Patents in crypto – not a way to go

Cryptocurrencies are usually open-source and it’s by design. They would be less trustworthy if they were not. It is essential for the nodes to be open-source, for multiple implementations to be viable. These implementations can independently verify the validity of rules. There is one “backdoor” to open-source and that is (software) patents. Some countries do […]

Who would run full nodes? Who would build the roads?: How to solve the scarcity issue of full nodes – a different look at the scaling debate

I am going to provide a different perspective on the scaling debate, specifically looking for solutions to problems that both sides of the debate present, not only weighting which side is more important or true. I think that both sides have some valid concerns. But first of all, we must understand basic economic principles. What […]

More privacy with DNS over HTTPS

As Cloudflare announced their 1.1.1.1 DNS service yesterday, I decided to give it a try. There are two reasons for that: They promise not to log your requests and it seems that it is the fastest DNS service available (another source). When you visit any website, even though it is encrypted, the name of the […]

Fun with Bitcoin lightning network

After several unsuccessful attempts, I finally got a lightning network node to work. Sort of. Here is the current status using the latest Lightning Desktop App.

Crypto is an alien planet to Wall Street

I was thinking about the relationship between traditional financial system and the parallel crypto world, about hard forks and the fight between big blockers, bigger blockers and core. I find all this completely funny, but in a totally different way than most people. If you look at traditional finance (gonna call them Wall Street), they […]

Detokenizing cryptos

With the recent Initial Coin Offering (ICO) craze, one cannot stop thinking if all those tokens are really required for the applications or if it’s just a way to raise capital (crowdfund). While I appreaciate new ways of funding Internet protocols and decentralized applications, there are drawback of doing it this way, one of the […]

Blockchains and network effects

An insight that is important in relation to recent talks about hard forks: Blockchain creates a shared view of one history (or reality) among the participants who enforce the same set of rules. Also, with the recent talks about scammy ICOs and whitepaper-backed shitcoins, remember Metcalfe’s and Reed’s laws (the value of network is either […]

On tourists and astronauts

“Have you ever tried not being a tourist when you travel?”, asked my friend. He meant not checking into a hotel, but living where the locals live, buying groceries where locals buy groceries, cooking food and doing your day to day business. We had an interesting conversation that evolved from a question I used to […]

Turris Omnia review

I was eagerly awaiting for my Turris Omnia which I preordered on their Indiegogo campaign almost a year ago. The campaign raised more than 1.2 million dollars and the router was created by a team from Czech Republic’s .cz domain administrator CZ-NIC. I was always a little bit sad that the ISPs sell you a […]

Solve the world’s problems as your career

In recent months I have met many inspiring people. They are generous, fun to be around and solving the world’s problems. Diabetes, partnerships, waste, security, retirement – all of these are huge problems, and I met people that are doing all they can to fix these problems. I think this is the best career move […]