Tribe Vibe - The Privacy Edition
Hello Tribe Vibers!
This week we are all about Privacy 🔐 . As regulatory bodies continue their mission to drag Bitcoin into the fiat KYC and AML framework, we take a look at the very real security risks that these attempts create for bitcoiners and what you can do to protect yourself.
Women in bitcoin are on fire right now! Check out journalist Efrat Fenigson’s Bitcoin starter kit, and sign up for the upcoming online women’s conference she is co-hosting with Bitcoin journalist Natalie Brunell 🤝.
Editorial Note
Welcome to another exciting week in Bitcoin! Coming up:
🎓 Bitcoin 101: Your weekly resource to learn about Bitcoin
🗞 News: Trending News in Bitcoin
👩💼 Women in Bitcoin: Where the Bitcoin “Femergy” is happening
📆 Upcoming Events: Find the best spots to learn, connect and build
🎧 & 🎥Vibe of the Week: Our content recommendations
🎓 Bitcoin 101: Efrat Fenigson Bitcoin Starter Kit
Are you struggling to find good educational material on bitcoin. Journalist Efrat Fenigson has put together an excellent “Bitcoin Starter Kit” which you can access HERE.
📈 Trending News
1. Atkins, Peirce Stress Balancing Crypto Transparency and Privacy at SEC Roundtable
The Scoop🕵️♂️: During the recent SEC Crypto Task Force Roundtables, chairman, Paul Atkins, stated that treating every crypto wallet like a broker and flagging every single transaction could seriously impact privacy “Shielding the lawful activity of our citizens from bulk surveillance while still ensuring that our government can perform essential functions is the best way to protect both national security and our basic civil liberties while also giving room for innovation to flourish”.
Why You Should Care🚨: That means crypto companies could soon be hit with a lot more paperwork and surveillance rules, driving up costs and making the technology unsafe to use.
What does this mean for bitcoin?✨: Tighter privacy rules would limit how anonymous you can be when transacting in BTC, which presents a serious operational security risk for users. Bitcoin developers will need to shift their focus towards building privacy tools to counter this threat
📚 Read the article HERE.
2. Silent Payments: a new era of privacy in Bitcoin
The Scoop🕵️♂️: A new BIP 352 proposal called Silent Payments lets you give out one reusable Bitcoin address that creates a fresh, private‑looking address for every incoming payment, so nobody can trace your balance or transaction history.
Why You Should Care🚨: It fixes the annoying privacy leak from reusing addresses and makes donating or getting paid on‑chain way smoother, without the extra data bloat that older stealth‑address tricks caused.
What does this mean for bitcoin?✨: If wallets like Cake Wallet and BitBox roll it out, Bitcoin will get a big privacy boost and a more user‑friendly payment flow, nudging the network toward less address reuse and stronger on‑chain confidentiality.
📫 See the full post HERE.
3. How Dorsey’s Bitchat is Supporting Communication in Uganda and Iran
The Scoop🕵️♂️: Jack Dorsey's offline messaging app Bitchat has become a vital tool for Ugandans ahead of their contentious January 14, 2026 election. Using Bluetooth mesh technology, the app creates a decentralized network that doesn't require internet connectivity. After opposition leader Bobi Wine warned of a planned government shutdown, Bitchat downloads surged dramatically, with over 28,000 downloads this year. On Tuesday, Ugandan authorities followed through by cutting internet access across the country, citing concerns about misinformation and electoral fraud.
Why You Should Care🚨: This development highlights the growing importance of decentralized communication technologies in regions facing government censorship. Bitchat represents a practical solution to internet blackouts, a tactic used by authoritarian regimes to control information flow. With 296 shutdowns documented across 54 countries in 2024 alone, this is a widespread issue. These technologies empower citizens to maintain communication channels when governments attempt to cut them off.
What does this mean for bitcoin?✨: Bitchat's adoption in Uganda demonstrates the growing relevance of decentralized technologies beyond bitcoin. Just as Bitcoin provides a censorship-resistant alternative to traditional financial systems, Bitchat offers a similar solution for centralized communication platforms.
📖 Read the full story HERE.
👩💼 Women in Bitcoin
Join the first-ever Women of Bitcoin Summit – a free, global, two-day online event created to welcome women into Bitcoin.
📅 March 4–5, 2026
🕛 1:00–3:30pm ET | 7:00–9:30pm CET
🔗 Register HERE
📆 Upcoming Events
bitcoin++
When: February 26 - 28, 2026
Where: Florianopolis, Brazil
More info & registration available HERE.
📚 Book Club - Ownschooling with Deanna Heikkinen
Join us for live-streamed sessions at 8 p.m. Eastern (NY time) over the next three weeks, with author Deanna Heikkinen. We explore her new book, a comprehensive guide for parents to ensure that their kids have the best possible education.
Deanna and I discuss the book in four parts, followed by a short reading from Deanna. The session will be live streamed on our YouTube channel and we will be taking questions live via chat. If you missed last week’s session you can watch the replay HERE.
🎧 🎥📚 Vibe of the Week - Coinbase data breach
Why you should avoid transacting on Bitcoin exchanges where possible.
From around September 2024 a support contractor for Coinbase in India photographed up to 200 customer records daily, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and bank details, selling them for $200 each. This breach, which affected 69,461 users and exposed their financial information and Bitcoin holdings to criminals, was not publicly disclosed by Coinbase until May 2025. The incident highlights the severe security risks of Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, which create centralized databases of sensitive user information that become targets for exploitation, ultimately undermining the privacy and physical security that Bitcoin was originally designed to provide.
Image Source HERE
Where to Acquire Bitcoin:
Visit a Bitcoin Well ATM to purchase “private bitcoin” and check out their online services HERE (Access Tribe is an affiliate of The Bitcoin Well and may receive compensation for recommending their services).
Meme of the Week - It’s safe, it’s in the cloud…they said
Source HERE
Oh wow thanks for including my starter kit! and the women of bitcoin summit! appreciate it very much.