Bond market jitters may be a global problem. But what might be happening here is fundamental. A modern monetary theorist will tell you that a state who can print its own money can never go 'bankrupt'. Even more so if the state's debts are denominated in their own currency (as they are in the US or the UK). And actually, I agree with them up to this point. A state can keep on printing money to pay interest on its debts, ad infinitum. All good so far. But where MMT and reality part company is in MMT's failure to consider the second and third order consequences of creating vast amounts of new money in order to service existing debts. Modern money is effectively CREDIT; credit means trust, and most especially, trust that you'll be paid back what you are owed (and that the money will be worth something when that happens). Creating new money debases the currency by immediately reducing the value and purchasing power of all pre-existing money in the system. Secondly, the creation of new money causes price inflation as a larger amount of currency is able to chase the same amount of goods and services (there always being a lag before the supply can catch up with new demand). Thirdly, the distribution of new currency is not equal. In the modern economy, the majority of new money is created by banks making loans, and the new money accrues to those in a position to borrow, or to those who are connected with the banks themselves. This is the Cantillon Effect in action. So what is the conclusion to all this, and what is likely to happen? A few guesses: - > No nation state is remotely capable of paying down the unimaginable sums below. The principal amounts here will only ever be refinanced, never repaid. - > Government is an inherently unproductive enterprise. Governments obtain funds from their productive population, or from borrowing. If markets lose confidence in their ability to repay (or, importantly, in the ongoing value of their currencies), they will tax their populations harder. They could cut government spending, but they tend not to like doing that.... - > servicing these giant debt burdens will lead, inevitably, to currency debasement. So what can you do, as an individual caught up in the middle of this mess that is not of your making? If you're one of the lucky ones who has any savings at all, recognise that leaving these savings in the currency of a government that wilfully debases them is, perhaps, not a good idea. If you don't have any savings, and if you live paycheck to paycheck, then I'm really not sure what the solution is. I'm afraid that these people vastly outnumber the lucky ones, and I hope we collectively manage to stop this monetary madness before something breaks. But it may already be too late for that.

Year end round up for @Bitcoin Policy UK - - and also our Q4 Newsletter at the same time. Apologies to all our supporters for the delay in newsletter publications; but we hope that this synopsis will show why publication has been slow!

Year End Round Up 2024

And a Q4 newsletter, of a kind

A huge pleasure finally to meet the man (@jack) who zapped me my first sats over Nostr. Thanks for that, and for taking the time to meet with so many of us random Bitcoiners!

The UK is falling behind, wherever you look. From failing at AI data centre construction to filling in potholes, there are stories of missed opportunities and mismanagement everywhere. But in one area, we can still claim a bronze medal – our national Bitcoin holdings, placing us third among all nation state holders. In the time since we first wrote to Tulip Siddiq MP on this topic in July, the value of this stake has increased by over a billion pounds. And all this with the Financial Conduct Authority continuing their hostile policies towards Bitcoin adoption. Imagine the potential if as a country we chose to embrace this asset and this sector, instead of trying to drive it away? In October, @Bitcoin Policy UK welcomed a response from the City Minister and are delighted to be in dialogue with her and with her team. Today, we publish another open letter in reply, and share the details below. We look forward to working practically with Treasury and with Ministers to discuss and consider the issues we raise in more detail.

The OBR tells us that interest payments on the UK's national debt should cost £73.5 billion in 2024-25. Just interest payments, mind you. Not actually paying down the debt. Interest payments that are due every year, and which increase as we borrow more. The year after, interest payments may well be TEN percent of the government's entire annual tax intake. We already spend more on interest than we do on defence, and soon it will overtake education (110bn) and the NHS (180bn). Borrowing more only makes the problem worse and will lead, eventually, to all of the nation's productive effort being spent on interest repayments for a debt that can never be repaid. The only sensible conclusion here is to realise that no government, Tory or Labour or of any other stripe, can ever really do anything to resolve this. And with this realisation, to take steps to protect yourself, your family, your business, and your community. The only route out of this is currency debasement. The purchasing power of sterling will inevitably trend towards zero. Armed with this knowledge, work out what it is you need to do. No government is coming to save you. You have to do it for yourself.

