Straight, No Chaser
Understanding Freedom through Money, Technology, Economics and Philosophy
Straight, No Chaser
Monthly Round Up 10: Tether Says Self-Custody And Everyone Laughs
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
We trade jokes and hard truths about stablecoins, surveillance, and why “self-custody” means very different things depending on who holds the off switch. We move from BTC Prague and Europe’s privacy-first Bitcoin culture to South African capital controls, then finish with a hands-on tour of tools like silent payments and Start9 for anyone who wants more real-world sovereignty.
• BTC Prague highlights and why European Bitcoiners feel more cypherpunk
• DAC8 as automated KYC data sharing and why Bull Bitcoin takes it to court
• On-chain spam arguments and why virtue signalling does not fix technical problems
• Rwanda and South Africa regulatory pressure through the lens of property rights
• Why capital controls undermine a free and open society
• Party politics scepticism and why “a saviour” narrative fails
• Silent payments in Sparrow Wallet for better Bitcoin privacy
• Progressive web wallets as a path around app store gatekeepers
• Nostr VPN, decentralised tools and peer-to-peer messaging under censorship
• Start9 OS 0.40, remote access and making self-hosting usable
• Private AI trade-offs, data retention and why cloud convenience has a cost
• Mining centralisation, Stratum V2 and the nation-state angle
If you've got any SATS lying around, please donate to property rightsdefense.org. Send some SATS over to us, please.
https://propertyrightsdefense.org/
https://start9.com/
https://btcpay386617.lndyn.com/login?ReturnUrl=%2F
Links:
www.bitcoinforbusiness.io
X: @gavingre
X: @BTC_4_Biz
Primal: GavinBGreen@primal.net
NOSTR: npub12qv07tpwk8x8fy2uuqczghpappap395npuxvsx8pgksh97pezv7s8r7qta
Cold Open On Shifting Alliances
SPEAKER_01I think it might not be the worst thing in the world to start getting friendly with the Russians and the Iranians and the Chinese. Um because I don't think as much it's it's like and and this is this is the thing that people when you say something like this, people immediately jump to the conclusion that oh you must be you must be defending Putin or you must be defending the Ayatollah. It's like no no no no. I I made a conscious decision way back in 2008 uh not to live in Russia. Um because already then um the place uh struck me as being a little a little too authoritarian for my liking. But but that being said, um I I think I think that things are gonna start changing faster and faster. And and if you look, if you look, I mean hindsight is hindsight is always 2020, right? If you look back at the last sort of 10-15 years, um it seems obvious that things have already been changing. Um but I think we'll see them change faster and
Monthly Roundup And What’s Ahead
SPEAKER_01faster.
SPEAKER_00Hey there everybody, welcome back to the show. This is the Straight Note Chaser podcast where we talk about human freedom through money, technology, philosophy, and economics. This is the next edition of the monthly roundup. Uh, we have Ricky and Herriman on board. Uh Oaken is otherwise engaged. Uh we'll catch them next month. Today we chat about a wide range of things uh from new tech in the Bitcoin space and AI, privacy tech, and then some general chats about some upcoming uh proposed legislation. We give updates on the draft capital flows uh regulation that's causing a bit of a stir as far as physical property rights go. Uh, so it's a good all-rounded chat. Nice to have the guys uh with us today, and I know you guys will enjoy this one. Awesome. Uh good morning, boys and girls. Uh lucky to have you all back again. Uh lots, a lot has been happening. Um AI space, tech space. Um but yeah, we got Ricky and Herman here. How's it guys? How's it going?
SPEAKER_01How's it all? No complaints, man.
SPEAKER_00Lacka lecker. Um listen, uh,
Tether Wallet Joke And Stablecoin Control
SPEAKER_00I think most recent little bit of news first, perhaps. Uh, but before we get to that, uh I just wanted to open up today's one with a little bit of a joke. Um I think the clever people will get this one. Uh, Tether, the company behind USDT, the world's largest stable coin, just announced that's a very funny joke. Yes, thank you. Uh, just announced Tether Wallet, and they do say a self, a new self-custodial app. Uh it made me smile from ear to ear. Uh, because I think the last bit of Tether news I read was 4.something billion dollars in tokens locked uh at the behest of the US government. So I'm not sure how they get a self-custodial app with their token, but anyway, on that um not so funny
BTC Prague And Europe’s Cypherpunk Energy
SPEAKER_00note. Um Herman, you've just come back from BTC Prague, man. Um uh please, yeah. How was it? Um, what's happening in in in the European world?
SPEAKER_01Um it was good, man. Uh I I always enjoy going to Europe. Um, but like I said to you just before we got on the call, I've I feel uh a kind of an affinity with the European Bitcoiners. Um not not with Europeans in general, but specifically with European Bitcoiners. Um they seem to understand that Bitcoin is free to money and you know you gotta use it if you want it to be that. Um the institute the institutionalization crowd seems to be a little less overpowering. I mean, Prague is a big conference, right? And compared to the big conference in the US, there's a lot more like sort of grassroots peer-to-peer stuff happening um at in in Prague than there seems to be um in the US. So it's it's good. I enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00Um standout talks. Um what was your sort of highlights on the conference?
SPEAKER_01Um I mean I'm I'm kind of I'm kind of over going to talks at conferences. Like I don't I don't attend too many of them. I think I only watched three and those were three that I specifically wanted to see. Um other than that, it's all just you know trying to connect and talk with people.
DAC8 Lawsuit And The KYC Honeypot
SPEAKER_01Um but the three the three talks that I really enjoyed was um the first one was uh by by Francis um from Bull Bitcoin, and we briefly discussed that before the call as well, where um Bull Bitcoin has decided to take uh some European jurisdictions to court over DAC 8. Um, I just read up about it. DAC 8 is a a data sharing agreement between 47 jurisdictions in Europe, and it's an automated data sharing agreement. So, what happens is that they're creating this massive honeypot of information where uh I mean I assume I mean 47 countries sounds like basically the whole European Union, um, essentially. Um and so it's more than that, it's bigger than the European Union, I think it's like 21 countries. So it's probably it's more than that. So, I mean, but for but jurisdictions could mean something else other than countries, but anyway, it's it's whatever it is, it's the whole of Europe. And so what they and and I we I wish there was a recording of this talk. I don't I couldn't find one, but it's basically creating a situation where all crypto companies across the entire Europe automatically shares data with each other. So this is not this is not in cases where data is being requested. It's like as soon as you submit your KYC data to an exchange in I don't know, France, it goes to the same centralized uh directory as whether you're submitting your data from an exchange in Portugal or Finland or whatever, whatever the case may be. So so that and and and and bull bitcoin is is taking taking this to court. And so they're starting in France, um, and they're using their own company Treasury to finance this. And so yeah, that that that talk was great.
