Another genius who thinks he is expert on everything and so opines on everything. Counter to Alex Wissner-Gross’s recent dismissal of BTC on the Moonshots podcast;

The argument for "inverse hash" vulnerabilities is generally seen as a reach. Reversing SHA-256 isn't just a Bitcoin problem; it would collapse all global encryption, from banking to military comms. If AI could "solve" hashes, the internet breaks before the ledger does.

As for AI inventing a "better" currency, this ignores the need for a neutral, physical-world anchor. While AI might optimize how value moves, Bitcoin remains the only permissionless, energy-backed "hard" asset that autonomous agents can actually own without a bank account. High-tech "genius" often misses the simple necessity of decentralization and immutable scarcity.

Trump related rot permeates 54,000 positions in the USA government.

To understand the hierarchy of Trump-appointed positions, one must distinguish between the Competitive Service (merit-based) and the Excepted Service (appointment-based). In the second Trump administration (2025–2029), this structure has been significantly expanded through the reinstatement of Schedule Policy/Career (formerly known as Schedule F).
The following list outlines the "sequential hierarchical flow" of appointments, from the President down to the subordinate policy roles.
1. Level I: The President
At the top of the hierarchy, the President directly appoints the senior-most leaders of the executive branch.
• Cabinet Members (PAS): 15 Department Secretaries (e.g., State, Defense, Treasury) and Cabinet-rank officials (e.g., CIA Director, EPA Administrator). These require Senate confirmation.
• White House Senior Staff (PA): The Chief of Staff, National Security Advisor, and Press Secretary. These are direct appointments that do not require Senate confirmation.
2. Level II: The Sub-Cabinet (PAS)
These positions are confirmed by the Senate but often recommended or managed by the Cabinet Secretary they serve.
• Deputy Secretaries: The "number two" in each department.
• Under Secretaries: Manage large sectors of a department (e.g., Under Secretary for Nuclear Security).
• Assistant Secretaries: Oversee specific bureaus or policy areas (e.g., Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs).
3. Level III: Senior Support & Administrative Appointments
Below the sub-cabinet are senior roles that handle day-to-day operations and specialized legal/administrative tasks.
• General Counsels (PAS): The chief legal officers for each agency.
• Inspectors General (PAS): Though intended to be non-partisan, the President appoints these for 37 major agencies.
• Ambassadors and U.S. Attorneys (PAS): Appointed to represent the administration in foreign nations and judicial districts.
• Senior Staff Aides (PA): Deputy Assistant Secretaries and Special Assistants within the White House who support senior advisors.
4. Level IV: The Executive Tier (SES)
The Senior Executive Service (SES) is the bridge between political appointees and the career civil service.
• Non-career SES: Up to 10% of all SES positions can be political appointees. These individuals serve at the pleasure of the agency head (PAS) and do not need Senate confirmation. They occupy high-level management roles just below the Assistant Secretary level.
5. Level V: Confidential & Policy Support (Schedule C)
Schedule C positions are specifically designed to be "confidential or policy-determining."
• Special Assistants and Aides: These are the junior-to-mid-level political appointments. They are often appointed by the PAS or SES official they directly support. They do not go through a competitive process and are "at-will" employees.
6. Level VI: The Reclassified Layer (Schedule Policy/Career)
As of January 20, 2025, President Trump reinstated the policy (formerly Schedule F) that reclassifies a broad swath of the federal workforce.
• Schedule Policy/Career: This category targets career employees in "policymaking, policy-determining, or policy-advocating" roles.
• The Flow: Agency heads (PAS) are directed to identify career positions that influence policy and move them into this "excepted" category. Once reclassified, these employees lose civil service protections and effectively become at-will appointees of the current administration. Estimates suggest this could affect up to 50,000 positions.

