Bitcoin is the only thing that government can’t stop Canadian truckers receiving

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• Private digital currencies enable users to keep their autonomy

The protest in Ottawa by Canadian truckers has not been easy financially for these people and their families. Those who believe in their freedom cause have sent money to help them, but GoFundMe withheld their money, and the Ontario court froze funds sent to GiveSendGo. However, Bitcoin is getting through - beyond the reach of any government to stop it.

Life cannot be easy for the Canadian truckers right now. The police take their fuel with which they heat their cabs through freezing temperatures, and police even take the wood from their trucks in order to prevent them from cooking a meal.

It’s not just basic human requirements that are being withheld either. Badly needed funds are also being stopped from getting to the truckers and their families. GoFundMe had around $8 million on its platform, raised by well-wishers. However, the platform took it upon itself to withhold these funds, citing protestor violence as its main reason for doing so.

GiveSendGo stepped into the breach when GoFundMe declared it would not be sending money raised to the truckers. A further $8 million was raised on this Christian platform, and despite an injunction by an Ontario court, the platform protested the court decision by tweeting:

The Canadian government has had the GiveSendGo funds frozen, and the next move could well be to seize them. Jacob Wells, the co-founder and CFO of GiveSendGo called GoFundMe’s decision a “huge PR mistake”, and vowed to keep his platform neutral.

Crowdfunding platforms are centralised entities, and like any organisation that has a central office and can therefore be targeted, they can only operate as long as funded projects meet with the political agenda of the presiding government.

Of course there is a huge argument as to what is considered anti-state funding, and it can be argued that sometimes there is an extremely fine line that exists between political desires and the right to protest.

For a funding platform to enter into the debate and take up one side or another surely isn’t the best way to behave, at least if they want to maintain the trust of the users of their platform.

Private digital currencies enable users to keep their autonomy

Happily, some private digital currencies such as Bitcoin operate in an entirely neutral way. Their issuance is coded in when they are first launched, and therefore they cannot be manipulated by any third party at all, including any government. So far, at least $900,000 has been sent to the Canadian truckers through the crypto crowdfunding platform Tallycoin.

More cryptocurrencies cannot be printed at the whim of any central bank, thereby debasing the purchasing power of those that hold them. No part of the code can be manipulated in order to change the path of an economy. 

They cannot be seized, and no bank or government can tell the owner what they can spend them on and who they can send them to. They act as sovereign money of the individual, and they are completely outside of a fiat monetary system that has been mismanaged to the point of almost complete failure.

In situations such as the current one in Ottawa, cryptocurrency is the perfect answer for a group that wishes to hold a peaceful protest. It is doing its job by remaining 100% neutral, and many might argue that it is the last bastion of freedom for anyone who wants to be able to make their own decisions, free from any tyranny.

When certain politicians or leaders of banks and financial organisations criticise cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, they fail to understand the transparency that they bring. Cryptos are based on blockchain technology, therefore every transaction made throughout the history of a cryptocurrency leaves a path that can be tracked.

Can the same be said of fiat currencies? Of course not. Why would the banks, so called pillars of the fiat monetary system, be paying so many fines for illegal misdoings?

At the end of the day, the Canadian truckers will either succeed or fail. But the right to receive money from someone else is just as much a basic right as the one to protest. Cryptocurrencies give us this right. Long may they continue.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.