On-Chain Spam Debate And Fork Threats
SPEAKER_01Um there was also a great talk by Jack Cruz, uh, where I finally decided that I think he's full of shit. And um he's full of shit, and he's a he's he's followers of of not obsessed people um are also full of shit because it's this whole thing is basically, as far as I can tell, one big virtue signal. And it's not it's not proposing a solution, and nobody's talking about a solution, but the more you ask them about how this is going to actually technically solve the problem, the more they shout about how bad it is that all this stuff is being put on chain. And it's like, okay, yeah, I also think it's bad, I think it sucks. Uh, I don't want to see um horrific images stored on the Bitcoin blockchain. But if your if your solution is not actually going to solve the problem, then what the fuck are we doing? And the more you ask that question, the louder they shout about how bad it is that the stuff is on chain, and then you you just go around and around in this repetitive circle where yes, I agree, it's bad that the stuff is on chain, but you're threatening to fork the chain. Um, for what? It's not actually solving anything. So what are we doing here? Um, and so that was great because it it it was it was that, and there was a debate on that as well. Um, the debate was uh moderated by Stefan Livera, and the person arguing uh with the most sense is actually somebody that I don't like at all, which is uh guy called Peter Todd. Um I I I don't like that character, but what one has to one has to sort of recognize that it's a valid point to make, which is that okay, but if your solution again, if the if the solution does not actually solve the problem of spam on a technical level, then what are we doing here? Why why are we potentially threatening to fork the chain if you yourself admit that this is basically just a virtue signal, um, which is what what was actually admitted on that panel by by somebody on the not side of the debate, which is like it's not it's not solving the problem, but it's a virtue signal. It's it's us saying that this is what we want. It's like, yeah, that's great. There's many things that I want that I can't get. So what what what's the point of all this? So I think um yeah, those those were great talks. Um I didn't even bother going to the Sailor talk because it's boring. And yeah, that that that was about it though.
SPEAKER_00Cool man. Um yeah, I've actually never been been to that conference, haven't actually been to the city, in fact, now that I think about it. So it is up there on my list. Um, I think that scene over the bridge in the evening with the lights and the city in the background, that all the old part of the city is amazing. It's always been like uh it's a bit like Croatia. Every time I see a picture of like an incredible coastline, I think, damn it, that looks amazing, gotta go. And then I find out it's Croatia. So that's happened about 10 times. So Croatia's on my bucket list, and so is Prague. Um, we'll get ourselves through there. Um, Herman, just wanted to ask you quickly, you know, you you said that you more affinity with the European Bitcoiners because they seem to be a little bit more um uh privacy anti-establishments than the American guys. Um do you do you think that's a little bit like the the previous communist countries are totally anti-communist? Uh that sort of approach. Uh guys that have sort of been hit hardest seem to wake up quickest, and maybe the US is being hit less hard, less quickly.
SPEAKER_01Um to be honest, I don't know. I don't know why. I think it might have something to do with that. Um especially in the Czech Republic, they they seem to be very anti the whole communist um movement. So it it could it could be that. I just I I don't know. It's hard to say. I don't think it's like it's like I said, I don't think it's it's I don't think it's got something to do with Europeans in general. I think it's European Bitcoiners specifically. Um normal Europeans I fight quite intolerable. Um but the European Bitcoiners they seem to be there seem to be a a sort of a very strong cypherpunk uh uh uh uh idealism with the European Bitcoiners, whereas the the Americans just seem to be more sort of you get you obviously get the cyberpunks there too, but it that's just that uh they they seem more ready to sort of like just accept the institutionalization um of Bitcoin in the US. Whereas in Europe, I don't think I think maybe also what might have something to do with it, but this is a more recent thing, but what might have something to do with it is that the clamp down in in Europe just seems more obvious. Whereas in in the US, the clamp down, especially the last couple of years, don't uh don't seem that obvious. Um it seems to be a different uh different line of attack in the US where they kind of coming from the angle of will replace your freedom money with stable coins and will let you hold Bitcoin on Coinbase. Um so yeah, but I I don't know exactly why.
SPEAKER_00Okay. No, just curious if you'd picked up anything there.
Capital Controls And Property Rights Defence
SPEAKER_00Uh talking about uh clamp down and attack, uh uh Ricky, I do want to ask uh before we dig into any other news items, um, and and that's probably primarily because there was a little news-related thing where Rwanda has now got some virtual asset law uh that they've introduced, which is now new restrictions on digital assets, uh, comes straight back to the property rights defense. Um, can you talk a little bit about that? What's been happening in the background um and just bring us up to speed there?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, for sure. Um I just want to say that before we get started, that uh last year Hadman and I traveled to Prague together, and it was a great experience going to Prague. Uh very sorry I didn't get to go to BDC Prague this year. But I'm sure not as sorry as Hadman was having to travel by himself and not having me there to shepherd him around and buy him his um his tonic because I know that he likes to drink. Um but yeah, anyway, back onto the back onto the PRD stuff. Yeah, so essentially, as you know, the comment window has been expanded until the 30th of June, which is coming up now, uh in what those 14 days. Um so that's when the comment window closes. So property rights defense group has completed its submission. We've yet to push it out there still because our expectation is that the government is gonna do some last minute things before the 30th. So you want to give them as little time to respond as possible. Um, we obviously not being that tuberistic to think they're actually gonna read our submission, um, but the general public is. So that's gonna be going out in the next few days. Um, and then membership drive, people can join the property rights defense membership base and actually get your get your name behind this thing. Um, yeah, so that's kind of where we're at at the moment. We've seen a lot of uh movement over the past few weeks from society at large and industry players, both Luno and Vala have come out much more strongly opposed to this. I mean, they've first made their first submissions before the first comment window expired, and then they got dragged by the by the government, and the government expanded that window. So then likely both Luna and Vala have come out now with stronger statements. Both of them saying that, you know, these regulations will kill the industry. Uh, it's a bad idea, capital controls are really what should go. So, yeah, that's kind of the layer of the land at the moment. Um, we've been speaking behind the scenes to a lot of players. Um everyone's upinharmed about it, you know. Everyone's upset by this. And like at the end of the day, what this comes down to is capital controls. We should not have capital controls in a free and open society, they should not exist. Um yet here we are. So I think one thing people should, you know, come to terms with is that the government hates you. Whether you're in Europe or in the US or in South Africa, it doesn't matter, or Rwanda, it doesn't matter. Government hates you. They are doing everything in their power to screw you. And if you have that lens, then you'll be okay because you'll be you know antagonistic. Um adversarial, have an adversarial mindset. Nothing the government does is for your benefit, it's for their vested interest benefit. Um, and so you should expect them to try to screw you over where they can. So, yeah, that's kind of what's happening as Hadron was saying, no, they're seeing this data sharing law they want to push in the Eurozone. Um, that's just so that they can monitor people. It's the same reason why in the UK they want to you know have a minimum age for social media and they want to have the phone manufacturers have on-device monitoring of your what you do on your phone. It's like 1984 personified. It's absolutely crazy. So, yeah, I think people should should realize that governments around the world are trying to take away your freedom. Um, and once your freedom is gone, it's very, very hard to get back. Ask the North Koreans. Actually, you can't ask them because they're not allowed to speak to you. That's what happens, they take your freedom. So, yeah, I'll leave it there for now. Um, but we are fighting a good fight, PRD is growing nicely. Um, and uh yeah, we make this midway.
