When people think about Bitcoin, they often think about neo-goldbugs who hate inflation and the Federal Reserve. But beyond the financial case for it, there’s a moral, human rights case as well. On this week’s podcast, we talk with Alex Gladstein, the Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. He explains why he sees Bitcoin as an essential tool in his fight for human rights all around the world.
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A Human Rights Activist Explains Bitcoin’s Importance
When people think about Bitcoin, they often think about neo-goldbugs who hate inflation and the Federal Reserve. But beyond the financial case for it, there’s a moral, human rights case as well. On this week’s podcast, we talk with Alex Gladstein, the Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. He explains why he sees Bitcoin as an essential tool in his fight for human rights all around the world.
How Bitcoin Can Protect Free Speech in the Digital Age
Think about what happens when you buy a newspaper at a local cafe with cash. The shopkeeper takes your paper money, and gives you the item. They don’t know your name, address, phone number, email, or what you bought yesterday. They are not collecting any data about you. Until now, this level of financial privacy was perfectly normal.
Dissidents and Activists Have a Lot to Gain From Bitcoin, if Only They Knew It
This post is part of CoinDesk’s 2019 Year in Review, a collection of 100 op-eds, interviews and takes on the state of blockchain and the world. Alex Gladstein is Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation and Vice President of Strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum since its inception in 2009.
In China, it’s Blockchain and Tyranny vs Bitcoin and Freedom
China’s centralized blockchains couldn’t be any farther from Bitcoin’s. Designed for maximum control, they will become tools for improved surveillance and social engineering.
Bitcoin could change the game for foreign aid
Today’s humanitarian aid model is fundamentally broken. Whether you’re a foundation making a donation to a nonprofit abroad, a government distributing aid to another government, or an individual sending emergency funds to family members across borders, your money only gets to where it needs to go after passing through intermediaries. Even in the simplest payment scenario, there’s your bank; a coordination network; and the aid recipient’s bank. But often, there are even more middlemen, with money moving along complex chains of third parties.
A Human Rights Activist’s Response to Bitcoin Critics
The Chief Strategy Officer for the Human Rights Foundation sees cryptocurrency as an essential tool for preserving freedom in a connected world.
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”Continue reading “Why Bitcoin Matters for Freedom”
Bitcoin Versus Authoritarianism
Early in July, The News Lens sat down with Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF), a nonprofit that advocates for human rights in closed societies, to discuss the potential importance of Bitcoin as a counter to authoritarianism.
The Kim-Trump Summit Is a Tragedy for the North Korean People
As U.S. president Donald Trump prepares to sit down with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un Tuesday in Singapore, it has emerged that the U.S. government has decided not to mention human rights at all during the talks.