63 - Full circle
🇪🇸 This week we have come full-circle - it is one year since we arrived here in Palma for the first time. How has your year been - any new thoughts, insights or realisation? It's interesting to go back and re-read the newsletters from a year ago and compare and contrast our wisdom then versus now. Hindsight helps for those who wish to see and I might do some more year-on-year reviews as an occasional segment in the newsletter going forward.
In the coming weeks I will also be building out the Reference section of the website into a series of pages that summarise and point to useful sections in the newsletter collection as well as to external sources. If you have topics to include, do say.
Remember too that you can use the Search on the website (at top of the page) to find interesting topics. For example search for: What is money? and you will find the three newsletters that contained that series of articles. Go ahead - search for this and other topics - what interests you most?
This week we got out and about around the island. An interesting destination is the town of Soller on the NW side of the island - you can get there by bus from Palma Central station or the scenic wooden train! The town is very scenic and pleasant to walk around and it is a short tram ride down to its coastal twin, Port de Soller and its surrounding harbours and beaches. Also interesting and even closer is Ses Illetes at the end of the No 4 bus route that passes our apartment - a few photos below. Had a nice afternoon out there with V and we got to enjoy the soft opening of Weyler, even if they did not advertise it as such!
Book of the week
You might recall how much I enjoyed Snow Crash - it is one of a few seminal books that everyone should know. So too is Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson who also did an unabridged reading on cassette tape that I have recently got access to. Interesting too that the term "The Matrix" is an invention by William Gibson along with the term "Cyberspace" and you will find them both used in this book.
The story follows a washed-up hacker named Case, who is given a chance to regain his abilities in exchange for pulling off a dangerous hacking job for a mysterious employer. Along the way, Case partners with a powerful street samurai named Molly and an artificial intelligence named Neuromancer. Together, they must navigate the treacherous world of corporate espionage and cybercrime to accomplish their goals.
If reading the book is too daunting for you or if (like me) you prefer to get the big picture summary before starting such an epic - listen to this 6 minute summary (with spoilers). I have a suspicion that this might have been put together with AI!
For those who prefer to go a little deeper sfdebris does a great summary on YT. I have got to recommend his channel for other superb summaries of great books.
And this is a a superb documentary series on the entire Cyberpunk genre. If you were ever a bit wobbly on the plot or storyline behind Bladerunner this should make it all clear to you! ...and so much more... This is remarkably prescient in relation to what you see going on in the world today especially in the AI world! It contains so many interesting reminders and new leads; it will make you want to check out so may more things.
Among other things I was amazed to learn that Gibson wrote the book on a typewriter (rewriting 2/3 of the book 12 times) and it came out at the same time as the Apple Macintosh was released!
More in this issue
- Photo memories from around Mallorca this week
- Project Updates - Major news on project funding
- Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out - The most important thing this week
🛠️ Project Updates
The big news this week has got to be the $10 million funding by Jack Dorsey to OpenSats.org which will be used to support the development of free and open-source software and projects focusing on bitcoin, nostr, and related technologies. This allows to really operationalise the OpenSats organisation with the full-time recruitment of der Gigi (fabulous news) and the funding will be split 50/50 between bitcoin and nostr projects for which applications are now open.
Recall der Gigi's amazing article - click below to read or have Guy read it to you.
Yet more news on funding - great to see Calle and BoB Space getting recognition and support from Human Rights Foundation.
Other news and lots of discussion has formed around the impact the BRC-20 tokens are having on the mempool and current transactions fees. It is certainly a windfall for the bitcoin miners, doubling their revenue per block!
NLW did a rather useful and balanced explainer about what this is all about and laid out clearly the various positions. Putting my own stake in the ground: whilst I view this as a frivolous and non-useful use of bitcoin it is one that will pass and bitcoin will be stronger after. It is symptomatic of meme-culture and the NFT get-rich-quick culture that pervades Sh*tcoins in general. However since they really are dealing with hard money and they are spending it every day in large quantities reality will fairly quickly catch up with them. My thoughts are pretty much aligned with Michael Saylor here - the benefit of this episode is the increased development focus on bitcoin and scaling technologies. Click below for NLW's explainer:
Bitcoin continues to work exactly as designed will certainly survive this and emerge stronger as a result since it will encourage the more rapid development of Level 2 scaling that we all know is necessary. This includes Lightning and the various Chaumian e-Cash projects we have been discussing such as Cashu and Fedi. For example, Binance has announced that they will expedite their lightning offering; this makes things cheaper, faster, more secure and private as well - nice!
You should enjoy the latest Rabbit Hole Recap where the boyz discuss all of this extensively. You will see how they already take this as a stress-test that passes well and from which there are many learnings, such as how unwise Zero-conf business models are and the wisdom and value of RBF (Replace By Fee). Also interesting discussion on how Lightning needs to evolve to be more resilient in high-fee environments and this gives strong support for the Chaumian e-Cash solutions! UTXO consolidation and set-size and incentives along with things like pruning will certainly get some scrutiny. I agree with Matt - fix the incentives and all else falls into place!
In a year or so I expect we will look back on this time in the same way that we look back on the BlockSize wars - something that we discussed in my very first newsletter!
🔗 Links - inform yourself
Below are a few gems from my NetNewsWire feeds for your enjoyment and edification.
One of my few regrets was not going to Roger Waters' The Wall concert when he visited Antwerp Sportpaleis back on 28 May 2011. Happy to have another opportunity of sorts ...and you do too!
PowsterNext is an encouraging one. Laura updates us on her progress over the last two years and she seems to have a pretty good plan going forward. Gotta wish her well.
Thoughtful analysis by Nate. Americans are not generally known for their thoughtfulness - so it is nice to listen to Nate's genuine hands-on experiences.
Meanwhile, in Australia things are panning out pretty much as foreseen in The Sovereign Individual (Ch 10 and 11). DYOR and watch out - you have been warned! This would not be the first time that similarly lunatic and unreasonable constraints have been placed on residents and citizens.
Maverick's weekly outlook is interesting and outspoken as ever - this comes out Monday morning EU time each week. Watch and make your own informed decision - topic links below. Follow him for more.
His Wednesday evening update is a rather succinct summary of US and global economy today. He might well be right that something big is weeks or months away, not more. Dismiss this at your own risk.
Richard again says what many think - interesting anecdotes too
And this follow-up from Richard that he disclosed on Friday - Happening Soon?
Related to the above, consider this debate in UK Parliament, publicity of which was delayed due to youtube censorship and information suppression by the propaganda machine. Do also read the Closing thoughts below.
A few people were triggered last week by Andrew's comments on the then upcoming coronation. You might want to read and listen to James' analysis.
Corbett
🤔 Closing Thoughts
Closing out this week with the most important thing you can watch and take action on right now. Text and video below come from James Corbett's recent statement delivered to National Citizens Inquiry in Canada on the WHO. Do go and read the full text with supporting links here.
The WHO was established in 1948 to coordinate international efforts to promote public health. But what is health?
That may seem like a trivial question, but as we've seen over the last few years, the answer to that question can affect every aspect of our lives, from what medical interventions we are obligated to take to whether or not we are permitted to leave our house.
We cannot afford to let government appointees and unelected technocrats at the WHO answer this incredibly important question for us. It is up to us to answer that question for ourselves and to decide what health precautions we are willing to take and under what circumstances we are willing to take them.
Any treaty, health regulation or other document that would seek to undermine our bodily autonomy is null and void and should be treated as if it never existed.
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