![Read_906 - The Censorship Tsunami is Building [FFR 91] — Bitcoin Audible cover](https://episodes.castos.com/6626b866f2af87-36468692/images/2159322/c1a-9mg94-6zqd1457i1wq-1fdv9z.jpg)
They call it “financial inclusion,” but it’s anything but. Whether's it's Vietnam’s mass bank-account purge, India’s new censorship engine, or Lagarde's demands to "accelerate" control before democracy gets in her way, governments are racing to move the world into a monetary dystopia. I break down the latest Financial Freedom Report and explain why this rising wave of surveillance could be the very thing that pushes millions toward Bitcoin. Check out the original article Financial Freedom Report #91 by HRF (Link: https://hrf.org/latest/financial-freedom-report-91/) References from the episode Paul Stanaland - Why South Asia’s Regimes Keep Falling (Link: https://tinyurl.com/hznk6uza) Breeze SDK (Link: https://breez.technology/sdk/) Alby Lightning Wallet (Link: https://getalby.com/alby-go) Spark (Link: https://www.spark.money/) Cashu e-cash developer resources (CDK) (Link: https://github.com/cashubtc/cdk) Bitcoin Source podcast with Abu Bakr Nair Khalil (Link: https://www.youtube.co...
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Guy Swan
The measure stems from Project 06, a government plan to build a unified digital identity system. Officials present the move as a means to stop scams and transition toward a cashless economy. But the scale is staggering. With just 113 million accounts left active, nearly half of the country's bank accounts vanished from the banking system in a single sweep. The best in Bitcoin made Audible I am Guy Swan and this is Bitcoin.
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Audible what is up guys? Welcome back to Bitcoin. Audible I am Guy Swan, your professor for today. And we are digging into a combination.
Guy Swan
Of really bad news and really good news.
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Rating the financial freedom report number 91 and there's a number of actually really good items. One that we've talked about on the roundtable already. I mentioned that we'll get to cover today in a little bit more, a little bit more in depth, but then also some really incredible improvements or kind of like steps towards seeing a couple of other layer two protocols finally come to fruition and start to be far more deeply integrated and easily accessible to people that I really think, and I think this is going to really kind of kick off or make a move in this bull market. I genuinely think we're going to be really, really close to seeing this in action. And I am really, really excited because this plummets. Like, like the, the major barriers to bringing new users on are about to just collapse at the exact same time that legacy and establishment systems are aggressively.
Guy Swan
Pushing for more CBDCs and aggressively pushing for more control and restrictions, which is.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Just going to make the alternatives that are getting easier and better and lower friction. It's just going to make them look so much better. And this could not have better timing because I am now at the point where I'm we're kind of seriously talking about what pair Drive might use when we start integrating, you know, Bitcoin and just payments in general. Because I think there's going to be a really interesting use case that has been completely dropped by the side, like completely underutilized, not even underutilized, not even at all utilized in kind of a. That could be a really fascinating way of interacting with and using a peer to peer network that has never come to fruition. And maybe I'm wrong about exactly how great of an experience it could be or why it might not ever catch up, you know, get off the ground or why it could have like really serious network effect problems. But I've never even seen anybody try it. So I can't help but be like.
Guy Swan
Well, let's, let's at least make it.
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Happen and just see. So stay tuned on that and I've got some announcements and some other things that I bring up with paradrive at.
Guy Swan
The end of this.
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Real quick I just want to say thank you to Leden Ledn IO for Bitcoin backed loans. They have saved me from an enormous cost in bitcoin because I can take out a loan against my bitcoin and not sell it. I would already be looking back on the housework that I've done and I would be hating myself if I had not had this tool available to me. So if you live on a bitcoin standard and you understand the risks like don't be stupid about it, but this is an incredibly useful tool if you haven't taken advantage yet. Also don't forget to check out pubkey P u B K Y app and the conversation we recently had with John Carvalho on their vision for a new stack of protocols to re decentralize the web. If you are building censorship resistant tools this is not something to sleep on. We are looking very very closely at it for paradrive related things and I.
Guy Swan
Think you should too.
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And then also get your light health in order, get your hormones right, get your energy levels right with get chroma. This is red light therapy, this is blue light blocking. It is light made for humans and you have a 10% discount with code bitcoin audible. And then lastly a shout out to HRF for their amazing Financial Freedom Report, which we're about to get into the Oslo Freedom Forum which is legendary. And then just for being amazing, links and details to all of it will be down in the show notes. All right, so let's go ahead and get into today's read. We've got some really good stuff in the guys take afterwards, so stay tuned and let's jump right into our article.
Guy Swan
And it's titled Financial freedom Report issue.
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91 by the Human Rights Foundation.
Guy Swan
Good morning readers. In Vietnam, the central bank deactivated more than 86 million bank accounts on September 1, erasing nearly half the country's financial accounts.
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The move is part of a national.
Guy Swan
Push for mandatory biometric id framed by officials as a way to curb fraud and reduce reliance on cash. While the Vietnamese affected can in theory recover accounts through submission of biometric verification, the policy abruptly cut millions off from their own money overnight. Meanwhile, El Salvador passed a new investment banking law that allows private banks to offer Bitcoin services like like deposits, loans and payments. The catch services are only available to high net worth individuals, effectively sidelining most Salvadorans. The move, which runs counter to IMF.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Request to scale back Bitcoin exposure and.