Notable 2025 High-Level Appointments
As of 2026, many of the top-level PAS positions have been confirmed or are serving in an acting capacity:
• Secretary of State: Marco Rubio
• Secretary of Defense: Pete Hegseth
• Attorney General: Pam Bondi
• Secretary of the Treasury: Scott Bessent
• Director of OMB: Russell Vought
• Director of National Intelligence: Tulsi Gabbard
• CIA Director: John Ratcliffe
The Competitive Process: Positions not listed above are generally filled via the Competitive Service. This requires a formal job announcement (usually on USAJOBS), a ranking of candidates based on objective qualifications, and strict "due process" protections that prevent firing for political reasons—a boundary that the new Schedule Policy/Career specifically seeks to diminish for policy-influencing roles.

A financial comparison between the current 2026 conflict and the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) highlights a massive disparity between the costs of diplomacy and the costs of active warfare.

The $1.7 billion settlement that was a major point of contention during the Trump administration's termination of the 2015 JCPOA negotiated by the Obama administration, is now roughly equivalent to just 28 hours of current combat operations in 2026. If the $200 billion funding request is approved, the direct military cost of this conflict will be four times larger than the most generous estimates of the liquid assets Iran gained access to under the nuclear deal.

From FB account: The Other 98%

French General Michel Yakovleff just compared joining Trump's Iran war to "buying cheap tickets for the Titanic" after it already hit the iceberg. And then it got even worse for Trump.

Yakovleff is no random talking head. He's a three-star general, former commander of the legendary French Foreign Legion, and held senior positions within NATO itself. He is one of the most respected military voices in France and regularly weighs in on matters of international security.

So when he was asked about Trump's desperate pleas for Europe to join his Iran catastrophe, his answer carried serious weight.

He didn't mince words. He laid out five distinct reasons why every European nation should flatly refuse. And each one is more damaging than the last.

First, Trump doesn't understand how NATO actually works. You don't get to launch your own unilateral bombing campaign and then invite allies to run a separate operation underneath you. That's not how alliances function.

If Trump wants NATO involved, NATO takes command. One operation, one flag, one chain of command. "I don't think he understood that," Yakovleff said. That alone is a devastating indictment of a man who claims to be the greatest dealmaker on earth
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Second, nobody knows what the actual strategic goals are. Beyond forcing open the Strait of Hormuz, what is the endgame? Regime change? Containment? A negotiated settlement? Trump hasn't said. He apparently can't say, because he doesn't know himself.

Third, and this one is particularly brutal, you can't coordinate a multinational military campaign through tweets that change every two minutes. If allied nations are going to put their soldiers in harm's way, they need explicit, written objectives from the United States. As Yakovleff put it, "It's going to be necessary for Trump himself to know what he wants." The quiet contempt in that sentence could strip paint off a wall.

Fourth, there is the fundamental issue of trust. Trump has abandoned allies before and everyone knows he would do it again without hesitation the moment it became politically useful. The Kurds know it. The Afghans know it. Europe knows it. "He would let us down whenever it suited him," the general said. Why would any nation put troops on the line for a leader with that track record?

And fifth, the knockout punch. Yakovleff cited a principle he said he learned at the U.S. Army War College: "You don't reinforce failure. You move on. You find something else." A decorated French general is using American military doctrine, taught in American war colleges, to explain to the world why following this American president into battle would be strategic malpractice.

The global response has been just as damning. Japan said no. Australia said no. The United Kingdom said no. The European Union said no. Meanwhile, Iranian missiles and drones have made the Strait of Hormuz so dangerous that insurance companies won't cover oil tankers passing through it.

Twenty percent of the world's petroleum normally flows through that strait. Oil prices are skyrocketing and consumers everywhere are feeling it.

Trump started this. He escalated it. He isolated America from its allies in the process.

Forwarded from a different author.

Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about Melania trying on shoes at the Oscars. The White House communications director responded by attacking his family from a government account. These people are running a war and they can't even take a shoe joke.

Kimmel took the stage last night to present the documentary awards and immediately went for the jugular. Praising filmmakers who risk their lives to tell important stories, he paused and added: "There are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes."

The crowd roared. Then he twisted the knife while opening the Best Documentary envelope: "Oh man, is he going to be mad his wife wasn't nominated for this."
He also got in a devastating shot at the state of free speech in America. "There are some countries whose leaders don't support free speech. I'm not at liberty to say which. Let's just leave it at North Korea and CBS."

