It all started with a tweet. A single tweet from an individual who was fed up with an entrenched incumbent providing third party bitcoin payments services that was trying to force their users to run a bitcoin implementation that was out of consensus with the network and would have benefited the incumbent and erected walled gardens within an open system. The incumbent was Bitpay and the individual who decided to make them obsolete is Nicolas Dorier, the founder of the BTCPay Server.

"This is lies, my trust in you is broken, I will make you obsolete"

This is the tweet that started a movement. A movement dedicated to ensuring that individuals always have the option to use bitcoin in the way that it was originally intended; with users maintaining control of their funds by leveraging open source software.

BTCPay Server is one of the most important open source projects built on top of the bitcoin network and it has been awe inspiring to watch what the project has been able to achieve in less than seven years. If you are an individual or business owner who wants to easily accept bitcoin payments while maintaining control of your server and your funds the BTCPay Server army has built out a suite of tools that makes it as easy as possible. Everything from a web store to a meat space point of sale system can be implemented using the BTCPay Server stack.

As many cheer on the acceptance of ETFs and all of the institutional money that will come with them, it is important to remind yourself about why bitcoin exists in the first place; to ensure that individuals have the ability to control their money without any dependence on third party intermediaries. Nothing embodies this ethos more than the BTCPay Server project and the individuals who make it possible. The best part about BTCPay Server is that it actually works. We've been running a BTCPay Server at TFTC since late 2018 and it has just worked. Dependable infrastructure to receive bitcoin payments into wallets we control. It's a beautiful thing.

If you freaks have 45 minutes to spare at some point this weekend, I highly recommend that you take that time to watch the documentary about BTCPay Server that was released yesterday and is embedded at the top of this newsletter.

MY TRUST IN YOU IS BROKEN is not only a great introduction to the BTCPay Server, how it works and the features it offers, but it is also a great history lesson that every bitcoiner should be aware of.

Bitcoin's success has been, is and will always be driven by individuals who decide to act. Individuals who notice that there is a gap in the market of open source tools that make it as easy and sovereign as possible to use, get off their ass, and go build the infrastructure necessary to fill that gap. It's not easy work, but it is extremely important and worthwhile. The easy work is conducted by third parties who try to corral individuals into walled gardens where their ability to (trans)act can be restricted by the whims of the entity controlling the gates to the walled garden.

Bitcoin is a tool of liberation and the governments and corporations who stand to lose a lot of power as this tool of liberation spreads into the hands of more and more people are beginning to internalize just how potent it is, they will try to prevent as many as possible from using bitcoin in a sovereign fashion. It is up to individuals like Nicolas Dorier and everyone else who has contributed to BTCPay Server to stand up and get to work to ensure their efforts are fruitless.

Free and open source software is one of the most powerful forces on planet Earth right now and more people should be harnessing this force to ensure that humanity can be free in the Digital Age.

Thank you to everyone who has ever contributed to the BTCPay Server project.

Final thought...

I hate catching my bald spot in the mirror. It taunts me.