Guy Swan (2:54)

This is June 1st to 3rd of this year. Highly, highly recommended.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (2:59)

Tickets are on sale. You can find it right down in the show notes.

Guy Swan (3:03)

I realize I haven't talked about this, but I'm pretty sure there's a discount.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (3:06)

So check it out. I will make sure that I know one way or the other and then if we have a discount that you will have the code and everything down there available. And to use my link. That's a great way to help out the show that doesn't cost anything extra.

Guy Swan (3:19)

And may actually save you some SATs.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (3:21)

So with that, let's get into today's.

Guy Swan (3:24)

Read and it's titled when the Internet Shuts off the Financial freedom report, issue 104. We begin this week in Iran, where currency collapse has turned into a call for political change. Across the country, mass protests erupted after the rial reached yet another record low, erasing people's purchasing power and driving up the cost of living. The regime responded with violence and the arrests of thousands of Iranians, coupled with a nationwide communications blackout reflecting the tightly intertwined nature of financial collapse, repression and information control. In Freedom Tech News, hundreds of thousands of Ugandans are turning to Bitchat, a peer to peer messaging app that works without the Internet, as the regime shut down Internet services the day before the country's general elections. The app enables phones to relay messages directly to one another over Bluetooth, helping people stay connected even if the Internet is turned off. HRF and the Fenney family awarded the Finney Freedom prize for the 2016-2020 era to Andreas M. Antonopoulos for his foundational work educating millions about Bitcoin and pioneering the story of how the currency strengthens human rights. We conclude with a perspective piece in the Wall street journal by HRF's founder and CEO, Thor Halvorson. He argues that replacing Venezuela's dictator Nicolas Maduro with another figure from within the same regime risks preserving the same authoritarian system under a new face and delaying the accountability, reform and human rights Venezuelans deserve. Now let's dive right in Iran, protests against currency collapse and corruption on December 28, the largest protests since the Women Life Freedom movement unfolded across Iran in response to the rial reaching a new record low. The currency, once valued at 32,000 rials per dollar in 2015 crossed 1.42 million per dollar to end 2025, a 98% loss in value. Over the decade, prices of basic goods and services have ballooned, with the cost of food rising by 72% over the past year alone. Iran's largest state owned bank, Bank Meli, reportedly suspended cash withdrawals as demonstrations spread across all 31 of the country's provinces. Unified crowds chanted for the end of the regime. The theocratic dictatorship responded violently. Security forces fired live ammunition, killing at least 2,000 people and detaining upwards of 10,000 more. To further suppress the protests and obscure its violent crackdown, the regime shut down the Internet and cut telephone lines, severing communications and the flow of as it escalated violence against demonstrators. China Interest introduced in CBDC to boost adoption China's central bank revealed that its digital yuan central bank digital currency, or cbdc, will begin to pay users interest in an effort to increase adoption. As of January 1, commercial banks operating digital yuan wallets will pay interest to users based on the amount of digital yuan they hold, providing it with the same legal status as deposits held at banks. However, it remains unclear whether retail CBDC balances held in bank operated wallets are treated as central bank liabilities or as commercial bank liabilities. The CBDC has failed to gain significant everyday adoption despite repeated incentive efforts. Nonetheless, Lu Lei, deputy governor of China's central bank, expressed the bank's intention to create a unified global ledger, centralizing financial activity into a single CBD system. In context, CBDCs create a direct financial link between people and government, providing authoritarian regimes with a heightened ability to conduct financial surveillance, restrict financial activity and autonomy, and facilitate corruption Syria central bank removes two zeros from the pound the Central bank of Syria announced that the Syrian pound is being redenominated by removing two zeros to, quote, restore financial stability following the ousting of the regime of Bashar AL ASSAD In 2024 years of conflict, financial mismanagement, sanctions and financial isolation saw.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (8:22)

The pound lose approximately 99.6% of its.

Guy Swan (8:26)

