Shuken Flavours

Today Shuken has two main solutions to provide services to their users, and both provide different solutions for each problem.

• shuken.io -> this is were managed services have enterprise grade hosting, you can think of it in a more centralized way
  • vertical scaled capacity to provide community services

• shuken.network -> this is the unmanaged services  that are hosted by the node-runners, using the open sourced code in a real decentralized approach
  • peer2peer shared resources provide more resilient services

Shuken Platform components

Shuken Node Dashboard

This open source product is an interface that allows users to access their Shuken Node details as well as the Search and Xpub’s Lens functionalities, using the Shuken Indexer data models.

Shuken Explorer

Umbrella product name for Shuken Search and Xpub’s Lens, that is now being deployed in Shuken Console for direct public access, without the need of a node.

Shuken Console

This product is an interface that allows users to deploy the different Shuken Nodes and Relays offering and the Shuken Explorer. It is our SaaS model (Sovereignty as a Service)

Shuken API

This component enables setting an Open Bitcoin Protocol, as we surface our current rest API endpoints/contracts for public use, allowing new products to be built on top of it. 

Shuken Indexer

This component takes care of reading bitcoin data from the RPC json interface provided by Bitcoin Core. It transforms the original data model into a search + tags optimized data model, persisted first in a relational database and then into a distributed search engine

Compared to Electrum or Fulcrum focusing on performance, Shuken indexer focuses on providing resilience, by sharding the information into several nodes forming a cluster, enabling smaller devices to host partial data, allowing other users to access it in a transparent way.

Having a database deployed on a single server has several advantages and disadvantages when compared to a cluster with shards.

In summary, a single server deployment is simpler and less expensive but has limitations in scalability and availability. A cluster with shards offers better scalability and availability but comes at the cost of increased complexity and potentially higher costs.

From a privacy point of view the public data of the Bitcoin Network continues to be available in the same way as having it deployed locally, just with an optimized data model. Only the public tags are propagated across all nodes, but you can choose to propagate your private tags to the shared data model by publishing them.

From a synchronization speed point of view, even looking at the data size for Bitcoin Core Electrum (1TB for a full node) or Fulcrum (150GB), the data is distributed between nodes and there is no need to waiting for a full re-sync, that could take more than one day depending on hardware and bandwidth. And data corruption for the mentioned services happens more often than expected. There is no data corruption on a sharded cluster approach, as pieces of data have replicas across the nodes, and the replica set can be redefined depending on the number of active nodes available.

Infrastructure (capacity) shared among node-runners can scale to create a user centric data platform, enabling everyone (not just big enterprises) to be `first class citizens` in a peer2peer Shuken Network.

Our Indexer tech is a game changer because not only bring us to another level to Data Availability due to the nature of its distributed model among node runners, but also enables new business models and opportunities for those running it, like having a powerful counter chain analysis (UTXO analytics) right in their node/wallet. 

When pairing our Indexer tech with our API, it enables any node/wallet, full or not pruned, to fully leverage it as any other full sovereign node runner.

Final Thoughts

We know well how hard it is to build an ecosystem where the current narrative of “digital gold” (Store of value tech) seems to be the winning one, and that makes infrastructure related tech even less sexy that any other pure B2C one.

We will continue our journey as strong believers that without builders, these industry will be completely hijacked by the “big guys” and therefore we are now embarking a new journey where Bitcoin development within Shuken is just a foundational and core work into what we have planned as freedom tech builders.

Looking forward to help the ecosytem grow where Wallets, Processors, and or anybody who want to leverage a solid node tech beyond just node deployments and builds. Together we are stronger!

Happy Sovereignty!

The narrative around “we are all criminals unless proven otherwise” has been so normalized that it perfectly matches the image chosen for this post.

Recent developments with the Samourai Wallet case has reminded us all again, that we are still very vulnerable against the “machinery of the state” and that we are entering probably the most crucial time of the “Then they fight you” Bitcoin cycle.

The current events happening in Bitcoin are almost like a psyop, and it feels again that those Block size wars times are back, but even harder.

This also needs to be a reminder that Bitcoin is not inevitable, at least not in the form we most want it to be, so we all need to stay together as an industry and not be afraid and be even more proud of what we do. We also fully understand and respect that companies may react by leaving certain jurisdictions and or shut down their operations as they feel threatened by almost all the nonsense and authoritarian rules and regulations that they want to impose on all of us.  But great things have never been built with fear, and influencers and most players in general,  had it easier back then during the “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you” cycles.

