Build relays. Challenge in 2026. Onwards! View quoted note →

# Privacy AI Is Possible Because of privacy concerns, I have been reluctant to use LLMs. I started experimenting in 2023 because I realized this is going to come either way - and I can make use of it, or be left behind. ## Power I started with ChatGPT, as everyone does, but soon stopped using it for political and privacy reasons. Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI, is also a co-founder of the Worldcoin project. Worldcoin is a cryptocurrency that requires individuals to scan their iris to identify themselves. They have been rolling out their product aggressively on the African continent by paying anyone who signed up $25 in exchange for their biometric data. In Kenya, Worldcoin became the subject of a 2025 court case and was rightfully instructed to delete all data. I don’t want to share my data with companies showing no regard for dignity and privacy, and taking advantage of unequal bargaining situations. So no ChatGPT for me. ## Agency Claude was the first tool I used on a regular basis. Since I understood that if you use the free plan on ChatGPT your conversations might end up in Google Search - and this might be the same with other models - I decided to subscribe to a paid plan on Claude. I am using it with a nym (a fake name and email), but of course my payment data is still associated with my account. That’s why I was looking for more private options. The point for me is simple: I want to use AI, but I want to choose the terms. I don’t want “convenience” to mean “total surveillance.” ## Tools ### PayPerQ offers Bitcoin payments @PayPerQ allows you to pay with Lightning Bitcoin, which increases your privacy because your real name is not associated with your searches. It offers a variety of LLMs for chat, image, video, audio, and DeepResearch, which makes it easy to experiment. At the same time, it increases the number of my experiments, because I want to know what different models produce and what is best. I think it is essential to find out which tools are the right ones for your needs. Honestly, I haven’t found mine yet. I like Claude Sonnet 4.5 for editing texts. DeepResearch is incredible for doing what its name says, although the depth of results can be overwhelming. Z.AI: GLM 4.7 was great for strategic thinking, but then it failed my expectations in text editing. PayPerQ hides your identity in the purchasing process, but your prompts and conversations still land at the companies behind the models. I am not against them learning what I ask or the corrections I make - AI makes a lot of mistakes and it has a lot to learn from us. I actually want LLMs to crawl my work, but I don’t want them to save every little thing I do and mix it up with my private questions. ### Maple AI: privacy from sign-up to LLMs @Maple AI is the best solution I found. It runs on open source code and open models. It says it never uses your data to train AI, doesn’t log your chats, does zero data retention, and you can pay with Bitcoin. It offers many models (including OpenAI GPT-OSS — yes, OpenAI, but in a private way). Maple AI states that communications are encrypted locally on your device before being transmitted, that their servers can’t read your data, and that even during processing the pipeline is designed with privacy as the priority. I want AI as a tool, not as a trap. #Daily #AI

The Finney Prize Laureate for the 2016-2020 area is Andreas M. Antonopoulos @aantonop. Absolutely deserved! He shaped my thinking around Bitcoin and open source and has been influencing my work since the beginning. I am deeply grateful that I could conduct 5 interviews with him and was invited to translate two of his Internet Money books to German. Thanks to @HRF and @Fran Finney foundation. My last interview from 2021:

@Blockstream I am using Mullvad VPN and your website is blocking me!

There are no burner phones anymore in Austria, Germany, Zimbabwe almost nowhere except Czech Republic. We’re pretty f*cked. Install Bitchat! View quoted note →

# Wealth, Not Capital Capital is fleeting, Wealth is permanent. Having enough is a choice. Choose wisely. #Daily

I'd like to know too. @brugeman ? View quoted note →

# The Future is Calling Lessons from the past help us create a better future. > “Maybe the future is counting on us to do things so it can arrive. We are not doing things because the past made us. We are doing things because the future asked us to.” – Seth Godin #Daily

