Whether you deride or celebrate it, Bitcoin has always allowed users to circumvent authorities and should always be accessible without the help of centralized constructs.
In this week’s issue, we look at ways that Bitcoin can be utilized through dissident technology and how it can help enable transactions and communication off the grid:
- Without mesh networks, we’d be dependent on ISPs that continuously show themselves to be incompetent.
- Tor is constantly iterating to ensure the safety of users and protection of our “digital rights.”
- Lightning is increasing the potential to maintain privacy when using Bitcoin, but can still reveal more information than you’d want.
- Lightning doesn’t just bring us improved transaction privacy — the teams at Sphinx Chat and Whatsat are exploring private messaging via Lighting.
- Taproot will give us the ability to mask information about our transactions, regardless of how complex they may be.
In my favorite read this week, Nozomi Hayase succinctly declares what’s at stake: “Bitcoin Is the Technology of Dissent That Secures Individual Liberties.” Talk about a motivating piece to start your morning!
Thank you to Nozomi, Tony Sanak and Steph Whited for their guest contributions this week.
Amir Taaki was one of Bitcoin’s first-ever dedicated developers and perhaps the one most infamously focused on privacy and freedom from authority.
Blockstream’s Grubles and Locha Mesh’s Randy Brito weigh in on the promise of mesh networks to keep Bitcoin alive without the internet.
Tor software is a vital tool for dissidents worldwide, but privacy and freedom online should not be a luxury. Human rights are not radical.
Data about specific payment requests from #LNTrustchain2 can provide us with insight into privacy-related aspects of Lightning Network use.
We, Bitcoiners, are all dissidents in the Old World of trusted third parties. By using Bitcoin, we defy the rules of empire states in order to reclaim our own authority.
Lightning-native messaging protocols could offer more private and foolproof encrypted communications. But will users make the switch?