Mike Bellini

November 26, 2016 I was at a Sharks game with my wife. During this period in my life I was a heavy drinker, depressed, and lost. My son was 6 months old at the time and I had tried quitting multiple times over the years but could not break the vicious cycle I was in. So on that night of the sharks game I saw a father with his son walking up to the seats next to us. At that moment god spoke to me with these words “you will never do this with your son if you don’t quit drinking”. November 27, 2016 I put the bottle down and haven’t had a drink since. Over 8 years sober! God is good!

@LTthegoat_ I’ll take a follow fella

@LTthegoat_ 🤜🏻

Damn appreciate y’all…. 😭🫶🏽

@Cobratate What about WWE.

Nothing more embarrassing than having any interest, no matter how remote, in any form of sportsball

@AndrewYang So you’re saying we should become professional wrestlers. Got it. Thanks Yangster

Finance and insurance will be among the most affected fields of AI-driven automation.

@AndrewYang That’s not true. We are on the road to Wrestlemania right now you jabroni.

All roads lead to Universal Basic Income.

@RobSchneider You take that back Rob! King Newsom keeps us safe!

If YOU live in a state that has a Democrat Governor, you are not safe…

@BleacherReport Doug flutie

Logan Paul is ready to take on ANY NFL player in a fight 🤯🥊 Who should he fight?!

@NancyMace What do you say

CONGRESS: Do as I say, not as I do.

@elonmusk @CrisGFPereira Can we just get to the moon first?

One day ♥️

@TheJoeySwoll Make it make sense.

Can you imagine if a man said, “the more I cook and clean my own place, the less attracted I am to women”. Both are absolutely ridiculous. 💯

@stevewilldoit Rad

i think my new youtube video is really good. lmk thoughts plz . i’m fat and gross i know

@ScottiePippen @grok @elonmusk Ya. XRP comin Scottie

X Money is coming soon? Is this true @grok @elonmusk?

@JoelKatz I can’t buy wrestlemania tickets now because XRP is down. Damnit David!!

Just feeding a kangaroo.

@RipBullWinkle Today

Tomorrow

@HarleyShah No. They just attack their own people instead

Iran has not attacked a country unprovoked in it's 5000 year old history. Israel has attacked six in one year. Who is the threat here?

we are living in the worst generation ever

HOLY SHIT

@JoelKatz @Justin_Bons Pure poetry here David.

One last point that I don't make often enough: We carefully and intentionally designed XRPL so that we could not control it. It's not because we weren't 100% confident we were the very smartest and very best people who could always make the very best decisions. We were confident we were and that we could. We did not lack ego. But what we also knew was that given the regulatory environment and practical realities of being a company and having investors, there was simply no way we could be assured that we were in control over our own actions. Ripple, for example, has to honor US court orders. It cannot say no. I think US courts are great and generally issue orders that make sense for good reasons. But could a US court decide that international comity with an oppressive was more important than XRPL or Ripple? We were quite concerned that could come down either way. We absolutely and clearly decided that we DID NOT WANT control and that it would be to our own benefit to not have that control. We always want people to trust us. People trusting me is all upside for me. I want as much of that as possible. So does Ripple. But people *having* to trust me or Ripple or anyone else to use XRPL is all downside for us. We knew very early that we wanted as little of that as possible. We designed it so that we could not own or control it because that was the only way to ensure that nobody could own or control it. And think about it. Say Ripple could censor transactions or double spend. If we ever did that, all trust in XRPL would be destroyed. It would never make sense for anyone to use that power. And the best way to be able to say "no" is to have to say "no" because you cannot do the thing asked. Our entire objective in designing the consensus model was to limit its power, for selfish reasons at least as much as noble ones. And the design reflects those objectives.

We must reject all centralized "blockchains"! This includes Ripple, Canton, Stellar, Hedera & Algorand Centralization is not the future of finance; requiring permission from an authority is not decentralized! Do not be fooled by their lies, as the truth will set us free: 🧵 Ripple: Has a "Unique Node List", which makes the validators effectively permissioned. As any divergence from this centrally published list would cause a fork, effectively giving the Ripple Foundation & company absolute power & control over the chain Canton: The validator set is totally permissioned! Stellar: A similar set-up to XRP, except that they call it "recommended Tier 1 organizations," which is published by the Stellar Development Foundation. However, just like XRP, a high overlap is required, or you risk forking off the network. Effectively putting the power in the hands of the list creator Hedera: The validator set is totally permissioned! Algorand: The "relay nodes" in ALGO are still totally permissioned. Despite validators being permissionless, anyone now has the option to run a "participation node" after they recently implemented a P2P network as an alternative means to propagate TXs. Which means the relay nodes can no longer act as gatekeepers. However, it is unclear how much removing them entirely would affect performance today. Possibly making them a necessary aspect of ALGO's current design Forms of Consensus: Within a blockchain context, there are only three forms of consensus: Proof of Stake, Proof of Work & Proof of Authority If a blockchain does not use PoS or PoW, it is, by definition, PoA! As this was fundamentally an unsolved problem before blockchain came along, which solved this problem through the use of token-based incentives, either through stake or work Anything that does not fit that consensus model is instead fundamentally based on authority/trust. In the case of XRP & XLM, it is important to keep in mind that choosing who we trust is not the same as trustlessness! Binary Choice: A blockchain is either fully permissionless or it is not. ALGO has permissioned elements in its design, so it is still "centralized". A crude way to use language, but we do still need understandable schelling points in crypto. As decentralization is a spectrum, permissionlesness is only one element of that bigger picture. However, personally, any permissioned elements are a deal breaker for me, as it is so anti-thetical to the ethos of crypto that it defeats its entire raison detre Institutional Adoption: Much like the early internet, big institutions are uncomfortable using fully permissionless, public & decentralized networks. So, much like the early internet, those institutions will be left behind. The big winners are the crypto natives. That is true historically & it will also be true in the future too. The big winners during the early internet were the newcomers, not the old guard, for the same reasons we see playing out in crypto now Conclusion: The future of finance is decentralized & permissionless. If you cannot understand that, it is fine. There are other options for you on the free market But let's not pretend as if these chains are really playing a part in this revolution. Quite the opposite, centralized "crypto" is a distraction that only slows the goals of our movement down So, if you care about crypto. Reject these permissioned chains & demand they decentralize. In the meantime, we should vote with our feet & support chains that carry our movement forward towards its intended goals instead Credible neutrality, censorship resistance, privacy, immutability & more can only be achieved on a fully permissionless & decentralized blockchain That is the revolution we were promised & that is the future we can now bring about with the choices we make collectively Crypto is on the right side of history, disrupting power away from centralized authorities to help create a freer & more equitable world! 🔥

You can hear the genuine pride in Donald Trumps voice when he called the Team USA Hockey Team

It’s not often I actually laugh out loud by myself but this clip right here made laugh out loud. All time.