Good morning, readers!
We bring news from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group is imposing immense taxes on the local economy, merchants, and aid groups to fund its insurgency as it seeks to govern seized regions of the Eastern Congo. The levies worsen economic hardship for Congolese already suffering from ongoing cash shortages, bank closures, and rapidly rising prices induced by the regional conflict.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, independent media outlet Channel C, founded by former Apple Daily employees, had its bank account frozen by local officials over alleged fraud charges. The closure fits into a widespread pattern of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leveraging financial repression and legal pressure to silence independent and pro-democracy media in Hong Kong.
In freedom tech news, we highlight a new ecash development: multinut payments. These payments let users combine small balances held at different ecash mints to pay a sinvgle invoice. ItтАЩs a big step forward in terms of usability and security for human rights defenders since they no longer need to keep a large balance of ecash at any one mint. This reduces the chances of stolen funds while maintaining strong privacy guarantees. We also highlight the ongoing OP_RETURN debate in the Bitcoin community, present both sides of the argument, and invite our readers to watch a nuanced debate on this topic.
We end with the latest edition of the HRF x Pubkey Freedom Tech series, where the Human Rights FoundationтАЩs Alex Gladstein discusses the upcoming Oslo Freedom Forum and HRFтАЩs role in supporting open-source freedom tech with PubkeyтАЩs co-founder, Thomas Pacchia. We also include the livestreams from the latest bitcoin++ event, where developers, privacy advocates, and freedom tech users convened to discuss BitcoinтАЩs mempool, learn how Bitcoin transactions are sorted into blocks, and discuss current mempool policies.
Now, letтАЩs jump right in!
Global News
DR Congo | Rebel Rule and Economic Ruin
After seizing control of large parts of the eastern Congo, the Paul Kagame-backed M23 rebel group is now trying to govern and fund its insurgency through coercive taxation and financial control. Rebels now impose a 15% tax on coltan metal production, 20% duties on merchants selling essential goods, and demand tax bills from aid groups, backed by threats of physical punishment. тАЬIf you donтАЩt pay up, you risk being whipped,тАЭ one merchant said. The new levies are worsening the financial struggles for Congolese already suffering from ongoing cash shortages, bank closures, and rapidly rising prices induced by the regional conflict. Many must travel hundreds of kilometers just to obtain cash while navigating the backdrop of a humanitarian crisis that has claimed more than 7,000 lives.
China | Law Enforcement Freezes Bank Accounts of Independent Media Outlet Channel C
Hong Kong-based Channel C, an independent media outlet founded by former Apple Daily employees, reports that its bank accounts are frozen, forcing the news outlet to halt operations. Local law enforcement claim the outlet abused a COVID-era loan scheme and arrested one of its directors for alleged fraud. Still, the closure fits a well-worn pattern: using financial and legal repression to silence independent media in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily faced a nearly identical fate in 2021 when its assets were seized and its founder, Jimmy Lai, was imprisoned under Hong KongтАЩs new national security law. Lai now faces up to life in prison. When access to money becomes contingent on political obedience, press freedom canтАЩt survive.
Venezuela | Blackouts, Inflation, and Currency Shortages
Venezuelans are once again bracing for economic collapse as inflation rises to 162% and electrical blackouts sweep across major cities. The situation echoes 2019тАЩs political and financial chaos, where triple-digit inflation, foreign currency shortages, and power outages paralyzed the country. In reaction to the collapse, Nicol├бs Maduro approved the countryтАЩs first economic emergency decree in four years, granting himself broad powers to suspend taxes and authorize new benefits for select investors. The regime has also reshuffled central bank leadership and is pressing merchants to abandon US dollar pricing and return to the failing bolivar system тАФ a clear move to financially asphyxiate Venezuelans. A focus on top-down economic management by MaduroтАЩs regime will only reinforce the inflation and poverty driving this widespread crisis in the wake of MaduroтАЩs stolen and blatantly rigged presidential election.
