Three years ago, in May 2023, I wrote for CityAM asking: Can BRICS build something with Bitcoin? At the time, BRICS nations were openly discussing alternatives to the dollar, including commodity backed currencies using gold, oil or other resources. The core problem was always trust. How do you audit reserves across countries with very different levels of transparency, and how do you handle the logistics of physical commodities in a digital world? I argued there was a cleaner path. Bitcoin offers transparent on chain verification, no single issuer to trust or distrust, and a neutral, global, borderless system. Fast forward to April 2026, and that shift away from dollar dependence is starting to take shape, but not quite in the way I described (not yet at least). Russia is now expanding its A7 crypto payments network into Africa, built around a ruble backed stablecoin and partly controlled by a sanctioned defence linked bank, Promsvyazbank, together with fugitive Moldovan banker Ilan Șor. The aim is to bypass Western sanctions and SWIFT style systems for cross border trade. This sits alongside the BRICS efforts around CBDC bridges, local currency settlement, and alternative payment rails. Foreign Minister Lavrov has described A7 as Russia’s “first international financial platform” and is inviting more African countries to join. The infrastructure is being built, but it is controlled, permissioned and state influenced rather than open and trustless. Africa has already demonstrated what real bottom up Bitcoin adoption looks like, mobile first, driven by remittances, Lightning payments and everyday use. The question is whether these state led systems can deliver the neutrality and resilience BRICS claims to seek, or whether Bitcoin’s decentralised properties ultimately prove more durable. Recent Moscow Times report on A7's Africa push (6 April 2026):

The Moscow Times

Russian Crypto Payments Network Seeks Africa Expansion – FT - The Moscow Times

Russia is seeking to build an alternative cross-border payments network in Africa using a ruble-backed cryptocurrency, as it looks to bypass Wester...

It's called 'managing inflation', but in reality it means making life harder so people stop spending. Raise rates > crush demand > make it miserable > then flip the switch. That’s a broken system, not sound monetary policy. Discussion with @npub1wl39...znlx on @Roxom TV.

The UK spends billions not producing energy, then allows people to freeze. The conversation is about cutting energy use. Almost no one is talking about creating energy abundance. That's the difference between decline and prosperity. The U.K. government are solving the wrong problem. Great conversation with @Luke de Wolf on @Roxom TV about this.

Officers would ‘no longer be policing perfectly legal tweets,’ the UK Home Secretary said. If you needed one sentence to sum up the madness of UK politics and policing, this is it. In 2023 alone they made 12,183 arrests for online 'communications offences'. Around 33 a day with fewer than 10% resulting in a sentence. Meanwhile detection rates for real crime collapsed. Police made over 65,000 arrests since 2017 for 'offensive or menacing' messages sent via phone, email and social media, while real crime went unsolved. It's a relief they're finally admitting it was a waste but why was this allowed to continue for so long? The irony is that it’s this that feels criminal.

BBC News

Government to overhaul non-crime hate incident rules after review

The Home Office says updated guidance will end the policing of "everyday arguments" online.

CBDCs, surveillance and overreaching regulation are coming for your freedom. I’m speaking at @BTC Prague 2026 with three important panels on how to protect it: - The Regulatory Shield: Navigating MiCA and Staying Legally Untouchable - Regulation vs. Rights in the Age of Bitcoin Code, Cash, and Crime: Who Controls Your Freedom? - How To Defend Against CBDCs and Surveillance See you in the Bitcoin capital of Europe. 🧡

BTC Prague

BTC Prague - The biggest bitcoin event in Europe

The biggest, most influential bitcoin event in Europe ever, again!

@Bitcoin Policy UK

How much of what you earn actually belongs to you? If you add up income tax, national insurance, VAT, stamp duty, inheritance tax and capital gains, estimates suggest you are working until around October before your money is your own. So how much does the state take and what does it provide? I discussed this with Alex Recouso from CitizenX on @Roxom TV as we tried to work out how to define that threshold. At what point do we start to define a system differently?

Just got back from CheatCode where I was on a panel called “The Fiat Panopticon: Defending Bitcoin in the UK”. A couple of days later, The Telegraph publishes this: Labour draws up equality law revamp that “will impose socialism” on Britain.

