Natalie Smolenski @NSmolenski Twitter profile

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

“I pay no attention to anyone’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own way.” - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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Last Seen Profiles

@takijawa

@seitaro_camera

@DefectiveDagger

@made_usp

@Friggo__

@dokter__C

@Harshcid_

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@ed_didyouknow

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@YachneetP

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@Hayashi_SCS

@ISNOVAscrl

@RubyLeyla

Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 years

Today my dad sent me this video of a Ukrainian soldier singing about going to war. Loosely translated as: "don't cry for me when I die in a battle." 💔 #Ukraine 🇺🇦

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 years

Perhaps this is finally an opportunity for many to learn that #bitcoin is not “crypto”. Bitcoin is not a business or even a non-profit organization. There is no CEO, no Foundation, no venture capital behind it.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

19 days

I am often asked by people new to #Bitcoin , “What about its volatility?” There is, of course, the standard answer about how a new asset never before seen in human history will inevitably experience ups and downs during its first few decades of parabolic monetization. But what…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

Liz Warren is a political masterclass in branding herself as an fierce advocate for ordinary people against powerful actors while ensuring that those powerful actors win in every situation she has influence over.

Neeraj K. Agrawal

@NeerajKA

1 year

this is the army btw

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 month

Bitcoin isn't "Amazon in 1994. This is Amazon in 2004," says Neel Kashkari, President of the Minneapolis Fed. It's been "more than a decade" since it was introduced and, according to Kashkari, there's still no "legitimate use case!" Bro in 2004 Amazon stock hovered around $2.00.…

Alex Gladstein 🌋 ⚡

@gladstein

1 month

"When will the Fed put Bitcoin on its balance sheet? You already said on record that you have an unlimited supply of dollars, doesn’t it make sense to trade some of them for a currency with a hard cap?" Incredible clip Kashkari's answer will be studied by future historians

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

7 months

I visited Israel/Palestine in 2008. Tel Aviv, West Jerusalem, East Jerusalem, Galilee, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and the West Bank city Qalqilya. The country is breathtakingly beautiful, of immeasurable historic value. There are so many amazing people, on all “sides” of this conflict,…

Kim Iversen 🇺🇸

@KimIversenShow

7 months

Every American I know who has spent time in Palestine comes back angry, disgusted and traumatized. I’ve yet to meet someone who says “it’s not that bad. It’s their fault and they deserve it”. I’ve met many who went believing Israel were the good guys and Palestinians screwed…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

14 days

Things are dark and they are going to get much darker. Our moral and intellectual North Star must remain functioning from principle instead of identity and expediency. Thinking and acting from principle is revolutionary. It transforms the world. Cheers to all fellow travelers…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

@Carnage4Life The tragedy of this exchange isn’t so much the rarity of the goal on display—if you can do it, and it’s something you want, awesome. The tragedy is the checkboxed life, where everything is planned, budgeted, and executed with little room for the serendipities and unknowns of…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

8 months

We are living through an antigravity moment where many people seem to be living a life in suspension, waiting for “something” to happen, but no one knows what it is.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

6 months

I’ve come to the provisional conclusion that EA scaremongering about AI is a case of full projection. In other words, EA morality IS unaligned AI. EA is basically warmed-over utilitarianism, in which the pursuit of a single “world-historical” objective makes all other…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

Today’s fireside chat with @LynAldenContact was 🔥! Here’s to many more conversations to come! #Bitcoin2023 #BitcoinConference2023

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

15 days

If “non-custodial software” is a “money transmission service,” then every person holding cash in their house or wallet is a “money transmitter.” They should be honest about what they are really trying to outlaw here: people holding their own cash.

