02ad8239c2

bitcoin_beginners

As you may know, Zeus is launching soon a new version 0.12 with NWC server included.

What does this mean?
Apart from embedded LND node(s) you can run in your mobile device, now you can create sub-accounts with NWC (Nostr Wallet Connect) for family members and/or friends, also use this NWC wallet to any nostr client for zaps, or even here on SN as an external wallet. You literally can be a mobile LN bank.

So, to anticipate this release, I was testing for a while and I come here with a new guide for you, the new user that doesn't know too much about how to use Zeus LN app. This guide will cover some required tips and tricks that see many users still do not know or understand about Zeus.

---
### Resources:
- [Website from where you can download it directly](https://zeusln.com) - is also available on Zapstore app
- [Zeus embedded node docs](https://docs.zeusln.app/category/embedded-node/)
- [Getting started with Zeus enbedded node](https://darth-coin.github.io/wallets/getting-started-zeus-wallet-en.html)
- [Advanced usage of Zeus node](https://darth-coin.github.io/wallets/zeus-node-advanced-usage-en.html)
- [Managing private LN liquidity](https://darth-coin.github.io/nodes/private-ln-channels-types-en.html)
- More resources about NWC - https://nwc.dev

Please pay attention to the following tips and tricks. It will help you a lot at using Zeus and avoid any frustration.

BE AWARE ! The vers 0.12 is still in beta testing phase, so do not run it yet, only if you really want to test and help the development team to find bugs before final release.

---

##1 - Keeping healthy sync for Zeus node

**Remember: Zeus is a LND node !** Is not just a simple wallet or custodial account.
That means it require to be well synced with the chain and LN graph in order to be able to use it properly. In the resources guides I've explained more details about how to manage the neutrino peers. Please read them.

Here I will give more heads up about how to keep healthy your Zeus node, because I still see people that do not understand some aspects.

To remember:
- no blocks sync = LN node it doesn't start = no channels online = no onchain balance usable
- Zeus is using BIP157 / neutrino to sync the blocks headers, with compact block filters.
- [Read more about Compact Block Filters here](https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/compact-block-filters/)
- [A good article about neutrino's privacy here](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/why-bitcoin-wallets-need-block-filters)
- There's NO NEED to use Zeus with Tor in order to sync. Tor is only adding more latency and can break the sync. Not even a VPN is necessary because also these could add more latency.
- Neutrino sync REQUIRE a good ping (low latency) in order to be able to sync fast. It doesn't matter if you locally have a high speed internet for downloading, but you have a shity ping to the neutrino peer. Remember that the ping is determined by the distance to the peer from your location. Adding more network layers and connection points will add more latency. That end up in failed sync.
- if you run a bitcoin node or a local friend is running it, you can connect to it to have a better ping. [Here you have a guide about this aspect](https://docs.lightning.engineering/lightning-network-tools/lnd/enable-neutrino-mode-in-bitcoin-core)
- always before you start using the Zeus node, configure your neutrino peers accordingly. See the Zeus docs FAQ page or my guides. It is very well explained there how to do it.
- Neutrino + client side path finding (Express Graph Sync locally) offer a very good privacy to run a private LN node. Do not complicate things with Tor. Tor is not offering any other privacy on top of these, only make things worse.
- Client-side path finding: ZEUS constructs users' lightning payment paths on their devices, so we don't know the final destinations of our users' payments, even when they're forwarded through our channels. Not only do we not want to know how you're using your money, but we're building things in a way that we can't. Not all wallets can say the same.

![](https://m.stacker.news/121623)

Another aspect to keep in mind: if you are using quite often Zeus during a day, you could put it into "Persistent mode". That means the LND service will run in background and will keep the sync alive and well, being ready to make/receive payments any time. This is necessary also if you want to start using Zeus with the new NWC sub-accounts. Is like keeping alive a LN node, only that is in your mobile.

If you do not use itt so often during a day, but you still want to be ready, is better to sync it almost every day, even that you do not make any payments.

There's also a trick, if you do not make so often payments but want to keep it as most synced, activate in the embedded node - express graph sync - "enable EGS" and "reset EGS at startup". These 2 options will keep the LN graph updated, offering you the best payments paths, that are constructed locally by your own node, not by any LSP you have channels with.

Another trick - how to keep sane your Zeus data.
In time, the channels DB file get bigger, for more you use it, more updates is doing in the DB. So is a good practice to compact this database.

Go to embedded node - troubleshooting - activate compact database. It will ask to restart. Do it and wait, it will take few moments. Then you can consult in app info and see how much data was reduced. Is good to do this weekly or monthly, not daily. Reducing the DB size is also helping to use of battery.

Another trick, also in troubleshooting section is the option "delete neutrino files". Use that option ONLY if you notice some weird behavior in syncing even that you have good ping with your peers. Sometimes if you do not sync for a long time period, these files get corrupted or obsolete and is better to just wipe them and start over the sync. In general are like 400-500MB (are only the headers of the blocks).
You can safely delete them with the option from troubleshooting section and restart Zeus. BE PATIENT! It will start syncing from zero your node and also rescan the wallet. So better put it first in "persistent mode" and wait. Usually with a good neutrino peer is not taking more than 5-10 min.

