Western Mass Bitcoin Meetup
Western Mass Bitcoin Meetup #45
May 2026
Citadel Dispatch
Fountain Listen on Fountain
Nostr Follow on Nostr
Podcast Spotlight

Citadel Dispatch

Hosted by Matt Odell

"Actionable bitcoin and freedom tech discussion. Funded by our audience. No ads or sponsors."
  • CD203 · May 15 — Hermann Vivier & Carel Van Wyk: emergency dispatch on South Africa's proposed Bitcoin restrictions — forced private-key disclosure, P2P limits, and how to push back.
  • CD202 · May 12 — Eugene Jarecki: his new Assange documentary The Six Billion Dollar Man, Bitcoin's role keeping WikiLeaks alive after the Visa/MC/PayPal blockade, and releasing the film through Bitcoiners first.
  • CD201 · May 5 — Matt Hill (Start9): StartOS 0.4.0, freedom computing, why "local" AI tools often aren't, and replacing big tech with open-source services at home.
  • CD200 · Apr 21 — UTXO The Webmaster: Wisp Android Nostr client, Spark wallet integration, encrypted nsec backups, and the "denominate zaps in dollars" debate.
  • CD199 · Apr 13 — Craig Raw (Sparrow): Silent Payments — a new address system that kills address reuse and the gap limit, plus GPU-accelerated scanning and BIP353.
Hidden Repression
Buy on Amazon Buy on Amazon
Book Spotlight

Hidden Repression

Alex Gladstein · Foreword by Jeff Booth

"How the IMF and World Bank sell exploitation as development."
  • A 75-year audit of the IMF and World Bank — institutions that promise development but, Gladstein argues, deliver debt traps and neocolonial control.
  • Shows how "structural adjustment" forces poor countries to grow exports for Western consumption instead of building domestic industries.
  • Case studies from Ghana, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, and Papua New Guinea reveal the same pattern: loans that enrich Western finance while impoverishing the borrower.
  • Closes by framing Bitcoin as a potential exit — money that can't be weaponized by the institutions critiqued throughout the book.
Bitcoin History · 2011 – 2013
Silk Road
  • Launched Feb. 2011 as a Tor hidden service by "Dread Pirate Roberts" — an anonymous marketplace settling every transaction in bitcoin.
  • Bitcoin's first breakout use case — Tor address + bitcoin escrow + vendor reputation system, all without an identity or a bank.
  • By March 2013: ~10,000 listings — roughly 70% drugs. Child pornography, weapons, and contract killing were explicitly banned by site rules.
  • Operating life Feb. 2011 – Oct. 2013: 1.2M+ transactions · ~9.5M BTC in total volume · ~600K BTC collected in commissions.
  • Seized Oct. 2, 2013 — FBI arrested Ross Ulbricht mid-login at a San Francisco public library, his laptop unlocked and signed in as DPR.
  • 144,000 BTC seized from Ulbricht's laptop — auctioned off by the U.S. Marshals over 2014–2018, ultimately worth billions.
Silk Road marketplace item screen
Bitcoin History · The Man Behind the Marketplace
Ross Ulbricht
  • Eagle Scout · UT physics · Penn State materials science. Joined the Penn State libertarian club, worked on Ron Paul's 2008 campaign, and went deep on Mises and Austrian economics.
  • Convicted Feb. 2015 on seven counts including continuing criminal enterprise. Sentenced May 29, 2015 to two life terms + 40 years, no parole — widely cited as the longest U.S. sentence ever for a non-violent offender.
  • 11+ years in federal prison. Became a cause célèbre for Bitcoiners and libertarians — the case study for U.S. sentencing overreach.
  • 2021 — phoned into the Bitcoin Conference from prison. Punishment was swift: thrown into solitary confinement and placed under heightened surveillance for the rest of his sentence.
  • Jan. 21, 2025 — full and unconditional pardon by President Trump. Walked out of a federal prison in Arizona that same night.
  • May 29, 2025 — ten years to the day after his sentencing — gave his first public speech at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas. Theme: "Freedom, Decentralization, Unity."
Ross Ulbricht in 2025
Bitcoin 2025 speech
Bitcoin 2025 · Full Speech
Bitcoin History · Setting the Record Straight
Silk Road — Myths vs. Reality
  • Murder-for-Hire
    Never charged at trial. Allegations came largely from corrupt federal agents who pocketed the bitcoin and faked results. Maryland indictment dismissed with prejudice in 2018. No murders occurred.
  • Drug Dealer
    Convicted for running the platform — not for selling drugs. No drug victims named at trial.
  • Violent Crimes
    All 7 counts were non-violent. Double life + 40 years for operating a website.
  • $1B Kingpin
    That figure was total site volume, not his profit.
Tando Lightning Address demo bitcoin.co.ke · May 12, 2026
₿ Bitcoin News