Despite all this, we remain positive and focused towards our mission and we think it is a good idea to look back at the fiat world of payments and ecommerce: 

We still remember how ecommerce and payments grew thanks largely to the work done by payment gateways back at the time. That revoluti0n in payments and risk management driven by tech providers came at the cost of strict regulations around those very providers that did help merchants and consumers to transact easier and more securely, and they were forced to fall under a series of regulations and compliance obligations to simply continue being in the game.

The evolution was something like this: 

1. From simple credit card Gateways to PSPs supporting multiple payment methods and other added value services to merchants such as risk management and reporting capabilities
2. PSPs become Acquirers and Acquires become PSPs
3. Tighter regulations/obligations (PCI, AML, Emoney or PI Licence, etc)
4. Consolidations into what we call Fintech today and the new era of Open Banking and Instant Payments
5. Payments became a commodity due to lower margins in processing fees, so  revenue moved to Risk Management solutions to be offered, specially in high risk industries like gambling
6. Payment wars and M&As grew to another level but innovation was almost killed and regulation also moved to merchant level, to the point that most decided to simply offer their products in big platforms like Amazon or similar

With this in mind, and as mentioned in our previous post, we are positive that the next generation of node tech will surely be a driver for not just adoption at merchant/enterprise level,  but also a catalyst for users and merchants to be in control of their Bitcoin payments and holdings. 

In our community offering, via our Shuken Explorer, we started a while ago to set the foundations of what we call Counter-Chain Analysis, which despite what some may think, it is  just a tool to empower merchants and individuals to stay ahead of the game.

Similar to what we mentioned in point 5 above regarding the boom of Risk Management tools in PSPs, we do envision that merchants and consumers will need and demand similar tools that do help them not be treated as criminals in the eyes of others.

But there is a big difference this time in comparison to the Risk Management tools used in the fiat world, and or the existing Bitcoin “surveillance” companies, and that is that this tool will come by default in every Bitcoin node that decides to leverage on it. Not only will it be based on public on-chain data, but other layers too (public and or private) that will ultimately help those who run it. One of the benefits and use cases would be to have all your private labels in one place, in addition to having extra information that may be shared by others that decide to make that public.

Before we close on this topic, we wanted to give a special mention to the team at OXT.me, that for many years they have been providing top quality information on your UTXOs. Unfortunately it has been taken down as part of the Samourai case. They are probably the best on-chain analysts in the market and we are sure their work will continue one way or the other. 

Some may say that with tools like that, those working on the narrative to make us all criminals unless proven otherwise, will have even more power. But we see it differently, mainly because it will force users and merchants to be one step ahead in their UTXO management, but also give them tools to do so, beyond the existing labeling ones we have at wallet level like BIP-329.

And remember the mantra if you want to be as close to sovereignty as you can be in the Bitcoin era:

1. Remember that KYC is surely not the only option to stack your sats
2. Not your keys, not your coins 
3. Not you node, not your rules (money in the case of LN)
4. and Control your coins before others do. Counter CA for all!
5. Once you control your coins it will become easier to know what to do with each of them (rules based approach triggers)
6. Make sure the “Sécurité” does not end up stealing your “Liberté”

Happy Sovereignty!

While many are now waiting for the halving in a few days, we have been focused more than ever on our mission of making NNGU (node number go up) a reality with greater conviction.

Below are some of the main things we have been working on and some which we have planned for 2024:

• Successful launch of our Open Source Strategy by making our first public repository under MIT license. This enables node runners to self-host our node technology and use our node dashboard interface and leverage our services. We are fully aware that there is still a lot to do and improve in this area, and more tutorials, repos, etc will be added as we move along, but please feel free to come and join the node revolution with us!

• Brand refresh to accommodate our Enterprise solution focus for 2024 without compromising our values and commitment towards node runners at consumer level.

• Node Infrastructure changes and monitoring upgrades to accommodate our Enterprise focus. 

• Use of our Shuken Explorer without having to run a node. Will be available in our Shuken console in our next release.

• Working with nation-states and big groups to push our contribution there too towards hyperbitcoinization

One final note about  why we are shifting focus to Enterprise? Scale, number of users and maximum impact. We truly believe that those individual Bitcoiners who are still trapped in a ‘NGU mindset’ have a while to go in their private noderunning journey, so by enabling the Enterprise layer to better access to scalable sovereign node running tools on behalf of their users we believe we can get the most new nodes up and running.

