The Grandma Accepting Bitcoin, Bitcoin for Refugees, & New Study Shows Bitcoin as a Tool Against Financial Censorship.
Bitcoin enhances personal autonomy.
Good morning, friends!
I cannot tell you the last time I checked bitcoin’s price. Here’s why.
I’m not interested in trading it, or cashing out, or comparing it to the price of the U.S. Dollar. Once I grasped its ability to liberate people from devaluing currencies, watched the ease with which I can move value around on the internet, and heard stories about its ability to protect people under dictatorships, among other things, I knew it was freedom money. So, bitcoin has become that for me – freedom money – and I move on with my life. Unphased by price swings.
But, it’s not enough for me to have bitcoin, though. I want to pay it forward and I do that by highlighting forbidden stories.
I write stories of injustices and human rights violations. I talk about the role of money and corruption in maintaining these abuses and how bitcoin can help dignify our humanity through profile stories in The Misfit newsletter and through conversations on The Misfit podcast.
And yes, they may not always be happy stories, but if I’m not covering these stories, then who will? Silence is another way of contributing to the issues, so I write about them. After all, we are where we are today because of the courage of our ancestors who spoke up and fought for what was true, and fair, and honest.
My hope is that my work – as gloomy as it may be at times – inspires each of you to make a small, positive change in some capacity.
That said, here are three stories worth highlighting from this week.
From This Week: 3 Stories Worth Highlighting.
The Abuelita (Grandma) Who Accepts Bitcoin
Estela Aguilar, known as Abuelita (grandma), is the founder of Eco Feria Dominical, the first farmer's market to accept bitcoin in Costa Rica.
She’s a mother of six who has defended her freedom furiously. She's been shot, beaten, arrested, and jailed while defending her small farm in the countryside from multinational corporations looking to take her land. When she learned about bitcoin she was all in because she understood its value. Since then, she has been selling the products on her farm for bitcoin.
A couple of weeks ago, she hosted a family of Venezuelan migrants and provided them with food, shelter, clothes, medicine, and anything they might need. Sadly, one of them (while on drugs and alcohol) “intentionally set fire to every structure on her little farm burning it to the ground. Then they disappeared.”
If you’d like to help her rebuild her home, you can do so here:
Lightning Link: https://pay.bitcoinjungle.app/abuelita
Lightning Address: abuelita@pay.bitcoinjungle.app
On-Chain Address: bc1qvwh6fhdxnqrdq053men06j0g4mp4fk2x4tyuqn
If you’d like to donate cash, DM Bitcoin Jungle here.
It’s a beautiful thing watching as bitcoiners pour in their sats and words of encouragement to Abuelita. Watching it is an instant dose of hope.
Meron Estefanos On Bitcoin for Refugees
Meron Estefanos remembers the adults in her neighbourhood gathering together around 5 or 6 pm, asking the children to go outside, and to let them know if they saw strangers. Meron later learned that the parents conjugated together to listen to “illegal information” – in other words, freedom fighters broadcasting on the radio under Afwerki’s dictatorial Eritrea.
Isaias Afwerki, the President of Eritrea, is a brutal dictator who disappeared the Jehova’s Witness population (to this day, no one knows anything about them), veterans, Muslims, and anyone else that might dissent from his power. He made 15-year-old boys serve in the military until reaching 50 years of age. And he removed free media, depriving his people of getting information.
With that upbringing, it is no wonder that today Meron is an activist, human rights defender, journalist, and researcher.
In her career as an activist, she has received calls from refugees drowning in the Mediterranean Sea. As their boat sank, they pleaded to Meron to help save them. She recalls frantically dialing the Italian Coast Guard to rescue them. “You don’t want that kind of responsibility,” she says.
In addition to rescuing thousands of refugees, she’s helped people who have been kidnapped or sold as slaves. “Sometimes I get to listen as they are being gang-raped,” she says. “So, it’s mainly suffering after suffering. I’ve heard all kinds of horror stories,” she continues.
Interestingly, she’s turned to Bitcoin as a tool to help refugees get back on their feet.
“The reason that I love bitcoin [is that] I see it as a solution for Africa. When you have, for example, in the refugee context, you escape your country, you’re escaping with no clothes on. There is no preparation. There’s nothing. You’re just fleeing. You don’t have an I.D. or anything. Even if you have I.D. and you seek asylum, your I.D. is taken from you at the refugee camps. So you are I.D.-less. So for these people to receive money, it would mean the only way they can receive money is through Hawala. And Hawala takes about 10%. The Hawala guy might tell you you might receive the money today, but it often happens that they might receive it next week or sometimes it can even go a month…So it doesn’t always work smoothly.”
Watch Meron talk about the importance of bitcoin, how it can help refugees, and how it can be censorship-resistant money in Africa.
(Fun fact: Meron is working on the development of the Bitcoin Innovation Hub Uganda, which will help local youth with practical skills to become sovereign individuals. The Hub will also host local meetups to serve as a Bitcoin awareness and learning center. Ugandans face difficulty receiving remittances due to high fees and obstacles in obtaining I.D. cards.)
New Study Investigates Bitcoin as a Tool Against Financial Censorship
A new study by Ville Kokkomäki of the Åbo Akademi University in Finland shows how nonviolent resistance movements are using bitcoin to fight financial censorship. This study is Ville’s master thesis in peace, mediation and conflict research, and is the first to gather a dataset of bitcoin in nonviolent resistance campaigns.
“Bitcoin enhances personal autonomy and serves as a form of resistance against financial censorship by enabling borderless, censorship-resistant, and permissionless transactions,” the study reads.
“Bitcoin allows users to securely send, receive and store value without reliance on any third party, and without violence, enhances personal autonomy and serves as a form of resistance to financial censorship,” the study concludes. “Policymakers and media outlets should be cautious about overemphasising the connection between cryptoassets and crime.”
Bitcoin is the resistance… without being on the streets. I suspect we’ll see a rise in people adopting bitcoin as a way to resist censorship.
On that note, another way to resist censorship is by adopting social media apps that are decentralized and censorship-resistant. Nobody should be censoring your opinions.
Check out this 26-minute long video called “Social Media is Broken. Can We Fix It?”. It walks through the failures of social networks and the rise of Nostr – an open protocol that allows for global, decentralized, and censorship-resistant social media. No more manipulative algorithms controlling your mind.
(Here is my npub. Please share yours in the comments section!): npub1rscuek38p87xeawmpg9ssump8cjkgmz2j3rhnha4artvh0xjacwq9upeqk
That’s it for now! I’ll leave you with this wonderful quote.
“Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have.” – Margaret Mead
Until next time, friends!
– Ayelen xx
Thanks for always keeping us so informed and aware of current events, and exciting developments with Bitcoin!