---

## 2 - Using Zeus NWC server with sub-accounts
Coming with new vers 0.12 you can activate the NWC server in Settings - Nostr Wallet Connect and start creating multiple sub-accounts

Keep in mind:
- this is NOT the NWC client side, where you configure in Zeus some external custodial NWC accounts from other servers. That si something else, is like the LNDHUB account, but communicating over nostr.
- these NWC sub-accounts are using your Zeus embedded node liquidity or the cashu wallet liquidity
- you must keep active / persistent mode your Zeus device in order to be able to "serve" these NWC services.

For what are useful these NWC sub-accounts:
- you want to manage with Zeus a small family LN node, so you can create these sub-accounts, with limited budgets fro your kids and other family members, including for some close friends.
- you want to run a Zeus private node, but also want to use it with nostr, SN and other NWC services. So you can create specific sub-accounts for each of these services and set a specific budget to each. You can even set the time limit that a service is active. This offer a better security for your allocated funds.
- you want to setup a small shop with Zeus POS, and managed by some employees. So you can setup on a tablet in your office a Zeus node + some sub-accounts and these NWC sub-accounts configure them as NWC wallets in their mobile devices with Zeus POS. Now they can easily make orders and charge them directly, without being able to spend from it, only receiving.

Here are some screenshots from these NWC accounts creation:
As you can see you can give specific rights for each connection

![](https://m.stacker.news/121624)

More custom actions / rights:

![](https://m.stacker.news/121625)

Budget amount and time period to be active, that also can be renewd.

![](https://m.stacker.news/121626)

In the section of adding a new NWC connection, in the top right corner you will see a settings wheel, where you can configure the persistent mode of the NWC server and switch to cashu wallet as funding source for a NWC server.

![](https://m.stacker.news/121627)

The persistent mode is to keep the NWC service alive in your device. This is not consuming too much battery, is like a simple messenger app.

In the NWC account you can also configure the nostr relay that can be used for these accounts. Right now for testing are offered 3 well known nostr relays but in the final version will be also the option to use your own nostr relay if you run one.

---

So that's it for today, just presenting you these new features in Zeus.
Zap 2 sats if you like this post or more sats if you don't.

Zeus Node - Tips and tricks

DarthCoin

nostr

Cool way to visualize what posts you will see based on who the people you follow follow or mute. Now if only there was a way to do something with these webs of trust...

![](https://m.stacker.news/121482)

nostr WoT visualization

Scoresby

Politics_And_Law

[Source](https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/legal-framework-for-using-facial-recognition-in-law-enforcement/consultation-on-a-new-legal-framework-for-law-enforcement-use-of-biometrics-facial-recognition-and-similar-technologies-accessible)

![](https://m.stacker.news/121310)



British government plans to introduce cameras that detect emotions

SpaceHodler

tech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVO9GcNlkLQ

I glad to see companies providing an entry level system to consumers and not worrying about government restrictions.

I will not be surprised if these companies start getting targeted.

They need to start selling some bitcoin miners as heaters along with the panel kit.

Just plug in two things (panels and miners) and you will stay warm.


Small plug-in solar panels gain traction - Regulation be damned

Wumbo

Great read. By Juraj Bednar on why some apps don't work on phones running alternative operating systems.


> The processor’s key isn’t just stored in memory where it could be copied. It’s created at the chip’s “birth” in the factory, often burned into silicon or derived from microscopic manufacturing imperfections called PUF (Physically Unclonable Function). These imperfections are as unique as a human fingerprint and serve to generate a key that nobody – not even the manufacturer – knows or can copy. They can only cryptographically sign it at the factory.
> 
> The result is that a freshly manufactured chip has a private key inside it. When activated, it simply announces “my corresponding public key is this number,” and the factory system signs that public key (“processor manufactured according to standards”). The processor has hardware restrictions on when and how it will sign things with that key.
>
> These technologies are known as Secure Enclave in Apple’s world, TrustZone (ARM technology used in Android devices), or TPM and SGX in computers and servers. It’s essentially a separate, miniature computer within the computer, with its own memory and logic, invisible to the operating system – and even to you with full administrator rights.
> 
> This is where mechanisms like Google’s Play Integrity API or Apple’s App Attest come in, using this hardware vault as a notary. When you launch a banking app or a game, it asks the vault to issue a “certificate of authenticity.” The vault checks whether the system has been altered, whether it’s running on an emulator at some server farm in China, and digitally signs this report with that non-extractable key, while the server on the other end verifies the manufacturer’s signature.
>
> # App developers now have a powerful weapon that gives them near-mathematical certainty that they’re dealing with a real, unmodified physical device, not some script trying to hack the game or create thousands of fake accounts. For developers, this means the end of cheap spam and a fair playing field for gamers. But for us, it means that if we don’t have a “kosher” system approved by the manufacturer, the door to the service stays closed.
> 
> The X app (formerly Twitter), for instance, now refuses to log you in unless full attestation passes. This means the only people who can sign in through the app are those with a certified, non-rooted phone, running the manufacturer’s original operating system, using the original unmodified X app installed from the Play Store or App Store.
> 
> it also runs completely counter to the internet’s philosophy. Instead of protocols that internet services were built on, we now have end-to-end controlled apps where we don’t even control the part running on our own device – our own property. If we decide to install a different operating system, or exercise our right to modify it under open-source licenses, we’re out of luck.

