This is a short review of Specter Desktop from @CryptoAdvance, which is now my new favorite way to validate coins and create multisig wallets.
It's an interesting easy-to-install tool that connects to your Bitcoin Core and that you can then access from a web page.
Thread:
To start you just download the files for your system and you just run it. It's that easy. github.com/cryptoadvance/…
After starting it you will get the webpage address to access Specter. I recommend bookmarking it:
http://127.0.0.1:25441/
After accessing it we have to connect to our Bitcoin Core through RPC. Just use the same details like in your bitcoin.conf file. I am connecting to mynode so you will find the username and password on the mynode page.
Next we will have to add a device, which will be used for creating multisig wallets too. For Coldcard I just used the /.electrum/wallets json file. After creating a single key wallet, Specter will scan the blockchain for utxos.
No Electrum Server needed!
Also here is a great video for creating a multisig wallet on Specter Desktop from Stepan:
Under BIP300 rules 26% of miners can lock coins in a drivechain indefinetely.
Imagine USA gov mandating Foundry to never release coins from a privacy drivecahin.
Miners have the option to use 'alarm' which is a vote that downvotes all proposals. Thus even if 74% vote in favor....
...the proposal still does not go through because it can never reach 51% in favor.
If there are miners that abstain from voting, then there's even a lower percentage needed to lock indefinetely the coins.
Drivechain people should understand the risks.
Bip300 introduces voting, a democracy pillar, that may come with States trying to influence sidechains security. Voting should not be part of Bitcoin security assumptions.
Bitcoin is feudalism.
Bitcoin can not scale on first layer. All second layers come with compromises. But on first layer you can not onboard all the population on Earth. It's just a fact. At one point fees will be so high that only high valued transactions will confirm onchain
1/n
Big blockers opted for the socialist route of offering first layer access to everyone but that would have the cost of loss of decentralization. If Bitcoin tried that only once it would be a hard fork that would be politicized into future hard forks for more block increases.
2/n
Thus Bitcoin will never get another block increase. It is what it is. The most decentralized network. And in order to participate only a small part of the population will have access to transact on chain, the wealthy of the world (be it individuals, banks or institutions).
3/n
Had a blast in El Salvador but there were also things I didn't expect or like!
Short thread 👇
The big chains in the capital do accept Bitcoin but most of the small shops do not. Except El zonte all other small towns have almost no BTC acceptance. I asked people why not and 90% of the time they said they don't understand it.
Another question I asked everyone was "what's the maximum supply of Bitcoin?" but nobody knew to answer this question. I was expecting that adopting btc as legal tender would come with some education from @nayibbukele.
@SantiagoAuFund listened to your talk with Robert and you got me thinking. What if whenever someone says the word "money" he's using a wrong term? What if there is no such thing as "money" that's both MoE and SoV. What if these two are completeley different?
1/2
What if the State has monopoly only on MoEMoney and doesn't care that much about SoVMoney?
What if the freemarket always had the freedom to chose whichever SoV it wanted?
What if Bitcoin doesn't compete against the dollar, but rather the other SoVs (gold,real estate, stocks).
2/3
If these were true, we can see how the State could go after stable coins (they compete with the MoE), but leave Bitcoin alone (as the State doesn't care about SoVs).
What if State monopoly on MoE (currency) will exist forever because, like you said, there will always be.. 3/4
When you run your own full node besides validating your coins you can also ssh into it and query for some information about the network or specific data in the blockchain. Here are some of the ones I use from time to time.
Consider adding your favorites too to this thread:
bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo
Shows information about your node, mining data or how many peer you're connected to. Also there's info regarding the taproot softfork status.
This is a short tutorial how to get Bitcoin Core working on the new RockChip RK3566, a small SBC that has an M2 socket directly on it. The board itself is also more slim and would make for a great full node for travelers.
First I will add some pictures of the board. The CPU is on the opposite side of the M2 slot. I added a small heatsink to it even though it doesn't seem to get hot at all even while Core is syncing.
The M2 ssd has to be a 2242 size (the smallest ssd there is). You will need to purchase separetely ssd spacer and screw for a motherboard. Here is the one I am running: sabrent.com/product/SB-134…