Welcome to the future

Posted this on my personal Facebook page in Feb 2020 Price ~$9,000 Number of friends who asked me for more info? Zero 😂

Not sure if I’m ready for the WEF to be shilling Bitcoin this hard

We found Atlantis 😎

Toppling the petrodollar-fueled Saudi Aramco is going to be the absolute best

Two days of gorgeous bluebird not-a-cloud-in-the-sky riding, now a powder dump approaches… Can’t complain :)

The crazy part is she *should be* a huge Bitcoin advocate Any progressive person concerned with discrimination should be thrilled with the idea of non-discriminatory money

😂

Just paid for a surf outing in Madeira in Bitcoin Didn’t need to fill out any paperwork No rent-seeking, data-mining, bureaucratic, censorious third party was involved No currency exchange was involved No one else got to decide whether my payment went through We are winning ✌️ 🤙

Appreciate @anilsaidso for the rad art 😂

It’s my hope that repressed people all over the world will one day soon be able to rally around Bitcoin, instead of Communism, to rise up, throw off their shackles, claim their rights, and defeat elderly corrupt dictators Nakamoto >> Marx Property rights >> Statism True freedom >> Another dictator in different clothing

At the end of last year the Human Rights Foundation launched a weekly Financial Freedom Report It’s high-signal, mixing global news about inflation and financial repression with updates from the Bitcoin space. We put a lot of work into it and we hope you find it useful. Officially: "The Financial Freedom Report is a newsletter focusing on the role currency and banking play in the civil liberties and human rights struggles of those living under authoritarian regimes. We also spotlight new tools and applications that can help individuals protect their financial freedom." I enclose today's edition #9 below To sign up, visit:

Financial Freedom Newsletter

Governments are increasingly using financial repression as a tool of control—surveilling transactions, denying banking services, freezing funds, ...

