The Unassailable Use Case of Crypto: Assisting Human Rights Activists
The Oslo Freedom Forum featured a lot of bitcoin and stablecoin talk, emphasising
that this technology is a tool for political dissidents, not just a get-rich-quick scheme.
Attendees at this week's Oslo Freedom Forum,
a 13-year-old annual gathering of human rights and pro-democracy activists,
may have wondered if they'd stumbled into a cryptocurrency conference by mistake.
The Human Rights Foundation's forum was held at the Oslo Concert Hall,
and Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song's signature cowboy hat could be seen here and there. Nic
Carter, an astute investor and entrepreneur, walked around with an umbrella cane.
Laura Shin, author and podcaster, interviewed a non-fungible token (NFT) artist on stage.
Backstage, Bitcoin and Lightning Network developers held workshops on how to use
the currency, and crypto CEOs discussed hedging strategies for a possible ban on stablecoins.
Of course, a crypto conference would not normally include human rights activists
recounting firsthand accounts of political oppression, investigative journalists discussing
how they combat propaganda, and cybersecurity experts checking phones for traces of spyware.
However, if you think about it, crypto events could be more about those kinds of things.
While many see cryptocurrency as a means to make money, others see it as a human rights tool,
providing sometimes clumsy but still functional ways to avoid financial
censorship and surveillance, particularly in areas where such measures are prevalent.
And that use case isn't going away, regardless of where the price of bitcoin (BTC) goes.
Utilizing Bitcoin
"Even if no one values bitcoin other than a penny, we're still able to move value across
the world and fight for freedom," said Jack Mallers, CEO of bitcoin payments startup Stripe,
on stage, wearing an orange and violet sweater and a "Miracle Academy" hat.
Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation and curator of the Oslo
Freedom Forum's financial freedom track, was asked if the activist community is warming
up to cryptocurrency. He responded that he includes bitcoin content in the programme
because "many organisations are already using it." In some cases, it is because of him.
Meron Estefanos, a human rights activist in Eritrea working to
free victims of human traffickers, says she was initially sceptical
of bitcoin but warmed to it after attending Gladstein's workshops.
At the same time, the Eritrean government was tightening the screws on Hawala,
the centuries-old remittances system based on a network of people passing cash across borders.
According to Estefanos, who is based in Sweden, Hawala brokers are now asking for their clients'
names, "and I can't send my mum any money using my name" because Eritrean authorities are after
her for her human rights advocacy. As a result, bitcoin became a means of remittance for her:
She is now paying a team of researchers in bitcoin to assist her.
According to Leonid Volkov, who manages crypto donations for Alexey Navalny,
the imprisoned Russian opposition leader,
bitcoin has become a lifeline for activists from Russia whose work has sent them into exile.
"After our movement was outlawed in Russia and we were forced to relocate abroad,
we realised bitcoin is extremely valuable because we can use it to support our friends
and colleagues back home." Because otherwise, they would be receiving funds from 'terrorists,'"
Volkov explained, referring to how the government refers to Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Bitcoin can be used as an underground payment channel in regimes where receiving money from
abroad puts activists in the crosshairs of the authorities. That was the case when Students for
Liberty, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in the United States that
supports student protests around the world, needed to send money to a student in China.
"We sent a payment, and the next day he was summoned to the police station
to explain what that was about," the organisation's CEO, Wolf von Laer,
explained. He also told CoinDesk that he sent bitcoin to some of his employees in
Ukraine who needed to flee a dangerous area during Russia's ongoing military invasion.
Concerns about stablecoin
Most crypto-related panels at the forum have been dedicated
to the oldest and largest cryptocurrency, with a series of practical workshops on various software
and services for bitcoin payments, thanks in part to Gladstein's own long-term devotion to bitcoin.
Stablecoins, on the other hand, received some attention during a panel discussion
with Tether Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino and Ire Aderinokun,
co-founder of African crypto firm Helicarrier.
Ardoino gave the audience assurance. Tether was able to redeem large amounts of its stablecoin,
USDT, even during times of crisis, such as the one that occurred after the Terra protocol's UST,
an algorithmic stablecoin, and its sister cryptocurrency LUNA crashed.
Ardoino's talk was well received by the audience. However, following the panel,
he was approached by Obi Nwosu, the founder of the U.K. crypto exchange Coinfloor.
He inquired about the possibility of creating insurance against the risk of Tether failing,
particularly for holders in countries where they cannot receive US dollars in exchange for USDT.
"I believe Tether will fail only if governments prohibit it," Nwosu said.
They discussed the possibility of creating a kind of insurance policy in which USDT holders
would receive the same amount of bitcoin as their tethers were supposed to be worth,
but the specifics were left unclear for the time being.
The issue of Tether's dependability and resilience is particularly important for people who lack
access to financial services, are vulnerable to the whims of their own unstable economies,
and see USDT as the only available substitute for a US dollar-denominated bank account.
Nigeria is one example, according to Aderinokun.
"Dollar-denominated accounts are not accessible to everyone,"
she said, adding that "you need to spend $20 a month" in fees to keep one.
"And you never know when the government will convert all your dollars to naira."
a pinch of salt
The human rights angle, in addition to being one of the strongest arguments in favour of
the existence of cryptocurrencies, also balances out parts of the crypto narrative where arrogance,
greed, and other unsavoury aspects of human nature frequently steal the show.
Nelson Rauda, a Salvadoran investigative journalist for El Faro,
poured cold water on El Salvador's much-touted change,
which recognised bitcoin as legal tender last year after President Nayib Bukele's push.
While bitcoiners were ecstatic about the move, nothing exciting has happened so far
for ordinary Salvadorans who are worried about losing the little money they have
due to bitcoin's volatility or flaws in the government-backed bitcoin wallet,
according to Rauda. "Go out into the streets and you'll see that people aren't buying it."
And the rhetoric of rich bitcoiners telling less-affluent Salvadorans how bright their
future will be is galling, especially when it comes to "Bitcoin City," a techno-utopian
project to transform La Union into a city where the local economy runs on bitcoin.
According to Rauda, the project may "erase" the community
of La Union residents whose homes will be demolished to make way for Bukele's dream.
"I was in the house of a fisherman last week who is being displaced, and the community is
being displaced by millionaires who are going to support Bitcoin City," he said, adding:
"Bitcoin originated in the cypherpunk movement." People who were activists created it.
What happened to the millionaires flying around in helicopters in Salvador?
It doesn't make sense to me."
Perhaps this is something to bring up at the regular crypto conferences as well.