In late 2017, at an overpriced brunch in Addis Ababa, I was made aware of something called “Bitcoin.” This wasn’t the first time I heard the word from a peer, but this was the first time I heard it referred to as a tool for Ethiopians. This may very well be a call to action to every principled member of the community. In the increasing number of countries where the State has become the enemy, or at best an untrusted third party, Bitcoin will be the tool of financial emancipation.

In the 14th century, hawala was being used to facilitate trade on the Silk Road, a trade route that involved much exchange between countries from Asia to the Mediterranean and North Africa — not to be confused with the Silk Road website.

As we move into a new era, I have a growing suspicion that trade routes will become unbound from archaic laws, and freedom between markets and large populations will catalyze the growth that the world desperately needs.

At present, the information and data wars in Ethiopia are most evident in ancient cities with various reinforcing cleavages and an inability to protect their properties and their lives. The Marxist/Leninist regime removed weapons from my parents’ home as they came into power throughout the cities and villages of Ethiopia. Today, I suspect open-source tools of peace and the patient, God-fearing education we practice daily will accelerate our gradual liberation.

In the ’90s (just a few years following Rwanda’s history) our institution-led leaders requested Ethiopians to identify themselves beyond name and the various information fields we are used to in the West. Instead, in Ethiopia, we must always be reminded that the ethnic identity of each citizen was branded on state-issued identification cards. This statist culture of control and labeling at the ethnic level equates to racism and catalyzes violent tendencies to unprotected nationality’s tribes in rural Ethiopia.

As these truths and events unfold, people in the Global South are faced with new tools. Take back custody in every sense and be completely unapologetic to old paradigms as a matter of international consensus. These conclusions are not new, but may need some added urgency given the quickly increasing annual trade deficit within Ethiopia and many countries in similar conditions.