Hey - I'm Thomas. Welcome to the first issue of Build & Defend.
If you're reading this, you probably care about at least one of these things: technology, security, building things, or financial freedom. This newsletter is about all four - and ultimately more I hope! That’s the cool part of the concept of “Build and Defend” - it applies to cybersecurity, but just about anything else!
One email a week. No fluff.
🔨 BUILD: I Started Mining Bitcoin in 2011. Most people thought I was crazy.
In 2011, I set up a Bitcoin mining rig in my flat in London (after I read a Wired magazine article about it). The noise was awful and it generated a lot of heat. The electricity bill was …. much higher. My then-future-wife would be moving over after a year, so I had the place to myself and noise and heat weren't so much of an issue, especially in the UK winter when I could open the balcony door.
Bitcoin was trading at about .... $2.
I was early because I was curious. I liked Linux, I liked tinkering, and, well, I like(d) money. I figured that it'd be cool to set up my Dell computer with an awesome graphics card, and see if I could make some money. I never though it would get as far as it is today, but I was having fun.
I mined 120 Bitcoin. I used some of it to buy mining equipment (I'm one of the very few people who got actual hardware from Butterfly Labs). I didn't keep all the Bitcoin - I obviously wish I had - I spent them over time like a currency. I didn't buy any now-really expensive pizzas with them or anything like that, but I did use them. Many early Bitcoiners might have similar stories (or if they held for a really long time it's because they forgot their wallet password and won't admit it....😉 ) I also participated in a little initial coin offering (ICO) for something called "Ethereum" in 2014 (that used 2 BTC right there) and then another called "Tezos" in 2017 as well. Ethereum was handy as a currency too, but by the Tezos time I'd learned to HODL, but of course, with less than I started. (To come full circle, there would eventually be a Wired magazine article about the difficulties that everyone participating in the Tezos ICO faced.... but that's a separate story.)
Ultimately I started reading more about crypto - and how to secure (defend) it - and became convinced more and more that cryptocurrency - and Bitcoin in particular, were going to be monumental, and change society. It's a conviction I still hold - recent price swings be damned.
Conviction is the most undervalued skill in building anything.
When I told my boss back in the day about Bitcoin, he told me "It's too volatile." Lots of other people said "It won't work" or "It's not backed by anything". Some people laughed. They're not often laughing now.
I heard every objection. And I kept researching, and doing what I could to build more positions in BTC and others.
That experience rewired how I think about many things:
About investing: The best returns come from holding a position that the majority thinks is wrong - and being right. Not right immediately. Right eventually. That requires sitting with discomfort for months or years while everyone around you wonders what's come over you. That was especially true from 2014 to 2017.
About building: Every product I've worked on, and especially the ones that shipped — books, apps, etc. - started with people telling me it wouldn't work, it wouldn't sell, or it wasn't worth the time. That has essentially always been wrong
About security: Bitcoin taught me that trustless systems work. You don't need to trust the bank, the government, or a counterparty if the protocol is sound. Also, privacy and freedom are important, and fixing the money really helps with that.
About freedom: Financial freedom comes in the form of a number, but really, it's having options. It's working because you choose to, not because you must. I'm not there yet - but I'm working on it, and you can follow along weekly.
The lesson in all of this isn't "buy Bitcoin" (though that's probably not a bad thing). The lesson is this: when you see something that changes how trust, value, or power works - or increases your freedom or that of others - and especially if almost nobody agrees with you - pay very close attention. That pattern repeats, whether that be in crypto or technology, or just life in general.
When I identify those opportunities, I'll be transparent and share them with you.
🛡️ DEFEND: The One Security Setting You Should Enable Today - Especially for Guarding Digital Wealth
Mutli-Factor Authentication (MFA)
I've spent almost three decades in cybersecurity. I can tell you with absolute confidence that the single most impactful thing you can do to protect yourself costs nothing and takes five minutes.
Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on everything. Everything.
The vast majority of account compromises - more than 90% - happen because users got their password guessed or stolen. MFA makes that eventuality significantly less likely.
Where to start:
1. Email (as your password resets go here, you need to secure this first!)
2. Any type of financial account - banks, stock trading, crypto, etc.
3. Cloud storage (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox)
4. Social media (especially if you have any kind of following)
5. Password manager (you are using one, right?) (I use 1Password.)
The best thing is an authenticator app. Also, I never check the box that says "Remember me" or "Trust this computer" or "Trust this browser" - instead, make it ask you every time. It seems tedious, but at the same time it is much more secure.
If you do one thing after reading this newsletter, make it this!
💰 STACK: The $300 Starting Line
My current passive income is approximately $300 per month. My target is $30,000 per month.
That's a 100x gap. I'm going to close it, and I'm going to document the entire journey in this newsletter. How I build things, how I defend them in the marketplace, and how it increases freedom for myself, my family, and hopefully others.
No "I made $50K in my first month" fiction. Just what it actually takes.
Things I'm thinking about:
• Digital products (courses, templates, toolkits)
• This newsletter (you're part of the plan — thank you!)
• Software products (I already have a Mac app on the App Store - tq.fyi/batterylens)
• Investment yield (crypto, tokenised real world assets (RWA), dividends)
• Books (two published, more coming!)
I'll share the numbers!
🔗 LINKS
The Satoshi Whitepaper — If you've never read the original 9-page paper that started it all, today's a good day. It's remarkably readable for something that changed the world.
Have I Been Pwned — Check if your email has appeared in any data breaches. Created by Troy Hunt. Free. You should check this regularly.
The Pragmatic Engineer — Gergely Orosz writes the best engineering/tech career newsletter out there. Different focus from Build & Defend, but complementary. He's proof that one person with deep expertise and a newsletter can build something extraordinary.
💬 ONE THING (Or Maybe Slightly More)
In 2011, I had conviction about something nobody understood. In 2026, I have conviction about something else: the best time to build your own thing is right now. Not someday, or next week, or when you have more time. Not when you have more money.
Pretty much .... right now.
- Thomas
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