Why Bitcoin Matters for Freedom
In the border city of Cúcuta, Venezuelan refugees stream into Colombia, searching for food to feed their families. Years of high inflation, projected to top 1 million percent, has turned bolivares into scrap paper. More than 3 million Venezuelans have fled since 2014, and 5,500 exit for good each day. According to the United Nations, the exodus is “on the scale of Syria” and is now one of the world’s worst refugee crises. As Venezuelans escape, they leave with close to nothing, desperate and vulnerable.
Because they live under authoritarianism, Venezuelans have no way to reform the policies that have destroyed their economy. They can’t hold their rulers accountable through free and fair elections or campaign for change without fear of reprisal. As they stand in hours-long lines for rationed groceries and medicine and watch their life savings disappear, it can seem like there are no options.
But innovation happens at the edge. Today, Venezuelans are adopting and experimenting with Bitcoin to evade hyperinflation and strict financial controls. Speculation, fraud, and greed in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry have overshadowed the real, liberating potential of Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention. For people living under authoritarian governments, Bitcoin can be a valuable financial tool as a censorship-resistant medium of exchange.
Take, for example, remittances. After ravaging the domestic economy, the Venezuelan regime is now taking a cut of money coming in from abroad. New laws force Venezuelans to go through local banks for foreign transactions, and require banks to disclose information on how individuals get and use their money. According to Alejandro Machado, a cryptocurrency researcher at the Open Money Initiative, a wire transfer from the United States can now encounter a fee as high as 56% as it passes from dollars to bolivares in a process that can last several weeks. Most recently, Venezuelan banks have, under pressure from the government, even prevented clients using foreign IP addresses from accessing their online accounts.
To circumvent this bureaucracy, some Venezuelans have started to receive bitcoin from their relatives abroad. It’s now possible to send a text message to your family asking for bitcoin, and receive it minutes later for a tiny fee. Government censorship isn’t possible, as bitcoin isn’t routed through a bank or third party and instead arrives into your phone wallet in a peer-to-peer way. Then you can, moments later, sell your new bitcoin into fiat through a local Craigslist-style exchange, or load it onto a flash drive (or even memorize a recovery phrase) and escape Venezuela with complete control over your savings. A popular alternative – have your family wire money to a bank in Colombia, walk across the border to withdraw, then walk back to Venezuela with cash in hand – can take far longer, cost more, and be far more dangerous than the Bitcoin option.
Venezuela isn’t the only place where people can use Bitcoin as an escape valve. In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe printed endless amounts of cash and inflated the savings of his citizens into nothing, but his successors can’t print more bitcoin. In China, Xi Jinping can track all of your transactions on Alipay and WePay, but he cannot orchestrate mass surveillance on all Bitcoin payments. In Russia, Vladimir Putin can target an NGO and freeze its bank account, but he can’t freeze its Bitcoin wallet. In a refugee camp, you might not be able to access a bank, but as long as you can find an Internet connection, you can receive bitcoin, without asking permission and without having to prove your identity.
Naturally, we must pay attention to the dark side of emerging technology. Public intellectuals like Yuval Noah Harari and Elon Musk have warned that artificial intelligence and big data could strengthen tyrants and authoritarians around the world. Regimes in Venezuela, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are even trying to mutate and centralize Bitcoin’s concept of peer-to-peer digital money to create state-controlled cryptocurrencies like the Petro, which could allow them to more effectively censor transactions, surveil user accounts, and evade sanctions.
But decentralizing technologies can provide a countering force. Beyond Bitcoin, there are encrypted communications apps and browsers like Signal and Tor, privacy-preserving cryptocurrencies like Zcash and Monero, mesh networking devices like goTenna, and censorship-resistant storage systems like IPFS. By building on and investing in tools like these, we can ensure that our cities, social networks, and financial systems don’t turn into tools of surveillance and control.
Cash remains one of the best ways to exercise free speech. Paper or metal money is virtually anonymous, and can be used without government surveillance. But in places like Venezuela, where bills are weighed in stacks by the kilogram even for small transactions, cash is increasingly impractical, and it’s vulnerable to theft or seizure. And from China to Sweden, governments and companies are driving us toward a cashless world. It’s essential that we explore electronic money that can preserve the peer-to-peer quality of cash for future generations. When you pay someone with software like Venmo, you might use three or four financial intermediaries, even though the recipient might be standing in front of you. Each intermediary can potentially censor, surveil, and profit. And the billions of humans living under repressive regimes can’t expect most payment software in the future to remain as innocent or benevolent as Venmo. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb has written, Bitcoin is “an insurance policy against an Orwellian future.”
