JoannLawrenceZ30

bitcoin

I want to highlight @MerryOscar, who has a post in this edition. When I was having an issue with Fountain, @MerryOscar helped get it worked out.

*Read the previous edition [here](https://stacker.news/items/587114/r/Undisciplined).*

* * - 

### June 27th, 2023 📅

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### 📝 `TOP POST`

**[A Basic Guide To Making The Switch To Graphene OS](https://stacker.news/items/200175/r/Undisciplined)**

Excerpt:
> I am very new to Graphene.  I have a lot to learn. Getting my Pixel set up as a daily driver is going to take some work. Still, I am optimistic. I’m not going to rush it. I am keeping my old Galaxy around too, so my transition will be gradual.
If you decide to make the change, I hope this short guide is useful.

*27.2k sats \ 50 comments \ @siggy47 \ ~tech*

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### 💬 `TOP COMMENT`

**https://stacker.news/items/200217/r/Undisciplined?commentId=200226**

> Andreas Antonopoulos

From **[Which bitcoiner taught you the most?](https://stacker.news/items/200217/r/Undisciplined)**

*2192 sats \ 3 replies \ @siggy47*

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### 🏆 `TOP STACKER`

2nd Place **@k00b** (1st is hiding, presumed to be @siggy47)

*12.2k stacked \ 11k spent \ 5 posts \ 23 comments \ 0 referrals*

https://imgprxy.stacker.news/fsFoWlgwKYsk5mxx2ijgqU8fg04I_2zA_D28t_grR74/rs:fit:960:540/aHR0cHM6Ly9tLnN0YWNrZXIubmV3cy8yMzc5Ng




### June 27th, 2022 📅

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### 📝 `TOP POST`

**[I'm Oscar Merry and I'm building Fountain Podcasts. AMA.](https://stacker.news/items/39079/r/Undisciplined)**

Excerpt:
> I'm Oscar Merry and I'm building Fountain Podcasts - a Podcasting 2.0 app that rewards both listeners and podcasters for the value they bring to the platform.


*32.5k sats \ 98 comments \ @MerryOscar \ ~bitcoin*

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### 💬 `TOP COMMENT`

**https://stacker.news/items/38960/r/Undisciplined?commentId=38963**

Excerpt:
> A miner would cherry-pick her own transaction to spend the UTXO.  The only way it would be rational for the miner to mine your tx instead of her own, would be if you offered a fee worth more than the UTXO itself.

From **[AskSN: What's the "fastest" way to confirm a transaction?](https://stacker.news/items/38960/r/Undisciplined)**

*168 sats \ 2 replies \ @jeff *

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### 🏆 `TOP STACKER`

**@cryptocoin**

*1454 stacked \ 568 spent \ 8 posts \ 26 comments \ 0 referrals*

https://imgprxy.stacker.news/fsFoWlgwKYsk5mxx2ijgqU8fg04I_2zA_D28t_grR74/rs:fit:960:540/aHR0cHM6Ly9tLnN0YWNrZXIubmV3cy8yMzc5Ng




### June 27th, 2021 📅

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### 📝 `TOP POST`

**[Support clicking on the LNURL-Auth QR code](https://stacker.news/items/100/r/Undisciplined)**

> To the stacker.news admin:
Please add lightning: link to the LNURL-Auth QR code for easy authentication via mobile wallets.
Why scan or copy-paste when the wallet can be triggered by clicking a link?
See lnmarkets for example.

*7 sats \ 21 boost \ 18 comments \ @roy \ ~bitcoin*

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### 💬 `TOP COMMENT`

**https://stacker.news/items/100/r/Undisciplined?commentId=107**

> visit https://lightning-roulette.com and try to make a deposit and you will see a link that says "open wallet".

From **[Support clicking on the LNURL-Auth QR code](https://stacker.news/items/100/r/Undisciplined)**
*1 sat \ 3 replies \ @0391398253*

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### 🏆 `TOP STACKER`

*EMPTY*

This Day in Stacker News: June 27th

Music

Building a platform where ad engagement earns sats rewards. Feedback welcome!

ChelseyFitzgerald7OP


Dollar is nothing more than a big shitcoin - because is losing a lot of its purchasing power every decade.

So obviously every USDT, USDC etc which mimics shitcoin - is also shitcoin **by definition**
but even worse - because with: yet another possible point of failure :)

Do you support open source projects?

ZoeBell3J0

but that doesnt solve the problem of being ran over by a bus

As stacker news is growing, they are some nyms(account) that stands out on how they interact and post on the platform. Everyone knows not to go at it with @Darthcoin, @K00b is the ever present but text to reason personality. @Undisciplined and @grayruby owns the meta sub sections. @Onions got layers with one being a shitcoiners blocklist. 
They are may of these stackers we look up to for their contents, who are yours?