Why Your Apps Stopped Working (Hardware Attestation) - Juraj Bednar

ideasfromtheedge

### Intro: We are not winning... Where is everybody?!

the human race is in a violent war with demonic parasites, and has been for millennia; _u and i_ have lost 100% of the great battles to date on record; "where is that record?" u may ask - well, it's all over the globe under our feet and in plain sight; altho not the main topic of today's post, check out the episodes below wen u get a chance: 

![](https://m.stacker.news/120871)

My Lunch Break episodes starter:  

* [The Catacombs - Trilogy](https://rumble.com/v6gz3dd-the-catacombs-trilogy.html)
[Youtube link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khLKYq0jUnY)

* [The Old World - Greatest Lies?](https://rumble.com/v6qcc9y-the-old-world-greatest-lies.html?e9)
[Youtube link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igsIo5SPQVM)

* [They Already Had AI](https://rumble.com/v6xn5oa-they-already-had-a.i..html?e9)
[Youtube link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Myb03TCo4)

if u're new to this topic and would like a lighter introduction, check out my 1st post in this series: [Occult Manipulators of Consciousness](https://stacker.news/items/1266468), along with this documentary: [Parasites - The Killer Inside Us](https://rumble.com/v6tgp4x-parasite-the-killer-inside-us.html);

let's dive in! 

![](https://m.stacker.news/120872)

__________________
### What is Schizophrenia? 

according to [definitions of academons](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6526801/), "Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness with positive symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior), negative symptoms, and cognitive impairment." unless u are a nerd like me, do not bother with the rest of the paper - it's largely a study of the effects of disease; 

consider this scene as possibly experienced by an average schizophrenic: [Simulation of a Psychotic Episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyUqhbPD2tc) (6 min); essentially, it's a combination of sensory and mental experiences/programs running thru consciousness; the hidden controllers of thots, emotions, and actions are probably sitting deep inside, pulling levers and strategizing in 5 dimensions; 

![](https://m.stacker.news/120873)

caption: a wonderful animation about inner workings of the mind in a kid; note that the yellow character in the movie has _the courage_; the solar plexus chakra traditionally represents _the will & courage to act_;

here is a [2 hr interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D5eN9p0J9I) with a front-line researcher of demons who spent his life working in various psychiatric wards; the schizophrenic patients were often his clients! 

there are a few fascinating points the podcasters discuss: 

* people believe it's their voices, but it's actually _not their voice_; their eyes start changing ([PANDAS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PANDAS) eyes?);
* the voices/hallucinations are consistently negative and drive people toward self-destructive behaviors;

![](https://m.stacker.news/120874)

* the psychiatrists are like the ancient Egyptian priests, proclaiming their scientism with vigor; they have a vague neurotransmitter theory of schizophrenia and no evidence to back it up; the theory has already been disproved, most of what psychologists publish cannot be replicated, yet the anti-psychotic drugs keeping being prescribed to everyone from kids to elderly; 
* the researchers are never on the front line; the visiting politicians are not allowed to talk to the patients; all they do is theorize and dictate guidelines!
* [the demon drugs](https://stacker.news/items/1278939?commentId=1279063) do not heal anything; they merely zombify people and suppress/appease the alien voices a little bit; 
* the rate of suicide is similar for both schizophrenics and their psychopathic psychiatrists - about 6x of the general population; that wud make sense from the parasitic infestation theory perspective, since the hosts closely interact with each other on a regular basis; 

![](https://m.stacker.news/120875)
_______________
### Demonic Exorcisms 

Consider the story of [Anneliese Michel](https://allthatsinteresting.com/anneliese-michel-exorcism); this girl was subjected to 67 exorcisms that ultimately left her dead on July 1, 1976 at the age of just 23; all of those numbers are highly symbolic and synchromystic; the movie Exorcist (1973) ([trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDGw1MTEe9k)) was in part based on Anneliese's suffering; 

![](https://m.stacker.news/120876)
caption: photo of healthy Anneliese

"when Michel was 16, she _suddenly blacked out_ at school and _began walking around in a daze_ ... she was in a trance-like state" - this description is consistent with onset of [PANDAS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PANDAS) behavior; what followed was countless trips to doctors, priests, and eventually special exorcists; we do not know the full story of what happened to the girl behind closed doors...

