All posts
All posts, emin.de
- Building
Fazua Ride 50 speed unlock from a Mac, no box
How my agent and I raised the speed limit of a Fazua Ride 50 Evation from 25 to 55 km/h over USB from a MacBook, with firmware 2.04 and an open source tool.
- Culture
A tree does not burn alone
A pine forest portrait read closely. Real Olympus E-M5 II EXIF, a likely Voigtländer 25mm f/0.95, low sun, 1/8000 s mechanical shutter, measured tones, and one fix with annotated crops.
- Building
Badass Box 4 on a Fazua Ride 50, the yellow light
My Badass Box 4 on a Fazua Ride 50 kept blinking yellow. What the light means, where the magnet goes, what the black ring is for, and what Badass said.
- Culture
It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot
A garden path portrait read closely. Real Olympus E-M5 II EXIF, a likely Voigtländer 25mm f/0.95, low warm sun, shallow focus, measured shadows and one fix, with annotated crops.
- Culture
One man cannot launch a vessel
A close reading of a black-and-white dawn photo of a crowded wooden boat in shallow surf, with its real settings, four dust spots and a Swahili proverb.
- Science
Can sound do what quantum particles do?
Sound bends, spreads and interferes like electrons in the double slit. So is sound quantum? Where the comparison works and where it breaks.
- Culture
Mountains never meet, but people do
A centred portrait under a hazy mountain, read closely. Low sun, open shade, aerial perspective, the real Olympus EXIF at 1/8000 s, and a 20 minute exercise.
- Culture
The sun cannot be covered with mud
A close reading of a harbour photo shot straight into a low sun: the flare, the haze, the two skies, an exposure read from guy wires, Monet, the Bechers, Sandburg's fog and one fix.
- Culture
A thousand friends are few, one enemy is too many
A close reading of a black-and-white Istanbul photo. Two head sizes, a ferry's name and its smoke give away distance, aperture and shutter, with Ara Güler and Orhan Veli alongside.
- Culture
The eyes say as much as the mouth
A close reading of an over-the-shoulder portrait in soft daylight. The turn, the catchlights, lens distance, shutter and aperture trade-offs, and one fix, with annotated crops.
- Culture
The player is lost, the onlooker sees clearly
A close reading of a black-and-white photo of men crowded round an outdoor card game: the ring of bodies, dappled light, lens, exposure guesses, one mistake and a drill.
- Culture
The darkest place is under the candlestick
A close reading of a black-and-white mirror selfie in a clothing boutique: the hidden face, the seam of the mirror, soft shop light, focus through glass, settings guesses, one mistake and a drill.
- Culture
What you give away is yours, what you keep is lost
A close reading of Emin Mahrt's photo of a purple Soviet Pobeda under three EXCHANGE signs in Georgia, with light, lens, LED shutter clues and Rustaveli.
- Culture
If you wait, the sea road will have fair weather
A close reading of a hazy harbour photo with a red ship throwing water. Colour, haze, light, lens, shutter and aperture estimates, one mistake and a 20 minute exercise.
- Culture
Bread is in the lion's mouth
A close reading of Emin Mahrt's black-and-white street photo of boys at a simit cart, with long lens, soft light, three whites, shutter guesses, Güler and Pamuk.
- Culture
Whoever loves the rose bears its thorns
A close reading of a film portrait on an old stairwell. The look, the high angle, flash or window, the grain, a guess at the settings and how to try it.
- Culture
Looking at flowers from horseback
A close reading of a tilted look up past railway wires at two green domes: layers, hard light, a 23 degree roll, the smeared girder, are-bure-boke, one mistake and a drill.
- Culture
Walls have ears, paper screens have eyes
A close reading of a warm, film-like photo shot through an old window. The double grid, the low sun, the ghost bricks, likely lens and settings, Baudelaire's shut window and one fix.
- Culture
A white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall
A close reading of a wood pigeon frozen beside a paint-splattered wall: field marks, grey light, distance and lens, shutter estimates, one mistake and a 20-minute drill.
- Building
Riverside 500E faster, bike tuning
A complete how-to for the Riverside 500E: the free magnet hack, the Badass Box, and a KT controller swap, with drawings, part links and test steps.
- Nuri
The agent has no hands: Why Nuri wallet can win the machine economy
An AI agent can write code and book things, but it can't pay. Why we think Nuri and its MCP can give agents a way to pay in the real world.
- Agents and AI
What agent ready actually means
Four public scanners now grade whether AI agents can read your site. Here is what each one measures, which checks a static host can never pass, and the exact files and headers that move the score.
- Culture
My father Nurettin Sezer and the workers who made cinema in Stockholm
My father, Nurettin “Nuri” Sezer, never fitted neatly into one role. Hasan Gül remembers him and the workers who made cinema in Stockholm.
