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.

The UK government has successfully weaponised the
'child safety' narrative to execute one of the most significant power grabs in the history of the British internet.

By stripping away a massive slice of online privacy for every adult, politicians are laying the final bricks of a Digital Panopticon that few are willing to acknowledge.

Back in my August 2023 CityAM article, I warned that the Online Safety Bill was a digital double edged sword. Sold as a shield for the vulnerable, but destined to cut through encryption and open innovation.

Today, that prediction is playing out exactly as foreseen. Lawmakers are pushing social media restrictions for under 16s as the ultimate 'Trojan Horse' for mandatory Digital ID and state surveillance.

The fundamental flaw is that Whitehall believes it can dictate the shape of the internet at a glacial pace through endless committees. At the same time, the cutting edge of technology is racing at lightspeed toward decentralised networks like Nostr and federated platforms which are immune to these government mandates.

Centralised platforms will eventually buckle. The open, user controlled web will route around these rules, as it always has.

Our digital freedoms are being eroded in the shadows of safety rhetoric. The only viable answer is to build decentralised alternatives faster than they can regulate the old ones.

Britain is on the verge of losing its digital sovereignty forever unless we wake up to the trap.

And yes ... this is another Bitcoin advert.

It's time to separate money from the state and make government smaller.

https://x.com/bigbrotherwatch/status/2049083992058519872

Sam Altman just explained the entire World ID agenda.

Years ago they started working on how to prove someone is human, because they were building a world where AI would generate more content than people.

The solution they built is World ID. Biometric iris scanning for the internet, framed as privacy preserving.

The same people who are driving the coming wave of synthetic content are now selling the solution.

A system that verifies you are human using your biometric data.

One global system that registers every humans biometric ID forever ... and you will have to comply if you want access to the internet.

This is another red flag for anyone who cares about privacy and sovereignty.

https://x.com/decentrasuze/status/1689268974310014976

Today the FCA raided eight London sites in its first ever coordinated crackdown on peer to peer crypto trading. Enforcement has now moved onto ordinary individuals operating outside the regulated system.

The UK is trying to position itself as a global centre for digital assets centred around stablecoins, tokenisation and institutional adoption.

At the same time, the most direct form of decentralised exchange is being pushed into a legal grey area. Individuals trading with one another can find everyday activity interpreted as unlawful once it reaches meaningful scale.

There are effectively no P2P traders registered under current AML rules. This creates a tension in UK policy where:

- privacy is treated as opacity
- self custody is viewed as risk
- decentralised systems are judged against rules designed for intermediaries.

When there is no realistic route to compliance, enforcement dictates behaviour by default, not by design.

These same regulatory and data collection approaches are creating real physical security risks by linking identities to holdings and turning oversight into surveillance.

The implications for safety, privacy and surveillance are unprecedented. These regulators will also have to live in the world they create...

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/uk-targets-illegal-crypto-trading-120738842.html

Ed Miliband’s red tape and grid bureaucracy has actually done something right. He has made it easier, faster and make more business sense to mine Bitcoin rather than connect to the grid.

A Yorkshire gas field that could supply over 10% of Britain’s annual demand is being positioned for early Bitcoin mining rather than immediate supply to the national grid.

Reabold Resources plans a small on site gas fired power station using private gas to mine Bitcoin, generate early revenue and help fund further development of the field.

Connecting to the grid is slow, costly and tied up in years of approvals, infrastructure build out and negotiations. Using the gas on site allows immediate monetisation from existing wells and creates early cash flow without waiting for the wider system to catch up.

When the fastest and most viable route for a domestic energy resource is private on site use rather than supplying the grid, it becomes clear that Bitcoin isn’t the problem.

This neatly exposes how misaligned UK energy policy, infrastructure and incentives have become.

It’s amazing what businesses can do to stay profitable, even when the government tries to make it almost impossible.

Full article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/f18a6bf325db078e

Centralising justice is bad enough, now Labour is pushing plans to take greater control over private pension pots and dictate where that capital flows.

We need to separate money and state and seriously rethink the size and reach of government.

History keeps showing what happens when politicians steer financial decisions for everyone else.

- They incentivised diesel cars then pivoted and left owners exposed.

- They launched Help to Buy and distorted the housing market.

- They pushed green home insulation schemes then scrapped them after botched installations left homeowners with poor quality work and extra costs.

- They also hike interest rates to control inflation which crushes demand and leaves families facing higher borrowing costs and real financial misery.

Policy is made, policy reverses and individuals absorb the losses. More rules get layered on to fix the damage they caused.

This latest move on pensions is not new, governments have been trying to direct capital for years. Now it is about funnelling pension money into UK infrastructure, private companies and growth projects. All framed as being in the national interest.

The idea of pushing people into investments the government deems suitable is concerning, especially while UK retail remains restricted from easy access to a Bitcoin spot ETF.

Every day brings another example of overreach or poor judgment.

Moments like this make the case for Bitcoin even stronger.

Full article:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/news/labour-force-through-plan-dictate-pension-investments/

Great chat on @Bitcoin Archive with Archie. Always love hanging out.

A good friend of mine once said to me, “how do you operate in an adult world, you are so small?”

…well, here’s the answer.

Thanks to Charlie for finding me a footstool, aka a box.

On LBC last night with James Hanson we discussed the Lib Dems calling for an FCA inquiry into Farage’s involvement in Kwasi Kwarteng’s company Stack.

We covered potential market abuse, bitcoin treasury companies, the different risk profiles between these firms, bitcoin and crypto, and why businesses should hold bitcoin on their balance sheets.

We also discussed how little UK regulators and MPs understand bitcoin or the opportunity, and how the UK is falling behind as a result ... which is a much bigger risk!!

Audio here discussing the story.

And the article we discussed:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd9vgw2g3w2o