637: Chris' Smart Home Disaster

I'm also rethinking my cold storage situation. I wrote a little rust program to roll a virtual dice using the rand crate, then used that running on my desktop which at that time had been online and doing a bunch of things in the background for a while to get some random dice rolls. Going to check out Bitkey and also maybe an ESP32 based seedsigner

Regarding fed reserve... All our govt does is jibber jabber unless it affects their own wealth or life or agenda. They don't care about the middle class and as long as there isn't a revolution, which they're confident there won't be, they can continue just jibber jabbering

Add this to the previous boost. Got fat fingered in my rage! And while I’m at it, did Bitcoin maxi culture fail? 100%, yes. It failed. NVK and his mates personified it and look what happened.

If I think back to all the BS “podcasters” spouted about “don’t trust, verify” and all that crap, without doing it themselves, it makes me feel sick. V4V pods with zero paid ads is the only way we’ll get reliable information. As they say “show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome”. Turns out they were right. Keep it up Chris. Thanks.

Congrats on the 100 Chris. How to celebrate? Do whatever you want Chris, just have some fun. A guest sounds like a good idea, or how about some listeners calling in? I’m surprised to hear you say that you’re thinking of stopping at 100. I hope you don’t and I will continue to listen and support as long as you keep going. But you gotta do what feels right for you and your family. May the force be with you.

Episode 100 idea: Bitcoin Dad's guest appearance (if he is up for it of course)

+1 to expanding the updates section discussing the implications of changes Also +1 to what bitcoin.conf settings you run and why

Thank you for this episode

I've taken the plunge into nixos. I set up a full lightning stack on nix-bitcoin and a side effect of that was to install nixos on my main server at home. Chris, I blame you

Thank you for this episode!!!

For anyone interested is starting a node from scratch here’s a guide I wrote last year. It’s a little bit technical as you do it all yourself, from sourcing the hardware to installing Linux and running it through the command line. Includes Bitcoin Core and an Elecctrum server to connect to your wallet. I’ve done this on two servers now, it’s a lot of fun if you like this kind of thing and you’re a sovereign actor on the Bitcoin network. https://kiwibitcoinguide.org/articles-and-guides/setup-bitc…

I’d like to hear more about places to use Bitcoin as money. Especially any online services you use or are aware of. I know there are VPNs, Email services and AI aggregators who accept sats. Any more? I’ve always thought using sats to support Open Source projects and developers should be an easy win. Thanks

Part 2: A listener shared this website, which has some excellent explainers and guides on wallets, entropy, keys, seeds and more. Awesome resource, all tools are free to use under the MIT license. https://selfcustodylabs.com/

My question last week was more about generating the seed phrase and checksum in an offline way. I rolled the dice so can get the entropy offline, but wonder how to generate and verify the actual seed words and checksum. It seems like that part is harder to do in a truely offline way. Do you have any tips on that? Thanks.

Chris, can you do an section on your core config options and rationale behind them?

In regards to entropy and offline generation, I think people are missing the point. You want more entropy data points and to get such things, most operating systems get that from network, disk, memory, all kinds of different things that are changing. If you have a tails system that's completely air-gapped, you're not going to have all the network data points that you can pull from to add to the entropy pool. To get the most randomness, you want a very high entropy pool and the Linux entropy pool is taking all sorts of different inputs, so the more inputs you can add, the higher your entropy, the better your random number generator is. So when I generated more dice rolls, I was using my main online system with browser open as much entropy as you can possibly get based off of network activity, and all that. Yes, sure, if somebody pwned that computer already, they could see the numbers that were generated, but that still is much higher entropy than if you have an offline system that you just booted up and you're already generating numbers off of.

Community Mining pool update. The upstream project P2PoolV2 is still working on mining share payouts. The software is not yet a minimum product. At the same time, I have been working in a NixOS flake to run the project as a service module.

Huge update on JB mining pool coming soon. Chris, please contact me to discuss some details

A question about nodes and one for Wes. What is Nix Bitcoin? I hear you talk about Nix on LUP, and as I understand it Nix is a distro, but maybe it’s not? And how does Nix Bitcoin fit in? Is it a node implementation? Or not? Help me out with this one please. For Wes: What would it take for more Open Source believers to get into Bitcoin more? I’d love to hear his thoughts on this, hopefully you have some time on the road for some Bitcoin chat. Safe travels.

