Toril stared at her computer screen in disbelief. It showed a series of input boxes for a long password, too long to guess.
"No, no, no, no." She said aloud with serious concern. It was like running into a blue screen, not a good sign at all, especially not on the eve of Halloween, one of the busiest seasons of the year for the city's warehouse. They had a guaranteed delivery to meet.
diff --git a/search/search_index.js b/search/search_index.js index 27a02f0..2c36c2b 100644 --- a/search/search_index.js +++ b/search/search_index.js @@ -1 +1 @@ -var __index = {"config":{"lang":["en"],"separator":"[\\s\\u200b\\-_,:!=\\[\\]()\"`/]+|\\.(?!\\d)|&[lg]t;|(?!\\b)(?=[A-Z][a-z])","pipeline":["stopWordFilter"]},"docs":[{"location":"index.html","title":"home","text":"Home
"},{"location":"buidl-hodl/index.html","title":"BUIDL HODL","text":"Exploring the principles behind empowering technology, and how they tie-in to our daily lives.
"},{"location":"buidl-hodl/experience/index.html","title":"experience","text":"development & design shape our product experiences
","tags":["ux"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/experience/index.html#bridges","title":"bridges","text":"As children, we often hear stories of butterflies. We are awed by how a caterpillar can become a winged creature, as if blessed with some kind of magic. It feels almost surreal to look at what seems like two different insects, and yet we know they are one and the same.
A caterpillar is the foundation to a butterfly. It carries its bands of colors like FOSS projects carry principles or unconference goers carry t-shirts. The difference is in how it moves. A caterpillar is significantly slower, its vision is limited to what is in front of it, it cannot enjoy gliding in the wind.
When it comes to software, in order to become a butterfly, code must bridge in constructive loops with design.
Development is the behind the scenes framework that can make everything run well, design is what translates that framework into something we can understand and use. As design and development interact, the human connection with a product becomes smoother, like gliding in the wind. It is understandable, like having the vision of a landscape from higher up. It is enjoyable and familiar, like a butterfly that does not need to think that it\u2019s flying, it just does.
When development and design can walk back and forth, building better experiences, a product has left its cocoon.
","tags":["ux"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/freedom/index.html","title":"freedom","text":"","tags":["freedom"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/freedom/index.html#freedom-vs-control","title":"freedom vs. control","text":"Technology, including the internet, has opened new worlds for connecting and empowering people across the globe. It is as if we have gained access to new dimensions and dissolved barriers between us.
These dimensions are a reflection of humanity. As you dive deeper into how technology has been shaped and reshaped, you often discover widespread practices of dominant global societies with central organizations who decide the rules and the access. This leaves space for greed, censorship, corruption, data amassing, privacy infringement, and other practices that forgo a foundation on human rights for a foundation on control and maximum profit.
It is a paradox and a mystery to think that those in power can institute policies that can infringe on their own rights.
As some build on control, surveillance, and maximum profit, others build on the idea that \"information wants to be free.\" In many ways, it not only wants to be free, it seeks to be freeing. It can be built on freedom, love, and individual rights. A challenging frontier, empowering technology calls upon each person to be responsible over our own lives.
If you have lived under authoritarian rule, if you have experienced the ravages of war, if you have experienced the hardships of spiking inflation, if you have been censored for using your voice to defend human rights, if your bank account has been closed or worse for supporting a protest, if you've been persecuted for being different, the choice of personal freedom through responsibility is simple.
Technology is growing to allow personal responsibility and control over your own money (bitcoin), identity (nostr, web5), privacy (DIDs)...
It gives you the keys to make choices over your own life, a freedom we did not know we had lost.
","tags":["freedom"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html","title":"What it means to own your keys.","text":"Thoughts on the freedom of removing third parties.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#what-do-you-see-keys","title":"What do you see? Keys.","text":"2024\u00b7April\u00b703
We all learn through observation, imitation, practice, mistakes, and more practice. We learn by comparing and contrasting what we see in the world, in order to imagine what we wish it could be. At core, we long for something that defines us and adds meaning to our daily lives.
Copycat imitation is not interesting. A custom creative journey is.
Some say, experience gives you a unique style, as you learn the tools. Experience, however, opens a myriad of possible roads to create art. You may relate to that as knowing how to shape and reshape a coding language for your various needs and purposes. The deeper you learn and test how programming languages work, the wider array of choices on what and how to create. While in code you may seek efficiency and simplicity, in art, people often seek a recognizable look.
If you see some of my latest artwork, you might say there is a look, but the reality is different if we look across time. Art can vary widely, even wildly, depending on both purpose and media.
If I do not hope for a recognizable look, what is it that I hope for?
nostr spirit
If we only look at the quality of the code or the style of the art, we are often holding a boxed-in perspective. Take nostr, for example, you could compare it with other social media and criticize it solely on how a single client looks and feels compared to what you have experienced elsewhere. Based on that sole known concept, some may see nostr as \"not quite the same\", as if something was missing: their people. But are people locked-in their previous apps forever?
That depends on how you see nostr, just like it depends on whether you understand the story behind the art. For me, switching to only nostr was simple, but I went down the rabbit hole. I feel more grateful everyday for all the qualities that make nostr different: Yes, it's also about the people.
The people on nostr are shaping what it becomes on every layer: Code, design, UX, content, and beyond. You do not get that anywhere else. It is not advertisements nor algorithms built for advertisers or data buyers that make the decisions. We make the decisions, as part of a larger community. Hence, we are free to contribute to building what fits us best.
Over time, I realized I do not want the engagement farming, the unethical data gathering, the possibility of having my account cancelled because I think different. I am only on nostr. The only other account I keep is Pinterest, but not on a social level. I hope one day, nostr will have as much content to discover. It depends on us to make it what we wish it to be.
What nostr solves for is not the same as other social media. You own your nostr on so many levels. Your keys give you access to any app on the nostrverse, along with all of your notes, follows and followers. It's a compact suitcase, but it fits so much. For content creators, it opens the door to micropayments through zaps. This value4value support is not based on advertisements, it is a direct link to your audience, and the specific content they appreciate. Signal over noise.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#easter-eggs","title":"Easter eggs","text":"I keep digging deeper into what is at the core of freedom tech and how it inspires us, as a community. Over the years, I have often added small details with personal meaning to art, a sort of Easter egg. Not the kind of Easter egg that would be noticed nor understood, looking from the outside in. Freedom tech, however, is an open community with various symbols adding meaning to our everyday lives. Naturally, the Easter eggs have continued, but in a way that you, the observer, can discover and understand.
pura vida
When people dismiss technology like Nostr or Bitcoin, it\u2019s often because they do NOT see what makes them special. I\u2019d like art to reflect the idea that some people do NOT see, but for those who do, it is something meaningful and empowering. Perhaps, even when you do NOT know the meaning behind it, it will spark your curiosity to find out why it\u2019s there.
Take this Nostriga t-shirt design, for example. It carries keys. Five of them. You will spot four of them easily, but the fifth one\u2026 that may be a bit of a surprise. For those who understand the value of owning your keys, and hence your nostr, you will see more than five keys there. You will see why keys matter, and that, cannot be seen with the eyes.
Nostriga t-shirt @ shop.nostr.build
It is not the style, but sharing with our people the meaning and principles behind it that makes all the other stuff special.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#support-loop","title":"Support loop","text":"unknown date
Nostr exists outside of the rule of platforms and those who seek to control them. HODLing your nostr keys is hodling your identity and social graph, outside of KYC. By helping develop nostr, you are helping people escape walled gardens & gain control and choice over their identities & have a path to value4value. By using nostr, you are supporting that which supports your freedom of expression.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#hodl-keys","title":"HODL Keys","text":"unknown date
Keys are interweaved into our daily lives. They open milestones and memories:
Home keys
Music keys\nCar keys
Key ingredients\nKeyboard keys
Click, \n click, \n click\nnostr keys
bitcoin keys...\nIf you are familiar with bitcoin, you may realize it can empower you to have full control over your money, without intermediaries of any kind\u2026 as long as you have your keys and keep them safe. Just like your house keys, if you leave your bitcoin where others have the keys, you run the risk of losing what you have. Bitcoin can be different, you can choose to take full responsibility of it, though that may take an open mind and a lot of diving into deeper and deeper rabbit holes.
We have learned to keep our home keys safe and where we can find them (hopefully). We keep them away from those we do not trust. Bitcoin is similar though it also means being open to learning, open to trial and error, and open to feeling the freedom of empowerment.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/limited/index.html","title":"limited","text":"","tags":["limited"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/limited/index.html#21-million","title":"21 million","text":"Bitcoin is limited edition. Only 21 million bitcoin will exist. Something rare, like bitcoin, is valuable because we cannot find nor create more of it. Like a hug from your grandma or loved ones. Like that person who understands you like no one else can. Like milestones in our lives that cannot be replicated.
","tags":["limited"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/openness/index.html","title":"openness","text":"","tags":["openness"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/openness/index.html#rain","title":"rain","text":"\u201cNo matter how well you water plants, they can never quite grow like when it rains,\u201d grandpa used to say, as he watered the garden late in the afternoon, awaiting the rainy season.
When we work on our own, outside of open-source teamwork, outside of open resources for anyone in the world, it can often feel like waiting for rain.
FOSS has a way of gathering a unique mixture of creativity, coupled with caring about humanity, strengthened by a breath of freedom. It is as if it could rain on anyone and that rain could help buidl stronger solutions.
","tags":["openness"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/proof-of-work/index.html","title":"proof of work","text":"","tags":["PoW"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/proof-of-work/index.html#do-you-know-your-developer","title":"Do you know your developer?","text":"One of the strongest protections of someone's work is PoW and the network effects it generates as it spreads across communities. As long as we stay connected to the builders, no one should be able to come, clone a project, and take all the credit for other people's work.
At the heart of every project is not its code, but its people. Grateful for all those contributing to FOSS.
","tags":["PoW"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html","title":"nostr in time","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-and-after","title":"before and after","text":"Looking at nostr client progress.
On our day to day use of nostr, it is easy to lose track of the many improvements and unique experiences it offers. If we look back in time, we can see how much some nostrverse projects have grown. This is a field trip to document those changes across time.
field trip focus
developer: hodlbod@coracle.social
differentiating feature: music
One of the best features in nostr is showing content based on who you follow and who your follows follow (a.k.a. your network). It helps focus on your interests, and it reduces spam. While, in the future, nostr clients may offer choices in algorithms to curate content, it is good to always have the option to see content based on who and which topics you follow. You are the curator.
Coracle has taken a unique approach to this. It now has a button that finds music on nostr from your network. You can listen to that music while you look through your notes.
Have a favorite musician on nostr? Let me know.
","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-early-2023","title":"before (early 2023)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#after-early-2024","title":"after (early 2024)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#what-constitutes-growth","title":"what constitutes growth?","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#primal","title":"Primal","text":"developer: miljand@primal.net
differentiating feature: tracking network effects
Nostr offers the possibility of developing various curation tool choices. Primal already offers insights into nostr's network effects across time through its explore tab and trending users.
How could we go deeper? Could we see top posts from within our follows or topics?
What is the best metric? Zaps? Could we see what is most replied to by our follows? What are the most followed hashtags?
How could we better understand growth, not just in terms of the amount of people trying nostr, but on who is staying and engaging much deeper and why?
","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-may-2023","title":"before (may 2023)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#after-january-2024","title":"after (january 2024)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html","title":"trust","text":"","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#how-do-you-prove-youre-real","title":"How do you prove you're real?","text":"Each human being is unique and creative in their own way. It is hard to fathom anyone wanting to be an impostor. Impostors exist, and it can be a challenge to know the difference.
If you meet someone in real life, it is easy to exchange your npubs, but what happens when you don't?
In nostr you can tie your account to your website as a way of verifying you identity through what's called a NIP05. In some nostr products, you can see your name with an @yourwebsite.com This is particularly useful for content creators, proving you're the author, or you belong to that organization.
To help tell you apart from bots, some websites offer NIP05's. It doesn't end with your domain, it ends with theirs, but it is still one strung higher in the ladder of trust.
Combine that with other trust signals to reveal that unique mixture that makes you, you: Your interactions with the community, creating and sharing your own content, sharing what you find interesting, in other words, just being you is a trust signal.
What makes you who you are?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#getting-back-our-data","title":"Getting back our data","text":"Apps are a bridge to the services we want, from social media to health apps. We express part of our lives through them. Many apps are built around advertising from data gathering, but new doors are opening for building trust & giving back control to people over their content, money & identities.
Many apps are built to track and remember as much information as they can about us, instead of getting only what they need and building trust over time as new services are needed, or through developing stronger relationships with consumers.
From the moment you download an app, it can gather data & keep doing so even when we're not using them. It's as if, before we sit down at a restaurant to place an order, they already have our contact & payment information, & more access than the \"gossip\" of the town would know.
What they could know is hard to imagine: A full list of our friends, family & acquaintances, our user content (emails, photos, recordings...), where we live and where we are at any moment in time, demographics and psychographics (sensitive info), what we buy, the websites and places we visit....
We are often using \"free\" services in exchange for our data, which is used and sold for advertising. This often comes at the expense of privacy & security. However, an app does not have to be free to gather our data. How many services do you subscribe to that have poor privacy practices. Do these practices develop consumer loyalty or is it invasive and spammy? What are better ways of building sustainable products?
Many times we are locked into using an app, because we need access to their services & if we choose to delete our accounts, we cannot take our data with us. Building trust & accountability can come with offering choices to consumers, & those can come from giving us control over our data.
It is a joy to see how self-custody bitcoin apps, and many nostr apps, often choose to gather as little data as possible. This is a path to replacing the advertising incentives, which foster ecosystems for data gathering, instead of for empowering products. More paths are in the works, like Web5 by TBD & the community at large.
How will these efforts encourage the growth and development of alternative creative solutions for sustainable product building that protect the individual's privacy and give back control of data & identity?
Who'll be the service providers of the future? What will they prioritize when building their products? Will they discover that instead of gathering information obscurely in the background, they can walk other paths to develop stronger loyal relationships with their customers?
Will most people understand the importance of being in control of their identity, choosing levels of trust & privacy, knowing they can deny or revoke access to their information? Will they be able to carry their identities back with them, just as we can walk out of a restaurant?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#on-spam","title":"On Spam","text":"Something is out there...
As your notes float in nostr cyberspace and get shared between relay servers, something else is out there too. No, it's not an alien creature from a sci-fi movie, it's spam. A bit like galactic trash, it can fill global feeds with mountains of gibberish, preventing real content and conversation from happening.
One of the ways some in the nostr community are addressing spam, is through paid relays. At this moment, the relays offering this service, use it like a ticket in, where you pay a few sats (1,000 to 5,000) to cross through their gates. Spam is generated in such large numbers, that having to pay relays, can add up quickly, hence probably deterring its practice. Less spam leads to a bit of zen, or perhaps eden.
Another way to address spam is to have home feeds based on follows and their follows, and global feeds based on specific relays. Many nostr clients are adding unique settings that can be tweaked not only to prevent some spam, but to shape your own experience.
Nostr thrives on freedom of expression. There is no perfect solution to address spam. Multiple avenues with different approaches will let people choose their nostr paths, whether they have sats to give or not.
What solutions are you seeing to address spam?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html","title":"value4value","text":"a content creator economy zaps
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html#get-your-nip57-zappers-ready","title":"Get your NIP57 zappers ready","text":"Stars-Wars style lightning zaps without needing to defend yourself from anyone. Instead zapping allows you to support what you believe in.
Your target is content that rings true to you somehow. The result: Motivation, encouragement and the rise of a value4value culture.
It isn't the rise of the empire, but the Rise of the Empowered.
What do you value?
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html#mirror","title":"Mirror","text":"\"Fix the money, fix the world\"
The advent of bitcoin has opened possibilities for \"fixing\" various flaws in the current financial systems, but our relationship with money should change as we learn to embrace a sustainable foundation.
Failing to change our thoughts and actions toward money can generate similar pitfalls and a reliance on carbon-copy uses built on top of bitcoin. This can lead to masking and removing access to bitcoin's freedom and empowerment.
Unnoticed, money connects us across the globe, much deeper than an electrical grid. It touches every aspect of our lives, from the material like purchasing a house, to the invisible like the memories that help in making that house a home.
When we stare at money's face, we may see a reflection of every emotion we have tied to experiences across our lifetimes: hope, fear, dreams, barriers, challenges, empathy, support, love.
We live in a world of contrasts. Money can be a foundation to gratitude or envy. It can help build a stronger future for coming generations or focus only on surface rewards now, disregarding future consequences. It can be a fair or an unjust measure of our time. It can plant and harvest what we value, be it meaning or wastefulness.
Unbeknownst to most of us, many of the negative emotions and real life consequences we tie to money, are not just based on our life experiences but on how money's been built and managed.
Sadly, money often feels distant, cold, and, if allowed, it can grow fear, greed, ego, envy, anger, competition, and popularity in their most negative connotations. It is as if the human heart could be disconnected from anything money touches, turning it into dissonance, anxiety, and heartache.
How we relate to money is often a reflection and a reaction to our world. As we dive deeper into the rabbit hole, we can choose to carve our own path.
What do we want to see reflected in the mirror of our lives?
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html","title":"freedom meetup graphics and templates","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#nostr-meetup-kit-wip","title":"nostr meetup kit (WIP)","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#the-unbadges","title":"the unbadges","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#the-unlogo","title":"the unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html","title":"nostr meetup kit","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-nostr-meetup-kit","title":"the Nostr meetup kit","text":"vector graphics and templates to make coming together meaningful
One of the freedoms of nostr is that it has no rulers to dictate what it should look like. Having no centralized company to decide on the brand for nostr, means you have a personal choice on how to represent your nostr.
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unlogo","title":"the unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unbadges","title":"the unbadges","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-untshirts","title":"the untshirts","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unstickers","title":"the unstickers","text":"editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html","title":"the Nostr unbadges + unlanyards (neck straps)","text":"unbadge templates for a protocol without rulers
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#keys-r-freedom","title":"keys r freedom","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#powered-by-volunteers","title":"powered by volunteers","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#privacy-matters","title":"privacy matters","text":"editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html","title":"the Nostr unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#to-nostrich-or-not-to-nostrich","title":"to nostrich or not to nostrich","text":"How do you answer a question with no right or wrong answer? You do so with choices. Hence the unlogo is not just one version. For now, it applies two different cultural symbols from the nostr community: the nostrich and the alien.
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#logo-files","title":"logo files","text":"You may use these nostr logos freely, if they resonate with you.
Find the .svg & .png files below.
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#nostrich-nostr-logo","title":"nostrich nostr logo","text":"spacing
svg's
png's
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#alien-nostr-logo","title":"alien nostr logo","text":"svg's
png's
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#icons","title":"icons","text":"The nostr nostrich and nostr alien icon designs carry the same purple background for uniformity. The smaller sizes reduce details for clarity.
256x256
180x180
150x150
72x72 (svg)
48x48 (svg)
32x32 (svg)
16x16 (svg)
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html","title":"the Nostr unstickers","text":"print your own nostr unstickers
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"keep the Nostr weird","text":"png
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editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html","title":"the Nostr unt-shirts","text":"print your own nostr t-shirts
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"keep the Nostr weird","text":"png
svg
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"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html#running-on-nostr","title":"running on nostr","text":"png
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editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/index.html","title":"gift and nemesis","text":"Exploring the contrasts in technology.
"},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html","title":"decentralization","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#are-you-the-product","title":"are you the product?","text":"In a social media landscape where your data is sold to advertisers and can be given to governments (concerning if you're a journalist, activist, have minority points of view...), the Nostr is a refreshing alternative.
","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#you-are-not-the-product-on-nostr","title":"you are NOT the product on nostr","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#but-why-what-can-go-wrong-with-other-social-networks","title":"But why? What can go wrong with other social networks?","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#social-media-sell-your-data","title":"social media sell your data","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#what-you-feel-is-yours-can-get-taken-away","title":"what you feel is yours can get taken away:","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#with-other-social-networks-you-are-the-product","title":"with other social networks, you are the product","text":"2B continued...
","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/empowerment/index.html","title":"empowerment","text":"","tags":["empowerment"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/empowerment/index.html#self-custody","title":"self-custody","text":"Bitcoin gives you the choice to own it 100%, if you learn to keep it safely in your own self-custodial wallet and with your own keys. You may have no need for a bank or an outside party to keep your bitcoin, though you may need a third party if you want to exchange it for your local currency. These third parties are often exchanges, and as a best practice, you should NOT keep your bitcoin in an exchange, instead choosing your own self-custody wallet.
To HODL bitcoin is a personal responsibility you can choose, instead of delegating it to a third party. It is a form of autonomy. The more we learn about bitcoin, the more we value autonomy. This makes a difference in how we live our lives, the responsibility and challenges that we take, and even where we choose to live.
When something infringes on that autonomy, it makes us rethink our choices and look for possible solutions.
","tags":["empowerment"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/ethics/index.html","title":"ethics","text":"","tags":["ethics"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/ethics/index.html#what-if","title":"What if...","text":"...we could break history\u2019s cycles of oppression, where revolution after revolution has often meant that the \u201cwinner,\u201d even when starting with good intentions, becomes an oppressor of the \u201closing side\u201d, like an Orwellian Animal Farm repeated across the centuries?
Imagine embracing the technologies getting built on an ethical foundation. What happens when we BUIDL on the principles of fairness, equity, openness, freedom of expression, love, integrity, truth, gratefulness and non-violence? What does that world look like?
","tags":["ethics"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html","title":"incentives","text":"","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#on-greed","title":"On greed","text":"Greed runs rampant when it knows no love. A curse running through humanity's veins, as if placed there by an evil enemy, yet one does not exist. Greed, however, is very good at coming up with new enemies. Corrupting hearts into caring about nothing but itself, greed has a serious disregard for the consequences.
Too many have been lost to its strings, believing they are the puppeteers, when indeed they have become the puppets to an insatiable thirst for control. Greed welcomes fear and anger into its arms, destructive forces built on nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Can curses be broken?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#when-the-currency-is-attention","title":"When the currency is attention","text":"Generations no longer know what it was like before social media. Our lives have always been social, but what we do when the tools to connect are right at our fingertips can be an authentic creative expression or be primarily based on attention-getting. The latter can lead to an illusory metric of self-worth.
Creativity abounds on social media, it follows different patterns, like seeing the people we know modeling and curating their lifestyles, or being authoritative and accomplished. When we know them in person, we may notice how they have adapted to branding patterns dependent on the likes and comments to determine their self-worth. On the viewer's side, feeds may not be taken as learning or connecting opportunities, instead viewer's eyes hone in as if looking at trophies to imitate and compete toward.
The signals point to attention-getting as being a valuable skillset, looking at metrics to generate similar content to the highest performing posts becomes a practice, and getting an influencer's like becomes a reinforcement of their goals. Attention is the currency.
Short bursts of surface level information and quick emotional reactions abound, as they can generate the most engagement. This leaves less possibility oflonger conversations and building niche audiences. Click-bait headlines are read and taken as truth, but not clicked-through and analyzed. Heavy tilting to one side of an argument, without seeing the complexity of each situation or reading into sarcasm, leads to divisions.
All of these markers can distort our reality and generate the feeling of a marketing and branding competition with the empty goal of reaching the \"masses\" and becoming an \"influencer,\" just for the numbers and quick growth. Creating content with the priority of generating attention, means being dependent on others to judge you, and just like one day popularity is flooding, another, cancel culture can be setting in. Often, people's self-confidence ebbs and flows based on these signals, or their lack.
Human identity is so much deeper and complex than what we sometimes experience online. It should be independent of attention and judgement. Being exhalted or put down shouldn't break the balance within, and when it does, it should be a moment to reflect and get back to the center. It should not lean toward what is likely to get approval nor should it be silenced by what is likely to be rejected. It should reflect us.
Imperfection makes us human, to focus on perfection and attention online, feels like when someone goes out on a few dates and pretends to be someone they are not. They may meet someone who is a pretender like them, but they'd be missing out on the one who loves them for who they are.
When a new product feature is added, what do we hope for it? What are the incentives we are building into it? Is attention a worthy currency?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#a-suitcase-of-memories","title":"A suitcase of memories","text":"As we actively look through the glass screens of our mobile devices, these little gadgets carry more and more of our lives.
Each screen seems to be far away from what we consider tangible, as if everything digital belonged to the realm of the imagination.
These screens, however, even when floating in the technological cloud, are becoming an essential part of our lives.
They can be the keepers of memories & identity,
The builders of creativity,
The connectors to our family and friends,
The discoverers of new information,
The doors to our money,
The guardians of our health,
The organizers of our time,
The builders of mindfulness...
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#lost-in-the-clicks","title":"Lost in the clicks","text":"Click, click through terms and conditions without reading them, click to close another cookie pop up, log in or create an account, otherwise be kept out.
Having access to information at the touch of our fingertips is a form of freedom. We feel connected, within reach. However, this freedom is not as resilient or as real as it should be.
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#fomo","title":"FOMO","text":"Bells are ringing and it's not Christmas. Full inboxes, DMs, mentions, ads, notifications... Our way of life is changing. So much activity and information can distort our sense of time, as if it was no longer moving at the same speed.
Time feels fast and fleeting, requiring immediate action. Piles of content means shorter attention spans, and FOMO can take residence, but only if we allow it.
Technology's ephemeral qualities make it hard to imagine the negative consequences to what we are giving up, what we are allowing others to take from our readers or customers, or that technology could be used against us.
If we don't allow ourselves the opportunity to slow down and be mindful of our choices, we can fall for the marketing of what is easy and popular, rather than looking deeper at the substance and what we want to be part of our lives.
We have the freedom of choice on how we spend our time. We can choose to fill it with who and what feeds our souls in healthier ways. We should not miss out on what matters most by getting distracted with the extra noise. The FOMO we should have is not about the popular but the meaningful.
who and what do you give your time to?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html","title":"bugs & mistakes","text":"only if we embrace mistakes, and learn from them, will we grow stronger
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#we-broke","title":"We broke...","text":"Nostr is like a decentralized fleet of ships at sea. Some days, storms hit those ships and nostr hodls on. Not every storm is a negative happenstance: A flood of people rushed through Damus' doors, when it was accepted in the Apple App Store. Access to nostr created a storm that tested the strength of relays.
In real time, we could read how developers were bracing for the storm, how they fought to withstand it, and how, sometimes, stuff breaks... for a while. Then these notes and stuff transmitted through relays get built back up again. Resilience is another word for nostr..
Storms did not only hit relays, they also hit lightning, as new people on nostr continued the tradition of sending their first lightning invoices, now transformed into zaps. Most of the weight fell on the Wallet of Satoshi's shoulders. Bitcoin has a similar ecosystem to nostr. In nostr you can discover various nostr clients, and in bitcoin, you can find many wallets. People began recommending Blue Wallet, Muun... to help with the high usage of new lightning zappers.
Nostr is sometimes known for breaking things, often leading to stronger products faster. It experiences real life tests of scalability and it adjusts its sails to withstand future storms.
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#aliens--unidentified-flying-objects","title":"Aliens & Unidentified Flying Objects","text":"We may have bold and italics to give emphasis to text, but we do not have a way to signal sarcasm. In order to understand it, we need to be in the conversation. What do we believe? What do we mock? We often mock fakeness, lies, disregard for truth and ethics.