Guy Swan
Initiatives, comes as President Nayib Bukele faces mounting criticism for democratic backsliding. In Freedom Tech News, swapso, an Indian bitcoin app, integrated both Lightning and the liquid networks, enabling faster, cheaper and more privacy. Protecting bitcoin payments for 1.6 billion people living under an oppressive regime in a region rolling out its own central bank digital currency, such grassroots tools can make Bitcoin more practical for everyday use. We end with an essay from the Journal of Democracy in which University of Chicago professor Paul Staniland examines how mass protests have toppled governments in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the past three years. He shows how corruption, economic crisis and weak institutions left these regimes fragile and how youth led movements are now testing whether their demands can translate into lasting democratic change. Now let's get into it. Vietnam Millions of Bank accounts deleted On September 1, Vietnam's central bank deactivated more than 86 million bank accounts lacking quot mandatory biometric authentication. The measure stems from Project 06, a government plan to build a unified digital identity system. Officials present the move as a means to stop scams and transition toward a cashless economy. But the scale is staggering. With just 113 million accounts left active, nearly half of the country's bank accounts vanished from the banking system in a single sweep, while funds remained theoretically recoverable through in person biometric verification. The policy risks excluding rural elderly and overseas citizens alongside dissidents who cannot easily comply. The broad closures illustrate how mandatory and top down identification policies can cause mass financial exclusion. Reports suggest Vietnam's already high digital asset usage and is further increasing in the wake of this policy. El Salvador New Banking law Amid democratic backslide, El Salvador passed a new investment banking law allowing private investment banks to offer services in Bitcoin. This will include deposits, loans and payments. These offerings will be limited to high net worth investors with a capital requirement of $50 million and $250,000 in liquid assets. This leaves everyday Salvadorans sidelined. The law also contradicts repeated IMF requests for President Nayib Bukele's government to reduce exposure to its Bitcoin initiatives. This included removing Bitcoin's status as legal tender, unwinding the state's participation in chivo wallet and increasing oversight of digital assets.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
The announcement also comes as the country.
Guy Swan
Faces mounting criticism for democratic backsliding. Indefinite reelection is now allowed, courts are filled with regime loyalists and a prolonged state of emergency has left El Salvador with the world's highest incarceration rate. Cuba integrates into Chinese payment system and represses Protests In Jibara, eastern Cuba, a 20 hour electricity blackout sparked rare street protests. Cubans took to the streets banging pots and pans together and chanting freedom. Before before security forces moved in, at least a dozen people were arrested, underscoring how the Communist Party of Cuba continues to punish peaceful demonstrations, new surveys show blackouts now rank as Cubans top concern, surpassing even empty supermarket shelves, inflation that has collapsed the Cuban peso and wages.
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That barely cover the cost of basic.
Guy Swan
Food items while Cubans endure repression, blackouts and scarcity. The pcc, the Communist Party of Cuba is touting its newfound integration into China's Cross Border Interbank payments system, or SIPs. This is more political than practical, doing little to improve the strenuous financial realities of Cubans Kazakhstan Central bank lauded for CBDC despite authoritarian governance Kazakhstan's central bank was just awarded the pioneering CBDC Initiative award for its cbdc, the Digital Tinge at this year's Global CB DC conference in the Bahamas. The international praise obscures the risks of introducing a government controlled digital currency in an authoritarian context. Kazakhstan scored just 23 out of 100 in Freedom House's 2023 Freedom in the World report. Officials routinely ban protests, conduct arbitrary arrests and even impose Internet blackouts to silent dissent. In such an environment, a CBDC would make it easier for the state to freeze, seize or selectively restrict the finances of activists and critics, amplifying repression. Widespread corruption further heightens concerns, raising doubts that promises of transparency will outweigh the risks of political favoritism and targeted financial control. India Expands Online Censorship Powers India expanded its censorship capabilities with a new government platform called sayog, which lets federal ministries, state agencies, district officials, and even local police request takedowns of online content they deem detrimental to law and order. Since its launch in October 2024, officials have requested nearly 300 takedown requests covering over 3,400 URLs.
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Platforms like Meta and Google have complied.
Guy Swan
While X has taken matters to court, calling Sajog a censorship portal. This shift bypasses Supreme Court safeguards on censorship orders. HRF expresses deep concern over this expansion of censorship and urges India's government to reconsider these policies and uphold the right.
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To freedom of expression.
Guy Swan
Learn more about the Indian government's stifling of free expression from former Oslo Freedom Forum speaker Rakib Hamid Naik here. Recommended Content why South Asia's Regimes Keep Falling By Paul Staniland in the Journal of Democracy, University of Chicago Professor Paul Staniland examines how mass protests toppled governments in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in just three years. The essay highlights how entrenched political corruption, economic hardship and weak public institutions left these governments vulnerable, and how decentralized youth led protest movements are forcing change. For the young demonstrators driving these movements, Staniland argues, the challenge ahead is ensuring their demands translate into lasting democratic change. Read it here. The link will be available in the show. Notes Bitcoin and Freedom Tech News Swapso integrates Lightning and Liquid networks with Brizzk.
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Swapso, a self custodial Bitcoin wallet app.
