loki
Roger H

Learning more every day. Writer of a book on Bitcoin + China coming out in mid 2024. Preorder the book at http://bit.ly/chinabtcbook. PFP: Ba Jin/巴金. Cover: Thomas Mann.

Public Key

npub12qxvc5evxqt3rky25mfskywugalx5vnhppfl32cu903cnwpyu0uqkmq8u9

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

NIP-57 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs9qrxv2vkrq9c3mz92d5ctz8wywln2xfmss5lc4vwzhcufhqjw87q6rnsf7

Publishing to

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub12qxvc5evxqt3rky25mfskywugalx5vnhppfl32cu903cnwpyu0uqkmq8u9

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Last Notes

2024-06-26 00:19:30

A lot of people have been wondering about how to get Bitcoin donations to Julian Assange after @npub1xw7…umsa wrote about the need to fundraise for the USD 520,000 to cover his flight on VJT199 to Saipan. I talked with his half-brother Gabriel, who set up this link on their @npub155m…dcvg instance.
https://btcpay0.voltageapp.io/apps/3sEmBheBrxi3NCzSwguMeSVJtZ5y/pos
cc: @npub1sg6…f63m @npub1trr…hdpu
Verify, don't trust as always. All I can say is that I sent sats to this BTCPay instance, and that it came to me from the same Signal account as when I interviewed Gabriel for articles like the following: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerhuang/2021/06/21/julian-assanges-continued-imprisonment-is-a-test-for-bitcoins-values/

2024-06-20 17:59:15

My book on Bitcoin + China is officially out on Amazon! Thanks again to @npub1trr…hdpu for the foreward. When I originally wrote this book, I wanted to portray China and Bitcoin as characters in a larger fight - for control over how finances and computing power would be arrayed. Would individuals be able to enjoy more liberty and financial freedom and dilute the control of tyrants - or would new technologies like the Digital Yuan create more control?
I hope you all enjoy. Any of you who DM me that you've bought the book - if I'm in your city, I'll try to meet and sign your copy! Love the Nostr community.
https://www.amazon.com/Would-Mao-Hold-Bitcoin-Techno-Nationalist/dp/B0D7672L8X/

2024-06-18 18:22:59

I wrote previously for Forbes about how "chat control" and European policy attempts to go around end-to-end encryption would invade millions if not billions of user phones. User privacy and control of what your device displays to who is so critical to human freedom. One of the things I love most about Bitcoin is that it aggregates people who think along this vein.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/05/07/european-threat-to-end-to-end-encryption-would-invade-phones/

2024-06-17 18:33:11

My profile picture on here commemorates Ba Jin, the leading anarchist Chinese writer. His short stories and novels animated a revolutionary generation that saw China break from thousands of years of dynastic rule - but he was personally punished by Mao during the Cultural Revolution. His wife was denied treatment for her cancer and she would die. Ba Jin took to writing about remembering the Cultural Revolution and reading Dante's Inferno to gain some small measure of comfort.
Some people talk about the "Chinese model" as if it is a matter of destiny, but the recent ideological fascination with Marx and a stronger Leninist state doesn't have as strong of a root as most assume, and even less so the idea of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" forged right after Ba Jin's torment. Ba Jin's story tells us that there was always a China that looked to temper the state's excesses and one rooted in a desire to engage the world (at the time in Esperanto, perhaps now with Bitcoin). Though the Chinese Communist Party has tried to seize his legacy, I believe it is Chinese cypherpunks looking to hedge and move away from one of the most unequal fiat kingdoms on Earth (China's income inequality by some measures surpasses that of the United States) that truly follow Ba Jin's legacy.
https://m.primal.net/IoNE.jpg ) https://m.primal.net/IoNF.jpg https://m.primal.net/IoNG.jpg

2024-06-13 20:55:55

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China's State Council (under Liu He) pronounced Bitcoin mining as undesired, and the provinces started banning and kicking out Bitcoin miners. However, ever since then, people sell miners in Mainland and etc.

2024-06-13 20:00:16

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Hattip to @npub1xts…kk5s

2024-06-13 19:59:23

I wrote about how Bitcoin survived China's bans and actually grew much stronger - diving into the details on the level of what was attempted - really showing how Bitcoin thrived despite a very robust attack from a large state adversary - and what lessons can be drawn for future resilience.
Hattip to @`jb55`who gave me the whole story of how Damus had to face down Chinese censors firsthand who took the Damus app down and then banned the default relay IP addresses.
https://chinabitcoinbook.com/?p=158

2024-06-13 16:22:11

One of the cool features of Nostr is the automatic translation of different languages in mobile clients. I believe @npub18m7…q955 and @npub1nz6…0w5y both have this feature. It's awesome to follow people from around the world.

2024-06-12 21:07:17

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If you set up a zapping address, you can be sent/tipped sats (https://nostr.how/en/guides/setup-zapping-wallet)

2024-06-12 17:53:52

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The solution is to build open standards and networks resilient to all threat models. Monero is not resilient to nation-state level scrutiny, whereas Bitcoin is - and I can point to this simply because Chinese state authorities (including at the time, Vice-Premier Liu He) tried banning Bitcoin left and right but probably has no idea what Monero is.
Nostr hosts a lot of Chinese cypherpunks. None of them ever really post about Monero.

2024-06-12 17:51:33

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Github is clearly a problem for China - they've tried to take down Github repos multiple times. But they can't enforce protocol-level bans on Git because it's too useful.

