I have to admit and it makes me bullish, that most of politicians are not aware about the importance of #PoW, but once they are able to ask questions and see the arguments they change their minds. It doesn’t mean that they become bitcoiners immediately, but those who care about human rights - stand on our side and support our recommendations for amendments. Also we know and cooperate with those politicians over decade - they know for example how #Kazakhstan and other Central Asia dictators abuse #AML/CFT regulations for transnational repression against their opponents. We speak with politicians with concrete examples, my case including.
This is how we were able to defend PoW during the drafting Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (#MiCA) and the same during AML Regulation in the #EU.
In the US #bitcoin is a commodity, in the EU is it a payment instrument in the upcoming AML regulation.
But now we need to explain/educate in the same concept: human rights defenders and deep knowledge of bitcoin miners about PoW. 
I know from the media, but don’t know them personally so far.
True. But just to complain not enough, we need actively defend and promote our position.
This is what we are doing: defending human rights and #bitcoin is a human rights instrument, which also needs to be defended. If not us, who and why should defend it?
Exactly. This is how propaganda /misinformation works. If we don’t work/defend our narrative/position - why and who else is going to defend it?
It doesn’t work like that: we can’t do all alone as activists. We need to have miners on our side. Miners in the US actively meeting and educating policymakers.
But it is not the case in the EU.
Im a human rights defender from Ukraine, living in Belgium. I’ve been working with policymakers for over 14 years. With their support my organization, Open Dialogue Foundation, was able release hundreds of political prisoners in the post-Soviet countries.
My team, my lawyers and me - we also experienced abuse of AML/CFT laws by at least three states to persecute us and weaponize our banking data in Belgium and Poland. Dozens of activists were sentenced in #Kazakhstan just because our banking data was shared without any remedies to the regime. That is why we are using #bitcoin and we started BTC campaign in the EU and we successfully educated policymakers during discussions on MiCA and AML Regulation: https://en.odfoundation.eu/projects-and-campaigns/combating-financial-exclusion-and-work-of-btc-coalition/
But even the strongest technology needs support. We live in the world of narratives and perceptions. So far negative perceptions are dominating, it is changing in the US because there are a lot of active bitcoin defenders in the Hill and media. But that is not the case in the EU - there is almost no culture to work with policymakers and as a result banking industry has a full carte blanche in the defining future of regulation in the EU for crypto-assets as Bitcoin.
Not only France, but Germany, Austria, Netherland, Spain, Italy and now Belgium also for the next 6 months is playing crucial role while the European Parliament is going for elections. We have 6 months to impact and stop discriminative policy approach to grant ECB power to label #PoW as environmentally unsustainable and decide where you can or can’t invest.
I guess they have an agenda. But the problem is that there is almost no voices to oppose them from the industry. Just to be vocal in tweets it is not enough. More effective in a long term to educate politicians so all upcoming regulations don’t harm us. We can’t play the game “I don’t care”. Do we want or not, we are going to ask democracies to help us release political prisoners in the authoritarian states. We do so for over 14 years for now. So I want to be able to defend both my activists suffering from repressions and help them use bitcoin without labeling it “environmentally unsustainable” or “threat to financial integrity” in G7 countries.
It is not an abstract issue. We did it with nostr:npub1kp7jzme0qs3wcqjjmkq6v5fm359sclhc22glhadgtmerlr0h37nsn8487l who is literally our angel 👼, patiently attending almost all meetings we organized. But he can’t do all alone. We need faces/testimonials and participation of bitcoin miners in the meetings too in defense of PoW.
But you know about it. Policymakers don’t know and won’t ask about publicly just to avoid being looking stupid.
It is sad that EU regulators and public opinion are listening to #Greenpeace. This should be exposed properly.
If you are a #Bitcoin miner, don’t abandon this propaganda. Help us, end-users and human rights activists to defend bitcoin on the ongoing attack on PoW in the #EU.
One of the goals of the EU bodies, particularly the European Central Bank (#ECB), for such an approach is to use “a policy tool that disincentivises investing in such assets from the outset and prevents the build-up of transition risk through crypto-assets in the banking system” until 2025.
As end-users of Bitcoin for fundraising and payment instruments, Open Dialogue Foundation concerns that such a policy would directly affect both us and the Bitcoin industry, which services we and other activists use. Especially because the European Commission wants to “collaborate internationally with different standardisation bodies to develop the energy-efficiency label” for PoW:
“States shall implement targeted and proportionate measures to lower, and must be ready to stop, the electricity consumption of crypto-asset miners, in line with the proposed Council Regulation on an emergency intervention to address high energy prices.”
We need to do educational advocacy - over 200 face to face meetings with MPs and regulators so they can learn and ask questions from bitcoin miners they never ask in public. Just as we did thanks to nostr:npub1kp7jzme0qs3wcqjjmkq6v5fm359sclhc22glhadgtmerlr0h37nsn8487l nostr:npub1hyqrsvl6hle8r5rc9cpshesm0mpcee75tgde4p5lhke5h83dyqqqdwk7cp and nostr:npub1sg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q0uf63m last years with #MiCA and #AML Regulations.
