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this will continue until nation states ban self-custody and peer-to-peer transactions, at which point the cypherpunks will bloom again 100x and the fight will be more intense than ever in cypherpunk history. the trick will be insuring that a sleeper contingent of true cypherpunks sticks around, lying in wait for that moment. the State will try to lull them into passivity and acceptance and it will be difficult to avoid getting caught in the spell. but this will also create a selection pressure: the deeply-convicted and the strongest, most secure hodlers will be all that are left -> exactly who we need at that moment. we'll need to build through that ultra-"bear" - both software and spirit - like never before. I have full confidence! 🏴

Decided little break yesterday. Drove down the coast and visited a friend. We were looking at lightning channels, his nerdaxe perfirmance, and discussing wrench attacks and security. Dunno about conferences but signal is where you find it

Reminder to always be careful what you wish for

I understand the frustration. I have it too. But unfortunately you can't have a full barrel and a drunken wife. Some want mass adoption and I would say that for mass adoption things are going well because if politics de-dogizes ₿ he can enter everyone's homes. On the other hand, you obviously lose that thrill of the instrument that goes against the system. The point is one: politics has approached bitcoin not because it wants mass adoption, but because it has understood that not being able to stop it it must become a friend. That's all! Of course, seeing such mainstream conferences on bitcoin (like the one in Lasvegas) would make Nakamoto himself fall to the grave. You can't have everything. Full speed ahead! Fuck the politicians who pretend to be bitcoiners 🏴‍☠️

I understand the frustration. I have it too. But unfortunately you can't have a full barrel and a drunken wife. Some want mass adoption and I would say that for mass adoption things are going well because if politics de-dogizes ₿ he can enter everyone's homes. On the other hand, you obviously lose that thrill of the instrument that goes against the system. The point is one: politics has approached bitcoin not because it wants mass adoption, but because it has understood that not being able to stop it it must become a friend. That's all! Of course, seeing such mainstream conferences on bitcoin (like the one in Lasvegas) would make Nakamoto himself fall to the grave. You can't have everything. Full speed ahead! Fuck the politicians who pretend to be bitcoiners 🏴‍☠️ View quoted note →

Totally agree. You should had visit us to our nostr lounge. cypherpunk, open source, libertarian vibe

Maybe

GM. I'm so glad I wasn't in Vegas. Everything I have seen confirms my suspicions. The world financial apparatus, led by the US and aided by an army of people who only care about number go up, is trying hard to co-opt Bitcoin into a custodial asset, managed (aka controlled) by them. Don't fall for it. Bitcoin MUST be a peer to peer technology for it to succeed (NgU is NOT succeeding). I refuse to believe that it's "inevitable" that we'd get this fiat managed outcome when we hit the mainstream. Bitcoin is money for people; not governments, banks, and corporations. Fuck them. They've had their chance to run things and they've broken nearly everything. View quoted note →

Yep, you'll have to chose your conf carefully now, but these vibes haven't disappeared, they are just diluted during the wrong events. Overall the cypherpunks core base still has grown for sure

Not all of us fought for legitimacy and mainstream adoption. Original cryptoanarchists were a bit elitist, I think Timothy May would laugh at the suits. But it is what it is, no need to be nostalgic. Bitcoin wins anyway

This, and "influancers" repeating the same message over and over again, adoring themselfs. Minimal if not zero value. Meant to scam you from your precious time and Bitcoin. Avoid, focus on what matters.

Good observation 😎

@HODL honestly dude it might feel like a hobby or one off fun thing but your takes and unhinged rants ARE the type of thing that keeps bitcoin feeling raw, human, personable I know people “cringe” at being called/labeled an influencer, but we have the power to shape the bitcoin narrative with how we tell stories/verbalize it get your voice out there as much as possible and other cypherpunks and plebs (like myself) will follow drown out the suits

1000% agree. I was feeling exactly the same, but wasn’t sure others were willing to admit it. Moving out of the dorm room moments have been inflection points in history. If Bitcoin has sold its soul to the devil, it was all for naught. Just another Central Bank liquidity tool and the fastest fintech, not racehorse. Hopefully, it does its thing. Remains a shadowy coder and continues to orange pill the very ones trying to co-opt its power.

I suspect this vibe in Las Vegas is specific to the USA. The value proposition is investment / store of wealth, primarily, in the USA at present. It is different elsewhere, and the vibe at other conferences reflects more of the freedom tech movement. Bitcoin is for everyone. It is beautiful, even when it isn't! 👍🤣

2019 in San Fransisco was a great venue. So was 2020 Bit Block Boom. Things are different, they always change, life stuff.

Well said. Totally agree. We really need a cypherpunk revival. Freedom go Up >> Number go Up

suitcoiner, I like it.

Bitcoin is for enemies. And now they run the conferences.

the Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Scheme vibes are stronger than ever though... View quoted note →

This is the beauty of the trojan horse that Bitcoin represents "They", ie tradfi, don't truly understand the implications of disrupting central banking Your view of course, having witnessed it, but perhaps that is the current guise most needed to make it to the next level

Someone should have setup a P2P Cash only Satoshi Square @npub1sqn6...5net

I pity you Americans, European conferences are cypherpunk as fuck.