SPEAKER_00Cool, man. Um, I actually just want to add on to what you said there about uh your government hates you because um I think in South Africa we have this um uh DA is gonna save us mentality, a lot of people. Uh, but you know, this whole AR debacle with these AR regulations, um, I actually just found out today that's a DA
Party Politics Skepticism And AI Regulation
SPEAKER_00minister that put forward that whole thing. Um, and not only was it a hash, but uh, you know, the DA is supposed to be small government run effectively. Um, and and this guy was just wanting to create seven new institutions to regulate AI. Um, and and I know this whole foot and mouth disease that uh John Esteone is and also a DA member has um some people have called it the worst DA disaster in the history of the party. So um I just I I'm not really into party politics, but uh thought just on what you said about your government hates you. I think South Africans need to wake up and start looking to a government or an individual or a person to come and save them. Uh it just ain't gonna happen.
SPEAKER_03Gavin, what would ever give you the idea that the DA is about small government? Like, you know, maybe they said that in the 1990s when when Tony Leone was pushing the like libertarian angle, but like I think they abandoned that position a long time ago. I think the DA, I haven't voted DA in a long time, thankfully. Um and to me, they're just the Democrats in the US, you know, it's the same thing. I mean Ellen Zill is Hillary Clinton without the body count, basically, you know, in my in my opinion. She maybe hasn't as many people off the zilly as allegedly as Hillary Clinton has, but yeah, you know, at the end of the day, these guys are like globalists, you know. Um you see the things they're doing. And like they say one thing, and then when they get in power, they just become the NC light. And like I see now the fear of plus is pushing the small government narrative. Like, if the fear of plus gets into power, they'll be the same as the DA. Like the solution here is not politics. Like politicians exist to scam you. That's you know, they're really about saying one thing so that people vote for them, but at the other side of their mouth, they're talking to their vested interest groups and ultimately giving the vested interest groups what they want. That's what politics is about. It's literally about slides of hand, it's about telling a group of people one thing to get voted in and then doing another thing for the people that actually paid for you to get there and funded your entire rise to power. So, yeah, I mean the DA is probably pushing the digital ID thing, you know. Um, they're pushing the vaccine driver with foot and mouth. Um, no. And I don't know if you guys have seen the video of Helen Ziller flying a drone, the recent video she made in Joe Burger flying a drone over this like uh abandoned pool, beautiful pool area that NC led go to rack and run. She's flying under the phone. Well, allegedly, it looks like she's summoning a demon. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_02It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.
SPEAKER_03She's like squinting like this. She's like, Helen, stop.
SPEAKER_02Apparently, there's Punjibo DJing in four ways over the weekend as well. Someone needs to put Helen back in home. She's out of control.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, politicians. Hey, you gotta love them. Nobody can embarrass themselves like a politician. Um, you know, when you see these guys dancing on stage and they sort of they do it's like they're kissing the babies, you know. I mean, come on. Um, it just infuriates me.
SPEAKER_03But uh just a public service advancement. Never let a politician kiss your baby. They'll try to suck its soul out of it. Don't do that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay. So let's park that politics thing. It's such a dull going-nowhere topic. Um uh
Silent Payments In Sparrow Wallet
SPEAKER_00wanted to chat a little bit about uh yeah, there's been such a like a bunch of tech stuff coming out, which I think is awesome. Um, top of the list, once again, shout out to Sparrow. Uh, local guys uh building world-class software. They've announced the um silent payments uh that they now support. Um, what I'm loving about this is um, you know, if you ever have to deal with an exchange, uh, and you normally have to put a Bitcoin address on that exchange, uh, because they don't just let you pick and choose on the fly. You sort of have to almost like enroll an address to do something with it. This could be an interesting way to just put that address on. Um, and then you know, the silent payment does its thing behind the scenes. Um I haven't actually messed with it yet, and that's simply because uh hardware wallets I use don't yet support it. So I haven't actually started messing around. Any any of you guys uh looked at the silent payments thing yet?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, it's a great, it's a great feature. Um we were actually lucky enough to have Josie, who wrote the spec for silent payments uh last year after the conference, hang out with us for a bit in our workspace here in Cape Town. So I got to like pick his brain about how it works. Um fast forward now, it's great to see that Sparrow is incorporated as the latest release. Um it doesn't yet work on the hardware wallets that I'm using as well. Um I've seen that, but I haven't played around with it with some software wallets. Um essentially what it is is you can just provide a static address that is people can reuse. People just say keep sending money to that one static address and it hides. The transaction history. So effectively, you can instead of just like leaking all your privacy by having one single address, you can now use a single address, which is a silent address, and receive payments that way. It supports receiving and sending now on Sparrow, which is great. So massive privacy gains. It has to be adopted by hardware wallets if you've got to update your firmware and all of that. So we're going to see this kind of slow adoption across the whole ecosystem. Great that that Sparrow is integrated from the start because for me Sparrow is my go-to. You know, like that's the benchmark I use for what a wallet, a software wallet, should be, or you know, coordination software should be. Yeah, is Sparrow. And I think a lot of people around the world use it as well, so it's a great one. But shout out to hardware wallet telefactures. They need to update their firmware to support this too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, please, people, jump on the bandwagon. Support the South African tech. It's important. Um, the thing I think that's awesome about Sparrow is um you can just connect your hardware wallet to it, and then you can just park your hardware wallet. You don't have to like, you know, if you're receiving payments, you can just you don't have to pull out your hardware wallet every single time you want to receive a payment to get the address. You can just put pull up an address and send it, and it works like a dream. Um, the only downside is uh you stand a severe risk of forgetting your uh pin number on your hardware wallet because you haven't used it for a couple of years. So don't make that mistake.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like if you've got adequate backups, then you should be able to deal with that. Um, but yeah, like using the watch-only functionality on Sparrow is great, especially if you're using air gap wallets like a seed sign or a jade or cold card. To be honest, yeah, everyone should be using air gap hardware wallets if you're using hardware wallets, right? Like the the UX is so good now, it's so much easier than it used to be. Um, especially with the QR standards that like, yeah, there's no reason not to be using uh air gap hardware wallets.
