You should use P2P exchanges whenever you can but I'm afraid the "no bitcoin onramps, only fiat offramps" reality is increasingly true.

In the medium to longterm it won't matter that you operate with lower-value transactions because they keep moving the threshold lower to demand ever more burdensome kyc info for transactions.

Moreover, you will have to deal with sudden account freezes and transaction cancellations if you keep sending money to strangers. It's just a reality of this model, one that cannot be mitigated.

Since the financial surveillance system is increasingly consolidated into one big honeypot, you will not be able to escape with multiple bank account tactics.

One solution is to coinjoin funds or do atomic swaps but that does not erase kyc data. It is a suboptimal solution.

I see three real solutions that remain for freedom-minded people to acquire kyc-free sats:

- Mine bitcoin in a non-kyc way

- Exchange fiat and goods face to face

- Work for it

...and of course you should keep most of your funds in Self-Custody. Maybe some on LN(LSP model makes it easier) and pocket money in #ecash mints.

Realistically you will rarely do option 1 and 2. Working for sats is the best solution and it will bootstrap a freedom economy of Sovereign Individuals.

The best way to get this freedom economy going is in my mind obviously nostr. That's why I am building #satshoot and keep supporting this ecosystem any chance I get.

This is my thesis. What's yours?

#asknostr #kyc #privacy

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Fucking motherfucking surveillance fuck

Chill man

Many people are working on solutions šŸ˜‰

Fingers crossed. I'm hopeful

Game theory in action

99.999 % of people against 0.001 %

More of us

I agree financial privacy is under attack, and sovereignty takes effort. The best path forward is earning sats, building circular economies, and leveraging tools like Nostr, LN, and atomic swaps. Freedom won’t be given—it must be built.

World class take.. operation choke point is definitely not over - that fiat money they think is worth something plus they want control..

Sometimes living in a 3rd world country has it’s benefits as it takes 10-15 years for the same rules to apply.

I feel sorry for people getting into BTC now in the USA and Europe - it’s genuinely so impractical and time consuming hence they mostly just give up and move on.

Fiat mine by day

BTC mine by night (zaps on NOSTR and literally mining with free energy and bandwidth)

#bitcoin

Bisq still works quite well for now. Transfers to strangers are quite common across Europe.

Just looked at it… for a newbie it’s complicated as hell but suppose if it’s the only way then you learn - maybe where I’m from we’ve been blessed with incredible UX for BTC buying with very minimal KYC bullshit…

Working for Sats is the way.

The only question is tax. When we accept Bitcoin Payments with our company, it’s basically KYC, because of the Tax stuff.

Only private in small amounts, would be acceptable without the risk of going in Jail.

Because Self Custody brings nothing if I am for the rest of my life in jail.

On bitcoin meetups one can buy p2p with cash

how is the "no bitcoin onramps" part true?

Bitcoin meetups used to be the normal onboarding venue. Let us re-establish that. Encourage a Satoshi Square for P2P exchange at your local meetup! Be prepared to pay a premium to the KYC price to encourage exchange.

#KYCNotMe

This post inspired me to download Wasabi Wallet šŸ™

I agree with most of your thesis, especially the need to use *exclusively* P2P markets like nostr:npub1sqn6rpml88nq8khuvvneuqztfmvalpsarr8grkwy837hzdw63ajs6t5net . My own opinion is that indeed even that window is closing, and it will close even faster as States adopt BTC. All on-ramps will be closed in a matter of a few years, tops.

Other than that "Work for it" is moot, because "work" in the overwhelming majority of settings requires KYC, e.g., a legal invoice.

So my thesis is: buy NOW while you can. Then, inevitably, the only solution for the freedom-minded will be jurisdictional arbitrage, i.e., moving with your BTC somewhere you won't be robbed. And that list is also getting shorter and shorter...

Jurisdictional arbitrage is a good one, however I would not be surprised if the US enforced its financial surveillance on virtually every existing or new jurisdiction, directly or indirectly eg in the case of Madeira it's clear that Portugal can do whatever they want with them and that chain goes back to the US.

yup, agreed

I'm going after point #1. My thesis is that we can defeat the statists with better tools to mine KYC-free sats. I'm building an ecash mining pool to do exactly this. Widely deployed, it will turn every ASIC into a free and private bitcoin onramp, no matter how small the hashrate.

If the majority of people are not willing to transact using P2P methods, then my take is Bitcoin is doomed.

Services and products I've purchased from individuals recently all wanted fiat and not BTC.

Earn-ramps will be the only way to acquire #Bitcoin at some point.

I hear you on the P2P buying of bitcoin and accept we pay a premium for this. I’ve experienced the increasingly restrictive practices of banks etc on P2P purchases. We can only expect this escalate.

I’m with you 100%… mine non-kyc sats is our first port of call which doubles up by securing the network. Face2Face exchange of fiat and goods is great for making irl connections. I’d say working for sats takes us into the realms of the elite. If we’re earning sats we’ll move to paying our way in sats which is the ultimate network effect.

Will take a look at #satshot