![](https://m.stacker.news/120877)
caption: note the [PANDAS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PANDAS) eyes; _start looking for dark circles around people's eyes..._

"In the end, the two priests were found guilty of manslaughter resulting from negligence and were sentenced to six months in jail (which was later suspended) and three years of probation." note how legal priests and doctors rarely face real punishment for harming people; all the poor girl needed were some long barefoot walks under the sun, lemonade, a few fasting sessions, and a thorough parasite cleanse; it is a truly horrific story; 

![](https://m.stacker.news/120878)
_______________
### How does one get rid of parasitic demons? 

there are numerous possible paths on this journey, depending on how extreme or gentle u wanna go, and the severity of ur situation; if u cannot go extreme on day one, go gentle... but eventually u will have to fight hard; **_do not go gentle into that good night_** 

![](https://m.stacker.news/120880)

* the power of sunlight is absolutely necessary: [BTC Time Hacks by Jack Kruse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqMeUH7aotY)
* get ur mind straight - acting in panic or on impulse alone won't help u; **this is a strategic war on all fronts**
* this may sounds strange (😅😅😅) - routinely command these demons to leave ur body; this is not a joke...
* supplement ur immune system: [citrus fruit](https://stacker.news/items/1277664/r/SHA256man?commentId=1280433), trace minerals, copper drinkware, cold shock therapy, sauna sessions, among many others; _beware of [parasite eggs](https://stacker.news/items/1268596) in supplement powders & gels_;
* remove toxicity from ur environment - purify ur air, water, food, and _other hosts nearby_; there are many parasite-purging tactics; 
* the other hosts around u will shed _demon eggs_ and reinfect u - this happens very quickly; u may have the strongest immune system in the world, but with enough reinfestation & toxicity burden and a skilled handler, u will eventually fall prey to demons;

may the Great Life Force be with u! 

![](https://m.stacker.news/120879)
remember: u are the light; 



Parasite Wars - Schizophrenia & Demonic Possession

SHA256man

bitcoin

Private Bitcoin Core through i2p and tor

econ

As an enjoyer of Szabo's blog, [unenumerated](https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/), I will say I definitely haven't read some of these. Cool resource.

Nick Szabo essays from 1990s and early 2000s

Been a full time Linux user for several years now. I haven't used Windows in decades but sometimes I do need something on Windows. There are a couple music related firmware updating apps that only run on Windows and Mac and over the weekend I tried out Winboat. Was pretty happy with out it works.

It basically sets up a container in the background that runs Windows. And it uses RDP to present applications in your window manager so you can interact with them in your Linux desktop. 

It gets the job done well enough for me. I don't need to use Windows apps very often at all and this project downloads and installs Windows mostly in the background so I don't have to fiddle with it. It does warn you about giving the Windows install access to your home directory (which I didn't do) so look out for that.

Winboat: Run Windows apps on 🐧 Linux with ✨ seamless integration

kepford

# What does a Bitcoin address reveal before and after a transaction?
  

Reusing a Bitcoin address is often presented as a privacy issue. However, it also raises a **real cryptographic** risk related to the security of the private key itself. The issue concerns both old P2PKH addresses and recent SegWit (bc1q...) or Taproot (bc1p...) formats: when an address is reused after having already been used to spend a UTXO, all funds associated with that same key now depend on cryptographic material exposed multiple times on the blockchain. This article explains the structural reasons for this risk, the cryptographic mechanisms involved, and the practical way to observe the public key revealed during a transaction.

  

### Exposure of the public key: a critical moment

  

Before any expenditure, a Bitcoin address **does not reveal the public key**, but only a hash:

  

```

HASH160(pubkey) = RIPEMD160(SHA-256(pubkey))

```

  

This hash offers no possibility of retrieving the public key. As long as a UTXO remains unspent, the associated key remains mathematically inaccessible.

  

As soon as a UTXO is spent:

  

- the **signature** is published,
- the **complete public key** is revealed,
- the validity of the signature is verified against this key.

  

From that moment on, the address no longer offers the same cryptographic protection: the public key is exposed to offensive analysis, and any reuse of that same key multiplies the data that can be exploited by an attacker.

  

### Where is the public key located at the time of spending?

  

The exact location depends on the type of address:

  

### P2PKH (addresses beginning with 1 or 3)

  

In **P2PKH** transactions, the public key appears:

  

- **in the scriptSig**,
- immediately after the signature,
- in hexadecimal form, usually as a compressed key (33 bytes, prefix 02 or 03) or uncompressed (65 bytes, prefix 04).

  

### P2WPKH (SegWit v0, bc1q addresses, etc.)

  

In **P2WPKH** transactions, the public key appears in the **witness**:

  

- witness[0] → signature (DER format),
- witness[1] → **compressed public key** (33 bytes, starting with 02 or 03).

  

### Taproot (P2TR, bc1p addresses, etc.)

  

**Taproot** transactions use Schnorr signatures and **x-only** public keys. The public key appears:

  

- in the **witness script**,

- usually under the “key path spending” line,

- in **x-only** format: 32 bytes (64 hex) without the 02/03 prefix.

