I've been to/called a bunch of these places in my city to go use Bitcoin and every single one turned out not to accept Bitcoin, the people didn't even know wtf I was talking about when I asked and I looked like an idiot, this site needs to get it's shit together

The blue whale is bigger than the Megalodon. It's the biggest animal of all, past or present, no exceptions.

I really appreciate lil Bitcoin parafernalia. Nothing expensive, some blank seed phrase cards, branded pens, stickers things like that

Last one I went to there was a draw for a modified S9 miner/room heater. Could do this with some other Bitcoin product, an inexpensive hardware wallet or something if you want to bring down costs, or even just straight up Sats, Bitcoiners love sats hahaha. Nothing to break the bank(lol) just whatever you're willing to part with.

A venue that takes Bitcoin, or at least wait staff that take Bitcoin tips was a big winner for me too.

A lil area for local Bitcoiners to sell or advertise their Bitcoin-related wares if possible, books, shirts, bitcoin-themed baked goods, things like that. Make sure to keep this one Bitcoin only. It can get super messy if not. No fiat, no shitcoins.

I'd also look into seating arrangement.. arrangements? Every meetup I've been to has had awkwardly placed tables and chairs that make it difficult to have a conversation with anyone other than the person directly next to you. It's nice to sit and have a beer in bigger groups, especially for a meetup where the whole point is to meet new people.

Not too loud music, Bitcoiners tend to love to talk about Bitcoin, don't want to be yelling the whole time and struggling to hear eachother. A - "not your keys" B- "nacho cheese?" Calls the waiter over

Charismatic speakers if any. This is a massive one for me, could just be me tho. I really don't want to hear you studder and fumble up there for 15 minutes about profitability indicators and hash price if I can't understand 20% f the words coming out your mouth. Stops the event dead in its tracks for me, brings the atmosphere down.

As someone who's never been anywhere near the planning or execution of any Bitcoin meetups, but has attended a few, this is all I can think of. Reading back thru it it's more than I expected actually haha. Hope it helps!

Honestly the liquidity thing is the main benefit I see with ecash, it's pretty great, but I don't think the tradeoffs are worth it. I think there are already better solutions in the works that address the liquidity and on chain footprint concerns that don't bring in a risk of debasement.

I think the ecash crowd, whom I admire greatly, hasn't really understood the full importance of the debasement issue. If there is a chance of debasement, no matter how small, to my mind, it becomes an inevitability. This tradeoff for me is categorically unacceptable under any circumstances regardless of the benefits. It's just too important and too big of a temptation for any person or federation in the long run. The idea is to make Bitcoin the final money, the last one. That means taking into account the next thousand years, not just the next hundred.

I hope the ecash people continue on their path tho. This is an avenue well worth exploring and who knows...

Anyways, loves your post man, thanks

I've started to think that Chaumian e-cash was a marvelous improvement over the shit rails that fiat had when the digital age dawned, and failed because of the permissioned nature of fiat. It would have made fiat way better for a digital world.

It can be implemented on Bitcoin beautifully because of its permissionless nature, but the benefits seem lost on a money that is already freely programable, natively digital and which has other technologies that make it fast cheap and efficient already on top of it.

I mean, what the hell do I know haha smarter people than I seem to think it's the holy grail of Bitcoin tech but idk.. I don't see it

I mean.. as long as you're "dreaming of a world where...", I don't see why a self custodial, fully debasement-proof dream is any less valid than any other dream.

I think most of the things we basically take for granted about Bitcoin as it is today were absurd pipe dreams prior to the white paper. The Byzantine generals problem was thought to be unsolvable. The idea of separating money from state didn't even exist in anyone's mind.

If you're dreaming, dream big man.

Learn enough about how Bitcoin works to come up with and use a cold storage option that doesn't exist in books and marketing brochures and is unique to you and your situation

If I found a well paying job in El Salvador I'd move there tomorrow.

There is literally nowhere else I'd like to be, I fucking hate Canada these days it's going downhill so fast, everything is getting so goddamn expensive, merchant adoption of BTC is laughably low, and there's basically no hope that Bitcoin will ever have any status beyond "massively taxed capital gains investment" if the current rulers have their way.

