This is my first article published on nostr/primal.

I’ve been looking for something like this protocol since I read George Gilder’s book, “Life After Google” a number of years ago. It took @38a1c...2fd09 recommending it for me to find it. Thank you Neal!

I’ve never used the internet primarily as a marketing or money making mechanism. I’ve always viewed it as a kind of public commons, like a park or a road. The internet MUST be for the public. It must be usable by every single human on earth. And for that to be realized the internet must respect every single human’s God-given right to privacy.

American Big Tech corporations – and governments at every level – show no signs of wanting to build that version of the internet. This has kept me from investing time in building sizeable audiences online. Just as I don’t want to be the product that they sell to advertisers I’ve never wanted to be the agent that makes others into that product. It never felt right to me.

So now with the Nostr protocol I can invite followership with a clear conscience. And I can signal my approval for the work of other creators not by providing a data point for an advertising algorithm but by simply zapping (paying) them directly. This makes enormous sense. It isn’t about the signals we provide, it’s about the value for other people that we recognize and reward.

Having completed my first read of Neal’s book I’ve developed a renewed curiosity about Bitcoin. Years ago I glanced through the white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto and created a wallet, Coinbase account etc. Over the years I accumulated a grand on Coinbase without putting in a penny of my own money. It grew with the value of the protocol based on rewards I was given for creating related accounts etc.

Until reading Neal’s book I didn’t know any better than to agree with the ponzi scheme argument of this YouTuber. He’s a skilled video creator, obviously. And, he’s right about crypto in general. Neal helped me see that Bitcoin is different. Another book author who is helping me think this through is Jeff Booth.

Bitcoin is the most perfect money ever invented. Unlike the fiat we are all sick to death of learning about, Booth argues that Bitcoin is decentralized, secure and bounded by energy. Just over a decade ago it created the first global free market.

West Point graduate, and Army Apache helicopter aviator Neal Flesher makes the moral and ethical case for Bitcoin as money in his insightful book. He dedicates it:

For those who sacrificed before me,
That I may sacrifice for those who come after.
I poured my soul into these pages:
A record of testimony and conviction.
Because truth is owed, and silence is surrender.

Amen.