Value against the dollar, and since 2011, the removal of two zeros does little to address the country's root economic problems but could simplify cash transactions. However, Central bank governor Abdelkader Hasraya shared that the central bank has been given authority to decide the deadline for the swap and its locations. In context, this swap could make it harder for people to exchange old currency for new, especially in remote or financially underserved areas. As a cautionary tale, Venezuela embarked on a similar path, cutting five zeros from the Bolivar in 2018 and six more in 2021 and only succeeded in destroying what little trust remained in its currency. Thailand Cash Reporting requirements tightened the bank of Thailand ordered commercial banks to report resident cash flows above 200,000 6,274,000 Baht starting December 29, 2025. The move is intended to give officials more visibility into local currency movements. Digital gold trading platforms will now also be subject to mandatory transaction reporting, with banks required to disclose both daily aggregate activity and individual trades. We need the most comprehensive information possible to monitor currency movements, said bank of Thailand Governor Vitai Ratanakarn. Russia new digital asset framework conflicts with lawmakers Comments Russia is developing a new legal framework to regulate digital asset trading between individuals and institutions. Under the new framework, unqualified retail investors can buy and sell liquid digital assets after passing a risk test. They will, however, face an annual transaction cap of 300,000 rubles, or $3,800 from a single intermediary. Qualified investors, as determined by the central bank, can purchase any digital asset except privacy focused coins without restrictions after passing a risk test. The criteria distinguishing a qualified and unqualified investor remains undetermined in context. This follows comments from Anatoly Aksakov, the chair of the State Dumas Committee on Financial Markets, who said that cryptocurrencies will never become money in Russia, adding that where payment is required, it must only be conducted in rubles. Tell Delsey Rodriguez you're fired by Thor Halvorson in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, HRF's founder and CEO Thor Halvorson warns that replacing dictator Nicolas Maduro with Vice President Delsey Rodriguez risks preserving the same authoritarian system under a new face. He argues that Rodriguez lacks legitimacy, is tied to documented human rights abuses, and cannot credibly dismantle a regime that functions as a criminal enterprise. The piece cautions that negotiated succession without structural reform will fail, and that Venezuela's crisis reflects a deeper demand for democratic legitimacy and accountability. Bitcoin and Freedom Tech News the Finney Freedom Prize HRF announces third Laureate the Human Rights foundation and the Phinney family announced that the Fenney Freedom prize for the 2016-2020 era was awarded to Andreas M. Antonopoulos. The Finney Freedom Prize seeks to recognize individuals who in how Finney's footsteps and advance the computer as a tool to protect civil liberties worldwide. Antonopoulos is foundational work educating millions about Bitcoin and pioneering the story of how the currency strengthens human rights has inspired countless new users and developers. Announced on January 10, also known as Running Bitcoin Day, the prize includes 100 million satoshis as well as a customized Finney Freedom Prize statue designed by the artist Cryptografitti. Learn more about the Finney Freedom Prize here. Offline messaging takes hold in Uganda as fears of an election period Internet shutdown grew in Uganda, hundreds of thousands of people, roughly 1% of the population, turned to Bitchat. The surge in downloads followed calls from Ugandan opposition leader Bobby Wine to download the app in preparation for a blackout, recalling the nationwide shutdown during the 2021 elections that left families, journalists and activists suddenly isolated. Those fears were confirmed this week when the regime announced a nationwide indefinite Internet suspension beginning at 6pm on January 13, ahead of the elections on January 15. Why this matters BitChat relays messages directly between nearby phones over Bluetooth, forming a peer to peer mesh network that can function even when mobile data and traditional platforms shut down. It can enable Ugandans to organize and share information without interference. The open source app has previously been used during protests in Nepal, Indonesia, Cote d' Ivoire and Madagascar, where officials attempted to suppress demonstrations by blocking platforms or restricting Internet access. Fully Open Source software stack adopted feti, a company leveraging Bitcoin and Ecash technology to support global communities, made its software stack fully Open Source On January 3, the same day the Bitcoin Genesis block was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Fedi's platform combines Bitcoin payments and encrypted messaging on top of the fedimint protocol, which allows communities to operate shared Bitcoin custody systems without relying on a central intermediary. Why this matters fedi's move to fully open source reinforces its commitment to free and open technology. The move ensures the platform remains open to empower communities worldwide who are excluded from financial systems by authoritarian regimes. Zeus support for South African retail QR codes added Zeus, a Bitcoin and Lightning Wallet, has released a new alpha update that adds support for South Africa's retail QR code standard used by MoneyBadger, a platform that makes spending Bitcoin seamless for everyday purchases. This allows users to pay in Bitcoin directly at everyday merchants in South Africa from a self custodial Lightning Wallet. The update also adds a new activity view for Nostr Wallet Connect, improving visibility into payments made through connected apps. This update makes Bitcoin more usable for everyday transactions and is especially useful for the more than 1 million people who have fled from nearby dictatorships to South Africa. Why this matters Small infrastructure upgrades like this quietly turn Bitcoin from a new technology into a usable money in more regions of the world. Torable Censorship Resistant Website deployment Torable is a new open source tool that lets users publish static websites directly as Tor onion services, anonymous servers hosted within the Tor network from their own computers. Users of Torable can operate without relying on hosting providers, domain registrars or other platforms, and instead publish directly to onto the Tor network, making censorship takedowns and seizures by dictators harder to enforce. For journalists, activists and NGOs operating under authoritarianism, Torable functions as infrastructure for communication freedom. It helps ensure information remains accessible even when traditional channels are blocked or shut down. Why this matters as Internet surveillance and censorship from authoritarian regimes rises globally, Torable enables dissidents to readily host content on self sovereign sites. OpenSats 15th round of Bitcoin Grants Announced Opensats, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting open source projects and software, announced its 15th round of Bitcoin grants. Recipient projects include Braidpool, a peer to peer mining pool that enables individual miners to collaboratively construct blocks and coordinate rewards without relying on centralized mining pools. Other projects enhance Bitcoin privacy, such as Dana Wallet, a privacy focused mobile wallet with silent payment support, which makes receiving Bitcoin more discreet for activists and nonprofits. Learn more about the other grantees here. Bitcoin Recommended Content Dictators fuel Bitcoin Adoption with Anna Chekovic in this interview with Unchained Capital, a bitcoin financial services company, Anna Chekovic, financial director of Alexei Navalny's Anti Corruption foundation, links the importance of Bitcoin to democratic movements worldwide struggling against dictatorships. She details how she used Bitcoin to sustain ACF after its expulsion from the Russian banking system, and how the technology provided a lifeline for payroll and donations. Dissidents and nonprofits interested in learning more from Chekovic can attend HRF's three day financial freedom webinar series. Learn more about it here. Link available in the article A shout.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (18:16)