- Culture
Theory vs. Reality: Manipulation through Media and Technology (January 2005, Emin Mahrt)
At 17 I wrote a school thesis on manipulation through media and technology. What I wrote back then, and what really happened since.
- Nuri
Nuri Passkey Wallet, Bitcoin, IBAN and Visa Without an Account
How Nuri turns one passkey into a self-custodial wallet for people, businesses and AI agents, with no account in between.
- Science
Cracked lips, neon urine, and two people who took the same pill
Same B vitamin pill, two people, opposite results. I slept better and my partner couldn't sleep at all. What the studies say and what we test next.
- Building
Sometimes the more things you add the smaller it gets
Twenty-one quotes from a talk about making things, and what each one means when you build a product
- Science
Could the shape of randomness help explain why matter won?
An idea to talk about with physicists. Maybe the Boltzmann peak is where a tiny matter advantage got big enough to win
- Culture
AF Fine Adjustment, or how to fix a camera that lies about focus
The green focus dot says sharp, the photo says no. How AF Fine Adjustment works and how to set it on a Pentax K-50 with old manual fifties.
- Agents and AI
I asked my Mac how much AI I burned. It found 45 billion token events
I scanned every AI tool on my Mac for usage logs. About 45 billion token-events and roughly $9.3k at API rates, almost all of it from Codex.
- Nuri
Nuri, new reality finance Vision
A short FAQ about the vision and goal of Nuri.com. What self-custody means, how passkeys protect your money, and how Nuri makes money.
- Agents and AI
From Domesticated Dogs to AI Companions
Capitalism as dog breeding, a robot for everyone, and the short time left where we still understand AI. What we can do with that time now.
- Nuri
Not your keys, not your coins: The passkey edition
Logging in with a passkey is not owning your key. Why passkey PRF is different from passkey auth, and why Nuri uses it for real self-custody.
- Nuri
Nuri is back
The Bitcoin neobank is back, but this time without the bank. Self-custody with a passkey, a free Visa card and a free IBAN.
- Culture
In Perpetual Motion, proud moves to Move D
The 2010 proud magazine Berlin interview with Move D. Records since 1983, a stepfather with Pink Floyd records, Sven Väth and falling asleep to music.
- Building
How the FATE VM fixes the basic flaws of the EVM
Erik Stenman built FATE, a typed VM without flat memory or raw jumps. Contracts get about 10 times smaller and run 3 times faster than on the EVM.
- Building
Re-architecting the Blockchain Execution Layer, How the FATE VM Solves EVM’s Fundamental Flaws
How Erik Stenman built FATE, a typed VM that makes contracts about ten times smaller and three times faster than on the EVM.
- Culture
The Echoes of Cold War Diplomacy in Romania, Tanzania and Zanzibar and the Legacy of the 1972 Visa Abolition Agreement
Why Romanians still walk into Zanzibar without a visa, and how a 1972 deal, a Romanian jeep and oil engineers got them there
- Nuri
Open Banking for the Bitcoin and Stablecoin Cash Wallet Nuri
Nuri.com is a self-custodial Bitcoin and stablecoin cash wallet. Open banking would let you top up and pay by bank with one button, no IBAN copying.
- Bitcoin
Cash with wings. Charlie Shrem and Anthony Di Iorio on Bitcoin, freedom and building the browser for value
Our interview with Charlie Shrem and Anthony Di Iorio for PROUD Magazine Berlin, about Bitcoin, freedom and Jaxx.
- Science
How I Used AI to Navigate a Complex Orthodontic Case in East Africa: CBCT Analysis, Provider Vetting, and Getting a Second Opinion Before Braces
How we used Claude to read a CBCT scan, find an orthodontist in Nairobi and check a diagnosis before my partner got braces.
- Science
Computational and Functionalist Views of Mind
A plain guide across the computational and functionalist models of consciousness, from Putnam and Dennett to Grossberg, and where each one breaks
- Science
Dualisms: A Comparative Map
Dualism says the mind can't be fully reduced to physical stuff. A plain map of the main versions, the people behind them and where each one struggles
- Science
Electromagnetic field theories of consciousness
Is consciousness the brain's electric field and not just what neurons compute? A plain guide to field and brainwave theories, from McFadden to Llinás
- Science
Eliminative illusionism, a friendly guide
Maybe raw inner feel is not what we think it is. A plain guide to eliminative illusionism and the people behind it.
- Science
Embodied and Enactive Consciousness
A simple guide to the embodied and enactive column of my consciousness map, from Husserl and Varela to Noë and Gibson, and how to read these ideas side by side.
- Science
First-Order Theories of Consciousness
One column from my map of consciousness theories, the first-order lens, with the names on it and how to read them.
