DarthCoin

bitcoin

People have been talking about Pay to Anchor for some time, but it's formal specification has recently been merged into the BIP repository as a draft BIP. 

P2A is a special output designed to help people who have lightning channels avoid [pinning attacks](https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/transaction-pinning/).

In lightning, if your channel partner can try to cheat you by closing the channel and broadcasting an old state. If this happens, you need to broadcast the more recent state and get it included in a block before their transaction is included in a block. If your channel partner is particularly devious, they may try to pin the transaction you broadcast by taking advantage of node protections against attacks that can waste bandwidth, CPU, and memory. If fees have risen since you last agreed on the state of your channels, they may be able to prevent you from increasing the fee on your transaction via RBF. 

P2A is an attempt to solve this problem.

> P2A is just a small, keyless output type that makes it easy and cheap to CPFP a transaction. It does not enable 0 fees, packages, or ephemeral dust. It also does not need to be used in conjunction with 0 fees, packages, or ephemeral dust. You can create a P2A output in a transaction mined by itself, then spend it many blocks later (this has happened).

If you add a P2A output to your lightning commitment transaction, you can later fee-bump this P2A output (and therefore the whole commitment transaction). 

P2A outputs have been around for a while (a year or two?), and BIP 433 is not describing a change to block validation rules. Instead, it's a case of making mempool policy rules work better for people who have Lightning channels. 

If you are interested in learning more about P2A outputs, this [stack exchange question](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/126098/pay-to-anchor-and-ephemeral-dust) has some very detailed answers. There is also this BItcoin Optech [topic page](https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/anchor-outputs/) about P2A.

BIP 433: Pay to Anchor (P2A)

Scoresby

AGORA

With this article, I want to explore in detail the concept of private trusts and how they serve as powerful vehicles for asset protection, privacy, and limited liability in all of your personal, family, and business commercial endeavors.

Chances are you've at least heard about trusts and private trusts. It's a well-known concept, but generally not taught as much as it could be. Of course, many times we hear about the negative connotations of trusts—antitrust legislation, trust fund babies, spoiled rich kids living off trust funds. Now, all those things are true and based on facts that really happen, but unfortunately, this information tends to discourage people from learning more about trusts.

On the other hand, many people are aware that you can hire attorneys to help create what's called a "living trust" or other specific types of trusts. Some people will do that, but others are discouraged because they think, "Oh, I have to potentially pay thousands of dollars for an attorney to set that up for me. It may just not be worth it," or they're unclear about the value it could provide when established.

So let me make a couple of things clear. Trusts as a concept have existed for a very long time—potentially in some form or another for as long as we've been around as humans. Obviously, the modern variant of trusts is very specific, and there are different types of trusts that can come into play.

## What Is a Trust?

A trust is simply a three-party arrangement—a type of legal contract or agreement where assets are set aside for a specific purpose, specifically to be stewarded or maintained for the benefit of one of those three parties. The reason it's a three-party system is so that you have someone who comes along with assets they've previously held themselves. It's been their own property, and they come along and say, "This is my property, but I actually want someone else to steward it, to maintain it over time, including after I'm long gone, and I want them to do it for someone else's benefit—for the third party."

This first party in a trust contract is the **grantor**—the one who grants the property into the trust. The second party is the **trustee**—the party who is entrusted with stewarding the assets, protecting them, and defending them over time. And the third party is the **beneficiary**—they're the ones who get to benefit from the assets.

It's a very interesting framework, and it has a lot of derivative benefits.

## The Three Core Benefits of Private Trusts

### Asset Protection

The first benefit is asset protection. Let's say, for example, you take out a mortgage and buy a house. So now you think you have a house, but essentially you have a mortgage because you're paying for the house, right? Typically, most people when they buy with a mortgage will do it in their own name, meaning you and potentially your partner would essentially buy the house in your own personal liability. The house is in your name, and the mortgage is in your name.

What's the issue there? Well, the house is an asset. Its value can increase over time and often does. Even though it's not a liquid asset in the sense that you would have to sell the house to extract the cash value, that's still something that can be done. So it's an asset.

Assets by their very nature are subject to what I call the three A's: taxation, regulation (perhaps a little less so with houses, although there are certain zoning requirements that can apply to even residential homes), and litigation or lawsuits. In other words, lawsuits, claims, judgments—could be debt-related, could be just any kind of judgment.

So what that means is if you have a big liability, whether it's someone who has sued you or there's some regulatory requirement or you owe taxes for whatever reason—you have some big liability of any kind—and you're not able to satisfy it, if a judgment is awarded against you in court, for example, then the judge or the legal system can come along and say, "Well, you own this house. It's in your name. You have an obligation. We can force you to liquidate that home in order to satisfy the obligation." And it could be even the mortgage itself. So it's all in your liability.

You've probably heard the expression "with ownership comes liability" or its counterpart, "own nothing, control everything." Basically, what's happening is when you acquire these properties in your own name, they're not really protected if there's a judgment brought against you.

And the same is actually true for your business. If a business owns assets and you're sued personally or the business is sued, it's very easy for the courts to come along and just seize those assets. For a business, part of the reason is because every business that's incorporated—such as an LLC or a corporation—well, those are all registered entities, right? In order to set those up, you had to register with the Secretary of State, or if you're in another country, you had to register with some entity that regulates the establishment of a business entity.

And that means the state has an automatic security interest in those entities. So they can come and seize those assets owned by the business to satisfy even personal claims brought against you as the business owner. So even there you're not really protected. There isn't really any strong asset protection when you buy things in your own personal liability or even in a business.

### Privacy

Privacy is the next benefit of private trusts. The issue with privacy is that, to some extent, you would consider your family affairs to be private, right? You don't want them out in the public. But even if you own a business—again, an LLC or corporation—even though it's a registered entity, you want to keep your business activities private. You don't necessarily want everybody to know about them. That's why we call it proprietary.

But again, because the state has a security interest in your business automatically because you registered it, you can't really enforce true privacy there. To some extent, it's all out there.

### Limited Liability

The third aspect is limited liability. It's right in the name of the company type: limited liability company, or LLC. Other countries have a similar construct. So the idea is: am I not limiting my liability by operating using an entity like that? And what does that even mean to limit your liability?

Limited liability means that the party—the entity that's conducting commerce, in this case the business—is the party that's liable, and you're not personally liable for the liabilities of the business, as long as you act morally and do the right thing. As long as you don't act in gross negligence or engage in what's called willful misconduct, where you're conducting some kind of untoward activity with the business assets. So as long as you're doing your proper duty, the idea is that you're not personally liable for what happens in the business, for any claims that come against the business. And vice versa—the business is not liable for your personal issues. It creates a separation.

So again: asset protection so those assets can't be seized to satisfy claims, privacy so that your endeavors or activities are kept private, and limited liability so there's a separation of liabilities—you're not personally liable for what the business does or the entity, and vice versa. These are the three things that we are striving for.

## The Problem with Registered Entities

As I mentioned, because all limited liability companies and corporations and so forth are registered entities, the state has an automatic—the state is like a co-owner of all those entities. So it has an automatic security interest in them, which means if any of those end up in court, you don't really have true asset protection or limited liability because the state could just cross over that line based on that security interest and essential ownership of that entity.

So how do we address all that?

## The Solution: Private Irrevocable Trusts

The only way to do it properly from a legal and lawful perspective is to use private irrevocable trusts.

That's why we focus so much on trusts as part of the Freedom Studio. It's one of the main pillars of what we teach, of the education we provide, of our focus. It's how we operate as an organization, and many of our members have also set up private trusts.

Private trusts, despite their reputation, are accessible to everyone. You don't have to be from an ultra-rich family. You don't have to be super wealthy to access this knowledge. It's just generally been discouraged and been a little bit difficult to get hold of that knowledge—which is again why we focus so much on education at the Freedom Studio.

Private trusts are well established in law. There's a long precedent of case law going back hundreds of years that demonstrates clearly that private trusts are recognized as entities that can conduct business. They can do commerce. They can hold assets, and they can afford limited liability, privacy, and asset protection.

They are private by their very nature because they're not registered. You would never register a private irrevocable trust. You might in some cases have an interface with the public vis-à-vis—for example, if a trust has a bank account, obviously its existence is going to be known to some extent. But the actual contract, which is private—it's called a trust indenture, which is kind of the private analog to the operating agreement of an LLC or the corporate bylaws of a corporation—unlike those entities, this is completely private. Just a handful of people, including the trustees, would even know about its existence and would even know the contents of that contract. So it's a very private contract, and any other contracts that the trust enters into are treated similarly. They're very private.

## Taking Private Trusts to the Next Level: Equity Jurisprudence

Now, what takes private trusts to the next level is combining them with equity jurisprudence, with equity as a legal jurisdiction. Again, nothing new—as the famous saying goes, there is nothing new under the sun. This is all timeless knowledge. This has all been around for a very long time. It's just been very well hidden.

So when you combine a private trust with equity—and when I say combine, what does that mean? Well, just like any contract, a contract needs to be established in some legal jurisdiction.

Most of the contracts that you and I are familiar with, and that businesses operate under—the vast majority of them—are called statutory because they're subject to statute and code, which is the code that applies to corporations and corporate legal persons. It's also called maritime admiralty commercial jurisdiction, and it's basically the modern equivalent of law merchant. It's based on the UCC in the United States—the Uniform Commercial Code—and the Bill of Exchange in other Western countries. So it's this corporate code that is derived in its history from Roman law. It's highly regulated. It's highly prolific—just constantly more and more regulations. And it's statutory. Usually, you have to hire an attorney at law to help you create these kinds of contracts, or at least most people are used to running them through an attorney. So that's the statutory or maritime admiralty commercial jurisdiction.

Now, above that—because it is a higher level—is what's called common law. So some folks, as they've gone out to explore setting up trusts, have probably come across, for example, the Massachusetts-type business trust or the unincorporated business organization trust (UBO), or just the common law trust.

This is already much better than a statutory trust in that you don't need to hire an attorney to create one. It's not in the statutory jurisdiction by default. It's in common law. And so by its nature, it's already better at providing asset protection, privacy, and limited liability.

However, it's still not the best that we can do. It still falls short of the high standard. And that's just because common law itself falls short of that standard. In fact, this was recognized hundreds of years ago—that common law was falling short, particularly in the area of trusts. It couldn't really provide adequate remedies for beneficiaries of trusts when their interests were being harmed, because they're not a signatory party to the trust as a beneficiary and they have no legal title to the assets of the trust. So they were kind of being left out. Also, common law is very rigid. It's really about awarding damages based on violations of contract agreements and not really about getting people to do or not do a thing.

So along came equity—and again, this is hundreds of years ago, this is not something that just happened. Along comes equity, which is created as what's called the laws of fairness and right dealing—the most flexible man-made legal jurisdiction of all. Equity is the jurisdiction that can literally create a remedy where none exists.

And that is, in my opinion—and it's not just my opinion, but you can discover this for yourself—much higher than both common law (because it was built on top of common law) and it's certainly higher than statutory. It's about as close as you can get to natural law. It's a very close approximation to the way morality actually works subjectively in nature, and that's what makes it so powerful.

It acts—and actually, one of the maxims of equity is it acts on the conscience—because equity is all about good conscience, doing the right thing. And therefore, the remedy of equity is largely about getting people to do the right thing. That's why the principal remedy of equity, or one of them, is called compelled specific performance—getting people to do the right thing.

## How Equity Trusts Provide Maximum Protection

So what does that have to do with trusts? When you establish a trust in equity—meaning you establish the trust in the equity legal jurisdiction—you are essentially conferring to that trust the highest level of power and protection from a legal perspective that you can possibly achieve. Again, higher than statutory (which we can really discard because that only applies to corporations and persons, not to actual men and women). Common law is better because it applies to property, but again, it's not the best. And then equity, which is said to act in personam—it acts on people.

So in many ways, a trust that is established in equity has almost the same rights as a living man or woman. It's very high up. A trust held in equity—a trust that's established in equity—is very highly regarded and it has a very high level of rights in the law or under the law, even the commercial law.

An equity trust does not need statute to operate. It does not require the force of statute to even protect it. However, these kinds of trusts can, in the worst case, still end up in a court of law, in a commercial court. And when they do, because they are established in equity and when they are being stewarded by equity-minded or equity-trained trustees, that provides the maximum level of protection.

So that's why and how an equity trust can serve you.

## Use Cases: Families and Businesses

What are the use cases? Well, if you're reading this, you may be a family head of household. You may be a family member. You may be thinking about this in the context of your family. So that's a great use case.

And the other big use case, of course, is a business owner or the director of a business or an organization that's conducting commerce. Everything is commercial. Of course, even in families, we're all conducting commerce. For businesses, it's more obvious that they are commercial endeavors. So both businesses and families have assets. Asset protection is going to be important in the context of either a business or family.

Privacy is obviously important. I would say it's particularly important for families, and it's particularly unfortunate that a lot of family issues end up in the courts or end up in the public. And then of course we talk about limited liability, which is one of the main reasons why we set up businesses in the first place—to separate liability.

