Chris: Hi! Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?Mike: Sure! Hello everyone, my name is Mike B., project contributor and coordinator. I’ve been in the crypto industry since the very early days. Right around 2011 / 2012 was my first taste of crypto, blockchains, and the freedom of money, and I’ve been living and breathing them ever since. My background is in business development and online retail, and I’ve worked across both centralized and decentralized ecosystems. For <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.freedomdollar.com/">Freedom Dollar</a> (fUSD), I act as a bridge between the protocol’s mission and the wider community, one of a few dedicated fans of economic freedom handling outreach, education, and ecosystem growth.Chris: Freedom Dollar describes itself not just as a coin, but as a “declaration of financial independence.” What does that phrase mean to you personally, and how do you hope users interpret it?Mike: I’m not sure how ‘up’ you guys are on US history, but way back in 1776 they cobbled together the US Declaration of Independence. That was a declaration by the 13 colonies that they were henceforth independent of the system which had insisted on forcing them to economically submit. Freedom Dollar, fUSD, is exactly what it sounds like and exactly what you’re probably imagining when you hear it. A declaration of financial independence, freeing people all over the world from economic submission to banks and nation states. Governments should not have free reign to look into private transactions between individuals, nor should they be able to block your money. If they can block your money, you’re not free to take part in the modern world. But governments are harmless and benign, right? They can be initially, sure. Until they’re not, and they descend into political targeting and citizen suppression. So to us financial independence means self-custody, privacy, and the freedom to transact without permission. fUSD isn’t just a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://bitcourier.co.uk/blog/token-vs-coin">token</a>. It’s a refusal to accept surveillance, arbitrary freezing of assets, or centralized control over the monetary system. Crucially, with fUSD being pegged to the US Dollar, it brings stability of value to the market. So it’s a stable, private form of money that anyone, anywhere, can hold, spend, and use without needing to trust any company, bank, or government to allow their transaction to proceed, and without giving those entities control over what you’re buying and how much money you’re allowed to have in your pocket. It is, in no uncertain terms, a complete game-changer.Chris: You’re very deliberate in using terms like “liberty,” “censorship resistance,” and “sovereignty.” What role do you think stablecoins like fUSD play in the broader push for digital rights and financial autonomy?Mike: Stablecoins - specifically private <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://bitcourier.co.uk/news/stable-oct2023">stablecoins</a> - are essentially the ‘missing link’ between freedom tech and everyday life. If you want to hold your assets privately, but also have them retain their value, there hasn’t really been a simple avenue to allow you to do that. Until now, that is. fUSD takes the push for financial autonomy a step further by refusing to compromise on privacy. In a world where surveillance is creeping into every corner of finance, it is essential that people have access to tools that respect their digital rights by default. fUSD empowers that by virtue of being uncensorable, stable, sovereign, and private by design. &nbsp; Chris: fUSD is built on Zano, leveraging stealth addresses, ring signatures, and confidential transactions. Why was Zano chosen as the foundation, and how does it compare to other privacy chains like Monero or Secret?Mike: Zano offers something rare: a full privacy stack with real, actual scalability. Unlike Monero, it’s built from the ground up to support assets like fUSD through a system called ‘Confidential Assets’ and enable a stable, low-fee infrastructure. And, unlike Secret, it doesn’t have to rely on trusted hardware or partial privacy. Everything on Zano is private by default which makes it the perfect home for a stablecoin protocol that can’t be shut down or spied on. One other very important thing to note about Zano is that one of the core Zano developers is Anton Sokolov. He played a key role in advancing Monero’s core privacy tech (like RingCT) and later initiated Zano to build a more scalable, asset-aware privacy platform. Zano can be seen as a next-gen evolution of that privacy- first ethos, designed with broader asset functionality and long-term scalability in mind. So you can essentially look at Zano, and fUSD built on top of it, as a more private, more functional, more capable, value-stable evolution of Monero. Zano is the future of private blockchain tech, and fUSD is the future of private money.Chris: Given today’s increasing financial surveillance, how important is it to normalize private stablecoins as a mainstream financial tool?Mike: It is absolutely essential, and that is no understatement. If we don’t normalize private stablecoins now, we risk a future where all money is programmable, traceable, and revocable. The US has already begun the process of building out that dystopian future with the recent enactment of the so- called “GENIUS Act”, but Europe is even more at risk with the “Digital Euro” central bank digital currency (CBDC) being launched later this year. With these, governments will be able to track everything from the kind of breakfast cereal you eat, to the clothing you wear, to the type of towels and toilet paper you use - and everything in between. They will be able to see, via transaction records, into your bedroom and into your bathroom. That is nothing short of terrifying. It builds an