I was reading this post by Vitalik a few days ago, and felt a need to share a few important points of my own experience on the origins of Ethereum:

> Crypto is building toward human empowerment, as it has been since the beginning

“Empowerment” was the code of the philosophy of the Pirate Party, before crypto even existed. https://t.co/3jGzyouVu7 pic.twitter.com/3keGzBxVYJ

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 20, 2025

On a flight many years ago, I happened to sit next to one of the many cofounders of Ethereum. I won’t reveal his name here out of respect for his privacy, as he is an extremely privacy-conscious person. We talked Ethereum and Bitcoin during the flight, agreeing and disagreeing about various issues in the space. I’d been personally invested in Bitcoin for years, and at the time was building Casa, a security system and service for Bitcoin.

At the end of the flight, he...

Leo Strauss designed his system as a trap, a distraction. A container for smart minds to create layers of gibberish and debate over layered speech instead of over harder ideas.

I’d barely read any works from Strauss until just a year or so ago.

I do not like the Straussian model. I will not repeat that because there is nothing to read beyond that. It is a waste of time and energy.

I have not followed Strauss’s approach in my writings before, but now I am concerned that some people think that I have. The only way out of Strauss’s trap is to speak plainly and then back up the simple statements with actions that truthfully align with the simple statements. Over time people will see that you are truly not intending to create Straussian layers, and will ask if something isn’t clear instead of just assuming they don’t get it. Already with this essay the Straussian trap is broken.

We...

I’ve been thinking today about chastity in relation to spiritual and mental development.

I am going through a divorce from my ex-wife Sinclaire, and one of the contributing factors to my initiating separation was an abusive approach from her in discussions and interactions around sex. What started as a series of control measures in withholding sex, turned to an accusation of sexual assault against me. All of this got worse after months of me not caving to my ex-wife’s absurd demands. She isolated me mentally, emotionally, and physically to try to control me, and further even taunted me, but I resisted control without retaliating. I still love my ex-wife and felt a duty to care for her despite the abuse. I wouldn’t normally publish this publicly, but Sinclaire made false accusations about me 4-5 times throughout our marriage to attempt to control and then silence or get rid of me (it...

I write most of my work direct in pen and paper in journals, or within the Notes app or Word app on my computer. I also occasionally write directly in the Svbtle interface.

I set this blog up using Svbtle’s software many years ago, after previously setting up custom hosted implementations of Wordpress and other blogging software. The process of setting up Wordpress, although more customized, can be a headache and require a lot of time when custom-hosting.

I need to focus on writing more than setting up software right now, so I will continue using the Svbtle software temporarily.

However, usage of the software should in no way be seen as my recommendation for Svbtle, or for their founder Dustin Curtis or any of their team, beyond the basic usage of the software platform. I have never met or talked to Dustin or anyone from their team, but I do respect the work they’ve done narrowly...

This moment is a unique gift from God.

The world has never been this way before, and it will never be this way again.

The actions that you take in this moment affect the world. As did the actions you will take next, and those you did before.

Despite this truth, we frequently deceive ourselves into believing that we are stuck forever in the same circumstances. That we can never change. We trap ourselves with this deception, then use it to trap or harm others.

A miracle took place about 2000 years ago, which proved this deception false, and began the gradual demolition of all human institutions founded on falsity.

It is in the moment of Christ’s resurrection miracle that we entered spiral time. The eternal return is defeated and death is no more.

Written in April 2024 as a meditation for a new (or very old) way of being.

This piece condenses discoveries from a line of...

I am responsible for all of it.

All glory belongs to the triune Lord God in heaven above, the creator of all, who existed before all time, exists in this time, and will exist after all time.

I will fail, and all failures are mine and mine alone, as a fallen creature deserving of Lord God’s judgement. I am always learning and in need of constant teaching from Lord God and family and friends and strangers.

I have no enemies. Anyone who calls themselves my enemy is someone who I have not served well enough, either by means that they know without my teaching or by teaching them my means.

I now frequently use the phrase: “It is only by the grace of Lord God, and with the help of family, friends and strangers that…” followed by a specific concrete problem to help me remember that it is only through grace, humility, and collaboration that problems can be resolved.

Being that pursues strength of will and self-mastery is and will always be a foolish and counterintuitively limiting path. Yet it remains a path that exists by grace, and is therefore a Christian path.

The strangeness of Nietzsche’s philosophy is that in a world of mimetic humans maximizing physical and mental strength of various types, the ability to forgive and break a chain of mimetic escalation requires more self-control than the ability to escalate. By Nietzsche’s own overman definition, Christ’s apolitical action is stronger than all others in human history because he chose his actions of loving restraint despite greater capabilities, where all others would lash out in accusation and violent self-defense given similar circumstances. Many of Nietzsche’s followers today fail to understand that Nietzsche was aware of and agreed with this point.

Strength of will cannot be defined by...

This moment is a unique gift from God. As was the moment before, and as will be the moment after. You didn’t choose to enter this world, and you don’t choose many of your circumstances.

But you can choose to acknowledge and accept the gift of life. As well as the gifts of each breath and your family and of food and resources and of knowledge and work. And much more.

Further, you can choose to discover and use the unique skills given to you to give back to God and the world of people and animals and places that God created around you.

I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.
Matthew 25:36

Giving is not an exception.

It is easier to look at a young child and understand that each one is a gift, both to their parents and to the wider world. And it is clearer to see that these children do...

When we detonate the nuclear bombs we will weep, for we will not be ready, but we will have chosen. “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn.”

Two great catastrophes bear upon us, neither of which can be resolved by you or I alone.

The consequences of the first great catastrophe are temporal and singular. The consequences of the second are eternal and infinite.

The first great catastrophe is a destined human collective-action failure to resolve all manner of known catastrophic problems, of which the large-scale tragic consequences are temporal and singular. One reason that tragedy is inevitable in our lifetimes or our children’s lifetimes is because the seemingly simple solution to one known problem (ecological crisis) frequently triggers other known problems (tyrannical government and economic stagnation). Another...

Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, Ried Hoffman and others have just launched a new non-profit with over $1 billion in funding, called OpenAI, that is dedicated to Artificial Intelligence research.

Steven Levy has a short interview on the launch of OpenAI with the following snippet that I think is extremely important:

I want to return to the idea that by sharing AI, we might not suffer the worst of its negative consequences. Isn’t there a risk that by making it more available, you’ll be increasing the potential dangers?

Altman: I wish I could count the hours that I have spent with Elon debating this topic and with others as well and I am still not a hundred percent certain. You can never be a hundred percent certain, right? But play out the different scenarios. Security through secrecy on technology has just not worked very often. If only one person gets to have it, how do you...