I am also the author of Check Your Financial Privilege.
What is your opinion on
  1. Drivechain
  2. Nostr
  3. Hosted Channels
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Hi Alex, thanks for doing this AMA!
Had two questions.
First question is regarding HRF funding and how it allocates to bitcoin developers. What are some of the requirements needed to apply?
Second question, Have you ever thought of letting a camera crew follow you and capture the conversations and places you go to? Have strong inclination this would be a great documentary series.
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+1 - This would be a great documentary! And especially effective from a historical perspective (hopefully) looking back in a decade or two. I really enjoyed this animated short film as well: https://twitter.com/gladstein/status/1512493813218123786
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After we have FediMints, Stabilised BTC on LN and TipJar - what else do we need to get on Lightning? Is anyone getting closer to have have "stabilised" Bitcoin as per the HRF-Strike bounty?
My humble tip for what I believe is needed:
I think we really need to have "Decentralized Bitcoin Inheritance" model/standard across our wallets with slick UX (e.g. after 5 years of inactivity the funds get sent to your designated address - either your family member's, or you can choose a dedicated "trusted" company to handle your heritage, or it gets donated. The UX could be like when Muun asks you to do backups...). No more losing bitcoin...
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Decentralized inheritance is a big problem to tackle. Keep exploring this!
As for the stabilized Bitcoin: I think it's 50-50 that the bounty gets claimed by the end of the year.
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Thanks for doing the AMA, Alex! Love your writing and appreciate the work you do.
Curious about your take on KYC and anti money laundering regulations and their role in preventing corruption (or at least making it more difficult to use the proceeds). In your human rights work, do you ever see a case for it, or do you see it as a largely ineffective and harmful endeavour?
Controversial topic in the Bitcoin space, but there are a lot of earnest people who really believe in the benefits (and probably see Bitcoin as an impediment).
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What do you think will be most different about the world in 10 years with respect to technology and innovation? Does bitcoin play a part in any of this?
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The trend everywhere is towards mobile connectivity. In countries like Sudan, only 20% of the country has mobile internet access. That will shift to 70%+ by the end of the decade. This will have a massive impact as hundreds of millions come online.
Bitcoin will play a big role in this. It will give anyone with mobile internet the power to be their own bank. The question is what does that look like? Will they simply use Binance? Or will they use Bitcoin in a self-custodial way?
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Favorite btc book Favorite non btc book What book helped you the most in your journey ? Any advice you could give that has helped you on your journey thanks for everything you do in Austin u crushed it!
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Favorite BTC book = Bitcoin is Venice
Favorite non-BTC book = The Looming Tower
Most helpful book = The Mandibles was quite clarifying, even though it is fiction
Advice = Keep pressing on, even if things seem tough :)
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Hey Alex! Thanks for sharing my guide for Russian people when it was needed! We made it with Tony, as you said in the post! https://twitter.com/gladstein/status/1500341296950509569?s=21&t=ZRPle-mmqtAOO1eefcpLig
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What are the top three resources you would share with someone who is ignorant/mildly skeptical about Bitcoin with the hope of orange pilling them?
Thanks for your answer and for all the rest of your work.
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First of, thank you so much for your work! Second, I have three human rights related questions:
  • What are currently the best ways to help people living in North Korea? What's the current top thing? Is it still USB flash drives? Does Bitcoin play any role?
  • What is the level of awareness in the African countries under CFA about their value being sucked by France?
  • I really enjoyed your essays and investigations on different countries. Are there more essays in works?
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Thank you!
  1. After years of advocacy and analysis HRF considers sending information into North Korea one of the best things you can do to help. Military and political solutions to the NK problem are unthinkable or unlikely. So in the meantime we can help North Koreans help themselves by making sure they have access to more information: flashdrivesforfreedom.org
Bitcoin is likely playing a nascent role in cross-border payments between South Korea, China, and NK, but it's too early too tell
  1. Complicated question. In certain CFA-zone West African countries there is a "France dégage" movement calling for an end to the system. In places like Togo, the entire human rights movement is based on financial freedom. But still, the overwhelming number of people have lived with the CFA their entire lives for generations so it's a bit like the water they swim in. Hard to imagine anything else. More awareness is needed. The best we can do is educate ourselves on the outside and help them build Bitcoin solutions.
  2. Yes. My next one is on Fedimints and their potential impact on the developing world and comes out next week!
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Thoughts on OTEC and the possibilities there for bitcoin?
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Could be amazing. I think Bitcoin could be a boostrap for helping these kind of energy-harvesting technologies.
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What do you think about Bitcoin's privacy? Would you recommend L2 solutions like Liquid and Lightning for inexperienced users, especially in totalitarian regimes?
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I think Bitcoin's privacy is improving. For power users, they can achieve "pretty good privacy" today. But it's far from adequate and is probably all things considered one of its weakest points today.
The main problem is that most Bitcoin users engage with fully KYC'd financial services like exchanges. So even if they do self-custody, their activity is known. Lightning withdrawals and deposits from exchanges is a nice step forward. But while sending privacy in LN is strong, receiving privacy is still not great. So if you withdraw from let's say Kraken they know things about your Lightning activity and ID. Blinded paths, which should be activated in the coming year, will help address this vulnerability.
I'd recommend that Bitcoiners everywhere learn about CoinJoins as well as Lightning but mostly that they learn how to use Bitcoin without KYC. The best way to preserve your privacy is not to link your real-world ID to any Bitcoin in the first place.
