"Ok, two more charts and some thoughts...this time on crypto.... Is the accepted narrative of the BTC Halving cycle what drives the BTC cycle (and all crypto) or is it the macro? I'm starting to think it's all about the macro This is global M2 YoY vs Crypto market cap <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="entity-hashtag" href="https://threadreaderapp.com/hashtag/Bitcoin">#Bitcoin</a>That suggest that liquidity and currency debasement are the predominant drivers, as opposed to supply. I have always erred on the side of demand being more important than supply in market prices of all goods. It is the demand ebb that causes the outflow and the denominator.Those macro cycles occur within the exponential secular crypto up trend and drive the market from overbought to oversold and back again to overbought, while the slope of adoption still persists...leading to higher lows every cycle...Note that global M2 growth is turning. Early days but crypto is forward looking in nature and turns earlier than most assets as its such long duration."

Raoul Pal - M2 Money Supply vs. Crypto Market Cap

Hi I'm Jeremy. I'm building this site because I'm not satisfied with other online community type websites and their lack of innovation (see the /about page). The goal is to make a superior, more open, and more decentralized online community.

The site is still in early stages in active development (see the dev masterthread here: https://zsync.xyz/p/zsync-dev-update-masterthread)

Join us if this sounds interesting! Feel free to send me any feedback or reach out directly!

Luke Gromen - Scariest Macro Setup in the Last 20+ Years

I recently spent a few days in Helsinki, Finland. I had heard good things - such as being ranked the [\#1 happiest country in the world](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world), having the [\#1 ranked education system in the world](https://leverageedu.com/blog/finland-education-system) despite students spending only 5 hours/day in school with little homework, home of Linus Torvalds (founder of Linux), etc.

Finland is the probably the country most similar to Japan I've seen outside of Asia. Modern, clean, and civilized. I stayed at a hostel and was pleasantly surprised to see that shoes were not allowed to be worn inside - something I cannot recall ever seeing outside of Asia. People are respectful and orderly, for example always staying on the right side of the escalator.

My first impression from the airport was positive. It was the first maskless flight I've taken in 2 years (almost cried tears of joy). Loved that the baggage claim had a line a meter around the conveyer belt saying to wait there (people crowding around conveyer belts making it difficult to find and pick up your luggage drives me crazy). Like many civilized European countries, there are no turnstiles for trains. This always amazes me as an American. I imagine if NYC were to remove subway turnstiles, the MTA would lose 80% of its revenue overnight.

Everything is nice, modern, and clean. Interiors of coffee shops, malls, restaurants, etc. are usually very tastefully done - similar to Seoul, South Korea. The ferry to/from Helsinki to Tallinn is probably the nicest I've ever been on with tasteful interior design.

The city itself is by the sea and has lots of parks. I was impressed to see people swimming even when it was cold.

I love the food here - salmon, salads, poke bowls, etc. - exactly my style. Lots of ethnic options as well like Vietnamese food, Mexican, etc.

The people seemed very friendly. Polite, and often smiling. Everyone speaks perfect English. Racially it is quite a homogenous country, and probably the blondest country I've ever been to. While I was on my laptop in the common area of the hostel, some Finnish-looking lady said she was going to make tea and asked me if I wanted some. In my computer-absorbed daze I was so shocked at this selfless act from a total stranger that it took me a couple seconds to compose myself and respond.

Saunas are big in Finland. I went to a free outdoor sauna by the sea that was fantastic. You can alternate between the sauna and swimming in the sea. Although there are some lockers, it's safe to just leave your belongings in the open because Finland is a civilized country (unlike much of the U.S). Clothing optional. Great social atmosphere. This sauna is free because it's entirely volunteer run. Amazing.

Overall I really enjoyed Helsinki. I wish more Americans could see cities like Helsinki and see what a civilized society that has it's sh\*t together looks like.