Bolivia | Inflation Accelerates to 17-Year High
Inflation in Bolivia is accelerating rapidly, with prices rising more than 15% year over year. This is the highest level of inflation Bolivians have seen in 17 years. Families now face increased costs of essential goods like food, shelter, and water. And the countryтАЩs fixed exchange rate system is also faltering, with dwindling reserves and growing dollar shortages compounding the price increases. The Bolivian regime also approved a new decree to regulate financial technology companies and virtual asset providers. The regulations tighten control over platforms that offer alternatives to the depreciating boliviano. If implemented rigidly, these regulations could restrict access to tools like Bitcoin.
Nicaragua | Ortega Centralizes Passport Renewal in Managua for Exiled Dissidents
The regime of Daniel Ortega has stripped Nicaraguans abroad of a basic right: the ability to renew their passports at local embassies abroad. All renewals must now go through the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, forcing exiles to either return home or authorize a relative (via an apostilled power of attorney) to handle the renewal on their behalf. For many outside Nicaragua, especially political opposition, journalists, and human rights defenders, returning is not a safe option, and involving relatives could expose them to state repression or retaliation. Those who do return risk facing the immense physical and financial repression of the Ortega regime, including surveillance, extortion, bank freezes, or even imprisonment. OrtegaтАЩs corruption of even basic bureaucracy undermines the growing Nicaraguan diasporaтАЩs ability to live freely abroad by making their legal status, mobility, and access to financial services conditional.
Kenya | High Court Rules Against Sam Altman and Worldcoin
A Kenyan High Court ruled that Worldcoin, the biometric ID project co-founded by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, violated constitutional privacy rights by collecting iris scans and facial images without proper safeguards. The court ordered the immediate deletion of all biometric data collected from Kenyan users, including iris scans and facial images. They also banned the project from conducting any further data collection. Kenya had been one of WorldcoinтАЩs largest markets before authorities suspended the project in 2023. As biometric surveillance becomes more widespread, this case highlights the risks of technologies that undermine privacy in the name of inclusion.
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HRF x Pubkey тАФ Freedom Tech and the Oslo Freedom Forum with Alex Gladstein
The latest edition of the HRF x Pubkey Freedom Tech series features a fireside chat with Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer of HRF, in conversation with Pubkey co-founder Tom Pacchia. The discussion explores HRFтАЩs role in funding and supporting open-source Freedom Tech, the upcoming Oslo Freedom Forum and the Freedom Tech track, as well as the human rights paradox of nation-state Bitcoin adoption. Catch the full conversation here.
Bitcoin and Freedom Tech News
Cashu | Make Ecash Payments from Multiple Mints
Cashu, a protocol for making private bitcoin payments using ecash, shared a new feature called multinut payments. Still in development, it enables users to combine small ecash balances held at different mints (entities that issue and redeem ecash) into a single transaction. Since Cashu is a custodial system (meaning users must trust the mints they use), this update reduces counterparty risk by allowing users to spread their funds across multiple mints rather than relying on just one. Previously, making a large ecash payment required keeping a sizeable balance at a single mint, increasing the chances of losing your funds if the mint were shut down or compromised. Now, larger payments can be made with significantly less custody risk. For those living under strict financial controls, ecash multinut payments offer a very private way to spend funds without trusting any single entity that can censor or debank them.
Bitika | Bridging Bitcoin and M-Pesa in Kenya
Bitika is a Kenyan fintech startup simplifying Bitcoin access. It integrates with M-Pesa, the mobile money platform used daily for payments by millions of people across Kenya and wider East Africa. Bitika offers a three-step process to buy Bitcoin via mobile phone using the Lightning Network. Users simply enter the amount of Bitcoin they would like to receive in Kenyan shillings, input their Bitcoin Lightning wallet address, and enter their M-Pesa number, and once confirmed, they receive their Bitcoin. Bitika is similar to other Bitcoin projects like Tando, which also bridges Bitcoin with M-Pesa using the Lightning Network. With plans to expand across the rest of Africa, Bitika shows BitcoinтАЩs grassroots utility and the role of local context in driving bottom-up financial inclusion. Try it here.