——— Hello readers, This past week, Egyptians were told to put up with soaring inflation, while we saw Kazakhstan’s financial suppression of journalists and Pakistan’s continued rise in Bitcoin adoption. Plus, a new documentary on the economic and political turmoil in Lebanon and how, in the face of adversity, the Lebanese people are coming together to rebuild their beloved nation. Let’s dive right in! Global News ——— Egypt | Financial Repression Dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sisi dismissed Egyptians’ concerns over their ability to buy essential goods amid growing prices. “Don't we eat? We eat. Things are expensive, and some things are not available. So what?” This statement comes as the country prepares to spend billions on a luxurious new capital 45 kilometers east of Cairo, which Sisi claims is important for economic development. Critics argue the development increases the country’s debt burden while taking away from everyday Egyptians, who are already dealing with 30% inflation, foreign currency shortages, store closures, a new restriction on credit card withdrawals, and Sisi’s efforts to expand a $3 billion IMF program, which will force the country to undergo structural reforms. The pound is in freefall, losing a quarter of its value since the beginning of the year. Russia | Asset Confiscation A new law has been drafted in Russia that threatens to freeze the bank accounts and assets of citizens for spreading “fake news” about the regime’s invasion of Ukraine. The Russian banking system is already tightly controlled and monitored, leading to the rise of platforms like 21 Ideas, which share educational materials about Bitcoin and financial freedom in the Russian language. The law opens the door for the Russian government to confiscate funds from anyone who “attacks the foundation of the state.” The BBC notes that this law, which is going through an accelerated approval process, will be used to target dissidents and human rights activists. Hong Kong | Journalists Association Demanded to Pay “Profits Tax” The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) must pay HK$400,000 (approximately $50,000) in “profits tax” to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD). The calculations were reportedly based on HKJA’s bank deposits as opposed to their profits, a move that has perplexed the organization. HKJA added that their operational funding comes through sponsorship from major public and private institutions at its annual fundraising dinners. With a seeming lack of justification, byzantine taxes such as this one serve as a stern warning on the financial obstacles faced by press freedom organizations under authoritarian regimes. Turkey | Currency Devaluation The Turkish Lira has lost 92% of its value against the US dollar over the last decade, marking a historic low. Inflation rose to nearly 65% on an annual basis last month, eroding the purchasing power of the Turkish people and placing a considerable strain on their ability to afford basic goods. To counteract inflation and stabilize the economy, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey is continuing to raise interest rates, this time by 2.5%, bringing the benchmark rate to 45%. At the same time, Turks are flocking to Bitcoin and stablecoins as a way out. Kazakhstan | Financial Suppression of Media Kazakh investigative journalist Duman Mukhamedkarim faces two charges for carrying out journalistic activities and advocacy work. The first charge was for “participation in an extremist organization” after conducting an interview with a member of the political party Democratic Choice in Kazakhstan (DCK). The second for “financing of an extremist organization” after publishing a bank account number that could receive donations to provide legal support for political prisoners. According to lawyer and human rights defender Bota Jardemalie, the Kazakh regime “habitually levers false allegations” of extremism financing and abuses AML/CFT laws against opposition activists.” Activists in Kazakhstan regularly face financial restrictions, are unable to have bank accounts, and often have their assets confiscated. Pakistan | Rising Bitcoin Adoption Bitcoin adoption in Pakistan continues to rise amid a national economic crisis and creeping authoritarianism. With a population of more than 240 million people, where the majority live below the poverty line, and inflation exceeds 30%, Pakistanis are increasingly turning to bitcoin through peer-to-peer services. The country is considered a global leader in IT export services, and the national freelancing industry is also helping drive adoption in this area. Freelancers seek to hedge against inflation with foreign currencies like USD or GBP, and a growing number hold Bitcoin as an inflation hedge. HRF is happy to support Bitcoin Pakistan, which helps educate Pakistanis about an alternative currency system beyond government control. The Latest in Bitcoin Development and Education ——— Mutiny | Payjoin Support Mutiny Wallet, an open-source, non-custodial, privacy-focused Bitcoin and Lightning wallet available as a web client or Android app, has shipped Payjoin v1 support with its v0.5.7 release. “We’re really excited about the privacy gains here and for future improvements such as Payjoin v2.,” the team said. “This should allow asynchronous payjoins, making it possible for a mobile user to payjoin with another mobile user.” Payjoin is a technique that can help prevent surveillance, as it “breaks the common-input-ownership heuristic” but remains “undetectable and indistinguishable from any regular bitcoin transaction.” Bitwise | Public Transparency Last week, the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) became the first US Bitcoin ETF to disclose the bitcoin addresses of its holdings, which at the time showed 11858.63 bitcoin in its trust (valued at about $465,300,000 USD). “Publishing on-chain addresses is a first step toward increasing public transparency,” they announced. This move enables anyone to verify BITB’s bitcoin holdings and transactions directly on the blockchain, establishing a new standard for institutional transparency. Bitwise will also donate 10% of profits from its Bitcoin ETF to open-source development with recipient organizations including OpenSats, Brink, and the Human Rights Foundation. Breez | Non-Custodial Lightning Breez SDK has added support for offline payments, where a user can get a mobile notification to process an incoming payment. While this feature is only available to users of the Breez software environment, it’s a big UX improvement for mobile Lightning use and something to keep an eye on. In a recent article, Breez CEO Roy Sheinfeld puts this innovation in context, exploring the challenges and past attempts to fix the UX challenges of offline payments, discussing how they have deterred self-custody, and pointing to progress in this area as key to being able to conduct private mobile Bitcoin transactions. Samourai Wallet | Bitcoin to Monero Atomic Swaps Samourai wallet introduced atomic swaps in their public beta, allowing users to trustlessly swap between Bitcoin and Monero over Tor. Monero is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that differentiates from Bitcoin by hiding transaction information from the public, making it nearly impossible for governments to trace user activity. This, however, comes at the cost of decentralization, liquidity, and publicly verifiable transactions. Atomic swaps allow individuals to exchange tokenized assets across different blockchains without the need for a centralized intermediary, enhancing user anonymity. It’s another privacy option for activists operating under constant financial surveillance, empowering them to continue their work in a more private and secure manner. You can learn more about this new feature here. Btcd | Critical Bug Fixes Niklas Gögge announced a consensus failure in btcd (an alternative to Bitcoin Core Implementation) versions prior to v0.24.0. Consensus is paramount to the integrity and longevity of a decentralized network. Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #28 said that with this failure, “it was possible to construct a transaction with a negative version number, which Bitcoin Core would require to follow the BIP68 rules but btcd would not.” This vulnerability could be exploited to trick a node into accepting invalid bitcoin. Software like btcd requires ongoing reviews and bug fixes, which is why funding for open-source software development, like HRF’s Bitcoin Development Fund, is critical for supporting developers in maintaining the integrity and robustness of the Bitcoin network. OpenSats and Vinteum | Open Source Funding OpenSats awarded long-term support to René Pickhardt, “helping him continue his fundamental research on improving Bitcoin’s overall usefulness as a payment system through the Lightning Network.” Funding will help Rene improve reliable payment planning, efficient payment routing, and explore new liquidity management strategies over the Lightning Network. In Brazil, Vinteum awarded funding to Leonardo Lima, whose “grant period will be dedicated to contributions to both Fedimint and BDK.” In particular, enhancing client and server tor support, developing multisig cosigning modules, and the potential of passkeys module on Fedimint, as well as adding native tor support to rust-esplora-client and rust-electrum-client. Recommended Content ——— “Lebanon, Life After the State” By Peter McCormack In the documentary “Lebanon, Life After the State,” journalist Peter McCormack dives into the country’s tumultuous political and economic landscape, unraveling decades of government mismanagement and corruption, which peaked with the tragic explosion at the port of Beirut on Aug. 4, 2020. He takes viewers through Lebanon’s chronic gridlock, hyperinflation, banking collapse, and the people’s efforts to rebuild with little to no governmental support. You’ll also see why some citizens have turned to bitcoin in their attempt to rebuild their beloved nation. McCormack captures the incredible resilience of the Lebanese people in the face of adversity and shows how people have come together when their government has collapsed and failed in its duty to support them.