In El Salvador I could speak my own language, I could use my own money, I could feel safe expressing an opinion the state might not agree with, I could feel safe sending my kids to school without them being brainwashed, I could go to the beach, I could start a bitcoin related business.

Just need a bit more BTC to take the plunge without a job on hand. We'll get there. Zap this reply if you want to help me get there faster

Completely agree, I really wanted the education so I went for it, turns out, very achievable for the layman.

Glad I did it, wasn't expecting any privacy improvements or anything like that just tinkering. Lost 3 sats but hey... A good amount of education at the price of 3 sats is a steal

Lol, ain't we all hahaha

Idk what your wife is into by I know the day Sephora has some kind of Bitcoin promo is the day my girlfriend takes the orange pill. Will be nice when that day comes

Oh I see what you did there hahaha

I'm loving Cashu so far, using Nutstash mainly and I briefly played around with my own mint but I don't recommend doing that since fees to get back to lightning usually means 2 or 3 sats will probably get left behind and I'm not sure how to solve this.

But the fact that I was able to set one up myself in minutes with not much technical knowledge to speak of, and mint my own ecash and send it around and receive it again and turn it back into sats on lightning... Idk, it was mind-blowing to me.

The name and the concept of "ego death" bothers me.

I feel like the only people that I know for sure have never had an "ego death" are the people who claim that they have had an ego death. Everyone else is a toss up. But if you say "I had an ego death" it just seems to be a self defeating statement. Bah, what do I know..

You're lending money here, which means what you have to manage is risk.

The traditional solution to this, and what makes the most sense to me, is to assess how much risk you're willing to take on, and put a price on it.

You have a borrower, you need to assess their creditworthiness on your own terms. People with low creditworthiness get loans at a higher APR than people with high creditworthiness.

You may not be running your own node, but you are acting as a bank. So embrace it. Charge for your services, and do so at a price that makes the trade worth it for you. You're in the risk management business now. It's tricky to price, but make sure that the risk of default and the psychic cost of taking on that much risk is covered by the fee you charge. If 1% isn't worth it to you then it's not worth it to you. Either negotiate the price up or decline the transaction.

In short, don't "hand over" your Bitcoin. Sell your liquidity at a price that makes it worth it for you.

Dude I'm loving these, I look forward to them, I hope you make a ton more of them

Fiction, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Non fiction, Basic Economics by Dr. Thomas Sowell

Bonus, The Lord of the Rings audiobooks and The Silmarillion audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis. Masterpieces

cashuAeyJ0b2tlbiI6W3sicHJvb2ZzIjpbeyJpZCI6IjltbGZkNXZDemdHbCIsImFtb3VudCI6Miwic2VjcmV0IjoiOUZqSWFJYWRyVVAzVzRNRExkMldRa2p2SDlDT0tQMFZsSnFJVTVzampqOD0iLCJDIjoiMDNkYjNjMWZhZGZjYWIyMTVmNzI5MDdjY2Q0ZWU4ZjFkNDNiOWM5NDFjMGRkYmU5Yjg2YjU2Zjg5YWIzMDA3OTM1In1dLCJtaW50IjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9taW50Lm1pbmliaXRzLmNhc2gvQml0Y29pbiJ9XX0

Very very tiny amount, just testing, please let me know if you claim this

Hey man, a while after reading this I realized that you prompted me to look into CTV, how it works, what it is, and how it can be applied to mitigate some of the issues in lightning. And I am much more knowledgeable about Bitcoin in general, and scaling solutions in particular because of it. In just a few days the value of your article has manifested in my life. I have a deep need to understand what is happening in Bitcoin, and what the limitations of the current tools are, and also what the mitigating innovations are and how they work, and your piece helped me to gain that understanding, so thank you. I apologize for calling the post "garbage". I wasn't able to see its value at first, but I see it now, and I appreciate it.

This is awesome man, thanks a ton for your work

The Lord of the Rings

The audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis is a masterpiece

I'm starting The Two Towers today but obviously I recommend starting with The Fellowship of the Ring.

Happy reading!