Bitcoin Tech Talk #301
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What I've been working on
El Salvador - I’m in San Salvador to teach some Salvadorans Bitcoin programming. This should be an interesting week spending time with the people that are going too make Bitcoin work here. I was last here 6 months ago so it’ll be interesting to see how much things have changed.
Monetary Imperialism - My podcast with Fode Diop is live! We talked about Senegal, the colonialist history and the disturbing inner workings of the CFA Franc which essentially gives France unique benefits. It’s a form of economic dominance which we call in the episode monetary imperialism.
Fiat Meaning - The piece should be published on Bitcoin Magazine later today. It’s one of the more challenging pieces for me to write because of how all-encompassing it is. I realized as I was writing it that almost everything else I’ve written about like Fiat education, Fiat art, Fiat science and much more are directly related to this notion of finding meaning in life.
What I'm up to
Philosophy of Science - My podcast this week is with Troy Cross, and we talked about philosophy and scientific progress. In particular, we’ll go through the current state of science in academia and why it seems to be doing so little. He’s a Bitcoiner and someone that pursues knowledge truthfully. The discussion was wide ranging and got into what’s wrong with both science education and colleges. As you might expect the conversation was a fairly long one.
Audio version of Bitcoin and the American Dream - It’s taking forever for Audible to approve it, but it’s in process. If you’ve been waiting for the audio version of the book, it’s on its way, I promise.
Austin BitDevs - It’ll be on Thursday this week, which means I’ll be back in time from El Salvador to attend. I’m still surprised at the quality of attendees even as we enter a bear market. If you’re in Austin or a short plane ride away, I would recommend you attend.
Tweet of the Week
What I’m Shilling
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Bitcoin
High School Core Contributor - Coindesk has a feature on Daniela Brozzoni, a high schooler with a grant from Spiral to develop BDK. The profile is interesting because she got hooked from the math/cryptography side rather than the economic one, which is typical for programmers. The article is a little light on the technicals, and fails to mention Matt Corallo and Andrew Chow who both contributed as high schoolers, but is nevertheless proof that talent can be found early.
OP_RETURN wars of 2014 - BitMex goes through what happened in 2014 with CounterParty and how it led to stuff like Ethereum. The article is pretty terrible in terms of its positioning, making dApps seem like something that was deeply needed or something when they were used for scams. I would also not characterize what was being made as dApps, as they were more tokens, just like it is today. Still, the article is a good history lesson.
Choosing a Hardware processor - Block has an excellent post on the importance of the processing unit on a hardware wallet and the different choices that exist. They lay out what they are and the criteria they’re using for their choice. The next post will lay out what is, from their perspective, the pros and cons of each and perhaps why they will go in a certain direction. It’s an excellent way to learn more about what hardware designers think about when creating secure hardware.
Lightning
LN Attacks - The post goes through a couple of attacks that they were able to execute on Kollider Exchange. The vulnerabilities of a third-party API are clear in the post and the developers reported them responsibly. The security vulnerabilities of services on this platform really need more exploration, which, given how big the network is getting, is starting to show itself. The post should be sobering to anyone using these services and should be a part of any security audit.
LNCal - Ever wish you could just charge money for meetings with you? Well, here’s a service to do that! You can set some parameters for people to book time with you and they can for some fee in lightning. Honestly, I could use some people that are good at certain skills on call for stuff like this. Say, a copy-editor, designer, sound engineer. I want this service to exist and a good list of people I can curate for my own needs.
Pine - This is an app that I’ve been asking for since 2018. It’s a messaging app with payments built in. Not as a kludge or a plug in, but as a first class citizen in the messaging. It’s meant to be used among friends and family to settle payments of dinner and things like that, but I think it’s much more useful for getting remote help on what’s wrong with your HVAC unit or tutoring on your math homework, or fixing a bug in C++ that you can’t seem to spot. The decentralized web is perfect for applications like this and I can’t wait for more of these to come.
Economics, Engineering, Etc.
Bitcoin Maximalism - Stephan Livera makes the crucial distinction between Monetary Maximalism and Platform Maximalism. As he explains, the world needs good money, not another centralized platform. His explanation of the monetary phenomenon that is Bitcoin is an accurate summation of what Bitcoin Maximalists believe. The conflation by the critics is really a way to cheer for their team or platform.
Web3 Projects lost $2B - No, this is not just in valuations because the VCs are being stingy with their money. This is just from hacks, which is mind-numbing. The fact that the space can absorb that and not skip a beat tells of just how much VC and retail money has been pumped up in these things and how heavily it depends on Cantillon effects to continue its growth. Web3 is playing out like every other fiat “innovation”
Securing your coins - Jameson Lopp writes a long-form post about managing your coins like a whale. The main lesson from the post is to secure your Bitcoins like it’s going to 10x. You don’t want a setup that’s not good enough as your coins increase in value. In addition, there are good times to stack and bear markets are certainly good times. Coming up with ways to do what you’re convicted of and not what others are saying is a huge part of being a successful holder.
Quick Hits
Ulbricht gets some BTC - This is one part of the Silk Road story I never knew. 70k BTC were stolen from him and it’s now been recovered. Ross no longer owes the government any money, apparently.
How to pump an alt - A twitter thread on exactly how Dock was pumped and dumped. The whole thing was done with $300k. Imagine what you can do with billions.
Voyager Bust, Celsius Bankruptcy - Not surprising given the fallout from Luna, but nevertheless, a stark reminder that there is no risk free yield.
Arthur on Central Banks - Arthur Hayes waxes poetic about the central bankers and what they’re doing.
Fiat delenda est.