Grassroots communities 100%. Fuck the companies trying to make Bitcoin what works for them to make money.

Don't trust, verify. It takes a village.

Strike works well only on US people. Why? Because these people cannot get out from the fiat credit system. They are trapped.

And I will say it again and again: US will be the last place on this planet that will fully adopt Bitcoin. The fiat mindset is so deep that they can't figure it out that the only way is to step out totally from fiat and just use bitcoin.

Strike is no more no less than just a paypal using LN.

Nobody from companies is enforcing you to use their services. Do.not trust. Verify. The problem is many people don't know how to verify the code and run the software. So they have to trust. And if they start trusting code, why not trusting a bit more and trust a company that runs the code for you? That's the problem. People prefer the convenience. But if you really want to be independent and not trust companies, you can.

Bitcoin companies have been around for a long time, most of them have died.

I don't think any of those companies will continue to be around in a few more halvenings, but Bitcoin will still be there.

Do not trust any company ever, period. Take Reddit as current example. Gain user trust. Exploit trust for growth. Grow into wider mass market. Betray your users in an effort to make profit.

Make no mistake. Behind all the marketing Strike offers, they are no different. Profit and growth is the name of the game. They will eventually betray their users too.

On the internet this is known as "enshitification". Or, The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits.

I think some of them may be a necessary evil in order to introduce the benefits of Bitcoin to all people.

Others are just leeching the masses.

Once the overall system changes enough, they’ll die out in their current form.

Some may adapt into some other related service. Greed is a powerful thing.

peer to peer electronic cash system

Mine is already at 0%.

Also, i lost all my respect for Strike since they added support for shitcoin (Tether stablecoin).

If you incorporate your are in bed with the government. And remember boys and girls, Government IS Slavery!

I like to say Strike is a company for dollar maxis to interface economically with bitcoiners 😂

A man who do not trust himself, will hardly trust other person, even if that person is his mother who gave him birth... You do not have to trust companies! But, if you find a trustworthy person in that company,why do not use their service or product?! Reply Regarding Stripe, their rules are not so smart and you can be misunderstood by people who are decision makers there, that's why they reject many. I was rejected few times, but I am not the one that will give up easy, so finally they understood that their decision was wrong. However, it is not easy to deal with brainless persons who are decision making in a company... 🤔

It's a free market. Companies becoming sellout will go out of business, see Coinbase.

Everyone has a different learning path. Everyone has different threat models. The free market offers solution to everyone on those spectrums.

Contrary to fiat, with bitcoin you are free to choose your way.

If you hate some business model that's fine you don't have to interact with those.

This is what financial freedom looks like.

temporary weigh stations for Bitcoin are not bad, assuming you have enough non-KYC protections or coinjoin/privacy implementations you want to use after.

Strike right now caters more toward people depositing their paychecks and making DCA purchases, so it's not necessarily privacy-friendly. But that's a trade-off for a smooth UX. You can also sending via lighting and have it obfuscated, but it'll still be engraved in their records which, under court order, could be given to the US gov't.

Bitcoin is Trust.

I have faith in strike and lots of different bitcoin companies.

If bitcoin is going to succeed then there will have to be companies that build things using it. I agree that adoption should come from grassroots movements but lots of companies are founded this way. Strike was founded by Jack Mallers who was a well respected open source dev in the community for years until we later went and built strike with a team of engineers he had met in FOSS.