In terms of downsides, it is expensive. I paid 50-60 euros/night for a dorm bed in a 8-bed hostel, though I'll say the hostel was definitely very nice (no shoes as I mentioned). A hotel will probably run you at least 100 euros/night. For food expect to pay a minimum of 10 euros (eg. for a kebab), and around 15-20 euros for a nice healthy salmon avocado salad.

Also although the weather was perfect in July when I visited, Finland is a very cold and dark country in the winter. Personally as someone who hates cold weather, this unfortunately disqualifies Finland for me as somewhere I'd personally live except for in the summer.

Also Helsinki is a small city of 631,000 people (though surprisingly bigger than Copenhagen's 602,000).

Overall I really enjoyed Helsinki. I'm on the ferry to Tallinn now, but I'm sure I will return again. Again I wish more Americans would visit civilized countries like this. There's definitely a lot the world can learn from Finland.

Helsinki, Finland First Impressions

DALL·E now available in beta

European Central Bank rises rates by 0.5%

Polygon Announces zkEVM

Here's the current tech stack of this site:Hosting: Google Cloud (Cloud Run, Cloud Storage)Database: PostgresSessions, caching (not implemented yet): RedisBackend: Node.js with TypeGraphQL, TypeORMFrontend: Next.js, React.js, Apollo GraphQL, TailwindCSSEthereum: ethers.js, hardhat (not implemented yet)Once the features I want to build are finished, I'll start moving things to IPFS and Arweave. For full decentralization may consider Ceramic. But my priority now is getting all the core features implemented first before going full decentralization. The main problem with decentralized webdev now is immaturity in the ecosystem (which I wrote about <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://jeremyfreedom.substack.com/p/the-biggest-missing-piece-in-web3">here</a>) and performance.I didn't pick this stack because I think it's superior to others, I picked it just because it's what I'm most familiar with, and thus what I can develop the fastest in. Tech stack really isn't the highest priority for an early stage startup because the primary goal for a startup is getting product-market fit.Once things are production-ready and in a good enough state, will move to open source. In the meantime if you're interested in working on this, just comment here and/or shoot me a message and I'll get you access.

How I Made This Site - The Tech Stack

"Crypto - Is the low in? My view is on balance, probably. I also think the macro turn is very close too. Have bond yields topped? Probably. Returns since the panic 3AC liquidation: BTC +24% ETH +71% SOL +64% AVAX +77% DOT +26% AAVE +116% UNISWAP +131% XRP +29%NFT's are rising in ETH volumes and floor prices are rising too for good, trusted projects. Bottoms in crypto are not usually a straight line higher and there is often a big gut check at some point or sideways range for a few months after an initial recovery. Let's see..."

Raoul Pal thinks the crypto bottom is probably in

I love Italy. It's one of the best countries to visit - having so many beautiful sites and being so rich in history - having been the capital of the Roman empire, the Renaissance, etc. I've been to 43+ countries, and Venice, although not exactly under-the-radar, is probably my favorite place. Other places like the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Taormina, Cinque Terre, Tuscany, the hilltop villages, etc. are amongst the most beautiful I've seen. The food and gelato of course is world famous.

That being said, there are many things I also dislike about Italy after having lived in Rome for 9 months. As the city critic I am, here are the things I don't like about living in Italy. Don't view it as negativity for negativity's sake, but feedback.

**Rome is dirty as hell**

Although the historic city center of Rome is fine, go outside the center and Rome is one of the dirtiest cities I've ever been to. Go further south to Naples and Catania and the streets are even dirtier. Trash overflows rows of dumpsters along the sidewalks, which smells absolutely disgusting. You'll find trash everywhere, on the unmaintained grass in parks, in the bins of bikeshares, etc. I thought NYC was filthy, but Rome takes filthiness to another level. And the dirtiness isn't just limited outdoors, the public bathroom on the 2nd floor at the main Termini train station is one of the most disgusting main train station public bathrooms I've seen, the toilets don't have toilet seats, and you need to pay 1 euro to enter (the machine didn't even work, so the attendant had to let me in). I was thinking of asking for a refund if not for the fact that the attendant was too busy manually letting people in because the paying machines were broken.

