Nostr notes by sachin

Any form of state involvement in the realm of education is an ...

2026-10-16T19:51:36Z

Any form of state involvement in the realm of education is an atrocious idea if the goal is to develop productive individuals who are aware of the world, can survive effectively and be of service to people around them.

I have so much to say about this but I am way too biased because of my own experiences with education. I can't be value-free about it yet. So much emotion still.

Man fuck these bitch-ass governments.

One of my favourite things about Rothbard is that he made Law a ...

2026-10-14T10:09:23Z

One of my favourite things about Rothbard is that he made Law a fun subject to explore for mw. He keeps his arguments simple and really gets at the foundational principles.

His reasoning is very sophisticated, but the way he presents it is very simple. That's a great skill he had.

Descending ordered list of wallets that can do LN payments based ...

2026-10-13T22:26:07Z

Descending ordered list of wallets that can do LN payments based how trustless the setup is:

1. LN via self-hosted node and self-managed channels
2. LN via mobile embedded node with LSP choice
3. LN via mobile embedded node but no LSP choice
4. LN via hosted node with VLS
5. Ark with unilateral exits
6. Spark with unilateral exits
7. Liquid wallet with atomic swaps
8. Fedimint ecash with multiple mint operators
9. Cashu ecash or Fedimint ecash with a single mint operator
10. Fully custodial LN

I think there'll be valid disagreement with (2 <> 3 <> 4) and (5 <> 6). No strong opinions from me about their order.

And I'm sure there's a good case to be made for kicking 7 out of this list altogether because of the way the Liquid hack has been handled.

'It is ideas that make history, and not history that makes ...

2026-10-13T13:26:37Z

'It is ideas that make history, and not history that makes ideas.'

- Mises in Human Action

Neither a fiat money nor a sound money policy program is inevitable. The one that gets widely-accepted by public opinion will eventually be reflected in the laws that are adopted. A major factor is the ability of intellectuals and advocates to convince people of the set of ideas they favour.

First got into Bitcoin and got excited about number go up. Then I ...

2026-10-10T21:45:25Z

First got into Bitcoin and got excited about number go up. Then I was like oh yeah fix the world and started getting easily triggered.

A bunch of value-free austro-libertarian insights about the causes and consequences of the state's very existence, I'm back to having fun and sticking to number go up.

I think it's a maybe as well because of those things and many ...

2026-10-07T20:39:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…nflx
_________________________

I think it's a maybe as well because of those things and many more. Even more of a maybe when you consider that lightning won't always be difficult to use. UI/UX has considerably improved and continues to improve, in my experience at least.

On conversion: it works depending on how chokable the exit ramps are. OTC and peer-to-peer markets are very difficult to choke and suppress from emerging where there's demand for them.

Biggest misnomer in democratic politics is the use of the words ...

2026-10-07T20:33:41Z

Biggest misnomer in democratic politics is the use of the words 'public' or 'commons' while describing ownership of something when it is, in practice, clearly and obviously state-owned.

On paper it is called as 'public' money and 'public' property to give people an illusion that everyone owns it and has a say in how it is used.

In practice, it is the state's money and the state's property.

Temporary caretakers (ministers and bureaucrats) own it and have ultimate decision-making power over the property in question.

The hole in the above argument might come up when, in a democratic state, ministers think a decision about government property might affect their votes.

But for that, people's attention has to be on the issue. But everyone, in practice, can't pay attention to and get outraged about everything all the time. It's tiresome, unhealthy and unrealistic. Time and energy are scarce.

So decisions about stuff that people don't care about, which are most of the things, are the taken by ministers and bureaucrats, not the public.

There's another interesting consequence of such a state of affairs in a democracy.

Politically active folks tend to push outrage and doom porn on everyone's faces in an exaggerated and emotionally manipulative manner, so that non-political folks prioritise talking and thinking about the issue they want them to care about.

The goal being to make ministers think that the decisions they take about something will sway votes in their favour. Democracy necessitate outrage and doom porn. Nobody living within the system can escape it. They are trapped.

Pretty sure you can recall many relationships being damaged by political conversations. It's a flywheel effect.

It's not just algorithms that's making people miserable and angry all the time.

It's democracy as well 😊

I don't see Bitcoin going the way of Gold or Silver as ...

2026-10-07T20:22:23Z

I don't see Bitcoin going the way of Gold or Silver as something to be freaking out about, whether it happens or not.

Nearly every single fiat currency in existence including dollars, yen, yuan, rupees, pounds, etc. used to represent units of gold or silver.

Their issuance, movement and uasge was 'captured' by states and their central banks, and turned into fiat. Gold and silver remained as they were. Their properties never changed.

Both metals are still very much relevant, widely-used, frequently traded, highly liquid and held by many. They're just not widely used as money anymore. When priced against fiat, they've gone up by quite a lot in the last few decades. Those who have held them wouldn't be disappointed I'm guessing.

Wanting bitcoin to be used as a widely-accepted monetary good is a wonderful ideal to be working towards realizing. I want it too. I want to take self-custody and pay in bitcoin. If it happens, great!

But if it doesn't happen, I'm not going to be disappointed. I can simply convert to whatever money people accept. No biggie. That's what markets are for.

