Human Rights Activist Slams Privileged Crypto Critics in Letter to US Congress

Human rights activists from 20 countries have submitted an open letter to the U.S. Congress in support of "responsible encryption policies" and praised Bitcoin and stablecoins as important tools to help tens of millions of people achieve democracy and freedom.

The letter comes just a week after an anti-cryptocurrency open letter was sent to Congress, purportedly from the scientific community but whose key signatures include prominent crypto critics and high-income democracies. author.

The 21 activists who attacked the letter included people from countries with recent conflicts or economic instability such as Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela, Cuba and even North Korea. The letter reads:

"We write to urge an open, empathetic approach to monetary instruments that play an increasing role in the lives of people facing political repression and economic hardship."

They added that they are humanitarians and democracy advocates who use bitcoin to help people at risk when "other options have failed" and want to defend an open monetary system.

The group said they also rely on bitcoin and stablecoins in their "struggle for freedom and democracy," and that "tens of millions of people" living under authoritarian regimes or in turbulent economies use cryptocurrencies for the same reasons.

“Bitcoin and stablecoins provide barrier-free access to the global economy for people in countries like Nigeria, Turkey or Argentina, where local currencies are collapsing or cut off from the outside world.”

Human rights activists who signed the open letter

The group provided multiple examples from around the world, such as Cuba, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Nigeria, all of which have seen large numbers of cryptocurrencies appear due to inflation or a lack of proper financial infrastructure, on how cryptocurrencies have helped people use.

The group added that cryptocurrencies further "help sustain the struggle against authoritarianism," offering an example of the role cryptocurrencies will play when the financial system collapses following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The activists took aim at the "Anti-Cryptocurrency Letter" delivered to Congress on June 1, said to have the support of 1,500 computer scientists and engineers, calling on Congress to refrain from arguing for "these risky, Flawed, unproven digital financial instruments create regulatory safe harbors". Key signatories include professional or long-time cryptocurrency critics such as David Gerard, Molly White, and Stephen Diehl.

The human rights union said the letter's authors were almost all from countries with "stable currencies, free speech and strong property rights" and that they likely had not experienced hyperinflation or the "ruthless ruthlessness of authoritarian regimes".

"The horrors of monetary colonialism, misogynistic financial policies, frozen bank accounts, exploitative remittance companies, and failure to connect with the global economy may be distant ideas for (Western countries). For most of us and our For our community, and for most people around the world, these are everyday realities. If there's a 'better solution already in use' to overcome these challenges, we'll know."

The event was organized by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a cryptocurrency think tank, and signatories to the open letter included representatives from the Feminist Coalition (Nigeria), Anti-Corruption Foundation (Russia), Belarus Solidarity Foundation (Belarus), Ideas Beyond Borders (Iraq), Digital Citizen Fund ( Afghanistan), especially Garry Kasparov, Russian chess grandmaster and president of the Human Rights Foundation.

The human rights group acknowledged that crypto scams are indeed widespread, but said that confusing useful fintech products with these schemes is not the solution, and instead education is needed to help people differentiate.

"We hope that you and your colleagues will not develop or implement policies that compromise our ability to use these new technologies in our human rights and humanitarian work...We hope that you will choose a different policy path, one that allows us to save, connect and set us free path of."