Guy Swan
In India, has rolled out support for both Lightning and Liquid network transactions. Powered by the Breeze Software Development Kit, or SDK, Swapso users can now send and receive sats, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, instantly, at lower fees and with greater privacy than traditional on chain transactions. The integration strengthens Swapso's utility in a country where high fees and limited financial access can be barriers to grassroots bitcoin adoption and the financial freedom that follows. As India's authoritarian regime rolls out its cbdc, the digital rupee open tools that reinforce the accessibility and practicality of Bitcoin run Paramount Albi testing Spark Wallet Integration Albi, a self managed software that allows you to interact with the Lightning network and perform Bitcoin transactions sovereignly, is now experimenting with a Spark integration. Spark is a new bitcoin payments protocol that uses state chains to move unspent transaction outputs off the blockchain, allowing ownership to change hands without recording every transfer on chain. This makes payments faster, cheaper and more private. Combining Albi's ease of use with Spark's transaction efficiency could bring permissionless and sovereign payments to a much wider audience of dissidents, activists and users. The takeaway New Layer two protocols can improve usability and increase Bitcoin's transaction throughput, but they also require greater trust in operators of application layers like Spark, a trade off that must be weighed in individual contexts. Cashew Development Kit introduces FFI bindings for interoperability Developers have made a key update to the Cashew Development Kit, or CDK that will help bring e Cash to more people by adding new tools called bindings. CDK's privacy preserving wallet technology can now be used in more common programming languages like Python, Swift and Kotlin. In practice, this means developers can more easily build Cashew powered wallets for iOS and Android without needing to learn Rust, the language CDK was originally written in. This release lowers barriers for mobile apps and could accelerate the spread of Kashoo E Caash as an easy, private way to use Bitcoin, a decisive advantage for activists who need discrete, censorship resistant tools to fundraise and transact under repressive regimes. Libreria de Satoshi Announces Bitcoin Core Principles Course this course by Libreria de Satoshi, an HRF grantee and Latin American Bitcoin Education Initiative, explores Bitcoin's core principles across decentralization, scarcity and immutability. Participants will study key readings, join workshops, and engage in peer learning for human rights defenders. The course offers a deeper understanding of why bitcoin's design resists censorship and seizure and how its principles can support financial freedom under repressive conditions. Applications close October 7, 2025 and the course runs October 13 to 27, 2025. Learn more here. Bitcoin Chiang Mai Bitcoin White Paper Day.
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Event.
Guy Swan
Bitcoin Chiang Mai is hosting a Bitcoin whitepaper event in Thailand on October 31, 2025. It will feature a presentation by HRF Global Bitcoin Adoption fellow Nguyen Kokou Ong and other Bitcoin activists sharing stories of resilience, activism and financial freedom. The focus is on how Bitcoin empowers people facing repression, especially in places like Burma, and how it shapes global conversations on human rights. Beyond the talks, it is a space to connect, be inspired and explore how innovation can empower the global majority and beyond. Learn more about it here.
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All right, so that wraps up the Financial Freedom Report. There is another Recommended content so this.
Guy Swan
Is coding the Future of Bitcoin Freedom.
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With Abu Bakr Nurkhalil, which is. I think this was recommended content on one that we actually did on the show not too long ago, but I'll.
Guy Swan
Have the link to this in the.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Show notes as well. This is a Nigerian Bitcoin developer and and actually an HRF grantee who talks.
Guy Swan
About his journey from being a self taught coder to Bitcoin Core contributor.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
But he has a lot of really interesting things to share as well. Just on the idea of what the role bitcoin has been playing and continues to play across the continent of Africa with its further adoption and growing role to hedge against inflation, against growing capital controls, banking failures, all of that stuff.
Guy Swan
So I have the link to that.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
In the show notes if you want to check it out. It is a video, so it's on the Bitcoin Source podcast actually. So I'll try to have the YouTube and the fountain link if you just want to listen to it while you're doing other stuff. But I want to kick this off with talking about Vietnam. And this is something that we actually talked about because I pulled this in as a news item for the roundtable.
Guy Swan
So if you haven't listened to the.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Last roundtable, this item about Vietnam actually already came up. You've probably already heard my take on it, but I wanted to hit it from a different perspective because this is a really important dynamic that, and this is something that I've, I've talked about for when it comes to Bitcoin and these kind of open protocols for a really long time. And it's really interesting to see something like spark with a second layer run as a state chain where you can actually still take those final UTXOs to chain, but you are also dependent on.
Guy Swan
A state chain operator, but the level.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Of privacy and ease of basically global access. So what I'm getting at is this is why I've always said Bitcoin is.
Guy Swan
Necessarily going to be bigger than the.
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Dollar, because the only way, or necessarily going to be bigger than any fiat can.
Guy Swan
Because even if, only if, only, only if fiat does everything possible to concede.
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To essentially give itself concessions over its.
Guy Swan
Restrictions of people's use, because otherwise it will necessarily sideline or evict tons of innocent people from its system who will have nowhere to go but an open list, but an open source, permissionless network. And with everything with the censorship just exploding and kind of coming from all of different directions and like the idea.
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That international organizations and you know, the.
