Author of The Genesis Book.
Public Key
npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Profile Code
nprofile1qqsw34nugddy5kfsfc2pg2qwj5h0u9a7gf20egnez6lk870h8e22hfqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dstjepqs
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Published at
2025-10-10T11:09:12Z Event JSON
{
"id": "226c4352dbeb7a2407c96d84e19cfbac8756c63cf0473b4c1c03f1c05fd2850b" ,
"pubkey": "e8d67c435a4a59304e1414280e952efe17be4254fca27916bf63f9f73e54aba4" ,
"created_at": 1760094552 ,
"kind": 0 ,
"tags": [],
"content": "{\"about\":\"Author of The Genesis Book.\\n\\nFormer Editor-in-Chief at Bitcoin Magazine.\",\"lud16\":\"[email protected] \",\"picture\":\"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1588594916325720064/a4eCZfBw_400x400.jpg\",\"name\":\"Aaron van Wirdum\",\"banner\":\"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_banners/1944727015/1705580641/1500x500\",\"website\":\"www.thegenesisbook.com\",\"display_name\":\"Aaron van Wirdum\"}" ,
"sig": "cf9c946201b0bda4bd48b11a75fa63ef45d575195e5573d211a9540db4fbbc05f34de0624b06edba61c63cd9b9006d4879b682193c0d7c79f9ae2022ed85f151"
}
Last Notes npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum You’re contradicting yourself. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum >Bitcoin Core was, until recently, the closest thing we had to something “official” npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum The risk you allude to always existed (and probably will always exist) because 1) it was always possible to mine a block with illegal content in an OP_RETURN, and 2) illegal content can always be embedded in the blockchain using various other methods (even if your BIP is adopted). npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum "You don't nuke and ant, you don't nuke a mosquito. You don't fight spam with consensus. [...] It's not a game of whack-a-mole where you can realistically fight it with consensus changes." npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum As I’ve said before… npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum > core team trying to strong-arm npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum So in your view we should not anticipate, and only act when it’s already too late. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum There’s currently a malincentive for some class of users to bloat the UTXO set by embedding data in fake pubkeys. This could over time make it unnecessarily costly to run nodes, harming decentralization and thereby potentially Bitcoin itself. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum “Sir, we found CSAM in the blockchain.” npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Lol how am I pushing anything? npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum If it’s a fork with lots of uncertainty and chaos and re-orgs etc. almost certainly yes. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Number Go Down? npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Say what? npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Agreed with Greg Maxwell. Let’s skip years of infighting and smear campaigns, and jump ahead to the predictable climax?
Those that wish to block large OP_RETURNs and whatever else they see as spam deploy a UASF to render it invalid.
Those that consider this a form of censorship and undesirable deploy a URSF (user rejected soft fork) to counter it.
Exchanges can offer fork futures long before the actual split happens, gauging user sentiment and informing miners where to direct their hash power at fork point. Hopefully we’ll see a winner-takes-most dynamic and minimal disruption for non-upgraded nodes, i.e. no large re-orgs.
(Screenshot from this mailing list thread, which is well worth catching up on if you haven’t already: https://groups.google.com/g/bitcoindev/c/o3JZhiOa2PQ) npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum The fence already has several huge openings and dogs don’t understand English. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Unfortunately, it’s increasingly likely we’ll indeed see more CSAM uploaded to the Bitcoin blockchain. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum I had some IRC interactions with him years ago yes. (Under his pseudonym; did not know his real name back then.) npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Basically, if users want to shoot themselves in the foot, and get mad at software developers if they can’t do that… I don’t mind developers giving them an (optional, non-default) footgun. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Bitcoin Knots is a fork of Bitcoin Core yes, but that does not mean it can’t one day itself become Bitcoin’s reference implementation. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum I think @npub1lh2…a9nk’s raison d’être for Bitcoin Knots has always been that it should (or at least could) one day become Bitcoin’s reference implementation. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum I’m not saying they “should”. Bitcoin Core developers have no such obligation towards me or anyone else. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum This looks reasonable to me. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum That’s already the case. See eg.: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/20/child-abuse-imagery-bitcoin-blockchain-illegal-content npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Bitcoin is a an electronic cash system. But I don't think you can really stop people from using it for other niche usecases, anymore than you can stop them from scribbling notes on physical dollar bills. Nor do I think that's a big deal. As adoption grown the bulk of it will probably be outpriced anyways. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum One thing I always respected about Tim May is how relentlessly unapologetic he was when it came to the darker side of cypherpunk technology. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum During my tenure as Editor-in-Chief at Bitcoin Magazine we made it policy to refer to Trump as “pro-crypto”, as opposed to “pro-Bitcoin”. (Though unfortunately I couldn’t get the social media team on board with that.) npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Haven’t played these (yet), but highly recommend Risk Legacy as well. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Bitcoin Core is central planning but Bitcoin Knots isn’t? npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Thanks! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Bitcoin Core developers cannot force anyone to use their software— it doesn’t even have an auto-update function. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Pieter Wuille on dropping the OP_RETURN relay limit. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum The argument is that, at the end of the day, you can’t stop spam. But there are better and worse versions of it. If we fight it, it’s more likely we have to deal with the worse version. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Ok but to be clear that would also mean that the blockchain will continue to be spammed with inscriptions etc., at least until that’s priced out. (Which I also agree isn’t _that_ big of a problem.) npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum What exactly would you soft fork for? (What would you change?) npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum You can’t stop people from using Bitcoin for non-monetary uses. