Shehzadi at Takia Gate, Turkistan.

Months earlier we stood in Chandolin, Switzerland, home of Ella Maillart, who crossed Soviet Turkestan in 1932 with a camera, notebooks, and heroic stubbornness.

Then we drove east. Now the road had folded the map: Swiss mountain village to Silk Road Kazakhstan.

Full blog:
https://thevagabondcouple.blogspot.com/2025/07/kazakhstan-overland-aral-sea-baikonur-turkistan-silk-road.html

#VagabondCouple #travel #Kazakhstan #Turkistan #EllaMaillart #SilkRoad #overlanding

The June finance calendar points to a region trying to turn connectivity talk into bankable infrastructure, with the Middle Corridor emerging as the clearest test. https://ow.ly/6Mzr50Zb0Rt #MiddleCorridor #TradeRoutes #Logistics #Connectivity #Investment #SilkRoad #CentralAsia

Opinion: Central Asia’s Shift ...
Opinion: Central Asia’s Shift from Silk Road Romance to Infrastructure Finance - What the June Forums Are Building - The Times Of Central Asia

In mid-June, Tashkent and Baku will host two major international finance gatherings within the same regional window: the fifth Tashkent International

The Times Of Central Asia
The June finance calendar points to a region trying to turn connectivity talk into bankable infrastructure, with the Middle Corridor emerging as the clearest test. https://timesca.com/central-asias-shift-from-silk-road-romance-to-infrastructure-finance-what-the-june-forums-are-really-building/ #MiddleCorridor #InfrastructureFinance #TradeRoutes #Logistics #Connectivity #Investment #SilkRoad #CentralAsia
Dan Loeb disclosed that the DOJ threatened President Trump in his first term's final hours to stop the commutation of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. Trump ultimately granted a full pardon in January 2025. #TechNews #SilkRoad #Crypto #Politics
https://blazetrends.com/dan-loeb-reveals-doj-threatened-trump-over-ross-ulbricht-commutation/?fsp_sid=29781
Dan Loeb Reveals DOJ Threatened Trump Over Ross Ulbricht Commutation

As ongoing friction between federal law enforcement and the cryptocurrency sector continues, new details outline an intense confrontation over the creator of the internet's first major dark web marketplace. Hedge fund manager Dan Loeb disclosed on Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Justice explicitly warned President Donald Trump during the final hours of his first

Blaze Trends
China Overland Part 4 is live: Shigatse to Saga via G318, Gyatso La, Everest North Base Camp, Rongbuk, Peiku Tso, and G219. Five 8,000m peaks, eco-bus rules, khata sendoff, wolf-claw road lore, turquoise lake, pilgrim buses, and lunch at altitude. Everest made us park. North Face, Shishapangma, Himalayan road day. Tiny lungs, big scenery. High-altitude Tibet. Cold, clear, high.
https://thevagabondcouple.blogspot.com/2025/09/china-overland-shigatse-saga-gyatso-la-everest-north-base-camp-rongbuk-peiku-tso.html
#VagabondCouple #travel #ChinaOverland #Tibet #Everest #Overlanding #SilkRoad #G318 #Himalayas
The Vagabond Couple: China Overland Part 4: Shigatse to Saga via Gyatso La, Everest North Base Camp & Peiku Tso

Tibet overland: Shigatse to Saga via Gyatso La, Rongbuk Monastery & Everest North Base Camp. Peiku Tso, pilgrim buses, wolf claw. ETR: 45 min. #VagabondCouple

The Vagabond Couple

China Overland Part 3 is live: Golmud to Shigatse on the high road to Tibet via G109, Qinghai-Tibet Highway, Kunlun Pass, Hoh Xil, Tuotuohe, Yangtze headwaters, Tanggula Pass, Amdo, Nagqu, yak pasture, Tibetan antelope, railway engineering, oxygen hotels, and Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. Altitude charged rent. Oxygen filed paperwork. Thin air, big views.

https://thevagabondcouple.blogspot.com/2025/09/china-overland-golmud-shigatse-qinghai-tibet-highway-tanggula-nagqu.html

#VagabondCouple #travel #ChinaOverland #QinghaiTibetHighway #Tibet #Overlanding #SilkRoad #Golmud #Shigatse

The Vagabond Couple: China Overland Part 3: Golmud to Shigatse via the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, Tanggula Pass & Nagqu

China Overland Part 3: Golmud to Shigatse via G109, Qinghai-Tibet Highway, Tanggula Pass, Nagqu & Tashi Lhunpo. ETR: 50 min. #VagabondCouple

The Vagabond Couple

Kennt hier noch jemand das 2005 erschienene MMORPG Silkroad Online?
Auf der #gpn läuft ein SRO Server zum nostalgisch sein, spielen und hacken!