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Hi Alex, I'm a big fan of all of your work, and thanks for taking time to do an AMA. Was there a "key moment", conversation, etc, that led you and your organization to adopt and champion bitcoin as part of your work at HRF?
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Thanks!
Bitcoin was on the radar for us and for me for a long time. Julian Assange spoke at our Oslo Freedom Forum event in 2010 and a few months later, Satoshi made their fateful last public post. In 2011 we saw Wikileaks start to use Bitcoin to fundraise. In 2013 we helped Ukrainian democracy advocates use Bitcoin as they began to build the Maidan square movement. In 2014 we started accepting Bitcoin donations. In 2016, we became convinced of the connection and in 2017 held our first workshop about bitcoin and human rights at the Oslo Freedom Forum. I'd say it was more of a slow realization than a eureka moment.
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Thanks for all of this background, it is great to continually see the work you all are doing and learn about your history 🙏
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What's the most difficult part of your job?
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I don't have enough time to do all the things I want to do.
Which is a great problem to have!
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I can relate!
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How do we get people on the political left to really embrace Bitcoin?
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Don't know if Alex will answer this question, but, as someone who leans pretty left (voted for Bernie in the last presidential primary) on social issues, I'll chime in.
There are some properties of bitcoin (i.e., immutable, censorship resistant, permissionless) that when discussed in certain contexts (i.e., downtrodden fleeing from authoritarian regimes, as was true for some computer savvy women from Afghanistan) will definitely appeal to some left wingers. I've discussed in some public forums (like ResetEra - a gaming forum that's quite hostile to bitcoin/cryptocurrencies) how payment systems like Venmo have blocked donations to Palestinian non-profits, and how bitcoin not only gets around politically biased platforms, but makes them obsolete. Bitcoin is politically neutral money.
The real elephant in the room, and it's the attacks that left wingers are most susceptible to, are anything having to do with the carbon emissions/energy consumption. Prominent bitcoiners need to get out of the bitcoin podcasting bubble and start addressing/debating these issues on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business, VICE Motherboard, and political shows/platforms like Jacobin, The Realignment (w/Saagar Enjeti and Marshall Kosloff), Breaking Points, Secular Talk, Left Reckoning, The Humanist Report. It can't only be Pompliano, Saylor, and Mallers. Maybe someday (hopefully soon), Mr. Gladstein can do a one-on-one with Bill Maher. Lol. Independent reports on mining farm energy usage need to be published. Reports from The Bitcoin Mining Council, Galaxy Digital, or any industry participants are not going to sway many minds, I don't think. These reports or surveys should maybe only be done if other similar industries (traditional banking, gold mining, etc) will open themselves to similar scrutiny.
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If you had the ability to teach just one person about Bitcoin, who would you pick?
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If you the power to change one thing about Bitcoin instantly what would it be?
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I wouldn't change Bitcoin.
If I could snap my fingers and change something, I'd help another billion people understand Bitcoin for what it is. The rest would fall into place after that :)
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From your vantage point at the HRF, how do you see the ongoing antagonism between West and Eurasia? Your work seems to be a balance between advocating for the powerless but also having to work within existing frameworks of the powerful?
I am thinking of the interplay / paradox of wanting to help Ukraine and also acknowledging that HRF's purview includes helping the disempowered in Russia, elsewhere, everywhere?
How do you see your advocacy role moving forward in the very likely reality that there is further (and much worse) fiat instability, antagonism between world power centers? How does HRF avoid "taking sides" ?
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What is your favorite story about how people under authoritarian rule are using Bitcoin to improve their lives today?
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Hard to say. There are so many!
One powerful example was Hong Kongers in exile using Bitcoin to support human rights advocacy inside the city from abroad.
Another is a Burmese activist who escaped from his country using BTC as a lifeline.
Yet another is a Russian independent media outlet that is using Bitcoin to help sustain its operations after it was forced to leave Russia.
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Interesting, what is the onboarding process like for these groups?
How quickly do they “get” the value of Bitcoin? What are their biggest challenges in actually acquiring Bitcoin?
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Most people under authoritarian regimes immediately grasp the power of a currency that is not controlled by a government.
Of course, they are very curious: how is it beyond the control of the state? What gives it value? Why is it volatile? How do I get some?
The onboarding process takes time, months or years, and demands patience and an open mind :)
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I love your work Alex, no questions at the moment, just wanted to say thank you for all that you do.
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Thank you for your work. I donate to HRF every month. Your book is on my to read list I hope to get my hands on it asap
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Thank you!
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Is Bitcoin anonymous enough to help dissidents?
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What ways are available right now for people with no smartphone or internet access to use Bitcoin? I think I've heard of a couple projects that use SMS to send and receive Bitcoin custodially.
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Hey Alex!
If you could wave a magic wand and solve any problem or add any feature to any bitcoin wallet that would make it easier for activists on the ground to do their work, what would it be?
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What do you think about toximaxi witch hunts? I know they once tried to cancel you but you've managed to dodge it.
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who is one underrated thinker in the space that you feel deserves more attention?
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Hey Alex! I've been hearing more and more about the latest wave of slave trafficking, called Pig Butchering Scam centers, (https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7zb5d/pig-butchering-scam-cambodia-trafficking) and its' ties to crypto, especially tether.
Have you been keeping up with it? What can the Bitcoin community do to help squash these bad guys?
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One question:
Sats.get(); ?
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Hello Alex...
  1. what about HRF funding and how it allocated to the bitcoin developer's ?
  2. Does bitcoin play a part of innovation and technology in recent time of last 10 years ??
How can I help?