"Survivors of genocide, totalitarian regimes and conflicts; they're all hopeful for the future because of this thing... and that's maybe its superpower. Not necessarily the scientific properties of it (which are revolutionary) but the hope part of it maybe is the biggest use case of all." Like many others who attended, I struggle to put into words the impact of last week’s Global Bitcoin Summit. I do my fighting from behind a keyboard, or in a suit, but we heard during the event from some of the bravest, most resilient, and most indefatigable people that I’ve ever had the privilege to meet in person. People who had literally survived genocide, escaped from totalitarian nations, or endured torture as political prisoners, and yet who had never given up hope. I’ve returned to the UK inspired - both full of gratitude for having experienced the summit, and invigorated to continue the fight for financial freedom here. Enormous thanks to everyone involved, and especially to @Human Rights Foundation / @HRF (RSS Feed), @gladstein, @Arsh Molu, CK, @Femi Longe, the Bitcoin Park team , @Rod, @Harry, Alex Li, and Anya Chekhovich. It’ll take a while to absorb what we saw and heard. But hope is the key takeaway.

They are literally watching you. Wherever you go, whatever you buy, whatever you do online. The vast majority of us are law-abiding citizens, who want no more than to be left alone. Why should we allow this relentless surveillance to continue unabated, and to permit governments to censor our speech and control our every action? Big Brother Watch are doing great work fighting back against this insidious state attack, but what more can we as individuals do to resist? Eric Hughes wrote. “We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence… We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place… We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and since we can't get privacy unless we all do, we're going to write it.” This is not a thread intended to help you become a ghost, or to have any chance of really scrubbing yourself from the internet. But it’s a list of some simple steps that anyone can take, even if you’re not technically minded, to protect your data, to make yourself a little less obvious, and to be a little less apparent to a surveillance state than your neighbour. It’s like the joke about two photographers in the savanna taking pictures of a lion. When the lion starts coming their way, licking its lips, one of them pulls on running shoes. “What’s the point of that?” says the other photographer. “You’ll never outrun a lion.” “Forget outrunning the lion,” says the first. “I just need to outrun you”. Privacy-focused 🧵👇 Can I surf anonymously? It’s hard, but try using browsers that minimise the amount of data collection. The Brave browser is a decent option (brave.com). Alternatively, you can go a bit further, and use Tor (torproject.org/download/). DuckDuckGo have recently released their own privacy-focused browser - I’ve not yet tried this, but a link is here: duckduckgo.com/windows?source…. Each of these options should reduce the amount of data about you that’s silently collected in the background by Google, Apple or Microsoft. You can also use a service like Incogni (incogni.com ) to help scrub your data from the internet, to the extent that is possible. Searching in Privacy: We’ve already mentioned DuckDuckGo - they’re probably the best-known of the privacy-focused search engines. Try switching to them instead of Google or Bing: duckduckgo.com Use a VPN: You may have heard of VPNs (virtual private networks) and know that they’re useful in authoritarian countries (like the UK is fast becoming). However, you can use them anywhere, on your computer or your phone, to encrypt your data and mask your IP address, which can help protect your privacy and anonymity when you connect to the internet. I personally use and recommend @Mullvad VPN and I believe @BTC Sessions uses them too. Amusingly, Mullvad were recently raided by the police, but couldn’t surrender any personal information about their customers, because they don’t collect it: theverge.com/2023/4/21/2369… Also Mullvad accept #Bitcoin, if you’d prefer not to let your bank know that you’re paying for a VPN. A private email and calendar: So you’re now using a browser and a search engine that are collecting less of your personal information, and you’ve protected yourself with a VPN. However, every time you sign up for an online service, or a public wifi, you may be asked for your email address - and perhaps you don’t want to