**Little A/C (seems to be a European thing)**

Rome is one of the hottest cities in the summer, with temperatures reaching 38° (100° F), so hot that it's uncomfortable being outside during the day. Yet A/C seems to be few and far in between. Even when you find A/C it's just enough to keep things from being intolerable, but not strong enough to keep you from sweating. For example this is how the A/C is in the main train station Termini. The subways in Milan don't even have A/C (the two times I rode it). Granted I think the U.S overdoes the hell out of A/C often making indoor places freezes so I'm not suggesting that the U.S should be the role model here, but clearly there's a middle ground.

**People don't know how to walk on sidewalks**

I don't think I've ever been to a country where people have such little regard for others when walking in public. Two people will walk side by side blocking an entire sidewalk, walking at a snail's pace, without a care in the world to anyone behind them they're blocking. I've rode my scooter multiple times on a bike lane towards people who clearly see me, who just stand there like deer in headlights and barely move enough for me to not run them over. Good luck trying to walk up a crowded escalator, or picking up your suitcase at the airport when everybody waits directly in front on the conveyer belt, preventing you from actually grabbing your suitcase (ok to be fair this is an American problem too).

People also often don't know how to wait in lines. Instead of a line, you often just get a giant crowd.

**Dirty floors in hotel rooms / AirBnBs, people wear shoes inside**

As a Japanese person, I find the idea of wearing outside shoes inside one's house disgusting. But like America, this is the norm in Italy. Always when I check-in to an AirBnB/apartment/hotel and the host wants to show me around the room, they'll walk around the apartment in their shoes, but since it's their apartment it feels awkward telling them to take their shoes off. Even if I told them, I know they just cleaned the apartment with their shoes on, so not even sure if it'd make a difference.

**Terrible bureaucracy**. Even Italians will admit that their bureaucracy is awful. Thankfully personally I didn't really have to deal much with it other than two instances 1. a gym requiring me to have a "certificate of good health" physical examination (wtf?) 2. trying to find out if I can get a COVID pass here (green pass), waiting outside a building at the time I was told to show up with a bunch of other people who've already been vaccinated a month ago but still hadn't received their green pass which they need to go to work, and then all of us being told by security that sorry they're closed, come back next week.

**Tap water not clean**. Naturally you always need to pay for water in restaurants (not to mention the environmental impact of plastic bottles).

**Slow service**. Although the food is undeniably good here, the service in restaurants is incredibly slow. Flagging down a waiter/waitress is often a chore, even when you just want to pay and get out (though if you want to pay usually you can at least go directly to the counter). Sometimes it'll take forever even just to get the menu.

**Law forces customers to take (paper) receipts**. I always refuse paper receipts, but one time a merchant would not take my no for an answer and literally forced me to take my receipt. I told the story to a local and was told that there's actually an Italian law that says that by law customers must take their receipts. In practice the police aren't checking, and most merchants won't make a big deal out of it if you don't take your receipt, but this is easily one of the dumbest laws I've ever seen in my life. What a waste of paper/trees.

**No Uber/ridsharing. Constant taxi strikes. Poor public transportation**.

**Parks are often fenced off and close early (eg. 7pm)**. I find it strange that parks are often fenced off, and close at all, especially so early.

**No public gyms / outdoor pullup bars -** There must be at most a couple outdoor pullup bars in all of Rome, and none that I found in the city center

**COVID vaccine passes.** Although thankfully the nightmare is now over, Italy was one of the few countries that went extremely strict on COVID restrictions and lockdowns, to the point where vaccine passes (called "super green passes") were required to practically do everything - including riding public transportation and even staying in hotels - probably one of the most egregious breaches of liberty I've ever witnessed. My friend suggested that maybe the Italian people were missing Mussolini.

