The Trojan horse of freedom – Bitcoin as an opportunity in the fight for human rights
16:00 bis 16:45 Uhr
Alex Gladstein has a lot to say about Bitcoin, human rights, financial privilege, and personal freedom. Starting with the fact that anyone born into a reserve currency like the euro, yen, or pound has financial privilege over the 89% of the world population born into weaker systems. Becoming aware of your privileges means accepting that not everyone is born equal and that you have to think outside the box to empathize with the world around you. This is necessary because financial privilege is deeply rooted in our world and has shaped the course of history. However, Bitcoin offers a way out of this power imbalance because it creates a level playing field. As CSO of the Human Rights Foundation, Gladstein is uniquely positioned to detail the rise of Bitcoin from cypherpunk dream to the real-life Bitcoin stories happening to real people across the globe. For people around the world, outside of Wall Street, Bitcoin offers a means of freedom from inflation, political strife, and an outdated monetary system. For these people, the majority of the world’s population, it might even save their lives.
Alex Gladstein is Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. He has also served as Vice President of Strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum since its inception in 2009. In his work Alex has connected hundreds of dissidents and civil society groups with business leaders, technologists, journalists, philanthropists, policymakers, and artists to promote free and open societies. Alex’s writing and views on human rights and technology have appeared in media outlets across the world including The Atlantic, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, NPR, TIME, The Washington Post, WIRED, and The Wall Street Journal. He has spoken at universities ranging from MIT to Stanford, briefed the European Parliament and US State Department, and gives lectures on freedom in the digital age at Singularity University. He frequently speaks and writes about why Bitcoin matters for freedom, and co-authored „The Little Bitcoin Book“ in 2019. His book “Check Your Financial Privilege” was published in 2022, and his latest book, „Hidden Repression: How the IMF and World Bank sell Exploitation as Development“ was published in April 2023.