Writing a review of our @Bitcoin for Fairness in 2025. It’s tedious work, but helps me to reflect on the many things that we made happen this year. Next step: getting the review ready as my first long form post on Nostr.

Has anyone used sms4sats recently? My sats weren’t automatically refunded as promised. Their email support is unreachable (Telegram option - I am not using telegram)

Google has changed its sign up process (maybe not news, I haven't tried for a while). No more receiving to one time numbers, now you have to send a text message to them from your phone. Everything step we take is kyc-ed. Preserving one's privacy is getting harder and actually impossible as most countries do not allow burner numbers.

Christmas present View quoted note →

Favorite place to relax in winter. Wishing you happy holidays, rest and peace! We will need power and perseverance in 2026. With the global increase of authoritarianism our fight for privacy, freedom tech and resistance money matters more than ever.

Today we had 20 people from different African regions in our @Crack the Orange live call learning about Bitcoin, running nodes and merchant adoption. Looking forward to see the impact of their work over the next years! All students have a scholarship funded by donors of @Bitcoin for Fairness.

💪 View quoted note →

My most important talk of 2025: „privacy, self-custody, and permissionlessness are non-negotiable“ My insights from spending the last five years working on Bitcoin education across several African countries. I explain why real adoption requires local solutions, not “adoption theater,” and why privacy, self-custody, and permissionlessness are non-negotiable. I also highlight powerful stories of activists, community builders, and initiatives shaping the future of Bitcoin on the continent.

What’s next? Size of our underwear, sexual partners, health records… Outrageous.

Incredible impressions over Mauritius.

Privacy should be the default! @Obi 🔅 and @Farida Nabourema at @Africa Bitcoin Conference

@Erik Hersman from Gridless presenting Jua Kali a new opensource mining system for small businesses with solar systems. Decentralizing mining! @Africa Bitcoin Conference

Good news. View quoted note →

„Build Local Solutions for Local Problems! Stop copy-pasting foreign models, the solutions that work on the ground can only be built by locals. If foreigners benefit more than your community, it's extraction, not development.“ #abc25

„When Bitcoin gets sucked up and regulated by the state backed corporate-industrial complex it loses its teeth. It’s just another tamed tiger in the hands of the few!“ Great to be back at @Africa Bitcoin Conference. #abc25

After Russia, India, who knows what China is already doing…when it can be done, it will be done. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/india-orders-mobile-phones-preloaded-with-government-app-ensure-cyber-safety-2025-12-01/

I wrote a letter to The Guardian in response to their editorial which opens with: > The key to understanding crypto is that it has no “value” in any economic sense. My answer was not published, but I want to share it here. **Bitcoin Is Not Crypto** I've spent years in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Zambia learning about people's real financial problems. What I've seen is completely different from what The Guardian describes. I've met teachers saving their wages when their currency collapses, farmers receiving remittances without losing 20% to corrupt middlemen, and human rights activists whose bitcoin can't be frozen by authoritarian governments like their bank accounts. For them, Bitcoin isn't speculation or gambling. It's a way to survive when traditional money fails. The Guardian writes from a privileged place where state-backed money is somehow stable. That's not the reality in much of Africa. When your national currency gets manipulated and becomes worthless, Bitcoin's volatility looks very different. Bitcoin is not crypto. Crypto is a caricature of Bitcoin. Stop conflating them, they're not the same. Bitcoin was created after 2008 as an alternative to a broken financial system—one built on cheap credit and endless growth that makes the rich richer and ruins our environment. Crypto enriches creators through insider deals and scams. I agree: Trump's World Liberty coin is a pump-and-dump scheme. Meme-coins are gambling. Worldcoin harvests biometric data from Africans for profit. Solana and similar projects are centralized. Crypto-trading to get rich quick is a losing game for regular people. But Bitcoin is different. No one controls it. Anyone can use it without asking permission. It can't be censored. New monetary technology takes decades to stabilize—maybe 50 years to reach mass adoption. These price crashes are part of that journey, but it's still the best-performing asset of the past decade. Exploiting people through crypto is wrong. That's not Bitcoin's fault—that's what bad actors do with open technology.

Bitcoin Is Not Crypto - A Response to The Guardian

Why Bitcoin and crypto are not the same: A letter to The Guardian about Bitcoin adoption in Africa and why financial freedom matters more than spec...

„This time I am doing only a handful of slides!“ Result 35 slides 😂 Preparing my keynote for @Africa Bitcoin Conference in Mauritius next week.

„Bitcoin für die Zivilgesellschaft“ my keynote at an event for nonprofits in Vienna. Around 80 people showed up. I was demonstrating how Bitcoin supports human rights and is an irreplaceable tool for civil society and democracy especially in authoritarian regimes. Also showing how @BTCPay Server can be used to collect donations. Went very well, audience learned about the other side of Bitcoin outside pure hodling and speculation. @Bitcoin Austria thanks for organization.

Giving a talk about „Bitcoin for the Civil Society“ in Vienna this evening. Means I am a bit nervous and waiting the whole day for it to begin. I prefer morning or at least early afternoon engagements.