26 sats \ 0 replies \ @_vnprc 16 May \ on: Ecash TIDES using Cashu and Stratum v2 lightning
This is such a powerful idea. It has captured my imagination for some time now.
Imagine a world where miners don't need mining pool accounts. In this system you hash block headers and get a steady stream of ecash in return. This ecash is not backed by bitcoin yet. It's kind of like proto-bitcoin. Let's call them hashtokens because who doesn't like a weed pun. When the pool finds a block these hashtokens can be redeemed for sats via the medium of your choosing: lightning, ecash, or an on-chain UTXO.
This model is ideal for pleb miners with low hashrate who would need to mine for a very long time to qualify for a payout from a traditional pool. In addition, everything the pool does is transparent and auditable thanks to the ecash proof of liabilities report published with each block. This is a dramatic departure from the opaque and sketchy mining pools that dominate the industry today. My sincere hope is that this new model can bring them to heel.
Now imagine you're not a miner but you are a privacy minded bitcoiner. You can buy these hashtokens from the miners directly and exchange them with the mining pool for a coinbase output with no KYC and no UTXO history. Truly clean corn. Would you be willing to pay a premium? My guess is yes. KYC-free exchanges regularly cost 1-5% more than spot bitcoin price.
The magic in this model is that it provides a way to deliver the privacy premium from peer-to-peer exchanges and mixing services directly to small miners, opening new privacy markets and driving hashrate higher which strengthens the whole bitcoin network. Over a long enough timeframe we might even be able to take down the antpool cartel. Probably not but a nym can dream, right?
Rene largely works on routing and pathfinding. Not sure why anyone would think ecash helps with this. Maybe trust-based LN channels using ecash could absorb some of the pressure during high fee events...? This is not a well known technique and I'm not aware of anyone working on it. Very cool idea though.
In any case vagueposting with no followup is kind of a nothingburger. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Maybe we'll learn more later but nothing to do here until Pickhardt decides to elaborate.
BitAxe is great! It's fully open source hardware and software. Two guys from my local BitDevs meetup made it happen. Skot9000 started the project and designed the hardware. Johnny9 backwards engineered the firmware.
It's super easy to set up. You plug it in and connect to the wifi network displayed on the screen. Configure it with your wifi credentials and reboot the bitaxe. Open a browser on your local network and browse to the IP displayed on the screen. Configure your mining pool credentials, save. You might need to reboot it again. Congrats! You are hashing.
The thing that sets this project apart from similar efforts is the hash efficiency. A nerdminer does CPU mining on an ESP32. BitAxe uses an individual ASIC chip from an S19, I think. So you are getting industrial strength hash efficiency in an adorable desk toy format. It's like a cool knick knack that puts out 500 GH/s. I put mine on a shelf with a bunch of bitcoin books and a laptop full node. When it is quiet I can hear it 'breathe' as the fan alternates speeds to maintain target temp on the chip.
In general, mining profitability will almost always be lower than just buying BTC on the spot market. This starts to change if you operate at a very large scale or have access to free or subsidized hardware or electricity. BitAxe is at the extreme end of unprofitability. Due to the high relative cost of the hardware you might have to mine continuously for a century to break even.
Skot is working on a hex board that will fit 6 ASIC chips. It will definitely help with cost efficiency. If you are interested in this stuff definitely check out the Open Source Miners United initiative.
Title
virtually all VPNs
body
except when the user's VPN runs on Linux or Android
these editors really do be trippin'
Ecash mints are useful for their privacy properties and the fact that they don't require a consensus change. They will still need to use geographical arbitrage or network privacy techniques such as tor to remain operational in the face of state sponsored attacks. This is still an easier path than achieving consensus on a soft fork. My ecash bullishness remains unperturbed.
One of the frustrating aspects of discussing these options is the constant attempts to play different solutions off of each other. We don't need to focus on a single solution. We can try all solutions at once. Please stop implying that all scaling solutions are rival. They are nonrival.
Just gonna point out that LUD-04, the LNURL authentication protocol is beautifully simple and free of corporate influence. Also, the user generates their own private keys. I don't understand why anyone would use an auth method where a 3rd party generates the private keys. shudder
Better article: https://9to5mac.com/2024/04/15/musk-charge-new-x-users-fee/
Key information:
...users who choose not to pay the fee will still be able to follow other accounts and read posts for free.Those who don’t pay to unlock the option to post will get it free of charge after a period of three months.
Bald-faced lie:
In a post on X, Musk told a user that a “small fee” to let new accounts post on the platform is the “only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.”
Musk is not stupid enough to believe this. He understands proof of work and why it was invented (spam prevention). He's lying to condition everyone into giving up their payment info as a part of the signup process. If he was actually interested in controlling bots he could easily integrate proof of work spam prevention and/or a lightning based microtransaction fee to post or like. But he won't do that because it runs counter to his actual motivation.
For those paying attention, this is another step down the road of Musk's grand plan to build the WeChat of the west. He is turning Twitter into a dystopian financial surveillance and social control tool. You need CC processors as intermediaries to make this system work. It can't be built on bitcoin. Musk is an enemy of bitcoin. Don't forget it.
This is a Google Play feature that won't work on GrapheneOS. It's an Apple find-my alternative. Bluetooth also needs to be configured and enabled by the OS to make it work that way.
I asked graphene on nostr to confirm or deny whether this is functional on graphene devices. Will report back if/when they answer.
Do you have any thoughts on greater nostr integration?
Any planned features/development for meetup organizers?
NVK was all for open source when it brought a benefit to his business. Now he's against it because it brings competition. In addition, he constantly attacks his open source competitors. This is incompatible with the open source ethos. It's not a leap at all. Don't put words in my mouth pls.
The only credible criticism I have seen of the seedsigner model is that it requires you to access unencrypted private key material for each spend. Fair point. You can encrypt the private key using a BIP39 passphrase. I don't like this solution because, as Lopp points out, this changes your setup from a single point of failure to two points of failure. If you lose the seed phrase (or QR code) you lose your money. If you lose the passphrase you lose your money. Far more people get rekt this way than get rekt by having their seed phrase or hardware wallet physically compromised.
It's just not that much work to go from a seed phrase + pass phrase to a multisig with 3 seed phrases. You need to find a third physically secure location and stamp out another steel plate AND THAT'S IT. Spending does not require an additional trip to a secure location and you now have redundancy against failure which protects you against your greatest enemy: yourself.
I recommend seed signer to every pleb who is willing to get their hands dirty. I believe it is one of the best security models. It definitely has the best user interface (mad props to Keith Mukai) and by learning to use it you also learn a ton about bitcoin and self custody.
Hard agree on all your criticisms of NVK. Also, you forgot to mention how Cold Card used to be open source right up until someone forked his code and started a competing company. Now it's just 'source available'. I get the distinct feeling NVK is an enemy of open source. His motivation appears to be selfish; oriented toward his own profit instead of promoting freedom technology.