A private, properly set up private trust system—with private irrevocable trusts in equity jurisdiction, with trustees who know about equity and how it works—is really going to provide the maximum level of asset protection, the maximum level of privacy, and the maximum level of limiting liability of the parties involved when it's properly set up and properly maintained.

## The Path Forward

I hope you've enjoyed this exploration, because the rabbit hole goes deep. Despite the complexity, a trust can be in place and operating in the private within a month or so. Studying how to establish it and maintain it is undoubtedly worth the effort.

The knowledge is out there. The precedent is established. The framework has stood the test of time. Now it's just a matter of taking action and implementing these structures in your own life and business.

Why use Private Trusts for Privacy, Limit your Liability and Protect Your Assets

SN release: markdown toolbar

k00b

**Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System**
Satoshi Nakamoto
satoshin@gmx.com 
www.bitcoin.org

**Abstract.** A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work. The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power. As long as a majority of CPU power is controlled by nodes that are not cooperating to attack the network, they'll generate the longest chain and outpace attackers. The network itself requires minimal structure. Messages are broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the longest proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone.

**1. Introduction**

Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments. While the system works well enough for most transactions, it still suffers from the inherent weaknesses of the trust based model. Completely non-reversible transactions are not really possible, since financial institutions cannot avoid mediating disputes. The cost of mediation increases transaction costs, limiting the minimum practical transaction size and cutting off the possibility for small casual transactions, and there is a broader cost in the loss of ability to make non-reversible payments for non reversible services. With the possibility of reversal, the need for trust spreads. Merchants must be wary of their customers, hassling them for more information than they would otherwise need. A certain percentage of fraud is accepted as unavoidable. These costs and payment uncertainties can be avoided in person by using physical currency, but no mechanism exists to make payments over a communications channel without a trusted party.

What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party. Transactions that are computationally impractical to reverse would protect sellers from fraud, and routine escrow mechanisms could easily be implemented to protect buyers. In this paper, we propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer distributed timestamp server to generate computational proof of the chronological order of transactions. The system is secure as long as honest nodes collectively control more CPU power than any cooperating group of attacker nodes. 

**2. Transactions**

We define an electronic coin as a chain of digital signatures. Each owner transfers the coin to the next by digitally signing a hash of the previous transaction and the public key of the next owner and adding these to the end of the coin. A payee can verify the signatures to verify the chain of ownership. 

![](https://m.stacker.news/127138)

The problem, of course, is the payee can't verify that one of the owners did not double-spend the coin. A common solution is to introduce a trusted central authority, or mint, that checks every transaction for double spending. After each transaction, the coin must be returned to the mint to issue a new coin, and only coins issued directly from the mint are trusted not to be double-spent. The problem with this solution is that the fate of the entire money system depends on the company running the mint, with every transaction having to go through them, just like a bank. 

We need a way for the payee to know that the previous owners did not sign any earlier transactions. For our purposes, the earliest transaction is the one that counts, so we don't care about later attempts to double-spend. The only way to confirm the absence of a transaction is to be aware of all transactions. In the mint based model, the mint was aware of all transactions and decided which arrived first. To accomplish this without a trusted party, transactions must be publicly announced [1], and we need a system for participants to agree on a single history of the order in which they were received. The payee needs proof that at the time of each transaction, the majority of nodes agreed it was the first received.


**3. Timestamp Server**


The solution we propose begins with a timestamp server. A timestamp server works by taking a hash of a block of items to be timestamped and widely publishing the hash, such as in a newspaper or Usenet post [2-5]. The timestamp proves that the data must have existed at the time, obviously, in order to get into the hash. Each timestamp includes the previous timestamp in its hash, forming a chain, with each additional timestamp reinforcing the ones before it.

![](https://m.stacker.news/127142)

**4. Proof-of-Work**

To implement a distributed timestamp server on a peer-to-peer basis, we will need to use a proof of-work system similar to Adam Back's Hashcash [6], rather than newspaper or Usenet posts. The proof-of-work involves scanning for a value that when hashed, such as with SHA-256, the hash begins with a number of zero bits. The average work required is exponential in the number of zero bits required and can be verified by executing a single hash.
    For our timestamp network, we implement the proof-of-work by incrementing a nonce in the block until a value is found that gives the block's hash the required zero bits. Once the CPU effort has been expended to make it satisfy the proof-of-work, the block cannot be changed without redoing the work. As later blocks are chained after it, the work to change the block would include redoing all the blocks after it.

![](https://m.stacker.news/127143)

The proof-of-work also solves the problem of determining representation in majority decision making. If the majority were based on one-IP-address-one-vote, it could be subverted by anyone able to allocate many IPs. Proof-of-work is essentially one-CPU-one-vote. The majority decision is represented by the longest chain, which has the greatest proof-of-work effort invested in it. If a majority of CPU power is controlled by honest nodes, the honest chain will grow the fastest and outpace any competing chains. To modify a past block, an attacker would have to redo the proof-of-work of the block and all blocks after it and then catch up with and surpass the work of the honest nodes. We will show later that the probability of a slower attacker catching up diminishes exponentially as subsequent blocks are added.

To compensate for increasing hardware speed and varying interest in running nodes over time, the proof-of-work difficulty is determined by a moving average targeting an average number of blocks per hour. If they're generated too fast, the difficulty increases.

**5. Network**


The steps to run the network are as follows:

1) New transactions are broadcast to all nodes. 
2) Each node collects new transactions into a block.  
3) Each node works on finding a difficult proof-of-work for its block. 
4) When a node finds a proof-of-work, it broadcasts the block to all nodes.
5) Nodes accept the block only if all transactions in it are valid and not already spent.
6) Nodes express their acceptance of the block by working on creating the next block in the chain, using the hash of the accepted block as the previous hash.

Nodes always consider the longest chain to be the correct one and will keep working on extending it. If two nodes broadcast different versions of the next block simultaneously, some nodes may receive one or the other first. In that case, they work on the first one they received, but save the other branch in case it becomes longer. The tie will be broken when the next proof of-work is found and one branch becomes longer; the nodes that were working on the other branch will then switch to the longer one.

New transaction broadcasts do not necessarily need to reach all nodes. As long as they reach many nodes, they will get into a block before long. Block broadcasts are also tolerant of dropped messages. If a node does not receive a block, it will request it when it receives the next block and realizes it missed one.

**6. Incentive**


By convention, the first transaction in a block is a special transaction that starts a new coin owned by the creator of the block. This adds an incentive for nodes to support the network, and provides a way to initially distribute coins into circulation, since there is no central authority to issue them. The steady addition of a constant of amount of new coins is analogous to gold miners expending resources to add gold to circulation. In our case, it is CPU time and electricity that is expended.

The incentive can also be funded with transaction fees. If the output value of a transaction is less than its input value, the difference is a transaction fee that is added to the incentive value of the block containing the transaction. Once a predetermined number of coins have entered circulation, the incentive can transition entirely to transaction fees and be completely inflation free.

The incentive may help encourage nodes to stay honest. If a greedy attacker is able to assemble more CPU power than all the honest nodes, he would have to choose between using it to defraud people by stealing back his payments, or using it to generate new coins. He ought to find it more profitable to play by the rules, such rules that favour him with more new coins than everyone else combined, than to undermine the system and the validity of his own wealth.

**7. Reclaiming Disk Space**

Once the latest transaction in a coin is buried under enough blocks, the spent transactions before it can be discarded to save disk space. To facilitate this without breaking the block's hash, transactions are hashed in a Merkle Tree [7][2][5], with only the root included in the block's hash. Old blocks can then be compacted by stubbing off branches of the tree. The interior hashes do not need to be stored.

![](https://m.stacker.news/127144)

A block header with no transactions would be about 80 bytes. If we suppose blocks are generated every 10 minutes, 80 bytes * 6 * 24 * 365 = 4.2MB per year. With computer systems typically selling with 2GB of RAM as of 2008, and Moore's Law predicting current growth of 1.2GB per year, storage should not be a problem even if the block headers must be kept in memory.

**8. Simplified Payment Verification**

It is possible to verify payments without running a full network node. A user only needs to keep a copy of the block headers of the longest proof-of-work chain, which he can get by querying network nodes until he's convinced he has the longest chain, and obtain the Merkle branch linking the transaction to the block it's timestamped in. He can't check the transaction for himself, but by linking it to a place in the chain, he can see that a network node has accepted it, and blocks added after it further confirm the network has accepted it.

![](https://m.stacker.news/127145)

As such, the verification is reliable as long as honest nodes control the network, but is more vulnerable if the network is overpowered by an attacker. While network nodes can verify transactions for themselves, the simplified method can be fooled by an attacker's fabricated transactions for as long as the attacker can continue to overpower the network. One strategy to protect against this would be to accept alerts from network nodes when they detect an invalid block, prompting the user's software to download the full block and alerted transactions to confirm the inconsistency. Businesses that receive frequent payments will probably still want to run their own nodes for more independent security and quicker verification.

**9. Combining and Splitting Value**

Although it would be possible to handle coins individually, it would be unwieldy to make a separate transaction for every cent in a transfer. To allow value to be split and combined, transactions contain multiple inputs and outputs. Normally there will be either a single input from a larger previous transaction or multiple inputs combining smaller amounts, and at most two outputs: one for the payment, and one returning the change, if any, back to the sender.

![](https://m.stacker.news/127147)

It should be noted that fan-out, where a transaction depends on several transactions, and those transactions depend on many more, is not a problem here. There is never the need to extract a complete standalone copy of a transaction's history.

**10. Privacy**

The traditional banking model achieves a level of privacy by limiting access to information to the parties involved and the trusted third party. The necessity to announce all transactions publicly precludes this method, but privacy can still be maintained by breaking the flow of information in another place: by keeping public keys anonymous. The public can see that someone is sending an amount to someone else, but without information linking the transaction to anyone. This is similar to the level of information released by stock exchanges, where the time and size of individual trades, the "tape", is made public, but without telling who the parties were.

![](https://m.stacker.news/127148)

As an additional firewall, a new key pair should be used for each transaction to keep them from being linked to a common owner. Some linking is still unavoidable with multi-input transactions, which necessarily reveal that their inputs were owned by the same owner. The risk is that if the owner of a key is revealed, linking could reveal other transactions that belonged to the same owner.

**11. Calculations**

We consider the scenario of an attacker trying to generate an alternate chain faster than the honest chain. Even if this is accomplished, it does not throw the system open to arbitrary changes, such as creating value out of thin air or taking money that never belonged to the attacker. Nodes are not going to accept an invalid transaction as payment, and honest nodes will never accept a block containing them. An attacker can only try to change one of his own transactions to take back money he recently spent.

The race between the honest chain and an attacker chain can be characterized as a Binomial Random Walk. The success event is the honest chain being extended by one block, increasing its lead by +1, and the failure event is the attacker's chain being extended by one block, reducing the gap by -1.

The probability of an attacker catching up from a given deficit is analogous to a Gambler's Ruin problem. Suppose a gambler with unlimited credit starts at a deficit and plays potentially an infinite number of trials to try to reach breakeven. We can calculate the probability he ever reaches breakeven, or that an attacker ever catches up with the honest chain, as follows [8]:

![](https://m.stacker.news/127149)

Given our assumption that p > q, the probability drops exponentially as the number of blocks the attacker has to catch up with increases. With the odds against him, if he doesn't make a lucky lunge forward early on, his chances become vanishingly small as he falls further behind.

We now consider how long the recipient of a new transaction needs to wait before being sufficiently certain the sender can't change the transaction. We assume the sender is an attacker who wants to make the recipient believe he paid him for a while, then switch it to pay back to himself after some time has passed.

The receiver will be alerted when that happens, but the sender hopes it will be too late. 
The receiver generates a new key pair and gives the public key to the sender shortly before signing. This prevents the sender from preparing a chain of blocks ahead of time by working on it continuously until he is lucky enough to get far enough ahead, then executing the transaction at that moment. Once the transaction is sent, the dishonest sender starts working in secret on a parallel chain containing an alternate version of his transaction.

