Yeah there's definitely a desire, but be clear, it's a smallish minority that have this desire for freedom, especially outside the US, sad to say. And fulfilling that desire seems to get harder every ...
In other parts of the world, my feeling is that they'll be pragmatic about it and have an official version and a more discreet version. For example, maybe a fully locked-down phone that "complies," but then have their private phone or other device for other things.
I partly agree that "the devices you actually need, to be functional in the world, are locked down more and more." Yes, more and more services require and will require locked-down devices. But I find that I need those services less and less.
For example, Wise asked me too many questions. It annoyed me. So I dumped them. Bitcoin being more usable in practice than before, I don't miss Wise.
Another example: it's harder than it was to buy physical SIM cards without some form of KYC (perhaps use of a credit card, lighter KYC), but eSIMs are now very easy to buy with btc on lightning.
Yet another example: online banking requires mobile apps more and more, but I need bank accounts less and less (through native Bitcoin payments, prepaid cards that can be bought with Bitcoin, and a personal network of people willing to accept Bitcoin for services and products, etc). I can basically just use bank accounts to get cash out of an ATM.
Facebook and others are more locked down, but now we have Nostr, delta.chat, simplex, and others.
AI frontier models are more locked down, but open-weight models are now good enough to be usable, and even usable on local devices for many uses (speech-to-text, translations, etc).
On the hardware side, RISC-V is making progress.
I understand the gloomy feeling. It's hard not to get that feeling when we see just about every law, every government, everywhere, going in the wrong direction.
However, it feels like, thanks to technology (and people like you!!), our personal freedom space is expanding.
I partly agree that "the devices you actually need, to be functional in the world, are locked down more and more." Yes, more and more services require and will require locked-down devices. But I find that I need those services less and less.
For example, Wise asked me too many questions. It annoyed me. So I dumped them. Bitcoin being more usable in practice than before, I don't miss Wise.
Another example: it's harder than it was to buy physical SIM cards without some form of KYC (perhaps use of a credit card, lighter KYC), but eSIMs are now very easy to buy with btc on lightning.
Yet another example: online banking requires mobile apps more and more, but I need bank accounts less and less (through native Bitcoin payments, prepaid cards that can be bought with Bitcoin, and a personal network of people willing to accept Bitcoin for services and products, etc). I can basically just use bank accounts to get cash out of an ATM.
Facebook and others are more locked down, but now we have Nostr, delta.chat, simplex, and others.
AI frontier models are more locked down, but open-weight models are now good enough to be usable, and even usable on local devices for many uses (speech-to-text, translations, etc).
On the hardware side, RISC-V is making progress.
I understand the gloomy feeling. It's hard not to get that feeling when we see just about every law, every government, everywhere, going in the wrong direction.
However, it feels like, thanks to technology (and people like you!!), our personal freedom space is expanding.