sword in the stone

Long time Bitcoiner, new to Nostr!

Public Key

npub1kgk0pp373eed92uq9u65ycvtfafvcl236yu87w75a8j6v3p0qgqq898efn

NIP-05 Address

Profile Code

nprofile1qqstyt8ssclguukj4wqz7d2zvx9575kv04gazwrl802wnedxgshsyqqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsyzh4le

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1kgk0pp373eed92uq9u65ycvtfafvcl236yu87w75a8j6v3p0qgqq898efn

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Last Notes

2026-03-30 04:49:58 UTC

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I think the network of apps is truly the only hope. And more apps that just so happen to use Nostr because it's the best tool for that job, rather than for its own sake. And that really means even some individual features of an app using Nostr and others not. E.g just the login system and one type of data that the user might want to share, but not another bit that would be faster or better if it actually wasn't using Nostr. Also not marketing an app as a Nostr app, just a good app, even if you've never heard of Nostr.

2026-03-21 04:40:00 UTC

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I'm working on a dedicated Nostr blogging platform / Substack alternative with that very goal in mind. It's going to be called uwrite.blog 😁

2026-03-15 08:51:46 UTC

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But now you're doing it. You said BIP110 isn't changing Bitcoin, but that is literally what it's doing, changing the consensus rules.
The thing that comes closest to the statement of defending what Bitcoin was is running Knots.

2026-03-14 07:06:01 UTC

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Sorry forgot to reply. Basically the original argument was that Core fundamentally changed Bitcoin when they changed the op return limit. As in, they had changed the way Bitcoin worked at a network level. That also means not just for nodes running that software, but for everyone on the network.
But when BIP110 was first introduced, it was framed as 'Core have changed Bitcoin, we want to change it back.' That message may have changed now, but that was certainly the original framing.
Then as time went on the community level of understanding about the difference between relay policy and consensus policy deepened. I had no idea about any of this before this whole drama, and neither did most people.
But now it's quite apparent that Core didn't change the consensus rules, they just changed the default policy to match consensus.
And quite the opposite, it's BIP110 which is actually a change to Bitcoin, and not just for the people running it, but for everyone else too.
That's the only sometimes dishonest feeling thing about the framing, just that it keeps shifting

2026-03-11 08:57:00 UTC

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One way I like to think about it is: Your node allows you to control YOUR experience of using Bitcoin, but it doesn't give any control over the network.
So the reason to run a node is really to verify your own transactions, not other people's.
But that cuts both ways. A node run by an exchange or a miner can't determine your experience of using or verifying Bitcoin either.
However all nodes agree to the consensus rules, so only changes to the consensus rules matter. Otherwise you can just run another client or an old version.
And to be honest I'm on the fence about BIP 110 because I feel like a lot of the time it's either framed dishonestly or a lot of supporters don't understand it. But it's BIP 110 which is actually changing OTHER people's experience of Bitcoin, i.e consensus rules, not the other way round.

2025-02-13 04:31:21 UTC

https://i.nostr.build/gXdI2LitspA7gKLy.jpg

2025-02-13 04:30:13 UTC

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https://i.nostr.build/qYHyHNqgWdwoIlbN.jpg

2025-02-12 08:39:56 UTC

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To be honest I don't even know what the documents were (only heard about this in the UK through the usual propaganda slop factories). But as a thought exercise, let's say he did have the documents at his place. What's your take on that? and does the recent revelation change your opinion? I'm just curious to know because of the way you asked the question in response to the news.

2025-02-01 08:52:53 UTC

@npub1kqr…e5xu @npub1z9h…858n
Hey, please could you tell me what's the song at the end of episode 57 (What is A Day)? I love the podcast by the way, most sane and rational Bitcoin podcast around without any hyperbole or influencer speak. Keep up the amazing work.