SPEAKER_00Next little news item that I thought was super, super
Progressive Web Wallets Versus App Stores
SPEAKER_00cool. Um, I don't know if I'm gonna, I probably will butcher this name. Uh IJMA. Uh I think I've said that badly yet, but it's IjMA. Um, this is a new open source wallet for Bitcoin. And when I first read that first part, I was like, yeah, yeah, we've I think we've got enough wallets here. Do we need more wallets? But then I went on to read. Not only does it do Bitcoin, eCash, and uh handles Naster's apps and all of that, but it is a progressive web app, which means uh you can use this thing on your mobile phone without it having to be on a uh app store or a Play Store anywhere, which is super cool because those are extra gatekeepers. Um and uh if you don't have to go through that and someone can just uh log in uh to a web browser, essentially it's basically a web browser um that you would use. Now I haven't messed with it. This is not an endorsement of the product. Um please, I haven't tried it. But I think the idea of just being able to no longer have to now download an app off an app store uh potentially is amazing. Um so I haven't seen that uh before, but sounds super cool. Uh, I'm not sure if you guys have uh come across something like this before.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like I think apps in the app store are gonna be a thing of the past because app stores are just centralized censorship hellscapes. Like, if any of you guys worked in in publishing apps before you've dealt with this, it's fucking bullshit. It sucks so much. Like it takes weeks to get an app out there. Uh, you have to submit it to these overlords, you're just like dealing with bots the whole time. It's a nightmare, absolute nightmare. But that being said, like progressive web apps, you know, um are not necessarily the answer because you don't get all the native features of the phone. And APKs are also not always the answer because that doesn't work with iPhone, it only works with Android phones. And like some Android phones, like Google is not talking about trying to block APKs, which is madness. But yeah, anyway, so any kind of wallet that that sits outside of that ecosystem is is down the right track. Um, because like you want to build cool features into your wallet, then the app store says no. So the zap store is kind of cool, you know, it's like uh NASA zap store. Um I haven't played around with it too much, but uh, the concept sounds pretty good. Um but yeah, essentially anything that gives you the freedom to like write or like download your own software and run it on your own device without having to go through a centralized gatekeeper is a massive one because those gatekeepers are just gonna get more and more constrained because they're getting pressure on them from the communist baby eaters at the EU and to wherever uh wherever else the overlords live. Um yeah, so they're gonna get pressure and they're just gonna get worse and worse. Those the app stores are just gonna get terrible, basically.
SPEAKER_00Um, speaking of Nosta, actually, I see there's also something awesome there.
Nostr VPN And Peer-To-Peer Messaging
SPEAKER_00Nosta VPN. Uh, this is something that popped up, I think, in the last couple of weeks. Um, also, once again, I haven't even had a chance to have a look at that, but I've just been reading the news stuff. Um, you know, in the background, Russia's been blan uh banning uh VPNs, um uh and countries are starting to get wise at this whole VPN thing. Uh Nosta being based, you know, uh one of these decentralized things. Uh hopefully that can avoid that. Um anyone use the the Nosta VPN to see what it can do. No, I haven't yet.
SPEAKER_01No, I haven't. I did find uh I did find a useful uh use case for um uh I've been uh I've been experimenting with um uh what's that app called Kit, um which is a peer-to-peer uh uh messenger does video calls. And um the the story is that uh both in both in Russia and in the UAE actually, uh where I've I've got people that I'm talking to, um it's gett it's been getting more and more difficult to use messengers like WhatsApp and Telegram. Um even if you use a VPN, um a lot of a lot of the VPNs don't don't work anymore. Um and whereas Keith, you know, if you're able to, as long as you're able to install the app on your device, which can sometimes be a little bit of a hassle, um, but if you if you can get the app onto your onto your device, it works, it works like a charm without a VPN. Um video calls, um it's a little it's a little slower than than than WhatsApp, but um yeah, it works great. Um my son is actually using it to chat to his uh grandma in in Russia. Um I took uh I took WhatsApp off of his phone because of the built-in Meta AI. I refused to have my kid chat to uh chat to Meta's AI. Um and they they they were using Telegram, but that was also shut down uh if you are if you're not using a VPN. And so the alternative was either either Keat or some very obscure uh messaging app or the Russian uh the the official government sanctioned messaging app, which is obviously not gonna happen. Um so it's interesting. I mean, it's it's it's really the first the first real world use case I've encountered uh where we didn't really have an alternative other than the. I mean, I've been using it with with people just because I like it, but um came across this as the first sort of real world use case where we didn't really have an alternative. I'm sure there are other apps out there that work as well, but Keat was just the first and most obvious one I went to. Um works really well. Um I was expecting it to be a little slower than what it is, but it's it's pretty smooth.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Keat's another one of those ticks that uh I see pop up uh in my sort of socials reels all the time, uh, or adverts for it or whatever. Um I know um one of the uh the gas one um from Bitcoin Audible. I think he's busy working on something called Pair Drive. Um it's all it's two weeks away from release uh for the past five years. Um so yeah, I think he's using um the same sort of tech that Keat is built on. Uh I'm guessing it is being used for that as well. And I think the idea there is going to be file sharing and and doing peer-to-peer stuff without having to um run through centralized servers or something. Uh so that's super cool. Um I know it's a little uh I think we actually spoke about it last month, but um BitChat recently enabled the ability to transfer the app from one mobile device to another. Like you can download the app from your friend's mobile device. Um maybe Keith, yeah, maybe Keith and those guys will come up with that as well. Um uh that is a super cool feature.
SPEAKER_03Like viral app sharing. Wow, that's cool. I like it.
Start9 OS 0.40 And Remote Access
SPEAKER_03Um, Gavin, I don't know if you've got this on your list of things to discuss, but have you got the new start 9 OS 0.40 release on the on the list?
SPEAKER_00I do not, so by all means go for it.
SPEAKER_03So I've been playing around with the new 0.40 uh release. It's a whole new overall of start OS. So they were on 3.5.1 before, um, and 0.4 was like a whole new built-from-the-ground up OS. And the biggest difference is that you can expose services and access services via clear net when you when you're no longer in your own local um Wi-Fi network. So previously how it works is like if you're in your own local network to where your start line server is, your home Wi-Fi network, you can access your services no problem. But most people leave the houses, right? It's not COVID anymore. So people go out of the houses, and then the only way you could access your server was via tour, which is slow, cut user experience, and then you end up not using your services, just like takes whatever things time out. Doesn't work so well. Um, so the new one, 4.0, you can access those services by either opening your uh ports on your own home Wi-Fi router, or you can use this thing called start tunnel, which is open source software they've built, which lets you spin up a virtual router on a virtual machine in the cloud. So then that acts as your router, and you can like start tunnel into that. So then you can expose services via clear net um that people can access without them seeing your home Wi-Fi IP address, which is great. And you can have limits who sees it, you can whitelist certain devices, or you can make the entire service open on ClearNet if you want to. What this means is that you can access all of your services from your start line server wherever you are. So like your Vault Orton password manager, for example, that lives in your start line server. You can access that anywhere in the world now by setting up your um virtual router. You can access your BBC Pay server, your file storage. It's got this like open source file storage, there's CryptPad, which is like your own uh Word Excel document management stuff. And there's a whole bunch more services that are being added constantly onto both registries, the Start Line and the community registry. And with Claude or with coding tools now, you can build your own service that's wrapped for Start Line. So you can like sideload your own services. So now all your projects you want to build yourself, you want to buy a code yourself. You can self-host them on your own server and make it publicly available or whitelist certain devices to be able to see them. So all of a sudden, this like self-hosting stuff became way more powerful, way more usable. Like um, the services that are on there that you can like do like one-click deploys are super useful. Like Jitsi, for example, you can now run all your video calls for your entire organization by Jitsi or self-hosted, all your transcription can happen right there on your own device. Then you can use open web UI, which is like a um AI interface for running different models, it keeps all your chat history local on your own device. C A XG is like a privacy-focused um web search that aggregates search results across a bunch of different search providers, like Brave and Google and whatever. But you can tie those together with your your AI models. So now you can do web search that's private and you can run your own AI models. Like you can't you can't run your models locally because you don't have the hardware necessary to be able to run it, but you can use a service like PPQ, PPQ.ai, Matt Elberg, shout out, um, built that. So you can connect that up to your own um, so you can basically off-board your compute for your AI stuff to BPQ, pay for it in SATS, no account necessary, so it's like pseudonymous. And then you can basically can run all of that through your start line server. So, like all of a sudden, you can vibe code your own projects, save into your own self-hosted Git repo on your start line server, and then build your services there, host your services there, access them wherever you are in the world. Like it has just become super, super useful. So Start Line is doing amazing, amazing stuff. And this new OS, it's still in beta, but you can if you've got a Start Line server or if you've built one yourself, you can you can flash it and run that OS, it's pretty easy. I did it, so copy that one. Um, yeah, it's it's wild. It's pretty Oakens on here. I mean, he he works for Start Line, he can tell us much more about it. But he's been shouting at me for months saying 0.40 is gonna blow your mind. Um, he's correct. It's amazing. Um, very, very cool.
