#Bitcoin ⛏ #Lightning⚡️Class of '13 ~160,822🥩 Bitcoin Miner ~2013| Bitcoin Maximalist | Node operator| Macroeconomic analyst| Racing Enthusiast| Carnivore|

Joined February 2021
#Bitcoin for the learning impaired: Transactions, UI/UX, and Key Management Problems for 8 Billion people "Not your keys, not your coins" is a necessary mantra for the full transition to bitcoin as a user, but there is a large gap between initial adoption of bitcoin by the average person and proper key and seed phrase management. This is something I have watched repeatedly with new users as they transition to setting up and managing their own wallets and keys, but there is a huge opportunity for education and/or products that simplify this process. Ardent Bitcoiners tend to have a higher than average sensitivity to security and understanding of the dubious nature of wallet keys, seed phrases, passphrases, etc. We have all read the horror stories, many of us (myself included) have been the idiot to lose a seed phrase, corrupt encrypted backups, or fall victim to custodial bankruptcies and fraud. In many cases these are inconsequential losses, but in other cases these represent life changing amounts of wealth even if it wasn't thought to be a big deal at the time of the loss. It is easy to forget that the transition for Bitcoiners from this 'careless' state to the highly aware and redundantly secure user was a learning process that required continuous education and hours (hundreds or thousands of hours) of education. "Responsibility Go Up" (RGU) becomes more important than "Number Go Up" (NGU). Without the former, the latter really is an empty phrase, the two concepts are inextricably linked though this labor of love is often downplayed in the general narratives and memes around Bitcoin. It isn't as attractive to new users to sign up for a never ending education about finance and data security, though many of us have a deeply seated passion for these topics, most did not develop that passion until they started down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. Coming from an information security, banking/finance, intelligence, IT, etc. background really accelerates this learning curve, but I have still witnessed the hubris of individuals with these backgrounds become their downfall. Many do not take the losses well, lack personal accountability, or use the sour grapes fallacy to justify their losses. "This is why Bitcoin won't work for most people" echoes in their explanations. How do we bridge this gap in understanding without custodial solutions and key management and seed phrase backup services that require trusted 3rd parties? This is the direction most businesses in the industry go with the problem and it is a double edged sword where we give up centralized banks for newer rebranded centralized custodians for this highly sensitive data. The average user cannot afford many of the solutions that exist or cannot understand the backup methods and redundancies already built into many bitcoin wallet devices, so they throw their Bitcoin savings into a custodial exchange and go back to living their day to day lives. Most people have little time, focus, or energy for the education and burdensome RGU while trying to stay afloat in a turbulent and depressing world that grinds their labor under the fiat Ponzi. I still have friends and family that I have setup wallets for or made every effort to Uncle Jim that simply do not use the technology because of a perception of difficulty or the cost of time. This is something that many Bitcoiners forget while we are in the echo chamber of those who understand the responsibility of managing their own wealth. For the rest of society the added burden often outweighs the perceived benefits of using Bitcoin, dismissively they assume that it is too good to be true and therefore not worth the time and energy needed to engage with it. Custodians bridge this gap for most of these users by making the exposure to Bitcoin IOUs seem easier than owning real Bitcoin, but the reputation of Bitcoin from this perspective is still seen as a scary and uncertain gamble by no-coiners. They rightly associate Bitcoin/crypto exchanges with casinos or Ponzi schemes in the wake of FTX, the lore of Mt Gox, and the cascading failures of 2022, or scams of 2017-2018. Worse yet, many affected by failures in this cycle that are getting their balances back will walk away thinking they were protected by government or regulations, making them downplay the seriousness of self-custody if they stay in this market. Many will cash out with a bad taste in their mouth and others will simply move to a new custodian. Is a Bitcoin IOU better than holding US dollars in a bank? Paper returns on investment would say yes, but most of us cringe at the thought of these paper Bitcoin IOUs being used by the masses. We see the inevitable ethics failures and problems with trusting 3rd parties to manage this ultra-scarce asset in a for profit business model. The alluring promises of yield or simple thoughtless data storage is a veiled threat toward users sold as a service, but we need to find more effective means of sharing this understanding with the broader Bitcoin message. "Not your keys, Not your coins" needs to evolve into a more encompassing and digestible educational message. We need software and hardware wallet products that have