I’m teleporting into Bitchat for Tehran (geohash #tnke4) but no chatter — would love to drop in there

The Samourai Wallet developers created a tool improving privacy for bitcoin on-chain use, similar to cash. Users held control of their own funds. Prosecutors ignored FinCEN guidance and concocted an unreasonable legal theory of liability to charge them both with breaking money transmission laws despite the tool never taking custody of the funds. Facing millions in legal costs, 25 years in prison, an overzealous and unfair prosecution, and a Judge with no patience for understanding the broader legal and technical arguments, the developers were essentially forced to plead to lesser charges of "conspiracy" for the sake of their families. Now, both developers have one month before they are to turn themselves in for 4+ years of incarceration, all for creating a piece of open-source code that allowed people to do want they wanted with their own money. This prosecution is an unwarranted and unjust process of law that will be looked back on in shame. Every legal tool or resource should be dispensed in order to free them and reverse the dangerous precedent this sets for privacy and financial sovereignty. Privacy is not a crime, and open-source developers who empower users are not criminals. Many wealthy and powerful people today use bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to safeguard their wealth and benefit from a real-time settlement network without intermediaries. Every consumer benefits from better tech tools that allow them to take control of their money and spend how they wish. If people of influence understand and appreciate the broader ethos of the Bitcoin and crypto revolution, rather than trading and getting rich off fees from their shitcoins, they should advocate for both the pardon of these two individuals and for legal safeguards in federal law to ensure this never happens again. It is not just two these people's lives at stake, but it's the future of how Americans will interact and benefit from technology going forward. #freesamourai

American politicians making censorious demands of private platforms to stop the spread of content (images, points of view, commentary, etc.) is exactly the type of First Amendment violation that Charlie Kirk articulated against, and it's ridiculous. It's also an interesting point of reflection for nostr, as there is no ability to unilaterally delete content or posts

I give comments to the European Conservative magazine about why the EU's plan to break encryption is antithetical to human rights, privacy, and individual freedom

“Chat Control betrays Europe's self-professed image as a protector of human rights”—Free Speech Advocate Yaël Ossowski ━ The European Conservative

Only one week remains to put pressure on European member states to oppose the EU's plan to break end-to-end encryption via chat control my article summing up the opposition's case in EuroNews

euronews

Time is running out for EU Member States to decide on Chat Control

With just a few days left before the Council is due to take a vote on the controversial proposal, both the public pressure and cross-party outcry m...

cannot for the life of me think of why I'd need a Wyoming stablecoin

Wyoming Stable Token Commission

No longer shall we live under tyranny!

Unfortunately my interview on Fox News got bumped yesterday, but I had a solid 10 minutes on why younger generations are drinking less, why neoprohibitionists lost, and why the Nanny State will still never go away despite people choosing healthier options. They may use it here soon in case RFK does something insane

sent out a press release on an fintech lawsuit (criticizing government action), and a banking trade journalist snarkily emailed me in response to ask if I'm a "bitcoin lobbyist" and accused me of being a shill. Happy Wednesday

offical suitcoiner

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and it’s the EU Commission proposal to break encryption via chat control. My critical article (somehow) makes it into EU-funded Euronews

euronews

Return of chat control: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

The Scandinavian state has been a stalwart supporter of image scanning and chat control to detect child sex abuse material. Now, they hold the keys...

You can just run another node in a VM and no one can stop you

Will they never learn

Does anyone know the devs of silentium? I have sats stuck in there from testing silent payments and keep getting mempool API errors when trying to withdraw to another silent payment address

What is the real-life version of Evil Corp’s Ecoin?

The best laws are based on negative rather than positive rights. It’s why i don’t believe in a “Bitcoin law” — just let people live and use tech. Restrict state action, empower individuals within reasonable frameworks, and punish those who harm others

Going through the StartOS on VM kick at the moment, and now it's blockchain syncing waiting time. I'm still surprised there aren't more community registries apart from the official and the community. Where am I missing all of this?

time to piss some people off this morning

AI Privacy Issues are *real* and users should be better informed. Your "inputs" can and will be used against you Consumers can use apps that encrypt convos, store and hash data locally, and leverage awesome open-source models anyone can run locally for better privacy Try them! me on @Nik Bhatia @The Bitcoin Layer talking about AI policies in the United States and abroad

Bitcoin Policy Summit 🔥 I’m on stage at 3:20PM for those watching the livestream