# Bitchat: Enabling Agency In 1997 my first Internet connection was installed. The modem worked slowly via landline. I knew nothing about how it worked, but I knew it would change the world. The opportunity to communicate globally unlocked possibilities. In the decades since, the Internet has been captured by monopolistic corporations and government interests. The dream of online agency and self-determination briefly came true around 2010 culminating in the Arab Spring. In March 2025, Zimbabwe's government throttled the Internet to suppress protests. I experienced my first Internet shutdown. Luckily, I had a Starlink receiver—though Zimbabwe-licensed units (required by law for locals) were likely shut down too. Internet throttling on election days has become common in authoritarian countries. Under the guise of national security, governments stifle demonstrations and limit free speech. Uganda faced shutdowns during 2021 elections. Now, ahead of the January 15, 2026 election, opposition leader Bobi Wine is promoting Bitchat⁤⁣ to bypass government control. Bitchat is an app that uses your phone's Bluetooth to send messages to people nearby. Each phone is a node in a spontaneous network. No centralized server, no mobile data or cellular service needed. Just a powered phone and Bluetooth. The Uganda Communications Commission has warned that the government can disable Bitchat. I wish them luck. It's technically impossible to remotely shut down Bluetooth on individual phones without confiscating every device. The government could block app stores, but Bitchat is available on alternative platforms like Aurora Store and GitHub. Bitchat's success depends on one thing: how many people download it. It gets stronger the more people participate, doesn't depend on permission from authorities, and puts power directly in people's hands. Fun fact: In 1997 the name "Bluetooth" was proposed for the short-range wireless technology based on an analogy that it would unite devices the way King Harald Bluetooth united the tribes of Denmark in the 10th-century. @jack @calle #Daily

When bitcoin over bitchat? @calle @jack (in an easy way not sending txs via text) Is it on the roadmap? View quoted note →

# In Or Out of CRYPTO > Bitcoin is a R.I.P.C.O.R.D. It is Revolutionary, Immutable, Public, Collaborative, Open, Resistant to censorship, Decentralized. - Andreas M. Antonopoulos. In the face of Meme-coins like Trumpcoin, Doge or controlled blockchains like Ripple, Solana or Cardano I add: > C.R.Y.P.T.O. is Controlled, Rug-pullable, Yield-obsessed, Pump-and-Dump, Token-printing, Obsolete, Censorable. - Anita Within many definitions Bitcoin classifies as a cryptocurrency too. Bitcoin invented the whole field of cryptographic money, but thousands of Altcoins that spread over the years do not adhere to the same strict principles of neutrality and decentralization. They are neither revolutionary inventions nor permissionless, neutral or uncensorable. Their existence has been controlled from the very beginning. Pre-mining offered advantages for an exclusive round of investors, foundations and founders influence the discourse around technical development and consensus. They are neither the new or better Bitcoin, they are a rip-off made to enrich a few akin to a scam. Not all Altcoins are scams, it's truly hard to differentiate, you'd need to study each and every one of them - an impossible task. To opt-out you choose Bitcoin, to stay in the system you gamble with Altcoins. #Daily #Bitcoin

# Daily on Nostr It's early January 2026 and this is my experiment. I will publish one note per day. On #nostr first. Nostr stands for "Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays". It's a new and open protocol, imagine a new life form of the Internet. It lives on decentralized servers (called relays) that anyone can run without permission. It's censorship resistant, no one can keep you from expressing your opinion or change or delete what you wrote. You can use any app and switch in between apps, as all content belongs to you, and unlike X, Facebook or YouTube you don't lose your content when you switch. You can decide what you want to see in your feed, there is no algorithm (yet) and if it were, you can just switch to another app. You don't have to upload your ID, no one can block or freeze your account as there are no accounts on Nostr. Ownership of your data is secured by crypto-graphical keys (long strings of random letters and numbers that are mathematically impossible to guess). Does this sound familiar? These are Bitcoin's foundations. Nostr is for content, what Bitcoin is for value. Bitcoin doesn't need Nostr and Nostr doesn't need Bitcoin, but they work brilliantly together. You can send "zaps" (bitcoin micropayments) directly to content creators in seconds. Bitcoin and Nostr are the Swiss Army knife of financial expression and free speech. Tools that give agency back to people. Tools that enable the civil society to uphold their important function of being a check on power. That's why I am going all in on Nostr and publish my daily posts on Nostr first. PS: As it's already Jan 4 the experiment has failed before it even started. I missed day 1 and 2, here is my post from Jan 3: View quoted note → Nonetheless - the best day to start with anything that gives you practice and agency is today. #daily

On Jan 3, 2009 the Bitcoin network went online with the first public block being mined. Today on Jan 3, 2026 the USA under President Trump went to war against Venezuela to "run the country" and "make it great again". Just ten days before the USA bombarded parts of Nigeria to take out ISIS militants and protect Christians. Coincidentally both countries are rich in oil and natural resources. Trump also said: “American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again.” It's the usual interventionism that they sell us as "in the name of peace - to install democracy" when in reality it's an imperialistic power grab financed with your tax money, in your name. This is possible with state money. Non-state money like bitcoin in self-custody gives agency back to the people. Bitcoin is an exit strategy, and this is what it was made for - money that can't be taken away from us to finance their wars. #daily

Happy birthday, Bitcoin! Opt-out of war with self-custodied bitcoin. I am grateful for the ultimate „fuck your war“ - you can’t use my money for your imperialistic power plays - tool.