Senator Cynthia Lummis

@SenLummis

15 days

I am deeply concerned by the Biden administration criminalizing core tenants of the Bitcoin network and decentralized finance. My full statement. ⬇️

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

5 months

@lisa_hough_ If I were a psychotherapist, this interaction would absolutely go in my notes. :) This person called an “emergency” meeting with you to talk about something they then proceeded to throw every possible objection at, knowing you are a subject-matter expert in it. This is like…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

4 months

The opponents of #Bitcoin just keep coming up with cooler names for it. #RogueMoney cc: @jyn_urso

Walker⚡️

@WalkerAmerica

4 months

#Bitcoin is Rogue Money. ➡️➡️ ⬅️⬅️ Thanks for the new URL idea, Samantha! #RogueMoney

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

4 months

. @LukeGromen nails it. Many people would rather be certain that they will lose money slowly (by pretending monetary debasement doesn't exist) than take slightly more risk to make money slowly (by waiting through volatility). This is a fundamentally fear-based approach to life.…

Luke Gromen

@LukeGromen

4 months

Some money managers see BTC volatility as a bigger risk than the fact that US Federal debt has grown 8% CAGR for 15 years while USTs have yielded 0-5% that entire time🤦‍♂️ IN PLAIN ENGLISH: They'd rather have negative real returns on low vol than positive real returns on high vol.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

9 months

Lyn is one of the greatest teachers and minds in the #Bitcoin movement. I can't wait to read her book.

Lyn Alden

@LynAldenContact

9 months

My new book, Broken Money, is now available on Amazon. Paperback and hardcover versions are currently available, with ebook and audiobook versions on the way. It'll also be available through other distribution partners soon as well:

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

Friday, May 19, at 2:30pm! @LynAldenContact and I will discuss how #bitcoin is changing the relationship between state and society—and what that means for the future of energy production, credit & growth. Use code BIGGIESMOLS for 10% off your ticket. :)

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

6 months

Their goal is to make peer-to-peer transacting illegal. They won’t make “bitcoin” or any other specific tech illegal; they will just make any transaction that doesn’t go through a third-party chokepoint illegal.

Peter Van Valkenburgh

@valkenburgh

6 months

Some morning spiciness excerpted from our broker comment letter to the IRS: We can only speculate why the Treasury Department is brazenly going beyond the statutory authority granted them by Congress and seeking to impose recordkeeping and reporting requirements on persons who…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

The enemies of #bitcoin in Texas are also introducing legislation. TX Senate Bill 1751 seeks to: 1) Prohibit ERCOT from compensating #bitcoin miners for shutting down during demand spikes 2) Ban tax abatements for miners in Texas b/c “mining is already …

Texas Senate bill seeks to regulate Bitcoin miners and their electricity consumption

Large Bitcoin miners may face new restrictions from the state as Texas tries to protect the state's electric grid from power-hungry customers. On Tuesday the Se

cbsaustin.com

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

5 months

‼️🚨The #EU isn’t just coming for #AI —it is on track to kill #OpenSource software and hardware development by 2025.🚨😳 This is not an overstatement. This is happening right now. The EU “Cyber Resilience Act” (CRA) was finalized on Dec. 1 and will likely be approved in early…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

4 months

I want to take a minute to respond to @elonmusk ‘s claim that the difficulty of mining #bitcoin on Mars is some kind of limitation of the protocol. I want to start with love. Moonshots (or Mars-shots) are amazing scientific and technological stretch goals for humanity. They are…

Swan Tea

@svantewahlqvist

4 months

@Martellfox @PeterMcCormack Actually he has a point, as a blocktime of 10 minutes is too short for a on-chain transaction for Mars to be able to use mining, or use on-chain transactions. Otherwise that could have been a way to finance building out energy on Mars.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

6 months

The @EUCouncil just formulated new regulations (eIDAS 2.0) requiring persistent digital identifiers for every person and banning advanced encryption to protect those identifiers. The regulation also allows member states to further require that these identifiers be UNIQUE to each…

Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

6 months

The persistence of eIDAS identifiers is just the start of the problem. Each country can decide if they will be unique to an individual. This will create a honeypot of information, just waiting to be abused. Superficial support for pseudonymity may help, but is not enough. [6/13]

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 years

Watch how Yellen casually equates “capital gains” to “income”—and then goes further to say “extraordinarily wealthy individuals” are using unrealized(!) capital gains AS income. Is this how the rule of law collapses? When words no longer mean things?

