exploring the intersections of technology, decentralization, and leftism • links: thumbsup.me • support: sub.thumbsup.me
Found this because I wanted to donate and thought I’d see if they accept Zcash as it’s my favourite way to support nonprofits.
Next favourite way is with stablecoins on L2 because it’s cheaper than credit card for both giver and recipient.
But alas, will have to do cash or donate a car.
When I feel jaded I look for the cool elements of the space and focus in on them. Right now, Farcaster is home to a more diverse conversation than Bluesky; the next best. If you stay out of the degen channels and mute a few words, it won’t even feel like a “crypto social network”
Outside that, we have projects like Ampleforth’s Spot and USDaf which are basically truly decentralized stable currencies.
I’ve donated to charity like 10+ times this year using crypto, which means I get to support causes across borders, without putting my information into databases that are prone to hacking.
Plus, payments processors have gotten so greedy and L2 fees have gotten so low that even with the high cost of offramping to fiat, many store owners around the world are going to be turning to crypto.
And there’s interesting zk stuff on the horizon as always. Zcash added an EIP-1559-like upgrade. Mina is working to bring zk to https. Anoncaster is a good proof of concept for the privacy benefits of zk. Namada mainnet is in the process of launching. Etc etc.
I took some time away and it was refreshing. Still bullish on the tech but it’s easy to see why critiques from outside are so harsh when you step back and look at it from outside
If you discover one let me know. Only bots interact with me
I don’t use AI very much. But one thing I think it’s good at is parsing large amounts of information and letting you know where to follow up with research of your own.
I have been playing a bit more with Venice.ai because I think it’s a cool project and I hold the token that makes me a pro user.
On Venice Pro, you can choose from amongst several open source models. I tried Hermes and Llama for this one but preferred the output of Llama.
Don’t have much more to say on it at this time but Im sure I will in the future.
You convinced me to read the newest updates and buy some more haha
Funny enough I finally got around to setting up a Mina wallet (using Aurora) just the other day. I’ve been interested in Mina since I heard Izzy Meckler on @theblockchainsocialist podcast almost exactly two years ago.
It’s one of those projects that flies under the radar, but I agree big things are coming.
I just want people to get bored of it because it’s exhausting. Reminds me of the bad old days of Blur