Has AI affected my job? Yes, in a positive way. I am self employed and take care of clients’ website and e-commerce infrastructure. AI allows me to do way more than before. An example is testing, I use AI to write scripts to automate testing, saves me hours each time. AI helps me troubleshoot issues on tools I have very little experience with. And this is just the beginning, I haven’t even gone deep into the Agent world yet. AI is going to disrupt and create opportunities at the same time. It’s up to all of us to make sure we’re in the right place to benefit.

Thanks for the boost question in the show notes, great addition to the notes

I am an IT sysadmin that also enjoys coding. LLMs have changed by job a little bit in that I don't have to spend as much time sorting through search results to find solutions to my problems. I'm able to find things sooner and have answers that are more catered to the problem that I am having. For coding, I enjoy doing it and I don't have a pressure to release anything faster than normal so agentic coding hasn't really been a huge part of it yet. If there was a pressure to ship mostly functional programs sooner, I might be using it more but at the moment it is just a fabulous search tool

What website do you use to see nodes statistics?

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Double boost for this and the episode with Oscar. Conversations with people like Oscar who are creating real use cases for Bitcoin are great. Is there a way to connect my LND node to Fountain? Can I do this with Alby hub? I’d love to connect directly and not have to manually top up my Fountain wallet if I could. Keep the signal coming, thanks.

Checking in from the backlog! Slowly getting caught back up

For new people, I would definitely recommend Umbrel, over Start9

Booyah 🍻

Re your question on which platform to do a Knots tutorial on, I would say it has to be Linux of some flavor. You’re the Linux guy so asking you to do it on another platform would be blasphemy! I was a Bitcoiner before getting into Linux and other open protocols. I really think Bitcoiners should embrace the full open source stack, it’s part of the trade off for having open source, immutable money.

Great episode, I'm a little behind. Keep them coming!!

Thanks again for the solid signal. Wow, a lot of action in the comments this episode. I’ve tagged you in Nostr with some audio clips of the Tornado Cash and Samourai trials. The journals covering it are the Rage and Frank Corva from Bitcoin Magazine. Onwards.

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Curiosity question: what is the software stack of your Callisto node?

Part 2… When sentiment is low (and fuck me, it is as low as I have ever seen it), my happy place is a deep technical rabbit hole. When the price is crashing or the sky falling in, work on your skills and learn new things. Like running your own node on a self hosted Linux server. This week I’m hardening my node and learning all about reverse proxies. It really is the gift that keeps on giving and if you don’t get rich off Bitcoin, you’ll have some valuable skills to hit the job market with!

Bitcoin meetups and events are the best. Meeting other Bitcoiners IRL is like being reunited with old friends. I attend all the meetups and events I can and even travel to some. I would definitely attend a TWIB event. Thanks for the quality content every week, and for the laughs too! Gotta keep smiling (and stacking) through the bear :)

I think the four year cycle still exists because our political system in the United States is also a four year cycle to an extent. We get at least lately a different president every four years and it just goes back and forth between the two major parties and the four-year cycle is indicative of market during those policy changes that the different parties make and their ethos of how to run the country

Would the bip110 situation be somewhat solved by having additional node implementations?

In the Clarity Act, I’ve heard there are clauses which offer protections for Open Source Developers. They seem to be in one version, and then out in the next amendment. Do you know any more about this Chris? It sounds like one of those Omnibus bill tricks, where the act is about something else (eg. Stablecoins) but it includes some nasty surprises in other areas in the small print. (Eg. Removing protections for FOSS developers). Wondering if you have any insights on this?

No video for me. I prefer audio because it allows me to think critically about what is being said. Video requires more sensory input which takes note brain power. Plus I listen in during the commute the most anyway so video is not feasible anyway

Video would be a nice option but not necessary in my opinion

I love video for technical tutorials but prefer audio for news and interviews. How about some detailed video content on a technical topic, perhaps available as bonus content? Video content would involve more effort for you, so putting that effort towards evergreen technical content would mean it sticks around longer. Thanks for the in depth content and the research you put into every show. (+1 vote for the Alby hub deep dive with Wes)

Another question: as a member who also boosts, do you prefer having income from memberful or as boosts? Say for example I wanted to increase my financial contribution to JB. Is the membership or boosts more effective/easier for you guys to take in?

