As we debate mempoolfullrbf, and I familiarize myself with related PRs from engineers trying to reign in all of the possible behaviors that make it inconsistent, I can’t help but think about how I see people using the term “incentive-compatible” and how it seems to be awfully presumptive. The idea…

One-step closer to the P2P economy While the Web 2.0 has brought a vastly enriched user experience, it has also become synonymous with the oppressive dominance of a few large tech companies and governments. The modern web is marred by censorship, including financial censorship; active, passive, and analytical data collection, harming our privacy and security; centralized…

Lugano, Switzerland, October 28, 2022 — Pear Credit, a peer-to-peer credit system that allows issuers to create peer-to-peer credit “tokens” was announced today. …

A New Bitcoin Podcast Experiment: The Biz Today, we launched a new podcast series called The Biz. On the surface, many people will see it as just another Bitcoin podcast, but this post will give some insight as to what makes it novel. Specifically, I’ll explain the content, the monetization, and the technology behind The Biz. The Content: Bitcoin Builders I’ve…

Units of Trust vs. Units of Work We have concepts of money, currency, store of value, credit, IOU, commodity, etc. Each is an abstraction of how we measure value together, and the tools we use to express that value. In hindsight, fiat mostly functions as a unit of trust. It is centrally issued and its issuance and…

Last week was my final week at Bitrefill. Throughout the past year, I did my very best to help grow their brand, product, partners, team, and revenue. Bitrefill, and I as well, had our best year so far: We added literally thousands of new brands of gift cards and refills…

This was originally posted at Bitcoin Magazine on May 21, 2019. To Bitcoin or Not to Bitcoin During the “scaling debate” before the SegWit2X user-activated soft fork (UASF), Bitcoin businesses were getting their first bitter taste of Bitcoin’s censorship resistance. They wanted change to be easier. They wanted their influence to be effective. They wanted to…

When a person receives rare information, he may utilize it, curate it, arbitrage it, or discard it. Those wishing to arbitrage ignorance about Bitcoin are assuming the role of The Greatest Fool. The Greatest Fool is racing against the propagation of best-information & understanding in hopes of selling counterfeit opportunities…

The Gates of Bitcoin don’t actually exist. They are an imaginary construction that exists only in the minds of those that are a slave to those that imagined it. As a permissionless, censorship-resistant system anyone is welcome to come and go as they please, no matter which role they choose…