To understand why we do believe so, we will be sharing a bit of context around the ecommerce/payments history: Paypal is to Payments what Node Tech  will be to the Bitcoin revolution.

In ecommerce, consumers, mostly in high risk industries, demand for more specialized payment options, but it is only when merchants adopt and embrace them, that mass adoption and growth really happen. 

We expect the same thing here, with the addition that being Bitcoin of open source nature, once node running becomes the big thing, the wars between Enterprise and Consumer level noderunning solutions will be an even bigger market to what Payments and PSPs were for the Fintech era. 

Lastly, beyond the Paypal and wallet wars example, we can see the node wars are also similar to what the mobile phone market was. From Nokia as a mainly hardware, to Symbian OS, iOS, Android… to Graphene OS, etc.  More and more node runners, both at Enterprise and Consumer level, will demand different levels of implementation of their Bitcoin client at node level so it can be paired to their wallet of choice. Exciting times indeed!

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue our journey towards the real Bitcoinization, which is no other than having better and more roads (infra and services) as opposed to the “when moon” NGU approach.

Be Shuken. Be Sovereign!

By now many bitcoiners have already embraced the great narrative started by legendary Bitcoiner and educator Andreas Antonopoulos: “Not your Keys, Not your Coins” . This has resulted in community’s debates being focused on the topic of custodial vs non custodial wallets.

Thankfully, Self-custody has never been easier, and it will continue its evolution to make it even easier for those who still fear the responsibility of safeguarding their own money.

Unfortunately, most wallets (specially on-chain only) lack a solid business model beyond those enabling privacy and or selling hardware wallet devices. We know the wallet wars will follow a similar path to what has happened in fintech fiat, where it is mainly a game of being the wallet of choice for merchants and/or users. 

At Shuken, despite our extensive experience in payments and wallets, we decided not to enter the wallet game, mainly because of the potential regulatory implications around the “flow of funds.” However,  we truly respect and admire those who are fighting hard on that front. 

We believe the time has come to introduce a new and event more important narrative:

Running Your Own Bitcoin Node: “Not your Node, not your Rules.”

What Email was to Web 1 is what Nodes will be in the Bitcoin era. Running a node is not just important because it provides better privacy and protects the network, but because it helps make Bitcoin decentralized. Having an army of people ready to fight, helps Bitcoin engage in even bigger battles than the one already won during the time of the blocksize wars.

There’s a lot to discuss about the possibilities of nodes. We envision healthy debate among node runners similar to those seen in computing where users have choice between “Intel inside, AMD, or Mac M2” to power their nodes. Similar debates have occurred around ordinals and filters.

We are fueled by our mission to protect and enable access to the Bitcoin network by helping deploy an “army” of noderunners with a privacy-by-design approach. Having more node runners enhances the decentralization of the Bitcoin network, improves personal privacy, while also distributing the responsibility of validating and propagating transactions. This increased decentralization improves the network’s security, resilience, and resistance to censorship or manipulation by any single entity.

We build with the ethos of having the best possible usage of tools and services for both noderunners and enterprises, while enabling new business models and opportunities in this once in a lifetime opportunity that Bitcoin has brought us all.

The Shuken Agenda: 1 Million Bitcoin Node Runners By 2030

In the open source world we always say that we “build on the shoulders of giants”, hence, we are gradually making our node tech fully open source, so we can have others join the movement to help reach 1 million noderunners by 2030, if not before. 

Source: https://bitnodes.io/dashboard/8y/

Our first flagship product was built with security in mind with a fully no logs/no kyc private cloud node offering. We offered different services: from just a Full node with Fulcrum and our Explorer to a fully functional BTCPAYSERVER node bundle with Lightning Network support, to Enterprise grade node services. 

Our dedication and commitment to our mission goes beyond just providing services under our brand. We’ve developed a white-label option for companies, including wallets, exchanges, and hosting providers. This option allows them to easily offer their existing customer base a streamlined method to have a complete Bitcoin node.

As privacy awareness grows, groups like Proton have experienced remarkable expansion. The “de-googling” trend is also picking up speed. At Shuken, we see our innovative private cloud node solution, designed with zero logs and no KYC, as a potential game-changer for increasing node adoption.