2025-01-05 20:57:31 UTC

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I totally agree, and I know it's frustrating when you feel like most people don't understand / don't want to understand. But on the bright side, I think you'll find that most people are just pragmatic and will use whatever the best tool is that's put in front of them. So I do think most people would use Monero for day to day transactions that they want to be private, and it's short term enough that they're not worried about losing purchasing power in the meantime.
I don't agree with your house example though, because really there's no way to 'own' a house anonymously, so there's sort of no point in buying it anonymously either. Surely?
Also about using Bitcoin privately, I think coin joining and mixing etc are becoming easier all the time. And I think if there's a push for that sort of thing (or other privacy preserving techniques) to just become the norm in wallets then it will all be mixed together enough to stop really mattering anyway. Unless you're trying to preserve anonymity for a very specific opsec reason, but that's different.

2024-12-26 20:46:37 UTC

I think every man will agree that this is the most relatable meme in the world
https://image.nostr.build/9d7b09758ca00562639a59af4f1bf8642c3bea3c40951ecfb9a56797f2d16e9c.jpg
#memes #memestr

2024-12-19 08:20:58 UTC

#gm
https://image.nostr.build/2d184491e41953bbba0286156fd4e86684ae2b961fa4c13608e3698ea64c59d1.jpg

2024-11-30 03:54:55 UTC

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For real?

2024-11-28 20:08:33 UTC

Just reading The Count of Monte Cristo, easily my favourite book of all time. I'd really recommend it if you haven't read it.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7126.The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo

2024-10-16 15:54:01 UTC

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In answer to your 2nd question, because people who want to make successful clients understand the need to include features that the market demands!

2024-10-15 14:34:11 UTC

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Not a very relevant xy comparison though. It would be more informafive to see the top 2/3rds of countries by population size vs birthrate.
So the headline would end up being 'the top 2/3rds of the biggest countries in the world by population have a birthrate below replacement levels' for example. I suspect that's not the case as global pop is going up, but it would certaknly be more relevant.

2024-10-15 02:07:23 UTC

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Shack

2024-10-10 08:17:10 UTC

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Beautiful, I hope you have lots of success!

2024-10-09 08:51:56 UTC

#GM
https://file.nostrmedia.com/f/b22cf0863e8e72d2ab802f3542618b4f52cc7d51d1387f3bd4e9e5a6442f0200/dea88a4862bbba189575e1693cc73092e4dec549f99ab9e8cae9a3b2a65dba5d.gif
Art by @npub1gwa…a2sz

2024-10-07 08:51:23 UTC

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Woah, I guess that's a real 'there but for the grace of god go I' situations. I've had my share of those too.

2024-10-06 21:45:21 UTC

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That's fascinating. Presumably you escaped that fate?

2024-10-05 16:52:30 UTC

I'm so confused about #lightning. Can anyone help me with this question please: If I opened a channel with say 500k sats, and I've just been spending spending spending, and now I have almost no sats left, and I want to top up that balance, e.g. add more sats to the same channel to fill it back up again, how do I do that?
I've got Thunderhub running, and I can see that channel, and I've even transferred more on chain #btc to my lightning node, so it's just sat there in the on chain balance. How do I get it into the existing channel? Or do I have to open a new channel? Thank you so much!
#asknostr

2024-09-26 09:08:13 UTC

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Not sure about the technical answer to your question, but I do think there's a 'if you build it they will come' element to Nostr for sure.

2024-09-13 07:27:40 UTC

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Personally I'd go with Snatch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jar2XkBboo

2024-09-12 17:19:08 UTC

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#bitcoin
https://blockdyor.com/bitcoin-knots/

2024-09-12 17:09:17 UTC

One of the most important videos about Bitcoin I've ever seen. This is a real emergency, and I've not seen anyone talking about it, really worrying, and I'm not just trying to be sensationalist.
I'll be looking into Bitcoin Knots at the very least for my mode, but it's worrying that people aren't talking about Bitcoin being ruined by mining issues and spam issues.
https://youtu.be/h-CA2wEFWPE

2024-09-09 14:40:06 UTC

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I think it's inevitable that as Bitcoin's reach expands, different groups with different values will enter the space. And some of those people will certainly be elitists.
Or do you mean that there are specific examples of people who were once humble not being humble any more?