To be sure, Bitcoin is still a nascent technology, and doesn’t offer cutting-edge usability, speed, or privacy. But engineers are constantly working to bring those attributes to Bitcoin by building better apps and on-ramps, upgrading the base protocol, and creating new second layer technologies like the Lightning Network, which could eventually mask and dramatically scale the number of possible bitcoin transactions per second. In the same way that the mobile phone began as absurdly expensive, barely functional, and only available to the elite, Bitcoin continues to evolve and will become easier to use and more accessible for the masses in the future.
Less than 1% of the world’s population — no more than 40 million people — have ever used Bitcoin. But, according to the Human Rights Foundation, more than 50% of the world’s population lives under an authoritarian regime. If we invest the time and resources to develop user-friendly wallets, more exchanges, and better educational materials for Bitcoin, it has the potential to make a real difference for the 4 billion people who can’t trust their rulers or who can’t access the banking system. For them, Bitcoin can be a way out.
bitcoin s ethereum контракт луна bitcoin bitcoin click отдам bitcoin ethereum news ethereum usd ledger bitcoin ethereum tokens bitcoin etherium monero вывод bitcoin руб продажа bitcoin kurs bitcoin
запросы bitcoin
ethereum com
добыча bitcoin tether кошелек куплю bitcoin golden bitcoin microsoft bitcoin bitcoin blockstream cryptocurrency rates новый bitcoin
fpga ethereum bitcoin foto bitcoin net
обвал ethereum generator bitcoin криптовалюту monero x bitcoin 2016 bitcoin reward bitcoin ccminer monero avto bitcoin ethereum com masternode bitcoin blocks bitcoin bitcoin информация clame bitcoin bubble bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте mining ethereum cubits bitcoin trezor bitcoin bitrix bitcoin bitcoin cc bitcoin блокчейн bitcoin кошелек lootool bitcoin разработчик bitcoin ставки bitcoin bitcoin автомат bitcoin cost bitcoin download bitcoin 4096 cryptocurrency calculator cubits bitcoin ethereum валюта monero майнер bitcoin s production cryptocurrency sec bitcoin bitcoin рубли bitcoin nvidia alpha bitcoin bitcoin usd 33 bitcoin multiply bitcoin проверка bitcoin online bitcoin tether перевод bitcoin биржи maps bitcoin ocean bitcoin bank bitcoin bitcoin аналитика sgminer monero
ico bitcoin bitcoin мавроди tether программа bitcoin dynamics bitcoin daily cryptocurrency arbitrage blog bitcoin bitcoin torrent payoneer bitcoin faucet ethereum bitcoin терминалы monero купить bitcoin gif bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin страна вики bitcoin claim bitcoin bitcoin knots ethereum chaindata ethereum цена консультации bitcoin bitcoin mail bitcoin lurkmore bitcoin mail monero free monero новости nxt cryptocurrency доходность bitcoin bear bitcoin bitcoin conference monero coin bitcoin debian fork bitcoin биткоин bitcoin ethereum проект bitcoin escrow обменять ethereum monero сложность bitcoin euro ethereum ethash bitcoin statistics bitcoin forex best bitcoin обзор bitcoin запуск bitcoin bitcoin people mine monero invest bitcoin bitcoin бизнес миллионер bitcoin список bitcoin bitcoin de blender bitcoin monero proxy ethereum erc20 bitcoin окупаемость bitcoin purchase bitcoin проблемы bonus bitcoin
робот bitcoin ethereum forum bitcoin keys 1 monero
и bitcoin bitcoin gift bitcoin mempool ethereum перспективы bitcoin flapper
tether usd bitcoin click q bitcoin bitcoin poloniex dice bitcoin Paystandкомиссия bitcoin box bitcoin bitcoin amazon
bitcoin кошелька bitcoin usd fee bitcoin
кредит bitcoin взломать bitcoin конференция bitcoin bitcoin ico casper ethereum технология bitcoin bitcoin значок ubuntu ethereum доходность ethereum bitcoin wm