Who are your Stacker News Influencers 

What ELSE is a shitcoin? (besides shitcoins)

RandallAlexander9FQ

Careful what you wish for. As @benthecarman said in this thread, it's really miles beyond any other implementation. I don't like any of this as much as the next guy. But as a developer building custom lightning solutions for a living, it really fucking sucks to build on anything not LND unless you're so expert that you can manage LDK and build your own node implementation with it, but that's not a walk in the park either. 

Running CLN is one thing if you can figure out (and really test your backups after reading the ~50 page document on backup procedures). Developing on it is a different story. I'm working on a project just using 6 or 7 API calls and none of that shit even works and the lack of support or care from the couple people that kind of work on it is frustrating enough to question "well then why would I even build on it". It'll cost [millions of dollars](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/breez-raises-4-5-million-in-fundraising-round) for a serious project to switch to CLN. It's best at that point to hire experts to build your own impl on LDK at that point.

I don't want to hear about people's hobby projects building on hobby CLN, or someone that used CLN to open a few channels that barely do any routing. Try doing something serious. Ask ZFR how it ended up for him and if he even got his funds out of his channels correctly...

Opcode Explained - Website with 256 opcodes

news

Cryptography is one of those things that’s incredibly beautiful and mind blowing, but most people miss it because it’s difficult to explain and understand. That's too bad, because you don't have to be a tech nerd to see how cool it is! The problem is, most of us nerds don’t take the time to put these concepts into basic terms.

Relatedly, I've found that a lot of people come to bitcoin without much technical understanding, especially when it comes to the coolest part of bitcoin, which imo, is cryptography.

So if that's you, this post is for you! There's no math or code here - I'd love to help you understand a key function (sry not sry for the pun) in the bitcoin protocol by explaining it in basic conceptual terms. 

This is a long post, but I think it will be worth your time and hope you find it helpful and interesting!

*(PS - Even if you are a nerd, I've always found it helpful when people have explained things like this this for me, so I hope this helps you in some way as well.)*
_____
## Symmetric / Asymmetric Encryption Basics

I’m going to assume you’re somewhat familiar with symmetric encryption (if you ever played with codes and ciphers as a kid, you know this). In a nutshell, symmetric encryption means you and your friend share the same key, and that key is used for both encryption and decryption.

*(If you're not familiar, check out the [Shift Cipher](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6jqKRXSShI) as a very basic example.)*

Public Key Encryption is a kind of Asymmetric encryption. **One key can decrypt what the other encrypts.** The operation is reversible, which is how this becomes relevant to bitcoin, but we’ll get there later. The main difference between the public and private keys is that one is derived from the other. **The public key is derived from the private key.** If you have the private key, you inherently have the public key. Keep the private key private, or it defeats the purpose. 

In short - with symmetric encryption, both parties have the same key. With asymmetric encryption, you are the only one with your private key, and the other party has access to your public key. The next section explains why this was originally necessary. 

_____
## Here’s the traditional problem of symmetric encryption that is solved by PKE:

**You need to send a secret message to a friend. You cannot send an encryption/decryption key to your friend because an eavesdropper can see and hear all communication channels.**

*(i.e., we needed a way to privately communicate via the internet, but don't worry about putting it in that context)*

Here’s how PKE solves this: 
* Your friend generates a private key (**kept secret from the eavesdropper AND from you**). 
* Your friend derives the public key and broadcasts publicly.
* You encrypt your message **in secret** *with the public key* and broadcast the encrypted message.
* **The message can only be encrypted with the private key, which is known only to your friend.**
* Now you have a way to send secret messages to your friend!
* If you want to *receive* encrypted messages *from* your friend, you can simply generate your own, separate private/public key pair, and have your friend encrypt their message with *your* public key.  

If you’re confused, it might help to read those steps again, keeping in mind that the eavesdropper can only see/hear what is broadcasted between you and your friend, but they cannot see/hear what you do alone and in secret (in this case, encrypt/decrypt). 

So far this isn’t relevant to bitcoin yet. 

*(Side note #1: this is computationally difficult compared to symmetric encryption. So when two parties need to send private messages in the presence of an eavesdropper (i.e., over the internet), PKE is used to encrypt and send only a symmetric encryption/decryption key. That way, both parties have the symmetric key and the eavesdropper does not, so symmetric encryption can be used safely from there.)*

_____
## Reversing the operations of PKE, and how that is useful

So far we’ve discussed encrypting data with the public key, which can only be decrypted by the owner of the private key. I mentioned earlier that you can reverse the operations, so now we’ll discuss encrypting data with a private key, which can then ONLY be decrypted by its derived public key. 

**In this scenario, everyone can decrypt your data** - so what’s the point of doing this? (*Spoiler alert: identity verification*).

The scenario is something like this: You want to post messages to a public forum, or send private messages via a previously secured channel, and you need to verify your identity w/ each message.

**Prerequisite**: in most cases, you must be able to previously establish and prove your identity as you simultaneously broadcast your public key. 