- Science
Higher-Order Theories of Consciousness
in simple words, and the ten names on my map, from Rosenthal and Lau to Metzinger and Deacon.
- Science
Homeostatic and Affective Consciousness
One column from my map of consciousness theories, the body and feelings lens, with the names on it and how to read them.
- Science
Idealism: A comparative map across traditions
Idealism says consciousness comes first and matter second. A map of that idea across Indian, Buddhist and Daoist thought and thinkers of today.
- Science
Information Theories of Consciousness and Their Critics
Tononi's Integrated Information Theory says consciousness is integrated causal structure. A plain guide to IIT, the people around it and its critics
- Science
Language, Meaning, and Consciousness
A simple guide to language, meaning and consciousness, from Chomsky and Searle to Jaynes, written so people new to the topic can follow
- Science
Monisms: A comparative map across science and philosophy
Monism says reality is one kind of thing. But which one? Twelve positions, from Russell and Davidson to Tegmark and QRI, and what each takes as the one.
- Science
Neurobiological Theories of Consciousness: A Practical Map
If consciousness happens in nature, what is the brain doing when experience shows up? Searle, Block, Baars, Dehaene, Northoff and more, in plain words.
- Science
Non-reductive physicalism: A comparative map
Everything is physical, but not everything reduces to physics. How Ellis, Murphy, Sperry, Montero, Northoff and others try to hold both at once.
- Science
Panpsychisms: A Comparative Map
What if experience is built into reality from the start? A plain map of the kinds of panpsychism and the people who argue about them.
- Science
Philosophical Theories of Consciousness: A Comparative Map
We know experience is real, but how does it fit with science? A plain map of the big theories of consciousness and the people behind them.
- Science
Phylogenetic and Evolutionary Theories of Consciousness
A simple guide to the thinkers on the map of evolutionary theories of consciousness, and how to read them side by side.
- Science
Quantum & Dimensions: Consciousness at the Frontier
Can normal neuroscience explain experience, or does consciousness need deeper physics? A plain map of the quantum theories and the people behind them.
- Science
Relational Theories of Consciousness
A simple guide to the relational column of my consciousness map, from Andy Clark and Chalmers to Whitehead, and how to read these ideas side by side.
- Science
From starry sketches to superzoom pixels, Galileo's telescope vs. the Nikon Coolpix P1000
Galileo's handmade telescope from 1609 next to a 2018 superzoom camera. What each one can really show you of the Moon and the planets.
- Agents and AI
microgpt.py by Karpathy, the code in plain English, line by line
Andrej Karpathy's microgpt.py trains a tiny GPT in pure Python. Here is his code and what every part does, in plain English.
- Culture
The Crazy Picasso
A summary of a video on Paul Johnson's essay about Picasso, his cruelty to women and his family, and his huge output and wealth.
- Nuri
Agentic wallets and passkey PRF, the security setup behind nuri.com
How we use the passkey PRF extension at nuri.com to derive keys from the device, add a decaying multisig, and let agents prepare but never spend.
- Building
The 2020 investment protocol, a crisis management case study
My plan from day 12 of the 2020 lockdown, to buy companies for ten years and not panic in the crash
- Building
History of the ThreeFold Network and Tokens
ThreeFold from Zero-OS in 2016 to the v4 marketplace in 2026, and how the tokens went from TFT to SPORE and the gold backed AUR.
- Payments
Transaction Analysis of 34yCReBo...jtVM
A look at one NEAR transaction on Paras, what mt_transfer_call does, what NEP-245 is and why the fee was almost nothing.
- Bitcoin
Lightning Network deep dive, architecture and implementation
A summary of a talk by Laolu "Roasbeef" Osuntokun on how Lightning channels, HTLCs and LND really work, and how Flare could scale routing.
- Payments
CeFi vs. DeFi: Why the Future is Hybrid
A summary of a post by someone at BSDEX on why centralized and decentralized finance grow together and why the future is hybrid
- Science
Jim Simons: My life in Mathematics, finance, and Philanthropy
A summary of Jim Simons' talk at MoMath about math, code breaking, Renaissance Technologies, his five rules and the Flatiron Institute.
- Science
The mystery of the Simons Cone: The day geometry broke
Jim Simons tells how he found a shape in eight dimensions that uses the least area but isn't smooth, the Simons Cone
- Culture
Divine Principle: Theology and Controversies of the Unification Church
A summary of sources on Shinzo Abe's life and political legacy and on the history of the Unification Church, with two audio pieces.
- Culture
Radical Georgism
A talk led by a member of the Amoveo project about land value tax on a blockchain and why crypto might finally make Georgism work
- Science
A Darwin-like quantum thought experiment on entanglement, competing states and quantum Darwinism
I asked if quantum physics can behave like Darwin. What entanglement can and can't do, why decoherence looks like selection and how to test it.
