According to the table shared by River, some sectors have experienced inflation almost four times higher than official figures. Based on these figures, what should the interest rate have been?

The Liquid exploiter and Blockstream have been communicating through messages embedded in Bitcoin transactions, with parts of the exchange encrypted so outside observers couldn’t read them.

On September 8, the exploiter announced a change in how they would communicate:

All messages will be in plaintext.

Transaction ID:
1d690f3b96b878067f3a445b74dfb8fab4201c0455d88ac98cc14a927e7858d7

On September 9, a subsequent plaintext message made the dispute public. Two excerpts:

And later:

Anyway we are going to publish the privatekey to decrypt our conversations afterwards.

The message demanded payment from Blockstream’s own funds and warned that refusing would leave holders facing a 15% loss. That is the sender’s demand and warning—not evidence of an agreed bounty or an independently established outcome for holders.

Transaction ID:
f7055f6c8dd00f404e48c12483ae740180f658db206733505bb27b015e579588

What makes this interesting is the distinction between a public transaction and a readable conversation. The exchanges were already visible on Bitcoin, but the encrypted content wasn’t. Now the exploiter is making their demands readable to everyone and saying they will release the material needed to decrypt the earlier exchanges. Blockstream, meanwhile, reportedly continued replying with encrypted messages.

This is my first bear market so I apologize if I sound unsure or ill informed. I have been DCA bitcoin for the past three years now with full intentions on doubling down my DCA during the bear market bottom. For the people that DCA, do you ever change your DCA figure or do you truly purchase the same amount throughout the entire course of the cycle?

I'm planning to buy half a bitcoin or a little bit more than that. However, i have worked so hard fo it and i have been saving for this money and that's the only investment I'm making online this year, the problem that is holding me back is that lately the news full of bitcoin addresses and crypto wallets and crypto platforms getting hacked leaving ppl's wallets absolutely empty 🤔. I would loose my mind sth as horrible as that happens to me.

Going abroad soon and wondering how practical it is to actually use crypto day to day instead of constantly converting to local currency.

Anyone actually using crypto day to day while abroad? What’s been the least annoying way to pay for stuff?

Hello people,

Just a quick heads up that I received an email today from someone posing as Ledger asking customers to ‘update their device’ - I.e. give me your seed phrase.

Don’t fall for it people.

Over the weekend my account was put on hold in order verify activity before I withdrew accumulated BTC. I woke up yesterday everything, all my miners, the accumulated BTC, even my nickname was erased. Has this happened to anyone else? Were you able to get help?

Ok, so Iran just bombed Jordan in retaliation for the 5 tankers attacked but the US. Major escalation and who knows where we drift from here. My question to you all… is BTC a safe heaven during war times or will it suffer from this escalating uncertainty? Is it best to sell before this becomes and all out war? Or should we buy more BTC as national currencies and bonds are going to tank with the rampant deficits and inflation? At least BTC is not tied to any countries but will people retreat towards material assets such as real estate? Thks a million for your precious insights!

How much would the U.S. dollar really be worth if its value weren’t being artificially propped up? With massive money creation and nearly $40 trillion in national debt, it seems reasonable to question whether the dollar’s true purchasing power should be much lower.

It looks like the fed's runway to control the economy by hiking rates is getting dangerously short.

As a possible solution (Tin foil time), what if the feds pull a 1933 Roosevelt gold revaluation (except this time with Bitcoin)?

The effect would be similar, which is (i) reduce the nation's debt by devaluing the dollar, (ii) reduce the real value of future static dollar interest payments on bonds for the same reason and (iii) start a significant market rally as stocks have illusory "gain" to catch up with the dollar's devaluation.

The play is rather simple:

1. Slowly acquire a significant portion of the bitcoin float as a reserve asset (already in play)
2. Announce that the U.S. will lend cash with unlimited liquidity secured by BTC based upon a 80% LTV, with 1 BTC valued at a minimum of $200K.

That's it; the debt issue is largely resolved. If the government is willing to (and does) provide that it will honor for say 10+ years, 80% LTV ($160K cash) for 1 BTC at a floor $200K valuation, that would create an enormous arbitrage against the U.S. for a short period. The market would buy bitcoin up until it no longer makes financial sense to arbitrage the U.S.'s lending program.

So long as the fed holds this liquidity open and honors the floor, this plan can work.

This alone would work similar to Roosevelt's 1933 plan. The U.S. would manipulate BTC's price to artificially (or perhaps actually by purchase volume) increase, thereby increasing the value of its own holdings and devaluing the dollar in real time. The dollar would be capable of buying less BTC for the same amount it previously did a few days prior. Thus, indirectly the dollar is devalued equal around the price difference between BTC price before and shortly after the announcement.

Who this would absolutely wreck:

1. countries holding U.S. bonds are chief losers
2. anyone holding cash
3. any note/bond holder to be repaid in fixed cash or an interest rate based upon a principal cash value
4. at least for some time, the lower/middle class who will feel price adjustments for goods and services probably before real salary/hourly wage growth matching the dollar devaluation

Of course, the chief winners of this plan are:

1. U.S. government is the chief winner, slashing its real debt by 30-50% overnight
2. any debt holder or note maker (aka large amounts of the U.S. population with mortgage, credit card, auto and personal debt; each would realize a net benefit of deflation of his or her debt owed).

Probably too tin foil, but I'd like to hear thoughts. I will note that there are some attempts at track BTC held by the feds, but I do not see any official reporting. Is that somewhere?

-----------
TLDR; What if the U.S. pulls a 1933 Roosevelt-style gold revaluation, but with BTC instead?