Out to the HRF for the Freedom Report I actually did not know about. Somehow I missed the whole Finney Freedom Prize this year and that's just awesome to see Andreas Antonopoulos get that. It could not be more deserved. He was not only just an absolute.

Guy Swan (18:35)

Legend, but was a huge, huge part.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (18:38)

Of my introduction and understanding of bitcoin in the early days. And without him it absolutely would have been a hundred times more difficult to really parse out what bitcoin was, why.

Guy Swan (18:52)

It was important and everything else.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (18:53)

Like he, he was the the number one shortcut to go from zero to bitcoiner for like I don't even like eight years of bitcoin's early life. Like the very early life of bitcoin. So a huge shout out to him and also just the Finney family and HRF for the Finney Award. It's such a cool, such an awesome thing and the fact that all the bitcoin is already allocated so as it continues to move forward and crypto graffiti has made all the awards themselves or the trophies, whatever you want to call them, which are super cool by the way, if you haven't seen them, you need to go look at the picture or whatever. I ended up talking to him about it at one of the conferences at some point and so it's so it's such a cool idea and it's like, it's gorgeous.

Guy Swan (19:49)

But the fact that the award, you.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (19:52)

Know, I think it's the Nobel Prize, comes with like a million dollars or something like that and like defending freedom prize because the bitcoin is already allocated for all the next, you know, the eras of bitcoin, the halving periods of Bitcoin.

Guy Swan (20:08)

It could be not too long into.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (20:11)

The future before it's one of the most prestigious or like monetarily rewarding awards, things that you can be awarded like anywhere. If bitcoin goes to 2 million, $3 million, which I genuinely think on a long enough timeline, that's where we get to. That could be an incredibly prominent award. Anyway, cool idea. And shout out to all of them for making that happen. Now. Iran shutting off the Internet so some of the, some of the crew that we have contributing to paradrive is in Iran and my brother's wife is Iranian.

Guy Swan (20:53)

And so her family is in Iran.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (20:56)

And I gotta say the shut off of the Internet was far more real to me this in through January because they were out for like three weeks. And it also just puts a perspective. It made me realize like she was totally out of contact with her family for a long, like they would barely get some sort of a connection through her nephew who is, you know, big in VPNs and you know, really skilled on the Internet and as a programmer and stuff. So he was the one who would get like leak some sort of information through.

Guy Swan (21:38)

But they said their phones didn't even work.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (21:42)