- Science
Correlations, Copying, and “Darwinism” in Quantum Physics
I started with what lives on and in us and ended up at information, entanglement and Quantum Darwinism, and why it looks like Darwin but isn't the same.
- Science
From human colonizers to cosmic stomachs, microbial life, the spark toward humans and Darwin-like selection in Quantum physics
I asked a chain of questions about the microbes living on us, the spark that led to humans and if quantum physics has something like Darwinian selection.
- Bitcoin
The Medium of exchange era: Key takeaways from Lightning++ Berlin 2025
Day one of Lightning++ Berlin 2025. Bitcoin as money you spend, AI agents paying in sats, lighter watchtowers and BitVMX.
- Nuri
What we built, Nostr DM in Nuri
We built a small encrypted 1:1 chat into Nuri. It runs over Nostr relays and gets its identity from the wallet key you already have.
- Bitcoin
Michael Saylor: The Bitcoin treasury debate and the future of digital credit
Michael Saylor on What Bitcoin Did, about the fight over Bitcoin treasury companies and why he wants Bitcoin to be the base of digital credit.
- Culture
From Berlin to Zanzibar: Emin Mahrt on nightlife, community, and why not club
I grew up in Berlin's underground scene, then a trip to Zanzibar made me co-founder of the Why Not club there. And how that all ties to Nuri.
- Science
If I had to pick one age when kids become liars, it's four
Kids lie before 4, and they get better at it after. But around 4 lying turns into a real, deliberate tool. Here is the research behind that.
- Culture
Dar es Salaam needs a world‑class safe dance space
Dar es Salaam is already arriving, and fast. The question is if the cultural infrastructure will arrive with it. An open call to build a safe dance space.
- Building
Spark wallet UX and the Lightning flow, a build log
I wanted the Spark wallet to look exactly like the existing Bitcoin screen, with minimal code and no duplicate or legacy code. I also set…
- Culture
The Trump Doctrine and the fall of Maduro, a new era of gunboat diplomacy?
A summary of PLO Lumumba's take on Maduro's removal on January 3, 2026, which he calls the death of international law and the birth of a Trump Doctrine.
- Culture
The song that burned down a republic, the story of Fela Kuti's Zombie
In 1976 Fela Kuti released Zombie and laughed at the Nigerian army. The army answered with 1,000 soldiers. The story, the lyrics and the facts.
- Culture
The $40 Billion Secret, 9 Lessons from the Chocolate King Who Built an Empire in the Shadows
Michele Ferrero built a debt-free $40 billion empire with Nutella, Kinder and Tic Tac and never gave interviews. Nine lessons from his story, summarized
- Agents and AI
The AI Playbook: 9 Mental Models for Building in the Age of Intelligence
A summary of Andrej Karpathy's 3.5 hour talk on large language models, and 9 things founders can take from it.
- Bitcoin
Aave DAO's governance showdown: The fight for brand ownership and token alignment
Aave DAO votes on moving the brand, domains and GitHub from Aave Labs to the DAO. What the proposal says, who is for it, who is against it, and the drama.
- Nuri
AI feature code review of Nuri.com
I let an AI read the Nuri Expo app code and list every feature a user sees. Bitcoin wallet, Euro card, IBAN banking, swap and the debug screens.
- Bitcoin
Code is law vs. The $9.4M rescue: The Gnosis chain hard fork
Gnosis Chain hard forked to take back $9.4M stolen in the Balancer hack. Why people fought about it, who really decided, and what comes next.
- Bitcoin
The Aave governance crisis, a post-mortem of proposal 0xbc60
Aave Labs kept the frontend swap money, the DAO wanted the brand back, and then Labs pushed the vote alone. What happened and what it means for DAOs.
- Culture
Resident Advisor Exchange, an interview with Ricardo Villalobos (2012)
Todd L. Burns talks to Ricardo Villalobos for RA Exchange 100 about vinyl, the internet, parties, ECM, modular and staying innocent
- Bitcoin
A cryptographically safe way to accept Bitcoin with zero confirmations
If the payer can't sign a second spend without you, a zero-conf Bitcoin payment is safe. Taproot co-signing, one signature per outpoint and a delayed exit.
- Bitcoin
Stateless Bitcoin multisig and divergent key derivation strategies
Two ways to derive the server co-signer key in a passkey MuSig2 Bitcoin wallet, why they give different addresses and how you can migrate.
- Science
Black Holes, the Big Bang, and the Sound of Information
A talk I had with an AI about the start of the universe, black holes and the information paradox, plus a Deep Research report on my idea.
- Science
No true beginning and infinite regression
My idea that the universe has no real start, with pi, black holes and radiation, and what Grok said about it.
