To date, very few have meaningfully used bitcoin or started to realize its power as a financial escape valve and parallel economy.
Even as the bitcoin network pushes into its 12th year of existence, mainstream consumers and corporate users remain stubbornly closed-minded towards the technology.
For example: independent media outlets and civil society organizations in Hong Kong are starting to accept bitcoin donations because their banking accounts are being monitored and controlled; Venezuelans, Iranians, and Palestinians are using bitcoin to do cross-border payments and break through financial controls and sanctions; Chinese are using bitcoin to convert their wealth into an confiscation-resistant store of value; Argentines, Turks, and Lebanese are using bitcoin to opt out of collapsing fiat systems; Syrians and Nigerians are working in the software industry and earning money in bitcoin and using local peer to peer markets to withdraw into fiat to buy goods when necessary; just to name a few.
As time goes on, more and more people are realizing that bitcoin can be a way for them to achieve financial sovereignty in an era of increasing instability and surveillance.
As we head into 2020, what are bitcoin's prospects as tool for freedom? Ironically, even in the most democratic countries, bitcoin users need to worry about privacy.
Beyond privacy, the ability for individuals to buy bitcoin with fiat and convert bitcoin into fiat is a big challenge.
In the past few years we have seen an incredible increase in local liquidity, where it's now fairly easy to buy or sell bitcoin in most major urban areas around the world, even inside dictatorships and countries in conflict.
If you have bitcoin in Tehran, Beijing, Aleppo, Caracas, or even Gaza, with a bit of research you'll be able to find someone who will sell you fiat in return.
As we look forward to 2020, bitcoin "As is" is working as Satoshi intended and is already powerful enough to materially help hundreds of millions of people facing financial repression.
For 2020, rather than spending time talking to others already in the bitcoin space, make it a goal to talk to new communities: entrepreneurs, activists, journalists, and creatives in difficult political and economic environments.
Dissidents and Activists Have a lot to Gain From Bitcoin, if Only They Knew It
Published on Dec 15, 2019
by Coindesk | Published on Coinage
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