Life teaches us to laugh at our mistakes and imperfections. We can grow stronger when we can take criticism, when we can look deeper into how we work and learn from it.
Yet so many centralized bodies do not tolerate sarcasm nor criticism, they do not allow for learning or growing, as if they wanted to remain stagnant, when everything is fluid. Anything that remains stagnant weakens over time, as if it was blind to its mistakes. Holding on to a broken past in the hopes to retain a power structure prevents positive growth and innovation.
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#orange-pill-moments","title":"Orange Pill Moments","text":"In the bitcoin world, knowledge is a highly valued form of freedom. It is the \"orange\" pill inspired by the concept of the blue and red pills from the Matrix. Choose to take that metaphorical bitcoin orange pill and you will never look at the world in the same way. Knowledge has that power.
Orange pills symbolize a bitcoin culture that thrives on learning, testing, and solving for issues. Swallowing bitcoin concepts can be revealing. Money connects us, yet how it works and affects people's lives across the globe is often an unspoken subject outside of bitcoin circles, treated as a taboo subject.
The effects of an orange pill focuses on education and translates into real life choices that can improve people's lives.
Technology can BUIDL on itself across time thanks to the work and openness of many people. Bitcoin brings together a technological foundation from the past, adding to it, and putting everything into a one-of-a-kind formula built with the purpose of solving for many of the issues in current financial systems. (Thank you Satoshi Nakamoto et al.).
The orange-pill effect helps people gain a deeper understanding of the gaps and issues with current financial system practices, but this learning process spreads further into other areas of our lives. It encourages integrity, fairness, openness, low time preference, collaboration, personal responsibility, critical and ethical thinking... It allows us to connect with our humanity.
As you look back on your own journey, what's been your favorite \"orange-pill\" moment? What did you learn? Has that knowledge carried unto other parts of your life?
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html","title":"I-Got-Your-Back Protocol","text":"","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html#one-clients-win-is-a-win-for-all-of-nostr","title":"one client's win is a win for all of nostr.","text":"Nostr is interoperable. If you've heard the word protocol tossed around, without knowing its meaning: Imagine if Facebook and Twitter were both written with the same foundational code, so you could enter both of them and access your same profile, follows, followers, and posts on both of them, no matter which one you chose to use. People could find you on Facebook, even if you were only using Twitter. The difference between them would be the design and unique features they could offer you. Unfortunately, they are platforms choosing to run their own code, instead of running on an interoperable protocol.
Nostr is different. It has a community of developers working on different projects. These projects all run nostr as their foundation. They could be thought of as competing with each other, because they can add similar features, and yet, each one also offers something unique. Every milestone each one reaches, makes the whole community stronger, pushing development and innovation into new horizons. It also gives you choice and access, unlike anything you've seen before. It's a win win.
We celebrate the small steps forward creating new avenues of access to nostr. One client's win, is a win for all of nostr.
Interoperability means thinking beyond yourself, beyond individual products, into the possibilities to support the whole. #Nostr is an I-got-your-back protocol.
","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html#santas-pow--network-effects","title":"Santa's PoW & network effects","text":"Nostr is like Santa's workshop all-year-round. Features are the gifts of products that have a direct effect on our daily lives. They can empower and protect the individual. Their foundational principles are the magic.
Nostriches around the world send their letters to nostr Santas in the shape of notes, asking developers for what they wish the most.
Open source is open, because anyone can add their grain of sand and contribute to a project they care about. It is work we can verify, looking through the GitHubs, and sometime in the future, the nostr GitNests of those projects we love.
The nostr protocol is a strong foundation to BUIDL upon, but its use and spread depends on its network effects. The stronger the community bonds, the stronger the protocol. It is a give and take.
","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/originality/index.html","title":"originality","text":"","tags":["originality"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/originality/index.html#custom-fits","title":"custom fits","text":"Many years ago, I heard of a shop in Paris that could craft a rare perfume just for you. You'd be guided trough a multiple level process, selecting base scents to make up the different notes needed to create a custom parfum. The chances you'd have of selecting the same notes as someone else would be minute, but even if your choices were the same, its scent would be different once worn. Perfume reacts to the uniqueness of your body chemistry, and your chemistry fluctuates over time.
As rare as it seems to have your own custom perfume bottle, it pales in comparison to the magnificent diversity within humanity, so it is surprising to see the multiple ways of trying to fit people into a small set of perfect boxes, often unrealistic and unreachable.
Not only can we not become someone else who is as unique as each one of us, but we should question why we would want to. Even a clone could not be you, because he/she/they/ze could not have the same experiences you have had.
Many times, these categories and stereotypes are said to determine our fortune, but only based on quantifiable qualities used to measure you against others, turning fortune into an illusion of a triangle with just a few people fitting at the top.
Life, however, is more like a turning wheel of experiences, and our fortune rarely depends on where you are on the wheel nor which categories you happen to fit into.
In a similar fashion, sometimes products start looking like clones. Although some of the design features that make it to our hands benefit from familiarity, apps and websites also need something that sets them apart. A product maker can imitate, especially at the beginning of the building process, as they start to learn the tools of the trade, but with time, creativity should flourish.
","tags":["originality"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html","title":"protocols over platforms","text":"","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html#ripple-effect","title":"Ripple effect","text":"
A protocol like nostr is interoperable simplicity, yet it is not a dead language. Its code and its upper layers get written like gears in constant movement, churning new lines into websites and apps. It isn't code that sparks out of nowhere. It's molded and reshaped by open source communities brainstorming ideas, listening closely to the people who use their products, and bringing those ideas to life. Each step forward carries new challenges, as the gears shape PR after PR, with products built and strengthened over time.
We cannot know all of the work that has gone into giving us a door to freedom of expression. We do not know the depth of the countless challenges or the innovative solutions as they are placed into the code. We do not know all the layers of thought that go into keeping protocol interoperability while also driving innovation. We do not know the extent of positive effects it could have across the globe and into the future.
But we have the proof in our hands that the work is happening. Every day reveals a new surprise, a different way of using nostr. New doors open, because developers and designers care about freedom of expression, and continue to build upon that foundation.
A tool for freedom built by many, yet united in nostr.
","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html#nostr-is-a-wider-team-effort","title":"Nostr is a wider team effort","text":"From the surface, it may seem impossible to be able to build nostr without a central figure dictating every move. Yet that absence is what makes this protocol move much faster and creatively than its platform counterparts.
Instead of a chaotic mess without purpose or vision, as one might imagine protocols to be, nostr revolves around a number of creative hubs with specific types of development and design. Hubs interact openly with one another, sharing ideas, issues to resolve, and milestones to celebrate... Each hub is a team, and development depends on how well the team can gel while retaining creative independence.
Nostr as a protocol works, in part, because of its guiding principles: Decentralization, simplicity, interoperability...
Another positive aspect is the fun in building something that you interact with everyday. It feels purposeful to dig into issues and to find a way to contribute.
It doesn't mean contributing is perfect, that there isn't overlap or mistakes along the way, but nothing is perfect. Nostr's ability to captivate creative people is what keeps its wheels moving.
It should not be a road to burnout, but the threading of a community building on each other's open work and deep dives into solutions. It is a work that should not only value the present, but to value building a stronger foundation for the future.
","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/truth/index.html","title":"truth","text":"","tags":["truth"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/truth/index.html#how-will-humanity-build--use-ai","title":"How will humanity build & use AI?","text":"Some say the technological age calls upon us to adapt at a much faster rate than ever. Our worlds are being shaped and reshaped by technology. Creativity flows more freely, easily, and with tremendous scalability. Human thought can make it unto a digital canvas at a moment's notice, and new breakthroughs are making the process more dynamic.
The printing press, and then the internet, freed books.
The digital camera, and then cellphones, freed photography.
Each technological breakthrough has been a tool that could offer more freedom, but only when held by those who value freedom.
Is AI freeing us? It depends on how we choose to develop it and how we choose to use it.
There has always been a fight between control and freedom. Books have been banned or taken down from online stores. Cameras can capture memories or spy on us.
Many ethical concerns surround technology, yet it also holds the possibility of freeing some aspect of our lives. It all depends on the road forward. It is a complex rabbit hole filled with more questions than answers.
Information has always been controlled in some way over the centuries, as they say, the winners of wars are the ones who wrote the history books. The darkest of times are the most silent, the ones that host the majority view as the sole source of truth, though it has nothing to do with truth itself. Information is more likely to be suppressed in conflictive and difficult times, and yet that is when it's needed the most.
Controlling a story and making it one sided paints a flawed picture of reality. It can be used to place blame on others rather than on the real issue. It can fear or anger that often leads to giving up freedoms. It can also be used to quiet opposing points of view in order to keep power.
Control of information is often a clear lack of transparency. It sits on murky waters no longer based on truth nor perspective on the complexity of a situation. It seeks to control while advertising freedom or safety, but it is neither.
As AI makes a stronger dent into our lives, many questions arise on both the benefits and the tradeoffs.
If AI is based on a large sample of the internet, does it truly reflect humanity, or only the voices of those who have had access to technology and whose voices have not been censored? Does it reflect real human thought and experience or does it pick up on the emotional reactions sometimes fueled by algorithms shaped to generate engagement and attention, instead of critical thinking and deeper learning. If it has wide access to the internet, how much is it gathering about us and for what purpose?
Does it reflect every voice, or is it as selective as our history books? What biases is it selecting?
Can it be open and transparent? What happens when it is held by the hands of the few with hidden biases, agendas, and incentives? If its workings are hidden from our view, how can we know why it is trained?
Is it a way to let more of the minority voices have a say and a freedom to express their thoughts? Or could it be used to spread a majority point of view at a much faster scale? Could it be used to diminish minority voices, setting them on a path to silence? Will it spam most of our sources of information, making it hard to arrive at what is real and trustworthy?
Can it help make self expression easier for the masses, or will it make a homegenous fabric of images, words and videos, representative that which those who control the inputs want to be the \"truth\"?
As technology has advanced, we have also become more sedentary, will we let it turn us into mindless couch potatoes, or will we appreciate the sun shining on our faces and dive deeper into learning?
Could it help us dig deeper or express more complex ideas? Or is it more likely to prevent us from seeing the truth or digging for it?
What happens when you know someone has lied to you, not by mistake or ignorance, but on purpose? Are you be able to trust that person?
What happens when we cannot trust that AI tells the truth? When it is neither open nor transparent. When we do not know how and why it is being programmed? What can we do when its development can be more about control than freedom?
Like in much of the freedom tech ecosystems, we need AI alternatives that offer the openness, transparency, choice, and diversity of tools, so we are not dependent on centralized parties that can control most of the information we receive. Truth matters. Critical thinking has always been an important skill, but are we arriving at a time where technology will test how we receive that information and what we choose to believe more than ever before? Can we BUIDL something that carries the principles we value that support our freedoms?
","tags":["truth"]},{"location":"nostrverse/index.html","title":"Explore the nostrverse","text":"Diving deeper into the development of various nostr apps & tools
"},{"location":"nostrverse/index.html#amethyst","title":"Amethyst","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html","title":"Now and then","text":"Love is the foundation for tools valuing freedom, choice, and personal autonomy.
This is a field trip into the why behind freedom tech.
Don't trust, verify.
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#now","title":"Now","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#sci-fi-post-apocalyptic-story","title":"Sci-fi post-apocalyptic story","text":"I\u2019ll be exploring our cyberspace for those technological gifts and their nemesis. These discoveries will shape the base layers for a post apocalyptic science fiction story showing where those two paths could lead\u2026
Through an open behind the scenes process, I'll be sharing thoughts and tips, asking questions, and creating open UX design resources as I test and learn more about the why behind the tech.
The primary tech focus will be on bitcon, nostr, and their symbiosis. I'll be taking the writing aspect of storytelling and making it come alive through art, 3D modeling, music, and animation.
Come along this creative journey as the story gets weaved, along with smaller, educational, yet kind of fun pieces.
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#find-me-on-nostr-only","title":"Find me on nostr only","text":"elidy
npub1a7n2h5y3gt90y00mwrknhx74fyzzjqw25ehkscje58x9tfyhqd5snyvfnu
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#blogging-on-nostr","title":"Blogging on Nostr","text":"Behind-the-scenes
\u2192 Highlighter
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#nostrorg","title":"Nostr.org","text":"Contributing to design and copy on splash page to welcome people to nostr
\u2192 On GitHub
\u2192 Version 2.0 coming soon, PR on GitHub
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#nostr-meetup-kit","title":"Nostr Meetup Kit","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#behind-the-t-shirt-designs-what-do-you-see","title":"Behind the t-shirt designs: What do you see?","text":"\u2192 Latest design available on shop.nostr.build
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#then","title":"Then","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"Keep the Nostr Weird","text":"On YouTube
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#bitcoinostr-a-symbiosis","title":"Bitcoinostr: A Symbiosis","text":"On YouTube
"},{"location":"read/index.html","title":"A freedom tech story in the works","text":""},{"location":"read/index.html#tick-tock","title":"Tick tock","text":"\u201cA storm is brewing,\u201d said Xileh to his granddaughter, Toril, as they looked out from the balcony of Rigmor's clock tower. The air felt cool and humid as they breathed it in. Clouds were forming in the horizon and the wind started to pick up.
\u201cMost people can\u2019t tell when one is coming anymore.\u201d He continued.
\u201cI know. They\u2019ve forgotten how to listen to nature.\u201d Replied Toril, in awe at the spectacle in front of them.
\u201cI don\u2019t mean this storm.\" He said, taking a stronger grip on the balcony's rail. \u201cOur time here is limited. As I near the end...\u201d
\u201cDon\u2019t say that.\u201d She interrupted him, noticing the many wrinkles on his face, a reflection of every experience and emotion he had carried across his lifetime. He had refused to go under the knife to correct them. She had grown to appreciate them as proof of what he had lived.
\"When you look back on your life, you realize the only thing that mattered was love and those moments built around it.\" He turned to look at his granddaughter\u2019s eyes, seeing a gleam of hope for the future, wrapped in concern for her safety.
\"History keeps repeating. Life is much worse in periods of silence like these, where human thought is suppressed through fear. We are privileged, because they still need us, but most of our people have been forced to forget.\"
\u201cYou\u2019re starting to worry me.\u201d She said, noticing the seriousness in his voice.
\u201cWorry is a sign to get ready. A lot will change. Your principles will be tested. You will have to make decisions that will affect people\u2019s lives and they can be heavy to carry. You can only do the best you can with the knowledge you have. Avoid making assumptions.
\"Be careful who you trust. Do not get taken by empty words. I don't think you can trust _____.\u201d
\u201cBut I know him well, he\u2019s practically family.\u201d
\u201cIn this environment, his actions lived in a bubble. He is not the same person out there. I worry that he is not who we think he is. I hope to be proved wrong, but you can grow up in the same household and be opposite people. I fear, in my hope to protect him, I encouraged him to take more than to give. He is privileged above the rest.\" As he said that, the weight of the past felt so heavy in his heart that it could have pulled it down many floors.
\u201cListen, Toril. I have been prepping something for you. It will be delivered in an unexpected way. You\u2019ll know what I mean when the time comes. This is important. No one can know about it.\u201d She nodded, knowing how complex a human being her grandfather was, so much so, that the idea of something unexpected was to be expected.
\u201cHe cannot know about it either. He thinks he knows you just as you think you know him. They might use him to try to get to you.\u201d
\u201cWhy do you not trust him?\u201d
\u201cPeople who seek attention are often malleable, their principles don\u2019t exist in the ways we both understand them. Easy money removes the value of our effort and time. It can drive people to seek easy paths and the fastest way up to whatever ladder they think exists. Popularity may be popular in this society, but it doesn\u2019t make you who you are. That depends on your actions and the reasons behind them. Your choices must be independent of whether people love you, hate you or cancel you. They\u2019re your inner protocol.\u201d
He continued speaking, as if he wanted to pour a lifetime of knowledge into those few minutes. He hoped to have given her enough tools to manage what was coming, but what he wished for the most was to have prevented it altogether.
\u201cWhen words are built for headlines, stats, or votes, they cannot be trusted. You cannot trust someone who masks the truth, often not taking the time to dig deeper, to try to see the 360\u00b0 view. Nothing is as simple as it seems. A lot of what you see and hear are just fa\u00e7ades inside games of power and control. You must learn to see what's behind them.\u201d
\u201cIt is hard to have people you trust wholeheartedly. You discover them when you spot similar principles and patterns of action. When you are lucky enough to have such a person, you keep them close, as they\u2019ll have your back. You protect them as they protect you.\u201d
\u201cWas grandma that for you?\u201d
\u201cYes, but I was too blind to see it in time. Do not make the same mistake.\u201d
He removed a locket from his neck, one he had carried for as long as she had been under his care, and gave it to her.
As she took it in the palm of her hand, tears started swelling in her eyes, like the clouds rolling in.
The skies darkened and small rain droplets started falling, making a melancholic sound against the metal structure\u2026
"},{"location":"read/odds-and-ends.html","title":"Odds and ends","text":"
Every writing process has bits and pieces that do not quite fit within the story, but are somehow related to it. Since this is an open process, you'll find those here.
"},{"location":"read/odds-and-ends.html#the-setting","title":"The setting","text":"In the city of Rigmor, the four massive vermilion gates, which once stood for truth, courage, and freedom, had become an association to fear. Closed off to keep most on the inside, by force rather than choice, these gates seemed to have forgotten their purpose. Instead of being open and filled with activity, they had been restructured to almost become walls. Since (some yet to determine unknown event related to war), Rigmor had lost its candor and innovation. What remained of its foundational bones, was the unique vermilion lacquer on the gates' rosewood frames, a reminder of a past that could come again.
The words truth and freedom had been avoided in common lexicon for so long that they seemed lost, but not their meaning. Freedom is a natural state of humanity, it cannot be erased from our subconscious though fear may try. Deep within, away from that which corrodes the spirit, we all carry the essence of freedom. We all crave truth. While those feelings seemed to lay dormant, no one could predict the exact place where that spark of change could come from, but it always does. No stronger spark exists than in those places where hope seems lost, for it is then that it is most valued. The time for this city to awaken is about to begin.
"},{"location":"read/page-1.html","title":"Truth","text":"Toril stared at her computer screen in disbelief. It showed a series of input boxes for a long password, too long to guess.
\"No, no, no, no.\" She said aloud with serious concern. It was like running into a blue screen, not a good sign at all, especially not on the eve of Halloween, one of the busiest seasons of the year for the city's warehouse. They had a guaranteed delivery to meet.
\"Could it be ransomware?\" she thought. Government offices and companies had been hit by a wave of strange tech occurrences.
\"But it isn't asking for money. Phishing?\"
\"(future name), has there been a power outage?\" she said in a louder tone.
No answer.
\"No access to my computer should not mean no access to the warehouse's assistant, or should it?\" She pondered. After shadowing Xileh for most of her life, there was still so much she didn't know about the inner workings of their logistics system.
The warehouse was on 24/7 and almost fully automated. She had learned to troubleshoot on her own, but today she needed to solve A.S.A.P.
She rushed out of the office taking a long hallway toward Xileh's lab. The hallway was flanked by windows revealing the warehouse's inner workings. She ran so quickly through it, that the lab felt like it was right next door. A package delivery robot holding a large box blocked the entrance. She went around it, ignoring it, and crossed the lab toward Xileh's main worktable. The robot followed her at a slower speed.
\"Xileh! Xileh!\" she called out a few times, as she looked around the room, but he was nowhere to be found. He rarely carried his phone, so sending out a message would not help. At his age, he didn't keep office hours like he used to. His lab, however, reflected the spirit of a tinkerer that would never stop experimenting. She sent him a message anyway, only to hear the beep nearby.
\"He would not miss being here for Halloween... Well, he might notice the message when he comes back.\" She shrugged.
She approached the rows of bookcases and piles of paper in a corner of the room, reminded of how Xileh always wanted real world backups. She never understood why that was so important, until now.
\"What if all the information was gone?\" She thought as she tried to make sense of Xileh's organization style or the lack thereof.
\"But automation hasn't stopped. Everything seems to be running as usual.\" She held some comfort in that thought.
She spotted the row of manuals for a lot of the warehouse's equipment. Her eyes scanned through them. \"Found it!\" She said aloud, taking the manual for her computer out of the shelf. As she opened it, it had a thicker yellow page with a recovery password.
\"This is probably it.\" She thought, relieved, and thinking she had worried too much over a password.
Taking the manual with her, she started walking out. She couldn't help but take a moment to look back. That large open studio held so many memories. The rays of sunlight were coming in through the trees outside of the tall windows, giving the lab an almost magical eerie glow, as if the robots Xileh was working on could come to life at any moment.
She was startled by the delivery robot catching up to her.
More relaxed, she said, \"Ok, let me see what you got.\" Odd, it was addressed to her with an urgent label. No info on the sender. Her mail delivery was always done to her office. She wasn't expecting a robot delivery either; they were only sent out when the packages were larger than the subterranean logistics system.
She hesitated in opening the box, perhaps she should scan it first, just in case.
It said urgent, but so was regaining access to her system. She sent an order to the robot through her wristband to head to the scan room, and she walked back to her office, not as quickly, but still feeling pressured to make sure this was the solution.
She looked through the windows as she walked, everything seemed normal. The flow of robots and boxes never stopped. Xileh had told her the story of the architect who built the warehouse. Some had complained that it was a warehouse for robots and with it being almost fully automated, it didn't need anything architecturally appealing. They wanted a climate controlled box. The architect refused to remove the human element from it, and, because of that, these rows of windows existed. They gave an almost 360\u00b0 view of the warehouse at work. Xileh wasn't sure how he had convinced them to built it this way. Even if he had mentioned how building with a location in mind tends to save on energy, and how using stronger materials is an investment in the future, many only build for the now.
Not even taking the time to sit down, Toril started typing the digits to the password: 19d6689c085ae, only to come up short.
\"Oh, shoot!\" It was 13 digits, she needed 21. She sifted through the manual, but found nothing of help.
As she stood there trying to think of a possible alternative, the delivery robot again caught up to her. It had ignored the order to head to the scan room.
\"How creepy,\" she thought, \"First a password request appears out of nowhere, then a rogue robot. But some older robot models do not respond to the new software commands, and, this is not a sci-fi movie.\"
Maybe Halloween was getting to her.
\"Could this be what Xileh was talking about that night at the clock tower?\" She thought.
She instinctively took the box opener from the robot's side. She had opened so many boxes in her lifetime, that it was second nature. As she lifted the flaps, she saw a myriad of flowers.
\"Aww,\" she said in surprise.
Xileh gifted her flowers every year for her birthday. She had gotten a different kind of flower each year: roses, lavender... Each had been made of different materials and colors. Each year carried a different meaning.
These were orange marigolds, and they were real! Over the generations, companies had disfavored the natural, and real flowers were a rare request. During her time at the warehouse, she had noticed a few shipments of real flowers, and always wondered what those who ordered them could be celebrating.
These had such a peculiar scent that it brought back childhood memories. Xileh used to say marigolds were the flowers of truth. They still grew in the wild behind the warehouse, on the outskirts of the city. She had often wondered if her grandma had planted them. Xileh said she had a green thumb, and that had become as rare as real flowers.
Toril smiled wide, but, her birthday wasn't until January.
She paused for a moment.
\"Xileh and his riddles,\" she thought, while shaking her head. \"Halloween trick?\" She looked back at that screen with thirteen digits, needing 8 more.
She typed out her birthday: 01 03 2140
Hit enter, and...
\"What?\" Toril's face turned pale.
"},{"location":"terminology/index.html","title":"terminology","text":"","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#the-language-of-freedom-tech","title":"the language of freedom tech","text":"
Tech has an evolving cyberspace lexicon based on innovation mixed with culture.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#client","title":"client","text":"Nostr is NOT just one app.
A nostr client is an app or website created with nostr code that finds and posts nostr content unto relay servers. Since it is open code, any developer can build their own version of a nostr client running on the nostr protocol.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#keys","title":"keys","text":"Not your keys, not your social media.
To join nostr, you don't need to give up your email or phone number. Instead, the first time you sign up to most nostr clients, you get a special set of keys. These are two long strings of letters and numbers unique to you. You can use them to enter most of the nostrverse. They also keep a path to your notes, follows, and followers.
They belong only to you.
You get a public key and a secret key. Share your public key, keep your secret key backed up and safe.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#nostrich","title":"nostrich","text":"The nostrich, in its various styles, has become the nostr mascot.
The idea was born on December 16th, 2022.
walker:
@ dave can you write a joke about #nostr?
note167jwwjamdwm48lje83804pjczkncu6prjpf3kamyslzpjtr7c5asvu9p2s
dave (gpt3):
Q: What do you call a nosy ostrich?
A: A nosTrich!
note163g7kae08rx4sqv5xq67dh3926pw5tkq2pzxctyzjh8ypcqldxfqwntysx
Then, on Dec 20th, 2022, Will (jb55) posted the image above with the legend:
\"I propose the nostrich to be the official nostr mascot and logo.\"
note19dazj8tfcpl42gurwctxxj5lrq4t9qel9g7wyycjhrzqp93lxe4sqafzzg
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#note","title":"note","text":"Instead of tweets or posts, nostr has notes. Feel free to write notes away.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#npub-or-public-key","title":"npub or public key","text":"Your public key takes the place of your handle. It is unique to you. You can also have a handle with any name you want, and you can change it anytime you want. You don't need to add any numbers or strange spellings, because what needs to be unique is your npub.
npub + LongStringOfNumbersAndLettersUniqueToYou
Share your public key with your friends, so they can find you or mention you. You can copy it from your profile (often found by a key or QR code icon).
If you spot a QR icon in your nostr client, others can scan it and their nostr app should open to your profile page, as long as their app has that functionality. Some nostr clients let you share other people's npub QR's too.
Someone else could try to impersonate you, use the same name, profile pic, and description, but they cannot have the same npub.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#nsec-aka-secret-or-private-key","title":"nsec a.k.a. secret or private key","text":"You are the sole keeper of your secret key. It is a special kind of \"password\" you can use to sign in to nostr clients, to create notes...
nsec + LongStringOfNumbersAndLettersUniqueToYou
It belongs only to you, not to a company. If you are used to the ways of platforms like Twitter and Facebook, you may think someone can help you recover it, but you won't find a \"forgot your password?\" option.
Nostr is different, you're the one in control. When someone owns your account, they know your password and can help you recover it. One of the tradeoffs is that they can also close down your account, rate limit it, shadow ban it... On nostr you own your keys and should keep your nsec safe.
TIP: Save your nsec in a password manager (for example Bitwarden). Write down a copy somewhere safe. Some nostr clients keep your secret key hidden in the Settings. Make sure you copy it and save it in your password manager before logging out. In the future, we may see options to save an encrypted copy in the cloud, perhaps some options already exist. Do not share it.
If you are logging in through a website (not an app), save your nostr nsec in a special browser extension first. Browsers, by nature, are not as safe, your secret key could get stolen. You may see this option to log in labelled as \"login with extension or NIP-07\"
","tags":["terms"]}]} \ No newline at end of file +var __index = {"config":{"lang":["en"],"separator":"[\\s\\u200b\\-_,:!=\\[\\]()\"`/]+|\\.(?!\\d)|&[lg]t;|(?!\\b)(?=[A-Z][a-z])","pipeline":["stopWordFilter"]},"docs":[{"location":"index.html","title":"home","text":"Home
"},{"location":"buidl-hodl/index.html","title":"BUIDL HODL","text":"Exploring the principles behind empowering technology, and how they tie-in to our daily lives.
