Blog
2026-06-18
A New Chapter: System Override Version 1
We’re excited to announce that **System Override Version 1 is in development.
Version 0 brought together an incredible lineup of writers exploring the themes of digital sovereignty, free software, and Bitcoin. Version 1 builds on that foundation with even more voices from across the free software movement, the Bitcoin ecosystem, and the broader freedom community.
What changed?
The core vision remains the same — creating a work that captures the spirit of reclaiming our digital freedom. But the authors, the topics, and the ambition have all grown.
2023-04-05
Open Letter to Heterodox Academy
Dear Heterodox Academy,
There is an inherent and widespread bias in academia against Bitcoin that arises because: 1. Academia lacks people with the economic experiences commonly leading to Bitcoin support (e.g. hyperinflation, remittances, financial colonialism, being unbanked). 2. Academia lacks people with the values, perspectives, and personalities that frequently lead people to Bitcoin (e.g. belief in free market, low institutional trust) 3. Academia and economists have prestige, power, and financial incentives to support a fiat system. I explain this in my presentation to HxEconomics and Bitcoin Magazine articles. As Professor Korok Ray (one of the few academics who has delved into Bitcoin) astutely observed, reactions from professors have ranged “from hostile, at worst, to agnostic about Bitcoin.” Shockingly, some universities have even suppressed Bitcoin’s discussion (e.g. HxA advisor Professor Nadine Strossen and the rest of New York Law School were blocked from emailing about Bitcoin for months). The result has been universities producing and widely propagating provably incorrect information about Bitcoin. This has severely hurt academia’s reputation with many (particularly crypto-interested youth).
2020-05-27
Ordinary People, Extraordinary World
I am an ordinary person living an ordinary life. I have no qualifications. I have no authority.
In an ordinary world, I would watch the thinkers featured in this book, the people shaping our digital landscape, our collaborative world, and just consume. In an ordinary world, I would stay forever behind a laptop, lay back, eat popcorn, and watch the drama of society in flux. I’d bite my nails at the cliff-hanger of threatened cryptocurrency bans, shake my fist at expanding surveillance, and feel my stomach lurch at every peak and valley of the Bitcoin price charts. But I would be solely a witness in the creation of something big.
2020-05-27
We The Web Needs Therapy
We The Web need a psychologist. We are rife with dysfunction. Psychopathy? Narcissism? I don’t know… but I think we could use some help.
When the blockchain tracking and analytics company Whale Alert looked at reports and websites to understand the criminal activity, they reported that, “Crypto crime pays. A lot.” Likewise, U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman claimed in March 2019 that “charlatans and scammers have always favored decentralized new enterprises.” He believes the activity on cryptocurrencies, ICOs, and other decentralized systems is so nefarious as to warrant their total ban.
2020-05-11
#Cancel We The Web?
This post is written by Hannah Wolfman-Jones but includes a response from civil-rights expert Nadine Strossen, former president of the ACLU. It addresses the inclusion of Richard M. Stallman as a co-author in the book System Override: How Bitcoin, Blockchain, Fress Speech and Free Tech Can Change Everything.
Birth of a Movement
The origin of Richard Stallman and the free software ideas he developed is from a time before computers became an integral part of ordinary people’s lives, the 70s. Many decades before our cell phones tracked our every movement, before smart homes brought mass surveillance into our living rooms, the idea of computers as serious tools of oppression seemed patently absurd.
2020-05-11
About the Book
Can authoritarianism be fought with technology? Can Bitcoin-derived technologies help us gain control of our finances, governments, and data? Can humanity be steered towards a brighter technological future? In System Override, you will hear from a diverse array of the top leaders and experts about the technologies and movements shaping our shared technological future. The book is more than a deeply thoughtful, beautifully written look into possibilities for humanity, it is a rapidly-versioning experiment in collaboration.