Without trying to sound sycophantic, or making this all about me, I wanted to speak a little about Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli today as he celebrates his birthday. Way back when Asgardia launched I was looking for a change. Something to shake up my life, something to shake up the drab and hopeless world. That's when he revealed his visionary plan to drive humanity forward towards being a spacefaring people and to create the first 'Space Nation', I signed up straight away. It wasn't long before I found myself getting more and more involved in his project - I started writing blogs, sharing information, chatting with like-minded people and creating content for Asgardian 'Citizens'. I was getting swept up in the tides of change that Dr. Ashurbeyli's vision was creating and I had never felt more alive. Each day I was spending more and more time 'becoming an Asgardian'. I was hanging out online, on the forums and I even registered myself in the early 'trendsetter' system so that I could do more to help build the nation. Not long after this, I started working as a volunteer for Civic Asgardia and I threw my hat in with the Parliamentary Elections, hoping to become one of those key people that would be responsible for building the nation and defining the rules that the nation would run on. While I didn't make it as a member of Parliament I gained a lot of support from my fellow Asgardians and the door was opened for me to start contributing to Asgardia. I started to invest my time into creating content and working on Asgardia's digital media, talking with followers and residents and sharing information in an official capacity. I was fortunate enough to attend the inauguration of the Head of Nation doing work to help promote the event and share details with the people 'back home'. It was in Vienna on the 24th that I had my first opportunity to meet Dr. Ashurbeyli - Though I had already been working for Asgardia for some time, this was the first 'face-to-face' meeting that I had with him. It struck me how down to earth he was - yet he was able to speak with knowledge on a wide range of subjects and had an air of authority about him. I had an opportunity to ask a question about Virtual Reality, I was discussing how it could be an asset for Asgardia to move into the VR industry as it was growing and how it would offer synergies with our digital nation. Dr. Ashurbeyli told me that he agreed and that he found the technology very interesting - And he rounded off our discussion by saying "This is why we need young people - we need them for their innovation and fresh thinking. Let the old people worry about the laws and technical details and let the young people dream of a wonderful future." - I'm paraphrasing here, but it was very inspirational. The whole meeting really made me believe in Dr. Ashurbeyli as a visionary - the way he spoke, the way that he thought about the future and his willingness to work for the future of humanity with the understanding that he may never get to enjoy the benefits of the very thing that he is creating - It's the mark of a great man. While I may just be caught in the winds of this grand ambition and I'm tumbling along doing what I can to help, I can't really thank Dr. Ashurbeyli and Asgardia enough for having such a profound and lasting impact on my life. All the new connections, the new places, the new thoughts and the challenges that I have been exposed to in the past 2 years have really been a grand adventure for me. So with that, I offer my warmest wishes to the Head of Nation and bid him a happy birthday.

Dear Asgardians, The Quantum Electric Generator system (QEG) is an adaptation of one of Nikola Tesla’s many patented electrical generator /dynamo/alternator designs, dated January 2, 1894. I believe these discoveries will give Asgardia a jump start to establish a space nation. Due to its electromagnetic nature of ‘Zero Point (Quantum Vacuum),’ it can be used as mass cancellation, gravity, and ‘free power source’. It is a known fact that this has been discovered by Nikola Tesla. I believe that Asgardia can be a ‘Peaceful’ example for all Humanity.