"},{"location":"buidl-hodl/experience/index.html","title":"experience","text":"development & design shape our product experiences
","tags":["ux"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/experience/index.html#bridges","title":"bridges","text":"As children, we often hear stories of butterflies. We are awed by how a caterpillar can become a winged creature, as if blessed with some kind of magic. It feels almost surreal to look at what seems like two different insects, and yet we know they are one and the same.
A caterpillar is the foundation to a butterfly. It carries its bands of colors like FOSS projects carry principles or unconference goers carry t-shirts. The difference is in how it moves. A caterpillar is significantly slower, its vision is limited to what is in front of it, it cannot enjoy gliding in the wind.
When it comes to software, in order to become a butterfly, code must bridge in constructive loops with design.
Development is the behind the scenes framework that can make everything run well, design is what translates that framework into something we can understand and use. As design and development interact, the human connection with a product becomes smoother, like gliding in the wind. It is understandable, like having the vision of a landscape from higher up. It is enjoyable and familiar, like a butterfly that does not need to think that it\u2019s flying, it just does.
When development and design can walk back and forth, building better experiences, a product has left its cocoon.
","tags":["ux"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/freedom/index.html","title":"freedom","text":"","tags":["freedom"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/freedom/index.html#freedom-vs-control","title":"freedom vs. control","text":"Technology, including the internet, has opened new worlds for connecting and empowering people across the globe. It is as if we have gained access to new dimensions and dissolved barriers between us.
These dimensions are a reflection of humanity. As you dive deeper into how technology has been shaped and reshaped, you often discover widespread practices of dominant global societies with central organizations who decide the rules and the access. This leaves space for greed, censorship, corruption, data amassing, privacy infringement, and other practices that forgo a foundation on human rights for a foundation on control and maximum profit.
It is a paradox and a mystery to think that those in power can institute policies that can infringe on their own rights.
As some build on control, surveillance, and maximum profit, others build on the idea that \"information wants to be free.\" In many ways, it not only wants to be free, it seeks to be freeing. It can be built on freedom, love, and individual rights. A challenging frontier, empowering technology calls upon each person to be responsible over our own lives.
If you have lived under authoritarian rule, if you have experienced the ravages of war, if you have experienced the hardships of spiking inflation, if you have been censored for using your voice to defend human rights, if your bank account has been closed or worse for supporting a protest, if you've been persecuted for being different, the choice of personal freedom through responsibility is simple.
Technology is growing to allow personal responsibility and control over your own money (bitcoin), identity (nostr, web5), privacy (DIDs)...
It gives you the keys to make choices over your own life, a freedom we did not know we had lost.
","tags":["freedom"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html","title":"What it means to own your keys.","text":"Thoughts on the freedom of removing third parties.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#what-do-you-see-keys","title":"What do you see? Keys.","text":"2024\u00b7April\u00b703
We all learn through observation, imitation, practice, mistakes, and more practice. We learn by comparing and contrasting what we see in the world, in order to imagine what we wish it could be. At core, we long for something that defines us and adds meaning to our daily lives.
Copycat imitation is not interesting. A custom creative journey is.
Some say, experience gives you a unique style, as you learn the tools. Experience, however, opens a myriad of possible roads to create art. You may relate to that as knowing how to shape and reshape a coding language for your various needs and purposes. The deeper you learn and test how programming languages work, the wider array of choices on what and how to create. While in code you may seek efficiency and simplicity, in art, people often seek a recognizable look.
If you see some of my latest artwork, you might say there is a look, but the reality is different if we look across time. Art can vary widely, even wildly, depending on both purpose and media.
If I do not hope for a recognizable look, what is it that I hope for?
nostr spirit
If we only look at the quality of the code or the style of the art, we are often holding a boxed-in perspective. Take nostr, for example, you could compare it with other social media and criticize it solely on how a single client looks and feels compared to what you have experienced elsewhere. Based on that sole known concept, some may see nostr as \"not quite the same\", as if something was missing: their people. But are people locked-in their previous apps forever?
That depends on how you see nostr, just like it depends on whether you understand the story behind the art. For me, switching to only nostr was simple, but I went down the rabbit hole. I feel more grateful everyday for all the qualities that make nostr different: Yes, it's also about the people.
The people on nostr are shaping what it becomes on every layer: Code, design, UX, content, and beyond. You do not get that anywhere else. It is not advertisements nor algorithms built for advertisers or data buyers that make the decisions. We make the decisions, as part of a larger community. Hence, we are free to contribute to building what fits us best.
Over time, I realized I do not want the engagement farming, the unethical data gathering, the possibility of having my account cancelled because I think different. I am only on nostr. The only other account I keep is Pinterest, but not on a social level. I hope one day, nostr will have as much content to discover. It depends on us to make it what we wish it to be.
What nostr solves for is not the same as other social media. You own your nostr on so many levels. Your keys give you access to any app on the nostrverse, along with all of your notes, follows and followers. It's a compact suitcase, but it fits so much. For content creators, it opens the door to micropayments through zaps. This value4value support is not based on advertisements, it is a direct link to your audience, and the specific content they appreciate. Signal over noise.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#easter-eggs","title":"Easter eggs","text":"I keep digging deeper into what is at the core of freedom tech and how it inspires us, as a community. Over the years, I have often added small details with personal meaning to art, a sort of Easter egg. Not the kind of Easter egg that would be noticed nor understood, looking from the outside in. Freedom tech, however, is an open community with various symbols adding meaning to our everyday lives. Naturally, the Easter eggs have continued, but in a way that you, the observer, can discover and understand.
pura vida
When people dismiss technology like Nostr or Bitcoin, it\u2019s often because they do NOT see what makes them special. I\u2019d like art to reflect the idea that some people do NOT see, but for those who do, it is something meaningful and empowering. Perhaps, even when you do NOT know the meaning behind it, it will spark your curiosity to find out why it\u2019s there.
Take this Nostriga t-shirt design, for example. It carries keys. Five of them. You will spot four of them easily, but the fifth one\u2026 that may be a bit of a surprise. For those who understand the value of owning your keys, and hence your nostr, you will see more than five keys there. You will see why keys matter, and that, cannot be seen with the eyes.
Nostriga t-shirt @ shop.nostr.build
It is not the style, but sharing with our people the meaning and principles behind it that makes all the other stuff special.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#support-loop","title":"Support loop","text":"unknown date
Nostr exists outside of the rule of platforms and those who seek to control them. HODLing your nostr keys is hodling your identity and social graph, outside of KYC. By helping develop nostr, you are helping people escape walled gardens & gain control and choice over their identities & have a path to value4value. By using nostr, you are supporting that which supports your freedom of expression.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#hodl-keys","title":"HODL Keys","text":"unknown date
Keys are interweaved into our daily lives. They open milestones and memories:
Home keys
Music keys\nCar keys
Key ingredients\nKeyboard keys
Click, \n click, \n click\nnostr keys
bitcoin keys...\nIf you are familiar with bitcoin, you may realize it can empower you to have full control over your money, without intermediaries of any kind\u2026 as long as you have your keys and keep them safe. Just like your house keys, if you leave your bitcoin where others have the keys, you run the risk of losing what you have. Bitcoin can be different, you can choose to take full responsibility of it, though that may take an open mind and a lot of diving into deeper and deeper rabbit holes.
We have learned to keep our home keys safe and where we can find them (hopefully). We keep them away from those we do not trust. Bitcoin is similar though it also means being open to learning, open to trial and error, and open to feeling the freedom of empowerment.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/limited/index.html","title":"limited","text":"","tags":["limited"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/limited/index.html#21-million","title":"21 million","text":"Bitcoin is limited edition. Only 21 million bitcoin will exist. Something rare, like bitcoin, is valuable because we cannot find nor create more of it. Like a hug from your grandma or loved ones. Like that person who understands you like no one else can. Like milestones in our lives that cannot be replicated.
","tags":["limited"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/openness/index.html","title":"openness","text":"","tags":["openness"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/openness/index.html#rain","title":"rain","text":"\u201cNo matter how well you water plants, they can never quite grow like when it rains,\u201d grandpa used to say, as he watered the garden late in the afternoon, awaiting the rainy season.
When we work on our own, outside of open-source teamwork, outside of open resources for anyone in the world, it can often feel like waiting for rain.
FOSS has a way of gathering a unique mixture of creativity, coupled with caring about humanity, strengthened by a breath of freedom. It is as if it could rain on anyone and that rain could help buidl stronger solutions.
","tags":["openness"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/proof-of-work/index.html","title":"proof of work","text":"","tags":["PoW"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/proof-of-work/index.html#do-you-know-your-developer","title":"Do you know your developer?","text":"One of the strongest protections of someone's work is PoW and the network effects it generates as it spreads across communities. As long as we stay connected to the builders, no one should be able to come, clone a project, and take all the credit for other people's work.
At the heart of every project is not its code, but its people. Grateful for all those contributing to FOSS.
","tags":["PoW"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html","title":"nostr in time","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-and-after","title":"before and after","text":"Looking at nostr client progress.
On our day to day use of nostr, it is easy to lose track of the many improvements and unique experiences it offers. If we look back in time, we can see how much some nostrverse projects have grown. This is a field trip to document those changes across time.
field trip focus
developer: hodlbod@coracle.social
differentiating feature: music
One of the best features in nostr is showing content based on who you follow and who your follows follow (a.k.a. your network). It helps focus on your interests, and it reduces spam. While, in the future, nostr clients may offer choices in algorithms to curate content, it is good to always have the option to see content based on who and which topics you follow. You are the curator.
Coracle has taken a unique approach to this. It now has a button that finds music on nostr from your network. You can listen to that music while you look through your notes.
Have a favorite musician on nostr? Let me know.
","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-early-2023","title":"before (early 2023)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#after-early-2024","title":"after (early 2024)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#what-constitutes-growth","title":"what constitutes growth?","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#primal","title":"Primal","text":"developer: miljand@primal.net
differentiating feature: tracking network effects
Nostr offers the possibility of developing various curation tool choices. Primal already offers insights into nostr's network effects across time through its explore tab and trending users.
How could we go deeper? Could we see top posts from within our follows or topics?
What is the best metric? Zaps? Could we see what is most replied to by our follows? What are the most followed hashtags?
How could we better understand growth, not just in terms of the amount of people trying nostr, but on who is staying and engaging much deeper and why?
","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-may-2023","title":"before (may 2023)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#after-january-2024","title":"after (january 2024)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html","title":"trust","text":"","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#how-do-you-prove-youre-real","title":"How do you prove you're real?","text":"Each human being is unique and creative in their own way. It is hard to fathom anyone wanting to be an impostor. Impostors exist, and it can be a challenge to know the difference.
If you meet someone in real life, it is easy to exchange your npubs, but what happens when you don't?
In nostr you can tie your account to your website as a way of verifying you identity through what's called a NIP05. In some nostr products, you can see your name with an @yourwebsite.com This is particularly useful for content creators, proving you're the author, or you belong to that organization.
To help tell you apart from bots, some websites offer NIP05's. It doesn't end with your domain, it ends with theirs, but it is still one strung higher in the ladder of trust.
Combine that with other trust signals to reveal that unique mixture that makes you, you: Your interactions with the community, creating and sharing your own content, sharing what you find interesting, in other words, just being you is a trust signal.
What makes you who you are?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#getting-back-our-data","title":"Getting back our data","text":"Apps are a bridge to the services we want, from social media to health apps. We express part of our lives through them. Many apps are built around advertising from data gathering, but new doors are opening for building trust & giving back control to people over their content, money & identities.
Many apps are built to track and remember as much information as they can about us, instead of getting only what they need and building trust over time as new services are needed, or through developing stronger relationships with consumers.
From the moment you download an app, it can gather data & keep doing so even when we're not using them. It's as if, before we sit down at a restaurant to place an order, they already have our contact & payment information, & more access than the \"gossip\" of the town would know.
What they could know is hard to imagine: A full list of our friends, family & acquaintances, our user content (emails, photos, recordings...), where we live and where we are at any moment in time, demographics and psychographics (sensitive info), what we buy, the websites and places we visit....
We are often using \"free\" services in exchange for our data, which is used and sold for advertising. This often comes at the expense of privacy & security. However, an app does not have to be free to gather our data. How many services do you subscribe to that have poor privacy practices. Do these practices develop consumer loyalty or is it invasive and spammy? What are better ways of building sustainable products?
Many times we are locked into using an app, because we need access to their services & if we choose to delete our accounts, we cannot take our data with us. Building trust & accountability can come with offering choices to consumers, & those can come from giving us control over our data.
It is a joy to see how self-custody bitcoin apps, and many nostr apps, often choose to gather as little data as possible. This is a path to replacing the advertising incentives, which foster ecosystems for data gathering, instead of for empowering products. More paths are in the works, like Web5 by TBD & the community at large.
How will these efforts encourage the growth and development of alternative creative solutions for sustainable product building that protect the individual's privacy and give back control of data & identity?
Who'll be the service providers of the future? What will they prioritize when building their products? Will they discover that instead of gathering information obscurely in the background, they can walk other paths to develop stronger loyal relationships with their customers?
Will most people understand the importance of being in control of their identity, choosing levels of trust & privacy, knowing they can deny or revoke access to their information? Will they be able to carry their identities back with them, just as we can walk out of a restaurant?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#on-spam","title":"On Spam","text":"Something is out there...
As your notes float in nostr cyberspace and get shared between relay servers, something else is out there too. No, it's not an alien creature from a sci-fi movie, it's spam. A bit like galactic trash, it can fill global feeds with mountains of gibberish, preventing real content and conversation from happening.
One of the ways some in the nostr community are addressing spam, is through paid relays. At this moment, the relays offering this service, use it like a ticket in, where you pay a few sats (1,000 to 5,000) to cross through their gates. Spam is generated in such large numbers, that having to pay relays, can add up quickly, hence probably deterring its practice. Less spam leads to a bit of zen, or perhaps eden.
Another way to address spam is to have home feeds based on follows and their follows, and global feeds based on specific relays. Many nostr clients are adding unique settings that can be tweaked not only to prevent some spam, but to shape your own experience.
Nostr thrives on freedom of expression. There is no perfect solution to address spam. Multiple avenues with different approaches will let people choose their nostr paths, whether they have sats to give or not.
What solutions are you seeing to address spam?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html","title":"value4value","text":"a content creator economy zaps
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html#get-your-nip57-zappers-ready","title":"Get your NIP57 zappers ready","text":"Stars-Wars style lightning zaps without needing to defend yourself from anyone. Instead zapping allows you to support what you believe in.
Your target is content that rings true to you somehow. The result: Motivation, encouragement and the rise of a value4value culture.
It isn't the rise of the empire, but the Rise of the Empowered.
What do you value?
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html#mirror","title":"Mirror","text":"\"Fix the money, fix the world\"
The advent of bitcoin has opened possibilities for \"fixing\" various flaws in the current financial systems, but our relationship with money should change as we learn to embrace a sustainable foundation.
Failing to change our thoughts and actions toward money can generate similar pitfalls and a reliance on carbon-copy uses built on top of bitcoin. This can lead to masking and removing access to bitcoin's freedom and empowerment.
Unnoticed, money connects us across the globe, much deeper than an electrical grid. It touches every aspect of our lives, from the material like purchasing a house, to the invisible like the memories that help in making that house a home.
When we stare at money's face, we may see a reflection of every emotion we have tied to experiences across our lifetimes: hope, fear, dreams, barriers, challenges, empathy, support, love.
We live in a world of contrasts. Money can be a foundation to gratitude or envy. It can help build a stronger future for coming generations or focus only on surface rewards now, disregarding future consequences. It can be a fair or an unjust measure of our time. It can plant and harvest what we value, be it meaning or wastefulness.
Unbeknownst to most of us, many of the negative emotions and real life consequences we tie to money, are not just based on our life experiences but on how money's been built and managed.
Sadly, money often feels distant, cold, and, if allowed, it can grow fear, greed, ego, envy, anger, competition, and popularity in their most negative connotations. It is as if the human heart could be disconnected from anything money touches, turning it into dissonance, anxiety, and heartache.
How we relate to money is often a reflection and a reaction to our world. As we dive deeper into the rabbit hole, we can choose to carve our own path.
What do we want to see reflected in the mirror of our lives?
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html","title":"freedom meetup graphics and templates","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#nostr-meetup-kit-wip","title":"nostr meetup kit (WIP)","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#the-unbadges","title":"the unbadges","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#the-unlogo","title":"the unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html","title":"nostr meetup kit","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-nostr-meetup-kit","title":"the Nostr meetup kit","text":"vector graphics and templates to make coming together meaningful
One of the freedoms of nostr is that it has no rulers to dictate what it should look like. Having no centralized company to decide on the brand for nostr, means you have a personal choice on how to represent your nostr.
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unlogo","title":"the unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unbadges","title":"the unbadges","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-untshirts","title":"the untshirts","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unstickers","title":"the unstickers","text":"editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html","title":"the Nostr unbadges + unlanyards (neck straps)","text":"unbadge templates for a protocol without rulers
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#keys-r-freedom","title":"keys r freedom","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#powered-by-volunteers","title":"powered by volunteers","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#privacy-matters","title":"privacy matters","text":"editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html","title":"the Nostr unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#to-nostrich-or-not-to-nostrich","title":"to nostrich or not to nostrich","text":"How do you answer a question with no right or wrong answer? You do so with choices. Hence the unlogo is not just one version. For now, it applies two different cultural symbols from the nostr community: the nostrich and the alien.
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#logo-files","title":"logo files","text":"You may use these nostr logos freely, if they resonate with you.
Find the .svg & .png files below.
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#nostrich-nostr-logo","title":"nostrich nostr logo","text":"spacing
svg's
png's
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#alien-nostr-logo","title":"alien nostr logo","text":"svg's
png's
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#icons","title":"icons","text":"The nostr nostrich and nostr alien icon designs carry the same purple background for uniformity. The smaller sizes reduce details for clarity.
256x256
180x180
150x150
72x72 (svg)
48x48 (svg)
32x32 (svg)
16x16 (svg)
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html","title":"the Nostr unstickers","text":"print your own nostr unstickers
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"keep the Nostr weird","text":"png
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html#zaps-running-on-nostr","title":"zaps running on nostr","text":"png
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html#nostr-only","title":"nostr only","text":"png
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html","title":"the Nostr unt-shirts","text":"print your own nostr t-shirts
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"keep the Nostr weird","text":"png
svg
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"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html#running-on-nostr","title":"running on nostr","text":"png
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svg ink layers
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html#nostr-only","title":"nostr only","text":"png
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editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/index.html","title":"gift and nemesis","text":"Exploring the contrasts in technology.
"},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html","title":"decentralization","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#are-you-the-product","title":"are you the product?","text":"In a social media landscape where your data is sold to advertisers and can be given to governments (concerning if you're a journalist, activist, have minority points of view...), the Nostr is a refreshing alternative.
","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#you-are-not-the-product-on-nostr","title":"you are NOT the product on nostr","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#but-why-what-can-go-wrong-with-other-social-networks","title":"But why? What can go wrong with other social networks?","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#social-media-sell-your-data","title":"social media sell your data","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#what-you-feel-is-yours-can-get-taken-away","title":"what you feel is yours can get taken away:","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#with-other-social-networks-you-are-the-product","title":"with other social networks, you are the product","text":"2B continued...
","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/empowerment/index.html","title":"empowerment","text":"","tags":["empowerment"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/empowerment/index.html#self-custody","title":"self-custody","text":"Bitcoin gives you the choice to own it 100%, if you learn to keep it safely in your own self-custodial wallet and with your own keys. You may have no need for a bank or an outside party to keep your bitcoin, though you may need a third party if you want to exchange it for your local currency. These third parties are often exchanges, and as a best practice, you should NOT keep your bitcoin in an exchange, instead choosing your own self-custody wallet.
To HODL bitcoin is a personal responsibility you can choose, instead of delegating it to a third party. It is a form of autonomy. The more we learn about bitcoin, the more we value autonomy. This makes a difference in how we live our lives, the responsibility and challenges that we take, and even where we choose to live.
When something infringes on that autonomy, it makes us rethink our choices and look for possible solutions.
","tags":["empowerment"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/ethics/index.html","title":"ethics","text":"","tags":["ethics"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/ethics/index.html#what-if","title":"What if...","text":"...we could break history\u2019s cycles of oppression, where revolution after revolution has often meant that the \u201cwinner,\u201d even when starting with good intentions, becomes an oppressor of the \u201closing side\u201d, like an Orwellian Animal Farm repeated across the centuries?
Imagine embracing the technologies getting built on an ethical foundation. What happens when we BUIDL on the principles of fairness, equity, openness, freedom of expression, love, integrity, truth, gratefulness and non-violence? What does that world look like?
","tags":["ethics"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html","title":"incentives","text":"","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#on-greed","title":"On greed","text":"Greed runs rampant when it knows no love. A curse running through humanity's veins, as if placed there by an evil enemy, yet one does not exist. Greed, however, is very good at coming up with new enemies. Corrupting hearts into caring about nothing but itself, greed has a serious disregard for the consequences.
Too many have been lost to its strings, believing they are the puppeteers, when indeed they have become the puppets to an insatiable thirst for control. Greed welcomes fear and anger into its arms, destructive forces built on nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Can curses be broken?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#when-the-currency-is-attention","title":"When the currency is attention","text":"Generations no longer know what it was like before social media. Our lives have always been social, but what we do when the tools to connect are right at our fingertips can be an authentic creative expression or be primarily based on attention-getting. The latter can lead to an illusory metric of self-worth.
Creativity abounds on social media, it follows different patterns, like seeing the people we know modeling and curating their lifestyles, or being authoritative and accomplished. When we know them in person, we may notice how they have adapted to branding patterns dependent on the likes and comments to determine their self-worth. On the viewer's side, feeds may not be taken as learning or connecting opportunities, instead viewer's eyes hone in as if looking at trophies to imitate and compete toward.
The signals point to attention-getting as being a valuable skillset, looking at metrics to generate similar content to the highest performing posts becomes a practice, and getting an influencer's like becomes a reinforcement of their goals. Attention is the currency.
Short bursts of surface level information and quick emotional reactions abound, as they can generate the most engagement. This leaves less possibility oflonger conversations and building niche audiences. Click-bait headlines are read and taken as truth, but not clicked-through and analyzed. Heavy tilting to one side of an argument, without seeing the complexity of each situation or reading into sarcasm, leads to divisions.
All of these markers can distort our reality and generate the feeling of a marketing and branding competition with the empty goal of reaching the \"masses\" and becoming an \"influencer,\" just for the numbers and quick growth. Creating content with the priority of generating attention, means being dependent on others to judge you, and just like one day popularity is flooding, another, cancel culture can be setting in. Often, people's self-confidence ebbs and flows based on these signals, or their lack.
Human identity is so much deeper and complex than what we sometimes experience online. It should be independent of attention and judgement. Being exhalted or put down shouldn't break the balance within, and when it does, it should be a moment to reflect and get back to the center. It should not lean toward what is likely to get approval nor should it be silenced by what is likely to be rejected. It should reflect us.
Imperfection makes us human, to focus on perfection and attention online, feels like when someone goes out on a few dates and pretends to be someone they are not. They may meet someone who is a pretender like them, but they'd be missing out on the one who loves them for who they are.
When a new product feature is added, what do we hope for it? What are the incentives we are building into it? Is attention a worthy currency?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#a-suitcase-of-memories","title":"A suitcase of memories","text":"As we actively look through the glass screens of our mobile devices, these little gadgets carry more and more of our lives.
Each screen seems to be far away from what we consider tangible, as if everything digital belonged to the realm of the imagination.
These screens, however, even when floating in the technological cloud, are becoming an essential part of our lives.
They can be the keepers of memories & identity,
The builders of creativity,
The connectors to our family and friends,
The discoverers of new information,
The doors to our money,
The guardians of our health,
The organizers of our time,
The builders of mindfulness...
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#lost-in-the-clicks","title":"Lost in the clicks","text":"Click, click through terms and conditions without reading them, click to close another cookie pop up, log in or create an account, otherwise be kept out.
Having access to information at the touch of our fingertips is a form of freedom. We feel connected, within reach. However, this freedom is not as resilient or as real as it should be.
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#fomo","title":"FOMO","text":"Bells are ringing and it's not Christmas. Full inboxes, DMs, mentions, ads, notifications... Our way of life is changing. So much activity and information can distort our sense of time, as if it was no longer moving at the same speed.
Time feels fast and fleeting, requiring immediate action. Piles of content means shorter attention spans, and FOMO can take residence, but only if we allow it.
Technology's ephemeral qualities make it hard to imagine the negative consequences to what we are giving up, what we are allowing others to take from our readers or customers, or that technology could be used against us.
If we don't allow ourselves the opportunity to slow down and be mindful of our choices, we can fall for the marketing of what is easy and popular, rather than looking deeper at the substance and what we want to be part of our lives.
We have the freedom of choice on how we spend our time. We can choose to fill it with who and what feeds our souls in healthier ways. We should not miss out on what matters most by getting distracted with the extra noise. The FOMO we should have is not about the popular but the meaningful.
who and what do you give your time to?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html","title":"bugs & mistakes","text":"only if we embrace mistakes, and learn from them, will we grow stronger
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#we-broke","title":"We broke...","text":"Nostr is like a decentralized fleet of ships at sea. Some days, storms hit those ships and nostr hodls on. Not every storm is a negative happenstance: A flood of people rushed through Damus' doors, when it was accepted in the Apple App Store. Access to nostr created a storm that tested the strength of relays.
In real time, we could read how developers were bracing for the storm, how they fought to withstand it, and how, sometimes, stuff breaks... for a while. Then these notes and stuff transmitted through relays get built back up again. Resilience is another word for nostr..
Storms did not only hit relays, they also hit lightning, as new people on nostr continued the tradition of sending their first lightning invoices, now transformed into zaps. Most of the weight fell on the Wallet of Satoshi's shoulders. Bitcoin has a similar ecosystem to nostr. In nostr you can discover various nostr clients, and in bitcoin, you can find many wallets. People began recommending Blue Wallet, Muun... to help with the high usage of new lightning zappers.
Nostr is sometimes known for breaking things, often leading to stronger products faster. It experiences real life tests of scalability and it adjusts its sails to withstand future storms.
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#aliens--unidentified-flying-objects","title":"Aliens & Unidentified Flying Objects","text":"We may have bold and italics to give emphasis to text, but we do not have a way to signal sarcasm. In order to understand it, we need to be in the conversation. What do we believe? What do we mock? We often mock fakeness, lies, disregard for truth and ethics.
Life teaches us to laugh at our mistakes and imperfections. We can grow stronger when we can take criticism, when we can look deeper into how we work and learn from it.
Yet so many centralized bodies do not tolerate sarcasm nor criticism, they do not allow for learning or growing, as if they wanted to remain stagnant, when everything is fluid. Anything that remains stagnant weakens over time, as if it was blind to its mistakes. Holding on to a broken past in the hopes to retain a power structure prevents positive growth and innovation.
