This Reason doc on a Brooklyn bathhouse powered by Bitcoin mining is amazing They use liquid immersion for the miners and heat the spa water via a heat transfer. Absolutely epic and likely worth a visit 👌

Reason.com

The future of energy? Brooklyn's bitcoin-heated bathhouse

A new Reason documentary explores why, for some, bitcoin is the 'real Green New Deal.'

On Nov 14 the Human Rights Foundation will launch its CBDC Tracker at the National Press Club in Washington, DC The Tracker will go online for the first time, providing the public with a resource to examine the progress and risks of CBDC implementation worldwide Like paper dollars or euros, CBDCs are liabilities of central banks Unlike paper dollars or euros, CBDCs do not offer the privacy protections, neutrality, or finality of cash Virtually all money today is already digital, but it is typically issued and controlled by private banks and fintech companies, even in dictatorships like China When consumers use a credit card, spending is at the discretion of the corporation that issued the card When consumers deposit money into their bank accounts, their funds are liabilities of the bank CBDCs are an effort to: 1) Replace paper cash with government-issued, government controlled digital credits 2) Reduce the power of private banks 3) Expand state control over the economy Paper cash doesn’t require identification, can be used by anyone with no discrimination, and cannot be easily tracked As such, cash is a daily tool of human rights activists, dissidents, and civil society, especially under authoritarian regimes CBDCs stand to potentially phase out this tool for human rights defenders, making them entirely reliant on currency that is surveilled and easily frozen and censored Unlike cash, CBDCs can require ID, have expiration dates, be remotely frozen, and abide by blacklists HRF believes CBDCs pose a significant threat to human rights work worldwide, especially for people living under tyranny More than 100 countries are researching CBDCs, while more than 20 have pilots, and a handful of governments have already launched some kind of retail product Russia, India, the EU, the US, Brazil, and other major governments have all signaled intent to pursue CBDC projects HRF considers it important to track these activities and document what risk they pose to human rights We are pleased to be working with the Bitcoin Policy Institute to launch the CBDC Tracker at the National Press Club in Washington at 10:00am ET on November 14th We are excited to share the work of the project authors: Nick Anthony, Janine Roem, and Matthew Mezinskis If you would like to learn more about the project or RSVP to the launch event, please contact @ck We look forward to sharing the resource with all of you on Nov 14 https://cbdchumanrights.org/

Indonesia Bitcoin Conference was awesome. I’d highly recommend you consider going next year Bali is definitely far but definitely worth it The conference was well produced in a terrific setting with excellent networking space, opportunities to meet local vendors, and fun side events to do with the speakers and guests I met tons of Bitcoiners from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, India, Australia, Philippines, and beyond It’s high time that SE Asia have a Bitcoin conference of this quality Stay a couple extra days and hike a volcano, snorkel or dive in the incredible coral reefs, chill on the beach, explore temples and waterfalls, and sample some of the outstanding global fusion cuisine Can’t say enough about the quality of food, if you are willing to do some reach and poke around. Some of the best meals I have had In short: I will be back!

See you on Tuesday, Korea!

The IDF has informed the United Nations that people living north of a certain point in Gaza need to evacuate in the next 24 hours. This is 1.1 million people. Will their home or neighborhood still be there when they get back? Will they get a chance to go back? Where will they go? Egypt will not let them in. The IDF says it is too dangerous to stay. Imagine if this was happening to you.

Completely crazy that an unelected supranational entity can force countries to devalue their currency like this. We’re talking about the sudden loss of wage purchasing power for tens of millions of people. But you better do it, or else!

History

HRF says what up from PubKey!

Rare MSM article that actually exposes some truth and speaks plainly about how the US and its allies have used international trade and lending to siphon raw materials and cheap labor from poor countries Next? “Green Shock Therapy” as Western governments consider adding conditions on the type of energy that poor countries can use to the typical mix of structural adjustment conditions and austerity agreed to when an IMF or World Bank loan is accepted 🌍 https://t.co/vSuvcgfPTD

There are two big stories in the global economy that I am exploring in my work: One is the individual in a world where money is transforming from a bearer asset to a mechanism of control. This is where the classic human rights stuff comes in: NGOs getting their bank accounts frozen, reporters unable to get paid in dictatorships, central bank digital currencies and surveillance, bank blacklists, politicization of the banking system, etc The second story is an international one, where we have a currency caste system with the dollar on top. Born into Pakistan or Egypt? Tough luck, your local fiat currency -- which is what you earn your wages in -- is being devalued way way faster than you'll ever get a raise. And it is devalued so that your country can, in large part, export more stuff cheaply so it can earn some dollars or euros to pay back debt and buy weapons. Bitcoin poses challenges to both systems. It is a parallel economy for individuals that governments cannot stop. And, secondly, it is an escape from currency devaluation and potentially, in the long run, a way for developing countries to get out from under debt colonialism These topics are explored at length in my recent interview with Nate Hagens on his Great Simplification show

The Great Simplification

Alex Gladstein: "Debt Colonialism, The Petrodollar, and Bitcoin" - The Great Simplification

n this episode, Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation joins Nate

What a sheltered position Pray tell how is a Chinese Bitcoin user going to get saved by “legal and policy people”?

