Digital control is expanding through surveillance, debanking, KYC databases, internet shutdowns and financial repression.
Builders and activists are creating an emerging freedom tech stack of private payments, resilient communication, spyware research, peer to peer funding and practical education.
My latest article in Forbes featuring @Cashu @The Citizen Lab @Hodl Hodl @HRF Bitchat, Agora, Nostr and Bitcoin.
With insights from @Farida Nabourema @calle @Leo and @Anna Chekhovich.
Read the full article:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2026/06/04/how-freedom-tech-is-pushing-back-against-digital-authoritarianism/
Susie Violet Ward
npub1hwgw...03sg
Journalist
Bitcoin is often called the best performing asset of the decade.
So I created this 10 year chart to show how big the gap really is.
Orange = Bitcoin
Purple = S&P 500
Yellow = Gold


Excessive KYC + Data Leaks = Kidnapping & Extortion
Global Gart stats right now:
- 340 reported attacks
- across 59 countries
- 26 fatalities
- +84% YoY
- correlating with Bitcoin price rallies
Regulation and data collection are not protecting people. They're instead building target lists for violent criminals.
Privacy & opsec are going to become survival skills.
Thanks for the wake up call @Joe Nakamoto.
Interesting comments from Andrew Bailey on stablecoins, dollar dominance and the growing risk of regulatory fragmentation between the US and the rest of the world.
“We know what would happen if there was a run on a stablecoin - they'd all turn up here,” Bailey warned.
If privately issued dollar backed stablecoins become globally systemic payment rails, questions around sovereignty, convertibility, financial stability and political influence become impossible to ignore.
Article:


CoinCentral
Bank of England Governor Warns a Stablecoin Crisis Could Hit the UK First - CoinCentral
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warns global stablecoin rules will clash with the US, as the $317B market faces competing regulatory approac...
GOV.UK One Login is now the standard route for every new HMRC user.
“HMRC services are among the largest and most-used digital services in government.” - Lucy Leonard, HMRC onboarding lead at GDS.
This is creeping full centralisation of your taxes, wealth, assets and address into one single login. One profile and one MASSIVE honeypot.
This will create a single point of failure for huge data breaches (which happen regularly), enables total tracking across government services, and paves the way for biometric requirements next.
On top of that, centralised data like this creates real physical danger, turning people into targets for wrench attacks and coercion (see article below).
All of this for 'easier login'?
It’s pointless and dangergerious. Centralisation doesn’t make us safer, it makes us easier targets.
Full article:
https://www.ukauthority.com/articles/govuk-one-login-rolls-out-to-new-hmrc-users
Official GDS announcement:


GOV.UK One Login for HMRC: how we made it happen and what comes next – Government Digital Service
Find out how GDS and HMRC joined forces to bring GOV.UK One Login to millions and what comes next for simpler access to government services.
Holy Buckazoids Batman!
I met Guy Malone at @The Bitcoin Conference .
He told me about this piece he wrote for the Roswell Daily Record back on June 22 2025.
It's a fun column asking whether Satoshi Nakamoto’s origins could connect back to the 1991 video game Space Quest IV.
In the game players collect Buckazoids. The in game coin looks surprisingly similar to Bitcoin’s ₿ logo today.
The story even includes names like Satoshi Uesaka and Rod Nakamoto.
Coincidence or something more?
It’s a great mix of Bitcoin history, retro gaming and that classic Roswell energy!
Worth checking out if you enjoy these kinds of mysteries.


Vegas 2026 had it all from Saylor’s insane financial engineering to powerful reminders of why Bitcoin is important and a way to opt out of this corrosive system.
The message from the Freedom Go Up stage was ‘The system is not broken, its working as designed’
Thank you to @The Bitcoin Conference team for putting on an outstanding variety of panels and topics. There was something for everyone and it displayed the vast array of things Bitcoin touches from politics and tradfi thought to decentralized systems and human rights.
I spoke on two panels on the Energy Stage covering emerging markets and the local impact of bitcoin mining.
The message was consistent across discussions. Mining has to deliver real value on the ground through jobs, infrastructure and long term alignment with communities.
In emerging markets that is already happening. Stranded and underused energy is being turned into genuine economic growth.
Running underneath it all was an unease around the expansion of permissioned systems the normalisation of KYC and an internet that has made the individual the product instead of the owner.
Also, loved bumping into Kent from Sazmining and my favourite Conjoin Chris.
Bitcoin doesnt fix everything but it does reveals the system for what it is and offers an alternative.
Whether that becomes real freedom or another layer depends entirely on what we choose to build next.


