The Average Bitcoiner – Sum Divided by Count

In this episode, I think out loud with a friend about how capital, proximity, and stewardship show up in real life—on the homestead, in local businesses, and in our Bitcoin habits. We draw parallels from permaculture and electronics to community economics: keeping systems close reduces leakage, and spending intentionally can keep value circulating where we live. We get practical about choosing local merchants (even when they use Square) and then helping them graduate to self-hosted payments with BTCPay Server, keys-in-hand, and support from the local meetup.We also riff on building resilient, private-by-default social spaces using Nostr—relays, invite models, and community moderation that mirrors how neighborhoods work. Toward the end, I share a skunkworks idea (“Purser”) to replace legacy invoicing tools, plus a fun incentive experiment for my F3 men’s workout group: zap-for-reps to nudge more in‑person participation. Measure the fruit, keep the value local, and use the tools that strengthen real community ties.Bitcoin (overview): https://bitcoin.org/en/Lightning Network: https://lightning.network/BTCPay Server (self-hosted Bitcoin payments): https://btcpayserver.org/Square (Point of Sale platform): https://squareup.com/us/enSquare Terminal (hardware): https://squareup.com/us/en/hardware/terminalSteak 'n Shake (restaurant chain referenced): https://www.steaknshake.com/Nostr Protocol (NIPs specification): https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nipsDamus (Nostr client): https://damus.io/Primal (Nostr client): https://primal.net/Flotilla Social (Nostr community/client platform): https://flotilla.social/F3 Nation (Fitness, Fellowship, Faith men’s workout network): https://f3nation.com/Zaprite (Bitcoin + fiat invoicing platform mentioned for contrast): https://zaprite.com/Jack Dorsey (person referenced): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_DorseyZooid: https://github.com/coracle-social/zooid pyramid: https://github.com/fiatjaf/pyramid 

In this solo riff, I unpack a big idea that’s been stuck in my head: extraction. From fiat inflation as parasitic theft to how attention-harvesting social media drains local value, I explore what gets siphoned out of our families and communities—and how we can stop it. I connect dots between Bitcoin as hard money and unit of account, circular economies, and practices like regenerative agriculture and permaculture that keep value—and many forms of capital—circulating close to home. I also question whether today’s remote “laptop jobs” and legacy platforms like Facebook and TikTok are extractive compared to place-based work that builds reputation, trust, and resilience where we live. Along the way, I touch on local‑first and community‑first thinking, servant leadership, self/compute/hosting, and second‑ and third‑order effects of AI. The throughline: insulate culture and commerce from extractive systems, redeem the land and our relationships, and build for what comes next by anchoring money, work, and attention locally.'Corny Chat': https://cornychat.com'Bitcoin (protocol)': https://bitcoin.org/en/'Bitcoin Veterans (podcast/community)': https://bitcoinveterans.org/'Regenerative agriculture (overview)': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenerative_agriculture'Permaculture (overview)': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture'Circular economy (overview)': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_economy

I’m back behind the mic after a minute away, reflecting on chaos, community, and the tools we can use to build real resilience. I share why I’ve been experimenting with DIY mesh networking—selling Heltec ESP32 LoRa nodes, trying Meshtastic, and looking to flash Mesh Core for a better UX and potential BitChat integration—plus what I’ve learned helping non‑coders ship with LLMs. From repo-deep dives and planning modes in Claude to the pitfalls of API limits and enterprise roadblocks, I talk about how AI is already leveling up solo builders and small teams—and why the next wave is bespoke, local-first software for real businesses, like a simple cut‑sheet app for small beef processors, backed by a self‑hosted Nostr relay. I also get into local action: filing FOIA requests about county NDAs, pushing back on data centers in rural communities, and the importance of shining light in dark corners. If you’ve been waiting for a nudge to build something useful or to show up in your neighborhood, consider this your sign—start small, iterate fast, and make your town better today.'Meshtastic (Open-Source Mesh Networking)': https://meshtastic.org'Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 (V3) Development Board': https://heltec.org/project/wifi-lora-32-v3/'ESP32 by Espressif Systems': https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp32'Semtech LoRa Technology Overview': https://www.semtech.com/lora'Nostr Protocol (Official Site)': https://nostr.com'Claude by Anthropic': https://claude.ai'FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) – U.S. Government Portal': https://www.foia.gov'dergigi (Gigi) – Writings and Projects': https://dergigi.com