The recipient waits until the transaction has been added to a block and z blocks have been linked after it. He doesn't know the exact amount of progress the attacker has made, but assuming the honest blocks took the average expected time per block, the attacker's potential progress will be a Poisson distribution with expected value:

![](https://m.stacker.news/127151)

Running some results, we can see the probability drop off exponentially with z.

q=0.1 
z=0 P=1.0000000 
z=1 P=0.2045873 
z=2 P=0.0509779 
z=3 P=0.0131722 
z=4 P=0.0034552 
z=5 P=0.0009137 
z=6 P=0.0002428 
z=7 P=0.0000647 
z=8 P=0.0000173 
z=9 P=0.0000046 
z=10 P=0.0000012

q=0.3 
z=0 P=1.0000000 
z=5 P=0.1773523 
z=10 P=0.0416605 
z=15 P=0.0101008 
z=20 P=0.0024804 
z=25 P=0.0006132 
z=30 P=0.0001522 
z=35 P=0.0000379 
z=40 P=0.0000095 
z=45 P=0.0000024 
z=50 P=0.0000006

***Solving for P less than 0.1%...***

P < 0.001 
q=0.10 z=5 
q=0.15 z=8 
q=0.20 z=11 
q=0.25 z=15 
q=0.30 z=24 
q=0.35 z=41 
q=0.40 z=89 
q=0.45 z=340

**12. Conclusion**

We have proposed a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust. We started with the usual framework of coins made from digital signatures, which provides strong control of ownership, but is incomplete without a way to prevent double-spending. To solve this, we proposed a peer-to-peer network using proof-of-work to record a public history of transactions that quickly becomes computationally impractical for an attacker to change if honest nodes control a majority of CPU power. The network is robust in its unstructured simplicity. Nodes work all at once with little coordination. They do not need to be identified, since messages are not routed to any particular place and only need to be delivered on a best effort basis. Nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone. They vote with their CPU power, expressing their acceptance of valid blocks by working on extending them and rejecting invalid blocks by refusing to work on them. Any needed rules and incentives can be enforced with this consensus mechanism.

**References**

1) W. Dai, "b-money," http://www.weidai.com/bmoney.txt, 1998. 
2) H. Massias, X.S. Avila, and J.-J. Quisquater, "Design of a secure timestamping service with minimal trust requirements," In 20th Symposium on Information Theory in the Benelux, May 1999. 
3) S. Haber, W.S. Stornetta, "How to time-stamp a digital document," In Journal of Cryptology, vol 3, no 2, pages 99-111, 1991. 
4) D. Bayer, S. Haber, W.S. Stornetta, "Improving the efficiency and reliability of digital time-stamping," In Sequences II: Methods in Communication, Security and Computer Science, pages 329-334, 1993. 
5) S. Haber, W.S. Stornetta, "Secure names for bit-strings," In Proceedings of the 4th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pages 28-35, April 1997. 
6) A. Back, "Hashcash - a denial of service counter-measure," 
http://www.hashcash.org/papers/hashcash.pdf, 2002. 
7) R.C. Merkle, "Protocols for public key cryptosystems," In Proc. 1980 Symposium on Security and Privacy, IEEE Computer Society, pages 122-133, April 1980. 
8) W. Feller, "An introduction to probability theory and its applications," 1957.

THE BITCOIN WHITE PAPER - In plain text 🤩

standard_sats

Tether Fun Unelievable Details - Part IV

Design

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Animated emojis to use on Stacker News 📙

0xbitcoiner

I love sailing, and there's no better metaphor to life, if not that of surfing. A fresh breeze in your sails, push your life full wind, without even noticing. The knowledge about winds, their names, their behaviors, it is a must to navigate life as a pleasurable journey. It allows us to look at far thunderstorms in the western horizon with confidence meanwhile enjoining a beautiful sunset. 

For the journey to achieve sovereignty is long: bitcoin is a tool that allow us to achieve financial sovereignty. Not enough in the current landscape, not enough to achieve the change we aim in today's complex economic environement. True entrepreneurial success requires more than just profitability—it demands the creation of value. Value that others can recognize, benefit from, and make them happy to provide something back in exchange for the value they will receive. 

Sailing through the words of commerce, legalese contracts and business law, isn't that straight forward as we might imagine. Discover and understand how natural law principles, applied to our operations, helps create sustainable organizations in the long term. Sovereign private entities with low time preference, oriented to preserve _value_ for generations ahead. When defining value, it isn't monetary value that is referred, nor economic. It's value that transcend the meaning we attribute today to this word. 

To recognize these differences is required to live and conduct commerce privately and protect and defend your family or business assets from lawsuits, regulation and taxes.


## The Foundation: Natural Law with Organizations
The most successful people understand that business, like anything else, operates according to natural laws[^1] that transcend human legislations all around the word. These principles govern all exchanges of value. Have done so since long before modern commercial codes have been created and widely used across continents.

Sovereignty fundamentally requires genuine care for your customers, employees, the community around thou, the environment it operates within and the created value itself. All those concepts could easily be a representation of the Generative Principle—a deep knowledge of natural law and your authentic self— enabling your understanding of the deeper rules of commerce and your authentic purpose in this lifetime. One must learn to endure with courage, take decisive action despite market uncertainties and challenges an individual will inevitably face. Challenges, though, come to through as a signal that must be recognized as opportunity.

The ancient Trivium methodology[^2] has been proven invaluable in my decision-making, beginning with Grammar as the input of knowledge through gathering comprehensive data without bias, continuing through Logic for processing and analyzing information, finding patterns and leaving nothing to causality. Building upon Rhetoric as the output of wisdom toward implementing strategic decisions and communicating value effectively. When properly embraced, these tools could help thou discern truths from promotional noise in the ocean of markets, allowing surfing challenging environments without falling as prey to trendy, but corroded, business models.

The Seven Hermetic Principles Applied to Business
The Hermetic principles from The Kybalion[^3] provide profound insights for thou to sail your life as wished, but most importantly to successfully drive business operations:

The **Principle of Mentalism** declares _“THE ALL is Mind; the Universe is Mental,”_ reminding us that successful businesses begin with mental clarity, as your business is a manifestation of your thoughts, and while competitors remain distracted by short-term market fluctuations, thou, as sovereign entrepreneur, are able to maintain focus on long-term vision with purpose.

The **Principle of Correspondence** you proobably heard already, states _“As above, so below; as below, so above,”_ showing how your internal culture—referring to the culture thou create in your organization or community—will be unconsciously reflected externally in your customer experience, while the macroeconomy contains patterns visible in microscale business operations. Understanding these correlations can position your organization advantageously and continue flowing within larger economic currents.

According to the **Principle of Vibration**, _“Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates,”_ one comprehends that markets are constantly in motion. We embrace market volatility without fear, recognizing vibrations as energy that can be harnessed, while your brand's “frequency” attracts corresponding customers and opportunities, as a consequence, effortlessly and automatically.

The **Principle of Polarity** teaches that _“Everything has poles; everything has pairs of opposites,”_ revealing how challenges contain opportunities and market threats conceal advantages, enabling us all to transcend artificial dichotomies like profit versus purpose. We create instead integrated solutions that address opposing needs, effortlessly, simultaneously.

The _Principle of Rhythm_ declares _“Everything flows; everything has its tides,”_ show us how economic cycles, seasonal demand fluctuations, and industry disruptions all follow rhythmic patterns, and rather than being devastated by inevitable downturns, the sovereign entrepreneur anticipates cycles and positions accordingly, maintaining liquidity to capitalize on opportunities others cannot see.

Through the **Principle of Cause and Effect**, _“Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause,”_ we understand that business outcomes are never accidental, and the sovereign entrepreneur takes responsibility as the cause-point of their enterprise's circumstances, carefully tracking how operational decisions create specific market responses.

Finally, the **Principle of Gender** asserts that _“Gender manifests on all planes,”_ illustrating how successful enterprises balance masculine qualities such as decisive action and linear strategies with feminine aspects including intuitive understanding of markets and relationship cultivation, as we integrate both energies regardless of personal gender.

## Business Morality: Ethical Commerce
In business, morality isn't a constraint—it's a competitive advantage. I've distilled commercial ethics to three principles: accepting complete responsibility for your business operations and their consequences; avoiding harm to stakeholders, communities, and ecosystems; and defending your enterprise against harmful actions while respecting others' rights.

A “right” in business means any action that creates value without harming others through theft of property, time, energy, or reputation, creating virtually unlimited business opportunities within moral boundaries.

The sovereign entrepreneur vigilantly avoids commercial violations including theft in all forms, from wage theft to intellectual property infringement; fraud and deception, particularly misleading marketing; coercion, including high-pressure sales tactics; breach of contract; negligence leading to harm; trespass, including privacy violations; and any physical or emotional harm to stakeholders, recognizing that ethical practices are the foundation of sustainable success.

## The Understanding of Commercial Systems 
The Matrix isn't a trap: we must knowis simply a Game, not a fight. We can play by the rules or leave the table. Knowing the rules is a must, to master the game. Abandon the table make loosers by default, slaves in effect. Modern commerce operates within systems that many entrepreneurs fail to fully comprehend, they mostly follow the rules without understanding what they mean, and most importantly most operate without evaluating the hereafter consequences. Banking structures, corporate law, securities regulations, and tax codes create a complex matrix that can either enslave or liberate depending on the knowledge thou have about it.

The limited liability corporation, for instance, creates a separate legal entity (similar to the “strawman” concept you probably heard about) that shields personal assets but also creates obligations many people don't fully understand. It is not their faults, no one teach us these rules, they have actually been accurately occulted, but still accessible and visible to trained eyes. It's for the men and women with sight to find and read them all. All corporate words written in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS represent legal fictions.

Most of us operate with currencies that aren't true money but debt instruments, results of some earned trust, and its consequent commercialization: that's how debt is created, with written words and signatures. Understanding this distinction reveals why businesses with healthy cash flow can still fail due to debt structures, their assets denominated in currency can devalue despite increasing productivity. That is why financial engineering often extracts more value than actual production, creating a system where true sovereignty requires penetrate understanding, deeply. A rabbit hole not many are willing to enter, too uncomfortable, too deep, why no way back to what we are used to.

## There is always a Remedy
Organizations and people can access “The Remedy” to this mess by structuring to maximize both freedom and protection, beginning with appropriate entity selection by creating with private contracts, structures that align with their values and activities. Establishing proper contractual relationships by crafting agreements that honor all parties while protecting their interests, privacy, and security. Cultivating strategic relationships by working with financial institutions that understand and support the system and, more importantly, your business model. There's nothing more important than developing an administrative process to mastering by knowing how to properly respond to governmental and regulatory bodies. They are businesses too, they know the rules of the game. This remedy force us to include both, external structures and internal people alignment—developing business models and contracts that authentically reflec values while lawfully protecting your enterprise.

## Honor and Equity in Commerce
Honor in business means fulfilling obligations exactly as agreed upon, with those in charge of the ship delivering what was promised exactly when and how it was promised, fulfilling these commitments completely and on time. We need to stand firmly behind our products or services for communicating truthfully with all stakeholders, understanding that reputation built on honor becomes an invaluable asset. 

Equity, the quality of being fair and just—not those dirty paper shares sold by public companies, nor referring to the value of mortgaged properties after deduction of charges against it— is the guiding principle of fairness when dealing commercially. It provides us powerful tools for our business operations, and when properly understood, equity allows us to enforce specific performance from vendors and partners, allow us to create remedies where none seem existing through innovative problem-solving. It teaches us to maintain favorable positions in negotiations through principled action, rescinding unfair contracts when necessary, and empowering us to operate according to established maxims of fairness. 
All of which contribute to sustainable and long-living relationships built on mutual respect. Respect that must be earned through one's actions and behavior, rather than being automatically granted by or demanded to someone else.

## Private Trusts as tool for Advanced Asset Protection
For the established sovereign individual, private irrevocable trusts offer unparalleled asset protection and standing business continuity solutions to separate control from ownership. Crucial for liability protection, it creates an unstoppable, untouchable, multi-generational wealth transmission vehicle. A shield for assets of any kind that plays in a higher jurisdiction, providing tax optimization opportunities (not tax avoidance) allowing for privacy in an increasingly transparent world. Establishing effective trust structures requires careful planning and competent trustees who understand these dynamics and your objectives. Mastering a Trust typically requires three to six months of dedicated study[^4]. The sovereign protection provided makes this time investment worthwhile for serious people seeking long-term security, privacy, and their legacy.

## Sovereignty as Business Practice
Sovereignty isn't a destination but an ongoing practice. It means making decisions from a position of knowledge rather than fear or greed; it means creating value exchanges based on mutual benefit rather than exploitation; it means continuously developing your understanding of commercial principles, building systems that function effectively regardless of market conditions, and based on your own values. Lastly, it will teach to maintain personal integrity aligned with the organization mission and objectives.

The sovereign men and women embodies qualities that transcend metrics, ROI, KPI and all that fiat crap. Demonstrate attentiveness to market signals, stakeholder needs and community benefits through teachability. A continuous execution of learning, collection of failures that bring curiosity about emerging future opportunities faced with imagination and problem-solving. Apply creativity with persistence through challenges, with courage during uncertainty, and care for the whole system will help create a holistic approach to business that honors both, pragmatic success and deeper principles.

## For an Aligned Commerce
Sailing the markets through the sovereign path means aligning with natural law internally, spiritually, mindfully, phisically and externally within the surrounding commercial contexts and environements. We cannot escape economic laws or market forces, but the closer we align ourself, our organizations and communities with these fundamental principles, the more prosperity and freedom we'll all experience.

This alignment creates businesses that generate sustainable profits, generate genuine value; a full world of abundance. Learning to weather economic storms through principled operations frees entrepreneurs from dependency on external legal systems — one day we realize as behaviours, not laws. With time, it builds a multigenerational legacy beyond simple wealth transfer, contribute to communities by honoring individual rights, and by creating a comprehensive approach to business that balances everyone' best interests.

