Alex Gladstein, Strategy Director of the Foundation for Human Rights, called bitcoin a “humanitarian remedy” against the sale of personal data and government control over the population.
This was announced by Alex Gladstein at a conference on the development of bitcoin and blockchain, during which the topics of social loans in China and hyperinflation in Venezuela were discussed. Gladstein paid special attention to digital privacy, or rather, its absence. We are talking about the sale of personal data to various firms and advertisers, as well as the government surveillance of user actions.
Whether consciously or not, users often give up their privacy for convenience, speed and comfort. Gladstein mentioned the Chinese social credit system, in which all payments are made through one state payment system. It stores not only personal data of a person, but also personal information: about purchases made, education, etc. The system uses the provided data to provide all types of banking and financial services.
The downside of “comfort” can be a low social credit rating. Depending on the person’s past, beliefs or behavior, he may be denied a loan or a driver’s license, and even admit a child to educational institutions. The Human Rights Foundation official added that by 2021, China will have 500 million CCTV cameras to monitor a population of about 1.4 billion people.
Gladstein believes that it is bitcoin that can solve this problem thanks to its decentralization, since third parties are not required to make transactions with bitcoin. To maintain anonymity, you need to use cash, since sellers who accept payment do not know anything about the person, nor about the origin of these funds. But the world is changing rapidly and the use of cash is declining significantly.
“Could there be another cashless society? Is a decentralized financial system possible without third parties and regulatory authorities? Bitcoin can protect humanity by ensuring its privacy, ”said Gladstein.
He suggested that in the future, historians will view Bitcoin as a tool that contributed to the decentralization of the global financial system, governments and information on the Internet. Considering that bitcoin cannot be censored and massively controlled, cannot be monopolized by corporations, then in many ways bitcoin can become a tool of humanitarian protection.
“Even if you are a billionaire or represent one of the corporations buying up tons of bitcoins right now, you cannot change the rules. You can’t stop me or anyone else from using bitcoin. ”
Recall that last year, the Human Rights Foundation financed the development of solutions for the anonymization of transactions on the Bitcoin network, and also announced cooperation with the Casa startup to protect donations and funds of the foundation stored in BTC.