Guy Swan
UN and these people are literally, literally praising countries like Kazakhstan for instituting their cbdc. And we had Lagarde from the ECB recently talking about why a CBDC isn't, isn't about like serving customers. It's literally in a race to make sure that customers don't get served or don't have a better alternative. Actually, you know what? I'll actually play this clip because I.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Have this somewhere right nearby. One second. Well, it won't be a second for you because I can edit this, but.
Christine Lagarde
We are victim of our own legacies and complications and this democratic process that we praise ourselves with, and rightly so, but which is operating as too much of a drug at time when speed is really of the essence. I'll share one frustration with you. When I started back six years ago, I was adamant to push for the digital euro and to make sure that we would be digitally anchored with central bank money. Given the time that it takes, and this is currently pending before the European Parliament. Given the time that it takes, I will be gone. In other words, my mandate will have expired. When the digital euro is eventually launched for good. This is too long. It takes time. When you want to launch something, it has to be right. And the same applies for securitization, for capital market union, for banking union and what have you. But we just have to accelerate. So my plea is for an understanding of the speed at which reforms have to take place and change has to occur because we don't want to be left in the dust. I don't.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
So here's the crazy part about this clip. And in the context of some of the other conversation, which I didn't listen to the entire thing, but I've listened to a larger section of it, but this is kind of an important clip from it.
Guy Swan
Importantly, she thinks the checks and balances.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Are an obstacle, that democracy, that the.
Guy Swan
Idea that the people actually have to care about and have to have input and explicitly need to decide whether or not they even want this is just something that's creating a drag and keeping her from getting things that she wants done. And this is a pretty universal. The fact that this is not booed or recognized, like this is a common refrain. This is. This is absolutely their position. This is how they think about it. What the people want is an initial annoying thing that gets in their way of the vision that they have for what everybody else's money is going to do, for the degree of control and surveillance they want to have and how they actually want to run things. We are a nuisance. We are in their way. And importantly, they fear being left in the dust, meaning they fear being replaced by the things that the people are actually choosing. And think about what that suggests. They want to be able to cement this financial system into the global structure so that people cannot escape it, so that they remain the ones in power. And with all of the wealth, the control over the wealth, which of course.
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They see it that way. Of course they see it that way.
Guy Swan
They are in a massive position of power and they want to remain in.
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That position of power.
Guy Swan
I mean, think about like any company, think Amazon or Twitter or something, or X whatever, and think how they are going to think about dealing with competition and wanting to remain the most important and the central to, you know, shipping and delivery of goods across the country versus the, the platform that most people are sharing and speaking on. Because that gives them influence, it gives them wealth, it gives them power. The difference is the ECB and Lagarde see people having the right to choose something different as something that's annoyingly getting in their way. And she literally says we have to Accelerate. We need to get around the frictions, we need to get around people's choices and any of the checks and balances around government power. And we need to work as hard and as fast as we can to force people into this system and understand the establishment, the whole structure of the government systems. And the west does not see this as a problem. This is perfectly acceptable reasoning and framing. And going back to the example of Vietnam with 86 or 81 million bank accounts, I can't remember exactly what the number was, but essentially 40%, almost half of the entire country's bank accounts being frozen and or shut down explicitly inaccessible because people have not passed a biometric.
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Scanning that forces them into a government.
Guy Swan
Digital identity system, a single overarching structure of an identity system that gets everybody that.
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It basically ties every person to every.
Guy Swan
Single thing that they do understand. There's going to be like horrible, horrible.
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Fallout from a structure like that.
Guy Swan
The, the more and more they try to actually implement that, the problems and.
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The issues of someone who hacks into that or basically pulls all of that.
Guy Swan
Data, which will absolutely happen, is going to be insane. So why is it that Bitcoin is necessarily going to be, or if it is successful, will necessarily be larger than all of these things is because all of the marginalized people, the 86 million.
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Who lost their bank accounts now can.
Guy Swan
Only be served by a permissionless open payment system. And the greater the control and the.
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Greater the lockdown on the capital and.
Guy Swan
The access into the financial system these people push, the greater and greater the number of people who won't have an alternative except something in the Bitcoin system. And by the words of Lagarde, it seems very, very clear that the idea.
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Is, is to restrict what people can do.
Guy Swan
They want to make sure that that's the case because that's exactly how they're going to stop the capital flight out of their structure.
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How else, how the hell else are they going to do it?
Guy Swan
I mean, just listen to that whale who heads the bis, the bank of International Settlements. He went on this long rant about all the benefits of the, of CBDCs. Not once did he talk about convenience or freedom. Not once. It was all about how much control they can have, the, the degree of visibility that they can have, the fact that they can do smart contracts and they can institute carbon credits and expirations.
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And stuff to help help boost the.
Guy Swan
Economy by forcing people to do things. His whole list was like a who's who of dystopian nightmare characteristics of a financial of the Central global financial control system. This will be great. And we'll make sure nobody's buying steak. And instead they're going to buy a bunch of Ho Hos and fake cancer soy burgers. Which, by the way, beyond burger is.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
About to go out of business.
Guy Swan
Just a fun little. Just fun little news.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Their stock is. Looks. Literally looks like shitcoin. But anyway, back to the point is, as these controls and as the restrictions on who and how these systems can be used, there will be an entire subset of society that just basically gets enslaved. That, I mean, I think we're already seeing it, right, is that you have an alternative economy, you have a trapped economy, and then you have the people who think this is a good idea for some. And then I guess there's a fourth subset, which are the people who are basically in charge and are massively profiting off of all of this.