That's what it's all about: true sovereignty balances profit with purpose, rights with responsibilities, and individual success with collective well-being. It comes not from exploiting loopholes or gaming systems, but from deeply understanding the principles that govern all value exchanges and consciously operating in alignment with them.

Sovereign people don't just build a successful business, that's a consequence—they create a vehicle for expressing their highest values along with enjoying the fullest measure of prosperity and freedom possible… With a fresh breeze in your sails, push your life full wind, without even noticing.


<sub>Footnotes:</sub>
[^1]: The concept of “natural law” has ancient roots in philosophy. For modern business applications, see “Natural Capitalism” by Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins, which explains how businesses can align with natural systems: https://www.natcap.org

[^2]: The Trivium Method has been adapted for modern decision-making by organizations like Trivium Education: https://triviumeducation.com

[^3]: The Kybalion, a text outlining seven Hermetic principles, has been applied to business contexts by many entrepreneurs seeking deeper understanding of universal laws.

[^4]: For comprehensive trust education, resources like “Asset Protection : Concepts and Strategies for Protecting Your Wealth” by Jay Adkisson provide foundational knowledge.


Hows & Whys Navigating Business in Commerce with Honor & Integrity

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

justin_shocknet

# What if Bitcoin *is* for criminals?

I have been listening to old episodes of Bitcoin Uncensored lately, and one of the things that Junseth repeatedly says is:

> People will iterate Bitcoin up to the point it provides regulatory arbitrage and no further 

Unless I'm mistaken, he's saying that the main reason Bitcoin exists is to help people get around laws. We spend so much time defending ourselves against FUD like "Bitcoin is only used by criminals" and "It's just for money laundering" that we forget what it is that Bitcoin actually does: it eliminates the need for trusted third parties in the monetary system. 

> What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party. [Whitepaper](https://bitcoinscoresby.com/whitepaper/)

All this sounds nice and tame unless you really think about it. "Transact directly" means no one is in the way to stop you -- no one *can* stop you. That's the innovation of Bitcoin: every part of it is in service of this use-case.

# Bitcoin is valuable because people want it. But why do people want it?

It is good, sometimes, to ask the question "Why does anyone want bitcoin anyway?" 

The most common answer is probably because people want to make money. But that doesn't tell us much. Money isn't valuable just because it people say it's money. It's valuable because people want it. But why should people want it? What is it useful for?

Well, because there are only 21 million bitcoins. Nobody can make more bitcoin. Given the $38 trillion dollar US national debt, this does seem like a useful quality; inflation sucks and central bank monetary policy often seems a little whimsical. 

On the surface, I'm sure a government could promise to limit the supply of whatever currency they control...but they just never seem to be able to keep their promise. 

And that's the problem: you have to take their word for it. Even if they aren't printing new dollars today, you don't have any way to know if they will print more dollars tomorrow. 

# But how do we know no one can change Bitcoin's 21 million supply cap? 

It's in the code. The function that determines how the block reward halving works also sets the limit on Bitcoin's supply. Unchained has [a very nice explainer](https://www.unchained.com/blog/bitcoin-source-code-21-million) if you want to learn more about it. But the function is simple enough that even a non-developer like me can understand it. Even better, I can download a program, run it on my laptop, and type one command that will verify the total supply of bitcoin at that exact moment. The code is pretty cool.

# And how do we know the code won't change?

Bitcoin has had a number of forks, the consensus code has changed. What makes us so sure a government won't try to force their own change on the code (or that users won't decide to increase supply)?

Unlike any other money on Earth, you can verify the rules of Bitcoin (which is to say you can verify the consensus code) every time you receive a coin. 

When someone offers to pay you Bitcoin and you use your own node to verify the transaction in which they send coins to you, you are enforcing the 21 million supply cap and all the other consensus rules of Bitcoin. You can choose to reject the payment if your node doesn't recognize it as following the rules. 

So this is how we know the code won't change: it won't change as long as _you_ won't change it. 

But is that really why Bitcoin has value? 

Running a program on your computer does not seem like it would be very valuable to anyone else.

# Proof of work makes a program running on one computer valuable to other people

Another one of the rules of Bitcoin is that when your node learns about a new block, it must check to see if this block's header has enough proof of work to meet the current network difficulty target.

This rule may seem like it's not relevant to anything else I've been saying, but it creates the wonderful property that as long as at least half the mining power in the world is not working together to censor you, you have a good chance of getting your transaction included in a block. 

This is because anyone on Earth who has access to energy and mining equipment can attempt to mine the next block. The only rule is that they need to find a transaction header that will double hash to a number that meets the difficulty target. And if they do this, they get to pick the transactions that will go in their block and everyone else probably should accept that block and start building on top of it if they don't want to be left behind and waste their own hash power.

So if the existing miners refuse to mine certain kinds of transactions, the people who want to make those transactions can offer higher and higher fees until some miner decides to include them in a block. 

And this is why Bitcoin is censorship resistant: because you can offer to pay anyone on earth to mine your transaction and anyone on earth can decide it is worth it to do so; and you can enforce this dynamic every time you accept bitcoin in trade by making sure that the coins you are accepting have been included in a block in the chain with the most weight. This is the great innovation of Bitcoin. 

# Bitcoin gives you the option to break the law

In [a recent talk](https://x.com/btcplusplus/status/1979198284787814502), Matt Corallo shared this thing his friend said:

> Bitcoin simply doesn't work unless there's sufficient demand for censorship-resistant transactions in the world.

If only a very few people want the option to break the law, if only a few people want censorship resistant money, it is unlikely this project works. This is because miners only get paid in bitcoin and that bitcoin is only valuable if people will accept it in trade and the only reason you might accept bitcoin instead of any other money is because it has this quality of being a peer to peer money with no trusted third parties -- which is to say, it is censorship resistant.

Satoshi came up with a system for aligning incentives so that we can route around people who try to censor transactions or control the rules of Bitcoin. All the rules of Bitcoin are dependent on this system -- if it doesn't work, all the other things we like about Bitcoin can trivially be altered.

So beware (or be less concerned about what the state will prohibit): Bitcoin is black market money and it is already illegal -- your government just hasn't realized it yet.

*I've been reading [Cryptoeconomics](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Cryptoeconomics) again, and this is an attempt to work through some of the ideas in the chapter called "Value Proposition" which I am copying below.* 

---
> # Cryptoeconomics: Value Proposition
> The [value](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Glossary#value) of Bitcoin over its alternatives derives directly from removing the [state](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Glossary#state) from control over both monetary [supply](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Glossary#subsidy) and [transaction](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Glossary#transaction) [censorship](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Glossary#censorship). Advantages include freedom from [seigniorage](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seigniorage), foreign exchange [controls](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_exchange_controls), and [financial surveillance](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer). These allow the money to be [transferred](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Glossary#transfer) to any [person](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Glossary#person), in any place, at any time, without need for third party permission.
> 
> These advantages represent cost reduction through the avoidance of tax. Seigniorage is directly a tax, while foreign exchange controls limit its evasion. The state itself often claims [political independence](https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/about_12799.htm) as an objective in the interest of limiting this taxing power. Financial surveillance limits tax evasion more generally. **While Bitcoin cannot eliminate tax, or even necessarily reduce total takings, it represents a change in the nature of taxation.** In any case, for those who consider the state a social good, the option to voluntarily fund it remains.
> 
> It would be an error to assume these advantages flow from the existence of a more efficient technology than employed by [monopoly monies](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Money-Taxonomy). The technology is far [less efficient](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Scalability-Principle), yet it [helps people](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Risk-Sharing-Principle) resist state controls. It is this [resistance](https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Axiom-of-Resistance) that provides the value.

The only thing Bitcoin is good at is breaking the law

# Here's how the Loans Scam works
_(And why you should NEVER feel sorry for Banks and so on)_ [^1]

- - - 

> This post is based on the work of Robert-Arthur: Menard, Mary-Elizabeth: Croft and (to some extent Winston Shrout and Irene-Maus: Gravenhorst), and John R. Dempsey of Sovereign Trust. A intent to reduce their aggregated knowledge to absolute fundamentals.

1) Banks: They take deposits. These are held in trust for the depositor. They must, by law, always be prepared to return any and all deposits back to depositors on demand. That's the LAW. They would not be able to do that if they were ever to lend out any money on deposit to anyone requesting a loan. They cannot, therefore, lend or invest anything _**entrusted**_ to them. So the question is: _**Where do they get the money from, in order to loan it to you?**_

2) Loan Companies, Credit Card Companies, Building Societies: They don't take deposit money anyway (Talking about the 'older version' of Building Societies before they became banks. Referring to the way they would just issue mortgages. Their 'banking' activities are controlled as in (1), above). So the question is: _**Where do they get the money from, in order to loan it to you as a mortgage?**_

_**Leave that question pending for a moment.**_

3) What is a cheque? Paper, printing ink, somewhere you can hand-write a Payee, and Amount (in numbers and words), a Date, and somewhere to write your signature.

4) What is a Loan Application/Agreement? Paper, printing ink, somewhere a Payee will be written (the name of the Loan Company), somewhere for an Amount (in numbers and words), a Date, and somewhere to write your signature.

**_Do you see any similarity between (3) & (4)?_**

A Loan Agreement is a cheque. (Cheques can be written on anything ... even toilet paper ... provided it contains the essential information so, as to enable correct clearance processing)

You send off the Loan Agreement to the Loan Company ... and they CASH YOUR CHEQUE! They cash it with an organisation that has the power to issue 'money' for that purpose (for example the Treasury, or the Bank of England, etc)

NOW THEY HAVE THE MONEY, IN CASH, TO LEND TO YOU!

Simple. Wasn't it?

But wait! Sure, they provided the 'service' of converting your cheque into funds within an account you can drawn upon (write other cheques against, use a Credit Card against, etc). And they could do that because they knew how to do that. And yes, that was a service. And yes, they should be paid a fee for that service.

But wait again! What is their 'fee'? Their 'servicing fee'?

Oh ... only THE ENTIRE AMOUNT OF YOUR ORIGINAL CHEQUE, PLUS INTEREST! 

That's all they ask for ... in order to provide the original service!

How to do they ensure they collect this 'service fee'. By giving you a Payment Book! And they make sure they cream off the INTEREST, before applying the remainder as PAYMENT. In fact they even cajole you into never-ending INTEREST by specifying a _**minimum payment**_ equal to the INTEREST they want. (Knowing full well you'll often opt for that, thereby allowing them to roll the whole thing on endlessly)

Now let's view this another way.

If you write a cheque for £100, and send it to someone else (the Payee), and they cash it - DO YOU EXPECT THE BANK TO DEDUCT ANOTHER £100 PLUS INTEREST - FOR ITSELF - AS WELL?

No? You don't when you write a cheque you 'see' as a cheque do you?

Well, then, why should they do that just because you can't 'see' a Loan Agreement as the cheque it actually is?

MONEY IS CREATED WHEN YOU SIGN A PIECE OF PAPER AGREEING TO PAY.

AND THAT'S THE ONLY WAY MONEY IS -EVER- CREATED.

Your 'promise to pay' creates money. Yours, and everyone else's.

**So what -should- happen, then?**

What should happen is that you write out a cheque - promising to pay - and send it to the Treasury yourself. They would then 'cash' it (in the same way they do that for a Bank), by updating an account with the amount you specified, from which you can draw funds as you need them.

That's it. Your 'promise to pay' stands until the end of time. That's all money is. A 'promise to pay', which stands until the end of time.

All money. **_["All thee bits of it"](https://youtube.com/watch?v=M68GeL8PafE)_**.

Check out a Banknote. What does it say? **_"I promise to pay the Bearer on demand the sum of so-many-pounds"._** And signed by the Governor of the Bank of England (in the UK). A banknote is a Promissory Note - just like a cheque or Loan Agreement or any other IOU. An IOU that stands until the end of time.

What should a Bank do? It should simply accept the 'cash' from the Treasury, and operate the account for you. 

And claim a reasonable - SMALL - fee for providing you with this convenience.

If you agree to some of your funds being invested, the bank should deduct their fees as commission, and not bother you with any other 'charges' at all. 

THIS IS WHERE WE NEED TO GET TO. To be able to convert your SIGNATURE _**directly**_, **_without any Bank or Loan Company intervening._**

**And now for something completely different**

When you sent them your cheque (aka Loan Agreement) and they cashed it, they could have just walked away with your money. If they'd done that, you wouldn't have known any difference.

They could have just written to you and said _**"Sorry, we didn't approve this loan, after all"**_ 

You would have been miffed at not getting the loan but, on the other hand, slightly relieved you didn't have the payments hanging over you, believing that the whole thing was 'dead'.

Dead? They were 'up' by the amount of the loan! And you were empty-handed! And you had given them that amount!

Dead? I should cocoa!

No. They are greedy, greedy, greedy, greedy. They want INTEREST. Never-ending INTEREST. They POSITIVELY HATE IT when you pay off a loan. Have you noticed? Try getting a loan, and then paying it back immediately. TRY IT.

No. They can lend you **_your own_** money, and then claim it back PLUS INTEREST, if they don't just walk away.

