represents hours of your life you'll never get back, traded not for services you chose, but for priorities politicians selected while spending other people's money.
#economy #libertarian
https://blossom.primal.net/8bc52496863ed38606bc935fc1b4619fc847f1d0d0a6f4e986592ba14b0a19aa.jpg

2026-05-01 20:03:29 CEST

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Книгу нашел на литресе.
Вот это единство в монеро меня радует. В битке много высокомерия. Травят и оскорбляют за критический взгляд.
А технически монеро может размещать у себя мусор вместе/вместо денежных транзакций? Есть у него лазейки типа op_return в битке?

2026-05-01 15:15:15 CEST

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На русском эта книга есть?
Еще вопрос. Ординалы и др скамеры лезут в биток постоянно, в т ч сейчас через обновление кор30.
Но такого не было и нет в монеро. Почему? Технически возможно заполнить блоки монеро неденежными транзакциями и всякой ерундой типа картинок? Вообще в блокчейне монеро есть этот мусор сейчас?

2026-05-01 14:26:48 CEST

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Да, я имею в виду не вероятность события. Я переоцениваю доводы о преимуществах биткоина и стараюсь быть объективным. Действительно, много высокомерия и шапкозакидательства в биткоин-среде.
Поэтому думаю, что фиксированная инфляция это одновременно и преимущество, и проклятие биткоина. Даже видимо правильно будет сказать: преимущестао в начале и проклятие потом.
Это уберегло бы и монеро от возможных в будущем дискуссий об отмене инфляции монет.
Второй вопрос.
В биткоине много говорили о безопасности сети. Но события последнего года заставили меня задуматься.
Оказалось, что биткоин может убить команда разработчиков. Я по-другому взглянул на войну блоков в начале битка. По-сути идет перманентная внутренняя грызня между разрабами, а подавляющая часть майнеров и держателей узлов не понимают или не хотят понять уровень угрозы.
Тут я опять убеждаюсь: там, где колхоз, там рано или поздно все сломают.
Вопрос. В монеро такое было раньше и возможно в принципе?

2026-05-01 11:46:48 CEST

The socialist fantasy operates on a fundamental delusion: every advocate imagines themselves as the commissar, never the slave. They picture themselves redistributing wealth, not having their own wealth redistributed.
This economic illiteracy runs deeper than simple ignorance. Venezuela's middle class cheered Chávez's early expropriations of "the rich" before watching their own savings evaporate through hyperinflation. Cuba's revolutionary intellectuals celebrated the seizure of private property until they found themselves queuing for bread rations. The pattern repeats because socialists fundamentally misunderstand how wealth creation works.
Free market economists have explained this for decades: wealth isn't a fixed pie to be redistributed. You create wealth through voluntary exchange, capital accumulation, and entrepreneurial innovation. When you destroy the price system and eliminate private property rights, you obliterate the very mechanism that generates prosperity. The Soviet Union's 70-year experiment in central planning produced exactly what economic theory predicted: chronic shortages, technological stagnation, and mass poverty.
The cruel irony is that socialism's most vocal cheerleaders today come from the laptop class. They sip $7 lattes while typing manifestos about worker solidarity, completely insulated from the consequences of their ideology. They've never run a business, never met a payroll, never experienced the discipline that market forces impose on resource allocation.
History offers no examples of successful socialist transformation, only cautionary tales of economic collapse and human suffering. Yet the fantasy persists because it appeals to humanity's worst instincts: envy, laziness, and the desire to live off others' productive efforts without contributing value yourself.
#bitcoin #monero #economy #libertarian
https://blossom.primal.net/07d98ade07dd57f81cf98c8db0daf8b29b7b41237cafac568f1a5661989ff02f.jpg

2026-05-01 11:39:35 CEST

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Вопрос, на который биткоинеры или не отвечают, или уклоняются.
21 млн ограниченное предложение. Я вижу как преимущество, так и минус.
Все рисуют армагедон: власти атакуют биткоинеров, запреты, преследования и т.д.
Я бы на месте власти сделал наоборот. Хвалить, ездить на конференции, биткоин-резерв и т.д.
А сам по тихому скупал монеты и выводил из оборота. Фиат бесконечен и бесплатен. Времени вагон. Тихо без шума раз за разом.
Примерно то же самое они сделали и делают с золотом.
С монеро это не сработает из-за постоянной его инфляции. Даже небольшая она не дает властям такой возможности. Помимо другой цели инфляция монеро защищает сеть от такой атаки властей.
Что думаешь?

2026-05-01 10:32:22 CEST

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Я могу написать по-русски? Как я понял, ты владеешь языком. Если нет, то воспользуюсь переводчиком.

2026-04-27 15:03:36 CEST

Few know that the 'Encryption war' never ended: it began centuries ago and never stopped. The 90s “Encryption Wars” was just the feds tripping over their surveillance fetish in broad daylight.
Early cryptographers died unrecognized because their contributions couldn’t be acknowledged. Bletchley Park’s cryptanalysts remained classified long after 1945, so thousands of codebreakers returned to civilian life, sworn to silence, and while conventional soldiers could boast of heroics, those who fought actually pivotal intellectual battles had to dodge questions about their wartime service. Turing’s family had no idea what he did. Neither did Marian Rejewski’s. The Navajo code talkers got medals for fighting but with gag orders, etc., etc. I can continue forever... The cipher war never stopped, it just went silent: if people don’t realize they’re at war, they don’t fight back.
TL;DR: The state’s #crypto war never ended; they just got better at 'hiding the bodies': the state conducts cryptographic research today that won’t be declassified for decades... if ever. You don’t hate the state enough.
While some might argue that it's justified against external enemies, the next stage of the encryption war could target us. 'If a noticeable exodus to this parallel economy emerges, the state's greatest "national security" threat won't be foreign foes: it will be us - people who just want to be left alone.'
#bitcoin #monero #libertarian

2026-04-27 10:13:27 CEST

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What will change after activation? Please explain.

2026-04-27 10:04:33 CEST

Cash for Clunkers destroyed 690,000 functional vehicles in 2009, creating an artificial scarcity that rippled through used car markets for over a decade. The Obama administration sold this $3 billion program as environmental salvation and economic stimulus, but any free market economist could predict the real outcome: massive wealth destruction disguised as progress.
The program forced dealers to pour sodium silicate into engines, permanently destroying cars that poor families could have afforded. Politicians eliminated the bottom tier of the used car market overnight. Suddenly, a reliable $3,000 Honda Civic became a $7,000 Honda Civic (if you could find one). The supposed beneficiaries — working-class Americans who needed affordable transportation — got priced out entirely.
#Government intervention always creates unseen victims, and Cash for Clunkers delivered them by the millions. Single mothers, college students, and minimum-wage workers watched their mobility options vanish as used car prices soared 30% between 2009 and 2014. The environmental gains proved negligible too: most clunkers averaged 15-17 MPG while replacements hit 24-25 MPG. Destroying half a million cars to improve average fuel economy by 8 MPG represents the kind of central planning that would give Soviet bureaucrats a hard-on.
The wealth destruction extended beyond sticker prices. Higher transportation costs forced people into longer payment terms, creating a debt cycle that persists today. Cash for Clunkers normalized 84-month auto loans, turning cars from depreciating assets into multi-year financial anchors.
Bureaucrats congratulated themselves for moving inventory off dealer lots while condemning an entire generation to transportation poverty.
#bitcoin #economy #libertarian
https://blossom.primal.net/d8b3774dd46050c0355076a3019d8c1ae5d103458b213ce0f683b5cd0ccc1b83.jpg

2026-04-26 16:43:19 CEST

Poland's złoty collapsed into hyperinflation in 1989-90 because central planners had spent four decades pretending that economic calculation without market prices could actually work.
The Communist government's response to mounting economic crisis? Print more money. Inflation hit 640% in 1989, then exploded to over 1,200% in early 1990. Workers demanded higher wages to keep up with rising prices. The state obliged by creating more złoty out of thin air. Classic death spiral. You could watch a socialist economy eating itself in real time.
The deeper problem went beyond monetary policy. Socialist economies can't perform rational economic calculation because they abolished the price system. Without genuine market prices reflecting supply and demand, planners had no way to allocate resources efficiently. They operated blind for decades, building steel mills nobody wanted while bread lines stretched around city blocks. When reality finally crashed through the ideological facade, the only tool they had left was the printing press.
Poland's hyperinflation was the inevitable feature of any economy that destroys the price mechanism and replaces it with bureaucratic whims. Central planners can ignore economic laws for years, even decades. But they can't escape the consequences forever.
The 1990 Balcerowicz Plan stopped the hyperinflation by ending price controls and implementing a currency board. Free market economists had warned for decades that monetary expansion without corresponding increases in real production would end in disaster. Poland learned this lesson the hard way: you can suspend economic reality, but you can't suspend it indefinitely.
#bitcoin #economy #libertarian

2026-04-22 10:59:27 CEST

Eighty-five percent of the world's refugees are #Muslim. Not a single one of the 56 Muslim-majority countries is taking in refugees.
Eleven of these countries are among the richest in the world. If #Islam is so great, why aren't Muslims taking care of their own?

