199 - Almost Christmas
🇹🇠It is almost Christmas and in the West most folks will be gearing up for Christmas and New Year holidays. Out here in SE Asia the locals are happy for you to visit and enjoy the nice weather but Christmas day is a day like any other.
The big event of the week was celebrating V's birthday. Being in Bangkok we had to do that in a Skybar. We went to the same one that we have done in previous years and we had a great time. A great evening with fabulous views over the city and of course a wonderful sunset.
I also got to meet up with a former colleague who now lives in Thailand. Another advantage of travelling is that you can meet interesting folks wherever you go and they always have interesting insights and perspectives to share.
Since most of you will be having more time in the coming weeks I am focussing below on providing you plenty of recommended reading and watching. You should find many interesting things below - consider this your Christmas Magazine, keep it around and dip back into it in the coming days - do check out the links. You have more to look forward to next week as well!
Interview of the week
This week I have a real treat for you. Network State meets Bitcoin Standard! Balaji Srinivasan is one of the most intelligent and articulate people that you will meet; love him or hate him he is doing remarkable things with his Network State on Forest City island near Singapore. Saifedean too is intelligent and articulate and author of multiple world-renowned books.
In this fantastically interesting interview they discuss and explore their views on the world and how things will likely evolve. They each learn something from the other and we are treated to a superbly informative exposition of ideas and wisdom.
For those living in "The West", one of Balaji's more interesting and provocative statements was: "if you have not been to been to Warsaw, Dubai, Riyadh, Bangalore, Ho Chi Min City, Singapore and then Shenzhen and I'll also throw in some smaller Chinese cities like Chengdu, [Dongguan, Foshan, Huizhou and Zhuhai in the Greater Bay Area] you're simply not calibrated on what the world is today."
His thought experiment on the collapse (to zero) of the US Dollar and related Fiat currencies is fascinating (at 1hr06:21) - I recommend that you work through this yourself.
Balaji is a controversial character and I do not agree with all his ideas but he is certainly taking action and making things happen. While Saifedean does not express himself as well in the discussion I do think that his alternative for society is rather better thought-out and I can see areas wh7 habiere Balaji's technology could help significantly without creating dystopia. Those who know the 7 Habits - think 3rd alternative.
3-6 months on Balaji's Island could be a most interesting experience for many. Here is a rather complete testimonial from a recent participant. If this does not float your boat you might want to consider The Preparation, as we have discussed - or perhaps consider an island-stay as part of your, or your children's, Preparation?
Check back to the last time we listened to Balaji in discussion - it is fascinating to see how indeed things have progressed in two years.
Something to watch over Christmas
If you have not already seen these (and even if you have) I recommend this as holiday watching. You can binge on the whole series and you will be much wiser afterwards.
If you find yourself wondering what this is all about - check out my previous review from a few years ago 0r this more recent take:
More in this issue
- Photo memories - Bangkok leading up to Christmas
- Project Updates - Madeira, Cashu projects and Monero progress
- Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out - The Legend of King Arthur is not what you expect
Around Bangkok this week and V's birthday celebration on the roof
🛠️ 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?
Madeira - lots going on
You will recall that V and I were back in Madeira recently and I know some of my subscribers have been there recently too. It is a superb location and there is a lot of Bitcoin ecosystem development going on there - led by Andre Loja. Below is a fascinating interview where he describes many of the initiatives.
Click above and listen - do not say that nobody told you! There are also opportunities to participate and support - their 2025 wrap-up is here
Cashu - hackathon
Recently Cashu team have hosted a hackathon to get more developers to focus on Cashu - I recommend you check out the hackathon website. There are quite a few nice ideas and they are looking for developers and collaborators.
The Nutty Pill - fun educational material
Pay to Blinded Key - even easier private payments
On chain golf - a fun one for the golfers
Nostrpay - child friendly pocket money and learning
Cashu Monopoly - Play Monopoly with Bitcoin - how great is that!
So - what more and better ideas to you have? Get coding and/or collaborating. These are great opportunities to get into Cashu and Bitcoin development with motivated collaborators and they are fun. What are you doing?