It makes perfect sense for Asgardia to develop a cryptocurrency for its new economy, particularly considering how even central banks across the planet are looking towards cryptocurrency and blockchain more broadly to improve financial services. My concern is that not enough discussion is happening around what the Asgardia cryptocurrency should look like, what should its characteristics be, should it even be broader and be an entire purpose built blockchain to fold in areas such as identity, tokenisation of property and provenance. Some key areas that need to be thought through include the following. * Tokenomics model. How will it incentivise positive behaviour? Is the economy to be inflationary? If so, how and where are new tokens injected into the economy? For example, are new tokens minted for community projects or governance activities or for certain types of trade? Tokenomics is a rich area of research. If you get it right then you can create a vibrant and growing economy but get it wrong and it will collapse and could destroy the credibility of Asgardia. * Confidentiality. How is confidentiality of transactions to be handled? Some transactions and data need to be transparent but not all. How is this to be handled? * Identity. What's the policy around identity. Are people involved in economics governance or trading or other activities required to perform KYC or AML checks or is there to be a reputational system based off good behaviour or is it entirely anonymous and random? * Consensus and environmental impact. I'm a passionate believer that all big technology needs to exist in balance with its environment. The choice of technology and consensus mechanism is hugely important here. There are blockchains like Ethereum that are terrible for the environment, consuming as much energy as Switzerland with no solid plan to scale while there are others that are striving to be CO2 neutral or even negative while scaling to millions of users, particularly in industrial sectors. * Are we just talking cryptocurrency here or do we want to think bigger? What about tokenisation of property, whether space assets or digital assets or other assets? What about autonomous systems and services that benefit the members of Asgardia or raise funds for Asgardia? * What's the underlying choices of technology? What type of ledger data needs to be handled? What about blobs/files? What oracles are needed? What about programming languages for dApps? Do we want to support common languages like C++ or .NET languages? My concern is that there's a lot to consider when designing any cryptocurrency or blockchain, I've run teams of 20 or more just scoping this kind of thing out and it isn't easy so this can't be something cobbled together in secret by a couple of people. If it is done that way then it will fail which would be a shame because this is an opportunity to do something topical and of huge impact.

