Tim Bouma

A curious mixture of history, anthropology and cryptography rolled into monetary theory
https://trbouma.github.io/clear/policy-briefs/credit-coinage-and-clear/

2026-09-18 12:44:54 UTC

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Very cool. This is the vision I am building toward with https://mainstay.safebox.dev

2026-09-18 09:02:56 UTC

https://citizenlab.ca/research/blackcores-influence-operations-for-hire/

2026-09-18 02:32:35 UTC

GN
https://blossom.primal.net/2aa085e0522e150c68bf9b3f591dff69127ee94da6a1215f7897b658cb1ac25a.jpg

2026-09-17 14:15:28 UTC

Geopolitical hissy-fits are so tiring.

2026-09-17 12:49:19 UTC

Once again, David Graeber's book on debt does not disappoint - infinitely endless giving to the 'Inexhaustible Storehouse' to pay off debts. Salvation on an installment plan.
In an ancient Chinese parable, a poor man burdened by a debt of one thousand strings of coins to another person. He always suffers from his debt, and the poor man is afraid whenever the debt-master comes to collect.
He visits the rich man’s house and confesses he is beyond the time-limit and begs forgiveness for his offense—he is poor and without a station in life. He tells him that each day he makes a single coin he will return it to the rich man. On hearing this, the rich man is very pleased and forgives him for being overdue; moreover, the poor man is not dragged away to jail.
Giving to the Inexhaustible Storehouse is also like this.

2026-09-16 16:35:30 UTC

The counter-intuitive thing I learned from David Graeber’s book Debt, The First 5000 Years, is that the difference between bullion and credit is that bullion (gold/silver) could be stolen. That was a particularly important point for invading armie, where bullion could be stolen and eventually minted into coinage to drive military economies. Though not, morally sanctioned, the recent thefts of Bitcoin due to hardware wallet entropy hacks, and side chain swap attacks reinforces a desireable property of Bitcoin - it that it can be stolen, or does not rely on a legal or societal regime to establish ownership and control.

2026-09-16 16:06:47 UTC

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We’re just learning how society actually functions.

2026-09-16 16:03:41 UTC

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Mickey 18

2026-09-16 16:00:00 UTC

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and better feedback, so long you are not under the spell of AI psychosis.

2026-09-16 11:42:48 UTC

The Art of Exploit
https://github.com/KazamaDono/taoxd/

2026-09-16 11:29:40 UTC

Vibe-Engineering
https://youtu.be/m4VkFZ3tUgs?si=FDvP6dsErnFniECX

2026-09-14 16:26:26 UTC

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Yes, that word is longer than her snout.

2026-09-14 16:25:57 UTC

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I say that a hundred times a day, along with “Who is responsible for your cuteness? I demand an answer!”

2026-09-14 15:26:15 UTC

Individual Privacy.
Free Speech.
Bearer Money.
Pick three.

2026-09-14 15:23:58 UTC

Models converge. Minds diverge.

2026-09-14 15:23:31 UTC

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My little girl.

2026-09-14 12:42:38 UTC

GM
https://blossom.primal.net/1e276d06f982030dbbfe4a9cd34dcd4cf0cb2144f73c3d8fd01fefadb706045c.jpg

2026-09-12 11:50:01 UTC

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This note specifically https://github.com/trbouma/mainstay/blob/main/docs/INVARIANT-IDENTITY-AND-DYNAMIC-RESOLUTION.md

2026-09-12 11:48:01 UTC

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Yeah, you can find the design notes here. https://github.com/trbouma/mainstay/tree/main/docs

2026-09-12 00:18:37 UTC

https://blossom.primal.net/bbaa91522a6bcf35936b722a343e237a0829f314ee3e85533b120c378ff4b072.jpg

2026-09-11 23:32:20 UTC

https://medium.com/asecuritysite-when-bob-met-alice/even-dns-is-going-quantum-robust-9a484bf468f4

2026-09-11 19:47:48 UTC

Good Afternoon!
https://blossom.primal.net/2d6d8b1ad4c9a52bdca8064a496468ad8f1d1493eb5cc3359649e2803248220f.jpg

2026-09-11 13:31:27 UTC

It’s simple but hard to implement; you need to architect from the ground up:
FIPs gives you independence from IP address lock-in.
NOSTR gives you independence from host API lock-in.
That’s about it.

2026-09-10 21:28:01 UTC

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That's what the developers just laid down. In the old days, it was sod.