Guy Swan
And all of this getting worse and.
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Worse will only increase the pressure for the alternative economy.
Guy Swan
And what's funny is we've actually seen this.
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They.
Guy Swan
They link to a report in Vietnam.
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So this is the Vietnamese. I think it was done by the Vietnamese government. Let me, Let me bring it back up again. I forgot. Yeah. The State bank of Vietnam has actually.
Guy Swan
Reported that this has led to growth in crypto assets and bitcoin use.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
I'll actually read the section just, just for the hell of it. So the reactions and global implications. And this is all this is at the, at the, the bottom of this report. So.
Guy Swan
So in Vietnam, the results are mixed. Officials praise the cleanup for security. Locals report minor disruptions, but no mass protests.
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Locals report minor disruptions.
Guy Swan
I would love to know who reported on that.
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When we're talking about 86 million accounts, almost half of the banking system and people who are using it getting locked out. I really want to know what, how.
Guy Swan
How we came to the term minor.
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Disruptions as being an accurate way to explain what's going on here.
Guy Swan
But quote, crypto use is surging as an alternative.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
And just because there's two really good tidbits in, in the rest of this, I'm gonna go ahead and hit number two. This is international. The US and EU commentators see it as a cautionary tale for privacy erosion.
Guy Swan
Linking to Palantir surveillance or the UK's digital ID debates. Thai media noted a similar or smaller.
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Freeze of 3 million accounts in August 2025. 3.
Guy Swan
Outlook. By end of 2025, Vietnam expects near 100% biometric coverage for active accounts globally. It accelerates debates on balancing security with freedoms. For example, India's ADHAR system faced lawsuits over data breaches.
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So I just thought that was hilarious that we're already like this.
Guy Swan
None of this is old, right? All of this is brand new.
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Within the last few years, basically 2019 and 2020 really kicked this off in, in a. In a flood, right?
Guy Swan
A tsunami of censorship and cdc CBDC.
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Pushes all occurred because of the psychosis, the. The mass psychosis of 2020.
Guy Swan
And India's system is already.
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Is already being hit with lawsuits because of data breaches.
Guy Swan
The obvious conclusion of trying to put.
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Everybody'S data and biometric access and digital.
Guy Swan
ID into one universal structure, into one central location who like the idea that.
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This is a security improvement, that this is.
Guy Swan
Is so unbelievably stupid. It's just. It's not even, it's not even like bad governance. It's not even authoritarian. I mean it is all of those things, but it's literally just horrible. Systems design like this cannot sustain itself indefinitely. This is going to blow up in everybody's faces and the entire population is going to be the ones who pay for it.
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But I also just wanted to read.
Guy Swan
Another line from earlier on in this.
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Report because I literally laughed out loud when I heard it says for the economy.
Guy Swan
So this is under the implications and analysis section for the economy. By pushing for a cashless society, Vietnam is positioning itself for greater digital transformation and financial inclusion.
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And I just could not.
Guy Swan
86 million bank accounts are frozen and inaccessible and they are referring to. They are calling this a win for financial inclusion. If there could not be a better example of how all of these political buzzwords being absolute, utter meaningless dog.
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That is it right there.
Guy Swan
Yes, we shut down half of the fucking bank accounts in this country, but we did it to be inclusive.
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Holy shit.
Guy Swan
It's literally like a real life SNL skit. The Gaslighting.
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The gaslighting is so insane.
Guy Swan
And I can't tell if these people.
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Are just delusional to a staggering device.
Guy Swan
Degree or if they're just so dishonest.
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That they don't know how to. They don't know how to actually address things without being gaslighting. Like they want all of the. They're willing to just completely undermine the definition or the genuine meanings of everything.
Guy Swan
So that they can just say and call everything, make everything sound nice, but actually only have the singular person purpose of serving their agenda, backing up their opinion and in instituting more and more of their control. Is that just like a natural human thing where peop.
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There's just like this subset of people who Are that lost? They're, they're just like kind of sociopathic and definitions and language and like the.
Guy Swan
Truth, like, like actual genuine truth just.
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Doesn'T matter at all.
Guy Swan
It's just about how do I frame this? How do I use language as a tool to just defraud everyone into thinking.
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That all of the things that are.
Guy Swan
Good for me and support my opinion and what I think are actually the.
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Things that they want?
Guy Swan
And how do I, how do I just use language as a tool to cheat?
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I mean, I know people like that. I know people legitimately, people that I.
Guy Swan
Have met who have no interest, who lied to them. I really think they lie to themselves though.
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That's the thing about the kind of people in my personal life that I.
Guy Swan
Know that are like, that is they are lying to themselves. If they had, if they had to.
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Say, it's like one of those things.
Guy Swan
That like my, my grandfather just died.
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And it's one of those things that if you're not. And by the way, it's, you know, it's. He was a hundred years old and I love the guy and he was a legend, but you know, this is a part of life and he, you know, went downhill for the last couple of years. But it's one of those things that like when you're just like trying to stay busy and you're just trying to like get to the next thing and help somebody out or you know, go visit your parents and all this thing.
