We were told the internet would set us free. Instead, it built the most efficient cages in human history. And we’re only now discovering that the locks on these cages aren’t just in the software—they’re baked into the very hardware we use. Our digital identities—our likes, our fears, our relationships—have been prostituted by tech companies. They monetize our attention, package our personalities, and sell the shadows we cast back to us as targeted ads. We are not the users; we are the product. And the shareholders of Meta, of Google, are the pimps. But a crack in their monopoly has been opening for years. It started not with a company, but with a concept: Bitcoin. Bitcoin proved something revolutionary. It proved you could build a global, incorruptible, financial network without a central owner. No CEO, no board of directors, no government pulling the strings. Just code, consensus, and a ledger that belongs to everyone and no one. It laid the groundwork. It showed us that the most vital services—like money—could be public utilities, owned by the network itself. And now, that same blueprint is being applied to our data. But first, we had to discover the prison walls. For years, we worried about software viruses. We never imagined the virus was in the chipset. Intel’s Management Engine, a secretive mini-computer inside your CPU with ring -1 access to everything you do. Pegasus spyware, a ghost in the machine, turning your phone into a silent microphone in your pocket. These aren’t bugs; they are meticulously designed backdoors, zero-day exploits that are features for someone else. They are the ultimate expression of control—ownership of the device you thought you owned. But the same open-source ethos that powers Bitcoin is fighting back on the hardware front. Linux developers, the unsung heroes of digital freedom, are now the ones discovering these backdoors, documenting them, and building ways to neutralize them. They are painstakingly creating firmware that strips out the bloat and the surveillance, giving us back control of our machines. And people are voting with their feet. When Microsoft began its aggressive, coercive push to Windows 11, it wasn't just an annoyance; it was a revelation. It showed millions that they were tenants in an operating system they didn't control, forced to accept terms dictated by a landlord. And so, they’re leaving. The number of Linux users is skyrocketing because it represents choice, transparency, and ownership. It’s the people taking back the keys to their own hardware. This is the full picture. The battle is on every level. The forced sale of TikTok—Larry Ellison, a man who built his fortune on a CIA database, now taking control of the algorithm to "retrain" it—that’s the software layer. The ownership of the narrative. But the Intel ME, the Pegasus exploits, that’s the hardware layer. The ownership of the device itself. This is why Bitcoin’s groundwork is so vital. It points to the alternative for the entire stack. Just as open-source software like Linux and open hardware like RISC-V are breaking the monopoly on physical tech, decentralized protocols are building the escape hatch for our data. Imagine a world where your social profile, your creative work, your entire digital self isn't stored on a server farm in Iowa owned by Amazon, but on a decentralized network. You own it. You control the keys. And when an AI model needs your data to learn, it doesn’t just vacuum it up. It pays you. Directly. Instantly. Through the same kind of micro-payments Bitcoin’s Lightning Network makes possible. This isn’t a fantasy. It’s already beginning. Platforms like Keet and Nostr are showing us what censorship-resistant communication looks like. They are the early, scrappy proof that we don’t need corporate overlords to connect. The current system is a feudal kingdom, from the silicon up to the cloud. We are serfs, using devices with secret backdoors, toiling on digital land owned by lords who trade our harvested attention for power. But the foundation for a new republic is being laid. A republic where data services—storage, social media, even AI—are true public utilities. Not government-run, but network-owned. Governed by transparent code, not by secret algorithms retrained in boardrooms, or hidden inside a chip. The battle for TikTok and the discovery of hardware backdoors are the last, desperate gasps of the old model. They’re so blatant, so grotesque, that they might just be the thing that wakes everyone up. They’re showing us the monster, hoping we’ll be too terrified to imagine an alternative. But the alternative is already here. It’s in the code. It’s in the kernel. It’s in the protocol. Bitcoin gave us the model for taking back our money. Linux is giving us back our machines. Now, together, we will use that model to take back our minds. The choice is no longer between tech giants. The choice is between being a serf in their digital kingdom, or a citizen in our own network.