2026-04-07 22:57:12 CEST

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Me?

2026-04-07 12:43:45 CEST

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Coins are sent from the wallet, but the wallet says no. Why is that?
https://blossom.primal.net/36fb1b9d18a2ed4613a7d3877b8729fd2ef2d029622d72262c22c860299c9235.jpg

2026-04-04 12:35:15 CEST

The tendency to view the world in terms of eternity and immutability was characteristic of medieval man; the widespread desire of our contemporaries to have a constant general price level may be a relic of medieval mentalities.

2026-03-30 14:04:27 CEST

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https://youtu.be/tUTVVzcyy0Y?is=cZcQshnBDEX0O-e3

2026-03-30 13:26:40 CEST

If I tell a banker I want to clear half his vault of gold and replace it with pictures, he'll probably kick me out and say, "Go home, boy. This is no place for children."
But if I tell #bitcoin_core the same thing, they'll hire me for the development team.
#bitcoin #bip110 #knots
https://blossom.primal.net/bbdea571d8e61a2464738c6cdbf0024bf3efd0ea9e3c7b8b3d4c82c07bf3e7c0.jpg

2026-03-29 19:31:41 CEST

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https://blossom.primal.net/7dd703805588edf151c9aec29cce14ee7d135fd69dfef304c57eeb81ff3a60af.mp4

2026-03-25 13:12:28 CET

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The fungibility of #money, combined with the familiar nature of the jewelers' business, led to the transformation of banking—from a safekeeping relationship to a debt-based one. The question of how this change in legal relations occurred is posed by Powell: "When was the doctrine adopted that a banker is simply a debtor, and not a bailee, much less a trustee, of his clients' funds? What circumstances led to this change in his legal status and created an economic 'sport' that led to the degeneration of the financial system, immeasurably increasing its power? How did receipts and vouchers lose their connection with a specific deposit and come to refer only to the banker as a whole?"
Changes occurred evolutionarily.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, #bank customers went to court over fractional-reserve banking and the legal status of customer deposits. The courts almost always ruled that the banker was simply a debtor, not a bailee or trustee. Why? Primarily because the money or coins in custody lacked distinguishing features. This condition was a sine qua non in cases of theft or robbery: the courts believed that stolen property or goods must be identifiable. But the coins of a specific customer could not be identified. Thus, due to the natural fungibility of money, the banker could not be held liable as a bailee.
The courts treated cases involving banks the same way they would any other cases involving fraud or theft; they simply did not see the special nature of cash deposits.
As a result, “unpackaged and therefore unidentifiable coins were transferred for safekeeping, and the only course of action for the custodian to return the money was debt.”
This problem was finally resolved in #England only in the early 19th century.
Some depositors again questioned the traditional decisions of the English courts, arguing that "banks should be held liable no less than the class of bailees, which includes shipping companies, innkeepers, and others." However, "in 1833, in the case of Pitts v. Glegg, the court held that sums credited to a client's account by a banker, although usually called deposits, were in fact loans from the client to the banker."
Nevertheless, the courts recognized that the use of the term "deposit" was misleading, although they allowed bankers to use it. Developing this view, Lord Cottenham, in Foley v. Hill in 1848, held: "Money deposited with a banker is, to all intents and purposes, the banker's money, who is free to do with it as he pleases. He is not guilty of breach of trust in using it. He is not liable to the principal for exposing it to danger by engaging in a casual speculation; he is not bound to keep it or treat it as the principal's property, but he is certainly liable for the amount, because, having received it, he contracted to pay the principal, on demand, a sum equivalent to what he received."
#bitcoin
#nevent1q…m9ln

2026-03-20 12:08:26 CET

Mises said:
"#Gold is not an ideal basis for a monetary system.
Like everything man-made, the gold standard is not without its flaws; but under existing circumstances there is no other way to exempt the monetary system from the influence of fickle party politics and government intervention…"
We can say the same about #Bitcoin. We have no right to be careless and stimulate false euphoria.
Bitcoin core developers are arrogant not only because of their own moral decay, but also because of our misplaced, long-standing complacency and intellectual laziness. I'm not talking about everyone, but about the vast majority, including myself.
Test your beliefs and tools constantly and mercilessly. A Bitcoin maximalist doesn't necessarily ridicule and insult dissenters. A strong person doesn't waste time on the weaknesses and shortcomings of others, but rather focuses on their own.

2026-03-20 09:42:05 CET

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Mises said:
"No state is powerful enough to abolish the #gold standard. Gold serves as the currency of international trade and the supranational economic community of the human race. It is immune to the measures taken by states whose sovereignty is limited to specific countries. As long as a country is not economically self-sufficient in the strict sense of the term, as long as there are still isolated loopholes in the walls with which nation-states attempt to isolate themselves from the rest of the world, gold continues to be used as money.
It matters not that states confiscate gold coins and bullion when discovered, punish those who hoard them as criminals, and that the language of bilateral clearing agreements, through which states seek to exclude gold from international trade, avoids reference to gold. However, the transactions conducted under these agreements are settled in gold. Those who buy and sell on foreign markets calculate the profits and losses from these transactions in gold. Even though a country has severed all links between its local currency and gold, its domestic price structure remains closely tied to gold and world market prices. If a state wishes to decouple its domestic price structure from world market prices, it must resort to other measures, such as prohibitive import and export duties and embargoes.
Nationalization of foreign trade, either overtly or through direct exchange controls, does not exclude gold. The state, as a merchant, uses gold as a medium of exchange.
The struggle against gold, which is the primary concern of all modern states, cannot be viewed as an isolated phenomenon. It is merely one component of a gigantic process of destruction that has become the hallmark of our times. People fight against the gold standard because they want to replace free trade with autarky, peace with war, and freedom with totalitarian state omnipotence.
Perhaps technology will someday discover a way to increase the supply of gold at such a low cost that gold will become useless for monetary purposes. Then people will be forced to replace the gold standard with another. There's no point in worrying about how this problem will be resolved today. We have absolutely no idea the circumstances under which this decision will be made."
Today, we know the circumstances of the #Bitcoin standard's birth in every detail. The new monetary standard replaces the old one not because the latter is useless. The Bitcoin standard is gradually taking over economic power from the gold standard, just as a new accountant takes over the old accountant's files and documents. They don't need to quarrel. They don't need to measure their genitals. Because they are smarter than their adherents.
#nevent1q…99au

2026-03-20 09:13:20 CET

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Mises said: "The purchasing power of #money is unstable. But the very concept of stability and immutability of purchasing power is absurd.
In a living and changing world, no stability of purchasing power can exist. In the ideal design of a smoothly rotating economy, there is no room for a medium of exchange.
Changes in purchasing power are the essence of money.
#bitcoin
#nevent1q…5mml

2026-03-15 12:12:12 CET

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Driven by the massive influx of gold into world markets following the discovery of Californian and Australian #gold deposits, the gold-silver exchange rate fell rapidly between 1848 and 1859, causing the premium on silver coinage to increase.
For example, while the 15.85 to 1 exchange rate in 1848 was equivalent to a 0.8% premium on American #silver coinage, the 15.33 to 1 exchange rate in 1853 was equivalent to a 4.3% premium. This led not only to a rapid decline in silver supply to the Mint but also to the disappearance of silver coins from circulation—first half dollars, and then smaller coins. Public outrage erupted over the shortage of small change.
Various measures were taken to correct this situation.
In 1849, the government began issuing one-dollar gold coins, of which approximately $19 million was issued by 1862. In 1854, the minting of three-dollar gold coins began, and after 1849, the production of two-and-a-half-dollar gold coins increased sharply. Banknotes in denominations of less than a dollar, as well as fractional denominations of $1.25, $1.50, and $1.75, were issued. Privately issued banknotes and coins also circulated.
In rural areas, the population increasingly used "sharp change" or "chopped money"—Spanish dollars cut into quarters, eighths, and sixteenths. In addition, banknotes were torn in half and quarters, and these fragments became popularly known as "rags."
Where gold fails, #Bitcoin succeeds.
#nevent1q…qjqp

