What Do Human Freedom and Bitcoin Have in Common? Everything.
This post was written for Slovakia’s twentyone.world community
Introduction
During 2023, I noticed that some of my favorite bitcoiners, people overflowing with personal integrity like Lyn Alden and Jeff Booth, were attending an international conference called the Oslo Freedom Forum. This is an annual conference that aims to create a space for dissidents, artists, journalists, and freedom fighters from around the world to meet and share experiences and tools that help them fight oppression in their home countries. It’s important to realize that 70% of humanity today lives under the oppression of totalitarian regimes. You read that correctly, 5.6 billion people are less free than you.
Because Bitcoin is a tool for economic freedom, which is an essential part of freedom itself, it rightfully has a place at this conference. That’s why for several years now, the Oslo Freedom Forum has been inviting bitcoiners from around the world to educate human rights activists about Bitcoin and show them how unstoppable, uncensorable, deflationary money can help them in their fight.
I myself am a bitcoiner (proud maxi) and at the same time deeply feel the injustice being done to the free human spirit around the world, so this year I decided to participate in Oslo Freedom Forum and draw inspiration, connection, and contacts with like-minded people.
First Two Days
The first two days of the conference were focused on lectures by dissidents and freedom fighters from all over the world. The entire program and recordings of the presentations are now available online. The lectures were very impressive and emotionally charged, and even though I am a very, very tough and rough guy, I often couldn’t help but cry. Even though we may not perceive it that way in Slovakia, we belong to the developed world and our problems (even though the current situation is serious) are still nothing compared to what is happening in the world. Yes, sometimes something from world news penetrates us, we watch a documentary about life in a poorer country and maybe we look at the ranking of countries by GDP per capita on Wikipedia, but such direct contact with people living in these regimes is much stronger and for me at times overwhelming. Each of the participants brought with them a powerful story, but of all I would highlight Paul Rusesabagina, a hero of the Rwandan genocide, who personally saved 1268 people from brutal death, and whose story was portrayed in the film Hotel Rwanda.
One of the main ideals and goals of Bitcoin is freedom, because the freedom to trade, that is, to communicate freely economically, is directly related, if not identical, to freedom of expression. And for this reason, people like Jack Dorsey and Lyn Alden, who perceive Bitcoin as a tool for economic liberation, are also looking for solutions to provide freedom of expression to people in the same unstoppable and uncensorable way that Bitcoin provides for economic communication. In this interview, they talk about the uncensorable Internet protocol Nostr, which takes control of your communication from companies like Meta, X, etc. and puts it in your hands. While these companies may share our ideals of freedom of expression, we must be aware that they are subject to censorship pressures from states and are not always able to defend themselves against them. In this interview, they also warn about the dangers of algorithm manipulation and how important it is to be able to choose the algorithm that, for example, presents me with my daily news.
Third Day
The third day had a separate, all-day track called the Financial Freedom Track, which was dedicated to a series of short lectures on how Bitcoin is already:
- financing the fight against extremism and terrorism in London,
- helping Ugandan women become independent and live equal lives,
- enabling private and anonymous trading,
- giving communities and cities in Africa economic life and security,
- its mining is used to dry cocoa that would otherwise go to waste,
- its mining brings electricity to areas where it was previously unprofitable,
- and much, much more (see scans of the program in the gallery).
Bitcoin has different meanings for different people. In our relatively advanced, wealthy and secure society, it is easy to narrow your interest in Bitcoin only to potential FIAT earnings, or philosophizing about monetary policy. Maybe it’s not yet fully graspable for you, dear bitcoiner, or pre-coiner, but Bitcoin is the hope of light, freedom and truth for millions of people around the world. And maybe you don’t notice it today, but the darkness of authoritarian regimes is slowly creeping into societies where it was once unimaginable. Bitcoin is humanity’s only chance to live in freedom and peace. With every unit of your economic energy that you store on the Bitcoin network, you help not only yourself, but millions of people around the world whose only tool of economic communication is Bitcoin. Stack sats (buy Bitcoin) as if your future, the future of your family, your commity and this planet depend on it. Because they do.
