Bitcoin ‘fixes democracy’ and fights corruption: Human Rights Foundation

• Bitcoin repairs broken democracies by limiting the government’s ability to control its people, says HRF CSO.
• Russia and China, both of them being the world’s biggest autocracies, have been hostile to cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin [BTC] repairs broken democracies and combats government corruption by limiting the government’s ability to control its people, according to Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer (CSO) of the Human Rights Foundation and a Bitcoin advocate.

Gladstein argued in an interview, conducted on 20 February, that Bitcoin’s decentralized nature can act as a barrier against corruption and tyranny.

He said:

“Where the democracies have broken down, I do think it’s very clearly related to fiat currency, and I do think that Bitcoin fixes this in a way.”

Gladstein serves as the chief strategy officer of HRF and has been working at the non-profit organization since 2007. HRF’s mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world, particularly in countries where people live under authoritarian rule.

Gladstein asserted that Bitcoin represents free speech, property rights, and open capital markets, all of which are suffocating to a tyrannical government that frequently relies on censorship, confiscation, and closed capital markets.

Gladstein added,

“This is what China and Russia need to survive – they need censorship, they need close capital markets and they need confiscation, Bitcoin makes it really hard for governments to impose those things on their people.”

Russia and China, both of them being the world’s biggest autocracies, have previously been hostile to cryptocurrency. The Chinese government banned virtually all cryptocurrency transactions in 2021; however, the upcoming Hong Kong crypto licensing regime has led to speculation that China’s stance on cryptocurrency is becoming receptive.

Gladstein’s view is not unique

Gladstein is not the first person to voice such opinions about cryptocurrency. In a 2021 post, Bitcoin infrastructure provider OpenNode expressed similar sentiments about the benefit of BTC donations in battling official crackdowns.

OpenNode asserted:

“One of the benefits of Bitcoin is its censorship resistance.”

Additionally, Gladstein predicted that in the coming years, more people will have technical and liquidity issues with traditional financial services, which will cause them to switch to BTC as an alternative.