hodlbod

A survey of current work on building encrypted chat into nostr — and a review of the idea of building it on SimpleX.

Nostr is a commons. Don't let it become a tragedy.

Meditations on slop, why I'm not convinced, and what to do about it.

Digital communication technology has exceeded its optimal scale, establishing a radical monopoly over human interaction. Internet platforms intermediate private relationships, extract value through surveillance capitalism, and reduce people to quantifiable metrics. However, certain digital tools can subvert the architecture of the corporate internet to safeguard individual freedom and human flourishing within digital environments. Two digital tools embody this conviviality in particular: open source software and asymmetric cryptography. Open source software empowers users to understand, modify, and control their tools rather than being controlled by them, while asymmetric cryptography enables private communication over untrusted networks, as well as credible exit through digital signatures. Together, these tools offer a bottom-up approach to incrementally reclaiming control over our digital lives, making small-scale resistance against intermediation and surveillance more feasible within the hostile environment of the modern internet

All systems can be approached like a game by "probing" for affordances. This can be a lot of fun, and works well in an adversarial environment.

A meditation on some things I've been reading recently. The dilemma of our place in history can feel hopeless, with no where to turn. But when every means has been exhausted, there is one thing which remains.