Guy Swan
You do, all that, you get lost.
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In kind of the minutiae and the day to day. And it's this way to kind of avoid having to talk about what it is or kind of admit it to yourself. And then as soon as you have.
Guy Swan
To tell someone else that it has.
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Happened, you have to actually say it out loud. That's when it just like hits, you know. One of the, one of the points in which it like really, it really hit me really bad was when we were at papa's house, we lost my grandmother a number of years ago. Now I don't even know. It's one of those things that like, oh, it was just like last year. But then you find out it was like 10 years ago, probably like seven.
Guy Swan
Or eight maybe, but I would still.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Go to, you know, granny and papa's house, right? And there was this incredible nostalgia with being there and spending time with him. And my, my grandfather was one of the most patient men in the world. I think I saw him angry like twice.
Guy Swan
And even his angry state was patient.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
I don't think I could ever be as patient and collected in my day to day as Papa was all the time. But like, the point that hit me harder than. It's one of those things that even when he's kind of like going downhill.
Guy Swan
You think, oh, well, we'll still, still.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Go to papa's house. We could. There were a couple times where we got him out of assisted living just to have, you know, the whole family together and go sit. And he got to sit on his patio and we were still out in the yard, like, which was the thing that we did from when I was, you know, like, tiny, since before I could even remember. And like, the hardest point in the entire thing was when I had to say out loud. Like, I can't even say it right now. When I realized we would never go back and do that again. Like, like, you see, like, like I don't have any problem like, you know, through the episode or whatever. Like.
Guy Swan
There'S something about saying the truth.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Out loud that makes it hit different, that it changes something in your own mind that, that you recognize reality. And there's something in these people who want to use everything for control. I genuinely think they. This is one of the biggest political.
Guy Swan
Divides is people who are unwilling to.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Say the truth out loud because of how much it changes what's going on.
Guy Swan
Inside your own mind. There is a visceral power to saying.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
The truth out loud. And because, because it's one of those things that you have to recognize it internally to, to get it out of your mind and project it. Because, because you're, you know, maybe there's there's an element to, of if it's only. Jesus Christ. If, if you're only. If it's only like locked away in your mind, it doesn't, it doesn't replicate, right? Like, you're not extending that to other people. You're not allowing yourself to recognize or think about what you lost. And that's why so many people, I think, on the. Specifically on the political left right now, granted, you know, the right is being just as easily called into all this stuff because now it seems like immigration is about to be used for the digital ID system because now that's the most convenient way to implement, you know, universal ID in the US because it seems like the political winds have shifted to the right and that's how you.
Guy Swan
Get authoritarianism with that group of people. But the left has been radicalized on this. Refuse to say the truth out loud, simple truth, to the point of like horrific hate and violence.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
And that isn't that's a, that's why. That is why. And this is exactly why somebody like.
Guy Swan
Charlie Kirk was so unbelievably effective.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
He actually has this really cool quote that I thought was incredible of you know the, you know these universities get these kids for four years or longer and I can actually go in. The reason they hate me so much is because I can go in and dismantle the entire structure of thought that they have been propagandized into for four.
Guy Swan
Years in college with just a few really good questions.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
And this is exactly why speaking up is so important. Calling things what they are is so important because it changes things in a very real way. And before I close this out, I want to talk about swapso and state chains and stuff because I think these are really, really, really interesting tools and I want to talk about like kind of my experience with it. But really quick, let's thank our sponsors. A shout out to Leden IO for bitcoin backed loans. These guys have been great and especially during a bull market it's, it's a wonderful thing to be able to not have to sell your bitcoin and to feel like you have a company that takes their custody extremely seriously, have a simple financial tool and let and actually show you proof of reserve so you can know your bitcoin balance is there. I am in no way saying this is risk free but it is an extremely valuable tool for people who are on a bitcoin standard. And I got a special link for you right down in the show notes. Also check out Gitchroma Gitchroma co. These guys specialize in light health and getting your circadian rhythm right. Basically blue light blockers and that sort of thing and red light therapy. I'm a big fan and it's a rabbit hole that has made a significant difference. So check it out and there's a 10% discount with code Bitcoin audible. Then check out pubkey app that's P U B K Y as well as our recent episode our chat with John Carvalho on exactly what this is and what their vision is for a decentralized web. And then lastly HRF is actually they. They run the Financial Freedom Report which I just absolutely value and is an irreplaceable resource. So a shout out to them as always for supporting my work. Okay so breeze SDK using both liquid and lightning and Albi experimenting with spark and their SDK or their integration tools, whatever, whatever it is. I went to the website, I think they call it an SDK and Then of course more development and cashew. With a Cashew development kit, I cannot emphasize enough onboarding that is non custodial and or semi custodial and has no entry barrier, has no set up a lightning channel, this sort of thing.
Guy Swan
I actually Liquid is still.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
I will say it again and again because my mom uses Liquid. Liquid is one of the most undervalued tools in our kit as Bitcoiners, especially because of its integration with lightning. Getting back and forth between Lightning and Liquid. Liquid is actually extremely easy. I've been thinking for a while about my integration and how I want to use PEAR Drive because I wanted to have zaps and this sort of thing built into it, but I didn't know exactly how or what I was going to do. I wanted self custody as a predominant option, but I did not want users to have to feel. I. I want. I do not want normies to be.