2024-09-09 11:16:50 UTC

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Also on a 6a on the latest version. It's good, not sure about any improvements, but it's really not as good as my Samsung S22+.
Part of me wishes I would've gone for a more expensive Pixel, and I think within the next year or so I'll get the Pixel 9 (although looking at the comparison that is surprisingly only a very slight upgrade in all areas), or even a Pixel 9 Pro.
Check out the comparison, they're also almost exactly the same dimensions:
https://store.google.com/us/magazine/compare_pixel?hl=en-US&toggler0=Pixel%206a&toggler1=Pixel%209&toggler2=Pixel%209%20Pro

2024-09-09 09:50:47 UTC

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I think a lot of people are scared to say anything bad about Alby because they are one of the most important, active and helpful players in this space. So we all just have to pretend it's perfect until one day hopefully it will be perfect 😆

2024-09-09 09:04:04 UTC

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Failed here too.

2024-09-08 13:46:59 UTC

Busy day in the forest today
https://image.nostr.build/692bbf94e467ef9b655444a5da1baaa114ce485bf4be8b9707bbe3ce54711e9b.jpg
#nature #forest #horses #SilentSunday

2024-09-07 18:31:08 UTC

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Very cool.

2024-09-07 15:51:56 UTC

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I know the feeling. But that does also highlight the beautiful simplicity of the Bitcoin base layer. It just works.

2024-09-07 09:21:00 UTC

GM from my border collies. https://image.nostr.build/ef6e51692a2968fbfa29692a5cd862ef168798b255578f1376a64be5f9593830.jpg

2024-09-07 08:20:01 UTC

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Great point about needing new open source structures! Really good insight.
https://fountain.fm/episode/WZMnbTGeXMAipwpDh1Rv

2024-09-06 20:33:27 UTC

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Keep up the amazing work.

2024-09-06 16:11:38 UTC

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Thanks for the tip! I've added that relay now.

2024-09-05 15:18:47 UTC

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Scary stuff. As you say there's a glimmer of hope with relays on phones and other innovative solutions.
But on the whole people it's a pretty bleak time for the way people understand and use computing. But also the best time because now we've got Nostr, it's strange how there's always a paradox between it being the best time and the worst time and the same time.

2024-09-05 14:08:39 UTC

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What were the shadow ban incidents? I hadn't heard about that. Thanks

2024-09-05 12:15:54 UTC

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Exactly, people don't even realise how conditioned they are. It's your computer, you can do whatever you like with it!

2024-09-05 12:14:31 UTC

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Exactly. Not your files, not your data. Just like not your keys not your coins.
We can't rely on someone else to keep hosting the files because they've said they would. Digital preservation is vital, and decentralisation is the only way to make that work.

2024-09-05 12:10:04 UTC

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Exactly, and this is why they can't just ban Bitcoin or Nostr. It would make the government illegitimate over night. Same thing Bangladesh where they just turned off the entire internet (literally) for days for quell protests. Yes it worked, but at a huge cost to the economy, and it cost the government any last shred of legitimacy they might have had in the eyes of the people.

2024-09-05 12:08:09 UTC

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I think you've answered your own question below when you said about unplugging from the matrix. That means you are in the real world. Bitcoin is technically illegal now in the sense that it's not legal tender, and yet that doesn't prevent you and another person from agreeing to transact in Bitcoin. Same thing with Nostr, if it's illegal, it will be up to people to just decide to use it anyway, but for ethically sound reasons that don't break anything morally enforceable laws. If enough people do that, an illegitimate government which had made that protocol illegal would crumble in days. And that's why they won't ban it, because they know the ban would weaken them.
They can ban X in Brazil because they know it doesn't weaken them. X isn't a protocol, it's a platform, so it's not morally neutral. Banning Bitcoin and Nostr wouldn't be like banning X.

