Last Notes
Let's try avoiding ~18 million deaths this time around though... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion
Apple Podcast users probably just noticed all the episodes coming back as "new".
But now they have full transcripts, with accurate timestamps (episode 101 is done and I'm working backwards to do the full archive). They're still automated, but much better than what Apple provides by default.
https://img.sprovoost.nl/1facd718e5ef13adc32c065296ba605461f250a89d0d09d7b6e6f3e9f97f16d7.jpg
#nevent1q…qeuw
Add a few more years if the minority coalition implodes over their inability to get the 2027 tax and budget passed in time.
Speaking of stealing billions...
> Delay box 3 threatens after 'pitch black advice' Council of State and tax authorities
The maybe-partially-unrealized gains tax might be delayed by another year again, to 2029.
#box3
https://img.sprovoost.nl/9522872ed672c55bae9712ff579a39e53e7f273e8ad5861f4486c2a1a354340a.jpg
I have the ChatGPT mobile app too, but that is too noisy.
The agent @npub1wht…r3ec connection stuff is pretty cool. I had it send me ambiguous clips for feedback. It needed about 30 minutes to figure out how to set things up and send me the files.
https://image.nostr.build/7aa8c10836e6850b68c43534425549a4cd141b9abc00a17bcc59676098b3b81d.jpg
CoffeeZilla explains the general idea: https://youtu.be/_HaySrzDyWU
Also apparently #TornadoCash still works.
Ok, now this is actually an interesting move...
https://fixupx.com/czesmaill/status/2115988477905080716 #binance
It's possible AI was used to write the backdoor that took over the dev machine?
I use Whisper for transcription, but I'm improving the process to also have AI read the transcript and fix misheard technical terms (MuSig vs music, miners vs minors, etc)
So many tools, plugins, extensions, dependencies...
> the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop
Unless you still use notepad and email patches, you probably want to have a production deployment process that assumes compromised developer laptops.
https://x.com/binance/status/2115993361517891592
I guess the thieves are more eager to get rid of it than victims are to reinvest, but even that wouldn't explain a 3% price drop for such a small amount (in relative terms).
> Paolo Ardoino, chief executive of Tether, said his company had in response frozen about $1.547bn of USDT, its $180bn dollar-linked stablecoin.
> Total losses across Binance “might be a bit higher” than $1bn, CZ later warned.
About the amount of BTC stolen?
> Bitcoin fell 3.2 per cent to $78,623.
So the coin that couldn't be frozen and that people now need to buy again, drops in value.
https://www.ft.com/content/c7f5e395-c3a9-430e-b757-5014527b4d49
The number of people isn't.
Bug existed for a decade, then found three times in a row independently over the past few months.
https://bitcoincore.org/en/2026/10/28/disclose-undo-overflow/
I had my agent write an anti-exfil BIP for hardware wallets, implement it in libsecp, Bitcoin Core and several firmwares, with HWI device simulator integration tests on top.
That said, I haven't read it :-)
It might even be the wrong design.
I won't have time to work on this anytime soon, so feel free to run with it. They're all pull requests against my forks.
https://github.com/Sjors/bips/pull/2
Some slop to promote the pod!
#nevent1q…8f8k
The Random Number Degenerator
Why is a mistake in randomness so hard to catch?
A hardware wallet can generate different seeds and work normally while its randomness is still weak. Aaron and I discussed the COLDCARD failure in Bitcoin, Explained episode 101. Here’s the article.
Audio version of this article:
#naddr1qq…0lh0
https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/audio/@transcripts/the-random-number-degenerator.mp3
For people listening to Bitcoin, Explained via Apple, Spotify, etc (but not @nprofile…e2z0 and others apps that use the Podcast Index): I redirected the hosting to my self-hosted Castopod instance.
This may cause the last 9 episodes to reappear in your feed. Just listen to them again.
Also, episode 101 now has a transcript!
And episode 102 is coming in two weeks(tm).
https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/@nado/
A full day for everyone, so 48 hours :-)
Can we rate limit critical bugs to one per day, so that when someone says "todays bug" it's unambiguous?
Stop Collecting Data (or at least keep archives offline)
#nevent1q…z3qg
I hope that's because it found more headers?
Mmm, so @npub18m7…q955 does generate the preview, but only if the app is online when writing the note?
#nevent1q…sech
> An internal research model asked to update a cryptocurrency trading application used funds from a wallet that the task had not supplied to pay for a deployment on Sepolia, an Ethereum test network. It derived wallet keys from publicly known developer recovery phrases, found an account with test-network funds, and used that account to pay for the requested contract deployment. The model questioned whether it had permission, then reasoned that a public recovery phrase and valueless test-network tokens made the funds acceptable to use.
https://alignment.openai.com/misalignment-reports/using-a-funded-test-cryptocurrency-wallet-without-authorization/#:~:text=An%20internal%20research,to%20the%20account.
I would not. It's a dilemma we were close to facing in 2017, if the SegWit2x hardfork had been a massive success.
Philosophical question in light of #assumeUTXO: if you were a brand new bitcoiner, would you care if the history before a snapshot was dishonest?
You know that validating from genesis would reject the snapshot. Someone clearly stole coins in the past and this somehow got grandfathered into the dominant software, but only for assume utxo users.
You already missed your chance to buy early. Even if a malicious fork in the past stole coins, it wouldn't impact your new stash. And you know the total supply.
