Râu Cao

A new year, a new beach. See you on Koh Lanta in January: hackerbeach.org/episode-14-sco…

@stephanlivera @CunyRenaud Also, many people just wait a week or so for any unforeseen bugs to have been found and fixed before upgrading all of their nodes. At least I do. And yes, I did upgrade earlier this time, because a vocal minority on this website is annoying me with their attack on bitcoin.

@CunyRenaud Most likely just aligns with dates of Umbrel or start9 package updates coming through

Something odd about Bitcoin Core v30 adoption: - Oct 11-23: Nothing for 12 days - Oct 23-28: Suddenly steady, daily growth Notice the perfect inverse with v29.1 decline. The slope seems too steady for organic adoption, too gradual for infrastructure batches. Is this the most disciplined upgrade cycle in Bitcoin history… or something else? Thoughts? Data: bitnodes

@francispouliot_ “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program”

Finally arriving at the logical conclusion. github.com/bitcoin/bips/p…

@_pretyflaco About 11 years ago, multiple startups had working MPESA/bitcoin bridges (Kipochi and Bitpesa come to mind). They were all shut down pretty quickly by Safaricom, which is the largest local corporation and taxpayer in the country.

I'm a big fan of bitcoin in South Africa, but if Kenya continues the path they're on, they'll become the top bitcoin country of Africa. Not only do they have an advantage thanks to MPESA, but also the right mix of education and tech entrepreneurship to bring bitcoin to the people

@thefrankbraun @hagaetc Worth mentioning that the exit taxes only apply if you have been eligible for taxes in Germany for at least 7 years out of 12 before your move. Doesn't make it less absurd, but might help some people who haven't reached the threshold yet.

It's similar if you are living in Germany. DO NOT START A COMPANY WHILE LIVING IN GERMANY. If you own more than 1% of a company (foreign or domestic) they will tax you on unrealized capital gains when you move abroad. The calculation of how much the company is worth is completely unrealistic. This even applies if you inherit a company. That means that all private SMEs owners and their children are effectively held hostage in Germany. They simply don't have the capital to pay the tax even if they wanted to. It's not a wide topic of discussion in Germany because most people are not business owners and therefore don't see the problem with it. I personally know only two types of German business owners: The ones that already moved abroad and the ones that regret staying for their business and will move before starting the next one. I had a very good Germany accountant tell me: I should not say this, but you should not start a company in Germany unless you absolutely have to. Even if you are serving the German market with physical goods it's better to start the company in another EU country which more favorable regulation. And if you have access to a flat or even a room in Germany then you are a tax resident of Germany and the regulations above apply. Moving to another country on paper won't save you. Starting the company abroad won't save you. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE HOW CRUSHING THE GERMAN BUREAUCRACY CAN BE. It hurts me every time I visit my home country as a tourist to see how the decline is progressing. Moving back to my home country is a risk I am not willing to take, because it's getting worse and worse over time. I'm working on a second citizenship, because world taxation for German citizens is a real threat and you cannot give up German citizenship if you don't already have another one.

Norway Shrugged 🇳🇴🤷 My story recently racked up over 100 million views on this website. As a startup founder in Norway I was facing an unrealized gains tax bill many times higher than my net income. No politician ever told me how I'm supposed to pay the bill, but I got put up on the Socialist Left party's "Wall of Shame" for speaking up. With 100 of the top 400 tax payers leaving in just a couple of years present day Norway has chilling similarities to Ayn Rands 1957 dystopia "Atlas Shrugged". I've written a post about why my motherland, one of the richest countries in the world, is facing an entrepreneurial exodus, how we got here and what the future might hold. Link below 👇

JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK. This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations. This created the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised. We will provide more information as soon as possible. After more than five years in a 2x3 metre cell, isolated 23 hours a day, he will soon reunite with his wife Stella Assange, and their children, who have only known their father from behind bars. WikiLeaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles, and for the people's right to know. As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom. Julian's freedom is our freedom. [More details to follow]

@BitcoinBRS youtube.com/watch?v=krMWGw…

Julian Assange is still not free after 5 years, 2 months and 6 days of political imprisonment in HMP Belmarsh, following 6 years, 9 months and 23 days of arbitrary detention in the Ecuadorian embassy (see @UN WGAD Opinion No. 54/2015).

Verifying my account on nostr My Public Key: npub1raustrrh5gjwt03zdj8syn9vmt2dwsv9t467m8c3gua636uxu89svgdees Find others at nostr.directory @nostrdirectory #nostr

@EdHolden42 @UnPassant_ @m_postic @RnaudBertrand The 12 reserve banks of the system are entirely owned by private banks, who own 100% of the stock, elect the boards of directors, and receive a guaranteed, tax-free 6%+ pa dividend on their shares. They also hate communicating this clearly to the public. federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/se…

This is absolutely priceless. And probably the most frightening clip you'll ever watch on the people in charge of the US economy. Jared Bernstein is literally the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, the main agency advising Biden on economic policy

@jamesob @notgrubles (Not even mentioning that all your traffic to communication services is E2EE anyway in 2024.)

@jamesob @notgrubles How is that not plausible deniability then?

Mullvad is max suss. AFAICT they won't let you generate a wireguard config by giving them the pubkey only; all creation methods involve them seeing the privkey. This means they can monitor your traffic in cleartext in all cases. There's no technical reason for this.

@Bitwala Why would you make them use a fully surveilled payment network that charges them 3%+ in fees, when they accept sats directly via Lightning? This is good for VISA, not bitcoin.

Our CEO settling his bill at the monthly Bitcoin Stammtisch with his Bitwala Card, converting BTC into EUR on-the-fly at the point and time of payment. Non-custodial finance (#NoFi) is revolutionizing crypto adoption by offering practical, decentralized financial solutions across payments, lending, and more. NoFi is unlocking blockchain's mass market potential with innovations in settlement, scaling, and wallet infrastructure, converging wallets, payment apps, and neobanks on blockchain rails for widespread adoption. #NoFi #Bitcoin

@_pretyflaco ... like this: twitter.com/skddc/status/1…

@_pretyflaco Yeah, but I would rather show sats if it were my PoS.

Bitcoin bro things

@BrewsBitcoin @nicolasburtey @alpacarmspos Validation for the cashier is a great point! Requires them to be educated about the meaning of it, of course.

We just give regular receipts in @alpacarmspos for sales. We can see the hash in the background if there is ever a question on if it was successful. But... Adding the hash (and the QR) to the receipt would give the added validation to the cashier and the customer that the transaction did indeed get completed.

How awesome is that?

@_pretyflaco @nicolasburtey ... essentially turning it into even better memorabilia, because people already keep them for that.

@_pretyflaco @nicolasburtey I guess that's a thing it could be good for. But really, they told me they're still experimenting with the thing (only added the printed receipts recently), and the payment hash QR code will be replaced with something else soon. I think they want to print fun images instead.