I use the term "toxic" because that gets thrown around a lot when describing those mean close minded btc maxis, all they do is HODL and tell everyone to have fun staying poor.
But I agree, saving money is anything but toxic. It fulfills a very very important function that literally helps build civilization.
The way I see it, the growing popularity of Bitcoin backed loans signals a high time preference shift in how bitcoiners treat their btc.
They don't see it as genuine savings anymore, but as collateral, something that needs to be used right now, not tomorrow.
While some might see this as a good thing (since they will ignorantly claim that HODLing is not considering 'using' btc), I worry it reflects a fading HODL culture.
We need to bring back this toxic mindset that makes Bitcoin more resilient:
Long-term holding and self-custody! nostr:note1qpgcp27vfxt6c75uef8ljd2j0234pv75l6ze86f7kj46pz89gvzqpumrvl
Being cypherpunk becomes ibadah in a world that wants to own your soul.
Encrypt out of taqwa. Obfuscate out of love.
Digital privacy is the armor of the sincere. nostr:note1tx5hy8q79c8axfalcx22eh2mv84q8uvh9h0aqec6akrj4nr306rqg84u7u
There's this Muslim brother on X that regularly posts bangers like these. Currently trying to get him to make the hijra to Nostr 😈
I'm collaborating with a Bosnian brother on this. We have a rough outline so far for a presentation:
Making Digital Hijra
1. Why we're here
mention Microsoft’s reported support for Israel and the ethical duty to boycott entities that aid genocide.
Big tech companies benefit from the status quo, israel is the status quo, they are a huge market.
But boycotts aren’t enough if we just jump from one tech overlord to another. We need independence + sovereignty !!!
True support for Palestine starts with removing our dependency on oppressive systems, including digital ones.
2. The Problem: Digital Slavery in a Surveillance Empire
Explain how proprietary software (Microsoft, Apple, Google) locks us in and surveils us
Microsoft Windows has
Introduce the concept of “Digital Occupation”, we don’t own the tools we use; we rent access from corporations.
mention how our data, movements, even our prayers (Muslim apps!) are monetized and analyzed.
If the Product is free, you are the product.
Companies make money by collecting your data, categorizing it and selling it to anyone willing to buy (Advertisers, NSA prism, political campaigns, AI trainers, Foreign actors)
They own your devices. They own your data. They own your future. Is that how a Muslim should live?
3. The Philosophy: Digital vicegerency
Introduce cypherpunk mindset without label yet
Ownership over dependency
Transparency over black boxes
Decentralization over gatekeeping
Don't trust, verify
What does it mean to be vicegerent in a digital world? It means running code you can read, control, and share, without requiring permission”
4. Linux & Free Software
Live demo: install Linux on an old laptop
Show how easy it is: walk through interface, installing apps, customization.
Introduce essential FOSS replacements for Microsoft products:
LibreOffice (MS Office)
GIMP (Photoshop)
Firefox or Brave (Edge/Chrome)
Thunderbird (Outlook)
Signal or simpleX (WhatsApp/Teams)
Nextcloud (OneDrive/Google Drive)
Maybe show them how to run a VPN like Mullvad
5. The Vision: Muslim Digital Sovereignty
Talk about long-term goals like:
Owning your data.
Running your own servers.
Muslim Community NAS storage, store community and personal files on Muslim owned cloud
Building open source apps by Muslims, for Muslims, that don’t spy on us.
Forming open-source guilds to empower our ummah digitally.
Reintroduce the concept of “Digital Hijra”: leaving behind corrupted systems for something dignified, transparent, and sovereign.
The bare minimum we could do is use FOSS in support of our brothers and sisters in Palestine!
nostr:note17ze0khueq4n40hmrqzg0txem935k0jx06rppcrq950flwku3a88qm7gfrx
The infiltration of Keynesianism into Islamic Economics has done profound damage.
It has replaced a tradition of sound reasoning based on human action and divine law, with a shallow and collectivist faith in state intervention and fiat illusions.
Unless this intellectual capture is confronted and overturned, Islamic Economics will remain trapped in the worst of both worlds of offering neither genuine adherence to Islamic principles nor any real economic prosperity.
For sure, there's lots of options, but I think the absolutely stupid simple one would be umbrel. You just download it and sit and wait for several days for your node to sync. Very good way to get started.
No one is coming to save you.
Not the banks. Not the politicians. Not the scholars.
Stop waiting around for the Mahdi. Create the conditions for his arrival.
Run a Bitcoin node. Take custody. Opt out of the Riba money machine.
Start with reading about it first. Then find an exchange, preferably a bitcoin only exchange, and start accumulating savings. Get a hardware wallet like Jade or Coldcard, transfer coins from exchange to hardware wallet.
We wrote a short guide here:
One by one
Gradually then Suddenly
The Ummah will be bitcoinized
Don’t wait until Bitcoin becomes mainstream before deciding to learn about it.
Be proactive! Take the initiative! Become one of the Sābiqūn and start running Bitcoin today.
Do it sincerely, for the sake of Allah (swt)
Same man
Thank you for the suggestions. Definitely gonna need to do a few test runs first to see what's smoothest
Great ideas! So far I'm thinking of actually doing the Linux install live. It took no more than 15 minutes to install Linux mint. I want to show how easy it is.
And yea, definitely avoiding the terminal. That can be intimidating
Yesterday at my local masjid, a brother gave a great khutba about the incident that happened at Microsoft HQ with the Muslim woman quitting her job over the company's involvement in the support of the Israeli war machine.
I came up to the brother afterwards and asked him about getting off of windows and using linux instead, and why can't we all do our part and boycott Microsoft and all of these other tech corporations. He admitted that he hasn't thought about it, but he suggested that I do a workshop for him and other brothers to use Linux.
So I guess I'm being drafted to set up this workshop. I think I'll use this opportunity to get some brothers to think and adopt a cypherpunk approach to not just their OS but software in general. Might call it "making digital hijra".
I'm trying to make a draft now. I'll try to get brothers to think more about prioritizing FOSS over using Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc. And I think I'll do a quick demonstration of installing Linux on an old laptop, just to show how easy the process is. And I'll also briefly go over FOSS alternatives to commonly used apps. Might even show how to run a VPN.
Does anyone have any other ideas for how I can go about this workshop?
True, but still a very useful framework for looking at the state, even with its flaws.
Well there's two ideas.
It's easy to conceive of a state functioning in the same way just on a smaller scale under a Bitcoin standard.
But there's also the idea that Bitcoin could radically change the way states operate, so much so that they wouldn't be anything like they are today.
Either one could be likely.
I use the phrases "Bureaucratic machiney, legislative monopoly, and state sovereignty" because these are the "form properties" that Hallaq uses in his book. Would have been cool if he characterized fiat in those form properties.
Last night, friends at the valley ranch masjid in Dallas TX invited me to give a talk about Bitcoin. It was too short notice to actually give the presentation at the masjid, but we gave it at a brother's house nearby. We had like 25+ people show up MashaAllah. Lots of questions and so many people interested. Everyone wanted to know how to buy and use Bitcoin 😊
Many in the audience were devs and programmers MashaAllah, and they asked the most technical questions, naturally.
