196 - Hong Kong this week
🇭🇰 We do love being back home in Hong Kong and this week the weather has been absolutely perfect - this is the best time of the year to visit HK - not too hot and none of the infamous humidity. We have had an action-packed week being busy every day. Perfect as it has been, we have also been busy packing this week since we will be setting out on the road again for a bit. Itchy feet!
This week I got in several meetups with former colleagues, including one who was visiting here for a bit; we had plenty to catch up on and it is always interesting to hear first hand experiences of what is going on in various parts of the Corporate World!
Of course we were at Happy Valley Races on Wednesday evening. We had a great time - even if V was not that good at picking the winners! It is a pretty fabulous location - if you are ever spending time in HK you really ought to go along and enjoy the evening.
V wanted to do something cultural - eg Kung Fu Artistry at the HK Cultural Centre over on Kowloon. This is certainly one of the advantages of being in Hong Kong - it is something of an International City and able to attract some of the bigger events and performances.
I also got in daily early-morning hikes to the Peak as well as out to Lamma Island. Midweek it was nice to meet up with a few friends from the hiking group at Peak Galleria - best wishes to all and welcome to the new subscribers! I will miss the hiking when we move on but there are plenty of compensations in all of our other locations around the world. What are you doing and what is your plan?
Next stop - Bangkok! Do say "Hello" if you are in town - happy to meet up.
Book of the week
I really had not planned to read this book this week - I just wanted to dip into it and for it to be one of my books on the go. However, once I started I just could not put it down and I think you may well find the same! This is required reading for everyone.
Saifedean has written a real masterpiece. As he describes this is one third history book, one third novel and one third economics textbook. That works brilliantly!
You will learn how and why the Gold Standard came about - also bimetallism and how Isaac Newton ensured that England got onto the Gold Standard early at the expense of the other nations who ended up stuck on Silver. You will learn about the technologies that increased the velocity of money, leading to the Achilles Heel of Gold and how all this led to World War 1 with incredible fraud and treason being perpetrated on the people of Britain (by their politicians and bankers) - while similar treason was being committed on the American (USA) population at about the same time. All of this is supported with official historical documentation.
You will understand the timeline of the Bolshevik revolution and the World Wars as well as the major players and the parts they really played. This is important because in the second part of the book he imagines an alternative 20th Century in which the Gold Standard had prevailed - enabled by some amazing technology that addressed Gold's Achilles heel.
He does a thorough job of explaining how the alternative 20th Century came about and he runs numerous thought experiments about many aspects of government, banking, commerce and society that give many interesting (and often counter-intuitive) results and insights - including a few that will certainly surprise you.
Needless to say - all of this is rather relevant given the upcoming discussions around Ukraine and Israel/Gaza - not to mention the inevitable collapse of the current Fiat Money system. We may well be at a similar historical pivot point, just as he describes in the book and he has worked out all the scenarios.
He has made chapters 1 through 4 of the book available for free - you can read them here or click below to have him read them to you. Just do it:
Click above for the audiobook Chapters 1-4 - you can read them here
This is by no means light or superficial - rather it is a comprehensive and well thought-out analysis of how the 20th Century could have turned out differently if it had been based on Hard Money and without the perverse incentives and corruption that defined Central Bank-dominated society. If you are even slightly fed up with how things are going these days you must read this to understand why and how it could and should turn out differently.
Pay particular attention to the pointlessness and futility of war. It is never the people of a country who declare war - rather it is always unaccountable politicians. As long as a government can finance itself using the savings of its entire population, it will allow politicians to weaponise the entire wealth of nations to fight petty wars that nobody wants. Recall our discussion of February 2022.
After that you will likely want to get the book yourself. I recommend ordering from his website directly. The best combination is the eBook and Audiobook - you will receive them immediately and if you pay by bitcoin you get a 10% discount! If you prefer to have the physical copy (I strongly recommend that in addition) then Amazon may well be the easiest option for international shipping if you are outside North America.
BTW - if you want help about how to do the payment by bitcoin - I'm happy to help. Being able to make and receive bitcoin payments is a valuable skill and it will become increasingly so.
Some excellent advice
Once you start reading more, you will certainly want some way to keep track of what you have read and also the learning and insights that you have gleaned.
This girl gives you some very good advice - it is easier than you think. It is also fun and you will be happy that you did it in the future!
4:45 what to write?, 7:14 what if i don't want to ruin my book?
8:23 performative annotating, 9:24 which books should i annotate?
10:29 annotations & sticky tabs, 15:23 reading journal
16:25 notion, 20:27 obsidian - this is my tool of choice - see here
26:05 how note taking stops the doomscrolling
I agree fully that annotating your book is a good practice. It does help you stay in the moment when reading and the annotations will help you remember all the key points. "Buddy Reading" sounds like great fun - reach out if you want to try it!
More in this issue
- Photo memories - Kowloon, Lamma Island and Hong Kong this week
- Project Updates - Bitchat and Cashu - significant progress, Core V30
- Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out - 64 Tenets of Archaix
Around Kowloon, Lamma Island and Hong Kong this week
🛠️ Project Updates
The following are updates from some projects that I am following, supporting and collaborating with. These are all part of the Parallel Systems that we need to build and use. What are you doing?