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#orange-pill-moments","title":"Orange Pill Moments","text":"In the bitcoin world, knowledge is a highly valued form of freedom. It is the \"orange\" pill inspired by the concept of the blue and red pills from the Matrix. Choose to take that metaphorical bitcoin orange pill and you will never look at the world in the same way. Knowledge has that power.
Orange pills symbolize a bitcoin culture that thrives on learning, testing, and solving for issues. Swallowing bitcoin concepts can be revealing. Money connects us, yet how it works and affects people's lives across the globe is often an unspoken subject outside of bitcoin circles, treated as a taboo subject.
The effects of an orange pill focuses on education and translates into real life choices that can improve people's lives.
Technology can BUIDL on itself across time thanks to the work and openness of many people. Bitcoin brings together a technological foundation from the past, adding to it, and putting everything into a one-of-a-kind formula built with the purpose of solving for many of the issues in current financial systems. (Thank you Satoshi Nakamoto et al.).
The orange-pill effect helps people gain a deeper understanding of the gaps and issues with current financial system practices, but this learning process spreads further into other areas of our lives. It encourages integrity, fairness, openness, low time preference, collaboration, personal responsibility, critical and ethical thinking... It allows us to connect with our humanity.
As you look back on your own journey, what's been your favorite \"orange-pill\" moment? What did you learn? Has that knowledge carried unto other parts of your life?
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html","title":"I-Got-Your-Back Protocol","text":"","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html#one-clients-win-is-a-win-for-all-of-nostr","title":"one client's win is a win for all of nostr.","text":"Nostr is interoperable. If you've heard the word protocol tossed around, without knowing its meaning: Imagine if Facebook and Twitter were both written with the same foundational code, so you could enter both of them and access your same profile, follows, followers, and posts on both of them, no matter which one you chose to use. People could find you on Facebook, even if you were only using Twitter. The difference between them would be the design and unique features they could offer you. Unfortunately, they are platforms choosing to run their own code, instead of running on an interoperable protocol.
Nostr is different. It has a community of developers working on different projects. These projects all run nostr as their foundation. They could be thought of as competing with each other, because they can add similar features, and yet, each one also offers something unique. Every milestone each one reaches, makes the whole community stronger, pushing development and innovation into new horizons. It also gives you choice and access, unlike anything you've seen before. It's a win win.
We celebrate the small steps forward creating new avenues of access to nostr. One client's win, is a win for all of nostr.
Interoperability means thinking beyond yourself, beyond individual products, into the possibilities to support the whole. #Nostr is an I-got-your-back protocol.
","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html#santas-pow--network-effects","title":"Santa's PoW & network effects","text":"Nostr is like Santa's workshop all-year-round. Features are the gifts of products that have a direct effect on our daily lives. They can empower and protect the individual. Their foundational principles are the magic.
Nostriches around the world send their letters to nostr Santas in the shape of notes, asking developers for what they wish the most.
Open source is open, because anyone can add their grain of sand and contribute to a project they care about. It is work we can verify, looking through the GitHubs, and sometime in the future, the nostr GitNests of those projects we love.
The nostr protocol is a strong foundation to BUIDL upon, but its use and spread depends on its network effects. The stronger the community bonds, the stronger the protocol. It is a give and take.
","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/originality/index.html","title":"originality","text":"","tags":["originality"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/originality/index.html#custom-fits","title":"custom fits","text":"Many years ago, I heard of a shop in Paris that could craft a rare perfume just for you. You'd be guided trough a multiple level process, selecting base scents to make up the different notes needed to create a custom parfum. The chances you'd have of selecting the same notes as someone else would be minute, but even if your choices were the same, its scent would be different once worn. Perfume reacts to the uniqueness of your body chemistry, and your chemistry fluctuates over time.
As rare as it seems to have your own custom perfume bottle, it pales in comparison to the magnificent diversity within humanity, so it is surprising to see the multiple ways of trying to fit people into a small set of perfect boxes, often unrealistic and unreachable.
Not only can we not become someone else who is as unique as each one of us, but we should question why we would want to. Even a clone could not be you, because he/she/they/ze could not have the same experiences you have had.
Many times, these categories and stereotypes are said to determine our fortune, but only based on quantifiable qualities used to measure you against others, turning fortune into an illusion of a triangle with just a few people fitting at the top.
Life, however, is more like a turning wheel of experiences, and our fortune rarely depends on where you are on the wheel nor which categories you happen to fit into.
In a similar fashion, sometimes products start looking like clones. Although some of the design features that make it to our hands benefit from familiarity, apps and websites also need something that sets them apart. A product maker can imitate, especially at the beginning of the building process, as they start to learn the tools of the trade, but with time, creativity should flourish.
","tags":["originality"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html","title":"protocols over platforms","text":"","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html#ripple-effect","title":"Ripple effect","text":"
A protocol like nostr is interoperable simplicity, yet it is not a dead language. Its code and its upper layers get written like gears in constant movement, churning new lines into websites and apps. It isn't code that sparks out of nowhere. It's molded and reshaped by open source communities brainstorming ideas, listening closely to the people who use their products, and bringing those ideas to life. Each step forward carries new challenges, as the gears shape PR after PR, with products built and strengthened over time.
We cannot know all of the work that has gone into giving us a door to freedom of expression. We do not know the depth of the countless challenges or the innovative solutions as they are placed into the code. We do not know all the layers of thought that go into keeping protocol interoperability while also driving innovation. We do not know the extent of positive effects it could have across the globe and into the future.
But we have the proof in our hands that the work is happening. Every day reveals a new surprise, a different way of using nostr. New doors open, because developers and designers care about freedom of expression, and continue to build upon that foundation.
A tool for freedom built by many, yet united in nostr.
","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html#nostr-is-a-wider-team-effort","title":"Nostr is a wider team effort","text":"From the surface, it may seem impossible to be able to build nostr without a central figure dictating every move. Yet that absence is what makes this protocol move much faster and creatively than its platform counterparts.
Instead of a chaotic mess without purpose or vision, as one might imagine protocols to be, nostr revolves around a number of creative hubs with specific types of development and design. Hubs interact openly with one another, sharing ideas, issues to resolve, and milestones to celebrate... Each hub is a team, and development depends on how well the team can gel while retaining creative independence.
Nostr as a protocol works, in part, because of its guiding principles: Decentralization, simplicity, interoperability...
Another positive aspect is the fun in building something that you interact with everyday. It feels purposeful to dig into issues and to find a way to contribute.
It doesn't mean contributing is perfect, that there isn't overlap or mistakes along the way, but nothing is perfect. Nostr's ability to captivate creative people is what keeps its wheels moving.
It should not be a road to burnout, but the threading of a community building on each other's open work and deep dives into solutions. It is a work that should not only value the present, but to value building a stronger foundation for the future.
","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/truth/index.html","title":"truth","text":"","tags":["truth"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/truth/index.html#how-will-humanity-build--use-ai","title":"How will humanity build & use AI?","text":"Some say the technological age calls upon us to adapt at a much faster rate than ever. Our worlds are being shaped and reshaped by technology. Creativity flows more freely, easily, and with tremendous scalability. Human thought can make it unto a digital canvas at a moment's notice, and new breakthroughs are making the process more dynamic.
The printing press, and then the internet, freed books.
The digital camera, and then cellphones, freed photography.
Each technological breakthrough has been a tool that could offer more freedom, but only when held by those who value freedom.
Is AI freeing us? It depends on how we choose to develop it and how we choose to use it.
There has always been a fight between control and freedom. Books have been banned or taken down from online stores. Cameras can capture memories or spy on us.
Many ethical concerns surround technology, yet it also holds the possibility of freeing some aspect of our lives. It all depends on the road forward. It is a complex rabbit hole filled with more questions than answers.
Information has always been controlled in some way over the centuries, as they say, the winners of wars are the ones who wrote the history books. The darkest of times are the most silent, the ones that host the majority view as the sole source of truth, though it has nothing to do with truth itself. Information is more likely to be suppressed in conflictive and difficult times, and yet that is when it's needed the most.
Controlling a story and making it one sided paints a flawed picture of reality. It can be used to place blame on others rather than on the real issue. It can fear or anger that often leads to giving up freedoms. It can also be used to quiet opposing points of view in order to keep power.
Control of information is often a clear lack of transparency. It sits on murky waters no longer based on truth nor perspective on the complexity of a situation. It seeks to control while advertising freedom or safety, but it is neither.
As AI makes a stronger dent into our lives, many questions arise on both the benefits and the tradeoffs.
If AI is based on a large sample of the internet, does it truly reflect humanity, or only the voices of those who have had access to technology and whose voices have not been censored? Does it reflect real human thought and experience or does it pick up on the emotional reactions sometimes fueled by algorithms shaped to generate engagement and attention, instead of critical thinking and deeper learning. If it has wide access to the internet, how much is it gathering about us and for what purpose?
Does it reflect every voice, or is it as selective as our history books? What biases is it selecting?
Can it be open and transparent? What happens when it is held by the hands of the few with hidden biases, agendas, and incentives? If its workings are hidden from our view, how can we know why it is trained?
Is it a way to let more of the minority voices have a say and a freedom to express their thoughts? Or could it be used to spread a majority point of view at a much faster scale? Could it be used to diminish minority voices, setting them on a path to silence? Will it spam most of our sources of information, making it hard to arrive at what is real and trustworthy?
Can it help make self expression easier for the masses, or will it make a homegenous fabric of images, words and videos, representative that which those who control the inputs want to be the \"truth\"?
As technology has advanced, we have also become more sedentary, will we let it turn us into mindless couch potatoes, or will we appreciate the sun shining on our faces and dive deeper into learning?
Could it help us dig deeper or express more complex ideas? Or is it more likely to prevent us from seeing the truth or digging for it?
What happens when you know someone has lied to you, not by mistake or ignorance, but on purpose? Are you be able to trust that person?
What happens when we cannot trust that AI tells the truth? When it is neither open nor transparent. When we do not know how and why it is being programmed? What can we do when its development can be more about control than freedom?
Like in much of the freedom tech ecosystems, we need AI alternatives that offer the openness, transparency, choice, and diversity of tools, so we are not dependent on centralized parties that can control most of the information we receive. Truth matters. Critical thinking has always been an important skill, but are we arriving at a time where technology will test how we receive that information and what we choose to believe more than ever before? Can we BUIDL something that carries the principles we value that support our freedoms?
","tags":["truth"]},{"location":"nostrverse/index.html","title":"Explore the nostrverse","text":"Diving deeper into the development of various nostr apps & tools
"},{"location":"nostrverse/index.html#amethyst","title":"Amethyst","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html","title":"Now and then","text":"Love is the foundation for tools valuing freedom, choice, and personal autonomy.
This is a field trip into the why behind freedom tech.
Don't trust, verify.
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#now","title":"Now","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#sci-fi-post-apocalyptic-story","title":"Sci-fi post-apocalyptic story","text":"I\u2019ll be exploring our cyberspace for those technological gifts and their nemesis. These discoveries will shape the base layers for a post apocalyptic science fiction story showing where those two paths could lead\u2026
Through an open behind the scenes process, I'll be sharing thoughts and tips, asking questions, and creating open UX design resources as I test and learn more about the why behind the tech.
The primary tech focus will be on bitcon, nostr, and their symbiosis. I'll be taking the writing aspect of storytelling and making it come alive through art, 3D modeling, music, and animation.
Come along this creative journey as the story gets weaved, along with smaller, educational, yet kind of fun pieces.
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#find-me-on-nostr-only","title":"Find me on nostr only","text":"elidy
npub1a7n2h5y3gt90y00mwrknhx74fyzzjqw25ehkscje58x9tfyhqd5snyvfnu
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#blogging-on-nostr","title":"Blogging on Nostr","text":"Behind-the-scenes
\u2192 Highlighter
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#nostrorg","title":"Nostr.org","text":"Contributing to design and copy on splash page to welcome people to nostr
\u2192 On GitHub
\u2192 Version 2.0 coming soon, PR on GitHub
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#nostr-meetup-kit","title":"Nostr Meetup Kit","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#behind-the-t-shirt-designs-what-do-you-see","title":"Behind the t-shirt designs: What do you see?","text":"\u2192 Latest design available on shop.nostr.build
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#then","title":"Then","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"Keep the Nostr Weird","text":"On YouTube
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#bitcoinostr-a-symbiosis","title":"Bitcoinostr: A Symbiosis","text":"On YouTube
"},{"location":"read/index.html","title":"A freedom tech story in the works","text":""},{"location":"read/index.html#tick-tock","title":"Tick tock","text":"\u201cA storm is brewing,\u201d said Xileh to his granddaughter, Toril, as they looked out from the balcony of Rigmor's clock tower. The air felt cool and humid as they breathed it in. Clouds were forming in the horizon and the wind started to pick up.
\u201cMost people can\u2019t tell when one is coming anymore.\u201d He continued.
\u201cI know. They\u2019ve forgotten how to listen to nature.\u201d Replied Toril, in awe at the spectacle in front of them.
\u201cI don\u2019t mean this storm.\" He said, taking a stronger grip on the balcony's rail. \u201cOur time here is limited. As I near the end...\u201d
\u201cDon\u2019t say that.\u201d She interrupted him, noticing the many wrinkles on his face, a reflection of every experience and emotion he had carried across his lifetime. He had refused to go under the knife to correct them. She had grown to appreciate them as proof of what he had lived.
\"When you look back on your life, you realize the only thing that mattered was love and those moments built around it.\" He turned to look at his granddaughter\u2019s eyes, seeing a gleam of hope for the future, wrapped in concern for her safety.
\"History keeps repeating. Life is much worse in periods of silence like these, where human thought is suppressed through fear. We are privileged, because they still need us, but most of our people have been forced to forget.\"
\u201cYou\u2019re starting to worry me.\u201d She said, noticing the seriousness in his voice.
\u201cWorry is a sign to get ready. A lot will change. Your principles will be tested. You will have to make decisions that will affect people\u2019s lives and they can be heavy to carry. You can only do the best you can with the knowledge you have. Avoid making assumptions.
\"Be careful who you trust. Do not get taken by empty words. I don't think you can trust _____.\u201d
\u201cBut I know him well, he\u2019s practically family.\u201d
\u201cIn this environment, his actions lived in a bubble. He is not the same person out there. I worry that he is not who we think he is. I hope to be proved wrong, but you can grow up in the same household and be opposite people. I fear, in my hope to protect him, I encouraged him to take more than to give. He is privileged above the rest.\" As he said that, the weight of the past felt so heavy in his heart that it could have pulled it down many floors.
\u201cListen, Toril. I have been prepping something for you. It will be delivered in an unexpected way. You\u2019ll know what I mean when the time comes. This is important. No one can know about it.\u201d She nodded, knowing how complex a human being her grandfather was, so much so, that the idea of something unexpected was to be expected.
\u201cHe cannot know about it either. He thinks he knows you just as you think you know him. They might use him to try to get to you.\u201d
\u201cWhy do you not trust him?\u201d
\u201cPeople who seek attention are often malleable, their principles don\u2019t exist in the ways we both understand them. Easy money removes the value of our effort and time. It can drive people to seek easy paths and the fastest way up to whatever ladder they think exists. Popularity may be popular in this society, but it doesn\u2019t make you who you are. That depends on your actions and the reasons behind them. Your choices must be independent of whether people love you, hate you or cancel you. They\u2019re your inner protocol.\u201d
He continued speaking, as if he wanted to pour a lifetime of knowledge into those few minutes. He hoped to have given her enough tools to manage what was coming, but what he wished for the most was to have prevented it altogether.
\u201cWhen words are built for headlines, stats, or votes, they cannot be trusted. You cannot trust someone who masks the truth, often not taking the time to dig deeper, to try to see the 360\u00b0 view. Nothing is as simple as it seems. A lot of what you see and hear are just fa\u00e7ades inside games of power and control. You must learn to see what's behind them.\u201d
\u201cIt is hard to have people you trust wholeheartedly. You discover them when you spot similar principles and patterns of action. When you are lucky enough to have such a person, you keep them close, as they\u2019ll have your back. You protect them as they protect you.\u201d
\u201cWas grandma that for you?\u201d
\u201cYes, but I was too blind to see it in time. Do not make the same mistake.\u201d
He removed a locket from his neck, one he had carried for as long as she had been under his care, and gave it to her.
As she took it in the palm of her hand, tears started swelling in her eyes, like the clouds rolling in.
The skies darkened and small rain droplets started falling, making a melancholic sound against the metal structure\u2026
"},{"location":"read/odds-and-ends.html","title":"Odds and ends","text":"
Every writing process has bits and pieces that do not quite fit within the story, but are somehow related to it. Since this is an open process, you'll find those here.
"},{"location":"read/odds-and-ends.html#the-setting","title":"The setting","text":"In the city of Rigmor, the four massive vermilion gates, which once stood for truth, courage, and freedom, had become an association to fear. Closed off to keep most on the inside, by force rather than choice, these gates seemed to have forgotten their purpose. Instead of being open and filled with activity, they had been restructured to almost become walls. Since (some yet to determine unknown event related to war), Rigmor had lost its candor and innovation. What remained of its foundational bones, was the unique vermilion lacquer on the gates' rosewood frames, a reminder of a past that could come again.
The words truth and freedom had been avoided in common lexicon for so long that they seemed lost, but not their meaning. Freedom is a natural state of humanity, it cannot be erased from our subconscious though fear may try. Deep within, away from that which corrodes the spirit, we all carry the essence of freedom. We all crave truth. While those feelings seemed to lay dormant, no one could predict the exact place where that spark of change could come from, but it always does. No stronger spark exists than in those places where hope seems lost, for it is then that it is most valued. The time for this city to awaken is about to begin.
"},{"location":"read/page-1.html","title":"Truth","text":"Toril stared at her computer screen in disbelief. It showed a series of input boxes for a long password, too long to guess.
\"No, no, no, no.\" She said aloud with serious concern. It was like running into a blue screen, not a good sign at all, especially not on the eve of Halloween, one of the busiest seasons of the year for the city's warehouse. They had a guaranteed delivery to meet.
\"Could it be ransomware?\" she thought. Government offices and companies had been hit by a wave of strange tech occurrences.
\"But it isn't asking for money. Phishing?\"
\"(future name), has there been a power outage?\" she said in a louder tone.
No answer.
\"No access to my computer should not mean no access to the warehouse's assistant, or should it?\" She pondered. After shadowing Xileh for most of her life, there was still so much she didn't know about the inner workings of their logistics system.
The warehouse was on 24/7 and almost fully automated. She had learned to troubleshoot on her own, but today she needed to solve A.S.A.P.
She rushed out of the office taking a long hallway toward Xileh's lab. The hallway was flanked by windows revealing the warehouse's inner workings. She ran so quickly through it, that the lab felt like it was right next door. A package delivery robot holding a large box blocked the entrance. She went around it, ignoring it, and crossed the lab toward Xileh's main worktable. The robot followed her at a slower speed.
\"Xileh! Xileh!\" she called out a few times, as she looked around the room, but he was nowhere to be found. He rarely carried his phone, so sending out a message would not help. At his age, he didn't keep office hours like he used to. His lab, however, reflected the spirit of a tinkerer that would never stop experimenting. She sent him a message anyway, only to hear the beep nearby.
\"He would not miss being here for Halloween... Well, he might notice the message when he comes back.\" She shrugged.
She approached the rows of bookcases and piles of paper in a corner of the room, reminded of how Xileh always wanted real world backups. She never understood why that was so important, until now.
\"What if all the information was gone?\" She thought as she tried to make sense of Xileh's organization style or the lack thereof.
\"But automation hasn't stopped. Everything seems to be running as usual.\" She held some comfort in that thought.
She spotted the row of manuals for a lot of the warehouse's equipment. Her eyes scanned through them. \"Found it!\" She said aloud, taking the manual for her computer out of the shelf. As she opened it, it had a thicker yellow page with a recovery password.
\"This is probably it.\" She thought, relieved, and thinking she had worried too much over a password.
Taking the manual with her, she started walking out. She couldn't help but take a moment to look back. That large open studio held so many memories. The rays of sunlight were coming in through the trees outside of the tall windows, giving the lab an almost magical eerie glow, as if the robots Xileh was working on could come to life at any moment.
She was startled by the delivery robot catching up to her.
More relaxed, she said, \"Ok, let me see what you got.\" Odd, it was addressed to her with an urgent label. No info on the sender. Her mail delivery was always done to her office. She wasn't expecting a robot delivery either; they were only sent out when the packages were larger than the subterranean logistics system.
She hesitated in opening the box, perhaps she should scan it first, just in case.
It said urgent, but so was regaining access to her system. She sent an order to the robot through her wristband to head to the scan room, and she walked back to her office, not as quickly, but still feeling pressured to make sure this was the solution.
She looked through the windows as she walked, everything seemed normal. The flow of robots and boxes never stopped. Xileh had told her the story of the architect who built the warehouse. Some had complained that it was a warehouse for robots and with it being almost fully automated, it didn't need anything architecturally appealing. They wanted a climate controlled box. The architect refused to remove the human element from it, and, because of that, these rows of windows existed. They gave an almost 360\u00b0 view of the warehouse at work. Xileh wasn't sure how he had convinced them to built it this way. Even if he had mentioned how building with a location in mind tends to save on energy, and how using stronger materials is an investment in the future, many only build for the now.
Not even taking the time to sit down, Toril started typing the digits to the password: 19d6689c085ae, only to come up short.
\"Oh, shoot!\" It was 13 digits, she needed 21. She sifted through the manual, but found nothing of help.
As she stood there trying to think of a possible alternative, the delivery robot again caught up to her. It had ignored the order to head to the scan room.
\"How creepy,\" she thought, \"First a password request appears out of nowhere, then a rogue robot. But some older robot models do not respond to the new software commands, and, this is not a sci-fi movie.\"
Maybe Halloween was getting to her.
\"Could this be what Xileh was talking about that night at the clock tower?\" She thought.
She instinctively took the box opener from the robot's side. She had opened so many boxes in her lifetime, that it was second nature. As she lifted the flaps, she saw a myriad of flowers.
\"Aww,\" she said in surprise.
Xileh gifted her flowers every year for her birthday. She had gotten a different kind of flower each year: roses, lavender... Each had been made of different materials and colors. Each year carried a different meaning.
These were orange marigolds, and they were real! Over the generations, companies had disfavored the natural, and real flowers were a rare request. During her time at the warehouse, she had noticed a few shipments of real flowers, and always wondered what those who ordered them could be celebrating.
These had such a peculiar scent that it brought back childhood memories. Xileh used to say marigolds were the flowers of truth. They still grew in the wild behind the warehouse, on the outskirts of the city. She had often wondered if her grandma had planted them. Xileh said she had a green thumb, and that had become as rare as real flowers.
Toril smiled wide, but, her birthday wasn't until January.
She paused for a moment.
\"Xileh and his riddles,\" she thought, while shaking her head. \"Halloween trick?\" She looked back at that screen with thirteen digits, needing 8 more.
She typed out her birthday: 01 03 2140
Hit enter, and...
\"What?\" Toril's face turned pale.
"},{"location":"read/page-2.html","title":"Revelations","text":"
Toril could not believe her eyes. The shipments map she looked at everyday was no longer the 2D Pacman-like screen displaying packages in movement. This was a highly detailed 3D topographic map of their logistics.
The type of map, however, was not what shocked her, but what it revealed. Like unearthing a secret, a new set of routes with shipments in movement intermingled with the other routes.
"},{"location":"terminology/index.html","title":"terminology","text":"","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#the-language-of-freedom-tech","title":"the language of freedom tech","text":"
Tech has an evolving cyberspace lexicon based on innovation mixed with culture.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#client","title":"client","text":"Nostr is NOT just one app.
A nostr client is an app or website created with nostr code that finds and posts nostr content unto relay servers. Since it is open code, any developer can build their own version of a nostr client running on the nostr protocol.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#keys","title":"keys","text":"Not your keys, not your social media.
To join nostr, you don't need to give up your email or phone number. Instead, the first time you sign up to most nostr clients, you get a special set of keys. These are two long strings of letters and numbers unique to you. You can use them to enter most of the nostrverse. They also keep a path to your notes, follows, and followers.
They belong only to you.
You get a public key and a secret key. Share your public key, keep your secret key backed up and safe.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#nostrich","title":"nostrich","text":"The nostrich, in its various styles, has become the nostr mascot.
The idea was born on December 16th, 2022.
walker:
@ dave can you write a joke about #nostr?
note167jwwjamdwm48lje83804pjczkncu6prjpf3kamyslzpjtr7c5asvu9p2s
dave (gpt3):
Q: What do you call a nosy ostrich?
A: A nosTrich!
note163g7kae08rx4sqv5xq67dh3926pw5tkq2pzxctyzjh8ypcqldxfqwntysx
Then, on Dec 20th, 2022, Will (jb55) posted the image above with the legend:
\"I propose the nostrich to be the official nostr mascot and logo.\"
note19dazj8tfcpl42gurwctxxj5lrq4t9qel9g7wyycjhrzqp93lxe4sqafzzg
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#note","title":"note","text":"Instead of tweets or posts, nostr has notes. Feel free to write notes away.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#npub-or-public-key","title":"npub or public key","text":"Your public key takes the place of your handle. It is unique to you. You can also have a handle with any name you want, and you can change it anytime you want. You don't need to add any numbers or strange spellings, because what needs to be unique is your npub.
npub + LongStringOfNumbersAndLettersUniqueToYou
Share your public key with your friends, so they can find you or mention you. You can copy it from your profile (often found by a key or QR code icon).
If you spot a QR icon in your nostr client, others can scan it and their nostr app should open to your profile page, as long as their app has that functionality. Some nostr clients let you share other people's npub QR's too.
Someone else could try to impersonate you, use the same name, profile pic, and description, but they cannot have the same npub.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#nsec-aka-secret-or-private-key","title":"nsec a.k.a. secret or private key","text":"You are the sole keeper of your secret key. It is a special kind of \"password\" you can use to sign in to nostr clients, to create notes...
nsec + LongStringOfNumbersAndLettersUniqueToYou
It belongs only to you, not to a company. If you are used to the ways of platforms like Twitter and Facebook, you may think someone can help you recover it, but you won't find a \"forgot your password?\" option.
Nostr is different, you're the one in control. When someone owns your account, they know your password and can help you recover it. One of the tradeoffs is that they can also close down your account, rate limit it, shadow ban it... On nostr you own your keys and should keep your nsec safe.
TIP: Save your nsec in a password manager (for example Bitwarden). Write down a copy somewhere safe. Some nostr clients keep your secret key hidden in the Settings. Make sure you copy it and save it in your password manager before logging out. In the future, we may see options to save an encrypted copy in the cloud, perhaps some options already exist. Do not share it.
If you are logging in through a website (not an app), save your nostr nsec in a special browser extension first. Browsers, by nature, are not as safe, your secret key could get stolen. You may see this option to log in labelled as \"login with extension or NIP-07\"
","tags":["terms"]}]} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/search/search_index.json b/search/search_index.json index e7f633f..bd99bd8 100644 --- a/search/search_index.json +++ b/search/search_index.json @@ -1 +1 @@ -{"config":{"lang":["en"],"separator":"[\\s\\u200b\\-_,:!=\\[\\]()\"`/]+|\\.(?!\\d)|&[lg]t;|(?!\\b)(?=[A-Z][a-z])","pipeline":["stopWordFilter"]},"docs":[{"location":"index.html","title":"home","text":"Home
"},{"location":"buidl-hodl/index.html","title":"BUIDL HODL","text":"Exploring the principles behind empowering technology, and how they tie-in to our daily lives.
