8-18-2025
Bitcoin heaters expand in Europe to balance fragile grids, Jeju City seizes exchange-based crypto from tax dodgers, New York proposes a 0.2% transaction tax, nostr devs could build self-replicating censorship-resistant clients, and Japan preps yen-backed stablecoins tied to government bonds.
Let's rant about energy. When you look at what’s happening in Europe, it’s a systemic collapse of energy infrastructure. Heating costs have spiraled, the grid can’t handle renewables, and AI data centers are just beginning to bite. Yet Bitcoin miners, long accused of boiling oceans, are stepping into this gap. Austria’s 21Energy now sells Bitcoin heaters that look like radiators and mine quietly in the background. They’re selling them across the continent to solar enthusiasts and climate activists. Why? Because the math works no matter what you believe. You get heat, you get hash, and you reduce waste. Decentralization works and it looks just like this.
Now compare that to South Korea, where Jeju City is going after tax delinquents by freezing crypto holdings on centralized exchanges. If you hold your keys, you’re safe. But if you’re sitting on Bithumb or Upbit, you’re exposed. It’s a reminder that the moment governments feel pressured, they reach for the most convenient lever: confiscation. And it’s not just South Korea. New York State wants to impose a 0.2% excise tax on every crypto transaction. Doesn’t matter if it’s a peer-to-peer payment or a stablecoin remittance—they want their cut. The justification? School programs. That's right, it's for "The Children!" But the truth is always surveillance and control.
This is where Nostr comes in. I came across a thread this weekend where people were asking, “What happens when governments come after the clients?” And the answer is beautiful: build self-replicating clients that recompile on the fly. Use tools like Shakespeare.diy to keep front-ends stable while the backend morphs and re-routes. It’s rotating phaser frequencies for the internet. This is the kind of innovation that makes me bullish on nostr and the whole parallel tech ecosystem forming around it.
Meanwhile, Thailand wants tourists to sell their BTC for baht, using regulated platforms under the eye of every ministry they can muster. It’s a funnel to co-opt your bitcoin. Japan’s doing the same thing (sort of) with yen-backed stablecoins, issued by JPYC and backed by government bonds. Which means the “private” money is actually just another instrument of debt monetization. Tether did it with T-bills. Now JPYC will do it with JGBs. It’s debtware.
Governments are clawing at Bitcoin because it’s succeeding and they know they can't control it. But they are famously successful in controlling people . . . through fear. They can’t tax what they can’t see and they can’t seize what they don’t control. They’re scrambling to figure out how to stop the bleed. But I don’t think they can. The systems that want to control Bitcoin are too brittle. The systems being built alongside Bitcoin are antifragile. The longer they try to regulate it, the more we route around them. The path forward is living Renaissance 2.0 not waithing for it to come.
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