Every M-Pesa Number Is Now a Lightning Address

May 12, 2026 · Tando / Bitcoin.co.ke
  • 40M M-Pesa users in Kenya — every phone number is now a Lightning address. No signup.
  • Send to 0717252303@bitcoin.co.ke · arrives as Kenyan shillings via M-Pesa.
  • $5B in annual diaspora remittances · traditional fees of 5–10% collapse to near zero.
  • Kenya leapfrogs again — same playbook as skipping banking for M-Pesa in 2007.
Bitcoin wallet recovery thread @cprkrn on X · May 13, 2026
₿ Bitcoin News

AI Cracks an 11-Year Bitcoin Lockout

May 13, 2026 · Recovered with Claude
  • Wallet locked 11+ years — "got stoned and changed the password" in college.
  • ~3.5 trillion password combinations brute-forced. Nothing.
  • Dumped the old college computer into Claude · it found a matching wallet file the seed phrase could decrypt.
  • The password? lol420fuckthePOLICE!*:)
  • Now holding bitcoin he originally bought at ~$250 each.
CLARITY Act / RHR #409 Rabbit Hole Recap #409 · May 14, 2026
₿ Bitcoin News

CLARITY Act Advances · Dev Protections Diluted

May 14, 2026 · Senate Banking Committee · 15–9
  • Last-minute closed-door deal stripped the BRCA cross-reference from Lummis's Section 301 amendment.
  • Section 604 (BRCA) survived — safe harbor for open-source devs, node operators, and validators publishing non-custodial code.
  • But the "knowingly" carve-out remains — same vague language used to prosecute Sterlingov (Bitcoin Fog) and Samurai Wallet.
  • Car makers aren't liable for drunk drivers. Gun makers aren't liable for shooters. Bitcoin devs still are.
  • Net win for stablecoins & DeFi lobby · almost nothing for Bitcoin as freedom money.
"Kill the bill. No bill is better than a bad bill." — Matt Odell & Marty Bent · RHR #409
₿ Bitcoin Tech Topic
Nostr
Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays · the infrastructure for a freer internet
ALICE PUBLISHES to 6 relays BOB READS from 6 relays ALICE ONLY relay.damus.io nos.lol nostr.wine SHARED · MESSAGE FLOWS HERE relay.primal.net relay.snort.social nostr.band BOB ONLY relay.0xchat.com purplerelay.com relay.nostr.bg
Alice writes to 6 · Bob reads from 6 · only the 3 in common carry the message
  • Open protocol, not a product. Your identity is a keypair. Your posts ("events") live on whatever relays you choose.
  • Censorship-resistant by design. Publish to many relays · readers pull from many relays. No single point of failure or shutoff.
  • Web of trust replaces the algorithm. Your follows curate your feed. No black-box engine deciding what you see.
  • Already more than Twitter. Long-form, shopping, bookmarks, communities, NWC wallet payments — all on one identity.
  • Why it's so early: the stack is being built right now. The next decade of social, identity, and commerce is being prototyped on Nostr.
→ Short film next
₿ Bitcoin Short Films

Why Nostr Matters in 10 Minutes

Why Nostr Matters in 10 Minutes
₿ Live Workshop
Onboard to Nostr
Nostr Client Demos
Primal
plektos
plebian.market
localbitcoiners.com
mynostr.app
Pick Your Onboarding Path
Option 1 · Quick Path
Just buying or selling?
Onboard straight at our site. Skip the social tools, just transact.
→ westernmassbitcoin.com
Option 2 · Full Nostr
Want the social tools too?
Web of trust, social feed, discovering new people and connections.
→ Primal app · iOS / Android
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