"},{"location":"buidl-hodl/experience/index.html","title":"experience","text":"development & design shape our product experiences
","tags":["ux"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/experience/index.html#bridges","title":"bridges","text":"As children, we often hear stories of butterflies. We are awed by how a caterpillar can become a winged creature, as if blessed with some kind of magic. It feels almost surreal to look at what seems like two different insects, and yet we know they are one and the same.
A caterpillar is the foundation to a butterfly. It carries its bands of colors like FOSS projects carry principles or unconference goers carry t-shirts. The difference is in how it moves. A caterpillar is significantly slower, its vision is limited to what is in front of it, it cannot enjoy gliding in the wind.
When it comes to software, in order to become a butterfly, code must bridge in constructive loops with design.
Development is the behind the scenes framework that can make everything run well, design is what translates that framework into something we can understand and use. As design and development interact, the human connection with a product becomes smoother, like gliding in the wind. It is understandable, like having the vision of a landscape from higher up. It is enjoyable and familiar, like a butterfly that does not need to think that it\u2019s flying, it just does.
When development and design can walk back and forth, building better experiences, a product has left its cocoon.
","tags":["ux"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/freedom/index.html","title":"freedom","text":"","tags":["freedom"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/freedom/index.html#freedom-vs-control","title":"freedom vs. control","text":"Technology, including the internet, has opened new worlds for connecting and empowering people across the globe. It is as if we have gained access to new dimensions and dissolved barriers between us.
These dimensions are a reflection of humanity. As you dive deeper into how technology has been shaped and reshaped, you often discover widespread practices of dominant global societies with central organizations who decide the rules and the access. This leaves space for greed, censorship, corruption, data amassing, privacy infringement, and other practices that forgo a foundation on human rights for a foundation on control and maximum profit.
It is a paradox and a mystery to think that those in power can institute policies that can infringe on their own rights.
As some build on control, surveillance, and maximum profit, others build on the idea that \"information wants to be free.\" In many ways, it not only wants to be free, it seeks to be freeing. It can be built on freedom, love, and individual rights. A challenging frontier, empowering technology calls upon each person to be responsible over our own lives.
If you have lived under authoritarian rule, if you have experienced the ravages of war, if you have experienced the hardships of spiking inflation, if you have been censored for using your voice to defend human rights, if your bank account has been closed or worse for supporting a protest, if you've been persecuted for being different, the choice of personal freedom through responsibility is simple.
Technology is growing to allow personal responsibility and control over your own money (bitcoin), identity (nostr, web5), privacy (DIDs)...
It gives you the keys to make choices over your own life, a freedom we did not know we had lost.
","tags":["freedom"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html","title":"What it means to own your keys.","text":"Thoughts on the freedom of removing third parties.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#what-do-you-see-keys","title":"What do you see? Keys.","text":"2024\u00b7April\u00b703
We all learn through observation, imitation, practice, mistakes, and more practice. We learn by comparing and contrasting what we see in the world, in order to imagine what we wish it could be. At core, we long for something that defines us and adds meaning to our daily lives.
Copycat imitation is not interesting. A custom creative journey is.
Some say, experience gives you a unique style, as you learn the tools. Experience, however, opens a myriad of possible roads to create art. You may relate to that as knowing how to shape and reshape a coding language for your various needs and purposes. The deeper you learn and test how programming languages work, the wider array of choices on what and how to create. While in code you may seek efficiency and simplicity, in art, people often seek a recognizable look.
If you see some of my latest artwork, you might say there is a look, but the reality is different if we look across time. Art can vary widely, even wildly, depending on both purpose and media.
If I do not hope for a recognizable look, what is it that I hope for?
nostr spirit
If we only look at the quality of the code or the style of the art, we are often holding a boxed-in perspective. Take nostr, for example, you could compare it with other social media and criticize it solely on how a single client looks and feels compared to what you have experienced elsewhere. Based on that sole known concept, some may see nostr as \"not quite the same\", as if something was missing: their people. But are people locked-in their previous apps forever?
That depends on how you see nostr, just like it depends on whether you understand the story behind the art. For me, switching to only nostr was simple, but I went down the rabbit hole. I feel more grateful everyday for all the qualities that make nostr different: Yes, it's also about the people.
The people on nostr are shaping what it becomes on every layer: Code, design, UX, content, and beyond. You do not get that anywhere else. It is not advertisements nor algorithms built for advertisers or data buyers that make the decisions. We make the decisions, as part of a larger community. Hence, we are free to contribute to building what fits us best.
Over time, I realized I do not want the engagement farming, the unethical data gathering, the possibility of having my account cancelled because I think different. I am only on nostr. The only other account I keep is Pinterest, but not on a social level. I hope one day, nostr will have as much content to discover. It depends on us to make it what we wish it to be.
What nostr solves for is not the same as other social media. You own your nostr on so many levels. Your keys give you access to any app on the nostrverse, along with all of your notes, follows and followers. It's a compact suitcase, but it fits so much. For content creators, it opens the door to micropayments through zaps. This value4value support is not based on advertisements, it is a direct link to your audience, and the specific content they appreciate. Signal over noise.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#easter-eggs","title":"Easter eggs","text":"I keep digging deeper into what is at the core of freedom tech and how it inspires us, as a community. Over the years, I have often added small details with personal meaning to art, a sort of Easter egg. Not the kind of Easter egg that would be noticed nor understood, looking from the outside in. Freedom tech, however, is an open community with various symbols adding meaning to our everyday lives. Naturally, the Easter eggs have continued, but in a way that you, the observer, can discover and understand.
pura vida
When people dismiss technology like Nostr or Bitcoin, it\u2019s often because they do NOT see what makes them special. I\u2019d like art to reflect the idea that some people do NOT see, but for those who do, it is something meaningful and empowering. Perhaps, even when you do NOT know the meaning behind it, it will spark your curiosity to find out why it\u2019s there.
Take this Nostriga t-shirt design, for example. It carries keys. Five of them. You will spot four of them easily, but the fifth one\u2026 that may be a bit of a surprise. For those who understand the value of owning your keys, and hence your nostr, you will see more than five keys there. You will see why keys matter, and that, cannot be seen with the eyes.
Nostriga t-shirt @ shop.nostr.build
It is not the style, but sharing with our people the meaning and principles behind it that makes all the other stuff special.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#support-loop","title":"Support loop","text":"unknown date
Nostr exists outside of the rule of platforms and those who seek to control them. HODLing your nostr keys is hodling your identity and social graph, outside of KYC. By helping develop nostr, you are helping people escape walled gardens & gain control and choice over their identities & have a path to value4value. By using nostr, you are supporting that which supports your freedom of expression.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#hodl-keys","title":"HODL Keys","text":"unknown date
Keys are interweaved into our daily lives. They open milestones and memories:
Home keys
Music keys\nCar keys
Key ingredients\nKeyboard keys
Click, \n click, \n click\nnostr keys
bitcoin keys...\nIf you are familiar with bitcoin, you may realize it can empower you to have full control over your money, without intermediaries of any kind\u2026 as long as you have your keys and keep them safe. Just like your house keys, if you leave your bitcoin where others have the keys, you run the risk of losing what you have. Bitcoin can be different, you can choose to take full responsibility of it, though that may take an open mind and a lot of diving into deeper and deeper rabbit holes.
We have learned to keep our home keys safe and where we can find them (hopefully). We keep them away from those we do not trust. Bitcoin is similar though it also means being open to learning, open to trial and error, and open to feeling the freedom of empowerment.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/limited/index.html","title":"limited","text":"","tags":["limited"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/limited/index.html#21-million","title":"21 million","text":"Bitcoin is limited edition. Only 21 million bitcoin will exist. Something rare, like bitcoin, is valuable because we cannot find nor create more of it. Like a hug from your grandma or loved ones. Like that person who understands you like no one else can. Like milestones in our lives that cannot be replicated.
","tags":["limited"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/openness/index.html","title":"openness","text":"","tags":["openness"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/openness/index.html#rain","title":"rain","text":"\u201cNo matter how well you water plants, they can never quite grow like when it rains,\u201d grandpa used to say, as he watered the garden late in the afternoon, awaiting the rainy season.
When we work on our own, outside of open-source teamwork, outside of open resources for anyone in the world, it can often feel like waiting for rain.
FOSS has a way of gathering a unique mixture of creativity, coupled with caring about humanity, strengthened by a breath of freedom. It is as if it could rain on anyone and that rain could help buidl stronger solutions.
","tags":["openness"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/proof-of-work/index.html","title":"proof of work","text":"","tags":["PoW"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/proof-of-work/index.html#do-you-know-your-developer","title":"Do you know your developer?","text":"One of the strongest protections of someone's work is PoW and the network effects it generates as it spreads across communities. As long as we stay connected to the builders, no one should be able to come, clone a project, and take all the credit for other people's work.
At the heart of every project is not its code, but its people. Grateful for all those contributing to FOSS.
","tags":["PoW"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html","title":"nostr in time","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-and-after","title":"before and after","text":"Looking at nostr client progress.
On our day to day use of nostr, it is easy to lose track of the many improvements and unique experiences it offers. If we look back in time, we can see how much some nostrverse projects have grown. This is a field trip to document those changes across time.
field trip focus
developer: hodlbod@coracle.social
differentiating feature: music
One of the best features in nostr is showing content based on who you follow and who your follows follow (a.k.a. your network). It helps focus on your interests, and it reduces spam. While, in the future, nostr clients may offer choices in algorithms to curate content, it is good to always have the option to see content based on who and which topics you follow. You are the curator.
Coracle has taken a unique approach to this. It now has a button that finds music on nostr from your network. You can listen to that music while you look through your notes.
Have a favorite musician on nostr? Let me know.
","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-early-2023","title":"before (early 2023)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#after-early-2024","title":"after (early 2024)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#what-constitutes-growth","title":"what constitutes growth?","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#primal","title":"Primal","text":"developer: miljand@primal.net
differentiating feature: tracking network effects
Nostr offers the possibility of developing various curation tool choices. Primal already offers insights into nostr's network effects across time through its explore tab and trending users.
How could we go deeper? Could we see top posts from within our follows or topics?
What is the best metric? Zaps? Could we see what is most replied to by our follows? What are the most followed hashtags?
How could we better understand growth, not just in terms of the amount of people trying nostr, but on who is staying and engaging much deeper and why?
","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-may-2023","title":"before (may 2023)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#after-january-2024","title":"after (january 2024)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html","title":"trust","text":"","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#how-do-you-prove-youre-real","title":"How do you prove you're real?","text":"Each human being is unique and creative in their own way. It is hard to fathom anyone wanting to be an impostor. Impostors exist, and it can be a challenge to know the difference.
If you meet someone in real life, it is easy to exchange your npubs, but what happens when you don't?
In nostr you can tie your account to your website as a way of verifying you identity through what's called a NIP05. In some nostr products, you can see your name with an @yourwebsite.com This is particularly useful for content creators, proving you're the author, or you belong to that organization.
To help tell you apart from bots, some websites offer NIP05's. It doesn't end with your domain, it ends with theirs, but it is still one strung higher in the ladder of trust.
Combine that with other trust signals to reveal that unique mixture that makes you, you: Your interactions with the community, creating and sharing your own content, sharing what you find interesting, in other words, just being you is a trust signal.
What makes you who you are?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#getting-back-our-data","title":"Getting back our data","text":"Apps are a bridge to the services we want, from social media to health apps. We express part of our lives through them. Many apps are built around advertising from data gathering, but new doors are opening for building trust & giving back control to people over their content, money & identities.
Many apps are built to track and remember as much information as they can about us, instead of getting only what they need and building trust over time as new services are needed, or through developing stronger relationships with consumers.
From the moment you download an app, it can gather data & keep doing so even when we're not using them. It's as if, before we sit down at a restaurant to place an order, they already have our contact & payment information, & more access than the \"gossip\" of the town would know.
What they could know is hard to imagine: A full list of our friends, family & acquaintances, our user content (emails, photos, recordings...), where we live and where we are at any moment in time, demographics and psychographics (sensitive info), what we buy, the websites and places we visit....
We are often using \"free\" services in exchange for our data, which is used and sold for advertising. This often comes at the expense of privacy & security. However, an app does not have to be free to gather our data. How many services do you subscribe to that have poor privacy practices. Do these practices develop consumer loyalty or is it invasive and spammy? What are better ways of building sustainable products?
Many times we are locked into using an app, because we need access to their services & if we choose to delete our accounts, we cannot take our data with us. Building trust & accountability can come with offering choices to consumers, & those can come from giving us control over our data.
It is a joy to see how self-custody bitcoin apps, and many nostr apps, often choose to gather as little data as possible. This is a path to replacing the advertising incentives, which foster ecosystems for data gathering, instead of for empowering products. More paths are in the works, like Web5 by TBD & the community at large.
How will these efforts encourage the growth and development of alternative creative solutions for sustainable product building that protect the individual's privacy and give back control of data & identity?
Who'll be the service providers of the future? What will they prioritize when building their products? Will they discover that instead of gathering information obscurely in the background, they can walk other paths to develop stronger loyal relationships with their customers?
Will most people understand the importance of being in control of their identity, choosing levels of trust & privacy, knowing they can deny or revoke access to their information? Will they be able to carry their identities back with them, just as we can walk out of a restaurant?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#on-spam","title":"On Spam","text":"Something is out there...
As your notes float in nostr cyberspace and get shared between relay servers, something else is out there too. No, it's not an alien creature from a sci-fi movie, it's spam. A bit like galactic trash, it can fill global feeds with mountains of gibberish, preventing real content and conversation from happening.
One of the ways some in the nostr community are addressing spam, is through paid relays. At this moment, the relays offering this service, use it like a ticket in, where you pay a few sats (1,000 to 5,000) to cross through their gates. Spam is generated in such large numbers, that having to pay relays, can add up quickly, hence probably deterring its practice. Less spam leads to a bit of zen, or perhaps eden.
Another way to address spam is to have home feeds based on follows and their follows, and global feeds based on specific relays. Many nostr clients are adding unique settings that can be tweaked not only to prevent some spam, but to shape your own experience.
Nostr thrives on freedom of expression. There is no perfect solution to address spam. Multiple avenues with different approaches will let people choose their nostr paths, whether they have sats to give or not.
What solutions are you seeing to address spam?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html","title":"value4value","text":"a content creator economy zaps
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html#get-your-nip57-zappers-ready","title":"Get your NIP57 zappers ready","text":"Stars-Wars style lightning zaps without needing to defend yourself from anyone. Instead zapping allows you to support what you believe in.
Your target is content that rings true to you somehow. The result: Motivation, encouragement and the rise of a value4value culture.
It isn't the rise of the empire, but the Rise of the Empowered.
What do you value?
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html#mirror","title":"Mirror","text":"\"Fix the money, fix the world\"
The advent of bitcoin has opened possibilities for \"fixing\" various flaws in the current financial systems, but our relationship with money should change as we learn to embrace a sustainable foundation.
Failing to change our thoughts and actions toward money can generate similar pitfalls and a reliance on carbon-copy uses built on top of bitcoin. This can lead to masking and removing access to bitcoin's freedom and empowerment.
Unnoticed, money connects us across the globe, much deeper than an electrical grid. It touches every aspect of our lives, from the material like purchasing a house, to the invisible like the memories that help in making that house a home.
When we stare at money's face, we may see a reflection of every emotion we have tied to experiences across our lifetimes: hope, fear, dreams, barriers, challenges, empathy, support, love.
We live in a world of contrasts. Money can be a foundation to gratitude or envy. It can help build a stronger future for coming generations or focus only on surface rewards now, disregarding future consequences. It can be a fair or an unjust measure of our time. It can plant and harvest what we value, be it meaning or wastefulness.
Unbeknownst to most of us, many of the negative emotions and real life consequences we tie to money, are not just based on our life experiences but on how money's been built and managed.
Sadly, money often feels distant, cold, and, if allowed, it can grow fear, greed, ego, envy, anger, competition, and popularity in their most negative connotations. It is as if the human heart could be disconnected from anything money touches, turning it into dissonance, anxiety, and heartache.
How we relate to money is often a reflection and a reaction to our world. As we dive deeper into the rabbit hole, we can choose to carve our own path.
What do we want to see reflected in the mirror of our lives?
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html","title":"freedom meetup graphics and templates","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#nostr-meetup-kit-wip","title":"nostr meetup kit (WIP)","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#the-unbadges","title":"the unbadges","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#the-unlogo","title":"the unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html","title":"nostr meetup kit","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-nostr-meetup-kit","title":"the Nostr meetup kit","text":"vector graphics and templates to make coming together meaningful
One of the freedoms of nostr is that it has no rulers to dictate what it should look like. Having no centralized company to decide on the brand for nostr, means you have a personal choice on how to represent your nostr.
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unlogo","title":"the unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unbadges","title":"the unbadges","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-untshirts","title":"the untshirts","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unstickers","title":"the unstickers","text":"editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html","title":"the Nostr unbadges + unlanyards (neck straps)","text":"unbadge templates for a protocol without rulers
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#keys-r-freedom","title":"keys r freedom","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#powered-by-volunteers","title":"powered by volunteers","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#privacy-matters","title":"privacy matters","text":"editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html","title":"the Nostr unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#to-nostrich-or-not-to-nostrich","title":"to nostrich or not to nostrich","text":"How do you answer a question with no right or wrong answer? You do so with choices. Hence the unlogo is not just one version. For now, it applies two different cultural symbols from the nostr community: the nostrich and the alien.
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#logo-files","title":"logo files","text":"You may use these nostr logos freely, if they resonate with you.
Find the .svg & .png files below.
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#nostrich-nostr-logo","title":"nostrich nostr logo","text":"spacing
svg's
png's
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#alien-nostr-logo","title":"alien nostr logo","text":"svg's
png's
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#icons","title":"icons","text":"The nostr nostrich and nostr alien icon designs carry the same purple background for uniformity. The smaller sizes reduce details for clarity.
256x256
180x180
150x150
72x72 (svg)
48x48 (svg)
32x32 (svg)
16x16 (svg)
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html","title":"the Nostr unstickers","text":"print your own nostr unstickers
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"keep the Nostr weird","text":"png
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html#zaps-running-on-nostr","title":"zaps running on nostr","text":"png
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html#nostr-only","title":"nostr only","text":"png
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html","title":"the Nostr unt-shirts","text":"print your own nostr t-shirts
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"keep the Nostr weird","text":"png
svg
svg ink layers
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html#running-on-nostr","title":"running on nostr","text":"png
svg
svg ink layers
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html#nostr-only","title":"nostr only","text":"png
svg
svg ink layers
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/index.html","title":"gift and nemesis","text":"Exploring the contrasts in technology.
"},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html","title":"decentralization","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#are-you-the-product","title":"are you the product?","text":"In a social media landscape where your data is sold to advertisers and can be given to governments (concerning if you're a journalist, activist, have minority points of view...), the Nostr is a refreshing alternative.
","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#you-are-not-the-product-on-nostr","title":"you are NOT the product on nostr","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#but-why-what-can-go-wrong-with-other-social-networks","title":"But why? What can go wrong with other social networks?","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#social-media-sell-your-data","title":"social media sell your data","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#what-you-feel-is-yours-can-get-taken-away","title":"what you feel is yours can get taken away:","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#with-other-social-networks-you-are-the-product","title":"with other social networks, you are the product","text":"2B continued...
","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/empowerment/index.html","title":"empowerment","text":"","tags":["empowerment"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/empowerment/index.html#self-custody","title":"self-custody","text":"Bitcoin gives you the choice to own it 100%, if you learn to keep it safely in your own self-custodial wallet and with your own keys. You may have no need for a bank or an outside party to keep your bitcoin, though you may need a third party if you want to exchange it for your local currency. These third parties are often exchanges, and as a best practice, you should NOT keep your bitcoin in an exchange, instead choosing your own self-custody wallet.
To HODL bitcoin is a personal responsibility you can choose, instead of delegating it to a third party. It is a form of autonomy. The more we learn about bitcoin, the more we value autonomy. This makes a difference in how we live our lives, the responsibility and challenges that we take, and even where we choose to live.
When something infringes on that autonomy, it makes us rethink our choices and look for possible solutions.
","tags":["empowerment"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/ethics/index.html","title":"ethics","text":"","tags":["ethics"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/ethics/index.html#what-if","title":"What if...","text":"...we could break history\u2019s cycles of oppression, where revolution after revolution has often meant that the \u201cwinner,\u201d even when starting with good intentions, becomes an oppressor of the \u201closing side\u201d, like an Orwellian Animal Farm repeated across the centuries?
Imagine embracing the technologies getting built on an ethical foundation. What happens when we BUIDL on the principles of fairness, equity, openness, freedom of expression, love, integrity, truth, gratefulness and non-violence? What does that world look like?
","tags":["ethics"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html","title":"incentives","text":"","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#on-greed","title":"On greed","text":"Greed runs rampant when it knows no love. A curse running through humanity's veins, as if placed there by an evil enemy, yet one does not exist. Greed, however, is very good at coming up with new enemies. Corrupting hearts into caring about nothing but itself, greed has a serious disregard for the consequences.
Too many have been lost to its strings, believing they are the puppeteers, when indeed they have become the puppets to an insatiable thirst for control. Greed welcomes fear and anger into its arms, destructive forces built on nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Can curses be broken?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#when-the-currency-is-attention","title":"When the currency is attention","text":"Generations no longer know what it was like before social media. Our lives have always been social, but what we do when the tools to connect are right at our fingertips can be an authentic creative expression or be primarily based on attention-getting. The latter can lead to an illusory metric of self-worth.
Creativity abounds on social media, it follows different patterns, like seeing the people we know modeling and curating their lifestyles, or being authoritative and accomplished. When we know them in person, we may notice how they have adapted to branding patterns dependent on the likes and comments to determine their self-worth. On the viewer's side, feeds may not be taken as learning or connecting opportunities, instead viewer's eyes hone in as if looking at trophies to imitate and compete toward.
The signals point to attention-getting as being a valuable skillset, looking at metrics to generate similar content to the highest performing posts becomes a practice, and getting an influencer's like becomes a reinforcement of their goals. Attention is the currency.
Short bursts of surface level information and quick emotional reactions abound, as they can generate the most engagement. This leaves less possibility oflonger conversations and building niche audiences. Click-bait headlines are read and taken as truth, but not clicked-through and analyzed. Heavy tilting to one side of an argument, without seeing the complexity of each situation or reading into sarcasm, leads to divisions.
All of these markers can distort our reality and generate the feeling of a marketing and branding competition with the empty goal of reaching the \"masses\" and becoming an \"influencer,\" just for the numbers and quick growth. Creating content with the priority of generating attention, means being dependent on others to judge you, and just like one day popularity is flooding, another, cancel culture can be setting in. Often, people's self-confidence ebbs and flows based on these signals, or their lack.
Human identity is so much deeper and complex than what we sometimes experience online. It should be independent of attention and judgement. Being exhalted or put down shouldn't break the balance within, and when it does, it should be a moment to reflect and get back to the center. It should not lean toward what is likely to get approval nor should it be silenced by what is likely to be rejected. It should reflect us.
Imperfection makes us human, to focus on perfection and attention online, feels like when someone goes out on a few dates and pretends to be someone they are not. They may meet someone who is a pretender like them, but they'd be missing out on the one who loves them for who they are.
When a new product feature is added, what do we hope for it? What are the incentives we are building into it? Is attention a worthy currency?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#a-suitcase-of-memories","title":"A suitcase of memories","text":"As we actively look through the glass screens of our mobile devices, these little gadgets carry more and more of our lives.
Each screen seems to be far away from what we consider tangible, as if everything digital belonged to the realm of the imagination.
These screens, however, even when floating in the technological cloud, are becoming an essential part of our lives.
They can be the keepers of memories & identity,
The builders of creativity,
The connectors to our family and friends,
The discoverers of new information,
The doors to our money,
The guardians of our health,
The organizers of our time,
The builders of mindfulness...
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#lost-in-the-clicks","title":"Lost in the clicks","text":"Click, click through terms and conditions without reading them, click to close another cookie pop up, log in or create an account, otherwise be kept out.
Having access to information at the touch of our fingertips is a form of freedom. We feel connected, within reach. However, this freedom is not as resilient or as real as it should be.
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#fomo","title":"FOMO","text":"Bells are ringing and it's not Christmas. Full inboxes, DMs, mentions, ads, notifications... Our way of life is changing. So much activity and information can distort our sense of time, as if it was no longer moving at the same speed.
Time feels fast and fleeting, requiring immediate action. Piles of content means shorter attention spans, and FOMO can take residence, but only if we allow it.
Technology's ephemeral qualities make it hard to imagine the negative consequences to what we are giving up, what we are allowing others to take from our readers or customers, or that technology could be used against us.
If we don't allow ourselves the opportunity to slow down and be mindful of our choices, we can fall for the marketing of what is easy and popular, rather than looking deeper at the substance and what we want to be part of our lives.
We have the freedom of choice on how we spend our time. We can choose to fill it with who and what feeds our souls in healthier ways. We should not miss out on what matters most by getting distracted with the extra noise. The FOMO we should have is not about the popular but the meaningful.
who and what do you give your time to?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html","title":"bugs & mistakes","text":"only if we embrace mistakes, and learn from them, will we grow stronger
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#we-broke","title":"We broke...","text":"Nostr is like a decentralized fleet of ships at sea. Some days, storms hit those ships and nostr hodls on. Not every storm is a negative happenstance: A flood of people rushed through Damus' doors, when it was accepted in the Apple App Store. Access to nostr created a storm that tested the strength of relays.
In real time, we could read how developers were bracing for the storm, how they fought to withstand it, and how, sometimes, stuff breaks... for a while. Then these notes and stuff transmitted through relays get built back up again. Resilience is another word for nostr..
Storms did not only hit relays, they also hit lightning, as new people on nostr continued the tradition of sending their first lightning invoices, now transformed into zaps. Most of the weight fell on the Wallet of Satoshi's shoulders. Bitcoin has a similar ecosystem to nostr. In nostr you can discover various nostr clients, and in bitcoin, you can find many wallets. People began recommending Blue Wallet, Muun... to help with the high usage of new lightning zappers.
Nostr is sometimes known for breaking things, often leading to stronger products faster. It experiences real life tests of scalability and it adjusts its sails to withstand future storms.
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#aliens--unidentified-flying-objects","title":"Aliens & Unidentified Flying Objects","text":"We may have bold and italics to give emphasis to text, but we do not have a way to signal sarcasm. In order to understand it, we need to be in the conversation. What do we believe? What do we mock? We often mock fakeness, lies, disregard for truth and ethics.
Life teaches us to laugh at our mistakes and imperfections. We can grow stronger when we can take criticism, when we can look deeper into how we work and learn from it.
Yet so many centralized bodies do not tolerate sarcasm nor criticism, they do not allow for learning or growing, as if they wanted to remain stagnant, when everything is fluid. Anything that remains stagnant weakens over time, as if it was blind to its mistakes. Holding on to a broken past in the hopes to retain a power structure prevents positive growth and innovation.