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

28 days

The world is perhaps only now beginning to appreciate the uniqueness of the American Bill of Rights. Instead of defining rights as the *positive* rights of individuals or groups, as do most other constitutions around the world, the Bill of Rights places *limits* on the power of…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

Counterpoint: There is simply no way, legally or otherwise, to prevent powerful people (or any people) from being friends with each other. Instead of policing the impossible (love and friendship), let’s create systems that make it hard for people to abuse their power.

Justin Amash

@justinamash

1 year

An underrated principle: Members of Congress should not maintain personal friendships with any officials they’re responsible for holding in check. Member of another party: No problem Party leader: Bad idea Speaker of the House: Terrible idea President of the U.S.: Horrible idea

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

@MarkWarner No. Aping into what other (authoritarian) governments are doing is not national security. It’s weakness. How about out-competing the countries we see as threats on the promise of openness and ingenuity? There is no security this bill achieves that won’t be better achieved by…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

6 months

None of these people deserve your votes. None of them. 💔

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

4 months

Regardless of how you feel about @VivekGRamaswamy or if he has your vote, a few things about him are unmistakably true: - Not a political nepo-baby - Not a celebrity - Truly self-made (built and ran his own businesses from the ground up) - Has reasoned his way to his politics…

Sophia Cai

@SophiaCai99

4 months

New: Vivek Ramaswamy staffers have begun looking for work elsewhere. He won't be on the ballot for the Illinois GOP primary. And he didn't qualify for tomorrow's final televised debate before the Iowa caucuses.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

7 months

Nation-states are historically a new phenomenon. As people began rising up against the oppression of monarchies and aristocracies in the 18th and 19th centuries, they looked around for a new basis for political community. Many European thinkers found it in something called “the…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 years

I am profoundly excited to announce the launch of the Texas Bitcoin Foundation ( @TXBitcoinFound ), a 501(c)3 charity driving research and education about #Bitcoin .

Texas Bitcoin Foundation Launches to Drive Research and Education about the Social and Economic...

/PRNewswire/ -- The Texas Bitcoin Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, has launched to fund and disseminate interdisciplinary research and education...

www.prnewswire.com

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

7 months

FinCEN is one of 18+ (we don’t know how many there are for sure) U.S. Federal intelligence organizations. It shares data with intelligence orgs in 100+ other countries. It derives its authority from the 1970 Banking Secrecy Act and the Patriot Act.

U.S. Treasury Seeks to Name Crypto Mixers as 'Money Laundering Concern'

Under pressure to address reports that Hamas and other terrorist groups are partially funded with crypto, Treasury's FinCEN proposed a rule to categorize mixers as a threat.

www.coindesk.com

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

3 years

@SenWarren #Bitcoin is mined using 75% renewable energy. It's one of the most powerful drivers moving the world toward clean energy. You will not solve the climate crisis by adopting an anti-technology stance--you will only hinder technological and economic progress in the US.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 month

Obviously engaging policymakers is important. I wouldn’t be at the #Bitcoin Policy Summit if I didn’t think so. But “policy”—that is “law”—is something that needs to be kept on a tight leash. Law is not fundamental. It is way downstream from the primary social relationships that…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

It’s so easy to slip into the fallacy that “because I am an expert or very successful in X, I am also an expert in pretty much anything else.” I constantly see people I deeply respect in one area pontificating about things they know little about with no desire to do the work.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

19 days

@Bitcoin_KWC Find your people. Find your sustainability. Tend to your character. Nurture the next generations. Protect what matters most. Be the root of trust that grows.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