That's why they don't just walk away.

Every loan taken out **_generates money for them_**. Generated by your payments back. 

That's where banks (etc.) get their money from. All they need to do is to make as sure as possible you've fallen for this SCAM sufficient times in the past, so as to be pretty sure you'll fall for it again.

If you 'default' on payments, they had ALREADY BEEN PAID IN FULL RIGHT AT THE START. **_They took the risk with it._** Exactly the same risk as when they invest anywhere. If prices go down, they simply lose, write off the experience, and try elsewhere. Do they send bailiffs if 'prices go down'? Err ... no.

They 'involve' themselves when (as explained above) they have no need to be. The risks of doing so are, therefore, entirely theirs, and consequently there is absolutely no need to feel sorry for them.

YOU, on the other hand, don't owe ANYTHING to ANYONE. 

What YOU did was to 'make some money' - and then spend it the way you wanted to spend it.

And why not? 'Money was made' by you SIGNING a cheque and thereby 'promising to pay'. _**I repeat, that's the only way 'money is ever made'.**_

They were the ones who jammed their oar into that simple mechanism.

**And now for something that gets really silly**

Mortgages. The method for obtaining the cash amount is the same as described above. But there is more to mortgages that meet the eye. (More, over and above, straight loans).

Here a property, in the form of a dwelling, is being transferred from one owner to another (actually one _**keeper**_ to another, not _**owner**_, but that's another subject).

Now, it is illegal to mortgage a property you don't own. The property is considered to be the security on the loan. How can you be providing 'security' when you don't - at that time - actually own the thing?

And, secondly, it is illegal to transfer a property/dwelling that has not yet been paid for.

So ... what does this mean? You can't establish a loan, because you don't have any security to offer. Therefore you can't pay for it, because you can't get the loan money. (Err ... no. You can't offer you current home as security, because you are probably in the process of selling it!) And, since you can't pay for it, the Seller can't transfer it into your name.

**_But ... on the other hand ... people can and do establish mortgages, do buy homes, and do move house._**

How is this done?

Well ... it happens by 'magic'. The Bank/Building Society uses 'magic'.

Not really paranormal 'magic', of course ... more akin to fraud, in actual fact.

Veronica: of the Chapman family
(January, 2009)


[^1]: source: old page saved from `http://www.fmotl.com/LoansScam.htm`


Here's how the Loans Scam works (And why you should NEVER feel sorry for Banks)

Continuing the journey to freedom (I wish I was in America, it would be much easier) mentioned on [my previous post](https://stacker.news/items/515857/r/mo)! For those of you living in the US, I also found the original book published by the American Voice Newspaper, and it's freely downloadable from the link below:
- - - 
#### Commerce Game Exposed - Learn How To Play: "Accepted For Value"
[`https://idoc.pub/download/commerce-game-exposed-k6nqvmog0z4w`](https://idoc.pub/download/commerce-game-exposed-k6nqvmog0z4w)

- - - 
> _"We wrote and organized this book in a way the process would be understood, not to impress anyone with big words and complicated explanations."_ 
> `- Francis Steffan, Publisher`
- - - 

The book highlight step-by-step the process to become a FREE wo/man and manage the kingdom as it should be done following the Laws of Commerce. It's a bit dated, but I believe the process still the same or much similar. It will be nice if someone could double-check and verify if there are any changes in the process.

Hope you find it useful and it will be nice to hear your stories. I'm not a US shitizen, so this will not apply to me, however it has been really useful to understand the logic to apply when dealing with my local government on the local language.


Learn How To Play: "Accepted For Value" (AFV) - A Detailed How To Manual

# 1 PREFACE

1.0 &emsp; Holders of USDT do not earn interest.

1.1 &emsp; Tether charges the greater of [$1000 or 0.1%](https://tether.to/en/fees/) on redemptions.

1.2 &emsp; You cannot redeem less than 100k USDT. 

1.3 &emsp; Tether was the [seventh largest buyer of US bonds](https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-us-treasury-holdings-surpass-germany-q1-2025) in 2024.

1.31 &emsp; The Federal Republic of Germany was the eighth.

1.4 &emsp; In 2024, Tether made [$93 million dollars per employee.](https://archive.is/RFWRw)

# 2  TETHER LIMITED

2.0 &emsp; Tether (USDT) is operated by [Tether Limited.](https://www.bitstamp.net/learn/company-profiles/what-is-tether-holdings-limited/)

2.1 &emsp; The owner of [Tether Limited](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.524076/gov.uscourts.nysd.524076.1.4.pdf) is Tether Holdings Limited.

2.2 &emsp; The owners of [Tether Holdings Limited](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.524076/gov.uscourts.nysd.524076.1.4.pdf) are Giancarlo Devasini, J.L. van der Velde, and DigFinex, Inc.

2.3 &emsp; The owners of [DigFinex, Inc.](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.524076/gov.uscourts.nysd.524076.1.4.pdf) are J.L. van der Velde, Giancarlo Devasini, Paolo Ardoino, Phil Potter, Stu Hoegner, and Perpetual Action Group (Asia) Inc.

2.4 &emsp; DigFinex also owns [iFinex.](https://web.archive.org/web/20180701030718/https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=309312629)

2.41 &emsp; ifinex.com is [not](https://ifinex.com/) the iFinex website.

2.5 &emsp; iFinex is the [parent company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitfinex) of Bitfinex.

# 3 BITFINEX 

3.0 &emsp; Bitfinex was [founded](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=119745.msg1289419#msg1289419) by Raphael Nicolle, aka Raphy.

3.01 &emsp; aka [unclescrooge](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile&u=4295) 

3.1 &emsp; Bitfinex [reused most of the code](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=119745.msg1289600#msg1289600) from another exchange called [Bitcoinica](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=42267.msg514429#msg514429)

3.11 &emsp; Bitcoinica [shutdown](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81045.0) shortly after a suspicious transaction drained 18k btc from their wallet.

3.12 &emsp; The hack happened because phantomcircuit's email was compromised.

3.121 &emsp; aka [Patrick Srateman](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Patrick_Strateman)

3.13 &emsp; and because Bitcoinica's [source code was leaked.](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95795.msg1055627#msg1055627)

3.131 &emsp; [by genjix](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=93074.msg1029185#msg1029185)

3.132 &emsp; aka Amir Taaki.

3.14 &emsp; genjix [helped](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=84042.msg926035#msg926035) to try to fix the issue.

3.15 &emsp; A ssh key genjix [shared](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81045.msg920554#msg920554) for training may have also played a role in the hack.

3.16 &emsp; Vitalik Buterin wrote a [nice obituary](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/bitcoinica-an-obituary-1336979566) for Bitcoinica.

3.2 &emsp; On 06 April 2013, a BitcoinTalk user says he [recently joined the Bitfinex Team](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=119745.msg1755919#msg1755919) doing -- among other things -- risk management. 

3.21 &emsp; The user's handle is [Urwhatuknow](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=70409)

3.211 &emsp; aka Giancarlo Devasini

3.22 &emsp; Devasini was once (in 1995) [ordered to pay Microsoft 100 million lira](https://web.archive.org/web/20201209023901/http://www1.adnkronos.com/Archivio/AdnAgenzia/1996/12/03/Cronaca/PIRATI-INFORMATICI-MICROSOFT-AL-CONTRATTACCO_130900.php) for selling counterfeit software.

3.23 &emsp; Devasini also founded a company called Perpetual Action Group that was accused of [shipping a block of wood instead of the memory chips a customer ordered](https://archive.is/3vuTR).

3.24 &emsp; Here is [a 2009 video](https://www.facebook.com/bio.delitzia/videos/100797956613007/) of Devasini cooking nettle risotto.

3.3 &emsp; Devasini's [signature](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=119745.msg1761471#msg1761471) on BitcoinTalk in Spring 2013 is: Giancarlo / Customers Relations / The Bitfinex Team

3.31 &emsp; Devasini's [signature](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=229438.msg2419529#msg2419529) on BitcoinTalk in Summer 2013 is: Giancarlo / Bitfinex Team

3.32 &emsp; Devasini introduces josh as the [new "PR guy"](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=229438.msg7856923#msg7856923) on 15 July 2014. 

3.33 &emsp; When [someone asks](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=229438.msg9500231#msg9500231) how to find Bitfinex on the Hong Kong Money Service Operator Register, Devasini says: "look for Renrenbee Limited..." 

3.4 &emsp; In response to a question about Bitfinex leadership, a [users says:](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=229438.msg7892241#msg7892241) urwhatuknow = Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Bitfinex and unclescrooge = Raphael Nicolle, CTO of Bitfinex 

3.41 &emsp; Devasini says [Jean Louis van der Velde CEO](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=229438.msg7893187#msg7893187)

3.411 &emsp; aka Ludovicus Jan van der Velde

3.5 &emsp; Devasini is still [CFO of Bitfinex.](https://blog.bitfinex.com/profiles/bitfinex-leadership-giancarlo-devasini/)

3.51 &emsp; Jean Louis van der Velde is still [CEO of Bitfinex.](https://blog.bitfinex.com/profiles/bitfinex-leadership-jl-van-der-velde/)

3.52 &emsp; Sam Bankman-Fried [said of Devasini](](https://archive.is/3vuTR)) “He’s responsive 24/7, and he’s not just responsive to crises or unbelievable opportunities, he’s responsive to day-to-day operations.” 

3.53 &emsp; At one point in time, Bitfinex kept [half its funds](https://x.com/TuurDemeester/status/760691284961009666) at Mt Gox.

3.54 &emsp; Vitalik wrote a [pretty good description of Bitfinex](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/bitfinex-bitcoinica-rises-from-the-grave-1353644122), too. 

3.6 &emsp; On 05 September 2014, Devasini registers [Tether Holdings Limited](https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/82024464) in the British Virgin Islands with Philip Potter.

3.61 &emsp; Philip Potter was [trading bitcoin on Bitfinex](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TabQtyUfgfc) in 2013.

3.62 &emsp; Potter developed a relationship with Devasini because Devasini was [super available to big customers.]((https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TabQtyUfgfc)) 

3.63 &emsp; In February 2014, Potter became [Chief Strategy Officer at Bitfinex.](https://www.linkedin.com/in/philgpotter/details/experience/)

3.64 &emsp; Potter's [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/philgpotter/details/experience/) states that he was Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Tether from March 2014 - February 2018.

3.7 &emsp; On 11 January 2015, Devasini says [Realcoin became Tether.](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg10112539#msg10112539)

# 4 REALCOIN

4.0 &emsp; Realcoin was launched by [Brock Pierce, Craig Sellers, and Reeve Collins.](https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/07/09/brock-pierce-announces-dollar-backed-cryptocurrency-realcoin)

4.1 &emsp; Brock Pierce used to drive [a DeLorean with the California license plate SATOSHI](https://archive.is/Wpn0f)

4.11 &emsp; He was also the star of the hit movie *First Kid* (the one with Sinbad).

4.112 &emsp; And he was in [the Mighty Ducks.](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104868/)

4.113 &emsp; And [D2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109520/)

4.12 &emsp; Brock Pierce [was sued](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1202857/2000-burton-ryan-egan-vs-collins-rector-complaint.pdf) by three male child actors. 

4.13 &emsp; [Internet Gaming Entertainment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IGE) was founded by Brock Pierce and Alan Debonneville.

4.131 &emsp; IGE sold in-game items.

4.132 &emsp; Brock Pierce was CEO of Internet Gaming Entertainment.

4.133 &emsp; Steve Bannon [replaced](https://web.archive.org/web/20090303224228/http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-12/ff_ige?currentPage=all) Brock as CEO of Internet Gaming Entertainment.

4.134 &emsp; Block One [disputes](https://web.archive.org/web/20200526115535/https://www.coindesk.com/block-one-lawsuit-eos-investor) that Brock Pierce is a co-founder, despite his role as CSO.

4.14 &emsp; Pierce is married to [Crystal Rose.](https://archive.is/pG7oQ) 

4.2 &emsp; Craig Sellars's LinkedIn says he was [CTO of Tether](https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigcsellars/details/experience/) from April 2014 to May 2016.

4.21 &emsp; He was also [CTO of Bitfinex](https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigcsellars/details/experience/) from January 2015 to May 2016.

4.22 &emsp; The details of his life do not seem to be as remarkable as Brock Pierce's.

4.3 &emsp; Reeve Collins founded Traffic Marketplace -- famous for [bringing pop up ads to the internet.](https://reevecollins.com/)

4.31 &emsp; Collins's LinkedIn says he was [CEO of Tether](https://www.linkedin.com/in/reevecollins/details/experience/) from 2013 to 2015.

4.4 &emsp; Realcoin had no connection to an earlier altcoin created by dolfcao called [RealCoin.](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=227149.msg2391992#msg2391992)

4.41 &emsp; dolfcao was an avid investor in such altcoins as [Dragoncoin](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=216653.0) and [Sexcoin.](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=218158.0)

4.5 &emsp; Realcoin may have been based on [Coinaaa.](https://web.archive.org/web/20140531184416/https://www.coinaaa.com/) 

4.51 &emsp; Coinaaa was [announced]((https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=525345.0)) on 21 March 2014.

