The South African government is proposing regulations that would essentially ban Bitcoin in South Africa 🇿🇦 The regulations resemble U.S. Executive Order 6102, which made it a criminal offense for U.S. citizens to own or trade most forms of gold. And because the language in the regulations is vague, they could potentially give the South African government sweeping authority to do everything from pushing for forced confiscation of bitcoin to only allowing bitcoin transactions through regulated entities that require KYC/AML. The good news is that South African Bitcoiners, including Hermann Vivier ( @vryfokkenou ) of @BitcoinEkasi and groups like the Property Rights Defense Group are pushing back. I recently sat down with Hermann to discuss: ⚡️ The details of the regulations and why the South African government has proposed them ⚡️ What exactly South Africans are doing to push back ⚡️ Why what's happening in South Africa right now is a canary in the coal mine moment ⚡️ Why Hermann is optimistic that Bitcoiners will win This is an important listen for anyone who supports bitcoin and property rights as well as the idea of being able to transact P2P without having to disclose your identity. #bitcoin #southafrica #p2p #p2prights

Francisco Calderón (@negrunch ) is one of the realest cats in Bitcoin. The Venezuelan🇻🇪 developer, who has 20+ years of experience in the open-source space, could work on anything but focuses his time and effort on @Mostro , which enables those living countries in crisis (e.g., #Cuba) to access #Bitcoin. In this, his first interview in English, we discuss: ⚡️ How his experience watching the economic situation in his home country deteriorate informs the work he does ⚡️ How Mostro is built to be used in the harshest and most technologically-unfriendly environments ⚡️ Why Mostro utilized #Nostr ⚡️ What's currently happening in Venezuela ⚡️ Why the open-source future is bright It was a tremendous honor to speak with Calderón. This conversation was a strong reminder of not only how powerful freedom tech can be but the fact that it takes sincere, committed people like Calderón to bring this tech to life. Finally, thank you to the @Cuba ₿itcoin and @BitcoinResearch teams for highlighting how the communities with whom you work use Mostro in my recent interviews with you. You inspired me to reach out to Calderón to have this conversation. Enjoy!

"I assume the mafia uses Excel Spreadsheets and Microsoft is not liable." Rep. Thomas Massie at @PUBKEY on why open-source developers should not be held liable for people misusing the software they create

Many of us came to #Bitcoin because of this new system's potential to (re)distribute power. Ideas from political philosophies such as #Libertarianism and #Anarchy permeated much of the early discourse in the Bitcoin space. But in recent years, a sense of #authoritarianism and #elitism has crept in, making this space feel less unique and more like many traditional spaces. I recently sat down with Hannah Rosenberg of Lightning Labs to discuss this shift, whether or not human beings are unavoidably hierarchical, and if the circle of those who believe in earlier Bitcoin vision can be expanded. Enjoy!

I met Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, President of Ideas Beyond Borders in Bitcoin and @HRF circles and have always appreciated his decency, optimism, and commitment to human rights. Faisal, an Iraqi-American who fled Iraq in the wake of the fall of Saddam Hussein, tends to see the best in people, despite the challenges he's had to confront in his life. (Or maybe because he's had to confront and overcome those challenges.) So, I reached out to him to speak about Iran because I was hoping that he was seeing something, some sort of a silver lining, that I, and just about everyone else I've spoken with on the matter, can't see. While he didn't necessarily offer said silver lining in our conversation, he did share a very nuanced view on the matter, which, as someone who's just trying to understand better what's happening, I very much appreciated. In our conversation we discussed: • The best and worst case scenarios for the Iran conflict • An ethnic and religious overview of Iranians (not all Iranians are Persians) • Why and how Iran isn't Venezuela • Whether or not the majority of Iranians want regime change • Important details about the Straight of Hormuz and who might control it moving forward • Bitcoin adoption in the Middle East plus more. While some of the information in the conversation is out of date at this point since we recorded late last week, what Faisal offered in this conversation is still quite valuable for looking to learn more about how things work in Iran and the Middle Eastern region more broadly.