2026-09-10 21:26:43 UTC

Quantum or Quit
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/quantum-computing/nec-has-quietly-quit-quantum-computing-hardware-development-report-claims-company-says-it-will-continue-to-evaluate-practical-applications-and-industrialization-of-quantum-technologies

2026-09-10 21:09:02 UTC

What lawns look like in 2026.
https://blossom.primal.net/0cc996a15b2eb296c81ffe0adae11e0d302cae3a4d881f3817920734ea124c66.jpg

2026-09-10 20:37:48 UTC

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I recommended a Sharpie to write the numbers on their hand.

2026-09-10 18:20:52 UTC

Reading David Graeber's Debt: The First 5,000 Years.
So far, does not disappoint...
https://blossom.primal.net/010bc9952350c96b6e44082d8e949dd780fb475bb3cb54a4df4bf2a559a3c1bb.jpg

2026-09-10 17:24:21 UTC

https://substack.com/@ozolinsjanis/note/c-333876774?r=3r59

2026-09-10 15:25:40 UTC

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You need a brain for that. Disqualifies many.

2026-09-10 13:09:17 UTC

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I fully agree with you but this is why most gyms no longer allow you to bring your own lock.

2026-09-10 13:01:38 UTC

Reposting not only ‘cause it’s cool, but planning to integrate into my project.
#nevent1q…h38g

2026-09-10 12:29:35 UTC

People can’t remember their locker number and combo at the gym.
And we expect self-custody.

2026-09-09 13:47:19 UTC

Wow. “I am the house now.” What a zinger of a quote.
https://image.nostr.build/b7d90cd9ca982b4fca049927cb6eecf31f4ee11750d1d7a305648e7f0a6da602.jpg

2026-09-08 11:31:17 UTC

IJJ&M - It’s Just JSON and Markdown

2026-09-07 20:28:04 UTC

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Thanks!

2026-09-07 19:18:02 UTC

Meanwhile at home...
https://blossom.primal.net/c04bcdafc1d267105ef6643b0a13e48df04b909587515cab62b162cccd17e790.jpg

2026-09-07 19:14:28 UTC

Good Afternoon!
https://blossom.primal.net/182fb5179f428eb4a0b882589503e2901f60952200b9a79e4c2205e499cad057.jpg

2026-09-06 20:51:09 UTC

Good Afternoon
https://blossom.primal.net/cb8ec4a28bc9ddf5dd4b3fdf927fd5dbf043f526f4afd74e3bd768416d307f09.jpg

2026-09-05 19:01:14 UTC

Good Afternoon
https://blossom.primal.net/3c9949609d4caf06d735039dcdb4267e3d8567ec0d394a0aad89d10bcee9e41d.jpg

2026-09-05 12:20:58 UTC

My historical reading for the day
https://download.ssrn.com/11/04/01/ssrn_id1800812_code758931.pdf

2026-09-04 15:41:41 UTC

running fips
(well, hopefully soon)

2026-09-03 23:35:25 UTC

GN
https://blossom.primal.net/e4ee4936e98b30d297142367cff8a9ee5f9b21c79a96e5ed369da3e3383d8b40.jpg

2026-09-03 13:02:14 UTC

If you want to learn more about Clear, you can read about it here:
https://trbouma.github.io/clear/

2026-09-03 12:56:32 UTC

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It’s ironic. Canada is one of the top gold producers but the central bank holds no gold. It’s a reversal of the time when there was a secret convoy to bring all the gold across the Atlantic for sake keeping in WW2.

2026-09-03 12:53:54 UTC

I think this is pretty cool. The next phase of my #safebox project, I’ve decoupled the Cashu mint and Cashu protocol from Bitcoin/Lightning and now enable any corporate treasurer to issue their own bearer notes that behave like cash. To distinguish them from actual cash, I call them “Clear Balances” and you can see two of them below.
For example, the “Food Share Credits” is for “shares” that can be redeemed at a participating food banks. This is intended to support organizations that wish to set up a food bank network, where funds can be disbursed like cash, but only “spent” at a food bank.
To make things seamless for the user, the #safebox wallet treats each Clear Balance just like cash, you can receive, send, and when you want to retire from circulation, you send to the treasurer to retire from circulation.
Where does the trust live? It’s with the treasurer who issues the Clear funds. It’s exactly the same trust mechanism for any national currency, but thanks to the Cashu protocol, the same trust mechanics are now feasible at the community level.
https://image.nostr.build/b70671ccf5ccf377ba6e97b0631db6b3a0e2a52d99a0bbfc8cd370c83f3c680b.jpg