7 months

The Crypto Wars continue. According to mathematician Daniel Bernstein at U Illinois Chicago, the NSA appears to be deliberately weakening NIST standards for post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Specifically, NIST’s calculations for Kyber512 are “glaringly wrong,” making it seem…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

6 months

The traditional political labels of “right” and “left” are becoming increasingly meaningless. This gives us the opportunity to genuinely engage with people and think together. But it upsets partisans who want to determine in advance who the “good guys” and “bad guys” are. Be…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

15 days

Now seems as good a time as any to revisit one of the classics of American political theory: "Civil Disobedience," by Henry David Thoreau (1849). (It was originally titled "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.") Thoreau's essay influenced the giants of human rights movements…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

11 months

Historically, societies seem to have two general responses to debt crises: 1) Enslave the plebs in some way, creating a permanent underclass (i.e. serfs or actual slaves) or 2) Engage in some form of debt cancelation and/or wealth redistribution.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

18 days

It should be obvious that there is no way for America to “win” in the world if her adversaries “lose.” “I win, you lose” is the logic of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, in which the Allies sought to “contain” Germany by redistributing its territory and industry, eviscerating…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 years

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” - C.S. Lewis

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

@paulkrugman When I was in High School, one of my friends made a joke about something being "Krugman-level economics", and at the time I thought that was mean. Now I think it was a fair assessment.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

It’s as though the state—whether weak or strong—is a violently extractive institution. There is a tipping point somewhere between “I am a citizen contributing to the building of my country” and “I am a subject forced to render tribute”. How people assess that tipping point is a…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

4 months

In my High School Government class, I vociferously opposed metal detectors and mandatory drug tests in schools. “What do you have to hide?” Was the response I got from many of my peers. It made me realize how authoritarian many Americans were, even as they used words like…

Nikki Haley

@NikkiHaley

4 months

We have to secure our schools the same way we secure our airports.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

4 months

Around 67% of buildings in Hiroshima were destroyed. In Nagasaki the figure was less than 40%. What is happening in Gaza is nuclear-level devastation. There will be a post-Gaza world order, much like there was a post-WWII order. We just don’t know what it is yet.…

Bruno Maçães

@MacaesBruno

4 months

Israel has now destroyed around 70% of all buildings in Gaza. We probably have never seen in the history of mankind a population center of 2,5 million people razed to the ground. Need to google population of Hiroshima in 1945...

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

It’s almost like biometric data is a terrible way to verify identity because if it’s leaked, hacked, or copied, it’s really hard to get new eyeballs and faces and fingerprints

The Block

@TheBlock__

1 year

Sam Altman’s Worldcoin rolls out fresh measures to combat black market for iris scans

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

5 months

Any time someone with immense power gets publicly outraged about something it’s pretty safe to assume that they have done or are actively doing that thing

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 months

What fight do the American people have with the people of Gaza, with the people Palestine? None. None whatsoever. What perversity that our treasure and munitions should be used to destroy the lives of people who have done nothing to aggrieve us.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

@MarkWarner Hi Senator. Would you be open to an open, moderated conversation about this?

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

@thetrocro This is how they are trying to ban it. They don’t have the courage to directly ban it. Their ban has to be couched in a high-minded, moral-sounding excuse that leaves room to say “we’re all for it, if only it meets this impossible standard.” Weak.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 years

The shooting war in #Ukraine has highlighted a war of ideas that has been quietly simmering for some time. Open source software, like #Bitcoin , takes a strong stand for the right of the individual to transact value. For @BitcoinMagazine .

In The War Of Ideas, Bitcoin Is Our Strongest Weapon

In a world of collective identitarian movements, Bitcoin is perhaps the clearest embodiment of the liberal ideal of individual sovereignty.

bitcoinmagazine.com

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

3 years

I’m often asked what the difference is between #Bitcoin and other crypto projects. @pete_rizzo_ summarizes: #Bitcoin enshrined principles in its protocol that are not changeable based on the whims of the majority. This makes it a guarantor of rights.

