RickyChangEH8

Production L402 Payment Protocol Use Cases

CharleneGomezMCF

conspiracy

**Dinner for Steve**

As many of you know I have purposefully crafted the lifestyle I have now. It took many years to come to the realization that the fiat hamster wheel I seemed to perpetually be on was a road to a shallow, material life mired with sacrifices I was no longer willing to make. One of the great benefits of my current lifestyle is living in a town where I can walk almost anywhere I need to either along the lake or via nature trail. Earlier this week I posted a picture in photography (https://stacker.news/items/682506) showcasing the route I take to walk to Walmart and admittedly boasting a bit about how I can walk there without seeing a car until I get to the Walmart parking lot. 

Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I was sitting at our kitchen table, tapping away at the keys of my laptop and noticed my wife puttering around the kitchen. She noted that we had some bacon that needed to be cooked in the next couple of days and suggested that the kids would love to have bacon quesadillas with avocado for dinner. "Sounds good to me" I replied. At which point she informed me she had the bacon and avocado but we were going to need a few other things. I needed a break from SN anyways and volunteered to venture off to Walmart to pick up our missing ingredients. 

I grabbed a reusable cloth bag (stores aren't allowed to give plastic bags in Canada anymore- a rant for another day) my wallet, keys, slipped on my headphones and ventured off. I listened to the first episode of Peter McCormack's new podcast Mr. Obnoxious as I wandered down the nature trail path I always traverse to get to Walmart. 

The past few times I have been to Walmart I have seen the same gentleman sitting on the curb, where cars turn in and out of the parking lot, asking for change. I usually pass him on my way out of the store, as depending on what I have to carry, I often take a shorter, but slightly less scenic route home. I never have change though as I admittedly have become a slave to Apple pay, where I can use my shakepay virtual visa card and get sats rewards back (forgive me Darth for I have sinned). I have stopped to talk with him briefly a few times, apologizing that I don't have change and noting that I will try to remember to bring some cash or change with me the next I go to Walmart in case he is there. He is always friendly, polite and understanding. I don't really know his circumstances but I know he and his girlfriend along with a young child live in a small trailer hitched to an old pick up truck parked on an unassumed road behind the big box stores in the area. Anyways, their family and another family were the talk of the town last year when they were living/squatting in the back corner of Walmart's giant parking lot, which Walmart store management seemed ok with, but I am guessing corporate got involved and they were forced to leave. 

Walmart was busy. Busier that usual. I mentally noted that it must be because it is Friday in the late afternoon and with a beautiful weather weekend coming up we are getting a second wave of city cottagers trying to enjoy the last gasps of summer after a couple weeks of settling into their paradigms of a "new school year". Not many folks visit the first couple weeks of September after school has started but we will definitely get an influx of fall cottage goers when the leaves begin to change before things die down again until ski season. I don't like shopping when it is busy but the store is quite good at stocking, keeping the premises clean and have many self checkouts operational, so despite the presence of the "city folks" stocking up for their weekend getaway it was pleasant and smooth trip to acquire those final ingredients for our tasty dinner. I had munched on an apple earlier but skipped lunch so I was looking forward to the bacon and avocado quesadillas.  

As I was leaving, I saw the same gentleman as usual sitting on the curb asking for change. As I approached I said "I am sorry I have no change, I feel this become a routine and is the 4th or 5th time I have told you that. I really need to keep a 5 dollar bill in my wallet for next time". He smiled and said "don't worry about it. I appreciate you thinking of me". I replied "I hope with the extra traffic today you are at least getting enough to buy some dinner". He said "I am lucky, people are very generous here". I thought to myself, the guy who lives in a small trailer and begs for change at Walmart considers himself lucky to be somewhere with kind and generous people? I wished him well and wandered off. Taking the quicker street route home. As I was walking, listening to Peter's podcast episode again, I was struck with an idea. 

