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BITCOIN

Bitcoin Builders Organize as Lobbyists Betray

Sunday, March 15, 2026 · from 3 podcasts
This Week in StartupsPresidio Bitcoin JamRabbit Hole Recap
  • The Bitcoin builder movement is expanding to new cities like New York, emphasizing grassroots development and censorship-resistant financial tools.
  • Bitcoin-native stablecoins and decentralized cloud storage are launching to challenge centralized control of data and finance.
  • Coinbase lobbyists are reportedly working to exclude Bitcoin from a crucial spending tax break while securing it for stablecoins, highlighting a policy betrayal.

The Bitcoin development scene is organizing in person while the industry that claims to represent it is organizing against it. In New York, Spiral’s team launched a grassroots Builder event at PubKey, drawing fifty people to a venue that is part dive bar, part Bitcoin shrine. According to Presidio Bitcoin Jam, this marks the expansion of a builder ethos beyond Austin, planting a flag for native development in the heart of legacy finance.

These builders are focused on new primitives. Projects like Utxo and Ark are launching Bitcoin-native stablecoins, settling on Layer 2s while leveraging Bitcoin’s security model. Elsewhere, as discussed on This Week in Startups, projects like Hippius are building decentralized cloud storage on networks like Bit Tensor, positioning it as a resilient, cheaper alternative to Amazon S3. The shared goal is autonomy, creating tools that resist centralized control.

This push for financial and digital sovereignty is running headlong into political reality. On Rabbit Hole Recap, Matt Odell reported that lobbyists for Coinbase are pushing Congress to prioritize a de minimis tax exemption for stablecoins while sidelining the same relief for Bitcoin. The exemption is critical for enabling Bitcoin as everyday money by removing tax penalties on small purchases. The move fits a historical pattern where the broader crypto industry's lobbying priorities favor speculative token markets over Bitcoin's core utility.

The divergence is stark. In one lane, developers are building a parallel system grounded in censorship resistance. In the other, corporate lobbyists are shaping regulations that could leave that system at a permanent disadvantage. The future of Bitcoin as functional money may depend on which faction wins.

Matt Odell, Rabbit Hole Recap:

- Two sources basically starting a couple weeks ago saying… the de minimis tax exemption for bitcoin was being pushed to the wayside for a de minimis tax exemption for stable coins.

- This is looking like it's Coinbase's lobbying team that may be pushing for this.

BTC MarketsStablecoinsProtocolRegulationPayments

Entities Mentioned

AardvarkProduct
BasecampProduct
CoinbaseCompany
SpiralCompany

Source Intelligence

What each podcast actually said

This Week in Startups
This Week in Startups

One Genius Rule That Made This Coffee Brand Famous | EP 2262 • Mar 14

  • Hippius Subnet 75 uses the Bit Tensor decentralized compute network to operate a distributed cloud storage service, functioning as a direct competitor to Amazon S3.
  • The service distributes user data across a global network of participant hard drives rather than centralized data centers.
  • Hippius cofounder Dubs explained the Bit Tensor subnet allows for real-time modulation of participant rewards, enabling them to dynamically prioritize miners with higher throughput to optimize network speed.

Also from this episode:

Enterprise (2)
  • Hippius cofounder Mog argues centralization creates systemic fragility, estimating Amazon S3 powers roughly 60% of internet storage and that its outages take down dependent services.
  • Dubs described their architecture as creating inherent fail-safes that monolithic centralized providers like Amazon cannot match.
Startups (2)
  • Mog positioned Hippius as a cheaper, more resilient drop-in replacement for S3, built on a custom protocol called Arion.
  • Hippius founders present the core tradeoff for users as cost versus guaranteed performance, betting that cheaper, resilient decentralized storage will win for many applications.
Big TechStartupsCoding
Presidio Bitcoin Jam
Presidio Bitcoin Jam

Strategy's STRC Buying Spree, Open-Source AI Blind Spots, Bitcoin Stablecoins from Utexo & Ark • Mar 13

  • Centralized bottlenecks in AI—data, compute, and distribution—undermine the promise of open-source decentralization, making true autonomy in AI development difficult to achieve.
  • Utxo and Ark introduced Bitcoin-native stablecoins that operate on Layer 2 solutions while maintaining settlement finality and censorship resistance on Bitcoin’s base layer.
  • Bitcoin-native stablecoins from Utxo and Ark aim to enable dollar-pegged utility without custodial intermediaries, offering a censorship-resistant alternative to Ethereum-style stablecoins.

Also from this episode:

Lightning (1)
  • Spiral’s team hosted the first Builder event in New York at PubKey, signaling the expansion of grassroots Bitcoin development beyond Austin and into major financial centers.
Other (1)
  • The New York Builder event drew 50 attendees, reinforcing the growing momentum of in-person Bitcoin development meetups focused on open building, fast iteration, and stacking sats.
Nostr (1)
  • Steve from Presidio Bitcoin Jam credits Haley with the idea to launch the New York Builder event, noting the team has run monthly events for nine consecutive months in San Francisco.
Models (1)
  • Open-source AI models face centralization risks despite their decentralized appearance, as control over training data, compute resources, and distribution remains concentrated among a few well-funded entities.
Philosophy (1)
  • The ethos of Bitcoin builders—autonomy, transparency, and permissionless innovation—is now influencing adjacent domains like AI and financial infrastructure, challenging centralized defaults.
AdoptionAI & TechStablecoinsOpen Source
Rabbit Hole Recap
Rabbit Hole Recap

RABBIT HOLE RECAP #400: COINBASE FIGHTS BITCOIN • Mar 12

  • According to Matt Odell, citing two sources, Coinbase lobbyists are pushing Washington to prioritize a de minimis tax exemption for stablecoins while sidelining a similar exemption for Bitcoin payments.
  • A de minimis tax exemption would remove a major barrier to Bitcoin as everyday money by eliminating capital gains reporting on small purchases like coffee.
  • Odell argues that seeking a de minimis exemption for stablecoins is redundant, as they are pegged to the dollar and any taxable gain is inherently minimal.
  • In the broader crypto market structure bill FIT21, the only provision seen as favorable to Bitcoin core principles, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act protecting open-source developers, is reportedly intact due to Senator Lummis's efforts.
  • Odell contends the rest of the FIT21 Act is designed primarily to grease the wheels for token casinos and speculative crypto markets, not to support Bitcoin's foundational use cases.
  • The episode frames this lobbying report as part of a recurring pattern where the broader crypto industry sacrifices Bitcoin user interests, like developer protection and self-custody rights, to prioritize its own speculative agenda.

Also from this episode:

Custody (1)
  • Coinbase's product focus, such as its commerce tool supporting only wrapped bitcoin on Ethereum or Base, not native Bitcoin, signals the firm's historical alignment with 'shitcoin land' over Bitcoin-as-money, according to the show.
BTC MarketsPaymentsRegulation

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