Attendees at the Oslo Freedom Forum, an annual gathering of human rights and democracy activists that has been going on for 13 years, might have wondered at times if they had accidentally stumbled upon a cryptocurrency conference.
Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song's signature cowboy hat could be seen here and there in the Oslo Concert Hall, where the forum, organized by the Human Rights Foundation, was held. Learned investor and entrepreneur Nic Carter strolled around with an umbrella stick. On stage, author and podcaster Laura Shin interviewed an artist working with non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Leaders in Bitcoin and Lightning Network development held workshops on how to use the currency, and crypto CEOs discussed hedging strategies for a possible ban on stablecoins backstage.
A crypto conference wouldn't normally feature human rights activists giving first-hand accounts of their experiences with political oppression, investigative journalists sharing their struggles with propaganda, and cybersecurity specialists checking phones for traces of spyware.
But if you think about it, crypto events might be a bit more about these things.
While crypto is a way to get rich for many, for others it's a human rights tool that offers sometimes clumsy but still viable ways to circumvent financial censorship and surveillance, especially in parts of the world where such measures are widespread.
And this use case won't go away no matter which direction the price of Bitcoin (BTC) moves.
Using Bitcoin
"If no one values Bitcoin other than a penny, we're still able to [move value across the world] and fight for freedom," said Jack Mallers, CEO of Bitcoin payments startup Stripe, who wore an orange and purple sweater and a "Miracle Academy" hat on stage
.Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation and curator of the financial freedom track at the Oslo Freedom Forum, was asked if he thought the activist community was warming up to cryptocurrencies. He responded that the reason he includes bitcoin content in the program is because "many organizations are already using it." In some cases, they do so thanks to him.
Meron Estefanos, a human rights activist working to free victims of human traffickers in Eritrea, says she was initially skeptical of Bitcoin but warmed up to it after attending Gladstein's workshops. At the same time, the government in Eritrea was tightening the screws on hawala, the centuries-old remittance system that relies on a network of people transferring cash to each other across borders.
Now, hawala brokers demand the names of their customers, "and I can't send money to my mother under my name" because authorities in Eritrea are after her for advocating human rights, says Estefanos, who lives in Sweden. So Bitcoin became a remittance channel for her: Now she pays a team of researchers in Bitcoin to help her.
For activists from Russia who have been exiled by their work, bitcoin has also become a lifeline connecting people with those they left behind at home, says Leonid Volkov, who manages crypto donations for Alexey Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader.
"After our movement was banned in Russia and we were forced to move our residence abroad, we realized that Bitcoin is very important because we can use it to support our friends and colleagues in Russia. Because otherwise they would receive money from 'terrorists,'" Volkov said, referring to the term the government uses for Nawalny's organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Bitcoin can serve as an underground payment channel in regimes with abusive financial monitoring, when receiving money from abroad puts activists in the crosshairs of authorities. That was the case when Students for Liberty, a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) that supports student protests around the world, had to send money to a student in China.
"We sent a payment, and the next day he was summoned to the police station to explain what it was about," said Wolf von Laer, the organization's executive director. He also told CoinDesk that he sent Bitcoin to some of his employees in Ukraine when they had to be evacuated from a dangerous area during the ongoing military invasion by Russia.
Concerns aboutStablecoinsAt least
in part because of Gladstein's long-term devotion to Bitcoin, most of the crypto-related panels at the forum were devoted to the oldest and largest cryptocurrency, with a series of hands-on workshops on various Bitcoin payment software and services
.However, a panel featuring Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of Tether, and Ire Aderinokun, co-founder of African crypto company Helicarrier, also paid attention to stablecoins.
Ardoino assured the audience that Tether would be able to redeem its stablecoin USDT in large quantities even in times of crisis, as was the case after the crash of the Terra Protocol UST, an algorithmic stablecoin, and its sister cryptocurrency LUNA.
Read also: The fall of Terra: A timeline of the meteoric rise and fall of UST and LUNA.
The audience seemed to take Ardoino's talk well. After the panel, however, he was approached by Obi Nwosu, founder of UK crypto exchange Coinfloor. He asked what kind of insurance could be created against the risk of Tether default, especially for holders in countries where they cannot receive U.S. dollars in exchange for USDT.
"I think Tether would only fail if governments ban it," Nwosu said. They discussed a possibility of creating some sort of insurance policy where USDT holders would receive as much bitcoin as their Tether is actually worth, but the question of how exactly that would work was left open for now.
The question of Tether reliability and resilience is particularly important for people who lack access to financial services, are exposed to the idiosyncrasies of their own unstable economies, and see USDT as the only available substitute for a U.S. dollar-denominated bank account. Nigeria is a case in point, Aderinokun said.
"Dollar-denominated accounts are not available to everyone, and you have to pay $20 a month in fees to hold one," she said.
"And you might wake up one day to find that the government has converted all your dollars to naira. "
A grain of saltThehuman rights aspect
is not only one of the strongest arguments for the existence of cryptocurrencies, but it also balances out parts of the crypto narrative where arrogance, greed and other unsavory aspects of human nature often steal the show.
Nelson Rauda, a Salvadoran investigative journalist for El Faro, poured cold water on the much-hyped change in El Salvador, which recognized Bitcoin as legal tender last year at the urging of President Nayib Bukele.
While Bitcoiners wrote enthusiastic tweets about the move, nothing exciting has happened yet for ordinary Salvadorans worried about losing what little money they have to Bitcoin's volatility or the shortcomings of the government-blessed Bitcoin wallet, Rauda said. "Take it to the streets and you'll see that people aren't embracing it."
And the rhetoric of rich Bitcoiners telling not-so-rich Salvadorans how bright their future will be is infuriating, especially when it comes to "Bitcoin City," a techno-utopian project that aims to transform the city of La Union into a place where the local economy runs on Bitcoin.
The project could "wipe out" the community living in La Union, whose homes will be demolished to make Bukele's dream a reality, Rauda said.
"I was in the home of a fisherman last week who is being evicted, and the community is being evicted by millionaires who will support Bitcoin City," he said, adding, "
Bitcoin has its roots in the cypherpunk movement. It was created by people who were activists. How did it come to be that millionaires are now flying around Salvador in helicopters? That doesn't make sense to me."Maybe this is also something that should be discussed at the regular crypto conferences.