Asterix or obelix

Don't try to make one idea win and another lose - instead try to see reality as honestly and accurately as you can, even if it's not pretty or convenient

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

"What do you most yearn for? Do you yearn to defend your own beliefs or do you yearn to see the world as clearly as you possibly can?" (Julia Galef | TEDxPSU) https://t.co/ndvITG1Y8o via @TEDTalks

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@NickDarlington Hey Nick I can't DM you, but can you message me

[Bruce @bruce_barrett]

I don’t want to hear about my carbon footprint ever again. https://t.co/cs8t9619dx

[Ushi 牛殺し🐂 @ushigoroshi89]

bro 😭

[Marius ₿🇿🇦 @mariusb]

The Treasury cannot even protect your email address. They just included the whole world (people who made submissions) in an acknowledgement.
Make your voice heard by following @PRDG_ZA, and if you want to know more --> https://t.co/BhNoQGmCIi

[David (TalkingCents) @talkcentss]

The ZAR has lost 75% of its purchasing power in the last 25-26 years.

R25.50 in the year 2000 has the same purchasing power as R100,00 today.

You’d actually need around R392 in today’s money to match R100 back then.

[Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town @abcptza]

Your wake up call.

South Africa is the testing ground. Only four more years until 2030 because by then you'll own nothing and be happy.

[Dudu Bitcoin @dudu_bitcoin]

South Africa's new draft crypto regulations are a poisonous mix of retarded and evil.

Here are a few gems from the proposal:

* Peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading is out. Only Treasury-authorised CASPs may buy, sell, borrow, or lend BTC. Selling sats to a friend breaches the reg. (Reg 3)

* Cross-border Bitcoin sends blocked. Any send outside SA needs Treasury permission. A seed phrase in your head still counts as being “in control”. (Reg 4)

* Treasury can demand your private keys. On forfeiture you must hand over passwords, PINs, and codes. Refusal is a criminal offense. (Reg 25(5))

* Pre-forfeiture freezes on suspicion. Treasury can attach or seize crypto on reasonable suspicion, no court order. Forced sale to Treasury at market rand value also applies. (Reg 8, 24)

* Expanded search powers at ports of entry and exit. Written crypto declaration mandatory on entry. Officers can search you, your luggage, mail, and parcels, and seize on suspicion. (Reg 4, 5)

* Penalties: R1m or the crypto’s value, whichever is greater, plus up to 5 years jail. (Reg 29)

I've always been proud of the robust crypto scene in my birth country.

Seems like the ANC wants to pivot to the dark ages.

Saffa Bitcoin legends like Farzam, @gazza_jenks, @staffordmasie, @BitcoinEkasi are fighting the good fight.

But that's not enough.

Bitcoiners everywhere must stand up for the people of SA and their hope for a prosperous future.

[Bill Hughes @BillHughesDC]

I am frankly dumbstruck by the news out of South Africa 🇿🇦 that newly proposed regulations would upend self custody in that country.

South Africa's National Treasury has published draft Capital Flow Management Regulations (https://t.co/72NEvhnM1f) to replace its 1961 exchange-control regime, and the proposal extends sixty-five-year-old capital controls designed for gold bullion and foreign banknotes directly onto self-custodied crypto.

The result is one of the most invasive treatments of non-custodial wallets proposed anywhere in the world.

The mechanics are clear and severe. Any purchase, sale, loan, or transfer of crypto above a Treasury-set threshold must run through a licensed "authorised crypto asset service provider." Cross-border movement of crypto requires permission. Holdings above the threshold must be declared within thirty days, and Treasury can compel their sale at market price. Crypto can be attached by administrative order, without prior judicial process, on reasonable suspicion of contravention. Penalties run to R1 million, five years in prison, or the full value of the crypto involved.

The provision that is the real showstopper is Regulation 25(5). Where crypto has been forfeited to the state, the owner must "furnish full particulars in writing of all and any passwords, personal identification numbers or codes" necessary to give Treasury access.

That seems to be a statutory compelled disclosure of seed phrases and private keys.

There is no carve-out, no judicial check inside the regulation itself, no recognition that the keys are not separable from the user's right against self-incrimination or right to privacy under the South African Constitution.