2026-09-03 12:05:20 UTC

Dutch shift gold reserves from Canada, U.S. to Britain
RICHARD CARTER, LUCIE LEQUIER AND JEAN-PHILIPPE LACOUR
Ottawa Citizen
Sep 03, 2026
• The Dutch central bank said it had moved 86 tonnes of its gold reserves out of the United States and Canada to London, citing “increasing geopolitical unrest.”
The DNB bank said gold reserves held in London could be traded more easily than those held in New York and Ottawa.
“This makes it the quickest for DNB to deploy in a crisis situation,” said the bank in a statement Wednesday.
“With this step, we have improved the deployability of the gold reserves. We assume that we will never need to deploy the gold, but it is nevertheless necessary to strengthen our resilience and preparedness,” said DNB President Olaf Sleijpen.
The total Dutch gold stock amounted to 612.4 tonnes and was valued at 72.2 billion euros at the end of 2025, said the DNB.
Before the deployment, the Dutch bank held 31.3 per cent of its gold in New York and 19.7 per cent in Ottawa.
After the move, each country accounted for 18.5 per cent of the Dutch gold reserve.
The share of gold held in London increased from 18.1 per cent to 32.1 per cent. The bank still holds 30.8 per cent of its gold in the Netherlands.
The transfer was carried out partially by buying and selling and partly by physically transferring gold, said the bank.
The bank moved more than 27 tonnes of physical gold from the United States and Canada to Zeist. The same quantity of gold was moved from Zeist to London, preventing the melting down of gold bars.
“By combining buying and selling and physical transport, the risks associated with physically moving a large quantity of gold have been spread,” said the DNB.
The operation took place between March and August of this year, the bank said.
Laurent Schwartz, president of the Paris-based National Gold Counter, which facilitates gold trading in France, said central banks had been moving their reserves around for about a decade.
“The current political context in the United States might also push certain central banks into favouring other storage locations,” Schwartz told AFP.
The London market is the deepest and most liquid, said Schwartz, making it easier to deploy in times of crisis.
John Plassard, analyst at Cite Gestion Private Bank, told AFP the Dutch move was intended “for there to be more immediate availability in the event of a crisis.”
For the moment, it was a “fairly one-off move” but he warned that if other central banks followed suit, it could damage confidence in the U.S.
Shared via PressReader
connecting people through news

2026-09-02 18:35:05 UTC

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Agree. But, prototype first. This is the easiest platform.

2026-09-02 15:57:53 UTC

TIL that the Medici regime in 15th century Florence could levy whatever tax rate on anyone for whatever reason. If they did not like you, you might be taxed at 10 times your annual earnings, and you would have no choice but to flee.

2026-09-02 15:52:23 UTC

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This is what I am thinking
https://mainstay.safebox.dev/lockbox/

2026-09-02 10:37:08 UTC

hydronym

2026-09-01 21:15:36 UTC

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They get it by email newsletter. As for #nostr, I have about 5 (maybe 4) people who are interested.

2026-09-01 19:49:49 UTC

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I have several hundred subscribers.

2026-09-01 16:27:51 UTC

Another essay for the normies.
https://trbouma.substack.com/p/the-thing

2026-09-01 16:25:20 UTC

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Interested to hear the context that generated this statement.

2026-09-01 11:01:59 UTC

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Cute!

2026-09-01 10:59:57 UTC

The End of Software Engineering.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.05608v1

2026-08-31 23:36:46 UTC

https://blossom.primal.net/3236654f892feb00a48ccff4f1d48ce5a16db726d3ef35f65aae048018a9d082.jpg

2026-08-31 17:06:45 UTC

YYJ
https://blossom.primal.net/16c8acad8d4b266e75c43fc433cc28c75e6e571eb4a3f5c98509099b5454c2be.jpg

2026-08-31 03:51:10 UTC

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Cathedral Grove.

2026-08-31 01:07:36 UTC

True love is like a big tree...
https://blossom.primal.net/aaf19e937db1b7b9c0fd32c949742839433445f35d08b879c74da40971f6df9b.jpg

2026-08-30 19:42:49 UTC

GM
https://blossom.primal.net/6ebe0ceb6c5ad8f41ae70706d5e937ddb49ff5ef91dca33789f3e0f503980928.jpg

2026-08-29 22:24:36 UTC

GM!
https://blossom.primal.net/d4528790bf44b4eade5ffb5f66b323bad34d69e0b07002d6cfa02048fe43f738.jpg

2026-08-28 17:52:31 UTC

GM
https://blossom.primal.net/a95096714f75ebff083d00efa6357db109fcd4bc223a7103f02f074355a88c27.jpg

2026-08-28 00:52:17 UTC

GN
https://blossom.primal.net/9bdae776b216538fc2b6f79d72691afcdb9e92d98286cb96d286519debfe8b2d.jpg

2026-08-27 19:22:03 UTC

Good Afternoon
https://blossom.primal.net/b13aedafa03cdad2197fad4f268992404fa08f8a142ca7cc711a4e6bdd0f72df.jpg

2026-08-27 17:06:56 UTC

Receiving zaps on a decentralized system while on a plane. How cool is that?

