Bitcoin Tech Talk #293

This is a paid newsletter. If you’re an open source contributor to Bitcoin projects, please email me with your contributions and I will give you complementary subscription.

What I've been working on

1. Pizza Day - I reflected on Bitcoin Pizza Day (May 22) and how it’s such a common fantasy for people to think they would have held 10,000 BTC had they bought it in 2010. You wouldn’t have because the resources to learn just weren’t there. The article is a reminder that daydreaming about what might have been is a waste of time and that we should instead level up our games.

2. Wind and Solar - My other article for Bitcoin Magazine sure triggered some people! It’s about how wind and solar are unreliable, fiat-subsidized boondoggles. I make the case for how “green” energy has been used to oppress developing countries the same way the dollar has. Fossil fuels are a huge builder of civilization and few people understand the extent of its current role.

3. Bitcoin Misconceptions - This article was written for a Christian audience as a way to dispel some misunderstandings about Bitcoin. My main argument is that digital things can have value and that Bitcoin breaks our mental models of digital things. If you have any Christian friends or relatives, particularly older ones, this is an article tailor made for them.

What I'm up to

1. Oslo Freedom Forum - I’m in Oslo for the annual HRF conference! I’m sure there will be some video coming out for the two sessions I am involved in: A Sustainable Financial World and Bitcoin 101. If you’re around please come and say hi!

2. GPT-3 - I’ve been playing with GPT-3 as a writing aid. It’s pretty interesting what you can do with it and I’m wondering why no one has put a GPT-3 payment bridge using Lightning. For those that are unfamiliar, GPT-3 is an AI that can answer questions, continue writing based on prompts you give it and even edit your text. The API calls cost money, which you have to prepay. Using Lightning for interacting with it makes so much more sense. Maybe there is something like what I’m envisioning and I haven’t discovered it, but if it doesn’t exist, this might become a side project for me.

3. Traveling - I’m in Oslo this week, but after the lockdowns of the past couple of years, I’m planning to do a lot more travel over the coming 12 months. I would love to hear from you if you have suggestions on interesting Bitcoin places to visit!

Tweet of the Week

What I’m Shilling

• Books

  • Bitcoin and the American Dream

  • Thank God for Bitcoin

  • The Little Bitcoin Book

  • Programming Bitcoin

• Unchained Capital is a sponsor of this newsletter. I am an advisor and proud to be a part of a company that’s enhancing security for Bitcoin holders. If you need multisig, collaborative custody or bitcoin native financial services, learn more here.