66 - June in The Mediterranean
🇪🇸 June already here in Mallorca and the weather has turned rainy with thunderstorms! V & I have reviewed our activity schedule and we will both be doing a fitness drive this month with daily activity including yoga, tai-chi, swimming and gym workouts.
We had one rainy day this week and then the weather was mixed - very nice on balance though! With our renewed fitness focus we have been mainly around town this week and I even found time to get back into some reading after a bit of a break.
Book of the week
This week I decided to get back into reading some fiction - so I picked up "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett. It has been quite a few months since I read fiction so this made a nice change. Fascinating and, like so many of the Pratchett books, the more you look the more you see. Have you read this one - what did you see - WDYT?
In my research I did also find that back in 2010 there was a 2-part TV mini-series - so I watched this too - it's easy with lookmovie - you may need VPN but there is no need to create any account. With Brave browser and uBlock Origin extension this works fabulously.
It is very interesting how different the TV series is from the book. The book is filled with rich descriptions that are completely omitted from the TV adaptation that also excludes quite a few other bits of the story as well. It does seem to be simplification and dumbing down for the masses - not to mention perhaps some things being too close to reality? Have you read the book? WDYT?
Omitted items include: the secret society, lots of intrigue around the printing of money, much of the Gollum activity and time shifting.
Pandemic nonsense is about to get even worse
I know that everyone is fed up with this but please pay attention to this.
Speak now or forever hold your peace. You ought to be disgusted by this interview when you understand the ridiculous rules that are about to be imposed on you and all you know by unelected bureaucrats and out of control corrupt bureaucracy.
UK citizens can sign the petition here - JUST DO IT - it takes 30 seconds.
It really is bureaucracy gone mad and it is completely out of control. You can be sure that you and your family will be the victim of unprecedented stupidity and rules if you do not take action NOW to push back. You must SAY NO - the only proper solution is to exit the WHO agreements that are thoroughly corrupt.
If you are wondering about how corrupt this could be, listen to this testimony at the European Parliament
Exit the WHO - http://ExitTheWHO.com - this is the ONLY WAY FORWARD - The WHO is a cancer that is metastasising and spreading - the only option is: cut it out - exit.
James' substack is here - subscribe for free to stay up to date.
ICYMI - we did discuss this one year ago > check newsletter #16:
More in this issue
- Photo memories from around Palma this week
- Project Updates - Bear markets are for building
- Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out - something thought provoking
🛠️ Project Updates
There are several good things about bear markets. One is that you get a second chance to buy bitcoin at a discount! Another is that this is when the building happens. Building also tends to be stimulated by shocks to the system.
One such shock recently came from Ordinals, Inscriptions and then BRC-20. This has brought a surge of development projects and new talent onto bitcoin and the high-fee environment resulted in pressure for Level 2 solutions to improve scaling and give lower fee alternatives.
There are several Level 2 scaling mechanisms for Bitcoin that aim to improve its scalability and transaction throughput. Two of the more established ones are:
- Lightning Network enables fast and low-cost transactions by creating payment channels between users. Transactions can be conducted off-chain, reducing the burden on the main blockchain and increasing scalability.
- Liquid Bitcoin sidechain allows for the creation of separate blockchains that operates alongside the main Bitcoin blockchain. It enable faster and more private transactions while still maintaining a connection to the security and value of the Bitcoin network.
I have got to recommend Matt's recent CD102 discussion with Jack Mallers and Adam Back. Jack is the CEO of Strike and Adam is founder/CEO of Blockstream. Interesting to hear of Jack was introduced to bitcoin by his CME trader father back in 2013. Also Adam's intro is especially eye-opening - he did work closely with Satoshi (and I know some people think he might even be him). Interesting discussion on how to onboard the next 1 billion people and I must say that I learned a lot about Liquid and L-BTC.
On the building side, this bear market has been exciting from a development standpoint with the following projects developing and flourishing:
- Cashu - this is the Chaumian eCash developed by Calle. It is simple and works well. It is also garnering a few companion projects like Nutstash, Redeem, Spacenut and Nutminer. Amazingly, Calle seems to have cracked the issue of Proof of Liabilities for eCash Mints - and elements of this sound familiar to Burak's vtxo lifecycle (more on this below).