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#orange-pill-moments","title":"Orange Pill Moments","text":"In the bitcoin world, knowledge is a highly valued form of freedom. It is the \"orange\" pill inspired by the concept of the blue and red pills from the Matrix. Choose to take that metaphorical bitcoin orange pill and you will never look at the world in the same way. Knowledge has that power.
Orange pills symbolize a bitcoin culture that thrives on learning, testing, and solving for issues. Swallowing bitcoin concepts can be revealing. Money connects us, yet how it works and affects people's lives across the globe is often an unspoken subject outside of bitcoin circles, treated as a taboo subject.
The effects of an orange pill focuses on education and translates into real life choices that can improve people's lives.
Technology can BUIDL on itself across time thanks to the work and openness of many people. Bitcoin brings together a technological foundation from the past, adding to it, and putting everything into a one-of-a-kind formula built with the purpose of solving for many of the issues in current financial systems. (Thank you Satoshi Nakamoto et al.).
The orange-pill effect helps people gain a deeper understanding of the gaps and issues with current financial system practices, but this learning process spreads further into other areas of our lives. It encourages integrity, fairness, openness, low time preference, collaboration, personal responsibility, critical and ethical thinking... It allows us to connect with our humanity.
As you look back on your own journey, what's been your favorite \"orange-pill\" moment? What did you learn? Has that knowledge carried unto other parts of your life?
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html","title":"I-Got-Your-Back Protocol","text":"","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html#one-clients-win-is-a-win-for-all-of-nostr","title":"one client's win is a win for all of nostr.","text":"Nostr is interoperable. If you've heard the word protocol tossed around, without knowing its meaning: Imagine if Facebook and Twitter were both written with the same foundational code, so you could enter both of them and access your same profile, follows, followers, and posts on both of them, no matter which one you chose to use. People could find you on Facebook, even if you were only using Twitter. The difference between them would be the design and unique features they could offer you. Unfortunately, they are platforms choosing to run their own code, instead of running on an interoperable protocol.
Nostr is different. It has a community of developers working on different projects. These projects all run nostr as their foundation. They could be thought of as competing with each other, because they can add similar features, and yet, each one also offers something unique. Every milestone each one reaches, makes the whole community stronger, pushing development and innovation into new horizons. It also gives you choice and access, unlike anything you've seen before. It's a win win.
We celebrate the small steps forward creating new avenues of access to nostr. One client's win, is a win for all of nostr.
Interoperability means thinking beyond yourself, beyond individual products, into the possibilities to support the whole. #Nostr is an I-got-your-back protocol.
","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html#santas-pow--network-effects","title":"Santa's PoW & network effects","text":"Nostr is like Santa's workshop all-year-round. Features are the gifts of products that have a direct effect on our daily lives. They can empower and protect the individual. Their foundational principles are the magic.
Nostriches around the world send their letters to nostr Santas in the shape of notes, asking developers for what they wish the most.
Open source is open, because anyone can add their grain of sand and contribute to a project they care about. It is work we can verify, looking through the GitHubs, and sometime in the future, the nostr GitNests of those projects we love.
The nostr protocol is a strong foundation to BUIDL upon, but its use and spread depends on its network effects. The stronger the community bonds, the stronger the protocol. It is a give and take.
","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/originality/index.html","title":"originality","text":"","tags":["originality"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/originality/index.html#custom-fits","title":"custom fits","text":"Many years ago, I heard of a shop in Paris that could craft a rare perfume just for you. You'd be guided trough a multiple level process, selecting base scents to make up the different notes needed to create a custom parfum. The chances you'd have of selecting the same notes as someone else would be minute, but even if your choices were the same, its scent would be different once worn. Perfume reacts to the uniqueness of your body chemistry, and your chemistry fluctuates over time.
As rare as it seems to have your own custom perfume bottle, it pales in comparison to the magnificent diversity within humanity, so it is surprising to see the multiple ways of trying to fit people into a small set of perfect boxes, often unrealistic and unreachable.
Not only can we not become someone else who is as unique as each one of us, but we should question why we would want to. Even a clone could not be you, because he/she/they/ze could not have the same experiences you have had.
Many times, these categories and stereotypes are said to determine our fortune, but only based on quantifiable qualities used to measure you against others, turning fortune into an illusion of a triangle with just a few people fitting at the top.
Life, however, is more like a turning wheel of experiences, and our fortune rarely depends on where you are on the wheel nor which categories you happen to fit into.
In a similar fashion, sometimes products start looking like clones. Although some of the design features that make it to our hands benefit from familiarity, apps and websites also need something that sets them apart. A product maker can imitate, especially at the beginning of the building process, as they start to learn the tools of the trade, but with time, creativity should flourish.
","tags":["originality"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html","title":"protocols over platforms","text":"","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html#ripple-effect","title":"Ripple effect","text":"
A protocol like nostr is interoperable simplicity, yet it is not a dead language. Its code and its upper layers get written like gears in constant movement, churning new lines into websites and apps. It isn't code that sparks out of nowhere. It's molded and reshaped by open source communities brainstorming ideas, listening closely to the people who use their products, and bringing those ideas to life. Each step forward carries new challenges, as the gears shape PR after PR, with products built and strengthened over time.
We cannot know all of the work that has gone into giving us a door to freedom of expression. We do not know the depth of the countless challenges or the innovative solutions as they are placed into the code. We do not know all the layers of thought that go into keeping protocol interoperability while also driving innovation. We do not know the extent of positive effects it could have across the globe and into the future.
But we have the proof in our hands that the work is happening. Every day reveals a new surprise, a different way of using nostr. New doors open, because developers and designers care about freedom of expression, and continue to build upon that foundation.
A tool for freedom built by many, yet united in nostr.
","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html#nostr-is-a-wider-team-effort","title":"Nostr is a wider team effort","text":"From the surface, it may seem impossible to be able to build nostr without a central figure dictating every move. Yet that absence is what makes this protocol move much faster and creatively than its platform counterparts.
Instead of a chaotic mess without purpose or vision, as one might imagine protocols to be, nostr revolves around a number of creative hubs with specific types of development and design. Hubs interact openly with one another, sharing ideas, issues to resolve, and milestones to celebrate... Each hub is a team, and development depends on how well the team can gel while retaining creative independence.
Nostr as a protocol works, in part, because of its guiding principles: Decentralization, simplicity, interoperability...
Another positive aspect is the fun in building something that you interact with everyday. It feels purposeful to dig into issues and to find a way to contribute.
It doesn't mean contributing is perfect, that there isn't overlap or mistakes along the way, but nothing is perfect. Nostr's ability to captivate creative people is what keeps its wheels moving.
It should not be a road to burnout, but the threading of a community building on each other's open work and deep dives into solutions. It is a work that should not only value the present, but to value building a stronger foundation for the future.
","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/truth/index.html","title":"truth","text":"","tags":["truth"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/truth/index.html#how-will-humanity-build--use-ai","title":"How will humanity build & use AI?","text":"Some say the technological age calls upon us to adapt at a much faster rate than ever. Our worlds are being shaped and reshaped by technology. Creativity flows more freely, easily, and with tremendous scalability. Human thought can make it unto a digital canvas at a moment's notice, and new breakthroughs are making the process more dynamic.
The printing press, and then the internet, freed books.
The digital camera, and then cellphones, freed photography.
Each technological breakthrough has been a tool that could offer more freedom, but only when held by those who value freedom.
Is AI freeing us? It depends on how we choose to develop it and how we choose to use it.
There has always been a fight between control and freedom. Books have been banned or taken down from online stores. Cameras can capture memories or spy on us.
Many ethical concerns surround technology, yet it also holds the possibility of freeing some aspect of our lives. It all depends on the road forward. It is a complex rabbit hole filled with more questions than answers.
Information has always been controlled in some way over the centuries, as they say, the winners of wars are the ones who wrote the history books. The darkest of times are the most silent, the ones that host the majority view as the sole source of truth, though it has nothing to do with truth itself. Information is more likely to be suppressed in conflictive and difficult times, and yet that is when it's needed the most.
Controlling a story and making it one sided paints a flawed picture of reality. It can be used to place blame on others rather than on the real issue. It can fear or anger that often leads to giving up freedoms. It can also be used to quiet opposing points of view in order to keep power.
Control of information is often a clear lack of transparency. It sits on murky waters no longer based on truth nor perspective on the complexity of a situation. It seeks to control while advertising freedom or safety, but it is neither.
As AI makes a stronger dent into our lives, many questions arise on both the benefits and the tradeoffs.
If AI is based on a large sample of the internet, does it truly reflect humanity, or only the voices of those who have had access to technology and whose voices have not been censored? Does it reflect real human thought and experience or does it pick up on the emotional reactions sometimes fueled by algorithms shaped to generate engagement and attention, instead of critical thinking and deeper learning. If it has wide access to the internet, how much is it gathering about us and for what purpose?
Does it reflect every voice, or is it as selective as our history books? What biases is it selecting?
Can it be open and transparent? What happens when it is held by the hands of the few with hidden biases, agendas, and incentives? If its workings are hidden from our view, how can we know why it is trained?
Is it a way to let more of the minority voices have a say and a freedom to express their thoughts? Or could it be used to spread a majority point of view at a much faster scale? Could it be used to diminish minority voices, setting them on a path to silence? Will it spam most of our sources of information, making it hard to arrive at what is real and trustworthy?
Can it help make self expression easier for the masses, or will it make a homegenous fabric of images, words and videos, representative that which those who control the inputs want to be the \"truth\"?
As technology has advanced, we have also become more sedentary, will we let it turn us into mindless couch potatoes, or will we appreciate the sun shining on our faces and dive deeper into learning?
Could it help us dig deeper or express more complex ideas? Or is it more likely to prevent us from seeing the truth or digging for it?
What happens when you know someone has lied to you, not by mistake or ignorance, but on purpose? Are you be able to trust that person?
What happens when we cannot trust that AI tells the truth? When it is neither open nor transparent. When we do not know how and why it is being programmed? What can we do when its development can be more about control than freedom?
Like in much of the freedom tech ecosystems, we need AI alternatives that offer the openness, transparency, choice, and diversity of tools, so we are not dependent on centralized parties that can control most of the information we receive. Truth matters. Critical thinking has always been an important skill, but are we arriving at a time where technology will test how we receive that information and what we choose to believe more than ever before? Can we BUIDL something that carries the principles we value that support our freedoms?
","tags":["truth"]},{"location":"nostrverse/index.html","title":"Explore the nostrverse","text":"Diving deeper into the development of various nostr apps & tools
"},{"location":"nostrverse/index.html#amethyst","title":"Amethyst","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html","title":"Now and then","text":"Love is the foundation for tools valuing freedom, choice, and personal autonomy.
This is a field trip into the why behind freedom tech.
Don't trust, verify.
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#now","title":"Now","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#sci-fi-post-apocalyptic-story","title":"Sci-fi post-apocalyptic story","text":"I\u2019ll be exploring our cyberspace for those technological gifts and their nemesis. These discoveries will shape the base layers for a post apocalyptic science fiction story showing where those two paths could lead\u2026
Through an open behind the scenes process, I'll be sharing thoughts and tips, asking questions, and creating open UX design resources as I test and learn more about the why behind the tech.
The primary tech focus will be on bitcon, nostr, and their symbiosis. I'll be taking the writing aspect of storytelling and making it come alive through art, 3D modeling, music, and animation.
Come along this creative journey as the story gets weaved, along with smaller, educational, yet kind of fun pieces.
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#find-me-on-nostr-only","title":"Find me on nostr only","text":"elidy
npub1a7n2h5y3gt90y00mwrknhx74fyzzjqw25ehkscje58x9tfyhqd5snyvfnu
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#blogging-on-nostr","title":"Blogging on Nostr","text":"Behind-the-scenes
\u2192 Highlighter
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#nostrorg","title":"Nostr.org","text":"Contributing to design and copy on splash page to welcome people to nostr
\u2192 On GitHub
\u2192 Version 2.0 coming soon, PR on GitHub
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#nostr-meetup-kit","title":"Nostr Meetup Kit","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#behind-the-t-shirt-designs-what-do-you-see","title":"Behind the t-shirt designs: What do you see?","text":"\u2192 Latest design available on shop.nostr.build
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#then","title":"Then","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"Keep the Nostr Weird","text":"On YouTube
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#bitcoinostr-a-symbiosis","title":"Bitcoinostr: A Symbiosis","text":"On YouTube
"},{"location":"read/index.html","title":"A freedom tech story in the works","text":""},{"location":"read/index.html#tick-tock","title":"Tick tock","text":"\u201cA storm is brewing,\u201d said Xileh to his granddaughter, Toril, as they looked out from the balcony of Rigmor's clock tower. The air felt cool and humid as they breathed it in. Clouds were forming in the horizon and the wind started to pick up.
\u201cMost people can\u2019t tell when one is coming anymore.\u201d He continued.
\u201cI know. They\u2019ve forgotten how to listen to nature.\u201d Replied Toril, in awe at the spectacle in front of them.
\u201cI don\u2019t mean this storm.\" He said, taking a stronger grip on the balcony's rail. \u201cOur time here is limited. As I near the end...\u201d
\u201cDon\u2019t say that.\u201d She interrupted him, noticing the many wrinkles on his face, a reflection of every experience and emotion he had carried across his lifetime. He had refused to go under the knife to correct them. She had grown to appreciate them as proof of what he had lived.
\"When you look back on your life, you realize the only thing that mattered was love and those moments built around it.\" He turned to look at his granddaughter\u2019s eyes, seeing a gleam of hope for the future, wrapped in concern for her safety.
\"History keeps repeating. Life is much worse in periods of silence like these, where human thought is suppressed through fear. We are privileged, because they still need us, but most of our people have been forced to forget.\"
\u201cYou\u2019re starting to worry me.\u201d She said, noticing the seriousness in his voice.
\u201cWorry is a sign to get ready. A lot will change. Your principles will be tested. You will have to make decisions that will affect people\u2019s lives and they can be heavy to carry. You can only do the best you can with the knowledge you have. Avoid making assumptions.
\"Be careful who you trust. Do not get taken by empty words. I don't think you can trust _____.\u201d
\u201cBut I know him well, he\u2019s practically family.\u201d
\u201cIn this environment, his actions lived in a bubble. He is not the same person out there. I worry that he is not who we think he is. I hope to be proved wrong, but you can grow up in the same household and be opposite people. I fear, in my hope to protect him, I encouraged him to take more than to give. He is privileged above the rest.\" As he said that, the weight of the past felt so heavy in his heart that it could have pulled it down many floors.
\u201cListen, Toril. I have been prepping something for you. It will be delivered in an unexpected way. You\u2019ll know what I mean when the time comes. This is important. No one can know about it.\u201d She nodded, knowing how complex a human being her grandfather was, so much so, that the idea of something unexpected was to be expected.
\u201cHe cannot know about it either. He thinks he knows you just as you think you know him. They might use him to try to get to you.\u201d
\u201cWhy do you not trust him?\u201d
\u201cPeople who seek attention are often malleable, their principles don\u2019t exist in the ways we both understand them. Easy money removes the value of our effort and time. It can drive people to seek easy paths and the fastest way up to whatever ladder they think exists. Popularity may be popular in this society, but it doesn\u2019t make you who you are. That depends on your actions and the reasons behind them. Your choices must be independent of whether people love you, hate you or cancel you. They\u2019re your inner protocol.\u201d
He continued speaking, as if he wanted to pour a lifetime of knowledge into those few minutes. He hoped to have given her enough tools to manage what was coming, but what he wished for the most was to have prevented it altogether.
\u201cWhen words are built for headlines, stats, or votes, they cannot be trusted. You cannot trust someone who masks the truth, often not taking the time to dig deeper, to try to see the 360\u00b0 view. Nothing is as simple as it seems. A lot of what you see and hear are just fa\u00e7ades inside games of power and control. You must learn to see what's behind them.\u201d
\u201cIt is hard to have people you trust wholeheartedly. You discover them when you spot similar principles and patterns of action. When you are lucky enough to have such a person, you keep them close, as they\u2019ll have your back. You protect them as they protect you.\u201d
\u201cWas grandma that for you?\u201d
\u201cYes, but I was too blind to see it in time. Do not make the same mistake.\u201d
He removed a locket from his neck, one he had carried for as long as she had been under his care, and gave it to her.
As she took it in the palm of her hand, tears started swelling in her eyes, like the clouds rolling in.
The skies darkened and small rain droplets started falling, making a melancholic sound against the metal structure\u2026
"},{"location":"read/odds-and-ends.html","title":"Odds and ends","text":"
Every writing process has bits and pieces that do not quite fit within the story, but are somehow related to it. Since this is an open process, you'll find those here.
"},{"location":"read/odds-and-ends.html#the-setting","title":"The setting","text":"In the city of Rigmor, the four massive vermilion gates, which once stood for truth, courage, and freedom, had become an association to fear. Closed off to keep most on the inside, by force rather than choice, these gates seemed to have forgotten their purpose. Instead of being open and filled with activity, they had been restructured to almost become walls. Since (some yet to determine unknown event related to war), Rigmor had lost its candor and innovation. What remained of its foundational bones, was the unique vermilion lacquer on the gates' rosewood frames, a reminder of a past that could come again.
The words truth and freedom had been avoided in common lexicon for so long that they seemed lost, but not their meaning. Freedom is a natural state of humanity, it cannot be erased from our subconscious though fear may try. Deep within, away from that which corrodes the spirit, we all carry the essence of freedom. We all crave truth. While those feelings seemed to lay dormant, no one could predict the exact place where that spark of change could come from, but it always does. No stronger spark exists than in those places where hope seems lost, for it is then that it is most valued. The time for this city to awaken is about to begin.
"},{"location":"read/page-1.html","title":"Truth","text":"Toril stared at her computer screen in disbelief. It showed a series of input boxes for a long password, too long to guess.
\"No, no, no, no.\" She said aloud with serious concern. It was like running into a blue screen, not a good sign at all, especially not on the eve of Halloween, one of the busiest seasons of the year for the city's warehouse. They had a guaranteed delivery to meet.
\"Could it be ransomware?\" she thought. Government offices and companies had been hit by a wave of strange tech occurrences.
\"But it isn't asking for money. Phishing?\"
\"(future name), has there been a power outage?\" she said in a louder tone.
No answer.
\"No access to my computer should not mean no access to the warehouse's assistant, or should it?\" She pondered. After shadowing Xileh for most of her life, there was still so much she didn't know about the inner workings of their logistics system.
The warehouse was on 24/7 and almost fully automated. She had learned to troubleshoot on her own, but today she needed to solve A.S.A.P.
She rushed out of the office taking a long hallway toward Xileh's lab. The hallway was flanked by windows revealing the warehouse's inner workings. She ran so quickly through it, that the lab felt like it was right next door. A package delivery robot holding a large box blocked the entrance. She went around it, ignoring it, and crossed the lab toward Xileh's main worktable. The robot followed her at a slower speed.
\"Xileh! Xileh!\" she called out a few times, as she looked around the room, but he was nowhere to be found. He rarely carried his phone, so sending out a message would not help. At his age, he didn't keep office hours like he used to. His lab, however, reflected the spirit of a tinkerer that would never stop experimenting. She sent him a message anyway, only to hear the beep nearby.
\"He would not miss being here for Halloween... Well, he might notice the message when he comes back.\" She shrugged.
She approached the rows of bookcases and piles of paper in a corner of the room, reminded of how Xileh always wanted real world backups. She never understood why that was so important, until now.
\"What if all the information was gone?\" She thought as she tried to make sense of Xileh's organization style or the lack thereof.
\"But automation hasn't stopped. Everything seems to be running as usual.\" She held some comfort in that thought.
She spotted the row of manuals for a lot of the warehouse's equipment. Her eyes scanned through them. \"Found it!\" She said aloud, taking the manual for her computer out of the shelf. As she opened it, it had a thicker yellow page with a recovery password.
\"This is probably it.\" She thought, relieved, and thinking she had worried too much over a password.
Taking the manual with her, she started walking out. She couldn't help but take a moment to look back. That large open studio held so many memories. The rays of sunlight were coming in through the trees outside of the tall windows, giving the lab an almost magical eerie glow, as if the robots Xileh was working on could come to life at any moment.
She was startled by the delivery robot catching up to her.
More relaxed, she said, \"Ok, let me see what you got.\" Odd, it was addressed to her with an urgent label. No info on the sender. Her mail delivery was always done to her office. She wasn't expecting a robot delivery either; they were only sent out when the packages were larger than the subterranean logistics system.
She hesitated in opening the box, perhaps she should scan it first, just in case.
It said urgent, but so was regaining access to her system. She sent an order to the robot through her wristband to head to the scan room, and she walked back to her office, not as quickly, but still feeling pressured to make sure this was the solution.
She looked through the windows as she walked, everything seemed normal. The flow of robots and boxes never stopped. Xileh had told her the story of the architect who built the warehouse. Some had complained that it was a warehouse for robots and with it being almost fully automated, it didn't need anything architecturally appealing. They wanted a climate controlled box. The architect refused to remove the human element from it, and, because of that, these rows of windows existed. They gave an almost 360\u00b0 view of the warehouse at work. Xileh wasn't sure how he had convinced them to built it this way. Even if he had mentioned how building with a location in mind tends to save on energy, and how using stronger materials is an investment in the future, many only build for the now.
Not even taking the time to sit down, Toril started typing the digits to the password: 19d6689c085ae, only to come up short.
\"Oh, shoot!\" It was 13 digits, she needed 21. She sifted through the manual, but found nothing of help.
As she stood there trying to think of a possible alternative, the delivery robot again caught up to her. It had ignored the order to head to the scan room.
\"How creepy,\" she thought, \"First a password request appears out of nowhere, then a rogue robot. But some older robot models do not respond to the new software commands, and, this is not a sci-fi movie.\"
Maybe Halloween was getting to her.
\"Could this be what Xileh was talking about that night at the clock tower?\" She thought.
She instinctively took the box opener from the robot's side. She had opened so many boxes in her lifetime, that it was second nature. As she lifted the flaps, she saw a myriad of flowers.
\"Aww,\" she said in surprise.
Xileh gifted her flowers every year for her birthday. She had gotten a different kind of flower each year: roses, lavender... Each had been made of different materials and colors. Each year carried a different meaning.
These were orange marigolds, and they were real! Over the generations, companies had disfavored the natural, and real flowers were a rare request. During her time at the warehouse, she had noticed a few shipments of real flowers, and always wondered what those who ordered them could be celebrating.
These had such a peculiar scent that it brought back childhood memories. Xileh used to say marigolds were the flowers of truth. They still grew in the wild behind the warehouse, on the outskirts of the city. She had often wondered if her grandma had planted them. Xileh said she had a green thumb, and that had become as rare as real flowers.
Toril smiled wide, but, her birthday wasn't until January.
She paused for a moment.
\"Xileh and his riddles,\" she thought, while shaking her head. \"Halloween trick?\" She looked back at that screen with thirteen digits, needing 8 more.
She typed out her birthday: 01 03 2140
Hit enter, and...
\"What?\" Toril's face turned pale.
"},{"location":"terminology/index.html","title":"terminology","text":"","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#the-language-of-freedom-tech","title":"the language of freedom tech","text":"
Tech has an evolving cyberspace lexicon based on innovation mixed with culture.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#client","title":"client","text":"Nostr is NOT just one app.
A nostr client is an app or website created with nostr code that finds and posts nostr content unto relay servers. Since it is open code, any developer can build their own version of a nostr client running on the nostr protocol.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#keys","title":"keys","text":"Not your keys, not your social media.
To join nostr, you don't need to give up your email or phone number. Instead, the first time you sign up to most nostr clients, you get a special set of keys. These are two long strings of letters and numbers unique to you. You can use them to enter most of the nostrverse. They also keep a path to your notes, follows, and followers.
They belong only to you.
You get a public key and a secret key. Share your public key, keep your secret key backed up and safe.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#nostrich","title":"nostrich","text":"The nostrich, in its various styles, has become the nostr mascot.
The idea was born on December 16th, 2022.
walker:
@ dave can you write a joke about #nostr?
note167jwwjamdwm48lje83804pjczkncu6prjpf3kamyslzpjtr7c5asvu9p2s
dave (gpt3):
Q: What do you call a nosy ostrich?
A: A nosTrich!
note163g7kae08rx4sqv5xq67dh3926pw5tkq2pzxctyzjh8ypcqldxfqwntysx
Then, on Dec 20th, 2022, Will (jb55) posted the image above with the legend:
\"I propose the nostrich to be the official nostr mascot and logo.\"
note19dazj8tfcpl42gurwctxxj5lrq4t9qel9g7wyycjhrzqp93lxe4sqafzzg
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#note","title":"note","text":"Instead of tweets or posts, nostr has notes. Feel free to write notes away.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#npub-or-public-key","title":"npub or public key","text":"Your public key takes the place of your handle. It is unique to you. You can also have a handle with any name you want, and you can change it anytime you want. You don't need to add any numbers or strange spellings, because what needs to be unique is your npub.
npub + LongStringOfNumbersAndLettersUniqueToYou
Share your public key with your friends, so they can find you or mention you. You can copy it from your profile (often found by a key or QR code icon).
If you spot a QR icon in your nostr client, others can scan it and their nostr app should open to your profile page, as long as their app has that functionality. Some nostr clients let you share other people's npub QR's too.
Someone else could try to impersonate you, use the same name, profile pic, and description, but they cannot have the same npub.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#nsec-aka-secret-or-private-key","title":"nsec a.k.a. secret or private key","text":"You are the sole keeper of your secret key. It is a special kind of \"password\" you can use to sign in to nostr clients, to create notes...
nsec + LongStringOfNumbersAndLettersUniqueToYou
It belongs only to you, not to a company. If you are used to the ways of platforms like Twitter and Facebook, you may think someone can help you recover it, but you won't find a \"forgot your password?\" option.
Nostr is different, you're the one in control. When someone owns your account, they know your password and can help you recover it. One of the tradeoffs is that they can also close down your account, rate limit it, shadow ban it... On nostr you own your keys and should keep your nsec safe.
TIP: Save your nsec in a password manager (for example Bitwarden). Write down a copy somewhere safe. Some nostr clients keep your secret key hidden in the Settings. Make sure you copy it and save it in your password manager before logging out. In the future, we may see options to save an encrypted copy in the cloud, perhaps some options already exist. Do not share it.
If you are logging in through a website (not an app), save your nostr nsec in a special browser extension first. Browsers, by nature, are not as safe, your secret key could get stolen. You may see this option to log in labelled as \"login with extension or NIP-07\"
","tags":["terms"]}]} \ No newline at end of file +{"config":{"lang":["en"],"separator":"[\\s\\u200b\\-_,:!=\\[\\]()\"`/]+|\\.(?!\\d)|&[lg]t;|(?!\\b)(?=[A-Z][a-z])","pipeline":["stopWordFilter"]},"docs":[{"location":"index.html","title":"home","text":"Home
"},{"location":"buidl-hodl/index.html","title":"BUIDL HODL","text":"Exploring the principles behind empowering technology, and how they tie-in to our daily lives.
"},{"location":"buidl-hodl/experience/index.html","title":"experience","text":"development & design shape our product experiences
","tags":["ux"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/experience/index.html#bridges","title":"bridges","text":"As children, we often hear stories of butterflies. We are awed by how a caterpillar can become a winged creature, as if blessed with some kind of magic. It feels almost surreal to look at what seems like two different insects, and yet we know they are one and the same.