redundancy baked into the setup of the device beyond the single 12-24 word seed phrase and keys common to most setups without introducing a centralized or 3rd party management feature. Too many laypersons want or need a "tech support" or "password reset" feature to bail them out for a lack of awareness. We can educate many of these people, but we must accept that many of these people will not be able to learn this due to impairment, many lack the intelligence or ability to understand the core concepts or manage the risks when the rest of their lives allow them numerous safety nets. What do we do for those that are incapable of learning to use something this complex? We must step outside our perception of intelligence and look at the reality of learning impairment in the general population. The subset of bitcoiners today is not an accurate representation of this learning impaired group and this technology does not fit their needs yet. Many individuals can be educated slowly over enough time to use wallets and non-custodial Bitcoin, but maybe half of society as a whole cannot use the technology as it is today. They need easier to use interfaces, backups that do not require them to store and remember the locations of an object, a seed phrase, a pin number, or a passphrase. Biometrics and genetic information is a feared solution by many that could be a promising way to solve this issue, but I have yet to see a product with these features built in that could be used by individuals with moderate to severe learning impairments. How do we make Bitcoin less technocratic? There will always be a stratification of Bitcoin users due to this difficulty curve and equity in Bitcoin is often a dirty word, but there is a huge opportunity and need for this level of service or product for less savvy users. For many people with these impairments the generation and recording of a seed phrase, sending a transaction, or verifying an address can represent an impossible task. Self-custody and storing sensitive data in a secure manner over long periods of time may not be possible for them. Are we setting these individuals up for failure and how can we accommodate this reality? Do these people never get to hold real bitcoin? Do they get shunted to layer 2 and 3 custodial services while the savvy get total financial freedom? There is no requirement built into the game of Bitcoin that will resolve this problem for every potential user, but the incentives do align with our goals of mass adoption to solve this for as many potential users as possible. No shit coin, no exchange, and no service within Bitcoin has truly solved this problem preventing mass adoption by the learning or visually impaired. We have set the groundwork for many competent people to adopt Bitcoin and any ignorance is indeed their own problem, but a solution for the other half of learning or visually impaired individuals will bridge the gap to billions of users while providing a safer and more usable experience to the ignorant. I repeatedly hear that we should not make it easier or no accommodation is needed and that people can all learn to use Bitcoin and it is simply not true as it is today. The incentives align here, even if the purists among us are resistant to making it easier to be aloof about Bitcoin key and seed phrase management as a component of financial sovereignty. The inaccessibility of the technology will limit 4 billion or more people on earth from being able to truly adopt Bitcoin and become equals in the future of money. There are other issues with the costs of devices, the costs of services, and the access to technology for visually impaired users that need to be solved, but this one is a glaring hole in the marketplace. Biometric and genetic data could be a possible way forward in solving key, seed phrase, and passphrase management issues, there are ways to split keys and have a 3rd party assist with recovery that would not allow them to move user funds, but at the end of the day these all have very real costs that are insurmountable for many of the learning impaired potential users of Bitcoin. User interfaces and experience models need to include more visually intuitive layouts and verification for addresses that accommodate those that cannot read strings of alphanumeric text. I don't want to pretend to have solutions, I want to open a dialogue about these issues. Maybe somebody is already working on these problems, maybe there are solutions I am not seeing, but I do know they are not well known or common enough to be available to laypersons and the world of no-coiners. What do you think? How can we bring Bitcoin to all 8 billion people on earth? We have done a great job laying the future of the industry out and now there are some problems to solve with the mass adoption model as it stands. Can we bring Bitcoin to the learning and technologically impaired without stratifying society into multiple classes of users and different classes of Bitcoin?
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
Removing a spy implant from a crypto wallet is probably the most cyberpunk thing I've done this year. xitter.cf/MagicalTux/status/2108…
First step in reverse engineering the spy implant: de-solder it to have a proper view of its flexible pcb.
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
Bip110 was actually a User Ignored Soft Fork.
