John Carvalho Profile picture
Oct 31 25 tweets 8 min read Read on X
For those of you that missed my presentation in Lugano, here is a tweetstorm summary and introduction to our new Pubky ecosystem.

Let's begin! 👇 Image
The Problem: A Captured Web

The web today is a mess of poisoned algorithms, censorship, and walled gardens.Image
🕸️ Poisoned Algorithms

Big Tech feeds you what serves them: corporate and state interests, toxic engagement, user manipulation... Algorithms are broken, and they’re breaking us.Image
Big Tech hates you. Image
🚫 Censorship

Think you’ve got free speech online? Not so fast. Platforms and governments decide what’s allowed, what’s “truth.”

The net’s compromised. It's not about what you say, it’s about what they let you say.Image
Big Tech is compromised. Image
🧱Walled Gardens

Big Tech’s idea of a web? Lock you in their app, farm your data, and make you pay for the privilege.

Your data is locked up in ecosystems that serve them. It’s digital serfdom, not freedom.Image
Their house, their rules. Image
Attempts to Fix the Web (So Far)

There’ve been attempts to "fix" the web, and made notable progress. Let’s talk Mastodon, Nostr, Bluesky, and where they have fallen short.Image
Activity Pub / Threads, Mastodon

Pros: Federated servers, community control, open-source.

Cons: Identity isn’t portable, centralized moderation doesn’t help if a server bans you. You’re still at someone else’s mercy.Image
Matrix / Element, etc

Pros: Decentralized real-time communication built to replace traditional chats. E2E encryption.

Cons: Federation still has a level of central control from larger servers. Complex infra makes it harder for users to run their own server.Image
Nostr / Primal, Damus, etc

Pros: Key-based identity. Resistant to some censorship. Super simple to start.

Cons: Scales poorly. No identity-based routing. No real delegation options. It’s a decentralized beginning, but lack of intentional design left gaps in the system.Image
Bluesky (AT Protocol)

Pros: Decentralized ID & portability, theoretically good. Offers elaborate moderation options.

Cons: DID depends on PLC directory — a centralized failure point.Image
We think there is a better way to unlock the web, so we built it. Image
Introducing Pubky

Vision
Pubky is a key-oriented, user-controlled web. Own your data, identity, and content. Break free from Big Tech.

Pubky Core
The decentralized protocol that powers Pubky. Identity, data routing, hosting.

Pubky App
Your interface to this new web. It’s a publishing tool, a curation engine, with personalized feeds, social tagging, and curation controlled by you.Image
Pubky Core: The Protocol

Let’s dig into what Pubky Core brings to the table.Image
Here’s what makes Pubky Core truly next-gen: PKARR, Mainline DHT, and Homeservers. Image
PKARR (Public Key Addressable Resource Records)

You hold the keys to your digital kingdom.

Your identity, data, and contacts are portable and censorship-resistant.

Your key is your uncensorable domain name.Image
Mainline DHT

Think BitTorrent tech, but for the web.

Decentralized peer discovery that scales.

20 million nodes. Global, resilient. Real P2P.Image
Homeservers

No lock-in, no walls. Anyone can run a homeserver. The same UX as "Log in with Google" — but with true freedom and control over sessions.

If your server bans you? Move. Carry on.Image
A Credible Exit

No one should control your social graph, data, or reputation but you.

With Pubky, you take it all with you.

Migration is built-in. True resilience and availability, built for users.Image
HTTP-friendly URLs

Not everything has to be some blockchain acronym.

Pubky is practical: normal HTTPS URLs, seamless integration, and a focus on usability.Image
Pubky Core Is Available Now

This isn’t vaporware. We’re open source, and we’re live.

Contribute to Pubky Core: github.com/pubkyImage
I will have to do a separate thread for the rest, tune in to learn about Pubky App!

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More from @BitcoinErrorLog

Oct 31
Here's Part 2 of my Pubky presentation summary, beginning with Pubky App!
👇 Image
Pubky App - Let's Unlock the Web! 🧵 Image
A Progressive Web App

Runs in your browser or installed locally.

Content publishing, social tagging, semantic social graph — it’s all here.Image
Read 18 tweets
Dec 6, 2022
Good morning, Bitcoin does not support or enforce any sort of "transactions" or "settlements."

These actions are misnamed within the protocol and Bitcoin literature.

1/10 Image
A bitcoin "transaction" or "txn" or "tx" is actually a signed authorization to update the score of an originating account to redistribute its units into other accounts.

It is a proof, or a payment, not a transaction.

2/10
Nodes store these proofs in a temporary cache called the "mempool" until they're included in a new block by miners, validated by what is called "probabilistic finality."

Actual commerce and transacting happens outside of Bitcoin between peers in the physical world.

3/10
Read 12 tweets
Nov 16, 2022
After weeks of arguing and consideration, I am now confident I can refute all arguments for a full-RBF regime, and that we should protect first-seen mempool policy from being subverted by keeping the existing environment intact.

1/5
My arguments include clear rationale that consider miners, incentive compatibility, maximization of fees per block, priority competition, utility for merchants, intelligent doublespend risk mitigation, protection of the user space, optimal culture of development of Bitcoin,

2/5
and optimizartion of Bitcoin adoption, utility, and activity.

What I do not know is the best path to communicating these learnings to Core, and best process for civilly halting the damage of the full-RBF regime.

3/5
Read 5 tweets
Nov 8, 2022
I will be freezing my personal Bitcoin Core nodes at the current version (pre-taproot) permanently, barring any critical CVE fixes or such.

I will also stop using native segwit addresses and never use taproot (my nodes don't support it anyway).
Maybe this is inconsequential in the long run, but Bitcoin conservatism needs to start somewhere and I find the culture of Core to have soured and become reckless, and I simply do not want to trust my coin with their leadership any longer.
99% of users *should* be doing the same as me, simply because few of us are qualified to assess the code changes and complexity implications, making this a totally trusted process.

"Don't trust, verify" only works when you can actually verify.

We can't.
Read 4 tweets
Nov 3, 2022
A subset of Core devs are currently trying to attack Bitcoin by forcing a pet agenda to make all transactions RBF by default.

This attack includes bitcoin-dev mailing list lies and lobbying, code changes in Core node, and bribery attempts to miners.

1/5
Merchants rely on 0-conf txns as a way to meet consumer needs in commerce. RBF makes the mempool less reliable and spending Bitcoin more dangerous for consumers and businesses.

2/5
Bitcoin ATMs, Bitrefill, Muun, our company (Synonym/Blocktank) and any merchant can manage doublespend risks easily. We are working on tools to make 0conf acceptance easier/safer, but some devs would rather try and break a Bitcoin use case to protect their niche designs.

3/5
Read 5 tweets
Nov 2, 2022
The new Slashtags.to website has a lot of info about the Slashtags protocol, including this awesome Slashtags Playground,

The Playground shows both use-cases & UX examples to spark your creativity about what's possible with Slashtags!

1/7
Install the beta-testing version of Bitkit Wallet from bitkit.to to try each Playground demo!

Let's start with the Slashtags Profiles demo, which allows you to search any slashtag key and view the profile.

We included the Synonym team's profiles to try also!

2/7
The Slashtags Accounts demo shows you passwordless account creation & sign-in for websites, as well as the cool tap-to-login feature in Bitkit!

The website can pull your Profile automagically, and even knows if you are new or returning!

Try it at slashtags.to!

3/7
Read 7 tweets

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