Throughout 2018, major tech companies faced mounting pressure over their data collection practices. Facebook and Google tracked users across the internet. Millions had grown wary. Apple positioned its
Throughout 2018, major tech companies faced mounting pressure over their data collection practices. Facebook and Google tracked users across the internet. Millions had grown wary. Apple positioned itself differently, selling hardware rather than conducting surveillance. Banks operated identically—recording every transaction, freezing accounts, blocking payments. Bitcoin offered an alternative: a monetary system running on software anyone could download, where no bank, government, or corporation controlled access to funds.
The logic extended beyond money. Mastodon let people communicate without Twitter or Facebook owning the platform. Bitcoin let people transact without banks approving each payment. Users maintained control. The advantage strengthened as the world shifted toward digital-only finance. In a cashless society, authorities could freeze accounts, seize assets, devalue currency. They could block any transaction. Bitcoin let users operate outside that control. The blockchain stored data in users' hands rather than with institutions. Transactions encrypted end-to-end. Users owned all their money.
This remained theoretical in practice. Bitcoin had significant privacy gaps. But the concept worked. The pathway existed. As societies digitized further and tech companies continued harvesting personal data and banks continued policing payments, Bitcoin's value would grow. Users concerned about digital privacy would concern themselves with financial privacy the same way.
The same logic applied to hardware. Apple sold itself on privacy yet remained closed and proprietary. Users had to trust Apple's word. Purism worked differently. Founded in 2014 as a social purpose corporation, Purism built devices with verifiable privacy. A crowdfunded Linux laptop came first, then smartphones built on the same principles: open-source code, hardware kill switches users could physically flip to disable cameras and microphones.
The same forces that pulled people toward Bitcoin pulled them toward Purism. Bitcoin users wanted control of their finances. Purism customers wanted control of their computers. They didn't want assurances. They wanted proof. Purism recognized this alignment. The company planned to integrate Monero, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, into the Librem 5 smartphone. They accepted various cryptocurrencies at checkout.
Skepticism had merit. Purism's laptops cost more than alternatives. Most people would struggle to fully switch to a Librem 5 when it shipped next year, since specific apps remained necessary for work. Purism wasn't shipping perfect solutions yet. But the pieces assembled into something genuine—a real free software stack where users owned their data and devices. Bitcoin was part of it. Purism's hardware was part of it. Both required users to reclaim control from corporations. Both depended on individuals managing their own security. The two should grow together. People who protected their data with Bitcoin would protect their hardware with Purism.