2026-03-14 07:22:32 CET

If you want to understand what #Islam stands for, then watch this. It’s just so depraved.
Iranian Mullah:
“Women are animals created by Allah to be used by men. Women are no different from cows, sheep, horses, or mules. God made women resemble humans.”
https://x.com/i/status/2032627487172108766

2026-03-13 14:50:27 CET

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Thanks to Augustus [27 BC – 14 AD], gold prevailed over silver. Augustus reduced the weight of the aureus from 126 grains, as it had been under Julius Caesar, to 122.9 grains. Gold and silver were minted with very precise weights [at a ratio of 12.5 to 1]. Copper and bronze were minted much more casually, i.e., the exact metal content of the coin was not monitored, but rather the required number of coins were minted from one pound. From Augustus to Nero [14–37 AD], this system remained unchanged, although the weight of the aureus was gradually reduced administratively, with a corresponding reduction in the weight of the denarius.
In the period from Nero to Diocletian [284-305] the monetary system of the empire was in complete disarray, and debasement of coins became commonplace.
The reigns of Claudius [41–54 CE] and Nero were marked by a massive counterfeiting and the widespread circulation of privately issued billon coins, primarily made of lead. Diocletian twice reduced the weight of the aureus in 312, and Constantine the Great [306–337] carried out a monetary reform that reduced the gold content of the aureus to approximately 70 grains—thus, since the time of Nero, the aureus has depreciated by approximately 38%.
#bitcoin #btc
#nevent1q…euzx

2026-03-13 14:05:48 CET

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Seventeen years after the establishment of the #Bank of #England, Addison, in one of his cleverest and most graceful allegories, described the position of this great institution, through which the enormous wealth of London constantly passed.
He imagined credit sitting on a throne in the hall of colonial merchants; above his head was the bank's charter, before his eyes the act of William's accession to the throne. Everything turned to gold at his touch. Behind him, sacks of money were piled high to the ceiling. To the right and left of him, pyramids of guineas rose.
Suddenly the door opens. The pretender bursts in, sponge in one hand, sword in the other, threatening the deed that gave the crown to William.
The magical power that transformed everything around him into treasure vanishes. The pile of sacks falls to the floor: empty; the pyramids of guineas turn into heaps of rags and splinters.
#bitcoin #btc
#nevent1q…8z7y

2026-03-13 13:30:35 CET

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When a merchant sold goods, he agreed on the currency in which he would be paid. Even businessmen became confused by the chaos that beset all monetary transactions.
Greed mercilessly robbed the simple and carefree, and its demands on them grew faster than the value of the coin diminished. The prices of basic necessities, shoes, ale, and oatmeal rose rapidly. A worker, coming to buy bread or beer, would find that the coin he'd received for a shilling wasn't worth even half a shilling.
Where there were large groups of fairly educated artisans, such as at the Chatham shipyard, the workers managed to be heard and, to some extent, relieved of oppression. But the helpless, ignorant farm laborer suffered cruelly, receiving money from the master by count, while the shopkeeper took it from him only by weight.
#bitcoin #btc
#nevent1q…s5tv

2026-03-13 12:49:07 CET

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Before Charles II, our coins were minted using a method that had survived from the 13th century. Edward I brought in skilled minters from Florence, which in his time was comparable to London. For many generations, the tools introduced into our mint then continued to serve virtually unchanged.
The metal was cut with scissors, then the pieces were rounded with a hammer, and the stamp was also hammered onto them. Much depended on the worker's hand and eye. Inevitably, some coins came out with slightly more, others slightly less than the exact amount of metal; only a few were perfectly round, and the coin did not have a rim. Therefore, over time, con artists found that coin clipping was the easiest and most profitable of all scams.
Under Elizabeth, it was already deemed necessary to decree that the clipper of a coin should be subject to the same punishment that had long been prescribed for counterfeiters—the death penalty. But the craft of clipping coins could not be killed by such measures, because it was too profitable, and around the time of the Restoration [1660] everyone began to notice that many of the crowns, half-crowns, and shillings that came into hands were somewhat clipped.
It was a time abundant with experiments and inventions in all branches of science. A plan emerged for a major improvement in the method of rounding coins and stamping them. A machine was installed in the Tower of London that largely replaced manual work. Horses turned the machine, and mechanics today would certainly call it crude and weak. Nevertheless, the coins it produced were among the best in Europe. They were difficult to counterfeit. Their roundness was perfectly correct, and the inscription ran along the edge; therefore, there was no need to fear clipping.
Hand-made and machine-made coins circulated together; the treasury accepted them equally in payment; therefore, the public accepted them equally. The financiers of the time apparently expected that the new coin, a very good one, would soon displace the old coin, which was badly damaged, from circulation. But any intelligent person should have realized that if the treasury accepted a full-weight and a light-weight coin as equivalent, the full-weight coin would not displace the light-weight one from circulation, but would itself be displaced by it. In England, a clipped crown was considered the same as an unclipped machine-made one when paying taxes or debts. But if a machine-made crown were cast into a piece or transported across a canal, it would prove to be worth much more than a clipped one. Therefore, with all the certainty that is possible in predictions about things that depend on the human will, one could predict that a bad coin will remain in that market which alone accepts it at the same price as a good one, and that a good coin will take such a form or go to such a place in which the benefit of its higher value will be obtained.
#bitcoin #btc
#nevent1q…gx62

2026-03-12 13:55:12 CET

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An example of an 18th-century #German sovereign for whom the very idea of having to pay his debts seemed strange is Landgrave Ernst Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt. Suffering from delusions of grandeur, he followed the example of other German princes in building numerous castles, all the while striving to have his own Versailles. He built more than a dozen, including a gigantic palace in which, as the emperor dismissively put it, he could have lived with all the electors and their courtiers.
The Landgrave's #money was supplied by the Frankfurt #banker Jacob Bernus, to whom he owed over 1 million guilders.
And like many others, Bernus had to learn that, under the legal conditions of the time, no power existed in Germany that could compel a dishonest sovereign to fulfill his obligations, personally signed and sealed by him. Even a court ruling issued in Vienna and entered into force, followed by the emperor's order to the Electors of Trier and the Palatinate to enforce it and force the Landgrave to pay, could not help him. The Electors remained unmoved, and the Landgrave died in 1739 without paying a penny.
Bernus could also receive nothing from the copper tithes and income from the Landgrave's iron works received as collateral. And Ernst Louis's successor, Louis VIII, refused to pay, claiming he was not responsible for his predecessor's personal debts. Meanwhile, as crown prince, he expressed his consent to loans from Bernus and, in some cases, even solemnly promised to pay his father's debts in the event of his father's death.
True, Louis VIII found it increasingly difficult after this to raise money from Frankfurt capitalists, and this sovereign was constantly in need of money, searching for it everywhere, begging at every Frankfurt fair, taking savings from his subjects, including court lackeys, musicians, and foresters.
Only in 1778 did the next Elector, Louis IX, agree to pay the heirs and creditors of Jacob Bernus approximately 28% of the debt without interest and in 3% bonds.
It is not surprising that in the mid-18th century they also said: do not lend to someone stronger, and if you do, look at the amount as lost, and they added: nobles make promises, but only peasants keep them.
npub1y2q9ds6qp7ms0mr882ju0g9dwvy4llje93tpwe0f4nmtczxty4uq7a37av
#bitcoin #btc
#nevent1q…n7yf