**Not much food other than Italian food in Rome**. I love Italian food, but I don't want to eat pasta and pizza all the time, and Rome is really short on other kinds of cuisines

**Lack of "fast casual" type food places.** Other than coffee "bars" with premade sandwiches, "fast casual" type food establishments are in short supply in Rome. Especially when I'm alone, I generally just want to eat something quick and not have to waste 30-60 minutes at a sit-down restaurant.

**Restaurants generally closed between 2:30pm-7:30pm or so**. Unless you're in the tourist area of the city center, you'll struggle to find anywhere to eat between 3:30-7pm outside of grabbing a sandwich at a cafe.

**Practically no work cafes in Rome.** Rome despite having a thriving cafe culture, practically has no cafes good for working with a laptop (eg. with power outlets) - the type of work environment I prefer as a digital nomad. Normally you can at least rely on there being a Starbucks as a place to work (even if the coffee is bad), but Rome doesn't have a Starbucks.

**Grocery store cashiers don't bag your groceries.** Ok this is not unique to Italy, but as an American I find it strange that grocery store cashiers don't bag your groceries. Most of the time they won't even open the plastic bag for you, just throwing the closed bag on the table and tossing your stuff there while you fumble to open the plastic bag. Also worth noting that there are no self-checkout machines in supermarkets.

**Restaurant main courses are overrated.** Italian restaurant menus are separated into appetizers, pasta, and main courses - which often consist of something super simple like chicken or fish priced at 17-25+ euros, with the expectation I guess that you're supposed to order side dishes to complement them. I generally find these main courses to be overpriced and too basic, and will usually opt instead for just a salad + pasta/pizza. Though there's one restaurant where I enjoyed the main course of a steak that included potatoes and some other side dishes.

**People can be very loud**. People will often talk loudly, shout on the phone on trains, and watch videos on their phones with the speakers on.

**Most unorganized gyms I've ever seen**. I had a membership at one gym that had the most unorganized dumbbell rack I've ever seen in my life (unfortunately I had no other options because it was the only gym that would accept me without a COVID vaccination, which I wouldn't have been qualified to get in Italy even if I wanted to). The weights were placed so randomly that you'd have to spend 5+ minutes looking for the weights you needed. It was so bad I'd go out of my way to try to reorganize them in between sets, but of course the next time I'd return to the gym it'd be all unorganized again. I've been to a few other gyms and the dumbbell racks were all insanely disorganized. I've never experienced this in any other country.

**Sometimes terrible service.** Ok the service here isn't remotely as bad as in eastern Europe, but I've had my share of poor experiences. For example once I accidentally booked and paid for the wrong date of a hotel. After the booking mistake I immediately called the hotel to ask if they could change the booking date to the following day, and simply pay any difference in price, and was told sure no problem. I then showed up the next day only to be told that I have to pay full price for this day as well. She actually said no problem and then proceeded to charge me for the full price, which I only noticed after the wireless card payment didn't work and I looked at the price (ok maybe that was language barrier). I explained the situation to her, she called her boss, and again told me that I still had to pay the full price again. I repeatedly explained the situation to her for what must've been 10 minutes while she repeatedly called her boss, only to tell me that he says I need to pay again. Finally I told her that fine, I'll cancel the booking, request a refund through my credit card, and write a terrible review for this hotel being dishonest and wasting my time. She called her boss again, this time speaking more forcefully, and finally I was told that I only needed to pay the price difference, but that it had to be in cash.

Another time at a 4 star hotel I asked a worker how much a taxi would cost to a place 10 minutes away. He called the company, said about 10 euros, and said the taxi was on the way. The taxi came with the meter already at 10 euros, and the final bill came out to 19 euros. I questioned the taxi driver and he said that the meter starts when the taxi is called. Since I was given the wrong information by the hotel, I called the hotel to let them know this. Another woman receptionist responded, and what precedes was an absurd 7 minute conversation where rather than just saying "ok sorry about that and thank you for telling us, we won't make that mistake in the future", I was given stupid excuses like "it's up to the taxi company and it's not in our control", "we assume that people here already know that the meter starts when you call the taxi" (actually I've been here for 9 months and this never happened to me before), "I don't understand why you're calling and want me to do". It was basically like talking to an idiot.

