Bitcoin’s Privacy Problem

Bitcoiners love to say: “Bitcoin is freedom money.”

But here’s the uncomfortable question:

Can Bitcoin really be freedom money if using it exposes your entire financial life?

Bitcoin gives people a monetary network that no government, bank, or company can control. It is scarce, borderless, permissionless, and open to anyone with an internet connection.

But Bitcoin is not private by default.

The base chain is public. Every transaction lives forever. Every UTXO leaves a trail. And as surveillance tools, AI, exchange KYC databases, and chain analysis companies improve, the privacy mistakes people make today may become much more dangerous tomorrow.

This matter because money is not just a number in an app.

Money reveals all… where you go, who you support, what you believe, who you do business with, what causes you fund, what communities you belong to, and how much personal sovereignty you actually have.

A world where every payment is monitored is not freedom. It is financial surveillance with better branding.

This is why the Bitcoin privacy debate is not a niche topic for paranoid cypherpunks. It is not a side quest. It is not “altcoin talk.” It is fundamental to whether Bitcoin can function as real peer-to-peer electronic cash.

If Bitcoin becomes nothing more than an ETF asset held by custodians, then the system wins.

They do not need to “kill” Bitcoin. They just need to domesticate it.

Privacy is what allows Bitcoin to act as freedom money.

Without privacy, people self-censor. Merchants become afraid. Builders get targeted. Users become easier to deplatform, surveil, tax, blacklist, or intimidate.

And yes, this is where some Bitcoiners get uncomfortable.

Because if we are honest, Monero has forced the conversation. Privacy-by-default matters. UX matters. Tools that work for normal people matter.

That does not mean Bitcoin has failed. It means Bitcoiners need to stop pretending the privacy problem does not exist.

Lightning, CoinJoin, PayJoin, Silent Payments, self-custody, peer-to-peer acquisition, running your own node, and better wallet design all matter. So does defending the people building privacy tools.

It’s time to let go of the tribalism and re-orient around the real mission: improving human freedom.

Bitcoin is a tool. A powerful one. Maybe the most important monetary tool humanity has ever had.

But if we want Bitcoin to be more than digital gold in a brokerage account, we have to fight for its ability to be used privately, permissionlessly, and peer-to-peer.

Full episode with Seth for Privacy @ We Are Satoshi podcast and YouTube channel.

How Bitcoin Unlocks Your Creativity & Purpose

We are all born creative.

The fiat/education system slowly trains it out of us… and by the time we are fully “educated,” we’ve lost touch with that creative spirit.

We’ve been taught to follow, not to explore.

To memorize, not to imagine. To stay inside the lines instead of questioning why the lines exist at all.

But it’s still there… Dormant. Waiting.

Waiting for you to pick up the pen. To try something new. To create without worrying if it’s “good enough.”

Creativity isn’t about being an artist.

It’s about how you think. How you solve problems. How you choose to live your life.

Bitcoin woke that part of me back up.

It forces you to question everything. And once you start questioning…you start creating again.

So if you feel disconnected from that part of yourself — you didn’t lose it. You just stopped using it.

Start small. Start messy. Just start.

Your creative spirit is still there.

If this resonates, listen to the recent episode of We Are Satoshi:

Bitcoin Has No Intrinsic Value – And That’s Why It Works

The critics of Bitcoin are actually right about one thing:

Bitcoin has no intrinsic value.

You can’t eat it.

You can’t live in it.

You can’t use it for energy, shelter, or food.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth most people stop short of acknowledging:
Neither does fiat money.

Dollars, euros, pesos, yen — they’re all just numbers too.

They don’t have intrinsic value.

They represent claims on power, coordination, and trust.

Fiat money is political. Its value depends on governments, central banks, and human discretion.

Bitcoin is different — not because it has intrinsic value, but because it removes discretion.

Bitcoin doesn’t ask you to trust a person, a board, or a country.

Bitcoin is a system of rules without rulers:

-21M fixed supply
-Transparent monetary policy
-No central authority

The best money in history has always been the money that was hardest to change.

Gold held that role for centuries. Bitcoin holds it in the digital age.