Show production question for ya: What part of Jb's operations takes the most of your time? What takes the most energy? What is the highest cost? As a member, I want to help offset that some, especially if it is something that I could either help support with time or by helping automate or maintaining some of the infrastructure, etc

Fidgets are a big part of my life, mostly because when you have a 3d printer, you can make your own. I've made probably around 20 infinity cubes for people and then 2 for myself, 1 for work and 1 for home. Look up fidget on printables.com or thingiverse

Hey Chris. I want to echo some of the other comments here and say that TWIB is a highlight of my week and that the signal and value you provide is awesome. The fact that you live and breathe Open Source and live off V4V means the content is of the highest quality. It seems like all the other Bitcoin pods have either lost their values, sold out to advertisers or just gone bat shit crazy, so we need you here buddy. I’d like to see more of the membership for TWIB and think there must be opportunities there for you. An Open Source Bitcoin community centered around TWIB, learning new skills and helping each other out, I’d be a part of that. Over and out.

This was a great episode. I know you were going to try changing the format. I'm excited to see what way that goes. Just wanted to give you some signal on the current format as I get lots of value in each episode. When you choose what to cut, please don't cut the state of the network section. I like hearing that each week

+1 to NixOS node. I don't feel like I ever have to worry about doing updates on my server anymore

I'll take some Saylor sats... Yes Strategy selling is good, along with all the other whales because that means more and cheaper sats for me!!!

Thanks for sharing your agent and node methodology. I kind of knew the answer wouldn’t be something like “put a few wrappers in place and let ‘em loose on your nodes”. But I didn’t think the answer would be Nix, even though I hear you talk about it all the time on LUP. another rabbit hole to discover! Here we go again! :)

I gave my nieces and nephews some Bitcoin for Xmas in 2022. Turns out that was a great time to do that, as it’s gone nothing but up since then. I’ve gave them the same amount of fiat again last Xmas, and explained how it was now worth much less in Sats. When I see them I check in and ask them how their magic internet money is going. One of them is right into it, so I send him Sats and a quest to spend them at a local merchant. I’ve become the Bitcoin uncle!

Extra bonus sats for the baby Chris clip. Loved it

I’d like to hear some more of your story Chris. I’ve heard a bit from you over the years on your shows but I’d love to hear more about how you found Bitcoin, what you’ve learnt from it, what has surprised or disappointed you in the Bitcoin world. I always enjoy hearing people’s stories!

For those asking: Mining pool update I have a proof of concept set up. However it is based on the project called P2PoolV2. The payout system doesn't work yet so there's no point for me to share the link and for us to burn energy without a reward. The pool by default uses PPLNS shares but there are other payout methods being implemented. I will update again when there is a minimum viable product of P2PoolV2 available

Loved this format Chris, this would be a great model for a members feed I think. The next step on my node is to set up Alby hub and NWC to connect my Primal wallet to my LND node. I’m still not zapping on Nostr yet (shame). I’d like to hear more about OpenCode. Do you run that in the terminal or with the GUI? Which models do you connect to? You said you use it to ssh into your node to review configs and settings, I’d love to hear more about how you’re using OpenCode to manage your nodes. Thanks.

Update on knots VS core nodes Knots takes up 50G more space. Not sure why...

Node Up Bitcoiners. We all gotta do it. Here’s a guide from our community website in New Zealand, just published to help all Bitcoiners run their own node. Right up your alley Chris, running straight on Ubuntu. https://kiwibitcoinguide.org/articles-and-guides/setup-bitc…

HAPPY LAUNCH SUNDAY ON A TUESDAY

Couldn't make it yesterday since the storms in my area knocked out the regions electricity. Thankfully I have a portable generator to keep water and fridge running. Maybe it's time to invest in a battery system with an inverter and a bigger generator to keep more of the home running

I love the idea of audits like this. Great idea

Clip 5. Meant self custody, not self sovereignty

Clip 5. Eh, not really important to me. I don't coinbase or care much about clarity act. Self sovereignty over here