2026-03-12 13:14:00 CET

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Only in #England, from 1663 onward, were coins produced exclusively by machine, then their weight verified and minted using a lever press. But even there, alongside this magnificent coin—which, as contemporaries said, was truly unparalleled at the time—an older coin, minted using the same method, continued to circulate for nearly 70 years (it was completely withdrawn from circulation from 1732 onward). Consequently, England, too, experienced monetary crises in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Meanwhile, not only did the government, unlike other countries, not derive any revenue from the coinage, but even the very costs of minting (from 1666) were entirely absorbed by the treasury (something that still does not exist in other countries), so that the coin's nominal value and its actual metal content were identical.
But coin crises occurred because the old-fashioned coinage was displacing the new, machine-made coinage. The old coinage, being neither round nor uniform in thickness, was easily clipped, and the best specimens were removed from circulation. As a result, only debased and clipped coins remained in circulation, having lost on average 40-50% of their nominal value, and in some cases only 1/4 or 1/6 of it.
In 1696, this led to even merchants losing their heads, and the farmer having to deal, on the one hand, with people who paid money at face value, and on the other, with people who would only accept it by weight (i.e., at approximately half its face value).
As a result, when experiments with weighing coins were carried out in 1695, it was found that the 57,200 pounds of hammered silver deposited in the treasury weighed only 114,000 ounces, instead of 220,000 ounces, i.e., half; 100 pounds sterling, which should have contained about 400 ounces, actually had 240 ounces in Bristol, 203 in Cambridge, 180 in Exeter, and only 116 ounces in Oxford.
The decline in the weight of silver coins was particularly acute in the 1690s. The evil wrought by such a state of coinage is not one of those things to which history assigns a place of honor. Nevertheless, one can hardly compare all the misfortunes inflicted on the people over the course of a quarter of a century by bad ministers, bad parliaments, and bad judges with those who produced bad crowns and bad shillings.
The reigns of Charles and James, however hard they were on the people, never hindered the peaceful course of daily life. At the very time when the honor and independence of the state were being sold to another power, when rights were trampled underfoot, and the fundamental laws of the land were violated, hundreds of thousands of diligent families worked, sat down to table, and went to bed peacefully and securely, cattlemen drove their oxen to market, merchants weighed their goods, clothiers measured out their cloth, buyers and sellers in the cities behaved especially noisily, and harvest festivals in the villages were celebrated even more joyfully than before.
When the great instrument of circulation fell into complete disarray, commerce and industry stagnated. Evil was felt daily and hourly, everywhere and by all classes of the population: on the manor and in the barn, at the anvil and at the loom, on the ocean waves and in the bowels of the earth. Nothing could be bought without misunderstandings. At every stall, quarrels erupted from morning until evening. Clashes between workers and employers occurred regularly every Saturday. At the fair and the market, there was constant noise, shouting, cursing, and cursing, and it was a special blessing if the matter ended without broken chests or murder.
npub1y2q9ds6qp7ms0mr882ju0g9dwvy4llje93tpwe0f4nmtczxty4uq7a37av
#bitcoin #fiat #history
#nevent1q…5yqk

2026-03-12 12:33:52 CET

Even in the time of William III (i.e., at the end of the 17th century), old men reminisced about the times when there wasn't a single banker in the City of London; every merchant kept a cash register in his own home, and when bills were presented to him, he paid in cash. But then a new fashion arose, and a new class of agents emerged to guard the merchants' cash registers: goldsmiths, whose cellars could store large quantities of gold and silver ingots without danger from fire or robbery.
This innovation caused much uproar and protest. Merchants of the old breed bitterly complained that men who, just 30 years earlier, had confined themselves to their profession and earned good profits by making cups and bowls, setting diamonds for beautiful women, and selling pistoles and thalers to travelers setting out for the continent of Europe, now became treasurers of almost the entire City.
These moneylenders play a dangerous game with what others have earned through their diligence and saved through their thrift. If successful, the clever cashier becomes an alderman; if unsuccessful, the deceived one who fills his coffers ends up bankrupt. But others insisted on the advantages of a new system that saves labor and money: two clerks in one office, under the new system, perform the same work as twenty in twenty different offices before; a goldsmith's ticket changes hands ten times in the course of a single morning, and thanks to this, a hundred guineas lying under his lock and key near the Exchange perform the same function as a thousand guineas scattered among various drawers before. As a result, even those who shouted the loudest were forced to submit to the new custom.

2026-03-12 07:30:52 CET

Why is there no fairy tale that approves of such a scenario?
https://blossom.primal.net/b42c952e557eec0e7954e3396aaa76f7ab053b18777be05a39c960b45094f7c3.jpg

2026-03-12 07:13:47 CET

#Palestinian #Muslim ruler of #Hamas explains that after destroying Israel along with its entire #Jewish population, Hamas will move on: "to create a world where Christianity does not exist."
They've been saying this since day one. They've been speaking about it directly and honestly.
This is their source code, which no Muslim has the right to change. No discussion or dissent. Any doubt is considered treason and is punishable by death. Not excommunication or social ostracism, but death.
https://x.com/i/status/2031720750885777864

2026-03-09 16:29:36 CET

Can #Muslim men control their urge to rape women wearing perfume?
This French Imam says no—they can't.
So he orders women wearing perfume to isolate indoors and not provoke Muslim men.
Happy International Women’s Day!
https://x.com/i/status/2030820422657491149

2026-03-09 08:37:55 CET

Does #Bitcoin's ethics correspond to #Islam's ethics?
https://x.com/i/status/2030863577205117393

2026-03-09 07:42:37 CET

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That's what this war is being waged against. Of course, there are those who get other benefits from the war.
When we simplistically divide people into good and bad, we stop responding adequately to their behavior: we condemn every action of a villain and justify every action of a good person.
Even if the government bombs Iran for other reasons, you and I benefit from it because we are getting rid of barbarians who openly say that they want to destroy us.
I'm not calling for turning a blind eye to all government abuses, but I am asking for them to be criticized in an adult, dignified, and dispassionate manner—that is, adequately.
https://x.com/i/status/2030696857974854023
https://x.com/i/status/2030202497084580255
https://x.com/i/status/2030422732110725602
https://x.com/i/status/2030422732110725602
https://x.com/i/status/2030407660911141326

2026-03-08 05:46:03 CET

How is this acceptable a #Muslim man proposes to a 7-year-old girl, she agrees, and they’ll marry when she’s 8.
This is sick and not compatible with western values.
https://x.com/i/status/2030202497084580255

2026-03-08 05:28:54 CET

Chants of 'Allah, kill every #Jew, #Christian, and #American.'
Afghanistan? Pakistan?
Nope, this is Dearborn, Michigan.
https://x.com/i/status/2030422732110725602

2026-03-08 05:16:08 CET

#Islam in action!
Afghan men gathered for the “entertaining” public stoning of another girl accused by her father of zina (adultery, including losing virginity before marriage or in rape incidents where the rapist was married).
https://x.com/i/status/2030407660911141326

2026-03-06 19:55:39 CET

#Islam in the #UK
https://blossom.primal.net/b14da2f1c29815907550ef9d4770e1e92b5e5d77e2aff8c00df78cc8406d2943.jpg

2026-03-06 08:38:49 CET

Rape is never the victim's fault.
She was 13; her rapist was married. They stoned her for adultery because he blamed her for provoking it, as she didn't stay home and wasn't fully covered with an #Islamic veil.
https://blossom.primal.net/a8c6a596b076b04559ec11f85cfa9667cfdf0d3f1c2aa32477a4b50d5f6c25ad.jpg

2026-03-05 19:00:08 CET

Ayn Rand. "There is no escape: men have to make choices. As long as choices exist, moral values are inescapable. As long as moral values are at stake, no moral neutrality is possible. Trying to "not judge" is already a choice - and usually one that aids evil."
Neutrality between CoreV30 and #BIP110, favors CoreV30. Likewise, neutrality between good and evil favors evil.

2026-03-05 15:46:32 CET

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I don't know

2026-03-05 12:02:18 CET

https://blossom.primal.net/6a55e8bc94e599d0889600e14bac5c45ebbf69884a63f7cb1a3ddd9b73d367b5.jpg

2026-03-05 11:37:06 CET

Tommy Robinson goes OFF on #Qatari influence in American politics and the false notion of a "#Muslim/Christian Alliance" 🔥
https://x.com/i/status/2029279642490667347

2026-03-05 11:32:19 CET

#IRAN'S SHIA LEADER #AYATOLLAH #KHOMEINI WROTE A BOOK ABOUT LEGALLY FUCKING CHILDREN ACCORDING TO HIS VERSION OF #ISLAM
https://x.com/i/status/1935735621751889955

2026-03-05 09:21:51 CET

#PALESTINIAN #MUSLIM CLERIC:
"The wife should be beaten in a way that will serve as deterrence for her..."
(Watch the full video - every next sentence drops more jaw-dropping gems that'll leave you speechless👇🤯)
https://x.com/i/status/2029283635291918566

2026-03-05 09:19:53 CET

A 9-year-old girl cries as she is sold by her own family and forced into an arranged marriage with a 60-year-old man. This is Sharia.
https://x.com/i/status/2029092728999497790