- Fedi (Fedimint) - this is a much bigger and ambitious project that aims to solve many things through federation. This includes federated custody as well as its own eCash. Among other things they are also looking to leverage Bitcoin's ability to make stranded electricity production cost-effective and possible. Listen to this discussion with Obi and Gridless.
- Ark - this is fascinating. It was invented/discovered by Burak, an extremely talented developer who is famous for having found the edge-case bugs in lightning nodes running btcd last October. The Ark protocol extends/complements lightning, addressing the biggest problem for new users - that of needing inbound liquidity. Listen to Barak explain and discuss with Guy. His website explainer is here and via @gandlaf21 I found this explainer
- Nostr - we have talked about this before. It is a protocol that enables many things including messaging and twitter replacement but also enabling whole suites of new applications.
- Joinstr - is one example of the applications enabled by Nostr. It is a CoinJoin implementation that uses the Nostr network allowing users to coordinate CoinJoin transactions without having to trust a central authority.
- Boltz (Atomics Swaps between Liquid <>Lightning) - this is a fascinating story. Suddenly hit by the fee increase due to ordinals Boltz exchange found many failing transactions and other issues. In less than one week they switched operation to use Liquid for Lightning channel rebalancing instead of on-chain swaps. Read the full story here. This is yet another example of how concurrent developments can usefully collaborate and the sum becomes greater than the parts.
- Mutiny Wallet - a real lightning node running a browser. This is interesting because it obviates the need to use the app store on your phone. That is why they call it "the unstoppable wallet for everyone". You can test Mutiny Wallet with Fedimint now on Signet (Bitcoin's test network).
In case you want to get more hands-on with these projects I recommend Bitcoin QnA's recent explainer on how to modify and participate in open source projects.
I expect that the future user-friendly and scalable solutions will use combinations of these technologies - each one will have its own trade-offs and benefits but they will be much better than any government fiat currency. This is the joy and power of open source collaborative development.
If you have not yet understood why the above might be important for you consider this short explainer from Richard.
If you are in or near Bath in the UK you can meet Richard (and many other sensible people) in person at the Better Way Conference this weekend - also online for those of us who are remote.
🔗 Links for your edification
Sovereign Individuals of the world
This is a fascinating interview and I identify with so much of this discussion, having gone through much of the same thinking out in Hong Kong. Jonny left UK for Mexico. My own journey is here in these newsletters! Feel free to share your own waking-up experience and where you are now...
HP - to be avoided at all costs - along with other ESG companies
Last week we talk about how HP had managed to brick (destroy) all the internet connected HP 902x printers worldwide when they pushed out a faulty update that was designed to prevent anything but genuine HP ink being used. This happened back at the beginning of May and one month later there is still no proper resolution for anyone who owns such a printer.
Louis Rossman is also disgusted with HP: HP printer with ink DRM gets "environmentally friendly" stamp of approval - Brother is his printer of choice for the reasons that he describes.
Similar to (at least as bad) is this story about Nikon and their policies. You ought to be really concerned about how these evil companies are trying to prevent you from re-selling things that you bought (and own?).
And another unacceptable overreach from Nikon here - this is unjustifiable.
This type of overreach is something that you will see increasingly as all ESG-compliant companies get pressured to adopt customer-unfair and inappropriate policies. Other examples include Target and Bud Light - you will have heard of these recently too; expect more examples like this and be prepared to vote with your money (while you still can).
On chain analysis - only the facts
James' Tuesday weekly On-chain analysis continues to give interesting insights. You will see many interesting developments that become apparent due to the transparency of blockchain technology.
Also interesting is Guy's take on Hong Kong's opening up this week:
Maverick's latest update is well worth a listen - "a good one" as he says!
Securing your online access
Lastly - I came across this excellent checklist of tips and tricks to improve your security when going online. Absolutely recommended reading and there are many things that you can help others to implement too.
🤔 Closing Thoughts
If you have not watched (m)any of Jason's videos, you would do well to do so. In this next one he had a guest presenter from UK in his studio in Texas and they reviewed quite a few ancient maps from books that you likely have not read. Clearly not everything in this discussion is accurate or definitive but you might want to consider this in relation to the official narrative that you have been fed (not unlike the Covid crimes). The truth is out there and it is not what you have been told.
An example map is here: https://archive.org/details/mapa-urbano-monte-hd - how do you explain this?
For a deeper dive into Jason and his perspectives on things, this will surprise you.
You can will also find a mind-opening discussion here:
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