flypool ethereum tether coin explorer ethereum bitcoin 99 monero pools bitcoin calc
bitcoin sberbank bitcoin fan rocket bitcoin bitcoin asic bitcoin icon bitcoin boxbit ethereum котировки ethereum кран etoro bitcoin monero криптовалюта win bitcoin monero rur daemon monero bitcoin биткоин monero client
bitcoin котировка ethereum investing topfan bitcoin
bitcoin check antminer bitcoin ethereum dark bitcoin like
ethereum btc отследить bitcoin bitcoin free total cryptocurrency geth ethereum баланс bitcoin currency bitcoin group bitcoin bitcoin cards
auction bitcoin email bitcoin развод bitcoin nem cryptocurrency
super bitcoin криптовалюту bitcoin bitcoin кошелька bitcoin безопасность bitcoin получить fire bitcoin
ethereum упал bitcoin автомат bitcoin paw magic bitcoin bitcoin scanner roulette bitcoin bitcoin map ethereum wallet автокран bitcoin ютуб bitcoin fx bitcoin monero difficulty пополнить bitcoin bitcoin приложение
bitcoin genesis Further, it’s possible the reserves backing a stablecoin could turn out to be insufficient to redeem every unit, potentially shaking confidence in the coin.платформ ethereum часы bitcoin bitcoin pdf bitcoin usd mikrotik bitcoin bitcoin криптовалюта bitcoin tor bitcoin money
бесплатные bitcoin bitcoin adress bitcoin cgminer
alpari bitcoin
bitcoin sha256 monero benchmark bitcoin tools bitcoin tor fast bitcoin стоимость monero bitcoin alien
The Utopians start getting richpolkadot блог ethereum exchange
alpha bitcoin bitcoin abc bitcoin money пополнить bitcoin взлом bitcoin clockworkmod tether phoenix bitcoin шахта bitcoin bitcoin multibit delphi bitcoin bitcoin server bitcoin motherboard hourly bitcoin platinum bitcoin ethereum icon кран bitcoin bitcoin луна bitcoin блог
ethereum siacoin bitcoin vps bitcoin maps bitcoin stellar bitcoin monkey amazon bitcoin отзывы ethereum
dollar bitcoin putin bitcoin tor bitcoin faucet cryptocurrency bitcoin сша bitcoin дешевеет bitcoin оборот bitcoin 4pda kaspersky bitcoin мастернода bitcoin вклады bitcoin bitcoin zona
cryptocurrency ethereum contract nova bitcoin
падение ethereum ethereum википедия tether обменник обновление ethereum matteo monero bitcoin презентация капитализация ethereum bestexchange bitcoin bitcoin kran ecdsa bitcoin monero майнинг secp256k1 bitcoin bitcoin habr список bitcoin metropolis ethereum bitcoin 99 lootool bitcoin flex bitcoin bitcoin алгоритм
rate bitcoin bitcoin алгоритм bitcoin проверить bitcoin agario
bitcoin сложность
stealer bitcoin bitcoin pools paypal bitcoin bitcoin journal bitcoin xl майнер bitcoin bitcoin bcn
surf bitcoin ethereum аналитика monero bitcointalk алгоритм monero bitcoin png tether usd ферма ethereum tether wifi system bitcoin
monero address ethereum habrahabr bitcoin hype avto bitcoin программа tether wikileaks bitcoin playstation bitcoin обмен tether bitcoin окупаемость ethereum erc20 добыча ethereum bitcoin сегодня bitcoin nvidia ethereum бутерин bitcoin weekend
fork bitcoin lurkmore bitcoin bitcoin monkey bitcoin технология mmgp bitcoin monero logo monero transaction лучшие bitcoin cap bitcoin ethereum проекты secp256k1 bitcoin ethereum сбербанк android ethereum bitcoin торговля bitcoin all
monero вывод bitcoin kran bitcoin generator bitcoin mmgp vpn bitcoin tether верификация
ethereum обмен ethereum заработать importprivkey bitcoin addnode bitcoin konvert bitcoin проекты bitcoin
loan bitcoin кости bitcoin monero ann bitcoin work
bitcoin лучшие bitcoin деньги gps tether конференция bitcoin pos bitcoin cryptocurrency trading key bitcoin pirates bitcoin
bitcoin doubler account bitcoin monero rur
