On Wednesday, socially minded Bitcoin advocates from Kenya to Canada to Russia gathered on the final day of the 2024 Conference. Oslo Freedom Forum as part of the Financial Freedom Track event to offer their ideas on how Bitcoin can be a tool for those who need it most around the world.
Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer Human Rights Foundation (HRF), the organization that organizes the Oslo Freedom Forum, started the day by discussing why Bitcoin is essential in a human rights context. He then read two relevant passages from Lyn Alden's book. Broken money: why our financial system is failing us and how we can improve it before inviting the author, an esteemed macroeconomic analyst, to the stage.
Alden provided a brief overview of monetary history before noting that Bitcoin gives anyone anywhere in the world access to a free, open financial system. He also noted that Bitcoin, which is now 15 years old, has matured and become easier to use and is also quite liquid, aspects of the network and asset that make it more suitable for a human rights context than in its early days. days.
Hadiya Masiehfounder of the surge project, an organization that works to foster tolerance and empathy among diverse communities, took the stage to present their talk titled “How Bitcoin Can Fund Counterterrorism.” She highlighted how she taught Somali women how to use bitcoin to raise funds for political campaigns of political candidates in the country.
Noble Nyangomaexecutive director of the Bitcoin Innovation Center, spoke shortly after Masieh, discussing the work he does with refugees in Uganda, many of whom are not yet Ugandan citizens and therefore cannot open bank accounts in the country. She highlighted that Bitcoin is essential for these refugees.
“With Bitcoin, no one will ask you 'Where is your national ID?'” Nyangoma said.
One of the most moving talks of the day came from Farida NabouremaTogolese activist and executive director of the African Bitcoin Conference. She shared a heartbreaking account of how she once needed emergency surgery in Ghana and almost didn't receive it because she didn't have enough money in the local currency at the time of the surgery to pay for it.
However, he had sufficient funds in his home country's currency to make the payment, but the hospital would not accept it. What he meant was that Africa is divided financially by many different currencies on the continent, none of which can be used across borders.
He explained that Bitcoin solves this problem as it helps create a world (especially in Africa) where the situation he experienced in that hospital in Ghana could have been avoided.
Before the lunch break, Ben Perrin, better known as BTC sessionsgave a presentation on how to use bitcoin in a high fee environment, and Alex Limember of the HRF team, announced the 10 Bitcoin Development Fund Grant Winners for software developers creating tools that increase privacy on the Lightning Network, create decentralized communications, and provide technology tools to human rights defenders.
In the afternoon, Sparrow Wallet Developer Craig Raw detailed a number of practical ways to use Bitcoin more privately, while Lorraine Marcel, founder of Bitcoin DADAa virtual Bitcoin educational platform and community for African women, shared stories of how Bitcoin is catalyzing remarkable changes in her students and those her organization serves.
“Before Bitcoin, I couldn't really see a real way to gain financial freedom or independence for myself or my sisters at home,” Marcel said during his presentation.
She went on to share that the organization is also using bitcoin as a fundraising tool to help fund an initiative that provides feminine hygiene products and educational materials to students in Kibera, one of the largest urban slums in Africa.
Calle, an anonymous software developer who created the cachu protocol, an ecash protocol that offers more transactional privacy with Bitcoinprovided an overview of how ecash works and how the privacy it provides can benefit activists.
About halfway through the afternoon session, Christian KerolesHRF Director of Financial Freedom, interviewed Luthando Ndabambicommunity leader in Bitcoin Ekasi, a Bitcoin circular economy located in a township in South Africa. Ndamambi told Keroles that before bitcoin, he and many others in his community had no means to save, which led them to not think much about their future.
“I tell people in my municipality: 'When you think about Bitcoin, think about saving for your children,'” Ndabambi said.
Shortly after, Peter McCormack, host of the show What did Bitcoin do? podcast, sat down with Mike Brock, head of Determined at Block, and Anna Chekhovich, financial director of Alexey Navalny's Anticorruption Foundation and HRF Nonprofit Bitcoin Adoption Lead. The three discussed how Bitcoin can help preserve democracy, as well as the effects of The crackdown on privacy-focused Bitcoin wallets in the US.
“In order for us to receive donations, we have to provide our donors with high-level security tools for payments,” Chekhovich explained.
“If there is a small chance that your personal data will be leaked to the government and you will be imprisoned, of course you will not donate. That's why privacy tools are crucial, and at the Anti-Corruption Foundation we are very concerned about that. We try to do everything we can to provide security to our donors,” he added.
“If we deprive ourselves of these privacy tools, we will not be able to accept bitcoin donations, because we cannot put our donors at such great risk.”
Dulce Villarreal, executive director and founder of Satoshi Bookstore (Satoshi Library), a Bitcoin center that provides educational materials and classes on Bitcoin, as well as financial support for student Bitcoin developers, stated that it is concerned about the fact that more than 50 million people live under dictatorships in Latin America and that central bank digital currencies (CBDC) will do nothing but favor the autocratic leaders of the continent.
Therefore, it is on a mission to make Bitcoin ubiquitous by helping to train people around the world to work and support Bitcoin.
“Our mission is to make Bitcoin technical training accessible in your own language,” said Villarreal. “At Satoshi Bookstore, our goal is to foster the next generation of Bitcoin contributors, entrepreneurs, and educators.”
The day concluded with a fireside chat with Jack Mallers, Founder and CEO of Strikeand Matt Odell, managing partner of ten31 and co-founder of OpenSats. The two discussed the importance of profitable Bitcoin companies contributing to open source developers, much like how Strike announced he would donate $100,000 to the OpenCash Associationa non-profit organization that supports this type of developers, founded by the aforementioned Calle.
“Through my work with HRF and by coming here, I have a duty to ensure that Bitcoin is successful, although perhaps not in the immediate interest of my shareholders (or) my corporation,” Mallers explained. “That's part of the game theory that makes the whole project work. So no matter what your role is, we're all on the same team. If Bitcoin is better, we will all be better for it.”
Strong words to end a conference that featured the voices of so many people who have done everything they can to ensure that we are all better off thanks to Bitcoin.
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