Sovereign Digest: January 2026

Your monthly claim to Sovereignty – distilled into a sharp 5-minute read during morning coffee.

The world moves quickly. We track the developments that matter most for global mobility, Plan B options, Bitcoin, payments, OPSEC, privacy, business, and personal sovereignty.

Missed last month? Catch up here: Sovereign Digest – December 2025

Global Mobility & Flag Theory

• Global tensions increased after U.S. military strikes on narco trafficking sites in Venezuela, prompted by accusations of funding terrorism through oil revenue. Effective January 1, 2026, USCIS introduced stricter reviews of pending applications from high-risk countries, including many with CBI programs. From January 21, 2026, the U.S. will freeze all immigrant visa processings indefinitely for 75 countries! (official details and countries affected.
  

• Paraguay now requires mandatory visas for Venezuelan nationals to curb cartel-related migration.

• Croatia has reinstated compulsory military service after nearly two decades (read more).

• UK passport renewals have become significantly more difficult and bureaucratic and harder to get it done. One of the "hacks" to renew passport on an embassy would be to claim passport as lost which means an embassy needs to attend the person to replace the passport. (real life experience on X).

• St. Kitts & Nevis is phasing out donation-only CBI routes, adding physical presence requirements (30 days within the first five years) and new pathways focused on innovation, business, and long-term engagement. Caribbean programs are also expanding biometric data collection during interviews.

• Emerging CBI programs include St. Vincent and the Grenadines (with 60% local support) and Botswana, following the African trend set by countries like São Tomé and Príncipe and Sierra Leone. However, it is important to note that CBIs (citizenship by investment) are coming under increased scrutiny from the US and the EU and are being restricted, as we can see in the case of Norway or in the recent approval of the immigrant visa freeze policy by the US.

• Permanent residency options continue to offer cheaper, more flexible Plan B routes even though not as robust as citizenship. Expect some evolvement in 2026 as countries balance investment incentives with migration control.

• The Nomad Passport Index provides a more practical ranking than Henley, considering real-world benefits and drawbacks for various lifestyles (explore the index). It is good to see other metrics, not just the “visa-free” access metric, which in my humble opinion is not the main metric for evaluating citizenships. We may disagree on the importance of each metric in the Nomad Passport Index and the percentage they should represent, but it is up to each individual to make their own assessment of what is important to them.

• Japan is considering extending the residency requirement for naturalization from 5 to 10 years (Japan Times article).

Bitcoin & Payments

• Physical “wrench attacks” on crypto holders more than doubled in 2025, hitting a record around 70 incidents. Risks now extend to smaller holders through home invasions and kidnappings. A recent case in France involved a tax office employee leaking an investor’s holdings and whereabouts (Le Parisien report). Key takeaway: Never disclose holdings publicly, use anonymous wallets, and purchase hardware devices privately (conferences, meetups, or proxy addresses).
  (Full wrench attack 2025 report)

Positive bitcoin notes:

• Rumble launched a Bitcoin + Tether wallet for direct creator payouts (announcement).

• Finito from Pepa Kriz, a fully open-source, local-first payment system supporting BTC and fiat (no KYC), continues to develop (GitHub repository).

• Lightning Network closed 2025 with strong growth (stats thread).

• Crypto card aggregator to compare crypto card benefits.

• Try Cashu, run your Cashu node ideally for your friends and family. It is fully compatible with the Lightning Network. It is a custodial solution (you have to trust your “mint”), but it offers perfect privacy. It seems like a great solution for groups of friends, families, and people who trust each other. It is a better solution than relying on a custodial LSP. Have in mind it is still in "beta" but feels smooths.

Paraguay Update

• Finding Home document series from Avi Burra – Episode 3 with Jan Kotas about searching home in Asunción. Trailer for the episode is here.

• Applications for residency in Paraguay increased by 50% in 2025. In the first half of 2025 alone, applications for residency reached the same number as in the whole of 2024.

• The previously mentioned mandatory entry requirement for temporary residents is not yet enforced in real life. But it can change anytime.

• New real estate taxes took effect in Asunción, with Ycuá Satí now the highest-rated zone (ABC Color).

• Brazil’s tax reform is driving capital and residents toward Paraguay’s more competitive regime (5Días analysis).

Privacy & OPSEC

Notable tools and threats:

• EFF's Rayhunter, an open-source tool to detect cellular spying (EFF post). You can easily run it on Orbic device.
• Moxie Marlinspike launched Private AI (confer.to).
• Dutch designer created an AI-resistant facial recognition mask (example).
• Texas sued five major smart TV manufacturers for unauthorized screenshot capture and data transmission (AG press release).
• Proton’s transparency report shows 94% compliance with government requests in 2024 (limited to metadata and recovery info; encrypted content remains protected with E2EE (when in use)).

Major breaches included:

• Browser extensions collecting AI conversations (article)
• Turkish national ID database leak available on darknet (109M records)
• Instagram (17M accounts) leak (article)
• Insecure Flock Safety surveillance cameras (YouTube breakdown)
• Ongoing thefts from the 2022 LastPass vault breach (article)
• Ledger customer data leak via Global-e payment platform leaking the personal data of customers (name & other contact information). The best way to buy a hardware wallet is from a privacy-focused manufacturer. Buy it physically at a conference/meetup/event or, when buying online, never use your residential address. Always use a proxy. Don't leak personal information and use email aliases.

Interesting Data

• Internet shutdowns inflicted billions in economic damage worldwide in 2025 (report).
• Your Phone Is Not Your Property (Until You Install GrapheneOS

Stay sharp, stay mobile, stay private. See you next month.