The Importance of Bitcoin in the Global West

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I know enough about Bitcoin to be dangerous. I am in the space of energy depletion, peak oil, fiat currency,. end of growth, climate change, biodiversity, systems ecology. The vast majority of people are either ignorant or antagonistic about Bitcoin because how much it requires energy to mine and that energy 100% contributes to climate change. My interest in Bitcoin came about because I could see two or three steps ahead that at every can kicking moment in the global West that the US and other central banks would not choose austerity. And therefore there would be an accelerated biophysical debasement of our monetary representations of reality. There had to be some alternatives to that.

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