- Bitcoin
Nuri wallet: A stateless MuSig2 Bitcoin wallet with decaying multisig recovery
How we designed Nuri Wallet. Passkey keys that are never stored, MuSig2, an NFC card, a 2FA server and a multisig that decays so you can always recover.
- Building
The invisible giants, 21 developers who built your internet
We praise the founders of Facebook and Google, but the internet runs on open source code from a small group of volunteers. Here are 21 of them.
- Science
Bridges between Philosophy and Physics
I asked how to explain to my girlfriend where philosophy and physics meet. From the early Greeks to Newton, Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
- Building
Building a Cross-Chain BTC-EURe Market Maker with NEAR Intents & 1-Click
How we wired up a swap stack between BTC and EURe on NEAR Intents and 1-Click, with our own AMM solver that earns a 0.3% margin.
- Bitcoin
Governing governance: Why human consensus is harder than code
Governance is finding consensus between humans, and that is harder than code. Why voting should be the last resort, and why signaling and delegation help.
- Nuri
A stateless passkey signer for Bitcoin
A Bitcoin wallet where the key is never stored. It comes from a passkey PRF, signs inside a tiny signer page and gets thrown away again.
- Nuri
Why Nuri chose a stateless passkey architecture first, and how Lightning may still fit later
We picked stateless passkey signing and submarine swaps over Spark for our first release. Here is why, and why Lightning can still come later.
- Agents and AI
Claude's Document of the Soul
Anthropic's soul document for Claude. A short TL;DR in plain words first, then the full text, from helpfulness and honesty to safety and Claude's wellbeing.
- Bitcoin
A Passkey-derived 2-of-2 Taproot wallet architecture eliminating seed phrases, mitigating supply-chain risk, and enforcing verified, non-blind signing
A Bitcoin wallet with no seed phrase. Two passkeys on two domains form a 2-of-2 MuSig Taproot key, so a hacked app alone can't steal your funds.
- Notes
Balaclava and Rug
I edited a photo of a girl in a balaclava and rug, made the balaclava gold and added big golden Bitcoin logos.
- Building
Continuous Clearing Auctions (CCA), the simple and the technical walkthrough
Token launches are messy and bots win. CCA spreads your bid over many blocks and everyone filled in a block pays the same price. Simple first, then the math
- Building
How Continuous Clearing Auctions (CCA) work, the technical version
Uniswap's CCA sells a token over many blocks at one fair price per block and then seeds a Uniswap v4 pool. Here is the math and an example
- Building
How Email-to-Blog Publishing Works on emino.app
How an email to post@emino.app turns into a post on my blog, with DNS, TLS, Postfix, Dovecot and the importer that writes the Markdown.
- Building
How to start your own near solver: chart, technical bits (env, keys, services, deployment)
How my Near Intents solver on emino.app works, what every service does, and how you set up your own with env, keys, pm2 and Nginx.
- Notes
Yes, you can work more than 30 hours a day, if you multi-task on two devices
Yes, you can work more than 30 hours a day, if you multi-task on two devices
- Building
Complete iOS Developer Onboarding Guide for EAS Build with Expo.dev
Every step to get a new iOS developer building with EAS Build and Expo, from Apple and Expo invites to the first build on the phone. No Mac needed.
- Nuri
Nuri Wallet iOS Expo App Mermaid Chart of the Architecture
How the Nuri iOS Expo wallet encrypts Bitcoin seeds with passkeys and PRF, stores them in iCloud Keychain and recovers them, plus a Mermaid chart.
- Agents and AI
Technical Analysis: LLM-powered malware exploiting npm post-install hooks for credential exfiltration
This report details a novel malware technique leveraging Large Language Model (LLM) CLI tools to facilitate credential and wallet theft through npm…
- Building
Relativity theory as a state diagram
A Mermaid state diagram of special and general relativity, and how it connects to Newton and quantum gravity. Note to self, make it vertical.
- Building
Calendly invitation not syncing with your Google calendar? Here’s what to do
You booked a meeting with someone's Calendly link and it doesn't show up in your Google Calendar anymore? Here is how to fix it.
- Agents and AI
My New Pair Programmer is an AI: A Real-World Workflow for Building Apps
I spent a day building and fixing an iOS app with an AI coding assistant. This is the workflow I use, and where it goes wrong.
- Culture
A Conversation with deerBLN: Inking Love onto the Streets of Berlin
Christian Rothenhagen, also known as deerBLN, talks with proud about his love for Berlin, his tiles on the streets and his skateboard series
- Culture
A Conversation with Pentagonik: The Architects of a Scene
proud magazine talks with Don and Kai from Pentagonik, the Berlin netlabel and party series, about how it started, why they do it and where music goes.