The Telegraph

Labour draws up equality law revamp that ‘will impose socialism’ on Britain

Tories say Starmer’s ‘socio-economic duty’ for public sector is ‘war on the middle class’

The article outlines plans for a new “socio-economic duty” requiring government departments to factor inequality into decision making across schools, hospitals, policing and wider public services. It ties into the wider point we were discussing on stage, how systems evolve over time, gradually embedding more influence and control into how decisions are made. It does start to raise the question of how far that kind of model goes. As one critic quoted in the article: “This is unabashed class warfare targeting the middle class… embedded across the entire machinery of the state.” Once decisions are filtered through central criteria, it starts to shape outcomes in a very different way. This is why bitcoin is so important. It gives us a way to separate money from the state.

The FCA lifted the ban on bitcoin ETNs for retail investors... ...but access remains constrained, fragmented and often out of reach. Banking barriers, restricted mass market classifications, tax disadvantages and limited investor protections continue to push users toward less regulated environments and risky proxies. Exactly the outcome policy is meant to prevent. Bitcoin is the best performing asset of the decade. When does protection become restriction? My latest Forbes article featuring Bitwise & Myra L2. Full article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2026/03/26/uk-regulator-eases-bitcoin-accessbut-is-it-really-open/

Governments around the world are turning access to your own money into a monitored and conditional system. At the same time, they are building vast centralised databases of your personal data and wealth under the banner of tackling illicit activity and 'consumer protection'. In the US, banks still have to file a full report including Social Security Numbers for any cash transaction over $10,000*, a threshold set in 1970 that makes little sense in 2026. None of this meaningfully targets crime, it creates new vulnerabilities by linking identity, wealth and address. This increases the risk that ordinary people are exposed when breaches and leaks happen all the time. Framed as consumer protection, it is in reality global financial surveillance. The system is broken as @npub1kjfx...ludq from The Digital Chamber lays out on @Roxom TV. *For reference: Canada C$10,000, Australia A$10,000, many European countries have cash payment caps and heavy reporting as low as €3,000 (with an EU wide €10,000 limit coming in 2027).

We are sold KYC, AML and surveillance as protection, while the Bank of England moves to restrict 'unhosted wallets' to keep activity within intermediated systems in the name of stability and control. These rules do little to curb illicit flows but expand data collection, erode privacy, impose costs, and add friction and limit access through banks and intermediaries. Self custody removes that layer entirely, exposing the limits of that approach. When policymakers shaping these rules have never used a wallet or sent a transaction, that gap in understanding gets written into policy. What’s being sold as protection is harm. Further context in the articles below. @npub1wl39...znlx @Roxom TV

As geopolitical tensions rise, capital rotates through dollars and gold and increasingly into Bitcoin as confidence in fiat weakens and demand for non-sovereign stores of value grows. That’s when you realise you need assets that sit outside direct government control. As Jasmine Birtles from Money Magpie told me on @Roxom TV: “People aren’t so sure about dollars, but gold and Bitcoin, yes definitely… people are flying to it for safety.” Short term price action comes and goes, but the underlying demand for hard assets persists and the fundamentals remain intact.

Bitcoin as an asset is simple, but the structures built around it are not. From reserves to leverage, these models add layers of risk, and the term 'bitcoin treasury company' is losing meaning fast. My latest Forbes article. https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2026/03/18/the-structural-risks-of-bitcoin-treasury-companies/

The UK government is pushing digital ID again despite nearly 3 million people opposing it and a four hour parliamentary debate that raised overwhelming cross party concern about this dystopian technology. Linking identity to payments creates the infrastructure for unprecedented financial surveillance and control. Watch this clip where Freddie New warns: “If the government decides to suspend your digital ID and that becomes the gateway to services and payments, you are effectively unpersoned.” Please take a few minutes to submit a response. Consultation:

GOV.UK

Making public services work for you with your digital identity

This consultation seeks views on a proposed national digital ID system for British and Irish citizens and foreign nationals with permission to be i...