Internal divisions in the Bitcoin community are worrisome. Strong disagreements can be cult-like, with those not supporting certain approaches (e.g., from company Y) being excluded and seen as a bigger threat than external forces like the World Economic Forum. (WEF). This infighting diminishes progress and weakens Bitcoin’s potential. It is human nature to try to get something with so much potential to their own interest, but we hope that the original Bitcoin vision does not get replaced by the same dystopian and control we have in Fiat.

SaaS (Sovereignty as a Service)

We aim to be as neutral as we possibly can and focus on building our SaaS (Sovereignty as a Service) solutions where we envision a future where most people will have the option to choose the level of sovereignty as they want at any given time. 

But first, we need to help everyone to become a noderunner!

This is just the beginning for Shuken as we are working on multiple innovations, especially our Shuken Indexer (foundational work for our unique explorer) which we see as an innovation needed outside the different Electrum implementations in the market. 

Final Remarks

At Shuken, we believe that true incentives must be built for noderunners and not just the miners. We invite everyone to get started as soon as they can in the node journey, which is probably the mother of all rabbit holes!

Lastly, we would like to share a couple of insights that hopefully will be of value to other builders out there:

• Build what you truly believe in, and your work will never be wasted

• We know it seems easier to become an influencer talking about things than building them directly. We all know that during the gold rush the ones who initially made the most money were not the miners but the people selling the shovels

• Do not waste time talking to VCs who usually just simply pay lip-service to the importance of sovereignty. Most will push you into the same old traps as FIAT VCs

• Ignore the noise and avoid entering into any wars that will only deplete your energy. Be true to yourself and help others build it too, no matter how much of a competitor they might be

• Copper cables and fiber optics were hard to sell once, but eventually everyone came to build on those. We know it is hard to be on the infrastructure side of things when it comes to Bitcoin, but the most exciting part if not the most important, is to build on the rails of the Bitcoin era. Those are the nodes and node related tech that will enable wallets, and commerce to happen, sooner, rather than later

And remember, while this cycle everyone is watching ETFs to make their fiat dream of NGU (number go up), the real metric we should care about is NNGU (Number of nodes go up)

Happy sovereignty!

*A version of this post has also been published in Bitcoinnews.com who we thank personally for spreading the node narrative!

Less Talk, Build More

Since it first started running in January 2009, Bitcoin has revolutionized the way we think about decentralization, offering a world of possibilities for new business models and freedom technology. However, it feels like we have only just begun to explore its full potential.

To truly develop the Bitcoin ecosystem, we must shift our focus from mere discussions to tangible actions.  Since early 2022 we have been working hard building Shuken amidst challenging market conditions. We believe that bear markets can actually benefit bitcoin by weeding out “project founders” looking for quick profits without contributing anything substantial to the community other than noise.

Although it is important to spread awareness and attract new adopters, we have noticed that much of the industry’s efforts are directed towards preaching to the converted. The same faces and voices dominate every gathering, leaving little room for fresh perspectives and ideas. 

While evangelizing is crucial for mass adoption, it is equally vital to prioritize action over empty rhetoric, and not just build adoption at the cost of sovereignty

When talk outweighs action within a majority, we inadvertently create more barriers for progress. We foster a culture of complacency that stifles innovation. To drive significant shifts within Bitcoin and achieve meaningful growth, we need to have big, deep, difficult conversations. We need collaboration, and collaboration requires productive conversations and commitment.

Collaboration becomes essential in this process, but it can only flourish when conversations are productive and conducted with integrity and trust. Without these fundamental elements in place, advancing the cause of Bitcoin becomes an uphill battle.

At Shuken, we remain committed to building a future where Bitcoin thrives through purposeful action backed by character and trust. Let us come together as a community to turn our collective vision into reality.

Therefore, we have made the strategic decision to release Shuken’s technology as open source. This enables the Bitcoin community to thoroughly study, enhance, and create, thereby strengthening trust in the software and ensuring its stability and dependability. By embracing this approach, our technology can progress swiftly, offering end-users greater freedom in terms of functionality, flexibility, and control.

Join the noderunner revolution!

Be Shuken. Be Sovereign.

Understanding the depth of technology isn’t always about chasing the new. It’s about comprehending the bare bones of what makes our digital world tick, and that’s where Shuken SaaS comes into play. It’s a masterful blend of Bare metal where critical components and services are isolated and cloud technology, embodying a security by design approach, not just at the architecture level, but at the provider level too.