Once your identity is established and associated with your public key, you can encrypt your message with your private key, and, as stated, anyone can decrypt it with your public key.

**Crucially, the public key will only be able to successfully decrypt the message if and only if it was encrypted with its associated private key.**

The point is not to send secret data. 

Instead, PKE allows you to “encrypt” a *signature* with your private key, and the associated public key is able to reveal the signature via decryption, mathematically proving to everyone that you are the true owner of the public key, validating your identity.

*(Side note #2: going back to that prerequisite - there are third parties, called Certificate Authorities, that handle this for the most part. You know you’re sending stuff to Facebook because Facebook is able to verify their identity via PKE, and that is facilitated by a CA. The CA gives Facebook their private/public key pair, and the rest of us essentially trust the integrity of CA.)*

_____
## Finally, here’s how this applies to bitcoin, and this part is relatively simple.

The bitcoin blockchain is a ledger of transactions between **public keys**. 

There is no "identity" inherently associated with a public key.

**The only thing associated with a public key is the amount of bitcoin that has been sent to it according to the ledger.**

The only thing you prove to the bitcoin network via PKE is ownership of a public key, which leads us to the final piece of this puzzle: **signing transactions**.

Transactions are initiated and validated by broadcasting a message to the network that essentially says **“here’s my public key, here’s the amount I want to send and which public key I want to send it to, and here’s a signature that has been encrypted by my private key and can only be decrypted by my public key which proves that I am the owner of the private/public key pair.”**

*(Side note #3: To add a new public key to the bitcoin network/blockchain, you simply generate a new private/public key pair - **AKA, your wallet** - with the PKE algorithm used by the bitcoin protocol, and it is added to the blockchain once bitcoin is sent to it from another wallet.)*

That’s it! When you send bitcoin, the bitcoin network doesn’t know who you are, they just have mathematical proof that the owner of your public key has authorized the transaction. Don't lose your private key!

If you made it this far, feel free to ask questions (or make corrections if I have misstated any of this)!

If you found this interesting and want to dig deeper into the math itself, [this video below is a great place to start](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNzaMrcuTM0).

The bitcoin beginner’s guide to Public Key Encryption

*This is the first chapter of **The Penal Preserve**, if you haven't read [**The Universal Good Deal**](https://stacker.news/items/409637) you may want to* [start at the beginning.](https://stacker.news/items/358761)

# 1

Jane was the first to see the island, because she was the only one who stayed on deck in the driving rain. The island was steep and dark, the slopes thickly wooded with enormous firs. It seemed to fend off what thin light there was. Of course, she thought it was beautiful, and it was indeed a highly romantic region.

Located in the northwest corner of her people’s lands, Welles chose the island because of its isolation, and because it was believed to be uninhabited. Welles intended this colony of prisoners to remain entirely free of contact with the rest of the world. Since their arrival on Earth, the Aliens had continued to penetrate all aspects of Martian society, and it seemed inevitable that the Martians would abandon their traditional ways of living. Although Welles was not opposed to intercourse with the Aliens, she wanted an insurance policy of sorts, and she hoped that the colony where all things Alien were banned would keep the Martians’ old ways of doing things alive. 

When Franklin was told that they had arrived, he came on deck, and asked Jane if she wasn’t cold. 

‘It’s too late late to try to make a landing today,’ he said. ‘We’re going to stay on the boat until tomorrow. You sure you don’t want to come in?’ 

‘Don’t you want to go and see what it’s like?’ asked Jane.

‘It’s raining,’ said Franklin. ‘Let’s go in. I think they’ve got some food warmed up for dinner.’

‘Isn’t it beautiful?’ said Jane.

‘It looks dangerous,’ said Franklin. 

Because the colony was to be entirely self-sufficient, a location had been selected on the western side of the island with access to the most suitable land for agriculture and where a sizable stream flowed down to the sea. But the island was very rugged, dominated by steep rocky hills and towering forests. None of it was particularly suitable for agriculture. 

Certainly, every settlement in an unknown and thickly wooded country must be more or less tentative, and the objections to the island were not so evident at the beginning as they now are.[^1] But it seems clear that it was never calculated for a self-sufficient settlement.[^2] Of the moral condition of the island, nothing good could be expected, and little favorable is remembered.[^3]

*Chapter 2 tomorrow, same time, same place.*

[^1]: Every settlement in an unknown and thickly wooded country must be more or less tentative, and the objections to the locality were not so evident in its original state as they now are. **James Backhouse Walker, _The English at the Derwent, and the Risdon Settlement_ 14 October 1880**
[^2]: It was not calculated for a town. **_Chaplain Robert Knopwood,_ 16 February 1804**
[^3]: Of the moral condition of the island, nothing good could be expected, and little favorable is remembered. **John West, _The History of Tasmania_ Volume 1, 1852**