Week of April 19–25 — Quiet Progress That Actually Matters
This week wasn’t about big new features. It was about clarity — tightening the message, improving the sites, and getting back into a real writing rhythm. Not flashy, but necessary.
Following Jesus ✝️𓅦𓅦𓅦
Self-professed followers of Jesus the Messiah on Nostr. Protestants, Roman Catholics and Orthodox welcome. (No LDS or JWs)
Curated by
Marakesh 𓅦
“Not a Panacea” — And Not Trying to Be
Reflecting on the statement “Bitcoin is not a panacea” and clarifying what Bitcoin is—and is not—designed to solve.
Two Models of Money
An exploration of two fundamentally different approaches to money: deterministic systems governed by fixed rules, and managed systems governed by human decision-making.
A Brief Conversation on Bitcoin
A short reflection on a brief, informal conversation with a Federal Reserve professional—highlighting a few key perspectives on Bitcoin, including the institutional framing around Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).
Write Once… Render Everywhere?
Nostr promises “write once, publish everywhere.” And at the protocol level, that’s mostly true. But in practice, how your content *renders* depends heavily on the client. Primal favors Markdown images but ignores HTML. Coracle supports HTML but doesn’t fully render Markdown image syntax. The result: the same post can look completely different depending on where it’s viewed. Continuum takes a different approach—supporting both formats and separating authorship from rendering.
Who Owns Your Identity?
California’s digital ID in Apple Wallet is sleek, fast, and convenient—but it reveals a deeper shift: identity is moving from something you *possess* to something a system must *verify*. This article contrasts that model with a self-sovereign approach—where you control your identity and present verifiable proofs when needed. The difference isn’t just technical. It’s foundational.
“The friends of the Bridegroom cannot mourn as long as He is with them” Friday of Misericordias 2026
The Bridegroom gives you new wineskins. He gave them to you at the font, where He drowned the old garment and clothed you in His own. The robe you wear before God is His obedience, His death, His resurrection. He does not repair what you bring. He replaces it. This is the grace that cannot be patched onto anything — it must be received whole, given whole, or it is lost.
Local-First Isn’t the Hard Part
I built Continuum with ownership and control at the center. Over time, I’ve realized that the real challenge isn’t the local-first model itself—it’s designing something that is just as simple and intuitive as the alternatives without giving up those principles.
Convenience Matters — But Not at the Cost of Freedom
Convenience is not the problem. It’s the reason most tools get adopted. But when convenience is built on top of systems that remove control from the user, the tradeoff becomes invisible—until it isn’t. This piece explores that tension and why it’s worth solving, not rejecting.
The Tradeoff Most People Never See
Most people aren’t choosing convenience over control consciously. The tradeoff is rarely visible at the moment of decision. This piece explores why that happens and what it means.
How a Circular Economy Actually Forms - Bitcoin Circular Economy, Part 3
A circular economy forms when value continues moving between participants instead of exiting the system. The key is not adoption alone, but the persistence of exchange within the network.
Why Token “Economies” Aren’t Real Economies - Bitcoin Circular Economy, Part 2
Many systems labeled as “economies” are driven by incentives and token speculation rather than real exchange. A true economy is built on the exchange of goods and services, not the circulation of a token.
Stop Converting Back - Bitcoin Circular Economy, Part 1
A circular economy doesn’t require new infrastructure. It starts when individuals stop immediately converting sats back to fiat and allow value to continue moving between participants.
We Can Send Merz Out to the Golf Course
Why voting is the worst way to determine who will govern, excepting all of the other ways.
Why Open Source Still Matters
Summary: Open source is fundamentally about visibility—the ability to inspect, run, and verify how a system works. In an increasingly opaque software landscape, that transparency matters more than ever. Continuum aligns with these principles, but openness must be introduced at the right time, when the system is coherent and understandable. The goal is not just to expose code, but to make the system truly knowable and trustworthy.
Direct, Not Intermediated
Summary: Setting up direct book purchases is not about replacing platforms like Amazon, but about restoring direct relationships between author and reader. Platforms optimize for efficiency but abstract the interaction. Direct purchase introduces a small amount of friction, but creates a more intentional and transparent exchange. It reflects a broader principle behind Continuum: ownership and connection should not be fully intermediated.
A Place for the Work to Live
Summary: Adding a Books section to mycontinuum.xyz is a small structural change, but an important one. It creates a place for the ideas behind Continuum—sovereignty, authorship, and ownership—to live alongside the software itself. Code shows what is possible. Writing explains why it matters. Both are necessary, and bringing them together marks a shift from a project to a growing body of work.
The Sovereign Small-App Pattern
A 1 1/2 hour experiment building a tiny admin tool for Kiki’s Kitchen Table revealed a repeatable architectural pattern for sovereign business applications: local editing, deterministic data, template rendering, and static deployment.