Clip 4. Cut, not helpful to the topic or discussion

Clip 3. Helpful to see where he is coming from and the lense he sees through. I would have liked it to be included since I don't know his background at all

Clip 2 misses out on the whole point of why bitcoin is a good investment, being scarcity. Mathematics proves only 21million. CUT

Clip 1,agreed on cutting

Chris, I think you probably would end up spending more BTC if there weren't taxes on it either since all these boosts are essentially a locked up cash flow for you. You'd be able to dip into the boost income and pay the monthly bills with less cost

Edit last boost I WOULD NOT have to do all these calculations

I would spend more sats if there wasn't a capital gains tax on every single transaction. My self hosted lightning would then just become my checking account and I would have to do all these calculations on how much fiat I need to save to pay the bills and put the rest into BTC cold storage. Could take my whole pay in BTC

Chris, I will buy you a bitaxe. Tell me which one and where to ship it. I'm almost done setting up a pool server so we can have a JB Pool

Catching up, regarding the poverty line, I spend over 23k on housing and I'm in the Midwest in a rural area. What gets me is that all these "experts" never update their formulas even though everything is constantly changing around them. Why do you think that is?

$1m per BTC by 2032? I doubt it. Hope not, so I can stack more

I think you did have a technical problem last week, I could see more sats in the fountain stream alone than the total you read out on the show. So here’s a double for this week. Stick to the signal and leave the $1 million dollar price talk for the other B grade podcasters.

Split to angerz is failing on fountain

Upper-ed expectations!

Amongst all the suitcoiners and politicians, there was some good content at the Bitcoin Conference. Announcements from Block, Strike and Lightspark were all positive for Bitcoin as money. Did you see Paolo from Tether’s talk Chris? Some really cool storytelling and then he talked about their work on the Holepunch and Keet stack, a real peer to peer protocol. Take a look and let us know what you think.

I don't like the government/companies having a bunch of the supply either but if we as the plebs start dictating who can custody BTC we are becoming the very people that BTC was designed to combat in the first place

Keep these bonus episodes coming. This media production irked me like it did you

Thanks for covering this, I saw it on YouTube and then you covered it. Would love to see more bonus episodes. Biggest question I have now is how the hell do you cover all this as well as Linux Unplugged?

If family computer counts, the first computer I remember using and learning was a dell dimension 5000. Keep in mind I'm only only 10ish years older than your oldest... Sorry to make you feel old lol The first computer that was actually mine was a custom built machine centered around an A10-7890K because I was too poor for a dedicated video card at the time. This was during high school so what money I did get from the job I had was saved up and I later bought a 1050ti.

For the dumb time machine thought experiment I would back to the era of early steam locomotives so 1880s to early 1920s. I would love to be on a train crew and armed with my current knowledge of how to run one already, I probably wouldn't need to learn too much in terms of being an engineer or even a fireman. Plus it was the old west which is one of my favorite historical eras. Yeehaw pardners

Part 2: Do you see any opportunities in the Bitcoin education space through TWIB? Memberships and courses, educational content? And are there any ways to “open source” any of this via V4V community contributions or something like that? I see why you’ve done with Linux Unplugged and wonder if it’s possible to do a TWIB version of this. Anyway, some thoughts to ponder. Your show drops on Thursday in my part of the world, and I always look forward to “TWIB Thursdays” now.

Hey Chris It was interesting to hear you say that you look at each of your shows as businesses. Tell us more about the vision for TWIB. Do you see it following the same path as LUP, with V4V, memberships and bonus content, but no paid ads? Are there other unique things you’re considering for TWIB? TBC in the next boost.

Regarding that CTO that got hired in the first story. Sounds like someone had a bunch of Microsoft stock and wanted to pump the value up

The intro song for bootleg sums up my work life pretty good

I used to run both knots and core. Only run core now. Not a fan of property seizure in general

I need to open some new Lightning channels to connect me to regular merchants I use. What would you suggest to find the right nodes to open channels to? Is there a tool I could use to input my payments history and help me find the right channel partners? After a long stable run I’m suddenly experiencing lots of failed payments to merchants I’ve been paying for years, including Fountain for your boosts! Got any tips or tools that could help? Thanks.