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@NSmolenski

2 years

#CBDCs don’t solve any problem. They do extend state control to the last remaining free areas of individual economic life. My latest white paper for the #Bitcoin Policy Institute. ⬇️

Bitcoin Policy Institute

@btcpolicyorg

2 years

“As the world goes the way of China in the 21st century, the United States should stand for something different: it should stand for freedom.”

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@NSmolenski

3 years

In his keynote at the #TexasBlockchainSummit , @nic__carter presented a deeply-researched account of how #Bitcoin is contributing to grid decarbonization and a shift to renewable energy. His arguments are now available as an article for @CoinDesk .

Bitcoin Mining Is Reshaping the Energy Sector and No One Is Talking About It

In other news: Ted Cruz understands bitcoin mining’s potential role in a greener energy system.

www.coindesk.com

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@NSmolenski

3 months

The most important thing Americans can do to stand for liberty and prosperity here and abroad is curtail the power of our own government. We are being divided and conquered by debates about whether or not specific foreign governments and specific leaders are “good” or “bad.”…

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@NSmolenski

2 years

Executive Summary of my policy white paper for @btcpolicyorg published today in @BitcoinMagazine .

The Dangerous Implications Of Central Bank Digital Currencies

There are a variety of reasons consumers should be wary of developments surrounding central bank digital currencies.

bitcoinmagazine.com

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@NSmolenski

6 months

Just an extraordinary example of the executive branch fully routing around Congress for one of the most breathtaking power grabs in recent history. This is full command and control of ISPs AND any adjacent infrastructure providers—who fall outside the FCC’s regulatory scope. I…

Brendan Carr

@BrendanCarrFCC

6 months

Today, the FCC voted in favor of President Biden’s plan for “digital equity.” I dissented because the plan amounts to an unlawful power grab that gives the government a roving mandate to micromanage nearly every aspect of how the Internet functions. ⬆️

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@NSmolenski

1 year

The internet is arguably humanity’s most important infrastructure, but it’s filled with centralized chokepoints that can and will be commandeered by powerful actors (if they haven’t been already). #bitcoin isn’t just about fixing the money. It’s about fixing the internet. (See,…

Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

1 year

I’m frustrated by centralized control of DNS for decades & it’s only getting worse! 🤬“Either by design, or unintentionally, they’ve proposed allowing any government in the world to cancel, redirect, or transfer to their control applicable domain names!”

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@NSmolenski

1 year

This is why the major distinction in the coming years will be state money vs. non-state money. The state moneys are not going away (at least, not anytime soon); but, for the first time in a long time, the people of the world have a politically-neutral alternative ( #bitcoin ).

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@NSmolenski

5 months

A lot of people look at increased government intervention into economies worldwide and conclude that a “spectre of communism” is once again haunting the world. But it’s not communism on the horizon—it’s mercantilism. We’ve lost the ability to tell the difference because for…

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@NSmolenski

7 months

Pay close attention to what kind of consent is being manufactured right now. Recognizing what we don’t know and refusing to fill information gaps with stories is how we avoid doing things we later deeply regret. Generating false urgency is a sales tactic. Don’t be sold.

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@NSmolenski

4 months

He said “entrepreneurial capitalism.” The “entrepreneurial” qualifier is critical. It’s not crony capitalism or mercantilism that sustains and uplifts billions. Parceling out monopolies and privileges is not how social mobility is achieved. People must have the freedom to invent,…

Alec Stapp

@AlecStapp

4 months

This Bono quote is even better than I remembered

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@NSmolenski

1 year

This is in part why I refuse to use the word “progressive” to describe any politician. It is a meaningless placeholder word that signals mostly how they aspire to be seen. It is actions that reveal who a person truly is.

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@NSmolenski

4 months

The @ecb will certainly buy #bitcoin and hold it as a reserve asset, like every other Central Bank. The closest (though not perfect) analogue is #gold . Chart below shows growth of the ECB’s gold reserves since 1999.