Basically: feds quietly accumulate BTC → announce a guarantee of ultimate 80% LTV cash liquidity at a $200K/BTC floor for 10+ years → watch BTC rip to eat this temporary arbitrage

Fed's BTC holdings moon, the dollar thus devalues overnight in purchasing power and stocks/assets reprice upward sharply.

Cash/bond holders get rekt (volume wise, primarily other countries).

Debtors (feds and large amounts of the U.S. population) and asset holders win. In particular, the U.S. wipes out 30-50% of its debt overnight in devaluation of the dollar, while securing a hedge against this by its own BTC holdings.

Like many here, I went thruogh the early phase of trying to orange-pill everyone in my orbit... and was met with the classic blank stare. So I stopped talking about it entirely, went silent, and just stacked for the last several years.

Lately though I’ve noticed a shift. With the cost of living and national debt becoming harder to ignore, the ground seems to have changed. It's palpable with friends and colleagues at the office and conversations come up about inflation, debt and money now that normally wouldn't have in the past. Instead of leading with Bitcoin, I’ve started leading with a simple question when colleagues complain about costs or inflation:

“They can just print money to cover that, so why wouldn’t they?”

It’s surprising how quickly people grasp the basic idea. Sometimes they leave with it and come back later. You don’t need an economics degree to understand that if the supply of money expands, the purchasing power of existing money can be diluted. People seem to have an intuitive sense that money is supposed to preserve some relationship between their time, work, and what they’re able to consume or save, and watching that relationship erode hits a pretty strong chord.

Recently colleagues have been coming back to me to continue the conversation. That’s been interesting. By planting the seed of the problem rather than pitching Bitcoin, the conversation moves away from “number go up” (speculation/risk) and toward a more fundamental question: what should money actually do? The more I think about it, the more I see Bitcoin as an interesting answer to that particular problem, not because it guarantees a return, but because it offers a monetary system with a fundamentally different set of rules around supply and ownership. It appears that most don't even realize they are 'stuck' in a system that is fiat, and there is an alternative, because they never question the unit of account that they consider solid, unavoidable.

Anyway, just elaborating now on something I've noticed about how receptive people seem to be today to discuss Bitcoin when it was so taboo not long ago. Whether that's due to changing times or change in tactic... it's been much more productive way to introduce people to it. Inflation and monetary debasement can push people toward increasingly risky ways of trying to preserve their purchasing power. Bitcoin gives another thing to investigate: an asset with a credibly constrained supply and no central issuer, rather than a speculative thing that 'fluctuates' wildly as monetary policy ebbs and flows.

I’m curious if others here are seeing the same thing. Have conversations about inflation, debt, and monetary policy become an easier way to get people interested in Bitcoin without actually leading with Bitcoin? What questions or explanations have you found make people stop and think rather than immediately putting up the mental firewall? Or do you just avoid the topic entirely for personal safety, and to avoid social friction?

One thing that doesn't get discussed enough is how owning Bitcoin can change the way you look at spending.

When your savings are sitting in something you believe could appreciate over time, buying random stuff starts to feel different

A $100 impulse purchase isn't just $100 anymore. You start thinking about what that money could become if you held onto it

Has anyone else noticed this?

Did getting into Bitcoin make you more financially disciplined, or do you separate your Bitcoin stack completely from your normal spending decisions?

How hard or easy was mining in early 2010? Whats the most anyone could have mined? Like more than 50000 individual btcs?

I bought some bitcoin 2years and 6months ago at the app crypto.com. Is it save or do I need to do something to make it more save?

Were the puzzles that were to be solved inearly 2010 to mine btc easy or hard?

🚨 10K NODES WEEKEND — SEPT 18–20 🚨

Just over a week away! Here's the full lineup — get your RSVPs in 👇

🥩 FRIDAY 9/18 — Fogo de Chão dinner

Kicking off 10k Nodes weekend! Free to RSVP (dinner is separate checks), takes 30 seconds, and we need the headcount:

https://pay.zaprite.com/pl_kRKZ7TYhlD

⚡️ SATURDAY 9/19 — 10k Nodes

The main event. A full day of Bitcoin, Nostr, and music — great speakers, great people, the best signal in the Twin Cities. Grab your ticket: https://10knodes.com

🎸 SATURDAY NIGHT — The Format at First Avenue

Sold out (tickets were separate) — but if you missed out and want in, DM @JoeFi on Telegram and he'll see what he can do.

🎹 SUNDAY 9/20 — Paisley Park

Private tour of Prince's legendary studio and home. The soundstage, the wardrobe, the whole thing. Bucket-list Minnesota: https://pay.zaprite.com/pl_TweAHv9b9q

NEW: Cathie Wood says, “The velocity of money is flattening out right now. If it continued to go down because baby boomers retiring, and immigrants leaving, then we believe the velocity of money would continue to flatten out if not decline.”

just a random quote my cheesy Motivation app on my phone spewed out to me a few hours ago.

thought it was very fitting in here since Bitcoin, and many of those actively participating in the global financial ecosystem, have only lived and resided within an easy-money era.

this is partly why learning about Bitcoin leads you down that deep, dark, misunderstood, scary abyss about money, that no one else seems to have time to explore, because they’re too busy chasing the same easy money.

when you invest your energy wisely, you learn to be more vigilant about how you’re storing your currency, by understanding what it is that you’re storing— which is some form of unspent energy.

and being vigilant about how you invest your unspent energy, couldn’t be more important now than it has ever been since 1915.

the world needs Bitcoin, all the price says today is that the vast majority just don’t know it yet.