83 - Holywood - in transit
🇮🇪 🇬🇧 This week V and I are in transit again. After a great sojourn in Sardinia we are taking a few days here in Northern Ireland with family and friends before moving on again, back to the East. Next stop, Bangkok - say hello if you are near!
It was quite a shock to the system to arrive back in Northern Ireland weather. The day we arrived the temperature was 4-10 degrees with rain and wind. How different from autumn in Sardinia!
Our focus here has been catching up with family and friends and preparing for next steps of our journey. Busy days with meetings and catch-ups every day - mornings, afternoons and evenings.
Of course while here in Northern Ireland, I took the opportunity to catch up with local bitcoiners. A recommended location is Root and Branch Coffee Roastery on Newtownards Road - bitcoin is welcome! I also recommend that you go along to the local meetups - every first Tuesday of the Month in Bullhouse East in Belfast. It is good to meet and discuss with people face to face and establish real in-person relationships that you can trust and build on. Next meeting Tue 3 Oct 7pm.
I got quite a bit of feedback on last week's book recommendation. As a said, David is a well-known and somewhat controversial character. Even if some of the things that he mentions seem far fetched that is not to say that everything is and quite a lot of what he has said over the years has turned out to be 100% correct. So I do encourage you to consider what he says in the spirit of Ethical Skepticism as we have been discussing in recent weeks. I am also happy to discuss with you. If you get the chance, do go along to one of his public speaking events - he did one recently here in Belfast, kicking off his UK tour.
This week I am featuring an important interview of Whitney Webb and a deep-dive analysis by James Corbett. You would do well to bookmark these and listen carefully to what they explain and suggest.
Interview of the week
You must listen to this interview of Whitney Webb on Unlimited Hangout by Ryan Cristian. It is a really tough listen, especially parts 2 and 3 where she reveals her own personal experience of suffering this societal rot. Whitney has been through a lot recently, not least with the hospitalisation of her son; happily there is light now at the end of that tunnel. She is remarkable and you have got to admire her work as world-class investigative journalist in the face of all these obstacles.
You may well recall that I featured an array of Whitney's work back in Issue 40 where she explain, among other things, that the technology to control you in your 15 minute city is being battle-tested now in Ukraine.
In this interview, Whitney explains with many examples the Narcissism and Gaslighting to which we are being subjected by truly evil forces - so called "elite" parasites. She speaks from volumes of research and direct personal experience.
You can support Whitney and here work by joining as a member - many options. Another way is to buy her incredibly well researched books.
Deep-dive of the week
With travel time this week I got to read and listen to James' explanation as to how Blackrock came about and the truly dystopian and evil agenda that they are implementing. This is available on their website and via Larry Fink's letter to CEOs - of course for some insights you do need to look beyond some DoubleSpeak. James does a great job in doing this and I recommend that you take time to peruse this page that included a transcript of his podcast with links to all source material.
Bitcoiners will recognise all of this as typical "fiat behaviour" - Cantillon effect etc.
One year ago...
This time last year ago we were also here in Holywood - as always, it is interesting to re-read the newsletters of that time to see how things were then in the world and how things have evolved since. To be honest this is a bit of a Groundhog-day experience, and not the first that we have experienced in our travels.
More in this issue
- Photo memories - Holywood and Belfast this week
- Project Updates - Lightning developments abound
- Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out - How are your eyes? Wide shut?
🛠️ Project Updates
The following are updates from some projects that I am following, supporting and collaborating with. What are you doing?
Phoenix - from strength to strength
You will recall that I am a fan of the Phoenix Lightning app. They recently upgraded their Android version to support Channel Splicing. In this fascinating interview Bastien (their CTO) explains the rationale for this and also the other things that they have on their roadmap. I absolutely recommend listening and learning from this. The corresponding iOS version should come available in the coming weeks.
Phoenix is recommended since it is non-custodial (you have complete control) and it comes with really usable backup and recovery options allowing full recovery in case you lose your phone.
