Character
Steve Barbour
Steve Barbour is a Bitcoin miner and the Bugleverse’s model of proof-of-work civil disobedience. His documented method of protest is not the sign or the strike but the generator.
Arc history
Barbour’s canon opens in January 2023, when President Justin Trudeau threatened to ban Bitcoin mining and Barbour responded by setting up a Hash Hut and generator in the middle of Ottawa, in a move reminiscent of the 2022 Canadian Trucker Protest. “I will add a megawatt of capacity a day until you rescind your stupid threats,” he told a news reporter (Trudeau Threatens To Ban Bitcoin Mining).
The Canadian government froze his bank account; his funding continued uninterrupted, and he kept buying miners to plug in. JW Weatherman threatened legal action against him for accepting Bitcoin donations. Miners from across Canada rallied to him, blockading Ottawa roads with barriers built from S9 chassis while a continent-wide hardware buying frenzy emptied Kaboomracks’ inventory. Barbour did not respond to The Bugle’s request for comment.
He is the protagonist of Trudeau vs. Bitcoin mining.
irl: Steve Barbour is the real founder of Upstream Data, which sells off-grid mining shelters actually called Hash Huts. The Ottawa occupation is fictional; the frozen-bank-accounts detail transplants what really happened to 2022 trucker-convoy donors.