Alex Gladstein: Bitcoin Can Fix Damaged Democracy And Against Government Corruption

JAKARTA - Bitcoin advocate and chief strategy officer of the Human Rights Foundation, Alex Gladstein, stated that Bitcoin can fix broken democracy and fight government corruption by restricting its power to control its people.

He said that the decentralization property of Bitcoin could act as a barrier to corruption and tyranny.

"Where democracy has collapsed, I think this is very clearly related to fiat currencies, and I think Bitcoin is fixing this problem," said Gladstein, quoted by Cointelegraph.

Gladstein is HRF's chief strategy officer and has served the nonprofit since 2007. The foundation focuses on promoting and protecting human rights globally - especially in countries where its people live "under authoritarian rule."

Gladstein said during the interview that Bitcoin represents free speech, property rights, and open capital markets, all of which are detrimental to authoritarian governments, which often require censorship, takeover, and closed capital markets.

"This is what China and Russia need to survive, they need censorship, a closed capital market and takeover; Bitcoin makes it very difficult for governments to impose these things on their people," said Gladstein.

Gladstein's argument about crypto has echoed with similar views from others in the past. Bitcoin infrastructure provider OpenNode also voiced similar opinions in a post in 2021 about the benefits of BTC donations in avoiding destruction by rulers.

"One of the advantages of Bitcoin is the resilience of its censorship," OpenNode wrote at the time. "Without central authorities to determine who can and cannot use Bitcoin, it has proven to be the currency of choice for many individuals and organizations that have been abandoned by traditional payment methods."

According to an investigation by blockchain analysis firm Elliptic in February 2022, one of the biggest reasons to create blockchain-based fundraisers is to avoid traditional accounts closed by financial institutions.

Gladstein predicts there will be many "moments triggers" in the coming years when people are experiencing "technical and liquidity problems with traditional financial services," which would result in more people turning to BTC as an alternative.

"If there is a conflict or collapse in trade or communication, you will see a lot of problems, and at any time it will create new Bitcoiners because of need," said Gladstein.