This is how you sleepwalk into a surveillance state. It does not arrive overnight. It is chipped away, one ‘reasonable’ measure at a time, until proving who you are becomes a condition of participating in everyday life. @Free Cities Foundation

Big Brother Watch

Big Brother Watch on UK Government's plans to enforce passport ID checks on social media — Big Brother Watch

Commenting on the UK government’s plans to enforce passport ID checks on social media Big Brother Watch’s Maya Thomas said: “Chi...

Last year Chris was using the heat from Bitcoin mining heat to make beef bits @BTCHEL 25.-26. SEPTEMBER. This year he’s using the heat to warm a chicken coop, dry and smoke grain and now he wants to build a fermentation silo for beer, kombucha and whisky. In this demo in Helsinki, Chris explains how he’s using a Bitcoin miner to make whisky. Anything that needs stable heat is a mining use case!

Bitcoin is being regulated in Europe and the UK before policymakers have really understood what Bitcoin is. At @BTCHEL 25.-26. SEPTEMBER, the first panel set out three approaches: - Protect sovereignty and self custody - Work within MiCA and regulated rails - Push back when state power goes too far The second panel asked who is writing Bitcoin policy across Europe. Brussels, national regulators, courts, governments and parliaments each write a piece, but banks still decide whether you get an account or can send a payment. You can have a law that looks open but you can still be shut out in practice. Lawful Bitcoin payments are already being blocked, accounts restricted, and customers made to jump through hoops that have nothing to do with the statute. In the UK the FCA, Treasury and Bank of England are already writing the rulebook, while Parliament is still debating what an overarching digital asset strategy should look like. By 2030, Europe will have written more law around Bitcoin. If it is still being treated as just another cryptoasset, the rules may never properly account for what makes Bitcoin different. We still have a long way to go, but thank you to my fellow panellists for all their work.

If we don’t have freedom money, we don't have freedom. Bitcoin Amsterdam 2023 was my first Bitcoin conference, and sitting on the Livedesk while Edward Snowden came up on the screen was completely surreal. One part of his talk has stayed with me ever since. He said: “Acting in secret is not freedom. It’s not the goal. Contorting yourself to be able to fit, to pass through the keyholes of the tyranny that is surrounding us - that’s not the solution.” Almost three years later I still think this is one of the most important talks I’ve heard on Bitcoin, because it wasn’t about price or markets... it was about what Bitcoin is actually for. Block No. 811,847, approx. 12:14 UTC on 12 October 2023.

Bitcoin Policy UK is coming out of consolidation and I am resuming my role as CEO. Dr Cristina Llamas-Rey is returning as COO. Getting here has not been easy. I have never taken a salary from BPUK, and the organisation is still run by a small team of volunteers giving their time around jobs, families and other commitments. In January, I reached the point where I could not justify taking recurring donations when we did not have the resources to operate properly. Scaling back was the responsible thing to do. The aim was to keep BPUK going while we cut costs and rebuilt around what we could actually sustain. That is what we have done. Throughout consolidation, the work continued and we sent our 2026 Manifesto to all 650 MPs. We also responded to Government, FCA, HMRC and Bank of England consultations, worked on banking access, Digital ID and privacy, and continued publishing articles and practical resources. The way we work has been simplified, with a stricter line on what BPUK can realistically take on. We are still unfunded and our resources remain limited, so coming out of consolidation does not mean we suddenly have the capacity to do everything people would like BPUK to do. There are a lot of worthwhile projects and great people doing important work, but we have to guard our time carefully and focus on where BPUK can have the most impact. A huge thank you to everyone who helped keep BPUK going through this period. The people who continued giving their time, expertise and support made it possible for us to keep moving while we worked through everything behind the scenes. I am very grateful. I would like BPUK to have a paid team and do far more. If you can help with funding, please email contact@bitcoinpolicy.uk. Press release below. @Bitcoin Policy UK

The Lords voted 194-138 to require the Treasury to prepare, publish and consult on a digital assets strategy covering cryptoassets, stablecoins, CBDCs, tokenisation and access to banking and payment services. The FCA authorisation gateway opens on 30 September, with the new cryptoasset regime due 25 October 2027. Firms are already preparing for a detailed rulebook while what the UK is trying to build is still being argued. @Bitcoin Policy UK has been working across many of these same issues, including FCA regulation, stablecoins, digital identity, CBDCs and banking access. If the Lords amendment survives the Commons, Treasury would have 12 months to produce an overarching strategy. Regulation is already advancing but does the UK have a joined up strategy? The bill is here: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4129 The amendment is here: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4129/stages/21082/amendments/10037304

