{"id":99468,"date":"2025-09-15T08:08:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/15\/nepalese-protestors-should-permanently-embrace-bitchat-as-well-as-bitcoin-and-other-freedom-tech\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T08:08:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:08:03","slug":"nepalese-protestors-should-permanently-embrace-bitchat-as-well-as-bitcoin-and-other-freedom-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/15\/nepalese-protestors-should-permanently-embrace-bitchat-as-well-as-bitcoin-and-other-freedom-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Nepalese Protestors Should Permanently Embrace Bitchat As Well As Bitcoin And Other Freedom Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img width=\"600\" height=\"46\" alt=\"Takes article banner.\" title=\"Nepalese Protestors Should Permanently Embrace Bitchat as Well as Bitcoin and Other Freedom Tech 1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-ileamcn.nitrocdn.com\/BngESKHdyFjXuZbvyAhEMmtQtwLKSKkU\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-69be608\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1_takes-banner.png 600w, https:\/\/cdn-ileamcn.nitrocdn.com\/BngESKHdyFjXuZbvyAhEMmtQtwLKSKkU\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-69be608\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1_takes-banner-300x23.png 300w\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-ileamcn.nitrocdn.com\/BngESKHdyFjXuZbvyAhEMmtQtwLKSKkU\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-69be608\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1_takes-banner.png\" class=\"wp-image-39505 nitro-lazy\" decoding=\"async\" nitro-lazy-empty=\"\" id=\"ODIyOjU2Mw==-1\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"nitro-lazy\">On Monday, September 8, 2025, Nepalese youth began protesting on the streets of Kathmandu in response to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/09\/07\/world\/asia\/nepal-bans-social-media-platforms.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nepali government\u2019s banning 26 major social media platforms<\/a> on Thursday, September 4, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>At the height of the protests, the Nepalese protestors began downloading Bitchat, a new app created and developed by Twitter\/X and Block founder Jack Dorsey and open-source developer <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/ecash-makes-bitcoin-and-fiat-private-with-calle-cashu\">Calle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The app, a censorship-resistant messaging app that harnesses Bluetooth mesh technology as well as the <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/nostr-the-importance-of-censorship-resistant-communication-for-innovation-and-human-progress\">Nostr protocol<\/a> and that doesn\u2019t even require an internet connection to use, was downloaded almost 49,000 times on September 8 in Nepal, according to data shared by Calle on X.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Last week, we observed a sudden spike in bitchat downloads from Indonesia during nationwide protests.<\/p>\n<p>Today we&#8217;re seeing an even bigger spike from Nepal during youth protests over government corruption and a social media ban.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom tech is for the people. Please share. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IqhRa8eCvw\">pic.twitter.com\/IqhRa8eCvw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 calle (@callebtc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/callebtc\/status\/1965721168507466097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">September 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><template data-nitro-marker-id=\"372de9843891598aa58675a785cc4349-1\"\/> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Bitchat allowed the protestors to permissionlessly communicate with one another as they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/09\/09\/asia\/nepal-protests-social-media-ban-explainer-intl-hnk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ousted the country\u2019s prime minister<\/a> (and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/live\/c741n80ndlxt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">burned down the country\u2019s parliament building<\/a>).<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Lesson for Nepali Youth<\/h2>\n<p>The lesson here is that apps like Bitchat are not only important tools to use in the wake of the blackout of centralized communications services and during protests, but that they are instrumental in preserving rights that underpin free and open societies.<\/p>\n<p>In our modern digital world, we must preserve the freedom to not only communicate online but also to transact in the digital space.<\/p>\n<p>A tool like Bitchat, which currently enables the former, should also soon enable the latter, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/digital-assets\/2025\/09\/11\/jack-dorseys-bitchat-gains-traction-during-nepals-unrest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reporting from Forbes<\/a>, which cited Calle, who voiced his goal of enabling Bitcoin-based <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/glossary\/ecash\">Ecash<\/a> transactions via Bitchat in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>By embracing tools like Bitchat, Bitcoin, Ecash, and Nostr \u2014 freedom tech staples \u2014 the Nepali youth can help to prevent the type of abuse of power that they just protested against.<\/p>\n<p>For example, Nostr and the various social media clients built on top of it, cannot be banned or shut off, which means the Nepali government wouldn\u2019t have even had the power to take the action that sparked the protests.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom tech doesn\u2019t just exist to help people fight the battles to get their freedom back \u2014 it\u2019s there to help them maintain it, as well.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article is a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/takes\/bitcoin-magazine-introduces-opinion-takes\"><em>Take<\/em><\/a><em>. Opinions expressed are entirely the author\u2019s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/takes\/nepalese-protestors-should-permanently-embrace-bitchat-as-well-as-bitcoin-and-other-freedom-tech\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday, September 8, 2025, Nepalese youth began protesting on the streets of Kathmandu in response to the Nepali government\u2019s banning 26 major social media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}