So yes — critics are correct: Bitcoin has no intrinsic value.

That’s exactly why it works.

If you’re new to bitcoin, this episode is for you.

Support Yourself, Support the Podcast!

🚀 10x growth for We Are Satoshi this year — fueled by community support 🚀

This year has been huge for the We Are Satoshi podcast. We grew more than 10x and it’s all thanks to the people who support, share, and engage with the content.

Beyond listeners and subscribers, the biggest metric I look at when evaluating the growth of the show is qualitative, through DMs and personal messages. When someone tells me a conversation resonated or they got value from the show more fuel gets added to the fire.

I began this journey with the inclination that I wanted to have conversations about bitcoin and life. Satoshi created bitcoin so we can bring our gifts to the world. 44 episodes in and we’re just getting started.

Going into 2026 I’ve thought a lot about how to monetize the podcast and make it more economically sustainable. Other than doubling down on Nostr and V4V through apps like Fountain.fm, the best way I came up with is through partnering with companies and brands I already use and benefit from. By purchasing through my affiliate links the podcast earns a small commission and you (usually) get a discount on a great product.

To see the list of products on my new “shop” page click here: https://kylehuber.com/shop/

Thank you for the support and if you have any guest recommendations for the podcast in 2026, reach out!

We Are All Born Creative | My Adopting Bitcoin 2025 Presentation

After we learn about bitcoin- we listen to enough podcasts and read enough books- the question becomes, “How can I do more to allocate my time and energy into this new system?” In this talk (Adopting Bitcoin 2025 in El Salvador) I share a few lessons and themes I’ve found in my own quest to answer this question.

Adopting Bitcoin 2025 in El Salvador

For most of my life, I didn’t think of myself as “creative.” Raised in the fiat system, I came out of school believing creativity was reserved for artists. I was the business-minded, logical, pragmatic type — or so I thought. What I didn’t understand then was that creativity is an inherent part of being human.

After college, I picked up a camera with the dream of making documentary films. But that chapter didn’t last long. I had a few rough experiences in the film industry and figured trading time for money was never going to lead to the life I want. I gave up on filmmaking.

Fast forward and bitcoin brought me back towards creating, podcasting and filmmaking. I am currently making a documentary film, Build on Bitcoin, documenting Bulgaria’s grassroots Bitcoin communities in the world. What I experienced there completely transformed how I think about bitcoin adoption. I traveled the country meeting the people building on bitcoin: a guy building a DIY lightning ATM for his local café, a couple writing a children’s book about inflation, a teacher using robotics to subtly introduce Bitcoin ideas to kids, and farmers mining with excess solar because the grid doesn’t support their needs.

Lance from Ordermoon

None of them waited for permission. None of them worried about scale. They simply saw a problem, applied their creativity, and built something meaningful. This is what permissionless work looks like in the real world — and it’s what the future of Bitcoin actually depends on.

The more time I spend with these builders, the more I see the connection between creativity and freedom. Fiat suppresses creativity by design. It pushes us toward predictable paths, standardized thinking, and safe careers. Bitcoin gives us back the sovereignty to choose how we spend our time and energy. But with that sovereignty comes responsibility.

And that’s where creativity comes in. Creativity to design your life intentionally, turning vision into action. It’s about building something that didn’t exist before — whether that’s a film, a business, a meetup, or simply a better version of yourself.

Bitcoin doesn’t need spectators. It needs contributors. If you feel that pull toward building something, trust it. Follow it. You don’t need permission, you just need to do the proof of work.

Full presentation:

WE ARE ALL SATOSHI!

Learning Bitcoin: Insights from Experts, Builders & Businesses

This past weekend I had the chance to spend some time just north of me in Vancouver, BC for the Learning Bitcoin 2025 conference. If there’s one thing that has cemented my conviction around Bitcoin, it’s meeting and connecting with people in real life—and this event was overflowing with that energy. I stitched together seven conversations with builders, educators, and entrepreneurs who are working every day to move Bitcoin forward.