SPEAKER_00I'm so glad you mentioned that because that's been my I mean, I I don't run start nine. I've got uh a couple of umbrella devices around here. Um also super cool. Uh, but that has been my one bug there is I just cannot access the stuff when I'm away from home. And uh even using Tail Scale that works well, so I can sort of SSH in um remotely, but as soon as I want to access like Nextcloud or BTC Pay Server, it still picks up that I'm actually not on the native home network and it still blocks me. So I've had this list on my to-dos about how to get around this thing for months, and I haven't actually kind of sussed it out. So I think you've just solved my problem there, dude. Um, I'll buy you a beer next time I see you.
SPEAKER_03It's not possible with Umbril. That's the thing. So, and and exactly that problem you just highlighted there. Like basically, you have to SSH in or you've got to access it via tall, and that is just natively a bad user experience. There's no way around it. Um basically what the virtual private router does is it puts your router in the cloud, um, but then limits who can access that router. Like you only have to share a certificate with devices that want to join it, so they actually have to have a certificate loaded onto the device, and then you get the the um IP address so you can access it yourself. Um, and that way you can like have just yourself and family on your own. You know, that adding the devices is pretty easy once you've got it set up. But then, for example, your wife's version of Bitwarden, she can access her own profile on your Volden that's sitting on your device, you know. Your your file storage. So, like instead of Google Drive, you can have your own partition drive there that your family can access. You can just keep adding the hard drives as you need to the server. Um so then you know, you can just keep everything much more private. And the biggest thing for me, I know how to run a bit by coding as well, um, is that when you start vibing and you start building up a history with Claude or GPT or whatever, like eventually you've given it so much information about yourself that it's terrifying. It's you know, and that's where things get super creepy because now what happens when when they pass these AI laws with these um your chat history for the past five years with your AI model of choice now needs to be shared with the government. I mean, not what you want. Not what you want. So before you get to the point where you've built such a cohesive like profile about yourself with your favorite chat bot, uh you should probably look to self-host that. Um, yeah, so like the the stack that I've figured out that works on on Start9 is using open web UI with PDQ. Um, it doesn't give you like complete privacy because your your chat history is still the is still being sent you know in clear text to to Claude or to whatever model you're using via pdq.ai. But you are accessing it by pdq.ai's APIs, you don't have an account with them, they don't know who you are. Um, and therefore that information doesn't isn't linked back to an individual. And the retention policy they use because they're using enterprise version is only 30 days. So like you get quite a lot of like pseudonymous trade-offs there, where like they don't know who you are. Um, if you mask your IP address, like the start tunnel, they've got your IP address, they're not really inferred. So it's like a decent, it's a decent like uh pseudonymous setup. And then PPQ has also got these now natively private models where they encrypt everything and it goes into a secure encrypted cluster, blah blah blah. Basically, not even the inference model can see like what it is if you're querying. So yeah, good good privacy gains to be held there, had there, and you can run start nine on your own device if you've got a machine that can run it, um, or you can buy a pre-made device from Start9. Um, assembling your own server is probably a great way to go, flashing it yourself, but you do need to this needs to be an always-on server. So like a NUC or something will work for it.
SPEAKER_00Cool, man. Thanks for that. I'm definitely gonna go check that out because um uh well, I don't know if Umbril's got something in the pipeline. I I don't really follow their news updates or whatever. So um if anyone knows if Umbrill's got something similar coming up, let me know. Otherwise, I might just swing over to Start9 uh anyway and check that out.
SPEAKER_03Um But if you if you're running if you're running Umbril on a device already, as long as it's not a Raspberry Pi, if you've got like a better device that you're running it on, you can run your start nine on that.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, so actually I do have a Raspberry Pi running uh Umbrell on one thing just to mess around with. And then I've got one of those um Umbrel Home devices. It's also like the sort of pre-built little unit. Uh could I run? I mean, it sounds like sacrilegious, but I mean to buy an Umbrel Home unit and then run Startline on it, uh will that work?
SPEAKER_03It's I mean, if it's running Linux, I'm sure you can. It's like a lot of extra work to do it that way. Um to set it up, but I'm sure you you can flash with start OS. Probably. The thing is, like you can run start OS, no problem on a Raspberry Pi, as long as you're not doing a Bitcoin core node on that. The core node is where things fall apart, which sucks because you want to run your own node. But if you've got a Raspberry Pi 4B or 5 or whatever, you can easily run Start OS on it. Just don't, there's some services you shouldn't run. But the better thing to do is just buy a NUC from Tangelot or whatever. Um, that's got two terabyte SSD, maybe 16 gigs of RAM, like decent onboard CPU, um, and then run it that way. But I think the the Umbrella home device will probably probably meet all the criteria you need to flash it with Start OS. But yeah, it's a bit sacrilegious, but whatever. It'll probably work just fine.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, I may have to like kill something and sprinkle some blood in it or something before I do that to make sure it works. I don't I don't know. Um uh but uh yeah, talking about tech bouncing around quite quickly, I saw something.
Private AI Setups And Data Retention
SPEAKER_00Um uh AMD have released a little lunchbox size thing that they claim is a quarter of the price of the um NVIDIA equivalent unit um and beats it uh in terms of processing power on that. So it just seems it's the leapfrog game. You know, one makes one big announcement a few weeks later, the next one, the next one. So things are moving super fast. It's really hard to keep up with. Um anyway, bringing it back sort of into Africa again, uh Tando, I see the Kenyan guys. Um, they have now um added uh phone Kenyan phone numbers can now become uh Bitcoin Lightning addresses. I mean, geez, where do these guys get these clever ideas from? It's flipping genius. You know, instead of having to now remember uh your lightning URL or your LN address, now your your mobile number just becomes a thing. Uh that is super cool.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because it's already it's already a unique identifier, right? So like it's perfect. You have your cell number at sando.com. Good to go, you know, and they just automatically by default create them for people. It's like just send to this. This is your lighting address now. Um did you was Jason in in Prague? I got to spend some time with him two, three weeks ago in in um Vienna. Uh we were at a workshop together. But yeah, what Sando is doing is really cool. Those guys are on the ball. Um you should definitely check Gavin might be worthwhile trying to get Jason onto one of these in the future, uh, because he's building he's building uh tundo based in in Nairobi, but yeah, doing some very cool stuff.