Nodeless - Lightning on-Demand
Anyone who has tried running a lightning node will be aware that this is not something for beginners - unlike running your own Bitcoin node. Lightning nodes do need to be online 7/24 and it is important to perform proper backups of the channels and you likely want to have a watchtower in place for forced channel closures, not to mention the challenge of channel liquidity management and inbound liquidity.
This is where Nodeless steps in. Based in Canada this is a remarkable and particularly easy service to use. You open an account - no KYC needed - and you can immediately use it to receive lightning payments with all the above challenges addressed. This is especially interesting for small businesses that are looking for an off-the-shelf solution that is a step up, allowing 7/24 reception of payments.
In the interview above, Guy discusses with the developer and they go through the rationale and all you need to know.
Scaling - a surprise good use for Proof-of-Stake
Recent weeks we have been talking about the importance of Level 2 scaling technology to enable more people to have access to bitcoin for person to person payments and for small businesses. Lightning is the prime mechanism but there are others including Liquid (from Blockstream) and Chaumian eCash (Cashu and Fedi). Beyond that, Ark from Burak sounds like it has potential - we are waiting to see and get our hands on the MVP.
Yet another option has cropped up and this is especially interesting because no modifications are required to Bitcoin for this to work - not even a soft fork. Listen and learn more:
You can read the supporting article here:
Your gut reaction might be to dismiss it since it uses Proof of Stake - but this is a situation where proof of stake adds value as is explained in the article and the reading. Since no Bitcoin change is needed for this, I expect it will happen and the market will decide. Interesting times.
🔗 Links for your edification
The following are links from my NetNewswire feeds - learn, enjoy and share.
Blocksize war
I wrote about the Blocksize War back in my very first Newsletter. I recall vividly the climate of distrust and confusion that was endemic in the Bitcoin community at that time. Everyone was on-edge and nobody seemed to have a clear view on "which side was right". This is a great interview from two of the participants.
It is important that current Bitcoiners know this history. There will again be attempts by Silicon Valley and the VCs (and likely other parties) to take control. This must and will be resisted as it was previously.
Meanwhile in the USA
Marty describes rather clearly what is happening and what comes next. This ought to be familiar to you if you recall what we discussed back in Issue 33 (When Money Dies).
Johnny and Teresa
This one should make you think - there is no smoke without fire and for sure they have tried to suppress and cover up all of this. How interesting that her father's Wikipedia entry should have been deleted just as she announced her run for PM.
Johnny digs into what was pointed to and unearthed by following the threads from that deleted entry. Perhaps by now you can no longer be surprised but many people ought to be.
Prepare to be alarmed
James could not even wait for one year to do an update - this annual review is after just 11 months. Time to wake up!
Russell Brand
It would be remiss of me not to pass some comment on all this pantomime. I am pretty much aligned with Jason's observations and commentary. This links back to what we previously discussed about the London Olympic Opening and Closing ceremony rituals. What a surprise (not) - Russell was a star of a key part of the closing ceremony - you can watch it here. Jason's observations and much more here and then click the short video below to remind yourself of the opening ceremony.
🤔 Closing Thoughts
Last week, recall that I shared with you Howdie's deep dive into Plato's Allegory of the Cave. I bet that before you watched his review you thought that you knew the story and there was not much that you would learn. You should understand now that the truth goes much deeper than you ever imagined.
So too it is with Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut movie. Of course we have all seen this. Many thought it was just a boring movie; others will have seen some things that made them think but few will have understood the symbolism at the level that Rob explains here, linking it back to all of Kubrick's previous movies. Watch Rob Agar's explainer below and gain enlightenment. Had you understood the tennis rackets in the opening scene?
So - how much of all this had you worked out - be honest! Did he miss anything? He does a good job of pointing out some of the missing scenes - WDYT? It is pretty obvious that something is missing about Sandor Szavost - what else can you spot?
In case this has spurred you on to watch the movie - recall that Lookmovie has this and virtually every movie (and TV series) available on demand (no need for an account or Netflix!) For the best experience you should use Brave Browser with uBlock Origin extension active. Depending on where you are you might need a VPN to access Lookmovie - my VPN of choice is Mullvad since it is fully private and you can pay in Bitcoin or Monero.
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