Underground Power

London’s underground network (the tube) uses around 1.6TWh a year to function.

The strong winds felt on platforms and around stations is caused by the piston effect. It’s generated by the trains pushing air forward through the tunnels, and the drawing of air down into the tunnels through draught-relief shafts.

Here’s what I’m thinking – There’s a crap ton of fans noticeable in stations, is it possible to adapt them to act like micro wind turbines? It could harness the wind to power stations as it’s generated and revert to traditional means when fan-created power loses momentum – like a hybrid car. This way we wouldn’t need to worry about batteries just yet.

Even 1% of energy derived from this method would be a staggering improvement.

Growing Underground uses hydroponic systems and LEDs to grow crops pesticide-free using 100% renewable energy. They grow salads 33 metres below the pavements of Clapham, London, drastically reducing transportation emissions.

I didn’t wear sunglasses till I hit mid-20s, thinking it was only for celebrities.

Also, I don’t trust people who wear shades indoors.

Value

Value is deeply subjective and stems from the mind, even if economists believe value is derived from a production process.

Cars are homogenous in most regards: the tech, the ability to transport, the aesthetics. But given the choice between a Mercedes and a Peugeot, which would you choose? And why?

You are accepted to a university with the best lecturers for your chosen discipline, a diverse social scene, on a campus most fitting for you…. you also get accepted to Oxford. Which would you instinctively choose?

Much of what we do is decided by whether other people value it.

Lightning Protocol

Lightning is underrated. I’m not sure how many people know it can be piggybacked to create decentralised applications like Signal or a VPN. Programmable money means the payment rails are data rails. Data flowing through pipes of money.

For example, Sphinx uses Lightning’s rails to send text messages free from censorship or corporate oversight. Using three of the last four words has grown to feel dangerous, as if you have something to hide. However, you’re anti-censorship if you agree Twitter shouldn’t be blocked in whole countries (e.g. Nigeria, China). You’re probably anti-corporate oversight if you’re against unfettered mining and monetisation of your data.

If Lightning stimulates layer 3 protocols, there’s potential to build tools that make today’s internet easier. Imagine not needing to give away your email, kicking off a lifetime of spam and tracking, to access sites. What if a micropayment provided you with access going forward, like a token at a fairground, but one that belongs to you forever. What if a micropayment incentivises paywalls to step aside, detracting less users and boosting traffic for creators.

If I hadn’t mentioned it, would you know this was about Bitcoin, and what it enables?

Goat Parkour

Imagine a team of goats mitigating forest fire risk and enabling a forest’s ability to regenerate diversity – bringing back insects, birds and animals necessary for a healthy ecosystem.

And here’s the real goat parkour.

Art Adds Colour to Our Lives

We’d be miserable without it. There’s a reason, that no matter how much funding gets cut or how commercialised it gets, the edgy counterculture movements never go away. Art is in our essence because it’s expression.

I hope the lockdowns exposed our desire for it.

Artvee houses a collection of classical art, accessible to all. Take a look. Life will slow down for a moment.

Do you also go out of your way to step on a particularly crunchy looking leaf?

The Protocol Wars

Everyone agreed on the goal: develop a global computer network. They didn’t agree on how. By the early 1980s, several different protocols competed.

OSI (Open Systems Interconnect), backed by European telephone monopolies and most governments, was favoured. Other strong competitors included two corporate networks, IBM’s SNA and DEC’s DECNET. The dark horse contender was the internet, defined only by a self-governing community dependent on volunteers.

The internet community was nimble – able to develop in months what took the OSI committee-based process years – but it scared off some potential adopters because nobody seemed “in charge”.

A New Kind of Ledger

Having a trusted party has implications. When you send a payment today, you’re actually not the one changing the Paypal ledger. You have no power. You’re requesting (subtle, but a significant difference) Paypal, who has full authority, to change the ledger (add 10 to John Doe and -10 from me). It’s the same with your bank. They can change terms, block payments, freeze your account, or change balances at will (e.g. Greece, Russia).

Where there is no central authority, payments can’t be blocked. You could send a payment to anyone. It could mean freedom for those facing restrictive capital controls or barriers to entry.

It’s irreversible. When you give cash to someone, it’s final, if you want it back, it has to be given back. With irreversibility comes simplicity: there’s no need to identify yourself or fill out forms. Both parties know full control over the money has been transferred – no other questions are asked. For the first time that finality now exists in the digital world because of the decentralized nature of the ledger. It is the first instance of true digital cash.

Due to the open nature of it, anyone with an internet connection can connect to it, anywhere. There are no restrictions, like a bank. There are no arbitrary rules. It could be on a bank holiday. It could be something ultra small like 0.0000318 cents. It could 100 million. It could be accessed by the unbanked (25% of the world population) or it could even be accessed by a piece of software (DAO). In theory, an autonomous car can access it, because identity is abstracted on the blockchain. A fridge can’t open a Citibank account but it can own a BTC or ETH address. For the first time something that is not alive can own money.

More interestingly, since it’s an open network, it’s like the internet. Some nerdy teen in a garage can connect to it, build on it, experiment with it, and improve it. You can’t do that on HSBC’s protocol. It’s not so much money for the internet but rather the internet of money.