SPEAKER_01I'll be um I'll be seeing him in Nairobi when I go uh next week. But uh no, he was not he was not in Prague. I think they're at the C conference, which kind of sort of overlaps with the Prague conference.
SPEAKER_03So Yeah, that's one in Nairobi, huh?
SPEAKER_01Yes, that's That's also Nairobi.
SPEAKER_03Because they got BDC Plus Plus, Nairobi, and then they've got the BDC Nairobi conference like next month. Not this month, right? Ten days time.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, it's next week, um starting next week, Wednesday. Yeah. The one that uh that used to be adopting Bitcoin Nairobi but has now changed changed their colours to uh I think it's just called Nairobi Bitcoin Conference or something like that.
SPEAKER_00Sorry, I left my mic on mute there. Um uh yeah, so um yeah, once again, lots of tech stuff. Uh I see the Stratum
Stratum V2 And Mining Centralisation
SPEAKER_00V2. Um the the big mining companies seem to be joining the standard. Um, not quite sure what to make of that. Uh I I think Stratum V2 is better than Stratum V1, um, as far as you know, as far as general statements go. Uh, but all the big guys joining it, um, is this a good thing, is this a bad thing? Um, I'm not really too involved in the mining industry. Uh, I know centralization is a problem, something that everyone talks about. So anything where individual miners can create their own block template, I think it's a good thing, and that's what uh V2 seems to allow people to do. Um I I know the Ocean guys um have that same functionality uh as well. Uh this was something we sort of spoke about briefly at the adopting Bitcoin conference. Like, you know, is mining centralization uh solved? Um uh Ricky, you didn't seem to think it had it had been solved yet, or or whatever. Um thoughts, anything happened in the last few months that has um swayed your opinion, or do you still think uh things are still too way too centralized?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think things are still way too centralized, uh, not much has changed there. Um I wonder what is happening with the geopolitics state of things um with mining, because if Iran has realized that accepting payments and stable coins is a fool's errand and that the Americans are just gonna steal your stable coins, um which it seems they've realized, and now they're accepting payments in Bitcoin. Um, you know, there's been long been rumors they've been mining Bitcoin. I've been saying this for a while, like I'm pretty sure they are still. Um, how's this gonna change? You know, because every other nation state has watched this whole whole news crisis play out, and I think if they've seen, okay, so stable coins are not a safe place to keep your money, bitcoin really is the only safe place to keep your money. What is that gonna do to mining? Like, are these countries now gonna be incentivized to start mining just to protect you know, you know, stack as it were? We see ESCOM talking about getting into Bitcoin mining. Uh, I know the Ethiopians are already into it. Very interesting. So hopefully the next layer of decentralization around mining happens between antagonistic nation states that are not actually mining to protect their own stack. But that's all just speculation on my part, presently.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh sort of an interesting one. Uh, because if you're a nation state and you are doing your own mining, surely you want to be in total control of the block template uh if you do strike it. Um that's not something you want to like be dishing out. Uh and I think that seems to be a general trend where we see um governments are now looking at the tech stack that they run in their own institutions and then deciding, hang on, you know, the Europeans aren't happy running American uh software anymore. So, you know, now they start running the Germans are running Nextcloud in the government, as far as I know. Uh, I don't know if it's all the departments, but certainly a lot of them are doing that. And uh I think there seems to be more and more of a move away from this global um, these massive global companies uh or American companies servicing providing services to the entire world. And countries are saying, well, hang on, is this such a good idea? Um, yeah, interesting to see where that goes. Uh, in terms of AR models, um, I mean, the big ones we all know and talk about are basically American, but you know, the Chinese guys with the the deep seek stuff and Quen and all these other models are not far behind, and they certainly don't ask for permission before they build or release or or go wild. So all these things about uh anthropics fable and mythos that's now being gatekeeped and banned so people can't use it. Um I I don't think the Iranians and the Chinese on the Russians are going to ask Donald for permission before they start running stuff like that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I don't think so. And I also think what the what the Iran US Israel war has proven over the last few months is like diplomacy gets you basically nowhere with these people. All they understand is force, sadly. So expect to see a lot more of that. Um because like Iran achieved in the past, you know, three months via force what they haven't achieved in 40 years of diplomacy. So yeah, um, I think it's the the US and Israel only really respect anyone who responds, you know, who shows force back to them. So it's gonna be interesting to see how these how other nation states respond to this and how they start securing their their stats and their bags. Um are they gonna be doing this with nuclear energy, like you know, mining Bitcoin with nuclear power, follow the Iranian route of you know putting a bitcoin miners underground where you know those pen bunker busters can't get to them. Interesting times, very interesting times. Um, but I think the a lot of countries have seen that the model of appeasement um and like just doing what the US imperial empire says is doesn't really get you anyway. Um yeah, it's very interesting times.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think uh on that note, one of the other
Russia Iran And The Decline Narrative
SPEAKER_00little uh sort of political things I've jotted down was um uh senior official at Russia's central bank says Visa and MasterCard should leave the country entirely. Uh, right up with what we were just saying. Um uh I mean that's sort of interesting. Um uh but I think the Visa and MasterCard kind of handle the international part of the transactions. Uh, all the internal credit card payments are handled by Russia's own um tech stack inside the country. So if if they kick Visa and MasterCard out, it's not going to affect their internal economy, from what I understand. Um, but uh Herman, you've probably got a bit more on the ground info uh on life uh in the USSR. Can we still say that? I don't know. Um maybe if it's in the uh well, maybe uh sponsored by the Beatles, then we can say it. Um in terms of uh loud and proud uh news news headlines uh versus life on the ground. Um what are you picking up from family members that you speak to uh about stuff on the ground they're home on?
SPEAKER_01Uh I don't know man. It's um yeah, I think um I think uh the the general gist is that um it's about time that somebody does something um in terms of yeah, I think people are just people are just tired of being told what to do. Um and as much as it sucks, and I think it does suck, um it was kind of inevitable that you know you you ended up in this point. And so there's there's a lot of um how can I put it? Uh my my my impression is that it's kind of like it's people's you know, people's attitude is that this is a a necessary but very unfortunate but but necessary process um because the uh the Western Empire just would not stop when when the when the time comes to stop. Like it'll it'll just keep going and going and going and going. And so at some point you kind of have to do something about it, I suppose. Um that's not my that's not I'm I'm not sure how I feel about the situation, but that's the impression I get from people who are affected by it uh more closely than I am. Um I think it's a very difficult situation to judge from the outside. I think until you've had your country um attacked, whether that was indirectly, you know, through through threatening expansion or more directly through actual bombs dropping on your country, I think it's very hard to say. Um I spent some time in Istanbul with uh with um with an Iranian person, and um it's a very similar very similar impression that I got from from them, you know, which is that yeah, it sucks that it has to come to this, but the the aggressor is is acting like like they didn't do anything, um which is which kind of makes it worse in a way, you know. It's like the bully on the schoolyard who who's the one you know slapping all the kids around and then is also the first one to run to the teacher when when anybody when anybody slaps back.