4.52 &emsp; On 04 June 2014, Coinaaa had a [buyback price of 8600 NOK.](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=525345.msg7071531#msg7071531)

4.6 &emsp; Sometime during the summer of 2014, ownership of Realcoin changes to Tether Holdings Limited (see 3.6), but I don't have a link for this.

4.61 &emsp; Tether's [first tweet](https://x.com/Tether_to/status/533352280415019008) was on 12 November 2014 at 1:14 PM UTC-4.

4.7 &emsp; On 20 November 2014 [Realcoin rebranded as Tether](https://archive.is/P6SYa) and announced a Beta.

4.71 &emsp; Reeve Collins [explained the rebranding]((https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/11/20/realcoin-rebrands-as-tether-to-avoid-altcoin-association)) by saying: "We're not an altcoin, we're not our own blockchain. We're a service, a token that represents dollars" and also that they wanted to avoid association with earlier altcoins.

4.72 &emsp; The rebranding [announcement](https://archive.is/P6SYa) lists Bitfinex as a launch partner.

4.73 &emsp; It also lists as partners: GoCoin, ZenBox, OmniWallet, [HolyTransactions](https://web.archive.org/web/20141013151901/https://holytransaction.com/), and Expresscoin.

4.8 &emsp; The first Tethers were minted in block [324140](https://mempool.space/tx/5ed3694e8a4fa8d3ec5c75eb6789492c69e65511522b220e94ab51da2b6dd53f)

4.81 &emsp; These [transactions](https://api.omniexplorer.info/v1/transaction/tx/5ed3694e8a4fa8d3ec5c75eb6789492c69e65511522b220e94ab51da2b6dd53f) used [Mastercoin.](https://www.omniexplorer.info/tx/5ed3694e8a4fa8d3ec5c75eb6789492c69e65511522b220e94ab51da2b6dd53f)

4.811 &emsp; Mastercoin was launched on [31 July 2014](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.0) by J R Willet.

4.8111 &emsp; aka [dacoinminster](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3313)

4.812 &emsp; People could invest in Mastercoin by sending bitcoin to the Exodus address: [1EXoDusjGwvnjZUyKkxZ4UHEf77z6A5S4P](http://blockchain.info/address/1EXoDusjGwvnjZUyKkxZ4UHEf77z6A5S4P)

4.813 &emsp; Brock Pierce became an investor through this avenue, and joined the Mastercoin board, and then [resigned from the board](https://omnifoundation.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/recent-changes-in-the-mastercoin-foundation-board/) on 14 July 2014.

4.82 &emsp; Willet outlined the concept of Mastercoin on [06 January 2012](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=56901.0) in what he called the [Second Bitcoin Whitepaper.](https://web.archive.org/web/20140223133207/https://sites.google.com/site/2ndbtcwpaper/)

4.83 &emsp; Vitalik wrote a [pretty good description](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/mastercoin-a-second-generation-protocol-on-the-bitcoin-blockchain-1383603310) of Mastercoin, too.

4.9 &emsp; Bitfinex [announces](https://archive.is/rGHF8) support for trading Tether (USDT).

Tether Fun Unbelievable Details - Part I

Tether Fun Unbelievable Details - Part II

tech

Got tired of trusting VPN companies with my data. Decided to roll my own. Turns out it's easier than I thought, and you can pay for everything with Bitcoin through Tor. Full privacy from start to finish.

## Why Bother?

Most VPN services log your data despite what they claim. Even the "no logs" ones can be compromised or forced to start logging. Plus they know who you are because you paid with a credit card tied to your identity.

Running your own VPN means you control everything. No third party to trust. No logs unless you make them. And if you're smart about it, nobody knows it's yours.

## What You Need

- Bitcoin (obviously)
- Tor browser
- Basic Linux knowledge (I'll walk you through it)
- About 30 minutes
- 5000 sats for hosting

## Step 1: Get a VPS with Bitcoin

I used 1984 hosting because they're based in Iceland, accept Bitcoin, and don't ask for ID. Access their site through Tor.

Through Tor browser:
1. Go to 1984hosting.com (they have an onion address too)
2. Pick a VPS plan - their smallest one works fine for personal use
3. At checkout, select Bitcoin payment
4. They'll give you a Bitcoin address
5. Send payment from your wallet (use a mixing service first if you're paranoid)
6. Wait for confirmation

Takes about an hour to get your VPS details via email. They'll send you IP address, root password, etc.

## Step 2: Secure Your VPS

First thing - change that root password and set up proper access.

SSH into your VPS:
```bash
ssh root@your-vps-ip
```

Update everything:
```bash
apt update && apt upgrade -y
```

Create a new user (don't use root for everything):
```bash
adduser yourusername
usermod -aG sudo yourusername
```

Set up SSH keys for secure access:
```bash
mkdir ~/.ssh
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
```

Copy your public key to the server, then disable password auth:
```bash
nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
```

Change these lines:
```
PasswordAuthentication no
PermitRootLogin no
```

Restart SSH:
```bash
systemctl restart ssh
```

## Step 3: Install WireGuard

WireGuard is fast, modern, and way simpler than OpenVPN.

```bash
apt install wireguard -y
```

Generate server keys:
```bash
cd /etc/wireguard
wg genkey | tee privatekey | wg pubkey > publickey
```

Create server config:
```bash
nano /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf
```

Put this in the file:
```
[Interface]
PrivateKey = [your server private key]
Address = 10.0.0.1/24
ListenPort = 51820
PostUp = iptables -A FORWARD -i %i -j ACCEPT; iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
PostDown = iptables -D FORWARD -i %i -j ACCEPT; iptables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

[Peer]
PublicKey = [your client public key - we'll generate this next]
AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.2/32
```

## Step 4: Set Up Client

On your local machine, install WireGuard and generate client keys:

```bash
wg genkey | tee client_privatekey | wg pubkey > client_publickey
```

Create client config:
```bash
nano client.conf
```

```
[Interface]
PrivateKey = [your client private key]
Address = 10.0.0.2/24
DNS = 1.1.1.1

[Peer]
PublicKey = [your server public key]
Endpoint = your-vps-ip:51820
AllowedIPs = 0.0.0.0/0
PersistentKeepalive = 25
```

## Step 5: Enable IP Forwarding

Back on the server:
```bash
echo 'net.ipv4.ip_forward=1' >> /etc/sysctl.conf
sysctl -p
```

Add your client's public key to the server config, then start WireGuard:
```bash
systemctl enable wg-quick@wg0
systemctl start wg-quick@wg0
```

## Step 6: Configure Firewall

Set up UFW to only allow what you need:
```bash
ufw allow ssh
ufw allow 51820/udp
ufw enable
```

## Step 7: Connect

Import the client config into your WireGuard app and connect. Check your IP at whatismyipaddress.com - should show your VPS location now.

## Random Tips

- Change the default WireGuard port from 51820 to something random
- Use different VPS providers for different purposes  
- Consider running your own DNS resolver too
- Don't use the VPS for anything else that could identify you
- Rotate servers periodically

## Troubleshooting

If it's not working:
- Check firewall rules on both ends
- Make sure IP forwarding is enabled
- Verify your keys are correct
- Check if your ISP blocks WireGuard ports

## Other Providers

1984 hosting works well but there are others:
- Njalla (accepts Bitcoin, privacy focused)
- BitLaunch (Bitcoin only, multiple providers)
- VirMach (cheap, accepts crypto)

## The Paranoid Version

Want maximum privacy? 
- Pay for VPS through multiple hops (exchange Bitcoin first)
- Use Tails OS for the setup process
- Route through multiple VPS servers
- Change servers monthly

## Is It Worth It?

For €5/month you get your own private VPN that nobody else controls. No logging policies to trust, no jurisdiction issues, no bandwidth sharing with sketchy users.

Setup takes maybe an hour. Maintenance is basically zero. And you learn how VPNs actually work instead of just clicking "connect" on some app.

## Current Status

Been running mine for 6 months now. Zero issues. Fast speeds. Complete privacy as far as I can tell.

Cost about €30 total so far. Compare that to NordVPN or whatever charging €100/year for worse privacy.

Plus now I actually understand how this stuff works instead of just trusting some company's marketing.

How to Set Up Your Own VPN with Bitcoin VPS (No KYC Required)

BBO_x34

There has been a lot of debate about a [recent discussion](https://groups.google.com/g/bitcoindev/c/d6ZO7gXGYbQ) on the mailing list and a [pull request](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/32359) on the Bitcoin Core repository. The main two points are about whether a [mempool policy](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/120269/5406) regarding OP_RETURN outputs should be changed, and whether there should be a configuration option for node operators to set their own limit. There has been some controversy about the background and context of these topics and people are looking for more information.
Please ask short (preferably one sentence) questions as top comments in this topic. @Murch, and maybe others, will try to answer them in a couple sentences. @Murch and myself have collected a few questions that we have seen being asked to start us off, but please add more as you see fit.

Quick questions about OP_RETURN? Quick answers here.

tidwell

Politics_And_Law

Lawful income Tax Avoidance & Other Stuff IRS does Not want You to Know

![](https://m.stacker.news/75774)

Welcome to the latest updated version of **Stacker News Media Kit & Brand Guidelines `v1.2`**, a pivotal location where all the visual elements find place and help us understand how to use them to have our communications cohesive. SN brand identity is built on simplicity, trust, innovation and a taste of Texas's Wild West. With the following guidelines, as [promised](https://stacker.news/items/855556/r/Design_r?commentId=855753), I'll try to outline the essential elements of SN visual language to be easily usable internally and externally.

As third interaction from the previous [discussion](https://stacker.news/items/786223), here below you will find all the media assets in PNG and SVG downloadable from this [zip file](https://nosto.re/0a8b02224c970de78fba3a0195dcf1ee44d18925ba941724497173b2bcbab901.zip). BTW: I've been using **`Nostr`** 🌸 **Blossom Serverservers** [check them out](https://blossomservers.com/), it's a really cool idea! In case the file will be not available we can always upload it in other servers. Just let me know if any issue downloading it, ideally I made three copies available from:
- https://nosto.re/0a8b02224c970de78fba3a0195dcf1ee44d18925ba941724497173b2bcbab901.zip
- https://blossom.poster.place/0a8b02224c970de78fba3a0195dcf1ee44d18925ba941724497173b2bcbab901.zip
- https://nostr.download/0a8b02224c970de78fba3a0195dcf1ee44d18925ba941724497173b2bcbab901.zip

The source file of all these assets still are the same [Figma file](https://www.figma.com/design/ZL3FLItd9j48pzKVi4qlOy/Stacker.News-Media-Kit?node-id=3-16&t=oEbUcC1tmLDRXgdH-0) and the [PenPot file](https://design.penpot.app/#/workspace/7ad540b5-8190-815d-8005-5685b9c670bc/7ad540b5-8190-815d-8005-5685c186216e?page-id=2643bc5a-0d34-80b2-8005-58099eabda41). This last one, has many issues and does not allow yet the same flexibility as Figma. Both files are open for contributions and comments, just need to register a dummy/anonymous account for each of the tools.

> **Note:** To use these assets across SN, just copy-paste the image relative code, i.e.: 
![](https://m.stacker.news/75773)

# Stacker News Logotype
SN logo is the most recognizable visual identifier of Stacker News. It captures the essence of its brand and is to be used across the platform and other marketing materials **consistently**. Find below all the possible variations and colors. Ideally you should stick with it to maintain SN identity coherent, or propose something new if you feel like. If you have any question on how to place or use the logo, DO ask below, and we'll help sort it out.

| Avatar on transparent BG | Avatar on BG | Logo Extended | Logo Vertical |#|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75562) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75562)` | ![](https://m.stacker.news/75552) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75552)` | ![](https://m.stacker.news/75555) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75555)`| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75566) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75566)` |Oil Black|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75564) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75564)` | ![](https://m.stacker.news/75554) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75554)` | ![](https://m.stacker.news/75557) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75557)` | ![](https://m.stacker.news/75567) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75567)`| Golden Yellow |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75563) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75563)` | ![](https://m.stacker.news/75553) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75553)` | ![](https://m.stacker.news/75565) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75565)` | ![](https://m.stacker.news/75568) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75568)`|With Shadow  | 


# Stacker News Typography
![](https://m.stacker.news/75569)
This is the typography SN had used to create its logo. [Download LightningVolt OpenType Font file.otf](http://honeyanddeath.web.fc2.com/FontFile/honeyanddeath_Lightningvolt.zip) designed by **[Honey&Death](http://honeyanddeath.web.fc2.com/fnt_Lightningvolt.html)**, install it in your computer and play with it. 

Typography is essential to identify, increase readability and create consistency of brands. SN uses the default `font-family:sans-serif;` of your device's OS, usually are the most common and already installed in your device: `system-ui, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Noto Sans", "Liberation Sans", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"`. Those are mostly used for:

# Example Header H1
## Example Header H2
### Example Header H3
#### Example Header H4
##### Example Header H5

**Example paragraph text**
The fonts selected will help to communicate the personality of the brand and provide maximum legibility for both print and screen.