In this short, on-the-road reflection, I talk about the value of simple family rituals—like Friday night pizza—as an anchor amid the chaos, and how that same spirit of intentionality applies to our digital lives. I share two recent touch points with privacy‑first, self‑hosted, open‑source hardware efforts, and why I’m increasingly convinced that veterans and builders in our communities will drive the next wave of technical sovereignty. From running services on bare metal and exploring wireless mesh to repurposing that old gaming PC, I make the case for starting small at home, helping friends onboard, and choosing optimism. We have the tools to reclaim data ownership and resilience—now it’s about using them together, with patience, love, and a bias for action.'Bitcoin (network and project)': https://bitcoin.org'ESP32 by Espressif Systems': https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp32'Discord (community and chat platform)': https://discord.com'Amazon Web Services – Regions and Availability Zones (context for “us-east-1”)': https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regions_az/'Fortnite (game)': https://www.fortnite.com'Escape from Tarkov (game)': https://www.escapefromtarkov.com'Call of Duty (franchise)': https://www.callofduty.com

In today’s short solo episode, I share a distilled argument—drawn from C. S. Lewis’s thought—about whether psychedelics have any place in Christian life. The answer, as presented, is a carefully bounded “yes” only for strict medical restoration in severe cases (think combat PTSD or situations where fear, sleep, or emotional regulation are physiologically blocked), treated like anesthesia: a tool to restore basic agency, not a source of spiritual guidance or revelation. Moral authority remains outside the experience—grounded in Scripture, conscience, and reason—and the goal is an ordinary Christian life, not transcendence.I also outline Lewis’s firm “no” to psychedelics as spiritual practice—no shortcuts to insight, sanctification, unity consciousness, or prayer—and his pastoral warnings about three subtle reversals: experience over obedience, intensity over truth, and technique over formation. The synthesis is simple and demanding: grace isn’t accessed by technique. For further reading, I commend Lewis’s The Abolition of Man (the springboard for this reflection), along with Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain.C. S. Lewis (Author): https://www.cslewis.com/about-cs-lewis/The Abolition of Man — C. S. Lewis: https://www.harperacademic.com/book/9780060652944/the-abolition-of-manMere Christianity — C. S. Lewis: https://www.cslewis.com/uk/books/ebook/mere-christianity/9780007332243/The Problem of Pain — C. S. Lewis: https://www.harperlibrarybookclub.com/9780060652968/the-problem-of-pain/National Center for PTSD (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs): https://www.ptsd.va.gov/Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) — U.S. Food & Drug Administration: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/information-drug-class/selective-serotonin-reuptake-inhibitors-ssris-information

In this solo riff, I share a brain-dump from the bench: provisioning a batch of Heltec LoRa boards and debating whether to stand up a Meshtastic network or lean into MeshCore for its BitChat interoperability. From there, I zoom out to the bigger goal—helping a sovereignty-minded community learn off‑grid radio—and why asking users what they actually want beats building in a vacuum. I also sketch a path to self‑hosted services using modern peer‑to‑peer “hole‑punching” stacks, with Nostr for coordination and iroh as a dial‑by‑pubkey backbone. I reflect on spinning up an AI helper (code‑name Nancy) to automate the grind: standing up gateways, whitelisting identities, and keeping secrets sandboxed. We talk NAT, discovery, authentication, and the reality that LLMs don’t erase the need for clear intent and guardrails. I close with a note of grit and hope: keep going, keep building, and let’s average out the odds—together.'Meshtastic': https://meshtastic.org'MeshCore': https://meshcore.co.uk/'Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 (V3)': https://heltec.org/project/wifi-lora-32-v3/'Nostr (open social protocol)': https://nostr.com/'BitTorrent (protocol resources)': https://bittorrent.org/'Keet by Holepunch (P2P chat/video)': https://keet.io/'iroh (dial‑by‑public‑key P2P stack)': https://www.iroh.computer/'Claude (Anthropic)': https://www.anthropic.com/claude'Reticulum Network Stack': https://github.com/markqvist/Reticulum'BitChat (Bluetooth/Nostr hybrid messenger)': https://bitchat.free/'Network Address Translation (NAT) overview': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation'UDP hole punching (NAT traversal)': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UDP_hole_punching'Bitcoin Veterans (community & podcast)': https://bitcoinveterans.org/

