Protesters Pin Their Hopes on Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies have increasingly begun to attract the attention of governments as a digital exchange tool, as well as corporate and individual investors. Its censorship-free nature and its potential to be an alternative to fiat currencies, as well as having private transactions, can theoretically cause states to be perceived as a threat to themselves. From time to time, emphasis is placed on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in protest movements.

Reflections of the Protest Mind

At a recent protest on behalf of Black Lives Matter, one speaker talked about Bitcoin as an alternative to the financial systems that have long oppressed them. To take coordinated action, Chinese protesters used Ethereum to avoid censorship of their online messages. Cryptocurrency in Hong Kong helped fund protesters to drive their movement. When protesters sought to exit Hong Kong dollars to express their opposition to the erosion of fundamental rights, a certain number considered Bitcoin as an alternative. Various protests occurred as a result of the countries' local currencies going through difficult times. A funeral was held for the pound in Lebanon, and a branch of the central bank was burned in Tripoli. With these events, the assimilation of the cryptocurrency remained at a low level and the demand was directed not directly to cryptocurrencies, but to the currency USD, which was considered safer.

Critical Moves

Some of these illustrate the difference between ideals and where cryptocurrencies are in practice. Still, there are critical movements. Art collectives are using Blockchain to protest in the US. People are mining Monero to fund bail. This situation does not only include protesting individuals. The government of Catalonia and similar organizations were using Bitcoin to finance and implement independence referendums. The Spanish Government, which was declared illegal after it came into force, claimed that it used Bitcoin to hide the expenses of the Catalonia movement. But the fact remains that it would make little sense for Spaniards to conduct financial transactions in a financial network that spanned all of Europe. Catalonia is also a hub for decentralized webs and networks that are independent of central telecommunications providers. In many different ways; Technology enables people's fundamental democratic and political choices, even if it is something that provides a blunt basis for protest, under the geographical, legal boundaries within which they live, and is not allowed to the fullest extent of their political aims.

Censor

From Iran to Venezuela, from China to governments in other countries, they have censored the internet and the free flow of information when it was convenient for them or where it would best consolidate the power of these respective states. They will do the same with digital exchange tools under their direct control, and they will have much more granular control over rewarding and punishing those who depart from central state ideology. As a result, protesters and protest movements around the world are starting to trust and believe in cryptocurrencies. The censorship-free nature of cryptocurrencies and decentralized peer-to-peer networks may be perceived as weaknesses for institutional investors who see Bitcoin as a pure part of their portfolio, but for protesters they represent significant strength of cryptocurrencies that no one else has. We can say that as the protests increase, there may be an increase in cryptocurrency activity.