🇬🇧 One last week in Holywood and Belfast before we get back on the road again.  We were here for my Dad's 90th birthday and we did have a great time together with all the family.  Quite an achievement and many happy memories - the only one missing was my Mum.  There are a couple of important birthdays this summer and planning for those is already under way.

Apart from the family priorities we managed to fit in quite a few other things that you can only do here in Belfast!   After breakfast at Belfast Bap we walked around the Titanic docks and visited inside the City Hall, complete with Titanic Memorial outside.   Plenty of walks along Belfast Lough Coast and I met up with a few people that I was at school with 44 years ago!   As you can imagine there can be quite some divergence in opinions and perceptions between people who have travelled and lived around the world and those who have stayed at home on the island.

I was even able to join the Bitcoin Meetup here in Belfast.  More details on this below in the project updates - this meeting was excellent and if you have one near you be sure to go along!  Bitcoin meetups are a great place to meet intelligent, open minded, critical thinkers and discuss practical options in person and build useful networks.

This week I started a new book - more on that below.  I also discovered an interesting new bitcoin-related app.  Meanwhile my Bolt Card that was shipped from the Isle Of Man finally arrived in Bangkok - happily a local friend there managed to pick it up and will look after it for me till I get back.

Reflecting

A year ago, back in Issue 11 we discussed how wisdom from End of Empire Times is well documented but surprisingly widely ignored or forgotten.  Perhaps now with one year of additional hindsight things should be more apparent to you and those around you.    Empires Rise and Fall  extracts and summarises from John Glubb's paper of nearly 100 years ago,  The Fate of Empires - video explainer here.  I certainly identify with his frustrations about how history has been taught considering how important it is to learn from past generations.

📖 Book of the week

I was happy to get into the third book in the series by Stephen Fry.  

Troy is a retelling of the Greek mythological story of the Trojan War. The book explores the lives and motivations of the key figures involved, including Achilles, Hector, Agamemnon, and Odysseus, as well as the gods and goddesses who intervened in the conflict.

Highlights include the following - some of which you will certainly have heard about; why not read the authoritative description?

• The Apple of Discord introduces the story of the Trojan War, starting with the events leading up to the infamous Judgment of Paris, where the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite compete for a golden apple that ultimately sets off the conflict.
• The Abduction of Helen: In this chapter, learn  how the Trojan prince Paris abducts Helen, the wife of Menelaus, and takes her to Troy, thus triggering the Greeks' expedition to reclaim her.  Several related episodes follow.
• The Wooden Horse: This chapter recounts the famous stratagem of the Trojan Horse, whereby the Greeks deceive the Trojans and infiltrate their city, ultimately leading to its fall and the end of the war.
• The Return of Odysseus recounts  the story of Odysseus, the clever and resourceful Greek hero who embarks on a perilous journey home after the war, facing numerous obstacles along the way.
• The Sack of Troy: The final chapter depicts the fall of Troy and its aftermath, including the deaths of many key characters and the division of spoils among the victorious Greeks.

🎥 Video of the week

If you watch only one thing this week, it should be this interview by Richard with Feargus O'Connor Greenwood, talking about his book.   Feargus does a great job of taking you from A to Z along the (un)learning journey that you need to do.  His book is extensively researched and referenced back to source material and you will likely find it a handy reference guide and explainer going forward.

Feargus' book is here - it is print-on-demand via Amazon UK.  Watch out for my full review in due course.   Some of the highlights that you can already pick up from the interview include

• Hyper-Compartmentalisation - we talked about this a few issues back.  This is how people are prevented from understanding their role in the evil actions by compartmentalising everything.
• Additional tools to ensure compliance include: ideology (some really do believe they are doing the right thing), money (bribery), coercion (you should recognise recent personal experience of this) and blackmail.
• He also points out that demoralisation is removal of morals from society... This is a topic that John Grub discussed extensively in his 1933 document above.

They have a rather interesting discussion and I do agree that we may be approaching a tipping point where enough people are awake to push back and for the silent majority to want to do the right thing.  Mattias Desmet has talked about this too.  A few  quick tips: do not comply (en masse) with nonsense regulations: do use cash everywhere; avoid shops that do not accept cash and strictly minimise your online subscriptions; cancel unnecessary accounts and use your Data Privacy rights to demand deletion of all relevant data with confirmation.

Also encouraging is their discussion on Bitcoin - I do agree 100% with the points they discuss and the conclusion.  Up to you but having no bitcoin is likely not the best choice and it is so easy to get started - go back and check my projects in Issue 56 to get your first bitcoin - just follow the steps and ask!  If you are an investor, think about portfolio allocation and asymmetric bets.

I do also agree with Richard that now is the time to progress from War-Reporting to supporting those who are working constructively for the future.   As I have explained, I am working on several open-source Bitcoin projects that could well form the basis of future finance and commerce tools.  What are you doing?

Secrets of the Federal Reserve

Very much related to the above discussion is the latest Bitcoiner Book Club review of "Secrets of the Federal Reserve" by Eustace Mullins.   This discussion is quite lengthy and goes very deep despite (and maybe because of) a few network glitches.  Listen and reflect.  For sure I will be looking into Ray's new project as soon as it is released.

