Susie Violet

Another solo Bitcoin miner has hit a block, with #910,440 reportedly earning around $371,000 through CKpool. This adds to a series of rare solo wins seen in 2025. These stories show that solo miners have a chance to succeed and serve as a reminder that Bitcoin remains open to anyone, reflecting the ongoing promise of decentralised mining. Read the full article here: https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/bitcoin-solo-miner-scores-dollar371k-block-reward-against-all-odds

BTCHEL in Helsinki was the first major Bitcoin event in the Nordics. Across the panels there were discussions on mining, decentralisation, regulation, energy, and the growing role of Nostr in building a censorship resistant future. Moments like this show the growing global momentum for Bitcoin as money, a network, a technology and a movement. Jeff Booth said the change that is happening now is so profound it can’t be measured in our current reality. One of the closing remarks by Knut on the future of Bitcoin summed it up best: “Let’s hope Bitcoin changes you more than you can change Bitcoin. Let’s hope that’s also true for politicians too.” BTCHEL will be back next year and I highly recommend it. ⚡️ Special thanks to Luke, Knut and the whole team for making BTCHEL such a huge success. nostr:nprofile1qqs89v5v46jcd8uzv3f7dudsvpt8ntdm3927eqypyjy37yx5l6a30fcpr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmqpr9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucm9wf3kzarjdamxztndv5vv2u63 nostr:nprofile1qqs8ryqkvme87tu49xhq2kts5rguh08dx0v43vcarrjndw3sudk3gqgpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhszyrhwden5te0dehhxarj9ekk7mf0ecwedf nostr:nprofile1qqsvr89wghw0u7ct237ecvtdx3r056zan4we9kstzrlssse6jsl8lespz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduq3kamnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wvf5hgcm0d9h8qmr9vfejuer95yedkv nostr:nprofile1qqs034ppyjnjakycjcj84kgj737aw6kxkmxazrlp0r67qjk0atgdfgspz9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejj7qg4waehxw309aex2mrp0yhxgctdw4eju6t09uuzmtx5 nostr:nprofile1qqsg86qcm7lve6jkkr64z4mt8lfe57jsu8vpty6r2qpk37sgtnxevjcpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejszxthwden5te0wpuhyctdd9jzuenfv96x5ctx9e3k7mge28ng3 nostr:nprofile1qqsf9jl9scw0c5snmkylpfhkppzgd7z7dupul6ms5yl52kfcz9jr8wqprfmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujucmjv4jx2mnnduhxxctxv5hsz9mhwden5te0wfjkccte9ec8y6tdv9kzumn9wshslas468 nostr:npub1fk8h6g8zhftw8c7pga2zjd84p2z949up5lc3qdchm9v4m0q7mwws7jcwld

If you like Bitcoin, beef, and mining… you’ll love this! Hashdried Proof of Beef Chris the Butcher from Helsinki knew nothing about Bitcoin and is now drying his beef using the heat from mining. Thank you, Chris, for showing how it’s done! nostr:npub1w2eget49s60cyeznumcmqczk0xkmhz24ajqgzfyfrugdfl4mz7ns7rpmgp https://blossom.primal.net/a98a2d8d327bb690343fd67ca720075fe16e5315a8f38be324b56c71a15298aa.mov

Bitcoin was built for financial freedom and privacy. With governments pushing for more oversight, the question remains whether money and state can separate peacefully. https://blossom.primal.net/73a5a9d342909e803f4c03ee93f6120624371cdb658c610d9ba4ed56aee59b2b.mov

