Bitcoin House Malaysia: Building a Long-Term Home for Freedom Technologies in Southeast Asia

In the heart of Kuala Lumpur, something long-term and necessary is taking shape — a space where technology, freedom, and community come together in practice. Bitcoin House Malaysia is more than a venue. It is a living experiment: how can Bitcoin and related open technologies help people exercise freedom of expression, financial autonomy, and public participation in their everyday lives? Malaysia is a multicultural, moderately open society. On paper, people enjoy many rights: the right to speak, to participate, to own property, to connect. Yet in reality, many still find these freedoms difficult to put into practice. Differences in ethnicity, religion, region, and access have long shaped who gets to speak and who feels heard, while financial and technological access remain uneven — especially in Malaysia and among smaller communities.​ Bitcoin House Malaysia was born from this gap. Freedom is not only a political concept but also a practical skill — something that can be learned, practiced, and shared. Our mission is to turn freedom technologies like Bitcoin, the Lightning Network, and Nostr into everyday tools that anyone can use, safely and confidently.​

A Hub for Learning, Building, and Connecting

The project establishes a long-term physical hub in Kuala Lumpur — an open, welcoming space for people to learn, build, and connect. Instead of confrontation, we focus on construction: creating shared infrastructure that helps people act freely, responsibly, and effectively in the digital age.​

Our work follows three main paths:

Public Education

Every week, we host open learning sessions — practical introductions to Bitcoin, Lightning, and Nostr. Whether you are a student, designer, activist, developer, or complete beginner, you will find content in plain language, focused on real-world use and everyday scenarios.​ Sometimes this looks as simple as helping someone make their first non-custodial payment, set up a Lightning wallet, or post their first note on Nostr without relying on centralized platforms.​

Technical Collaboration

Through hackathons, developer meetups, and joint workshops with local universities, we bring builders together to create solutions for real problems — from cross-border transactions to community coordination tools. These activities emphasize skill-building and long-term capacity, not competition.​ Our goal is to help more people in Malaysia and across the region learn how to adapt, maintain, and improve freedom technologies, so they are not just users, but active contributors to the tools they depend on.​

A Permanent Community Space

Every Friday, the space opens as a free co-working day, and every Saturday we gather for community meetups. This rhythm builds stability, safety, and trust — something rare in the fast-moving crypto scene, and essential for any technology that hopes to serve real communities.​ The space also provides a home base for Chinese-language freedom technology communities across Hong Kong, Singapore, Mainland China, and Southeast Asia, who need a low-risk, sustainable physical connection point for in-person collaboration and cross-regional exchange.​

Why Malaysia Matters

Malaysia is uniquely positioned for this work. It sits between more restrictive and more liberal societies, offering both diversity and relative stability, while rapidly developing its digital and fintech ecosystem. Yet unlike neighboring countries such as Thailand or the Philippines, it still lacks sustained Bitcoin and freedom technology infrastructure and long-term community hubs.​ We see this as both a challenge and an opportunity. If freedom technologies can take root here — in a society that is open, but still marked by structural inequality and uneven access — they can likely take root almost anywhere. By building Bitcoin House Malaysia, we hope to develop a living model of how such technologies can support everyday freedoms without confrontation or political polarization.​

Who We Are

Bitcoin House Malaysia is initiated by the team behind nostr:npub1yzvxlwp7wawed5vgefwfmugvumtp8c8t0etk3g8sky4n0ndvyxesnxrf8q one of the most active community projects in the Nostr ecosystem. Over the past three years, our team has organized more than 150 events and global hackathons, connecting communities across 50+ cities and four continents, and collaborating closely with Bitcoin and Nostr builders worldwide.​ Through this journey, we have seen how Bitcoin and Nostr can strengthen connection, privacy, and freedom — not just as abstract ideals, but as tools woven into people’s daily lives. With Bitcoin House Malaysia, we are bringing that experience home: to Southeast Asia, to the ground level, to real communities that need low-risk, practical ways to exercise their rights.​

Our Vision

We envision a future where freedom is not something you must ask for — but something you can practice, where learning about Bitcoin or Nostr is not an online luxury, but a weekend habit in your own neighborhood, shared around tables, screens, and conversations in a common space.​ In the years ahead, we hope Bitcoin House Malaysia becomes a regional home for freedom technologies — a place where ideas turn into tools, and rights turn into daily practice, step by step, person by person.​

This is the beginning. Welcome home.