A caterpillar is the foundation to a butterfly. It carries its bands of colors like FOSS projects carry principles or unconference goers carry t-shirts. The difference is in how it moves. A caterpillar is significantly slower, its vision is limited to what is in front of it, it cannot enjoy gliding in the wind.
When it comes to software, in order to become a butterfly, code must bridge in constructive loops with design.
Development is the behind the scenes framework that can make everything run well, design is what translates that framework into something we can understand and use. As design and development interact, the human connection with a product becomes smoother, like gliding in the wind. It is understandable, like having the vision of a landscape from higher up. It is enjoyable and familiar, like a butterfly that does not need to think that it\u2019s flying, it just does.
When development and design can walk back and forth, building better experiences, a product has left its cocoon.
","tags":["ux"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/freedom/index.html","title":"freedom","text":"","tags":["freedom"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/freedom/index.html#freedom-vs-control","title":"freedom vs. control","text":"Technology, including the internet, has opened new worlds for connecting and empowering people across the globe. It is as if we have gained access to new dimensions and dissolved barriers between us.
These dimensions are a reflection of humanity. As you dive deeper into how technology has been shaped and reshaped, you often discover widespread practices of dominant global societies with central organizations who decide the rules and the access. This leaves space for greed, censorship, corruption, data amassing, privacy infringement, and other practices that forgo a foundation on human rights for a foundation on control and maximum profit.
It is a paradox and a mystery to think that those in power can institute policies that can infringe on their own rights.
As some build on control, surveillance, and maximum profit, others build on the idea that \"information wants to be free.\" In many ways, it not only wants to be free, it seeks to be freeing. It can be built on freedom, love, and individual rights. A challenging frontier, empowering technology calls upon each person to be responsible over our own lives.
If you have lived under authoritarian rule, if you have experienced the ravages of war, if you have experienced the hardships of spiking inflation, if you have been censored for using your voice to defend human rights, if your bank account has been closed or worse for supporting a protest, if you've been persecuted for being different, the choice of personal freedom through responsibility is simple.
Technology is growing to allow personal responsibility and control over your own money (bitcoin), identity (nostr, web5), privacy (DIDs)...
It gives you the keys to make choices over your own life, a freedom we did not know we had lost.
","tags":["freedom"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html","title":"What it means to own your keys.","text":"Thoughts on the freedom of removing third parties.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#what-do-you-see-keys","title":"What do you see? Keys.","text":"2024\u00b7April\u00b703
We all learn through observation, imitation, practice, mistakes, and more practice. We learn by comparing and contrasting what we see in the world, in order to imagine what we wish it could be. At core, we long for something that defines us and adds meaning to our daily lives.
Copycat imitation is not interesting. A custom creative journey is.
Some say, experience gives you a unique style, as you learn the tools. Experience, however, opens a myriad of possible roads to create art. You may relate to that as knowing how to shape and reshape a coding language for your various needs and purposes. The deeper you learn and test how programming languages work, the wider array of choices on what and how to create. While in code you may seek efficiency and simplicity, in art, people often seek a recognizable look.
If you see some of my latest artwork, you might say there is a look, but the reality is different if we look across time. Art can vary widely, even wildly, depending on both purpose and media.
If I do not hope for a recognizable look, what is it that I hope for?
nostr spirit
If we only look at the quality of the code or the style of the art, we are often holding a boxed-in perspective. Take nostr, for example, you could compare it with other social media and criticize it solely on how a single client looks and feels compared to what you have experienced elsewhere. Based on that sole known concept, some may see nostr as \"not quite the same\", as if something was missing: their people. But are people locked-in their previous apps forever?
That depends on how you see nostr, just like it depends on whether you understand the story behind the art. For me, switching to only nostr was simple, but I went down the rabbit hole. I feel more grateful everyday for all the qualities that make nostr different: Yes, it's also about the people.
The people on nostr are shaping what it becomes on every layer: Code, design, UX, content, and beyond. You do not get that anywhere else. It is not advertisements nor algorithms built for advertisers or data buyers that make the decisions. We make the decisions, as part of a larger community. Hence, we are free to contribute to building what fits us best.
Over time, I realized I do not want the engagement farming, the unethical data gathering, the possibility of having my account cancelled because I think different. I am only on nostr. The only other account I keep is Pinterest, but not on a social level. I hope one day, nostr will have as much content to discover. It depends on us to make it what we wish it to be.
What nostr solves for is not the same as other social media. You own your nostr on so many levels. Your keys give you access to any app on the nostrverse, along with all of your notes, follows and followers. It's a compact suitcase, but it fits so much. For content creators, it opens the door to micropayments through zaps. This value4value support is not based on advertisements, it is a direct link to your audience, and the specific content they appreciate. Signal over noise.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#easter-eggs","title":"Easter eggs","text":"I keep digging deeper into what is at the core of freedom tech and how it inspires us, as a community. Over the years, I have often added small details with personal meaning to art, a sort of Easter egg. Not the kind of Easter egg that would be noticed nor understood, looking from the outside in. Freedom tech, however, is an open community with various symbols adding meaning to our everyday lives. Naturally, the Easter eggs have continued, but in a way that you, the observer, can discover and understand.
pura vida
When people dismiss technology like Nostr or Bitcoin, it\u2019s often because they do NOT see what makes them special. I\u2019d like art to reflect the idea that some people do NOT see, but for those who do, it is something meaningful and empowering. Perhaps, even when you do NOT know the meaning behind it, it will spark your curiosity to find out why it\u2019s there.
Take this Nostriga t-shirt design, for example. It carries keys. Five of them. You will spot four of them easily, but the fifth one\u2026 that may be a bit of a surprise. For those who understand the value of owning your keys, and hence your nostr, you will see more than five keys there. You will see why keys matter, and that, cannot be seen with the eyes.
Nostriga t-shirt @ shop.nostr.build
It is not the style, but sharing with our people the meaning and principles behind it that makes all the other stuff special.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#support-loop","title":"Support loop","text":"unknown date
Nostr exists outside of the rule of platforms and those who seek to control them. HODLing your nostr keys is hodling your identity and social graph, outside of KYC. By helping develop nostr, you are helping people escape walled gardens & gain control and choice over their identities & have a path to value4value. By using nostr, you are supporting that which supports your freedom of expression.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/keys/index.html#hodl-keys","title":"HODL Keys","text":"unknown date
Keys are interweaved into our daily lives. They open milestones and memories:
Home keys
Music keys\nCar keys
Key ingredients\nKeyboard keys
Click, \n click, \n click\nnostr keys
bitcoin keys...\nIf you are familiar with bitcoin, you may realize it can empower you to have full control over your money, without intermediaries of any kind\u2026 as long as you have your keys and keep them safe. Just like your house keys, if you leave your bitcoin where others have the keys, you run the risk of losing what you have. Bitcoin can be different, you can choose to take full responsibility of it, though that may take an open mind and a lot of diving into deeper and deeper rabbit holes.
We have learned to keep our home keys safe and where we can find them (hopefully). We keep them away from those we do not trust. Bitcoin is similar though it also means being open to learning, open to trial and error, and open to feeling the freedom of empowerment.
","tags":["keys"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/limited/index.html","title":"limited","text":"","tags":["limited"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/limited/index.html#21-million","title":"21 million","text":"Bitcoin is limited edition. Only 21 million bitcoin will exist. Something rare, like bitcoin, is valuable because we cannot find nor create more of it. Like a hug from your grandma or loved ones. Like that person who understands you like no one else can. Like milestones in our lives that cannot be replicated.
","tags":["limited"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/openness/index.html","title":"openness","text":"","tags":["openness"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/openness/index.html#rain","title":"rain","text":"\u201cNo matter how well you water plants, they can never quite grow like when it rains,\u201d grandpa used to say, as he watered the garden late in the afternoon, awaiting the rainy season.
When we work on our own, outside of open-source teamwork, outside of open resources for anyone in the world, it can often feel like waiting for rain.
FOSS has a way of gathering a unique mixture of creativity, coupled with caring about humanity, strengthened by a breath of freedom. It is as if it could rain on anyone and that rain could help buidl stronger solutions.
","tags":["openness"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/proof-of-work/index.html","title":"proof of work","text":"","tags":["PoW"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/proof-of-work/index.html#do-you-know-your-developer","title":"Do you know your developer?","text":"One of the strongest protections of someone's work is PoW and the network effects it generates as it spreads across communities. As long as we stay connected to the builders, no one should be able to come, clone a project, and take all the credit for other people's work.
At the heart of every project is not its code, but its people. Grateful for all those contributing to FOSS.
","tags":["PoW"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html","title":"nostr in time","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-and-after","title":"before and after","text":"Looking at nostr client progress.
On our day to day use of nostr, it is easy to lose track of the many improvements and unique experiences it offers. If we look back in time, we can see how much some nostrverse projects have grown. This is a field trip to document those changes across time.
field trip focus
developer: hodlbod@coracle.social
differentiating feature: music
One of the best features in nostr is showing content based on who you follow and who your follows follow (a.k.a. your network). It helps focus on your interests, and it reduces spam. While, in the future, nostr clients may offer choices in algorithms to curate content, it is good to always have the option to see content based on who and which topics you follow. You are the curator.
Coracle has taken a unique approach to this. It now has a button that finds music on nostr from your network. You can listen to that music while you look through your notes.
Have a favorite musician on nostr? Let me know.
","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-early-2023","title":"before (early 2023)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#after-early-2024","title":"after (early 2024)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#what-constitutes-growth","title":"what constitutes growth?","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#primal","title":"Primal","text":"developer: miljand@primal.net
differentiating feature: tracking network effects
Nostr offers the possibility of developing various curation tool choices. Primal already offers insights into nostr's network effects across time through its explore tab and trending users.
How could we go deeper? Could we see top posts from within our follows or topics?
What is the best metric? Zaps? Could we see what is most replied to by our follows? What are the most followed hashtags?
How could we better understand growth, not just in terms of the amount of people trying nostr, but on who is staying and engaging much deeper and why?
","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#before-may-2023","title":"before (may 2023)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/time/before-and-after/nostr/index.html#after-january-2024","title":"after (january 2024)","text":"","tags":["nostr","before and after"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html","title":"trust","text":"","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#how-do-you-prove-youre-real","title":"How do you prove you're real?","text":"Each human being is unique and creative in their own way. It is hard to fathom anyone wanting to be an impostor. Impostors exist, and it can be a challenge to know the difference.
If you meet someone in real life, it is easy to exchange your npubs, but what happens when you don't?
In nostr you can tie your account to your website as a way of verifying you identity through what's called a NIP05. In some nostr products, you can see your name with an @yourwebsite.com This is particularly useful for content creators, proving you're the author, or you belong to that organization.
To help tell you apart from bots, some websites offer NIP05's. It doesn't end with your domain, it ends with theirs, but it is still one strung higher in the ladder of trust.
Combine that with other trust signals to reveal that unique mixture that makes you, you: Your interactions with the community, creating and sharing your own content, sharing what you find interesting, in other words, just being you is a trust signal.
What makes you who you are?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#getting-back-our-data","title":"Getting back our data","text":"Apps are a bridge to the services we want, from social media to health apps. We express part of our lives through them. Many apps are built around advertising from data gathering, but new doors are opening for building trust & giving back control to people over their content, money & identities.
Many apps are built to track and remember as much information as they can about us, instead of getting only what they need and building trust over time as new services are needed, or through developing stronger relationships with consumers.
From the moment you download an app, it can gather data & keep doing so even when we're not using them. It's as if, before we sit down at a restaurant to place an order, they already have our contact & payment information, & more access than the \"gossip\" of the town would know.
What they could know is hard to imagine: A full list of our friends, family & acquaintances, our user content (emails, photos, recordings...), where we live and where we are at any moment in time, demographics and psychographics (sensitive info), what we buy, the websites and places we visit....
We are often using \"free\" services in exchange for our data, which is used and sold for advertising. This often comes at the expense of privacy & security. However, an app does not have to be free to gather our data. How many services do you subscribe to that have poor privacy practices. Do these practices develop consumer loyalty or is it invasive and spammy? What are better ways of building sustainable products?
Many times we are locked into using an app, because we need access to their services & if we choose to delete our accounts, we cannot take our data with us. Building trust & accountability can come with offering choices to consumers, & those can come from giving us control over our data.
It is a joy to see how self-custody bitcoin apps, and many nostr apps, often choose to gather as little data as possible. This is a path to replacing the advertising incentives, which foster ecosystems for data gathering, instead of for empowering products. More paths are in the works, like Web5 by TBD & the community at large.
How will these efforts encourage the growth and development of alternative creative solutions for sustainable product building that protect the individual's privacy and give back control of data & identity?
Who'll be the service providers of the future? What will they prioritize when building their products? Will they discover that instead of gathering information obscurely in the background, they can walk other paths to develop stronger loyal relationships with their customers?
Will most people understand the importance of being in control of their identity, choosing levels of trust & privacy, knowing they can deny or revoke access to their information? Will they be able to carry their identities back with them, just as we can walk out of a restaurant?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/trust/index.html#on-spam","title":"On Spam","text":"Something is out there...
As your notes float in nostr cyberspace and get shared between relay servers, something else is out there too. No, it's not an alien creature from a sci-fi movie, it's spam. A bit like galactic trash, it can fill global feeds with mountains of gibberish, preventing real content and conversation from happening.
One of the ways some in the nostr community are addressing spam, is through paid relays. At this moment, the relays offering this service, use it like a ticket in, where you pay a few sats (1,000 to 5,000) to cross through their gates. Spam is generated in such large numbers, that having to pay relays, can add up quickly, hence probably deterring its practice. Less spam leads to a bit of zen, or perhaps eden.
Another way to address spam is to have home feeds based on follows and their follows, and global feeds based on specific relays. Many nostr clients are adding unique settings that can be tweaked not only to prevent some spam, but to shape your own experience.
Nostr thrives on freedom of expression. There is no perfect solution to address spam. Multiple avenues with different approaches will let people choose their nostr paths, whether they have sats to give or not.
What solutions are you seeing to address spam?
","tags":["trust"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html","title":"value4value","text":"a content creator economy zaps
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html#get-your-nip57-zappers-ready","title":"Get your NIP57 zappers ready","text":"Stars-Wars style lightning zaps without needing to defend yourself from anyone. Instead zapping allows you to support what you believe in.
Your target is content that rings true to you somehow. The result: Motivation, encouragement and the rise of a value4value culture.
It isn't the rise of the empire, but the Rise of the Empowered.
What do you value?
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"buidl-hodl/value4value/index.html#mirror","title":"Mirror","text":"\"Fix the money, fix the world\"
The advent of bitcoin has opened possibilities for \"fixing\" various flaws in the current financial systems, but our relationship with money should change as we learn to embrace a sustainable foundation.
Failing to change our thoughts and actions toward money can generate similar pitfalls and a reliance on carbon-copy uses built on top of bitcoin. This can lead to masking and removing access to bitcoin's freedom and empowerment.
Unnoticed, money connects us across the globe, much deeper than an electrical grid. It touches every aspect of our lives, from the material like purchasing a house, to the invisible like the memories that help in making that house a home.
When we stare at money's face, we may see a reflection of every emotion we have tied to experiences across our lifetimes: hope, fear, dreams, barriers, challenges, empathy, support, love.
We live in a world of contrasts. Money can be a foundation to gratitude or envy. It can help build a stronger future for coming generations or focus only on surface rewards now, disregarding future consequences. It can be a fair or an unjust measure of our time. It can plant and harvest what we value, be it meaning or wastefulness.
Unbeknownst to most of us, many of the negative emotions and real life consequences we tie to money, are not just based on our life experiences but on how money's been built and managed.
Sadly, money often feels distant, cold, and, if allowed, it can grow fear, greed, ego, envy, anger, competition, and popularity in their most negative connotations. It is as if the human heart could be disconnected from anything money touches, turning it into dissonance, anxiety, and heartache.
How we relate to money is often a reflection and a reaction to our world. As we dive deeper into the rabbit hole, we can choose to carve our own path.
What do we want to see reflected in the mirror of our lives?
","tags":["value4value","zaps"]},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html","title":"freedom meetup graphics and templates","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#nostr-meetup-kit-wip","title":"nostr meetup kit (WIP)","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#the-unbadges","title":"the unbadges","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/index.html#the-unlogo","title":"the unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html","title":"nostr meetup kit","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-nostr-meetup-kit","title":"the Nostr meetup kit","text":"vector graphics and templates to make coming together meaningful
One of the freedoms of nostr is that it has no rulers to dictate what it should look like. Having no centralized company to decide on the brand for nostr, means you have a personal choice on how to represent your nostr.
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unlogo","title":"the unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unbadges","title":"the unbadges","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-untshirts","title":"the untshirts","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/index.html#the-unstickers","title":"the unstickers","text":"editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html","title":"the Nostr unbadges + unlanyards (neck straps)","text":"unbadge templates for a protocol without rulers
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#keys-r-freedom","title":"keys r freedom","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#powered-by-volunteers","title":"powered by volunteers","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unbadges/index.html#privacy-matters","title":"privacy matters","text":"editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html","title":"the Nostr unlogo","text":""},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#to-nostrich-or-not-to-nostrich","title":"to nostrich or not to nostrich","text":"How do you answer a question with no right or wrong answer? You do so with choices. Hence the unlogo is not just one version. For now, it applies two different cultural symbols from the nostr community: the nostrich and the alien.
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#logo-files","title":"logo files","text":"You may use these nostr logos freely, if they resonate with you.
Find the .svg & .png files below.
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#nostrich-nostr-logo","title":"nostrich nostr logo","text":"spacing
svg's
png's
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#alien-nostr-logo","title":"alien nostr logo","text":"svg's
png's
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unlogo/index.html#icons","title":"icons","text":"The nostr nostrich and nostr alien icon designs carry the same purple background for uniformity. The smaller sizes reduce details for clarity.
256x256
180x180
150x150
72x72 (svg)
48x48 (svg)
32x32 (svg)
16x16 (svg)
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html","title":"the Nostr unstickers","text":"print your own nostr unstickers
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"keep the Nostr weird","text":"png
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html#zaps-running-on-nostr","title":"zaps running on nostr","text":"png
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-unstickers/index.html#nostr-only","title":"nostr only","text":"png
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html","title":"the Nostr unt-shirts","text":"print your own nostr t-shirts
editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"keep the Nostr weird","text":"png
svg
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"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html#running-on-nostr","title":"running on nostr","text":"png
svg
svg ink layers
"},{"location":"freedom-tech-meetup/nostr/the-nostr-untshirts/index.html#nostr-only","title":"nostr only","text":"png
svg
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editable files on Figma
"},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/index.html","title":"gift and nemesis","text":"Exploring the contrasts in technology.
"},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html","title":"decentralization","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#are-you-the-product","title":"are you the product?","text":"In a social media landscape where your data is sold to advertisers and can be given to governments (concerning if you're a journalist, activist, have minority points of view...), the Nostr is a refreshing alternative.
","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#you-are-not-the-product-on-nostr","title":"you are NOT the product on nostr","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#but-why-what-can-go-wrong-with-other-social-networks","title":"But why? What can go wrong with other social networks?","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#social-media-sell-your-data","title":"social media sell your data","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#what-you-feel-is-yours-can-get-taken-away","title":"what you feel is yours can get taken away:","text":"","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/decentralization/index.html#with-other-social-networks-you-are-the-product","title":"with other social networks, you are the product","text":"2B continued...
","tags":["social media"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/empowerment/index.html","title":"empowerment","text":"","tags":["empowerment"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/empowerment/index.html#self-custody","title":"self-custody","text":"Bitcoin gives you the choice to own it 100%, if you learn to keep it safely in your own self-custodial wallet and with your own keys. You may have no need for a bank or an outside party to keep your bitcoin, though you may need a third party if you want to exchange it for your local currency. These third parties are often exchanges, and as a best practice, you should NOT keep your bitcoin in an exchange, instead choosing your own self-custody wallet.
To HODL bitcoin is a personal responsibility you can choose, instead of delegating it to a third party. It is a form of autonomy. The more we learn about bitcoin, the more we value autonomy. This makes a difference in how we live our lives, the responsibility and challenges that we take, and even where we choose to live.
When something infringes on that autonomy, it makes us rethink our choices and look for possible solutions.
","tags":["empowerment"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/ethics/index.html","title":"ethics","text":"","tags":["ethics"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/ethics/index.html#what-if","title":"What if...","text":"...we could break history\u2019s cycles of oppression, where revolution after revolution has often meant that the \u201cwinner,\u201d even when starting with good intentions, becomes an oppressor of the \u201closing side\u201d, like an Orwellian Animal Farm repeated across the centuries?
Imagine embracing the technologies getting built on an ethical foundation. What happens when we BUIDL on the principles of fairness, equity, openness, freedom of expression, love, integrity, truth, gratefulness and non-violence? What does that world look like?
","tags":["ethics"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html","title":"incentives","text":"","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#on-greed","title":"On greed","text":"Greed runs rampant when it knows no love. A curse running through humanity's veins, as if placed there by an evil enemy, yet one does not exist. Greed, however, is very good at coming up with new enemies. Corrupting hearts into caring about nothing but itself, greed has a serious disregard for the consequences.
Too many have been lost to its strings, believing they are the puppeteers, when indeed they have become the puppets to an insatiable thirst for control. Greed welcomes fear and anger into its arms, destructive forces built on nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Can curses be broken?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#when-the-currency-is-attention","title":"When the currency is attention","text":"Generations no longer know what it was like before social media. Our lives have always been social, but what we do when the tools to connect are right at our fingertips can be an authentic creative expression or be primarily based on attention-getting. The latter can lead to an illusory metric of self-worth.
Creativity abounds on social media, it follows different patterns, like seeing the people we know modeling and curating their lifestyles, or being authoritative and accomplished. When we know them in person, we may notice how they have adapted to branding patterns dependent on the likes and comments to determine their self-worth. On the viewer's side, feeds may not be taken as learning or connecting opportunities, instead viewer's eyes hone in as if looking at trophies to imitate and compete toward.
The signals point to attention-getting as being a valuable skillset, looking at metrics to generate similar content to the highest performing posts becomes a practice, and getting an influencer's like becomes a reinforcement of their goals. Attention is the currency.
Short bursts of surface level information and quick emotional reactions abound, as they can generate the most engagement. This leaves less possibility oflonger conversations and building niche audiences. Click-bait headlines are read and taken as truth, but not clicked-through and analyzed. Heavy tilting to one side of an argument, without seeing the complexity of each situation or reading into sarcasm, leads to divisions.
All of these markers can distort our reality and generate the feeling of a marketing and branding competition with the empty goal of reaching the \"masses\" and becoming an \"influencer,\" just for the numbers and quick growth. Creating content with the priority of generating attention, means being dependent on others to judge you, and just like one day popularity is flooding, another, cancel culture can be setting in. Often, people's self-confidence ebbs and flows based on these signals, or their lack.
Human identity is so much deeper and complex than what we sometimes experience online. It should be independent of attention and judgement. Being exhalted or put down shouldn't break the balance within, and when it does, it should be a moment to reflect and get back to the center. It should not lean toward what is likely to get approval nor should it be silenced by what is likely to be rejected. It should reflect us.
Imperfection makes us human, to focus on perfection and attention online, feels like when someone goes out on a few dates and pretends to be someone they are not. They may meet someone who is a pretender like them, but they'd be missing out on the one who loves them for who they are.
When a new product feature is added, what do we hope for it? What are the incentives we are building into it? Is attention a worthy currency?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#a-suitcase-of-memories","title":"A suitcase of memories","text":"As we actively look through the glass screens of our mobile devices, these little gadgets carry more and more of our lives.
Each screen seems to be far away from what we consider tangible, as if everything digital belonged to the realm of the imagination.
These screens, however, even when floating in the technological cloud, are becoming an essential part of our lives.
They can be the keepers of memories & identity,
The builders of creativity,
The connectors to our family and friends,
The discoverers of new information,
The doors to our money,
The guardians of our health,
The organizers of our time,
The builders of mindfulness...
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#lost-in-the-clicks","title":"Lost in the clicks","text":"Click, click through terms and conditions without reading them, click to close another cookie pop up, log in or create an account, otherwise be kept out.
Having access to information at the touch of our fingertips is a form of freedom. We feel connected, within reach. However, this freedom is not as resilient or as real as it should be.
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/incentives/index.html#fomo","title":"FOMO","text":"Bells are ringing and it's not Christmas. Full inboxes, DMs, mentions, ads, notifications... Our way of life is changing. So much activity and information can distort our sense of time, as if it was no longer moving at the same speed.
Time feels fast and fleeting, requiring immediate action. Piles of content means shorter attention spans, and FOMO can take residence, but only if we allow it.
Technology's ephemeral qualities make it hard to imagine the negative consequences to what we are giving up, what we are allowing others to take from our readers or customers, or that technology could be used against us.
If we don't allow ourselves the opportunity to slow down and be mindful of our choices, we can fall for the marketing of what is easy and popular, rather than looking deeper at the substance and what we want to be part of our lives.
We have the freedom of choice on how we spend our time. We can choose to fill it with who and what feeds our souls in healthier ways. We should not miss out on what matters most by getting distracted with the extra noise. The FOMO we should have is not about the popular but the meaningful.
who and what do you give your time to?
","tags":["incentives"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html","title":"bugs & mistakes","text":"only if we embrace mistakes, and learn from them, will we grow stronger
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#we-broke","title":"We broke...","text":"Nostr is like a decentralized fleet of ships at sea. Some days, storms hit those ships and nostr hodls on. Not every storm is a negative happenstance: A flood of people rushed through Damus' doors, when it was accepted in the Apple App Store. Access to nostr created a storm that tested the strength of relays.
In real time, we could read how developers were bracing for the storm, how they fought to withstand it, and how, sometimes, stuff breaks... for a while. Then these notes and stuff transmitted through relays get built back up again. Resilience is another word for nostr..
Storms did not only hit relays, they also hit lightning, as new people on nostr continued the tradition of sending their first lightning invoices, now transformed into zaps. Most of the weight fell on the Wallet of Satoshi's shoulders. Bitcoin has a similar ecosystem to nostr. In nostr you can discover various nostr clients, and in bitcoin, you can find many wallets. People began recommending Blue Wallet, Muun... to help with the high usage of new lightning zappers.
Nostr is sometimes known for breaking things, often leading to stronger products faster. It experiences real life tests of scalability and it adjusts its sails to withstand future storms.
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#aliens--unidentified-flying-objects","title":"Aliens & Unidentified Flying Objects","text":"We may have bold and italics to give emphasis to text, but we do not have a way to signal sarcasm. In order to understand it, we need to be in the conversation. What do we believe? What do we mock? We often mock fakeness, lies, disregard for truth and ethics.
Life teaches us to laugh at our mistakes and imperfections. We can grow stronger when we can take criticism, when we can look deeper into how we work and learn from it.
Yet so many centralized bodies do not tolerate sarcasm nor criticism, they do not allow for learning or growing, as if they wanted to remain stagnant, when everything is fluid. Anything that remains stagnant weakens over time, as if it was blind to its mistakes. Holding on to a broken past in the hopes to retain a power structure prevents positive growth and innovation.