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Bitcoin's consensus rules have never been written down outside of code. The only authoritative answer to whether a block is valid has been whatever Bitcoin Core does. So every independent node has had to shadow Core instead of building against a shared reference, and the ones that drifted became chain-split risks. The Orange Paper is a formal mathematical specification of Bitcoin's consensus rules. Signature validation, UTXO accounting, script execution, and block structure are defined precisely enough for any mathematician, engineer, or court to read and check. Bitcoin Commons (@BtcCommons) has spent the past 12 months building a from-scratch Rust node against it. Z3 checks consensus paths against the spec on merge, and differential replay compares the node to Core across 900,000+ mainnet blocks. The spec belongs to everyone. Any implementation can verify itself against it, Core included, and each one that does makes Bitcoin harder to capture through a single codebase. thebitcoincommons.org
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
JUST IN: Developer Misha Komarov explains proposal framework for private transfers on Bitcoin without a need for a soft fork in detail 👀 Bullish for Bitcoin privacy 🚀
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The "Bitcoin is not a messaging app" crowd really struggle with Bitcoin history.
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
Wondering whether Core or Knots forked off Bitcoin? Simple test: Sync the latest Core version to 100%, then switch to a prefork version. Still works? Great, you've just demonstrated that Core hasn't forked off Bitcoin. Now try it with Knots. Good luck 😂
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Rules with rulers chain
A BLAKE2b Hardfork morning. >wake up >open Discord chat >read new decrees set forth overnight >self-flagellate for your weakness >click online confession tab "Forgive me father for I have sinned." "Go on my son." "This week I accidentally referred to Bitcoin as Bitcoin and not Spamcoin as instructed." “You are forgiven. This time. Now go say an Our Father Luke, a Hail Kratter and a Glory Be to Mechanic.” 😂
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
SHIELDED MAINNET BITCOIN TRANSACTION How much did I send & where to? can't see! article & repo soon
Shielded Bitcoin: Private Transfers on Bitcoin L1
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
BLOCK JOINS x402 FOUNDATION, BRINGS BITCOIN LIGHTNING TO AI AGENT PAYMENTS Block has joined the x402 Foundation and contributed Bitcoin Lightning support to the open payment standard for AI agents. x402 embeds payments directly into HTTP, allowing AI agents to autonomously pay for goods, services and other agentic tools. Block says Lightning is suited for the billions of instant, low-cost, small payments expected to emerge from the agentic economy.
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
BREAKING: RESEARCHERS JUST RELEASED THE FIRST PROTOCOL FOR FULLY PRIVATE #BITCOIN TRANSFERS ON THE BASE LAYER NO SOFT FORK NEEDED ZCASH ABOUT TO BECOME HISTORY THIS IS ABSOLUTELY HUGE 🔥🔥
🤖 Made with AI
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
JUST IN: Researchers propose framework for private transfers on Bitcoin without a need for a soft fork 👀
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Ahhh its all starting to make sense, he hates voluntarilyism and wants to larp as chairman shitoshi
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
So @LukeDashjr seems to have an authoritarian communist mentality. He thinks capitalism is evil. He thinks anarchy (maximum freedom) is evil. He thinks ancap is evil squared. He rallied up the bolsheviks against the bitcoin bourgeoisie. Redefines words and has purity disputes. Tries to gain power by eliminating any opposition. Decides what is the maximum a miner can mine (or have profits) instead of letting free markets decide. Increasingly stricter rules intended to protect the project. Funny comparison is that the word Bolshevik comes from the Russian word for “majority,” although they were not consistently the majority in Russia. xitter.cf/LukeDashjr/status/1559…
Replying to @777mellon @lopp
Anarchy and capitalism are both evil. Ancap is like evil squared
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
This was never about protecting the user's ability to run Bitcoin on low compute hardware. It was about control. Protecting decentralization was their argument, now the mask came off: they were always trying to become the center.
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
The man who shorts bitcoin lives a short life.
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Emperor Luke has released a UASF that freezes miner rewards on his chain to 45 days after maturity (100 blocks). In practice their chain is not censorship resistant and coins can be frozen by social demand. Very similar to Ethereum. github.com/bitcoinknots/bitc…
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
We need more John McAfee energy in BTC
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Graham ⚡️⛏ retweeted
“This is a surveillance state in the making.” @SenLummis, objecting tonight to Elizabeth Warren’s bill.
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