Socially Responsible

Monetary oppression is one of the greatest social crises facing humanity today. Some developing countries argue that they are structurally prevented from becoming wealthier by loans with unfavourable terms, that also dictate which goods to produce, export and import. Over the next two sections we look at two case studies for Bitcoin as a tool for economic empowerment at a national level.

El Salvador recently made Bitcoin legal tender. Bitcoin had previously been adopted at a grass-roots level in a Salvadoran coastal community called El Zonte or "Bitcoin Beach". The Covid pandemic accelerated Bitcoin's use cases in El Zonte as unbanked citizens were able to pay for groceries remotely and receive international remittances with vastly lower fees. El Salvador's adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender could give the nation more control over their own technology infrastructure and some measure of freedom from US, World Bank and IMF policies.

Fifteen African countries still use the CFA franc, guaranteed and administered by France, as currency. Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, exposes the history of this currency and explores the case for Bitcoin in his article "Fighting Monetary Colonialism with Open-Source Code."

ONETARY COLONIALISM WITH OPEN-SOURCE CODE

FIGHTING MONETARY COLONIALISM WITH OPEN-SOURCE