Vegas 2026 had it all from Saylor’s insane financial engineering to powerful reminders of why Bitcoin is important and a way to opt out of this corrosive system.

The message from the Freedom Go Up stage was ‘The system is not broken, its working as designed’

Thank you to @The Bitcoin Conference team for putting on an outstanding variety of panels and topics. There was something for everyone and it displayed the vast array of things Bitcoin touches from politics and tradfi thought to decentralized systems and human rights.

I spoke on two panels on the Energy Stage covering emerging markets and the local impact of bitcoin mining.

The message was consistent across discussions. Mining has to deliver real value on the ground through jobs, infrastructure and long term alignment with communities.

In emerging markets that is already happening. Stranded and underused energy is being turned into genuine economic growth.

Running underneath it all was an unease around the expansion of permissioned systems the normalisation of KYC and an internet that has made the individual the product instead of the owner.

Also, loved bumping into Kent from Sazmining and my favourite Conjoin Chris.

Bitcoin doesnt fix everything but it does reveals the system for what it is and offers an alternative.

Whether that becomes real freedom or another layer depends entirely on what we choose to build next.