But keet is not open souce. They promised to open source it, but never did. It's been more than 3 years.

Same here.

It so cute to see normies wake up gradually.

I love the current format and content.

At least a couple at a time! Chest freezers are full. I won't be eating the bugs!

"Half" a cow? Those are rookie numbers my friend!

I'm so happy she got it ;-) hahaha

I agree.

But if they're not into bitcoin, nostr, cashu, etc, I wonder how much good they can actually do. There can a lot of activity, but it doesn't mean it's really good or important. Look at the shitcoins. Lots of acitivity, lots of noise. No signal. Bluesky was DOA. I wouldn't see bluesky people presence as a plus. Can you point to specific projects you learned about at that conference which you feel are interesting but which are not run by bitcoiners or nostriches?

I don't have an hour today to listen to the whole video, so I took the transcript from youtube and fed it to Qwen3-32b (with 65536 context tokens) and asked it : "summarize this transcript in 1000 words focusing on what Samson Mow says, his concerns, his suggestions, his predictions, his recommendations". This is Qwen's answer and from the roughly first ten minutes I heard of the video, it feels like it's probably at least a very directionally accurate summary of the transcript : "**Summary of Samson Mow's Views on Bitcoin Core vs. KNOTS, Developer Concerns, and Recommendations** **Concerns:** 1. **Centralization Risks of Bitcoin Core**: Samson highlights the dominance of Bitcoin Core as a reference implementation, warning that its prevalence creates risks if the development team is compromised. He argues blind loyalty to Core divides the community and stifles healthy debate. 2. **Groupthink and Echo Chambers**: He critiques core developers for operating in an "echo chamber," prioritizing internal consensus over community input. This dynamic, he claims, leads to poor decision-making and erodes trust, fueling conspiracy theories. 3. **Unprofessional Behavior**: Mow criticizes developers for unprofessional conduct, such as locking/unlocking GitHub threads to manufacture consent or dismissive attitudes toward user feedback. He links this to a loss of stewardship, where developers act more as gatekeepers than neutral stewards. 4. **Accommodating External Interests**: The removal of op_return limits in Core v30 to accommodate companies like Citra is a "slippery slope." Mow warns this sets a precedent for prioritizing corporate needs over user preferences, undermining Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos. 5. **Spam and Network Health**: He debates the definition of "spam" on Bitcoin, arguing that data storage (e.g., ordinals) exploits Bitcoin’s immutability for purposes beyond its core function. Mow fears spam could degrade network usability and centralize mining by favoring large operations. **Suggestions:** 1. **Promote Multiple Implementations**: Mow advocates for a third, neutral implementation to counter Core’s and KNOTS’ dominance. He argues that three major implementations (each ~30% adoption) would create balance, preventing monopolistic control and fostering healthy competition. 2. **Adopt "Don’t Trust, Verify"**: He stresses the need for community vigilance, urging users to run nodes and scrutinize changes rather than blindly trusting developers. This ethos, he believes, is critical to maintaining decentralization. 3. **Cautious Protocol Changes**: Mow calls for slowing down protocol upgrades, particularly contentious ones like covenants, to assess long-term impacts. He cites past changes (e.g., SegWit) that had unintended consequences, such as reduced fee pressure and mining centralization. 4. **Research Past Impacts**: He recommends funding studies to evaluate historical changes (e.g., block size increases) and their effects on the network, emphasizing the need for adversarial thinking in development. **Predictions:** 1. **Ossification (Hardening)**: Mow predicts Bitcoin could "ossify" if current disputes escalate. If Core v30 is released without community buy-in, he expects a fragmented ecosystem with Core, KNOTS, and a third client, each vying for adoption. 2. **Spam and Centralization**: Without guardrails, spam transactions (e.g., ordinals) could balloon the UTXO set and incentivize mining pools to prioritize external protocols over Bitcoin’s native transactions. 3. **Community Response**: He anticipates increased node-running and scrutiny of developers, driven by heightened awareness of Core’s behavior. This could lead to a more decentralized network but also risks further polarization. **Recommendations:** 1. **Run Nodes and Self-Custody**: Mow emphasizes that "monetary sovereignty" requires users to run nodes and self-custody Bitcoin, ensuring they verify transactions independently. 2. **Avoid Hasty Changes**: Developers should avoid altering defaults (e.g., dust limits) without thorough analysis. He argues incremental changes to accommodate external projects (like Citra) risk long-term network health. 3. **Foster Inclusive Dialogue**: Mow calls for a return to collaborative, user-centric development, rejecting the "rah-rah developer" culture. He advocates for debates based on merits, not appeals to authority (e.g., Greg Maxwell’s opinions). 4. **Balance Filters and Freedom**: While acknowledging that standardness rules can’t fully prevent spam, Mow argues they signal Bitcoin’s purpose. Removing filters without consensus risks normalizing spam, crowding out organic transactions. **Parting Advice**: Samson concludes by reiterating the importance of "don’t trust, verify" and running nodes to secure Bitcoin’s future. He believes the current discourse, though contentious, has strengthened community awareness and node adoption, ultimately benefiting Bitcoin’s resilience. **Key Takeaways**: - **Trust No One**: Developers are fallible; community vigilance is non-negotiable. - **Decentralization as Defense**: Multiple implementations and node-running are critical to preventing centralization. - **Long-Term Thinking**: Protocol changes should prioritize long-term stability over short-term gains, with rigorous analysis of unintended consequences. - **Cultural Shift**: Bitcoin development must embrace adversarial thinking, user inclusion, and humility to avoid repeating past mistakes. Samson’s insights underscore a tension between innovation and preservation in Bitcoin’s evolution, urging stakeholders to balance progress with prudence to safeguard the network’s decentralized, anti-fragile nature." #qwen #AI #bitcoin #btc #core #knots #samson #nodes