I am thrilled to share my new essay "Stranded: How Bitcoin is Saving Wasted Energy and Expanding Financial Freedom in Africa" I was profoundly moved by what I saw on a recent trip to Kenya and Malawi. If this essay can show you even 1% of what inspired me, that's a win… here’s an overview: We begin in Bondo, a small town in Malawi, a country where only 11% of the population has access to electricity. The nation suffers 6-8 hours of blackouts a day, but the power in Bondo is consistent because of Bitcoin mining. The town got its first electricity in 2016, and now is expanding its grid, thanks to Bitcoin, which is buying 100% of the electricity that the micro-hydro stations cannot sell, and giving precious capital to the power company so it can expand operations. At night, demand dwindles, and in remote places like Bondo, there’s no one else to buy the consistent hydro power. Enter Bitcoin, powered by internet services like Starlink. A datacenter from Gridless now saves the wasted energy and is powering the community forward. The big realization: virtually all power generation, especially in rural places, wastes energy. Bitcoin fixes this. We are told Bitcoin is a waste of energy but the truth is the opposite. NOT Bitcoin mining is a waste of energy. And the kicker: Bitcoin miners create heat. This heat will be used for productive uses. General heating in cold climates, and in a place like Bondo? Drying tea, fruit, or cocoa. Profit from mining won’t just be profit - cost, it will be (profit + profit from externality) - cost. For context: Malawi is a country that just suffered an IMF-led 44% currency devaluation. Already one of the poorest nations in the world, where most people save in cash, now citizens can only afford 56% of what they could a few months ago. Per the IMF, more devaluation is on the way. The kwacha is a disastrous wage technology. Once again, enter Bitcoin, a vastly superior savings mechanism. The first Bitcoin meetup is happening in the Malawi’s capital this month. We are very early with adoption in this region—2020 in El Salvador terms—but this adoption will turn from a trickle into a torrent. Up north in Kenya, Gridless has geothermal mines, too. I visited one. It’s a remarkable site: a humming hut on the site of a lake with a Starlink on top, eating all of the electricity that a water pump does not use: perfectly solarpunk. Kenya is the world’s largest exporter of cut flowers. There are tons of sites like this, generating power for irrigation, all over the country. All of them waste energy. Geothermal is beautifully consistent, but the demand is not. Bitcoin fixes this. Gridless operations like these are generally profitable within the first two years. Now there's biomass, where the company has just launched data centers at sugar and sisal processing factories which before couldn't find buyers for excess electricity. But now Bitcoin is buying. This sounds great so far… But for the hundreds of millions of Africans who don’t have internet access, how are they supposed to benefit? Enter KG, whose company Machankura provides Bitcoin access to people with no internet. This is done through USSD — a SMS-type protocol. The user texts a number, then gets a decision tree, and can send, receive, barter, and purchase a variety of things, all without data. This is a custodial service for now — but KG and team have plan to make SIM cards signing devices and even Lightning touch points so that people can self-custody and be their own bank without the internet. A true civilizational leap forward. Critical: there are 700 million women in Africa, but very very few use Bitcoin. Marcel Lorraine aims to change that. A Kenyan entrepreneur who has fearlessly helping schools in Kibera, two years ago she launched Bitcoin Dada, a program to educate women and girls about Bitcoin. Marcel runs classes every week, with several cohorts per year. The task is huge but she insists on pushing forward. She argues Bitcoin can give macro freedom for communities and countries, yes, but also micro freedom at home for women who traditionally take a back seat in finance. Finally: independence from dependence is a key concept Femi Longe, director of BTrust Builders, is trying to make that happen. He’s running a program to train African developers and help them contribute to Bitcoin, to take careers in the industry or become contributors to core. As Jack Dorsey says, if Bitcoin is going to be used around the world, it has to be made around the world. Femi refuses to accept a future like today, where cars are made in the West and bought by Africans. The Bitcoin infrastructure needs to be made in Africa. The way these pieces could fit together is astonishing. Unlike in the West, where adoption might mean centralized pools and ETFs, in Africa adoption will mean off-grid mining and potentially millions of self-custodying users, powered by SIM cards. Africans need Bitcoin, yes. But Bitcoin needs Africa. That was blazing clear from my visit last month. At the end of the day, who is going to help bring electricity and high-quality currency — the building blocks of progress — to hundreds of millions of Africans? Bill Gates? The UN? The World Bank? No, they won’t. But Bitcoin might. Read the full story at Bitcoin Magazine:

Bitcoin Magazine

Stranded: How Bitcoin Is Saving Wasted Energy And Expanding Financial Freedom In Africa

Hundreds of millions of Africans face two problems holding them back from progress: 600 million lack electricity, while virtually all 1.4 billion p...

After the Africa Bitcoin Conference I went with a small group of people to explore the impact of Bitcoin mining and adoption in Kenya and Malawi. One companion was a well-known foreign correspondent who has been a little skeptical about Bitcoin. But what he saw blew him away. Here is his report, a highly recommend read:

UnHerd

The African village mining Bitcoin

The cryptocurrency can be a liberating force

LFG

🤝 @ck 📸

@ck driving, LFG 🔥

💔

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.'