`Example <code>`
For code, the approach is the same. Let's the device OS select its default `monospace` one. For example, on Mac will be one of the following: 
```
SFMono-Regular, Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, "Liberation Mono", "Courier New",`
```

# Stacker News Colors
A thoughtfully curated color palette gives SN trust, professionalism, and approachability. Colors play a key role in creating consistent visual experiences through digital and print communications. Make sure you are using the right color codes below:

| # | Name | HEX code | RGB code | HLS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75602) | Bitcoin-only | `#F6911D` | `rgb(246,145,29)` | `hsl(32,92.3%,53.9%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75590) | Blackr | `#000000` | `rgb(0,0,0)` | `hsl(0,0%,0%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75591) | Dark | `#121214` | `rgb(18,18,20)` | `hsl(240,5.3%,7.5%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75592) | Gold | `#FADA5E` | `rgb(250,218,94)` | `hsl(48,94%,67.5%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75593) | Gray | `#969696` | `rgb(150,150,150)` | `hsl(0,0%,58.8%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75594) | Light | `#F0F0F0` | `rgb(240,240,240)` | `hsl(0,0%,94.1%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75595) | Nostrch | `#8C25F4` | `rgb(140,37,244)` | `hsl(270,90.4%,55.1%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75596) | Pinkish | `#E685B5` | `rgb(230,133,181)` | `hsl(330,66%,71.2%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75597) | Ruby | `#C03221` | `rgb(192,50,33)` | `hsl(6,70.7%,44.1%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75598) | Sky Hover | `#007CBE` | `rgb(0,124,190)` | `hsl(201,100%,37.3%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75599) | Sky Links | `#2E99D1` | `rgb(46,153,209)` | `hsl(201,63.9%,50%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75600) | Sky Visited | `#56798E` | `rgb(86,121,142)` | `hsl(203,24.6%,44.7%)` |
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75601) | So Fiat | `#5C8001` | `rgb(92,128,1)` |  `hsl(77,98.4%,25.3%)` |

# Stacker News Icons
SN utilizes a set of bespoke icons that support its communication internally across the platform. Icons help bring instant, intuitive cues for various types of content and features. We share them here for you so you can use as you wish and satisfy your creative needs.

| ![Arrow](https://m.stacker.news/75605) `![Arrow](https://m.stacker.news/75605)` | ![Bell](https://m.stacker.news/75606) `![Bell](https://m.stacker.news/75606)` | ![Bounty](https://m.stacker.news/75607) `[Bounty](https://m.stacker.news/75607)` | ![Caret](https://m.stacker.news/75608) `[Caret](https://m.stacker.news/75608)` | ![Cowboy](https://m.stacker.news/75609) `[Cowboy](https://m.stacker.news/75609)` | ![Sun](https://m.stacker.news/75610) `[Sun](https://m.stacker.news/75610)` |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ![Edit](https://m.stacker.news/75611) **`[Edit](https://m.stacker.news/75611)`** | ![Gun](https://m.stacker.news/75612) **`[Gun](https://m.stacker.news/75612)`** | ![Horse](https://m.stacker.news/75613) **`[Horse](https://m.stacker.news/75613)`** | ![Info](https://m.stacker.news/75614) **`[Info](https://m.stacker.news/75614)`** | ![Moon](https://m.stacker.news/75615) **`[Moon](https://m.stacker.news/75615)`** | ![Lightning](https://m.stacker.news/75616) **`[Lightning](https://m.stacker.news/75616)`**| 
| ![Bald Lost Hat](https://m.stacker.news/75617) **`[Bald Lost Hat](https://m.stacker.news/75617)`**| ![Markdown](https://m.stacker.news/75618) **`[Markdown](https://m.stacker.news/75618)`**| ![Nostr](https://m.stacker.news/75619) **`[Nostr](https://m.stacker.news/75619)`**| ![Referral](https://m.stacker.news/75620) **`[Referral](https://m.stacker.news/75620)`**| ![Rewards](https://m.stacker.news/75621) **`[Rewards](https://m.stacker.news/75621)`**| ![Horse Lost Saddle](https://m.stacker.news/75622) **`[Horse Lost Saddle](https://m.stacker.news/75622)`**| ![Search](https://m.stacker.news/75623) **`[Search](https://m.stacker.news/75623)`** |
|![Shoot](https://m.stacker.news/75624) **`[Shoot](https://m.stacker.news/75624)`** |![Texas](https://m.stacker.news/75625) **`[Texas](https://m.stacker.news/75625)`** | ![Upload](https://m.stacker.news/75626) **`[Upload](https://m.stacker.news/75626)`** | ![Zap Zap](https://m.stacker.news/75627) **`[Zap Zap](https://m.stacker.news/75627)`** |||


# Stacker News Banners
Banners are important visual elements used in our digital platforms and marketing materials. They help to highlight key stories, features or announcements while maintaining our brand aesthetic.

Here below you'll find custom banners for Sn and for individial territories. I try to build those that I follow most, for now @AGORA is the only one that designed its own banners. Comment below if you'd like some banners for your territory! 

#### SN Dark background
|970x250|
|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75654) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75654` |

|250x250|300x250|300x600|
|---|---|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75656)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75656)`|![](https://m.stacker.news/75657)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75657)`|![](https://m.stacker.news/75658)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75658)`|

|728x90|
|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75655) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75655)` |


#### SN Gold background
|970x250|
|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75641)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75641)` |

|250x250|300x250|300x600|
|---|---|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75645)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75645)` | ![](https://m.stacker.news/75646)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75646)` |![](https://m.stacker.news/75647)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75647)` |

|728x90|
|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75648)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75648)` |

#### SN by @Jon_Hodl
|970x250|
|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75649)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75649)` |

|250x250|300x250|300x600|
|---|---|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75651)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75651)` | ![](https://m.stacker.news/75652) `![](https://m.stacker.news/75652)`| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75653)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75653)` |

|728x90|
|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75650)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75650)` |


#### ~AGORA territory
The SN P2P Marketplace
|970x250|
|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75767)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75767)` |

|250x250|300x250|300x600|
|---|---|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75769)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75769)` | ![](https://m.stacker.news/75770)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75770)`|![](https://m.stacker.news/75771)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75771)`|

|728x90|
|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75768)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75768)`|


#### ~alter_native territory
|970x250|
|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75669)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75669)`|

|250x250|300x250|300x600|
|---|---|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75671)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75671)`|![](https://m.stacker.news/75672)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75672)`|![](https://m.stacker.news/75673)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75673)`|

|728x90|
|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75670)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75670)` |


#### ~bitcoin_beginners
|970x250|
|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75676)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75676)` |

|250x250|300x250|300x600|
|---|---|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75677)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75677)`|![](https://m.stacker.news/75678)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75678)`|![](https://m.stacker.news/75679)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75679)` |

|728x90|
|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75675)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75675)`|

#### ~Design territory
|970x250|
|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75659)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75659)`|

|250x250|300x250|300x600|
|---|---|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75661)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75661)`|![](https://m.stacker.news/75662)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75662)`|![](https://m.stacker.news/75663)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75663)`|

|728x90|
|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75660)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75660)`|

#### ~Music territory
|970x250|
|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75664)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75664)`|

|250x250|300x250|300x600|
|---|---|---|
|![](https://m.stacker.news/75666)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75666)`|![](https://m.stacker.news/75667)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75667)`|![](https://m.stacker.news/75668)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75668)`|

|728x90|
|---|
| ![](https://m.stacker.news/75665)`![](https://m.stacker.news/75665)`|




# Anything else we could add? 
If you feel something is missing, or you know a better tool to manage this media kit for SN in a collaborative and FOSS way then, DO share it in a comment below

Territory owners [^1], do you need banners for your territory? Feel free to edit the figma file liked above or comment below sharing your needs or ideas, I'll try to do something for you.

By following these guidelines, we ensure consistency and professionalism in every case where Stacker News is represented here internally to stackers or to our audience in the KYC internet, reinforcing SN credibility as a trusted source for data-driven journalism.


[^1]: FYI: @Aardvark @AGORA @anna @antic @AtlantisPleb @Bell_curve @benwehrman @bitcoinplebdev @Bitter @BlokchainB @ch0k1 @davidw @ek @elvismercury @frostdragon @grayruby @HODLR @inverselarp @Jon_Hodl @k00b @marks @MaxAWebster @mega_dreamer @niftynei @nout @OneOneSeven @OT @PlebLab @Public_N_M_E @RDClark @realBitcoinDog @roytheholographicuniverse @siggy47 @softsimon @south_korea_ln @theschoolofbitcoin @TNStacker @UCantDoThatDotNet @Undisciplined


Stacker News Media Kit & Brand Guidelines v1.2

deSign_r

crypto

I've been digging into lots of old(er) cypherpunk content this year so I've started to put together some notes and backing up some of the things like my own [anarplex.net mirror](https://anarplex.cypherpunk.wtf/) and downloading [Taz 0](https://taz0.sirion.io/) content in case @elsirion's mirrors ever go down.  I also want to have a collection of resources to point people towards because [I like to make directories](https://disobey.dev/directories/). 

There is also a lot of gems that people dont know about, like the [Untold story of the greatest crypto project ever](https://disobey.dev/the-untold-story-of-the-greatest-crypto-project-ever/) which I think deserve more attention. 

Long term goal of this project is to preserve history and distribute important works and information about crypto anarchy. I'll creates torrents and host mirrors of the content so it can be distributed around, but that will come later when the archive feels more wholesome, currently its just a seed of an idea.

If you have anything to add to the list you can leave a comment here or open a [PR on the repo](https://github.com/cryptoanarchy-info/cryptoanarchy-archive).



Cryptoanarchy archive project announcement

aljaz

> My rationale for support of various covenant proposals:
>
> To start, I am generally in favor of basically any covenants at this point. Bitcoin in its current form can only make 2 party protocols without huge amounts of interactivity and this greatly hinders scaling and threatens if people will actually be able to self custody their coins in the future. I also think we should be activating things in a timely manner, the window for soft forks is slowly closing and I would hate for bitcoin to ossify where custodians are our only solution to scalability. Politics aside, lets get into it.
>
> OP_CAT: This one is a beast. OP_CAT will essentially enable everything, just in a very inefficient way. It being inefficient is not necessarily a bad thing, it allows for other proposals to be activated based on market demand instead of guessing what people want like we have for the last 15 years. Cat also isn't just a covenant proposal, concatenating things is a useful thing and will allow for lots more things (merkle trees, SNARKs, etc). It's extremely simple in implementation so there's basically 0 risk for bugs, the real risk is what it enables. The only thing that can kill bitcoin imo is fucking with mining incentives and I don't think cat makes it any worse than it already is. OP_CAT is my favorite overall (even before I started my current job) but if we're activating cat, i think it'd be stupid to not activate it along with some other op codes.
>
> OP_CTV is the next most obvious upgrade to bitcoin, it is extremely limited in nature and essentially just locks the txid of the next transaction or acts as a pre-signed transaction, one of the most common things done in bitcoin today. CTV's main criticism today is that it doesn't do enough but I think it stands just fine on its own so long as its coupled with some other op codes.
>
> OP_CSFS (check sig from stack) isn't really a covenant proposal but when paired with CTV, allows for LN symmetry (or eltoo) and makes a ton of sense. It's a simple op code (checks  a sig), and doesn't add any new assumptions or add any new concerns about DoS.
>
> OP_INTERNALKEY, also not a covenant proposal, all this does is push a pubkey onto the stack, saving 31 bytes. This is such a simple op code, I'm honestly surprised this wasn't included in base tapscript.
>
> These are the ones that I'd most favor, I think this enables a million new ways to do layer 2 applications on top of bitcoin, some that we know will work (eltoo) and some that will be experiments (CatVM) and others that haven't even been invented yet. This also leaves the door open for more fine grained proposals in the future if we sufficient demand for other applications (ie vaults).
>
> I'll get into the remaining proposals on why I am okay with them but would rather have the previously mentioned op codes.
>
> OP_PAIRCOMMIT, not a covenant proposal but included in the LNHANCE set of op codes. This essentially is just OP_CAT with extra steps, it concats 2 items and then hashes them and puts the hash on the stack. I would bet on a long enough timeline people figure out how to do op_cat things with pair commit, so lets just do op_cat instead.
>
> OP_VAULT is great but not something that greatly excites me atm. I think vaults are a good idea but from what I've heard, there isn't much demand for vaults as of now (at least today's presigned tx version). This also doesn't address my main concern of scaling self custody. However, I do think its a great idea and can probably can still be used in ways to enable new layer 2s, so I am all for it.
> 
> OP_TXHASH is basically just OP_CTV++, so I am in favor of it. However, my understanding is there isn't a battle tested implementation yet and just feels like overly complicated CTV. Imo, TXHASH is a great follow up op code because we can fine tune it to what people are actually using covenants for, instead of prematurely optimizing everything with no data.
>
> OP_CCV, I know the least about this one but i think MATT is a good idea and in general favor of it.  If this was the only way we'd get covenants into bitcoin, then I'd be fine with that for now.
>
> APO feels dead these days, LNHANCE has usurped it in every regard. LNHANCE enables everything APO does but in a more fine grained and intentional way. APO is accidentally a covenant proposal while also not being very general, making it not very useful for applications outside of ln symmetry.

