japan's central bank now owns over half of its government's bonds and the yen is rapidly devaluing...

here's how this happened, and what it might mean: japan had the first tech bubble to burst, way back in the 1980's. they were a powerhouse, but the bubble popped, and ever since then they've struggled with deflation

g7 announcing an import ban on russian gold could be the start of the big moves that many of us have been anticipating for a while... many believe the price of gold in us dollars has been held down for years by the fractional reserve systems implemented by the LBMA and COMEX

something like 100 paper claims to every gold ounce in existence

In light of the Solana network once again halting, here's a quick thread on scaling blockchains, from a crypto developer w/ 5 years in the industry.

👇🧵 The crypto space is way too large for anyone to be an expert across all of it now

The engineers focusing on one blockchain do not have time to stay up to date with developments on all the other blockchains

As a result the same mistakes are made across various altcoins

I have a strong hunch that the cure for cancer is something very simple: proper breathing habits

I watched my mom die of pancreatic cancer and I wanted to share my thoughts 👇 It's well known that cancer cells are often starved of oxygen

blog.dana-farber.org/insight/2019/1…

physics.cancer.gov/research/2013/…

Nouriel Roubini has no intrinsic value Still feeling vindicated, @Nouriel ??

~ The Mempool ~

The Bitcoin Mempool has been a hot topic of discussion lately, as transaction volumes have been increasing, causing congestion in the network, and driving fees higher.

In this thread I'll explain what the Mempool is and what is going on... 1/ The "Mempool" generally refers to all of the transactions that have been seen by the network, but have not yet been included in a block

These transactions are often referred to as "Unconfirmed" transactions

~ What is an xpub? ~

An xpub ("extended public key") along with an xprv ("extended private key") allows you to generate a nearly endless number of bitcoin addresses without having to store and protect the individual private keys for every single one

👇 Time for a thread 👇 1/ To protect your privacy, it's good practice to use a new bitcoin address for every transaction

But each new address requires its own private key...

Back in the old days (pre-2013), bitcoin wallets would generate and store a new private key for every new address

~ Bitcoin 51% Attacks ~

If a single Bitcoin miner gains control of the majority of the network's hash power... what exactly can they do, and how?

They can't steal your coins, but they can swindle @PeterSchiff out of some gold bars. Here's how 👇 1/ There are 2 main attacks someone can execute with 51% of the hash power:

1) Reorganize blocks in the chain to reverse transactions that they send

2) Prevent someone else's transaction from getting confirmed

We'll dive into the details of these but first some background:

~ Bitcoin Satellites ~

Did you know that the bitcoin network is being broadcast from multiple satellites, all around the world?

@Blockstream is providing this service for free 24/7, allowing people without reliable internet access to stay connected to the bitcoin network 1/ Six satellites are constantly in geosynchronous orbit, providing near-complete coverage of the entire Earth

~ Hot vs Cold Wallets ~

What's the difference?

I'll explain these, and how bitcoin exchanges use a combination of both to keep your funds both secure and accessible 👇 1/ The difference is simple:

"Hot": 🔥 on a machine connected to the Internet

"Cold": 🥶 never on a machine connected to the Internet

~ Tor and the Dark Web ~

What is Tor? Why do people use it? How does it work to protect privacy?

Thread 👇 2/ The Internet might feel like magic, but computers need to know how to find each other

They do this by sharing their IP Addresses, which are similar to mailing addresses in the physical world

An IP Address encodes the location of a machine's WIFI connection

~ Bitcoin Seed Phrases ~

Did you know you can store bitcoin in your brain?

All it takes is memorizing some words

In this thread I'll cover bitcoin mnemonic seed phrases and how they work 👇 2/ In bitcoin you control your coins by keeping a secret, called a private key

This is really just a large secret number, and you use it to authorize the transfer of funds

For more background on the details of private keys , check out my previous thread

https://twitter.com/dannydiekroeger/status/1283928379201212416?s=20

What is a VPN?

These can help protect your privacy online, and help you access websites that are otherwise banned in your country

How? Thread 👇 First let's quickly review the basics of how your computer connects to a website

When you access a website, your computer and the website's server send messages back and forth over the Internet, as shown below

The Dollar, Debt, Inflation, and why the Federal Reserve is stuck between a rock and a hard place 👇 Before 2020 began, US government spending was already on an unsustainable path

Now after trillions more in borrowed money for virus relief and stimulus, government debt is at an all time high and growing faster than ever

How do I speed up my bitcoin transaction?

Part 2: "Replace by Fee"

What is "RBF" and how you can use it to get your transaction confirmed more quickly 👇 Imagine you discovered some old bitcoin laying around in an @ElectrumWallet , and the price of Bitcoin is up 1,000% on the day, so you'd like to deposit it all to your @CashApp account in order to sell immediately (shame on you! never sell!)

How do I speed up my bitcoin transaction?

Part 1: "Child Pays for Parent"

What is "CPFP" and how you can use it to get your transaction confirmed more quickly 👇 Imagine you send some bitcoin to your @CashApp account and pay a typical transaction fee of 10 sats/byte

But then, oh no! A bunch of new transactions get added to the network, causing a fee spike

~ Bitcoin Addresses ~

How do they work? Where do they come from? Why do some look different than others?

Thread 👇 When bitcoin gets sent, it always gets sent to an Address

You can think of an Address kind of like a Lock

When we say that an Address “has some bitcoin on it”, what we really mean is that a certain amount of bitcoin is locked to that Address

Private Keys, Public Keys, and Digital Signatures

What do all these terms mean?

Here's a high level overview of the basics, and how they help us do cool things especially in bitcoin 👇 A Private Key is just secret number

Thats all

It's just a really large random number - so large that it can't be guessed by anyone

~ Internet Censorship and Bitcoin ~

Why Twitter can ban you, but Bitcoin never will

What are the technical differences between centralized platforms and decentralized networks?

Let's dive in 👇 Over the past few years we've seen a lot of controversial figures get banned from popular websites like @Twitter, @YouTube, @Facebook, and @Instagram.

~ Bitcoin's Difficulty Adjustment ~

How does the bitcoin network ensure that blocks continue to get mined once every 10 minutes on average?

In this thread I'll explain the Difficulty Adjustment, and why it might be the most genius part of bitcoin 👇 If you remember my thread on bitcoin mining, we discussed how the miners are trying to construct a block that hashes to something that starts with a bunch of 0's

https://twitter.com/dannydiekroeger/status/1282000264413634561?s=20

~~ Bitcoin Consolidation Transactions ~~

These can help you Save Money on Fees!

What are they? How do they work? 👇 Before we start, this thread requires a little bit of background knowledge.

If you're new, I recommend checking out my threads on Bitcoin Transactions and Transaction Fees if you haven't already

They are the 3rd and 4th links on this link:

https://twitter.com/dannydiekroeger/status/1282000262782042117?s=20