Straight, No Chaser

“Information wants to be free” is not a slogan, it is a warning. Once your personal data leaks, there is no pulling it back, and AI is making breaches, scams, and mass surveillance faster, cheaper, and harder to avoid. We sit down with Ricardo Spagni, best known as Fluffy Pony and a former Monero contributor, to get brutally clear on what privacy actually is: the ability to selectively control...

We dig into why scams and hacks feel relentless right now, from AI-powered trickery to supply chain compromises that shake confidence in hardware wallets. We also challenge the “just use an ETF” narrative, then close with a sobering look at CBDCs and how control can be enforced from the top down. • the simple rule that “too good to be true” is always a scam • Grokbot agents, browser access and...

We unpack why South Africa’s new draft crypto regulations could be less about protection and more about control, then pivot into what real pushback might look like when the rules sit on top of unsettled legal ground. We also confront a brutal self-custody lesson from the Coldcard RNG failure and ask how Bitcoiners stay paranoid without becoming reckless followers of loud voices. • draft crypto...

We weigh up BIP 110 and Bitcoin spam without pretending anger is a strategy, then zoom out to how narratives shape both protocol fights and geopolitics. We end on hands-on freedom tech, from Start9 and Nostr to self-hosted AI, plus a reminder that most Bitcoin “disasters” start with a basic node check. • why BIP 110 is framed as a fix by some and a protest by others • the uncomfortable idea that...

The next wave of AI will not only change how we work, it will change what we believe. When deepfakes get plausible, citations can be fabricated, and “evidence” can be manufactured at scale, the real threat becomes an epistemic crisis: a slow collapse of shared reality where even experts struggle to verify what is true. We sit down with freelance journalist Ivo Vegter to talk honestly about that...

We trade jokes and hard truths about stablecoins, surveillance, and why “self-custody” means very different things depending on who holds the off switch. We move from BTC Prague and Europe’s privacy-first Bitcoin culture to South African capital controls, then finish with a hands-on tour of tools like silent payments and Start9 for anyone who wants more real-world sovereignty. • BTC Prague...

They don’t need to pass a new law to change your life, they can update “regulations” and call it a day. We sit down to unpack South Africa’s draft capital flow regulations from Treasury and the South African Reserve Bank, why the public comment window matters, and why the process feels like it dodges real democratic accountability.We get specific about what’s being proposed and what it could mean...

A government can threaten bans, taxes, and capital controls, but what happens when the thing it is trying to control is just code running on a global, decentralised network? We sit down with Jacques “Jabu Jacks” Strydom to get past the noise and talk about Bitcoin in South Africa the way business owners, engineers, and everyday people actually experience it. The conversation starts with identity...

Owning Bitcoin is easy. Using it in the real world, without wrecking your savings plan, is where things get interesting. We chat with Nick Darlington, a South African freelancer and builder who went from travel and a self-made writing career to launching Bitcoin Friendly SA, a project focused on growing Bitcoin payments and a local Bitcoin circular economy.We get into the personal backstory...

We go deep on what “sovereign computing” looks like when you try it for real, from spinning up a Fedimint federation to self-hosting services that keep working even when platforms or politics turn against you. We then connect local AI, persistent knowledge bases, and geopolitics to one question: do we own our tools or do we rent our future?• choosing a deliberately clickbait title and what it...