Sounds like you need to join us in Oslo 🇳🇴 next year!

that's who shows up to the fancy event. And now it might be who is loud on TV. But we don't have to go anywhere.

this is kinda how it always goes with new things, yes? grifters do a damn good job of jumping on a bandwaggon and trying to streer it in their direction. What we have to do is understand what's happening and not become enamored with them. ....if you are secretly longing for wealth, fame, and/or power... they will get ya. tView quoted note →

Stoney used to talk about Eternal September. ( Or something similar ) Maybe it is an impossibility to be underground, raw, grass roots and widely adopted. Maybe the edginess must come from the things built around it now, dude? We are getting old 🤣

Estes dois trechos aqui, foi tão impactante para mim, que eu realmente precisei reforçar. - Mask, polishing, fitting for adaptability - and not the revolution that was expected. 🤌🏻 “On the other, something’s been lost in translation. The raw edge, the revolutionary energy, the sense that we were building something against the system not polishing it up to sell it back to the system. Maybe that’s just the mask Bitcoin wears while it continues hollowing out the old world from within.” View quoted note →

And yet, we'll all see you there next year.

Bitcoin has had many diverse demographics since its inception, but the niche I fit into seems to continually branch off and become scarcer over time. Eventually, the Bitcoin space will consist of average, bland, uninteresting people. We will look back on the earlier days with nostalgia for what we once had. However, when we reach that point, we will be on a Bitcoin standard, and by default, the world will be a much better place, less obstructed and diminished by the past fiat regime.

Agreed. The suits are in and young people are as uninterested in btc as they are in the S&P 500. It feels like boomer stock. The truth is that bitcoin’s story is just beginning but the perception in younger generations is that the opportunity for life changing wealth has passed. If you’re looking for a wild ride with an inspired community of believers, join SPX6900 it’s an anti tardfi cult movement. Gives OG bitcoiners nostalgic vibes of the old days and provides spiritual nourishment and community to an increasingly isolated online society.

The cypherpunk spirit will shift to tools and networks built on top of it. They will always go to the edges to solve the next great problem, using the foundation they built to go the next mile. That’s what #Nostr is and why we are here. It’s the next major piece of the puzzle. Sure, much like the internet, 5 years ago, you go to a tech conference and it’s nothing but normies and finance bros and all the rest…. The internet was “mainstream.” But then you go to a Bitcoin conference and you find the same rebels, cypherpunks, and people truly trying to change things who were at the beginning of the web, and the next generation who revered them and continued their mission. It is still the culture that built the internet, it is still on the internet, but clustered in that place where they are most likely to change the world again, and make another great leap forward. The spirit isn’t dying, it only shifts to where it is most needed. And the fire of that spirit is far from extinguished. To the contrary it’s burning brighter than it has in a long, long time, imo. It’s true the spirit of what would be called “Bitcoin” as a cultural movement has shifted. It was inevitable. But it’s never dead. nevent1qqsqfste3n2e8n08zdl6nmv03uykjdskxn0gwrzjjyv5aweh6kfjc8gpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqz97d8g

Breathe in deeply and smile. It’s all going to be ok.

Just a branch I hope. I imagine in the future a lot of mrico cultures, all with the same cannon but each creating a different experience from Bitcoin

It’s up to bitcoiners to reclaim that ground. We all have the responsibility to maintain the brand of bitcoin and the cypher-punk ethos. If anyone decides not to go because their disgusted by the fait shicoinny vibes, that’s cool. The front line is not for everyone and it’s only going to get worse.

We need a conference that one can only buy a ticket somehow directly through a node that they themselves have administrative access to. It'd be nice to have actual cipherpunks, but at the very least one should need to, you know, run the bitcoin software if they're to be taken seriously at a bitcoin conference. Perhaps just sell the tickets with a transaction type that at this point isn't supported outright by anything other than bitcoin-cli. That all said, I'm not sure it's fair to judge the state of Bitcoin by what some circus put on in the city of high time preference by Shitcoin Magazine went like. It may be different all around, but they're the last ones that should get to decide what Bitcoin's vibe is. Personally I think I'd be more likely to go to a Nostr conference than a Bitcoin one at this point though.

I feel like the cows were a little much

Replying twice to the same note may not be the best form, but I did want to add that the places where Bitcoin still feels revolutionary are in the privacy protocols being developed like Coinswap and other privacy oriented protocols. And the nice thing is that while these will never be what the powers that be have anything good to say about, they also can't stop it given that it is, at the end of the day, open source code, and it turns out that math is ungovernable. Rest easy that with enough adoption, you won't need to suffer these circuses of conferences for too long. Nobody holds dollar or gold conventions after all. Privacy conventions could pick up, though getting together to meet in person may be an odd choice for privacy afficionados. Maybe we all need to show up looking like Calle...

Fwiw I've come to the opinion that prior to the suits, the moralist laser eyes outnumbered the cypherpunks 10:1. This is just continuation of a trend.

Maybe you should attend the coming African bitcoin conference for a change. Dec in Mauritius.

Tick Tock, next fucking block.