  

### On mempool.space

  

[mempool.space](http://mempool.space/) does **not display “Public Key” in plain text**. You have to read the raw hexadecimal fields and recognize the format:

  

- **33 bytes** → compressed pubkey: starts with 02 or 03.

- **65 bytes** → uncompressed pubkey: starts with 04.

- **32 bytes** → Taproot x-only pubkey.

  

The public key is therefore always visible, but in the form of a hexadecimal field in the Inputs.

  

### Why does reuse weaken security?

  

### Revealing the public key once is not critical

  

Security relies on the difficulty of the discrete logarithm problem (ECDLP). As long as an attacker only has a single signature produced by the key:

  

- they cannot reconstruct anything,

- they have no statistical material,

- ECDLP remains intact.

  

### Revealing the same key multiple times multiplies the attack surface

  

Each UTXO expenditure associated with the same address publishes:

  

- an identical public key,

- a new, distinct signature.

  

In ECDSA (P2PKH, P2WPKH), each signature requires a random number: the **nonce k**. k must be:

  

- unique,

- unpredictable,

- perfectly generated.

  

> A flaw in the generation of k — well-documented events — allows the private key to be recovered if two signatures use the same k or correlated ks.

  

Real-world examples:

  

- Android bug in 2013,

- Faulty hardware RNG,

- Old OpenSSL libraries,

- Entropy weakness when booting a device,

- Smartcards producing biased nonces.

  

Reusing addresses **multiplies the signatures produced** by the same key → increases the probability of a cryptographic incident.

  

### Taproot improves the situation but does not eliminate it

  

Taproot uses Schnorr:

  

- deterministically derived nonce → eliminates the “same k” risk,

- more resistant linear signature structure.

  

However:

  

- the x-only key remains unique and exposed,

- multiple signatures remain exploitable for statistical analysis,

- hardware risks remain,

- post-quantum cryptography will compromise any exposed public key.

  

### Risk concentration

  

An HD wallet (BIP32) allows each UTXO to be isolated behind a different derived key. Reusing addresses negates this advantage:

  

- a bug in a single signature → compromises all UTXOs dependent on that key.

  

This is the worst possible configuration in terms of compartmentalization.

  

### What about cryptographic advances (quantum or otherwise)?

  

If an attacker gained the ability to solve ECDLP:

  

- any public key **already exposed** would become vulnerable,

- all reused addresses would be particularly fragile,

- an address that has never been spent would remain protected by HASH160.

  

Address reuse thus concentrates a future risk that the ecosystem explicitly seeks to avoid.

  

### Concrete example: key revealed in a real transaction

  

For the transaction:

  

```

7ee6745718bec9db76390f3a4390b9e7daeeb401e8c666a7b261117a6af654a1

```

  

This is a P2WPKH input. In the witness:

  

- the signature is in witness[0],

- the compressed public key is in witness[1].

  

The revealed public key is:

  

```

02174ee672429ff94304321cdae1fc1e487edf658b34bd1d36da03761658a2bb09

```

  

> Before spending: only HASH160(pubkey) was visible.

  

> After spending: the actual public key is visible, permanently.

  

### Conclusion

  

Reusing Bitcoin addresses represents a tangible cryptographic risk. It is not just a matter of poor privacy hygiene, but a structural problem: **a public key should only be exposed once**, and a signature should never be multiplied on the same key if maximum robustness is desired.

  

Current cryptographic mechanisms are robust, but experience shows that:

- implementations are never perfect,
- nonces can be biased,
- devices can lack entropy,
- hardware attacks exist,
- cryptanalysis is advancing.

  

Minimizing the exposure of public keys remains a fundamental best practice, today and tomorrow, and this starts with a simple rule: **never reuse an address that has already spent a UTXO**.

[Source](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolascantuinnovationresilience/)

What does a Bitcoin address reveal before and after a transaction?

jinformatique

A previously unanswered Hal Finney-Satoshi email was discovered via Martti Malmi's email archive dump.

Back in 2020 an article was released that published some private Hal Finney emails sent to Satoshi. 
www.coindesk.com%2Fmarkets%2F2020%2F11%2F26%2Fpreviously-unpublished-emails-of-satoshi-nakamoto-present-a-new-puzzle

The specific one in question was dated November 19th, 2008 (exactly 17 years ago today):

![](https://m.stacker.news/118412)

The answer to this email was never published…until 2024, when Marrti Malmi, AKA Sirius, AKA Bitcoin developer #2, published his emails with Satoshi spanning from 2009–11: https://mmalmi.github.io/satoshi

![](https://m.stacker.news/118414)

Satoshi's third email with Martti asked him to develop a FAQ section for Bitcoin.org. To give Martti a head start on this task, Satoshi attached dozens of previous email answers he had already given to people asking about Bitcoin, before May 2009.

One of these attached answers matches up exactly with the above private Hal Finney email on Nov 19th 2008: https://mmalmi.github.io/satoshi/#email-3

![](https://m.stacker.news/118413)

It appears we have a match.