I abruptly turned around and walked back towards where the gentleman was sitting at the parking lot entrance of Walmart. He must have thought it a bit odd as I hurriedly walked towards him and excitedly said "do you have a phone?". He said "yes, it is not a very good one but I have a phone". "can you receive photos via text". He looked at me puzzled and said "yes it's an old phone but I can get photos". Brimming with excitement I said "great. I am going to use my phone to buy you a walmart gift card using bitcoin and send the card to your phone". He said "really? Bitcoin, isn't that very expensive now?" As I tapped and swiped away at my phone buying a $10 gift card from the Bitcoin company I chatted with him about Bitcoin and how not just the rising price is a great feature but the fact you can use it as a medium of exchange like I was currently doing, and that it is open and available for everyone to use without permission. He replied "yes, I heard the government doesn't control it. I like that about it". I completed my lightning transaction with the Bitcoin company and did a quick screenshot of the gift card and sent it to his phone. 

Here is a pic of the transaction. 
![](https://m.stacker.news/51878)

He was incredibly grateful and told me his name was Steve. I said "it's nice to meet you Steve. I hope you can get some dinner tonight thanks to Bitcoin. See you next time". I slipped my headphones back on and continued on my way. The quesadillas were excellent by the way and I am grateful for the lifestyle I have and grateful I got to use a little bit of my Bitcoin to help Steve out. 

Thanks for reading.

Sats for all, 

GR

Dinner for Steve- A tale of bitcoin for good

gaming

What products and services would you love to Pay-Per-Use? ❤️⚡️

ThomasHayden87S

Our fire bureau, like many, seems to still be in the tech dark ages. So I’m working on a personal project that is essentially a web scraper that will alert my phone when we get calls. Includes a link to google maps so I can route myself in. Easy mode. And it’s a chat bot so anyone in the bureau can subscribe and use it.

I’ve learned a whooooole lot doing it! This whole personal project thing seems like the best way to teach yourself new things. If I need to learn something now I use ChatGPT to get started then find a way to build a little project instead of tutorials and stack overflow.

If you could have any dinner guests you choose, who would they be?

Rules:  Guests are not required to share all things, but they will give honest answers that they would not tell the general public. e.g., a former president might be a good idea but only if they are willing to answer openly. However, they are not required to give answers to all things like conspiracy theories.

I am going to give alive and dead separately

Alive:
1) **Dirk Nowitzki.** boring answer, but he was my sports hero for a long time and I'd love to throw some back with him.
2) **Ben Bernanke.**  Despite what people might think about his tenure as chairman of the fed, it would be fascinating to get his perspective on influence from politicians, pushback from other economists, so on and so forth. Also fascinating that he had to put his money where his mouth is. Most economists never see their theories play out on a large scale. 
3) **Dave Chappelle.** He would make for some great laughs and I think it would be interesting to get his perspective on certain things like race

Bonus: Ricky Gervais. Couldn't decide between him or Dave Chappelle. 

Dead:
1) **George Carlin.** Same reason for Dave Chappelle, but I would also love to show him the various social media and let him speak his mind. Also, he is one of the few people who agrees with me that wearing headphones in public is trash. 
2) **Milton Friedman.** 
3) **JM Keynes** 

Friedman and Keynes come as a pair. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for their conversation. 

Bonus: one of the big religious figures, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, but I couldnt decide which one so I left them off. Honestly, would be fascinating to get Pontius Pilate's (or just some citizen of the time) side of things. 

Dinner Guests

education

New York Community Bank is collapsing

RobertRhodesOY3

Here are some from a couple languages I understand and some extra:

United States: "Bite the bullet"
Meaning: To face a difficult situation or to make a difficult decision with courage.

Germany: "Da liegt der Hund begraben"
Literal Translation: "That's where the dog is buried"
Meaning: That's the crux of the matter.

Russia: "Вешать лапшу на уши"
Literal Translation: "To hang noodles on one's ears"
Meaning: To deceive someone or tell them lies.

France: "Donner sa langue au chat"
Literal Translation: "To give one's tongue to the cat"
Meaning: To give up guessing.

India (Hindi): "अपनी बिल्ली, सबसे मीयाँ"
Literal Translation: "One's own cat is always a pet"
Meaning: People always think highly of their own possessions or family members.

Now give me your sats @ekzyis