KYC is framed as protection, but when identity data is required to use a service, the information collected for safety can later be used for extortion. One of the points I made, quoted in Cointelegraph was: “We need to stop treating identity verification and surrendering your identity as though they are the same thing.” Revolut released identity files after requests were sent from a legitimate Italian law enforcement address. The piece looks at: - what went wrong - why collecting documents is not the same as proving a fact - how we can verify without storing so much personal data Efrat Fenigson of You're The Voice warns: “When regulators keep mandating a model that guarantees this outcome, while the technology to verify without storing already exists, it raises a red flag.” Lyudmyla Kozlovska of the Open Dialogue Foundation highlights another weakness: “EU AML law imposes no verification duty on the bank and provides no meaningful mechanism to check who is really behind an authenticated state request.” Evin McMullen of Billions Network sums up the wider problem: “This is a governance and standards problem wearing a technology costume. You cannot lose what you never held.” This is a really important piece from Christina Comben, bringing together the risks around how identity data is collected, stored and shared and the possible alternatives that already exist. Read the full article here:

Cointelegraph

Revolut ID Thefts Highlight KYC’s Dangers: Here’s How To Fix It

The technology to verify identity without storing sensitive documents already exists. So why does KYC still depend on massive databases of personal...

@Efrat Fenigson @Lyudmyla Kozlovska @Bitcoin Policy UK

The US government said you already have enough privacy and then 153 million driving licences went up for sale on the dark web. In the Tornado Cash trial, prosecutors told the jury a bank account or a Coinbase login was 'privacy enough'. Their expert said the responsible version of the software was a login screen and a database linking every user to every transaction. That is the same architecture used by the company that scans licences at hotels, rental desks and dispensaries. Scans of ordinary people and senior officials appeared for sale on the dark web, along with data that could expose people hiding from abusers. Storm built software with no middleman holding the data: - no company - no server - no identity file That was treated as the crime. Data collection is not the same thing as safety. You cannot leak what was never collected.

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Lebanon showed what happens when banks and currency policy fail the public. Although the worst of the hyperinflation may have eased, banking distrust, poverty and reconstruction needs remain. So too does the need for self-custody, low friction remittances and money that cannot be arbitrarily devalued. Published in early 2024, the lessons have not aged. Read the full article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/02/02/lebanons-economic-rebirth-through-bitcoin/

If you’re unhappy with the Bitcoin price, stop looking at the chart and start reading the congressional trading disclosures. Nancy Pelosi’s household portfolio has been beating the S&P 500 and the average hedge fund for years. A $174,000 congressional salary and a fortune estimated at $250 million. * Maybe the real alpha was public service all along. The numbers: https://vertdata.com/blog/nancy-pelosi-stock-portfolio Track the disclosed trades:

Nancy Pelosi Net Worth | Quiver Quantitative

View Nancy Pelosi's current net worth. Track their disclosed holdings and estimated net worth over time.

* Estimates vary, with some placing the Pelosi fortune at more than $400 million.

Quantum mechanics keeps forcing me to question what 'reality' even is … and where consciousness fits into it. I’ve tried to articulate some of my recent thoughts in this article. What's your take on this? View article →

What is the best way to post an article on Nostr?

Yikes ... we should all be worried! The Trump team privately warned Andy Burnham against giving Ed Miliband a top economic or foreign policy role. Steve Bannon said they called him a "red diaper baby and self-described socialist" who would damage the special relationship. Ouch!! A senior Trump official also described Miliband as a major point of friction in the transatlantic alliance. Steve Bannon then went on to say: “Burnham could not care less – he appointed this twit anyway.” Full article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/07/21/white-house-deeply-concerned-miliband-foreign-secretary/

Andy Burnham is scrapping the Labour government’s digital ID scheme as one of his first acts as prime minister. The policy was never included in Labour’s 2024 manifesto. Despite this, Keir Starmer announced it last September as a tool to combat illegal migration, following strong encouragement from Tony Blair and former Conservative leader William Hague. Blair has been the persistent driving force behind this undemocratic push for two decades. As prime minister he tried to introduce national ID cards through the Identity Cards Act 2006. Billions were spent before the scheme was abandoned in 2010. His Tony Blair Institute then continued lobbying heavily for digital ID, publishing reports and recommendations that helped shape the Starmer government’s plans. The public response was overwhelming. Nearly three million people signed a petition opposing the scheme, while a four hour parliamentary debate saw MPs from across the political spectrum warn that it threatened privacy, civil liberties and the principle of public consent. The government was eventually forced to drop the compulsory element for workers, but it continued trying to advance the broader digital ID infrastructure under a softer, rebranded model. That disregard for manifesto commitments, parliamentary concern and enormous public resistance was deeply troubling. Burnham is now ending the programme, with hundreds of millions of pounds in projected annual costs redirected towards cost-of-living support rather than another expensive, centralised state project. That money will not solve the cost-of-living crisis, and whether families feel any meaningful benefit remains to be seen. Even so, choosing immediate help for ordinary people over a controversial national identity system is a major and very welcome decision. Tony Blair has pushed this idea relentlessly for years, despite repeated rejection from the public. This is a victory, but I would not assume the battle is over. Why do I suspect digital ID will return under another name?