In this solo riff, I get back to basics with a simple question: what small, durable skills and systems will still matter through whatever economic “turning” we’re in? I start with baking bread—salt, flour, water, yeast—and how a tiny, profitable craft can outlast volatile cycles and even complement a Bitcoin-standard mindset of spending less than you make. From there I jump to homelab tinkering: wiring a basement while the walls are open, skipping flaky wireless for hard‑wired sensors, planning 240V circuits for a Bitcoin miner as a space heater and a small compute rack, and why muscle memory (in kitchens or shops) scales better than hype.I also explore running your own AI: local models on a Mac mini or gaming rig, privacy and cost wins, and the growing ecosystem around Claude, Grok, and Llama. We talk practical automations (JSON wrangling, lightweight NLP), agentic helpers like Moltbot, peer‑to‑peer stacks such as Iroh, authenticating with Nostr keys, and even packaging an Android APK. Finally, a nod to ham radio as the original resilient communications layer. It’s a tour of resilient skills—from bread to bits—that you can start today and compound over time.'The Fourth Turning' by William Strauss & Neil Howe: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/174648/the-fourth-turning-by-william-strauss/Bitcoin (community site): https://bitcoin.org/en/WhatsMiner (MicroBT) — ASIC miner brand: https://www.whatsminer.com/MicroBT (manufacturer of WhatsMiner): https://microbt.com/Kali Linux — Penetration Testing Distribution: https://www.kali.org/FaceTime — Apple Support: https://support.apple.com/facetimeMac mini — Apple: https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/Grok by xAI: https://grok.com/Claude by Anthropic: https://website.claude.com/Meta Llama — official GitHub models repo: https://github.com/meta-llama/llama-modelsMoltbot (formerly “Clawdbot”): https://moltbotlab.com/Iroh — peer‑to‑peer networking stack: https://www.iroh.computer/Nostr protocol — canonical GitHub repo: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nostrBuild an Android APK — Android Developers: https://developer.android.com/build/build-for-releaseARRL — The National Association for Amateur Radio: https://www.arrl.org/

In this episode of The Average Bitcoiner, I dive into the idea of government data accessibility and why public information should be truly public—available via API, rate-limited, and anchored to real-world, in-person identity through local jurisdictions. I explore how modern AI tools can scrape, analyze, and visualize county and school data, and share an experiment to publish transparent audits with Nostr-enabled feedback loops. Beyond the tech, I make the case that the most meaningful leverage we have is local: showing up in meatspace, building resilient community ties, and applying our skills, time, and resources where we live. I challenge listeners to do one above-average thing today: audit your local government, attend a school board or county meeting, and ask hard questions. With broken incentives, inflating budgets, and increasingly digital isolation, our strength is in intentional, physical community building—leading with example, fitness, grace, and clear boundaries. We can’t fix everything at once, but we can start local, build our frame, and make measurable progress—one county, one conversation, one act of service at a time.

I’m kicking off The Average Bitcoiner with a deep dive into my Ehash experiment: marrying Stratum V2 pooled‑mining shares with Cashu ecash to create a private, liquid IOU for work-in-progress hashpower. I walk through how mining shares are “almost blocks,” why they’re basically worthless until a payout, and how issuing ehash against validated shares can function like a pool’s accounting database—only open, auditable, and privacy-preserving. We explore the moving parts: locking ehash to an hpub, discovering and redeeming quotes, rotating Cashu keysets on each payout epoch, and why immediate keyset rotation lets mining continue without downtime while the previous epoch settles and melts to sats over Lightning. I also share a status update from the lab: wiring a Bitaxe via ESP‑Miner into a Stratum V2 translator and job declaration client, validating that ehash credits appear, and aiming next at full redemption via CLI before tackling a mobile wallet fork. Along the way, I touch on the broader context—variance smoothing and credit in mining pools, why Cashu (and Fedimint) can bridge to Lightning, the role of Rust, Noise, and keyset expiry, plus some practical dev tooling. The goal: reduce the economic size to bootstrap mining while keeping it permissionless, auditable, and above all, Bitcoin-aligned.'Cashu – Open‑source Ecash': https://cashu.space/'Cashu Documentation (NUTs, wallets, mints)': https://docs.cashu.space/'Fedimint – Federated Ecash for Bitcoin': https://fedimint.org/'Stratum V2 Protocol Specification': https://github.com/stratum-mining/sv2-spec'Stratum V2 Protocol Libraries (SRI)': https://github.com/stratum-mining/stratum'Braiins Pool (formerly Slush Pool)': https://braiins.com/pool'Foundry USA Pool (official)': https://foundrydigital.com/enterprise-software/foundry-usa-pool/'Lightning Network (overview by Lightning Labs)': https://lightning.network/'Noise Protocol Framework': https://www.noiseprotocol.org/'Rust Programming Language': https://rust-lang.org/'Bitaxe – Open‑source Bitcoin Miner': https://bitaxe.org/'ESP‑Miner firmware for Bitaxe (AxeOS)': https://github.com/bitaxeorg/ESP-Miner'mprocs – Run multiple commands in parallel': https://github.com/pvolok/mprocs'Cashu Nutshell – Wallet and Mint (reference implementation)': https://github.com/cashubtc/nutshell