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/mistakes/index.html#orange-pill-moments","title":"Orange Pill Moments","text":"In the bitcoin world, knowledge is a highly valued form of freedom. It is the \"orange\" pill inspired by the concept of the blue and red pills from the Matrix. Choose to take that metaphorical bitcoin orange pill and you will never look at the world in the same way. Knowledge has that power.
Orange pills symbolize a bitcoin culture that thrives on learning, testing, and solving for issues. Swallowing bitcoin concepts can be revealing. Money connects us, yet how it works and affects people's lives across the globe is often an unspoken subject outside of bitcoin circles, treated as a taboo subject.
The effects of an orange pill focuses on education and translates into real life choices that can improve people's lives.
Technology can BUIDL on itself across time thanks to the work and openness of many people. Bitcoin brings together a technological foundation from the past, adding to it, and putting everything into a one-of-a-kind formula built with the purpose of solving for many of the issues in current financial systems. (Thank you Satoshi Nakamoto et al.).
The orange-pill effect helps people gain a deeper understanding of the gaps and issues with current financial system practices, but this learning process spreads further into other areas of our lives. It encourages integrity, fairness, openness, low time preference, collaboration, personal responsibility, critical and ethical thinking... It allows us to connect with our humanity.
As you look back on your own journey, what's been your favorite \"orange-pill\" moment? What did you learn? Has that knowledge carried unto other parts of your life?
","tags":["mistakes"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html","title":"I-Got-Your-Back Protocol","text":"","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html#one-clients-win-is-a-win-for-all-of-nostr","title":"one client's win is a win for all of nostr.","text":"Nostr is interoperable. If you've heard the word protocol tossed around, without knowing its meaning: Imagine if Facebook and Twitter were both written with the same foundational code, so you could enter both of them and access your same profile, follows, followers, and posts on both of them, no matter which one you chose to use. People could find you on Facebook, even if you were only using Twitter. The difference between them would be the design and unique features they could offer you. Unfortunately, they are platforms choosing to run their own code, instead of running on an interoperable protocol.
Nostr is different. It has a community of developers working on different projects. These projects all run nostr as their foundation. They could be thought of as competing with each other, because they can add similar features, and yet, each one also offers something unique. Every milestone each one reaches, makes the whole community stronger, pushing development and innovation into new horizons. It also gives you choice and access, unlike anything you've seen before. It's a win win.
We celebrate the small steps forward creating new avenues of access to nostr. One client's win, is a win for all of nostr.
Interoperability means thinking beyond yourself, beyond individual products, into the possibilities to support the whole. #Nostr is an I-got-your-back protocol.
","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/network-effects/index.html#santas-pow--network-effects","title":"Santa's PoW & network effects","text":"Nostr is like Santa's workshop all-year-round. Features are the gifts of products that have a direct effect on our daily lives. They can empower and protect the individual. Their foundational principles are the magic.
Nostriches around the world send their letters to nostr Santas in the shape of notes, asking developers for what they wish the most.
Open source is open, because anyone can add their grain of sand and contribute to a project they care about. It is work we can verify, looking through the GitHubs, and sometime in the future, the nostr GitNests of those projects we love.
The nostr protocol is a strong foundation to BUIDL upon, but its use and spread depends on its network effects. The stronger the community bonds, the stronger the protocol. It is a give and take.
","tags":["network effects"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/originality/index.html","title":"originality","text":"","tags":["originality"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/originality/index.html#custom-fits","title":"custom fits","text":"Many years ago, I heard of a shop in Paris that could craft a rare perfume just for you. You'd be guided trough a multiple level process, selecting base scents to make up the different notes needed to create a custom parfum. The chances you'd have of selecting the same notes as someone else would be minute, but even if your choices were the same, its scent would be different once worn. Perfume reacts to the uniqueness of your body chemistry, and your chemistry fluctuates over time.
As rare as it seems to have your own custom perfume bottle, it pales in comparison to the magnificent diversity within humanity, so it is surprising to see the multiple ways of trying to fit people into a small set of perfect boxes, often unrealistic and unreachable.
Not only can we not become someone else who is as unique as each one of us, but we should question why we would want to. Even a clone could not be you, because he/she/they/ze could not have the same experiences you have had.
Many times, these categories and stereotypes are said to determine our fortune, but only based on quantifiable qualities used to measure you against others, turning fortune into an illusion of a triangle with just a few people fitting at the top.
Life, however, is more like a turning wheel of experiences, and our fortune rarely depends on where you are on the wheel nor which categories you happen to fit into.
In a similar fashion, sometimes products start looking like clones. Although some of the design features that make it to our hands benefit from familiarity, apps and websites also need something that sets them apart. A product maker can imitate, especially at the beginning of the building process, as they start to learn the tools of the trade, but with time, creativity should flourish.
","tags":["originality"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html","title":"protocols over platforms","text":"","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html#ripple-effect","title":"Ripple effect","text":"
A protocol like nostr is interoperable simplicity, yet it is not a dead language. Its code and its upper layers get written like gears in constant movement, churning new lines into websites and apps. It isn't code that sparks out of nowhere. It's molded and reshaped by open source communities brainstorming ideas, listening closely to the people who use their products, and bringing those ideas to life. Each step forward carries new challenges, as the gears shape PR after PR, with products built and strengthened over time.
We cannot know all of the work that has gone into giving us a door to freedom of expression. We do not know the depth of the countless challenges or the innovative solutions as they are placed into the code. We do not know all the layers of thought that go into keeping protocol interoperability while also driving innovation. We do not know the extent of positive effects it could have across the globe and into the future.
But we have the proof in our hands that the work is happening. Every day reveals a new surprise, a different way of using nostr. New doors open, because developers and designers care about freedom of expression, and continue to build upon that foundation.
A tool for freedom built by many, yet united in nostr.
","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/protocols-over-platforms/index.html#nostr-is-a-wider-team-effort","title":"Nostr is a wider team effort","text":"From the surface, it may seem impossible to be able to build nostr without a central figure dictating every move. Yet that absence is what makes this protocol move much faster and creatively than its platform counterparts.
Instead of a chaotic mess without purpose or vision, as one might imagine protocols to be, nostr revolves around a number of creative hubs with specific types of development and design. Hubs interact openly with one another, sharing ideas, issues to resolve, and milestones to celebrate... Each hub is a team, and development depends on how well the team can gel while retaining creative independence.
Nostr as a protocol works, in part, because of its guiding principles: Decentralization, simplicity, interoperability...
Another positive aspect is the fun in building something that you interact with everyday. It feels purposeful to dig into issues and to find a way to contribute.
It doesn't mean contributing is perfect, that there isn't overlap or mistakes along the way, but nothing is perfect. Nostr's ability to captivate creative people is what keeps its wheels moving.
It should not be a road to burnout, but the threading of a community building on each other's open work and deep dives into solutions. It is a work that should not only value the present, but to value building a stronger foundation for the future.
","tags":["protocols over platforms"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/truth/index.html","title":"truth","text":"","tags":["truth"]},{"location":"gift-and-nemesis/truth/index.html#how-will-humanity-build--use-ai","title":"How will humanity build & use AI?","text":"Some say the technological age calls upon us to adapt at a much faster rate than ever. Our worlds are being shaped and reshaped by technology. Creativity flows more freely, easily, and with tremendous scalability. Human thought can make it unto a digital canvas at a moment's notice, and new breakthroughs are making the process more dynamic.
The printing press, and then the internet, freed books.
The digital camera, and then cellphones, freed photography.
Each technological breakthrough has been a tool that could offer more freedom, but only when held by those who value freedom.
Is AI freeing us? It depends on how we choose to develop it and how we choose to use it.
There has always been a fight between control and freedom. Books have been banned or taken down from online stores. Cameras can capture memories or spy on us.
Many ethical concerns surround technology, yet it also holds the possibility of freeing some aspect of our lives. It all depends on the road forward. It is a complex rabbit hole filled with more questions than answers.
Information has always been controlled in some way over the centuries, as they say, the winners of wars are the ones who wrote the history books. The darkest of times are the most silent, the ones that host the majority view as the sole source of truth, though it has nothing to do with truth itself. Information is more likely to be suppressed in conflictive and difficult times, and yet that is when it's needed the most.
Controlling a story and making it one sided paints a flawed picture of reality. It can be used to place blame on others rather than on the real issue. It can fear or anger that often leads to giving up freedoms. It can also be used to quiet opposing points of view in order to keep power.
Control of information is often a clear lack of transparency. It sits on murky waters no longer based on truth nor perspective on the complexity of a situation. It seeks to control while advertising freedom or safety, but it is neither.
As AI makes a stronger dent into our lives, many questions arise on both the benefits and the tradeoffs.
If AI is based on a large sample of the internet, does it truly reflect humanity, or only the voices of those who have had access to technology and whose voices have not been censored? Does it reflect real human thought and experience or does it pick up on the emotional reactions sometimes fueled by algorithms shaped to generate engagement and attention, instead of critical thinking and deeper learning. If it has wide access to the internet, how much is it gathering about us and for what purpose?
Does it reflect every voice, or is it as selective as our history books? What biases is it selecting?
Can it be open and transparent? What happens when it is held by the hands of the few with hidden biases, agendas, and incentives? If its workings are hidden from our view, how can we know why it is trained?
Is it a way to let more of the minority voices have a say and a freedom to express their thoughts? Or could it be used to spread a majority point of view at a much faster scale? Could it be used to diminish minority voices, setting them on a path to silence? Will it spam most of our sources of information, making it hard to arrive at what is real and trustworthy?
Can it help make self expression easier for the masses, or will it make a homegenous fabric of images, words and videos, representative that which those who control the inputs want to be the \"truth\"?
As technology has advanced, we have also become more sedentary, will we let it turn us into mindless couch potatoes, or will we appreciate the sun shining on our faces and dive deeper into learning?
Could it help us dig deeper or express more complex ideas? Or is it more likely to prevent us from seeing the truth or digging for it?
What happens when you know someone has lied to you, not by mistake or ignorance, but on purpose? Are you be able to trust that person?
What happens when we cannot trust that AI tells the truth? When it is neither open nor transparent. When we do not know how and why it is being programmed? What can we do when its development can be more about control than freedom?
Like in much of the freedom tech ecosystems, we need AI alternatives that offer the openness, transparency, choice, and diversity of tools, so we are not dependent on centralized parties that can control most of the information we receive. Truth matters. Critical thinking has always been an important skill, but are we arriving at a time where technology will test how we receive that information and what we choose to believe more than ever before? Can we BUIDL something that carries the principles we value that support our freedoms?
","tags":["truth"]},{"location":"nostrverse/index.html","title":"Explore the nostrverse","text":"Diving deeper into the development of various nostr apps & tools
"},{"location":"nostrverse/index.html#amethyst","title":"Amethyst","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html","title":"Now and then","text":"Love is the foundation for tools valuing freedom, choice, and personal autonomy.
This is a field trip into the why behind freedom tech.
Don't trust, verify.
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#now","title":"Now","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#sci-fi-post-apocalyptic-story","title":"Sci-fi post-apocalyptic story","text":"I\u2019ll be exploring our cyberspace for those technological gifts and their nemesis. These discoveries will shape the base layers for a post apocalyptic science fiction story showing where those two paths could lead\u2026
Through an open behind the scenes process, I'll be sharing thoughts and tips, asking questions, and creating open UX design resources as I test and learn more about the why behind the tech.
The primary tech focus will be on bitcon, nostr, and their symbiosis. I'll be taking the writing aspect of storytelling and making it come alive through art, 3D modeling, music, and animation.
Come along this creative journey as the story gets weaved, along with smaller, educational, yet kind of fun pieces.
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#find-me-on-nostr-only","title":"Find me on nostr only","text":"elidy
npub1a7n2h5y3gt90y00mwrknhx74fyzzjqw25ehkscje58x9tfyhqd5snyvfnu
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#blogging-on-nostr","title":"Blogging on Nostr","text":"Behind-the-scenes
\u2192 Highlighter
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#nostrorg","title":"Nostr.org","text":"Contributing to design and copy on splash page to welcome people to nostr
\u2192 On GitHub
\u2192 Version 2.0 coming soon, PR on GitHub
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#nostr-meetup-kit","title":"Nostr Meetup Kit","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#behind-the-t-shirt-designs-what-do-you-see","title":"Behind the t-shirt designs: What do you see?","text":"\u2192 Latest design available on shop.nostr.build
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#then","title":"Then","text":""},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#keep-the-nostr-weird","title":"Keep the Nostr Weird","text":"On YouTube
"},{"location":"now-and-then/index.html#bitcoinostr-a-symbiosis","title":"Bitcoinostr: A Symbiosis","text":"On YouTube
"},{"location":"read/index.html","title":"A freedom tech story in the works","text":""},{"location":"read/index.html#tick-tock","title":"Tick tock","text":"\u201cA storm is brewing,\u201d said Xileh to his granddaughter, Toril, as they looked out from the balcony of Rigmor's clock tower. The air felt cool and humid as they breathed it in. Clouds were forming in the horizon and the wind started to pick up.
\u201cMost people can\u2019t tell when one is coming anymore.\u201d He continued.
\u201cI know. They\u2019ve forgotten how to listen to nature.\u201d Replied Toril, in awe at the spectacle in front of them.
\u201cI don\u2019t mean this storm.\" He said, taking a stronger grip on the balcony's rail. \u201cOur time here is limited. As I near the end...\u201d
\u201cDon\u2019t say that.\u201d She interrupted him, noticing the many wrinkles on his face, a reflection of every experience and emotion he had carried across his lifetime. He had refused to go under the knife to correct them. She had grown to appreciate them as proof of what he had lived.
\"When you look back on your life, you realize the only thing that mattered was love and those moments built around it.\" He turned to look at his granddaughter\u2019s eyes, seeing a gleam of hope for the future, wrapped in concern for her safety.
\"History keeps repeating. Life is much worse in periods of silence like these, where human thought is suppressed through fear. We are privileged, because they still need us, but most of our people have been forced to forget.\"
\u201cYou\u2019re starting to worry me.\u201d She said, noticing the seriousness in his voice.
\u201cWorry is a sign to get ready. A lot will change. Your principles will be tested. You will have to make decisions that will affect people\u2019s lives and they can be heavy to carry. You can only do the best you can with the knowledge you have. Avoid making assumptions.
\"Be careful who you trust. Do not get taken by empty words. I don't think you can trust _____.\u201d
\u201cBut I know him well, he\u2019s practically family.\u201d
\u201cIn this environment, his actions lived in a bubble. He is not the same person out there. I worry that he is not who we think he is. I hope to be proved wrong, but you can grow up in the same household and be opposite people. I fear, in my hope to protect him, I encouraged him to take more than to give. He is privileged above the rest.\" As he said that, the weight of the past felt so heavy in his heart that it could have pulled it down many floors.
\u201cListen, Toril. I have been prepping something for you. It will be delivered in an unexpected way. You\u2019ll know what I mean when the time comes. This is important. No one can know about it.\u201d She nodded, knowing how complex a human being her grandfather was, so much so, that the idea of something unexpected was to be expected.
\u201cHe cannot know about it either. He thinks he knows you just as you think you know him. They might use him to try to get to you.\u201d
\u201cWhy do you not trust him?\u201d
\u201cPeople who seek attention are often malleable, their principles don\u2019t exist in the ways we both understand them. Easy money removes the value of our effort and time. It can drive people to seek easy paths and the fastest way up to whatever ladder they think exists. Popularity may be popular in this society, but it doesn\u2019t make you who you are. That depends on your actions and the reasons behind them. Your choices must be independent of whether people love you, hate you or cancel you. They\u2019re your inner protocol.\u201d
He continued speaking, as if he wanted to pour a lifetime of knowledge into those few minutes. He hoped to have given her enough tools to manage what was coming, but what he wished for the most was to have prevented it altogether.
\u201cWhen words are built for headlines, stats, or votes, they cannot be trusted. You cannot trust someone who masks the truth, often not taking the time to dig deeper, to try to see the 360\u00b0 view. Nothing is as simple as it seems. A lot of what you see and hear are just fa\u00e7ades inside games of power and control. You must learn to see what's behind them.\u201d
\u201cIt is hard to have people you trust wholeheartedly. You discover them when you spot similar principles and patterns of action. When you are lucky enough to have such a person, you keep them close, as they\u2019ll have your back. You protect them as they protect you.\u201d
\u201cWas grandma that for you?\u201d
\u201cYes, but I was too blind to see it in time. Do not make the same mistake.\u201d
He removed a locket from his neck, one he had carried for as long as she had been under his care, and gave it to her.
As she took it in the palm of her hand, tears started swelling in her eyes, like the clouds rolling in.
The skies darkened and small rain droplets started falling, making a melancholic sound against the metal structure\u2026
"},{"location":"read/odds-and-ends.html","title":"Odds and ends","text":"
Every writing process has bits and pieces that do not quite fit within the story, but are somehow related to it. Since this is an open process, you'll find those here.
"},{"location":"read/odds-and-ends.html#the-setting","title":"The setting","text":"In the city of Rigmor, the four massive vermilion gates, which once stood for truth, courage, and freedom, had become an association to fear. Closed off to keep most on the inside, by force rather than choice, these gates seemed to have forgotten their purpose. Instead of being open and filled with activity, they had been restructured to almost become walls. Since (some yet to determine unknown event related to war), Rigmor had lost its candor and innovation. What remained of its foundational bones, was the unique vermilion lacquer on the gates' rosewood frames, a reminder of a past that could come again.
The words truth and freedom had been avoided in common lexicon for so long that they seemed lost, but not their meaning. Freedom is a natural state of humanity, it cannot be erased from our subconscious though fear may try. Deep within, away from that which corrodes the spirit, we all carry the essence of freedom. We all crave truth. While those feelings seemed to lay dormant, no one could predict the exact place where that spark of change could come from, but it always does. No stronger spark exists than in those places where hope seems lost, for it is then that it is most valued. The time for this city to awaken is about to begin.
"},{"location":"read/page-1.html","title":"Truth","text":"Toril stared at her computer screen in disbelief. It showed a series of input boxes for a long password, too long to guess.
\"No, no, no, no.\" She said aloud with serious concern. It was like running into a blue screen, not a good sign at all, especially not on the eve of Halloween, one of the busiest seasons of the year for the city's warehouse. They had a guaranteed delivery to meet.
\"Could it be ransomware?\" she thought. Government offices and companies had been hit by a wave of strange tech occurrences.
\"But it isn't asking for money. Phishing?\"
\"(future name), has there been a power outage?\" she said in a louder tone.
No answer.
\"No access to my computer should not mean no access to the warehouse's assistant, or should it?\" She pondered. After shadowing Xileh for most of her life, there was still so much she didn't know about the inner workings of their logistics system.
The warehouse was on 24/7 and almost fully automated. She had learned to troubleshoot on her own, but today she needed to solve A.S.A.P.
She rushed out of the office taking a long hallway toward Xileh's lab. The hallway was flanked by windows revealing the warehouse's inner workings. She ran so quickly through it, that the lab felt like it was right next door. A package delivery robot holding a large box blocked the entrance. She went around it, ignoring it, and crossed the lab toward Xileh's main worktable. The robot followed her at a slower speed.
\"Xileh! Xileh!\" she called out a few times, as she looked around the room, but he was nowhere to be found. He rarely carried his phone, so sending out a message would not help. At his age, he didn't keep office hours like he used to. His lab, however, reflected the spirit of a tinkerer that would never stop experimenting. She sent him a message anyway, only to hear the beep nearby.
\"He would not miss being here for Halloween... Well, he might notice the message when he comes back.\" She shrugged.
She approached the rows of bookcases and piles of paper in a corner of the room, reminded of how Xileh always wanted real world backups. She never understood why that was so important, until now.
\"What if all the information was gone?\" She thought as she tried to make sense of Xileh's organization style or the lack thereof.
\"But automation hasn't stopped. Everything seems to be running as usual.\" She held some comfort in that thought.
She spotted the row of manuals for a lot of the warehouse's equipment. Her eyes scanned through them. \"Found it!\" She said aloud, taking the manual for her computer out of the shelf. As she opened it, it had a thicker yellow page with a recovery password.
\"This is probably it.\" She thought, relieved, and thinking she had worried too much over a password.
Taking the manual with her, she started walking out. She couldn't help but take a moment to look back. That large open studio held so many memories. The rays of sunlight were coming in through the trees outside of the tall windows, giving the lab an almost magical eerie glow, as if the robots Xileh was working on could come to life at any moment.
She was startled by the delivery robot catching up to her.
More relaxed, she said, \"Ok, let me see what you got.\" Odd, it was addressed to her with an urgent label. No info on the sender. Her mail delivery was always done to her office. She wasn't expecting a robot delivery either; they were only sent out when the packages were larger than the subterranean logistics system.
She hesitated in opening the box, perhaps she should scan it first, just in case.
It said urgent, but so was regaining access to her system. She sent an order to the robot through her wristband to head to the scan room, and she walked back to her office, not as quickly, but still feeling pressured to make sure this was the solution.
She looked through the windows as she walked, everything seemed normal. The flow of robots and boxes never stopped. Xileh had told her the story of the architect who built the warehouse. Some had complained that it was a warehouse for robots and with it being almost fully automated, it didn't need anything architecturally appealing. They wanted a climate controlled box. The architect refused to remove the human element from it, and, because of that, these rows of windows existed. They gave an almost 360\u00b0 view of the warehouse at work. Xileh wasn't sure how he had convinced them to built it this way. Even if he had mentioned how building with a location in mind tends to save on energy, and how using stronger materials is an investment in the future, many only build for the now.
Not even taking the time to sit down, Toril started typing the digits to the password: 19d6689c085ae, only to come up short.
\"Oh, shoot!\" It was 13 digits, she needed 21. She sifted through the manual, but found nothing of help.
As she stood there trying to think of a possible alternative, the delivery robot again caught up to her. It had ignored the order to head to the scan room.
\"How creepy,\" she thought, \"First a password request appears out of nowhere, then a rogue robot. But some older robot models do not respond to the new software commands, and, this is not a sci-fi movie.\"
Maybe Halloween was getting to her.
\"Could this be what Xileh was talking about that night at the clock tower?\" She thought.
She instinctively took the box opener from the robot's side. She had opened so many boxes in her lifetime, that it was second nature. As she lifted the flaps, she saw a myriad of flowers.
\"Aww,\" she said in surprise.
Xileh gifted her flowers every year for her birthday. She had gotten a different kind of flower each year: roses, lavender... Each had been made of different materials and colors. Each year carried a different meaning.
These were orange marigolds, and they were real! Over the generations, companies had disfavored the natural, and real flowers were a rare request. During her time at the warehouse, she had noticed a few shipments of real flowers, and always wondered what those who ordered them could be celebrating.
These had such a peculiar scent that it brought back childhood memories. Xileh used to say marigolds were the flowers of truth. They still grew in the wild behind the warehouse, on the outskirts of the city. She had often wondered if her grandma had planted them. Xileh said she had a green thumb, and that had become as rare as real flowers.
Toril smiled wide, but, her birthday wasn't until January.
She paused for a moment.
\"Xileh and his riddles,\" she thought, while shaking her head. \"Halloween trick?\" She looked back at that screen with thirteen digits, needing 8 more.
She typed out her birthday: 01 03 2140
Hit enter, and...
\"What?\" Toril's face turned pale.
"},{"location":"read/page-2.html","title":"Revelations","text":"
Toril could not believe her eyes. The shipments map she looked at everyday was no longer the 2D Pacman-like screen displaying packages in movement. This was a highly detailed 3D topographic map of their logistics.
The type of map, however, was not what shocked her, but what it revealed. Like unearthing a secret, a new set of routes with shipments in movement intermingled with the other routes.
"},{"location":"terminology/index.html","title":"terminology","text":"","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#the-language-of-freedom-tech","title":"the language of freedom tech","text":"
Tech has an evolving cyberspace lexicon based on innovation mixed with culture.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#client","title":"client","text":"Nostr is NOT just one app.
A nostr client is an app or website created with nostr code that finds and posts nostr content unto relay servers. Since it is open code, any developer can build their own version of a nostr client running on the nostr protocol.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#keys","title":"keys","text":"Not your keys, not your social media.
To join nostr, you don't need to give up your email or phone number. Instead, the first time you sign up to most nostr clients, you get a special set of keys. These are two long strings of letters and numbers unique to you. You can use them to enter most of the nostrverse. They also keep a path to your notes, follows, and followers.
They belong only to you.
You get a public key and a secret key. Share your public key, keep your secret key backed up and safe.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#nostrich","title":"nostrich","text":"The nostrich, in its various styles, has become the nostr mascot.
The idea was born on December 16th, 2022.
walker:
@ dave can you write a joke about #nostr?
note167jwwjamdwm48lje83804pjczkncu6prjpf3kamyslzpjtr7c5asvu9p2s
dave (gpt3):
Q: What do you call a nosy ostrich?
A: A nosTrich!
note163g7kae08rx4sqv5xq67dh3926pw5tkq2pzxctyzjh8ypcqldxfqwntysx
Then, on Dec 20th, 2022, Will (jb55) posted the image above with the legend:
\"I propose the nostrich to be the official nostr mascot and logo.\"
note19dazj8tfcpl42gurwctxxj5lrq4t9qel9g7wyycjhrzqp93lxe4sqafzzg
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#note","title":"note","text":"Instead of tweets or posts, nostr has notes. Feel free to write notes away.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#npub-or-public-key","title":"npub or public key","text":"Your public key takes the place of your handle. It is unique to you. You can also have a handle with any name you want, and you can change it anytime you want. You don't need to add any numbers or strange spellings, because what needs to be unique is your npub.
npub + LongStringOfNumbersAndLettersUniqueToYou
Share your public key with your friends, so they can find you or mention you. You can copy it from your profile (often found by a key or QR code icon).
If you spot a QR icon in your nostr client, others can scan it and their nostr app should open to your profile page, as long as their app has that functionality. Some nostr clients let you share other people's npub QR's too.
Someone else could try to impersonate you, use the same name, profile pic, and description, but they cannot have the same npub.
","tags":["terms"]},{"location":"terminology/index.html#nsec-aka-secret-or-private-key","title":"nsec a.k.a. secret or private key","text":"You are the sole keeper of your secret key. It is a special kind of \"password\" you can use to sign in to nostr clients, to create notes...
nsec + LongStringOfNumbersAndLettersUniqueToYou
It belongs only to you, not to a company. If you are used to the ways of platforms like Twitter and Facebook, you may think someone can help you recover it, but you won't find a \"forgot your password?\" option.
Nostr is different, you're the one in control. When someone owns your account, they know your password and can help you recover it. One of the tradeoffs is that they can also close down your account, rate limit it, shadow ban it... On nostr you own your keys and should keep your nsec safe.
TIP: Save your nsec in a password manager (for example Bitwarden). Write down a copy somewhere safe. Some nostr clients keep your secret key hidden in the Settings. Make sure you copy it and save it in your password manager before logging out. In the future, we may see options to save an encrypted copy in the cloud, perhaps some options already exist. Do not share it.
If you are logging in through a website (not an app), save your nostr nsec in a special browser extension first. Browsers, by nature, are not as safe, your secret key could get stolen. You may see this option to log in labelled as \"login with extension or NIP-07\"
","tags":["terms"]}]} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/sitemap.xml b/sitemap.xml index bc0d5e2..df34c90 100644 --- a/sitemap.xml +++ b/sitemap.xml @@ -2,167 +2,172 @@