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Human rights advocates argue for Bitcoin before US Congress
- The debate between two opposing pressure groups involves human rights activists defending BTC and a group of technicians and software engineers.
- Crypto advocates point out that digital currencies are an option for many peoples dominated by tyrannies where fiat currency has failed.
- So much so that critics of the crypto industry are demanding “responsible fintech policy” and disqualifying current uses of blockchain technology.
Activists and human rights defenders from around 20 countries around the world have sent a letter to members of the US Congress in defense of the crypto industry, facing criticism from a large group of engineers in IT, from technologists and developers who believe that the “status quo of crypto assets is not sustainable.”
The letter available on the financial inclusion site is addressed to the leaders of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, both in the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States. Among them are Senators Charles E. Schumer and Mitch McConnell and Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy.
In the letter, the activists claim that in their fight for freedom and democracy, they “have relied on dollar-denominated instruments known as stablecoins, much like tens of millions of others living under authoritarian regimes. or unstable economies”. Cryptocurrency proponents argue that “Bitcoin provides financial inclusion and empowerment because it’s open and permissionless” since “anyone on earth can use it.” They note that cryptocurrencies “offer unprecedented access to the global economy for people in countries like Nigeria, Turkey or Argentina, where local currencies are collapsing, breaking up or being cut off from the outside world. “.
The Challenges of Blockchain as an “Innovative Technology”
On the other hand, critics of cryptocurrencies have urged lawmakers “to take a critical and skeptical approach to industry claims that crypto-assets (sometimes referred to as cryptocurrencies, crypto tokens, or web3 ) are an innovative technology that is unqualifiedly good”.
Likewise, they call on members of the US Congress to “resist pressure from financiers, lobbyists, and digital asset industry boosters to create a safe regulatory haven for these risky, flawed, and unproven digital financial instruments.” Instead, they say lawmakers should “take an approach that protects the public interest and ensures technology is deployed in genuine service to the needs of ordinary citizens.”
on the reverse
- Following the collapse of Terra-Luna and the devaluation of cryptocurrencies in general, lobbies and lobbyists have stepped up their presence in Washington to ease concerns.
- Currently, US lawmakers and regulators are discussing a regulatory framework for stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin advocates claim that “when currency disasters hit Cuba, Afghanistan, and Venezuela, Bitcoin provided sanctuary to our ‘at-risk’ compatriots who could be helped “when other options failed.”
They also said that “when civil liberties crackdowns hit Nigeria, Belarus and Hong Kong, Bitcoin helped keep the fight against authoritarianism afloat.” As after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “these technologies (which critics say are ‘not designed for a purpose’) played a role in sustaining democratic resistance.”
Adopt “an empathetic and open-minded approach”
They further stated that the letter seeks to urge lawmakers to take “an open and empathetic approach to the monetary tools that are increasingly playing a role in the lives of people facing political repression and economic hardship.” document in response to the anti-bitcoin letter participated in the Oslo Freedom Forum, which was held from May 23 to 25. and strong property rights”.
They argued that “users of dollars and euros probably did not experience extreme currency devaluation or the cold grip of dictatorship”. They also mentioned that ideas related to the “horrors of monetary colonialism, misogynistic financial policy, frozen bank accounts” and other calamities may seem remote to such people. While for cryptocurrency advocates and “our communities — and for the majority of people around the world — these are daily realities,” they state. They add in their letter that if there were “much better solutions already in use” to overcome these challenges, we would know about it.
The demands of the two lobby groups to lawmakers
Human rights advocates argue for an open monetary system and recommend that lawmakers “research and explore the global value of these technologies, their empirically proven benefits for millions of people, and their potential.”
“We hope that you and your colleagues will not develop or implement policies that impair our ability to use these new technologies in our human rights and humanitarian work,” the letter reads.
Critics of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, for their part, are calling on U.S. lawmakers “to act now to protect investors and the global financial market from the serious risks posed by crypto-assets and must not be distracted by technical obfuscations that mask an abject lack of technological usefulness”.