Coffee, Connection, and Bitcoin in Vancouver

The first story that really hit home was from Funk Coffee Bar Founder Kurtis, a brewery-turned-café that reinvented itself into a Bitcoin hub. They host meetups and have made it their mission to provide a “third space” for Bitcoiners. Kurtis shared how inflation, lockdowns, and small business struggles galvanized his conviction in Bitcoin—and how the café now sells connection as much as coffee. They’re planning to expand across North America, fueled by both beans and sats.

My First Bitcoin: Education as a Movement

Next up was Quentin from My First Bitcoin, originally born in El Salvador and now a global educational force. Their open-source Bitcoin Diploma curriculum is used by projects in more than 35 countries, and it’s empowering teachers worldwide to teach financial sovereignty in their communities. Their focus is simple: if Bitcoin is going to succeed, education has to come first. Otherwise, it risks capture and dilution. Their resources are free, accessible, and community-driven.

Seb Bunny and the Hidden Cost of Money

One of the highlights of the weekend was meeting the man who inspired the We Are Satoshi podcast, Seb Bunny—the author of The Hidden Cost of Money. He writes about how most of society’s issues are downstream of broken money. Politics, business, relationships, even the environment—they all bend under the weight of monetary corruption. Bitcoin, he argues, is a chance to fix that. But he was quick to add one thing Bitcoin doesn’t fix: happiness. That’s an inside job.

Combatting Indoor Living: Chroma

I also spoke with Brett and Andrew from Chroma, a company tackling another overlooked problem: our light environment. From red-light therapy devices to blue-blocking glasses, they’re creating tools that protect circadian rhythm and mitochondrial health. Chroma connect the dots between Bitcoin and light sovereignty: both are about reclaiming first principles of energy and resisting the systems that seek to capture and control us. If you want to check out their products go to getchroma.co and use the code, KYLE10 for 10% off your order.

Education and Unschooling

Deanna and Joel joined me to talk about their new book, Ownschooling, Bitcoin, Sovereignty and Education. Deanna, a longtime professor turned author, has written both for adults and children—guides that weave together the history of money with the principles of self-directed education. They articulate that just as families should own their financial future with Bitcoin, they should also own their children’s education.

Living on Bitcoin with Coin Cards

From there I spoke with the team at Coin Cards, a company helping Bitcoiners live day-to-day without touching fiat. They let you buy gift cards to major retailers with sats, bridging the gap between savings and spending. Their take? It’s not just about stacking sats and watching number go up—it’s about building an economy around Bitcoin, supporting merchants, and creating use cases that spark curiosity and adoption.

Reflections

Learning Bitcoin 2025 isn’t just a conference—it was an experience of the Bitcoin ethos. Builders, educators, and community leaders all gathering in one place, sharing knowledge, and imagining better ways to live. Whether it was buying a bag of beans with sats, learning about homeschooling, or discussing light health and circadian rhythms, the vibe was generous, hopeful, and grounded.

If you’ve been curious about Bitcoin, I’d encourage you to step into spaces like this. Read a book, join a meetup, or just have a conversation with someone who’s using Bitcoin in their daily life. That human connection changes everything. And if you need a little extra fuel for the journey, make it a light roast. Low time preference coffee for the win.

Check out the video episode here:

⏳ The Clock, Central Banking, and Why We’re Always Out of Time

Your time is finite. Your money isn’t. That mismatch explains why you work harder every year and still feel behind.

Ever wonder why we work 9–5, five days a week, and constantly feel like we don’t have enough time?

In my newest podcast episode, Scott Dedels explains how it comes down to two inventions: the mechanical clock and central banking.

The clock gave us the ability to measure time precisely. That precision enabled factories, schedules, and eventually the 40-hour workweek.

Central banking standardized money, which helped trade and growth. But over the last century, it’s also locked us into a system where money continually loses value.

When you put the two together, here’s what you get:
1. Time is finite. You only have so many hours.
2. Money is infinite (in a fiat system). It can be created endlessly.

That means every hour you trade for money is worth less tomorrow than it is today.

That’s the trap we live in. No matter how much harder you work, you need to work harder again just to keep up.

This is why so many people feel like they’re running out of time. It’s not just the pace of life. It’s structural.