On this first anniversary marking the inauguration of a constitution and free elections among our membership, it gives me great pleasure as the first mayoral representative for London to be able to address you this Unity Day. Unfortunately, in our present climate of political turmoil, the word Unity is not one that is often used. We are constantly reminded that we live in a divided, and divisive country. The only thing we are told we certainly do share, are the problems and difficulties ahead. Concern for Social Services and the NHS, an uncertain future for trade and industry affecting jobs and the Economy, and above all climate change, threatening our very existence. The last of these more than any other has become synonymous with a general feeling of helplessness that I think most of us feel, from being continuously confronted by issues affecting our lives so large, so intractable, that we cannot imagine a solution. Last week a report outlined a scenario in which civilisation as we know it would end in as little as 30 years. The premise for this scenario was simply not meeting the Paris Agreement targets set for 2030 and subsequently proceeding in the same measure for a further 20 years without agreement. Interestingly, the report was delivered not to address the Climate Change implications from the failure of the Paris Agreement, but rather to explore the National Security response that might now be needed to be prepare for that eventuality. The report concluded that to secure our future: “This requires the global mobilisation of resources on an emergency basis, akin to a wartime level of response.” - National Centre for Climate Restoration, Australian NGO In London we are acutely aware of what impact harmful pollution has on our lives. Some ten thousand of us die every year from pollution related illnesses, many more suffering heart disease, asthma, dementia and cancer from the fifty million kilos of Nitrogen Oxide, Dioxide and particulate matter exhausted by road vehicles into the city each year. Beyond the personal cost, the NHS is estimated to spend some 3.7 billion pounds treating the victims of this pollution. Why focus on this as an expression of our Unity Day? We share a common dream. Life; throughout the Solar System, on its worlds and moons, and in the vast spaces between. Too easily we forget however, that we already live on the most amazing spaceship we could ever possess. Anything our artifice may later achieve could only ever be as good as Spaceship Earth, a place we all share together. The preservation of Earth as our first, best home, must never be diminished no matter how far our ambition takes us from it. We understand that the very best case for humanity’s aspirations beyond the Earth, are to ultimately ensure a paradise here on Earth. Some Nation States understand their responsibility toward this larger goal. In the UK we are fortunate to live in a country leading by example the planetary initiatives necessary to make that change. This year marked the first time since the Industrial revolution that coal power did not, albeit for four days, form a part of our electricity supply. Overall our energy reliance on fossil fuels this year fell below 150 Terrawatthours (TWH), while our energy supply from clean renewable wind and solar power rose above 100 TWH. Next year this gap will close and we will enjoy half of our electricity from renewable energy, a tipping point which can only accelerate us away from fossil fuel use. The Government has repeated its commitment to achieve a carbon neutral nation by 2050 and I believe we will surpass that goal. At home in London this year we saw the inauguration of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone. In the first month of operation alone, ten thousand of the most polluting vehicles were reduced from our City’s streets. This excellent initiative is a prelude to removing all combustion engines from the streets of London. I call on all Asgardians to encourage the Mayor’s Office to make all vehicles in London electric within the next decade. By 2030 in London, let us dare to breath clean air, and then everywhere. Since founding the UK Space Agency in 2010 consecutive Governments have pursued a strong Space agenda. The UK is committed to increased participation with ESA and has funded the ISS allowing our participation for the first time in their human spaceflight program, culminating in Major Tim Peake’s 6 month mission aboard the Station in 2015-16. The Space Industry Bill was introduced in Parliament this year to ensure our ongoing commercial space success. Some 42,000 people work in the UK Space Sector and the industry globally represents some £70Bn worth available market opportunities. UK Satellite manufacturing leads the world while we ambitiously pursue next generation horizontal launch facilities in Cornwall and Prestwick to complement a vertical launch site in Sutherland. UK companies like Virgin Galactic and Orbital Access are on the forefront of the country’s future launch and spaceflight capability. It would be a travesty if we did not leverage London’s position as the world’s leading financial investment centre to enhance the country’s space ambitions. I ask London’s financial institutions to examine their investment portfolios and commit just 1% of their funding to Space Industry opportunities. To further encourage this, I ask City Hall and Government to promote sweeping tax incentives and investment relief. To go far beyond existing Entrepreneur Investment Schemes and deliver a truly comprehensive package of benefits through which Space companies can flourish, to establish rapid growth of the industry, and to ensure we secure ourselves as a world leader in Space. Together our membership can drive this agenda here in London, and from there deliver global action for a comprehensive commercial presence in space. In all this, Asgardians are unified by our desire for a sustainable and healthy environment because we intend to inhabit places beyond the Earth. We share a common hope for our long term ability to succeed as a species. We are determined to seize the initiative through individual action and responsibility by establishing the technological and social change necessary to overcome the problems before us. Let us send a message that we can and will shape our future by acting with unity today.

*Name*: Ross Cheeseright *Title*: Mr. _Hello World_ Don't mind me Just checking out all the formatting options and making sure that it all works fine-and-dandy for when I'm doing longer format posts! This is some text next to an image. It's a pretty cool thing to do if you're writing an article or a post with some images in it and you want them to appear side-by-side. However, I don't know what this is going to look like once it's posted and being displayed in the normal viewing experience presented by the new website. That's why I'm testing these things! I'm also interested to know what it's going to look like on mobile! So yeah. Apologies in advance for wasting your time with this :D This is some more text that would represent the article and just to keep going with the test, we're going to throw out some bullet points, too: >Bullet! >Bullet! >Bullet! That went pretty well, hopefully. Now let's try numbers: 1. Bullet! 2. Bullet! 3. Bullet! So that really concludes all the things that I wanted to test. It all seems to format fine in the blogging interface. Let's hope that the formatting holds up when we display it on the website!

Hello World. I am currently watching the Digital Parliament Sitting live in Vienna as I take notes and prepare to write some content for the Nation. The new website has just been revealed and Asgardia's IT Team seem really passionate about plans for the future! I'm really impressed with the new platform and all the visions for how the website will grow to become more interactive in the future. I hope to put out some more news about that soon. Until then, I just wanted to give it a blast myself! Stay tuned.