SPEAKER_03And he's pulling them for their own good, he's telling everyone he's doing it for their own good.
SPEAKER_01Well that too, yeah. Uh but uh it's it's the bully who does most of the complaining, um actually. And yeah, it's uh it's it's it's not a yeah, it it kind of it kind of sucks, and I don't my my my feeling is that it's not gonna get any better anytime soon. It's kind of like just gonna drag on and on. Um but my impression is that the that the situation that the situation both in the Middle East and in Russia is kind of just gonna drag on and on until yeah, who knows?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's sorry, just wanted to say, you know, you mentioned you know the expansion of the Western Empire. Um empires aren't known for slowing down on their own accord. Uh they tend to just run out of steam, uh or resources, or fighting men, or they run out of mercenaries, or whatever, whatever they've used to get to that point they start running out of, and then there's this slow, steady decline.
SPEAKER_01Well, they kind of they they kind of tend to uh rot from the inside, right? Um they they they get to a point where they're still able to project massive force uh towards the outside, um, because that's something that you build up with momentum over many, many, many years. You know, it takes um it takes uh uh perhaps a decade to to build one of those massive uh super carriers um and to outfit it. So this is the kind of thing that you you don't just end up in a point where you have five or six supercarriers in your arsenal. So you know you you you're able to project all this force to the outside, but at the same time, you're kind of rotting from the inside. And you know, if you look at the stuff that's happening inside America, that that's that's what they they're projecting all this force externally, but you know, internally, it's just it's it's uh it's it's rotting. I mean, I I I like I like watching the UFC as much as anyone else. Um, you know, um not all the time. I'm not a super fan or anything, but if there's a good fight, then I I can't I I sometimes enjoy enjoy watching some of the bigger some of the bigger clashes. But to do one of those events on the White House lawn in celebration of America's 250 years of independence, you know, you just cannot help but draw parallels between the that that famous full mediocrity um and the way that they celebrated this. You just you cannot help but but draw that parallel, you know, and it's it's it's kind of it's kind of funny in a way that that this is how and it's not doing anything to help um bridge the divide um that is so heavily polarizing that society. And and this is kind of symptomatic of the rot. And I think this is how they fall apart. They don't they don't fall apart through military um force from the outside, although that that kind of contributes because it's all this military adventures that ends up bankrupting the state, but but it's the internal rot, you know. They they they they want to watch guys beat one another up on the on the White House lawn and in the meantime not pay any attention to the fact that they're essentially on the verge of bankruptcy. And it's the I think it I think it's the internal rot rather than the external resistance that that eventually drags them down. They'll keep expanding until until they've dragged themselves down.
SPEAKER_03Um it's peak, it's peak bread and circuses. Like you couldn't get more bread and circuses than that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I mean like putting on the White House law, like, are they so tone-deaf as to think that people wouldn't look at it and be like, hey, isn't this bread and circuses? Like we're adding out free KFC at the events as well, you know, just to complete the link. But yeah, you know, there's there's some nation states that are civilizational states that are trying to that have the wherewithal to like not defend against this, but like resist the turbo empire and the decline of the turbo empire, and like the American empire is in my opinion in decline. And so you have like civilizational states like the Russians and the Chinese and the Iranians, to another extent the Indians, but they're not doing it as well. But that just kind of have to hang on while the while turbo America goes full turbo and burns itself out and like just flails into people. Um they just have to survive, you know. So the the Russian, this is why I like go back to my comment right at the beginning of this thread, is like the Russia is not the USSR, Russia is not the Soviet Union, like the Russian Federation is a federation just like the United States. That's basically United States Russia. There's a bunch of republics within the Russian Federal Republic that make up the Russian Federated Russian Republic. Um, and like it's not the same thing as a USSR. Um, and it doesn't have this expansionist military view where it's going off and trying to colonize the rest of the world. Um, and probably because they've seen what's happened to the previous empire, the Soviet Union, which is trying to do that, and what's happening to the Americans now. And so the Russians, I think what they realize is they have enough resources within their borders to keep themselves, to make themselves a superpower. State keep superpower, state doesn't keep going for the next thousand years. Um, and they can forge and they have enough you know, land corridors to partners and sea corridors for partners, they can trade with them. So they don't have to take on this expansionist globalist empire view. Um the so they just have to ride it out. And and I think the Russians naturally don't perceive the US as as much of a threat because they're far away and they're on the other side of the world, unless you go over the top of the of the Arctic Circle, which is quite close there. Um, but they perceive the Europeans as a much bigger threat because Europe is an empire as well. I heard a great term for it the other day. It's the Belgian Empire, because that's what the that's what the the Eurozone is, because it's based out of Brussels. So it's just a re-emergence of the Belgian Empire. And we all know what the Belgians did in Congo, but they they started out as a monetary union and like a free trade bloc, but it's starting to become a geopolitical block. And the rabid anti-Russian, like Russia phobia that comes out of the world, or that has emanated, comes out of Europe, comes out of the UK, comes out of France, comes out of Germany, but mainly it comes out of the UK. I think that's the biggest driver with this Russia phobia. Um, and what I think is happening is that the British cannot abide by the Germans and the Russians forming an alliance because that would just they'd be able to dominate the entire European landmass if that was ever possible. So, yeah, I think the Russians have a much bigger problem with Europeans at the moment. Europe has tried to invade Russia many, many times. Um, they have a long history of it and they're not gonna stand for it um anymore. So, yeah, I think they're kind of just pushing off, pushing up against that. Don't want that to happen. Obviously, the European Empire is kind of being pushed along by the American Empire. Um, I think what we might see happen is the American Empire might rug the Europeans and leave them to their own devices. Um, and if that happens, Europe is gonna collapse in a heartbeat, which is a sad state of affairs. So maybe it's good that we've got these Bitcoiners in Europe that are much more freedom oriented and like using Bitcoin as freedom money because they're gonna need it. Um you know, like if the Americans stop supporting uh European adventurism, like the whole Ukraine war collapses overnight. Um, you know, what happens to all the migrants they've got now in Europe? It's a sad state of affairs there for them. So yeah, interesting times to see what's gonna happen. I think I think with the the ceasefire deal we've just seen, like who knows if it's actually gonna hold or not between Iran and the US. Um that can if that can hold, Iran just cements its place as a superpower, at least regionally. Um, and all of a sudden Iran is punching way above its weight um compared to where it was. And like this could all been avoided if they didn't abomin Iran. Like Iran, the Australian War Moors would have been open, Iran wouldn't have been a regional superpower, um, but they kind of try to push it too far. So very interesting to see where that all goes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just a closing thought from our side on this Iranian thing was um the the local population seemed to be quite fed up with their governments, and you know, the guys were starting to march and get unhappy, and they were having hyperinflation, and they had just taken three zeros off their currency or something. So they were having their own internal grief. Um, and then what happened was suddenly bombs started falling from the sky, and then they rallied around their government super tight. So uh it was sort of interesting for me to notice to see that change.
