"Privacy is not a bunker. It’s not cutting every wire, ghosting every friend, and hoping the grid forgets you exist. That’s fantasy. Romanticized exile for people who don’t understand surveillance capitalism. The truth is simpler and harder."
~ GHOST

What if privacy isn’t about isolation—but about trust? Today we dig into a short but powerful perspective by _Ghost_ that flips the script on the often imagined but false idea of a "romanticized exile." Where sovereignty is somehow manifest by living isolated from society, trusting nothing and no one. Instead we explore why building small, local, high-trust networks—digital or physical—isn’t just practical, it’s essential. And how a handful of dedicated people can change the world, one shared tool at a time.

Check out the original article Building a Local Network with your Neighbors
(WITHOUT BEING WEIRD ABOUT IT). (Link: https://untraceabledigitaldissident.com/building-a-local-network-with-your-neighbors/)

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"Either you don't have a fiat currency or you don't have a democracy. But the two things together, and this has been proven, cannot coexist happily without the complete erosion of purchasing power of a civilization and the complete erosion of an empire - which is exactly what has occurred and what has occurred throughout history.
The natural bedfellow for a fiat economy is a dictatorship.
The natural bedfellow for bitcoin is democracy."
~ Daniel Batten

In this episode I sat down with Daniel Batten, who discovered Bitcoin's environmental benefits before grasping its economic power, and his journey reveals something profound about the nature of fiat money itself.

How did we become trapped in a desire-based economy that rewards consumption over saving? Daniel traces this back to the 1920s propaganda campaigns that transformed capitalism from meeting needs to manufacturing wants—and explains why Bitcoin might be the antidote to a century of psychological manipulation. But here's what really caught my attention: if the natural state of fiat is dictatorship, what does that mean for small nations trying to maintain sovereignty?

From Bhutan's quiet accumulation of Bitcoin worth nearly half their GDP to Pakistan's strategic pivot away from IMF dependency, we're witnessing a fundamental shift in global power structures. Are we watching the end of financial colonialism? And could Bitcoin mining on landfills actually turn the waste of Western civilization into the foundation for sound money? This conversation will change how you think about money, consumption, and what it really means to fix the incentives.

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Ledn: Need fiat but don’t want to sell your Bitcoin? Ledn offers secure, Bitcoin-backed loans with no credit checks, flexible repayment, and fast turnaround—often within 24 hours. With $10B+ in loans across 100+ countries and transparent Proof of Reserves, Ledn is a trusted option for unlocking liquidity without giving up your Bitcoin. (Link: https://ledn.io)

HRF: Subscribe for free to HRF's Financial Freedom Report to stay updated on our latest work advancing freedom tech and defending human rights around the world. (Link: https://hrf.org/financial-freedom-reports/)

OFF: The Oslo Freedom Forum is a global human rights event by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), uniting voices from activism, journalism, tech, and beyond. Through powerful stories and collaboration, OFF advances freedom and human potential worldwide. Join us next June. (Link: https://oslofreedomforum.com/)

Pubky: Pubky is building the next web, a decentralized system designed to put control back in your hands. Escape censorship, algorithmic manipulation, and walled gardens by owning your identity and data. Explore the Pubky web and become the algorithm today. Don't forget to find me on my Pubky ID here: pk:5d7thwzkxx5mz6gk1f19wfyykr6nrwzaxri3io7ahejg1z74qngo. (Link: https://pubky.org/)

Chroma: Chroma is dedicated to advancing human performance and well-being through cutting-edge light therapy devices and performance eyewear. Their mission is to enhance physical and mental health, unlocking peak human health, cognitive function, and physical performance. Get 10% off your order with the code BITCOINAUDIBLE. (Link: https://getchroma.co/?ref=BitcoinAudible)

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Human innovation knows no limits, and our first assumptions regarding what is possible with the tools at our disposal, are almost invariably found to be wrong. Today we dive into Kiara Bickers’ piece on DahLIAS, a groundbreaking new signature scheme that could make massive gains in efficiency and privacy possible without changing Bitcoin’s core cryptographic curve. Is this the missing piece that finally aligns privacy with economic incentive? And if it is, what will it take to get it into Bitcoin?

Check out the original article Not ECDSA. Not Schnorr. Meet DahLIAS. (Link: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/not-ecdsa-not-schnorr-meet-dahlias)

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"In order for something to be used as ubiquitous money, the spender has to already have it, and the recipient has to want to hold it. Notably, people usually want to receive more of what they already have. After all, if a potential recipient wanted to hold it, they likely would have already bought some. So, if a new type of ubiquitous money were to arise, the majority of people would likely first encounter it as an investment."
~ Lyn Alden

If Bitcoin is freedom money, what happens when corporations and governments start buying it? Is it captured—or is that exactly what success looks like?

Lyn Alden’s new piece lays out the full arc of Bitcoin's monetization path, and I dig into her framing of situational vs. ubiquitous money. We talk leverage, ETFs, treasury strategies, and how Bitcoin is infiltrating the legacy financial system not despite its cypherpunk roots—but because of them.