incredibly intimate picture of every individual, something we should all fear given the proclivity of nation states to descend into various forms of fascism, whether that be in a relative, subtle or outright manner. Private stablecoins like fUSD are how we push back. They’re not about hiding crimes. They’re about reclaiming normal, private transactions as a natural, economic right.Chris: fUSD is overcollateralized and compounds staking rewards over time. Could you explain how this model grows sustainability without risking runaway inflation or under- collateralization?Mike: Every fUSD is backed by more than $1 worth of ZANO, which is the base currency of the chain. The coverage ratio as of today, June 21st, 2025, is 1.38x and these reserves are transparent and independently verifiable. You can verify them using the information found at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://FreedomDollar.com">FreedomDollar.com</a>. Users lock up their ZANO to mint fUSD, and the protocol algorithmically manages the peg through decentralized oracles and market maker bots. Since fUSD can’t be printed out of thin air and earns yield (dynamic, not fixed) from ZANO staking, the system stays balanced, secure, overcollateralized, and inflation-resistant. &nbsp; Chris: What use cases have you seen emerging already — are people saving, spending, or transacting in fUSD in any particular regions or communities?Mike: We’re seeing traction from a lot of users who care about privacy and self-custody: builders, merchants, freelancers, and people living under capital controls. There’s steady growth in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and privacy-savvy communities around the world. Growth in North America is taking off too, though it has been a little more sluggish given the slew of $US-pegged stablecoins already in existence. But with more outreach, and more education, it is only a matter of time before people decide en-masse to stop risking their funds with centralized issuers and switch to holding value in a stablecoin that maintains their privacy and their anonymity. We’re seeing a lot of people report an interest in using fUSD to hold value in a volatile crypto market, send remittances &nbsp;to family and friends living under repressive regimes, avoiding government-imposed capital &nbsp;controls (which is essentially the government telling you what you can and cannot do with your &nbsp;own money), and to avoid centralized stablecoin gatekeepers. All in all, people are using it as what &nbsp;it is: money!Chris: With no formal team or gatekeeping, how do you coordinate development and updates to the protocol? Who decides what gets added or changed?Mike: The beauty of fUSD is that it is governed by code, contributed to by individuals, and runs as autonomous code on Zano. There’s no company, no CEO, no kill switch. Development is community-led, with coordination happening through open forums, GitHub, and contributor discussions. Decisions are made by those who show up: developers, market makers, and users who want to see the Freedom Dollar protocol thrive. It’s all fully transparent and open-source. Anyone can audit how it works, verify the ZANO reserves backing fUSD, or even run their own version of the market maker and oracle bots. There’s a bunch of great information on this on the Freedom Dollar site, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://FreedomDollar.com">FreedomDollar.com</a>.Chris: Privacy tools can be intimidating for average users. What is being done to make onboarding and using fUSD more beginner-friendly?Mike: That’s a top priority for us. We’ve focused on integrations with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://bitcourier.co.uk/blog/altcoin-wallets">user-friendly wallets</a> like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://Bitcoin.com">Bitcoin.com</a>, Cake Wallet, and Edge, alongside the native <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://zano.org/">Zano Wallet</a>. These wallets strip away complexity and offer familiar interfaces that millions of users are already comfortable with, so that makes it easier right off the bat. We’re also publishing guides, working on non-KYC bridges, and creating educational content to lower the barrier to entry even further. We have already integrated with 8 DEX’s and CEX’s, with another 11 currently in the process of integrating. It is also now possible to swap directly into fUSD from over 2,000 cryptocurrencies through Exolix, and direct swapping capability is being integrated right now into some of the wallets mentioned above.Chris: Would you ever consider cross-chain compatibility, or do you believe privacy and sovereignty should remain fully native to Zano’s architecture?Mike: We’re open to bridges if they can preserve privacy, but Zano’s native model is hard to beat. Privacy and censorship resistance can’t be tacked on as an afterthought, they absolutely need to be built-in from the ground up. That said, we’re always open to utilising any secure, battle-tested code that could help extend fUSD’s reach without compromising its core values.Chris: How do you measure success for fUSD — is it about market cap, number of users, or simply offering a tool for those who need it most?Mike: Success isn’t just about the numbers for us, it’s about the impact that fUSD can have and the difference that possessing economic freedom makes to people’s lives. If fUSD helps someone escape financial censorship, move money freely, or hold value without surveillance, then that’s success to us. Of course we track growth – there is currently over 1,300,000 fUSD in circulating supply - but we’re not here to build hype. We’re here to build freedom with the privacy, utility and solidity of a strong fUSD!

 Interview with Mike B, project Contributor and Coordinator of Freedom Dollar

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