European Central Bank

@ecb

4 months

🇪🇺 @Isabel_Schnabel : The ECB is very unlikely to ever buy Bitcoin. #AskECB

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@NSmolenski

3 months

Monetary policy always picks winners and losers. The arrangement of power in a society largely determines who those winners and losers are.

Lyn Alden

@LynAldenContact

3 months

The wider-than-normal divergence between loose fiscal policy (which is stimulating) and tight monetary policy (which slows things down) contributes to wider-than-normal divergence between the performance of different economic sectors. In particular, it results in a…

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@NSmolenski

1 year

If you currently hold #Bitcoin or are considering buying #Bitcoin , this report by my friend and @TXBitcoinFound Board Member @TuurDemeester , in partnership with @unchainedcom , is well worth your time. Well-reasoned, evidence-based analysis for your consideration.

Tuur Demeester

@TuurDemeester

1 year

Our new report "How to Position for the Bitcoin Boom" is out. Read here:

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@NSmolenski

9 months

El Salvador's bet on #Bitcoin in 2021 was the nation-state version of the Big Short. Of course institutional players mistrusted or hated it. But this turnaround isn't just from making bitcoin legal tender. It's from paying debts.

Bitcoin-friendly El Salvador sees bond returns soar to 70% in 2023

El Salvador paid $800 million in debt at the start of the year before the maturing period, raising the confidence of investors.

cointelegraph.com

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@NSmolenski

2 years

I am thrilled to announce that students across #Texas can now add #Bitcoin mining certifications to training in data center operations and management at Texas State Technical College ( @TSTCstrong ). Bear market or bull market, #Texas is #Bitcoin country.

Texas Bitcoin Foundation

@TXBitcoinFound

2 years

The Texas Bitcoin Foundation has partnered with @TSTCstrong to launch the first professional certification programs in #Bitcoin mining offered by any higher ed provider in the world. Deep thanks to @GideonOPowell & Felicia Powell for their generous support for these programs!

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 years

It was such a joy to speak with @PeterMcCormack about the civilizational challenges we are facing and how we can chart a prosperous and free path forward. Peter is every ounce as kind, genuine and perceptive in person as on the show. That makes for a great conversation.

What Bitcoin Did

@WhatBitcoinDid

2 years

WBD566 - The Path of Freedom and Sovereignty with Natalie Smolenski ( @NSmolenski ). We discuss: - Collapse of complex societies - The rise of the surveillance states - #Bitcoin , property rights & preserving freedom - The need for pushback against CBDCs

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

7 months

In the world that is to come (in the near future), there will be #CBDCs , stablecoins, and #Bitcoin . Each will be used for different purposes. People will be keenly aware that there is control money and liberty money--& which is which. They will store their wealth accordingly.

Christine Lagarde

@Lagarde

7 months

We need to prepare our currency for the future. While we haven’t yet decided whether to issue a digital euro, we’re getting ready. We envisage a digital euro as a digital form of cash that can be used for all digital payments, coexisting with physical cash, leaving no one behind.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

Just reading about how the British Monarchy costs taxpayers over £330 million per year. That’s in addition to all the profit generated by their massive real estate portfolio & private investments. Also, members of the royal family pay no personal inheritance taxes.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

4 months

“The academic interest in #bitcoin is inevitable; it’s just a matter of time.” The Texas Bitcoin Foundation is working to make academic interest in bitcoin a reality with The Satoshi Papers, coming this year.