Guy Swan
Intimidated by this either.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
I just want it to be something.
Guy Swan
That'S accessible and that is a very.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Very difficult mountain to climb. But increasingly I am more and more impressed with the Breeze SDK and what they're doing and how they're making this available to people and the integration between Liquid and Lightning. This is something to watch very very closely. In fact we got. It might be be the next episode. We've got a article by Breeze or by Roy Scheinfeld from Breeze, another one on the utility of bitcoin and I just. It's a fantastic article. Again I. I always love Roy's stuff. His writing is. Is really good. But then Albi Albi is my favorite non custodial integration tool. I have Aldi. It's exactly why it is the reason why I finally got around to or I finally used my start 9 as my main wallet. I have used my start 9 for a while but it's always just like.
Guy Swan
A little bit laggy.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
It was always like a little bit frustrating because I had to do everything over Tor and when I connected with Zeus, which I think I know now that Zeus does in fact use Noster Wallet connect again or now which has really been like the big problem is Noster, excuse me, Tor was just sluggish. Like Tor is a sucky user experience. Even when you put it in the background it's just sluggish, slow. There's delays, everything. I can't tell you how long I spent looking at that stupid spin wheel and Lightning itself because it's onion route it already kind of has its own built in issues or delays in that way for security reasons and Then to not be able to connect to anything because of the lack of port forwarding and because you had to use some network like Tor. Just frustrating as hell. So I would use it for important things and I would use it for big payments, but it was never my daily driver. Now I kind of use my Albe Go which is connected to my start 9 and Phoenix interchangeably which is a big deal. And I'll be integrating or starting to experiment with Spark with state chains. State chains are so fast. I have used Mercury in their beta and the beauty state chains basically work like E Cash except it is non custodial or it is that semi custodial where you can take the, you can take the transaction to the chain. So leaning on Nicholas Doria's piece on defining custody, it is non custodial because you have unilateral exit. However, the state chain operator can prevent you obviously from making a transaction inside the state chain. And you have to trust the state chain operator to not. What's the word? Collude. Collude with a previous person to steal your funds or to reverse the transaction that was sent to you by posting a earlier transaction on chain. So the state chain operator is still kind of like the judge, right? However, there are actually two mitigations to this problem is that there is a cascading time lock situation where time locks. I think it's actually based on block height. I can't, I can't remember exactly how the structure has to work to make this continue indefinitely. I think it's got something, it's something related to block height. I don't know. Somehow it's relative to like previous states. I'm not sure if it's like one where you can only do this like a hundred times. I really don't think that's how it is. But I don't, I don't remember exactly, exactly the mechanism by which they pull this off. But essentially the latest transaction always has.
Guy Swan
The, the lowest time lock. So even if you collude with the.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
State chain operator with a previous state.
Guy Swan
You will be able to broadcast yours.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
With a lower time lock. But you have to be watching it. So it introduces this idea of like a watchtower like environment where or capability where you can actually give your transaction to somebody else in order to have them broadcast it on your behalf. And important there's no like toxic information in that so that you're not like giving away secret keys. It's just a pre signed transaction. So you can basically hand it over without like having to worry about like what? You can give it to as many.
Guy Swan
People as you want or as you.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Trust to be able to broadcast that on your behalf. So in a lot of ways it's very similar to Ark in its security profile or a one to many style Lightning setup. But one of the interesting things about this to me is that, you know, development has been slow and meticulous in bringing this into operation. Like I use Mercury Wallet for the first time like three years ago. I think it's easy to get lost with the, oh, the new fancy new thing or the new idea and forget just how many tools and systems we have, quote, unquote in the bag that are still waiting to kind of have their moment to shine or to really.
Guy Swan
Be tested in the real world.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
But these tools are coming very, very soon and I think they're going to have a massive impact on how users interact, basically that last mile. And I think Lightning is going to be this system that puts them all together. And I think it's necessarily so because it literally is the bridge that allows us to speak. Both Lightning addresses, Liquid Addresses Lightning and Cashew and everything already, already. And I just can't help but think about like when these things are just easy to use, when we kind of like cross that Rubicon to the layer of the protocol in which it hits the user experience in the right way. I just think this can accelerate really, really fast, especially with the state of the world and CBDCs going the way that they are going. And all it takes is like one really good use case, one tool or one network that can't be accessed any other way that people just want to use. And I'm hoping, hoping that I get to play a part in that.