2026-03-05 09:17:09 CET

The Muslim world is divided about Iran:
Muslim countries in favor of removing the regime:
Jordan 🇯🇴
Kuwait 🇰🇼
UAE 🇦🇪
Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦
Oman 🇴🇲
Qatar 🇶🇦
Bahrain 🇧🇭
Muslim countries against the removal of the regime:
Great Britain 🇬🇧
France 🇫🇷
Spain 🇪🇸

2026-03-05 09:13:00 CET

A Muslim scholar rules that most Muslim fathers who rape their own daughters are innocent because the minor girls provoke their fathers to rape them by wearing tight clothes or staying alone in a room with the fathers when mothers are absent.
https://x.com/i/status/2028552963812180108

2026-03-05 09:02:14 CET

#Muslim Brotherhood TV host explains under what circumstances Christian girls can be raped.
“Allah allows Muslim men to rape non-Muslim women to humiliate them.”
This is what Obama & the Democrats let into our Great Country, we see this happening in other places like the #UK.
https://x.com/i/status/2029306255848747149

2026-03-04 14:15:15 CET

https://blossom.primal.net/3d8d570a814305acda5023dd1fbca26c4ef6604e1b5cc5ebeba43860b17db313.jpg

2026-03-04 14:14:08 CET

A wedding tonight in a missile shelter, in the #Dizengoff Center parking lot in #Tel_Aviv.
That’s why #Israelis are unbeatable.
https://blossom.primal.net/d515a6a1de09b5fa5c9eb07f2bed11b17a3406d5baa6fe5f65a909a6d0b678cc.jpg

2026-03-04 07:54:12 CET

My compatriots,
Ali #Khamenei, the Zahhak of our time — the demon who, only weeks ago, issued the order for the massacre of tens of thousands of Iran’s finest sons and daughters — is gone.
With his disgraceful death, and that of many of his appointees and affiliates, the Islamic Republic is drawing its final breaths. Through your will and bravery, it will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history. The great nation of Iran seeks the complete fall of the Islamic Republic, and we will bring down this demonic regime.
My message to the remaining officials of this republic of terror is this: surrender to the Iranian nation. Declare your loyalty to my plan and our transition framework, and hand over power without further bloodshed.
Any attempt by the remnants of the regime to appoint a successor to Khamenei is doomed to failure in advance. Whoever they place in his position will not only lack legitimacy, but will also be a partner in the crimes of this regime.
To the military, law enforcement, and security forces, I say: your weapons must be used to defend the great nation of Iran, not the republic of crime, thuggery, and its anti-Iranian criminals. Join the people of #Iran and the Lion and Sun Revolution. Use your arms to protect Iranians against the mercenaries of the Islamic Republic so that this 47-year nightmare may end more swiftly.
The death of the criminal Khamenei, though it does not repay the blood that has been shed, can calm the wounded hearts of grieving fathers and mothers, spouses and children, sisters and brothers; a measure of solace for the proud families of the martyrs of Iran’s Lion and Sun Revolution.
Honorable and courageous people of Iran,
The death of the despot of our time, although it marks the beginning of our great national celebration, is not the end of the road. Remain vigilant. Be prepared. The time for a widespread and decisive presence in the streets is very near.
I ask you, while maintaining your security, to demonstrate your satisfaction with and support for the crushing of the Islamic Republic through nightly chants, and to shout your demands for Iran’s future. My strength comes from your strength and your support.
I ask Iranians abroad — who for weeks have worked tirelessly and relentlessly as the powerful voice of our compatriots inside Iran — to intensify your efforts. Force the world to hear the Iranian people’s support for this humanitarian intervention and our demand for the complete fall of the regime.
Sensitive days lie ahead of us. Together, we will walk the path to victory, and we will overthrow the Islamic Republic.
Long live Iran.
Reza Pahlavi

2026-03-04 07:50:31 CET

My dear compatriots,
Your forty-seven years of courageous struggle on the path to Iran’s freedom are today closer to victory than ever before.
The Islamic Republic, through its unprecedented killing of defenseless people and its endless support for global terrorism, left no path other than humanitarian military intervention for the peace-loving nation of #Iran—a nation that for years has been deprived of the right to a normal life.
The humiliating killing of Ali #Khamenei was a balm for part of our deep suffering, but it is not the end of the struggle.
We will never forget that the path to freedom is indebted to the pure blood of Iran’s children, to the honorable and awakened women and men held hostage by this regime, and to the grieving, justice-seeking families who have endured such suffering. In these days, what pressed upon my heart most of all, as a mother, was seeing the tears and longing of innocent and beautiful children at the graves of their father or mother. Yet those very children, with their powerful and hope-filled speeches, lit a light in my heart—speeches that are not symbolic, but the true guarantee of Iran’s bright future.
In these history-making moments, my heart is with you, my compatriots, in every corner of Iran—especially with the noble families of the eternal ones on the path of freedom.
I believe that with your hope, solidarity, and iron will, Iran’s freedom will soon be achieved.
Long live Iran.
Yasmine Pahlavi

2026-02-18 09:42:38 CET

https://blossom.primal.net/057263f37378489eb806fd7680f7bd8804159210d71f4ad2e6b73b378eb573f6.jpg

2026-02-14 06:46:32 CET

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Yes, that's right. I cleared the cache and now your videos play with auto-dubbing. Everything works great!

2026-02-12 13:58:02 CET

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Yes, I'd love to hear your speech.
They usually say, "You shouldn't be nervous when speaking in front of a large audience, you need to calm down." They say that, and it only makes them even more nervous.
But I think nervousness goes away when you're not afraid to be nervous. After all, it's normal and natural for each of us.
You can do it, I'm sure.

2026-02-12 13:48:37 CET

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Yes, but you answered these questions well. I like your conversations. You talk to people warmly and in a homely way. Your thoughts flow smoothly and naturally.

2026-02-12 12:26:48 CET

Great interview, @nprofile…8gc9.
https://youtu.be/tvY_oZNSWF4?si=tOsChezqsLe4ctYf

2026-02-10 18:16:39 CET

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Paula, could you set up auto-dubbing in your videos? YouTube allows automatic translation into 27 languages. We'll be able to better understand the content, and you'll get 27 times more audience.

2026-02-08 19:55:51 CET

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No one can help except @nprofile…hvs6.😄🤝

2026-02-08 09:51:55 CET

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I want a million dollars to save the children. Why contrast money and freedom? A rich man will help more than a poor man.

2026-02-07 09:10:56 CET

Centralized Unicity and Distributed Multiplicity
I won’t speculate on personal allegations.
My concern is strictly technical and philosophical: #Bitcoin Core’s posture toward spam and incentives has shifted in a way that endangers Bitcoin’s narrow optimum.
Reducing Bitcoin’s security model to a generic market for blockspace, sellers and buyers exchanging bytes, may adequately describe a distributed data store, but it fundamentally misrepresents a monetary network.
Bitcoin’s blockspace exists first and foremost to serve censorship-resistant monetary transactions. This market is constrained by a higher-order objective: preserving individual sovereignty.
Bitcoin is not a morally neutral protocol; it is a weapon against tyranny.
In the struggle against centralized unicity, state power concentrated behind infinite fiat, only one force can prevail:
Distributed multiplicity.
The plebs running nodes. They anchor consensus, enforce rules, and give economic meaning to mining. Miners are paid because nodes validate; incentives exist because the system is defended.
Without node operators, there is no table at which anyone eats. In any system, economic or otherwise, turning against your primary client is fatal.
If blockspace were truly neutral, if “data were just data,” then any sufficiently funded actor could flood blocks indefinitely, crowd out monetary use, and neutralize Bitcoin’s purpose entirely.
If that model were correct, Bitcoin would never have existed. This is not a debate about arbitrary data competing for space; it is a question of what the system is for.
Bitcoin persists because it is not secured by pricing alone. It is secured by social consensus enforcing constraints that privilege monetary use over abuse.
This is the human factor.
Filters, standardness rules, and policy limits do not violate the market; they define it. They form the narrow optimum that makes Bitcoin resilient rather than fragile.
That narrow optimum is precisely what the plebs defend.
It is fragile by design and resilient by consensus.
Sixteen years of near-perfect operation can dull perception, but removing constraints does not strengthen Bitcoin; it dissolves the conditions that made it work.
Anti-fragility does not come from loosening limits; it comes from enforcing them.
What I will say is this: when an ecosystem concentrates legitimacy in a single reference implementation and discourages exit, it creates conditions where individuals cannot act freely, even when they should.
Plurality is not rebellion; it is protection.
Running alternative clients is not an attack on Bitcoin. It is how pressure is released, how incentives realign, and how people are allowed to stand upright again.
Do not confuse centralized unicity with distributed multiplicity. A hard drive can always be outbid. A monetary network anchored in shared norms, human restraint, and collective defense cannot.
Bitcoin is not a decentralized database.
It is a system for human sovereignty.
Blockspace is a means, not the purpose.
--dewmap
https://blossom.primal.net/362f8b4517269c72564427f62ce396bdd6b09daa34d3606845140c7dc940d090.jpg

