I am confused how UTXO set makes no difference? I keep a March 2023 prune=550 snapshot on a usb for bootstrapping my node in case of data corruption or for node migration. I have a recent snapshot that is double the size. At this rate, how is this not a concern? Since Satoshi included pruning in the white paper, and is the inevitable destination for all nodes eventually, why should they be forced to carry this data forever? How is this not damaging to bitcoin's decentralization?

Could be. The freedom may be on paper, but real freedom comes from within assuming you can earn fairly and save fairly. Bitcoin avoids capital controls (for the most part).

Successful people do not retire or leave the States for inferior and less free places. American wealth has always been built by those courageous enough to accept the reality that you keep progressing and stacking and don't abandon ship as soon as things appear good. Never sell out, only perpetually buy in.

You have to live somewhere and at least in the fiat first world, you have options and can buy Bitcoin. In the 3rd world there is no wealth or income for you to store.

You can tell the audience because he starts at 18 and mentions traveling the world. As you get older you know how unimportant travel (especially the the corrupt 3rd world) is and how it detracts from more important life goals.

Thank you for your content and sending this important message. Merry Christmas to you and your family!

For those who are tech savvy and/or believe in exclusively using open source everything (especially for bitcoin): https://armantheparman.medium.com/how-to-set-up-a-raspberry-pi-zero-air-gapped-running-latest-version-of-electrum-desktop-wallet-85e59ecaddc0

I am confused with the problem. Satoshi advocated for changing the encryption should the need arise. Satoshi advocated for pruning nodes in the white paper. Satoshi advocated for self sovereignty by having every holder (and probably miner) be a node. You will have to be alive to be a node. If an upgrade burns a dead man's coins it is not confiscation. If they are alive, but fall asleep at the wheel then they deserve to be locked out. What am I missing?

It will be much more productive if individual nodes can opt-into UTXO freezing and deleting rather than a consensus change that needs approval. As a node runner, which all NPC Bitcoiners need to become, I want the freedom to modify my node as I and people like me see fit. I do not want an artificially large chainstate with 40% dust outputs clogging up my RAM and sitting idle on my disk. As far as my UTXOs, I have them saved and can send them whenever I see fit. I don't have any dust and I certainly don't have any spam. The CAT as a soft fork is likely to get FUDed out of existence and I would prefer a more self sovereign solution to the spam problem should this fall flat.

If "The Cat" can delete the spam UTXOs then this is a game changer. Why would any node continue to store garbage forever on their computers if they don't have to? Freezing and deleting the spam dust is perfectly compatible with freedom of bitcoin. It isn't censorship and it isn't confiscation. It is choosing to no longer volunteer to have your resources exploited by shipcoiners and shit coiners. It is the obvious solution to this growing problem.