States are pitiable institutions that are always going to want to steal, coerce, manipulate and surveil. It's in their nature and purpose to do that. They can't help it. They can't know better.

In a world of states imposing legal tender laws; taxes on trades; exchanges and capital gains; foreign exchange controls; trade enbargoes; manipulation of money, interest rates and foreign exchange markets; we're not probably not to going see sound money adopted and used widely.

Maybe if the things listed above don't exist anymore and are scrapped outright, things will be easier. But public opinion in Bitcoin, leave alone the wider world, isn't actively in favour of or advocating for such a state of affairs.

Black markets are bound to emerge if bitcoin does become widely used in such a world, and we'll simply have to learn how to navigate them. It is what it is.

Ch 2 pt11 of Human Action is epic. LvM explores the limitations ...

2026-10-07T02:21:55Z

Ch 2 pt11 of Human Action is epic.

LvM explores the limitations of using praxeological concepts in perceiving or understanding God. He's spot on.

Neither rational nor empirical intellectual tools are of much or maybe any use in the pursuit of spiritual knowledge.

A tricky spot liberatarians can land in is when the opponent uses ...

2026-10-05T17:15:36Z

A tricky spot liberatarians can land in is when the opponent uses the 'appeals to evidence technique' of justifying state action.

'Well look at x industry, it's all privately owned and services are shit so socializing everything or partially socializing is a better way to go', the statist says.

And then the burden is on the libertarian to make causal links on why costs and prices are going up while service quality is going down, capital is being destroyed rather than preserved, pull the correct threads to find the regulations and laws which are preventing competitive pressure from existing.

The statist who claims to look at things scientifically and objectively based on evidence is looking at things neither 'scientifically' nor 'objectively' but with a theoretical framework that is arbitrary and biased against entrepreneurs, when he says regulations or socialization can improve quality, bring down prices and costs.

Entrepreneurs, as in the Misesian sense, spot opportunities others have not yet spotted and capitalize on them. And regulations exist to handicap them. Competition exists or *can potentially emerge* to punish them for making the wrong choices and making inefficient decisions about the use of resources. He must always be alert to losing his market share should he keep prices too high and cut costs too much in a way to bring the quality of his offerings down.

The kind of person who sits in an ivory tower and writes regulations based 'on evidence', ie, the bureaucrat, will not want to recognise these opportunities or can't do it because it's not profitable from him. He can't or won't think of ways to solve problems because that's really not his job. His job is to increase the number of regulations and budgetary allocations to his department.

And the fiat component of incentivizing over-production and malinvestment cannot be dismissed.

Looking at evidence is well and good, but because statists have a theoretical framework that looks at and arranges the interpretation of evidence as justification of state action by default, it's difficult to tackle the things they say.

The Economist published an article about the Indian government ...

2026-10-05T16:42:45Z

The Economist published an article about the Indian government selling state assets:

https://archive.ph/4LovK

Privatisation of government entities seemed like one of the easiest 'wins' towards a more libertarian situation of affairs.

But it's a bit complex and very challenging to pull off, even if the party in power has a somewhat libertarian leaning.

Right from the get go, there'll be extreme opposition from labour/employee unions. The narrative of being pro-crony will be attached to the ruling disposition. This means loss of votes. No politician would want that if he wants to remain in power.

Thing is, if privatisation is also not accompanied by deregulation and thus getting out of the way of potential competing firms from emerging, it would be tantamount to a transfer of monopoly privileges from bureaucrats to cronies.

So union folks would then think they were justified in opposing privatisation outright.

There is also the challenge of convincing potential private buyers that the assets being sold are worth buying in the first place after years of being mismanaged. Finding buyers would be very difficult.

Otoh, if the entity is performing well on paper through mergers, subsidies and infusions from the state exchequer, there'll be arguments that they need not be privatised and that the industry need not be liberalised at all.

Even if the privatisation goes through, prices might not come down, since they have to be brought back to what is economical by the new owners whereas previously it was kept below market rates by the government to satisfy voters or whatever political goals they had.

Not to mention the upward pressure on prices due to fiat money, making it harder to convince civilians that privatisation is the way to go.

Essentially, if the goal is to bring prices down, make the industry more efficient overall, improve the quality of services and reduce capital consumption, privatisation would need to be accompanied by deregulation and a rewrite of the laws governing the industry. And a shift to a sound money system as well.

I used to voluntarily test both alpha and beta builds from ...

2026-08-06T05:20:48Z

I used to voluntarily test both alpha and beta builds from ZEUS (nprofile…2xhz) a while back.

Because I tested early builds, I've had my channels with Zeus' LSP force-closed or lost because of bugs 4 or 5 times now.

Every single time, Zeus restored them in full, once even with extra capacity. Which is to say that their support is excellent.

nprofile1qqszmxrnkfdl9hdxzstgf4zdt6mk4avlzemc3fvwxcatzeclalhg0uspz4mhxue69uhkummnw3ezummcw3ezuer9wchszxnhwden5te0wdjkuerfwshxummnvekxzun99e3k7mf0qy08wumn8ghj7mn0wd68yttsw43zuam9d3kx7unyv4ezumn9wshslde55f (nprofile…e55f) handles it personally.

So if channels were lost or closed during the recent incident, I can vouch that they'll get restored. Just make sure you mail them here:

support@zeusln.com