2026-02-06 16:52:25 CET

In the software practice, it is possible to write code that compiles and runs correctly, but that fails to fulfil, or even corrupts the business purpose that the software is being written for.
Software is not something that runs by itself in its own universe; ir runs in a context - "To Serve Mankind".
It's therefore very odd to praise people who write software that harms people. It doesn't matter how clever they are, how hard they work or how good a mentor they've been; if they're doing something horrible and wrong, they're not worthy of praise. They should be condemned.
Going forward, anyone who doesn't understand what Bitcoin is for, and who doesn't understand that bitcoin is not, "an experiment", or that "data has no meaning" or that Ordinals are evil, should be kept very far away from working on the reference client, whih in any case, should be in maintenance mode and when update is beneficial (Schnoor signatures for example) updated only when it is clearly demonstrated that performance will not be downgraded and parameters and purpose altered.
In other words, all changes and improvements must be for the sole purpose of bitcoin's reason for being. If you want to extend the capabilities of bitcoin, you should fork it and play in your own kitty litter sandbox, where others can join you if they want to.
People who do bad things are not "great", and praising them is distasteful and indicative of at worst, a bad character and at best, a painfully naïeve and credulous personality.
--beautyon
https://blossom.primal.net/636cb418cab5cbee1557d9020e6976f147414417b78d7c20241a7b4ec9a69cf9.png

2026-02-06 06:46:37 CET

It’s deeply counterintuitive how hard it is to simply buy and hold Bitcoin.
Humans evolved to react.
#Bitcoin demands that you don’t.
That’s why so many people grasp Bitcoin intellectually yet fail at it behaviorally.
The real moat isn’t technical knowledge or clever optimization — it’s emotional discipline sustained over years, not weeks.
“Just buy and hold” isn’t simple.
It’s minimalistic, adversarial, lonely… and quietly violent to the ego.
If it were easy, everyone would do it.
--dewmap
https://blossom.primal.net/112b02170a39c8a5d456bf1e968a66cdfe477f169404c077a03d5ef5b55bc68b.png

2026-02-06 05:40:47 CET

Dear Gloria Zhao,
On behalf of #Bitcoin maximalists worldwide, I want to express our deepest gratitude for your priceless, unwitting service in exposing the terminal decay inside what was once Bitcoin #Core and is now more fittingly called “Coretard.”
No measured technical argument, no patient explanation from the filter side could ever have achieved in a decade what your brief public appearances accomplished in a handful of videos: you single-handedly obliterated any remaining pretense of apolitical, competence-driven development.
Your visibly confused ramblings, sanctimonious ideological posturing, and openly stated desire to “transition” Bitcoin into a progressive social-experiment token have done more to awaken the broader ecosystem than a thousand blog posts or whitepapers ever could.
You have convincingly demonstrated to anyone still paying attention that something profoundly rotten has taken root behind the formerly respected — but now irrevocably compromised — closed doors of Core.
Having you as one of the most prominent public faces of modern Core development is the single most effective anti-Core propaganda the #Knots side could have ever dreamed of. Whether your colleagues have noticed it yet or not, you and the activist clique that surrounds and celebrates you have already signed Core’s death certificate in the only place it ultimately matters: the court of public opinion.
So please, from the bottom of our hearts — keep going exactly as you are. History will record you as the accelerant that finally persuaded the broader Bitcoin world to abandon the sinking, woke-infested husk you so proudly pilot.
With sincere and everlasting thanks,
A Bitcoin Maxi who genuinely owes you one
P.S. Thanks to you, humanity’s lexicon has been permanently enriched with a new and instantly understandable term: Coretard. Your legacy is secure.
--dewmap
https://blossom.primal.net/3b9d912fd546e7a6f6c704054cf6c1698dd7d1b84a973894eb3f80c4712bb13b.png

2026-02-05 08:04:25 CET

Bitcoiner ≡ Critical Thinker
The Epstein scandal exposes the rot: guilt by association torpedoes the push to bloat #OP_RETURN.
#Bitcoin lives on don’t trust, verify—not deference to experts, institutions, or reputations.
The real crisis isn’t a single scandal, but systemic decay within Core: lost humility, eroded rigor, and the collapse of adversarial scrutiny. Red flags are everywhere, dismissed with smug appeals to “the experts have spoken.” This is cultural capture, driven by complacency and blind faith.
Bitcoiners don’t grant authority—they constrain it. They demand transparency and design for trust failure. Core’s reckless dismantling of Chesterton’s Fence—obliterating Bitcoin’s narrow optimum by orders of magnitude—has fractured the ecosystem. It’s appalling judgment, plain and simple.
And those “earnest” influencers rushing to Core’s defense, waving away red flags as nonsense?
They are vectors of the disease—mistaking organic outrage for heresy. What kind of Bitcoiner replaces don’t trust, verify with believe the elites—elites whose obvious lack of judgment has eroded the very trust that Bitcoiners worldwide were willing, in good faith, to extend?
Confront the drift. Purge the complacency. Reclaim the ethos:
Don’t trust. Verify.
--dewmap
https://blossom.primal.net/46f82b340d5cb303abfaf83abc53853b63917abab6da328c812b4563fd7c8d35.png

2026-01-31 07:32:26 CET

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Why?

2026-01-30 07:39:17 CET

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I think we're asking the wrong question: democracy, monarchy, or another form of government. In everyday life, we don't choose whether to eat with a fork or a spoon; whether to travel by metro or by car; and so on. Any mathematician will advise us to use the most optimal option for each specific situation.
If we can alternate between a fork and a spoon, a subway and a car, then why can't we alternate between democracy and a monarchy? I see no rational reason to give up freedom of choice.
We shouldn't force ourselves into abstract monarchies or democracies. We must tailor the form of government to the specific situation and the specific leader. Javier Miley and the ruler of Dubai Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum are equally effective in different contexts.

2026-01-29 19:55:23 CET

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https://blossom.primal.net/76b0f5cf321be14dfc7f9b69bb4df044bb9d6b65e8de05ee92c3fcfe0312dc00.jpg

2026-01-29 18:47:23 CET

NEW RESEARCH: #Bitcoin Core Technical Debt
26.8% of Bitcoin Core's codebase has high technical debt (1,108 of 4,134 files) - 2.7x above the industry healthy threshold of <10%.
Analysis of 15,884 merged PRs shows:
• Patch-to-refactor ratio: 3.0 (at the concerning threshold; 1:1 is ideal)
• RPC subsystem: 61.5% high debt (critical; industry threshold is <40%)
• Debt accelerates: Files with 50+ modifications have 9.7 patches per refactor (vs <5:1 standard)
• Even new code: 31.5% high debt (vs <10% standard)
• Consensus code: Better maintained - 38.5% high debt but refactored as often as patched (1:1 ratio)
• Top debt files: init.cpp, main.cpp, rpc.cpp (scores 87-90, 13-15 years old, rarely refactored)
Bitcoin Core exceeds multiple industry thresholds, indicating systematic refactoring is needed, especially in the RPC subsystem.
github.com/secsovereign/b…
https://blossom.primal.net/c13397476845f4ae175cef5ffedf042fcb26c0dfd903e0b4434d3be41d2179fb.jpg

2026-01-29 18:32:05 CET

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everything that doesn't kill us mutates and tries to kill us again.

2026-01-29 18:14:56 CET

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These are not my words. I just reprinted them. The author is this dewmap.