surrender this, to be sold on by those companies. Simple fix - create a privacy-focused account. Over time, you may decide to replace your Gmail or Outlook with one of these entirely. I can recommend @Proton Mail who offer a suite of other productivity tools (including a calendar and cloud drive) that are all privacy focused: proton.me/mail. Note that you DON’T have to use your real name when signing up, if you want to preserve your privacy even further. A new service offering similar products is Tuta Privacy. They look interesting but I’ve not trialled them yet: tuta.com/pricing De-Google your phone! If you want to go even further, and don’t mind tinkering with software and hardware, you could get yourself an old Google Pixel and experiment with De-Googling your phone. Privacy-focused operating systems such as @GrapheneOS are relatively easy to install. But do make sure you buy an unlocked Pixel using cash! Graphene OS provide an easy-to-follow installation guide here: grapheneos.org/install/web and there are many good walkthrough videos on YouTube such as this one: youtube.com/watch?v=QOqVOc… After a successful installation, you should have a fully functioning phone that isn’t controlled by a large corporation obsessed with tracking you. You can still run Android apps (even using a sandboxed Google Play Store) or by directly installing the .apks on your new phone. Get what you want - privately: Once you’ve got a nicely de-Googled phone, you’ll need a SIM card and a new number. I can’t recommend @bitrefill enough; not only can you buy an e-SIM from them, using #Bitcoin, but you can also top it up, and buy gift cards and vouchers for almost anything you might want (remember to sign up using your new Proton Mail address though….). For #Bitcoin purchases, ideally use a self-custody Lightning wallet to improve Bitcoin’s relatively poor privacy protections. I have tried and can recommend each of Aqua from @npub1jan3...x52y and @npub148qm...jra7. Also, although it is multi-currency, @Cake Wallet are doing some interesting things with #Bitcoin silent payments, and @Seth For Privacy, whose views and expertise I trust on these matters, has recently joined their team. More on silent payments here: silentpayments.xyz/docs/explained/. You can also use a service like @peachbitcoin or @Hodl Hodl to buy #Bitcoin privately without KYC. Private messaging: Try @Signal. It’s end to end encrypted, and can be used both for calls and messaging. Signal’s president, Meredith Whittaker, has done sterling work fighting back against bad laws and government overreach. signal.org Simplex is also gaining traction, but UX is still improving. NOSTR! You're here, which is great. They can't censor you here. I can’t say anything better about this new protocol than the inimitable @gladstein so to quote him directly: “Nostr is a community-run digital network highly resistant to censorship and corruption. It has 40,000 weekly active users and a growing ecosystem of clients and applications ranging from social media to long-form publishing to payments.” I highly recommend you check out his recent piece on Reason to learn more:

Reason.com

Can Nostr make Twitter’s dreams come true?

Twitter's founder says Nostr is “100 percent what we wanted”—an open, ownerless network.

Can I block facial recognition? We’re now getting into more esoteric levels of personal protection, and I have to say I have not tested these products. However, given the increasing noise in the UK about the ubiquity of personal surveillance and facial recognition, I might be tempted to try. These glasses claim to be able to block and scramble facial recognition technology (although they’ll be ineffective against gait-recognition tech. Not sure what to do about that other than to wear pebbles in our shoes?) reflectacles.com/#home They do have a decent review here:

DefenseReview.com (DR): An online tactical technology and military defense technology magazine with particular focus on the latest and greatest tactical firearms news (tactical gun news), tactical gear news and tactical shooting news.

Reflectacles Sunglasses: Urban-Cool Counter-Surveillance Eyewear for Professionals and Civilians Alike!

By Toby Melville September 29, 2023 Eyewear has been an important component of fashion for decades, but for the armed professional, eyewear has bec...

Hopefully, with some of these tips, you’ll be able to improve your privacy and control of your data even to a small degree.

Nostr has changed a lot from the scrappy PV days. Largely in good ways. But it was a fun time.