is there anything meaningful that can be done about it? i understand some individuals who believe this (i am one of them) can choose not to use it.

but what, if anything, can we do to try and fight this battle more proactively? I guess there are the sayings: "anyone can use bitcoin as long as they follow consensus rules" and that it is "money for enemies". both seem to be true with this announcement

I'd recommend perusing the content at: https://www.reddit.com/r/ExpatFIRE/

Also I like this youtube channel, he has some videos on top destinations that are relatively inexpensive around the world in both a ranking type format as well as individual city deep dives: https://www.youtube.com/@VagabondAwake

I take it you're not american? they certainly like to bleed their cattle dry

I've always paid for mullvad with lightning using: https://vpn.sovereign.engineering/

They also have a tor site: http://soveng42aj6ynynkqeyut2dwnmwou45epfpuwvjy2t45fpxn3dk2ymad.onion/

Sigh, its all so tiring

Some companies "pre-comply". I believe Wasabi wallet is an example of this. US law enforcement did not tell them anything, but they were shaken up by what happened with the Samurai guys so they shut out US users and shut down their coinjoin service.

Same thing with Phoenix wallet I believe pulling out of the US.

I agree with you, this is a fungibility attack, some companies with a more bitcoin ethos choose to follow the actual letter of the law (start9, mynode) while others like umbrel who aren't really bitcoin companies but rather I'd say great at UI and marketing are being overly compliant with what they think the government wants so they don't get in any trouble.

I found this video very interesting, seems to imply that fear of snakes is something we learn from society vs something we are born with. I wonder how baby primates would do around snakes:

Very cool chart! Can you provide a little more detail around the assumptions?

Is there a particular % increase annually you used in the model?

I see the note of 50% power law regression, is there a place we can see the annual % increase or bitcoin price assumed in this regression model?

Also, is the assumption that one sells bitcoin equal to the stated "Annual Living Cost"? Is that a pre/post tax figure?

Thanks for sharing this, very interesting!

Yeah, I loved how easy Mint was to transition to. I made the move years ago and there was almost no learning curve whatsoever. I've heard good things about Zorin as well in terms of ease of transition, but never tried it myself.

The folks over on the graphene forum did seem to like Fedora Workstation for day to day usage and security. I gave it a go for a few days but ended up back on Mint.

Do you feel Linux Mint is 'secure' enough for a daily driver computer? I've been using it for years but when I read the grapheneOS forums, I sometimes feel I need to make a switch as they generally bash it (and most linux distros) as quite insecure.

That is a wonderful write up, thank you! If I may, I'd suggest that after downloading all of the apps you need on your phone, you repeat this step because each app defaults to enabled when you first download it: Settings > Siri & Search > (each app): Disable all

One other comment/question. I like using VoIP apps (google voice, mysudo) in order to have numbers I can give people who I don't want having my 'real' phone number. Additionally, they are great when I travel internationally and need to make a call to a number in the USA.

I know you recommend grapheneOS over iOS and I generally agree, but have you found any acceptable VoIP apps for graphene? Google voice of course requires google play services on graphene and mysudo simply doesn't work (or at least you need a second phone to subscribe).

Also, do you have any thoughts on VoIP or phone number privacy in general? I know Michael Bazzell talks a fair amount about maintaining privacy of your SIM card number in his guides.

I continue to struggle with this. I've been looking into purchasing an existing business in the $200-$600k price range, just to give me something to focus on daily and keep me busy and my mind occupied now that I've moved on from my previous full time career.

But it is so difficult for me to justify spending that kind of money when I'm fairly certain just holding bitcoin will outperform over 5-10 years, and that is without even accounting for the sweat equity I will have to put into the business and the possibility of failure...

I read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins when I was in high school and it greatly shaped my understanding of the world and people in general. The key takeaway for me is that humans (just like every other living being) are just gene propagation machines.

We want to believe we are special (as individuals or as a species) but we're not. We are machinery that is purpose built (by evolution) to reproduce our genes. Nothing more, nothing less.

One thing I took away from this understanding is that while many people want to assign some mystical/special reasoning for why one should have kids, it is quite literally the most basic thing one could do. Practically every living being that has ever lived has reproduced as it is our sole evolutionary function.

People want meaning in a world that offers none. We are gene reproduction machines hurtling through space on a rock and inconsequential characters in the billion+ year story of the universe.

You can be depressed by that information or let it bring you immense joy every morning when you wake up and realize how lucky you are to participate in this journey for a tiny fraction of time with no purpose but to enjoy your little part.

Perhaps the malicious firmware and/or supply chain attack is more relevant given what you said.

So for example, you use a single sig HWW and it has malicious firmware (either malicious firmware directly from manufacturer, supply chain attack or malicious update). You set up the wallet with a passphrase. However, due to the malicious firmware, it does not 'respect' the passphrase randomness when generating the seed so private keys are known to the attacker.

You have no idea about this and therefore you use the receive addresses shown on both your HWW and computer screen to sweep your life savings or to receive payments, etc...

At some point down the line, attacker sweeps the wallet because they always knew the private keys.

I know there are ways to verify your seed creation using 3rd party software. So for example, do your 100 dice rolls and input into cold card and using another method, and now compare the seed words that are generated to ensure that a pre-determined seed wasn't given to you by the cold card. I just assume 99% of users wouldn't do this.

Thanks for sharing this. For someone who has an older multisig setup (not Taproot based), do you think it is worth migrating to a newer Taproot based wallet?

That is a fair point about double checking the send address on the computer screen. It was beat into me early in my bitcoin journey to never trust the computer screen though and instead to trust what the airgapped HWW screen shows instead. But your point is still fair, if my coldcard said it is sending to address 123 and my computer screen Sparrow says its sending to address 456, I should know there is an issue of some kind before sending. So a malicious send would have to involve both sparrow and coldcard being compromised (or a user not double checking the send address in both places)

So lets imagine your device has malicious firmware (either malicious from HWW devs or from supply chain attack or evil maid). It has been modified so all spends go to an address they control despite the display on HWW shows that it will be directed to the address you provided.

How does the fact that it is air gapped prevent this?

TLDR:

MicroStrategy (MSTR) is seeking shareholder approval to increase the number of authorized shares, specifically:

This increase will allow the company to potentially expand its capital and invest more in Bitcoin, but does not directly approve a new ATM or expansion of the current plan.

The measure is likely to pass, given that Michael Saylor holds approximately 46.6% of the voting power.

The proposed increase in authorized shares to 10B can enable a potential future stock splits. A stock split would not change the total number of authorized shares, but would increase the number of outstanding shares. For example, if there are 400M outstanding Class A shares and a 10-for-1 stock split occurs, the number of outstanding shares would increase to 4B.