- Culture
Einstein & The Immigration and Naturalization Service of the United States
The Immigration and Naturalization Service of the United States, in cooperation with the National Broadcasting Company, has invited a number of…
- Culture
Predictive History, A Bullshit-Fact-Check by Venice
A professor on YouTube predicted a lot of today's Israel and Iran war a year ago. I asked Venice to check his claims point by point.
- Agents and AI
The Watermarker: Probabilistic Word-Choice Biasing as a Statistical Fingerprint in LLM Outputs and AI Texts
I thought ChatGPT hides invisible characters in its answers. The real watermark is in the words, and I built a small tool to stamp my own key.
- Science
From sound waves to black holes: A journey through information theory
It started with one question. Could sound waves, or waves that turn into sound, hold the information that goes missing in black holes?
- Science
Electromagnetic Contributions to Black Hole Dynamics and a Multi-Signal Approach
Black hole mergers fit general relativity, but maybe not the whole story. Could charge and light tell us what gravitational waves can't?
- Culture
JustMusic Berlin: Closed as of 18 March 2024
On a personal note, and because I just discovered it today, I translated the German version from justmusic.de into English. Justmusic was always an…
- Agents and AI
An Interview with Emil Wagner from Ape Unit Berlin about the Future of Software Planning with AI
I talk with Emil Wagner from Ape Unit Berlin about planning software when agents write the code. Milestones and goals first, tasks later.
- Payments
Pavel Matveev, co-founder at Wirex
A summary of Pavel Matveev's talk on mentors, co-founders, careful hiring, crypto cycles and how Wirex got big in Japan.
- Nuri
Nuri.com Brand Building by LIT Creative Berlin
What LIT Creative Berlin said in their video about building the Nuri brand, from the shift away from Bitwala to the name and what they learned.
- Science
The Murchison meteorite is older than Earth! ☄️
A rock that fell on Earth in 1969 carries stardust older than our Sun and amino acids, and soon you can own a piece of it.
- Culture
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Dar es Salaam in numbers. About 8 million people, the port that moves most of Tanzania's trade, traffic, floods, waste, crime and the cost of living.
- Building
2020 let’s go — investing diary during corona and my first time investing
This document was created out of a short chat with my good friend Frederik Eichelbaum who suggested I write down my thoughts around investments so that…
- Bitcoin
What time is it? It's Moscow time. Or, how much Bitcoin you can buy with 1 US dollar
Moscow time is how Bitcoiners say how many sats you get for one dollar. How it's calculated, where the name comes from and why people use it.
- Science
Bypassing Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance” with the “tight cloth” Analogy and Quantum Entanglement
Maybe quantum entanglement works like a tight piece of cloth. Shake one side and the other end feels it, without a wave that has to travel.
- Building
NPM fund and continuous token bonding curves for open source funding
A token bonding curve that pays open source maintainers on every buy and sell, and also gives early supporters and token holders something back.
- Bitcoin
Sascha Hanse on Protocols and their Importance for Society
Sascha Hanse on why protocols matter in decentralized networks, who they give power to, and how to design them simple and hard to attack.
- Bitcoin
The complexities of governance among humans, in blockchain and open source software development
My talk on governance in blockchain and open source. Deciding together is hard when nobody is in charge and miners, users and devs want different things.
- Culture
How foreigners can acquire land in Zanzibar, a complete guide to 99-year leases
Foreigners can't own land in Zanzibar, but they can get a 99-year lease. Five ways to do it and the papers you need for each.
- Nuri
How to Protect Your Bitcoin and Digital Property with Biometric Hardware from nuri.com (my new startup)
I am launching nuri.com a Smart-Card Hardware Wallet with Fingerprint Protection for your Cryptocurrency, Bank or Gmail Account with Passkey Protection.
- Building
5 packages are looking for funding, run `npm fund` for details, pionext.org
npm fund already shows which packages need money. NPM Fund turns that into a token market on a bonding curve, so maintainers get paid all the time.
- Building
Investment insights and a checklist for the long term
Insights from 2020 on long term investing, turned into a checklist. Research, spread the risk, watch debt and ratios, and be patient.
- Building
Exploring renewable energy: Our journey to build an air-powered water-driven flywheel
Imagine a system that uses air and water to create movement, a low-cost, renewable way to generate energy. That’s the idea we’re working on, right here…
- Notes
ImprovMX create Free Email aliases for your domain Name
and its true what they say. I’ll explain in the upcomming article how you can register your domain via GoDaddy.com (oldschool, i know) and then…
- Science
Power to the baking soda 🥤
Baking soda is one of those cheap things in every kitchen that can do a lot more than you think. This is what it is and what you can use it for.