Like they cut the phone connections. Like they literally shut off all communication infrastructure. Like no worries that, you know, people might die, that commerce can't happen. Like that's not, that's not the concern. To the contrary, we're gonna kill a few thousand of these people because they don't like that we are ruling over them. Well, of course they wouldn't. If you don't give a crap if they're even safe or they can communicate. I wonder if that has something to do with them being unhappy. But in trying to re establish communications and thinking about it just, it made me realize how incredibly real, how incredibly mechanical the Internet actually is when it comes to the reliability of the infrastructure. Like they can just go find the wires and cut the wires. And what's crazy is her nephew even has a bitcoin wallet node and that sort of stuff. He's, he's interested in it. He said it's pretty common for there to be interest in, in their area. Like it's not Basically the idea of monetary alternatives is pretty much open discussion because of how horrific the real has been. I mean a 98% loss in value over a decade is pretty substantial. And it literally went through a severe collapse. Like there was a massive loss of capital, savings, anything that was going on, wages. Like ridiculous. A bunch of people were pointing at like the dollar Bitcoin price skyrocketing. But the dollar price was skyrocketing. It was. You weren't really looking at anything interesting. It was just the collapse of the rial. But like his stuff like he couldn't connect to the bitcoin network, you know, and it, it calls or shows the point, the reasoning behind small blocks, behind having a lean and powerful network that can sneak through every single crack. Because we still live in a world where you could just lose connectivity with the rest of the world, where they have a great firewall. They are trying to put in one of the craziest firewalls possible for preventing people from communicating and only whitelisting certain connections. And they called it like the black wall technology or something, which is like China's most suppressive firewall tech. And they are literally working with China to put it to implement this in Iran. And even because we looked into this, even the Blockstream satellite network is based, basically has a dead spot over Iran. And then Uganda does the exact same thing.

Guy Swan (24:29)

Shuts.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (24:30)

It literally just shuts down the Internet before, before an election. I'm sure that election is super, super legit and not corrupt at all. That's why obviously that's why they shut down the Internet. But it gives me a lot of respect for the people who are really putting kind of, you know, signal to the chip, so to speak, boots on the ground of establishing connections of people who build stuff like Bitchat. And it's wild that 1% that there were so many people in Uganda who were downloading Bitchat that it basically puts it in the 1% of the population having like talk about some mesh density to get that kind of adoption that quickly, just in the lead up to an election so they can relay messages. And this is the kind of thing also that makes me so badly want to talk about or work on.

Guy Swan (25:32)

Kind.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (25:32)

Of like a bitcoin war games type thing of like, okay, let's imagine a scenario. How do we get bitcoin in and out of the country? How do we teach someone or onboard someone to bitcoin when there's no services? How do we maintain Internet connection? How do we use Bitchat to get through the firewall et Cetera, et cetera, basically set up scenarios and think about how resilient are we building our technology stack and our various tools, or are we just focusing on the things that just make people's lives comfortable in the US because there are far, far deeper problems in the world. And the power of maintaining connections, of having communication when your government doesn't want you to communicate. And in a way that could also protect you because you have to remember too, they also just like police just go through with scanners and if they find somebody putting up a node or whatever that a bunch of people are connecting to, that's, that's got an Internet connection that a lot of people are using, like, they literally might just come in and kill you. So the thinking around these things has to be insanely adversarial. Like insanely adversarial thinking. And even in the US and in quote, unquote, the West, I don't think we're, I don't think we're above it. You know, I don't think our governments are. I think we're, we're encroaching, we're moving that direction with the lack of restraint and total and obvious corruption of our political institutions. Like, they do not care about our freedoms, they do not care about our prosperity. They do not care about the people. They care about whether or not the people are a problem for them. I'll tell you something that gives me hope from this piece, from this Freedom report too, is that China is introducing interest payments into their CBDC to boost adoption. If there is any place in the world in which a CBDC should like, definitely work and should get massive adoption, it's China. And if China is having trouble getting it adopted, they're having trouble getting people to use it. And they are having to care it and incentivize it by offering interest. That's a pretty powerful, pretty powerful demonstration that there is still necessarily competition with all of the other provisions, all of the other things that the market and our technology can provide for us today. And I genuinely think that's kind of a light at the end of the tunnel that we just have to make our experience better. We just have to make our tools easier because we actually have the upper hand. And I think that's just because there's so many sheep out there and there's people who just like generally fall in line is. I don't think that's the thing that moves the world. You know, the 70% of the people or 80% of the people that are just always going to do whatever they're told or fall in line or just comply, because that's what they do. And they don't want to. They just want to be part of the group. I don't think those are the people who matter. They are not the people who move things. Those are not the people who make brilliant and insane businesses. Those are not the people who create enormous amounts of capital value in the world. Those are the people who just kind of become a cog in a machine. Because being a cog has very low responsibility. Like Svetsky says, it's the remnant.

Guy Swan (29:13)

It's that 10%. And if you can get that 10%.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (29:16)

If you can protect that 10% of defiant, productive, autonomous people, and you can.

Guy Swan (29:23)

Give them solutions, you can give them a better experience so that their ability to use sovereign money is simply easier.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (29:32)

Than simply a better experience and a better environment and more freedom than the alternative. That's how you change the world. That's how you stop corrupt governments in their tracks. You take the reins of control of the capital out of their hands is you. You give it to innovators, you give it to creators, you give it to builders.