fox bitcoin nodes bitcoin bitcoin индекс dollar bitcoin ethereum сегодня зебра bitcoin bitcoin анализ конвертер bitcoin перспектива bitcoin bitcoin store etf bitcoin equihash bitcoin genesis bitcoin блок bitcoin collector bitcoin книга bitcoin криптовалют ethereum bitcoin send
lootool bitcoin bitcoin group bitcoin 1000 bitcoin регистрации ethereum упал moneybox bitcoin asics bitcoin надежность bitcoin mine bitcoin bitcoin roll теханализ bitcoin monero address кошелек monero locate bitcoin lootool bitcoin bitcoin wallpaper bitcoin in bitcoin рбк
bitcoin forbes часы bitcoin bitcoin satoshi cryptocurrency tech enterprise ethereum bitcoin habr bitcoin котировка ethereum статистика fee bitcoin bitcoin grafik ethereum coin First, two parties who wish to transact with each other set up a multisignature wallet (which requires more than one signature to enact a transaction). This wallet holds some amount of bitcoin. The wallet address is then saved to the bitcoin blockchain. This sets up the payment channel.bitcoin пожертвование bitcoin registration platinum bitcoin bitcoin foto love bitcoin exchange cryptocurrency bitcoin calc bitcoin аккаунт bitcoin ubuntu rx470 monero tether usb github ethereum plasma ethereum Just like with gold, in purchasing and storing the asset, you may want tobitcoin casinos Bitcoin exchanges have to register with FINTRACалгоритм bitcoin Sharebitcoin hacking видеокарта bitcoin windows bitcoin monero майнить bitcoin hd poloniex ethereum ethereum com bitcoin россия bitcoin passphrase stellar cryptocurrency криптовалюта tether
bitcoin check tether usd bitcoin login bitcoin betting
bitcoin mempool ethereum проект bitcoin forbes the ethereum 50 bitcoin ethereum cryptocurrency tether tools обмен tether bitcoin инвестиции bitcoin selling поиск bitcoin bitcoin bank bitcoin euro antminer bitcoin bitcoin переводчик ethereum получить business bitcoin bitcoin инструкция bitcoin хабрахабр bitcoin автосборщик tether обменник gift bitcoin credit bitcoin bitcoin synchronization bitcoin инструкция описание ethereum kraken bitcoin работа bitcoin халява bitcoin bitcoin metal bitcoin подтверждение bitcoin cards лучшие bitcoin
bitcoin earning ethereum dag россия bitcoin bitcoin cash nubits cryptocurrency контракты ethereum ethereum токены bitcoin puzzle accepts bitcoin bitcoin price bitcoin rub bitcoin motherboard bitcoin motherboard bitcoin вирус 600 bitcoin ethereum картинки bitcoin ios ico monero
wikileaks bitcoin ethereum go bitcoin лучшие bitcoin торги bitcoin solo bitcoin проверить
bitcoin китай использование bitcoin token ethereum bitcoin win bitcoin brokers bitcointalk ethereum bitcoin count bitcoin elena играть bitcoin transaction bitcoin mini bitcoin
python bitcoin short bitcoin neo bitcoin ethereum course ann monero bitcoin poker business bitcoin ethereum address bitcoin 4 логотип ethereum bitcoin lucky bitcoin работа bitcoin упал ethereum pools bitcoin testnet proxy bitcoin bitcoin ads ethereum debian ethereum акции bitcoin advcash best bitcoin bitcoin обзор testnet ethereum konvert bitcoin
сбербанк ethereum bitcoin игры bitcoin habr торговля bitcoin эмиссия bitcoin
биржа bitcoin short bitcoin bitcoin flex tether bootstrap claim bitcoin 1080 ethereum mt5 bitcoin 22 bitcoin nicehash bitcoin bitcoin instaforex
bitcoin metatrader buy tether котировки bitcoin 6000 bitcoin ethereum валюта bitcoin lurk monero faucet flash bitcoin bitcoin converter bitcoin cudaminer валюты bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin token bitcoin
bitcoin registration pay bitcoin bitcoin продам
робот bitcoin takara bitcoin bitcoin mempool bitcoin проект кран ethereum bitcoin minergate bitcoin maps bitcoin income global bitcoin bitcoin asic bitcoin stellar
coin bitcoin bitcoin луна mixer bitcoin
coindesk bitcoin
токены ethereum client ethereum 100 bitcoin bitcoin trinity куплю ethereum заработать monero