Bitcoin changes this equation. For the first time, you can store your work in a form of money that doesn’t degrade. Your time today holds the same value tomorrow. This simple, yet profound shift opens the door to more freedom, more choice, and more actual time to live.

If you’ve ever felt like the 40-hour grind leaves no room to breathe, this episode is for you.

👉 Listen to “The Time Value of Bitcoin” now. 

Full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiGfdfr-C-g
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0eIPt86FVux5G80wmhVXgW
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-time-value-of-bitcoin-unlocking-optimism-in/id1746234477?

Jeff Booth: Bitcoin’s Success Depends on Action

When I first encountered Jeff Booth’s perspective on Bitcoin, I was struck by the clarity of his conviction: “if Bitcoin doesn’t become a widely used medium of exchange, it will fail.” That statement sets the tone for a deeper discussion about the nature of money, decentralization, and the responsibilities we each hold as participants in this ecosystem.

Jeff’s statement isn’t meant to provoke panic—it’s meant to inspire action. As he explained in our conversation, Bitcoin’s journey mirrors the progression of individual understanding. People first struggle to see it as a store of value. Then, over time, they come to embrace it as such. But even many of those who now “hodl” have trouble imagining Bitcoin as a medium of exchange. Jeff believes this will change as understanding deepens—but only if people use it.

The core issue is this: we’ve never truly lived in a free market. Our monetary systems—gold included—have always been subject to centralization and manipulation. Gold’s failure to become a true medium of exchange made it vulnerable. It was either suppressed through derivative instruments or physically confiscated. Bitcoin, if only stored and never used, faces similar risks. “If you’re just storing Bitcoin, you’re building fragility into the system,” Jeff warned.

That fragility shows up in the reliance on instruments like ETFs or stablecoins. As Jeff put it, “A stablecoin is a guaranteed loss coin against Bitcoin.” These instruments may offer short-term convenience, but they introduce counterparty risk and incentivize centralization—exactly what Bitcoin is designed to resist.

Jeff’s framework for investing through Ego Death Capital builds on these ideas. He and his partners look for founders who are not just chasing profit, but building on Bitcoin’s open, decentralized protocol to create real value. In Jeff’s words, “It’s the first non-zero-sum game the world has ever seen.” In this world, you gain Bitcoin by offering value to others on their terms. That’s the type of system that rewards innovation, not extraction.

Our conversation also dove into what it means to build in a deflationary world. The traditional mindset focuses on fractionalizing assets—slicing everything up to squeeze out more return. But in a Bitcoin-denominated world, prices fall and value creation matters more than financial engineering. Jeff contrasted most of the crypto space with what Bitcoin is really about: building a parallel system that offers freedom, transparency, and abundance.

One of the most compelling parts of our talk was when we touched on cultural contributions to Bitcoin—projects that aren’t necessarily profit-driven, like filmmaking, education, or community-building. Jeff believes a wave of support for cultural initiatives is coming. As wealth accrues in the Bitcoin economy, it will eventually find its way into the arts, into storytelling, into education.

We also talked about Bulgaria, where Jeff had spent time meeting local Bitcoiners. I’ve been lucky to work with some of those same people, including my friend and collaborator Ivan Makedonski. Jeff met Ivan at a Bitcoin event, and what followed was a classic example of permissionless contribution. Ivan just started doing the work—no job offer, no permission. He showed up, stayed in touch, and eventually landed a role at Breeze. His story, rooted in personal tragedy, became a mission to ensure no one else has to suffer from the failures of fiat systems.

Bitcoin is laying the foundation for the world’s first global free market, where the value flows to everyone in the system, not just the top of the hierarchy. As Jeff said, “You win by helping others.” That mindset shift—from scarcity to abundance, from extraction to contribution—is what pulled me back into creativity. Bitcoin gave me permission to pursue storytelling with meaning again.

In the end, our conversation reminded me that we’re not just trying to build new tools. We’re building new norms, new incentives, and new cultures. The question I left with was simple but profound: what can I do today to make this network stronger?

Full episode on YouTube here:

Watch/listen on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/12q7toPhMFgZRmcpA3z7zq

Support my work!

Geyser page for Build on Bitcoin, the movie: https://geyser.fund/project/bulgarianjourney

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