Happy 17th anniversary to Satoshi and Hal Finney's Bitcoin discourse. And thank you Martti Malmi for making this email match possible.

A detailed video read through on this chapter in Bitcoin history here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1cQk77cqDA

medium article link: https://medium.com/@Fiach_dubh/new-satoshi-puzzle-piece-discovered-0ce632040a21

New Satoshi Puzzle Piece Discovered

BITC0IN

As one who has at various times struggled with running BTC Payserver and who has been loathe to pay the monthly cost of hosting, I have to admit this is intriguing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2q-qBhRjB0

![](https://m.stacker.news/118240)

It's just a PR on their repo right now, but I think they're looking for feedback and review.

https://x.com/NicolasDorier/status/1990759329352568950

Nicolas Dorier working on a feature so you can sell access to your BTC Payserver

lightning

This is kind of incredible, is this the first neutrino node running on S9s? 

Here the first Lightning.Pub packages for your StartOS:

Platform: `arm64`, 
Source: Lightning.Pub commit `d319c1d`

Download:
- ARM64 StartOS package [`lightning-pub-arm64.s9pk`](https://github.com/shocknet/Lightning.Pub/releases/download/startos-v0.0.9/lightning-pub-arm64.s9pk)
- ARM64 Checksum [`lightning-pub-arm64.s9pk.sha256`](https://github.com/shocknet/Lightning.Pub/releases/download/startos-v0.0.9/lightning-pub-arm64.s9pk.sha256)

- AMD64 StartOS package [`lightning-pub-amd64.s9pk`](https://github.com/shocknet/Lightning.Pub/releases/download/startos-v0.0.9/lightning-pub-amd64.s9pk)
- AMD64 Checksum [`lightning-pub-amd64.s9pk.sha256`](https://github.com/shocknet/Lightning.Pub/releases/download/startos-v0.0.9/lightning-pub-amd64.s9pk.sha256)



Lightning.Pub first release (v0.0.9) for StartOS nodes available for testing

supratic

Sparrow Wallet - 15 minute tutorial to get you started quick!

BTCsessions

culture

> **On Version History: the long, litigious story of the last big thing in music piracy.**
>
> Quick: tell me how old you are by telling me which app you used to download free music. Was it Napster? Kazaa? Usenet? Gnutella? WinMX? Morpheus? The Pirate Bay? Were you, I don’t know, sending your friends songs on AIM or BBM? The possibilities are endless. For a decade or so, if you were online, you were probably stealing music.
>
> For this episode of Version History, we’re telling the story of one of the last big names in file sharing: LimeWire. If the era of mainstream access to free music (mostly on college campuses and other fast networks) starts with Napster, it almost certainly ends with LimeWire.
>
> **[...read more at theverge.com](https://www.theverge.com/podcast/820818/limewire-music-piracy-version-history)**

~Music

How LimeWire ended the Napster music revolution

0xbitcoiner

devs

Is this as bad as it sounds?

> Supercookie uses favicons to assign a unique identifier to website visitors.
Unlike traditional tracking methods, this ID can be stored almost persistently and cannot be easily cleared by the user.
> 
> The tracking method works even in the browser's incognito mode and is not cleared by flushing the cache, closing the browser or restarting the operating system, using a VPN or installing AdBlockers. 🍿 [Live demo.](https://supercookie.me/)

supercookie: ⚠️ Browser fingerprinting via favicon - jonasstrehle

If searching through these kinds of things happens to be your thing.

> The US House Oversight Committee on Wednesday announced a massive document dump from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, including thousands of emails discussing a wide range of topics, including women, blackmail, and spending the holidays with Donald Trump.
> 
> The 20,000 documents come in the form of poorly organized folders with unhelpful labels, screenshots of emails, and heavily redacted spreadsheets. Some of the files are devoid of context, such as a video in the NATIVES folder of a dog playing with plushies of Trump and Hillary Clinton, while others are broken up in confusing ways, like email chains split into several PDFs.
> 
> To make this massive data dump more accessible, COURIER has compiled the 20,000 documents from Epstein’s estate into an easily searchable repository via Google Pinpoint. [Use the search tool here.](https://journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint/search?collection=092314e384a58618)

We created a searchable database with all 20,000 files from Epstein’s Estate

Yikes 

> New emails from the Epstein Estate, released this week by the House Oversight Committee, reveal that the financier and convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein assisted MIT Media Lab Director Joichi Ito in the funding of MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative, and that at least some of the funding was directed towards Bitcoin Core development.

> While public reports have hinted that some of Epstein’s funding may have been directed to the Media Lab’s DCI, which at the time served as the main funding arm for the first digital currency’s reference implementation Bitcoin Core, MIT’s independent investigation of the scandal described mentions of Epstein in concurrence with the DCI as “cursory,” finding only a single instance in which Ito arranged for a meeting between Epstein and his “Bitcoin students.” 

