Nostr: Own Your Online Identity
Decentralized Social Media + More Is Here
[Editor’s note: Click on images to be taken to corresponding articles]
Imagine you’re a creator and you could use the same identity and log in info for TikTok, X, Facebook, Spotify, Substack and YouTube.
And also imagine that you could take all of your followers with you across these different platforms.
This is what Nostr enables you to do.
Nostr is a protocol, much like SMTP, the protocol that underpins email. Companies like Google, Yahoo, Proton, etc. all build their email systems on top of SMTP. Because they’re all built on the same protocol, you can send an email from a Gmail address to a Yahoo email address.
Nostr enables users to do something similar. Different companies build different “clients” (think of clients like companies such as X, Instagram or YouTube).
The easiest Nostr client to get started with is Primal. I use Primal frequently, and get paid in sats — fractions of a bitcoin — for my posts.
Here’s an example:
I earned 28,203 sats for that. Based on today’s exchange rate of 1,485 sats/1 USD, I made about US$19 on that post alone.
For more on how Nostr works, I highly recommend you read the following piece by Lyn Alden:
Oh, you didn’t read it and you didn’t download Primal? Then stop complaining that you’re broke as you scroll through legacy social media, soaking in highly manipulated information meant to keep you on one hamster wheel or another.
Join us in a new world — currently free of algorithms meant to sap your energy— in which you can get paid peer-to-peer for the content you produce (if it’s good).
Getting involved with Nostr now is like buying bitcoin in 2012, three years after it was created (Nostr is about 3.5 years old). If you regret not buying bitcoin in 2012, then don’t make a similar mistake twice.
You can find me on Primal at “Frank Corva” or npub1dnzzyhmewrzkh862z7z2shwmhh5htx0rvkagepj2fkgst9ptwg3qj4x52h
“Oh my goodness, what’s that long string of letters and numbers. Frank, this is too hard.”
Grow up. Mess around with Primal for like 30 minutes, and you’ll get it. Stop making excuses.
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The Trezor Model One, the original hardware wallet, is a great starter device. If you don’t use a hardware wallet, this is be a good one to start with. I hate marketing.
Lava Reinvents Borrowing Against Bitcoin
This week, I published a piece on Lava, a Bitcoin platform that will soon enable people to borrow dollars against their bitcoin without turning their bitcoin over to a third party.
This product drastically improves upon what custodial services like Ledn (or now defunct services like BlockFi or Celsius) provide.
What I also like about Lava is that it makes bitcoin self-custody much easier. You can buy bitcoin through the Lava app and have it go directly into self-custody, as opposed to buying it on Coinbase or another centralized exchange and then just leaving it in the custody of the exchange.
Lava is very cool tech, and it’s creator, Shehzan Maredia, is brilliant. Enjoy the piece!
Anti-Bitcoin Senator Arrested For Accepting Bribes
Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was found guilty this week for accepting bribes as a foreign agent.
Menendez was well-known for calling bitcoin “an ideal choice for criminals.”
What’s odd, though, is that he’s now a convicted criminal yet he didn’t use bitcoin — he used luxury cars and gold to accept his bribes.
Markets
Bitcoin’s price has been rising steadily in the wake of the Trump assassination attempt.
There are a number of reasons for why this could be happening. I attribute it to the notion that bitcoin is an alternative to the existing system and that the more we see evidence of the existing system falter or fail, the more bitcoin’s price rises.
So, is now the time to make a sizeable bitcoin purchase?
I can’t answer that question for you because I don’t offer financial advice in this newsletter.
What I can say though is that I haven’t changed my view that we’re getting toward the end of a melt-up that will be followed by a 70-80% drop in the S&P 500, which likely means about the same level of drop in the price of bitcoin.
Some numbers we might hit before this uber-bubble pops:
S&P 500 - 6,700
NASDAQ - 22,000
Gold - $2,800/oz
Silver - $55/oz
Bitcoin - $120,000
My guess is that what triggers this is Biden/whoever replaces Biden in the race telling the Fed to cut rates ahead of the election to get voters pumped up. Trump has already warned Fed Chair Powell not to cut rates, because he wants to be the guy who gets credit for juicing the markets (Do you not see how much of a circus this all is?).
The melt-up happens like this: Markets pump heading into the election. Then, they crash either right before or after the election.
Will this definitely happen? No.
This is just what I think will happen.
Do with this information what you will, but please just do not text/message me about it to ask me what to do with your money. I’m not your financial advisor, and I’m not here to make financial decisions for you.
If you found anything in this newsletter helpful and please feel free to send a tip over the Bitcoin Lightning Network.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Take it ease.
Best,
Frank
X | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Fountain | Wavlake
Nostr: npub1dnzzyhmewrzkh862z7z2shwmhh5htx0rvkagepj2fkgst9ptwg3qj4x52h