I'll probably never know for sure, but I'm getting a strong "Trust the Science"-vibe from the Core people who are against filters; so I'm thinking that there are more covid-19 vaxxers in the anti-filter camp and more anti-vaxxers in the pro-filters group. I'm an anti-vaxxer and I won't be upgrading my Core to version 30. And I'll run knots if I have to. I'd love to see stats on this.

Wow, beautiful explanation and rebuttal. Thank you!

Excellent, I'll try that. Lower the risk. Say that it's a trial. The "puppy dog close". hahaha One more thing, if I may : what have you found you guys prefer in terms of accomodations? For example : Airbnb-like services, long-term rentals paid in many different places even when not in use, finding rentals every time, hotels, or just outright buying a place in each destination you enjoy? Couch-surfing at friends' places is probably hard when it's for many months at a time. And being a bitcoiner, real estate feels risky and expensive to me. Although, I must say that some countries are really not as bad as where we are right now.

How low will normies stoop to comply?

One part of me agrees with what you said and the other part has two questions : 1. In which countries are you finding freedom? (not trolling, really asking). I'm looking everywhere and finding big problems on the freedom front everywhere I look. 2. Have you been able to build connections while being nomadic? Building community? Again, not trolling, really asking.

My choices are either : never upgrade my Core or go to Knots. Luke seems to be in favor of covenants and I'm not. So I guess my only choice is to never upgrade Core.

Excellent, thank you! It makes me feel very optimistic about trying this. I'll have to convince the Missus to try that. Did you have to work hard on that front or was it a shared perspective from the get-go? My understanding from what I read is that Japan gives out visas mostly for us to really stay there, and that we might lose the visa if moving around too much. Is that what you're hearing too? I would love to have the option of going there and staying longer than my maximum visa-free allowed time, without necessarily having to commit to living there close to full-time. I feel the same way about longer stays in one location. I've felt that way ever since I read Rolf Pott's book (Vagabonding) a long time ago. When I told my wife about Rolf, she told me : "... does he have kids?". hahaha I love the concept of rotating between 3 to 4 countries. It sounds perfect to me.

The concept of a disposable identity for P2P exchanges where one leg of the transaction is fiat has always seemed fundamentally flawed to me. Vexl seems more interesting.

Thank you very much! I'm taking good note of those countries. I'll do more research. One thing that kept me away from the Index of Economic Freedom is that it gives high scores to some countries that were not good for freedom-lovers during the plandemic (for example Australia and Ireland). But I hear good things about South Korea and Japan in terms of not having forced the jab on anyone. Do you find that the skies are clearer there? Spain had hard lockdowns but luckily the judiciary put the brakes on it to an extent. Also very nice climate. I hear that, outside of Vienna, Austria was not covid-crazy. If you don't get dragged into the tax net of those countries, it seems like it could be a really enjoyable life. Any thoughts on the nomadic lifestyle for kids? I've also been reading your article "Abandoned Adoption : Bitcoin Backslides and Hard Truths - #307" : I would say that that is the one spot where the sedentary lifestyle helps. Staying in the same area for a while helps you connect with local people who eventually join you in the btc world. That's one of the things that I'm concerned about when I think about a more nomadic lifestyle. But the encroachments everywhere on our freedoms make me really consider it. Maybe vexl might help you get bitcoin for cash locally, especially in Europe.

I would never be a vegan. I love meat too much. But just for the record, there's an extremely high amount of vitamin K2 in "Natto", which is fermented soybeans.