78 - Briefly in Belgium
🇬🇧 🇮🇪 🇧🇪 This week we transited from the UK via Dublin on to Belgium. We will be here visiting the Belgian part of the family for a couple of days in Antwerp and at the Belgian Coast - so say "Hello" if you are nearby! After that we are moving on for a bit of Mediterranean sunshine - further updates next week.
Wednesday was a travel day for us. Early start to finish packing and cleaning the apartment. We did a final round of family visits including a nice family brunch. Taxi to Europa and then we took the new bus from Belfast to Dublin Airport and managed to catch the promotional fares; it is good to have more capacity and competition on this route. The bus experience was among the best we have had - we even managed to get onto the earlier bus; new bus, easy luggage storage, friendly driver and all on time. We got to spend the afternoon in the lounge - that too was OK, better than last time!
Flight to Belgium was fully full and 30 mins delayed, otherwise OK. Since we were arriving late we had booked a shared taxi to Antwerp (better price) and it was waiting for us when we arrived - and it was just us, nice!
We got here just in time to see the last of the summer weather - seems that Belfast weather is following us here. It was sunny for the first hours of our visit and then the rain and thunderstorms came and a cold front passed over! Giants are in town this weekend - photos will follow.
This time last year we were in a very similar situation; it is interesting to go back and re-read my notes and expectations of that time - how has your year been?
Interview and chain of thought for the week
A few related items this week. You ought to see and benefit from the thread that runs through them all - and there are a few practical suggestions to consider.
This is a superbly clear interview. Jeff gives the clearest definitions you will hear of the various types of money and how fiat money has been weaponised by governments against their own populations. Yes, your government is fighting and discriminating against you and your fellow citizens; they consider thinking individuals to be extremists, terrorists and money launderers and that you are guilty until proven innocent. In the interview you will find some realistic scenarios and how those could happen - specific links are below.
00:11:27 - Fiat Money is Weaponised Money 00:15:05 - Bringing Back the Gold Standard 00:18:42 - The 'One' Currency 00:22:28 - Negatives and Benefits of Fiat Currency 00:35:58 - The End of the US Dollar Supremacy 00:40:17 - Probable Impact of a Gold-Based Currency 00:44:49 - AML & KYC: What They Are and How They Work 00:52:24 - Democracy is a Threat to Free Speech 00:55:59 - Vulnerability of Democracy 00:58:49 - Protecting Property Rights 01:02:18 - Politics and Statism Impose Unchosen Hierarchies
And related to the above, listen to Johnny from UK discuss with Hrvoje. It is certainly inspiring to listen and learn from how others deal with the nonsense and evil that is everywhere these days. Among other things, Flag Theory in action.
Guadalajara Geopolitics InstituteAnd Stephan discusses with Lawrence - this is indeed a rather frank discussion (Boomers pay attention) about how things may well pan out and I do think they are about right.
More in this issue
- Photo memories from my last windy walk around Belfast for a bit
- Project Updates - A bit less hands-on this week due to travel
- Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out - Lighter but no less important
🛠️ Project Updates
The following are updates from some projects that I am following, supporting and collaborating with. What are you doing?
Second wave of project grants
Just one month on from the first wave of project awards there is already a second wave - nice! Plenty of very worthwhile projects feature - why not follow along or participate?
EZ
Particular highlights from my perspective:
- Fedimint Modules and Resources. The goal of this particular project is to improve the Fedimint UI and develop free and open resources for developers and "Guardians" to enable more people to run and develop on Fedimint."
- Amber: Nostr Event Signer. The goal of Amber is to have your smartphone act as a NIP-46 signing device without any need for servers or additional hardware."
- Nostr UI/UX Development. "The goal of this project is to help improve the UI/UX of major nostr clients, starting with Gossip and Coracle, emphasising the onboarding process as well as usability and accessibility."
- Nostr Use-Case Exploration & Education. "As of today, most nostr clients implement social media applications on top of the nostr protocol. However, nostr allows for various use cases, many of which go beyond social media. Two examples are Listr and Ostrich, a list management tool and job board, respectively. In addition to use-case exploration, this project will continue to educate users and developers alike, be it via Nostr How or various video series, e.g., explaining how to build upon NDK."
Matt explains how it is going from his perspective and I tend to agree:
ODELL
The New Phoenix
Pleased to say that I am now a happy user of the new Phoenix! Click below for the full explainer. This is a simpler (for the user) implementation using the new lightning feature of splicing to give lower fees and better channel/liquidity management. They also include a smooth migration from the legacy app to the new one - a perfect experience.
Phoenix is the wallet of choice for medium amounts of bitcoin - you can consider it equivalent to your wallet with cash - if is fine for a few hundred USD or so and it gives you all the benefits of almost free lightning transactions. It is also fully recoverable in case you lose your phone. iOS version coming soon.
Good as lightning is - indeed you need an internet connection - click here for an interesting real-life experience from one of my travelling subscribers! I think that eCash (eg Cashu) somewhat addresses these concerns - WDYT?
Bitcoin Scaling
We have discussed several times about how scaling technologies are very important. This includes Lightning, Cashu, Fedi and Liquid to name but a few. This is an interesting read by Guy. Anthony explores, from a fundamental perspective, the options for scaling and how these could pan out in practice.
Player FM
He concludes that a combination of these options plus some that are not yet ready for prime time deployment can provide options. Lots to do!
🔗 Links for your edification
The following are links from my NetNewswire feeds - learn, enjoy and share.
CBDCs - resist and avoid
Guy describes the dystopia that will ensue if/when CDBCs proceed. Be in no doubt - every developed country (with a central bank) will attempt to do this to their citizens; of course is will be for your safety and convenience.
In case you were in any way doubtful about what Guy explains, consider this interview of Nigel by Peter. Nigel has unearthed as many as one million accounts being closed by such aggressive and unjustifiable actions by banks throughout the UK. You will see clearly how the government and its financial henchman banking industry consider you to be extremists, terrorists and undesirables.
Nigel also explains (as we discussed above) that AML/KYC costs as much as 100 times whatever it claims to catch and it is not only ineffective but it weaponises the financial system against the population. These rules need to be REVOKED not refined. Interesting discussions too about how Nigel sees things progressing and you would do well to listen to his campaign stance. You can register your views below:
And this is a great 5 min video explainer that even the kids can understand!
Economic Ninja
Neil has a guest for an interview. The avocado story is interesting and typical of so many similar situations: US grows enough avocados for the entire nation but they export them and their domestic avocados are imported from Mexico on which Americans are taxed with tariffs. Remember: the Mexicans were never going to pay for the wall; tariffs are always paid by the citizens of the country imposing the tariffs.
In this interview they also talk of things that seem to be in the pipeline - coming to a city near you sooner than you would imagine. Maybe time to speak up and make your views known?
Techlead's insight
You will know by now that TechLead is pretty opinionated and speaks his mind. His latest monologue is fairly interesting and indeed he hits many interesting points. WDYT?
🤔 Closing Thoughts
Some lighter thoughts to close out this week. This does not make them less important, rather potentially easier and less threatening to consume and internalise.
I think this one hits all the spots and he is right on most of his points. Notice how the evil tries to divide people up against each other - think Protestants vs Catholics, Republicans vs Democrats, Yellow vs Blue, Yellow vs Red - yes every stupid combination seems possible to divide people.
This does make me think back to what we discussed in Issue 7 - Stop Fighting. This should be very familiar to my subscribers in Northern Ireland.
If you can see it - share it!
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