Human Rights Foundation chief strategy officer Alex Gladstein argues that Bitcoin represents free speech, property rights, and open capital markets — stifling the power of tyrannical governments.
Bitcoin balances democracy and fights government corruption by limiting its ability to control its people, said Alex Gladstein, a Bitcoin activist, and director of the strategy at the Human Rights Foundation.
In Feb. 20 interview, Gladstein argued that the decentralized nature of Bitcoin BTC ($24,994) can act as a deterrent against corruption and tyranny.
“Where democracy is broken, I think that has a clear connection with fiat money, and I think Bitcoin is solving that in a way,” he said. Gladstein is HRF’s chief strategic officer and has served with the non-profit organization since 2007. The foundation focuses on promoting and protecting human rights around the world, especially in countries where the population lives “under tyranny”.
Gladstein also teaches about Bitcoin and the future of money at Singularity University events, according to his biography. Gladstein said during the interview that Bitcoin represents freedom of speech, property rights, and open capital markets, all of which prevent tyranny, which often requires research, integration, and markets closed capital.
He said: “This is what China and Russia have to live with, they want audits, they want closed capital markets, and they want to hold; Bitcoin makes it harder for governments to force these things on their people.”
Both Russia and China have been against crypto in the past. The Chinese government banned almost all crypto transactions in 2021. However, the upcoming crypto licensing regime in Hong Kong has led to claims that China’s opinion on crypto is waning. The main crypto law of Russia, “On Digital Financial Assets”, approved the law to use crypto for payments in 2020. The law did not prevent Russians from investing in crypto, but the exchange of crypto area remained uncontrolled. “I don’t see these dictatorships working well with the Bitcoin standard; I think it’s hard for them,” Gladstein added.
Gladstein’s argument about crypto has echoed similar views from others in the past. Bitcoin infrastructure provider OpenNode expressed a similar view in a 2021 article about the benefits of BTC offerings in escaping the license crunch.
“One of Bitcoin’s advantages is its resistance to auditing,” OpenNode wrote at the time. “With no central authority to define who can and cannot use Bitcoin, it has proven to be a currency of extremes for many people and groups who are locked out of traditional payment methods.”
According to a February 2022 survey from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, one of the main reasons for adopting blockchain-based financial services is to prevent financial institutions from closing traditional financial accounts.
Gladstein predicts that there will be many “exciting moments” in the coming years in which people have “issues about technology and financial and traditional financial services,” which will happen so many people turn to BTC as an alternative. “If there is a conflict or a breakdown in business or communication, you will see a bunch of problems, and each of them is like a time that will create a new Bitcoiner out of necessity,” he said.
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