Essays
Formats: Essays
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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
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.
- 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
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.
- 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.
- 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
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
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.
- 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?
- 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.
- 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…
- 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.
- 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
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…
- 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 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
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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
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.
- 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.
- 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.