2024-06-12 17:13:03

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If you set up a Lightning Address, with say Wallet of Satoshi, people can tip you Bitcoin for your contributions here https://nostr.how/en/guides/setup-zapping-wallet

2024-06-12 15:28:34

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I don't know of anybody en masse that uses Tor in China, but I know plenty of people who use VPNs. My point wasn't a direct analogue of the technology, it's the fact that once your tech is a narrow use case, it's easier to target. China can't target regular web traffic at a protocol level because too much useful stuff is there - they have to ban IP by IP. Even bridges for Tor don't work that well in Mainland. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1204.0447
Btw, if we want to be direct, I have never seen an instance yet of P2P trade in China with Monero vs. Tether/BTC. Which is my point. If the liquidity conditions are not met, the tech isn't even usable in certain jurisdictions. FYI, this isn't because Monero are some on-chain geniuses, most "traders" are nabbed by interactions with the Chinese banking system. But in arrests, public reporting, sleuthing on Chinese social media - very little known interest in Monero.

2024-06-12 15:22:06

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"A viable currency which has no privacy is no problem for any authoritarian state." - you shoehorn in one section, and you get the rest. Just like how Github is allowed in China because there's too many useful repos.

2024-06-12 15:20:38

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Obviously I think transactional privacy is legit, but governments don't. FYI, why Lightning usage is generally banned in China as well.

2024-06-11 23:19:06

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Yeah for sure, and hopefully see you soon!

2024-06-11 20:18:35

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I think the problem with Monero is that it's like using Tor vs https:// - you need enough "legit" traffic and trade for it to be a viable currency rather than a privacy tool. Incidentally, this is why Tor, for example, is banned at the protocol level within China.

2024-06-11 18:40:26

I wrote about the growth of Bitcoin and Nostr as essential tools for activists and dissidents making a difference around the world at the Financial Freedom Track in Oslo. I linked to everybody's Primal profile in the spirit of it all.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/06/11/oslo-freedom-forum-why-bitcoin-matters-more-than-its-price/
CC @npub1sg6…f63m @npub1a2c…w83a @npub1trr…hdpu @npub1wlk…qwhy @npub1cf3…x7gk @npub12rv…85vg @npub1hea…g9v2 @npub1rxy…hnp8
@npub1dnz…x52h and @npub1hwg…03sg also have excellent articles on the topic on their Forbes profiles.

2024-06-04 12:54:19

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Primal profile for now
Be my style guide editor

2024-06-04 12:52:00

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I've started linking only to people's Nostr in my articles or their website https://image.nostr.build/b3244af396e007f8a1668938355c20608ab5b850bd2f49f23db8d4b084292891.jpg

2024-06-04 07:49:02

Today is the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The reason why it still matters is because China drives its political class from the descendants of those who authorized mass state violence and continues to perpetuate it on innocents trying to remember the event. For Bitcoiners and freedomtech adherents who might view the China model as dystopia - know that it had its roots 35 years ago when the Chinese state killed protesting citizens and then tried to kill the memory of the event.
#八九六四

2024-05-30 20:13:17

I'll be speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum about whether the world's states will follow the China's push for Central Bank Digital Currencies or digital privacy/autonomy and self-custody. https://m.primal.net/ISvN.jpg Thanks to the HRF Financial Freedom Team for organizing and giving me the opportunity: @npub1wlk…qwhy @npub1rsc…peqk @npub1cf3…x7gk

2024-05-24 19:04:51

Chrome is having a good month
https://thehackernews.com/2024/05/google-detects-4th-chrome-zero-day-in.html

2024-05-24 19:00:07

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Love a Damus APK

2024-05-23 22:50:49

I wrote about how the House just took an important step in preventing the United States from taking the Chinese state CBDC path
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/05/23/the-house-bans-the-fed-from-building-a-cbdc-like-the-digital-yuan/?sh=cd7a8e9591fe

2024-05-21 21:05:10

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https://m.primal.net/IJbl.png

2024-05-21 21:01:51

Looks like I finally got my badge of honor on Twitter/"X", your free speech platform™

2024-05-09 18:42:29

me, fleeing warzones with my life with my gold bar collectionhttps://m.primal.net/IExa.jpg

2024-05-07 20:14:43

I wrote about the threat that European policy-makers are making to end-to-end encryption and why it matters so much.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/05/07/european-threat-to-end-to-end-encryption-would-invade-phones/?sh=589342787a9d

2024-05-07 18:43:14

yesterday's American libertarians/an-caps vs. European libertarians/an-socs debate is today's Nostr user vs. Mastodon user - but maybe not for much longer if the two can be bridged

2024-05-06 21:54:00

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Most discovery is tied to word-concepts. So people love the X of Y like Stacker News is the Hacker News of Bitcoin mapping. This is the intuitive way to grow something - step into a demand category (it's how SEM/paid search operates). A few times, companies can define a category or a semantic word, but they often spend a ton to do so, and can lose out to second or third-follower companies.

2024-04-30 19:05:03

With the Hong Kong Bitcoin spot ETFs having launched, what is actually going on with Hong Kong and Bitcoin?
https://chinabitcoinbook.com/?p=143

2024-04-26 22:13:26

My latest on Forbes - about Samourai and the FBI/DOJ attack on Bitcoin.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/04/26/samourai-indictment--fbi-notice-are-an-assault-on-bitcoin-and-privacy/?sh=7aa7bb04c9ae

2024-04-26 18:16:10

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https://m.primal.net/IAIo.jpg

2024-04-17 16:09:59

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Welcome to Nostr! Hope you can find what you're looking for here

2024-03-08 07:27:47

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Lunanode has been pretty solid

2023-04-21 19:00:18

Elon Musk is this generation’s Henry Ford, obedience and love for a corpo-authoritarian foreign regime included.