Check out the original article The Rise of Bitcoin Stocks and Bonds (Link: https://www.lynalden.com/bitcoin-stocks-and-bonds/)

Mentioned Links and Resources:

Reboot - Wittgenstein's Money [Allen Farrington] (Link: https://tinyurl.com/34h7d7x9)

Read_626 - Digital Alchemy, A Post-Mortem of the Crypto Crash [Lyn Alden] (Link: https://tinyurl.com/463z4j3r)

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If Bitcoin is a paradigm shift, it gets to that stage, like it will be an even bigger product than AI, than chat GPT. And like, okay, now imagine the world where not everyone's fighting Bitcoin, but everyone's like, holy shit, I want to start a Bitcoin business. Like I want like, I need to integrate Bitcoin to my business. I'm going to create a business about integrating Bitcoin into your business. You know, like that's coming if Bitcoin is a paradigm shift. I really don't think that anyone is bullish enough to like where this thing goes if it is what we say it is.
~ Christian Keroles

Christian Keroles (CK) returns to the show, and it’s probably the most bullish conversation we’ve had in years.

We dig into paradigm shifts, Bitcoin treasuries, and the explosion of freedom tech. CK shares the inside story of the Finney Freedom Prize, how HRF’s development fund is shaping the future, and why he believes we're not even close to understanding how big Bitcoin is going to get.

Is Bitcoin about to outscale AI? Are stablecoins just CBDCs in disguise? What happens when sovereign tools scale to billions? We wrestle with the cycles, the hype, and the hard questions - then get seriously bullish.

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Sometimes a story isn't what it seems... and that's exactly what happened in Take_100.

In this follow-up, I revisit the mysterious movement of 80,000 Bitcoin and unravel the confusion sparked by a misleading legal message. I walk through the details I missed the first time, what changed my interpretation, and how easy it is to connect dots that don’t belong together.

This is a real-time lesson in don’t trust, verify — and why on-chain analysis can sometimes lead us astray if we’re not careful.

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Almost $9 Billion in Bitcoin just moved for the first time in 14 years, and it seems like the person who moved them, are not the original owners. Did quantum just break something in Bitcoin? Is there a critical exploit that old balances need to worry about in the cryptography or software for wallets?

Is this a major hack hiding behind apparent legitimacy? Or did someone who knows bitcoin well happen upon $9 billion in an old bitcoin wallet? Public declarations of abandonment, a legal defense team, hidden messages, secret codes, significant dates, and 80,000 bitcoin caught in the mix.

Let's take a dive, its time for a Guy's Take episode.

Explore the transactions:

https://mempool.space/address/bc1qymu2qf0d23qg38p9w7yxxt4yqjjg47rytxujl6

https://mempool.space/address/bc1qnzy2rr7g3688x62f8vrhgeclvtcs5hr50wzu0w

https://mempool.space/address/bc1q2lkyqvqqwus9pl96krgtk4rh0fqu8gtmpuwgmc

https://mempool.space/address/bc1qhtawge4km6juhlkrnvt7qjahhsc96qdlgf3c8t

https://mempool.space/address/bc1q84w6epn6uce9s85slt7q6emm3qfzz7ngq7ef6k

https://mempool.space/address/1GcCK347TMbzHrRpDoVvJdR6eyECyqHCiU 

https://mempool.space/address/bc1qmnjn0l0kdf3m3d8khc6cukj8deakg8m588z24g

Further Reading & Resources

80 000 BTC déplacés : un tournant dans l’histoire de Bitcoin (Link: https://www.cyphertux.net/articles/fr/research/bitcoin-80k-btc-mystere-opreturn)

How do I recover my old bitcoins? [Bitcoin Talk] (Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5365862.0)

Please help me and my friend [Bitcoin Talk] (Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=271049)

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Everyday the world is becoming more connected, but there are consequences to this at every level of society, and its been made perfectly clear, that the powers that be will not relinquish control of the narrative without a fight. Today we are diving into the HRF’s Financial Freedom Report #77, exploring crackdowns on speech from El Salvador to Saudi Arabia, digital repression in Cuba and Iran, and the pivotal role that decentralized technologies like Bitcoin, Nostr, Pubky, the Pear stack, and others can play in the fight for liberty, in a world where you can be executed for what you posted on Twitter. For many people, the problem is far more real than just having an account suspended or losing followers. So let's take a look...

Check out the original article in HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #77 (Link: https://hrf.org/latest/hrfs-weekly-financial-freedom-report-77/)

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Today we dive into a piece by Brunswick that makes it crystal clear why characteristics even claimed to be major defects or Bitcoin's design - from its "ossification" to its limited throughput - aren't defects as often claimed, but deliberate and essential characteristics for building the world's monetary foundation. Can a protocol that prioritizes integrity over speed truly solve the fundamental problems of global finance that have plagued nations for centuries? And why do so many engineers miss the crucial difference between building applications and building the base layer that everything else depends on?

Check out the original article: Bitcoin for Engineers: Why Bitcoin’s Design Solves Real Problems, Not Just Theoretical Ones (Link: https://tinyurl.com/mrbzjums)

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We are BACK with the roundtable, after 2 long and crazy months and more to cover than the judge examining Craig Wright's forgeries. We dive into chain archaeology, the mempool spam wars, Zoom weddings in Utah, why nobody actually wants to run a node, and whether DARPA invented Rust to destroy humanity. Also, are we fixing decentralization or just soft forking our way into creative bankruptcy? Strap in for Roundtable #10 — it’s chaos, clarity, and a little conspiracy.

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