2024-09-05 10:51:25 UTC

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What happened. Did it say something embarrassingly incorrect about building?

2024-09-04 21:11:13 UTC

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I think that was the issue thank you. Specifically though I think I just wasn't getting on with the relay settings in Primal on desktop. Using other clients like Amethyst on Android or noStrudel on desktop makes it much clearer what the relays are used for and whether they're all working properly.

2024-09-02 13:55:14 UTC

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yes but isn't that the beauty of the relay nodes? If you just have one more node in your list, then you're fine. And I know you're saying that people won't add those relays, but I wonder if just the fact that they have the option to add more relays will keep everyone more honest. It's like Bitcoin, just the fact that it exists makes it harder to central bankers to print infinitely, because their actions will show up in the price of something. So if a relay bans someone for purely political reasons, it will just harm that relay and drive people to another.
Of course people could simply choose to only add the most popular relays, or be tricked into thinking the more niche relays are 'dangerous', but I'm not sure any protocol can solve that. All we can do surely is just give people the choice, make it easy for non technical users to make that choice, and just hope that people aren't stupid. If they are stupid, then that's just a human problem.

2024-09-02 12:45:03 UTC

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Well I can certainly recommend a good tea, but it's not black. Have you ever tried white tea?
It's so refreshing and energising. It's a totally different type of feeling just in how it interacts with your nervous system.
I would say though, if you do try it don't get too addicted, because if you drink several cups per day there's a real cumulative effect after a few months 😄 . But if you treat it as something very special, it's the best.
This is my favourite: https://www.teapigs.co.uk/products/silver-tips?_pos=1&_sid=337ceb0bb&_ss=r

2024-09-02 11:46:32 UTC

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I suppose one advantage of Nostr is that those people can't literally force you to agree with them. They can't actually get your banned for instance. So although they can behave in an extremely toxic and aggressive way, they can't actually do anything to you. And so maybe the argument is that the presence of more people strenghtens the network.

2024-09-02 10:40:43 UTC

@npub18am…p424 How do I use my nostrplebs.com email address as an actual email address? When I login to nostrplebs.com with my password I can see the option to enable using the email address, but how does that actually work? Sorry to bother you directly about it but I can't find any documentation on your website! Thanks.

2024-09-01 10:19:39 UTC

Does anyone know why some of my #nostr direct messages don't show up in some apps but they show up in others? I've got lots of relays, and I've also paid for a few including nostr.wine, but I guess I'm missing something. Just as an example, one of my direct messages shows up in Amethyst on mobile, but not on any of the desktop apps that I've tried. #asknostr
Thanks

2024-08-28 21:31:44 UTC

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Cool I'll check it out thanks 👍

2024-08-28 18:36:45 UTC

How does one join a Nostr paid relay?
I've found a list of them, but I can't find any good information on how to join/pay the fee.
Thanks #asknostr

2024-08-27 17:48:10 UTC

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IMO, all that matters, especially where ordinals are involved, is does this hurt or help Bitcoin?
Politicians and grifters may think they're using Bitcoin to get 'rich' but all that matters is whether this is increasing adoption and whether it could harm the network.

2024-08-27 14:56:09 UTC

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Beautiful.
By the way who's the singer?
https://fountain.fm/track/rDftqjxXwCysceWH2IXw
#nevent1q…l397

2024-08-21 06:47:25 UTC

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Looks to be offline? (07.45am uk time)

2024-08-21 06:44:13 UTC

The only way to beat the statists is to become richer than them using #bitcoin.
It's invaluable that we can opt out using #nostr, and encryption in general. But we must become wealthier than them to truly win in the long run.
We must become the new elite, and use our wealth to do good in the world.

