The Financial Freedom Report is a newsletter focusing on the role currency and banking play in the civil liberties and human rights struggles of those living under authoritarian regimes. We also spotlight new tools and applications that can help individuals protect their financial freedom.
Hello readers,
This week, we brief you on China’s censorship of economic indicators, the freezing of bank accounts of indigenous activists in the Philippines, and the record inflation rate in Pakistan. Plus, open-source donations flowing from the new Bitcoin spot ETF launch, an upcoming Bitcoin conference we are thrilled to support in South Korea, and a terrific new profile of Bitcoin adoption in east and southern Africa by HRF friend Ian Birrell.
This, and more in today’s edition of the Financial Freedom Report.
China | Censorship of Poverty Metrics
The Chinese Communist Party censored online discussions about the country’s poverty metrics, specifically a hashtag highlighting that nearly 1 billion people (70% of the country’s population) live on less than $300 a month. On Weibo, a Chinese version of the social media platform X, a hashtag addressing this point gained popularity and reached the app’s trending page before being taken down. Searching for the hashtag now prompts a message: “In accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and policies, the content of this topic cannot be displayed.” This censorship tactic by the Chinese Ministry of State Security prevents Weibo’s 600 million monthly active users from having online discussions about the country’s real state of economic affairs.
Philippines | Frozen Bank Accounts of Indigenous Activists
It has come to light that a few months ago, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) of the Philippines issued an order to freeze the assets and bank accounts belonging to four indigenous rights activists after they were branded “terrorists” by the country’s Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC). The activists — who belong to the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) — are often a voice for the 1.2 million people of the Igorots Indigenous population. The action has also frozen the accounts of Alliance family members unrelated to CPA’s advocacy efforts. Yet again, we see the work of human rights activists met with financial repression as a way to silence dissent.
Pakistan | Record Inflation Levels
Pakistan experienced record annual inflation in 2023, with the annual figure resting at 29.2% at year’s end. Earlier in 2023, the IMF approved in principle a $3 billion loan program to help Pakistan avert a sovereign debt default, strengthen its economy, and fight the root causes of inflation. In order to keep the bailout “on track,” the government increased energy prices, taxes, and interest rates. Prices of basic goods will likely get higher before they subside. As ordinary citizens struggle to make ends meet and the country’s economic conditions worsen, these new statistics may prove decisive at next month’s national elections. The high inflation rate has, in turn, contributed to increasing Bitcoin and cryptocurrency adoption in the country.
Nicaragua | Frozen Bank Accounts of the Catholic Church
Last week, Pope Francis denounced ruler Daniel Ortega’s clampdown on the Catholic Church, primarily through arbitrary detention and financial repression. For example, a seminary in Nicaragua said it would stop operating after Ortega froze their bank accounts. The government alleged to have found cash linked to international money-laundering schemes, but according to Church leaders and media outlets, the cash was part of a charitable microloan program. Parishes use a centralized bank account to receive donations and pay their bills. Now, Ortega’s regime leaves the parishes in “financial asphyxiation.” HRF is proud to support Berta Valle to help Nicaragua’s civil society overcome some of these actions by switching to banking with Bitcoin, a network that Ortega cannot control.
Global Investment | ETF Approved in the United States
Yesterday, the US government approved trading a spot Bitcoin ETF, a landmark moment for Bitcoin’s rise from a one-person coding experiment to a commonly accepted global currency and investment. It’s important to note that buying shares in an ETF is not buying bitcoin (not your keys, not your coins), but it’s also important to note that widespread adoption of Bitcoin products by the mainstream makes harsh government restrictions less likely. HRF is delighted to announce that Bitwise, one of the companies issuing a Bitcoin spot ETF product, is donating 10% of its profits to open-source Bitcoin development, which will be split between OpenSats, Brink and HRF’s own Bitcoin Development Fund.
Privacy | CoinJoin and BTCPayServer Guide
In this tutorial video, Rockstar Developer explains how to use CoinJoin and PayJoin to add privacy to your Bitcoin transactions via BTCPay Server. Both features are methods of masking true payment amounts and/or recipients by combining transactions with other users. This setup allows activists to, for example, withdraw donated funds via BTCPay Server and hold them more securely beyond the surveillance of dictators. HRF remains a proud supporter of BTCPayServer and the team’s efforts to develop privacy-enhancing payment features.