Bitchat and Cashu
It's been a few months since we checked in with Calle - so let's do it. You might recall that he has vibe-coded the Bitchat App for Android and he leads Cashu development. Both projects are progressing well with significant updates, as you can hear in the interview below.
They spend quite a bit of time discussing Bitchat. If you have not downloaded and tried it you really should. This is the sort of app that you want to have on your phone before you need it. Interesting discussion too on WhiteNoise and how all of these form a comprehensive ecosystem with Cashu for payments. Again, this is something that you likely want to try before you need it "in anger".
(04:44) Bitchat: Bluetooth Mesh Without Internet
(06:21) Protests and Outages Drive Downloads: Nepal, Indonesia, Madagascar, ..
(09:51) Predicting Unrest from Download Spikes
(14:27) Adding Nostr Transport: Hyperlocal Mesh vs. Geohash Chats
(18:03) Geolocated Relay Selection
(23:56) Ephemeral Identity, UX, and Censorship Considerations
(28:37) Mesh Upgrades: Voice, Images, Files, Source Routing like Tor
(30:23) WiFi Aware Mesh and Background Operation to Boost Range and Uptime
(34:15) White Noise vs. Bitchat
(40:00) Protocols and Transports: Weaving White Noise, Cashu, and Bitchat
(43:48) Transport Neutral Design: Cashu and Nostr
(45:57) Cashu Progress: Shipping Libraries, Dev Ecosystem Growth
(51:18) We Need More Bitcoin Devs
(53:08) Integrating Cashu into BitChat: Wallet UX and Local Payments
(57:17) Running Mints: Spark, Ark, and Proof of Reserves/Liabilities
(1:03:40) Layered Scaling Without Consensus Changes: Ark, Spark, Cashu
(1:04:18) Bitcoin for Signal: Replacing MobileCoin with Cashu
(1:13:32) Why Cashu for Signal? Privacy and Scaling
(1:22:31) Mint Choice vs. Simplicity: Defaults, Lightning Interoperability, and UX
(1:32:21) Focus on Financial Privacy for the Masses, not Distractions
(1:37:11) Zcash Hype Dismissed; Call to Build on Bitcoin
(1:39:26) Nut November Hackathon and How to Contribute to Bitchat and Cashu
(1:45:06) Happy Thanksgiving
Core release 30 revisited
Thanks to Guy for doing this excellent and informative interview with Murch. Back in September we discussed the controversial upgrade of Bitcoin Core to V30. It is certainly the case that the communication around several aspects of this upgrade were badly handled by all involved and there may well have been nefarious forces at play. The team know this and are trying to incorporate the lessons learned.
That said, this interview is required listening. If you run a node, there is no pressure to upgrade to Bitcoin Core V30 any time soon (staying on your current release is a good option). If/when you do upgrade you can retain the current default of 83 for the OP_RETURN length and there are several interesting improvements in the release generally. Running Knotts is may be an option but you want to think through all aspects of any change - take your time.
Personally - I will be sticking with V29 for now and if I do eventually move to V30 I will be retaining the current 83 byte OP_RETURN limit. How about you?
🔗 Links for your edification
The following are links from my NetNewswire feeds - learn, enjoy and share.
Party time ahead - 2026 takes things to a new level
You know that I am very skeptical about anything in mainstream media and I cancelled my subscription to The Economist many years ago when they went totally woke and into obvious mind-control mode.
That said, you might recall that their issue of November 2018: The World in 2019 was highly "prophetic". Look at it and you will see all the imagery that pre-dated the Covid Crimes - including the Pangolin, the Four Horsemen - one wearing a mask, the QR codes, #metoo, Putin's Pipelines and quite a few more - we discussed this before and you might want to check back on the details
Well - they have just released the issue for 2026. Click below to read and hear the Editor's Insights on what they have planned and what to expect.
You might want to click below to see the covers at full size and then compare them with what really happened in the corresponding year - there are no coincidences.
A few cover images (click for full size) - 2026, 2025 and of course 2019 (explanation as to why backwards here)
Prof Jiang - always interesting
I have pointed of Prof Jiang before and this latest interview certainly gives you many interesting perspectives. Whether you agree with them all or not you would do well to listen to this informed discussion and analysis.
Obviously all that he says largely supports what you see in the picture for 2026.
Meanwhile, in Europe - don't say that nobody told you
Neil is currently in Bangkok (part of his Plan B) but continues to keep a finger on the pulse. He is likely right in his assessment and you too may want review your own plans in the light of what is clearly coming.
And then these are the latest developments in the UK - while you were distracted.
- France and UK want immediately to deploy troops in Ukraine - link
- UK expands Investigatory Powers and Online Safety acts - link
- Attacking framers - to control food supplies - link
- Restricting access to your money and allowing them to seize it - link
In the UK, EU and other locations, you should expect to see more and more False Flag events being perpetrated on a grand scale - these will be used to frighten people and coerce them into compliance with increasingly totalitarian controls. Wake up.
🤔 Closing Thoughts
I have shared quite a bit of Jason's work here over the years. You likely have been following along and wished that there was a clear summary of the main findings and conclusions. Well - here it is.
Click below for the list and Jason will talk you through it.
Roger Price
Click for the list - Jason will talk you through all 64 points
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No one can be told what The Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
- Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix
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You can also email me at: LetterFrom@rogerprice.me
- The Architect
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