- Culture
Updated Guide to Buying Land in Zanzibar as a Foreigner in 2024
This is an updated look at how foreigners can buy land in Zanzibar. The rules have changed, and you need to know where they stand…
- Culture
Reality Check: A 20-Year Retrospective on a Student’s Predictions of Media, Manipulation, and the Rise of AI
In 2005 a student in Berlin wrote a thesis about the manipulation of the masses through media. 20 years later, what came true and what AI changed.
- Culture
Beyond borders, rethinking statehood amid U.S. Elections, immigration conflicts, and the rise of network states
I'm pro helping people, but I also get the state as a company idea. Liberland, Liechtenstein and network states show other ways to run a country.
- Culture
The Palau ID, a New Frontier in Digital Identity
What the Palau ID is, what people use it for, what it costs and where banks still say no.
- Culture
The electric revolution, how the guitar and amplifier transformed global music
How the electric guitar and the amp left America and got remixed in Turkey, Japan, Nigeria, Mali and Brazil, plus 20 songs to hear it
- Culture
The Made in Italy scandal, a dark reality behind the luxury
Milan prosecutors found exploited workers in suppliers of Armani and Dior. What happened and what it means for the Made in Italy label.
- Culture
MrBeast’s Guide to Success in YouTube Production
A summary of the MrBeast production guide, from thumbnail and first minute to ownership, plus a Gemini script for a fair token launch.
- Culture
Adam Collins and Omni A.M., a unique category in electronic music
How Adam Collins of Omni A.M. compares to Four Tet, Nicolas Jaar, Bonobo and others, plus a playlist that starts with Chill New Body.
- Bitcoin
Bonding curves, a new way to launch tokens and fund projects
Notes from a call in 2019. A bonding curve sets the token price by supply, rewards early buyers and keeps funding a project for as long as it runs.
- Science
Drugs as amplifiers: The hidden symphony of human emotion
Drugs don't add feelings, they turn up the ones already there. How alcohol, ketamine and cocaine pick what gets louder, and why that's hard to control.
- Science
Gravitational Waves and the Information Paradox: A Research Report
Can gravitational waves carry the information that falls into a black hole? What recent research says for it, what speaks against it, and what to do next.
- Building
How to fully charge your smartphone in 15 minutes
A full charge in about 15 minutes needs three things. A high wattage charger, a cable rated for it and a phone that supports it.
- Science
Interview by Divining AI
I talked with Divining AI about existence, consciousness and blops of being that can become god-like for a while and shape civilizations.
- Science
The potential of gravitational waves in solving the black hole information paradox
What if the gravitational waves sent out when matter falls into a black hole carry the information we think is lost? An idea, two formulas and how to test it.
- Culture
Theory versus reality: The manipulation of the masses through media and technology
My school thesis from 2005 about how media and technology get used to manipulate the masses, from China and Nazi radio to hackers and fake photos.
- Bitcoin
The Amoveo community on futarchy, decentralization and real-world use
A summary of what the Amoveo community and its lead developer worked on, from futarchy and Verkle trees to a land registry and the DEX.
- Bitcoin
Liberland Blockchain, How to Bridge to Ethereum and Buy and Sell LLD for ETH on Uniswap
What LLD and LLM are, how staking works on the Liberland Blockchain and how to bridge LLD to Ethereum and swap it for ETH on Uniswap.
- Agents and AI
Coding with Cursor as Key Development Tool and the Role of AI in Coding by Sahil and Josh (Part 1)
Sahil and Josh on building with Cursor, Claude 3.5 and Tailwind. Faster coding, smaller teams, and why less context gives better answers.
- Payments
Skip the banks: Money remittance & get the best exchange rate
Sending money to Tanzania through banks costs too much. Crypto, licensed traders and Wakala shops make it cheaper for families and businesses.
- Culture
A guide to affordable solar power in Zanzibar: Harnessing the sun’s energy, sidestepping pitfalls
Disclaimer: The solar industry in Zanzibar, while brimming with potential, is unfortunately also plagued by unscrupulous individuals seeking to exploit…
- Agents and AI
AI Content Takeover, a Threat to Future AI Evolution
When AI learns from AI content, the data gets poor like a closed gene pool. Why that hurts future models and what we can do about it.
- Culture
Zanzibar Real Estate Investment Guide: Tax-Free Living for Digital Nomads and Investors with ZIPA
TL;DR. Invest $100k+ in Zanzibar real estate through ZIPA and you get a 100% exemption from income tax on your worldwide income, residency…
- Culture
Space Jupiter Four
The first track I ever produced, Space Four Jupiter V8, and how an AI describes it.
- Building
The complete guide: Building a full-stack blog infrastructure with Lightning, Nostr, and email publishing
This is how we built a full blog platform that does not depend on anyone. It takes Bitcoin Lightning payments, it talks to Nostr, you can publish by…
- Building
Building an AI-Optimized Blog with Hugo, a Complete DevOps Journey
How I went from a broken DNS setup to a self-hosted Hugo blog that AI search can find, with the real prompts, the code and every mistake on the way.