Aqua | New Bitcoin and Stablecoin Wallet
Last week, Bitcoin technology company Jan3 launched Aqua Wallet, a non-custodial mobile wallet that lets users send and receive bitcoin, lightning, liquid, and USDT in the same interface. According to their post: “All the complications associated with Lightning channels, peg-ins, other cryptocurrency chains, and asset swapping are streamlined, yet without sacrificing full control and custody of your keys.” The wallet seems well-positioned to allow users to receive their first sats, make cross-border USDT remittances, and weather bitcoin’s volatility. Overall, the wallet appears to have a commendable focus on solving the barriers to bitcoin adoption by making tradeoffs between security and decentralization for a better UI/UX experience.
Fedimint | Release of Fedimint 0.2
Fedimint recently announced its 0.2 release, an important milestone marking the fact that it is now “mostly feature-complete federated e-cash system.” Fedimint is a communal approach to collaborative custody and a way to transact bitcoin, with extremely strong privacy. Communal custody represents a potential upgrade to centralized custody and, for example, could be very useful for internal use among activist groups, civil society organizations, or NGOs. Having reached a “stable MVP stage,” the Fedimint team is keen to see what future applications will get built on the platform and how people might use it to scale Bitcoin to the masses.
Nostr | Private Groups on Coracle
Coracle, a web client for the Nostr protocol, released an update making private groups available to all users. Users can now send almost any Nostr event over an encrypted channel to group members. This approach uses rotating shared keys to provide better privacy, an important area to improve on Nostr platforms, which already boast a high level of decentralization and censorship resistance.
Statechains | Mercury Layer
CommerceBlock CTO Tom Trevethan announced Mercury Layer is now code complete and undergoing testing. Mercury Layer is a Layer-2 protocol, described as a statechain, with strong privacy as a result of blinded signatures. Important transaction details such as sender, recipient, and amounts can be hidden while still making use of the transaction verifying characteristics of the main chain. Similar to Lightning, Mercury can help users transfer value without making an on-chain transaction. Learn more about the protocol here.
South Korea | Bitcoin Seoul
The largest Bitcoin event in Asia is coming to Seoul, South Korea. Hosted by HRF grantee Calvin Kim, the conference will take place April 26-27 and feature prominent speakers such as Bitcoin expert Jimmy Song, conference organizer and Fedi master Dea Rezkitha, as well as HRF’s chief strategy officer Alex Gladstein, among other key speakers in the industry. North Korean defectors will also get to attend and learn more about how it can be a tool for human rights. Get your tickets to the conference here.
The African Village Mining Bitcoin
In this fascinating article, award-winning journalist Ian Birrell explains how Bitcoin mining has transformed the availability of electricity for thousands of homes in the remote village of Bondo, Malawi. Thanks to a Bitcoin mining installation — an initiative led by Kenyan company Gridless — power can now be provided more cheaply to residents to store food in fridges, speed up their cooking time, and allow children the opportunity to study after dark. Birrell challenges the belief that Bitcoin is only for speculation and that Bitcoin mining is a waste of energy, making the case that mining can play a key role in sparking the development of impoverished areas in Africa.
Roger’s article
In his latest Forbes piece, author and journalist Roger Huang presents 11 resources for beginners to learn about the fundamentals of Bitcoin, economics, and privacy. It is heartening to see that among his recommended resources is HRF’s Financial Freedom Report, a “valuable resource” that provides readers with stories about Bitcoin’s use cases as well as practical tips for gaining financial freedom. We are grateful to Roger for recognizing our efforts to advance financial freedom education.
The Challenges and Opportunities of Bitcoin Adoption in Africa
In this presentation, South African entrepreneur Kgothatso Ngako explains how African countries like Kenya and Nigeria were hostile to Bitcoin companies for years. Despite government bans, business threats, and reputational risks, Bitcoin companies like Bitnob, Machankura, and Yellow Card continued to build infrastructure to allow Africans to access global, decentralized, and permissionless money. In turn, the continent saw a growth in adoption and an explosion of peer-to-peer markets helping to keep Bitcoin alive. Today, more and more Africans are learning about Bitcoin, adopting it as a savings technology, and leading educational efforts that help onboard the rest of the continent.
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