Let’s briefly start with a fundamental question: What is bare metal?

Bare metal is the bedrock of the digital world. It represents the purest form of server, unadulterated by virtualization software. It’s about physical servers, wholly dedicated to a single tenant, not shared among multiple users. This raw power and control allows for high performance, making bare metal ideal for data-intensive workloads and other high-traffic use cases​.

In the heart of Shuken SaaS, we harness the power of bare metal. But we don’t stop there. We blend it with the versatility of the cloud to create a network that offers you the best of both worlds. It is this intricate architecture that ensures that you have control and customization options at your fingertips​​, depending on what product you purchase.

One of the biggest advantages of this setup is the elimination of the ‘noisy neighbor’ effect. Since you’re not sharing resources with other users, your operations will never be slowed down by another user’s high-traffic hours. Shuken SaaS gives you the dedicated resources you need, ensuring a high level of uptime and performance​​. We also make sure that the critical parts of your sovereignty are never shared, and for Enterprise customers they always have the option to have a Bare Metal only setup which most customers normally do prefer for their bespoke needs.

However, it’s not just about performance and security. Shuken SaaS is designed with a privacy-by-design approach. This means that from the ground up, every aspect of our service is built with your privacy in mind. We do this by ensuring that you have complete control over the hardware you use, making sure that it’s not just about how fast your operations can run, but also how secure they are​1​.

But what about the cost? Yes, bare metal servers can be more expensive than shared virtual servers. However, with Shuken SaaS, we’ve worked to bring you the power of bare metal and the flexibility of the cloud at a cost that respects your budget. It’s about bringing you high-performance computing without breaking the bank​​.

Another key aspect of our architecture, is that while designing it, we decided to also make it available for those companies that may want to whitelabel it, as we strongly believe that the more companies there are helping customers running their own node, the better it is to continue making Bitcoin even more resilient.

In conclusion, Shuken SaaS is about redefining what it means to use bare metal and cloud technology. It’s about combining power, flexibility, privacy, and cost-effectiveness into one seamless package. With Shuken SaaS, we’re not just building a service. We’re shaping the future of digital infrastructure where privacy and security is at the center of what we do.

Join the noderunner revolution and spin up a node now at https://shuken.io/

Be Shuken. Be Sovereign.

It is already well-known that once you fall the Bitcoin rabbit hole it is a never ending process. It touches on things like economics, politics, etc. and there are a plethora of materials out there to learn and explore in cyberspace. We know it can be a little bit overwhelming sometimes but try to enjoy the journey, which is already impacting many things well beyond the asset class and monetary value. We are still very early, so that makes it even more challenging but exciting at the same time.

Let’s begin by adding some context:

KYC evolved from a standard “know your customer” practice from merchants to run their business more efficiently, to a “know you are controlled” dystopia where everyone is a criminal unless proven wrong otherwise…

… and that made me leave my “ comfortable fiat career” as a payments and risk specialist, where I thought I knew it all and for most of my experience I really thought KYC was a godsend for risk professionals. Then, gradually and then suddenly, I had my “awakening” moment which led me to build Shuken so I could contribute to the Bitcoin movement of making self-sovereignty accessible for everyone. 

There are 6 main things I remind myself everyday: 

1. One is to be humble and forget everything I knew, so that I could keep hungry and focused while building
2. In such a new industry where new projects, ideas and technologies are constantly developing, it is hard to make the right decisions  when creating a product roadmap. So you have to just be focused into building what you truly believe in and adapt very fast to any changes that do need to take place while working on it
3. Despite not feeling very “proud” of my previous fiat career, I came to realize that over 18 years of payments and risk experience in multiple industries, it is not all a lost cause
4. Working with non hard-coded bitcoiners can be challenging at the beginning. Simply  focus on their experience and motivations, as  we actually need a more skillful workforce regardless of the level or orangepilling they have
5. Stay humble and forget the noise, as it does not matter what you do, they will criticize you anyway
6. Leave your ego and fears and surround yourself with a team who shares the same level of enthusiasm and values. Leaving a legacy for the newer generations is a much bigger goal than just making money for yourself

Now that I have shared my biggest lessons so far, let’s share some conclusions that we have reached while building and studying how nodes will continue evolving:

• Most people see nodes as hard to run/understand or made just for geeks
• The use case for nodes must go beyond:
  • Supporting decentralization by running your own node
  • Potentially become an LSP (made for the big players which by nature tends to be centralized)
  • For privacy reasons, my Xpub or LN node is not being “watched”
  • Stop trusting someone else´s node for the broadcasting and receiving of your transactions
• There are more uses cases which we envision will play a much bigger role for our users, which we can summarized as:
  • Shuken Indexer/Explorer as the new standard for Wallets to connect to the Bitcoin network, beyond Electrum implementations while enabling your node to be your own “counter-chainalysis” 
  • Shuken Network rewards, so that miners are not the only noderunners with incentives (more on this on coming posts)
  • Your node is your “command center” which you can either configure and or grant access to your wallet of choice to manage the different settings/applications you can do with it.

Finally, if you happen to be a builder and or thinking of becoming one, do not forget to stay humble, keep hungry, and keep buidling!

In the meantime

Be Shuken, be Sovereign

A few weeks ago we officially launched our product, after months in the making and testing with a closed community of industry experts.

There were no bells and whistles of what we launched, so we have now decided to make it more clear for everyone who has not yet used and or enjoyed our products and services, with the following highlights:

Community Node 

• Our free community node service offering is already being used mostly by some probably newbies in the noderunning space who enjoy our no logs policy and simplicity to get started having their own node

• Unlike other public nodes where you do not know who is using it and what they are logging into it, with Shuken you no longer have to worry about exposing your Xpub to a third party and any other sensitive information that others gather for such services

• Some of them have already converted to our professional nodes (BTCPAY Node Bundle) and provided great feedback that we have already taken into account for future product updates.

Shuken Explorer/Indexer

• It has been exciting to have some conversations with some users who, after using it,  thought exactly the same thing as we did when we first built it: When are Bitcoin wallets going to implement the “Shuken Indexing solution”?

• We know we still got to fix a few things there, but we are working hard in the background to enable a bigger offering for all audiences (Consumers and Enterprises)

BTCPay Node Bundle 

• Customizing your own URL into your BTCPay Server has never been easier. This enables several use cases, such as the option to create different ecommerce checkout invoices with their own URL. It is very easy, as UX/UI it is embedded into our DNA to make Bitcoin easier for everyone.  We have a quick video tutorial on our Hub page

• Support form from your Shuken Console for a dedicated customer service being built in your personal Shuken Console

• Shuken Terminal is completing its beta phase and will soon be available to every professional noderunner to  have bash access through a web terminal interface to perform basic routine maintenance operations

No logs and Privacy by design updates

Our CTO will very soon be recording a quick but very important interview where he will cover key aspects of how we are building true to our values (No logs and Sovereignty). Technical users and those who have no trust in third parties, will surely enjoy it too!

Open Source Updates

We are working hard to not only continue offering the best possible offering in our cloud SaaS (Sovereignty as as Service), but to also launch soon our node software fully open source and ready to be used by those noderunners who prefer to enjoy the benefits of the Shuken Network in their own Infrastructure (hardware devices)

Shuken Network

Who said that Bitcoin miners can be the only ones to have true incentives to run nodes?

All our cloud node offerings already leverage our fully decentralized technology the Shuken Indexer/Explorer. This is the first use case of the Shuken network, which will have bigger rewards for those also wanting to run our tech in their one hardware device.

We have great plans for the Shuken Network, and can already announce that those noderunners that will run our open source node´s tech in their own devices, will have unique benefits for our cloud SaaS offering. 

Shuken HUB launch

We have just released into our main company website, our first version of the Shuken HUB page, which aims to be a place where our users can find top information, from tutorials, to educational content, FAQs, etc

We will be adding more info into the HUB as we continue growing our company, like technical documentation (Shuken API). Come and join us there and help us build the place where you want to be!

We continue working hard so stay tuned and follow us in our Shuken journey to Sovereignty!

Happy  Noderunning day!!

This is a very deep and complex topic, and could well need a series of articles to cover just the basics of what trust is, why it is important, and what are the different views and relations to the various aspects of life.

It could be the mother of all rabbit holes, and surely one that represents well what we do here in Shuken.

We could start with:

How did we get here? 

Nothing happens by chance and we could get into a time machine to really understand what led us here, but a good starting point is this website where you can see what happened after, when US President Nixon announced that the US dollar would lose its “temporary” convertibility to gold… (WTF Happenned in 1971)

There are also multiple brilliant authors in the field of economics, philosophy or even politics, that have written excellent content about the current monetary system and the different ramifications and consequences, so we encourage you to go and DYR.