Guy Swan (29:57)

And at the same time, the political.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (29:59)

Systems are moving so aggressively in the opposite direction. I think the pressure and the desire for the right direction, and I don't mean that left, right, I mean the correct direction towards more freedom, more autonomy, more decentralization and more adaptation, which this is why I think decentralization is the only thing that's actually sustainable in the end anyway. Centralization in a world that's changing very, very quickly is simply insanely fragile. It's, it's brittle, it's incredibly hard and it's powerful while it exists. The more people who are involved in.

Guy Swan (30:32)

It, but it cannot move fast enough.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (30:34)

To adjust for the changing technological environment.

Guy Swan (30:38)

And thus when it breaks, it breaks.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (30:40)

Spectacularly because it's like glass, right? It could be very, very hard right up until the point that you break through it and then it shatters into a million pieces. And that's why I think we ultimately have the upper hand. And why the China having to appease, having to appeal to people, having to give them some sort of a benefit, which obviously, if you can print the money, you can do. But it's just an indication that I think the power and the staying power and the momentum of quote, unquote, the establishment may not be as strong as we try to think it is. Trust in institutions in the west and the US is literally at an all time low, like all time low. Since, for it's like a century and 120 years or something since we have.

Guy Swan (31:35)

Been recording the metric of trust in.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (31:39)

Our institutions through a survey, it is lower than it has ever been before. I. With the chaos that generally comes with that. I think in many ways that is also a good thing because our, our.

Guy Swan (31:55)

Institutions are not trustworthy. If we are trusting.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (31:57)

Institutions that are corrupt, evil and all.

Guy Swan (32:00)

Went to Epstein's island, that's the last thing we want.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (32:03)

That just. Just a recipe for subjugation. I think it's also interesting to point out or important to point out because it's so wild how like bad our examples or thoughts about what was important in history. When you read a history book, it's always like, which king did this and which person voted this? And it's all about politics, politics, politics. But you notice that almost every story we had today, I mean, granted this is the Financial Freedom Report, but these are also like the major things that are happening in the world, right? Is the Iran protests and the, the demonstrations and stuff that have happened. Like this is kind of a very wild thing. And if you see all of the major protests and pushing back and regime change and all of these things in.

Guy Swan (32:48)

Recent years, try to find one that.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (32:50)

Isn'T attached to a mass. A huge monetary shift, you know, even try to find wars from the US.

Guy Swan (32:58)

That aren't related to that don't have.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (33:00)

A major monetary element to them. And I think really shows just how powerful when you alter the technological environment of money can be in the whole. I mean, not to be melodramatic and just be like a slogan or whatever, but fix the money, fix the world. That's not a joke. It's not a joke. There are so many problems in our world that just have to do with our money.

Guy Swan (33:30)

We. Why is Iran freaking out? Why are the people in Iran trying.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (33:36)

To trying to overthrow their government?

Guy Swan (33:39)

What's wrong? Their prosperity has been stolen by a dying currency. And capital controls are trying to keep them locked in that cage, forced to eat the value so that they can stay rich, so the political class can.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (33:53)

Stay rich and powerful. And that's why I still think there's nothing we can do other than make Bitcoin more resilient, make it more available, make it more usable, build more tools, build more Bitchat apps and Fediment and Arc and every other thing under the sun, right? To make Bitcoin better and to expand these networks so when they need them, Bitchat is there for 100,000 Ugandans to download in a matter of a week or so so that these tools are available to get these. These threshold breakthroughs. And slowly, you just shift slowly. Slowly but surely, piece by piece, there's a massive. There's a massive wave coming, I feel like. And none of these things aren't detached from each other. They're all interconnected. They all feed back on each other. And we are reaching. It definitely feels like we are building towards something. And I think bitcoin is a big piece of this, and I think we need to build bitcoin to be ready for that moment. And speaking of that, I am going to. I'm gonna get back to building and right now I'm gonna go walk around the neighborhood with my wife and my kids to have a good afternoon and appreciate that I live in a country that has Internet with all of our problems.

Guy Swan (35:31)

We.

Co-host or Guest Speaker (35:33)

We have it Very good. And I'm gonna be thankful for that. And I thank you guys for listening to my show where I can talk about whatever crap I want to talk about and bitcoin and help build things and do it openly and I don't have to be afraid. Thank you guys so much for listening. I am Guy Swan, a shout out to the hrf, by the way, for. For the Financial Freedom Report and supporting the show. Huge help and love what those guys are doing. And I will catch you guys on the next episode of Bitcoin. Audible until then, that is my 2SA.

Guy Swan (36:24)

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. Marcus Aurelius.