2024-08-20 10:51:34 UTC

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Some of my favourite films of all time, watch any of these and you won't regret it:
Back To The Future
The Matrix
It's a Wonderful Life
The Fifth Element
Snatch
Legends of the Fall
Goodfellas
Dances With Wolves
The Lion King
Fight Club
Airplane
Casino Royale
Trainspotting / 2
Aladdin
Wayne's World 2
Toy Story
Howard's End
Brokeback Mountain
American Psycho
The Big Lebowski
Ben Hur
In Bruges
Taxi Driver
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Lawrence of Arabia
The Remains of the Day
Pulp Fiction
Cars films

2024-08-20 10:36:09 UTC

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Nobody seems to have answered your question. As far as I'm aware, your notes are broadcast to all the relays that you have selected (in the settings of your nostr client).
You can find more relays to add here: https://nostr.watch/relays/find
The more you have the more likely your notes are to be seen by others. Some relays are of course only for specific things or require payment to join.
I'm also new here, but I hope this helps!

2024-08-19 19:43:21 UTC

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Tell me about it. Just got setup the other day, even just on Voltage it's much more involved than running your own regular full node. All the stuff to do with channels, a lot to learn.

2024-08-19 15:26:28 UTC

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I think the problem is algos is the question of who decides what the algo favours. It's quite difficult to do that in a neutral way that both makes everyone happy and does what an algo is usually meant to do.

2024-08-18 19:32:39 UTC

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Exactly, I was thinking, damn I run my own IT services company, I've been into computers my whole life, I have my own node running on my own hardware (not Umbrel or Start9 or anything) and an Electrum server, and all sorts of other stuff self hosted, and yet this is properly complicated.
To be fair, I guess not everything will need non-custodial lightning as it's just a payment processing system really, so custodial is probably fine for most. But then, what about if you just want everything non-custodial and you want to do a bit of zapping on Nostr? It's a lot to go through, but I wanted to learn about the the tech so it's all worth it in the end.

2024-08-18 19:30:21 UTC

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I don't know, do some nostering I guess 😅
I never got into Twitter or any other social media really. This is the first time I've been enthusiastic about it at all. Good tech and good people.

2024-08-18 19:15:17 UTC

Just setup a #lightning node, a bit cheating because I did it on Voltage. But I thought it'd be a gentler introduction because there's so much to learn about lightning nodes compared to regular #bitcoin.
In fact now that I've actually been using Lightning it makes me realise that if you want non-custodial and the ability to receive payments, it's way harder than on chain with learning about channels and adding liquidity, and all the server requirements.
But still I got there in the end, and now I've got the lightning node and BTC Pay Server on Voltage, the getalby extension, phoenix wallet on mobile, and hopefully now the ability to receive #zaps as well as send on both desktop and mobile, and a nostr address, LN URL and hopefully everything I need to get started.

2024-08-16 21:26:56 UTC

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Oh damn is it!? Just seen, thanks for the heads up!
I guess now I have to figure out somewhere to move my funds and then reconnect it all. What lightning wallet do you use? The built in Primal wallet?

2024-08-16 19:55:18 UTC

I'm trying to link a lightning wallet to Nostr to do zaps. Is Alby the best way of doing that?
And if I need an Alby account, does anyone have an invite code? It seems you need one. Or is there a better option altogether.
I don't currently have a lightning node but that's my next step.
Thanks!

2024-08-16 19:46:16 UTC

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Thanks so much. Definitely interested in the London event by the way! I'm an IT consultant by trade, so pretty educated on cyber security, privacy etc, and very into the philosophy of Bitcoin. So I'm not sure, maybe I'd have something to add!

2024-08-16 19:41:01 UTC

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Thank you! Wow you've got some great posts 👍
Next thing I have to figure out a wallet and how to do zaps!

2024-08-16 19:38:00 UTC

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Thanks so much. I'm also quite into music production, just checking out your music now on Bandcamp 👍

2024-08-16 19:27:01 UTC

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Thanks so much I really appreciate that!
I actually saw your profile because I'm just across the water from Yarmouth and saw your boat video 👍

2024-07-27 14:28:42 UTC

Hello all, just discovered Nostr. I'm a long time Bitcoiner, running my own node and all the good stuff, but just starting to get into Nostr, Lightning and more. Just wanted to say hi.