The Human Rights Foundation’s report on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies was recently announced. Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategic Officer of the Human Rights Foundation, commented on this report and made some surprising statements about BTC. According to Gladstein, Bitcoin corrects collapsed democracies and prevents some corruption by limiting the ability of governments to influence their citizens.
Does Bitcoin Regulate Governments?
The decentralized nature of Bitcoin has made it the preferred payment method for many global transactions, and its popularity is growing daily. Some countries believe BTC’s decentralization is a cause for concern.
Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Fund, claimed in a recent interview that Bitcoin’s decentralized structure prevents corruption and dictatorship.
“I think the breakdown of democracies is directly related to fiat currencies, and I think BTC solves that problem,” Gladstein said.
Alex Gladstein, who has worked for the Human Rights Fund since 2007, also attended seminars on Bitcoin and the future of money at Singularity University.
On the other hand, the HRF representative said BTC stands for freedom of expression, property rights and open financial markets, which is often opposed by governments that want censorship and closed capital markets.
The Examples of China and Russia Raise Eyebrows
“This is what China and Russia need to survive; they need censorship, they need restricted capital markets, and they need confiscation; Bitcoin makes it incredibly difficult for governments to impose this on their populations,” he wrote.
In the past, both Russia and China have taken a hard line against cryptocurrencies. The Chinese government banned almost all bitcoin transactions in 2021. However, Hong Kong’s recent attempts to license cryptocurrencies have led to rumors that China’s stance on cryptocurrencies has softened somewhat.
Russia, on the other hand, officially banned the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in 2020 with its main crypto law, “On Digital Financial Assets.” However, the law does not prohibit Russian citizens from buying and trading cryptocurrencies, nor does it control cryptocurrency exchanges.
Gladstein, however, is not the only one who believes cryptocurrencies undermine the authority of governments. Bitcoin infrastructure company OpenNode made similar comments in 2021 about the effectiveness of BTC donations in preventing certain government actions. OpenNode even said, “One of those properties is resistance to censorship.”
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