Excited to finally attend BTC Prague, and as a speaker no less!

Absolutely wild exchange. Rep Himes says, as lead Dem on intelligence oversight, that the NSA isn't surveilling Americans. Someone points out that Congress already confirmed the NSA is actively surveilling Americans. Rep. Himes says he didn't know.

In other news, I’m suing the government for covering up its plans to create a central bank digital currency (CBDC). https://www.cato.org/blog/why-im-suing-government

How do central bankers consistently get history wrong? Is it ignorance or lying? Fed governor Michael Barr tries to say failures in free banking justify being skeptical of stablecoins. The problem? Those failures were caused by overly restrictive laws and regulations.

I'm incredibly proud to announce the Activist Atlas. @Run with Bitcoin and I have noticed that connections between activists often fall apart in the chaos of this world. That means mistakes made get repeated and lessons learned go unheard. That Activist Atlas will change that. It will be a digital platform that allows changemakers to stay connected, discover one another’s work, and coordinate year-round while introducing freedom technologies like Bitcoin for donations and Nostr for censorship-resistant communication. A huge thank you goes to the @HRF for making this possible. Their grant will support the launch and help us grow a global network of activists using freedom tech. Stay tuned for more announcements soon.

In other news that reads like an April Fool's joke but isn't... The Federal Reserve has a closet with $1.4 million worth of laptops that were unaccounted for.

No, this is not an April Fool's Day joke. This list really is everything policymakers claim a CBDC will do. https://www.cato.org/blog/cbdcs-cant-give-you-everything-everywhere-all-once

What should be done about stablecoins? The Reserve Bank of India says governments need to promote CBDCs. He says CBDCs are superior... as long as you assume every other country also has a CBDC.

Well, that's sad. I reached out to the ECB to ask about how they plan to use the digital euro for sanctions evasion. The ECB said they are unable to chat with me. https://www.cato.org/blog/digital-euro-sanctions-evasion

"The moment you onboard a customer, the clock starts ticking---not just toward periodic review, but toward every transaction, every change in behavior, every event that shifts risk."

I'm surprised no one has noticed this... but the ECB is openly touting that the newest use case for the digital euro is sanctions evasion. In an interview with the FT, Lagarde openly said the digital euro could be used to evade US sanctions. Considering central bankers often label bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as tools for criminals to evade sanctions, this is rich. In fact, Lagarde almost sounds like a bitcoiner when she talks about the need for _individuals_ to reclaim their financial sovereignty. So forget financial inclusion, monetary policy, or any of the other popular items officials have proclaimed about CBDCs. The digital euro is about sanctions evasion. https://www.cato.org/blog/digital-euro-sanctions-evasion

Well, I guess that settles that.

Allow me to translate this ECB paper from academic to plain English: 'We found that showing people government propaganda made them more likely to want the digital euro.'

Forget financial inclusion, monetary policy, and modernization. Now, CBDCs are about preventing discrimination against central bank money.

Your bank may soon call asking you to prove your citizenship if this executive order goes through. https://www.cato.org/blog/know-citizenship-says-trump-banks

Bank of Albania governor says it is "essential to remain aligned with European processes" when asked if Albania will have a CBDC. Learn more in the @HRF CBDC Tracker.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

It looks like Trump is joining Secretary Bessent in calling for more financial surveillance... On the bright side, the freedom to transact without having to show your papers is why Bitcoin exists. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-administration-considers-action-requiring-banks-to-collect-citizenship-info-8e26f6d2

That's going to be a no from me. Ironically, in making the case for greater state involvement, the CD Howe authors completely overlook that it was state regulation that caused the problems during America's free banking era.

Interest payments have dominated the market structure debate. In the process, too few have really taken note of the financial surveillance buried in the bill. https://www.cato.org/blog/market-structure-brings-market-surveillance

You'd think someone previously convicted of misusing public funds would be more careful about this sort of thing...