John Gilmore famously stated of Internet censorship that "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it".
That was in 1993.
But now in 2025, we're in a cultural climate of decadence, decline and censorship. Deep packet filtering is effective. Flood the zone with AI generated social media slop works to keep us confused and sedated.
When does the great firewall of China get installed in western Europe and America? And will Trump be the one to do it? And will there be great celebration in red and blue states when he turns the packet filtering on -- freeing us from a stressful culture war and responsibilities that most citizens don't want.
When......
How about never.
Miners currently use 0.2% of the world energy budget, and as we move towards hyperbitcoinization this will rise to 2% give or take. That's a lot of watts. A lot of industrial infrastructure. These mines and power plants vote with their lobbyists, their equipment. And they have security budgets of their own. And that budget includes men with guns.
A censored internet is one of the few existential threats to the bitcoin project, up there with restrictions on energy use. If you need the government's permission to send packets you might as well use their money, it's cheaper (energetically) and achieves the same thing.
Bitcoin depends on an uncensored, free internet. Bitcoin aligns with first amendment liberties and enlightenment views on freedom.
Miners, if they know what's good for them, will resist GFW of china type censorship, and try to roll it back where it exists. The bigger bitcoin gets, the higher the hashrate gets, the more effective this resistance will be.
Miners will own and run ISPs, pirate and illegal ones if necessary, so that the free data can flow. They will do it to protect their investment and their sunk costs -- and they will do it because as bitcoiners they too love freedom.
Bitcoin proof of work in gigawatts is the price of freedom. It's not zero, but it's cheap for what you get.
It's the best hope and guarantee of an eternally free internet.
Free speech, free money, free markets.
If you like these things, buy and hold some bitcoin.