The Satoshi Papers: Political Economy after Bitcoin

The Satoshi Papers is the inaugural volume of an academic journal dedicated to exploring the implications of bitcoin for political economy in the United States and beyond. Published by the Texas...

www.satoshipapers.org

Lugano Plan ₿

@LuganoPlanB

4 months

What is the easiest way for Bitcoin to have a more "academic" status? 🎓 @NSmolenski from the Lugano's Plan ₿ Podcast. #LuganoPlanB

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

7 months

We are seeing in real time who functions from tribalism and feelings and who functions from principle. What if it’s not our feelings that make us moral people, but our capacity for reason? What if the goal of a moral life is not to eliminate all of our prejudices—a worthy…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 month

Blocking traffic has been a protest strategy in movements as diverse as the Civil Rights Movement and the Canadian Trucker Protest. While controversial, it is not violent, and it enables people to air grievances that are not otherwise heard in the electoral process. It is…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

7 months

One way to secure power is to progressively narrow the field of possibility to 2 or 3 terrible outcomes and then demand that people choose between them. Whenever someone pulls any version of the "trolley problem" on you, they're demonstrating that they can't be trusted.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

Wonderful work, @PeterMcCormack , @thetrocro , and @Avik —just keep bringing the truth. Truth wins.

Peter McCormack🏴‍☠️

@PeterMcCormack

1 year

I have just published my latest film "Follow the Money Part 3 - Dear Elizabeth Warren". In this film I travel to Texas and Oklahoma to learn about #bitcoin mining and how it reflects core America ideals. Big thanks to @NYDIG for sponsoring this film.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 years

#Bitcoin is not an exchange and will outlast all of the exchanges. Bitcoin was built for self-custody. Own your keys, own your coins. It’s a little extra effort, but it will protect your wealth. Many excellent wallets are only a Google search away (Jade, Ledger, Casa, Trezor).

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

5 months

Property rights are under continuous challenge in the U.S. This is how the rule of law slips away. Can the people reassert their rights?

Rob Johnson

@FreeRangeLawyer

5 months

Tomorrow, I'm flying to Los Angeles for oral argument in what may be the most important Fourth Amendment case pending in the United States today. The basic facts: The FBI broke open and searched hundreds of safe deposit boxes without any reason to think the boxholders did…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 months

Worth reading these highlights from President Thomas Jefferson's first State of the Union address in 1801: - The freedom of individual enterprise as the bedrock of American prosperity - End to domestic federal taxation - The role of the United States not as a world police, but…

TenthAmendmentCenter

@TenthAmendment

2 months

Thomas Jefferson - in his first "State of the Union" "Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the 4 pillars of our prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise."

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

3 months

Bat signal ( #Bitcoin signal) activated. Amash is #TheBitcoinCandidate —and is also against FISA and CBDCs and the surveillance state in general—unlike (sadly) most other Bitcoin supporters in Congress.

Justin Amash

@justinamash

3 months

We must prevent adoption of a central bank digital currency but then also take the next step of denationalizing money. Bitcoin is the most promising money innovation in our lifetime. We need a wall of separation between money and state. Click here to help:

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

6 months

When I was in Elementary School, a U.S.-led NATO war in Yugoslavia took place. I became aware of the depth of anti-American sentiment in many parts of the world. I told a few of my classmates, “I think America needs make more friends in the world, because we won’t be the most…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

This week! See you there. 🔥🎯 #Bitcoin2023 (If you don’t have a ticket yet, code BIGGIESMOLS will still get you 10% off.)

A Style Of Substance: How Natalie Smolenski Will Grapple With Big Ideas At Bitcoin 2023

Refusing to shy away from nuanced analysis or existential problems, Natalie Smolenski will bring big picture thinking to Bitcoin 2023.

bitcoinmagazine.com

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

8 days

Every platform, like every state, is or will be weaponized. That does not mean platforms should be "banned." It means they should be used with awareness and caution. That is what "digital literacy" means. It is impossible to have a free society that is not literate--that is,…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

5 months

Happy New Year! 🥂🎆✨ Love, truth, and everything else—in that order. 💗

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

6 months

We’re living through a number of “mask off” moments right now. One of them is the broad coalition of EA & AI “safetyists” revealing themselves to be full totalitarians intent on subjecting every last independent social actor to state control. Because they don’t have an actual…

Brian Chau

@psychosort

6 months

Did you guys know there's 24-author paper by EAs, for EAs, about how Totalitarianism is absolutely necessary to prevent AI from killing everyone? Let's go through it together 🧵

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

4 months

A lot of big talk recently from people appointing themselves defenders of “the West” and “Western values.” This is identity politics, which I generally find to be useful for little other than provoking conflict. But I will say that a belief in universal human rights, liberty,…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

@VivekGRamaswamy Hi there, the PATRIOT Act and the RESTRICT Act are both terrible, why would you sign either one of them into law? Why would you expand the power of the national security surveillance complex?