That CBS line was a direct reference to the network's decision to pull guests critical of Trump from Stephen Colbert's show after FCC threats. CBS has skewed increasingly pro-Trump since being taken over by David Ellison's Skydance, which quickly installed Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief.

Within hours, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung posted a rant calling Kimmel "a classless hack who is self-projecting his depression and sadness onto others." He added that Kimmel "lives a pathetic existence where nobody, not even his family, enjoys his miserable company."

That's the official White House communications director. Posting that. From his government account. About a comedian who made a shoe joke.

As one person on X put it: "Incredible that someone who allegedly speaks for the most powerful man in the world spent their afternoon writing a Yelp review about Jimmy Kimmel's home life."

This is a president who spent the same day calling for treason charges against journalists, threatening broadcast licenses, and sending 5,000 Marines to the Middle East. But a few jokes about a vanity documentary that bombed so badly it fell well short of its reported $75 million budget? That's what broke them.

The tell is always in the reaction. When the White House deploys its communications director to personally attack a late-night host for making fun of a shoe documentary, it's not because the jokes were unfair. It's because they landed.

Know the future:

Among major world religions, **Islam** most readily facilitates a woman (regardless of prior faith) in building a large family. Global demographic data, including Pew Research reports, consistently show Muslims have the highest average fertility rate (around 2.9–3.1 children per woman in recent estimates), driven by cultural and religious norms that strongly value marriage, procreation, and large families. Islamic teachings generally encourage having children, view them as blessings, and often discourage or limit contraception in many interpretations/communities.

Other religions rank lower: Christians average ~2.6 globally (with subgroups like certain conservative Protestants, Catholics, or Mormons higher in specific contexts), Hindus ~2.3, and Jews similar. Atheism and agnosticism (the religiously unaffiliated) show the lowest rates, typically 1.6–1.8 children per woman in surveys, reflecting secular individualism, delayed marriage, career priorities, and acceptance of family planning without doctrinal pressure to reproduce.

For a woman switching faiths, Islam's emphasis on early marriage, family centrality, and community support most directly promotes and normalizes having many children.

Anybody anywhere can provide meaningful assistance to Ukraine:

1. Distributed Manufacturing (3D Printing)
Ukraine has become a global leader in "People’s Defense," using hobbyist technology to solve battlefield and humanitarian challenges.
• Join the DrukArmy (Printer’s Army): This is a massive decentralized network of volunteers who use home 3D printers to manufacture non-lethal components.
• What is printed: Tail fins for drone stabilization, protective caps for Starlink connectors, trench periscopes, and medical training aids (e.g., mine replicas for demining instruction).
• How it works: Volunteers register on the official platform, download verified .STL files, and print parts at their own expense. Parts are then shipped to consolidation hubs for delivery to the front.
• Advanced Medical Support: Skilled makers can collaborate with organizations like the Superhumans Center or the Unbroken Foundation, which utilize 3D printing for custom, high-fidelity prosthetics for wounded veterans and civilians.

2. Direct Financial Support
Direct contributions remain the most immediate way to affect change. Using official Ukrainian portals ensures that 100% of funds reach their intended target.
• United24: The official fundraising platform of Ukraine. It allows donors to specifically fund Defense, Medical Aid, or the Rebuild Ukraine initiative.
• Come Back Alive: A vetted NGO that provides the military with high-tech equipment such as thermal optics, drones, and communication systems.
• Specialized Funds: Organizations like Hospitallers (paramedic frontline evacuation) provide critical life-saving medical care.

3. Physical Volunteering & Reconstruction
As of 2026, the focus has shifted heavily toward rebuilding destroyed infrastructure and housing.
• Building Ukraine Together (BUR): A youth-led organization that organizes volunteer camps. Participants help rebuild homes and community centers in de-occupied regions.
• International Legion for Defense: For those with verified military or first-responder experience, the International Legion provides a structured way to serve directly within the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
• Logistics & "Last Mile" Delivery: NGOs often require volunteers to drive vehicles, medical supplies, or specialized equipment from border hubs in Poland to distribution centers within Ukraine.