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Not really, but whether or not we like it has very little bearing on whether or not it is possible. Also see: https://ordiscan.com/ npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum I don’t think there are benefits in not “allowing” node runners to filter out OP_RETURN, but Bitcoin Core developers also have no obligation to add configurable options in their software. Their code is already free and open source; anyone can fork and change it if they feel that would be an improvement. (Or just not upgrade.) npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum I doubt anyone outside of a very technically-minded circle of mostly developers would care at all about a relay policy update if it wasn’t blowing up in everyone’s X feed. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum No, you’d have to make them conditional, with some kind of if/then clause. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum There were also many people predicting the sky would fall if Bitcoin didn’t hard fork to a bigger block size limit. Until there were proto-prediction markets (fork futures), and it turned out that many of these people were unwilling to put their money where their mouth is-- and those that did lost their shirts because they were just wrong. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum I don’t think there is a definitive or objective way to tell right now, and there probably never will be. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum If you prefer to run Bitcoin Knots, you can just do that. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum This "OP_RETURN war" reeks like manufactured drama, artificially boosted by an X-algorithm optimized for outrage. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Thank you! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Different CEO. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum There is :) npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Thanks for clarifying! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Wait I thought Storm *was* convicted of licensing violations? What am I not understanding? npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Very similar indeed, it would appear! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Good context, thanks. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum https://bitcoinmagazine.com/print/the-lightning-issue-letter-from-editor npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum @npub1xap…cnde made a mag! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum So it’s official? You now need to register as a Money Services Business if you want to develop non-custodial wallet software in the US and not go to jail? npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Great weekend read by @nprofile…e9el. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Silly arbitrary comparison. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Happy Bitcoin Indepence Day! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Who could have seen this coming. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Sad. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum *The Genesis Book :) npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum If you're at Bitcoin 2025, come get your Genesis Book signed at the Bitcoin Magazine Books stall between 2 and 2:50 pm! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum That's the spirit! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum It’s all @npub1xap…cnde’s fault. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum The debate whether Bitcoin should be viewed as a database or a cash system goes back to the release of the white paper btw. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Return of the OP_RETURN. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Thanks! 🤝 npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum 🙏 npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Thank you! 🫡 npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Looks like Amazon made it official :) npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Much like UPnP, a brand new Bitcoin, Explained episode just dropped! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Yes. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum https://x.com/RealRossU/status/1910391357962936547 npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Could Bitcoin Knots be the activation client for CTV and/or other covenant proposals? npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Ha, great question. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum The new Bitcoin Magazine print edition is out, and IMHO it’s the most important issue we’ve made so far. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Good feedback. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Let’s make sure US politicians are actually pro-Bitcoin… not just pro-buying Bitcoin. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum No German translation yet. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Should be possible here I believe: https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/collections/books/products/the-genesis-book npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum "Never active," that seems wrong... I posted less than two weeks ago, and resposted just a few days ago. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum *now available npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Hardcover for The Genesis Book is not available! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum That’s a question for @npub1wnl…n3wr. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum A fresh new episode from our quadmonthly podcast is here! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Was anyone paying their tax in bitcoin? Was it even possible, really? (Genuine question; I know they said it would be, but are there any examples of this?) npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum There is no universally accepted definition of “legal tender”. Arguably, if a country merely says a currency is legal tender, it is. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum I’d say that’s probably the best, most concise definition as well. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum I don’t think bitcoin was rescinded as legal tender? (Do you have a link to the bill or something that would state this?) npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum There isn’t really a universally agreed upon definition of “legal tender”, so if El Salvador says bitcoin is legal tender in their country, it arguably just is. Regardless of what that means in practice or the reality on the ground. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Thank you! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Developer @npub1kyx…c6vv recently published research showing that F2Pool is censoring OFAC-sanctioned transactions again. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Trump delivered on his promise, and I'm very glad he did. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum *Het Genesisboek npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum The first translation of The Genesis Book is officially here! npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum This Take aged as badly as it could have 🎉 npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Donald Trump broke his campaign promise to free Ross Ulbricht on day one of his presidency. Let's hope he follows through in the next couple of days after all. npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum You liked The Genesis Files? You will love The Genesis Book! :D npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Ross free yet? npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Ross free yet? npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum gm https://image.nostr.build/fd49835697557bb1ac83c5745b788d9b9b5ed8b84a6982d21cee1e94384e8261.jpg npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Aaron van Wirdum Yes please :)