**Window blinds.** Italian apartment windows have these old school physical blinds that block out all sunlight, and require you to physically open/close them. Sure they look cool from the outside, but it's much nicer and more convenient to have normal blinds that can still let in sunlight.

**Needing reservations at restaurants in evenings**

**Croissants here suck.** The croissants here are not crunchy at all, and are more like bread in the shape of a croissant. They seem to like it like that, but I much prefer the original French style of crunchy croissants.

**Lack of technological advancement in some regards.** For example the main train station in Naples has a place where you can store your suitcase, but it closes at something like 8pm. Why it's not just an automated locker machine is beyond me. Supermarkets practically never have automated checkout machines. It's not that I necessarily prefer checking things out myself, more that the machines generally drastically reduce waiting times vs. human cashiers, and those bastards don't bag my groceries anyways. Number coded locks definitely haven't been adopted here.

**Stuff often just doesn't work**. For example escalators and elevators will often not be working. Ok it's probably no worse than the U.S, but nothing like Japan/Korea where I've never seen an escalator out of service.

**Poor UX.** Ok this is definitely not unique to Italy, and maybe just something I've just happened to notice more recently in life in general, but "real life" UX is often poor. By that I mean for example common sense signs showing you where to go - such as when you're underground in the subway showing you where each staircase will lead you on the street. Or when the top entrance of the Spagna subway stop on top of the Spanish Steps was closed all winter, there was no sign or notice stating where the other entrance is (if I had a piece of paper on me I would've just wrote a note myself and put it there). Simple things like that can make a big difference.

---

Despite all this, I actually love Italy. The country has some of the most beautiful places, richest history, and best food in the world. The people are generally very friendly (though in the south English proficiency is very low), social, and positive. Some of my favorite places I've ever visited are in Italy. But like everywhere in the world, it has its downsides, and those are the ones that stood out to me.

Things I Don't Like About Rome, Italy (as an American)

Andrew Tate, a former kickboxing world champion turned OnlyFans pimp and internet personality who showcases his lavish lifestyle of expensive cars and multiple wives/girlfriends on social media, along with his controversial views on women who many deem misogynistic, has been blowing up on social media. What does everyone think of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtSO5Rw4l_Q">this guy</a>, and masculinity in general?

Andrew Tate - King of Toxic Masculinity

<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://medium.com/starkware/part-1-starknet-sovereignty-a-decentralization-proposal-bca3e98a01ef">https://medium.com/starkware/part-1-starknet-sovereignty-a-decentralization-proposal-bca3e98a01ef</a>

StarkNet Announces Token Launch for September

Celsius Network Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62132271">https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62132271</a>Video footage of protests<ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1547156032832536583">https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1547156032832536583</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/tagabhishek/status/1547157563698950144">https://twitter.com/tagabhishek/status/1547157563698950144</a></li></ul>

Sri Lankans storm prime minister's office and party in president's mansion as president flees the country 

* Consumer price index jumps 1.3% in June* Year-on-year CPI soars 9.1%, largest gain since 1981* Core CPI increases 0.7%; up 5.9% on year-on-year basis

U.S. Consumer Inflation Rises to 9.1%, Highest Annual Rate Since 1981

GameStop launches NFT marketplace

I should have loved biology

Polygon Joins Solana in Bringing Web3 to Smartphones

Reddit to Launch NFT Avatars Built on Polygon

<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://zk.money/">https://zk.money/</a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/jonwu_/status/1545173135367888896">https://twitter.com/jonwu_/status/1545173135367888896</a>

Aztec Network Launches First Ever Private DeFi Solution for Ethereum

This is a test post btw.Can write in bold<ul><li>bullet</li><li>points</li></ul>Sweet!