17: Human Rights
There are many different paths to go down as to how Bitcoin supports and protects human rights around the world, so I’ll try to be somewhat brief/concise and just plant the seed.
Before diving in, I’d like to recognize the Human Rights Foundations work in this regard and the work they do to support bitcoin and bitcoin activists & educators across the globe.
Additionally, Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, has written two notable books, which I highly recommend you read:
Check Your Financial Privilege
Hidden Repression: How the IMF and World Bank Sell Exploitation as Development
Energy is life. Energy is the root of all human flourishing. I’m paraphrasing from someone who I can now not remember, but if you think bitcoin’s energy use is bad, then it’s a moral tell as to what you value.
According to the Human Rights Foundation, about 4.19 billion, or 54% of the world’s population, lives under tyranny (source). Essentially, this means that our world is operating at 46% capacity, at best.
Additionally, “76 percent of adults — and 71 percent of adults in developing economies,” are banked, leaving about 30% of adults unbanked (source).
Like it not, money is power; money is freedom. If you control the money, you control the power and the ability to do as you please (for the most part). The 54% of humanity living under tyranny and 30% of humanity unbanked (there is most likely overlap) is extraordinarily vulnerable; their human rights are extraordinarily encroached upon. We have to change this reality. Bitcoin changes this reality.
The spreading of energy infrastructure that bitcoin brings and the ability bitcoin has to bank all 8 billion people, to allow people to save for their future and escape abusive situations is vital.
Bitcoin is “coded” for empathy, for moral soundness. Bitcoin is a trojan horse for good, whereas our current financial systems are not.
Think of the values aligned with bitcoin: truth, empathy, inclusion.
Think of the values aligned with our current financial institutions: fraud, greed, exclusion.
Which values do you align with? We all aim to be good humans, and BTC lowers the price of being good to others. We’re not perfect; we’re not intended to be. Bitcoin helps you do right by others.
Even if your motivation to buy bitcoin is solely self-serving, the act of you purchasing bitcoin supports Belarusian activists fighting to restore free elections and end a horrific dictatorship, to name one example. You can support yourself and inherently support others. When you lift yourself up, you lift others up.