> In September 2019, Ito handed in his resignation after the investigative journalist Ronan Farrow revealed that the prestigious research facility had received funding from Epstein. MIT had disclosed that the financier had donated a total of $850,000 to the institution, of which $525,000 were directed at the Media Lab.

Emails Reveal Jeffrey Epstein Money Financed Bitcoin Core Development

billytheked

00:00 – Intro
01:17 – Justin’s Journey: How He Got Into Bitcoin and Building on It
05:13 – Spark and Ark: LARPing as Real Bitcoin Layer 2s?
16:01 – Lightning Network Pain Points
26:12 – Scaling Bitcoin by Making Trust Local: ShockWallet and Lightning.Pub
28:38 – The Role of Nostr in ShockWallet
32:56 – The Case Against Using Lightning Over Tor
35:40 – What Makes Running a Lightweight Lightning Node Possible
38:13 – Nostr’s Precursor: Gun, Created by Justin
42:58 – The Role of Nostr in Bitcoin Development
45:46 – The Downsides of BOLT12
47:54 – Lightning.Video: Better Than OnlyFans?
55:21 – Setting Up Your Lightning Node with Lightning.Pub and ShockWallet
01:01:34 – Does an Internet Cutoff Pose Risks to Lightning Channels?
01:04:37 – Do We Need Another Bitcoin Soft Fork for Better Layer 2 Development?
01:10:03 – Is Cashu Really Private?
01:15:49 – Where to Follow Justin’s Work


Follow Momo:
https://linktr.ee/mktahmasbi

Round the Fire with Momo - Are Spark and Ark Real Bitcoin L2s? Justin Explains

justin_shocknet

There's a new wave of Lightning FUD hitting the wires, but that's noise. What no one else is talking about is the signal.

Reality is that Lightning faces a massive incentive problem, one it inherits from Bitcoin itself.

The great wave of shitcoins in the early years highlighted this problem way back then, but it's manifesting itself in a new, potentially even more dangerous way today.

Since Bitcoin, and its only real L2 in Lightning, are emergent, truly decentralized, disintermediated and "just work" as money, the profit motive for companies looking to benefit from a growing industry skews towards "inventing" things beyond them; there must always be something "new" to re-brand non-solutions or introduce middlemen.

Enter the newest attack by fake L2s, or shitcoins 2.0 as they should be more appropriately framed. Shitcoining 1.0 has lost its novelty, as over time people realize there is one true coin. Scammers have thus adapted, and are now affinity scamming as Bitcoin projects.

Ark, Spark, Citrea, Stacks, and countless others now... with their astroturf for Covenants that would lend them some perceived legitimacy... solve nothing.

These are all means not to solve problems or enhance UX, but to smuggle trust and centralization for profit.

Lightning wallets can very easily introduce trust and centralization with the same exact trade-offs; fake L2s are no different than zero-conf channels, but this isn't sexy and won't raise a bunch of money or generate hype. Actually enhancing UX is tedious, hard work, to which I can attest, and inherently requires scarce creativity, otherwise the challenges would be solved already.

This is a perfect storm for the scammer class. Unsophisticated users that lack technical discernment, combined with hipsters always ready to jump on the current thing bandwagon, magnify the scammer astroturf. This reinforces investment theses, then more investment yields more scams, which amp up hipsters and the unsophisticated; it's a downward spiral.

Unlike Shitcoins 1.0, Shitcoins 2.0 presents a Bitcoin contagion.

Never before have so many disparate scams sought to change Bitcoin itself to pervert the incentives further.

Shitcoins 1.0 sold you a new coin... Shitcoins 2.0 want to exploit YOUR coin.

Shitcoins 1.0 sold your friends and family a new investment thesis; Shitcoins 2.0 stand on the back of your hard-fought orange-pilling.

Covenants are the force multiplier of this attack.

These apps are in chorus over how it enhances the security of their centralized apps, and given their affinity scam nature, the security of Bitcoin. In reality, it has no monetary purpose, only to enable delegation to these centralized middlemen.

If you control your Bitcoin today, you control your Bitcoin, period. Covenants offer you nothing.

Covenants scammers want you to believe, however, that you can control your Bitcoin while someone else, via their fake L2 centralized application, controls your Bitcoin.

New OP_ Codes like CTV, CAT, DRIVECHAIN, and others represent a new era where changes to Bitcoin aren't argued on the merits of Bitcoin as money, but its use as an Ethereum-like stack for centralized applications.

### The "Scaling" Smokescreen

You'll hear the emotional blackmail from scammers: "But don't you want to scale self-custody to 8 billion people? Don't you care about anyone else but yourself?"

This is a deliberate misdirection. Reality is that there are two factors in scaling:

1.  **Transaction Throughput:** Lightning already scales transactions infinitely. This is a solved problem.
2.  **Ownership (Distribution):** This is the *real* bottleneck. There's a minimum amount of Bitcoin needed to not be dust. Even at sub-sat fees today, there is not enough Bitcoin for everyone to trustlessly transact (i.e., have a unilateral exit). We're talking a few hundred million people at most, likely less as institutions continue to accumulate.