The reason that provision appears to exist is Treasury understands that, without it, the rest of the framework cannot reach a self-custody user. Exchange-control logic depends on gatekeepers — banks, dealers, intermediaries that the state can appoint and command. Self-custody removes the gatekeeper by design. So the regulation reaches the only places it still can: the on-ramp, the holder's declaration, and ultimately the holder's body and devices at the border. Regulations 4 and 5 give enforcement officers the power to search travelers entering or leaving the country, demand they "produce" any crypto in their possession or control, and seize it on suspicion alone.

As you well know, this is not how most of the rest of the world is approaching self-custody. The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets framework regulates issuers and crypto-asset service providers and explicitly leaves self-custody alone. The UK's financial services regime regulates exchanges and custodians and treats unhosted wallet software as out of scope. The US has spent the last two years walking back its most aggressive theories — the SAB 121 reversal, the broker-dealer rule rollback, the IRS DeFi broker rule rescission — precisely because policymakers across both parties recognized that you cannot regulate non-custodial software the way you regulate a bank. FATF's own guidance distinguishes wallet software publishers from custodial intermediaries.

South Africa's draft does the opposite. It very much intends to reach through the software to the user.

The technical reality the draft ignores is that a non-custodial wallet is a key-management tool, not a financial intermediary. @MetaMask does not hold user funds. It does not see private keys. It cannot freeze, seize, or surrender anything to a regulator. Compelling its users to declare, surrender, or hand over keys does not make Treasury more effective at managing capital flows. It makes ordinary South Africans criminally liable for using software the rest of the world treats as legitimate self-custody infrastructure.

Treasury has opened a public comment period, and anyone with a dog in the fight should ask that the compelled-key provision be struck. The cross-border search-and-seizure regime should not extend to self-custodied wallets. And the framework should distinguish — as nearly every other major jurisdiction now does — between intermediated services and the user's own software.

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

If you need help with getting your documents ready for SARS, try out the app which I built! https://t.co/KckMqGZtn0

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@OPENMIND3000x https://t.co/PRVciTHCOD - I made an app which has a digital version of the wtf guide built into it. It is free and works offline

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@DouniaBM @AfrikaBurn https://t.co/PRVciTHCOD - I made an app which has a digital version of the wtf guide built into it. It is free and works offline

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@CapeTown_Bru @AfrikaBurn https://t.co/PRVciTHCOD - I made an app which has a digital version of the wtf guide built into it. It is free and works offline

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@CapeTown_Bru @MetrorailWC Know before you go. Commute Check — real-time Metrorail Southern and Northern Line updates from fellow commuters. Free on iOS and Android. https://t.co/UlOfjITi6h

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@MetrorailWC Tired of standing on the platform wondering if your train's actually coming? 🚆
Commute Check gives you real-time Southern Line updates so you know before you leave home.
https://t.co/UlOfjITi6h
#CapeTown #Metrorail #SouthernLine

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@MetrorailWC Tired of standing on the platform wondering if your train's actually coming? 🚆
Commute Check gives you real-time Southern Line updates so you know before you leave home.
https://t.co/UlOfjITi6h
#CapeTown #Metrorail #SouthernLine

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@MetrorailWC Tired of standing on the platform wondering if your train's actually coming? 🚆
Commute Check gives you real-time Southern Line updates so you know before you leave home.
https://t.co/UlOfjITi6h
#CapeTown #Metrorail #SouthernLine

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@MetrorailWC Tired of standing on the platform wondering if your train's actually coming? 🚆
Commute Check gives you real-time Southern Line updates so you know before you leave home.
https://t.co/UlOfjITi6h
#CapeTown #Metrorail #SouthernLine

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@MetrorailWC Tired of standing on the platform wondering if your train's actually coming? 🚆
Commute Check gives you real-time Southern Line updates so you know before you leave home.
https://t.co/UlOfjITi6h
#CapeTown #Metrorail #SouthernLine

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@lovecapetown @MetrorailWC Tired of standing on the platform wondering if your train's actually coming? 🚆
Commute Check gives you real-time Southern Line updates so you know before you leave home.
https://t.co/UlOfjITi6h
#CapeTown #Metrorail #SouthernLine

[Asterix or obelix @NathanStasin]

@MetrorailWC Tired of standing on the platform wondering if your train's actually coming? 🚆
Commute Check gives you real-time Southern Line updates so you know before you leave home.
https://t.co/UlOfjITi6h
#CapeTown #Metrorail #SouthernLine