Sam Altman just explained the entire World ID agenda.
Years ago they started working on how to prove someone is human, because they were building a world where AI would generate more content than people.
The solution they built is World ID. Biometric iris scanning for the internet, framed as privacy preserving.
The same people who are driving the coming wave of synthetic content are now selling the solution.
A system that verifies you are human using your biometric data.
One global system that registers every humans biometric ID forever ... and you will have to comply if you want access to the internet.
This is another red flag for anyone who cares about privacy and sovereignty.
X (formerly Twitter)
Decentra Suze (@DecentraSuze) on X
Found it at last! They relocated due to the need for additional space. There are plenty of people awaiting verification. Yikes!
Today the FCA raided eight London sites in its first ever coordinated crackdown on peer to peer crypto trading. Enforcement has now moved onto ordinary individuals operating outside the regulated system.
The UK is trying to position itself as a global centre for digital assets centred around stablecoins, tokenisation and institutional adoption.
At the same time, the most direct form of decentralised exchange is being pushed into a legal grey area. Individuals trading with one another can find everyday activity interpreted as unlawful once it reaches meaningful scale.
There are effectively no P2P traders registered under current AML rules. This creates a tension in UK policy where:
- privacy is treated as opacity
- self custody is viewed as risk
- decentralised systems are judged against rules designed for intermediaries.
When there is no realistic route to compliance, enforcement dictates behaviour by default, not by design.
These same regulatory and data collection approaches are creating real physical security risks by linking identities to holdings and turning oversight into surveillance.
The implications for safety, privacy and surveillance are unprecedented. These regulators will also have to live in the world they create...
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/uk-targets-illegal-crypto-trading-120738842.html


Great chat on @Bitcoin Archive with Archie. Always love hanging out.
A good friend of mine once said to me, “how do you operate in an adult world, you are so small?”
…well, here’s the answer.
Thanks to Charlie for finding me a footstool, aka a box.


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.

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.”
Digital ID was debated in Parliament, in a Westminster Hall debate opened by Robbie Moore MP on behalf of the Petitions Committee and triggered by a petition signed by nearly three million people.
The response from MPs across parties was overwhelmingly NO.
Across all parties, Conservatives, Labour backbenchers, Liberal Democrats, Greens, the SNP, Reform and Independents raised the same core concerns:
• Moves Britain toward a surveillance state
• Irreversible centralisation of personal data
• Major cyber security risk
• Serious risk of mission creep• Not in the manifesto and no democratic mandate
• Constituents do not want it
• Would become mandatory in practice
• Harms the most vulnerable and the digitally excluded
• Creates a two tier society
Reading from a constituent's message, Jeremy Corbyn, an independent MP, said:
"Digital ID is a deeply illiberal idea that threatens privacy, autonomy and the open access we should be standing for.
It risks creating a two tier Britain where access to basic services, healthcare, housing, employment, even voting, depends on whether someone has the right app, paperwork or digital trail."
Reflecting the vast cross party consensus in the debate, Corbyn endorsed an intervention from Andrew Griffith MP warning about civil liberties, the presumption of innocence and surveillance concerns, saying "he's making an important point," before going on to warn that digital ID is "being pushed by commercial interests" and urging Parliament to "say no to the government, as we have said no before."
In the debate, opposition to the proposals spanned both the political right and left.
Speaker after speaker warned that once this infrastructure exists, it will expand into work, housing, banking, benefits and public services, regardless of today's assurances.
What this debate showed very clearly is that left versus right is no longer the most meaningful divide.
The real divide is libertarian versus authoritarian.
MPs from across the political spectrum lined up on the liberty side. That matters, particularly in a country with a growing reputation for restricting free speech and quietly sleepwalking into authoritarianism.
It also raises uncomfortable questions ... If no one wants this, and Parliament agrees it is dangerous, why is it being pushed so hard?
Jeremy Corbyn was clear about the role of commercial interests, a concern reinforced by policy advocacy from groups such as the Tony Blair Institute and Visa, which has openly argued for the introduction of digital ID's.
Others also raised concerns about lobbying, infrastructure vendors, payments firms, and ID adjacent technology providers.
This petition and debate offered a rare moment of reassurance in our parliamentary system. MPs listened, understood the risks, and spoke up.
Is Saylor building his own central bank?
His Bitcoin MENA keynote mapped out something far bigger than balance sheet accumulation. He described a full monetary engine built on bitcoin reserves, corporate credit and synthetic digital dollars.
Here is how it works and why it matters in my latest Forbes piece.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/12/11/saylors-plan-to-build-a-bitcoin-powered-shadow-central-bank/
One year ago today, I became CEO of Bitcoin Policy UK.
Since then, our small team of volunteers has achieved what most well funded organisations struggle to do, in one of the toughest environments for UK businesses.
Individuals and companies are leaving the country at a record pace, and the policy space is dominated by pay to play dynamics and crypto lobbying money.
Despite that, we have delivered. What we have accomplished together:
- Helped secure Bitcoin’s recognition as property in UK law.
- Responded to government consultations, submitted detailed policy papers, and held constructive conversations with MPs, Lords, regulators, and civil-service teams.
- Launched our new website
- Distributed our 2025 Manifesto to all 650 MPs and expanded our research across energy, tax, financial inclusion, and infrastructure.
- Hosted events on Human Rights, Bitcoin in Business, and Bitcoin for Institutions.
- Had a presence and a main hall stall at the 2025 Labour Party Conference, opening new Bitcoin conversations.
- Partnered with 11 organisations and hosted multiple BPUK events that connected the bitcoin industry with policymakers, energy experts, and regulators.
- Appeared in multiple podcasts, interviews, and media articles
-Set up mining proof of concepts
-Launch our 'On the Record' podcast.
- Spoke at industry events around the world.
- Designed and delivered the ‘Contact My MP’ App, helping supporters reach their representatives directly and raising the bar for political engagement in the Bitcoin space.
All of this has been achieved by a team of outstanding volunteers with no full time staff, very modest funding, and no compromise to our values. We have been pushing uphill in a system where influence is usually bought.
We have moved the dial and proven that the UK does have a place in Bitcoin’s future, provided we continue to fight for it.
Year one was foundations.
Year two is where we build strength and momentum.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us, shared our work, and contributed time, expertise, or energy. BPUK exists because the community wants it to.
Here’s to the next chapter.
A special thanks to my amazing team: Freddie New Dr Cristina Llamas-Rey Russell Rukin Nick Bowick Jeremy Cline Juniper Jason Jason Sami Shams and others who prefer to stay behind the scenes.
@Bitcoin Policy UK @npub1wl39...znlx @Jace @npub1lxue...0rj8