2026-01-29 16:14:40 CET

What Socrates said about democracy more than 2000 years ago.
He said that demoracy must fall because it will try to tailor to everyone.
The poor will want the wealth of the rich, and democracy will give it to them.
Young people will want to be respected as elderly and democracy will give it to them.
Women will want to be like men and democracy will give it to them
Foreigners will want the rights of the natives and democracy will give it to them.
Thieves and fraudsters will want important government functions, and democracy will give it to them.
And at that time, when thieves and fraudsters finally democratically take authority because criminals and evil doers want power, there will be worse dictatorship than in the time of any monarchy or oligarchy.
Socrates (470-399 b.c.)
https://blossom.primal.net/0dd42677aadd5e2c9fef3a791d9909fca08727a08b0f82f3431965a51f220012.jpg

2026-01-29 14:59:54 CET

Taking a step back, the entire #OP_RETURN is a symptom of something much bigger that stems from a single cause. It is caused by Mind Blindness.
The people looking at #bitcoin in isolation, that it is an "experiment", don't understand that other people are real, that they actually exist, and are relying on bitcoin.
They don't understand and can't weigh the importance of anything; to them, a side note in a "White Paper" or BiP from one person has the same weight as all the people on earth for the next 140 years.
To them, bitcoin is something on paper or on their screens; it exists outside of everything, and all the "problems" they see are related only specifically to the specification on paper, and not to how, where and why bitcoin is used and why it was created in the first place.
They're exactly like and interchangeable with Roger Ver, who is trapped in a mindset where only his own perspective is real, and everything else is imaginary, including all the people who use bitcoin.
The bitcoin specification isn't something that exists in isolation; its rules and features are not there for their own purposes; bitcoin has no purpose in absentia of people; therefore, to exclude people from any calculation used to measure whether an improvement is actually an improvement can only lead to error.
Without purpose, bitcoin is just another piece of software. If you remove purpose from your assessment of what should be added to bitcoin, you're leaving out the most important element of all...people.
If these proposers cared only about the specification on paper, they would write their software for private use in their own test network "OP_RETURN_net" and let it run. They've written their changes, pushed them, they're live and it's all running. Why do they need other people to run their software?
If for any reason you're not able to include the reality of other people in your assessments, then you should not be working on improving bitcoin, because to you, everything, every improvement is the same if something get's "better".
On paper, removing limits looks good
On paper, low fees forever looks good
On paper, faster confirmation time looks good
On paper, anything can be cast to look good
But real people don't live on paper, and bitcoin was written to serve real people, not the masturbatory whims of people who don't care much about anything other than "the work". Improvements in one aspect is the myopic, mind bling way of looking at anything; the unintended second and third order effects are what Mind Blind people can't perceive and that's the danger.
As I've said before, improving bitcoin is a good thing, but without a clear definition of what an improvement is, anyone, any person with any characteristic can make a claim that any change is an "improvement".
Years ago there were some very strange people who wanted to add an identity layer to bitcoin. To them, this was an "improvement" simply because it added something that men in their culture have become inured to; constantly identifying yourself to do anything.
Their disgusting proposal died but what it showed was that Socialists are literally everywhere, and will bring the Socialism with them when they make proposals. That's very dangerous.
Bitcoin should do only one thing, and it should not change. It is not "progress" to see new point versions of bitcoin being constantly released; bitcoin isn't like other pieces of software; its entire purpose is a money supply that doesn't change.
Progress is a modern day cult, filled with "Progressives" who will throw literally everything out of the window so that they are "moving forward". They're insane, and bitcoin was designed to keep psychologically normal people protected from them.
Bitcoin's development can be protected by the people who use it. The simple act of selecting a client can keep the tweakers, the fiddlers, the Progressives, the elitists, the gullible, the Mind Blind, and ultimately, the State out of everyone's money.
And bitcoin really is "everyone's money". It isn't the sole preserve of people who bark "ack" on a Mi¢ro$oft owned and Controlled software repository service. The power to control what the network is is in the hands of people who run the reference clients.
If any group of developers refuses to knock it off and take advice, then everyone will abandon their client, and these thrill seekers will switch to trying to sabotage the Linux Kernel, where they will find a suitably extremely hostile environment to nonsense from a benevolent dictator with a proven record of keeping garbage out.
These people want to enslave the network to their perverted and selfish aims, like the Ordinals crowd. They don't care about other people, even to the extent that they're frightening the skin off of users who have put their whole lives into bitcoin and have skin in the game. They just don't care about other people, and perhaps, can't care.
You are going to have to keep an eye on this matter, and be vigilant, because some people with an aggressive compulsion to change bitcoin will never stop. You have the power to neutralize their urges by simply not runing their software. If the whole network stops "upgrading" then they are permanently neutralized and the problem is solved. Only bug fixes should be accepted by node runners; nothing else.
No more threats. No more elitism. No more risk of losing money.
Then everyone can get on with building on bitcoin, saving, sending and spending it, and building the future, where real people will be living and relying on what everyone is using and building today.
-beautyon
https://blossom.primal.net/5a097a9abadd2a808872714897b9d08b2c6f18f92830cf82061ec666295d6169.png

2026-01-29 14:41:47 CET

In just a few years, bad actors shielded by a strangely docile #Bitcoin Core have transformed its immaculate ledger into the most expensive open sewer in history.
The playbook was diabolically simple:
Exploit known protocol loopholes that Core refuses to close, and spawn a parasitic zoo of degenerate shitcoins (Ordinals, BRC-20, Runes, NFTs whatever this week’s scam token is called).
Then flood the chain with fiat-funded garbage inscriptions until the cancer is too big to remove without “breaking compatibility.”
When the maximalists who spent a decade laughing at Ethereum’s clown casino finally screamed foul, Core’s response was the now-infamous:
“What is even spam?”
And, with the solemnity of a priest blessing sewage, Core shipped v30, handed every grifter on earth an industrial excavator, and rebranded the resulting stench as “freedom,” “innovation,” and “adapting to the new culture.”
Look at the numbers. They don’t lie: almost 40% of the entire UTXO set, created in barely two years, is now cartoon apes, pixelated cocks, and immortal trash.
This isn’t the beginning of a beautiful new ecosystem. It’s the opening act of a hostage situation.
Those “88 million inscriptions” that supposedly paid 7,000+ BTC in fees? Not organic demand. Obvious bribes, fiat conjured out of thin air by entities who face no budget constraints, funneled straight to miners to launder vandalism into legitimacy.
Anyone who thinks infinite-money printers will ever be stopped by “market forces” has traded adversarial thinking for bedtime stories.
There is no real community here, no lasting economic activity, no future, just a giant pump-and-dump dressed up as culture.
The handful of true believers clutching their sacred JPEGs don’t need protocol changes. They need therapy.
When pushback finally arrived, Bitcoin #Knots, sensible BIPs, #CAT, actual attempts to defend the original protocol, the mask slipped completely.
Overnight, the people defending sound money became, in the ultimate rhetorical nuke, “Nazis.”
And so, in this newly confused ecosystem poisoned by the woke mind virus, the official position of the now-known-as “Coretards” became:
“Because someone might misuse a scalpel tomorrow, we must let the gangrene consume the leg today.”
Saying “this is spam and it should be addressed” is apparently the real attack on freedom.
Bitcoin Core didn’t just make a technical mistake. It caught the civilizational mind virus that teaches societies to celebrate their own decomposition and to crucify anyone still sane enough to point at the rot.
That’s not hyperbole. That’s the autopsy.
We all have to take a step back and acknowledge the level of delusion on display:
The suicidal overconfidence of Core loyalists convinced they represent some silent majority.
Core should have shut this NFT circus down from day one. Now their credibility is gone.
Coretard is their legacy.
--dewmap

2026-01-27 06:57:57 CET

If #Muslims are so enthusiastic about living under Sharia law, why not pack up and move to places where it’s actually enforced—like Afghanistan?
Funny how Sharia is always demanded in secular, free societies, but somehow loses its appeal where it’s fully implemented.
Apparently, Sharia is best enjoyed as a slogan—not as a lifestyle.

2026-01-27 06:56:09 CET

Saudi Arabia needs investment and rapid (impossibly so) education of skilled youth. It lacks both and is therefore now faltering.
So it retreats into appeasing those it most fears can destabilize it: the Muslim Brotherhood and their mentors in Ankara and Doha, as well as the haunting specter from Damascus.
But it is a death spiral. It will drive investment away and leave its youth more radicalized and uneducated.
Moreover, it has no path for recovery. It wasted a critical 7 years playing hard to get — a rather arrogant overestimation of its solidity and indispensability — when it needed to expeditiously join the Abraham Accords and aggressively transform itself not with grandiose projects but with nitty-gritty education, business and industrial incentives.

2026-01-27 06:46:46 CET

One day at kindergarten, the teacher says to the class of five-year-olds, "I'll give $2 to the child who can tell me who was the most famous man who ever lived."
An Irish boy put his hand up and said, "Please miss, it was St. Patrick." The teacher said, "Sorry Sean, that's not correct."
Then a Scottish boy put his hand up and said, "Please miss, it was St. Andrew." The teacher replied, "I'm sorry Hamish, that's not right either."
Finally, a Jewish boy raised his hand and said, "Please miss, it was Jesus Christ. The teacher said, "That's absolutely right Moishe, come up here and I'll give you your $2."
As the teacher was giving Moishe his money, she said "You know Moishe, you being Jewish, I was very surprised you said Jesus Christ."
Moishe replied, I know Miss, in my heart I knew it was Moses, but business is business!"