Alles weitere, wie Account Registrierung und Client Download, findest du unter
http://151.216.239.16:80/

(Auch von extern erreichbar)

#gpn24 #silkroad

China Overland Part 2 is live: Kashgar to Golmud around the Tarim Basin. Kuqa bazaar, Qiuci music, Subashi Buddhist Ruins, Bosten Lake, Turpan karez, Flaming Mountains, Bezeklik, Tuyugou, Hami, Dunhuang, Mogao Caves, and the G215 high-desert run. China did not do small. Our tires noticed.

https://thevagabondcouple.blogspot.com/2026/06/china-overland-kashgar-kuqa-turpan-dunhuang-golmud-tarim-basin.html

#VagabondCouple #travel #SilkRoad #Overlanding #ChinaTravel #ChinaOverland #Xinjiang #TarimBasin #Kashgar #Kuqa #Turpan #Dunhuang #MogaoCaves

The Vagabond Couple: China Overland Part 2: Kashgar to Golmud via Kuqa, Turpan, Dunhuang & the Tarim Basin

China overland from Kashgar to Golmud via Kuqa, Turpan, Hami and Dunhuang, with Tarim Basin Silk Road stops. ETR: 76 min. #VagabondCouple

The Vagabond Couple

China blog drop: two foreign vehicles from Sary-Tash to Irkeshtam, Wuqia paperwork purgatory, temporary plates, one dramatic VIN plate, then Kashgar Old Town with tea houses, nang, music, camels, Id Kah Mosque square, and Silk Road night magic. Overlanding. With forms. Many forms. China did not do small. Two trucks. One border. Zero shortcuts. Forms with scenery.

https://thevagabondcouple.blogspot.com/2025/08/china-overland-irkeshtam-border-wuqia-kashgar-old-town.html

#VagabondCouple #travel #SilkRoad #Overlanding #ChinaOverland #Kashgar #Xinjiang

The Vagabond Couple: China Overland Part 1: Irkeshtam Border to Kashgar Old Town

China overland Part 1: Irkeshtam border, Wuqia paperwork, Kashgar Old Town, Id Kah Mosque, tea houses and nang. ETR 28 min. #VagabondCouple

The Vagabond Couple

this profile a year ago about some kind of #fediWebOfTrust wrote:

..
What did tho work in an astonishing way, and let's please leave aside for a moment some issues bitcoin does involve, is the concept #localbitcoins came up with, actually as well as the famous #Silkroad example. Sites that managed to create some kind of trustless exchange. The particularity of localbitcoins tho was that they invented a reference system where people actually even meet each other and backed up their existence by some how proving each others identity. Ultimately the reference and reputation system of localbitcoins, reputation out of completed transactions and comments about them, as well as in person verification, created a functional working environment, something that till today is looking for a match out there.

All these a real critical issues. And perhaps not only for trade but to a certain extent for our #socialWeb, our #fediVerse itself. On one hand we have commercial transactions that can involve fraud and on the other personal information that also can be exposed to fraud and worth. In our decentralized setup this is even somehow more complicated as fraudsters can restart at any given moment from anywhere else, while at the same time reputation on mid and long term should and can matter.
So, what we do have is on one hand the "real me" function implemented for example by mastodon, and on the other we do have the signing capabilities of blockchains themselves. In particular of #electrum wallets, a decentralized wallet system that was created and is implemented not only by bitcoin but a lot more blockchains that want to show off with a real simple decentralized #FOSS wallet system.
To get this straight, this is not about any coin or acquisition of any coin at all, but the simple technical availability of installing a simple long standing proven decentralized FOSS software that has the capability to sign or prove the correctness of any kind of text string. Nobody needs to have a single cent of a coin, or connect to anywhere, to create a wallet and with it a wallet address that than can sign a text. In other words, any wallet address is an ID that can't be impersonated without the respective password.
So, it doesn't matter where for example the ID "bc1qp8xla8me0ykkh5wzrvkjgtdnuma0galep9cedu" as a profile name shows up, or which profile claims to represent the ID "bc1qp8xla8me0ykkh5wzrvkjgtdnuma0galep9cedu", unless it is able to show off with a text, for example:
"I do have access to the signing keys for this ID" signed correctly with that wallet address, that profile could be considered an impostor.

To create show cases for this idea, for this concept, there is on one hand the friendica fediVerse site:
inversion.tupambae.com/
The profile "blockchain" for example uses the just mentioned specific ID:
inversion.tupambae.com/profile…
as some kind of "none human readable address".

Than there is the site:
1dhfsbbdpv4wshuyc6197nymcfeqqk…
The subdomain name itself is a first generation bitcoin address that has been used on the web and even if the capital letter detail is not in use, references are found for example by google.
That site hosts a project profile that again uses a bitcoin #SEGWIT address as an ID:
1dhfsbbdpv4wshuyc6197nymcfeqqk…
Actually the bc1 segwit system is not case sensitive, in other words no capital letters in those ID's.
That profile itself is a reference to a mastodon profile that uses it to claim it's "real me" identity as "btc SEGWIT verified":
mastodon.uy/@tierranietos

Again there is not only no need for to involve bitcoins or cents of bitcoins (satoshis) in this. Even bitcoin itself doesn't have to be used, as there are lot's of electrum wallets out there. They do tho only verify texts signed with the same coin wallet. There is for example a #namecoin electrum wallet, a first generation coin invented to create a decentralized URL system, as well as there is was for example a #faircoin electrum wallet. Considering all the altcoins created out there, faircoin at least is/was an interesting option that apparently failed to a certain extent due to the intent or claim by some in the community to be tradeable on exchanges.
Again, this is not about any coin at all but about the fact that we do have simple unique ID's at hand we can verify and we can use to create reputation and or invent some system of trust and reference on desktop and mobile.

Than there is the consideration of guaranties and identities in the middle that allow escrow as implemented by localbitcoins.
..

2021.04 | inversion tupambae | Home