2026-08-27 16:40:36 UTC

Zap testing

2026-08-26 21:00:11 UTC

Good Afternoon!
https://blossom.primal.net/426598343d5810ebbb837fd5eeebda615b00833edfac624bbff538fcec16c674.jpg

2026-08-26 15:29:28 UTC

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Me too!

2026-08-26 09:20:45 UTC

Innovate at the edge; ossify at the core

2026-08-26 09:17:21 UTC

By @npub1a2c…w83a
https://gettingbitcoin.org/articles/not-just-another-technology-a-protocol-of-value/

2026-08-25 12:30:31 UTC

New map just dropped.
https://image.nostr.build/444e83b91f64dce62202fc02a63945f7db9814e890f67509b3ad0c1f0197f10e.jpg

2026-08-25 01:25:04 UTC

GN https://blossom.primal.net/1fdb1ee094ea5248617d4e3e4c4548ea2b271500cfdf9b377f35cbbf98461d53.jpg

2026-08-25 01:21:36 UTC

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Bahahaha!

2026-08-24 22:53:30 UTC

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Same vibe as many a nostr social app?

2026-08-24 19:57:34 UTC

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Technical sock debt.
And, I always maintain that wearing improperly-paired socks is the first sign of moral decay

2026-08-24 19:17:41 UTC

Stats and Other Stuff by @npub1zuu…c2uc
https://stats.andotherstuff.org/

2026-08-24 19:16:25 UTC

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Downtime increases my FOMO.

2026-08-24 19:11:15 UTC

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Nice!

2026-08-24 18:57:28 UTC

Better agents means more time to sort socks.

2026-08-24 18:49:15 UTC

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Superb! I am looking for an indigenous community to pilot. The latest piece of the puzzle I am working on is the ability to issue their own credits for circulation within the community. I am also looking at churches wishing to support food bank networks.

2026-08-24 18:01:47 UTC

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Awesome! This is part of a broader vision I am working on here:
https://mainstay.safebox.dev/

2026-08-24 16:56:31 UTC

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Thanks! I'd love to know if there are interested communities in your neck of the woods.

2026-08-24 16:42:31 UTC

Now supporting Inukituk and eventually Indigenous-issued Chaumian notes for circulation within the community.
#safebox
https://blossom.primal.net/79c686b6eb4e7527c8f9600c6eb2c67f9fc47f9ace0c33c73bed8f9bc48bba3f.jpg

2026-08-24 14:45:07 UTC

Localization is in! #safebox
https://blossom.primal.net/12d7eb198c33a6a8cf4bed1781228e0670deeecab2cb4da6a4e38d1ec5f81eea.mp4

2026-08-24 13:49:35 UTC

Very cool!
#nevent1q…8r7r

2026-08-24 13:23:01 UTC

I had fun writing this.
When Records Stopped Smelling Like Livestock
https://trbouma.substack.com/p/when-records-stopped-smelling-like

2026-08-24 11:32:11 UTC

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Very cool!

2026-08-24 10:10:06 UTC

Very cool to see zaps coming into my new #safebox #acorn system!
https://blossom.primal.net/a4c410eed06437c1c70ae69e07ff91ac8fea6f25b29011fdfa0886cca950081e.jpg

2026-08-24 01:43:57 UTC

For fun, I had ChatGPT translate a page from the Gutenberg Bible to see if I could actually read it.
https://image.nostr.build/608e2c793fb49bb80b2153d067655418a6c44ebf4dace62b4864087fd1596a72.jpg
https://image.nostr.build/8990dbf88916abe844a84f9917e584efc897f8c815ab37074319bfa476880f89.jpg

2026-08-24 01:37:16 UTC

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I additionally wrap a NIP-44 with an additional key that is stored separately https://github.com/trbouma/safebox-acorn/blob/main/docs/PROTECTED-RECORD-PROFILE-DESIGN.md

2026-08-24 01:31:19 UTC

Test zap