Monero - even more preferred
November delivered further significant shifts: Monero extended its majority as the payment method of choice, Bitcoin on-chain took its biggest tumble yet, and the mid-tier coins saw high growth. Interesting - I think the main signal is in the increasing use of Monero for privacy sensitive payments and Bitcoin on-chain diminishes because of its weaker privacy. It would be better if NanoGPT would support bitcoin over lightning.
milannano-gpt.com
Click for the full details and graph of the evolution over time
Another possible explanation is that people are increasingly reluctant to spend bitcoin as long as they hold other currencies. You should be aware that this is well known as Gresham's Law:
Gresham's Law is a monetary principle stating that "bad money drives out good" when two forms of currency circulate simultaneously at the same nominal value but different intrinsic values.
People will hoard the more valuable money (eg gold coins and bitcoin) and spend the less valuable one (eg debased coins and other cryptocurrencies), causing the "good" money to disappear from circulation
đź”— Links for your edification
The following are links from my NetNewswire feeds - learn, enjoy and share.
For those who need more convincing
TLDR: The central mechanism used by The Empire is the "trust." Rooted in medieval Crusader laws, a trust allows an individual to hand over assets to a trustee (often a lawyer in a tax haven), thereby separating legal ownership from beneficial enjoyment. This arrangement renders the true owner invisible to tax authorities and law enforcement. When combined with shell companies across multiple jurisdictions, trusts create impenetrable layers of secrecy. This system allows trillions of dollars—estimated at up to $50 trillion globally—to sit offshore, legally belonging to "nobody," protecting the wealth of the global parasites, politicians and banksters from taxation and scrutiny. Recall the Panama Papers.
Roger Price
Click for extensive analysis and support - including video explainer
Do click through for the full analysis and explanation - you will be surprised by the magnitude and duplicity of what has been done and how your own and your family's wealth is unknowingly used for the banksters to gamble in this casino.
Meanwhile, of course, they want to track and control every payment that you make - so that you can never escape from the trap. This is why you want to exit the system. It is easy to feel helpless but there is plenty that you can, and likely should do as I describe in these newsletters weekly!
The video below explains the how the psychological warfare is being executed. You will understand that this is a multi-decade progress - that is why most people do not realise it is going on till it is too late.
Do take a few minutes to listen to this explainer and much will become clear.
Windoze - they just don't care any more
Meanwhile Micro$oft becomes more evil by the day. They are now in flat out stealing mode and they will steal from you whatever they can get their hands on.
If you do nothing else, as a first step, get off Windoze! You can thank me later.
Meanwhile - in AI land all is not well
The other thread in this story is also developing. You will have understood by now how important a role AI plays in their plans and they are making everyone pay for it by stealing all society's money. The narrative that you start to hear is that "AI is too important to fail" - so the empire believes that saying this this gives them the right to spend "whatever it takes" to keep it going.
Where have you heard talk like this before? Think Wars, Bank bail-outs and most recently: the Covid Crimes - these are all symptoms of what is going on. The money they are spending comes from you and those around you and was taken by deception without your knowledge or consent through currency debasement, "war" spending and inflation.
Surprise (not)
If you live in Europe you will be paying more for anything that comes in from abroad. Of course this is a "temporary solution" but the permanent one should worry you even more and you never voted for either of them.
Bureaucracy has gone mad and it can ONLY GET WORSE - click for details
The flat fee will remain in place only until the EU completes a larger customs reform—including the central EU Customs Data Hub planned for mid‑2028—after which duties should be calculated on actual product value and type with richer digital data Citation from europeannewsroom.com.
🤔 Closing Thoughts
One closing thought for this week. It is surprisingly timely but it also goes rather deep and may well be deeper than you imagine - you have been warned.
King Arthur - certainly not what you expect
You likely are aware of the Legend of King Arthur: born of Uther Pendragon and Igraine, Arthur drew Excalibur from stone to become king. He united Britain, founded Camelot and the Round Table with knights like Lancelot. Guinevere's betrayal and Mordred's rebellion destroyed the kingdom. Mortally wounded at Camlann, Arthur had Excalibur returned to the lake before sailing to Avalon to heal, promising to return when Britain needs him most.
All of this is supposed to have happened in the 6th Century so you might be surprised that none of the literature of that time, nor 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th or even 11th Centuries mentions King Arthur!
The first mention of him in historical documents is in the 12th century when the whole story is told in documents that originate from France, Italy and Middle East.
Roger Price
Click for summary of the interview which you can also watch in full
The true interpretation is far stranger than you can imagine. Click above for a summary of this fascinating interview with Ralph Ellis. I also recommend you can watch his lecture:
And I thoroughly recommend his book which gives you extensive details supporting all the arguments:
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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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