Unfortunately, it is not obvious for a lot of people that the current  FIAT money/system is broken, let alone those who still believe that is just temporary or simply blame something or someone else for the current “chaos and uncertainty” we live in.  Probably many still don’t understand well what is coming. 

Money is the ultimate layer of trust between individuals and how they organize themselves to prosper in society. So if prosperity is in the hands of a few (cantillionaires), that leads to what we are all now living: mass surveillance and tyrannical nations on the rise in the name of fake protection and security.

Another key factor of trust is to evolve from existing KYC surveillance practices into something that fits the new decentralized era we are starting. We are firm believers that a system cannot be fixed with the very tools that are part of the problem and we envision that decentralized IDs will be everywhere and self-hosted by everyone, hence the importance of understanding what is a node beyond validating transactions into the bitcoin network…

CBDCS with Digital IDs vs Decentralized IDs is another critical part of the trust game that surely they will want to fool us all, in the name of “security and necessary control”.

So what is Sovereignty?

Being Sovereign is not about individualism, but a key enabler to regain back trust. 

Our brand name, Shuken, was inspired by the Japanese word that means sovereignty.

It can have different meanings to different people, and in fact throughout history it has evolved its meaning based on the different ideologies of the time and the people trying to explain it. Derived from the Latin superanus through the French souveraineté, the term was originally understood to mean the equivalent of supreme power.  The rise of the Sovereign Individual outside just the sovereign state, is explained very well by the authors of the book:  “The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age.”

It is indeed a must-read for those seeking to understand what true sovereignty means, but truly the definition is much broader than what is even written in that book. For us, Sovereignty is a movement, a way of life beyond just financial realms, so we invite you to start the Shuken journey with us!!

Why is Bitcoin and the Cyberpunk movement the hope we need?

Top economist F.A.Hayek in 1984 already described what the solution would be:

“I don’t believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can’t take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can’t stop.”

Bitcoin is a true revolution already envisioned by some, and the gift that the Cyberpunks gave us all as part of their legacy. All their work in the areas of open source movement, cryptography or even to the wonders of fixing the double spend problem (creating a new breakthrough in the use of energy) was to create a truly decentralized money that no one can fully stop.

Do not despair and do not forget that while trust may be broken, there are tons of good people and things out there.  

Bitcoin cannot be uninvented and it is much more than an asset class, so it is time for the builders, the misfits, the dreamers, and everyone to make it happen. Hence, Shuken is making sure everyone can be as sovereign as they want while enabling access and usage to the bitcoin era, one node at a time.

If we can help everyone to achieve this, we’ll open up many possibilities and opportunities for the generations of tomorrow, and ultimately bring back the trust that will let us flourish again as a civilization.

In the meantime,

Be Shuken. Be Sovereign!

• Trust is gone at all levels (governments, banks, inflation, etc)

• You feel watched and controlled 24/7 and don’t want to be at the mercy of fake honeypots

• You want to be in control but don’t know how

• Market is fragmented with too many solutions but no one fits all your needs

• The need for a new canvas to thrive and build outside the fiat and legacy world

• Because not everyone needs to be an expert in tech and or money to be free and sovereign

• “Fix the money, fix the world” requires our commitment to create the tools to make it happen

• Decentralized, Decoupled and Distributed are the new standards to build on!

…Shuken (主権) means sovereignty in Japanese, and that is the bedrock of everything we do here. We believe that the path to freedom and prosperity is to help and empower the individuals towards the best possible sovereignty. This is only achieved first through education, awareness, and a strong sense of community, so that we can help each other achieve the almost utopian dream of becoming true sovereign individuals.

“For the first time, those who can educate and motivate themselves will be almost entirely free to invent their own work and realize the full benefits of their own productivity.”(Sovereign Individual Quotes)

We strongly believe that true sovereignty starts by being in control of your money (accepting, spending, investing, storing, etc), so our mission is to help build and spread technologies, systems, and values that the Bitcoin revolution has brought us. The more distributed power there is and the more Sovereign we become, the better societies we will create outside any corruption or authoritarian controls. WAGMI!

It is no longer about “Not your keys, not your coins” or “Not your node, not your rules” so we are building the real SaaS (Sovereignty as a Service) product for the Bitcoin era.

Shuken Matters, Be Shuken, Be Sovereign!