Africa is showing the world what Bitcoin is actually for.
At the African Bitcoin Conference in Mauritius, you see it up close. When banks fail and currencies collapse, people build their own solutions.
Real innovation is happening in Africa while the Western world sleeps.
My latest Forbes article:
@White Noise
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/12/05/africa-turns-to-bitcoin-for-real-financial-solutions/
The cracks in the fiat system are becoming impossible to ignore.
I spoke with Archie from @Bitcoin Archive about why governments can’t print trust, how central banks are panicking as debt spirals deepen, and why Bitcoin is becoming the escape hatch for a world losing faith in money.
We also disussed the new global order, hyperinflation, and the end of monetary privacy, and why Bitcoiners saw this collapse coming....
With a special guest appearance from Ozzy.
Watch the full conversation on @Roxom TV.


Had an amazing time in Prague and got to visit SatoshiLabs, home of Trezor and @vexl 😎 .
Recorded a brilliant pod with Marcel about Bitcoin Dada, Grafton about Vexl, and Efrat about her ‘You’re The Voice’ podcast.
Always great hanging out with Isabella, a phenomenal freedom fighter and educator for Get Based, as dedicated as ever.
It was a lovely surprise bumping into Nick Anthony from the Cato Institute.
All these incredible people had one thing in common:
Bitcoin as freedom money.
Thank you to the Trezor team for being so welcoming and awesome.
@Efrat Fenigson @Grafton @Isa ⚡️


Harvard economist Matthew Ferranti has published a peer reviewed study showing that central banks preparing for sanctions risk should hold more than just gold. His model demonstrates that adding Bitcoin to reserves strengthens resilience when access to traditional assets is threatened.
For the first time, a peer reviewed economics journal is treating Bitcoin as a credible reserve asset rather than speculation.
What took them so long?
A reminder that money can be weaponised, while Bitcoin remains neutral, borderless, and open to everyone.
At the Financial Times Digital Asset Summit, the UK’s Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds said Bitcoin “isn’t for us.” Ferranti’s study shows why the government must start researching Bitcoin’s role in reserves.
This is the kind of research @Bitcoin Policy UK has consistently urged the Treasury and Parliament to conduct.
Read the full paper:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261560625001688