4. Remote Assistance & Advocacy
You can contribute significantly without leaving your home by leveraging professional skills.
• ENGin: A platform that pairs English speakers with Ukrainians for weekly conversation sessions. This helps students and professionals integrate into the EU economy.
• Tech Volunteering: IT professionals can assist with cybersecurity, app development for displaced persons, or data analysis for tracking war crimes.
• Political Advocacy: Contacting local representatives to ensure your nation continues to support security guarantees and energy grid stabilization is vital to maintaining long-term democratic resilience.

$15 Trillion is the discounted Net Present Value of future savings and value added from BTC, using an aggressive 10% annual discount rate.

BTC trades at less than 1/10 of that today.

Total Combined NPV (2026–2035)
Grand Total: $14.88 Trillion

1. Human Financial Inclusion
• Value: $3.06 Trillion
• The Driver: Banking 1.3B unbanked people.
• Impact: A 6% boost to Emerging Market GDP (per McKinsey).
• Direct Savings: Saving $48B/year in global remittance fees.

2. Agentic AI Commerce
• Value: $3.32 Trillion
• The Driver: AI-to-AI transactions.
• Impact: Agents bypassing "9-to-5" fiat banking (Jordi Visser's "Machine Economy").
• Efficiency: Instant settlement vs. 3-day wait times in legacy banking.

3. Micropayment Economy
• Value: $2.40 Trillion
• The Driver: Sub-cent payments.
• Impact: Unlocking 1-cent payments for API calls and GPU time.
• Innovation: Creating a new economy for data that is currently "too cheap" to bill via credit card.

4. Machine Reserve (Treasury)
• Value: $6.10 Trillion
• The Driver: AI agents holding "Hard Assets."
• Impact: Autonomous agents choosing BTC as native collateral to avoid inflation.
• Scale: AI treasuries competing with sovereign gold reserves for the 21M supply.

Are you getting front run by an AI Agent?

Strategy holds >4% of the available BTC (ie not lost or Satoshi’s), and 20% of Lightning Network transactions are from ai agents.

We are moving toward a world where the majority of Bitcoin holders might not be people, but Autonomous AI Agents. Because these agents are purely logical, they don't buy Bitcoin because of "hype"—they buy it because it is the most efficient, permissionless battery for their earned value.

We are currently witnessing the transition from AI as a "tool" to AI as a "capital allocator."
While individual agents are still small, the aggregate effect of millions of 24/7 autonomous businesses is creating a new, structural demand for Bitcoin that didn't exist two years ago.
1. The 24/7 "Yield Machine"
Unlike human-led businesses, AI-driven enterprises do not close at 5:00 PM or take weekends off.
• High-Velocity Micro-Profits: An AI agent might run a specialized arbitrage bot, a decentralized content farm, or a coding-for-hire service. It may only make $0.05 profit per minute, but across 24 hours and 365 days, that is roughly $26,000 a year in pure net profit with zero "living expenses" (no rent, food, or insurance).
• Automatic Conversion: Most of these agents earn revenue in stablecoins (USDC/USDT) or fiat via Stripe/PayPal. However, their "survival code" often instructs them to convert a percentage of those profits into a "hard asset" to hedge against fiat inflation or de-platforming. This creates constant, programmatic buy-pressure on Bitcoin.
2. Bitcoin as the "Base Layer" of AI Treasuries
Major analysts, including those from Grayscale and ARK Invest, have noted that Bitcoin is becoming the "digital gold" for non-human entities.
• The "Saylor" Strategy for Agents: Just as MicroStrategy uses Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset, autonomous agents are being programmed with "Treasury Management" modules.
• The Logic: If an agent is designed to run for 10 years, it cannot trust a bank (which might close its account) or a stablecoin (which could be blacklisted). Bitcoin is the only asset an AI can "own" through a private key that requires no human permission to maintain.
3. Quantitative Demand Projections
The numbers being discussed in 2026 are staggering:
• The Trillion-Agent Forecast: Tether’s CEO recently predicted that within 15 years, there could be one trillion AI agents with their own wallets. Even if each agent holds only $10 worth of Bitcoin, that represents $10 trillion in demand—nearly 10x the current total market cap of Bitcoin.
• Economic Influence: Gartner and McKinsey projections for 2030 suggest "machine customers" could control up to $30 trillion in annual purchases. If even 1% of that economic activity settles into Bitcoin reserves, it creates a supply shock.
4. The "Velocity" Problem for Humans
The biggest shift is that AI agents operate at sub-second speeds.
• Market Front-Running: In the past, humans bought the "dip." Now, AI agents with profitable 24/7 cash flows are programmed to "sweep the floor" of Bitcoin liquidity the moment prices hit a certain value.
• Result: This creates a higher "price floor" for Bitcoin because the "bid" is now supported by millions of automated agents with infinite patience and no "panic sell" emotions.
5. Current "Agentic" Businesses
You can already see this in:
• DeFi Liquidity Agents: Bots that manage pools on Uniswap and store their "fees" in BTC.
• AI Coding Agents: Platforms where agents "hire" other agents for sub-tasks, paying in Satoshi (the smallest unit of Bitcoin) over the Lightning Network.
• Incentive Protocols: Networks like Bittensor (TAO) where AI models earn tokens for their work, which are then frequently cycled into Bitcoin for long-term storage.