Thanks to Daniel, Ray, Jace and John for this excellent information

You can find Eustace's book here on archive.org - a most useful site.

While there you might want to check some of Eustace's other books - eg this one.

Andrew Bridgen MP point out an important document from 1919 - just as relevant today - check it here

More in this issue

• Photo memories from around Holywood and Belfast this week
• Update on my projects - including a new app
• Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
• Closing out with something else you probably missed all these years

🛠️ Project Updates

This week I was happy to find a new app - the OrangePillApp.  This is the perfect way for bitcoiners to network and find eachother around the world.  You would do well to listen to the interview by Daniel Prince with the creator Matteo.  This is a fascinating discussion not just about app creation but also the challenges of business model creation and I have got to applaud and support him for taking the paid approach rather than "free" where you are the product.    You can find me in the app @travellr. Subscribe on his website to avoid paying the App-Store tax.

I see that Calle has been busy - will be testing this during the week.  It is amazing to see how quickly talented developers all around the world are working both individually and in ad-hoc teams to develop the next generation of personal finance/commerce applications and services.

Also Gandlaf21 has released Nutstash Wallet on Umbrel - how great is that!  Nutstash also works great with Alby.  You can check here for a demo of how it all works together with Nostr.

Keep following for future updates - I am still planning to do an explainer on Nostr. What is fascinating about this is that it is such a simple protocol and by defining the right protocol elements it enables countless developers to build their own applications and services with minimal effort.  Combined with the built-in feature of monetisation through Lightning payments what will happen next is limited only by your (and their) imagination!   Suggested pre-reading below:

Embracing Nostr: My Journey from Skeptic to Advocate

I used to despise Nostr. To me, it was a complete hack attempting to call itself decentralized.

Tony GiorgioTony Giorgio

I was really happy to be able to join the NI Community Bitcoin meetup.  This was Tuesday evening at a super location, Ormeau Baths.  In fact this is now a co-working space and the facilities are excellent.  The hosts were really knowledgeable and engaging and the discussions ranged from the factors causing the current banking problems (and inflation) through bitoin custody and node running and lightning payments.  Reminder that I have published guidelines for peer-to-peer transactions here at this handy link:  https://rogerprice.me/p2p/

Peer to Peer guidelines

Being able to swap bitcoin for local cash or vice versa is an important skill. There are several tools that make this possible - the simplest being a peer-to-peer trading group. Often these will exist around physical meetups - for these and in case you need to use online messaging

Letter from ...around the worldRoger Price

🔗 Useful links - Inform yourself

Below are a few gems from my NetNewsWire feeds for your edification and they may be helpful to share with others.

The first is a rather timely and realistic monologue from Richard - listen carefully to what he says.  Indeed, war-reporting does not help anyone - neither does ignoring what is happening and letting it happen.  There is certainly a balance to have.   We have all been lied to, fighting with eachother will not help - instead we need to build forward constructively.  What are you doing?

This next one has surprised many but is indeed symptomatic of the end-of-empire times that we talked about above.  Potus found it appropriate to include a 20 page chapter in his Economic Report of the President 2023 about cryptocurrency for the first time ever.   You can guess the conclusion - it reminds me of that emergency meeting of the Federal Reserve a couple of Fridays ago where they got together all the heads of banking and many businesses only to conclude "everything is fine"!

By now you ought to be well aware that it is "Bitcoin, not crypto".  By that I mean that Bitcoin is the only absolute digital store of value and, by virtue of its inital (and ongoing) distribution and Proof-of-Work it differentiates itself from nearly all the other so-called cryptocurrencies.   One exception that gets my attention is Monero (XMR).  This is interesting due to its extreme privacy that fills a few of the gaps and deficiencies in Bitcoin in this respect.  My expectation is that Monero can and should play an important role alongside Bitcoin and that decentralised conversion (via DEX) between these assets will become prevalent.

Monero Review 2023: Private Alternative to Bitcoin - Coin Bureau

Monero is a security and privacy-conscious cryptocurrency that attempts to solve the privacy concerns that exist with Bitcoin’s Blockchain

Coin BureauJulie-Anne Chong

Do let me know your thoughts - happy to discuss.

🤔 Closing Thoughts

There are so many things that you likely might have missed - even though you feel you would have know if it was there.   One such example is the story in Genesis 6:4 that reads as follows:

"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown."

This passage has been the subject of much debate and interpretation among scholars and theologians. The term "Nephilim" refers to a group of beings who are described as being giants or superhuman in some way. The origin of these beings is not entirely clear, but they are often associated with the sons of God mentioned in the passage.

The phrase "sons of God" has been interpreted in a variety of ways. Some scholars believe it refers to angels who came down to earth and had children with human women, while others see them as simply being powerful human rulers or leaders. The offspring of these unions are said to be the mighty men of old, who were renowned for their strength and power.

For a popularised but very accessible explainer watch and listen here:

If you prefer to read the book of Enoch, try this - or maybe you prefer audiobook.

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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

I am assuming that you are up to speed by now on the Matrix story and why this is important - so you are ready for Neo's encounter with The Architect.  Watch and understand more...

You have to see it for yourself.

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