Frostsnap | New Bitcoin Multisig Custody Solution
Frostsnap is a new Bitcoin custody solution that uses a simplified multisignature setup to protect users’ funds from theft, loss, or coercion by corrupt and authoritarian regimes. Rather than generating and storing private keys on a single device, multisignature solutions like Frostsnap employ multiple private keys distributed across different devices and locations. This approach eliminates single points of failure and offers strong resistance to physical attacks, device compromise, and forced access to usersтАЩ Bitcoin (such as from Chinese law enforcement, who surveil mail and extort Bitcoin). Frostsnap also offers the ability to spend directly from the multisig wallet, hide the wallet in times of duress, and access inheritance features, all critical functionalities for human rights defenders and nonprofits facing surveillance or financial repression. Learn more here.
OP_RETURN | Debate Over Bitcoin CoreтАЩs Data Relay Limits
A heated debate has resurfaced between some Bitcoin users and developers over whether to raise the size limit for OP_RETURN data that Bitcoin Core nodes (computers running BitcoinтАЩs main software implementation) relay. The debate was sparked when developer Peter Todd proposed removing this data limit from mempool policy on the basis that it could reduce reliance on direct miner connections, improve fee estimation, and shrink the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) set. It would do this by encouraging users to store arbitrary data in prunable, unspendable outputs (rather than spendable, persistent UTXOs). On the other hand, critics warn that lifting the OP_RETURN limit could increase spam, undermine BitcoinтАЩs focus on serving financial transactions, and weaken its censorship resistance. The debate still continues, but at its core, the disagreement highlights deeper tensions over what kinds of data should flow through the Bitcoin network. Tune into this discussion at the latest bitcoin++ developer conference to understand the nuance on both sides of the OP_RETURN debate.
Wasabi Wallet | Major Privacy Upgrade and Serverless Operation
Wasabi Wallet, a non-custodial, privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet, introduced its Prometheus update, which enables the wallet to synchronize and operate without a central server and increases transaction privacy. Users can now connect Wasabi directly to their own Bitcoin node (computer running the Bitcoin software), removing reliance on third-party infrastructure and reducing the risk of censorship. The update also introduces Coinjoin 2.0, a privacy technique that mixes the inputs of a Bitcoin transaction, in doing so protecting, for example, the identity of a dissident or nonprofit. Coinjoin 2.0 brings a redesigned mixing process that continuously registers coins as they become available. This change improves privacy and strengthens resistance to analysis that dictators can use to track payments.
Cove Wallet | Adds Support for Krux
Cove Wallet, an open-source mobile Bitcoin wallet currently in beta, released v0.4.0, which brings support for Krux hardware wallets. Krux is an open-source software and HRF grantee that turns generic computing devices into hardware wallets for secure Bitcoin self-custody and transactions. It can help decentralize access to Bitcoin and protect freedom and property rights in authoritarian regimes by providing a discrete and modular self-custody solution. By incorporating Krux, Cove offers its users a private, borderless, DIY path to financial sovereignty with no brand-name hardware. Cove Wallet also announced future support for coin control, which will grant users granular control over the specific coins they use in their Bitcoin payments and the ability to improve transaction privacy.
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bitcoin++ Developer Conference Livestream
Last week, bitcoin++ hosted the тАЬmempool editionтАЭ of its Bitcoin developer conference series in Austin, Texas. The event, supported by HRF, brought together Bitcoin developers and freedom tech advocates for multiple days of hands-on development, workshops, and technical discussions surrounding BitcoinтАЩs mempool (the queue of pending transactions in a Bitcoin node). If youтАЩd like to dive into the technical intricacies, you can catch the key sessions and workshops via live stream. Watch them here.