SPEAKER_03How you know a lot of that was not organic though. This is what we're coming to realize like further on here, like those protests we're seeing in Iran, those were CIA Mossad-sponsored protests with paid agents and agitators who'd been armed by Mossad and the CIA. So none of it is organic. So, like, I'm not making any excuses for the Iranian government. Like, I think living under theocracy is a pretty cut way to live. But the theocracy, I might have made this point here before. The theocracy in Iran was saying, listen, America and Israel want to destroy us, they want to destroy our way of life. They've been saying this for 40 years, 49 years, and then it comes true. And so the people in Iran are like, well, these guys did kind of tell us this is what they were trying to do, and now they're bombing us. Um, they waged the uh economic war on them. Like the the reason why the currency hyperinflated was because there was an operation being conducted against them by the Treasury. They've come out, the US Treasury come out and admitted it. Um, and the CIA. So there's just all of this inorganic stuff, like all of these color revolutions that happen, none of it's real. It's all CAA, like MI6, like Intel agency sponsored stuff. So it's all like spy versus spy nonsense, you know? So, like, how much of this, like, what is organic sentiment on the ground, really? You know, like do we actually know? Like, I'm sure there's a lot of people in Iran that are like, sure, my government sucks. But I think there's a lot of people in Iran also that are like it could be way worse, you know? Like life could be way worse. Um, maybe that one's a bit better, but like it would seem that these western-oriented liberal governments just everything goes to shit under them, you know? Like the globalist model just like hollows out your your country and creates like this massive disparity between rich and poor. Um, and everything is worse. So, like, I think people are waking up to that and realizing like okay, there must be another way, like this European, this euro-gay model that they like perpetuate is like doesn't work, yeah. So, yeah, I think people are waking up to it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think um, and the other thing is, you know, what is a typical Iranian, what is a typical American, what is a typical uh British person? There is no such thing either. I mean, we don't have a typical South African, yeah. So if you walk down the road and ask the man in the street who you spoke to, if you speak to 20 guys, you'll get 20 different opinions. So uh I think that's the interesting thing about humans. You know, we're all unique, we're all individuals. Um, and it's kind of hard to talk about typical this and typical that. Uh anyway, um, guys, we we sort of close on time now.
Closing Advice Self-Host And Donate
SPEAKER_00Um closing thoughts, uh quick round Robin. Um uh yeah, closing thoughts before we wrap up.
SPEAKER_01I think um the only thing I would say is um repeat what I sent to my friend in in Istanbul, which is that um um I think it might not be the worst thing in the world to start getting friendly with the Russians and the Iranians and the Chinese. Um because I don't think as much it's it's like and and this is this is the thing that people when you say something like this, people immediately jump to the conclusion, oh you must be you must be defending Putin or you must be defending the the Ayatollah. It's like no no no no I I made a conscious decision way back in 2008 uh not to live in Russia uh because already then um the place uh struck me as being a little a little too authoritarian for my liking. But but that being said, um I I think I think that things are gonna start changing faster and faster. And and if you look, if you look, I mean hindsight is hindsight is always 2020, right? If you look back at the last sort of 10-15 years, um it seems obvious that things have already been changing. Um but I think we'll see them change faster and faster because the the situation that's unfolded in Iran, I think I mean it it it's it it it's it's hard to describe it anything in in any other terms other than to say it's been a it's been a strategic defeat um for the US. I think that's pretty clear. I don't think anyone, I don't think any rational person is going to be able to rationalize that this was some sort of a victory for the US, um, where they essentially ended up with an agreement that they already had, but just a slightly worse version than what they already had. Um and that's after dropping billions of dollars worth of bombs on the country. So, what exactly did you accomplish? And so that that that strikes me as kind of maybe an indication that things are gonna change faster, and you might not like the Iranians or the Chinese or the Russians, but that's kind of where um a lot of the world is pivoting towards.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I echo that one's sentiments there as well. Like, I don't like the governments of any of those countries, but you'd have to be absolutely blind to or willfully ignorant to not see that the standard of living in Russia and China, especially, I can't speak for Iran, but the standard of living in Russia and China over the past 20 years has increased so dramatically, and in the West, it has decreased dramatically. Like if you go and speak to anyone in Britain and ask them over the past 20 years, you think your standard of living has gone up or down? They're gonna tell you it's either flat or it's gone down. Very few people are gonna say it's gone up. If you go to Russia and China and you ask people, they're gonna tell you it's gotten way better. And this is why people love Vladimir Putin in Russia. This is what people must understand. He has done more for their quality of life than anyone before has ever done. Um, you know, so people love Vlad because he has improved their quality of life. And the same cannot be said for Western leaders. And so, like, I completely agree with Hankan's point. Like, if you're in business, start looking east. Um, there is a clear movement of capital happening from west to east. Like, China is being the beneficiary of a large movement of capital, and the West is being hollowed out. So, if you want to like look for the next 50 years where you think wealth is gonna be, where it's gonna be oriented, I don't think it's gonna be in the in the cities of the west anymore. I think it's gonna be found in the cities of the east for the next century or two. Um, so bear that in mind. And the second thing, probably more important, is self-host your shit. Like, get all of your stuff self-hosted because we are going into the most authoritarian Orwellian hellscape you can imagine. If all of your stuff is on the cloud, that means your entire history of everything you is on the cloud, and like the Kia Starmer's the world are sitting there sweating at night thinking about how they're gonna get into your data, and like you just want you to go to all that. You don't want Kia trolling through your pictures. Um, so yeah, get get your stuff self-hosted. And personally, I just think starts OS has made it super easy, and especially with the starter OS 040. Way easier than ever before. You can take a lot of that sovereignty back. Um, so yeah, get into that and figure out how to do that. I think it'd be very useful. And even if if not everyone has to do it, just you can become the Uncle Jim, just like in Bitcoin, you know. You can run your own startup OS server, and then you're the Uncle Jim for your family, you know. Your family can host their file storage there, their parcel manager there, their like um private AI models there, you know. You can just you can be the node in your family to do that. Um, so I think you people should should look to do that. And then thirdly, last point if you've got any SATS lying around, please donate to property rightsdefense.org. Um, we are fighting the fight in South Africa. So send some SATs over to us, please. Um, we'll keep making their life harder.
SPEAKER_00Lekker, man. Uh, awesome chat as always. Uh, always get a kick out of this. Uh stuff will be in the show notes. Um, yeah, looking forward to seeing you guys uh again soon at some point. And if not in the flesh, it'll be same time next month. Have a good one.
SPEAKER_03Lekker, thanks a lot, guys.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Appreciate it, bye bye.