Lightning already has batch opens that reduce costs 80%, but no one uses them because *cost isn't the bottleneck*—ownership is. Fake L2s literally solve nothing. They are scammers trying to sell you a perpetual motion machine.

### Ark as a Roach Motel

The scammer FUD continues: "What about receiving while offline? What about low-balance receiving when you don't have a channel?"

Ark solves **neither** of those things. **Trust and centralization do.**

Let's compare:
* **Lightning:** To receive a low amount with no channel, you must use a trusted service. Someone (an LSP) receives the sats on your behalf, and you have to trust them.
* **Ark:** You want to receive a low amount? You haven't received *anything*. The Ark coordinator (a centralized entity) received it with *their* liquidity and you must similarly trust that they credit you.

It is the *exact same* trust model. Ark is just re-branding it.

Does it have a unilateral exit? Only at the same point, and with similar on-chain footprint, as opening a real Lightning channel. The chain costs are the same in the end; Ark just *defers* the cost. The entire premise of Ark scaling is the insinuation that people will defer these costs forever and do trusted receives forever. The entire premise is that the Ark is a roach motel.

### Open Networks vs. Centralized Applications

Much of Bitcoin's value, and *all* of Lightning's value, is in it being an **open network** with no central point of failure or trust needed to enter.

Ark is a **closed network**. Ark users in the same silo can have similar trust assumptions, but an Ark user cannot pay another Ark user in a *different* Ark without using the main chain or Lightning. The costs are then incurred on this exit, with trust added to execute the swap.

This demonstrates further that they are just centralized applications, which is why they're now pivoting to "DeFi" nonsense as their latest narrative. DeFi is a scam word unto itself because there's no actual decentralization. Entry into their closed network is inherently gated by a trusted swap, so the use-case here is user-to-user payments on something like a shitcoin exchange with its own subnetwork of buyers and sellers.

If you pay the on-chain fee to enter to get Lightning-like trust guarantees, you could have just opened a real Lightning channel for the same cost and be part of the open network where future payments are actually trustless.

### What About BitVM?

BitVM is just more of the same: interactive, centralized dog shit. It doesn't enable anything without covenants; it uses "bridges" to *emulate* them. Scammers are funding the astroturf for covenants for a reason: to give shitcoinery like this perceived legitimacy.

The argument is that you can "challenge" any deviation on-chain. But if you're running a service just to keep the centralized entity honest, you may as well have just run the service yourself. All this crap only serves to delegate control to external parties.

The Lightning use-case for it is horse hockey. As above with Ark, does nothing real Lightning can't. Unilateral exit is **supply-bound, not throughput-bound.** If you can afford the exit, you can afford a real channel. It's the roach motel assumption all over again.

### The Fallacy of Vaults

> But aren't VAULTs a monetary use of covenants?

No. Just as covenants are a push for centralized remote control, vaults are an attempt to CLAW BACK that control. This leaves 2 mutually exclusive scenarios:

1.  Bitcoin loses its utility as money, as merchants can no longer simply rely on confirmations to conclude a payment is settled (fearing a clawback).
2.  A merchant *can* ensure funds are not encumbered through certain output types... but if a merchant can, so can an attacker, rendering the vault pointless from the start.

This is the binary outcome. As soon as someone argues against the possibility of it interfering with merchants (scenario 1), they automatically undermine the argument against attacks (scenario 2).

### What Do?

Incentives are a bitch; we couldn't stop shitcoins... but we did grind them down over time.

The question is whether we can grind down these fake L2s and covenants scammers; fortunately, Bitcoin being hard to change buys us time.

It's imperative that if you value Bitcoin as hard money and wish to defend it as such, you present the same show of force we showed against shitcoins.

Let every investor and user know, in every comment on every blog or Twitter post, that these applications are not Bitcoin, that Covenants are an attack by the Bithereum Industrial Complex, and that whoever advocates them is either a scammer, a paid shill, or a hipster moron.

![](https://m.stacker.news/115918)

---

This post is a 2nd revision of a comment to address arguments left here: https://stacker.news/items/1272421/r/justin_shocknet?commentId=1272496

Fake L2 scams like Ark, Spark, Citrea, Drivechains, and others are Shitcoins 2.0

This may be a tall order. I'm wondering if there are any wallets out there that *also* have the ability to do sub-wallets (Uncle Jim mode)? If Phoenix had Uncle Jim capabilities, that would be the perfect wallet (for me). Ideally, I'm looking for a wallet that

1. splices in on-chain transactions
2. has Lightning capabilities
3. has sub-wallet capabilities (ideally infinite)

Essentially, I want to be an Uncle Jim for those that I orange-pill who are, themselves, not quite ready for self-custody and trust that I won't rug them. Or who just don't want to self-custody at all, but this is the next best thing for them.

Does something like this exist? If not, what is the learning curve for non-technical folks - if it's even possible?