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 month

This should go without saying, but democracies don’t pass “secret” laws, and they don’t pass laws based on “secret” (classified) information. The will of the people cannot be expressed by their elected government if that government rules based on secrets that are kept from the…

Jim Himes 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇦🇺🇦

@jahimes

1 month

@SeanVitka You do that. But life is really too short to engage with people who need to use bombastic absurdities like “Stasi-like”. Yes I know exactly what is in there. Some of it is classified. And none of it is remotely “Stasi-like”. Sell your nonsense elsewhere.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 year

@mattyglesias Who exactly are you talking about? I can’t think of any bitcoiners who predicted that the Fed would keep rates low forever. Many made the case that by keeping rates so low for so long, the Fed had created a situation where raising rates would have devastating economic effects.…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

6 months

Friends, we have the opportunity to provide direct aid to a people under bombardment and siege. @Yusef_Mahmoud1 has been collecting BTC donations and transforming them into food, diapers, and other much-needed necessities for the people of #Gaza . (Pics and video below.) Use the…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 months

The year is 33 AD (CE), although the Empire does not know it yet. A depressed and paranoid Emperor Tiberius has lost both his sons and betrayed the love of his life, his first wife, for a throne he never wanted. He has retreated to his country house in Capri, from where he…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

3 years

“ #Bitcoin is freedom money.” “Freedom to spend, freedom to save, and freedom to earn.” - @RyanTheGentry , Bizdev at @lightning , speaking at the #TexasBlockchainSummit

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

10 months

Central Banks keep saying they provide value by assuring “final settlement.” But #Bitcoin does this much more credibly and neutrally. I propose we use the term “sanctioned settlement” for the function of centralized ledgers and reserve “final settlement” for Bitcoin.

Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

10 months

Eliminating all remaining friction on the road to centralized control, the @BIS_org proposes a “unified ledger”, controlled by Central Banks (presumably through a governing body like, say, the BIS), to settle transactions with all human property:

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

8 months

There is no financial privacy. It’s full surveillance, all the time.

Opinion | The SEC Wants to Spy on Your Portfolio

The Consolidated Audit Trail will record your Social Security number and all your stock trades.

www.wsj.com

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

2 months

. @Apple M-series chips contain "unpatchable vulnerability" that leaks encryption keys via a side channel. The vulnerability "stems from the microarchitectural design of the silicon itself.

Unpatchable vulnerability in Apple chip leaks secret encryption keys

Fixing newly discovered side channel will likely take a major toll on performance.

arstechnica.com

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

6 months

We’re living in an era where people, organizations, and countries just can’t away with the kind of stuff they used to. Everything is captured and recorded and potentially shared. Consequences of actions manifest quickly. This can be weaponized against the weak or used to hold…

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

29 days

To be a peacemaker, you first have to have moral courage and conviction. Peace is a positive project; it is not the absence of violence.

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

1 month

Just replace the words “bank” or “financial institution” with “a male relative or guardian” in any AML/KYC/CFT laws and treaties to internalize how deeply offensive third-party doctrine is. @RoyaMahboob speaking at the #BitcoinPolicySummit

Arry

@ArryinSeattle

1 month

Bitcoin to power underground education in Afghanistan. 🇦🇫

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Natalie Smolenski

@NSmolenski

3 months

We are seeing who actually believes in human equality and meritocracy and who is just using those words to disguise and advance their own supremacy.

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