Sic semper tyrannis 🤙

“There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this: Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrections are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this: The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this: Try." —Karis Nemik Brilliant speech from Andor If you haven’t seen it yet… watch it, it will exceed your expectations

My blurb for @Lyn Alden‘s new book Run, don’t walk, and get a copy today “If you could only read one book to learn about money, it’s this one. Alden spans geopolitics, world history, human rights, systems analysis, and computer engineering to add fresh insight to and link together the work of the world’s most influential economic thinkers. “Broken Money” is a sweeping and lucid account of the evolution of the modern financial system that reminds us that money is fundamentally a human subject, with costs and benefits that affect billions of people every day. She presents a unified theory of money that acknowledges the merits of both credit and commodity camps and marries them with technological and humanitarian perspectives to show how we got here and predict where we are going. She speaks plainly and removes the veil of jargon from finance so we can see what hides behind: a continual devaluation of individual financial liberty and a corresponding increase in government authority. “Broken Money” shows that the story of currency and finance is actually a story about freedom versus control, and Alden ends the book with a blueprint of how, against all odds, freedom might win.”

Amazon

Amazon

These IMF types are detached from the suffering that their economic prescriptions have on hundreds of millions of people For them, a recession is “the only way” to fix a developing country in debt For them, their best ideas don’t hurt the poor “too much” Thank god so many bright minds are building a new monetary system that anyone in any country on earth can escape to and leave this horrid wreck behind ✌️

No one could possibly argue it’s a bad idea for families or businesses in Argentina to try to earn and save in dollars versus pesos But the establishment says dollarization will be bad for Argentina Think about that for a second… They want to uphold the Currency Caste System The System is one set of rules for a small few, and a different set of much worse rules for the rest It’s important to keep weak or dead currencies alive in the System, to keep selective wage devaluation going The incentives are such that the System will not reform itself But Bitcoin disrupts the System If, over time, we grow into a global economy with one neutral open decentralized reserve currency, not issued by any one state or alliance, then the System breaks down and a new one emerges There will be new problems with the new system, but it presents a world where everyone uses the same kind of money, instead of a world where your birth determines the quality of money that you earn your wages in… This is a world, in my view, worth striving for Where people in Argentina and Nigeria and Iran earn the same type of money as people in the US and Germany.. where it is all open and interconnected instead of walled off… Monetary unity instead of division ✌️

“Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the Matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts, I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you, inexorably, here.” Boss Fiat, encountering Satoshi ✌️

The currency caste system: A very small number of rich countries print high-quality fiat (for now) to buy stuff while the overwhelming number of countries can’t and instead have to export stuff *we* want (instead of focus on making stuff they need) to earn high-quality fiat This currency caste system ensures that most countries never develop sovereignty and instead grow dependency But! This caste system is completely upended if all countries and people eventually settle in the same global neutral currency that no one state or group of states can print arbitrarily This is the ultimate promise of Bitcoin: ending the global monetary inequality that enriches a tiny few by causing needless suffering for so many

Bitcoin Bounty Challenge Update HRF has determined that Iris secret chats by @Sirius partially qualifies for bounty #3 (e2e encrypted nostr group chats) and will receive 1 BTC of the reward 👏 The remaining 1 BTC is open to any popular nostr client that can create e2e encrypted nostr group chats with an interoperable standard via a merged NIP Martti's submission with Iris did not qualify for the full bounty as only Iris users can initiate a group chat We are excited by all of the interest from around the world in this bounty program and expect to make more announcements about claimed bounties soon 😉

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The Human Rights Foundation is supporting open-source developers working to increase the usability and privacy of the Bitcoin and Lightning network...

We are stoked to be working with Voltage to make self-custodial Bitcoin and Lightning donations easier for non-profit organizations and dissident groups worldwide! They’ll help with liquidity and infrastructure support as HRF continues to work with BTCPay Server contributors to help NGOs become their own banks https://voltage.cloud/blog/voltage-announcements/voltage-partners-with-human-rights-foundation-btc-pay/