The Financial Times published a piece this week titled “Why struggling companies are loading up on bitcoin.” At first glance it looks like a story about corporate adoption of the world’s leading digital asset. Read beyond the headline and a problem emerges. The article uses “Bitcoin” and “crypto” interchangeably, which gives the impression they are the same thing. The article includes high profile Bitcoin cases like MicroStrategy alongside firms acquiring other tokens such as Ether or Solana. It reports total figures for “crypto purchases” while presenting the trend as companies “loading up on bitcoin.” Warnings about systemic risk refer to companies holding crypto assets far above their revenues but do not distinguish between Bitcoin and other assets, which changes how the data can be interpreted. The difference matters because Bitcoin is not “crypto.” Bitcoin is a decentralised, fixed supply network with 16 years of uptime and a clear monetary policy. Crypto is a catch all for millions of tokens with very different levels of security, regulation, liquidity and purpose. A company adding bitcoin to its treasury as a long term reserve asset is not the same as one speculating on illiquid, high volatility altcoins. The risk profile, motives and signal to the market are different. When journalists blur these lines, the analysis loses its foundation. Readers are left with an oversimplified narrative that only holds together if Bitcoin and crypto are treated as one category. If an argument depends on merging those two worlds, it is not analysis. It is misdirection, and it is harmful. Many policymakers read mainstream articles like this, take the narrative at face value and form their views about bitcoin without consulting subject matter experts or reviewing primary data. This is how flawed coverage can end up influencing lawmaking. In 2018 the UK Treasury Select Committee’s report on “crypto-assets” grouped Bitcoin and altcoins into a single category, a framing that mirrored mainstream coverage at the time. That framing then became part of the political record and aligned with the concerns later cited by the FCA when it introduced a ban on crypto derivatives for retail investors. In the EU, early drafts of the MiCA legislation included language that would have effectively banned proof of work networks such as Bitcoin by subjecting them to strict environmental standards. These provisions reflected the narrative common in mainstream coverage at the time, which portrayed Bitcoin’s energy use without context. Media driven misconceptions about Bitcoin have already influenced regulation. If coverage like this continues to shape political understanding, the effort required to undo the damage will only grow, and Bitcoin will be regulated on fiction rather than fact, as it appears to have been so far. I am glad Bitcoin is getting attention from mainstream media, but not like this. Brandolini’s Law says it takes ten times the effort to correct misinformation as it does to produce it. If that pattern continues, the cost of fixing the damage will be enormous and the policy mistakes even more so. Read the full article: https://www.ft.com/content/8a160bd3-c96d-468a-8052-b0aae43e5aea

Tesla has applied to Ofgem for a licence to sell electricity to UK homes and businesses. Pair that with Powerwalls, Megapacks and Bitcoin mining and you have a perfect grid balancing tool that can soak up excess wind power and power down instantly when needed. At @BitcoinPolicyUK we have long argued this makes business sense and it clearly does. Why can’t our government and energy companies get on board? The challenge? UK politics, regulation and outdated mining FUD. The full BBC article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3v3333rlp7o Read our demand response paper: https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/aea8e937-fd18-400f-afd9-c3513112c757/downloads/d3850229-208c-4385-9b86-2e82fd55cc6c/UK%20Power%20Grid%20Bitcoin%20Mining%20as%20a%20Demand%20Side%20.pdf

We are throwing away clean energy while bills keep rising. Bitcoin mining can be a 24/7 buyer of last resort, turning wasted power into revenue, stabilising the grid and lowering bills without taxpayer subsidies. We’ve told the government and National Grid’s Future Energy Scenarios team. They aren’t listening. Read our paper on Bitcoin Mining as a Demand Side Flexible Response: https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/aea8e937-fd18-400f-afd9-c3513112c757/downloads/d3850229-208c-4385-9b86-2e82fd55cc6c/UK%20Power%20Grid%20Bitcoin%20Mining%20as%20a%20Demand%20Side%20.pdf

Back from Baltic Honeybadger and feeling more inspired than ever. I moderated the State & Bitcoin panel and spent time with brilliant builders and educators tackling real problems and turning them into practical solutions. What struck me most is that we are all championing bitcoin in our own ways yet united in purpose. If you want signal you will find it at Baltic Honeybadger. nostr:nprofile1qqszw0ncsrfc6wd8lv3cal8cj4apkke8aqv3y75ys05h2st2p2g035spz9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejj7qgcwaehxw309ashxarjv9kzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtc43pccv ⚡️

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has just delivered one of the strongest defences of financial privacy we’ve seen from a US regulator. Speaking at the Science of Blockchain Conference hosted at UC Berkeley, she challenged the idea that all financial systems must be subject to surveillance. She argued that open source immutable protocols, available to anyone and controlled by no one, should not be forced to comply with laws designed for financial intermediaries. She made the case that building neutral infrastructure is not a crime, and that writing open source code should not make you a target. While the headlines call it a speech about crypto, her remarks point directly at Bitcoin. She described “an immutable, open source protocol… available for anyone’s use in perpetuity,” and argued that “requiring that it comply with financial surveillance measures is fruitless.” She added that we should not “ask peers transacting with one another, where no intermediary exists, to collect and report information on each other,” and warned that doing so “would deputize us to surveil our neighbors... a practice antithetical to a free society.” No other digital asset fits that description. Bitcoin runs without intermediaries, cannot be altered by committees, and allows individuals to hold and transfer value without permission. It was a clear and necessary signal to policymakers, developers, and the public that financial privacy is not a loophole, but a principle that deserves protection. Read the full speech here: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/peirce-remarks-blockchain-conference-080425