Guy Swan
We'll see.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
Would obviously be arrogant for me to say that I've found the thing, but I like to think I found something pretty cool. I got a pretty good idea, but there's still a ton of work to do, which it's open source, by the way. Hell, I don't even think I mentioned this on the show. Paradrive is open source. It's. It's available now. Pear Drive Core and the Peer Drive Cli. So not the GUI yet. I am still banging away on the GUI to get things really reliable and robust. It keeps crashing on my brother's computer and we still have some really dumb like, oh, it's not seeing these files, sorts of problems that need to get sorted out but, but they're not, these are not big hurdles at all. And it's literally just when I have the Time to do a little vibe coding. But I've been using it, I've been using it a ton on to download like my brother's been using it to download movies from my Linux machine. So we'll have an episode on this soon and it has been a long haul to get here. I'll have the link to that in the show notes if you want to check out Core and the CLI versions. Like my GUI is actually the version I'm using on my Mac is actually connected to the command line version on my Linux. And like I said, it's not perfect. It's still like a little rough around the edges. But they're all like real simple problems this time. None of them are structural. And I've also been talking with a handful of people who are already excited to kind of like start building on and with it. So I think movement is going to happen like really, really fast now. But again I want to do like a full on guys take or maybe a chat episode with Hope the developer who's basically been doing this the entire time, who's built essentially what we have today. But we're going to do an episode sometime very, very soon. Kind of officially unveiling paradrive. But I want to have the gui. I want to have the GUI before we really talk about. So anyway, shout out. Love the Financial Freedom Report. Seriously. You know, if nothing else guys, the reason I think y' all should like I'm going to, I'm going to shill the Financial Freedom Report one more time and why I actually am very happy that we started covering it on the show is it gives so many explicit like, like direct news items and stories from around the world for an obvious bitcoin use case. Is it like somebody's like bitcoin has no purpose. Like okay, well what are you going to say to the 86 million people who just lost bank accounts in Vietnam? And here's the thing, people who watch establishment, establishment media don't know about that. They have no idea that even happened. So it's an easy way to shut normies up who have no idea what they're talking about. So you should, you should check it out. You should at least have it in your, your email database for stuff to reference if you, if you don't, I'll.
Guy Swan
Have the link and details down in.
Co-host / Bitcoin Audible Host
The show notes and obviously a shout out to HRF for a their amazing work and for supporting my work with that. I'll catch you guys on the next episode. I am Guy Swan and this is Bitcoin audible. Don't forget to share this out. Thank you all so much for the zaps and for the comments and stuff on Fountain and on Nostr and Pubkey and Twitter. You guys are what keep this thing going and spread the word. And you are legends for doing it. And until next time, that's my two SATs. Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience. This is the ideal life. Mark Twain.
Host: Guy Swann
Date: October 6, 2025
In this episode of Bitcoin Audible, Guy Swann dives deep into the latest Human Rights Foundation (HRF) Financial Freedom Report (#91). The episode examines rising global financial censorship, the accelerating push for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), mandatory digital identity regimes, and how open-source Bitcoin ecosystem tools are emerging as practical alternatives for individuals facing exclusion and control. The tone is urgent, insightful, and at times incredulous at the scale and speed of top-down financial restrictions globally.
"With just 113 million accounts left active, nearly half of the country's bank accounts vanished...The broad closures illustrate how mandatory and top-down identification policies can cause mass financial exclusion."
— Guy Swann ([00:00], [05:42])
"86 million bank accounts are frozen and inaccessible and they're calling this a win for financial inclusion. If there could not be a better example of [...] absolute utter meaningless dog[shit], that is it right there [...] We did it to be inclusive. Holy shit. It's literally like a real-life SNL skit. The gaslighting is so insane."
— Guy Swann ([31:17]–[31:52])
"The only way fiat doesn't sideline or evict tons of innocent people is to concede [...] Otherwise [people] will have nowhere to go but an open source, permissionless network."
— Guy Swann ([19:17]–[19:36])
"Importantly, she thinks the checks and balances are an obstacle, that democracy...is just something that's creating a drag and keeping her from getting things she wants done."
— Guy Swann ([22:12]–[23:33])
"Liquid is one of the most undervalued tools in our kit as Bitcoiners, especially because of its integration with Lightning...Getting back and forth between Lightning and Liquid is actually extremely easy."
— Guy Swann ([41:18])
"State chains are so fast. I have used Mercury in their beta...it is noncustodial because you have unilateral exit."
— Guy Swann ([44:56]–[46:19])
On official gaslighting:
"It's literally like a real-life SNL skit. The gaslighting is so insane."
— Guy Swann ([31:52])
On the inevitability of open networks:
"With all of the censorship just exploding and coming from all different directions...they will necessarily sideline or evict tons of innocent people...who will have nowhere to go but an open, permissionless network."
— Guy Swann ([19:36])
On democracy as a regulatory “nuisance”:
"Importantly, she [Lagarde] thinks the checks and balances are an obstacle, that democracy...is just something that's creating a drag and keeping her from getting things she wants done."
— Guy Swann ([22:12]–[23:33])
On the coming impact of Layer-2 protocols:
"These tools are coming very, very soon and I think they're going to have a massive impact on how users interact, basically that last mile. And I think Lightning is going to be this system that puts them all together."
— Guy Swann ([46:17]–[47:22])
Guy Swann delivers an incisive, passionate analysis of the accelerating global march toward financial surveillance, exclusion, and censorship—with Vietnam’s biometric bank account purge a chilling illustration. Yet, in parallel, Bitcoin and its ecosystem are rapidly innovating, breaking down barriers to self-custodial, censorship-resistant financial tools. Urging listeners to stay vigilant and informed via resources like the HRF Financial Freedom Report, Guy encourages everyone to speak the truth plainly, build and use open systems, and demand genuine inclusion by supporting permissionless alternatives.
For anyone not able to listen: this episode is an urgent wake-up call about the wave of centralized financial exclusion washing across the world—and a rallying cry for the open Bitcoin alternatives growing stronger in its wake.