1/ I do. I’ll give you a few now. For starters BYSOL, a grassroots Belarusian human rights org, has moved more than $500k of value peer-to-peer to striking workers inside Belarus, in a way the regime can’t stop. Activists or protestors normally get their bank accounts frozen.
2/ A Nigerian feminist coalition raised tens of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin via @BtcpayServer to support pro-democracy anti-SARS protests in October while their bank accounts were being turned on and off. @jack even shared helping the movement go even more viral
3/ Many organizations in Hong Kong have had their bank accounts investigated or funds for supporting human rights work. The indispensable @hkfp team ran into this issue and the local Bitcoin community helped them set up @BtcpayServer so now they can raise funds without that worry
4/ Navalny has raised millions in Bitcoin in an otherwise inhospitable financial climate in Russia. His team has said that even the threat of raising in Bitcoin keeps their traditional accounts more secure, an important phenomenon
5/ There are countless cases of individuals fleeing Venezuela to other countries with their wealth stored in Bitcoin, something previously very difficult for other refugees, who had to flee with whatever they could carry and then whatever wouldn’t be stolen on the way out
6/ Iranians are almost entirely cut off from the global financial system. With Bitcoin, they can receive payments from family or earn income, which they store in Bitcoin (not the disastrous rial) or convert fast through p2p markets to fiat when they need to buy something
7/ How do you escape the Chinese financial surveillance state? Well, for many families, they do it in Bitcoin. Sure, regime types do this too, but they can’t stop the average citizen from saving and transacting in a parallel economy
8/ Palestinians, Argentines, Lebanese, Sudanese, and Filipinos, are just some of the other populations who find Bitcoin very useful. I could literally go on and on. This is happening, it is a global phenomenon, and it’s really perplexing why you have ignored it to this point.
You can follow @gladstein.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled:

By continuing to use the site, you are consenting to the use of cookies as explained in our Cookie Policy to improve your experience.