I Built Financial Systems, Then I Questioned Them: My Journey into Bitcoin and Privacy

There's a moment, when you've worked long enough in traditional finance, when something quietly stops making sense.

For me, it wasn't dramatic. There was no single breaking point, just a growing discomfort. I spent over five years as a software engineer building systems for banks and fintech platforms, systems that moved money efficiently, reliably, and at scale. On paper, everything worked: the transactions were fast, the APIs were clean, the UIs were intuitive, the infrastructure was solid. But underneath all that engineering elegance was a trade-off we rarely questioned: privacy.

Every transaction required identity checks. Every movement of value left a trail. Every user had to reveal more of themselves than felt necessary just to participate, and as an engineer, I wasn't just observing this, I was helping build it.

That realization crystallized for me one evening after a ride-hailing trip in Nigeria. At the point of payment, I...

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