Bitcoin: A Response to the Challenges

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I think the system is profoundly unfair. Is it fair that a small group of unelected old white men for the most part in Virginia get to decide the cost of capital for everybody? I've benefited from it my entire life. But I'm asking you just to think about what it's like for other people, both at the retail level of like, can you send money to your friends? This is just non-trivial for some people. Try to send a Western Union or a bank wire to Mozambique or to South Korea,. Even it's like impossible and it's expensive and it takes a lot of time and sometimes it doesn't even make it.

On this episode, Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation joins Nate to unpack how monetary policy and debt have increasingly extended the reach of colonial powers over recent decades and how bitcoin offers an alternative to the many people who are under this financial exclusion. How have the IMF and World Bank upheld the power of reserve currency countries in the Global North to exploit and extract resources and labor from the Global South under the guise of aid and development? What is the origin of the ‘petrodollar’ and how has it shaped geopolitical relationships since its creation? What exactly is Bitcoin and how does it provide economic and political freedom? Is Bitcoin compatible with a low energy future?

About Alex Gladstein:

Alex Gladstein is Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. He has also served as Vice President of Strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum since its inception in 2009. In his work, Alex has connected hundreds of dissidents and civil society groups with business leaders, technologists, journalists, philanthropists, policymakers, and artists to promote free and open societies. He serves as faculty at Singularity University and as an advisor to Blockchain Capital, a leading venture firm in the fintech industry. He frequently speaks and writes about why Bitcoin matters for freedom, and is the author of Check Your Financial Privilege. His new book, Hidden Repression: How the IMF and World Bank Market Exploitation as Development was just published in May 2023.

For Show Notes and More visit: http://thegreatsimplification.com/episode/72-alex-gladstein

To watch this video episode on Youtube → https://youtu.be/u84tyIokAY8