Full document:

Making public services work for you with your digital identity - GOV.UK

Closes at 12:30pm on 5 May 2026. @npub1wl39...znlx @Bitcoin Policy UK

Cuba’s recent blackout exposed a structural weakness in centralized power grids. When a single plant fails, entire systems can collapse. Distributed energy and flexible demand could help change that. Bitcoin mining plays an unexpected role by acting as a flexible load that stabilizes renewable grids. The same decentralised logic strengthens money and disperses power too. Read my latest Forbes article featuring @npub1watz...hfd2 & Rachel Geyer. https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2026/03/11/cubas-blackout-reveals-grid-flaws-bitcoin-may-fix/

Blantyre, Malawi is where my Bitcoin journey really began, although I had no idea at the time. Growing up, I lived in a quintessential English village and apart from a few holidays, that was largely the extent of my view of the world. When I arrived in Blantyre in 1994, I was struck by the contrast between officials arriving in flashy cars at government buildings while outside, people were struggling and suffering. It was the first time I saw clearly how governments could enrich themselves while failing to look after their own people. That trip stayed with me and gradually shaped how I think about power, money and the state. More than thirty years later, learning that @npub1dtvs...wc6t will take place in Blantyre this year feels remarkable. It brings everything back to where my Bitcoin journey began and to the moment I first saw the problem Bitcoin ultimately addresses ... the need to separate money from the state.

X is already the world’s real time news layer. Deepfakes are erasing trust online and we are rapidly approaching a world where nothing posted can be believed. Open Origins tackles this by stamping photos and videos at the moment they are captured, proving their origin and authenticity using cryptographic traceability. The technology was developed out of research at Cambridge University. If this verification technology were built directly into the X app, every post could carry verifiable origin recorded on a decentralised chain. Anyone could independently check where content came from. This technology is already being used in major newsrooms to protect authentic media from deepfake manipulation. ITN, the producer behind ITV News and Channel 4 News, is using OpenOrigins to protect its archive from deepfake manipulation. The system is designed more like Bitcoin than a traditional company product. It runs as a decentralised protocol with multiple nodes, meaning the verification layer would survive even if the company disappeared. If trust in online media is collapsing, why not solve it at the protocol level? Thanks to Dr Manny Ahmed for joining @Roxom TV and discussing how this problem can be solved. @npub1wl39...znlx

The Women of Bitcoin Summit (4–5 March) beautifully demonstrated how Bitcoin is a key catalyst for resilient, sustainable energy and infrastructure. The key focus for my panel was how Bitcoin mining serves as a flexible load to stabilise grids and make renewables viable and energy cheaper. We discussing the problems mining solves, the tech and the economics. Big shoutout and thank you to the virtual global event, organised by @nat brunell @Efrat Fenigson @Christine Marie and massive thanks to Antidote in London for hosting the in person event. It was the perfect venue as the UK's Bitcoin only accelerator and builder hub. In a room of founders and strategists shaping the next economy, these important conversations on energy and finance are advancing Bitcoin's role in a better future. The future is bright, the future is orange. It was a killer panel with Christine Marie Turner, Janet Maingi and @npub1r526...9pgs whose experience and expertise proves Bitcoin mining is grid gold. ⚡️

Wall Street w*nkers chasing ETFs, treasury plays and number go up should probably skip this video. Bitcoin was never built for their game. It exists as freedom money, the uncensorable tool no government or bank can seize when they weaponise traditional finance. Digital IDs, CBDCs, surveillance states and online controls are already closing in, deciding who gets economic access. When accounts freeze and dissent gets shut down, your shares and institutional products will not save you. Only self custody Bitcoin does. I've interviewed people who escaped dictatorships while on government wanted lists with every conventional door locked and Bitcoin let them move value, survive and rebuild. We must separate real Bitcoin freedom from the Wall Street grift. When things break, self custodied Bitcoin is the lifeline. As @alana said on @Roxom TV: “Why do we keep pretending we can carry on with the same structures that led us into this hell hole? We need to move forward and we have the right tools to do it.”

Investor protection should not mean blocking access and forcing exits. The timeline: - Pre-2021: Retail investors could hold crypto ETNs inside ISAs. - Jan 2021: FCA bans ETNs for retail investors. - 2024: US spot Bitcoin ETFs approved, unlocking major markets. - 2025: UK reverses the ETN ban after years of campaigning. - April 6 2026: HMRC reclassifies crypto ETNs into IFISAs that most mainstream platforms do not offer. Major providers such as Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell currently do not support IFISAs for crypto ETNs, leaving many investors with limited or no transfer options. Buy before the deadline and you may still face forced liquidation if your provider cannot hold the product under the new rules. Markets need clarity and access, not moving goalposts. @npub1wl39...znlx

France is living proof that excessive KYC + data leaks = wrench attack epidemic. You can see that stats at

Gart Stats - Database of Physical Attacks Involving Cryptocurrency Since 2014

thanks to @Gart . https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2026/02/20/how-regulation-and-data-collection-are-creating-physical-security-risk/