Mel

The outrage about the core dev funding is strange to me. Of course every kind of covert and overt power player is going to try or has tried to control something as powerful and technically revolutionary as Bitcoin. The point of bitcoin, and its sufficiently decetralized open ecosystem, is that it is built to withstand this. Any other system would be irrevocably corrupted by even a tiny percentage of the kind of pressure and control tactics that has been thrown at Bitcoin over the years and yet it prevails. More than that, it continues to grow in reach and thrive. The easiest most accessible way to counter balance sick and corrupt systems is to build on, support and grow open and decentralized ones.

Just received my @Coinkite Coldcard Q & already love it! Very cool both in looks and functionality! ⚡️

Hot take - The end is always the beginning. The very groups who are grasping for more access and control over individual digital privacy will be the reason cryptographic decentralized infrastructure will win. It may seem counterintuitive, but as countries intensify their focus on "privacy" (AI data mining) and "narrative filters" (ideological and political censorship), the burden of compliance with laws and defensive measures will become so heavy that many companies will be forced to exit regions altogether. This is of course not long term sustainable business practice, effectively transforming once international companies into limited regional operations. It's a significant economic shift. Smart people within large companies (who want to keep their jobs and ensure company growth) will gradually recognize that technologies like cryptographic key-based IDs and wallets (like NOSTR) and zero-knowledge proofs are the solution. So it’s essentially a switching of the burden of compliance by the company to consumers. It removes both cost and complexity from the corporation to the individual. From a privacy perspective, it's remarkable that this technology offers the most elegant and straightforward way to comply with privacy laws. It provides full global technical compliance by default (right to forget, subscription settings, cookie settings, proof of human-ness etc). It’s also the only current proven method to protect the individual from the overreach of political or civil ideology in the technical domain. It's only going to take one or two large corporations to figure this out & the tide will shift.