2026-01-26 05:50:06 CET

Dehumanization of women in Islam.
A woman converting to #Islam is like a black person choosing #slavery.
https://blossom.primal.net/1a76956a75fe41b8de58a337c96ad8907758d073c1f2f1a9fca610570e8d100f.jpg

2026-01-22 20:13:17 CET

I'm pleased to announce Release Candidate 3 of the #UASF #BIP-110 v0.1 official client: github.com/dathonohm/bitc…
@nprofile…9vg9, @nprofile…p3nw, and @nprofile…4xdt have been updated (see thread).
Thanks to the #Bitcoin community, for your support.
Bitcoin is money!

2026-01-10 08:01:23 CET

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I want to share an idea with you: write a book or an essay about the shortcomings of Bitcoin, about the false and premature hopes that await careless people.
Newcomers to the Bitcoin world often see and hear rave reviews and don't realize how difficult the path of a Bitcoiner is. I love your podcasts because I hear real-life stories from real people, not slogans and calls to immediately change your life.
Each of your interviewees could write their own part of the book about their mistakes, false expectations, and doubts.
Maybe I'm wrong, but a Bitcoin newbie sees two large camps in the information field: 1) bloggers who scare them, and
2) bloggers who admire Bitcoin and ridicule the former. They are looking for a calm, truthful, and simple conversation. We could write about this. What do you think?

2026-01-10 07:35:51 CET

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I agree. If we criticize @nprofile…d8n5 from these positions, we appear convincing and consistent: it's better to keep your money yourself than to trust a third party.
But when we say that Saylor convinces people to abandon self-custody in favor of the financial-industrial complex, we're not simply entering a gray area of speculation. We're manipulating public opinion to our advantage, violating the laws of formal logic. It's as if we're smuggling crude hypotheses under the guise of solid arguments. In the same way, socialists gradually instill in us the idea of poverty under the guise of social justice, and Muslims instill in us Sharia law under the guise of social order.

2026-01-09 20:31:02 CET

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Beisenberg
?..
Heisenbit
?..
Heisencoin
?..
https://blossom.primal.net/a5b319ce6dff7bd771616fe1118d413df6c69bea6dda33e92843b3f72abaa34c.jpg

2025-12-26 07:58:07 CET

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#nevent1q…776q
https://blossom.primal.net/98183061e3784b4b0413be18d7a187ace430ddbee683637c7632c77a2822d32d.jpg

2025-12-26 07:56:24 CET

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https://blossom.primal.net/98183061e3784b4b0413be18d7a187ace430ddbee683637c7632c77a2822d32d.jpg

2025-12-26 07:52:28 CET

Exposing Simon Dixon's Double Standards: Beneath the Mask of a Sovereign Individual
npub1546jstdajzf6gw4plvr6z4kpcaxtvl3h0zjdv5gw8tx8uup5d6rq8ef9mt presents himself as a champion against elites, a Bitcoin defender through self-custody, and an anti-imperialist urging everyone to "follow the money." But when you dig deeper into his views, what emerges is a web of contradictions: principles of freedom applied selectively, with criticism driven by personal and religious biases.
1. Selective History in Geopolitics:
He passionately condemns Zionism as colonialism marked by displacement, genocide, and apartheid, framing Israel as a proxy for American military-industrial imperialism. At the same time, he completely overlooks similar historical actions by Arabs and Muslims—from the 7th-century conquests (seizing the Levant and Palestine "by right of the conqueror") to Ottoman expansion, which involved cultural shifts and subjugation.
He rails against Western or Zionist empires but stays silent on Muslim ones. This isn't genuine anti-imperialism; it's biased selectivity with an anti-Western and pro-Islamic tilt.
A real libertarian would reject all conquests equally as violations of individual rights.
2. One-Sided View of Islam:
Dixon portrays Islam as a personal path of peace, tolerance, and resisting oppression (quoting verses like "no compulsion in religion" and limiting jihad to self-defense). Yet he never mentions the dhimmi system—the institutionalized subjugation of non-Muslims in Islamic societies: jizya tax for "protection," restrictions on bearing arms, building new places of worship, equal court testimony, or criticizing Islam.
This creates a clear hierarchy where non-Muslims are second-class citizens, involving economic and social coercion that's incompatible with true equality and non-aggression. By glossing over this, Dixon romanticizes Muslim history as "harmonious," implicitly justifying domination. As a Muslim, his drive comes from a religious sense of duty to "serve humanity," but it makes his anti-oppression stance selective—freedom only on his terms.
2. Fixation on Saylor and Dictating the "Right" Way to Bitcoin:
Day after day in posts, podcasts, and videos, he accuses npub15dqlghlewk84wz3pkqqvzl2w2w36f97g89ljds8x6c094nlu02vqjllm5m of serving elites, centralizing Bitcoin via debt, and sabotaging the revolution (custody vs. self-custody). He claims $MSTR is a tool for price manipulation through FUD and potential forced sales.
But on a free market, a sovereign individual should be free to handle their capital any way they choose—whether through leveraged treasuries, ETFs, or derivatives. The risks are theirs alone.
Dixon doesn't just highlight dangers (which could be helpful); he passes moral judgment and prescribes the "one true path" (self-custody only). His manipulation theory falls apart under scrutiny: $MSTR shares drop in response to BTC stagnation, not the reverse—the market naturally punishes leverage.
This obsession comes across as fixation, perhaps psychological or tied to promoting his own agenda/business.
Conclusions:
Behind the "follow the money" mantra lies not objective insight but a subjective ideology—anti-Western, pro-Islamic, laced with collectivist tendencies. Dixon excuses historical hierarchies (like dhimmi), condemns others' choices, and pushes a "revolution" where freedom is reserved for those who align with his vision.
He's valuable for pointing out risks in centralization and leverage, but his stance isn't libertarianism—it's propaganda riddled with double standards.
True freedom means no one dictates your choices: how to hold BTC, whom to criticize, or which history to focus on. No one owes the "revolution" anything against their will. Always test these gurus for consistency—otherwise, their "truth" is just a disguise for control.
#Bitcoin #Libertarianism

2025-12-23 15:42:34 CET

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My father
https://blossom.primal.net/689437dd511b9aae63226deab0f936eb554f5eb95927ab7a311f5b0592a93926.mp4

2025-12-22 08:43:28 CET

ENDdependence
https://blossom.primal.net/a5196f192a629ccbf1bbbf5df68056452ef1224b8cf8f7fa7bba27279886a2cb.jpg

2025-12-15 13:34:27 CET

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...and not limited in time...

2025-12-15 05:48:03 CET

My node is my property. I have the right to harm anyone who spams it. Claire Ostrom's proposal isn't confiscation, but a warning shot followed by lethal force. The scoundrel should pay me for spamming, not the miners. Pay me if you dare :)
#bitcoin #bitcoin_knots
https://blossom.primal.net/5ad91c9136ca47cc2e3d0e2818ffedcc7f1929787b351ead4d18b94fe9216392.jpg
https://blossom.primal.net/37c79e2cf1c85e5a7c3d7e51455e56e23cbfca0d24d5abed0e1c9d42777db2c3.jpg

2025-12-08 07:18:00 CET

“If I put $100 in #Bitcoin in 2010 I’d have $2.8B now.”
No.
If you bought $100 of Bitcoin in 2010 and watched it go to:
$1k → $100k → $1.7M
and did nothing
Then watched $1.7M go to $170k
and still did nothing
Then watched $170k go to $110M
and still did nothing
Then watched $110M wither to $18M
and still did nothing
Then watched $18M surge to $390M
and still did nothing
Then watched $390M deteriorate to $85M
Then watched $85M climb to $1.6B
and still did nothing
Then watched $1.6B shrink to $390M
and still did nothing
Then watched $390M surge to $2.8B
and then for some reason finally decided to do something…
Then yes, $100 in 2010 would be worth $2.8B today.
Vivek Sen

2025-12-06 07:04:39 CET

"Only the tiniest fraction of mankind want freedom. All the rest want someone to tell them they are free."
— Irving Layton
https://blossom.primal.net/21c428b83dd72450c82270b8626653837ce51050a2c741d627b9d0d37c0dd39a.jpg