Three weeks ago I wrote an article on the EU's new AMLR in Bitcoin Magazine, detailing how the EU passed ALM laws restricting the use of Bitcoin privacy tools without any data to back up their claims that privacy heightens money laundering and terrorist financing risks.

Alex Stachtchenko took it a step further and ran the numbers. For every Euro confiscated, 200€ are spent. This means that the EU's AML compliance costs of 144B Euro exceeds all money ascribed to crime per year at 110B Euro – and still, 99% of criminal profits escape confiscation.

Despite their absolute inefficiency AML laws continue to be expanded, subjecting all EU citizens to total financial surveillance for the price of catching 1%. It is a system that has grown completely out of control and is in no way proportionate to the right to privacy enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

It's a long read, and its in French so you'll need to translate it, but I guarantee that it will be worth every minute of your time.

BM article:

This interactive map of electricity production and where the power comes from is fascinating to explore. There are huge differences regionally. My other takeaway is that the American system is incredibly fragmented.

Get ready to taste Latvia! 🍴

Our unconference in Riga will give you the chance to try delicious local cuisine as part of our cultural events.

Make sure to check out our Cultural Guide to go to the best restaurants!

The Introduction of Keychat

Keychat is a chat app, built on Bitcoin ecash, Nostr protocol and Signal protocol.

Keychat is inspired by the postal system — stamps, post offices, letters.

Keychat uses Bitcoin ecash as stamps and Nostr relays as post offices.

Senders send messages stamped with Bitcoin ecash to Nostr relays. The Nostr relays collect the Bitcoin ecash, then deliver messages to receivers.

Unlike the centralized postal system, Keychat can use multiple Bitcoin ecash issuers and Nostr relays, each maintained by distinct operators.

Keychat uses Signal protocol to ensure message encryption security and meta-data privacy.

The content of the letter can be exposed easily by opening the envelope. Keychat messages are end-to-end encrypted via Signal protocol, with a unique encryption key generated for each message. Only the sender and receiver can decrypt the message.

The addresses of both parties on the envelope can be tracked. In theory, this problem is solved if they change addresses daily. So Keychat reuses Signal protocol to update sending and receiving addresses for nearly every message.

Like the postal system, Keychat requires no registration. Users just generate Nostr keys as ID.