#Bitcoin  is a human right, if you don’t defend it, you lose it. Thank you @Stephan Livera for helping us to raise awareness about the ongoing attack on #PoW in the EU!

It is sad that EU regulators and public opinion are listening to #Greenpeace. This should be exposed properly. If you are a #Bitcoin miner, don’t abandon this propaganda. Help us, end-users and human rights activists to defend bitcoin on the ongoing attack on PoW in the #EU. One of the goals of the EU bodies, particularly the European Central Bank (#ECB), for such an approach is to use “a policy tool that disincentivises investing in such assets from the outset and prevents the build-up of transition risk through crypto-assets in the banking system” until 2025. As end-users of Bitcoin for fundraising and payment instruments, Open Dialogue Foundation concerns that such a policy would directly affect both us and the Bitcoin industry, which services we and other activists use. Especially because the European Commission wants to “collaborate internationally with different standardisation bodies to develop the energy-efficiency label” for PoW: “States shall implement targeted and proportionate measures to lower, and must be ready to stop, the electricity consumption of crypto-asset miners, in line with the proposed Council Regulation on an emergency intervention to address high energy prices.” We need to do educational advocacy - over 200 face to face meetings with MPs and regulators so they can learn and ask questions from bitcoin miners they never ask in public. Just as we did thanks to @Obi 🔅 @npub1hyqr...k7cp and @jack last years with #MiCA and #AML Regulations. We need to be able to defend our rights to use Bitcoin in a legal way. So far it seems that the fight in the EU for Bitcoin is more important for activists than for bitcoiners, because everyone is excited about Bitcoin ETFs in the US, or believes that the market will solve the problem in the EU/move to other jurisdictions, or just doesn't believe in engaging with politicians to educate them. 😔 And I understand and respect all of that arguments, but we as human rights defenders have no place to move and we operate there, in the EU. 🙏 We need your support. Now, before it is too late.

Narratives shape reality and perceptions, that is why we are teaching regulators and legislators about use of #bitcoin for human rights and humanitarian aid. We expose abusive practices of dictatorships to weaponize banking data and AML/CFT rules. And we ask policymakers one simple question: can you provide for us another then bitcoin safe financial tool to operate in the authoritarian regimes for human rights activists excluded from the traditional banking system? So far no other instruments provided.

Hey 👋 We are doing fundraising campaign to defend #PoW against over-regulation/ban in the EU.

Geyser | Bitcoin Crowdfunding Platform

A Bitcoin crowdfunding platform where creators raise funds for causes, sell products, manage campaigns, and engage with their community.

If you could support our work/repost, we will be very grateful 🫶⚡️

Together with #Kazakhstani journalists we discussed today what tools are available for the protection of human rights in third countries. Brief conclusions: 1. All authoritarian regimes like #Kazakhstan, #China, #Turkey suppress opposition through #FinancialRepression both domestically and transnationally, pretending to fight money laundering, terrorism/extremism, and threats to national security. Open Dialogue Foundation provided and collected testimonials in our submission to #FATFNews on how #bitcoin has become the only tool to support the families of political prisoners in many authoritarian states:

Open Dialogue Foundation

Submission to FATF: Tools to prevent abuse of AML/CFT laws - Open Dialogue Foundation

Germany, as one of the founding members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), creates standards for global financial policy to comply with ant...

2. Not everyone lives in a world with this privilege of Senator John Hickenlooper saying that "We have safeguards for banks to protect everyone from crime and terrorism". Banks have become (1) a weapon in the hands of dictators to target dissent transnationally and (2) a tool to circumvent sanctions and strengthen Russia's military capabilities for war against Ukraine:

Open Dialogue Foundation

Russia's Decade-Long War Against Ukraine: How to Accelerate Ukrainian Victory - Open Dialogue Foundation

Executive Summary This report is the sixth in a series of reports on how Russia circumvents sanctions with the help of Central Asian countries, par...

3. #FATF has ambitions to be an accountability tool, but without #transparency in the process of regulatory decision-making and co-operation with civil society, it's mechanisms will continue to be abused by dictators just like #RedNotice of #INTERPOL is abused.

Our main messages: 1) Due to the upcoming reform, which extended role of the European Central Bank, we’re concerned particularly about the EU's regulatory approach to implement the PoW ban by 2025 by creating a policy toolbox that “disincentives investing in such assets [as #Bitcoin ] from the outset and prevents the build-up of transition risk through crypto-assets in the banking system". 2) We pointed out that the proposed sustainability indicators in #MiCA should take into account the positive social impact played by PoW/Bitcoin as instrument of: - resisting financial exclusion, - humanitarian aid delivery, - human rights support, - protection against electoral fraud and potential misuse of #AI and disinformation campaigns, as well as - facilitation of adoption of renewable energy sources. 3) We believe that the credibility of the two existing blockchain consensus mechanisms (PoW and #PoS), as evaluated by their actual popularity and specific applications, should be studied and applied impartially, avoiding biases potentially arising from lobbying by select interest groups associated with the commercial providers of some of the technologies. 4) We fully share the views regarding the positive sustainability disclosures related to Bitcoin proposed, as part of the consultation, by the @bitcoinpolicyuk . 5) We call on the #EU policymaking bodies to take into account the provided testimonials and include this contribution in the relevant regulations. To make sure our recommendations are implemented we need: 1) bitcoiners' support and participation in our advocacy campaign in defence of PoW starting from January 2024! 2) more academic research, with properly disclosed data, peer-reviewed about the PoW!

On 13 Dec Open Dialogue Foundation sent to the ESMA a joint submission from human rights defenders and #Bitcoin  miners to defend the #PoW in the #EU:

Open Dialogue Foundation

Defend PoW: Submission to ESMA - Open Dialogue Foundation

The Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) welcomes the opportunity to participate in this consultation of the European Securities and Markets Authority (E...

A huge thank you to @Daniel Batten @Daniel Prince, @Gigi BPI UK and everyone who’ve helped us to collect information for the PoW defence in the EU! @kristapsstikuts @ScillingMining & Mark Morton, @whiteafrican, Rupert Matthews, @BdGBertdeGroot @Rafa_Cordon @thetrocro and everyone who wrote to us with @jardemalie last weeks - thank you so much for your inputs! 🙏