Police get £500K Bitcoin windfall to support local communities and cut crime. Lancashire Police confiscated Bitcoin from a man who scammed victims through fake online investments. The stolen funds were returned at their original value, but because Bitcoin had gone up in price, there was a £1 million surplus. Half now goes to the police, earmarked for community safety and crime prevention. Once again, Bitcoin proves it’s bad for criminals and good for communities. Bullish. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1w802wg155o

Former UK Chancellor George Osborne has just criticised the UK's failure on Bitcoin. And he's absolutely right. In his recent opinion piece in the Financial Times, Osborne reflects on using the UK's first Bitcoin ATM 11 years ago and how Britain let that early lead slip away. The world is moving fast, and the UK is falling further behind. At least someone is paying attention. He names the symptoms we know too well: - Retail investors blocked from spot Bitcoin ETFs - Banks routinely freezing lawful transactions - Startups suffocated by slow, unclear onboarding - Policymakers hiding behind regulators while others build Osborne calls for political courage and clarity. He wrote, "On crypto and stablecoins, as on too many other things, the hard truth is this, we're being completely left behind. It's time to catch up." If we missed the first wave, which was Bitcoin, we are now at risk of missing the second, which is stablecoins. Other countries are advancing rapidly with clear legal frameworks and a drive to innovate. The UK remains stuck. Osborne draws the same line we've been making at Bitcoin Policy UK. Bitcoin is not the same as "crypto." It is foundational monetary infrastructure. Stablecoins are financial plumbing. Both matter, but both require distinct, thoughtful regulation. That clarity is still missing here. His call for a new Big Bang moment and serious reform in the spirit of the 1980s. At Bitcoin Policy UK we've been sounding this alarm in meetings, consultations, articles, and in conversations across government. Osborne's article reinforces exactly what we've been saying. Without urgent change, we risk becoming a cautionary tale. The UK doesn't lack talent and opportunity. It lacks leadership. Osbourne gets it. The question is... will anyone in Westminster catch up? Read the full article here: https://www.ft.com/content/2b554e86-a4a6-4361-8db6-04876528b02b

Arkham has published analysis data linking wallets to the theft of 127,425 BTC from the LuBian mining pool in 2020. Worth $3.5 billion at the time and over $14 billion today. OP_RETURN was introduced in 2014 to allow small pieces of data to be written into Bitcoin transactions. In 2025, Bitcoin Core removed the size limit. That change now makes it possible to inscribe entire identity claims directly into blocks. In 2020 LuBian used OP_RETURN to send public messages to the hacker, such as please return our funds, in an effort to reach them via the blockchain. Today Arkham is using the same function to post bounty returns containing detailed claims about who controls specific wallets. These bounty returns can include names, wallet addresses, and on-chain heuristics that point to likely ownership or intent. The data is embedded directly into the Bitcoin blockchain. LuBian never publicly disclosed the theft. The hacker never came forward. Arkham’s post is the first public attribution of what may be the largest Bitcoin theft in history. According to Arkham’s top holders list, the LuBian hacker still controls over 127,425 BTC, more than the Mt. Gox hacker and most major entities. In a system where data cannot be changed or removed, these developments raise questions about how privacy should be protected. It also points to a growing role for tools, such as eCash or other privacy layers. In a week where state surveillance powers are expanding and companies are embedding identity claims directly into public blockchains, the role of privacy preserving tools like eCash has never been more urgent. Privacy is a normal and necessary part of everyday life. That expectation should extend to our digital and financial systems, especially as they become more focused on monitoring, identification, and control. The case for privacy tools is only getting stronger.

Bitcoin is hope! Art by nostr:nprofile1qqst6vdsnmzgzkmpzgx2ht7chwpp7wk7lm4er4pzpfcvgrdym89v5jgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuat50phjummwv5q3vamnwvaz7tmjwdekccte9ehx7um5wghx6mm9vsl7ql.