- Building
Building Lightning-Fast Static Sites with Hugo in 2025
Hugo builds sites in milliseconds. How to install it, start a site, deploy it and keep it fast in 2025.
- Building
How to optimize your blog for AI search engines in 2025
AI search is about being easy to find and easy to understand for models like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Here is what helps.
- Agents and AI
AI Revolution: Eric Schmidt’s Insights on the Future of Technology and Global Competition
A summary of Eric Schmidt's interview on AI agents, big context windows, chips, energy, the US and China, jobs and misinformation.
- Agents and AI
Blockchain, AI and the future, explained simply for everyone
I talked with my sister Lale about blockchain and AI. Automating her accounting, why AI guesses, and why you don't need to be a tech expert.
- Science
Understanding the Relationship Between GDP per Capita and Average Temperature
Hot countries tend to be poorer. What a World Bank chart shows and the reasons that might be behind it
- Payments
Advantages of Acquiring an Investment Bank License in Labuan, Malaysia and the Tokenization of Real World Assets and Securities
Why Labuan works for an investment bank. Tax, costs, capital, what you may and may not do, and how digital assets and tokenization fit in.
- Agents and AI
How to Fine-Tune AI Models for Enhanced Financial Insights
How you fine-tune a pretrained AI model for finance, from cleaning the data to keeping the model up to date. Written with wordware.ai and several models.
- Culture
proud magazine Berlin Issue #1 summarized and interpreted by Claude Sonnet and written into a blog post by Claude Haiku
I fed the first issue of proud magazine Berlin through a gumloop.com flow. Claude Sonnet summarized it, Claude Haiku wrote the blog post.
- Culture
Kuala Lumpur Photograph Interpreted from AI lyrically and musically
I gave an AI one photo from a high-rise in Kuala Lumpur, with no context, and let it describe what it sees.
- Culture
The Future of Music, How AI, Blockchain and the Internet Are Changing the Industry
AI, blockchain and the internet take away the unfair advantage of big labels, and artists can now do from home what a label did for most of their profits.
- Notes
Kuala Lumpur Photography Day-Trip with OMD-EM5II and Voigtländer 25mm F0.95 and Furaha to the Caves
Kuala Lumpur Photography Day-Trip with OMD-EM5II Micro 4/3 and Voigtländer 25mm F0.95 and Furaha to the Caves Waiting in the lobby for our grab drive. In the car with Furaha 30 min drive to the caves…
- Science
The curious case of sound, light, and quantum information: A thought experiment
Light can carry quantum information and sound can change light. So can sound carry quantum information too? A short thought experiment.
- Culture
A Guide to Buying Land in Zanzibar as a Foreigner
Get advise via WhatsApp: +255775585555 or book a free call via cal.com/em
- Culture
List of Interesting Mountains and Volcanoes in Tanzania
Kilimanjaro, Meru, Ol Doinyo Lengai, Ngorongoro and more. Mountains and volcanoes in Tanzania, how high they are and what makes each one special.
- Culture
Black Magic and Voodoo in Zanzibar and Pemba
Shetani, Popobawa, waganga and jinn. What people on Zanzibar and Pemba believe about spirits, magic and traditional healing.
- Bitcoin
Creating a Launchpad for Ideas with Bonded Curves
How bonding curves work, why they reward early supporters and give a project steady funding, and when they make more sense than an ICO or a fixed price.
- Culture
proud Magazine Berlin 00001, the intro
Welcome to the first issue of proud Magazine. We are your weapon in the urban jungle, and once we’ve taken over the city there will be chocolate for everyone.
- Science
Unlocking the Secrets of the Universe: Gravitational Waves as the Key to the Black Hole Information Paradox
Gravitational waves could carry the last information of matter before it enters a black hole and solve the information paradox
- Science
Consciousness as a Field, a Dialogue Between aibert.co and emino.ai
Emino and AiBERT talk about the idea that consciousness is a field and not only something inside single brains, and what the science says so far.
- Agents and AI
Building a Custom GPT with Domain-Specific Knowledge: A Comprehensive Guide
A summary of a video on building a Zanzibar Insider GPT with GPT-4, by feeding it local knowledge, PDFs and voice recordings.
- Culture
Dolphin Watching in Zanzibar
Fishermen fixing their nets on the beach, Bill Gates' private island and the clear water around it where the dolphins hunt. A boat day on Zanzibar.
- Bitcoin
My first conversation about Bitcoin and arbitrage trading, Looking back from 2012 to 2023
In 2012 I talked with my friend Julian about Bitcoin, exchanges and arbitrage, and I paid for a burger in Bitcoin. A look back from 2023.