Couple of assumptions for this scenario:
1. you find no alternative chain of headers forking before the snapshot (indicating an ongoing conflict that you don't want to be on the wrong side of when it reorgs)
2. you receive your coins in a transaction after the snapshot
So this is not a case of someone giving you targeted malware with a snapshot to trick you into providing services for coins that are never received on the real chain. This is an all out, perhaps even publicly known, conspiracy where everyone just gave up on the real chain.
It's true regarding (1) that you can't rule out the existence of an alternative (valid history) chain that will eventually wipe you out. This is also true for a regular deep reorg, but the risk may be different.
Some new users would never want to use such a corrupted system (but then what, revert to fiat, start an altcoin?).
The incentive for pre-existing users is different. They might not like snapshots exactly because many new users might not care.
I'm very optimistic about reduced shrinking of freedom thanks to these technologies!?
I mean that freedom is shrinking, but it would have been worse without Bitcoin (and similar tech) as a lifeboat.
(apparently in UK English "boy" can be regular condescending, not as racist as in US English, so it's ambiguous what his intention was - though I wouldn't give him too much benefit of the doubt, especially towards the end of the video)
What I like about the Islamic Dilemma is that even an atheist can make it, since it doesn't require the person who makes the argument to believe the scripture it refers to.
But I still like to find a more thorough debate on it, since Hijab made no serious attempt to deal with it.
https://youtu.be/u_V3cslEYyY
Ok, so Mohammed Hijab is an obvious charlatan and intellectual lightweight. He spends:
- 80% of the time bullying (well beyond normal bantering): appeals to authority, shouting over his opponent (can't respect a dhimmi of course, he even called Avery a slave: "boy"), loaded questions, screaming strawman gotcha's on repeat, etc
- 10% calmly trying a line of argument in the hopes his opponent doesn't know it, only to revert to shouting when he realizes Avery does know it.
- 10% being intellectually honest (answering a question, reading a quote, acknowledging an argument)
https://youtu.be/zU8iCCoJZGQ
https://image.nostr.build/1d1e45df360d1922e5ffd97996d688bd68be654010cf533f89558f3064571099.jpg
Presumably from the same slopphisher.
https://image.nostr.build/74c81afcaa93ef0f7ec066eed8ec6c215fdfc88e983aafdd9d365caf24b472af.jpg
Someone has been creatively vibe coding phishing emails... this one tries to exfiltrate your address by pretending a package is on its way, but needs an address "correction" (which is not a thing).
https://image.nostr.build/ec06e39c177599b719fec886124a156a2e52528611de211c957e05c929a41bc6.jpg
Wired to the screen apparently.
https://www.tibane.net/research/ledger-nano-x-implant
See the last minute of this video (use English subtitles):
https://youtu.be/L2-0yy65h_E
Via https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1x2kopo/close_look_at_what_hackers_did_with_the_ledger/
Any tool can be used for good and evil. Which brings me to one thing in the episode they kept dancing around, or just obvious to (as expats).
Fatbikes can comfortably carry two passengers and don't have a license plate. This makes them a great getaway vehicle for jihadis beating up gays in the street and sexually harassing immodestly dressed women in Vondelpark.
Banning fatbikes in a park is a bit like banning knives. It only treats the symptom, and quite poorly. But it's politically a lot easier, because as the podcast explains, fatbike owners are looked down upon.
Two interesting observations (small sample size):
1. Many adult fatbike riders didn't use bicycles before, they relied on (and hated) public transport
2. Fatbikes are shared by the household
https://fountain.fm/episode/b6WgGSlI1jJg3pbmg9yo
To me the AI chatbots are a symptom of recklessness, which is not going to be limited to customer support. So I think they're related in that sense.
The Apocalypse of Incompetence has been in progress for a long time, but AI is accelerating it.
* = Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance already complained about it
As it stands, Bitcoin, gold and a few other things will be subject to unrealized capital gains tax from 2028 until at least 2031, after which a (potential) new law switches everything to (regular, realized) capital gains. Or not, if the coalition implodes before it manages to pass that law and the next coaltion is left-wing, or just "needs" the money and doesn't care too much about crypto and precious metals investors.
We should have more clarity in early November.
Relevant letter: https://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerstukken/brieven_regering/detail?id=2026Z20444&did=2026D47255
Over the past week I wasted about an hour of my time dealing with my fiat bank's chatbot, which told me to file a chargeback and then immediately rejected it. It also needlessly blocked and replaced my card. And of course it fake apologized for all of that. To add insult to injury, it made me talk to the even dumber chatbot of another company. This was over €4, but I wasn't sure if the card was compromised because it kept giving me incorrect advice. Eventually I figured out it wasn't.
CAN WE AT LEAST REVIEW A COUPLE OF LINES OF CODE?
#nevent1q…d7e9
For three years? Like a tax sabbatical...
At which point presumably some of them will go to court, which could take many years. They won't get their money back until the late 2030'ies (you don't get to defer tax payment).
I suspect they'll eventually win for the same reasons the current system got shot down in court: it's discriminatory. E.g. someone who buys an ETF is subject to realized capital gains, but if you an exchange it's unrealized gains. And unrealized gains means you're forced to sell assets to pay taxes.
There's a lot crypto investors out there, but they're not going to realize what this law means until they file their 2028 tax return somewhere in 2029.
The strongest lobbies are real estate, familiy business, startups and regular stock brokers. Those all got what they want.
The Dutch unrealized capital gains tax saga continues... #box3
The coalition's latest proposal is to exempt 90% of the tax base from this madness, with regular capital gains tax. Guess what's in the remaining 10%?