[source](https://x.com/benthecarman/status/1867275434376777930)

benthecarman on Covenant proposals

Here's the latest update of my unofficial Stacker News Media Kit 1.0

This is the follow up to the [original media kit v 0.1](https://stacker.news/items/739953)

The purpose of a media kit is to provide tools to portray SN in a way that we want to be portrayed. 

A media kit typically includes brand logos, color hex codes, fonts, brand language, video intros, production templates, website banners, etc. for brand continuity across the entire web. This media kit doesn't have all of that yet but we can create that through iteration.

This media kit can be shared with anyone who is interested in linking to or otherwise sending traffic to Stacker News. This  includes writers, YouTubers, influencers, podcasters, makers, companies, and even for use on print media. 

Use this media kit at your discretion to drive traffic to your favorite territory, profile page, post, or even just your referral link to SN.

If you would like to add something specific to the media kit, leave a comment and we can get it added to the next update. In FOSS fashion, I want to build this with others.

---

# Brand Logo

All of these logos use these color hex codes. 

SN Yellow: `#f8da5e`
SN Black: `#000000`
SN White: `#ffffff`

All of these can be resized up or down using a tool like Image Resizer: https://imageresizer.com/

# Brand Name Logo
Yellow Text - Black Background
![](https://m.stacker.news/64796)

---

Yellow Text - No Background
![](https://m.stacker.news/64792)

---

Black Text - Yellow Background
![](https://m.stacker.news/64795)

---

Black Text - No Background
![](https://m.stacker.news/64798)

---

Black SN - Yellow Background
![](https://m.stacker.news/64799)

---

Black SN - No Background
![](https://m.stacker.news/64800)

---

Yellow SN - Black Background
![](https://m.stacker.news/64801)

---

Yellow SN - No Background
![](https://m.stacker.news/64802)

---

![](https://m.stacker.news/64803)

970 x 250

---

![](https://m.stacker.news/64804)

728 x 90

---

![](https://m.stacker.news/64805)

320 x 50

---

![](https://m.stacker.news/64806)

250 x 250

---

![](https://m.stacker.news/64807)

320 x 250

---

![](https://m.stacker.news/64808)

300 x 600

---
Please don't be shy. If you want to contribute to this media kit, please just comment with ideas, recommendations, images, brand lingo, etc.

Stacker News Media Kit 1.0

Jon_Hodl

bitcoin_beginners

# INTRO

The first exploration of my Bitcoin Ecosystem Map. In this case, the target audience is mobile non-routing node users such as Blixt or Zeus that is looking for channel counterparty to open a LN channel with.

> _these lists must be maintained and updated_ - DarthCoin

I'm open to addition, removal & improvement of certain part of this post as soon as SN implements perpetual edit.

- Channel counterparty listed here are 100% private channel-friendly (trust me bro)
- Routing fees can change at any given moment, make sure to set a maximum limit of your maximum routing fees you're willing to pay (at least it's possible on Blixt)

# RESULTS


|Nodes|Routing Fee|Minimum Channel Size|
|:---------:|:-----------------:|:-----------------------------------:|
|[Blixt Wallet](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/0230a5bca558e6741460c13dd34e636da28e52afd91cf93db87ed1b0392a7466eb)|0 Sats + 1k ppm|20k Sats|
|[Boltz](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/026165850492521f4ac8abd9bd8088123446d126f648ca35e60f88177dc149ceb2)|0 Sats + 1 ppm|1M Sats|
|[Lifpay Me](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/038657a23145a49ca945e81f67bb5170dbefa7f6500cbf11ce8f0da83985745255)|1 Sats + 1 ppm|20k Sats|
|[Lightning Video](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/0301c3924df01f1a376ab20ce9273ee2c4a1f2354c3400e6357d3d4144981ae728)|5 Sats + 2480 ppm|1M Sats|
|[lnmarkets com](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/03271338633d2d37b285dae4df40b413d8c6c791fbee7797bc5dc70812196d7d5c)|?|5M Sats|
|[Megalithic Me](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/0322d0e43b3d92d30ed187f4e101a9a9605c3ee5fc9721e6dac3ce3d7732fbb13e)|0 Sats + 2k ppm|1M Sats|
|[Middle Way ₿⚡🌊](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/0376bd2f87ea8376ae5b451f85a4210e4df5ce81b949054288def4c7867640923c)|1 Sats + 1k ppm|10M Sats
|[Mostro](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/031df9367377758ef6a167f218023c5a1dcf3994d3e96327d32f0f008548fe4236)|0 Sats + 500 ppm|1M Sats|
|[NERV](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/028c589131fae8c7e2103326542d568373019b50a9eb376a139a330c8545efb79a)|1 Sats + 1 ppm|20k Sats|
|[⚡️ STACKER.NEWS ⚡️](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/03cc1d0932bb99b0697f5b5e5961b83ab7fd66f1efc4c9f5c7bad66c1bcbe78f02)|1 Sats + 1 ppm|20k Sats|
|[xmrk reloaded](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/02cad4ec4c8b0dc2c7035a1898f979c8c7169bdff74e01ad6ca7aea59d85c59e8b)|100 ppm ~ 2k ppm|2.5M Sats

Summary of other aspects :

- Blixt is the only node from this list that supports Taproot Channel & Turbo Channel
- All of the node listed supports Multi-Path Payment
- All of the node listed supports Keysend payment, except for Lifpay Me & Lightning Video
- All of the node listed supports Wumbo Channel, except for Lightning Video, NERV, & ⚡️ STACKER.NEWS ⚡️
- All of the node listed supports connection over Clearnet & TOR, except for Mostro & Lightning Video
- Mostro is TOR-only node while Lightning Video is Clearnet-only node


# KNOW YOUR COUNTERPARTY


|Nodes|🧭|Counterparty|
|:---------:|:-:|:--------------------:|
|[Blixt Wallet](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/0230a5bca558e6741460c13dd34e636da28e52afd91cf93db87ed1b0392a7466eb)|🇩🇪|Official Blixt Wallet routing node|
|||Blixt Wallet programmer|
|||@hampus|
|[Boltz](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/026165850492521f4ac8abd9bd8088123446d126f648ca35e60f88177dc149ceb2)|🇪🇸|Official Boltz Exchange routing node|
|||@boltz|
|[Lifpay Me](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/038657a23145a49ca945e81f67bb5170dbefa7f6500cbf11ce8f0da83985745255)|🇸🇬|Official Lifpay Wallet routing node|
|||@LifPay|
|[Lightning Video](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/0301c3924df01f1a376ab20ce9273ee2c4a1f2354c3400e6357d3d4144981ae728)|🇺🇸|Official Lightning Video routing node|
|||Shock Wallet programmer|
|||Lightning Pub programmer|
|||@justin_shocknet|
|[lnmarkets com](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/03271338633d2d37b285dae4df40b413d8c6c791fbee7797bc5dc70812196d7d5c)|🇺🇸🇨🇦|Official LN Markets routing node|
|||@romain_rouphael|
|[Megalithic Me](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/0322d0e43b3d92d30ed187f4e101a9a9605c3ee5fc9721e6dac3ce3d7732fbb13e)|🇺🇸|LSP partner on Alby Hub|
|||@megalithic|
|[Middle Way ₿⚡🌊](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/0376bd2f87ea8376ae5b451f85a4210e4df5ce81b949054288def4c7867640923c)|🇪🇸|Swap taker on Swap Market|
|[Mostro](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/031df9367377758ef6a167f218023c5a1dcf3994d3e96327d32f0f008548fe4236)|🇨🇴 ?|The current active Mostro instance|
|||Mostro programmer|
|[NERV](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/028c589131fae8c7e2103326542d568373019b50a9eb376a139a330c8545efb79a)|🇺🇸|Programmer at Lightning Labs|
|||Blixt Wallet programmer|
|||Eldamar Swap operator|
|[⚡️ STACKER.NEWS ⚡️](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/03cc1d0932bb99b0697f5b5e5961b83ab7fd66f1efc4c9f5c7bad66c1bcbe78f02)|🇺🇸|Official Stacker News routing node|
|||@k00b|
|[xmrk reloaded](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/02cad4ec4c8b0dc2c7035a1898f979c8c7169bdff74e01ad6ca7aea59d85c59e8b)|🇩🇪|@xmrk2|



|Nodes|Exclusive Benefits|
|:---------:|:---------------------------:|
|[Blixt Wallet](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/0230a5bca558e6741460c13dd34e636da28e52afd91cf93db87ed1b0392a7466eb)|Mandatory hop for Blixt Wallet LN address feature|
|[Lifpay Me](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/038657a23145a49ca945e81f67bb5170dbefa7f6500cbf11ce8f0da83985745255)|Less routing fee towards this PoS system|
|[⚡️ STACKER.NEWS ⚡️](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/03cc1d0932bb99b0697f5b5e5961b83ab7fd66f1efc4c9f5c7bad66c1bcbe78f02)|Less zapping fees on Stacker News|

In general, opening a direct channel towards integrated LSP of a certain wallet can have multiple benefits such as :
- Quicker pathfinding time
- Increased payment success rate
- Less fee towards the users of a certain wallet (that have the same counterparty ofc)

It also make sense to open a direct channel towards a certain services or apps that users often interact with (mainly to save Sats in routing fee).

But, in Alby Hub case, since the LSP model is open even tho there is a direct channel to a specific LSP, the Alby Hub users could choose a different channel counterparty thus the payment path is (probably) unaffected.

In Swap Market case, the users can open a direct channel towards their preferred Swap Taker to have multiple benefits such as :
- Quicker pathfinding time
- Increased payment success rate


# NOTES FROM NODERUNNERS


> _[Sure. Just be aware that we regularly close channels that don't have activity (usually if nothing within a week or two) ✌️](https://t.me/boltzhq/1180)_ - @boltz

> _I advertize on Magma, but could open a channel directly_ - Middle Way

> _To begin with. It is auto managed. As more sats go to my side, the fee will get lower. You now have 50 ppm discount for inbound flow._ - Middle Way

> _[If you want zero fees, open a channel to SN.](https://stacker.news/items/722833?commentId=724045)_ - @ek

> _I never succeeded in opening taproot private channel, and I tried, I thought it is fault of my peers, maybe I was wrong_ - @xmrk2

> _just changed it manually to 100, but it is dynamically adjusted by LNDg. Also set inbound fee to -50, which is more relevant right now._ - @xmrk2

> _difficult question, could you say "up to 2k ppm"? But I would prefer people to look at my avarage fee on amboss for example_ - @xmrk2

> _Yo, Yea sure we accept channels_ - @justin_shocknet

> _[We support Private channels, Wumbo channels, but not yet Taproot channels](https://t.me/lnmarkets/78453)_ - @romain_rouphael

> _yes, private accepted_ - @megalithic

> _Remember that these default fees can and will change at any time... so if you are setting up your viewers to "expect" certain fees, I'm  not sure that is a  great idea..._ - @megalithic

> _i just might suggest making a note for your users that your ppm values are "as tested on nov 7 2024 and could change" or something_ - @megalithic

> _[but I have to be clear on this, we are on beta but once we have a well tested release I will shutdown that node, I will let know users to close cooperatively all channels](https://t.me/MostroP2P/2551)_ - mostro


Some nodes could refuse to accept private channel for several reasons :
- Private channel can't be used to route payment (inefficient liquidity)
- It even worse if most (if not all) balance are pushed to the more-online node (locked liquidity)
- They wanna make money (LSP business)
- Avoiding force close risk (unless if most people use persistent mode, which they don't)

> _[We reserve the right to close those onchain funded chans at our own discretion](https://t.me/zeusLN/81426)_ - [Olympus by Zeus](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/031b301307574bbe9b9ac7b79cbe1700e31e544513eae0b5d7497483083f99e581)

> _[As Kote said, private channels might be problematic for our liquidity.
I would prefer if you took a look at my peers and chose one of them to open a channel.](https://t.me/robosats/44529)_ - [TheBigLake](https://lightningnetwork.plus/nodes/0385262f7e9e2eeeba1e7d6182a0efec98e79d01154b76189f3e0b88bcee279dd0)


# CLOSING BIT


Tools used :
- [Blixt Wallet](https://github.com/hsjoberg/blixt-wallet)
- [LN+](https://lightningnetwork.plus)
- [Amboss](https://amboss.space)
- Telegram X
- DarthCoin's [1](https://github.com/hsjoberg/blixt-wallet/issues/1033), [2](https://github.com/ZeusLN/zeus/discussions/2265) list
- [Lightning Decoder](https://lightningdecoder.com)

I've said it before and i'll say it again

> I'm open to addition, removal & improvement of certain part of this post as soon as SN implements perpetual edit.