When did criticising policy make you a target of the state? Why is a secret government unit policing public opinion? What exactly is happening behind the scenes in government? A secretive government unit, empowered by the Online Safety Act, is quietly flagging and suppressing online criticism of immigration policy. It operates behind closed doors. It is unelected. It is unaccountable. And it is being used to control the narrative under the guise of safety. A front page Telegraph exposé, titled "Exposed: Labour’s plot to silence migrant hotel critics"reveals disturbing details . https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/31/exposed-labour-plot-silence-migrant-hotel-critics/ The article uncovers that a secretive Whitehall unit called NSOIT (the National Security and Online Information Team), formerly known as the Counter Disinformation Unit, has been used by Labour ministers in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to flag and monitor social media posts that criticised migrant hotels, asylum seekers, or raised concerns about “two-tier policing.” According to internal government emails dated August 3 - 4, 2024, during the peak of the Southport riots, officials actively flagged posts with “concerning narratives,” warning that they might inflame public tensions. These posts were then forwarded to platforms like TikTok, many of them labelled as urgent, despite simply reporting factual information such as hotel locations or referring to asylum seekers as “undocumented fighting-age males”. One flagged example involved a user sharing a Freedom of Information (FOI) rejection letter regarding migrant hotel sites. Another was a video captioned “Looks like Islamabad but it’s Manchester,” flagged for fuelling racial stereotypes, yet still not unlawful under current speech laws. Although the government insists it did not request content removals, civil liberties advocates, including Big Brother Watch and the Free Speech Union, argue that this behaviour amounts to censorship of lawful dissent, carried out by unelected officials with no statutory oversight, using the infrastructure created by the Online Safety Act. This has the fingerprints of the 77th Brigade all over it, covert monitoring, narrative control, and a quiet war on the public's right to speak freely. This is not safety. It’s censorship and control.

The newly released White House Digital Assets Report represents a clear policy shift. For the first time, Bitcoin is treated as something distinct, quoted, cited, and understood on its own terms. Satoshi is referenced, the whitepaper is cited, and Bitcoin is positioned as the foundation of the digital asset ecosystem. The report outlines Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer structure, its operation without intermediaries, and its role in financial innovation. It goes further than past U.S. publications in explaining what sets Bitcoin apart from the wider crypto sector. It also mentions the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. While details remain limited, the fact that Bitcoin is being considered a strategic asset, separate from other digital assets, insicates a clear shift in policy tone. For Bitcoiners, this is progress. The framing is more deliberate. The tone is more respectful. And the message is clear: Bitcoin is being taken seriously. The groundwork is laid. What matters now is whether policymakers engage with Bitcoin on its own terms and begin treating it as a serious strategic asset. Meanwhile, in the UK, spot Bitcoin ETFs remain unavailable, and Economic Secretary Emma Reynolds has dismissed the idea of a national Bitcoin reserve: “We don’t believe that’s the right approach for our market… that’s not the path we plan to take.” They say when the U.S. acts, the rest of the world follows. Let’s hope that’s true for the UK, because Bitcoin offers the kind of hope we badly need in a dysfunctional, collapsing system. Read the report here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/07/fact-sheet-the-presidents-working-group-on-digital-asset-markets-releases-recommendations-to-strengthen-american-leadership-in-digital-financial-technology/

The Bank of England and Treasury are costing UK taxpayers eye-watering sums, quietly burning through over £85 billion with £130 billion more on the way. No debate. No scrutiny. Just a stealth bailout of bad bond bets, and we’re footing the bill. The Bank of England is offloading government bonds (gilts) bought during QE instead of holding them to maturity. With gilt prices down, every sale locks in a loss. These losses will soon overtake annual debt interest payments, which are already nearing record highs. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/bulletins/publicsectorfinances/june2025 https://neweconomics.org/2025/02/treasury-to-hand-bank-of-england-130bn-in-next-five-years-in-stealth-subsidy-to-bankers These sales flood the market and drive yields up, raising the UK’s borrowing costs. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/bank-england-poised-slow-qt-after-rise-yields-2025-07-28/ Analysts estimate that simply letting bonds mature instead could save £10–13 billion per year. https://www.ft.com/content/45a441c9-26e0-4de3-b985-faafc5968a49… Though framed as monetary policy, the Bank’s actions have major fiscal consequences. Losses are indemnified by the Treasury, meaning taxpayers cover the bill, with minimal parliamentary scrutiny. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bond-losses-could-force-rachel-reeves-to-cut-spending-jl53z5qsg They call it monetary policy. What it looks like is economic vandalism rubber stamped in Westminster. This deserves real scrutiny. Where is Parliament? Image credit: nostr:npub14l4edynnvl67esp5sm2x3dn56756qwde9w57h7g7yh5husens33s2sgh50

Trump tells Starmer to axe inheritance tax on farms. But the cracks run deeper: soaring debt, collapsing margins, rural land being sold off. Bitcoin is a practical lifeline for farmers. See my Forbes article on the Westminster farmers’ protest, where I explain how Bitcoin can build financial resilience, support rural livelihoods, and restore independence. https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/11/20/bitcoin-offers-a-solution-to-the-global-farming-and-economic-crisis/

The UK is so screwed (as if we didn’t know)! They slashed capital gains allowances to boost revenue. Instead, high earners left the country. Receipts dropped by 18%. That’s a £2.7 billion shortfall! Has no one in government heard of the Laffer Curve? https://www.ft.com/content/8d8e1848-5a24-49a1-a695-2800345ff425