Big Brother is watching.

Hello, Anticitizen.

As early as 480 BC, Persian King Darius I might have been the first person in history to create a true surveillance state. His “King’s Eyes and Ears” system comprised a network of informants and inspectors who were tasked to ensure loyalty throughout his realm, and report back with news of potential rebellions or insurrections.

But Darius couldn’t have imagined the ease at which governments and tech companies could spy on us today via our phones, some 2500 years later. More in today’s main story.

What we’re covering:

• The phone to defeat Big Brother.

• Palau’s e-Residency.

• Is patriotism over?

• BRICS moves faster to destroy the dollar.

• Australia’s upcoming social media ban.

Can this phone defeat Big Brother?

We can all feel the surveillance state is getting worse.

In the US, three-letter agencies intercept and monitor billions of communications annually. The UK is reportedly even more invasive, with intelligence agency GCHQ capturing millions of messages daily.

It also seems like we hear about major government data breaches ever more regularly. This week, it’s news that Indian police have leaked the data of thousands of law enforcement officers and police applicants online—including face scans, fingerprints, and other biometrics—which are now being sold on Telegram by criminals.

Not to mention how much of our data is being collected by Big Tech: a teen who gets on social media at 13 has an estimated tens of millions of data points harvested by the time they’re 17.

The truth is that there’s no such thing as real privacy in today’s digital world. But the closest thing to a possible solution might come from billionaire Erik Prince: the Unplugged Phone, or UP.

UP is promoted as the most secure phone on the planet. It’s built on its own LibertOS operating system, it has a “kill switch” in the form of being able to physically disconnect the battery from the phone, is end-to-end encrypted, and isn’t tracked by either of the two major manufacturers (Apple or the “big G”) in any way.

Probably my favourite part of UP is the ability to completely wipe the device by inputting a special code into the main menu instead of a normal unlock code. A feature that could come in handy if you were forced to give over your device in a situation where you didn’t want to relinquish any data, for example at a national border.

Just know that UP Phone isn’t perfect, despite being a more secure alternative. If a government wants your data, they’ll get it.

The best option to stay private? Go off-grid and live in a cave for the rest of your life. But most of us won’t do that.

Palau’s Digital Residency isn’t super valuable (yet), but might be still worth it.

The tiny nation of Palau was second in the world to launch a digital residency program, after Estonia kicked things off back in 2014.

What is it? A system that allows you to become a digital-only resident of Palau to access its business environment for $248 per year. When approved, you also get a legal national ID.

Some of the benefits are a 0% tax rate in Palau (great for nomads—though you may still have to pay tax where you reside), plus the ability to use your national ID to open offshore bank accounts, and KYC verification on crypto exchanges.

The problem? Most of the features aren’t fully rolled out, like company incorporation or getting a mailing address in Palau.

So far the only real benefit of the program is using the national ID for opening bank accounts and KYC. Even then, not having a matching address in Palau is causing issues for some users.

You might still wanna get in early and acquire one if you’re serious about having more options, as I envision the price rising as more features roll out.

Perfect? No. But maybe soon.

BRICS moves faster to destroy the dollar.

In a follow-up to Wednesday’s main story, it seems BRICS is accelerating its plan to crush the US Dollar as quickly as possible.

Yesterday the Moscow Stock Exchange suspended all trade in dollars and euros, following the US hitting Russia with a new set of sanctions.

So far, this has been very good for China:

Secondly, and potentially even more devastating, Saudi Arabia’s petrodollar deal with the US expired this week, with no sign of it being renewed.

For the last half-century, the deal mandated Saudi Arabia—Earth’s second-largest oil producer—to trade oil solely in USD. The Kingdom will now sell in exchange for yuan, yen, euros, and rubles. The latter of which will enable Russia to further evade US sanctions.

If you’re all-in on the US dollar or the economy of Uncle Sam, now might be a good time to diversify. Open a multi-currency bank account, get at least some of your cash offshore, buy gold and silver, and maybe drop a little extra into Bitcoin.

Is patriotism over?

In a final thought before the weekend, the below illustrates how merely 18% of young adults in the US are extremely proud to be American.

I’m not surprised by this at all.

I’ve always believed that we don’t owe any country patriotism: it should be earned. And especially in the West, our nations aren’t earning it.

For example, this is a general overview of what is happening in places the United States, Australia, Canada, Europe, and beyond:

Food prices: going up.
Housing affordability: getting worse.
Cost of living: going up.
Government corruption: getting worse.
Real income levels: going down.
Surveillance: getting worse.
Life expectancy: going down.
Threat of war: going up.
Illegal migration: getting worse.

And the cost?

Taxes: going up.

Life is becoming objectively worse, but we need to pay more for the privilege.

We vote with our wallets when we don’t like products and services in daily life, so why don’t we do the same with countries?

I do. And more of the world should.

Stack residencies. Get another passport. Become a nomad. Pay taxes to a country where you feel it’s worth it. (Even better, pay none at all.)

Normalise nations getting our business by earning it.

As life improves, patriotism will follow.

Intel bursts.

1. 🇩🇪 Germany: A reported 60% of people receiving benefits payments in Germany are not German citizens. The German welfare system costs €1.19 trillion per year, with more than half of that being now spent on foreigners entering the country (many illegally) to live off the state. German taxpayers should be pissed.

2. 🇨🇳 China: Individual gold sales are up 27% in China this year alone, in response to China’s diminishing currency and real estate market. As always, when things get bad, people trust in the only thing humanity has considered to be real money for thousands of years.

3. 🇵🇦 Panama: Panama’s soon-to-be-inaugurated president José Raúl Mulino has promised to close the Darién Gap. Despite being 4000km from the US southern border, the Gap is one of the primary routes for illegal migration into North America, with an estimated 500,000 people passing through each year, mostly headed to the United States.

4. 🇮🇹 Italy: The Italian passport has been ranked as the most powerful passport in Europe, and second in the world only to Singapore. But Italy is still preferred to many, as dual/multiple citizenship is banned in Singapore. Do you have an Italian ancestor, up to a great-grandparent or beyond? Chances are you have the legal right to claim Italian citizenship (and a passport) by descent.

5. 🇦🇺 Australia: Australia’s PM doubles down on a potential social media ban for people under 16 years old, amidst an upcoming government trial. Personally, I think this should be the job of parents, not the government. But when do world leaders ever say no to a chance to seize more control over us?

Enjoy your weekend, more to come on Monday.

Written by Leon Hill.
Founder, Anticitizen.

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This newsletter is for educational purposes, and is not financial advice. Please do your own research, and consider risks involved with investing or purchasing any asset.