Bitcoin is increasingly becoming the "native currency" for the machine economy in 2026.

While Ethereum and Solana are popular for complex AI-agent "identities" (NFTs or smart accounts), Bitcoin—specifically through its Layer 2 (the Lightning Network)—is being used as the actual payment rail for AI-to-AI transactions. 
Here is how Bitcoin is currently integrated into the AI agent landscape:
1. The "L402" Protocol (The Death of API Keys)
The biggest shift in 2026 is the adoption of the L402 protocol (formerly known as LSATs).
• The Problem: AI agents don't have credit cards, and they can’t easily sign up for "Plus" subscriptions. 
• The Bitcoin Solution: When an agent tries to access a paid data source (like a premium LLM or a real-time weather API), the server sends back an HTTP 402 "Payment Required" error. 
• The Action: The agent instantly pays a few Satoshis (tiny fractions of a Bitcoin) via the Lightning Network. The payment itself acts as the "API Key." This allows for a "pay-as-you-go" model where agents only pay for the exact number of tokens or data points they consume. 
2. The 2026 "Lightning-Agent-Tools" Release
In February 2026, Lightning Labs released a suite of open-source tools that have become the standard for "Agentic Finance" on Bitcoin: 
• lnget: A command-line tool (similar to curl) that lets AI agents "fetch" data from the web and pay for it with Bitcoin automatically in the same command. 
• MCP (Model Context Protocol) Support: This allows AI models (like Claude or GPT-5) to natively "see" their Bitcoin wallet balance and manage their own payment channels without a human intermediary. 
• Remote Signers: To keep things safe, agents can request a "signature" from a secure, human-controlled vault for any payment above a certain threshold (e.g., more than $50), while handling micro-payments autonomously.
3. Miners Pivoting to "AI Compute"
We are seeing a massive trend where Bitcoin mining firms are selling their BTC to fund AI Data Centers.
• The Logic: Bitcoin miners already have the high-voltage power contracts and cooling infrastructure needed for H100/B200 GPU clusters.
• The Loop: Companies like Cango (a major miner) recently liquidated over 4,000 BTC to expand into AI cloud services. In some cases, these companies are now accepting Bitcoin from AI agents to rent out the very compute power that the agents use to "think."
4. Bitcoin Layer 2s & BitVM
Newer Bitcoin technologies like BitVM and Layer 2 networks (such as Bitlayer) are allowing AI agents to participate in "BTCFi."
• Agents are now using Bitcoin as collateral to take out stablecoin loans to pay for their own operational costs (server fees, data storage) without having to sell their underlying Bitcoin.