We need to be able to defend our rights to use Bitcoin in a legal way. So far it seems that the fight in the EU for Bitcoin is more important for activists than for bitcoiners, because everyone is excited about Bitcoin ETFs in the US, or believes that the market will solve the problem in the EU/move to other jurisdictions, or just doesn't believe in engaging with politicians to educate them. 😔
And I understand and respect all of that arguments, but we as human rights defenders have no place to move and we operate there, in the EU. 🙏
We need your support.
Now, before it is too late. 
Thank you for supporting us ⚡️🔥
Narratives shape reality and perceptions, that is why we are teaching regulators and legislators about use of #bitcoin for human rights and humanitarian aid. We expose abusive practices of dictatorships to weaponize banking data and AML/CFT rules.
And we ask policymakers one simple question: can you provide for us another then bitcoin safe financial tool to operate in the authoritarian regimes for human rights activists excluded from the traditional banking system?
So far no other instruments provided.
Hey 👋
We are doing fundraising campaign to defend #PoW against over-regulation/ban in the EU.
https://geyser.fund/project/defendpow
If you could support our work/repost, we will be very grateful 🫶⚡️
Together with #Kazakhstani journalists we discussed today what tools are available for the protection of human rights in third countries. Brief conclusions:
1. All authoritarian regimes like #Kazakhstan, #China, #Turkey suppress opposition through #FinancialRepression both domestically and transnationally, pretending to fight money laundering, terrorism/extremism, and threats to national security.
Open Dialogue Foundation provided and collected testimonials in our submission to #FATFNews on how #bitcoin has become the only tool to support the families of political prisoners in many authoritarian states: https://en.odfoundation.eu/a/723329,joint-submission-of-the-civil-society-coalition/
2. Not everyone lives in a world with this privilege of Senator John Hickenlooper saying that "We have safeguards for banks to protect everyone from crime and terrorism".
Banks have become (1) a weapon in the hands of dictators to target dissent transnationally and (2) a tool to circumvent sanctions and strengthen Russia's military capabilities for war against Ukraine: https://en.odfoundation.eu/a/684240,russias-decade-long-war-against-ukraine-how-to-accelerate-ukrainian-victory/
3. #FATF has ambitions to be an accountability tool, but without #transparency in the process of regulatory decision-making and co-operation with civil society, it's mechanisms will continue to be abused by dictators just like #RedNotice of #INTERPOL is abused. 
Our main messages:
1) Due to the upcoming reform, which extended role of the European Central Bank, we’re concerned particularly about the EU's regulatory approach to implement the PoW ban by 2025 by creating a policy toolbox that “disincentives investing in such assets [as #Bitcoin ] from the outset and prevents the build-up of transition risk through crypto-assets in the banking system".
2) We pointed out that the proposed sustainability indicators in #MiCA should take into account the positive social impact played by PoW/Bitcoin as instrument of:
- resisting financial exclusion,
- humanitarian aid delivery,
- human rights support,
- protection against electoral fraud and potential misuse of #AI and disinformation campaigns, as well as
- facilitation of adoption of renewable energy sources.
3) We believe that the credibility of the two existing blockchain consensus mechanisms (PoW and #PoS), as evaluated by their actual popularity and specific applications, should be studied and applied impartially, avoiding biases potentially arising from lobbying by select interest groups associated with the commercial providers of some of the technologies.
4) We fully share the views regarding the positive sustainability disclosures related to Bitcoin proposed, as part of the consultation, by the @bitcoinpolicyuk .
5) We call on the #EU policymaking bodies to take into account the provided testimonials and include this contribution in the relevant regulations.
To make sure our recommendations are implemented we need:
1) bitcoiners' support and participation in our advocacy campaign in defence of PoW starting from January 2024!
2) more academic research, with properly disclosed data, peer-reviewed about the PoW! 
On 13 Dec Open Dialogue Foundation sent to the ESMA a joint submission from human rights defenders and #Bitcoin miners to defend the #PoW in the #EU:
https://en.odfoundation.eu/a/724499,defend-pow-submission-to-esma/
A huge thank you to nostr:npub13lkyycj8s3da6fhndtj0wd6s3s2ahmq86s7wrruvzd4tnc66cgfqn4lpsy nostr:npub1hghnjjpnvkz8t6gkszuf37d7puwc2qtxc65rnklqsngzv6kkug9qhhfyz2, nostr:npub1dergggklka99wwrs92yz8wdjs952h2ux2ha2ed598ngwu9w7a6fsh9xzpc BPI UK and everyone who’ve helped us to collect information for the PoW defence in the EU!
@kristapsstikuts @ScillingMining & Mark Morton, @whiteafrican, Rupert Matthews, @BdGBertdeGroot @Rafa_Cordon @thetrocro and everyone who wrote to us with @jardemalie last weeks - thank you so much for your inputs! 🙏 
In fact, we need examples from all over the world because the EU is keen to develop a global approach:
„States shall implement targeted and proportionate measures to lower, and must be ready to stop, the electricity consumption of crypto-asset miners, in line with the proposed Council Regulation on an emergency intervention to address high energy prices. International cooperation shall be fostered “to tackle the issue of the high energy consumption of PoW mining in a globally impactful way.”
The EC wants to “collaborate internationally with different standardization bodies to develop the energy-efficiency label.”
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_6228 
Thank you for your support 🌸